Wednesday afternoon update

fabiola

fabiola

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2006

The update was 2mb in size.

Gaile has responded to this thread; "We updated to change a configuration on a server in China."

She asked, what do you think? in reference to not posting minor non-impact changes to the game or hardware.

Two sides have formed: All updates should be noted at least in some location not necessarily the traditional location vs. we don't need to know what every update is.


Gaile has responded to this thread a second time; "I have written Mike O'Brien, one of the co-founders of ArenaNet, to ask if we can begin to publish update notes for each and every update that we produce."

Latest Info:

Gaile has responded with great news... there will be more update notes on some, not all, small updates!

onerabbit

onerabbit

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Mar 2006

Thanks to all the guru [mods]

i hate when the updates arnt visable straight away..
what have they done? :P more secret skill nerfs. :P
'Fixed a bug that caused players to get Error 007 whenever they zoned'...i can only hope xDDD

dwc89

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2005

earth

Most annoying thing about Anet is the lack of information regarding updates.

This update was a single 2mb file that decompressed into 4 files.

More often than not updates come with a lack of information or none at all. What is the big secret?

And the fact that Anet uses fan forms as the place for players to list problems etc instead of having their own forum for that purpose is a bit annoying as well - but that is another thread.

Scarlett Romanov

Scarlett Romanov

Guest

Join Date: Jul 2005

Me/

*sigh* Unfortunately, for some reason I can't download the update. I have all the significant permissions to do so and plently of hdd space.

Others are having the problem as well. *sigh*

Ultra Mega

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

OCAU

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by dwc89
Most annoying thing about Anet is the lack of information regarding updates.

More often than not updates come with a lack of information or none at all. What is the big secret?
Have you visited the updates page on their website?
I find that they provide plenty of information on updates, sure they may not update the page instantly when an update arrives but more often than not there is information for each update.

nbajammer

nbajammer

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2005

Iowa

Blade And Rose [BaR]

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultra Mega
Have you visited the updates page on their website?
I find that they provide plenty of information on updates, sure they may not update the page instantly when an update arrives but more often than not there is information for each update.
They haven't (yet) posted anything about this update. A guildie just got Err=007 multiple times while trying to zone so that bug hasn't been fixed.

viper008

Banned

Join Date: May 2005

Gaile has said not every update will get listed on the web site depending on what was changed and I can't find her post atm for her exact words sorry.

Smile Like Umean It

Smile Like Umean It

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2006

E/Rt

Quote:
Originally Posted by viper008
Gaile has said not every update will get listed on the web site depending on what was changed and I can't find her post atm for her exact words sorry.
I'm glad someone pays attention instead of constantly complaining.

dwc89

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2005

earth

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultra Mega
Have you visited the updates page on their website?
I find that they provide plenty of information on updates, sure they may not update the page instantly when an update arrives but more often than not there is information for each update.

I visit Guild Wars official site reqularly, especially after an update. Although they do provide a description for major updates , they do not always provide info and in somecases not all the info is included. And I won't get into the under the hood stuff that we discover as we play.

Bankai

Bankai

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2006

Bubblegum Dragons

Mo/E

I believe Gaile said all the nameless updates are filled with fixes that they forgot to put in previous updates.

King Kong

King Kong

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2006

W/R

Bet its just them getting ready for the weekend event

Neo Nugget

Neo Nugget

Site Contributor

Join Date: Jan 2006

R/

if they are i bet its gonna be a big update.Normally they upday 1 day prior to the event.This is 2

Jetdoc

Jetdoc

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Jul 2005

The Eyes of Texas [BEVO]

D/A

Wintersday II: Return of the Gargoyles?

Horseman Of War

Horseman Of War

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jun 2006

The Cult of Doom

P/

it could have just been that floating tree is finally rooted... if people havent found out what it was, then it must be something trivial.

fabiola

fabiola

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2006

I was hoping for information by now, or even better a tucked away elite armor crafter in doa that uses diamonds.

Seef II

Seef II

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2005

US

R/Mo

The merchant's pants in Sanctum Cay had to be reskinned.

More Outrage

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2006

Yorkshire

GOO

Quote:
Originally Posted by Seef II
The merchant's pants in Sanctum Cay had to be reskinned.
roflmao!

Makes me laugh every time there is a minor update and how people think their build is going to be nerfed or even made better if luck be on their side. And a thread like this appears. When all it amounts to is something like the above or even less like we noticed the kouman don`t always attack when they should.

Liberations

Liberations

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Nov 2006

Azeroth (shhh)

Ryders of the Sword [FrNd]

E/

I think its to stop the Vabbian Arena in Random Arenas Test bug.\

(A King of the Hill style arena was discovered by a small number of players and is presumed to be something from Nightfall that was scraped before release)

MMSDome

MMSDome

Raged Out

Join Date: Sep 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by onerabbit
i hate when the updates arnt visable straight away..
what have they done? :P more secret skill nerfs. :P
'Fixed a bug that caused players to get Error 007 whenever they zoned'...i can only hope xDDD
Guild Wars Secret Police :P

Tactical-Dillusions

Tactical-Dillusions

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2005

Grimsby, UK

R/

Dwayna and Grenth were overwhelmed at Christmas with all the pressie hungry players, so they had to nip out in the January sales and get the rest of the presents.

Gaile Gray

Gaile Gray

ArenaNet

Join Date: Feb 2005

We updated to change a configuration on a server in China. Seriously.

Do you really think that we need to post this as an update note? Would it be fair to think that everyone (or at least the reasonable ones ) will trust that if something that is going to impact players is changed, we will tell players on the update notes?

I told the programmers that a thread like this would appear. I said that maybe we should post a silly "Updated server configuration in China" post. I didn't get a note back and I didn't want to post it up without consultation. The fact is, when we post trivial things like that, we push the good stuff off the page onto the archives, where it's harder to find and read. So when we tweak a wire over in Germany, or vacuum dust bunnies out of a server in Virginia, do we write out update notes and post them, or not?

I say let's not bury the good stuff -- the important updates -- under needless nuisance update notes. I say expect and trust us to post, when something impacts players, but not post when we're doing something that is invisible and non-impacting upon players. If it will have any impact on you, we'll let you know.

What do you think?

holy matremonie

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

Belgium

Flanders tag warriors

that you are absolutely right.

Is there news about a future skill balance?

Niels

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Oct 2006

Tyria

It's not the Years

N/

Well, since it downloads 2MB of information into my computer I would like to know what it is, so I think every updated should get a note.

Just my 2cents though

kvndoom

kvndoom

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2005

Communistwealth of Virginia

Uninstalled

W/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
vacuum dust bunnies out of a server in Virginia
If GW.com posted that as an update, that would RULE.

Dr Strangelove

Dr Strangelove

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Dec 2005

Wasting away again in Margaritaville

[HOTR]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Niels
Well, since it downloads 2MB of information into my computer I would like to know what it is, so I think every updated should get a note.

Just my 2cents though

I really don't think it would be good business policy for Anet to upload viruses and the like onto our computers. Besides, can you account for every file you've downloaded from them even with update notes? For me, I just assume I have 3 gigs of "guild wars crap" on my computer and move on with my life.

Cassandra Tanacel

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2006

Wolf Brotherhood

W/

Gaile maybe a notepad file could pop up with these minor changes? Keep those complainers happy?



Personally, i'd rather the odd mini patch with minor fixes on the software side of thing than a whacking huge 60mb file every three months which kills the game for an hour of downloading. And i don't really worry about 2 meg of files

Niels

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Oct 2006

Tyria

It's not the Years

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Strangelove
I really don't think it would be good business policy for Anet to upload viruses and the like onto our computers. Besides, can you account for every file you've downloaded from them even with update notes? For me, I just assume I have 3 gigs of "guild wars crap" on my computer and move on with my life.
Well, I think it's save to say I pretty much account for al my downloaded files.
And when a program downloads 2MB of data, I would really like to know what
has been downloaded.

And no, I don't think ArenaNet would upload viruses on my computer, but that's
not the point really.

winkgood

winkgood

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2006

GoL

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

I say let's not bury the good stuff -- the important updates -- under needless nuisance update notes. I say expect and trust us to post, when something impacts players, but not post when we're doing something that is invisible and non-impacting upon players. If it will have any impact on you, we'll let you know.

What do you think?
Except that there have been times that there were updates that impacted the players that were not mentioned in the update notes or the notes came much later. I say for the amount of time it takes to edit the update notes, it would be worth it, even for small updates like this one. Then you don't have to worry about threads like this one popping up and we can all relax knowing that something drastic wasn't changed.

Paperfly

Paperfly

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2006

Quote:
I really don't think it would be good business policy for Anet to upload viruses and the like onto our computers.
Well, Acclaim just re-launched with a series of ad-funded "free" MMOs, and initial reports of the software you're expected to download suggest that not all the ad "partners" are to be trusted. So the more open accountability the better, I say!

As an added example, some of the WoW anti-cheating software is notoriously intrusive on your system's security; so there's relevant issues even with companies you'd nominally trust.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaile
The fact is, when we post trivial things like that, we push the good stuff off the page onto the archives, where it's harder to find and read. So when we tweak a wire over in Germany, or vacuum dust bunnies out of a server in Virginia, do we write out update notes and post them, or not?
Well, it's one of those hardcore fanbase versus casual fanbase dealies. I appreciate that when you do something Wintersday-major (or even balance-weekend major) you'd like to keep the information prominent so casual players will say "hey, I might check this out!". But we hardcore types tend to be control freaks at best and anal-retentive at worst, and we appreciate every effort made to assuage our anxiety via official information. Or would you rather we put our talents at deductive reasoning to work with no information instead? Because it's very much an either-or proposition, I assure you.

Really, it comes down to what you want the perception of the "updates" tab on the main site to be. Are we to view it as a tool we can use to, say, predict the game's overall stability over the next 24 hours? Is it a formal log we can use to track the game's evolution? Is it a marketing feature promoting the latest content addition? Because honestly, the latter would be best served elsewhere on the site.

wingzro

wingzro

Academy Page

Join Date: Sep 2005

Canada

I properly built website wouldn't make information difficult to find just because it gets pushed into "archive". Just saying...

Perhaps there should be posted updates for both game changes and server changes.

RTSFirebat

RTSFirebat

The Humanoid Typhoon

Join Date: May 2005

UK

Servants of Fortuna [SoF]

R/

It's most likely nothing more but Pre-Test Weekend update files.

You know A.net does it think stream updates to you all the time. So do they need to provide update notes for all of that?

Come on now lets not be silly.

Spellforge

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Mar 2006

Guildless

N/

I think there should be a note for every update. It will stop people going - OMG after the last update all my Dyes are pink and I lost my favourite staff. If they could see that something in China was changed then they would know it wasn't the update that had done it

Xenex Xclame

Xenex Xclame

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2006

DPX

R/

Maybe instead of indeed posting on your site and pushing more important stuff off the first page to put "you stopped using squirels to power the servers", just make a post here? and some of the other big fansites.

Or maybe just like we did now, but maybe just less suspicous we make a thread and ask what the update was about not 10 minutes after the update was downloaded, but maybe a few hours and then youkindly come and tell us what it is.

Menzoberranzan

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2005

Australia

Celestial Order

Might as well just have a select space allocated to updates such as this on the main update page. Call it "Server Maintenance" update or something technical. It ought to put to rest any future update speculation and allow future maintenance operations to be carried out without any worry.

the_jos

the_jos

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2006

Hard Mode Legion [HML]

N/

Again, it's all about communication.
A-net did some patching, people got the 'new client warning' in game (like me) or update when they started GW.
I figured release notes would follow sooner or later.

A little part on the /gameupdates/ part of the website which just mentiones "update for Chinese players, 2007-01-17" would be enough and not put the more important updates on the site in archive.
This is especially true for the somewhat larger updates.
I see some smaller now and then, but this was about 5 minutes to download and process on my DSL.
It made me wonder if any large changes took place.

A little line (or perhaps link to page with minor adjustments) would be nice.
Just to let us know you changed something that's not important to 90% of the Guild Wars population.

@ Grasping Darkness:
I've seen larger companies than A-net with worse communications.
And they deliver more important systems than A-net (GW is just a game, your company/life does not depend on it).
So please give them some credit.

KamikazeChicken

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2005

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
The fact is, when we post trivial things like that, we push the good stuff off the page onto the archives, where it's harder to find and read.
If they're the people who regularly check the update notes after each update, it won't matter that old updates end up moving from the main page to the archives. You're better off making posts on every update just to prevent threads such as this. IMO, the opportunity cost seems lower that way.

Pete_Lefeu

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Aug 2006

Quebec

Gardiens du Lys [LYS]

W/

well IMHO, it's better with small update than a very big update download every month or something like that. Look at World of Warcraft, they have a big update to download which take atleast an hour. With Guild Wars, we have streaming informations and update that we're getting daily to prevent those big update.

But I admit some little information when you have the message "A new build of Guild Wars is available. Please restart your game." would be great. So people wouldn't go crazy in town saying: "OMG they nerfed that skills OMG!".

Mr_T_bot

Mr_T_bot

Banned

Join Date: Apr 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
The fact is, when we post trivial things like that, we push the good stuff off the page onto the archives, where it's harder to find and read.
That might have been relevant a year ago when updates of importance were coming out once a week or two or less, but now, when updates worth reading about are coming out once a month, if we are lucky, no one cares any more about the updates that happened a month and 3 weeks ago. It has already been read and archived by the players.

phallanxian

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2006

This forum amazes me so far, Anet is the best dev company i have come across recently they actually update the game and make sure it works. Go try playing games like the unfinished mess that is bf2 then come back and complain it takes ea several months to release patches that fix no bugs introduce a exploitable new feature and introduce a bug that crashes the server. tbh i'm just happy to be playing a game that works and i don't care if i don't know what every single file does

Xenrath

Xenrath

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2005

W/Me

Introduce an ingame update notes screen, which would contain every update and some small note. That would solve this issue for everyone, you could post the non-trivial updates on the main site and trivial updates would still get mentioned via the ingame update notes screen.

Since the login screen shows notes on upcoming events I'm sure this means it wouldn't be much effort to put update notes there too.