Wednesday afternoon update

Still, they could just attach a changelog.txt to the update. That way, the /gameupdates/ section is unharmed, and the control freaks are happy.

Since you *did* ask...

I would like to see a short note along the lines of "nothing to see here.. move along". I don't care if it's in the permanent record, but something would be nice.

1) No one trusts EA anyway
2) Online RPGs and non-Online-RPGs run entirely differently in their post-release development and patching, there is no comparison.

Not to guildwars.com, but if someone could simply make a quick note either here or on gwonline.net (like you just did on this thread), it saves the community a ton of needless speculation.

Thanks!

I think devs rely on speculatory threads for their game ideas

... but seriously: Complete transparency, trivial or not.

Or add a build update section to the website.

i couldnt care less whether they tell me about server tweaks in china, or that they fed the server squirrels. if it has no effect on my gameplay, then whatever. waste of time on the part of the devs to make sure im up to date with every little thing, especially if it has nothing to do with me.

everyone is a little to paranoid about "stealth nerfs" IMO.

I agree with you. It would shut up a lot of the complainers, if only for a minute or two.
Only problem I can see is that Gaile or someone else might not always have time, or be in a position where they can post here to let us know. *cue whiners*

I think Anet does a great job with updates. Ok sure they keep some quiet but at the end of the day its there game, were lucky they tell us as much as they do. Alot of other companys are far worse.

eg. the afore mentioned EA games who im still waiting for another patch (since the patchs so far havnt fixed them) to stop the huge amount of Bugs in C&C: the 1st Decade

We have Gailes word that they will post anything that will effect us then that seems good to me Plus sometimes secrets are fun, eg. Bahlteks mysterious appearence.

well there is an in-game thingy that can be used to put info, then use it!

When I have to download any change to my GWs client, I'd like to know what it is and why I have to download it, point blank. Kudos to Anet for frequent fixes and posting any notes at all, though. You're already a step ahead of some companies.

Not from software. =/

Best PR = yes, post the update info somewhere even if it's trivial, just to head off the conspiracy theorists before they get started. (ounce of prevention > pound of cure after all)

It's a update, can't we get over the fact that we don't know whats in it?

I mean come on, who in the hell would want to know the exact amount of money Bill Gate/Donald Trump has in his bank account right now!!!

Cut them some slack folks, you can't always post every little detail about the updates into their site. I mean not even WoW (Blizzard) does that yet.

Actually, I'd like a warning before you pull that vacuum out

As far as game update notes go, it would be nice to read about what the changes were. However, when something so minor that updates 1 file and no words appear about it, I just assume that it's some maintenance update that I probably wouldn't notice or care about. The major updates that affected gameplay have always been 10's or 100's of files, so I don't really take note of these micro-updates.

That's so ridiculously far fetched that even trying to argue with it would result in a severe global loss of braincells.

It would be good if they lived up to what was said. List those changes which have an impact on the game mechanism. There is evidence that this is not the case, see here: http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Game_updates (the notes about what was forgotten to mention).

Actually, I think it is better to to explain it, even when an update is really minor, just so people aren't left wondering.

Not the most important thing in the world, but since you asked.

Amity

I'm not bashing or defending anyone but I don't see the point of A-Net telling us everything about all the upcoming updates. I mean if it's a minor fix, why should they list it in the first place? Also if it doesn't affect the gameplay and the client side, we shouldn't be bother to know what it is. I think peoples are getting too parnoid about this skills balancing weekend event.

I agree that we don't need to know every little thing that happens with every update (especially the small ones). Usually, if it is a small update, then I don't even care to check. However, the download was 2 MB's. Usually, we get some kind of response as to what was updated when a file is that big. I think a lot of people were curious, as was I, as to what it was. I think if there is an update that big, it would be nice to know a little about what it was. Just my opinion.

they are just gettin ready for the weekend event. it is a big update cuz the changes in HA are gonna be big

why now? cuz they dont wanna throw a huge build at us when we log on friday, and figuring they build it gradually its easier to prepare the base the day before, not all in same day.

calm down, there wont be any skill nurfs untill the test of new HA. they prepared it all for that event, no point to chnge skills beforhand.

LOL. What I wanted to say, but was trying to be polite and ignore it.

I truly don't understand why everyone acts as if it's dire that they know what every kb downloaded is. If you're that paranoid about it, then never close the game and hope you don't err7 so you don't have to download any new builds.

Doesn't matter if they show what's in the update or not, whether it's something we even need to be concerned about or not, people are going to post whatever they wish. This update did "this" to my "whatever", etc...., even if it's not a listed change, you get the point.

And you're not tracking every file downloaded to your pc. If you were, you wouldn't be taking the word of someone saying, we downloaded updates that did "this". You'd want the filenames downloaded and/or changed and you'd check that against a program that shows you every file on your computer and any additions added, date ( if such a thing existed), etc... you get where I'm going.

Not sure why this thread is left open......

I think they should have a separate update notes section that lists the minor updates such as this one. That way the more important updates can be kept together and we can still know what each update is.

Yeah...that was a much better post.[/sarcasm]

You pay money to Anet to play a game on your PC, yet you're the lucky one. Yeah you're so fortunate. Blessed even.

Guild Wars is my game, I paid for it. I'd like to know what's going on (or what's not going on) with it. I'd like to think that my investments make me privy to that.

Maybe its just a server fortification or refresher? I don't how you would do something like that but that could have been all it was. The removal of the Vabbian Arena seems likely as well. Most likely, however, it's just preperations to the changes to Heroes' Ascent.

I don't see the big difficulty in updating the /gameupdates/ page to say "Changed a server configuration in China", but then, I'm not privy to Anet's website policy.

What's wrong with detailing changes when they're made?

Gaile said they're changing on configuration on China's server and what she said is true. Here's some more insight. The China server is preparing for limited open beta starting on the 19th.

Regardless of the contents of the update, it would still be appreciated, by myself at least, to know what's going on within an update.

This supposed "Updated server configuration in China" has me locked out of the game currently. I can login, select my character, and then either look at a loading screen indefinately, or minimize the game and see that I've suffered a crash.

I've submitted a ticket to support already, however, I find it odd that a China server update has screwed me over. Maybe this is one of the reasons why some people would like to know what happens during an update. Not everyone's machines respond the same way to this game running, especially following an update. I had guildies who were suffering from the err7 portals, but I wasn't affected personally. Now I'm in troubleshooting mode, and every little bit of information helps.

Personally, I believe they also tweaked their settings on their diagnostic filters which determine whether our machines are capable of running the game. I've had this problem in the past, during the update in October when they were putting in content for the Shing Jea monestary. The only difference then was my game would crash on launch of Gw.exe. Anyways, a day or so later following the Shing Jea update, apparently through a stealth update or whatever, my problem went away, and I haven't had any problems, that is up until yesterday.

So for all you people who could care less about the contents of an update, that's fine, don't look at the update notes if it doesn't affect you personally. But for those who are now suffering from problems as a result of an update, well then, that information becomes a bit more important.

one can answer only for oneself of cos
but personally i'd like to know what was in this update cos it crashed my GW file.... i cant play atm and after wasting some time on contacting tech support (no human answer yet tho) i decided to just try to reinstall it, it means that i'll be spending considerable time on i could otherwise spend on playing GW (and i dont have enought free time to start with) so whats wrong with me knowing why do i have to do all this?

None whatsoever.

Not new. Read the Notes sections on the Game Updates on Guildwiki.

To share some information that you might find of interest:

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. I will furnish more information after I hear back from him.

One thing to think about is that we are presenting Guild Wars in a global setting, with servers at half a dozen centers on three continents, content localized into 10 languages (11 if you count Bork ), and with official website presentations in about a dozen languages. What this means is that what seems a simple request -- post notes about every tiny tweak and change, even if it's just changing the texture on the Warriors kneesocks -- requires a very complex process. For every set of update notes goes through one or two of more than a dozen localization specialists, through website teams in more than half a dozen locations, across multiple time zones, and so forth.

We have a policy of not shorting players. We feel that if we publish update notes in Sevilla, we should do our best to publish update notes in Seoul and in San Francisco. That is, we have a vow to attempt to localize and simultaneously publish as much website content as possible. (Just FYI: the in-game content, like the join screen, undergoes the same processes, so please don't think it's as simple as tossing a few notes into the game.) If we follow that course--and we are committed to that course out of respect for our global player base--we need to wait for people to wake up and get into their offices in Europe or Asia, and we need to wait for them to localize the update notes into the language in which they work. Then, they need to pass that localized content to the web team, the web team needs to encode/HTML it, and then put it live. So let's stop and think about theory taken to practice: We want to publish notes for every update. If we attempt to do that, then we will have necessary delays caused by the very process of creating and then publishing the update notes. If the update was to repair something critical, like "Fixed bug that was crashing players," then clearly waiting 24 hours to sync up, and even as many as 72 hours and more in some cases, given weekends, time differences, etc., would be very bad indeed.

Now, sometimes we can publish urgently in Europe and the US in the same day, or in the US and Asia in the same day. But honestly, if something needed to be updated on a Friday evening in the US, we might be looking at Monday before all the teams could localize the notes. So adopting a policy of "We publish notes for all updates," which leads to "We don't update until we can publish update notes" sounds very dangerous to me.

In the end, we'll see if we can adopt a more informative process, sure. For major updates like tomorrow's Testing Weekend, we will be sure to have notes out simultaneous with release of the update, maybe even a bit before if that can be arranged. (I know I asked if we could post earlier than the actual update itself, if at all possible, but I have no idea if that will be feasible.) But for some updates -- small ones that do not impact the players; emergency updates that must be done as quickly as possible -- it remains to be seen if notes can and will be published in all cases.

It is not clear why couldn't you (meaning whoever manages the update process) prepare the update notes in advance? Coding an update takes some time. It's not that the fixing team comes up with the fix suddenly in an hour time... I mean, they know what they are going to work on, long before they have finished, right?

Just wondering.

Not always, that's why the streaming tech is so good. The team is usually working right up to the very last minute trying to get as much into an update as they can. Now, for a major update (like this weekend coming) then yes, you're right - in general the update notes are prepared in advance.

For something like an emergency update or a simple config change such as the one on Wednesday it's quite possible that the coding was started and finished in a very short time frame immediately before the update rolled out.

Gaile, we don't ask that with every minor update there should be an immediate follow-up with update notes (no offence, but this was almost never the case, even with normal/major updates). Just queue the notes and when they're ready (localised, etc.) publish them. I don't think that's going to delay the updates one bit. As for the delay between the actual update and the notes, well, we've gotten used to it so it's not such a big deal.

Does this mean that you don't test your code before you roll them out.
usually this is how I thought a patching system work:
1. identify the problem
2. find the solution
3. test the solution
4. roll out the solution

So usually between testing the solution and rolling out the solution, that's where most organization place their update note. Heck most company would know what they are going to fix before they fix it.

So unless your bug fixing team is the same as your web development team, I don't see why those two tasks can't occur concurrently.

I'm not sure I'm following this... How long can it possibly take to write one sentence: "We updated to change a configuration on a server in China." and slap that on the site? One minute? Two minutes?

Compare that to how long it takes for you or Gaile to come onto several fan sites and explain why it wasn't posted on the site to a bunch of concerned customers. See my confusion?

I don't feel like writing up a lot of PMs for deleted posts, so I'll keep it short: discussion about EULA legality has nothing to do with this thread, and acting as if the rest of the forumgoers are complete retards is not a good way to win friends here. If you can't keep it civil, your ability to post will be taken away. Carry on.

Gaile answered that about 5 posts up.

Gaile and Alex, you don't necassary need to fill us in about each little updates or patches out there. I mean, if it doesn't affect the client side, we don't need to know about it.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAA!!!!!

That's funny. If it only took 2 minutes. Not sure if ANet works the same by at my work place to change one line of text requires the following workflow. Usually takes half a day to approve and deploy a simple change.

Change Request Documentation, Localization of text, Localization Project Manager Sign-off's, Delegation of task by PM to Coder, Coding, Testing, QA Sign-off's, Implementation Request, Build, Deploy, Implementation Sign-off, Done!