Community Relations no longer needed?

Will there be new community relations personel or are these positions just on hold until GW2 now?

There are no listings for CR positions on the Anet website (although many other positions appear available). So if no one is being hired it stands to reason that either the position has already been filled or the ties to the community have been cut for the time being.

If this is true what does that say about GW1. It seems to be a poor time to have no communication with the recent shut down of some servers. Although there appears to be other motivations behind the shut down of these servers, to the general community the wrong message may be understood.


How would you feel about not having replacement CR Personel?

honestly, i'd probably rather not have one than have one who is not allowed to give out any GW2 info, as that's all I'm really interested in now.

The official GWiki still exists, and Anet still reads the fansites. We can't say they've cut the ties, but depending on whether they dropped the CR role, they may want (or not, we don't know) to recenter their customer/community relationship into something different (I'd say less stressing on Anet's staff and more constructive?).

Agree, it'd be great to have quick clarifications before the conspiracy and other gap-filling theories begin to get out of hand, and anger and misunderstanding becomes the norm.

Given how Gaile has been flamed (see the thread showing how some PvP players are happy that she's gone) and how GWG (don't know about the other fansites) is chaotic/counter-productive, I wouldn't have a problem with this. Anet may need new means of communication, or rather perfect the existing ones, thus focusing on fewer channels of communication may be good.

That is almost certainly because they already have someone waiting in the wings to take over. You don't just move your community staff somewhere else without having measures in place to keep things running smoothly.

Guild Wars moving forward without a community team is a fairly ridiculous notion.

For all intents and purposes she does not function as community staff. She's a part timer that basically does paper work and office management. An assistant to the community department as opposed to assistant in the community department, if you will.

I think they probably will but not until GW2 beta or GW launch.

Since Gw is pretty much done with no new campaigns, or expansions...
There nothing really big changing in the current guildwars.

There is a third person in the CR team who served as the CR assistant. She could take over.

This is what I think as well. Someone will make an announcement here and there, and some development staff will read things on forums here and there, but I expect no real movement until GW2 Beta, at which time we will likely see a new CR.

NCSoft profitability is worryingly low, and although Guild Wars is still reasonably profitable, I'm guessing they're cutting whatever is not absolutely vital.
Having a customer relations department this late in the games life is probably not considered vital.

I assume that the Guildwars website and wiki will continue to supply needed information, so the impact to the gamers need not be very noticeable.

No there isn't.

I beg to differ. It may not lead to a wave of suicides or ragequits, but I believe that CRs like Gaile and Andrew gave the community a particular "shape" and ambiance, something of friendliness and courtesy, as much as can humanly be possible considering the anonymity of the fansites and passive aggressivity caused by communication misunderstanding and emotions. I'm sure that most people won't talk about it, but there'll be a change and people won't feel the same way IMHO. We really lost something, even if these 2 Anet employees (the tip of the iceberg, artists and devs are as important but less visible) are still around. Change is not always bad, but it sometimes creates grey and transition zones where it's difficult to evolve.

In my opinion customer relations is the most important area for Guildwars now. It shows dedication and commitment to not only uphold their promise to continue with GW1 as long as there are users and also shows what we can expect from CR in GW2.

Sending a good message to consumers for the next year will keep word of mouth buying of GW1 and an income until GW2

My mind wonders if this is because of GW2.... I mean yeah the servers and maintanence will be staying up, but I would assume there will be more CR needed for GW2 than GW... At least this is kinda my hope.

At the same time, for a wanna be CR I kinda hope they don't, cause the community can be tough on the nerves. But then I always (most of the time) loved our friendly neighborhood CRs.

I guess we wait and see, eh?

As Fril said it kinda added something to the whole mix, knowing that we had people who cared relaying our fears, wants, and desires.

yes there is.


from http://www.arena.net/team.php

Yes there is.

Her being active or not is a different question. She has been credited on all 4 games.

JR.

You've stated certain things as if you have some inside information as to who/if the new CR will be. Is that the case?

Not a get at, just curious..

It's mostly just common sense, and having closely followed Anets development as a company.

hummm maybe....

JR is the new CR

Community relations = forums
Customer service = billing, support

One of these is optional. Can you guess which?

People can assume all they want, but we will see in the near future what happens.

The way I see things, ANet has always taken an interest in the GW community. It wouldn't make sense for them to drop the CR position just because Gaile is moving to a new role in the company where she can more fully use her talents; my guess is that ANet already has someone lined up for the role and will probably be making a public announcement on who it will be in the near future.

Change can be good. This gives both ANet and the community the chance to move in a new direction, and the new CR will need some time to adjust to us just as we will need some time to adjust to him/her (whoever it will be). It'll be up to all of us to make the transition as smooth as it can be.