Community Relations no longer needed?

I would hope there is a new one. But on the other hand the signs are there that one that does exactly the same thing as Gaile does may be no longer needed.

Just my list off the top of my head.

Increased use of Wiki
Various posts in forums, stating that Anet may cut back on CR use(usually in response to flame posts)
Nothing new for GW1 means less to talk about
More focus on support issues
GW2 hype and ramp up.

I would delay the appointment of a CR until it became obvious I needed it.

After the the successful pre-GW2 beta test is done (cause that is how I feel about GW1), There Really is no need to Have PR for a life supported game.
Do not get me wrong I love GW1 but facts are facts. It has begun its slow,swirling decent down the toilet.

The other thing I'd like to add is Gw1 has embraced the casual gamer to the point of absurdity. The tears and wails of the noobs of, "NOT FAIR, NOT FAIR" has drawn the attention of anet and they catered to them to point of the following:

-There is no way of telling a E-bay noob from a 2 year gamer.
-"I want to look different or customized" umm we all look the same now.
- even titles for the long term players have become ho-hum.
- there are no truly unique weapon skins
- the only limited items are minipets, with the exception of items that no longer drop, from a day long ago.
(no offense meant to the minipet enthusiasts)
- The addition of hardmode (which was TRULY AWESOME) followed by the edition of consumable items to make HM easy( )

The last thing they need to do now is make "god walking amongst mere mortals" into "a god amongst gods" because that is a accurate accounting.

Please do not tell me to play a dif game, as stated above I do love THIS game. I can only wait and hope that GW2 is truly as awesome as it is said to be. The day when the wiki is of no help and we are all noobs again.

Good luck to Gail in her endeavorers, and if another will fill that spot best of luck to you as well.

When everyone is special, no one is....

Phft

JR FOR PRESIDENTE!

In the context of a large and successful MMO neither is optional.

Think about it this way: Maybe that is the reason why Gaile has been replaced.

Has Gaile been replaced? People are assuming she has, i've not seen anything official. I am known to be dozy sometimes though, so I may have missed something.

That is actually the question

Has she been replaced - or will she be replaced and if so by who

I see little reason to hold back an announcement of a replacement unless they are waiting to do it in style this weekend sometime

Well other people are still interested in this game. I really can't see the obsession with GW2. The game is still so far in the distant as to be not worth thinking about.

There are plenty of reasons to hold back on announcing a replacement.

- The candidate may have been through the interview process and officially been offered the position, but still serving out a notice period with their previous employee or not yet been able to relocate.

- To give the community something of a grace period between losing one CM and gaining another. Throwing a new face right into the mix might cause a negative reaction. People don't like change.

- Once a CM is announced people will expect them to be out there on the front line. In reality they need time to ground themselves and get used to methodology of the company before actually interacting with the community.

I have always admired Gailes ability to sound nice and pleasant even in the face of the worst abuse, but...
...I've played for three years, and have seen her in-game exactly once, saying "bye, got to go".

Everything else I've seen by her have been posts and logs at GWonline and GWguru, nearly all of which have been completely void of information. For actual information I have always had to turn to guildwarsguru.com and the wiki.

Now, I'm sure she did a lot of stuff behind the scenes, and I'm convinced she's a very nice person, but provided the website and wiki keeps posting information, losing the in-game chats and and her GWGuru posts really wont affect the game or the community at all.

The two big things would be continuing maintenance on the fansite program and coordinating the alpha/beta testers for GW2. Since GW2 will have an alpha and a beta, there will be a coordinator of some sort.

Andrew is gone, Gaile is gone. My guess is that A-net is cutting down. They might be low at $$$

I'm not so sure about this... I doubt it'll affect the game itself. Updates and skill balances and whatever aren't gonna stop. But the community seemed to like it; I tried getting in districts were Gaile was a couple times for the heck of it, think I got in 2, failed the 3 or 4 times I felt like going to one. At one point it proves people were interested in what she had to say, or the replies she could provide to the rest of the community. It might not affect me very much (always sad to see someone going but I haven't attended a quarter of her appearances or read threads on Guru), but AFAIK the community likes it. They like the fact a dev comes in the game to tell what's going on, they feel like they're close to the company. It worked so far, so the CMs did their job well, IMHO.

So I'm not ready to say it won't affect the community at all.

There is no way they would be in the midst of creating a massive MMO project such as GW2 if they were anything but financially very comfortable. They are in fact currently looking to expand their team, not downsize. This has nothing to do with money, and they are definately not 'cutting down'.

It's totally JR just hasn't finished his time with Fury.........;-)

*enjoys spreading rumors*

I resigned from Auran in December, and sadly no, it's not me.

oh....hm.........



I would totally say it's Alex Weekes but unfortunately I know he went somewhere else after Auran.

I got nothing.


:|

Would have made for a smooth change over since the community already knows you

however....

you could just be covering up until the official announcement

*****rumors start flying******* and nobody comes to post official information

It's hard to say. From a player perspective it's easy to imagine them not getting a new CR for awhile since there's only going to be endless complaints about GW1 ending and these crappy non-content years, while we have to wait to buy yet another new game. I wouldn't want to be the CR talking to the community then.

It could simply be something different though, maybe they don't have time to hire one right away...

Is it needed ?

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!! and more than ever. We are going into the stagnet phase of GW. We are waiting for GW2. For thouse of you who think they are not releaseing enough info on GW2 it will come in time. The new person who takes over has big shoes to fill and I am sure alot to overcome. The PR people do not make the calls on what is released managment does and always will. So when they get there script on what they can say and what they can not we will hear

Actually, I can see the job permanently vacant, which would not scare me. In some cases, I rather have the developers talk directly to the community or how "Valve" deals with community, relations (contact the developers via email). The whole middle man thing gets on my nerves because some of these people jobs are tied into PR or CR relations. This means more cryptic wish-washy information that can always be discredited at a latter time. No offence to Gaile or Andrew I think they do an outstanding job.