Does the community know what they want?

I know that there are loads of people who say "The community asked for SF to be nerfed, and now that it got changed, everyone's complaining again!" and acting as if the community is one "thing" (for lack of a better word). The point "does the community really know what they want?" has been brought up countless times, and I might be the first to admit, I really don't know what I want when it comes to Guild Wars.

I have been a gvg'er since about 2 months after I bought the game, I'm not really that good or anything, I just think it's fun, and Guild Wars has the best PvP of any MMO around, and to me, killing monsters just isn't all that fun. I've tried WoW, EQ2, AoC, D2 and loads of other MMO's and RPG's and none of them have floated my boat quite as much as Guild Wars does.

The issue of Wounding Strike has been brought up countless times, and as much as I know it's overpowered and it needs a nerf, I am scared of it going. The reason being, with WS gone, the meta will turn back to Blockway, and I don't know about you, but I really, really don't want blockway back. As a monk, you end up standing around half the time, as a Warrior, all you see on your screen is "Block, Block, Block, Block" until some mass enchant removal and a spike goes through, and as a Paragon, you are chaining DA and trying to stay awake from boredom. I just hate blockway so much.

Since the more recent ZKey implementation, I have managed to get a rather large amount of money (more money than I've ever had since playing the game, even when I used to exclusively PvE), and I've accrued a minor fortune for myself, or so I like to think. Back when I used to only have 20k in my storage maximum, I always wanted a bunch of rare skins and high-end armors and the like, and always wished I could be the guy sitting in the High End section of Ventari's throwing my money out at random at a Q9 Emerald Blade. Now that I could actually pay for something like that, I really don't see a reason to get it and don't want it. So now, I have a few hundred plat, and I really don't have much of a use for it, except for guesting and invites and such. I don't want to give it away, I'm content with it piling up in my storage, but I really don't have much of a use for it. I really don't know what I want to do with it.

I used to never play HA because it was just a huge IWAY/VIMWAY fest, but at the same time, I wanted a cool emote, so when HA hit 6v6 and started being fun, I went and got rank 3, and got about an extra 3 fame before saying "Well, I now have what I wanted, what else do I really need?" And I haven't entered Hero's Ascent in probably about a year. Same thing happened with Glad 1, I just TA'd until I got it, and stopped. Now I've recently taken to trying to get KoaBD on my main character (Ranger) and I have 3 max titles, currently working on SS/LB for my tier 1, but in the end, I know I'll get it after spending 20+ hours in the Remains of Sahlahja farming, but I won't really ever display it on my Ranger, I might put it in my HoM, I still haven't touched any part of that yet.

In a roundabout way of saying it, as a player, I'm not sure what more I want from Guild Wars. I really see no reason to do anything anymore, because a lot of the novelty has already been sucked out of the game. I'm not really sure what I want. I just stumbled upon this after random contemplation while bored SS/LB farming and wondered if anyone else has ever felt the same way.

Anyone else agree/disagree? Any thoughts?

You'll never know the real truthful answer to that question unless Anet/NCsoft polls the entire GW population. Polls on forums just aren't valid and are irrelevent as they can only represent a very very very small portion of the entire community as a whole even with 20000 if you got all 20000 to vote it would only be an inkling of the entire population of the game.

simple answer is no the community doesn't know what they want.

this is because some people like the way things are and some don't. some people were extremely happy with the SF buff because they could finally afford all those things that everyone else had. those that had them were not happy because they had those things and didn't want others to have them.

me, i like when things get changed up. sure it ruins some of what i'm currently doing but it adds new things for me to do and forces me to try different things.

no. they dont. guru is a whining community, though it hasn't always been that way. guru isnt the "community". it is a small portion of millions of players.

Because there are so many players and they try to please all of them. Anet can please me by making [signet of midnight] not so retardedly overpowered in 4v4 arenas.

i know what i want
gw2

I know what I want, and I'll repeat myself as many times as needed.

I repeated myself a lot about the Prophecies end weapons over a year and look, thy where added.

For now... what should I be repeating myslef about...? Hm...? Fix the dye syste,...? Add the Xunlai Marketplace...? Ah! I know! Inscriptions worldwide!

This is how the community works. Some people call for a nerf and then when it happens another part comes in and complains. People love to complain.

wat makes A-net nerf? People complaining. So it's pretty much QQing that's what's really annoying people and the fact that some want one thing while everyone else wants the other and its just a giant QQ fest.

I want 7 heroes for fun with making builds. Henchmen bore me (no im never going to group with others anymore).

And HOM achievemts and grind titles to be made account wide so I can enjoy playing multiple classes. There is only so much fun that an elly can have after 3 years, and since I wouldnt gain anything for from playing an alt, there isnt much incentive for playing multiple characters.

QQ=Complaining, just another more degrading way to say it. >.> Basically you just repeated what I said. Complaining is what people do to get attention to get a nerf. Then people compain about the nerf.

The community (even the portion that is Guru) as a whole does not know what they want. The individuals might know what they want. But sadly, nearly everyone complains about everything they don't like.

The only real way to know what the entire community wants on specific matters is to make a Questionnaire that is mandatory that asks the opinions (in a yes, no, maybe, don't care answering format) on all the "popular wants/complaints" of the forum communities and all chat communities. And by making it mandatory (like your not able to play the game until you finish it), everyone who plays the game still has a say. And to be fair to those who are not playing it for a while, make it last a week (only have to fill it out once of course).

With that, all the popular topics (such as Xunlai Market, some titles being moved to account*wisdom, drunkard, etc*, and various other things) will be truly answered with the majority of the full community. After the polls are taken, what is majority wanted will be done (if possible).

(I hope ANet reads this post so they can implement the questionnaire on the common wants/complaints)

There isn't just a single community of players. You're not going to understand what they want at all if you lump them all together.

QQ=crying. It's fashionable now and used to label anyone who isn't a fountain of sunshine and daisies, or that disagrees with you.

Anyways, I know what I want, and that's all I can control.

I'll make this simple, QQ=crying, yes indeed it does BUT when someone sits there and QQ's about something in a thread they are complaining about it. When you cry about something it is pretty much the same as complaining. So in a sense QQ=crying=complaing. Okay hopefully that cleared everything up.

I think as others have said, the community players as individuals know what they want but they can not agree.

To the OP: Uh-no, the community and the press are both raving hypocritical lunatics who should be sent to a mental institution because they believe GW is flat as the planet we live on. To prove this we can see GW 2 becoming like every other MMO or stereotypical RPG out there (with Dragons for the “cool factor”), but there is still a splash of GW uniqueness in it (queue: the no monthly fees).

Yes, it’s partially A-net’s fault for listening or misinterpreting things, but still the fact remains people are ignorant.

Addressing the title of the thread, I think the members of the community know what they want. The problem is, many other people want something else. So what happens is, the faction which screams loudest seems to win in the end.

You see, ANET is like a leaf in the wind. Where the wind of complainers blows, there ANET goes. Nerf this - no revert it. It's attitude like this which creates problems. With other companies, the game is delivered in a state where it's thoroughly playtested. Possible updates are minor, aiming to fix actual problems like bugs and crashes with actual solutions. It's not some degenerate shouting contest about fundamental stuff like skillbalance like we see here on Guru every day.

Are you sure you are qualified to facepalm at other people?

Often so, and this isn't a good thing. ANet needs a clear direction to build the game in, to prevent the kind of situation that aapo describes (which we're at now). Either that or a really solid CR manager who knows how to filter feedback.

So if I'm constructively complaining about something, I'm crying about it?

QQ =/= complaining.



Anyways, I agree with Avarre. ANet need to decide what they want to do with the game, instead of listening to the majority. Since they want everyone to buy GW2, they won't do that. Hopefully they'll do it for GW2, though.

No one said anything about constructive complaining. Complaining doesn't normally mean constructive at all. Usually it's people whining and what not. And no the Facepalm wasn't at you avarre, it was more just out of frustration.

GW2 is a long time away, should give them enough time to get their chit straightened out hopefully.

Constructive complaining is still complaining, regardless of someone mentioning it. You can't classify all complaints as crying.

Complaining is expressing dissatisfaction. Are you trying to say you cannot express dissatisfaction without being constructive about it?

actually the HoM is now account based, as far as what your characters in GW2 will receive. if you max LB on one character in GW1 and SS on another, your GW2 characters will receive benefits, such as they may be, from both of those characters. after all, the only reason to grind these titles out is for the supposed benefits they may have in GW2. so play whichever class you desire and get titles on one character that you don't have on the other and you will still be set when GW2 hits the shelves.

HoM benefits for GW2 is one thing that the community suggested and devs changed but didn't get a lot of credit or applause for. that's the way it goes with gaming communities, devs and CR employees only hear about things that their players are upset about but not things they've done well. part of the reason is because there is always something to complain about, whereas with things that are working properly or are beneficial to the entire community, devs hear "well it should be that way" instead of "you did a good job on that".

obviously they did a good enough job to sell 5 million or so units and are still doing enough to keep a couple million of us playing. i say if you enjoy playing the game, keep doing it, if not stop. if you have suggestions, make them, but don't cry when things don't go your way. that's life. not everything is going to go your way all of the time. deal with it or find a way around it.
btw it would be foolish of a company to not listen to what their consumers are saying about their product. if the majority is saying something, then it should be taken into account. something doesn't always have to be done or said about it, but it should still be listened to. a company that doesn't listen to its consumers is a company doomed to a short life.

A poll on a forum is much more valid than a poll in-game. When you poll all the players you're taking in votes from people who don't know much about the game, and those people make up a huge majority of the playerbase.

But in response to the OP: The community is not a single entity. Each person wants a different thing out of the game.

You pretty much got it.

People go on and on saying "NERF DIZ SKILL"
Anet nerfs said skill
People go on and on saying "OMG WTF Y U NERF DIZ SKILL"

It happens every. single. time. Nobody wins.

For forums in general, yes. Many people do not construtively complain.

I know what I want and I can only get half of that if they up their game. I want challenging PVE that I can solo. No heroes, no hench, just me. Just like in WoW. I want teams to be optional and not forced outside PVP. Basically, I want what GW2 is rumoured to have.

You'll never find someone making a post every day saying "I'm happy with this skill", so you'll never truly know what the community wants as a mass. As a single entity, that will never happen.

They still play the game and make it possible for the rest of us to continue playing it, and as such should have a say, as much as any of us have.

Doesn't matter where you're polling, people are stupid. The forum has more hardcore players, but a hardcore player isn't necessarily a good player.

Arenanet's problem is not figuring out what players want, that's not a difficult task. They just can't decide what problem they want to solve and how they want to solve it, and they take months to fix a problem.

Dont misquote me.

Account based HOM means being able to contribute towards filling your HOM up with multiple characters, which I have heard Anet are going to do. E.G. 5 seperate characters with one ascended armor each gives you a full Armor monument. Account based weapon monument instead of player based ones so I can add my weapons from different characters. Also maybe allow end game greens to count towards the HoM as well because each character can only achieve one of these per campaign.

It's not a question of whether the community knows what it wants, but whether they know what's good for them.

'The community' is unfortunately not a collective decision maker. Individuals know and get what they want, but as the community as a whole doesn't always want the same thing this is a stupid topic.

Personally I want to have fun and challenge outside of grind.

Community in this medium = whatever the majority feel positive or negative about imo.

It's defined by what ever is relevant to the player at the time.

Example:SF buff.

Community = A million new posters posting threads titled: "How do I farm UW?"

Yup.

So.... its somehow more fair by going to a minority of the people and excluding the majority of the playerbase?

I think this is precisely what is wrong with Anet's usual role. They spend too much time listening to a small group of whiny morons, implement some rash changes to try to placate the whiny morons, and end up screwing the game up for the majority of the people playing who could care less about the whiny morons' opinions.

The only reason I'd consider forums more "valid" are because the people are more experienced. But that's it. It doesn't eliminate any bias from them, nor does it mean that all players are "equally good".

Aside from that, couldn't agree more.

Is it smart guiding your game based upon people who know very, very little about it?

Besides: nearly everything seen on this forum concerns with game issues that aren't seen or accessed on the surface.

Bahahah i thought the HM update was supposed to encourage playing multiple characters. But yeah 7 heroes would be nice or they could just balance the pve game to a party of 4 would be easier and less mess but hey we need more pvp meta game fixes.

The community as a whole never agrees completely. Anet has employees who surf the forums and try to discern if the community overall is having a legitimate issue with the game or not. Sometimes a topic may be hot and involve much QQing, but is only a special interest group lobbying for something the majority or players don't want or need. Employees like Gaile,Andrew and now Regina sort out issues they feel are representative of the community concerns after reading many forums and recommend that the devs may have to look into certain issues.

As a player we all want one thing really, which is to be entertained. GW has dried up on new content which basically leaves me waiting on GW2. I do not like endless repletion I usually do everything in the game on my main character then wait 3 months and do everything again on a alternate character and I'm done till new content comes out. My main issue now is leasurely finishing up a couple of titles so I can have a good start at GW2.

The truth is nobody truly knows what they want.

I'd like the core philosophy of GW Prophecies to be maintained as that attracted me to the game in the first place.

In a perfect world I'd hope Anet have tried a few things and learned from what worked and what failed with the goal being towards GW2 awesomeness.

In saying I fear GW2 will just end up being a WoW clone.

Time will tell.

Each person in the community knows what they want.
All of those people do not want the same thing.
None of those people know what's the best for them or the community.

I don't see what's so hard to understand. Anyway, these two posts are the answer to every single thread like this: