Community report july 2014 to Arenanet

Hi guys!

I've got an interview with a Community Manager about Guild Wars 1. Here's where you come in.

I have in mind many current questions that are addressed in the community, however, I would like your help to develop the interview. How? Leaving the questions that you think should be included on this topic:

1) Well-elaborated questions that concern the community.
2) Questions that have not been clearly answered in the past: mail, action house etc
3) Clear questions

Finally, i will include the best questions to the interview, and to the ones that are already planned. Also, if you think any of the questions that will be exposed here are not relevant for the interview, let us know.

Advice: some questions may have no answer from the Community Manager or he will not be in a position to give it to us.

Thanks for the help! #AUnitedGWCommunity

Since we have been told on many occasions that they have no plans to do anything new with guildwars (outside of emergency updates), is there any hope that this will change in the future?

Next year will be guildwars 10th anniversary, do they have anything special in the works for that? (or does it also fall into the 'we have no plans to do anything with guildwars beyond emergency updates').

do they plan on doing anything about the Ha/GVG syncers? or the war supply bots?

#UPDATE 1

Well guys i have a little brainstorm of ideas for posible questions, but i need your feedback. To not making enormous quotes & messages you can asnwer this way: 1) Must be "blabla"/No "blabla"/Rebuild question: "blabla", 2) ""/""/""...

(btw questions are quick made, just to know if the ideas are ok for posible questions)

1)Before, the Community Managers used to stop by Guild Wars Guru (mainly Stephan Lo Presti) to stay in contact with players, answer questions and move the community feedback to developers. You have plans to stop by GWGuru again?

2)Nowadays the feedback portal at the official wiki is closed, there’s no sub-forum for players at the official forum, which should deal with players suggestion & feedback, and no COMA is appearing at GWGuru official fansite. So in this situation how can players move their feedback to developers if its not strictly a support case?

3)Years ago the Guild Wars team used to do events with ingame prizes: minipets and other stuff, and also merchandising of Guild Wars. Also you used to give GWGuru (and other communities) prizes so they could make some events too. Will we see these events in the near future?

4)Do you have plans on doing anything about the Ha/GVG syncers? or the war supply bots? (legend XIII) || Im just aware of PvP syncs and hacking, but i heard there are bots in Jade Quarry, Faction Farming and other stuff. Some extra info please?

5)Guild Wars has had an awesome community and it still have it, will we be able to see a new expansion for the game? maybe Guild Wars Origin? (rebuild question must be done xD)

6)Any plans to finish the Guild Wars Beyond story? || I need someone with ideas for Lore questions.

7)Any posibility for launch of pay content? like the old "Guild Wars Mission Pack Bonus"(content question here too)

8)You or any member of the Guild Wars team are gonna make any apparition ingame? to give some gifts to players or just to chat with them.


@cosyfiep your first question was already planned for the interview, the second one is going all the way in

@legend XIII was thinking about including that one, and its probably going to be added.

4) PVP:
HA= sync with alt acc already tons of pve players got r10-15 on this way. u can watch it on obs 24/7.

GVG= sync, bot vs resign bots, 3party programms like toolbox, rupt and prot bot... on obs to.

JQ = 90% Necro bomber bots even on events...

Ab= teams with the same 3 party programms like on gvg. for example: rupt , prot, cancle, kd bot........

Codex= bots vs resign bots

PVE:

Event bots that farm 24/7 events.. vattir farm bot for sweets and stuff, rollerbettle race bot etc.

Fow bot: farming shards

warsupplies bot: farming supplies


there is alot more that is just a shortcut. and all that is nothing new on gw. But since ha syncers on obs dont even get bann.. it got out of controll and its like a carte blanche...... for all parts of gw.
atm we have wild west here. so we really need a sheriff =)

@OoDAWN

Thanks for the info m8. I didnt know it was such a plague! oh my god

I will try to include all this in the interview.

Im interested in this the most. The most obvious ones are incredibly easy to spot and ban. JQ bots, HA syncer, codex shitters with r10+ sitting in kama saying they never synced...

But I actually have a question for OP. How are you getting this interview?

Getting in touch directly with the Community Manager in another Guild Wars community in which I'm a very active user and contributor.

jesus! you're serious? the game is riven with corruption, it's a cheat's paradise, anet/ncsoft's idea of ingame monitoring is pathetic

I would like to know.When will they buff up Monks smiting as announced but yet as yet to be done?I would say the same with slight buff to protection.

What about the account retrieval tool to turn it back on?

while we are on the subject of syncers et.al. how about the gold sellers (you know the names, they have been in gtob and kamadan for the past bunch of months...)--any plans to remove them since reporting does very little.

Just two questions. Nothing more.

1) Why not turn Guild Wars free to play (at least prophecies) so we can have a bump on the influx of new gamers/comers and revamp the state of the game? (For both, PvE and PvP).

1.1) Why would that not be a good idea for ArenaNet and NCSoft seeing the huge success of the currently MOBA games (PvP) ?! Specially remembering that Guild Wars started as a e-sport and there is almost no influence on maintaining the servers (ArenaNet said it once that maintaining GW server was easy and almost at "no cost").

__________________________________________________ ______

2) Why not use crow-funding to launch more in game content, Campaign , Skins, so on, without taking any financial risk? And Why would that not be a suitable idea.


If they answer these questions i think i could finally have some peace of mind.

And understand for once why they choose to ignore this market and public that made what they are today.

Pretty much nothing will ever get updated anymore.
Unless its good for the business.
All questions are answered, thanks.

will someone still check out the community made suggestions page on facebook? and if so, is there at least a chance there will be done something with it?

NOTE: reason i ask it, is cuz 1. many suggestions i like, 2. at least 1 place which can be used

link: https://www.facebook.com/notes/guild...51186055270754

ps. a few suggestions were made and done a little later, like favor not needed

now that we have that here, the question "will 'war in kryta' and 'winds of change' be able to be stopped right after the first quest?"
i mean, i dont even complete eotn and proph with chars who havent done yet, as i cant do WiK on my own.... and no help with it in GW anymore, and yes, i have SEEN the spawns come RIGHT AFTER eotn or proph are completed

plus i dont wanna have to do WiK storyline just to get rid of the spawns, and WoC is even worse, so if we'd get the quest to remove spawns right after the first quest done...

and exploreable missions for proph was made by me here too, so we can sightsee and explore without mission "events" like timers and npc's which may not die and such

i know these may be personal suggestions, but i havent seen any replies on suggestions anymore, so rather use any chance to ask about those whenever i can

let me clear them up
1. will someone still check out the community made suggestions page on facebook? and if so, is there at least a chance there will be done something with it?

2. will we be able to stop with "war in kryta" and "winds of change" after the first quest right away?

3. will prophecies get exploreable missions (like cantha and elona have) to make exploring a little exploring, instead of running around before the mission stops or fails?

reason for exploreable proph missions, is that exploring has always been a relaxing thing, and not something you have to do quick and perfectly to avoid failing
besides, some spots cannot be explored anymore, cuz of the teleport skills no longer "teleporting" anymore, so a bit nicer way to do would make it better

anyway, i hope to get a few answers..... no longer counting on it, but can always have (false) hope
i'm still playing GW1 and havent quit even once, so wish the best for my favorite game of all time (no MMO has been better than GW1 to me)

also, same goes for the elona content if they ever release that, to be able to stop spawning them whenever we want

I'll throw my 2 pennies in.

Instead of self-serving questions about new expansions or additional content or skill buffs (which the mature forum members already know are not viable), I would like questions like these answered....

1. Will Anet pledge to tackle the issue of the plague of botters? Its killing the game.

2. Will Anet do more to tackle account hacking, and do something about the unreasonable time it takes to contact them and restore hacked accounts?

3. Will Anet actually engage with its customers by providing some form of up to date and accessible customer service or support?

That about covers it.

Max

Okay, let me clarify one thing before: i know that you want to ask about new content as much as i I do, and we will include questions related to that, but we can not base the entire interview in the content because if they continue with the same plans of automation they wont answer anything, and would be mulling over the same thing, so let´s try to make varied questions.

@Age They did announce a Monk and Paragon update that never saw the light, am i right?

@I ride my pokemon The F2P issue was already in, because is something that have been through all the GW communities for a while. But i will probably have to modify the questions so that they are not so "aggressive" or "direct".

@Coast Thanks for the positivism...

@Ayuhmii Shanbwa if you read my previus options for questions, one is about where can we make sugestions since the GWWiki option is closed and we cant make it nowhereelse.

The other ones are, as you said, personal requests, that don´t really affect the whole community life. So probably wont be added, but ill take them in consideration. If you have anything else to report, let me know!

@MaxBorken The bot/hacking issue is already in too. The improvement of the support service could be take in consideration.

Have in mind that we can only make a certain ammount of questions, not too many. So we have to make a good selection!

https://forum.guildwars.com/forum/fo...t-Restorations
TOO EXPENSIVE/MUCH WORK
the botting part: make all drops bound on account, which makes trading pointless tho then.
free to play: would u open pandoras box?

What do you mean by pandoras box? haha

Now that the game is past it's due date (NOTE it doesn't mean it's dead, just not actively developed anymore).
How about use the new ingame store to sell some previous Pre-Order items:
Hourglass Staff, Sunspear Weapon, Soulbreaker etc.

So my most important issue about bots/cheats is already in. My second one about Beyond is in as well. I guess I leave it at that. I have a lot of question but they are all not important enough to be in an interview that could never be expected to exist.

I hope that was a joke...

@all: Please no questions about balance. That would need a close observation of the current meta by anet and constant updates again. Balance updates need to be done very carefully. An update once would destroy more than repair.

#UPDATE 2

We have quite a lot of material for the interview right now, anyway im still searching for more interesting stuff to ask (not major changes obiusly).

So today is the last day to elaborate and post ideas for the interview. I have to prepare it and send it, and we are probably going to be mulling over the same things that are already said.

@cosyfiep i have been thinking about the 10th anniversary question, and its really a good one, but its probably too soon to ask, no? still 8 months for that. What do you think?

@Bristlebane I would like to ask if theres gonna be added new stuff to the store. Ill have in mind the pre-order items or any other idea that comes up.

@fadekill what would you exactly ask about GW: Beyond? (yeah, its gonna be in)

I am willing to read your other proposals! :P

I think I would also mirror something Ayuhmii spoke of, in woc you can get the quest (memories of purity?) to stop the spawns, in wik, you can not--thus making it impossible to remove the spawns and revert back UNLESS you finish the whole wik--now I have a personal issue with this since one of my accounts does not even HAVE eye of the north, therefor, I am not even capable of doing wik on that account, but I have the spawns.

So can we get a quest like the factions one to stop the spawns for prophecies? (or something similar for those whose account (s) are not even capable of doing that story line--to have it not even an option)


edit: not to early to ask since they have such a small team working on gw now would probably take them most of a year to get anything substantial done--never hurts to get their muses working on it early.

the 10th anniversary question?
maybe put the remaining minipets there which havent been given out: kanaxai/panda/island guardian/yeti/grawl.

7th year got the vizu/shiroken/zhed/oni/naga, so it would be fair for the community in general to give out the remaining minis. 10years of guildwars should be a major event and celebrated accordingly.

If they can do this for GW2 they can certainly do this for GW.

No the Monk and Paragon never the light of day to the announced update.

@cosyfiep im sorry but that issue won´t be on the interview, for some reasons:

1) We dont have space for that question because there are much more critical problems in GW at the moment.

2) It´s a minor issue that should be solve with feedback resources from players to Arenanet. So if they answer in the interview if they are coming back to Guru or where we can leave our suggestions, that, could help with your Beyond request.

3) It´s a specific problem that the COMA wont be able to answer (maybe not even Arenanet developers have thought about that)

@Coast I suscribe your thoughts

@Age Yep, probably we wont have space for that question in the interview

/sad panda...but if they answer that they are looking at fixing things in gw then I can have some hope that it might be addressed in the future (yes, rose colored glasses for everyone!).

(oooh coast--would LOVE to see a panda in my very own inventory!!)

This was regards the guy's comment about free-to-play being Pandora's box. I think the free-to-play was used as free-to-own (it already is free-to-play once the game is purchased).

The reason it is Pandora's box is because if the game was made free-to-own (no purchase necessary) it would mean the botters could make hundreds if not thousands of accounts at no cost to them and the game could end up "botted" a hundred times worse than it currently is. That's where that comment was coming from I'd guess.

Thanks for taking comments/ideas. My main ones have already been covered. The bots and gold sellers all over the place. Maybe ask if some of the respected players still around (NOT me for sure) can be deputized or something to take these guys down. Also they ruin the economy which is already in ruins and unbalanced at this point.

The only other thing, and -- I know it won't happen -- is since this is almost a solo game for most people it would be great if JQ and NA that you need to map (makes Cathan carto easier to get if you can actually access them) and get faction from? If we were allowed to take our heroes with us. Then it would only take a few players to have at it at JQ and people could use it again instead of all these endless bots. At the very least open it to mapping.

High end arenas leave but since JQ and FA are so much of the game for us pve types, well we need access. I'd be fine with Anet AI enemies to fight against but the bots are ridiculous. (Yes this is a pipe dream but had to vent).

Thanks for listening.

Well you can always make it less aggressive but it would be nice if you “require” some answers too.

They usually tend to dodge these types of questions by saying “That’s something up to ‘insert name here’ ”

If that happens (and I think it will) ask for the interviewed personal opinion them. Honestly I don’t mind. What I want is the perspective from someone inside there.

Also what counts it’s that they understand that there is still demand for this game.Far more (I believe) than Guild Wars 2 . Since it has potential to be a e-sport game (again) playing act of the current MOBAS – Good ol’ times of Guild Wars World Championship.

In fact, if you can it would be nice to add one more question (but please along with the others already made :P ) :

1) Wouldn't it be wiser to let the PvP aspect of the game be free-to-play since games that request competitiveness have greater and higher demands nowadays? (For Example: LoL , DOTA 2, Heroes of the Storm, etc).

PS: When can we expect this interview to come out?!

note for my previous post:
i know its personal, but i have seen so many who dont even like WiK and WoC anymore, and are annoyed by the spawns (WiK mostly)
even if you have done 1 WoC quest, you cant get rid of the spawns unless you get far enough, such quest available right after the first quest of both WiK and WoC would make many people do eotn and proph on more chars (like myself, when i told people, they were like: yea, i wish that too)

well, i dont expect much from the current arenanet anymore (the old one listened way more often), but hope for at least that to come true, and many suggestions on the facebook page are great

just a passing thought: i'd love to walk around in proph missions without doing the mission itself, just to be able to see every pixel, like we can in cantha and elona

anyway, good luck with it, you'll need all the luck you can get (and so do all of us for GW)

I will honor Arenanet by saying: when it's ready. xDD i'm joking.

I would like to have the interview prepared for tomorrow morning (Europe timezone). I have just finished the image banner for the interview! But it really depends on the speed of the Community Manager responses.

The first cuestion is probably gonna be a contact question, a personal question to the COMA to make him confortable in the interview. Also, i will add the easier questions between the hard ones.

cant wait to see the answers!!! (and how many times they try to NOT answer the questions!)...


when its ready....pfff. think that their best answer was 'you will be surprised by that' (and then nothing ever happening----).

so

....and now we wait.

... while waiting, up for anything ingame? lol

wow this is much more hard than what i imagined at start!

We can not make some questions because we know that they wont have any answer, rebuilding question to make them in a "friendly" mode, rebuilding interview structure. And even with all of that, we may have no positive answer!

Anyway, im doing my best to make the best interview that could be made under this situation.

#Harderinterviewevermade xD

Izzy Ownz,

There is no easy way to say this without sounding corny.

But please, ask those questions.

As hard as it may be. Just ask. In a Aggressive or non-aggressive way.

Even if they can't give an "official" response, It doesn't matter.

Make them feel at ease and ask just for the personal point of view of the interviewee. That will be enough to comprehend what lies ahead for us.

As the maxim say: Doesn't hurt to ask.

I think that I speak for the whole PvP Community that still hang tight in this game (also for most/some PvE'rs) that these questions are begging for an answer since 2009.

If you are uncertain of that, try asking Cosyfip to show you how many threads since then were made asking these same old questions.

She will have to ask her boss for a day-off and still would take more than that to list all this topics about this matter.

So please, fit these questions

Good luck to you.

Hello Izzy Ownz,

Please check this out:
https://www.facebook.com/GuildWars/p...2?notif_t=like
That is a letter the community of Guru made about 15 months ago.
There is currently 251 likes and still no answer. If you are talking to the community manager, please put the problem in front of him without escape

For those who didn't read, it's about crowfunding an other extension of Guild Wars.

Im still working on the interview.

@I ride my Pokemon Those questions are definitely gonna be on the interview. But its hard to make them if you want some kind of answer, knowing that i have been advice that some questions may have no answer or he wont give it to us.

I don't think he will give his personal opinion about that, perhaps in private after it's finished.

PS: i'm an active Guru reader, i'm aware of how many threads have been opened for the F2P suggestion

@Lasai Thank you!

@Arkon Necrocannibal We are gonna include a crow-funding/paying content question.

Let me think of some way to include this in the interview, however, I am in touch with the Community Manager and I could send it later or discuss the issue later.

Yes but your question will have more power since 260 agreed to this letter so I really think you should do a reference to this letter
Also It's been 15 months we are waiting for an answer so that won't be an early bump

Anyway, good luck for than interview, I really really hope we will have the answer we deserve.

Does anyone have a link for the: you will be surprised by that words of John Stumme please?

I think what you wrote captured what I wanted to ask about it pretty well. I would probably add that it would be a nice round up for GW1 and they even wrote the entire script so it shouldn't be for waste.