Gaile Gray

At Midnight PST, there were about 70 Districts on the American Servers at Shing Jea, Each District was pretty much packed , now at midnight you have 70 districts full of people asking loudly where the emporer is , and why they havent been told exactly when hes coming except "the event starts at midnight", you can only assume it means that the emperor will come at midnight, regardless you have 70 districts full of people asking where the emproer is, a thread on another forum with 150+ replies asking the same thing, and gaile gray is in id7 hosting a conga line and talking about mini pets.

If you've got suggestions on how to improve the situation instead of destructive criticism, feel free to post them in this thread here

Bashing A-Net or Gaile surely won't help the situation at all. Suggestions on how to improve might help.

Do you really think that Gaile can answer them all? Do you really think than making it a general announcement will stop these people asking questions? None of these people have the sense to look things up in the forum or the internet. Shouting answers at them will only confuse them more. Remember that there are thousands of Guild Wars players for whom this game is one big mystery. Giving them answers will most likely trigger more questions, and every question will be repeated again by every next one who logs in.

You obviously failed to see the point of my thread
If you would take time to read, my thread is merely asking for discussion on how i feel our concerns go about ignored.

Whining? hardly.
Read some of my posts , if anything your the one whining.

Imagine This. You go to watch a movie that starts at 6PM, You sit and face a black screen for 2 Hours before the movie starts at 8PM, you recieve NO information from the staff, and the manager refuses to answer any questions.
What would you do?


This thread isnt so much as complaining of how this event was handleld, if you still think that is the poitn we're trying to make, take a step back and reread everything. Its more on the feelings that our concerns are being ignored , and that anything that doesnt place Arenanet on a Pedestal is automatically a "flame" or "whine"

What has this community come to? When we cant even express our thoughts on current situations without being told to shut up by other members? Has it come to the point where its become SO bad that, update after update all our concerns are never addressed, Realize that Arenanet isnt perfect, Guild Wars isnt perfect, and as paying customers we have a right to say something when we feel something is wrong, if you dont agree with what im saying, you could nicely say so , and provide reasons rather then list a cliche response of "U GOT IT FOR FREE THEY DIDNT HAVE TOOO DO IT"

its like giving a homeless guy a half eaten sandwhich you threw on the ground and saying, its free, i didnt have to give this to you but i am so you better like it and stop the complaining

I'm not sure what Gaile's job is so its hard to comment on whether she's doing it well or not. All i know is she is part of the development team at ArenaNet/NCSoft and communicates with the Guild Wars community sending ideas and suggestions to the technical developers.

With regards to the OP, what are people upset about and wanting answers to? And how is Gaile on helping in the situation? I suppose the chatlogs in the Dev tracker section seem to show that she likes cookies and mini-pets so is it annoying you that she evades the important subjects?

This is amazing and I love it.

Well I read a few posts. I thought it was and is amazing that there is anyone at all that has a little inside info and shares tid bits however big or small. I mean one of the main reasons that I started coming here was to read what she had to say.

A.net could have no one at all... so even if someone talks about the good stuff ect.. in my opinion it's better than nothing.

I understand how some feel if she doesn't address the negative issues but at that same time how much does she know? And on top of that I'm sure she has to be carefull about what she says you know.

I guess in my view I just appreciate her posting in the forms at all. Never saw that in any other online game type thing like ffxi or wow (Not saying there isn't but.. yeah i'll go now..)

Half the problem with a lot of the complaints is that players are not looking in the right place for the information that is freely available, i.e. the guildwars.com site.

Someone mentioned going to a movie at 6 and sitting at a blank screen for 2 hours before it starts, sure that would be a reason to complain, if it wasn't for the timetable out front saying the movie didn't start until 8.

Everyone seems to think that because Anet bothered to have community relations managers (note the plural, I believe there is more than one) that they can demand the answer to the meaning of life from them, it's not the case. The Q and A sessions in game are a nice extra touch, showing willing on behalf of Anet, however for those of you who only get the clipped logs (great work to the people who do that though) you're missing the thousands of PITA's who constantly bug the representatives and attempt to disrupt such events.

This is a good point. I think someone who promotes a product should at least be familiar with it. If I go to the Doctor's office to find some remedy for a health issue, I don't talk to the receptionist about it.

Sigh, you are complaining, you are clearly complaining, you are just trying to hide it by asking a question.

the thing about the movie analagy is, that you would have paid for that.

So what if the ceremony didnt turn up on time? Just come back later? Why is there a fuss about that?

THAT is the real issue here. Everything on the forums gets replied to by 2 people: Gaile Gray and Alex Weekes. Everything in game gets replied to by one person: Gaile Gray. Yet if you look at the staff page, Gaile has 3-4 (maybe more) fellow workers who operate under the 'Community Relations' tag. Well where the hell are THEY?

It's absolutely absurd to expect a single person to handle an entire gaming community. It may have worked well back in 2004, but you can't expect 1 person to handle a community that grows as much as GW's does. ANet needs to start letting other "devs" share actual information instead of "I love mini-pets, they're great!" "My text is lavender." and "It's coming soon, or no deadline. I dunno anymore."

The communication has been deteriorating consistently, and it doesn't seem like ANet will try to fix that, either.

Actually Gaile doesn't ignore you. When she mutes you, she mutes you for the whole server. And I never saw that. One should have pretty harsh word to trigger that reaction.

She didn't answer your comments, right. But you know how it is when she's on. The all chat is all spam. No way to answer every question/remark/comment.

Now concerning the communication of ANET. I haven't played many other games, so I may be wrong with that, but I don't think so - just let me know. How many games have such a system of communicating - ie: someone from the staff who is online quite often actually to answer the questions of the players, announce the incoming events or updates, etc? Not that many, meh think.

But that's how ANET decide to work, and I think it's a great idea. I agree, this is not perfect. But can it be better? Gaile may be wrong sometimes, but how could she know every single detail of what every single developper is working on? She's PR, not a developper!

There is also the problem of the misinterpretation of what she says... Sometimes people (including me) assume too much and are expecting things that are not to come. Heck, no way to blame Gaile for that!

She doesn't answer every question. She doesnt replies to every topic/poll/whatever. Yes, that's true. But how could it be different? I'm not expecting her to be online 24/7 to do that (would it be even enough?)...

So, no ANET's communication is not perfect, but I definitely thank them for what they do in that matter.

Being community relations to any big game can only end in two things: praise or flame.

I admire Gaile in the fact that she hasnt snapped to all the impatient and rude people she has dealt with through this game.

She has to smile through her teeth and not pull her hair out and have infinite patience, because she is the only person to represent Anet for America.

That being said, i think you all need to cut her some slack.

She's doing her job and she's doing it well.

The problem lies in her message.

She can only speak about certain things, and everything else she has to avoid or walk around.

Does she sound patronizing? Of course. But thats not her fault. By and by, a majority of people in this community cannot be treated as adults by Anet. Just look at the all the outbursts of nonesense on these forums. We're all a bunch of babies -.-

Yes the message we get is dumbed down.

Yes the a lot of it ignored.

Have you NEVER dealt with someone in a political position before? There will always be play on words and acting coy and vagueness. You need to realize that this is how this game is played. Its how businessmen make money, its how politicians get elected, its how videogame companies avoid the drone of the fans.

Gaile IS the flame sponge and my god, shes great at it. She's got the dentyne smile even after all the crap thrown at her.

Have you NEVER dealt with a community of gamers before??

Just ask ANY moderator on this forum how annoying everyone here is and how much they try not to curse you out.

The tengu event was a success. There were thousands of people that day waiting for the emperor and farming fangs. I moved at least 10,000+ fangs selling them to people that day. It did have problems but in the end it was a success. Tengu was a 1 day event. The dragon festival is a 5 day event which makes it much different.

The emperor is suppose to show up on the last day of the event which is 7/5/06. Today is the 4th. There will be an NPC there to trade for the mask after the event is over with. Even if you miss the emperor you can still get your mask.

Just about everything Anet does people make flaming post. I can understand why you are on the ignore list. Anet knows what they are doing. They also know things that you do not.

7/5/06 at 7:00 GMT time.... also known as midnight 7/4/06 PDT. it's only the 5th in certain parts of the world.

The Emperor started showing up on 4th already, he ends his rounds around the same time he started on 5th, I've already gotten 3 masks, 4th is underway in few minutes.

I didn't even realize there was a day of the tengu untill after it was over, so I wouldn't put it in the list of Arenanet's biggest successes. Extending the holidays out like Wintersday or Dragon Festival is a much better idea. Keeping a supply master around for a week after is also a nice touch. People are usually busy on holidays and might play on that day. In short, I think they've handled the PR much better for the Dragon Festival.

As for Gaile herself, I have no issues aside from that in game discussions aren't the best forum for such things. Districts get full, and if you do get into one, there's an unending stream of text with the same questions getting asked over and over. It just doesn't work well. Forum posts are better, but since they are third party forums, you never know what will spark the interest of Anet, and you might never get an official word on a certian idea that gets posted.

I agree. I hope they keep this improvement in future events. I only managed to get 3 yule caps during Wintersday, and I really wanted 4, for al my toons, and perhaps even 4 antler sets too.

It would be better still if you could also keep on farming the items you need for special event hats/masks after the event is over, so farming people can't sell em for exorbitant prices, and people who celebrate X-mas etc and don't have time to play can get their masks too.
Also having an appearance every 2 hours is better than every 3. people can't always be around at those exact times.

Everyone likes to throw out anologies to make a point. Usually they fail! I prefer shitty sarcasm myself.

But anyway, it's more like this:

You go to watch a movie that starts at 6 PM. You and the other movie-goers sit and face a black screen for a short while beyond expected, and a little bit of anxiety begins to spread over the room, before a ticketboy is sent into the theatre. His managers are having some problems getting the viewing going on time - maybe the projectionist pissed on a reel or something - and this completely unrelated individual been sent out to ease the tension a bit. He's told not to say much in the way of specifics about the situation - perhaps it's a little embarrassing or messy for the managers, and they'd rather keep it under wraps, for whatever reason; perhaps for the integrity of their business. But they send this ticketboy out to at least let you know something is up and is being worked on as best it can be, and maybe pass a little time, talking about the mysterious superiority movie theatre popcorn has over the home-made stuff, or something equally silly like that - just to make a connection with the customers, to show some level of personal care, and keep them from rioting while behind the scenes, things are patched up. The movie finally begins at 8 PM, and now you're wailing on the ticketboy because he's doing just what he's been told to.

For shame!

It was for the pre order only. If you did seen the hundreds of people in town asking how to get a mask or when emperor was showing up that's your fault. If you didn't see the front page of the website a week before hand that is your fault. If you didn't see the tons of post here on guru that is your fault.

Nearly everyone was talking about a week before the day head start. If you had things to do that kept you from playing that's another issue. If you were playing that day and didn't know about that's your own fault. Anet did a very good job of letting people know. Not to mention it was on the update pay on EXACT instructions on how to get a mask.

I'm going to open myself up for flames here. Using this site as a comparison.

All the talk of "prioritites", "ignoring", "only responding to the good." I recall a thread not too long ago on this board where everyone was criticizing Gaile because she sounded like a broken record.

I'm sure you are all more than aware of the issues we have here on Guru. No search, forums can be slow or laggy during peak times, auctions turn up blank pagest 75% of the time, errors, and more. Now I have responded to each of these issues probably enough times to make a small book. And I continue to respond to them off and on. I have a lot of people ask me how I can even "stand" to respond to them since they are asked so many times. I do sound like a broken record... "we are working on them and when I have an update I'll let you know."

Besides that cookie cutter response though I just don't have any more information to give. I have a date right now of July 9th, which I am even afraid to mention because if something falls through I do not want to get your hopes up that this is the cure and end of all the site problems.

So my long-winded point would be that just like us: there's no new information to give, sometimes there are no answers, no one is ignoring anyone, we see any issue as a priority but solutions can sometimes take a while for any problem.

Gaile is on the forums across the fansites nearly every day responding to issues, chatting and more. But yes, she is only one person and it's probably overwhelming all the questions, issues, and her job that she has to do every day besides this. She can't respond to everyone but they do hear the problems and concerns. I know this thread might be about more specifics within this issue but I just can't imagine such a public job and not only having to worry about the boss that pays you but having to answer to a community as well. There's just no way to make everyone happy.

The difference between Guru and Anet is ... we didn't pay a couple hundred bucks for Guru (many of us have more than one account due to a lack of STORAGE). Guru is provided to us free which we thank you for. If Guru doesn't load right or at all ... HELLOOOOO who are we to cry foul. If Anet has short comings we have paid for the right to be unhappy.

I for one don't care about the event not starting on time. I like many don't really have the room for one more useless item to store.

Thats a silly notion "paid for the right to be unhappy". Are you married or something? ;P

Inde isnt comparing services or how much we paid. Its about comparing response to the community's questions which is what the OP started about.

Hm, just read one of todays chatlogs with Gaile because I had the time.

I already see:
*no news about storage
*no people on ignore list
*clearer information about the event endtimes
*extensions to FU/UW=>no
etcetc
All kinds of stuff people talk about here :/
And though it ain't good news that she doesn't know certain things, she still tries to help as much as possible. I think we shouldn't flame Gaile for trying to help us :/.
[Though I still want my auction houses xD!]

And no I don't worship Gaile, I don't even worship her frog >.>

Gaile is only one person and there is about 100 people talking to her.

bye

so you come in and ask a question you personally know the only true answer is that it was a failure and when Gaile says otherwise you *So i caller her out * and proceded to waste her time telling her how wrong she was.

/you dont speak for me

The thing is, you don't speak for the majority, or the community of GWG, or anything like that. You speak exactly for the people who Gaile ignore - those who ask the same question over and over again, ignoring the reply that has already been given.

Do you want to know about the new Storage? Check any Gaile Log after it was announced. "No date for its implemention, we'll let you know when there is one". Do you want to talk about auction house? Check any Gaile Log, "The team has been working on trade improvements, not necessarily an auction house, more news when they decide exactly what to do".

I dare you to ask one question that has not been asked AND answered before.

No, we don't need more people to reply the same questions over and over. We need people who have the ability to read to ask the questions.

Erasculio

Does Gaile even work for Anet? Or is she just some person with connections who does a lot on these forums... Either way, ignoring you was a bad choice. I really don't worship her, and just about everything I've heard from her hasn't happened or keeps being postponed with the word "soon".

You know, because it's totally within Gaile's job to go on about the *actual* state of the game right now. She's totally allowed to go on preaching with you about how the Day Of The Tengu event was ill-planned on timing or how people use IWAY builds that tear through HoH to get rank.

Except for the part where she can't do that or her job explodes into her face.

Also, I think you're understating how busy her job is. It's been said a million times in this thread alone but it doesn't make the job she has to do any less appealing to me as a person with little patience for these kinds of things. I take my (figurative) hat off to Gaille for being able to tolerate things like this and the other flames she gets without biting back, hard.

You either missed my point or I failed to make it. The point I was trying to make is ... we do NOT pay for Guru however we have paid for Anet. Guru does not need to respond to shortcomings of the site it is given to us free. Anet on the other hand SHOULD and does a poor job of it. Anet skirts real issues in favor of fluff ones. For those about to hit quote message and go on about how great Anet is don't bother. Look through my posts I have NEVER complained about something like an event not starting on time. I have complaints with core issues ... storage, auction etc.

The majority of people that get fed up with Anet quit playing the game without ever visiting a site like this.

I've played Guild Wars for 1,675 hours. It sounds like they've more than given me my moneys worth.

[EDIT: vs Quake 4 which I played for an hour and have yet to get back into]

Even if GuildWarsGuru is free, we still have valid complaints. Giving up your right to complain because "you didn't pay for it" is still giving up YOUR RIGHTS.

Just because its free, doesnt mean its off the hook. Inde runs a great site, but its not flawless and im sure they dont mind the constructive criticism, feedback and bug reports. Guru does need to respond to shortcomings.

You know why? Because GWG is US without us there be no GWG. We are the community, we make this place run.

------------------

Now take my sentence above and replace Guru and GWG with just.... Guild Wars. And replace free with "one time fee".

Now do you see Inde's point?

Sweetest, this same thread, started by you, on another board, was closed. But before it was, someone who claimed to have been in ID7 at the time in question, had this to say about your comments:

"...your question was acceptable if worded a bit negatively IMO, ...initially. However it was the fact that you were compelled to continually spam your "question that made it an annoyance; you only had one question on your mind and she saw it the first time you posted it, as such you were ignored so that she could see what other people had to say."

It's He Said / He Said, of course, but if this is the case, can you see why you would have been ingored? Does that really point to a breakdown in communication?

Also, since a movie analogy has been put forth, I'll quote myself from the other board:

"Seems to me like alot of people went to see a movie. It was advertised as playing every two hours, all day long, and everyone knew that Pee-Wee Herman was going to make a cameo appearance.

As the movie started, someone from the film studio showed up.

"Where's Pee-Wee?!!", everyone demanded, after realising he wasn't in the opening credits.

When the studio person didn't spoil the plot, everyone got mad, and questioned his integrity. After all, if the cameo didn't happen immediately as the movie started, then everyone had been deceived, right?

Am I missing something here?

If I know a movie is going to last two hours, I should be prepared to sit and watch the whole thing, beacuase Pee-Wee might not do his big-shoe dance until the movie's climax. And the studio person, however I feel about them, isn't obligated to spoil the movie's plot, just because I'm impatient. Nor, I might add, are they obligated to offer reviews of past films, just because I demand it.



This is a non-issue."

The movie started with Attack on Seitung Harbor, at 12am. It continued with Attack on Tsumei Village at 1am. At 2am, Pee-Wee came and handed out big white shoes.

And the large threads of people posting about their confusion and outrage figured out the plot as it was happening.

Sorry if you didn't like the film.

Wow.

That post was pretty much GG.

quoted for the truth

1 person to deal with 85,000 GWG members/staff + all the ppl in-game

gaile is a spokesperson for the community..she does her job passing messages back and forth. I'd like to see all you whiners do that.

btw OP if you have a problem with gaile why not PM her instead of going public? the mob is fickle and this one is no better.

Ok, after reading the 4 pages (currently) in this thread, I have just two things to say.

You didn't buy a second account because of a lack of storage, you bought a second account due to one of two things Patratitus or GREED. Saying you bought an account due to a lack of storage implies you don't have the ability to store items. This is incorrect, you can tore, but your ability to store said items is being LIMITED by the fact that you have this strange desire to either have 1 of every item in the game (armor, weapons, collector items, crafting materials) even though you'll probably never use 75% of them due to one reason or another, or you desire is driven by a need to sell said items to other players for amounts that far exceed what the item is actually worth. It's absolutely rediculous to see items going for 100K+X Ectos simply because it LOOKS funky.

I don't recall any form of vote that made you responsible for informing ANet of what the player community wants/desires. I'm more than capable of speaking for myself without coming off like an ass and so I prefer to do so on my own, so kindly quit speaking for me, ok? Thanks a bunch.

Lyra, you seemed to miss it again. I understand Inde's point and did from my first post on. I am speaking as a person that does NOT complain about free or frivolous. Anet does NOT address REAL issues it is why Gaile is greeted by angry mobs. It took them 2 months to upgrade my FOW armor. Did I ever post a wahhhh? At least give me some place to store it till you fix it ... who is the unreasonable one here? How many people ditched their Victos axe or Dragos bow to get one with 20/20 sundering while they waited for Anet to upgrade them? They won't give us more storage for one reason they are worried they will make it easier for the tiny percentage making RL money from the game. In the grand scheme of things server storage is the cheapest thing on a network. Those same "overworked programmers" had time to create the Dragon festival but can't fix core issues. Anet should try honesty it tends to keep the natives happier.

Those quoting the age of their chars ... lol. Type /age on my account and it says please go outside.

What are you guys crying on about anyway ? Gaile's job is not to give you information, she's there to make you buy the next chapter by maintaining the illusion that Anet cares about you. She's only going to give you information on the "positive" like that auction house that is supposedly coming with Chapter 3 or some other exciting stuff that you'll get if you give them a little more money.

Leprekan Anet has more things on their plate than to deal with than 1 person's issues all the time.

My Canthan born necro has 185 attribute points at lvl 20 and I've done both 15 attribute quest. I sent a report. I've been going back and forth with emails to get this problem fixed for over 3 weeks now and its still not fixed. They'll get around to it when they have to the time. I'd rather them do it when they can than take time out of production for the next game or event and then have to back and rush things making a crappy chapter.

They don't increase storage because it takes them more server space. Doesn't matter if you play the game or not they have to keep that space for you in case you ever decide to play the game again. You are costing them money without even playing the game.

You can't make a lot of RL money on GW. You can't dupe gold. Farming bots are being shut down. With more chapters as the game continues its going to cost the farmers too much upfront cost to purchase each chapter again. As more chapters come out you will see less bots. Over time the botters profits are going to deminsh till its not cost effective to try this game while you have Linage II, WoW, and E2 on the market. You can dupe gold in those games, bots run freely, and your margine for profit will not go down because the expansions will be cheaper than the original game and orginal game will drop in price while GW will stay a high cost game.

Anet pleases the majority of its players. They don't care if you play all the time. You bought the game they have your money. If they can keep a core fanbase buying chapters they don't need to fix the tiny problems that only a couple of people have a problem with. Its a game to you but to them its a business.

You can please some people some of the time, but you cant please everyone all the time.

/end thread