Unfulfilled Promises by A.Net?

1st Case. I distinctly remember a while back Gaile saying herself that the music of Lion's Arch would be brought back (for free). It has not. Instead, we are stuck with (for lack of better words) crappy music.

2nd Case. The frog said that there would be a use for Rubies and Saphires. There still is no use for them.

3rd Case. The frog said that with the Sorrow's Furnace/Grenth's Footprints update, a new pet would be introduced.

4th Case. This is purely according to BigTru in this thread: http://guildwarsguru.com/forum/showt...t=53414&page=4

And here is what she had to say:

There has been no further word on this situation and no changes to the Knight's/Ascalon armor.






I think A.Net did a fantastic job with the game. I feel they don't have any obligation to continue updating it like they do; it's not like there is a monthly fee, and you should get what you payed for.

However, it does irritate me when a company lies or does not fullfill their promise. I'm sure there are more of these that I don't remember right now, but I don't think it would really make a differance posting them... I'm just concerned on rather or not promises made of Chapter 2 will be fullfilled.

The frog said that in the future of guildwars there would be a use for rubies and saphires, never said that there would be a use at this exact moment for them.

While I am very concerned about the Knights/Ascalon armor situation and it really bugs me, I wouldn't count it as an unfullfilled promise. She said she'd check on it... she never promised that it would get fixed. There is no proof that she did ask about it, but there is no proof that she did not.

Though I do seem to remember the whole GF/SF pet thing said by the frog

I interrupted the answer to armor absorption stacking as an answer to this more explicit question: "If I wear two pieces of -2 damage absorbing armor, will I have global -4 damage absorption?"

The answer tried to give an RP reason ("damage is area specific") to a game mechanic function. And in so doing, opened itself up to an interpretation I don't believe the answer meant.

Not so much a promise, but I sorta did expect there to be more events like halloween or the pvp XTREEM thing. Of course the halloween thing was very big and a lot of work went into it, in the end, the only 'event' thing was the king. What I'm trying to say is that I expected more events similar to worms popping up in LA or Gwens running around. For a streaming update architecture that would make all these things relatively easy, things have stayed remarkeably static on that front. That's not to say that I haven't enjoyed every minute of GW and clocking over 900 hours so far, but I had the impression when they advertised on sites in interviews about the possibilities in the game that would make events relatively easy, that we could expect more then 2, 3 if you count the summer update, which wasn't really an event.

Yeah, I thought there'd be a lot more events when I bought the game, too... But I guess it's unrealistic to ask for more; They're probably too busy getting the expansion pack together. If it craps, then the next expansion probably won't do too hot, either.

First off, nothing that is said by the frog or Gaile is a promise, that is an assumption on your part, now to give you some insights into to your query.

Point 1 - the original music is still in the music directory, it just hasn't been put back into the rotation for LA, the music was changed to try and reflect the different areas/situations, this didn't always work.

Point 2 - Patience has it's virtues, and one of them is waiting to see when an item will have usefulness, keep in mind that there are still additional chapters to be implemented and that items from chapter 1 might be useable in those following chapters.

Point 3 - The frog only speculates on what might be available, no guarantees, and it's possible that there was a change in plans to wait on the introduction of additional pet types.

Point 4 - The armor reduction does NOT stack, this has been proven in repeated tests, whether you have 1 pc or 4 pcs it doesn't matter, it is a universal coverage, meaning you only need one pc to have the affect cover the entire character, this was a design decision by the developers and was expected.


No, you will not have -4 damage if you equip 2 pcs, it doesn't stack, max damage reduction is -2 regardless of how many pcs you have equipped. In this case, the game mechanics don't really match in that though "damage is are specific", damage reduction is universal.

1st Case. - Hmm never heard of this. Proof?

2nd Case. - Patience is a virtue. Not a broken promise at all.

3rd Case. - Don't remember this. Proof?

4th Case. - That's not a promise. The only thing she promised was that she'll look into it and ask for confirmation. No doubt she did that.

From what I've seen, ANet fulfills everything that they outright promise (and I don't mean just a passing comment as part of a conversation "oh that's interesting" or "hmmm there might be new pets", but an actual stated promise), they just take their damn sweet time about it in some cases.

That's exactly the point. I don't think it's intentional, Gaile doesn't think it's intentional, and the new translation shows that it was unintentional. It is supposed to be hit-location based.



New description: damage reduced by 2 on this spot.

Do you think maybe the new description is wrong, and not the function, I'm sorry that I can't provide the actual answer because it's considered private information. Now what I can't quite remember is if you apply an Absorption Rune to the -dmg armor if that stacks or not, which is what could be confusing everyone.

The new description could very well be made wrong intentionally. However, I doubt that they'd change an accurate description to an inaccurate one on purpose AND make the game manual inaccurate on purpose.

I kinda do wanna hear from Gaile on this issue again... Haven't got around to PMing her again, though.

It bugs me that some people complain about the one piece of Knights armor giving the effect to all of you. That is good for the players by allowing them somewhat a choice of what armor to wear. It should stay as is.

As for the other issues raised by the original poster, they are trivial compared to what has always been and continues to be the biggest game-breaking problem of Guild Wars: the lack of a decent trading system. Who cares about petty things like rubies when trading is still a nightmare. The devs should fix the issues with greatest magnitude of making the game not fun first (ie: the horrible trading system) instead of wasting more time on petty things.

It's called balance. They balance skills. They balance weapons. They should balance armor.

Let me guess.... you stockpiled on those items trying to predict that it will be super valuable and now double guessing yourself for spending 200k for items that has absolutely no use? Basically you where betting on it and your not happy because it has not come to fruition.

I agree there are some things id like to see but I think the most important thing for them to focus on handing out tissue to everyone who buys the game, they are going to need them to whipe the tears away... cry babys...

The game has not even been out for a year yet so of course there are still some things Anet has not done. Personaly i don't even see what the point of rushing this stuff is, i mean about a week later people will be back to making "we need this NOW" topics to me the suspence and quality of the release are way more important than getting a half assed 360ish update.

Gaile made that statement about Knights/Ascalon armor around September 18, 2005. Exactly how long does it take to switch around "universal damage-reduction" to "hit-location damage-reduction"??? I'm quite sure it doesn't take 3 months...

And no, I did not stock-pile on the rubies and saphires, but I think it would be nice for them to keep their promise within a reasonable time frame. The Frog said "soon". I don't know about that frog's sence of time, but I don't consider months "soon".

That's the problem. "Months" are actually a relatively short amount of time on the world of programming. Though I do kinda agree on the knight's armor...

Your not a software engineer and have had experience with commercial products. Note that is not a question but a statement of fact. If you think you have can I have your name so I know never to hire you?

Ever hear of "regression testing"? If you have, you think it is unimportant? What if this breaks 2/3 of the skills, causes crashing on 1/2 of the comps out there, or any other number of things. It happens, software is complex and *every* change you make has to have *the whole freaking test quite* run again. It doesn't matter how minor or major, I've had more problems with those minor changes many times than I have with the major.

Each change - balance ot bug fix - has a priority. You do the highest ones first. At some point you declare that "done" for this update and it goes to the QA team for testing. You will have automated tests that can take days (or even weeks) of continuous running over multiple computers to complete. After each bug is found it is assigned a priority number and, if needed, fixed and the whole process starts over again. You do this until all the "can't release" bugs are fixed, then release. Next you monitor your servers, boards, e-mail, anything that reports bugs and try and fix any major ones hoping you don't screw things up too bad. Even the best testing isn't a release - note the amount of "secondary" patches Anet has after the first fixing unintended and untestable bugs that must be fixed immediatly. Sometimes bugs like the armor bug are so low on the priority fix that they may never get fixed (it's called "livelock")

That's writing a large commercial product and will be done one *every single software project* that you buy. If this makes you mad, might as well throw the computer out the window as you will never be happy with it. That's the way the world works. It isn't anywhere close to an Anet exclusive - it's the standard operating procedure for a software company.

Wow. This is some of the most absolutely stupid things I've ever seen anyone complain about on an MMORPG. The music and some stuff the frog said?

You should be happy that this stuff is the worst things you can come up with.

ANet? LIARS? Don't fulfill their promises?! Jeezus krist! Something the stupid frog said is not a goddamn press release! Go play Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest or any other SOE MMORPG and then get back to me.

Yeah, this thread is ridiculous.

Anet can't program at the speed of light be patient buddy

I read yesterday in the Christmas addition of PC Gamer (Britain's biggest pc games mag) that they expected Chapter 2 to be released in SEPTEMBER 2006 ( Anyone heard anything from any reputable source to dispute this? That is a looong time, Anet are gonna potentially lose a lot of cash if they delay it that long...

How are they going to lose cash? most guildwars players that are on at the moment are probably still going to be just as interested in chapter 2 if it was next xmas.

Don't listern to rumors just wait and see when it's out, worrying about the release date won't speed it up.

and this thread is complete balls, why are you(the OP) worried about such minor things?

How are they gonna lose cash??? The longer they leave it, the more chance people will get bored, buy more games and play them rather than bother with buying a GW expansion 9 months after they've stopped playing it! Some (myself not included) have already done this (eg stopped playing GW all the time because they've done all the PvE,then bought CIV 4 and already forgotten how good GW was )

I stopped playing guildwars for a 4 months and i came back just for halloween, i think it will be like any PC game, you play it to a point and then once something new for it is released people go out and get it and play again.

Look at NWN i haven't polayed it in a year the second NWN2 hit the shelves i'll be biting shop assistants to get to it faster.

It all depends on how much you liked the original game.

Guildwars for my £17.99 i have got 486hours of game play most games give 20 hours tops.

I feel better now I'm too pessimistic i suppose - just hope that you're right...

Gaile promised in Lions Arch a while back that if Chapter 2 came out after the end of June (think it was june) 2006 she would give everyone a free chocolate - so if that release date of sept 2006 is true, yay! free food :P

win-win situation.

i remember when they wrote on there main webpage, that people wearing fissure armor would benefit something.

ive yet to see anything like this happen

both Anet/NCSoft reps have stated first HALF of 06.

ALEX has ruled out jan1 and GAILE has said it will not be a down to the last day cliffhanger like the *summer* special

Got a link for that? It would be in a FF if anything.

And they got that timeframe from where? A ton of little kiddies sitting behind computer screens voting in online polls? If I were to chose between something the people who own and program the game (ie, anet) and an independant gaming magazine which has nothing to do with anet, I know who I'd chose and it definitely aint the latter.

EDIT: I'm so far behind in this thread that it aint funny.

Too many are complaining just to be heard. Honestly, the things you guys are complaining about is just ridiculous.

Not enough updates and events? Are you kidding?

Get real and worry about more important things. The effort wasted to voice an insignificant bitch would be better spent learning the game as it currently exists.

ANet has amazed me with its support of its game. They update way more than I could expect. They update faster than I could expect. The fact that they even host special events leads me to beleive they do truly care about their gaming community.

Stop whining.

One of my Freinds, Friends. tried to sign up for a beta test on GW Chapter 2. He couldnt get in, he says thier rooster was full. But, instead they gave him a list of what they would be testing, he said that new areas for the Gods(Like FoW) would have armor, and that armor instead of Globs, and shards.. would be Rubies and Saphires.

Now, i dont know if this is 100% true, but thats what he says.

ok, for right hand, or anybody complaining about this game:

I want you to go buy a used copy of dungeonlords on e-bay.
then come back here and see if you feel like complaining.

Resisting "mountain/molehill" comments, here is some info on the initial complaints:

Case 1: DirectSong has been made aware of the desire to have the "old" music back in certain areas. It is they who program the triggering of music files. But with working on music for the coming chapter, they may well be prioritizing that ahead of answering requests concerning the first release. I would not call this an "unfulfilled promise" so much as a postponed one, and not one that can be, in any stretch of the imagination, placed at ArenaNet's feet.

Case 2: The Frog said that he believed there would be uses. He (and I) still believe that. There was no timeline expressed.

Case 3: I'm sorry to be blunt, but this is completely false. The Frog never said there would be a new pet in the Sorrow's Furnace Update. You may have misunderstood and merged conversations about the future chapter with the SF Update -- easy to do from transcripts that often do not contain the questions -- but never did anyone promise new pets with that particular update.

Case 4: I was sent a PM. I responded, as a courtesy, with my own perception of the issue and the fact that I would ask about an OLM update, which I did. The OLM hasn't been updated in some time, but description changes could well be in hand in the current draft. The armor hasn't been modified, but such a promise was not made. So excuse my confusion but what "promise" was unfulfilled here?

And please, I ask that no one PM me with such questions in the future. I consider Private Messages to be private, and if I'm being asked to issue a statement, would like to know that before the fact, not after. Let's avoid misunderstanding by keeping discussion on the forum proper and I will participate as I am able.

You're right. We say "First Half 2006" and we mean it. And yes, I have promised chocolates to everyone if it's June 30th. I have 100% confidence it will be earlier than June 30, 2006! I just made 120 French Truffles yesterday; can you imagine how many I'd have to make to feed all the chocolate-lovin' Guild Wars fans out there? 1,000,000+++ ? Way too many to contemplate! That's why you can rely on the release being before 30 June!

I don't recall any news page comments about benefits for those wearing Fissure Armor. Of course my memory may have failed me -- all the in-game Egg Nog, doncha know. Anyway, all our news and our FF interviews are archived; could you quote and date that comment about Fissure Armor for me, please?

As the Alpha Tester Coordinator for Guild Wars, I can assure you that this is absolute, 100% bunk. All testers enter the test through me. Yep, just call me The Gatekeeper. Or maybe The Key Master. Well, certainly not Zuul! Anyway, in addition to sending tester forms and acceptance letters, I also write the notes that let people know when we don't have openings or are unable to accept them into the test. Such notes never contain information about what we're testing. When you think about it, providing such information to those not in the test, those not bound by NDA, would be very counterproductive. I would therefore suggest that your friend's friend is playing a prank and I sure hope no one believes such a story.

Hope those answers help.

sonofa.....she's farming truffles!!!

what do you know about chp 2 that we don't??!

Thanks a lot, Gaile, for your answers and clarifications. As usual, your contributions to this community are greatly appreciated.

Hahaha. I know what will keep us safe.... thoughts of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.... He would never hurt anyone.

I bet she knows alot about chapter 2 that we dont...