User talk:Emily Diehl/Official information archive 4

Are you going to replace....?
Since Gaile is leaving Guild Wars are you planning on taking her place? You, from what I have seen atleast, seem very knowledgeable of the game as well as do a great job of finding out information from the other devs to give precise answers to players. I've yet to see you snap at players as you've remained quite professional in all the dealing with players that I've seen you handle. You seem like the type that would actually read the players concerns and suggestions as well as deliver them to the dev team. You've been dealing with the fans for a while now as well and more and more are becomming aware of you and all of the hard work that you have been doing for the game and it's playerbase. ~  Sabastian  20:13, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree that Emily is all the above, but I would think ANet would promote someone already in the Community Relations team to head of that department -- it doesn't really make sense to transfer someone in an entirely unrelated field - websites, design and such - to head community relations. --[[Image:User Brains12 Spiral.png|15px| ]] Brains12 \ Talk 20:25, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Meh. Horizontal transfers happen, and happen all the time.--Ryudo 20:26, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * i hope not. gaile's job seemed pretty thankless at least from my perspective. the only thing u'd get from that is jaded. emily is prolly so responsive b/c she only has to respond to a rather limited number of ppl for a limited range of inquiries. u don't have a large number of random ppl screaming at her for what they believe are game breaking issues. since she is so technical, i'd hope she stays right where she is. -- VVong | BA 20:31, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * A job is only thankless if it isn't being performed well. While people do faulter once in a while one cannot expect "thanks" for when they do faulter. Also, Gaile has many fans thank her even every time she faultered because the mean oh players where jumping onto her for the constant stream of faulters.  So Gaile has recieced thanks many many times from people simply wanting to be on her good side as it where.
 * Emily has shown to be quite professional at dealing with the players/customers and knows the game quite well and actually gets the answers needed and that is why she would be good for the position. The game needs a Community Relations Manager who not only knows the game extremely well and gets the information needed that they don't know but the game also needs someone who can deal with all the players/customers as well as someone who does it for the players/customers and the game itself rather than the popularity that comes with it and constantly demanding it and saying you'll ignore anyone who isn't giving pure praise. Emily seems like the perfect person to handle that and Emily would get praise from the players/customers and not just from the fanbois as long as she continues to do the job well and if she failed anywhere near as much as Gaile has then she would end up getting the same thankless remarks from the players/customers that Gaile gets.  ~ [[Image:UserSabastian sig.gif|User:Sabastian]]  Sabastian  21:07, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * If I were Emily, I wouldn't take that job, as it only attracts flamers and trolls, like yourself. Lord Belar 21:18, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * i should amend my comment to say that i hope emily continues to advance at anet in whatever manner pleases her. i happen to think what she currently does for the wiki is quite useful and i hope that she continues this, but i wouldn't want her to be stuck in a position w/o chance for advancement. sorry if i was unclear. i stand by the rest of my comment. community relations in general seems like a job that gives more headaches than rewards. -- VVong | BA 21:25, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Community Relations gives a great of rewards if you are suited to handle such a job as it is far from a job anyone can do. If you are bad at it you get more headaches than rewards and if you excel you don't get any headaches at all. ^_^ ~ [[Image:UserSabastian sig.gif|User:Sabastian]]  Sabastian  21:58, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm not trolling or flamming, just stating what I know. I've handled a lot of community relations at my job and quite frankly Gaile isn't good at the job and she is going to a job that is hopefully more suited for her. Not everyone can do the job well and unfortunately for Gaile and the players/customers Gaile wasn't best suited for Community Relations Manager. It's not trolling or flamming, it's being blunt.  From what Emily has shown she would be good for the game and the players/customers and thusly wouldn't have players/customers being blunt and pointing out constant failures as she would get well deserved praise for doing a great job.~ [[Image:UserSabastian sig.gif|User:Sabastian]]  Sabastian  21:58, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

[reset indent] It's a silly question, and Emily probably can't even say if she applied to be considered for the position. If she does, I am all for it and wish her good luck. On the tangential note: I think Gaile did a fine job, but yes, I prefer the style of bluntness. IMHO, Mbj from EA/Mythic is the best community MMO person I have seen, and I hope that the next person to take Gaile's position looks at his style. (e.g., http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/search.php?searchid=1724657) --Ravious 15:06, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry I couldn't really respond to any comments here at the time. Not only was I sick, but there was a ton going on and moving around here in the studio. Nope, you can see now that I'm not replacing anyone :) I'm still working on learning the ins and outs of production, and I'm really hoping that my overall career path will take me more down that road. Juggling schedules and projects is like playing an RTS for me, so I really enjoy it. I think you guys will really like Regina. She's super cool (and I'm not saying that just because she's my new neighbor or because she donated three plugs in her power strip to my new desktop fishtank :p) She's got my full respect for being an incredibly well-versed gamer and a fellow nerd that can talk comic books and action figures with the best of them. You just don't find folks like that too often, so she's awesome in my book.  --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 01:06, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Replacing Missing GW:EN Armor Sets?
I'm not sure if you are the best person to ask about this, but given your "Design Liaison for ArenaNet" status, coupled with that fact that I've admired your work from afar for some time now. To explain that, I mean that you're willingness to help players, your hard work for the company, and your constant polite and professional manner in which you conduct yourself on the wiki. I know I'm not the first to say it, but given the quality of service provided by some of the other Guild Wars staff members, you are exceptional at your job and deserving of kudos. That stated...

Given a lot of folks were disappointed with the armors found in the GW:EN expansion, and the confusion over the game packaging stating that it would contain "40 New armor sets." when in actuality there were only 31 sets (since the Deldrimor armor is just a group of various pieces and not a set) and the only official explanation that was ever given for the misleading statements on the box, and the complaints that most of the sets added were not "New" but rather just simple reskins, was "In the end, all I really can say is that I'm sorry to hear that some of you don't like the new armors, tell you that the dev team is actually quite proud of the GW:EN armor sets, and let you know that there are absolutely no plans to rework any existing armor in the game" ...which only further disappointed many fans because it passed along the message of the customer's opinions of the product being unimportant as long as the Devs were happy, which of course is a silly business model to follow.

So, might we not remedy some of this, and further promote the sales of GW:EN as well as keeping the current player base happy and active while GW2 is in progress, by adding back into the game some of the older armor sets that were removed, or make available sets that have been long since requested by players and which are already in game (making their implementation to the players much easier than creating something new from scratch) such as Elementalist Aziure's armor, which we've all seen screen-shots of on players during Beta... Warmaster Grast's armor, Farrah Cappo's armor, Drill Sergeant Mahoney's armor, or even these other deleted armors. Heck, I know a lot of folks would love to be able to get a set of the Ebon Vanguard armor, like the NPCs wear, from the Ebon Vanguard rank Armor Crafter Brett in the Eye of the North. Adding in these older sets, re-implementing deleted sets, or offering the NPC armor as sets would give you guys an easy way of offering some highly wanted armor sets that would please the fans and also, if added to the crafters in GW:EN, boost the sales (since most stores seem to be selling it for less than $20.00 USD these days, but new content for it might urge further sales, and even in the Online Store for the simple convenience of it). Just a thought, didn't know if you might be able to get the Devs to consider something like that, as it would be quite beneficial to the game. ~   J.Kougar
 * those are all ele/war additions.... if anything i would like to see reskins of hero armors for para, derv, rits and sins for they have the least amount in the game.75.165.117.200 23:10, 7 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Hiya Kougar! You've made some very good points, and I promise I will pass them along to the proper folks. I'm sure you understand that I'm not really able to do much more than that on my end, but know that I'm definitely going to send an email about it. Thanks for the feedback, and I'm sorry I can't really give you more than this response :) --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 01:15, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Exploit?
I was wondering, as I usually do... Is there any released word as to what the exploit in today's update fixed? I mean it wouldn't be a problem if it was disclosed.....would it? --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Drago (talk).
 * Unfortunately, I'm not able to provide the details of the exploit we closed. Sorry Drago :( --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 23:16, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
 * It sounds like something big, or something that hasn't been fully fixed -- M age [[image:user MageMontu sig.png| ]] M ontu 23:19, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
 * In most situation, cooperation between the players and the developers has been of great use when closing, and finding additional exploits. We may not always mean to, but the players usually make sure a bug is fixed, or they will capatilize on it until it gets fixed. [[Image:UserDrago-sig.gif]]  Drago  23:28, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

guild wars tex mod
hello i was told tex mod was the best way to get the exploration title. as you can change it so it shows areas which you have not uncovered. is there any other way of showing the areas which you have not uncovered more efficiently. if not can you put this forward to the guild wars designers that its really aquward to see the places which you need to uncover for title.

A N Faction


 * One of the challenges for the cartographer title is to find the missing areas, I don't see why Anet should implement this. Also suggestions go here --M age [[image:user MageMontu sig.png| ]]M ontu 20:51, 18 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Hiya Faction! Last I heard, there was no plan to put anything like this into the game, as the cartographer title is functioning as it was designed. I'll pass along your comment, though. --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 20:01, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

For the Devs
Just wanted to pass along this great article! Peace. Link --Ravious 13:20, 19 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Ravious! --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 20:00, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

ranking corpses
If I'm asking the wrong person, sorry. But back on guildwiki, we've had someone add 3 times that /rank'ing someone's corpse can be reported and will result in fame being deducted from your account. Can you confirm/deny this for me please? If it is true, how much fame does the person lose? Thanks :) --Shadowcrest  15:54, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * If that's true, then what about /zrank'ing someone's corpse? --68.32.187.152 16:04, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Lol that would be ridiculous if true. -- Lemming [[Image:User Lemming64 sigicon.png]] 16:10, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree, but it's been insisted over and over. I don't know if ZRank is included, though I am inclined to think so. --Shadowcrest  16:11, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm just a player, but I'm pretty sure this is just one of those "GuildWars Myth's" that people like to bring up by saying a friend of mine knows someone whose second cousin twice removed saw someone have it happen to them. As far as I'm aware, it's never actually happened. Dargon 16:18, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * That was the concensus the first two times, when an IP added it and we had little reason to suspect that was true. However, this time, it was added by our illustrous beerocrat, and so I asked here. --Shadowcrest 16:24, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * i can't imagine that could possibly be the case since zranking was conceived for the sole purpose of ranking a corpse. -- VVong | BA 21:33, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I once asked Gaile about this when someone applied to The Spearmen claiming they had had fame taken away. She assured me that we have never and will never do such a thing. We don't even have commands to do it. - [[Image:User Linsey Murdock sig.jpg]]Linsey talk 22:38, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I've done some checking, and can confirm that there is no way for us to remove fame from a player on Live. Not only have we not ever done it, we have no way to do it. It is not possible. - [[Image:User Linsey Murdock sig.jpg]]Linsey talk 23:33, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much Linsey for dispelling the rumor for us :) --Shadowcrest  23:54, 14 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I know a guy who apparently lost 5k fame. All my friends say they know him and that he had tiger one day and wolf the next. According to him, he was docked 5k fame for ranking corpses. They had like 20 separate incidents of people reporting him for it. I'm concerned because I trust this guy who made teh claim and if this is a practice, then its important that people know about it because some people say its a rumor and some its impossible and yet I keep hearing reports of it happening. &mdash;♥ Jedi ♥ Rogue ♥ 03:29, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Must people I know snap a screenshot every time the game doesn't function correctly... let me guess, there's no screenshots? 000.00.00.00 03:41, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
 * exactly rule is "screenshot or it didn't happen" a guy in my guild said he lost his survivor from mad king killing him after they had updated it 2 days before so it did not. and i said provide me a screen shot or it didn't happen sure enough he didnt want to and about a week latter i saw him in are guild hall on the exact same ch with r3 survivor. so unless it happens to you and to have 2 screen shots of before and after. then its a lie.75.172.47.109 06:17, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

They can't deduct fame points, its just another rumor flying around. Its seen as a poor sportsman like thing to rank corpes but people do it, and we can't change that. Dominator <font color="mediumblue" size="1px">Matrix  06:19, 16 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Also, to admit its possible Arenanet would just be asking for people to try and hack the system. Arenanet will never admit they can, saying anything bar "No, there is no way" would just be asking for trouble.  Additional Message: Dominator, Arenanet out and out encouraged it when they brought out the Zkey title... in fact the main clip I saw of it was someone ranking someone's corpse... Arenanet encouraged the bad sportsmanship you speak of. I quote "The Zaishen Rank emotes were created to be very interactive. For example, if you position yourself correctly, you can use it as a finishing move after you defeat someone!" 000.00.00.00 06:28, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Question about game servers
Emily, I don't know if you are the one to ask, but you seem to have the ear of the IT guys at least, so I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Has there been some kind of change to the game servers in the past couple of weeks? Everyone I know in game has been complaining about horrible lag/giant lag spikes, more so lately than in the past few months. While my ping seems to remain relatively low, I will suddenly disconnect with a 007 error, while at other times my ping will spike through the roof (40-50k ms) yet I'll remain connected. It has in several instances lately caused the failure of missions, or simply the inability to play because of the unstability of the connection. The rest of my connection appears to be just fine, (I don't loose connectivity to other services) so I'm assuming it's something specific to Anet. -- Wyn 19:34, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * yea i have been getting this too, only the Lag spike part of it though. and for the most part i dont lag.75.165.99.163 20:04, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Or are all these Error=007 disconnects a subtle marketing tactic created in conjunction with EON Productions to promote Quantum of Solace? calor   (talk)  20:08, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Heya Wyn! Unfortunately, I don't know much about the game servers beyond when I'm emailed maintenance notices to get up on the website. When I mention "IT", it's a really broad term. The guys I interact with are primarily network operations/security operations on the web side, so they don't handle game server stuff as far as I know. Coming from a personal angle, I haven't noticed anything on my end from my house when I play, but I'm on a pretty fast connection. I'll bring up the topic to Regina and Mike see if they've been told anything because they'd definitely be more in the know on that stuff that I'd be. I'm at the end of the chain on game server stuff, so if something gets to me it's usually severe outage warnings (like omg power failure) or upcoming maintenance stuff that will impact players. Wish I could help more, but I'll forward it along =/ --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 20:12, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * No problem, like I said, I wasn't sure who/where to ask about it. I'm on a cable connection most of the time, occasionally DSL, but as I said, it's not just me, my entire guild has been complaining about it as well as just about every random player I've played with in the past week+. Thanks for doing all you do for us! --[[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png | Wyn's Talk page]] Wyn 20:58, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * My guild and I are having the same problem. And I'm on a gigbit connection half the time. &mdash; Wolf  [[Image:User Great Darkwolf User Image paw.png|19px| ]] 21:03, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I have the same problem and have heard lots of people in my alliance complaining about it too. I can't possibly even go to american districts because of it (constant screen freeze >100k ms ping) and have also some trouble with international. Thank you for forwarding the problem and I hope something can be done about it. Juriaan Cuthalion 03:05, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't know anyone not complainig of lag/disconnection issues, and its on going and getting worse. According to Support its not the plaync servers (even though the ping thing they got me to download and the ingame meter gave me totally different readings), to which they got me to ping the connection. My ISP says its not them, and I can't question anyone on the internet for the inbetween times so I will blame God, like I always do, as everything good/bad is all Her fault anyway.  ^_^ 000.00.00.00 03:32, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm on 7mbps up/3mbps down and I'm getting constant lag spikes, but only in GW. CS:S, WoW, and Diablo 2 are just peachy. --71.229.253.172 06:58, 8 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I have been running a ping program in the background as I've been playing Guild Wars, I've noticed that there are, every so often (once every 30 seconds to once every 5 minutes), very large spikes from 216-107-246-36.plaync.com and all three of the Plaync related address have reoccuring packet loses (not sure what that means exactly but the Help for the program says that not a good thing), highest was something like 100% of the packet didn't come back and packet loss stay high for several seconds. These servers have reported multiple errors and packet losses every minute.  I have noticed packet losses on other address on the path to the PlayNc servers but nothing as severe as the ones reported from the following 3 addresses:
 * p5-15-c0-ncla-pub.plaync.net,208.251.113.186 <- this one reported more packet losses
 * 216-107-255-70.plaync.com,216.107.255.70
 * 216-107-246-36.plaync.com,216.107.246.36 <- this one ms reading spiked more than the other, followed by 208.251.113.186
 * All I know is that when these spike and have high packet loss my in-game icon goes blood read, screaming at me at the top of its lungs (^_^) at me and my ping greatly increases.
 * I hear you say tell Support and not put it here, I have, and its just an FYI here. 000.00.00.00 07:52, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
 * A packet loss simply means some of the data never made it to the target. Just to butt in on topic though, I've had the same issues. Normally I'm at 40-50 avg ping, but occasionally it goes up to 18k (average!) for short moments, so I pretty much have to stay away from pvp now even though I like that part the most. &mdash; Galil [[Image:User Galil sig.png|Talk page]] 09:45, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Explains a bit. Too many people on the servers?  Wasn't there the whole merging of servers or something a little while ago?  Guild Wars has been lag-tastic for me for a good while now.  000.00.00.00 10:29, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Sorry Emily for spamming your page with this. I have asked Gaile to take a look at this conversation, and hopefully she can help us and Anet get some answers. If you wish to move it to her talk page, I think that would be fine.--[[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png | Wyn's Talk page]] Wyn 10:37, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

(reset indent) No problem, guys :) I'll probably move it over to Gaile later when I archive, but I don't mind discussions here until I do. -- Emily Diehl (talk) 17:47, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Gotta love dieing from a rubber band lag spike half way to tier 2 of your survivor title ... oh how id like compensation 69.156.202.3 10:36, 4 November 2008 (UTC)NOX

Everlasting Sinister Automatonic
I am not sure if you are the correct person to contact about this but... can you try and confirm if this is a real tonic or not. I have personally never heard of it or ever seen anyone trying to sell the tonic. If you could do that I would really appreciate it. Thanks! ^-^ -- Shadowphoenix  18:56, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I can confirm that it is a "real" tonic. It was made just in case we ever want to use it, however it is not accessible in the game, ANYWHERE at this time. It does exist in the .dat but it does NOT drop from ANYTHING, including the Zaishen chest. There is absolutely no chance that it drops from the Zaishen chest or anything else. This has been confirmed through code. I hope that was definitive enough. - [[Image:User Linsey Murdock sig.jpg]]Linsey talk 19:16, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much Linsey :) -- Shadowphoenix  [[Image:User Shadowphoenix Necromancer.png|19x19px| Happy Halloween ]] 19:44, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * i would put down 200k for one right now......75.165.121.36 19:25, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

celestial mini pets
Hey Emily, do you have any idea if u can get celestal pig/rat this year like the one last year? -Heretoplay2424
 * You will have to wait til Canthan New Year in February to find out. They never release that kind of information early, but my guess is no, they won't duplicate the minipets. For one thing, to get the celestial pig, you had to have 5 miniature pigs from the year before, and I don't think there are many left that weren't turned in last year. Whether or not they will do some other fun reward from the drops like the celestial rat is up to them, but I doubt it will be the same as last year. --[[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png | Wyn's Talk page]] Wyn 08:25, 25 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Heya Heretoplay! Unfortunately I can't comment on this topic. You'll have to wait and see what the designers do with this year's festival :) Thanks for understanding! --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 05:11, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Pet unlock pack
Given your title on the Staff Presence page as "Website producer", I believe this is the right place to ask. But please redirect if not.

The Pet Unlock Page on the o-fish-al site lists the White Moa as a prestige pet. The wiki page for the Pet Unlock Pack is the same (and I'm guessing my edit to list the White Moa as a normal pet was reverted to conform to the official page). Is the web page correct that the White Moa is considered a prestige pet? Or is that just an error on the page? I've mentioned a few of the reasons I don't think the White Moa is prestige on the talk page for the unlock pack, but I can see someone wanting to make sure the wiki conforms to the official web pages as well.

Thanks for any information you can provide. --Nkuvu 15:19, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi Nkuvu! I confirmed this with QA, and yes, we consider the White Moa as prestige for the pack (so it's not in there). The reason for this is that the Moas aren't a constant spawn, so they're considered rarer than a regular moa. On the other hand, unlocking them with faction/Z coins is cheaper than a Black Moa because they aren't as rare at those guys are. So they kind of fall in between on the rarity scale. Hope this explains it well enough. I haven't woken up yet, so my brain's a little jumbled ;) --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 16:33, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * It's Monday morning, I don't expect anyone's brain to be un-jumbled quite yet.
 * I guess my personal definition of prestige is a bit more than slightly-rare spawning. I think of the Rainbow Phoenix which requires lots of maxed titles, or the Black Moa which requires a long quest, or the normal Phoenix which requires completion of a full campaign.
 * But in any case, thanks for the quick confirmation that the White Moa is, in fact, considered a prestige pet. --Nkuvu [[Image:User_Nkuvu_sig_button.jpg]] 17:03, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

ArenaNet and the namespace
With the discussions on the Community Portal talk page, we've come to a few conclusions:
 * The wiki is not a forum. The purpose of this wiki is to document the game, first and foremost. Also, if we wanted the wiki to be a forum, we couldn't. Wiki software doesn't support multiple edits in a few minutes on the same page.
 * Certain talk pages (User talk:Isaiah Cartwright and Talk:Ursan Blessing are prime examples) have become flooded with comments, many trolling and hurtful. Very little if anything productive comes from these pages now.
 * These pages (including the ArenaNet namespace as a whole, especially the skill feedback pages) have overflowed because the sheer volume is too much to handle for a handful of users.
 * We have no clue how the ArenaNet staff would like to proceed.

As a result, we've decided that a solution Aberrant proposed would be the best solution to the situation. The following applies to the aforementioned problematic pages.
 * Admins are to act how they see fit.
 * All posts that fall under the category of "flaming", "trolling", or "personal attacks" are removed.
 * Posts that go off-topic are removed.
 * Warnings are given when necessary. In severe situations, blocks are issued.

The goal of pages such as Talk:Ursan Blessing has been decided to not be a venue for suggestions on how to improve the skill, but rather as a place to discuss the actual article, i.e. improvement or following style guidelines. User talk:Isaiah Cartwright is used to directly contact Izzy, not for suggestions regarding game balance. The purpose of this is to be able to contact Izzy when necessary, and be able to discuss the Ursan Blessing article. Also, the skill feedback pages were created to propose ways to balance certain skills. The feedback pages are formatted terribly, and very difficult to read (due to the format and the sheer number of useless posts). With this change, the feedback pages would be easier for Izzy and the balance team (if one exists, as we're not familiar with the inner workings of ArenaNet) to read and garner information and ideas from.

Now, certain users have concerns regarding the practicality and use of the feedback pages. And so, before we fully implement some of these changes, we've drafted a list of questions. We would like to receive honest, straightforward answers, else all the work may be for naught. Some of the questions are tied in with/dependent on others.


 * How often is the ArenaNet namespace used by ArenaNet staff? Is it looked at for ideas for every update? Some? Once in a blue moon? None?
 * How useful are the feedback pages? Are they generally seen as a mess of junk? A valuable resource and way to communicate with players?
 * Will some suggestions (especially the GW2 suggestions) be implemented in Guild Wars (or Guild Wars 2)?
 * Do the pages actually serve a purpose with ArenaNet? Or do they exist solely to "make people happy"?
 * Assuming the pages are used by ArenaNet staff, who uses them? Just skill balancing? Or are there other teams?
 * In the eyes of ArenaNet, what is the purpose of the feedback pages? To give players an outlet to communicate with ArenaNet staff? To garner ideas to implement in the game? Or, as above suggested, to make players happy?

The feedback pages are a heavily-used aspect of the wiki, and all of the wiki community would like to see it put to good use and in a better state than what it is now, but that can only be accomplished with regular ArenaNet - wiki communication. A response some time next week would be appreciated, but we understand if additional time may be necessary. Thanks in advance for providing answers. Calor  22:34, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * This notice should go on the concerened pages when everything is ironed out. If your already planning on that, then cool, and I'm wasting your time. -- Wolf [[Image:User Great Darkwolf User Image paw.png|19px| ]] 22:42, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * This isn't a notice, Darkwolf. This is meant to get some input from ANet. poke | talk 22:45, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Well, this first half sounded like a solid conclusion of action to be taken. But if I misinterpreted it, then, whoops. Anyway, It probably doesn't mean much comming from me, but I agree with the proposed changes. -- Wolf [[Image:User Great Darkwolf User Image paw.png|19px| ]] 22:49, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * One thing is for sure, the Bug Reports section is used often. You can see that from the latest updates, --<font color="#CC0000">M <font color="#330000">age [[image:user MageMontu sig.png| ]]<font color="#CC0000">M <font color="#330000">ontu 22:50, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * DarkWolf, ANet probably don't want to read the community portal discussion, so that is just a sum up; also please continue discussion about it on the community portal, this is just for input from ANet. poke | talk 22:53, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Got it. I have nothing more to say in this matter. Kaybye =D -- Wolf [[Image:User Great Darkwolf User Image paw.png|19px| ]] 22:56, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Hi guys! I read over this, and you have some very valid points and concerns. I understand how much effort and love people put into the wiki, so it's important to have confirmation that efforts aren't being wasted or misdirected. Unfortunately, this crosses way beyond something I can personally answer (especially on my own). I've brought this to Regina's attention, so I'll work with her and help (in any way I can) to figure out some answers to the stuff you're concerned about. Just as a heads up, the end of this month is ridiculous around the studio with Leipzig and PAX events. I'm also going to be out of the state for the entirety of next week for nvision, so my responses will be hit and miss. Before I leave, though, I'll get the ball rolling on this topic and at least get people thinking about it. I wish I had more for ya, but at least know the concerns have been read and are being passed on :) --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 23:14, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the fast response :) poke | talk 23:16, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I told you I read my talk page! Sometimes I just can't really give good answers to things I'm asked XD --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 23:20, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

I think we need more input from, perhaps, Mike O'Brien and Gaile/Regina on the wiki as a whole, as well as the ArenaNet namespace -- we had some contact in the beginning for the opening ideas and what the rough purpose of the wiki should be, but we now need to know ArenaNet's view on the wiki's purpose and function at this moment (and perhaps for the future too; other-language wikis come to mind as an example) -- some things have probably changed since those first few months. We get the excellent feedback from Emily in regards to the technical side, but it's also important to get the feedback in regards to the wiki in general. I expect we'd get the usual "we're busy with Guild Wars 2" responses -- as can be expected when you're working on two games -- but the wiki is a large part of the Guild Wars world, and its community.

(Gogo edit conflict!) Thanks for the above response, Emily :D -- Brains12 \ talk 23:20, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Just to try to explain a bit more: currently, the proposed changes to make the skill feedback pages (and the Arena Net namespace as a whole; there are some incumbent plans to change the suggestions section too) and Isaiah's talk page something easier to read would require a lot of work. We would need sysops to be constantly watching and acting in those pages. Under these circunstances, we do have to ask ourselves if all that work would be worth it, and part of that answer lies in knowing what does Arena Net think - if it would be better to leave the section as it is right now, if there is a belief that the pages could be more useful than they are now if they had a different organization, if they are a valuable resources or something that would be better left for the fansite forums and removed from the wiki, and so on. Thanks for taking time from your busy schedule to answer our questions! Erasculio 00:14, 22 August 2008 (UTC)
 * The volatile page proposal would only require sysops to monitor a few pages, none of the skill feedback proposals I'm aware of would not require any more sysop attention or action than the current system. Anyway, IMO the following questions are most important for the purpose of feedback organization:
 * For skill feedback pages, is only the quality of suggestions important, or is quantity important as well? Which is more important for individual suggestions, conciseness or detail?
 * For other game suggestion pages, is only the quality of suggestions important, or is quantity important as well? Which is more important for individual suggestions, conciseness or detail?
 * Currently, most of the proposals are focused on either the removal of bad suggestions or the elimination of suggestion pages in general. -- Gordon Ecker 04:10, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

When I first started up on the wiki talk page I had a lot of fun with it, but it quickly exploded with tons of people responding and lots of discussion going on, I did what I could but I'm not super awesome at wiki and my page was always super basic. I tried a few times to come up with better formates, making more pages, archive things but in the end I never got a good info structure in place to really make the feedback super easy to read. Responding to the feedback becomes super frustrating to me as I conflict like every 10 seconds, and I feel like I'm rushed to posted anything in order to avoid conflicts, the more I post and respond the more people read and respond and the more conflicts happen. I ended up having to spend most of time doing logistics like archiving, moderating bad feedback or rude posts, or trying to reformat my page in order to make it functional. In general it's hard to justify putting a bunch of time into it when the main thing I'm doing is just trying to make it look pretty and not actually getting to spend any time giving info, having meaningful conversations or interactions with the players. I still try and clean up my page and work on it but my overall experience with wiki is pretty minimal and from what I see using these things like forums only works when there is a small number of people posting. I still read it a lot, but I don't take the time to clean it up or post on it very often as the time I have is pretty limited. Izzy <font color="#E30020">@  -' 21:01, 25 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the answer Izzy - so would you actually support keeping the skill suggestion pages and would they be useful for you if we can think of something to make the pages more readable and better moderated? (btw. I saw you on the Wartower Spotlight Video on Games Convention - very funny comment ^^) poke | talk 21:07, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

(reset indent) Hey guys? I am going to go ahead and archive this thread. It's not because I'm ending discussions on it. It's because this topic is massive and my poor page is getting really big really fast :) As a direct response to this exact post, we've held a series of meetings here at the studio to discuss your concerns and questions. Over the next few weeks, I'll be working with Regina and a few others to get some answers written up and out to you. (I'm trying to get it done as soon as possible, but I've been hopping busy lately. I'll post about why later tonight.) So, regardless of me archiving this, know that I've been all over this topic since it's been brought up :) -- Emily Diehl (talk) 00:36, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

MediaWiki 1.15
Heya guys! MediaWiki 1.15.0 was released today, so we'll be working towards getting the new version up on our staging site and tested out for deployment here and on the GW2W. We don't have any dates yet, but I'll let you know as soon as we do. I'll also re-forward any outstanding tech requests so those can get tested out for the push too. If there's anything else that's not on those pages that I may be forgetting, just let me know :) -- Emily Diehl (talk) 18:35, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Send anything having to do with images through the gaunlet, then send it through a second and third time. We seem to be hitting snags alot in that respect. If that's already on your list of things to test, then carry on, as you were. :) &mdash; Jon  [[Image:User_Jon_Lupen_Sig_Image.png|18px]]  Lupen  18:48, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Woot, woot - awesome :) I'll make sure that my extension works for 1.15 as well. poke | talk 19:01, 10 June 2009 (UTC)


 * 1.15 already O.o. Hopefully this doesn't result in massive feedback/update woes. But we shall see. <font color="limegreen" size="2px">Dominator <font color="mediumblue" size="1px">Matrix  22:30, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Here is hoping we have no cache issues. God help us all. XD  Drago  19:36, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Actually there is one thing...
Hi Emily, actually there is one thing you can help us with for the feedback area. For the website suggestions and the international cultural references, what should we do with the existing feedback? I know this is always an issue, but I was kinda thinking stuff like this wouldn't pose as big a legal issue, especially for the international stuff since all that is is people talking about their culture, which is hardly copyrightable in anycase. I don't know, maybe you could doublecheck with your legal guys to see if we can just move existing stuff over or if we need to find another solution. (Satanael 16:44, 8 July 2009 (UTC))
 * I have actually discussed the International cultural references with Regina, since that is a community team project, and has little if anything to do with Emily. She hasn't gotten back to me yet about it. -- Wyn [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon2.png|19px ]] talk  20:19, 8 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I know Emily isn't necessarily the right person to be making decisions about ICR, but she has been following the feedback stuff more closely than the other devs and has already asked if there was anything she could do, and since it's more of a legal question than anything, I thought she might best be able to take the question to their legal team. Nonetheless, an answer from any dev would suffice, so I won't be picky on who looks at this. (Satanael 21:34, 8 July 2009 (UTC))
 * Sure, guys. I'll check on this for you today. The person I need to ask is tricky to track down, though, so it may be a bit. --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 19:46, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Woo, I got lucky and grabbed him when he was on the way out of a meeting. I checked on both of these cases with him and he said yes, we should plan to house them in the feedback namespace. Hope this helps! --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 20:00, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks Emily, that's helpful. But one fo the other things we wanted to know about is the existing content in each of these feedback locales, can we just move them over (like we did with bugs) or should we archive them and start over (like we are doing with suggestions)? (Satanael 20:29, 9 July 2009 (UTC))
 * No, unfortunately. No content can be ported into the new space unless it's moved by the original authors. --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 21:12, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Website suggestions
Hi Emily! I just thought I would drop a line and ask you if you have any thoughts or desires with regard to the Website suggestions portion of the feedback namespace. As you can see, it is a little bare at the moment, and I know this is something that you may have a particular interest in, so if there is anything you can think of that you would like to see as far as how to organize this page or how it should be presented, I'd be happy to try and work on that for you. Also, I was thinking your input on any rules for this area would be really helpful, since at the moment we have none that are specific to the website suggestions, and I can't really think of any that I know would be good to have. Anyway, any thoughts? (Satanael 17:00, 16 July 2009 (UTC))
 * You know, Santanael, I don't really have a strong preference for the space. I do plan on reading and responding to things that end up there, but I don't really need any special formatting or layout. Whatever you guys use for the rest of the space is fine. As far as rules and guidelines go, I can't think of anything critical or unique to put up there. --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 22:46, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Sounds good, thanks Emily. I guess we'll just go with a more free form page and deal with any issues if and when they come up. (Satanael 13:44, 23 July 2009 (UTC))

License issues and the GW2 wiki
Hi Emily, how goes the process of changing the license of the GW2 wiki so users are allowed to make suggestions there? While we don't expect contributors to fill the GW2 wiki with their ideas anytime soon, having the license issue solved now, while the wiki is almost empty, hopefully would prevent us from having to create a Feedback space there. Erasculio 01:16, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I would prefer leaving GW2W as it is until it is ready.. When we are opening the Feedback namespace here, I don't see why we couldn't handle the additional GW2 content.. And there is nothing we can do on GW2W with the license anyway; if we want to have a feedback-dedicated room, we would have to go the same way as we do it here. poke | talk 07:06, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Hopefully, Anet'll create their own feedback/forum/input/whatever for Guild Wars 2 before it's out; maybe we can keep GW2W an encyclopaedic wiki >.> -- [[Image:User Brains12 circle sig.png|18px|]] Brains12 \ talk 13:28, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
 * The nice thing about having all the GW2 feedback under the new feedback license is that, when and if GW2W gets its own feedback area, we can just move the GW2 stuff here over to there without any licensing issues. (Satanael 19:09, 31 July 2009 (UTC))
 * Hi guys! At this point, we'd like to keep the feedback namespace on this wiki only. Right now, the GW2W is inactive and in a placeholder state until more news comes out, so I'd worry about driving heavy traffic there to a system that we haven't tested out here first. It would require a lot of admin time (policing two sites), would divert the focus of the devs reading the suggestions pages (people may be confused about where to find suggestions), and may be confusing for people making suggestions (not knowing how to split ideas into GW vs. GW2). As we've mentioned before, we're looking into other solutions for feedback, so it's likely that we'll have a new system in the future. I just can't give specifics or time estimates for any of this because it's nebulous right now. In summary, though, let's put all thought and focus into getting this wiki's feedback namespace up and functioning. If there's a clear need to apply this solution over to the other wiki, we can do that at a later time pretty easily. Hope this helps :) --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 19:38, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I actually meant more in the meaning of preparing the GW2 wiki for after the release of the game than adding suggestions there right now, but it's ok xD Thanks for the reply, Emily. Erasculio 11:43, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Broken Link in Guild Wars Game Sign Up Screen
Just a heads up that this link here in the game sign up screen: http://i49.tinypic.com/2i2ahbp.jpg goes to this: http://www.plaync.com/store/ Which pops up as forbidden. Inde 14:39, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the report, Inde! I'll look into this issue. --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 19:40, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Also, the login screen announcement about the account security message has an error in it. It says "We urge you to visit the NCsoft web site to read an important message about account from our Game Surveillance Unit", instead of (what I think it's supposed to be like) "We urge you to visit the NCsoft web site to read an important message about account security from our Game Surveillance Unit". &mdash; <font color="Red"> Mini Me 20:48, 26 January 2010
 * Thanks, Mini! I passed this along, and it should be fixed now. Nice catch :) --[[Image:UserEmilyDiehlStar.gif]] Emily Diehl (talk) 00:59, 28 January 2010 (UTC)