User:Regina Buenaobra/Journal

Small Update on Xunlai Tournament House - 01 July 2009

I posted this on a few fansite forums yesterday, and also on my wiki talk page, but I'll post it here as well.

The latest news on Xunlai Tournament House is that our team is still investigating the code. Accurately distributing points from June 18 is linked to correcting the underlying issues with Xunlai Tournament House. This means that the June 18 points won't be distributed until the code is fixed in XTH.

We appreciate your patience and understanding while we work to correct those issues.

Quick Note on the Free Storage Pane Promotion - 30 June 2009

Today is the last day of the Free Storage Pane promotion. If you're still having trouble getting your free storage pane, please contact Customer Support today. They will assist any player who submits a ticket before the end of the day today, June 30, even if they are not able to fulfill the request today. If you have an outstanding Support ticket on this issue, don't worry -- Support will still help you get your free storage pane.

Xunlai Tournament House - 23 June 2009

First of all, thanks to everyone for being patient while our team took a closer look at the issues affecting the recent Xunlai Tournament House distribution.

The May Xunlai Tournament House points distribution took place on June 18. During the distribution, problems occurred. Although many players received their points, some players did not get the correct number of points, and some players who voted did not receive any points at all. As you know, people normally get 5 points just for voting. Our team has been working to assess the situation and take care of the errors that caused the distribution issues.

We have the correct point distribution records of all those who participated in the Xunlai Tournament House for the May tournaments, and they will get the correct number of points, whether they contacted Customer Support or not.

We realize that the Xunlai Tournament House points distribution has been problematic in the past. We were faced with either taking Xunlai Tournament House down to resolve the issues, or running into similar problems with the point distribution in the next month.

We’ve decided to take Xunlai down to ensure the issues are thoroughly resolved. As soon as we have a good estimate on when it will be available again we will let you know.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Neues zur Xunlai-Wettstube

Zuerst möchten wir uns bei euch für die aufgebrachte Geduld bedanken, während unser Team die Probleme mit der aktuellen Punktevergabe untersucht hat.

Die Punktvergabe der Xunlai-Wettstube begann am18. Juni, und dabei traten Komplikationen auf. Obwohl viele Spieler ihre Punkte erhalten haben, kam es dazu, dass einige Spieler nicht die korrekte Anzahl bekommen haben, und in einigen Fällen Spieler, die ihre Tipps abgegeben haben, gar keine Punkte erhalten haben (Wie ihr ja wisst, gibt es normalerweise 5 Punkte für die Tipp-Abgabe). Unser Team hat daran gearbeitet, die Situation aufzuklären und die Probleme, die zu der fehlerhaften Punktevergabe geführt haben, zu beseitigen.

Wir haben Aufzeichnungen über die korrekte Anzahl an Punkten die Spieler bekommen sollten, wenn sie Tipps für das Mai-Turnier abgegeben haben, und Spieler werden ihre Punkte erhalten, unabhängig davon, ob sie sich an den Support gewendet haben oder nicht.

Uns ist bewusst, dass die Punktevergabe der Wettstube auch in der Vergangenheit zu Problemen geführt hat. Wir mussten uns also entscheiden, ob wir die Wettstube schliessen, um der Sache auf den Grund zu gehen, oder ob wir nächsten Monat wieder in ähnliche Probleme bei der Punktevergabe laufen würden.

Wir haben uns dazu entschlossen, die Wettstube zu schliessen, um das Problem an er Wurzel zu packen. Sobald wir einschätzen können, wann die Wiedereröffnung stattfindet, werden wir euch dies unverzüglich mitteilen.

Wir entschuldigen uns für alle Unannehmlichkeiten, die dies versacht hat.

Maison du Tournoi Xunlai

Merci à tous d'avoir bien voulu patienter pendant que nous traitions les problèmes survenus lors de la récente distribution de points de la Maison du Tournoi Xunlai.

Des problèmes sont survenus lors de la distribution des points de la Maison du Tournoi Xunlai du mois de mai le 18 juin. Bien que de nombreux joueurs aient reçu leurs points, certains joueurs n'ont pas reçu le nombre de points correct, et d'autres ayant voté n'ont reçu aucun point. Les joueurs reçoivent généralement 5 points pour avoir voté. Notre équipe a traité la situation et résolu les erreurs à l'origine des problèmes de distribution.

Nos enregistrements contiennent les informations de distribution correctes pour tous les joueurs ayant participé à la Maison du Tournoi Xunlai pour les tournois du mois de mai, et tous les joueurs recevront les points qui leur sont dus, même s'ils n'ont pas contacté l'assistance clientèle.

Nous sommes conscients des problèmes passés avec la distribution de points de la Maison du Tournoi Xunlai. Nous pouvions procéder de deux manières : désactiver l'accès à la Maison du Tournoi Xunlai pour prendre le temps de résoudre les problèmes, ou prendre le risque de rencontrer les mêmes problèmes le mois suivant.

Nous avons choisi de désactiver l'accès afin de résoudre tous les problèmes. Nous vous tiendrons informés de l'évolution de la situation et de la date à laquelle la Maison du Tournoi Xunlai sera à nouveau accessible.

Veuillez nous excuser pour la gêne occasionnée.

Casa de apuestas de Xunlai

En primer lugar, gracias por vuestra paciencia mientras investigamos los problemas relacionados con la distribución de puntos de la casa de apuestas de Xunlai.

Durante la distribución de puntos de la casa de apuestas de Xunlai, el 18 de junio, se produjeron algunas anomalías. Aunque muchos jugadores recibieron sus puntos, también hubo quienes no obtuvieron el número correcto y quienes no recibieron ningún punto a pesar de haber votado. Como sabéis, normalmente se conceden 5 puntos simplemente por votar. Nuestro equipo ha examinado la situación y ha estado trabajando para enmendar los errores que causaron los problemas de distribución.

Tenemos los datos correctos de distribución de puntos para todos los participantes en la casa de apuestas de Xunlai en los torneos de mayo y todos ellos recibirán los puntos correctos, tanto si se ponen en contacto con nuestro servicio de atención al cliente como si no.

Siendo conscientes de que la casa de apuestas de Xunlai ha tenido problemas de distribución anteriormente, nos planteamos dos opciones: interrumpir la disponibilidad de la casa de apuestas de Xunlai para intentar encontrar una solución o enfrentarnos a los mismos problemas el mes siguiente.

Optamos por interrumpir Xunlai para asegurar la total resolución de los problemas. Os comunicaremos cuándo volverá a estar disponible en cuanto tengamos una idea aproximada.

Os pedimos disculpas por las molestias.

Casa del Torneo Xunlai

Innanzitutto, grazie a tutti per avere pazientato mentre il nostro team era impegnato ad analizzare in dettaglio i problemi incontrati nella recente ripartizione dei punti della Casa del Torneo Xunlai.

La ripartizione dei punti della Casa del Torneo Xunlai per il mese di maggio è stata effettuata il 18 giugno. Durante la ripartizione si sono verificati dei problemi. Sebbene la maggior parte dei giocatori abbia ricevuto tutti i punti conseguiti, alcuni di loro non hanno ricevuto il numero corretto e alcuni giocatori che hanno votato non hanno ricevuto alcun punto. Come sapete, di solito si ricevono 5 punti solo per avere votato. Il nostro team è al lavoro per valutare la situazione e risolvere gli errori che hanno provocato questi problemi di ripartizione.

Abbiamo i dati corretti della ripartizione dei punti di tutti coloro che hanno partecipato ai tornei di maggio della Casa del Torneo di Xunlai e tutti riceveranno il numero corretto di punti, anche se non hanno contattato il servizio assistenza.

Siamo consapevoli che in passato la ripartizione dei punti della Casa del Torneo Xunlai è stata problematica. Dovevamo scegliere se disattivare la Casa del Torneo di Xunlai per risolvere i problemi o rischiare di incontrare gli stessi problemi nella ripartizione dei punti del mese prossimo.

Abbiamo deciso di disattivare la Casa del Torneo Xunlai per assicurarci che tutti i problemi vengano completamente risolti. Non appena avremo una stima affidabile di quando sarà nuovamente disponibili ve lo comunicheremo.

Ci scusiamo per gli inconvenienti causati.

So What Are We Doing at the Moment? - 19 June 2009

Here’s a heads-up on some of the things we’re working on:

• Removing Heroes from GvG and HA. This is something that many players have been asking for for a long time. We still want people to be able to participate in the action even if they can’t field a full team, so we will replace Heroes with a bunch of new Henchmen. We are currently working on the details, so we can’t give you a concrete timeline, but we do know that we want you to be involved. We’re looking for suggestions on the skills you want to see for those Henchmen, so start thinking about those skill bars!

• Introducing a Guild Wars Live Test Krewe to help test upcoming updates and skill changes. We’re opening up the testing process to players, and if you are selected you will be able to access our test server and directly interact with our developers! We’ll put up an application form on our website once we finalize all the details. Two things in advance: due to legal reasons, you need to be at least 18 if you want to apply, and you need to speak and write English fluently.

That's all for now. I hope you like what we have in store!

Xunlai Tournament House Points - 18 June 2009

We've received reports from a few players saying they had problems getting their Xunlai Tournament House points this month. We're aware of the issue, and will be looking into it. If you're having issues with this, please contact our Customer Support Team. We apologize for the inconvenience and hassle this is causing those players. Thank you in advance for your patience.

The Week... Meetings... Stuff! - 18 June 2009

Monday night, Martin, Mike Z (our Live Team Producer and QA Manager), and I headed into downtown Seattle to meet up with some of our NCsoft West colleagues for a nice Korean BBQ dinner. We met up with Martin "Amboss" Rabl (one of the Aion Community Managers), who'd just arrived in the country last Sunday night, Lani "Liv" Blazier (an Associate Producer at Aion), and Lyzira, who is a community manager for both Lineage and Exteel (blows my mind that she's a CM for 'two games!).

Korean BBQ was fantastic, according to the two Martins, Mike Z, and Lani. I actually had the tonkatsu, because I wanted some Japanese food instead. The restaurant we went to was a Korean and Japanese place. My meal was good, though of course not as good as the tonkatsu I ate in Japan (YUM x infinity). We had a great dinner and great conversation. It was cool to finally meet Ze Rabl, who Martin K talks a lot about. :-)

Other things... Today we had a great brainstorm meeting with Mike O'Brien about community. There were no whiteboard markers involved, to Martin's disappointment. :-P

The QA Team of course has been preparing for today's game update. We'll be watching the usual places to see what your thoughts are on it. :-)

Wiki Magicks!

EDIT: In other news, I'd like to thank the Wyn and the wiki community for all their help with streamlining my talk page. Thank you so much, you're all absolute stars! :-)

That's all for now. Take care! :-)

Meanwhile, at the Office... - 12 June 2009

This week's been pretty busy for us, but what else is new!

The Community Team's been working on a bunch of strategy type stuff for GW2. Hush-hush at the moment, so we can't talk about it in public. But in vague terms, we're thinking about social media. We're thinking about Web 2.0. We're thinking about tools and tech. We're thinking about how our stuff fits in with the plans of other departments like marketing and web.

Martin and I have been doing some brainstorming. I gotta say, it's so much easier to do this kind of high level strategy work now that he's over on this side of the pond! Community management is a very team-oriented discipline. Most (videogame) community managers I know work in groups or in teams, and even if they are the only community manager at their company, they still try to find ways to share ideas with fellow community managers externally. To bring the point back home, doing brainstorming in the same room rocks! I highly recommend it. Also: white board markers smell. Martin says they smell good, but I am neutral about it. :-P

Another thing that Martin and I did this week was to meet with the QA team and discuss community stuff. That was fun because we got to share some insights into our jobs.

Speaking of jobs, did you know we're still hiring? You can check out the job listings here. We're hiring for both GW1 and GW2. One thing I'd like to highlight is that we're looking for another Designer for the Live Team. One of the awesome things to come out of the April Anniversary Update is that it enabled us to get the resources for this additional Designer position. The Live Team is happy about this. :-) So if you've got 1337 skillz for this position and are willing to relocate to Washington, definitely send in your application.

This week, the rest of the Live Team was working on testing yesterday's update. Linsey's been working on skills, and she met with Izzy and James (Phinney) about that today.

Next week should be exciting because Martin Rabl from the Aion community team is going to be arriving. We can't wait to meet up with him and the other NCsoft West community peeps to hang out.

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!

No XTH Points on June 11 - 10 June 2009

Just to let you all know: We're doing some backend work on the Xunlai Tournament House, so the points will not be ready tomorrow as planned. We're very sorry about the inconvenience. We expect to have the Xunlai points distribution available next week.

Work Status Update / Out of Office - 22 May 2009

Since the April content / anniversary update, Martin and I have been doing a lot of planning and brainstorming work. Right after the content update, we had a few post-mortem meetings to see how we could improve processes for the next content update. Martin and I are currently working on some initiatives for GW1, as well as continuing to develop ideas for GW2. I won't talk about any of these things at the moment, because I don't even know if these ideas will see the light of day. You all probably know by now how game and project development at a game studio is. It's an iterative process, meaning that things will change and develop over time, and what you start out with isn't necessarily the same thing you will have in the end. This is true of any creative process (art, writing, music, etc.), but especially true of anything team-based. While it would be cool to let you in on some of the details of what we all work on on a daily basis, unforuntately we can't share that much detail with you. One of the reasons is that things can change so much and so fast, sometimes on a daily basis. We're keeping our eyes and ears open, though. We've been following a lot of recent discussions with great interest, and taking your thoughts and opinions onboard.

Just to let you know: I will be out of the office next week. Martin Kerstein will be filling in for me during that time.

Have a great weekend, and for those who have Monday off, have a great long weekend. :-)

NCsoft Website Issues - 24 April 2009

The account management and billing system servers are under heavy load due to the following:

• The GW 4th Anniversary Update
• City of Heroes Architect Update and new features
• Steam implementation

The NCsoft billing team is working to correct the load problems. Some players have also experienced errors when trying to redeem the free storage promo. The billing team also knows about this and they're working on the issues.

The NCsoft team is doing the following to correct the issues and help improve and restore responsiveness:

• Old database hardware was replaced with new/faster hardware.
• They've upgraded a database used to manage web sessions, and they're rolling out an improved session manage
• There are rolling out new webservers very soon. The servers are being tested before coming online.

The team is very aware of the issues and they're continuing to work on them. We apologize for the slow load times and errors that some are experiencing.

Phishing Scam - Beware of Impersonators - 17 April 2009

We will never ask you for your personal information (such as your name, phone number, account names, etc. in the game. If someone approaches you asking for this information, do not provide it! Instead, please alert Support and provide the character name of the person who approached you.

We are receiving reports of a phishing scam in-game where a player pretends to be an ArenaNet staff member, and proceeds to ask players for personal information, such as account names and passwords, phone numbers, mailing addresses, etc. Remember: we will never ask you for any of this information!

If you encounter anyone doing this, please contact Support and give Support their character name.

Regarding the April 9 Game Update - 8 April 2009

We just want to give you a quick heads-up.

We know that you are expecting some skill balance updates coming with tomorrow’s build. We will have our regular monthly build, bringing you your Tournament Reward Points, changing the map rotation for the MAT and updating the tonic flavor of the month, but unfortunately we will be unable to do any skill changes.

We are aware that some of you will not be happy to hear this, but let us give you the reason for this, so you might understand our decision.

As you are aware, we are currently working very hard on our big April update. And of course, big updates need a lot of testing and resources. We want the update to be a high quality experience you can fully enjoy, so we are dedicating a lot of time to testing it. With a game as complex as Guild Wars and an update as significant as this one, very thorough testing is required. Every addition or change has the potential to affect other areas of the game, sometimes in unexpected ways. Skill changes also need to be fully tested, so we were running into a situation where we risked releasing either the skill balance or the April update itself without the level of polish, consideration, and testing that it should have.

After discussion with members of the Live, QA, Design, and Community Teams, we decided that this month we needed to devote the team’s full focus on getting the April update ready.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and we hope that you understand the reasoning behind this decision.

Bezüglich des Updates am 09. April – 08. April 2009

Hier sind einige Informationen, die wir euch vorab mitteilen wollten.

Wir wissen, dass ihr Fertigkeiten-Änderungen im Rahmen des morgigen Updates erwartet. Wir werden unser reguläres monatliches Update haben, mit dem ihr die Turnier-Belohnungspunkte bekommt, wir werden die Rotation für das MAT verändern und den neuen Trank des Monats vorstellen, aber wir werden leider keine Fertigkeiten-Änderungen vornehmen.

Uns ist bewusst, dass einige von euch nicht glücklich über dies Mitteilung seien werden, daher wollten wir euch die Gründe dafür erläutern, damit ihr unsere Entscheidung nachvollziehen könnt.

Wie euch sicherlich bewusst ist, arbeiten wir momentan mit Hochdruck an unserem großen April-Update. Und große Updates beanspruchen eine Menge Resourcen und bedürfen ausführlichen Tests. Wir möchten, dass das Update qualitativ hochwertig ist damit ihr es geniessen könnt, und daher verbringen wir eine Menge Zeit damit, es zu testen. Ein komplexes Spiel wie Guild Wars, und grade ein größeres Update wie das kommende, müssen sehr gründlich getestet werden, da jede Änderung oder Neuerung die wir vornehmen andere Bereiche des Spiels beeinflussen kann, manchmal auf eine nicht erwartete Art und Weise. Da auch Fertigkeiten-Änderungen getestet werden müssen, fanden wir uns in der Situation wieder, dass wir vor dem Risiko standen, entweder die Fertigkeiten-Änderungen oder das April-Update nicht auf dem hohen Qualitätsniveau zu releasen, das sie haben sollten.

Nachdem wir die Situation mit den Abteilungen Live-Team, Qualitätssicherung, Design und Community diskutiert haben, haben wir die Entscheidung getroffen, die ganze Aufmerksamkeit darauf zu richten, dass das April-Update fertig wird.

Wir entschuldigen uns für die Unannehmlichkeiten und hoffen, dass ihr unsere Gründe für diese Entscheidung nachvollziehen könnt.

Concernant la mise à jour du 9 avril

Nous voulions vous tenir au courant des choses suivantes:

Nous savons que vous attendiez un rééquilibrage des compétences dans la mise à jour d’aujourd’hui. Celle-ci apporte son lot de changements en ce qui concerne les Points de Récompenses pour le Tournoi, le changement de rotation pour les cartes du TAM (Tournoi automatique mensuel), mais malheureusement, elle ne contient pas de changements concernant les compétences.

Nous comprenons que certains d’entre vous recevront cette nouvelle avec amertume, voire mécontentement, mais laissez-nous vous donner notre raison, afin que vous compreniez notre décision.

Comme vous le savez, en ce moment, nous travaillons d’arrache-pied sur notre grosse mise à jour d’avril. Et bien sûr, qui dit grosse mise à jour, dit importantes ressources et périodes de test. Nous voulons que vous puissiez profiter pleinement de cette mise à jour, raison pour laquelle nous passons de nombreuses heures à la tester. Avec un jeu aussi complexe que Guild Wars, et une mise à jour aussi conséquente que celle-ci, la période de test ne peut être prise à la légère. Chaque changement ou ajout peut potentiellement affecter le jeu de façon totalement imprévue. Les changements de compétence doivent eux aussi être minutieusement testés et de ce fait, nous nous dirigions vers une situation ou il nous aurait fallu lancer soit un rééquilibrage de compétences soit une mise à jour d’avril qui n’aurait pas eu le niveau de finition qu’elle méritait.

Après une longue discussion avec le Service Qualité, l’équipe Live, Design et communautaire, nous avons décidé de concentrer nos ressources sur la mise à jour d’avril.

Nous nous excusons pour la déception occasionnée mais nous espérons que vous comprenez la raison qui a motivé notre décision.

L’équipe communautaire Guild Wars

Policy Updates - 2 April 2009

We just published updates to three policy documents on our website.

The first one is the Naming Policy. We currently have rules in our User Agreement that give you brief guidelines on what types of names are allowed, however, many felt that these guidelines were not clear enough. We have published a Naming Policy that expands on the guidelines in the User Agreement with a bit more detail and clarification on what is expected when players name their characters or guilds.

There is one change in the Naming Policy enforcement that is new. We are handling first-time offenses as per our standard practice: a mark is placed on a player’s account and the character is blocked (inaccessible) until they rename it, and the account mark also involves a “time out” period during which they’re unable to play. The change to enforcement comes with the second offense on an account. On a second offense, we will assign the offending player a new, randomly-generated name, their account will be marked, and it will be unusable for a period of time, as called for within the escalating suspension system. This new enforcement policy for a second offense was created to discourage repeat offenders from creating offensive names.

The Rules of Conduct and Conduct Breaches and Outcomes pages have been updated to reflect the information in the Naming Policy.

Secondly, the Rules of Conduct and Conduct Breaches and Outcomes have been updated to clarify PvP conduct issues, specifically the issue of match manipulation and other types of PvP abuse, such as leeching. Earlier this year in our update to the Universal Tournament Rules, we stated that match manipulation was against the rules. After continuing confusion as to whether it was technically against the rules to engage in match manipulation outside of tournament play, we have updated the Rules of Conduct and Conduct Breaches and Outcomes to reflect our position that match manipulation and abuse is against the rules and the spirit of the game in all forms of PvP play.

If you’ve got any questions, please let us know.

Richtlinien-Aktualisierungen

Soeben sind Updates zu drei unserer Richtlinien-Dokumente auf unserer Website erschienen.

Das erste Dokument sind die Namenrichtlinien. Unsere Benutzervereinbarung enthält einige Hinweise zu der Art von Namen, die unzulässig sind. Manche unter Euch fanden diese Hinweise jedoch nicht klar genug. Aus diesem Grund haben wir nun Namenrichtlinien veröffentlicht, die die Ausführungen in der Benutzervereinbarung näher erläutern und genauer festlegen, was für Namen für Charakter und Gilden zulässig sind, und welche nicht.

Bei den Maßnahmen gegen Verletzungen der Namenrichtlinien gibt es eine Neuerung. Erstmalige Verstöße werden gemäß unseres üblichen Verfahrens geahndet: Der Account des Spielers wird mit einem Strafpunkt versehen und der Charakter bleibt so lange blockiert (von der Verwendung ausgeschlossen), bis ihm ein neuer Name zugewiesen wird. Außerdem geht der erste Strafpunkt einher mit einer „Aussetzung“, also einer Sperrfrist, in der nicht gespielt werden kann. Die Neuerung betrifft den zweiten Verstoß eines Account-Inhabers. Bei einem zweiten Verstoß weisen wir anstelle des anstößigen Namens einen neuen, zufällig gewählten Namen zu, der Account wird mit einem Strafpunkt versehen und ist für einen gewissen Zeitraum (je nach Stufe im Sperrverfahren) blockiert. Diese Neuerung bei einem zweiten Verstoß gegen die Namenregeln wurde eingeführt, um Wiederholungstäter davon abzuhalten, offensive Namen zu verwenden.

Die Seiten Verhaltensregeln und Regelverstöße und Folgen wurden entsprechend geändert.

Des Weiteren wurde der Text in den Dokumenten „Verhaltensregeln“ und „Regelverstöße und Folgen“ aktualisiert, um die Regeln zum Spielerverhalten in PvP-Spielen zu verdeutlichen, namentlich die Manipulation der Kämpfe und andere Missbräuche, etwa „Leeching“. Zu Anfang dieses Jahres haben wir in unserem Update zu den Allgemeinen Turnierregeln darauf hingewiesen, dass die Manipulation von Kämpfen einen Verstoß gegen die Regeln darstelle. Darauf folgte eine länger anhaltende Diskussion im Zusammenhang mit der Frage, ob es technisch gegen die Regeln verstoße, außerhalb des Turniers Kampfmanipulationen vorzunehmen. Als Antwort darauf haben wir in den „Verhaltensregeln“ und den „Regelverstößen und Folgen“ unsere Position deutlich gemacht, dass Kampfmanipulation und Missbrauch in jedem Fall, also in allen Formen des PvP-Spiels, gegen die Regeln und auch gegen den Geist des Spiels verstoße.

Falls Ihr noch Fragen hierzu habt, meldet Euch bitte.

Mises à jour des politiques

Nous avons publié sur notre site Web les mises à jour apportées à trois de nos politiques.

La première concerne la Politique d'attribution de noms. Notre Licence d'utilisation comporte des règles indiquant de manière succincte les types de nom autorisés, cependant nous avons jugé que ces recommandations n'étaient pas assez précises. Nous avons publié une Politique d'attribution de noms qui complète ces recommandations de manière détaillée et clarifient les types de nom autorisés pour les personnages et les guildes.

Une nouveauté dans l'application de la Politique d'attribution de noms a également été ajoutée. Les premières infractions sont traitées de manière habituelle : le compte de l'utilisateur est assorti d'un avertissement et le personnage est bloqué (il est inaccessible) jusqu'à ce qu'il soit renommé. Cet avertissement implique également une période pendant laquelle le joueur ne peut accéder au jeu. La nouveauté concerne le traitement des récidives pour un compte. En cas de récidive, nous attribuons au joueur un nouveau nom généré aléatoirement, son compte est marqué d'un avertissement et devient inutilisable pendant une certaine période, déterminée par le système de suspension. Cette nouvelle politique pour les récidives a été créée afin de décourager les joueurs de créer de nouveaux noms offensants.

Les pages des Règles de conduite et de la Transgression des règles de conduite et sanctions ont été mises à jour pour refléter les informations contenues dans la Politique d'attribution de noms.

Ces deux politiques ont également été mises à jour afin de répondre aux problèmes de conduite en PvP, en particulier les manipulations de rencontre ou encore les joueurs ne participant pas aux rencontres de manière active. Nous avons récemment déclaré dans les Règles universelles des tournois que les manipulations de rencontre violaient les règles applicables. Après la confusion générée pour savoir si les manipulations de rencontre en dehors des tournois violaient les règles en vigueur, nous avons mis à jour les Règles de conduite et la Transgression des règles de conduite et sanctions pour clarifier notre position et confirmer que les manipulations de rencontre allaient à l'encontre des règles établies et de l'esprit du jeu dans le PvP sous toutes ses formes.

Contactez-nous si vous avez des questions à ce sujet.

Actualizaciones de normas

Hemos actualizado tres documentos de normas de nuestra página web.

En primer lugar, las Normas de nombres. El Contrato del usuario contiene unas breves directrices sobre el tipo de nombres que están permitidos, aunque algunos usuarios pueden considerar que estas normas no son lo bastante claras. Hemos publicado unas Normas de nombres que amplían la información de las directrices del Contrato del usuario con datos más claros y concisos sobre los nombres que pueden usarse para personajes y clanes.

Hay un cambio en el cumplimiento de las Normas de nombres que es nuevo. Vamos a seguir el procedimiento estándar para los jugadores que utilicen un nombre inaceptable por primera vez: se aplicará una marca a la cuenta del jugador y el personaje quedará bloqueado (inaccesible) hasta que el jugador cambie el nombre. Además, la marca en la cuenta también implica un periodo de suspensión durante el cual no se podrá jugar. El cambio se aplica a los jugadores que utilicen un nombre inaceptable por segunda vez en su cuenta. Cuando esto suceda, se asignará al personaje un nuevo nombre generado aleatoriamente, se aplicará una marca a la cuenta y no podrá usarse durante un periodo de tiempo. La duración del periodo la determina el sistema de suspensiones acumulativo. Esta nueva política se utiliza para evitar que los jugadores utilicen nombres ofensivos repetidamente.

Se han actualizado las páginas de Normas de conducta y Castigos por incumplimiento de normas para reflejar la información de las Normas de nombres.

También se han actualizado las Normas de conducta y los Castigos por incumplimiento de normas para clarificar algunos asuntos sobre el comportamiento en partidas PvP; especialmente en cuestiones relacionadas con la manipulación de resultados y otros tipos de comportamientos inaceptables en partidas PvP, como la inactividad en partidas o las acciones de mala fe. Ya especificamos anteriormente que la manipulación de partidas va contra las reglas, en la actualización de las Normas generales para torneos. Tras la confusión que se generó sobre si manipular las partidas que no formen parte de torneos iba contra las normas, hemos clarificado las Reglas de conducta y los Castigos por incumplimiento de normas para reflejar nuestra posición: manipular las partidas va contra las reglas y contra el espíritu del juego en todos los tipos de partidas PvP.

Si tienes cualquier duda, puedes ponerte en contacto con nosotros.

Aggiornamento delle normative

Abbiamo da poco aggiornato tre documenti relativi alle nostre normative sul sito Web.

Il primo documento è la Normativa sui nomi. Il nostro Contratto con l'utente attualmente contiene brevi linee guida sui tipi di nomi consentiti, tuttavia a detta di molti tali linee guida non sono sufficientemente chiare. Abbiamo pertanto pubblicato una Normativa sui nomi con dettagli e chiarimenti aggiuntivi sui nomi consentiti per personaggi e gilde.

Esiste una nuova regola per l'applicazione della Normativa sui nomi. La prima violazione viene gestita come da prassi: viene aggiunta una nota all'account del giocatore che commette l'infrazione e il personaggio con un nome inadeguato rimane bloccato (inaccessibile) fino a quando non gli viene assegnato un altro nome. L'aggiunta di una nota all'account implica inoltre un periodo di sospensione, durante il quale non sarà possibile giocare. La nuova regola viene applicata alla seconda violazione per un account. In presenza di una seconda infrazione, assegneremo automaticamente al giocatore responsabile un nuovo nome generato casualmente. Verrà aggiunta una nota all'account di tale giocatore, che rimarrà inutilizzabile per un periodo di tempo prestabilito, come previsto dal sistema di sospensione progressiva. Questa nuova regola di applicazione per la seconda violazione è stata adottata al fine di scoraggiare i giocatori recidivi dal creare nomi offensivi.

Le pagine del Codice di Condotta e della Violazione delle regole di condotta e conseguenze sono state aggiornate al fine di includere le informazioni relative alla Normativa sui nomi.

Inoltre, il Codice di Condotta e la Violazione delle regole di condotta e conseguenze sono stati aggiornati con alcuni chiarimenti sui comportamenti considerati scorretti in modalità PvP, in particolare per quanto riguarda alterazioni illecite delle partite e altre scorrettezze. All'inizio dell'anno, nell'aggiornamento alle Regole universali del torneo abbiamo dichiarato che l'alterazione illecita di una partita andava contro il regolamento. Dopo una leggera confusione sull'eventuale illegalità delle alterazioni illecite delle partite al di fuori dei tornei, abbiamo ribadito la nostra posizione nel Codice di Condotta e nella Violazione delle regole di condotta e conseguenze, ovvero che l'alterazione illecita e l'abuso vanno contro le regole e lo spirito di gioco in tutte le modalità PvP.

In caso di eventuali domande, siete pregati di contattarci.

Preparations - 27 March 2009

We continue to prepare for the April updates: the regular monthly maintenance update, and the content update. Work has been very busy for all of us. Most of us are working extended days, sometimes nights, and even weekends. Much of my increased workload has involved writing for the website. As with many efforts, it is team-based, and the approval process for a piece of written text can take a long time.

I'm sorry that my status has been set to Busy on messenger lately. It's the nature of my workload right now. I need to focus on writing and on trying to hit my deadlines in preparation for the April update. Hopefully things may ease up a little more, but I don't expect them to. Thank you to everyone for being so understanding when I can't reply to your IM immediately (or sometimes not at all, because I am in that Zone of Concentration). =) I really appreciate it.

I've spoken with Linsey about what we can do to address your desire for more information about the April content update. I've made some suggestions to her, and we're going to be discussing these in detail when she's far less busy.

One piece of news that you may or may not find interesting is that Joe, Linsey, and I have moved offices to the other side of the building. The three of us, including a writer who's working on some text production for the Live Team, are now in one room. Linsey, Joe, and I were previously in an extremely cramped room with James Phinney, Isaiah Cartwright, and a bunch of other designers, but eight of us in one room was getting much too... Cozy. :-P

Anyway, that's all for now. Have a great weekend. =)

Champion Point Farming - 17 March 2009

There have been ongoing questions among players about Champion Point farming and whether it's against the rules. We view Champion Point farming as against the provisions in the Universal Tournament Rules, under the section titled "Player/Guild Responsibilities". Organized movements to farm Champion Points are an example of match manipulation because players and guilds are not competing and playing in good faith. If reported to us, we will investigate, and if we find evidence that supports the reports, we will take action, up to and including permanently banning the players and/or guilds involved. A first offense may result in a temporary ban. Further infractions may result in permanent bans for the players and/or guilds involved.

Regarding Info About the April Update - 12 March 2009

There've been questions in the community regarding the April update and when we're going to release information about it. We know you're all curious (and in some cases anxious) for information. Linsey and I talked about being more open about the development process at the beginning of the year. With that in mind, she's been posting on her journal since the start of the year, with updates on her progress. We can't go into a lot of detail, unfortunately, but hopefully it's given you an idea of how much work this has been for the Live Team. As April nears, she's becoming busier and busier, and as you've all probably noticed, she hasn't had as much time to post journal entries. However, she finds some time to post answers to her talk pages now that they've been unlocked again.

Lack of information about the April update does not indicate lack of progress or lack of work. Please be assured that we are all hard at work in preparing for it -- the Live Team, the community team, the marketing team, the web team, the QA team, and the support team. As I have communicated in a few other places, the April content update is separate from the April maintenance update. The maintenance update is the one that generally comes at the beginning of the month, where we change the tonic, there are skill balances, and you get Tournament Reward Points. The content update will arrive separately from this.

The wiki community has probably noticed that our philosophy towards developer interaction with the community has shifted. With the formation of the Live Team, this has become more evident. As you can tell by Linsey's and others' increased participation in the wiki, we (and I) feel that developer interaction with the communtiy is a positive thing. Having said that, not every developer necessarily has the time or inclination for it. Developers who participate in the wiki community do so because they either have some extra time, or they specifically make time outside of work. I know a lot of you get upset when Linsey has to lock down her talk pages, but the reality is that her primary job is Game Designer. Any interaction developers have with players is time that they are taking away from doing their game development work, or extra time they are taking away from their relaxation time at home (if they post outside the office).

What do CMs do?

I'll copy and paste here what I've said before about my own work, since I get questions from time to time what community managers do. I realized that the answer is rather buried on the wiki, so I'm pasting it here (with some edits) so it's more visible to those who are curious.

The ArenaNet community team has always been smaller than what it was before I joined. We had three people working community at ArenaNet just before I joined (one part timer), for a total of six globally. In the first months of my work here, we had four community managers on the team, including me. In October, that number was down to three after Julien Crevits moved on to another job. The community team is currently myself and Martin Kerstein. However the ArenaNet community team will expand in the long run. In the short term, we'll have a little more on our plates.

To give you some deeper insight into what it's like for me here... I work about 40 hours a week. I usually go over 40 hours. I try not to be a workaholic, for my general health and sanity. In the videogame industry, community managers often get burnt out, and they can get burnt out in a relatively short span of time compared to other jobs in the industry. There's a joke among us community managers in the games industry that if you're able to stay in this job beyond two years, you're completely insane. I don't think that regularly working more than 8 hours a day is healthy or sustainable in the long run, not if you want to have a healthy life outside work and maintain good family relationships.

I spend about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week working. I spend anywhere between 4 and 12 hours a week in meetings. I receive 100 - 150 emails per week to just one public-facing community email address. There are four community-related public email addresses I manage. I also have a work email address, which I use to communicate with my coworkers -- I receive between 25 and 100 email messages per day. Depending on many factors, the time it takes to parse the information and compose and respond to messages can vary. Some messages need more information before I can reply, and that information either has to be found, or awaits the action of other coworkers. I have made my MSN Messenger address and my Xfire IM address available to players precisely because I cannot spend every single second of my workday in-game, but I still want to be accessible. During specific periods (e.g. in the lead-up to the April update) or events (e.g. Halloweeen, Wintersday), my workload significantly increases.

I summarize player feedback, forum threads, and so on. I am also involved in research activities related to the games industry, community strategies, social media, etc. Community isn't only about fluffy and soft issues, but also about hard numbers and metrics, so there's been research activity on my plate for the past several months. I also consult with other functional departments. For example, I work closely with website content and marketing efforts. I also work closely with the Live Team. I coordinate with Localization and to get our Developer Updates translated. I manage the entire editorial process for the Developer Updates, and this process can take some time. I work very closely with the Live Team to discuss policy decisions. Support consults with me on issues like offensive names. Likewise, I work with support, sometimes escalating issues to them from individual players. On the GW2 side, sometimes designers and artists consult with me to get my opinion from a player/community perspective if they need another viewpoint, or if they specifically need my viewpoint, and I also give them my perspectives based on what I see in the commnity. These are just a few of the things I'm involved in.

I check about half a dozen forums, the wiki, my GW Google Alerts, and my GW-related RSS feeds. On the forums, I reguarly receive Private Messages, which like emails, vary in terms of the time it requires for me to respond. I typically spend between 2 - 3 hours a day reading all the forums and the wiki, though that number can vary depending on what and how much I have on my plate and how high priority those tasks are. Since I don't read and participate in just one forum, it's difficult to maintain what many players feel is an 'acceptable' volume of post count, and it's difficult to avoid criticism that I'm favoring one forum or another because I am actually spread pretty thinly over the various different places I participate in and read. So, like Martin regularly says to the German community: just because I do not post does not mean I do not read.

And those are just things I do when we don't have a big workload. Every single hour of my day is precious. With last month's changes at NCsoft West, and with the fast-approaching April update, this means my workload is significantly higher. Though actually, I have to say that there's rarely ever a day when I don't have a full workload.

Community management differs from game to game. I know that some community managers working at different games that wear even more hats, for example some of them also act as producers or are even design-oriented. Anyway, I hope that gives you a little more of an idea of what I do specifically, and of what community managers do in general. Sorry that was so long, and hopefully that was interesting to a few of you.

Hope you all have fun this weekend, and good luck in getting those Shamrock Ales and Four-Leaf Clovers. I may drop in on MesCon either on my work character or on my play character if I've got some time to spare over the weekend. So if you see me there, feel free to say "Hello". =)

Xunlai Tournament House - March - 05 March 2009

Hey, everyone. We're aware of the problems with this months' Xunlai Tournament House.

We're going to do another build to correct the errors in point distributions. Any extra points you earned, you will keep. We will not be subtracting any reward points.

We're really sorry about the recurring issues with XTH. I know it's annoying when you don't get the correct number of points. We're not happy either when issues pop up and cause so much inconvenience to our players. (I think our QA manager is considering going into one of our sound booths to let out some screams -- maybe we'll have the audio team turn on some recording equipment so we can use it for GW2 :-P).

We're actively exploring ways to improve XTH and streamline the (relatively complicated) backend process. With the small Live Team deep in development for the April update, we're getting squeezed for time. But we want to let you know that we do know there are issues, and we do know that these issues are causing dissatisfaction and irritation, and it is on the To Do list to improve XTH. Once again, we apologize.

Planning - 26 February 2009

You all know that the Live Team is busy designing and programming everything that will go into the April build and the monthly maintenance builds. On my side, I have been working very closely with the web team to prepare for the April build, too. Game content is only part of a big update. We also have to coordinate information pages (for example, the page about M.O.X. that introduced the new Hero to the world), Developer Updates, news posts, FAQs, and other pieces of copy that need to be written to support the game updates. Several people, including myself, are responsible for writing the content that goes on our web site. We've had a series of meetings regarding this web content. These meetings involve scheduling, decisions on what to release when, how long pieces of copy should be, which team members will be writing what, etc.

I've also been working on some policy documentation and collaborating with other departments as well as Martin on those tasks. This sort of thing is not as simple as just going forth and writing what's in your head. Some research and analysis goes into it before you even sit down to write anything. I apologize that I can't really talk about it at this time.

Aside from that, I've also been pretty deeply buried in planning work for GW2. I mentioned in a previous post that I'd been doing research on community strategies. Over the past months, I've been reading a lot of white papers, articles, and research papers from community and social media experts. The goal behind accumulating this knowledge is to help make better strategic decisions.

It's really important for any professional to stay updated on best practices in her industry. For example IT people study for and take certification tests to make sure they have up-to-date knowledge. Any good manager will encourage their employee to develop themselves professionally. We're encouraged to stay informed and knowlegable about our field, while at the same time doing all the heads-down daily work that is probably more familiar and visible to you as players. I keep on top of trends in social media and community management and try to apply and relate this knowledge to a gaming context. This professional development side of my work is probably something you all weren't aware of, so I thought I'd touch on that.

On another note, I'm pleased that many of you enjoy chatting with me on messenger. I once again apologize if I can't immediately respond to your IM. Sometimes I'm AFK or I have a deadline and can't chat. I'm thankful that you feel comfortable coming to me with your questions and concerns, and I'm happy to speak with you even if it's small talk and not about the game.

Community News Page

I'd just like to remind everyone that you can submit event information for inclusion on the Community News page on our official website.

This is the information we need to publish your event:

• Event name/title
• Organizing guild, alliance, and/or player
• Location of the event
• Date, time, time zone
• Event description/details (no more than roughly 175 words)
• Link to your event web page (web page, forum post, wiki page, blog post, etc.)

Things to keep in mind:

• We need to build time in for localization. Please don't submit your event or news one day before you'd like it published. We need at least one week of lead time before we can publish. More than a week would be ideal.
• We prefer to publish multiple items at the same time.
• We generally publish on a Thursday or a Friday, generally once a month, but more if we have more content.
• If no one submits event information, the Community News page doesn't get updated.

To aid us in spotting your message more quickly and to organize our inboxes, please title your email with the subject: "[Community News] Title of Your Event". A lot of email gets put into the spam folder, and while we do check the spam folder, sometimes the subjects are not recognizable enough for us to take notice. Emails with the subject "Re:" will not get your message noticed.

You can send information about your event to: community @arena.net.

Eventful Week - 19 February 2009

It's been pretty eventful here recently. Last week we learned that many of our collegues in Europe and Austin had to be let go. ArenaNet felt the impact in our the Community, Web, Localization, and QA teams. Other teams throughout NCsoft have felt the ripples from the restructuring as well. In the long run, though, this will mean better information flows, workflows, and better cohesion across different departments. Short term, we're going to try our hardest to minimize any negative impacts.

German fans may have heard that ArenaNet was able to extend an offer to Martin Kerstein to come work here at ArenaNet. Martin posted this news on the German forums earlier today. We're super happy that he accepted. But let's not get ahead of ourselves or raise our hopes too high. Nothing is written in stone, because we still have to get past another hurdle -- the work visa. Yes, it all depends on the United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services now. So, please keep your fingers crossed for Martin and hope that the immigration process goes in our favor.

We truly regret that we were not able to offer a position to Peter Verhelst. Unfortunately, we are under budgetary and head count constraints, so we were told that it was not possible to bring Peter over, too. I'm really sad about this, as Peter is a super worker and it has been great working him over these past months.

I want to reassure our non-English speaking players that we are going to make every effort to ensure that you have a voice here at ArenaNet. Our Localization team in Europe was unfortunately affected by the restructuring. I know this message is ironic, because we currently don't have a localization pipeline, and it's not likely that our non-English speaking fans are checking my wiki page anyway, but for what it's worth... I am keeping track of website content that we published after the restructuring, and I will try and get those translated as soon as our localization flows are restored. We're hopeful that Martin can come over, and we will be looking for additional community managers in the future (though I can't give you a time frame on that right now).

I'd like to thank everyone who has messaged Martin, Peter, and I in the forums and on instant messenger with greetings of support for the Guild Wars community team. And of course thank you to all the people who posted supportive comments in the fansite forums and on the wiki. It was very thoughtful of you to think of Martin and Peter and to pass along your support. Sometimes when you think about a company, you don't necessarily think of the people behind the products, so it was pretty heartening that many players don't see us as an anonymous corporate monolith. It's nice to know that many of you think of us as real people with real lives (and feelings), so we really appreciated your greetings.

This morning I had a conference call with Martin to get synched up on our short and long term ideas for community, which I discussed with some of the bigwigs last week. At the end of our conference call, Martin and I concluded that these ideas were full of possibility, and will mean a lot of work. I can't talk about them at this time, though, because I can't make any promises and I don't want to raise expectations in case some of them don't materialize.

The prospect of having Martin work here in the studio is pretty exciting. Even though I'm fully aware that it's not 100% certain he's going to be able to come over here, I can't help but look forward to it. It would just be so rad to be able to work with him without having to do conference calls all the time, and there are a lot of creative, ad-hoc ideas that arise spontaneously when you're surrounded by teammates who you have a great working relationship with and who are genuinely awesome people to be around.

Next week, our Senior Vice President of Global Business & Legal Affairs (long title!), Randy Price, is going to be at the Xfire Debate Club to talk with other panelists about MMOGs business models. The title of that Debate Club is "Free to Play Vs. Pay to Play". I think ArenaNet will have some interesting insights to add to the panel, since Guild Wars kind of straddles the line between the two business models. If you'd like to attend, head on over to Xfire to check it out. Transcripts of the chat will be posted later on over on the Xfire site.

I'm going to wrap this up now. Thanks a bunch for reading this far. I hope everyone has an awesome weekend, and please keep Martin, Peter, and the other affected NCsoft staff in your thoughts. Cheers.

Changes at NCsoft West – 11 February 2009

You've probably all heard the game media’s reports about NCsoft West restructuring, and so you've probably got a lot of questions about how this affects Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, and community support. The changes at NCsoft West basically mean we at ArenaNet will have more control over our games and game-related services like community, localization, and QA. With these departments located in-house, ArenaNet will be better positioned to provide world-class quality games and service to our players.

In terms of the Guild Wars Community Team, the NCsoft West changes mean all Guild Wars community managers will work right here at the ArenaNet studio. Unfortunately, in the short term this may mean that Guild Wars Community Team will be a little short-staffed. We will try to ensure the impact is minimal. In the long run, having all ArenaNet community managers at the studio will improve the flow of information between community managers and developers, as well as between community managers and players.

Guild Wars 2 development won’t be affected by the changes at NCsoft West, and in the long term it will mean good things for the quality and support we’re able to give Guild Wars 2.

Tournament Ruling - 06 February 2009

In the most recent GvG tournament, Rebel Rising [rawr] and Survival Rate [zero] tied against each other by coming to an agreement and choosing not to fight while the timer counted down. Forcing a draw at that stage of the tournament guaranteed both teams a place in the Top 16. Based on documentation and reviews of the event, we observed both guilds willfully and knowingly conspiring to intentionally draw the match in this way. It was very clear that both guilds broke tournament rules, which state that participants may not engage in any form of ladder manipulation or unsportsmanlike conduct. Both guilds agreed to tie the match, and they did so knowing that they were breaking the rules.

As a result, both guilds will have their cape trims removed. Rebel Rising [rawr] will have their permanent gold cape trim removed for a period of one month. Survival Rate [zero] will not receive their silver cape trim for placing in the Top 16. The guilds’ rankings will remain the same.

We feel that removing status (cape trims) rather than resetting their rankings sends a stronger signal to the guilds involved, while still being lenient in this first offense. Future offenses of this type may be treated in a stricter manner, including temporary or permanent bans for any players involved.

We are working on updating the ATS mechanics to further discourage this type of ladder manipulation in the future. We will also be updating the tournament rules to provide more clarity on this issue.

If you have any comments or feedback about this decision, please contact the Community Team at community @arena.net or through one of the other methods listed on my user page.

Turnier-Entscheidung

Beim letzten GvG-Turnier kam es zu einem Unentschieden zwischen Rebel Rising [rawr] und Survival Rate [zero], nachdem beide Teams vereinbart hatten, während des Countdowns nicht gegeneinander zu kämpfen. In dieser Turnierphase ein Unentschieden zu erzwingen, garantierte beiden Teams einen Platz unter den besten 16. Nach Durchsicht der Aufzeichnungen und einer Überprüfung besagter Veranstaltung sind wir zu dem Schluss gekommen, dass beide Gilden vorsätzlich und wissentlich vereinbart haben, auf diese Weise ein Unentschieden in dem Match zu erzielen. Beide Gilden haben somit eindeutig gegen die Turnierregeln verstoßen, die ausdrücklich verbieten, dass Teilnehmer Ranglistenpositionen manipulieren, die Rangliste missbrauchen oder unsportliches Verhalten an den Tag legen. Beide Gilden vereinbarten im vollen Bewusstsein, dass sie dadurch gegen die Regeln verstießen, ein Unentschieden als Resultat für dieses Match.

Aus diesem Grund werden beiden Gilden die Säume für ihre Umhänge abgenommen. Die Mitglieder von Rebel Rising [rawr] verlieren einen Monat lang den permanenten goldenen Saum für ihre Umhänge. Survival Rate [zero] erhalten keinen silbernen Saum für ihre Platzierung unter den besten 16. An der Platzierung der beiden Gilden ändert sich nichts.

Wir sind der Ansicht, dass die Wegnahme von Status (also die Abnahme des Umhangsaums) für die beteiligten Gilden schwerwiegender als eine Herabsetzung ihrer Platzierung, aber gleichzeitig relativ nachsichtig ist, da es sich hier um ihren ersten Verstoß handelt. Zukünftige Verstöße dieser Art werden eventuell strenger geahndet und können auch zu vorübergehenden oder ständigen Sperren für die beteiligten Spieler führen.

Wir arbeiten an einer Aktualisierung der ATS-Mechanik, um diese Art der Ranglistenmanipulation in Zukunft zu vermeiden. Außerdem werden wir die Turnierregeln aktualisieren, um in dieser Angelegenheit für mehr Klarheit zu sorgen.

Falls ihr Kommentare oder Feedback zu dieser Entscheidung habt, setzt euch bitte unter community @arena.net mit dem Community-Team in Verbindung, oder versucht es mit einer der anderen Möglichkeiten, die auf meiner Seite gelistet sind.

Sanctions par rapport au tournoi GvG

Au cours du dernier tournoi GvG, Rebel Rising [rawr] et Survival Rate [zero] ont décidé d'un commun accord de terminer sur un match nul en évitant le combat jusqu'à l'écoulement du temps imparti. A ce stade du tournoi, un match nul garantissait aux deux équipes une place dans le Top 16. Nous avons passé l'événement en revue et nous avons constaté que les deux guildes ont volontairement et consciemment conspiré pour terminer la rencontre à égalité. De toute évidence, les deux guildes ont enfreint le règlement du tournoi, qui précise que les participants doivent faire preuve de fair-play et ne peuvent pas procéder à de telles manipulations du classement. Les deux guildes se sont mises d'accord pour finir sur un match nul en sachant qu'elles enfreignaient le règlement.

Par conséquent, les broderies de capes des deux guildes ont été confisquées. Les membres de Rebel Rising [rawr] devront se passer de leurs broderies dorées permanentes durant un mois. Survival Rate [zero] ne recevront pas leur broderie argentée pour leur place dans le Top 16. Le classement des deux guildes ne sera pas altéré.

Nous estimons qu'en retirant ce symbole de prestige (les broderies de capes) plutôt qu'en changeant le classement, nous envoyons un message fort, tout en nous montrant cléments envers cette première infraction. A l'avenir, il se peut que nous soyons plus stricts envers ce type de comportement, y compris en excluant du jeu de façon temporaire ou permanente les joueurs impliqués.

Nous travaillons sur une mise à jour des mécanismes des Tournois Automatisés afin de décourager ce genre d'abus à l'avenir. Nous allons aussi amender le règlement du tournoi afin qu'il traite plus clairement de tels cas.

Si vous avez des commentaires ou des suggestions à propos de cette décision, n'hésitez pas à contacter notre équipe à l'adresse community@arena.net ou au moyen de l'une des autres méthodes décrites sur ma page d'utilisateur.

Incumplimiento de las normas del torneo

En el último torneo de clanes, Rebel Rising [rawr] y Survival Rate [zero] decidieron fijar un empate y no lucharon mientras el cronómetro llegaba a cero. El empate garantizaba para ambos un puesto entre los 16 mejores. Según nuestra documentación y análisis de la partida, hemos podido comprobar que los dos clanes conspiraron de forma intencionada para empatar de esta forma. Esto supone claramente un incumplimiento de las normas del torneo, las cuales indican que los participantes no pueden incurrir en ninguna manipulación de la clasificación ni en conductas antideportivas. Los dos clanes acordaron empatar la partida, y lo hicieron sabiendo que estaban incumpliendo las normas.

Como castigo, vamos a quitar el ribete de las capas de los dos clanes. Rebel Rising [rawr] estará sin su ribete de oro permanente durante un mes. Por su parte, Survival Rate [zero] no recibirá el ribete plateado por quedar entre los 16 primeros. La puntuación de los clanes no se verá alterada.

Creemos que eliminar el estado (es decir, los ribetes) en lugar de reiniciar sus puntuaciones supondrá un importante aviso a los dos clanes, al ser ésta su primera ofensa. Si en el futuro se producen incumplimientos de este tipo seremos más estrictos, y podremos incluso sancionar a los jugadores de forma temporal o permanente.

Debido a esto, estamos actualizando la mecánica de los torneos automatizados para evitar este tipo de comportamientos. También vamos a actualizar las normas de los torneos para mayor claridad en este sentido.

Si tienes algún comentario sobre esta decisión, ponte en contacto con el Equipo de la Comunidad escribiendo a community @arena.net o a través de los otros medios indicados en mi página.

Rispetto del Regolamento dei Tornei

Nel torneo GvG più recente, i Rebel Rising [rawr] e i Survival Rate [zero] hanno terminato la partita con un pareggio decidendo di comune accordo di non combattere mentre l'incontro era ancora in corso di svolgimento. Un pareggio in quella fase del torneo ha garantito ad entrambe le squadre un posto tra le prime 16. Con tutta la documentazione alla mano e revisionando la partita, abbiamo potuto appurare con sicurezza che entrambe le squadre hanno complottato per terminare la partita con un pareggio intenzionale e premeditato. Le due gilde hanno trasgredito palesemente il regolamento del torneo che statuisce la colpevolezza di coloro che sono coinvolti in attività per l'alterazione illecita della classifica e in atteggiamenti poco sportivi. Le squadre hanno negoziato un pareggio pur essendo consapevoli della violazione delle norme di partecipazione,

Pertanto, entrambe le gilde saranno punite con la rimozione della bordatura dai mantelli: ai Rebel Rising [rawr] la bordatura d'oro permanente sarà rimossa per un mese, mentre i Survival Rate [zero] non riceveranno quella d'argento pur essendosi classificati tra le prime 16. La posizione in classifica non sarà tuttavia modificata.

Crediamo che così facendo stiamo mandando un monito severo alle gilde coinvolte, ma trattandosi della loro prima infrazione abbiamo deciso di essere indulgenti e non punirli con la sottrazione di punti; tuttavia, qualsiasi trasgressione futura sarà condannata con maggior severità, inclusa la sospensione temporanea o permanente di tutti i giocatori coinvolti.

Stiamo aggiornando il funzionamento delle dinamiche dei tornei automatizzati per evitare che avvengano cospirazioni di questo tipo in futuro e revisioneremo il regolamento dei tornei per fare maggior chiarezza su questo argomento.

Per eventuali commenti relativi alla nostra decisione, vi preghiamo di contattare il personale della Community all'indirizzo community @arena.net o usare uno dei metodi indicati nella mia pagina utente.

February Tournament Reward Points - 05 February 2009

There were a few technical issues with the Xunlai points distribution this month. We are going to push another build live today to address the problem.

Some people may have received extra Reward Points due to this technical problem. This oversight will be corrected with next month's build. So this means, if you've incorrectly received extra points this month, next month's update will remove the points that were incorrectly given to you.

Update on Tournament Rules Decision - 05 February 2009

A lot of folks have been waiting to hear about the decision about the rules infraction in the last monthly automated tournament. We have been in the process of drafting a public message that will convey our decision. However, because of unforeseen circumstances (staff illness), and because the message needs to go through the approval process, as well as translation/localization, it will not be ready today as we had hoped.

We have not been making this decision in isolation. We have been reading your comments, opinions, and viewpoints and speaking to players about their take on the situation. We have taken a lot of factors into account, however, ultimately we have to take those perspectives into context, and with the tournament rules in mind.

Regardless of the final results of the tournament, rules were broken and the guilds involved will face consequences.

A New Year - 09 January 2009

Most everyone at ArenaNet has returned to the office this week, including the Community Team. During the last weeks of the year at at the very beginning, the State of Washington experienced heavy snowfalls, which saw the ArenaNet office snowed in with people unable to get to work safely. Many of us worked from home during times we were not closed for the holidays. This week, it's been raining all the time, so back to more or less the regular weather patterns.

The Community Team has been catching up on feedback from when our offices were closed due to the holidays. In particular, the Community Team has again relayed feedback asking developers for the removal of Heroes in GvG/HA, as well as the continued issues with synching in RA.

We're going to be releasing some news to give you an idea of what we have in store for GW1 this year. Look for that soon. I think people will be very excited about what we're working on...