User:Regina Buenaobra/Journal/Archive Jul-Sep 2008

Post-PAX - 9 September 2008

I'd like to apologize to the wiki community for the delay in getting to the question and discussion on my talk page. Now that I'm back and recovered from PAX, I'm going to be addressing the issues there over the next few days. Thanks!

The Week of PAX - 25 August 2008

I'm sorry that I haven't been super active on my talk page the past few of weeks. When I get back from PAX on Tuesday next week (Monday 1st September is a holiday in the States), I will try to get to as many questions as I can and just generally tidy up the page.

If any of you are going to PAX, please stop by the ArenaNet booth. We're got loads of prizes to give away at our tournaments, and I'll be on hand to chat to people, hand out skill pins, and run booth games. And of course, we have a party on Saturday night, starting at 6pm for VIP guests, and 9pm for non-VIPs. To find out how to score a VIP ticket to the party, come speak to me at our booth.

Oh yeah, we've also got a Twitter, so you can follow our PAX adventures. We'll be posting pictures from PAX 2008 Flickr page but meanwhile, you may want to check out our photoset from PAX 2007.

For those of you who cannot attend PAX, I will be participating in a live online chat on Xfire on Saturday, August 30 at 12:00 noon, Pacific Time. Details of the event are here. You need to sign up for an Xfire account in order to participate. I'm going to try and rope in a couple of other ArenaNet staff members for the chat as well, though their participation is entirely dependent on their individual schedules.

Back to work!

Busy Busy! - 20 August 2008

I'm really busy these days in the lead-up to PAX. Apart from my regular tasks, which already keep me extremely busy, I'm continuing to work on:

• PAX preparations. There is a ton of work to do, now that the convention is getting closer. Materials are being printed. Our merchandise closet is going to be appropriated for use by the new audio team, so a new closet has to be be built elsewhere in the building. Meanwhile, I need to find space for the merch in the interim. Sorting through that merchandise is all kinds of fun (not), and it's taken me AFK for a couple of hours at a time over the past couple of days. I anticipate having to dive into the merchandise closet again at least a few more times this week to do more organizing.

• I was out of the office yesterday, so I'm catching up on the forums and piles of email at my work account. I must be included on at least a dozen, if not more, internal email distribution lists.
  • I get dozens and dozens of emails at the public accounts I maintain, and keeping up with the never ending flow of email is a daily challenge, when set against everything else I'm doing.

• This week, the Euros are off at Leipzig, but when they get back we're going to get really stuck in on strategizing and planning. Right now I am compiling my thoughts into a hopefully coherent and logical format for discussion soon.

• Helping to prepare a Dev Update for publication this week. The developers have been tracking the results of recent game updates, and there are a few issues they hope to address this week. We've been getting reports all around about Hero and Hench AI issues, so that's something that they are evaluating and testing. Depending on the test results, there may be some AI changes this week.

• On an unrelated note, our company summer picnic happened on a hot, sunny day over the past weekend. It was loads of fun. They had a climbing wall with three routes of different difficulty levels. I tried the hard course first, because I knew that medium would be too easy for me, but I failed. I switched over to medium to warm up, and I was right -- medium was way too easy for me. Then I tried the hard course again, but failed. Later on in the day, I tried the hard course yet again and made it to the top on my second try. Apparently I was one of only two women who had made it to the top of the hard course, so I'm a slightly proud of that. Izzy tried to climb the hard course, but he failed. Apparently when I reached the top, he commented that I put the rest of them to shame. :-D I don't really climb at all, but it's so much fun.

Anyway, that's all for now. Sorry for not replying to all your questions on the wiki. Unfortunately, I don't have time to answer absolutely every single question that comes to me through the wiki, all the forums (in PM and on the threads), and to those of you who send me instant messages through Xfire. I do the best I can, and try to send the devs what seem to be the most urgent issues. If you want to contact me privately, please do so by sending me a PM through the forums (my accounts are listed on my user page).

Nein - 5 August 2008

Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it to Leipzig for Games Convention after all. :-( International travel is not as easy for citizens of my country as it is for countries such as the United States. The German government requires me to fly down to San Francisco, California and appear in-person at the German Consulate General just to apply for a travel visa to visit Germany. The situation was discussed and we decided that taking a day or two out just to submit a visa application would be inconvenient.

I've been working on a big project recently, which I can't talk about at this time. It should be come apparent relatively soon, though this depends on scheduling and other factors.

The GW1 live team has been extremely busy working on the massive game update due out later this week.

Leipzig Planning - 23 July 2008

I'm not the only one planning summer convention events. The European Guild Wars Community Team and the NCsoft Europe Community Team are gearing up for Games Convention, taking place from 20 - 24 August in Leipzig, Germany. NCsoft Europe has been busy chronicling their plans for Games Convention in a fun series of vodcasts. The latest episode is up on the site here.

On Friday, August 22, the NCsoft Europe Community Team will host a free party in downtown Leipzig. Apart from partying the night away, you may also be able to DJ a set (for details, check out the link). The Community Team will also host the first-ever NCsoft Fansites Karaoke Battle, which is looking to be very awesome with three Guild Wars fansites representing. Martin is talking of possibly roping myself and other ArenaNet staffers into the karaoke battle as well, which is all kinds of scary...

Sunday, August 24 is NCsoft Community Day at Leipzig, and there will be all sorts of activities for various NCsoft games, including a cosplay contest.

PAX Planning - 16 July 2008

Right now we are in the heavy planning stages for our PAX events. The main things on my plate are Game Works party logistics and booth activities logistics.

The Game Works party planning is slowly coming together. We're going to be doing something a little different this year for the party activities. Last year, we had ArenaNet staff running competitions where guests played arcade games (racing, Taiko Drum Master, etc.) to compete for small prizes. From my perspective as an attendee, this didn't seem to generate rich conversations with the developers, as many guests were more focused on playing for a small prize than talking. This year, we're planning on a game that encourages socialization and interaction between guests and ArenaNet staff. There will be prizes involved, of course.

The party schedule is going to be the same as last year. The first three hours will be for VIP ticket holders only. After 9pm, the party opens to all PAX badge holders. Tickets are free, but limited. How do you get a VIP ticket? Show up at our booth at PAX to find out. I promise it won't be anything too painful. ;-)

We will be sharing the booth with NCsoft again, and the booth layout at PAX is going to be a little different this year. I'm trying to figure out what sort of activities we can hold within these physical constraints. Last year the booth got crowded during the quiz game, and people were blocking the aisles, to the annoyance of other PAX attendees. I'm keeping stuff like this in mind when coming up with potential activities, which is a bit of a challenge. We're going to be running tournaments again, of course, but other folks are organizing that bit.

There are lots of things to do, involving several teams: scheduling, design of printed materials, printing of stuff, transportation of swag and other stuff, event web pages, arranging for booth/party staffing, and so on.

Anyway, that's one of the big projects I've been working on recently.

Oh, by the way. If you do come to the Game Works party, and I'm not busy (this might happen sometime after 9pm or so, or may not happen at all), I'd love to play some DDR with anyone who's into that. Or even if you're not -- so my atrophied DDR skills (I play on Standard difficulty, BTW) will look awesome next to you. Ha ha! ;-) I also have passable skills at Tekken.

On (Not) Accepting Virtual Gifts - 7 July 2008

Guild Wars players have shown me much generosity since I started working here. When I appear for chats in-game, I'm bombarded with people offering me armor dye, sweets, or random weapons. I really appreciate your kindness. I appreciate that your intentions are good and honorable. I know you just want to be nice, but showing your appreciation by telling me or posting in the forums or the wiki means just as much, if not more, than giving me a virtual item.

After some thought, I have decided not to accept virtual items or gold from players, no matter how small or insignificant. I am here to act as a link between you and the developers. I'm not here to collect your hard-earned items. Honestly, you wouldn't even be offering me these items if I was still a regular player and not someone working at ArenaNet.

I have been mulling this issue over ever since I started working at ArenaNet. Most companies, especially companies in the entertainment industry, have very strict rules on the giving and receiving of gifts, though in the majority of cases, those policies apply to real world goods rather than virtual goods. My previous company had a sizeable section of the employee handbook devoted to the gifts issue. It's true, ArenaNet is a completely different company with different policies. This is a decision I have come to after thinking about gift-giving policies, speaking to friends who work in other companies and asking them about their policies, and thinking about the ethically sticky situations one could potentially get into, especially when working in a public position like community management.

I don't want to accept virtual items as gifts from players because I don't want to give people the impression that I am favoring some players. I also don't want players to think they can "buy" my attention by giving me stuff. I understand that this will affect players who don't have those intentions, who just want to be nice, but like I said before -- showing your appreciation on the forums or the wiki is just as meaningful as giving me an in-game item.

I have accepted small gifts from players on occasion in the past, however I am going to take a firm stance on this now. If you open Trade requests with me, I will politely decline. Please respect my decision. Thank you. :-)

NCsoft Summer Events - 3 July 2008

The summer convention season is here, and I've been getting many questions on what our plans are. I don't know if many people picked up on this, but NCsoft has issued a press release letting everyone know about events taking place this summer.

As you can see, the star of the show this summer is going to be Aion. I heard about Aion a little over a year ago, when I'd just started working at Xfire and a friend at NCsoft Europe told me a bit about the game. As a player, I've been keeping tabs on this game for over a year, so I'm personally quite excited about seeing Aion stuff at PAX and Leipzig. Right now, I'm really interested in playing an Asmodian Mage (specializing in Spirit Mastery). Spirit Master Mages in Aion summon and control minions. I prefer to play spellcasters and more specifically, spellcasters that have pets or minions. For example, I played a Warlock in World of Warcraft and I'm currently playing a Lore-Master in Lord of the Rings Online. Though in odd contrast, I rarely spec my Necromancer as a minion master in Guild Wars, where I prefer to run curse-based builds. But I digress...

So what's going on with ArenaNet? We're going to be at PAX, taking up a bit of the NCsoft booth. We'll be having a bunch of tournaments throughout the weekend, where you have a chance to compete for fabulous prizes. There will be artist signings where you can meet and chat to some of our awesome talent. ArenaNet staff will be on at least one panel during the weekend. We're also hosting a party at the Game Works arcade/restaurant/bar on Saturday night of PAX. We'll also have a game/raffle at the party, and of course you can play games in the arcade, but the party is first and foremost a social event and your prime opportunity to meet and speak to the Guild Wars team all in one place -- get to know the faces and people behind the game you play.