User talk:Regina Buenaobra/Archive Game Related Topics/Aug 2009

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Updates big and small

Assuming there is going to be another large content update similar to the April one, what is its progress, when can we expect it and what does it contain? There is a lot of speculation on these matters and it wouldnt hurt to give us an update.

On a somewhat related note, rather than leaving us on a knife edge as to when general updates do appear you could indicate ahead of time so we are not left hanging. A simple word in the forums is usually enough to disperse any unnecessary suspense. --77.97.23.248 21:49, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

She's already said she can't tell us. And trust me she's not going to violate the NDA. Just get used to not hearing anything. Apparently, it's a new policy. Karate Jesus 21:56, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

When they can tell us something, you won't have to ask for it, you'll know as soon as it's available. — Jon Lupen 21:58, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Saw on Guru that the update is today (it was confirmed with ss's of a convo w/a dev), but it's not going to be the big update (he said it wont remove heroes from GvG and HA). After this update, are we going to get info on what will be in that update? Karate Jesus 22:20, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Frankly, I'm starting to get a little tired of all this secrecy about everything until the last second. It's understandable that predicting the exact arrival date of a big update is difficult, but that doesn't mean you have to stay zipped about everything. Some details have to be available, and if something doesn't work out as expected, we all can understand if you just say "Hey, it didn't work like we planned it to be, so this and this feature won't make it or will turn out different or we'll do something else instead." Any communication is better than complete silence that leaves people wondering just wth it is that you guys are doing and how it's coming along and if we have any chance of seeing it before Xmas. >_< This isn't CIA and we don't need secret clearance to know at least SOMETHING.

On that note, many big games release some trailers or renders or other in-game graphics/features/etc a year or more before even knowing the exact game release date or what the final thing will look like. (Yes, I'm pointing fingers at D3, but not just that.) Does this mean that GW2 is coming in 2011 or later? Will this be something my kids will play? (Oh yeah, I don't have any kids yet. O_o)

In the end, I'm not asking anyone to break the NDA, I'm asking why it is so damn strict to begin with, because I see absolutely no reason for it, in fact I think it's hurting the game. Rose Of Kali 23:05, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Many things are covered for NDA mostly because like campain 4 one day its there, another day its something else. They don't release info until its out to make sure they don't lie, and end up with a pissed user base because they didn't add something for a reason or two. There is nothing you can do about it but wait, and getting pissed off by this is understandable but its ArenaNets descision to stay silent. --Dominator Matrix 23:29, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

~~000.00.00.00~~ wants to add to this conversation but he doesn't want to make Salome cry into his pillow going "Why!?! Why won't ~~000.00.00.00~~ stop quoting Arenanet?" ~~000.00.00.00~~ 00:04, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Condoms are a great way to avoid STDs, unwanted pregnancy, child support, you know, all the nasty stuff. When a condom is too tight, it can break and your effort is futile. When it's too loose, it falls off. You just gotta find the right fit, extremes aren't good for anyone. Oh, and I like quotes. Rose Of Kali 00:22, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, you may be somewhat right Dominator, but we're already pissed because there is no communication whatsoever. Guild Wars news by Regina was posted at the beginning of this year as everyone has quoted: "We want players to feel connected to what we are developing even though it may be months away from release, so during development we will be more open about our process and what we are working on." They state that content updates will occur every 3-4 months. Well, we're in the 4th month, August. And there is absolutely no preview or information as to what will be in that content update other than Hero removal and work in GVG. That much general information wasn't even posted on the main gws site. You have to dig around for it. I dunno about you, but I don't feel more connected to what Anet is doing. To be honest, I feel that Anet's silence is the same as last year, and at times, even worse. When a company says they're going to do something and they don't, that tends to piss people off. Dominator I know Anet doesn't want to tell us possible lies about what may be in the update, but they are already breaking statements they've made, and that more or less can be considered as lies already. I'm tired of silence and I'm moving on to Aion until I find value in Anet's public relations and communication. I've played gws for 4 yrs and this consistent silence is making many players leave, including myself. This direction in their public relations isn't doing any good, at least for me. I could care less if they were to relay things that may not be accurate in the update later, but it's at least something to motivate and excite people. More communication was something they stated to players. Wetwillyhip 03:12, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

~~000.00.00.00~~ just spoke about himself in the third person, thus confirming everything I already suspected about him. *sigh*. Also as said before, not an anet fanboi, just would rather the topic stays on topic, rather than off on a tangent. As for some reason regina seems to end up answering the tangents alot of the time and not the original questions. -- Salome 06:45, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

If a topic goes off on a tangent, we can just split it off into a second topic or give it a sub title, can't we? Rose Of Kali 16:11, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

First of all: talks about triple oh go to triple oh's page. Talk about arenanets silence, the contrary of what they stated, goes here. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Borotvaltgandalf (talk).

77.97.23.248: I'm not able to give you information on progress, when it will arrive, or what it will contain. If I was able to share that with you, I would. We're aware that there's a lot of speculation. When I am allowed to share information, I'll definitely do so. :-) You have to understand that what info we (the Community Team) share or when---it's not up to us. The Live Team---they're all aware that you really want information, and we have been relaying this desire from the players.

On the issue of the maintenance updates and providing players a heads-up on when they will arrive. We tend to do those within the first couple of weeks of each month, depending on when the previous monthly tournament ended. The maintenance updates are generally scheduled Thursdays. Why Thursdays? Because we have a few days at the start of the week to finalize testing and get the update notes localized, and we have Friday to monitor the build and fix bugs before the weekend. Generally, we release builds in the afternoon, though this has not always been the case. It depends on whether any last-minute issues pop up. So this should give you an idea of the time window for the maintenance updates. I did ask yesterday whether it would be all right to tell players that the build would arrive on the day, however I was told that unforeseen circumstances could still happen that could affect the game update. In general, I'm unable to give a specific time that a build will arrive, unless it will arrive within an hour or two, and even in those cases, issues have popped up, and the game update did not arrive within that window. --Regina Buenaobra 18:27, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Then how is it possible that in the past we have been told days, even weeks ahead of time about updates? Wouldn't the same issues still have been true back then? Is there some new policy of secrecy that we're missing out on? I would love updates on several things that are going on (XTH, Test Krewe, why there seems to be a non-existent QA team, why so many bugs seem to have gone unfixed for quite a long time, content update [every 4 months my ass], heroes being removed from GvG and HA, etc). 24.26.253.105 18:41, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

OK, here's my best guess:

• XTH: Probably not exactly the top priority here, but being worked on.
• Test Krewe: See above.
• Non-existant QA Team: Most of them are definitely working on GW2.
• Content update: If it's a PvP Love update and they are trying to do Sealed Deck like Linsey hinted at, I'm not really surprised if it'll be a month late, but I hope not!
• Heroes: Probably waiting on the content update to do this.
• Bugs: World of Warcraft still has a ton of unfixed bugs, you know why? Because bugs use a priority system, the only bugs that ever get fixed OMFG NOW are ones that can be exploited for personal gain (dupe bug, for example) or those that 100% prevent something for working (like Signet of Creations doing nothing in PvP, AI for some monster not doing anything, etc). Everything else is generally considered low priority, aka: it gets fixed whenever someone can be bothered to fix it. Even the "simplest" of bugs can take a long time to fix because you have to fix it, then you have to make sure you really fixed it and didn't break anything in the process, etc, and 99.9% of the time it's not worth wasting those minutes fixing a simple bug most people won't notice over investing that time on doing stuff like say the XTH, the Test Krewe, QA, working on making new henchmen so you can remove Heroes from PvP, or the Content Update. ;) DarkNecrid 14:14, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Also you got told in advance before because they had more people working on the game to help guarantee that. Now most of ArenaNet is focused on GW2 and nabbing people to help out takes a lot more time and isn't guaranteed. All of this is just my best guess so take it with a grain of salt, but yeah. DarkNecrid 14:33, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

What's wrong with saying "We have so-and-so update scheduled to come out on so-and-so afternoon or between noon and 4pm whatever time." Realistically, how often does something go wrong that you don't issue the update even close to when you planned it? Rose Of Kali 20:33, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

It's happened plenty of times before actually, and the problem with it is that a lot of gamers don't seem to know the difference between scheduled and "will be released on...". This is why a lot of companies use the "soon" or "when it's done" schtick, gamers take schedules as promises, and with saying "soon" or "when it's done", you don't promise anything, which means you never let anyone down to make them bite your head off. DarkNecrid 23:40, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

And that is perfectly fine too, the problem is that we don't even get that much, we get a big fat NOTHING. There's no "we're working on this" or "we're discussing this" or "we're polishing this for release sometime soon." There's... [puts hand to her ear] *chirp chirp chirp* silence... Rose Of Kali 02:22, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

You hear silence, I hear the sounds of very busy work. :P Even saying "we're working on X or discussing X" doesn't work half the time. Hell they said they were going to look at certain farming methods and adjust them if needed after that, what happens? "Why didn't they nerf Shadow Form, they promised they would." DarkNecrid 02:45, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Question about Gold Trading

Hello, I'm part of a guild /alliance where officers are required to do monthly events and my event is a lottery. The lottery doesn't have to include gold; mostly items and such. My question is: Would giving away gold for the purpose of a lottery be considered illegal gold trading? I know that trading gold for real world cash is illegal but is donating for the point of giving away to other members in a guild/alliance be considered as an illegal activity? Thank you for your time. 96.245.6.189 15:04, 23 August 2009 (UTC) (ComradeSanders on GWikia)

Document your event, such as screenshots of the giveaway, or a save of the forum page where it's announced, etc. This will help you be safe "just in case," so you can prove your innocence. But in all honesty there is no reason for you to worry, unless you're giving away 100's of platinum or lots of ectos/zkeys/minis/etc. (staple RMT stuff) in a short period of time. Also, someone would have to report you for Anet to investigate, as they don't really have effective means to detect that on their own unless it's like I mentioned: massive trades in quick succession. Rose Of Kali 16:49, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

The Servers are located in the US, and US law is very clear about Lotteries which is that they can only be State-Run. For all other private contests, a Sweepstakes must be run. In layman's terms, there's no reason Anet's Lawyers to get involved so long as you are not requiring contestants to expend valuable resources to you or another organization just to participate in said Contest. Which you aren't so I don't even know where you got the idea of "gold trading" even coming into play. However if you're requiring all contestants to actually Join your Guild, then your entire question was not actually a question but a shameless plug for your Guild and shouldn't be here, but rather on the Guild promotion sections. --ilr 21:07, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

A pretty dumb plug for the guild then, eh Ilr? Didn't even mention the name of it... --Alex Eternal 08:41, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

I always used the term lottery for situations like this, but I guess sweepstakes works just as well. I'm an officer in an European guild, who lives in America. The point was to collect donated items (weapons, consumables, unwanted minipets, etc.) from those who wished to donate on a voluntary basis, I would store them in storage until the day of the event, when I would give any lucky participant the item that was selected from donated items based on the /roll system. I included gold when I originally told the alliance what my plans were, and that drew some red flags from more experienced officers and the alliance leader. I figured attempting to contact the Community Manager might help. 96.245.6.189 17:19, 24 August 2009 (UTC) (ComradeSanders)

ComradeSanders: Many guilds and alliances have giveaways like what you described (collecting donated in-game items, and giving them out to event participants) for their events and celebrations. This isn't something we take action for. :-) If you're concerned that members of your guild may get actioned for unusual trading activity, please contact support@guildwars.com, and explain what your event is about (along with any links to your guild and event pages), when it's taking place, and what will be given out, and we will work with the GMs to try and make sure those accounts are not flagged through the automated system. --Regina Buenaobra 23:03, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

XTH and Kun Shao

Hi Regina - has any thought been given to removing Kun Shao from the game until XTH is fixed? Since he's really currently not up to much in his current locations, perhaps he could go on vacation with Nicholas the Traveler, appearing at Nicholas's locations along with Yakkington, until XTH is fixed. Then we'd all know XTH is fixed when he reappears in GToB... and besides, sending off to travel with Professor Yakkington sounds kind of fun in a lame (but good) kind of way. 24.188.207.20 04:05, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

^ This is the best idea I have heard in centuries. 99.142.36.146 08:40, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

lol yeah, THIS IS DEFINITELY TO BE CONSIDERED! - Wuhy 12:24, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

it r sound lik prtyy cool but like that takes efforts and stuff and yeah (Go me I just answered you why it WON'T happen, too much effort.) --220.235.136.168 13:37, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

That post has to be highest in loser-factor of anything I've ever seen on this wiki. Are the thoughts in your head as incoherent as what you typed here or does the failure only happen when you interface with the keyboard?

A game update is required to remove Kun Shao from the game. The Live Team would rather do game updates when there are other items that need to be updated as well, to reduce disruption to players. --Regina Buenaobra 01:06, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Nicholas The Traveler Aug 10 2009 Faux Pas

I believe Anet messed up. Instead of placing Nicholas The Traverer in his 'correct' place, he should have been left where he was; since many had already been collecting what he was accepting. By putting him 'in his correct location', instead of letting him be & fixing the text, Anet provides ammunition for the concept that it controls gameplay overbearingly. The way this faux pas was played out reinforces the rumors that there is a grand scheme of not only leading but micromanaging gameplay. Bad form in insisting the Traveler go where scheduled - and bad form in provoding ammunition to those who fear conspiracy. Just my two cents to the powers that be - be more willing to go with the flow & don't be so bureaucratic! --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.245.16.62 (talk).

Guiding/micromanaging gameplay? Stop the presses, and so what! No one is being forced to play this game, nor being forced to pay anything to play it (beyond purchasing a game key). I'm sure you can find an abundant number of other free games with which to spend your time, rather than harassing Anet - Might I suggest using Google? 67.205.52.175 03:51, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

It takes a minimum of 24 hours (for a small amount of text) to correct in-game text because of the localization process. In-game text changes cannot be made on the fly for all languages, simply because we do not have in-house localization staff for every single language. The text changes could have been made for German and English, but not the other languages. Nicholas was not in the correct location, therefore we did not have the correct greeting text for him. We moved him to the correct location, which we already had localized text for. We're sorry that the correction inconvenienced you, and we acknowledge the fact that not having him in the right place in the first place was our bad. --Regina Buenaobra 01:05, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I hate to bring this up again, but....

Could we possibly get an update on the XTH? I know you guys are busy and all, but I heard a while back that you guys knew how many points we'd all earned....so, I'd just like to know if we could hear anything at all. I know that the second I press "Save page" someone will post, "They'll tell us when they can", but I am hoping that maybe the closed-door policy is ending. So....anything we can know yet? Karate Jesus 21:43, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

We do have the correct number of points for the last distribution, but before we distribute those points, Linsey would like to post about it to discuss the state of XTH and some of the back end issues that we're wrestling with. --Regina Buenaobra 21:02, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

That's good. So do we have an idea as to when the XTH will be back up? Late next week? Earlier? Later? calor (talk) 21:46, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

So....what exactly does that mean? Linsey wants to discuss the XTH with who? Us? What in the world would we need to discuss? Either it's coming back or it isn't :/ Karate Jesus 06:12, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

She's working on a post that will lay everything out concerning XTH, basically. She'll be posting about it as soon as it gets through the approval process. --Regina Buenaobra 23:06, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Content Updates

Hello Regina, I'm sorry if you've had this question before but I've been looking around a bit and I can't find an answer. I remember that you said "Content updates will be done separately from the monthly maintenance and occur every three to four months." at the beginning of this year, guess what? At the end of August those four months have passed, however, I've heard nothing of such update. Which reminded me of this quote: "We want players to feel connected to what we are developing even though it may be months away from release, so during development we will be more open about our process and what we are working on." Either you've broken both of those or just the second one. I have no idea what to say really, those updates felt like a promise...waiting for answers but since it's ANet I'm not expecting anything. Shmutt 11:00, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) look up a few topics. She's already explained. ~ PheNaxKian 12:06, 26 August 2009