Your thoughts on Anet's communication style

What do you think on Anet's current communication style to Guild wars 2 players? As I understand, they wanted to do a show more and less tell strategy and mainly talk about something right before it is about to be released. How do you feel about this method of conveying whats next in Guild wars 2? Do you think it should be changed? Do you care about the devs talking about whats next?

It’s a million times better than it used to be in my opinion. Could always be better but I don’t have any complaints at the communication we have now.

I think it's just fine. They have an announcement spot, a patch notes spot, a spot on what's on the gem store and what's ending.I think it seems alright.

A good example is the blackout on the release of the griffon. Could you have imagined the negative responses if everyone knew it would be in game and thought they were entitled to it - only to find out it costs a lot of gold? Instead, they hid it from general knowledge, locked it behind a 250g collection and some scavenger hunting achievements, and made it feel like a bonus. The only reason we knew about it is because some guy, who probably kept up with any leaked information, came across the collection and started spreading the word over tyria. The reviews have been mostly positive because of it.
When you announced things too far in advance and give away all of your plans, people have more time to nitpick it and perhaps taint the perspective of players who would have otherwise seen it as a positive. Heck, people were ripping apart all of the elite specs before we even knew what ANY of the skills did. So I say tease the major talking points, but hide a lot of little things.

Needs to be more but mostly in terms of their ideas for what classes should be and upcoming balance plans. There's no reason this stuff should be treated as a state secret and being more open instead of going completely dark for months is a better way I'd think.

Its fine but I almost voted for more because of my personal impatience :p

Some employees communicate more frequently and better than others.

I'd like more but i don't feel that's the right answer, I'd like more from specific area's rather than just more for the sake of it.

Ex the one team i'd love to see a lot more interaction from and insight into is the Skills and Balance team. It would be nice to know things like the intent of certain design choices that way people can give appropriate feedback on the relative strength of certain skills/traits/eSpecs.

This poll is flawed. As it is, there is one option for, "Not enough communication," and two for, "More communication is not needed," For a truer picture of that dichotomy, combine options one and three and compare to two.

It is probably best that they keep future plans a secret until they are actually ready to release content.

I just wish the devs didn't seem to focus so my attention to the Reddit forum instead of the official forum.

I think they should keep current content plans a surprise as usual but should give some direction about class and game mode balance. There's a lot of questions (and also very angry necromancers lol) going on at the moment and I think a few responses as a whole would probably reduce some player anxiety.

changes could save it but honestly I do not see that ever happen not even now even if they are the right changes made I see this game on its last legs 2012-2017

There's one option missing: Get off Reddit and announce stuff on you own official forum.

I chose as I did because Anet uses Twitter and reddit more than their own forums. We who follows the forums hear everything last if even ever.

I think there is a need for more discussion, honest discussion regarding balance plans. This is a major function which directly impacts all facets of the game but there is very little interaction with the community and couple that with no test server for player input it has led to many issues and a lot of negativity surrounding the game itself.

I wish we'd get more feedback in the Class specific threats around balancing and around balance in general as well - balancing is something you cannot do locked away in your cellar without talking to the community. Some dev's do talk to the community to some degree in the necro forum for example - which is great but Weaver Feedback has been ignored until all the Weaver Feedback Threads have died out. Now my best guess is that they'll just let Weaver bleed out as a mediocre spec that is barely good enough at anything and is only played because the idea is interesting and it's kinda fun to play around with. Shouldn't Weaver be good at something? (Other then killing pinatas really fast)

And another thing is how information is sprayed all over different plattforms - this is the official forum - make it look like it as well! Some community members have created a very nice and readable summary of the Reddit AMA here in the forum. Why didn't anyone at anet do that? If your employees don't have time to take care of the game, maybe you need one or two more employees?

I know everything there is to be known and enjoy the game. Anet improved their communication and yet community still can't improve their behaviour.

They could be communicating more. However, we, as a community, don't deserve it. There are a lot of overreactions, taking everything literally, quoting what has been said in some random interview before the game was even released and interpreting it in a horrible way.I wish they would be in these forums more. But I am happy that they don't. Community would drive them crazy.

I do not have issue with quality and quantity of content, except PoF. I have an issue with lack of responsiveness. Like class balance changes as an example. We know one is coming soon. Devs could have said that they will have a balance patch in the firs or second week of November, and everyone would be fine. Instead they choose to not respond at all. Not sure why.

Why is there not an option for 'I would like them to communicate more, but understand why they feel they can't'?

People like to forget that they used to communicate with us more. And at times they did try to tell us what was in the pipeline, occasionally with very tentative timelines. However, they've taken so much flak for it over the years that they have, for the most part, simply stopped. Everything they give us now is layered with PR speak, offers no concrete promises or even tentative timelines, and / or is completely after the fact. I don't particularly care for it, but I do understand why they do it.

There have been devs that have tried to talk with us, and have ended up getting themselves into hot water because they spoke their mind to some of the insolent children that frequent these forums and as such have since stopped interacting.

Anyone recall being told that there is a mandatory training they have to take if they want to interact with us here? Their time is better spent doing other things.

So, we're stuck with limited PR speak and only when things are absolutely confirmed as being ready for release.

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:This poll is flawed. As it is, there is one option for, "Not enough communication," and two for, "More communication is not needed," For a truer picture of that dichotomy, combine options one and three and compare to two.

"I dont care" and "I think its fine" are two different things.

Opinion also rarely is just x options within a poll anyway. Pointing out a poll is flawed is pointing out the obvious to me.

So as not to derail your thread, and be really serious and supportive, I have selected an option, and will also give you a thumbs up.

If they are going to improve the communication between Staff and Community, then i am afraid that the community could start to pretend more:

1. Why don't you do this and that
2. You don't listen
3. Even though ANET discuss with us, since it does not as many of us say it means that it doesn't care

I would be fine btw if they'll decide to have some discussions with a selected elite ( PvE, WvW and SPvP ).This cause listen/talk to the whole community is, imho, not the right idea.

Btw i am not sure if by refering to ANET as 3rd person i have to use it/he/she or whatever.