Any chance for a PvP-only AMA?

Hey Ben,You're an awesome guy. I know you're busy, but the its evident every time you do appear on the forums everybody here clamor to your presence. Most people are also aware of Arenanet's policy not to divulge too much future plans ahead of time. Having said that, any chance you can have a little chat with us on where the direction PvP is headed in? Personally I'm not looking for promises or anything but I would like to know what I have to look forward to from the PvP aspect of GW2 (not pvp balance , PvP as a game mode) in 2018 before investing my time further. In light of that sounding rather selfish I genuinely believe many others seek the same information. It would be great to know what are some of Arenanet's concerns are regarding this game mode. The conversation could perhaps be prefaced with a disclaimer that what you say isn't a direct promise of a feature, as the whole notion of 'broken promises' has properly deterred many of your team members from sharing in the past.

You've informed us that there are new tournament features coming soon. That's great! Perhaps we can start a dialogue and discuss features that the community wants, and are within the realms of possibility. Sometimes telling the community something can't be done can be equally as assuring as telling them it can be; I think many of us would like to be informed.

Your biggest fan,Stan

I'd welcome an AMA...without the PvE-centric community chiming in to bash everything PvP (as other combined AMAs went).

I'd like to know what they are looking at, what data they are seeing, what that data means to them, etc. Because it honestly seems like no matter what the PvP community gives feedback with, they can't really explore the paths the community suggests in frequent chunks--they have to (for some reason) do some overly elaborate workaround and let it run its course for many seasons. What exactly are they seeing that we aren't?

We could very well be representing a small vocal minority on the forum, as forums are generally used to voice discontent, rather than vice versa, and that PvP is actually flourishing. And I'm fine with that. But then there must be some data out there that shows the PvP population is growing and participation is increasing. I PvP for the competitive thrill and I'm concerned with investing my time in something that will have little improvement to show for it.

I've said before, I feel that improvements to the game infrastructure are paramount to its success, and personally I'd like to know if Arenanet has any plans on drawing new players in via proper tutorials and better UIs, rather than the stick-and-carrot approach of increasing rewards.

Pls, Uncle Ben.

Do it for Peter.

Ben Longname is the best. He is always talking to people and helping them on a personal basis. He makes more appearances in one week than other devs do in months amd it's more than typical pr "hi everyone Im only here to show you we pretend to interact with you. Have you seen the AWESOME new gemstore minis. They are So cute I got seven."

I very much like Ben.

And anyone in PvP forum who says there is no communication or presence here is being slightly disingenuous.

@"Omar Aschi Popp.7496" said:Ben Longname is the best. He is always talking to people and helping them on a personal basis. He makes more appearances in one week than other devs do in months amd it's more than typical pr "hi everyone Im only here to show you we pretend to interact with you. Have you seen the AWESOME new gemstore minis. They are So cute I got seven."

I very much like Ben.

And anyone in PvP forum who says there is no communication or presence here ia a rabid liar and jaguar.

Lets be positive here with disparaging others.

@kKagari.6804 said:

@"Omar Aschi Popp.7496" said:Ben Longname is the best. He is always talking to people and helping them on a personal basis. He makes more appearances in one week than other devs do in months amd it's more than typical pr "hi everyone Im only here to show you we pretend to interact with you. Have you seen the AWESOME new gemstore minis. They are So cute I got seven."

I very much like Ben.

And anyone in PvP forum who says there is no communication or presence here ia a rabid liar and jaguar.

Alright. I will slightly edit.

In light of today's patch, bump? :)

Omgggggggggggggggg swoon

Someone paste this question to the next AMA

Why do you think holosmith, mirage, scourge and firebrand are just as viable as renegade and weaver?

@Razor.6392 said:Someone paste this question to the next AMA

Why do you think holosmith, mirage, scourge and firebrand are just as viable as renegade and weaver?

I think that falls under the question of balance, as I said in the OP, I'd like the AMA to ask about PvP upcoming features, Arenanet's intentions and such. Balance seems to be way too long winded of a discussion. Someone else can request an AMA for that.

Ooooo, question from Quaggan:

Will Quaggan someday get

@Morwath.9817 said:Ooooo, question from Quaggan:

Will Quaggan someday get

for sPvP? Since it's hard for Quaggan to fast communicate with his team, Quaggan has no time to write Quaggan poems in chat when evil people try to kill Quaggan all the time.

Yeah I do want to ask about voice comms and fast comms. General infrastructure stuff. I've contacted the mods on the reddit and they've agreed to host. If it goes ahead

I would still ask if there's a possibility for PvP team to handle PvP balance.And if not, what's preventing it.And if it's money, are they open to support/advertise a crowdfunding campaign to hire a real balance team. (Sugar coat it if necessary).

@Ara.4569 said:I would still ask if there's a possibility for PvP team to handle PvP balance.And if not, what's preventing it.And if it's money, are they open to support/advertise a crowdfunding campaign to hire a real balance team. (Sugar coat it if necessary).

Ah, I agree about the first bit. Not too sure about the crowdfunding but I'll write it down nonetheless.

This is good though, keep the questions coming to drum up some discussion. I'll discuss with the Reddit mods if this goes ahead to see whether we are preparing the questions ahead of time or doing it adhoc. I'm not from the US so its likely I won't be able to go to the AMA :(

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@vorpal.1497 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:I'm out of the office this week. I can look into seeing what we might be able to do next week. No promises.

Quaggan approves, family time is the most precious time.

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@vorpal.1497 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:I'm out of the office this week. I can look into seeing what we might be able to do next week. No promises.

I know a lot of the PvP players are negative, but that's because they're passionate like I'm sure you are. Really glad you decided to reach out and respond to this thread!

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@vorpal.1497 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:I'm out of the office this week. I can look into seeing what we might be able to do next week. No promises.

Do they not allow you, or rather is no one looking at the forums gathering feedback on paid time? That should be a thing, cause anet's current PR is, if not the worst, terrible. Not your fault, but rather should be brought up to the the manager/directors etc..

@shippage.1983 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@vorpal.1497 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:I'm out of the office this week. I can look into seeing what we might be able to do next week. No promises.

We love you ben, when we get mad on the forums, we are just going through withdrawals tbh.. we need more of you ben. the ama should get you a promotion at anet haha, cause you will be helping them out alot in the PR department.

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@vorpal.1497 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:I'm out of the office this week. I can look into seeing what we might be able to do next week. No promises.

Thanks for taking the time. Whether you guys implement suggestions or not from the players, it is great to see that you guys read through the threads.

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@vorpal.1497 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:I'm out of the office this week. I can look into seeing what we might be able to do next week. No promises.

Thank you very much for your time :)

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@vorpal.1497 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:I'm out of the office this week. I can look into seeing what we might be able to do next week. No promises.

Keep up the great work Ben, your presence (CMC too) in the PvP forums means a lot.

When can we get 'gg' or surrender to end 4 x 5 saving everyone's time and moving us quickly to the next possible 5 v 5?