Q&A with the Narrative Team - Another broken promise?

[Erasculio.2914]

On the https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/83465/q-a-with-the-narrative-team/p1, it was said that:

@Julia Nardin.9824 said:The ArenaNet Narrative Team is here to answer your story-related questions through Friday, August 2!

The last answer from the Narrative Team was on August 1.

Later in the same topic, Stephane said:

@"Stephane Lo Presti.7258" said:The Narrative Team will give a few more answers next week, whenever team members have time for it

And nope, they didn't.

(And don't say "they just didn't have the time!". The Narrative Team talked in another topic, so the time was there.)

What need was there to lie about something so small?

It's amazing that, the few times ArenaNet bothers to talk to the players, they make a promise only to break it soon after.

This is ArenaNet's communication. This is how much they deserve our trust.

[Vayne.8563]

This is why Anet should never say anything. Because everything they say they do is automatically a promise. They obviously got busy with something most likely unexpected. It's something the team is doing in addition to their normal responsibilities. I for one would rather have them working on content. But you know, this whole broken promise thing is most often used for things that were neither promises nor broken.

[Tarlonniel.6534]

I guess we stumped them.

Still wish I'd asked where the heck Keiran Thackeray's grave is...

[zealex.9410]

@"Vayne.8563" said:This is why Anet should never say anything. Because everything they say they do is automatically a promise. They obviously got busy with something most likely unexpected. It's something the team is doing in addition to their normal responsibilities. I for one would rather have them working on content. But you know, this whole broken promise thing is most often used for things that were neither promises nor broken.

Man, ngl its shitty when they say they will do smth and then not doing it, without going back and updating us. Unless the "we will answer more questions next week"" was the "sorry guys we said till aug 2nd but our team wont have time on the 2nd" update.

Meme title aside this is basically the problem with anet's communication. OP, good bait.

[Rogue.4756]

Saying they will give answers if there is time for it( which is exactly what Stephanie said) is hardly a promise.

[Seera.5916]

They didn't have time is a proper answer.

Maybe the ones who posted in other threads didn't have the answer to the questions asked and therefore could not answer them.

It's this getting called out for so called promises that aren't actually promises being broken is one reason why I think ANet is always so closed lip about things until it's basically ready to be released because if they anything too soon and things don't work out the way want and they have to change or delay something people scream that a promise was broken.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

@"Vayne.8563" said:This is why Anet should never say anything. Because everything they say they do is automatically a promise. They obviously got busy with something most likely unexpected. It's something the team is doing in addition to their normal responsibilities. I for one would rather have them working on content. But you know, this whole broken promise thing is most often used for things that were neither promises nor broken.

"Something came up and the devs are going to be busy, so we'er cancelling the rest of the Q and A."

That took about 25 seconds and could be done by the community rep.

It's a lack of consideration, not breaking a promise.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

Maybe the OP needs to reset their expectations.

What need was there to lie about something so small?When you say to a friend, "I'll call you Friday," fully intending to call them Friday, but then skritts hit the fan and you have to travel to Timbuktu urgently and don't get around to calling them... do they call you up and say, "you liar, stop breaking promises"?

Or does everyone realize that things change. That good intentions aren't enough to make time available for busy people.

---

Besides that, the thread remained open until the 2nd of August, as advertised. People could post questions.

As we've seen in the past, sometime the devs will return 2-6 weeks later to respond (even if not always with the most useful answers).

[Tom Abernathy.5893]

Hey folks—Sorry about that. I wanted to answer some more questions before the 2nd but was busy with other pressing work stuff for GW2, and in fact I did write a few more answers over that weekend. The idea was that I would do so in a doc, then one of our fab Marketing folks would unlock the thread and allow me to post my answers...except what actually happened was that my week turned out to be crazy busy and I never had time to do it. However, the good news is, those answers are still coming. I’m out on vacation this week, but even in my absence, Julia’s gonna try to get them posted while I’m gone. Worst case, I’ll do it myself next weekend. Thanks for your patience!

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

And there you go! Thanks for the update. :+1:

[Vayne.8563]

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@"Vayne.8563" said:This is why Anet should never say anything. Because everything they say they do is automatically a promise. They obviously got busy with something most likely unexpected. It's something the team is doing in addition to their normal responsibilities. I for one would rather have them working on content. But you know, this whole broken promise thing is most often used for things that were neither promises nor broken.

"Something came up and the devs are going to be busy, so we'er cancelling the rest of the Q and A."

That took about 25 seconds and could be done by the community rep.

It's a lack of consideration, not breaking a promise.

If they know at that moment they're cancelling it. But they already said devs would be answering questions in their spare time, I'm pretty sure, so that shouldn't be necessary. That is, it's not officially cancelled. Do you know how many times I planned to do something, thought I'd have time and something's come up? Honestly this is an impossible standard to hold anyone too. This isn't some huge crazy deal that was broken. It's not like the legendary weapons that were supposed to come out with HoT. That's a different story. This is a thing devs are answering questions, many of which were answered, afterwhich they ran out of time or something came up. They didn't plan to end it, they just didn't get done with what they were doing to get back to it.

I'm not sure why its' so hard for people to understand stuff like this. This isn't even some in game thing. Maybe they should have just cancelled it but why do that if you think you can get back to it?

[knomslayer.9457]

@"Erasculio.2914" said:On the https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/83465/q-a-with-the-narrative-team/p1, it was said that:

@Julia Nardin.9824 said:The ArenaNet Narrative Team is here to answer your story-related questions through Friday, August 2!

The last answer from the Narrative Team was on August 1.

Later in the same topic, Stephane said:

@"Stephane Lo Presti.7258" said:The Narrative Team will give a few more answers next week, whenever team members have time for it

And nope, they didn't.

(And don't say "they just didn't have the time!". The Narrative Team talked in another topic, so the time was there.)

What need was there to

lie

about something so small?

It's amazing that, the few times ArenaNet bothers to talk to the players, they make a promise only to break it soon after.

This is ArenaNet's communication. This is how much they deserve our trust.

Thee are busy making the game great again! Thou patience is needed. Great things take time!

[Ayakaru.6583]

This is why anet doesn't tell us anything anymore. You people nail them to a post and call them straight up liars, sometimes for the smallest things. Chill, the skritt, out!If they can't make it, they should've made a post cancelling something announced. But your aggressive call outs are the reason they're normally so radio silent

[borgs.6103]

I had a question for the Audio team that was answered with "I'll get back to you" last December. At least the Narrative Team will get back to it according to Mr. Abernathy.

[Tom Abernathy.5893]

FWIW, BTW, the reason we did the Q&A to begin with is that we knew it had been a little while since you’d heard from us and we wanted you to know that what might seem like radio silence from the outside was actually just us working like crazy to give you something awesome in what’s coming up. We’re truly excited about the direction the story is going. We think you will be too, when you hear about it on August 30.

We seriously love you guys and spend a lot of our days figuring out how best to knock your socks off. Hang tight; my remaining answers will be posted sometime this week, and, come August 30, much will be revealed about what’s on the way. Honestly, it’s killing us not to be able to share it with you yet. I mean, here I am posting from a ?; that’s how excited I am. :D

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

And we appreciate your dedication! :star:

[AgentMoore.9453]

Thanks for the update, Tom.

It may not seem like it, but informal, excited-opossum-screaming-aaaa posts from devs go a long way. People forget that you're employees working in a demanding industry, and remarks like yours are both informative and a good reminder that you're not ignoring the players so much as just working on stuff. Even if you can't tell us what that stuff is, just making noise on the forum at all is always a welcome sight and a tension breaker.

[Tom Abernathy.5893]

@AgentMoore.9453 said:Thanks for the update, Tom.

It may not seem like it, but informal, excited-opossum-screaming-aaaa posts from devs go a long way. People forget that you're employees working in a demanding industry, and remarks like yours are both informative and a good reminder that you're not ignoring the players so much as just working on stuff. Even if you can't tell us what that stuff is, just making noise on the forum at all is always a welcome sight and a tension breaker.

I hear that, and I appreciate the reminder. We’ll do our best to keep it in mind. Julia is great about noticing that and pointing it out to me, which is just one reason she’s awesome and I’m grateful we have her. I can’t imagine a better Narrative Lead for GW2, nor one more dedicated to keeping her finger on the pulse of what players are saying and feeling.

[Randulf.7614]

Thanks for the update. Hoping an answer to my chained up forgotten question is in that forthcoming answer set too!!

[Michram.6853]

Awesome! It's only 18 days... :#

[Super Hayes.6890]

All right, all right. Stop posting and enjoy your vacation Tom! Those of us that are civilized are more than appreciative of your responses to this thread :)

[Zaklex.6308]

@"Erasculio.2914" said:On the https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/83465/q-a-with-the-narrative-team/p1, it was said that:

@Julia Nardin.9824 said:The ArenaNet Narrative Team is here to answer your story-related questions through Friday, August 2!

The last answer from the Narrative Team was on August 1.

Later in the same topic, Stephane said:

@"Stephane Lo Presti.7258" said:The Narrative Team will give a few more answers next week, whenever team members have time for it

And nope, they didn't.

(And don't say "they just didn't have the time!". The Narrative Team talked in another topic, so the time was there.)

What need was there to

lie

about something so small?

It's amazing that, the few times ArenaNet bothers to talk to the players, they make a promise only to break it soon after.

This is ArenaNet's communication. This is how much they deserve our trust.

I guess I'm the only person that read "next week" as being when ever they have free time from working on the story to read the questions and research the answer(s).? Even though "next week" under normal circumstances means the week following the current week it can also mean any week there after under certain context...everything is based on context...learn context and your life will be much easier.

[zealex.9410]

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:Maybe the OP needs to reset their expectations.

What need was there to lie about something so small?When you say to a friend, "I'll call you Friday," fully intending to call them Friday, but then skritts hit the fan and you have to travel to Timbuktu urgently and don't get around to calling them... do they call you up and say, "you liar, stop breaking promises"?

I assume the op doesnt have a community manager to communicate those things ij their stead. If they do tho, well no excuse then.

[zealex.9410]

@Ayakaru.6583 said:This is why anet doesn't tell us anything anymore. You people nail them to a post and call them straight up liars, sometimes for the smallest things. Chill, the skritt, out!If they can't make it, they should've made a post cancelling something announced. But your aggressive call outs are the reason they're normally so radio silent

Keep excusing the lack of communication.

[zealex.9410]

@Tom Abernathy.5893 said:Hey folks—Sorry about that. I wanted to answer some more questions before the 2nd but was busy with other pressing work stuff for GW2, and in fact I did write a few more answers over that weekend. The idea was that I would do so in a doc, then one of our fab Marketing folks would unlock the thread and allow me to post my answers...except what actually happened was that my week turned out to be crazy busy and I never had time to do it. However, the good news is, those answers are still coming. I’m out on vacation this week, but even in my absence, Julia’s gonna try to get them posted while I’m gone. Worst case, I’ll do it myself next weekend. Thanks for your patience!

Thanks for letting us know, enjoy your vaca ^^