Anet, you need to improve your communication IN-GAME.

[Ronin.4501]

@Stonemist.4680 @Rubi Bayer.8493

 

When this WvW Alliance beta rolled out this week, those of us who are WvW veterans knew what to expect; We knew to follow the official GW2 forums, we knew to open the WvW panel and select our guild there to determine with whom we'd be linked up during the beta (which seemed to have worked much better this time for 99% of the players who did the process correctly).  However, there seems to be a large portion of the player population who was 1) still confused about the correct process or 2) completely unaware that this beta was happening.  Anet NEEDS to release this information IN-GAME as well as posting it here on the forums or on other non-game social media sites such as Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook. After all, every time a new Living Story is released, EVERY player receives an in-game mail notifying us about this new release.  In the future, please STRONGLY doing the same for the WvW betas, as this would likely prevent a lot of the confusion new players are experiencing this week.  I would suggest sending out 2 in-game mails: The first mail being sent out the first day the new tab in the WvW panel appears allowing players to select their guild, and a second mail being sent out 24 hours before the guild selection is locked.  Thank you.

 

PS. I linked Stonemist because he's the only Dev who's actually interacted on these forums in...well...forever, and I included Rubi because she routinely communicates updates on the forums in other parts of the game, so I'm hoping by including these two the word will get passed along to whomever needs to see this to make it happen. Again, thank you.

Edited August 14, 2022 by Ronin.4501
Reason for including the Devs in the post...

[Chaba.5410]

Definitely should do an in-game mail at least when the guild selection becomes available in the user interface.

[Dawdler.8521]

Weeeell if you put on your tinfoil hat I'd make the argument Anet want lots people to "accidentally" not have selected guilds so that they can test how the system handles all the random assignments vs how it balances that out with guilds.

[Ronin.4501]

2 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Weeeell if you put on your tinfoil hat I'd make the argument Anet want lots people to "accidentally" not have selected guilds so that they can test how the system handles all the random assignments vs how it balances that out with guilds.

It would make sense on the one hand, but considering all the complaints and how devastated some players seem over this, I can't help but think that might backfire and instead result in a lot of players just taking the week off.

[Strider Pj.2193]

48 minutes ago, Ronin.4501 said:

It would make sense on the one hand, but considering all the complaints and how devastated some players seem over this, I can't help but think that might backfire and instead result in a lot of players just taking the week off.

An in game mail similar to what they did with the survey years back would be great going forward.  Maybe starting two weeks out, but I honestly don’t know how far out to make it, as someone will certainly have an issue with people complaining that it was too early or too late.  

[oscuro.9720]

Anet pings an objective in team chat with no context confirmed. 

[Strider Pj.2193]

1 hour ago, oscuro.9720 said:

Anet pings an objective in team chat with no context confirmed. 

Inc!

[ArchonWing.9480]

1 hour ago, Strider Pj.2193 said:

Inc!

(from a queued map)

[havenoclue.5086]

5 hours ago, Ronin.4501 said:

It would make sense on the one hand, but considering all the complaints and how devastated some players seem over this, I can't help but think that might backfire and instead result in a lot of players just taking the week off.

you're right and I see where Dawdler  was going with their comment too. It's testing. I get it. But sending out an in-game notification would have been stellar. Or I didn't log in until after it started and didn't know it happened.

 

But on the bright side.... maybe next BETA.... people will know now. I'll definitely be checking that pop-up before logging in and seeing if some DEV said something

[oscuro.9720]

42 minutes ago, ArchonWing.9480 said:

(from a queued map)

“OmG wHy iS tHiS sErVeR dEaD?!!?!???!??!”

[Knighthonor.4061]

9 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Weeeell if you put on your tinfoil hat I'd make the argument Anet want lots people to "accidentally" not have selected guilds so that they can test how the system handles all the random assignments vs how it balances that out with guilds.

this does make some sense when you stop and think about it. 

[SweetPotato.7456]

14 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Weeeell if you put on your tinfoil hat I'd make the argument Anet want lots people to "accidentally" not have selected guilds so that they can test how the system handles all the random assignments vs how it balances that out with guilds.

this is a likely scenario, but why can' they also test or figure out how to let the moron like me who forgot to select their alliance have an alternative way of getting to their ally if they forgot!?

[Dawdler.8521]

5 minutes ago, SweetPotato.7456 said:

this is a likely scenario, but why can' they also test or figure out how to let the moron like me who forgot to select their alliance have an alternative way of getting to their ally if they forgot!?

Of course they could (transfers exist and will probably still exist under restructure) but it would make the test moot. 1 week alone isnt going to kill you. Practice your roaming or something.

[CrashTestAuto.9108]

Yeah, massive plus one to this.  I actually did (vaguely) follow the updates on this, including reading the beginning (not all the way to the bottom where the info was located) of that update and then later coming to this forum and seeing a thread discussing guild sign up.

 

I went to the WvW tab in game, didn't see anything on the main tab and didn't notice the new one, and just sort of shrugged it off as "I guess you need to make sure you're repping the guild you want to be with, or it's a sign up to be in a special Beta server or something".

 

I understand that the information was there, and that it's my fault for making assumptions, but I'm just adding myself as a datapoint of someone who actually did pay some attention and put some effort into understanding this, and still managed to miss this entirely.  There definitely feels like a gap here, and an in game mail saying "Do this" would have completely solved this problem.

 

If there was a worry about loads of people blindly signing up because they got a mail, and complicating the server setup, then maybe just sending to anyone who finished Wood tier in the last month or something?

[ManiacMika.9851]

Inspired by the "Stat select" info-bubble, would be nice to see something popping-up like this in the game

https://imgur.com/UIaDjzR

"You have no wvw guild selected to follow
for the next season. Check the Alliance tab
to be matched together with friends,
or randomly be assigned to a team."

[Chaba.5410]

20 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Weeeell if you put on your tinfoil hat I'd make the argument Anet want lots people to "accidentally" not have selected guilds so that they can test how the system handles all the random assignments vs how it balances that out with guilds.

Way too cynical.  😛

[One more for the road.8950]

There is also more than a vague possibility that a lot of players that doesn't follow the forums/the webpage/whatever and live their happy casual lives in PvE and have never put a foot into WvW would get alerted through an ingame mail that something was happening and "clicking the thing" to see.

Which may or may not both cause unreliable statistics/information about any results and/or problems and, depending on numbers, upscaling any problems like bugged queue immensely.

And can you imagine the number of confusion from players that isn't usually in WvW about servers and teams/worlds, why they can't play with their friends and/or guilds, why the teams/worlds names aren't fixed in the friends lists, why existing server names flash over the screen instead of a team/world when an object is taken, etc, etc, etc - when even WvW people who actually seems to check the forums and/or website still doesn't seem to get what is going on according to the posts in this forum and subforum?

I mean,  just that teams/worlds are borrowing the identifications of existing servers and therefore you can be on the same map and still be seen as being on different ones in guild/friends list seems to not be quite understood - but I am sure people would be even less happy if the beta showed the right name on the border people were on just to find themselves assigned to another server than they were last week when beta is over.

Edited August 16, 2022 by One more for the road.8950

[NuggetScout.3782]

good luck with that, they'll sooner archive this thread with a kitten copy paste response then actually say or do anything about it

[One more for the road.8950]

4 minutes ago, NuggetScout.3782 said:

good luck with that, they'll sooner archive this thread with a kitten copy paste response then actually say or do anything about it

*checks earlier comments*

A bit of a salty one, aren't you?

[NuggetScout.3782]

1 minute ago, One more for the road.8950 said:

*checks earlier comments*

A bit of a salty one, aren't you?

its only salt when you deny the truth isnt it buddy.