[Request] It's time for GW2 to have an official Discord server

[Lux.1308]

Recently game publisher of Lost Ark MMO announced that they are closing their forums and moving them to Discord.
I think Guild Wars 2 should do the same, because developers rarely use this forum. I don't see any collection of feedback of new or upcoming features organised by community managers. 
I don't think the forums should exist just for players also it costs money for the company to upkeep forums, that instead be better going for development.
Discord is also much better platform to reach players in real time and instantly inform them.
It is known that ArenaNet developers use Discord to gather player feedback, the problem is that they are not official and not whole community can participate.
I hope one day we will get official GW2 Discord server too!

[Jukhy.2431]

23 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

I hope one day we will get official GW2 Discord server too!

https://discord.gg/guildwars2

Edited April 26, 2023 by Jukhy.2431

[TheSun.4321]

5 minutes ago, Jukhy.2431 said:

https://discord.gg/guildwars2

Quote

Welcome to the official /r/Guildwars2 server! Please make sure to thoroughly read all of the above if it's your first time joining! Being a member of this discord is a privilege that can be lost, not a right you are entitled to. Act accordingly. Ask your questions in ONE channel only. - Note that we are not affiliated with Guild Wars 2 or Arena Net directly, we are not ANet staff. This is not the place to contact them.

It's the Discord for the subreddit and not Arenanet's.

[Lux.1308]

5 minutes ago, Jukhy.2431 said:

https://discord.gg/guildwars2

This Discord is not affiliated with Guild Wars 2 or ArenaNet.

[Hsanrb.1570]

Just going to chime in and say Discord is not the end all be all for things. Imagine everything Arena Net need to improve in the client (the LFG experience, communication with the community, etc.) IF Discord just becomes another place players HAVE to use as part of their experience (oh you aren't willing to learn raids in VoIP, I can find someone who will and exclude you) it does more harm then good.

I'm also going to echo the discord problem with other games, imagine how many fragmented discord servers you have if you wanted meta groups (wiki ET), Raiding, sPvP, WvW (spying etc), YOUR GUILD, A Content Creator for GW2 that you watch. Combined with a large-scale discord for the entire game, for each region, and then spoilers, scams, etc. Why would people ever host in LFG when there is an entire discord to organizing outside of the client. Not to mention if you left GW2 to play something else. How many of these servers you have to leave, and the links get lost to time as people who moderate no longer play... it would be a mess. I don't want people to have access to me being reachable 24/7 because I log in to go play something else.

Sorry, I think it is a terrible idea... if you wanted to use Discord you probably are part of a community that already use it, if you don't... well we don't need a reason to twist someone's arm TO use it.

[TheGrimm.5624]

43 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

Recently game publisher of Lost Ark MMO announced that they are closing their forums and moving them to Discord.
I think Guild Wars 2 should do the same, because developers rarely use this forum. I don't see any collection of feedback of new or upcoming features organised by community managers. 

Why would expect that to occur on Discord? 

43 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

I don't think the forums should exist just for players

Discord is terribad at keeping track of conversations. Why shouldn't players have a forum for discussions? Considering how many iterations we have gone thru its still a great platform to bounce around ideas. Discord is more a tangle of mixing social media, voice and forums and not so good at most of them together kind of app. 

43 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

Discord is also much better platform to reach players in real time and instantly inform them.

Is it? I think they already choose Twitter for that. Plus its linked in here for forum people that may not even check Twitter so there is a double link already in place. Would we all like to see more postings? Yes. Do we believe that would occur more on Discord? No.

43 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

It is known that ArenaNet developers use Discord to gather player feedback, the problem is that they are not official and not whole community can participate.
I hope one day we will get official GW2 Discord server too!

Again why does one need to exist only if the other is removed. No thanks, lets keep the forums if you don't mind.

[anninke.7469]

You know what, OP? Anything but that, please.

[Farohna.6247]

I really don't think devs are that excited to jump on a social media chat channel for ideas, even less than they go through forums.  They actively post on Twitter if you just have to have the latest info.  

Also why shouldn't forums exist for the players?  So we can have more trolls and people who never played a day in their life down vote and spam junk for fun or perverse excitement?  No play, no opinion, shoo.  

[Lux.1308]

@TheGrimm.5624 
I can't easily put images or bug videos in current GW2 forums, It's a very big drawback, because it requires people to use external services people don't want to.
Discord has forum conversation feature now, so easy to use and track.
Discord has more features than Twitter, not just for news.
I don't see the reason to keep forums because as a player I don't need them to read news or contact other players. Also developers are not using forums and prefer Discord more because of current forum drawbacks and my friends have sent many videos of bugs or WvW hacking via Discord as it's so much easier.

[Zephire.8049]

The move to Discord-only is a blight on so many things. The forums as they are are far from perfect, I agree, but they're still better than Discord-only.

I like Discord as much as the next person but it's an external program and/or a separate login and to see what's said, you need to join the server on an account. With forums, you don't need to make an account (or log in) to read what's being said, only if you want to reply. Conversations in Discord are also hard to follow, especially if it's active. Go away for 10 minutes and come back to 500+ messages even in slow mode and debate if you should even try reading it or not. And if you sleep... You may wake up to the server being metaphorically on fire after several dramas started and ended.

It's not "Forums bad, Discord good" it's the forum isn't being utilized in the best way and devs can't/won't address things, which would not change in Discord (developers and companies also tend to prefer Discord as they don't have to familiarize themselves with forum coding and design, and it's a lot more obvious if the devs aren't active on a forum compared to Discord). There could be an official GW2 Discord, sure, but not at the removal of a forum because not everyone has/wants Discord or wants to join servers to get the news when it could just as easily be posted on a forum where anyone with a browser and internet connection could read it.

[Gibson.4036]

I normally adapt to new software quickly, but I find Discord weirdly unintuitive.

Relying on a third party site also has the disadvantage that changes in social media may require migrating to new sites periodically. It's a pain for a company to try and get their established community to do, and some of the community is inevitably lost along the way.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[Lux.1308]

@Zephire.8049 I agree with many of your points but as I said, media embedding is very bad with current forums, so I don't see it useful in modern times.

[Khisanth.2948]

If  the problem is bad communication then changing the platform isn't going to solve anything. That is just blaming the tools and making excuses.  ANet's poor communication is more a matter of company policy.

[Khisanth.2948]

2 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

@Zephire.8049 I agree with many of your points but as I said, media embedding is very bad with current forums, so I don't see it useful in modern times.

That disabled those on purpose

[Lux.1308]

Just now, Khisanth.2948 said:

That disabled those on purpose

What purpose?

[TheGrimm.5624]

42 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

because it requires people to use external services people don't want to.

Kind of like how people don't want to use Discord, isn't this the same? 

42 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

I don't see the reason to keep forums because as a player I don't need them to read news or contact other players.

So no one else does either? So again why remove one group of players platform for another?

42 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

Also developers are not using forums and prefer Discord

I don't have access to employee guidelines that they might have place in HR. But having been in businesses that does it quite often has sections that indicate what you can and can't do on company platforms. You might see more devs posting using alternate platforms because they have more options there since they are not presenting the company, and if they do they may run into issues as we have seen happen in the past, not due to the platform itself. Devs prefer not to post since it puts them on record and no developers like it when they say something and then have to rework something or someone above them changes priorities/gameplan and they miss their mark, and whole lot of other reasons. This would be no better on Discord if it was the official platform as they wouldn't post there either for the same reasons about being on record.

42 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

and my friends have sent many videos of bugs or WvW hacking via Discord as it's so much easier.

So they can't post to youtube and link from there like others? I don't think Discord would cut down on WvW hacks, that's a bigger issue versus a platform issue.

[Khisanth.2948]

2 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

What purpose?

You'll have to ask ANet. They probably don't want to put in the effort to moderate inappropriate stuff is my guess.

[TheGrimm.5624]

6 minutes ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

You'll have to ask ANet. They probably don't want to put in the effort to moderate inappropriate stuff is my guess.

I remember that too and was trying to remember the why. I think it was the posting of inappropriate for all audiences content. For grins checked the wiki and don't think this is a page that I could see on forum history and changes over time. This was years ago.

[Lux.1308]

24 minutes ago, TheGrimm.5624 said:

Kind of like how people don't want to use Discord, isn't this the same? 

 You just need a Discord account to do everything, that's it. No need to find external cloud storage for image or video. 

24 minutes ago, TheGrimm.5624 said:

So no one else does either? So again why remove one group of players platform for another?I

 As I said earlier, because of current forum limitations. Can that be fixed? I don't know.

24 minutes ago, TheGrimm.5624 said:

I don't have access to employee guidelines that they might have place in HR. But having been in businesses that does it quite often has sections that indicate what you can and can't do on company platforms. You might see more devs posting using alternate platforms because they have more options there since they are not presenting the company, and if they do they may run into issues as we have seen happen in the past, not due to the platform itself. Devs prefer not to post since it puts them on record and no developers like it when they say something and then have to rework something or someone above them changes priorities/gameplan and they miss their mark, and whole lot of other reasons. This would be no better on Discord if it was the official platform as they wouldn't post there either for the same reasons about being on record.

Honestly, if you work for a company, feedback (it's also a part of the job) should be collected officially and not in a small group of people because it can happen for information to appear on Reddit and never being mentioned on official forums.

24 minutes ago, TheGrimm.5624 said:

So they can't post to youtube and link from there like others? I don't think Discord would cut down on WvW hacks, that's a bigger issue versus a platform issue.

Some people want to be anonymous because of harassment in the game. That's also main reason why they don't use official forums.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Mantrix.8329

[Danikat.8537]

I agree with the point someone else made that there's no reason to expect there would be any more engagement from Anet (especially not lists of features they're planning to make) just because it's in a different format. There is nothing stopping Anet staff from posting on the forum (at least nothing that wouldn't also apply to Discord, I assume most/all of them have signed NDAs which ban them from talking about their current work before it's officially announced).

Personally I find Discord ok for random chatter but useless for on-going discussions, even with the conversation tabs it's a pain to find something you were reading or talking about before. I'm in 7 or 8 different groups but rarely use it because unless you're online at the same time as someone else it's difficult to have a conversation with them so it doesn't work for me.

 

4 minutes ago, TheGrimm.5624 said:

I remember that too and was trying to remember the why. I think it was the posting of inappropriate for all audiences content. For grins checked the wiki and don't think this is a page that I could see on forum history and changes over time. This was years ago.

As far as I know they never gave a reason. When the forum was updated to the current software we could briefly post images, then it was disabled a day or so later. The forum software obviously supports it. If you go to your profile and click on 'see my activity' there's a whole section in the navigation bar for an image gallery, it's just not possible to add anything to it or embed them in posts.

(Also if you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the bit which says 'Powered by Invision Community' you can see the software provider's sites and how their forum is set up - it's very different to this one even though it's the same software.)

So it's not a software limitation (and if it was the solution would be to get new software, as they have 2 or 3 times in the past). It's a choice Anet made to disable it, but they've never told us why they did that.

[Zephire.8049]

27 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

@Zephire.8049 I agree with many of your points but as I said, media embedding is very bad with current forums, so I don't see it useful in modern times.

Poor media embedding is sadly a feature and wholly intentional. It means they don't have to host things that may cause legal issues on servers they own and makes it harder for people to brigade/troll. It's also why you can't upload avatars and can only select from ones they have—it cuts out an avenue for people to upload inappropriate images and reduces their server costs at the same time.

As it is now, if there is legal trouble brewing, they can point the finger at another service for allowing it through and that it was premeditated and intentional because users have to jump through hoops to post images instead of links. Plus there's no need to have servers store images, just their own assets and text.

I'm not sure how much is Anet's decision and how much is the forum owner's decision, though (as the forum is owned by a different hosting company).

[TheGrimm.5624]

1 minute ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

 You just need a  Discord account to do everything, that's it.

Why would I want a Discord account, I have an ArenaNet one? That's all I need today, why a second one and then have to cross link them and trust Discord security with my ANet IDs?

1 minute ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

No need to find external cloud storage for image or video. 

Um Discord is an external cloud storage, these aren't hosted from your equipment.

1 minute ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

 As I said earlier, because of current forum limitations. Can that be fixed? I don't know.

For all the posters making thousands of posts and discussions that aren't being limited, why do you want them to change platforms?

1 minute ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

Honestly, if you work for a company, feedback (it's also a part of the job) should be collected officially and not in a small group of people because it can happen for information to appear on Reddit and never being mentioned on official forums.

This is kind of why the forum people don't take the statements on reddit as gospel because if its posted there it may not be official.

 

1 minute ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

Some people want to be anonymous.

And how would they be on Discord? They would still have an account that links back somewhere. Again they would need to link their Discord to their ArenaNet so kind of double not anonymous.

Ifs fine to ask for a Discord channel, but not as a replacement to the forums. 

[Jandos.9785]

Official discord server would have to be somewhat moderated etc. Since A-Net have like 10 people working on game I dont think they will allocate resources to make this happen 

[Lux.1308]

2 minutes ago, Jandos.9785 said:

Official discord server would have to be somewhat moderated etc. Since A-Net have like 10 people working on game I dont think they will allocate resources to make this happen 

Moderators can be from the community.

[kharmin.7683]

8 minutes ago, Mantrix.8329 said:

Moderators can be from the community.

Good luck with that idea!  I can think of several who shouldn't be considered for that role, including myself!