I have never seen so many helpful people in game before. Are you paying them or something?

[iker.5629]

I have met an extraordinary amount of helpful, friendly people, over the years. The community is amazing.

[vampirelazarus.9403]

@"Selminus.1490" said:Do you guys have employees playing or something?Just to touch on this, Anet employees do play the game, and I believe they are obligated to have their little "Arena Net" tag on their name indicator. It looks like the little Anet logo. You'll run into them out there in the wild occasionally, doing various things, just playing the game and having fun.

It's refreshing to see them, it shows that they actually enjoy the product they work on.

[Hashberry.4510]

This is indeed an awesome community, much of that due to game mechanics as mentioned above. I am a bit surprised; however, that the game allows mobs to be trained on to other players. This is particularly annoying when farmers quickly loot and scoot, leaving bystanders to clean up. The game does seem to facilitate this kind of thing.

[Bunny.9834]

The way Open World PVE is structured in this game is meant to encourage community cooperation/team work. You never have worry about people stealing your loot or randomly killing you. Also the player population in this game in general is friendly.

[Elricht Kaltwind.8796]

A lot of the time, especially late at night shortly before I sleep, I enjoy /sitting by a fire in Queensdale or one of the many other cozy spots throughout Tyria and helping people who are turning to the zone's population for a hand. When you're extremely experienced, sometimes you have to stop grinding for achievements or farming or doing fractals and raids and go back to the core of what makes the game fun. Often, particularly if I'm helping newer players, I always do it in-character. It's sometimes relaxing, and always fun.

[rank eleven monk.9502]

@vampirelazarus.9403 said:

@"Selminus.1490" said:Do you guys have employees playing or something?Just to touch on this, Anet employees do play the game, and I believe they are obligated to have their little "Arena Net" tag on their name indicator. It looks like the little Anet logo. You'll run into them out there in the wild occasionally, doing various things, just playing the game and having fun.

It's refreshing to see them, it shows that they actually enjoy the product they work on.They are not obligated. I recall a post in the pvp AMA, we were told that most of the times Anet employees don't tag up for obvious reasons, at least in pvp.

[vampirelazarus.9403]

@rank eleven monk.9502 said:

@vampirelazarus.9403 said:

@"Selminus.1490" said:Do you guys have employees playing or something?Just to touch on this, Anet employees do play the game, and I believe they are obligated to have their little "Arena Net" tag on their name indicator. It looks like the little Anet logo. You'll run into them out there in the wild occasionally, doing various things, just playing the game and having fun.

It's refreshing to see them, it shows that they actually enjoy the product they work on.They are not obligated. I recall a post in the pvp AMA, we were told that most of the times Anet employees don't tag up for obvious reasons, at least in pvp.

Neat. I thought maybe they were contractually obligated to make themselves known. TIL

[Gaile Gray.6029]

@"TheBravery.9615" said:Yes, anet pays me to be a mentor tag ingame and answer questions.

~le sigh~ And now somebody is going to believe you, and someday this post will be repeated as "proof" of some evil thing or another.

Folks, no, we do not pay TheBravery or anyone else to be nice. If they are nice, it's on them! :D :D

@vampirelazarus.9403 said:

@"Selminus.1490" said:Do you guys have employees playing or something?Just to touch on this, Anet employees do play the game, and I believe they are obligated to have their little "Arena Net" tag on their name indicator. It looks like the little Anet logo. You'll run into them out there in the wild occasionally, doing various things, just playing the game and having fun.

It's refreshing to see them, it shows that they actually enjoy the product they work on.

Just to be clear: We are in no way obligated to display the Anet tag. Those of us who do, do so by our own choice. I have several accounts, but I play nearly exclusively on one, and that one bears my name and is tagged at all times. I enjoy meeting players, hanging out, chatting, battling the big bads (and the little bads), and so it suits me to be tagged. (It can get a little distracting to have someone message me to ask for help with a CS issue when (1) I'm not CS and (2) I'm in the middle of taking down Balthazar! ;) But I find players generally are understanding if I can't answer.)

Members of the Communications Team also have "CM" accounts for official in-game events but if you see me in game chances are that I'm on my personal play account. Others prefer not to tag up at all, and they play on an account that is private. If they are involved in official events, they use their CM account for that. The fact is, we may play tagged or untagged, as we choose, with ArenaNet's support.

[b k.1648]

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:Just to be clear: We are in no way obligated to display the Anet tag. Those of us who do, do so by our own choice. I have several accounts, but I play nearly exclusively on one, and that one bears my name and is tagged at all times. I enjoy meeting players, hanging out, chatting, battling the big bads (and the little bads), and so it suits me to be tagged. (It can get a little distracting to have someone message me to ask for help with a CS issue when (1) I'm not CS and (2) I'm in the middle of taking down Balthazar! ;) But I find players generally are understanding if I can't answer.)

I suspect CS staff get asked to fix bugs on a far more regular basis. ;)

[Linken.6345]

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:

@"TheBravery.9615" said:Yes, anet pays me to be a mentor tag ingame and answer questions.

~le sigh~ And now somebody is going to believe you, and someday this post will be repeated as "proof" of some evil thing or another.

Folks, no, we do not pay TheBravery or anyone else to be nice. If they are nice, it's on them! :D :D

@vampirelazarus.9403 said:

@"Selminus.1490" said:Do you guys have employees playing or something?Just to touch on this, Anet employees do play the game, and I believe they are obligated to have their little "Arena Net" tag on their name indicator. It looks like the little Anet logo. You'll run into them out there in the wild occasionally, doing various things, just playing the game and having fun.

It's refreshing to see them, it shows that they actually enjoy the product they work on.

Just to be clear: We are in no way obligated to display the Anet tag. Those of us who do, do so by our own choice. I have several accounts, but I play nearly exclusively on one, and that one bears my name and is tagged at all times. I enjoy meeting players, hanging out, chatting, battling the big bads (and the little bads), and so it suits me to be tagged. (It can get a little distracting to have someone message me to ask for help with a CS issue when (1) I'm not CS and (2) I'm in the middle of taking down Balthazar! ;) But I find players generally are understanding if I can't answer.)

Members of the Communications Team also have "CM" accounts for official in-game events but if you see me in game chances are that I'm on my personal play account. Others prefer not to tag up at all, and they play on an account that is private. If they are involved in official events, they use their CM account for that. The fact is, we may play tagged or untagged, as we choose, with ArenaNet's support.

Darn it and here I have been sporting my mentor tag and checking my bank account since they posted =)

[Meghan.1893]

This is pretty much unique to Guild Wars. If you check out any other game, people are not this friendly or helpful.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

Special note for @Selminus.1490 : Your post made me smile. I wanted you to know that I included it in my weekly all-ArenaNet newsletter, because I know it would be similarly appreciated by the team.

[Dami.5046]

@Meghan.1893 said:This is pretty much unique to Guild Wars. If you check out any other game, people are not this friendly or helpful.

ever a truer word spoken, you would not believe how refreshing it is to so see so many helpful people.

[Linken.6345]

@sorudo.9054 said:you must be playing something else, all i get are champ whiners who fill my mail with curse letters because i killed their farm spot.my favorite place are raid portals, where ppl ask why i am even here or say i don't belong there because i play GS necro.

no, really friendly, a wonderful community.....

Well I would ask you why you were sulking by the portals aswell and not tagging up and entering the raids.

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

@sorudo.9054 said:you must be playing something else, all i get are champ whiners who fill my mail with curse letters because i killed their farm spot.my favorite place are raid portals, where ppl ask why i am even here or say i don't belong there because i play GS necro.

no, really friendly, a wonderful community.....

As someone who played GS reaper for a long time, I have to say that this is radically different from my own experience. I'm sorry you are encountering the problem, and that would suck.

[Klowdy.3126]

@GreyWolf.8670 said:We're all on the same side in-game so there's no reason not to help. ;)

Some of the coolest interactions I've had in any game came back in vanilla/BC WoW. I used to love running into someone from the opposite faction, standing there watching them watch me, giving a salute, then proceeding to help (and be helped) by that player. There was inevitable AoE damage given or taken, but it was almost always followed by a /sorry.

[STIHL.2489]

@Daddicus.6128 said:Except in specific places (like raids), the GW family is one of the most friendly on the planet.

That DOESN'T mean all players are nice. But, the vast majority are.

I am just going to second this.

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

Yes they pay us with Karma, which we spend on Crab Grabbing Gloves.

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

I am an egotistical person.

So I like helping new players.

Why?

Because the last thing, fighting some big boss, is a bunch of level80 boosted newbies who don't have a clue and who think that helping each other is a luxury they can't afford.

Help/teach them early and you turn them into useful powers that make life easier for me in the long run.

[Zaraki.5784]

"I have never seen so many helpful people in game before."You've never seen me...I could make you change your mind <.<

[Seaunicorn.9317]

It is also to set the right expectations from all new players. This is not like most of your old games. Here, if you see a player down near you, give a thought to the poor soul and res him . We don't cap mining nodes, instead we call out Rich nodes on map chat. We don't shoo off another player from participating in a dynamic event. More the merrier. so we call out if a event chain happening in a daily map. A world Boss? Go to city maps and call more people to join up! These have been going on since ever, and not a behavior change aimed at new players. So all of you will be well appreciated if you truly embrace this, and pass it on when you become vet players yourself

[sorudo.9054]

@Linken.6345 said:

@sorudo.9054 said:you must be playing something else, all i get are champ whiners who fill my mail with curse letters because i killed their farm spot.my favorite place are raid portals, where ppl ask why i am even here or say i don't belong there because i play GS necro.

no, really friendly, a wonderful community.....

Well I would ask you why you were sulking by the portals aswell and not tagging up and entering the raids.

what, like the bizilion times i tied and got kicked?

[Linken.6345]

@sorudo.9054 said:

@Linken.6345 said:

@sorudo.9054 said:you must be playing something else, all i get are champ whiners who fill my mail with curse letters because i killed their farm spot.my favorite place are raid portals, where ppl ask why i am even here or say i don't belong there because i play GS necro.

no, really friendly, a wonderful community.....

Well I would ask you why you were sulking by the portals aswell and not tagging up and entering the raids.

what, like the bizilion times i tied and got kicked?

Thats odd was from my understanding that commanders couldent get a kick.

[starlinvf.1358]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@"Daddicus.6128" said:Except in specific places (like raids), the GW family is one of the most friendly on the planet.

That DOESN'T mean all players are nice. But, the vast majority are.

Dude, raids probably have some of the most helpful people in the game... I've had runs where experienced people pug on training runs, and end up getting some of their usual friends and literally carried the group through whole wings or more, usually after already having done their rewards for the week.That means dedicating something like1-2 hours of their time, at least, for the sake of just teaching others to do that content. That beats the hell out of killing a champion in 2 minutes.

Sure there's a more strict requirement for builds and and mechanics, but it doesn't mean that people aren't helpful. There's ENTIRE guilds just dedicated to benchmarking so the rest of the community has a better knowledge of their options. Do you even realize how much time and money does it take to gear up new builds and test them?

Go carry your bias somewhere else please.

I had the exact opposite experience.... and those guys were my guildmates in one of the biggest PvE casual friendly, hosts public event type guilds in the game. By its very design, Raids test people's patience.... and once those player get comfortable, any disruptions become incredibly jarring. After about 6 months, once all the regulars lost reward incentive, they started becoming less enthused with the struggle that is getting a new player up Speed clear meta. Theres also an issue with how "constructive criticism", no matter how well intended, becomes extremely grating when they understand why they messed up, but keep getting told over and over what they did wrong (practically to the point of being passive aggressive) so everyone can vent their own frustrations with not getting an easy clear like normal group.

The civility is the only thing keeping that at bay... and once its worn thin, the behaviors of individuals toward either pugs and non-commits starts down the road to hostility. I've seen training raids where the leader (who was explicitly there to introduce pugs to VG) rage quit after the second wipe because CC was too slow after second split (the point where the AOE pressure ramps up to 55), and people kept falling out of positions. And most of the other commanders didn't want to host training either after so many of weeks of doing it. I used to see a lot of calls in guild for back fills for a day..... now that doesn't even happen anymore.... And I know why. Reset day used to have 5 Raid groups running to start their weekly clears..... once it whittled down to 2 groups of regulars, there was no room for new fills to squeeze in and get practice/carried. They sell raids... but its still expensive (basically paying for the food cost of a wing clear).

This isn't a unique story either. As the active player base tapers off between content releases, you end up with this distilling effect and the formation of cliches in Raid regulars, because its all becomes part of a routine they're trying to maintain. No other part of the game has this problem on this scale, because raids are designed to force group collapse on error. And the only reason you don't see it, is because those groups purposefully isolate themselves from Pugs as much as they can. Snowcrows, qT, and the others are beside the point, because the research serves a community purpose, but is not nearly as helpful on an individual level because of basic group dynamics.

Yeah, you're lucky you know people who are willing to carry. And they'd have to be exceptionally good to pull that off. But I don't have that advantage. And despite being my guild, after HOT raids settled in, my guild started making a huge deal about "pulling weight" for back fills, along with this lecture about people's time and frustration because I got caught in a teleport during the Jade fight, and wasn't willing to be talked down to for 5 minutes under the guise of constructive criticism. And I made it clear I've been in that fight once, and all they were asking for a was a DPS slot.

The Bias isn't unfounded. And you're taking for granted, and possibly unaware, of how awesome your friends are to carry pugs like that. I can't even raid with my guild anymore after being "second string" pick for 3 months straight, only getting in 4 times in that time span for serious raid attempt, and told I need to "practice more" because my DPS wasn't high enough during the run. But how do I get more practice if I can't find a regular group to play with, and PUG raids..... being what they are. And these are people I otherwise like/get along with. I won't even talk to them about raids anymore, because their own biases make them blind to the barriers for entry, having long since past that struggle. And adding insult to injury, I contemplated buying raids for a while.... but then couldn't get on their schedule because I needed a weekend run, and the weekends is when they do they're weekly reward runs. So you can kind of see why I'm salty when they talk about "carrying weight" and "people's time" and "bring your A game" and wanna call them out on the double standard. They could easily carry one guy on the weekend, when they're most motivated to do their best...... but thats not how that works, because its too much of a risk..... even though I'm basically paying for them to do what they do every week.

[Hashberry.4510]

Can't have raids without ramping up this kind of behavior. Its still a great community, though.