Adopt-a-Dev for the WvW Fall Tournament

#1 - Sept. 8, 2014, 8:02 p.m.

Hello Tyrians!

I’d like to announce “Adopt-A-Dev” for the upcoming WvW fall tournament. The WvW team got together and decided to volunteer our play time to get out of the comfort zones of our own guilds and worlds and offer to play side by side with you for the duration of the upcoming tournament. We want to fight by your side, experience the ups and downs, have fun and learn together with you how to make a better WvW experience.

We are going to be looking for guilds in different leagues who wish to host a dev. They will participate in your activities and fight for the honor of your world and guild!

To make this work we need to establish some ground rules:

• Have Fun!
• Be respectful of the devs as people
  • If a dev is made to feel uncomfortable in any way, they are free to stop participating.
• The devs are volunteering their free time.
  • Please understand they have other personal obligations outside of work and may not be able to join all of your group play sessions.
  • Also consider that we are located in the US Pacific time zone so we will need to factor that into matching up with your guild play sessions.
• The devs are here to experience the WvW tournament with you.
  • They are not doing this to handle complaints, take bug reports or give information. Treat them like any other player and remember they also want to have fun.
• Devs should not be taking leadership of your group
  • Just because they are devs doesn’t mean they are in charge

If you are a guild leader and interested in hosting a dev, please PM me with this information as soon as possible:

• Your in-game name
• The Guild name that you are a leader of
• What world you are on
• What region you are playing in
• What times you typically play
  • Please let me know time in US Pacific time or at least include your time zone

We will be trying to spread our devs out as much as possible. I will be matching guilds up with devs based on what the dev tells me they can swing and the response. I will let everyone know when the devs have all been adopted and will post the assignments once that happens. I’m making this thread sticky for the duration of the tournament for us to post our experiences together.

I look forward to finding a good home for all of our dev volunteers and I’m excited to join you in the upcoming tournament!

Thanks!
John

#64 - Sept. 9, 2014, 8:12 p.m.

Just a quick update, some of our devs have started contacting guild leaders to work out details and make sure that play times will work for everyone.

Thank you guys so much for the warm welcomes and the overwhelming response! We’ve had so many invites from guilds that it’s been a struggle to keep my inbox from filling up

Thanks Again!
John

#80 - Sept. 10, 2014, 9:14 p.m.

Gismor.8407:

EK is looking to adopt Jessica Boettiger to make up for ram finishing her off a cliff

Dat ram… I can’t even be mad about it.

#90 - Sept. 12, 2014, 5:52 p.m.

Hey everyone, I signed up with Syndictive [Syn] on Sea of Sorrows. Thanks for all the enthusiastic responses! The other adopted devs should be coming along to post their new guilds as well.

#91 - Sept. 12, 2014, 5:59 p.m.

Hello Tyrians!

Another big thanks for signing up your guilds to host a dev! We had far more guilds sign up than I could possibly respond to so please accept my apologies for not individually responding to each sign up. We are really excited and humbled by the tremendous amount of enthusiasm we have received from you.

Everyone from the WvW team has found a home. Several devs in other areas have also jumped in because they wanted to be part of the fun. I’ll keep sign ups going for the next few days in case we have other late comers looking for a new home.

Finally, I wanted to give a big thanks to my new guild. A kind soul (who likes soul-reaping) saw me in the window and took me home to the kind folks of DmD on Devona’s Rest. I had a great time playing with my new family and I’m really looking forward to the weeks ahead!

Thanks!
John

#92 - Sept. 12, 2014, 6:01 p.m.

Hey guys,

I’ll be playing with the [RAID] guild on Vizunah Square [FR]. It’s awesome to see such an overwhelming response to this project, and I’m looking forward to fight (with) you in the field.

#93 - Sept. 12, 2014, 6:02 p.m.

I have signed up with the mighty [CERN] on Tarnished Coast! I wanted to say thank you to all the guilds that wanted to host us Devs for the Fall Tournament. I hope to see you on the battle field! All your bags are belong to us!!!

#94 - Sept. 12, 2014, 6:03 p.m.

Hello WvW folks! I have signed up with Semper Dius [Dius] on Kodash EU server to help them take down the dreaded Seafarer’s and Desolation bullies! I look forward to some good fights. I will try and live up to Semper Dius [Dius] standards!

FIght On!

#95 - Sept. 12, 2014, 6:07 p.m.

Hey Tarnished Coasters!

I’ll be playing with Tarnished Coast Field Medics [TCFM] this season.

Should be fun!

#96 - Sept. 12, 2014, 6:11 p.m.

Hey everyone!

Thank you all for stepping up to volunteer for this program. I am pleased to announce that I have been taken in by an EU guild on Kodash. I’m excited to embark on my new WvW journey, and experiencing the Fall Tournament in my new home, with Visceral Effect.

I’d like to give a big thanks to the vE guild for adopting me. I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to participate in the tournament from an EU guild’s perspective. I will miss my guilds on NSP (and I’ll try to hop back over from time to time to say hello while EU is sleeping), but I very much look forward to the feedback and experiences we will all share through this initiative. Together, we’ll make a better WvW!

Much wuv,
Wubbuffet

#98 - Sept. 12, 2014, 6:14 p.m.

Greetings all! I have the distinct pleasure of serving with Non Verbal Persuasion [NVP] on DarkHaven. I look forward to honourable battles and as another great Englishman once said, ‘Give me Cake or Death!’ ….what?! we’re all out of cake?

Tally ho!!

#99 - Sept. 12, 2014, 6:25 p.m.

I will be fighting for Helioz [Hel] and on loan to CERN tonight on TC.

There will be blood!

Chris

FYI my main guild is AARM (They just don’t do much WvW)

#101 - Sept. 12, 2014, 6:42 p.m.

I’ll be joining Strike Force [SF] on JQ and Driven by Fury [dF] on FSP!

LET’S DO THIS!

#103 - Sept. 12, 2014, 6:55 p.m.

I signed up with Starfleet Dental [SFD] on Maguuma, I hear they’re very professional.

#105 - Sept. 12, 2014, 7:23 p.m.

Wanted to make a note that not everyone will be posting in this thread. Some people are happy to participate with a guild on a personal level but would like to maintain their privacy in public and we will be honoring that.

A couple have asked that I post a greeting for them:

Zach Stiers will be screaming “Not in the face!” and will be running for cover…I mean Zach Stiers will be ferociously fighting for the honor of Unbreakable Dynasty on Black Gate. :P

JoAnna Frazar will bring devastation and tears to all who oppose her and her new guild Midnight Mayhem on Gunnar’s Hold.

#106 - Sept. 12, 2014, 7:46 p.m.

Beware my bearbow, for I am going to be joining Knights of the Temple [KnT] on #Beastgate

#115 - Sept. 13, 2014, 12:50 a.m.

I’ll be (staying) adopted by my fine friends at [GAF] over on SBI, see you all soon!

#121 - Sept. 13, 2014, 2:07 a.m.

Ashodin.7604:

We missed you tonight! We were on for some hours. See you tomorrow night Colin!

We got a nice little EB [GAF] group going for a bit tonight, DR had no idea what hit them when we snagged their SM and threw all our stuff in the mystic forge.

Look forward to seeing the big crew tomorrow Ash!

#123 - Sept. 13, 2014, 2:29 a.m.

DmD wiped GAF tonight in their homeland. I made sure to let everyone know it was your guild Colin. We were looking for your brilliant smile but there was only sadness :P

#131 - Sept. 13, 2014, 10:22 a.m.

Hi Harris,

Most of the devs participating have found a new home at this point. I’m keeping sign ups from devs open for a few more days in case there are any stragglers. A couple of devs were out last week but let me know they want to sign up as soon as they get back. I’m sorry if you don’t get matched up this time around. We had far more sign ups than we have devs available.

Thanks,
John

#147 - Sept. 14, 2014, 6:38 p.m.

I was indeed part of that! At first I was part of the squad creating a distraction. Of course I managed to create a distraction by losing that squad and getting a half dozen of you to chase me for a couple of minutes while I ran in the wrong direction.

Later I was in on the golem attack. At one point though I stopped to res a fallen ally and ended up spending the next few minutes staring at the cliff that someone banished me over! I swear no good deed goes unpunished :P

It was great fun, nice to hear from someone on the other side of it!

#153 - Sept. 15, 2014, 1:20 p.m.

A most gracious thanks go to the Ninja Nurse Rescue Squad on Kodash for adopting me into their ranks. They’ll make a decent skirmisher out of me yet!

#154 - Sept. 15, 2014, 1:32 p.m.

Korny.3168:

Fluffball.8307:

DeWolfe.2174:

Josh Davis.6015:

I’ll be joining Strike Force [SF] on JQ and Driven by Fury [dF] on FSP!

LET’S DO THIS!

I’d like to say this was a great idea Dev’s. And, to express my excitement and extend my thanks to Josh for coming over to JQ. It was a rough start being stuck on a home BL but, that’s as bad as it get’s. Tomorrow on an offensive map will be a lot more fun!

Did he suck and what class was he playing?

He was playing elementalist.
He was well….decent, considering we were fighting 50+ blobs with a lot of random damage.

I like how enemy also had a Dev with them so it was a Dev vs Dev epic mortal combat.
Kappa

Considering this is coming from a [dF] member, this is pretty much the best compliment I’ve ever received.

Also, I’d like to add that I was the only guy left alive in that massive failed keep rush. #lastmanstanding #Shrektinsixtyseconds #Showing[dF]theropes #Kappa

Edit: Thanks for having me. It’s been a lot of fun.

#158 - Sept. 15, 2014, 9:55 p.m.

Due to some guild issues. I am now repping Nobleese Oblige [Nob] on Eredon Terrace. Thank you for hosting me!

#168 - Sept. 16, 2014, 12:59 p.m.

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to introduce myself. I’m a server programmer here at ArenaNet and am excited to be part of the Adopt-A-Dev program for the WvW fall tournament.

I will be running with the League of Tyrian Adventurers [LoTA] on Kaineng. While Kaineng isn’t in the top tier, it is my home. I’ve been with it since starting the game and I feel a sense of allegiance towards it – so I hope I can help in some small way.

Regardless, this will be a lot of fun. If you see me in game, I am usually the big Charr Engineer named Vox Machinum. Say hi if you see me.

#170 - Sept. 16, 2014, 1:08 p.m.

Hello

Wanted to give a quick shout-out to Gaiscioch for adopting me on Sanctum of Rall. It’s been fun running with you guys so far and I’m looking forward to our other play sessions!
-Tiny Tee

#172 - Sept. 16, 2014, 2:52 p.m.

Je suis chez Nexus Order, Roche de l’Augure!
Ils sont tres agreables.

#176 - Sept. 16, 2014, 6:19 p.m.

Hi,

I’m joining in a few days late, but it looks like I’ll be hopping on the wagon with [TUNE] of Yak’s Bend.

#178 - Sept. 16, 2014, 11:03 p.m.

Hello everyone. I am proud to announce that I am the newest adopted member of “Light of Honor [Lite]” on my beloved Sorrows Furnace. We may not be the largest server, but that does not preclude us from being the best server (biasedly speaking).

#190 - Sept. 17, 2014, 11:34 a.m.

FrouFrou.4958:

Phoenixfire.8079:

3 on Kodash now? This is kittening ridiculous. Good Job ArenaNet.

As disappointing as it seems to be that they are all in one server, you shouldn’t really complain! 2 top notch GvG guilds and 1 small scale roaming guild! That’s pretty awesome if the devs feedback goes towards improving both scenes rather than buffing the blobs and zergs even more in the future patches.

As one of the Adoptees on Kodash I can assure you that my involvement has not helped to tip the scales in Kodash’s favor one bit.. Quite the contrary I expect

Either way I have enjoyed my time with Semper Dius tremendously. They play at a whole new level I can only aspire to achieve someday. The level of tactics and field vision is unbelievable.

#194 - Sept. 17, 2014, 1:07 p.m.

To the members of Helioz,

I recently received your application by mail. Since Chris Whiteside was adopted into your forces I framed the adoption certificate you sent and presented it to him this morning. He was most excited.

Thanks!
John

#199 - Sept. 17, 2014, 2:33 p.m.

Chaba.5410:

rowan.2581:

Lance’s first Fight with TUNE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZibcVP0xVBw&feature=youtu.be
Hope you had fun last night.

What?! No comms? Now it’s just not a TUNE raid without those comms. And where’s the obligatory princess doll tonics and mariner’s horns?

I hope you guys aren’t holding back just because of a special guest. The goal is for devs to “get out of the comfort zones” after all.

The most astonishing thing about that video is that all of us were afk. Rowan just made it look like we were collecting bags.

You should ask him to send you some of their GvG videos.

#200 - Sept. 17, 2014, 4:03 p.m.

Colin and I were having lunch a short while ago. During lunch we were sharing experiences from Adopt-a-Dev. He started talking about this amazing moment he had while on scouting duty where he spotted an attack on Stone Mist castle that was happening from the inside and was able to call in reinforcements in time to thwart it. Halfway through I stopped him and cursed his name. He was confused at my reaction until I told him that the attack he stopped was the one from my guild, DmD and I was part of that attack. He correctly guessed that we snuck a mesmer into the castle after IOJ took down one of their walls.

We would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for them darned kids scout!

#212 - Sept. 18, 2014, 7:40 p.m.

Big thanks to [ESP] Everlasting Sacred Path for taking me under wing!

.b

#217 - Sept. 19, 2014, 12:31 p.m.

Just wanted to pop in and say thanks again to vE for taking me under their wing. It’s been a challenge syncing up, given that I am at work during their prime hours, but I’ve really enjoyed what time I have been able to spend with them. So far it’s been non-stop action, with incredible organization and intensely gratifying fights. These epic battles are truly my favorite part of WvW.

Looking forward to the weekend, when I can really throw down!

#221 - Sept. 19, 2014, 4:18 p.m.

Looks like Pat’s #magswag is in full effect.

#226 - Sept. 19, 2014, 8:47 p.m.

Thanks Tarnished Coast for putting up an amazing fight toward the end of Round 1. We were only 1.1k behind Jade Quarry at reset, and managed to close in to less than 700 behind at one point. Those were some great fights.

#250 - Oct. 1, 2014, 7:10 p.m.

Hi everyone,

We’re working on a cool project related to the Adopt-A-Dev program and we need your help! No, it has nothing to do with killing devs or Dolyaks We’d like your Adopt-A-Dev video footage, if you have any!

We’re looking for high quality footage of any guild that adopted an ArenaNet dev, the requirements are:

• HD quality; we need the actual video file, no link to YouTube please; the ideal way for you to share this with us is probably a hosting service such as Google Docs for example;
• It needs a dev, or even more than one! If we can hear you talk about him, see him with or without his ArenaNet tag, it’s acceptable
• Please no swearing (if there’s TeamSpeak or map chat), no music and clean game footage
• Please send links to the video file(s) at [email protected] with the title “WvW Adopt-A-Dev footage” as soon as possible and at the latest on Sunday please
• If you could also include timestamps in your video when there are interesting bits, it would be fantastic!
• Last, your informal approval for us to use the footage (we may get more formal at some point).

Thanks a lot for your help with this, and have fun in the mists!

#252 - Oct. 2, 2014, 2:05 a.m.

With the number of ballistas that have been thrown on my dead body, I expect someone to send a video of it!

#257 - Oct. 2, 2014, 11:26 a.m.

leviN.4390:

uh oh… I don’t think our guild will meet those request. lol sorry John

Let me be more precise: we (obviously) would not want to use any part of the video where there’s swearing and if there is too much we’d probably not use anyway. For the rest, we’ll judge the footage for its merits.

Chaba.5410:

OK, so I have some footage of Hugh running around with CERN last reset (not much). Here’s the catch. You seem to be asking for the actual video file and no music. It is a confusing request. Are you asking for the raw video file or the edited and rendered video file that I upload to YouTube? The raw files are unedited and include an audio track. That means it would be up to you guys to strip that out when you edit the footage. A rendered video file means some quality is lost but I can strip out the music/audio for you.

Which file do you really want?

I’m asking “no music” because WvW players usually add copyrighted music to their video and we would never use that footage. So whatever file has the game footage plus any additional content that is “relevant” (e.g. TeamSpeak) is acceptable. Obviously raw footage is ok, rendered video is acceptable if it contains bits we can reuse (so they’d have to have devs, not have copyrighted material or swearing, etc.).

Technical quality is important but if your additions enhance the video we may consider them. It has to look professional, so no flurry of video effects etc. We’ll be watching the footage for “interesting bits” to resuse anyway, so I hope this provide some guidance.

Chaba.5410:

They’re also asking for no swearing in mapchat. I highly suspect they’re asking for a rendered video file. Which leads to another question: which render settings do they want the files in? I can strip the audio out and cover up the chat box. The render settings I use for YouTube though produce a lower quality product than if I just re-render at a higher quality and upload that to Google Drive.

Covering the chat box is probably not a bad idea but it’s something we’ll be able to do if needed Higher quality footage is preferable.

Thanks all for considering to help us!

#267 - Oct. 10, 2014, 8:24 p.m.

Hello Again,

With the WvW tournament drawing to a close, I’d like to thank everyone who participated in the Adopt-A-Dev program both as hosts and to the devs who volunteered their free time to make new friends and play with new guilds and worlds.

We collected a lot of valuable feedback. Some of that has motivated the discussions I’ve been having with you on the forums. I’ll be having another group discussion with our dev volunteers next week. Once that is complete I’ll get some notes posted on this thread.

It’s been both insightful and a ton of fun for me. My new guild DmD is full of dedicated WvW players, interesting characters, crazy stories, exotic beverages, fun-loving nuts, a pretty amazing guild leader (or three) and a guy who talks like a duck. I couldn’t have asked for a better group to get another perspective on WvW and GW2 with. Thanks for having me guys!

John

#268 - Oct. 14, 2014, 6:42 p.m.

Hey guys!

I wasn’t able to make an introduction post due to not having a proper shiny account, but I’d like to thank Hordes of Denravi of HoD for the great time I’ve had! I hadn’t played WvW prior to this and it was a super cool experience to run with the guild, learn the ropes, and get their amazing feedback on the game! It’s been a grand time and I look forward to my continued WvW playing.

#271 - Oct. 15, 2014, 10:58 a.m.

Blackarps.1974:

Wait a second. The/A Producer for Anet hadn’t played WvW prior to that? Yikes…

There are many producers here! I am quite new to the company, and I do not produce for a team that is related to WvW in almost any way; trust me, if I were I would have played WvW prior to my starting here

#276 - Oct. 15, 2014, 5:56 p.m.

Hey everyone,

I had a blast playing with [CERN] on Tarnished Coast! That was some of the most intense WvWing I have experienced hands down. How fast everyone adapted to the new trick and the tactic every world brought to the table was amazing! The guild I was in was super nice and very hospitable. I really can’t say enough about everyone as the community playing and showing such passion for this game type, really thank you everyone. I hope I can see more of everyone in the coming months as I bounce around playing WvW and PvP.

See you in the mists . . . either friend or foe. . . prepare for glory!
Hugh

#279 - Oct. 16, 2014, 12:02 p.m.

Thorfinnr Sleggja.1209:

Lauree Akhtar.3205:

Hey guys!

I wasn’t able to make an introduction post due to not having a proper shiny account, but I’d like to thank Hordes of Denravi of HoD for the great time I’ve had! I hadn’t played WvW prior to this and it was a super cool experience to run with the guild, learn the ropes, and get their amazing feedback on the game! It’s been a grand time and I look forward to my continued WvW playing.

It was great fun having you join us on Theme Night, at least I think you did form the convos going on on our TS last week…lol!
Tonight looks like we are going to do a “Thief Night”, so if you have time, come join us again!

I was there for Ranger night and Mesmer night! T’was much fun (though my ranger had a grand total of three skills by then end of the night).

Thief is the only class I haven’t played much of~ I’ll definitely try to make it tonight! May be late, though; now that the tournament is over the boyfriend and I are going back to our evening workouts

#280 - Oct. 17, 2014, 2 p.m.

Hello!

The adopted devs got together again earlier this week for a lunch meeting to bring feedback from their guilds and discuss their observations. The team has already begun addressing some of the feedback the devs brought back as well as some of the issues that you have brought up on our forums.

Coming with the build next week, build sites for rams will be trimmed down in size. This is to reduce the visual clutter with build sites, since rams are often built very close to each other, and make it easier to tell a ram apart from other siege when you are building it. There are also changes coming later to label the build interacts with what you are building. So you should see “Build Ram”, “Build Catapult” etc. instead of just “Build”. These were suggestions taken from the discussion on siege trolls.

We are going to make a balance pass on Siege Disablers. This was one of the most common pieces of feedback both from our adopted devs and from the forums. We really believe that Siege Disablers were a great addition to the game. They gave defenders a better chance of holding off attackers, they created new strategies and they created some fun fights outside of objectives by buying some time. But we agree that they need to be adjusted. We will be looking at things like radius, cooldowns and duration of the effect.

There were a handful of other tweaks brought up in our discussions that we are planning. These include reducing the number of people who can rally off of a kill. Removing white swords from objectives to give defenders a stronger role in alerting their team as well as giving attackers more of a chance to get through having their siege disabled. We are also going to test out awarding points per kill. PPK was part of the scoring discussion and something we wanted to try. We will be looking for your feedback on that change after it goes live.

Some bigger issues are factoring into longer term work. For example, we have been discussing what we have learned from our conversations on the forums as well as the feedback our adopted devs brought back from their guilds on the topics of population imbalance and scoring. These are bigger changes and are factoring into longer term solutions that the team is working on.

The team has a lot to chew on but some areas that I’d like to discuss more with the community in the near future are rewards and supporting some vital roles like scouting and defending. I’ll kick off some discussions on these areas in the next couple of weeks.

I was happy to hear from the devs that they would all love to do this again and felt it was a very fun and valuable way to spend their free time. Many of them have made some great new friends and they all felt like this was a great way to really connect with the community by playing side by side with new faces and getting new perspectives on Guild Wars 2.

Thanks again to everyone who signed up for or hosted a dev! We had a great time!

John

#394 - Oct. 21, 2014, 12:52 p.m.

Hvaran.6327:

On the Ready UP last friday there was a part of video where devs where speaking about their expirience during this project etc etc

when/where can we see that full video? Really looking forward for it and i didn’t understood from the boys in video when it’s gonna happen.

Thanks in advarance

The full video is still in production. We will get it up and released once it’s ready. We had a number of developers from the program show up to speak about their experiences on camera.