Helseth's rant of the week

#10 - Aug. 21, 2013, 3:35 p.m.

Firstly, we have no qualm or rivalry with Helseth.

That aside, I have some questions, and would like to address some other points made.

1. What exactly do you mean by allocating resources to eSports?
2. What exactly is your definition of fun? Fun is subjective, no?

While we definitely appreciate it when players are vocal and provide feedback, excessive hyperbole does not help us to understand the fundamental issue.

Some more points:
1. The current meta is not controlled by the PvP team. Yes, we monitor it closely as balance greatly affects PvP. However, no resources are being taken away from PvP development in order to do balance. So I’d like to just squash that misconception now.

2. Skill effect clutter – another thing not controlled by the PvP team. Another thing that we monitor and provide feedback to the teams that do control it.

3. Sending out in-game mail is not as easy as it sounds. Keep in mind that every message that is sent has to be edited and localized.

• This is, however, something we recognize as an area to be improved. We are investigating ways to provide in-game messaging for events.

4. Lastly, I want to thank you for promoting the guildwars2pvptv channel. I always see a few people on the team with the stream always going on their 2nd/3rd monitors. Once PAX has past, we’ll be looking to better promote streamers from all areas of the game. So keep it up!!

#14 - Aug. 21, 2013, 3:44 p.m.

Volrath.1473:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Firstly, we have no qualm or rivalry with Helseth.

That aside, I have some questions, and would like to address some other points made.

1. What exactly do you mean by allocating resources to eSports?
2. What exactly is your definition of fun? Fun is subjective, no?

While we definitely appreciate it when players are vocal and provide feedback, excessive hyperbole does not help us to understand the fundamental issue.

Some more points:
1. The current meta is not controlled by the PvP team. Yes, we monitor it closely as balance greatly affects PvP. However, no resources are being taken away from PvP development in order to do balance. So I’d like to just squash that misconception now.

2. Skill effect clutter – another thing not controlled by the PvP team. Another thing that we monitor and provide feedback to the teams that do control it.

3. Sending out in-game mail is not as easy as it sounds. Keep in mind that every message that is sent has to be edited and localized.

• This is, however, something we recognize as an area to be improved. We are investigating ways to provide in-game messaging for events.

4. Lastly, I want to thank you for promoting the guildwars2pvptv channel. I always see a few people on the team with the stream always going on their 2nd/3rd monitors. Once PAX has past, we’ll be looking to better promote streamers from all areas of the game. So keep it up!!

ok so basically everything that is wrong with the game is not your fault. There is nothing at all under “control” you simply “monitor” thats cute!

I guess it is ours then! this meta is the worse EVER and i believe we all agree on that but it is ofc the players fault for playing the extremely OP professions that YOU made.

This is the excessive hyperbole that I mentioned in my post. You have every right to complain, but we can’t really understand your problem unless you actually provide some constructive feedback.

#18 - Aug. 21, 2013, 3:50 p.m.

Arganthium.5638:

In allocating resources to Esports, I think he means the fairly large focus on the PAX tournament (although he might have slightly exaggerated it).

As for fun, I think he just means balance, and, if you saw his post from last week about spam, and the post that was on the same line of thought that I put up recently about skills being used more tactically and strategically than they currently are.

Sure, except the PAX event is being mostly managed by our events, marketing and community teams. No resources are being taken away from development for PAX.

As for fun, we understand that balance isn’t in it’s ideal place. This is why we have a balance team that focuses completely on balance. Time is needed to balance, it can’t be done at the snap of a finger.

#20 - Aug. 21, 2013, 3:52 p.m.

Ok, now which is it? I have 3 different people saying that fun means 3 different things. This is what I meant when I said fun is subjective.

To some people, it’s fun to knock people off the edge of skyhammer. To others, it’s fun to be matched up against equally skilled players. To even more, it’s fun to feel like you’re great at the class you play.

#22 - Aug. 21, 2013, 3:56 p.m.

Volrath.1473:

Get into the game and play it, talk with ppl in the Mists (if you can find anyone there) there are dozens of threads in this subforum with detailed feedback, videos, screenshots, practical examples and some suggestions too.

I don’t understand why you keep asking for constructive feedback have you read it all already? if so, i’m sure you won’t need any more…

So, I shouldn’t promote constructive feedback because of why?

Do you want us to actually fix the problems you are having, or do you want us to just wing-it without knowing what the actual problem is?

It’s completely your choice to use hyperbole and not be constructive, but don’t expect us to read your mind or understand how to fix the issue if you don’t give us any detailed information regarding it.

Yes, there is constructive feedback. However, if we get 1 constructive post out of 10, how do we know that it’s a real issue if those 9 posts don’t actually give us any information?

#26 - Aug. 21, 2013, 4 p.m.

Lighter.5631:

i’ve heard that PvP balance team are not balancing anything because PAX is going on and the patch after PAX is over is not big balance patch either only the one after is a big balance is patch true.

There is no “PvP balance team” – there is only the balance team.

Yes, they are not going to make sweeping changes to balance before PAX. That is not completely because of PAX. Also, bigger patches don’t always equal better.

That’s not to say that certain things should or shouldn’t be adjusted, btw.

#29 - Aug. 21, 2013, 4:09 p.m.

felivear.1536:

Or, sometimes you are told exact examples and you reply with “Sounds….random”.

Hahaha oh come on, that’s no fair. I posted that too quickly, yes, but what I said wasn’t exactly wrong at the time I said it.

Regardless, I talked with the team about it and the issue got fixed. Chew on that!

:D <3

#31 - Aug. 21, 2013, 4:13 p.m.

Lighter.5631:

as of big patch, personally i just want to get ride of this current stat of pvp asap, so i can play this game again..

For sure, I can’t say we’re entirely happy with the meta right now either. Changes are coming.

#37 - Aug. 21, 2013, 4:33 p.m.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Balance takes time. Fine. But when you then release patches that have stupid unfun mechanics (fear/spirits/immunities/stuns/evasion) buffed to the sky then people hate the meta. If you werent aware that this meta would develop then you have bad testers. Most top players knew after 30 minutes with the dhuumfire patch that necro, spirirt ranger and sword thief were going to be a huge problem.

A good system would be to actually understand the implications of balance before you do it by having a good team procedure.

Your balance team is:

1, Always behind the curve in a way in which other developers of other games are not.
2, Then too slow to respond to issues when they arise.

And you are talking down to players saying “You dont understand how it works” or things to that effect. To alot of us this isnt just a game. It is a community. It is like a football team you support. You cant change supporting it because you are tied into it. We are tied into this game by time investment and by the relationships we have established whilst playing the game. So you might think we are an unproductive ignorant bunch of whiners and sensationalists. But we aren’t. We are just people who are tied into something which is sinking fast. GW2

Thanks for the feedback! I’m sorry if I came off as condescending, that is actually not at all what I meant. What I’m trying to do is help you guys to understand how things work here, and why things are done the way they are done, and how you can help if you really want to. Please don’t misunderstand me, or the rest of the team for that matter.

We’re just as much a part of this community as you. We all play the game, too. We try to be as involved in events as possible. If those efforts go unnoticed, fine, but you can’t say that we don’t support our community. That is just wrong, just like this statement “you might think we are an unproductive ignorant bunch of whiners and sensationalists.” – We don’t think that at all.

#38 - Aug. 21, 2013, 4:36 p.m.

Rambodacious.7495 – whoa! Talk about some awesome feedback! Really appreciate the time you put into your post and it’s constructive manner. Definitely not a waste of my time.

Phaeton.9582, thanks for the encouragement!