Can we have an official summary of things and updates to expect in 2018?

[Kronos.3695]

In the past we used to get news like [the road ahead](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/), but it didn't work out due to changes and in my opinion lack of transparency.

What am I looking for exactly? A post, an official statement on what we could expect for a certain year (2018 in this case) for every game area and easy to understand for everyone in the present and in the future (even to promote the game). I'll try to make an example for this year:

 

 

 

#**Road map**

PvP Season 10 (jan)

Lunar New Year (jan-feb)

Living Story 4 Episode 2 (jan-feb)

SAB (apr)

PvP Season 11 (apr)

Living Story 4 Episode 3 (apr-may)

Competitive Update (jun)

PvP Season 12 (jun)

Living Story 4 Episode 4 (jul-aug)

PvP Season 13 (aug)

Living Story 4 Episode 5 (oct-nov)

PvP Season 14 (oct)

Halloween (oct)

Wintersday (dec)

PvP Season 15 (dec)

 

#**Summary**

4 Living Story season 4 episodes

6 PvP competitive seasons

A competitive update

Returning of the festivals (Lunar New Year, SAB, Halloween, Winstersday)

 

 

I think that doing like this we could have a lot more transparency on what we can expect for the game, am I asking too much?

 

 

 

[Zohane.7208]

They used to be quite open with their plans, but unfortuantely people on the forum and elsewhere took stated intentions as promises and when they failed to be fulfilled - due to change of plans or delays due to problems or other - there were lots and lots of accusations of Anet lying to us" or "broken promises" or whatnot, and over time Anet most likely got tired of being yelled at in that manner so they stopped.

While I would have wanted more communication I can't say that I blame them; no one wants to be yelled at for having had good intentions.

[Dweller.3481]

Since developers are caring, we can enjoy a little bit mystery.

[mercury ranique.2170]

> @"Zohane.7208" said:

> They used to be quite open with their plans, but unfortuantely people on the forum and elsewhere took stated intentions as promises and when they failed to be fulfilled - due to change of plans or delays due to problems or other - there were lots and lots of accusations of Anet lying to us" or "broken promises" or whatnot, and over time Anet most likely got tired of being yelled at in that manner so they stopped.

> While I would have wanted more communication I can't say that I blame them; no one wants to be yelled at for having had good intentions.

 

I disagree with blaiming the players. Saying what your plans are, does make expectations and I think it is perfectly ok to hold them for the promises made. But making a game is a creative process. You can have an awesome idea to create a mole mount. It seems a great idea and you spend months creating it, but when tested by Q and A the feedback is terrible cause you don't see a thing when mounted and you agree it was a bad plan. So I think it is perfectly ok that Arenanet just surprises us with awesomeness.

 

I do believe they should make some vague overal ideas known, not at the start of a year, but at the announcement of an expansion. People missed with the PoF announcement a lot the promise that they plan on expanding raids and fractals at some point.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

Here’s a post that touches on why they don’t announce things far ahead of time any more (as well as other forum post issues)

 

>Josh Foreman

>1. It’s most helpful if you state your request or actionable item at the top. Then your reasons below. This helps us find and reference your post, pass it around for discussion, etc.

>2. Don’t assume the reason that things are the way they are due to developer incompetence, laziness, apathy, stubbornness, greed, selfishness, lust or any of the other deadly sins. There are other possibilities beside developer personal defects. “Just” changing one thing usually has ramifications on other things that are hard to anticipate. An MMO is an incredibly complex web of interdependencies, and tweaking any individual part runs the risk of breaking many other parts. That’s why we don’t typically jump to instant ‘fixes’ (even though it’s tempting!) and why things that seem like obvious problems can take a lot longer to address than many would intuitively think they should. There is no MAKE IT WORK button that we refuse to push out of spite. Even if that were the case, it just doesn’t make sense to insult the party you are requesting something from. In what part of the real world does that ever work? No one wants to ‘slap you in the face’ or make the game less fun. We love you guys, and are thrilled that people play our game!

>3. Don’t assume that we can just rearrange resources to work on your particular issue. Most of our teams are very specialized. It takes a long time to build the experience necessary to be a good productive member of the PvP, Story, Systems, or any other team. Just because we have X programmers working on bug fixes and Y working on Gameplay improvements, doesn’t mean we can arbitrarily move those numbers around. It’s just not that simple.

>**4. Please stop calling us liars when we fail to implement something we intended to months ago, but for some technical, balance, or other reason found it to be untenable. We can’t be very open about our plans if every word we say is taken as a contractual obligation. Imagine if every word you said to your friends were recorded and played back at the most inopportune time in order to make you look like a fool. You’d probably clam up pretty quickly. Making an MMO, especially one as experimental as GW2 requires… experimenting. Requires making plans, following through, finding dead ends, back-tracking and trying something else. Sometimes that means that we will state a clear goal, test it internally and find out it just won’t work. The idea that this means we don’t have a clear vision is wrong. There is a difference between a core vision for our design principles, and the implementation of specific systems. We are very clear about the mountain we want to scale, but whether we do it in 4×4, on foot, with a grappling hook, or a hot air balloon are all contingent on the terrain we discover as we progress.**

>5. You are not “all players”. Please stop saying “Players want X” just because you want X. The fact is that players want X, Y, Z, and the rest of the alphabet, and most of those desires conflict with each other. And I guarantee you, anything that the vast majority of the players want, we (as players of our own game) also want. If you don’t understand why something the vast majority of players and the devs want is not implemented, see the above points 2-4. I have a people-pleaser mentality, so this is one of the hardest pills for me to swallow as a developer. I want EVERYONE to be happy. Unfortunately, the rules of the real world make that impossible.

 

(Emphasis mine).

 

They no longer give overviews of what they’re working on so I guess they got tired of being called liars when things didn’t work out.

[Endless Soul.5178]

Thanks for that, Fleshy. I remember that being posted before, and I always think of that post whenever there's a "Anet please.." post.

[Randulf.7614]

The new marketing chap said they were working on improving this area of things. The pvp guys have already started being a lot more open about what is on the table for this year.

 

The impression i got from him was a lot less reticence and a lot more (tempered) excitement going forward.

[DarcShriek.5829]

> @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> > @"Zohane.7208" said:

> > They used to be quite open with their plans, but unfortuantely people on the forum and elsewhere took stated intentions as promises and when they failed to be fulfilled - due to change of plans or delays due to problems or other - there were lots and lots of accusations of Anet lying to us" or "broken promises" or whatnot, and over time Anet most likely got tired of being yelled at in that manner so they stopped.

> > While I would have wanted more communication I can't say that I blame them; no one wants to be yelled at for having had good intentions.

>

> I disagree with blaiming the players. Saying what your plans are, does make expectations and I think it is perfectly ok to hold them for the promises made.

Here lies the crux of the problem. When developers come out and say "this is what we want to do" , many people interpret it as "this is what we promise to do". This goes on for years with people claiming the devs promised them something that the devs clearly never did.

 

Another problem with the devs coming out with their intentions is that the more powerful market players will use that info to try to control the market.

 

It's best for everyone if the devs just keep their long term plans to their selves

[Rauderi.8706]

It won't be anything that precise, but it'd be nice to have a "we're working on [x/y/z]" list.

 

Buuut, we all know the player hype train would choo-choo out of control and make a lot of resentment if an anticipated feature got dropped.

[Faaris.8013]

> @"DarcShriek.5829" said:

> > @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> > I disagree with blaiming the players. Saying what your plans are, does make expectations and I think it is perfectly ok to hold them for the promises made.

> Here lies the crux of the problem. When developers come out and say "this is what we want to do" , many people interpret it as "this is what we promise to do". This goes on for years with people claiming the devs promised them something that the devs clearly never did.

 

That's up to the people that communicate to the players. You gotta communicate things clearly and idiot-proof, it's almost never the reader who's at fault when communication went wrong. Stopping communication is not a solution for the problem, good communication is. When so many people misunderstood the statements that have been made, they were probably not worded clearly. If only a handful of people misunderstand you, it's not a problem at all, just point at your statements, even other forum members will correct the people who scream "liars!" and you don't have to say a thing.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

> @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > @"DarcShriek.5829" said:

> > > @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> > > I disagree with blaiming the players. Saying what your plans are, does make expectations and I think it is perfectly ok to hold them for the promises made.

> > Here lies the crux of the problem. When developers come out and say "this is what we want to do" , many people interpret it as "this is what we promise to do". This goes on for years with people claiming the devs promised them something that the devs clearly never did.

>

> That's up to the people that communicate to the players. You gotta communicate things clearly and idiot-proof, it's almost never the reader who's at fault when communication went wrong. Stopping communication is not a solution for the problem, good communication is. When so many people misunderstood the statements that have been made, they were probably not worded clearly. If only a handful of people misunderstand you, it's not a problem at all, just point at your statements, even other forum members will correct the people who scream "liars!" and you don't have to say a thing.

 

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams

 

While I agree that lack of communication is bad, there is no such thing as 'idiot proof' communication. MMO players (I've seen this with other games too, not just GW) are *very* good at twisting statements about 'plans' and 'hopes' into promises, and then even blaming the studio when they try to set the record straight!

[STIHL.2489]

> @"Kronos.3695" said:

> In the past we used to get news like [the road ahead](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/), but it didn't work out due to changes and in my opinion lack of transparency.

> What am I looking for exactly? A post, an official statement on what we could expect for a certain year (2018 in this case) for every game area and easy to understand for everyone in the present and in the future (even to promote the game). I'll try to make an example for this year:

 

This will not happen, due to the fact that they can't predict the future, and if need to make changes, players will fuss at them for a lack of transparency.

 

> I think that doing like this we could have a lot more transparency on what we can expect for the game, am I asking too much?

>

 

Yes, you are.

[DarkForcE.9210]

did we forgot to mention about balancing patch that will carry throughout the year? it's only time entire server get frustrated lol...

[Kronos.3695]

> @"STIHL.2489" said:

> > @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > In the past we used to get news like [the road ahead](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/), but it didn't work out due to changes and in my opinion lack of transparency.

> > What am I looking for exactly? A post, an official statement on what we could expect for a certain year (2018 in this case) for every game area and easy to understand for everyone in the present and in the future (even to promote the game). I'll try to make an example for this year:

>

> This will not happen, due to the fact that they can't predict the future, and if need to make changes, players will fuss at them for a lack of transparency.

>

> > I think that doing like this we could have a lot more transparency on what we can expect for the game, am I asking too much?

> >

>

> Yes, you are.

 

That's what communication is all about: something is changed? Let the people know about it, don't you think? An example:

"We're going to release 5 episodes this year".

"Due to some technical problems bla bla bla this year the episodes will be 3".

 

I don't see anything hard in this way to communicate to your playerbase.

[Ayrilana.1396]

> @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > @"STIHL.2489" said:

> > > @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > > In the past we used to get news like [the road ahead](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/), but it didn't work out due to changes and in my opinion lack of transparency.

> > > What am I looking for exactly? A post, an official statement on what we could expect for a certain year (2018 in this case) for every game area and easy to understand for everyone in the present and in the future (even to promote the game). I'll try to make an example for this year:

> >

> > This will not happen, due to the fact that they can't predict the future, and if need to make changes, players will fuss at them for a lack of transparency.

> >

> > > I think that doing like this we could have a lot more transparency on what we can expect for the game, am I asking too much?

> > >

> >

> > Yes, you are.

>

> That's what communication is all about: something is changed? Let the people know about it, don't you think? An example:

> "We're going to release 5 episodes this year".

> "Due to some technical problems bla bla bla this year the episodes will be 3".

>

> I don't see anything hard in this way to communicate to your playerbase.

 

They did that in the past and got blamed for breaking their promises. That’s what people on here have been trying to say.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

People are telling you that Anet is afraid of posting plans, because of past reactions. Well boohoo, they are grown ups, they have communication team, so they should know how to handle their community. But they don't, so they keep quiet. That's pathetic, but that's the reality.

 

This is obvious they know what they are going to do in next few months, I dare to say even for whole year it's possible for them to tell us how many LW updates we can expect and if any additional features are in the works. Those who claim it's impossible are basically calling anet incompetent, as they believe an AAA company sustaining a worldwide MMO has no idea what they are doing next week or month.

 

I find it also cute how some people are already manipulated to believe that customers expecting developer to live up to promises are to blame here. No, we are not. Because there are cases where Anet literally promised and advertised certain features which never came to live or were changed in time without any compensation for customers.

 

First of all, gen2 of legendary weapons - these are sold as HoT feature and still we're waiting for full release of them. There is no justification for this change, as these weapons were marketed during HoT conference and are still being sold as part of HoT even though the advertised product is still incomplete.

 

Second, fractal leaderboards. They never happened.

 

Third, devs provided false information about raid story being unrelated to main story of the game. Meanwhile first 3 raid wings were basically the reintroduction of WM and mursaat which as we know were crucial during LW season 3. Happily, they fixed this with wing 4 and 5 but it still leaves bad taste.

 

---

 

tl;dr Anet won't make another post like the one OP linked. They have no idea how to handle the community and are afraid of being responsible for their words.

 

To add to this, I strongly believe Anet is directly hurting the game by not providing any substantial information about upcoming releases. The game is quiet, the community is quiet but for a person not playing the game it looks like expansion was released and game died. This is how much "buzz" your no information policy creates.

[Faaris.8013]

> @"Tanner Blackfeather.6509" said:

> > @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > > @"DarcShriek.5829" said:

> > > > @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> > > > I disagree with blaiming the players. Saying what your plans are, does make expectations and I think it is perfectly ok to hold them for the promises made.

> > > Here lies the crux of the problem. When developers come out and say "this is what we want to do" , many people interpret it as "this is what we promise to do". This goes on for years with people claiming the devs promised them something that the devs clearly never did.

> >

> > That's up to the people that communicate to the players. You gotta communicate things clearly and idiot-proof, it's almost never the reader who's at fault when communication went wrong. Stopping communication is not a solution for the problem, good communication is. When so many people misunderstood the statements that have been made, they were probably not worded clearly. If only a handful of people misunderstand you, it's not a problem at all, just point at your statements, even other forum members will correct the people who scream "liars!" and you don't have to say a thing.

>

> "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams

>

> While I agree that lack of communication is bad, there is no such thing as 'idiot proof' communication. MMO players (I've seen this with other games too, not just GW) are *very* good at twisting statements about 'plans' and 'hopes' into promises, and then even blaming the studio when they try to set the record straight!

 

It is indeed possible to communicate in a way that the majority of your readers get what you are saying, most of us do this all the time. And the few who don't get it cannot make an uproar and bring the community against the company. Also, I'm not talking about engineering design of the game or a window in a building (which Douglas Adams was talking about when he wrote that scene you are quoting from). Designing something to be foolproof has really nothing to do with wording sentences in a way people understand, but I'm glad you found an opportunity to slip that totally unrelated quote into your post.

 

I'm simply talking about sharing a road map that already exists and is certainly already worded very clearly, with very specific, measurable goals and steps to reach those. Nobody needs to see the internal project plans, but a rough map of where this game is going and a timeline would be appreciated.

 

> @"STIHL.2489" said:

> > @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > In the past we used to get news like [the road ahead](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/), but it didn't work out due to changes and in my opinion lack of transparency.

> > What am I looking for exactly? A post, an official statement on what we could expect for a certain year (2018 in this case) for every game area and easy to understand for everyone in the present and in the future (even to promote the game). I'll try to make an example for this year:

>

> This will not happen, due to the fact that they can't predict the future, and if need to make changes, players will fuss at them for a lack of transparency.

 

How is this predicting the future? A company has a road map, they know what they'll be working on this year. Do you believe they just work on things that just cross someone's mind?

 

I just imagined a conversation between an investor and Mike O'Brien where the investor asks what the projects are for 2018 and Mike laughs and replies with "Sir, I cannot predict the future!".

[STIHL.2489]

> @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > @"STIHL.2489" said:

> > > @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > > In the past we used to get news like [the road ahead](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/), but it didn't work out due to changes and in my opinion lack of transparency.

> > > What am I looking for exactly? A post, an official statement on what we could expect for a certain year (2018 in this case) for every game area and easy to understand for everyone in the present and in the future (even to promote the game). I'll try to make an example for this year:

> >

> > This will not happen, due to the fact that they can't predict the future, and if need to make changes, players will fuss at them for a lack of transparency.

> >

> > > I think that doing like this we could have a lot more transparency on what we can expect for the game, am I asking too much?

> > >

> >

> > Yes, you are.

>

> That's what communication is all about: something is changed? Let the people know about it, don't you think? An example:

> "We're going to release 5 episodes this year".

> "Due to some technical problems bla bla bla this year the episodes will be 3".

>

> I don't see anything hard in this way to communicate to your playerbase.

 

I see you don't work in PR at all,.. so.. quick re-cap.. wanna know how that would end?

 

Imagine a few hundred, or thousand posts later about Anet unable to keep their promises E-mails, letters, posts on social media, and Twitch Channels, and Youtubbrs, pretty much every public-eye player and many MMO review sites, will make sure that it's know that Anet promised 5 episodes.. and could only make 3..

 

Did you miss the kitten-storm that happened when they announced they need to put Legendary Journeys on hold?

 

Even those that try to be understanding will realize that you can't hold to your promises. So why bother.

 

That is not to mention the speculation as to why only 3 were made, with questions of the teams competence to the survival of the game. Better off telling people what you did.. not try to play fortune teller.

[STIHL.2489]

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > > @"STIHL.2489" said:

> > > > @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > > > In the past we used to get news like [the road ahead](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/), but it didn't work out due to changes and in my opinion lack of transparency.

> > > > What am I looking for exactly? A post, an official statement on what we could expect for a certain year (2018 in this case) for every game area and easy to understand for everyone in the present and in the future (even to promote the game). I'll try to make an example for this year:

> > >

> > > This will not happen, due to the fact that they can't predict the future, and if need to make changes, players will fuss at them for a lack of transparency.

> > >

> > > > I think that doing like this we could have a lot more transparency on what we can expect for the game, am I asking too much?

> > > >

> > >

> > > Yes, you are.

> >

> > That's what communication is all about: something is changed? Let the people know about it, don't you think? An example:

> > "We're going to release 5 episodes this year".

> > "Due to some technical problems bla bla bla this year the episodes will be 3".

> >

> > I don't see anything hard in this way to communicate to your playerbase.

>

> They did that in the past and got blamed for breaking their promises. That’s what people on here have been trying to say.

 

This ^^^^^

 

a Thousand times This ^^^^^^

[Kronos.3695]

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > > @"STIHL.2489" said:

> > > > @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > > > In the past we used to get news like [the road ahead](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/), but it didn't work out due to changes and in my opinion lack of transparency.

> > > > What am I looking for exactly? A post, an official statement on what we could expect for a certain year (2018 in this case) for every game area and easy to understand for everyone in the present and in the future (even to promote the game). I'll try to make an example for this year:

> > >

> > > This will not happen, due to the fact that they can't predict the future, and if need to make changes, players will fuss at them for a lack of transparency.

> > >

> > > > I think that doing like this we could have a lot more transparency on what we can expect for the game, am I asking too much?

> > > >

> > >

> > > Yes, you are.

> >

> > That's what communication is all about: something is changed? Let the people know about it, don't you think? An example:

> > "We're going to release 5 episodes this year".

> > "Due to some technical problems bla bla bla this year the episodes will be 3".

> >

> > I don't see anything hard in this way to communicate to your playerbase.

>

> They did that in the past and got blamed for breaking their promises. That’s what people on here have been trying to say.

 

Not at all, the problem back that was the total lack of communication after announcing something big, wich resulted in a total frustration of the community and that's not what I'm trying to ask here.

What I've always wanted was a vague road map on the things programmed to be released in the current year with follow-ups when something changing.

 

And no, I don't care about people whining about "broken promises", It's a game with a communication area whos work is to say whatever they have to say and ignore crying babies.

[Ayrilana.1396]

> @"Kheldorn.5123" said:

> People are telling you that Anet is afraid of posting plans, because of past reactions. Well boohoo, they are grown ups, they have communication team, so they should know how to handle their community. But they don't, so they keep quiet. That's pathetic, but that's the reality.

>

> This is obvious they know what they are going to do in next few months, I dare to say even for whole year it's possible for them to tell us how many LW updates we can expect and if any additional features are in the works. Those who claim it's impossible are basically calling anet incompetent, as they believe an AAA company sustaining a worldwide MMO has no idea what they are doing next week or month.

>

> I find it also cute how some people are already manipulated to believe that customers expecting developer to live up to promises are to blame here. No, we are not. Because there are cases where Anet literally promised and advertised certain features which never came to live or were changed in time without any compensation for customers.

>

> First of all, gen2 of legendary weapons - these are sold as HoT feature and still we're waiting for full release of them. There is no justification for this change, as these weapons were marketed during HoT conference and are still being sold as part of HoT even though the advertised product is still incomplete.

>

> Second, fractal leaderboards. They never happened.

>

> Third, devs provided false information about raid story being unrelated to main story of the game. Meanwhile first 3 raid wings were basically the reintroduction of WM and mursaat which as we know were crucial during LW season 3. Happily, they fixed this with wing 4 and 5 but it still leaves bad taste.

>

> ---

>

> tl;dr Anet won't make another post like the one OP linked. They have no idea how to handle the community and are afraid of being responsible for their words.

 

Nobody is saying that it’s impossible for Anet to post their plans. Whether it is possible or not isn’t even part of the discussion.

 

People treating everything as promises are to blame here. I dare say, based on your post, that you fall within that group. Exactly what did Anet promise that they did not live up to? Before replying, check up what a promise is. What did they take away that required compensation to players?

 

Plans change and they clearly explained why fractal leaderboards wouldn’t happen. To be honest, there really wasn’t much point for them in the first place.

 

It was explained why the second generation of legendaries did not come out all at once. They achieved a middle ground with the current method to obtain them through each LS update.

 

They never stated that raid stories would not be related to the living story. This is false information being provided by you and others. What they said is that the raid stories would not be required for the living story. In other words, raid stories would not be the equivalent of an LS episode but more of a side story. If anything relevant from the raid stories were a part of the living story, they’d be incorporated within the episodes which was done in LS3.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

> @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > @"Tanner Blackfeather.6509" said:

> > > @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > > That's up to the people that communicate to the players. You gotta communicate things clearly and idiot-proof, it's almost never the reader who's at fault when communication went wrong. Stopping communication is not a solution for the problem, good communication is. When so many people misunderstood the statements that have been made, they were probably not worded clearly. If only a handful of people misunderstand you, it's not a problem at all, just point at your statements, even other forum members will correct the people who scream "liars!" and you don't have to say a thing.

> >

> > "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams

> >

> > While I agree that lack of communication is bad, there is no such thing as 'idiot proof' communication. MMO players (I've seen this with other games too, not just GW) are *very* good at twisting statements about 'plans' and 'hopes' into promises, and then even blaming the studio when they try to set the record straight!

>

> It is indeed possible to communicate in a way that the majority of your readers get what you are saying, most of us do this all the time. And the few who don't get it cannot make an uproar and bring the community against the company. Also, I'm not talking about engineering design of the game or a window in a building (which Douglas Adams was talking about when he wrote that scene you are quoting from). Designing something to be foolproof has really nothing to do with wording sentences in a way people understand, but I'm glad you found an opportunity to slip that totally unrelated quote into your post.

>

> I'm simply talking about sharing a road map that already exists and is certainly already worded very clearly, with very specific, measurable goals and steps to reach those. Nobody needs to see the internal project plans, but a rough map of where this game is going and a timeline would be appreciated.

 

You grossly underestimate how much uproar a small part of the playerbase can cause. Do remember that the *vast* majority of players of *any* MMO **don't actually read official statements or forums!** Most of the playerbase gets *all* their info on what's happening in the game through precisely the word-of-mouth that tends to distort what's actually said! Player awareness in MMOs are essentially a giant game of 'telephone'.

[Zohane.7208]

> @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > @"Tanner Blackfeather.6509" said:

> > > @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > > > @"DarcShriek.5829" said:

> > > > > @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> > > > > I disagree with blaiming the players. Saying what your plans are, does make expectations and I think it is perfectly ok to hold them for the promises made.

> > > > Here lies the crux of the problem. When developers come out and say "this is what we want to do" , many people interpret it as "this is what we promise to do". This goes on for years with people claiming the devs promised them something that the devs clearly never did.

> > >

> > > That's up to the people that communicate to the players. You gotta communicate things clearly and idiot-proof, it's almost never the reader who's at fault when communication went wrong. Stopping communication is not a solution for the problem, good communication is. When so many people misunderstood the statements that have been made, they were probably not worded clearly. If only a handful of people misunderstand you, it's not a problem at all, just point at your statements, even other forum members will correct the people who scream "liars!" and you don't have to say a thing.

> >

> > "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams

> >

> > While I agree that lack of communication is bad, there is no such thing as 'idiot proof' communication. MMO players (I've seen this with other games too, not just GW) are *very* good at twisting statements about 'plans' and 'hopes' into promises, and then even blaming the studio when they try to set the record straight!

>

> It is indeed possible to communicate in a way that the majority of your readers get what you are saying, most of us do this all the time. And the few who don't get it cannot make an uproar and bring the community against the company. Also, I'm not talking about engineering design of the game or a window in a building (which Douglas Adams was talking about when he wrote that scene you are quoting from). Designing something to be foolproof has really nothing to do with wording sentences in a way people understand, but I'm glad you found an opportunity to slip that totally unrelated quote into your post.

>

> I'm simply talking about sharing a road map that already exists and is certainly already worded very clearly, with very specific, measurable goals and steps to reach those. Nobody needs to see the internal project plans, but a rough map of where this game is going and a timeline would be appreciated.

>

> > @"STIHL.2489" said:

> > > @"Kronos.3695" said:

> > > In the past we used to get news like [the road ahead](https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-road-ahead-for-2015/), but it didn't work out due to changes and in my opinion lack of transparency.

> > > What am I looking for exactly? A post, an official statement on what we could expect for a certain year (2018 in this case) for every game area and easy to understand for everyone in the present and in the future (even to promote the game). I'll try to make an example for this year:

> >

> > This will not happen, due to the fact that they can't predict the future, and if need to make changes, players will fuss at them for a lack of transparency.

>

> How is this predicting the future? A company has a road map, they know what they'll be working on this year. Do you believe they just work on things that just cross someone's mind?

>

> I just imagined a conversation between an investor and Mike O'Brien where the investor asks what the projects are for 2018 and Mike laughs and replies with "Sir, I cannot predict the future!".

 

It may be that it's possible to communicate clearly enough. It might also be that it's not possible. I don't know the answer to that.

What I do know is what happened. Arenanet published their plans - possibly not 100% clearly stated - and got eaten alive for every miniscule (or major) deviation from said plans. I'm sure they could have hired a staff of lawyers and publicists to scrutinize every single post made so make sure it was "clear enough", but it seems they chose to not make that expense and instead stopped, presumably since they thought that would calm people's feelings down.

You could always re-read the quote from Josh Foreman where he asked people to not call them liars etcetera. Personally I think that shows that they felt they were very very wrongly treated.

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

The game I used to play would announce everything ahead of time. They'd say something like, 'free new weapon/free coins for everyone who logs in the week of__" or something. And then it would be delayed half the time, and the forum filled with angry posts about "Where is my free weapon? My life is ruined!" And after the fact, people would grumble about "The free weapon is ugly. I can't believe I bothered to log in for it."

 

I asked on the forum, "Why do you announce these things ahead of time? Instead of people being furious because something they felt entitled to was delayed or not up to expectations, the free gift could be a wonderful surprise, and they'd be grateful for it instead of having tantrums." Their answer was that they'd rather take the flak than have players miss the special promotion and be disappointed.

 

Of course, at Anet, there are less of the things you miss out on just by not knowing about them--items on sale in the Gem store, and occasional little freebies. I would be very happy to see things announced ahead of time, but understand why they aren't.

 

But a "Coming back to the Gemstore soon" announcement every week or so would really be nice, and there is no excuse of not being able to implement it. And announcing, "Bank tabs will be on sale for three days starting ___" would probably drive up interest for the sale items and cut down the number of grumpy people who bought something the day before the sale started.

[Ayakaru.6583]

> @"Kronos.3695" said:

 

>

> #**Road map**

> PvP Season 10 (jan)

> Lunar New Year (jan-feb)

> Living Story 4 Episode 2 (jan-feb)

> ~~SAB~~ (never)

> PvP Season 11 (apr)

> Living Story 4 Episode 3 (apr-may)

> Competitive Update (jun)

> PvP Season 12 (jun)

> Living Story 4 Episode 4 (jul-aug)

> PvP Season 13 (aug)

> Living Story 4 Episode 5 (oct-nov)

> PvP Season 14 (oct)

> Halloween (oct)

> Wintersday (dec)

> PvP Season 15 (dec)

>

>

 

Fixed your list :)

 

But in all seriousness. We’ll probably never get official lists anymore because anet cannot guarantee the production. Hence we get a 2-3 month schedule rather than a 5 weeks exact schedule.

 

As for lunar’s new year, its on february 16th. Im guessing we’ll get the patch last tuesday of january, and then chapter 2 right after it ends (or with some overlap)