MMO Reporter Episode 94 – Guild Wars 2 Takeover

Yeah, so, umm, we talked about Guild Wars 2 for the majority of the show. We did talk about The Secret War too though. And WoW. And about the Riders of Rohan delay. But not much.

Listen now:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:13:18 — 67.3MB) | Embed

What we did this week

Bill
Guild Wars 2
LOTRO
Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2
GUILD WARS 2!
guild wars 2

Harry
Tales of Graces F
Lunar Silver Star Harmony
GUILD WARS 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://storify.com/harryhol/guild-wars-2-launch

Chris
Guild Wars 2
TOR – 50 on my Knight. YEAH!
Rift – Still gearing up my rogue. Ran a few LFG dungeons
LOTRO
WoW – New mage on a new server

News

GW2 reaches 400K concurrent players during pre-launch
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/28/guild-wars-2-hits-400k-concurrent-users-before-launch/

Don’t tell Secret World though – they aren’t doing so hot (“over 200K subscribers”)
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/28/the-secret-world-sales-at-200-000-funcom-focused-on-the-future/

ArenaNet double dares most vocal ‘victims’ of the ban hammer
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/yxx3m/suspensions_for_offensive_names_and_inappropriate/

Wiki in GW2
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/yxwmo/psa_you_can_type_wiki_to_open_the_gw2_wiki/

Riders of Rohan delayed to Oct 15th (from Sept 5th)
http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/devdiaries/2365-letter-from-the-producer-riders-of-rohan-update?lang=en_US

- bug fixing, or strategy (i.e. GW2, WoW)

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/25/the-road-to-mordor-delay-delay-delay/

First Level 80 in GW2
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/27/guild-wars-2-crafter-reaches-level-80-first/
Also – http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/yy07z/congratulations_and_apologies_to_surfeuze_and_war/
- When we first logged in on Friday, Chris polled everyone in vent to find out how soon the first 80 would happen. I said Sunday. They all laughed. THEY LAUGHED! WHO’S LAUGHING NOW?!?!?! HUH??? ME! THAT’S WHO!

WoW patch 5.04 released – Pandaria-prep patch
http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/08/28/patch-5-0-4-release-patch-notes/
- Looking for a Lore refresher? WoW insider has collected their relevant lore links
http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/08/28/mists-of-pandaria-lore-resources/
- You could also read the new novel by Christie Golden – Tides of War
http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/08/28/tides-of-war-novel-released-today/

Contact Info
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email: mmo.reporter@gmail.com
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twitter: twitter.com/mmo_reporter
twitter: twitter.com/harryhol
twitter: twitter.com/mmobill
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Kuppa

Hey Guys! haven’t been able to listen to your latests podcasts, my podcast manager seems to not like your rss link for two weeks now. Did you guys changed anything with your rss feeds recently? BTW big fan!
Mike I.

I am a bit disappointed with the tone of this episode.

It’s good Harry Hol has found his “WoW-killer”. I don’t understand why that ought to mean that other games deserve imminent demise, for not being like GW2? It doesn’t bode well for for his upcoming TSW-review.

I can see the entertainment-value of the Reddit-page on how various players got themselves banned from GW2. However putting it up seems more of a PR-exercise than the customer-relations exercise it ought to be.

It seems ArenaNet has decided to come down on abuse in force, from the outset. That is probably a good thing for the community in the long run. On the other hand, according to Massively, 4000 accounts have been banned for various infractions since launch until friday. As customers these people, by default, should be able to communicate with ArenaNet on an individual basis about their ban, rather than being pilloried on Reddit. I think it is unprofessional conduct on the part of ArenaNet.

Mike

http://www.facebook.com/people/Wullo-Sweetwater/100001172203368 Wullo Sweetwater

And Massively is the most authentic source for this i guess. Not Arenanet who said that it is “less than .001% of our total player base.” Many ppl claim they were banned, but many of them are just trolling, and some of them (sadly) have been hacked, hence the suspension of their account til they can get it back. Now that is another topic, one I’m a bit concerned about myself.. account security. I would really like an authenticator for GW2..

Mike I.

Thanks for the replies. I will address both in the same message.

Chris:

Take a more conventional example.

Imagine if a phone-company would disconnect its customers without explaining why, and instead invite them to apply to a public website with their account-information to receive an explanation, also in public. Would you consider that reasonable behavior for a company towards its customers?

The customers might have failed to meet their obligations, or the company might have made an error. In any case, the customer should be able to expect their business to remain confidential. Where I live, that expectation is even written into consumer law.

With respect to ArenaNet and the Reddit-page, note that several people write something like “I have been banned. My name doesn’t seem offensive, and I have not written anything obnoxious in-game”, only to be told that their account has been likely hacked. Don’t you think they deserve to be informed of that circumstance directly, rather than having to apply to be told? Even the individuals, who appear to have been banned for being offensive in some way, seemingly did not realize their infraction was to being rude in chat. To restate: my argument is not that bans are wrong

Clearly, it would have been better, and more effective, if ArenaNet had communicated to them directly, why they were being banned. As I wrote earlier, this seems a PR-exercise rather than a customer-relations strategy.

Wullo:

There is nothing inherently contradictory about 4000 v 0.001% of player base. One is a count the other is a proportional number. It is unclear to me how the number 0.001% arises. Even if GW2 has attracted 10,000,000 players (10 million), which is a stretch, 0.001% corresponds to 100 players. According to ArenaNet itself, significantly more accounts have been banned. I suspect someone at ArenaNet got the arithmetic wrong.

In any case the actual number is less important. The issue is the way ArenaNet treats its customers.

Chris

Hey Mike,

Thanks for the comment. I’m going to have to disagree about this being the wrong, or bad, way to talk about the bans. This wasn’t Arenanet picking random players that were banned and publishing their information. This was players stating their character name, calling out to Arenanet to prove that they were banned, and Arenanet providing the information.

If Arenanet has simply published the information, that would be wrong. This way, in my opinion, players were agreeing to have the information published.

For those reasons, I think that this was a good move, both for the community, for PR, and for the game.

Chris

MMO Reporter Episode 94 – Guild Wars 2 Takeover

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