Reading between the lines

Since the announcement of the Guild Wars 2 expansion, Heart of Thorns, I've been involved in two discussions which have left me exasperated by the extent to which people wilfully over-interpret, mis-read and read-into the information provided by Arenanet.

As previously it might look like I'm picking on individuals but they're just convenient examples.  Sorry for picking you out.

The first was this:

"The entire hype of the announcement was pulling the RNG out of precursor acquisition."

I have no idea how you can interpret/extrapolate what Colin Johansen actually said to conclude that there would be no RNG involved in the new pre-cursor acquisition.  Personally, I think it will be very similar to how the luminescent armour is obtained which is VERY heavily affected by RNG.

What CJ said was this:

"The Mastery system will allow you to build out collections that send you on epic journeys across the world of Guild Wars 2, that once completed will reward you with pre-cursor weapons to set you on your journey to building your legendary."

Maybe I missed an additional announcement but there is not even a hint that the RNG has been "pulled out".

Next, Specialization. CJ said:

"The Specialization system will allow each profession to master a new specialization that grows there profession into something new."

The heart of Thorns website says:

"unlock access to a weapon previously unavailable to your profession"

In English "a [noun]" means one. "A choice of desserts" means there are many desserts but you can only choose one of them. If you went into a bar and asked for "a beer" and the bartender asked you how many you wanted you'd think he'd misheard you.

The announcement, and subsequent information, never mention there being a choice of new weapons per profession or a choice of Specializations.  "Each profession... a new specialisation." Yet it seems clarification was needed.

I can understand that if English isn't your first language these statements may not be as clear to you but they are actually quite explicit.

For me this is simply a personal annoyance but it's actually bad for the game.  This is exactly why Arenanet clammed up for the last, what, 6 months?  It was because they couldn't say anything without people wildly mis-interpreting what they said, forcing them to make clarifications that revealed more than they really wanted to.  The solution was to say simply nothing at all.

And we all paid the price.