  We present our views on the issues raised in the chapter by Griffin and
Zaremba [A. Griffin and E. Zaremba, in Quantum Gases: Finite Temperature and
Non-Equilibrium Dynamics, N. P. Proukakis, S. A. Gardiner, M. J. Davis, and M.
H. Szymanska, eds., Imperial College Press, London (in press)]. We review some
of the strengths and limitations of the Bose symmetry-breaking assumption, and
explain how such an approach precludes the description of many important
phenomena in degenerate Bose gases. We discuss the theoretical justification
for the classical-field (c-field) methods, their relation to other
non-perturbative methods for similar systems, and their utility in the
description of beyond-mean-field physics. Although it is true that present
implementations of c-field methods cannot accurately describe certain
collective oscillations of the partially condensed Bose gas, there is no
fundamental reason why these methods cannot be extended to treat such
scenarios. By contrast, many regimes of non-equilibrium dynamics that can be
described with c-field methods are beyond the reach of generalised mean-field
kinetic approaches based on symmetry-breaking, such as the ZNG formalism.
