Guild Wars 2

I’m surprised and not surprised at the same time.

Prior to actually witnessing it in-game, I would have guessed it would be largely in favor of Ho-Ho Tron as well. But based on what I’ve actually seen in-game, those statistics seem exactly correct. Both get donations at more or less the same rate with only a slight favoring towards Ho-Ho Tron.

Personally, I have given 100% of my donations to Ho-Ho Tron. Forget the minstrel, HHT is where it’s at, best character in the Living Story. Victory gyrations for all, and a meal of meat that is not of questionable origin.

Is this actually going to have any sort of effect on the story John (are we actually “voting” for a certain character in any way), or is it just an interesting but otherwise meaningless statistic?

Gotta support your fellow warmblood… er, sylvari excepted, of course.

John Smith.4610:

I saw a request somewhere () for this statistic, but I don’t have an official account for somewhere.

So, if anyone is interested here’s the current donation split:
Ho-Ho Tron: 52.18%
Marcello: 47.82%

I’m actually surprised it was this close! My money was on Ho-Ho Tron all the way.

John.

Can you also list absolute numbers donated? Percentages are kinda useless

I wonder how the numbers would have turned out if the two had switched places. I’m sure far from everyone have an emotional investment in Ho-Ho Tron, at which point their location is no doubt relevant despite their proximity. Marcello has what I would consider the best location of the two. My hypothesis is that the robot would “win” by an even larger margin should the two decide to reverse positions.

I didn’t even realize it made any difference which you donated to xD

I choose one at random to complete the achievement. It happened to be Marcello.

Thank you for for complying with this public records request

after wintersday can you post how much gold was donated?) it would be fun)
btw, great idea to force people to take out gold from game

That Other Guy.7351:

I didn’t even realize it made any difference which you donated to xD

Does it make a difference?lol Anything happen if one or the other gets more donations?

It seems like a waste to me to donate to the NPCs once you got the achievements done. The rewards for escorting the carawan are abysmal.

An achievement point for one copper is a bad reward? Confused…

I felt like both dolyaks were on the move a lot (Tarnished Coast) until Marcello got bugged and wouldn’t reset. Now people are nervous about getting him walking and any time I see an escort going it’s almost certainly Ho-Ho-Tron.

DaShi.1368:

I choose one at random to complete the achievement. It happened to be Marcello.

Same here; I just happened to find Marcello first.

I’m going to say that Marcello has an unfair advantage, kitten his numbers are incorrect.

A majority of players seeking to take part in these donation events will be coming from the south of the two NPC’s.

Marcello’s event pops up first. You have to practically be on top of ho-ho tron in order for his event to appear. It only stands to reason that the average player will donate to the event that is first displayed.

Allisa Wonderland.8192:

An achievement point for one copper is a bad reward? Confused…

1 copper wont progress the event bar by a visible amount

Thanks for that ! I must say, for some reason, I really love this kind of statistics. They are in no way necessary but knowing these kind of details is really amazing !

OMNIBUS.2913:

That Other Guy.7351:

I didn’t even realize it made any difference which you donated to xD

Does it make a difference?lol Anything happen if one or the other gets more donations?

Yeah, I had no idea the donations were being tracked for any reason. I just donate to whichever has more progress when I want to do the event. (They also count as krytan events)

It’s because Marcello is closer to the mf/main la hub that he’s not being blown out. Laziness is a huge factor, especially given there are no apparent personal incentives for choosing one over the other.

How do I pronounce Marcello’s name?

Mar-chell-o?

Well, if we’re going by Italian pronunciation, seeing as Giacomo is an Italian name, ‘ce’ is a hard sound, corresponding to English’s ‘che’. So yes, Mar-CHEL-lo DI JAH-como

‘Gi’ in Italian is the English ‘J’ as the Italian alphabet lacks the J letter (or K, W, X, Y). Pronounced, try making the ‘Jah’ sound in ‘Java’, only exhale through the J instead of it being a hard consonant where you cut off your exhale. It’s a softer J than the English J, but it’s not the soft J that mimics an H in Spanish.

The ‘a’ in Italian is short, so ‘Gia’ is ‘Jah’, not ‘Jae’

…which is almost perfect. In Italian, you pronounce every letter…so you DO pronounce the ‘i’ in Giacomo, (it’s a long e in English) it’s just unstressed and blends in with the ‘J’ sound.

TLDR; Marcello DiGiacomo would be pronounced as Mar-CHEL-lo Di JAH-como

Marcello is a pretty funny character. I just wish his name was easier to remember :/

People pay Marcello for achievements while Ho-ho-tron isn’t there.

When achievements are involved, you can remove 80% from each number, and use the result as reference.

i like this post, though id prefer the actual gold sink numbers

aka how much money are people prepared to dump in such an obvious gold sink just for a few lines of comical banter. (mind me i payed at least 10 gold if you put them both together, so far from me to make the donators sound like.. simpletons. )

and for arenanets sake, how can you turn this into a moneygrab with the gem store? you ask the queen to release ho-ho tron in your custody so you can chat with him about the living story in your home instance, as a permanent account upgrade, all for a measly 100 gems? i would buy this, then again i only buy permanent things ever.
so no permanent no sale. it would also make for a cheaper account upgrade option, the second lowest minimum being 500 gems for a finisher once.

I was wondering does this include the ugly sweaters or it’s just the ingame money?
Many people like to donate sweaters for the hilarious dialogue or for the daily Achivement instead of using money.

The scrooge that I am, I just give one copper on those days. XD The Sweaters are worth more.

Now that the event is nearly over though, I’m curious as to who’s in the lead now.

Zaxares.5419:

The scrooge that I am, I just give one copper on those days. XD The Sweaters are worth more.

Now that the event is nearly over though, I’m curious as to who’s in the lead now.

I give away sweaters, because I like the responses.

Marcello all the way, he’s a proper drama queen bard! :P

I don’t suppose you can give us a final tally?

I’d also love to know the total amount of gold donated…