Guild Wars 2

I’d like to request a change in how the game handles addressing mail, especially when it comes to the sending of items between players. Currently, the mail system auto-fills the recipient’s name using the name of whoever happens to be standing next to my toon when I initiate sending items. This is usually someone I don’t know — and isn’t the person I’m trying to send things to!

I know that deleting the auto-filled named and replacing it with my actual target doesn’t seem like a big deal. However, my guildmates and I have had multiple instances where the system either didn’t appear to take the new name (and so sent the items to the stranger anyway), or where the person sending didn’t notice the auto-fill and sent the stuff away. When this has happened, the wonderful GW players have often immediately returned the items, realizing the send was a mistake. A couple of times, though, the items in question were just lost to whoever had accidentally received them.

This is something that’s caused me problems since I started playing in the pre-launch. I gave myself some time to see if I’d get used to it, but I haven’t. And, I’ll admit, I’m not sure I understand why having the system auto-fill in this way seemed like a good idea in the first place. Are we really the only guild who ever sends things between members whose toons aren’t side-by-side? Is it really that hard for most people to type the name of who they’re sending mail to? (I do find the auto-complete after I start typing a name extremely helpful!)

I know this is a small thing on the huge list of To Do’s in a great game like this. At the same time, it did cause one of my guildmates to ragequit tonight after losing some jewelry items that she’d made for other guild members, only to mis-send them to a stranger. So a small thing, but still something that can greatly affect how much we enjoy the game.

Just some stuff to think about. Thanks.

I didn’t know it did that – I thought it auto-completed it if you start to type a name similar to someone on the same map… but that’s weird. You can right-click on the guild roster, friend’s list, chat and portrait and it should fill out the correct name from the option on the menu that pops up. But when I compose a letter from scratch, it always starts out blank… again, odd.

I’ve never encountered this, it’s always blank when I start from scratch. Sometimes when I right click and email it is still blank.
Perhaps you have that person selected?

it completes the name of people in your friend list or guilds you are in.

It auto completes the names of people at random… people i’ve never heard of – this needs to be fixed.

I’ve had this happen quite a few times now, and yes, even after I typed a guildies name in over it, it sent it to someone else anyhow.

I hate this autofill “feature”, and I’m hoping this is just a silly bug that slipped thru that will get fixed real fast.

For anyone wanting to see how this can be replicated, go to a populated area (such as the Black Lion Trading area in Lion’s Arch). Right click on an item in your inventory, and choose “Mail item to…”, and you’ll see that it autofills the name of someone near you.

If you change the name, often times, it will still send to that random person anyhow.

Note, you don’t have to have anyone selected either, it just picks someone near you randomly it seems.

I will try as soon as I get GW2 installed on this computer. I use mail a lot not only for sending presents but for RP and it’s more essential to my fun than the Trading Post. I’ll let you know soon what I find.

EDIT: I went to the BLTP in LA and tried to compose a letter. It didn’t auto fill. I even selected a random person, opened mail again, and hit “compose”. It stayed blank I think you have a bug.

Zaith – Don’t compose the letter, right click an item in your inventory and click “Mail item to…”, and you’ll see that it does indeed replicate, provided there are people standing around you (such as the Black Lion Trading area).

Edit : Oddly enough, on my mesmer, it didn’t work just now the first time. I moved around, until I was standing on top of 3 or 4 other people, and then it worked again. Very odd bug, as it seems that it doesn’t work everytime…

Hey Retrospek – I tried what you said and I got what I expected.

It only autofills (for me) if I have someone selected. With no portrait, I can “Mail Item To” and the recipient will be blank. This could be dangerous as I often send personal letters with gifts… awkward.

Sadly, I don’t have to have anyone selected, but even having someone selected I wouldn’t think should produce these results. Clicking on a persons avatar if you have them selected, you can send them mail, and this I would expect to work that work, but not sending an item.

And the worst part is, I’ve even changed the name of the person it autofilled, and it still sent items to that person, and not the intended recipient.

Hopefully, this will get fixed soon.

A workaround would simply be to open your mail interface → compose. Type the name of the intended recipient, then open your item interface and drag the item onto the attachment boxes.