Guild Wars 2

Welp, I’m a bit at a loss about reasoning behind the new dailies system. The requirements are a little more varied than they were before and I’m sure that was part of the intention, but the system comes with a nasty side-effect.

A a key symptom of something being afoul with the new system is that players are complaining about the system being more tedious than it was before rather than more interesting. I say this because I assume latter was the intent of the new system, and not the former. I believe that this is the result of an overemphasis of a task-driven system with overt and highly telegraphed tasks and reward.

When you have an obvious extrinsic motivator (laurels) with a set displayed tasks (randomization does nothing to help), the task itself becomes more mundane. This system has worked to detriment of games like New Super Mario brothers 3DS in which the coin collection and leaderboards actually made playing the game less interesting to play and more of a blatant task. In GW2, a game not built from the ground up on this type of playstyle, the task-driven mentality has negative effects on the actual play itself, and it takes the form of finding ways to taking advantage of game mechanics in order to get rewards faster. I’m no designer myself, much less an expert on the intricacies of subject but I have to ask one thing. Is players swarming to low level areas only to res spam NPCs the embodiment of GW2’s defined “fun”? I’m hoping the answer is “no” and that you’re looking for alternatives solutions.

So, ANet, my suggestion for you takes a few elements from TF2’s almost natural reward system, in which players are rewarded more often by logging in daily in random increments and timeframes with no set tasks; a system that respected the player’s capability of playing the game. I suggest reworking the system to something similar by allowing players daily progress for all tasks, but in diminishing increments. For instance players can finish their dailies by only killing a single type of enemy, but they can do it faster by killing mobs, harvesting nodes, crafting etc in less time than if they were to stick with one activity. You can even flip it around and call it a bonus for doing different things. Hide these tasks and randomize their contribution to the daily every day. This way players are encouraged to explore and do things they see in the world rather than those listed on their UI. Is it not the intention of the system for players to log in daily and explore the world?

Also, be mindful of players who aren’t driven by pure reward by not forcing the progress display on every player’s screen. And for these same players, don’t make the tasks unreasonably long, even with diminishing rates. As a casual gamer I’d say it’s better for players to log in the game in reasonable increments so as to avoid burn out.

ppl need to have directions else they dont know what to do, the daily is a good director too get ppl get back in the world again and it works! Since the new daily system the areas are much more populated again.

vanRaamsdonk.8042:

ppl need to have directions else they dont know what to do, the daily is a good director too get ppl get back in the world again and it works! Since the new daily system the areas are much more populated again.

You’d think so, but I don’t think it’s as effective as that. On my server at least, areas have been more of less the same. Only a key few areas have more traffic than normal, and not by much either. Orr is more populated than ever, but I’m sure the majority will get bored of the content and move on once they receive their trinkets.

With the exception of the buggy combo field daily, the visiting the laurel vendor, and maybe the crafting one depending on the player; each daily has been something that will get done naturally just by playing the game for 30-40 minutes. And the laurel and crafting one take about 5 seconds of your time while your stopping in at a city. Click the dude and make 10 bolts of jute or w/e. Couldn’t ask for an easier daily.

So what would you change the dailies to?

Time logged in? So the people who sit and do nothing in LA get rewarded for it? The same as the player out and about in the world actually doing things?

I will be on here complaining the moment the dailies become “be logged in for x time” as the only measure. Because that’s not the purpose of the dailies. They dailies are meant to be little pushes to do things you might not otherwise do. To push the new players to try new things. To push old players who haven’t done a particular task in a while to do that task.

It’s not to reward players for simply being online.

Seera.5916:

So what would you change the dailies to?

Time logged in? So the people who sit and do nothing in LA get rewarded for it? The same as the player out and about in the world actually doing things?

I will be on here complaining the moment the dailies become “be logged in for x time” as the only measure. Because that’s not the purpose of the dailies. They dailies are meant to be little pushes to do things you might not otherwise do. To push the new players to try new things. To push old players who haven’t done a particular task in a while to do that task.

It’s not to reward players for simply being online.

Did you not read the entire suggestion? It’s to reward playing, but not through a a strict checklist. Afking is not playing, and I never implied that such mundane behavior should be rewarded.

TwoBit.5903:

Seera.5916:

So what would you change the dailies to?

Time logged in? So the people who sit and do nothing in LA get rewarded for it? The same as the player out and about in the world actually doing things?

I will be on here complaining the moment the dailies become “be logged in for x time” as the only measure. Because that’s not the purpose of the dailies. They dailies are meant to be little pushes to do things you might not otherwise do. To push the new players to try new things. To push old players who haven’t done a particular task in a while to do that task.

It’s not to reward players for simply being online.

Did you not read the entire suggestion? It’s to reward playing, but not through a a strict checklist. Afking is not playing, and I never implied that such mundane behavior should be rewarded.

Fair enough.

So you want it to be hidden? So that players who literally only have a small window each day to play will find it hard to do their daily that day? Because they have to guess what gives the best bonus that day?

And it still goes against the principal of the dailies. They aren’t meant as rewards for just playing the game. They’re rewards for doing things that you may or may not be already doing. Either to experience it for the first time or to get existing players to try it out again.

It’s a purely optional aspect of the game (currently less so since right now laurels can only achieved through daily and monthly, but eventually other achievements will earn laurels so to change the dailies for a temporary condition is a bad thing).

Philosophically, you’re right it does go against the supposed principles of dailies. But players are prone to psychology moreso than philosophy, especially in videogames. There’s an interesting thing about extrinsic motivation in that it doesn’t always help players enjoy doing tasks more. They sure as hell do them because they want the reward, but having the checklist makes the task feel more burdensome and less intrinsically rewarding

Then there’s the fact that progress is plastered onto the screen with no way to toggle it off. Can you really say that the system is optional when the prizes are so desireable and game always tells you whether or not you’re done with it?

Furthermore, longer task lists that come from the revamped dailies makes gameplay more daunting to those with a small window to play each day. For these players, ANet could be clever with the system and reduce the requirements for the following days if they miss one of their dailies. For instance if I missed yesterday’s daily, today’s daily will be 20% easier to obtain, and if I miss that, tomorrow’s will be 40% easier.

TwoBit.5903:

Furthermore, longer task list that come from the revamped dailies makes gameplay more daunting to those with a small window to play each day. ANet could be clever with the system and reduce the requirements for the following days if the player misses one of their dailies. For instance if I missed yesterday’s daily, today’s daily will be 20% easier to obtain, and if I miss that, tomorrow’s will be 40% easier.

I do like this idea. Makes it so players who haven’t been able to log on in a while get a nice easy daily reward with a bit less work. Increments of 20% might be a bit much though.
As far as the checklist thing goes, it would be nice to hide the crap in the upper right of the UI. I always keep it minimized myself, but being able to hide it completely would be a nice addition.

TwoBit.5903:

Philosophically, you’re right it does go against the supposed principles of dailies. But players are prone to psychology moreso than philosophy, especially in videogames. There’s an interesting thing about extrinsic motivation in that it doesn’t always help players enjoy doing tasks more. They sure as hell do them because they want the reward, but having the checklist makes the task feel more burdensome and less intrinsically rewarding

Then there’s the fact that progress is plastered onto the screen with no way to toggle it off. Can you really say that the system is optional when the prizes are so desireable and game always tells you whether or not you’re done with it?

Furthermore, longer task list that come from the revamped dailies makes gameplay more daunting to those with a small window to play each day. ANet could be clever with the system and reduce the requirements for the following days if the player misses one of their dailies. For instance if I missed yesterday’s daily, today’s daily will be 20% easier to obtain, and if I miss that, tomorrow’s will be 40% easier.

They should add the “I’m playing the game!” achievement that would reward people for simply playing the game and doing whatever it is they want to do.

Yep and it’s quite amazing how well it works in TF2, especially you consider the fact that it’s not an “achievement” at all.

TwoBit.5903:

Yep and it’s quite amazing how well it works in TF2, especially you consider the fact that it’s not an “achievement” at all.

As long as it’s separate from the Daily, most would probably be fine with it. Especially if it rewarded laurels or the currency of the moment :P

I was going to support this idea until I read what kind of design you had in mind.

It is going to make the game even more obtrusive.