Guild Wars 2

I know names are hidden to avoid whispers like ‘lol nub owned’ and so on, but i wish this feature could be made optional. Activated by default, but you could chose to show your name, shouldn’t be hard to implement since some people is already exploiting a few bugs to whisper others…

I thought this would be cool, no one likes the idea? =/

More like it has been discussed to death in the past and everyone is bored of seeing the same arguments over and over again.

It is already optional. Think a little out of the box.

Invite em to a party and you can see their name. Might lead to a banhammer, though…

Hazal Birunae.6082:

Invite em to a party and you can see their name. Might lead to a banhammer, though…

Hard invite a guy where you cant see his name.

Piedplat.3597:

Hazal Birunae.6082:

Invite em to a party and you can see their name. Might lead to a banhammer, though…

Hard invite a guy where you cant see his name.

wink Riiiiiiight…

Ya well, i was talking about a legit method.

One of the cool things about DaOC was that you could see who you were fighting in combat logs…. certain people gained notoriety and it was really cool.

After you beat that dominant infiltrator that everyone talked about you felt really kitten awesome… this happened a couple of times and i felt proud as hell.

They also had server leaderbords for each class – this would also be cool. They could track WvW kills, WvW points or some other form of measurement.

I don’t even know if I believe they hide names because they want to avoid abuse.
Names aren’t hidden in sPvP and that’s supposed to be the more competitive side of the game; IE the side with the majority of insults/taunts

What’s the reason then? Pretty dumb, if you see someone killing a hell lot of people alone you would like to know who he is to avoid and/or gank him xD

hharry.1967:

What’s the reason then? Pretty dumb, if you see someone killing a hell lot of people alone you would like to know who he is to avoid and/or gank him xD

I don’t know how their network communication between servers match up.
I have some formal education in IT but do not in any way consider myself a networking expert

But if the server you’re on has to poll the opponent server for every character on a regular basis, they may have tried to strip down as much information as possible and deemed names erroneous.

I could be significantly off,
I’m hard pressed for a reason to come up with other than “To avoid abuse/taunting” myself, it just seems weird to strip names for wvw and not sPvP were that the case.

I would be more worried about opposing people whispering saying hey give you a gold to keep us updated on where your people are going. Offers like that to new players or poor players would be to hard to pass up. Imagine the amount of paid spying would be going on. 1g to just say hey they going bay or hills north would be an easy pay day. Especially if your bl hopped to inform them.

watch out or bleed.3068:

I would be more worried about opposing people whispering saying hey give you a gold to keep us updated on where your people are going. Offers like that to new players or poor players would be to hard to pass up. Imagine the amount of paid spying would be going on. 1g to just say hey they going bay or hills north would be an easy pay day. Especially if your bl hopped to inform them.

Did this not happen in real wars? I think it would be a really interesting situation to be in. Would add some flavour to WvW as opposed to the mindless zerg that it is currently.

Hazal Birunae.6082:

Invite em to a party and you can see their name. Might lead to a banhammer, though…

Considering cross server inviting/joining for dungeons are apart of the game. I highly doubt you’d get banned for doing so. Only if you end up verbally abusing them and they report you for doing so.

watch out or bleed.3068:

I would be more worried about opposing people whispering saying hey give you a gold to keep us updated on where your people are going. Offers like that to new players or poor players would be to hard to pass up. Imagine the amount of paid spying would be going on. 1g to just say hey they going bay or hills north would be an easy pay day. Especially if your bl hopped to inform them.

I see nothing wrong with this. Names should be shown in WvW.

Kid Taylor.5479:

More like it has been discussed to death in the past and everyone is bored of seeing the same arguments over and over again.

The way to get something changed is to keep talking about it. Anet has shown to cave to popular opinion many times already.

watch out or bleed.3068:

I would be more worried about opposing people whispering saying hey give you a gold to keep us updated on where your people are going. Offers like that to new players or poor players would be to hard to pass up. Imagine the amount of paid spying would be going on. 1g to just say hey they going bay or hills north would be an easy pay day. Especially if your bl hopped to inform them.

THAT would be really interesting.

About saving network, the server already has to poll for the guild name and items/stats i dont see how names could add a high overhead. There must to be another reason.

The server is polling for a ton of things already, the name would make such a little bit of difference it would mean nothing in terms of latency.

It polls for race, class, armor type, armor color, body type (and all the customization that goes into making your character at character creation screen), guild name/tag, etc. etc.

Besides that, my guess is that most of the worlds aren’t true server, rather they are virtual machines running on a cluster of servers, probably sharing an external drive array that runs the SQL server. So basically, there isn’t much network traffic talking between servers, most of it would be done thru the eSATA or SCSI external drive array itself.

Retrospek.4583:

The server is polling for a ton of things already, the name would make such a little bit of difference it would mean nothing in terms of latency.

It polls for race, class, armor type, armor color, body type (and all the customization that goes into making your character at character creation screen), guild name/tag, etc. etc.

Besides that, my guess is that most of the worlds aren’t true server, rather they are virtual machines running on a cluster of servers, probably sharing an external drive array that runs the SQL server. So basically, there isn’t much network traffic talking between servers, most of it would be done thru the eSATA or SCSI external drive array itself.

Indeed.
As I said, I was just fumbling for a reason that wasn’t “to prevent abuse”.

But it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Anet had a suboptimal networking setup for servers, given some other areas of the game (like the engine; culling), regardless of whether they’re virtual or actual machines. They could have imposed limitations on themselves they didn’t have to.

But no, it’s probably not a efficiency related reason

Here is an official statement from ANet on the matter from their reddit AMA awhile back. I was looking for the post they made on the official forum stating they were not considering putting names in WvW but I couldn’t find it, so here you go:

“There’s been a lot of discussion about seeing enemy names in WvW. While I certainly understand the reasoning behind the request to see enemy names, we are fairly firm about not showing names of the opposing teams. I think of it this way, in a war people dont introduce themselves before trying to kill each other. When you are fighting in the mists for your world, you are in the middle of a giant war against two opposing forces who want nothing more than to take everything you own and kill you as many times as they possibly can. That guy who just shot you is not Bob the Engineer, he’s the enemy.
Not showing enemy names in WvW also helps players that are less pvp-oriented feel less threatened about venturing into the battle because seeing enemies as anonymous ‘invaders’ creates a sense that opponents won’t be able to recognize them and pick on them because of their lack of skill in a fight, so they in turn feel more embolded to go out and fight in the first place. Not showing names also makes it so people can feel as if they can ‘hide’ in a fight if need be, but still be around to help out. That’s a pretty critical part of making WvW feel more inviting for people that would normally never think about playing PvP in any other game.
We’ve heard “I usually dont PvP, but I love WvW” again and again from people in our beta, so even though showing names might make for a more competitive pvp environment, we’d much rather create a game that is more welcoming for people that don’t normally play the more hardcore PvP games. If you want to see enemy names and get to know the community of people you are fighting against, competitive PvP is the place to get that sort of thing in Guild Wars 2. WvW is the place where you fight with your friends and show your might against a faceless never-ending horde of enemies. It’s not about taking names, it’s about taking back that tower and claiming it for your guild so it can wave your flag right in the enemies face!"

Meh i guess they will never change it, even if its mostly only them who think that way. I mean is not such a big deal you can still play but it would make WvWvW more interesting instead of just a zerg rush that tower, zerg rush that and this.

They could add an option to check off “show name in WvW” and take care of both camps. Leave it off by default and only those who turn it on will be able to have their name shown.

Their war analogy is kind of wrong. Remember lighting bolts from his eyes and fire bolts from his ars? Yea, that’s from notoriety gained in battle. Same goes for Carlos Hathkitten in Vietnam and the named snipers he would hunt such as “Cobra”.

edit: bhaha can’t write that guy’s last name.. well it’s the kitten word that starts with C ..

That’s what i said, it should be optional, no one likes to be forced to play how ever someone wants you to play, i thought this game was all about play how ever you want and not how Anet thinks is what we want

Not sure about the explanation of A.net.

First we can’t take a real world war example, this isn’t real world.

Second, it’s not logic that they don’t show the name of weak player so they don’t get focused by ennemies, but they show the upleveled arrow??? If I want an easy kill, I will go directly for the upleveled player! It’s a lot worse then name showing.

I agree with the part about being casual and not wanting to show your name. But please make it optional! It would add so much to the rivalry! It wouldn’t affect casual that wouldn’t use it.

Kardiamond.6952:

First we can’t take a real world war example, this isn’t real world.

These kind of statements always baffle me a little.
First, why can’t we take a real world war example? There is no governing body of comparisons dictating what you can and cannot compare with each other.
Second, what part of the internet exactly is not in the real world?

A fantasy game may not be required to be realistic, but it is the choice of the developers to decide what parts of reality they want to emulate (and how they want to do so) and what they want to create themselves.

@EnRohbi

Simply because two many factor are different.

Example :
In the real world, you don’t respawn. If someone kill you, it’s all over.

In this game, we are here to have fun. Real life, they are there to survive. It’s not the same thing at all. You can’t use everything from real war, like perma dead, as it would make it not fun.

I won’t give too many example as it would be repetitive, but I agree with that’s Anet choice to decide which part of reality they want to take.

But then, it’s not an argument anymore. They could just say “We don’t want name, that’s it”. They can’t say : “It’s like that in a real war” and have respawn. Because then why would we have respawn? Why not perma death? It’s like that in real world.

It’s ok to use this argument, but if you are, follow it 100%. You can’t use it just on some part of the game.

Kardiamond.6952:

@EnRohbi
It’s ok to use this argument, but if you are, follow it 100%. You can’t use it just on some part of the game.

What’s stopping Anet from only using it on some parts of the game? :P
Only a sort of… governing body… that dictates the acceptable use of comparisons and associations would be able to do such a thing o;

That argument has no weight at all. (Edit : the “can’t in real life” argument, not yours :P)

Like I said, I have no problem with Anet deciding what to use from real life. But if they want to use it as an argument, they have to be consistant.

Me : “Why can’t I fly?”
Anet : “Because you can’t fly in real life.”
Me : “But my character can already teleport! he can throw lightning! he can even respawn from death!”
Anet : “You can’t fly!”

Just an example, to show that “you can’t in real life” argument has no weight at all, since it’s not a simulation.

:)

Kardiamond.6952:

That argument has no weight at all. (Edit : the “can’t in real life” argument, not yours :P)

Like I said, I have no problem with Anet deciding what to use from real life. But if they want to use it as an argument, they have to be consistant.

Me : “Why can’t I fly?”
Anet : “Because you can’t fly in real life.”
Me : “But my character can already teleport! he can throw lightning! he can even respawn from death!”
Anet : “You can’t fly!”

Just an example, to show that “you can’t in real life” argument has no weight at all, since it’s not a simulation.

:)

I just don’t agree that they have to be consistent, I think they can take the comparison to whatever level they want in whichever areas of the game or mechanics that tehy want :P

No, it’s not a simulation, but it still draws on a lot of real life themes, objects, races, items, languages, cultures, physics-mechanics. Every game, no matter how fantasy based it is, has associations with the real world. The developer just has to decide how far to take it. In this case, they’ve taken the comparison as far as “You don’t know the names of your enemies in war”, but not all the way to “Your character can take flight and ignore gravity.”

hharry.1967:

Iwhispers like ‘lol nub owned’

You asnwer’d the question yourself, it would just serve as a way to troll people.

Enenion.8127:

Here is an official statement from ANet on the matter from their reddit AMA awhile back. I was looking for the post they made on the official forum stating they were not considering putting names in WvW but I couldn’t find it, so here you go:

“There’s been a lot of discussion about seeing enemy names in WvW. While I certainly understand the reasoning behind the request to see enemy names, we are fairly firm about not showing names of the opposing teams. I think of it this way, in a war people dont introduce themselves before trying to kill each other. When you are fighting in the mists for your world, you are in the middle of a giant war against two opposing forces who want nothing more than to take everything you own and kill you as many times as they possibly can. That guy who just shot you is not Bob the Engineer, he’s the enemy.
Not showing enemy names in WvW also helps players that are less pvp-oriented feel less threatened about venturing into the battle because seeing enemies as anonymous ‘invaders’ creates a sense that opponents won’t be able to recognize them and pick on them because of their lack of skill in a fight, so they in turn feel more embolded to go out and fight in the first place. Not showing names also makes it so people can feel as if they can ‘hide’ in a fight if need be, but still be around to help out. That’s a pretty critical part of making WvW feel more inviting for people that would normally never think about playing PvP in any other game.
We’ve heard “I usually dont PvP, but I love WvW” again and again from people in our beta, so even though showing names might make for a more competitive pvp environment, we’d much rather create a game that is more welcoming for people that don’t normally play the more hardcore PvP games. If you want to see enemy names and get to know the community of people you are fighting against, competitive PvP is the place to get that sort of thing in Guild Wars 2. WvW is the place where you fight with your friends and show your might against a faceless never-ending horde of enemies. It’s not about taking names, it’s about taking back that tower and claiming it for your guild so it can wave your flag right in the enemies face!"

This made me “lolz.” I think ANet’s intentions ran counter to how the game played out(echo). W3 may have been created as a casual-pvp map for casual enjoyment…but that’s not how it plays out now. It’s actually way more popular than sPvP, the reasons aren’t that important for this thread. What is important is keeping players coming back to the game. And W3 is a large part of that.

Judging from the quote above, I daresay that person doesn’t play in W3 much. Yeah you don’t “introduce” yourself before battle in real life, but if you both live through a few engagements you know who it is you are fighting…just attach your own name to him/her. Same with W3, we just forget how they look a week later. But more importantly, it impersonalizes everything. I feel less inclination to fight nameless mobs than I do a tried and true enemy. Yeah, sPvP is supposed to be where you go for that, but why should good competition be relegated to small-group small-map arenas?

And claiming towers for your guild as an incentive?? Towers, and usually keeps, flip so fast it’s pointless to get attached to them. The guild buffs are nice, but hardly a key element. The majority of players in W3 are of a competitive nature. ANet can say they want it to be a casual affair all they want, but the fact is that is where the good competition migrates to. Probably because of the flexibility of it. You can have large zerg clashes as well as small-group or even 1v1 fights on the same map. New players, no matter what game they play, are going to have growing pains. Yeah, they may get yelled at for taking supply out of a keep to build a ballista facing the inside wall(example), but they learn fast. I’m not sure what game the above person is playing, but W3 is not a casual PvP zone. Whether or not that is what they intended is irrelevant at this point, successful games listen to their player base…or go the way of the dodo.

A very simple solution is here: let the player have the option to toggle on/off their name. Personally, I don’t mind getting griefed or singled-out by other players because I’m an easy target(ranger + slow fingers lol), it’s my own fault for being so easy. I just don’t get why “pvp” and “casual” should go in the same sentence. One is competition based, the other is entertainment based. And let’s be honest, W3 is pvp, whether or not you choose to believe it, or even if that wasn’t its original intention.

Let us see who we are fighting, or in my case, who is killing me. =D

Obsidian.1328:

This made me “lolz.” I think ANet’s intentions ran counter to how the game played out(echo). W3 may have been created as a casual-pvp map for casual enjoyment…but that’s not how it plays out now. It’s actually way more popular than sPvP, the reasons aren’t that important for this thread. What is important is keeping players coming back to the game. And W3 is a large part of that.

Judging from the quote above, I daresay that person doesn’t play in W3 much. Yeah you don’t “introduce” yourself before battle in real life, but if you both live through a few engagements you know who it is you are fighting…just attach your own name to him/her. Same with W3, we just forget how they look a week later. But more importantly, it impersonalizes everything. I feel less inclination to fight nameless mobs than I do a tried and true enemy. Yeah, sPvP is supposed to be where you go for that, but why should good competition be relegated to small-group small-map arenas?

And claiming towers for your guild as an incentive?? Towers, and usually keeps, flip so fast it’s pointless to get attached to them. The guild buffs are nice, but hardly a key element. The majority of players in W3 are of a competitive nature. ANet can say they want it to be a casual affair all they want, but the fact is that is where the good competition migrates to. Probably because of the flexibility of it. You can have large zerg clashes as well as small-group or even 1v1 fights on the same map. New players, no matter what game they play, are going to have growing pains. Yeah, they may get yelled at for taking supply out of a keep to build a ballista facing the inside wall(example), but they learn fast. I’m not sure what game the above person is playing, but W3 is not a casual PvP zone. Whether or not that is what they intended is irrelevant at this point, successful games listen to their player base…or go the way of the dodo.

A very simple solution is here: let the player have the option to toggle on/off their name. Personally, I don’t mind getting griefed or singled-out by other players because I’m an easy target(ranger + slow fingers lol), it’s my own fault for being so easy. I just don’t get why “pvp” and “casual” should go in the same sentence. One is competition based, the other is entertainment based. And let’s be honest, W3 is pvp, whether or not you choose to believe it, or even if that wasn’t its original intention.

Let us see who we are fighting, or in my case, who is killing me. =D

Id op for a rival list, you know a list of people who killed you/people you killed/almost draw – Both sides must agree to have it so you can whisper each other for a rematch.

This topic got me thinking can the enemy see /em messages?
I know you can see /dance but a lot of times I like to make up emotes.

If so you could use this as a way to get a message to the enemy.

Sorry to hijack your thread.

Sals.9534:

This topic got me thinking can the enemy see /em messages?
I know you can see /dance but a lot of times I like to make up emotes.

If so you could use this as a way to get a message to the enemy.

Sorry to hijack your thread.

Someone told me once that they can see emote messages from you.
But I have emote messages filtered out of my chatboxes anyway, so I can’t confirm or deny.

Emote appears as “Rude Gesture”, can’t be sure tho.

Kardiamond.6952:

Emote appears as “Rude Gesture”, can’t be sure tho.

That sucks, I like my
/em Rings the doorbell
When the gate is about to fall.

So many safety features in place in MMO now.
No wonder EQ was so great, it was there world, now it’s a big bubble for our bubble children.
Sorry I mean I love you! And yes we should be able to see each others names, and have an option to toggle it off or on.

Time to take my meds!

Thanks for posting that official ANet response on it as I had not seen it before. I would say their evaluation of the mechanic in beta was a valid one but the game is evolving. The anonymity in terms of who a player is among a mass is not there as after encountering a specific character and fighting them one or two times lets me know how threatening they are and lets me act accordingly in the future.

For example, during a large fight I generally pick on a weak player at first to get them downed (upleveled, or just plain bad players) and then use them to rally teammates who are downed when the time comes. The rest of the fight is focused on the good players as they pose the greatest threat.

I don’t think the idea of being anonymous to let someone feel safer has much merit as unique character models, guild tags, pets, and weapon sets allows people to immediately identify you. The only variable missing in this identification is what your name is.

The true reason why people who don’t usually PvP find WvW enjoyable is that they can find safety in numbers. I guarantee if you look at a server that is being dominated because of population disparity it’s those very same people you got feedback from that normally don’t pvp who will not show up anymore due to the intimidation of fighting and being killed over and over on the losing side, and on the winning side the effect snowballs because those very same players find it fun that they are able to fight and kill with numbers.

My point being, anonymity does not actually help those players it’s designed to, it only hurts the players who want to build a competitive community. The design of WvW still lets those who normally never PvP come and play as they can easily mass up and join a zerg.

I played in a game on 2 different servers.

EU Version could talk to the other nation ( server )
US Version could NOT talk to other nation ( server )

Trust me you dont want to be able to talk to other server 90% of the chat is childish and stupid.
Had till now 2 ppl who pmed me.

1 was guadian forgot server after 10mins 1 vs 1 2 from his server helped him and killed me and he pmed “nice fight you got me pretty close few times”

2 you can kill me but our server is gonna own you anyway ( Blackgate )

thats 2nd line would be more common when you can normally type/pm each other.

Dont need trolls

twwizzie.3842:

I played in a game on 2 different servers.

EU Version could talk to the other nation ( server )
US Version could NOT talk to other nation ( server )

Trust me you dont want to be able to talk to other server 90% of the chat is childish and stupid.
Had till now 2 ppl who pmed me.

1 was guadian forgot server after 10mins 1 vs 1 2 from his server helped him and killed me and he pmed “nice fight you got me pretty close few times”

2 you can kill me but our server is gonna own you anyway ( Blackgate )

thats 2nd line would be more common when you can normally type/pm each other.

Dont need trolls

Oh I think the talking thing should stay out of it, it’s too distracting and frankly some of things people can whisper are just ugly. Why not have names but no whisper?

Thats why the optional comes into. I really dont care about those people whispering kitten stuff, but i could care about asking for a 1v1 rematch, or letting someone know how good he did or w/e. But being 100% anonymous is boring and theres no real reason to do so. Just make an option to show/hide your name and thats it. With a ‘real world’ example, go to ward with ur face hidden with paint or a hood, or go with ur face revealed, that easy.

Well with that option i also hope there’d be an option to keep them all anonymous because I like the anonymity. It gives the game a certain feel, like in real wars how often did the enemy know your name? Most likely they didn’t. It’s the whole “faceless enemy” thing. I dunno maybe it’s just me but hey, I guess options would be nice anyway.

Yes it should be optional

Giving us the option to choose whether we want to be anonymous, and whether or not to block communication with the opposing teams, would be rather great. Of course there is going to be a lot of childish squabbering, but there’s no way out of it anyway. At least, let me choose. Those of us who spend a lot of time in WvW end up feeling like we are fighting NPCs.

How about if there was an option to make up a WvW name ONLY, an alias, that had whisper disabled, at least for the opposing side. That way you could have a distinctive name and be anonymous at the same time. You could be recognized by that name but opponents couldn’t whisper to you in WvW, and out of WvW the system wouldn’t allow whispers at all to your alias. If you don’t make up a WvW name, then you are just (color) Invader.

So much trouble for a simple turn on/off mechanic. I also want to whisper people, so i can set up duels, or spies as someone mentioned above, would add more flavors to WvWvW

I hope they allow this. It would be nice to see regulars and remember who they were based on name (not appearance) so that we can hone our competitive strategies. If I know that the character “Bob” favors a specific build from my encounters with him in the past, I can better prepare myself in future encounters. Makes it much easier than trying to remember what armor/look “Bob” had one day vs. the next. And of course if “Bob” chooses not to show his name, that’s fine too. It’s a trade of vanity for edge and vice versa.

So why not enable names? Block all whispers, ignores, and /say as usual between servers, but allow people to show names as an option they can toggle on/off.

Q: Stance on allowing people to see enemy nameplates in WvW

Mixed feeling – we want server to viewed as a whole and not introduce bitterness to individual players
Not completely opposed to the idea – be interesting to get bragging rights, more competitive nature
Not sure how to design around that at the moment
Need to make it voluntary, prevent harassment issues
WvW is about large scale massive battle mentality where individual players are not as important

“Not sure how to design around that at the moment”. Really, a turn on/off button, there you go.

From ANet point of view, they dont want it, even if 90% of the players want it, so we wont get it =/