Guild Wars 2

This is going to be an open suggestion to the devs, and I welcome everyone to contribute your ideas.

I’ve asked myself what’s the meaning of achievements in Guild Wars 2? Besides the point I’ve accomplished this or that achievement, what really is the point? Is it the joy of self-accomplishment you might say? I agree but there could be more to make these accomplishments mean something more meaniful.

Earlier today I was in Lion’s Arch and on my way to see Black Lion traders. I saw there was an icon above a player’s head that brought attention to nearby players and myself. I didn’t know what that was until I asked him about it and we chatted for a while. It was nice knowing that guy but more importantly that special occasion sparked a thought across my mind that leads to the question I had previously.

In Guild Wars 1, titles and ranks were meant to be something more significant in the game. However that is not the case in Guild Wars 2 as the developers have said before. They don’t want the game to be focus on all about titles and ranks, while having them does have its merits as they promote players to have goals to thrive for. I also agree on this principle.

So what was that thought I’ve in mind after that occasion with the guy? The answer is connection. It brought a certain level of connection between players and it’s not the ego I’m talking about. In Guild Wars 1, when I see someone with “Kind of a Big Deal” title I’d know that he or she had accomplished certain aspects of the game and have some experience. It would interest me to go have a nice chat with him or her and share some experience together.

In Guild Wars 2, we have achievements points that indicates our level of accomplishments in the game. However, our achievement points isn’t displayed in public to induce possible social interaction among players. Only players that have added each other on their friend list, and Guilds with achievements points display option enabled could show the points to one another. What about hundreds of other players I meet in public? I would be interested to know what experiences they have that I don’t and a possible get to together friendship may bond from there.

Players that have earned GWAMM title and certain level of points in GW1’s Hall of Monuments will have their titles earned carried forward in GW2. In my case, I had earned both GWAMM and Champion of the Gods titles. However that legacy is only meant as a great honor that was passed down from my ancestors 250 years ago. What about my own legacy in GW2? I certainly don’t want to disappoint my ancestors.

There is already a well established ranking system in this game and I think it would be a great idea to implement such system in players: Monster rank – http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Champion

I remember I really felt intrigued by the first veteran I fought in this game, which was a level 9 Oak tree. The bronze frame it had around its avatar had me wondering for a while what it meant. You won’t really know the difference between a normal and a ranked monster until you’ve click on it. As a reference to players, it will not cause a distraction in the general public that some people may not like. The rank indication around the player’s avatar will only show to interested party who clicked on other player’s character. Besides of just having achievements points, this is a great way to represent the accomplishments a player has achieved and to promote possible social interactions among players. Great things can happen and a get together friendship may bond.

Ranks and Character portrait:

Normal: The most common rank and this is the base ranking of everyone. No visual changes to a character portrait and it’s outlined by default black frame.

Identified ranks

Veteran: It can be identified by a bronze colored frame around the character portrait.

Elite: It can be identified by a silver ring around the character portrait.

Champion: It can be identified by a golden frame around the character portrait.

Legendary: It can be identified by a purple frame around the character portrait.

I’ll not be the one to say what comes in to determine each rank and this is where I’ll need the community to help contribute your idea. i.e. world completion, achievement points as simple examples.

Thanks for reading and please contribute with your idea.

ColinJohanson.2394:

There are indeed, titles you can earn in Gw2 much like in Gw1, you’re just going to need to search and find out what they are.

Good luck on your title hunt! =)

Great answer! Please don’t just give out all the little secrets. It’s fun for the community to try figuring them out. It brings us together. Makes it worthwhile to communicatre with each other and swap information.

ColinJohanson.2394:

There are indeed, titles you can earn in Gw2 much like in Gw1, you’re just going to need to search and find out what they are.

Good luck on your title hunt! =)

Thank you, and I really appreciate that you’ve taken your time in response to my suggestion. Many of us will look forward to those GW2 titles.

I just got up from a dream (is this unusual, dreaming in-character in the game environment???).
I was in a cave, probably Dostoev Sky Peak. I had some items in my inventory that I activated. When three or four had been added together it started an event that everyone nearby joined in. One was like a world war scenario with spies and inventions and combat. In another several buddies were trying to help Marie Curie in her laboratory and I was blocking enemies while riding a Triceratops. Don’t ask, it was a dream, I told you!

To put that into the real GW2 (probably Living World, maybe something that could run for a few months) players would collect special items (your choice as to how and where) and eventually, when they have a matched set, they could combine them to start a special random event designed for this content. Players might chose to use it as a Guild event, or in WvW it might be used to put up a random challenge against Invaders.

This could bring back features from GW1 like the fauna and events in Nightfall, Tarnished Coast or “Beyond” or to bring back previous Living World features in unexpected ways.

Achievements are great. Its proof of devotion and skill.

Gold Recluse.9128:

I just got up from a dream (is this unusual, dreaming in-character in the game environment???).
I was in a cave, probably Dostoev Sky Peak. I had some items in my inventory that I activated. When three or four had been added together it started an event that everyone nearby joined in. One was like a world war scenario with spies and inventions and combat. In another several buddies were trying to help Marie Curie in her laboratory and I was blocking enemies while riding a Triceratops. Don’t ask, it was a dream, I told you!

To put that into the real GW2 (probably Living World, maybe something that could run for a few months) players would collect special items (your choice as to how and where) and eventually, when they have a matched set, they could combine them to start a special random event designed for this content. Players might chose to use it as a Guild event, or in WvW it might be used to put up a random challenge against Invaders.

This could bring back features from GW1 like the fauna and events in Nightfall, Tarnished Coast or “Beyond” or to bring back previous Living World features in unexpected ways.

The one about finding several objects to kick off an event is already in game. South Side of the volcano you need 5 objects and to toss them in a certain spot.

So the suggestion is basically about receiving those Rank Portait Outlines for our characters too, if they fulfill specific things in the game.

Heres my suggestion to this:

Veteran
Get marked as a Veteran by reaching Level 80 with your Character and having 100% Map Completion.

Elite
Get marked as an Elite by reaching Level 80 with your Character, having 100% Map Completion and having done with your Character the Dungeon Master Title plus wearing a complete Armor and Weapon Set of Exotic Level 80 Quality.

Champion
Get marked as a Champion by reaching Level 80, having 100% Map Completion, being Dungeon Master,wearing a full Set of Lvl 80 Exotic Armor/Weapons, having collected all Armors of all Races, having done all Jumping Puzzles, made all hidden treasure achievements under Explorer and having mastered all Weapons.

Legendary
Get marked as a legendary, if you’ve done everythign above and crafted 1 legendary weapon, played through the game with all races, collected all minipets from the sets, maxed out all crafting jobs at 500, maxed out Agent of Entropy until it gives no achievement points anymore and maxed out Fractal Frequenter as also having done all Bonus Achievements from all the Fractals.
Having reached at least Rank 4 of 6 from the WvW Achievement for killing foes would be also a requirement.
Plus reach Max Rank of Slayer in PvP

This way it would be ensure that one, who wants to have a legendary portrait, must have to do something in all modes of GW2 – PvE, PvP as like WvW too with PvE being the biggest part.

PvPers don’t need this if they don’t like to do so much “work” in PvE, they have their Rank Emotes therefore and they are most likely the first ones, which reach the highest Ranks due to their focused PvP playstyle anyways

Through the evolving character portraits, people would be able to guess/see, what the player must have achieved in the game and what they must have done already in the game all. Something like that can show visually better, what a player has done all, even if that player doesn’t have an title active.

SO through such an improvement I could see that someone is a Dungeon Master, even if player X has currently that title not on and uses maybe an other title or none at all.

While there are indeed quite a few titles that can be earned in game, like Colin said, I do like OP’s idea of having portrait circles like that. It would indeed help to make people’s accomplishments stand out, and ANet has said on a few occasions that they welcome ideas that help people display stand out.

actually from my stand point they are way to much the focus of the game, when i see someone boasting about how many achievements they completed all i can think about is “he probably zerged most of them”.
i am not saying it’s a horrible idea to have achievements, i just think that less is better.
i do agree that there should be something added that adds a reason to do them, a token for instance that let’s you buy stuff you otherwise need to farm and grind to get.