Guild Wars 2

A thank you note for making GW a better game. I think people have seen the difference between a map with an active commander and without. In WvW its the difference between alot of pugs staying on the map for more than a minute. In PvE its the difference between a coordianted map effort or people just farming for loot, not even trying to win.

It takes a lot of effort to organize things and it may seem like a waste when things fail, people wipe, or map chat gets filled with hate and rage comments. But some stick with it and try no matter what and eventually they get a crowd or have a good enoguh group to succeed. The ones who make serious attempts at commanding in Overflows and EoTM must be even harder as you dont have your servermates, but people you wont see again and way less guildies than a home map.

Feel free to comment if your gw2 has been positively or negative effected by commanders

There’s definitely a lot of helpful commanders that have made things less of a pain; in particular living world overflow stuff.

I did what I think was a reasonable job commanding Marionette runs, pointing out the relevant info etc and basically trying to herd some of the cats. Got plenty of compliments for it, but I’ve given up now because of abuse I received in map and whispers.

Some commanders are good, some are not, but there’s no need to call folks things that I cannot repeat here, when they are trying to help.

The biggest problem with commanders is that they have all bought the badge and you can’t tell if the commander you’re following is a good one actually worth following. I’ve seen commanders who did less commanding during a marionette battle than I did – and all I did was keeping count of the amount of people in every lane and requesting people to move from one lane to another. If you do less than that, you’re just not worthy of the badge, you’re an insult to it.

That said, a lot of commanders do add a lot to this game and for that, thank you.

For the most part, I agree. Thank you to the good commanders, and I am glad to have had you around.

But, as Omai (love the name, man) stated, the biggest problem with commander tags is that they’re purchased. At least one can usually tell in the first few moments whether a commander is good, bad, or just inexperienced.

Cheers!

Just by the badge alone, you can’t really tell if a commander is any good. But spend enough time on your server, and you’ll start recognizing the most prominent commanders. There are several commanders on Aurora Glade for example, who are always organizing PVE events.

Of course, even the best commander is only as good as his or her army.

I have never had a commander help me they just run by like the rest of the people in the game….Its why I do not play PvP or WvW cause not a soul helps anyone anymore in games specially forced pvp/wvw area’s….I have for the most part totally stopped playing which upset my wife at me but what can I do when I have lost interest in the game cause I have already done all the PvE areas with most of my characters and the WvW and PvP are nothing but free for alls where I am on my back more then I am actually playing the game…if people actually helped people in MMO’s anymore maybe people like me would not think the way I have and do for the year or so I have had this game. But as it stands I still see all games PvP a way for people to bully others and a Commander? The head of groups that hunt down and kill low leveled people…so its part of the game seems cool to some people to treat us low levels and new to pvp players but its not cool to us who are forced out the game due to such things. I keep having those days where I want to come back but I find myself staying out and thinking I wasted my money on the game….good thing its not pay to play. Either way if I could have actually have did world completion I would have at least been happy with that part of the game but we are forced into a part of the game that is pvp. Does not seem fair….and not a soul in those places help anyone so there goes even completing that part of the game so whats the use.

Everyone stack on my Tag.
Now /bow.

Well RuneCrimson, I think you’re just in the wrong place. I have a great guild that is very active in WvW. Many of the leaders are commanders and they are extremely helpful. Once or twice a week we even have training sessions. Additionally, when they’re in charge, they tell people what to do and WHY we’re doing it. They’ve really helped me love my WvW experiences.

I appreciate all commanders, because it takes guts to lead people, especially if they’re new and inexperienced. They’re willing to take your abuses. That’s more than I would do. Eveyrone has to start somewhere, and at least they are putting themselves out there.

A bad commander is better than no commander at all.

Nick.6972:

Everyone stack on my Tag.
Now /bow.

You didn’t say “Your mad king says…”

During one of the knights, I saw a commander say to “STACK” on him, then proceeded to AFK the event. A bunch of people chose to die rather than leave the stack.

Healix.5819:

During one of the knights, I saw a commander say to “STACK” on him, then proceeded to AFK the event. A bunch of people chose to die rather than leave the stack.

thats a kittening good commander

RuneCrimson.7380:

I have never had a commander help me they just run by like the rest of the people in the game….Its why I do not play PvP or WvW cause not a soul helps anyone anymore in games specially forced pvp/wvw area’s….I have for the most part totally stopped playing which upset my wife at me but what can I do when I have lost interest in the game cause I have already done all the PvE areas with most of my characters and the WvW and PvP are nothing but free for alls where I am on my back more then I am actually playing the game…if people actually helped people in MMO’s anymore maybe people like me would not think the way I have and do for the year or so I have had this game. But as it stands I still see all games PvP a way for people to bully others and a Commander? The head of groups that hunt down and kill low leveled people…so its part of the game seems cool to some people to treat us low levels and new to pvp players but its not cool to us who are forced out the game due to such things. I keep having those days where I want to come back but I find myself staying out and thinking I wasted my money on the game….good thing its not pay to play. Either way if I could have actually have did world completion I would have at least been happy with that part of the game but we are forced into a part of the game that is pvp. Does not seem fair….and not a soul in those places help anyone so there goes even completing that part of the game so whats the use.

sounds like a serious case of “i cant type” or “im shy/proud” because you obviously have enough of a brain to ask for help.

its not that theyre being mean, because 90+% of the people you talk to in game will turn out to be nice… and the other way you could possibly think they dont care or are mean is if you do not take steps to communicate with them.

on the subject of world completion, it can be really hit or miss when dealing with wvw. if you make sure the (good) commander youre hanging around knows that you have some kind of objective for the day/week, hes likely to work it in to whatever hes doing. it really helps to have some kind of purpose when playing wvw, and often commanders are like “well i dont really know or want to think about what to do” but they need to keep up the image of always having a clear objective.

just be friendly and a bit outspoken and you can get whatever you want. and if that doesnt come naturally, figure it out.

This def applies to the Commanders on Gunnars Hold who tirelessly keep events going on the server – whether it is nightly World Tours, weekly Teq runs or Wurm runs at the weekend. They’ve definitely changed some of my attitude towards commanders and their efforts have earned a huge amount of respect through the community.

God job guys! (you know who you are – I’m rubbish with names!)

One of the things I learned from Zig Zigler a long time ago is that 10% of people retain the right to be idiots. This is true of commanders as well. While most are good, a few are down right rotten. I related a story in the Players Helping Players forum about a commander at the Shatterer telling people to AVOID the mortars and turrets while I was encouraging them to man them. I’d beaten Shatterer with 6 people (4 on mortars, 2 in melee range) before, and this particular commander, by telling people the mortars were useless, caused the event to fail with over 20 people present and fighting, with only me on a mortar.

Remember the names of the good commanders AND the bad ones. It’ll help you out in the long run.

At one point about 6 months ago I was attacked in WvW by three commanders….seems helpful to me.

You again? Thankfully you’re one of a kind, I really have never seen anyone as obstinate and prejudiced against anything as you are.

When I am given bad experience I stay away from what is giving me the bad experience period…why abuse myself like that….thats like banging my head against a wall knowing its going to hurt but do it anyway.

I add my thanks to the Commanders too. You guys do a fantastic and often thankless job. Thank you for steering me around the various living story events especially in the early days of the events when I had no clue what was going on. It is always a relief to find a friendly and capable blue icon to follow.

I remember when I saw some german commander on wvw, like 3 or 4 months ago, purely trolling his zerg. He was just running in circles, making 8s for good 15 minutes.
Funniest thing, for whole 15 mins there was a zerg following him of about 20+ people, almost nobody leaving.
That perfectly shows how mindless most of the peopl following the zergs are. If you, german commander from A are reading this, shout out for you, I had a lot of fun watching it from the hill :P

Ah and besides large world bosses like Teq or Wurm, I can’t thank commanders. They’re the biggest reason for blobbing in PvE, zerging in WvW. Both are no fun for me and ruin my experience