Guild Wars 2

Feeling like you are in a place of history , a real world.

Do we lack that?

I want to discuss about adding a codex into the game
so please comment about what you think
should we have it ? if yes than what should we have

before we start
why do i think its important?
i think its very important to immerse players into the games lore and having them to know what they are facing and where they are exactly in the world , to have better understanding of the world they are currently experiencing and having a codex could improve that experience greatly .

1.Description of the enemy –
we are facing different bosses and monsters
having some sort of information about the enemy we are facing.
this could add alot to players experience
because if we do get to read about the monsters and enemies we fight we would have more appreciation and sense of danger towards the enemy we are facing
instead of feeling like we are fighting a random minion …
Do Ettins love apples?

2.Vistas – Waypoints – Points of interest
having an information about the areas we visited will have such a great impact to know what is going on in that area / specific point , having more lore and information about the areas we visit gives us better understanding of the map/world
every Point of interest is a location to a small settlement to a place of history or a small unmarked town
having information about this places could add sooo much !

3. Guides
- having guides inside the codex about the game could improve exprience of new players that have joined the game to be able to have guidance and help from guides that can explain for them basic needs and functions of how the game works .

if you want to add something or if you think its not that interesting please comment

and sorry for my bad English

Sooooo a codex is a list of mobs and lore?

I guess it’s ok. How is it better than using /wiki?

first of all its in game for you to read instead of browsing a website like wiki

second have you never wanted to know what is this town you are currently in?
what is this unknown location pointed out by Point of interest…

you can just access it in game by just hovering your mouse above the point of interest and having information displayed for you or just by clicking on the point of intrest and it will direct you to the information about the location …

i think this is way better than just typing /wiki and go on a search mode

all i am saying it is more comfortable to have it in game for instant information than having to go to wiki every single time

The guild wars wiki have been supported ingame since 2007. I don’t think there is room nor need for a codex ingame.

Justine.6351:

The guild wars wiki have been supported ingame since 2007. I don’t think there is room nor need for a codex ingame.

If you’ve played a game with a codex (such as Mass Effect) then you’d know that the codex provides much more than the GW2 wiki currently provides.

Wooden Potatoes had a pretty expansive and well thought-out idea on how this could look: http://imgur.com/gallery/ABALZ/new

Diovid.9506:

Justine.6351:

The guild wars wiki have been supported ingame since 2007. I don’t think there is room nor need for a codex ingame.

If you’ve played a game with a codex (such as Mass Effect) then you’d know that the codex provides much more than the GW2 wiki currently provides.

Wooden Potatoes had a pretty expansive and well thought-out idea on how this could look: http://imgur.com/gallery/ABALZ/new

Well, obviously then I’ve never played a game with a codex, or else I wouldn’t be asking why it’s different and what a codex is exactly.

Thanks for the link. Truthfully though, it’s up to the OP to explain what he means, not another site by someone else.

Edit: I think I saw that video. It was interesting but didn’t impress me with a need to add something like that to the game. However if people feel that this would be so useful, why not collaborate with wiki to add a codex like feature to the wiki or to add the information that would be in a codex to that site?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Edit: I think I saw that video. It was interesting but didn’t impress me with a need to add something like that to the game. However if people feel that this would be so useful, why not collaborate with wiki to add a codex like feature to the wiki or to add the information that would be in a codex to that site?

Because a lot of that information is not (explicitly) in the game. Many of it is vaguely alluded to or implied but nothing more. So such information would fall under ‘speculation’ and thus not be added to the wiki. At least not until Anet adds that information more explicitly, whether through a codex or through other means (a novel, a blog post, ambient dialogue or what have you).

The wiki is fine for basic tips and specific lore that you are specifically searching, but it hardly connects with the actual experience of exploring the game-world.
The wiki doesn’t relate with the game interface, maps and models within the game.
The wiki is community maintained, therefore not 100% official.
The wiki uses a standard, dry and objective, out of the game language. It doesn’t help immersion and can’t set a mood for the knowledge and situations you are experiencing in the game.

A codex is not only needed, but merely a first step into a bigger work of making GW2 more immersive and better at sharing its wonderful lore.

I believe lore books were an intention for launch, but were dropped due to the work involved. That may or may not have been close to a traditional codex.

Personally I think the Wiki and the access you have to it in game works just as well.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Sooooo a codex is a list of mobs and lore?

I guess it’s ok. How is it better than using /wiki?

I think what they meant was an Index, not a Codex (@OP: two different things).

Having a fully-fletched tutorial/guide would be better than using Wiki for two reasons:

• Because you would be able to learn things on the run, and always the things you currently need at that point of the game or in that specific location.
• When you don’t know about a certain mechanic and no one mentions it to you, then you can’t look it up because you don’t know it exists.

Easiest way to do this, and make people more or less happy, would be to implement an (optional) in-game browser to access the wiki and it’s information without requiring an external source (tabbing to browse the wiki).

Diovid.9506:

Justine.6351:

The guild wars wiki have been supported ingame since 2007. I don’t think there is room nor need for a codex ingame.

If you’ve played a game with a codex (such as Mass Effect) then you’d know that the codex provides much more than the GW2 wiki currently provides.

Wooden Potatoes had a pretty expansive and well thought-out idea on how this could look: http://imgur.com/gallery/ABALZ/new

I would love to see something like this in game. It would be great lorewise, it would be fun to complete, and it could also come with a substantial amount of AP as well for completing certain sections (probably something like 5 total AP for adding each entry, each entry requiring killing 100 of the mobs, 50 AP for completing each map, 100-150 AP for completing each section, with a meta achievement at the end). It would be a souped up slayer achievement, but one for every type of mob in the game (since the slayer achievements have never been updated to include newer mobs AFAIK) and came with lore.

Diovid.9506:

Justine.6351:

The guild wars wiki have been supported ingame since 2007. I don’t think there is room nor need for a codex ingame.

If you’ve played a game with a codex (such as Mass Effect) then you’d know that the codex provides much more than the GW2 wiki currently provides.

Wooden Potatoes had a pretty expansive and well thought-out idea on how this could look: http://imgur.com/gallery/ABALZ/new

this is amazing !

MrPinks.2015:

1.Description of the enemy –
(snip)
having some sort of information about the enemy we are facing.
(snip)
Do Ettins love apples?
2.Vistas – Waypoints – Points of interest
having an information about the areas we visited will have such a great impact to know what is going on in that area / specific point , having more lore and information about the areas we visit gives us better understanding of the map/world
every Point of interest is a location to a small settlement to a place of history or a small unmarked town
having information about this places could add sooo much !

Diovid.9506:

Because a lot of that information is not (explicitly) in the game. Many of it is vaguely alluded to or implied but nothing more. So such information would fall under ‘speculation’ and thus not be added to the wiki. At least not until Anet adds that information more explicitly, whether through a codex or through other means (a novel, a blog post, ambient dialogue or what have you).

In many cases, the lore that people want may not even exist. Anet may never have considered why a hylek tribe lives in a particular spot, or why these grawl are friendly and those ones aren’t. Paying developers to go over old content rather than create new content is a costly endevour.

MrPinks.2015:

3. Guides
- having guides inside the codex about the game could improve exprience of new players that have joined the game to be able to have guidance and help from guides that can explain for them basic needs and functions of how the game works .

Ashantara.8731:

• When you don’t know about a certain mechanic and no one mentions it to you, then you can’t look it up because you don’t know it exists.

Anet added a ton of in-game information with the New Player Experience. They also added pop ups which require an Esc. key press to remove. One option that Anet can do is have the NPE information available at all times for those who would like a refresher. If you come across a gap in the information, by all means let Anet know, and hopefully it can be added.

Easiest way to do this, and make people more or less happy, would be to implement an (optional) in-game browser to access the wiki and it’s information without requiring an external source (tabbing to browse the wiki).

It’s hard enough for the wiki to standardize information to display on a normal web browser, let alone sanitize it enough to be displayed properly with an in-game browser. Globs of Ectoplasm would be terrifying!!

And final point, the upkeep:
The wiki has a ton of dedicated contributors who still struggle to keep things up-to-date, and so many details are still over-looked (thank you to everyone who’s ever helped!). There is no way that Anet could afford a parallel team which focused solely on updating an in-game codex.

Imagine all the entries which would have needed modification when Kessex Hills was invaded. Or try to figure out how they would handle huge lore drops like the true source of the sylvari? When do they tell the player? How many entries are needed? What flags do they use and track? How prone to breaking is that process?

If this were a static game, an in-game codex may be feasible. Guild Wars 2 is not a static game.

Edit: Forgot to say that the above processes would need to be done in all four languages.
tl;dr: $$$$$$$

I love the idea of an in-game codex as described in that WoodenPotatoes video (as well as other posters here), but as several more knowledgeable people than myself have already stated, it just isn’t feasible. An out-of-game codex is entirely possible, however, if you were to use the already existing wiki. I don’t think it would be too difficult to add lore-based information on already existing pages regarding specific creatures, bosses, or factions.

I really do love the idea of lore being incorporated more into the wiki, but it needs to be something that the players themselves support and maintain as opposed to Anet staff. The developers and writers for the game certainly already have enough on their plates and to ask them to divert their attention from their current workload to a labor of love like this is a bit overreaching in my opinion.

So why can’t we do this ourselves? There are a lot of community members here on the forums who are incredibly lore-focused, and there are even a few high profile lore fans, such as WoodenPotatoes. If enough interest could be generated and a straightforward system of implementation could be developed for the wiki, I don’t think it would be too difficult to start adding information you might find in an in-game codex to individual wiki pages.

I imagine it would be something similar to what you might see on a card in a trading card game, like Magic: The Gathering. On each M:TG card, there are attributes and system-based mechanics shown on the card, and at the bottom of each card is a small portion of “flavor text” which is typically some brief quote or lore-based snippet of information relating to that specific card. Why not do something similar on the wiki?

Many pages already exist on the wiki which cover in-game lore and history of specific creatures of Tyria. Take the karka, for example:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Karka

There is a lot of information there which has practically no functional use. There’s info describing their history, their migrations, their hive organization, and so on. Most of this information is not particularly useful in terms of game mechanics, but it’s really interesting to be able to read up on the history of a specific species of creature in Tyria. There really is nothing stopping the community from fleshing out more pages like this.

Remember that even though much of the lore of this game has not been fleshed out in great detail by Anet, there is still a vast quantity of information that one could glean from simply playing the game and studying the creatures of Tyria. Go to the Priory and read up on the different subjects in the archive there, then cross-reference some of that information with things you see and encounter while traveling and you can start paint a more detailed picture of Tyria.

Just an idea, anyway.

Diovid.9506:

Justine.6351:

The guild wars wiki have been supported ingame since 2007. I don’t think there is room nor need for a codex ingame.

If you’ve played a game with a codex (such as Mass Effect) then you’d know that the codex provides much more than the GW2 wiki currently provides.

Wooden Potatoes had a pretty expansive and well thought-out idea on how this could look: http://imgur.com/gallery/ABALZ/new

I really, really, really like this idea. Unlocking more and more information for the codex (even if it was completely useless) sounds like fun, and I bet many would agree, thus populating empty zones hunting Jaguars and whatnot.

Also, the information about different beasts, materials from nodes, history of towns and POIs etc. could be really interesting to read. This would also encourage exploration and world completion, and bring a ton of new depth to the game and the lore. Shouldn’t take too much effort from Anet either.

Let’s be honest here, who goes to the Wiki to read about Jaguars or to seek detailed info about Queensdale Bandits? Didn’t think so.

I suggested a bestiary collection long time ago for the sakes of fun, it would require a bit of modification here and there but shouldn’t be too hard… unless they added complex collection layouts like Luminescent Armor.

before arenanet modified the new player experience with compass and all that it never seemed a problem for new players to know where they are what they are playing and all that. we saw the most activity of players inside the game there ever was. i dont know where arenanet for heavens sake catched the feedback from that new players would need more help. i would assume a player informs himself of what he is buying or downloading before the first login. most free 2 players are usually familiar with mmos of other companies just loging in for the sake they can for free to take a break from their other game.

no please dont spend more time on making ingame guides and so just to baby players around. one can download and install the game one will be able to play it. who is not familiar to math in real life wont turn into a player who can make builds tomorrow.

also we have tons of community websites which baby people around already with teamspeak and all that. there are tons of guides on the internet and people spend tons of time to make youtube videos already. please dont tell me a gw2 player cant know that youtube exists while living in a time of youtube stars doing lets play videos from the morning to the evening.

no please dont spend time on developement of guides. one who wants to make guides shall make a private website but i dont think it will revolutionize anything at this time anymore.

for more background on creatures and world etc. i would find it good. its just arenanets business model is nowadays more in a direction of quick hack n slay arcade rather than epic game adventure roleplay unfortunately. so i doubt the audience would spend time to read alot and it takes arenanet time to spend on that for low effect.

i would rather improve the game on gear costs. i hardly play nowadays cause i dont want to be after gold just so i can buy new sigils, runes, armors and weapons after each rebalance. im tired of that and i dont do it anymore. my friendlist is long and empty no matter at what time of the day. all once very active and good players on my list. people really really familiar with mmos and build creating all that. almost all gone. game is to gold expensive and makes no fun cause of that.