Guild Wars 2

Minis and backpieces of other players? They ruin the aesthetic of the game. Maybe have a toggle for each? Less clutter on screen.

players spend money, gold and time for this stuff…

If other players can hide my expensive minis or weapons I also can play a single player game.

I never understood why some people are so intent on playing MMOs in bubble.

Nagiil.1230:

players spend money, gold and time for this stuff…

If other players can hide my expensive minis or weapons I also can play a single player game.

So you can keep the hide settings off along with your friends you want to show off to, they can have their hide settings off as well.

I personally don’t care about them, so id rather have them hidden and maybe gain/stabilize the framerate a bit.

starlinvf.1358:

I never understood why some people are so intent on playing MMOs in bubble.

What bubble? Just because I want to hide some things that I don’t care about? A lot of people have their character quality set to low or even lowest, which makes you see a generic armor set, are those people also playing on a bubble?

iSmack.1768:

starlinvf.1358:

I never understood why some people are so intent on playing MMOs in bubble.

What bubble? Just because I want to hide some things that I don’t care about? A lot of people have their character quality set to low or even lowest, which makes you see a generic armor set, are those people also playing on a bubble?

No, those people are playing on potatos.

When they introduced rubbish back items that triple a character’s width (I think they call them wings or something), this suggested option became a requirement.

I’m also abit annoyed of these items that breaks immersion of the GW2.
Bird wings, super sized bags (2x larger than player).

I see a stranger, I don’t care if their stuff was expensive and ridiculously huge compared to their size.

Since literally, everything I see worn by NPCs, can be worn by players. But not the other way around.

GW1 held quite the normal look, with no special items.

On other hands, I wish the graphics option which control “Player Character Quality”, would rather have abit better quality stock models on basic colors (other than just black character and grey armor), with atleast more basic animations than just “run” for movement and “overhead smash” for attacks and interactions.
Also it should hide backitems, and not reduce quality party member models.

I agree with OP. A function like a toggle for backpacks and minis would be nice. It gives players the option to reduce visual clutter, and for people on lower end machines a chance to reduce potential performance issues on populated maps.

Personally, I like to display my minis, but when there are dozens upon dozens of minis running around everywhere, I do find it to be rather cluttered, and to some small degree it ruins the immersion. I really only care for my own minis, so I have no need to see the ones that other players have.

As for backpacks, same thing. Some players find backpacks annoying in their own ways. For me it is the angel wings. While everyone and their entire guild seems to be obsessed with the high-in-demand angel wings, I find them ugly and distracting. If I could turn them off, then it would greatly reduce the amount of unnecessary flappage and feathers that I see everywhere I go. Additionally, I am sure something like this would benefit the players that absolutely despise my Job-O-Tron backpack.

Just my two coppers.

Nagiil.1230:

players spend money, gold and time for this stuff…

If other players can hide my expensive minis or weapons I also can play a single player game.

Hide backpieces? No I wouldn’t want that. However all items in the game should follow the graphical settings like armor. The lower the settings and the more people around, the more basic skins they use. Just like armor.

People spend time and gold to get armors too but those are hidden at low character settings. Why aren’t backpieces, which are HUGE sometimes, meaning they take up loads of pixels, weapons, with some legendaries full of particle effects and miniatures not affected by the character distance graphic settings?

iSmack.1768:

starlinvf.1358:

I never understood why some people are so intent on playing MMOs in bubble.

What bubble? Just because I want to hide some things that I don’t care about? A lot of people have their character quality set to low or even lowest, which makes you see a generic armor set, are those people also playing on a bubble?

I think he was referring to people who want to play an MMO but go to great lengths to minimize human interaction to the point of single-player mode. Those people really do exist in great numbers and it is quite confusing…

A couple weeks ago there was a thread asking to be able to visually block people. That means chat, character avatar, mini pet, skill effects, EVERYTHING. Basically make it like they don’t even exist. There’s also frequently threads talking about the viability of soloing dungeons or other content, and threads asking to add NPC henchmen to the game to form parties instead of with real human players.

I get that your request doesn’t fit this extreme, but it seems along those lines in some way.

Xenon.4537:

I get that your request doesn’t fit this extreme, but it seems along those lines in some way.

I don’t think so. It’s along the lines of the lowest character model setting, team colors in pvp, and standard models in pvp. This feature doesn’t have an aspect of making the game soloable or making other people go away.

It’s a fine idea. There are benefits to both aesthetics and performance. This would be completely optional anyway.

Oh look another one of these threads…listen mate some people pay to show off to other people…making this option you may as well refund everyone who paid real money for these…You suggesting this is like me suggesting to hide legendary skins because they are too flashy and as you put less “clutter”.

maddoctor.2738:

People spend time and gold to get armors too but those are hidden at low character settings. Why aren’t backpieces, which are HUGE sometimes, meaning they take up loads of pixels, weapons, with some legendaries full of particle effects and miniatures not affected by the character distance graphic settings?

This. I agree with the performance arguments in this thread, and it baffles me that setting character models to the lowest quality still keeps the high-resolution, performance-impacting backpieces (glowing spinal blades, gigantic wings).

I do not see the need to make this a separate setting. (I see the want some people have for it, but if they can put up with other visual effects, they can put up with this.) Low-quality character models should hide back armor. You generally only choose this option for performance reasons in the first place.

I won’t say anything about the machines such people use – this game is using an older, less streamlined graphics standard and seems to be very CPU-intensive, something graphics cards cannot lift the weight from. Not all of us are equipped with “two Skynets”. (I, personally, am somewhere in between. I can handle the graphics, and not lose play performance, but framerate plummets at certain particle-heavy world bosses – resulting in a sluggish, but pretty, mess.)

Uploaded a picture of the game with the lowest character model setting and with player names turned off. With the settings the game has now, you can remove most of a player’s identity from your pov. Name, title, level, map completion star, armor set or outfit, and dyes. That only leaves the weapon set, backpiece, and mini. Do these settings prevent people from getting fancy armor skins, dyes, titles, etc.? No. So if there were settings for for generic weapon sets and the removal of backpieces and minis, people will still try to get the ones they like to show off.

I am someone who does use their look to show off to others what I’ve achieved in game. Glorious armor, fractal backpiece, volcanus, juggernaut, mini dolyak, champion legionnaire title, and so on. I do like showing off. But I am for features like the one the op suggested because:
1) I can still see my own stuff.
2) The majority of players aren’t going to use these options and so they will see what I’m showing off.
3) For the people who would use these options, their need for them is greater than my need to show off to those particular individuals.
4) If I’m having performance issues, these settings will be beneficial to me as well.

Omega Zoa.3859:

Oh look another one of these threads…listen mate some people pay to show off to other people…making this option you may as well refund everyone who paid real money for these…You suggesting this is like me suggesting to hide legendary skins because they are too flashy and as you put less “clutter”.

And wanting the choice to hide stuff is bad how. . . . . ?

If Johnny Gemstore thinks his angel wings and super banana mini are amazing, then that’s great for him. They clutter my screen and I would prefer to not look at them. Is he going to know that I am hiding his backpack/minis? No.

So I really don’t get the whole reasoning behind this logic. People who demand refunds because others aren’t noticing their trophies need to get over themselves.

(Don’t get me wrong, this issue is not a real problem for me. I’m merely stating my support for the option to exist. If this function is implemented, great! If it isn’t, then whatever. On that note, I don’t see why people feel the need to oppose this request so harshly.)

Can we get an option to hide all male norn carrying legendaries? They ruin the aesthetic of the game.

+1 for this idea
I will just add that,i would like option to hide Legendary trail effects.Those effects are even more annoying then mini pets.

A part of me dies every time I read something along the lines of “breaks my immersion.”

This option would be nice I think

No just no, the problem is too many players want their own version of the game by nitpicking things they don’t like and want the Dev’s to cater to their requset. (Threads like this is perfect example)

niea.7504:

A part of me dies every time I read something along the lines of “breaks my immersion.”

It’s important to game design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ-EY9gTsgU

I agree with the OP. I may have some expensive items that I worked hard for, but at the end of the day I made/bought them for me, not to show off and be a kittening attention kitten. If other people don’t want to see it, then I think there should be an option for that.

Any way to hide the terrible junk that doesn’t fit in the game, like those enormous flappy wings, gets my vote. Actually, I don’t even care about hiding a single other thing, just give me a No Wings option and I’d be happy. As to the fact that people paid for them? Kitten them in their kittening tacky, kittening kitten. They can all run around with their monuments to bad taste fully appreciable by other strange people who don’t use the option. Maybe they can form a support group, where they give each other positive affirmations. “You are a Special Snowflake, with beautiful wings!”

/hyperbole

but seriously, if they sold the ability to unlock such an option in the gem store, I’d totally buy it.

Simply put; some people prefer performance over visual aesthetic. I know if I’m lagging realllly bad the less ‘extras’ I see on screen the better my performance will hopefully be, survivable FPS.

Do these people know I’ve chosen not to see their backpieces/minis? No. Not a problem at all.

It would be nice to implement a feature such as this. It hurts no one.

Case closed.

What is the point of buying Gem store skins if you can’t show it off?

Off that question alone, if it ever was implemented then expect a huge plummet in gem store sales via cash, which we all know, Anet would most likely never allow to happen as they are a business and want to generate revenue.

sephiroth.4217:

What is the point of buying Gem store skins if you can’t show it off?

Off that question alone, if it ever was implemented then expect a huge plummet in gem store sales via cash, which we all know, Anet would most likely never allow to happen as they are a business and want to generate revenue.

Players have the option to turn off skins and outfits via the “simple character model” option in the graphics menu. Also, minis are automatically hidden on maps with a high population. Yet, they’re still pumping out new gemstore outfits and minis no problemo… so, I really don’t see any impact on revenue from something like this because it already exists in the game to a certain level…

I buy gemstore armor for my own enjoyment. I couldn’t care less if other players ogle me, or ignore me.

What satisfaction do you get from showing off pixels in a video game? And nothing in the game is unobtainable,we could all be clones if we wanted to.

Invisible|cloak all minis / backpacks, but only from your sight. Option in graphic settings. Can agree.

It won’t be significant change in performance like hiding them, becouse physically they will be there, but not visible to you. Physically* cuz data is real thing, cuz electrons that holds, transport that data are real.

Nagiil.1230:

players spend money, gold and time for this stuff…

If other players can hide my expensive minis or weapons I also can play a single player game.

We can already hide their Armor and Character looks. So what now?
Either allow us to turn off everything or nothing.
I dislike minis and the back items but I have no problem with Armors and character looks.

PS: People who purchase cosmetic items do so for themselves not others.

PSS: Wings SUCK!

Kross.6428:

sephiroth.4217:

What is the point of buying Gem store skins if you can’t show it off?

Players have the option to turn off skins and outfits via the “simple character model” option in the graphics menu. Also, minis are automatically hidden on maps with a high population. Yet, they’re still pumping out new gemstore outfits and minis no problemo… so, I really don’t see any impact on revenue from something like this because it already exists in the game to a certain level…

I buy gemstore armor for my own enjoyment. I couldn’t care less if other players ogle me, or ignore me.

Ragmon.6350:

People who purchase cosmetic items do so for themselves not others.

Onisuo.8607:

What satisfaction do you get from showing off pixels in a video game?

Note: this isn’t directed at anyone in particular bar the ones saying but muuuum why can’t we show it oooooofffffff?

This is what you fail to understand. No one gives half a rat’s kitten about your aesthetics but you. . I don’t give a kitten if you bought purdy skins from the gemstore and want to show it off, and I’m sure there are hundreds of others who feel the same (including the ones that I have quoted). That’s your problem if you’re seeking acception and attention from other people because of purdy pixels. Do it for yourself. As much as you have a right to show it off, we have a right to choose not to see it.

Since the beginning of ‘gaming’ on pc (old enough to have been there) developers have tried to improve the graphics of their products. A part of the gamers can not afford or do not have the means to keep up with the demands of some games, altough most want a ‘real lifelike’ experience.

It’s understandable that one wants options to lower graphic settings to have a more enjoyable higher fps experience, but removing (hiding) parts of a game to achieve that,is like asking “don’t show me the different faces, hairstyles,…, let’s make everything look the same”. Let’s give them all the same armor, the same buildings, or wait, let’s go back 20 years and make it look like the original wolfenstein with one texture for every wall in a map.

In my personal opinion, although i understand the reasoning behind it, one either upgrades their system to be able to play a game or one plays it at a lower resolution, in which case they don’t get to see the true intention of the dev’s.

People who purchase cosmetic items do so for themselves not others.

That’s called being desillusional. You ALWAYS dress up for others. What’s the point of dressing up if others don’t see it ? People want to look good for others, to make an impression, it’s the same in games.

If you remove items from a game by hiding them then there would be no need to get different skins or have different character looks.

You can either go out and look like a bum, or dress up and impress the one you want. Same principle. Basic concept.

As much as you have a right to show it off, we have a right to choose not to see it.

You can just play tetris then, no skins to be seen in there. Unless you want all the blocks to have the same color.

I really don’t understand why people are opposed to hiding backpacks, weapons and minis just like we can hide armor of others using lower quality settings. A toggle just for backpacks isn’t needed nor something I’d ever want to see, but allowing the lower quality settings to hide everything and not just armor is something that can help with performance a LOT.

Some backpacks and minis are huge with lots of details, and some legendary weapons clutter the screen with their particles, why can’t we turn them off to increase performance? Is “showing off” really MORE IMPORTANT than the ability to play the game? And if so, there are armor sets I’d want to show off but I can’t because the quality settings remove those.

Why is it so unfair?

Regarding Legendary weapon effects, some look like the characters have bowel or peeing issues.

The wings and other oversized back items look plain idiotic, as they don’t belong in the aesthetic of the GW2 lore.

Yea, Graphics option for “Character Model Quality” will hide your armor and looks, so your unique looks have been mostly hidden to those with less powerful computers, but not replace or remove the ridiculously huge back items or weapons.

I always have to laugh at people standing around with their latest virtual party dress or special snowflake mini. You’ve seen them…especially since mega-server. They hang around Divinity’s Reach or some other crowded spot and almost shout “Please, see me. Acknowledge me. Look at me! Aren’t I pretty and cool?”.

Anyone, whether in game or in real life, who dresses up like some peakitten does so because they have something lacking in their life. Some sort of pathetic need to be noticed, if only briefly, by someone.

I have minis, never use them. Bought a couple of outfits because I thought they looked cool to me, not to show off. So, yeah, please let us hide the virtual Barbie portion of this game. Would be nice.

misterman.1530:

I always have to laugh at people standing around with their latest virtual party dress or special snowflake mini. You’ve seen them…especially since mega-server. They hang around Divinity’s Reach or some other crowded spot and almost shout “Please, see me. Acknowledge me. Look at me! Aren’t I pretty and cool?”.

Anyone, whether in game or in real life, who dresses up like some peakitten does so because they have something lacking in their life. Some sort of pathetic need to be noticed, if only briefly, by someone.

I have minis, never use them. Bought a couple of outfits because I thought they looked cool to me, not to show off. So, yeah, please let us hide the virtual Barbie portion of this game. Would be nice.

You are right and this is just another example of how much this community is selfish.I for example don’t like mini-pets,outfits,WINGS the most cause all of that breaks the immersion of this game.
Now where we don’t complain how those things should not be made,they do complain that we don’t want to see them.
Every1 should play this game the way they like it,if they like all those useless game breaking immersion things,they can have it…but i don’t like it and i don’t want to even see it.
Now they are saying how " we buy them so we can show off".If they want to leave good impression on us,this is exactly what they need to hide.Logic is simple,those that like those mini-pets can see them and think WOW soo awesome !!,but those that don’t like them will just be annoyed by them.
What is point of showing off if you get negative impression from that group of players?huh

Sthenith.5196:

As much as you have a right to show it off, we have a right to choose not to see it.

You can just play tetris then, no skins to be seen in there. Unless you want all the blocks to have the same color.

You’re taking this to the extreme. I never said anything about not seeing my own. I dress my characters up for myself, not for others. If others want to hide certain things that I have equipped I have no issue with it, as it wouldn’t affect me seeing what I have made, nor would it to those attention seeking kittens.

This discussion is almost like politics or religion. I have my own opinion which I don’t always show to others because they may not want to see it. Then there are the opinionated kittenhats that want to shove their views down other people’s throats.

Then there are the opinionated kittenhats that want to shove their views down other people’s throats.

By that reasoning and the request to hide things that are part of the game, you could say that the developers fall into that category. They designed this game the way THEY see things. I hate the look of the sclerite karka backpiece (tentacles…), so please remove it from the game ?…
Seriously, everything ingame is the way the dev’s intended it to be. Wether you like it or not is irrelevant, if you don’t then don’t play the game. The only reason mini’s are hidden because of player population is to avoid to much lag. (server vs client data transfer)
But to hide things because some people don’t like it is a load of crap.

1. if the reasoning is aestethics, then it should be a big nono. If i don’t like a game because of the way it looks or parts of it look, then i simply don’t play it.

2. if the reasoning is obtaining a more comfortable gameplay for lower end systems, then there are other ways to get that :
- lower resolutions
- less graphical quality
-….and whatever other graphic option you can turn off.

You might as well just add a single player mode to the game that turns off every other player so you can roam the game by yourself without looking at any other skin/item.

Taking things to the ‘extreme’ as you call it, is an example of how different the opinions are and how silly it all is.

If the problem is the low fps, then i would say get yourself a better system or graphics card. But don’t blame the game for the way it was designed, skins included.
If the problem is with other players, then yes, go play tetris would be my advice. Or to take it to the extreme, stick a needle in your eyes so you’ll never have to look at other people again. (that was sarcasm btw.)

Sthenith.5196:

1. if the reasoning is aestethics, then it should be a big nono. If i don’t like a game because of the way it looks or parts of it look, then i simply don’t play it.

My ultra rare Hellfire Leggings (less than 500 people have them in the entire game) are easily hidden due to settings. Yet something you can get for cash from the gem store like the Wings are never hidden. If you forget Outfits and Armors are also sold on the gem store and they all get hidden at lower settings. So why is it that miniatures, weapons and backpacks aren’t hidden?

2. if the reasoning is obtaining a more comfortable gameplay for lower end systems, then there are other ways to get that :
- lower resolutions
- less graphical quality
-….and whatever other graphic option you can turn off.

I’m not going to lower MY graphics because everyone around me has huge backpacks and weapons full of particle effects and drag my FPS down. I want to play at the MAXIMUM resolution and highest possible graphical settings to enjoy MY CHARACTER and the environment.

Then I use a lower character detail setting (depends on situation, at Tequatl I use the lowest possible setting, in dungeons higher settings) to avoid looking at other players when there are lots of them around and limit my performance. Guess what? Although their Armor and facial options are well hidden, weapons, backpacks and miniatures are NOT and cause insane lag and performance problems.

Lowering MY graphical quality and lowering MY resolution because the game can’t hide things that cause performance drops? Really? That’s not a sane answer.

starlinvf.1358:

I never understood why some people are so intent on playing MMOs in bubble.

That’s because far too many people focus on the MMO-bit, and completely forget the RPG-bit. The term is MMORPG, after all. If you want to play with others and focus on the MMO-bit, you can do that. But if you want to ignore the MMO-bit and rather focus on the RPG-bit, there’s nothing wrong with that either. MMO and RPG are equal in MMORPG.

On-topic, I don’t mind hiding minis. I absolutely hate those. Mini animals is annoying enough, but mini humans? That’s just absurd. And sure, people spend real money on this stuff, but so what? Why am I being punished just because you spend money on something for your own character?

The point is that your wings are bloody annoying, so is the small talking piece of trash on your back that’s screaming every time you do something. Now imagine that multiplied by 10-20-30?

No. GW2 is about cosmetics. If you dont want to see other peoples cosmetics maybe it is the wrong game for you.
You also cannot hide peoples Ferraris and stuff in real life.

maddoctor.2738:

I really don’t understand why people are opposed to hiding backpacks, weapons and minis just like we can hide armor of others using lower quality settings. A toggle just for backpacks isn’t needed nor something I’d ever want to see, but allowing the lower quality settings to hide everything and not just armor is something that can help with performance a LOT.

Some backpacks and minis are huge with lots of details, and some legendary weapons clutter the screen with their particles, why can’t we turn them off to increase performance? Is “showing off” really MORE IMPORTANT than the ability to play the game? And if so, there are armor sets I’d want to show off but I can’t because the quality settings remove those.

Why is it so unfair?

It would be unfair becuase the perfomance boost for players with the options off vs on
then it would become the new meta to turn them off.

Besides Anet is not in the business to make one version of the game for me, another for you and another for next person on and on…………………………….

FrostSpectre.4198:

GW1 held quite the normal look, with no special items.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Raiment_of_the_Lich
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Chaos_Gloves

….yeah.

There are already settings in the game that alter other players’ looks in order to improve game performance. I posted a pic in this topic of the lowest character model setting.

Not necessarily a performance boost (might be), but there are settings for how you see other players in pvp. You can make it so instead of seeing their dyes, the color of their armor is the same as the team they are on. There is also a standard enemy model setting that turns everyone on the enemy team into the same height human with a generic look for their profession. That way you don’t have to worry about enemy players using tiny asuras or huge norns. These settings are meant to provide a benefit to the player at the expense of not seeing how others made their character look.

Kross.6428:

sephiroth.4217:

What is the point of buying Gem store skins if you can’t show it off?

Off that question alone, if it ever was implemented then expect a huge plummet in gem store sales via cash, which we all know, Anet would most likely never allow to happen as they are a business and want to generate revenue.

Players have the option to turn off skins and outfits via the “simple character model” option in the graphics menu. Also, minis are automatically hidden on maps with a high population. Yet, they’re still pumping out new gemstore outfits and minis no problemo… so, I really don’t see any impact on revenue from something like this because it already exists in the game to a certain level…

I buy gemstore armor for my own enjoyment. I couldn’t care less if other players ogle me, or ignore me.

Your argument is circumstantial. While a lot of people may play on potatos and miss out on seeing the shiny stuff, the rest of us have systems that allow for us to see the items that others are wearing, it has absolutely nothing to do with generating revenue for Anet nor will it.

But if they were to implement this system then they themselves would be taking the risk that a lot of players only buy skins via gemstore to look shiny for everyone else to see, which would in turn be met with “we want refunds, outfits are no good….” and would essentially lose future sales on items they released.

I’m of two minds on this (the other 5 haven’t learned to assert themselves).

On the one hand, I get the idea that people have paid for things and would like to show them off. That’s huge.

On the other hand, if there were an option to hide running animation, idle animations, khaki shorts, other armor, looks like people are whining about the greatsword again (and I’m sure I’ll just have to move to South Korea or Japan at some point)…or heck, if people just wanted to hide me because I was offensive, but I got to have all those things I used to love and miss dearly? Yeah, I’d be fine with people hiding me.

JediYoda.1275:

maddoctor.2738:

I really don’t understand why people are opposed to hiding backpacks, weapons and minis just like we can hide armor of others using lower quality settings. A toggle just for backpacks isn’t needed nor something I’d ever want to see, but allowing the lower quality settings to hide everything and not just armor is something that can help with performance a LOT.

Some backpacks and minis are huge with lots of details, and some legendary weapons clutter the screen with their particles, why can’t we turn them off to increase performance? Is “showing off” really MORE IMPORTANT than the ability to play the game? And if so, there are armor sets I’d want to show off but I can’t because the quality settings remove those.

Why is it so unfair?

It would be unfair becuase the perfomance boost for players with the options off vs on
then it would become the new meta to turn them off.

Besides Anet is not in the business to make one version of the game for me, another for you and another for next person on and on…………………………….

Unfair performance boost? Making the game playable for more people is now unfair?
I never asked for an extra option to hide backpacks, the OP did and I disagreed. I asked for the character detail setting to affect weapons, minis and backpacks which I think it’s a very reasonable request.

notebene.3190:

On the one hand, I get the idea that people have paid for things and would like to show them off. That’s huge.

They paid for armor and outfits too but at lower settings they are hidden “for performance reasons”. Yet Weapons, minis and backpacks aren’t affected. Are pink quaggan backpacks so much more important to show off than the Zodiak or Aethrblade armor skins? Or Hellfire/Radiant/Glorious armor skins? Why have two different choices and not treat all skins equally?