Guild Wars 2

Truth is people like them and buy them so they will keep with this theme.

I am personally tried of seeing so much flash in this game and have always been kinda ticked that we have no options for flashy effects such as only show own, or show own plus party.

To each their own. I personally like flash, and stay away from the boring stuff that look like starting gear and weapons. I play this game for the fantasy, not real life simulation.

It’s what they monetize and to get people to keep going for them the next one has to get even more attention as the last one… read, be more flashy.

Suziana.3759:

To each their own. I personally like flash, and stay away from the boring stuff that look like starting gear and weapons. I play this game for the fantasy, not real life simulation.

When looking at an item I also like flashy, then again, when looking at a bunch of people who all have flashy stuff running around, you don’t really see anything specific just one big light-show. I think this is Blue is mostly talking about.

I’d say that in this case, the rock glider makes perfect sense.

You have Elementalists out there using their magic to glide. There’s the lighting glider, a couple of options for fire, and even a water bubble one. Rock was the obvious next one, and it’s not so odd to think of an Elementalist using their magic for something like that.

With some others, like the SAB cloud? There I’ll grant you the point and even agree with you. (Even though I wound up buying it. I now wish I’d waited.)

My first thought on seeing this is how obnoxious it is. I admit it looks pretty cool and I can see the appeal, but then I remember how excited I was to buy my spirit raven glider and how I never use it now. It’s too large and gets in the way for me and other people. I’ve been doing a few HoT HP trains and the nonsense gives me a headache. I can’t see a thing in front of me.

So like I said, I can see the appeal, and I can see why anet wants to release flashy skins, but I am so over it.

Suziana.3759:

To each their own. I personally like flash, and stay away from the boring stuff that look like starting gear and weapons. I play this game for the fantasy, not real life simulation.

Fantasy worlds also need to have some internal consistency. Too much flash and even the strongest suspension of disbelief begin to crumble.
Also boring is relative. Wings on everyone are one of my more hurtful definitions of boring.

I’m just here to support this thread. I think Guild Wars 1 looks way better than this game despite its age, much because of all the flashy stuff.

Anet is pretty consistent though. The lore accurate equipment is obtainable by playing the game, where as the flashy, lore breaking for-fun things are relegated to cash shop micro-transactions. (mostly, anyway)

Hope PoF has more of the period-consistent clothing, personally.

If you dont like the more flashy stuff, there are enough non-flashy alternatives you can use.

I use the SAB Cloud glider and SAB weapon skins since last SAB festival. I remember wanting it like mad as I love any SAB themed stuff with it’s silly humor and bright immature graphics, as it positively makes me remember the games of that time.

But with that said, SAB stuff origins from a world which does not fit into Tyria – you’ve separated it into an “adventure box” on purpose. From the last things I heard, Tyria rather tries to be a realistic looking world, delivering a thrilling story about magic, dragons, (infamous) gods, alchemies, warbands, lessons in racial and cultural differencies, all in a lore spanning thousands of years with it’s own®evolutions, even covered by 3 serious novels so far.

It totally fails this the moment someone opens needlessly oversized raven gliders with their supersaturated colors and effect – or the cloud glider with it’s incredibly loud Game Boy like fanfare.
It makes you realize it’s just another game trying to provide something of everything for whatever anyone likes to generate cash, and mashes it together in a now seemingly fake virtual environment disobeying any rules of previously mentioned evolution.
And I’m only mentioning 2 gliders here.

Of course there have been errors in said evolution in the past (simple example being that nobody in their right mind would make the number 1 a / and the 2 a // in a writing system where he needs to express combinations of 1’s and 2’s later on). But those were marginal or could be fixed by “thinking about it a different way”.

For the raven or cloud glider, there’s no “different way”. They look out of place at all times.
“Moto created a portable holographic emitter creating a solid cloud allowing you to glide with no physical but probably magineural explanation, attaching speakers or bending air around it to create a fanfare” Please, that just sounds like overjustifying techno-babble known from bad Star Trek episodes when Janeway turned into a drake-like thing and made babies with her officer.
“The raven glider is some Norn ritual creating such flowerfancycolorpower around them like no other ritual ever caused – epilepticants should probably close their eyes while doing so” also just sounds like a quick way to annoy people with.

What can be done, the damage already happened, Tyria looks like a kindergarden at times now where everyone tries to be the loudest and literally “brightest” kid on the grounds. I even observed same players continually camping near a TP/Bank/Merchant apparently annoying everyone on purpose with loud bee effects and huge auras, not even actively using the game and not replying to any messages written to them.

You cannot tell players to stop using what they love, but you can allow annoyed players to believe they stopped.
Practically said, a game option to not only “mute” other player’s projectile SFX, but armor SFX or any lighting / transparency GFX – simply keeping the bare armor looks and custom dyes with default sounds, which honestly still give enough chance to “get attention” from others.
For the gliders, another option would force the default glider on everyone at all times, as gliders sadly cannot be “toned down”.
Creating a category for “serious” or “less childish” armor or effects to filter those out would probably not be a good idea as the next thread will be about “why is X muted, it’s fine in my opinion and I want others to see what I love”. If the filter applies on what everyone understands as “light / transparency effects”, everyone would know what falls into it, and you could still tell them “it’s a performance optimization for older PCs” for justification purposes :P

over the top cosmetics are what bring in money in an F2P business model. GW2 has shifted from game sales to gem store sales being their focus. for them to honour their “cosmetic and convenience” only gem store approach, the items in the gem store have to be flashy, visually appealing and make people stand out from non-spenders. this is what gets people to open their wallets in an F2P game where buying your way to the top of WvW/PvP isn’t really an option

Blue.1207:

Wheres the cohesion of the items with the in game aesthetic? I know we get a few items that adhere to this midset, but then we get a giant raven, or a literal meteor glider, or (insert your item of choice) that throws that aesthetic out the window.

While I can find the raven glider to be a bit.. frustrating when doing jumping puzzles, due to the immense size of the model on large player characters, I don’t think it can’t fit within the game. On the contrary; say you’ve made Nevermore — now the spirit of the raven is allowing you to soar through the air towards the ground. The meteor; an Elementalist summons a meteor to fall slowly towards the ground. The Sheet Music, some contraption created by a “bard”, perfect for the musicians of the game (as in those who likes to play instruments). Besides some of them being a bit frustrating to deal with in certain aspects of the game, such as jumping puzzles, I don’t think the majority of them can’t have their place within a functional theme.

Also, if players wish to load up on all the possible auras, why not let them? There’s generally very few people who can ever afford to become the “monstrosities”. How many can you honest to Kormir say you see on a regular basis in the content you partake in? It seems a good quantity of us thinks effect bombs just look ugly, so we shake our heads. And you know what? We can then move on with our lives shortly thereafter, looking the other way, not caring. Chances are we won’t necessarily see that person again. We won’t remember their character name just because they were a walking bile of particle effects, we’d likely remember them more if they had a clever combination to be fair. It’s insignificant to us. You’re letting yourself get worked up for brief moments in time.

PS: There’s a difference in how player models look (they can be hidden with name plates showing during big encounters should the game deem it necessary), and how skills look. There’s also unlikely to be 5-10 people that are regurgitated effect bombs. It’s not unlikely to be 5-10 fields on the ground.

I agree. I like more realistic looks,i don’t mind the feathered wings backpieces but I even turn it off for combat and running around with it so stiff and so on looks ridiculous and blocks the view sometimes. I sometimes only turn on chaos gloves glow for combat, I can’t take players with too much flash just chilling seriously neither play ability or eye for aesthetics lol! but I do understand gw2 has a big range of players

They won’t make an income if they don’t provide their playerbase with options. So it isn’t reasonable to request this. You may as well ask Anet to stop making content altogether.

And as already said, to each their own. It’s impossible to cater to everyones likes and wants.

They should just add option to turn off those kitten effects so that those who dont like them would have option to turn them off.

Whenever I go on somekind of meta-even I feel like on some clown/freak show and it kittenes me off.

i would pay real money for some good historical style skins for example “Maximilian plate armour” Swords that look useful not over the top Give us the options to allow our toons to look like historical knights

Please continue with the flashy stuff Anet

To each their own indeed. I totally agree.

However, if you look at this game and erase all the players from sight for a sec. you see that the entire design is about a sort of medieval-ish Fantasy style and some Asura and Charr Steampunk thing going on.

The Asura are colorful but not in an eyesore way. The Charr are proud warriors clad in tough armors in mostly earth colors. Humans are … humans and the Norn are somewhat of the same palet as the Charr. The Sylvari are more colorful but in a stylish natural way.

If you then put back the players it’s like someone pulled open a can of exploded clowns. Not all of them of course but enough to ‘spoil the picture’. Big Charrs glowing white to the point of blinding, with pink manes and Angelic wings. I mean seriously?

Every Daily event map there are at least a few dominating everyones visuals. Basically a handfull that ‘ruin’ the view for all.

So in the spirit of ‘to each their own’ i vote for a special effects switch to turn off all the fluff.

Meanwhile i’ll just do my best to ignore and pretend it isn’t there.

Edit: The Angelic Charr Rangers look like grotesk surrealistic Cupids… “Love or i rip you to shreads!” hehe :P

dusanyu.4057:

i would pay real money for some good historical style skins for example “Maximilian plate armour” Swords that look useful not over the top Give us the options to allow our toons to look like historical knights

Looks like Phalanx armor.

I would like some realism too. At least some symmetrical pauldrons.

jokke.6239:

Please continue with the flashy stuff Anet

This.

Please have some ‘super’ version of the mounts. I like cute, colourful and flashy stuff.

I can tolerate flashy stuff others use and don’t use any myself, but when I visited the Mystlock Observatory today, four or five people were flying around on their new geomancer gliders right above the portal – and they were huge. It was horrendous; I could barely see anything. Probably some kind of bug, but until that’s fixed or people get tired of it, that’s going to be extremely annoying.

Fat Disgrace.4275:

people get triggered at just about anything theres days.

Nah, people just misuse the word triggered these days.

This thread inspired me to buy two, one for me and one for a random stranger.

Keep up the good work Anet and please take my money.

mXz.4512:

They won’t make an income if they don’t provide their playerbase with options. So it isn’t reasonable to request this. You may as well ask Anet to stop making content altogether.

Actually, the biggest offenders are craftable items and infusions. Some gemstore items look silly or out of place, but not complete eyesores.

Blue.1207:

The endless amount of flashy gliders and auras is starting to get a tad ridiculous, or rather, it has been for some time now.

I just logged in to make a post on this very issue, but you spared me the work.

Blue.1207:

There are far, FAR too many gliders that are not only obnoxiously large or only offer a gimmick in their existence, but the particle effects that these new items give off are absurd.

Yes, this exactly.

While some of those gliders per se look very well designed (although I wish one could have seen the actual clef on the Sheet Music Glider rather than having tons of paper covering it, then I might have purchased it), their insane size and effects are 100% unsuitable for a glider.

Most of your own view gets blocked while using those, which is unpractical. What’s even more obnoxious, though, is how people using those monstrosities are also blocking other people’s view, who happen to fly behind them! Having someone like that gliding in front of you not only irritates the eye but also makes it feel like driving a car while wearing a blindfold.
.

I get how ANet has developed a taste for the extravagant, they seem to enjoy exaggerating their designs to a degree where they become truly absurd (or downright ugly, in case of armor for instance). But impairing other players’ gameplay (e.g., when wearing some gigantic backpack while doing a jumping puzzle, so that the person behind you will miss their target because they can’t see kitten) is a true annoyance, to say the least.
.

P.S. Also, this:

I remember a time when particle effects were getting toned down across the game, Mesmer wells were more or less deleted, Ele Auras were gutted, heck even Rev skills were toned down. And for what? Only to go back on your design philosophy and start making your game look like an off brand generic MMO?

Wheres the cohesion of the items with the in game aesthetic? […]

ANET please, PLEASE consider moving away from these design choices. People will still buy good skins from the gem store if they’re not over the top and obnoxious. And more importantly, please don’t repeat this with mounts.

I second that plea.

I have an HD graphics card capable of showing special effects. I also play a modern MMO called Guild Wars 2.

I love all flashy effects, and I like all particle effects. I kindly ask ArenaNet to give me more special effects, and provide me with more CGI because I will buy them all. This is why I play this game.

As a side note: I like the name “Path of Fire”, and I strongly expect more “fire”. Please do not let me down.

While I agree that it’s great we have items and gear to satisfy both, flashy-lovers and flashy-haters, there definitely should be an option somewhere to heavily tone down or even disable effects from the surrounding legendaries and auras. Trying to do crowded JP’s, HP runs or anything large-scale, the screen does usually fill up with flashy clutter, making things very annoying.

Other than that, I’ve nothing against flashy stuff.

Agree with OP and others that would like an option to remove visual clutter on my screen. Auras, Gliders, force basic armors like in PVP etc.

Atm I just run around with the number of models set to lowest, so other player models looks like basic stickfigures, it works. But I sometimes miss the option from Aion where you could completely disable other player models, it was glorious in a freaky way.

I’d also really like some more natural looking gliders. The basic glider looks really weird, like it wouldn’t hold its own weight etc. Phoenix Kite is about the only thing that looks like it could fly. And I really like the shape of Soul River Glider, and would love a non “energy” looking version of that. Gliders at the moment is very much breaking any kind of immersion because of the skins.

Edit: Forgot, There should also be options for limiting the amount of weapon and skill effects in the game. 5 people attacking the same enemy is already looking like a discotheque, 10 looks like a light show, 20 as a fireworks, and at 50 I usually equip a ranged attack, and put on the sunglasses. No wonder so many players never learn to dodge or read enemy attacks, they can’t see the moves! (or the enemy for that matter)

An option to remove visual clutter caused by flashy stuff defeats the purpose of having it , which is primarily “look at me and my flashy stuff.”
If this can be turned off then theres little point in having it.
Im not a real fan either, but the reality is that flashy stuff pays the bills for Anet.

Visual clutter has always been a problem in this game from day 1. In combat, it literally can cause sensory overload.
It’s 2017, if you’ve been playing for the better part of 5 years, it’s pretty much “c’est la vie” in this game. It’s not like most of us didn’t see it coming down this road.

QoL update for removing visual noise would be nice (for example, remove all players’ skills animation on bosses, so we can tell what the heck the boss is doing). Hey, we are still waiting for build/equipment template save feature, Mystic Forge with less clicking, modifiable GUI (it gets tiring looking at same GUI for 5 years), etc. So, such option to remove visual noise should probably get behind the line.
Anet be like: “We’ll get on your QoL update requests by 2050, do not worry”.

I rather like the light show players adorn themselves with, especially in WvW you can see a glittering adversary from 6000 down range, and if players wish to play with visually intense auras and overdone armors I say go for it. Personally, I play very subdued earth tones, always on lookout for dyes that mimic my surroundings. No light show for me thank you very much, my favorite staff is Bo, and my favorite great sword is reskinned to Belinda’s, you won’t find me flashing around looking like a Christmas tree ornament, I’ll leave that to the players with less common sense.

I don’t really see the problem, it seems you’re just bothered by other people’s tastes. I’m not into the flashy stuff myself so I just live and let live with those who do.

OP has a good point when he said that anet toned down the flahy skills (some quite significantly) some time ago in order to help performance. Some people really hated the very bland new animations.
Then they keep adding a lot of particle effects to everything, that stacks on top of eachother.

Maybe skill animations are more demanding on people’s systems, but it doesn’t sit right.

Ardid.7203:

Suziana.3759:

To each their own. I personally like flash, and stay away from the boring stuff that look like starting gear and weapons. I play this game for the fantasy, not real life simulation.

Fantasy worlds also need to have some internal consistency. Too much flash and even the strongest suspension of disbelief begin to crumble.
Also boring is relative. Wings on everyone are one of my more hurtful definitions of boring.

You know, even though I’m guilty of the flashy and shiny love, I had my new char in DR the other day and was literally shaking my head, wondering if she belonged in the same universe as the NPCs going about their daily business. I mean, I had the pinky-blue dragon wings, Winter’s Presence, Jormag’s Breath sword, plus some rather intense dye-age going on. I love it on one hand, but on the other, you’ve nailed it with the suspension of disbelief.

Not sure I can go to DR with that character ever again. :/

Mil.3562:

jokke.6239:

Please continue with the flashy stuff Anet

This.

Please have some ‘super’ version of the mounts. I like cute, colourful and flashy stuff.

Yassss. MOREEEE

I don’t mind having particle effects involved in your look here and there, but I think the problem right now is the sheer amount of particle effects any one given character can stack on themselves at a time. Before, it was mostly just legendary weapons that gave auras, and those were quite flashy as it is. Now you also get auras from infusions, from armor, from unique shoulders that give snowfall effects or bats flying around you, from legendary gear and trinkets and even from consumables.

The result is that now you can have a character that quite literally looks like a walking maelstrom of particle effects. Not only is it unattractive for a lot of people, but I’m going to hazard a safe guess here and say it also has quite an adverse effect on performance as well. The high particle effect gliders can also cause situations where when gliding in a group during events it can be difficult to see properly, but I would say this particular issue is less prominent for me because of the infrequency of such an occurrence where a lot of players are gliding in a large group. I have less problems dealing with over the top gliders that are only used now and then, and often not in large numbers, than I do with players that look like walking fission reactions all the time.

In the end, I’ve done what a lot of people probably have and reduced the amount of players shown on screen so as to diminish visual clutter. I do get that players have tastes and some enjoy standing out, but in my opinion, when your attempts to cater to the tastes of some comes at the cost of performance and visual fidelity for all, then I think it’s a bit of a misstep. I have no issues with flashy, just with the amount of layers of flashy you can stack right now.

I like flashy stuff – but only if it somehow fits into Tyria!

The raven glider fits Norns really well (become the raven), the geomancer glider fits perfectly for elementalists etc.

But I really hate the SAB glider. Oh, and the dreamer bow! Those two are just over the top and don’t fit into Tyria really well in my opionion.

The SAB is a funny event that you can choose to participate in or just ignore it. WHY would they bring that kitten glider outside of the SAB world and into Tyria?! Argh >_<

I love to play with all sounds on but I wish I could mute only those two things.

Mil.3562:

jokke.6239:

Please continue with the flashy stuff Anet

This.

Please have some ‘super’ version of the mounts. I like cute, colourful and flashy stuff.

I have never thought about that one.
+1

mauried.5608:

An option to remove visual clutter caused by flashy stuff defeats the purpose of having it , which is primarily “look at me and my flashy stuff.”
If this can be turned off then theres little point in having it.
Im not a real fan either, but the reality is that flashy stuff pays the bills for Anet.

Why would it defeat its purpose? You get to see all your flashy stuff and be happy, whereas one that does not like it turned it off on his very own screen and be you know happy too?

There’s the setting that changes all other players to a placeholder model, I can’t remember what it is called.
I’d like if it included weapons, disabled back items and miniatures, and did what ever placeholder and/or removal needed for gliders and what ever else there is now. And an additional option to keep the player’s party visible normally.

mauried.5608:

An option to remove visual clutter caused by flashy stuff defeats the purpose of having it , which is primarily “look at me and my flashy stuff.”
If this can be turned off then theres little point in having it.
Im not a real fan either, but the reality is that flashy stuff pays the bills for Anet.

If your only reason to wear flashy stuff is to have other players pay attention to you and not because you actually like it yourself, then I think that’s a pretty bad start to begin with. I make my character look how I want it to look, not how I think others want it to look.

And either way, players can already hide how you look simply by reducing the the amount of players shown, or their level of detail, so the point is rather moot. I think all some people want is a middle ground, where they don’t hide how others look, but just limit the particle effects details (in a similar way you can limit it for skill effects). That way you still get to show off your nice character, and others get to see it without crashing their PC’s or their eyes. XD

I think it’s a fair request.

mauried.5608:

An option to remove visual clutter caused by flashy stuff defeats the purpose of having it , which is primarily “look at me and my flashy stuff.”
If this can be turned off then theres little point in having it.
Im not a real fan either, but the reality is that flashy stuff pays the bills for Anet.

I would think our characters are clad in whatever bling to please ourselves and not to annoy others.

Im not a real fan either, but the reality is that flashy stuff pays the bills for Anet

It is okay to have em sell that stuff and put it in the game in other ways. Just put an on/off switch in Options so we can all enjoy our personal preferences. Not just the folks that enjoy visual noise.

Much like a headphone ensures that ones personal choice in music doesn’t become an unvoluntairy choice for all within earshot.

Blue.1207:

I remember a time when particle effects were getting toned down across the game, Mesmer wells were more or less deleted, Ele Auras were gutted, heck even Rev skills were toned down. And for what? Only to go back on your design philosophy and start making your game look like an off brand generic MMO?

There was no “going back”.

The class effects were getting toned down because we need to be able to see the shiney Outfits people spent $$$ on. What did you think why other effects were toned down.

Can’t be long before we can buy “spell effect packs”. Those will ofc be super shiney, because well, you paid for them.

The gliders are out of hand. I was following a hp train in TD last on night and I had to be ported up because I could not see the branch I had to land on.

The comm had warned tricky gliding ahead, and I was following his flight path, but dropped a hair too early and slid off the edge because I COULD NOT SEE the branch because of all the gliders. Several of us needed the port on that one.

Not a game breaker, but it was very annoying.

Iirc the reason for the tone down of effects, was so you could actually see what was going on in sPvP back when they still tried to make it esport.

Think it was the one and only time I really cared about the whole esport thing, since I loved that change.

An option for it would be fantastic (as with all the else)

joneirikb.7506:

Iirc the reason for the tone down of effects, was so you could actually see what was going on in sPvP back when they still tried to make it esport.

Think it was the one and only time I really cared about the whole esport thing, since I loved that change.

An option for it would be fantastic (as with all the else)

They could have made sPvP extremely competitive, but for whatever reason they abandoned that endeavor. From what I understand the pro players and sponsors saw what a joke the balance and design team was and dropped support for the game, but you’d think that would push ArenaNet to address those issues and design flaws, but instead they just abandoned it.

We haven’t seen any significant changes to sPvP in 2 years, matchmaking is kittened at the moment, there are ridiculous ‘cheese’ builds that haven’t been addressed, multiple professions still have terrible trait synergy and build diversity, the list goes on and on…

ArenaNet please.

It is kinda a nessecary evil you could say. Since this game has no subscription fee(subsrciptions in 2k17 LUL) they rely on selling cosmetic items and game sales. Without it they wouldnt be able to maintain the game. I personally dont mind the different gliders. People like them and they bring in the cash for the game together with outfits and weapon/armor skins. And if you think this is bad wait for mounts to come out . OOOOOOO BOOOIII

Helbjorne.9368:

joneirikb.7506:

Iirc the reason for the tone down of effects, was so you could actually see what was going on in sPvP back when they still tried to make it esport.

Think it was the one and only time I really cared about the whole esport thing, since I loved that change.

An option for it would be fantastic (as with all the else)

They could have made sPvP extremely competitive, but for whatever reason they abandoned that endeavor. From what I understand the pro players and sponsors saw what a joke the balance and design team was and dropped support for the game, but you’d think that would push ArenaNet to address those issues and design flaws, but instead they just abandoned it.

We haven’t seen any significant changes to sPvP in 2 years, matchmaking is kittened at the moment, there are ridiculous ‘cheese’ builds that haven’t been addressed, multiple professions still have terrible trait synergy and build diversity, the list goes on and on…

ArenaNet please.

This game was clearly not made for pvp. Mechanics like dodging and having such a huge variety of skills makes the game completely unbalanced. PvP is a clusterkitten of aoe effects,condition damage and crowd control. PvP needs a huge rework to be taken serious. First of all rebalancing of utility skills. It is a good thing to have variety but with classes having tons of CC and invincibility skills it gets a bit ridiculous and unbalanced

Mister Asdasd.6194:

This game was clearly not made for pvp. Mechanics like dodging and having such a huge variety of skills makes the game completely unbalanced. PvP is a clusterkitten of aoe effects,condition damage and crowd control. PvP needs a huge rework to be taken serious. First of all rebalancing of utility skills. It is a good thing to have variety but with classes having tons of CC and invincibility skills it gets a bit ridiculous and unbalanced

I agree.
Btw, due to the fact that skills are hard to balance and all the RPG elements, i would prefer something like “standard templates” where ANET could work on.

I mean, when you go spvp you will have 1 single choice: Which class to play.

For an instance, warrior will be only GS + A/S, That specific HEAL, Those specific UTILITY SKILLS, and That specific ELITE skill. Also trait and equipment will be standard for every class.

You won’t have customization, right, but instead you are going to have way more balance.

Just pointing out that you guys are completely derailing. I mentioned sPvP and esport only because as far as my memory serves, that was the reason given they toned down the skill effects.