Guild Wars 2

After searching the ‘options’ menu, I contacted support to ask whether there was some way to:

a) increase the font size in-game (it’s somewhat difficult to read quest objectives/chats/achievements/crafting/etc, etc, etc),

and

b) allow players to darken the background colour of the chat panel to – at the very least – make chat clearly visible and easier to see/read, rather than the current pale coloured font blending into/being lost in the colours of the game scenery.

Their reply was, ‘no, but feel free to make suggestions in the forum’.

I very much wanted to like to GW2 – for the most part, it seems visually beautiful – but it’s small, overlooked issues like these that are making it difficult to appreciate.

Just as an example (please don’t take offense!), in WoW (the only mmo I’ve played until now), you can right click the ‘general’ tab at the top of the chat pane and you’re given a list of options (amongst others) to ‘increase font size’ to any size you like, and to change/darken the background colour of the chat panel to black (or any colour one desires).

These are two simple options that I feel can make the difference between enjoying a game and abandoning it out of frustration.

Personally, I wish I’d known about the lack of these two options before purchasing GW2, but I share the lesson learned with friends who have visual impairments so they can see the problems for themselves and make a more informed choice about which game(s) to spend their money on. Not all players are 9 year olds with 20/20 vision…

I feel ya, I play on an HDTV, and the text in game, especially the tradepost, but chat too lately does not like the odd resolutions

And the UI sizes don’t like it either (UI for font that isnt messed up takes up more screen than it should)

Thanks, Inimicus – glad it’s not just me experiencing the issue.

Clicking the chat bubble in the bottom left gives the chat an opaque background and text does not fade out after a set amount of time.

Clicking the Chat Options ‘gear’ gives the option to increase chat text size.

Choosing a larger Interface Size in the graphics options also increases the size of most (if not all) UI text.

StinVec.3621:

Clicking the chat bubble in the bottom left gives the chat an opaque background and text does not fade out after a set amount of time.

Clicking the Chat Options ‘gear’ gives the option to increase chat text size.

Choosing a larger Interface Size in the graphics options also increases the size of most (if not all) UI text.

this works, I think it’s been a font issue lately, hard to say in the chat bubble, but it still doesn’t help with the auction house window (which is too big for my screen somehow on all but smallest UI size) xD

StinVec.3621:

Clicking the chat bubble in the bottom left gives the chat an opaque background and text does not fade out after a set amount of time.

Clicking the Chat Options ‘gear’ gives the option to increase chat text size.

Choosing a larger Interface Size in the graphics options also increases the size of most (if not all) UI text.

Thanks StinVec…are those options only available if I’m in a guild (I’m not atm)? Can’t seem to find it under the general ‘options’ menu, unless I’m missing it somewhere?

Those options are available to everyone and are not in the Game Options (F11) screen. At the very bottom left of your chat box click on the little chat bubble with the sideways triangle in it to make the chat go into ‘always up, opaque mode’. You should then also see the little ‘gear’ icon in the top left of the chat box where the chat text size setting is located.

Alternately, in your F11 options menu, under your ‘Control Options’ (for your keybinds) > ‘User Interface’ section, you can bind your Show/Hide Chat to a specific key (Default is: \) to pop up or hide your chat instead of clicking on the chat bubble in the corner.

StinVec.3621:

Those options are available to everyone and are not in the Game Options (F11) screen. At the very bottom left of your chat box click on the little chat bubble with the sideways triangle in it to make the chat go into ‘always up, opaque mode’. You should then also see the little ‘gear’ icon in the top left of the chat box where the chat text size setting is located.

Found it! Thank you very much! Makes things so much easier

You’re very welcome! Glad it has helped out

On a side note, the fact that support did not reference these options to see if they would fit your needs is pretty disappointing.

StinVec.3621:

You’re very welcome! Glad it has helped out

On a side note, the fact that support did not reference these options to see if they would fit your needs is pretty disappointing.

It is a bit disappointing, yes, but thankful for the forum help