Guild Wars 2

..because it seems like that’s the only way to reclaim the blank screen space the update stole with the Monthly (and Daily) status tracker on the upper right corner of my screen.

If you’re going to add non-critical UI elements to the game, can you please (in the same update) provide the players with a way of disabling said elements?

There was a statement from Colin Johanson given in an interview recently, where he said: “One of the strengths of Guild Wars 2 is that the UI is really clean and streamlined, it’s not overwhelming, it’s easy to see what’s going on, so one of the challenges we’re going to have is we don’t want to lose that capacity to easily look at the screen and understand what’s going on. We really don’t want people to spend their time looking at the edges of the screen watching progress bars move up and down in all directions. We want them drawn to the middle of the screen and watching the action and watching the things that are going on in game. So if we did a system in the future that lets you see more and more of what’s going on, we have to build it with those things but keep in mind that we don’t want to just cover the screen in UI everywhere.”

I agree. It seems like we’re on the same page, and yet your implementation takes a step in the other direction.

Please fix.

On the other hand, this is then first time I have ever tried to complete the monthly

Just another thing they went back on. They must truly have no flipping clue what they’re doing with designing this game. I’m just hoping they go back on the “no trinity” thing next so that combat can blossom into something truly fun rather than zerg DPS while asleep at the keyboard.

But it doesnt look like stealing screen, i coudlve minimized it when it was 0%.

I don’t know. I mean they can add something in the future to allow you to hide it, but it’s really just a green star and the word Monthly next to it and a %.

How distracting is it really? Not very on my screen. What size monitor you using? I don’t even notice it.

My Personal Story takes up way more room then the one line for the Monthly.

I actually have wanted options to hide all or select items from the upper right corner or even show daily and monthly at the same time for a while now. Hiding the UI map not that I’d often do so would be a nice option too.

Hide Story option
Hide Monthly
Hide Daily
Hide Dynamic Events
Hide Large Area Event/s
Hide World Events
Hide UI Map

Poledo.3256:

On the other hand, this is then first time I have ever tried to complete the monthly

I suspect that probably has more to do with the lack of a PvP element (for the first time) and less to do with the UI. That said, I’m happy people can track an achievement (which is meant to be completed over a month’s time) that occupies their screen for the better part of a month. However, we should have the option of not seeing it if we don’t want to. It wasn’t there before and I managed to play GW2 just fine with out it. I don’t need it there now.

Halanna.3927:

I don’t know. I mean they can add something in the future to allow you to hide it, but it’s really just a green star and the word Monthly next to it and a %.

How distracting is it really? Not very on my screen. What size monitor you using? I don’t even notice it.

My Personal Story takes up way more room then the one line for the Monthly.

It is the cumulative effect. The personal story tracker + local event tracker + monthly tracker.. the amount of screen space chewed up by trackers adds up. In the screenshot above (which is on a character that doesn’t have a personal story step to track, or it would be even larger) it’s a total area that’s about 75% of the size of the mini-map below. I would simply rather not have it there at all.

The more space on my screen where I can see the game world and not text, the better.. and the better it looks. The developers know this. That’s why nearly every screenshot and game trailer they release has the UI elements hidden.

Halanna.3927:

I don’t know. I mean they can add something in the future to allow you to hide it, but it’s really just a green star and the word Monthly next to it and a %.

How distracting is it really? Not very on my screen. What size monitor you using? I don’t even notice it.

aggree with this, and im pretty sure im using a smaller screen than most ppl with a SDM-E96D (90 inch screen, featuring a resolution of only 1280×1024 at max)

@Edge: So a 4-5 lines is a lot you say? and that would be including a DE in the area (since you can collapse of of those things to 1 lines (some DE’s takes 2 lines due to long titles)) don’t seem like a lot to me

On a 17" 1920×1200 resolution display, I hardly notice it’s there. I actually kind of like it there since I do actively do the dailies and try to finish the monthlies, and I didn’t like to have to hit H → Achievements → Dailies/Monthlies whenever I wanted to check on my progress. I can see how people heavy on customization or purism wouldn’t be too pleased, however.

it’s a tiny % so please stop complaining about everything in the game. And lots of people in my guild actually love this reminder. Maybe they will put the option to remove it one day but it’s the thing I care the least about.

GW2 UI is ultra clean VS …

I would like the option to disable the top right corner information, or to choose what information is displayed. The winter/christmas event notification was particularly annoying.

Animando.7956:

it’s a tiny % so please stop complaining about everything in the game. And lots of people in my guild actually love this reminder. Maybe they will put the option to remove it one day but it’s the thing I care the least about.

GW2 UI is ultra clean VS …

You know that’s not WoW’s default UI, right?

P.S. Why are you against people having options in the area of what to display on their screen? If you’re happy with the monthly tracker and I want the option of removing it, why argue about it? You already have what you want.. do you just not want other people to have what they want, even when it has zero impact on your enjoyment? That is, of course, assuming your enjoyment doesn’t stem from seeing other people frustrated.

Jesus the UI elements are already so minimal, why ppl still complain? o.o

It would be nice to have more options when it comes to UI customization. More options aren’t a bad thing.

That being said, the monthly sitting at the top of my screen hasn’t distracted me at all. Would be nice to have an option to hide it, but its not a an pressing issue.

Valento.9852:

Jesus the UI elements are already so minimal, why ppl still complain? o.o

I don’t mind it. The UI is fine for me.

But more UI customization is always welcome. Simply being able to choose the presence, scale, and position of UI elements would be enough to satisfy the majority of people.

Fey Zeal.7032:

I actually have wanted options to hide all or select items from the upper right corner or even show daily and monthly at the same time for a while now. Hiding the UI map not that I’d often do so would be a nice option too.

Hide Story option
Hide Monthly
Hide Daily
Hide Dynamic Events
Hide Large Area Event/s
Hide World Events
Hide UI Map

^I agree with this, the right hand side of the screen is so cluttered now, I find it annoying.

I want to see the world of Tyria not text…

Also, I know you can remove everything from the screen but I need to see my cooldowns…

Meglobob.8620:

I want to see the world of Tyria not text…

Which will still be a pain in the neck until they give us the ability to adjust the vertical angle of the camera. For some reason the camera is pointing down on our characters rather than at our characters viewpoint.

There was a statement from Colin Johanson given in an interview recently

Let’s be completely honest.

Colin says/has said a lot of stuff. It’s part of selling the game – talking about what you want to do is a whole lot different from what you actually end up doing (a la Manifesto)

After the daily/monthly stuff was added, with no viable way of hiding it, I found myself looking at the right side of my screen more often. Mainly to see if the daily was counting stuff I was doing.

It would be good if even after all is said and done, even if they flooded our screen with UI elements, giving the player a choice at what he/she wants to see is always a step forward. (or in some cases walking on the spot – for how long have we had modifiable UI’s?)

Edge.4180:

We really don’t want people to spend their time looking at the edges of the screen watching progress bars move up and down in all directions. we don’t want to just cover the screen in UI everywhere.

Eh Anet is changing their minds a lot lately, hopefully they’ll find their way one day.

I’m open to changes as long as we’re made aware of what’s their direction (and on this note please, stop posting PR marketing jargon… post what you really think).

nethykins.7986:

Let’s be completely honest.

Colin says/has said a lot of stuff. It’s part of selling the game – talking about what you want to do is a whole lot different from what you actually end up doing (a la Manifesto)

On that note, I don’t think a bait-and-switch behavior should be passively accepted as “part of selling a game” as if it is normal behavior.
In some civilized nations promising your product does X but then it does Y is a fraud.
I remember when a company sold a cellphone saying it wouldn’t contain commercial bloatware, but it did contain it – the judge forced to stop the production of the item and refund all buyers or find a way to remove the bloatware on all items.
A game is just a market product like anything else so this applies to the games too (and before you say it, EULA is toilet paper in courts).
You cannot promise a certain feature (or lack thereof) and then do exactly the opposite; it’s baiting your customers to buy one product and then deliver a different one.

I still have enough trust in Anet to believe that they will ultimately end up meeting all their promises.
Mostly because these changes of direction are to appeal to a different audience (aka traditional MMO players), but that audience won’t last long in GW2 – they will either move to a proper traditional MMO or jump ship when a new hyped MMO comes out.
It will be then that Anet will realize the importance of having loyal customers and being faithful to them, because a reliable income is better than being too hungry and riskying to lose everyone.

I’m pretty sure the 0/20 fetch quests are just temporary placeholders.
Considering the quality of GW2 this feature is like a stain of puke on a fine dress.

Red Falcon.8257:

nethykins.7986:

Let’s be completely honest.

Colin says/has said a lot of stuff. It’s part of selling the game – talking about what you want to do is a whole lot different from what you actually end up doing (a la Manifesto)

On that note, I don’t think a bait-and-switch behavior should be passively accepted as “part of selling a game” as if it is normal behavior.
In some civilized nations promising your product does X but then it does Y is a fraud.
I remember when a company sold a cellphone saying it wouldn’t contain commercial bloatware, but it did contain it – the judge forced to stop the production of the item and refund all buyers or find a way to remove the bloatware on all items.
A game is just a market product like anything else so this applies to the games too (and before you say it, EULA is toilet paper in courts).
You cannot promise a certain feature (or lack thereof) and then do exactly the opposite; it’s baiting your customers to buy one product and then deliver a different one.

I still have enough trust in Anet to believe that they will ultimately end up meeting all their promises.
Mostly because these changes of direction are to appeal to a different audience (aka traditional MMO players), but that audience won’t last long in GW2 – they will either move to a proper traditional MMO or jump ship when a new hyped MMO comes out.
It will be then that Anet will realize the importance of having loyal customers and being faithful to them, because a reliable income is better than being too hungry and riskying to lose everyone.

I’m pretty sure the 0/20 fetch quests are just temporary placeholders.
Considering the quality of GW2 this feature is like a stain of puke on a fine dress.

Actually I agree, but won’t harp on too much about the legality of false advertising, because it’ll lead to a lot of deleted posts and locked threads. And as far as it goes, the devs has only broken the “gamers trust” and not anything which can be bound in law. Statements made were not as clear cut as something like the “WarZ’s” false advertising.

I think the devs were so wrapped up in trying not to make it like WoW or any other standard MMO, they ended up losing the core functionality of MMO’s. It was trying not to be WoW for sake of sake of not being WoW. It’s only achieved a lot of grief from players that are disappointed.

Anyhow, I’m going off topic.

I don’t care about the monthly, but that stupid Story information has been bugging me since August 25th. I’m tired of seeing “Snaff’s Prize” sitting up there, and the green arrows and marker on my mini-map.

Actually, it is nearly giving me the motivation to start and complete my personal story. I’m still sitting happily at lv3, with no desire to do it.