Guild Wars 2

The presents are extremely disappointing to me. As someone with 8 characters (one of each prof) the presents after the first one were pretty much worthless. Why do I need or want 8 copies of the same ACCOUNT BOUND mini? Why do I need 8 more XP scrolls that none of my characters can even use that are also account bound? I can only assume they gave those with a nudge-nudge idea about buying new character slots, but they give me no reason to do so; the game is somewhat alt-unfriendly and there are no new professions to be interested in.

Finally, we have the boosters. So for playing the game a year (even pre-ordering and getting the laughable digital upgrade “rewards”), buying extra character slots and gems along the way, I get to have 8 boosters that each work for a day and grant a modest bonus to magic find, even though the exotics drop about once a month for me even with lots of magic find.

I’m sure there will be those that say “you should be grateful to get free stuff at all!” but right now, all the b-day presents have done is convince me to not send any more money in Anet’s general direction.

Totally agree.

These bday presents are not special at all. Not only do you get several Queen Jennah mini’s ….. Everyone gets several Queen Jennah mini’s. There is nothing that sets your gift apart from everyone Else’s. If mini’s were to be a rewards, that’s fine. However, why not make it as was in GW1? The mini’s could have been a random pick from the mini’s now available, or there could have been another set created all together.

The scrolls I may use some day, maybe when (or maybe I should say “if”) new races are available and I actually will have 1 or more toons that are lvl 19 or less. As for right now, useless. One year of game play was plenty of time to get every one of my toons above lvl 20.

That leaves the buff. Lovely, the only useful item is a consumable.

Definitely very disappointed in the bday presents as well

I agree with you 100% I was expecting something different in each characters gift . I am glad I received the free gifts but I have no need for the scrolls. It should have been for experience and that would have helped more in my honest opinion. I realize that for me some of the things I loved playing in Guldwars 1 were not implemented to Guildwars 2. I realize it’s not the same game but some things should have been left the same. But that’s just me.:)

Should have been 1 or 2 gold a day since you registered your account/game when you purchased it. Simple and easy to administer. If you had the game for year—sweet!! If you’ve had the game for 10 days—still sweet.

Blude.6812:

Should have been 1 or 2 gold a day since you registered your account/game when you purchased it. Simple and easy to administer. If you had the game for year—sweet!! If you’ve had the game for 10 days—still sweet.

Yeah, let’s just massively inflate the gold by injecting it into the game manually as an anniversary gift lol.

The lvl 20 scroll really needs to just be +20 levels.

Would even be useful for lvl 80 then too, +20 skill points.

I wanna use it to level my alt but it’s useless..

Blude.6812:

Should have been 1 or 2 gold a day since you registered your account/game when you purchased it. Simple and easy to administer. If you had the game for year—sweet!! If you’ve had the game for 10 days—still sweet.

Maybe that was sarcasm, if so I’m afraid it didn’t translate very well into text. If not, let’s just readily admit that that idea is terrible (though it would have been more enjoyable than what we actually got). I personally would have been satisfied with something like what we got in GW1 (so long as it was not account or soul bound) or even just a random lvl 80 exotic or 2… whoever made this call about the birthday presents should really not be in a position to make calls like that in my opinion.

Captain Bulldozer.9028:

Maybe that was sarcasm, if so I’m afraid it didn’t translate very well into text. If not, let’s just readily admit that that idea is terrible (though it would have been more enjoyable than what we actually got). I personally would have been satisfied with something like what we got in GW1 (so long as it was not account or soul bound) or even just a random lvl 80 exotic or 2… whoever made this call about the birthday presents should really not be in a position to make calls like that in my opinion.

I agree… Like I said, IMHO, the birthday gift should have had an element of RNG.
A couple of exotics, a random mini from a pool of minis (like GW1) would have made me so much happier, and would have made me feel so much more special.

I am not going to grouse about a freebie, but maybe next year we could get mini-dragons? It’d be pretty boss wandering around with a mini Zhaitan following me around. <3

It just goes to show how tied to the gem store everything is. They actually did make a whole new set of minis that could have been used for the birthday presents. Instead we all get the Queen x8 and the new minis are for sale in the gem store.

And I agree that the scroll should be changed to +20 but again, that would prevent people from using it with newly purchased character slots…from the gem store…

Any queen minis past the 1st are null. Any scrolls for players w/o toons <20 are null. So that leaves us with boosters. A booster for bday? not a fan.

On a separate yet related note. If the “fun” starts at lvl 1, why give a scroll that skips to level 20?

JK Arrow.7102:

It just goes to show how tied to the gem store everything is. They actually did make a whole new set of minis that could have been used for the birthday presents. Instead we all get the Queen x8 and the new minis are for sale in the gem store.

And I agree that the scroll should be changed to +20 but again, that would prevent people from using it with newly purchased character slots…from the gem store…

The scrolls are account bound.

I love that they decided not to incorporate RNG into birthday minis. That and the fact that they were trade-able in GW1 cheapened the whole idea of a birthday present IMO. It became more about getting rich than about appreciating the character’s birthday. We already have a bunch of items that were limited-edition and are trade-able (Fused Weapon skins for example.) We don’t need to add birthday present Minis to the list.

Glenstorm.4059:

I love that they decided not to incorporate RNG into birthday minis. That and the fact that they were trade-able in GW1 cheapened the whole idea of a birthday present IMO. It became more about getting rich than about appreciating the character’s birthday. We already have a bunch of items that were limited-edition and are trade-able (Fused Weapon skins for example.) We don’t need to add birthday present Minis to the list.

I respectfully disagree.
I loved the idea of a random mini (or the random tonic) present in GW1.
1.) They made me very eager for my characters’ birthdays
2.) I didn’t know what I was going to get out of it (ideally, like a real life birthday present)
3.) Birthday minis and tonics plummet in price eventually, as more and more people have them (I never got anything rarer than a purple out of a gift, so I never “made it rich” and I never cared to)
3.) They made me feel like it was truly a birthday present and gift, loved talking to my friends about it, and loved showing them and collecting them.

I am grateful that I was given something nice for free for doing absolutely nothing at all. Thanks Anet!

I had a good laugh on (some of) my headstart character birthdays!

I also feel that the birthday presents should have been handled the same way as GW1 – a small series in which you got one random mini from your present. That gave an element of surprise and fun. I never minded if I got the blue or green rarity vs. the yellow rarity – it was free, it was fun, and I had the option to buy/trade my mini with other players or friends to try and complete my collection. Yes, some got to being grossly expensive and I could not afford them… but I still prefer that over everyone getting multiples of the exact same account bound mini that cannot even be thrown into the mystic forge.

The scroll and booster were a nice addition, but the scroll needs to be a straight +20 levels rather than the 1st 20 levels. This is a gift for veteran players! Hoping for a new race or profession so that I get a chance to use it… but otherwise it’s rotting in my bank. It would have been so much more useful the other way as I could either level a character OR use it for skill points toward making my legendary weapon.

I do hope that Anet is listening to the players on this. I have seen multiple threads about this since they announced it on the Queen’s Speech release page and they ALL express the same sentiments about the birthday presents. It needs to change Anet!

Completely worthless trash.

Would have preferred a 20 skill point consumable and random exotic mini’s made for birthdays ala GW1

I kind of realize that no matter what the birthday present was, a few people would come here and complain about it.

That said, I think there is some legitimate reason for people to feel disappointed.

I think this was pretty darn underwhelming, and as usual for GW2, doesn’t appear to have been well thought out. I hope you do better next year. This first birthday just didn’t feel special at all.

So, I’m not trying to complain about getting free stuff – I’m just pointing out that this event didn’t feel remotely special.

1) All characters get the same mini. So no reason to trade/mix/match. In fact, you wind up with several extras that you just have to trash, and that’s never a good thing when it’s a birthday present.

2) Level 20 scrolls. Sort of useful. Likely not so useful on a character that’s a year old already, though.

3) The buffs. Fun, but a one-use thing.

4) Not every character is getting them. It appears to be bugged.

Maybe year 2 will be better thought out and implemented. At the moment, however, I’m not seeing any reason to keep alts around…

Undoubtedly one of the least memorable video game birthday presents of all time.

Though the mini looks good, she doesn’t show off my dodging skills like Liadri

Ah yes, I forgot to mention that my main character Minami did not receive her present. All 7 of my alts did.
It seems to be a bug for many players.

Minami Kaori.2548:

Ah yes, I forgot to mention that my main character Minami did not receive her present. All 7 of my alts did.
It seems to be a bug for many players.

I’ve gotten 3 out of 8 so far… though I THINK one of my characters was created a week or so later, just because I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to play an engineer. Still 3 out of 7 is a bad track record for most things outside of baseball…

My biggest reaction to birthday presents was that I was amazed the year had gone by so fast for my little characters.

Other than than that I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Thanks for the B-day presents Anet!

Blude.6812:

Should have been 1 or 2 gold a day since you registered your account/game when you purchased it. Simple and easy to administer. If you had the game for year—sweet!! If you’ve had the game for 10 days—still sweet.

That would be a pretty good trick, having a character that’s a year old on an account that is only 10 days old. How do you do that? Sounds like some kind of exploit or hack to me. ;-)

Minami Kaori.2548:

The ONLY thing I would have been extremely happy to see RNG in, does not have it.

This is exactly how I feel, and I totally agree with everything in the OP’s post. I already made a very similar post in a different thread, but I think this thread is more respectful and professional. Hopefully this becomes a learning experience, and we end up with something more enjoyable and useful next year.

I would like to add, though, that other than this birthday gift and Gnashblade not winning the election, I haven’t had any huge disappointments with the amazing content and all the devs and other people who make it so this game still thoroughly entertains me even after a year of playing.

My take on it is that we should have been gifted one of the mini’s from their “Set 2” list instead of one commemorative, and not to sound ungrateful, meaningless mini that everyone will have, with no other choice or pool of mini’s to be traded like in GW1. Like many others here, I’ll have 8 account-bound minis which I’ll probably tire of very soon, store them away in the collectibles and look on not-too-fondly in the future. “Oh yeah, I got that mini for the 1st b’day, along with everybody else…”

The exp scrolls however I can put 6 of those to use, as many of my alt’s are under 20. The other scrolls can’t be used and will most likely be deleted. As others here have suggested, and in a few other topics, it should have been a 20 level boost (ie. +20 levels) for people who have alts that are under 80.

The booster needs to have a proper 24hr fact added to the description in line with the info released on 20th of August, to eliminate the confusion and frustration vented on the forums already.

Gift is kind of uselss.
1.2) Mini pet and booster are uselles on the same lvl, I got no reason to complain about them.
3.) The very last thing that made my totally wondered ,,What is this joke". The Experience Scrool. Yeah It’s nice for ppl which still got something to lvl up.
But, for player with 6x⁸⁰, 1x ²³ it’s a joke.
Next time . Think a bit. Make it +20 lvls scrool no matter what lvl char is.

Pretty disappointing. ANet could Definately have provided better.

I don’t want to whine about something free but I won’t hide it, I’m disappointed. 5 of my characters got the presents so I have 5 experience scrolls that I won’t use since I already have 8 characters to level 80 (maybe when they add a new race/class but even then I’ll only use one since it’s for characters under level 20 and only that, I would have prefered if they gave a set amount of xp), 5 boosters that I won’t use either because I am already sitting on a ton of each type and finally 5 mini Jennah, an NPC I don’t really like or think looks cool(never liked humans as mini anyway)… and you can’t even throw Jennah in the mystic forge.

I’m feeling even more disappointed because they just released a new mini pack just days before this, even though mini pack 2 has a bunch of mini that share the exact same model with other minis too… And I don’t want to sound like a whiner, I love the game, I loved Guild Wars since 2005, it’s just that coming from Anet and knowing what birthday presents were in GW1, well I was expecting more (at least for the experience scrolls to give a set amount of xp and to be able to throw the surplus of Jennah into the mystic forge for a chance at something cooler).

Like some said, it would have been the only time RNG would have been appreciated, and with the experience scrolls, to me it doesn’t reflect the fact that you are rewarded for a year of playing a character (which I hope is above level 20 by now).

1. The Miniature Queen Jennah is nice, but it’ll be sent to my bank to collect dust there the first time I’ll press Deposit All Collectables. I’d love to see a Miniature equipment slot so I can actually make use of these guys. Other than that, no complaints from me.

2. The Experience Scroll is fairly useless. I have 3 characters below level 20, and received 8 Scrolls. What am I supposed to do with the rest?

3. The Birthday Booster is quite nice. I don’t personally use boosters, though, because it makes the game more stressful for me.

I’m not so much disappointed by the gifts themselves (I had extremely low expectations), but more-so by the fact that the gift is bound to my character’s age, rather than my account age.

Very disappointed.

I’m actually going to log into gw1 to open those presents that I’m sure I have. This will make my gw2 birthday better…

Guild Wars 2 is SO rewarding game, you get rewards for everything you do in it, and they are not small, that’s why i expected much more useful birthday gifts from ANET and disapointed.. a number of identical minis that everyone will have, useless xp scroll and booster… I dont know why, but i still have hope that they will see all the people in the forums and change the presents.

Thank you A-Net for the gifts.
I like the mini Jennah and I used the exp scrolls to my new characters.

It’s a gift, so I don’t want to be too critical, but I do have a suggestion.

The Experience Scroll isn’t going to be much use for players with a clutch of level 80s and no plans to roll any new characters, so how about this: give us the option of the scroll that advances a character 20 levels, or a scroll that grants 20 skill points. A skill point scroll would be much more useful for more seasoned players – going for legendaries, or for example upgrading mats in the mystic forge.

Just a suggestion

well I received one a few days ago and as an altholic I just purchased another slot made the guy then used the scroll. Level 20 in 1 min went to tp spent not even 3 silver and kitted the guy out with level 20 gear.

So yes may be useless to some but was good for me. Still have to open my chars that were created at launch so who knows may even buy another slot.

As far as the mini goes they will just go into storage along with any minis I have.

Guys you get things for free some complain if they asked for a fee there would be complaints. Just accept what you have and stop asking to be spoonfed all the time.

Is that scroll tradeable a least? Then you could sell it to people who haven’t been here a year yet and want to add some levels to a toon.

The OP nailed it, probably the only thing where we WANTED some kind of RNG and didn’t get it, and at 8 lvl 80’s the scrolls are useless.

The IDENTICAL mini’s are account bound so dunno if i can mystic toilet them but the fact I can’t sell them is an even greater negative. Which leaves the only thing of an interest is the boost, which is impermanent.

Coming from GW1 I expected something similar. After receiving what I have I actually wish that ANET gave it a little more thought.

I have an idea that Dev conversation about birthdays went something like:

“Character birthdays are coming up”
“Sigh really…. geeeeez were gonna have to give them something”
“Don’t look at me, I’m busy with LS stuff”
“Well I’m too busy to flush this out, what about him whose that guy? He doesn’t look busy”
“That’s the janitor”
“Hey you, what do you think these guys would want as birthday presents?”

The very elderly man looks up thoughtfully, pauses for a moment and says “A beautiful woman to keep them warm at night, something that helps them grow up quickly to be big and strong and even something to help them on the way”

…

“OK, I can work with that”

I wanna say thx allot for the presents Arenanet(GW2), i appreciate it allot.

I am happy with all i get free, of course it will be nice that the booster last longer like a few days or maximum a week, some players dont play long and they get less from it.

The scroll for more lvls is also nice iff you wanna make new chars, but iff you already have 12 chars like me you dont realy need more, so it will be nice iff you can use it to get more lvls for higher lvls also, maybe instead of 20 make it 10 for all lvls +10.

And off topic i see the boost gives also w vs w ranking extra, can you make a boost only for w vs w rank, i will buy it like allot players allot i gues :P.

Keep on the good work and thx for everything in this game.

[quote=2698958;SoPP.7034:

I have an idea that Dev conversation about birthdays went something like:

“Character birthdays are coming up”
“Sigh really…. geeeeez were gonna have to give them something”
“Don’t look at me, I’m busy with LS stuff”
“Well I’m too busy to flush this out, what about him whose that guy? He doesn’t look busy”
“That’s the janitor”
“Hey you, what do you think these guys would want as birthday presents?”

The very elderly man looks up thoughtfully, pauses for a moment and says
“A beautiful woman to keep them warm at night, something that helps them grow up quickly to be big and strong and even something to help them on the way”

…

“OK, I can work with that”[/quote]

Good one man. Made a laugh a lot

Highlander.9860:

well I received one a few days ago and as an altholic I just purchased another slot made the guy then used the scroll. Level 20 in 1 min went to tp spent not even 3 silver and kitted the guy out with level 20 gear.

So yes may be useless to some but was good for me. Still have to open my chars that were created at launch so who knows may even buy another slot.

As far as the mini goes they will just go into storage along with any minis I have.

Guys you get things for free some complain if they asked for a fee there would be complaints. Just accept what you have and stop asking to be spoonfed all the time.

i wouldnt complain at all except i got four useless minis and i cant mystic forge them. i got 5 total so one good but at least give me option of mystic forging the other four even if it became another account bound mini i couldnt sell id be alright but that didnt happen. they could have taken five from the new set and used those and made them account bound so what do i do i can only throw four minis in the bin and anymore i get in months ahead. second i dont have any chars under 20 so the scroll are useless more trash and wont be buying any new slot unless they release more races or classes.its all like on my real birthday getting 5 of the same gift only maybe in real life i can return four for something which would make me happier here i got to throw out the extras. im happy for the one gift but the four others im ticked off about. they should either had made a set of minis or allowed the minis to forgeable with a bit of rng

I personally find getting multiples of the same mini-pet for a birthday gifts slightly insulting considering they just added 46 new mini-pets to the Gem Shop.

What Anet should have done is given everyone a random free mini from the first series. The only downside to this is people who dont’ have multiple characters would feel altoholics like me are getting a major advantage.

Their bday presents are as good and useful as grey items you find all over the game and merch them as “Sell Junk”, this is how great their presents are.

Thank you for the birthday gift Anet.

However, I really wish the scroll was +20 levels vs. get a character to 20. I won’t be rolling any new characters so it’s useless. =\

I’m a bit underwhelmed by the birthday gift after hearing a friend rant on how awesome they were in GW1.

My opinion is that they should not give out anything at all. These are characters, not real people, they dont have birthdays.
Though its neat Anet would treat the creation day as a birthday, some people are attaching far too much to it. Wanting to feel ‘special’ out of a playerbase of who knows how many, saying how much it all sucks.
Its a virtual birthday for pixelated people that means absolutely nothing. It always irks me when a company does some little thing like this for a “special day” and people crap all over them for it. Personally, I’d prefer it if they didn’t “celebrate” these meaningless dates at all. If you don’t like the present, destroy it and move on.

MrRuin.9740:

My opinion is that they should not give out anything at all. These are characters, not real people, they dont have birthdays.
Though its neat Anet would treat the creation day as a birthday, some people are attaching far too much to it. Wanting to feel ‘special’ out of a playerbase of who knows how many, saying how much it all sucks.
Its a virtual birthday for pixelated people that means absolutely nothing. It always irks me when a company does some little thing like this for a “special day” and people crap all over them for it. Personally, I’d prefer it if they didn’t “celebrate” these meaningless dates at all. If you don’t like the present, destroy it and move on.

Maybe they shouldn’t have loot in games at all, because characters are not real. In fact why make games at all….none of it’s real.

People complaining about free items that ANet decided to do when they didn’t have to!? Say it ain’t so…

You people are ridiculous.

Gehenna.3625:

Maybe they shouldn’t have loot in games at all, because characters are not real. In fact why make games at all….none of it’s real.

Real nice. Because playing a game for fun is the same as people treating a virtual birthday as a real birthday and wanting to feel “special” from a faceless gaming company. It’s not real, ANet does not know who you are, will not tailor a present to your liking. The birthday system is an automated system that sends out little trinket gifts on a virtual birthday. That’s it.

MrRuin.9740:

Gehenna.3625:

Maybe they shouldn’t have loot in games at all, because characters are not real. In fact why make games at all….none of it’s real.

Real nice. Because playing a game for fun is the same as people treating a virtual birthday as a real birthday and wanting to feel “special” from a faceless gaming company. It’s not real, ANet does not know who you are, will not tailor a present to your liking. The birthday system is an automated system that sends out little trinket gifts on a virtual birthday. That’s it.

First of all, you don’t get to decide for other people what’s fun to them. A lot of GW1 players had fun collecting and trading mini’s. It worked just fine. It’s beyond me why they didn’t use the same good idea and had to do something else that isn’t as good.

Secondly, Anet started this tradition themselves in the first GW1. I am pretty sure there would be an even bigger kittenstorm if they hadn’t done anyhting as you suggest.

Lastly, people do care about their characters especially when they spend a lot of time on them. If you don’t get that, that’s ok, but just realise characters do mean something to a lot of people as we can see. Ignoring that doesn’t make your comment any less ridiculous.

Well, this has been a spectacular 1st Anniversary for Guild Wars 2