Guild Wars 2

So I really would like a dev to answer this question of mine since I want to write a Lengthy suggestion for an elite specialization with how it’ll work, how it synergies with the profession and even possibly provide a whole mess of concept art included into the post, giving visual details of what its supposed to look like and what its supposed to do.

However, I’m wondering if such a forum post would be Fruitless on my efforts. I know that Wizards of the coast can’t even look at card suggestions for fear of copy right reasons and I’m wondering if Arena Net has the same sort of legal bindings? IF I was to make my extremely lengthy and detailed profession post could you guys use some/most my ideas for that profession? Is there anything I’d have to do on my part or what have you? I’d really like to make this post in the near future but I want it to actually mean something outside of “Looks cool.”.

So I guess my question is what sort of Legal limitations do you guys have with suggestions like that?

Yargesh.4965:

You post on their forums it is their property to do or not do as they wish.

This is correct.

They can (and will) accept suggestions on the forum because by posting them here you’ve agreed that they are Anet’s property to use as they wish.

“Feedback shall be deemed, and shall remain, the property of ArenaNet from the moment of creation. Accordingly, ArenaNet shall exclusively own all now known or hereafter existing copyrights and all other Intellectual Property Rights to all Feedback of every kind and nature, in perpetuity, throughout the universe. To the extent that any of the above may be void or unenforceable, you agree that any and all Feedback is hereby irrevocably assigned to ArenaNet, together with all Intellectual Property Rights therein.”

The full version (it’s quite long) is the “Your User Submissions, Feedback, and Conduct” section of the Website Terms of Use

(Presumably Wizards of the Coast doesn’t have something like that on their forum which is why they can’t accept suggestions. Somewhere else on this site it says suggestions sent to them by email will be deleted without reading and posted suggestions will be returned unopened, which is because if they did use it you could then claim copyright and sue them for part of the profits.)

Having said that it’s highly unlikely something as detailed as a specialisation would be used in full, without a lot of changes. There are numerous examples of people posting suggestions on the forum which then got used in game – from things as simple as a glider skin to complicated systems like map meta-events and collections.

But even with the simple things it usually gets changed. For example several people suggested a bubble glider like the bubble the Witch of the North uses to fly in The Wizard of Oz, and what we got was a huge water bubble…similar but not quite the same.

If your idea does get used it’s most likely to be the general theme of it, with the specific traits getting changed due to balance concerns, bugs, issues when testing or simply the developers’ own preferences or other users suggestions. Or some of the traits might be used as part of a different specialisation. Or it might be split into two different specialisations with elements of it appearing, along with original stuff, in both.

The other thing to be aware of is that adding anything like a new specialisation takes a long time and isn’t done often. We’re not expecting any new ones before the next expansion and those are probably already being worked on. So you’re looking at months, or even years, before you see any result from your post.

In conclusion – Yes you can post it and yes they can and may use it. But they might not, it won’t be for ages if they do and it’s likely to be very different from your post.

You post on their forums it is their property to do or not do as they wish.

Fan-made submissions don’t usually make it into finished products – the company employs people to plan out releases months or years in advance – but sometimes the work is good enough to lead to something in the future. But don’t post something like that out in a public forum like this, the chances of the right people seeing it are slim. Contact the company privately – Gaile would be a good person to talk to – about their policies regarding such things and go from there.

Here is the official word:

Where can I send suggestions for in-game content?

We are grateful for the enthusiasm of our fans, and appreciate the efforts and creativity that they use to develop concepts intended to assist with or expand upon our current and future titles. Suggestions about Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 are welcome on the Guild Wars Wiki in the Guild Wars Game Suggestions section or on the Guild Wars 2 Wiki in the Game Suggestions section. However, we cannot accept or review any unsolicited ideas or suggestions that are sent to us outside of the Guild Wars Wiki or Guild Wars 2 Wiki, so please direct your suggestions and ideas to the Game Suggestions sections.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-content-terms-of-use/

Good luck.

I agree with what Danikat said.

If you publish an in detailed specialisation suggestion, they might get inspired by aspects of what you’ve suggested, but I highly doubt they’ll use large portions of it. I’m somewhat of a skeptic and a cynic- no doubt our feedback is useful but I reckon that the majority of “fan-suggested” things that appear in-game had already been discussed by dev teams before we suggested them ourselves.

The most likely “fan-suggested” things that end up in-game are QoL features and gemstore items… probably because they were considering them already but prioritised them because there was an outpouring from the community about said feature/item.

But hey, enough tin-foil hattery from me- I think it’d still be neat to post it! Consider it a form of artwork- it will be appreciated (and no doubt given constructive criticism) and looked at by other community members just like other creative responses to the game.

By all means suggest an elite specialization, but don’t bother going into every single skill or trait, the costs and cooldowns, and so forth. ANet can’t use any of that; it’s too much detail and game balance and gameplay reasons are going to create different tradeoffs anyhow.

Instead, focus on the overall theme, skill types, and weapon. So for example, a “chronomancer bends time to their will, using a shield to double up protection and wells to slow foes and speed up enemies.”

You might describe what sorts of things wells might do and what sort of traits, but stick to 2-3 sentences max.

tl;dr less is more when suggesting new professions or elite specializations.