Background
For those who do not recall, one of the great things the Hall of Monuments provided in GW1 was an overarching goal to work towards, a place to look towards when you were bored or confused as to where you should put your effort next, whilst at the same time providing a much-needed influx of new players and revitalization of the community.
In hindsight, I can’t say the rewards matter to me much in GW2, but the journey itself was the reward. I would never have been as active as I was in GW1 without it providing a sense of direction.
Similar to how legendaries provided the overarching goal in the early game, with karma farming in Orr, and the ascended tier revitalized GW2, with mining runs, temple runs, world tours starting to appear as it was introduced, I believe the HoM would function in a similar way to boost activity and provide a fresh goal for players to gradually work towards.
I know legendaries and ascended are controversial subjects in the community, but personally I don’t believe the game would be nearly as fun or active as it is now without these carrots to motivate people to get involved in the game. There would be no incentive to partake in the activities GW2 provides without these rewards at the end, so even if the journey is the reward, people would never embark on that journey because there would be no point.
It’s against this background that I make the following suggestion:
Hall of Monuments
This could be tied into the Living World, with us having a World Event with a progression tick box, similar to the Tower of Nightmares, where we reclaim the Eye of the North and establish a foothold against Jormag.
Once this has been accomplished, we would unlock our rebuilt, account-wide Hall of Monuments, where we could store the following:
*Statues
*Miniatures
*Weapons/Armor
*Ascended Gear
*Unique Skins
*Legendaries
*Tapestries
*Pets
This could be tied into the achievement system, similar to how the number of titles you had in GW1 granted a greater glowing effect to the Knight statue in your HoM, the amount of achievement points you have could do the same here.
Statues
Awarded for finishing all dungeon paths, rare drops from world bosses, crafting legendaries, earning titles, completing achievements, map completion, living world rewards etc.
Could also be awarded for completing collections. Also add as a reward for reaching rank intervals in WvW and PvP, or completing reward tracks, or top score in a league or season and so on. Along with this, add a sort of PvE alternate advancement system as exists in Rift and ESO, with similar rewards from this.
Tapestries
Similar to those in GW1, we could have these awarded to us for completing all living world story achievements in an episode, with a tapestry detailing the climax of that episode.
Weapons/Armors
I’m thinking full sets on mannequins, e.g. Glorious, Luminescent, Legendary weapons and, eventually, Legendary armor. Also unique skins such as Foefire’s Essence.
Miniatures
Speaks for itself. Would provide a boost in gem shop purchases of miniatures aswell.
Pets
This would tie into another proposal for Rangers, to provide some more depth to their class. I’ve always been bothered by the fact that all pets are named Juvenile, and never seem to grow. Pets should be have their own levels, where they attain new ranks (juvenile, veteran, elite, champion), with each new rank earned granting you a pet that has a more unique skin. The fully evolved pet can then be displayed.
I believe these proposals would truly be beneficial to all and detrimental to none.
It would benefit players who have unlocked the skins that they want and have the look they desire, and are looking for a motivation to keep playing, as there would be a point in them crafting, say, Mjölnir or Volcanus, since they can display it, or acquiring the dungeon sets, since they can display them aswell.
It would benefit the players who rarely leave their respective spheres of PvP, WvW and PvE, encouraging them to get involved in other modes to attain new rewards and unlocks.
It would benefit the GW2 gameworld in a new way, since players would have an added incentive to acquire rare and unique skins, other than as a a tickbox in their collections tab, since they can show them off in their HoM, boosting economic demand and supply. Also would encourage players to make gem shop purchases.
I would, lastly, also suggest that the HoM be made available for public viewing. Similar to SWTOR, where you garner prestige based on unlocks, we could have a similar system with a leaderboard, and a tick box to make your HoM available for public instancing, so people can visit, get inspiration or stare in awe at your full collection of legendaries!
