You only live once. But once is enough, if you do it right! …. Mae West
Thanks to GW2 Wiki
You only live once. But once is enough, if you do it right! …. Mae West
+1 to this best wiki ever.
Having checked out Wiki pages for various other games in my time. Including other generally very good Wikis (UESP wiki was always pretty good) the Guild Wars pages really are up there with some of the best.
Yes, +1 to everything Ra Ra said above. There are so many great resources on the wiki, all of which have been developed by highly skilled community members and fans of the game in their free time. If you have ever contributed to the wiki in any form or fashion, and especially if you have ever created auto-updating tables for daily events/rewards (seriously those are SO helpful), or if you have ever submitted your drop results to any of the hundreds (thousands?) of bag/box listings on the wiki page, THANK YOU!
People often talk about how the Guild Wars 2 community is the friendliest and most helpful out there, but I think sometimes that is only attributed to the players in-game and here on the forums. The wiki is a resource that a vast majority of the playerbase utilizes on a regular basis and it’s maintained by what I assume is a relatively small subset of that GW2 playerbase.
Thanks so much!
Another reason this game is great
I make PvP & WvW videos
Thanks to the Wiki (and Dulfy) I know what to do, as I wouldn’t have had a clue otherwise. With the Wiki especially with ANet’s convoluted system of recipes-for-recipes, discoveries and how to get specific stuff from the MF. And Dulfy is invaluable to me for everything else (especially events and achievements).
Fojja – Vyxxi – Nymmra – Mymmra – Champion of Dwayna .. and more
Highly Over Powered Explorers [HOPE] – Desolation EU
The wiki is where it is today because you – yes you, the community – have worked to make it so.
Day-in and day-out, contributors of all types are updating the information that we have on the game with the sole purpose of helping other players. I used to try to keep track of what was happening on the Recent Changes page, but I can’t anymore; you guys are crazy, and I love you for it.
What I can’t stress enough is how important the regular player is to maintaining the wiki. For all those who have ever stumbled across something odd, or found that the /wiki command led them somewhere strange, and simply left a note via the talk page or feedback, Thank You.
To end on a note I’ve brought up before, the wiki spans four languages and not all of them have had the ability to grow like the English wiki. If any of you – yes you – are interested in helping out even more, please take a look at them. Links to the wikis below:
Greener! You have done so much work on the Wiki! Thanks! I see your name everywhere there and just wanted to give you a shoutout specifically, so thanks again.
Greener! You have done so much work on the Wiki! Thanks! I see your name everywhere there and just wanted to give you a shoutout specifically, so thanks again.
Oh dear, I’m a small time contributor! Thank you for you comments, but I’m going to extend them to everyone who does any work on those sites, and many do far more work than me. Seriously, FAR more work.
I’d start calling them out here, but:
- The list would be way too long.
- The list would miss all those who edit without an account.
- The list wouldn’t show all those who have helped out over the many years (note that the link above is limited to 30 days).
- We generally don’t work that way.
I agree, the GW2 Wiki (and GW1 Wiki) is brilliant!
These days it’s not uncommon for a game to have a Wiki, or more than one, but well written, up to date wikis are amazingly hard to come by. It’s not uncommon for an entire quest chain to have an entry like “Talk to the mayor, then go to the cave. Then he will say the explorer is missing. After you kill the wolf talk to the mayor again (he’s in a different place) then find the explorer to get your reward. Reward; gold and items.” That’s a real example by the way, and no, it doesn’t make any more sense if you’ve played the game.
I’ve done a fair bit of editing wikis myself (especially when I find entries like the one above) and I can only imagine the amount of time and effort that’s gone into the GW2 one.
Which makes it especially impressive that new things are added or updated relatively quickly. I admit I’ve caught myself getting frustrated sometimes when a big updates comes out and it takes ages for the changes to filter through to all the relevant pages, then I try to remind myself how much there is to do and that if it really bothers me I should do the leg work to find the info I was looking for elsewhere and add it. That usually shuts me up.
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
+1
Not only that, but the Wiki Vets, like G R E E N E R, are very nice and helpful to the Wiki casuals, like me.
Thank you for all you do. <3
Great thread, I’ll add here my own congratulations to the GW2 Wiki team: guys (and gals, of course) YOU ROCK.
that it makes every other class in the game boring to play.”
Hawks
Thank you wiki peeps and Dulfy, you rock!
The wiki IS awesome, and I refer to it all the time.
FYI: For those that don’t know, if your type /wiki <name of thing you’re interested in> it minimizes the game and opens the wiki page of that thing you’re interested in.
For example /wiki World Boss or /wiki WB will open a page on the wiki that has a running and constantly updating list of world boss timers.
| Claara
Your skin will wrinkle and your youth will fade, but your soul is endless.
I positively LOVE our wikis! There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not on the GW2 Wiki, and I find myself continuing to use the GW Wiki a lot, too. I used the GW2 wiki last night to help me get one of my missing Mastery Points.
We are lucky to have such dedicated wiki editors, and everyone at ArenaNet holds them in very high regard.
I hope even more players will get involved in the wiki in the future, with articles, explanations, research, guides, and more. If there isn’t a page, consider starting one. If there is a page and you can add to it, go ahead and add some content or, if you’d rather, post on the discussion page for that article and make a suggestion that the additional info be added to the main article. (I did the latter myself until I got up the courage to edit an article. )
Major kudos, high fives, and deep gratitude to all our wiki editors!
Communications Manager
Guild & Fansite Relations; In-Game Events
ArenaNet
Even bare bones wikis with simplistic entries, such as mentioned in a post above, earn my respect. Players going out of their way, spending time they could be playing the game, to provide structured information about the game for the community as a whole are wonderful assets to any gaming community.
A well fleshed out, remarkably organized, frequently updated, and easily used wiki such as we have here in GW2 is something of another order entirely. My thanks and appreciation to all involved in providing this resource. Your efforts, as much as a developer IMO, make this a better game.
Thank You,
Ashen
You know what would be fascinating? To see the number of hours that players have generously given in creating the wiki. I’ll have to ask Stephane if that’s possible. I truly am impressed and helped by all that sterling content!
Communications Manager
Guild & Fansite Relations; In-Game Events
ArenaNet
The wiki is amazing. It’s hard to imagine, for me, how someone has the time to play the game enough to know this stuff, AND have the gumption and fortitude to spend time editing it. Thanks tons to everyone who has had a hand in it, many of us would be very lost without your occasional guiding hand(s). (and, Gaile, I would like to see those numbers as well, out of curiosity if nothing else.)
And, now for the obligatory picking on a guildie. +1 to Ra for being right about something. AGAIN. (Don’t you ever get tired of being right???)
It’s not just the wiki.
The only other MMO that has comparable out of the game support and tools,is WoW.
And that tells a lot.
Thanks to all who put time and effort into maintaining these.
lose a pip,win 2 pips,lose a pip,lose a pip…………..-
-Go go Espartz.-
I’d say “You’re welcome” but I’ve a feeling that would earn me more ire.
+1
I 100% agree. I don’t know the people who update the wiki, but thank you for all of your hard work and information. Keep up the fantastic job guys.
Yes!
I’m both very grateful for the wiki and for Dulfy’s guides- the game is so detailed that I feel like in many cases you’d only get half of the whole story without these useful sites. It makes the whole experience a lot smoother, too
I loved the GW1 wiki, too- especially how much lore was available on that site.
My only real complaint about the GW2 wiki is that the search function isn’t as fluid as the GW1 wiki. In the GW1 wiki you could mistype things or even if you didn’t know the exact thing you were looking for, you could use similar words or ideas and find the right page. The new wiki seems a bit more picky in that respect.
You know what would be fascinating? To see the number of hours that players have generously given in creating the wiki. I’ll have to ask Stephane if that’s possible. I truly am impressed and helped by all that sterling content!
It’s not possible. A lot of people write their stuff offline. You can’t even count contributions: some better writers press save rarely (to avoid ‘spamming’ the recent changes list) and others save often (to prevent losing their work). Some contributions are overhauls of confusing explanations or incorrect ‘facts’ — should those be counted differently from the person who painstakingly edits 100s of articles to make sure that they all follow the wiki’s style, making them easier to read/navigate for those that aren’t editors?
Moreover, even longtime veterans depend on the drive by questions/comments from wiki novices — there have been corrections longstanding errors or misleading statements only fixed because a one-time accidental contributor happen to wonder about the phrasing.
In short, it takes a village.
I think it’s misleading to look at the time spent editing the wiki. There are some ok proxies provided on the wiki’s statistics page, including number of articles, the active users list , the number of times various articles have been viewed, and so on.
Oh so very much this- and the fact that the wiki is accessible from in game. This means that I’m using the wiki multiple times, every time I’m in game. Extra bonus love for the people who keep on top of updating the lore, even the stuff that isn’t directly part of the storyline. I’d love to see more of that, there’s little snippits and hints and stuff all over the world that aren’t explained.
The GW2 wiki is excellent, so good compared to the atrocious wikis of other games. Thanks for making a great experience even better.
The GW2 Wiki is great, the GW2 Wiki is life, the GW2 Wiki is everything.
I really appreciate the content u guys write, I’ve not only used Gw 2 wiki extensively since launch but I also used GW1 wiki since the launch of that in 2004. Thanks for all your work. :-)
A heartfelt ‘Yes’ to the praise of the Guild Wars 2 Wiki, and all players who contributed to it.
Whenever I look up anything on it, many a time I find myself in awe of how they are almost ahead of the game, grasping the content in far greater detail than the developers explain it, then presenting it clearly, usefully, to us players.
I’d be happy to give a percentile of the money I spent/spend on the game to support them.
Without the Wiki, I am lost.
It is the sole, faultlessly searchable (hint-hint @ the forums here) comprehensive resource on the game I have.
The Guild Wars 2 Bible.
From Shadow unto Light is born the Narvedui
While softly walks the Tharnadai
My only real complaint about the GW2 wiki is that the search function isn’t as fluid as the GW1 wiki. In the GW1 wiki you could mistype things or even if you didn’t know the exact thing you were looking for, you could use similar words or ideas and find the right page. The new wiki seems a bit more picky in that respect.
Can you remember any examples?
This is usually a matter of having redirects setup so that common misspellings or alternate names are linked to the correct page, and sometimes disambiguation pages if two things have the same or similar names.
It’s a bit more involved than editing the text of an article but fairly straight forward once you know the process so I’m sure if you can tell people (either on the Wiki or on here) what you were looking for and what you put in we can set it up.
I love redirects personally because I can never remember the right names for things. For example if I want to find pretty much anything to do with stats and where to find equipment I start by putting in the name of whatever stat combo I can remember, to be redirected to Item Nomenclature (which I can’t spell even when I can remember it) and then use the links to find the info I need.
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
@Danikat
I’ll edit this post if I remember anything specific or come across something whilst searching in the near future.
EDIT:
First example, I searched “dye kit” and it sent me to a long list of pages with “dye kit” in their title. I sort of expect to be lead straight to a page that would explain what a dye kit was, or just a page that listed all currently released dye kits. Even just being directed to the “Exclusive colors” sub-article on the “Dye” page would be reasonable.
Just a quick example though, I typed in “Laurels” and rather than take me to the wiki page for Laurel, it showed that there was a hit for “Laurels”… “but also here is a long list of pages that also might interest you!”. I liked how the GW1 page directed you straight to a page if you searched for something rather than a list of pages that might possibly be of interest.
I will say now that it has gotten a lot better over the recent months! I guess it only gets better in time as people add more redirect options to streamline the whole thing.
PS: And yes, I’m exactly the same. It always frustrates me when I have something on the tip of my tongue but can’t remember what it’s called exactly… so I try to think of more generic terms to try and land me somewhere. Maybe that’s not the way that wiki is usually browsed, though? I guess a lot of people will research known terms/things they have in front of them to learn more. :P
(edited by Crimson Clouds.4853)
It looks like that one has been fixed already. I tried typing ‘laurels’ into the Wiki’s search bar, and using ‘/wiki laurels’ in-game and both sent me to the Laurel page.
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
[condensing list of examples of missing redirects]
I absolutely know that pain and I have a solution, one which will let you help many others who have probably hit the same roadblocks.
First, locate the page you were trying to find (bear with me, I know how silly that sounds). Then, click on the Feedback button and type, “Hey folks, could you make [insert name which you originally tried] redirect here?”
Usually this is a simple thing to pull off. From time to time it may not be possible for some esoteric reason, but even those have work-arounds to help accommodate users.
Edit: Spelling. I’m sure you’re a great person, but perhaps we should avoid baring together
(edited by Greener.6204)
It looks like that one has been fixed already. I tried typing ‘laurels’ into the Wiki’s search bar, and using ‘/wiki laurels’ in-game and both sent me to the Laurel page.
Wow, that was speedy!
[condensing list of examples of missing redirects]
First, locate the page you were trying to find (bear with me, I know how silly that sounds). Then, click on the Feedback button and type, “Hey folks, could you make [insert name which you originally tried] redirect here?”
What a great suggestion! Thank you
(edited by Crimson Clouds.4853)
You know, what would be really great?
A game, so self explanatory and good thought out in UI design ect. that you don’t need to use a Wiki or countless other 3rd party sites at all…
The irony, oh the irony ….
All this information and wisdom that you find in a Wiki, should be same as accessible INGAME in locations like for example an ingame BIBLIOTHECARY where you can search for all kinds of game related terms and get then shown articles shown as “Books” to you which explain you the stuff you have searched for as if you would be reading a wiki article
You know guys, THIS would be really impressive, THIS would be unique, and THIS would be innovative, because I know of absolutely no single MMORPG out there with the content to fill up whole wikis with hundreds over hundreds of articles, that it would be awesome, if Guild Wars 2 could become the very first onlin game, which doesn’t force its playrs to use wikis and 3rd party sites to get the information, guides ect. they are searching for, but instead actually find all of this ingame when they go visit just in the game the right place, where they can find all the infos they are looking for, or through adding fitting TUTORIALS into the UIs that explain things better and can get restarted anytime when you like just through pressing a certain button or going into the options menu to look through all kinds of tutorials that are presentated through little gameplay videos eventually.
This game is missing this kind of interactivity for my taste and it is certainly somethign that could be improved with this game to reduce for players the need to have to use wikis, dulfy and other sites just to get to know what they want to know right now, when this information should be something also, that players should get ingame!
Thats my opinion onto this topic.
Sure, kudos and all best wishes to the people which put alot of time into such sites to help this way out many other peopel which are i nsearch for these infos and find it then on these external sites, but i don’t think, that this is the right way, how thigns liek this should get handled in online games.
And it is surely also not technically impossible to integrate a kind of wiki similar service with tutorials and guidelines into the game, because a person whos willing to use external sites to get an easier online game surely will use this help also, when it comes directly from ingame mechanics – and in the end its exsactly the same, just with the difference, that people don’t have to search anymore long for various external internet sites to get their infos, they now will get all the infos they need from the provider they shoudl get these infos from first hand!!! – ingame by ANet self – and this formatted into a cleverly designed game feature, like some kind of bibliothecary you can search up for your thirst of wisdom about the game would be surely in my opinion better self advertisement for the game, than taking the lazy too and exporting all the infos, guides ect what players want to know about the game onto foreign external internet sites and external official wikis, which are costs also too, which should get used better to put all this knowledge about the game into an ingame feature that palyers can use ingame anytiem to get the infos about something they need right now, right there wherever you are at the moment in the game, than to having to leave the game, or close at least the game window to get onto an internet site to search there for what you want to know, when it could be also directly the game self that shows you what you want to know and that via an impressing ingame feature that would be unique and fitting for the PvE environment of the game to have in for example Lion’s Arch, as some kind of “Archive”.
I have that same concern about the Wiki. One example I can think of is punctuation. If an apostrophe is left off, the Wiki seems confused. Same with capitals, sometimes. Lol. Oh, and typos. It’s too bad the search function has no AI, but I understand.
I will try to remember to add the feedback about redirects in the future.
GW1 wiki is allot better done then GW2 wiki, most of the pictures are missing in GW2 wiki and it’s hard to find the simple stuff.
search for secret places and i am better off on youtube, search for an organized gallery for weapons and i am better off on dulfy.
You know, what would be really great?
A game, so self explanatory and good thought out in UI design ect. that you don’t need to use a Wiki or countless other 3rd party sites at all…
I can hear many players and wiki contributors alike sighing out as one, “… To sleep, perchance to dream.”
Followed of course by the rub.
GW1 wiki is allot better done then GW2 wiki, most of the pictures are missing in GW2 wiki and it’s hard to find the simple stuff.
search for secret places and i am better off on youtube, search for an organized gallery for weapons and i am better off on dulfy.
Pictures, yes, pictures! I know all of you have a Print Screen button, and to those of you who have uploaded jpgs of any quality to the weapon or armour pages, thank you! We still are missing a ton, though.
To upload images:
- Create an account on the wiki (for image uploads you’ll have to have one, sorry!)
- Go the page, such as Embellished Axe Skin
- If there’s a red link in the infobox on the right saying “Add a gallery image” click that.
- Follow the steps on the upload screen.
Don’t worry about making mistakes. We have a ton of people who can fix pictures, but not everyone can get the pictures!
Sorry for hijacking this thread; I’ll take any opportunity to help people help others.