Guild Wars 2

Please excuse me for picking a slightly missleading title. Of course the interface isn’t invisible all the time but rather at times.

TLDR: Improve your interface, remove Motion Induced Blindness. Reconsider your stance towards an open UI and AddOn support.

To be exact the interface ignores the phenomenon of Motion Induced Blindness ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_induced_blindness )
It basically says: “Once you focus on something you become blind for movement outside of your focus.”
In other words, once I’m focusing my attention on the middle of the screen, movement outside of my focus becomes invisible. This is not new, pilots train to avoid MIB by constantly looking around. For pilots it can be deadly to be blind to movement.
What happens, once I focus on the 3D world/center screen I become unable to notice movement on my action bars. The extent to which one becomes blind to movement outside ones focus varies from human to human. As a thumb rule, 50% of humans are utterly blind to movement outside their focus.
If you don’t believe me nor wiki feel free to experience it yourself with this video, used in psychological science, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY . Be sure to strictly follow the commands of the video, it won’t work otherwise.

It is also known that MIB stops happening once the movement outside your focus becomes “strong enough”. In other words if you (the developers) would allow a setting for constantly shaking the UI, the MIB would dissipate proportionally to the amount of “UI shaking”.

This is, by the way, one of many reasons to support UI AddOns. In GW2 PvP it is very important to be aware of all combat necessary information: cooldowns, my health, opponents health, number of enemies, conditions, boons, number of conditions, number of boons and so on. The current interface utterly fails at presenting the important information in a fashion that allows one to make educated decisions quick enough, due to MIB.

For funs sake, let me give you more reasons for AddOn support:

• higher customer loyalty through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_customization
• less pressure to correct the interface yourself via outsourcing it to the community (which of course only applies if the community picks up on UI development, which it usually does)
• Highly pleases the Achiever player type, because he has more stuff to tinker with
• Increases interest of geeks into the game, due to the possibility of adding content (interface UI) to the game. Geeks tend to be very smart and smart customers can be able to give valuable feedback, hence you have a higher chance for valuable feedback and free hints for increasing your game
• remove the phenomenon of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_loafing by AddOns that allow to assess other players performances
• If you anticipated negative usuage of interace API you get a neigh free chance for positive Black Swans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory
• UI AddOns increase community growth. Every game with AddOns (or other usergenerated content for that matter) has fansites dedicated to the game. In other words: free advertising, higher gravity towards your game

In short: you are being irrational by deciding against interface AddOns.

In my opinion, if you have everything right smack in front of you, you probably play the game and get a massive headache out of it or a very strong urge to puke. The game will look hideous and instead of helping, it may also make the information harder to read – humans also has selective vision (to help them focus). Your research, motion induced blindness, will actually contribute to this effect as well because the information has movement too (numbers and cooldowns).

Overall, i like the current interface. If you analyze it properly, it has different area of focus which in my opinion is really helpful, etc. all cooldown and healthbar neatly tucked at the bottom, center helps to battle and movement, immediately up will be enemy info, left to monitor party health, bottom right for map. The eye coordination doesnt strain the eyes too much. I’m sure with more research, better interface will be developed in the future but to i disagree when you say the current UI is a fail.

I also think, deciding against AddOns is actually a good move because that way it takes less resource to monitor for botting activity.

Victorctk.4931:

In my opinion, if you have everything right smack in front of you, you probably play the game and get a massive headache out of it or a very strong urge to puke. The game will look hideous and instead of helping, it may also make the information harder to read – humans also has selective vision (to help them focus). Your research, motion induced blindness, will actually contribute to this effect as well because the information has movement too (numbers and cooldowns).

Overall, i like the current interface. If you analyze it properly, it has different area of focus which in my opinion is really helpful, etc. all cooldown and healthbar neatly tucked at the bottom, center helps to battle and movement, immediately up will be enemy info, left to monitor party health, bottom right for map. The eye coordination doesnt strain the eyes too much. I’m sure with more research, better interface will be developed in the future but to i disagree when you say the current UI is a fail.

I also think, deciding against AddOns is actually a good move because that way it takes less resource to monitor for botting activity.

Human interface design ( Ergonomics ) has been an established industry for years. The current interface fails as it requires the player to look at a mess of useless graphics to find key information.

You may like what has been provided but that does not change the scientifically established fact that the interface is poorly designed.

At least, there should be a minimalist interface option and custom positioning of all elements.

‘poorly designed’ is not even close to a ‘scientifically established fact’ . How about we keep the discussion where it belongs, in the realm of personal opinion and experience, and don’t try to impose on others by spouting half-truths about a subject none of the people here have sufficient expertise in?

I agree with everything except UI functionality that allows players to gauge and compare “performance”. We simply do not need that. GW2 is designed, for the most part, that players either do ok in scenarios or fail miserably and obviously. That is all the indication we need on someone’s performance.

And people arguing that the current UI is bad obviously have no idea about game design. Games are not the place where you want to obstruct the most appealing and striking part of the visual experience, the game world, with UI elements. Modern UI game design revolves around simplicity and minimalism. The only thing ANet failed at was to make the UI modular (so you can drag/drop elements, set their opacity, turn them on and off etc.)

And finally, the big reason ANet doesn’t want customized UIs is because they are hoping to turn the game into an e-sport down the road. This means no third-party tools.

I do not dispute the study of ergonomics. I’m just saying whatever proposed or addressed does not necessary improve the gaming experience, in fact it is probably the total opposite of it.

I did not see the scientifically established facts you had mentioned here, but i do believe application of information should not be applied like humans are drones, even in ergonomics it is stressed that psychology plays a big role and in this context we are referring to the entertainment value of a gaming experience and not actual combat. I also did not see the mess of useless graphics you mentioned.

A minimalist approach could be interesting but again, it might cause the game to be very cold – this will vastly depends on the graphic applied. Custom positioning are probably the best bet but will totally depends on the programming not the design of the interface.

I just feel research and consideration has been applied in the interface and by right, good designs are invisible to begin with.

Naqaj.6219:

‘poorly designed’ is not even close to a ‘scientifically established fact’ . How about we keep the discussion where it belongs, in the realm of personal opinion and experience, and don’t try to impose on others by spouting half-truths about a subject none of the people here have sufficient expertise in?

I am keeping it in the realm of experience. Don’t forget that it’s not just young people that play GW2.

As a designer of military aircraft instrumentation ( kittenpits ) for nearly 2 decades, I have an understanding of interface design. The current interface is poorly designed for combat. It’s pretty and its pretty useless.

remove the phenomenon of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_loafing by AddOns that allow to assess other players performances

GW2 isn’t a perfect game but if there is anything that will definitely kill it for me, it would be this. You can assess other players performances in dunegons and stuff just fine if you just look at what they are doing. But I’ll be kitten if I let a piece of software judge me! Not going to happen.

I guess you said it yourself, you’re a military designer and i respect that alot because every decisions is to make sure the survival of the user.

That alone, i am going to stressed is a totally different principle all together as actual combat is no where near any game (nor should it even be comparable at all).

In game, the core principle is actually entertainment and based on that, i disagree its a fail. *It’s pretty, it has entertainment value and its intuitive enough for players to manuver around. Alas, i’m quite sure the research demographics conducted are based on players and not military officers.

*Not to say these points can’t be improved upon, but improvement will come with more research.

I’d say, yes allow moving and rescaling of the UI, and maybe allow other graphical designs of the layout that may better appease others.

But I see no reason to allow addons to be honest. Other then some people just really hate a lot of standard UI designs in any game or want to see more numbers on their character panel or something. I see no reason to allow addons with what we work with so far. We know when we have aggro, we know when we are dying, we know when others are dying in our group or outside, we know when others are getting their butt kicked cause they keep getting one shot by some boss, we know when we need to move out of an AoE attack. Just from my personal pov I see nothing we need add-ons for.

But yes, I will agree that the UI should probably allow alterations with its design. Most MMOs have this nowadays, and I see no reason to not have it. If it makes a person enjoy the game more it should be there.

Ephemeris.6831:

It’s a game, it’s supposed to be visually appealing and the UI is supposed to follow the ingame art style.

Most people don’t want to look at monochrome progress bars, nor they feel their performance is in any way impaired by not having them. This is not a min-maxing game like WoW where the whole world will crash if you miss your skill cooldown by half a second, nor an airplane kittenpit with thousands of variables that need to be displayed at every moment.

Blaming the interface for your poor gameplay isn’t the right way to go. With this small and limited amount of skills you have equipped at once, you can get a pretty good idea when your cooldowns are done without even having to look at the skill bar. So, play less with your eyes and more with your brain. It’s what separates people who get overwhelmed at every single opportunity and those who keep perspective.

If you had to actively think about every single muscle movement while you were doing a basic thing like walking, you’d fail miserably at it as well.

This is not about personal skill or blaming death count on the interface. The OP is talking about improving what we have.

Cina Reas.6938:

Ephemeris.6831:

…

This is not about personal skill or blaming death count on the interface. The OP is talking about improving what we have.

I’m not inclined to response to such polemic statements as “You only want that because you suck!”. Although your wording was different, thats basically what you said.

@Nagaj: Before we establish when to consider it poor design we need to have a consensus what poor design is. I don’t think we will reach said consensus. However the MIB does happen with this interface, which forces you to shift your focus to become aware of all combat necessary information. In my personal experience it takes too long to gather all the needed information from the GW UI to make the best decision. Some information is even missing for example cooldowns in Death Shroud (transformation) while not in Death Shroud (transformation).
The timewindow I have to react is smaller than the time I need to read all information from the UI. Considering that I’m an experienced gamer and among the top 10% worldwide in Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, I dare to say that I’m rather quick with assessing a situation correctly and responding in a matter that is efficient. Of course I can’t proof to you that most players have the same “information reading problem with the GW2 UI” but its likely to be so. The addon “powerauras classic” for World of Warcraft fixes the MIB problem entirely, by the way. Adding that functionality alone to GW2 would fix the MIB problem.

In case you missed it, here are some facts from my first post:

• Fact is MIB happens with the GW2 UI
• Fact is community developed interfaces are more popular than the standard UI. Thats simply because by evolution the best community addons will emerge and a community of hundreds of thousands has a potential developement time that a game developing studio can never achieve, thus making better interfaces than the devs can.
• Fact is community customization (or any customization for that matter) significantly increase customer loyalty and therefor potential income
• Fact is big communities lure in more players than small communities (mouth to mouth advertising). The more loyal your customers are the less likely are they to leave the game, hence the community is more likely to grow.
• Fact is humans (and animals too btw) are notorical group loafers. Once they can hide their performance behind groups they get lazy unless being lazy directly (not somewhat) conflicts with an intrinsic motivation to perform well (volutneers rarely group loaf).

If you don’t like that facts and want to replace them. Go ahead and dismantle the science linked in wikipedia to it. Be warned though, you’ll most likely fail.

I don’t have enough time for a proper respond to the other posts, so I’ll leave it at that.

Also known as Tunnel Vision. Gamers that play too long are prone to this effect and adjust to it by memorizing the interface and knowing the limitations of the character they play; remember console games?

You’re probably also sitting way too close to your computer screen when you play. Turn some lights on in the room so you can get more light into your eyes so your brain has more items to notice.

While the interface isn’t optimal for today’s entitled gamers, it does present you with all the info you need to assess the situation at hand and as you said, pilots train to avoid this effect, so do gamers.

There is nothing to dismantle. MIB happens always, everywhere. It’s a fundamental principle of human perception. How and when to apply it in interface design is a science all to itself. It is often beneficial to design interfaces with regards to peripheral information, meaning to intentionally put information outside of the center of attention.

In case you missed it, I’m not arguing your facts, I’m arguing the conclusions you draw from them.

Removing Motion induced blindness? You lost all credibility with that TLDR. :P

Either way, an interface is only there to show you some extra information faster. Whether this is NEEDED is a design decision. I certainly hope certain sports wont give sporters glasses that shows their current position in a race or their physical state, just because it’s presumably better.

Saying that it’s irrational not to give room for addons is nonsense, since it’s a choice, not a necessity.

I agree that GW2 UI customization is very limited. I also agree that some important information is not well provided (example the duration of boon and condition which is the white border of the boon/condition does not give exact information of boon/duration you have.).

But for the stance UI GW 2 cause MIB, I disagree with you. I agree with Ephemeris.

MIB is happen everywhere and anytime (in real world and in game). Its human nature. But human learn how to overcome this problem. Thus to blame GW 2 UI because your poor gameplay (with MIB skin) is a no no.

But if we can put slightly customization in it, then bring it on (but its not because MIB or poor gameplay).

(maybe in your case, like Lil Puppy post, you are sitting to close to your monitor or your room to dark. The environment condition can also cause MIB problem.)

I too find the UI a bit difficult to look at and work with. I understand they want it to reflect the art theme that is part of GW2, but it’s terribly confusing at times. (and I don’t have any eyesight disabilities)

Windows are difficult to organise, and barely any re-sizing allowed. It feels very chunky and big. But my biggest issue is that I tend to lose windows when I open several at the same time and they’re hard to find again. Something I never had an issue with in GW1 for some reason.

If there is a mod out there that simplifies the UI and makes it more flexible, I wouldn’t mind having it…

Victorctk.4931:

… I’m sure with more research, better interface will be developed in the future but to i disagree when you say the current UI is a fail.

I also think, deciding against AddOns is actually a good move because that way it takes less resource to monitor for botting activity.

I dare to say that movement patterns and changens in the players inventory are sufficient to identify botting and a lot more efficient than trying to monitor millions of UI actions.
Never did I say the UI is fail. It isn’t, its mediocre at best. I don’t know what were the design goals of the UI but assuming its goal was to display all information in an accessible manner, it could do a lot better.
In addition its just irrational to dismiss this huge resource “community” and exclude them in interface design, despite the well known fact that it increases customer loyalty and is a fun trait for many players in their number one competitor.
Blizzards UI still lacks behind in design compared to the community creations. Overtime Blizzard stole (or maybe bought) ideas from the community developement and thereby outsourced a huge part of UI developement.
If you don’t like Blizzard or World of Warcraft you could also look at Rift,