Guild Wars 2

Now a lot of you would say “Just wiki it”, but in doing so, I have to Alt-Tab from GW2, losing my in-game mindset that I’m engulfed in, and waste time searching for a guide.
A lot of players have been asking for the build/trait template feature for a while and I know this isn’t what is specifically wanted but this would be a great place to store your builds as well as have a few notes on how to play the build specifically, when to use what skill, proper positioning while using the build, etc.

Now there are a lot more ways to utilize this feature other than creating your own strategy guide or having a convenient place to store your builds. As mentioned above, you could use it to expand on your character’s lore and write little stories on content that you’ve been through with your character. For those people that are constantly on the trading post and “flipping” items, you could use it to keep note of your investments. For those of you that are dedicated guild leaders and want to track member involvement and activity, what better place to have this information recorded? So there are many, many ways that this could be used for all types of GW2 players.

Features

Here are a few features I believe the Hero’s Journal should have if implemented.
• Multiple Chapters and Sub-chapters
Simply for organization purposes. Ex: Having a chapter labeled Citadel of Flames and sub-chapters for each path, or a chapter labeled World Bosses and sup-chapters of the bosses themselves, etc.
• Common text document formatting
What’s the point of having a system like this if you can’t organize your writing to make your notes easy find? Things like font size, font color, bulleting, etc are almost mandatory.
• Clickable and linkable waypoints
I think we should be able to have waypoint links in out notes. Say we want to go take down Jormag or the Fire Elemental but we’ve forgotten exactly which waypoint they are nearest to. Instead of Alt-Tabbing or asking in map chat for waypoint, we can go to the Hero’s Journal, go to the chapter we’ve written about World Bosses and click the waypoint link we have there. Doesn’t that sound sweet and convenient?
• Access to Zone map images
Including an image of a particular zone would be extremely helpful so we could draw the direct path we need to go in a dungeon, or the path we need to take to get to one of the World Bosses mentioned above. Or maybe you’ve discovered your own gathering node path in a zone and want to remember it for the next time you take it.
• Ability to draw on the zone map images
No reason to have access to the map images unless you can draw on them to remember paths to take. Multiple colors to draw with would be a plus.

• Ability to copy and paste from the Hero’s Journal
I don’t know how many times I’ve had to explain a particular part of a dungeon path before moving forward. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about helping and teaching other players, but typing out every detail, every time becomes tedious and time consuming. So being able to copy what I’ve written and sharing it with other players would be extremely helpful. This would also be helpful when sharing your saved builds you have written up with guildies or friends as well as many other convenient uses.
• A “Quick Entry” hotkey
The ability to press a hotkey and bring up the “New Entry” page for quick additions in the midst of battle or boss fight would be an amazing feature.
• Ability to makes some pages account wide
It would be an extreme pain to have to rewrite some notes on an alt character’s Hero’s Journal on things that apply to all characters and aren’t profession/character specific.

Additional Features but not necessary:
• Adding .jpgs images
This is a feature that could be used inappropriately, I know, but it could also be used to add some personality to your pages and helpful image references to the ones that would use it properly.

How would players obtain a Hero’s Journal?
Honestly, I think if this idea was actually going to be put in the game I believe that it should just be given to all players. If there was some how a problem with that though, I think making it unlockable via chain-quest or gem store would work as well.
How could Anet expand on this idea and make it profitable?
Like mentioned above, I believe that the Hero’s Journal should be given to players freely, but some of the features could be purchased in the gem store, like the ability to add clickable waypoints, page extensions and whatever else they like.
Now, as for expanding on this idea and letting it have a much larger game impact, I have a few ideas. Let’s say the Hero’s Journal is implemented and there is a lot of positive player reviews and Anet wants to expand on the Hero’s Journal and make it much more than it already is, this is where the Lion’s Arch Library comes into play.

Lion’s Arch Library

What is the Lion’s Arch Library?
The Lion’s Arch Library is a place where players can share there writings, much like the Hero’s Journal, with other players. Players would be able to submit their own stories, guides, how to’s, etc into the Lion’s Arch Library, and other players would be able to purchase these with in-game gold or maybe even gems. (I believe gems would be interesting seeing that there isn’t a current way for players to be able to trade/give gems to each other)
Now I have read many guides online about pretty much everything you can do and how to do it in GW2, but how can the players show their appreciation to these guide writers for taking the time out of their day to make your GW2 experience easier? The answer is the Lion’s Arch Library. By creating a way that these writers can be compensated in-game, they will be much more keen on creating guides to help the community in the future. A rating system of sorts should be also added in order to show players which guides or player written lore was helpful or enjoyable.
Where would the Lion’s Arch Library be?
I’ve seen some prime real estate to be taken advantage in the Trading Post building. It seems like an awfully tall building to just have one floor and a balcony.

Conclusion

I thought of this idea a couple months back so I’m sure there are some things I could’ve left out in the writing of this suggestion. All-in-all, I honestly believe that this would be a great implementation to the world of Guild Wars 2 and I’m excited to hear some feedback from players and devs alike. So please give me your opinions on this suggestion and what else you think could go into this that would make it even better.

Thank you so much for reading, I’ll see you in-game.

I actually really love this idea. +1 to each post.

Edit: also wanted to point out that your detail is fabulous.

LittleLepton.8915:

I actually really love this idea. +1 to each post.

Edit: also wanted to point out that your detail is fabulous.

Glad to have your support!
Yeah, like I said, I probably have a mild case of OCD. There is a lot I probably didn’t cover since I ended up writing this out at 3:00 a.m. because I couldn’t sleep. haha.

zacsux.2098:

LittleLepton.8915:

I actually really love this idea. +1 to each post.

Edit: also wanted to point out that your detail is fabulous.

Glad to have your support!
Yeah, like I said, I probably have a mild case of OCD. There is a lot I probably didn’t cover since I ended up writing this out at 3:00 a.m. because I couldn’t sleep. haha.

Yeah, I know that feeling xD

I’d really love to see this implemented, so I hope more people take the time to read it.

Edit: also, something. That might be interesting to be able to add is dungeon timing with party members (like a certain team got through. TA at a certain time.) this is something I’d like to see, as it would give an idea about ideal teams for the future.

LittleLepton.8915:

zacsux.2098:

LittleLepton.8915:

I actually really love this idea. +1 to each post.

Edit: also wanted to point out that your detail is fabulous.

Glad to have your support!
Yeah, like I said, I probably have a mild case of OCD. There is a lot I probably didn’t cover since I ended up writing this out at 3:00 a.m. because I couldn’t sleep. haha.

Yeah, I know that feeling xD

I’d really love to see this implemented, so I hope more people take the time to read it.

Edit: also, something. That might be interesting to be able to add is dungeon timing with party members (like a certain team got through. TA at a certain time.) this is something I’d like to see, as it would give an idea about ideal teams for the future.

If that is something that you would like to keep record of in your Hero’s Journal, you most definitely would be able to do so.

zacsux.2098:

LittleLepton.8915:

zacsux.2098:

LittleLepton.8915:

I actually really love this idea. +1 to each post.

Edit: also wanted to point out that your detail is fabulous.

Glad to have your support!
Yeah, like I said, I probably have a mild case of OCD. There is a lot I probably didn’t cover since I ended up writing this out at 3:00 a.m. because I couldn’t sleep. haha.

Yeah, I know that feeling xD

I’d really love to see this implemented, so I hope more people take the time to read it.

Edit: also, something. That might be interesting to be able to add is dungeon timing with party members (like a certain team got through. TA at a certain time.) this is something I’d like to see, as it would give an idea about ideal teams for the future.

If that is something that you would like to keep record of in your Hero’s Journal, you most definitely would be able to do so.

I guess it would be nice if you could set it to automatically record it.

Two things I wish every single game (or at least RPG) had:

1) A space to write your own notes, or backstory or whatever, just a blank writing space like Neverwinter Nights (not the MMO) had in the Journal.

2) The ability to draw/write on your map like the DS Zelda games. This is so insanely useful that ever since I first got Phantom Hourglass it’s bothered me that I can’t do it in all my other games.

For PC games you can to some extent make your own version. I have a word document where I keep various notes on GW2 that I might want while playing (and I play in windowed mode so switching between the two isn’t a problem). But it’s not the same.

For an MMO it would also be nice to have a blank page where you can write whatever you want for other people to read. Mainly for RP’ers so they could do a little character bio or something, but other people could use it to introduce themselves or let people know what they’re interested in.

Danikat.8537:

Two things I wish every single game (or at least RPG) had:

1) A space to write your own notes, or backstory or whatever, just a blank writing space like Neverwinter Nights (not the MMO) had in the Journal.

2) The ability to draw/write on your map like the DS Zelda games. This is so insanely useful that ever since I first got Phantom Hourglass it’s bothered me that I can’t do it in all my other games.

For PC games you can to some extent make your own version. I have a word document where I keep various notes on GW2 that I might want while playing (and I play in windowed mode so switching between the two isn’t a problem). But it’s not the same.

For an MMO it would also be nice to have a blank page where you can write whatever you want for other people to read. Mainly for RP’ers so they could do a little character bio or something, but other people could use it to introduce themselves or let people know what they’re interested in.

Exactly! That would be another great use for the Hero’s Journal. I also have my own word document with information I may need and an excel document to keep track of my TP dealings, but it would be much more convenient and use for an in-game feature to do this. Of course we aren’t going to get our own Microsoft Office with all it’s features, but a simplified GW2 version that’s accessible in-game would be extremely useful.

I love this idea. My gaming background is from MUDs and user-created books were fun, helpful and an intelligent non-hack-and-slash way to earn prestige with your fellow players.

One thing I really liked about MUDs was that there were always creators/”immortals” online to act as community moderators in-game. I know it’s not feasible in a situation like GW2, but I still wish there was something like it in MMOs. Whenever someone would get even a temp ban in the few MUDs I played, it would be broadcast to the public channel with the reasoning for all to see (“The heavens part and a lightening bolt zaps PLAYER, while the booming voice of CREATOR echoes in your mind, “And this is why you don’t _______.”). But then, they’d also help lead big events and ask questions in public and be on a newbie channel to answer newbie questions away from the judging eyes of the experienced players — all of which helped the baseline friendliness of the community, imo.

Back to the point, it might take a lot more involvement from in-game mods to institute a player-written book system that included any kind of transfer of that books’ information from one player to another. If they limited it to being able to annotate/screenshot wiki pages and in-game screens only, that might begin to address the concern. It might also be something that could be implemented as a guildhall feature — that way guild mods could be responsible for inappropriate books, and any inappropriateness wouldn’t leak into the main game. It’d be cool for a ~legacy~ effect, too. It makes the world feel lived in. Gosh I miss MUDs. Maybe guild leaders of guilds with certain amounts of influence or active members or of a certain age, whatever barrier you want to introduce to keep numbers down, could nominate particularly well-written and useful books for consideration for the Lion’s Arch Library? Maybe one book nomination every few months/per year? That would, again, help to lighten the load on game mods.

At the very least, something similar that would allow players to view gw2 wiki articles without alt+tabbing outside the game to a browser window would be cool.

…Man, this really makes me wish there was a Liaison system like there is in the Discworld MUD. I would sign up to newbie-helper duty so fast.

kimeekat.2548:

I love this idea. My gaming background is from MUDs and user-created books were fun, helpful and an intelligent non-hack-and-slash way to earn prestige with your fellow players.

One thing I really liked about MUDs was that there were always creators/”immortals” online to act as community moderators in-game. I know it’s not feasible in a situation like GW2, but I still wish there was something like it in MMOs. Whenever someone would get even a temp ban in the few MUDs I played, it would be broadcast to the public channel with the reasoning for all to see (“The heavens part and a lightening bolt zaps PLAYER, while the booming voice of CREATOR echoes in your mind, “And this is why you don’t _______.”). But then, they’d also help lead big events and ask questions in public and be on a newbie channel to answer newbie questions away from the judging eyes of the experienced players — all of which helped the baseline friendliness of the community, imo.

Back to the point, it might take a lot more involvement from in-game mods to institute a player-written book system that included any kind of transfer of that books’ information from one player to another. If they limited it to being able to annotate/screenshot wiki pages and in-game screens only, that might begin to address the concern. It might also be something that could be implemented as a guildhall feature — that way guild mods could be responsible for inappropriate books, and any inappropriateness wouldn’t leak into the main game. It’d be cool for a ~legacy~ effect, too. It makes the world feel lived in. Gosh I miss MUDs. Maybe guild leaders of guilds with certain amounts of influence or active members or of a certain age, whatever barrier you want to introduce to keep numbers down, could nominate particularly well-written and useful books for consideration for the Lion’s Arch Library? Maybe one book nomination every few months/per year? That would, again, help to lighten the load on game mods.

At the very least, something similar that would allow players to view gw2 wiki articles without alt+tabbing outside the game to a browser window would be cool.

…Man, this really makes me wish there was a Liaison system like there is in the Discworld MUD. I would sign up to newbie-helper duty so fast.

Though I have never played MUD, I can feel your pain on the creativeness level. As far as the Lion’s Arch Library system, I haven’t given thought to a limitation system as to how many books one could submit and what the criteria could be to submit a book. I agree on the fact that there should be some sort prerequisite/review of submitted books to the LAL, but we need to incorporate the Hero’s Journal before LAL is even considered.
Thanks for your reply!

This. Right now I have build notes on little pieces of paper all over my desk. Less clutter is good.

Nice suggestion. Would surely see good use.

Sirendor.1394:

Nice suggestion. Would surely see good use.

My thoughts exactly, hopefully we can see something like this in the future.

This would actually be a very welcome addition to the game. It would take a fair amount of coding, but all-in-all, would be very useful for those of us that like to keep track of things.

This is a perfect idea. Especially the Lion’s Arch Library. I really, really like that idea. This would immediately resolve the wiki issue and it would strengthen the sense of community within GW2. If this idea gets implemented, you deserve a medal.

I really think you should email this idea to Anet. It definitely has a shot at making it into a patch and I would really like to see this in game.

Galtrix.7369:

This is a perfect idea. Especially the Lion’s Arch Library. I really, really like that idea. This would immediately resolve the wiki issue and it would strengthen the sense of community within GW2. If this idea gets implemented, you deserve a medal.

I really think you should email this idea to Anet. It definitely has a shot at making it into a patch and I would really like to see this in game.

I’m glad you like the idea! I plan to email it to Anet once this idea gains more player approvals and a following. Hopefully I won’t have to email it and they can see it here. :P

+1

This seems like a useful system to have. In-game notes could be very useful.

I love all these ideas. Especially the RP and map stuff.

Bron.9647:

+1

This seems like a useful system to have. In-game notes could be very useful.

Thanks for the +1! Hopefully we can get this into Anet’s view.

Snaekolf.5973:

I love all these ideas. Especially the RP and map stuff.

Right? There’s so many different ways that this could be used to suit any type of player.

Edit that’s going to be made to the original post. The LAL should include a rating system similar to amazon or reddit. A 1-5 star rating system or just a simple upvote/downvote system.

zacsux.2098:

What is the Hero’s Journal?

The Hero’s Journal would be an in-game document system that would allow the player to record and save text documents to help the player progress. There could be MANY uses for this system, here are a few examples that I have come up with:
• Note Taking
• Self-made guides
• Character oriented short story (for those literature junkies)
• Game Strategies
• Guild Member data sheets (For those organized Guild Leaders)
• Profession Build storage (since we don’t have this already)
• Keep track of daily character tasks (Making Charged Quartz and Bolts of Damask, etc.)

While I appreciate the thought that went into your suggestion, there are so many better ways to do this that have the added advantage of not requiring me to boot up the game to see my notes.

• I have a very handy and inexpensive notebook on my desk that not only let’s me take notes, but also sketch diagrams, and doodle with my variously colored pens.
• I have Microsoft’s OneNote which is crazy good at collecting and organizing digital notes. My husband keeps his up on his second monitor to track his builds, which characters have done which tasks/achievements, et. al.
• I have an android tablet that has a pretty good note taking app on it also, but usually I just keep the forums or wiki up on it.
• There are tons of places online to share fan fiction and other community generated content, including a whole sub-forum right here.

I don’t see a real advantage to having a notebook application in game. If I’m going to write a story, or manage my guild roster, or keep track of my builds, I’m not going to want to sit around in game and do that. I’m going to log out and use a fully featured document system that can do things like check my spelling and grammar, embed images, add tags, search and replace, tables, equations, etc.

However, your Hero’s Journal idea might be interesting as part of a web service outside the game, where some information from the game was populated from your account like your characters’ builds, achievements, a portrait showing their outfit, etc. and you could add things like guides and stories to your profile and choose whether to make different areas public/friends only/private. I think it would be a very cool extension of the community.

Pandemoniac.4739:

zacsux.2098:

What is the Hero’s Journal?

The Hero’s Journal would be an in-game document system that would allow the player to record and save text documents to help the player progress. There could be MANY uses for this system, here are a few examples that I have come up with:
• Note Taking
• Self-made guides
• Character oriented short story (for those literature junkies)
• Game Strategies
• Guild Member data sheets (For those organized Guild Leaders)
• Profession Build storage (since we don’t have this already)
• Keep track of daily character tasks (Making Charged Quartz and Bolts of Damask, etc.)

While I appreciate the thought that went into your suggestion, there are so many better ways to do this that have the added advantage of not requiring me to boot up the game to see my notes.

• I have a very handy and inexpensive notebook on my desk that not only let’s me take notes, but also sketch diagrams, and doodle with my variously colored pens.
• I have Microsoft’s OneNote which is crazy good at collecting and organizing digital notes. My husband keeps his up on his second monitor to track his builds, which characters have done which tasks/achievements, et. al.
• I have an android tablet that has a pretty good note taking app on it also, but usually I just keep the forums or wiki up on it.
• There are tons of places online to share fan fiction and other community generated content, including a whole sub-forum right here.

I don’t see a real advantage to having a notebook application in game. If I’m going to write a story, or manage my guild roster, or keep track of my builds, I’m not going to want to sit around in game and do that. I’m going to log out and use a fully featured document system that can do things like check my spelling and grammar, embed images, add tags, search and replace, tables, equations, etc.

However, your Hero’s Journal idea might be interesting as part of a web service outside the game, where some information from the game was populated from your account like your characters’ builds, achievements, a portrait showing their outfit, etc. and you could add things like guides and stories to your profile and choose whether to make different areas public/friends only/private. I think it would be a very cool extension of the community.

While you may have access to outside applications outside of the game, others however, do not. This is simply an idea to make all these features in an all-in-one in-game. This is a way to rid of the outside applications and strengthen the GW2 community all in one blow.

zacsux.2098:

While you may have access to outside applications outside of the game, others however, do not. This is simply an idea to make all these features in an all-in-one in-game. This is a way to rid of the outside applications and strengthen the GW2 community all in one blow.

There are so many free and capable collaborative document systems that there is no reason to take a game company and insist they develop productivity software.

Pandemoniac.4739:

There are so many free and capable collaborative document systems that there is no reason to take a game company and insist they develop productivity software.

I’m not insisting on anything, merely suggesting. A game company yes, but other game companies in the past have been able to accomplish this task, with success. This is the fastest selling MMO of ALL TIME, they are perfectly capable of adding a simple GW2 optimized “notepad” to help the community.

I agree with Zac. I think you’re mistaking a suggestion for a “we must have this now WTFBBQ” type deal. It’s a great idea and would benefit the community. Is a qol feature that some people would like to see implemented. Are you opposed to the idea? If you are, what makes you opposed? If you’re neither for nor against why say anything? As this is very clearly a suggestion, there’s no reason to argue unless you actually have a reason why anet should not implement it.

Brilliant idea, love it. Besides your suggestion I think that putting some informations, patch notes/videos link about latest changes (like these windows popping up, helping you with ui) showing you basic knowledge or reminding could be really helpful and would help showing players those “short stories” posted on gw2 sites, reviews, interviews about the game with devs… You know, to keep people more informed.

Adding some tab where game itself accumulates character/account-wide lore slowly gathered from dungeons, to just sum up story etc. That could be brilliant because you could always refresh some things from dungeons you’ve finished, maybe see cutscene which you’ve already seen right from H’s J. tab? Basic stuff, but could be very helpful and even players who tend to skip dungeons could get some info stuff after run, just by reading the shortcut

There isn’t any reason that you would have to convert to the Hero’s Journal (if it happened) if you are dead set on using an outside application, but I’m sure that if this was something available in-game a lot of players would take advantage of it.

Rym.1469:

Brilliant idea, love it. Besides your suggestion I think that putting some informations, patch notes/videos link about latest changes (like these windows popping up, helping you with ui) showing you basic knowledge or reminding could be really helpful and would help showing players those “short stories” posted on gw2 sites, reviews, interviews about the game with devs… You know, to keep people more informed.

Adding some tab where game itself accumulates character/account-wide lore slowly gathered from dungeons, to just sum up story etc. That could be brilliant because you could always refresh some things from dungeons you’ve finished, maybe see cutscene which you’ve already seen right from H’s J. tab? Basic stuff, but could be very helpful and even players who tend to skip dungeons could get some info stuff after run, just by reading the shortcut

What it sounds like you are talking about is like a version of the Hero’s Journal but for Anet, kind of like a GW2 newspaper using the Hero’s Journal system, which I could most definitely support.

Would it be possible for a Dev to comment on this idea? Could it possible? Maybe if enough players were behind it? Completely out of the question?

zacsux.2098:

Would it be possible for a Dev to comment on this idea? Could it possible? Maybe if enough players were behind it? Completely out of the question?

If you don’t get a dev response within a couple of days, make sure you email this suggestion to them. I really do not want this idea to fall through the cracks like so many other great ideas that Anet never took the time to read.

Emailing them would give them the opportunity to explain their opinion of the idea without the entire population of the GW2 forum scrutinizing everything they say.

Didn’t read your entire suggestion as my ADHD kicked in, but I liked what I did read and I’m sure the rest was just as good. +1

Rick.5781:

Didn’t read your entire suggestion as my ADHD kicked in, but I liked what I did read and I’m sure the rest was just as good. +1

Hah, understood, my friend. Glad you enjoyed what you did read.