Guild Wars 2

Each Month provides a reward of a new mini. And don’t you dare state otherwise. What do you want me to do with a mini I don’t need or care anything about? Put minis in gem store and give me something to strive for. The 2 dragon wings are the only things I’ve done living world for. That’s it. Finito. Nothing more. And the game has been out for a year. Well done. clapping hands. Sarchasm. Gnite.

They’re preparing us for the pokemon craze that will soon sweep over tyria.

They don’t interest me either. I just ignore them and find other parts of the game to entertain myself.

So you don’t like minis. Okay. What about people who do like them? There have been numerous back skins (Zephyrite update was rife with them, for example), weapon skins (SAB), shoulder skins (from scarlet’s invasion), an endless transform tonic, armor skin (molten, dragon bash)…. there are lots of rewards. Why complain about the ones you don’t like?

The minis will forever be lame until the fix the problem of them going away evert 3 seconds when you do something

While you don’t like them, there are a lot of reasons why we get minis with most releases. They’re relatively easy to implement from a code perspective, since mini mechanics are already well-established. From an art perspective, they don’t have any possible clipping issues to deal with, and they use character models that are already being used, some of which might not get used again (Southsun Faren & Kasmeer.) As an item, the non-sellable ones are cut off from directly affecting the economy, and the sellable ones will generally have a minor effect at best, while letting those who don’t want minis sell to those who do. As a souvenir, minis are good because they tie into relevant/memorable characters from an event. Since they can go in the collectible items bank, they don’t hog bank space (a frequent complaint about back items) and while you can only have one out at a time, they don’t really compete with each other the way back items do.

They’re not going to interest everyone, sure, but there’s a ton of reasons why we keep seeing them, and will probably continue to see them. On the bright side, they’re never the only reward for a release, and the Living Story teams seem pretty good about varying whether they’re the primary reward (Mini Watchknight, Candy Corn Elemental,) a secondary reward (Mini Clockheart, Mini Bloody Prince,) or just a random drop (Mini Faren, Mini Tequatl.)

The only reason I can think of for the mini craze is the huge amount of younger people that grew up with Pokemon, Digimon, ect cartoons and games from the late 90s to now. I don’t know very many people who were in their late teens or older when Pokemon came out that care much about minis, but those who were in the younger teens or younger when Pokemon came out seem to love the minis.

They’re banking on those that get addicted to collecting items and enough of them exist out there. They lure them in with the free ones via achievements, then comes the Ca$h $hop minis. They’re a business after all.

Minis should not be earned through a monthly living story reward. Tonics are completely useless. You cannot do anything except for running around with a new appearance until you get into combat when you get transformed back and the tonic is wasted.

I could not care less about minis or the characters from the living story since I do not do the living story because they offer a mini I could not care less about. Worthless junk. Yeah, the coding is not hard to do to keep a mini in the game, but why a living world reward? Should I be satisfied with a mini as living story reward because it is simple to code? Must be the most stupidest thing I have ever heard.

And yeah, what variation do you refer to? That I can get a small bag of gold which is not gold at all and in fact 10 silver if not less? Or the unlimited tonics I destroy because they take up space in my backpack I need for other stuff and are completely useless? What variation in rewards are there? Weapon skins? Yeah, ok, fine…. they are obtained from loot. Not a living world reward chest where our precious minis are to not even be previewed.

The first thing I do when new content arrive, check out what rewards are available. And what I saw again was yet another mini… I hate you minis. I hope mewtwo eat your creators. Buhu…

I never have nor will i ever be interested in minis. Its really disappointing to me that my hard work on ls is reworded with a useless candy corn that fallows me around, no thanks. All my minis get stored in my collectables and never looked at again.

Its a GW1 thing I guess. In that game you had some minis that weren’t even just from events, they were RANDOMLY obtained from YEARLY rewards. People loved it for some reason.

I’d agree with Xae. It’s probably one of the few things that stems from the GW system. People loved minis on GW, and so following through on that thought process, people on GW2 would love them as well.

Aeranima.2853:

Minis should not be earned through a monthly living story reward. Tonics are completely useless. You cannot do anything except for running around with a new appearance until you get into combat when you get transformed back and the tonic is wasted.

Consider the Infinite Watchknight Tonic, which was a Living Story reward and lets you fight while transformed. It’s still just a visual thing, so some might consider it useless, but it’s meant to be fun, not “useful.”

Aeranima.2853:

I could not care less about minis or the characters from the living story since I do not do the living story because they offer a mini I could not care less about.

You…don’t care about the characters in the living story, because you don’t do the living story, because you don’t want the minis of characters you don’t care about? Circular logic is circular?

At any rate, remember that other players do like the characters and minis.

Aeranima.2853:

Yeah, the coding is not hard to do to keep a mini in the game, but why a living world reward? Should I be satisfied with a mini as living story reward because it is simple to code? Must be the most stupidest thing I have ever heard.

That’s an explanation as to why we get so many. If they weren’t so easy, we’d just get fewer novel rewards in general. No one is expecting you to be satisfied if you don’t like them, but when you start a thread asking “What is up with all the minis?” it sounds like what you need is an explanation, not a solution to your personal dissatisfaction.

Aeranima.2853:

And yeah, what variation do you refer to? That I can get a small bag of gold which is not gold at all and in fact 10 silver if not less? Or the unlimited tonics I destroy because they take up space in my backpack I need for other stuff and are completely useless? What variation in rewards are there?

Minis. Infinite Watchknight Tonic. Tons of back skins/items. Couple of bags. Horns of the Dragon. Fused Gauntlets. Marjory’s Journal. Flames of Kryta Zephyr Sanctum Model. Quartz node for your home instance.

We get a lot of minis, but I think there’s some fair variety in the other rewards as well. Are they useful? Generally, no, but that’s not really the point with festival rewards.

Aeranima.2853:

The first thing I do when new content arrive, check out what rewards are available. And what I saw again was yet another mini… I hate you minis. I hope mewtwo eat your creators. Buhu…

Let’s look at the current release: Mini Candy Corn Elemental as part of a storyline that ends with a Candy Corn node for your home instance. Candy Corn can be used to buy a Mini Bloody Prince and/or a 20-slot Halloween Pail, and while both of them are insanely expensive, the Mini costs a third more than the Pail. Pail isn’t a very good deal, since it takes so much Candy Corn, but it’s still useful and collectible, both prizes will help keep Candy Corn prices up, and both prizes are out of reach for most players. Then there’s the “Mask of the Night” for participation in Mad King Says. I’m not counting the new minis in the gem store or the Halloween weapons/weapon skins.

Seems like an extremely well-balanced event, and I expect most people who do the basics to end up with a Mini Elemental, a Candy Corn Node in their home instance, and the Mask of the Night. Whether or not you like those other prizes, minis are hardly the only act in town.

Thing is i loved the minis in GW1 but they didnt go away everytime you switched zones

Generally I don’t mind the mini’s.
I am getting a little annoyed with the 1-2 3 packs per month in which you need to buy 2 if you’d like to get all 4 minis from that set.

inb4 “You don’t have to buy them”

I realize that.

The problem with Anet producing new minis so often is the fact that their whole mini system is fundamentally flawed in almost every facet. Why on earth does my mini disappear every time I go into a new zone/instance? Why do they lag behind so much that I basically never see them on my screen when I’m moving? Why do I have to to carry every single mini I want to use in my inventory when they should all be accessible via a mini slot in my hero screen?

The way minis are handled in this game is seriously unsatisfying and it’s a joke they keep making new ones instead of fixing how they’re actually used in game.

I want a mini cooper at least that has some value

Minis would be cool if they didn’t disappear constantly and get put in the bank when I deposit mats.

Mathias.9657:

Minis would be cool if they didn’t disappear constantly and get put in the bank when I deposit mats.

Just so ya know, invisible bags (I assume “safe” boxes too) are great for storing minis because deposit all collectibles leaves them alone.

On topic, I think it’s a fairly nice spread of items. I don’t care about a lot of the backpieces myself, but I don’t see a reason to gripe that they’re included, too.

Aeranima.2853:

Minis should not be earned through a monthly living story reward. Tonics are completely useless. You cannot do anything except for running around with a new appearance until you get into combat when you get transformed back and the tonic is wasted.

I could not care less about minis or the characters from the living story since I do not do the living story because they offer a mini I could not care less about. Worthless junk. Yeah, the coding is not hard to do to keep a mini in the game, but why a living world reward? Should I be satisfied with a mini as living story reward because it is simple to code? Must be the most stupidest thing I have ever heard.

And yeah, what variation do you refer to? That I can get a small bag of gold which is not gold at all and in fact 10 silver if not less? Or the unlimited tonics I destroy because they take up space in my backpack I need for other stuff and are completely useless? What variation in rewards are there? Weapon skins? Yeah, ok, fine…. they are obtained from loot. Not a living world reward chest where our precious minis are to not even be previewed.

The first thing I do when new content arrive, check out what rewards are available. And what I saw again was yet another mini… I hate you minis. I hope mewtwo eat your creators. Buhu…

Oh, so the devs should just cater to what you want and throw out all the things you don’t want. That sounds reasonable.

I listed many of the loot variations we’ve seen from living stories, and all that was just off the top of my head. Another poster was kind enough to link a bunch for you, so maybe that will sink in.

Just because you don’t like one thing doesn’t mean the devs should stop coding that thing for everyone. Do you understand how selfish that would be? The world doesn’t revolve around you.

Am I the only one here who doesn’t give a flying crap about mini’s? It’s like I’ve entered the twilight zone where everyone thinks the opposite of what I think. Seriously, I’ve posted about 20 threads giving my opinion on things that were the norm for games like WoW, and then I come to GW2 and everyone likes mini animals, rainbows, and unicorns? What is up with the GW2 community?

kitten nic Touch.7960:

They’re preparing us for the pokemon craze that will soon sweep over tyria.

Even better irony, we finally get Polymock but you need minis to play it. lol

You don’t like minis, I understand that… but judging from the multiple huge threads of people complaining about how their mini collection will be incomplete because of the Mr. Sparkles mini that is (so far at least) exclusive to be given away in conventions, I’d say there are plenty of people that love them.

The only reason I can think of for the mini craze is the huge amount of younger people that grew up with Pokemon, Digimon, ect cartoons and games from the late 90s to now. I don’t know very many people who were in their late teens or older when Pokemon came out that care much about minis, but those who were in the younger teens or younger when Pokemon came out seem to love the minis.

I was in my late 20’s when Pokemon came out here, and while I did check the first episode (being a deprived anime fan back then), can’t say I’ve ever liked it… yet I enjoy having minis… and I know at least two guildies older than me that love collecting them all and have all the gem store ones as well..

eisberg.2379:

The only reason I can think of for the mini craze is the huge amount of younger people that grew up with Pokemon, Digimon, ect cartoons and games from the late 90s to now. I don’t know very many people who were in their late teens or older when Pokemon came out that care much about minis, but those who were in the younger teens or younger when Pokemon came out seem to love the minis.

Nope not the case. A least not for me. I loved pokemon and Digimon. I grew during the 90s and thought those games were neat. Hell I had all 151 pokemon on my red version.

@Galtrix.7369
Nope your not. I don’t give a flyin’ kitten either. I hated them in the first game and hate em in this game. I really hated them in WoW and I really hate then in Castle Crashers. ‘Cept those ones in Castle Crashers provide some unique buff which I don’t care if one gave me god mode I still wouldn’t use them.

Those of you who think I am selfish because I say minis are useless and should not be in the game at all cracks me up. Really. They are useless and there is NO ONE who can disagree because they do not do anything to you or anyone else except being small, slow and…mini. I don’t mind them being in game at all, but I do not ever, EVER want to see them in a LW reward chest EVER again. Put the effort creating a new mini in disabling the Skyhammer map for PvP farmers instead. Must be as much effort it takes to add a new mini to the game.

By your logic skins are useless too since they’re just cosmetic. The entire point of GW2 (supposedly) was to play for looks and not stats, so I don’t see how liking minis is any different than liking a particular weapon skin.