Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

As of today, there are a bit over 30,000 threads in the suggestion forum, and that doesn’t include the feedback provided via the official suggestions wiki or reddit community. Without any apparent means of collating, organising or clarifying this feedback, I am curious about exactly what type of suggestion reaches in-game fruition, and to what extent Arenanet has collaboratively engaged with the GW2 community.

Is there any way of finding a list of the player suggestions that have been implemented solely because they were provided by players? Alternatively, are there any specific examples that you can provide where a suggestion thread discusses a certain feature or mechanic that is now in the game as a direct result of that discussion?

Thanks very much!

I don’t go that much through the suggestions forum, so I can’t answer the questions, but I’d be very interested to know that too!

(and this post is just to keep this up ^^)

Roven Leafsong.8917:

As of today, there are a bit over 30,000 threads in the suggestion forum

No one sane is going to read the suggestion forum.

It has:

• A very high output of suggestions, so things are moved from the front page too quickly, and so no developer can keep up with reading things in real time.

• No Search feature (in theory the forum has one, but it doesn’t work – give it a try), so a developer can’t go to the Suggestions forum and try to see what players are talking about a given topic.

Ergo, it can’t be read in real time, and it can’t be used to gather accumulated feedback about a given topic. Therefore, it’s useless.

When this forum opened, arond the first betas everyone who bought the game could join, the Suggestions forum didn’t exist. When the General Discussion forum became flooded with suggestions, ArenaNet opened the Suggestions subforum, but they claimed it was meant to be a temporary solution.

I think they just gave up on it, considering how honestly there is no good solution for this issue. But the Suggestion forum is mostly a waste of time – I doubt anyone from ArenaNet regularly reads it, it’s simply too badly designed to be useful.

A surprisingly large number of gem store suggestions have been implemented. There is the thread over in the black lion trading forum section. I’d say about half of what we’ve seen in the gemstore over the last 6 months originated from that thread.

Previewing from the TP is certainly a suggestion that was implemented. I’m sure there are many, many others. Not sure I’ve ever been to the Suggestions sub-forum. Maybe, once or twice following a dev post, though.

In the first Beta weekend there were no custom emotes and /say had a zone-wide range. They fixed that by the second beta based on everyone’s comments. Now they just need to give us a better color than dull grey for emotes!

Erasculio.2914:

But the Suggestion forum is mostly a waste of time – I doubt anyone from ArenaNet regularly reads it, it’s simply too badly designed to be useful.

That has been my subjective assessment as well, but I’d like to see exactly what has emerged over the last year or so as a direct result of Arenanet listening to player ideas and suggestions for improvement.

If it’s difficult to even come up with a few specific examples, then that would suggest to me that this might be one of the reasons GW2 seemingly attracts such polarised reactions from its audience. The company may be giving the impression of having “switched off” from caring what differently motivated players may want to see, and having no interest in engaging with players to work towards potential solutions for major issues (or for me personally, with providing diversity and inclusiveness in gameplay). I wonder if the culture this (perhaps unintentionally) projects has been taken up by parts of the community as well, which may explain the prevalence of “this game isn’t for you” type attitudes, and a “take it or leave it” approach to every element of the current design.

That’s only a guess though, and I’d prefer to find out exactly what suggestions have been effective.

I’m pretty sure the wallet comes out of people suggesting ways to ease inventories choked by tokens. Also we’ve been getting actual armor skins in the gem store, which has been suggested. There was a tremendous thread about toggling off right click targeting, which now we can do.

So yes, they do implement some suggestions.

I guess you could go through all the patch notes, and compare it with the Suggestions sub-forum, as well as the related other forums, but it would be a gargantuan task.

Roven Leafsong.8917:

That has been my subjective assessment as well, but I’d like to see exactly what has emerged over the last year or so as a direct result of Arenanet listening to player ideas and suggestions for improvement.

Ah, but what you are saying and my point are very different.

I thinkt the Suggestions forum is useless and ArenaNet never reads it.

But, they have listened to the community in multiple aspects of the game. They always did, since the original Guild Wars. More often than not, for the records, the things they add to the game based on player feedback are bad.

The thing is, the things ArenaNet added to the game have not been based on the Suggestions forum. They are things discussed here, in the main forum, or in the specific subforums for a given issue.

Examples:

• A few months after release: “We want to grind gear! We want to be rewarded with more powerful stuff! We want more progression” – and thus we got Ascended Gear.

• At the same time: “We want to grind in order to access content! We want more stuff to grind for! We want more progression!” – and thus we got Fractals of the Mists.

• A lot of time later: “We want to grind in WvW! We want more reasons to play there! We want progression!” – and thus we got the WvW experience system.

• Rather commonly, “We have way too many currencies taking inventory space, couldn’t ArenaNet just get rid of those things?”, and now we got the new wallet system, that makes the tokens not take inventory space.

• Later, we got, “We want to grind more! We want to farm more! We have no reason to play in the open world! Give us… ProgressioN!!!!!”, and so we got the updates to World Events, and now the Champion update.

And so on, and so on.

I don’t think they read the suggestion forum, and to me, seeing a thread be moved to that forum is a death sentence for the idea.

Well, it seems some devs read the Suggestions sub-forum, as there are dev posts in the first 3 or 4 pages.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Well, it seems some devs read the Suggestions sub-forum, as there are dev posts in the first 3 or 4 pages.

Those dev posts are from before the topics have been moved to the Suggestion section.

If I see any of my LS ideas actually become something I’m going to want a cut of the lucky dip takings.

Thanks to all for the examples so far! I’ll try and see if I can find the original threads themselves somehow, to see exactly how these suggestions were proposed and then accepted.

Erasculio.2914:

• A few months after release: “We want to grind gear! We want to be rewarded with more powerful stuff! We want more progression” – and thus we got Ascended Gear.

• At the same time: “We want to grind in order to access content! We want more stuff to grind for! We want more progression!” – and thus we got Fractals of the Mists.

• A lot of time later: “We want to grind in WvW! We want more reasons to play there! We want progression!” – and thus we got the WvW experience system.

Are you able to point to any specific player suggestions that detailed ‘grind’ in the form of a new tier of items between legendary and exotic, the Fractal dungeons or the WvW experience system, so that I could read through those discussions? Or is this more of an unfocused mood suggestion, in the same vein as “the game should be more fun”?

Erasculio.2914:

• Rather commonly, “We have way too many currencies taking inventory space, couldn’t ArenaNet just get rid of those things?”, and now we got the new wallet system, that makes the tokens not take inventory space.

Thanks, I’ll have a look and see if I can find that suggestion thread.

Roven Leafsong.8917:

Are you able to point to any specific player suggestions that detailed ‘grind’ in the form of a new tier of items between legendary and exotic, the Fractal dungeons or the WvW experience system, so that I could read through those discussions?

It’s more like players asking for ways to become more powerful, to have more rewards to grind for, and to have more progression in the game. Good luck finding those topics, though, considering how broken the search feature in this forum still is.

Well, some that come to my mind that have been suggested here:

• A storage for dungeon tokens was implemented in the Wallet
• Various trait improvements (such as Cleansing Ire for Warrior) have been put in
• Various skill improvements (such as the healing changes for Warriors)
• Increased loot for Champions was also brought up here

I was just reading through Colin’s posts, and he talks a lot about implementing things the community has suggested, such as more permanent content, etc. He even replies in a thread titled ‘…Suggestion for ANet’. I’m pretty sure there would be some threads in the Suggestion sub-forum about more permanent content. I believe they gather the suggestions from all over the forums, as well as other places on and off the internet, though.

Nothing much because in 1 year we still have nothing challenging all the ‘hardcore’ crowd been asking since first month of game’s release.

the wallet.
the karma account based.
preview in tp.
champion worth killing.
nerf cof p1 farming.
more armor and weapon skin.
more crystalline dust.

to be implemented:
more legendary
more means to get precursors

never implemented but very discussed in suggestion:
mounts.
useful condition damage and other stats.
no trench coats for medium armor.
more revealing armor for male of all kind of armor.
more trousers as light armor.
more no skirt like heavy armor leggings.
salvageable ascended rings.

I remember suggesting both Timers to the daily and monthly achievement panels and rotating WvW colors randomly as suggestions that have been implemented.

they are taking a lot of suggestions from a player called Nexon.
Tin foil hat on.

Nuka Cola.8520:

Nothing much because in 1 year we still have nothing challenging all the ‘hardcore’ crowd been asking since first month of game’s release.

Have you beaten Liadri yet?

Corian.4068:

I don’t think they read the suggestion forum, and to me, seeing a thread be moved to that forum is a death sentence for the idea.

I do agree about the “death sentence” part of that.

I recently made a thread to suggest something. If I had put it into GW2 Discussion, it would have gotten replies. Maybe BAD replies, but at least it would have gotten something. Instead, I was good and put it into the Suggestion Forum where it belongs, and it’s gotten less than 20 views and no replies. It’s now a few pages back, and it’s unlikely anyone will give feedback on it.

It’s frustrating, to say the least. Suggestions is a dumping ground, and that needs to be fixed.

Jrunyon.3012:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Nothing much because in 1 year we still have nothing challenging all the ‘hardcore’ crowd been asking since first month of game’s release.

Have you beaten Liadri yet?

For what, an ugly mini and 20 AP? I did not beat her after my 20 tries and i won’t bother anymore because fps is atrocious and so are the camera angles. I want something challenging done in co-op, rewarding and with long last appeal, not a spam fest npc that kills you in one hit while you’re trying to dodge her stuff at 20fps.

Things to the cash shop.
That’s about it…

Nuka Cola.8520:

Jrunyon.3012:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Nothing much because in 1 year we still have nothing challenging all the ‘hardcore’ crowd been asking since first month of game’s release.

Have you beaten Liadri yet?

For what, an ugly mini and 20 AP? I did not beat her after my 20 tries and i won’t bother anymore because fps is atrocious and so are the camera angles. I want something challenging done in co-op, rewarding and with long last appeal, not a spam fest npc that kills you in one hit while you’re trying to dodge her stuff at 20fps.

Get top 1000 in PvP when there are roughly 40,000 active members on it.

Chase.8415:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Jrunyon.3012:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Nothing much because in 1 year we still have nothing challenging all the ‘hardcore’ crowd been asking since first month of game’s release.

Have you beaten Liadri yet?

For what, an ugly mini and 20 AP? I did not beat her after my 20 tries and i won’t bother anymore because fps is atrocious and so are the camera angles. I want something challenging done in co-op, rewarding and with long last appeal, not a spam fest npc that kills you in one hit while you’re trying to dodge her stuff at 20fps.

Get top 1000 in PvP when there are roughly 40,000 active members on it.

Did i buy this game to cap brainless circles all day every day? I don’t think so. When they add pvp worth a kitten then i may complain less because i would be playing the kitten thing. Their game mode is boring, i can’t handle spvp for more than 2h at a time.

What suggestions have they used? I recall the following, implemented due to small issues pointed out:

- Bonus Chests for World Bosses.
- Karma Jugs for Daily Achievements.
- Custom choices for Daily/Monthly Achievements.
- Craft from Bank.
- Something more to use Karma for (Orrian Jewelry Boxes)

Now, these are the five things which come to mind which weren’t added “in some fashion” like WXP progression . . . these are things which were added almost exactly as asked for at the times they were sought out. I would have put Lost Shores on there, because people wanted a big event but we all know it turned into a rather huge problematic disappointment due to the technical snag of everyone on a server crammed into one zone.

Nuka Cola.8520:

Nothing much because in 1 year we still have nothing challenging all the ‘hardcore’ crowd been asking since first month of game’s release.

So they didn’t take YOUR suggestions. It could be because you suggest things so negatively.

Vayne.8563:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Nothing much because in 1 year we still have nothing challenging all the ‘hardcore’ crowd been asking since first month of game’s release.

So they didn’t take YOUR suggestions. It could be because you suggest things so negatively.

No, they didn’t took hundreds upon hundreds of people suggesting some kind of end game. Anet released fractals as end game rofl.

Nuka Cola, to me, and probably lots of other people it seems you ask for challenging contents (but you don’t say what challenging is) than they add some challenge you are not able to overcome though you still complain and blame fps. it looks like you are one of those people that can never be happy for some reason.
btw i never have more than 14 fps in any area of the game only problem i have with liadri is i’m colorblind and red circles are invisible to me. but nobody can deny some of those champions are challenging

I doubt anyone can actually remember every single thing that has been changed in the year the game has been out (and the 5 months before that when it was in beta). I’m certain no one could remember everything that has been suggested on this forum and elsewhere in that time.

So actually compiling a whole list complete with links to specific topics would require a lot of research. If you really want that I think you’re going to have to do it yourself.

But off the top of my head here are a few things I remember changing based on player suggestions or feedback:
Dead NPC icons It used to be that NPCs had the same icon as players. A lot of people were frustrated that they’d go out of their way to revive someone only to find out it was an NPC who was just going to walk off and get themselves killed again. So they gave them a different colour icon.

Dead Pets Originally pets had the same death icon as players (and NPCs) and could be revived by anyone. Again this was really annoying because people would go to revive someone and find it was a pet. So they changed it so only the owner could revive a pet.

But that still annoyed rangers because they’d be about to loot something, or talk to an NPC and their pet would wander in range and they’d be stuck healing them. Which was pointless anyway because swapping was faster and had the same effect. So they removed reviving pets completely and just had us swap them.

Sell junk button Another one added during the betas. Apparently this was an oversight anyway, but they added it because players asked for it.

Changing the prioritisation of the F button I can’t remember when they did this but it was after launch. I’m not sure what the order used to be, as far as I could tell it was random. Now it puts revive first, then loot, then speak to NPCs, then whatever else the button might do.

AoE looting I think people specifically asked for a system like WvW has where loot appears at your feet, but AoE looting is just as good.

Changing dailies This is another one which wasn’t specifically asked for. There was a thread with about 150 replies in General Discussion talking about how the old daily achievement system (where it was always kills, kill variety, events, gathering and something else and you had to get them all) was boring and no one did it unless they just happened to have played enough to check them all off.

So they changed it to be more like the monthly where the tasks change and you can pick which ones you do. But people still said there was no point doing it, so they added laurels to make it actually rewarding.

More Progression There were a lot of threads around October where people talked about being frustrated that once you got to 80 and got exotics there was no vertical progression, which to many people meant there was no reason to keep playing. But this was countered by a lot of people saying that’s why they like the game and they don’t want more progression.

They handled it quite well IMO by adding Fractals of the Mists and Ascended gear. If you wanted vertical progression you could play the dungeon, get a lucky drop or save up tokens and get ascended gear that allowed you to play the higher levels. If you weren’t interested it didn’t matter because it was a self-enclosed system. You didn’t really need ascended gear for anything except agony resistance and you didn’t need agony resistance unless you were doing Fractals.

That’s changed slightly now of course with more ascended gear and more ways to get it, but you can still do everything without it and ignore Fractals if you want to.

They have actually used loads and loads of player suggestions and implemented them in game where possible.

They are also working on quite a few atm…

Most quality of life changes, like the wallet for example where suggestions…

From what I can tell, the devs definetely listen to lots of feedback but the vast majority comes from the living story forum, fansites, general discussion and the pvp/wvw forums. Things like account wide karma had been suggested since launch and with the ‘wallet’ making almost all currencies acc wide they decided to bring that with it.

Fractals was in part made due to people requesting for endgame.

Crafting with items that aren’t in your collectible tab (bank) was added. Aswell as a minor UI change in the crafting panel.

No more 1time events like southsun because lots of ppl had issues with it, although this likely was also heavily influenced by them noticing so much server strain.

Improved champ loot.

Dungeon loot changes, which are now on like.. the 4th iteration since launch?

Previewing in the TP, although it was likely planned.. the game has felt like a beta from launch due to many features still needing to be implemented. I suppose that’s with all new MMO’s though.

There are alot of other changes made that I cannot think of right now, but in general, Anet got information about what sort of things people want. After prioritizing such feedback they then put their own twist on things. Nobody suggested fractals literally the way it’s done ingame, nor the ascended gear. People just said they wanted to have X Y Z to do and Anet used it’s own creativity. Comparing my experience with other MMO development companies I would say they listen alot better to feedback.

I think you also have to bear in mind that it’s not always as simple as following suggestions is good and ignoring them is bad.

There are a lot of player suggestions which are terrible, impossible or which contradict each other. Like people asking for more content which requires a group vs. people asking for everything to be soloable by most people. Or people who think everyone should be able to get all the achievements with time vs. people who want a real challenge and a reward to show for it.

They couldn’t possibly implement every single suggestion that’s posted and if they tried the game would be a jumbled mess.

That’s true, but I’ve played quite alot of MMO’s where solid suggestions (things you see in modern mmos quite commonly now) were simply ignored or took years before they were implemented or not at all. I create games in my spare time, although obviously on a much smaller scale but I see ANet as a company, compared to experience I’ve had with others, that listens alot more. Or perhaps you could see it as, they recocnize and are more willing to implement well thought out user suggestions.

Sorry I should have made it clearer, my post was in response to the OP, not the post above it.

The wallet was from a combination of people saying inv. gets choked and you can’t transfer karma and the such.

Champion bags are from people saying champions drop junk all.

Mesmer getting nerfed in every patch for a while was from people crying they’re OP.

A lot of temp. content will get recycled later from people liking them so much.

etc.

The looking for group system they’re working on is due to player feedback. Guild missions is probably something they made due to feedback.

Well they adjusted the loot of champions, what will result to nothing because all they are doing is flooding the market with the new stuff.
But people got what they wanted, the carrot on a stick. Atleast for a while.

In my previous MMO the suggestions board was moved into the Fun and Games section since it was a sport for players to rip suggestions to pieces, or to simply point out that the suggestion had been already suggested X times in the last Y days/weeks/months and were ripped to pieces them and give them a link.

That said the devs in that game did use some of the better thought out ones but we’re talking Sturgeon’s Law being in full effect.

“don’t take anything from GW1 that used to work and people loved it. Oh, and don’t bring other things either”

Well if there was a suggestion like this, they took it pretty serious.

zeromius.1604:

The looking for group system they’re working on is due to player feedback. Guild missions is probably something they made due to feedback.

LFG system was in GW1 since launch, its GW2 version was just not ready.

It was not a suggestion, but rather a “why is that we haven’t got a LFG tool?”.

I can recall two more things implemented at player request: A walk toggle rather than having to hold a button down to stay at walking pace, and no more camera spin when dead.

Donari.5237:

I can recall two more things implemented at player request: A walk toggle rather than having to hold a button down to stay at walking pace, and no more camera spin when dead.

I don’t know how I forgot about the lack of camera spin, that was incredibly annoying!

Still not as bad as GW1 though where the camera would spin around quickly for several seconds after you were resurrected. Which pretty much guaranteed that if there were any enemies around you were going to die again because they’d hit you before you could see what was going on to react.

Amadan.9451:

never implemented but very discussed in suggestion:
mounts.
useful condition damage and other stats.
no trench coats for medium armor.
more revealing armor for male of all kind of armor.
more trousers as light armor.
more no skirt like heavy armor leggings.
salvageable ascended rings.

never implemented yet. I can understand why some are not implemented.
mounts. (your character is fast enough really, if to implement mounts you should make them cosmetic only and isn’t that what that broom in the gem store is?)
useful condition damage and other stats. (they’re having problems with the server calculations. There has been suggestions that would work – like for example just transfer the damage off a ticking condition damage to regular damage when there’s a stack of 25 of a condition, that way people could have more than one condition damager. I can understand that they’re having a hard time dealing with it and because of that this update can’t come yet).
Things that should get in the game and there’s no reason why not to put them in:
no trench coats for medium armor.
more revealing armor for male of all kind of armor.
more trousers as light armor.
more no skirt like heavy armor leggings.
salvageable ascended rings.