Guild Wars 2

(I apologize if this is the wrong place for new feature suggestions.)

I suggest that the dance performed by a character using the /dance command, currently set permanently based on your race, instead be chosen by the player. Each character would begin the game knowing only his or her race’s dance. Throughout the world, there would be a way for each character to learn new dances, perhaps through items (training manuals?), minigames (e.g. Belcher’s Bluff), and/or quests. Characters would be able switch from their current dance to any other dance they’ve learned at any time. There should be dances that you can learn for free (via non-Gem interaction), and other dances that can only be learned via some form of Gem Store purchase.

Pros:
- Improves an existing mechanic.
- Increases character customization without altering game balance.
- Creates a new sink for in-game money (training costs).
- Has enormous real-life money-making potential via Gems.

I personally know dozens of people that would pay gems to learn new dances, and I would bet hard cash that entire guilds would pay to be able to learn a new dance they could synchronized group dance to.

New dances and new emotes are one of the top things I hope to see available in the gem store…but I’m not getting my hopes up. From what I understand, the cost of developing these things is really high compared to any expected profit. I’m pretty sure this is why WoW never got the dance studio that was promised with WotLK.

Which is why I tried to highlight the Gem Store possibilities in my post.

I legitimately believe that this change could make them enough money that its worthwhile to dedicate work time to it – probably enough they could hire a new programmer solely to design this feature and maintain it.

1. There already is a gem-store item called How to Dance, Volume 1. Judging by the name, more will come at some point.
2. I’m pretty sure that dance animations are tailored to work with race models/physics, and a charr doing an asura golem dance will look broken.

You already can do that.
How to Dance, Volume 1

EDIT: Nunjaed by Lishtenbird.

Regarding racial dance animations being designed to only work with a single race model:

1) I’m not expecting a direct copy and paste of all existing dances. This idea will take work – but its worth it, for the players and for the company. We already know they can make dances that work for all races… for example, How to Dance, Volume 1 .

2) Specifically regarding racial dances, I expect that racial dances will not become learnable by other races, similar to the way in which cultural armor is only usable by each specific race. Or, if they are learnable by outside races, it’ll take some sort of ridiculously difficult quest to prove yourself as an “honorary charr” or “honorary human” etc.
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Regarding the comparison to How to Dance, Volume 1 :

Not the same thing, not even close. It has to do with dancing, and its a Gem Store item. But comparing the existing dance book (replaces skills, set dances, other people dance to it via invitation) to the personalized dance system I’m talking about is like comparing apples to… ok, maybe they’re both oranges, but your oranges are itsy bitsy and my oranges are huge monstrosities that win state fairs.