Guild Wars 2

The new daily achievement rotation of mini-game participation seems, frankly, pointless and misplaced to me; it shouldn’t be there.

For example, I owe an apology to any players in the game of Southsun Survival I’ve just (for want of a better word) “played”. Simply by being in the game, I ticked the daily achievement box. And that’s my point – all I wanted was the achievement. I zoned in, swapped to another screen and did other things until the game ended. I came back and hit the movement keys regularly enough to not get kicked. Did I give a hoot about the game? No. Whether I won? No. Whether I survived, even? No (I died about 2 minutes in, in fact, and the game ended shortly afterwards). Did I devalue the game for other players? Quite possibly. Will I do the same again tomorrow? Undoubtedly.

Not really what a daily achievement task ought to be.

I think its a good idea to encourage people to play the game.

Sure, there will be some who will just see it as an opportunity to zone in, do nothing, and get a “free” daily achievement, but others will give the game a try because why not play it if you’re already there. And it will perhaps expose people to a game they might end up enjoying for the first time.

I mean, what else could they do in terms of activity achieves really? They could require more than one game, but that would just be more grinding and you’d still be able to do nothing and get it. They could make you win, but for people who aren’t good at the game that would make the daily too tough to get (for example despite playing something like 20 games I’ve never won Southsun Survival once, so if it required winning I’d probably never get it). I guess they could require a certain number of points to force you to participate at least, but since each game handles points differently that may or may not be ideal for all games, and it would require a different achieve for each activity rather than a blanket achieve. Probably the best alternative by far, but would take some extra work to implement and require the daily to always match the right event, which might cause problems with different timezones unless the game and dailys use the exact same system.

There could be no achievement at all, but then people would complain thakittens pointless (do you still get the rewards from the game as normal? I haven’t done one of the daily ones just yet).

Personally I think it’s a good idea because it encourages people to at least enter the activity.

I did much the same as you when playing Southsun Survivor to get the achievement during Cutthroat Politics – I’d enter, afk until I died, collect enough light orbs to get enough points to qualify and afk until the end of the match.

But on the other hand I also played both Aspect Arena and Sanctum Sprint initially just for the achievement and found myself really enjoying them. I went back to both several times even after I didn’t need the achievement again, and I would probably never have tried them without it.

Well, it is an option. You do not have to do it if you don’t want to, but is a nice addition for those who might decide to take a chance and stretch themselves into things they may not have done before. It really is a nice open door to finding out you can do more than you thought you could.

I never won at Sanctum Sprint but did find it challenging and would definitely do it as well as some of the others again for this achievement.

I think it’s a good idea as it encourages people to give things a go that they might otherwise have not known about or ignored.

There are far more options to choose from for your daily activities than this – you zoning in and then basically going AFK can really mess up the game for others who are actively trying to enjoy their time in that activity. I suggest you find one that you actually are slightly more invested in/get something out of and go do that, rather than do one you are bored of and then complain about it.

There are also achievement points you can get by actually playing the game. So if you just zoned in and tabbed out, you get none of them.

I think you may have missed the point of the daily. It is there so that people who LIKE doing mini games can get credit towards their daily. If you don’t like mini games you have PLENTY of other options.

Wondering if it is bugged. Went to Lion’s Arch, found the guy near the herald and did the Sanctum Sprint and did not get any achievement for it…sigh.

Nevermind….you have to wait for the timer to tick all the way down to get the daily achieve….I did leave before it had done that and repeated and it took.

Aerinndis.2730:

Wondering if it is bugged. Went to Lion’s Arch, found the guy near the herald and did the Sanctum Sprint and did not get any achievement for it…sigh.

Nevermind….you have to wait for the timer to tick all the way down to get the daily achieve….I did leave before it had done that and repeated and it took.

Yes, the round has to actually finish (the score screen comes up) before it’ll count your participation. You can’t just win and leave, gotta wait for the round to end.

I believe you also have to actually leave the activity before you’ll see the achieve pop. At least I had to during Crab Toss, I played a few games and didn’t see it show up until after I was done and had left.

Vayne.8563:

There are also achievement points you can get by actually playing the game. So if you just zoned in and tabbed out, you get none of them.

Yes, I’d missed that. Agreed – that’s a good enough reason to do the activity seriously a few times.

I don’t mind them putting “Activity Participation” into the daily mix. What I dislike is that they include what I would class as PvP in it. The first two activities were PvP based games. If I wanted PvP I would do sPvP or WvW. I don’t like that they are trying to pass of these games as PvE.

Kendra Nightwind.8734:

I don’t mind them putting “Activity Participation” into the daily mix. What I dislike is that they include what I would class as PvP in it. The first two activities were PvP based games. If I wanted PvP I would do sPvP or WvW. I don’t like that they are trying to pass of these games as PvE.

I will agree it is technically PvP since it is pitting player against other player. And it takes place in the PvP environment but I have to say (IMHO), it is the good kind of PvP. No gear or build advantage. No class imbalance. And completely lacking in flavor of the month wunderkind. These mini-games are player skill based.

So while they are PvP, I think they lack the parts of PvP that, again IMHO, turn PvE players off of PvP. I, an avowed loather of PvP in all forms, actually really enjoy playing the mini-games. I have even managed to win once or twice in each of the different games.

I like that ArenaNet has added another way (more choice is always good) for people to complete their daily. At least for me, it is way more fun that making a trip to the Mists to complete the WvW requirements, feeding my drops into the Mystic “Forge” or spending Karma that I really did not need to spend. It is just another option.