Standard Models in Unranked
I would go as far as saying that standard models should be on every game mode.
Without standard models, it’s much harder to learn to read animations and the players that need the most help (i.e., those that are new to PvP) simply get “outmatched” because someone purposefully made the smallest asura possible and gets lost in turrets/minions/pets or gets obstructed by all the glowing explosions on the battle field.
It’s actually impossible to see a lot of asuran animations since they’re regularly obscured by things like minoins/turrets/pets/explosions.
I would go as far as saying that standard models should be on every game mode.
Without standard models, it’s much harder to learn to read animations and the players that need the most help (i.e., those that are new to PvP) simply get “outmatched” because someone purposefully made the smallest asura possible and gets lost in turrets/minions/pets or gets obstructed by all the glowing explosions on the battle field.
It’s actually impossible to see a lot of asuran animations since they’re regularly obscured by things like minoins/turrets/pets/explosions.
No thanks unless it’s an option, I prefer to see peoples outfits and I play Charr.
Why can’t we have this in both unranked and ranked? If you’re going to lock ranked queue, then at least let us have standard models in unranked.
The answer to your question is to follow the money.
This game was originally designed with the end game of ‘Fashion Wars 2’ and that created cash flow via the gem store. Anet was so terrified of letting players use standardized models that they chose to not include the standardized model in ranked for a very long time; they even when so far as to try to tell the masses that ‘we don’t have the tech’ even though transforms have existed in the game since day 1.
Its a weird situation where it takes cash flow to support the game, and while Anet has done a pretty good job of keeping the ‘pay to win’ out of the game, this interaction of selling digital dress up items trumping mechanics and ‘fair play’ in their pvp mode was unfortunate. Further to this, most players didn’t realize that there was an advantage of going with the smallest asuran character model (animations dont line up with hit boxes, much easier to hid cast animations, even difficult at times to determine front from back, etc) until it was too late. If you wanted to gain the same advantage you’d need to reroll a new character entirely, as there is not and won’t ever be an option to change your race (due to interaction with the personal story).
In the end Anet put in a standard character model setting that can be used in Rank and Custom Arenas, but that’s as far as I’m sure we’ll ever see them relent on this issue.
(edited by Naix.8156)