Guild Wars 2

What I would really like to see brought to this game is an overview of other players’ profiles a la Diablo 3. It would be awesome to be able to view your friends’ profiles to see what characters they’re playing, how they’ve equipped them or skilled them, or what level they are. This could help you compare and figure out your own builds, catch up if you want to level with someone, and help your friends with their builds and items if they have questions. Also, if you’re in a dungeon or running champ trains or living world events etc. with a huge mob of players and you see someone with a weapon or armor you really like or you notice they do great damage or can tank really well and you want to know how they do it / what they have you can just check out the profile of that character by selecting them and having that option among the choices in the right-click menu (possibly something along the lines of a 2-tabbed window: 1. something similar to the preview screen that shows their armor and its stats and 2. something similar to the weapon skills and traits screens only showing the skills their equipped weapons give them and what traits they have skilled and which ones they have equipped to the trait slots). I would love to see something like this implemented as I’ve wished time and time again that I could view not only my friends’ characters but also certain ones “in the field”.

I would also like to see some kind of public profile. But to most of this, no. Most of the suggestions I see here would just promote elitism and excluding people who don’t have every little thing exactly how the other people want. In turn this potentially could lead to less build diversity and those who want to try different things being excluded. I would prefer to keep gear and trait information hidden to avoid promoting gear and trait elitism.

Now what I would like to show off is finished achievements!

If there was a profile system I would prefer it only be about achievements since achievement points themselves are already public. Also maybe even a little spot you can edit for talking about how you like to play in your own words to make it personal.

I am all for a type of personal profile that can be made public, just not in the form envisioned in the original post.

Deano.7913:

But to most of this, no. Most of the suggestions I see here would just promote elitism and excluding people who don’t have every little thing exactly how the other people want. In turn this potentially could lead to less build diversity and those who want to try different things being excluded. I would prefer to keep gear and trait information hidden to avoid promoting gear and trait elitism.

I’m sorry but I find that total bologna! Why would that be the case? If you decide to then copycat other peoples’ builds that’s an issue that you yourself have to work out. Besides, everyone has their own different play style and they need to find a build that works for them. And also the way the system is now there’s not a HUGE diverse selection of builds to go for anyway. There’s certain stats that you can pick (if you pick them you need certain armor) and then you use a certain build (i.e. almost all the fellow hunters I’ve seen use the same build, same skills, same weapons) just because it works best. If your argument were to be viable then there would need to be whole complex skill trees letting you choose from different skills and the amount of points you put into them, but there’s not.
I want this feature added purely for informational purposes, that’s all.

Aechidna.3084:

If you decide to then copycat other peoples’ builds that’s an issue that you yourself have to work out.

It is not about copying, it is about exclusion and elitism some would use this for.

Aechidna.3084:

There’s certain stats that you can pick (if you pick them you need certain armor) and then you use a certain build (i.e. almost all the fellow hunters I’ve seen use the same build, same skills, same weapons) just because it works best. If your argument were to be viable then there would need to be whole complex skill trees letting you choose from different skills and the amount of points you put into them, but there’s not.
I want this feature added purely for informational purposes, that’s all.

You may want it for informational purposes (which would be great if everyone was like that) but others would not hesitate to kick people from parties or chastise them while doing things like dungeon runs for example. “You don’t have this gear and these traits kick”, “LF2M CoF Warrior Zerker only” , “You don’t have the gear we demand, go away”, “Guys lets kick this [class name] with [undesirable armor type] and replace him/her with a [desirable armor type] Warrior”, etc…

Like I was trying to say you may have honorable intentions but this I can see being abused. Normally when I see a weapon I like, I just ask. Most people love to tell you about some cool item they have. Might even make a friend through any potential conversation that starts.

Well then I guess it’s up to Arenanet to have a more optimistic viewpoint on it like I do and not see the glass as half empty as you do, Deano. There might be people that do the things you say but then you just say screw them and not join/leave their group (maybe even resorting to reporting the behavior in order to discourage it). No matter what feature in a game there will always be people who exploit it. But overall I think this would be a good thing.

I enjoy the general idea of public profiles. I am leaning more towards profiles that shows off one’s achievements and accomplishments. Displaying titles was a nice baby step toward this idea.

I would support this idea, if it allowed us to also share a minor biography that we can write ourselves, which other players can view.

I agree with Deano. In other games, where they have an “inspect” feature, and you can see builds and gear, it always ends up getting used by people to exclude other people from parties. There’s quite enough of that going around in the first place.

Even if you wanted to put an opt out on it, people would insist you opt in or they’d not let you join the party.

It’s happened in other games, it will happen here too.

I think it’d be fun to have an account profile, where all of your characters are shown in their gear and you can select things you do/don’t want visible, like a short bio, progress on personal story, titles, etc.

The toggle on/off option is important, though, for the griefing reasons people have posted above.

@Vayne and others – Elitists already “force” prospective party members to do a gear check by making them ping gear. This wouldn’t be any worse than what’s already in the game, IMO.

Vick.6805:

@Vayne and others – Elitists already “force” prospective party members to do a gear check by making them ping gear. This wouldn’t be any worse than what’s already in the game, IMO.

But having a profile at the ready does make it worse. Some elitists don’t bother asking you to ping everything and just go with the honor system until you screw up then you get booted. More or less because it’s a hassle checking every group members gear out/they could just ping one set and have different one on. Imagine if ppl can can quickly check with just a couple clicks, more ppl would be checking the gear. Myself included, because as of now I don’t ask ppl to ping gear but if could check out everyones gear I would look and be highly tempted to kick out lvl80s in greens or lvl 60s wearing lvl40 gear.

Do you want to play with filthy elitists?

There’s this thing called privacy. You don’t need to know, nor I would argue the right to know, what I’m doing. Especially not with my entire account. If you want to know something, ask. Then it’s our choice to tell you or not.

Go to sPvP if you want an inspect feature.

Molch.2078:

Do you want to play with filthy elitists?

Yes.

Next question? You there, in the orange…

Well, since there is so much negativity about public profiles then i just at least want to be able to view my friends’ profiles!!

Aechidna.3084:

Well, since there is so much negativity about public profiles then i just at least want to be able to view my friends’ profiles!!

I think there is so much negativity because this relates to the discussions about Why no /inspect I wouldn’t mind profile sharing, even though I argue against /inspect. Actually I don’t mind any information sharing as long as it’s consensual and I think showing off your builds and the look you’ve put together for your characters would be fun.

If you want to see the names of the armor pieces I am wearing, I have no problem with that. If you want to see my stats / build / achievements, etc. you need to get my permission.

Then it seems to me the best solution is to have an /inspect function or whatever and the player that is getting inspected gets a ping saying “hey face over here wants to see your stuff yay or nay?” Problem solved, no? And for people on your friends list you just get to see their profile even when they are offline. Which also brings me to why is there no chat in the character select screen? :P

Aechidna.3084:

Then it seems to me the best solution is to have an /inspect function or whatever and the player that is getting inspected gets a ping saying “hey face over here wants to see your stuff yay or nay?” Problem solved, no? And for people on your friends list you just get to see their profile even when they are offline. Which also brings me to why is there no chat in the character select screen? :P

People would probably spam this until they get permission or kick if you don’t accept. Right now you can ask others about their armor and they will share if they want to but I don’t think we need another way check other peoples stats

Long as there is a toggle switch to prevent people from looking at your:
Armor Stats
Skills
Weapon Sets
(don’t need any more elitism)
Then i say awesome idea ^-^