Guild Wars 2

After talking with a few guildies, this suggestion came up that would make Commander Tag Colors difficult, but not stupid-impossible to obtain:

Base Commander (Account Bound) Tag: 300gold.
Each color thereafter: 500k Karma.

There you have it. A way to keep some gold going into a sink (that’s still a better deal than buying 1 100g tag per character) and a way for people to actually use the Karma they’ve been building up.

Commander tag colors aren’t something we’ve wanted to “stand out” or have them as a “prestige” item, they’re a functional tool for cooperative play. Please don’t make using this tool to its full advantage a pay-gated chore.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/big-changes-are-coming-to-the-commander-system/

I can’t see anywhere the fact that we have to buy each color separately. Am I reading wrong or apparently they did change from what was announced in the video interview?

It sounds like a complete 180 degree shift from what was said in all interviews at GamesCom. Either this page is wrong or they changed their minds in response to player feedback (I am hopeful for this one).

Who knows with these people. Now we’ll have to wait for a RED response to get clarification when it should have been defined clearly in the blog. These guys drive me nuts with their inability on the most simple things. This was obviously a huge hot button issue ever since the video interview was linked, and yet they release the blog in that context. Why?

Rising Dusk.2408:

It sounds like a complete 180 degree shift from what was said in all interviews at GamesCom. Either this page is wrong or they changed their minds in response to player feedback (I am hopeful for this one).

Kinda makes me think on something…

If a dev says something in an interview and players like it, but devs fail to follow through, its a broken promise.

If a dev says something in an interview and players hate it, but devs fail to follow through, its a change in heart and/or they listened to player feedback.

doesnt sound like we will have to purchase colors separately…

“We can’t wait to see all the ways this feature is put to use. " – thanks a lot for the money sink, we were so missing it.

Jessica Boettiger

Whether you have three characters, thirteen characters, or even more, you will need to make this purchase only once!

Existing commanders will be grandfathered into this new system. If you’re already a commander, please enjoy this additional upgrade.

That’s a commitment. 300g for all colors, free to existing commanders.

Jessica Boettiger

Moving forward, we’ll be evaluating future possibilities for recognizing experienced and prestigious commanders.

That’s a promise, and it’s referencing this thread.

Jessica Boettiger

We’re also happy to announce that once you are a commander

“Excited™” edited to “happy”, but…

Jessica Boettiger

Right now, we’re excited to empower commanders with the ability to use all of their characters and choose the color that best fits their needs! We can’t wait to see all the ways this feature is put to use.

… the marketing-copy monkeys are real, this month, and they are super duper excited™.

Sounds like all the colors will be available from the start. Which makes a lot of sense.

We can now choose how to use them. This was we can differentiate, especially in WvW what Commander is doing what.

Blog post seems to indicate that now colors won’t cost extra. Which is great and shows they listened to the immense amount of negative feedback.

Blog post may read like you get all the colours together, but I’d still really like some red confirmation here.

Mcrocha.3891:

Blog post seems to indicate that now colors won’t cost extra. Which is great and shows they listened to the immense amount of negative feedback.

Or the blog post is intentionally vague and doesn’t actually tell us how the additional colors will be unlocked, or if they’ll be a gold sink, or what….

Unless there is a line in the blog post that says “Additional colors will be available at no extra charge beyond purchasing a commander tag.” then I am not going to believe they’ve listened, heard or changed their mind.

Am i the only one who expected the blogpost to say something about upgrading the radius of things like /supplyinfo and such, missed oppertunity there imo.

Galandil.9641:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/big-changes-are-coming-to-the-commander-system/

I can’t see anywhere the fact that we have to buy each color separately. Am I reading wrong or apparently they did change from what was announced in the video interview?

Could we get a Red Tag to clear this up?

khani.4786:

Or the blog post is intentionally vague and doesn’t actually tell us how the additional colors will be unlocked, or if they’ll be a gold sink, or what….

We’re also happy to announce that once you are a commander, you will have access to a variety of colors. Choose from red, yellow, purple, or classic blue to customize your commander icon!

As it’s worded, it seems pretty clear: you become a commander → you can choose any color.

Khalic.3561:

Blog post may read like you get all the colours together, but I’d still really like some red confirmation here.

Yeah, there is this line…. “Existing commanders will be grandfathered into this new system. If you’re already a commander, please enjoy this additional upgrade.”

And then this paragraph….. “This new assortment of colors will facilitate a range of tactical uses. For example, in World vs. World, you could select one color to represent an assaulting commander and another to designate a defending commander. In open world events, you might coordinate your efforts with other commanders by tagging up with different colors to help organize groups. Or you can just grab your favorite color to stand out from the crowd!”

These two things leads me to believe we either got it wrong because of their vague dialogue or that it was changed, either way it looks like it’s as it should be, if you have the desire I’d recommend grabbing a tag before the patch and save yourself a couple hundred gold…

BTW thank you Anet!

It reads for me like all tags will be unlocked as soon as you buy the first commander compendium. However, I can’t wait for the ingame kittenstorm on the 9th if this turns out to be untrue.

LionZero.3479:

Am i the only one who expected the blogpost to say something about upgrading the radius of things like /supplyinfo and such, missed oppertunity there imo.

Sure there is definitely a whole lot more functionality that can be added to the Commander system, but baby steps for now I suppose. I actually think there was probably quite alot of backend work that was involved in even making the coloured commander tag thing a thing! Previously, the server probably just told the client “This player is tagged” and the client would just know to render the standard blue dorito. However, with the new system, the client has to tell the server which colour is selected and then the server has to then distribute that info to all other players.

Something as simple as “Add more commander tag colours!” may not be as simple as you may first initially think. My hope is that they done alot more backend work on the commander tag system while they were doing this to make it a hell of a lot more flexible in the future.

Blanger.3162:

Khalic.3561:

Blog post may read like you get all the colours together, but I’d still really like some red confirmation here.

These two things leads me to believe we either got it wrong because of their vague dialogue or that it was changed, either way it looks like it’s as it should be, if you have the desire I’d recommend grabbing a tag before the patch and save yourself a couple hundred gold…

Well, since i’ve made an account in this forum all i’ve seen was crying about everything and second guessing every-single thing anet tells the public.. it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who’s fault it is. =/

So its not completely negative, Thank you Anet for the change. 300g for account bound tag (with all colors) is a lot better than what was before.

Eshady.9146:

Galandil.9641:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/big-changes-are-coming-to-the-commander-system/

I can’t see anywhere the fact that we have to buy each color separately. Am I reading wrong or apparently they did change from what was announced in the video interview?

Could we get a Red Tag to clear this up?

Yes they did change their minds due to player feedback.

https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/502136525728251904
https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/502133727343169538

I can understand the confusion. The marketing wording was rather heavy in that post. As honestly it should be as the blog doubles as marketing.

Thank you guys ^^

John Corpening.9847:

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to clarify that we did indeed change our plans based on your feedback. What was said during the interviews at Gamescom was correct at the time but after listening to what you had to say we decided to make a change to the feature be in line with what you felt was a more balanced approach to the change.

Thank you very much for your feedback and we hope that you enjoy this upcoming change.

Thanks,
John

Wait for it, some minds are gonna implode on the thought that anet listened to feedback

THANK YOU!

Thank you John, Mark, Zach, Tyler and everyone who worked hard to fix this based on feedback. Thank you for clearing up the confusion too!

mind… imploding… halp

Much appreciated John!

If one of the tags is only visible to your guild I’d be very happy Guild only tags would be great for guilds that are scrimming and it wouldn’t attract non-guild members to the guild because they wouldn’t know other than the swords that would pop. The different colors are awesome as is the account wide tags but it’s something that probably should have happened a long time ago :T

Holy all of my what. Great work, and much appreciated John!

Wow that’s awesome.

I wouldn’t have minded colors costing something, even if like 10 or 20g. But the 300g was off the charts for what the feature is so this is great news. Now commanders can use it as a truly tactical tool and not be worrying about who’s rich.

Thank you!

Now guys! Time to show them the power of multiple tags in WvW! This CAN change the meta if we allow it to!

Thanks John! And extra special thanks goes to Zach and Tyler for working their kitten off to make this happen.

Chad.3825:

If one of the tags is only visible to your guild I’d be very happy Guild only tags would be great for guilds that are scrimming and it wouldn’t attract non-guild members to the guild because they wouldn’t know other than the swords that would pop. The different colors are awesome as is the account wide tags but it’s something that probably should have happened a long time ago :T

I would like that too, but at least with colors a server community can decide and agree on such details. IE Yellow for pug commander, Blue for Guild group, Purple for Havac Squad…

Good work to the team then who worked hard to get it done and for listening. Thank you

And importantly, hopefully lessons were learned from a design P.O.V on such things for the future.

Well…..even I will have to say……good job Anet….. although I think my mind is melting….lol

Thank You!! Please continue to take the feedback like this seriously in the future as well!!

John Corpening.9847:

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to clarify that we did indeed change our plans based on your feedback. What was said during the interviews at Gamescom was correct at the time but after listening to what you had to say we decided to make a change to the feature be in line with what you felt was a more balanced approach to the change.

Thank you very much for your feedback and we hope that you enjoy this upcoming change.

Thanks,
John

Thank you for listening to us.

Well I am happy with this now. Having access to the colors lets the community work it out on a short term/immediate need, or longer term.

John Corpening.9847:

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to clarify that we did indeed change our plans based on your feedback. What was said during the interviews at Gamescom was correct at the time but after listening to what you had to say we decided to make a change to the feature be in line with what you felt was a more balanced approach to the change.

Thank you very much for your feedback and we hope that you enjoy this upcoming change.

Thanks,
John

Thank you Sir and thank the team for all of us!

Thanks for listening and making it better for all parts involved!

Thanks all. And thanks Zach and Tyler for the extra effort.

Ragnar.4257:

Inb4 this was a calculated ‘leak’ so they can then ‘generously’ change the decision to show how ‘in touch’ they are with WvW players.

Say what

Thank you for listening! =D

Good work Anet.

There was a distinct disparity between what the community desired (colors as a core functionality) and what you were offering (colors as prestige cosmetics behind gold sinks).

The updated feature should now acchieve its intended (and desired) purpose: that of strategy and organization.

Guild commander tag pls.

Ragnar.4257:

Ragnar.4257:

Inb4 this was a calculated ‘leak’ so they can then ‘generously’ change the decision to show how ‘in touch’ they are with WvW players.

Say what

A great example of how no matter what they do people give them a hard time.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Ragnar.4257:

Ragnar.4257:

Inb4 this was a calculated ‘leak’ so they can then ‘generously’ change the decision to show how ‘in touch’ they are with WvW players.

Say what

I’m just going to squash this rumor right now. Before the strong negative feedback received after the interview at gamescom, every intention was for each color to cost 300g. Pending QA, that version was ready to ship for the feature pack.

When the flood of feedback came in, there was a flurry of emails working out the best course of action, and in the end Zach and Tyler worked the weekend to make sure this change could be made on time for 9/9.

Thanks Mark. We NEED more posts like this so squash rumors and keep the community informed.

Ragnar.4257:

Ragnar.4257:

Inb4 this was a calculated ‘leak’ so they can then ‘generously’ change the decision to show how ‘in touch’ they are with WvW players.

Say what

This.

It must have been plain obvious for them, that something like that would generate a sh*tstorm on the community.

I would like to thank you for listening to our feedback and thank everyone who worked overtime at weekend (while i was chilling with friends at the seaside) and make this possible.

Thank you folks.

Thank you for listening to our feedback! I’m really looking forward to using my multi-colored tag on my alts.

Ragnar.4257:

Ragnar.4257:

Inb4 this was a calculated ‘leak’ so they can then ‘generously’ change the decision to show how ‘in touch’ they are with WvW players.

Say what

you’re too late, i called it on page 6 of this thread, lol.