Three More Improvements to Guild Wars

If you'll remember way back to here I said there were three things that would have me playing Guild Wars again. Sadly, I should have remembered to include a fourth – some body buying me the latest expansion. Still, even though I'm weak two of my three improvements have actually been implemented – one way or another – since I requested them.

The first, a better way of forming groups, went live with the Wintersday festivities and it's almost note perfect what I had in mind. It even stretches across districts the way I wanted. My way of doing it would have made more in-game sense as I would have made a marker or a board object for people in zone to check the way you need to talk to NPCs to access your storage or the merchants. But having a button to press works just as well (It's just not as immersive – and that's something with its instant travel and zoning instances that Guild Wars is a bit weak on.). I also would have included much more information and various check boxes and sliders to help people match their groups and state their preferences better. But, then, I don't have to worry about things like bandwidth or programming concerns. And that sort of functionality can be added as time goes on. Now, I haven't had much cause to use the party search yet as I'm incredibly antisocial when I'm PvEing. It's not that I don't like people it's that I like to go at my own pace and others don't always enjoy that. But from what I hear it seems to be working as intended. I, in all due humbleness, declare this to be a good change.

The second is a bit more difficult because it's not implemented yet. But, basically, there's going to be a shift in the way guilds and championships are determined by switching to rankings based on tournament play rather than a straight up ladder. A greater focus on tournaments, in other words. Now, if you look through my suggestions you won't see anything like that. What you'll see instead is that I asked for player-driven tournaments. But my thinking behind that was not only would it be nice for people who had no interest in high-end PvP but it would also give top guilds a way of measuring themselves that didn't involve the ladder. You could easily set up invitational only tournaments for a select crop of top flight teams and individuals to attend. If, of course, the right tools were there. They aren't at the moment but if they were then you could have a floating system of tournaments existing separate from the ladder. And by suggesting using player driven content (which I hear is all the rage these days) I was hoping to slip that through along with fun things like Dodgeball which was actually put into game during the Dragon Festival. I was just pretty sure that with everything that had been invested in the ladder that the developers would be very reluctant to give it up. And, in fact, they haven't because it'll still be around, it's just going to be deemphasized. To what extend or what degree is hard to tell at this point. However, the move to a Swiss Tournament based system of measuring teams rather than an ELO one is, I think a smart one. With the ladder there were far too many ways to abuse the ranking. And teams which could play, say, 300 games in a season could be ranked higher than those that played 100 with a better winning record and PPG (That's points per game for the uninitiated which is a good way of telling if someone's at their true ranking or not. The true ranking would be the rank on a ladder that teams would have if they all played enough games, by the way.). Although there's something to be said for experience I don't think many people would take even odds on the first team beating the second. And finding games when your ranking got too high could be challenging – against any level of competition not just fair opposition. And don't get me started on bots or smurf guilds to inflate rankings. But, basically, it rewarded those guilds which could just play match after match after match, not more casual ones that could only squeeze in a few games a night. Non-elimination tournaments will tilt the balance away from the “powerguilds” and towards those guilds who can actually play and win games against damned good opponents. Which, I'd think, is what the game's all about. So, I'm going to consider this as though the developers caught my meme, as well.

However, I'm not convinced this is the right way to go about things. Or at the very least, of implementing it although I'd like to see it in action before I really said for sure one way or the other. But one of the many small changes coming in the wake of this large one is that in order to compete in these tournaments every player on the team needs to have been with the competing guild for at least 30 days. If a week is a long time in politics then a month is, roughly, twice as long as eternity in video games. And it's not only going to reward guilds that can match up well against any number of opponents and shift their tactics and strategy on the fly in between rounds not just come up with one build to pave their way up the ladder – it's also going to reward those guilds who're able to remain cohesive. But at the same time it's going to be punishing more casually organized guilds and, especially, casual players (Like, I'll admit, myself. So, yes, I have a bit of a dog in this fight. I'd like to think I'd still be pissed about this, though, even if I was still a member of a top 10 guild.). Now, I understand this has been done largely because of PuG guilds where people just get together and climb the ladder in rapid fashion. But not only does it mean that smaller guilds who struggle to have 8 people on their roster are going to be left out in the cold it also means that even larger guilds have far less incentive to guest people for a try-out, so to speak. Sure, the ladder will still be around but it's not going to be the same. And to join a competitive guild now means that you have to sit out of the real competitive format for a month – if not more considering how many other roster spots might be filled – while waiting for a chance to show your stuff. That might work well for a tried and tested PvPer but it's an incredible hoop to jump through if you're not even sure about your stuff in the first place. Basically, my concern here is that this is going to completely squeeze out the middle tier of players. You'll still have your high-level play for the elite. And you'll still have your low-level swamps where the majority of people spend their time. But what you won't have is a place for people who know just a bit too much to be inexperience but, for whatever reason, don't have the time or talent or team to make that leap to the next level. What this will do is make it even harder for people who can't devote themselves to the game to even experience high-level play. Of course, not all of them belong there but some of them do – even if it's only a small percentage each one of them makes the higher level of competition better by introducing more chances to play and another perspective that could come up with something innovative to keep the game moving (Now, of course, the average PvPer is thinking “Well, that's good. Keep them out of things. Less competition for me.” The average PvPer is, of course, an idiot. You need fresh players to replace the ones you'll lose along the way and a healthy game is a growing one not one that's become too exclusive to allow new blood inside the inner circle. Try convincing them of that, though, I know I have.). And the only way everyone gets to find out who does is to let them take their shot. And test themselves against real opponents to see just what it will take to get really better. That, though, takes a diverse and inclusive competitive scene and I'm not sure this idea will do that. Maybe for the teams already competing at the top of the ladder. But not for everyone else.

And, if you're going to do that you might as well just stick with the ladder because all you're doing is letting the elite teams that have been playing together for months have some extra practice in the right format in advance of the championships. I don't know, maybe there should be more of a Konrad system in place (which is a variant on the Swiss one) where tournaments last longer and teams can play or not play in as many rounds as they like. Each season, then, would be, say, a month or two long tournament with rounds available in set time periods – say every day or few days. Each guild could only play one game a round and couldn't compete against a team they'd already faced in a previous round. Higher ranked guilds could have scheduled games to make sure that the various regions play each other but otherwise teams could just check to see if there was a match waiting and either enter into one or sit around and wait for someone else to challenge them – enough teams playing and they shouldn't wait too long, especially if there's a bit of a notification for them to gather together when the countdown begins (Say every match begins on the hour or every quarter-hour and you have to sign up for one at least fifteen minutes in advance.). At the end of things the team with the most points – gained by winning with some way of measuring strength of schedule thrown in – wins (And that's probably winning a slot in the round-robin tournament for the top teams to decide who gets the crown.). Obviously, if you want the brass ring you need to be in almost every round but it allows for teams to drop in for a round or two. And that along with, perhaps, some “guest exemptions” that teams could somehow win or gain, perhaps, just might give more casual players the foot in the door they'd need (And also, incidentally, gives the developers a lot shorter seasons in-between which they can make balance adjustments.).

My third suggestion, an auction house (Which read that as a better way of trading), hasn't yet been announced but it's something been promised forever. So it'll probably happen one of these days.

Anyhow, since I'm on such a roll, I thought I'd add a few more suggestions. These aren't drastically game changing ones, mind, but more minor improvements to functionality that would make the game's experience much better for everyone using them. Rather than altering long standing mechanics. So more like party searching than the tournament focus. So, here we go, three more things I'd like to see in Guild Wars.

Buddy List Notes. The Friends List in Guild Wars is, let's face it, awful. It's an extremely clunky relic of past iterations of the game that's no where near the level of ease and accessibility of other features in the game. It could, in so many words, be working a lot harder. For starters it only holds 60 names – and that's, I believe, shared between names on your ignore list and your buddy list. Which, I know, sounds like a lot but, trust me, it gets eaten up real fast. For one thing there shouldn't be a limit on the number of scammers and spammers and just plain assholes that you can ignore – there are legions of them, after all. But a large part of this game is about networking. For a game that doesn't have servers it's incredibly hard to connect with other people so you have to put the work in yourself to keep track of and catch up with the cool people you meet along the way. The Friends List could be a really good tool for doing so and it is invaluable but it could be a lot better. What I'd like to see would be a way of attaching notes to any name I put on the list. I don't know about everyone else but I've got a friends list jammed full of names half of which I can't recognize any more. They're not the names those people go by in real life or on the forums or they're just a throw-away PvP name that they don't use anymore so when they show up under their main character I have no idea who they are. So, if there was a little space for me to write, say, “Sausaletus Rex – writes a lot, kinda nice, tends to flake out if you don't stay after him.” or “Ecuas Boon – aka teh Saus” (I've taken to spelling my PvP names backwards these days, don't ask me why.) I'd have a much easier time of keeping track of who's who. And, sad to say, this is the sort of thing I do myself anyway – I take a lot of notes, mental and otherwise - but I don't always have a notepad handy to jot these things down let alone have the right notes close at hand when I need them. A way of doing so in game would make my life so much easier. Just that space, say 255 characters – store it on my harddrive if you have to like the skill templates, I don't care – would be enough. But, if I could, I'd go further and allow players to make categories and divisions within their friends list. Lots of drop down menus and the like to capture more about what each person on your list is like. If they play Warrior a lot, well, there'll be a little tag to let you know at a glance that's they're preferred class. If they focus on PvP then you can see that right away. If you're trying to recruit them to your guild then it's right there. If they're always down for a raid on an elite mission then you get to pin that to whatever database entry is keeping their name on that list for you. Same thing for if they like Heroes Ascent or if they prefer Alliance Battles. Heck, you could even have things letting you know if someone on that list was looking for a particular item so if it dropped into your lap you could send them a whisper about a trade. There are a lot of possibilities – especially ones I haven't thought of - and that's why I think this is a good tool to have.

Video Controls in Observer Mode. Okay, I've mentioned obs mode before here. And it is, in fact, the greatest thing since instant travel. But it's so good that I want to make it better. Especially for people who have absolutely no clue what's going on. This is what always happens to me when I'm watching a match – someone uses a skill that intrigues me (Or, nowadays, even has a skill used on them) and I mouse over it to see what it does only to have it disappear before I can finish because of the next skill and the next and the next covering it up. Generally if I wait it'll come back up but, for me, seeing what skills are getting used with what is a large reason I watch obs mode – I have no idea what most of the new skills are or even what's been done to a lot of the old ones so this is one way to familiarize myself with them. I might be the only one to do so, however, but my point being that the game in general and PvP in specific move really fast. Too fast, I think, for anyone who doesn't already know enough about it to follow. So what I'd like to see is a “Guild Wars Tivo”. Let me, while I'm watching a match pause things, rewind them, and rewatch them at my leisure and then hop back to the “real time” of where I left off. This probably would involve drastically altering the observer system and divorcing the chat from the actual footage but, simply put, I don't care. People can already do this with any number of video capturing devices – why can't the game itself allow people to record and play back matches? If it's a concern about having too much information out there about what the top teams are using, let me tell you, it gets out there anyways. It just only gets into the hands of those who are willing to put in the time and effort to either record these matches on their own or frequent those places and groups where people talk about such things endlessly. Into the hands, in so many words, of the elite. And anyone who happens to be on during the right time can see that sort of thing on obs mode anyway. What I'd like is to give an even greater audience access to the kind of insight game footage can provide. Imagine what could happen if people could trade clips from battles the way they can trade build templates now. And, of course, easily post them to video sites like YouTube where people who've never seen the game before can be introduced to it.

Get Rid of the Damned Bots. I spent something like three hours playing Snowball Arena today. I earned something like 10k faction in 3~400 installments (That's about my average although I'm sure it was off tonight. So call it maybe 30 or 40 matches – you probably won't be far off because I'm sick and tired and doing everything slower today.). I won about 6 games. The reason isn't that I suck horribly (Which, by the way, is true, it's just not applicable here.) it that in all the matches I played I had roughly 3 where both sides had a full complement of human players who remained for the entire game. Some people left early or late, of course, and that doesn't bother me so much – I'd rather they didn't, of course, or if someone disconnected an NPC could spawn in their place or something but people have the freedom to leave any time without any penalty and I'm fine with that. But what I am bothered by is the people who sit there at the rez pad and do nothing for the entire game. These people could be afk, of course, but the vast majority of them are bots – computer programs (And, by the way, very simple ones. I could probably make one if I had to and I can hardly program at all.) that join these games over and over in the hopes of leeching a few points of faction and occasionally getting lucky and getting some gamer track points. In the meantime they leave their teams effectively down a person and just about cripple their chances of winning – especially if there's more than one of them because I don't care how good you are, you might be able to pull off a 3v4 win but 2v4? No way, you're going down in flames and all you can hope for is to hunt some faction. Which exactly what the leechers are counting on you to do because they get just as much as you do just by sitting there. This isn't a problem restricted to the Snowball Arena, mind, I first encountered this sort of thing last expansion in the so-called Competitive missions like Aspenwood and Jade Quarry which are sort of a cross between PvE and PvP. Like Snowball Arena, very painless to get into, no penalty for dying, and the rewards can be considerable. So people would just join or wrote up programs to do it for them and hope for the best. They don't have to win all the time, after all, they can just leave the program running and play the percentages – they'll get lucky enough times to make it worth their while. But the same sort of things that draw these botters are what encourages new and inexperienced players to try these sorts of playstyles. Both the competitive missions and snowball fighting are excellent introductory PvP. A great way of introducing and enticing new players into the mix. But when these bots are around and throwing the playing field out of whack it's no fun for anyone. You either roll or get rolled and that's a lot of things but challenging competition it's not. It's frustrating, it's discouraging, and it leads to some really obnoxious behavior. I mean, this sort of things gets someone as mild-mannered and calm as I am really fucking mad. I mean, seriously, I would go to these people houses, get a drink – for myself - and not use a coaster, that's how mad I am. I kid, of course, because it's not the end of the world or anything. But when someone playing these sort of things sees people cursing and swearing at these bots it only reinforces the idea that PvP is an unfriendly place where they don't belong if they aren't mean and cruel. That's completely false, of course, but you'd be surprised how many people think that you need to be ruthless to compete (Guild Wars is, above all, a team game. If you can't play well with others you won't do well. At the highest levels anyway. I'm not sure just how seriously people take the “1v1” Hero Battles but I know I don't.). But it just creates a negative atmosphere where experienced players are expected at least one person in their group to be useless and quick to bitch and moan about things going wrong. And inexperienced players won't know exactly why just that for whatever reason they're not getting any help from other players at all.

But what makes me really mad is that I have no idea how to fix this without completely screwing over all the casual players who are just trying things out. Not without a complex system of customer support, anyway, and that's not really ANet's or NCSoft's model. It's got to be done through the game's rules if it's going to be done at all and anything you'd do like requiring players to actually use a skill before they earned faction or to move out of the rez shrine could easily be done by even a rudimentary bot script. Anything more complicated and you make the game a chore for people to play which is just counter-productive. But, here's the thing. I'm not a game designer. I don't develop Guild Wars or anything else. I have very little idea how to program things. So, I don't have to come up with the solution here. The people who do make this game and, I'd like to think, have a stake in making sure it survives and even thrives are the ones who have to do that. All I know is that they need to put some serious thought into it. Because, otherwise, they're just continuing to bar the entry of new players. While they hemorrhage older players – and, unlike myself, not all of them will be coming back. Eventually, they'll bled themselves dry. And that's going to suck for me because I won't have anyone left to play with.