Petition for the Omission/Removal of PvE effects for titles.

[tuckerotl]

Reason: The game design of PvE effects for titles is contrary to initial (proclaimed) underlying principles of Guild Wars game play, initial (and ongoing) promotions for Guild Wars, and the player base, which Guild Wars (supposedly) sought.
Any change to game play, which yields a significant advantage for time spent in game over casual players is contrary to the claims of ArenaNet about Guild Wars, and should be prevented/rescinded.

From press release regarding Guild Wars debut at E3 2003 http://www.arena.net/news/press/pr_22_apr_03.html:
"Mike O'Brien, the creator and architect of Battle.net, points out 'Our vision has been to create a game that rewards skill and inventiveness rather than hundreds of hours of play, so we've built Guild Wars from the ground up to be a balanced environment where players of all skill levels can compete for recognition and prizes.'"

From Gamasutra interview with Guild Wars producer Jeff Strain, in the online article " Social Game, not Social Life? ArenaNet on Guild Wars and the “Casual” MMORPG" http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20...illen_01.shtml:
"JS: I think there's different types of rewards. You either reward them for time – that is, investment. The RPG reward. Alternatively, you reward them for their skill, which is the strategy game reward. Some companies reward people for money. There's some companies online which will power-level for you, which is just a conversion of money for time. I think that games that reward time, and particularly games that reward extreme amounts of time, appeal to a fairly narrow subset of the overall population. I think people appreciate a game where they feel their skill as a gamer and the choices that they're making are actually making the difference. I think that appeals to a lot broader group.

JS: You'll often hear us say that Guild Wars is a game without the grind. However, if you want to spend 100 hours trying to get a specific upgrade for an item, like a dragon-tooth hilt and a wyvern skill scabbard for your sword, that's fine. You have a specific goal in mind, and you want that item. What's not fine is “at level 20 I can access this dungeon, and at level 30 I can access that dungeon and there's a 1000 hours between them”. Obviously, the goals are shorter than that, or you just wouldn't do it… but we very much differentiate types of time sinks. And that differentiation is if it's for fun, or whether it's to arbitrarily take and stretch the 70 hours of content you have for game and stretch it over a thousand hours. Is it for fun or is it to try and get people addicted, so that you can collect another month of subscription fees?

You have to be able to make a judgement call. You look at the activities players are doing, and divide them into “People do that because it's fun” and “People do that because they have to”. Let's keep the stuff that's fun."

From online interview of Jeff Strain by "Finger" at Telefragged.com http://www.telefragged.com/interviews/guildwars/:
"Jeff Strain: Player-vs.-player in Guild Wars is a tremendous amount of fun, but Guild Wars is not designed to appeal only to PvP players. The cooperative missions and quests in Guild Wars are the beginning of a story arc that spans numerous expansion chapters for the next several years. Since Guild Wars is a skill based game, rather than a game in which only those who have thousands of disposable hours will ever see the "cool" content, we can design each of these new chapters around the assumption that all players have reached the maximum level, or "ascension." This means that all of the ongoing content, whether through new chapters or streamed live into the existing game, is enjoyable by everyone, and we don’t have to water down the content by dividing it among the "elite" players and the more casual players. Gamers who enjoy cooperative or even solo gaming will find Guild Wars a refreshing change from endless FedEx quests and level grinding, even if they never venture in the competitive play areas."

From the Guild Wars web site http://www.guildwars.com/gameplay/synopsis/:
"You don't have to spend countless hours on a leveling treadmill to get to the interesting parts of the game, because combat is designed to be strategically interesting and challenging right from the beginning. You don't have to spend hours running around the world to prepare for a quest, because Guild Wars allows you to instantly travel to the beginning of any quest that you've previously unlocked."

"The game is designed to reward player skill and teamwork, not time spent playing, so you won't need to spend hundreds of hours leveling up your character to compete."

Compared to:
From "Guild Wars Insider - Issue #01" http://www.guildwars.com/insider/issue01.html:
"Earning ranks in some titles will now give you in-game bonuses. One example of this new type of title is the Lightbringer. When displayed, this title gives you damage reduction and extra damage against demons. There will even be some PvE-only skills you can learn that become more powerful with each rank of the Lightbringer title.

We’ll also be updating some existing titles this way. For instance, after Nightfall releases, you’ll actually have a chance of successfully removing a magic component, like a Fiery Sword Hilt, without destroying the item it’s attached to. The Wisdom title (earned by identifying items) will improve your ability to do this."

If you agree that the implementation of PvE effects for titles are at best not in the spirit of Guild Wars game design, and potentially a significant disadvantage for casual players then please sign below.

If you disagree, please post a valid reason why.

[Timefounder]

I disagree with the idea that the addition of title effects gives dedicated players an overwhelming advantage, mostly on the basis that all effects revealed so far are incredibly minor.

For example, the Wisdom and Treasure Hunter title lines give 3% higher chance per rank of preserving the item when you salvage a mod. The initial chance is 50%.
This means that salvaging 100 items, 3 of them (per rank) will be preserved instead of destroyed with the title. I hope you will admit this is a minor bonus.
Also, if you're taking an upgrade off an item, how likely are you to want the item?


Gladiator, Hero, and Champion: Increased Balthazar faction limit. If you're playing enough to hit the limit frequently enough to matter, you can probably get the titles.

Now, compare these small gains to a timesink with actual gameplay effects.
Unlocking all skills on a character: Easier to find and fit into groups, better adaption to skill updates.

Getting a weapon with perfect stats: Sure there are collectors and crafters, but finding the perfect modifiers can be difficult at best and impossible at worst. I think many people would agree that having a weapon that gives +30 hp rather than +20 is a more significant advantage than preserving a few salvages.

Will lacking a few titles hurt your enjoyment of the game? You realize that you lost nothing in the addition of bonuses. Will adding a few titles that reward people for putting time into the game hurt their enjoyment? I doubt it.

The existence of small gains for time invested does appeal to a small subset of the population, as you quoted. The existence of these rewards does not lessen or deny the ability to create a competitive character in 10 hours (at Factions leveling speed).

If you really can't stand the fact that someone out there has a 3% better chance of saving an item when they salvage it, find them and have them salvage your stuff for you.