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The aesthetic of GW2 has become compromised/let us turn off flashy armor


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@ShadowCatz.8437 said:

@JTGuevara.9018 said:Yes! Finally someone said it!

The lighting in this game is very oppressing at times. My eyes get tired after a while. The flashiness in some of these skins is
so
gaudy and over the top, it's ridiculous. Ad Infinitum is the most obnoxious and my most
hated
back item in this game.

Have you disabled postprocessing? Try it in off and you will have less impact of all particle effects including how it handle lights and things like fog, clouds, smoke etc which can become annoying with small snowflakes or ash particles that move around in screen.

The major issue isn't as much as player gear that have some shine on it, but the environment (effects) that add a lot moving object on screen that over time can become tiring on eye and brain.

the bloom effect and tinting that goes with the Post Processing settings is really bad sometimes (depends on area/zone - sometimes its nice sometimes it's annoying) it's much better to just disable it and run a shader/filter like ReShade to provide the bloom and other effects the ingame setting provides

but yeah it still doesn't solve the issue that some equipment players wear are just way too shiny especially those dyed in Permafrost or Scorched while having a glow effect -- they don't bother my eyes but in my opinion they just don't blend well with most of the environments of the game (well maybe in certain shiny places like Tarir or something but not everywhere else)

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@"Fallesafe.5932" Your argument is non-sensical. "This restaurant used to serve really delicious and interesting burgers, but now all they make tastes exactly like McDonalds." "How is that bad? They're marketing to people who like burgers lol." How does being the same as every other MMO bring in players? MMO players who want this experience will either a) have a game that fills this role already or b) be split between hundreds of different MMOs that are all that same, leaving GW2 with a sliver of the market. An MMORPG that is both excellent AND different will command much more traffic and the market audience because you will have people who both make it their 'main' and people who play it alongside their 'main' because it is /different/ from it. Not to mention that being different and breaking MMO tropes was a BIG part of GW2s marketing, and it WORKED, while they stuck to it. Do you think GW2 would have succeeded as long as it has if it was another WOW/Aion/etc clone, if it offered nothing different?

Also, read the comments of the other players in this thread. Are they not MMO players? Am /I/ not an MMO player? Clearly many real live MMO players don't want GW2 to be another gaudy clone.

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@Bellbirds.1679 said:@"Fallesafe.5932" Your argument is non-sensical. "This restaurant used to serve really delicious and interesting burgers, but now all they make tastes exactly like McDonalds." "How is that bad? They're marketing to people who like burgers lol." How does being the same as every other MMO bring in players? MMO players who want this experience will either a) have a game that fills this role already or b) be split between hundreds of different MMOs that are all that same, leaving GW2 with a sliver of the market. An MMORPG that is both excellent AND different will command much more traffic and the market audience because you will have people who both make it their 'main' and people who play it alongside their 'main' because it is /different/ from it. Not to mention that being different and breaking MMO tropes was a BIG part of GW2s marketing, and it WORKED, while they stuck to it. Do you think GW2 would have succeeded as long as it has if it was another WOW/Aion/etc clone, if it offered nothing different?

Also, read the comments of the other players in this thread. Are they not MMO players? Am /I/ not an MMO player? Clearly many real live MMO players don't want GW2 to be another gaudy clone.

one thing i like about FF14 is that there's no over-the-top/outrageously shiny stuff. everything in the game (even if it has glow effects) fits the whole aesthetic and environment (immersion breaking mounts and other stuff aside --- but still everything fits well almost as if "most" of what they put in the game was well thought of with regards to how well it'd fit in-game)

wish GW2 would follow the same art direction (not necessarily the same art style mind you)

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GW2 has done many things that are different. When it came out, the idea of things like having a dodge roll, weapon swaps, and the abolition of the holy trinity of classes was groundbreaking sned sent ripples through the gaming world. That it haven't grown into a titan is wholly due to what ANet did with it and how they handled what they had. That and marketing. Point being - while GW2 is not like many other MMORPG's and uses that as its core strength, SOME things just are synonymous with gamers.Suck as wanting a bit of bling. Something to show their hard work. Or their wallet I suppose. Which is all well and good, fashion is as much a thing here as in real life.

But... BUT. When you go around in short pants with a peace of the night sky on them and massive angel wings with a sword that drips ooze and swirl with void-y blackj colors... then that is not fashion to me. That just tells me you want to be noticed. Noticed for your appearance. Well, that will not make me remember you. It might make me remember what I saw, but I won't remember YOU, person who wore it. But. If you are a noticable player, be if for your personality, your controbutions, or how you play, then I might remember you. Heck, I might even try to find you again. A good person is always worth finding. A suit of flash armor is just that - flashy.

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@Oxstar.7643 I agree. Angel wings, hotshorts and a glowing shorts is as much fashion as wearing an entire outfit from Gucci with no actual thought as to the actual outfit. Wouldn't wonderfully designed, immersive armour feel more prestigious anyhow, like you're actually playing a powerful individual within the fantasy world? I have had many people whisper me on characters that had immersive, fairly understated but very lovingly put together appearances to tell me how much they enjoyed them. There is definitely a considerable part of the playerbase that prefers this. All shiny wings, hotshorts and legendary skins tells me you spend too much money on and assign too much importance on appearing 'powerful' in a completely fictional world that you don't even care about from a lore/story/roleplaying perspective.

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@Astyrah.4015 I agree. Even the most gaudy things in FFXIV look like they fit into the world because FFXIV operates in a fictional universe where such things have always existed, with an overall more lighthearted tone in terms of art-style/aesthetic which the Final Fantasy IP has been known for for quite a long time. The Guild Wars franchise all the way from the first games to vanilla GW2 has an extremely muted, down to earth, mid-fantasy appearance, with no setup for things such as those horrid angel wings. Who made them? How do they work? How are they not extremely impractical in combat? They are an extremely lazy cash grab.

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I think ANet, and indeed many of the players, need to realize that gorgerous gear is not in how flashy it is but how well it fulfills the fatasy of the class you play.Picture, if you will, a warrior. His chest plate is reinforced to prevent armor piercing. His helmet has a visor with small spikes on it to prevent enemies from wrestling him down. His legs are rounded at the knees to make arrows slide off. His boots are simple yet elegant, with ribbed soles to get a better grip on the ground. His shoulders are simple, yet a square of metal on both sides, emblazoned with the banner of his home town.

He is an imposing figure, for although you can tell he have seen battle, he keeps his gear so well maintained that it shines as he walks. His sword is well balanced, practical, a tool made to kill, with a slight curve at the top for cutting power, yet with a vicious point to it. It is made of the best steel, and it has, like him, seen battle. It's stained with the blood of his enemies.

This, to me, truly fulfills a class fantasy. It is infinetly better than "lol, gear with super glowy bits and huge fire sword". There are times when I swear ANet are becoming the michael bay of MMORPG's - I think they should focus less money on bling and more on the content.

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@Oxstar.7643 said:I think ANet, and indeed many of the players, need to realize that gorgerous gear is not in how flashy it is but how well it fulfills the fatasy of the class you play.No, that is just your subjective opinion on the subject. Some people like overly flashy items, others do not. Some people target a very specific visual style for their character while others aim to stack as many effects as possible. An extensive options menu which lets players customize what kinds of items and item effects are displayed on their screen is the best solution for most players.

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Since I am an MMO player and said something about similar in a similar forum, perhaps it helps to state that these flashy things are not just 'gaudy' or 'not in style with the game'. They very well might be and I'm okay with that.

The reason I want to be able to turn flashiness off is because it gives me migraines. I'm sure I am not the only one here. Flashiness for migraines is like screen shakes for motion sickness; both are terrible for the people having to deal with it. The ability to turn them off should be basic in every game.

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WP's vid on a full legendary armor is a good representation of what's going on. Add a frost legion infusion and throw in some colors too and you get that ridiculous aesthetic. I have no idea how people enjoy that. I for one, enjoy giving my characters unique looks that would make sense in the lore (my warrior vigil always has the vigil pauldrons and helmet to signify being a meber of the order, my Charr rev wears dreadnought pieces and has a blood legion banner on their back, my firebrand female uses a scythe staff and wears spearmarshal pieces etc). To each their own, but trying to do a tequatl fight I noticed how 75%+ of the people around were glowing to no end and everyone mounted a "star-infused" or whatever Skyscale, as if they want to block the view with their puke-worthy appearances.

Won't lie though. I've bought the shrine guardian outfit and backpiece, alongside the new katana style swords and daggers for my dragonhunter, cause I like her being my single japanese-looking character, being a bit flashier than the rest.

TLDR: I want options to not see infusions and particle effects. The LOD option limits them but doesn't remove them I think.

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@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:Personally I see the it from the opposite side: we wouldn't have an issue with aesthetics if people didn't dress themselves so brightly. Cat Ears and gigantic glowing wings are popular, and you can tell they are popular because everyone is wearing them.

SUPREME branded items are popular in the real world and you see them everywhere, but are they actually good, or just wearable signs that you have way too much money to throw around?

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It doesn't matter to me how other players look. I just want more settings that will improve my comp's performance. I can't approach a group of players without my rig having a stroke. I did all the recommendations. Now I want to disable back items and infusions. I have a descent rig too. My other games run great. Just can't disable enough things for a smooth experience around groups.

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@"Bellbirds.1679" said:One of the biggest draw for me in terms of the first Guild Wars games was how even the prestigious items in the game were still in line with the medieval aesthetic. Rare weapons did not glow, they were just well ornamented and appeared well maintained. Rare armor was detailed and appeared crafted with immense skill. Anything glowy was few and far between, with only I think one weapon set and a pair of gloves.

GW2 started off fairly similar, with muted but interesting armour design, and any glow or effects on armour or weaponry were fairly tame and in line with what NPCs were wearing (example: CoF armor which includes some flame effects which have been previously built up to by Flame Legion shamans also possessing similar effects.) It was generally sensible, and spoke more of a lore friendly magical 'infusion' through Flame magics or ghost magics and again, these were prestigious skins and were few and far between. Dyes were generally toned down also, with some brighter dyes which made sense for ornamental cloth pieces on armor/light armored characters where brightly coloured cloth made sense.

However, over the years, we have had far too many flashy prestige symbols added. The once rare fractal capacitor backpieces turned into huge obnoxious wings, infusions allow players to turn their charactes in glowing balls of light with snowflakes falling all around, you can't take two steps in DR before bumping into a human female in hotshorts with cat ears and angel wings. GW2 now looks like every other MMO on the market.

GW2 is an MMORPG, and at launch, the RPG part was comparatively pronounced, with the muted aesthetic, somewhat customised personal story, and the personality system. Now, I can't enter any major cities or explore areas at any medium-traffic time without being pulled from my immersion and hence my enjoyment of the game within half an hour.

I play the game to explore the world, to suspend my disbelief, to care about the lore and the story and take it at least somewhat seriously for the duration of my playtime. During the past few years, that has become outright impossible, unless I play very late at night when other plays are scarce (which I do enjoy, however I would like to not be so restricted?)

Now, do I think this should be removed? No! Of course not! The people who make their characters this way obviously enjoy it to some extent, and it would be cruel to both takeaway what was once given and to do it to please another part of the playerbase. Instead, I would like an option to customise one's expereince, perhaps in gardes of severity, with grade 1 hiding only backpacks, grade 2 hiding infusions and special effects on armor and weaponry, grade 3 hiding neon hair colours and particularly vibrant dyes, grade 4 hiding mount skins , and so on and so on, allowing a player to choose an experience that suits their tastes. If a person finds flashy armor and infusions and weapons annoying and unapealling they won't be awed by them anyway, and those who will will not choose to turn them off, so players who use them as prestige symbols will not be affected by such an option.

I don't know how possible this would be, but consiering how the aesthetics of the game used to be a major draw and now GW2 looks like 99% of MMOs on the market, and I think it would be a smart choice on Anets part to bring back that part of the games individuality.

I think you might be thinking of Guild Wars with rose tinted glasses on. I have played both games. Both games have their non esthetic items. Look at the rainment of the lich. It is available in guild wars, it has wings, hooved feet and characters with no face and glowing evil eyes.

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Raiment_of_the_Lich

You can get that item in GW2 as an outfit but it’s an item that originally existed in GW1. So saying angel wings are out of place in GW2 is a moot point considering there are races with manta ray wings (largos) and large cow-cats stomping around.

I agree for those that do not wish to see these items there should be an option to turn off infusions, back pieces and spell effects on other players. I am one of those people that would like to turn off infusions.

But please do not say that the items they have added in to GW2 since after the start are out of place. I’m sure GW1 would have had tons of shiny items too if it could have handled the load.

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Well, GW2 nowadays looks just like any other flashy MMORPG, because ANet wants it to make as much money as any other flashy MMORPG on the market - and these skins earn them a LOT of money.As sad as it is, today's MMORPGs aren't made around believable world-building, inspiring characters and aesthetic visuals. Also the fact that we, the players who started playing GW2 at launch, are now 8 years older makes us more picky and knowledgable in terms of game.

I would compare today's Guild Wars 2 to the latest Star Wars trilogy (7, 8, 9). It just reflects what the market and target wants. What might have first been a revision and expansion of original Guild Wars is actually gone, literally. It's like a never-ending TV-series that does whatever it can to make people watch.

The bigger part of online gaming industry has really turned into a huge supermarket. But, being able to turn off all that eyeburning noise would be much appreciated.

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@"ollbirtan.2915" said:and yet there are still some demanding bikinis and other 'Korean cliche' items. Hope this day will never come.

i think the rationality behind that is "since you put so many immersion breaking christmas-lights armour, why not put something completely out of setting/theme?"

personally i'd tolerate those cliche stuff since they tend to not glow or shine or come with light effects at all

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@ElijahFitzroy.5762 Are you actually comparing the Largos and Charr, races that have a deep lore and history and make sense being the way they are physically with non-sensical angel wings that came out of nowhere? Does that mean since birds exist irl that it would make perfect sense for humans to suddenly sprout wings? They are /completely/ out of place. And I acknowledge that GW1 has flashy items, but they are much, MUCH more few and far between, and I acknowledged this in my original post.

And, again, I'm asking for the /option/ to hide them client-side, not have them removed. But no, random angel wings do not make sense, no matter how you spin it. The largos have manta ray fins (that look like 'wings') for underwater locomotion. The Charr are a beast race with a great deal of thought put into how they function on from an anatomical standpoint, from the two sets of ears each being suited to a different frequency to their hunch due to their necks connecting to the back of their skull which allows for bi-pedal running. Thats good design. Taking a pair of ugly (and anatomically inaccurate) wings and copy-and-pasting them onto a character is not.

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I hope there will be more realistic and elegant armor designs with EoD.

With all the shiny armor and weapons sets, it does get a bit ridiculous. At least I don't have to spend RL money or grind out achievements for much of the gaudy stuff available. So personally I don't mind, but being glowy is definitely not special in this game. If anything, staying in "regular" armor makes you stand out more. haha

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