I would like to put my friend into the game as a birthday present

[Menyus.1769]

Hi Tyrians,

 

Before I start, I have to say that I know, it is a silly idea, but it wouldn't hurt to try to ask around about it. 🙂 I already made contant about this topic with the customer support, but they cannot help as they are not part of the development team. However, they advised to create a topic about this matter here, so maybe it will receive some attention and/or feedback and suggestions. Every idea is greatly appreciated!

 

My best friend and I will be 30 years old this year. He will celebrate his birthday in October, while mine will be in December. He likes creative gifts, and when I started to think about it, I realized that one of the very first games we played together was Guild Wars 1 back in high school almost 16 years ago. When Guild Wars 2 launched, we jumped into it, and got really fond with the setting of the game, we even wrote hundreds of pages of fan-fiction over the years. The protagonists in those stories were almost always the same, our main characters: a mysterious sylvari mesmer, whose overflowing curiosity and strange actions sometimes (always) caused trouble for everyone around her, and a sly, grumpy, greedy asura guardian, who gladly pushed others into a trap, to grab the treasure for himself, but his heart was actually in the right place, when his decisions really mattered. We got very fond of the duo, and even when we don't play, we regularly mention them in our conversations, because we simply love the lore of Tyria, and the endless possibilities of new adventures. While my friend is not playing that regularly anymore, he sometimes still logs into the game and I help him finish some story chapters. Slowly but steadily he is also on the way to craft his first legendary, Nevermore.

 

What I am trying to getting at, is that by taking everything into account, there is actually a perfect gift for his birthday: if he could truly become a tiny part of Tyria. I have some ideas to achieve this:

- Put our main characters as NPCs somewhere hidden, without any effects, fancy armors or conversations, they should just simply be recognizable. Why I'm thinking in a duo, is because in the fan-fictions, the two characters were mostly shown together.

- Put a simple human NPC into the game (maybe Divinity's Reach?), which has my friend's first name. I already checked the wiki and there wasn't a match for this name, so maybe it could work.

- Mention his or our characters' name in any sorts of in-game text. (Like books, item descriptions, etc.)

 

Is there any way to accomplish something like this? Unfortunately as far as I know, none of these can be achieved without the help of the dev team, so I humbly glancing at them right now, but as I said in the beginning, any other ideas would be also greatly appreciated! 🙂 Maybe there is a way to make something truly unique which I'm not aware about. (And I swear, if we can accomplish something here, I will give gifts to the orphans during the next Wintersday. Yes, the greedy asura is my character.)

[SandraSolace.7682]

Don't think it's a silly idea. It's actually a really good one. Saying that, it will never happen though. 

Simply because if it's done for your friend, many many other players will want something similar and that is just to much. The team will not put time into that. They can't.

 

On a side note, you could throw him an ingame birthday cellebration (won't be permanent though) and give some nice ingame gifts. You could even get the community involved.  And screenshots can be saved. Or, and this just popped into my brain, maybe take a good look at his armour, find someone who can use a needle and thread and remake him his ingame fav armour or outfit? That way, instead of doing something ingame, he'll have something in real life 😉

[Menyus.1769]

I have the same concern as well. That is why I think there is a really low chance of success, and the same reason why I made contant with the customer support first. Anyway, it won't hurt if at least I try. 🙂

 

The birthday celebration is a really good advice, this is the line of thought I'm looking for. 😄 To put it short, the problem is that it would take a huge amount of time scheduling this, at this point it would be more efficient if I just plan a birthday party for him in real life.

 

I have thought about figures based on our characters, and since you suggested it as well, this is definitely on the list of options now. 😄 I have a few backup plans, but in case everything goes south (or in this case, to the Mists), I'll definitely take this route and look around, maybe I can find a way to make some 3D prints. I still have a lot of time, after all.

[KnightofPhoenix.3679]

It's very thoughtful of you to be putting that much consideration and thought into this - your friend is lucky to have you ^^

 

Sadly it's unlikely to be possible, but alternatives like commissioned arts, figures or plushies are still great and I'm sure your friend would be very appreciative.  I know I would squee if I was gifted that! 

[Menyus.1769]

Commissioned arts are also on my list, but they can be really-really pricey, so I would choose that path as a very last resort. 😄 (Although, it would be awesome to have a poster with our characters in it.) The idea of plushies is great as well, but he likes to collect statues, so the 3D figures may be a better approach.

 

Thanks for the suggestions so far! 😄

[Linken.6345]

About it being pricey with commissioned arts you think the developers would work for free?

[Danikat.8537]

There are NPCs (and at least one object) in the game named after players, but as far as I know it's always been Anet's choice to do that, they're usually people who had, or continue to have, a significant impact on the community in some way.

I've never heard of them doing it by request, but I suppose it's not impossible.

[Schimmi.6872]

6 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

There are NPCs (and at least one object) in the game named after players, but as far as I know it's always been Anet's choice to do that, they're usually people who had, or continue to have, a significant impact on the community in some way.

I've never heard of them doing it by request, but I suppose it's not impossible.

I'm sure it's not impossible as it was already possible to buy (by donating to extra life) named animals, but the problem is, that as soon as they add a NPC because of the request of one player, they will be swamped with a lot more requests and this time they are not just named animals which most of them can only be seen by wearing a special item. 

Just look at extra life 2022, where it was possible to get named ingame pets for 30$+ donations, I think it were 120 pets (60 cats / 60 other animals) and they were sold out within hours.

[Danikat.8537]

34 minutes ago, Schimmi.6872 said:

I'm sure it's not impossible as it was already possible to buy (by donating to extra life) named animals, but the problem is, that as soon as they add a NPC because of the request of one player, they will be swamped with a lot more requests and this time they are not just named animals which most of them can only be seen by wearing a special item. 

Just look at extra life 2022, where it was possible to get named ingame pets for 30$+ donations, I think it were 120 pets (60 cats / 60 other animals) and they were sold out within hours.

Exactly, that was still Anet's choice. They decided to put named animals into the game, how many there would be and set the criteria for getting to name one of them. (I assume they also had a clause somewhere where they could reject a name if they needed to.) It's different to doing it on request.

[Menyus.1769]

4 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

About it being pricey with commissioned arts you think the developers would work for free?

I didn't meant that. What I meant, is that from the suggested advices above a commissioned art could be easily the most pricey solution. Like I said before, I know that there is a really low chance of success for my original idea in the first place, but I'm still in the planning phase, gathering info, trying to figure out, what are my options. x) That is why I'm taking notes and answering to those who give some advices, because they are trying to help, and I appreciate it.

[Menyus.1769]

4 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Exactly, that was still Anet's choice. They decided to put named animals into the game, how many there would be and set the criteria for getting to name one of them. (I assume they also had a clause somewhere where they could reject a name if they needed to.) It's different to doing it on request.

This comment pretty much sums up one of the major reasons why I think I will have to look for other ideas, but I still wanted to give it a try. It wouldn't hurt to at least talk about the topic, I got some great feedback already.

[Firebeard.1746]

On 1/7/2023 at 3:48 AM, Menyus.1769 said:

Hi Tyrians,

 

Before I start, I have to say that I know, it is a silly idea, but it wouldn't hurt to try to ask around about it. 🙂 I already made contant about this topic with the customer support, but they cannot help as they are not part of the development team. However, they advised to create a topic about this matter here, so maybe it will receive some attention and/or feedback and suggestions. Every idea is greatly appreciated!

 

My best friend and I will be 30 years old this year. He will celebrate his birthday in October, while mine will be in December. He likes creative gifts, and when I started to think about it, I realized that one of the very first games we played together was Guild Wars 1 back in high school almost 16 years ago. When Guild Wars 2 launched, we jumped into it, and got really fond with the setting of the game, we even wrote hundreds of pages of fan-fiction over the years. The protagonists in those stories were almost always the same, our main characters: a mysterious sylvari mesmer, whose overflowing curiosity and strange actions sometimes (always) caused trouble for everyone around her, and a sly, grumpy, greedy asura guardian, who gladly pushed others into a trap, to grab the treasure for himself, but his heart was actually in the right place, when his decisions really mattered. We got very fond of the duo, and even when we don't play, we regularly mention them in our conversations, because we simply love the lore of Tyria, and the endless possibilities of new adventures. While my friend is not playing that regularly anymore, he sometimes still logs into the game and I help him finish some story chapters. Slowly but steadily he is also on the way to craft his first legendary, Nevermore.

 

What I am trying to getting at, is that by taking everything into account, there is actually a perfect gift for his birthday: if he could truly become a tiny part of Tyria. I have some ideas to achieve this:

- Put our main characters as NPCs somewhere hidden, without any effects, fancy armors or conversations, they should just simply be recognizable. Why I'm thinking in a duo, is because in the fan-fictions, the two characters were mostly shown together.

- Put a simple human NPC into the game (maybe Divinity's Reach?), which has my friend's first name. I already checked the wiki and there wasn't a match for this name, so maybe it could work.

- Mention his or our characters' name in any sorts of in-game text. (Like books, item descriptions, etc.)

 

Is there any way to accomplish something like this? Unfortunately as far as I know, none of these can be achieved without the help of the dev team, so I humbly glancing at them right now, but as I said in the beginning, any other ideas would be also greatly appreciated! 🙂 Maybe there is a way to make something truly unique which I'm not aware about. (And I swear, if we can accomplish something here, I will give gifts to the orphans during the next Wintersday. Yes, the greedy asura is my character.)

Maybe if you have enough money and approach a lead dev like Rubi with something along the lines of "i'll pay you this much if you do this" you'll get somewhere. I know in F2P games devs start contacting their biggest whales regularly and sometimes involve them in development. That probably doesn't happen here as much but enough cash might make it possible. 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Firebeard.1746

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

what this these people wanting to add themselves or "someone else" into the game? I don't care how much you played or how much you throw at the game, you're still irrelevant.

[Firebeard.1746]

4 hours ago, Arianth Moonlight.6453 said:

what this these people wanting to add themselves or "someone else" into the game? I don't care how much you played or how much you throw at the game, you're still irrelevant.

So how do you feel about the famous wvw commander who died and was added as an NPC?

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

1 hour ago, Firebeard.1746 said:

So how do you feel about the famous wvw commander who died and was added as an NPC?

no idea who you're talking about, don't care.

[b k.1648]

7 hours ago, Firebeard.1746 said:

Maybe if you have enough money and approach a lead dev like Rubi with something along the lines of "i'll pay you this much if you do this" you'll get somewhere. I know in F2P games devs start contacting their biggest whales regularly and sometimes involve them in development. That probably doesn't happen here as much but enough cash might make it possible. 

 

It'd have to be an extraordinary amount for a company of ANet's size, since dev hours are usually too expensive to be used for individual commissions. Can work as a contest prize though, where there's a limited number that will be done.

[Firebeard.1746]

3 hours ago, Ben K.6238 said:

 

It'd have to be an extraordinary amount for a company of ANet's size, since dev hours are usually too expensive to be used for individual commissions. Can work as a contest prize though, where there's a limited number that will be done.

True. I wasn't claiming it'd be cheap, but i'm sure there's a price tag breakpoint you can pass to get anet to care.  Not that i really want whales paying to be added, so maybe i shouldn't have said anything. 

[Danikat.8537]

4 hours ago, Ben K.6238 said:

 

It'd have to be an extraordinary amount for a company of ANet's size, since dev hours are usually too expensive to be used for individual commissions. Can work as a contest prize though, where there's a limited number that will be done.

Maybe not, if it could fit into existing development work.

A lot of the existing NPCs based on players or Anet staff are ones that would need to be there anyway, either filling out towns and cities or as part of events. Siegemaster Dulfy for example. Even if they didn't want to put Dulfy into the game they'd still have an NPC guarding that gate, and they'd need a name, making them a tribute to a member of the community just meant using her name and the look of her character instead of making one up.

That's how I could see the OP's request being fulfilled. It would have to wait until Anet was making a release which needs new NPCs anyway, then for 2 of them instead of someone at Anet making up names and choosing appearences they base them on the OP's character and their friend's character. It might need someone to request a screenshot so they can copy it, but since they're existing characters their face, hair etc. will already be in the game so they wouldn't have to custom-design anything. (Also looking at the list of NPCs based on community members it looks like Anet would change the names slightly if they don't fit the lore and I assume they choose appropriate armour.)

I didn't look through the whole list, but the only ones I found with custom appearences are April (who of course was an exceptional example) and, I think, Teapot, but it's hard to check if there are other objects using the same model which don't get mentioned on the Wiki.

[Menyus.1769]

12 hours ago, Arianth Moonlight.6453 said:

what this these people wanting to add themselves or "someone else" into the game? I don't care how much you played or how much you throw at the game, you're still irrelevant.

It seems unreasonable to me to make a comment on a topic with you don't care about, but your question is valid, and probably more people thinks the same. (That I actually try to add myself into the game.) I don't think there is a single person on the planet who in my place would not play with the thought at least, but for me, the sense of accomplishment would actually be more than enough. As you can see from the amount of comments I made here, it is not everyday that I come forward with a crazy idea like this. I only doing this, because I know that it could turn out to be a really great gift, and if I fail? Then I'll have a good story to tell when the birthday comes up, and I hand over my actual gift.

[The Boz.2038]

People that get immortalized by having an NPC made in reference to them are staples of the games community.
Other than "really likes the game", how is your bro relevant?

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

While it’s an interesting concept I wouldn’t want a game littered with vanity animals and NPCs 
 

You’re in some random place in the game, being the Commander, and there’s a rabbit named Edward Simmons on the side of the path or an NPC named Elaine Campbell. Neither of which have any reason to be there besides someone paid ANet a gob of money.  It’s immersion breaking. 

[Menyus.1769]

19 minutes ago, Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

While it’s an interesting concept I wouldn’t want a game littered with vanity animals and NPCs 
 

You’re in some random place in the game, being the Commander, and there’s a rabbit named Edward Simmons on the side of the path or an NPC named Elaine Campbell. Neither of which have any reason to be there besides someone paid ANet a gob of money.  It’s immersion breaking. 

Hmm that is actually a very good point, and I have to fully agree with it.

 

Well, taking everything into account, I think we reached a conclusion here, so the problem of the topic is "solved." 🙂 While plan "A" did not turn out to be a success, I still got a few backup plans, which are much more realistic and reasonable ideas, so who knows, maybe one of them will work. 🙂 I am quite surprised the topic got this much attention, but I'm really glad for all the feedback and the advices. (I still can't get out from my mind the idea of a commissioned art, so I'll definitely make some research about it. 😄 ) Thanks a lot, everyone! 🙂

[SandraSolace.7682]

I hope you find something that works for you!

And I might be off trying to get some bedsheats printed with a nice ingame picture I took. (yes, your fault 😉)

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

You can build things in the guild halls and put a sign on them. They only last until they are removed but it’s more personal. If the two of you have a guild maybe you could build a birthday structure for him in your guild hall. 

[Menyus.1769]

5 hours ago, SandraSolace.7682 said:

I hope you find something that works for you!

And I might be off trying to get some bedsheats printed with a nice ingame picture I took. (yes, your fault 😉)

Muhaha, then my job here is definitely done. 😄 I talked with some friends about commissioned arts, and together we came up with some very-very cool ideas, so fortunately I'm still hyped. Before I take that route, however, I have another (a little bit less crazy and not Guild Wars themed) idea, which needs some research as well. I'm sure that one of the plans will work. 😄

4 hours ago, Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

You can build things in the guild halls and put a sign on them. They only last until they are removed but it’s more personal. If the two of you have a guild maybe you could build a birthday structure for him in your guild hall. 

We have a smaller guild, but unfortunately there isn't much activity, usually only the two of us are playing. We didn't even unlock the guild hall. Still, I like the idea. 😄