Why does the Commander tag cost so much?

[Batel.9206]

I'm not exactly complaining okay, maybe a little, just curious why it costs 300 gold. Its original cost of 100 (or 150?) gold was already extremely expensive back in the earlier days of the game...even now, it's pretty dang spendy. When it was changed from a character-bound feature to an account-bound one, why did the cost increase so much? Especially because it seems a fairly essential feature to most endgame and WvW features.

[Buran.3796]

   In part due is a money sink (that function was more relevant at the beginning of the game), in part due the high cost prevents players to adquire the tag at low cost and troll in large events.

   Must be said also that at the release the tag was only blu, and has lower cost (~150 gold coins, if I remember it right) and later ANet doubled the cost but added plenty of colors (even to the ones as me which purchased it at the initial cost). Also, 300 gold coins is not cheap, but isn't really outrageous if you plan to command. You barely craft an ascended armor set with that gold, or a legendary rune...

[Batel.9206]

3 minutes ago, Buran.3796 said:

   In part due is a money sink (that function was more relevant at the beginning of the game), in part due the high cost prevents players to adquire the tag at low cost and troll in large events.

Ah, that makes sense. I do appreciate the game going far out of its way to try and prevent trolling, though I wish it didn't make things a bit harder for the rest of us normal players. But if that's the price we pay for a fairly stress-free game, then so be it.

Thank you! 😄

[Danikat.8537]

Early on 100g was a huge amount for an individual player to collect, and as I remember it the assumption among a lot of people was that Anet didn't expect anyone to do it on their own, instead guilds and other groups would club together and buy a tag for the person who would lead their activities. So it was a commitment on both sides - giving someone gold towards a tag was a vote of confidence in their leadership and volunteering to be the one to get it also meant committing to being the one who would organise and run group activities.

I'm not sure if that's specifically what they were intending, but I think that's the general idea - the price discourages impulse purchases. You don't get a commander tag unless you're actually going to use it, not just to troll or show off in cities or whatever. (I'm not saying it's effective and no one would do that, but I think that's the idea.)

[synk.6907]

As you noted,. it was 100g for one character, not across the account, prior to the rework that included the price change. I imagine that was in part an attempt to set what they must have seen at the time as a fair balance in purchase between something that a player would have to buy multiple times (if they wanted the option to commander across characters or for some reason deleted/remade a character) to a one-and-done for the account.

 

Worked out well if you only bought one before the new pricing was introduced.

Edited February 12, 2023 by synk.6907

[Dawdler.8521]

It was originally made for WvW, with the only feature being its a tag (like the mentor tag is now). Had nothing to do with parties and squads didnt exist. Since it was character bound it was "cheap" (and guild leaders had a guild to give gold for it). Back then we had no skirmish tracks, no pips, essentially no rewards at all in WvW so even 100g was alot.

They revamped it to account bound with a higher cost and added the squad features, once again because of WvW. The added colors was NEARLY 300g per color but due to massive complaints on the WvW forum, Anet backtracked that idea. And yes, we also complained the day it was released about the coloration of squad vs party members and how its so hard to see them in the mess of dots, Anet devs just shrugged and said "well that blue is clearly different from this other blue, looks good to us".

Later we also got the catmander which is cheaper if you already have the normal tag.

TL;DR you're meant to have a guild backing you up if you want it, but today 300g is nothing anyway since loot is raining on PvErs and even WvW has improved alot.

[Danikat.8537]

48 minutes ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

It was originally made for WvW, with the only feature being its a tag (like the mentor tag is now). Had nothing to do with parties and squads didnt exist. Since it was character bound it was "cheap" (and guild leaders had a guild to give gold for it). Back then we had no skirmish tracks, no pips, essentially no rewards at all in WvW so even 100g was alot.

They revamped it to account bound with a higher cost and added the squad features, once again because of WvW. The added colors was NEARLY 300g per color but due to massive complaints on the WvW forum, Anet backtracked that idea. And yes, we also complained the day it was released about the coloration of squad vs party members and how its so hard to see them in the mess of dots, Anet devs just shrugged and said "well that blue is clearly different from this other blue, looks good to us".

Later we also got the catmander which is cheaper if you already have the normal tag.

TL;DR you're meant to have a guild backing you up if you want it, but today 300g is nothing anyway since loot is raining on PvErs and even WvW has improved alot.

That's not completely true. Squads have existed since launch and had some special features like a chat channel and the ability for the commander to place markers. (This is the Wiki entry from 12th September 2012, just after the game launched, describing the available features at the time.) They were expanded when the commander tag was made account-wide, but existed before then.

(And while it was mainly intended for WvW players have been using commander tags to coordinate in PvE as well since shortly after launch, especially for meta-events and guilds doing stuff together.)

Also the price adjustment works both ways, if you buy the catmander tag first then the regular commander tag only costs 150g. (But there's not really any need to have both, since they include all the same functions, it's just a different icon.)

[Dawdler.8521]

55 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

That's not completely true. Squads have existed since launch and had some special features like a chat channel and the ability for the commander to place markers. (This is the Wiki entry from 12th September 2012, just after the game launched, describing the available features at the time.) They were expanded when the commander tag was made account-wide, but existed before then.

I am pretty sure we had no squads because everyone formed up as 5 man meta parties instead. The commander had his own 5 man.

But hey maybe someone with better memory than me can confirm.

[Danikat.8537]

18 minutes ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

I am pretty sure we had no squads because everyone formed up as 5 man meta parties instead. The commander had his own 5 man.

But hey maybe someone with better memory than me can confirm.

They may not have been frequently used in WvW (I didn't play it back then so I don't know) but I'd love to know how the Wiki could have an article about squads written in 2012 if they didn't exist until the September 2014 feature pack update when they were made account-wide and the additional colours were added.

[Luthan.5236]

It is account-based. Gives some (more than before) features. And not everyone is supposed to need it. The mentor-tag gets used in a way that was not intended when they made it (I guess): To tag up if you need help somewhere.

For WvW and big meta events for organization not everyone of the 50 members of a squad needs the tag + hardcore farmers will tell you that it is cheap to get the 300g when they just make a lot of gold per hours and farm this by playing 2-3 evenings of "normal" play. 😄

Edited February 13, 2023 by Luthan.5236

[Dawdler.8521]

4 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

They may not have been frequently used in WvW (I didn't play it back then so I don't know) but I'd love to know how the Wiki could have an article about squads written in 2012 if they didn't exist until the September 2014 feature pack update when they were made account-wide and the additional colours were added.

Well I hope someone has better google fu than me because I come up completely empty on any squad/com "guides" or similar 2012-2014 that show how it functioned 🤷‍♂️
Since guilds had no use for it (each party used the target marker on the commander instead) there's no real related raid videos either. Wasnt it just for joining the squad chat essentially (few if any used the marker functions)?

Edited February 13, 2023 by Dawdler.8521

[Khisanth.2948]

Squads have been around before 2014. You can see the tag in the video from 2013 but the current squad UI is from 2015 https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-enhanced-squad-ui/

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Chat_command&direction=next&oldid=463485 first revision mentioning /supplyinfo

I remember there were also some commanders who got pretty angry when people don't join the squad. Partly because it prevents them from using that to check how much supply the group has.

[Noah Salazar.5430]

it not cost much, maybe for new player or casual person that not know how to farm gold

if you play 4h per day, it will take you 4d to obtain commander tag, asuming you watched farming guides, and obtain 20g per h by open word meta events or fishing (20gx15h=300g)

 

You not nessesary need Commander tag, to be a Commander, if your not shy ask ppl around to put tag for you, and lead yourself as lieutenant (officer)

 

As lieutenant you can put marker on youreslf with alt+shift+3, and ppl will see you as moving heart while commander is your personal banner carrier 😄

Edited February 14, 2023 by Noah Salazar.5430

[Dawdler.8521]

10 hours ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

Squads have been around before 2014. You can see the tag in the video from 2013 but the current squad UI is from 2015 https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-enhanced-squad-ui/

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Chat_command&direction=next&oldid=463485 first revision mentioning /supplyinfo

I remember there were also some commanders who got pretty angry when people don't join the squad. Partly because it prevents them from using that to check how much supply the group has.

Skimmed through it before and it has nothing about the squads themselves if I didnt miss anything, just running in a party. The tag has always been there, we're arguing the functionality.

Also /supplyinfo has always worked in an AoE regardless of people being in squad or not. They got angry because voice was far less common (no discord channels) and people didnt stack to check, lol. With the updated system one see it straight in the UI per subsquad instead.

[Rumpus.1234]

4 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Skimmed through it before and it has nothing about the squads themselves if I didnt miss anything, just running in a party. The tag has always been there, we're arguing the functionality.

 

So, squads didn't exist in 2012?

[Dawdler.8521]

Just now, Rumpus.1234 said:

 

So, squads didn't exist in 2012?

Did they or where a "squad" basicly just joining a new chat channel, while the tagged commander and everyone else was in 5 man parties?

[Garrison Storm.3046]

Ironically, I find the tag useful as a soloist... it provides the convenience of being able to request help to your location... the PoF bounties come to mind as being particularly useful; summoning instant help without having to rely on LFG or waiting for a train.  Of course Apples work as well, but maps often have a few of those running.  Nice to pick a tag not in use to avoid confusion.  Value on convenience items is subjective, and I wouldn't spend my first 300g on a tag for that... but all to say there is a usefulness even without the desire to run large scale groups.   

[Dayra.7405]

On 2/12/2023 at 8:08 PM, Batel.9206 said:

I'm not exactly complaining okay, maybe a little, just curious why it costs 300 gold. Its original cost of 100 (or 150?) gold was already extremely expensive back in the earlier days of the game

In the early days where it was 100, it was char-bound not acc-bound, and several player had bought more than one tag on their account. The extension for char to account was the time where the price got increased to 300. Colors and squad functions came later.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Dayra.7405

[Lupini.6938]

On 2/14/2023 at 9:05 AM, Dawdler.8521 said:

Did they or where a "squad" basicly just joining a new chat channel, while the tagged commander and everyone else was in 5 man parties?

The commander tag was separate from the squad functionality, the tag came before the squad.  We ran in 5 person groups all together using voice coms.  Even if you had a good sized guild, it took a while to get 100 gold together to purchase a commanders compendium for a single character to get a tag that would show on the map so everyone could just follow the tag.  If they were getting one on behalf of the guild, you had to really trust that the person you were donating gold to would stay in your guild for a while and would be sticking to that character, etc.  Since it was a new game, and we didn't know how it would hold up, it was "iffy."  The increased functionally of having an actual squad was later (with HoT and the addition of raids, I believe).

As for the wiki page, using the page's creation date as evidence of dates of specificis in the game is problematic. We (the players) didn't have the GW2 wiki at launch.  That is why sites like Dulfy, etc., were so popular.  Once it was launched, many of the ArenaNet-created pages were back dated before the wiki launch date.  Even once the wiki was added, it took a while for players to get into creating the content.  I wouldn't base dates of what was/wasn't in the game on the date of creation of a wiki page, but by the dates provided for actual implimentation of mechanisms in the pages' content/text.

Here is the news post by ArenaNet on the addition of the squad functionality in HoT.  
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-enhanced-squad-ui/

Edited February 15, 2023 by Lupini.6938
Another member being picky about wording.

[Sime.3681]

3 minutes ago, Lupini.6938 said:

We didn't have the GW2 wiki at launch. 

Just to correct you, the official GW2 wiki was created in 2007 by ArenaNet, well before the release of the game.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Sime.3681

[Lupini.6938]

2 minutes ago, Sime.3681 said:

Just to correct you, the official GW2 wiki was created in 2007 by ArenaNet, well before the release of the game.

Now you are just being picky.  We, the players, did not have access to the wiki at release.  Is that better?

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

10 minutes ago, Lupini.6938 said:

Now you are just being picky.  We, the players, did not have access to the wiki at release.  Is that better?

We, the players, had access to the wiki since 2007. We, the players, definitely had access to the wiki at release. We, the players, myself included, were working on expanding the wiki since 2007, including during release.

So, simply put, you're incorrect.

Sites like Dulfy, etc. were even known to take info from the wiki at times. And vice versa, by anon editors usually.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[Danikat.8537]

You might be confusing it with the GW1 Wiki, which was created a few years after the game launched. (For a while there were two, one which was hosted by Anet and one which was entirely fan-run.)

Also I'm pretty sure Wiki's don't allow you to artifically create and back-date a series of edits, because that would defeat the point of logging page changes in the first place.

[Stephane Lo Presti.7258]

18 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

You might be confusing it with the GW1 Wiki, which was created a few years after the game launched. (For a while there were two, one which was hosted by Anet and one which was entirely fan-run.)

Also I'm pretty sure Wiki's don't allow you to artifically create and back-date a series of edits, because that would defeat the point of logging page changes in the first place.

That is correct. The GW2 wiki was available to all players before 2012 and you cannot change the information about when pages are created or edited. For reference, this is the very first page created after the wiki software was installed: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?oldid=1

Somebody did a "first" edit in December 2007: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?oldid=28

Anyone interested can dig a lot deeper and see exactly how content was created on the wiki, which uses the free and open-source software MediaWiki. ArenaNet extremely rarely edits GW2 wiki pages as this is a space for players to create content!

[Felix Omni.3829]

I just want to say that we're really enjoying this Wiki Truther talk, but several of the players in this thread including myself have been contributing to the various Guild Wars wiki projects since before Guild Wars 2 was even announced, let alone released, and we can assure you that the official Guild Wars 2 Wiki was open to players to both read and edit many years before launch. Indeed, my own first edit there was in December of 2007. 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Felix Omni.3829