Add Gear Inspect => More Transmutation => More Revenue $$$

[Zoe.8310]

Since there is very little gear progression, thus very little power progression in Guild Wars 2, most of us are aware that rewards and progression is really just based on either Achievement Points or on Fashion skins.

Now, there are some prestigious items you can earn, particularly Ascended and Legendary items, and the pride of earning those is only expressible via their skin. I'm not sure about the rest of ya'll, but sporting the same skin for years gets pretty boring. But re-skinning a Legendary destroys the prestige and personal accomplishment of earning the darn thing.

However, if there were Gear Inspection, you could still see / show that your items are of Legendary / Ascended quality. And if people were able to see that my items were still Legendary, I would be waaaaaay more willing to re-skin them.

And if I was more willing to re-skin them, I would go after more rewards in game. I would go after Black Lion Tickets and get those skins. I would buy Outfits from the Gem Store. Etc. Etc.

But, as it stands now, I have no incentive to re-skin valuable items I have spent HOURS earning

TL;DR

• Gear Inspection => Keep Prestige
• Kept Prestige => Re-Skinning
• Re-Skinning => Higher Player Engagement
• Higher Engagement => More ANet Revenue
• More ANet Revenue => More Content for Everyone!

[zealex.9410]

As someone who was actually getting asked for skins and such quite abit, i would love that.

Tho you are bound to get ppl going "Reeeee ppl will be able to inspect my green lvl 56 gear in raids reeeee" :p

[Zoe.8310]

@"zealex.9410" said:Tho you are bound to get ppl going "Reeeee ppl will be able to inspect my green lvl 56 gear in raids reeeee" :p

With things like ArcDPS, that argument won't hold any water. People will find out after 1-2 pulls that you are under geared. Plus, people are already asking for Kill Proof (KP), so once again, that counter argument will hold no water.

Even in Fractals it won't hold water, because the UI already shows your Agony Resist (AR) to other players.

[zealex.9410]

@Zoe.8310 said:

@"zealex.9410" said:Tho you are bound to get ppl going "Reeeee ppl will be able to inspect my green lvl 56 gear in raids reeeee" :p

With things like ArcDPS, that argument won't hold any water. People will find out after 1-2 pulls that you are under geared. Plus, people are

already

asking for Kill Proof (KP), so once again, that counter argument will hold no water.

Even in Fractals it won't hold water, because the UI

already

shows your Agony Resist (AR) to other players.

Shhhhh

[ReaverKane.7598]

Legendary/Ascended gear =/= PrestigeMaybe the Legendary Armor, Legendary backs, PvP and WvW Armors and some stuff like Aurora and the Ascended drops from Tequatl and Triple Wurm, maybe. Legendary Weapons can be done in a couple minutes if you have most of the materials ready, which, given that recipes vary very little nowadays is not hard to do. Others can be bought straight out of the TP.GW2 is a low skill game, with the possible exception of high tier fractals and Raids, you just farm everything, and not even for a long time. Honestly there's a ton more effort involved in stuff that pretty much grants you a skin only (like holiday skins) than in most legendaries.

I'll make it clear that i have nothing against gear inspection, most games use it and i think it's a useful tool for not only the cosmetic side of things, but also the "high end" side of PvE in terms of gear check.I just don't think it'll work as you propose since there's little prestige associated with gear tiers, and there's more in aura items and some particular skins, which are readily visible.

[Zoe.8310]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Legendary Weapons can be done in a couple minutes if you have most of the materials ready, which, given that recipes vary very little nowadays is not hard to do. Others can be bought straight out of the TP.

That is only true if you completely ignore how long it took to acquire and stockpile enough Gold and Materials to do that. Not to mention the all the other things you need to acquire over time.

Sure, as a SUPER Veteran account, it's very doable in a short time. But, if you had a brand spakin' new account, and only one account, try and remember how long it would take to acquire allllll of that stuff to make and create or buy.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@Zoe.8310 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Legendary Weapons can be done in a couple minutes if you have most of the materials ready, which, given that recipes vary very little nowadays is not hard to do. Others can be bought straight out of the TP.

That is only true if you completely ignore how long it took to acquire and stockpile enough Gold and Materials to do that. Not to mention the all the other things you need to acquire over time.

Sure, as a SUPER Veteran account, it's very doable in a short time. But, if you had a brand spakin' new account, and only one account, try and remember how long it would take to acquire allllll of that stuff to make and create or buy.

Well, anyone with disposable dollars can buy 2000 gold through gems and buy that stuff in a jiffy. Sure it's something like 120USD, but i've seen people spending more than that in items like black lion keys for a single cosmetic item, so i wouldn't discount anyone doing that.

Also, two things about your comment:If someone's on a brand new account they're not really thinking about legendaries or prestige, and more about getting to a point where they can do that, and by the time they are, they should have both the means to obtain the resources as well as a good head-start to get a legendary. If they don't, they aren't yet ready to think about prestige.

It took me 2 days to make my first legendary weapon. The hard part was getting that precursor to drop. Nowadays you can farm for the precursor easily, and if you're not just selling all your mats to buy gems and then buy puppy ears headgear, by the time a player should be thinking about getting legendary gear, they should have enough mats to be able to do the first item pretty quickly. It's doing several in a row that starts taking a toll on your resources (last time i did a legendary i did 3 of them in a period of less than a month, so that burnt my storage pretty badly).

[IndigoSundown.5419]

There's a flaw in the OP's argument. If a prestige item is reskinned, then why would other players bother to inspect? Are we to believe that people are going to go about inspecting everyone at random and then oohing and ahhing that some cultural weapon is really a Legendary? I could maybe see it if the reskin is another very rare skin. That would make it a prestige item on its own merits.

The thing about prestige is that it's in peoples' minds. Sure, the OP says that he believes possessing such an item confers prestige. It's in his head -- and that's all well and good. Whether it's in the heads of others who see his character is another matter. Then again, I guess I'm one of those who don't give a rat's kitten about what others' characters are wearing beyond mild curiosity if a particular skin looks inviting, or whether someone looks at what I have on my characters.

Personally, if ANet is going to work on a feature, I'd rather it be something I care about, like UI customization.

[Zoe.8310]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@Zoe.8310 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Legendary Weapons can be done in a couple minutes if you have most of the materials ready, which, given that recipes vary very little nowadays is not hard to do. Others can be bought straight out of the TP.

Also, two things about your comment....

You comment(s) and also IndigoSundown's comment(s):

@"IndigoSundown.5419" said:There's a flaw in the OP's argument. If a prestige item is reskinned, then why would other players bother to inspect? Are we to believe that people are going to go about inspecting everyone at random and then oohing and ahhing that some cultural weapon is really a Legendary? I could maybe see it if the reskin is another very rare skin. That would make it a prestige item on its own merits.

The thing about prestige is that it's in peoples' minds. Sure, the OP says that he believes possessing such an item confers prestige. It's in his head -- and that's all well and good. Whether it's in the heads of others who see his character is another matter. Then again, I guess I'm one of those who don't give a rat's kitten about what others' characters are wearing beyond mild curiosity if a particular skin looks inviting, or whether someone looks at what I have on my characters.

Both of you are indeed providing (somewhat) constructive criticism. Both of you are poking holes in my suggestion, but not providing any better alternative. I'm not 100% married to Gear Inspection as a 1-stop Fix-All for the issue I am describing, and I would be open to other suggestions. If you can think of another way to encourage prestige and also encourage skinning (since skins are mostly the only rewards end-game), then I would love to hear ideas.

Maybe there is a Fashion Score on your setup. Maybe there is a "score" you get for how rare an item is. Maybe other players can "up-vote" or "thumbs-up" you cosmetic appearance, thus incentivizing well planned aesthetics and also incentivizing doing the gear inspection.

I really am trying to assist ANet by brainstorming ideas how to solve an issue they created where people may, or may not, care about new rewards because they already have a cosmetic look they like, or they are very hesitant to re-skin something that is more valuable with something that is a lot easier to get, even though they might want the look.

Afterall, we are still human, and the desire to be prestigious is very strong in a multiplayer environment. Other games drive that prestige with power-creep and "bigger numbers" in combat; and since GW2 is not about those kinds of numbers, we need to think outside the box about a different kind of "number" that people can be proud about.

If people lose pride in their characters or their gear or w/e, their engagement in the product will decrease. Less player engagement means less revenue. Less revenue means less new content for us ALL.

While you may personally not care about this, trust that there are many who do. And it's in the best interest of us all to drive player engagement as high as possible, because we all benefit the larger and more engaged the community is.

[TexZero.7910]

You do know if you link the item it tells whoever you're sending it to the actual rairity.

Just because it's skinned doesn't change that it will say exotic/ascended etc...

[Zoe.8310]

@TexZero.7910 said:You do know if you link the item it tells whoever you're sending it to the actual rairity.

Just because it's skinned doesn't change that it will say exotic/ascended etc...

Correct -- which is kinda why I figured half the work was already done for such a feature.

[Zoe.8310]

@crepuscular.9047 said:Simple, it will lead to discrimination, just like WoW

The rest of your paragraph kinda contradicts this. Basically, you continue to say that there is already discrimination. There already is people asking for pings of gear or KP. If people want to discriminate, they are going to find a way.

What I am looking to foster is a feature that allows more personal pride and prestige in all the effort of things we have worked so hard to acquire over all these months ... years... etc.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@Zoe.8310 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@Zoe.8310 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Legendary Weapons can be done in a couple minutes if you have most of the materials ready, which, given that recipes vary very little nowadays is not hard to do. Others can be bought straight out of the TP.

Also, two things about your comment....

You comment(s) and also IndigoSundown's comment(s):

@"IndigoSundown.5419" said:There's a flaw in the OP's argument. If a prestige item is reskinned, then why would other players

bother

to inspect? Are we to believe that people are going to go about inspecting everyone at random and then oohing and ahhing that some cultural weapon is really a Legendary? I could

maybe

see it if the reskin is another very rare skin. That would make it a prestige item on its own merits.

The thing about prestige is that it's in peoples' minds. Sure, the OP says that he believes possessing such an item confers prestige. It's in his head -- and that's all well and good. Whether it's in the heads of others who see his character is another matter. Then again, I guess I'm one of those who don't give a rat's kitten about what others' characters are wearing beyond mild curiosity if a particular skin looks inviting, or whether someone looks at what I have on my characters.

Both of you are indeed providing (somewhat) constructive criticism. Both of you are poking holes in my suggestion, but not providing any better alternative.There's no alternative to provide, since we don't believe there is a problem. Again, the problem is personal to you.

I'm not 100% married to Gear Inspection as a 1-stop Fix-All for the issue I am describing, and I would be open to other suggestions. If you can think of another way to encourage prestige and also encourage skinning (since skins are mostly the only rewards end-game), then I would love to hear ideas.

Dude, the game is nicknamed FashionWars 2 for a reason, there's no need to encourage skinning, since everyone already does it extensively, and some times ridiculously.

Maybe there is a Fashion Score on your setup. Maybe there is a "score" you get for how rare an item is. Maybe other players can "up-vote" or "thumbs-up" you cosmetic appearance, thus incentivizing well planned aesthetics and also incentivizing

doing

the gear inspection.

Again, no incentives needed.

I really am trying to assist ANet by brainstorming ideas how to solve an issue they created where people may, or may not, care about new rewards because they already have a cosmetic look they like, or they are

very hesitant

to re-skin something that is more valuable with something that is a lot easier to get, even though they might want the look.

That will be a minority issue. True, my ranger does look pretty much the same since 2013-2014. But that's because i like the look, and don't need to change, but then, besides the ranger i have 8 other characters, and when i do change from bows to staff and druid, i do have separate healing power gear that is skin to match the druid theme.

Afterall, we are still human, and the desire to be prestigious is very strong in a multiplayer environment. Other games drive that prestige with power-creep and "bigger numbers" in combat; and since GW2 is not about

those

kinds of numbers, we need to think outside the box about a

different kind of "number"

that people can be proud about.

Like i said, there's a lot of "true" prestige items, like auras, legendary armor, etc.

If people lose pride in their characters or their gear or w/e, their engagement in the product will decrease. Less player engagement means less revenue. Less revenue means less new content for us ALL.

If they lose pride, then, that's their personal problem. Arena Net can't be around consoling every player and tweaking the game at each individual's whim. The game has been called fashionwars for 6 years now, and suddenly you decide there's a problem and people don't do fashion enough. That simply reveals either a total detachment from the game's reality and community, or simply lack of knowledge about what you're talking about.

While you may

personally

not care about this, trust that there are many who do. And it's in the best interest of us

all

to drive player engagement as high as possible, because we all benefit the larger and more engaged the community is.

No there isn't. Again, most people do transmute skins, the whole end-game of GW2 is about cosmetics, and people play it like that.

@Zoe.8310 said:

@crepuscular.9047 said:Simple, it will lead to discrimination, just like WoW

The rest of your paragraph kinda contradicts this. Basically, you continue to say that there is already discrimination. There already is people asking for pings of gear or KP. If people want to discriminate, they are going to find a way.

What I am looking to foster is a feature that allows more personal pride and prestige in all the effort of things we have worked so hard to acquire over all these months ... years... etc.

Except it doesn't foster either pride or prestige. Not to mention, what's the prestige in using a store-bought skin? There's no such a thing as prestige in GW2, outside of owning some extremely hard to get or rare items (which i've mentioned before).

[crepuscular.9047]

@Zoe.8310 said:

@"crepuscular.9047" said:Simple, it will lead to discrimination, just like WoW

The rest of your paragraph kinda contradicts this. Basically, you continue to say that there is already discrimination. There already is people asking for pings of gear or KP. If people want to discriminate, they are going to find a way.

What I am looking to foster is a feature that allows more personal pride and prestige in all the effort of things we have worked so hard to acquire over all these months ... years... etc.

how does the rest of the paragraphs contradict this?

 

 

2nd paragraph, i only have a copy of each legendary weapons i crafted, others were transmuted into legendary weapon skin, even my key farmer toon runs around with a L10 blue greatsword with Eternity skin applied to it for fun.

kitten Moderator removed it because forum HAVE to be G Rated contentOriginal Post's 2nd paragraphdont know how your statement about gear inspection correlates to transmutation, a transmuted item gains the visual effects of the transmuted skinso if you want to show off your legendary gears, transmute your grey quality gears into legendary gears

 

 

3rd paragraph, both WoodenPotatoe and MightyTeapot proved on their streams, you dont need ascended gears, let along legendary gears to raid, it can be done with exotic gears if you know what you are doing; plus if you have enough gold you can just buy raid runs to do the legendary armors.

kitten Moderator removed it because forum HAVE to be G Rated contentOriginal Post's 3rd paragraphwhen it comes to end-game contents, no one cares about whether you got legendary gears or not, it's about how skillful you are and how well you know the mechanicsan experienced raider can face roll raids with full exotic gearsa guy who got carried through raid can have full legendary armor, weapons, trinkets fully decked out, but he is still kitten because he got carried

My chrono is decked out in full ascended armor and legendary weapons, yet I don't know how to play chrono, but should the gears on my chrono reflect my experience with chrono? the answer is no

if exp raiders let me join their raid group, i'll be kicked out just after the first attempt.Why? because the timing, placement of wells, up time of boons would have been terrible.

another example is WvW and PvP legendary armors, it just shows that you are spending way too much time in the game mode, it doesnt reflect your ability in the game modes.

 

 

as the saying goes "don't judge a book by its cover", this is exactly what Anet has done, not implementing gear inspection, but let other players judge you by your actual performance

PS: Moderators, give us the kitten filters, plenty of us are old enough to not to care, or you SO wanna be politically correct

[Zaklex.6308]

@"Zoe.8310" said:~snip~

After all, we are still human, and the desire to be prestigious is very strong in a multiplayer environment. Other games drive that prestige with power-creep and "bigger numbers" in combat; and since GW2 is not about those kinds of numbers, we need to think outside the box about a different kind of "number" that people can be proud about.

If people lose pride in their characters or their gear or w/e, their engagement in the product will decrease. Less player engagement means less revenue. Less revenue means less new content for us ALL.

While you may personally not care about this, trust that there are many who do. And it's in the best interest of us all to drive player engagement as high as possible, because we all benefit the larger and more engaged the community is.

Why would anyone care about being prestigious in an online game...and if they do, that's on them, not the other players. Pride is a personal accomplishment...yes, others can be proud of you, but the pride itself belongs to that person. Far more people don't care about what their character looks like and what other characters look like than do. Nor do as many people change their characters looks as much as you like to think, yes, there are people that change skins all the time...and once you have a skin in the Wardrobe you can always put it back on again at a later date. My personal style is to find a look for a character...then once I've found that look I'll stick with it...unless something much better comes along...or something that I happened to had my character decked out in GW1 is brought into GW2, then I'll change again. Weapons are about the only thing I've changed more than once, and that was still only about 3 or 4 times. You're trying to find a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.

[crepuscular.9047]

@"Zoe.8310" said:What I am looking to foster is a feature that allows more personal pride and prestige in all the effort of things we have worked so hard to acquire over all these months ... years... etc.

that's why the shininess of legendary skins and cosmetic infusions are in the game, people will notice you are shinie miles away

learn from Deroir, legendaries give him freedom, not to show off his shinies

[Infusion.7149]

I don't understand the need for PvE prestige via such feature. Isn't that what titles are for?

Also I doubt people buy transmute stones.

I know most WvWers make legendary armor for convenience of stat swap, unlike PvE where there's basically zerker + scholar for every DPS.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

@"Zoe.8310" said:

Both of you are indeed providing (somewhat) constructive criticism. Both of you are poking holes in my suggestion, but not providing any better alternative. I'm not 100% married to Gear Inspection as a 1-stop Fix-All for the issue I am describing, and I would be open to other suggestions. If you can think of another way to encourage prestige and also encourage skinning (since skins are mostly the only rewards end-game), then I would love to hear ideas.

Maybe there is a Fashion Score on your setup. Maybe there is a "score" you get for how rare an item is. Maybe other players can "up-vote" or "thumbs-up" you cosmetic appearance, thus incentivizing well planned aesthetics and also incentivizing doing the gear inspection.

I really am trying to assist ANet by brainstorming ideas how to solve an issue they created where people may, or may not, care about new rewards because they already have a cosmetic look they like, or they are very hesitant to re-skin something that is more valuable with something that is a lot easier to get, even though they might want the look.

Afterall, we are still human, and the desire to be prestigious is very strong in a multiplayer environment. Other games drive that prestige with power-creep and "bigger numbers" in combat; and since GW2 is not about those kinds of numbers, we need to think outside the box about a different kind of "number" that people can be proud about.

If people lose pride in their characters or their gear or w/e, their engagement in the product will decrease. Less player engagement means less revenue. Less revenue means less new content for us ALL.

While you may personally not care about this, trust that there are many who do. And it's in the best interest of us all to drive player engagement as high as possible, because we all benefit the larger and more engaged the community is.

My belief is that ANet could generate a lot more player willingness to re-skin items and use more of the cosmetic looks provided were they to make the process of reskinning more user-friendly. They could do this by selling wardrobe slots, into which players could set skins using charges, and then switch between slots -- and looks -- by one click with no charge. Get multiple wardrobe slots, set looks into them, switch as you want. I believe lack of convenience in switching is a far greater barrier to pursuit of cosmetics than unwillingness to lose the prestige one associates with items that can be obtained by any and every player who wants them.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

Is there any reason to offer "gear inspect" rather than "wardrobe inspect?"

Fashion is only concerned with wardrobe choices; looking fabulous doesn't require knowing anything about the specs, only about which skins & colors.

[starlinvf.1358]

@Zoe.8310 said:

@"zealex.9410" said:Tho you are bound to get ppl going "Reeeee ppl will be able to inspect my green lvl 56 gear in raids reeeee" :p

With things like ArcDPS, that argument won't hold any water. People will find out after 1-2 pulls that you are under geared. Plus, people are

already

asking for Kill Proof (KP), so once again, that counter argument will hold no water.

Even in Fractals it won't hold water, because the UI

already

shows your Agony Resist (AR) to other players.

I thought raids were about skill of the player, and not strictly their gear stats...... are you suggesting raider are hypocrites?

[Tiviana.2650]

I wouldnt mind an inspect, but then again im used to that. Most of the games i played allowed it in one form or another.

[zealex.9410]

@starlinvf.1358 said:

@Zoe.8310 said:

@"zealex.9410" said:Tho you are bound to get ppl going "Reeeee ppl will be able to inspect my green lvl 56 gear in raids reeeee" :p

With things like ArcDPS, that argument won't hold any water. People will find out after 1-2 pulls that you are under geared. Plus, people are

already

asking for Kill Proof (KP), so once again, that counter argument will hold no water.

Even in Fractals it won't hold water, because the UI

already

shows your Agony Resist (AR) to other players.

I thought raids were about skill of the player, and not strictly their gear stats...... are you suggesting raider are hypocrites?

Obv skill > gear. That doesnt mean if you are skilled u should go with greens and blues.

Gear plays a role in your performance and none wants to cary someone who isnt honest with the group.

[zealex.9410]

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:Is there any reason to offer "gear inspect" rather than "wardrobe inspect?"

Fashion is only concerned with wardrobe choices; looking fabulous doesn't require knowing anything about the specs, only about which skins & colors.

One could argue it would make ppl's lives easier when they look something in game they like and could just inspect to see

[AzureTerra.1642]

All it needs to show is the name of the item its been transformed into, no stats or sigils needed.

[Laila Lightness.8742]

Idk it could make some ppl angry (probly hear things like gear shamming)