CDI Topic: Rewards in PvP

#1 - Dec. 2, 2013, 4:05 p.m.

Hello Tyria,

Today we released a blog post covering our road map for PvP rewards. At a high level, these are our long term plans that will take us a good way into next year. Some of the phases have already been put into place and some are coming next week.

If you haven’t done so yet, please take a look at the blog post:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/player-vs-player-rewards-roadmap/

Knowing what our high level plans are, what we would love to hear from you is what you would like to see from rewards in PvP?

Here are the general CDI ground rules:
1: This initiative is all about discussion.
2: We will not be disclosing information pertaining to what is currently in development.
3: Anger and emotion will have less impact than intelligent discussion.
4: Together we will share and evolve design philosophies which will impact how we develop the game moving forward.
5: Aggression and disrespect to a fellow community member or developer will not be tolerated, and in the extreme could lead to the shutting down of the initiative.
6: The teams primary focus is work toward the development of GW2 and therefore posting of discussion and commentary may not be as frequent as you like. Please do understand that the initiative is taken very seriously by us all and that we will be reading the discussions and joining in as often as it is possible to do so.

Thanks,
John

#47 - Dec. 2, 2013, 6:20 p.m.

Miflett.3472:

Do not like the finisher changes as I like my achievement not being time gated, but that’s a personal thing, I admit.

Please focus future achievement structure on permanent achievement; comparing stickers for how many days you showed up is nice and all, but please keep these things open. Achievement in my mind is not time gated. Once again, personal opinion.

Although ladder rewards will be time gated, PvP will also likely have other rewards that are not time gated as well rewards relevant to living story and holiday events. It depends on what you guys would like to see.

#252 - Dec. 3, 2013, 8:06 p.m.

Hey All,

Thank you very much for your participation. I’ve just spent the past couple of hours reading through every post on this thread. There is a ton of great discussion going on.

The point of the CDI is not for us to talk about specifics about what we are working on but to open discussion with and between all of you. That said there are some pretty big misconceptions that are going around that I’d like to clear up.

First off, on Dec. 10th we are adding a new vendor that sells items for both glory and gold. Players will not be able to simply buy all the rewards with gold but will also need to use glory which amounts to time spent in PvP. This vendor is temporary until the next phase rolls out. It will be there so you can spend your glory before the new system comes into play. The new system inherently factors in time. We will discuss that system more when we are ready. As soon as we are able, we will let you know when the glory vendor will be removed.

Regarding new skills, PvP will continue to have all existing skills unlocked for players. Only new skills will require unlocks. The number of skills currently in the game can be intimidating for new players. We would like to allow them some time to learn the base set while they work towards unlocking the new skills.

Regarding gold rate, the rates chosen are based on what players can expect from average play in other areas of the game, not on farming rates. It is not our intent to make PvP a better place to farm but to make it about on par with what a typical player can expect in other areas of the game. Some of you have correctly noted that time spent in PvP doesn’t contain many of the gold sinks that PvE players experience and this has been factored in. We do want to encourage players who haven’t tried PvP to come give it a shot because they will continue to earn the rewards they get in other parts of the game. We don’t want people to feel this is where they must to go to maximize their rewards. We will adjust rates if we feel it is necessary.

Regarding exclusivity of skins. Since skins will be shared across the game PvP will be getting exclusive skins that require participation in PvP to obtain. These will be able to be carried over into all other areas of the game. I think this was a little unclear in the blog post.

There was some confusion about the achievement rebalancing. We split up some of the pools of points into additional tiers and we added more tiers on top of that. This is to allow players to get more regular achievement rewards. Your total achievement points may go up, they won’t go down and you should hit tiers more frequently than before.

This has been a great discussion thus far, thanks a bunch for your feedback. By far the most discussed topic on this thread has been the plan to remove ranks. So here are some questions for you.

Would you keep rank acquisition the same as it is now?

If not, what would you do to improve rank acquisition?

Thanks again!

John

#275 - Dec. 3, 2013, 11:05 p.m.

Oprah.1347:

John Corpening.9847:

Regarding new skills, PvP will continue to have all existing skills unlocked for players. Only new skills will require unlocks. The number of skills currently in the game can be intimidating for new players. We would like to allow them some time to learn the base set while they work towards unlocking the new skills.

Maybe my reading comprehension is lower right now because I’m tired, but you’re saying that as new skills are added to the game – they will no longer be unlocked by default in sPvP ? If this is the case, are you able to detail what we will need to do in order to unlock them? I feel that if you require skills to be unlocked in sPvP you run the risk of creating a disparity between new and old players as the older ones will have more skills unlocked as time progresses, giving them access to more build diversity which could set newer players at a disadvantage. I felt this disparity when playing GW1 for the first time earlier this year for HoM points – not being able to unlock crucial skills for particular setups really put me at a disadvantage and I would hate to see that come here – as in my opinion sPvP’s equitable playing field (class balance aside of course) is what truly sets it apart from almost any pvp mode I’ve played before.

New skills being added to the game will be unlockable via skill points. This also applies to new utilities and elites. For PvP specifically, this means you’ll need to purchase Tomes of Knowledge to level up your character and unlock skill points.

#406 - Dec. 10, 2013, 6:33 p.m.

Thanks a ton for all the feedback. I wanted to let you all know that I’m going to close this thread out tomorrow.

Also wanted to say that I’ve been having a great time playing PvP with many of you today.

#412 - Dec. 11, 2013, 2:44 p.m.

Thanks again for all the great feedback. We heard a lot about what rewards you would like to see, what motivates different types of players and some concerns about some of the changes.

As a result of this discussion we have already decided to keep ranks in some form to represent a player’s long term investment in the game. This discussion has factored heavily into our internal discussion as to what that form will be and adjustments that need to be made. We do agree with most of you that changes need to be made especially with the attainability of the ranks towards the end.

Thanks again for the great discussion!

John