[Suggestion] Custom Commander/Guild icon

[Benschii.4062]

Hello

I'm a proud member of the PINK Community Portal guild. As probably many of you know, we are a guild focused around the Mesmer class. Our top priority is to teleport people from the start of a Jumping Puzzle to the end, or at least as far as this is possible. We do this for people who want to complete their daily Achievements and either lack the skill to do the JP's or are too lazy.

After a couple of months, some player reached out to the guild, they've heard about us and really appreciate the effort. A couple of months later some people asked us, why we don't ask ANet, for a special PINK related commander tag.

And that's what I'm doing here.

Is there a possibility to get a variation on the commander/mentor tag, if you're representing PINK? It does not have to be a Commander tag but could also be a guild tag, which, as I've been told, ANet members have. It would be advantagious, if you could turn the tag on and off, for obvious reasons. This feature would also make sense for WvW et sim. Specially since WvW becomes more and more guild focused (at least to my experience), and therefore having a guild tag, would be a nice and welcome addition.

We would highly appreciate and love that feature, since that would distinguish us from other commanders on the map, which sometimes gets a bit confusing.

Kind regards

The PINK guild

[Mouja.8130]

Thank you Benshii for writing all this <3

 

Here also a big PLEASE and <3 LOVE <3 from the [PINK] Guildleader

 

Lots of love <3

Mouja

[starlinvf.1358]

I don't know...... its opening the door to everyone getting custom tags for their guilds, diluting any value in it being unique, and causing confusion in the process. Unless you're talking about only PINK getting a unique tag- in which case there not expletives to fully convey my argument about what happens when a game of this size, and this nature, has Devs openly playing favorites.

[Mouja.8130]

Well special guild tags would be really helpful in WvW as Benshii mentioned earlier. This way you could tag up the guild while raiding without others and tagging commander when free 4 all.

[Benschii.4062]

> @"starlinvf.1358" said:

> I don't know...... its opening the door to everyone getting custom tags for their guilds, diluting any value in it being unique, and causing confusion in the process. Unless you're talking about only PINK getting a unique tag- in which case there not expletives to fully convey my argument about what happens when a game of this size, and this nature, has Devs openly playing favorites.

 

I absolutely understand that point.

I think a good way to go about that confusion, I would say that one option is to make the guild tag a mini version of the guild logo for example. As far as I've seen, although, take it with a grain of salt, since I haven't played for that long, the 'more advanced' guilds (i.e. higher levels) have custom or semi-custom logos themselfs.

You could also couple this with an upgrade within the guild, so not every guild has it, just as another input.

 

And I also don't want the Devs playing favourites, that'd be just unfair for all the others.

[Danikat.8537]

For what it's worth you guys are already very recognisable. Whenever I go to do a jumping puzzle and see pink commander/catmander tags I know it's [PINK] organising portals. (I like doing puzzles so most of the time I do it myself, but occasionally when I'm in a hurry or having a bad day I've really appreciated knowing you're there.)

 

I like the idea of custom guild tags, but I'm not sure how practical it would be for Anet. If one guild has it everyone else will want it too and they couldn't just let people upload their own images or there will be a lot of entirely inappropriate tags. So someone would have to check and approve each image and that could quickly get very time-consuming. The obvious answer is to put restrictions on it so only certain guilds qualify for custom tags, but I can't think of any way Anet could do that which isn't at least as time consuming as just checking the images aren't inappropriate.

[starlinvf.1358]

> @"Benschii.4062" said:

> > @"starlinvf.1358" said:

> > I don't know...... its opening the door to everyone getting custom tags for their guilds, diluting any value in it being unique, and causing confusion in the process. Unless you're talking about only PINK getting a unique tag- in which case there not expletives to fully convey my argument about what happens when a game of this size, and this nature, has Devs openly playing favorites.

>

> I absolutely understand that point.

> I think a good way to go about that confusion, I would say that one option is to make the guild tag a mini version of the guild logo for example. As far as I've seen, although, take it with a grain of salt, since I haven't played for that long, the 'more advanced' guilds (i.e. higher levels) have custom or semi-custom logos themselfs.

> You could also couple this with an upgrade within the guild, so not every guild has it, just as another input.

>

> And I also don't want the Devs playing favourites, that'd be just unfair for all the others.

 

Let me tell you the story of Planetside, and its system for determining how leadership works. In the game, Squad leaders would earn expereince toward command ranks, which gave them access to additional intelligence tools, and a number of tactical field weapons. It takes a LONG time to get the Max rank, which gives access to an Orbital Strike used to break up entrenched enemy positions. Fairly simple, and supposedly does much of what you're suggesting......

 

The flaw here is the non-exclusivity of Command ranks, and the fact that you can't enforce a hierarchical command structure across an entire player base that has something as simple Agency and the option to simply "ignore" them, or "not play at all". At first only 4 dozen CR5s were active across all servers, and had accomplished that by virtue of being Squadleaders a lot. But over time, more and more CR4/5 were on the servers, having access to the same tools other Commanders. Once outfits managed to become self organized enough, they started rotating their players as squad leaders, to get access to more Orbital Strikes.

 

Now imagine that problem, except player is a guild in GW2...... Making the requirement level based, rather then a hierarchical tree with a limited number of positions in upper command, eventually EVERYONE is capable of qualifying for it. If you need more convincing, just look at people selling Raid clears, and a consumer base willing to pay for it just to get Legendary armor. Doesn't matter how impractical it is to get, players will find a way to make the process as efficient as possible. And even if it has an iota of usefulness or prestige, players will inevitably seek it because its always an upward/progress path.

 

 

 

The whole idea is flawed unless you can enforce arbitrary exclusivity on players.... and with good reason, players won't stand for it. Players are all equal in the fact that we have the same relationship with the developers, and maintain peace on the idea that our input/output is weighted on the merits of the ideas themselves, and always to the benefit of the player base as a whole. But the moment some group gets more equal then others, you now create a class divide among the players. The group with the exclusive benefits (regardless of intent) will be the target of groups without the benefits, on the grounds that there should be fair treatment for all players. And only rare cases will exceptions for this ever be made, nearly always due to the merits of the benefit to the community, a majority consensus of its value, and the minimizing of potential abuse by any party involved.

 

So unless Anet is allowed to impose the same rules and protocols on PINK that they would impose on their own Employees/GMs, I highly doubt anyone part of an active guild would not see this as simple case of special treatment, and that their guild should be entitled to similar benefits, and it made clear how they are allowed to qualify in a fair and an unambiguous manner. And with the kind community and legal mine field this creates, I don't see how Anet wouldn't be able to handle this whole concept better by making their own guild, and having GMs running various outreach programs or proctored events that Guilds could volunteer to assist in.

[Mouja.8130]

@"starlinvf.1358"

Just try to see it as a general idea to all guilds.

IT would benefit if you could already see which commanderteam belongs to a specific guild. Benshii here only got the idea of a non guild member to ask for us and he did.

But this has way more possibilities than just one guild.

And as you can see he also is aginst playing favourites ;)

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Benschii.4062" said:

> > @"starlinvf.1358" said:

> > I don't know...... its opening the door to everyone getting custom tags for their guilds, diluting any value in it being unique, and causing confusion in the process. Unless you're talking about only PINK getting a unique tag- in which case there not expletives to fully convey my argument about what happens when a game of this size, and this nature, has Devs openly playing favorites.

>

> I absolutely understand that point.

> I think a good way to go about that confusion, I would say that one option is to make the guild tag a mini version of the guild logo for example. As far as I've seen, although, take it with a grain of salt, since I haven't played for that long, the 'more advanced' guilds (i.e. higher levels) have custom or semi-custom logos themselfs.

> You could also couple this with an upgrade within the guild, so not every guild has it, just as another input.

>

> And I also don't want the Devs playing favourites, that'd be just unfair for all the others.

 

That could be a good compromise. I'm not aware of any guild having access to custom logos, but there are a lot of options for designing them, including combining emblems with backgrounds which can make them look different. So it's unlikely any two will be identical (although if you want one that's instantly recognisable as unique you might need to settle for less popular symbols).

 

The problem is a lot of the guild logos are relatively large, detailed images and I'm not sure they'd work if they were shrunk down to a commander tag or a guild tag like Anet's guild has. It wouldn't be clear what it is.

[Etria.3642]

Why not just have the tag have the initials of the guild? Just mouse over it and get a larger version where you can see the letters.

 

Yes they aren't unique I think but still.

[Loosmaster.8263]

> @"Mouja.8130" said:

> Well special guild tags would be really helpful in WvW as Benshii mentioned earlier. This way you could tag up the guild while raiding without others and tagging commander when free 4 all.

 

This has been shot down so many times I lost count.

Short version: Inclusiveness...

[lokh.2695]

Thanks for your efforts in game.

Taging up a pink Catmander and telling the ppl in mapchat what you're doing should suffice. If you'd get a special Tag or whatever it's breaking a barrier and nothing good will come from it. So your guild gets a custom tag, ok, now every WvW guild should get their custom tag as well, right? RP communities or the tri-wurm guilds of course as well. How about smaller guilds, it would really help keeping track of your guilds comm if there are more than one right, far eassier than sorting by colors or telling in /m. How big does a guild need to be to receive a custom tag? Is the treshold at 20 members, 50, 150, 500? Do the members need to be active to count towards the treshold and would Anet measure activity? Why can't I have a custom tag, I've been playing since launch, helped many players out, dumped some cash to the gemstore? And after all these questions are settled and everyone who didn't get a custom tag is sad and angry, moderation of the tags begins to be constant workload for Anet.

[SloRules.3560]

Or you know they implement GvG and the guild that winds a monthly or yearly or something gets unique tag along with some other benefits? But noo, GvG is forbiden.

[Dami.5046]

I think having tags for non open and open tags would a nice thing so at least players would know.

Pink guys rock. I am very grateful for the help. I'm all up for some recognition from Anet for the time they spent helping others.

However if things like that did happen the guilds should have a good reason why they deserve the tags, it shouldn't be just given out freely.

 

[Danikat.8537]

One possibility would be to run a contest where guilds can write up what they've done for the community and why they think they should have a custom tag, then players get to vote on it (possibly in-game so you can't vote for your guilds) and the 10 or so guilds who get the most votes get a custom tag.

 

It would be a lot of work for Anet to run it, and I can already think of several ways to cheat (paying for votes, agreeing with other guilds to vote for each other, leaving your guild so you can vote then going back etc) but in theory it would be a way to restrict it to guilds who have earned recognition from the wider community.

[Ashabhi.1365]

I appreciate {PINK}'s efforts. I have arthritis and sometimes JPs are a pain in the ass.

Having said that, I don't think it's in ANet's best interest to show obvious favoritism toward any guild. I would much rather see commander tags simply show the guild icon. It would do exactly what the OP is asking here, and would also allow people to see where their guild is stacked when there is more than one commander on any given map. Given that WvW has different rules than PvE, I would disable it for WvW.

 

 

The key here is that something that is available to one guild should be available to all guilds. Make it guild-level bound if you must, but don't exclude anyone.

[Dawdler.8521]

We have been suggesting this for YEARS in the WvW forum and I remember someone even made an entire art sheet of commander icons that was really cool. Too bad I no longer have the mockup image of the commander interface either, which included shape selection, color, short description and a private/public tickbox. That was before we even got the colors lol... and Anet nearly charged hundreds of gold *per color* before the uproar in the WvW forum stopped them.

 

Meh, I'm just happy we got what we have today. WvW is low on the priority list. But maybe if PvEers moan more... hm... this is actually a great idea!

[Klipso.8653]

WvW guilds have been asking for guild icon tags for 6 years