The Amazing Guild Wars Race

8 Regions... 25 Missions... 36 Towns... And More than 60 Days!

Now I know racing and marathon ideas within GW have been said before but not on a scale like this. My previous guild was planning to do a similar event but I would like to open this one to the community. The purpose of this thread is to simply get from the community here a reaction as to how many people will be interested in participating in an event like this and how many wouldn't. The reason is because it will take me weeks to plan out an entire course (seeing as I have to completely play through the game again/come up with ideas for challenges/script the dialogue/create clues/etc.) and I don't want to waste my time if people aren't going to sign-up. I have already come up with most rules of the game to make the event fun and challenging as well as an effective way to prohibit cheating as much as I can (but I hope that the people who would take part in this are already honest as it is for fun). Now on to some extremely general info on the race:

The event will be very very similar to the Amazing Race show on TV. The game used for the course will be GW Prophecies. A team will consist of four players. The race will be divided into legs for each part of the race (final number of legs is not known so far as I haven't created the course yet). There will be Detours and Road Blocks (if you watch the TV show you will know what I'm talking about) throughout the race. The Detours and Road Blocks will consist of mandatory quests that must be done or unique challenges created by me (for example killing a boss). The race will span the entire continent of Tyria, that includes all the missions and mostly all areas. The race will begin with newly created characters in Pre-Searing Ascalon and go all the way to Hell's Precipice. The teams will be scored based on times and each team will do their leg separately (which makes it easier for me to just focus on one team running the race at a time rather then multiple teams that will make it impossible for me to run correctly). At the end of each leg, the team with the slowest time may or may not be eliminated (I could make it cumulative where each team adds their previous leg times to the current one to decide the team to be eliminated or I can start each team with a clean slate at the beginning of every leg to add a bit more luck/randomness which is what makes the actual TV show exciting to watch, this is still to be decided).

Depending on how successful the event goes (that includes no attempts of cheating from teams and maintened interest in the race by teams and people just following the event) there will be a prize. But I encourage people not to enter the race just for the prize but most importantly to have fun, which is why I won't disclose any prize info until the race is nearing completion. There is also no type of entry fee, the event is completely free.

I would AT LEAST like to have 10 teams of 4 players join the event and that would make it worth my time to plan it, and also run it. Since I would personally have to time each team separately for each leg, and each leg will approximately run around 1-2 hours probably (I could make it long or short), I will estimate that the entire competition will span around 2 months, maybe more (I will have a better time estimate once I create the course). So if your team is good and goes far into the race, be prepared to be available for the entire duration. I plan to do 1 leg per week (and it might even take a little longer as people have school/work and sometimes they cannot find time to play as much so I would have to try to schedule in teams when I can) and also the first few legs will have more teams competing, as the race continues, there will be less and less teams for me to time and the pace of the race will start to quicken. Of course I would also like the entire community (those that aren't taking part) to follow the race as well so I would post a new thread for each leg of the race (after it is completed) consisting of a synopsis of the leg, the course taken, the different challenges, and the current standings.

All I need from YOU is to post on this thread (since I can't make a poll ) and tell me if:
1) yes, I would definitely participate
2) yes, I would think of participating
3) no, unfortunately I cannot participate but am interested in the race
4) no, I cannot participate and have no interest in the race at all.

If people don't post and I don't see any feedback then I will assume that the community isn't interested. Like I said before, I at least need interest from 10 4-player teams, that is 40+ people (you don't necessarily have to have your team set already, an individual response is fine, teams can be created once the race is about to begin).

Now before you post, and if you are thinking about participating, also think if you have the time to commit about 2 hours per week into this (if you work alot and don't have very much time to play then I discourage you from participating because I don't want to have teams midway through the race who can't continue because of scheduling conflicts) and if you will be available for the two months or so that it will take to fully complete the race since I don't want teams to lose interest and quit midway either. If I do decide to make the race, I will post again with the official rules and how to sign-up once I plan the entire competition, which will take some time.

I don't mind putting the work into creating this race if enough people actually care. I think this could be a really fun event for those who want to attend and those who will just follow it on the forums. I welcome any comments and questions, you can post on this thread or pm me privately.

It sounds very interesting.
I get the basic concept but dont get how to do it in GW but if you got that figured out then yeah id love to do this

Sounds really great. With the low intensity of the time required this should be accessible to even the most time limited players.

Count me in with my team

sounds interesting. count me in

Great idea, /signed
No free character slots so im not participating .

8 Regions... 25 Missions... 36 Towns... And More than 60 Days!

O_o

I dont know about others but the prize would have to be like at least 300 ectos just for me to consider setting aside such a large amount of time... Some would say its all about the fun and stuff but it is pretty hardcore and hardcore events should have big prizes.

I'm in but each team should have 5-6 players (only 4 at the time), so someone can step in if one isn't online.

Btw, I'll be Monk or Warrior

never even beat prophicies, had the game over a year.
pvp plz=]

I would love to join in, a few questions though:

shouldnt the teams be teams of 3, if ur going to join them? begins in Ascalon there is the 4 player limit

how is presearing being included? since there is a party limit of 2 either u must be with all chars at the start or are u going to set a limit. eg all players must be fresh to Ascalon Post at a set lvl eg. Lvl 5

Are u going to limit armor and or skills? some people with lots of skills unlocked will be able to buy non early skills that others cant. a suggestion would be to limit the skills the the ones only available up to that point. Eg in Ascalon u can only use skills uve gained in Ascalon and Pre

Are poeple allowed u use there chars while a leg isnt taking place?

I'm up for it, and I'm very interested

I'm interested, might see about getting a group from my guild together...
Though i'm not sure I don't think some people have a spare slot...

Adding to the questions above, what about storage, and weapons from other characters?

Yea sorry but you would need to have an extra character slot. It is a big part in how the game is set up and to prevent cheating.

I agree with you sir, if I had 1 million gold to give away I would but this is only me doing this and I am not a money machine. I would also like to give multiple teams prizes but I don't have the funds. And I cannot spend time farming because I will be doing this instead. But I don't know if you read the race right. I'm not telling you to play for 60 days straight. You will only have to invest the amount of time that it would take to beat the game once within those 60 days, which is how many hours?? Not that much, and compare that to how long it will take you to individually farm 300 ectos, so I think your prize amount is a bit exaggerated.

To increase the value of the prize(s) I could try to ask for donations from people (who knows how much I'll get, probably not much) once the race is nearing conclusion to maybe up the prize amount if everything has gone well and I think it is necessary but don't focus on the prize and instead focus on the race.

Not a bad idea, I will definitely think about this one. But I won't make it a requirement to have 5-6 players because people will find it difficult to make a team of 4 let alone 6. But it is a good way for teams who know they won't be available all the time to have substitutes when they need to run their leg.

Sorry I am a pve player. Just because you haven't beaten the game yet doesn't mean you can't participate and beat the game during the race.

I will not be joining the teams because like you said there will be one less player for the teams to work with throughout the entire race for missions/quests. And I don't want to play for each team seeing as I might play well for one team and maybe for another team I might play bad so that isn't fair to all.

I am currently not sure exactly if I will include stuff from Pre-Searing, seeing as how it has been a long time since I played through that and I don't remember what types of things there are to do there but I want to try to include as much of the entire game as I can (or i might just do what you said about the lvl.5 req at ascalon). There is a party limit of 2 so if I do decide to include Pre-Searing, the team of 4 will have to split into two teams of 2 and each team will have to complete the tasks given to them but all four teammates must show up at checkpoints together (in towns).

Armor will not be limited. On the other hand I could limit Skills if I wanted to. This depends on who and what teams will want to join. If an experienced team joins and then a new team joins, the experienced team will definitely have an advantage by having many unlocked skills (they already have an advantage by being good players and possibly knowing the game inside out). But if I have all experienced teams joining the event, then I might decide not to do anything about it because most players would have the skills unlocked already which will make for some neat strategies from the beginning of the race. You have to remember that in the end, this is a race against time and every minute counts. Not only do you have to do the tasks but you have to do them as quick as possible so teams might think to equip a few running skills when they normally wouldn't.

People will definitely NOT be able to use the character they have created for the race outside the alloted and scheduled times for them to play their legs. This is to prevent teams from working ahead. Some of the rules will seek to prevent this from happening. If teams are caught trying to do this, penalties will be assessed depending on severity which will include extra time added to their leg of the race or even disqualification if I find it necessary.

As said before you need to create a new character so if you have a pvp player that you don't mind deleting for the time being or even a pve character that you don't use anymore. It all depends on how much you really want to participate. The decision doesn't have to be made now though.

I have definitely thought about the storage and weapon transfer issue from inventory. Ideally I would like the race to be played using only the items and money made by your character during the race BUT there is no way for me to check this (unless I can get logs from ANet to verify which will not happen) so for right now, I have decided to make it legal. This should in no way deter teams who don't have much money to play though. You don't really need that much anyways unless you want the most perfect weapons or the best armor (1.5k is enough for the race) and I also don't want ppl to spend too much money (unless you really want to).

how long a day/week would we have to do this?

Nice idea, I'll think about participating, but I'm a bit of a n00b, etc... And I really should spend more time on school work.

And I can't do much at least two days a week >_>

I am currently thinking around 1-2 hours (straight, once your leg has started you will have to play through til it is finished) per week since I know most people don't have much free time to play but that amount of time also depends on the team. For example what if Team A has some trouble and is unable to complete a task and it takes them an extra hour to do so, that is the teams fault and not part of the course. I will have a better estimate on the average time for each leg once I play through the game. Also as the weeks go on and we have less and less teams, the time might increase to 3-4 hours per week in order to get the race completed faster since I don't want the event to last a really long time either.

I am more or less in the same boat as you. I'm a full time student at my university but I can usually find enough time to play every week, especially on weekends when I think most of the race will be ran.

Hmmm this sounds interesting. It would definitely be something I'd be interested in seeing. I'd consider participating, but I've no idea if I could get a team of 3 other...errr reliable, people.

As for rewards, if you're taking donations, I'll spare some cash for ya. It's nice to see people coming up with fun things like this.

I think that will be a problem with a lot of people who can't get a team together on their own but you can use this thread or future threads about the race to make one, there is plenty of time to do so. Having teams consisting of strangers could be exciting for the race as we can compare them to teams of guildies/friends and see how they match up against each other. But I think teams of 4 is the right amount of players because during the early rounds the party size is 4. Once you enter the mid game, then it grows to 6 but still 4 players create the core of the party. Once you enter the end game and the party size becomes 8, it will prove more difficult for teams to complete tasks and therefore makes it more challenging for those who remain in the race. If I make it 2-player teams, then that leaves much of the success of a team upto the rest of the players in the party and not enough on the team.

Thanks for the offer

I'd have to do it with strangers, I don't know 4 people who play. =|

You don't know yourself? I'm just kidding

Seems like an interesting idea but I can easily assume that people will cheat in many ways, even if it's just a fun event :

1)Weapons from other characters
2)Unlocked Skills mean a build that they couldn't normally have at that point
3)Levelling up the characters outside of the "event time"
4)Looking up GWiki to easily find the bosses and such

(Note : I haven't read many replies but I saw some other people bring some of these up so I don't know what your stance on these things are)

I'm schizophrenic, there's only one of me.

I have already addressed those and for the most part they can be dealt with or allowed.
1) Is legal
2) I could make it legal or illegal
3) Definitely illegal (and there are ways to check)
4) I will allow GWiki to be used (and there is no way I can disallow it) or else the race will be extremely difficult, so teams should use it to their advantage, almost like a map.

I can't participate, but am interested in watching the event.
One question- Are heroes/henchies allowed in the later stages to fill the party or just 4 the whole way through?

There are heroes in Prophecies? It won't only be 4 the whole way, the team can make entire parties of 6 or 8 (depending on where they are) using other people/henchies. Or I can make it so that teams must use people which makes the race a bit more challenging, it is something that I need to think about and get some feedback on.

what about during presearing?thats 2 man:P

I'm digging the idea. If anyone needs a very experienced pve monk, tank, ranger, or nuker, they can add me to their team. I only play 9-12 pst though.
My only concern is some of the later parts of Prophesies require more than 4 players.
Ign
Don Fideli
Don Holiheart
Don Saladin

Don't you guys read? I've already answered that.

I want to make the race so that when teams enter regions that require more than 4 players, they will have to find help from strangers/guildies/friends, which in a way is similar to the real show when teams ask for directions from strangers.

Actually, a question:

This may defeat the purpose somewhat, but when it gets to 8 man parties, could two teams of four work together? Just curious, is all. =P

No they cannot work together. First, teams will not be playing at the same time so they obviously can't help each other. Second, it is not fair for two teams to help each other finish a leg faster (and essentially gang up on other teams to eliminate them). I would just rather keep teams separate for my convenience and also for those teams that don't have the opportunity to work together with other teams, whether it may be from scheduling issues or other reasons.

I am interested in this, although I do not think I would be able to find three friends to do this with. However, I am only really able to play on saturdays, for a few hours.

I think this sounds pretty fun. I've talked with some friends before about walking across the entire length of Tyria in one day, but it would be nuts to do so, so we've never done it. In any case, I would be interested in this and I'm sure some of my guildies would probably find it pretty nifty too. I'll have to see what they say.

Ok i saw the part u answered about pre my bad.

i MIGHT wanna participate.

i just gotta read when the times this would occer. would be best for weekends .

yea i'd be interested sounds fun.... or i could give clue or be a road block or what not... i like the show

this sounds like a really fun idea but i have one question,

if you have teams of 4 then is it possible to beat the high-end levels such as thunder head keep without a full team of 8?

hmmm sounds like an interesting and fun idea so...

yes i would love to participate

oh and as a little side note only 2hrs a week darn but still sounds fun

Just a thought but perhaps there should be a temporary guild so that we know who our contestants are etc.

I dont know if the show that the idea that your using is the same as the one here, but the show over here its groups of 2 people going from point a to point b at certain parts of the race they split up the teams and pair them up with someone from a diff team.Now here is the exciting part of this.

Player A and B are team 1
Player Y and Z are team 2
Player K and L are team 3

They get seperated and pair with the person from the other team .
So it becomes

Player A and L team 1
Player Y and B team 2
Player K and Z team 3

Now they can all be nice and help eachother so they both reach in a fast time,however and this is the beauty part , player A can decided hes gonna block player L and do whatever he can to prevent or hinder or just slow down player L.

Now player K doesn't know this and doesnt find this out until they meet at the meeting point where they are reunited and go back to their normal teams so he might be done his best to get there fast and of course making player Z also get there faster.

Player Y and B also did theyr best to go fast (in this example this team doesnt really matter its just to make sure 2 people from same team dont face 2 peopel from the same other team.

*Teams are still mixed*
So
Team 1 ended with a time of 30 minutes so thats +30 min for both players from current team 1
Team 2 ended with a time of 8 minutes so thats +8 minutes for both players from current team 2
Team 3 ended with a time of 10 minutes so thats +10 minutes for both players from current team 3

So that becomes
Player A +30 minutes
Player L +30 minutes

Player B +8 minutes
Player Y +8 minutes

Player K +10 minutes
Player Z+10 minutes

So the over points for the normal teams are
*Teams are now back to normal*
Original team 1 +30mins+8 mins=38mins
Original team 2 + 30mins+10 mins=40mins
Original team 3 +8 mins+10mins=18 mins

So in this part of the race team 3 wins.

About only one race being held at a time, im sure there are people here that would like to help you if it turns out that certain things that youd like to be implimented but cant cause your alone.

sounds like a really nice idea i could prob get some ppl from my guild to join up

i think making this event free is a bad idea. Having a participation fee won't make ppl shy away but insteed attract ppl who are interested and serius in participating. You could also use the participation fees as the reward at the end. eg, participation fees for a team of 4 ppl is 40k (10k each person which is a small but significant amount). You said there will be 10 teams which equates to 400k. So that means a prize money of 400k for the winning team.

Count me in!