New Angles to Make Observer Mode Exciting

Observer mode could use a few new camera angles to make things more interesting than the birds eye view that it is currently limited to. You can't even zoom very close on a selected player.

If you watch professional sports on TV there are always new ways to get the viewers into the experience; net cams, helmet cams, you name it. For starters you should be able to zoom in as close as you wish to a character.

Right now there are several areas on the Mission Map window that you can click to zoom over to an area of the map like Red Guild Hall, Red East Gate, etc. What would be really cool is if, for each map, there are certain cameras set up in places where they could show you a nice angle in an area where a lot of the fighting takes place. For example, a camera just above eye level at the flag stand that you can swivel to get a good view of the action. There should be dozens throughout the map at various angles and altitudes, such as right down near the ground.

A lock on system would work really well too, if you are viewing a certain character, such as the flag runner, you could 'lock' the action camera on him and it would swivel to keep him in the center view. Also an auto-follow setting that changes your screen to the nearest action camera near him as he moved through the map.

While we are on the topic of Observer mode, it would be nice to have an indicator that shows how many other observers are watching with you. It would help make it more social if you know others are observing with you.

So what do you guys think?
No one hears you.

ehm..
you can already center a player, like the flagrunner you mentioned by clicking on him? I'm not sure I understand the suggestion..

As for the 'X observers' marker, interesting, but I fear it will lead to the following:
"heeeeello?"
"anybody here?"
"why aren't you responding?"

Honestly, I don't think that adding new angles to obs mode will make it a more usefull tool. I don't ever look at the different cameras placed around the map when I can just watch a player or an NPC. The ability to lock on to a player, though, is something I'd love to see. I mean, you can select a guy and watch him move around and stuff, but I would like to have it be more like in game. You can select a monk, lock on to him and click around without switching focus to the other character's point of view. Select a ranger that just fired an interrupt, and go click on his target without switching to look at someone else.

Another thing that obs mode needs to do is show you what sort of damage/healing a target is doing to *another* target. Watching that warrior for skill usage makes you unable to see the damage that he is putting out, and watching his target does not let you see some of the nuance of his skill usage. That's probably the part of obs that made the least sense to me.

The last part that I think is a bit off in obs is that the "last hit by" portion shows you the last x skills that did damage to targets you have been watching. If i'm watching a monk that just got eburned and all of a sudden his teammate gets wtfpwnt by 2 warriors and a paragon, i want to switch to him and see "dev hammer, fierce blow, eviscerate, executioner's strike, spear of lightning, harriers toss, vamp x 6" not "eburn"

That about sums up what i'd like to see with obs mode, I think.

I'm talking about static cameras that the devs should setup around each map. They could offer a move exciting perspective on certain areas of the field. Since they are static and only swivel, it would help to have a feature to lockon to a certain player.

If GW wants to gain e-sport status it needs to look impressive to someone who doesn't know what is going on. If you have never seen watched Guild Wars before all you will see is little men running and shooting fireballs at each other, you cant appreciate the tactics and skill involved. Think back to the World Championships that have occurred, they had the matches broadcast on large screens for the general public to watch and judging from the players who I talked to that went, the matches were pretty boring especially if you had no idea what was going on.

When you watch an action movie the angle is switching every 3-5 seconds to keep you interested. Any way to better convey the action going on will make for better viewing, better camera angles is only a suggestion to do just that.


You are absolutely right. But thats all observer mode is now, just a tool for those that know how to use it and understand the dynamics of what is happening. I'm talking about making it into a form of entertainment, or at least more entertaining.