Automated Tournaments starting in May 2008 will award brand new, in-game prizes

I think it was a waste of time and an insult when there are actual problems with the game that need fixed. I think, like many other recent updates, it further proves that ANET has completely dropped the ball on this game and raises serious questions about their commitment to their existing products going forward.

Ignoring that, I could give a crap less one way or another. I haven't got the patience to collect stacks and stacks of firewater from that crappy chest so it would just be yet another time-wasting title track I'll never even attempt, making it entirely inconsequential to me.

Possibly the worst idea ever...an account-wide that is bought. 6 million gold and you've got yourself a title across every character. Another title for the rich/bored/ebayers. And Anet want to discourage people buying gold. Yeah. Great way to do it.

Utter nonsense...

Their intention with the update was to encorage more people to play Ats (automated tournaments), not at all to "buff zaishen keys" or the buying gold stuff.
Rewards have been multiplied by 15x so people will really want to play on ATs... I hope...

the emote looks wank.

you would only go for the title if your bored\addicted to gambling\using free keys.

I lol at all these people who take this like its the end of the world; you sometimes seem to forget exactly what guildwars is; its a GAME that you PLAY not a LIFE that you LIVE, and this is, in the grand scheme of things, a tiny change of things. Most gw players I have met in real life are casual players who don't care about farming or titles, and they have no idea about sites like gwguru. The people who spend half their waking hours playing gw and the other half on gwguru are a relatively small portion of the community, and a relatively bad sampling as well. They're the ones who take any change to the game, no matter how small or large, as a personal insult to their mother (they can't have that, she might kick them out of her basement if they let people insult her ). I'm beginning to believe that most people here don't play gw and use gwguru, but rather, play gwguru and only use gw as an excuse to do so.

If they had not added anything this thread would not exist. I'm just glad they try to add something at all, most companies would have put the servers on auto pilot and ignored it having GW2 on its way.

EDIT: totally agree with lordheinous^^

Another example of the whiners getting want they want. PvE'rs whined about not having an emote that they could obtain without PvP'ing. And now they have it. Congrats to them. Whining has got them what they wanted again. As for the title. I could care less about it. It's not something I am going to grind for or that I am going to spend alot of money on. Yes it's fun to open the Z-Chest but those keys will be ones I will get through the Xulani House.

The emote was a mistake though as some people have pointed out in this thread and others. It's not even that great of an emote. I prefer the HA emotes to those. But like people said, if you don't like the title, don't get it. I know I'm not gonna try for it.

Yes, it was conjecture, just like what you promptly did. Except, if we observe the MMO genre, it would appear that the primary difference between yours and mine is that yours is wrong.

Everquest surpasses the popularity of Everquest II, even to this day, which is why it was never shut down. Star Wars Galaxies has all but collapsed because the playerbase felt the game was being mismanaged, and Sony's follow-up projects such as Vanguard have failed to generate any significant interest.

Compare with World of Warcraft and Blizzard's take on managing the game world. For better or for worse, they've followed the same succesful formula from start to finish: expand the content they already offer. No tacking in these weird last minute changes, no altering the style of play, none of that. As a result, they have been rewarded with a consistently loyal playerbase, and even the people who say they don't like it - like myself - come back for a month or two here and there to try and rekindle the interest.

You cannot piss off your customers in this or any other field and expect them to just come running back, especially when there are other options. Between now and GW2 there will be new releases, including Age of Conan, Huxley, and, possibly, Warhammer, not to mention new expansions for WoW. It doesn't take a marketing genius to be concerned that any of those competitors could hook stray players and dull their interest in Guild Wars 2.

There are a few people who will blindly jump into Guild Wars 2. Most of them are probably on this forum. I seriously doubt that the majority of the playerbase, however, is anything like most of the people here. If ANET keeps pissing people off and doesn't stop the attrition, they're going to suffer the consequences when GW2 comes out.

Given that GW is 3 years old (with titles being 2 years old) and with probably only another year or two left in its lifespan before GW2 takes over, I just can't understand why the requirements for the title are so incredibly high that the amount of grind it would take to max it out, much less get halfway up the track is so intense. As it is now, a player would probably have to dedicate not just all their GW playtime, but all their gaming time total for the next year towards getting keys for this title.

I figure it would make more sense to divide the requirements of the track by 5 or 10 and thereby reduce the total number of keys needed to somewhere between 2-4,000. It'd still be a massive money and/or time grind, but at least it'd be one that can be realistically achieved by more than 0.0001% of the GW population (I mean under the new system maybe 0.01% would be able to get it )

Oh, so that's why the Charr /ranked us. Okay.

Nonsense. You aren't looking at it in the right way...

Before the Zaishen chest was introduced I, and I'm sure many others, would spend my Balthazar Faction to unlock skills for my account, thus making them available to any PvP character I wanted to create, plus my heroes.

Then came the Zaishen chest and very suddenly I had a reason to spend my money in the online store to buy the skill unlock packs. By buying unlock packs I could spend my Balthazar Faction on Zaishen keys and instead of unlocking skills.

Creating more want for Zaishen Keys = Creating more want for skill unlock packs. And the title + emote creates want for Zaishen Keys. It's actually a very sensical marketing move, and puts real money in A-Net's pocket RIGHT NOW -- without having to come up with an expansion pack.

First of all, I can't imagine anybody would be stupid enough to risk their business's income on something as volatile as a player response to a game update.

Second of all, even if they were, that would just piss me off even more since it would be effectively saying "neener neener we can get more money from you idiots even without giving you anything!"

Is that supposed to make the whole thing look better?

If most Gw players are casual,why ad a title that takes millions of plat that can NEVER be achieved casual(if you don't ebay,that is)

its pro because i can double own people's corpses

I think you are right, I go back to WoW every year or so for 1 month, and then quit because of the same reasons that made me quit the last time to go back to GW.

They only add minor "cool" additions, but they really do never fundamentally change the gameplay and mechanics.

BC/Outland got flying mounts as the big seller, WOTLK/Northrend will give people a level 55 Death Knight to start with in a Citadel above the Eastern Plaguelands. The class seems to be immensely powerful and cool (I wonder how balanced it will be), makes my Warlock fear for another Melee char that shreds her at will. (another addition will be transport mounts where you can take lower level chars to ride with you).

Star Wars Galaxies is probably the prime example for changing the game beyond recognition: They probably even improved the game in some aspects, but the change was so fundamental that it changed and scared away veteran players. It was basically a new game.


ANet does tons of testing of mechanics and whatever for GW2 in GW1. I would even say GW:EN was the leftover stuff from the unfinished Chapter IV glued together with some basic and experimental GW2 ideas.

GW already has changed considerably with the whole title craze, heroes (i personally see them positive, but they definitely changed the game a lot) and PvE skills.


I wonder what will happen next Thursday, the mentioned special PvE/PvP skill division update for some skills!

Stuff that happens in GW1 can make one hope or fear for GW2, I hope I can stand the direction the game is taking.

As most PvP title tracks, it is probably not meant to ever be completed/finished.

The only PvP tracks that have really been completed are the Luxon/Kurzick Allegiance tracks. I have not yet seen or heard of a max rank HA/Gladiator/Champion player, and doubt even one exists.


It gives you something to do forever, basically. This is the idea behind it.


The idea to max this title is ridiculous. It would take even Bots quite some time to get the money together. This title also does not yield any benefit besides more weapons and a silver/gold instead of a bronze color in the emote.


But I cannot say I like this. We do not need titles for everything, we already have enough questionable titles. Sweet Tooth, Drunkard, Party Animal, or Treasure Hunter/Item ID e.g.. You need a few of them to get the magic 30 titles, and they require repetitive opening of chests, clicking stuff and shelling of tons of money. Farming, not playing together with others, doing a mission or mapping the whole continent.

I found the later title tracks to be all lacking and putting emphasis on heavy grind that GW marketing propaganda initially declared to be the spawn of the devil!


I fear they test how we like these titles. They could add TONS of ZRANK title style titles to GW2. Plus unlimited player level and stuff like that.

I personally could not stand it, and hope my fears are wrong.