Anyone else miss the Xunlai Tournament House?

Mouse at Large

Mouse at Large

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Dec 2005

Scotland

Fuzzy Physics Institute

E/

I enjoyed the XTH while it existed and was mildly disappointed when it closed. It kept me interested in the state of GvG from month to month without ever enticing me to play.

IMO it was a harmless, occasionally rewarding but completely inessential part of the game.

esthetic

esthetic

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2008

Fantasy Island

[Qtie]

R/Mo

Well just look at it this way, if you are in a GvG tourney and you have a million viewers interested in the outcome, for one reason or the other, you will be motivated more than having just your guildmates and friend watch.

Back in the day of Xth, the top players and guilds in the GvG matches were like rock stars, now I doubt the casual player can name the top guilds or even the players.

You can argue that the GvG participants say it does not matter to them, but they are all human with egos.

Daesu

Daesu

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by zwei2stein View Post
Not at all.

Past state generated little extra interest in pvp but huge amounts of currency.

If you make rewards more competitive and dependent on good knowledge of state of pvp, you raise intereste in pvp and decrease amount of currency generated because fewer people will vote successfully (as it will be more diffcult), but they will need to be more interested to reap benefits.

Getting people interested in PvP is not only about making them play. You need audience to organize big ass events. You need enough people watching to make it attractive for big brands to be sponsors. You need someone to donate money/equipment to make it trully motivating for esport type people participate. And it all depends on masses watching the spectacle. We need less of "Updated the 2011 Automated Tournament Series Trophy in the Great Temple of Balthazar." in update notes and more of "1k was sent to each member of winning team, courtesy of razer, alienware and nvidia"

Making people play PvP should not be THE goal at moment. Making people watch it should be.
Yeah yeah you need this and that. It is very easy to say everyone should be encouraged to try PvP or do this and that. But you avoided saying how you are going to get everyone to do that. Are you going to get the player base to be interested in PvP through your wordy advice? Right.

Most people already know that top end PvP tournaments can net them real money. But people are still not attracted to it because they don't expect themselves to be in the top guild, at least not easily or readily. You have to reward them for trying or at least taking interest in PvP.

Whether you like the XTH or not, at least people have an idea of who the top guilds are or even some of the top PvPers. If they ever gain interest in PvP, they know who to talk to. Nowadays, I don't even know who the top guilds are, much less the top PvPers.

lemming

lemming

The Hotshot

Join Date: May 2006

Honolulu

International District [id???]

Quote:
Originally Posted by esthetic View Post
You can argue that the GvG participants say it does not matter to them, but they are all human with egos.
When most of the "fans" had no vested interest in understanding anything about the game they were watching beyond the results, was it supposed to matter to me?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
Yeah yeah you need this and that. It is very easy to say everyone should be encouraged to try PvP or do this and that. But you avoided saying how you are going to get everyone to do that. Are you going to get the player base to be interested in PvP through your wordy advice? Right.
We know one thing for sure - the XTH was useless for encouraging people to try PvP.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
Whether you like the XTH or not, at least people have an idea of who the top guilds are or even some of the top PvPers. If they ever gain interest in PvP, they know who to talk to. Nowadays, I don't even know who the top guilds are, much less the top PvPers.
I don't need a carrot to stay abreast of developments in the NBA or the NFL, despite not playing basketball or football, not even on a recreational level. I imagine you can figure out why.

Mireles

Mireles

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2009

W/Me

hmm i was going to make some more points but i think lemming pretty much covered it....which is scary because i don't think we ever agree.

People play and do things because they enjoy them.... not for carrots...

Handing out z-keys for predictions is not going to make people play and enjoy pvp.... hell handing out z-keys and rewards for playing pvp didn't even get people to play.....

If you want to revive PvP... We need ideas that make formats more appealing to peoples enjoyment and more casual friendly... Not gimmicks to manipulate people into interest in pvp.

XTH does not reward interest in PvP becasue it does not require it, you can make predictions without even knowing the guilds or hitting the observe button... and you don't need XTH to find the top pvp guild or watch them play...

anyone saying "oh yeah XTH got me real interested in pvp but i never played it i just enjoyed watching" is really saying "i miss free z-keys and i bought alot of accounts for it so i am going to pretend it got people interested in pvp so they will bring it back, even thou i openly stated i don't care about pvp because im not interested without the free carrots".. so logic states if you stopped enjoying it after the free carrots were gone... u weren't enjoying/interested in pvp you were enjoying/interested in the carrots.

Rewards are an addition to enjoyment... not its replacement.

Martin Firestorm

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

Louisiana

E/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by lemming View Post
I don't need a carrot to stay abreast of developments in the NBA or the NFL, despite not playing basketball or football, not even on a recreational level. I imagine you can figure out why.


You're comparing some pretty good spectator sports with a pretty so so spectator experience. XTH was ok, but so is no XTH.

esthetic

esthetic

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2008

Fantasy Island

[Qtie]

R/Mo

I think we are discussing a moot point, bringing back XTH now will not revive GvG its a dead horse.

But discussing this issue, for the sake of argument, to say that XTH had no effect on GvG particiapation or interest is just ignorant. The fact is if you participate in XTH you ARE interested, not necessarily which GvG guild won but whether your prediction was correct. This IS interest at a minimum. In actuality, interest went farther as you found spectators discussing on forums and in OB mode tatics being used in the tourney, who would beat who, ect... I remember people discussing whether Rebel Rising was going to participate or not in a particular monthly... This is interest.

More interest from others will spur the actual participants to play or do well... Human nature, people like attention and to show off. And you have to agree that participating in the MaTs back when XTH was around was more exciting.

What dont you get about this?

Now to say that XTH although increased interest in RMT, was bad because it had a side effect of making it unfair between people with multiple accounts and solo accounts, has merit. It is a trade off. I have always thought, that as a financial matter, making incentives for people to buy additional accounts was a good thing, more revenue for ANet, more resources for a better game experience.

Its those people with one account bellyacheing that every month they get only 5-15 keys when others are getting multiples for each other account they had was the issue.

lemming

lemming

The Hotshot

Join Date: May 2006

Honolulu

International District [id???]

Quote:
Originally Posted by esthetic View Post
More interest from others will spur the actual participants to play or do well... Human nature, people like attention and to show off. And you have to agree that participating in the MaTs back when XTH was around was more exciting.
Firsthand experience allows me to tell you that it really didn't make much of a difference.

Quote:
Originally Posted by esthetic View Post
But discussing this issue, for the sake of argument, to say that XTH had no effect on GvG particiapation or interest is just ignorant. The fact is if you participate in XTH you ARE interested, not necessarily which GvG guild won but whether your prediction was correct. This IS interest at a minimum. In actuality, interest went farther as you found spectators discussing on forums and in OB mode tatics being used in the tourney, who would beat who, ect... I remember people discussing whether Rebel Rising was going to participate or not in a particular monthly... This is interest.
Superficial interest of a transitory nature that had minimal impact on GvG activity, yes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by esthetic View Post
I have always thought, that as a financial matter, making incentives for people to buy additional accounts was a good thing, more revenue for ANet, more resources for a better game experience.
We obviously don't have any sales figures for the period when the XTH was open. However, I'm confident in saying that the XTH greatly increased the number of black market transfers of accounts - why would you pay $30 for a new account for $5 a month when you can pay $5 for one?

cosyfiep

cosyfiep

are we there yet?

Join Date: Dec 2005

in a land far far away

guild? I am supposed to have a guild?

Rt/

do I miss the xth??? well I do miss the few extra gold items I got from the keys (still working on that id-ing title)....

as for the pvp part--I learned the names of a few of the guilds out there (I am part of a tiny guild and we do nothing)....since its demise--I have not kept up on any of it.

Saint Scarlet

Saint Scarlet

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2010

Everywhere

Rise of Corruption[RoC]

R/

If people really do miss it so much then they wouldn't mind having it come back but have no rewards tied to it so it's just for fun, anyone who doesn't agree with that was just after the freebies.
Or the second option which is to have it as a proper betting house. For example you get 10k to place bets on which guild you think will finish 1st 2nd or 3rd with odds calculated by the number of wins that particular guild has had, pretty much like horse racing in a way. This would then at least make people think as they can end up losing money on a regular basis not just reaping the rewards for participating.

I personally loved the XTH and studying form and i will not say that winning free z-keys was not a motivation, it was primary to the actual form following.

Yol

Yol

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2007

GameAmp Guides [AMP]

E/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Saint Scarlet View Post
Or the second option which is to have it as a proper betting house. For example you get 10k to place bets on which guild you think will finish 1st 2nd or 3rd with odds calculated by the number of wins that particular guild has had, pretty much like horse racing in a way. This would then at least make people think as they can end up losing money on a regular basis not just reaping the rewards for participating.

I personally loved the XTH and studying form and i will not say that winning free z-keys was not a motivation, it was primary to the actual form following.
ANet would fall foul of the gambling laws in quite a few countries if they added this. They would have to reward losing to get around it, such as giving unlucky points for unsuccessful gambles, similar to the mechanism for 9-rings and Rings of fortune.

zwei2stein

zwei2stein

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Jun 2006

Europe

The German Order [GER]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
Yeah yeah you need this and that. It is very easy to say everyone should be encouraged to try PvP or do this and that. But you avoided saying how you are going to get everyone to do that. Are you going to get the player base to be interested in PvP through your wordy advice? Right.

Most people already know that top end PvP tournaments can net them real money. But people are still not attracted to it because they don't expect themselves to be in the top guild, at least not easily or readily. You have to reward them for trying or at least taking interest in PvP.

Whether you like the XTH or not, at least people have an idea of who the top guilds are or even some of the top PvPers. If they ever gain interest in PvP, they know who to talk to. Nowadays, I don't even know who the top guilds are, much less the top PvPers.
I am not saying people should be encouraged to try pvp. That is stupid, people had years and years to try and to give up.

I am saying that people should be encouraged to pay attention to pvp. Like you were.

Shayne Hawke

Shayne Hawke

Departed from Tyria

Join Date: May 2007

Clan Dethryche [dth]

R/

There was nothing good about the XTH. It can't come back as it left us, and I'm not talking about its technical limitations when I say that.

Martin Alvito

Martin Alvito

Older Than God (1)

Join Date: Aug 2006

Clan Dethryche [dth]

The game is a better place without hyperinflation and legalized RMT.

The XTH can and should stay dead.

MithranArkanere

MithranArkanere

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Nov 2006

wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigo

Heraldos de la Llama Oscura [HLO]

E/

It was nice having some free points, but people were exploiting it, so there's absolutely no need to bring it back.

Shakkara

Shakkara

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2006

W/

I racked up almost enough keys on my account to get myself to R3 zaishen on one of them.

Which is the only PVP title I will ever have.

I miss the free stuff. It didn't get me involved in PVP but it did get me to log in every once in a while. Now I haven't touched my GW accounts for weeks, maybe even months.

Gabs88

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2011

It's weird but I havent seen the real reason Xunlai Tournament House was closed down anywhere in this thread. Basically, ArenaNet realized there was huge problems about the code in the tournament. And they realized that they would either have to completely rebuild the entire system completely. Which would cost tens of thousands of dollars. Or they could spend that money developing GW2.

In the end, it was probably an easy choice. I would love to see this come back in GW2 though, whats the harm in free zkeys anyhow? They kept the price down to reasonable levels, and even if people "Quit" GW. They would still come back once a month to make their tournament predictions and earn some points for when they came back. This made sure they were connected to the game

Vilaptca

Vilaptca

Pre-Searing Vanquisher

Join Date: Jun 2005

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

I really only miss the free items.

??iljo

??iljo

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

N/

+1

Thats all theres is to say, add guilds to the prediction,and wait for the free keys.

gg

Skyy High

Skyy High

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: May 2006

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Alvito View Post
The game is a better place without hyperinflation and legalized RMT.

The XTH can and should stay dead.
This. It doesn't help that the darn thing didn't even work properly all the time.

However, the idea of choosing to bet on tournaments is intriguing, if it can be done without abuse (heh). There just needs to be some risk attached.

Martin Alvito

Martin Alvito

Older Than God (1)

Join Date: Aug 2006

Clan Dethryche [dth]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyy High View Post
However, the idea of choosing to bet on tournaments is intriguing, if it can be done without abuse (heh). There just needs to be some risk attached.
I wouldn't mind seeing an XTH that functions as a wealth sink by enabling safe player-to-player bets on outcomes and skimming a percentage of wagers. However, I suspect that such an approach would run afoul of gambling laws in some places.

Gruff

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2007

England

Muppet Warfare [MvM] & 2nd in Servants Of Fortuna Ally

not missed, wasnt it the xth and registering on the website that was linked to a load of people having account information compromised also?

tiny_the_tokin_bear

tiny_the_tokin_bear

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Dec 2006

Toronto

Destructa Fuqus

E/

XTH was a joke, you simply bet on the previous winners and received a pile of keys. I never watched the matches nor had any interest in them. Anyone claiming it stimulated GVG is just looking for key hand outs....which I wouldn't mind at all. But I'll be honest about it and not tout it around as a discussion about the state of PVP, it's not.

Tullzinski

Tullzinski

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Mar 2006

Trying to stay out of Ryuk's Death Note

N/R

Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Alvito View Post
I wouldn't mind seeing an XTH that functions as a wealth sink by enabling safe player-to-player bets on outcomes and skimming a percentage of wagers. However, I suspect that such an approach would run afoul of gambling laws in some places.
I still have not gotten my $40 bucks back from Poker Black Friday when the US Dept of Justice shutdown Full Tilt Poker...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_..._v._Scheinberg

Would betting digital items only be considered illegal?

enter_the_zone

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2007

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tullzinski View Post
I still have not gotten my $40 bucks back from Poker Black Friday when the US Dept of Justice shutdown Full Tilt Poker...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_..._v._Scheinberg

Would betting digital items only be considered illegal?
Who can tell, the US DOJ just seems to do whatever they want and interpret the law however they want.

Martin Alvito

Martin Alvito

Older Than God (1)

Join Date: Aug 2006

Clan Dethryche [dth]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tullzinski View Post
Would betting digital items only be considered illegal?
I don't know, but ANet's legal counsel wouldn't be doing his job if he told them anything other than not to find out.

Quote:
Originally Posted by enter_the_zone View Post
Who can tell, the US DOJ just seems to do whatever they want and interpret the law however they want.
Which is one of the reasons that counsel should tell ANet not to find out. Keep in mind, though, that DoJ has the authority to do whatever they want and interpret the law however they want until Congress, the president or the judiciary tells them not to.

So don't blame DoJ. They're just doing their job. Blame the politicians and the judges, and the people for not demanding an end to DoJ's excesses.

MisterB

MisterB

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2005

Planet Earth, Sol system, Milky Way galaxy

[ban]

W/

I enjoyed the irony of acquiring a "PvP" title(Zrank 3) and HoM points without ever battling another player, or even playing the game at all. I miss the free stuff, but I think Nicholas the Traveler is a much better alternative.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gruff View Post
not missed, wasnt it the xth and registering on the website that was linked to a load of people having account information compromised also?
No, there were not even any rumors of the XTH site ever being compromised, or I don't remember seeing any (legitimate)reports of that. A number of fan sites had user accounts stolen, which led to compromised GW accounts for those who lacked the sense to use different password/email. There was speculation that the NCMA was hacked, and it (in my opinion) did have some very sloppy security for several months.

Lawliet Kira

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Dec 2006

E/Me

Right when i was about to get into the whole XTH thing, they ended it. Made me sad man.