The "Bonus" mentality

I don't know if it is just me, but there seems to be an inordinate number of people who are so obsessed with this "bonus" thing, to the point that they would join a party, and start blackmailing the party when the mission started... and quitting the game when they see that they are not getting their way.

It is virtually impossible to do any decent missions these days.

Guess what? 4 chars down the road and now on my 5th... I've WALKED the entire way! And right now I'm about to walk 3 zones from Riverside to Sanctum just because I cannot seem to find a sensible group.

A.Net really should build a feedback system into the game, something like (% of times quit) statistics would really come in VERY handy against these blackmailers

And then what would they do? Slap the blackmailer's wrist, and say they've been bad? Sorry for sounding a bit sarcastic, but it's only to get my point across. Really, you can't stop it, because as you said, it's set in their minds. You can't stop people from thinking what they want to think, so unless someone can brainwash all the Bonus hounds, we have to deal.

There is no need to slap these blackmailers' wrists like you put it.

Just have these statistics display when they try to join a game: good luck to them if they do it too often in trying to find a PUG.

And make it account universal so it applies to your account and not your char.

I think a warning system would be better. That way if someone repents there wicked ways, they arn't paying for past sins forever.

I don't even see the point of doing Bonuses after you Ascend your character... 1k XP? Pfft... Go to UW and get 5k in less than 15 minutes.

I lost my patience today with the "find the chosen" bonus, I got 3 ettins pounding on the last chosen and I could not save him (I had to sprint to see if I could divert the ettins to me).

I stayed about to the end, no point for me to stay and see the ending cutscene (yes, I got then by the undead and into the village).

A lot of people want to bonus, many groups say "oh we will do the bonus" and then simply ignore it, they want the players that likely have done the mission and simply want the two swords in the map, that is going to be true in the desert since many simply want to ascend and have no problems in lying to get players.

Truth is bonus are getting frustated in some missions, look at Cay bonus that is "do the bonus or do the mission", not to say its a very obscure bonus (the one with the scepter have to talk to the spirit) and ArenaNet placed a very STUPID behavior in the drakes since their patrol path takes right into the spirit and they will attack him (and 6 drakes will kill him fast), not to say that if we try looking for the grave it means the Vizir bites it because White Mantle run to the as we enter the mission, not when the Vizir arrives at the dock.

Or maybe we just extend it further by making it the "last 50 parties joined" kind of statistics.

You don't have to pay for your sins forevers.. and it provides a feedback system!

Well, here's another perspective. Some people will never PvP. They just won't; they don't care that they're playing Guild Wars at all. I know, I know. I don't understand them either. Anyway... so they've won the game, and we don't have favor. What can they do? Work on that 4th character? Help lowbies for fun? Or go collect that 1000 xp from those missing bonuses?

So yea, if they've attempted Dunes' bonus 9 times and always the bonus squad fails to kill the three bosses in time. I can totally understand him/her saying from the start BONUS ONLY, no bonus and I leave, etc etc. (doing this after the mission starts, well... it's rude and annoying sure, but get a few hundred hours with PuGs and this will be one of the things that bothers you the least. You'll be glad when the losers leave, not upset about it.)

There's also the simple reason of tidy, geeky completeness. The point is because it's there and it's not completed. Dual crossed on every single mission!

It's the "completion" issue and I admit I do have it, now if I get in a group that's doing the bonus + mission I always stay for the full mission, leaving unless it was a bonus party only is just rude or making the condition after the mission starts is worse. The PvE has a sense of "beating" the game, aka all missions + bonus, have all your skills unlocked for you 2 jobs and have the 15k Fissure armor. Then wait for expansion and repeat

I personally enjoy doing the bonuses. I like to fully explore a game. Its not just about getting from beginning to the end its about all the content in between.

IMHO I think you're very wrong. If anything it's impossible to find groups for bonus missions. I'll advertise something like this:

"LFG BONUS Pros Only!!!!"

Then I'll get somebody say "Join me", so I join them and say "do you want to bonus" and they'll tell me they do. I'll also tell them to listen to me in game if they don't know the bonus. So it continues like this until I have my full group, having had a lot of people try to join to do the main mission only???? Now sometimes it so happens that people will ask to participate int main and bonus mission and if there aren't loads of people about, I will join them, telling them that the bonus is the is priority, which they agree to. Then I start.....

We're now on the mission and I start to explain bonus and what you must do, then someone says "are we doing bonus? I need to the main". I have to tell them "YES!!", thats what I advertised and have been telling you. Then others pipe up and say we need to do the main. I tell them that's OK as long as we do the bonus and then they argue with you telling you main is priority. Now usually I still play the mission through, because I hate dropping, but once you've played a mission so many times to try for the bonus and been let down so much, as soon as people start messing you around you do quit. There's no point playing with a group of people who have no ability to listen in the first instances of meeting them. They are the sort of people who will run into every group of enemies they see despite the desperate attempts of other to warn them not to.

It's not just the completion issue. It's also that most people are really really stupid and think the bonus actually means something. In the first few days of the game most of the people ascending were definitely not within a few lvls of 20. Now it seems like 3/4 of the people playing pve reach lvl 20 before ascension because this lvling isn't important mindest is so abnormal to them that they can't grasp it fast.

Statistics would be a good idea, but not just because of the bonus problem.

Lol, Bonus People. I will never understand you. I know, your argument is ALWAYS the same "Dude, its 1000 exp!" So the hell what, one thousand lousy exp for all that work? Why even bother.... What is your hurry to level, the further you get in the game the more xp you will get, especially if your lower level.

If you bonus freaks are so worried about exp, then you should actually NOT do the bonus, cause you can get alot more exp in the amount of time it takes to do the bonuses.

I'm not totally anti-bonus though, if its quick/easy sure, but when people start the 'blackmailing' for long bonuses I get fed up.'

At level twenty, you should be able to solo tons of areas with mobs that are 22-24. You will get over 100xp per kill. Thats many thousands of xp per half hour....a bonus generally takes a half hour, the hard ones that should be skipped can take much more.

How?!?

As for the bonus: i like to complete every game that i really like. And by completing Guild Wars I mean unlocking all skills, doing all the bonus objectives and exploring every single expolorable area - which by the way can lead you to fantastic landscapes.
The game has to diffenrent parts, as we all know - PvP and PvE. While in PvP one match never is the same as the match before, in PvE there isn't much left to do if you have completed all the missions with your 4 characters and unlocked the skills for them.
And yes, I am quite pissed of, if I join a group of lvl 13-17 people in Aurora Glade with my lvl 20 monk to do the bonus (and tell them, that I only want to come along if they do the bonus) and as soon as we get to the pedestals they say "screw the bonus!".
A lot of times I really want to quit but I don't because I hate quitters - but all these people go straight to my ignore list!

And just to get back to my first "how": how did you get a fifth character? Bought a second copy of the game?

After Edit:

@ Aaaaagh: I don't do it for xp, as stated above - if I want xp for new skill points i go solo, or, if we have favor, I take a trip to FoW and make 20k xp in an hour...

Actually I noticed that as well - but after the ascension patch a few weeks ago it does make sense. When my 4th character got out of the three chrystal desert missions and still was only level 17 i went back and did perviously skipped quests like Altheas Ashes to get to level 20 before I ascend - because now you don't get pushed to level 20 for ascending, but you get 50k xp! And if you just reached lvl 20 you get your next skillpoint for 12800 xp and so on until you reach the 20k xp mark. That meant for my character that i got 3 or 4 skillpoints for ascending - and that, in my book, was worth waiting a little bit longer until I finally beat the doppelganger to crap.

Have you actually read any of the posts here. Most are not in it for the XP. I couldnt care less about XP unless I'm after refund points. The whole point of doing the bonuses for me is to search out all areas of the game in PvE. Whats the point rushing throught the game? You might as well take you're time and explore! Otherwise whats the point in the game having those areas?

Exactly, If I wanted 1000 xp I just go out solo and beat a lv20 devour 10 times, takes less time and less hair pulling that doing a bonus (thats one shoot deal anyway).

eh, bonus gives you skillpoints for free that don't count towards the experience table. although 20k is not that much, it's still more than doing a bonus and getting 1k xp for free along with a nice new skillpoint.

Wrong, bonus just give 1000 xp ... mission gives 1000xp and a skill point.

It's the sense of completion that those two crossed swords on the map give. It means you've done a pointless and boring task ( I mean trying to get and save all those chosen makes trying to chew your own foot off sound appealing)....but you still done it...

I, am totally obsessed with completing all aspects of this game. The bonus is very, very important to me. Ive just ascended but have missed the bonus in dunes, elonas and the dragons lair.
I will not progress into the game until I have got those swords!
My problem is at the moment that everyone seems to be lying to me about doing the bonus, I have been duped into 3 missions and wasted alot of time. I'm losing faith in human players but cant complete with henchmen.
I think its worse because im a monk and most partys have no problem lying to me just to get me into their team.
When i realise they have been lying to me I feel so angry that I'd drive 100 miles just to punch their head! If I knew where they lived of course!
If I could suss out that they have no intention of completing bonus I would have absolutely no problem with quitting, they've lied to me and wasted my time.
But usually I don't find out until the mission completion cut scene!

Hmm, I know it sounds ridiculous, but my level 20 has some "leftover bonuses" in Ascalon, let alone a few other missions!

I want to make sure that EVERY party I go in must be honest, follow orders and has the ability of doing it. I mean, that day when I killed Glint, that was pure luck! As usually, people quit on the 6th Facet as they lure too many monsters towards them. I haven't added the team to my list yet, but I will contact them when they're interested to help me out.

And yes, I will start to help the low level characters, but the penalty is gold for quitting or a complete explanation. If they call me a (leet word) I will tell them to go to WoW or some other online game, due to wasting their time on this game not giving a %&$£ about fair play. (NOTE: has seen all cutscenes, but will watch again if anyone hasn't done it yet)

[QUOTE=Omega_2005]Hmm, I know it sounds ridiculous, but my level 20 has some "leftover bonuses" in Ascalon, let alone a few other missions!

Would you mind helping me out on my 3 bonuses, because I'm beginning to feel that their are very few "honest players" in guild wars

Im usually online between 7 and 11pm uk time

I"m intent on finishing everything (every available quest, mission and bonus) with my main, but with my secondary and tertiary why bother? When doing bonuses with my main, I always state specifically LFG BONUS ONLY and when I get into a group that is doing the mission, fair is fair. They accommodate me by doing the bonus and I accommodate them by staying for the full mission. If I get into a group by asking for bonus, and tell them I'm only in for the bonus before leaving... then they say "no bonus" I will leave the group, but I'm not going to grief them or insult them... they just should have paid closer attention. Having someone leave mid-mission is punishment enough, no need to get childish with them...

but I know what you mean and I wish others thought the same way as I do.

Yes! The Journey is all..the End is Nothing.." That is my look on this game.

I like to go back and finish the bonuses. Doesn't matter to me if we do the mission too. I have kept going even when others quit. Makes it a challenge. I look at it as my own reputation is on the line. Most people do not care. But then I will get a whisper weeks later from people that remembered that I kept my word and helped them out. Now that I am playing my newer Monk/Ele character people will listen to me more. If someone threatens to quit..I say go ahead. We even had a healing monk pull that crap. I told the group..let him quit I have heals too and a rez. (I am a smitting monk at this time) This really puts a damper on these idiots. I have been playing "Double Duty" lately.
Firestorm..Heal...Banish...Heal..etc. It has been fun.

ROFL - like you have a choice

I don't mind the cutscenes. In fact, sometimes I'm secretly glad that someone opts not to skip them.

Same. I feel awkward when I see "7 out of 8 wish to skip this cutscene." and I'm the only one left, and I've never seen the cutscene before. Usually I figure there are some people who've never watched the cutscenes, because this is their first character. So I wait until it says I'm the only one that hasn't pressed it before I press it.

Like many others, I do the bonus because it's part of the game, part of the world. Same reason I do every quest, and try to explore everything. I don't do it for XP, infact, I hit level 18 after doing Villainy of Galrath. The XP is not the big thing here. Seeing everything, doing everything, becoming part of the world, is. This IS an RPG, after all.. Although, I still don't see the point of the Glint bonus. It's not like we were told to kill her, or want her eggs.. We just randomly grab them and shank her.

The only reason I don't do the bonuses usually is because of the lack of fun. For example, in Frost Gate, getting that dwarf to the catapult is too much of a chore for the bonus xp, maybe if they offered some sort of additional reward like gold or something or even if they just made the bonus mission a more fun. Like for example in Aurora Glade (I think thats the one where you have to attune the henge portals). Not only do you have to hold the portals but kill the demagogue while at it...which to me adds so much to that mission, because now it requires more skill and can actually be a challenge (which is fun to me).

Take another mission like D'alessio where you have to take an item from point a to point b. You can't drop the item but if you are a caster you wouldn't need to anyway. But it barely adds to the fun of the mission because it requires no new skill and strategy, just more work for not that much fun.

Hopefully in the expansion missions, they spice up the actual objectives and the bonuses as well. I was hoping for a race-type mission where you have to try to get to the end of the map as fast as possible before the enemy team does while trying to overcome certain obstacles and such.

I would like to see items given for bonus quests rather than XP (like the non-game progressing quests). Now THAT would be cool. The item could be randomized but fitting for your character. Since most of the bonus missions are harder than the actual mission itself, it would be a fitting reward and it would encourage people who've 'beaten' the game an incentive to go back and finish them.

OR...*brain is exploding*

Make bonus quest rewards unlock new skills?

Unfortunately, it's because of this idiocy that I do just about everything I can solo or with the henchies. I, too, am a completionist - hey, I paid $35 bucks for the game (sale + employee discount baby!!), and want to get my money's worth. That means exploring every single nook and cranny in Tyria and beyond, and bashing my way through n00b PvPers ;p.

But I rarely ever do anything with other players in this game who are not guildmates or known real world friends and relatives. There are less headaches that way, and less complaining in threads such as this.

Hanok Odbrook
Real Millennium Group Guild
http://www.realmillenniumgroup.com/guild.html
Truth * Knowledge * Peace

Like I do, unless it's a bunch of Henchies with me to spoil the mood!