add ons in gw2

[rezoacken]

The UI feels already pretty clean and simple, I dont see any need to change it so I<m okay with their decision (compared to wow where the basic interface is really meh for what the game asks).

[Zilong]

I feel like the answer is simple. Yet the game didn't give me any reason where I felt like addons would be needed. I do agree some better UI customization is in order but that they already promised us (In their own words).

Now, I know the point is not "need" but "would be good". And that's fine IF there were to be alot of restrictions, if we get addons like the ones in WoW where it verbally speaks of pretty much every skill the enemy uses (Which you can benefit from having as you simply can't keep track of the huge amount of skill the enemies uses) then hell no. In which the "Play the Game not the UI" comes to mind. But rather a profile for Rp'ers I think that would do no harm what-so-ever.

[Kelesti]

I feel a detachable, movable, and sizable Boons/Condition bar would be a godsend. I personally don't see much else that would help that wouldn't detract from other sources of gameplay in one way or another.

[Adversarius]

I think I would be fine without addons in GW2.

[Lucky_]

Unfortunately, nothing about what I've seen impresses upon the supposed legality of modding a game when the license agreement says you can't. I suppose it could be interpreted that since you "own" the client, according to EU law based entirely upon that one court case (article suggests there have been no other court cases to support or reject that decision), you could mod it?


It really strikes me as odd how the EU is going to view EULAs, after reading that article.

Moddability is typically covered under "fair use" interoperability and/or accessibility clauses of copyright law. These vary from state to state. These are generally non-revokable through one sided demands of stronger party in contractual agreement (unfair contract clauses of contract law).

[Luko]

I feel a detachable, movable, and sizable Boons/Condition bar would be a godsend. I personally don't see much else that would help that wouldn't detract from other sources of gameplay in one way or another.

I'd love a tracking system. Something simple like "Needtoknow." Will we be fine without it, sure, but we'd also be absolutely fine without half of the vanity / cosmetic options they're adding into the game.

"Need" and "Would like" may be completely different, but they're both extremely important when gauging quality of life and overall enjoyment in the experience. Allowing addons gives those who dislike them the option to go without, while disallowing them just stamps out the possibility entirely.

[Fencers]

Health globe is still a major sore spot for me. I never pay attention to them. Not sure why games insist on the globes- Diablo, Path of Exile or GW2. Would really like to change or move the HP globe somewhere more comfortable.

So many missed heals that could have saved me. I just don't focus on that part of the screen much. Also they tucked the dodge bar near the globe in one of the betas and now I never am sure if I can dodge or not. Quite frustrating.

[Luko]

Health globe is still a major sore spot for me. I never pay attention to them. Not sure why games insist on the globes- Diablo, Path of Exile or GW2. Would really like to change or move the HP globe somewhere more comfortable.

So many missed heals that could have saved me. I just don't focus on that part of the screen much. Also they tucked the dodge bar near the globe in one of the betas and now I never am sure if I can dodge or not. Quite frustrating.

Thank god I'm not the only one. I've found this incredibly out of place since the very first gameplay video I watched. I wished and hoped that it was temporary... seems to be going all the way, however.

[Deleted]

It's insulting to factually state that I have nothing but your word, and the pretty accurate assumption that you have no lawyering expertise to back up your statements? Complete with a complaint that you are not providing any sources to back up these statements you make, in order to impress upon me that you are not just misinformed or making things up? =\
I don't follow how that can be construed as an insult.

The problem here, from what I see, is that the European laws on this are very much hurting the developers due to how easy it is to get second-hand sales of the game, where the money doesn't come anywhere near the developer's hand.

Actually i have a law degree and whilst not a lawyer myself my job relies on dealing with complex legislation and case law on a daily basis, but i dont feel like getting massively bogged down in it on a computer gaming forum, esp in a thread not about the subject, where it bores they hell out of most people and is not really the best forum for uch debate. And to make those comments about how europe works and to be demeaning and make ageist comments is infact insulting.

And no it does not hurt devs. It just changes so they ont get special potection. No more than allowing second hand car sales affects car manufacturers. And given the choice i'd take consumer protection over allowing what some devs try and get away with in an eula.

[Lucky_]

Health globe and dodge bar are probably worst GUI choices. I'm also very annoyed at very basic accessibility error they made positioning enemy health/status frames in relation to those of the player. One is on the bottom, and other is on the top with action in between. The basic rules of GUI design dictate that these should be near each other for ease of accessibility to both at the same time when needed.

Placing them at opposite sides of the screen suggests that arenanet simply doesn't have anyone in GUI/UI team with actual education on human usability. This is just too basic of an error to be made by someone with even a few university courses on the subject of usability under his/her belt.



On another note, drake, developers asking for money on second hand sales is an act of extortion. Once you sell a product and receive payment, your right to dictate what person who bought the product will do with it ends. Period. By demanding payments for resale you would be demanding demanding a right to something that is not yours. This isn't something minor like copyright infringement, where there is no loss but only lack of extra generated income. This demand is to actually take money from someone who has already paid you for their services, retroactively.

This was successfully argued recently in the case of second hand sales of windows licences. Microsoft argued against send hand resale rights and lost the case. Legal reasoning was that EULA and copyright law have no precedence over right of property and resale of a product.

Notably this specifically talked about a PRODUCT. Services are not covered.

[Deleted]

Moddability is typically covered under "fair use" interoperability and/or accessibility clauses of copyright law. These vary from state to state. These are generally non-revokable through one sided demands of stronger party in contractual agreement (unfair contract clauses of contract law).

I'm not sure you understand how "fair use" works. Not only is "fair use" a national clause (not state), but it also has no impact whatsoever on modifying games. Here, I'll even cite it for you:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107

[Deleted]

Health globe and dodge bar are probably worst GUI choices. I'm also very annoyed at very basic accessibility error they made positioning enemy health/status frames in relation to those of the player. One is on the bottom, and other is on the top with action in between. The basic rules of GUI design dictate that these should be near each other for ease of accessibility to both at the same time when needed.

Placing them at opposite sides of the screen suggests that arenanet simply doesn't have anyone in GUI/UI team with actual education on human usability. This is just too basic of an error to be made by someone with even a few university courses on the subject of usability under his/her belt.

I get the point, but to be honest I did not mind it. becuase I very rarely looked at enemy health once in combat. I needed to know mine, and my energy, so that beign mid centre bottom was fine, but I generally did not need to know enemy health 100% of the time.

In pvp its a bit different, you need to know who to focus, so I can see that is a bit of an issue, but its maybe just something to get used to> we all used to play games with no modification and adapted to their UIs, its only that more modern game have given us the ability to "standardise" the UI across games (I use virtually identical UIs in RIFT and WoW for instance).

I think its fine for now, and dont see the need to add addon support. If later on, after we've been playing for a while and got past the "omg something new, make it like what I had before" stage, and its a problem, Anet will fix it. I personally dont think it will be a problem, but only time will tell.

[Malthurius]

Also they tucked the dodge bar near the globe in one of the betas and now I never am sure if I can dodge or not. Quite frustrating.

Odd, that change had the opposite effect for me. Now it's much easier to tell if I can dodge, because the bar on top of the orb is segmented so that if 1 segment is full you can dodge. Before you had to kind of guess if you could or not, there were no real good indicators that you could. I guess the same effect could have been achieved by putting a line through the bar, but whatever.

I find the orb easier to notice through my peripheral vision. It's easier to notice a black circle beneath your view than a black bar in the corner of your screen in my opinion.

[Deleted]

The reason why arenanet don't allow addons for Guild Wars II is that addons make the game much easier. For example in WoW, Blizzard had to create ridiculous encounters to provide a challenge for top end guilds. This is because mods like Bigwigs and DBM made everything much much easier, since you only had to watch your timers and react to them, instead of the reacting to the world.

Since they still wanted the possibility of making encounters that aren't ridiculously complicated, they couldn't allow adds. Now they know exactly what people can do, and can design encounters around that, instead of what the possibilities of the computer mastermind is.

Greets,

Gif

[iCandy]

Dunno if this has been linked yet or not.

[Cig]

So many missed heals that could have saved me. I just don't focus on that part of the screen much. Also they tucked the dodge bar near the globe in one of the betas and now I never am sure if I can dodge or not. Quite frustrating.

I thought you only died to falling? *runs and ducks before she can be cut down*

[Fencers]

I thought you only died to falling? *runs and ducks before she can be cut down*

Nah. I died plenty of times over the betas on various characters. On one particular character after BWE2 I never really died unless I fell somewhere. Rangers were just too strong to die to mundane mobs.

[Dodrin]

Health globe and dodge bar are probably worst GUI choices. I'm also very annoyed at very basic accessibility error they made positioning enemy health/status frames in relation to those of the player. One is on the bottom, and other is on the top with action in between. The basic rules of GUI design dictate that these should be near each other for ease of accessibility to both at the same time when needed.

Placing them at opposite sides of the screen suggests that arenanet simply doesn't have anyone in GUI/UI team with actual education on human usability. This is just too basic of an error to be made by someone with even a few university courses on the subject of usability under his/her belt.

It's pretty harsh to say "they don't have any basic understanding of how to setup a UI". I find the design of the UI fits well with how they want GW2 to be played. I'll admit the globes are hit and miss. My main problem with them is it's easier for me to get an idea of my % of health from a horizontal bar than an orb, but it never tweaked me so much that I ran into problems because of it. The dodge par is perfectly placed, and I can't think of a better way to implement it. The enemy health bar being at the top of the screen helps your eye to move across the screen. So you go from looking at your health, to looking at the enemy, to looking at the enemy's health. This helps with Anet's entire idea of watching enemies for heir telegraphed moves. If you can gather all of your information from one location on the screen, you no longer look where you need to.

At least that's what I would imagine to be the reason.

[Lucky_]

I'm not sure you understand how "fair use" works. Not only is "fair use" a national clause (not state), but it also has no impact whatsoever on modifying games. Here, I'll even cite it for you:



http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107

I'm sure you're swedish, and therefore not so ignorant as to miss the entire point of the discussion. The point being that we're not talking about US law.

[Deleted]

I wish you'd be able to change the look of the UI. No extra functionality, just skins.