Observer mode

Is it me or is this a REALLY bad idea?

I mean, observer mode in some games is fine, when there isn't a competition like HoH to be held and such, but as it is, you could go into observer, watch the currently winning group and go in there with a strategy to take them out. Heck, you could have an extra guild member or two watching other matches you were in. How nice would it be to know that Yellow is running a necro with rend and two monks have remove hex, that they have an illusionary warrior, and that they have two air spikers... before even playing them? With Ventrilo/TS and such it is quite possible.

Even in games like CS and DoD they limit the observer mode for the most part by having a minimum 60 second delay; even that isn't enough for GW though. After all, once into HoH you don't have the option of changing your build, but the teams coming up against you do; with an observer or two they could very quickly swap builds around, or even if that's not an issue, they'll at least know who to target and such, and they'll know who is carrying the rez, the rend, the hex removal, what nature rituals you have and so on. 60 seconds delay in CS or DoD is plenty, as seldom is a given position held for that length of time, and if it is you don't gain much insight that can't be gained by simply observing - knowing ahead of time that there is a sniper or an MG somewhere can be helpful, knowing a minute later is likely to be pointless, but with the strategies involved in GW I am not sure about how it would work.

My only thoughts are that you could perhaps observe GvG with a substantial delay, or observe arenas, but that HoH is simply not feasible for observer mode.

I would imagin that they aren't going to let you look at the specific builds of the teams playing when you are observing. You might have some kind of idea of what they are using if you know just what to look for, but that'd be about it.

I would imagine it might be a bit like what you can do once you are dead and can follow your team mates around while waiting to be rezzed.

And will only be able to read the all chat.. no team or guild chat unless you are in a playing guild of course

Anyone wanna clue me in as to what ya'll are talking about?

They are adding an 'observer' feature in the future, where you can 'watch' the combat. I think of this in a way similar to what happens when you are dead -- you can click on other team-mates and see things from their perspective. I'd suggest to the developers that Observer mode is great, as long as it isn't real-time; a 10 second delay should be sufficient to make sure that cheating doesn't happen.

Well, if they don't go with a first person (as in, see what the player would see) mode it might work, it'd still give an awful lot of insight into what was going on. I guess if done correctly it could work, I'm just worried about how it will affect strategising if your builds are observable before combat starts. Well, maybe I shouldn't worry too much.

Caco-Cola:
The devs are working on a feature called Observer Mode, which most likely will allow us to view others' GvG, HoH, Arena, etc.. matches.

I like the idea. Its going to lead to 2 things.

#1 More copied builds
#2 More counter builds

this game doesn't strike me as a game where ghosting would work anyway. Think about how they do it in Counter Strike...all you do is give locations. It's irrelevant what weapon is being used. Attempting to ghost this game in teamspeak or ventrilo isn't going to work regardless. it won't give you an upper hand.

I really can't think of a way that this would affect anything.

I mean sure someone could go "ok green just died" but well, press O and there ya go.

Or they could say "ok blue and orange are fighting"....again press O.

They could go further and say 'aight orange has 3 monks'...well press tab about 9 times and you'll see that for yourself, takes like 2 seconds.


Or they could say "aight tourqoise has a necro/ranger who interrupts stuff....great, but it's too late to do anything about that now, the builds have been chosen.


I don't see how this would affect anything.


Edit: Btw when's this thing going live? I love watching others fight more than fighting myself.

Yea, it wouldnt really have an effect on much of anything... while you're playing against the team you can see what skills they're using anyways... it's no surpise... Not to mention press ctr and see where they are... i mean... it might add a tiny bit of help to your relation on what other teams are doing, and how well other teams are working together, but regardless of what you tell your guild/whatever... the teams are still going to organize in the same way...

And i agree, i can't wait till this goes live... i would really enjoy this.. and personaly i think it would add some stradegy besides the, "We want air ele"... people will finaly realize that a pure air ele team isnt winning hoh... it's actually a stradegizing team in hoh almost all the times.

Haha, I wonder how long before we see the necro commit suicide, observe the enemy team and report to your team via vent. Necros will have a whole new reason to be included in a team...espionage

People who want to win the Hall of Heroes but don't want anyone to see it should not be taken any more seriously than a football team that demands the superbowl not be televised because other teams might see their strategy.

Seeing other teams play is part of the game for any serious competitive activity. If you don't want that, don't participate in any real competitions.

A lack of an observer mode is fine for matches that aren't part of a competition, but any serious competition should be conducted in public view.

There's no good reason why Guild Wars players should get some sort of special exemption from the full weight of real, true, serious competition. True competitors will have their actions scrutinized. Can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen...

Anet said, in beta, (awhile back) that if they included an observer mode it would have a built in delay (the figure then was 2-3 minutes) to prevent abuse by people with an out of game method of communication.

~Firax

Sure, you can use observer mode to scout other teams, but everybody will have the same advantage, so I don't see the problem.

How would you abuse it?

An observer on Teamspeak observing your match and relaying information would be an abuse.

But what good would it do? Perhaps in HoH, maybe (with all the different teams clashing) you could get some advantage...

i think you should have it, but it should be a follow behind camera, or a free floating camera that doesnt show you what skills everyone has equipped, but obviously shows their anims

dont see how this would be a bad thing

I also like this idea. At the moment I'm PvE, but I would love to watch some PvP and see how it's done. Give me the kick in the butt I'll need to go PvP myself. Plus to hear a huge crowd chanting my name....*drifts into daydreamland*

I like the Observer idea simply because I have always loved watching PvP.