User:Erasculio/Fellowship Title

I) Introduction
Currently, the title system in Guild Wars favors those who like to play with one main character. Titles such as Legendary Vanquisher, Legendary Cartographer and the entire "Kind of a Big Deal" track of titles are available to those who play mostly with one character, while the players who have many different characters, and like to do a bit of everything with each of them, don't have such perks so easily.

Using an example: two different players have achieved Grandmaster Cartographer in all three continents, and Holy Lightbringer. One has done so in his Paragon, and therefore has 5 maxed titles (three Grandmaster Cartographers, Legendary Cartographer, Holy Lightbringer) and the first rank of the "Kind of a Big Deal" title. The other has used four different characters: one Assassin, one Mesmer, one Warrior and one Monk, with one title for each of them. He ends with a total of 4 maxed titles spread around his characters, and no "KoaBD" title anywhere.

In other words, those two players have achieved the same accomplishments, only doing them in different ways. Yet one, the one who used a single character is rewarded more than the other who used different characters. This asymmetry is out of place - given how it's not "better" or "harder" to achieve those titles on a single character as opposed to on multiple characters (more on this below), it would make sense if both players had some reward - different ones, maybe, but still rewards.

This problem has been discussed in GWO and some other places, and what I have written is the result of part of said discussion: a suggestion that proposes a reward for those with multiple characters in the form of a new title, called Fellowship.

a) Main Concept
The Fellowship title would be an account based title counting how many unique titles a player has maxed on his account, between all of his characters. It would be divided into 6 ranks, each requiring 5 unique maxed titles, to be called:


 * Fellowship of Adventurers, for 5 unique titles maxed


 * Fellowship of Champions, for 10 unique titles maxed


 * Fellowship of Conquerors, for 15 unique titles maxed


 * Fellowship of Heroes, for 20 unique titles maxed


 * Fellowship of Saviors, for 25 unique titles maxed


 * Fellowship of Legends, for 30 unique titles maxed

The name "Fellowship" comes from a purely RP-based perspective: a low level character would be able to display this title, despite how he lacks any significant achievements, to show that he belongs to a group (or a "family", as the Frog would have said) which has done many accomplishments.

b) Rules

 * Only unique titles are considered. Someone who has two characters with "Protector of Tyria" would have only one maxed title to be considered. Likewise, if someone has two characters with "Legendary Spearmarshall", again it would only count as one unique title. This rule intends to avoid having players maxing the easier titles multiple times.


 * Legendary Defender of Ascalon and Legendary Survivor also count as a single unique title. This is because a single character may not max both of those, so the players who currently have the "Kind of a Big Deal" title could feel bad if both were counted for the Fellowship title.


 * It is therefore impossible for a player to advance faster in this title track than in KoaBD title track.

c) Rewards

 * Once a player has achieved the second rank in this title (Fellowship of Champions, with 10 unique titles maxed between all his characters), an unique pet would spawn at his Hall of Heroes, following the same other requirements a Rainbow Phoenix has (each character must be alone, with all tapestries being displayed). The pet would spawn for all characters, but once a character has charmed it, it would disappear from the other Hall of Monuments. The result is that a player would be able to charm the pet with a single character, even though he would be able to choose which character to charm the pet with. The pet would only reappear on rank 3, then again on rank 4, and so on (the reason for the pet appearing from 5 to 5 titles, after 10 unique titles have been maxed, is that most of the easily maxed titles have likely already been maxed as the first 10, so only the hard ones would be left).

(Ideally this pet would be something new, at Arena Net's discretion. Some suggestions have been for a Fiery Phoenix, or a Rainbow Raven. If Arena Net believes creating a new pet for this title would be too much work, the pet could be the existing Rainbow Phoenix.)


 * The main statue at the "Honor" monument (this one) would be earned through the calculation: 1*(your own unique titles) + 0.5*(unique titles on other characters). Therefore, a character who has no titles, but who has the Fellowship title on rank 6 (30 unique titles on his account, the maximum) would have the statue at its third display, like a character who has 15 maxed titles on the "Kind of a Big Deal" title track. This has been done so those without the "KoaBD" title would not be able to earn the biggest possible statue (the one given to those with rank 6 on the "KoaBD" title).

III) Criticism
Here are some of the arguments that have been proposed against this idea, with the respective replies. If anyone else has any other question/complain/anything else to say, please do so through this page's talk page.


 * "Players are just going to max the easier titles multiple times with different characters, and thus earn this title"

That's not possible, given how this title considers unique titles only. Someone who has reached the "Protector of Tyria" title on 3, 5, 10 or whatever number of characters, without any other title, would have only one title being considered for the Fellowship title.


 * "Wait...So my character who has 50% of the Tyrian Skill Hunter title is going to be able to display the 100% Tyrian Skill Hunter title from my other character? o.O"

No. This title does not change any existing title. All existing titles that are character-based will continue to be character based.


 * "It's easier to max many titles with different characters than with a single one"

Actually, it isn't. Playing with many different characters requires you to invest on each of them - from leveling to getting equipment the character needs to equipping his/her heroes to buying skills to capturing Elite Skills, and so on. More importantly, while someone playing with a single character may only have a few builds, using more or less the same playstyle everywhere, someone with multiple characters needs to know more builds, and consider the strengths and weaknesses of each profession and each character under his/her control. So while it is no easy task to max multiple titles with a single character, it is also no easy task to max multiple unique titles with multiple characters.


 * "But you can use the easiest professions for each task. It's much easier to vanquish Cantha with a Paragons than with an Assassin, for example"

It is true that there are some professions in which earning some titles are easier. However, the same applies to earning multiple titles on a single character: playing with an Assassin means that earning any title will either become harder, or will not be changed, while playing with a Paragon will make many titles easier to get or the same as they would be with any other profession. In other words, the professions are either good for many titles, or bad for many titles; there are no cases in which a profession would make one title significantly easier and another significantly harder. Those aiming for the easiest way to earn titles, be it by using multiple characters or a single character, would likely choose the same profession(s) anyway.


 * "It's too much work for Arena Net to create a title like this"

That one may be right, but we won't know unless we ask for it : D

IV) Not going to happen
As explained by Linsey here, unfortunately this idea isn't viable to be implemented in the game. Thanks to everyone who helped create this idea and to everyone who expressed support, hopefully our next idea will be more feasible : )