[GW2] The Late Fool’s Contest Winners!

I laughed. I cried. I drank a lot of bourbon, and eventually I painfully whittled the huge amount of entries to five winners. Believe me it was really hard. So many good ideas that I hope ArenaNet can process into actual gem store items. First, two notables… Tesh with the Bird’s Eye Balloon and Red Vagabond’s DelMonte Python. I do hope some form of these could make it in to Guild Wars 2. Tesh’s idea is a must have for many websites and postcard makers, and Red Vagabond’s idea would make the best minipet ever. They were the last two chopped, but I applaud their entries.

#5 Geikamir’s Glitter Jump – It’s going to happen. People will congregate in a city, waiting, and wishing something would entertain them. They will be soooo boooored. All of the sudden, some mad sylvari runs by them all aglow with glitter. This is a great idea for a impulse buy item, which I feel are necessary for a good microtransaction store. It livens things up, it draws attention, and it sounds fun.

#4 Reggie’s Map to the Stars – I liked Reggie’s idea because it was funny, but I really liked some of the ideas that could be drawn from it. A map that can only be traded to other players could bring a sort of Red Paperclip trading game, where the purchaser will eventually get back a “completed” map where each player kind of made their mark. Getting NPC asura to talk about it would be hilarious.

#3 Eveenus’  Asuran Party Golems – Much like Geikamir’s idea, I really liked this one as a way to change up players just milling about. I mean Eevenus could’ve just thought up fireworks or a Paragon’s glitter dance ball, but a golem as the center of the show was genius. I’ve so many memories of dancing around objects in the original Guild Wars that buying the ability to spontaneously create a party golem in Guild Wars 2 is a great idea.

#2 Flakfizer’s Pied Pipe – Everybody wants added combat effects. ArenaNet doesn’t want to sell power. So how do you make a fun combat item that won’t be selling power. I loved Flakfizer’s idea of turning the one-hit, zero-armor fauna into mind-controlled minions. Players also love to control things they normally don’t control, so this idea really hit many selling points. I would definitely buy one.

#1 Mite’s Celebration Home Instance Packages – Of all the microtransaction items I have seen in MMOs, rarely do I ever see worthwhile gifts to send to friends and guildmates. Sure, I could send somebody 75 silver and call it a day, but that isn’t really special. Mite’s idea seems special. It makes the gifted player feel special, it identifies the sender, and it seems fun as a surprise. For a game focused on community giving fun gifts can only strengthen ties to guilds and friends, and it is also a little bit crazy. A worthwhile winner to this contest, in my opinion.

The winners will be contacted shortly. Thank you again to everybody that participated. I hope it was fun!

–Ravious