Suggestion - Anet Promoting temporary GW2 skins in GW1

As a way to promote GW2, why not sometime give players temporary random skins from GW2 during various events. For example a tonic...

How and when?:
* During 6th Anniversary of Guild Wars, add a tiny chance of dropping a tonic named A Tonic of Whats Yet To Come. Promotional tonics can also be given to hosts for GW-EN and similar organizations, who in turn can hand them out as gifts to players during trivias and other events.
* During April 1st, who knows what might happen..

Effect?:
Clicking the tonic will disguise you into Anet selected skins from GW2, for example the new Asura or Norn appearance, or perhaps disguise of a foe that will appear in GW2.

Why?:
* It gives you a chance to promote GW2 a bit in GW1, showcasing new appearances and skins from GW2, whenever and however you want.
* It gives player a small chance to see something new that you're working on, and it can be fun to see it in a live environment rather than a screenshot on a forum.
* It will be fun to try find new appearances, which will be undocumented and can change at any time Anet chose to do so.
* It shouldn't be too hard to implement in the game. I'm sure GW2 skins can be borrowed and temporary implemented as a pure skin in GW1.
* Few people can afford or get opportunity to see live GW2 demos, this might be an alternative to see some things you're working on.

Just beware of this:
* These skins are carefully selected by Anet team, and it's in their discretion to change them at any time.
* Since GW2 is still under development, there's no guarantee the disguise you will see will actually be in the released version of GW2.
* Look like a Norn, talk like a Norn, smell like a Norn, .. it's still a disguse and won't affect gameplay in anyway.

Could be interesting. I like the idea. I can see a problem; the models not being available for GW1. GW2 has a new engine. GW1 basicly re-uses excisting models so that would either mean they need to simplify for tonics or implement new models and possibly new animations.

Why? Assuming improvements to the engine, it's not technically possible.

Of course it's possible, it's just taking a texture and wrap it around an existing model in GW1, for example a Norn. They don't have to be perfect.

sounds neat.
I'd like to suggest an Everlasting John Stumme tonic.

Thumbs up for that!

April first all players turn into John Stumme for the day


I like the idea of GW2 promotions in the game so hope they do something like that.

I like this idea a lot.

Hm... I'm thinking of an Everlasting Colin Johanson tonic which is also usable in explorable areas. And everytime you use an attack skill you're shouting "Hey, I swung my <weapon> again!"

For teh extra lulz you can use the tonic on a ranger: "Hey, I swung my bow again!"

Doubt this would even be considered since they rather spend time to make costumes to cash in

This is silly. Why don't you go use texmod to wrap Gwen's textures around Jora, or vice versa, then tell me how good that looks. The goal is to to get people to want to buy GW2, not drive them away.

Don't like this idea one bit. I want GW2 to be a completely new experience. Just wait for GW2 and it will all be worth it. Supposedly the release date is November 2nd but not 100% sure.

/notsigned

For people who don't know/appreciate who John Stumme is, an optional Everlasting Chuck Norris tonic. That's sure to satisfy all!

Are you assuming that ANET actually gives things to player-run organizations in-game?
I can assure you that it doesn't happen. Everything those organizations use are acquired by the organization members or given by other other players as donations.

I've given a fair amount of ingame donations to hosts like gw-en, I'm well aware they're not sponsored by anet. Still I see no harm in Anet sponsoring temporary promotional items like this as a middle hand to players as it benefit all parties.

I don't see this happening, because I don't see it being nearly as simple as "wrap a texture around a preexisting model". That sounds like it'd look terrible.

I think it'd be great for feedback. To be honest I'm more concerned about weapon/armour skins. I think the character models in GW1 are great but some of the items are really weak...

To make it more realistic the John Stumme tonic will also cause a speech bubble with "Have you heard about dynamc events yet?" or "Guild Wars 2 will have dynamic events!" to appear every 10 seconds above your head while under the form effects.