Spec mode good or bad?

Update - Wednesday, December 21

Season's Greetings

(Please sing along to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas.)

On the twelfth moon of Wintersday ArenaNet gave to me...
Blessings from Dwayna
Festive decorations
One mighty snowman
Weapons made of candy
Gifts that might kill you
Snow-covered henchmen
New winter monsters
Some really long quests

Lots of drinking Dwarves
Gingerbread shields
Curses from Grenth
And a new way to watch PvP!

That's right, Observer Mode!

Now you can watch as top-ranked guilds battle it out in the Tombs and in rated guild matches. The upcoming Guild Wars Regional Playoffs and World Championship will also be available for viewing as they happen. The details are as follows:

Whenever a top 100 ranked guild plays in the Tombs or in a rated guild challenge, the game is automatically available for everyone to see. Other "special event" games will also be available for viewing.

Everything that observers see is delayed 15 minutes from the original game, to prevent cheating. Games become available for observation approximately 15 minutes after they start, and remain available until approximately 15 minutes after they finish.

While you are watching a game, you can chat with your fellow observers. There is no limit to the number of people who can simultaneously observe a game, but for purposes of chatting, observers are randomly assigned into groups of about 100 people.

In Observer Mode, the Map Area window displays the positions of all characters on the map. You can click on any character to jump there. Alternately, you can use Auto Camera mode to let the game pick the most interesting targets for you.

A new heads-up display automatically shows you the Health of teams that you are currently watching. If you prefer to use the Party window to view party status details and to select players to watch, you can easily switch the Party window back and forth between teams, or you may choose to view multiple Party windows and watch different teams in each window.

Ok, very exciting, right? But why is there a spectator mode?

Of course, people want to see high ranked guild play but do they want to be watched? Builds and special talents are immediately lost. I mean if there are unlimited spaces available to watch, any old random-joe can just walk right in and take an entire build. I remember [insert guild name]'s build being posted in these very forums (sorry i cant remember who) but the end conclusion was that the guild probably did not want their build advertised around public forums. Now isnt this the same from what the "prophecy" has told? Won't these guilds want a little privacy? Probably.

Knowing the build and running the build are 2 different things.

Even still, would you want to publicise something that you made up for your own guild's purposes? Builds are key, regardless of if you know how to play them.

I'm happy for people who wanted the Spec mode. It is interesting to see these builds in action on a 15 minute delay.

for me, as an all around player of PvP and PvE, I get both goodies today.

If you create a build and play it in any sort of PVP, you're advertising it.

Not to public... only to the other team who may not even be given the chance to see all of your players and their skills

Aren't builds also about when you use the skills in combination with other people of your team?
You can't see two (or more) people at the same time can you?

Also, crimsonfilms is right that there is a difference between knowing and playing a build.

You can watch a pro football match on TV and see the line-up of both teams, and you can see more or less clearly what positions and tactics they play. Does that mean you can easily copy the line-up and tactics of the winning team with an amateur team and win aswell? Off course not! The same applies to GuildWars.

I used to spectate a lot of matches and watched demos of top teams in Unreal Tournament. It was entertaining to watch, and I often learned a bit about their tactics. But that doesn't mean that my clan was able to copy the tactics of a top clan. There is so much more behind a well coordinated top team that just the things you can see as a spectator: The team communication (probably over voicecom) and the execution of the tactics and the build. Rest asured, those can not be stolen or copied easily.

If a Guild is afraid of someone seeing their build, copying them and ultimately beating them with it, they obviously aren't very good players.

Observer mode is too adicting. I was late for work this morning.....

I don't think build stealing will be a problem. As crimsonfilms said, it's one thing knowing the build, it's another thing playing it effectively.

I think the observer mode is great, can't see how anybody wouldn't welcome it. Though I do wish you were able to see the Local Chat during the battle, just to see the thrash talk and insults!

I'm already sick of the observer chat though, I'm glad you can close it, it's just full of braggers and bullshitters trying to prove they know the game. Before the battle has even started somebody will have typed "Red is going to win", "Blue is going to win". Everybody is an expert in observer mode. It's so easy to say things like "They attacked too soon, bad tactic" when you're just watching. "x is pro", "x is a noob"...shut up, we don't care, make a worthwhile observation! And if I see another person say "I owned x before" I'm gonna lose it!

Agreed, observer chat is horrible. It was particularly bad when EW was running IWAY, every other person was calling them noobs probably without even knowing who they were.

They did lose though :P

I owned x before!

Anyway.. You're right about both it being great, and about the observer chat.

Observer Mode: two HUUUGE thumbs up
Anet, you guys rock.

meh, even "sucky" guilds will eventually learn it. Who cares, all the builds get leaked out eventually right? Its a nice touch, I havent checked it out yet, Im more into dominating, than watching domination lol

Yes, observor mode rocks.

No, the people I get to observe was boring as hell. (playing everything by the book... if you know what I mean)

Now I want GvG observer >< Alot of people is probably going to say something about this thou.

Im tired of some of these observers tho...

all they do is say...
LOOK AT ALL THESE LOSERS OBSERVING
LOL NUBS
NOOB THIS, NOOB THAT

You can turn off the observer chat but when your chat'n with someone else and this kid comes along say'n LOL NOOB YOU DIDNT KNOW THAT? LOL LOL LOL when I was in the middle of an explaination.... its getting old.

oh and also... what about all this recorded actions using bandwith; how is that going to effect the servers... maybe thats why It wasnt there at the beggining since low funds for upkeeping this type of option open... 100ppl can observe a battle... lots of connections going around; I wonder how this works...

I saw some guy in Tombs, obviously after seeing himself in observer mode, going "So...does anybody recognise me?"

Sad!

lol we just got our asses owned in tombs, and got called noobs. These observers are nasty, but its all good fun and builds arent meant to be kept secret anyway.

lol I wouldn't worry about being called a newb by some observer who probably can't beat the unworthies.

Its easy to be an armchair expert.