User:Rafe Alexander

I play a Mesmer primarily, with a hearty penchant for necromancy and Elementalism. I've ran an assassin through and learned soemof it's ways, but in general I'm happy to make it a secondary most of the time. Being new to Wiki, feel free to drop me lines about what I've started to contribute to Guild Wiki! Already i've started my gripe about the mesmer skill lineup. My first ever Wiki contribution is my E/N Earth Turret Build--Rafe Alexander 21:15, 13 February 2007 (CST)

Build Vetting Abuse
So I have an opinion about the builds section problem in general. I am contributing to current policy proposals that run along my point of view on the subject. If any particular build has criteria or subject matter that should be addressed when contributing or editing them, it is the author's intent. This information is given in the build itself. The bottom line is that people differ on the role they play out there, and this is entirely ignored by the current czars of the build section.

The game Guild Wars is highly focused on a fluid and extremely diversifying posture toward this nearly infinite aspect. Therefore, builds and the reasons behind them can be said to be immensely diverse. The complaints about the builds area here are that A) it is too huge and unfiltered and B) the process by which they are filtered is flawed and too open to abuse. Subsequently it has become an area ran by perhaps a dozen elite--by elite I mean people highly versed in Wiki editing certainly this does not assume any superior form of Guild Wars prowess. Thus, the builds that manage to find their way into the showcased section are theirs almost exclusively because they've out-managed the casual user only. It's a form of vandalism on the systemic level, since it does not require direct vandalism in the vetting process to accomplish this. This isn't a conspiracy, but perhaps just a natural outcome and fiddling with the minor issues like templating and such will not overcome it.

In other websites featuring builds, such as even my own Guild's forums this is not a problem. this is pretty much because our exposure is nothing like that of an elite fansite such as GuildWiki, but then you have other elite fansites, with as much exposure who may feature builds. I would hazard a guess that their requirements, mechanics and access pathways to any of their builds type sections must differ intrinsically with that of the Wiki, and thus they do not encounter the same problems. One could begin listing a set of criteria that any given build can aspire toward (spiking power, sustainability, snaring effectiveness, tanking, front/mid/backfield arena of operation, damage/disabling, special purpose--eg. farming, mission completion--capability et cetera.) and it would be my suggestion, if it weren't something that could easily become an exercise in pure creativity. It could possibly become a page in development until enough of the community is satisfied on a list of criteria that people could selectively use to rate their builds on and classify them accordingly. The builds section would still be broken down to sections of the game where they are used in the same fashion they are now, but in the descriptions or the templates, Wiki links to key criteria can be made to reference the purpose of a build if it is in question. Team builds, because of their widened approach would not be subjected to the same criteria.