

Show HN: My Guild Wars 2 data viz weekend experiment using D3 and SVG filters  - enoex1
http://guildwars2viz.com/

======
frankc
As a design project it's cool. I think you did a good job and I don't mean to
rain on your parade. But of course now I will. I think as a data visualization
exercise, it's mostly what Tufte would call "chart junk". The graphics don't
aid into understanding, and actually sort of distract you from the point. It
would be a lot easier to read if the axis labels said things like "Warrior"
instead of an obscure graphic, that even as a GW2 player myself, I have to
think about. Also, the pie chart...pie charts are problematic for
understanding data because we don't do a good job at interpreting area. A bar
chart is considered more effective. Again, as a purely visual exercise, I
think it looks cool.

------
DanBC
This looks nice! And I like the link between the rings and the bars.

I'm a bit thick. It took me a few minutes to realise that the rings of the
circle are independent. For example, there can be female humans, all the
humans are not male.

On the bar charts you start at 0% (which is good), but you don't finish at
100%, nor on a similar number. One chart finishes at about 15% and another at
about 30%. So at a glance the hight of the bars looks similar. I guess the
width of the bars compensates? (And the race bar chart numbers add to 99%. Is
that a rounding thing?)

~~~
enoex1
Thanks! You're not thick, it's just that this isn't really the best
visualization choice for the data since the rings are independent and not
hierarchical (like in <http://mbostock.github.com/d3/ex/sunburst.html>).

You are absolutely right about the scale for the bar charts, oversight on my
part which I have fixed now. The adding to 99% is a rounding error (you can
see the fully number value by mousing over a bar) - thanks a ton for your
feedback!

------
garraeth
Very cool!

GW2 is currently my favorite game and am really surprised to see it on HN
frontpage.

I'm astounded at the amount of data ANet is making available. And, how cleanly
and robustly they've done it - all in JSON.

Another bit you might want to play with is their TP (Trading Post) JSON data.
These guys (<http://www.gw2spidy.com>, source is on github) do a really good
job, but I'm sure there are tons more things, and ideas, that can come from
all that data!

Good luck!

~~~
w1ntermute
> GW2 is currently my favorite game

How do you think it compares to GW1? I have GW1, but found it a little lonely
after leaving the cities because outside the cities, the regions were
instanced.

~~~
dyselon
I'm quite fond of both games, but it's dangerous to directly compare them. GW1
is a Diablo style game that flirts with massive elements, whereas GW2 is much
more of a traditional MMO. They certainly have plenty of things in common - a
similar approach to/focus on PvP, similar action bar combat with a lot of
attention paid to status effects - but they're not even really in the same
genre, and GW2's focus on ad-hoc collaboration means that GW2 plays much
differently moment-to-moment.

GW2 does some great things with quests, their PQ-ish Dynamic Events work well,
and their huge raid-boss-y world dudes are a ton of fun. The way you can join
multiple guilds and the way you are scaled down in level based on where you
are makes it really easy to play with friends regardless of your individual
progression. It's definitely worth a look.

------
shashashasha
This is pretty rad. It reminds me of our designer (Joe Golike)'s master's
project, visualizing the economy of WoW, also built in d3:

<http://golike.com/2.0/mmox.htm> <http://mmox.org/demo>

------
kmfrk
It looks great, but I noticed that the black outline animation lags heavily
behind the rest, which makes the site feel incredibly sluggish, even though
it's probably only just the one animation that ruins the perception.

Great job all in all.

~~~
enoex1
Thanks! I removed the transition delay effect, it should appear to select it a
bit faster now.

------
phragg
Very cool, my buddy has been harping me to get GW2-- Where did you get the
data for this?

Cheers

~~~
enoex1
The data comes from a recent image published on the GuildWars official blog:
<http://guildwars2viz.com/static/img/viz/gw2_data.jpg>

I just calculated the percentages based on the pixel coverage of each bar.
I'll also add in on your buddy's harping - get it, it's a fun game! ;)

------
ksec
Loads slow in Firefox. Sigh.....

~~~
wr1472
Why the "sigh....."?

------
c1one
Need a key for the icons.

