Guild Wars 2

It seems really stupid in my eyes to give us different fractals based on a fictional candidate choice. A new fractal is an important and lasting change that will have an impact on many a player’s daily routine. However, most players are just picking candidates based on npc likability/rewarded mini, and Anet has sabotaged Gnashblade’s chances by making him out to be some cartoon villain (who is not attractive as a mini either). For this reason I have yet to see one person sporting a Gnashblade button. . I’d personally rather elect Ellen as well, but I’d also much rather have the Abaddon fractal versus some lame Asuran plant explosion that will probably end up a half-clone of the harpy fractal.

If you just made a direct vote on fractals I’m sure it would tell a very different story from what we are seeing now. There is no need for representative democracy in an MMO where direct democracy is so easy to implement. Candidate choice should be a purely story-oriented thing.

I think thakittens actually pretty neat that they are attaching actual real decisions to an in game election. However yes, it is sad that many people simply don’t care enough to even know what they are doing, and just support Ellen because they think she is some goodie two shoes (when she’s arguably just as bad/worse than Gnashblade as a character when you look at her more critically).

It is fairly annoying that people can’t be bothered to even know what they are voting for, but do so just because. However I suppose that’s what makes this in game election such an amazingly accurate parody of US politics and the US election system.

There’s dozens of posts saying ‘’This is unfair, Ellen Kiel will win’’
And then there’s heaps of posts saying ‘’No chance, Evon will win’’

Both have their reasons.

Ellen Kiel is yet another Trahearne.
Ellen Kiel takes all the credit for what you’ve done.
Thaumanova is another asuran thing, we have plenty of those.

Evon Gnashblade is evil.
Supporting him is supporting the lame RNG.
The fractal is more related to gw1 so is less relevant.
Those are just the main reasons I’ve read.
So, I don’t really think either one has that much of a bigger chance.

To be honest, I don’t see any objection with the fractal being tied to a candidate.
What is nonsense though, is that Evon only gives a bonus to a gemstore item. Worst yet, an RNG item. I’m going to vote for Evon, and will never buy anything RNG related with gems. Ever. Now that is what I can get kitten ed about.

It would be “neat” if it was a direct vote on issues. Not this unnecessary candidate gimmick.

And based on my in-game time, Ellen is a shoo-in to win. I’ve seen probably 50 ellen buttons but 0 gnashblade buttons since this content launched.

I’d rather have the reactor than a disagreement between gods, one of whom is now dead. I get the feeling it would have more potential for something ongoing, instead of just having made a difference a long time ago.

Unfortunately that’s the only thing she has which I want, so no reactor votes for me.

Whether that’s better or worse than choosing things individually… I’ve no idea. It’s probably the only way they could even get me to vote on some of these things, because I just don’t care (mini-games), so there’s that.

Most every button I’ve seen on my server has been for Evon. Most every argument I’ve seen for picking sides has been for or against Evon, with no one having strong reasons to go with Kiel.

So from my PoV it sure looks like Evon is the shoo-in. However, my PoV is limited to a few dozen people observed who might very well just be sporting a button for the achieve before casting the rest of their votes for their true candidate. I am not a pollster or statistician. I’d imagine even they would need a bigger sample size than “I saw 50 Ellen buttons” when we have hundreds of thousands voting around the world.

I’d say rather than tying fractal choice to a candidate, they’ve used the election as the interface with the players to let us vote on our preferred fractal. My issue is more that we don’t have anything concrete, there’s just not enough data. So people are choosing based on a headline rather than an in depth analysis. How big are these promised discounts? What part of lore will be revealed in the fractal, what role will the players have? I wouldn’t want real spoilers, but -something- more than “pre-GW1 Abbadon” and “Reality turned inside out” might help make an informed decision.