Guild Wars 2

I don’t care if Kasmeer and Marjory are in love.. i just don’t want to see ANY romantic stuff, we have way too more important things to do instead of look at two people flirt patch after patch after patch.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

I don’t care if Kasmeer and Marjory are in love.. i just don’t want to see ANY romantic stuff, we have way too more important things to do instead of look at two people flirt patch after patch after patch.

LOL. Somebody referring to lore as “important things.”

Cactus.2710:

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

I don’t care if Kasmeer and Marjory are in love.. i just don’t want to see ANY romantic stuff, we have way too more important things to do instead of look at two people flirt patch after patch after patch.

LOL. Somebody referring to lore as “important things.”

while i think he may be over stating it, the truth is we have very little time in each living story update, And it doesnt seem like their 5 minute scenes are doing much real exposition about things that matter. I think if we had more story content it wouldnt be that big a deal, but we dont get that much. I think they can turn most of the relationship stuff for these charachters into text that we have to pursue, as opposed to a required portion of story instances.

Its fine it exists, but i think they should condense it more, or place it somewhere else in the content.

I don’t give a flying kitten.

The story telling in this game is mostly an afterthought, it’s not integrated into the structure of the game itself. Here is how I feel the story in this game goes:

I’m watching a movie. Ten minutes in, a word prompt flashes on screen: please turn to page twelve of your companion book to see how this conversation between the hero and his friends goes! We will pause for 10 minutes to let you do this before we resume."

That’s how the story portions of GW2 feels to me. It’s so far removed from the core experience of what I do for 99% of the time I play this game that I don’t even care about it.

This is especially true of the Living Story portions of the game. Putting me in a room with Marjory, Kasmeer and a hologram of an Asura to go over Thirteen text box triggers in order to “explain” all the crap that’s been going on for the past year is so mind numbingly stupid and ineffective at story telling that it feels like a bandaid being applied to a bullet wound.

I don’t care about it. The story of this game is below mediocre, the characters are not believable, and they wont make them more likable to me by adding some lesbians romance, not that I have anything about it in real life.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

I don’t care if Kasmeer and Marjory are in love.. i just don’t want to see ANY romantic stuff, we have way too more important things to do instead of look at two people flirt patch after patch after patch.

Returning to the original post: the OP says they don’t want to see people flirting. I respect that opinion, but personally, I think it’s kind of fun. I especially liked seeing Kasmeer try to remodel Marjory’s traditional PI’s office (dark & dingy) into something a Lady wouldn’t be embarrassed to work in.

It’s also consistent with the way the personal story evolves. In the human version, we see Logan being over-protective of Queen Jennah. In the Sylvari line, we see some of Caithe’s personal relationships with the others of her generation. In other words, the game already includes lots of relationships and so I’m not surprised to see it in the living story.

Nope, its all surface deep crap. Honestly though, that pretty much describes all the story content in this game. The only memorable character in this game is Treherne, and its because he’s a particularly loathsome character. He should have been the true villain of the living story.

I like romance stuff. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like a better written and scripted story, as has been mentioned already. For example, I’d love it if they remade the two-persons-with-a-background-style dialogs and speech bubble conversations to movie-style scenes like in GW1 for better immersion, or like we have seen a number of times in the LS (I think at the Queens Jubilee). I mean, they voice it already, why not make movies out of it instead more often? I’d also love it if they tried to write it a bit “smarter”, it feels like things are being dumbed down and simplified a lot of the time, sadly.

I would care if it was well written and characters were more interesting. Now it’s just “Go on.” for me.

Traveller.7496:

I would care if it was well written and characters were more interesting. Now it’s just “Go on.” for me.

This!

Just throwing in a romance angle doesn’t make me care about the characters. The only characters with any real depth got killed off in the first half of the story line. Rox and Braham have some potential as interesting characters. But Marjory and Kasmeer are just plain boring and so I find their romance mostly to be an irritating interruption in my goal to slaughter as much of the tyrian wildlife as possible while wearing cool armor.

Cactus.2710:

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

I don’t care if Kasmeer and Marjory are in love.. i just don’t want to see ANY romantic stuff, we have way too more important things to do instead of look at two people flirt patch after patch after patch.

LOL. Somebody referring to lore as “important things.”

LOL. Do you even know how extensive the lore of GW universe is?

Lamont.5973:

Traveller.7496:

I would care if it was well written and characters were more interesting. Now it’s just “Go on.” for me.

This!

Just throwing in a romance angle doesn’t make me care about the characters. The only characters with any real depth got killed off in the first half of the story line. Rox and Braham have some potential as interesting characters. But Marjory and Kasmeer are just plain boring and so I find their romance mostly to be an irritating interruption in my goal to slaughter as much of the tyrian wildlife as possible while wearing cool armor.

Then go and smash bunnies with your “cool armor” absolutely nothing is stopping you from doing that :P

Hmm, how to expand “NO” into 15 characters? Oh yeah, like this.

yeh I don’t find their relationship to be at all charismatic or interesting. Im not sure if you guys hung around them when the toxic spores were about but Kasmeer even stated that her clothes were an illusion, thus she is naked all the time, something to which Marjory reacts a it dumfounded too. This whole lesbian thing keeps being forced down our throats and just seems like a cheap stint to the (vast) male populace of the game, much like how batwoman was a lesbian (and I believe the artists quit over that or something because they recognised it for the cheap gimmick it was).

Its not storytelling, there is no clever character development, its just “visualise these two having sex because were going to keep hinting at it like a bad coca cola advert”.

I like Roxx and Braham (partly because their voice actors aren’t terrible) because there actually seems to be some sense of character to them, they aren’t just a sexual pun and as a whole they seem to be a lot more on the level. And I like the new asuran, its a cool idea that she’s basically disabled and had to overcome it with smarts, speaks to the asuran way.

As for the story, it is being horrendously slowly drip fed to us. Feels like technically all these living world story patches should have actually more or less all come at once. Molten alliance, toxic alliance, aetherblades they could have happened at same time, it wouldn’t have changed the flow of the story. Then the watchworks being stolen, sided with the marionette. That much content took near enough a year to give out to us (broken up by the various other events which are fine where they were like winters day, halloween, the adventure box thing, etc). The living story just feels so slow that its incredibly easy to lose interest. Imagine reading a 300 page children’s book but you only got 1 page a day, even when its at the boring parts, that’s what this living story is like.

My problem with all of this is that we, the player are put into the role of an observer again. Our characters need to be hurdled into the story and not join in on the adventures of the real heroes, the NPC’s. It’s boring.

One of the main reasons why the story of GW2 has sucked so far is because it does its best to remind players how great the npc’s are while they do jack kitten. This story update is little to no different. This needs to stop.

Meh, it’s kind of cheap play imo to “educate” people about tolerance (lol?), be somehow different than other mmo romances and attract male nerds with lesbians… Not really interesting plot.
In fact, I liked the minor Rox’s romance plot, when she mentions Pickaxe way more.
Things like putting some dialogue into every patch just to say “Heeey! Heey, You! See? We’re lesbians! It’s cool, we live together, love nudity and we looove bananas” is…well… Immature and dumb

I don’t mind watching them flirt. It’s been fun to watch some of the relationships (not just the romantic ones) grow minutely with each patch. Which makes sense, considering we’re not talking great leaps in time here, things should progress in small steps. More story and character building are two things many have called for loudly (myself included). So yeah, I’m enjoying it. In fact, I’m still howling more, more, more!!!!!

Rangersix.1754:

My problem with all of this is that we, the player are put into the role of an observer again. Our characters need to be hurdled into the story and not join in on the adventures of the real heroes, the NPC’s. It’s boring.

A romance storyline involving Player with Kasmeer would be much better. It doesn’t need to go into too much detail, if the writing is good and subtle, we’d care more about her character too. Watching her romance someone else .. is just not that interesting. Or watch any other NPC romance other NPC’s. (except the Quaggans.) We saw it with Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and many other games .. if the NPC is romancing you the player, it’s much more effective.

Of course you would need lots of suspension of disbelief. If you start thinking about it, Kasmeer would be romancing the whole playerbase, I mean, how loose is she? But that’s disbelief I’m willing to suspend in the hopes of a more personal storyline.

By the way, for the record, I like flirting stuff and romance and all that. It’s just that it’s so out of place and badly done in this game.

And that said, I actual enjoy hearing Marjory and Kasmeer do their thing, it’s amusing for a quick laugh. Sorry, I’m one of those shallow male nerds easily amused by stupid lesbian antics.

A romance thing with the player though just sounds funny, because it would make Kasmeer (or whoever the romance object is) the biggest kitten in the world, because she’d be instanced kitten to every single player in the game when you think about it.

That’s just the weakness of going with instances and story telling in these MMOs. It just doesn’t work.

Traveller.7496:

Rangersix.1754:

My problem with all of this is that we, the player are put into the role of an observer again. Our characters need to be hurdled into the story and not join in on the adventures of the real heroes, the NPC’s. It’s boring.

A romance storyline involving Player with Kasmeer would be much better. It doesn’t need to go into too much detail, if the writing is good and subtle, we’d care more about her character too. Watching her romance someone else .. is just not that interesting. Or watch any other NPC romance other NPC’s. (except the Quaggans.) We saw it with Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and many other games .. if the NPC is romancing you the player, it’s much more effective.

Of course you would need lots of suspension of disbelief. If you start thinking about it, Kasmeer would be romancing the whole playerbase, I mean, how loose is she? But that’s disbelief I’m willing to suspend in the hopes of a more personal storyline.

I agree, a relationship happening to the player would give greater player investment. It’s definitely an overall weakness that your character is usually silent and having things happen to them by the people around them instead of making things happen to the others.

However, this is not a single player RPG. Each player likely has a different idea of their character’s personality and would resent being forced to place that character in a relationship, nonetheless with someone not of their choosing.

…Unless you’re suggesting that multiple characters be “romanceable” the way they are in the ME & DA series which might be hard to implement but fun :) That way you could choose to be non-romantic or romantic with different LS characters not only person-to-person but character-to-character. My guardian, for example, wouldn’t be stuck romancing Braham like my ele might choose.

Of course, this would lose some of the punch of a “your romantic interest just died! Sad faces all around” moment because to do that they’d have to murder every romanceable LS character. It just doesn’t seem very feasible.

The relationships were way cheesier, but they were better in ToR because you were a part of the scene more. I really don’t like romance stuff in games. You can have relationships to flesh out identities of characters without it being sappy. Jory and Kasmeer and Caithe and her lady and Jennah and Logan all have sappy relationships.

Mhenlo and Cynn? That was gold. I really think ArenaNet’s writers shine when they do comedy. The serious romance writing doesn’t work for me in games. I avoid it like the plague because it’s mostly awkward.

when I went to the Inn to do the re-cap on the story and those two were talking about picking out curtains I was like “omg who writes this dribble!”

I like seeing relationships develop like Braham and Taimi, but the Kasmeer/Marjory is so forced it just feels wrong.

We should have two characters in a relationship who spend most of their time picking on and making fun of one another.

Traveller.7496:

Rangersix.1754:

My problem with all of this is that we, the player are put into the role of an observer again. Our characters need to be hurdled into the story and not join in on the adventures of the real heroes, the NPC’s. It’s boring.

A romance storyline involving Player with Kasmeer would be much better.

Oh sure my Charr would be delighted facepalm

Eh to be fair, I find them just kind of a cute couple.

Though anet is pretty fond of the lesbian route. One more and XD they’d better throw in a gay couple just so it isn’t super obvious they’re into teh yuri.

Honestly though, it’s either just some character development or they plan to kill off one of them for drama. Either way shouldn’t be a big deal. Just ignore it and kill stuff if you don’t like it.

CharrGirl.7896:

Oh sure my Charr would be delighted facepalm

um, wouldn’t that facePAW?

yanipheonu.5798:

Eh to be fair, I find them just kind of a cute couple.

Though anet is pretty fond of the lesbian route. One more and XD they’d better throw in a gay couple just so it isn’t super obvious they’re into teh yuri.

Honestly though, it’s either just some character development or they plan to kill off one of them for drama. Either way shouldn’t be a big deal. Just ignore it and kill stuff if you don’t like it.

Gay encompasses both male/male and female/female, and there are a few male homosexual relationships in this game, too, though they’re Sylvari.

Lamont.5973:

CharrGirl.7896:

Oh sure my Charr would be delighted facepalm

um, wouldn’t that facePAW?

I think Kasmeer and Marjory are cute together and their flirting is fun, and it’s cool for Anet to be inclusive like this. I think most people who can’t stomach this are just intolerant bigots, if one of them was a guy even people who dislike how the relationship was written or don’t care would just shrug and move on.

Shinzan.2908:

I think Kasmeer and Marjory are cute together and their flirting is fun, and it’s cool for Anet to be inclusive like this. I think most people who can’t stomach this are just intolerant bigots, if one of them was a guy even people who dislike how the relationship was written or don’t care would just shrug and move on.

Being inclusive has nothing to do with why they’re doing this. This relationship is designed for the juvenile male audience.

If they were focussing a male-male relationship, then you can say they’re being inclusive.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

I don’t care if Kasmeer and Marjory are in love.. i just don’t want to see ANY romantic stuff, we have way too more important things to do instead of look at two people flirt patch after patch after patch.

LOL ur jealous of fictional characters !!?? LOLOLOLO

CharrGirl.7896:

Lamont.5973:

CharrGirl.7896:

Oh sure my Charr would be delighted facepalm

um, wouldn’t that facePAW?

I still don’t understand why couldn’t they put a standard man-woman relationship. Was point of this to make boys more interested in the story or what?

Rezz.8019:

I still don’t understand why couldn’t they put a standard man-woman relationship. Was point of this to make boys more interested in the story or what?

The question shouldn’t be why show a same sex relationship, the question should be why not? You are assuming the male x female relationship is the default and that there needs to be a reason to do something else. There doesn’t.

Equilibriator.8741:

This whole lesbian thing keeps being forced down our throats and just seems like a cheap stint to the (vast) male populace of the game, much like how batwoman was a lesbian (and I believe the artists quit over that or something because they recognised it for the cheap gimmick it was).

No they quit because DC wouldn’t allow Kate and Maggie to get married and could only come up with an extremely lame excuse as to why not.
http://io9.com/dc-wont-allow-batwomans-gay-marriage-to-be-depicted-1257106266

I do like the relationships, but the one I’d actually like to see is Braham and Rox. What happens when you fall in love with someone who’s not even the same species as you? How would other Charr and Norn react? If they really want to explore tolerance, there’s the place to do it, because they can show people being intolerant to Rox and Braham without getting tangled up in RL politics.

Maybe Rytlock flips and threatens to kick Rox out of the stone warband. What happens to Rox when she has to choose between love and her dream?

I’m all for having same sex couples represented in this game. I love Caithe and Faolain. Hell, like half of the sylvari you meet are gay. I think that’s great. But Marjory and Kasmeer are borderline fetishistic with the whole “look! lesbians! leSBIANS!! LOOK AT THEM BE LESBIANS ISN’T KASMEER HOT GUESS WHAT SHE’S ALWAYS NAKED.”

When I went into the LS the other day, the first thing I said in guild chat was, “WOW CAN THEY BE MORE HEAVY HANDED ABOUT KASMEER AND MARJORY BEING IN LESBIANS WITH EACH OTHER? THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT PICKING OUT CURTAINS. THIS IS LITERALLY THE MOST STEREOTYPICAL THING I’VE EVER SEEN.” and one of my guildies said “oh just wait til Rox gets there. It gets worse.” and she was right. It got so much more obnoxious.

Maybe I’m just salty because Logan and Rytlock’s romance got snuffed out before it really had a chance to get off the ground (omg I’m kidding relax… kind of. I’m only kind of kidding. My guildies all call CoF and CoE the “yaoi dungeons”). idk to me it all depends on if the characters are likable in the first place, and Marjory in particular kittenes me off… though I think it might just be because of her terrible voice actor. And the relationship has to be somewhat believable. The characters actually have to have chemistry, and you should be able to see their feelings for each other in the way they interact — in a way that’s not I’M GOING TO KEEP TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU SO THAT PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THAT I LOVE YOU. That’s like the first rule of storytelling, anet. Show. Don’t tell.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Shinzan.2908:

I think Kasmeer and Marjory are cute together and their flirting is fun, and it’s cool for Anet to be inclusive like this. I think most people who can’t stomach this are just intolerant bigots, if one of them was a guy even people who dislike how the relationship was written or don’t care would just shrug and move on.

Being inclusive has nothing to do with why they’re doing this. This relationship is designed for the juvenile male audience.

What if I told you that you don’t have to be a juvenile male to enjoy this?

CharrGirl.7896:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Shinzan.2908:

I think Kasmeer and Marjory are cute together and their flirting is fun, and it’s cool for Anet to be inclusive like this. I think most people who can’t stomach this are just intolerant bigots, if one of them was a guy even people who dislike how the relationship was written or don’t care would just shrug and move on.

Being inclusive has nothing to do with why they’re doing this. This relationship is designed for the juvenile male audience.

What if I told you that you don’t have to be a juvenile male to enjoy this?

You’d have to be some form juvenile and have a poor grasp on how storytelling works, though. Whether you’re male or not doesn’t really matter. Not all representation is good representation. This is a lesson a lot of game companies need to learn (I’m looking at you, Bioware). There’s a difference between making good, nuanced characters who also happen to be queer (like Caithe and Faolain) and making two highly fetishized characters who can’t go more than half a scene without reminding you how much of hot lesbians they are, like Marjory and Kasmeer.

warbreaker.8154:

Marjory in particular kittenes me off… though I think it might just be because of her terrible voice actor.

Majory’s voice acting is perfect. She’s supposed to sound like a noir-movie detective. Her voice actor is doing a great job capturing the “self-narration” rhythms from those films. You may not like the stylistic choice, but that doesn’t mean it’s being done badly.

Compare the way Majory and Kasmeer talk to each other to the way Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor talk in The Maltese Falcon:

warbreaker.8154:

CharrGirl.7896:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Shinzan.2908:

I think Kasmeer and Marjory are cute together and their flirting is fun, and it’s cool for Anet to be inclusive like this. I think most people who can’t stomach this are just intolerant bigots, if one of them was a guy even people who dislike how the relationship was written or don’t care would just shrug and move on.

Being inclusive has nothing to do with why they’re doing this. This relationship is designed for the juvenile male audience.

What if I told you that you don’t have to be a juvenile male to enjoy this?

You’d have to be some form juvenile and have a poor grasp on how storytelling works, though. Whether you’re male or not doesn’t really matter. Not all representation is good representation. This is a lesson a lot of game companies need to learn (I’m looking at you, Bioware). There’s a difference between making good, nuanced characters who also happen to be queer (like Caithe and Faolain) and making two highly fetishized characters who can’t go more than half a scene without reminding you how much of hot lesbians they are, like Marjory and Kasmeer.

I was going to post something intelligent but then I lost my will. Have it your way then, no sense arguing if you see it like that.

Stormy Dragon.9210:

warbreaker.8154:

Marjory in particular kittenes me off… though I think it might just be because of her terrible voice actor.

Majory’s voice acting is perfect. She’s supposed to sound like a noir-movie detective. Her voice actor is doing a great job capturing the “self-narration” rhythms from those films. You may not like the stylistic choice, but that doesn’t mean it’s being done badly.

Compare the way Majory and Kasmeer talk to each other to the way Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor talk in The Maltese Falcon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kk3Xvw7jn0

I know what noir is, I just don’t think she’s very good at it.

O.K. We’ll try this “respectfully” this time.

The most important thing when writing a story is to make things interesting. For a videogame, this usually involves gameplay. When playing a traditional RPG, we care about the relationships of the characters for several reasons:

A)We are often guiding or choosing the relationships and how they play out.
B)The relationship is often a product of the gameplay itself, and not the other way around.

This is why the Rox and Braham story is interesting. We met them though our gameplay and fought next to them. Then, they met up, and we went through what was IMO the best dungeon the game had. The interaction those two had was interesting, because the whole time we were bashing in dredge heads and yanking off charr tails. Their friendship was fun, literally. We had fun because we were playing a game. Granted, lately their story is has become more bland as time has gone on, but a strong beginning goes a long way.

But Marjory and Kasmeer… We met Marjory in a cutscene, and then… didn’t do much with her. Kasmeer was there too, I think, but the first time I ever noticed her was at the Southsun Event. I think many people will agree with me on why that is the first time we noticed: http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/gw2-southsun-mini-kasmeer.jpg

Yeah… not a strong character there. We learned about these two from cutscenes and text. It wasn’t until the end of the Tower of Nightmares before we actually fought alongside of them, and by that time I had already checked out of the living story for being lackluster overall. Kas/Jory falls into the same fault with much of the living story as of late: I wasn’t given enough of a reason to care at the beginning.

Elephant in the room: the heavily implied lesbian innuendo. The fact is that not everyone likes, agrees with, or is comfortable with homosexuality. It could be that they find the physical act to be disconcerting. It could be that they don’t agree with notion of contemporary homosexuality as a whole. It could be something less, like how many don’t like how the fanservice angle is patronizing men, or how their sexuality is being used to crutch an otherwise uninteresting story, thus exploiting the entire demographic.

I am one of them. The lesbian innuendo makes the relationship more than just stale. It makes the relationship unsettling, which drives players away from the game faster than something that is simply uninteresting.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Elephant in the room: the heavily implied lesbian innuendo. The fact is that not everyone likes, agrees with, or is comfortable with homosexuality. It could be that they find the physical act to be disconcerting. It could be that they don’t agree with notion of contemporary homosexuality as a whole.

Such people and opinions are best ignored.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

It could be something less, like how many don’t like how the fanservice angle is patronizing men, or how their sexuality is being used to crutch an otherwise uninteresting story, thus exploiting the entire demographic.

This complaint I can accept. However that’s just video games for you, you could say the same about the design of female armor being eyecandy in general. Yet people point out this particular instance when it’s on par with the rest of GW2’s design and writing, which makes me think that a lot of them are actually complaining for the first set of reasons yet trying to hide their own issues by claiming it’s for the last one. Or do you think the OP was complaining about Logan and Jennah or other instances of NPC’s shown as being in a relationship until now?

Shinzan.2908:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Elephant in the room: the heavily implied lesbian innuendo. The fact is that not everyone likes, agrees with, or is comfortable with homosexuality. It could be that they find the physical act to be disconcerting. It could be that they don’t agree with notion of contemporary homosexuality as a whole.

Such people and opinions are best ignored.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

It could be something less, like how many don’t like how the fanservice angle is patronizing men, or how their sexuality is being used to crutch an otherwise uninteresting story, thus exploiting the entire demographic.

This complaint I can accept. However that’s just video games for you, you could say the same about the design of female armor being eyecandy in general. Yet people point out this particular instance when it’s on par with the rest of GW2’s design and writing, which makes me think that a lot of them are actually complaining for the first set of reasons yet trying to hide their own issues by claiming it’s for the last one. Or do you think the OP was complaining about Logan and Jennah or other instances of NPC’s shown as being in a relationship until now?

Strange. I thought my opinion was best ignored… it’s something I’ve come to call the Seth Macfarlane syndrome. It is when some form of public entertainment becomes a vehicle for the author(s) political ideologies and agenda. Suddenly that serial comedy or drama you were watching has become a thinly veiled metaphor about the international trade policies of Ireland or something like that, and it just painful to watch. The people who don’t agree get offended, many of the people who do agree find it painful to watch anyway, and all because the author has taken the position that they should just “forget” those that disagree with them.

Anyway, I’m certain there are those who don’t support the lesbian angle because they aren’t comfortable with it will make tangential complaints about the Kas/Jory relationship, but there is definitely not “a lot” of this, judging by the content of the rest of this thread. I give my fellow man a bit more depth than that, and take most things said at face value. You have to consider the reverse of the situation as well: while you can say that people hate the story because of homosexual overtones, you can also say that people only like the story because of homosexual overtones. Widespread dismissal is a two-way street. If anything, those that don’t support Kas/Jory would just stay silent about the issue.

As for the silence, I do fear that it is because of a second “elephant” in the room: the devs. By putting this into the story, the developers, AKA the people who moderate this website and have power over your account, have made their position clear. To publicly defy this position can have serious repercussions to the game. I’ve seen it happen at least a half dozen times: there will be a public forum with a thread to specifically discuss an issue, but anyone who disagrees with moderators gets their posts deleted and are banned. Tolerance is a two way street, too: you have to accept that people disagree with you, and that those who disagree with you are people.

The devs themselves are the ones who introduced this topic when they put it into the game. As to whether the devs have the maturity to allow discussion of the topic they introduced, that remains to be seen.

I tend to not mind them when they are done right. A little nuanced so you grow more comfortable with it before you even realize they were a couple or a dynamic developed between the characters before they even stepped into that zone. Just little things that make it work that I am not that good at describing really.

The relationship between Kasmeer and Marjory though to me stinks. Not because they are lesbians but instead because it feels forced or even dare I say it fanservice like. The entire relationship feels rushed in and the chat between the two implying it all is as blunt as a metal bat being swung by a pro with a clear shot at the side of your head. The jokes about her being naked as well using illusions with the way she is dressed? It seems less like a healthy relationship you wanna root for and more like frat boys wet dream about how a lesbian relationship actually works. It’s just bad and it makes me happy I started tuning out the story months ago due to Scarlet and that I speed read through most of skimming hard.

I just do not get how they can write something so blunt like that or bad like Scarlet. When you turn around and see the dynamic between Rox and Braham developing into something interesting (Even if Rox is still just an anime cat with a background ripped out of a Disney movie.). That and the latest story between Taimi and Braham in the mists is great (Even more so if you white out the Scarlet bits.). I really don’t feel like her disability is being shoved in my face but rather just a part of her that is just there. Just wish she didn’t look like one of those doll kids with all that makeup because it does kill it a little.

Well, if anyone has been keeping tabs on the other thread about this subject, you will know that Anet is well aware of the reaction it has caused, and I daresay it’ll be taken into consideration where future content is concerned.

As for the Kas and Jory “relationship”…I’m not as troubled by it as I was when I first started seeing talk of it. That’s because I (foolishly) was judging the matter by the many tweets and FB postings about it. I say “foolishly” because I’m always admonishing my friends to find out all they can about a subject before posting about it, and there I went flying in the face of my own advice.

What can I say, I’m a silly old Jersey girl.

By the time I sat down to do the content from the “Moment’s Peace” cutscene and the scenes set in The Dead End, I was braced for exactly the sort of blatant, politically correct pandering I’ve seen others decrying both here and on various social networking sites. But I found that the content is nothing like that…the “relationship” is certainly implied, but I don’t find it heavy-handed. Unnecessary, perhaps, but that’s just me. I don’t find commander tags or bows that shoot flying rainbow unicorns necessary either, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the game. Neither does this.

I’m just sad that the lore of the gameworld doesn’t get a fraction of the attention this matter is getting. Again, that’s just me.

Nope. The original Destiny’s edge and your mentors story were probably the most engaging storytelling in GW2, but even that ‘got lost’ during the middle part of the personal story when you were ‘encouraged’ to travel to all the dungeons to see how DE got back together and Trahearne took over . All of the living story characters that are flat and uninteresting because they have all ‘popped up’ out of nowhere in a relatively short period of time.

Perhaps the most an engaging character story in the original GW was Gwen’s prior to her re-appearance in EOTN . You wanted to find out what happened to her after the searing and the minimal subtle clues (the broken flute and the tattered cape) added to the sense of mystery and engagement.

Perhaps the writers should study and try to understand why it was that Gwen’s story grew organically and unintentionally from so few in-game elements and try to apply that level of subtlety to future living story releases.

I dunno guys and gals,
It seems to me that the people that have the most problem with this romance will add paragraphs upon paragraphs of padded, polite wording because they may be afraid of their views making them look bad. I’m very tired of the entire “male gaze” view of gaming. Whether you’re on one side or another of that particular issue, it doesn’t take into account the other 49% of the gaming consumer public. That being women. It doesn’t take into account people that fit in neither gender or persuasion comfortably.

Is the writing between Majory and Kashmeer the best? Maybe not, but do we have to compare it to Logan and Jenna? Or Caithe and whoever? No we don’t. To be honest during the Southsun event I thought Kashmeer and Kiel were maybe going to hit it off but nope! And yes the writing on that flirtation was cheesy but isn’t all romance in this kind of game cheeseball? A bit? It’s not quite fandom fuel but maybe the writing team will get there in time. I’m kind of tired of Kashmeer being basically a destitute noblewoman in general, whoever she chooses to date. (come on a bear and a staff are your only possessions?! Well it is a game :| ), But yeah I think Majory is kind of cheesy but I think she’s very unique and I like her character development from the Aetherblade plot until now. I think she’s pretty cool.

But to be honest, if you personally have an issue with the relationship developing between these two ladies, maybe you need to look inside yourself. The writing and character development in this game won’t get any better, but I appreciate it for what it is—a spoonful of lore to help the patch medicine go down. (in the most delightful way~)