Guild Wars 2

Twoflower.7031:

Man In Zero G.8312:

Yamsandjams.3267:

Man In Zero G.8312:

I loved it – but as I’ve said elsewhere, having NPCs refer to Divinity’s Reach as “DR” is extremely immersion breaking. Scarlet might as well have said “LOL” instead of laughing.

Otherwise, I found it fantastic.

Is it really that immersion breaking? Throughout history, people have always come up with shortened or slang versions of names, places, people, &c.

Do you find it odd that people refer to Los Angeles as “LA” all the time? You probably don’t because the abbreviation is used so commonly. It’s the same thing with Divinity’s Reach as “DR”. If anything, I’d say it enhances the immersion because it’s something that the people of such a city might do.

It is immersion breaking, yes. In all of the first game, no NPC ever referred to Lion’s Arch as “LA”. Or Droknar’s Forge as “Droks”. Or any of the other abbreviations the players used – and until the living story, nobody did it in GW2 either. They certainly didn’t in the personal story that I can recall. It sounds like an editing mistake – like it was shorthanded while writing but nobody remembered to fix it before it was sent on to the voice actors – it makes the whole thing jarring, it sounds out of place for the NPCs to suddenly start using player slang.
But hey, that’s just my opinion, man.

It’s not “player slang”, though. People call cities by their abbreviated names all the time. NYC? LA? SF? Every American state name?

do you ever say any of those (other than LA) out loud though? can’t say i’ve ever seen someone talk about “ENN WHY CEE”, closest to that would be the NYPD, but that’s kind of the name of the institution, and a mouthful.

BobbyStein.2315:

SquirrelKing.8964:

I would like to add that I do not have a low spec machine. I have a core-i7 processor with a radeon 7950 HD and 16gb of ram. My fps was over 40 for the duration of the cutscene. I don’t think it is anything wrong on my end.

What was your latency?

I didn’t have it at the time, but it looks like it runs around 80-100 when I am on Lion’s Arch during peak hours.

I had a genuine laugh in this cutscene and said out loud, “Haha, Faren is dead?”

Then I was sad when it was implied we had to rescue him. As a human aristocrat, why would I want to bring back that freeloader?

nasalhernia.6751:

I had a genuine laugh in this cutscene and said out loud, “Haha, Faren is dead?”

Then I was sad when it was implied we had to rescue him. As a human aristocrat, why would I want to bring back that freeloader?

I take it that you never played the human noble story line.
Faren is great. He is brave, helpful and he likes a good fight. He is also goofy and full of himself, but really, his heart is bigger than his brain.

Nilkemia.8507:

While it may have been my laptop being slow, the lines at the bottom of the screen seemed to be out of sync with the voices, the voices would come first and the text a second or two after.

Same for me, and i don’t think it was due to the my system’s specs – at the fullscale zerg invasions it was working just fine at highest details. Also, seemed to me that some subtitles were out of order (that might have been just a feeling caused by them being out of sync with the voices, though)

Faren’s cutscenes, like the one of Logan in the Dead End Bar of Divinity’s Reach for Sky Pirates, is the right direction.

For future, updates, moar of it.

As far as story go…it’s not that bad itself – but – Scarlet is incredibly disappointing.
I expected her to be a already existing character that turns out being a traitor (see all speculation more or less justified around about Anise or whatever other female character already present in the story). And, even in the case of having a new character as villain, there was literally 0 fights and build-up of struggle against it – just popped in ceremony out of nowhere telling you “I’m bad i’ll punch you all cause i want to” – having a couple of releases of Story focusing on stopping some Scarlet undercover actions to have a sense of danger build up, know there’s a enemy, and then, having it show up would have been a much better introduction for this character.
Also, a non-human makes little sense for a “let’s screw up Kryta and Human society”, the reasons beihnd it are just “I’m having fun spreading chaos”, which makes Scarlet even more generic.

sazberryftw.3809:

Mako.1842:

It’s the story that’s the problem, not the cutscene.

I agree the story so far is very disappointing. After all that speculation about Scarlet, then we just get another one-dimentional bad guy. Unless there’s more to come about her, I’m very sad. But I like the new mobs, and I liked her voice.

I’m still hoping it’s all linked to Thaumanova Reactor and that the Aetherblades/Mechas are from another dimension!

TheKillerAngel.3596:

If I’m going to be fairly blunt, compared to other AAA games with good cutscenes and cinematics, Guild Wars 2’s are very weak. Compare anything from GW2 to this:

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
http://youtu.be/L2o5dnVuxiI?t=3m15s

Mass Effect 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PjTuSQNLI4

Halo 4
http://youtu.be/GbjA6rB98Yk?t=51m58s

Guild Wars 2 lacks:

- Unique animations for close ups of characters (i.e. characters in cinematics are using the same animations that they are when in open world)
- Good cinematography for cutscenes
- In depth facial animations/speech simulation

These things are some of many elements that are required for engaging cutscenes. I don’t blame the GW2 team – their living story content is not “replayable” therefore it doesn’t make much sense for them to invest a lot into cutscenes. Additionally, as an MMORPG, GW2 is going to place a lot more emphasis on gameplay over story. I suppose the day will come when story and narrative become more valuable in MMOs, but investing in these things has an opportunity cost that right now isn’t worth it for most companies (See: SWTOR).

Those are console games, they are one-off projects developed over a long period of time. MMO content are constantly updated, giving the devs less time for stuff like cutscenes.

painterly cinematic all the way, I hope they will continue to add this instead of the old ways. From the first one added to the game to this, these are perfect.

Love the cutscene.

More painterly cinematics please!

And Queen Jenna needs to dump that chump Logan and get with Man of Action: Lord Faren!

Amyami.7153:

More painterly cinematics please!

And Queen Jenna needs to dump that chump Logan and get with Man of Action: Lord Faren!

Lord Faren will become Batman!

Sadly, it would be way more interesting than the story you have going right now.

Well, I guess the only way to find out is to actually make a LS about a man who’s not-so-mild-mannered nobleman by day and a Krytan crimefighter by night. Maybe he was bitten by a skritt, and turned into … The Skrittman.

BobbyStein.2315:

Aeolus.3615:

Lord Faren will become Batman!

He already has the tight outfit. Now he just needs a cape!

Newsflash: Capes confirmed! Coming soon! High priority living story project! Lord Faren apparel and more in the store!

BobbyStein.2315:

Traveller.7496:

Well, I guess the only way to find out is to actually make a LS about a man who’s not-so-mild-mannered nobleman by day and a Krytan crimefighter by night. Maybe he was bitten by a skritt, and turned into … The Skrittman.

Interesting. What kind of wagon would he drive?

A shiny one.

The moving in-game cutscenes always make me dizzy. The way they sqay is just so… Dizzy-ing >_<

Can we expect to lean Scarlet’s motives or are we to assume that she’s just crazy and is doing this for the lols?

BobbyStein.2315:

Rouven.7409:

BobbyStein.2315:

Aeolus.3615:

Lord Faren will become Batman!

He already has the tight outfit. Now he just needs a cape!

Newsflash: Capes confirmed! Coming soon! High priority living story project! Lord Faren apparel and more in the store!

I think Faren’s speedo would make a great microtransaction item.

Just kidding. (Or am I?)

You heard the man

time to put it into Gem Store as a PvP skin!

BobbyStein.2315:

Sarrs.4831:

Make them all painterly?

Isn’t that why the personal story has the stylised conversations?

That was the original plan, but a variety of factors led to the decision of shortening the painterly cinematic and doing the rest via the in-game systems.

In my honest opinion and with all due respect to the team who put it together, I don’t believe that this is something you guys can be proud of. The decision is poor which delivered poor quality and I hate to see the game that I love slowly deteriorating in quality. Are you guys really satisfied in releasing this kind of content?

The way I see it, you gave 1000% in pre-LS GW2, which convinced me to buy the game and pour money into the Gem Store, but gave only 75% post-release, which now I’m having doubts if I still want to play this game.

I know that I will get bashed for this and I might even get banned, but the topic is asking for opinion and this is my honest one.

I’m just confused of the sudden change in philosophy coming from the team who kept on repeating “we’ll release it when it’s done” (para.) pre-release to now deliver an obvious half-done unpolished contents.

Seriously, what is the big rush?

BobbyStein.2315:

Aeolus.3615:

Lord Faren will become Batman!

He already has the tight outfit. Now he just needs a cape!

Well that’s easy to afford, he’s rich you know.

Xae Isareth.1364:

TheKillerAngel.3596:

If I’m going to be fairly blunt, compared to other AAA games with good cutscenes and cinematics, Guild Wars 2’s are very weak. Compare anything from GW2 to this:

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
http://youtu.be/L2o5dnVuxiI?t=3m15s

Mass Effect 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PjTuSQNLI4

Halo 4
http://youtu.be/GbjA6rB98Yk?t=51m58s

Guild Wars 2 lacks:

- Unique animations for close ups of characters (i.e. characters in cinematics are using the same animations that they are when in open world)
- Good cinematography for cutscenes
- In depth facial animations/speech simulation

These things are some of many elements that are required for engaging cutscenes. I don’t blame the GW2 team – their living story content is not “replayable” therefore it doesn’t make much sense for them to invest a lot into cutscenes. Additionally, as an MMORPG, GW2 is going to place a lot more emphasis on gameplay over story. I suppose the day will come when story and narrative become more valuable in MMOs, but investing in these things has an opportunity cost that right now isn’t worth it for most companies (See: SWTOR).

Those are console games, they are one-off projects developed over a long period of time. MMO content are constantly updated, giving the devs less time for stuff like cutscenes.

StarCraft 2 is not a console game, Mass Effect 2 was released for the PC, and I can cite many other PC games which have high quality cinematics. As I said, investing in cutscenes like this isn’t a priority for MMO devs because of the opportunity cost (which you and I agree on, and Bobby acknowledges brlow).

Well make that time longer, then! It’s your own decision to squeeze these events out every two weeks! I’m sure players will be more than happy to wait a bit longer to get polished and not rushed content.

BobbyStein.2315:

I think Faren’s speedo would make a great microtransaction item.

Just kidding. (Or am I?)

Yes! Add the boxing gloves to unlock two new exclusive costume brawl combos:

Speedo Stun! Followed by Faren’s Fisti Uppercut – POW
Mooning Maneuver! Blinds players in a 90 degree cone. Plus the Royal Roundhouse Slap for maximum insult!

I could think of one more, but who likes flatulence jokes.

As for the skrittmobile I would envision a cross between flintstones rubble car (motorized by skritt under the hood) and a souped up cadillac

lol. I just assumed her lips weren’t supposed to move.

BobbyStein.2315:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Seriously, what is the big rush?

Each team has a fixed amount of development time and limited resources to build the contents of a Living World release. Sometimes things get cut or changed because of constraints or other circumstances. Our ship dates for LW don’t usually change.

i think what bobby is trying to say is “there will always be deadlines, and there will always be things that don’t make the final cut”.

BobbyStein.2315:

LameFox.6349:

lol. I just assumed her lips weren’t supposed to move.

I have to do some more investigation, but I think it’s a bug that’s tied to how the game generates lip flap at runtime. It’s possible that the way in which she was implemented during the flythrough bypassed that system. I think it’s safe to say that her mouth should have moved during that cinematic.

i’m curious, though: you guys do have an advanced lip sync tech, you used it on the personal story and most dungeons (rytlock on ascalon catacombs still flaps his mouth like a bad puppet). why can’t the same tech be applied during in-game cutscenes?

BobbyStein.2315:

LameFox.6349:

lol. I just assumed her lips weren’t supposed to move.

I have to do some more investigation, but I think it’s a bug that’s tied to how the game generates lip flap at runtime. It’s possible that the way in which she was implemented during the flythrough bypassed that system. I think it’s safe to say that her mouth should have moved during that cinematic.

AH, so that’s why she was flapping her lips without flapping her lips!

I think Skrittman would probably drive some old broken down piece of skritt. (<— This is why Skrittman would be a bad idea… people like me with childish minds.)

VOLKON.1290:

BobbyStein.2315:

LameFox.6349:

lol. I just assumed her lips weren’t supposed to move.

I have to do some more investigation, but I think it’s a bug that’s tied to how the game generates lip flap at runtime. It’s possible that the way in which she was implemented during the flythrough bypassed that system. I think it’s safe to say that her mouth should have moved during that cinematic.

AH, so that’s why she was flapping her lips without flapping her lips!

I think Skrittman would probably drive some old broken down piece of skritt. (<— This is why Skrittman would be a bad idea… people like me with childish minds.)

i don’t think bobby minds the “skritt” puns. he did approve “SKRITT! I’M HIT!” and “HOLY SKRITT” as open world dialogue lines after all :P

These new ones are not bad, but they look like they are mostly just touched up in-game assets as a shortcut.

They really are not on the level of quality and impressiveness as the cutscenes from release.(IE: race selection, pact selection, Catacombs, SE, HoTW, Orr,)

I realize some of the major people behind those(Kekai Kotaki, Horia Dociu et al) are no longer with the company, but surely that body of work can be built and improved upon.

Again, this stuff is not BAD and I am not trying to be hurtful. It is just a very obvious step down. And I realize that it might be an issue of time, not skill.

PS – Lord Faren’s expression’s were amazing

BobbyStein.2315:

Gnat.9405:

Can we expect to lean Scarlet’s motives or are we to assume that she’s just crazy and is doing this for the lols?

People will learn more about Scarlet’s motives in time.

Oh God, so she HAS motives. That makes LS less disappointing.

Katran.9186:

BobbyStein.2315:

Gnat.9405:

Can we expect to lean Scarlet’s motives or are we to assume that she’s just crazy and is doing this for the lols?

People will learn more about Scarlet’s motives in time.

Oh God, so she HAS motives. That makes LS less disappointing.

it would be pretty weird to go through such lengths just because lol.

Lucky.9421:

These new ones are not bad, but they look like they are mostly just touched up in-game assets as a shortcut.

They really are not on the level of quality and impressiveness as the cutscenes from release.(IE: race selection, pact selection, Catacombs, SE, HoTW, Orr,)

I realize some of the major people behind those(Kekai Kotaki, Horia Dociu et al) are no longer with the company, but surely that body of work can be built and improved upon.

Again, this stuff is not BAD and I am not trying to be hurtful. It is just a very obvious step down. And I realize that it might be an issue of time, not skill.

PS – Lord Faren’s expression’s were amazing

yeah i think the full “motion concept art” thing can’t be done in the time frame required. it would put a hell lot of pressure on the concept artists as well.

i hope they do come back (maybe even more frequently) whenever we go back to killing dragons and stuff.

I loved the cutscene. However, it would’ve been nice if my human noble character had expressed some sort of reaction to his demise. I mean, this guy came to visit me when I was unconscious; obviously we’re pretty close. You’d think I’d be angry or sad or something.

BrunoBRS.5178:

BobbyStein.2315:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Seriously, what is the big rush?

Each team has a fixed amount of development time and limited resources to build the contents of a Living World release. Sometimes things get cut or changed because of constraints or other circumstances. Our ship dates for LW don’t usually change.

i think what bobby is trying to say is “there will always be deadlines, and there will always be things that don’t make the final cut”.

As I mentioned in my initial post, Anet were the one who insisted on releasing content when they believe that it is done and looking at the release of GW2, it was well done. Now compare that to everything post-release, you’ll see a big shift in this philosophy, it’s like a completely different company with different goal and different mindset.

I don’t even recognize “this” Anet anymore as the days goes by.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Katran.9186:

BobbyStein.2315:

Gnat.9405:

Can we expect to lean Scarlet’s motives or are we to assume that she’s just crazy and is doing this for the lols?

People will learn more about Scarlet’s motives in time.

Oh God, so she HAS motives. That makes LS less disappointing.

it would be pretty weird to go through such lengths just because lol.

She seemed to be Harley Quinn\Discord-like. Chaos for chaos and because of chaos.

BrunoBRS.5178:

yeah i think the full “motion concept art” thing can’t be done in the time frame required. it would put a hell lot of pressure on the concept artists as well.

i hope they do come back (maybe even more frequently) whenever we go back to killing dragons and stuff.

Yeah, I am sure they did a take a lot of time. I bet every dungeon was originally supposed to have something on par with AC as an intro but they just couldn’t make it in time.

They sure are awesome though.

Katran.9186:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Katran.9186:

BobbyStein.2315:

Gnat.9405:

Can we expect to lean Scarlet’s motives or are we to assume that she’s just crazy and is doing this for the lols?

People will learn more about Scarlet’s motives in time.

Oh God, so she HAS motives. That makes LS less disappointing.

it would be pretty weird to go through such lengths just because lol.

She seemed to be Harley Quinn\Discord-like. Chaos for chaos and because of chaos.

i do agree that she has this joker vibe of just wanting to see the world burn, but even the joker has a reason behind all that insanity

BobbyStein.2315:

LameFox.6349:

lol. I just assumed her lips weren’t supposed to move.

I have to do some more investigation, but I think it’s a bug that’s tied to how the game generates lip flap at runtime. It’s possible that the way in which she was implemented during the flythrough bypassed that system. I think it’s safe to say that her mouth should have moved during that cinematic.

Is there any way to watch it again if changes are made? IIRC the F+F cutscenes had a lingering mission-star that facilitated repeats for a while, but I’ve been back to the pavilion doorway since and didn’t see anything like that where I triggered it the first time.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

BrunoBRS.5178:

BobbyStein.2315:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Seriously, what is the big rush?

Each team has a fixed amount of development time and limited resources to build the contents of a Living World release. Sometimes things get cut or changed because of constraints or other circumstances. Our ship dates for LW don’t usually change.

i think what bobby is trying to say is “there will always be deadlines, and there will always be things that don’t make the final cut”.

As I mentioned in my initial post, Anet were the one who insisted on releasing content when they believe that it is done and looking at the release of GW2, it was well done. Now compare that to everything post-release, you’ll see a big shift in this philosophy, it’s like a completely different company with different goal and different mindset.

I don’t even recognize “this” Anet anymore as the days goes by.

if you would direct your attention to GW2’s launch, you’d have seen that a lot of features were still missing, even after 5 years of development.

the first rule of game development: there will always be something that doesn’t make the deadline. games can’t be in development forever.

the sooner you understand this, the sooner you’ll be able to go back to enjoying the content for what it’s worth, rather than what it could’ve been with unlimited time and resources.

LameFox.6349:

BobbyStein.2315:

LameFox.6349:

lol. I just assumed her lips weren’t supposed to move.

I have to do some more investigation, but I think it’s a bug that’s tied to how the game generates lip flap at runtime. It’s possible that the way in which she was implemented during the flythrough bypassed that system. I think it’s safe to say that her mouth should have moved during that cinematic.

Is there any way to watch it again if changes are made? IIRC the F+F cutscenes had a lingering mission-star that facilitated repeats for a while, but I’ve been back to the pavilion doorway since and didn’t see anything like that where I triggered it the first time.

i wish i could’ve replayed the opening ceremony. i wanted to record it the second time around, but the best solution i found was “force a friend to bring me with him”