Guild Wars 2

Sir Vincent III.1286:

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.

I agree with a lot of what you say.

• 1 year from the release of Prophecies(GW1) was Factions

• Only 6 months from the release of Factions was Nightfall

• 10 months after the release of Nightfall was EoTN

Ask me why I became a fan of Anet.

Also they added full dungeon(SF) and a lot of quality of life improvements between Proph and Factions. So it wasn’t like that 1 year stretch was devoid of support.

The problem is now with this 2 week schedule, there are so many bugs, balance issues and production short-cuts being taken. Can you really say the franchise has moved forward in the past year as much as it did in the year between Prophecies and Factions?

I agree with most people, this cutscene was a MAJOR IMPROVEMENT (yes it deserves caps lock) over the personal story cutscenes. Another thing I have noticed (or not?) is that the quality of the voices seemed much higher than the rest of the game? Have you audio guys got some new equipment/techniques or are my ears fooling me? Either way, good job on the cutscene and I think the mix of ingame/prerendered actually looked quite good.

Might I make a suggestion, It would seem you have your audio track and video cues separate from each other. (both play at the same time and hopefully they stay synced)

Instead can you have it so the video track cue’s each line of audio. (in time with the subtitles is often the best.) This way each time before each subtitle appears the voice over for that part of the cut-scene is played.

This should greatly improve quality and low end machines as well as anyone getting desynced, as they are resynced at each audio cue. Plus, if they ever get desynced it’s not as obvious as the game will wait for the next cue before playing the next voice over.

BrunoBRS.5178:

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

As I remember he fell into vat of chemical…stuff and gone mad. Reasons? No.

Katran.9186:

BrunoBRS.5178:

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

As I remember he fell into vat of chemical…stuff and gone mad. Reasons? No.

he wants to prove the batman wrong. he wants to push him to the edge.

he’s insane, and his motive is just as insane, but it doesn’t mean he’s doing it purely for lulz.

zerorogue.9410:

Might I make a suggestion, It would seem you have your audio track and video cues separate from each other. (both play at the same time and hopefully they stay synced)

Instead can you have it so the video track cue’s each line of audio. (in time with the subtitles is often the best.) This way each time before each subtitle appears the voice over for that part of the cut-scene is played.

This should greatly improve quality and low end machines as well as anyone getting desynced, as they are resynced at each audio cue. Plus, if they ever get desynced it’s not as obvious as the game will wait for the next cue before playing the next voice over.

this would also probably keep audio tracks from overlapping and interrupting one another awkwardly.

Scarlet really needed lipsyncing. That part looked so bad.
The cutscene with Faren, on the other hand, was awesome.

BrunoBRS.5178:

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.

I thought quality is the first rule, but I digress.

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.

I never mention anything about “what it could’ve been” since there’s no way of knowing what would that be until we actually see it. So what exactly are you talking about here?

My initial post is simply pointing out that because of these ridiculous deadlines and rushed developments, the end result of Living Story/World is in poor quality in comparison to the initial release of GW2. Not only that the game play quality suffered, but also the presentation and character development suffers. Sure what happen to Lord Faren might be funny to some, but the fact that the Queen is not brave enough to make the speech in person is lame and a display of poor leadership and poor character. If there was such a threat that Anise has to do what she did, why allow a lot of innocent people to die instead of taking them to safety? Or atleast inform Logan so he can effectively protect the people?

Poor, poor quality all the way around. This what happens when you cut corners – a lot of corners.

Now let that sink in before you reply.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

I never mention anything about “what it could’ve been” since there’s no way of knowing what would that be until we actually see it. So what exactly are you talking about here?

My initial post is simply pointing out that because of these ridiculous deadlines and rushed developments, the end result of Living Story/World is in poor quality in comparison to the initial release of GW2. Not only that the game play quality suffered, but also the presentation and character development suffers. Sure what happen to Lord Faren might be funny to some, but the fact that the Queen is not brave enough to make the speech in person is lame and a display of poor leadership and poor character. If there was such a threat that Anise has to do what she did, why allow a lot of innocent people to die instead of taking them to safety? Or atleast inform Logan so he can effectively protect the people?

Poor, poor quality all the way around. This what happens when you cut corners – a lot of corners.

Now let that sink in before you reply.

OK, I let that sink in.

You have an opinion and a strong desire to share it. I think you’re silly.

As a matter of fact, the ability to use an illusion for a speech like that is brilliant, and if we had the technology today to do something similar you’d see it done irl too. I credit Anise with a cold yet brilliant mind, doing what she thinks is right and doing it the way she chooses because everyone else is too stupid to come up with a better idea. I see her as the anti-Logan, the unemotional face of the same coin that protects the Queen.

I also think that even though she took cautions against something happening no one foresaw the bombs, which is unfortunate. As for not informing Logan, why would she need to inform that emotional clod? Sure he’s a good enough fighter, designed to destroy the Queen’s enemies, but he’s hardly the type to be trusted with every secret that needs being kept.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Katran.9186:

BrunoBRS.5178:

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

As I remember he fell into vat of chemical…stuff and gone mad. Reasons? No.

he wants to prove the batman wrong. he wants to push him to the edge.

he’s insane, and his motive is just as insane, but it doesn’t mean he’s doing it purely for lulz.

Oh, that changes everything. If we get motive like “She’s insane – that’s why she wants to burn Kryta” that will be fail.

VOLKON.1290:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

I never mention anything about “what it could’ve been” since there’s no way of knowing what would that be until we actually see it. So what exactly are you talking about here?

My initial post is simply pointing out that because of these ridiculous deadlines and rushed developments, the end result of Living Story/World is in poor quality in comparison to the initial release of GW2. Not only that the game play quality suffered, but also the presentation and character development suffers. Sure what happen to Lord Faren might be funny to some, but the fact that the Queen is not brave enough to make the speech in person is lame and a display of poor leadership and poor character. If there was such a threat that Anise has to do what she did, why allow a lot of innocent people to die instead of taking them to safety? Or atleast inform Logan so he can effectively protect the people?

Poor, poor quality all the way around. This what happens when you cut corners – a lot of corners.

Now let that sink in before you reply.

OK, I let that sink in.

You have an opinion and a strong desire to share it. I think you’re silly.

As a matter of fact, the ability to use an illusion for a speech like that is brilliant, and if we had the technology today to do something similar you’d see it done irl too. I credit Anise with a cold yet brilliant mind, doing what she thinks is right and doing it the way she chooses because everyone else is too stupid to come up with a better idea. I see her as the anti-Logan, the unemotional face of the same coin that protects the Queen.

I also think that even though she took cautions against something happening no one foresaw the bombs, which is unfortunate. As for not informing Logan, why would she need to inform that emotional clod? Sure he’s a good enough fighter, designed to destroy the Queen’s enemies, but he’s hardly the type to be trusted with every secret that needs being kept.

That, sinking it in?

I guess never mind the poor character of the Queen who only saves herself and let her people die…including children.

Now we really know how humanity had survived, by sacrificing its own people. The kind of leader that defines a tyrant that is something I don’t expect coming from the Queen of Kryta.

And speaking of Logan, why the heck are they making him an emotionally obsessed fanboy of the Queen? The quality of his character is also diminishing and the role of the Seraphs are now confusing. When leveling up my human character, I was under the impression that the Seraph it to protect the people, not to seek out the enemies of the throne — I guess Anise is redefining their role and Logan is ok with this? Who made her the Captain of the Seraph?

Yes, sacrifice more people of Kryta and call it content, never mind the quality of the characters and the story.

Lord faren should have ripped off his clothes to the speedo he wore in southsun when he tried saving jennah.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Sure what happen to Lord Faren might be funny to some, but the fact that the Queen is not brave enough to make the speech in person is lame and a display of poor leadership and poor character. If there was such a threat that Anise has to do what she did, why allow a lot of innocent people to die instead of taking them to safety? Or atleast inform Logan so he can effectively protect the people?

What good would that do? They couldn’t be sure of the security in one relatively small area, there would be screw-all chance of preventing anyone capable of getting past that from attacking other targets all around the city if they merely felt like inflicting lots of civilian casualties. Anything overt would let the attackers either see it was a bad idea and wait for a better opportunity, or see it didn’t really matter and plan around it (if even necessary). It could even be used against them, like diverting guards and leaving some other targets vulnerable, or… using robot guards their enemy turns out to be able to control. Anything covert may well have the very same effect for all they know, which was basically the exact same thing Anise explained to Logan: they had no idea who could be trusted, and the most secure course of action is to inform as few people as the plan needs to work. In this case that was probably 2, which is about as lucky as they’d ever get.

What would they have told him, exactly? ’Something’s going to happen’? ‘Someone, or something, might attack’? If he wasn’t already prepared as well as he could reasonably be for vague threats to the queen or attendees, he’d have no business dealing with security anyway.

LameFox.6349:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Sure what happen to Lord Faren might be funny to some, but the fact that the Queen is not brave enough to make the speech in person is lame and a display of poor leadership and poor character. If there was such a threat that Anise has to do what she did, why allow a lot of innocent people to die instead of taking them to safety? Or atleast inform Logan so he can effectively protect the people?

What good would that do? They couldn’t be sure of the security in one relatively small area, there would be screw-all chance of preventing anyone capable of getting past that from attacking other targets all around the city if they merely felt like inflicting lots of civilian casualties. Anything overt would let the attackers either see it was a bad idea and wait for a better opportunity, or see it didn’t really matter and plan around it (if even necessary). It could even be used against them, like diverting guards and leaving some other targets vulnerable, or… using robot guards their enemy turns out to be able to control. Anything covert may well have the very same effect for all they know, which was basically the exact same thing Anise explained to Logan: they had no idea who could be trusted, and the most secure course of action is to inform as few people as the plan needs to work. In this case that was probably 2, which is about as lucky as they’d ever get.

No need to share the plan rather the information of an imminent attack. The threat was serious enough that they have to use illusion to protect the Queen. If Anise informed Logan, or at least some contingent of the Shining Blade, the people will be well protected.

What would they have told him, exactly? ’Something’s going to happen’? ‘Someone, or something, might attack’? If he wasn’t already prepared as well as he could reasonably be for vague threats to the queen or attendees, he’d have no business dealing with security anyway.

That’s my point. Anise’s quality diminishes as well as Logan’s and the Queen’s characters. Anet made them incompetent just so they can proceed with the plan — big, big difference from who Anise and Logan was during the human personal story.

I have to echo some others here. I have never had cut scene issues before (some minimal bugs). I did not loose FPS, do not have latency issues, and do not have a mid or lower end PC. Yet there was a clear lip sync issue and I did see the floating gun, which was odd. There was some odd movement in the Queens arms as well if I remember correctly.

I just assumed they were bugs. Anything Is possible and it could be my system but I don’t think so.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

No need to share the plan rather the information of an imminent attack. The threat was serious enough that they have to use illusion to protect the Queen. If Anise informed Logan, or at least some contingent of the Shining Blade, the people will be well protected.

Why? How? There were Seraph present; there were Shining Blade present. The people weren’t all that well protected, as it turns out.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

That’s my point. Anise’s quality diminishes as well as Logan’s and the Queen’s characters. Anet made them incompetent just so they can proceed with the plan — big, big difference from who Anise and Logan was during the human personal story.

As I recall (at least) the commoner background had me decide which of two objectives to direct our main efforts toward – Seraph, at that – because it wasn’t feasible to deal with both effectively. In fact, that some random like me was even allowed to be involved in the kind of things I did in the personal story suggests they may not be overflowing with manpower. Hell, I saved a town just outside DR from centaurs, and then went to reinforce some fort where Logan himself had showed up to fight.

At least in the charr story I could justify it by putting the enemy’s proximity to the city down to their being ghosts who actually respawn lore-wise. That sounds legitimately problematic. As a human I was fighting off regular, mortal centaurs right outside my capital city. I mean they’re not like bandits or separatists who may simply sneak around because they’re also human, they’re horse-people who run around shouting about ‘two-legs’, so that they’ve gotten so close seems to indicate the intro cinematic wasn’t messing around in its description of the state of humanity.

So yeah, I think it’s not unreasonable for them to expect, in a world of teleporting evil sylvari and illusionary people, that it’s simply not viable to protect people to the extent you seem to want of them.

Well, regarding the story: someone (I think it was Colin) said that this update would knot the plot threads together from previous installments of the LS. And then we get a reassuring message from Bobby saying that even though we have shown you nothing, he’s certain that the villain will have some motives … in the future… sometime! Just you wait!

Only thing that was “revealed” is that Scarlet is behind all the attacks, and that she’s some kind of technical genius. It’s not quite what I was expecting from a storyline that was supposed to tie up the previous threads together.

Yeah, I love watching all those cut scenes over and over leading to the final battle with Scarlet…. NOT
because I can either use my pet and not kite her (pointless), or set my pet to friendly and lose it’s abilities entirely (pointless).

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.

That’s unfortunate, because I LOVE the painterly cuts.

I don’t hate the engine-drawn parts; but if y’all are gonna do those, at least make sure mouths move :P

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.

Actually, that caught my attention, too – but for a different reason – I chalked it up to her personality… kinda like those people who append “-ster” to everything. “The Frank-ster!” etc.

Traveller.7496:

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.

I think they have that at least somewhat covered already. They used to have 1 team for the LW stuff which means everything needs to be done within a month. They now have something like 4 teams which means that in the long run each month’s content will have more time to be tweaked and polished.

LameFox.6349:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

No need to share the plan rather the information of an imminent attack. The threat was serious enough that they have to use illusion to protect the Queen. If Anise informed Logan, or at least some contingent of the Shining Blade, the people will be well protected.

Why? How? There were Seraph present; there were Shining Blade present. The people weren’t all that well protected, as it turns out.

That’s because some critical information was withheld.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

That’s my point. Anise’s quality diminishes as well as Logan’s and the Queen’s characters. Anet made them incompetent just so they can proceed with the plan — big, big difference from who Anise and Logan was during the human personal story.

As I recall (at least) the commoner background had me decide which of two objectives to direct our main efforts toward – Seraph, at that – because it wasn’t feasible to deal with both effectively. In fact, that some random like me was even allowed to be involved in the kind of things I did in the personal story suggests they may not be overflowing with manpower. Hell, I saved a town just outside DR from centaurs, and then went to reinforce some fort where Logan himself had showed up to fight.

Even after you made your choice, he sent a small squad to assist the population while you deal with your main choice.

So yeah, I think it’s not unreasonable for them to expect, in a world of teleporting evil sylvari and illusionary people, that it’s simply not viable to protect people to the extent you seem to want of them.

That is not what I’m arguing about. Even if they fail to protect the people, at least show in the cinematic that they are not incompetent buffoons who doesn’t know what’s going on in the world. As I mentioned in my previous post, the quality of the characters are diminishing, especially the character of the Queen. In books and lore, she’s a very powerful Mesmer…yet incompetent? Something simply doesn’t add up.

It bothered me that the Queen was giving her speech to at most maybe 10 people.

Same as many people here:

a) Scarlet’s lips didn’t move.
b) She dissapeared and the gun stayed.
c) Jennah’s movements were not veyr fluid.

I, as well, have an above average setup: HD 6850, Phenom II x4 @3.4 and 8gb RAM. 3mbps connection.

Hope this help you guys

Same isseus as the guy above me and many others

My specs:
FX-6300 @4.1 Ghz
SSD
8Gb RAm
HD7790 1GB OC edition
60MB internet connection

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).

Yea compare million dollar games with months if not years to develop, whereas that cinematic had about 2 weeks of work in it to each other. The arty part with Lord Faren was beautiful and I’d like more of that. Powerful and to the point, no bugginess or glitchiness and fits the artstyle GW has going well.

bobby, isn’t it possible to pre-record those in-game cutscenes to avoid the framerate problems some people are having? i mean, that’s a band aid fix, but since you can’t use the player character for anything right now anyway, you might as well go with it.

Re the sub-commentary on Faren: I <3 the man. I was very worried my first time through the PS that he would turn out to be a villain, the one actually behind the bandits. I was very sad when he no longer existed after level 20.

He is my main character’s soul-mate. Watching him fall got a visceral NOOO response from me. I wish I hadn’t seen the achieve lists because I am all relaxed again.

Direksone.3867:

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).

Yea compare million dollar games with months if not years to develop, whereas that cinematic had about 2 weeks of work in it to each other. The arty part with Lord Faren was beautiful and I’d like more of that. Powerful and to the point, no bugginess or glitchiness and fits the artstyle GW has going well.

Guild Wars 2 is also a big budget game that had many years to develop, and most of the cutscenes in the personal story and dungeons are 2 people talking against an animated backdrop. As I said, MMORPGs aren’t going to invest heavily in things like cutscenes (which are help convey the narrative and story) because the opportunity cost of such investment is high – it takes away from other (more important) areas like refining gameplay, balance, and introducing new content. That Guild Wars 2 has very simple cutscenes is totally understandable.

I really liked the direction for the art at the end of it.

But, not the overall theme.

This game IMO is an ESRB E/T rating hybrid. Anet absolutely pushes the envelop on showing skin and gums down everything else with absolutely no infrequent use of strong language (that I know of). Like a PG rated script on a PG-13 rated picture.

It was suppose to be the queen falling to her death anyways so why was Lord Faren more serious about identifying parchment paper but not in rescuing the queen?

Lord Faren never gave less than 110% and will forever be remembered as a hero.

The flythrough cinematic was neat in its own way, but I too suffered the bug where Scarlet’s lips weren’t moving. At least I didn’t see the floating gun, however.

I do agree that the stylised artwork cutscenes at the end of Faren and Jennah were the best part, and ANet should consider doing more future cutscenes in this style.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

That’s because some critical information was withheld.

If you’re suggesting they could’ve been diverted from protecting the ‘queen’ to these other people had they known she was an illusion, consider that they didn’t actually succeed in protecting that one illusion. In fact when it came to actual combat many of them were outright annihilated.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Even after you made your choice, he sent a small squad to assist the population while you deal with your main choice.

I’m not seeing how that detracts from my point… especially considering they met with mixed success even given forewarning of the exact nature of the attack and target. In this case however nobody knew the nature of the attack, may or may not have been guessing at the most likely target, and could only have said (to the people who are supposed to be prepared for this regardless) that there may be some kind of attack. And given the incident at the pavilion earlier, I imagine they had their suspicions.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

That is not what I’m arguing about. Even if they fail to protect the people, at least show in the cinematic that they are not incompetent buffoons who doesn’t know what’s going on in the world. As I mentioned in my previous post, the quality of the characters are diminishing, especially the character of the Queen. In books and lore, she’s a very powerful Mesmer…yet incompetent? Something simply doesn’t add up.

It affects what you’re arguing about, because you take them as incompetent for not doing what’s being portrayed here as beyond their reasonable ability to do. From the following missions we get sent on to enable Vorpp to figure out those portals, it’s clear that even the means by which they arrived is not widely available information. Being powerful doesn’t necessarily help if you have no idea what exactly you’re responding to, nor does it mean you’re just going to know that automatically unless you’re incompetent.

Considering what little information they apparently had to work with at the time regarding Scarlet and whatever she wants, that they did actually succeed in protecting the queen from her is far from incompetence.

BobbyStein.2315:

We’re committed to releasing Living World updates every two weeks. As always, thanks for the feedback.

And I’m committed to not spending another dime on this game until you guys acknowledge that many of us do not want rapid-fire content shoved down our throats every two weeks.

Seriously, it is so frustrating to see you guys stubbornly clinging to this idea that nobody asked for in the first place while simultaneously sticking your fingers in your ears and humming loud enough so that you can continue to ignore the feedback from those of us who hate this kind of release schedule.

Slow it down.

minbariguy.7504:

BobbyStein.2315:

We’re committed to releasing Living World updates every two weeks. As always, thanks for the feedback.

And I’m committed to not spending another dime on this game until you guys acknowledge that many of us do not want rapid-fire content shoved down our throats every two weeks.

Seriously, it is so frustrating to see you guys stubbornly clinging to this idea that nobody asked for in the first place while simultaneously sticking your fingers in your ears and humming loud enough so that you can continue to ignore the feedback from those of us who hate this kind of release schedule.

Slow it down.

Can you link a source for this quantitative data suggesting that people don’t like these updates?

There’s been numerous threads on the Living Story Discussion forum as well as the General Discussion forum about players who feel stressed, burned out, exhausted etc. from the pace of the 2 week release schedule, as well as some players who feel that the rapid pace is also creating a higher incidence of bugs and glitches. I’m part of the former group.

The key here is not that we DISLIKE the updates. We’re all for new content. We just would like more time to digest it all, as far as the first group is concerned.

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.

Still, for the moment, she seems to be a completely generic Maniacal Evil Laugh type villain no 12673. I know, that this type is currently in vogue because everyone wants to copy Joker, but offhand Joker is the only villain of that type that was ever done right. At the moment it’s just very hard to treat Scarlet seriously – if she’s to be a more permanent villain (instead of being a monster of the week), then she really should not have been introduced that way.
The fact that she’s a villain sue, backed by some very cheap and overdone tricks (like those asuran colleges and “everyone knows of Scarlet”) doesn’t help.

If we got rid of the content per two weeks people will still be in uproar and will be wanting two week schedule back. Might as well stick to the plan since if you’re kitten ed if you do and kitten ed if you don’t, apparently.

BobbyStein.2315:

I don’t recall saying that everything would be tied up by August 20th. Can you refresh my memory?

Regarding stuff written by you, I was referring to this post about Scarlet’s motives:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/speech/Cutscene-opinions/page/2#post2672042

I didn’t say you said anything about the plotlines being tied up, but I do have a memory of one of you reds saying something about “plots starting to come together with this update”, but I can’t find the exact quote now.

I understand that the plot needs to develop slowly, but … I just feel it’s too slow and vague at the moment. We need foreshadowing, we need cliffhangers. At the end, have a cutscene where Scarlet meets this figure in shadows reporting in, saying she’s sorry for her failure and we instantly see a new facet of her persona. (I mean, she can’t be the main villain for the storyline, eh?)

Traveller.7496:

BobbyStein.2315:

I don’t recall saying that everything would be tied up by August 20th. Can you refresh my memory?

Regarding stuff written by you, I was referring to this post about Scarlet’s motives:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/speech/Cutscene-opinions/page/2#post2672042

I didn’t say you said anything about the plotlines being tied up, but I do have a memory of one of you reds saying something about “plots starting to come together with this update”, but I can’t find the exact quote now.

Well they are starting to come together since we see the Molten Alliance, Aetherblades and the new Put-Smarties-tubes-on-cats-legs-make-them-walk-like-a robots fighting together now. Still no idea why they are actually all fighting together but it is happening.

OT:

The in-game cutscene bugged out for the most part for me but the artsy cutscene was amazing as always. I really wish every cutscene was like that. Soooo pretty

My opinion on the cutscenes?

Add a skip button, please.

adamaknight.9237:

My opinion on the cutscenes?

Add a skip button, please.

Moar farming, must go back to farming….

Zaxares.5419:

There’s been numerous threads on the Living Story Discussion forum as well as the General Discussion forum about players who feel stressed, burned out, exhausted etc. from the pace of the 2 week release schedule, as well as some players who feel that the rapid pace is also creating a higher incidence of bugs and glitches. I’m part of the former group.

The key here is not that we DISLIKE the updates. We’re all for new content. We just would like more time to digest it all, as far as the first group is concerned.

This post is different from your original position which implied you had hard data that everyone hates “rapid” updates. They’re getting better almost every time too. Remember the Karka invasion and how no one really saw the invasion of LA because the servers exploded? The bugs are becoming less game breaking (e.g. the servers crashing) and more annoying (e.g. watchwork mini being vaporized).

So the practice is obviously helping them improve the content. And the only content that is repeatedly lame seems to be Southsun for whatever reason (original was plagued with problems and the Canach boss fight in the second was just weird and buggy…don’t know what they were thinking).

My cutscene was buggy too, too much freezing, not lips moving. I loved the cinematic one though, you need to do more of these.
I think in time you should develop a tool just to do cutscenes like the one Valve for Team Fortress to make your work easier and the outcome better.

Can we get some info about the Chinese trailer in game footage? Who edited them? They looked amazing! The movements and screenplay realy sucked me in.

BobbyStein.2315:

Traveller.7496:

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

For some, and not for others.

Regarding the story, it’s interesting how Scarlet can summon Steam Creatures, there are theories suggesting that she's from the same alternate reality as the steam creatures (Infinity Ball storyline) and that's why she can control portals and summon them (credit goes to WoodenPotatoes)

IMO that would be a huge payoff and kind of explain a bit of scarlet’s background and motives, I’d like to be able to be excited for more than just champion loot bags, but if I don’t even know what’s going on with the story it’s pretty hard.

I really like both the in-game scene mechanic and the artsy painted scene system. I thought they were combined extremely well in the Queen’s Speech and I’d be fine with seeing a mix of them in the future.

I had some glitches with the in-game scene but I still think it’s a good way to present the storyline. It’s more engaging and it offers a presentation method you can only do in a video game. I’m sure ArenaNet will work on smoothing things out and I’m looking forward to seeing more storylines with it.

BobbyStein.2315:

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

That is really great to hear. Motives are critical in making a memorable villain.

BobbyStein.2315:

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

Just kidding. (Or am I?)

Speedos: putting the “micro” into “microtransaction”.

LameFox.6349:

If you’re suggesting they could’ve been diverted from protecting the ‘queen’ to these other people had they known she was an illusion, consider that they didn’t actually succeed in protecting that one illusion. In fact when it came to actual combat many of them were outright annihilated.

If Anise is willing to create an illusion to protect the Queen, that same protection can be extended to all the attendees. In my personal story, Anise has displayed a very powerful ability where she can create multiple clones of herself. Given that she also have the talent to create an illusion of the Queen, she can easily create illusions of the guests since she knows fully that an attack is more than likely to happen. If she’s not sure, then why even bother creating an illusion of the Queen?

If the information was shared with Seraph or a small number of trustworthy personnel, they could’ve setup a trap or a better evacuation plan.

Like I said, information was not shared, strategies were not discussed, so poor people of DR died.

I’m not seeing how that detracts from my point… especially considering they met with mixed success even given forewarning of the exact nature of the attack and target. In this case however nobody knew the nature of the attack, may or may not have been guessing at the most likely target, and could only have said (to the people who are supposed to be prepared for this regardless) that there may be some kind of attack. And given the incident at the pavilion earlier, I imagine they had their suspicions.

Losing control of a watchknight during the opening ceremony should’ve shattered all suspicions and actions should have been taken to insure that no further watchknight can be controlled. If that cannot be insured, then they should have decommissioned all watchknights due to risk of losing control and endangering the public. Isn’t public safety should have been first and foremost?

But nothing happened between the opening and the closing ceremony except for the kakameme plan of creating an illusion of the Queen.

It affects what you’re arguing about, because you take them as incompetent for not doing what’s being portrayed here as beyond their reasonable ability to do.

Really? “beyond their reasonable ability?”

How hard is it to decommission all defected unsecured watchknights?

Instead, they’ve done nothing…just so they can create a tragedy.

From the following missions we get sent on to enable Vorpp to figure out those portals, it’s clear that even the means by which they arrived is not widely available information.

This is what I’m taking about. Why is this being done now and not right after the initial indication that the watchknights are at risk of being controlled by the enemy? This only shows that these NPCs are made incompetent so that there’s something for us to do.

Being powerful doesn’t necessarily help if you have no idea what exactly you’re responding to, nor does it mean you’re just going to know that automatically unless you’re incompetent.

There are several safety measures that could’ve been taken into action if the information was shared and the matter was fully investigated. One of the safety measure, as I mentioned already, is decommissioning all watchknight until further notice.

Considering what little information they apparently had to work with at the time regarding Scarlet and whatever she wants, that they did actually succeed in protecting the queen from her is far from incompetence.

Little the amount of information that might be, but they are important one. One thing we all know for sure is that the watchknights can be controlled by the enemy…start from that. Secure the watchknights or decommission it. Second, there is a security breach and vigilance needs to be elevated, it’s not like Scarlet didn’t made herself known before hand. If it’s an ambush, then it’s understandable, but they have enough time to make preparation and be vigilant.

If the bombs was pulled off like how Mai Trin pulled off her assassination plan, then I cannot fault DR’s finest about it since it was completely unexpected and they are completely unaware — but Scarlet made herself known and showed that she can control the watchknights and having nothing done between the opening and the closing ceremony shows that these NPCs are made to be incompetent just so we, the PCs, can act as heroes. Very poorly executed and not a very satisfying moment. There’s nothing heroic in putting people in danger just so you can play hero and save them…that’s just evil.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Losing control of a watchknight during the opening ceremony should’ve shattered all suspicions and actions should have been taken to insure that no further watchknight can be controlled. If that cannot be insured, then they should have decommissioned all watchknights due to risk of losing control and endangering the public. Isn’t public safety should have been first and foremost?

But nothing happened between the opening and the closing ceremony except for the kakameme plan of creating an illusion of the Queen.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing seems to be par for the course. See also: Kiel blowing up the Lionguard ship.