Guild Wars 2

Why does almost every wild animal in this game attack you as if they are some blood crazed beast? Not only does it make travelling around the world tedious, fighting more things than you really need / want to, or else kiting long trains of wild animals behind you. But it also makes no sense. Bears, lynxes, wolves, panthers, bats, scorpions, spiders, fish etc, these are generally not aggressive creatures in reality, they are mostly afraid of people and will avoid them, only fighting if threatened or cornered.

Yes I know this is a fantasy game and giant aggressive wild animals are a staple, but they are also a huge huge cliche. There are all manner of aggressive fantasy mobs to keep the game world dangerous and challenging – grawl, dredge, centaurs, ogres, trolls, elementals, undead etc. You don’t NEED to have the wildlife attacking as well. It’s just unimaginative and creatively barren to do so and it makes the game world tedious to navigate. Please consider making all wild animals neutral unless attacked.

I disagree. I don’t really see any reason to change this. ANet has decided to populate the world with not only fantastic creatures — Grawl, Dredge, etc. — but with wild beasts, as well. And while in our world these creatures may be afraid of us, that does not have to be the case in a game.

I do not know how live is in the peaceful place you come from. But in my world bears, lynxes, wolves, panthers, scorpions, spiders, moose, mothers in law, etc rip you a new one if you come into their range.

That is one of the reasons everybody, including you in your OP, calls them wild animals.

tzko.2370:

I do not know how live is in the peaceful place you come from. But in my world bears, lynxes, wolves, panthers, scorpions, spiders, moose, mothers in law, etc rip you a new one if you come into their range.

That is one of the reasons everybody, including you in your OP, calls them wild animals.

Yes of course they will defend their young, their den, their nest et, this is usually why wild animals attack humans. But with the exception of the odd rogue beast they don’t usually attack to eat you or for no good reason. They also don’t usually just stand around in the open in broad daylight waiting to pounce on passers by. In many cases you’ll be hard pressed to actually spot a wolf, a bear, a stag, a boar etc because they will smell you coming a mile off and slink away into the undergrowth.

I’ve got no issues with fighting giant spiders in caves, having to beat off a pack of wolves or bears if I go into their den etc etc. My issue is with moving around in the open and having to constantly kite wild animals that have been placed randomly around the landscape to fill the map up, often on the roads and even directly outside of towns and settlements.

Cernow.3974:

tzko.2370:

I do not know how live is in the peaceful place you come from. But in my world bears, lynxes, wolves, panthers, scorpions, spiders, moose, mothers in law, etc rip you a new one if you come into their range.

That is one of the reasons everybody, including you in your OP, calls them wild animals.

Yes of course they will defend their young, their den, their nest et, this is usually why wild animals attack humans. But with the exception of the odd rogue beast they don’t usually attack to eat you or for no good reason. They also don’t usually just stand around in the open in broad daylight waiting to pounce on passers by. In many cases you’ll be hard pressed to actually spot a wolf, a bear, a stag, a boar etc because they will smell you coming a mile off and slink away into the undergrowth.

I’ve got no issues with fighting giant spiders in caves, having to beat off a pack of wolves or bears if I go into their den etc etc. My issue is with moving around in the open and having to constantly kite wild animals that have been placed randomly around the landscape to fill the map up, often on the roads and even directly outside of towns and settlements.

Try to think that those animals are hunting and daydreaming travelers and unlucky heroes are their usual prey.

Cernow.3974:

Yes of course they will defend their young, their den, their nest et, this is usually why wild animals attack humans. But with the exception of the odd rogue beast they don’t usually attack to eat you or for no good reason. They also don’t usually just stand around in the open in broad daylight waiting to pounce on passers by. In many cases you’ll be hard pressed to actually spot a wolf, a bear, a stag, a boar etc because they will smell you coming a mile off and slink away into the undergrowth.

I’ve got no issues with fighting giant spiders in caves, having to beat off a pack of wolves or bears if I go into their den etc etc. My issue is with moving around in the open and having to constantly kite wild animals that have been placed randomly around the landscape to fill the map up, often on the roads and even directly outside of towns and settlements.

See, the main problem is that you are trying to shunt real world logic off onto a game that, very obviously, operates differently. It doesn’t make for a feasible argument.

If you have reasons as to how the game would be improved in changing the behaviours of these NPCs, share them and let them stand on their own. Please refrain from using your current train of reasoning to justify those changes, though.

If you want to travel safely, follow a road.

Cinder.4865:

See, the main problem is that you are trying to shunt real world logic off onto a game that, very obviously, operates differently. It doesn’t make for a feasible argument.

If you have reasons as to how the game would be improved in changing the behaviours of these NPCs, share them and let them stand on their own. Please refrain from using your current train of reasoning to justify those changes, though.

My reasoning is no less valid than the saying “its a game, it doesn’t have to obey any rules”. Games are always a balance between fantasy and reality. A game that mirrors reality too closely will likely be dull. So games break a lot of real world rules in order to be fun. But a game world needs to be believable too if the player is to feel immersed in it.

Of course, immersion means different things to different people. I find it immersion breaking to cross the landscape getting pounced on by every wild animal that sees me. So for me the game would be improved by altering the behaviour of these mobs, because I don’t want to fight them and I get irritated by having to kite them all over the place. Personally I’d prefer to be bashing up trolls, centaur and undead than bears, bats and bugs. But I accept that most players probably just don’t care and just see them as another source of xps.