Guild Wars 2

Wonderfull… just wonderfull. That istance is amazing. This mission is the truly incarnation of the gw2 community. Ready to aid the others. Generous with those who need. Friendly and joyfull ^^. Those trials are just a welcome to Aurene into our community. And i love it. Gg anet ;D

Mines bugged and Aurene isn’t attacking one of the ooze generators….

Edit: Had to exit the game and redo it. Working now.

That’s too is gw2 a little buggy here and there but stilo amazing

I loved this instance, and the follow-up where you can play catch with her.

Why you no attack generataaaaaarggggh….. Dies from Ooze outbreak

Acnologia.6934:

Wonderfull… just wonderfull. That istance is amazing. This mission is the truly incarnation of the gw2 community. Ready to aid the others. Generous with those who need. Friendly and joyfull ^^. Those trials are just a welcome to Aurene into our community. And i love it. Gg anet ;D

I honestly fully disliked it. And I use dislike because I didn’t want to use hate – but I feel i lean more towards that.
It’s really immersion breaking and really doesn’t fit the tone of what they’re setting up at all.
I find it hard to accept the fact that we’re facing daunting odds and a difficult fight ahead when I’m playing train the puppy with the world’s most anime dragon.
It doesn’t fit -at least for me.

I would honestly like to see less of this nonsense in the future.

What’s immersion breaking about it?

We want to make sure Aurene is on our side as she grows up and the best way to do that is to spend time with her and teach her our values. That’s what persuaded Glint to side with the Forgotten and Dwarves and later the humans – getting to know them.

It’d make a lot less sense if she hatched and we completely ignored her until she could be useful to us and yet somehow she was still totally loyal to us.

I feel it is too “light hearted”. We could have had the same sequence done in a different theme.

Instead of “look I’m training this puppy” it would have been more like “look I’m fighting alongside this fearsome creature and through that we will create an unbreakable bond of trust and respect and become fierce allies”.

I fully agree we need to shape the way the small dragon sees the world if we are to have it fight on our side.
I disagree with the way it was handled.

It’s supposed to be a powerful being of great power – and it is portrayed in game like a puppy or some other cuddly creature.
That’s sad and immersion breaking for me.

I personally enjoyed it.

The light hearted, witty, tongue in cheek tone of GW2 story is what gives it its charm and appeal for me (for example the asura personal storyline).

I like having missions like this in amongst the usual “end of the world” stuff.

She’s at most a few months old, maybe even just a few weeks (I’m not sure exactly how long there is between story chapters in lore as the only date given is the year).

A lot of animals start out seeming more silly and playful. The contrast between the adult dragons we’ve seen and Aurene reminds me of the difference between one of the big cats (lions, tigers, jaguars etc.) and their cubs.

The cubs look small and cute and fluffy and they spend a lot of time rolling around, attempting to pounce on things and falling over, making absurd squeaky noises when they try to roar, chewing their parents tails and all kinds of other undignified things you’d never expect from a majestic big cat.

And yet doing all of that is vitally important for them to grow up into one of those majestic big cats (and completely realistic). Play is how young animals (including humans) learn and they have to enjoy it or they wouldn’t do it.

Also we fundamentally don’t want Aurene to only know how to fight, or to only associate us with violence. We saw from the moment she hatched that she instinctively knows how to fight (although she doesn’t seem to have full control of her magic yet), we don’t need to teach her that. We do need to teach her that there are alternatives to fighting and that there are many problems which cannot and should not be solved through violence.

It’s obvious from the training we did with her that Anet (and therefore players and the Exalted) are not shying away from taking her into combat – even at this age. But we are teaching her the difference between things you attack and things you speak with, heal and defend.

I enjoyed it. I didn’t feel it broke with immersion. I wondered if women would like it more than men… maybe I am being a tad sexist in thinking women would like it because it felt nurturing.

Danikat.8537:

She’s at most a few months old, maybe even just a few weeks (I’m not sure exactly how long there is between story chapters in lore as the only date given is the year).

A lot of animals start out seeming more silly and playful. The contrast between the adult dragons we’ve seen and Aurene reminds me of the difference between one of the big cats (lions, tigers, jaguars etc.) and their cubs.

The cubs look small and cute and fluffy and they spend a lot of time rolling around, attempting to pounce on things and falling over, making absurd squeaky noises when they try to roar, chewing their parents tails and all kinds of other undignified things you’d never expect from a majestic big cat.

And yet doing all of that is vitally important for them to grow up into one of those majestic big cats (and completely realistic). Play is how young animals (including humans) learn and they have to enjoy it or they wouldn’t do it.

Also we fundamentally don’t want Aurene to only know how to fight, or to only associate us with violence. We saw from the moment she hatched that she instinctively knows how to fight (although she doesn’t seem to have full control of her magic yet), we don’t need to teach her that. We do need to teach her that there are alternatives to fighting and that there are many problems which cannot and should not be solved through violence.

It’s obvious from the training we did with her that Anet (and therefore players and the Exalted) are not shying away from taking her into combat – even at this age. But we are teaching her the difference between things you attack and things you speak with, heal and defend.

That’s not wrong – the tone of it was just off for me.
I don’t disagree that teaching it a wide pallet of experiences is correct – i’m just saying the way it happened felt silly.
I think Anet doesn’t really understand what demographic they want to cater to.

Sometimes this game tries to be serious and dark – other times it feels like a saturday morning cartoon.

Pick a tune – stick with it.
There are times for fun and games and tongue-in-cheek moments – GW1 had those. But they seem be seriously poorly place in GW2.

Ophidia Moonstone.2587:

I enjoyed it. I didn’t feel it broke with immersion. I wondered if women would like it more than men… maybe I am being a tad sexist in thinking women would like it because it felt nurturing.

I think that would be a fair assumption to make – why would it be sexist?
Biologically women are inclined more towards things that make cute noises, have big eyes and look the way the dragon works.
That trait is there because women are the ones that take care of young humans early after they are born and for a good time after that.
It’s a form of biological conditioning created to ensure that young humans have the best chances in life.
All mammals do this in fact.

Harper.4173:

I feel it is too “light hearted”. We could have had the same sequence done in a different theme.

Instead of “look I’m training this puppy” it would have been more like “look I’m fighting alongside this fearsome creature and through that we will create an unbreakable bond of trust and respect and become fierce allies”.

I fully agree we need to shape the way the small dragon sees the world if we are to have it fight on our side.
I disagree with the way it was handled.

It’s supposed to be a powerful being of great power – and it is portrayed in game like a puppy or some other cuddly creature.
That’s sad and immersion breaking for me.

shes a BABY. shes not a fearsome creature, shes an overgrown scaley kitten.

Ophidia Moonstone.2587:

I enjoyed it. I didn’t feel it broke with immersion. I wondered if women would like it more than men… maybe I am being a tad sexist in thinking women would like it because it felt nurturing.

Perhaps, although I’m male and enjoyed it.

More trials… I felt like it was just a rehash of the trials we already did in Tarir, it was boring, predictable and unoriginal.

I liked the story of it, though playing it was a little bit boring. All in all, everything can’t be fight fight fight all the time. I am okay with this instance. Good story.

Felahr.9830:

Harper.4173:

I feel it is too “light hearted”. We could have had the same sequence done in a different theme.

Instead of “look I’m training this puppy” it would have been more like “look I’m fighting alongside this fearsome creature and through that we will create an unbreakable bond of trust and respect and become fierce allies”.

I fully agree we need to shape the way the small dragon sees the world if we are to have it fight on our side.
I disagree with the way it was handled.

It’s supposed to be a powerful being of great power – and it is portrayed in game like a puppy or some other cuddly creature.
That’s sad and immersion breaking for me.

shes a BABY. shes not a fearsome creature, shes an overgrown scaley kitten.

And this is a problem. It is a baby dragon.
It is not a baby cat, not a baby dog, or a baby mammal.
A dragon is a lizard-like creature – do you know what baby lizards look like? They look like adult lizards only smaller.

That’s what I’m saying – the design was wrong from the get-go.
It’s supposed to be a dragon – not a plushie. It breaks immersion for me when I’m told it’s a dragon but looks like something I’d get with a Happy Meal from McDonald’s.

They’ve made it too much like a dog (puppy) and too little like a dragon.
It looks like a mammal and behaves like one too. It doesn’t feel dragon-like at all.

Harper.4173:

Felahr.9830:

Harper.4173:

I feel it is too “light hearted”. We could have had the same sequence done in a different theme.

Instead of “look I’m training this puppy” it would have been more like “look I’m fighting alongside this fearsome creature and through that we will create an unbreakable bond of trust and respect and become fierce allies”.

I fully agree we need to shape the way the small dragon sees the world if we are to have it fight on our side.
I disagree with the way it was handled.

It’s supposed to be a powerful being of great power – and it is portrayed in game like a puppy or some other cuddly creature.
That’s sad and immersion breaking for me.

shes a BABY. shes not a fearsome creature, shes an overgrown scaley kitten.

And this is a problem. It is a baby dragon.
It is not a baby cat, not a baby dog, or a baby mammal.
A dragon is a lizard-like creature – do you know what baby lizards look like? They look like adult lizards only smaller.

That’s what I’m saying – the design was wrong from the get-go.
It’s supposed to be a dragon – not a plushie. It breaks immersion for me when I’m told it’s a dragon but looks like something I’d get with a Happy Meal from McDonald’s.

They’ve made it too much like a dog (puppy) and too little like a dragon.
It looks like a mammal and behaves like one too. It doesn’t feel dragon-like at all.

But a Dragon is not real.
Dragons can be what the creator desires them to be and she could look completely different later on.
And in regards to “they look like lizards only smaller”: The eyes are still bigger, the proportions are off.

In regards to her behavior.
Again, it’s not a real creature.
You don’t even know how the elder Dragons behavior was when they were younger.
I mean, sorry, but Mordremoth could have been a nerdy idiot for all we know.

You’re not getting me – of course dragons are not real.
That doesn’t mean that the well-established ideas of what a dragon is and isn’t can go right out the window. Of course there is variation – but it has to fall within a certain range to maintain the suspension of disbelief.

Your argument that they aren’t real doesn’t mean that you can have a cat with dragon wings tacked on running around and you can suddenly call it “a dragon”. It doesn’t work like that.

Just because it isn’t real in OUR universe doesn’t mean it can defy fantasy conventions. The classic archetype of dragon does not appear or behave the way this one does. By calling this creature a dragon you create expectations which are not met by the creature itself.
They could have called it something else and had it be something else.
It might be a wonderful “pokemon” for example but the way it is constructed it does not make a good dragon.

The ooze spam wrecked me hard, everything else was good.

Aurene is certainly challenged…

Harper.4173:

You’re not getting me – of course dragons are not real.
That doesn’t mean that the well-established ideas of what a dragon is and isn’t can go right out the window. Of course there is variation – but it has to fall within a certain range to maintain the suspension of disbelief.

Your argument that they aren’t real doesn’t mean that you can have a cat with dragon wings tacked on running around and you can suddenly call it “a dragon”. It doesn’t work like that.

Just because it isn’t real in OUR universe doesn’t mean it can defy fantasy conventions. The classic archetype of dragon does not appear or behave the way this one does. By calling this creature a dragon you create expectations which are not met by the creature itself.
They could have called it something else and had it be something else.
It might be a wonderful “pokemon” for example but the way it is constructed it does not make a good dragon.

Gw2’s dragon is also a sentient primordial force predating the existence of human gods so that makes it an Eldritch monster more than anything else, in that we can’t really decipher it in terms of any conventions we know about. On one hand, this gives the authors the freedom to do whatever they want, but on the other hand, you’re right I was expecting the baby dragon to show more menace as befitting its lineage. Giving it cutesy mammalian traits cheapens it and makes it lose its air of mystery as an ancient force of nature. Sure you could argue this is just how it appears as a baby, but give it some dignity d*mn it. An eldritch monster shouldn’t be producing normal cute babies that you can train like a puppy. Where’s the subtle show of a hidden killer instinct? At the very least make it look vicious when it starts attacking!