Guild Wars 2

They said that the one big mistake they made with GW1 was blowing up “home”. I know technically home in GW2 is your starting cities, but come on, they are useless ghost towns. Home is LA, and they just blew it up.

Makeshift LA sucks

Start using your culture’s home city. That’s what they’re there for.

Differently from GW1, LA can be restored/rebuilt (and probably will), now the entire Ascalon as we knew it (Pre-Searing) would be impossible to do so.

I find Divinity’s Reach much more accessible than LA. Two WPs are right beside each other and you can get to everything you need in that small radius. I’ve always used it.

And I care nothing about the Mystic Toilet. Kitten that stupid thing!

Nat.4029:

I find Divinity’s Reach much more accessible than LA. Two WPs are right beside each other and you can get to everything you need in that small radius. I’ve always used it.

And I care nothing about the Mystic Toilet. Kitten that stupid thing!

Ha. I, on the other hand, love the mystic toilet and its’ awesome ability to spit precursors at me like beads at mardi gras to a big set of DDDs hanging out for all the world to gaze upon for the cost of plastic pellets on a string.

Instead of AFK’ing and doing my thing in LA I’ll just use up a spot on my BL since it’s mostly empty most of the time anyway.

you do everything in WWW home map, unless its prime time, then you sit in que

As long as you stay way from Rata, although if you did come I am confident you would not be able to understand our superior way of locating areas. :P

The story about blowing up Ascalon in gw1 was a bit better than this to be honest.

I have used always Hoelbrak and only went for Mystic Forge dailys to LA, so i don’t see a problem for me

LR is not home for me, never has been, I did try but really didn’t get on there. Having a ghost town place to park, with almost all the amenities, has it’s advantages (like fast loading times).

Besides, they released a paid for airship pass to an area with all the amenities in one place, at the same time as they exploded the previous free main area with amenities. Seems legit.

Not a bad thing, not knocking it. If you want absolute convenience, then you have the option to pay, otherwise come to some of the real home cities. Some of us like it there and would welcome a few more visitors.

Sandpit.3467:

They said that the one big mistake they made with GW1 was blowing up “home”.

I don’t remember them saying that, but destroying Ascalon was one of the best narrative choices they made in GW1. If the writers viewed it as being the exact opposite, I would be really worried. Because it would mean that the writers were not able to recognize a good story decision when they saw one.

Destroying Ascalon raised the stakes, and gave the Searing impact on the player. The desolate feeling after leaving Pre-Sear was one of the most important moments of GW1, and it really left an impression.

Was destroying Lion’s Arch in GW2 a good story decision too? I believe it was, because it raises the stakes, and makes the racial cities more important now. I’m not sure if moving everything to the Vigil was a good decision though. Only a third of the players chose the Vigil for starters. Plus, it kind of ruins the opportunity of making the racial cities matter. I think they should have forced all players to simply go back to their racial capitals, and make that their new home.

Lalangamena.3694:

you do everything in WWW home map, unless its prime time, then you sit in que

Hey look, they found a way to get more people into WvWvW! lol

I tend to use Divinity’s Reach or Hoelbrak more anyways, the only time I cared about Lion’s Arch was when I pressed the PvP button to get a free ride back to a city.

The Grove was my favorite when I needed to do city business and didn’t want to deal with the lag, map chat, and running around. Its nice and spacious, everything is in close proximity, and its always empty

Quarrel Falls was my absolute favorite outpost in GW and where I would AFK, log out, or hang out when I was just chatting with alliance. The Grove is the closest thing to Quarrel Falls in the game.

Rata Sum has the absolute best layout for doing just about anything. I have all the races and they all call RS home.

Raine.1394:

Rata Sum has the absolute best layout for doing just about anything. I have all the races and they all call RS home.

I get lost in Rata Sum. I believe I got 100% completion on it once and never went back. Im sure its just a personal problem, but Rata Sum and the Deathstar in Black Citadel are horribly frustrating to find anything in.

thefantasticg.3984:

Nat.4029:

I find Divinity’s Reach much more accessible than LA. Two WPs are right beside each other and you can get to everything you need in that small radius. I’ve always used it.

And I care nothing about the Mystic Toilet. Kitten that stupid thing!

Ha. I, on the other hand, love the mystic toilet and its’ awesome ability to spit precursors at me like beads at mardi gras to a big set of DDDs hanging out for all the world to gaze upon for the cost of plastic pellets on a string.

Instead of AFK’ing and doing my thing in LA I’ll just use up a spot on my BL since it’s mostly empty most of the time anyway.

You heard it here first! The destruction of LA is another ploy to get players into WvW!

[/kidding aside]

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Sandpit.3467:

They said that the one big mistake they made with GW1 was blowing up “home”.

I don’t remember them saying that, but destroying Ascalon was one of the best narrative choices they made in GW1. If the writers viewed it as being the exact opposite, I would be really worried. Because it would mean that the writers were not able to recognize a good story decision when they saw one.

Destroying Ascalon raised the stakes, and gave the Searing impact on the player. The desolate feeling after leaving Pre-Sear was one of the most important moments of GW1, and it really left an impression.

Was destroying Lion’s Arch in GW2 a good story decision too? I believe it was, because it raises the stakes, and makes the racial cities more important now. I’m not sure if moving everything to the Vigil was a good decision though. Only a third of the players chose the Vigil for starters. Plus, it kind of ruins the opportunity of making the racial cities matter. I think they should have forced all players to simply go back to their racial capitals, and make that their new home.

+1

I never found myself saying, “Man, the Guild Wars story is amazing.” But it was a lot better than what GW2 has given us so far. I thought the Searing was well done. You start the game in such a beautiful land, then the Charr go nuts and blow it up. Very cool.

IndigoSundown.5419:

thefantasticg.3984:

Nat.4029:

I find Divinity’s Reach much more accessible than LA. Two WPs are right beside each other and you can get to everything you need in that small radius. I’ve always used it.

And I care nothing about the Mystic Toilet. Kitten that stupid thing!

Ha. I, on the other hand, love the mystic toilet and its’ awesome ability to spit precursors at me like beads at mardi gras to a big set of DDDs hanging out for all the world to gaze upon for the cost of plastic pellets on a string.

Instead of AFK’ing and doing my thing in LA I’ll just use up a spot on my BL since it’s mostly empty most of the time anyway.

You heard it here first! The destruction of LA is another ploy to get players into WvW!

[/kidding aside]

No no, it’s another ploy to make people buy gems. Haven’t you seen the gripes about the airship and how anet is so blatantly screwing over their players by not moving absolutely everything out of LA. I mean, it’s not like the siege was sudden or anything.

/sarcasm off

Sorry, got a little miffed there. chuckle

Anet’s biggest mistake is without a doubt LS… this added very little if ANY value/fun to the game for most players (most people did it for 1-2 days and just said i’m done with this).

Since the release of this game… they have put a LOT of effort into LS… it was a mistake imo and I hope they learn from it

They should Poll the playerbase if they want another year of LS updates or actual real content that you would normally find in an xpac… I can almost guarantee an overwhelming majority would rather have real content instead of this fake LS stuff that they wasted so much time and effort on.

Some of the stuff was good ( i enjoyed twisted and southsun) but over the year and a half of release, there has hardly been ANY real meaningful content update… just a lot of re hashing… and its painfully obvious that this LS stuff took away from the man power that anet has to work with…

If we get another year of LS… well, bye. I don’t enjoy this anymore and I would rather anet put their full efforts on giving us real content. not some laughable story line people do for 1-2 days than get back on the zerg train grind…

Fix the real issues please… enough with LS

IndigoSundown.5419:

thefantasticg.3984:

Nat.4029:

I find Divinity’s Reach much more accessible than LA. Two WPs are right beside each other and you can get to everything you need in that small radius. I’ve always used it.

And I care nothing about the Mystic Toilet. Kitten that stupid thing!

Ha. I, on the other hand, love the mystic toilet and its’ awesome ability to spit precursors at me like beads at mardi gras to a big set of DDDs hanging out for all the world to gaze upon for the cost of plastic pellets on a string.

Instead of AFK’ing and doing my thing in LA I’ll just use up a spot on my BL since it’s mostly empty most of the time anyway.

You heard it here first! The destruction of LA is another ploy to get players into WvW!

[/kidding aside]

Sure, it’ll get me in there but I won’t be participating in the WvW. I’ll just be taking up a spot on the map.

Raine.1394:

Rata Sum has the absolute best layout for doing just about anything. I have all the races and they all call RS home.

This. I’ve always hated Lion’s Arch, so I’m not sad to see it go. I’ll just do all of my stuff in RS like I always do.

Rynn.1324:

Raine.1394:

Rata Sum has the absolute best layout for doing just about anything. I have all the races and they all call RS home.

This. I’ve always hated Lion’s Arch, so I’m not sad to see it go. I’ll just do all of my stuff in RS like I always do.

Same.
You never know – when it comes to rebuilding, they might look to the Asura for inspiration (wishful thinking).

Sandpit.3467:

They said that the one big mistake they made with GW1 was blowing up “home”. I know technically home in GW2 is your starting cities, but come on, they are useless ghost towns. Home is LA, and they just blew it up.

Makeshift LA sucks

And another one, I guess. I’ve always considered Divinity’s Reach home. Much more convenient for crafting, much less overcrowded. With the occasional stop at LA for the Mystic Toilet. One has to relieve oneself from time to time.

LA has always felt more like a mall. I wouldn’t mind if the local mall was destroyed and rebuilt somewhere else, completely different. It’s just a kittenn’ mall.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I’m not sure if moving everything to the Vigil was a good decision though. Only a third of the players chose the Vigil for starters. Plus, it kind of ruins the opportunity of making the racial cities matter. I think they should have forced all players to simply go back to their racial capitals, and make that their new home.

Think it’s more of a lore reason, pure and simple. The Vigil Keep is a fortress and if I had to chose where to wait for impending doom between the Priory, Chantry and Vigil Keep for safety, I think it’s a no brainer.

thefantasticg.3984:

IndigoSundown.5419:

thefantasticg.3984:

Nat.4029:

I find Divinity’s Reach much more accessible than LA. Two WPs are right beside each other and you can get to everything you need in that small radius. I’ve always used it.

And I care nothing about the Mystic Toilet. Kitten that stupid thing!

Ha. I, on the other hand, love the mystic toilet and its’ awesome ability to spit precursors at me like beads at mardi gras to a big set of DDDs hanging out for all the world to gaze upon for the cost of plastic pellets on a string.

Instead of AFK’ing and doing my thing in LA I’ll just use up a spot on my BL since it’s mostly empty most of the time anyway.

You heard it here first! The destruction of LA is another ploy to get players into WvW!

[/kidding aside]

Sure, it’ll get me in there but I won’t be participating in the WvW. I’ll just be taking up a spot on the map.

Regardless of whether or not anyone actually does anything there, they will most likely use this as PR.

“Our WvW population has tripled in the last month!!”.

Expect the headlines.

“Careful for what we ask for or we just might get it comes to mind” Players wanted permanent change in the world and we got in a grand scale now. LA will never be the same again. We will need another flood to get more ships stuck up in the air again to replace the once that are now ash rofl!!!

If you want forge, go to WvWvW Home BL. For everything else, you can do it at Rata Sum. Or head to Vigil area

Sandpit.3467:

They said that the one big mistake they made with GW1 was blowing up “home”. I know technically home in GW2 is your starting cities, but come on, they are useless ghost towns. Home is LA, and they just blew it up.

Makeshift LA sucks

Uhh … you really think that blowing up Lion’s Arch tops the list of mistakes ANet has made with GW2?

I didn’t like that LA was destroyed. But, it was. Can’t be undone. My issue is the manner.

Who did it. Frankly, Scarlet isn’t worthy, her thousands of improbable minions and outlandish devices not worthy.

How it was done. Fait Accompli by video. Presented a stone cold fact and told to deal with the aftermath.

How shallow it is. Just today, I hear comments about deliveries from LA. A Lionguard telling a couple Ladies all about LA and how he could take them there. A villager saying she wants to move to LA to “be safe” A heart NPC within sight of the south refugees telling me to watch for artifacts showing up in LA. It is all over, text, chat, dialog. All over, the world is by and large unconcerned/unaffected by this “world changing event”. That is the single biggest complaint I have. The world consequences are barely addressed, the changes made only on a limited local level.

People have said “No game has ever done what ANET has in blowing up a major hub”. Well, perhaps the reason they are the first is the massive amount of rewrites that SHOULD be done to make an event like that believable world wide. They solved that by just not doing it. I, personally, think that oversight makes this “world changing” event a failure.. because it hasn’t changed the bulk of the world at all.

LA will be back. Count on it.

Their biggest mistake was messing with the HotW armor set

Zaxares.5419:

LA will be back. Count on it.

We’ll probably take it back in two weeks.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

How shallow it is. Just today, I hear comments about deliveries from LA. A Lionguard telling a couple Ladies all about LA and how he could take them there. A villager saying she wants to move to LA to “be safe” A heart NPC within sight of the south refugees telling me to watch for artifacts showing up in LA. It is all over, text, chat, dialog. All over, the world is by and large unconcerned/unaffected by this “world changing event”.

This is standard in all mmo’s, ever, that add content progressively. Not because it’s a good thing, but because it’s a necessary thing. You can’t remake the entire game world with every content patch.

I just tell myself it’s kind of like time travel- we are playing out a role at different points in the timeline. Not everything has to be contemporaneous.

aspirine.6852:

The story about blowing up Ascalon in gw1 was a bit better than this to be honest.

Really? I’m not sure I remember it being better. A single cauldron the size of an easy chair shoots out enough giant crystals to destroy an entire city and the surrounding area? Breech the wall? Provided by the titan (who I thought were locked behind the door of Komalie at that point anyway).

The stuff two years later was pretty good, but the actually destruction of Ascalon compared to the destruction of LA? I’m not even sure how you’d begin to compare it.

Standing around in the Ascalon outpost didn’t make me feel like I was in the middle of a war zone.

Thats the point.They destroy “home town” so that other towns dont be anymore “ghost towns”.I wanted this to happen since i started GW2 and im glad it did happen.I hope they never restore LA or there whould be no point of this LS at all,also i dont like LA :P

Nat.4029:

I find Divinity’s Reach much more accessible than LA. Two WPs are right beside each other and you can get to everything you need in that small radius. I’ve always used it.

And I care nothing about the Mystic Toilet. Kitten that stupid thing!

I couldn’t get into the Laurel trader/repair area in DR, there was a force field/barrier blocking my path? What I am I missing as I would like to use that place as my new hub.

Rhyse.8179:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

How shallow it is. Just today, I hear comments about deliveries from LA. A Lionguard telling a couple Ladies all about LA and how he could take them there. A villager saying she wants to move to LA to “be safe” A heart NPC within sight of the south refugees telling me to watch for artifacts showing up in LA. It is all over, text, chat, dialog. All over, the world is by and large unconcerned/unaffected by this “world changing event”.

This is standard in all mmo’s, ever, that add content progressively. Not because it’s a good thing, but because it’s a necessary thing. You can’t remake the entire game world with every content patch.

I just tell myself it’s kind of like time travel- we are playing out a role at different points in the timeline. Not everything has to be contemporaneous.

Disagree. In most MMOs the dialog/text remains because the Quests/Tasks/Surrounding of those NPCs also remains. The 10 rats are still there. Bob the rat butcher is still there. No disconnection. Bob isn’t telling you he is shipping the rats to a town that doesn’t exist anymore. It is more localized. It is more problematic in GW2 because they built a gamewide NPC trading infrastructure dedicated to LA.. the Havens, Lionguards patrolling trade routes, LA as center of commerce. Have not seen that kind of system deeply entrenched in a game ever. In most games it is “I’m a Guard, guarding, um, this place”, here it was “I’m a guard, protecting trade to Lions Arch”.. and it is a recurring theme. In most games trade is an unseen “given” mostly, here it was an established system of routes and “Havens” with the sole purpose of providing the trade infrastructure feeling. And very well done, too well done to be left disconnected and no longer relevant.

When they built the game they took the time to make the connections. Text could have been “thank you for making the road safe, player” and that would have been fine. Instead it is “thank you for making the roads safer, Lions Arch needs these supplies”. It was a nice touch, tying the world together.

And fyi, when Sony remade Freeport and then Qeynos a couple years back, all of the flavor text alluding to the suburbs changed to reflect them being closed areas. Text and flavor dialog was changed to reflect the improvements/changes to the cities as well.

Nothing remains in Everquest2 of the old system of feeding citizens into the 2 main cities through the racial suburbs, no text, no flavor, no old quest dialog, and since those suburbs were removed as open player housing zones, that is how it should be. No “current tense” references to something that no longer exists.

That is how it should be done, for continuity, connections, immersion and Lore.

In my opinion.

Im all for blowing up LA, they could have at least put crafters in Vigil Keep.

Paffus Piffus.9430:

Nat.4029:

I find Divinity’s Reach much more accessible than LA. Two WPs are right beside each other and you can get to everything you need in that small radius. I’ve always used it.

And I care nothing about the Mystic Toilet. Kitten that stupid thing!

I couldn’t get into the Laurel trader/repair area in DR, there was a force field/barrier blocking my path? What I am I missing as I would like to use that place as my new hub.

That area is behind a pay wall.

Darkoray.4570:

Im all for blowing up LA, they could have at least put crafters in Vigil Keep.

Or put the mystic forge into every captial city.

Cactus.2710:

Uhh … you really think that blowing up Lion’s Arch tops the list of mistakes ANet has made with GW2?

I think the targeting system, and removal of the trinity are far bigger mistakes. From a story point of view though, their worst mistake was having Kormir take credit for your victory, and repeating the same mistake with Trahearne and Destiny’s Edge.

If there is one thing that will make the players hate a particular group of characters the fastest, it’s to have every other npc in the game constantly remark on how great Destiny’s Edge is.