Guild Wars 2

i have a question, why do dredge have russian like names..?
“Volkov” (trans: wolven)
or “Vladok” (nickname for Vlad)
and many more..
i am really confused, like was it a joke from anet? or what was the idea behind the names, cause i can clearly say russians are playing GW2 and it can hurt someones feelings.

i am russian but i dont find this offensive much as for me, but there are other dudes here..

From the wiki: ‘The history and culture of the dredge seem to be based largely off that of the Soviet Union. Many aspects of the Soviet Union are referenced, usually for the purposes of mole-based puns, such as the “Moleteriat” in reference to the Dredge leadership.’

Why not? I mean, Norn have scandinavian names. Also the Dredges have a communistic government system like the old Sovjet Union.

pessimist.7294:

Why not? I mean, Norn have scandinavian names. Also the Dredges have a communistic government system like the old Sovjet Union.

but norn are cool! strong and awesome!,
drege are slaves, who are ugly and weak, who seek for power but fail all the time, and they are easy enslaved, the inquest take them over.

Are you kidding, Dredge are OP. And also my favorite race in the game, lol. They must be some of the strongest enemies especially in groups, blindness immunity and all those boons make them tanky as hell.

Dresge are very smart too. They have built all tha machinery.

The Dredge storyline follows the Russian revolution early 20th century. In guild wars 1, the dredge were an enslaved race, mining ore for the Stone Summit dwarves. After the dwarf “exodus”, the dredge claimed indepence, and formed a socialist community. But like the USSR, some dredge take power. In guild wars 2 the dredge formed a dictatorship, in which some factions realize their enslavement, and ask the players help to fight the oppressing generals to reclaim freedom once again.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Are you kidding, Dredge are OP. And also my favorite race in the game, lol. They must be some of the strongest enemies especially in groups, blindness immunity and all those boons make them tanky as hell.

^This

There is a reason why people hate the dredge mine fractal and always skip it if its the first one they get -.-

well, you might be right, still seems wierd to me, cause i hate dredge.. they are annoying.

It’s called artistic influences.

You will find influences and references to all manner of real life things in all books, games, music, movies and TV shows.

Every idea in all of those above mediums, can be traced back to real life. Even science fiction/space/alien life forms are influenced by ideas before them.

Man wonders about space -> wonders if other life forms exist -> another man writes a fictional book about that mans idea -> another man writes a movie based on the book. Etc etc.

Knights, sword fights, capturing castles, that was all apart of history, and it is used in the basis of billions of artistic creations worldwide. Should anyone be offended because it references a time their ancestors were probably apart of? No, that’s ridiculous.

You should be proud that a huge moment in history is used as an influence for the evolution of a persons fictional creation.

As soon as a bunch of “easily-insulted-for-literally-no-reason-so-I’m-going-to-kick-up-a-fuss-and-have-you-all-punished” illogical type people get involved, you end up with a situation like Cantha.

Cantha was a continent in Tyria heavily influenced by many Asian cultures, to create a beautiful and epic FICTIONAL place. The writing team and art teams created an incredibly beautiful landscape. Jeremy Soule’s music was perfect as well.

The problem that arose is some “people” (if you can call them people, I call them monsters or racists) kicked up a fuss because this fictional landscape with a fictional story, inside a fictional video game world, has some influences from not only their culture, but other cultures too. These “people” were upset about what I can only presume they saw as some kind of “cultural mash-up”, and got upset about it. Why? Who knows, the inner workings of some peoples minds cannot be explained.

And now we have no Cantha in GW2, not now, and probably not ever. It may as well be stricken from the lore.

No one has any logical reason, or even any remotely reasonable reason, to be upset about the artistic masterpiece that was Cantha. This is what happens when people get upset at the influences chosen in an artwork. It makes NO SENSE.

And now we all have to suffer for it because the company caved in to these “people”.

No one should ever be upset or insulted by real life influences in art. Unless it is distasteful etc.

You should be proud.

Well… It’s kinda shifty, especially at this time when “russians are occupying something”. The reference for USSR isn’t right, because all these names aren’t from ussr, they are russian; ussr was multi-culture in it’s administration. That one was bothering me too, especially the fact, that dredge = blind workers under ground, moles, with russian names isn’t really all that political-correct.

But I’m from eastern Europe and I know, that I don’t get “all other artistic” approaches out there, so I’m not interfering. Although, I would like to believe that dredges are all about art and cultural references, not a message or position of somekind from anet side.

Living in the “modern” Russia, I found that I liked the “USSR” dredge a lot. Not because I approved of the USSR system, but because dredge’s lore goes beyond politics and instead turns out to be ironically creative.

“Greatly inspired”, “blind thus immune to blindness”, “plays gong” – all those things are hilarious, yet my all time favourite is Dostoev Sky Peak

As for being “politically correct”… I don’t think that people who could find it offensive (primarily the elder generation who lived in USSR) will ever step foot into GW2 in the first place, and those who’re here already are generally flexible enough to put fiction and real world apart.

Sometime i think we simply have too much political correctness these days.

I’m german and i can still laugh about all kind of Hitler Jokes and really like Chaplins “The great dictator” for example. So why should people in modern Russia not maybe laugh about some Jokes about their history .. even if that history was maybe not really that funny. Butter better laugh about it than repeat it.