Guild Wars 2

While I have come to really enjoy Guild Wars 2 and the new way of playing through quests and exploring an open world, there are some things that I still find lacking. One such thing is the atmosphere.

So what is the problem?
- I don’t know whether any of you have worked with 3D programs before, however, I am currently working with the open source software called Blender, but it is more as a hobby to me (I’m toying with the Game Engine and it’s quite fun, actually)
- Another Blender user and 3D artist Martin Upitis has created some very impressive work in Blender, and he explains how he believes that a game cannot rely on all the advanced texturing alone to be appealing, but rather the atmosphere.
- He has created a game using nothing but a testgrid as the texture for a track and then made a desert wasteland. He used a material to kind of color the desert to look like sand and he also uses programming to make, like, a sun that has a glow effect and other such effects to improve the ambiance, but anyhow all this lead me to saying that the game looked appealing and had a great atmosphere. (In about five days I think it was, he had conjured up this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTDOEVudDDw)

- If you’ve ever played WoW, you might’ve encountered areas that had a certain atmosphere, really distinct when compared to some of the areas in Guild Wars 2.
I’m thinking about Duskwood in particular, where the look, the sound and the music really supports the mood.

- I’ve made a thread before about the music in Guild Wars 2, and while it is amazing and suits a lot of different moods and atmospheres, it is, sadly, not used to its full potential.

- I hope the dev team takes these words into consideration to improve on their game, because it is great but can, of course, become even better.

Feedback is, as always, welcome and feel free to post some of your pictures of areas that you might’ve found to set an atmosphere and that might’ve really made an impact on you.
- I know I’ve seen some beautiful sights in the game.

Sinifair.1026:

While I have come to really enjoy Guild Wars 2 and the new way of playing through quests and exploring an open world, there are some things that I still find lacking. One such thing is the atmosphere.

So what is the problem?
- I don’t know whether any of you have worked with 3D programs before, however, I am currently working with the open source software called Blender, but it is more as a hobby to me (I’m toying with the Game Engine and it’s quite fun, actually)
- Another Blender user and 3D artist Martin Upitis has created some very impressive work in Blender, and he explains how he believes that a game cannot rely on all the advanced texturing alone to be appealing, but rather the atmosphere.
- He has created a game using nothing but a testgrid as the texture for a track and then made a desert wasteland. He used a material to kind of color the desert to look like sand and he also uses programming to make, like, a sun that has a glow effect and other such effects to improve the ambiance, but anyhow all this lead me to saying that the game looked appealing and had a great atmosphere. (In about five days I think it was, he had conjured up this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTDOEVudDDw)

- If you’ve ever played WoW, you might’ve encountered areas that had a certain atmosphere, really distinct when compared to some of the areas in Guild Wars 2.
I’m thinking about Duskwood in particular, where the look, the sound and the music really supports the mood.

- I’ve made a thread before about the music in Guild Wars 2, and while it is amazing and suits a lot of different moods and atmospheres, it is, sadly, not used to its full potential.

- I hope the dev team takes these words into consideration to improve on their game, because it is great but can, of course, become even better.

Feedback is, as always, welcome and feel free to post some of your pictures of areas that you might’ve found to set an atmosphere and that might’ve really made an impact on you.
- I know I’ve seen some beautiful sights in the game.

I think a big part of the problem here is that most of the music (if I remember correctly) or atleast some of it was directly ported over from GW1. I remember playing GW1 and the music for the most part seemed right atmosphere wise. That is until you got into combat and just like here then you LOSE that immersion of the area you are in and it just becomes the same old boring combat music (which I REALLY wish they would give us an option to turn off).

As for here when I do have the music on (which is not often because of that dang combat music once you fight 3+ mobs) it just does not seem right. Maybe because I was too used to that particular piece of music (when the GW1 music plays) from GW1 being in certain areas there I’m not sure but again it just does not seem right.

Also I remember playing in the Norn area and hearing that “classical” piece of music for the first time and it just didn’t seem to fit for me. Sure it was a nice change from the others but as I said it just did not seem right. Then again maybe this is the reason I want a quaggin for my huge Norn warrior……

Music does set the tone for the mood and atmosphere for the game, and I experience the same “missing” feeling playing this game. Usually I will turn music off and play some of my own mix. Soundtracks from Troy or 300 usually sets the mood rather well for me. Assassins Creed 3 has some of the best in-game music I have heard to date.

GW2 does not have zone specific music or night/day themes. Having harvested several GIG’s worth of WoW music, I can safely say that no game will beat it unless they do the same. Every zone (almost) had its own unique music, 1-4 day themes and 1-4 night themes, as well as special themes for zone quests or events/areas of note. GW2 has good music, but there isn’t nearly enough of it and it’s spread around too much. :?

Arale.4207:

GW2 does not have zone specific music or night/day themes. Having harvested several GIG’s worth of WoW music, I can safely say that no game will beat it unless they do the same. Every zone (almost) had its own unique music, 1-4 day themes and 1-4 night themes, as well as special themes for zone quests or events/areas of note. GW2 has good music, but there isn’t nearly enough of it and it’s spread around too much. :?

Yup also from memory there was 1 or 2 pieces of the GW1 music that suited the areas perfectly because the zones were really dark. Also the GW1 game just seemed alot more darker than GW2 so again when I hear that particular piece of music it just does not fit.

GW1 had darker music and since GW2 is a how do I put it less darker game than GW1 perhaps the music should do more to reflect that. I’m going to turn the music on again and try and see if they are for certain areas and such so I can give better feedback here, if only they would let us turn off that annoying combat music tho!