Guild Wars 2

My main character is a ranger who wields the Dreamer and is currently wearing the Holographic Shattered Dragon Wings. (Make of that what you will.)

Since the latest patch I’ve noticed some changes with these items. The wings are hidden by default (and cannot be turned back on) in certain areas, like Toypocalypse and the Wintersday jumping puzzle. And the Dreamer seems to make the screaming horse noise much less frequently, especially when other people are around.

Has anyone else noticed this, or similar effects with other items? Does anyone know if it’s a bug, or is it a deliberate attempt to make items some players find annoying a bit less annoying?

I’m not complaining at all. I love how my character looks but I’m well aware some people don’t like these things, and I will sometimes do things like turn the wings off (and hide my mini pet) if I’m in a dungeon or something. I’m just genuinely curious about whether this is a deliberate change.

I love you Danikat, you’re one of my forum favorites, but if they reduced the Dreamer sound, that’s a real blessing to my ears.

I’m one of them who dislike what Guild Wars 2 turned into appearance wise for players.

Overly glowing aura infusions, obnoxiously large glitter wings and anime haircolour. The last one not so much like the others.

It just becomes far too much, it clutters the game screen and the overall theme of the game gets destroyed, making it look like a free-to-play cashgrab Korean game.

But I have to give ArenaNet credit for their latest addition of aura infusions and backpacks. They have been small but good looking, and even the Koda’s Blessing infusion is cool to me because how much more subtle it is compared to the other infusions.

I really, really do hope ArenaNet continues down that road instead, instead of this obnoxious lighthouse one.

Back items being hidden in Toypocolypse is probably due to a technical reason. But in the jumping puzzle it’s to prevent large back skins like giant wings from obstructing the view of other players, and it would be distracting to hear “your grawl impressions is really coming along” all the time because a bunch of players would get the idea to use that back item just to be annoying.

It does seem like they toned down the frequency of voices and sound effects in the game. I noticed in Bloodstone Fen and Ember Bay that my character hardly ever lets out a scream anymore. It used to be about every 15 minutes or so (at least it seemed that frequent). Not I can run around the map for 3 hours and only heard my character scream 2 or 3 times. We had at least 1 thread on the forums, maybe 2, where players complained the screaming was so often it became annoying. The thing is, you can actually hear other player’s characters scream, not just your own. It was fun at first but I admit, it did get old after a while.

I’m assuming they must have toned down the frequency for the Job-O-Tron back skin also. Players had complained about it since it was first released, because you can hear other player’s back items talking. I bought the back skin the day it was first released and didn’t use it for long myself, because I found it got annoying real fast.

I also noticed my my -R-Tron gathering tools from the gem shop don’t talk as much as they use to. I stopped using those after a while because they got annoying. I started using them again recently and that’s when I noticed the change.

As for The Dreamer: I have seen it happen a bunch of times where a player with it would stand around a bunch of other players and use the bow skills constantly for a while, obviously to annoy everyone around them. I think there may have been at least some complaints on the forums about the sound effect.

So yes. It seems ArenaNet is trying to make the game less obnoxious, based on player feedback. Personally I think it’s a good thing.

I have mixed feelings about reduced effects. On the one hand, sometimes it’s hard to see anything at all of the other wonderful details in a fight (or hanging out idly in DR during Wintersday). On the other, I already play my asura characters less because some of the weapons/armor/effects are too understated to see; I also want bigger/more.

I don’t envy ANet’s task of trying to balance all that, while keeping the game options manageable for us and for their programming team.

I’d like to be able to disable all non-skill sprites and effects, including those from legendaries.

I like seeing what people have chosen to make their character look like and to play the game on maxed settings. I shouldn’t be having to battle the wardrobe team to determine what’s happening when fighting an opponent or group of opponents or seeing my framerate drop solely because they’re cloaked in excessive graphical effects.

A big artistic appeal to me when looking at the game for the first time was the nature of armor having a rather rustic and honest look to it. Pretty much since the advent of gliders, it’s gotten almost sickeningly close to the nightclub-level of effects most eastern games coat on their character models.

So I take it no one else has noticed this then? Other than backpacks being hidden in the Jumping Puzzle?

Endless Soul.5178:

I love you Danikat, you’re one of my forum favorites, but if they reduced the Dreamer sound, that’s a real blessing to my ears.

As I said I’m not complaining. The sound is my least favourite part of the weapon. (It doesn’t bother me as much as some people, but based on comments about other sound effects I suspect I have my sound a lot lower than most people, which maybe helps.)

It used to be better, it sounded more like a horse neighing, but then they changed it so it’s more high-pitched and until recently would often play over itself instead of waiting until one sound had finished to start another. The end result was more like a horse screaming.

I couldn’t tell. I play with pretty much all the sound off apart from environment, sound effects and UI. All of it at low volume settings. (Dialogue goes on when I’m doing a story for the first time.)

If there was a checkbox to turn all those huge wings and whatnot off on my screen ( so not on yours) id check it right away. Immersion breaking stuff to me.

Guild Wars has sound?

GW2 isn’t about gameplay anymore since it’s all mediocre at best. It’s about how loud your character looks. Fashion Wars2