Guild Wars 2

Okie… Anyone have any ideas regarding the return of Cantha? =)
This thread has being going on for a while and I’m interested to know…

Thanks!

chemiclord.3978:

Fluffball.8307:

Pretty sure it’s exactly the opposite. As I understand it, Anet wanted to add Cantha and NCSOFT said no because they thought the fans wouldn’t want it. So if you want Cantha, continue letting people know you do.

It’s not that NCSoft felt that fans didn’t want it, but that Asian markets would find the Canthan style offensive (which may or may not be true). Arena.net was told they pretty much had to start over.

Rebuilding a continent from the ground up (bear in mind, it might not be JUST the buildings. Sprites could need remodeling, mobs might need to be completely redone). Think of how long it took to develop GW2 from start to release. You could be talking about a similar amount of time invested to redo Cantha.

Which is why I suspect we will see Elona or the Far North before Cantha this time around.

I just find it kind of funny that NCsoft only urged them about the potential for Cantha to be “offensive” to the Eastern market now rather than, you know, before they started working on Guild Wars: Factions. Nothing about that argument really adds up to me.

I do, however, agree on seeing other continents being implemented before Cantha since it seems to be such a hush-hush topic with ANet (though, that may be more indication that they’re actually working on Cantha since they tend to shush up when they’re making content).

It wasn’t the mere presence of Asian content that would have been offensive. It was the juxtaposition against other cultures, such as in the prototype Divinity’s Reach. Consumers in their Asian markets would have been disgusted at seeing their culture “dirtied” by being muddled with Western and African elements.

Keep in mind that racism is still pretty well tolerated in most of Asia.

The irony, of course, is that GW2 isn’t even out in any Asian markets.

To be honest, I’m Asian but I don’t find that offensive.

To be honest, I don’t see why the Asian market wouldn’t feel honoured that a game had a huge part of its world inspired by Asian themes, in addition to Western and African. You’d think they would feel discriminated if “their” culture was the only one left out…

Some idiot in NCSoft corporate needs to get the sack for this stupid decision that Cantha (district in DR) couldn’t be in from the start…

Please bring back Cantha! <333 I miss Factions so much, it would be awesome to see the place updated and brought back into GW2.

Gulesave.5073:

It wasn’t the mere presence of Asian content that would have been offensive. It was the juxtaposition against other cultures, such as in the prototype Divinity’s Reach. Consumers in their Asian markets would have been disgusted at seeing their culture “dirtied” by being muddled with Western and African elements.

Keep in mind that racism is still pretty well tolerated in most of Asia.

The irony, of course, is that GW2 isn’t even out in any Asian markets.

Wow, I can’t believe this comment was (approximately) correct. I had to listen to the podcast where this was all explained to see exactly what was said, because though I’ve read the wiki comments regarding the great collapse area, I never really understood the explanation. I’m hugely disappointed in the choice to listen to those voices. GW2 mucked about with Scandinavian culture pretty intensely in its re-interpretation through the dwarves and Norn, but somehow this confusion/blending of European cultures and fantasy is different because…?

Dondarrion.2748:

To be honest, I don’t see why the Asian market wouldn’t feel honoured that a game had a huge part of its world inspired by Asian themes, in addition to Western and African. You’d think they would feel discriminated if “their” culture was the only one left out…

Yeah, I’m not sure about feeling “honored” about getting pretty basic representation in western fiction, but fear of offense seems like a very flimsy reason to keep the game so white-washed. The Tyrian continent pulls from European cultures for inspiration. We’ve at the least got Scandanavian architecture/culture with the Shiverpeaks/Norn, and some medieval-ish England+France (?) with old Ascalon/Divinity’s Reach. The real-world cultures have not been translated to fantasy faithfully — nor should they be. Games as the ultimate self-aware melting pot is a beautiful concept to me. This is probably the difference between where we commenters are coming from vs the feedback the developers got: We want more diversity, we want it blended, mismatched, rearranged or however we can get it, while the feedback was concerned about cultural preservation/purity. I would think that, as an increasingly global community, we’d be interested in MORE varied representation in fantasy, not less. I would think that, versus a film like Lost in Translation with a setting in a real place, explicit fantasy is the place to blur our preconceived notions of cultural and national lines as a message of how arbitrary the distinctions we place between us can be.

I just remember playing the Factions and Nightfall expansions and feeling like they were strong stories in their own right. There were varied types of cities in each culture, varying factions and complexity. Nothing was simple. It was never “aw, look at this backwards continent, so inferior to Tyria…” it was like “wow, look at how all of our problems are connected or paralleled, how our choices ripple, how people and nations adapt and thrive under different circumstances”. I was overjoyed that the casts were ethnically diverse with little to no comment on the matter (except the Kurzick vs Luxon cultural clash which was a major part of gameplay. Genius).

I can see how a fantasy interpretation of your culture being shoved off onto another continent/part of the game might seem “othering” but wasn’t that part of the point of originally having quarters dedicated to diversity in Divinity’s Reach? I love that. The idea that nothing truly stays separate, even when the continent tries to wall itself off. We know some Canthan refugees call Tyria their home — so where are the trappings of their culture? Did they not bring/build anything? Was their homeland really so meaningless to them that they don’t try to share it with their Tyrian neighbors? I don’t think so. This is why it truly bothers me that the Canthan section was removed from Divinity’s Reach.

Basically: I loathe the removal of influence from African and Asian culture from the game. I understand if developers need some extra time to flesh Cantha and Elona’s stories out in the time gap between GW1 and GW2 but I don’t see how the complete exclusion of their people and cultural trappings is anything but harmful in the long run, especially in the context of Divinity’s Reach and its immigrant lore. I’m hoping the Zephyrites bring us to Cantha as we help them try to make Glint whole again, or that the Asura tunnels take us there. I’m hoping fear of offending doesn’t keep us from even attempting a more diverse Tyria.

When GW2 is out in China, the prospects of Cantha coming into life will also (hopefully?) increase once they start posting about Cantha on their forums

Ohhh I just loved the Cathan theme back in GW1, It was sooo pure awesome and beautiful.. I really loved Factions expansion.
I’d LOVE to spend my days and hours of playing in those other unreleased regions..
I wish that they would bring back Cathan and Elona..
I mean, after all those regions of Cathan and Elona are a part in the game. I don’t really see the point why they should not bring those contents back.

I’d also love to see the 4th cancelled expansion set, Utopia in GW2 along with ‘Factions and Nightfall’ aka Cathan and Elona..

I am still hoping for the expansions to get released..

I’d most certainly like to see Cantha and Elona as well. Factions was my favorite guild wars expansion by and far. This game feels somewhat empty in a way without it’s presence.

I know I posted in this before but I’ll post on this topic again I would like to see the return of Cantha with some new asian hairstyle and a possible remake of this music from GW1

Why, what is this not doing on the front page?

Hi guys, this is my first post here, and I’d like to chip in to say that just about anything Cantha related would make me shell out cash like an ATM. Seriously. I’d buy armour, weapons, an expac, ANYTHING, in a heartbeat, cost be kitten ed.

It’s free money ANET, don’t overlook it.

Dondarrion.2748:

To be honest, I don’t see why the Asian market wouldn’t feel honoured that a game had a huge part of its world inspired by Asian themes, in addition to Western and African. You’d think they would feel discriminated if “their” culture was the only one left out…

You sorely underestimate how prideful Asians can be and how nationalistic, racist, and prejudiced they can be.

Also keep in mind the way Cantha is ultimately portrayed: a Japanese-style monastery island, a massive megalopolis that has a tiny, well-developed district with the rest of the city being mile-high slums (remember: Kowloon was a thing and Cantha’s slums are very well-influenced by it, down to the gangs running the streets), and wilderness with two non-Asian groups tussling for control of resources: the Greco-Roman Luxons and the Germanic Kurzicks. And it’s known that eventually these two factions are unified under Kisu’s rule, which means Cantha isn’t even pure Asian anymore!

Of course, the only people who find this offensive are the old farts who’ll belly-up in the next 10 or 20 years…

Here’s to Cantha and Elona in 2014!

FirebrandFrog.7603:

You sorely underestimate how prideful Asians can be and how nationalistic, racist, and prejudiced they can be.

Also keep in mind the way Cantha is ultimately portrayed: a Japanese-style monastery island, a massive megalopolis that has a tiny, well-developed district with the rest of the city being mile-high slums (remember: Kowloon was a thing and Cantha’s slums are very well-influenced by it, down to the gangs running the streets), and wilderness with two non-Asian groups tussling for control of resources: the Greco-Roman Luxons and the Germanic Kurzicks. And it’s known that eventually these two factions are unified under Kisu’s rule, which means Cantha isn’t even pure Asian anymore!

Of course, the only people who find this offensive are the old farts who’ll belly-up in the next 10 or 20 years…

I agree – there’s the pride and prejudice which can be infringed upon. But of course, it’s a fantasy world in a game in which one region has inspiration drawn from an amalgation of cultures in the eastern part of our world – not an exact copy of either Japanese, Chinese, etc. cultures. Of course, I can only shake my head at how it’s difficult to understand these people finding this offensive, but it’s probably difficult to get around that.

Prepare

/15 Canthan Manuscripts

Shiro is back and riding a Elder dragon like it’s a pet!

We got Charr as an angry looking cat race. Why not cute bamboo chewing panda race for asian theme.

We’ll meet ninja quaggans in Cantha; Doooonatelloooo, Leooonardoooo, Michelangelooooo and Raphael (he’s an adopted quaggan hence the ooo-unfriendly name).

That Shiro concept art is from gw1, antara? Would be nice if he was somehow introduced into the mix again too…

LUXON!

That’s all I wanted to say:D

Hey I haven’t played Guild Wars 1 but I am realy interested in the rest of the world outside Tyria that Guild Wars has to offer. I have red a lot of great things about Cantha in this thread and would love to see it.
The problem of not having Asura, Charr, Norn and Sylvari living in Cantha doesn’t have to be a problem With Zaithan dead after the final story mission -and being dead in the current cursed shore (at least that is what the wiki tells)- the strait of Malchor can be cleared of risen and opening the way to travel to Canta.

As explained this can be a way to get to Cantha.
About not creating certain areas like the Blood Citadel because the lack of the other races not living in the area I think is not a good Argument.
I would like to see such diversity I would love to create a Charr Blood Legion soldier and be able to start in the Blood Citadel. This adds for me as a Charr the feeling of really honoring my own legion in their targets instead of working in the Black Citadel. As Iron Legion I am Proud of the Citadel and I would like to have Blood Legion Warrior some time and him being able to be proud about the Blood Citadel and his work for the Imperator.

Or discovering minor cities of Asura surving underground and for norn you could think of the same idea with people still living in the Far Shiver Peaks bringing the news that the spirit of Owl (altough stated dead), Ox, Wolverin and Eagle are still alive.

The biggest problem will probably be connecting these new starting zones with the current low level zones.

This I my vision on some of the things being discussed her and I really hope Cantha and Elona will become available very soon.

I see NPC saying Cantha is impossible to travel because they have a Civil Wars right now, and the travel is very dangerous.

Piscore.6934:

I see NPC saying Cantha is impossible to travel because they have a Civil Wars right now, and the travel is very dangerous.

So we send in Pact representitives who will try and settle peace between the warring Factions and have Cantha join in the Pact. Could be a great storyline especially if you add some of the things I red about Cantha having tough gangs (something else than Logan’s bandits) and all the other lore.

Just posting here that I really want the Canthan district back.

Divinity’s Reach was meant to be the last bastion in Tyria for humanity to truly unite against the dangers in the world. It represented all the good things of humanity; this is why Ascalonians, Elonians and Krytans all have their own districts. The refugees of different parts of humanity helped build Divinity’s Reach so not seeing even a single thing Canthan-inspired makes the city feel that much emptier for me; it’s just not complete without the Canthan district. Cantha has been a big part of Guild Wars and Divinity’s Reach was meant to show that and the multi-culturalism of humanity. I want the bright red and gold colours of Kaineng strewn about in their very own district man.

If the western audience can deal with a mish-mash of western themes and architecture in practically every game in existence then I don’t see why the eastern audience don’t just step it up.

If it’s true that NCsoft is kitten about having their culture misrepresented a little, then once again, I am ashamed to be Korean. I think any culture that feels it has a monopoly on its aesthetics in this day and age is backwards and selfish and downright elitist.

I’ve refused to make a human character to this day because when I play human, I want to play something closer to me, and it’s downright impossible to make a character who looks more than 25% Asian. It’s kind of sad that a Korean-owned company is preventing Koreans and other Asians from feeling like a part of the world they desperately want to inhabit.

First post here but I would like to add my voice or vote towards bringing back Cantha. It was the location that first got me I to Guild Wars and all during my time playing the original games I was proud of being ‘Canthan’. Even now in Guild Wars 2 in my mind my main toon is of Canthan descent.
The potential is huge, whether it be a living world event with Canthan refugees appearing on krytan shores, the Asura finding a lost gate to Cantha, the dredge tunnelling their way to the Canthan mainland, or a cry of help to the vigil to aid them fighting a dragon.
The obvious choice for a new race would be the Tengu. Whilst the assassin has become the thief I think the ritualist or some form of it could still have a place in Guild Wars 2.
Give us Canthan weapons and armour, bring back dragon festival and Canthan new year, introduce them all through the living world month by month. I would happily pay to return to Cantha and I am sure many others would too. Well like I said there is so much potential, I really don’t mind how it would be introduced just please bring back Cantha.

Angel McCoy just posted in the lore forums saying that she too would like to see the return of Cantha:

Cantha has been shut off from the rest of the world for a very long time. Marjory’s parents and grandparents were all born and raised in Kryta, not Cantha. She is of mixed heritage as well. Just as in today’s world, we find men of Chinese ancestry named Kevin or Joshua, so Tyria has also become more of a melting pot. We will get more into Marjory’s history in the future.
But I hear you and everyone else who is hungry for some Canthan story to come back into the game. You’ll have to be patient. It won’t happen for awhile, but never say never.

Glad to see this is still going very strong, and that the demand is as high as ever for Cantha to return. I’ve been feeling sort of depressed lately with the game because we’ve not really seen the world open up much since the lost islands were found, and even then we’ve just sort of left it there and aren’t seeing it grow or change much. So at this point I’m hungry for just about ANY new region to open in GW2, and of course Cantha is still at the top of my list. I’m glad to see Angel McCoy said something about it, hopefully devs continue to join in the discussion.

So… We can have Cantha “expansion” this year can we we can have have? Pretty please? And a lvl-cap +10~20 along the way.. x) If we can have, I promise to clean your boot with my new Shiny Quaggan Cleaner.. :P

- TJ

^— I wouldn’t bet on an expansion this year, if they opened up Cantha there would be a mass exodus of the playerbase from Tyria to Cantha which would make the empty Tyrian maps even emptier. Which does really present an issue :S

Too bad we can’t merge some of the NA/EU servers together as the world gets bigger.

Cantha is the reason that I fell in love with the first game. If this became an expansion I would be a very happy person.

Aikiko Kuwahari.5362:

So… We can have Cantha “expansion” this year can we we can have have? Pretty please? And a lvl-cap +10~20 along the way.. x) If we can have, I promise to clean your boot with my new Shiny Quaggan Cleaner.. :P

- TJ

Yes to the expansion, no to the level cap.

if they make the maps so that everyone is on 1 map or make a main worldmap for all the servers and if it is full, than the next server will be maked, like a overflow but, than for all the servers so the maps are not so empty. Because everyone who is in that map can see people on other servers without guasting, but the server you have picked is your wvw group. here a idea to solve your “empty” maps.

Stay on the Tyria Map, but make The Dominion of Winds as Cantha-esque as possible. Including its own Soundtrack (Im looking at you, “Tengu-Wall”) and new artworks. (The tree houses in Southsun look fapantly like cantha-content including kappa-skins)

We need an expansion. Even a die hard like me is getting tired of the same content. The living story is all well and good, BUT there has to be some things added that stay. I don’t mean a few cosmetic changes here and there. I mean a new map or a new city. I see no reason why the Zephyr Sanctum had to be completely removed. They could have removed the Airship and left the rest of the city as someplace to explore. The sad part of this all is that we want something more to do.

I know its not easy if half the population Buys one expansion and the other half doesn’t but at the rate we are going there might not be any of us left by the time the expansion finally comes.

Don’t worry, once the game starts to sink faster than the titanic, they will release cantha in a last ditch effort.

WTB EXPANSION [URGENT!!]

I really hope nc soft and a-net decide to bring an expansion that would be so awesome and it would help bring back more players and as long as the x-pac had a good amount of living story ready to delve out it would keep everyone entertained for a while so please at least consider

Those days when you could wander around Beta experiencing a new world for the first time then rushrushrush to hit level 80 and get rich upon game release. It is difficult to keep MMO players that like to explore happy forever but I feel like I experience most new content from LS within a day or two before waiting for the next LS – where a whole expansion could be so much more to explore and take considerably longer (of course there are what 20 LS events in a year? So altogether there is a lot to explore but not at once). Bringing out an expansion would really help in getting the adventurous types out of the LA trading post and into the wilds and having fun again.

BUT —- I think it would be really fascinating to have a multi-update living story where you actually travel zone-by-zone to Cantha or through Elona (travel by ship or something a map at a time fighting critters n pirates etc?) and at the end you reach Cantha and releases piece by piece in an neat unfolding story arc which will remain unlocked for all future players to access.

If this makes sense – you could use LS as the trip/adventure to explore new lands and fight off hordes or monsters to unlock new maps like Cantha. Players not there during the event would be able to go to and explore Cantha or wherever but would only have missed out on the initial journey – similar to the conquest of southsun cove. Let those active players experience a journey across the ocean of Tyria via LS like in Sea of Sorrows or across the deserts of Elona like Turai and fighting back Palawa Joko.

Exploration is the most fun/satisfying aspect of an MMO to me – I loved Aion and GW1 and games like WoW, Flyff, TSW, Star Wars and etc because its a whole new world to explore and neat artwork (and music – most these games have incredible music what happened to GW2s music?!?!?) and to me Cantha has always had the neated style of artwork/music to my tastes – truly miss this region from GW1 and would love to see some epic journey to return there someday.

This post is 37 pages long and I’m not about to sit here and read all 37 pages.

That being said, Cantha and Elona.. the idea of them never coming back to the game was always in the back of my head, but it grows to be an bigger thought more and more as time goes on. One argument that I’m about 90% sure was stated by Colin in an interview with MattVisual supports both sides of the idea; The plan on opening up more of the world. That could mean Cantha or Elona, or that could mean the Ring of Fire, Crystal Desert, Blood Legion homelands or more of Maguuma Jungle.

I have hope that one day Cantha will be reachable again. I started my journey in Cantha back in the later years of GW1 before I had ever even heard of GW2. Cantha, for me, is a big part of my GW gaming history. If we never get to go back.. that won’t stop me from playing, but as a fan I know I’ll be extremely disappointed. I consider my main now a descendant of my main from back then. He’s also a part of The Priory. If I were in his shoes, I’d probably be spending my time trying to find a way back over there.

We all know that when the expansion is finally announced and the date is set for release, that along with it will be some more lands to go to, I’m hoping Cantha is a part of that.

What’s this? The Cantha thread is NOT on the front page as a constant, pressing reminder to the developers?

A large influx of BEES oughta put a stop to that!

I don’t know why ANET would cater to the elitist and xenophobic voices of the populace who don’t want their culture “sullied” by other cultures. And this is coming from an asian dude. I’d like to see Cantha and Elona come back. Stop trying to cater to xenophobes.

=D I do hope April brings us
a) Dominion of Winds
b) Cantha reconnaissance

Sure wish we could be celebrating Canthan New Year in GW2 this week.

That is all.

thehipone.6812:

Sure wish we could be celebrating Canthan New Year in GW2 this week.

That is all.

Omg, that’s right it’s Canthan New Year in GW1 right now, isn’kitten Must run off to Shing Jea….

Too bad we don’t have Canthan New Year in GW2. That travesty must be corrected.

Look how many responses to this thread Anet. Common sense is common sense.

Nick.6972:

Why is everyone under assumption that Canthan people are doing bad and their Emperor is “evil”? They could have advanced more than Tyria under the isolation, back in GW1 Kaineng architecture was already more advanced than the Tyrian one.

I’m all for wiping Char, Asura, Silvari and Norn. #fortheemperor

The Emperor protects! Wait, wrong game.

It would just be like the real world then. Us westies are sitting around still thinking we’re the top of the world whilst the Asians create Gundams and whatever not.

It’s been a while since I threw my support in here, but I figured I would toss my number into the pot again. I know there’s a lot of bureaucracy behind why there is no Cantha (or might never be again) I just hope Anet and NCSoft can see past that and allow the beautiful work of art that is Cantha to return. Rework it to be the least offensive to all parties involved, I don’t think many of us would mind that. I mean after all, it’s been several hundred years and they’ve been in total isolation. They could change anything they wanted at this point. Just please if you do, leave some hints here and there or architecture from the old Cantha, kind of how you did with Ascalon. Don’t let Cantha fade into history. it’s still there…we know it is still there. Don’t make the mistake of turning your back on it.

Cantha Cantha Cantha!!! I want to go explore the rest of Tyria now!