Guild Wars 2

@McFly: You raise a fair point. I was looking at it from the point of view of having the skins unlocked, not the stats. Would you have the same objection of it was just for looks?

Eviscera.9703:

If you don’t like the wings, don’t use them. It’s simple as that.

^This. Some of you act as if you are forced to get skins.

More wings would ruin the already ruined immersion in this game not to mention they look awful. If anything they should design visible accessories. You wouldn’t be able to see Anton’s secret though.. he kept it hidden…

http://londonbuffalowings.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/buffalo-wings-2.jpg

Chaialyna.1023:

@McFly: You raise a fair point. I was looking at it from the point of view of having the skins unlocked, not the stats. Would you have the same objection of it was just for looks?

IF it were simply skins being unlocked, I wouldn’t have many objections really. However, it would have the unfortunate consequence of getting rid of a huge money sink for ANET in a game whose currency is already heavily inflated.

Obsidian.1328:

This game has way too many ridiculous skins, I can’t walk 10 feet without some immersion-killing backpiece or weapon in my face.

All they really need are guild capes.

yea! and some flying dragons we can customize and add a school you must attend for a week if you just joined the game! and make you start off as a little kid and add cars and bank robbing and stuff!

^

I have no idea what you meant there but rofl’d anyway. =D

panzer.6034:

Mesket.5728:

for the love of good taste and immersion…

Ugh. I really wish “immersion” was a censored word that got “kittened” out.

Why?

panzer.6034:

Ugh. I really wish “immersion” was a censored word that got “kittened” out.

Immersion is probably my least favorite word ever in an MMO. People use the term “immersion breaking” as a crutch for things they dislike.

Not to step on anyone’s toes here but I am genuinely curios- why do people have such a thing for wings?
I mean it is not like we can fly.
Personally I have the shattered wings on my Mesmer but I hid them after about 30 seconds because the flapping drove me nuts.
I see people with wings everywhere I go and it just puzzles me to no end

I absolutely want to see wings with feathers. T3 cultural human armors on guardians + sunrise + that wings = angel witch will be very cool, something like red demon wings will be awesome too, i like and want more backpieces, no matter what are they (wings, quivers, books act. )

Capes first !

15 charzz

going out on a limb here.

Wings look awful. I was so excited to get the teq wings for my asura necro… got them, and realized I looked like a pokemon or something. When I really sat there and took the wings on and off, I Realized I hated them and they look ridiculous. I actually never liked them on anyone elses toon and never used them on any other but for some reason thought it would be cool on my asura. IMO wings just look weird. All the other backpacks I like though.

Now if you want a real backpack, they need one exclusive for norn and charr. I want…. an asura, as my backpack.

yes

I would love new/more wings in the game. Capes would be cool too, but I vote for wings first.

Would rather have would be vigilantes running around instead of fairy pansies.

Obsidian.1328:

panzer.6034:

Mesket.5728:

for the love of good taste and immersion…

Ugh. I really wish “immersion” was a censored word that got “kittened” out.

Why?

Because the term is consistently thrown around in a pretentious and hackneyed attempt to give some objective sounding validation to one’s personal taste.

The term should be used when talking about consistency in a setting and one’s completely subjective feeling about how that consistency involves one in the fiction’s lore but instead we get people talking about how things that are completely consistent with a broadly inclusive fantasy setting are breaking the “immersion” of the game. Holographic wings and the like are completely consistent with a fantasy fiction that includes magic holograms, glowing armors, magically flaming weapons, giant cat people, little miniature pet dragons, etc. If people don’t like the wings, it sure as kitten isn’t a matter of versimilitude or consistency in the setting and thus should not be an issue of “immersion”, only personal taste. It would like hating facial hair, and despite the fact that it makes perfect sense for there to be men with beards in the game, you claim that “immersion” is broken whenever you see them.

PSX.9250:

Eviscera.9703:

If you don’t like the wings, don’t use them. It’s simple as that.

^This. Some of you act as if you are forced to get skins.

No no no. I do not want to look at your ugly kitten pretending to be a fairy.

Go back to Aion.

My biggest problem with the wings is that they don’t seem to react to what you’re doing. They flap the exact same way if you’re walking, running, sitting, standing, falling, jumping, or whatnot. Plus, I’m not particularly fond of any of the available visual styles.
If I’m going to have wings, they’re going to a) be big, and b) respond to my character’s movements.

Hedgehog in the fog.1053:

You should play Aion…

I lol’d :p

Vick.6805:

Mesket, I don’t disagree with you, but I might be able to take that more seriously if we didn’t have plush quaggan backpacks all over the place.

As to the topic: I wouldn’t mind more wings if they were done tastefully and were not animated. They should move according to the character model’s motion physics. They should not have their own independent animation.

However, I would love to see other types of back pieces, too. Such as:

Guild Capes
Orbs
Cosmetic Weapons like Anton’s swords
Auras
Scarves

There’s lots of cool stuff that could be done with back pieces, rather than repeating the same ones.

EDIT: Isn’t this more of a Suggestions forum kind of thread?

Amen! Capes, scarves, ponchos, more non-novelty backpacks and ‘practical’ accessories like quivers would all be awesome.

I like the wings you posted there. It only shows A-Nets has not very good wing designers.
I would like to actually use the wings to fly. AION anyone?

panzer.6034:

Obsidian.1328:

panzer.6034:

Mesket.5728:

for the love of good taste and immersion…

Ugh. I really wish “immersion” was a censored word that got “kittened” out.

Why?

Because the term is consistently thrown around in a pretentious and hackneyed attempt to give some objective sounding validation to one’s personal taste.

The term should be used when talking about consistency in a setting and one’s completely subjective feeling about how that consistency involves one in the fiction’s lore but instead we get people talking about how things that are completely consistent with a broadly inclusive fantasy setting are breaking the “immersion” of the game. Holographic wings and the like are completely consistent with a fantasy fiction that includes magic holograms, glowing armors, magically flaming weapons, giant cat people, little miniature pet dragons, etc. If people don’t like the wings, it sure as kitten isn’t a matter of versimilitude or consistency in the setting and thus should not be an issue of “immersion”, only personal taste. It would like hating facial hair, and despite the fact that it makes perfect sense for there to be men with beards in the game, you claim that “immersion” is broken whenever you see them.

Umm…but that’s exactly why wings shouldn’t be in the game. Not only do they serve no purpose besides aesthetic value, they make no sense in Tyria. I wasn’t talking about my personal tastes at all, I actually like one of the wing sets. I was talking about how they don’t fit into the world. The things you wear/see/hold/interact with should generally fit into the context of the game. Granted there are exceptions for holidays and festivals and such, those are supposed to be fun and sort of “removed from the norm” so to speak. But the sheer quantity of over-the-top and out-of-place things in this game is astronomical.

So, yes, it’s immersion breaking.

Not because I don’t like it mind you, but rather because it absolutely kills any notion of taking this game-world seriously. If they don’t want us to take it seriously, then ANet shouldn’t complain when we don’t give one iota about the Living Story.

They can’t have it both ways.

It’s like I’m really playing an RO Private server.

Obsidian.1328:

Not because I don’t like it mind you, but rather because it absolutely kills any notion of taking this game-world seriously. If they don’t want us to take it seriously, then ANet shouldn’t complain when we don’t give one iota about the Living Story.

They can’t have it both ways.

In addition to humans, we have a sabertooth feline bipedal race with severe predatory aggression issues, a race of dwarf-sized parachute-eared goblins with oversized ego complexes, sentient and ambulatory shrubs, and humans with growth hormone addictions and polar-bear-club tendencies.

When you decide to think about game lore too long, anything can become immersion breaking. Taking a game “seriously” is just a matter of perspective, and deciding to do so is at one’s own risk.

That said, I think many of the suggestions here would not be immersion breaking at all, as many of them fit quite easily into the medieval/steampunk/fantasy hybrid setting this game is based in. Heck, they excused away mini-pets by saying they’re toys made by Asura craftsmen. I’d rather ANet offer options beyond armor for visual customization since so much of this game is cosmetic.

I’d be happy if I never saw another pair of wings ever again. Aion was the only MMO in which wings were actually merited since they allowed for flight. We need less over the top silly kitten imported straight from the lands of bad fantasy and more lore friendly items which look like they actually fit the universe we’re playing in.

Obsidian.1328:

panzer.6034:

Obsidian.1328:

panzer.6034:

Mesket.5728:

for the love of good taste and immersion…

Ugh. I really wish “immersion” was a censored word that got “kittened” out.

Why?

Because the term is consistently thrown around in a pretentious and hackneyed attempt to give some objective sounding validation to one’s personal taste.

The term should be used when talking about consistency in a setting and one’s completely subjective feeling about how that consistency involves one in the fiction’s lore but instead we get people talking about how things that are completely consistent with a broadly inclusive fantasy setting are breaking the “immersion” of the game. Holographic wings and the like are completely consistent with a fantasy fiction that includes magic holograms, glowing armors, magically flaming weapons, giant cat people, little miniature pet dragons, etc. If people don’t like the wings, it sure as kitten isn’t a matter of versimilitude or consistency in the setting and thus should not be an issue of “immersion”, only personal taste. It would like hating facial hair, and despite the fact that it makes perfect sense for there to be men with beards in the game, you claim that “immersion” is broken whenever you see them.

Umm…but that’s exactly why wings shouldn’t be in the game. Not only do they serve no purpose besides aesthetic value, they make no sense in Tyria. I wasn’t talking about my personal tastes at all, I actually like one of the wing sets. I was talking about how they don’t fit into the world.

Um, if we as human beings had the ability IN THE REAL WORLD to accessorize with functional holographic or realistic flapping wings on our backs, a large percentage of the population (especially anime and sci-fi folks) would try it out and love it. The sheer fact that wings on your back does not break immersion in the REAL WORLD negates any argument about it not fitting into a fantasy world where the technology is possible. Yeps.

Exosferatu.2961:

Wings make your characters look like fake chickens.

and that is bad because…..?

Adian.8756:

God no. No more freaking wings.

Yes, no more wings, please. Can we get some more back pieces like the fractal capacitors? Maybe have like precursors for them that drop in dungeons for certain back pieces and you have to complete a story line quest to aquire an exotic back piece that can be upgraded to an ascended, each dungeons back piece can be unique.

Obsidian.1328:

Umm…but that’s exactly why wings shouldn’t be in the game. Not only do they serve no purpose besides aesthetic value, they make no sense in Tyria. I wasn’t talking about my personal tastes at all, I actually like one of the wing sets. I was talking about how they don’t fit into the world. The things you wear/see/hold/interact with should generally fit into the context of the game.

The wings fit perfectly with the glowing blue magical holograms, “tron” armor and magic robot aesthetic that the asura have presented from the begining. To claim that they have no place in Tyria is to pretend that an entire core race never existed. Idk what set of wings that you like and which ones you don’t, but to say they don’t make sense in the context of pre-existing lore is a bit disingenuous.

As for Teq wings… we have necromancers with monstrous pets, a bunch of giant undead dragons and a whole kingdom of undead humans. Someone having undead wings seems pretty congruent with that established style.

But the sheer quantity of over-the-top and out-of-place things in this game is astronomical.

So, yes, it’s immersion breaking.

Yes, the world is chock full of flaming armors and glowying weapons and glowy-rock-backpacks and so on. It seems like wings are perfectly consistent with the established aesthetic of the game then.

Vick.6805:

When you decide to think about game lore too long, anything can become immersion breaking. Taking a game “seriously” is just a matter of perspective, and deciding to do so is at one’s own risk.

Well…it’s a give and take. Like I said, I’m not asking for 100% immersion in a game-world, we all are “make-believing” after all. On the other hand, I don’t think anyone wants a circus-tent world where anything goes. There’s a fine line between the two where playful fun and engaging content can live side-by-side. This game doesn’t do that, it’s cosmetics galore. Which is fine if everyone’s on the same page with that. But not only is it different than its predecessor in this regard, it dilutes the game setting and story to a point where none of it really matters anymore. It’s just fancy wallpaper at the carnival.

Vick.6805:

That said, I think many of the suggestions here would not be immersion breaking at all, as many of them fit quite easily into the medieval/steampunk/fantasy hybrid setting this game is based in. Heck, they excused away mini-pets by saying they’re toys made by Asura craftsmen. I’d rather ANet offer options beyond armor for visual customization since so much of this game is cosmetic.

“medieval/steampunk/fantasy hybrid”…those are two different settings and one genre. As for your last comment, Guild Wars actually used to have substance ya know. I’d rather they get rid of 80% of the cosmetic fluff in the game and devote all of their energy into 3 things:

• Storyline – real storyline, not this LS fluff
• Class Balance – actually admit that they might not be able to have PvP, PvE, and W3 all use the exact same skills/traits while keeping it balanced.
• Expansions – Cantha and Elona need to be on the drawing board. Now.

The sheer amount of backpieces we’ve been getting mandates that we get a skin locker similar to spvp/achievement unlocks before we start adding more. The one-time living story skins at the least should be added to the achievement panel.

ANet, however, don’t even respond to the skin locker suggestion which gets reposted by somebody almost every week.

panzer.6034:

The wings fit perfectly with the glowing blue magical holograms, “tron” armor and magic robot aesthetic that the asura have presented from the begining. To claim that they have no place in Tyria is to pretend that an entire core race never existed. Idk what set of wings that you like and which ones you don’t, but to say they don’t make sense in the context of pre-existing lore is a bit disingenuous.

It’s not disingenuous at all, that robot “tron” stuff you refer to is new. The Asura used to be a talented, if absent-minded, race of magic-users who specialized in golems. Now everything they do is either a hologram or a laser. The beginning of this game isn’t the beginning of the Guild Wars Tyria. Not by a long shot.

panzer.6034:

As for Teq wings… we have necromancers with monstrous pets, a bunch of giant undead dragons and a whole kingdom of undead humans. Someone having undead wings seems pretty congruent with that established style.

Actually that still doesn’t make sense.

panzer.6034:

Yes, the world is chock full of flaming armors and glowying weapons and glowy-rock-backpacks and so on. It seems like wings are perfectly consistent with the established aesthetic of the game then.

You’re misunderstanding me. It’s not just the wings that are out of place, it’s everything else you’ve stated. Those flaming armors and glowy backpacks shouldn’t really be in there either.

McFly.2134:

Obsidian.1328:

panzer.6034:

Obsidian.1328:

panzer.6034:

Mesket.5728:

for the love of good taste and immersion…

Ugh. I really wish “immersion” was a censored word that got “kittened” out.

Why?

Because the term is consistently thrown around in a pretentious and hackneyed attempt to give some objective sounding validation to one’s personal taste.

The term should be used when talking about consistency in a setting and one’s completely subjective feeling about how that consistency involves one in the fiction’s lore but instead we get people talking about how things that are completely consistent with a broadly inclusive fantasy setting are breaking the “immersion” of the game. Holographic wings and the like are completely consistent with a fantasy fiction that includes magic holograms, glowing armors, magically flaming weapons, giant cat people, little miniature pet dragons, etc. If people don’t like the wings, it sure as kitten isn’t a matter of versimilitude or consistency in the setting and thus should not be an issue of “immersion”, only personal taste. It would like hating facial hair, and despite the fact that it makes perfect sense for there to be men with beards in the game, you claim that “immersion” is broken whenever you see them.

Umm…but that’s exactly why wings shouldn’t be in the game. Not only do they serve no purpose besides aesthetic value, they make no sense in Tyria. I wasn’t talking about my personal tastes at all, I actually like one of the wing sets. I was talking about how they don’t fit into the world.

Um, if we as human beings had the ability IN THE REAL WORLD to accessorize with functional holographic or realistic flapping wings on our backs, a large percentage of the population (especially anime and sci-fi folks) would try it out and love it. The sheer fact that wings on your back does not break immersion in the REAL WORLD negates any argument about it not fitting into a fantasy world where the technology is possible. Yeps.

Technically, that technology should not be possible in Tyria.

Answer me this then, what is a thing like Mjolnir doing in Tyria? It’s from human Norse mythology…

Also…if you think a large % of the world’s population would go to work everyday with holographic dragon wings if they could…you might need to get out more.

Also…Guild Wars is not anime nor sci-fi.

I like wings and back-pieces in general. I didn’t when they first started coming out, but I do now. Sure, wings don’t look realistic but neither do scantily clad female characters. And some people wants capes like in Guild Wars. However, in Guild Wars a lot of players opted not show their cape because it detracted from their armor – usually Obsidian armor.

Obsidian.1328:

It’s not disingenuous at all, that robot “tron” stuff you refer to is new. The Asura used to be a talented, if absent-minded, race of magic-users who specialized in golems. Now everything they do is either a hologram or a laser. The beginning of this game isn’t the beginning of the Guild Wars Tyria. Not by a long shot.

But all that stuff has existed for as long as GW2 has been out. Or are you saying that it isn’t just the wings but the entire asura aesthetic that doesn’t fit?

You’re misunderstanding me. It’s not just the wings that are out of place, it’s everything else you’ve stated. Those flaming armors and glowy backpacks shouldn’t really be in there either.

They make as much sense as anything else existing openly in the world though. I run around and see fortresses made of ice, people that look like they’re made of magma, 50 foot tall flaming wooden effigies, floating rock islands, giant undead dragons, cities made out of glowing plants, etc. All those flaming armors and glowy backpacks actually fit pretty well within the high fantasy context of the setting.

It all comes back to my original point about the hackneyed references to “immersion” that people make. Flaming armors are consistent with a world where there are magma covered guys that shoot streams of flame, people who can make fire swords out of thin air, shamans that turn into fire and anthropomorphic winged flames float around. If you don’t like that stuff, that’s perfectly fine, but it’s certainly a matter of taste as opposed to a matter of it fitting with the world (full of wild kitten flaming stuff) that they’ve given us.

Eviscera.9703:

It wasn’t really directed to you. It was directed to the people that don’t like something, therefore they don’t want new things in the game.

Just because they do not like wings does not mean that they do not want new things in the game. I expect that they do in fact want more new things added to the game but would rather see finite dev resources applied to something other than more wing options.

McFly.2134:

The sheer fact that wings on your back does not break immersion in the REAL WORLD

You might want to double check the definition of the word, “fact,” as used there. You might find that there is little, if any, fact in that statement.

For what its worth: I think that the existing wings are fine and would not mind seeing more options at some point in the future. I would, however, prefer to see some other options explored first.

I have no objections to more back skins. I DO, however, wish that we could unlock the skins in some kind of wardrobe (like the Zenith skins) and freely withdraw copies for our use whenever we wanted.

Zaxares.5419:

I have no objections to more back skins. I DO, however, wish that we could unlock the skins in some kind of wardrobe (like the Zenith skins) and freely withdraw copies for our use whenever we wanted.

This needs to be added real fast. Like, before ascended armor comes out, fast. I know i won’t even bother crafting ascended if i can’t switch out expensive gem store skins on it without losing a kitten amount of gold re-buying everything.

More wings, less steam punk. To me steam punk is immersion breaking. Wings on the other hand, let’s see where they fit in Tyria…. Oh, I got it, Divinity’s Reach!

I’d pay for Angel Wings just for my Guild even.

I would like the next set of wings to be paper machete or some other similar “not real” looking thing that DONT flap. The flapping makes me motion sick, thus my current wings sit in storage.

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

I must respectfully disagree.

I currently have Three, yes that’s 3 sets of wings in the inventory of one of my characters.
No none of them are soulbound yet because I personally think they look silly but that is just me.
No I can’t destroy them cause hey, I did earn them.
Enough with the Wings already, please.
And maybe one step further, these are the Back Items just sitting in my character’s inventory, UNUSED. Why, well because I only have One back.

1. Mad Memoires
2. Mad Memoires: Complete Edition
3. Toymaker’s Bag
4. Sclerite Karka Shell
5. Sun Catcher
6. Lightning Catcher
7. Wind Catcher
8. Desert Rose
9. Zephyr Rucksack
10. Wings of the Sunless
11. Fervid Censer
12. Guild Defender Backpack
13. Holographic Dragon Wing
14. Holographic Shattered Dragon Wing

Yes, yes I know I could spread them over to my other 4 characters but they already have back items of their own; well except for the Engineer but that is another story for another time.

Now If we could stack up these skins in some sort of back item tab and make use of them when an appropriate situation arises(like Minis), then I say bring on the Back Items(wings) but until then I am just running out of inventory space.

And before someone says just buy more bank inventory space…
I currently have 430 Bank Slots available NOT counting Character Inventory or Guild Bank Space and yes, they are all almost completely full of stuff.

I want at least one Catcher

panzer.6034:

Obsidian.1328:

It’s not disingenuous at all, that robot “tron” stuff you refer to is new. The Asura used to be a talented, if absent-minded, race of magic-users who specialized in golems. Now everything they do is either a hologram or a laser. The beginning of this game isn’t the beginning of the Guild Wars Tyria. Not by a long shot.

But all that stuff has existed for as long as GW2 has been out. Or are you saying that it isn’t just the wings but the entire asura aesthetic that doesn’t fit?

The Asura, they way they are portrayed now, don’t really fit in no.

panzer.6034:

Obsidian.1328:

You’re misunderstanding me. It’s not just the wings that are out of place, it’s everything else you’ve stated. Those flaming armors and glowy backpacks shouldn’t really be in there either.

They make as much sense as anything else existing openly in the world though. I run around and see fortresses made of ice, people that look like they’re made of magma, 50 foot tall flaming wooden effigies, floating rock islands, giant undead dragons, cities made out of glowing plants, etc. All those flaming armors and glowy backpacks actually fit pretty well within the high fantasy context of the setting.

Fortresses made of Ice isn’t all that odd in a Tyria if you look at its history. Neither are the others if they have some anchor in lore.

Now take the Quaggan backpack, any Quaggan who saw one of those would probably have a heart attack or attack you. How would you feel if you saw some dude walking around with a stuffed “you” on their back? It’s meant for “out-of-context” fun and silliness, it has little to do with the game setting. Just because there’s some flaming stuff around you, doesn’t mean all flaming items are thereby fair game. It’s supposed to make some sense as to why it’s there.

It would make more sense to have backpack items that actually were feasible in Tyria. Like one that uses chaos magic to store items infinitely like some kind of Bag of Holding. Or one that is burnt and charred because it was made from the hide of a Flame Legionnaire. Or one that is Sylvari-themed and made from sinewy bark with leaves dangling off it.

A lot of the stuff they have now they just threw in there “cuz it looks kool” and didn’t bother with making it legit to the setting. It’s just eye candy meant to satiate the players who just want cool stuff to look at.

panzer.6034:

It all comes back to my original point about the hackneyed references to “immersion” that people make. Flaming armors are consistent with a world where there are magma covered guys that shoot streams of flame, people who can make fire swords out of thin air, shamans that turn into fire and anthropomorphic winged flames float around. If you don’t like that stuff, that’s perfectly fine, but it’s certainly a matter of taste as opposed to a matter of it fitting with the world (full of wild kitten flaming stuff) that they’ve given us.

Shamans turning into fire makes sense if that’s what that particular creature does. Like Flame Legion stuff; they are trying to invoke the powers of their old Titan gods(or w/e), usurp the Charr leadership, and take over Tyria. They use fire magic to do that. It has a purpose. Slapping random wing designs onto a players back with no thought to where it came from or why it’s there is lazy and, yes, kills immersion.

It’s extremely nerdy to argue the point, I realize that, but ANet has about zero ground to expect anyone to appreciate Tyrian lore with the hundreds of things that were put there “just for looks” and no real reason besides that. It cheapens the story and world to the point where no one should pay attention to any of it apart from cosmetically. It’s just a glam fest.

wings look awkward if your character has kind of a side stance when in combat.

I change my two wings from a cape or maybe that sweet, sweet quiver skin from F&F any day

No. No more wings and especially not ones like those suggested. The current wing models in game are all inspired with something existing there ( Tequatl, Shatterer, Bats). There are no angels or fairies in Tyria.