Guild Wars 2

Recently I made a post stating that in about 2-3 years Cantha will be coming with an expansion. A few people stated that no because we have too many maps to explore and of course with anet’s trend of adding a couple of maps per expansion, it made sense that 2-3 years might be too soon, but that’s not the case anymore!! As suspected, anet has learned that their method of delivering content was obsolete, and are now putting efforts to deliver A NEW MAP FOR EVERY LIVING STORY EPISODE. Not only that, but they are stating that they make all the decisions for gw2 and that they will not be pressured into releasing an early expansion ever again, which would explain why they individualized themselves last year( or was it early this year?). Anyways they are holding off on the next expansion until it’s perfected. Meaning we might have to wait at least one more year before the next one. At the speed they are going, and then wanting to hold off on releasing an expac early, could this mean we will get elder dragons in living story seasons instead of per expac??? Meaning that there is a high possibility that the next expac may have Cantha and most likely by then all the Tyrian map will be explored.

Additionally I would like to thank Mike for making the decisions he has been making. If their blueprint for delivering content doesn’t change, then this game will become far greater than how it was ever predicted to be. We have many outlets of story and lore, plus content to play hours on end. After several years into development, the content will outlast even the oldest games. Any game can be great with the right vision, stability, and direction. That’s my opinion

Edit: think about it, current events, every map having meta events and bosses, raids, living story seasons, expansions, PVP content, mastery skills, etc….after several years into development we will have so many options we won’t know where to start.

Very annoying argument, Quozex, but fully accurate.

From when spam is allowed in the forum?

Noooo we will get another continent!! Watch!

Anet still has plenty of space left to work with in Tyria…

If i remember correctly, Cantha was dismantled because it offended the market in Asia for grouping all (Eastern) Asian cultures into one mega continent, and Anet was forbidden from making references to the Canthan continent / culture. The Canthan district was permanently destroyed in Lions Arch and I don’t think there is one in Divinity’s Reach. Even if they used up the entire map in Tyria and Elona, I think we would sooner go to the scrapped Guild Wars: Utopia map than back to Cantha

I think they should overhaul the water physics in the game and make open seas. Wind Waker / Assassins Creed Black Flag style- Let people traverse from Core Tyria to Elona and Cantha and to the other side of Orr and the Fire Isles. Big open gameplay space with player created ships, player created guild ships, and possibility of ship combat, normal combat on small islands, underwater, gliding off hidden islands.

It also opens up to fighting a lot of sea faring type character types; vikings, maruders, corsairs, luxons, harpies, naga, pirates and so on. Open seas with storms, thunder, rain. It could be a really sweet way to make a big gameplay space that is supposed to feel massive and not densely populated.

But it would require an overhaul of the water based physics, improvements to weather and a really tight form of navigating ships. probably a ship crafting profession (gonna need a lot of elder wood to build a guild ship probably).

Alex Shatter.7956:

If i remember correctly, Cantha was dismantled because it offended the market in Asia for grouping all (Eastern) Asian cultures into one mega continent, and Anet was forbidden from making references to the Canthan continent / culture. The Canthan district was permanently destroyed in Lions Arch and I don’t think there is one in Divinity’s Reach. Even if they used up the entire map in Tyria and Elona, I think we would sooner go to the scrapped Guild Wars: Utopia map than back to Cantha

Highly doubt that will stop them, just like wow didn’t care about turning Asians into pandas and grouping them into one continent….at least when creating Cantha in sure they will take the time to create a beautiful and culturally rich continent

Alex Shatter.7956:

If i remember correctly, Cantha was dismantled because it offended the market in Asia for grouping all (Eastern) Asian cultures into one mega continent, and Anet was forbidden from making references to the Canthan continent / culture. The Canthan district was permanently destroyed in Lions Arch and I don’t think there is one in Divinity’s Reach. Even if they used up the entire map in Tyria and Elona, I think we would sooner go to the scrapped Guild Wars: Utopia map than back to Cantha

Aren’t all Asian cultures on a single continent called Asia though?

preacher.9370:

Anet still has plenty of space left to work with in Tyria…

One map per episodes, now add up the maps left to uncover in our world map and divide it by the amount of episodes given per year and that’s how many seasons it will take for a complete Tyrian map…more or less. Okay? Okay.

Ayrilana.1396:

Alex Shatter.7956:

If i remember correctly, Cantha was dismantled because it offended the market in Asia for grouping all (Eastern) Asian cultures into one mega continent, and Anet was forbidden from making references to the Canthan continent / culture. The Canthan district was permanently destroyed in Lions Arch and I don’t think there is one in Divinity’s Reach. Even if they used up the entire map in Tyria and Elona, I think we would sooner go to the scrapped Guild Wars: Utopia map than back to Cantha

Aren’t all Asian cultures on a single continent called Asia though?

^ this made me laugh. I wouldn’t be surprised if he/she didn’t know this

Have they def stated one map each episode?

Randulf.7614:

Have they def stated one map each episode?

It’s a goal. I’m trying to find the direct link to where it was said in the Reddit AMA.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/53plre/rising_flames_devs_here_ask_us_anything/d7v5l5f

Randulf.7614:

Have they def stated one map each episode?

It wasn’t 100% definite but they did assert the goal was to have a new map with each one unless circumstances prevent.

“Yes, a new map per episode is something we’re trying to do for each Living World update.” From near the top of https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/53plre/rising_flames_devs_here_ask_us_anything?st=itbz2t03&sh=f87b9387

(sorry, I have no idea how to direct link to Reddit stuff. I don’t have a Reddit account).

Thanks. I don’t follow Reddit, so I missed that

Good news if they can manage it

Sad Swordfish.9743:

I think they should overhaul the water physics in the game and make open seas. Wind Waker / Assassins Creed Black Flag style- Let people traverse from Core Tyria to Elona and Cantha and to the other side of Orr and the Fire Isles. Big open gameplay space with player created ships, player created guild ships, and possibility of ship combat, normal combat on small islands, underwater, gliding off hidden islands.

It also opens up to fighting a lot of sea faring type character types; vikings, maruders, corsairs, luxons, harpies, naga, pirates and so on. Open seas with storms, thunder, rain. It could be a really sweet way to make a big gameplay space that is supposed to feel massive and not densely populated.

But it would require an overhaul of the water based physics, improvements to weather and a really tight form of navigating ships. probably a ship crafting profession (gonna need a lot of elder wood to build a guild ship probably).

So you want GW2 to become Archeage. Is that game still going?

fyi Cantha is simply too racist for today commerical reality.

Cantha is basically what we call cultural appropriation. normally this would be fine if said culture is poor and you can just ignore them in your business decision, however with GW2 now having chinese servers, it different from GW1. can they really afford to make a Cantha expansion without pouring 100 of man hours into fixing the lore in order to make their chinese customer happy that the content isn’t kittenting on their culture like in GW1? i doubt it.

remember why there is kitten in Divinity Reach, because the chinese hated the kitten up Cantha theme content that was meant for it originally… bring Cantha back is possible, but it would take money to hire chinese staff that could make the material look authentic instead of the cheap cultural knockoff that it was.

Unless they say that Zhu Hanuku is the water dragon champion, I dont see us going there anytime soon..

lagrangewei.8516:

fyi Cantha is simply too racist for today commerical reality.

Cantha is basically what we call cultural appropriation. normally this would be fine if said culture is poor and you can just ignore them in your business decision, however with GW2 now having chinese servers, it different from GW1. can they really afford to make a Cantha expansion without pouring 100 of man hours into fixing the lore in order to make their chinese customer happy that the content isn’t kittenting on their culture like in GW1? i doubt it.

remember why there is kitten in Divinity Reach, because the chinese hated the kitten up Cantha theme content that was meant for it originally… bring Cantha back is possible, but it would take money to hire chinese staff that could make the material look authentic instead of the cheap cultural knockoff that it was.

You know who else has Chinese servers? Wow does…and in their eyes Asian people are pandas. Anyways yes they will regardless have to create Cantha from scratch cause it’s a new game entirely. I’m sure they won’t offend anyone, so long as they use common sense when creating its lore.

Amaimon.7823:

Unless they say that Zhu Hanuku is the water dragon champion, I dont see us going there anytime soon..

It’s either one continent or the other, but we going to one soon enough.

To confine Elder Dragons to seasons only would be utter folly. There is already enough feedback about how the Dragons have not been portrayed as dangerous or epic enough at times for us to kill them off like machine gun fodder so quickly in seasons. There would be a great deal of backlash and Anet will recognise this.

The next expac will almost certainly deal with Primordus. It may even deal with Jormag and bring in mutliple Dragons in some way. But even if next expac we somehow kill those 2 Dragons, that still leaves the DSD and Kralkatorrik.

As much as I would like either continent, I cannot see them opening up either just for the sake of it, when neither appear connected to the story and we are a long way off completing this main arc.

Beyond the already stated cultural issues with Cantha (remember Anet is owned by NCSoft based in South Korea, whilst Blizzard is an American company), one of the things Anet were concerned about early on in GW2 was spreading the community across too many maps and diluting the existing areas. Another continent would kill areas like HoT, SW, Bloodstone Fen and potentially bosses like Shatterer, Teq and Wurm which rely on groups. Now, they could try and realign the difficulty of those areas and make them more solo friendly, but that is a hugely time consuming effort. A new continent alone is going to take a great deal of time and resources, but to then go back and adjust maps as well is just going to increase that.

So yeah, maybe will see a new continent one day. But, “soon” is highly unlikely based on the current evidence and progress of the game.

Adry.7512:

Alex Shatter.7956:

If i remember correctly, Cantha was dismantled because it offended the market in Asia for grouping all (Eastern) Asian cultures into one mega continent, and Anet was forbidden from making references to the Canthan continent / culture. The Canthan district was permanently destroyed in Lions Arch and I don’t think there is one in Divinity’s Reach. Even if they used up the entire map in Tyria and Elona, I think we would sooner go to the scrapped Guild Wars: Utopia map than back to Cantha

Highly doubt that will stop them, just like wow didn’t care about turning Asians into pandas and grouping them into one continent….at least when creating Cantha in sure they will take the time to create a beautiful and culturally rich continent

Additionally, Anet wasn’t forbidden, they were told no by NCSoft, which for all intents and purposes, has been removed from the picture. Since that started happening, We’ve seen more Asian themed content, like some hairs- (Even Chinese Exclusive Hairs), Outfits and the Lunar New Year Expanding further than prior. The asian player base that had the issue was the Chinese and South Korean Sides (after doing a bit of research) and NC Soft is primarily Korean. Considering how the game isn’t doing so hot in those markets (and it hadn’t released there yet when the issue was happening) I’m more than certain that Anet won’t care by that point as those markets are no longer their main priority.

While Anet acts as an independent subsidiary of NCSoft, they still need to follow orders from the top brass. I’m sure if Cantha was in the works, every image and name would been to be thoroughly vetted to make sure the content doesn’t offend China.

In game since the Zephyr Living Story, they’ve been hinting that their next stop was supposed to be Cantha. But then Mordy attacked and downed the fleet. That gave them an out, since the Zephyr Sanctum was the only thing that the Emperor allowed in.

Alex Shatter.7956:

If i remember correctly, Cantha was dismantled because it offended the market in Asia for grouping all (Eastern) Asian cultures into one mega continent, and Anet was forbidden from making references to the Canthan continent / culture. The Canthan district was permanently destroyed in Lions Arch and I don’t think there is one in Divinity’s Reach. Even if they used up the entire map in Tyria and Elona, I think we would sooner go to the scrapped Guild Wars: Utopia map than back to Cantha

You remember incorrectly. All that we know for sure is that Divinity’s Reach was originally designed with a “Canthan Quarter” and that ‘area’ was replaced with “The Great Collapse” before the game launched. We do not know why.

A single developer, who is a reliable source about many things, speculated as to why. He guessed that some mucky muck from NCSOFT was concerned about mixing influences from multiple cultures in RL Asia, on the basis that apparently the executive was personally offended by seeing this. No evidence was presented: there were no emails, no screenshots — the dev who gets misquoted about this admitted that they didn’t know and weren’t privy to the decision making process.

The theory itself has a lot of problems: ANet has been very adamant that it makes its own decisions regarding the game, so while NCSOFT might encourage them in a direction, it’s implausible that a single executive’s opinion would matter. There’s also no evidence that mixing cultural influences is a problem for successful production companies. There are lots of common and overlapping elements, plenty of examples of successful imagery with mixed influences, etc. I’m sure that some people are purists and dislike it for OCD reasons or even racist ones, but there’s no evidence that it trumps business decisions.

In short, it was a bit of unsourced gossip that became ‘true’ to people because they couldn’t come up with any explanation as to why the “Canthan Quarter” wasn’t in the Live game.

I miss my home country. and my sexy male Luxon Assassin vest. :<

Bring on the Cantha.

They lost me with the Heart of Thorns expansion. I’m not buying any other expansions that they come out with, mainly due to the fact that they might be just as bad as heart of thorns.

Galtrix.7369:

They lost me with the Heart of Thorns expansion. I’m not buying any other expansions that they come out with, mainly due to the fact that they might be just as bad as heart of thorns.

Logic at its finest. In your case I would say wait it out, and buy the next expansion after it’s been out for a week or two.

the new living story (season 3) is also much better than before

OP… I really don’t understand the logic in your argument.

I don’t understand how you can make the conclusion that Cantha (in particular) is coming because we’re receiving new maps more frequently. It seems like a lot of “what if”s stuck in series rather than any evidence or logic? Where’s the truth in your prediction- objectively speaking?

HoT was a bit of a flop- I can’t imagine a new expac being released any time soon because of that fact. I don’t think as many would pre-order expac 2 unless faith is restored in a lot of amazing LS content.

People were assuming that the first GW2 expac would be Cantha… purely because the first GW1 expac was. But it wasn’t. And like a lot of players have said, there is evidence to suggest that they will steer clear of Canthan stuff in general because it doesn’t fit the Asian market and is seen as insulting/appropriation.

Slightly unrelated, but I guess it must be a cultural thing? I don’t see people getting vocal about Nightfall being appropriation of Africa, EotN/Shiverpeaks being appropriation of northern europeans etc. I understand that the GW universe has taken elements of different cultures and stuck them together- is that what is inflammatory to some real life cultures?

Oh yes you and only you have a cantha prediction lols.

Crimson Clouds.4853: OP… I really don’t understand the logic in your argument.

I don’t understand how you can make the conclusion that Cantha (in particular) is coming because we’re receiving new maps more frequently. It seems like a lot of “what if”s stuck in series rather than any evidence or logic? Where’s the truth in your prediction- objectively speaking?
its a prediction not a study using the scientific method, just an opinion based on multiple factors. Cantha is a fan favorite and we will need to expand sooner than later. It’s an analysis of time.

HoT was a bit of a flop- I can’t imagine a new expac being released any time soon because of that fact. I don’t think as many would pre-order expac 2 unless faith is restored in a lot of amazing LS content.
i clearly stated that we aren’t getting an expac anytime soon because the previous one was rushed and from now on anet is calling all the shots. Trust me faith will be restored and before the next expac comes, all the content you will have will be for HOT exclusive players, making the hot expac in my opinion worth it.

People were assuming that the first GW2 expac would be Cantha… purely because the first GW1 expac was. But it wasn’t. And like a lot of players have said, there is evidence to suggest that they will steer clear of Canthan stuff in general because it doesn’t fit the Asian market and is seen as insulting/appropriation.
Cantha needs to be created regardless. Anet can’t simply disregard the existence of an entire continent. What will happen is that the lore and theme of Cantha will get reworked because eventually they have to release Cantha. The continent needs to be created from scratch anyways and the lore needs to fit the current timeline so they can do that from scratch too. Also it doesn’t need to be related to the Asian/Eastern cultures, just another human race with a Eastern themed architecture. Hell they can use this to add multiple new races and creatures. Regardless Cantha is a must and since they have to create it from scratch anyways, I’m sure they will address any issues and prevent them.

Slightly unrelated, but I guess it must be a cultural thing? I don’t see people getting vocal about Nightfall being appropriation of Africa, EotN/Shiverpeaks being appropriation of northern europeans etc. I understand that the GW universe has taken elements of different cultures and stuck them together- is that what is inflammatory to some real life cultures?
All games take ideas from different cultures. So many games will have a resemblance to some type of culture in which the armor style or architecture will be themed according to what inspired it. This game is no different.

S will sink Cantha and all problems are solved. Future expansions will lead us to continents in the far West.

i doubt it, that we will ever see Cantha/Elona happening

Orpheal.8263:

i doubt it, that we will ever see Cantha/Elona happening

Explain your logic please.

Orpheal.8263:

i doubt it, that we will ever see Cantha/Elona happening

Elona is almost 100% happening at some point. We’re going through the desert soon.

Cantha I doubt will happen, pretty sure NCSoft put that kitten down a long time ago.

Simple logic.. (Part 1)

Theres still way too much left to do in Tyria…
If anet evr would want to go for Cantha/Elona, they would have to abandon now an incomplete explorable Tyria and then Tyrias as explorable continent would just add up on their list of incomplete things they have made, what isn’t in my opinion really good for Anets image as a develper, who makes only incomplete things

They can’t do all continents at the same tiem, for that they don’t have the tiem, the manpower and ressources in general, so they have to focus themself on 1 continent and before tyria isn’t completed, I think they shouldn#t begin with an other continent.

We have still at least 4 Elder Dragons to defeat on Tyria, theoretically it must be even 6, if we’d go after elements of the nature, because we have no Wind and no Light Elder Dragon so far officially, while we have one for Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Water and Darkness with so far the one for Darkness and Earth being slain and as it looks we go next for the one which represents fire – Primordus… when for a change of continents it would be best to rather go next either for the yet unnamed Water Elder Dragon, or for Kralkatorrik, the Lightning Elder Dragon in the Crystal Desert, because the Crystal Desert is the nearest place to Elona, while the Water Elder Dragon makes it us impossible to travel save to Cantha…

Before these 2 don’t get eliminated, we will NEVER see the light of an explorable new continent!!
We are now in Living Story Season 3 just at the preparation time span for going somewhen against Primordus most likely after the final of Season 3, where we have to face first a new old enemy again, the Mursaat, inclusive Lazarus which got with his revival basically same as powerful as like an Elder Dragon – he costs us now alot of important time – time that we could rather spent for defeating another elder dragon to quicken the chances to travel fastr to othr known continents like Elona to go for Kralkatorrik or to cleanse the depths of the tyria sees frinally from the Water Elder Dragon to get to Cantha, whioch is the most unlikely thign to ever happen, if not NCSoft & Co change their idiotic minds and those people behind all this which were responsible for it, than all canthan stuff got deleted out of the game before it got released 2012, out of the idiotic fear, the game could show the asian culture under a false light and that we could get a wrong impression from it by the way how the game shows it…which is the reason why the canthan district for DR for example got so short before release of the game eliminated and why we had for a long time there nothign but a huge hole in the city… /facepalm until Anet was creative enough to fill that hole with something up.

As long these idiotic people responsible for this “canthan exit” don’t change their minds, we won’t see ever Cantha coming back. Then it is more realistic, that we eventually see instead a completely new explorable continent, something like “Utopia” to happen, which honestly said I would like to see more.

Tyrioa has still stuff to offer for many years to come, until this part of the world has been completed.

Fire Rings isn’t complete explorable, we just got now the very first map part of it
Crystal Desert isn#t explorable completely
maguuma Jungle is far away from begin completely explorable
All old EotN regions mostly aren’t explorable
Janthiur Island, not explorable
wood cascades, not explorable

sure, alot of this will come automatically once we go for the last elder dragons, but this shows just, how much we still have to do first with Tyria, before we can even think about going to an other continent.
ANet has designed the whole games story around the dragons, they made a game with a life span of like 10+ years thats basically solely planned around one continent – Tyria..

To abandon now after 2 defeated elder dragons this continent, just to play explorer on other continents makes no sense, whiletyria is still actively in serious danger from at least 4 left elder dragons and now currently a crazy reborn mursaat too additionaly with the powers of an elder dragon, which is there just to be FILLER MATERIAL for season 3, before anet can release the next expansion that lets us defeat Primordus.

Part 2

Until this happens, we will most likely have end 2017, because before we see the final of season 3, we will most likely see a handful of more episodes at least, each episodes takes them 3 months!!! So don’t expect the next expansion around 2018 most likely.

Now you can calculate, how much time will pass, until we finalyl have defeated all elder dragons, or at least the ones that we need to kill to make the ways free for cantha/Elona..if Naet won’t waste more time after killing Primordus with letting us go next then after Jormag…when for tyrian safety and traveling route progression would make killing Kralkatorrik and the Water Elder Dragon by far the most sense to put highest priority on them.

But NAet surely willingly will let us go for them the very last, so they don’t need to do now somethign about the terrible underwatr gameplay, because reworkign it basically is only needed for the water elder dragon content, which is the reason why they basically removed it completely out of the game and made it basicalyl completely obsolete, because they realized self, that it is a game feature, which is mostly not needed at all, as long we don’t go for that elder dragon and didn’t worked out as good as they wanted from begin on anyway to the point, that they never touched underwater gameplay in regard of balancign it, no they directly removed the stuff from the game, because it was so much garbage that it was better to completely make the feature irrelevant for the gsame, than to doctor on it, until it fits

You know, theres a german saying called somethign like this:

If the cart goes irremovable in the dirt, then its best to make a new cart, instead of pulling out your current cart out of the dirt.

And thats principally whast they did here with the underwater gameplay. It is garbage, which wasn’t worth it for them to repair it and pull it out of the selfmade dirt, so they abandonded it, put that stuff on ice and are waiting since then now for the best time to make and implement it new and better when the right time has come, which is when they make the expansion that lets us defeat the water elder dragon, where balanced underwater gameplaywill be important again and where it makes sense to brign that stuff back out of the dusted drawer of failed concepts that got implemented too early

I think it is absolute wish thinking from people here, who believe we will see soon any new continent, when there is still so much left within Tyria that has to be solved first.

And if we keep killing elder dragons at the same pace like now, then we won’t have even killed all in the next 4 years. Under the current pace it woudl take us 8 more years to defeart the last 4 dragons that we know of, if they don’t suddenly draw one of the theoretically 2 missing elemental ones out if a surprising magic hat like white bunnies.. because who knows if there aren’t the other two still sleeping somewhere in Tyria or other continents in the underground, in a sky high mountain or wherever else it wouöld make sense for a missing wind and light dragon to hide and sleep.

Don’t missunderstand me, I’d love to see Elona and Cantha returnign as well, but personally I’m way too much realistic to believe in these thigns happeneing, as lognm we have still so much thigns to solve and do in Tyria first and abandoning Tyria for other continents wouldn’t just be right, nor does it make any sense at all.