Guild Wars 2

“So keep on theorycrafting. Our next destination may surprise you.” – Bobby Stein

I wonder what he’s referring to. Next raid? White Mantle Story? Maybe we get to visit the area around the Isle of Janthir? :O

Native Mac Client? Now that would surprise me, even though I know they are trying. :P

Above Frostgorge Sound. That picture of Drakkar Lake is the new raid wing is fishy.

ANet gets bought out by Blizzard and our characters log on to the Warlords of Draenor?

More seriously, ANet is focusing heavily on bandits, White Mantle and hinting at Mursat. I’m going to guess that we go north of the HoT.

… bring back Ring of Fire and the T-Rex’s

Underwater expansion that brings full uw combat overhaul, Steve and destruction of LA.

Hexinx.1872:

… bring back Ring of Fire

Given we know there’s a bloodstone there, it wouldn’t surprise me, actually.

Well, both Core and HoT was heavily focused on Sylvari; with the recent lore coming out of the raid, it seems to be turning to a more Human-focused story.

So… of course now we go Norn.

Oh my gosh, I know where this is going! ALL the pieces fit now!

Does that mean that they are planning another raid?

(I genuinely don’t know.)

I’m pretty sure that the next raid will come with the next expansion.

The Moon! Calling it now!

btw..context for quote..?

Well Everyone wants to go to Elona or Cantha so it will be underground or the deep sea.

Space!!! The Final Frontier!!!!
Heck, would be happy if we could get the rest of the Tyrian map unlocked.

Randulf.7614:

btw..context for quote..?

“A Raiding Retrospective from Raid Designers” blog post.

If the raids end up going to Elona or Cantha without taking along the rest of PVE there is going to be a huge backlash. You heard it here first.

Thanathos.2063:

Randulf.7614:

btw..context for quote..?

“A Raiding Retrospective from Raid Designers” blog post.

Oh. That quote is about raids? The OP could have put in a link and at least a partial post to make it clearer.

Anyway. Partial blog quote indicates it’s more about any storyline in the raid instance than anything else.

Unlike in the Personal Story—where the narrative belongs to the instance owner—in raids, every member of your squad is a potential leader. Be in the right place at the right time, and you’ll take charge of the situation, comment on an important clue, or taunt an adversary. Play the raids multiple times, and you’ll encounter new lines of dialog as you go. Sift through your chat log, and you just might uncover new plot details or hints of what’s to come. And if you’re feeling adventurous, go ahead and take a detour between fights. We’ve stashed all kinds of secrets to feed your curiosity and get you speculating. It’s a balance of in-the-moment and downtime storytelling that doesn’t require you to dig deep but rewards those who do.

We’ve experimented with each release, pushing our dialog systems a bit harder and trying to find ways to better communicate mechanics while also giving characters a bit more personality. We started writing more line variants that take into account a player’s race or profession choice, so depending on your party’s composition, you might hear a different reaction to the situation (or a snarky comment about your enemy’s abilities). With each release, we plan to merge the various game elements in new ways to craft a richer experience that lets your mind wander.

So keep on theorycrafting. Our next destination may surprise you.

People are overreacting to that quote.

Personally, I think the most off the wall thing I could imagine related to that is some raid set in the Mists where we actually deal with Mursaat.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Next Stop:

Hit the nail on the head

Journey forth to the dominion of winds….why else do you think we’ve had 18 billion glider skins.

Not so subtle hint is not subtle enough.

TexZero.7910:

Journey forth to the dominion of winds….why else do you think we’ve had 18 billion glider skins.

Because they’re selling. It’s not like other skins (Tormented… ) were a hint about anything.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Underwater expansion that brings full uw combat overhaul, Steve and destruction of LA.

Now this would actually be awesome. And by the khan-ur I would give my leg to have an in-game npc mention the dragon by the name Steve~

Swagger.1459:

Oh my gosh, I know where this is going! ALL the pieces fit now!

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

Playable Dwarves are coming!

Dude… DUDE…

I’d be so down for this!

The Asurans perfect Thaumanova weapons and kill us all.

I’m voting for Lyssa or Dwayna’s realm (screw FoW and the Underworld, we’ve spent 10+ years there in the first game).

Crystal Desert. Because Silverwastes wheren’t enough! HA!

JK, probably bloodlegion homelands or sth like that. Maybe Ring of Fire dunno.

Wow, maybe they decide to put some lore outside raids, so the great majority of the players can enjoy it!

Ardid.7203:

Wow, maybe they decide to put some lore outside raids, so the great majority of the players can enjoy it!

Exactly! (If so) This is just the latest in a string of frustrating decisions by Arenanet.

I don’t think anything they’ll do will surprise us story wise, not unless they want to do something out of nowhere. Our next step is dealing with Mantle, or glints egg. They are the only 2 logical directions.

CMM.6712:

Ardid.7203:

Wow, maybe they decide to put some lore outside raids, so the great majority of the players can enjoy it!

Exactly! (If so) This is just the latest in a string of frustrating decisions by Arenanet.

Don’t know if you’ve looked into how little lore is actually involved in raids. It’s really small. Wood Potatos has a video of the lore for those who want to know. Also you can check, plenty of people will take you into an explored raid instance so you can see the lore for yourself, but it’s nothing to get bent out of shape about.

Vayne.8563:

CMM.6712:

Ardid.7203:

Wow, maybe they decide to put some lore outside raids, so the great majority of the players can enjoy it!

Exactly! (If so) This is just the latest in a string of frustrating decisions by Arenanet.

Don’t know if you’ve looked into how little lore is actually involved in raids. It’s really small. Wood Potatos has a video of the lore for those who want to know. Also you can check, plenty of people will take you into an explored raid instance so you can see the lore for yourself, but it’s nothing to get bent out of shape about.

Heya Vayne, nah not getting bent out of shape. I’d rather be able to do the raid and then see and explore, I just haven’t taken the time to do so (that is on me)

I just don’t want to see the precedent set of having lore and story stuff locked behind a “raid wall” especially if it is something like Cantha or Elona, like I stated earlier. That would truly be upsetting. Something such as that should be available to all players, in my opinion.

I would be surprised if it was anything but the desert

Ardid.7203:

Wow, maybe they decide to put some lore outside raids, so the great majority of the players can enjoy it!

Not going to happen – Anet is too busy trying to force people to play what Anet wants them to play. What has happened to GW2 since the good old “play like you want” days is what we affectionately call “selling out”. It usually doesn’t happen to MMOs until they are much older and desperate for cash.

They don’t seem desperate for cash. I’m still playing what i want, sorry if you aren’t, what are you not able to do?

The next direction leads to hype. It always has. It’s the one thing you can absolutely count on.

General Health.9678:

They don’t seem desperate for cash. I’m still playing what i want, sorry if you aren’t, what are you not able to do?

What other motivation would make a company completely contradict one of the core principles of their game? Do you think they just “decided” its actually better not to let you play like you want? If you’re not familiar with this issue, there are huge numbers of threads about it.

Djinn.9245:

Ardid.7203:

Wow, maybe they decide to put some lore outside raids, so the great majority of the players can enjoy it!

Not going to happen – Anet is too busy trying to force people to play what Anet wants them to play. What has happened to GW2 since the good old “play like you want” days is what we affectionately call “selling out”. It usually doesn’t happen to MMOs until they are much older and desperate for cash.

Get over it.

There’s a huge player base with a diverse set of want/needs that the company needs to cater to in order to stay solvent. So news flash for you, there’s going to be content that doesn’t cater to you specifically. That’s certainly can include lore for the people who raid. Also, given development, budget, and programming restrictions content is going to come out in different ways at different times.

You can still play what you want. And like ALL other MMOs, if you feel you’ve run out of something to do go play something else until the “next destination” arrives.

“Selling out” is such a fallacious cry… try looking at the game from outside your own needs and wants and you might just see that.

Djinn.9245:

General Health.9678:

They don’t seem desperate for cash. I’m still playing what i want, sorry if you aren’t, what are you not able to do?

What other motivation would make a company completely contradict one of the core principles of their game? Do you think they just “decided” its actually better not to let you play like you want? If you’re not familiar with this issue, there are huge numbers of threads about it.

And here’s where an example comes into play. The company provides customer entertainment. Yes, they need to consider the financial bottom line in anything/everything they tend to do… otherwise there’s no game if there’s no business. But because they’re consumer based, they must ALSO please as many customers as they can, otherwise there’s no game if there are no players.

It’s a balance that needs to be struck, and likely a very difficult one. There’s that other possible motivation you can’t seem to see.

You’re making your arguments on some perception they’ve ‘sold out;’ that they’ve somehow betrayed the ‘play how you want’ motto. Just because there’s content that doesn’t cater to you, doesn’t mean the game is no longer ‘play how you want.’

Back on topic: I don’t want to speculate too heavily on what’s coming up… I’d rather be surprised.

~EW

If it’s anything like the Gift of Battle surprise, I don’t think I want to know.

It was already released, but the maps are empty because of poor communication :/

The only thing that’d surprise me at this point is if they actually started finishing up years old stories. So I guess: The Wizard’s Tower? The one location that I’d be surprised by.

Iason Evan.3806:

The only thing that’d surprise me at this point is if they actually started finishing up years old stories. So I guess: The Wizard’s Tower? The one location that I’d be surprised by.

It’d just be some hamfisted retcon anyway. It’s best left a mystery.

Just look at what they did to the Giganticus Lupicus…