Guild Wars 2

Heya!
Pretty much from launch, Role Players have been using “Uninstanced Salma,” the Salma area on the main Divinity’s Reach map, to facilitate a lot of our RP. It provides us with another bar venue, a hospital, house for Nobles, Middle Class, and Lower Class – Even an Orphanage!

Over the past few months, the Devs have heard people requesting bug fixes in “Uninstanced Salma,” and had no idea why people would be there. To my knowledge, they blocked it up without even realizing what kind of community they were injuring.

After the invisible walls went up near the Skull Plaza waypoint, a few Devs actually visited Uninstanced Salma to see what all the hubbub was about. We greeted them and they even enjoyed themselves! We were assured that no more walls would be put up, but they wouldn’t take down the invisible walls already placed. This wasn’t too bad, because we could use a “Jump Puzzle” method to get over the walls.

Recently… Another wall has gone up; it’s an invisible wall preventing us Role Players from using the jump puzzle to access Salma. I understand if the Devs don’t want to fix bugs in a little nook for a couple hundred people that aren’t even supposed to be there… But why put more effort into blocking us off?

Please! We love the RP setting! And using the Instanced version only allows us to invite four other players to partake in the fun – not to mention, it doesn’t allow walk-ins…

There are a ton of places in this game that would be great places to roleplay, or simply just hang out, but they are either instanced, locked off or are only open for short periods of time depending on events.

It’s really sad.

If you’ve been near the beach area in Lion’s Arch you’ve probably seen that big house near the pirate statue. That house is actually full of details, multiple floors and would make a great place to roleplay, yet sadly you can only enter it during a single personal story mission with the Priory.

I agree. There are still some methods to which we can get into uninstanced Salma, but now I’m just waiting for those to get fixed too. I really don’t understand the issue of us going in there in the first place. That specific district has practically everything a roleplayer would like in a city that no other district can provide, so there is always…or was always roleplay to be had there. I would just like to know why it’s an issue we’re in uninstanced Salma in the first place. Keeping it strictly for story seems a waste, especially when we barely go in the instance through our 80 levels, and that district is too nicely made to be set aside like that.

I don’t get it. Is it a power trip or something? Someone actually had to go out of their way to modify something that wasn’t a real bug or a harm to anyone.

I think I speak for a lot of RPers when I say that were the devs to listen to us, and unblock uninstanced Salma or even make it a choice to enter regular Salma or instanced Salma, they would garner a LOT of support, loyalty, and praise from the RP community. We already enjoy a fantastic game that continues to add and update content despite the lack of a subscription, and feeling some love from the devs for our RP hobby would truly be the icing on an already ridiculously delicious cake. I know it would make me an ArenaNet fan for life.

I agree. Free Salma.

Developers of Guild Wars 2,

Roleplayers like these people and myself, and others alike us, love roleplay in Uninstanced Salma District. We can all agree on this I am certain. It adds another tavern, and even a hospital to use until we’re old and grey, and lying in our deathbeds. We’ve tried to get in there, and if you continue to put up more walls it not only makes it harder for us, but it makes us limit our roleplay. Meaning, we won’t be able to use that extra tavern, the extra space, the hospital for when our characters come home from battle.

I understand we can still use Salma, but for only five people at a time. What if an entire Guild holds a meeting, or an event, and Salma would be the perfect spot? It’s entirely impossible.

We ask you to delete the invisible walls, for it not only makes your job harder, but our job as players/roleplayers as well. Free Uninstanced Salma.

It seems a shame to block off an area that physically already exists in game, and already has so much design work and development put into it. The designers, programmers and artists put quite a bit into making the home instances beautiful, and as RPers we’d love to be able to enjoy them more. But its hard to do when you can only join all at once in a party, or not at all. Being able to go to an uninstanced version of these places allows larger groups to show up, people to come and go, and everyone to be able to enjoy these areas that have had such efforts put into them. I don’t understand why there seems to be a need to block these places from being accessed. It would be wonderful if there were uninstanced versions of all of them easily available to players, so that they could RP there, enjoy the setting, and so on. Obviously instances need to exist for story quests and the like, but those do in zones as well. It seems like so much work being lost to restrict home areas like Salma to instance only, and opening these places up to allow them to be instanced OR uninstanced would make many in the RP community very happy. We love the game and we want to enjoy more of it!

I don’t really care , but I do wonder out of curiousity why they would go to deliberate efforts to keep people out. Is it damaging in anyway to have people in that specific area? Just seems impractical for an entertainment company to make deliberate changes to limit something that was fun for their clientele.

Or maybe one of the designers was once ostracized by role players because his armor didn’t match and now has some sort of personal vendetta against them all?

I’m a roleplayer and I approve this message. Un-instanced Salma is an awesome place to RP!

I’ve just recently quit GW2, and I feel like the only thing that can bring me back is a slightly open door in order to let me into my home district to RP with my fellow neighbors.

yolo

It’s not intended to be accessible, that’s the whole reason why the area has bugs to start. It was most likely not given any sort of QA passes due to it not ever having been intended to be seen by players. You guys were clearly pushing it by asking them to go in and fix whatever it was that needed to be fixed. You guys are also pushing it by asking them to open it back up, and prioritize development resources to fix it, which won’t happen. At least not any time soon.
Who knows, maybe they closed it so as to fix it bit by bit, and then open up all the instanced areas in the game. Granted that could be overzealous wishful thinking on my end.
For now, I’ll just say that they’re in the right to close the area. It wasn’t intended to be seen by players, and it wouldn’t be good to have them see something that isn’t working as it should.

For me, I’m okay with those bugs. They only knew that there were players in the area because they were requesting bug fixes, but I would prefer to RP in a buggy Uninstanced Salma rather than be confined to a 5-person Instance that doesn’t allow any on-the-fly RP to take place.

I would gladly take those bugs and the lack of developer and QA support if I could keep Salma in the state it’s in (Minus the walls).

What bugs me the most is that the Devs that visited SAID they wouldn’t remove walls, but wouldn’t add… It’s not just the walls, but the lack of information we’ve received on this. I don’t know WHY they added another wall, and I’d like to know that at least.

Developers,

Roleplayers are some of the most loyal players to a MMO. We find value in things that most other players ignore. We put the tiny details that you work kitten perfecting to use. We appreciate those things. So for you take away a place that means a lot to many of your players, a place that we use daily, doesn’t make sense. It isn’t being used to farm, or exploit the game in any harmful way, but it is being used. To bring a community together, that puts life into this game. Salma Uninstanced is important to us. I’m not the first post, and I won’t be the last. You took our Home, and now we want it back.

Was it ever said why it was blocked off? Do they have future plans for the area perhaps?

I agree so whole heartedly with this. I remember talking to a Dev ranger who sneakily had us show him how to get in with the mini jumping puzzle near the skull plaza. He only popped the tag after he got in, and had a nice talk with him about the kind of RP that took place there. Me and the Mesmer there even both said that it would be so easy to just remove the invisible walls and the side doors so it’s a more realistic city setting. I also remember finding that dev with two others later during that month. I don’t understand why Salma is still getting blocked off? The Hospital and Orphanage there are absolutely wonderful places to RP!

what do you guys roleplay?

Randulf.7614:

Was it ever said why it was blocked off? Do they have future plans for the area perhaps?

I never saw any official posting about why they were blocking it off – but originally, they didn’t even know there were RPers in Uninstanced Salma until there were bug fix requests in the forums. They blocked it off thinking ‘Well, you guys aren’t even supposed to be in there.’

It was supposed to all change after the Devs realized who was in there and spoke with us personally… But it doesn’t appear that happened.

Lilius.9850:

what do you guys roleplay?

Anything we want!

We have doctors in the hospital, where our injured (And there are a lot of us) go to be healed, sewed up, or rest.

We have families, romances, and dinner parties in the homes.

There are socials, tavern brawls, shady dealings, and group meetings in the bar or auxilary buildings.

The alleys provide great areas for crimes!

The Seraph and Ministry Guard patrol in an attempt to keep us safe…

There are even server wide meta-events like the Blacklung Plague, the Crimson Fever, or Felspore.

Our Ministers rule over districts, including Salma.

The area is beautiful; it would be a shame to let it go to waste.

I don’t roleplay, but sounds like you guys had great fun in there. Hope you get it back!

Roleplayers clearly make up a small percentage of paying customers, in my opinion, because they are simply not catered to in most of the MMOs I have played. GW2 is no exception. Very poor move!

I think a Mesmer might still be able to get in and you know if a Mesmer can get in, everyone can get in.

I am not much of a roleplayer.

First off, I believe that you should be able to play how you want. Roleplaying is a valid play style, just as any other.

Having said that, I see both sides to the issue.

While I feel for those who were in uninstanced Salma, in a way, they were actually not playing the way the game was intended. Uninstanced Salma was, and is only accessible by means that involve circumventing the “walls” that Anet put up. One could actually say that this was deliberately playing in a way that Anet didn’t intend.

On the other hand, I don’t see the harm, and that if it wasn’t using resources that the “rest of the game” needed, then by all means, play on.

I guess my “official” opinion is that rather than put the walls up, take them all down, and make uninstanced Salma available to everyone. The Instanced Salma needed for all the PS chapters could still run simultaneously, and the district would be fun to go see without having to do some sort of jumping puzzle or “creative entrance” to get to.

Play on, all you Roleplayers! You make the world fun to walk through.

SmudgerUK.4715:

I think a Mesmer might still be able to get in and you know if a Mesmer can get in, everyone can get in.

Technically, all classes can get in – but that’s only at this moment.
For some classes it’s much harder, or they need outside help from players or items.

If this second wall has gone up, I don’t think the other forms of entrances are far from being blocked, unfortunately.

Sorry guys I RP as the representative of Divinity’s Reach CDC. Not long ago my team and I discovered a strange virus spreading in Salma District. Shortly there after residents were mutating and attacking those without the virus. In turn those bitten also mutated. My team had no other choice than to board the place up to stop the spread of the virus.

At this time it is estimated that there are no known ‘survivors’ and only mutants looking for more Human, Norn, Charr, and Asura hosts. For some reason they are not drawn toward Sylvari. Experts believe that this is due to Sylvari facial features being similar to the mutants.

Our next plan of action unfortunately is to burn Salma District to the ground to ensure the virus does not spread outside of the district. We are currently recruiting engineers for this project, must have your own flamethrower, Sylvari a plus.

While a lot of perfectly legit RP goes on in uninstanced Salma, one of the mainstays (on Tarnished Coast at least) is all the Erotic Roleplay guilds who fight over which of them has taken over the hospital and turned it into a brothel “for reals”. Given some of the conversations I’ve seen those people drop in public channels, and their hostility at being asked to keep it private, I’m unsurprised the developers just want to board up the whole area and fumigate. It’s unfortunate, for those Salma RPers who respect the terms of service, but I really can’t find fault with the decision.