Guild Wars 2

I think getting rid of Cantha and Elona is a major slap in the face of all Guild Wars fans and veterans. I don’t know but after hearing this I feel like GW2 has lost some of its charm and magic for me…. I was really looking forward to Cantha and Elona in future expansions, and who knows what we will see in this year’s expansion – not Elona and Cantha apparently…
I still hope they change their decision. And soon.

Zeus CM.1692:

I think getting rid of Cantha and Elona is a major slap in the face of all Guild Wars fans and veterans. I don’t know but after hearing this I feel like GW2 has lost some of its charm and magic for me…. I was really looking forward to Cantha and Elona in future expansions, and who knows what we will see in this year’s expansion – not Elona and Cantha apparently…
I still hope they change their decision. And soon.

It’s discouraging but don’t let it take the charm & magic and enjoyment you get in GW2, it’s the same world so there’s always a chance we will go back to these places. I was hoping the first expansion was gonna be Cantha, as well. In fact I sort of assumed it would be prior to coming across this situation because it seemed like the natural place to open up in the game…Definitely doubtful the expansion will be Cantha, but they haven’t said anything on Elona yet…But you never know what could happen.

Shanna.4762:

Zeus CM.1692:

I think getting rid of Cantha and Elona is a major slap in the face of all Guild Wars fans and veterans. I don’t know but after hearing this I feel like GW2 has lost some of its charm and magic for me…. I was really looking forward to Cantha and Elona in future expansions, and who knows what we will see in this year’s expansion – not Elona and Cantha apparently…
I still hope they change their decision. And soon.

It’s discouraging but don’t let it take the charm & magic and enjoyment you get in GW2, it’s the same world so there’s always a chance we will go back to these places. I was hoping the first expansion was gonna be Cantha, as well. In fact I sort of assumed it would be prior to coming across this situation because it seemed like the natural place to open up in the game…Definitely doubtful the expansion will be Cantha, but they haven’t said anything on Elona yet…But you never know what could happen.

Thank you for encouraging words. I won’t let my hopes die.
It is obvious that Arenanet isn’t happy with this too, its artists and game designers have spent a lot of time making Canthan elements in GW2. They must have felt angry and dissapointed when they were ordered to destroy their work and make ‘a hole’ in their world – the collapse, literally. I really hope they too join the conversation like Josh Foreman kindly did and offer us more ‘rays of hope’.

Zeus CM.1692:

I think getting rid of Cantha and Elona is a major slap in the face of all Guild Wars fans and veterans. I don’t know but after hearing this I feel like GW2 has lost some of its charm and magic for me…. I was really looking forward to Cantha and Elona in future expansions, and who knows what we will see in this year’s expansion – not Elona and Cantha apparently…
I still hope they change their decision. And soon.

I doubt they will, everything in GW2 is a slap in the face to GW fans not just the fact that they won’t be adding Cantha or Elona, and Cantha was my favorite part of GW.

I only saw this thread about a month ago and honestly – nothing surprises me now, not if it comes from ANet. Truly sad, but not surprising.

Here’s a short theory why not:
“NcSoft was adamant to keep it universal”. Not Arena.net. NcSoft.
Translation:

NcSoft is launching Blade & Soul in western market soon, and one of this game’s main selling points is that it’s 100% asian in and out. I say they don’t want gw2 to deliver “asian” experience as it could weaken the “asian” selling point of B&S.

So ANet are just NCsofts lapdog? Sounds about right… hey ANet, add grind that surpasses even our korean MMO’s, hire some nexon employee’s to help design your gem store, oh and you know that whole diverse theme thing you had doing? Yeah, just remove that.

I was under the impression game publishers only fund and critique development, not actually control it. Why wouldn’t they fight for something this big? It’s not like NCsoft would have dropped GW2… it was way too big.

I wonder what else they messed up, and how much was actually ANet. I wonder if they even know how disconnected GW1 players feel in this game.

I also was excited about returning to Cantha with the GW2 engine and political changes. Cantha always captured my imagination more than Elona did. I’m not saying I’ll quit over this. But I will say this. I’ve already spent a lot of money on gems in GW2. I consider myself a bit of an Anet / GW fanboy, since the GW1 beta. But if ncsoft is going to be exercising such game wrecking control (like removing a whole freaking continent from the existing lore), this is likely going to affect my future purchasing decisions. Please do the right thing.

It would be a very bad decision to abandon Chanta.
In GW1 Chanta was my absolute favorite world to play. Echovald Forest and The Jade Sea were just amazing.
Just imagine how those areas would look with the graphics of GW2. Then there is Kaineng City wich some people didn’t like that much. But just think about all the possibilitys for open world dynamic content.

You stroll through the twisted backalleys in the lower districts, gangs try to mug you, you save shop owners. Or maybe give it a twist, turn it around and help some thugs stealing a shipment of goods.

There could even be real open world PvP. Players/guilds side with NPC gangs/factions and fight over turf.
Even neutral players who don’t want to engage in PvP could get involved by helping civilians cought in the crossfire.

There are sheer endless opportunities to expand and improve the open world experience. And thats just Kaineng City.
Echovald Forest and the Jade Sea would be even more awesome. What happened to the Luxon vs. Kurzick Fight.
There is just so much Lore allready established, throwing all that out of the window would be just plain stupid.

Chanta is by far my favorite place in the GW universe. Seeing it come to life in GW2 would indeed be a dream come true.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Cantha was my favorite GW1 region to work on. And I worked on every GW release. I know a lot of the dev team loved it and would love to revisit it. I kinda agree with critickitten about the negative aspect of tight corridors. Most of that came from hitting technological limits while trying to keep the epic quality of the concept art. I think we could do some really amazing things with those themes in our new engine. Certainly nothing is ruled out. I certainly encourage anyone to express your desire for a Cantha region in GW2 in a positive and friendly way. It could be years away, but it’s worth asking for.

This would be great! I love that GW and GW2 have made the human race an interesting race to play. Every other mmo I’ve played, they are boring because there’s just no interesting stories and cultures represented for them. As an American, I always feel cheated when the only real representation for humans is typical American culture. I’d love to see more of the Canthan region as well as more story from the other regions! GW gave such flavor to a race we all take for granted in the gamers world as boring and non-inventive. Please give us Cantha!

Good points about a) NCSoft, not Anet is the problem here and b) about competition for Blade & Soul. I could definitely see NC not wanting GW2 to steal attention from the new “totally Asian” MMO.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

“NcSoft was adamant to keep it universal”.

Also, we don’t know for sure if this quote is true. Our source for it is a YouTube comment by someone reporting that a dev said it to them in-game (no screenshots). It could have happened, of course, but we don’t know for sure.

What we know for sure from devs is that the Canthan district of Divinity’s Reach had to be taken out and a Canthan expansion “could be years away.”

We are left to wonder just how firm NC’s no-Cantha policy is. Maybe I’m being too optimistic but that gives me hope NC hasn’t totally vetoed it.

nolop.8095:

There are sheer endless opportunities to expand and improve the open world experience. And thats just Kaineng City.
Echovald Forest and the Jade Sea would be even more awesome. What happened to the Luxon vs. Kurzick Fight.

I know! When I read that Kurzick and Luxon culture has been totally assimilated and our “Factions” essentially don’t exist anymore, it made me sad. We spent so many hours of gameplay building those allegiances, and now it’s all in the past. I would love to see both these cultures on the GW2 scale, so I hope they aren’t totally gone. Kurzick cathedrals…Luxon armadas…what is the GW world without them?

Remember back when we wondered why we were going to use normal banks instead of the awesome Xunlai service with their chests of holding, or why there was no mention of the Zhaishen Order in any of the PvP features, this might a good explanation. There’s also the problem with Cantha having become xenophobic and probably wouldn’t allow their citizens to interact or even offer services to non-humans, including the Xunlai guild and maybe even the Zhaishen Order. Although, the Zhaishen Order never really stood under the rule of the Canthan Empire.

Humans in Guild Wars are often compared as the elves from other settings. A once powerful race of almost divine creatures who have fallen to bad times with all their glories behind. Besides things like immortality, pointy ears etc, Humanity’s story in Guild Wars and its themes fall within the common Elf archetype. Whatever storyline might be used for a Canthan expansion, I think it would be a good idea to explore these themes in the Canthan expansion. Because of its history, power and age, I believe that Cantha would be the perfect candidate, after the extinction of Orr, to follow the High Elves archetype. In particular the xenophobic and imperialist yet tremendously powerful version. So, I believe that the best way to characterize Cantha is to portrait it as tremendously powerful and successful, yet, rotten in the inside. It would offer an interesting contrast with the underdog that it is Kryta and would represent everything that Kryta could have been and what could become, for better and for worse.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Here’s a short theory why not:
“NcSoft was adamant to keep it universal”. Not Arena.net. NcSoft.
Translation:

NcSoft is launching Blade & Soul in western market soon, and one of this game’s main selling points is that it’s 100% asian in and out. I say they don’t want gw2 to deliver “asian” experience as it could weaken the “asian” selling point of B&S.

Soooooooo… what your saying is that if Blade & Soul fails in the Western Market, then we get Cantha! Quick! Spread the word! Any GW2 fan who wants Cantha must stay miles away from Blade & Soul!!!

XD jk… well, sorta. I know this is nothing more then a rumor, but its a rumor I see some truth in it. I mean, it makes a lot of sense how you put it. It seems crazy to intentionally restrain the options of the sequel to one of your most successful flagship games for a pet project. However, if NcSoft wants to use backhanded methods to support a game, I think we, as the community, have the right to call them out on it and at least speak against the practice.

As I’ve stated before (I think I have… XD) GW Factions, and in turn Cantha, was the reason I purchased GW1 in the first place. I would NOT be here today if it were not for the world of Cantha. I think that’s the same for a lot of us. It is criminal to not have it in production for a future expansion.

Well true it’s a rumor, i might’ve jumped the gun. But to make it clear, Blade & Soul is anything but a “pet project”. It’s just in Korea right now that’s why you’re not hearing about it, but it earned 80% in korea alone in 3rd quarter 2012 of what guild wars 2 did world wide. It’s a AAA class mmorpg, and their hopes for it are equal to those tied to gw2 if not higher.

Cantha and Elona were so amazing in GW1, I loved the look and the feel of it and to be honest I was wondering where did cantha and elona go and if any of the closed doors with guards around the tyria will open up and offers us a trip to cantha or elona!
Now when I see that ANet actually made a canthan distric but had to destroy it because of NCSofts thinking that asian market doesn’t like that makes me so so sad… I mean, even if asians don’t like mixing something that looks like their architecture, it’s a fantasy world and it’s canthan architecture, same goes for Elona. It’s really not a great move…

It’d be really great if ANet changes their minds about it and brings that back. It would really lessen the nostalgia and it’d make GW2 better because now when I found out about this GW2 just doesn’t feel the same again… It’s like something just died and now when I login to GW2 I don’t feel excited and amazed. I’m sad and I’m thinking, darn, so we really won’t see any of Elona or Cantha in future expansions? All those heroes I really loved, I won’t see anyone again.
It feels like a giant slap in the face. I mean… “A wizard should know better!” – because now, the magic is kinda gone. :’(

I must be dumb, but I don’t see any Cantha or Elona at Prophecies.
If we gonna make line GW1-GW2, lets see fresh GW2 as only first campaign.
It may be the last same time, but not mean we need to put here all 3 GW1 games + expansion.
May be guys gonna release more games in a future.

Josh Foreman already commented on the NCsoft rumor over control and Blade & Soul..It doesn’t sound like that has anything to do with it. The two games are fundamentally different games in many ways and I don’t foresee them really competing with each other they will most likely co-exist pretty seamlessly. NCsoft has supposedly been pretty hands-off with the whole thing so we might not automatically blame NCsoft for that decision right now unless someone at ArenaNet or NCsoft comes out and says so.

A lot of people feel left in the dust when it comes to revisiting places from GW1 in GW2, I agree, I also would rather go back to the places I loved in GW1 and see them now 250 years later in lore years. As I’ve said before, I’m open to new places but it can be hard to remember it’s the same world most of the time, until you happen upon a small area from the first game and usually a lot of it is destroyed and ruins. I would rather see more of the old places fully in tact even if they’ve changed or evolved to varying degrees and I think Cantha is a good opportunity for this. It’s an ancient culture, and it’s been in isolation for two centuries. It’s entirely possible & most likely that it would not have changed much aesthetically, they may not even be industrializing yet like some of the other areas are beginning to, and there could be less poverty due to the reforms of the past..

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Well true it’s a rumor, i might’ve jumped the gun. But to make it clear, Blade & Soul is anything but a “pet project”. It’s just in Korea right now that’s why you’re not hearing about it, but it earned 80% in korea alone in 3rd quarter 2012 of what guild wars 2 did world wide. It’s a AAA class mmorpg, and their hopes for it are equal to those tied to gw2 if not higher.

I see, it makes sense that NcSoft has high hopes. But Eastern and Western MMO’s are very different, as well as their user base. I feel that GW2, a Western developed game would be expected to perform better in the Western market. As such, an Asian expansion for it would also perform better. I will defs look more into Blade & Soul however. (and I know that was a generalization, theirs planty of Asian MMOs that have done well in Western markets)

Shanna.4762:

Josh Foreman already commented on the NCsoft rumor over control and Blade & Soul..It doesn’t sound like that has anything to do with it. The two games are fundamentally different games in many ways and I don’t foresee them really competing with each other they will most likely co-exist pretty seamlessly. NCsoft has supposedly been pretty hands-off with the whole thing so we might not automatically blame NCsoft for that decision right now unless someone at ArenaNet or NCsoft comes out and says so.

A lot of people feel left in the dust when it comes to revisiting places from GW1 in GW2, I agree, I also would rather go back to the places I loved in GW1 and see them now 250 years later in lore years. As I’ve said before, I’m open to new places but it can be hard to remember it’s the same world most of the time, until you happen upon a small area from the first game and usually a lot of it is destroyed and ruins. I would rather see more of the old places fully in tact even if they’ve changed or evolved to varying degrees and I think Cantha is a good opportunity for this. It’s an ancient culture, and it’s been in isolation for two centuries. It’s entirely possible & most likely that it would not have changed much aesthetically, they may not even be industrializing yet like some of the other areas are beginning to, and there could be less poverty due to the reforms of the past..

Hmm, that’s interesting, but I do find it odd that they did say that NcSoft wanted to keep it universal and not Arena Net. If I have learned one thing, its to never trust a company talking about itself or another part of itself… especially with unreleased material. I doubt that you will hear any employee pointing a finger or blaming anything on one of their own or a parent company’s projects. All I know is that for some reason NcSoft doesn’t want GW2 to have Cantha.

Oni.7451:

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Well true it’s a rumor, i might’ve jumped the gun. But to make it clear, Blade & Soul is anything but a “pet project”. It’s just in Korea right now that’s why you’re not hearing about it, but it earned 80% in korea alone in 3rd quarter 2012 of what guild wars 2 did world wide. It’s a AAA class mmorpg, and their hopes for it are equal to those tied to gw2 if not higher.

I see, it makes sense that NcSoft has high hopes. But Eastern and Western MMO’s are very different, as well as their user base. I feel that GW2, a Western developed game would be expected to perform better in the Western market. As such, an Asian expansion for it would also perform better. I will defs look more into Blade & Soul however. (and I know that was a generalization, theirs planty of Asian MMOs that have done well in Western markets)

Shanna.4762:

Josh Foreman already commented on the NCsoft rumor over control and Blade & Soul..It doesn’t sound like that has anything to do with it. The two games are fundamentally different games in many ways and I don’t foresee them really competing with each other they will most likely co-exist pretty seamlessly. NCsoft has supposedly been pretty hands-off with the whole thing so we might not automatically blame NCsoft for that decision right now unless someone at ArenaNet or NCsoft comes out and says so.

A lot of people feel left in the dust when it comes to revisiting places from GW1 in GW2, I agree, I also would rather go back to the places I loved in GW1 and see them now 250 years later in lore years. As I’ve said before, I’m open to new places but it can be hard to remember it’s the same world most of the time, until you happen upon a small area from the first game and usually a lot of it is destroyed and ruins. I would rather see more of the old places fully in tact even if they’ve changed or evolved to varying degrees and I think Cantha is a good opportunity for this. It’s an ancient culture, and it’s been in isolation for two centuries. It’s entirely possible & most likely that it would not have changed much aesthetically, they may not even be industrializing yet like some of the other areas are beginning to, and there could be less poverty due to the reforms of the past..

Hmm, that’s interesting, but I do find it odd that they did say that NcSoft wanted to keep it universal and not Arena Net. If I have learned one thing, its to never trust a company talking about itself or another part of itself… especially with unreleased material. I doubt that you will hear any employee pointing a finger or blaming anything on one of their own or a parent company’s projects. All I know is that for some reason NcSoft doesn’t want GW2 to have Cantha.

We don’t know that, though. NCSoft is just as likely to support Cantha as they are to not support it. Josh said it was a decision that came up a very long time ago, probably before GW2 was much more than a concept, and then the Canthan district in Divinity’s Reach came up at another point that sounds entirely separate because it was about the combining of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Architecture in an otherwise western city and they didn’t connect with it due to the cultural differences, this is something that wouldn’t be all that hard to remedy if it were still an issue which we don’t know if it is because it could of been one guy who doesn’t work there anymore or has perhaps changed his view on the issue.

The market has changed progressively over the last few years, you’re seeing a lot more cooperation between Asian and American developers today than we were even 3 or 4 years ago, so the view on the whole situation could have shifted a long time ago and ArenaNet may have not gotten around to bringing it back up again, or maybe they have and we just don’t know about it yet.

But for example, you’re seeing a very cooperative relationship between XLGames (Korean) and Trion (American) in the development of ArcheAge, so much so that they are actually incorporating ideas and technology that Trion developed, into ArcheAge for both eastern & western audiences and from the sounds of it their relationship is a very positive one. You’ve got Snail games bringing Age of Wushu from China, and listening to the western players with changes and improvements that will make the game more accessible to them. So this improved effort in communication and cooperation between cultures has come a pretty long way from where it used to be, and that can only be a positive thing when it comes to ArenaNet, NCsoft, Guid Wars 2, and Cantha

Out of curiosity, do any of you guys have or know of a video of the old Factions login screen? I would love to see it again! I searched but only found screenshots so far, not a video of the full animation.

Shanna.4762:

A lot of people feel left in the dust when it comes to revisiting places from GW1 in GW2, I agree, I also would rather go back to the places I loved in GW1 and see them now 250 years later in lore years. As I’ve said before, I’m open to new places but it can be hard to remember it’s the same world most of the time, until you happen upon a small area from the first game and usually a lot of it is destroyed and ruins. I would rather see more of the old places fully in tact even if they’ve changed or evolved to varying degrees and I think Cantha is a good opportunity for this. It’s an ancient culture, and it’s been in isolation for two centuries. It’s entirely possible & most likely that it would not have changed much aesthetically, they may not even be industrializing yet like some of the other areas are beginning to, and there could be less poverty due to the reforms of the past..

Well said, Shanna. This is exactly how I feel a lot of the time. I love GW2 but the loss of connection with many GW1 places and characters is often saddening. I wish Drok’s and old LA and all our favorite places weren’t in ruins…although I’d rather them be there at all, even in their current sad state, than be completely forgotten and left behind.

You’re right, Cantha could be a great opportunity to preserve even more of the feeling and maybe even locations of the original game. Cantha is very old and, for all those reasons you’ve stated, is unlikely to have changed very much. I don’t know if that’s the direction Anet would choose to go, but I would hope they would. I could easily see Tahnnakai Temple, Raisu Palace, and Shing Jea still being there, as they had for a long time already in GW1, and coexisting with all the awesome new elements the designers come up with to make the new Cantha game revolutionary.

Thanks also for reminding us what Josh said in regard to Blade & Soul. I had forgotten he addressed that specifically, you’re right!

I don’t think that NCsoft is “forbidding” Cantha because of B&S – for one, the audiences are pretty different. B&S is a more…. mature game, if only because of the armors. It’s one of those that encourages people to make their (female) character as naked as possible, along the lines of a TERA visual style. The revealing armors are one of the major selling points of the game, as far as I’ve seen.

Of course it does also feature a “downed system”.
I wonder where I’ve seen that before……………

Anyhow, GW2 is small potatoes in Asia, which is the main market of B&S, so a Canthan expansion to a game the Asian market isn’t interested in is hardly any sort of competition.

ANet lies! There are Asians already in GW2! I found one at the shelter event in Cursed Shore!

Just adding my 2 cents. Like several others here I naturally assumed that Cantha was already being developed as the first expansion (well, after realizing that it wasn’t part of the base game, which surprised me because I had avoided reading too much about GW2 pre-launch). To now see that this is not the case, and that it’s questionable whether Cantha will even show up in GW2, is not only a major disappointment, it is worrying. Those of us who played GW1 were strongly led to believe that there would be Canthan content in GW2 – wasn’t that the point of Winds of Change? If an expansion comes out and it doesn’t do anything to bring Cantha back into the game, frankly I’m not sure I’d have a reason to buy it. GW2 has already lost enough of the original game’s charm as it is, and nothing about the new Tyria or characters compels me to see more of them. Moving forward, let’s please have more of a sequel and less of a spinoff. I want to see the successor to GW1 or I might as well play some other MMO. I’m not saying that to threaten, it’s just how it is. I’m only here because of GW1 in the first place, and if GW2 insists on not delivering any of the things I came for, in terms of gameplay or story, then it’ll be time to move on.

Whomever was the deciding factor in this decision should not have their job. Cultural considerations my butt, the representation of different cultures is part of what made the GW1 world so interesting. Further, as this is a SEQUEL of the first game, you can’t just ignore those continents. They will forever be lingering questions and plotholes. Not to mention you actually have novels that talk about them! If you’re going to keep it ‘universal’ (which is ironic since this design is exclusive, not inclusive) be ignoring Cantha, then chances are that same decision will mean excluding Elona. That is unacceptable to me. I don’t want a whole new world, I want to know what happened to Cantha now that they’re semi-united, and I wanted to know what happened to Elona now that it’s decimated and crawling with undead after Palawa Joko got his hands on it, once the previous heroes took out Abaddon. The idea that these two continents won’t end up in GW2 significantly impacts my desire to care about this universe anymore.

We’re just going to ignore all that history? And if so, why did you guys build the community up over it? The recent Cantha content in GW1 was meant to bridge a gap…and give us some history heading into GW2. Now you’ve got us waiting to see what happens next. Can’t just leave people hanging.

And by the way while we’re on the topic, what’s this about ‘universal’ in the first place? I don’t see many (if any) npc characters that are asian, or black, or anything definable as something other than caucasian. Is this what is to be considered ‘universal’? That’s actually pretty offensive.

Nate Gray.9241:

Whomever was the deciding factor in this decision should not have their job. Cultural considerations my butt, the representation of different cultures is part of what made the GW1 world so interesting. Further, as this is a SEQUEL of the first game, you can’t just ignore those continents. They will forever be lingering questions and plotholes. Not to mention you actually have novels that talk about them! If you’re going to keep it ‘universal’ (which is ironic since this design is exclusive, not inclusive) be ignoring Cantha, then chances are that same decision will mean excluding Elona. That is unacceptable to me. I don’t want a whole new world, I want to know what happened to Cantha now that they’re semi-united, and I wanted to know what happened to Elona now that it’s decimated and crawling with undead after Palawa Joko got his hands on it, once the previous heroes took out Abaddon. The idea that these two continents won’t end up in GW2 significantly impacts my desire to care about this universe anymore.

We’re just going to ignore all that history? And if so, why did you guys build the community up over it? The recent Cantha content in GW1 was meant to bridge a gap…and give us some history heading into GW2. Now you’ve got us waiting to see what happens next. Can’t just leave people hanging.

And by the way while we’re on the topic, what’s this about ‘universal’ in the first place? I don’t see many (if any) npc characters that are asian, or black, or anything definable as something other than caucasian. Is this what is to be considered ‘universal’? That’s actually pretty offensive.

That last paragraph is something that struck me as very odd. Native Krytans are not, were not, caucasian. They had native American skin tones, perhaps iberian at a push. Take Salma, Evennia or Lydia and drop them next to Anise or Caudecus and… Really? Ascalon was where all the white folk came from and that place was wrecked. While refugees did journey to Kryta and other lands, it shouldn’t have had the effect it’s had on the current Krytan skintone.

I’d love to see Cantha return. I liked the overall design of that place, it looked 10x better then Prophecies maps, think what kind of majestic Asian architecture they could bring in the GW2. Especially Kaineng city.
Not sure about Elona, it’s crawling with undead so, not really happy about second Orr.
There are many inaccessible areas in current map we have so my guess is first we get to explore em all. I would really really want to see Cantha for the next expansion, and not some made up new continent

Joko didn’t kill everyone. Honestly. He’s not Zhaitan. He’s much smarter.

I didn’t play GW1 but I would love to see Cantha come to GW2.

Exploring different cultures in MMOs is one of my favorite parts of gameplay. The humans in GW2 should not be “universal” – they should be as unique and wonderful as humans in the real world.

1/ the OP is a rumour, no confirmation exists about Cantha being scrapped.

2/ on the contrary, the WoC campaign in GW1 forms to the starting point for Cantha in GW2.

Adding two and two together would make me think Cantha is inevitable.

Safer Saviour Yer right about that.

I would say we probably should have seen this coming with EotN. The Norns, Asura, Sylvari, and Charr can really be seen as replacing the various human cultures of GW1. Personally I lost all connection to GW2 when they made humans out to be both uniformly bland, as well as insignificant to the modern lore.

But even if they did bring back Cantha, how would they incorporate our new playable races into the Canthan storyline? It would be very weird to see Charr as the emperor’s body guard, or Asuran’s and Sylvari hanging out in the monasteries waxing philosophical. We’re kinda stuck with what we got. :/

Josh Foreman.8250:

Cantha was my favorite GW1 region to work on. And I worked on every GW release. I know a lot of the dev team loved it and would love to revisit it. I kinda agree with critickitten about the negative aspect of tight corridors. Most of that came from hitting technological limits while trying to keep the epic quality of the concept art. I think we could do some really amazing things with those themes in our new engine. Certainly nothing is ruled out. I certainly encourage anyone to express your desire for a Cantha region in GW2 in a positive and friendly way. It could be years away, but it’s worth asking for.

While it’s understandable that you didn’t have time to reevaluate and refit the concept to make it maybe a bit more palatable to those groups, I do sincerely hope you won’t bend to petty nationalist quarrels like that forever.

Nate Gray.9241:

Whomever was the deciding factor in this decision should not have their job. Cultural considerations my butt, the representation of different cultures is part of what made the GW1 world so interesting. Further, as this is a SEQUEL of the first game, you can’t just ignore those continents. They will forever be lingering questions and plotholes. Not to mention you actually have novels that talk about them! If you’re going to keep it ‘universal’ (which is ironic since this design is exclusive, not inclusive) be ignoring Cantha, then chances are that same decision will mean excluding Elona. That is unacceptable to me. I don’t want a whole new world, I want to know what happened to Cantha now that they’re semi-united, and I wanted to know what happened to Elona now that it’s decimated and crawling with undead after Palawa Joko got his hands on it, once the previous heroes took out Abaddon. The idea that these two continents won’t end up in GW2 significantly impacts my desire to care about this universe anymore.

We’re just going to ignore all that history? And if so, why did you guys build the community up over it? The recent Cantha content in GW1 was meant to bridge a gap…and give us some history heading into GW2. Now you’ve got us waiting to see what happens next. Can’t just leave people hanging.

And by the way while we’re on the topic, what’s this about ‘universal’ in the first place? I don’t see many (if any) npc characters that are asian, or black, or anything definable as something other than caucasian. Is this what is to be considered ‘universal’? That’s actually pretty offensive.

This is a very good point. GW2 is a sequel, a direct one at that to the first game..Sequel’s revisit iconic staples in a series, that’s what makes a series so memorable in the first place. If you jump around making up new places that focus away from the iconic or original places all the time then you create a major disconnection in the series and have people wonder why it shares the same title, and has a “2” or any other sequel-like number after it. You lose the entire aspect of it being the same world when everything original is dead and washed away, or flat out ignored.

Also, very great points about the Canthan content in GW1 supposed to act as a bridge between the two games…They definitely did lead us to believe Cantha would be a major part of GW2.

Wreckdum.8367:

ANet lies! There are Asians already in GW2! I found one at the shelter event in Cursed Shore!

when i read this, i started laughing so hard i woke my roommate up. that is all.

If there will not be any Cantha expansion, I will be very mad. First of all, there is the obvious implication there won’t be also a Elona expansion. I started playing GW1 with Factions, and tbh Prophecies was for me the most boring of them, with Elona being the most awesome continent ever created imo (I still get chills when I go in Vabbi:D).

But, i do not think they won’t do it. They made the whole Winds of Change, there is the 99% possibility of a 6th dragon, who can most likely be only in Cantha! And I bet we will have to defeat all the dragons, so… Furthermore, the whole story of Palawa Joko taking over, there is no way we won’t have to solve that! It’s just like playing a game, and being told: ‘Hey, there is this big bad villain who is enslaving people!’ ‘Ow, ok i’ll be on my..’ ‘Nonono, you can’t do anything about it, I was just saying’

And we need those continents, because humans just lost their charm. With the many kingdoms in Tyria, and the Canthans and Elonians, humans felt way more deep compared to the generalised humans from MMOs like WoW.

Pls Anet, do not dissapoint us! Bring Factions and Nightfall back in GW2!!

Obsidian.1328:

Safer Saviour Yer right about that.

I would say we probably should have seen this coming with EotN. The Norns, Asura, Sylvari, and Charr can really be seen as replacing the various human cultures of GW1. Personally I lost all connection to GW2 when they made humans out to be both uniformly bland, as well as insignificant to the modern lore.

But even if they did bring back Cantha, how would they incorporate our new playable races into the Canthan storyline? It would be very weird to see Charr as the emperor’s body guard, or Asuran’s and Sylvari hanging out in the monasteries waxing philosophical. We’re kinda stuck with what we got. :/

You could get the asura there (old underground tunnels) and the sylvari (Echovald = Pale Tree?). Just not charr and norn and really… we shouldn’t need to have to force every race everywhere. The Tengu aren’t overpresent in Tyria after all.

Stormscar.5489:

(I still get chills when I go in Vabbi:D).

Me too!! When I read the early press releases about GW2 saying Vabbi had been destroyed and Cantha was cut off, I was convinced I would hate the new game. Years of waiting, many BWEs and hundreds of hours of gameplay later, I’m happy to say I was very wrong about GW2! But I still miss Vabbi and Cantha and the thought of them still makes me sad.

Safer Saviour.9685:

the sylvari (Echovald = Pale Tree?)

I think my brain just exploded with the lore implications. :O Awesome idea!

Not to mention the eternal question…is Kuunavang in any way related to the elder dragons?

I remember when the game was launching and I was roaming around the Sylvari lands that I had a feeling some of the mystery of the Sylvari and Pale Tree would be in Cantha. It would be really cool if that were the case!

Shanna.4762:

I remember when the game was launching and I was roaming around the Sylvari lands that I had a feeling some of the mystery of the Sylvari and Pale Tree would be in Cantha. It would be really cool if that were the case!

Definitely! I can see many Sylvari being called on a Wyld Hunt to use their nature/growth magic to restore Echovald as it “thaws” from stone. The folks over in the Cantha lore threads could probably come up with more details about this, but it seems like there are tons of possibilities. I wonder what connections there could be between the magic of Echovald itself and the magic of the Pale Tree? Are there other life-giving trees in existence in Cantha? Could any of the plant beings of Echovald be related to Sylvari in any way? So much potential here.

I think that Cantha is very doable. Considering we still have Elder Dragons we have yet to encounter, they could very well threaten Cantha and Elona! Cantha was a beautiful place and the Jade Maw Fractal is a tantalising taste of the possibilities that GW2 could do with Cantha.. Don’t abandon it or Elona! Less focus on making money from the cash shop and more emphasis on making a solid expansion that would make a lot of players very happy. I’m sorry but Southsun didn’t get off to a great start and is basically a ghost town full of weird crab things.. Listen to your player base, we wan’t Cantha, we wan’t Elona and most importantly we want GW2 to get better and better! Yes Kaineng may be a bit of a problem in terms of tight corridors and small spaces.. A solution? Start with Shing Jea, the Kurzick forest or The Jade sea. We can swim.. It would be interesting to take a dip in the newly liquefied Jade ocean. Or be on a Luxon Island battling one of the Elder Dragons. As for Elona? The orders of Tyria band together and receive an urgent warning from the Whispers contacts in Elona asking for an alliance to other throw Joko, take down a Dragon or help rebuild the Sunspears. Maybe Komir could have some kind of role in this? Only a very slight role nothing major. Maybe Joko will relinquish power if you aid him in taking down a Dragon? Who knows? The possibilities are many!! Don’t abandon them because we the player base sure haven’t!!!!!

We gotta go back! Somebody’s gotta do something about these (most likely not so petrified anymore) leviathan thingees!

Dear Arenanet:
BRING BACK CANTHA! If you have to make some edits so you don’t offend people in Asian countries, fine. Two of my mains are descendants from the Kurzicks, and I want them to be able to visit the land of their ancestors. Furthermore, you could do a lot of amazing things with isolationist Cantha. A huge, sprawling overcrowded city that spans the whole continent, held in the iron grip of an oppressive and power-mad government? It’s excellent! Perhaps our characters can come to Cantha and join underground rebel groups made up of Kurzick and Luxon descendants who have kept aspects of their culture alive. Perhaps we can travel through the old Dredge tunnels to access the continent without dealing with the wrath of Bubbles. At any rate, Cantha was amazing. Cantha can be even more amazing. DO NOT DITCH CANTHA

I think that a Cantha revisit is totally necessary and worth it. The whole design on Cantha was something very magical, and with the possibilities that GW 2 power brings to the franchise, this expansion would probably be a freaking huge success regarding media and players. I honestly would love to go to Cantha just to see somewhere a jade Statue of Shiro Tagachi circled by dozen of guards, that would make my day!

Cantha was what I liked most in gw1 it got me hooked on that game, I’d be sold on gw2 if they were to add it, defintely the most intricate and interesting of all the continents.

Zappix.7928:

I think that Cantha is very doable. Considering we still have Elder Dragons we have yet to encounter, they could very well threaten Cantha and Elona! Cantha was a beautiful place and the Jade Maw Fractal is a tantalising taste of the possibilities that GW2 could do with Cantha.. Don’t abandon it or Elona! Less focus on making money from the cash shop and more emphasis on making a solid expansion that would make a lot of players very happy. I’m sorry but Southsun didn’t get off to a great start and is basically a ghost town full of weird crab things.. Listen to your player base, we wan’t Cantha, we wan’t Elona and most importantly we want GW2 to get better and better! Yes Kaineng may be a bit of a problem in terms of tight corridors and small spaces.. A solution? Start with Shing Jea, the Kurzick forest or The Jade sea. We can swim.. It would be interesting to take a dip in the newly liquefied Jade ocean. Or be on a Luxon Island battling one of the Elder Dragons. As for Elona? The orders of Tyria band together and receive an urgent warning from the Whispers contacts in Elona asking for an alliance to other throw Joko, take down a Dragon or help rebuild the Sunspears. Maybe Komir could have some kind of role in this? Only a very slight role nothing major. Maybe Joko will relinquish power if you aid him in taking down a Dragon? Who knows? The possibilities are many!! Don’t abandon them because we the player base sure haven’t!!!!!

I think Southsun Cove could play a part in bridging the original regions together. You’ve got the Consortium building things and tourists roaming around, it’s centrally located between everything so far… I also would like to see more built on Kormir, as well both in Elona and Cantha, as well as everywhere else.

I’d like to find these so called fans who complained about the Cantha district in DR and give them a piece of my mind. Anet don’t listen to this idiots, your true fans really dont care. Cantha is a huge part of the lore universe and wiping it from the books because of some people who are overly upset over a game should just stop playing and go to hello kitty island adventure.

Well it is better than Bethesda’s excuse. There were Asians but they all died.

I would be really disappointed if Cantha was not in the game.

The Jade Sea fractal really blew my mind! (And I think Kaineng City with jumping and interiors would be amazing!)

Some may have already posted this, but I think Cantha would be very easy to do. Travel could be possible by gate or ship. An elder dragon threatening the Factions area may force Cantha to reach out for help (from any races willing to do so) in order to save their hides. There are many possibilities.

As loved as Cantha was, I don’t see it being completely abandoned. One of these days I am sure it will make a debut.

The one thing I did read on this thread that ties to Cantha, is the lack of old places to visit. Most are in ruins or just vanished without a trace. I think it was unwise on ANet’s part to not give us GW1 people more familiar names and places we could get to that are not unidentifiable ruins. New players would just think they were new places, and us “old timers” would love the connection to our past. Maybe Cantha will bridge that gap as I don’t see it changing much if they are that xenophobic.

Yes, I want to see Cantha once more. Will pay any price :p