Guild Wars 2

I think from a story perspective being able to get past Orr, now that Zhiatan is out of the way, it would make sense lore wise to try to re-establish contact with Cantha and Elona, to gain more allies for the continued fight against the rest of the dragons. So adding Elona and Cantha via expansion would not only be awesome but actually make sense lore wise.

And I don’t get the whole “how are we going to integrate all the other races into Canthan culture” garbage. They have been xenophobic and closed off, we don’t have to fit them in because they aren’t there and haven’t been there for two hundred years. For many Canthan’s it would likely be their first time meeting an Asuran, Charr, Sylvari, or Norn.
There wouldn’t be any amongst the Canthan guards, merchants, temples, or anywhere else. There might be some DEs involving protecting Asuran merchants looking to establish business in the area, but at the launch of the hypothetical expansion we the players might well be the first of our race to set foot on Canthan/Elionian soil
Wouldn’t that make for some fascinating interactions? Getting to see first hand this peoples meeting the other races of the world, probably getting to deal with racial prejudice beyond the existing human/charr angst? Is that kind of depth too much to hope for?

Now, since this is only rumor as far as I can tell I’m not going to rage, yet.
But if, in fact, someone, or someones, are honestly considering abandoning parts of the known world for whatever reason, be it some misguided notion of political correctness, or homogenizing people into a master race…er, sorry, “universal” race, or whatever idiotic reasoning they might have, I would honestly push for them to be fired for crimes against world building.
That sounds very tongue in cheek, but that kind of namby pamby drivel can crush a world, and the world is the foundation on which the games rests. Undermine that foundation and the rest of the game starts to come apart at the seems, losing cohesion and becoming a nonsensical jumble.

they want to stay away from asian themes. that does not mean that canta wont return. it may be a bit less assian orientated that it used to be. Besides they probably wanted to say that they dont wat to make an asian art stiled look not theme.

The Brigadier.3847:

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

Hahaha, what??? I guess I missed something about Elder Scrolls but if that really is the case then….wow…>_> Well, a couple of my toons are Canthan…or “Asian” but as for the rest….I’m pretty sure they’re still there since they seem to dock in the Tarnished Coast according to the wiki…

Ice of Dragons.1637:

they want to stay away from asian themes. that does not mean that canta wont return. it may be a bit less assian orientated that it used to be. Besides they probably wanted to say that they dont wat to make an asian art stiled look not theme.

That sort of defeats the purpose.

Asia is such a huge continent that we don’t have to limit it to just China/Japan you know… Cantha’s inspiration could be drawn from a huge number of other oriental influences. A GW2 ritualist, for example, could just as well be drawn from filipino origin and still retain it’s image back in GW1.

Leo Paul.1659:

Asia is such a huge continent that we don’t have to limit it to just China/Japan you know… Cantha’s inspiration could be drawn from a huge number of other oriental influences. A GW2 ritualist, for example, could just as well be drawn from filipino origin and still retain it’s image back in GW1.

I think that was the main complaint was because they were mixing influences and people were feeling insulted (this was during beta, and those people really need to get over it). I guess it was insulting to them to have their cultures mix with others. This day and age, its going to happen in the real world whether they like it or not, why they complain about it in a game i do not know.

From the wiki on the great collapse
“This area was originally a completed Canthan district and included a blend of Asian architectures. However, this mix of styles received negative feedback from China and Korea, since those gaming markets traditionally prefer a uniform design. Due to time constraints the district was replaced by the Great Collapse”

-- that’s just.. ugh. very.. i don’t even have a word for it. --

Well, it’s been 250 years since GW1, perhaps Cantha hasn’t remained strictly oriental then. But really, I’m so disappointed to know the reason for the great collapse. I’m asian myself, but help me understand.. Is it racist that the cultures were blended, thus the negative feedback?

Leo Paul.1659:

-- that’s just.. ugh. very.. i don’t even have a word for it. --

Well, it’s been 250 years since GW1, perhaps Cantha hasn’t remained strictly oriental then. But really, I’m so disappointed to know the reason for the great collapse. I’m asian myself, but help me understand.. Is it racist that the cultures were blended, thus the negative feedback?

It needs to stay strictly oriental :P it’s just the way the Canthan culture is, and it’s an ancient culture…It hadn’t changed in thousands of years, there’s no reason 250 years would change something that significant. It wasn’t about it being oriental, it was about the mixture of architecture in Divinity’s Reach, they wanted Anet to choose one or the other (Chinese, Japanese, or Korean) not mix them all together. This could have changed by now, though.

Leo Paul.1659:

-- that’s just.. ugh. very.. i don’t even have a word for it. --

Well, it’s been 250 years since GW1, perhaps Cantha hasn’t remained strictly oriental then. But really, I’m so disappointed to know the reason for the great collapse. I’m asian myself, but help me understand.. Is it racist that the cultures were blended, thus the negative feedback?

It wasn’t strictly oriental to begin with anyway – Kurzick and Luxon were most certainly based on other cultures.

I think the issue goes back to the portrayal of East Asia in the media since…forever – all the cultures (and their food, religion, clothing, architecture, etc.) have a history of being jumbled together into one stereotype. I think Japan might be an exception, but certainly China, Korea, Vietnam, et al, have been portrayed as being the same thing. Now people and companies are, rightfully, trying to move away from this amalgamated image of Asia.

Now, I don’t agree with Cantha being shut down in GW2 (at least for the foreseeable future), but I can understand the issues it was facing; like how for example the names of Canthan characters were based on real names from a load of different countries, with the indication that all these people with these extremely different names were from the same culture.

I think Elona didn’t suffer from this problem so much, because there were distinct cultural lines drawn.

Before I add to the Cantha thing I just want to say…

Kryta is not like any part of Europe I have ever been to. The attitudes, the atmosphere, the accents (oh why american accents? whyyy?)… its more like an allusion to europe. Similarly compared to other mmos specifically set in China and Asian-themed lands, Cantha always came across as more of an allusion to Kowloon walled city, and for some reason Germany… I don’t get the whole Kurzicks thing but I enjoyed Echovald none the less.

Please bring back Cantha in an expansion to GW2! Elona too if you can, as I always enjoyed Nightfall more, but yeah… don’t neglect them just cos they’re human lands. Do them both in the same expansion if you want to get them out of the way, just please don’t forget about them.

Shanna.4762:

Zappix.7928:

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?

I also would like to see more built on Kormir, as well both in Elona and Cantha, as well as everywhere else.

It’s really nice to see someone supporting the idea of Kormir being involved, and I agree. I am always kind of surprised that some fans didn’t like her character. That was really news to me, because I thought she was really interesting and complex, especially for a female computer game character (let’s face it, not everyone is as good as Anet at making female characters sympathetic and non-stereotypical ). It would be awesome for her now-goddess self to be involved in some way. I mean, on the list of GW1 characters that are still alive, she’s one of the few! It would be nice for her to be around somewhere!

ScribeTheMad.7614:

I would honestly push for them to be fired for crimes against world building.

That is an awesome way of saying it, honestly. There may not be a real law in defense world-building, but there is in the minds of fans, and we are determined to enforce it! ;D

As you and others have said, with Zhaitan out of the way, it makes sense for us to go to Cantha next. In fact, now that you mention it, it wouldn’t make any sense at all if we didn’t go back to Cantha. I know they are isolationist and determined to keep people out, but when did that ever stop humans on the Tyrian continent, Asura businessmen, or enterprising Norn from doing whatever they pleased? It would be hard to believe that no on on Tyria would take advantage of the new chance to get to Cantha, whether to exploit the trade opportunity or simply reconnect with the land of their ancestors, or to earn renown for ambitious exploration. It would be hard to come up with a logical explanation why this wouldn’t happen.

Yes, aversion to mixing cultures doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but then, I live in a country where “melting-pot” is the natural habitat. Still, the Kurzicks were German/Russian/Asians…wow, what an epic combo. O.O And Europeans don’t complain. Kryta is in no way “pure” Europe, it’s a formerly South American/jungle culture-turned-pseudo-European. The Sylvari are vaguely Celtic people who live in a jungle. The very creative, sometimes illogical, but always appealing blend of influences in this game set the stage for Cantha to draw from all kinds of Asian aesthetics and history, and it makes me sad that the Asian players/CEOs/whoever were not comfortable with it the way everyone else in other countries apparently is. It’s hard to judge other people by our cultural standards, so I am trying to look at it from their perspective, but I don’t understand yet. I just hope Anet can come up with a solution that will please everyone, so we can get Cantha back!!

Lady Vireo.5189:

Shanna.4762:

Zappix.7928:

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?

I also would like to see more built on Kormir, as well both in Elona and Cantha, as well as everywhere else.

It’s really nice to see someone supporting the idea of Kormir being involved, and I agree. I am always kind of surprised that some fans didn’t like her character. That was really news to me, because I thought she was really interesting and complex, especially for a female computer game character (let’s face it, not everyone is as good as Anet at making female characters sympathetic and non-stereotypical ). It would be awesome for her now-goddess self to be involved in some way. I mean, on the list of GW1 characters that are still alive, she’s one of the few! It would be nice for her to be around somewhere!

ScribeTheMad.7614:

I would honestly push for them to be fired for crimes against world building.

That is an awesome way of saying it, honestly. There may not be a real law in defense world-building, but there is in the minds of fans, and we are determined to enforce it! ;D

As you and others have said, with Zhaitan out of the way, it makes sense for us to go to Cantha next. In fact, now that you mention it, it wouldn’t make any sense at all if we didn’t go back to Cantha. I know they are isolationist and determined to keep people out, but when did that ever stop humans on the Tyrian continent, Asura businessmen, or enterprising Norn from doing whatever they pleased? It would be hard to believe that no on on Tyria would take advantage of the new chance to get to Cantha, whether to exploit the trade opportunity or simply reconnect with the land of their ancestors, or to earn renown for ambitious exploration. It would be hard to come up with a logical explanation why this wouldn’t happen.

Yes, aversion to mixing cultures doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but then, I live in a country where “melting-pot” is the natural habitat. Still, the Kurzicks were German/Russian/Asians…wow, what an epic combo. O.O And Europeans don’t complain. Kryta is in no way “pure” Europe, it’s a formerly South American/jungle culture-turned-pseudo-European. The Sylvari are vaguely Celtic people who live in a jungle. The very creative, sometimes illogical, but always appealing blend of influences in this game set the stage for Cantha to draw from all kinds of Asian aesthetics and history, and it makes me sad that the Asian players/CEOs/whoever were not comfortable with it the way everyone else in other countries apparently is. It’s hard to judge other people by our cultural standards, so I am trying to look at it from their perspective, but I don’t understand yet. I just hope Anet can come up with a solution that will please everyone, so we can get Cantha back!!

I think Kryta is based off the Mediterranean region, such as Spain, France, Morocco, etc with some anglo mixed in here and there. Those regions were melting pots back in the day more so than the rest of the euro kingdoms. Queen Jennah seems to be loosely based off Queen Isabella just based off some of her back story of coming to a really powerful throne very young, having to deal with all sorts of issues politically while also pushing for the expansion of her kingdom and people etc.

It’s interesting how the Kurzicks seem to be based off those cultures you mentioned, Imperial era Russia had lot’s of oriental/asian people migrate into it over time because it literally bordered that region And you can see some of the influence in Russian (interior) architecture and decorum even to this day. So there really isn’t much reaching going in when it comes to the Kurzicks.

It’s really nice to see someone supporting the idea of Kormir being involved, and I agree. I am always kind of surprised that some fans didn’t like her character. That was really news to me, because I thought she was really interesting and complex, especially for a female computer game character (let’s face it, not everyone is as good as Anet at making female characters sympathetic and non-stereotypical ). It would be awesome for her now-goddess self to be involved in some way. I mean, on the list of GW1 characters that are still alive, she’s one of the few! It would be nice for her to be around somewhere!

Thank you, I liked Komir’s character and the whole Sunspear thing. She’s a newish God perhaps her more human side could become emotional and take an approach at rebuilding the Sunspear army and your character could be the bridge to do that?

Zappix.7928:

It’s really nice to see someone supporting the idea of Kormir being involved, and I agree. I am always kind of surprised that some fans didn’t like her character. That was really news to me, because I thought she was really interesting and complex, especially for a female computer game character (let’s face it, not everyone is as good as Anet at making female characters sympathetic and non-stereotypical ). It would be awesome for her now-goddess self to be involved in some way. I mean, on the list of GW1 characters that are still alive, she’s one of the few! It would be nice for her to be around somewhere!

Thank you, I liked Komir’s character and the whole Sunspear thing. She’s a newish God perhaps her more human side could become emotional and take an approach at rebuilding the Sunspear army and your character could be the bridge to do that?

It would be pretty neat, I like Kormir because of that very reason, she was human at one point and is the newest out of all the gods she would be the most likely to take a more proactive approach to the mortals plights than the other gods are, going forward. I hope to see more done with her both in Elona, and other regions. Maybe Anet can do something that makes her more popular now. I’m also interested in seeing worship of Kormir has spread to other regions of the world, like Cantha, or anywhere else outside Kryta.

Shanna.4762:

Zappix.7928:

Thank you, I liked Komir’s character and the whole Sunspear thing. She’s a newish God perhaps her more human side could become emotional and take an approach at rebuilding the Sunspear army and your character could be the bridge to do that?

It would be pretty neat, I like Kormir because of that very reason, she was human at one point and is the newest out of all the gods she would be the most likely to take a more proactive approach to the mortals plights than the other gods are, going forward. I hope to see more done with her both in Elona, and other regions. Maybe Anet can do something that makes her more popular now. I’m also interested in seeing worship of Kormir has spread to other regions of the world, like Cantha, or anywhere else outside Kryta.

Same here, that’s also what I found so appealing about her character. She’s not like the older, more distant gods, she’s one of us who now has cosmic power to intervene on our behalf! I also love her “truth and knowledge” theme (that’s why I picked her for the patron goddess of my human Durmand Priory character ).

That’s a really interesting question about whether her worship caught on in Cantha, too!

I’m really curious to see how she is handled in light of the fact that the gods have all but disappeared. Were they beaten back by the elder dragons? Or did they leave on purpose? If so, wouldn’t Kormir be the goddess to not back out of human affairs so willingly? Wouldn’t she go down fighting for what was once her own kind?

Cantha is just a must have, I can’t imagine a Guild Wars game without Cantha.

It even baffles me with the thought of not having Cantha in this game, it had so much potential in original Guild Wars, just imagine what they could do with Cantha in Guild Wars 2.

I would really love to see Cantha in Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet! Perhaps not as the next expansion, or the expansion after that, but at least somewhere in the future.

Lady Vireo.5189:

Shanna.4762:

Zappix.7928:

Thank you, I liked Komir’s character and the whole Sunspear thing. She’s a newish God perhaps her more human side could become emotional and take an approach at rebuilding the Sunspear army and your character could be the bridge to do that?

It would be pretty neat, I like Kormir because of that very reason, she was human at one point and is the newest out of all the gods she would be the most likely to take a more proactive approach to the mortals plights than the other gods are, going forward. I hope to see more done with her both in Elona, and other regions. Maybe Anet can do something that makes her more popular now. I’m also interested in seeing worship of Kormir has spread to other regions of the world, like Cantha, or anywhere else outside Kryta.

Same here, that’s also what I found so appealing about her character. She’s not like the older, more distant gods, she’s one of us who now has cosmic power to intervene on our behalf! I also love her “truth and knowledge” theme (that’s why I picked her for the patron goddess of my human Durmand Priory character ).

That’s a really interesting question about whether her worship caught on in Cantha, too!

I’m really curious to see how she is handled in light of the fact that the gods have all but disappeared. Were they beaten back by the elder dragons? Or did they leave on purpose? If so, wouldn’t Kormir be the goddess to not back out of human affairs so willingly? Wouldn’t she go down fighting for what was once her own kind?

Yeah, I mean Canthan’s worship their ancestors over gods, sometimes they worshipped gods for specific professions or what not but I could see Kormir being a really popular god in Cantha because there are events in her story that are tied to Cantha, and the fact she was a human who ascended into godhood would be appealing to a people who were so oppressed and miserable before. So out of all the gods, I could see Kormir being a primary one in modern day Cantha.

Also would of been cool of ancestral worship were a worship option for human characters…The more I think about it, I wish they had kept the ability to select our cultural origin in the game…I mean the gods choice barely affected anything, and I would like to officially tie my characters to specific cultures from GW1, even if it didn’t yield all that much of a story altering scenario. I hope it’s in the plans for the future.

I’d like to see Cantha or Elona in future expansions because I’m getting tired of the horrible story telling in GW2. Also I do agree that Canthan dieties were much more likeable and interesting than the “silence of the 6 gods”. I like the game, I like it’s gameplay features, but story telling is just well bad. The personal story is in dire need of a reboot. That’s only my 2 cents though so feel free to disagree.

Wayfinder.8452:

I’d like to see Cantha or Elona in future expansions because I’m getting tired of the horrible story telling in GW2. Also I do agree that Canthan dieties were much more likeable and interesting than the “silence of the 6 gods”. I like the game, I like it’s gameplay features, but story telling is just well bad. The personal story is in dire need of a reboot. That’s only my 2 cents though so feel free to disagree.

The storytelling is something I can see evolving over time, for instance they’re doing this living-story thing which could either end up being really awesome, or horrible…But I think they’re headed in the right direction. In terms of personal story, I like how Act 1 was done well enough but I would prefer a more interactive system. I don’t like how cinematic’s turned into 2 characters talking in front of a fancy wallpaper effect, I would rather them be more cinematic and in the environment you’re already in. I don’t know if that will change, though and ultimately I would rather have deeper world story telling going on if I had to choose, that’s something that everyone can participate in together and help make changes to the world. Cantha and Elona are prime locations for this type of content, too because there are a bunch of different possible situations that could arise in these nations.

What I really liked about GW1 was how well they were able to manage the different ethnics in the game. We need both Cantha and Elona expansion!

It’d be an absolute disgrace to not have Cantha in GW2. Why is NCSoft concerned with offending Asian audiences, but the Elonian district in Divinity’s Reach is allowed to stay?

GW2 has a legacy it has to follow. Cantha was by far (in my opinion) the most diverse and beautiful continent in GW1, and there is so much than can be done with it in GW2. Arenanet AND NCsoft owes it to their fans to deliver, otherwise they’ll lose even more fans who came from GW1.

Please, please bring back Cantha.

Ketto.6508:

It’d be an absolute disgrace to not have Cantha in GW2. Why is NCSoft concerned with offending Asian audiences, but the Elonian district in Divinity’s Reach is allowed to stay?

The same reason they shut down City of Heroes: American audiences will never know.

Please bring back Cantha. It was a very special place for a big chunk of original Guild Wars 2 players.

I’d just like to say that I’m Asian and I’m far more offended/horrified that the race meant to play analogue to my own has been butchered out of the human race in-game. There is nothing wrong with positive, three-dimensional representations of different ethnicities and cultures in a game. I’m actually stunned that the Ossan Quarter is allowed to exist when the Canthan district was stripped out as it was.

Denying Asian people a presence in Tyria when it was established previously that there was one, while still including so many other varied and interesting ethnicities, is heartbreaking to me. There rarely seems to be representation of Asian culture in media without there being some kind of underlying ‘reason.’ Either Asian culture is being glorified and fetishized or it ceases to exist at all. I’ve always really appreciated Guild Wars’ tradition of having an Asian culture within their lore that simply exists within the context of all the other ethnicities without being anything more or anything less. It was representation without being set apart.

I genuinely hope NCSoft changes their stance on this, even though with their track record I don’t have much hope.

There is no reason for this, and the reasoning they’re giving is actually the exact opposite of what they’re accomplishing.

Erasing Canthans while letting Krytans, Ascalonians, Elonians etc. continue to have presence and impact in Tyria is unfairly singling out Canthans and is way more offensive to me personally. It’s not like they made Arenanet strip out every ethnicity, just the Asian-inspired one.

That’s really not okay.

It would be really dumb for them to remove a whole game culture because of some real world people being “offended.” To me that is not even pride, it’s selfishness. Why compare yourself to a fantasy world that is trying to include multiple people in a non stereotypical way? If they do not add Cantha, the day they announce it as never happening, that’s the day I quit. Factions was my favorite part of GW1 and if it were to go, the game would never be worth playing.

If Anet goes through with never releasing Cantha, I will not quit GW 2, but I will probably not buy the next big game they make be it GW 3 or something else. My RP style and loyalty is relying on Cantha being released

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

If Anet goes through with never releasing Cantha, I will not quit GW 2, but I will probably not buy the next big game they make be it GW 3 or something else. My RP style and loyalty is relying on Cantha being released

If you tell them it defeats the point, now all they have to do is not put it into GW2 so they can use it as a selling point for GW3.

Can we vote on this? ..or will a democratic vote not work?

How many posts have there been of people who would be offended by revisiting Cantha?

Kain Francois.4328:

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!)

Actually that was my first thought that came to mind when I thought about GuildWars 2.

Bodhisattva.6578:

Can we vote on this? ..or will a democratic vote not work?

How many posts have there been of people who would be offended by revisiting Cantha?

I only skimmed through that discussion, but it seams there were only two posts stating that they understand NCsoft logic behind that decision.

Arianna.9304:

I’d just like to say that I’m Asian and I’m far more offended/horrified that the race meant to play analogue to my own has been butchered out of the human race in-game. There is nothing wrong with positive, three-dimensional representations of different ethnicities and cultures in a game. I’m actually stunned that the Ossan Quarter is allowed to exist when the Canthan district was stripped out as it was.

Denying Asian people a presence in Tyria when it was established previously that there was one, while still including so many other varied and interesting ethnicities, is heartbreaking to me. There rarely seems to be representation of Asian culture in media without there being some kind of underlying ‘reason.’ Either Asian culture is being glorified and fetishized or it ceases to exist at all. I’ve always really appreciated Guild Wars’ tradition of having an Asian culture within their lore that simply exists within the context of all the other ethnicities without being anything more or anything less. It was representation without being set apart.

I genuinely hope NCSoft changes their stance on this, even though with their track record I don’t have much hope.

There is no reason for this, and the reasoning they’re giving is actually the exact opposite of what they’re accomplishing.

Erasing Canthans while letting Krytans, Ascalonians, Elonians etc. continue to have presence and impact in Tyria is unfairly singling out Canthans and is way more offensive to me personally. It’s not like they made Arenanet strip out every ethnicity, just the Asian-inspired one.

That’s really not okay.

Thank you for your input, I agree with you and I think you’ll find many others do as well..It’s like they didn’t even bother to look from the perspective of asian people in real life and how they might be affected by these decisions. It’s not fair, and it’s not okay. Many of my asian friends who play the game feel very passionately about this as well, and have been bringing it up. Hopefully we can get Anet and NCsoft, and whoever else to recognize this so they can move forward with Cantha.

Bodhisattva.6578:

Can we vote on this? ..or will a democratic vote not work?

How many posts have there been of people who would be offended by revisiting Cantha?

You’ll find that a vast majority of people who have participated in this discussion are strongly in favor of a Canthan expansion sooner rather than later, including one of the developers themselves. Most people seem to be really disappointed and angered by how it has been handled so far.

If the design of the “city slums” was an issue holding them back, well, there’s really no reason it should. Look at how much time has passed, there’s a new emperor that has changed everything, he could have rebuilt Kaineng City and then they won’t have to deal with the cramped maze-like city for design purposes (although many of us will be disappointed, I think that it would be a fair tradeoff just to get the campaign back). I really emplore whoever has the power to change this to read what your fans/players have written. These are the people that will be purchasing your future content.

Shanna.4762:

You’ll find that a vast majority of people who have participated in this discussion are strongly in favor of a Canthan expansion sooner rather than later, including one of the developers themselves. Most people seem to be really disappointed and angered by how it has been handled so far.

And how many have not bothered to post and don’t care one bit about Cantha. If it never makes it into GW2 then fine by me. It was the worst of the standalones. The only people who are disappointed are those that have a vested interest in Cantha. The rest simply does not care.

I’d really just like having Alliances back.

Conner.4702:

Shanna.4762:

You’ll find that a vast majority of people who have participated in this discussion are strongly in favor of a Canthan expansion sooner rather than later, including one of the developers themselves. Most people seem to be really disappointed and angered by how it has been handled so far.

And how many have not bothered to post and don’t care one bit about Cantha. If it never makes it into GW2 then fine by me. It was the worst of the standalones. The only people who are disappointed are those that have a vested interest in Cantha. The rest simply does not care.

He asked about how many IN THIS THREAD, not overall and so I answered him, so thanks for (not) paying attention. Theres no way to truly calculate the entire current player base, or future players’ opinions on this matter, even with a survey there are a lot of people who wouldn’t take it, or notice that there was one to begin with.

Your reasoning is flawed, though. For one, you’re assuming there aren’t other players that want to see Cantha in GW2, that aren’t already posting on this thread and the forums. Most players of any MMO don’t post on the forums, mostly the more vocal members of the player base and community. Secondly, I could counter your statement and question with the exact same same “question” you posed to me and just reverse it. How many players do want Cantha in GW2, but have not bothered to post? Thirdly, Cantha being the “worst” of the stand alone campaigns is your opinion. That’s perfectly fine of course, but that’s not a universal opinion, that’s just -your- opinion so please don’t speak on behalf of everybody else that plays the game. And last but not least, everybody else simply doesn’t care? And you know this, how? Did you get every person on every server, and players who may not have the game yet, and players who are not actively playing at the moment to fill out a survey on this very specific issue? You may not care, some people you know may or may not care, but that doesn’t really count for very much on the grand scale, does it? This is a topic taking place on this forum, with the community here that does take part in conversations about the game and it’s potential future content. It’s had enough consistent activity to get the attention of a developer, and it has managed to continue steadily growing over time, and if you read over it you’ll find that opinion in participants of this topic are overwhelmingly in favor of Cantha being put into the game. For all any of us know, we’re in the minority, but we could just as easily be in the majority on this issue too.

If you’re going to single someone out and blurt out a bunch of personal opinion as the de facto opinion of everyone else, please just bypass the thread as you’re not contributing much constructively to the topic.

Conner.4702:

Shanna.4762:

You’ll find that a vast majority of people who have participated in this discussion are strongly in favor of a Canthan expansion sooner rather than later, including one of the developers themselves. Most people seem to be really disappointed and angered by how it has been handled so far.

And how many have not bothered to post and don’t care one bit about Cantha. If it never makes it into GW2 then fine by me. It was the worst of the standalones. The only people who are disappointed are those that have a vested interest in Cantha. The rest simply does not care.

True and false. Maybe the rest doesn’t care or maybe they do but aren’t willing to post or maybe the majority of players don’t use the forums and/or aren’t aware of cantha not making it into the game. The rest is your oppinion.
On closer inspection you will find, Shanna is right, the majority of posters in this thread is in favor of cantha. Nothing more has been said.

Ofc, never going to happen, but I think NCSoft would change their stance on Cantha if every single GW2 player out there quit the game instantly and went on strike.

Petition, anyone? :P

Dondarrion.2748:

Ofc, never going to happen, but I think NCSoft would change their stance on Cantha if every single GW2 player out there quit the game instantly and went on strike.

Petition, anyone? :P

There is a petition for this that someone created, I believe it is here:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gw2expansions/

And yes, it is unlikely anyone will go on strike for it, our goal is to continue building support and keep a spotlight on the issue to catch their attention and hopefully get them to move forward with Cantha.

Hopefully we will be told if anything else comes up officially on the whole Cantha situation, one way or another. Either by Josh Foreman (the dev who has participated in this conversation) or any other part of the ArenaNet team. In the meantime let’s keep getting people to voice their views on all of it, and discussing ideas for Cantha in the future!

This game is doomed without Cantha. I see no hope for Anet to recover from the oppression of NcSoft.

I’m Asian too, and I don’t understand.

I doubt any Asian player who was offended by Cantha would have the guts to come out to the community and say what was so offending about it. They’d get fed to an ED.

If this is true, and I hope it isn’t, I’ll see a good reason to play less of the game. Cantha is undoubtedly the most beautiful and awe inspiring continent in GW. If the devs are truly considering the absence of Cantha in this game, because a few nationalistic, bigoted individuals don’t want to see their culture mixed with another, it will probably be seen as the death of the game by some players. I myself re-rolled a Factions character after buying the game, simply because I was amazed by it.

It’s absolutely appalling to see politics work it’s way into the gaming industry. If anything we play games to escape the stresses of everyday life. Why not just stick to ONE asian design rather than a mix? The majority of the playerbase couldn’t even tell apart Chinese or Japanese or Korean architecture. Why doesn’t the design team actually, you know, design their own?

I saw the image of the old Canthan district on the wiki, and it looks wonderful. Now it’s a great ugly hole in the ground. If we cannot progress through the story line carried on from GW1 (including all continents) then why bother playing to find out nothing about what happened to Cantha, than a rushed and poorly written wiki article?

People arguing against the need for Cantha as part of this game, that’s your opinion, but this thread is for people who actually care about the different aspects of the game making it as ‘universal’ as it was in GW1. Some actually care for story lines, design and immersion into the game environment, rather than only caring to get that number beside their name to 80, and the quality/stats of gear.

This is terrible news if true. I never liked Prophecies honestly and I didn’t really like the game until Factions came out and I got to make a ritualist. I haven’t been that enamored with GW2 either and I was waiting for the Canthan expansion to bring back my enthusiasm for the series. We get to play Western European influenced RPG’s over and over and over again. Factions was something different, why take that away and leave us with yet another dragons and castles game.

abianis.4592:

Conner.4702:

Shanna.4762:

You’ll find that a vast majority of people who have participated in this discussion are strongly in favor of a Canthan expansion sooner rather than later, including one of the developers themselves. Most people seem to be really disappointed and angered by how it has been handled so far.

And how many have not bothered to post and don’t care one bit about Cantha. If it never makes it into GW2 then fine by me. It was the worst of the standalones. The only people who are disappointed are those that have a vested interest in Cantha. The rest simply does not care.

True and false. Maybe the rest doesn’t care or maybe they do but aren’t willing to post or maybe the majority of players don’t use the forums and/or aren’t aware of cantha not making it into the game. The rest is your oppinion.
On closer inspection you will find, Shanna is right, the majority of posters in this thread is in favor of cantha. Nothing more has been said.

Of course most in this thread will agree with what is being said, hence vested interest. I don’t need any closer inspection for that. This isn’t a debate thread between two opposite sides, but a congregation of like minded people. Well sorry to burst your bubble, you are a minority.

And for the record I didn’t say all people who didn’t post don’t care about cantha as you seem to think I said. “The only people who are disappointed are those that have a vested interest in Cantha.” That means both that post here and those that don’t.

I want a gameworld that makes sense and adding Cantha sinply does not make sense at this point in time. No matter how much you want it included. You have Jormag in the North, Kralkatorrik in the East, Primordius who knows where. Bubbles somewhere in the ocean, most likely that same ocean between Tyria and Cantha. Finally there is the 6th unknown dragon. We are in chapter one and you guys want to skip to chapter ten.

Perhaps, but there is a lot more to Guild Wars than dragon attacks. As it stands, having any of the dragon attacks is a pretty convenient tie-in to what is going on already. As in add one area apiece to the Shiverpeaks, Crystal Desert etc etc and bam you have your big dragon fight. IMO dragons are probably the most contrived, boring thing GW 2 had to offer; whereas in the first game you just got a (very) good introduction to Glint – surprising as the story in Prophecies wasn’t that awesome – and that was it. Here its dragons, dragons and more dragons, and even if they’re integral to the plot there can be the argument that a breather from them could be a good thing.

But then to be honest I can’t stand dragons in this case. It’s pretty much the case of playing a three legged race to level 80 and at the end is some overgrown lizard who throws a bunch of zombies at you with a Saturday morning cartoon villain laugh and little else. Imagine that for Jormag, Kralkatorik and Primordius in turn and things can get very stale. Essentially – personally I’m tired of dragons in fantasy games I suppose.

Having Elona or Cantha or possibly the Aztec-themed continent meant to be in Utopia might just be a little of a breather. In some regard it might be the case of we’re in chapter one, chapters 2-9 might be a little repetitive in terms of storytelling so you go for an interlude in the style of “and whilst this was happening, this is what these guys were doing.” My opinion, but there you have it.

If Canthan themes were scrapped because some producer’s decision, that producer MUST be fired ASAP.

Not having Canthan themes because of some bad corporate decision is an aberration.

Cantha itself may be closed and it may take a lot of time until they can bring it back, but if the Great Collapse was not based on lore but on some corporate decision, that’s unforgivable.

UNFORGIVABLE, I SAY.

Conner.4702:

I want a gameworld that makes sense and adding Cantha sinply does not make sense at this point in time. No matter how much you want it included. You have Jormag in the North, Kralkatorrik in the East, Primordius who knows where. Bubbles somewhere in the ocean, most likely that same ocean between Tyria and Cantha. Finally there is the 6th unknown dragon. We are in chapter one and you guys want to skip to chapter ten.

Some of us just want Cantha to be acknowledged and included in Divinity’s Reach for now, with the possibility of more on the horizon. There is no reason or excuse for the Great Collapse if it was only put there because to make GW2 more ‘universal.’ The mere suggestion that erasing the Canthan district of Divinity’s Reach somehow gives the game more appeal rather than less is crazy to me.

Conner.4702:

abianis.4592:

Conner.4702:

Shanna.4762:

You’ll find that a vast majority of people who have participated in this discussion are strongly in favor of a Canthan expansion sooner rather than later, including one of the developers themselves. Most people seem to be really disappointed and angered by how it has been handled so far.

And how many have not bothered to post and don’t care one bit about Cantha. If it never makes it into GW2 then fine by me. It was the worst of the standalones. The only people who are disappointed are those that have a vested interest in Cantha. The rest simply does not care.

True and false. Maybe the rest doesn’t care or maybe they do but aren’t willing to post or maybe the majority of players don’t use the forums and/or aren’t aware of cantha not making it into the game. The rest is your oppinion.
On closer inspection you will find, Shanna is right, the majority of posters in this thread is in favor of cantha. Nothing more has been said.

Of course most in this thread will agree with what is being said, hence vested interest. I don’t need any closer inspection for that. This isn’t a debate thread between two opposite sides, but a congregation of like minded people. Well sorry to burst your bubble, you are a minority.

And for the record I didn’t say all people who didn’t post don’t care about cantha as you seem to think I said. “The only people who are disappointed are those that have a vested interest in Cantha.” That means both that post here and those that don’t.

I want a gameworld that makes sense and adding Cantha sinply does not make sense at this point in time. No matter how much you want it included. You have Jormag in the North, Kralkatorrik in the East, Primordius who knows where. Bubbles somewhere in the ocean, most likely that same ocean between Tyria and Cantha. Finally there is the 6th unknown dragon. We are in chapter one and you guys want to skip to chapter ten.

There you go again with the “You’re in the minority because I said so.” thing. You don’t KNOW that one way or another, it is impossible to know that. It’s funny how every few days I come across more and more people asking about Cantha that want it, and are disappointed that it’s barely even acknowledged in the game in any really tangible capacity, IE: Divinity’s Reach district yet somehow you seem to think there’s very little vested interest in it.

And yes, this topic has been about several aspects of the Cantha issue, not just like minded people but so far we seem to be in the majority when it comes to this forum, and this issue specifically so far. This is not the “Cantha fans only forum” this is the general GW2 forum and is open to everyone, as is this topic. People who disagree are more than welcome to come here and say so, and also explain why.

One thing we do agree on is that we both want a game world that makes sense, and I am not saying I want Cantha added tomorrow, or in the next few months. I don’t want to “skip to chapter 10” as you put it, and while I see what you are saying there I don’t think that is what anyone is asking to have happen, either. We don’t have a specific timeline of world events.. This is a story that we are moving along with as it happens and that opens up a wealth of possibilities. If every single major expansion (whether it be via free update, or paid) is due soley to a Dragon popping up somewhere and Dragons being the only threats the world seems to face consecutively then that could get stale after a couple times in a row. And even if they choose to go that route, Cantha is/was the Empire of the Dragon, and also a very significant part of the Guild Wars story and lore, not having it makes absolutely no sense what so ever. We have no real timeline to follow, and now that Zhaitan has been dealt with and we’re on our way to fixing that whole situation, Jormag seems to be the next most pressing Dragon conflict…But after that it could go in any direction with any dragon in any part of the world.

I’m sure everything I could possibly say about why Cantha needs to be the next focus of the game has already been said by somebody else in this thread. So I’ll just say this, Cantha was my start in guild wars and my favourite campaign of the original guild wars. In fact the only reason I didn’t spend all my time in it was because of titles in eye of the north…

Cantha had such an interesting lore behind it (far more interesting than the rest of tyria in my opinion) not to mention having some of my favourite art/locations. I will always have fond memories of the monastary.

Also, to not include it because NCSofts PR department feels an asian theme would be racist or whatever there reasoning may be is dumb… that’s like saying elona should have been scrapped because of the realm of torment and that it would offend someone religious…

I hope that they change there mind about this and this has severely made me lose some faith in ncsoft…

Add my name to the list of players wanting cantha…

Maybe not every GW2 player agrees with the love for Cantha expressed in this thread, but I would hope that anyone who dislikes Cantha would still support bringing it back for the sake of players who do love it and the ways it could make the game stronger.

Case in point: I can’t stand PvP or WvW. At all. Do I resent the use of Anet’s resources to develop them? No way! PvP and WvW are really important to a lot of players. I want them to get the high quality PvP experience they deserve. I want my friends who are PvP fans to get to enjoy their favorite part to of the game. And a happy PvP community makes the community as a whole stronger, and the same goes for a happy PvE community.

So if you don’t like Cantha, I invite you to have a positive attitude about it in support of your fellow Guild Wars fans. Tell me what part of the game is your favorite, and I will do the same for you. There is room for Guild Wars 2 to grow and embrace what many players want, even though it may take a long time because Anet has to prioritize their use of resources.

That said, I think this thread is actually very strong evidence that people care about Cantha and support its return. These forums are full of people who just love to disagree with what’s been posted in a thread. More often than not, an OP’s message will be buried under a crowd arguing against his/her opinions. And yet, the majority of the people came to this thread to support Cantha, not express their loathing for it. The positive tone of the thread and the ongoing outpouring of support, which consistently appears on the first page, is really impressive, and wonderful to see.

Edit: I would also like to point out the very significant fact that many of the devs want to bring Cantha back, which is a pretty strong argument in its favor. ;P

“ArenaNet isn’t going to develop a traditional expansion for Guild Wars 2 any time soon. “Expansions are definitely something that we’ll potentially look at in the future,” game director Colin Johanson told IGN. “We don’t have a timetable on it. We’re open to it, but I think our major focus as a studio is making the living world concept as strong as we possibly can for the players that we’ve got.”

I still have hope for a Cantha themed update… and eventually a Cantha based expansion pack… its only a matter of time… but i hope this time they include more cultural influences then mainly Chinese, Japanese, and Korean… i would love to see some Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolian, Thai, and Filipino influences if they do… i have faith that they wont abandon Cantha. after all several human npcs have Canthan faces… and hairstyles…