Guild Wars 2

Symo.7803:

I mean… Even a big part of the gw2 staff (as Josh Foreman said) would like to see Cantha back again. I don’t know if we can do anything to change ArenaNet mind about the game but maybe… I don’t know maybe some kind of petition signed by a large number of players loving Cantha and hoping to have it back would work.

They wont. I’ve been playing this game since headstart. I know im being a “Debbie Downer” here. but I’ve become pretty convinced by this point that Anet’s policies only revolve around short-term profit. And by Anet i mean NCSOFT. Whom are probably preventing anet from working on anything good for long-term health (like Cantha, more dungeons, etc) in favor of the lucrative money theyre making from the gemstore. Essentially theyve found their comfort zone and theyre gonna stick to it. I see a future filled with plushie quaggan backpacks and small two-week story segments.

Dont misunderstand. I would LOVE to see Cantha. Or ANY large map update. Pretty much anything that I could spend more than two hours on every two weeks. Its just that i’ve become jaded to any possibility of it happening.

Cantha pls. TY. Not an easily offended east asian here:3

I can definitely see Cantha making another appearance in GW2. For me it is not if it will happen more like when. Tyria still has a lot of blank spots so I think that would take priority but since they are moving for more story based content I think its only a matter of time. Cantha had a lot of story and I’m sure they know people would go crazy to see the Kurzick and Luxons at it again. (Kurzick FTW!!)(The turtle ####### will kneel before the mighty Kurzick :P)

The current team has no interest in replicating any of GW1 in this game. Guild Wars 2 is a franchise name, time to move on.

Did Republic City insult Chinese/Asian people in Legend Of Korra?
Did they riot when The Great Wall was recreated in The Last Airbender?
Or maybe they didn’t watch it at all because it was animated in Korea?

In any case, it’s ridiculous.

Honestly I don’t get why Asian people were offended since Africans didn’t get offended by the Elonia district?
Yes I know it has something to do with the the mixed Asian (Chinese and Korean) style for Cantha but come on!

Beside with the game out in China, what is the reception from Chinese players are like? Will they not get offended on the possible Cantha expansion that is if they know about GW?

My faith in Arenanet’s ability/willingness to create significant permanent content (expansions) has disappeared completely. I’m just finishing up my last few characters, then I’ll just migrate elsewhere. Plenty of fish in the sea! ;-)

The Ministry must be destroyed. The real imperial bloodlines of tengu and humans must be restored back where they belong, and the kaiju dragon must be defeated.

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

It is understandable that some people are more sensitive culturally speaking. As a European, I don’t care seeing various elements of different cultures mixed.

However, for Cantha, there could be a little trick to avoid mixing… How about “zoning”? I mean, Shing Jea could be (let’s say) heavily Korean-oriented, while most are around Kaineng could be Chinese-inspired, down south we could find some kind of jungle with Cambodgian-like temples, and some city around the Jade Sea could be Japanese-influenced…

There are millions of ways to avoid hurting people, even though as we say it’s just a game and any resemblance with real-life elements is purely fortuitous.

As people said on this topic, if they really wanted to avoid Cantha, they could create a story where bubbles wiped the continent. We would curse but still, that’s how it is. Because it was given a background story, and since most people are eager to go back there (I’m part of them, I really liked Shing Jea for example), I assume they will somehow make us go back there (after all, the Zephyrites and Marjory are standard-bearers of the land).

I won’t say I’m positinve nor negative about the future of Cantha. If they release it, I will praise the devs’ names! If they don’t, I will be sad and disappointed, but if it’s for the greater good (like a new continent? The planet is huge) I could accept it… wirth a heartache.

The problem is that all of these areas are part of the same country/kingdom/empire on Cantha. Even if every area has a separate/unique culture identity, Everyone in East Asia will still get offended because, for example, the emperor’s imperial palace leans more to one culture or another, or is melted into several different cultures instead. Koreans wont tolerate the Korean styled Shing Jea Island being ruled by the Chinese Emperor.

I am relatively new to the guild wars realm and I never got to play see Cantha content since I started in guild wars 2. The reason for staying away from “Asian” cultures isn’t a reason in my mind not to add this content to the game. I love all ancient cultures including the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese civilizations and incorporating a unique culture based off these cultures i.e the Cantha would be a very enjoying experience for me as a player. These cultures have strong prides in their heritages and traditions and very beautiful and unique architecture that would greatly benefit the guild wars universe. I hope that Arena.Net you go forward with this as an expansion.
There is nothing wrong with embracing all cultures in the art design and story of a fictional world. Makes me sad that I may not get to experience this content. I study martial arts under very strict Instructor from Korea and I can stay as long as it is done with respect I highly doubt he would be offended if some “game” put Asian themed content in it that looked more Chinese or Japanese than Korean. Please release this content if you do I will buy it!

Chrispy.5641:

The problem is that all of these areas are part of the same country/kingdom/empire on Cantha. Even if every area has a separate/unique culture identity, Everyone in East Asia will still get offended because, for example, the emperor’s imperial palace leans more to one culture or another, or is melted into several different cultures instead. Koreans wont tolerate the Korean styled Shing Jea Island being ruled by the Chinese Emperor.

Yup, that’s true… However, it’s a game, everything is possible and they could find tricks: we know that the Emperor once united the nation, yet something happened and parts were retaken and given independance, but something is wrong with each of the new ruler (this way, one “culture” wouldn’t be seen as the bad one") as they are corrupted (let’s say) by Bubbles. Voilà, a story that could avoid mixing or depreciate a culture over another.

Or maybe people could stop whining and accept it as a game… It would be an honor to see some culture aspects of my culture in a game, even if it’s around other cultures. But it’s a cultural aspect and a matter of history, I know.

But still, I hope that people can stand for what they created without fearing the big frowning eyebrows of some guy that does not even work there anymore. A poll should be made, with IG advertisment, and in China, explaining what is the problem with Cantha, and people should vote (maybe a particular attention to Asian countries?).

I can’t imagine Cantha being popular with Chinese, Korean or Japanese authorities. WW2 left a sour taste behind.

I imagine if there is a region drawing inspiration from kitten Germans and Jewish people living happily together, or a region inspired by Israel-Palestine under a single government, some feathers would get ruffled.

Of course, gamers wouldn’t care. But the more conservative ones among us would have much to complain about.

Honestly I don’t see why this is a problem. Movies,books other games all have portrayed some other culture. A-Net is not making Cantha all slums or depicting the asian culture in any bad way. Its an area with multiple asian influences if you read more into it, it is because you want too. (imo)

Guild Wars : Factions , was just the best of the four game, awesome music, handsome architecture … Assassin class ! My greatest hope since the announcement of GW2 is to see Cantha in like we see Cantha in GW1. I really hope they will do the things and add Cantha and Elona. Is they won’t that will be really disappointing.

I play GW2 and buy gems and I want Cantha and Elona

I preferred Elona actually because it was completely unique
There are still no games that have african themes done to that quality and depth

It is a disappointment. I have not lost complete hope. You would think that Anet would pay more attention to a thread that has been going for as long as this one.

Now that the new September 2014 Feature Pack is out (ouch), and LS2 has got going (ugh)…is it now time to say that maybe a standalone xpac is what this game REALLY needs? With a whole new continent and such? Something big, fun, and interesting, and not just more of the same-old same-old?

Cantha, please! I’d be interested in a standalone xpac. I’m kind of over Living Story. Good idea, but yea. It’s just not as cool as it sounded. I can hardly bear to play for more than a half hour or so anymore.

Cantha, please!

Blue Magnolia.5207:

I preferred Elona actually because it was completely unique
There are still no games that have african themes done to that quality and depth

Sadly, I don’t think you will find any quality nor any depth coming out of Anet anymore.

Chuo.4238:

Now that the new September 2014 Feature Pack is out (ouch), and LS2 has got going (ugh)…is it now time to say that maybe a standalone xpac is what this game REALLY needs? With a whole new continent and such? Something big, fun, and interesting, and not just more of the same-old same-old?

Cantha, please! I’d be interested in a standalone xpac. I’m kind of over Living Story. Good idea, but yea. It’s just not as cool as it sounded. I can hardly bear to play for more than a half hour or so anymore.

Cantha, please!

Sorry, but i think you will see Cantha maybe in 2025

Emtiarbi.3281:

Sorry, but i think you will see Cantha maybe in 2025

This game isn’t going to make it to 2025 if they don’t do something really really cool, really really soon. At the rate it’s going, GW2 will be mostly deserted in a year or two. Too many far more interesting things out there, with better writing and quality.

This game needs Cantha in all its Jade Sea and Echovald Forest glory, at full scale, or something similar. The existing model where they open up a zone every now and again and fill it with bad storylines and zergfest grinds just isn’t going to cut it much longer, methinks.

Get back to your roots, ArenaNet! You made something fantastically awesome (for all its flaws) back in 2005. Put that spirit back into GW2!

Most likely what will happen is, someday we will send envoys to Cantha and they will discovered it’s GONE! The whole thing, gone, nothing left but a big hole in the ground. And people will wonder, did Scarlet do that? And the answer will be, no, it wasn’t Scarlet Briar, it was her evil clone, Sapphire Sticktight. Thus prompting the question, ‘But, why?’ To which the answer is the Eternal Alchemy itself, made manifest: because.

The moral of the story: just fire up Guild Wars and savor it all while it’s still there.

Isn’t it abit sad that the first post on this thread is actually 1 year ago?

Please lock up this thread since we’re never getting Cantha.
What is the point anymore?

It’s sad that ANet doesn’t post here :/

I for one loved Cantha. Clearly I’m not the only one, as this post is going to the 48th page.

There is Kryta, there should be Elona, and there should be Cantha. There could be something more, as long as it has nothing to do with pandas.

I like how in the OP, the dev response says it should be “Universally” themed. And by that, they mean “Western Euorpean” themed…

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.

I’ve no read the full thread, only the OP and the first red post.

But If what you want is us to show our desire for Cantha to come back. Here it is. I want the land of the dragon back. It’d be very interesting to know what has Cantha to do with dragons.

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

I like how in the OP, the dev response says it should be “Universally” themed. And by that, they mean “Western Euorpean” themed…

Yeah, GW2 as it is, is not universally themed. GW1 was far more universal for that matter.

Prophecies:
Ascalon -> Western European
Shiverpeaks -> Northern European
Kryta -> Southern European
Maguuma -> IDK Western Asian?
Crystal Desert -> North African (Sahara)
Ring of Fire -> Hawaiian?

Factions:
Shing Jea -> Japanese
Kaineng -> Crowded Generic Asian
Echovald -> Gothic European (with Asian inhabitants)
Jade Sea -> Just awesome
Raisu Palace -> Chinese

Nightfall:
Istan -> Egipt or South Africa?
Kourna -> Rural Morocco
Vabbi -> Arabian
The desolation -> Hellish
Hell -> Hell

They were going to make Utopia with a South-American theme, but they used most of the assets to create the Asura. There are little places on the planet that they left out. Oceania and South America mostly. I cannot stress this enough:

GW1 was far more universal than GW2

Still waiting on Cantha the hero that GW2 deserves but not the one it has right now.

MrIllusion.5304:

I imagine if there is a region drawing inspiration from kitten Germans and Jewish people living happily together (…), some feathers would get ruffled.

I do not think so.

Well, you know, there are Jewish people that live in Germany and which are also Germans and some parts of Jewish culture and language are still some parts of German culture and language.

Greetings.

I’m here to show my love for cantha as well since I didn’t post in this thread yet. Cantha was my favourite campaign in GW1 …. I’ve seen some signs in the past months that may indicate cantha is approaching: Festival decorations, Katana, Ninja costume , Dragon finisher , Mini mystical dragon (Possible CE reward?) , cantha themed statues from data…
Well I can only hope , even if I stop playing GW2 I’ll return as soon as cantha is released. Til then I can’t wait.

I suppose the saddest thing is that with all the content that was release in the last patch that we didn’t ask for. One of the few things namely an expansion is something that has fall through the cracks again and again.

I have read the response several times. I understand why Cantha hadn’t been released for guild wars two. But that doesn’t stop us from getting other parts of the map unlocked. As it stands I find myself logging in only to WvW these days. What little Love I had for the PvE aspect is slowly fading due to recent changes.

Personally I loved Cantha, i loved the artwork & landscapes and i really miss the dragon Festival. since its known what people didnt like about the mash up they could create a whole new society. i’ll be honest and say that i thought that the aetherblades would be a way of doing that meh i kinda like the way its going now though so though i really do miss cantha.

I would like the ring of fire islands to rise up..errupt and consume all of Cantha. The game is plenty asian enough without it. If you want to play Asian..make a sylvari.
Or go play Final Fantasy.

Monk Tank.5897:

The game is plenty asian enough without it. If you want to play Asian..make a sylvari.

How… the HELL… are Sylvari “Asian” to you?

And also, I’m sorry other people like cultural diversity in their games?

I would be so very disapoointed if Cantha didn’t make it to GW2 in some shape or form. I started my epic journey with Factions in GW1, and with Jeremy Soule’s outstanding soundtracks coupled with just an amazing gaming experience, I would be gutted if Anet decided against bringing Cantha back to life.
I might go now and run a few missions with my old discord team just for the hell of it

Melchor.8392:

I would be so very disapoointed if Cantha didn’t make it to GW2 in some shape or form. I started my epic journey with Factions in GW1, and with Jeremy Soule’s outstanding soundtracks coupled with just an amazing gaming experience, I would be gutted if Anet decided against bringing Cantha back to life.
I might go now and run a few missions with my old discord team just for the hell of it

As I’m sure its been said countless times before, it’s not Anet’s decision to make as a developer, but it’s more so up to NCsoft as the publisher to green light projects. And then there are always rumors. <3

Stupid question but if the higher-ups are the ones who don’t want to see different Asian cultures being mixed, why could they agree on giving more importance to one than another? As far as I know, the only Asian themed weapon is Japanese…

And there is some kind of a mix: a Japanese weapon on characters than could use a finisher with a Chinese dragon!

Something is not clear on that one :-/

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

Stupid question but if the higher-ups are the ones who don’t want to see different Asian cultures being mixed, why could they agree on giving more importance to one than another? As far as I know, the only Asian themed weapon is Japanese…

And there is some kind of a mix: a Japanese weapon on characters than could use a finisher with a Chinese dragon!

Something is not clear on that one :-/

You forgot to mention the Monkey King Tonic and Monkey King Finisher, both of which are also based on the Chinese story Journey To The West. And all of the Dragon’s Jade weapon skins that are very heavily Chinese themed as well.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragon%27s_Jade_weapon_skins

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

Stupid question but if the higher-ups are the ones who don’t want to see different Asian cultures being mixed, why could they agree on giving more importance to one than another? As far as I know, the only Asian themed weapon is Japanese…

And there is some kind of a mix: a Japanese weapon on characters than could use a finisher with a Chinese dragon!

Something is not clear on that one :-/

You forgot to mention the Monkey King Tonic and Monkey King Finisher, both of which are also based on the Chinese story Journey To The West. And all of the Dragon’s Jade weapon skins that are very heavily Chinese themed as well.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragon%27s_Jade_weapon_skins

Yup, thanks for the additions! There are also the Tengu, which are basically based on Japanese folklore…

See ANet? There is already a mix of culture in the game… No excuse to avoid Cantha!

it’s not the culture they’re worried about, it’s the architecture.
they can get away with making one race with a 100% japanese influenced backstory but they can’t if the tengu uses both japanese and chinese architecture.

don’t ask me why they don’t want it, it has to do with the fragile political relation the 3 big asian countries has but that’s all i know.

Where is it ever stated what kind of cultural influence went into the Tengu? What makes you think their buildings have a Chinese flavor to them? Everything I’ve seen about the Tengu make them firmly Japanese-based.

If they are worried because of a mix of architectures, it’s just that simple: a zone = a culture. Shing Jea? Japanese! Kaineng? Chinese! Ta-da, problem solved.

There are many different solutions, but they don’t even try…

However, I do believe that before getting Cantha, the base game should be fixed at many levels.

From my experience, Asia has a large (can’t emphasize this enough) problem with racism and cast, in particular the Koreas. That ultimately is what is dictating NCsoft and thus Anet. I would love to tell Anet topull up their big boy pants and tell all the politically correct kitten crowds to shove it and do what they want. Reality is, unfortunetly, no company is going to shoot them selves in the foot and risk profits decreasing. NCsoft’s claws are too embedded in Anet.

Then there’s another solution… Choose one culture and that’s it, no problem with mixing.

The problem with that racism is that it comes from higher ups, not players or younger audiences.

I would love to see Cantha again. That might be the perfect time for a new playable race so it will probably be in an expansion. And then maybe we can finally open that kitten ed Tengu gate in Lions Arch.

And about the cultural stuff… Cantha is more of a Japanese thing than an Asian thing, that is if you keep the Tengu in mind. (Tengu is part of the Japanese culture) So if someone reeeeeaaally wants to be kittened off, it would be the Japanese if they(arenanet) where to use all the Asian cultures.

Now if you want to go even further here’s a quote about the Tengu: “Currently, their only known location is somewhere within the Maguuma Jungle.” no way, is this not where we are heading with Mordremoth….

Take it as you will… an “expansion” might not be too far off…. assuming Maguuma jungle leads to the Tengu and they lead us back into Cantha.

Food for thought

If they do bring Cantha into this game for the love of god ditch this “There has to be balance!” philosophy that MMO’s have adopted. I do not want to walk into a destroyed Cantha.

I want to walk into a city that is full of conflict and adventure. And heck, there is a chance to do something unique. The map a gigantic city that is fun to travel through and gives you that feeling you get when your walking through Manhattan for the first time.

Heck, a civil war would even been fun and it would give a reason to allow other races into the city. But for the love of god do not destroy another human city just to call it balance.

Michiel.3608:

Now if you want to go even further here’s a quote about the Tengu: “Currently, their only known location is somewhere within the Maguuma Jungle.”

Where did you get that from? The Tengu live behind the great wall, which is East of Maguuma, not farther into it. You can see their wall from the Sylvari starter area — Caledon, on the East side of the map.

My greatest fear for a Cantha expansion would be if we end in a country and try to make them accept non-humans. Since you know the people there sort of kicked as many non humans as possible, the Tengu were just the last ones to flee.

In other words I hope they don’t throw a world of warcraft story line based on finding peace an respect between everyone and sunshine and rainbows.
Naaah. Give me a civil war and blurry moral lines please. Not everyone has to agree with the status quo to be a kitten good person/state/country/whatever.

…Sort of what’s going on with the main storyline at the moment.

I think Kralkatorrik and Bubbles would be a good way to send us to Elona and Cantha respectively. Maybe we can go to one of them after Mordremoth and help save those people?