Guild Wars 2

Cantha was the best part of GW1, with Elona being the second. If they do not bring it back, it will be a crime!

Avish.7938:

I reckon Shiro could take down two elder dragons at once.

Well, yea! Once they got him to 50% he’d Meditate and then use Battle Scars and WTFPWN them.

Is there a source confirming that it was NCSoft that wanted an Asian themes to be removed from the game? We know for a fact that the Kodan have architecture that is similar to Canthan architecture and that was included in the game. We know there are characters in the game that are either Canthan or have Canthan ancestry. We have also heard on numerous occasions that ArenaNet actually enjoys a great deal of creative independence. Maybe there actually was an interview somewhere where it was explicitly stated that NCSoft didn’t want Asian themes in the game but I’ve never actually found one. The only mention of this has been on the forums by players who for the most part don’t know much of anything in terms of business decisions by ArenaNet.

Furthermore, there is the argument that players in Asia are offended when seeing Asian themes in MMORPGs or any games for that matter. I think this could not be further from the truth. We know for a fact that there are MMORPGs out there with strictly Asian themes that are big in various parts of Asia like Wushu Online, Perfect World, WoW MoP, etc. We know that these games are not banned in countries like China and there hasn’t been any controversy surrounding these games in terms of cultural references. What is the origin of the myth that NCSoft pulled all Canthan references from the game because they were afraid Asians would be offended if they were included in the game?

Nick.6972:

And developers are still ignoring this thread.

How can you ignore a thread and post in it at the same time?

zeromius.1604:

Is there a source confirming that it was NCSoft that wanted an Asian themes to be removed from the game?

All i can read about it:
See the video after the 15 minute mark please:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=83oaT6Iw9LU#at=976

And please read this Topic:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/view/forums/thread/377215/page/1

From the Topic above, the video linked there, see after the 1h.44m25s mark please:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xWo8G0OJ0FM#t=6226s

Thank you:)

Draconicus.7564:

zeromius.1604:

Is there a source confirming that it was NCSoft that wanted an Asian themes to be removed from the game?

All i can read about it:
See the video after the 15 minute mark please:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=83oaT6Iw9LU#at=976

And please read this Topic:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/view/forums/thread/377215/page/1

From the Topic above, the video linked there, see after the 1h.44m25s mark please:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xWo8G0OJ0FM#t=6226s

Thank you:)

Thanks for the links. WoodenPotatoes is actually not sure if it is true. An ArenaNet artist allegedly said that Cantha would never happen but we don’t know that for certain.

It’s a known fact that at one time the great collapse was supposed to be the Cantha district. In the interview, Josh Foreman states that they (ArenaNet) received a lot of feedback saying that people were against mixing of Chinese and Korean architecture. The issue wasn’t having Asian themed architecture in the game period. The guy also doesn’t mention NCSoft because we know they have independence. It was an ArenaNet decision.

What this means is that there was one part of the game they had to scrap. I’m sure that’s not the only thing that didn’t make it into the final product. Right now there’s this huge map that is still unexplored. You have the Ring of Fire, the Deldrimor Front, the Far Shiverpeaks, the rest of the Sea of Sorrows, etc. I think there’s plenty for ArenaNet to do here. In the future it wouldn’t be unthinkable for ArenaNet to revisit Cantha. It just won’t happen anytime soon and the reason is mainly because there’s so many other things that need to be done first.

Nobody knows whats going to happen with Cantha, yet. We’ve heard they’ve shelved it and also that they’ve changed their mind and Cantha definitely will happen one day and everything in between.

Yes, the Canthan District is gone…According to one dev lore-wise it never was there in the first place, but then there’s NPC’s in certain story quests that there is a Canthan district somewhere in Divinity’s Reach…It’s all very, very, very confusing and honestly the only true complaint I can express is that ArenaNet has failed miserably at streamlining this portion of the lore and integrating it into GW2 in a way that is clear. When you have developers saying one thing, the game saying another thing it’s a bit of a problem

But please keep this thread as constructive as possible, don’t go around calling people things because they’re passionate about Cantha and obviously vice versa.

Maybe a Canthan District will come about in Divinity’s Reach one day, they could put it in the water with a bridge connecting to the rest of the city, or on another level/tier of the city that we can’t access yet so that it’s not being “towered over” by the rest of the architecture…I dunno, there’s plenty of ways around these issues.

According to the book Ghosts of Ascalon there is or was a Canthan District in Divinity’s Reach. Now whether the current lore contradicts the book is uncertain. You can keep hoping for a Cantha district but I think it’s better to wait for the continent of Cantha.

lets not forget Cantha. Keep this up guys

Seriously, Who cares about the “Cantha” district in DR?!! This topic is about to "Please bring Cantha one day to GW2 "!!
Please don’t forget of the main issue here!We are asking for all Cantha, not just a small DR District!!!
Ppl just started to talk about the District in DR because obviously it’s somehow linked to the “mystery” of “Cantha…yes one day” or " No…Cantha never again"!!

I can understand Chinese people getting angry because their culture is mixed with japanese culture, those 2 things are completly different, so Anet has 2 options:

Be a lot more carefully with design choices
or leave it entirely.

Justdeifyme.9387:

I can understand Chinese people getting angry because their culture is mixed with japanese culture,…

I can’t, seriously, just because of this:

- “This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.”

After reading this thread I’m starting to think that Cantha was sold off piecemeal to settlers, who only honored treaties as it suited their needs.

I wonder where they put the Luxon and Kurzick reservations. Somewhere far from the beaten path in Cantha, such as Eredon Terrace, or Saint Anjeka’s Shrine? Or did they ship them to Elona to give them some quality farmland in the Desolation?

Dark humour, yes.

While the Luxon and Kurzicks were defeated, there are still pockets of resistance hidden throughout the world. The sooner Anet releases the GW2 expansion, the sooner we can take on the emperor!

Justdeifyme.9387:

I can understand Chinese people getting angry because their culture is mixed with japanese culture, those 2 things are completly different, so Anet has 2 options:

Be a lot more carefully with design choices
or leave it entirely.

Except most the only people who care about that stuff are ultra-Chinese/Japanese nationalists who don’t even play Video Games in the first place.

Have we ever had an Arab person shouting Takbir at the ANET HQ because Vabbi depicted magic carpets and Arabian themes?

Arab company doesn’t own Anet or all of the “gods” would be gone.

Instead Asian company does so beautiful and richly made Cantha is gone.

Well I don’t find the definite “replacement” of the district a bad thing in itself, since now at least Anet can’t present us with some ghetto and then call it a day when it comes to Canthan representation in GW2, but instead has to (presumably) give us the real deal if they really want to include a Canthan environment. Since DR really was the only reasonable place on the main continent that could have been Canthan themed.
It’s like a guarantee for a return to the continent, if we’re being slightly optimistic.

the whole article about Anet saying that they took out cantha from GW2 because they think that asian players are offended when there are asian themed references and such in games is complete utter garbage reason… im korean living in south korea and as far as i know ppl LIKE IT when mmorpg games put? in asian themes in their games… (unless they put a panda as a playable race XP)… i really hope this whole deal of cantha not returning to GW2 is just a false rumor

Is anyone else really bummed that we got a giant hole in the ground instead of the rebuilt district? I was expecting the Cantha district tbh…

on the note of an offense to Asian cultures- I also call this as trash; I have a friend who is Half Chinese/Japanese and she loves Cantha- she spends all of her time in gw1 there and it’s just -gone- . I agree with her, I would have rather the district and Cantha returned because atm, everything else is getting a bit stale :\ + I would find it personally insulting that a Queen would build a giant hole where a major Art’s District was instead of an actual restoration. It makes it a bit unrealistic and a bit random on a design aspect so I’m also a bit confused on that front.

Ok, I just found out about this, and really, I have to say, that removing Canthan District from DR, might have been a good design choice. Because what I really want is the immersive Kaineng City, back. Or maybe parts of it, OR another big, asian looking city.

Just that, this Asian theme is one of those things I really connect to the GW experience. Without it, it doesn’t really feel like Guild Wars. It feels like any generic Western world MMO. Except of course that Arenanet are superior in design overall.

But I’d really love the implementation of it. So be it that it would be a forgotten settlement in Maguuma, I don’t really care. Just make it, and make it work.
That’s my five cents.

Biggest thread on the forums and I’m glad it’s such a good cause. Posting my daily support to bring back Cantha. Even if it’s not tomorrow, even if it’s not this year, I just want some confirmation of it.

Crazy thought for you all: maybe they scrapped the Great Collapse being the Canthan District for the Arts District because they realized they could have a load of Cantha via the tengu in the Dominion of Winds. You get one of the more interesting races of Cantha that’s not just more humanity silliness, an entirely different yet still compelling backstory for Cantha from the tengu perspective, and you get their unique and fascinating architecture that is a loose blend of Asiatic themes with somewhat avian-stylings.

How awesome would that be? We’ve heard the Dragon Empire’s tale, now let’s hear another perspective. They would, as far as we can tell anyway, be the “best” source of Canthan info on Tyria. Unless they shoehorn in a random refugee boat sailing in.

Gmr Leon.1846:

Crazy thought for you all: maybe they scrapped the Great Collapse being the Canthan District for the Arts District because they realized they could have a load of Cantha via the tengu in the Dominion of Winds. You get one of the more interesting races of Cantha that’s not just more humanity silliness, an entirely different yet still compelling backstory for Cantha from the tengu perspective, and you get their unique and fascinating architecture that is a loose blend of Asiatic themes with somewhat avian-stylings.

How awesome would that be? We’ve heard the Dragon Empire’s tale, now let’s hear another perspective. They would, as far as we can tell anyway, be the “best” source of Canthan info on Tyria. Unless they shoehorn in a random refugee boat sailing in.

Can’t WAIT for Tengu to start playing a bigger role in the story.

TehPwnerer.7215:

Gmr Leon.1846:

Crazy thought for you all: maybe they scrapped the Great Collapse being the Canthan District for the Arts District because they realized they could have a load of Cantha via the tengu in the Dominion of Winds. You get one of the more interesting races of Cantha that’s not just more humanity silliness, an entirely different yet still compelling backstory for Cantha from the tengu perspective, and you get their unique and fascinating architecture that is a loose blend of Asiatic themes with somewhat avian-stylings.

How awesome would that be? We’ve heard the Dragon Empire’s tale, now let’s hear another perspective. They would, as far as we can tell anyway, be the “best” source of Canthan info on Tyria. Unless they shoehorn in a random refugee boat sailing in.

Can’t WAIT for Tengu to start playing a bigger role in the story.

Maybe they can fly us to Cantha, as part of a Living World update?

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick and tired of chinese influences in games, or asian overall. It’s probably the biggest stereotype in the industry. Please don’t implement this.

Asian Culture is the most interesting culture in the whole world, so no, you can’t have enough of that.

Oxstar.7643:

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick and tired of chinese influences in games, or asian overall. It’s probably the biggest stereotype in the industry. Please don’t implement this.

As an Asian gamer, I take offense to this.

Did you guys see this yet?

Lead content designer “I’d love to go back to Cantha and Elona”
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/09/guild-wars-2-teases-anniversary-plans

TehPwnerer.7215:

Did you guys see this yet?

Lead content designer “I’d love to go back to Cantha and Elona”
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/09/guild-wars-2-teases-anniversary-plans

My work firewalled the videos. Can you give any more details?

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Oxstar.7643:

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick and tired of chinese influences in games, or asian overall. It’s probably the biggest stereotype in the industry. Please don’t implement this.

As an Asian gamer, I take offense to this.

Tubad. It’s still the fattest stereotype of them all and I never said that reflects how I feel about asians irl.

Oxstar.7643:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Oxstar.7643:

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick and tired of chinese influences in games, or asian overall. It’s probably the biggest stereotype in the industry. Please don’t implement this.

As an Asian gamer, I take offense to this.

Tubad. It’s still the fattest stereotype of them all and I never said that reflects how I feel about asians irl.

I suggest not watching Mulan. The Asian architecture is most prevalent in that movie. Looks kinda like… Cantha!

Smooth Penguin.5294:

TehPwnerer.7215:

Did you guys see this yet?

Lead content designer “I’d love to go back to Cantha and Elona”
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/09/guild-wars-2-teases-anniversary-plans

My work firewalled the videos. Can you give any more details?

Lead Content Designer Mike Zadorojny was interviewed by IGN and asked about the way that the living world fits into the game, why they did it that way, what his thoughts are etc.

They asked him about expansions and they said that they’d love to roll out expansion content via the living story and only release boxed expansions if they felt the need for it or if it made sense to (ie: something that they couldn’t just do in living story would be my guess).

Then as far as what these expansions or living story (expansion) releases would include would be, he then said that the probability of a new race or profession is high and so are the currently unreachable lands of the original Guild Wars.

He then says word for word, “I would love to see us go back to Cantha and Elona….” “…we wanted to build on the lore and history from the original Guild Wars and there’s some really cool stories we wrapped up with Guild Wars Beyond and Winds of change, I’d love to see what happened over the last 250 years since we last left them.”

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! Playable quaggan race in Cantha! You heard it here first people!

They never said anything about Quaggan being a playable race. My bet would be Tengu.

One can dream, can’t they? Playing as a Tengu would be interesting. I’d love to see their Story Mode. That’s definitely worth the purchase of Character slots.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

One can dream, can’t they? Playing as a Tengu would be interesting. I’d love to see their Story Mode. That’s definitely worth the purchase of Character slots.

Absolutely. They’re iconic characters just like Charr. My new main will be a Tengu when they’re released for sure. Their character models look great compared to Guild Wars 1.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Oxstar.7643:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Oxstar.7643:

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick and tired of chinese influences in games, or asian overall. It’s probably the biggest stereotype in the industry. Please don’t implement this.

As an Asian gamer, I take offense to this.

Tubad. It’s still the fattest stereotype of them all and I never said that reflects how I feel about asians irl.

I suggest not watching Mulan. The Asian architecture is most prevalent in that movie. Looks kinda like… Cantha!

That movie is classic.

I wonder if NCSoft played favorites when they published Blade & Soul.

personally Faction was my first GW installment and I enjoyed it. The Zepherite ship looked like a canthan building with sails which brought back memory of Canthan . Tho I was happy to find I could make a Canthan looking char in GW2. I think a generic Asian theme could be used. There is plenty of common shared architecture that could be used. I would like to see Cantha come back

This game can never be complete with out Cantha

Justdeifyme.9387:

I can understand Chinese people getting angry because their culture is mixed with japanese culture

Somehow, mixing European elements is perfectly okay, though, even if the difference between European cultures is at least as big as between Asian ones. A little bit of consistency wouldn’t hurt.

Oxstar.7643:

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick and tired of chinese influences in games, or asian overall. It’s probably the biggest stereotype in the industry. Please don’t implement this.

The biggest stereotypes in the industry would be the european medieval ones (with a special honorable mention to the vikings – i don’t see anyone wanting to take Norns out of this game due to being soo stereotypical).

Astralporing.1957:

Oxstar.7643:

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick and tired of chinese influences in games, or asian overall. It’s probably the biggest stereotype in the industry. Please don’t implement this.

The biggest stereotypes in the industry would be the european medieval ones (with a special honorable mention to the vikings – i don’t see anyone wanting to take Norns out of this game due to being soo stereotypical).

Weelll, personally…

Although I rather hated the big city in guild wars 1, I believe that, especially with the new engine, it could become one of the most fun areas in the game. Rooftop free running anyone? I would absolutely love to see a canthan expansion added to guild wars 2, and would gladly pay full price for it. So arenanet, and by extension, ncsoft, please allow us a canthan expansion.

-ps I wouldn’t mind seeing elona again as well

My characters are Canthan just in case an expansion that includes Cantha is released.

I am one of those players that got interested in Guild Wars from Factions. The Jade Sea was just epic environment. The story was threatening and scary. I felt like a hero at the end. The Canthan Elite costume was my favorite and it still is and wish it for GW2.

Plus the gaps they have in the map are MIGHTY suspicious ;p I’m looking forward to being able to go to the Dominion soon 8D

Elona would be easier to get back into the game, if Anet pushed the game towards the crystal desert, the old portal would be in the south that took us to crystal overlook in Elona, at least there was a direct link from CD to CL/Elona

Give us freee!………oh wait!? what are we talking about again?^^

If only I would be able to see Shing Jea back as an explorable Island I would alrdy be kitten happy. They can’t ignore factions like it never has existed…

bartrentenaar.8674:

They can’t ignore factions like it never has existed…

The fact is they can! And give us whatever bad excuse to do it!
But if they do that, i am sure that tons and tons of players will ignore GW2 like it never has existed…!! :P