Tyria, dead or alive?
Everytime I go to Rata Sum I contrast the loading screen with the actual environment.
Also: Polymock drops mic
I actually feel that all the frequent NPC banter EVERYWHERE (not just in cities) make the game feel very much alive. I was also lamenting to a guildie last week that it’s a shame how much great design and NPC voice acting chatter goes to waste because many people really ignore it-however, I am certain many other players do also enjoy that aspect of the game, which often enlivens our playing experience.
In short, I don’t see a dead town problem-if anything, there are tangible server population differences which often leave a bad impression on some players. NPCs in this game are actually a big part of why the game feels alive, even when playing solo, with no one around. I am sure they are trying to bridge the gap among some servers, but it’s honestly very hard for the lowest populated servers to compete with the popular or “full” ones (free server transfers is not a foolproof solution, at least as far as I have observed.)
I wish there weren’t any named servers at all, but then that would go against the way WvW is already established.
Replying to my own post to thank ANet for offering a solution to the conundrum I posted above. Not only will the world feel alive due to lively NPC banter, but now we get to see more players regardless server populations, and without disturbing WvW. Who knew they were working on a solution all along! My thanks for dealing with this-it will help the game tremendously moving forwards, in my view.
Also: Polymock drops mic
lol, yeah, been waiting for that ever since GW2 was in beta. I don’t think we’ll ever get it sadly.
As far as the world being alive (with respect to the npcs and the environments), it is one of the more engaging mmos I’ve played. Now is it like a city in an Assassins Creed game? Of course not, but there is no way you could have that kind of activity in an mmo.