Guild Wars 2

I got PAX tickets through Gaile’s giveaway (Thanks, Gaile!) and wanted to share my impressions. I’ll focus on the things not shown on the Twitch stream.

1) The T-shirts and pins were quite nice. Glad to see ANet giving out good swag to devoted fans.
2) I met several people in line who had recently started playing the game as news of the announcement trickled out. It looks like ANet’s marketing is doing its job.
3) I also met long-time players who were pretty excited about the changes. The new class seemed to be a big hit. Most people weren’t worried about the lack of a new race.
4) Flying got probably the biggest spontaneous response on the first trailer showing. Practically everyone saw that and went ’WE’RE GONNA FLY!’ Nobody screamed about mounts.
5) Those boomsticks were loud. I don’t know how well they came through on the stream, but in person they were deafening.
6) No one I talked to seemed to want a level raise or a new gear tier. The reaction was more muted than the definite excitement about flying – this was a ’they’re not doing it, thank goodness’ reaction instead of ‘new feature, yay!’
7) Interestingly, no one reacted to ‘Mordremoth has corrupted most of the Sylvari race’. I was expecting more lore fans there.

The whole thing did feel much more staged than some other game panels. Oh well, the demo will show us more. It was a hype event.

Reactions to announcements:
1) As a casual PvE player, I tend to translate ‘challenging group content’ as ‘not for you, Gilosean’. ANet, I’m really hoping you prove me wrong here.
2) Account based progression THANK YOU.

P.S. If you’re looking for an awesome tactical battle RPG to play until the expansion comes out, Pillars of Eternity has got you covered. Don’t get tired of GW2 before the expansion hits!

4) technically, not flying, falling with style :p
5) I hated those boomsticks on the live stream I hate boomsticks in general. I count them as almost annoying as the vuvuzaela.

1) Some people didn’t get them though (I got mine tho)
2) Funny that, I started playing again (like every day) about a week before the whole “Heart of Thorns trademark!” news. It’s nice coming back to something after an extended break.
3) I heard a few people try to predict the next announcement as “new race” and I was one of those people that really hoped for Tengu. Just because people didn’t cry and throw a fit doesn’t mean they weren’t disappointed.
4) I was one of those that said “It’s kinda like a mount…” but then I could care less about mounts. The flying, in general, is a tad meh but we’ll see. I’m more interested in being able to see those huge detailed areas on a leisurely breeze than the flying itself.
5) Luckily, I was in the 2nd row to the right near the door. Not as much noise :P
6) I think everyone was still unsure as we don’t know what the extent of the PvE character progression will hold. The last thing people want is an expansion where they don’t have a new long-term goal to strive toward.
7) I haven’t done the newest Living World story yet. I just hear this stuff 2nd hand. Maybe it hasn’t sunk in for everyone yet :P

My reactions to the announcement were awestruck. I never would have guessed we’d get more weapons in this update! The new profession I’m still kinda distant from the idea. Kinda makes me sad for Warrior though. Rytlock was Destiny’s Edge’s Warrior and proclaimed bad-kitten . I guess Warrior just isn’t bad-kitten enough for him Had to go invent a whole new class…

@ OP, the boomsticks on TS are really loud. And knowing that if you record something a distance from the origin of the sound, that it’s much more silent (wich means with the sticks this should be the case, since sound recording was on stage), it would mean it indeed should have been crazy loud for your ears.

To me Jennifer hale was dissapointing (on twitch). My first click on channel was a rebroadcast, and colin was speaking ok loud, but still to silent at my normal settings, so i pushed it pretty loud (hey i missed the live stream for 4 hours, and finally came home, so was excited). Then I managed to finally watch form beginning, and knowing Hale from mass effect (love her there) and same for her voice in gw2, i expected a nice, friendly, not to loud voice. Boy was I wrong, such a crazy loud, shouting, almost angry voice from her. That really hurted my ears on twitch. Had to mute immediately. And her look was similar dissapointing, the picture on the web, show her as a much nicer person then she look on the gw2 pax south stage. Dunno what is up with her.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

@ OP, the boomsticks on TS are really loud. And knowing that if you record something a distance from the origin of the sound, that it’s much more silent (wich means with the sticks this should be the case, since sound recording was on stage), it would mean it indeed should have been crazy loud for your ears.

To me Jennifer hale was dissapointing (on twitch). My first click on channel was a rebroadcast, and colin was speaking ok loud, but still to silent at my normal settings, so i pushed it pretty loud (hey i missed the live stream for 4 hours, and finally came home, so was excited). Then I managed to finally watch form beginning, and knowing Hale from mass effect (love her there) and same for her voice in gw2, i expected a nice, friendly, not to loud voice. Boy was I wrong, such a crazy loud, shouting, almost angry voice from her. That really hurted my ears on twitch. Had to mute immediately. And her look was similar dissapointing, the picture on the web, show her as a much nicer person then she look on the gw2 pax south stage. Dunno what is up with her.

She lost a bracelet when clapping, that’s what was up

Leo G.4501:

1) Some people didn’t get them though (I got mine tho)
2) Funny that, I started playing again (like every day) about a week before the whole “Heart of Thorns trademark!” news. It’s nice coming back to something after an extended break.
3) I heard a few people try to predict the next announcement as “new race” and I was one of those people that really hoped for Tengu. Just because people didn’t cry and throw a fit doesn’t mean they weren’t disappointed.
4) I was one of those that said “It’s kinda like a mount…” but then I could care less about mounts. The flying, in general, is a tad meh but we’ll see. I’m more interested in being able to see those huge detailed areas on a leisurely breeze than the flying itself.
5) Luckily, I was in the 2nd row to the right near the door. Not as much noise :P
6) I think everyone was still unsure as we don’t know what the extent of the PvE character progression will hold. The last thing people want is an expansion where they don’t have a new long-term goal to strive toward.
7) I haven’t done the newest Living World story yet. I just hear this stuff 2nd hand. Maybe it hasn’t sunk in for everyone yet :P

My reactions to the announcement were awestruck. I never would have guessed we’d get more weapons in this update! The new profession I’m still kinda distant from the idea. Kinda makes me sad for Warrior though. Rytlock was Destiny’s Edge’s Warrior and proclaimed bad-kitten . I guess Warrior just isn’t bad-kitten enough for him Had to go invent a whole new class…

About 3: I was just reporting on what fans were doing in audience, since Twitch watchers wouldn’t see that. I was kind of disappointed about no new races too. Maybe next expansion.

I thought Logan was a warrior? I tuned out Destiny’s Edge because they act like whiny teenagers, so I may be totally off base.

6) I and a lot of other players would check out if we needed to deal with level cap raises or a new gear tier. They both mean we would need to regrind all our armor. LOL no am I putting up with a game doing that to me. I think the audience reaction reflected that – there were some players who obviously didn’t care, but most people were relieved they wouldn’t have to deal with it.

7) I think a lot of people are in that boat. I’m just waiting for news to spread to see how players react. If ANet starts canonizing in-game racism, that will be a huge issue. There are enough griefers without ANet providing a rationale for trolling.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

@ OP, the boomsticks on TS are really loud. And knowing that if you record something a distance from the origin of the sound, that it’s much more silent (wich means with the sticks this should be the case, since sound recording was on stage), it would mean it indeed should have been crazy loud for your ears.

To me Jennifer hale was dissapointing (on twitch). My first click on channel was a rebroadcast, and colin was speaking ok loud, but still to silent at my normal settings, so i pushed it pretty loud (hey i missed the live stream for 4 hours, and finally came home, so was excited). Then I managed to finally watch form beginning, and knowing Hale from mass effect (love her there) and same for her voice in gw2, i expected a nice, friendly, not to loud voice. Boy was I wrong, such a crazy loud, shouting, almost angry voice from her. That really hurted my ears on twitch. Had to mute immediately. And her look was similar dissapointing, the picture on the web, show her as a much nicer person then she look on the gw2 pax south stage. Dunno what is up with her.

I think Hale was mostly trying to work up the crowd (not that it really needed it) and be heard over the noise. Even when the boomsticks weren’t going the auditorium was pretty noisy.

Gilosean.3805:

I thought Logan was a warrior? I tuned out Destiny’s Edge because they act like whiny teenagers, so I may be totally off base.

Nah, he’s definitely a Guardian. He uses those Shield off-hand skills often enough to make it noticeable not to mention his mentality to protect his queen. A warrior would choose to destroy in the name of his queen!