Guild Wars 2

My map completion says I have been everywhere. Am I missing something? Where are the actual guild wars taking place? I saw a WvW hardcor encounters and PVP but it’s not the same thing.

There are no guild wars in Guild Wars 2. There were guild wars in Guild Wars 1, but that’s not what the game was named for.

The Guild Wars was a great war between three kingdoms that set the situation for Guild Wars 1.

The Guild Wars name is in reference to the 3 guild wars that took place prior to the first game. Since this is a sequel to that game it still keeps the name. If you do some research on the wiki about Guild Wars 1 and its lore you can read about the 3 different guild wars that took place with the third one coming to an end when the first games storys was starting.

To make people post every day asking why this game is called Guild Wars.

Here’s the link to the Guild Wars 1 wiki pages about the Guild Wars

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Guild_Wars

Hjorje.9453:

The Guild Wars name is in reference to the 3 guild wars that took place prior to the first game. Since this is a sequel to that game it still keeps the name. If you do some research on the wiki about Guild Wars 1 and its lore you can read about the 3 different guild wars that took place with the third one coming to an end when the first games storys was starting.

I will read about GW1, thank you for the advice. Although I think those three guild events that took place a long time ago SHOULD be the key element on any Chapter of the GW universe, including GW2.

JubeiTM.5763:

Hjorje.9453:

The Guild Wars name is in reference to the 3 guild wars that took place prior to the first game. Since this is a sequel to that game it still keeps the name. If you do some research on the wiki about Guild Wars 1 and its lore you can read about the 3 different guild wars that took place with the third one coming to an end when the first games storys was starting.

I will read about GW1, thank you for the advice. Although I think those three guild events that took place a long time ago SHOULD be the key element on any Chapter of the GW universe, including GW2.

I disagee. While Guild vs Guild was very big early on in Guild Wars 1, as time went on the focus of the game shifted from PvP to PvE. Clearly the most loyal and dedicated players by percentage were PvE players.

This is why you see so few MMOs centered around PvP (and so few successful ones). PvP is almost always an add on to a PVe experience.

In fact, Guild Wars 2 is probably one of the few MMOs that take PvP seriously, even if the resources still mostly went to PvE.

Vayne.8563:

JubeiTM.5763:

Hjorje.9453:

The Guild Wars name is in reference to the 3 guild wars that took place prior to the first game. Since this is a sequel to that game it still keeps the name. If you do some research on the wiki about Guild Wars 1 and its lore you can read about the 3 different guild wars that took place with the third one coming to an end when the first games storys was starting.

I will read about GW1, thank you for the advice. Although I think those three guild events that took place a long time ago SHOULD be the key element on any Chapter of the GW universe, including GW2.

I disagee. While Guild vs Guild was very big early on in Guild Wars 1, as time went on the focus of the game shifted from PvP to PvE. Clearly the most loyal and dedicated players by percentage were PvE players.

This is why you see so few MMOs centered around PvP (and so few successful ones). PvP is almost always an add on to a PVe experience.

In fact, Guild Wars 2 is probably one of the few MMOs that take PvP seriously, even if the resources still mostly went to PvE.

Maybe I misunderstood Jubei, but I thought Jubei was saying that the lore of the guild wars prior to Guild Wars 1 should be prevalent in the Guild Wars 2 story arc.

The Guild Wars and their effects are still prominent in the lore.

If you look close enough, you can see the many/most of the problems that humans faced in the past stems from the Guild Wars. The Guild Wars seem to be a catalyst for a lot of other major events.
1. The wars left all three major kingdoms (Ascalon, Kryta, and Orr) vulnerable to outside forces, and that’s why the charr were able to invade or almost invade all of three kingdoms.
2. Ascalon was overrun and essentially destroyed by the charr, eventually completely crumbling and falling into the hands of the charr. That’s where we get the Black Citadel today.
3. Kryta turned to the White Mantle and the Mursaat to fight the charr and drove them off. But the White Mantle themselves presented problems and were eventually overthrown in favor of the monarchy again.
4. Orr was completely and utterly decimated by Khilbron, who decided to read a scroll of magic (urged by the fallen human god Abaddon). This magic caused the entire nation to fall into the ocean and pretty much killed everyone. Orr houses Arah, and as such a very powerful magical area. Zhaitan the elder dragon arose here and many of his minions are Orrian in nature.

Without the Guild Wars, it is unlikely that these events would have happened the same way. Ascalon may not have fallen and Orr likely would not have been decimated (but who knows how Abaddon’s influence on Khilbron would’ve turned out). So you may not see the Guild Wars themselves but their effects are far and wide.

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

The Guild Wars and their effects are still prominent in the lore.

If you look close enough, you can see the many/most of the problems that humans faced in the past stems from the Guild Wars. The Guild Wars seem to be a catalyst for a lot of other major events.
1. The wars left all three major kingdoms (Ascalon, Kryta, and Orr) vulnerable to outside forces, and that’s why the charr were able to invade or almost invade all of three kingdoms.
2. Ascalon was overrun and essentially destroyed by the charr, eventually completely crumbling and falling into the hands of the charr. That’s where we get the Black Citadel today.
3. Kryta turned to the White Mantle and the Mursaat to fight the charr and drove them off. But the White Mantle themselves presented problems and were eventually overthrown in favor of the monarchy again.
4. Orr was completely and utterly decimated by Khilbron, who decided to read a scroll of magic (urged by the fallen human god Abaddon). This magic caused the entire nation to fall into the ocean and pretty much killed everyone. Orr houses Arah, and as such a very powerful magical area. Zhaitan the elder dragon arose here and many of his minions are Orrian in nature.

Without the Guild Wars, it is unlikely that these events would have happened the same way. Ascalon may not have fallen and Orr likely would not have been decimated (but who knows how Abaddon’s influence on Khilbron would’ve turned out). So you may not see the Guild Wars themselves but their effects are far and wide.

True it is prominent in the story in that sense, but it isn’t made obvious to the player. If a player had not played Guild Wars 1 it is unlikely they would know any of this. Also, even some GW1 players may have not realized the true meaning of Guild Wars. I think it would be better if at least 1 story mission gave a good detailed ‘history lesson’ about what the guild wars are and why they are important.

It’s true that the lore for the Guild Wars isn’t prominent, even why Orr was at the bottom of the ocean in the first place isn’t explained that well in the main storyline missions.

But if you do look around in Orr, and talk to people throughout Tyria, you can certainly understand what happened in the past. But I don’t think it’s the job of the main story to tell the story of the past in detail.

And since GW2 is focused on how the five races can work together, focusing on the Guild Wars (a primarily human event) could be problematic. One of the primary reasons to call the sequel to Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2 is because it creates easy continuity and it’s easy to see that the game follows the first.

I don’t see why people have to have stuff handed to them. If you’re interested in the lore, it’s worth exploring to learn it. If not, you’re not missing out on anything.

Too often today, everything has to be laid out in the simplest form. We need giant green arrows in personal stories because we can’t figure out where to go. We need stars on maps and websites that give us walk throughs, so that content that should take a couple of days takes 45 minutes.

The lore is in the game if people want to find it. But there’s a whole lot of lore…and if you put it all out there, it would simply be overwhelming.

I mean, I don’t walk into a place in real life and know everything there is to know about it on day one. And while this isn’t real life, if everything was given to me up front, the joy of discovering it would be completely lost.

I already think too much of the game is spoon fed. At least with the lore, you have to look around a bit.

because it has everything except GUILD wars

Vayne.8563:

I don’t see why people have to have stuff handed to them. If you’re interested in the lore, it’s worth exploring to learn it. If not, you’re not missing out on anything.

Too often today, everything has to be laid out in the simplest form. We need giant green arrows in personal stories because we can’t figure out where to go. We need stars on maps and websites that give us walk throughs, so that content that should take a couple of days takes 45 minutes.

The lore is in the game if people want to find it. But there’s a whole lot of lore…and if you put it all out there, it would simply be overwhelming.

I mean, I don’t walk into a place in real life and know everything there is to know about it on day one. And while this isn’t real life, if everything was given to me up front, the joy of discovering it would be completely lost.

I already think too much of the game is spoon fed. At least with the lore, you have to look around a bit.

In my opinion, the reason we need all those extra things (walk throughs etc) is because the story is not clearly laid out for us. I loved the story telling in Zelda Ocarina of Time, for example, and it was very linear. The story was all given to me and I loved how it was told. However, in Skyrim, for example, the story is all in the side quests and with reading text from talking to NPC’s everywhere and piecing it together. I personally do not like that form of story telling. I find it hard to follow and doesn’t keep my interest long enough for me to put everything together.

I am a huge fan of stories and like to follow them, but I definitely prefer the Zelda form of story-telling. I find that Guild Wars falls in between the two. I appreciate that there is more lore hidden in the world, but I think that certain major pieces of story should be included in story missions. I suppose thakitten is Human history could have its problems, but meh. As a Human, I helped out Trehearne with his Wyld Hunt which is a Sylvari thing.

Comparing the game to real life isn’t really adequate. In real life, I could walk up to my mentor and ask them questions like ‘what were the guild wars?’ and they’d tell me. You cannot do that in a game.

One final thing. I do not think that everything should be given to you upfront “on day one”, that is poor story telling. However, I do think that everything pertinent to the story should be given to you during the story. Certain important parts can be left til later to create a sense of mystery. Pieces can be left around the world to foreshadow these story pieces, but the actual bulk of it is given to you later on.

Jemmi.6058:

True it is prominent in the story in that sense, but it isn’t made obvious to the player. If a player had not played Guild Wars 1 it is unlikely they would know any of this. Also, even some GW1 players may have not realized the true meaning of Guild Wars. I think it would be better if at least 1 story mission gave a good detailed ‘history lesson’ about what the guild wars are and why they are important.

When you have human separatists and char renegades still battling each other, is it really that hard to see the aftermath of a far bigger war?
Now as GW1 goes – Cantha and Illona stories have nothing to do with Guild Wars, Eye of the North has more to do with what’s going with all of the races prior to GW2.
Guild Wars is more about what happened after the big war, than the war itself.

Mirta.5029:

Jemmi.6058:

True it is prominent in the story in that sense, but it isn’t made obvious to the player. If a player had not played Guild Wars 1 it is unlikely they would know any of this. Also, even some GW1 players may have not realized the true meaning of Guild Wars. I think it would be better if at least 1 story mission gave a good detailed ‘history lesson’ about what the guild wars are and why they are important.

When you have human separatists and char renegades still battling each other, is it really that hard to see the aftermath of a far bigger war?
Now as GW1 goes – Cantha and Illona stories have nothing to do with Guild Wars, Eye of the North has more to do with what’s going with all of the races prior to GW2.
Guild Wars is more about what happened after the big war, than the war itself.

Sorry for the confusion, I meant a history lesson on the human vs human vs human guild wars, not the charr vs human war that followed it. Though, I guess both would be nice. Knowing that Charr and Humans hate each other doesn’t mean you can infer that there were human only guild wars a long time ago.

I also played all 4 of the original guild wars. I really enjoyed their stories, but with so many people asking what Guild Wars are, I thought it’d be nice to have something more in-game-story answer these.

I think Guild Wars 2 does tell you your story in Guild Wars 2. And, if you are interested, you can find out a lot about the story told in Guild Wars in Guild Wars 2. Not sure Guild Wars’ story should be prominent in Guild Wars 2, as it has its own story to tell.

Any name of an established franchise will always sell more, it is why all hollywood is remakes and sequels. So they took the Guild Wars name, used a similar setting, and sold their mmo with it. More people bought it because it has the Guild Wars name on it even though it is not a similar game at all.

Get 5 players on your guild. Challenge a guild with 5 players to do sPVP on a custom arena = Guild Wars

Challenge a Guild for a “GvG” in WvWvW = Guild Wars

raptor.1064:

Any name of an established franchise will always sell more, it is why all hollywood is remakes and sequels. So they took the Guild Wars name, used a similar setting, and sold their mmo with it. More people bought it because it has the Guild Wars name on it even though it is not a similar game at all.

It is though. It’s set in the same universe.
It’s kind of the same as saying that Elder Scrolls Arena and Elder Scrolls V Skyrim have nothing in common. Gameplay might be completely different, but the universe is still exactly the same.

Why is Final Fantasy called that when there have been 18+ (also counting non-numbered and sequels) to date?

Tolmos.8395:

Why is Final Fantasy called that when there have been 18+ (also counting non-numbered and sequels) to date?

Not to mention the sequels they’re now making like FF13-2. -.-
Funny how they only make sequels to the worst FF games…

Tolmos.8395:

Why is Final Fantasy called that when there have been 18+ (also counting non-numbered and sequels) to date?

because when the same company tried to make a game that’s based on the final fantasy universe and was quite good, but decided to change its name almost nobody bought it. Why? Because people said that it’s not final fantasy and therefore they don’t trust it to be good.
Has nothing to do with Guild Wars though.

Mirta.5029:

Tolmos.8395:

Why is Final Fantasy called that when there have been 18+ (also counting non-numbered and sequels) to date?

because when the same company tried to make a game that’s based on the final fantasy universe and was quite good, but decided to change its name almost nobody bought it. Why? Because people said that it’s not final fantasy and therefore they don’t trust it to be good.
Has nothing to do with Guild Wars though.

Not entirely true. Would GW2 have generated the same sales with a different name? Probably not.

At least in GW2 we have the 3 orders at war with Dragons. That’s very loosely a Guild War (I know, tenuous link at best..). Anyway, hasn’t this topic been covered a million times by now? I’m surprised the answer isn’t stickied by now

Randulf.7614:

Not entirely true. Would GW2 have generated the same sales with a different name?

Yes. GW1 in comparison to GW2 didn’t sell all that well and it shows in Anet profit reports. GW2 main attraction point was not that it’s a Guild Wars game, but that it’s an MMO that will use completely new mechanics. A lot of people that bought GW2 never played GW1. I only bought GW1 after getting GW2 because I got curious about the previous story.

Now also why would they call it differently if it follows the same lore, is set in the same universe, has exactly the same races and if you played Eye of the North you even fight the same creatures?

Mirta.5029:

Randulf.7614:

Not entirely true. Would GW2 have generated the same sales with a different name?

Yes. GW1 in comparison to GW2 didn’t sell all that well and it shows in Anet profit reports. GW2 main attraction point was not that it’s a Guild Wars game, but that it’s an MMO that will use completely new mechanics. A lot of people that bought GW2 never played GW1. I only bought GW1 after getting GW2 because I got curious about the previous story.

True, but how many bought it BECAUSE it was Guild Wars, either through play or reputation? GW1 sold 6 million units across all expansions in its lifetime and I suspect a great many bought GW2 based on their love of that game.

I agree completely with your second point

Randulf.7614:

True, but how many bought it BECAUSE it was Guild Wars, either through play or reputation? GW1 sold 6 million units across all expansions in its lifetime and I suspect a great many bought GW2 based on their love of that game.

at the same time here I can ask how many would have been angry if the name was not Guild Wars and they didn’t get to find out that there’s a sequel to their favorite game for quite a while? It already happens with anime and other games.

Mirta.5029:

Randulf.7614:

True, but how many bought it BECAUSE it was Guild Wars, either through play or reputation? GW1 sold 6 million units across all expansions in its lifetime and I suspect a great many bought GW2 based on their love of that game.

at the same time here I can ask how many would have been angry if the name was not Guild Wars and they didn’t get to find out that there’s a sequel to their favorite game for quite a while? It already happens with anime and other games.

A different point entirely and one I agree with

I wonder if WoW forums get the same deluge of topics asking “Where is the crafting of War in World of Warcraft?”

Ursan.7846:

I wonder if WoW forums get the same deluge of topics asking “Where is the crafting of War in World of Warcraft?”

No it’s pretty much a bunch of people patting themselves on the back for playing a dinosaur in the WoW forums these days.

As others have noted, the name is actually a Lore thing and has nothing to do with player guilds at all (never really did, even though in GW1 player guilds could fight each other).

It was nice having Guild Battles in GW1 though…

As people above me have stated, the name is from a lore perspective, not a literal one in terms of game mechanics. Relatively misleading to some, I know but it’s the truth!

If I’m not mistaken though, literal “Guild Wars” are gonna be part of this game at some point…At least that’s what I’ve heard from a few different people.

Shanna.4762:

As people above me have stated, the name is from a lore perspective, not a literal one in terms of game mechanics. Relatively misleading to some, I know but it’s the truth!

If I’m not mistaken though, literal “Guild Wars” are gonna be part of this game at some point…At least that’s what I’ve heard from a few different people.

I know it’s been thrown around but let’s hope it comes back; guild halls and all!

In my opinion it’s because they needed to attract GW1 community to milk their money. Anyway today those GW1 veterans are rare so maybe you don’t know who they are and that’s because most of them had already left for feeling betrayed. But there are still some who criticize on the forum while being called whiner by the new fanboys.
(But also some who ended up to holistically liking this game)
I want to give you my advice, stay away from this forum.
It can can crush your dreams or create too high expectations
There will be wars among guilds? Maybe, but not in the near future.
Even if this is already happening in WvWvW when sometimes guilds organize challanges to fight each other using external forums, currently a system to promote this kind of gameplay is still not implemented.

Same reason World of Warcraft was called that even though you’re a random adventurer instead of one of the generals leading the war and Lord of the Rings Online doesn’t have to feature Sauron.

They wanted to tie it in to the existing product so they used the same name.