Guild Wars 2

Let’s be real, this was put into the game for you nerds :P. Personally I’m pretty excited about it.

For those who don’t know, it sounds like HoT will have a PvE system called “Masteries” which functions a lot like WxP. As you play (possibly only in Maguuma) you will gain account-wide points to spend in different masteries, one of which is languages. This will allow you to learn languages and talk to NPCs in the jungle that other players can’t talk to. I think Colin even suggested it would allow you to start events or access areas other players are otherwise unable to access.

Personally I think it’s really exciting! If only because it suggests an increased importance placed on NPC interactions and the ability to alter the game world by engaging with the lore and NPC dialogue. Being able to talk to hylek or other exotic races that other players can’t is really cool. Opening doors or passages, gaining hints or advice, peicing together legends and solving the lore mysteries through a mastery is a cool feature I never knew I wanted. Imagine all the cool, immersive exploration things you could do. A hylek might sell you its tribal weapons if you master its native tongue (foreigners who don’t put in the effort are shunned) or share its recipes with you, maybe an NPC will open up a passage that acts as a shortcut or an entrance to hidden area if you can talk to them or services are available but only if you speak the language. Stories and big secrets could become accessible, there really is so much they can do with it.

It would be interesting if you could only unlock certain dialects with Mastry points once you complete a collection. Maybe make the collection research papers scattered across Maguuma and once you collect them all, the mastery for that language becomes available. Or maybe you have to do a certain number of DEs or a stage in the personal story. It really has the potential to be a deep mechanic.

Imagine the replay ability it could add to maps. Certain areas, paths or secrets open up as you gain more languages, events could be triggered etc. I’m actually really pumped for all the potential this system could have.

What do you all think?

I’d have to say…

I’m a little unsure of it. It depends on how it’s implemented, but I’m worried about how learning languages draws from the same pool as the combat and exploration abilities – it’d need to have in-game benefits in line with the other abilities that go beyond simply satisfying curiosity, otherwise I could see it ending up essentially as a tax on being interested in the lore. Want to read this stuff? You’re going to have to put up with having less effective characters than the people who don’t care!

I remember the last game I played where language was a thing: EverQuest. It wasn’t a thing for long after release. Mostly only good for caster classes to decipher spell research recipes.

hey hey hey, slow down with the unfounded hype. you’re only setting yourself for disappointment.

personally, i think it’ll be a cool feature, but the workings will be mostly mechanical. don’t expect, say, a whole UI with alphabets and translations and dialects and stuff. expect more like “you need level X in lore before you can interact with this object that opens up this thing”. if it’s more than that, great. if not, then you won’t be disappointed when you learn its details.

You should probably also bear in mind, that Anet do not believe in closing parts of the game from players. So at one point of the game you’ll probably be able to fill all these masteries up. Or the community will cry their eyes out because they cant get a precursor easy enough, because they made a “wrong” choice of taking points in the language over precursor one.

Bruno, you can’t say “we can’t know for sure yet what the system is going to be” then immediately say “it’s going to be x.” While I agree that it probably won’t be as grand and complex as most people would like it to be, it’s still going to be fun (probably). It’s my opinion that if you go into something expecting the worst, you’re not “pleasantly surprised,” you’re fulfilling your own prophecy and less likely to point out the bad rather than the good.

draxynnic.3719:

I’d have to say…

I’m a little unsure of it. It depends on how it’s implemented, but I’m worried about how learning languages draws from the same pool as the combat and exploration abilities – it’d need to have in-game benefits in line with the other abilities that go beyond simply satisfying curiosity, otherwise I could see it ending up essentially as a tax on being interested in the lore. Want to read this stuff? You’re going to have to put up with having less effective characters than the people who don’t care!

This is what I was thinking when they announced it, but on the other hand they are probably aware of that issue. Let’s just wait until we get more information on it.

I want to see Anet troll all the non-lore fans by gating parts of the Precursor Scavenger Hunt behind an accounts language proficiency. They are a part(ish) of lore after all!

I’m sure it will be required to craft Precursors. You’ll need to know some obscure dialect of Seer in order to craft Dusk or something.

draxynnic.3719:

I’m a little unsure of it. It depends on how it’s implemented, but I’m worried about how learning languages draws from the same pool as the combat and exploration abilities – it’d need to have in-game benefits in line with the other abilities that go beyond simply satisfying curiosity, otherwise I could see it ending up essentially as a tax on being interested in the lore. Want to read this stuff? You’re going to have to put up with having less effective characters than the people who don’t care!

It will come down to balance. What will mastering a language do to benefit you compared to investing points elsewhere? I also think it depends on how they implement it – learning a language should be a part of exploration, not compete with it! It’s not just about getting more walls of text to read, it’s about changing the way the world interacts with you because you chose a skill someone else didn’t. Why do you have to get a new weapon like a bomb to open up an old door? Why can’t you simply learn a language and talk your way through a door?

Think of the bandit in the Silverwastes that charges you 2 gold to turn off her traps and become friendly. Imagine if learning a language allows you to enter a normally hostile hylek village, or open a gate to a village no-one else can access? That wouldn’t be that much different from spending points so that your glider can reach a higher height than someone else. What about learning an ancient forgotten alphabet that allows you to interact with glyphs on a wall opening a door others couldn’t open? It allows you to do things players without those masteries can’t do but sometimes it allows you to help players. They can even combine masteries, so have a location that’s only accessible if you have glider mastery 5 but the NPC there does nothing unless you also have language mastery 5. They can add depth and replayability to their maps so that as you level up your masteries, old locations become relevant, just like a good Zelda or Metroid game, new abilities open up new pathways in older areas.

Even combat can be helped. Maybe there is an event where you fight a boss and there is a nearby hylek village with turrets but they normally won’t let you use them. If you use the language the hyleks might share their turrets with you etc. There are ways it can be implemented so that it’s not just about lore, but it’s also about becoming more effective in non-traditional ways, or in ways that are normally taken for granted.

I don’t have high expectations, I’m just trying to be imaginative on how such a simply mastery could become meaningful for gameplay. The balance might be tricky but they might come up with a way to make it feel right.

Ultimately if it’s like WvW masteries then there won’t be a cap on how many points you can spend. They can make the most important mechanics based stuff low hanging fruit similar to supply masteries (10-15 points to be able to converse in a language and gain access to stuff) allowing lore fanatics a casual investment without depriving them of things like better gliders. Stick the cosmetic fluff towards the end of the mastery (for 100 points certain NPCs will sell you their cultural armour and weapons or let you into locations with a bank, TP and other services). Maybe some easter egg lore can be hidden for the most fluent of players. Don’t put the bulk of the lore at high mastery investments, but an NPC that tells a fascinating story or reveals a significant detail only once you’ve mastered their language, I don’t see the harm in that. In some ways it adds to the exploration – how does the world change when you have learned tier one of the pink hylek tribe? What about tier three of the pink hylek tribe? That’s that RPGs are about imo.

BrunoBRS.5178:

personally, i think it’ll be a cool feature, but the workings will be mostly mechanical. don’t expect, say, a whole UI with alphabets and translations and dialects and stuff. expect more like “you need level X in lore before you can interact with this object that opens up this thing”. if it’s more than that, great. if not, then you won’t be disappointed when you learn its details.

Personally I’m not interested in actually learning an alphabet. I know that’s some peoples thing, but the idea of actually translating in-game text seems tedious to me. Gaining a mastery that would do it for me is interesting. I don’t actually want to learn how to fight with a sword or axe, but I do want my character to do that. Language masteries could be the same thing.

I could see it being a problem if there is a cap to Mastery points, forcing a decision between being more combat effective or more lore, but I suspect the only limitation will be how much you play and if you play enough all masteries can be unlocked at the same time. It really comes down to how ArenaNet balances it. Ultimately I think the idea has a lot of potential.

Villephox.5817:

Bruno, you can’t say “we can’t know for sure yet what the system is going to be” then immediately say “it’s going to be x.” While I agree that it probably won’t be as grand and complex as most people would like it to be, it’s still going to be fun (probably). It’s my opinion that if you go into something expecting the worst, you’re not “pleasantly surprised,” you’re fulfilling your own prophecy and less likely to point out the bad rather than the good.

i’m not expecting the worst, trust me, i could think of much worse things :P but just look at the kittenstorm that happens every time a super hyped feature isn’t all that people imagined it would be.

by all means, be excited for it, just don’t be too excited, to the point nothing they deliver can possibly match your expectations.

and as for your first line, yeah, we can’t know for sure, but we were given some details of what it does, and going by what we have in-game already (including WvW masteries), it’ll probably, if i had to guess, something mostly mechanical, something that unlocks options rather than turning GW2 into an adventure game.

I don’t think anyone is expecting ArenaNet to actually devote the resources to make a genuine language. At best we’re probably going to see a substitution cipher.

The interest in the lore community is more that they’ve implied that we’re actually going to get a chance to see the lore ourselves, rather than all the times we’ve had so far where we go to the effort of helping some NPC to get some lore source, the NPC squees at it, but where we may only get a one- or two-line summary of the contents… if that. (Looking at you, Serenity Temple event!)

draxynnic.3719:

I don’t think anyone is expecting ArenaNet to actually devote the resources to make a genuine language. At best we’re probably going to see a substitution cipher.

They already did have one, back in Eye of the North. Check out the whole questline around Kerrsh.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

draxynnic.3719:

I don’t think anyone is expecting ArenaNet to actually devote the resources to make a genuine language. At best we’re probably going to see a substitution cipher.

They already did have one, back in Eye of the North. Check out the whole questline around Kerrsh.

That is not a language, that is something translatable through a substitution cypher, which is what drax is getting at…

Yeah, I was at least thinking of an alphabet like Ascalonian and New Krytan…

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

draxynnic.3719:

I don’t think anyone is expecting ArenaNet to actually devote the resources to make a genuine language. At best we’re probably going to see a substitution cipher.

They already did have one, back in Eye of the North. Check out the whole questline around Kerrsh.

That is not a language, that is something translatable through a substitution cypher, which is what drax is getting at…

I was agreeing, having a cipher was done before.

Guys, please. You know how this game caters to the (mentally) lowest common denominator. They are never ever going to include something complex like languages, that might “confuse” those poor new players (who have no business in 80 zones, imo).

Mental Paradox.3845:

Guys, please. You know how this game caters to the (mentally) lowest common denominator. They are never ever going to include something complex like languages, that might “confuse” those poor new players (who have no business in 80 zones, imo).

If it caters to the mental lowest common denominator, then why are there things like the Orrian Runestone around? Or the New Krytan alphabet? Both of which can be deciphered?

I got the feeling the the Languages thing was going to be like the Al Bhed in Final Fantasy. They speak and whether or not you can translate what they are saying depends on how much of their language you’ve learned. So I think we’ll also physically see in the world the result of our learning (or lack of).

Mental Paradox.3845:

Guys, please. You know how this game caters to the (mentally) lowest common denominator. They are never ever going to include something complex like languages, that might “confuse” those poor new players (who have no business in 80 zones, imo).

oh, look. one of those people.

don’t post if you don’t have anything productive to say. "lol game for dumb casuals, ‘too confusing’ " isn’t criticism, if that’s what your defense will be.

Just picturing it now. An asura saying “I can call you a bookah in seven different languages.”

My only fear is that these Mastery points are limited in such a way that we have to choose between either being more potent in battle, or getting deeper looks at lore. I don’t think ANet will go down this path, but you never know.

Zaxares.5419:

My only fear is that these Mastery points are limited in such a way that we have to choose between either being more potent in battle, or getting deeper looks at lore. I don’t think ANet will go down this path, but you never know.

There’s some design space for both. Language mastery can be simply a tool for lore-focused players to gather more information about the world, but it can also be so much more.

Imagine a massive group encounter fighting alongside allied ‘foreign’ NPCs. These NPCs call out directions (verbal telegraphs) that only language-empowered players can understand, which they can then translate for the other players, empowering the group as a whole.

I think there is a ton of room to make language mastery useful in a variety of contexts.

Psynch.4087:

Imagine a massive group encounter fighting alongside allied ‘foreign’ NPCs. These NPCs call out directions (verbal telegraphs) that only language-empowered players can understand, which they can then translate for the other players, empowering the group as a whole.

shudders
Playing telephone for a zerg? What have we done to deserve that?

Zaxares.5419:

My only fear is that these Mastery points are limited in such a way that we have to choose between either being more potent in battle, or getting deeper looks at lore. I don’t think ANet will go down this path, but you never know.

they made it sound like the masteries aren’t unlocked on a point system, but rather “doing X task improves Y mastery”. at least that’s my take from it. either way, it being an account bound thing, i’m pretty sure they’ll give you enough opportunities to earn masteries to have everything maxed, if so required.

Yeah, that was before I saw the “account wide” bit. That tells me it’s probably something like Fractal levels or WvW rank, and we’ll probably be able to master everything if we do everything in the expansion.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Psynch.4087:

Imagine a massive group encounter fighting alongside allied ‘foreign’ NPCs. These NPCs call out directions (verbal telegraphs) that only language-empowered players can understand, which they can then translate for the other players, empowering the group as a whole.

shudders
Playing telephone for a zerg? What have we done to deserve that?

I could see guilds like TTS using it. It wouldn’t be hard, I actually like the idea. So much of the gameplay of GW2 is inside the box, cut and dry combat. Adding gameplay elements which reflect other abilities a characters in Tyria could have are worth investigating.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Zaxares.5419:

My only fear is that these Mastery points are limited in such a way that we have to choose between either being more potent in battle, or getting deeper looks at lore. I don’t think ANet will go down this path, but you never know.

they made it sound like the masteries aren’t unlocked on a point system, but rather “doing X task improves Y mastery”. at least that’s my take from it. either way, it being an account bound thing, i’m pretty sure they’ll give you enough opportunities to earn masteries to have everything maxed, if so required.

According to one of the post-show interviews Colin said Wxp is a good comparison to make for Masteries. To me that sounds like you will be able to max them if you play enough, with certain masteries acting as low hanging fruit while others are long term goals. Having said that, it sounds like mastery points are awarded for specific one time things, which is not the case for Wxp so maybe it will be a system that becomes more difficult to progress the more you play (kinda like HoM – several points can be obtained quickly/easily but once you use up all the easy-to-obtain points you have to work on harder and harder points).

Psynch.4087:

Imagine a massive group encounter fighting alongside allied ‘foreign’ NPCs. These NPCs call out directions (verbal telegraphs) that only language-empowered players can understand, which they can then translate for the other players, empowering the group as a whole.

Or the ability to recruit NPCs to fight for us. Maybe you free some hylek and if you don’t have the language mastery they just run off, but if you do you can talk to their leader and request their help, resulting in hylek buffs or meatshields during a difficult fight.

What about turning off an Inquest shield generator. The control panel is written in a foreign language but players that learned that language can more easily navigate the dialogue options to shut the machine down. Just brainstorming here.

Shiren.9532:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Zaxares.5419:

My only fear is that these Mastery points are limited in such a way that we have to choose between either being more potent in battle, or getting deeper looks at lore. I don’t think ANet will go down this path, but you never know.

they made it sound like the masteries aren’t unlocked on a point system, but rather “doing X task improves Y mastery”. at least that’s my take from it. either way, it being an account bound thing, i’m pretty sure they’ll give you enough opportunities to earn masteries to have everything maxed, if so required.

According to one of the post-show interviews Colin said Wxp is a good comparison to make for Masteries. To me that sounds like you will be able to max them if you play enough, with certain masteries acting as low hanging fruit while others are long term goals. Having said that, it sounds like mastery points are awarded for specific one time things, which is not the case for Wxp so maybe it will be a system that becomes more difficult to progress the more you play (kinda like HoM – several points can be obtained quickly/easily but once you use up all the easy-to-obtain points you have to work on harder and harder points).

actually they said the WvW masteries were a good comparison in terms of what masteries can do. it is confirmed that you earn masteries through a limited set of tasks that can only be performed once per account, rather than a progression system in which you earn some sort of exp to level on the side, which makes a point system sound a bit weird.

i think the HoM analogy is best: you earn “points”, but you don’t choose where they go (so task X earns a point in Y mastery), just like each HoM monument was dedicated to a specific branch of the game.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Mental Paradox.3845:

Guys, please. You know how this game caters to the (mentally) lowest common denominator. They are never ever going to include something complex like languages, that might “confuse” those poor new players (who have no business in 80 zones, imo).

If it caters to the mental lowest common denominator, then why are there things like the Orrian Runestone around? Or the New Krytan alphabet? Both of which can be deciphered?

They’re simple substitution ciphers, however. They are not true languages. It’s just English with non-Latin characters for the alphabet.

Koviko.3248:

I got the feeling the the Languages thing was going to be like the Al Bhed in Final Fantasy. They speak and whether or not you can translate what they are saying depends on how much of their language you’ve learned. So I think we’ll also physically see in the world the result of our learning (or lack of).

Al Bhed in FF 10 is exactly what crossed my mind when I heard about the Languages in the Lore Mastery.
I think it will work the same way, some NPCs and “guides” will be written in those new languages and players that have those masteries will be able to understand better.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Mental Paradox.3845:

Guys, please. You know how this game caters to the (mentally) lowest common denominator. They are never ever going to include something complex like languages, that might “confuse” those poor new players (who have no business in 80 zones, imo).

If it caters to the mental lowest common denominator, then why are there things like the Orrian Runestone around? Or the New Krytan alphabet? Both of which can be deciphered?

They’re simple substitution ciphers, however. They are not true languages. It’s just English with non-Latin characters for the alphabet.

I’m just curious how that fits into “mental lowest common denominator” since those are the types who don’t even attempt to do even those. They just look up the translations on a wiki.

Belzebu.3912:

Koviko.3248:

I got the feeling the the Languages thing was going to be like the Al Bhed in Final Fantasy. They speak and whether or not you can translate what they are saying depends on how much of their language you’ve learned. So I think we’ll also physically see in the world the result of our learning (or lack of).

Al Bhed in FF 10 is exactly what crossed my mind when I heard about the Languages in the Lore Mastery.

Which was a more complicated cipher, though it looked simple of one letter substituted to another. But each word could be pronounced despite the ciphering, making . . . indeed, a language.

Not as robust one as Quenya, mind you. But then the creator of that one was armed with the expertise to do such.

Still prefer Sithi or Nabbani.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Mental Paradox.3845:

Guys, please. You know how this game caters to the (mentally) lowest common denominator. They are never ever going to include something complex like languages, that might “confuse” those poor new players (who have no business in 80 zones, imo).

If it caters to the mental lowest common denominator, then why are there things like the Orrian Runestone around? Or the New Krytan alphabet? Both of which can be deciphered?

They’re simple substitution ciphers, however. They are not true languages. It’s just English with non-Latin characters for the alphabet.

I’m just curious how that fits into “mental lowest common denominator” since those are the types who don’t even attempt to do even those. They just look up the translations on a wiki.

I wasn’t arguing for or against the mental lowest common denominator. I was merely pointing out that MP was saying that actual languages won’t be made (regardless of his claims for why) and what you were countering with was not actual languages, but ciphers.

So you weren’t really countering him.

Personally, I don’t think it’ll matter much to me. The chances of me buying HoT is still fairly low though I’d love to play a Revenant.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Mental Paradox.3845:

Guys, please. You know how this game caters to the (mentally) lowest common denominator. They are never ever going to include something complex like languages, that might “confuse” those poor new players (who have no business in 80 zones, imo).

If it caters to the mental lowest common denominator, then why are there things like the Orrian Runestone around? Or the New Krytan alphabet? Both of which can be deciphered?

They’re simple substitution ciphers, however. They are not true languages. It’s just English with non-Latin characters for the alphabet.

I’m just curious how that fits into “mental lowest common denominator” since those are the types who don’t even attempt to do even those. They just look up the translations on a wiki.

I wasn’t arguing for or against the mental lowest common denominator. I was merely pointing out that MP was saying that actual languages won’t be made (regardless of his claims for why) and what you were countering with was not actual languages, but ciphers.

So you weren’t really countering him.

Not the point on ciphers being likely, but “mental lowest common denominator” . . . I do take exception to that. Mostly because he set the bar too high.

Psynch.4087:

Imagine a massive group encounter fighting alongside allied ‘foreign’ NPCs. These NPCs call out directions (verbal telegraphs) that only language-empowered players can understand, which they can then translate for the other players, empowering the group as a whole.

I think there is a ton of room to make language mastery useful in a variety of contexts.

So exactly like playing open world on EU servers after the Tower of Babel Megaserver hit? NO THANKS.

BrunoBRS.5178:

i think the HoM analogy is best: you earn “points”, but you don’t choose where they go (so task X earns a point in Y mastery), just like each HoM monument was dedicated to a specific branch of the game.

I guess we will find out more during the deep dives and have a chance for input during the beta, but specific points for specific actions sounds significantly better than generic points allocated as you wish earned from specific actions. It actually fits the theme of mastery as opposed to simple progression – you master a language by talking to NPCs and aiding them, spending time with their tribe (doing events, story missions or dungeons – spending time with them would be like spending time a country that speaks a foreign language), finding all the lost note books a previous explorer left scattered across the jungle (like gold coins or the Ebonhawke story about the Ebon Falcons), exploring their sacred ruins and reading the glyphs on the walls, bringing a pot of firefly soup to a hungry hylek, after you’ve done those specific things you begin to master their language, and nothing else. If points are awarded for specific tasks, the points should be specifically allocated so players aren’t encouraged to talk to hyleks simply to unlock a point they will spend on removing husk bark so they can do boss encounters more easily.

Specific mastery points for specific tasks is also kind of exciting from a roleplaying/exploration point of view. If my goal as a player is to learn the hylek language, I approach the world from the perspective of how can I learn that language – what kinds of things would a Tyrian do that would help them learn a language. That gives meaning to actions you can currently do that have no systems tied to them.

I think there is a lot of exploration and roleplay potential to be had from language masteries.

yeah, there is no way to confirm that i’m right yet, but from the several interviews i’ve read, most of them gave the impression that specific tasks gave specific rewards, rather than it being like the current WvW system, which is just a glorified paragon leveling system.

BrunoBRS.5178:

~Snip~

i think the HoM analogy is best: you earn “points”, but you don’t choose where they go (so task X earns a point in Y mastery), just like each HoM monument was dedicated to a specific branch of the game.

In a couple of the other interviews(whether live or ‘written’ I can’t recall), Colin stated that you would indeed be earning Mastery points that you can then put into the different Masteries…so it almost sounds like you can choose what to put those Mastery points in to, which actually makes more sense for PvE where you will have multiple different Mastery categories that will expand as the game expands.

BrunoBRS.5178:

yeah, there is no way to confirm that i’m right yet, but from the several interviews i’ve read, most of them gave the impression that specific tasks gave specific rewards, rather than it being like the current WvW system, which is just a glorified paragon leveling system.

I hope you’re correct as the reveal gave the impression that its just spending points accrued through a variety of means, but that the points were just general not typed.

It’s almost certain to be ‘points earned spent as chosen’, similar to traits for instance.

The idea is that you can direct your progression whatever you do to earn the points.

we learned a few new things today:

one of the new races we meet is called the Itzel (going by the mesoamerican theme, my bet is that they’re those frog guys), and to communicate with them we’ll need to spend points in the language mastery. this will allow us to access things like vendors and locations, as well as obtain information and maybe even methods to defeat enemies.

source

BrunoBRS.5178:

we learned a few new things today:

one of the new races we meet is called the Itzel (going by the mesoamerican theme, my bet is that they’re those frog guys), and to communicate with them we’ll need to spend points in the language mastery. this will allow us to access things like vendors and locations, as well as obtain information and maybe even methods to defeat enemies.

source

Reading through this article again, here’s what it seems like it unlocks.

- Vendors will sell to you. Probably goods like the Skeleton Keys/Lockpicks or such.
- Collections are opened up.
- Access to locations. I’m assuming shortcuts around the map independent of Waypoints. (Especially since there are less Waypoints in Silverwastes and Dry Top than in some original areas . . . if you combine the two!)
- Masteries. What was described sounded like masteries.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

BrunoBRS.5178:

we learned a few new things today:

one of the new races we meet is called the Itzel (going by the mesoamerican theme, my bet is that they’re those frog guys), and to communicate with them we’ll need to spend points in the language mastery. this will allow us to access things like vendors and locations, as well as obtain information and maybe even methods to defeat enemies.

source

Reading through this article again, here’s what it seems like it unlocks.

- Vendors will sell to you. Probably goods like the Skeleton Keys/Lockpicks or such.
- Collections are opened up.
- Access to locations. I’m assuming shortcuts around the map independent of Waypoints. (Especially since there are less Waypoints in Silverwastes and Dry Top than in some original areas . . . if you combine the two!)
- Masteries. What was described sounded like masteries.

yeah, it sounded like some masteries are gated by other masteries (in this case, lore mastery unlocks the opportunity to learn a separate mastery).

it also once again made it sound like you’ll get specific mastery points for specific tasks. so while the system is point-tiered, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be as freeform as the current WvW mastery system, where you spend generic currency on whatever you want. the zelda/metroid analogies, with “finding the key to this gameplay lock” only strengthen this idea.

It would be nice if language masteries extended beyond the Maguuma jungle civilizations, but also in the rest of Tyria.

Yeah, the name makes me think that the Itzel are either a hylek tribe, or possibly a Quetzal relation, in which case they’re Tengu. Thing is, ANet specifically said that they are a new NPC race, so we might be looking at a completely new sentient race.

Zaxares.5419:

Yeah, the name makes me think that the Itzel are either a hylek tribe, or possibly a Quetzal relation, in which case they’re Tengu. Thing is, ANet specifically said that they are a new NPC race, so we might be looking at a completely new sentient race.

when i said frog race, i didn’t mean hylek.

these guys sure don’t look hylek (pardon the picture quality, believe it or not that’s youtube’s 1080p, i wasn’t about to download the high res version of the trailer from the press kit just for a screencap)

Oh boy, the Heket are back! XD

Why would they be Heket? Those live in Elona, which is pretty much the opposite side of the super continent, while Hylek live right next to the Itzel. Granted, the adults look kinda toad like, but the young (or smaller ones) look more like tree frogs, so from visuals alone they could be both. Again though, judging by the location Heket wouldn’t make sense. On top of that, the only Heket we know live in arid climate and have african cultural influences, while these share both the humid jungle location and also the meso-american influence with the Hylek.

Windsagio.1340:

It’s almost certain to be ‘points earned spent as chosen’, similar to traits for instance.

The idea is that you can direct your progression whatever you do to earn the points.

That’s not mastering, that’s just grinding. Say I want a better glider. Should I get a glider upgrade by kill 1,000 Mordrem husks or should I find a Pact rocket boost that fell off of a ship, that can only be reached by using the glider to reach a location only accessibly by several well controlled glides? Should we learn a new language by killing 100 Mordrem wyverns or should we do it by visiting several villages and exploring them to find pages from a collection? Some pages could be in hidden rooms, some might be given after completing a certain event, some might be out in the open or traded for with a certain item.

Masteries wouldn’t be very meaningful if they became generic grinds.

@Buddha: That was just me being flippant about how they look like Heket. In all honesty, I think we don’t have enough info yet to speculate on what the Itzel are. The IGN interview had ANet stating it was “new NPC races”, but it could refer to “lost tribes” of Hylek or Tengu, or a completely new species. For all we know, those glowy beings we all assumed were Mursaat are actually the Itzel. (Or the Itzel may be the true name of the Mursaat race. The term “Mursaat” may refer simply to Itzel who belong to a particular faction or belief system, similar to the Qunari from Dragon Age.)

@Shiren: It’s likely that Masteries will be earned in a similar fashion to traits now. They are unlocked via a combination of completing story content, achievements, doing specific events, or maybe even via completing certain Collections.