Guild Wars 2

For some reason I keep getting a bug preventing me from asking anything more than a few words long, but:

Is scarlett the most hated game Character ever?

I see NOTHING but scorn for her in game, out of game, forums..whatever…Seriously..I cannot think of a single character that is so hated by the gaming community.

Maybe Trahearne but since Scarlet is more current she’d be at the top.

I don’t really hate her since the enemy is the enemy but its time she moved on.

Honestly I am absolutely in love with Scarlet, but for only one reason, and one reason only.

Her voice actress is Tara Strong, who is my all time favorite voice actress. I would list Felicia Day in that spot, but I don’t consider her as a voice actress by default, just an actress.

Scarlet is the scapegoat of the community right now. She’s just an easy target for people that hate the living story, or the game in general. She doesn’t really bother me, but that’s because i don’t care about the living story currently.

Mitch.4781:

For some reason I keep getting a bug preventing me from asking anything more than a few words long, but:

Is scarlett the most hated game Character ever?

I see NOTHING but scorn for her in game, out of game, forums..whatever…Seriously..I cannot think of a single character that is so hated by the gaming community.

The dog from ‘Duck Hunt’

Hate that jerk…..

She’s the gal, who’s laugh makes me smile a mile. One of the best maniacal laughs I’ve ever heard.

I want an infinite Scarlett laugh bauble that emits the evil chuckle from the TP.

nexxe.7081:

Scarlet is the scapegoat of the community right now. She’s just an easy target for people that hate the living story, or the game in general.

This basically…

Firebaall.5127:

She’s the gal, who’s laugh makes me smile a mile. One of the best maniacal laughs I’ve ever heard.

I want an infinite Scarlett laugh bauble that emits the evil chuckle from the TP.

I want my mini hologram Scarlet to have that laugh.
I agree that Scarlet is just a scapegoat for people who don’t like the LS concept.

I kind of like her actually, am very interested on in the next couple of updates that winds up the first season of LS

She’s not a dragon, you know? Apparently only dragons are interesting.

I can see where some of the complaints are coming from, but I think they’re overstated. There’s nothing wrong with Scarlet. She fills a game need, which is to have something to work against.

I’m not terribly worried about it, I think Anet has an ace up their sleeve with this whole thing.

Hobbitz.5831:

The dog from ‘Duck Hunt’

Hate that jerk…..

Yeah, gotta go with this one.

She’s the result of some astonishingly bad writing. I have encountered Sonic the Hedgehog Self-Insert Erotic Fanfiction handled with greater skill than Scarlet’s arc. If I hated the character, in a way that made me strive to vanquish her, that would be a success of sorts. But she’s far too shallow to deserve any strong emotion. She inspires only apathy and disdain. As such, I reserve my distaste for the people responsible for inflicting her on us.

Oh look another post about forumgoers who dislike Scarlet. One of the other threads wasn’t good enough for ya? :p

Anyhow there hasn’t been any research. You can’t say everyone hates Scarlet. It may look like everyone dislikes Scarlet to you, because that’s the kind of thing you were looking for and because people generally come to the forums to complain instead of praise.

Firebaall.5127:

She’s the gal, who’s laugh makes me smile a mile. One of the best maniacal laughs I’ve ever heard.

I want an infinite Scarlett laugh bauble that emits the evil chuckle from the TP.

God, someone needs to make a video of Tara Strong doing her maniacal laugh that is 10 or so hours long. It would be annoying as hell, but one of those things you can link to just to show how much of a troll you are being.

Yes, I agree, Tara Strong (aka Scarlett Briar) has the single best Evil Genius Laugh in the world!

By the way, this is why I love Scarlett Briar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sseXDqBAsGY Scarlett is the girl in purple and black with gray skin in that vid. That gives you an idea of just how good of an actress Tara Strong is.

To be honest, I don’t hate Scarlett much. Yes she is a bit dull and seems to be able to do everything and get away with it. But I could say the same about Mumm-Ra, Cyril Sneer, Miles Mayhem, Evil Edna, Finella the Witch etc.

They are chief antagonists, they are meant to come back again and again, to be indefatigable and persistent.

I don’t think half of the people who ‘hate’ Scarlett actually go. Its just the current bandwagon to jump on. For that matter, I don’t even give two hoots about Trahearne.

GuzziHero.2467:

To be honest, I don’t hate Scarlett much. Yes she is a bit dull and seems to be able to do everything and get away with it. But I could say the same about Mumm-Ra, Cyril Sneer, Miles Mayhem, Evil Edna, Finella the Witch etc.

They are chief antagonists, they are meant to come back again and again, to be indefatigable and persistent.

I don’t think half of the people who ‘hate’ Scarlett actually go. Its just the current bandwagon to jump on. For that matter, I don’t even give two hoots about Trahearne.

Yeah but none of those villains you mentioned actually has a legitimate claim to immortality, (well except Mumm-Ra I suppose). Unlike Voldemort, or Sauron for example. Or heck, even Jadis. Scarlett gets a pass because she doesn’t actually fight us, or hasn’t yet. She lets her minions do all the work and runs away to wherever her battle fortress happens to be located.

Marax.4938:

Oh look another post about forumgoers who dislike Scarlet. One of the other threads wasn’t good enough for ya? :p

Anyhow there hasn’t been any research. You can’t say everyone hates Scarlet. It may look like everyone dislikes Scarlet to you, because that’s the kind of thing you were looking for and because people generally come to the forums to complain instead of praise.

Well really..it’s not just forums..it is in game..in queensdale and LA..I have yet to see a positive supporter of her and I play EVERY day.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Yeah but none of those villains you mentioned actually has a legitimate claim to immortality, (well except Mumm-Ra I suppose). Unlike Voldemort, or Sauron for example. Or heck, even Jadis. Scarlett gets a pass because she doesn’t actually fight us, or hasn’t yet. She lets her minions do all the work and runs away to wherever her battle fortress happens to be located.

Immortality doesn’t matter. She is just another Saturday Morning Cartoon villain.

I guess the problem really could be that since GW2 is largely played by adults and not kids, we cannot overlook the flaws in having a do-anything, go-anywhere enemy that cannot be placed or defeated. The issue is with our cynical minds, not the character.

GuzziHero.2467:

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Yeah but none of those villains you mentioned actually has a legitimate claim to immortality, (well except Mumm-Ra I suppose). Unlike Voldemort, or Sauron for example. Or heck, even Jadis. Scarlett gets a pass because she doesn’t actually fight us, or hasn’t yet. She lets her minions do all the work and runs away to wherever her battle fortress happens to be located.

Immortality doesn’t matter. She is just another Saturday Morning Cartoon villain.

I guess the problem really could be that since GW2 is largely played by adults and not kids, we cannot overlook the flaws in having a do-anything, go-anywhere enemy that cannot be placed or defeated. The issue is with our cynical minds, not the character.

Actually, if one took the time to read up on the lore that is being presented for the character and the living story elements that she is a part of, one would quickly see that she is anything but a Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain.

Rather I liken her more to the likes of Deathstroke, Father, and arguably even Light Yagami (even though the latter was the protagonist of the manga in question).

All three of these Villains worked almost 100% behind the scenes. The only time you got to see Father actively fighting the main cast of Full Metal Alchemist was during the last couple of episodes of the Brotherhood series. Deathstroke would hire various minor villains to do his dirty work for him, only deigning to actually involve himself in the petty affairs of actual battles if it was absolutely necessary to his plot.

And as for Light Yagami, his entire shtick required him to remain anonymous from the would be heroes to the point where he was actually working with them to stop himself. It was kind of ridiculous what all he got away with under the noses of the authorities.

These are all the kinds of things that Scarlett herself does in a way. She works behind the scenes, only coming out long enough to taunt us with her presence. These are not the actions of a stereotypical Saturday morning cartoon villain. Her actions are world shaping in ways that no Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain’s actions could ever be. I mean her activities have altered the appearance of Kessex Hills TWICE.

I have to admit that I do not care for scarlet at all

at first I really enjoyed the living story but over the year I found it to be getting rather dull

the concept of Living story is great but I feel the enjoyment of the new chapters vanishes quite quickly for me

all that is really left at the end is a bunch of achievements which feel a bit grindy for me

I still make a point of trying to complete the living story arc’s although for the most part I do it for the achievement points and nothing else

some of the rewards we’ve gotten are vile tbh
I loved the style of guildwars one and guildwars 2 at first but all this steampunk themed gear is really starting to get on my nerves
jetpacks, gas masks, Aetherblade skins.. I hate it and it looks utterly stupid.. it feels like trying to force Bioshock’s theme into the Elder Scrolls world so to speak..

Im doubt im alone in thinking this but to me the Living story feels more like work than fun most of the time

specially when the more group related content is not played as group related content

the Tower of nightmares for example is the most recent case of every man for himself content

groups of people running through the mobs to get to the top quicker thus always resorting in a few players being singled out and destroyed by mobs of npc’s

I do find it annoying when people play this way
group designed content being run through and if you fall behind you get left behind
this is not how this content was ment to be played and is partly why I dislike some of the living world content

Teratus, to be fair. Guild Wars 1 was set in what I like to term a “High Fantasy Setting” which generally equates to between the 1200’s and the 1600’s in Europe, as far as the historical influences on the setting are concerned. But even back in Guild Wars 1, there were elements of Steam Punk present in the setting. Most notably within the Charr civilization. I don’t personally classify Asura Tech as anything other than “Magitech” and thus do not include it within the genre of Steam Punk.

That said, Video Role Playing Games that utilize a High Fantasy Setting, have been incorporating elements of Steam Punk within their stories since at least 1991, a good 14 years before Guild Wars was ever actually released. You basically have Final Fantasy II/IV to blame for the inclusion of Steam Punk in your fantasy genre. Final Fantasy III/VI was even more blatant about it though, going so far as to coin the term magitech in regards to a device that looked way more steam than it did magical (it even issued steam).

Final Fantasy 6 Opening Movie

Also, as far as villians worthy of hating them. Scarlet really has absolutely nothing on Kefka. I mean she hasn’t actually done anything noteworthy as far as being a Villain. Kefka on the other hand poisoned an entire cities drinking water, did various other evil things…. AND SUCCESSFULLY ESTABLISHED HIMSELF AS GOD. Not to mention causing a successful destruction of the entire world of Final Fantasy VI (which he later rebuilt in his image).

Kefka was by and large the single most successful villain of all time (unless you are counting Yuno Gasai, cause she trumps even Kefka in the category of successful Villains).

I don’t hate Scarlet, I hate her Mary Sueism.
She’s not a talented villain, she’s a villain with an aura of foolishness and an absurdly compact resume. When she’s display, every character became so stupid they let her chat and leave casually. Take your ******* rifle and head shot her !
And the NPC are talking all time how she’s so brilliant, so machiavellian, so better than us, so “everything goes as planned”. Marry her !
She control Kraits, Nightmare Court, Flame Legion, Dredges, Aetherblade pirates.
When they’re defeated ? She don’t care, she has reach her goal and it’s not a a defeat…
She’s too perfect to fail.
She studied in the three Asuran University in only one year for each, learned Charr technology from an Iron Legion Charr and Norn blacksmithing and mastered it in only one year for each. She was accepted in the Inquest (which is racist but not for her) and steal some of their technology…

MARY SUE !

I admit, doing each of those things in a single year is hard to fathom. Especially the Blacksmithing bit, it generally takes about 5 to 10 years to truly LEARN the Art of Blacksmithing (assuming you are going for the artistic version of it instead of the the basic utilitarian version of it), to say nothing of actually mastering the craft.

At best Scarlet Briar is what would be termed in Dungeons and Dragons as a “Chaotic Evil Bard” if such a thing were to even actually exist in the first place.

I have no problem with Scarlet.
This thread has others that did not have a problem with Scarlet.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Am-I-the-only-Player-that-Likes-Scarlet/first#post3421045

There’s a bit of confusion that needs to be cleared here. I don’t think many people “hate” Scarlet because she’s such an evil character, like they hate Joffrey in Game of Thrones. I’d say people “hate” Scarlet because she’s kind of a failed plot device. I for one am just bored of her and waiting for her arc to be over with so a good one can start.

Kulvar.1239:

MARY SUE !

This is all that really needs to be said.

Specifically, she is guilty of the following:
Black Hole Sue

Her gravity is so great, she draws all the attention and causes other characters (and, often, reality itself) to bend and contort in order to accommodate her. Characters don’t act naturally around her. They instead serve as plot enablers for her, with dialogue that only acts as set-ups for her response. She dominates every scene she is in, with most scenes without her serving only to give the characters a chance to “talk freely” about her. Most people don’t oppose her and anybody who does will either realize their fault in doing so or just prove easy to overcome.

Mary Tzu

More common in works revolving around warfare, a Mary Tzu is a character, usually a military commander, with unrealistic tactical abilities. She (or he; actually more often he, we just couldn’t pass up the pun) can pull a win out of any battle no matter how outnumbered, outgunned, or outmatched, she can guess any enemy commander’s plan no matter how convoluted or how little information she has to work from, and any plan she comes up with will work perfectly, often employing Hollywood Tactics, resulting in total enemy defeat and another smashing success for General Tzu’s track record.

Then of course, most obviously, Villain Sue

…the same author favoritism and plot bias are now working for the forces of evil. It may also come about as an attempt to create a Magnificent kitten or similar style of villain, only to go too far and become one of these.

You know who would have been a much better villain? Ellen Kiel.

Not through being a mastermind who secretly and conveniently ties the previous LS events together, but through being a well-intending person who’s already earned our sympathy, sorely out of their depth and trying to react to these various problems, and failing due to inexperience and bad judgement.

It would have been dug in all that much deeper because we voted for her.

That kind of nuance is hard to find in GW2, though.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

GuzziHero.2467:

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Yeah but none of those villains you mentioned actually has a legitimate claim to immortality, (well except Mumm-Ra I suppose). Unlike Voldemort, or Sauron for example. Or heck, even Jadis. Scarlett gets a pass because she doesn’t actually fight us, or hasn’t yet. She lets her minions do all the work and runs away to wherever her battle fortress happens to be located.

Immortality doesn’t matter. She is just another Saturday Morning Cartoon villain.

I guess the problem really could be that since GW2 is largely played by adults and not kids, we cannot overlook the flaws in having a do-anything, go-anywhere enemy that cannot be placed or defeated. The issue is with our cynical minds, not the character.

Actually, if one took the time to read up on the lore that is being presented for the character and the living story elements that she is a part of, one would quickly see that she is anything but a Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain.

Rather I liken her more to the likes of Deathstroke, Father, and arguably even Light Yagami (even though the latter was the protagonist of the manga in question).

All three of these Villains worked almost 100% behind the scenes. The only time you got to see Father actively fighting the main cast of Full Metal Alchemist was during the last couple of episodes of the Brotherhood series. Deathstroke would hire various minor villains to do his dirty work for him, only deigning to actually involve himself in the petty affairs of actual battles if it was absolutely necessary to his plot.

And as for Light Yagami, his entire shtick required him to remain anonymous from the would be heroes to the point where he was actually working with them to stop himself. It was kind of ridiculous what all he got away with under the noses of the authorities.

These are all the kinds of things that Scarlett herself does in a way. She works behind the scenes, only coming out long enough to taunt us with her presence. These are not the actions of a stereotypical Saturday morning cartoon villain. Her actions are world shaping in ways that no Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain’s actions could ever be. I mean her activities have altered the appearance of Kessex Hills TWICE.

Says Scarlet is not a Cartoon villain….compares her to Cartoon villains.

Makes sense.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Teratus, to be fair. Guild Wars 1 was set in what I like to term a “High Fantasy Setting” which generally equates to between the 1200’s and the 1600’s in Europe, as far as the historical influences on the setting are concerned. But even back in Guild Wars 1, there were elements of Steam Punk present in the setting. Most notably within the Charr civilization. I don’t personally classify Asura Tech as anything other than “Magitech” and thus do not include it within the genre of Steam Punk.

That said, Video Role Playing Games that utilize a High Fantasy Setting, have been incorporating elements of Steam Punk within their stories since at least 1991, a good 14 years before Guild Wars was ever actually released. You basically have Final Fantasy II/IV to blame for the inclusion of Steam Punk in your fantasy genre. Final Fantasy III/VI was even more blatant about it though, going so far as to coin the term magitech in regards to a device that looked way more steam than it did magical (it even issued steam).

Final Fantasy 6 Opening Movie

Also, as far as villians worthy of hating them. Scarlet really has absolutely nothing on Kefka. I mean she hasn’t actually done anything noteworthy as far as being a Villain. Kefka on the other hand poisoned an entire cities drinking water, did various other evil things…. AND SUCCESSFULLY ESTABLISHED HIMSELF AS GOD. Not to mention causing a successful destruction of the entire world of Final Fantasy VI (which he later rebuilt in his image).

Kefka was by and large the single most successful villain of all time (unless you are counting Yuno Gasai, cause she trumps even Kefka in the category of successful Villains).

High Fantasy has nothing to do with time periods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy

Well she’s just a horrible villain, and not in a good way. All I think is “Oh god… here we go again.” and then I fall asleep on my keyboard.

I actually find Scarlet to be a very interesting character, and I can’t wait to find out more about her motives and all.

Of course I want to catch her and throw her into a heavily secured prison cell (or kill her if there’s no other choice, like if she doesn’t surrender despite of being at the brink of death and having no way out). But as a character, I find her to be very interesting. And always being good for a laugh as well, since she’s got kind of a twisted humour at times.

I was sold on this game ever since the cutscene from gw1 introducing the dragons, only to find that for months now, I would be facing off against a salad.

Soa Cirri.6012:

You know who would have been a much better villain? Ellen Kiel.

Not through being a mastermind who secretly and conveniently ties the previous LS events together, but through being a well-intending person who’s already earned our sympathy, sorely out of their depth and trying to react to these various problems, and failing due to inexperience and bad judgement.

It would have been dug in all that much deeper because we voted for her.

That kind of nuance is hard to find in GW2, though.

THIS, so much this. I’ve said the same thing to my guildmates for a long time. But unfortunately as you said, this level of writing, intrigue and nuance is not present in the writing of GW2. Sadly. It would make an awesome plot twist.

killcannon.2576:

Says Scarlet is not a Cartoon villain….compares her to Cartoon villains.

Makes sense.

Manga are not cartoons in the traditional sense. In fact the artform known as Manga predates contemporary western cartoons by at least a hundred years. In fact the earliest images that have been associated with the concept of Manga date back to the 12th Century Common Era, though there is some debate about whether they are truly Manga or not.

Also, Deathstroke is not a Cartoon Villain, he is a Comic Book Villain. The two media are completely different in their target audiences.

killcannon.2576:

High Fantasy has nothing to do with time periods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy

Actually, it has everything to do with time periods. The only reason we have what we now know as High Fantasy is because Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote Historia Regum Brittanniae, among other works, and is well known for his works dealing with King Arthur. A character who according to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s settings was part of roughly the early 800’s Common Era. So you will excuse me if I take your word with very little basis on fact.

Also, try using that wiki article as the basis of a College Essay on what High Fantasy is all about and you would be the laughing stock of your College just for citing a wikipedia article.

By the way, according to that article you linked. I would be able to get away with labeling Frank Herbert’s Dune as “High Fantasy” when it is actually the equivalent type of story, but in a Sci-Fi setting. In fact an argument could be made for Star Wars also being High Fantasy according to that article, despite it’s many Sci-Fi elements.

Unfortunately. This is the word.

It would have been great to discover that Ellen Kiel has rig the elections in order to gain much more power to achieve some evil plans instead of Scarlet “I come from nowhere, know everything and do what I want”.

I don’t hate her, per se, but I do find her kind of boring.

GW2 does need a master villain to focus our attention. We need a great evil to fight. We need Dragons.

Scarlet was given to us instead. She is the means to carry a story (even if you don’t like it) and that’s it. Her only true fault was/is in being everywhere.

When she showed up in the Queen’s Jubilee, she was still in her “infancy” and kind of mysterious. We didn’t know anything about her, and we wondered who this person was who was so intent on screwing up the event. It really wasn’t a bad device at the time.

Unfortunately, every…single…one of the LS updates since then have been a direct result of Scarlet and her evil, if unsubstantiated plans. I would have had less apathy toward her if they had skipped a chapter here and there and then brought her back. I had hopes for the tower, but then when I found it to be Scarlet again, I did the meta and have yet to go back to Kessex.

So, in the end, I don’t hate her, I just couldn’t care less about her.

Eventually, her arc will end and we’ll move on to something else. Then we’ll find someone/something else to complain about as well.

She was fun in the beginning, but after the same all over and over it gets boring.

Ashabhi.1365:

Unfortunately, every…single…one of the LS updates since then have been a direct result of Scarlet and her evil, if unsubstantiated plans. I would have had less apathy toward her if they had skipped a chapter here and there and then brought her back. I had hopes for the tower, but then when I found it to be Scarlet again, I did the meta and have yet to go back to Kessex.

This ^^^

It’s was just too much Scarlet shoved into our faces for us to appreciate her. Now she is just annoying and I can’t wait for her to die.

I admit that I would like an honest answer about this:

When Flame & Frost was written/released, did the GW2 writing team actually know that Scarlett was behind it, or was that retconned when her concept came along? Likewise Aetherblades.

Seems to me that several LS episodes have been hastily packaged into the Scarlett plot.

No but a lot of people hate the living story. That has mainly to do with the type of content what has mainly to do with a gem-store focus and the living story needing to sell gems.

A next season Living Story might not have Scarlet but it will have the same Living Story content that is the main problem.

Devata.6589:

No but a lot of people hate the living story. That has mainly to do with the type of content what has mainly to do with a gem-store focus and the living story needing to sell gems.

A next season Living Story might not have Scarlet but it will have the same Living Story content that is the main problem.

You do of course realize that the Gem Store is how Arena Net makes their main profit off of this game. Being upset that they are targeting their content at pushing Gem Store Purchases is like being upset that this game doesn’t have a subscription fee.

No one is forcing you to buy the stuff that is on sale in the Gem Store. In fact it strictly isn’t necessary to use the Gem Store to get full use out of the game, much less the Living Story content. The Gem Store just makes life more convenient is all.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Devata.6589:

No but a lot of people hate the living story. That has mainly to do with the type of content what has mainly to do with a gem-store focus and the living story needing to sell gems.

A next season Living Story might not have Scarlet but it will have the same Living Story content that is the main problem.

You do of course realize that the Gem Store is how Arena Net makes their main profit off of this game. Being upset that they are targeting their content at pushing Gem Store Purchases is like being upset that this game doesn’t have a subscription fee.

No one is forcing you to buy the stuff that is on sale in the Gem Store. In fact it strictly isn’t necessary to use the Gem Store to get full use out of the game, much less the Living Story content. The Gem Store just makes life more convenient is all.

Every time I do not explicit say in a post that I do understand that they need to make money and how they can do it in another way some guy comes with a post like you. Really, do you guys not understand that there are multiple ways to make money. Anyway I will answer your question.

“You do of course realize that the Gem Store is how Arena Net makes their main profit off of this game.” Oow I very much do realize that and as I stated in multiple threads including this one I created myself https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/A-focus-on-micro-transactions/first#post3324571 I see exactly that as one of the biggest problems for this game. Everything is focused on selling gems and not on making a better game resulting in a worse game. Have a read there for more details!

“Being upset that they are targeting their content at pushing Gem Store Purchases is like being upset that this game doesn’t have a subscription fee.” That would be one option but no it’s like being upset that this game does focus on gems for there main source for income in stead of focusing on expansions (box-sales) for there main income. You know like GW1 did. The fact that GW1 did that and that GW2 asked money for there game made me believe that would be the model they went for (while also having a cash-shop next to it but not as main focus) was the main reason I got interested in this game. Simply because a cash-shop focus is always bad for the quality of the game itself, and GW2 proofs that again! So you can say “is like being upset that this game doesn’t have a focus on expansions for income” Yeah indeed! And the result it has to the game.

“No one is forcing you to buy the stuff that is on sale in the Gem Store.” Do I say that anywhere? Didn’t I say the type of content was bad. Yes that is what I said, and I said that was related to the cash-shop focus. I never said I was forced to buy items I just said the game-content itself gets worse because of it. For examples I would suggest reaching the thread I liked before. The “You are not forces to buy” is also one people keep throwing around while thats not at all the point.

“The Gem Store just makes life more convenient is all.” Yeah partly because they make the game without it less convenient. You know like upping the stack-number with a gem-store item. Really? 250 is to low, or the stuff we need is to much. Then you should up the stack level or lower the requirements what you need but what do they do? They ad an items to the gem-store to up the stack-number. I consider that extremely bad behavior. However once again, it has nothing to do with being forced to buy it or not it has to do with how the focus on ti effects the game-content. And it does so in a very bad way. The game is imho a worse shape then it was right after release.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

killcannon.2576:

Says Scarlet is not a Cartoon villain….compares her to Cartoon villains.

Makes sense.

Manga are not cartoons in the traditional sense. In fact the artform known as Manga predates contemporary western cartoons by at least a hundred years. In fact the earliest images that have been associated with the concept of Manga date back to the 12th Century Common Era, though there is some debate about whether they are truly Manga or not.

Also, Deathstroke is not a Cartoon Villain, he is a Comic Book Villain. The two media are completely different in their target audiences.

killcannon.2576:

High Fantasy has nothing to do with time periods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy

Actually, it has everything to do with time periods. The only reason we have what we now know as High Fantasy is because Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote Historia Regum Brittanniae, among other works, and is well known for his works dealing with King Arthur. A character who according to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s settings was part of roughly the early 800’s Common Era. So you will excuse me if I take your word with very little basis on fact.

Also, try using that wiki article as the basis of a College Essay on what High Fantasy is all about and you would be the laughing stock of your College just for citing a wikipedia article.

By the way, according to that article you linked. I would be able to get away with labeling Frank Herbert’s Dune as “High Fantasy” when it is actually the equivalent type of story, but in a Sci-Fi setting. In fact an argument could be made for Star Wars also being High Fantasy according to that article, despite it’s many Sci-Fi elements.

Sci fi is a fantasy sub genre.

DeathStroke in your example comes from teen titans I assume. Comics and cartoons about comics share a common audience, not sure why you think they don’t. That’s like saying that people who read Manga do not watch Anime.

Manga are not cartoons, but more akin to western comic books or graphic novels. Anime are cartoons, or animated shows. The examples you listed follow more closely to the related Animes than the mangas. Potato, potatoe. It’s the same thing. Semantics.

King Arthur is Low Fantasy or falls into the realm of Myth in some circles, depending on how you want to take it. Star Wars is Sci fi space opera. Learn your genres.

Wikipedia is fine for layman, which I assume you are. The article has plenty of sources cited, which I would use instead the article itself for a college paper. A common practice, which most students use.

I don’t know if I would use hate… but the story isn’t very compelling or intresting to me.

Melchior.2135:

She’s the result of some astonishingly bad writing. I have encountered Sonic the Hedgehog Self-Insert Erotic Fanfiction handled with greater skill than Scarlet’s arc. If I hated the character, in a way that made me strive to vanquish her, that would be a success of sorts. But she’s far too shallow to deserve any strong emotion. She inspires only apathy and disdain. As such, I reserve my distaste for the people responsible for inflicting her on us.

I agree. The writing is terrible. People say she is a scapegoat for their dislike towards the game or living story – I disagree. I like both those things, the living story monthly content is a good way to release new content imo. But Scarlet is not a well designed/written character and there has been plenty of posts/threads to explain why, its not just one thing its numerous things. Had it been a better story and villain this game would be in such a better spot than it is atm.

I just hope they understand what they did wrong with the writing and not just pass the blame on the method of delivery. This would be a titanic mistake.

Scarlet as well as Traherne both stand out as pretty flat and awkward when set against the rest of the GW2 world. I wouldn’t blink if either of them showed up in a Blizzard title. She isn’t bad, she just happens to be the ugly girlfriend of GW2.

There is the possibility that I just can’t take the vegetable people seriously though.

Devata.6589:

“You do of course realize that the Gem Store is how Arena Net makes their main profit off of this game.” Oow I very much do realize that and as I stated in multiple threads including this one I created myself https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/A-focus-on-micro-transactions/first#post3324571 I see exactly that as one of the biggest problems for this game. Everything is focused on selling gems and not on making a better game resulting in a worse game. Have a read there for more details!

I would kindly point you to look in the direction of Perfect World International. Where their version of Legendary Weapons, and Ascended Armor/Trinkets are ONLY available if you or someone else is willing to invest THOUSANDS of dollars into their equivalent of the Gem Store. There is no option about it in that game. They require SOMEONE to have to invest thousands of dollars into their Cash Shop in order for anyone to have access to the best gear.

That isn’t even getting into what is required in that game in order to reach the maximum level. So you will excuse me if I ignore your claims that “EVERYTHING” in this game is focused on the Gem Shop, when that is clearly not the case. Especially when it is 100% possible to get your End Game gear in this game without investing a single dime into the Gem Shop. Difficult, yes, but still possible. That is not the case in Games like Perfect World International!

As for you’re claim that you are upset that they are focusing on Gem Sales instead of focusing on expansion box sales… unfortunately I do believe Market Research is on my side when I say that it has been shown that Micro-Transactions will make a company much more money than expansion box sales would ever be capable of making them. That’s just the way things are in the current state of affairs. You will note that Guild Wars 1 did eventually open up a cash shop of it’s own, and that it is this cash shop that is maintaining the Guild Wars 1 Servers now, not expansion box sales.

I quit following the living worlds story line, so I don’t hate Scarlet, but the overall theme of Scarlet wasn’t amusing for me, or interesting. She appears to be too overstated for whom she really is. There was no character building before she appeared, only what was written up in the short stories.

For me, a Villain who appeals to my taste is one who either slowly crept in before taking control, or someone who started off nobel but because of an event, whether known or unknown, took the turn for the worse.

I like suspense, but with Scarlet she was too forceful and too strong and seemed saracastic and arrogant in a sense. Her story isn’t over, so I cannot conclude her overall role, but her “Character Building” experience has been over the top, in my respectful opinion.

If she’s you’re cup of tea, there’s nothing wrong with that, and you were lucky enough to get a good year of Guild Wars 2. For me, I struggled to enjoy the fruits of GW2, hanging on by what once was, and the hope that great things are coming.

GuzziHero.2467:

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Yeah but none of those villains you mentioned actually has a legitimate claim to immortality, (well except Mumm-Ra I suppose). Unlike Voldemort, or Sauron for example. Or heck, even Jadis. Scarlett gets a pass because she doesn’t actually fight us, or hasn’t yet. She lets her minions do all the work and runs away to wherever her battle fortress happens to be located.

Immortality doesn’t matter. She is just another Saturday Morning Cartoon villain.

I guess the problem really could be that since GW2 is largely played by adults and not kids, we cannot overlook the flaws in having a do-anything, go-anywhere enemy that cannot be placed or defeated. The issue is with our cynical minds, not the character.

I belive this to be a valid point. Many of the player I’ve come across are older than 18, which would lead to more critisicm and higher expatations as a player. Tough crowd so to speak.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Teratus, to be fair. Guild Wars 1 was set in what I like to term a “High Fantasy Setting” which generally equates to between the 1200’s and the 1600’s in Europe, as far as the historical influences on the setting are concerned. But even back in Guild Wars 1, there were elements of Steam Punk present in the setting. Most notably within the Charr civilization. I don’t personally classify Asura Tech as anything other than “Magitech” and thus do not include it within the genre of Steam Punk.

That said, Video Role Playing Games that utilize a High Fantasy Setting, have been incorporating elements of Steam Punk within their stories since at least 1991, a good 14 years before Guild Wars was ever actually released. You basically have Final Fantasy II/IV to blame for the inclusion of Steam Punk in your fantasy genre. Final Fantasy III/VI was even more blatant about it though, going so far as to coin the term magitech in regards to a device that looked way more steam than it did magical (it even issued steam).

Final Fantasy 6 Opening Movie

Also, as far as villians worthy of hating them. Scarlet really has absolutely nothing on Kefka. I mean she hasn’t actually done anything noteworthy as far as being a Villain. Kefka on the other hand poisoned an entire cities drinking water, did various other evil things…. AND SUCCESSFULLY ESTABLISHED HIMSELF AS GOD. Not to mention causing a successful destruction of the entire world of Final Fantasy VI (which he later rebuilt in his image).

Kefka was by and large the single most successful villain of all time (unless you are counting Yuno Gasai, cause she trumps even Kefka in the category of successful Villains).

Though you are correct that GW1 presented both magitech and steampunk, the game was not orientated around such, but moreso on the “High Fantasy/Medieval” style with a taste of the latter. I, alongside Teratus, am not fond of the two but don’t mind a taste or influence of them. GW2 presented faction type races, with norn and humans not relying on Magitech or steampunk, which was decent. Now as we move forward, all races are becoming blended, but with more tech and punk, with no spiritual fantasy feel (in my humble opinion).

Scarlet is kinda bleh. When I saw her in the new fractal, it was like, “Oh shere is here again. Oh well.”

It is hard to get buyin for a character when you have no idea who she is or why she does anything.

Honestly, I really want to like scarlet. She’s a sort of enthralling classical madcap moustache twirling kind of Villain that’s entertaining to watch.

The problem is that she’s written as functionally insane, while simultaneously displaying such an impressive command of tactics and manipulation that it’s just utterly unbelievable.

Basically, she’s written against her own character. I really REALLY enjoyed her during the queen’s gauntlet, I liked the introduction, I liked the minions, I even forgave the “oh and humans have robots now just because we needed to give this chick minions” because I thought she was a fun villain and I wanted her to have interesting minions.

And then we started figuring out that she’d been subjugating every enemy faction in the game, against all reason, for no purpose we could discern, never got clues about, and honestly seemed completely unbelievable.

In short, Scarlet is just put in shoes that are way too big for her to fill, and arguably shoes that shouldn’t have been invented in the first place. I want to like Scarlet. I think she’d be a fantastic madcap foil as part of the grater pantheon of villainy if her power level was just toned down a notch.

As a character who supercedes every enemy faction in the game in terms of power I just can’t buy it. At best she’s on par with Faolan or (the late) Balefire in that I could envision her as having control of a regional enemy faction. Threat to the whole world? Nah. She’s far to schizoid for me to believe it.

I’ll be happy when shes out of the limelight, but I hope she sticks around after to make guest appearances in a more character-appropriate role in the future.