Guild Wars 2

Hello there fellow players,

As the Living Story trudges ever on in Tyria, there is something that feels.. off.. for me, about the whole thing. For some reason, I can’t really allign the events in the Living Story with the already established world of Guild Wars, and somehow I think it finally dawned on me.

I have been looking at Guild Wars as a fantasy MMO, where ancient gods and malevolent spirits plague the world, and battles are fought over ancient strifes. However, with the development in the Living Story and events in the Personal Story, I can’t help but feeling that they are upping the science fiction themes of the game. We are being invaded by Aetherblades, who are steam-punk inspired air-pirates cruising the skies in top-modern air-ships and what looks like cyber-punk attire. Jennah’s new bodyguards are even fully fledged robots more akin to cyber-punk than any golem-technology currently known in the game. Even during the Personal Storyline, there are countless examples of how new technology triumphs over myth and ancient powers, and with the fractal of the mists research going into the Thurmanova Reactor, the emphasis on high-technology is rather big.

Personally, I found that I yearn for some classical fantasy tropes. Knights, large battles, dragons, ancient horrors and hidden treasures. At the beginning of Southsun there were theories of a new dragon moving in the depths, and I felt a curiousity I hadn’t in a while. Finally – myserious and untold horrors were coming to face our heroes! But then it turned into an odd political play where we had to blow up some contracts to free some oppressed workers. And now, we “eagerly” await a political speech from the regent of DR herself. Somehow, the fantastical and mysterious nature of the game has dwindled in my eyes, and I’m feeling the story slip further and further away from what I had thought it was going to be (which was dragon battles, bloodstones, origins of the Humans, expeditions into the Mists to look for the human Gods, etc).

Now, of course, I ask all of you: What are your feelings on this? Is this a natural progression? Are you enjoying GW2 as an interesting blend of fantasy and cyber-punk? Or is it just mis-matched and chaotic?

Also, I’m asking because I’m honestly curious about the views of other players, so don’t see it as a rage post over the story. Yes, I’m a bit disappointed, but this is not what it’s about. I want to hear other people’s perceptions of the theme of GW2.

PS: My English is quite terrible, so please excuse any errors and such.

I think we’re still pretty firmly in fantasy territory here. No real attempt at consistency or scientific foundation is being made for the technology in this game.

Yes, it isn’t your straight forward Tolkien-derivative fantasy, but after decades of reading that I enjoy the mixing of other elements into what seems to be a loosely European Renaissance culture. Trends in fantasy in general over the last decade or so seem to point to the same being true of writers and the general fantasy audience.

Read through some of the World Fantasy Award novels of recent years, for example, and you’ll run into a lot of industrial revolution type fantasy. China Mieville comes to mind as an author who’s work has repeatedly appeared on awards lists with his dark, industrial, magical novels.

If I look at the things that are most intriguing to me in GW2, they aren’t the high fantasy elements. I find the elder dragons kinda dull, the human gods uninspiring. I do enjoy the Asuran unreliable, weird-science, the Zephyrites air ship, and have been getting a kick out of Aetherblade ships around the world.

I find villains with ambitions more compelling than the high fantasy typical dark-horde made up of dragon minions.

I do enjoy the Sylvari, with their roots in Arthurian and Faery lore, with an unusual twist of the Mother Tree and the Dream.

I would really love it if people would stop trying to cram GW2 into their idea of what fantasy or sci-fi is and just let them tell a story and enjoy the ride.

IMO, GW2 is refreshing and does a great job of mixing both traditional fantasy with steampunk culture. It’s unique and fun and finally something new after years of the same ol’ thing.

Asuran unreliable weird-science is just that, science. The in-game explanation can be “magic” if you want to if it walks like a duck…

Zephyrites were a refreshing step towards a bit more fantastic and less technical environments, I hope we get more fantasy/magic stuff in the future and less techno-babble. Humans were supposed to be religious and magic-based but now they join the techno-races it seems.

MokahTGS.7850:

I would really love it if people would stop trying to cram GW2 into their idea of what fantasy or sci-fi is and just let them tell a story and enjoy the ride.

IMO, GW2 is refreshing and does a great job of mixing both traditional fantasy with steampunk culture. It’s unique and fun and finally something new after years of the same ol’ thing.

It’s hardly the new thing. WoW is also mixing fantasy and technology since Warcraft 3 to be honest. Many Final Fantasy universes (and east fantasy in general it seems) are mixing fantasy and sci-fiction. Might & Magic universe used to be a sci-fiction disguised as fantasy.

IMO Anet favors technology (especially asuran) way too much. Yeah I get it, laser cannons, airships, tanks etc. are constantly used, can we now get some powerful mage, raining fire on enemies?

I already made my thoughts known on technology as it relates to lore over in the 50-foot Kiel thread.

It’ll suffice to say that it has been taken just a wee bit too far at times. But it’s ANet’s lore, and I’m sure they’ll just pull something out to fix it all. (“Oh, Kralkatorrik is immune to lasers somehow. Better go on a quest with Trahearne to find his real weakness!”)

I do personally like a more technological world (I prefer it over high fantasy), but my primary issue with it was the simple and unrealistic distribution of it between the races at launch.
The asura had all magitech in the game that was usually explained as one simple word. On the other end we had charr who had all the steampunk in the game, and everything charr-made was made of iron and no small amount of gears for obvious reasons. None of these tech types where caught up by any other races and the closest thing to reverse-engineering that I’ve seen in GW2 was an event in Dredgehaunt Cliffs where a human engineer steals some dredge blueprints and makes a personnel carrier of his own.
I think the reason for the watchwork theme was to balance out the technology between the races and that along with the Zephyr Sanctum was meant to show that the humans are a jack-of-all-trades race in a positive way (quite good at everything, not necessarily the best at anything) rather than a negative way (plain bad at everything). Their role at launch was mostly to ask stupid questions to asuras in Lion’s Arch, and I’m quite thankful that we are moving away from that.

Bovinity.8610:

I already made my thoughts known on technology as it relates to lore over in the 50-foot Kiel thread.

It’ll suffice to say that it has been taken just a wee bit too far at times. But it’s ANet’s lore, and I’m sure they’ll just pull something out to fix it all. (“Oh, Kralkatorrik is immune to lasers somehow. Better go on a quest with Trahearne to find his real weakness!”)

Aye, it just feels the balance has been skewed quite a bit recently in favour of cyber-punk (if only it was steam-punk), and fantasy has been pushed into the background and forgotten. Somehow, my experience of GW2 is creating this odd schism between the fantasy part and the cyper-punk part, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to see how it can co-exist within the same world without making the other redundant. And as a result, the quality of the world suffers, I think.

Personally speaking, I do prefer a pure high-fantasy world (“Keep your science out of my fantasy!”), but I’m still enjoying GW2 for what it is.

I hate Steampunk.
I hate sci-fi (Well, in this game anyway. Not in general)
I want Medieval/Norse fantasy, as was presented in the original Guild Wars. Guild Wars 2 feels like ‘Land of the Lost’ ….past, present and future all wrapped up into some sort of temporal, 7-layer burrito. It feels wrong…like getting ‘Gobots’ for Christmas instead of ‘Transformers’ ,you know?

I strongly agree here. I understand that we have advanced the time-frame of the world quite a bit, but that doesn’t mean we have to all of a sudden start going full on flying ships like final fantasy. I am very much into the traditional ideas of fantasy such as dragons, darkness, heavy knights, castles and the like. I hope that for one or two of the patches they will go with a darker more traditional fantasy theme.

Let me get this straight:

These elements that you’re complaining about have been in the game since launch. Furthermore, we’ve known that they would be in the game since 2009.

But somehow, now is the time to be all shocked?

It’s still very much fantasy. I don’t mind it being this way, It has always perplexed me how fantasy genre is one of the most repetitious ones
Often it’s just medieval Europe with monsters and magic kind of added in but not really changing anything. Magic is treated as something separate from everything else rather than using it as part of technology. It’s the most boring thing you possibly do with magic.
Guild wars feels a bit patchwork at times but overall I like it.

Didn’t people see the concept art that’s been out for years? Anet was very clear about the direction that this game was going to take with technology, they didn’t lie. If you don’t like this direction, then you have only yourself to blame.

It always strikes me as bizarre how some people need to cram “fantasy” into the tiniest conceptual box possible for it to count as “fantasy”. Medieval knights and castles =/= fantasy by a long run and airships do not somehow make something less fantastical (rather, they make something MORE fantastical by being impossible in the absence of any attempted scientific explanation).

Furthermore, the classic “cyberpunk” themes of ubiquitous internet and information technology are completely and utterly absent from this game, no matter how many golems and steampunk airships exist, making that argument a non-starter. Constructs and artificially created being have been a solid theme in mythology since the ancient greeks as well as fantastic flying mechanisms, so there really isn’t anything stopping the game from being 100%, genuine fantasy.

panzer.6034:

It always strikes me as bizarre how some people need to cram “fantasy” into the tiniest conceptual box possible for it to count as “fantasy”. Medieval knights and castles =/= fantasy by a long run and airships do not somehow make something less fantastical (rather, they make something MORE fantastical by being impossible in the absence of any attempted scientific explanation).

Furthermore, the classic “cyberpunk” themes of ubiquitous internet and information technology are completely and utterly absent from this game, no matter how many golems and steampunk airships exist, making that argument a non-starter. Constructs and artificially created being have been a solid theme in mythology since the ancient greeks as well as fantastic flying mechanisms, so there really isn’t anything stopping the game from being 100%, genuine fantasy.

Pretty much summed up my thoughts.

Fantasy has so much potential to expand, yet people are so obsessed with holding it back.

I personally like the melding of science and magic in guild wars. Sure the magitech thing isn’t anything new, but I like the aesthetic of guild wars magitech(and normal tech) stuff. I find myself bored of knights in castles battling evil dragons. While guild wars has knight like figures and dragons I enjoy the different flavor it brings with its tech stuff.

On the subject of mystery, I find the more scifi touches to actually intrigue me more. Like, the little plot points about chaos magic tearing holes in reality to alternate dimensions or the fractals placing people at points from the past to be very interesting.

It always strikes me as bizarre how some people need to cram “fantasy” into the tiniest conceptual box possible for it to count as “fantasy”. Medieval knights and castles =/= fantasy by a long run and airships do not somehow make something less fantastical (rather, they make something MORE fantastical by being impossible in the absence of any attempted scientific explanation).

It’s not the fact that things like Airships exist in the game. It’s how they relate to the lore as it’s presented to us. It’s hard to continue believing that the entire Elder Dragon thing is serious at all when we suddenly have the kind of technology that we had at the end of the Zhaitan story. That went way beyond just “Steampunk” or “Magitech” stuff.

For me, Guild Wars 2 never felt as a fantasy-game, it’s more of a science-fantasy game. (Yes that genre exists)

Bovinity.8610:

It always strikes me as bizarre how some people need to cram “fantasy” into the tiniest conceptual box possible for it to count as “fantasy”. Medieval knights and castles =/= fantasy by a long run and airships do not somehow make something less fantastical (rather, they make something MORE fantastical by being impossible in the absence of any attempted scientific explanation).

It’s not the fact that things like Airships exist in the game. It’s how they relate to the lore as it’s presented to us. It’s hard to continue believing that the entire Elder Dragon thing is serious at all when we suddenly have the kind of technology that we had at the end of the Zhaitan story. That went way beyond just “Steampunk” or “Magitech” stuff.

How is having a bunch of airships “beyond” steampunk or magitech? If we have one airship, it’s magitech, but if we have 10 it’s beyond magitech? 20 airships? 30? I’m not seeing the rationale here.

How is having a bunch of airships “beyond” steampunk or magitech? If we have one airship, it’s magitech, but if we have 10 it’s beyond magitech? 20 airships? 30? I’m not seeing the rationale here.

I didn’t say anything about the NUMBER of airships, did I? I referenced the strength of the technology of the airships relative to the “Big Bad” of the storyline.

Bovinity.8610:

How is having a bunch of airships “beyond” steampunk or magitech? If we have one airship, it’s magitech, but if we have 10 it’s beyond magitech? 20 airships? 30? I’m not seeing the rationale here.

I didn’t say anything about the NUMBER of airships, did I? I referenced the strength of the technology of the airships relative to the “Big Bad” of the storyline.

I’m still not seeing how this has any bearing on being magitech or beyond magitech though. If the magitech ships aren’t strong enough to beat a dragon, then it’s magitech, but if they’re strong enough to beat a dragon they’re not longer magitech?

I’m still not seeing how this has any bearing on being magitech or beyond magitech though. If the magitech ships aren’t strong enough to beat a dragon, then it’s magitech, but if they’re strong enough to beat a dragon they’re not longer magitech?

Come on, you’re trying way too hard here to find something wrong with what I’m saying.

The airships – specifically the one you’re on at the end – were ridiculously powerful relative to Zhaitan, his minions, or ANYTHING else in the storyline and lore up to that point. It was like watching a battle in Braveheart and suddenly the USS Enterprise appears in the sky and starts hitting the English with phasers. You might like the medieval theme, and you might like the Sci-fi theme, but they simply wouldn’t fit together in that context.

I have nothing against “airships” or “steampunk” or even “magitech” stuff in fantasy, but they have to be written such that they fit into the lore. As it stands, the flying battleships with super-lasers are the Enterprise here and the Elder Dragons are quickly looking like the British in the above example.

Short of a complete kitten -pull of, “Oh, the other dragons and their minions are immune to lasers.” or “Super laser? What super laser? The guy that ran those got fired last week, sorry.” it’s hard to see how the rest of the Elder Dragons really pose any threat to the level of technology that we’re wielding now.

Final Fantasy XIII environment style this is the future of GW2. Yey!

I love Sci-fi
I love fantasy

I detest/hate/can’t stand steampunk

It’s been 250 years since Guild Wars’ time. Think about that relative to our time. What was the level of technology in 1763? If we have progressed so far beyond that, why are you guys against the level of advancement presented in this game? There are still dragons, knights, queens, giants, magic, mythical races and the like. There just happens to be technology as well.

Bovinity.8610:

It always strikes me as bizarre how some people need to cram “fantasy” into the tiniest conceptual box possible for it to count as “fantasy”. Medieval knights and castles =/= fantasy by a long run and airships do not somehow make something less fantastical (rather, they make something MORE fantastical by being impossible in the absence of any attempted scientific explanation).

It’s not the fact that things like Airships exist in the game. It’s how they relate to the lore as it’s presented to us. It’s hard to continue believing that the entire Elder Dragon thing is serious at all when we suddenly have the kind of technology that we had at the end of the Zhaitan story. That went way beyond just “Steampunk” or “Magitech” stuff.

From a gameplay perspective, you’re right, the Dragons don’t seem like a threat considering we cut right through Zhaitan with one shot. However, remember that Anet themselves have admitted they dropped the ball on this fight as it was only completely a few days before release. So yeah, this absolutely right to question it from a gameplay perspective.

From a lore perspective however, you have to look into what we did BEFORE cutting through him with a laser. We essentially crippled him by starving him. Now while I do not know how long the invasion of Orr took from a story perspective, I can’t imagine it was less then a few weeks at least. After being starved for a week, you tell me if you would be difficult to take in a fight.

Second, we cut off a large supply of his forces. We didn’t eliminate all of his ability to reinforce his army, but we did deal a large blow to it. Part of Zhaitan’s strength was his ability to continuously reinforce his army faster then any living army could possibly hope to.

Not only that, but part of his power relied on the heart of Orr being corrupted and under his control, the mission before fighting him, we took that away from him further weakening him. In fact Orr was the reason Zhaitan launched his assault so early while the other Dragons are doing their own thing.

Now, what does this mean for the other Dragons? As far as I know, they do not all (if any) have the same system as Zhaitan had. That being a second “mouth” he relied on for example. As such, that would be one less thing we could remove from from them. Zhaitan’s greatest strengths were his greatest vulnerabilities essentially. The other Dragons do not suffer from that as far as I know.

Second, with the fall of one Elder Dragon, it’s likely to give the others pause. We essentially caught Zhaitan off-guard. He likely did not expect just how powerful the current dominate races are, and likely the other Dragons did not as well. I’d be utterly shocked if the Elder Dragons are not aware of when one of their kind dies, and so we no longer have that element of surprise. Not only that, but the Dragons only grow stronger with time. It’s highly likely they are/will bide their time.

I wont worry until it gets to this

http://gw2.kongzhong.com/style/banner/wallpaper/27/wallpaper-1680x1050.jpg

Yea, I have to agree with some of the sentiment expressed here. The ending of the personal story line / Arah story really is a classic example of deus ex machina. Maybe it could have gone better than it did but I still think they can innovate more in the future.

What’s surprising is that the design earlier in the campaign seemed paced a lot better. Either way, I think we could still see some interesting twists in the future.

Bovinity.8610:

I’m still not seeing how this has any bearing on being magitech or beyond magitech though. If the magitech ships aren’t strong enough to beat a dragon, then it’s magitech, but if they’re strong enough to beat a dragon they’re not longer magitech?

Come on, you’re trying way too hard here to find something wrong with what I’m saying.

The airships – specifically the one you’re on at the end – were ridiculously powerful relative to Zhaitan, his minions, or ANYTHING else in the storyline and lore up to that point. It was like watching a battle in Braveheart and suddenly the USS Enterprise appears in the sky and starts hitting the English with phasers. You might like the medieval theme, and you might like the Sci-fi theme, but they simply wouldn’t fit together in that context.

I have nothing against “airships” or “steampunk” or even “magitech” stuff in fantasy, but they have to be written such that they fit into the lore. As it stands, the flying battleships with super-lasers are the Enterprise here and the Elder Dragons are quickly looking like the British in the above example.

Short of a complete kitten -pull of, “Oh, the other dragons and their minions are immune to lasers.” or “Super laser? What super laser? The guy that ran those got fired last week, sorry.” it’s hard to see how the rest of the Elder Dragons really pose any threat to the level of technology that we’re wielding now.

It sounds like your issue isn’t about steampunk or magitech per se as much as it’s about the Pact being too powerful compared to dragons. The same net effect would have occurred if traehurn would have turned into a god and zapped zaitan or queen jenna would have gone super saiyan mesmer on him and pulled a deus ex machina. From a lore stand point, we already had giant dieselpunk tanks, helicopters, airships and laser cannons before we reached the scene at the end of the story.

Now I understand.

We’ll get more sci-fi things. Why? ANet said that if they’ll create new class, it will be Soldier class. Any soldier class without guardian and warrior weapon? YES!

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commando

Vehicles? Helicopters? From nowhere? They have to introduce it with living story.

kristof.7182:

Vehicles? Helicopters? From nowhere? They have to introduce it with living story.

They’re already in the game. There are helicopters, tanks and other more outrageous vehicles already in Ascalon and Orr.

Keep in mind that the world of Tyria is an entirely different world from ours. They probably discovered how to produce machines, helicopters, and flying ships earlier than we (the people of earth) did, so it’s not really science fiction to them. In Guild Wars 1 there were automatons everywhere, so it’s not a new idea. Heck, I even had an automaton as a pet in GW1.

Other than the golems, Anet does seem to be moving toward the science fiction part of the game instead of the fantasy side. I absolutely do not like science fiction mmorpgs, so I’m hoping they’ll create more fantasy type content instead of moving into the SF part of it. If they decide to go with the science fiction content though, I’ll be done with the game.

For me its a straight combat game. Only thing I need now is “Create a Class”, a Perk system to upgrade my guns, and care packages.

1- GW2 couldn’t be further from sci fi if it was trying.

2- 250 years. the game world not stuck in time. progress comes with time. just look at earth 250 years ago.

SF FTW Really it would be cool to see the races develop/discover new technologies

kristof.7182:

Now I understand.

We’ll get more sci-fi things. Why? ANet said that if they’ll create new class, it will be Soldier class. Any soldier class without guardian and warrior weapon? YES!

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commando

Vehicles? Helicopters? From nowhere? They have to introduce it with living story.

Did you read the disclaimer at the top of your link?

DarcShriek.5829:

kristof.7182:

Now I understand.

We’ll get more sci-fi things. Why? ANet said that if they’ll create new class, it will be Soldier class. Any soldier class without guardian and warrior weapon? YES!

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commando

Vehicles? Helicopters? From nowhere? They have to introduce it with living story.

Did you read the disclaimer at the top of your link?

I think it was a joke

At least I hope they knew it was a joke.

Without my sarcasm, I prefer the “Dungeons & DRagons” theme in an RPG type game such as GW2. You can say it’s been 250 years or what have you, but the fact is, its a game and it’s not earth.

Regardless, if they choose to further delve into sci-fi type content, I will eventually loose interest and stop playing. I am sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. (not saying this is a game breaker, but it will be for some)

I was never big into the sci-fi fantasy. We already live in a world where technology has taken over the way humans live everyday life, I don’t want to play in a game where technology is the core factor as well. The fantasy of magic, evil, intense lore is a winner for me. Mysterious content ftw.

Hedge.8760:

Also, I’m asking because I’m honestly curious about the views of other players, so don’t see it as a rage post over the story. Yes, I’m a bit disappointed, but this is not what it’s about. I want to hear other people’s perceptions of the theme of GW2.

I’m quite happy with stories that mix s-f and fantasy elements – but I don’t know the GW lore well enough to say whether it’s going wildly away from previously established lore or not. The Asura themselves are pretty much “technomages”, which lots of people find cool.

Frankly, I’m a bigger fan of s-f and superheroes than of fantasy. If GW2 was a superhero MMO with the high level of quality it has, I’d be in seventh heaven. As it is, I just find the fantasy aspect ok and enjoy the world’s charm.

Fascinating to see some of the assumptions about what makes “magic”, and what makes “science”, and the essence of “fantasy”.

Asuran magi-tech is no closer to science than it is to magic. It’s a pretty jumbled mix of cosmetics from both worlds.

Funny how with every fantasy game that launches you’ll have plenty of people complaining about yet another Elf retread (remember when Sylvari didn’t look much like plant people at all?), but if there isn’t an obvious Elf retread you’ll get an equal dose of complaints from people who miss their comfortable, Tolkein-derivative, D&Desque fantasy.

Pre-launch we had people moaning that they were thinking of skipping GW2 because they were tired of quasi-medieval Europe fantasy and were planning on heading to Secret World instead (or recently Wildstar) right along with threads complaining about the reveal of the Engineer profession because it obviously didn’t fit in Tyria.

Everyone’s got different tastes, and it’s pretty clear ANet has committed to a heavy dose of industrial revolution fantasy in GW2 (most of which is only loosely “steampunk”, if at all). Many of us enjoy it. It’s too bad for those who prefer a more medieval fantasy, but perhaps ESO will offer a better home.

I was going to say Rift is still going, but remembered that it has clockwork magi-tech as well. If I remember correctly, though, it’s a lot less present in one of the factions.

Antara.3189:

Without my sarcasm, I prefer the “Dungeons & DRagons” theme in an RPG type game such as GW2. You can say it’s been 250 years or what have you, but the fact is, its a game and it’s not earth.

Regardless, if they choose to further delve into sci-fi type content, I will eventually loose interest and stop playing. I am sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. (not saying this is a game breaker, but it will be for some)

Ironic then, that the last new big campaign setting released for dungeons and dragons was one with giant skyscrapers supported by magic, magi-tech trains, airships and magic “robots”.

Bovinity.8610:

I already made my thoughts known on technology as it relates to lore over in the 50-foot Kiel thread.

It’ll suffice to say that it has been taken just a wee bit too far at times. But it’s ANet’s lore, and I’m sure they’ll just pull something out to fix it all. (“Oh, Kralkatorrik is immune to lasers somehow. Better go on a quest with Trahearne to find his real weakness!”)

If that ever happened, I would sign up for Kralkatorrik’s army and kill Trahearne myself!

panzer.6034:

Antara.3189:

Without my sarcasm, I prefer the “Dungeons & DRagons” theme in an RPG type game such as GW2. You can say it’s been 250 years or what have you, but the fact is, its a game and it’s not earth.

Regardless, if they choose to further delve into sci-fi type content, I will eventually loose interest and stop playing. I am sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. (not saying this is a game breaker, but it will be for some)

Ironic then, that the last new big campaign setting released for dungeons and dragons was one with giant skyscrapers supported by magic, magi-tech trains, airships and magic “robots”.

Dungeon and Dragons was out long before it was a Video Game… lol

I personaly like history, mythology and might and magic in games (although i like pure scyfy on tv ). Not very fond of the cyber and steam influences. Gives a feeling of the Syfy channel inhouse movies. Once tried to watch one but fell to sleep within 5 min :-)
Wouldn’t it be great to have more seafaring instead of flying ;-)
But as long as the most of the content is historical Sword and Scorcery influenced i’m not complaining.

Antara.3189:

panzer.6034:

Antara.3189:

Without my sarcasm, I prefer the “Dungeons & DRagons” theme in an RPG type game such as GW2. You can say it’s been 250 years or what have you, but the fact is, its a game and it’s not earth.

Regardless, if they choose to further delve into sci-fi type content, I will eventually loose interest and stop playing. I am sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. (not saying this is a game breaker, but it will be for some)

Ironic then, that the last new big campaign setting released for dungeons and dragons was one with giant skyscrapers supported by magic, magi-tech trains, airships and magic “robots”.

Dungeon and Dragons was out long before it was a Video Game… lol

I was actually referring to the table top version of the game…

And just to note, Gary Gygax sent his players to spaceships in outerspace as far back as the 70s.

Bolbo Baggins.8594:

I personaly like history, mythology and might and magic in games (although i like pure scyfy on tv ). Not very fond of the cyber and steam influences. Gives a feeling of the Syfy channel inhouse movies. Once tried to watch one but fell to sleep within 5 min :-)
Wouldn’t it be great to have more seafaring instead of flying ;-)
But as long as the most of the content is historical Sword and Scorcery influenced i’m not complaining.

This game needs more sharknado!

This game needs a little less focus on all the steampunk. I have no issue with it being there, however it seems to be changing from simply becoming a tool and a background item to something that is becoming extremely critical (more so than magic….unfortunately) to the game.
There has to be a careful balance between technology and magic, and it looks like that barrier seems to be breaking (with technology swiftly replacing magic).

I would definitely prefer a more Medieval Fantasy / High Fantasy rather than Steampunk/Sci-Fi theme.
I’m not quite fond of any of the Steampunk / Aetherized skins either, and neither with the direction of the living story. Clockwork Knights instead of just original guards.
That’s why I was really pleased when I saw skins like Genesis, Entropy and Cobalt as loot drops.
I really hope the living story will become more GW1 lore related. I wanna know about Mursaat, The Gods and maybe even something Cantha/Elona related.

It sounds like your issue isn’t about steampunk or magitech per se as much as it’s about the Pact being too powerful compared to dragons. The same net effect would have occurred if traehurn would have turned into a god and zapped zaitan or queen jenna would have gone super saiyan mesmer on him and pulled a deus ex machina.

Right, the relative level of power is a big part of the concern.

But the technological nature of it is also part of the problem, because technology (tends to be) a one way street. We’re not going to unlearn the technology for armored airships, matter teleporters, energy shields, superlasers, etc. If anything, they’ll only get stronger, so it starts to seem like any threat that’s still living in the dark ages (Which describes basically every enemy of the player characters right now, save maybe the Aetherblades, who can’t even shoot down hot air balloons) is so far back that it’s hard to see how they’re expected to catch up.

Centaurs are still running around with bows and layered-hide shields, living in huts. Bandits are still attacking farms on foot with daggers. Dragon-corrupted forces still seem like little more than angry wildlife that we already dominate in most areas by just sending a guy out with a sword to hack them up. So on and so forth.

At least if Trahearne had “absorbed some mystical power granted from the Orrian gods and spent it blasting Zhaitan” that would have been equally as lame, but also could be explained away as a one-time thing or something.

One of the strong points of Guild wars is, it does NOT have an established canon, already mapping out everything like Star wars etc.. It can be whatever it wants to be, go wherever it wants. It is also influenced by pop culture. For those that didn’t play GW1, you missed a lot of fun times with your hero companions. Hearing Vekk say “I have a theory about the Charr, I think they can be domesticated..” Or “choke on that Physics..” etc..

The game has a storyline but it can go wherever it wants. I’m hoping we meet the Asgard soon, hey they invented the Star gates right?