Guild Wars 2

This is something I have been wondering since last night.

Yes I read the part that the machine has been improved nor did your character start speaking crazy like or start killing his/ her teammates. While the new Divinty Edge don’t view your character to be crazy but that doesn’t mean the people in the meeting will view our characters to be sane once it has been explained he/ she had entered into Omadd machine.

The point of this topic is will the wellbeing of our characters will be address in episode 3 of season 2 or maybe they will add some insanity like moments in the next installment? Example like our character mistaken npc for enemy similar to the spore? Worse to come would be seeing illusion or vision of Scarlet!

It would be an interesting plot development if the meeting with the leaders went horribly wrong due to our character mental state and had become a fugitive!

So far we seem okay, but that could be due to getting yanked out of the machine early, as opposed to sticking in it for quite some time as Ms. Invasive Weed did. Still…would be believable for them to show concern/suspicion if we mention getting stuck in the machine for even a moment, knowing what it did to … her.

Then again, how many of the leaders of Tyria even know of the circumstances of Scarlet’s change? The Pale Tree would know, and I’m willing to suspect High Councillor Flax might know a thing or two, but not any of the others.

We’re the player, if we were doomed to die in the conclusion of Season 2 as a result of our insanity – well there’d be no point after. That would have been interesting for the games finale if/when they shut it down though.

I think it’s a case of we are exceptional at what we do. Convicted and determined, unlike Scarlet who had little reason to caution herself, we knew the dangers. There’s also that Commander Shepard moment where we tried to save Taimi and in doing so threw ourselves in the way.

Tried to kill the allies after exiting the machine.
It did not work…
I think our character will be all right

As an Asura I’m not as receptive to crazy than lesser races like the veggies are, obviously. All Asura are crazy by nature it seems, so no harm done.

Also, it’s known fact the machine removed the mental protection sylvari have from the pale tree keeping them from being corrupted by mordy. For a sylvari player it doesn’t make much sense, but Sylvari are pretty much the only player race that can’t be dragon corrupted till mordy.

Thinking back to FFVII when Cloud approached a praying Aerith, I wonder if the PC could not be showing signs of mental instability now. We go to see the Pale Tree or Queen Jennah and go off the deep end at the appropriate time.
Aerin seemed fine and didn’t seem to have ulterior motives joining the Zephyrites. His personality changed later.

imho it’s like with psychedelics trips in real life – your gonna see “something” … but that someone (Scarlet) goes mad from it doesn’t mean you are going too … it’s nothing more than just information, if you can “handle” it is completely up to you and up to anyone who gets it …

actually I wouldn’t be much surprised if Scarlet in the end would turn out to be “good” (in her own way) trying to save the world

Sankofa Jimiyu.1567:

Thinking back to FFVII when Cloud approached a praying Aerith, I wonder if the PC could not be showing signs of mental instability now. We go to see the Pale Tree or Queen Jennah and go off the deep end at the appropriate time.
Aerin seemed fine and didn’t seem to have ulterior motives joining the Zephyrites. His personality changed later.

“Indoctrination” from a certain other series also worked this way, being subtle at first, allowing for the victim to pass off as normal to begin with, but then change on the inside as time went on, passing as just fine one moment only to betray their friends/allies the next.

While part of me hopes getting yanked out of there early stopped whatever got Ms. Invasive Weed from getting us, it’s entirely possible that just going in there was enough for it to link with our mind, and it’s just choosing not to make us go crazy until it thinks it can do the most damage.

I actually hope the writers make our characters go insane. There’s a lot of potential for interesting storytelling there, and if they’re going to take characters out of the players’ hands and write our personalities for us as they have done so far, they might as well go all the way with it.

Nilkemia.8507:

“Indoctrination” from a certain other series also worked this way, being subtle at first, allowing for the victim to pass off as normal to begin with, but then change on the inside as time went on, passing as just fine one moment only to betray their friends/allies the next.

Nice to see not being the only one seeing pararels here ;-)
But I personaly think more along the lines of Prothean beacon on Eden Prime. Expecially with ending dialogue options being among the lines of “We must warn all leaders and make them work together. They will have to see the reason” and… “I (must) have to go”
I personally think that this was fully planed shout-out.

Playing as TIM would be pretty awesome… convincing yourself that you’re working for the greater good while actually swaying the leaders to play into Mordremoth’s hands. If the writers could pull it off subtly and successfully pull off a twist at the end where you finally realize you’re indoctrinated, I would take back everything I’ve said about linear stories being a bad idea in an MMO. Still highly doubt it will happen, but one can dream.

what ? no ! not my favourite character, my little human girl, in the Omadd machine, it’s dangerous !!! don’t go ! don’t !!!!
fast fast fast, where is it ? ah ! CTRL-ALT-DEL….
……
I log in again, OK, looks like everything is allright, I was so afraid for her.
That was not good, I’m afraid that if she’s one more time in contact with this energy, it’s going to be bad for her. I don’t want her to become mad

Let’s go back to Divinity Reach…

I’m guessing we will get some nightmares and ‘whispers from the forest’ in future story episodes.

Our character is secretly the new Scarlet now.

Renkencen.6127:

This is something I have been wondering since last night.

Yes I read the part that the machine has been improved nor did your character start speaking crazy like or start killing his/ her teammates. While the new Divinty Edge don’t view your character to be crazy but that doesn’t mean the people in the meeting will view our characters to be sane once it has been explained he/ she had entered into Omadd machine.

The point of this topic is will the wellbeing of our characters will be address in episode 3 of season 2 or maybe they will add some insanity like moments in the next installment? Example like our character mistaken npc for enemy similar to the spore? Worse to come would be seeing illusion or vision of Scarlet!

It would be an interesting plot development if the meeting with the leaders went horribly wrong due to our character mental state and had become a fugitive!

I seriously doubt they’d go for a road like that, but I sure would love it if they (throroughly) explored the consequences of sharing Scarlet’s vision for your character. There’s their chance to take the story in uncharted MMORPG storytelling territory. But yeah, maybe I’m expecting a bit too much complex writing.

I was already mad before I stepped into the machine, so I don’t feel a difference!

If ANet only gave me a choice to kill off those lousy written characters and do the stuff by myself, I could live with a permanent irremovable titel “Insane” all day.

Give me Trahearne back, one annoying NPC is better than five.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I was already mad before I stepped into the machine, so I don’t feel a difference!

But you’re wrong, now you have more power than the Mad King! ALL HAIL THE MAD QUEEN MALAFIDE, RULER OF HALLOWEEN!

I was hoping all the npc’s around you would go red, and my guardian with greatsword would hit 5, pulling everyone in, and massacre everyone, including little Taimi.

and then the screen would go all fuzzy, my character collapses, only to wake up moments later and realize it’s all a dream.

Mental state of my Charr when in and out of the machine: http://youtu.be/WeYsTmIzjkw

Mine just keep staring at a chicken she caught after getting out of the lab, caught in a sandstorm, suddenly feel like rescuing a chicken .. now i don’t know how to make her snap out of it. i think i also hear her saying “how are you mrs.cluck” a few times.

I was a little concerned by the text responses our character says at the top of the conversation. They go something like this.

“I should see the pale tree”
“That’s great….I`ll do that after I see the pale tree”
“Once we are done I can see the pale tree”
“Yes, that’s why we need to see the pale tree”.

It struck me as a bit obsessed.

all heck. I don’t care if my character goes mad. I was only worried about taimi seriously though. during the scene and she went in there I was freaking out, like ‘Not Taimi ohh please ANet don’t be that mean.’ hSe’s just too cute.
But yea, did that on my slyvari character…. so yea. bye bye insanity. rofl.

My biggest concern through this whole thing was to destroy or not to destroy the machine. I thought that would be the option given, then Taimi decided to do her “self experiment” and I had to be the hero (noticed that I had an energy shield around me when I went in). The energy shield was the only reason I even entered the lab area. Not too concerned about all the voices in my head now, I only talk back when there is complete agreement on something. hmmm maybe I have a concussion…. my name is BATMAN!!!! (not really)

Michael Walker.8150:

As an Asura I’m not as receptive to crazy than lesser races like the veggies are, obviously. All Asura are crazy by nature it seems, so no harm done.

Asura crazy cancels out dragon crazy, yes.

chronometria.3708:

I was a little concerned by the text responses our character says at the top of the conversation. They go something like this.

“I should see the pale tree”
“That’s great….I`ll do that after I see the pale tree”
“Once we are done I can see the pale tree”
“Yes, that’s why we need to see the pale tree”.

It struck me as a bit obsessed.

Well how would you feel after being shocked by who knows how much voltage of electricity. I don’t know how much voltage struck us but it was enough to make our characters hair stand up with electricity moving through our hair. While also getting a strange vision about the Elder Dragons and the Pale Tree at the sametime.

Nilkemia.8507:

“Indoctrination” from a certain other series also worked this way, being subtle at first, allowing for the victim to pass off as normal to begin with, but then change on the inside as time went on, passing as just fine one moment only to betray their friends/allies the next.

While part of me hopes getting yanked out of there early stopped whatever got Ms. Invasive Weed from getting us, it’s entirely possible that just going in there was enough for it to link with our mind, and it’s just choosing not to make us go crazy until it thinks it can do the most damage.

As I said before Omadd’s Machine is a “Beacon” and we saw a warning about the “Reapers”… I mean Elder Dragons

Next thing we know as we progress through the story our characters will have dreams that continue where the Vision left off and we start seeing parts of the Elder Dragon’s Origins become revealed each vision at a time all the way through Ancient times not recorded in GW history and ending with the final vision showing us how the Elder Dragons were born.

The PC is now dieing and is now living in a illusion created by the machine. In the end of the story the lights will go white. Refer to the alternate plot of the good Total Recall, the first one.
To be honest having the PC actually go into the machine was a bonehead move. It removed all menace of the machine. I know it is better to show not tell is most cases, but this is brings in two many plot holes. I’d rather analysis what scarlet saw through here drawing and notes than walk into a machine that either killed most who entered it, or turned the only survivor into a raving madwomen. Now that the PC has entered and returned unscaved, it really raises two many questions. To be honest, the story telling is just as poor at season 1.

For a fraction of a second I thought maybe we had died when Braham said we were dead and would be somehow resurrected through some weird dragon alchemy magic. That got interesting and creepy, but then I realized we were just knocked down.

Shadowmoon.7986:

The PC is now dieing and is now living in a illusion created by the machine. In the end of the story the lights will go white. Refer to the alternate plot of the good Total Recall, the first one.
To be honest having the PC actually go into the machine was a bonehead move. It removed all menace of the machine. I know it is better to show not tell is most cases, but this is brings in two many plot holes. I’d rather analysis what scarlet saw through here drawing and notes than walk into a machine that either killed most who entered it, or turned the only survivor into a raving madwomen. Now that the PC has entered and returned unscaved, it really raises two many questions. To be honest, the story telling is just as poor at season 1.

Well, from what I see most people are thinking this episode is really interesting. I can understand you are not keen on it, but in terms of storytelling, its a vast improvement from what came before and was a genuine surprise and wonder moment.

My Name now is:
- Comander Sheppard
- Isaac Clark
- Fayt Laingods
- etc.

But hey, we finally have something that was missing from S1:
A Character who has seen something special and thus is the only one who is maybe able to do something.
That was missing in S1, beacuse there, none of the NPCs had something like that in the long run.

Now our PC has something in his head, that can shift the coming events, beacuse he was there at the right time…

On his mental status? Well it can be several things. I mostly think he will be normal just a bit drowsy.
I guess that Scarlet build in some safety mechanism or bossted its capabilities, because from what i can get, our PC did not see much more then her and she improved on it after she entered the machine and had her vision

I’d rather it be a running gag personally…

“If only we could make the tengu and quaggon form an alliance! We could defeat Mordremoth easily!”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing…carry on!”

Trixie.7614:

Our character is secretly the new Scarlet now.

i better hope so. Bout time we get to play arround with all her science and kitten

I will have to re-read “What Scarlet Saw”…but yeah, it’s troubling. And I strongly suspect somebody at Anet is an H. P. Lovecraft fan.

Isaac Clarke, Dead Space?

Nilkemia.8507:

Sankofa Jimiyu.1567:

Thinking back to FFVII when Cloud approached a praying Aerith, I wonder if the PC could not be showing signs of mental instability now. We go to see the Pale Tree or Queen Jennah and go off the deep end at the appropriate time.
Aerin seemed fine and didn’t seem to have ulterior motives joining the Zephyrites. His personality changed later.

“Indoctrination” from a certain other series also worked this way, being subtle at first, allowing for the victim to pass off as normal to begin with, but then change on the inside as time went on, passing as just fine one moment only to betray their friends/allies the next.

While part of me hopes getting yanked out of there early stopped whatever got Ms. Invasive Weed from getting us, it’s entirely possible that just going in there was enough for it to link with our mind, and it’s just choosing not to make us go crazy until it thinks it can do the most damage.

Another thing that came to mind while out and about was the “Markers”/The "Moons" from that other series that has already been brought up, which, while not trying to subvert peoples’ will (like indoctrination did), could still make them hallucinate and go crazy, being a potential danger to those around them.

Perhaps this will be the mental effect they choose, since trying to make whatever subverted Scarlet try to do the same to us and then we break free anyway (cause it wouldn’t be much of a game if it could just control us at will and make us kill our allies) would be hard to pull off in a believable way to me.

chronometria.3708:

I was a little concerned by the text responses our character says at the top of the conversation. They go something like this.

“I should see the pale tree”
“That’s great….I`ll do that after I see the pale tree”
“Once we are done I can see the pale tree”
“Yes, that’s why we need to see the pale tree”.

It struck me as a bit obsessed.

I thought the exact same thing. Just wanted to tell my sylvari to just shut up about it and go do it. As a side note, didn’t like that they said my hair stood up, made me question their intelligence. I’m a sylvari with a mushroom head. I don’t have hair, or even leaves for that matter that look like hair. What the hell were they talking about?!

Honestly, I was really concerned at the implication of taimi using the thing, and subsequently relieved that the mission goals lined up with what I’d been manipulated in to feeling “oh crap, we gotta get ther out of there, no good can come of this”

Though I’ll echo what others have said, our PC seems a little obsessed with talking to the tree, more than the normal one line of “we should do this” that we normally utter.