Guild Wars 2

So, I’m not sure how to explain this, but there appears to be an odd skull-like graphic (a few dots that look like a grinning skull) floating around my world map. I’ve attached some clippings of screenshots to the best of my ability, but I think this is really something you should log into the game and see for yourself.

If you leave your worldmap open and have your character move around, the “skull” (stuff I’ve circled in red) seems to just stay out of your vision zone on the map. It’s definitely a little creepy…

It doesn’t look like a skull, just a couple of dots. It’s just part of the map…

The skull is a reviveable npc.

Pareidolia

There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good- will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us. —David Hume*

Pareidolia is a type of illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct. For example, in the discolorations of a burnt tortilla one sees the face of Jesus. Or one sees the image of Mother Teresa or Ronald Reagan in a cinnamon bun or a man in the moon.

Coffee stains.
Someone worked late that night.

There’s a sort of ‘transparency filter’ that makes areas at your depth render on the map when underground / underwater, so that you see tunnels and such instead of the mountains on top of them. The borders around this area use the typical GW2 painterly aesthetic like the rest of the UI, so there’s brush strokes and spots that move around uniformly with the character.

I would have never seen the skull in it, but I hope that explains what it is. Try watching the map slightly zoomed out when in a large underwater area, I think you’re more likely to see all the edges at once that way.

Don’t smoke that weed

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

Pareidolia

There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good- will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us. —David Hume*

Pareidolia is a type of illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct. For example, in the discolorations of a burnt tortilla one sees the face of Jesus. Or one sees the image of Mother Teresa or Ronald Reagan in a cinnamon bun or a man in the moon.

I see what you mean http://saveyourself.ca/resources/images/pareidolia-peppers-l.jpg

Softspoken.2410:

There’s a sort of ‘transparency filter’ that makes areas at your depth render on the map when underground / underwater, so that you see tunnels and such instead of the mountains on top of them. The borders around this area use the typical GW2 painterly aesthetic like the rest of the UI, so there’s brush strokes and spots that move around uniformly with the character.

I would have never seen the skull in it, but I hope that explains what it is. Try watching the map slightly zoomed out when in a large underwater area, I think you’re more likely to see all the edges at once that way.

Yup, that explains everything. Thanks