Guild Wars 2

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Devata.6589:

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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.

About your first paragraph. You are saying there are other games that are even worse so we should not complain. That reminds me on some politicians whop also always say we should not complain about thinks because Africa. Sorry but the fact that other games are even worse with P2W elements does not mean this is good. No indeed the fact that you have to point to a very back mechanism and compare that to GW2 to try and justify that what GW2 is doing is good sort or proofs the opposite. Yes there are games that do it even worse. I am very willing to agree on that. That however does not disqualify my point that the gem-store focus is bad for Gw2.

At you second paragraph. The word ‘everything’ was referring to the game mechanic, as you could have understand if you would have read the link I gave you. The game mechanic is totally build around this idea. That does not mean that every element should only be available in the cash-shop. However when implementing items it’s always so that it takes a long time and mostly requires a gold grind to get anything. So gold is everything and as we all know you can buy gems with gold. Why are so many elements missing in the game.. and then I mean why can I not go and collect mini’s in the world. I can grind gold and buy them but they are not really available in the world (well 3 of them are). There where some available in living story’s but they are now also only available in the TP for gold. SO yes with EVERY decision they make they do think if it can benefit there gem-sales. That does indeed not mean that every element they add will be in the gem-store.

At your third paragraph. First of all I am not here to try and get the optimal income model but to get the optimal game. However I do think it’s only partly true. Yes in the short run a micro-transaction focus are way more profit table then expansion-based. However because the quality of the game gets lower because of that focus in the long run you will have less players. So if the investor has a short time plan (what it looks more and more like) then micro-transactions would be the way to go from an financial viewpoint (not from a gamer viewpoint). But when it’s long term then with an expansion focus you can deliver a better quality so generate money over a longer period. Maybe at a slowly pace but because you go over a longer period the total income might be much higher. I personally look at an MMO as a long-term game so then expansions are much better, of course from the investors that might be different. But I am here talking about the game not about what would benefit the investors if they have short-term plants.

Then about your GW1 example. GW1 was really the only big name that was big and kept going strong for many years next to WoW. So if anything that just proofs my point. It was that name that helped them to go and develop GW2. The cash-shop in GW1 was released much later and so was much less part of the core mechanic and mainly there to support the game at the moment Anet started to focus on GW2. The name GW1 manage to set was bigger then they now have with GW2.

I fell in love with Scarlet the second i heard her laugh. Maybe its a spell she used on me and i do not care, i just really want to marry her.

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. She doesn’t really bother me, but that’s because i don’t care about the living story currently.

Oh please. Anyone who has any sense can see the immature RP fan-fic nature of her character a mile away. People complain more about RNG than Scarlet. The only scapegoat is people blaming the community for the character not being successful. She is a poorly made, irritating character that was made to represent someone’s “awesome” rp character.

Soa Cirri.6012:

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Very good examples!

GuzziHero.2467:

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.

They have said it was the plan all along. I say it was a bad plan, poorly written and executed.

I hope they’re learning that dumping a boring all powerful salad at a nemesis is the wrong tack when there are untapped areas to go exploring.

Won’t say hated so much as guild wars 2 most over used villain and we’ve lost our taste for her. We just want variety. An inquest plot here. Some random chick/dude here that May or may not be associates of scarlet in secret just don’t make it so obvious it hurts to look at the first time we meet them. (Take molten alliance as a example).

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.

Now that idea would be interesting. I don’t like Kiel to begin with but if I found out she was somehow pulling the strings and Scarlet was a mere pawn in all of this I would applaud Anet. Because that kind of story has depth. To work for her, trust her, only to be deceived and mislead. It would totally pull the rug from underneath us. Scarlet hasn’t exactly been a surprise in fact her being part of everything has turned into a bad joke.

NOTE: This is a direct comparison between Scarlet and another Fictional Character from a television series, so it does relate (Had an accidental deletion for comparison before)

Okay so I was listening to some “The Walking Dead” soundtracks, and I stumbled upon a comment about the Governor. If any of you have seen the latest seasons, then you will know who he is. But someone wrote this about him and I think this is really what explains why scarlet is not a good villain (or wasn’t), and what ArenaNet can do to improve the next go around.

And I quote:
“Because all the great villains have background history”

And I thought about the character building of the Governor and how he was portrayed. He struck a “cord” in many of the fans, whether good or bad, and at times you almost thought he had a good sense of decency, only to be proven wrong.

Overall, I hope this simple, yet true comment I found can be used in relation to how I felt Scarlet did not connect with me or others and how future villains can be truly “showstopping”.

(A link about the Governor. Though not a full account of who he is, its a short summary.)

On a side note, Kiel would have been an awesome antagonist, since she appeared so honest and stable. I would think it’s too late to portray her as such now though.

R/,
Dan

I like Scarlet a lot. I never had a problem with her.

Probably there was some previous explanation of her background somewhere else, in a previous Living Story instance that I missed (that’s easy), but I first saw her in that Queen Jenna Jubilee thing, out of nowhere shooting at things, and leaving me a ‘meh’ impression.

If that was the introduction, I think is not a great introduction. Sure that MMO format has it’s limits to show fluff and plots, but there should be some way to construct a character other than “TACCHAAAAANNN SHE IS VILLIAN!!”. I mean, you could make the same previous events and put someone else as the Major Evil Mastermind, anyone you want. If you can substitute your character by anyone else, it doesn’t seem great.

For example, in a similar situation, watch Maleficient entrance in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. You know she’s the villian, and you know she’s great because what she says is right. They didn’t invited her. They offended her. They will pay the offense.

Scarlet, otherwise ¿why she does things?

And, basically, as said before, is an easy target for everyone who doesn’t like current Living Story implementation, because it seems that there are a lot of resources dedicated to this sole character and doesn’t feel great.

PopeUrban.2578:

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.

Problem is that until her ultimate plan is revealed, we can’t really tell if she actually is functionally insane, or just seems like it because without knowing her goals we can’t judge the sense of her actions.

So far I like Scarlett, but I must admit that a large part of that is because I’m assuming this story is going somewhere that will eventually cause it to all make sense. If it turns out to just be a shaggy dog story in the end, my opinion will likely swing dramatically to the negative.

Randall.7306:

If that was the introduction, I think is not a great introduction.

It wasn’t her introduction, it was just her reveal. There was dialog during both Fire and Frost:

Veteran Dredge Prisoner:

Yeah, the flaming cow pies and their fast-talking friend from the city. Never again! Lying silver-tongued, snake-nosed trickster! Never again.

Shame on me? Shame on my leaders! They let themselves be seduced by power. We were fine until we got greedy. Evil trickster! Evil!

Things couldn’t go worse. We’re doomed! Doomed by our own greed for power. Blinded by seductive words and slippery promises. And now, we’re losing our weapons caches. Our factories. (sob)

The plan was flawed from the beginning. We were not orchestrating our own momentum. Instead, we listed to the seductive promises of that snake and stuck our heads out too far of our holes.

And Sky Pirates of Tyria:

Captain Mai Trin

This has all gone to crud. Scarlet’s gonna have my noggin for screwing up.

That let people paying attention know that there was someone behind everything going on.

Scarlet, PhD of mechanical engineering, PhD of biological genetic engineering, PhD of magi-tech, PhD of steam-punk tech, PhD of blacksmithing, PhD of Charr weaponry, PhD of portals and PhD of everyone’s secret past.

I gave her the title of Lore Slayer for good reasons.

Traveller.7496:

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.

I want to see Logan Thackeray becoming a villain. Who wouldn’t want to see our perfect prince in shining armour fall into darkness?

CHIPS.6018:

Traveller.7496:

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.

I want to see Logan Thackeray becoming a villain. Who wouldn’t want to see our perfect prince in shining armour fall into darkness?

We had Rurik already, don’t need Logan too

Besides, as his detractors would say, why would you want him as your villain? He’d just run away more often than Scarlet

CHIPS.6018:

I want to see Logan Thackeray becoming a villain. Who wouldn’t want to see our perfect prince in shining armour fall into darkness?

Logan’s career as a villain would be severely limited by his inability to think anything without loudly announcing it to the entire room and his inability to understand that no one else suffers from the same affliction.

Yes Logan, Queen Jennah is perfectly aware that Minister Caudecus is up to something. She’s just not a fool and realizes how dumb it would be to announce what she knows WHEN HE’S STANDING RIGHT THERE.

Dyne Tianjin.8605:

As the post above mentioned – she was given shoes too big for a normal Sylvari to fill and the player base is annoyed at her perfection. I think its safe to say that “everyone’s human” unless of course they’re not and they’re a God or Dragon then we better group up and stop them.

There are charr who would try to kill you over that “everyone’s human” crack. Though it would make norn laugh.

Scarlet isn’t perfect. If she was, we wouldn’t have been able to stop her. She really is just a bright mind who thinks anyone but her is an idiot (like the asura, it should be noted) but is not entirely focused on her studies, instead she is focused on putting things together and after she gets whatever information she needs from a study project? Discarded and pointless to her afterwards.

I don’t hate her, but I don’t particularly like her either. She’s…meh, that’s the best way I can describe it.

I think some of the ‘hate’ is people just following the popular opinion, but I can see that some people genuinely don’t like her. Quite a few people in game I’ve spoken to actually like her, though.

As much as I hate to say it (‘cause I love dragons), she’s currently a better villain than Zhaitan was…still, that’s more to do with how pathetic his final battle was.

My final thoughts on her are going to be completely dependent on these last four releases. If they can tie everything together in a satisfying way, then I may end up liking her, and if they don’t, then I may consider her a failure. Pretty squarely on the fence.

Hobbitz.5831:

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…..

Lmao! I still remember my 6 year old ragequits over that kitten. xD
Good memories…

I do hate Scarlet, but not because of some hatefad or something. I thought I was pretty alone in hating her until I paid more attention to LA map chat and logged back into the forums after a hiatus. I just really don’t like the ridiculous amount of crazy achievements that would take most people their entire lives to accomplish in the very short period she’s been kickin’.

Either way, she’ll be gone soon. I think if she dies in a very humanizing way (i.e., getting ganked by some amazing new villain that most people actually /do/ like) I think people will look back on her more favorably.
But she’ll probably just get locked away somewhere by the Lionguard to be busted out later.

Logan annoys me the most in Destiny’s Edge. He’s always whining and yelling, for the most trivial things. His whole story is juvenile, and he’s not worthy of his position. What kind of real knight acts like that? It’s just bad. Really bad.

The rest of the Destiny’s Edge storyline is just terrible, and that’s because it never gets resolved. It morphs into another storyline completely, with the dreaded Trahearne storyline.

And then after these 2 separate storylines, we have the Scarlet storyline, which has zero connection with the previous two… so far.

All this new lore that was created, should be scrapped, and the devs should just introduce lore from GW1. It’s history is rich with it. This will never happen though. Hopefully a GW3 can come out.

Yeah. I can’t wait until Scarlet is no longer part of the game.

Definitely will be a time to rejoice!

There’s two parts to the character, though only one I think that draws the negative responses.

The first and most obvious part is what you see. An apparently intelligent but completely delusional sylvari with a quirky unstable personality, a penchant for theatrics, good voice work and lines. To me that seems pretty good. Villain or not, it’s a character with personality.

But I think the reason why people hate the character so much is because of what Scarlet does, or…we’re told is responsible for. I’d liken it to why people hate Traherne. Scarlet is a plot device, and a fairly heavy-handed one at that. Scarlet is used to excuse every bullkitten story element. Where the heck did all those pirate minions come from? The steam creatures? Portals? Dredge and Flame legion? Krait and Nightmare court? How does this work? How does this make sense?

The key point is that very few of the living story elements make a lot of sense in terms of the world narrative, and most of them appeared with no lead-up. It just seems that someone came up with the ideas for the gameplay elements, but didn’t have a good way to explain how any of it made sense so they created a fairly obnoxious dues ex machina to make it happen. Scarlet is also heavily protected by character shields whenever making a personal appearance, such as walking away from being beat-down by the better part of 40 people during an invasion event.

It’s so very contrived, and the short-cuts taken strike a bad chord with a lot of players.

Torrad.1075:

The first and most obvious part is what you see. An apparently intelligent but completely delusional sylvari with a quirky unstable personality, a penchant for theatrics, good voice work and lines. To me that seems pretty good. Villain or not, it’s a character with personality.

Umm.. this is her most egregious failing. Annoying personality. Annoying cheap lines with canned “insane” dialog & the go-to sassy laugh. Cheaply hip-to-the-kids “instability” that is like nails on chalkboard. She has about as much character as JarJar. Yes, on paper there are specific things that JarJar consistently does & owns them as his “personality”. Not too sure we can treat him as a “character with personality” like he was well executed or something.

DarksunG.9537:

. She has about as much character as JarJar. Yes, on paper there are specific things that JarJar consistently does & owns them as his “personality”. Not too sure we can treat him as a “character with personality” like he was well executed or something.

You’d have been better off going for Neelix.

Here is a character we really tried to but some work into, but it turned out not to come off the way we expected it would to the audience. Don’t worry, we’ll keep trying to push it until it works.

And I’m usually the one defending Scarlet as a character, but I know she wears on people quickly.

I like her as a character, I’m bored though and tired the constant catastrophe’s that always lead back to her but never truly get resolved in the end, because we’re gonna wake up next week to yet another episode of Scarlet hating the world. There comes a point where the lack of a resolution becomes exhausting and boring for people. I don’t mind her being the main antagonist in the game as I think she’s fantastic. But surely we can find other types of content rather than catastrophe after catastrophe.

Also, how much crap must the humans have to go through in this game? Everyones always trying to invade and destroy our space, kill our Queen, or any other number of annoyances. At this rate, humans wont exist anymore in GW3. Let’s switch it up.

Stormy Dragon.9210:

PopeUrban.2578:

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.

Problem is that until her ultimate plan is revealed, we can’t really tell if she actually is functionally insane, or just seems like it because without knowing her goals we can’t judge the sense of her actions.

So far I like Scarlett, but I must admit that a large part of that is because I’m assuming this story is going somewhere that will eventually cause it to all make sense. If it turns out to just be a shaggy dog story in the end, my opinion will likely swing dramatically to the negative.

It doesn’t matter.

See, in the eyes of the audience (us) appearances are the character. Similarly, when Scarlet’s entire “master plan” is revealed, with much pomp and flash, and she starts strutting around all straight laced and less stupid-haired, that would still appear to be written against type again.

There is a fine line here. By not giving the audience any inkling of inside information or clues to scarlet’s endgame, that endgame may as well not exist. By showing us what she “saw” and then hastily saying “okay MAYBE she saw” and also not making any references to this crucial character data in the actual game what is the audience left with but appearances?

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, and is a fictional character, guess what, it’s a duck. If that duck turns out to be a gerbil in a duck suit all along, the audeicne will just go “That’s a stupid ending anyway, why is the gerbil wearing a duck suit?”

Stories aren’t stories at all when you don’t actually tell them and that’s been the sin of the LS up to this point. We haven’t been told the story. Not that we should have been privy to the master plan, but we should have been clued in that there IS a master plan, and have some sketchy foreshadowing to go on. Want us to believe Scarlet is more than she seems? How about giving us a glimpse of Scarlet actually being that person once in a while?

A story sitting in Bobby Stein’s notebook is not a living story, and it’s also not the story of Tyria. It only becomes that when it’s communicated to the players, and integrated in to the world itself through written prose or peferably as ingame content (no offense to Ree and her ten billion novels that I can’t find the time to read)

Not getting the whole story is not the same as not getting any of the story, and… well… take a look at the new LS trailer. We haven’t been getting any of the story. Even the marketing material looks like a weirdly disconnected series of random events.