Guild Wars 2

(Not sure which forum this should go in, but it seems like here’s as good a place as any.)

Having seen the Gates of Maguuma trailer, I’m starting to wonder if the Living Story – and by extension, GW2 as a whole – isn’t my kind of thing any more.

The Zephyr Sanctum is clearly destroyed in the trailer. Back when I played more frequently, I loved the Labyrinthine Cliffs and Zephyr Sanctum. They were a haven untouched by the mad sylvari, an escape from the rest of the world. If they’re dealt a blow with the beginning of the new season… well. I don’t think I’d be okay with that.

My biggest concern with the new season is that there were no real victories in the previous one. To explain: the Tower of Nightmares, while destroyed, was repurposed. The destruction of the Molten Weapons Facility didn’t change much. Mai Trin escaped Lionguard custody and vanished somewhere into the Mists, a pack of her followers with her; she remains at large. The Aetherblades, Moltens, Twisted and Toxics marched in countless hordes no matter how many we killed or how many of their outposts we conquered. And even though she died, Scarlet got what she wanted.

There were no victories in Season 1, no winner of ’Scarlet’s War’. Pretty much everything the heroes did was countermanded, turned against them, or just plain ignored. As far as I see it, there were some heroics but no heroism (which is what I look for in my escapes from the real world). And to be honest, after seeing next week’s trailer, I’m inclined to think the same might very well be true of Season 2.

’Course, this is just the first update of many to come, so I could be completely wrong, but first impressions leave the longest-lasting effect and the Gates trailer makes me uneasy.

My apologies for the ramble, but I feel it needed to be said.