Guild Wars 2

I’ve had issues like this as well. Limiting my FPS to 30 through the in-game menu seems to have solved it. Not ideal, but… you take what you can get.

I’m also experiencing some severe crashes since around that date. I can’t be certain it’s the same cause, but the timing of it seems impeccable.

My symptoms are that whenever I’ve played for approximately two hours, and for no reason whatsoever, my entire system locks up. Everything’s frozen on all my screens, and the only solution is to cut the power by holding the power button. Where I am or what I’m doing seems to have no correlation to why it happens – one time, it was while doing the Dragon’s Stand meta event, another after just having finished the Hearts and Minds story step, yet another I had just finished crafting 150 Mithril Ingots in LA.

Before these lockups started happening, I had been playing the game flawlessly, though my sample size isn’t too large considering it’s a brand new computer (from early January).

I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread, hopefully someone finds a solution – be it ANet or someone random – and it might work for me too.

i7-6700K
2×8GB
GTX 970

I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I joined up.

Not regretted it once. Great group of people, both inside and outside of the game.

If you’re looking for a friendly bunch to have fun with, you’ll really be hard pressed to find a better guild.

That’s… actually a really interesting wiki page.

At the bottom, it says “This NPC was added in the July 9, 2013 update and will stay indefinitely¹”
“¹^ Post by Paul Belz, Guild Wars 2 Forum”

Yet at the top, it reads “This page contains information about a Guild Wars 2 element, mechanic, or feature that has been removed or replaced. (November 02, 2015)
The information on this page does not apply to the current version of the game or the content is no longer available.”

Either they’ve moved him and the wiki isn’t updated yet, or they went back on their statement and removed the NPC despite what Paul Belz said (which seems the most likely, as the linked source for the Paul Belz quote is a deleted post).

It is, as many have stated, NOT a case of “we want the new stuff for free”, it’s a case of “we want the old stuff which we already paid for without having to pay for it again”.

Guild Banners were in the game at the time of release, on the 28th of August 2012. In other words, guild buffs – whether swiftness, experience, karma, gathering, or anything in between – are and always have been a core game mechanic. What has changed since? They can be obtained at a new location, and for longer, and they are one-time unlocks. Does this change the mechanic of guild buffs, that is, reaping the rewards from coming together as a group? It does not. Neither location, duration, or which screen you unlock them on does not change the fact that getting there is a guild collaboration for guild-wide rewards, which is what guild buffs have been about since day one.

The guild buffs have not changed, and yet they’re locked behind a paywall. One that some people can’t motivate paying up for. I’m not one of them – I own the expansion, I have a level 80 Revenant, I’ve got guild XP buffs activated on all my nine characters. But I also have what so many others seem to lack – maybe it just hasn’t dropped from Tequatl or Shadow Behemoth yet, maybe it’s not been unlocked in the PvP reward track yet. That thing is compassion. Compassion for all of those who still don’t feel like a handful of maps, a 4-5 hour story, a new class with very limited skill customizability and a few new specs for the existing classes is worth as much as a brand-new triple-A title with over a hundred hours of gameplay to its name. These people just want to play this game like when they bought it. Why is that so wrong?

If any ArenaNet personnel read this, I implore you. Let those playing the core game do so with the core game content. Don’t lock it behind a paywall, no matter how large or small. Show compassion for those with thin wallets, with too few hours to the day, or with a thousand other reasons not to buy the expansion just yet. Let guild buffs belong to the guild, not to the jungle.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Jigain

That worked for me, thanks!

Since my last message, I’ve been given a handful of suggestions from customer support. Unfortunately none of them have managed to solve it for me, but maybe it’ll help one of you.

#4:
[spoiler]Hello <redacted>,

A possible cause for this is that the game has not downloaded the cutscene. If this were to be the case I’d like to ask if your download did not finish but was already past the “Playable” mark. If so, would you kindly try waiting for the game to complete the download and try again afterwards?

Let us know if you need further assistance.

Regards,

GM <redacted>
Guild Wars 2 Support Team
http://help.guildwars2.com/[/spoiler]

#5:
[spoiler]Hello <redacted>,

Thanks for the update.

Can you please try the following and let us know if this fixes your issue also:

Completely close the game
Go to temp folder by going to start/run, type in temp and hit enter
Browse to the folder gw2cache-(guid). Example: “gw2cache-(50641E0B-3AD4-1601-081E-6450D43A0116)” 4.. Delete the whole gw2cache folder
Restart the game and see if this resolved your issue with the cut-scenes.
We look forward to your reply.

Regards,

GM <redacted>
Guild Wars 2 Support Team
http://help.guildwars2.com/[/spoiler]

#6:
[spoiler]Hello <redacted>,

Thanks for getting back to us.

ICan you please try the following for me?

Start the Guild Wars 2 launcher.
Uncheck “Remember Account Name.”
Uncheck “Remember Password.”
Close the launcher.
Navigate to the location "C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2
Locate and delete the file local.dat from this folder.
Start the launcher again and attempt to log in to the game.
If that fails, could you try placing the game in different resolutions and screen modes? For instance if you’re in Windowed Fullscreen, try placing that option in Full Screen instead and try again if the cutscenes appear.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

GM <redacted>
Guild Wars 2 Support Team
http://help.guildwars2.com/[/spoiler]

So to keep you appraised of what Customer Support are telling me, here’s #3:

A much better response this time around, and I have hope again. Sent them the log, so awaiting further instructions for now.

Also, kingbread, I’ve had varying degrees of success with pre-HoT pre-rendered cutscenes. Yesterday I ran Victory Or Death with friends who hadn’t done it yet, and I could see all the cutscenes there. However, I still get a black screen with dialogue and subtitles when using Marjory’s Journal in Lion’s Arch, which is a pre-HoT cutscene. I theorize that somehow the areas that are either new or updated with the HoT + Halloween update somehow interfere with my (and yours) cutscenes – but I was unable to confirm it since using Marjory’s Journal in another map than Lion’s Arch only results in a “You cannot perform that command yet” message and no cutscene. Passed my theory on to Customer Support, we’ll see what they make of it.

Second reply is as follows:

Same as before, unfortunately. Another “let’s paste the standard response without reading the ticket, and with luck they won’t reply so that I can just mark it as solved without any effort on my part” solution – because if they actually had read it, they’d note the Game Advisor logs I sent them before I even got the first canned response.

I’m concerned about the customer support at ANet.

First reply is as pasted as any customer support reply in history:

So, in other words, just another “let’s paste the standard response without reading the ticket, and with luck they won’t reply so that I can just mark it as solved without any effort on my part” solution by customer support. Yeah, I’ve worked it myself once. That’s how it goes. No hard feelings towards the GM, it’s just standard procedure.

Will keep this thread updated with the second reply, lest they choose to ignore the ticket entirely, which sadly also is standard procedure from time to time.

I get the exact same thing. Panoramic views, dialogue scenes, everything that’s rendered in the game works just fine. Only pre-rendered cutscenes are completely black with no sound effects, only spoken dialogue and subtitles.

I put in a support request for this, will keep you updated if they manage to help me solve it.

For the record, repair and even a full reinstall does not solve the issue.

Whenever I reach a point where a cutscene is meant to be playing – a pre-rendered one, that is, not a dialogue session – I only get a black screen with the spoken audio and subtitles. This only applies to HoT-added cutscenes, as I experienced no issues with the personal story on several of my characters, but it does apply to HoT cutscenes for ALL my characters.

Already tried the Holy Re’s – relog, restart, repair – with no success.

Hopefully someone can answer this – can you still hear it when it’s covered by both traditional sheathed weapons like the shield, as well as more specialized things like engineer weapon kits? Considering getting this for my engineer, but there’s little point if it’s going to be silent AND hidden 95% of the time.

Episcopos.5206:

What i don’t understand is the first people posted in this forum around a year ago – does that mean there has been no clear solution since? (as in no large amount of people are reposing and saying “by the way this isn’t an issue for me anymore”?)

It’s confusing, I know – and I would’ve loved for it to be clearer. What happened was that about a month and a half ago, this thread was created because the thread creator was having an issue with some characters being perpetually stuck on a loading screen, and eventually returned him to the character selection screen with the error code listed in the title (which is a generic error and not something that is specific in any way; much like “404 File Not Found” doesn’t have a single common cause). As more and more people came forward with experiencing the same issue (myself included), Gaile Gray renamed the thread into what it’s named today and was very forthcoming with information, tips and assurances that the team was working on a solution. Many threads on the same topic (the character lockout bug, as I took to calling it) came up and were merged into this one. Eventually the bug was fixed (for the vast majority) by a completely non-related patch a few days later.

Now this is where the confusion hits. Suddenly moderators keps mass merging just about any thread referencing the error code listed in the title, even if they were COMPLETELY unrelated to the issue this thread was for. The result is a mass of thousands of different issues, with no structure whatsoever, being completely ignored by the support staff as the issue in the thread was solved. The post you are refering to, the one from over a year ago, was no doubt merged into this thread not too long ago.

I’ve asked numerous times to have this thread locked, renamed, or deleted just to stem the confusion (not to mention the numerous ignored issues because they’re merged into this thread before anyone can get a good look at them), but so far my pleas have not been heard – again, probably because no one bothers to look in this thread as it’s “solved”. I think I’ll try reporting my own post this time and pray that someone takes notice of it, and takes appropriate countermeasures.

ThePlanez.5871:

So hard to farm and so expensive! Why why why! I’m almost done with my twilight just need some mapping and the t6s. How do I get them?

Well, the best way I’ve found is to-

ThePlanez.5871:

And plz, next time people find some contents that r to our advantage, for example the Orr event, which u let it fail, tell ur mum and dad about it, I do not care, but not the whole community plz.

-never mind then.

1) Go to Dry Top.
2) Do a thing.
3) Receive geodes.

Repeat as necessary.

Unfortunately, linguistically speaking, the difference between a spear and a harpoon when it comes to fishing is strictly in its intended use – for smaller fish, you use a spear, but if it’s designed for larger fish or whales, it’s a harpoon. As there’s no “you can only use this weapon against these enemies” in GW2, the terms “spear” and “harpoon”, and thus following “speargun” and “harpoon gun”, are entirely interchangeable.

sirian.4981:

Most with this was probably intentionally because a child height character with adult proportions would look super creepy.

Yeah, it’s very fortunate that no one has ever done that before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome_
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilliput_and_Blefuscu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29

Actually, let’s have a look at how some of these, as you put it, “child-height characters” look and whether or not they have “adult proportions”.

http://leogrin.com/CimmerianBlog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/FemaleDwarf-PURDY.jpg
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/017/4/0/lightfoot_halfling__female__by_conceptopolis-d5rsk2u.jpg
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20061101073428/egamia/images/7/78/World_of_Warcraft_Gnome_Female_Mage_Updated.jpg

So yeah… it’s not as if short people with capacity for being adult are a rare occurance, so you can’t really use the “they’re like children because height” defense.

Do not try to sell the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead… only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you’ll see, it is not the spoon that’s being sold, it is only yourself.

The outfit is a one-piece item. Any piece of clothing ending with “outfit” is a one-item dress.

The absolute quickest way would be to use an Experience Scroll after finishing the racial tutorial area, but these have only been distributed as part of the birthday gifts (one each time your character turns another year older) as well as once every 5000 achievement points. If you do have any, and don’t plan to use them for anything else, they will be scarce to come across and will not be sustainable.

I did hear whispering about leveling to 10 using Cooking and karma-bought ingredients, but alas, I don’t know any more details about that.

If you want long-lasting swiftness, I cannot think of a better way than an Engineer with the Speedy Kits trait and at least one weapon kit.

Swiftness: 10s upon equipping a weapon kit. Cooldown: 10s.

Oh, I thought it was just me.

Well, this is unacceptable. Immediate unsub.

Some men just want to watch the world burn…

The flamethrower build doesn’t exist. It cannot be used. And that’s why it’s so friggin’ fun to use it.

If no one’s done it by tomorrow, I’ll hop onto my Engi and jot down some pointers for you.

Holy carps, this looks like exactly what me and my friend have been looking for. I’ll have her check out this thread, and if she likes what she sees, I’ll update this post or add a new one with the formal application.

Name: Jigain
Main Character: Don’t really have one, but usually I’m on Arturis Arroway, Tyreon De Mai, or Snuya
Current Region/Server: Tarnished Coast (NA)
Interested Activities or specific things I’d like help with: Dungeons/Fractals (though I’ve never done any at all before, so hath patience with me), exploration, WvW, socializing, roleplaying, general group play
Active: Mostly between 1700 to 2100 CET (Central European Time), but worth noting I do tend to take hiatusi. Mostly after I’ve just finished leveling another character to 80.
Additional Comments: Not really… I’m a bit of an oddball in that I play on NA servers despite living in the EU, so not sure what local times I’ll be online. I love helping others though, so don’t expect me to turn away someone who wants help. I’ve got level 80 characters as warrior, guardian, mesmer, engineer, and thief, and know fairly well how to handle myself as all of them. The other three are coming along steadily.
Do I want to be a member of the guild Legion of Honour Y/N: Y
Am I happy for people to contact me directly (whisper/PM) Y/N: Y, though I should note friendship requests aren’t accepted unless I know who’s adding me and why – if you want to do it just send me a whisper so I’ll know to whitelist you.

I think they’re sold in the western-most house as you reach the crossing, coming down the road from Divinity’s Reach. I could be mistaken though.

Einswald.9782:

I managed to get one in Ascalonian Catacombs tonight, sold it for a decent amount of gold.

I guess that means it’s just part of the general drop list then. And probably with a very small chance to drop.

Azrael.4960:

Skiruna.7082:

Roundabout.1752:

I’ve read that if you infuse one of the rings, don’t ask me how you do that I don’t know, but if you do according to what I read you can then wear both your Rings.

This doesn’t work!

Yes it does, I put an infused red ring and a standard one onto my thief. Works fine as they’re each unique in a wierd way. I later acquired the other zerk ring and moved the infused one to another character

I can confirm it does work. It’s not necessarily ideal, though, as ideally you’d want to infuse all of your ascended gear, and if you infuse both items of the same name, they will once again be mutually exclusive.

draxynnic.3719:

Whether you intended it to or not, it certainly comes across as implying you think she needs certain characteristics to be considered attractive (by the stereotypical male audience, anyway). Given your strong response and a second re-read, I think what you’re saying now is that sexual (or, as you seem to have put it, ‘base’) attraction is one possible avenue out of several. But it doesn’t come across very well even in the section I’ve quoted, let alone if the second paragraph was to be quoted out of context. (Particularly since the term ‘base attraction’ is easily misinterpreted.)

Wow. You got me. I’m sorry to have to admit, English is my tertiary language and not all terms are easily translateable. Clearly all my points are null and void because of this.

draxynnic.3719:

That said, I still think it’d backfire horribly if the form of sexualisation you suggest was to be employed. The virgin/harlot dichotomy means that while scanty outfits, big bosoms, and suggestive poses might make for good eye candy, they generally don’t inspire as much sympathy or investment in the character as a person by the player (or reader, viewer, or whatever) as less overtly sexualised female characters do.

An average male walks through a general zone. During this passing he encounters ten women. One of them is wearing, shall we say, clothing that brings out her “features”. The other nine wear common, everyday clothing. The average male will more easily notice the scantily clad woman, and be more inclined to interact with her than the others. This is part of the “introduction” phase I mentioned earlier in the thread; the first step towards making a connection with someone else. There has to be something that interests you in the other character – and sexualization can be that thing. It’s a cheap way to do it, but it does work. As a professional tip, if you’re going to be using this card, you’d better have a good transition in store and not let this rule the character.

draxynnic.3719:

Regarding the statistical discussion: You can justify your 80% as much as you like, but at the bottom line it’s ignoring so many factors that it’s a worthless statistic. Mine might seem to make more assumptions, but it acknowledges those assumptions, and does not ignore factors that will substantially change the real number like yours does. It’d be like trying to find out what the most popular vehicle is by polling everyone on what their first mode of independent transportation (apart from walking) was.

Unless you can point out exactly what “assumptions” the base statistic draws, the correct terminology is

draxynnic.3719:

You can justify your 80% as much as you like, but at the bottom line it’s ignoring so many factors that it’s a worthless statistic. Mine makes assumptions whereas the baseline does not, but it acknowledges those assumptions, and does not ignore factors that will substantially change the real number like yours does. It’d be like trying to find out what the most popular vehicle is by polling everyone on what their first mode of independent transportation (apart from walking) was.

I don’t see what’s left to say about the statistics, nor why you keep pushing it. I’ve already said that if we had actual facts and not just your guesswork to go by, your method would be more accurate. Until we do, your method is, using your own words, “like trying to find out what the most popular vehicle is by polling one person on what they drive and assume that’s representative of the entire world.”

I’m done with this discussion. If you’ve got more terminology you’d like to point out is incorrectly used, feel free to do so, but I’ve got better things to do than argue basic psychology and basic statistics on a thread that 1) was never made for it, and 2) won’t even be open for another 24 hours.

draxynnic.3719:

Consider that in the same post where you suggested that the Pale Tree needed hypersexualised characteristics

I’m not sure if you’re putting words in my mouth intentionally, unintentionally, or just to troll.

I said, quite specifically, that hypersexualized characteristics is one way to begin making a connection, specifically targeted towards the male audience, and that it is a very common and effective way. I did not say anything about the Avatar needing that. Feel free to quote the exact passage.

draxynnic.3719:

Regarding the statistical discussion: You can define ‘baseline’ however narrowly you like, but it becomes a useless statistic. I’d be part of that 80% according to your baseline (my main and, as yet, only character to finish S2E4 is human) but I’ve played through sylvari 1-30 twice now. While both estimates make assumption, I’d dare to say that my estimate of how many people who’ve done S2E4 have also done the early sylvari PS at least once is a lot closer to yours: yours makes the assumption that every player has only one character, which is an assumption that falls a long way away from reality.

The baseline statistic makes no assumptions whatsoever, that’s what makes it baseline. I’ve already outlined exactly which facts make up the 80% statistic, why, and how. I’ve also explained exactly why other variables aren’t included in the baseline statistic.

Do you want to hear me say the baseline statistic isn’t accurate? I’d gladly say that, though I’d have imagined that was obvious to anyone. The baseline statistic isn’t an accurate depiction of the actual statistic, for which we do need refined numbers and refined statistics. Based on facts, mind you, not just random guesses of “oh, I have several sylvari, therefore everyone else does as well”. And since it’s impossible to acquire specific numbers on who has a sylvari, at what level, having done the relevant personal story, AND found the Avatar an engaging character… the baseline statistic is the most accurate one currently available.

GOSU.9574:

Also, items like Ascended bought via Laurels at a vendor should have a period of time where you can return it and get your Laurels back. That other game has such a system, and it can help with these issues.

This would actually help a lot. Say, one hour refund time, which (in order to prevent “rent-an-ascended” system) is void after leaving the map it was bought on. For WvW vendors, void after you leave the “safe zone”.

It wouldn’t get rid of the issue, as some people don’t equip the new gear immediately, but most do. Those that don’t, well, they’re still having to go through Support – but that’s significantly fewer.

RedStar.4218:

But there’s a difference between “sex sells” and “women are objectified in games”. I doubt Soul Calibur sells because of Ivy. Or that Mario is such a success because of Peach. Or that FFX is such a well remembered game because of Lulu’s breasts when she wins. Or that Bravely Default is all about the Bravo Bikini.

For a video game, “sex sells” can only get you so far. At best it gives a few chuckles here and there. But if the game is bad, no amount of kittenty armor and characters are going to save it.
People like Taimi and for the sake of humanity, I really hope that it’s not because they see even an ounce of sexuality from her.

“Sex sells” is a paraphrase for “in highly successful games, women are often objectified”. There are exceptions to it, of course, and the ones you listed may be part of them.

RedStar.4218:

I’m not too sure if I want to get in a social studies debate.

[…]

I hope that Anet thinks “sex sells” is a stupid. But then again, the real climax of S1 wasn’t Scarlet revealing her master plan (nope, Braham made sure of that) but a lesbian kiss…

These two statements I can agree with. I’ve said everything I intended to say with my last post, and you’ve made your opinions clear as well, so if we cannot reach an amicable agreement it’s for the best that we agree to disagree, as it were.

And I do believe ANet, fortunately, do not go with the “sex sells” deal. Though they did have me considering to leave when I started seeing these all over town.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Past behavior is not a predictor of future earnings. Your mileage might vary. Void where prohibited.

Hume teaches us that no matter how many times you drop a stone and it falls to the floor, you never know what will happen the next time you drop it. It might fall to the floor, but then again, it might float to the ceiling. Past experience can never prove the future.

RedStar.4218:

And while we’re at it, let’s at least get a laugh out of it http://www.cracked.com/article_19373_5-ridiculous-sex-myths-everyone-believes_p2.html

I, too, can cite sources. Mine is more recent, much more detailed, and actually features those important things that make studies valid, such as, say, sample size, method, framework, hypothesis for study, and complete results. Here are some goodies from the study:

“Compared to cases with non-central, non-sexualized female characters, those with non-central, sexualized female characters were significantly and positively related to sales (?2 = 3.93, p < .05), increasing sales by a factor of .52, as predicted in Hypothesis 4.”

“Hypersexualized and objectified women, aggressive men, and signs relating to violence or war are effectively symptoms of a masculine-coded space or cultural object, not just content that this audience desires for its own sake; in other words, a masculine-coded space signals potential buyers that the game will meet the cultural norms for this type of game space.”

“Earlier research has shown that female characters are shown less frequently than male characters in video games, take a lead role in games less frequently than male characters, and are often portrayed as highly sexualized, especially in best-selling games (Williams et al., 2009).”

Finally, I will point out that I was paraphrasing when I was using the term “sex sells” earlier. While certainly true, I didn’t mean it in its literal form – rather, I meant that sexualized characters overall manage to get more attention from the average male than a non-sexualized character.

That is all.

First of all, you can’t argue that skimpy outfits, huge bosoms and suggestive animations sell to the male audience. Especially not with “I don’t like it”. By that same argument, we could determine that all bananas taste disgusting because someone once ate a rotten one, or that clothes always rip after exactly one week of use because it happened to someone, somewhere, sometime. The fact is that sales figures and scientific studies show that time and time again, the standard tropes of sex sells. Even though I agree with you completely about not finding it necessarily attractive, that’s just a personal opinion among a sea of others of our gender who thinks the exact opposite. That’s a proven fact.

Also, regarding statistics – baseline 80% is baseline. Baseline assumes that since the player has to be level 80 to do the Living Story, the player has one and only one level 80 character. Alternative characters are completely outside of the scope of the baseline statistic, and therefore outside of the baseline.

You’re talking about refined statistics, which is not baseline. Your refined statistic assumes that every player has five characters, which is pure speculation in comparison to the baseline statistic, which only goes by proven facts.

Summary: the baseline statistic says a character doing the Living Story needs to be level 80, thus it follows that the character doing it is level 80. That character can be an asura, a human, a norn, a charr, or a sylvari, therefore it follows that statistically, four out of five character should be non-sylvari. Thus baseline 80%. All other statistics are completely irrelevant, not to mention unmeasurable.

Finally, I do have a sylvari among my characters, level 80, personal story more or less completed, and I have not seen any measure of wisdom, compassion or philosophy from the Avatar.

adormtil.1605:

actually at 100b at every hit I see the damage. I am confused do you all not see it or what so confused.

Yes, everyone sees it. However the number is the total of all hits in the combo.

1st hit = damage for 1st hit
2nd hit = damage for 1st hit + 2nd hit
3rd hit = damage for 1st hit + 2nd hit + 3rd hit

Et cetera.

Rangelost.4857:

Kjeldoran.3849:

That’s right and i want to add: do you know why female asura share the same model as male asura?

This is because of Age Limit on games (every game is monitored for content by PEGI, or ESRB (for NA)) and to make female asura with a prominent breast will make the game "for adults only" or even risking sanctions because asuras are like "kids" and there are some limitation to kids related things in videogames...

http://www.pegi.info/en/index/id/33/

Or, simply because not every fantasy creature has to have primate breasts and be hypersexualized for it. Charr also wear unisex armor, and they do not look like human children at all (not that asura do, either).

Clearly that’s because cats have an average life expectancy of 12-15 years, which would make them underage! Hence no bosoms! IT’S ALL A CONSPIRACY!

*puts on tinfoil hats*

DarkWasp.7291:

Well it’s possible that the writers shared that sort of mentality that we’ve seen a few on the forums have: That creating a human character lacks depth and purpose compared to a brand new race.

I don’t really get that because humans are plenty deep in real life (some of them) and in other stories as well.

I agree – the vast majority of good writing thoughout history revolves around human characters. There’s nothing impossible, or even difficult, about writing a good character, and it’s not in any way easier or more difficult depending on the race of the character in question.

The problem is that for a character to be deep, or to go even further, to be likeable… you need to have the audience create some form of bond with it. Usually it’s a bond of sympathy or kinship. Occasionally it’s a liking brought on by the character being a badrear or simply hilarious. Base attraction is another trigger. This is what is required for anyone to care about anyone else, both in real life and in literature (which by default covers GW2’s scriptwriting). Call me a cynic if you want, but think about it long enough and you’ll find this is what it boils down to.

Now, let’s discuss the Avatar. Does it appeal to the base attraction? Not really. Don’t get me wrong, some people might find it attractive, and I can’t claim they’re wrong in doing so, but the Avatar doesn’t feature skimpy outfits, a huge bosom and a suggestive animation. Thus it clearly wasn’t designed to create a bond through attraction – at least not to the male audience. Maybe to the female audience? I don’t know.

Can we feel sympathy or kinship with it? I don’t see it. If we assume the player is not a sylvari, which should be a base 80% correct assumption (given that sylvari make out 20% of the race choices in the game), we will have met the Avatar once before in total. We learned these things from it at that point: One, it is the leader of the sylvari. Two, it can predict the future. Those are really the only two things we learn about it. Can we feel sympathy or kinship with either of those points? Not really.

Is the Avatar a badrear or funny? Not from what I’ve seen. Far as I, or my characters, know, all it does is hang around doing nothing at all.

The bottom line is, to make a character important to the audience, the procedure is always the same. Introduction, interaction, connection. The Avatar hasn’t done nearly enough of this to connect with me the way Tybalt, Sieran, Zojja or Taimi have done, just to name a few. And yes, not everyone will connect with every character, but I really do struggle to see how anyone could connect with the Avatar.

Apologies for the rant. As an author, it’s just really disheartening to see the character fall flat. And I’m not talking about physically.

Like people before me have said, it’s a personal preference more than anything. Here’s what I’ve done:

First, I have an MMO mouse (one with buttons on the side), specifically the Logitech G600. This is NOT NECESSARY, but it’s a purchase I am happy with. Not trying to sell it, just saying what my setup is like.
The first five thumb buttons (G9 through G13 if you look at this picture) trigger my weapon skills (default 1-5 on the keyboard). Further, on the other side of the mouse is a large section you can press down, kind of like an extra mouse button (you can see the indenture for it here, to the right of the right mouse button). This acts pretty much the same way as holding CTRL or Shift would on your keyboard, and by holding down this section and pressing the first four buttons on the thumb side (again G9 through G12), I can activate my utility and elite skills (default 7-0 on the keyboard). In this way, I can activate just about any of my skills from my mouse, without changing my grip in the slightest.
For the keyboard, to start with, I’ve completely unbound “turn left” and “turn right” – I turn exlusively via holding the right mouse button (occasionally plus left mouse button, if I want to run without holding W). I’ve also moved the strafe keys down one, so that my movement keys are W/S for move forward/backward, and A/D for strafe left/right.
Now there are really only three main functions I haven’t mentioned yet – profession-specific skills, dodging and healing. Profession skills (like Steal for the thief, pet controls for the ranger, or the toolbelt for the engineer) are accessible with 1-4 on the keyboard, easily within reach of my left hand. Q is my healing skill button. And finally, I’ve got dodge/evade on my E key. I can also dodge with middle mouse button should I need it.

And that’s my setup. It bears repeating, hotkeys are very personal and it’s up to you what you feel is efficient and, most importantly, comfortable.

Well, first of all, let’s get the off-topic out of the way.

If you get “nervous and dizzy” when you see crowds, two things come to mind (mind you, I’m no psychologist so I can’t say if either are applicable to you, or if there are other causes). If it’s just being around large masses of people, it may be due to agoraphobia – a fear of packed public places, or just public places in general. There are treatments for this, through gradual exposure and in severe cases antidepressive medicine. If you think you’re suffering from this, mention it to a doctor/psychologist and they’ll help you with the correct procedure.

On the other hand, if it’s strictly the act (or thought) of socializing with people you don’t know well, it may be a simple case of you being an introvert. This is a personality trait rather than a diagnose, so if you are, don’t worry about it. I’m an introvert myself, and I can’t say I’ve ever suffered from it. Introverts usually prefer to be alone rather than in groups, they usually have very few friends but really good ones, and usually require less daily social interaction than their counterparts, the extroverts. Extroverts are pretty much the complete opposite – they’re group people, with large friend circles, and could often spend the entire day on the phone or just hanging out if possible.

Of course, like I said, there’s absolutely no guarantee that either of these apply to you. It’s just the two that come to mind given what you said.

In regards to your question about soloing, it’s not too hard. It depends entirely upon what you like to do. If you like crafting, you can get experience by doing that. The same with gathering. If exploring is your thing, completing maps is a very efficient way to level. If you like the competitive stuff, try WvW – that also gives you experience. In short, if there’s anything you like doing in GW2, it’ll get you closer to level 80. Why not mix and match? If you get bored of exploring, do some crafting, and then hop into WvW for a while. My personal leveling method is map completion (doing any events I come across along the way), with Personal Story interspersed to keep it from getting too dull.

Finally, feel free to add me as a friend. While I’m not playing that much right now, and prone to rather long hiatuses (hiatusi? Sounds Japanese), I never turn down a friendly chat, and it really does help make the leveling process that much quicker.

Behellagh.1468:

But how do people misunderstood the term unique if they hadn’t been exposed to a version that didn’t actually mean unique? Unique isn’t a SAT word. It’s dictionary definition is pretty clear. Yet people still buy multiple “unique” copies of a single item and think they can equip all.

The most common excuse was in GW unique was a type of quality like rare or exotic is in GW2.

Linguistically speaking, “unique” is also a rarity. Further, the definition of “unique” isn’t unilateral – while it can, and often does, mean “there’s only one of these in the entire world” or equivalent, most people come across it in daily interaction as “this would be difficult to find elsewhere”. Used in a sentence, “Luke sure is a unique character”, or “that’s a pretty unique look”, or “your smile is unique”, or “this game has a unique skill system”, or “there are eight unique classes”. This is a paraphrase, and doesn’t actually mean it’s statistically impossible to find it anywhere else, just that it’s difficult – in other words, a reference to rarity, not impossibility.

Further, the single word “unique” doesn’t necessarily have to mean anything in particular to a player. They might not notice it says that (though I admit it’d usually be noticed as it’s in a different text color), or they might think it’s flavor text because it’s so hard to acquire, or otherwise dismiss it for a million other reasons. I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase “a picture says more than a thousand words” – if this is true, one word says less than a thousandth of a picture, and is not nearly enough to guide a consumer towards the right purchase.

As a closing statement, I just pretended not to know anything about playing MMOs and high-end gearing, and took to Google in search of what “unique” could mean in general, using terms like “mmo unique”, “mmo unique item”, “game unique item” and so on. The results? I found one article explaining it, if I searched for “gw2 unique”, on the official wiki. All other searches yielded no relevant results (some mentions of unique items from Path of Exile, but no explanation as to what that entailed). So if you want to find out exactly what “unique” means in games in general, that’s pretty impossible; specifically for GW2, the answer is out there, but if the player has to actively search the answer out from external sources, it’s obviously not clear enough in-game.

Woljnir.7810:

I’m surprised people still make this mistake to be honest. Unique rings are pretty standard in MMO’s.

While that is true, there’s no requirement to have played another MMO previously before you’re allowed to create your GW2 account.

Rhage.4390:

Ashley Segovia.8276:

the only resolution (for now) is to set their system to stock settings.

sorry to break this to you guys but this so called for now is out there since the 1st closed Beta of GW2. A friend of mine participated in it and had the problem reported back then. When public beta came I reported the same problem. And now we are 2 years after release, I still have the problem.

It has to be some really nasty bug maybe only a minor scrap of code somewhere that causes this problems. Though here are some things that work for me to fix the FPS drops “temporarily”:

Restart the game
most drastic way i know but for me it is sort of a failsave, though some other people say it does not work a tall for them

Tab out and in again
its kind of a 50:50 chance for this to work but sometimes it seems to trigger something and all is okay again. don’t ask my why because i am merely an end user with some scraps of knowledge.

Die (ingame)
it rarely works but on some rare occasion this gets my frames to jump back up at their usual 60-70 per sec rate

Set your hardware to factory settings/under clock it
this works for sure, i tried it out as did my friend but int he end the performance suffered. I know we all buy OC gear for a reason and we do not want to under clock it then, but it works. So if you know how to work your way around in BIOS and all the other stuff necessary to do it: try it out!

Mind I quoted that just in order to show that GW2 doesn’t play well with overclocking – or, more accurately, as sirsquishy pointed out, unstable overclocking. Ashley’s quotes may or may not apply to this specific case, but they are certainly not intended to.

Stable overclocking is fine. I run a stable overclocking of a full GHz, with factory overclocked GFX cards. No issue since day one (or more accurately day minus three). But if you’ve got problems with your game, and you run overclocked hardware, your overclocking may be unstable (even if it only shows with GW2), and you should try factory or underclocking. If you’ve got half a brain you write down your overclocking values so you can just go back to them if it doesn’t solve anything.

Glad to be of service.

Try these:

http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gw2-ceremonial-plated-outfit-sylvari-male.jpg
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gw2-ceremonial-plated-outfit-sylvari-male-2.jpg
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gw2-ceremonial-plated-outfit-sylvari-male-3.jpg

It just doesn’t, really.

Ashley Segovia.8276:

Depending on your system because this does vary, overclocking can certainly give your system a speed boost if done right. However, this isn’t really something that we can advise especially since there have been quite a few issues with the client for players with overclocked systems in which the only resolution (for now) is to set their system to stock settings. If this is something that you’re considering I would highly recommend researching the subject and keeping in mind the potential risks to your system.

Ashley Segovia.8276:

Hi Skiroid – The first thing I would recommend would be to disable Turbo Boost to disable the auto “over-clocking” as the client can be sensitive to overclocked hardware.

Ashley Segovia.8276:

Hi elvenninja – This looks like the “Out of Memory” crash experienced by players with 32-bit operating systems. Turning down your graphics settings or updating to a 64-bit operating system may resolve the issue for you.

Additionally, it looks like you’re getting a few errors in that ArenaNet.log file. Generally the “File: ..\..\..\Game\Main\MainCli.cpp(584)” crash means that you’re overclocking your hardware, usually the CPU. If you are over-clocking at all I would recommend returning your hardware back to stock settings or even underclocking if they came factory overclocked.

If you didn’t know, Ashley is the most prominent tech support ANet has on these forums.

You could try contacting someone who’s published an overlay, and ask if they could throw something together for you. Aerodin, the creator of the Personal Assistant Overlay, can be reached via the link I posted above (while quoting Chris Cleary), while you can get in touch with the people who made the overlay for GW2Stuff over on
http://www.reddit.com/r/gw2stuff

I’ve got a level 80 engineer and thief, and the ranger is coming along nicely at 57 (holding off for a while, waiting for the patch on Tuesday).

It’s hard to recommend one over the others, as you don’t say anything regarding what playstyle you’re looking for or prefer. If you have any specific questions about the three classes I’d be happy to help, but overall I can only say that I enjoy playing all of them, and that which character I choose is mostly depending on whether I feel like playing something versatile (engineer), fast (thief), or well-rounded (ranger).

Mind that your graphics card is factory overclocked, which could also cause issues. You might want to try temporarily underclocking it, to bring it into line with standard 260X values.

A better term than "unique" would be "unique-equipped", as most people would then realize the status of "unique" applies not to its rarity or difficulty to obtain, but specifically in regards to equipping it - whereupon most would soon come to realize that only one can be equipped at any one time.

Though, to be completely true to the term "unique", ANet should make the game check for existing items of that kind in your inventory and on your character, and refuse to sell it to you if you already have one. If it’s unique, you can only ever possess one. :P

That joke aside, though, a pop-up warning saying "Are you sure you wish to purchase [item name]? Only one of this item can be equipped at any one time. Click OK to proceed with buying it." would be nice.