Guild Wars 2

Prophet.6257:

kalzana: I’m not your friend buddy!
Kasmeer: I’m not your buddy friend!

Braham: Uh-huh

Is Braham’s “Uh-huh” a thing now?

dat wall o’ text. can someone give a quick summary of what the op is on about?

Astral Projections.7320:

~snip~

Oi’! dat’ was a long read lad. Didn’t know that about star trek though because always thought star wars was betta’ because laser swords and powerz.

Being a racist is more extreme to be fair lad.

I just recently re-joined the steam community and browsed dat der’ fancy library of games fo’ sale, the front page of new released gamez be dis’.

So to say that GW2 is being unique by displaying lady power rangers and is standin’ out from the crowed is an overstatement. It is common now an’ days and has been in gaming for about 10 years or so.

Oi’ lads and lasses, jus’ a quick note fer’ thought. Someone just told me that each expansion of the original guild wars featured a lady for each release on the front cover that was a cannon lead protagonist, purple haired lady for factions (not asian though oddly), black lady for nightfall, and white lady from eye of the north or something.

I only played the first one, prophecies back in the day and even that one featured a gothic lady on the front cova’ art.

So even back in de’ good ol’ days it was sorta there, if anythin’ guild wars lore is not racist so that is good at least, Misandry seems to be a on going tradition though.

Farzo.8410:

I started to think about her race. Why a Sylvari? Did this whole story surrounding Scarlet become pretty meh because she was a Sylvari?

What if Scarlet was a Largos? You know, these russian accent underwater butterflies with masks. I know the story must have played out diffrently towards the end if that was the case.

Scarlet being a Sylvari, was that one of the main reasons why she wasn’t interesting enough? Imagine now Scarlet being a female Largos instead, and maybe without that Harley Quinn act, would that have been better?

The story being played out very similar to what we had, but with the underwater dragon being the target instead of Mordremoth.

1. Nah mang, a lot of folks just don’t like her because she sucks, not because of the whole evil she-weed.

2. Lel, that’ statement lad. Race would have made a slight change, but overall nah.

3. A male largos would have been better in that case, that look cooler, butter fly wings an’ all.

4. How do we even know it was the jungle dragon? was dis’ evar confirmed? alotta’ folks be sayin’ it iz dey dragon of nature but wif’ no proof on the matta. It looked like the underwater one if anything, relating even further to the largos.

Mhm, it’d be nice to have a basic inventory space just for quest items, like in Vindictus.

tmakinen.1048:

Leshain.6720:

I’m qualified to my opinion lad.

True, again. However, you aren’t qualified to your own facts. As I have mentioned earlier, statistical determination of bias is not a matter of opinion.

I have laid out the facts. Those aren’t open for discussion. Trying to do the contrary will increase the probability of administrative intervention.

4 is more than 1 lad, that is a fact. Lad.

tmakinen.1048:

Leshain.6720:

tmakinen.1048:

Leshain.6720:

4 to 1. Basic math proves ya wrong lad.

I would like to politely point out the very basic mathematical fact that for the distribution B(5, 0.5) the value P(|X – EX(X)| > 1) = 3 / 8. Therefore, the null hypothesis holds and there isn’t any statistical evidence of bias. I have proven my case.

4 is a higher number than 1 lad.

True. Fermat’s Last Theorem is also true. Neither of these true statements has anything to do with the topic in question. I wouldn’t want to be impolite, but quite frankly, you are not qualified to have this conversation, and therefore it is a waste of time and effort.

I’m qualified to my opinion lad.

Words of Wisdom.

Mr. E never made a appearance wif’ the recent patch, instead we get anotha’ female character. Surprise!

tmakinen.1048:

Leshain.6720:

4 to 1. Basic math proves ya wrong lad.

I would like to politely point out the very basic mathematical fact that for the distribution B(5, 0.5) the value P(|X – EX(X)| > 1) = 3 / 8. Therefore, the null hypothesis holds and there isn’t any statistical evidence of bias. I have proven my case.

4 is a higher number than 1 lad.

tmakinen.1048:

Aedelric.1287:

Good content makes an MMO stand out from the crowd, not gender bias. If you imply that it was Arena Net’s intention to have a female heavy cast only to make itself different from the rest, then that was quite a failure. Neither does the story to the LS stand out from any other MMO as exceptional, the quality of the content itself has been fairly mediocre.

Many in this topic have said gender bias is fine if the story calls for it, but if they are not using story reasons for their decisions then that speaks volumes about the lack of quality to the writing.

You keep insisting that there is a “gender bias” as if that were a given fact.

Too bad that this claim is not supported by statistics.

In order to establish the presence of a bias, the measurement must be outside the confidence interval of the null hypothesis that there is no bias and the outcome is random. In the case of a binomial distribution, the null hypothesis confidence interval is

0.5 ± 0.5 z / sqrt( n )

where z is a percentile value corresponding to confidence percentage, and n is the sample size. For a statistically significant result, z = 3. Thus, for any n we can calculate where the null hypothesis fails, i.e., what kind of result supports the existence of a bias. For your convenience:

For groups of up to 8 characters, null hypothesis always holds. The sample size is too small to say anything about a bias.

For groups between 9 and 12 characters, there is a bias if all characters are of the same gender.

For groups between 13 and 15 characters, there is a bias if there is at most one character of one gender.

For groups between 16 and 19 characters, there is a bias if there are at most two characters of one gender.

And so on.

In light of these numbers, there is insufficient evidence of a gender bias in GW2.

4 to 1. Basic math proves ya wrong lad.

Paraka.9724:

Why the HELL is Ash Ketchum STILL ten?!

Profit. Even still I lol whenever someone notices this.

To be fair, Logan and Rytlock have amazing and talented voice actors who have been in many games and anime.

Logan = Troy Baker, the same guy who is the lead protagonist in the upcoming PS4 Exclusive InFamous: Second Son. The guy has class and is great at his art, but his character in this game sucks lol. Delsin > Logan.

Trivia: Both seattle made characters.

Rytlock = Steve Bloom, A legend in his craft, I didn’t even notice it was him at first in this game! He has so many notable and relatable roles it’d take to long to list them, Spike from Cowboy Bebop being probably his most famous one though.

Trivia: Always seems to play a kitten character.

Stooperdale.3560:

The living story characters now have some dialogue that suggests they’ll meet at the dead end pub and some dialog that suggests they’ll form a guild (surprise!). Braham is telling Rox to just join the warband as Rytlock will not let her into the warband if she’s in an adventuring guild (wow really?) but Rox will join the guild anyway (eventually).

My guess is that this guild will have someone from each profession and the thief recruit will be Mr E. We could already know this person under another name but I’m guessing that it will be someone fresh and the Mr E moniker was his introduction. I’m also guessing the aetherblades will stay in the living story as tech based pirates so Mai Trin will be their new leader and not part of the new guild.

Nice thought process there mate.

Want it.
Doubt it.

dgenxp.8650:

Am I the only one who doesn’t actually care if the cast is male or female dominated it is a non issue to me and if (being male myself) i hadn’t seen this title would i have even noticed the cast is mostly female – nope i play and love this game and it doesn’t matter to me who the main cast consists of as long as they kick butt.

lol i bet the majority of male players on here play as a female character anyways c’mon tell me i’m wrong lol

Mhm, I didn’t notice at first as well, but when I started getting into the story with Braham and Rox’s story arc, I slowly noticed a spike from the minor characters, to the semi-important to the major.

Aye lad, majority I would normally agree wif’ ya (in other games), but this game is a mixed plate to be fair with so much going on when it comes to player gender, mainly because race also plays a role.

I myself have a relatively balanced cast, 5 males to 4 females (9 total) last time i checked, I wouldn’t call out balance in this about the first season if not.

The Great: It was a new experience for me as a gamer, I can appreciate at the very basic level of trying new things, and i can honestly say I gotta give anet and NCSoft credit with the constant patches and updates. It came with new weapon skins, new armor, new back items, amazing gameplay balance when it comes to fairness between all classes. Ultimately, from a content aspect, it was great.

The Good: This game is highly about the exploration factor, and they added new places for us to explore, the Halloween Mad Realm (First Appearance) Flame & Frost’s Cragstead/Instance and Bazaar of the Four Winds being my personal favorites.

Oh and the music finally got good and engaging at the final battle. That Leif guy needs to do the entire OST of Season 2 or the expansion whenever that happens.

The Bad: The Characters. This really stood out for me as the story went on. Too many female characters that are mostly not relatable. And as for the fella’s (what few there are), poorly represented due to poor writing.

The Ugly: The writing in general. Played out like a Fan Fiction written by a 13 year old boy who has just noticed girls.

The Worst: Everything else. Oh, and Scarlet.

Conclusion: To be fair I am not sure what’d i’d rate season 1, but it would be negative overall.

Improvement: Either fire the current writing staff and hire a new team or hone dem’ writing skills, because this story was so bad it makes the FFXIII story seem likable, and that is saying a lot since the XIII saga’s story is lackluster at its best.

(Safe Bet) It is Mai OR some new human female character. The way arena net gives screen time to human females has become predictable and boring. I have a bet going on with a mate that the reveal for Mr. E (If at all) will result in him being a her.

(Risky Bet) If it turns out to be Lord Faren, ANet will impress me, because I absolutely like characters who act all foolish (or average joe/innocent) but turn out to be a strategic mastermind, like Lelouch Vi Britannia from Code Geass being a gold standard example.

I doubt it though.

I dislike almost the entire cast of season 1. Braham has one advantage though, his voice actor: Matthew Mercer, he has the best talent out of the entire cast in season 1.

jetjordan.9403:

This is the reason I more or less quit playing. I have to go long stretches without playing and I can’t keep up with LS. Since I’m a completionist this has been very off putting, and I only really log on everyone once in a while in order to say hi to guildies and sort of look at the changes.

Anyone else have this problem? The reason I put so many hours on GW1 was because I could sort of pick up where I left off and keep going. Now I just feel like I’m behind (gear/story/content) and I usually log off and go play something else instead/.

Same problem here as well, when I am too busy with music production or if anything else business related comes up, real life world takes priority. The idea is good, but the execution of the constant updates is flawed.

Aedelric.1287:

Laurelinde.4395:

Why do some guys have so much trouble relating to women, real or fictional? We are people. It will not kill you or hurt you or diminish you to put yourselves in our shoes once in awhile, I promise.

Just people, like you.

No I do not find the female leads relatable, but I do not find the males of the living story relatable either.

Do not try making it out as someone elses failing because you personally think they are being closed minded. The whole point of a character being relatable is to have similar aspects to them you find reflected in yourself, obviously hurdle one is race, then sex then personality.

The issue here is variety of characters, literally zero female and male characters I find relatable, Braham himself is a complete idiot. We need some new characters and asking for a new more likable more competent male lead is hardly something to get up in arms about, it is not like anyone is asking for the female leads to be removed.

This entire post is extremely accurate, I do not understand where all these upset lady gamers are comin’ from, i asked for a simple balance in the poorly written cast of season 1 character to change in season 2 and suddenly that is a problem? Touchy.

Also ~

asking for a new more likable more competent male lead is hardly something to get up in arms about, it is not like anyone is asking for the female leads to be removed.

a new more likable more competent male lead is hardly something to get up in arms about, it is not like anyone is asking for the female leads to be removed.

a new more likable more competent male lead

competent male lead

competent male

^ That is all i am asking for, just a single competent male lead for season 2, it doesn’t even need to be balanced in terms of numbers since i would prefer one amazing well designed and written character in this game that isn’t pathetic or evil like the other male cast. Why so serious?

Oulov.7913:

This one is with female vocal and I think it’s even better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl_rsTre628

kitten! The orginal is great but this version is amazing! Thanks for the post mate! That Sharm lady made a great score sound like a theme song right out of a 90’s final fantasy game!

Scarlet does NOT deserve this theme song, this version by this Sharm youtuber/musical artist sounds like it should belong to some kitten female antagonist.

Nouvel.2375:

Agreed. The music really goes well with the event and if you like to listen to it or download the theme, you can find the music at https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/guild-wars-2-battle-on-the

I didn’t notice this final battle theme song was so epic! Mainly because i can’t stand the music in Guild Wars 2 and have the music turned off most of the time because its so boring most of the time. I have my own custom made music from fruity loops playing in the backround, being a gamer who likes rpg games and being a music producer works wonders.

But this track is awesome, thanks mate. That Leif person knows how to make a track, this is by far the best score in this game! Too bad its linked to such a terrible antagonist.

The Largos would be nice, they’re close to humans aesthetically, yet still unique with the pale blue skin, strange alien like wings, and unique armor. They also appear to have a racial teleporting skill.

I presume they’d have the best and most op underwater skills for obvious reasons. If i were a betting man, i’d say they’d be playable eventually, simply because imo, the new dragon that the annoying tree woke up was the underwater dragon.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

voidwater.2064:

Sometimes it feels like these NPCs exist in their own little world, separate from the human players doing all the work, the actual hero stuff.

The characters are totally external to me, I have no attachment to them.

For once I would like to see some cutscenes where it is the player’s main character who is involved with the action. I don’t want to be some zombie in the background, who is not responding to anything that is happening in a cutscene.

Worse, I dislike not participating in cutscenes at all. Could these be made more dynamic? Like, instead of Braham getting injured, and Rox taking care of him, couldn’t it be the players themselves that are involved? When Marjory attacks Scarlet, why isn’t it the player character instead? But no, we’re just standing there watching it happen.

I want the writers to involve us more. I don’t know if that’s technically feasible, but I’d like to see them try.

Yeah, I noticed that as well. It reminds me of a game called White Knight Chronicles for the PS3, in that game as the story played on, you just kind stood there while the main cast had the unique animations, action and dialogue.

Only thing is, this game “we” the player play a much (or should) larger role in the grand scheme of things, while in the WKC games, we are more of a sidekick to the main cast.

The Sidekick Syndrome is strong in this game, when it shouldn’t. It is even more insulting when we are side kicks to horribly written characters like the asian goth lady and the rich girl.

@panzer

I disagree “mostly” with your post here.

There have been many recent games lately where the cast is either completely dominated by female characters OR at a 90% to 10% ratio.

Some examples are: Drakenguard 3, all the trash XIII games, recent fighting games such as skull girls, many jrpgs that are getting ported to PS3, certain korean based games, etc.

It is getting irritating, though to be fair as long as a game doesn’t force me to play a woman thats fine (They’re fun to play sometimes but i never main a female in any rpg type game, just to change things up a bit), which is why i give gw2 and the devs credit for that, but my main class mesmer is always 100% of the time, represented by a female in many of the stories.

Jus’ sayin, they need to show some level of balance, the gameplay is fun sometimes when no zerg train is involved, but cannot get into a story with nothing but ladies completely dominating everything.

To be fair, if they can design and write in at least one ~Just ONE~ stylish, kitten, male protagonist with high focus and screen time on par with marj and kas like someone right outta a action hack n’ slash capcom game, that would be refreshing and welcomed/needed.

ShibVicious.9681:

Tbh I didn’t even realise that there was a lack of male characters, but either way don’t worry guys. I’m sure everyones favourite male character, Trahearne will be back for the second season.

That monotone creep is strange.

To be fair though, his voice actor appeared in the PS Vita exclusive Action RPG “Soul Sacrifice” at least i think it is him, sounds a lot like him except with actual EMOTION and sarcastic wit.

LokikS.9875:

And also hope they aren’t in any more updates after Scarlet Briar’s wrapped up. Or is it just me? I like Rox and Braham. A lot I think they’re fun, well written characters. Marjory and Kasmeer… to me are not. Shall we get opinions from everyone else as well civilly?

I am with you mate, i dislike them both greatly, so much screen time. Marj should have been a man, and kasmeer is generic.

I have to admit though, I am happy with the way they made marj’s armor design at the very least because the gem store armor for human male characters looks great, the top for men looks like a fabulous tank top with feathers, a welcome change for mesmers.

I also agree with the braham and rox thing, they’re both likable and fun, though braham needs to stop it with the whole mommy issues thing.

Arena Net writers should take a note from Infamous Second Son (for the PS4) writers, they’re also a seattle based game developer company just like Arena Net, Delsin the main protagonist from that game is a great example of how a character should be.

Vexander.9850:

Leshain.6720:

SirMoogie.9263:

the choice of character gender matters?

It matters, you can only relate so far when the cast is so unbalanced. That goes both ways mind you, i ain’t biased here.

Maybe I can relate fine because my home is pretty much full of female relatives, no male relatives, and legitimately half of my friends are female. The group I hang out with most are 2 males, 2 females, and I’m one of the males. However, I can see your point for certain. Just because the setting provides a lot of empowerment and background opportunities for female characters doesn’t mean it doesn’t do the same for male characters.

As long as -all- characters we get are well developed and fit into the story, I’ll be happy.

Aye, I am in the same boat as you it seems when it comes to irl in terms of family/relatives, more girls than guys, at least in my area, the total family is more balanced but where I am at, girls everywhere.

Great post mate, agreed wif’ everything ya said.

Vexander.9850:

• Of the 6 human Gods, 4 are Female
• Playable Charr oppose a Legion which view females as nothing but Baby Machines
• The Sons of Svanir are an all-male Villain cast (I honestly think we need to see the Daughters of Jora)
• Sylvari do not have Gender Roles, though the Pale Tree takes the form of a female

1. To be fair “Gods” is an overstatement in most cases, more like very powerful otherworldly beings who achieved a high level of power but can still be killed or replaced. As for the gender balance of the “super beings” yeah i noticed, I think the people at arena net are just generally biased in the favor of writing female characters.

Reminds me of a certain group of writers i use to know when i was part of a pc game project, they all wrote female characters, while me and one other on the team (the other being a girl) were the only ones to write in male protagonists.

2. I have no bloody idea what you mean here, lol.

3. I forgot about the sons, good point! I don’t think there is a kitten among them though, like one guy who really stands out as a on-going threat.

4. That is another key thing i noticed, why not father tree? But than again… I don’t like the sylvari.

SirMoogie.9263:

the choice of character gender matters?

It matters, you can only relate so far when the cast is so unbalanced. That goes both ways mind you, i ain’t biased here.

Each class appears to have a main color associated with them, in my opinion and many others, it is mostly agreed on that the mesmer leans much closer to the purple/magenta spectrum instead of pink/rose.

Purple being a royal color and a symbol of neutrality, it is very manly. Purple is also closely associated to psychic powers in fantasy stuff.

As for the butterfly effects and animations, it is basically a mental thing.

Conclusion: Purple, Butterfly Effects, Flamboyant outfits = all manly and straight. lel.

Also I think your husband made his mesmer female because dat kitten , the ultimate excuse! lol.

Oi’ people keep talking about the whole “relationships” deal going on in season 1 with the two human female characters going all kissy face on each otha’.

I couldn’t find a topic on this, but i have to say, the writers at arena net so far have been extremely biased when it comes to story character screen time from season 1.

But the real issue, in my opinion, (from a balanced cast of major characters perspective) is the lack of focus on major kitten male characters, mainly human.

Example for Season 1:
(Marj, Kas, Rox, Taimi, Scarlet, Mai Trin, Ellen Kiel, Turma > Braham, Captain Magnus, Evon, Canach)

I most likely missed some on both gender sides but I’m pretty sure i ain’t far off target. That is 8 to 4, literally double the amount of female focus to males.

I would have enjoyed it more if there were at least “SOME” strong male leads, there is none. Logan is stupid and has lady issues, Braham has mommy issues and eats too much ham, Lord Faren is the fool of tyria, Canach was on the right track since he was actually a loose cannon kitten at first but the writers nerfed him right at the ending in terms of personality.

Jus’ sayin it kinda ruined the experience for me, nothin wrong with a strong cool female character, but kitten mang balance the scales for season 2 please.

Pick any lad from this wallpaper and it’ll be all gewd.

JTGuevara.9018:

the living story was a drunken man telling an epic tale.

Well said. That is the best way to describe the writers for Season 1. At least the vanilla story with traherne had halfway decent characters.

I don’t know much about Guild Wars Lore in general, but I think it has to do with the fact that the Sylvari are the newest playable race. With Traherne, Canach, Caith and Scarlet, they are building Lore for them, albeit….. Junk lore.

They have some of the best Voice acting in the game though. But yeah, mo’ steampunk human focus would be nice.

1. Because men are stronger than women.

2. Because the writers wanted (strangely animated) lesbian fan service.

3. Because Braham eats a lot of ham.

Imperios.2543:

I think the problem is the lack of interesting male characters, not heterosexual relationships.

4/5 of the Biconics, the main LS villain, her second-in-command, Lion’s Arch’s most important authority? ALL female.

Add a few more important males and – voila! Surely we’ll have more hetero romance.

This is the one of the main issues the LS has, not the romance.

The Cast of Characters in season 1 are Extremely unbalanced from a male to female ratio, seriously your average japanese RPG game has a more balanced cast when it comes to gender and that is saying a lot if you’ve played a recent jrpg.

Season 2 needs more male roles in general, mainly from the human scale though, there is so few of them that plays important key roles.

Part 5.

16. A Very Merry Wintersday – 0 / 10
Reason: I didn’t like the first Wintersday i didn’t like the second one. Plain and simple.

17. The Origins of Madness – 3/10
Reason: Scarlet Still? after a year this is just….. uncalled for already. Lets be real here, if she was a kitten super villain like Kefka from Final Fantasy VI or Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, i’d be on board the Scarlet train as far as villains go, but she is just boring, lame, and predictable.

Also for some reason i hated the entire Destiny’s edge 2.0 cast here for some reason, they just annoyed me, or it could have been the whole bootleg power ranges theme.

Taimi was also an oddity, no real introduction, she was just kinda there, adorable character though, one of the few female characters introduced that i didn’t mind, she’d make a fine japanese mascot for some tech in japan. Also fun fact, i think her voice actress did Zach Bell from the anime…. Zach Bell that aired on toonami back in the day, early 2000’s i think. She sounds like him anyway, didn’t look it up so can’t be sure.

Oh and Canach is back, though i dislike even him now because for some reason the writers decided to turn him into a generic good guy repenting for what he had done, he kitten persona should have remained, they took away the one trait they made him unique to this game as a whole.

18. The Edge of the Mists – 9.5/10
Reason: I scored this one highly for the simple reason NCSoft has the potential to release huge worlds as a decent pace, the whole Edge of the Mists zone is beautiful! Well designed, and outright a fun to explore, it also takes it up a notch with the whole danger element because you could get ganked at any moment. This patch felt truly close to expansion worthy when it comes to these bite sized updates.

19. Escape from Lion’s Arch – 5/10
Reason: Oh, its Scarlet again….. Y-yay yee- yeah… I’m impressed that LA really got messed up something fierce but dunno…. there was something about it that just bored me.

20. Battle for Lion’s Arch – 9.5/10
Reason: The current patch we get to finally be rid of the abomination of a character that is Scarlet, that alone makes it worth a 9.

Other than that, the boss battles are intense, mainly the three fugly lady knights, the difficulty is unreal, almost unfair at this point given the conditions for proper victory.

From a Story perspective, where you come face to face with annoying incarnate, you are with the power rangers 2.0. The braham getting hurt bit and Rox refusing to leave him there was overplayed never leave a man behind delivery, but to be honest i liked it, it shows Rox prefers his friendship over a group of strangers with rank, good stuff and is always welcomed.

You know what is not welcomed? Fan Service (for the guys), Lesbian Kiss Scene! I had a feelin’ it was coming, pfft all i gotta say if arena net really cares about this kinda stuff why not two human men instead of women? Huh? I’m sorry, but this is just plain, in your face, made for the fella’s fan service. For record, nothin wrong with face service, if its executed with style, this wasn’t that unfortunately.

Also this patch introduced the Tormented Weapons, these were made for mesmers, i Finally have a greatsword to match my main which is a mesmer that looks very nice. They’re from Guild Wars 1 ~ Nightfall Expansion apparently, i never played Nightfall so getting an enhanced remodeled/animated GW2 version is great.

With all that said and done however It still isn’t done until the fat awaked blue underwater dragon sings. I’ll update this post later on, maybe.

In Conclusion: I liked it at the start, mixed feelings in the middle, didn’t like it at the end.

Final Score: 5.9 out of 10 in true GameTrailers Fashion.

I had more to add to this but too tired to mention it right now. One last thing though.

My advice for season 2? Anet/NCSoft, do the opposite of what happened in season 1.

Part 4.

11. Tequatl Rising – 8/10
Reason: I was finally back into GW2 after a few months of hiatus, got my internet back online and was ready to go, and came back a pretty good patch update.

The new Black x Neon Green ascended weapons look like they were MADE for Necromancers, the design looked nice as well, like something right out of Bamco’s Soul Calibur V or the Soul Series in general.

I don’t know if there were any new characters introduced here, all i remember here was helping Rox with some stuff to report to Rytlock. I enjoyed her character development here because it showed why she was so obsessed with getting things done. +1 to her character development score and her interactions with Steve Blum.

12. Twilight Assault – 7.7/10
Reason: I was annoyed to see caith coming into to the LS, don’t like her at all as a designed and written character, she has a good voice actress but thats about it.

The actual gameplay in this patch was all over the place, it mixed things up and that was good! The final boss here was also challenging, it required true team work and precise dodge timing, loved it! It raised the difficulty without being too ridiculous, many people Pug groups i played with at the time thought it was too hard and the boss was OP but it was fair to be fair.

Also it ended up having more steampunk zones! good stuff, the main base reminded me of some Mako reactors from Final Fantasy VII.

13. Tower of Nightmares – 8.5/10
Reason: The trailer is Infamous for being out of place for this patch update that it threw many GW2 players for a loop.

But the patch it self? Great, i loved it, the scope and pure time to make that big kitten tower was impressive, and it changed one of my favorite zones in the game into an even cooler zone. I believe this was the patch that also introduced the Vincent and Blacklight dye colors for Armor/Clothes, they’re my favorite shades of purple so far in the entire game.

As for the Story aspects, i disliked the writers were trying to make Kasmeer seem important, when any highly skilled mesmer could have done what she did. my dislike of her character truly started beginning here, i hate Mary Sue type characters in ALL media and she started turning into one, just like Ellen. I was still cool with Jory though.

Don’t remember Braham or Rox here, so can’t say. But they included an entire slew of new female minor story characters though, so many i couldn’t keep count! It was at this point i was sure the writers are either all men with a one track mind or extreme feminists, and this is coming from a guy by the way, there is just a limit you should not cross.

14. The Nightmares Within – 9/10
Reason: Entering the Tower of Babel err- Nightmares was a neat experience, it was outright chaotic in there, the best part though? Running like hell to reach the top! It gave this feeling of almost a horror survival action, not sure if thats what anet was going for but it came off well like it because you didn’t know what would come around the next corner as you made your way to the top.

The boss here was a mixed plate for me though, i was expecting something truly kitten at the top waiting for us, instead we got some plant/snake freak of nature wielding twin kelp lightsabers doing spin2win moves.

15. Fractured – 5/10
Reason: Honestly i still don’t know how i feel about this patch update, on the blue side i feel it was cool and good, on the red side i felt hot and kittened. Eh, still on the fence on this one.

Story wise though, that asura girl in fractals that controls everything, i feel bad for her since it appears she is in some sort of endless loop and trapped in that realm, I wish there was some side quest to rescue her to be honest, that sucks. Also i hated Ellen a little less here since I am assuming she could kinda tell what was going on.

Part 3.

6. Dragon Bash – 5.9/10
Reason: This patch update felt very long to me for some reason. I didn’t like any of the mini games, and the character development of Majory and Kasmeer was unimpressive. Same for Ellen Kiel. At this point, Canach had Completely disappeared from the LS which i thought was strange considering all the chaos he caused.

I think this is when the Aetherblades were first revealed as well, i cant remember though, if that is the case though i will edit this bit and increase my score for this patch because anything related to SteamPunk style is great in my book. If that is the case though, Mai Trin is yet another Human Female character introduced to the story that continues to make the male to female ratio ever unbalanced! At this point we have reached japanese game/anime harem levels, it is bloody irritating.

7. Bazzar of the Four Winds – 9.5/10
Reason: 9.5 out of 10 mates! I was extremely impressed with the Four Winds, This patch update did so many things right i can’t even count them, Arena Net/NCSoft Scored a home run here. My personal favorite Highlights were…..

*The Introduction of the Three Elemental Back Items, Sun (Gold), Wind (Cyan) and Lightning (PURPLE!!!!! My favorite color!)
*Introduction of Evon Gnashblade being fleshed out as a crooked greedy ambition driven character.
*Introduction of Ellen’s superior Captain Magnus the Bloody Handed, Finally another male character to balance out all these ladies, and he is a Norn as well, again shocking considering.
*New Animations for controlling the elements, take that elementalists!
*Huge new zone to explore, it felt almost legitimate expansiony!
*Gravity Defying Platforming! It was fun, reminded me of Gravity Rush for the PS Vita.

8. Cutthroat Politics – ?/10
Reason: I can’t give a proper opinion on this one since at the time i was in the process of moving from one island to another. Turns out i didn’t miss much though, i also had a feeling Ellen would win, simply because the bias towards her was so great and that she is a woman that she would have the edge in a game world where most players a guys. It kittened me off to be honest because it was so bloody predictable it was at this point my dislike went from hating her character altogether.

9. Queen’s Jubilee – ?/10
Reason: Still can’t give a proper opinion because i was nearly done moving at this point, and it seems i missed out here because this patch brought a unique set of limited edition golden themed human inspired weapon skins, it woulda’ been perfect for my warrior.

10. Clockwork Chaos – 0/10
Reason: I was done moving at this point but was at my uncles house and downloading the GW2 on his PC would have been pointless because i wouldn’t have been able to play on max settings with silky smooth 60 fps that my powerful PC can do.

But since this was the official introduction of Scarlet, it automatically gets a Zero because like many of us in the GW2 community i hate her as a character and a bootleg cheap knock off tree harly quin dragging on for a year villain.

Part 2.

4. The Secret of Southsun – 9/10
Reason: This story arc introduced Canach if i remember correctly, he was one of the few characters i liked in the living story/world, to be fair we the players thought he was a antagonist at first, which he ended up not being.

It also introduced Ellen Kiel, Lady Kasmeer, Majory and the still presently unknown illusive mysterious Mr. E. Oh and Lord Faren from the Human Story is present here too for some reason.

Canach ~ 8/10 ~ His voice acting was superb in my opinion whoever the guy that did his voice work is did splendidly! He was this loose cannon kitten that did as he pleased, kinda reminded me of certain hack n’ slash anti-hero’s from certain hack n’ slash video games.

The only downside for me is that he was Sylvari, like Traherne, Caith, Faolain, and Scarlet….. I just don’t like Sylvari characters in general. But Canach unlike the rest of the main Sylvari story cast, had a cool personality and i enjoyed it very much.

Ellen Kiel ~ 5/10 ~ I didn’t think much of her at first, she got a lot of screen time and was being portrayed as this cool edgy hero of this arc, but it came off as shallow and uninteresting to me. Women can be cool characters in games, but Ellen Kiel isn’t one of them. My first thoughts were about average at first, mainly because i paid little to no attention to her.

Lady Kasmeer ~ 7.5/10 ~ Tanned skinned elegant looking blonde lady in a bikini, whats not to like? From a design aspect it was pretty generic rich girl look, she reminded me of Lili from Tekken fame, and i like Lili. But looks only take you so far. Like in real life, Personality > Looks. At the time i thought hers was written well enough. I enjoyed her interactions with Lord Faren. It was nice comic relief.

Marjory ~ 9/10 ~ Black trench coat, Black Hair, New Hair Style, Asian looking, neat new weapons, and a cool-chick type personality.

I liked her! The first cut scene between her and logan was a refreshing art style change. I also enjoyed her voice acting at first. Also her last name reminded me of the main antagonist from the PS2 Classic Action/RPG Capcom made video game Chaos Legion, Victor Delaqua, that alone made her cool to me.

Mr. “E” ~ ?/? ~ I wanted to learn more about this “E” character, he seemed pretty cool and it made me think Order of Whispers or something. Also there is a extreme lack of male characters in the living story/world Season 1 so it is a shame he got little to no screen time.

5. Last Stand at Southsun – 5/10
Reason: It was this patch update that i started to get annoyed. The final battle with Canach was unique but i didn’t enjoy the mechanics plain and simple. Also it was at this point where i started disliking Ellen Kiel due to her attitude, my rating for her at this point was around a 3 out of 10 in terms of being likable.

But on the plus side, the Fervid Censor was and still is one of the nicer back items that has physics and particle effects. Perfect for Rangers and Nature based characters imo.

My opinion on this topic is strange and mixed since i came into this game by a friends reference/request and he reminded me that i played the original Guild Wars prophecies back in the day.

Anyway coming into this game i had no idea what to expect, so i was surprised by the content in general this game had to offer overall and loved it. But my surprised enjoyment of this game became mixed after a year, and now at present negative.

Gonna give my reasons why for each patch update score out of 10 to be very specific, i’ll also include a sub-rating category for the characters that appeared because without key important character besides “we” the players it can make or break a game,movie or anime.

WARNING! | SPOILERS | Read with Caution! |

Part 1.

1. Flame and Frost: the Gathering Storm – 9/10
Reason: The score is very high here, almost perfect for me because i simply wasn’t expecting this game to do something like this, live updates at relatively quick intervals. It sounded like a very nice idea and i originally welcomed it. Please note the “Originally” new stuff is always welcomed to a game if it makes it more fun to play.

2. Flame and Frost: the Razing – 8/10
Reason: I expected more in Part 2 in the Flame and Frost Arc of the story but still liked it, i enjoyed the two new story characters Braham and Rox because male norn story characters are rare compared to female, the opposite being true for Charr, it was a change of pace, they were both likable as well. Also great voice acting, Braham’s voice actor sounds just like that guy from Fate/Stay Night only in a deeper manlier tone.

I would rate Braham a 9/10 and Rox a 8.5/10 from a writers point of view, whoever wrote these characters in the story made them an enjoyable duo. Good job to that person or team.

3. Flame and Frost: Retribution – 7.5/10
Reason: I enjoyed the grand finale of the Flame and Frost Arc, what i noticed most here was how much NCSoft has improved in terms of animation and rendering of the newer big boss models, they look and move amazingly compared to all vanilla bosses.

The reason it scores lower the the first 2 in my book is because simply expected a bigger finale to this Arc, but it was still okay.

Dondagora.9645:

Don’t forget the purple. Mesmers, whether they’re getting married or going for a walk, should always have purple on them, or else their mesmer powers won’t work, and they’ll just turn into any other profession.

This, all the way.

All the other races except for maybe norn are a waste of development time in my opinion.

Story or not, i ain’t playin a furry, a tree person or a rat.

Though on the flip side, it adds diversity to the overall game giving a lot more flare to the game.

Also this game is South Korean made like the original GW (NCSoft) and Korean Game Developers often have a great art style for both armor/clothing and character models for both male and female, which this game shows, you can make a masculine battle vet middle aged guy to a 20 something pretty boy spell swordsmen, to a cold cool lady knight to a cute mage girl.

The point is, a lot of gamers like being good lookin’ characters, be it a guy or girl. Everything else is a minority. Shallow but true lol.

Get a SFX (Sound Effect) Buff? I remember the swing animations had a really lame slashing sound effect back in the day, it is still there, but now there is another sound effect at the same time that sounds a lot more realistic like swinging a real sword, very metallic.

Male Mesmer here, straight and fabulous jus’ sayin.

The character is based completely off of myself in real life design wise. For me personally i’ll play any game that’ll allow me to create myself in a game world with all the purple fury. GW2 recently got new hairstyles and the third of the 3 is a long hairstyle with a one side long bang, looks real close to me in real life, only i have a purple trench coat as opposed to a feather purple tank top.

I picked mesmer in GW2 at first because i knew the animations exclusively for this class would consist of neon purple and magenta colors, and it ultimately does.

It does feel extra unique being a male human mesmer though, i see a lot of female human, norn and tree people mesmers most of the time.

In fact, there seems to be a lot of human females of all classes in general in this game, guys in real life plus a lot of girls playing this game is more likely the cause. Don’t care though, long as i can be a male character its all good, no gender locks is a game seller.

Oi! Haven’t posted here at all until now….. but there are just some questions i got after 2 years of playing this great game that i gotta’ ask.

Q1: Who are the Voice actors? Is there a List somewhere? Because there are quite a few i hear that i heard from other games, cartoons, and anime. I know there be some Troy Baker action be goin on here, as well as Tara Strong but who else? racters?
Q2: Why so few male NPC characters?
Q3: Why so many female NPC characters?
Q4: Whats with the whole lesbian thing? Are the writers teenage boys or sumthin?
Q5: Who DESIGNS these characters!? If i recall, this game like the original is South Korean made, so for the most part better taste than western designs but still would like to know who calls the shots here, NCSoft or Arena Net.
Q6: Why the lack of that one kitten character? Select anyone from Capcom’s list of games. If credit is gonna go to someone besides us the players *cough Trahherne/Ellen cough i’d rather it go to someone who at least is a kitten.
Q7: Who is “E”?
Q8: Why is it as we the player still have little to no impact on the main story when we interact with the NPC’s.
Q9: Why is there no Scythe Wielding character yet? I remember one of the original Guild wars expansions having a scythe wielding class.

Granted GW2 is easy in my top 10 of balanced and fair games list in terms of gameplay (and graphics) but in terms of storytelling and character development/introduction the lacking is noticeable, honestly lads who writes this stuff? Good example being that lil’ asura kid, she showed up outta’ nowhere in the latest updates, no intro, just claims to be the ham mans friend.

In conclusion, game is still pretty fun, graphics are still very pretty, whole new map to explore is beautiful, but this whole scarlet saga is like the FFXIII of GW2 in terms of characters, that is a extremely harsh critique.