Guild Wars 2

Arkinos.7245:

The fact that the temples have to fall to get anything done is just all around bad design.

This.

It’s just plain crazy that there are competing rewards in PvE. That you need something to fail in order to succeed at something. It’s counter intuitive and requires a universal level of knowledge that isn’t reasonable to expect. It would be fine with a coordinated group event like a dungeon. It’s probably even ok in a new and very active zone that requires leadership for zone-wide events anyway.

But in open world PvE in these legacy areas it is just a terrible idea, and creates nothing but unnecessary conflict and confusion.

It all comes down to the one true rule of all epic storytelling (and really almost all satisfying storytelling in general):

Everyone should be the hero of their own story. Everyone.

This is a Joseph Campbell thing. I’m not just talking players- in a perfect world of stories this would go for everyone from NPC’s dying alone in the flames of Lion’s Arch to Scarlet sitting in her lair, plotting a way to end her pain by sharing it with the world. All of them, in their own minds as they live the story of their lives, should see themselves as the hero, the protagonist, in the events unfolding around them.

That doesn’t mean we have to FOCUS on everyone, of course. We are focused on ourselves and the people close to us, so we naturally see more of our own story than the rest of the world. But every character should be built with the understanding that if the viewpoint suddenly shifted, if they took over the narration, they would be the new hero in a related story.

This doesn’t contradict MMO’s at all- on the contrary massively multiplayer gaming has the potential to fulfill the promises made by a thousand generations of mythic storytellers. Unlike movies or books, for once this is actually possible!

And it can really work when it works. I hate to bring another game into this, and I want to make sure it’s clear that I LOVE GW2, greatly admire the work of the story team, and I no longer play this other game… But one of the best examples I can point to was the Wrath of the Lich King expansion in WoW.

It was near perfection in this particular element of storytelling- especially if you created a new Death Knight. From character creation you saw a perspective of the world in which you actually made the transition from antagonist to protagonist while many others around you were doing the same. You became important, yet you were struggling to survive beside many others, increasingly trying to find your own path in a horrifying world. Then, as you joined the main story, you saw familiar faces again and again and watched as they too grew and changed, lived and died in their own struggles. Your own actions earlier would also come back to haunt you…

By the end of WotLK you saved the world and were adored and loathed by many factions- but there was never a moment in which you could do it alone. You were one of a legion but found yourself in the right place at the right time, again and again, to wrest dark power from the adversary and to make the sacrifices the world demanded to keep turning onward. It took a lot of new phasing technology and a LOT of side storylines and voice acting to make it feel natural, but it was really something to experience.

I’m not at all saying GW2 needs to copy that story or those exact techniques there. Tyria is it’s own world and GW2 is it’s own game, and both are really awesome. There are lots of reasons I’m playing this now… You already won me over. (And it’s worth remembering WoW took quite a number of years, not to mention a point of generating truly unreal revenues, before they were able to do something as ambitious and elaborate as WotLK.) But I wanted to give an example of one case, at least, where that kind of storytelling really worked. A world of many individual stories where you weren’t ever exactly at the center- just always close enough that, with enough strength and will, you could make your life (or death) count.

The big secret is: There’s really nothing odd at all with the idea that you are a hero in a world filled with heroes.

Truth is, that’s just life.

Angel McCoy.1832:

Thank you. This is very kind of you to say, and it makes me very happy. We’ve worked hard to make the PC’s best friends interesting and not cookie-cutter buddies. They’re the PC’s supporting cast, and as such, all their stories affect and reflect the PC’s story—your story.

You really do some great work, seriously.

One concrete example that I bet others would agree with: in the current event you can ask Taimi about her legs. And she answers you frankly- turns out honestly she’s not doing great, but it could be a lot worse.

And it doesn’t lead to your next quest. It isn’t a plot moment. You aren’t going to change her life for her or kill a dragon to stop her illness from progressing. You just care, and she appreciates it in her own way, and you’re both just a little bit more real because of it.

That shows a lot of thought- and I for one really appreciate things like that, alongside all the big stuff.

Shiren.9532:

While I was happy to see the world recognise my actions I was uncomfortable being viewed as the one as opposed to one of the many that defeated Scarlet.

One comment on this, because there is something quite unusual about how it played out for MMO content:

Remember that you personally were the one that cornered the severely wounded Scarlet in her lair and ultimately delivered the killing blow. You literally were given the chance to use the game mechanic finisher for this, which shocked and impressed me, personally. Each character has their own version of that particular story moment, but in your personal narrative it really was you (character), and you (player) actually did hit the buttons to make it happen. To me that made it more real than the average “you killed it in a raid” tag.

I actually was really impressed with that bit of instanced content because it was a wonderful moment of existential moral ambiguity, particularly given that you (player) have very little choice in the matter, Bioshock Infinite style. (In fact it felt more than a little like the handing over of the infant in Bioshock to me.)

In the end each character’s personal narrative goes: one soldier/scholar/rogue among many, you were at the fulcrum of history at just the right moment. And at that moment you had the ruthlessness to take Scarlet’s piece off the board forever. The world will remember you for that. Your myth will grow larger than life, your role will be exaggerated, and perhaps one day long after the real you is gone you might be renowned as a hero still or perhaps revised to someone with cruel motivations. And it is all because you just happened to be the one with the sword/axe/unicorn-rainbow-shooting-greatsword-of-death in your hand at the moment where the only option seemed to be the one that ended with cold blood on the ground in front of you.

So just an alternate perspective, but that is pretty real to me- I bet there are long dead kings, presidents, and soldiers who would agree with your discomfort. Your discomfort in how you are remembered, as opposed to all that really happened, is perhaps a very believable part of your story.

Mine are:

• Playable Skritt
• Playable Skritt
• Playable Skritt
• Playable Skritt
  and
• Playable Skritt

Devildoc.6721:

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

Sylvari are clearly sentient and capable of feeling pain. The fact that someone lacks free will in certain situations does not diminish their personhood or mean they can be tortured with no moral issue.

When their entire existence is to serve a dragon as constructed dragon minions, they’re not people.

I thought you might just be trolling, and with this comment now I’m pretty sure, since you couldn’t genuinely believe it’s meant to be that simple if you played the game. You’re not the only one, I get it, hurr hurr stupid salads.

So…

Yeah. Honestly, I’m going to act too serious, get accused of not taking a joke, but I am going to admit that it’s not very funny. Because this happens in the real world, with real people, who are born to the wrong parents or in the wrong place. Hate kills.

Often.

What can men do against such reckless hate?

We can start by not pretending it’s ok.

emikochan.8504:

A cloth node in the open world just feels like vandalising someone’s washing line…

Well, to be fair, it is sort of odd that nobody in the world actually makes cloth, right?

Every bit of cloth in the game is apparently recycled from the salvaged remains of other cloth items. Nobody actually weaves anything. It’s like a zombie apocalypse in Tyria.

People come to MMO’s with different motivations. For example, one venerable (in the MMO world anyway) theory called Bartle’s Player Types asserts that people to one extent or another are:

• Achievers
• Explorers
• Socializers
  and/or
• Killers

Other projects have expanded on that (the magnificent work by Nick Yee for example.) But ultimately the general premise is the same: it’s remarkable how invested people get with MMO’s, yet they do it for different reasons.

To some folks the motivations fall strongly into categories that lend themselves to big, visible, social achievement. (That covers two out of the big four above, as well as a substantial chunk of possible motivations from Yee.)

Guild halls represent the ultimate in that category in many ways. They’re a huge place, highly visible to the people you know, where you can gather and be aware of your achievement. They’re something to work towards and/or enjoy socially. They also cover a component of immersion in the game world, which isn’t in the four above, but is something Yee’s research noted as important to many players as well.

TL;DR:
They are a pretty broad type of content that can be really satisfying to people motivated in certain ways common in MMO’s. They’re both a big symbol of achievement and an immersive place to socialize.

It’s not a problem with the new dailies- it’s a problem with scaling for certain events.

The trouble is that some events scale just fine, such that even with a large group of people everyone has an ample opportunity to contribute enough to get full credit. Others don’t, once you get beyond a certain number of people.

That’s 100% the reason why people get so desperate about tagging. The new daily system has made it worse because it can be ridiculously specific for PvE, but that’s just exposed the real problem . It’s a matter of scaling each event in a way that makes it broad enough to handle a full zone, without making it so aggressively scaled that people start screaming at non-80’s to go away.

I don’t envy the devs that particular balancing act, but it’s arguably the most important element of GW2’s unique drop-in/drop-out, non-trinity, open-world PvE content.

I’m going to shamelessly self-refer here to a great conversation we had a few months ago in this thread.

If the story team ever wants to give dialogue a personalized, natural feeling one option would be to record versions of phrases based on current title, with generic ones for race/gender and class for folks who don’t have a title selected.

I know there’s a cost associated with that, and probably some collaborative challenges too (the writers would have to know future titles, so those could be included). But how cool would that be? “Greetings, Mistwalker.” “Good morning, Chef.” “Well met, Dark Traveler.”

Although just for the record, I love it when Charr call me “boss”, because that fits consistently into the background dialog you hear with them all the time. So Charr are allowed to do that. For them it seems to be a sign of earned respect.

Talyn Sneider.1825:

First of all thanks for listening to us, means a lot to know that you’re listening.

Heck yeah! I’ve never seen another major MMO story team so obviously engaged. It is absolutely awesome. (And frankly it encourages me to spend more money on the game too, just for the record. Tell that to your BA’s, would ya?)

Talyn Sneider.1825:

-We can have ranks in the army based on our achievements or account points, this allows us to feel more engaged with our characters
-The dialog can refer to us by our rank, oh i heard about the infantry that lost so many fighting the elder dragon, welcome back my friend, i cant believe you are now an arch mage, you sacrificed much to achieve this, etc…

This is a darn good idea, and I’ll add to it:

What if you had your actors voice a nickname based on each title? (Naturally you’d do it for a ton of possible future titles too, so you could get it done all in a session to contain expenses.)

For example, “Mist Runner” could probably just be voiced as-is, while “Combat Healer” might be voiced simply as “Medic” so it would flow naturally into dialogue.

Add to that a couple generic ones such as race (“Norn” or “big guy” for males of that race, “Charr” or “Legionnaire” for them, etc.), class if course, and personal story faction (“soldier”, “scholar”, “rogue”, etc.) as well as “commander” for those with the tag.

Then based on what title you currently have selected and whether you have a commander tag up, the dialogue with npc’s could rotate through some appropriate nicknames.

That would add a touch to the fun of having a title too, especially if there’s any dialogue other players can hear. And as far as Talyn’s military idea, something like that could blend in seamlessly via earned military titles.

Lishtenbird.2814:

• Watchwork set (could we nerf the sprockets already so that people can buy tools based purely on looks and not efficiency?)

If this ever happens I’ll hit the freaking roof. That’s the only tool I bought and the only reason why.

Not everybody plays just for the cosmetics. I like to see big ’ol numbers!

I don’t really care about gliders- personally I hate anything like a jumping puzzle, and it seems like gliders are more likely to be in that vein than about true, free-form mobility. I didn’t buy GW2 for Mario Brothers.

Airships, on the other hand…

Yeah, that is something I could totally get behind. Guild airships, anyone?

Just a thought, but an alternative would be to allow certain emotes while in a defeated state and then slightly expand emotes to include some basic, purely good-sportsmanship cross-faction communication.

You already have /bow, /salute, /yes, and /no. The only things really missing are /challenge (as in, challenge to a duel), /congratulate (probably just as /gratz), and a nice solid /handshake. (For bonus points, /fistbump too.)

Now I admit that doesn’t let you get or give advice like you describe, but that’s where the friends list actually makes sense. And if you could use the canned, limited, hopefully anti-spam filtered emotes to show good sportsmanship then I would imagine that other player would be much more likely to accept a friend request and talk then or later.

Azrael.4960:

I hope one to dispose of dragonite is coming too. That would really round out the trifecta

Screw that noise. I want one for thick leather.

I’m a bit confused. If you’re gliding, you see the glider, not a fall. And if you aren’t gliding, you’re falling to your death and should be continuing to scream and flail as much as ever, no?

GuzziHero.2467:

I’d love to multibox two of my characters but I’m not sure if its bannable. 2 copies of GW2, 2 accounts, 1 mouse 1 keyboard. Each press would only perform one action on each account, I can’t see that as an issue.

They’ve made it very clear in the past that having two accounts running at the same time is fine, but having two accounts set up in a way where one click or keypress causes both accounts to do something at the same time is verboten.

If the forum search worked I’d link you, but it doesn’t so… I guess trust me that I saw it explained that explicitly at one point. There was no ambiguity at all.

nGumball.1283:

Yeah, HoT will not feature a multi-class. Anet already expressed their unwillingness to re-introduce a multiclass system.

Thank god. You know what multi-class always means?

Less choice.

For real. I know it seems like it’d be the other way around, but it ain’t. It’s just one more thing to min-max into the ticky-tacky spec. One more reason to get kicked.

Let me tell you what really happens with multi-class: you have to level a class that you don’t want to play because it happens to be the only “right” class synergy with the main class you do want to play.

I’m a non-RP’er that is 100% in support of RP’ers.

Frankly I wish there were more talking and emoting away everywhere, enough so that the devs could dump all that repetitive NPC dialogue that is meant to provide the same kind of color to the world.

Seriously, will that golem in Rata Sum ever stop hassling that poor merchant? Either arrest him or go away, for the love of all that is good and holy.

Wandering past deeply IC RP’ers and genuinely good player musicians has made my day more than once. If there was an RP channel I’d keep it on all the time.

Basaltface.2786:

ask me as a charr player. You didnt experience horror till you tried to make a charr engineer that does not look like a tent that decided to become sentient, arm itself with a rifle and went on an adventure.

Wait, wasn’t that a Monty Python skit?

Velijan.9061:

It’s easy to see how sysreqs and the limitations of the engine probably gave them reason to scale down Zhaitan.

But I’m glad they did, because the early concepts were absurdly colossal. The thing was the size of a mountain range. It could have gone on a leisurely stroll and ended civilization in Tyria. If it sneezed it would alter the planet’s rotation. There is no way of making a fight against that believable since nothing short of a meteor impact would likely do more than tickle it.

It’d be quite reasonable to fight something the size of a mountain range: you’d have to do it from the inside.

(Marcus Fenix and gang would take it out in 30 minutes or less. Pity the Asura haven’t yet invented the chainsaw bayonet.)

In fact on that scale it would barely even be capable of noticing a small army heading to it’s heart- it would have to rely on it’s horrible minions to defend it just like we rely on our immune system and symbiotic organisms.

The final battle might actually be a lot more playable. No need for airships and cannons fighting a proxy battle for the player. Instead we could personally take whatever ancient artifact is necessary and drive it into the innermost corrupted core of the beast’s heart.

It’d make a great motivation for it to extinguish all intelligent life in the first place too. We try to make dangerous microorganisms go extinct all the time. If you woke up and found out your house was filled with horrible, disease-causing black mold wouldn’t you do something about it? And by do something, I mean kill every last tiny, revolting spore?

Dang, now I gotta write this story…

I’ve very, very rarely been in EOTM with no commanders for longer than a couple minutes. Don’t get me wrong, it happens, but it has been pretty rare- and my server is pretty rarely green, much more commonly blue.

As long as there is a commander and there isn’t a group on the other side specifically trying to hunt an outnumbered zerg (which is also pretty rare), I find being outnumbered in EOTM to be great. You get bonus xp and you get to recapture your keep more often.

If you’re running into this situation really often, I wonder if it might be more of a timing issue for you than anything else, since I definitely haven’t experienced the same thing. Or maybe when you log onto the map and see no commander you immediately log out? Sometimes maps go a couple minutes between commanders- it’s a chance to hit up the AH and the merchants, or go kill a nearby sentry.

Also as far as leveling, EOTM is a quick way to level but it’s far from the only fast way and it is 100% the grindiest way. If you don’t like grinding (I actually kind of do, for the record- it’s a meditation exercise) you might want to explore zones instead. Exploration (particularly full zone completion- all hearts, POI’s, etc etc) gives good xp and you get additional rewards for completing each zone- and if you get to a point later where you want legendaries you’ll be glad to already have a bunch of completed zones.

It’s also not very grindy, and you get to see the beauty you mentioned.

Watch out also for seasonal zerg events for quick leveling. Some of them, while grindy, give ludicrous xp if you have good AOE ability. The Halloween labyrinth for example- I leveled a necro from around 20 to 80 in there in just a few days.

To a certain extent most PC’s already are antiheros. We haven’t joined a faction that is killed on sight by the general public, because that would be impractical, but in the course of the PS and LS a lot of PC’s do some rather nasty things.

Tyria is not a very nice place, and one of the themes of the game seems to be that the road to hell is paved with our intentions, good or otherwise. It’s sometimes a bit Bioshocky.

For example, anyone that played through season 1 was put in a position where it would have been reasonable to apprehend Scarlet and bring her to stand trial and (possibly more importantly) find out what her real motivations were. Instead we choose to execute her on the spot. Not a shred of heroism there.

Likewise most of the cultures we come from have some kind of serious and obvious moral ambiguity that we generally embrace. For example any Asura is automatically assumed to be a racist, egomaniacal jerk perfectly comfortable with a life that has a distinct “Hail Hyrda!” atmosphere. Charr are conditioned as soldiers from birth, Sparta-style, complete with systematic abuse in a creche environment. And Sylvari… Well, they seem innocent enough, don’t they? Sounds legit.

You get the idea. My point is, while no character matches the antiheroism of a deathknight or necromancer from WoW, there’s a lot of darkness there already- just a practical, culturally acceptable sort.

Edit: Oh, and let’s not forget that every single PC has killed countless thousands of sapient beings, and decimated entire ecosystems of animals. :P

Zietlogik.6208:

noone likes zerging…its boring

Zietlogik.6208:

A personal note, I would like many of these to contain a barrier of entry of some sort, to prevent the mass zerg mentality.

A lot of outspoken posters voice this opinion, and it’s totally understandable- but it isn’t universal. Plenty of people like zergs, including me. I wouldn’t want it to be the only type of content around, but it can be a fun break from more serious stuff.

Just sayin’. I guess what I mean is, please try to remember that one person’s “boring” is another person’s “relaxing”.

Anyway, while I hope there are always fun zergs from time to time, GW2 really shines for me when the devs focus on content that is massive, cooperative, yet still accessible. I have to put the Marionette fight among the fights I’ve been most impressed by in an MMO, for example. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a little WvW play into the living story somehow, if it can be in an optional way that won’t make pure PvE players feel forced to participate. Maybe something in parallel with the main story, for example, maybe a more brutal, less heroic side of events.

About the only type of content I have no interest in is 5-man instanced content. I got bored of that in other MMO’s a long, long time ago…. and with GW2’s lack of party roles I have to say it’s not the game’s strongest suit anyway. Probably any chapter that focuses on a 5-man I’m just going to skip.

Personally I am one of the few that does want an inspect- simply because I want to drool over other people’s cool gear and see which specific skins they’re using.

I couldn’t care less what folks are using in my groups, as long as fights go fast and nobody is getting everyone else killed. It’s just plain cool to see the stuff everyone worked hard for.

Where my opinion might be really weird though is this:

Go ahead and add /inspect to the game. But for the love of kittens add in some kind of DPS meter at the same time.

Theorycrafting starts fights. DPS meters end them.

If you could see your personal dps you could optimize your gear and play to maximize your potential and become the very best at your class that your ping, playstyle, and reflexes allow. And by sharing those numbers you could prove that it works for you- and teach others the secrets to your kittenitude, whether cookie-cutter or something new.

It’s so weird to me how everyone starts yelling about gear in GW2, because without a DPS meter the arguments are rather pointless. Of course gear arguments all end up being so mean-spirited and smack of elitism and assumptions. They do all boil down to assumptions and generalizations, because that’s all we really have to go on.

Rabe.2456:

In Soviet Tyria…

Oh well played sir, well played…

Regrettably I don’t have a really photogenic Sylvari to show.

But I will say: I want my kitten baby dragon and I’m willing to go full-on minion to get it.

Gyler.8150:

Could do a sort of LS2 boss room A.K.A. capcom boss blitz, fight the fun bosses one after another or one a day for a daily.

Not a half bad idea. They did something like this in another mmo (probably more than one, just one I remember) and it was a fun filler until more story and large-scale raids came out.

Maybe this could be integrated into the fractal paradigm? Shadows of old enemies forming in the mists? That gives you the option to basically do hardmode versions of the old bosses too.

Devildoc.6721:

we’re not experimenting on people afterall, just dragon minions, constructs, with pre-programmed personalities.

Ridiculous.

First, you cannot justify actions based on information you learn later. The Asura culture is abhorrent for it’s flagrant disregard of the basic dignity of sapient beings, and the culture of the Inquest takes that to a level that is both evil and stupid. Asuran culture breeds sociopaths, and the Inquest collects the most… special of them.

Second, you cannot act just as ruthlessly bad as your enemies and still consider yourself better. That simply makes you a different kind of bad.

And third, what evidence is there that dragon minions are pre-programmed personalities? That’s absurd. They show a wide range of behavior, they can learn, and above all they can be freed and granted full free will. Creation and influence is not the same as non-sapience. (And that’s just in-game. Outside the game we absolutely know that Sylvari have free will- because they are able to be player characters. If they had no free will we would hit the button to start their story and then sit back to watch the character play up to 80 itself.)

Velimere.7685:

The notion of a giant Norn pulling his greatsword out of his speedo and proceeding to wield it against me is certainly terrifying…

This statement made the entire thread worthwhile to me.

Berserker or not, it has always felt really weird that there are only two heavily armored classes. It always seemed like one was missing. I was expecting something more deathknighty (they’re an mmo trope at this point, just like warrior and paladin/guardian/etc) to eventually be announced. Maybe a dragon-corrupted-but-free-willed warrior of some kind in this universe.

But if there was a berserker:

FrownyClown.8402:

Staff would be a support weapon, but unlike the guardian it would focus on debuffing enemies. For example, creating an aoe field that strips boons or stomping the ground to cripple all enemies and apply weakness in the area.

Nah, staff should be their main dps weapon.

Because “Agents of SHIELD.”

Test.8734:

If the HoT personal story will be told through soloable instances, then the ending of that storyline should also be told through a soloable instance.

I love raid content, and yet I still wholeheartedly agree. I think the sudden introduction of required group content into the personal story was the only time in GW2 I’ve ever felt really angry and disappointed in the developers.

It’s not about whether or not that content is a good idea in general, it’s just that it shouldn’t be forced into something that is otherwise personal to your character. There’s plenty of room for great group content without doing that.

That having been said, if I had to actually guess I’d bet it will be handled a little bit like Scarlet’s End. Whether raid or open world I bet the fight will happen, and then you’ll be taken into your own personal instance briefly for the personal portion of the story.

I just hope it’s not done as a 5-man. I am so incredibly tired of small group dungeons in MMO’s you have no freaking idea. And in GW2 they’re actually even more pointless and boring tactically than in other MMO’s due to the lack of well defined party roles. That design philosophy works great in other content, but for 5-man dungeons it’s just… Ugh. Anyone who enjoys them I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but I just can’t tolerate them at all. I may not even bother fighting the final battle if it’s a 5-man.

Mounts.

Problem solved.

I had the same thought at first too. But really it seems more that they have become intensely connected war buddies. And for Rox in particular that has really deep meaning. In fact, I have a feeling it’s much deeper for her than any romance would be.

(The rest of this is intrinsically a spoiler.)

As a gladium, Rox has one of the more heartbreaking stories in the game. Her official origin story: Rox’s Tale

She explains what being a gladium means to her when you first encounter her in the game too:

Rox Pickheart:

It’s somebody who survived when the rest of her warband didn’t. A leftover, you might say.

Survivor’s guilt for sure- but it goes beyond that too. Rox lost everything. Everything.

Imagine that your coworkers are also your family, your high school clique, and your graduating class from Navy SEAL school. Take every little moment of human connection you’ve ever had with another person- fighting back against a bully, eating dinner together, talking philosophy as you’re coming of age, venting about your boss, and put all those moments into maybe 5 or 10 people.

That only begins to cover what a warband is to a Charr.

Now imagine if those people all died at once, instantly and senselessly. Imagine that even your freaking pet died with them. Rox clawed at the rock they were under until her hands were bloody, then passed out from exhaustion- and I have to say, I think that was a pretty tame response. Every important connection in her life was instantly and permanently severed, and for the first time in her life she was truly, utterly alone. Charr age is usually measured in months, not years, when they begin to meet the people who will eventually become their warband.

After that kind of loss you can see how she would connect to someone like Braham. Since her tragedy he appears to have been the first person that took her seriously and both accepted her help and protected her. (Well, arguably Rytlock takes her seriously too- but ok now, she helped take out freaking Tequatl as ordered and that apparently wasn’t enough for him. Seriously, what does it take to please that guy? He has got to be her father. It’s that, or he’s an epic jerk to her for no good reason.) He acted like the warband, the family and friends and more, that she lost. He is her way of starting to rebuild all of that.

So I think whatever she feels for Braham is, for a Charr, something infinitely more deep than what she would feel for a love interest.

Well, a little update to the rant. I went ahead and did the dungeon this morning and…

Wow, that left a bad taste in my mouth. It was a much worse capstone to the story than I’d expected it would be. In fact, it basically wasn’t part of my personal story at all.

The one thing I didn’t expect was that all the dialogue was delivered by a different character in the party. Talk about jarring. It was like my character wasn’t even there, or was just a faceless, nameless henchman. I get how 5-man content works, but I’d expect at least the story mode of this one, pivotal dungeon to customize the dialogue to each player, instead of just the party leader.

The 100+ person zergs in the lion’s arch events felt more centered around my character’s story than this Arah run did. At least then npc’s said my character’s name from time to time, and after killing scarlet they made comments directly to me when I ran past.

I don’t think it would really bother me if the entire experience to that point had been similarly disconnected, but it was a 180 degree shift from the lengthy story leading up to that epic final battle. I really felt like I was just perfunctorily finishing content to get a flag set on my character, instead of experiencing a chapter in an otherwise good story. Again, it felt like I was back in WoW, except without clearly defined party roles (which frankly I feel makes the 5-man content in GW2 weaker than most other MMO’s, even while it makes all other content much stronger).

Ah well. It was really fun leading up to it, and I’ve got no complaints about other types of GW2 content in general. I just wish it wasn’t such a massive anti-climax. Figured I’d get my 2 cents in.

Devildoc.6721:

Ya’ll get way too defensive about a fantasy race.

I’m not particularly emotional about the Sylvari. I’m just very disappointed to see so many people who think it’s hilarious to make Asura “master race” jokes and explore what it would feel like to use real hate speech by coming up with new, safe vegetable-based slurs.

I thought that’s what you were doing- I apologize, you obviously really are trying to explore the lore and figure out the universe, so I was wrong to assume that.

So that having been said, back to the actual lore- I think I might be able to make this less ambiguous for you.

Devildoc.6721:

I for one find it interesting to have a somewhat self aware but not entirely free construct that feels the pull of their programming and yet can still make some free choices.

The thing is, you just described almost exactly what it is to be a human being. The only thing in that sentence that is different from the human condition, depending on your belief system, is the word “construct”.

And that’s the real world.

Tyria exists in a fantasy world. Magic is the stuff of life. You don’t need any religion to believe a living being can be created. All you need to do is believe in Tyrian life magic- which it would be rather silly not to believe in, since consuming it is the entire reason dragons do what they do, and manipulating it is part of what makes them so powerful.

Rocks, flames, and huge trees seem to just get up and start walking around in this world. It’s not much of a stretch to think that when a dragon creates something that looks alive, it really is alive. Heck, it’s hard to imagine otherwise. And if that something seems to think, love, hate, compose poetry, make mistakes, and all the other trappings of intelligent life, what possible reason do we have to think it isn’t intelligent life? Because the wrong force of nature made it?

What happens when we find out which god created Tyrian humans out of a lump of clay? Does that mean we’ll decide humans aren’t really people either? Is that true in every fantasy world with a known creator? Where instead of human instincts and reflexes and unconscious behavior being the product of natural selection, they are the product of a deity? None of those should be considered real people?

When you put it in context of the world it isn’t actually reasonable to compare Sylvari to AI’s or androids. That’s a sci-fi thing. This is a fantasy thing. They don’t just look like thinking, talking plants- they are thinking, talking plants.

New PVE progression (“mastery points”) is specific to the jungle and is account-wide.

These points are used to purchase new PVE abilities across all characters on the account- you will not need to grind multiple characters.

It’s more than just the fight. I loved the idea of a personal story, and this one was implemented way better than others I’ve seen in mmo’s. Overall the PS was really fun.

But the last fight, the Arah one, bugged the heck out of me for three reasons:

1. It was a proxy battle fought with airships, devaluing the theme of accumulating personal power to complement the alliance. Fixable by making Zhaitan much larger and making the fight a run to his heart inside him, with a finishing blow delivered by the character.
2. It was the only point in the entire personal story that required a group. Fixable by either requiring the other dungeons as earlier story steps or (best option) leaving a group dungeon out of the PS equation entirely.
3. The big one for me: the final step wasn’t customized for the character unless you happen to be the one in the dialogue. It was jarring and made you feel like suddenly you were a dialogue-free henchman instead of the protagonist. Fixable by either customizing dialogue for every player or (as above) just keeping dungeons out of the PS, acknowledging that it’s a different kind of content appealing to many players without interest in 5 person content.

To be fair, I do get why development priorities have moved beyond any refinement to the PS, of course. Frankly the marionette battle alone justified that decision to me. But it would have been nice to capstone the solo part of the game more consistently.

I’m curious, what’s so bad about old content becoming less relevant? Why is this something everyone, Anet included, is so concerned about?

I’ve never quite understood that.

I don’t want to visit the same places, see the same things, fight the same fights, and especially hear the same voices, over and over. I want new sights, new sounds, new challenges- and freaking new voices. The next time I level another character I’ll enjoy the nostalgia of the old stuff in a way I otherwise wouldn’t because it hasn’t been relevant to me for a while.

Hell, I’m already just about sick to death of fractals and I haven’t even played them enough that I don’t sometimes have to ask a question. I feel like I’m back raiding in WoW, only without the other 24 people to keep me entertained every night.

So, what’s the big deal about trying to keep old content relevant beyond leveling and very early endgame progression? I just don’t see the problem- it becomes irrelevant to me simply because it’s no longer as interesting. I hope I don’t get forced to do less interesting things to continue amassing wealth and power.

None announced, but it will almost certainly not be free. Whether it’s gemstore or RMT only remains to be seen.

If they planned to make it free they would have announced that as a huge marketing point. It would have been the big finale to the event.

No company ever, ever passes up the chance to shout the word, “free”. :P

Let me just make it clear, I personally think this expansion looks awesome and I’m ready to throw my money at Anet to get it.

So this isn’t intended to be a list of stuff “missing” complaints (in fact I think lots of folks are glad some things aren’t going to be part of the expansion)- just things that we’ve speculated about that we now know or think won’t be included.

(Almost) definitely:

• No new race
• No increased level cap
• No increased gear tier
• No mounts (movement via gliding yes, cosmetic/speed mounts no)
• No expansion to individual player housing (guild yes, personal no)
• No PvP elements within the PvE world (i.e. no dueling, no factions)
• Not a free expansion (i.e. it is not like the LS)

And also sounds like:

• No raids (no instanced dungeon content requiring more than 5 players)
• No new weapon types (per class yes, but overall to the game no)
• No changes to the base personal story
• No formal GvG elements (although somewhat in that direction)

Did I miss any of the other big points of speculation?

Lishtenbird.2814:

Silalus.8760:

Lishtenbird.2814:

• Watchwork set (could we nerf the sprockets already so that people can buy tools based purely on looks and not efficiency?)

If this ever happens I’ll hit the freaking roof. That’s the only tool I bought and the only reason why.

Not everybody plays just for the cosmetics. I like to see big ’ol numbers!

Could you remind me why your 1000 gem tool should do more and cost less than my 1000 gem tool?

Because at time of purchase it explicitly said it was?

Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t be irritated that, effectively, they released a better version of the tool after you bought yours for a better price. That is kinda crappy. I’d be irritated too.

But it’s not my fault that’s what they did. Yours does exactly what they advertised when you decided to buy it, and so does mine. Removing my feature would mean they aren’t giving me what I bought, without actually doing anything to help you. (Except to allow you to bask in the glow of my unhappiness, of course, which I admit is a balm to any MMO player.)

Thythren.6045:

I don’t expect you to take a sick day to get a vista, nor do I expect you to stay up until 4 AM

You know, honestly, for a vista in general, yeah. But for the last thing you need to get a legendary?

Ok, maybe this is a little off the WvW part of this, but it’s relevant.

Legendaries aren’t meant to be a casual thing. They’re intended to be a frustrating, long grind. The frustrating, long grind. Legendaries are the little bit of other MMO’s that lingers in GW2, and that’s ok. You don’t need one. Nobody needs one. They’re just to show that yes, you were crazy enough to spend all that time/effort/frustration finally getting them. What the OP is experiencing is an intentional part of that- everyone will by misfortune or inclination experience something awful trying to get a legendary.

I got all that out of my system in other MMO’s, and I have no particular desire for a legendary. If I ever get a precursor by luck, I’ll sell it. But I’ve got no problem with them existing or with them being a long, painful process, because it’s cool to see the lunatics who did it with them.

All that having been said though… Yeah, kinda sucks to mix PvE and PvP stuff. This is an artifact of that.

There’s a simpler enhancement that would be totally voluntary and natural:

• Identify the active WvW population by server, instead of the overall server population.
• Use this new number to determine which worlds are open to new players, etc.
• Periodically permit totally free transfers of up to a certain number of people from extremely high population servers to extremely low population servers.

The specifics of the last item are important. Limiting the maximum number of free transfers will both create a sense of urgency among the population that would consider leaving their server to avoid long queues and will prevent multiple large guilds from making a coordinated free move that creates another very high population server.

lolnotacat.9814:

Unfortunately, for every good, or at least decently fleshed out villainess like Sniper Wolf or Sarah Kerrigan you get a hastily/poorly written one like Edea Kramer, Varesh Ossa, or Scarlet.

Careful. we shouldn’t define female villains by their gender whether as a writer or a reader/viewer/player. For every Loki there is a Darth Maul too.

For that matter, for every Bruce Timm Mr. Freeze there is a Joel Schumacher Mr. Freeze.

The challenge doesn’t change much by gender. It’s largely about motivation. Modern villains are, for whatever reason, rarely allowed to be “just nuts” anymore. (Or even mostly just driven nuts, like Scarlet.) Modern audiences tend to demand thoroughly self justified villains. We have come to expect Joseph Campbell villains: heroes of their own stories.

There are a few exceptions – the most recent Joker and Borderlands’s Handsome Jack come to mind. But they have to be at that level of gleeful evil, and even then it’s hard to say why they still resonated. Maybe you just have to be truly terrifying if you aren’t sympathetic.

That’s my theory about the Scarlet complaints. In my opinion she was a visually great character, voiced by one of the finest voice actors performing today, and I actually found her actions exciting to fight back against. She had a twisted kind of logic and villains that execute plans with discipline are the most frightening. But her story didn’t focus much on her motivation, and the parts that did left a lot of questions unanswered that might have made her more sympathetic. I can see how some might find that unsatisfying.

I say delete all npcs with repetitive dialogue and replace them with volunteer player actors.

I volunteer to be all the Skritt.

Roe.3679:

I got stuck behind a bus on my way to work today. Thanks Anet.

Thread complete.

Based on what they said, the gliders look very specific to the new PvE areas, much as the experimental vertical abilities were limited to the FotFW and dry top maps.

There’s a precedent to this. In WoW when they first introduced flying mounts it was restricted to the expansion zone. It wasn’t until a few expansions later that they rebuilt the entire world to make them work everywhere.

Now it might of course be different from that- if they designed the rest of the world with gliding in mind from the beginning, they could roll it out everywhere. But that doesn’t seem likely.