Guild Wars 2

Junwor Mistborn – Mist Warband, Ash Legion mesmer.

Vanthian.9267:

I do believe there is more lotion on all of the “love the game” threads hands than all the ones with legitimate complaints.

Only people with blinders on their eyes and their head up the company’s bum (mostly people who did not come from Guild Wars 1 mind you) think they are going in the right direction. They have been diverging from their “manifesto” since launch.

How many quotes are out there saying “we reward for skill not luck/time”?
How many quotes say that end game is all about aesthetics and not gear?
……..

Meh, I enjoy Guild Wars 2 much more than I did Guild Wars 1 (which I played since Summer of 2005).

I don’t have ascended gear (except for ones obtained gradually through laurel acquisition), and haven’t ever felt at a particular disadvantage in WvWvW or PvE (or sPvP for that matter). I play both a Guardian and Ranger (enjoy the latter more by far despite it being ‘weaker’ or ‘less viable’). In terms of play style/time spent, I’d probably fall somewhere in between casual and hardcore: I also use a LB/GS setup on the ranger, which I know is not as effective as SB trap. But I enjoy using LB/GS (in sPvP too!), and somehow avoid spontaneously combusting upon entering combat.

I think it might be helpful to move beyond one game meaning one way to play: by both supporters and detractors of the current direction (as GW2 was advertised as accomodating). I do not need ascended gear to play the game that I play, nor do many others. On the other hand, others may need ascended gear to play their game. I think it is really interesting though that we (including myself at times!) are guilty of identifying one right way to play.

I do not have blinders over my eyes, nor am I ‘up any company’s bum’, but I do think Guild Wars 2 is moving in the right direction. Inclusiveness seems to be their main pillar in design, and while it may be hit and miss in some regards (I agree that the new skins should have been detached from RNG) , is definitely better than exclusiveness.

While Guild Wars 2 certainly has its faults, and there are some things that I would like to see added or improved, in general, I can still honestly say that I enjoy the game (even moments of utter frustration caused by over-anxious dodge rolling off jumping puzzles).

Hopefully with continuing constructive criticism (which is vital) Guild Wars 2 can continue improving.

Sincere thanks.

“Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.” ~~Youngbloods “Get Together”

I think we need a little bit of this in this thread ^^^

I’ve had some memorable fights this match up and some not so enjoyable experiences, but hopefully everyone was able to gain or learn something from this match-up.

Thanks extended to everyone and anyone this week!

Oozo.7856:

WanderingOsprey.2497:

I think this thread has become too focused on vilifying the other server(s). Can we all get along again please?
- snip-

I’m curious as to what your job is (or major if you are still in school). :P

Basically, I would just like to see people spread out more (on all the servers involved) instead of running in such large groups together. It’s not really something that can be fixed because people find safety in numbers and the maps are poorly designed for spreading people out.

Large numbers of people in the same area quite literally break the game. Look at the last minute or so of the movie I’ll be posting shortly to see where my personal frustration comes from. I know the other servers have to deal with this too.

Keep in mind that I can’t comment on large DR groups since we generally avoid them. Not because we dislike them personally, but because we dislike large zergy fights. Some nights go by with us never even seeing a large group of DR. Of course, we know that they do exist.

I’m currently in grad school (Folklore MA).

I completely understand your argument and frustration: we had to deal with opposing significantly larger numbered groups for some time as well before this match up, and indeed sometimes during this match up.

I completely see the desire for ‘smaller groups’: I also tend to lean towards small precise strikes, i.e. ambushes in Strategy games/Shooters, or scout-archetypes. Also some of my favorite WvWvW memories have come from running in a five man havoc squad when we were hopelessly outnumbered.

Yet sometimes when I play, I do want to travel with numbers, anticipating equally large engagements: case in point, this one back and forth open-field skirmish with DR was a lot of fun (I’m the foreground-Guardian who doesn’t seem aware of his being in a battle)! But part of what makes it special and stand out, is its relative lack in occurrence. If it happened all the time, we’d be wanting more tower-defense gameplay.

In that post I was hoping to address the issue of ‘zerg’, and try to steer away accusatory discussions between our servers with that rambling wall of text, perhaps literally in forcing people to navigate around it >:).

I don’t see the issue of one having and the other not having, in the case of numbers, as indicative of either’s relative skill level: everyone contributes something in WvWvW.

When it comes down to it, we all just want to play and have the capacity to play in our own respective ways: for some that is traveling in numbers and for others in smaller groups. Thank you for the response

I think this thread has become too focused on vilifying the other server(s). Can we all get along again please?

Sure we (SBI) have zergs, but guess what? I have seen PUG zergs from DR, and even IOJ on occasion. Does this classify them as a zerg server? No. ‘Zerg’ is a very loaded term which implies a lack of skill and reliance on mob mentality for survival: by claiming one server to be a ‘zerg server’, you’re generalizing the entire skill level of that server’s playerbase. For instance, I’ve seen some ‘fox appointed professor of cunning’ tactics and smaller scale fights from DR, and I’ve also seen 6 of us push back 20+ of them as they refused to move from siege. But I never would label DR, IOJ, or SBI for that matter a ‘zerg server’, because I respect everyone’s skill level: if yours is lower than mine, or higher, so what? I do not attribute our losing in the past weeks, or our winning in this week due to the relative skill level (short/long term tactics + individual) of either ourselves or our server matchups.

Why?

Because winning or losing doesn’t seem to matter that much within the game infrastructure, so it doesn’t matter that much to me. WvWvW seems to be built upon a principle emphasizing combat between the worlds, rather than major rewards. For instance, ‘the carrot on the stick’ is the possibility of combat, rather than the pursuit of a major reward. It is mind-numbingly boring to both be attacking an undefended tower, and to be the only defender (or one of few) of that tower (having experienced both). Winning and losing seem designed to be byproducts of WvWvW combat: changing tier rewards a server (intended at least) with a greater possibility of ‘closer’ combat.Winning, losing, or remaining in your current position yields ‘more’ combat.

Frustration is completely understandable, i.e. plenty of us were voicing frustration in-game/meta-game about our guild exodus situation, but there is a time when it gets taken too far or too serious, and I think this thread is in danger of heading down that direction. There have been times this week where I’ve been frustrated of a lack of communication, or frustrated at being outnumbered, or danced on, or laughed on, etc. (I have seen from all three servers, including my server-mates)

Why should we use a pejorative to demean, punish, or ostracize certain players or a server(s) that are participating? ‘Othering’, e.g. through such means as questioning the skill ability of another server, may build interior camaraderie and be an effective way to communicate your belonging to that community (party, squad, guild, server etc.), but is developing a semi-toxic relationship with other servers and their respective playerbase what we really want?

I think my general mindset in similar issues has always been that that we (players) shouldn’t feel the need to defend ourselves (intention, ability, motivation, etc.) from accusations of lacking in those parenthesized categories, NOR should we feel the urge to accuse others of lacking in those categories.

But that is always tricky in competitive situations (I am guilty of that occurring in irl sports.) But as an ideal, I try to maintain that perspective, and I think that it helps to negate some tension and feelings of ill-will towards others, moreso in leisure activities like gaming.

Thanks for reading, I hope this post helped in some way for someone (so my procrastination was not in vain!) and see you on the field.

tl;dr Everyone’s great, fun fights, Let’s hold hands and get along! (not in a creepy way!)

Well strictly speaking, the Sylvari have Gaelic and Brythonic names (and mine an Old English one :P). I don’t mind the mispronunciations of the names, they may be inspired by the sidhe or other faerie-types in Celtic Mythology, but they are Sylvari. Also, as with all languages, there are pronunciations (and phrasal) differences in the Gaeilge you’d find up in Donegal than down around Kerry, Cork, Connemara, etc. (I assume there are differences with Welsh in Wales as well, have never lived there).

And not to nit pick, but Faolain can be pronounced a number of ways! It can also be pronounced ‘Fwee-lin’ or ‘Feh-lin’ (and, if it had the sineadh fada diacritic over the a in Faolan, it’d be Fwee-lawn or Feh-lawn). The ‘aoi’ in Gaeilge is the ‘ee’ sound in English, and when preceeded by a consonant at the start of a word there is usually a ‘w’ sound. For instance, the name Caoimhe is pronounced ‘Kwee-va’ (but again, mh is almost always a ‘v’ round down Munster).

tl;dr Pronunciation varies with rl dialect, so ‘mispronunciations’ are alright. They are Sylvari.