Guild Wars 2

Olvendred.3027:

cainejw.7142:

As a gay man, I’m always humored by how many heterosexuals are so offended for me. I’ve had a lifetime of abuse and oppression. I can stand someone saying “gay.”

And in delicious irony, I once had someone use “the f word” (rhyming with maggot) to insult me. I responded that I was, in fact, one. I was banned from the game for a short period for hate speech. It was decided that I could not defend myself by devaluing the insult because the insult itself is deemed wrong by my heterosexual cultural superiors. Goodness forbid I take the insult and morph it into something to the point it loses its power. You know, like certain other words?

In speaking only for me, I don’t need your safe space. I don’t need to be protected from a word or words because you think they offend me. Take your benevolent sexism, racism, and homophobia somewhere else to swoop in and play the hero for someone else.

I’ve no need for your heroics. I do not need your projection onto me. You’re the one offended and made uncomfortable. I am not. You are using me, my experiences of oppression, and my population of people to justify your offense and your censoring response.

If needed, I can save myself, thanks.

I equally don’t know you at all, but it’s difficult to miss the massive chip on your shoulder. It’s kind of obvious in the sweeping assumptions you make about the sexuality and intentions of everyone else.

In any case, the ‘safe space’ exists. For everyone, whether they want it or not. You agreed to it when you accepted the ToS. I think a lot of people, myself included, like that it does exist. ‘Saving oneself,’ all the time, is incredibly tiresome. And usually pointless, when dealing with anonymous people on the internet. This is why we have moderators.

So you will (and should) indeed be banned for using homophobic language, no matter how you identify. A game is not the place to fight battles to reclaim language, or to expect people to have to save themselves. If you’ve had a lifetime of abuse and oppression, you shouldn’t wish it on others. Especially not in their leisure time, which is generally supposed to be about having fun.

Thank you for telling me what words I’m allowed to say AND how I’m allowed to say them! You see, I was under this impression that I’m allowed to identify myself and control my own personal reaction to things. I was clearly mistaken. I should know better that it is up to you to decide what words I can say, who I can be, and what tone I’m allowed to use.

Or, you know, not.

You keep trying to protect me FOR me. Stop it. That’s benevolent homophobia. You are telling me that I am somehow unable to handle the stress of a word. You are telling me that I am so feeble that I want—no NEED—you or someone else to protect me, decide what is fun for me, and then police my tone based upon what you think is appropriate.

It’s pedantic and it takes away a large amount of my self-determination. I am allowed to not be offended. You are allowed to be offended. I am not allowed to force you to listen to any words you don’t like, but you have no right to demand that words be erased from the world because they give you a sad.

You have a sad? That’s your problem, sweetheart. You need to cope with it. You need to adjust to it. You need to process it.

I stopped being offended by a word back when the United States of America took away my right to marry and gain access to over 1,000 rights for over a decade. I stopped being offended by a word when I was beaten and spat on. I stopped being offended by a word when I was disowned by family and friends because I was born.

And I hate to inform you of this, but I won’t be changing my tone, how I speak, words I use, or my identity because you decided that it makes you go “:(”. I spent my entire life having people tell me who I’m allowed to be while simultaneously deciding who I am for me.

That chip on my shoulder?

That’s from people much like yourself who think they have the right to tell me who I can be, what I can say, how I can say it, and what or who I can identify as.

Now you have a wonderful day/evening!

As a gay man, I’m always humored by how many heterosexuals are so offended for me. I’ve had a lifetime of abuse and oppression. I can stand someone saying “gay.”

And in delicious irony, I once had someone use “the f word” (rhyming with maggot) to insult me. I responded that I was, in fact, one. I was banned from the game for a short period for hate speech. It was decided that I could not defend myself by devaluing the insult because the insult itself is deemed wrong by my heterosexual cultural superiors. Goodness forbid I take the insult and morph it into something to the point it loses its power. You know, like certain other words?

In speaking only for me, I don’t need your safe space. I don’t need to be protected from a word or words because you think they offend me. Take your benevolent sexism, racism, and homophobia somewhere else to swoop in and play the hero for someone else.

I’ve no need for your heroics. I do not need your projection onto me. You’re the one offended and made uncomfortable. I am not. You are using me, my experiences of oppression, and my population of people to justify your offense and your censoring response.

If needed, I can save myself, thanks.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

You should probably read through the entire thread. Every one of your points as been covered and for want of a better term is old feedback now.

Thanks for taking the time to post however.

Chris

You’ve assumed I haven’t read through the thread. You should probably not assume what your users have or have not done. It comes across as condescending when you assume what I have or have not done.

I’m sure my points have been covered. The reason for that is that the points are the problem. They are pervasively the problem. Maybe instead of waving me away by assuming I didn’t read the thread, you can say, “Others have posted these concerns, and hearing it echoed multiple times makes it clear that this is a problem you perceive. I (do/do not) share your opinion, but I’m glad you were willing to share it. Thank you for posting it!”

I chose to echo some of the criticism in this thread because I really want you and others to understand that this is a huge problem. Your response did not read like someone who understands this is a problem. Your response reads like someone who doesn’t care that this is a problem and will continue to exacerbate the problem.

I took the time to post because I CARE about Guild Wars as a franchise. But I can’t help but feel like my feedback is completely unwanted now. That is the problem.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

However a number of CDIs have had a major impact on the game from Living World Post Marionette to Feature Packs. We aren’t going to go into specifics of development schedule and I am sorry that this is tough.

Now, this is part of the problem. You say it did, but you can’t say how. Say how!

I’ll give you an example. Recently, a game was making overhaul changes to some characters. People were throwing around all sorts of great ideas, but I threw one too. In it, I said that one power or ability could increase the power of another set of abilities resulting in a wider power set usage. It allowed depth and synergy. Suddenly, when you used Power A, a whole set of powers became more powerful and more useful.

The developers did not respond with “That’s a good idea.” or “We’ll look into that.” They made the change, came back to the forums and said, “Bam! Your idea is now in the game. Look for it!”

You know what that did to me and to other players? We perked up immediately. It was clear that our feedback was directly changing gameplay. We knew something we’d done made it into the game. Personally, it made my character feel unique to me because I helped to make the character! More feedback flew in with such strangely cool ideas that people felt included in the game even more. One change. Might have already been in there for all we know, if it felt like we did it.

That is what could help. It doesn’t require being instant. You can say, “Ooh, I love that idea. I’m going to take that to someone and see if we can get that done.” If it can get done, “You got it! It’s in!” if not? “I wanted that in so much, but it’s just not doable. Sorry.” Then the players feel like even if they failed, they were involved somewhere, somehow, in the creation of the power of their character or the definition of what the character cannot do. They feel involved.

I wish the City of Heroes forums were still around. That gave is the template for how developers should interface with their community. You’re developers. We love talking to you guys because it makes us feel connected to the game on a deeper level. Talk to us like people. Joke with us, take our memes with you, etc. You do this some, but it’s really few and far between.

If you think our complaints about Necromancer are valid, jump in and say “You know, I personally agree with you. I’m going to see if I can get that changed. I can’t promise it’ll happen, but we’ll try.” You can even say, “I don’t think that Necro has a problem there, but I’ll bring it up to someone here and see what they think.”

I know you guys and ladies work. You have to do work, but part of your work is to make your players feel connected in a world of play that requires a player to feel connected at all times or else the world you create relies only on your ivory tower without any connection to the real problems. See: academia. Ivory towers.

And I keep harping on it, but ANet has got to get the gem store under control. I again point you to City of Heroes and how they used their store. You could get almost everything in the game in a relatively reasonable amount of time. The store was there as sort of a “if you want it, here it is” alternative. The Gem Store is literally the only place you can have some items at all and others within reason.

So while the developers are in their disconnected Ivory Tower, they’re putting things through the store that you can’t get anywhere else. That, to many people, looks disconnected and like the emphasis is not on developmental or quality. It’s on money. Make gems achievable in the actual game outside of gold. Make the items achievable. Make it feel like the gem store is just a side thing where you go if you want a look at a bunch of cool stuff. Stop making it a vital part of the game where you HAVE to go if you want a new outfit, a new armor, new pets, etc. One way to do this could be to have the items in the store a certain time then in the world after the initial release.

The point is, as I posted before, you gotta treat users as more than wallets. You gotta talk to users like people. Joke with us, laugh with us, take 30 minutes out of your day to reply to 2-3 threads either with content based on the game or just jokes and laughter. Join your community. Then you won’t have to push the gem store with “And you can get gold!” We will see you as people who we want to support so we’ll buy that useless, silly trinket in the store because it goes to help the developers we appreciate.

Finally, in today’s world, professionalism is dead. You’re wearing jeans and t-shirts to work. Unless you’re at the top of the ladder, you’re going polo and slacks. You guys don’t have to treat us like you’re in suits. Treat us like you’re in jeans. Be cool. Be fun. Be HUMAN.

The CDI talk is great, but let’s get real: it’s a waste of time. It’s us telling you what we like and you maybe listening. Nothing amazing has ever come from a CDI. We don’t need another round of “What would you like to see?” that is followed by nothing actually happening.

The reality is, frankly, that all we can depend on is that ArenaNet will put new things in the gem store. New armors, new outfits, new pets, new items. We can depend on you to always try to gouge out some more money while throwing out a 1 hour content patch every once in a while. Even the 2 year anniversary is a sale. Ooh!

When GW2 was discussed, cosmetics were the point. It wasn’t levels. It wasn’t story. It wasn’t even you making money. It was cosmetics. Yet other than some incredibly ugly back items and Ascended items, we’ve not seen any meaningful item addition in 2 years. ArenaNet, you’ve failed on the main point of your game to provide a grind alternative where the look of the character was more important than anything else. But boy have you made money by releasing exclusive content through the gem store! And no, I don’t want to hear about being able to buy gems with gold because your stated intent was no grind instead of more grind.

It’s time you stopped looking at your users as wallets that can be parted every 2 weeks. It’s time we became people who, for the record, pay your wage. Does that mean you have to do everything we want? Absolutely not. You can’t please us all.

It means you should really consider living up to your own stated expectations, though. Those were your promises to us, and all you’ve done is fail on your promises time and time again. Others may fawn at your attention, but I do not. You’ve disappointed someone who was a fan since the betas of GW1 Prophecies. It’s time to start trying to actually treat me like more than some money.

Consider that some much-needed tough love. ArenaNet was once a great developer known as one that could challenge the giants. Now? You’re derided among even some of the biggest fans. You gotta snap out of it before you go belly up!

I’m not buying it because it’s incredibly lazy to continue to throw skins into the gem store instead of incorporating them into rewards. Anet has completely lost the magic of the Guild Wars franchise for this push for money.

They’d get more from me if they put these items into the game was a reward for playing the game instead of as a reward for buying gems or gold.

Arnath.2319:

Data-miners over at reddit have discovered that a new Outfit will be available soon, most likely via the gem store. It is called the ‘Ceremonial Plated Outifit’, it looks like a heavy armour set but all professions will be able to wear it.

Outfits are extremely lazy.

Unfortunately, ArenaNet is not that interested in innovation, creativity, and quality anymore. Now, it’s all about content that revolves around the gem store. They’ve completely lost the mission.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Of course, my opinion? Of course women are expendable for the sake of drama, anyone should be or you can’t tug the strings for drama. But it has to be done much more masterfully than that – you can’t just off a random bystander and expect people to go “Extra Man, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”.

If a woman dies in a fictional piece, it’s WOMEN IN REFRIGERATORS.

If a man dies in a fictional piece, it’s a Wednesday.

Hopefully a sylvari who can then automatically jump the ranks and become their leader! Then we can being in Trahearne and he can be the hero of the Pact, Sylvari can be hero of the Biconics, and then we can have them fighting Mordremoth, a sylvari dragon!

It practically writes itself!

Like NexonNet would allow you to get her sword anywhere but the cash shop!

God, no more Sylvari. They’ve been completely overdone with Trahearne being the star of the original game, Scarlet being the star of Season 1, and Season 2 starting with Aerin and more Scarlet.

There are other races.

Boneheart.3561:

cainejw.7142:

I’m gay…

So?

It sounds more like they are trying to please the LGBT community

I am part of said community. I do not consider this relationship as pleasing me. It displeases me. If we’re going to pretend this couple is meant to serve a community, a member of that community has every right to stand up and say, “You’re incorrect.”

I’m gay and I like the characters separate more than together chiefly because they’re so horribly co-dependent that I want them to stop.

And I thought we were clear in that we didn’t like Scarlet at all, but here she is. Again. She’s dead and this entire first chapter was once again wasting time explaining her. We don’t care. Scarlet was a crappy character. It’s time to move on from trying to get us to like or understand her, Angel. We don’t want to do either.

EgonVenkman.1907:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

For me to stay here instead of wildstar the FIRST update of season 2 will need a full zone with hearts, vistas, events, POI’s, SP’s, a story, and zone themed gear. This is what the original maps offered and I will not take another half baked southsun zone.

If they can deliver that then I will probably stick around to see what else is going to happen. Otherwise I will move on to something that isn’t so stale.

I never really got the obsession over new zones all the time. What happens 1 month after this new zone is out? You beg for more. and more. and more. Then the game looks like WoW or Everquest with 15,000 locations to visit/level, with crickets chirping everywhere but the current content. There are many many ways they can improve existing zones first, saving new zones for the rare occasion.

Probably because it’s new and exciting content that makes us feel like we’re not playing the same, tired Guild Wars 2 that has had near to know world building in a very long time.

And yes, we beg for more and more and more. Wanna know why? ’cause THAT is what is fun. Not the same, boring zones just with a new mission somewhere. New, entire zones to explore, enjoy, and make us love the game all over again.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

If this was Barbie’s my lil pony dress up I might agree but its not this is an mmorpg.

An MMORPG where the developers stated that cosmetics and skins are the end game.

Well that makes sense. I don’t really agree with that use, while it is logical, it kinda ruins the meaning of content. What am I supposed to call new things they add in for me to do if it’s not ‘content’.
/shrug, I’d be kittened if my buddy told me “hey we got new content” and it turned out it was just a new mini in the black lion.

Content is still content even if it’s just a skin. Content’s an umbrella term for storyline, items, zones, skills, etc. It’s all content. I think the problem is that gamers think content must be meaningful storyline they can play through.

It was also a sub game. People feel more loyal if they pay to play monthly.

COH was a free to play game with a sub option. You could play the entire game without sub, but it definitely wasn’t as fun as with a sub. You could get pretty much everything in and out of game.

We didn’t have anything near the selection GW2 has so it was a big thing.

I disagree, but I also think Paragon handled the Paragon store much better than Anet is. Anet is treating the store like Nexon treats theirs. You have game content and store content. Paragon at least allowed you to get a vast majority of things in the game along with the stipend. Anet’s pretty much created temp content for us to play for free while creating permanent content to pay, in my opinion.

mtpelion.4562:

cainejw.7142:

Gold sinks. Why do you think you now have to pay to start an event? Because Anet has no idea how to creatively handle gold in the economy other than “Pay me to access this content!”

This statement is blatantly false.

So, how have they creatively handled gold in the economy other than paying said gold to access content? If you know a statement is false, please provide examples showing it is false. I really would be interested to know how Anet has created a gold sink that is not “Receive content for gold.”

What Content is from the gemstore only? Am I missing something? I see lots of toys and styles and what not, but that’s not content, that’s bling as another poster put it.

Skins and items. I term this as content because Anet themselves said that endgame in GW2 is cosmetic. As the end game is content, and the end game is cosmetic, therefore content is cosmetic.

kratan.4619:

A R W E N.6895:

Azrael.4960:

Real money -> Gems -> Gold conversion has been part of the game from day 1, didn’t you know?

But did you know that the focus on gemstore is actually increasing so much?

But did you know that their jobs depend on people spending in the gem store and not just providing free content?

But did you know that you can give great content and people will buy from the gem store out of loyalty to the product instead of putting content exclusively in the gem store and saying “Buy it or no new content?”

City of Heroes did it. It was quite profitable, too. Everything in the store could be accessed in the game, but players were so loyal to Paragon that they would buy from the store because it supported their beloved game. I know because I spent hundreds of dollars in the store on stuff I didn’t really need.

Gold sinks. Why do you think you now have to pay to start an event? Because Anet has no idea how to creatively handle gold in the economy other than “Pay me to access this content!”

TheDaiBish.9735:

Until they actually start releasing said content, they can’t make good on their word, neither can they called liars on their statements for future content.

I disagree. They can be questioned based on past performance. Frankly, the China thing is a sign of a larger problem along with the constant gem-only content.

Simply put, Anet has sold out.

I think we all keep coming back in hopes we find out they have found that spark again. Unfortunately, they’ve probably released more content through the gemstore than they’ve released content that has stuck in the game.

And frankly, it’s getting to the point where they really owe us an apology for selling out so bad. I’m actually completely disappointed with Anet that they’ve let such a promising property become all about the gem store.

Faerun.3091:

So playing in zerg where you just spam #1 skill is fun?

Okay….

No, playing with a large group of people and getting good rewards is fun.

Having to break up teams because of “anti-zerg” and getting minimal rewards isn’t fun.

I bought an MMO to play with people. I didn’t buy it to tell people they can’t play because others need to validate their self-worth through video games.

So, for all the skillful, elite players here, define how you play GW2 with skill. I have a feeling the definitions will be highly subjective and wholly based on how the respondent chooses to play.

Yes. They are finally showing that Kristin Cox and Nexon’s grasp has been weakened. Maybe this will mean we’ll see more armor options outside of the gem store, too. Everything released so far sounds great.

They should just make every trait require Death Shroud at this point. Being defined by a single gimmick mechanic gets old.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Think of it this way: You’re building a house and a 2×4 breaks while you’re trying to screw it in to something. Do you scrap the house and completely rebuild it because that one piece broke, or do you grab a new 2×4 and use that instead? Which do you think would be more efficient?

What I’ve been seeing a lot of is that you guys don’t necessarily dislike pets. What you dislike is how they act and how they are controlled. It seems to me that these are feelings that have been built up over time, and have culminated into “pets have to go” because you guys haven’t seen the improvements that should be made to pets to make them desirable. I certainly don’t blame you for getting to this point, but I do want to know the core of the problem before we start talking about rebalancing an entire class.

Not to be rude, but that analogy is horrible. The pet is not like a 2×4 breaking. As you’ve said, the ranger is balanced around the pet. This would be akin to a load-bearing wall giving way. The ranger pet holds up the ranger class and equalizes the load.

So what do we do? Replace the load bearing beam (here the pet) with a more functional beam, or do you just tell people to work around it and don’t look at it because you know it’s a broken beam, but you’ll get to it someday.

This is where rangers are. The load bearing beam has rotted. The structure is drooping. The foundation is not absorbing the load to continue keeping the house upright.

And you’re saying, “We’ll get to it eventually, but we won’t remove the beam. It’s a good beam.”

No, it’s a bad beam.

Klonex.4562:

i’ll tell you this right now:

no content at all will be bug free in any game***

things happens, it’s hard to see how/know ~ bugs pop up when there are a ton of people trying to do the event. a lot of the time bugs pop up unexpectedly, so stay calm, tell them about the bugs that pop up, and wait for a fix.

I find this to be an excuse to wave off developer failures. Yes, bugs happen. However, the existence of bugs should not validate the existence of bugs. Just because bugs happen does not mean that you can overlook bugs happening.

Developers should do their best to minimize bugs through high quality work. Quality assurance should do their best to squash bugs through high quality work. Whoever is doing the developing or assurance on the now-ended living story needs to really examine how they approach their work.

In fact, I believe we’re coming to the point where Anet needs to seriously ask itself what its mission is. At this point, the only thing not bugged in these releases is the gem store. There’s a reason for that. Anet has shifted from quality gameplay experiences to sell those gems for more money.

It’s sad to watch the studio that made Guild Wars 1 become enslaved to the Nexon way of gaming.

tolunart.2095:

A while back players were complaining that there wasn’t enough armor/weapon skins in the gem store. “We want to spend gems! Give us something to buy!” People were upset that the only armor skins were the boring one-per-weight-class skins like the Krytan armor and such. So Anet put their artists to work designing armor skins for the gem shop.

So people can complain they need to get gems to buy armor skins.

Why is it that these are the only options? You can either have nothing to buy or you must buy nearly all from a source. You can’t have both for some reason…

Alice.8694:

Blame Valve, they’re the jerks who normalised this behavior in the west with their crates/keys within Team Fortress 2.

Black Lion Chests are exploitative in nature and for shame on Arenanet for using skinners box triggers to earn money.

This sort of behavior actually comes from Nexon and MapleStory. Nexon bought a 15% interest in NCSoft and ArenaNet installed Crystin Cox as their monetization person. Cox also happens to be the one responsible for many of the decisions that made MapleStory’s cash shop infamous.

For those demanding Living Story representation, Jennah and Logan were present in the living story. Oswald Thorn’s wives and brother are mentioned. Levvi and Blingg were broken up in the Lost Shores. Eir’s relationship with Borje was part of Flame and Frost resulting in Braham’s introduction. Rox’s relationship with her mate was quite prominent recently.

Those are just a handful. I could find easily.

Everything? So your leveling experience, fun with guildies, fun during events are all ruined because you can get an item more than once?

Your entire existence is absolutely cheapened because you can get a jetpack again?

Except complaining that people are complaining. We have that to complain about!

Thedenofsin.7340:

For those of us who have read the short story on Scarlet (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/short-story-what-scarlet-saw/, we know that she interacted with the Pale Tree while Scarlet was in the “eternal alchemy”:

Please: go no further. In seeking to comprehend the forces that shape us, you will unleash them. Society cannot withstand that.

The Pale Tree knows and sees many things. It must know, or at least have an idea, what Scarlet saw, and why she is doing these things.

Why is it still silent?

I assume the same reason the Iconics are absolutely nowhere to be found: inability to remember continuity and characters that existed before launch.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

cainejw.7142:

Sorry, but “change happens, deal with it,” is not a valid reason to put crafting tables behind a paywall.

Oh, wow, look, they moved the crafting stations in Divinity’s Reach, Hoelbrak, Queensdale, Wayfarer’s Foothills, Rata Sum, Metrica Province, The Grove, Caledon Forest, Black Citadel, and Plains of Ashford . . . not to mention the ones in the WvW Citadel.

All of them are now gone behind a paywall . . . oh, wait, no. I’m wrong They’re still where they always were.

Nobody has said that you cannot craft at all now. This is a straw man created by those who wish to defend Anet’s decision. I appreciate your need to protect the developers, but the question is not, “Why can’t we craft anywhere now?”

The question is, “Why can’t I craft in the Lion’s Arch area without paying for it?” The answer to that is not, “You can just go somewhere else.”

Additionally, your sarcasm is noted. Unfortunately, it destroyed whatever point you might have had with an argument nobody is making.

Nikked.7365:

cainejw.7142:

Saying, “You can go elsewhere” is also not a good reason. What changed between yesterday and today that demands Lion Arch and the Vigil no longer have access to crafting unless you leave the zone or pay money?

You’re playing a game that has highly publicized it’s Living Story efforts. In game and in real life, wars happen, and we have little say in the matter. So we deal with with the inconveniences or pay a high price to get around them.

Sounds pretty dynamic to me.

Sorry, but “change happens, deal with it,” is not a valid reason to put crafting tables behind a paywall. I don’t mean to be difficult on this, but they’ve actually decided that people need to pay or go somewhere else to do the exact thing they could do just this morning. It is silly to not explain the rationale.

Maybe they just want to make more money. Maybe Nexon and their lackey want more money so they’re going to put obstacles up wherever possible. Maybe ANet has lost all sight of what GW2 was supposed to be in the Spaceballs-esque adventure for more money.

Maybe they want people to fan out more (which is silly considering the event’s location in LA alone). Whatever it is, Anet really does have to explain this one. Of course, they really won’t. They will ignore it like they did the pickaxe and cash in. Fans will defend them to any and all ends of the Earth. Detractors will slam them. In the meanwhile, some insight into what the developers are doing with this game will be completely lost.

But in the end, I’m disappointed in their decision. I can buy a pass. I’ve bought $200 worth of gems in the last month because I wanted to. However, I really struggle with the idea of paying money for the exact same features I could use this morning that are in the zone right now.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Sorry everybody, I was wrong earlier.

The crafting stations did not get moved to Vigil’s Keep. However, you can travel directly from Vigil’s Keep to one of the other cities of Tyria at no cost via asura gate travel, all of which have crafting stations.

And what’s the reason these items were moved behind a fee service? You’ve made a concerted effort to take items that were available and move them to either pay money or gold. Why?

I think this is one of those times where you guys really need to explain yourselves and why you chose to remove access to these without going to other cities. Saying, “You can go elsewhere” is also not a good reason. What changed between yesterday and today that demands Lion Arch and the Vigil no longer have access to crafting unless you leave the zone or pay money?

Majic.4801:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

If you enter WvW, your main server BL has a TP, Merchants, Laurel Merchant, and even Crafting Stations. It’s convenient to get there and free to travel.

Ranger Hussy.9523:

and a pain to get back to where you were

Actually, all you have to do is open the WvW dialog (default key “B”) and select “Leave the Mists” in the lower right-hand corner.

You will be returned to the precise place in the PvE world where you were standing when you entered, which can be anywhere in Tyria that’s not in an instance.

Just saying.

Again, the fact you can go somewhere else is a moot point. That is the rationalization that this is OK. The issue is that they took features in LA and put them behind a payment requirement.

Edit: I just got one from random from the supplies bags, it is a 1 time pass currently. There is the possibility of getting one, but from over 100 bags…one drop.

It appears the airship has exclusive access to the Laurel vendor and the skill retainer. There appears to be no option for these for the LA area. You have to go to WvW or another city. Also, rumor is that the crafting stations are up there and they are not on the ground either.

I’d also like to note that there are no more class trainers for LA without the pass. You either buy the pass or go to another city. Some may argue this is fine, but locking LA resources behind a pay pass is a problem regardless of other locations. LA has been, and will remain, a large hub for players. If the aim was to spread players out, remove the items altogether…don’t lock them behind a paywall.

I really enjoy this patch, but this decision leaves a sour taste in my mouth as Anet continues to go down a path of nickle and dime transactions for full access.

lordkrall.7241:

I still keep wondering why this is a problem, but the fact that the Pact seems to have more or less unlimited resources doesn’t seem to be an issue at all

The Pact is comprised of three larger orders with a singular goal in mind to devote resources. Scarlet is comprised of a bunch of bad guys with no singular goal other than, apparently, blind and unerring devotion to Mary Sue from Bad Writing Land.

It looks pretty, but the actual gameplay? Typical zerg mechanics. There’s no need to be mindful or even plan strategies. The PvE objectives are smashed by a zerg of any decent size.

Soloist.4120:

It’s not uncommon , but i don’t think it’s neccessary to promote relationships that are counter-productive to a species .

Biological necessity is undercut by altruism and the ability of LGBT to give resources to society. It’s overly simplistic as a view of human behavior to reduce it to making babies.

As for the thread at large: do you call male/female relationships “straight relationships” or “heterosexual relationships?” No. You typically call them relationships. There’s no need to tack on “gay” or “lesbian” to the word “relationship” simply because of your personal desire to stratify relationships.

And what exactly keeps these items from being tied to quest lines and storyline instead of how many dollars you’re willing to spend? Anet continues to disappoint by selling their creative souls when it comes to items by just shoe horning the content into the RNG boxes I lovingly call Cox Boxes.

Xista.7391:

cainejw.7142:

As soon as I saw “January 21st” I asked myself, “Why not January 20th when MLK Day means many Americans are off and can flock to the game?”

Anet has really lost its mojo. The pacing of the LS is off and even the timing is off. What happened to the quality studio that just got it?

Because not everyone that plays this game is an American. Besides that, they’ve always released patches on Tuesdays.

Because that’s what I said. I said every single player is American therefore every release must follow American holidays.

As soon as I saw “January 21st” I asked myself, “Why not January 20th when MLK Day means many Americans are off and can flock to the game?”

Anet has really lost its mojo. The pacing of the LS is off and even the timing is off. What happened to the quality studio that just got it?

DraganBlack.7864:

cainejw.7142:

The gods gave man blessings. While they were gone from the world and beyond the Mists, they remained forever present but not corporeal. However, men forever strove to get closer to the gods including gaining favor and Kormir receiving their blessing and ascending to godhood.

So now, we’re supposed to believe that they just went, “Oop, we’re out. Magic is more pervasive than it’s ever been. You humans got this.”

this isn’t what happened at all. you might want to replay gw nightfall. especially the last two missions where the gods made it clear that they are leaving (and why)
this isn’t some sort of lore they made up for gw2 it is what was around since nightfall

In neither Gate of Madness nor Abbadon’s Gate do the gods state why they were leaving and that they were. In fact, the avatars state that the gods are present in human nature and that these characteristics were the gift to he player. They then give Kormir the gift of ascending to godhood.

The gods were not a physical force in Guild Wars 1 at all. Their avatars were. They left Tyria in 0 AE after creating and splitting the Bloodstones to contain magic. Since you have a lacking knowledge on the lore of Guild Wars, might I suggest reading the official Wiki? It’s a great source for newcovers to the world of Tyria.

Abbadon gave magic to man. War erupted (not the first one. That I was wrong about). The human gods, residing in Orr, heard Doric’s pleas and created the stone to draw man’s magic back and separate it from being pooled into single sources. Abbadon became enraged and fought, with the Margonites, against the Six. He lost, was cast down, and the human gods resolved to leave Tyria so that man could live free of magic.

What’s worse is that the Exodus of the Gods was a result of Abbadon’s free reign in giving man magic and the Guild Wars erupting. After the gods attempted to undo their work through the Bloodstones, they left to protect man from magic.

However, man discovered the bloodstones in Bloodstone Fen, Abbadon’s Mouth, and the Bloodstone Caves. Three of the five were discovered. This means that man has access to the destructive magic of the past as man continues to have access to all of these locations.

The gods gave man blessings. While they were gone from the world and beyond the Mists, they remained forever present but not corporeal. However, men forever strove to get closer to the gods including gaining favor and Kormir receiving their blessing and ascending to godhood.

So now, we’re supposed to believe that they just went, “Oop, we’re out. Magic is more pervasive than it’s ever been. You humans got this.”

Just plain lazy. Every single race believed in the gods except one. The Norn believed them part of animism, the asura saw them as part of the great alchemy, humans saw them as gods, and even the Charr considered them powerful enough to respect as fearful.

Only one race did not believe in them—the Sylvari. Seeing as we have Trahearne and Scarlet, GW2 is looking less like a game about these races and their world and more like a vehicle to plug the Sylvari. I wish I could be surprised at the poor writing, but we need only wonder why the gods would stay gone “forever” when all of the races are facing their darkest days with the dragons. Just plain lazy.

If a character has no redeeming value, they cannot be a tragic figure by definition. Classic tragedy involves characters who have a redeeming value (love, loyalty, pride, etc) that ensures their downfall (Antigone’s loyalty leading to inability to relent, Oedipus’s intelligence leading to him actually fulfilling to prophecy, Jocasta’s steadfastness leading to her actually try in failure to avoid the prophecy).

Scarlet’s only potential tragic quality would be her intelligence or curiosity leading to her marching to her demise with each plan. However, each plan violates simplicity of binaries seen in tragedies, the plot does not emphasize order, she’s not clear-cut, she does not elicit emotional response. She’s just…a bad tragic character. So then she should attempt to be comedic, but the problem is that the story they tell is serious. She’s not comedic by any stretch.

And the reason Shiro, the Lich/Vizier, and Varesh work is that they all have these tragic flaws. Shiro’s loyalty in the emperor leads to blindness and self doubt which then leads to his murderous actions, his death, resurrection and loyalty to himself, and eventually his destruction due to hubris/flaw.

The Lich was intelligent and knowledgeable leading to, again, his downfall as he read the scroll, destroyed his people, and then sought to avoid the Flameseeker prophecies…which he merely ended up confirming.

Varesh is the same. Her anger and arrogance led to her downfall as she sought Nightfall and eventually her own destruction. Varesh had her name behind her. She was known. She was feared and loved by virtue of being an Ossa. That brought good and bad for her.

While all three of the stories have the underlying prophecy concept, Scarlet doesn’t. She’s just smart, cool, and totally CRAAAAZY. They’ve made her needlessly complex and comedic while trying to tell a tragic story of a woman who hates predestination yet keeps running to losing. That’s not tragic. That’s just lazy writing. She’s everything to everyone, but that makes her lack any compelling nature.

Scarlet is not tragic. She’s just boring, and it’s time for her to go away. I know I have no interest in her story, and she’s actively the reason why I’m not logging on. When the story is compelling, I’ll log on.

The relationship between Batman and Joker works on many levels. Batman was, prior to his reinvention as the Dark Knight, the symbolism of man’s heightened goodness. He saved the day, he refused to kill, he would use his mind instead of his might. He always saved the day. He was, in a sense, Superman without the super.

Joker’s introduction on the scene offered a dramatic foil. Batman was lawful, Joker was lawless. Batman was kind, Joker was cruel. Batman was sane, Joker was insane. They offered two classic archetypes forever locked in battle. It is a story that ranges back over the history of the written and spoken word.

However, there’s one real reason that Joker and Batman work. Joker is a psychotic character with sociopathic tendencies. Batman is a narcissist with a hero complex. They are both, at their very core, flawed. They’re both damaged. They play this tango, but they’re very much two sides of the same coin. Joker and Batman are both victims of someone else’s cruel game, but they play their parts.

There’s a fundamental depth in the characters as you explore them more and more. Is Batman just as delusional as Joker? Is Joker actually the sane one as he sees the world for its flaws? Batman reacts through blind protectiveness, Joker reacts through blind violence; who is the one who sees?

Then you have Harley who some say Scarlet is like, but she’s not. Harley is much like Joker in that she’s a pawn if someone else’s game. She was a perfectly sane woman until she met Joker, then she started to adopt the insanity of someone else. However, whereas Joker has a control over his psychopathy, Harley doesn’t. She’s violent. She’s uncontrollable. She can show mercy and compassion, but this isn’t the rule. It’s the exception. In the end, Harley wants only for Joker’s approval, but she never quite achieves that. So, in the end, she ratchets up the insanity. However, Joker’s true “love” is Batman…that will never stop Harley, though.

Scarlet is, uh, crazy. And she’s smart. And she’s powerful. And she’s convincing. Oh, and she’s crazy. She has no real foil. She has no real depth outside of this. Joker, Harley, and Scarlet only have their perceived insanity as the commonality. Joker and Harley quickly diverge from Scarlet when it comes to character depth, development, and implications on their respective lore.

So, at some point, we had a television analogy and the features of television brought to Living World. With that said, I want to continue this metaphor with some great television plots to show just how important proper component building is.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2 and 5 – These two seasons are generally regarded as excellent television. In Season 2, Angel’s buildup as a bad guy over two seasons. We knew he was bad. We knew he was evil inside. So when he was finally “turned,” the foils between him and Spike were clear — the inept wannabe versus the really is. Then Angel systematically harassed the person he loved. You could literally watch as Buffy, as a strong archetype, started to lose hold of that strength. This happened again with season 5 when Buffy came up against the somewhat mysterious Glory. We, as viewers, had seen her power. We knew that she wasn’t the normal woman. Some mystery existed as to her family’s involvement in the plot, but we could see that things weren’t good. Then, at the end, with everyone in fear but banding together, Buffy realized her destiny in a sense as she rushed to her inevitable death.

In neither of these cases did the villains of Angel or Glory cackle their way to evil as they somehow secretly and magically bested every knowledge and skill in the world. They didn’t unite factions. In fact, Angel only used vampires sparingly. Glory’s minions? Psychiatric patients and weak scab minions. Neither was a genius or a master of all things. They were just really good at one thing. For both, it was the systematic destruction of the hero who had to eventually overcome the devastation of loss to triumph through a theme, typically friendship.

Compare that to Scarlet who runs around, cackles, unites factions who don’t care about each other, mastered every single thing in Tyria, and then somehow went CRAAAZZY and we’ve been watching her essential ascension over the player character for, well, months.

Doctor Who, The Master – It’s my opinion that Scarlet’s “look into time and go crazy” is really a ripoff of The Master’s storyline. His motivation has always been to be the antithesis who undoes the Doctor’s work. He glimpsed into the whole of time and space and went crazy as he heard the tone put into his head by Rassalon. Why did this work? It was told in pieces. The Master appeared only as a capable adversary for the Doctor.

He did not appear on the screen cackling about how evil and CRAAAAZZY he is. Then, as his history unfolded, he became a sympathetic character. He didn’t ask for Rassalon’s schemes. He didn’t ask to see space and time. He didn’t ask for the insanity that followed. He became a tragic figure.

So, my point? The storytelling is weak in the Living Story. I do not know who wrote Scarlet and the Living Story to now, but it’s really weak writing. It appears to try to be both serial and episode-driven. It does neither exceptionally well because most don’t care who Scarlet is. We just know she’s better than us in every single way and is CRAAAAAZZY.

If you’re going to do that, take a cue from some of the great serials like Buffy, Angel, Battlestar Galactica, Walking Dead, Doctor Who, FlashForward, and others. Craft individual storylines that make the player feel like they’re more than someone chasing around a villain they don’t care about. Set the stakes early, introduce the villain clearly, and work through tension instead of working through “It’s another 2 weeks, remember Scarlet!?”

And if you want to go episodic with serial, let the players feel like they have more plot information than the NPCs. The player has to feel like they know the stakes. Frankly, I haven’t played GW2 in months because I just don’t care about the storyline. I also don’t care about the rewards. There’s nothing for me to play towards in GW2. When I became excited for the game years ago, I didn’t think, “Oh, boy, I can’t wait to fight some random villain who pops up and is better than me!”

I thought, “Oh, wow, Tyria was destroyed by dragons. I want to kick their butts. I want to kick their minion’s butts.” The Living Story and plot in general should have focused on the dragons building their minions. It should not have been kill the most powerful dragon with sparkly yellow shots, watch Trahearne take credit for everything, and then wait until Scarlet decides she’s better than you and is CRAAAAZZY and wants to…uh…whatever.

In Guild Wars 1, when the charr destroyed Ascalon, I cared. When Khilbron threatened to destroy Kryta, I cared. When the Great Destroyer threatened to destroy the world, I cared. When Varesh and Shiro acted for Abbadon, I cared. I even cared about Kormir.

I just don’t care about what happens in Tyria right now.

Tott, there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary. You ignore it and brush it under the patriarchy. Your feeling of offense is not because there’s some master plot to sexualize women and promote them only through the male gaze.

In fact, where you see gross, unrealistic shapes that could forever ruin femininity, others see beauty and power in SPITE of form. The Watchknights are powerful regardless of how they look. However, all you see is how they look (women) and suppose that it MUST be sexualization, abuse of women, making women weak, etc.

It’s perspective, and your perspective is colored by sex-negative radical critical feminism.

No, but I definitely remember when I was younger and things appeared harder therefore making me believe gaming had some golden age of difficulty that doesn’t exist now. I also really remember being able to then rose tint my experience in the past somehow superior to degrade anyone who doesn’t share my opinion.

Ahh, yes, memories.