Guild Wars 2

Demon of the Light.7961:

I don’t know if anyone else tried it, but after Eir’s memorial, since I too felt that there should have been some form of conclusion to Trahearne’s death, I went to The Groove to visit the Pale Tree:
“Maybe she is feeling a bit better and will have some spare lines to say” I though, “or maybe the NPCs will have something to say in her stead, to mourn not only the Pale Tree’s state but the death of a firstborn” I continued.
I entered the instance, everything was like nothing was going on:
Sylvari talking about Ventari’s tablets, the one who got injuried and was recovering, the guards told me they were happy to see me because they were bored and, in the meanwhile, the Pale Tree’s avatar was lying on the ground, faintly breathing.
Now, that’s quite immersion breaking.

I did this, too. It was really off-putting. The Pale Tree just lost her eldest son, the first of the firstborn, the one she gave Caladbolg and the most difficult Wyld Hunt to, and.. nothing?

tobascodagama.2961:

Really, the stupid decision here was to have an individual memorial for Eir rather than a mass memorial service for “all of our fallen friends” or something like that.

^Seriously, this. As a non-norn, I was fairly apathetic to all of the NPCs and interactions at Eir’s memorial (except for Garm. Poor doggy)

Many Pact soldiers lost their lives to the Mordrem ambush, including its very own leader. The entire organization is completely shaken to its core. As its former second-in-command, we really should’ve been attending to that whole debacle in the form of a mass memorial that addressed the death of one of the game’s most significant NPCs. This could’ve easily included a dedication to Eir, since she partook in the Pact initiative of killing Zhaitan.

Extremely surprised/disappointed Anet didn’t think of that

Plok.5873:

Guys, may I ask for a little willing suspension of disbelieve?

You accomplish suspension of disbelief through strong, intelligent, and tasteful execution.

When I watch a movie that really sucked due to illogical and sloppy storytelling, I’m not going to tell myself that I didn’t suspend my disbelief enough. That’s called having abysmally low standards.

Maybe what you should be asking is for us to not have any standards whatsoever since this is a video game. But for a game that is essentially a rpg and has a certain reputation developed overtime by Anet, we will certainly have expectations for atleast the bare minimum, which in this case, is a Living Story chapter that made sense.

It’s frankly ridiculous.

We spent all of this time at a memorial for a member of a defunct guild that you only interact with for a few dungeon missions (because sorry, I did not play a norn) but none for the Marhsal of the military organization we created and spearheaded for the singular goal of the game, as well as the companion NPC and pseudo-mentor that accompanied all players, regardless of race, for practically half the game.

In addition to his association w/ the Pact and accomplishing the impossible by cleansing Orr, he’s arguably one of the most important figureheads in the contemporary Tyria narrative for several reasons.

He’s literally the first sylvari to have ever existed (on our side of the continent atleast), the Pale Tree’s favorite, Caithe’s brother, and is well-renowned and well-connected among many different organizations and races (even ones as elusive as the Order of Whispers and the largos) thanks to his 25 years of extensive field work in Orr research… and we don’t hear a peep about his sacrifice?

People like to complain that Trahearne is terribly written character. You’d think Anet would try to own up to it by either improving the depiction of one of the game’s most significant NPCs, or at the very least write a logical conclusion to the shoehorned death they threw on him.

Instead, they are desperately pandering to the incredibly emotional players who were somehow rendered insanely miserable and low in self-esteem by the character’s existence by not only giving him a cliche death, but then writing out any respectful acknowledgement of his tragic end. I’m disappointed in Anet for following “bad writing” with even worse, illogical writing and sad pandering.

Jumpin Lumpix.6108:

I’d like to spend my guild decorations and decorate my own guild hall, why not make this content more accessible to everyone?

I generally agree with 99% of all resentments against the current guild hall system, but it sounds like one of your main struggles at the moment is having the right to decorate. It only makes sense that not EVERYONE is allowed to play around with the guild inventory. Resources of any kind need to be protected. My suggestion is to be pro-active about it in your guild. Regarding the ridiculous costs of decorating, there are workarounds I’ll explain below

I was a nobody in my guild (only somewhat active, only a handful of 3-5 core players who regularly go on) But I really wanted to get into decorations! We were able to beat the guild hall mission with 5 people. No one did anything with the GH after we claimed it.

I saved up on pumpkin decorations during Halloween ‘15, which were very accessible (bought with candy corns). I asked the guild leader for permission to decorate with these and expressed general enthusiasm about decorating. He was totally cool with giving me permission (guild leaders can create whatever ranks they want. you don’t necessarily need to be some one “uber important” w/ a fancy title be able to decorate, you just need the appropriate permissions)

Did the same for Wintersday and Lunar Fest. Got my hands on alot of the festival related decorations that were generally affordable (i.e. get snow piles w/ flawless snowflakes or red lanterns w/ essence of luck [which can be salvaged from greens or ectoplasms])

The hardest part is saving up for the Guild Workshop upgrades. As a casual player since launch, I did have enough gold and mats already piled up to complete a few necessary upgrades myself.

Again, I asked leader for permission to approve upgrades. I also asked him if he can make announcements to ask for donations. He was glad to give me permission for both things.

What helps for saving up resources is to make the guild hall experience more social. My guild isn’t particularly active and social, but I was able to make it work. I asked the leader to host some guild missions (get favor for upgrades) along with “flax farm field trips” (to help create linseed oil for upgrades) We’ve done this a few times, not a lot, but it really helped!

After achieving the Workshop, I found out about a guy from Reddit who was willing to create Snow Makers for guild hall owners so that he can level his own scribing. I am not rich enough to pursue scribing full time, but I had the 15 snow piles required, and the 20g in mats needed. I told my leader about hiring this guy. He entrusted me with rest of the appropriate permissions related to decorations (like accessing the resonator and everything)

I created this thread to find some more high level scribers to help me w/ decorating:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/432582/scribes_for_hire/
Thanks to these scribers, my guild hall contains high level decorations (my favorite so far is the Lunar Arch) Eventually, the guild leader also entrusted me w/ the right to send invites and assign permissions, so I can keep decorating this way w/o his oversight. At this point, I basically have the rights of an officer, simply from showing enthusiasm in decorating.

TLDR;
1) Show enthusiasm for decorating and prove yourself trustworthy, and unless your guild leader is an uptight elitist snot (in which case, leave the crappy guild) you should be able to earn the rights to do everything you want to do for decorations. Sure my leader might just be a nice person, but like any organization, it makes sense you need to prove yourself as someone who is reliable and serious about handling resources and privileges

2) In addition to being pro-active about decorating, be pro-active about making the guild hall upgrade process a social one. Make an event out of procuring resources. Every bit helps

3) Keep an eye out for Festival decorations in the future! Because my advice isn’t particularly useful now since you can’t buy red lanterns and what not at the moment, but atleast now you know? Because it looks like every GW holiday comes w/ new decorations that are accessible. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Decoration/Festivals
I’m still saving up for Decorations Merchant 1 and that’s gonna take forever, but atleast my hall is filled with festival decorations.

4) Fortunately Anet has addressed the ridiculous costs associated w/ decorations/scribing and aims to resolve it. So for the day you do get your hands on some basic or festival decorations, and if Anet still hasn’t resolve this, and if you can’t handle leveling your scribe level…look for outside help. The lvl 400 scribes I’ve hired are more than happy to help as long as you can provide mats

my god this is sad

I tried to complete the Convervsation of Resources achievement. After choosing to stay with camp and salvage materials (instead of finding the sylvari soliders) a turret never apepared during the night camp (even though Agent Gunnard said it was there…)

godddd i just want to be able to decorate my guild hall without signing a life contract. i will probably go to my grave without ever getting to place some chairs.

First time posting in this thread, my thoughts:
I have a gamer friend who has very similar tastes in games as I do. I spent months and months convincing him to get into GW2, because I was so sure he’d love it, esp since he’s been itching for a good MMO but has been let down by things like WoW and SWtor for the same reasons I was.

He got GW2 right after NPE. He didn’t like the game at all. I was honestly so surprised because we usually like ALL the same games! He wouldn’t explain why, probably felt bad for letting me down. But then I read up on how much NPR dumbed down the game and limited the new player experience, and I can’t help but wonder if theres a connection. This friend of mine is smart and an experienced gamer. Not an buffoon who never touched a 3D game before. I’m kind of embarrassed to try and recommend GW2 to my other gamer friends now.

IMO all anet needed to do to improve npe tutorial windows, cause there was much too few to begin with, and some QoL stuff. They wasted too much time and effort on realigning the entire game.

I really need this min-pet. Anet, I beg.

I never cared for mini’s. I immediately sell them on the TP every time I get one. They mean absolutely nothing to me.

BUT THIS. THIS… I WANT. I WOULD PAY $$$. I WOULD DO ALL THE RNG IF I HAD TO. PLS ANET.

What in the world made Anet think that making the game easier to understand for new players couldn’t have been achieved with simply adding to the introductions? There were relatively VERY few tutorial/introduction bubbles that pop up in your first levels. That’s all you need. My newbie friends had a bunch of questions for me. I gave them simple answers. They understood. Those questions could’ve easily been answered by in-game text bubbles.

But no, Anet wasted all this time and energy level gating everything, thereby taking away one of the game’s main strengths in providing fun and rewarding level profession. I’ve been very supportive of all of Anet’s actions for the past 8+ years, but this is definitely one thing that has definitely flew over my head and left me extremely disappointed and bewildered by them.

I actually like how building Mawdrey feels like a journey/scavenger hunt. Not that I’ll be doing it though, because it looks like fungi growing on your back.

I enjoy the blix farm, but I definitely agree its for the best it gets nerfed. For the first time in forever I’ve seen Melandru/Grenth/etc be ridiculously under-populated, because the blix train was at its prime. This farm is very bad for the “balance” of the map if it means various large-scale events are almost un-doable.

My bad*ss ele

Adventurer’s scarf
Diviner mantle
Illustrious chest, pants
Researcher’s shoes

Midnight ice, Wrath, Illumination dye

Alot of these responses seem to just be making excuses. I.e. “they’re PROBABLY not too worried because the avatar isn’t really the tree” or “they’re PROBABLY dispersing themselves to heal other parts of the tree” (where is that even indicated?) or “Trahearne is too action-oriented to show any concern”.

Basically, these can all be possibilities that we can arrive at through deeper consideration. But that’s the thing. My main issue is that Anet made none of these things remotely evident in the writing. Atleast that was my impression..

It feels as though the charr NPCs had way more to say about Rytlock’s disappearance than did the sylvari NPCs about their mother’s life being endangered.

I’m not saying the firstborn should all be panicking and crying, but atleast more visibly acknowledge the gravity of this ordeal regarding their poor mother. After the World Summit’s last cutscene, my character would’ve only felt how serious the attack was based on the non-sylvari NPCs reactions, which is just a really odd, unrealistic imbalance. I just think Anet could’ve handled that scenario with a bit more depth and more realistically.

This isn’t a very big deal, but I couldn’t help but find it incredibly odd that all of the sylvari NPCs, especially those two, left with everyone else through the portal, instead of staying behind to check up on their poor mother, who’s lying on the ground passed out and barely breathing.

Furthermore, when talking to Trahearne, he has nothing to say about the ordeal aside from wanting to go back to Fort Trinity asap (understandable, but your mom almost died honey). I didn’t recall seeing Caithe anywhere…? Atleast Laranthir expressed some concern.

I just found it distracting that Anet made all of the non-sylvari Destiny Edge v2 people show more concern for the Pale Tree than the important sylvari NPCs, the firstborn no less.

Don’t kill off Trahearne, he’s cute. And he has potential.

Also it would create a total mess of the personal story. Not everyone has actually finished it by now, and those people maybe playing the living story instead.

Shadowmoon.7986:

So pretty much a female character who pretty much had has no story development is killed for as a plot device in this LS. She is involved in only one mission, and then is sent to her death off screen in the next mission. Pretty much this character was created to die for the A-team to feel emotion, but for me I feel nothing because she has as much development as the thousands of npcs I kill everyday. This is unlike the mentor you get in your PS who you actually develop a relationship with, and then dies in a heroic way. Personally I do find this type of story extremely lazy and somewhat offensive.

OP has misunderstood the woman in refrigerator trope.

What makes the refrigerator trope harmful is how it uses a heroine’s death to further motivate and add emotional depth to a male protagonist, and perpetuating the trope of heroines being more helpless, more susceptible to brutalization in stories, as well as merely existing for the character development of a male character.

In Entanglement, all that happens is that JORY loses her sister. Belinda’s death suggests nothing about the brutalization of women, and the nature of her death is no different from all the other people (including men) you see strangled like Foreman Abe, random male civilian in Prosperity, Drooburt, etc.

Belinda died a brave warrior doing her job, and her death served as a harsh reminder of what kind of threat an Elder Dragon brings. Throughout the personal story Anet has made your character endure all sorts of deaths (from both sexes) in order for you to feel the pains of loss/sacrifice and all that jazz. Belinda’s death is no different.

Wow, first people complain about Trahearne ‘stealing our thunder’ by being leader of the Pact, therefore “stealing” our glory, boo hoo, now this kid is complaining about NPCs actually acknowledging our leadership. Ridiculous.

I don’t think you’re supposed to feel sad about Belinda, you’re supposed to feel for Jory’s loss.

As someone who is super close to her sister, I felt Belinda’s death way more than Drooburt’s.

What if the said leader is ourself?

Although Trahearne is leader of the pact, we are second-in-command. And while it was Trahearne’s doing that Orr is cleansed, it was our efforts that killed Zhaitan. In that sense, we are more of a direct threat to the dragons than Trahearne.

While Trahearne or Jennah might be involved, I doubt either of them will die, otherwise that will make the living story conflict with newer players or those have yet to do their personal story.

sylvari: Spruce Springtrees

I’ve been playing regularly since beta. Paid about $50 in gems, and very happy about it!! That’s nothing compared to the ~$200 you’d pay for a year of WoW or whatever. And I don’t regret my gems at all because I’m very smart about my money. If you paid too much in gems and regret it, you just have yourself to blame tbh….

OMG the music T.T
time to go cry to sleep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I17ZUalbY9s
..unless they bring back Cantha

Obviously not a big deal, but it’d be cool if more of these radiant, glowing shinies weren’t all the same shade of cyan blue or whatever it is. In LA so many players are wielding/wearing all of this different super shiny equipment, but they’re all blue, and it just looks redundant, even though everyone worked really hard for that stuff. The radiant achievement armor’s white glow is a nice change, but how about some pinks, golds, reds, etc etc.

I really like this idea.

I do love the Living Story because I enjoy having something new added on a regular basis and seeing the lore grow bit by bit.

But the rate of these releases is definitely taking a toll on the rest of the game’s social game play. Because people are hooked to the LS achievements, and it does take most people atleast a week to complete them.

As a result, there are less people playing around the world.. There are less people fighting in Orr. Less people in pvp. Less people you come across when running around a zone and less people who’d be around to help you in a DE- this is VERY detrimental to new players!

I don’t think any race will be eager to make territorial claims for a looooooooong time, even when it’s fully cleansed. Everyone would be happy to let the Pact maintain it as a military/research base for a thoroughly long time.

Otherwise, good luck to the real estate agents trying to sell land of a cursed, sunken kingdom, once infested with zombies. Maybe if the land was completely transformed, like literally covered in vegetation, super fertile, etc, then it would have appeal and the mass public could let go of any superstition/lingering fear.

The entire Pavilion is seriously annoying. I can BARELY participate in the zerging or the gauntlet (I can’t even get past Hammerfell. You’re supposed to avoid his windup attacks but I get knocked down regardless even when I’m ACROSS the arena from him) I thought Anet learned something from the karka in Lions Arch disaster? I usually have no problems fighting w/ big groups in WvW etc, but this is just not fair.

Commentary on the Fembot and Male Fantasies in Advertising..by one of my favorite youtube channels, Feminist Frequency (she has an awesome video series on the cliche portrayals of women in video games that I totally recommend checking out)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCUrtFnofQM

As the video describes, the “fembot” is offensive mainly because they are usually portrayed as providing accomodation and pleasure, silently and willingly, thereby exploiting the classic objectification of women as slavish sex toys. For this reason, I had NO negative impression of the Watchknights upon first seeing them, because they were not subjected to that treatment at all.

I’d have a problem if the Watchknights weren’t actually knights, but robotic bartenders for the Jubilee or something of that nature, but they’re not…They are merely soldiers, with symbolic importance. If anything it’s quite appropriate that they’re feminine, because they were created in celebration of Krytan culture and Divinity’s Reach. People often refer to cities as “she..” “her..” with connotations of a motherly guardian.

I understand if some people would prefer the Watchknights be perfectly androgynous for the sake of taste/neutrality/what have you. But for the reason I explained, I do not find their femininity offensive, because they do not exploit any harmful tropes about women.

I’m cool with this Jubilee event, because I’m making some good money and mat farming off of it. But I have a big problem with the lagging in the Pavilion. It is utterly insane =( . My FPS is less than 15. I log on very early in the morning- at that point my combat is super choppy and somewhat tolerable, but a few hours later, it is literally unplayable for me. Because of this I won’t even try the Queens Gauntlet because it’s just not going to work. I do enjoy that this event because the concept is cute, its bringing people together and giving us a new way to make some $ after they nerfed a billion farming areas that used to be fun and aren’t anymore, but the way they designed this Pavilion area makes it really limiting for some of us who aren’t playing on super computers.

Has anyone done this with an ele? Any advice?
Haven’t had the chance to do this yet, but this is sounding scary lol. An ele is my main lvl 80 so I hope I won’t be screwed over by this opportunity.

Gele.2048:

TEMP content is epicly STUPID its forcing us to play to spend more money on gems instead to enjoy summer cuz they need to make more money as soon as outer AAA f2p mmo’s comes me and my guild are stoping this DRESS up SKIN wars game .NO raids epic FAIL for any mmo !!!

^ word up to the ‘dress up skin wars game’ :P
It’s kind of a waste that alot of awesome new skins go straight to the gem store, instead of acting as rewards for new permanent content that’ll keep old players playing. Simple example: Aetherized armor skin in exchange for sky pirate dungeon tokens, etc~

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

raahk.2786:

On the topic of ‘cleansing orr’ wouldn’t it be possible to have a different map depending on whether or not you completed the personal story? They did something similar with winds of change, so it should be possible since it’s all instanced.

Getting access to a ‘Cleansed’ version of Orr. Even if it just has reskinned mobs and looks prettier, it would at least make a bit of sense.
And plus, it’d give more people motivation to finish the personal story, at least on multiple characters, if someone were to put some of those new materials they mentioned there…

The problem with that is, you would no longer be able to assist those who haven’t completed story, because you’d be qued to a different map. That, and most of the events wouldn’t make sense in a post Zhiatain Orr. Who would be the enemy, the remenence of Zhiatain’s undead? While the end of personal story does state that there are still some left, would it be a big enough threat, without a leader it would be a quick mop up. And if there are no enemies, the map is pointless.

I think it would give the opportunity of introducing creative gameplay mechanics, rather than the usual hack ‘n slash DPS zerg. Alot of people complain how GW2’s missions aren’t as creative and strategic as those in GW1, a complaint I wholeheartedly agree with. Like instead of ‘run around and kill mobs of risen’ it could be more ‘kill risen by doing this and that and while you’re at it, watch out for this’ (which was more like GW1..GW2 has a tiny bit of that going on here and there but definitelynot enough) Sure it’s essentially a mop up job, but Orr is still a pretty big (and mysterious) place. Some creativity could go a long way with a place like that.

Since OP brought up Wildstar.. I’d like to mention the possible threat of GW2 also competing w/ Everquest Next/Landmark. EQN has a ton of ambitious genre-revolutionizing goals like Anet did, one of which includes open world manipulation and ‘emergent ai’ – both things will (supposedly) accomplish the true sense of a “living world” .. to the extent new players wouldnt be starting in the same kind of world older players had started in. Lots of community feedback showed people expressing genuine interest, and many had brought up being disappointed by GW2’s promises, no joke.

As someone who wants to continue being loyal to GW2 and touting it as the best MMO foreva, I hope Anet steps up its game soon and introduces some real, permanent changes. That’s the first step to making the game come closer to the original manifesto’s promises. EQN’s promises seem closer to fufilling the manifesto..good for them, but for Anet, that’s scary.

I am so down for a separate instance for a cleansed Orr- perhaps only accessible by those who completed Arah story? There are enough alt toons and new players who can occupy old Orr. Make rewarding, engaging DE-chains in both instances, so that alt toons/new players have motivation to occupy old Orr until they complete Arah story, rinse & repeat.

Queensdale!!!!!!!! Beautiful, and lots of people all the time! That’s how the game should be! The rest of the game, save for LA, is just a giant ghosttown in comparison to the small pocket that is Queensdale and all of its nonstop, compact dynamic events. I spend most of my time there nowadays, even with my max characters.

I used to like Orr, Pre-nerf, for the same reasons (except its not pretty) But now I have to be lucky to login at a time there are enough people to do one temple. And thats it.

I’d like to give a shoutout to Timberline Falls for its unique scenery. I am always so impressed how they captured that particular fresh, crisp, atmostphere unique to high-altitude valleys.

Every zone totally wins, in terms of visuals and details. But in terms of play/vitality, it remains Queensdale.

Oh good I’m not the only one complaining

I’ve got nothing wrong with deeper-voiced, huskier female voices. They can sound fabulous. But this norn woman sounds so awkwardly butch and fake it makes me cringe =(

“Yus, gaining adrenaline”- no stahp.

Sorry for bumping old thread, but gosh, I just created my first Norn, and I’ve gotten so excited by how fab she’s gonna be, but this awk butch voice just kills the mood sometimes.

I welcome this change. It makes variety more rewarding.

But I’m still upset Anet had nerfed dynamic events, and provided no substitute afterwards. Atleast with this change, they’re substituting cof grind w/ a new dungeon reward system.

(altho tbh I didnt mind cof grind cause I would minimize my game window and watch all my netflix at the same time =D)

“Anet Dev confirms – Rapier probably next patch” ????
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1iwvp9/anet_dev_confirms_rapier_probably_next_patch/

I’m glad they’re giving attention to DR and I honestly wouldn’t mind it becoming a more popular capital city. I always thought DR was the most drop-dead gorgeous city. It’s a shame people don’t run around it on a regular basis. I’d take it over LA any day.

I don’t like how the ghosts’ karka skill = certain death. You should have the chance of escaping the karka trap, IF, you have the skill/speed (..like in Hunger Games) But no, the karka’s range is huge, their attacks are literally, inescapable (you can’t dodge/outrun them at all. i once died when the attack didn’t physically hit me -_-) and of course they one-shot you. I like that ghosts can make it harder for survivors to live, but they shouldn’t be able to actively KILL. The very idea of that is really farcical, and like others said, it actively punishes people who are actually surviving rather than those who horded and hide early in the game. It prevents the face-to-face combat that would happen when ppl would be forcd to turn on each other to steal other’s things. One idea is that the karka skill functions more as a way to close up more of the map’s borders and force people to return closer to the center.

Hello~
Character name: Zestalyn
Professions: Ele is my main
Gear: All exotic
Exp: None in Arah exp
Time: Can’t login consistently due to school, but if there are scheduled meetups in the evenings (EST) I’ll do my very best to be there.
Other: Need Arah for the tokens. I’m a pretty laid back player but I’m sharp and a fast learner :] looking forward to the fun.

I doubt there’ll be anything in the game that prevents you from acquiring support tokens for either side..the victory just comes down to whoever has acquired the most overall. There might be titles you can earn based on your success in the candidate trials challenge? And so what if you earn titles for both candidates, you still can only display 1 title =P

For the most part these sounds like nice adjustments.

What I’m most bummed about is that there will be no guild halls in all of 2013 =(

I main D/D ele because it looks and feels amazing. Incredible mobility and spamming between 4 visually and mechanically distinct elements. It’s like being the Avatar (from the Last Airbender, if you know what I mean) but with sexy knives.

Ele was my first GW2 character. It was hard getting into the melee professions afterwards because the static nature of melee combat just felt so much slower, so it took me awhile to feel entertained by my thief and guardian.

I have been enthusiastic and optimistic about everything Anet has been doing until the most recent LS stuff. I loved this game because there was always alot going on throughout the maps involving other players (Orr used to be so much fun) Now such places have been nerfed and these Living Stories are hogging all the spotlight & there aren’t any players in any other maps besides Lions Arch.

These Living Stories take up all my time in doing silly little chores than actual adventuring with other people. I find myself more solo than ever, even guesting on to less popular worlds just so I can ninja hologram projectors, and now these silly kite baskets. I don’t feel like I’m interacting/contributing to the world as the manifesto had encouraged.. I don’t know why farming areas that used to bring so many people together getting events done had to get nerfed so hard.

Not only is everyone just doing the same dungeon over and over (CoF p1..and resorting to stringent team builds, too.) Now we’re all just getting sucked into new chores every two weeks, where each new content hooks us onto an achievement grind that has nothing to do with what the original manifesto promoted. These achievement grinds don’t make the world feel any more alive. With Dragon Bash+Bazaar Sanctum combined, I don’t feel like I’m playing GW2 anymore.. it doesn’t feel the same when every map is a ghost town, except for the people who are chasing after projectors/baskets like you are. How exciting.

I used to have good reasons for convincing my friend to log on with me. The Dragon Bash grind exhausted her and I don’t know what I’d tell her now. Yes the Bazaar is beautiful and the aspect skills are dandy, but what else after that? Grind again?? More mindless teleporting and running?? And I have to do all of this within 2 weeks for it to count for anything??

I hate to be another whiner, but I never ever felt compelled to complain about anything in this game until now, and it’s for reasons I think are not too blasphemous. Living Story is exciting for the storytelling, but the game’s gameplay overall is declining because there is so much less ‘playing’. Just my 2 cents.

Raestloz.7134:

EDIT:
And while we’re at it, we nominate Trahearne – a Salad – as the leader for the sole reason that a Salad Goddess happens to nominate her own son as a leader. Seriously, ANet? I don’t mean to be racist but if you want a particular Salad to lead a multi-racial army, perhaps it’s best to also get votes in from other races, not just from another Salad

IMO that’s a pretty misguided train of thought. Simply because

1. The Pact does not revolve around races. It revolves around the Orders.
2. The Orders obviously agreed to it. Thanks to your character’s suggestion.
3. No one else in the Pact knows about the Pale Tree showing you and Trahearne her vision, so there’s no such thing as the Pale Tree imposing on the Pact.
4. Speaking of the Pale Tree, she didn’t nominate anything. She simply pulled a Galadriel.

I agree with everyone else Anet’s writing of this part of the game is real shoddy/contrived/ Kormir-like blahblah, but there is no need for making up things from thin air.

I’m all for criticizing what we don’t like in our games, but ppl need to stick to canon/know what you’re talking about/no headcanon pls.

I don’t think the Arabic influence on Orr/Largos would have ever been offensive (to NCSoft that is) because there are no character designs or even architecture that have specific cultural representations. Just names really (right?) NCSoft cut the Cantha district because they didn’t like how the designs specifically emulated the East Asian aesthetic and its people. (Which is a load of bullkitten as me and a trillion other GW players have been saying. Give us Cantha and everything else you’ve got! None of the culturally inspired designs Anet has made in the past has truly offended players because it was done with impeccable taste and style that transcended any form of mere stereotyping)

Anyway, we’re going off topic here, lol. I don’t doubt that the “real story” behind the collapse was simply the last minute cut of Cantha. But to leave something so ominous in a huge chunk of DR is simply an opportunity for Anet to weave in something dramatic into future plot developments. The ‘real story’ is what it is, but the collapse’s role in the future is totally in the air, and surely something to look forward to. It would be stupid/complete waste to do nothing with it. I bet that Anet was thinking the collapse could become significant in the future, and that’s why they had the Shining Blade be involved, because I bet they want some future plot developments involving that group.

they could charge $500 for the Cantha expansion and id kittening buy it.

I want to see Magus Falls opened! I’d love to see some development on the estranged sylvari Malyck and all of the other sylvari born of a different Pale Tree west of Tarnished Coast. Malyck leaves Sylvari players promising us he’ll find his origins and bring back an army to aid the fight against the Elder Dragons. Releasing that western region will involve shedding light on these alien sylvari, and Malyck’s promise offers possibilities that can be easily tied into the main storyline of GW2. I really hope they will follow through with this =)