Guild Wars 2

Smokey.7652:

ANet was originally very open about their development, but the vocal negative minority of the community crushed that and forced ANet to be more selective with what they release to the public.

Dev Player communication is a two way street of respect, the community dropped the ball early on and now we have to deal with the consequences of that.

They also have to be quiet for legal reasons too. They can’t promise something until it’s almost time for release.

As for Dev / Player communication, just thank God that we’re not in Japan .I’ve seen fans from Japan have meltdowns when a game is not living up to expectation. What we’re seeing on this forum isn’t all that bad. The community here is alot more tame.

In the US, everything from fast food to medical has its share of complainers. I’ve experienced alot of this and worse in my working life. If everyone quit because of a complaint, the US wouldn’t be operating right now.

Here’s the positive way to look at this game’s situation: If people really hated this game, they would of left by now.

The Pale Tree is able to let any PC into the Dream. See Personal Story step, “A Light in the Darkness” (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/A_Light_in_the_Darkness).

As I mentioned in my other recent post, “Tension, Conflict, and the other things the LS needs” (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Tension-Conflict-and-other-things-LS-Needs/first#post3837681), Scarlet is now the the messiah character of the series. Click on the link and read my post for more details.

I can definitely see her as a sort of Spirit Advisor (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpiritAdvisor) during LS Season 2.

Theundersigned.4761:

It’s bizarre how many people hold their money over ArenaNet’s head like some kind of carrot.

Video games are a business, and business needs money to thrive.

Ravion Hawk.4736:

Lheimroo.2947:

Why are they trying to turn everything they gave us previously for free without hassle into the new mode of ‘progression’?

This “feature pack” is porting functionality from the China version which is Pay-to-Win.

Everyone just let that sink in and think about it.

Tell me about it. I’m going to be keep an eye on this for awhile. If this game goes the way of Perfect World or Aion, my money will go back to SquareEnix, Nexon and Blizzard. Plus, I will never, ever buy another NC Soft game after this. I refuse to support Pay-to-Win games and the companies that make them.

Anet doesn’t want my money after all my years of supporting them through thick and thin? They want to destroy their own brand name by mistreating players, doing pointless revamps, censoring content, and refusing to add much needed content? Fine. I’ll go somewhere else. Blizzard also has Sylvari-like creatures in their upcoming expansion. This Sylvari fan might just want to go over there and check it out.

Andred.1087:

I think it’s worth pointing out this game isn’t made for adults. Obviously not saying adults aren’t part of the target market, but surely not the largest part. There’s a reason it’s rated T, and it probably isn’t because the writers wanted to spent their days writing the cheesiest dialogue since, well, yes, Scooby Doo.

Alot of us here talking about the game’s story because we all bought the game for the story. Plus the Anet team did use the game’s story to advertise the game.

The bar is set very high for RPGs, thanks to Teen-rated games like:

Baldur’s Gate
Planescape Torment
Divinity original sin
Final Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy 9
ChronoTrigger
The Last Story

There are even some E-rated RPG games that have high-quality, endearing storylines too :

Legend of Zelda (everything from A Link to the Past to Skyward Sword has an endearing storyline)

Kingdom Hearts

Just because GW2 is an MMORPG doesn’t mean that it can’t have a good storyline. Even WoW’s Mists of Pandaria has a pretty good general storyline.

Yes, there are plenty of adults who like all of the games I’ve mentioned.

My guess is that the writing team is limited to only a handful of people. This game is way too large for a small group of writers to take on. IMO, what Arena Net needs are writers who can submit game manuscripts to the company. Hmmm… I think I’ll contact Anet’s HR and ask them about that.

If this were a TV show, I’d be writing spec scripts and submitting them ASAP.

I agree with this idea. There really needs to be a calendar for player created events on this website!

Heads up!

Earlier today, I was in Brisban Wildlands to work on map completion, and I discovered that there is LS Season 2 preview info on the map. You can find it at the following locations:

• East of Gallowfields Waypoint, there is a place called Seenan’s Bandits. It is a fort. Before Ivy, the NPC, sends you on the renown heart mission, she tells the PC that there will be an upcoming Seraph assault against the bandits soon. That is similar to the story we hear from Majory’s sister at the end of LS Season 1. Once your PC finishes the renown heart, you’ll get info regarding the White Mantle.*

• At Triforge Point Waypoint, your PC will meet a Sylvari named Valiant Mathair, another Renown Heart NPC. If you talk to him, he’ll mention about a new alliance between Inquest, the Bandits, and the Nightmare Court. Sound familiar? Hmm… This reminds me of a particular LS Season 1 character who created weird evil alliances (such as getting the krait to team up with the Nightmare Court to create the Toxic Alliance).

There is a very good chance that we might see more of Mathair during LS Season 2. His Wyld Hunt is to take down the new alliance, and he’s going to need our help. Doesn’t that sound like a particular NPC we met in the Personal Story?

For those who can’t access the area or who are too lazy to go check it out themselves, there are screenshots below that have the info.

For the GW2 Newbies:

At the end of Living Story Season 1 (LS 1), the PCs defeated the infamous Sylvari Engineer / Genius known as Scarlet Briar, who had terrorized all of Tyria for the past year and a half. Scarlet is the reason that Lion’s Arch (LA) is currently in ruins. There is currently no sign that LA will be rebuilt soon due to the damage from the miasma (toxic swamp fumes), council politics, and bad memories. Some NPCs have become racists against Sylvari because of Scarlet’s actions. We also found out that the Seraph will be mounting an assault against the bandits in Brisban Wildlands. The Pact (mentioned in the Personal Story) will also be joining the PCs since Scarlet’s final experiment woke up the Jungle dragon, Mordremoth.

I have followed the Guild Wars franchise since 2006. With this new Sept Feature pack revelation, the game is not looking good. They’re “leaving money on the table” when it comes to us vets. There is very little in the Sept Feature Pack for long-time players. We shall see how GW2 fares against its giant American and Japanese competitors in the next few months. The US competition has a major expansion coming out this November. After what I’ve seen in the expansion’s trailer, Blizzard is looking to grab GW2 fans to their side.

Two years and no GW2 expansion in sight. Worse, Guild Wars 2 is taking the very risky Asian-MMO-route in North America. I’m old enough to have seen many Asian MMOs fail in the US. The only Asian MMOs that made it here financially are Final Fantasy 14 and MapleStory. I know that MapleStory had to make major adjustments to its game to appeal to NA players.

We shall see how this all pans out. I love this game very much, and I don’t want to see it fail. Let’s hope there is something really good in future updates!

Knighthonor.4061:

sometimes people like to roleplay that they are dueling. I dont see a problem with that. its fun actually.

It’s not dueling if the other group isn’t fighting back. Plus, it’s well known in the RP community that players who want a fight MUST get others permission BEFORE initiating combat. This goes for both Tarnished Coast (NA megaserver) or Piken Square (EU megaserver).

The PvP community usually takes their stuff to the Mists (the PvP maps or private arenas).

Here’s another thing: It only takes a few min to type a message in Say chat to get the others’ permission.

Just because one sees a group, doesn’t mean they’re up for a fight. Not all of the people on the megaserver like PvP or RP.

Me Games Ma.8426:

What if they’d completely remove downstate in PvE?

What do you guys think? I did not ask if you like this idea but what you think would happen to the gameplay!

I know how it would affect gameplay:

1. Engies wouldn’t be able to rez downed people from a distance with Elixir R. This elixir doesn’t work on dead players. It only works on downed players.

1. Elixir R will be useless to the Engies too. Why? If a player drinks Elixir R prior reaching 0 hp, they will immediately rally shortly after reaching the downed state.

1. It would prevent people from rezing during major fights like Tequatal. Why? A downed character is alot easier to rez than a dead character. It could take up to 3 min to rez a dead character while rezzing a downed player takes only a few seconds. During a major fight, you don’t want to rez for more than a few seconds or you’ll risk going down too. The downed state is very necessary part of the game’s mechanics (esp. at the higher levels).

:( Poor quaggan…

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Um . . . not to be a jerk, but I don’t care for any romantic involvements in the game whether heterosexual or homosexual. If I want to see romance, I’ll watch a soap opera.

More blood and guts please . . . and loot.

Loot is always good. I want to see more rares and unique drops.

starlightx.3728:

Sighs I heard Arenanet purposely removed the cut-scene dialogues because it was uninteractive.

It was actually one of the reasons I enjoyed GW2 so much, because it was one of the few MMO’s that gave the player character a true voice. GW2 is actually the only MMORPG I’ve played where I actually pay attention to the storyline and is actually quite immersed in it, and a big part of that were due to the cutscenes.

To me, the cutscenes made it possible for my character to truly interact and converse with the other characters, it feels like he/she is really part of the story, developing real relationships with other characters in the story.
.

Cutscenes cost money. Did you know that the starting wage for computer animators in the Seattle area is $80,000 per year. I know this because I’m a animator myself. Many of the companies in the area hire animators for a short time because of the cost. Animating in Maya is challenging and time consuming. The cost of the animator goes up when the artist gets more experience. I had a teacher at Art Institute of Seattle that charged one local company half a million dollars (at the bare minimum) for making one commercial. That’s because he actually had experience in Hollywood with the big blockbuster films.

I believe that Anet cut out the PCs’ voices due to cost.

Making realistic video games is not cheap. I dare anyone who says otherwise to download a copy of Unity 3d and create a game that has the size and scope of GW2. It’’s a huge task for an individual game developer to take on.

As for the Personal Story cutscenes, those had to be removed. It’s not appropriate for the US market due to how folks in this part of the world communicate. We Americans are dependent on body language and tone of voice to communicate our messages in American English. It’s the reason why we look a person in the face while talking to them. Thanks to the influence of religious groups like the Amish and the Quakers, our language was created with directness, simplicity, and truth in mind. It’s not designed for communicating ideas in a few simple words or characters like Japanese. IMO, the personal story cutscenes were the reason NA players couldn’t understand a complex character like Trahearne. We really needed to see him in the scene talking to our PCs and interacting with the environment.

For me, the current cutscenes communicate the necessary information that I as a player need to know about the storyline. I really like the stuff.

Scarlet was an Asura-phile. It would make sense for her to have a connection to the old lab. She saw herself as an Asura instead of Sylvari. That’s very apparent in the final battle when we have to fight the colored holograms: Dynamic, Static, and Synergetic.

I know why she divorced her culture. I play 2 Sylvari characters, and Sylvari society has given me the impression that they don’t approve of intellectuals that venture outside the “natural” realm (esp mechanics). If a Sylvari is like Kahedins and integrates plants into their designs, that’s a-okay. But God help the poor salad who thinks outside of the garden box.

Hi! I’ve been experiencing problems after the Nightmare Within update:

— extreme lag inside the tower

— command delays. For example, I push Number 6 to use my character’s healing skill and the button flashes and nothing happens. I push Number 1 to use my character’s pistol and nothing happens. This started happening after the last update. This is happening no matter what map I’m on. It happens in WvW, PvE, and especially the Nightmare Tower.

— Computer freezes during the Nightmare Chamber battles.

— Extreme loading time for Tower of NIghtmares. A few minutes ago, the loading screen for the tower lasted 5 minutes.

I’ve already checked my Internet connection and I’ve played other MMOs like WoW on the computer. I even did a clean boot. My computer is working fine. It’s the game that isn’t working well at all. I didn’t have these problems before the Nightmare Within update. Everything started happening after yesterday’s update.

I disagree with ghost.3208. Everyone knows there has to be a body to confirm a death. Sorry that’s just how it is. In Tybalt’s case, he had a prosthetic arm. Even if he used that special poison to disintegrate himself to avoid becoming a Risen, his metal arm would of been all that was left of him. When we retook Claw Island there was no pile of ash nor a prosthetic arm anywhere.

All we got is some Risen charr who brags about killing Tybalt. Anyone can brag to start a fight.

No body, no metal arm, and no zombie means that Tybalt is still alive. He may be a Charr but he is a Whispers. That means that he would have some “trick” or two up his sleeve that would help him escape.

Tybalt did explain that after he lost his paw, the other Charr back in his homeland shunned him for not dying with his warband. Talk about harsh! If I were in Tybalt’s shoes, I would fake my death and start over under another name. Of course, his love for apples would eventually give him away.

I also agree with other players who have stated that Tybalt is the real Master of Whispers. I think the lady who claims to be the MoW is a stand-in.

Sorann Peace.9056:

It reminds me way too much of people who click accept on a quest prompt in WoW and don’t even read what the window says. What, you expect to get a story when you don’t even READ IT?

And keep in mind, ArenaNet has said that they did away with the old fashioned two people talking against a background splash screen format from the PS. Because of that, your character only converses in click dialogue for the most part now. So, for the people who complain about the lack of your character speaking I have four words:

Read. The. Dialogue. Window.

Thank you! I’m going to add something to this:.

Play. The. Episode. More. Than. Once.

Yep. That’s right. You can’t play through the episode once and say you’ve seen everything. Those achievements for each episode are Anet’s way of encouraging us players to play the episodes again.

Whenever I team up with people, I notice that there are too many players who rush through the story in-game. It’s not just speed-loving hardcore players who do this. Roleplayers tend to do this too. There is so much information in each episode. It is very easy to miss something important.

Also, when a player plays different classes and races, there is a chance of getting different info. I’m basing that off of personal experience.

Last month, Anet told us that they were choosing to work on Living Story instead of dungeons, fractals, and Super Adventure Box. There’s a good chance that Anet is currently working on integrating LS Season 1 into the story journal system.

All of last season’s events took place in the open world, so the devs are probably working on instancing everything.

Mid Season break???? That’s ridiculous! We just started Season2! They’re going to frustrate the player base if they go on break now!

We already had a super long break between season 1 and season 2. Enough with the breaks and get on with the story!

X The Manimal.5293:

Minos.5168:

Aveneo.2068:

Now if ESO had been B2P like GW2, it might have been competition. But not when they want to charge you $60 for the box with $15 a month on top of that and a cash-shop.

See: World of Warcraft. (which had 7.8 million subscribers as of December 31st)
Next expansion will be $50. It’s still got a $15/mo subscription AND a cash shop.

7.8 is more than twice the “over 3 million GW2 copies sold”.
And that’s people that are still actively subscribed. Not just people that bought the game.

WoW has been out for YEARS and has developed a strong playerbase that worked so hard to get their gear and rewards. They don’t want to lose it all so they’re obligated to pay and play. I know, because I was one of them until I just didn’t care anymore. It was painful to see my characters go but I had to do it. ESO, however, is a new MMO and has a sub-fee as well as the 60$ box just like WoW. It won’t do so good I’m afraid.

Add to that the fact that ESO has low-budget animation and gameplay. It’s great for long-time fans of the series, but not so great for new players who are spoiled by modern RPGs like GW2. IMO, if a game is going to have a sub fee, I expect high quality animation and excellent gameplay. ESO doesn’t deliver that so I’m not leaving GW2.

Plus, ESO is too grim-dark for some players (like me). It seems as if it’s designed to snag the Skyrim crowd.

In the words of Grand Marshal Trahearne: “It won’t end well.”

I’m a story person, so I start with an idea for a great tale.

Before I bought GW2, I knew it was about heroes fighting evil dragons. When I saw the debut trailer, the rise of Zhaitan and the spread of his minions reminded me of the disease, Cancer. Then I thought, “What kind of food fights cancer?” The first answer to my mind: Blueberries!

I knew at that point that my first GW2 character would be a blue sylvari.

When I finally bought a copy of the game, I couldn’t decide on a class. I went back to my Blueberry hero idea. I thought of all the ways that blueberries fight cancer: shrinking tumors, stopping cancer migration, prevent the cancer from multiplying, and ultimately destroy the cancer itself. Since the game offered the Engineer class, I felt that a gun would be much more efficient weapon in my character’s quest than a sword.

For gender, I preferred the look of the male sylvari for this story idea.

As for looks….. I’m a fan of JRPGs. I prefer my avatars to be bishonen and bishojos. Most anime & manga tend to have an average person in extraordinary circumstances instead of a beefed-up superhero. That’s my personal taste. So I settled on the basic looks for my main character. I have never used a make up kit on my main.

For me it’s a tradition to name my GW characters after gemstones and incense. That’s just what I like. I decided to name my main, Lapis.

The concept for my second character is based of the Rose from the children’s story, The Little Prince. Her name is Lazuli.

My recommendation: Use what inspires you to create your character.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

After many total makeover kits and a lot of patience… I think I finally got my character just right. And she is one beautiful woman.
Initially I had wanted to share this in a pre-made thread, but I can’t seem to find the one I had seen (or possibly thought I had seen) some days ago now. And the search tool was no help at all…

Anyway, here she is in all her Necromantic beauty. Feel free to share your beautiful characters be they Charr, Asura, Human, Sylvari or Norn.

Wow! Congratulations on making a really good black character! This game really needs characters like her! Now here’s my main character…

dkspins.4670:

BobbyStein.2315:

Rouven.7409:

Imagining Bobby sitting in his office, a flower in his hand, picking off the petals:

“We kill him…”
“We kill him not.”
“We kill him…”

That’s exactly how it happened.

Please don’t take my buddy Trahearne, take that hag Queen Jennah who “called” Logan away from his obligation to his fellow DE characters, despite the fact that she could conjure up a dragon. <smile>

I have a better suggestion: Kill off Logan instead of Trahearne. Then have the awesome and interesting Lord Faren take his place. Logan is one of the most pointless, boring characters in the game anyways. He’s a shame to the Thackrey name. If he were more like Gwen, I would like him. Since Logan is not like his extra-great grandma, just kill him off.

Bobby, don’t even think about harming the Pale Tree either.

Edit: I originally didn’t want to see Queen Jennah killed but now I changed my mind.

Quaggan lovers unite! Quaggans need to be player characters in GW2!

The main reason I’m suggesting this: I love the quaggans’ storyline and sympathize with their plight. Plus, I only got a few quaggan-related quests in my Sylvari Engineer’s Personal Storyline.

The idea of a young quaggan trying to save themselves (and their community) from extinction would make for an excellent (albeit emotional) heroic storyline for this game.

Another added plus: Seeing a quaggan in WvW or in the dungeons is good for laughs.

Side note: There is a person in my guild who changes into a quaggen when they want to run rings around Charr in Catherdal of Flames or running from warriors in WvW. It makes everyone on Teamspeak laugh when this happens.

Aftertouch.5437:

So with the destruction of the city and the grieving citizens naturally looking for a scapegoat to latch on to, it’s been interesting and a little unsettling to see the reactions coming out from the different quarters, such as folks condemning the bigots and folks being racist toward the salads.

I’m hesitantly curious to see just how much ANet’s going to let this wave of discontent rise against the Sylvari and just how bad things could get and what actions could come of it.

Mostly because something like this obviously might hit close to home for people playing and plot points like this could easily backfire if the writers don’t handle it correctly.

At the very least it makes playing a sylvari a heck of a lot more engaging atm and possibly so for the near future. What do you all think?

If Anet does go through with this, I wouldn’t mind. Racism is a subject that myself and many other Americans in this game would be familiar with. Everyone in the US has been discriminated at one time or another. Plus, It’s appropriate to use non-human races to tell the very sensitive human stories. Star Trek did this and succeeded. That show came out when there were major racial tensions between white supremacists and African Americans. That show succeeded in tearing down barriers and brought people together.

To pull this off successfully, the writers in all of the committees will need to RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!

If Anet goes in this direction, I wish them happy trails and good luck! I hope it succeeds!

BTW, I’m of a mixed background (Latin American / Asian American/ Native American/ Jewish ancestry / Armenian / White). A story like racism wouldn’t hit too close to home. It’s a common experience.

So far, Anet has succeeded in telling a 9/11-styled event (aka the Lion’s Arch / Scarlet event). I lived through 9/11, so I appreciated seeing a fictional version. Seeing something like that is like going back to the grave of an old friend or a close relative. I did get a few PTSD flashbacks during the Escape patch. When my guildees saw me slow down in-game, I got a chance to tell them about the memories that came back to me. I went through therapy a while back, so I know how to handle my PTSD episodes. That patch also helped me remember some important things from 9/11 that I’m including in my own original sci-fi novel.

Fay.2735:

Am I the only person who liked Scarlet (Even at the time)?

Nope. I loved her too. Logging in to do Season 1 achievements on Saturday was like turning on the TV to watch cartoons. The Season 1 episodes always put a smile on my face. It was sad that people screamed about how boring it was. It wasn’t boring to me at all. It felt like D&D finally had a decent video game incarnation for once (instead of the clunky dice ridden sad-excuse-for-a-video-game that is offically sanctioned by WOTC). I’ll admit that the story felt very thin.

I guess the Anti-Scarlet complainers were a bunch of young people who were spoiled by the modern games and forgot about the importance of good gameplay. I had alot of fun going through the Nightmare Tower with friends. I even enjoy the leftover Scarlet stuff in Fractals.

Thanks to Scarlet, SW and Vinewrath are easy peasy for my RP characters. Scarlet and her cronies were alot harder and more challenging than Mordremoth. Mordi is so easy that i’m able to breeze through an LS episode in less than two hours (while taking my time). The Jungle Dragon is so easy, I have to go to back to Draenor (WoW) to find a real challenge.

I will always see her as a tragic figure instead of a villain. ((salutes Scarlet))

Tanef.7284:

Seriously, I stopped playing about 8 months ago and i am still checking every update email hoping that there will be some EndGame content released for veterans that does not involve WvW or pointless Living Stories so I can come back and play.

What is going on? what is the point of bringing new players if the old ones are leaving? =\
Besides making all my characters look kitten, I have no point of actually playing the game anymore. I have all the characters with maxed out armor, and now there is simply nothing else to do.

I think that what everyone is Really looking for is either an Expansion or/ and some actual end game content like Rides, bosses etc for veteran – non pvp – players to do.

Seriously, think about it. That’s probably the only thing that keeps WOW alive today so you can’t say that it’s not worth it or that people don’t like it.

In Guild Wars 2, there are extremely few challenging monsters after a person gets to level 80. People at level 80 need their own areas with monsters that are at level 81 and above. We also need more solo content esp. dungeons that have enemies that can be soloed. We’re not asking for anything that requires commitment to a guild or requires a group to complete (like Triple Wurm, Fractals, and Arah explorable paths).

For all those who claim this game is for casuals only: The term casual game means a game with “simple rules and lack of commitment required”. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casual_game).

Guild Wars 2 has group oriented events that require commitment. That’s not the mark of a casual game. Triple Wurm is good example. This monster requires that players log in at certain times to play the content (even if it’s inconvenient for the players). A solo player can’t fight Triple Wurm by themselves. A group of pugs have to wait for certain times to fight the monster too. Most people who have conquered the Wurm are in guilds and the fight is often coordinated over a voice program (like TS3 or Vent). Coordinated fights do require commitment on the player’s part to log on and be available during a scheduled time.

There are alot of other areas in GW2 that require groups. Bosses in some open-world group events don’t take damage if a lone player takes them one. Fractals and dungeons require groups at certain points. The Mossman Fractal requires a group in order to place the orbs in the tree trunks and open the gate to another area. In TA forward, Leurant is chained to his allies. I can’t pull and fight them one at a time.

By contrast, MapleStory’s dungeons and open world enemies don’t require a group at all. A person can create a hero class character that has the ability to take on multiple foes at once (perfect for soloing dungeons and maps full of enemies). Then the player can make a solo party to enter a dungeon and destroy all enemies (including the bosses). Whenever I’m defeated in a MS dungeon, I just level up a bit more and then I return for revenge. MapleStory’s dungeons and bosses don’t require pugs or even a guild. The guilds in the game are optional and strictly for social reasons.

Guild Wars 2 is not a casual game by any stretch. It’s very dependent on guilds and pugs to get through certain parts of the game. True casual games don’t require commitment of any kind (esp. commitment to a group).

Also, there are plenty of casual games have repeatable content regardless of genre. Angry birds, Diner Dash, MapleStory, Guild Wars 1, and Super Mario Brothers are excellent examples of casual games that have more challenging, repeatable content than Guild Wars 2. Casual game doesn’t mean that it’s devoid of challenges.

DarcShriek.5829:

You’ve all seen what the sylvari did to Lion’s Arch. All sylvari should be hunted down and handed over to the charr to be used as firewood at meatoberfest. No sylvari can be trusted. The Pale Tree must be destroyed!

You do realize that species or cultures who are threatened with genocide tend to multiply? Right???

Take coyotes. Where I live, regular coyote hunts isn’t allowed because it causes the female coyotes to produce more pups.

In the case of Sylvari: If you kill or persecute the salad people, then they will take root and multiply. Their bodies will eventually adapt and evolve, and they will become a stronger force than the humans, norn, and charr put together. Scarlet Briar was proof that there are geniuses in their group, and they will eventually rival the Asura anyways.

There are even recorded cases on the Tarnished Coast of Sylvari having intimate relations with members of the other races (esp. the Asura ). Earlier this year, a bunch of Asura got caught getting it on with their leafy friends. It’s been the talk in Rata Sum since the beginning of the year.

Knowing the Asura, I wouldn’t be surprised if they come up with a way make half plant / half Asura progeny. We did fight a sylvari / krait hybrid in the Nightmare Tower, so it’s not as far fetched as it sounds.

CoffeeMakesMeSmile.8172:

I get that Scarlet was the villain, but I felt horrible listening to Marjory and the others joke about her death.

Previous LS updates established that she’s been driven crazy by some external force that she encountered in the Eternal Alchemy and could no longer mentally fight it. We should pity her or mourn for those she’s killed, not make childish jokes about what it felt like to deliver the death blow.

Not to be rude here, but I’m genuinely curious – do dialogue ideas get checked before they are added? If so, did no one suggest that joking about killing a mentally unstable character might be in poor taste?

Keep in mind that those characters live in the 1300s Tyria, so they’re not educated when it comes to mental illness. We players, on the other hand, live on 21st century Earth where folks are slowly becoming more informed about mental health and people who manage mental disabilities.

I’m satisfied with the choices Anet gave us for this scenario. At least my noble Sylvari character deflected the NPCs’ comments by telling Majory that killing Scarlet wasn’t as good as getting a kiss from her. I love that comment!

To Anet: Thank you for giving us a chance to flirt with Majory! You’ve made my day!

Im Mudbone.1437:

Why is it that 75% of people are listing what new CONTENT they would like to see and not the FEATURES they would like to see, they are two very different things. EXAMPLES: (FEATURES); enhance the UI interface, skills revamp and fix bugs, (CONTENT); new dungeons, guild halls and GvG.

Thx for clarifying the difference between the two.

To answer your question: The average gamer doesn’t speak “dev talk” or industry lingo. To a player, content and features are the same thing.

Now back to the OP’s question. Here is what I think the game needs feature-wise:

1) Separate chat line for RPers. People RP on the Tarnished Coast server and the Piken Square server despite the game’s limitations. Financially, these people are necessary to keep because they buy the cosmetic stuff for their characters (like skin in the gemstore). Whenever I’m in Divinity’s Reach, the chat box is flooded with both OOC and IC messages (esp. Say chat and Map chat). It would help to know the difference between the two. Plus, a separate chat line will allow RPers to RP during events without interrupting the semi-hardcore and hardcore players.

2) The camera needs to be fixed. I’d like to get a closeup view and aerial view of my characters, but the game doesn’t let me. Plus, the camera acts jumpy and funny whenever my character gets stuck in a corner or tight spot.

3) Solo versions of Fractals and Dungeons. This is necessary for new players to game to get experience and practice before joining a PUG. The PUGs tend to perfer experienced dungeon runners with the best gear (exotic or ascended only), and they drop players for not having enough achievement points. There are puggers who will kick people off their team because they sold that player’s spot to someone else for gold. The current actions of unscrupulous puggers keeps new players from enjoying endgame content.

I lovingly call Mawdrey a baby honorary sylvari (aka Scarlet’s baby) :P

Dondarrion.2748:

Great story – and crafting Mawdrey/Mawdrey II seems like a good prototype for precursor scavenger hunt, so go ahead and follow this format, Anet

Both in terms of requiring components from fresh content to tie in with current story, but also leading you on a merry go-round the old block to revisit all those old places to complete events, mini dungeons, etc.

It really works. Of course, the time gated crafting is annoying me because I have to portion this out across 21 days just because Anet say so, not because of the exhaustive task. But still, it “teaches” patience and works so that die-hards don’t farm themselves 24/7 to death and complete their precursor in 3 days.

I agree with you. I prefer building weapons, armor, & items too.

The time gated stuff doesn’t bother me. It just requires that I log in for a few minutes a day to make stuff.

More Piccies!

Lazuli, my second character, visted her ailing mother this morning!

BTW, the dialog for the Avatar of the Pale Tree says that she is breathing. Mama is in a coma.

Lazuli: “Mum, I’m here for you.”

Mckeone.9804:

To be fair, Jeff Grub was involved with GW: EOTN and also has a much deeper background in writing fantasy novels. Angel McCoy wrote a lot of source material for Changeling and other White Wolf products, and a handful of short stories IIRC.

Okay so this is Jeff Grubb’s second cRPG and Angel’s first cRPG.

That’s really not enough experience when it comes to making video games. There is a big difference between computer RPGs and D&D. The only really successful D&D video game ventures have been Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment. Those two games barely made a profit even though they were awesome. Final Fantasy and Zelda were way more successful than either D&D game back in the 90s. FF and Zelda remained king of cRPGs until WoW came along.

Video games are very different from other mediums. cRPGs require a different approach since people are used to the instant satisfaction that games like WoW and Final Fantasy give to players. It helps to regularly play video games (even foreign ones) to learn how games affect the players and study the game mechanics.

Major NPCs, major items and most of the quests in the player character’s environment are used to tell the story in a cRPG. A good example was the spinal blade backpack. We needed the spinal blades to enter the instance where we could peg Scarlet. Even the blueprints pushed the story and mystery forward by having the following words printed on it:

“Caithe, someday you’ll see. Tyria needs me.” — Scarlet

People who played the Aetherblade dungeon know that Caithe and Scarlet had a conflict with each other. It’s well known that Scarlet knew Caithe’s secret. The spinal blades reminded the players about the conflict. That’s why we’re still talking about Caithe’s secret on the forums. It’s very important to the storyline. It also made the audience care.

In contrast, the Mawdrey backpack doesn’t have any storyline or any importance to the current tale. Neither do the insect weapons. We’re just making it for the sake of making an item. Why do we need to make the backpack? How important is it to the character? Will it unlock some hidden area? Wll Maudrey become like an NPC hero and help us in our fights? Will the insect weapons give us cool, unique powers to help us fight Mordremoth? Will either item provide protection against Mordie’s Torment status attacks?

As a writer, if something doesn’t push a story forward, I’ll cut it. Learning how to self-edit is just as important as writing.

Vayne.8563:

It’s an event for new players, and the rewards are bugged. They were pretty clear in the blogpost that players level 18 could participate, so I’m not sure why 80s thought it would be challenging.

The reward bug is crappy for sure, though.

The problem: Anet forgot about their players’ gaming habits.

Historically, events on the lowbie maps usually scale up based on how many people are in the event circle. The Mordrem Invasion event doesn’t scale up.

Anet forgot that people have been preparing for HoT by leveling their characters.

They forgot about the guilds who hold weekly map completion for the public or events like Crusade Across Tyria (rpcd.enjin.com). Newbies can easily join these groups and leave lowbie-dom behind.

They forgot about tomes given as log-in rewards or PvP prizes. People zoom to level 80 in this game.

They forgot that 80s always flood the map when a new event is added to the game. If there are too many 80s in a low level zone, the monster will be instantly downed. Worse, the lowbies won’t be able to get a hit in and receive their share of the loot. It’s not a secret that lowbies at level 18 are slow and have limited skill sets.