Guild Wars 2

Endless Soul.5178:

This has been suggested before, and I’m all for it!

I realize that but I’m assuming it’s more constructive to make suggestions on the forums vs complaining about the same old subjects. That and I rarely ever see people making suggestions to help RP. I have other ideas but a biography window is the easiest addition to make with only positive overall effects.

You can get may answers and info about things like lore, how to join guilds and RP events at guildwars2roleplayers.com

You can create your own character bio there, read other player’s characters and swap ideas and meet new people to RP with.

There’s even a directory for different types of RP guilds you may wish to join, and everything is divided between Piken Square (EU) and Tarnished Coast (NA) servers, so you can find the right people whether you’re EU or NA

I love the bio window, I’ve played several games with them and it helps rp a lot, you can know what kind of rp does someone like, more or less the theme of their character, and find people with similar interests.
I doubt it will be added this advanced into the game, but it would be awesome.

What do people think about having a character biography window that can be viewed with a right-click (with a max of 5000 characters)?

In CoH, the character bio window was used for various purposes:
-Players could advertise their “guild” or their custom missions in the “Mission Architect” or even posting links to websites to show more info, art, stories or guild websites.
-Players could annotate their build, their window of play for raids and overall stuff about playing (if you were aiming for a certain achievement that required a group, you could advertise that).
-More likely, you can post a brief origin story or explanation about your character and their powers (since you could color and customize your powers, even if you used the “Fire” powerset, your powers might be something else like aethereal, psychokinetic energy, darkness, spirit fire, etc).

Ultimately, such a feature may put your intentions out there that people can observe without needing to directly interact with the player behind the keyboard. If you can more easily see a player’s intentions, this could be a stepping stone to starting an interaction. Like, if you see a character’s backstory and you think it’s interesting, you can start chatting about that and perhaps begin a storyline (you can also get a grasp of their ‘level’ or RP-ness so you know what to expect when you interact). Or if you see the person is aiming for the same achievements that you’re trying for, you can send a /whisper about trying to set up times to pull others together for that.

What do you guys think?

I came across ~ 5ish RP as seraph doing one of the OP bandit events. I got to RP as a civi or something they called me. I don’t RP but that doesn’t mean I cant play along!

Step 1) Read about the lore of the race you will be using on your character. This will improve your background writing and understand how your race usually interacts with other races. This also teaches you your racial limitations. If you are a norn surely you will win any kind of fist brawl against humans, asura and sylvari, and vice versa, surely you wont start a fight against a charr as a sylvari.

Step 2) Create a name that fits your characters race and origin (krytan,elonian, charr warbands ect). But make sure its canon and not something ridiculous like “Im the great great great grandson of the 3rd king of kryta!”

Step 3) Create a background story for your character. You could also add additional background to what anet provides via character biography

Step 4) Is combat part of your rp? If so carefully chose your profession that fits your characters background. This also applies what kind of weapons you use and what kind of armor you use as well. If you are a simple seraph soldier why do you wield twilight, a great sword tied to a champion rizen from orr that guards the gates of arah? And whats with that Layline energy armor and why do you have a purple modremoth vine on your back?

Step 5) Join a rp guild or a web page community, it helps a lot.

Step 6) Communicate, talking out of character, learning how others wish to RP is important. In a ideal world people would be in character all the time the moment they know they can RP with someone else and everything clicks together.

Step 7) If you are still unsure check this guy out https://www.youtube.com/user/WubdoR

Thanks for the replies all.

It does seem, then, that the RP in GW2 does follow similar lines as to what I’d experienced in my old MUD – I thought I was missing something!

An interesting point was made about running a large chat window – great idea, that would certainly hark back the ancient interface I was used to.

I had a though it would be along the lines of: Player A is talking to Player B about people in Queensdale and what they were getting up to. Player C comes along and mentions that Ine Duran needs grubs and, after some chit-chat, you all go off and help, RP’ing the event all the way.

Flatley.1620:

I had a though it would be along the lines of: Player A is talking to Player B about people in Queensdale and what they were getting up to. Player C comes along and mentions that Ine Duran needs grubs and, after some chit-chat, you all go off and help, RP’ing the event all the way.

That is something you can still do, though I would recommend that as a planned event with a guild over an impromptu public event.

In general, you can find some folks roleplaying around town. It’s polite to ask them via whisper if you wish to join in. Some people are very open and will flow with it, others get very standoffish (and will whisper about how “rude” you are for, y’know, publicly participating in a public roleplaying scene :P).

Also, check the guild recruitment sections here and on reddit for possible RP guilds. They can provide a lot more guidance.

Side note, racial capital cities are the easiest place to stumble on RPers. (Especially the Grove or Rata Sum… the emotes go from end to kitten end.) I remember seeing some folks in Divinity’s Reach while I was setting off firecrackers. They were gushing about this baby griffon they were RPing about, when the quote comes up:
“Touch her, she’s so fluffy!”
What I wanted to say as my Charr passed by was:
“I said that to a female once, and all I got was a claw across the muzzle.”
But I didn’t, because I was behaving that day.

My character, Bekka, is mute (thanks Inquest), so she greatly depends on /e to carry on conversations. For example:

/e signs at Gaile: ~Good morning, how are you?~

Or, sometimes, if the person she is trying to talk to doesn’t know sign language, she’ll use a text-to-speech program on her holopad.

/e writes an audio message.
/s Holospeaker: “Good morning Gaile, how are you?”

Having a mute character who is in character 100% of the time really makes me think about how she interacts with others, and she’s been a smash hit so far.

it depends on who you ask. there are manay ways to do it. I’m a very visual person so I prefer to use as many emotes to go with my texts as I can. if i say my character sits, I use the sit emote, if If I say he laughs I also use that emote. or to go with the mood, like crossing my arms when listening to someone else speak, etc…
others just stand there and do everything with text. at the end of the day look for the way that most fits what you like.

Flatley.1620:

It’s a series of questions really:

- What IS “roleplay” in GW2?
- How do you “roleplay” in GW2?
- Is “roleplay” defined by lore or is lore non-mandatory?

My general RP experience comes from CoH/CoV where lore was extremely flexible and you could not only tell stories to give some backstory to yourself but create anthologies of story missions to give more depth to your stories or intertwine your stories with others.

~ In GW2, I feel what you describe is genuinely what the basis of roleplay is. You interact with other players using /say and /em (animated and not). I tried to RP a bit in GW2 but it’s just not my cup of tea (or I just didn’t connect well with those I played with…had some fun but ultimately felt like just chatter rather than telling stories).

~ My personal means of roleplaying in GW2 is crafting my characters and their backstories/personalities and, when confronted by people who RP and interact with me, try to channel my character so those RPing don’t have to break character. This is rare though.

~ It depends on who you RP with. Some people understand that requiring lore to RP is a high barrier of entry for many and try to keep their interactions more spur of the moment. I haven’t personally ran into people who are portraying a lore-infused performance.

The issue with seeing text and no animations for your character hasn’t been a big problem for me primarily because I usually have the text window enlarged in games where I RP. I’m usually too busy typing or reading to notice exactly what a character’s avatar is doing. I do try to keep my character in a natural idle stance that conveys my character’s current attitude. GW2 doesn’t have many stances, though.

One thing I always urge posters to do is suggest improvement to the game that would facilitate RP. More idle stances, improved /em interaction, bio space, journals and stuff.

I don’t know if you ever played City of Heroes but I feel it was very RP friendly, from lore to chat and even the ability to tell stories. It’d be great if some of those concepts were incorporated into GW2 (although it’s unlikely a “Mission Creator” can be put into this game).

What may seem like boring dialogue to some is seen as interesting storytelling for others.

Just putting that out there.

The Cat trying to catch the Rat at North Camp in Alpine Borderlands

Sometimes they just walk but when i first saw the Rat running away and the Cat chasing behind it it gave me a smile xD

First thing that comes to mind is the charr NPC ‘Pitmaster Genus Porterskmoke’. He’s based off the late Gene Porter, the proprietor of a BBQ joint located near-ish to Arenanet. Porter was something of a legend thanks to a sauce he referred to as “The Man”, which was probably very close to ghost peppers on the Scoville scale. Porter would only let customers try s small dollop.
The NPC Portersmoke also has a hot sauce your character can try….doing so causes Knockback, lights you on fire, and puts a status effect that says “Met the Man: you tried Pitmaster Genus Portersmoke’s famous hot sauce and lived to tell the tale”.
If nothing else, ya gotta love Anet’s real life references. Made me make my one and only real contribution to the GW wikis by making a page for this NPC.

Keypek.5716:

I had a good laugh when I first stumbled upon Captain Penzan and his version of Major-General at the conclusion of his event when I was leveling my first toon.

Good one. You beat me to it.

Also, “My ears, how are you?”

A player that whos toon has armor that’s coloured to make the toon look exactly like Marvin The Martian. Made my day.

You can’t beat GW1…

Kormir: We are too late. The corsairs have reached the village before us.
<Party leader>: There are a lot of them.
Koss the Boss: No. There are only two corsair ships, and three of us. We outnumber them!

The tavern in Ebonhawke. It’s just a special place for RP.

Just walking around and listening to the NPCs talking, drinking and having a good time.

Actually OP…

You just made me think of all the special moments I have had since I started playing this amazing game… The journey through the world, all the events, all the dialouges, the jumping puzzles, the hidden things…

I really hope that they will make a new race at some point, because I really want to go through that journey again, but I can’t bring myself to do it again with a race I’ve already been playing for years.

Everytime I notice another Indiana Jones (1-3) reference. When I was a kid, I always dreamed of exploring ancient tombs, temples and dungeons just like that character in the movies. When I enter these places in GW2 my eyes begin to glow and when I actually notice a direct reference to the movies, I smile and my child-self laughs of joy.

The attention to detail in this game is mindblowing. I can travel the same locations for years and always find new stuff. I even found the holy grail, just a few days ago *_*

I can’t think of any items found in the world. Usually what hakes me smile is various NPC dialog, like these two standing near Swift Arrow in Caledon Forest.

Hayato: Here’s an idea: let’s knock on the humongous gate door, then hide and see what they do when they open up and no one’s there.

Caromi Scout: Please don’t talk to me for the remainder of the shift.

I had a good laugh when I first stumbled upon Captain Penzan and his version of Major-General at the conclusion of his event when I was leveling my first toon.

Khulaid the Conquerer, he’s a big red ogre boss outside Ebonhawk, and his event starts with him bursting in through a wall just like the Kool Aid drink mascot.

This one time, I was killing dredge on my way to an event, and this one yellow dredge mob starts singing a little mining diddy as I was sneaking up on him, and I was suddenly like “I can’t kill him he’s just doing his job!” and ever since then I’ve avoided killing the yellow dredge mobs.

I don’t even remember where this is, a Durmand Priory dig somewhere, but a passing male charr exclaims, “Ghost pirates! Haha, I love this job; it’s exciting!” and that just made me grin.

I remember in Guild Wars 1, I don’t even remember exactly where, but out in the middle of nowhere away from settlements or any landmarks, coming across a little 2 foot high decorated Christmas tree just standing on the side of a hill all by itself. No real reason for it to be there, it just was.

What have you found in GW2, in some out of the way place that made you smile when you found it? (Pictures a plus!)

Giganticus Moosicus and the sunken lion statues in LA.

Moosicus made me smile from humor.

The lion statues made me smile from nostalgia.

Azoqu.8917:

The Greyhawk.9107:

And lets be frank, if there is one class that causes the most “visual noise” its Guardians.

As a Guardian, I want my Dragon’s Maw to stick around again because it looks cool. Unlike the kittenty ring you can’t see at all. When I face Guardians in PvP, either as a Guard or another class, I would love to know that there is a knockdown spot instead of pretending to know where it is.

Make no mistake, I’m not actually advocating for the Guardians visuals to be reduced, but it does smack of incompetency when the worst offenders of “visual noise” aren’t touched when things like ele’s Auras and engie’s flamethrower become pretty much invisible.

The Greyhawk.9107:

And lets be frank, if there is one class that causes the most “visual noise” its Guardians.

As a Guardian, I want my Dragon’s Maw to stick around again because it looks cool. Unlike the kittenty ring you can’t see at all. When I face Guardians in PvP, either as a Guard or another class, I would love to know that there is a knockdown spot instead of pretending to know where it is.

Lyp Sao.1375:

Llethander.3972:

I definitely liked not being able to see anything.
I don’t mind things as they are now, honestly.

Your image: Who cares that player 42 (lower right side) is using skill 6 in this zerg blob? Or that player 12 (upper left behind player 26) wears his fancy nice amor? This is how PvE should look like. Effects and colors and fireworks.

In PvP .. they can use text messages (combat log): “Xx Warrior Xx hit your Highness with 50k damage”

I want my visible flamethrower back

OriOri.8724:

Llethander.3972:

I definitely liked not being able to see anything.

I don’t mind things as they are now, honestly.

I agree with Lyp Sao that this is how PvE should look. Even if you disagree with us though, there are two (I imagine easy) solutions to this that should make everyone happy.

• Have a toggle in your options (defaulted to off) where you can toggle the “messy” and loud visuals on for all skills that have them, or

• Only make your own skills visually loud and messy.

Agreed wholeheartedly.
Frankly, Anet doesn’t seem to know what its doing here, they keep targeting all the wrong classes and skills to “Reduce visual noise”. Last year when they turned Fireball into a lit charcoal briquette, they didn’t bother diminishing the impact animations, which were the REAL problem. And lets be frank, if there is one class that causes the most “visual noise” its Guardians. And I don’t believe they’ve been touched.
Arenanet, if your going to try to “reduce visual noise” for the players that don’t understand that PvE is supposed to be chaos, you need to do a better job. You need to figure out which skill animations and particle effects actually ARE the biggest culprits, but more importantly you HAVE to give us the option to choose whether or not we want our skills Visually Nerfed.

Llethander.3972:

I definitely liked not being able to see anything.
I don’t mind things as they are now, honestly.

Your image: Who cares that player 42 (lower right side) is using skill 6 in this zerg blob? Or that player 12 (upper left behind player 26) wears his fancy nice amor? This is how PvE should look like. Effects and colors and fireworks.

In PvP .. they can use text messages (combat log): “Xx Warrior Xx hit your Highness with 50k damage”

I want my visible flamethrower back