Guild Wars 2

Xyvol.1265:

I don’t really buy the Malyck theory. If Caithe was going to off him to prevent his secret from getting out, why wouldn’t she have done it then and there? It was already pointed out that she doesn’t have any qualms in kill taking care of business in front of the PC. So then why the facade in letting him go? His reason for leaving was not only to get away from the Nightmare Court and keep them from discovering his secret, but also to discover if there is another tree with another sylvari culture. If so, he’d bring their aid to the dreamers and help fight the dragons. So she helps this guy, sets this all up, then changes her mind and shanks him while he’s climbing over a vine? I don’t buy it.

I get the feeling that it’s something in her past, something older than the point in time where the game starts. Scarlet was already a cuckoo clock by that point, so it’s doubtful she had much contact with Caithe while devising her mad schemes. The part about even Faolain not knowing, and just realizing that fact, implies that one would assume Faolain knows this information. Presumedly because of the time Caithe and Faolain spent together and knowing they were lovers, which was about 20 years ago when the race first woke. Once you break up, you stop getting details about every little thing your ex is doing. (Though to be fair, Faolain was a stalker for some time after…)

Maybe Caithe’s secret is her fanfiction account where she wrote all the CaithexFaolain fanfics to satisfy her longing.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

~Snip~

Hopefully, there will be no more mention of her. And if so, my bet’s on magic or Glint or the nature of the Elder Dragons. All three are connected anyways.

Unfortunately for you, you can expect to hear more about Scarlet in the future as A.net has already said they are going to explore more of her background(it was stated at least a couple of times on episodes of Points of Interest), but then again, maybe you were just being sarcastic again.

panthertheswift.7602:

So before jumping back into GW2 once again, is it worth it? I guess what I’m mostly looking for is:

Good sized community with people to do events with
Continued WvW competition
Exciting, non-repetitive events and quests

I’m going to caution you to take these reddit posts and forum brouhahas with a grain of salt, the game has been under intense attack recently (mostly due to the impending launches from other games).

As far as your questions:

1. Good sized community – yes, it’s one of the busiest MMOs on the market.

2. Continued WvW competition – yes, we just finished the 3rd WvW Tournament. Some weeks are more competitive than others but there’s always some matches that are neck and neck right up until the end. Tons of players everywhere, whether you are playing offensively or defensively on any given week.
http://mos.millenium.org/na/matchups/

3. Exciting non repititive events – they continue to add Living Story events, we are currently in the middle of Season 2 with the most recent events being Dragon’s Reach and the addition of the new zone, Dry Top. The next episode starts on November 4th.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_season_2

Well worth jumping back in

Odyssey.2613:

Prophecies was a hodge podge of stories and ideas.
Factions was the beginning of those ideas being refined.
Nightfall was a culmination of blood, sweat, and tears that deliverd. Big time.
Eye of The North was a final polish of things with some new ideas sprinkled around.

I am in total agreement.

Odyssey.2613:

I guess what I’m trying to say is I’ve been conditioned by Anet to have high standards by now. I step back and look at GW2, I’m left wondering “What?” and “Why?”. I understand there’s an evolutionary path things take (greatness just doesn’t happen). But I just don’t see that now. They didn’t learn from the past. At. All.

I see exactly what you mean, and I feel the same way. Both with the writing and the game design, they seem to be making the same mistakes all over again.

Odyssey.2613:

The beginning was buggy to the point progress was halted.

This is something that especially deserves to be called out. While Prophecies was by no means perfect on release, GW2 was simply unfinished. Almost all of the skills and traits were bugged or broken on release, and a lot of content (such as the dungeons, and the Zhaitan battle) were clearly rushed. Dozens of dynamic events were broken. And then there was a lot of content such as guild halls, that should have been in the game on release, yet still aren’t in the game today.

Odyssey.2613:

Joining an order ultimately proved pointless.

I would call that mostly a missed story telling opportunity. Had it been up to me, I would have had all the orders work together in an epic battle against Zhaitan. Where instead of guarding a particular spot (Like with the Tequatl fight), you rallied with your order, and took on a specific task for that order, to fight the dragon. And then I would have all those order events happen simultaneously in one climactic end battle.

Odyssey.2613:

Trahearne was awful. Kormir2.0 all over again.

This. So much this. I can’t fathom how they managed to pull a Kormir again. They even did it twice (Destiny’s Edge).

Odyssey.2613:

Go beat the ending of Nightfall then come back and beat the ending of GW2. If you do not get the urge to stand up and flip your desk over and storm out of the room, call your doctor immediately – something might be wrong with you.

Hahahaha, oh so true.

I will admit I may have been a tad bombastic.

You made some very valid points Mad Queen. I will concede GW1 was far from perfect, especially in Prophecies. My whole take on GW1 is this:

Prophecies was a hodge podge of stories and ideas.
Factions was the beginning of those ideas being refined.
Nightfall was a culmination of blood, sweat, and tears that deliverd. Big time.
Eye of The North was a final polish of things with some new ideas sprinkled around.

I guess what I’m trying to say is I’ve been conditioned by Anet to have high standards by now. I step back and look at GW2, I’m left wondering “What?” and “Why?”. I understand there’s an evolutionary path things take (greatness just doesn’t happen). But I just don’t see that now. They didn’t learn from the past. At. All.

The beginning was buggy to the point progress was halted.
Character creation choices ultimately proved pointless.
Joining an order ultimately proved pointless.
Trahearne was awful. Kormir2.0 all over again.
The ending was awful.
Go beat the ending of Nightfall then come back and beat the ending of GW2. If you do not get the urge to stand up and flip your desk over and storm out of the room, call your doctor immediately – something might be wrong with you.

How Anet’s storytelling makes me feel.

I don’t see anything wrong if they decided to show a “New Lion’s Arch” in Season 3 or 4.

Things can get rebuilt, surely, but that mess takes a lot of time too!

Just be sure that when you make it, makes it feel like a “reconstruction” and not a “rollback”. new buildings, change in some colors, maybe a little bit of the architetonic style, etc. Forts could change their layout and include different towers, defenses and underground levels showing people learned from their defeats.

All of it could work! things go down, they go up anew. recycle, rebuild, evolve!

As an addendum, I just want to say that your post – perhaps not intentionally or accurately – gives a pretty poor view of ArenaNet’s writers. The way you worded it makes it sound like “destruction is the only way we know how to advance a plot.”

Some examples for perfect ways to advance a plot without (beginning with) destruction or chaos:

Winds of Change.

The plot begins by you fixing up old issues (Factions campaign), rather than rushing to the scene of death and carnage. And throughout, you’re doing nothing but fixing up problems and trying to prevent persecution.

Prophecies.

Though it begins with the Searing, most of the campaign is trying to rebuild, survive, and fixing one’s own mistakes. It isn’t about stopping continual destruction after continual destruction, without stopping the source, like Season 1+2.

Nightfall.

The entire campaign is about trying to prevent uncommong destruction, without there being some triggering destruction to push the plot forward.

We don’t need a town to be destroyed to rush over and save the day. We don’t need a countryside ravished to realize “oh, now we should go fix the problems there.” The best GW1 storylines came with the notion of trying to prevent uncoming destruction or just simply trying to survive against impossible odds, while the much-hated Living Story Season 1 was all about seeing the destruction happen even if we know it would come and cleaning up after the fact. The Ascended spinal blades backpack is pure testamount to this rather poor plotlining: We faced Scarlet at our door, and that day we brought the fight to her. This shows, point blank, “we waited for her to attack us, and then we killed her as she did so.”

Imagine what Season 1 would have been like if after the Crown Pavilion, we went hunting for Scarlet to fight her on her own turf, finding her final liar to be in some fractal of the Mists that ended up being the home of the Grand High Sovereign – you’d be fighting in some alternate future Tyria where evil has long prevailed and ruled the world with an iron fist… to have suddenly disappeared one day (when he went to true-Tyria and was slain), leaving the lands in chaos, leaderless, and ripe for Scarlet’s taking. She’d have an entire pocket dimension under her control, and you’d have to fight your way through scores of minions, holding her teleporter rooms (that were akin to The Shadow Nexus in GW1) which was her means of traveling back into Tyria so that she couldn’t escape. Then, once backed into a corner, a final confrontation in the very fabric of creation.

Of course, that couldn’t lead into waking Mordremoth early, but it would have been a far more epic and befitting ending rather than waiting for an army to approach your doorstep. The only time such should happen is when you get tricked into thinking they have a different target. But no, it was placed on a bloody bulletin board for where Scarlet was going to attack. Everyone and their maniacal white fluffy cats knew Scarlet’s target was Lion’s Arch, and yet no one bothered to prepare for the assault. Hence, the common complaint of the good guys holding the idiot ball. The storylines have thus for been beginning with “the good guys are attacked by <insert threat>, and then the heroes come in to save the day.” Which results in boring, repetitive, plotlines that results in everything being destroyed – and with no effort going in to recreate what’s destroyed, by the this time next year half of the game will be running through rubble, a testament of the villains first-strike and the good guys’ idiot ball.

It just makes me think…..

skritt as race? Make it happen a-net.. (picture shows my reason)

http://www.tabletophell.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/skaven.jpg

kta.6502:

*" “The Cult of Zhaitan” was an [AARM] guild TS3 joke that eventually became part of Lapis N Lazuli’s Orr campaign history. Whenever someone logged on to TS3 chat, people who were part of the cult asked, “Excuse me, sir (or ma’am). Do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior, Zhaitan?”

“People who joined the cult had their Ts3 chat names end in “of Zhaitan”. Their TS3 avatar would be a picture of a baby Mouth of Zhaitan with a RL celebrity’s face on its stomach. The celeb’s face has to have an open mouth.

“This inspired a real random RP event in which members of the cult had to convert other players to Zhaitan in-game (including the devs).”

I LOL’d hard at this. Care to share the background story of this cult RP? Any contribution from devs to the fan lore?

Please tell me someone used Nicholas Cage.

Wasn’t it explained that the Risen are still around because all of Zhaitains control and power over them was passed on to his ‘next-of-kin", a.k.a. the OTHER Undead Dragons like Tequatl(who was already the strongest of them, so got a massive powerboost by Zhaitan’s demise).
I’ve always viewed the Elder Dragon’s strongest lieutenants, the other dragons, as being like his children or kin in some way, instead of just another minion type. They control portions of the armies of the EDs in a more or less autonomous way(e.g. Shatterer and The Brand) and feed off magic in a similar manner as their ‘father’, just in a lesser amount. So if daddy dies, they would have to spread control among the remaining dragons, thus they all get stronger. (possibly, if given enough time, the strongest of the bunch could even attain the powers of the original Elder Dragon and thus repairing the power vacuum and balance of the Tyrian Universe)

A great Guild Wars friend found the Real Chauncey von Snuffles III!!!

http://i.imgur.com/8RQzkQh.gif

So awesome!

draxynnic.3719:

Meanwhile, the Order of Whispers watches the eastern approaches with wary eyes, lest Palawa Joko get it within his head to claim the Pact’s hard-won conquest for himself… or perhaps looking to use Orr as a launchpad for a campaign against Joko…

This ^

I was choking on my coffee during LS 2.0’s world summit instance when the Pact reveals they are planning to go after Kralky next. I was like "kralky was last seen at crystal desert, which is now joko’s crib. How the heck is it possible for a large group of armed folks, with tanks and airships, just walk into crystal desert, while assuming the mummy king will assure himself “Keep calm and continue to rule Elona, they just come to take care of that giant lizard and then leave.”

So, it appears like Order of Whispers does manipulate the top brass to march into crystal desert… dum dum dummmm~~

Is it not possible Caithe is the one who called down this attack? She’s shifty and full of secrets. Or maybe Anise isn’t human, but a sylvari from times passed, and is seeking to undermine humanity and the rebel veggies to appease her mouldering master of the compost heap.

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

wwwes.1398:

All joking aside.. we are going to need those Asuran launchers.

Am I right….Am I Right!!!!

Chris

P.S: The idea of firing them into walls is also cool! I jest…..

But the life of a single Asura is such a small price to pay to be able to get down that darn wall!

I mean, y’know, they can respawn after…

The Asura missing-neck bug, when it looks like the head would be directly tied to the body, should be a feature for respawning asura who were fired against a wall.

Safari.3021:

PROPOSAL OVERVIEW

Guild halls? no. Guild Airships!!!!!!

GOAL OF PROPOSAL

To give the idea of guild halls more functionality than just a meeting place

PROPOSAL FUNCTIONALITY

GvG airship battles with characters jumping accross to each other, Pirates of the carribean style, siege cannons blasting, mid flight battles through clouds, the epicness we all hoped for when we first saw airships in the trailer.

Upgrade and kit your Guild airship out with siege, repair crews, medical crews, pilots and the like to ready yourselves to set sail!

Take your guild on an airship journy through the mists to discover new undiscovered lands and dungeons! Explore the mysteries and dangers within as a guild group! Beware enemy guilds also discovering these pockets of reality!

Possibilities for expansion are pretty awesome.

ASSOCIATED RISKS

I might explode.

This is the most awesome proposal I’ve seen.

The Guild Endgame could be. Fund a Guild. Take a ship. Keep flying.

It’s so Firefly, and it resonates with Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle, with the Minerva’s crew.

It’s something worth an expansion.

Angel McCoy.1832:

We are always discussing ways to get more player agency into the game. It’s not as easy or as simple as any of us would like, however.

Free advice on that? Since the Living Story has become divorced from the open world and thus doesn’t need to follow a perfectly synonymous path for everyone due to that?

Cheat.

Have there be choices which affects what happens. Have there be consequences for choices later on. You don’t need to unify it so the whole of the world is on the same page, because they’re all living their own instances . . . for the most part.

Even if it’s minor things like which allies you keep and which you tell off, or who you choose to save who otherwise would be inconsequential if they died . . . but since they lived, you can get something out of it later.

I play DM for a D&D game and my biggest tool is knowing the flow of the story and having the chance to change it on the fly if the players . . . those wacky, lovable rapscallions . . . decide to stab the guard captain giving them a hard time and dispose of his body in the moat rather than try to win his respect or apply diplomacy. (Including shouting out “dibs on his armor” as they do it.) I can invent something later on which makes them regret doing that hasty act born of boredom.

You don’t have the option to do it quite as well . . . but you can still cheat just as effectively and create the illusion of player agency in minor ways which goes a good distance to creating the feel of “this is my story”. Even if it’s not.

And besides, once you can get it working for minor things . . . then you can get it working for bigger things.

kta.6502:

Nah… we just need to make a sport out of punting Phlunt off the side of Rata Sum!

This is how it would work:

(1) We bind Phlunt with rope & bungee cord.
(2) Next, we tie the really long cord to a secure, strong object like a wall.
(3) Then one person gets to kick him off the side of Rata Sum!
(4) Once the bungee cord stop bouncing, we reel him back into Rata Sum!
(5) Repeat steps 3 & 4

I call this game “Punt Phlunt”.

Remember, he has to be alive for this work! Killing Phlunt would take the fun out of this!

10/10 would play everyday!

I don’t think there is any contradiction in the A Light in the Darkness dialogue. We could be speaking to the physical manifestation of the avatar and she tells us she will be in the dream only in spirit. I don’t see any problem with the Pale Tree having both a physical manifestation in Tyria and spirit manifestations within the dream at the same time. The Shadow of the Dragon might be able to do the same.

all protest will die down over the time…
the most important thing is that awareness is raised…

Welcome to the game. It has a lot of wonderful things going for it. Remember, if you remain on these forums, that even the naysayers are people who found enough merit in GW2 to hang around for years.

Hello everyone I have a suggestion and would like to see what the community maybe even the developers think.

One feature that I really like in other MMOs City of Heroes/Villains specifically was the option to add a story for your toon. In City of Villains there was an option in your character screen to create a story for your villain and even though I am not much of a role-player I always loved to make a story for my toons and make them feel like they are part of the lore of the game. Would be nice to right click on someones toon and be able to read their stories. One cool thing that can be done with this would be to have a vote type system and after a certain amount of “likes” (one vote per account) you can unlock an achievement maybe called “Storyteller”? Maybe with matching Storyteller title? Now I don’t have any experience is coding or developing games so no idea how hard this would be to make but would be nice to see.

I have no problem with the in game store being the ongoing revenue stream – it lets people that want to buy special items the option to do so, and those that don’t want to don’t have to. My only complaint is that I think there should be a bit better chance of getting a BL Key as loot. Sure, keep it so there’s still more chests than keys but it feels ridiculous to find all sorts of BL chests and zero keys.

On that note, I love dry top and the buried chests and hope those kinds of chests become available in other areas too..

Here’s a suggestion to the developers, one that fixes every problem with people not understanding a system, and I shall bold this.

If you think a system is confusing, make a mandatory tutorial for it if it’s the first time a character on the account has unlocked it, don’t just gate it behind a specific level. If you give tutorials, people learn how to do things.

The bleeding condition is frightening, I find blood repulsive.
The air attunement tree is frightening, I’m scared of lightning
The necromancer class is frightening, I’m deeply religious and find the concept of undead/black magic terrifying.

please remove all of these things, thank you.

If you find the downed state frightening or confusing then may I suggest switching to an “easier” game like The Sims or possibly Farmville?

Seriously, that’s sad.

While I may have had my ups and downs in the last 2 years of this game, and may not always agree on the changes within the game or the gem store. I have to say as a consumer and one who has tried a wide range of MMO’s (I get bored easy), Areanet has the best subscription model hands down. Thank you for respecting me as a gamer first and a consumer second. If you don’t believe me check out what Trion is doing to archeage, 15/dollars a month for patron status, and locking crafting mats behind the p2w store.

So let’s hear it for all those happy the b2p model.