Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone- I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 since beta and I have to say, despite the occasional quirk or kink, I’ve really enjoyed this game. There have been a lot of quality of life changes that are refreshing since start (no shared loot, no shared nodes, world events) and recent changes (shared ascended gear, account wide dyes).

One change I’ve seen however has really been unspoken tho – the representation of overlooked gamers like LGBT and disability. Christina from earlier really sparked my interest about Taimi and I thought I would write a blog just talking about what a huge change that is when it comes to disability, especially as someone who has a disability herself and works daily to help other people get the help they need. Let me know what you think. http://owl.li/v8glk

Thanks everyone at GW2 for making a game so amazing and inclusive.

-Mac
Easter Seals Inc. Intern

John Smith.4610:

The mystic forge changes are a work in progress. What I will promise is that when it is done you will like it much better than you do now.

The number of rares and exotics I’ve chucked into the forge (for science!) is absolutely staggering. I would like to take a moment and share with all of you what I’ve learned about the forge: you put 4 items in and get 1 item back.

That is all.

1. Character Development
I felt all character development came later in the story, I would have preferred instances to get to know DE2.0 better early on in the story. Ideally, I would like to see multiple character development instances throughout a release. Would it be possible to develop a friendship point system where your responses to them adds or subtracts "friend points" and changes their responses as time passes. This will add some variety to the game and be an excellent character development game. You already have something similar in game where you get different responses based on race or order. Don't hesitate to kill off people in DE2.0 either, a sense of danger is always welcome.

2. The illusion of choice
I would rather see more scalable instances than large-scale events (I believe Mari was the only large-scale event I enjoyed). With smaller, instanced events you can let the player decide how to go about a situation based on menu choices. This not only will help players feel they are in the drivers seat (rather than a minor character in Marjory's story) but will also add variety.

3. Not keeping everything for a big reveal at the end
There is no need to do this. If we had figured out that Scarlet was waking a dragon, would that not have made the players fight harder to stop her? Would it not have been heart wrenching when that drill hit the ley line and we saw the dragon yawn? I believe utilizing multiple character development instances is the way to go about furthering the plot. Why couldn't we have gone with Kasmeer to Rata Sum to ask about Scarlet, rather than having an asura with the answer present? Or visited a place where Scarlet lived with Jory? Character development and planting just enough information for the attentive player to piece together a theory is key to an engaging story. After all, Harry Potter would not have been possible without Snape's key character point.

Edit: I don’t know why the spoilers did not collapse into a pretty drop down, I apologize.

Hey, Bobby, thanks for stopping in. For an idea, look at this quote by John Scalzi.

“This is what happens when the Narrative takes over. Things quit making sense. The laws of physics take a coffee break. People stop thinking logically and start thinking dramatically.”
— John Scalzi, “Redshirts”

Having the Captain’s Council ignore a city-sized airship on their doorstep was dramatic, having them ignore Marjory and Kasmeer’s warnings about Scarlet’s attack is dramatic. This resulted in the unnecessary deaths of thousands of people for the sake of drama rather than logic. Restoring the Captain’s Council to power without any criminal charges for negligent mass homicide is drama. Do you see where this is going?

Also, my chief complaint is time. ANet takes fifteen months to do what Star Trek Online can do in six months, and STO can bang out two seasons of a multi-chapter story arc in that time. The problem I saw is that the writing team thought they were writing a book, when video game narrative structure doesn’t resemble book structure, or at least a good book.

I do commend you for putting more effort into characterization, such as Marjory and Taimi. Now give them a story and a plot that doesn’t underserve them.

Mainly what I hated most about Scarlet is that she popped up out of nowhere and was cheesy as hell as a cartoon villain.

You should’ve started with Ceara helping us out in some random event. Having like a gentle shy personality. Having some threats where she would help us with her high intelligence to provide solutions. Slightly over time becoming more corrupt, players and game characters alike wondering if she’s alright and trying to find different means of helping her. While Ceara getting worse and eventually spouting out comments in situations that would make the game characters uncomfortable.

Later on, starting to commit crimes. The heroes knowing how gentle she is, not believing the rumors, they seek out to confront her to see what is actually going on.
From this point you were to notice that Ceara is slightly becoming more abrupt in her ways of thinking and ideals. Coming up with absurd ideas and crazy dreams.

From there you can easily mold her up the way you want till the point where she becomes Scarlet Briar and still having the suspense and the important factor of the player relating to her. While this may still be kind of stereotyping, good friend turns evil. It’s still tons better than just randomly dropping a super villain out of nowhere.

Tom Gore.4035:

True, but if we are talking about storytelling “plotholes”, what could be more immersion-breaking than lifting the player on a pedestal, with 2 million other players? That would be one helluva crowded pedestal. This is a problem with MMOs and while I agree with you that ANet dug this “personal story” hole for themselves, I think it’s good that they are now steering a bit off that course – or at least I hope so. In my opinion, in MMOs the players should always be just that – a side character who helps the heroes get the job done. Otherwise it makes absolutely no sense having 2 million “main characters” in the story.

Hmm, perhaps there is a compromise to be made. I think you make a very fair point, but there is still something to be said for letting the player feel like a mover and shaker of the world.

If they focused less on a single group of characters such as the current Scooby Gang and let the player meet and interact with many heroes in many smaller stories, they could combine it with a few Personal Story missions that allow the main characters to get their time in the spotlight. A journey home would be an excellent start, returning the player to their city of origin as a triumphant hero, and all the horrible guilt-tripped jobs that entails. Likewise, more Order storylines would be an interesting way to delve into new tales. The Living Story could spend its time allowing Tyria to grow and thrive, and a few segments of Personal Story per year could let the player keep center stage in their own saga.

panzer.6034:

I’m no video game developer but i’ve run tabletop rpgs (like D&D) for years and the one huge lesson i’ve learned as a gamemaster/storyteller is related to that #1 point: you can’t beat around the bush trying to lead your players along with subtle hints and obscure clues with the promise of a shocking reveal down the line. It simply needs to be interesting and engaging right off the bat. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of handing out tiny morsels of info or foreshadowing without giving enough to really allow the players to infer anything relevant because you, as the writer/gamemaster, are the only one who sees the bigger picture and knows it all leads to something big.

Well said. One should never take the audience’s attention for granted, and the initial hook should be baited with the juiciest intrigue possible. Tyria is full of amazing story potential, and any new tale is directly competing with all those exciting possibilities for the players’ attention. Hook ’em early, and reel ’em in.

iplayBANJO.9543:

You wouldn’t, by chance, happen to be a writer in need of a job would you?

I’m actually a geologist. Stories are just my passionate hobby in all their forms, be it reading books, paging through webcomics, listening to short story podcasts, engaging in tabletop RPGs, or binge watching television series. It just seemed like a better thing to use as a constructive criticism avenue than “Shriketalon Reviews Tyrian Geology. Today’s Episode: Southsun Cove’s Travertine Deposits.”

But thank you for the compliment.

Cormac.3871:

You guys do know that Lord of the Rings broke a lot of these rules. Just setting forth a set of things that you think make for interesting story telling doesn’t necessarily mean that anything that doesn’t adhere to them will be bad.

These narrative lessons are more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.

There are many different kinds of stories, and a golden rule for one may be a preposterous pyrite for another. For example, Lord of the Rings faced the heroes off against an Ancient Doom sort of opponent, an opponent who is more metaphor than flesh and blood, the living embodiment of doom for their entire world. The struggle against The End is not necessarily meant to have a human component to the harbinger of ragnarok. But by choosing to make the corruption of Scarlet’s mind a key component of the plot, Arenanet chose a more personable sort of antagonist and must be reviewed accordingly. A more metaphysical opponent such as Sauron requires a different set of standards, as do living hurricanes such as the Elder Dragons. There are many different paths to brilliant characterization, for all that is gold does not glitter, and not all who wander are lost.

You sir, have me in stitches, I LOVE THIS XD
In seriousness, best post to date.

I would also apply a few things:

- We did see Mai Trin albeit an almost non existent secondary antagonist make a few minor appearances in earlier content so there’s that if you really need some kind of Scarlet Lieutenant, though indeed, her role was very short.
- We also had Canach but… cricket noises everyone remembers him so well.

Other than that, I entirely agree with every point made, in seriousness, to not hire this player or some of the more constructive critics into a “feedback” team for the writers would be an injustice.

We need feedback players, people who can criticize an IDEA before it even comes into fruition, because those who can, can provide excellent feedback on points that may be needed to be touched upon.

I advise the possible creation of an NDA obligated team who are specially chosen to act as the shepherds for good future content in the game, not necessarily some elite group of egotistic narcissists but rather, a group that have actual experience in writing, role playing, dungeon mastering, ultimately have a passion for actual content lore writing and want to see the universe thrive, without necessarily writing any of it themselves.

I am referring to readers, people who read what you have to say before you actually say it, and tell you if its good, bad, or if there’s something else you could add, or a detail you might have missed.

This, is what A-net needs, people like Shrike, Wooden Potatoes, people who can be obligated under an NDA contract, to point out “maybe you should add this content with this instead. . .”

Insert points here.

I say, think of it like having beta testers, that test not the actual game but rather the story itself, giving a chance for refined plot design in the game to work effectively.

Advantages to this:

1. Its free.
2. Its community interaction, without the community knowing it.
3. It shows A-net actually cares about what refined individuals may actually have to say about the future of the game and how best to keep it and sharpen in a way that is favorable to a large majority of players who, surprisingly enough, actually care about every minor detail of the lore.

While I myself am not the most versed denizen of Tyria, its people like Wooden Potatoes that made me wiki every last article and start exploring every last micro depth for those little snippets of particular topical parts I myself find fascinating to the universe.

Others, who have FAR greater levels of broad understanding, will likely be more viable and better suited to criticizing it because they are actual players of both 1 and 2, who know what inconsistencies to avoid, and how best to refine them.

Consider it, A-net, its not a bad idea.

As a writer myself, I’m taking note. This sums everything up incredibly well done; you hit the nail on the head with Ogden’s hammer.

Perhaps the biggest problem you noticed about Scarlet, is the fact she never interacts with anyone…

I will admit though, she did have two very memorable commanders, though: Mai Trin and First Mate Horrik

Kain Francois.4328:

As a writer myself, I’m taking note. This sums everything up incredibly well done; you hit the nail on the head with Ogden’s hammer.

Perhaps the biggest problem you noticed about Scarlet, is the fact she never interacts with anyone…

I will admit though, she did have two very memorable commanders, though: Mai Trin and First Mate Horrik

agree with you about Mai Trin and mate Horrik they were well done, and gave us some perspective about Scarlet, but there were still to less commanders.

Btw Mai Trin is still somewhere hiding, after she escaped we never heard from her again

Really love that post. it mostly sums up my experience with the story.
also: +1 for brass buttocks…

On the other hand i would add an extra point:
Do not cut storypieces

We had several installments where the story just cut off and was continued in the part after it.
In the Tower of Nightmares we defeated the false god and then they apearently sat there and pumped toxin for two weeks without explanation.
Then we got the little outro with the riddle and the cutszene the next patch…
In the Battle of Lions Arch we defeated Scarlet, ran out and… that`s it. We got some celebration with a cheesy 90s comedy feel as an outro the next week, but that`s it… again.
It felt like an unnessary cliffhanger, cutting off the narrative midway and jumping a few szenes.
Ease us out and give us something to anticipate for the next release.
Just adding some new lines to the NPCs, who are at the same locations as before does not give us a feeling of closure or anticipation.
It is just a grinding halt…

Shriketalon.1937:

Indeed, but the problem is the weight we hold in the story. With so much of the narrative driven by those cutscenes of dialogue, our character’s silence sequesters us away from being a driving force behind the action. Right now, characters keep referring to us as a part of the team and an honored friend, but the bulk of the story content’s cutscenes treat us as a common flunkie on the side bench.

For Dwayna’s delightful derriere’s sake, Frostbite has more spoken dialogue than we do! We’re not even in Snarf territory, and if we weren’t paying customers I’d but us front and center on the “dies horribly in the first act” category of minions.

True, but if we are talking about storytelling “plotholes”, what could be more immersion-breaking than lifting the player on a pedestal, with 2 million other players? That would be one helluva crowded pedestal. This is a problem with MMOs and while I agree with you that ANet dug this “personal story” hole for themselves, I think it’s good that they are now steering a bit off that course – or at least I hope so. In my opinion, in MMOs the players should always be just that – a side character who helps the heroes get the job done. Otherwise it makes absolutely no sense having 2 million “main characters” in the story.

And we could of course argue that even the personal story wasn’t about our characters that much. It was about your mentor, the order representative and Trehearne. Making a believable single players story in an MMO is a road to ruin and should be abandoned. If the players want personal stories give them the tools and incentive to write those themselves.

By Ogden’s Hammer, what ravings!

Thank you for the kind words and constructive criticism thus far, it is appreciated.

Tom Gore.4035:

#14

You do have dialogue with the NPCs. It just isn’t voiced.

Indeed, but the problem is the weight we hold in the story. With so much of the narrative driven by those cutscenes of dialogue, our character’s silence sequesters us away from being a driving force behind the action. Right now, characters keep referring to us as a part of the team and an honored friend, but the bulk of the story content’s cutscenes treat us as a common flunkie on the side bench.

For Dwayna’s delightful derriere’s sake, Frostbite has more spoken dialogue than we do! We’re not even in Snarf territory, and if we weren’t paying customers I’d but us front and center on the “dies horribly in the first act” category of minions.

Freeelancer.2860:

Nicely put and made with allot of care, OP. +1

However, there are several things I disagree with. For example I’d like that player character is moved back completely and serve as a witness (or a grunt) to the events, especially considering the complexities and effort of making PC into one of the main protagonists, but I’m sure my opinion is in minority (and even devs stated they’ll strive to improve communication between PC and NPCs), so instead I’d be content if ANet put more time in exploring the ways to improve that part of LS… and fast… because those scenes in Aftermath made me literary sweat from awkwardness (partly from implementation partly because of feeling they were forced)..

Perhaps, perhaps. However, we’re currently caught up in a weird situation where we are included as a valued member of the Scooby Gang, constantly interacting with them throughout the latter half of the Season. This is a very odd dynamic for a silent character with no major story impetus, and further highlights our lack of voice.

If they had a much broader cast and we bounced around from tale to tale, silence would suit us just fine. But to be “good friends” with five companions to the point of being included in their little guild without getting a single word in edgewise is very jarring.

DarcShriek.5829:

I disagree with point #13. Not entirely though. You see, game designers are constantly trying to push the boundaries of what a game is and where is the game space. Personally, I think articles on an official site is well within limits, as long as players are made aware of this.

To clarify point #13, the articles such as What Scarlet Saw aren’t the bone I am particularly picking here. I’m more irritated with things like this thread. The short version is that it is Angel McCoy giving the entire list of reasons why every race in Scarlet’s alliance works for her and continues to do so. While I don’t think that all of them fit (and I’d really like to see an explanation for how Scarlet found krait obelisks in the first place), it is a decent attempt to explain the motivations of each factions and what they get out of the entire endeavor. I would normally have kudos for such an effort, but there’s one major problem.

None of those cultural trends are part of the story Anet wrote. There is no discussion among Flame Legionnaires about why they are sticking with the band, Krait dialogue about a transformative experience, or anything else but blind obedience. It does not matter if the author knows the answer to a major plot hole. If they fail to address it in the story, that hole forms a massive blemish in the grand tale’s tapestry regardless of intent or introspection. As written, none of the alliances present any compelling reason why they stick with Scarlet Briar until the end, and the story they delivered is worse off as a result.

The mark of a brilliant artist is not the ideas they conceive in their minds. Everyone has ideas, many of them amazing and magnificent. An artist excels at their craft by incarnating those ideas in the reality we all share, creating art that expresses those brilliant concepts and sharing them with others. It does not matter if the writers have good ideas, they have to make them part of the story for them to have any merit.

Words unwritten tell no tales.

Greetings and salutations.

With Season 1 of the Living Story drawing to a close, it seems appropriate to offer review and reflection of everything that has come thus far. Sadly, there is much to consider, as the brand new path trod by Anet has many missteps and mishaps along the way.

Rather than talk about individual flaws, I thought it might be best to take a stab at the overall writing style of the Living Story and the narrative flaws it continues to exhibit. Plot holes come and go, individual complaints will always remain, but the best way to help Season 2 is to consider the pitfalls of Season 1 from a writing and gaming perspective. And so, I thought I would offer up a bit of constructive criticism in silly infographic format.

For your consideration, Fifteen Lessons From Fifteen Months of Scarlet Briar.

Woah! Hold your horses there OP and speak for yourself. I absolutely love these changes to skins and dyes…and I’m someone who has unlocked high tier dyes on almost all of my characters.

I still think it’s for the best and am excited for the changes!

I am in complete favor of this change, and I have 15 characters. This will make it so much easier to manage their appearance. I honestly think you are in a very small minority here.

Duke Nukem.6783:

I dont want account wide dyes …

Fixed for you.

I love all those changes, every single aspect of it.
Now I have a reason to unlock expensive dyes like Celestial and Abyss, I’ll be able to dual wield Frostfang on my ranger and in my Warrior if I so desire, I’ll be able to free TONS of bank space from T1~T2 skins and LS skins that I don’t use but I don’t want to delete.

WTB a downvote button.

I love all the account unlocks, I think the more the better. Not everyone can sit and play 7 characters all day long.

I personally was going for a legendary for the stat swapping feature not the looks… If anything this makes me more likely to finally be brave enough to skin over it

A level 1 character having a fine-quality Eternity was already possible in the old system. Very unlikely that someone would waste the legendary stats for it, but still entirely possible.

I’ve seen plenty of people complain that 1H legendaries were undervalued compared to the 2H ones because 1H had to create 2 legendaries to “fill” their weapon slots while 2H weapons just had to make one. So this could be seen as partially alieving this problem, though only if the player wants 2 of the same legendary.

juno.1840:

Also consider the case where someone bought five Abyss dyes… they get 4 unid dyes. Not as pleasant from that vantage point.

But they don’t lose anything either, so it isn’t “unpleasant” unless they are comparing themselves to others instead of enjoying the free stuff they were given.

You are looking at this the wrong way.

If you have an Abyss dye on 2 of your 5 characters you are not losing 1 Abyss dye, you are gaining 3 free Abyss dyes and 1 Unidentified Dye.

Guys you are never satisfied omg wardrobe is beautiful and i support Transmutation Charges to be in gemstore you can chose to support arena with some money or convert gold to gems is very easy to make gold PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP
(im sitting on 4k gold and 2 legends im not flliping TP or buy gems is very easy to make gold just sayin)

The new dye system is great too they make dyes a little harder to have what is wrong in that the dye will be account bound so is worth the effort .
They are trying to make you and you and you and everyone that was complaing for 1 year for now happy i was complaing too about other stuff about the game that are not fixed but im happy that they are working on something else much more nicer

THEY ARE TRYING SHOW SOME SUPPORT

(im sorry for my english – arena psss if you can put some optimization patches too that will be great kisses)

Substance E.4852:

pff what? Feel free to show just 1 vid of a zerk ranger taking down a zerk theif 1v1.
Theory crafting hypotheticals is all well and good but show it working in reality.

1 backstab and 1 auto attack chain is all it takes to down a zerk ranger. There’s no contest. Not when steal shadowsteps you 1500 units.

Oh come on now, someone posted a thread of what class you most like to engage in WvW roaming and thief was number 1. They’re one trick ponies. It’s not theorycrafting, it’s how it goes down because thieves have a predictable pattern. I’m sure many will relate.

I have never been able to get TS or video recording to work on my computer, but if no one vouches for me on this I will make a serious effort to video me killing thieves 1v1, because it’s important to me to show LB rangers are roaming-viable.

Edit: And I am talking about the backstab thieves. I refuse to acknowledge the existance of perma stealth thieves. I will even go so far as to WP away from them.

Instead of flaming Anet, I’m going to say this:

The ranger was originally described as an unparallelled archer. This was later changed. Even though the definition of ranger is not about “range”, rangers should still be more professional with ranged weapons. Rangers ususually have a bow because they are woodman and they hunt. Each trait listed changes something unique to the class and more or less global too. The Read the Wind trait changes one thing on one weapon. It would be much more welcomed if it increased the speed of every projectiles, or at least the two bows.

Even more welcome would be if the trait was paired with extra fire rate and double projectile speed for both bows.

Ranger’s arrow will go faster in the new turret’s reflective shield and go back straight in your kitten at 200% speed.

*pet ranger head*