Guild Wars 2

It most definitely does sound more like the Pavilion, but the video also look likes a jumping puzzle to some degree.

If it was a dungeon they would more than likely advertise it as such, it would be something that would boast about, not keep under wraps.

From what I read of your posts Thomas you have spent your time telling everyone that your concerns are more important than theirs. Unless you bought everyone elses game then you have no right to tell people they should not be posting complaints about Scarlet or the trailer music.

People have a right to complain or compliment and the forum is the place for that, if you want contented players then go talk ingame as that is where they all are. Complaining about people complaining is neither constructive or helpful.

The music is bad, the more people that point this out the more likely the next time the music will be better and perhaps be more reminiscent of the quality fantasy music we have had before.

Just so we are clear, you -have- been fairly rude, insisting that you have not attempted to be does not make the issue better. If you have been doing it without trying then you really need to start reading what you type much more carefully.

Thanks for that Thobek, it was quite amusing.

Scary thing is that the music was actually more fitting!

As I said earlier I personally I dislike it because it is bad 80’s metal, the over the top kind you would get for an 80’s game trailer. Not the good stuff like Metallica, Judas Priest or Motorhead.

Things is, it is not really much to do with musical tastes but rather the sudden and drastic change. People are used to and like the music Guild Wars has, I have seen many topics complement the various tracks, especially unique pieces that have been crafted for the living story/festivals. Come to think of it this is probably the first time I have ever seen a topic or posts at all refer to Guild Wars music negatively, ever. Departing from the music style we have had since 2005 is not a good move.

Fingers crossed this trash is just a one off.

I wish to mirror the sentiments of many in this topic, the music for the trailer was dire, completely inappropriate for Guild Wars

Jeff.4680:

Yes, it is dying. Scarlet is killing it. She’s behind everything.

Not true, the game is very busy and active with players.

I hate Scarlet as much as you, but she is not killing the game. The two week schedule may be damaging the player base slightly due to lackluster and poorly conceived content, but I doubt it is in a major way.

We need a true expansion, with elder dragons and such.

ErikMan.1894:

Am I the only one that cringed when I saw the whole music thing…?

Seriously?

Not just you, the whole video was excruciating.

“Scarlet: What are your thoughts?”

Badly written lore breaking character. She is a weak form of spackling paste designed to fill in and connect a bunch of similarly badly written content.

I liked the living story before they introduced her, bring back the Consortium. Southsun may have had its problems, but at least were an original villain, not a copy paste of Harley Quinn with less personality.

Salma District, they just dumped most of the rewards in the orphanage, convenient yes, but most definitely not an appropriate location. The old rewards could do with being relocated and prettied up.

I hope we get more things for our home instance and that they are placed with great care, these are our homes after all.

Ha! I was a little insulted also, I took a few steps away from her after she said that.

Edit- Also made me like her character a fair bit less, which was a shame because I did quite like her before it.

The Obelisk is one thing I was not disappointed with for the release, it is a great addition to the home instance. I hope we get more unique things like it.

I would definitely not say it is a feminist agenda Tydarius, writers often write what they are comfortable with. Perhaps those creating the Scarlet story arc are just more comfortable with writing female characters, which probably explains why Braham is such a poorly written male hero.

Just a reminder to people, try to keep this friendly, the moderators have been through this topic a few times cleaning out the bad posts. We are not enemies here!

:)

Kal Spiro.9745:

Caithe shouldn’t be considered a Living Story Hero. She’s only shown up as part of the dungeon, for which she was already a part. Kasmeer should also not be considered a hero because she’s a sidekick.

You fought beside both and both are important to the story, if I remove them then I should start removing characters like Emissary Vorpp who is not overly important and you did not fight alongside.

The numbers people are listing for the living story characters seem inaccurate, especially as they apparently note every minor character not related to the story. What next? We start counting displaced Grawl from Flame & Frost?

These are all the important characters in the living story and the number of appearances to date as best as I can tell, please correct me if I am wrong. I am excluding cameo’s that do not affect the living story, like Logan/Eir etc. This is main characters only or characters important to the story arc.

Living Story Characters

Ellen Kiel (9)
Levvi (1)
Rox (5)
Ottilia (2)
Lady Kasmeer Meade (5)
Marjory Delaqua (2)
Mai Trin (2)
Scarlet Briar (3)
Caithe (1)

Magnus the Bloody Handed (1)
Canach (3)
Subdirector Noll (1)
Braham Eirsson (6)
Lord Faren (2)
Evon Gnashblade (3)
Emissary Vorpp (1)

Fesitvals (Do not count as not part of the living story)
Tixx & Toxx
Moto & crew
Mad King Thorn, Bloody Prince, Magister Tassi

Source;
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_summary

Nine/seven in favour of female, not a big deal at all. But when you consider which of those are critically important recurring NPC’s, or which are heroes/villains and you do start to see an issue.

Villain
Canach, Subdirector Noll, Evon Gnashblade

Mai Trin, Scarlet Briar

Hero
Braham Eirsson, Emissary Vorpp

Ellen Kiel, Caithe, Rox, Lady Kasmeer Meade, Marjory Delaqua

Definitely a preference towards female heroes, I do not mind having so many quality female NPC’s my problem is the lack of male counterparts, the only consistent male hero we have in the living story is Braham who has not been in the last several living story updates. He is not an overly popular character and is quite the idiot, personally I do not find him relatable and I am sure I am not alone in that opinion, especially after reading many of the posts here. In many ways he is essentially a Logan clone, a man with lady woes but much more dumb.

Simply put, we do need more male heroes, I would even settle with just one, perhaps modeled after Tybalt or Forgal as they have strong personalities and quite well liked by the fans.

Thobek.1730:

I find it completely absurd that people still haven’t grasped what we are asking for here, or better still, why it matters.

So what if they put in some leading males heroes into the game that aren’t idiots… its not hurting anyone, why make it a big deal that we shouldn’t have them?

I just want a character that I like. Tybalt or Forgal for example. So what if I identify with those types of character more than we currently have. It should be an equal mix. why can’t we have that??

That is exactly what I have been trying to say Thobek, good to have people with sense here.

Yea, the living story achievement system is essentially a quest log.

Kill ten rats/Kill 100 Toxic Alliance members.

Collect ten bear hides/Collect 50 toxic spores.

Everyone likes new content and this years fresh content was quite enjoyable.

The main problem was removal of many well liked features from last years Halloween and the inclusion of excessive arbitrary grind just to obtain a handful of Halloween themed items. Unfortunately these two problems crossed with the fact Krait have stolen Halloween from the Mad King makes this years festival quite sub-par.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

There is no issue here. People are just immature and impossible to please.

There is an issue here, several pages of posts prove that.

What you meant to say is -you- have no issue here. What is immature is posting just for the sake of arguing, which is what you are doing. You obviously have no problem and no desire to validate your opinion and as such you have no real reason to post.

Shriketalon, you raise some exceptionally good arguments and prove the point this topic is trying to make very eloquently.

Scarlet has fake Bloodstone shards and apparently the Krait want them.

The Nightmare Court are just in it for the hell of it.

We have reasons, just not good or acceptable reasons.

If a developer is unwilling to grind the requirements then they should not expect their player base to either.

I have never played an MMO that has required that much grind just for a few festival items. Hopefully Wintersday will be better, but I am not optimistic.

Chris Avellone is an exceptionally good writer, every character he creates is unique and enjoyable regardless of gender. But that kind of story telling is another class entirely.

Rytlock is an example of a good male hero, he has a strong personality and hard not to instantly like. I wonder who wrote him and Forgal/Tybalt for that matter.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Qawsada.4251:

My understanding that the person in charge of writing the overall story for the LS was Angel Mccoy. It comes to no surprises that she favored writing all these female “hero” npc and Scarlet and never bother writing a competent male character.

But every male hero type has been done too many times before. Female hero types however, they’re not used nearly as much as the males. I welcome more female types, but I do wish to see more into their overall personalities instead of what we’re currently seeing. I have a feeling we will the next update to the Tower, considering there’s a rumor going around that -redacted-

In Guild Wars female heroes are used as much as male, read the post you just quoted for evidence of that, what other games do is irrelevant.

Also put a spoiler in that post if you believe it to be true, it is something I personally would rather not have read.

That was a very well thought out post, well done Qawsada.

If the living story predominantly falls on the shoulders of Angel McCoy then I think she needs to have less input, not because of the male/female issue but because the story itself is fairly mediocre and Scarlet is a poorly conceived villain.

This is getting to be quite the hot topic, just shows their is genuinely an issue here.

I do have my hopes up that we will get a few good male heroes in the living story, perhaps after this Scarlet nonsense is over.

Currently the no topic is winning over the yes topic by quite a bit.

I think the people have spoken.

DarkWasp.7291:

solution? Remove all the weights, give two to Tybalt and give two to Countess Anise.

I can get behind that.

Aerlen.5326:

Aedelric.1287:

What have other games got to do with it? Nothing.

It ridiculous seeing people try to defend the fact that their is a bias and their should be no gender equality. Can any of you say you like the currently represented male characters like Braham the idiot and Lord Faran the buffoon?

It is not outrageous to ask for a least a couple of decent male lead heroes to accompany the current female heavy cast.

Did you ever think that maybe Anet decided to do this to stand out from other male character oriented games?

I really like Lord Faren because he’s a fop – a lovable one, I also adore Mad King Thorn, Logan Thackery, Rytlock and just about every male character I’ve met aside from Evon and Trahearne.

But honestly? It feels good to play a game where females aren’t put beneath men automatically and where LGBTQA folks are somewhat represented too. I don’t want to give that up for more straight white men being inserted in the name of “equality”.

Making the game biased towards a gender not because of story reasons but because of a misguided belief that it will make the game unique, is fairly preposterous and perhaps not a good design choice. The only importance in selecting a characters gender should be due to lore and equality.

And I like Evon, just because you find a character enjoyable does not mean everyone thinks the same. Faren is a twit and not a good representation of males, Thorn is a festival NPC not living story, Rytlock had little more than a one minute cameo and Thackery is a dolt.

No one is asking for women to be put below men, just have a couple of male heroes equal to the quantity of female. Go to Thunder Ridge, how many male and female NPC’s can you spot?

I would settle with one good relatable male lead, shame they killed off the best, Forgal and Tybalt.

keenlam.4753:

Demolitionist Tonn was a hero… just saying.

That he was.

He was also not in the living story.

Not a bad suggestion Pathaugen and I agree it is an improvement over old scavenger hunts.

Instead of a line I think I would prefer colour desaturation to signify that it has been already used.

I am fine with the concept to sell more finishers I am not against Arena Net making money.

The only problem I have is that it is an arbitrary mechanic designed to slow down play, it adds little to nothing in the way of fun and does not make the game more rewarding in the slightest. I see no reason for it to be added to PvE beyond Arena Net making a bit more money, if it becomes a trend though they need to include more limited use drops to satisfy the masses.

I completed them all fine.

Remember to track the achievement and watch to see if it progresses when you use the obelisk.

What have other games got to do with it? Nothing.

It ridiculous seeing people try to defend the fact that their is a bias and their should be no gender equality. Can any of you say you like the currently represented male characters like Braham the idiot and Lord Faran the buffoon?

It is not outrageous to ask for a least a couple of decent male lead heroes to accompany the current female heavy cast.

As it balances world difficulty scaling I am fine with elite enemies, though it would be nice if they dropped something extra, like a guaranteed minor loot bag or something, nothing too special.

I must admit I was caught off guard for this bit also, I thought it was bad mouth synchronization for a moment until I realised it was a flashback. It was a great cinematic, though perhaps the transition to a flashback could have been clearer. I am looking forward to seeing more cinematics like it, great work whoever it was.

Blockhead Magee.3092:

Kessex was a pretty zone and I’ll miss the view, but if the story ends up being fun (NO SCARLETT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD) than its a price well paid.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it will definitely have Scarlet.

I will miss the zone also, it was a beautiful landscape. I think our only hope is that in the next few months updates will gradually return the landscape slowly back to how it was, keep your fingers crossed.

Not sure about this, some might find it offensive.

Monthly would work much better.

If you look at the release notes last year and compare it to the latest you will see a massive difference in quality and quantity.

The living story often suffers from having shallow content often lacking any kind of meaty filler. The extra time would be used well and undoubtedly be more fulfilling and longer lasting.

The schedule was not very well planned.

The Mad King has had his limelight stolen by Krait of all things. Seems like a complete waste, Halloween could have been something truly exceptional this year.

Nothing wrong with solo content, just like their is nothing wrong with group content.

Instead of either side asking for Arena Net to stop supporting the play style they dislike it may be more productive to petition them to make all content soloable and group friendly.

I see no reason why we can not `have our cake and eat it´.

No thanks, I would prefer PvP to stay out of PvE completely.

Nothing wrong with or stopping you from jumping into WvW if you are in a mood for some PvP.

Removal of Reaper’s Rumble, removal of Ascent to Madness and removal of the nice Mad Memories lore based scavenger hunt. Not sure why the first two were removed, the third would still work if they edited it appropriately.

Combine this with an extreme weapon crafting requirement and an astronomical Bloodprince mini/Halloween pail cost, it has become a horrid grind fest.

I still love Halloween, but this years seems quite lackluster and disappointing in comparison to the last.

Kal Spiro.9745:

I’m unclear what the problem here is.

If you bothered to read the posts, you would likely have no trouble working out what the problem is.

Lack of male heroes in the Living Story arc.

McFly.2134:

Lol, so much hate in these forums.

You must be new to official forums to games, they are all like this. Guild Wars II is very mild in comparison to many other game forums.

lordkrall.7241:

Aedelric.1287:

Where did you pull that fact from? Because it sure was not in my reply. Do not ask a question when all you want to do is come up with your own answer.

Well since you refused to answer it, one could only assume that it was due to the fact that the answer would be unpopular.

You are reading between lines when their are none.

I stated in my first post I want gender equality, equal sharing of important roles for both genders. That is what equality means, do not blame me for your lazy reading ability.

As for me not answering it is because your question is not relevant to the situation and only serves to attempt to undermine my perfectly reasonable request/stance. If I said no (Which I would not) you would try to call me out as a hypocrite, if I said yes you would have called me out as a lair. I have no interest in playing games only with opinions and facts.

Now I hope you are done trying to provoke an argument out of someone that you obviously have no real issue with. I am sure we both have better things to do with our time.

Wish they would put the effort into make a new region rather than changing the appearance of a fairly nice region into a desolate horridly depressing wasteland.

Pre-searing Ascalon was beautiful and fun, so much so that people were willing to leave a character in it permanently. Post-searing was horrid and depressing, so much so that people always went across the Shiver Peaks as soon as they humanly could. Kessex Hills was essentially changed from a lovely pre-searing like zone into post.

I guess all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that it may one day return back to that pre-searing feel. We have enough desolate land no one wants to play in already, it is called Orr.

lordkrall.7241:

Aedelric.1287:

Irrelevant as I do not deal in ifs and buts.

So you simply wouldn’t have cared if it was the other way around?

Not really surprising, I would assume the same would apply to everyone complaining about it here.

Where did you pull that fact from? Because it sure was not in my reply. Do not ask a question when all you want to do is come up with your own answer.

I agree, we need more relatable male heroes especially in the living story who most main characters are female. Tower of Nightmares is a real estrogen fest even sergeant Walters was a woman.

Rytlock is the right kind of male hero, Logan, Trehearne and Braham are the wrong kind and the Lord Faren type is an absolute no. Could you imagine the outrage if we had a female character designed to act like Lord Faren?

I like the female heroes we have and in no way against them, I am just wanting a handful of male leads to have equal standing.

Nilkemia.8507:

Other important male characters in the Living Story(since Clockwork Chaos, anyway): Braham, Vorpp, Moto, Ketto, Nimbb, Wortt, um…is that it?

Does Ketto’s Lab even count? SAB is a recurring event not a true living story and the characters only really turned up for a short two minute cameo.

It is just a greater incentive to get people to purchase finishers from the black lion trading company. Seems like quite an obvious tactic to me.

Personally I do not mind, A.Net need to make money and it adds an interesting dynamic to combat. I will say they should throw out a few random limited use finishers as occasional drops also.

OtakuDFifty.2965:

Go ahead, keep cracking jokes and distract yourselves. That’s just how the Grawl-Skritt alliance will steal away all our shinies to make giant idols with.

Worst thing is, I could actually get behind a Grawl-Skritt alliance, my two favorite sub faction races.

This coming for someone who hates the arbitrary alliances and Scarlet lore destroying story arc.