Guild Wars 2

The writers would be my top choice for an AMA, personally.

Akiko.2364:

“And Killeen, not Kirran… and That Was Gullik Oddson. Those are characters from Ghosts of Ascalon book. Read the book and you will know what was beetwen those two”

thanks, i knew i got the name wrong.

is that an actual paperback book? or something from Guildwars 1 lore? I never played GW1 at all.

It’s an actual paperback book. Most major bookstores should carry it. It’s written by Matt Forbeck and Jeff Grubb.

Chega.8965:

As far as I remember, Tybalt probably died when he defended player´s retreat from Claw island due to the mission Source of Orr (I think) where you kill the Eye of Zhaitan and during that fight the eye says to you (not precisly this but you got the point): “You lost someone to Zhaitan” … and that the “Tybalt, he is with Zhaitan now” so probably somewhere is a zombified Tybalt … assuming that the Eye´s words were true, of course.

I wouldn’t take the Eye too seriously about that, because it says the same thing about any of the three mentors – and it can’t be true for Sieran, because Sylvari can’t become Risen, so I don’t think we should assume it’s true of the other two.

I think the Eye is just trying to tempt or distract the PC at that point. It may be that Tybalt and Forgal became Risen, but I wouldn’t take the Eye’s word for it – they may just be dead.

I really wish there had been some closure on that storyline, whether it was having to destroy your Risen mentor or just finding their body when you return to retake Claw Island so you would know their souls were safe in The Mists.

For the record, I do think the game’s intention was that our mentors died, much as I miss Forgal and would love to have him back.

sylvariherald.3901:

This is my opinion, and I do not expect anyone to agree with me, I just think that people thinking that their hero should be the center of attention, when like I said before, this game is not about one individual, this is about all the races banding together to defeat the dragons and save their world, your personal story walks you through a path that leads to that goal and they keep telling you that, but apparently many people cannot see that.

No, I agree absolutely. But that just begs the question even more… why make Trahearne the centre of attention either? Why not just focus on the Pact working together?

The way Trahearne is written is all the more jarring because it goes against everything else the game is telling you. That’s actually one of the reasons his role in the story seems so contrived to me.

I’ve heard plenty of arguments – and I agree – that the PC shouldn’t be some kind of mystical chosen one. The thing that always seems to be missing, though, is any compelling argument for why Trahearne should be.

It confuses me when this argument is used in favour of Trahearne, because it seems so internally contradictory. All the reasons the PC shouldn’t be the glorious saviour of Tyria would seem to me to apply to the major NPC too.

Yep, I will buy any expansions for GW2 that ANet produces. I enjoy the game (I don’t think it’s perfect, but I have fun playing) and look forward to continuing to explore Tyria and defeating more Elder Dragons.

My condolences to you and to his family. That’s very sad.

My main is a human, because I’m playing my main GW1 character again (she was cursed with immortality.) I have alts of all the races, though, because I wanted to try all the different racial story options.

I wish that there were more human options that weren’t quite so young-looking. It’s fine to have some options that look more youthful, but most of the current hairstyles seem like they’re designed for teenagers. I’d like to have some more mature-looking variety.

Simonoly.4352:

Trahearne might be quite a wet character, but I like that for once the player character wasn’t the destined one of whom the whole plot revolves.

It’s so boring being told repeatedly in various other RPGs that your character is the “chosen one” and that you are the centre of everything going on in the game world.

The thing is, though, these aren’t the only two options.

There’s no need to have a chosen one at all. The victory could simply have been acknowledged as the group effort it actually was.

For me, the issue isn’t that Trahearne was the leader and my character wasn’t – it was that the leadership role was treated as the pivotal story issue, instead of the story just focusing on whatever the PC was doing at the time.

Your character doesn’t have to be the great hero and focus of everything to have the personal story be about you. It’s a matter of where the spotlight is directed. It’s fine for your character to be a footsoldier… as long as the story is about footsoldiers. Your character doesn’t have to be central to the Pact or the world to be central to your own story.

Yeah, there’s nothing yet, but I’m sure future events and expansions will advance the plot.

1.) Will the personal story continue in the coming expansions and, if so, are there any plans to have the biography choices we’ve made (particularly the choice of Order, but also others) affect how our future storyline progresses?

2.) Has feedback the writers have received about the personal story so far prompted any changes in thinking about how aspects of the story will be handled in the future?

Thanks.

mulch.2586:

Reading JV’s comments, he’s thinking about specific creatures respawning, whereas what players are seeing are continual multiple mobs in the same area.

So fine, your monsters are on a 100 second respawn, but when there’s 4 mobs that all spawn in the same place, it’s the equivalent of 25 seconds. Add in some adjacent spawns and wanderers, a slow-kill-speed character, and the player experience is that of instant respawns.

Yeah, I think this is actually the root of the issue/observation. It’s not that the same mob is respawning, it’s that thinning the enemies doesn’t always actually give you much breathing room when the mobs are densely packed, when the mobs have high durability, or when you’re working solo (or some combination of these,) because it’s not just the results of a single spawn you’re contending with but everything that might cumulatively respawn before you’re able to clear a path forward.

Hydrophidian.4319:

A place that seemed very broken to me was the camp in Brisban Wildlands, Hidden Lake region, just west of the Seraph Observers waypoint. The spawn rate there just didn’t seem right at all. Every time I went through there, all the NPCs—merchants and such—would be dead due to the bandits constantly overrunning the area.

Trying to keep up with them, and keep the NPCs alive, was impossible alone, and even a party of 5 (in the zone’s level range) was hard pressed.

This was not due to an event. This was normal spawn that I dealt with many times over the course of several weeks. Haven’t been there lately, but last time I was there it was still crazy, and way out of line with the rest of the zone.

I was there two days ago; it’s unchanged.

It did give me the opportunity to finish my Combat Healer title, though. Poor NPCs.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with this event. This has been a fun change from the norm, and is appropriately festive.

Thanks for helping me get in the holiday spirit, ANet!

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

Basically I think the distinction was that you’re purchasing a random product (which of course may be of high or low value) but with gambling you pay money and have a random chance to receive money (directly) in return.

Yeah, I think that’s an important distinction.

In this situation, you actually do know exactly what you’re getting: a virtual product with no real world monetary value (since gems can’t be converted back to cash.) The fact that the virtual product you receive is being selected randomly from a predetermined list rather than purchased directly doesn’t change that fact. There’s no possibility of any other outcome.

Personally, I’d rather not have yet another plotline focused on Trahearne, even as an antagonist. I’m tired of him, and he’s had enough of the spotlight in my opinion.

I’d rather have him just stay in Orr doing administrative stuff, and staying out of the way in the next expansion.

Ever since GW1, a lot of players have noticed that Rata Sum is an anagram of Mursaat.

Maybe they’re hiding down there.

I thought the article made some good points, but unfortunately they were kind of buried among points that were specific to the writer’s play style preferences being treated as objective critiques of the game, and points that seemed to be based on misunderstandings of the game mechanics.

I think the most solid critiques were of dynamic events and story.

DEs do get repetitive, and aren’t always appropriately scaled to the number of players in the zone. That’s very true, even though the part about leveling through DEs alone seemed kind of off-base.

Trahearne issues aside, I also think the article makes a good point about the personal story not feeling very coherent. It’s extremely episodic, and important characters and plot points from previous arcs either disappear without a trace or start from scratch with no one remembering what came before when they appear again later. I think ANet was too focused on giving loads of choices, and so didn’t fully think through the fact that those choices seem pointless unless they actually affect the story beyond their own ten level arc.

As a disclaimer, I enjoy this game very much, and I think it deserved to win game of the year. I don’t think it’s perfect, though, and I’m glad that ANet seems to be taking customer feedback seriously to make it even better.

RNG isn’t necessarily gambling in the sense you’re meaning. In this case, you’re simply choosing to receive a random prize from a predetermined list, but you are not going to be in a situation where you receive no prize at all, nor are you able to win real life money (because gems don’t convert back to real world currency.) It’s more of a grab bag than a gamble, because you know in advance what the options are for your virtual prize, and you’ll get something from that list even if it doesn’t happen to be the thing you want most.

That said, I personally have no interest in RNG and am not buying the opportunity to test my luck. It’s not worth it to me, and I don’t enjoy it, so I’m not doing it.

Implying that it’s all some nefarious plot by ANet to corrupt minors into gambling is pretty absurd even so.

Pretty simple reason, actually: I need that laptop for work, and at this point it’s not practical for me to own multiple computers for different purposes.

That said, I’ve had no problems running the game on my laptop, so I wouldn’t assume that every laptop user is having issues.

I felt this way too.

I understand that this was a balancing act – they need to kill some characters off, both to pack that emotional punch and to give the story a realistic sense of danger and the war having casualties.

Even so, I felt like the writers took it a bit far. By the end, it was actually making me feel more disconnected from the plot, because most of the characters I felt attached to were already gone so there was less to hang onto. You also eventually become numbed to losing characters when you lose one just about every mission – it becomes routine rather than a sudden and startling loss.

I know that characters have to die. I hope that for the expansions, though, ANet remembers to have enough characters live so that we won’t feel like almost the entire cast (at least the most memorable and likable ones) have been eliminated by the end.

EvilStepQueen.1293:

I’m a casual gamer and prefer PvE over PvP. My husband and I have our own guild, and quest by ourselves, mostly. I don’t understand why every holiday or special event has to center around a dungeon where you need to have to engage in another group. I’m not totally anti-social, I enjoy world events. I just don’t enjoy LFG. I know it’s probably just me, but that’s my honest opinion.

I honestly am finding these Tixx dungeons more like world events than like standard dungeons. They aren’t that challenging, so you don’t have to coordinate your attacks or your builds – just read the objective and start doing it, and you’ll get it done together without much need to strategize as a team.

As for finding a group, it’s really easy because so many people are wanting to do it. I literally type “LFG” once, get sent an invite, and away we go. It’s not like the regular dungeons where you have to stand around getting enough people; there are already plenty of people waiting.

ETA: I’m also finding this method much more pleasant than the Lost Shores event. Lost Shores was so laggy I could barely participate, and I kept getting disconnected and booted into an overflow where I was no longer at the right stage of progress. With five people in a dungeon rather than dozens in Lion’s Arch, I’m not having these issues. I like the idea of big world events like Lost Shores, but in terms of actual playability? This wins hands down.

I wouldn’t necessarily call Tixx evil, but I do think that his indifference to the chaos he could cause is certainly coming close to crossing the line if not already over it.

He’s obviously aware the toys are malfunctioning – regardless of why they are – and he’s still planning to distribute them to the children of Tyria? He realizes that his toys are causing mayhem that heavily armed adults have to struggle to contain, and he not only thinks these make appropriate Wintersday gifts but is planning to create more toys with these ones already so haywire?

I think he’s crazy rather than malicious, but I also think he’s incredibly dangerous. Regardless of whether it was Toxx alone who was creating the havoc, Tixx is the one perpetuating it and making it spread rather than shutting it down and containing it.

gold.3025:

I’m hoping for the Crystal Desert since that is a very important area just randomly left out of the game. I know they probably felt it was unnecessary since Orr is desert-like but I miss it

I don’t think that was why. I think it wasn’t included in the initial release because that area would have story major importance for plotlines about Kralkatorrik and Palawa Joko, so it wouldn’t make sense to throw it into a campaign focused on Zhaitan/Orr. Releasing it before it had importance in the storyline would be kind of a waste.

I don’t expect we’ll see the Crystal Desert as early as January/February, but I do think it’ll be included in a future content update, and that it was planned that way because later it’ll be a lot more relevant than it would have been at release.

Vylker.9286:

I would like to know if my actions in GW2 unlocks any points or any other options in the Hall of Monuments. I have only 4 points from GW1 which means nothing, is there any good reason to link my accounts? Or I have to obtain these points only by playing GW1?

Thanks!

HoM points are only unlocked by playing GW1, to give you some rewards to use in GW2. You can’t add any points to it in GW2.

There’s really no good reason not to link your accounts, unless you’re planning to buy another GW2 account in the future and want it linked to that one instead (which doesn’t seem to fit your situation.) It only takes a minute or so to link them.

At four points, you can get most of a set of armour skins. If you did just a little bit more, you’d add more rewards, including a title. Since you already have a GW1 account, you may as well have it set up to earn points for GW2 when/if you go back to it.

I see no reason for you not to link them, since even though the rewards you’d get for your number of points is low, the effort of linking them is pretty much nothing, so why not do it?

Some people also add titles to their character’s name to make it unique.

For example, if you wanted to call your character John or Barbara or Sally, but all those were taken, you could call the character John the Good, or Barbara the Wanderer, or Sally the Third, etc..

If you want to go with just a name and you’re struggling even when you include a surname, you can give your character a middle name (or several) too.

Good luck finding something you like!

ZeroArmada.9426:

That’s weird to make prequels instead of sequels for the books…

They aren’t really prequels or sequels per se (except in the sense that they’re all set before the game itself) because the stories aren’t connected except for being set in Tyria. They’re just separate novels set in the same world, with different characters and plots that don’t link up except in the broadest sense of sharing lore. You can read them in any order and not miss anything, so publication order wouldn’t have mattered too much. They just fill different gaps in the lore.

Hope that makes things clearer.

I think the Inquest is tolerated at least in part because they just take fairly typical Asura attitudes to an extreme, rather than being a wild departure from what’s standard in Asuran society.

The Inquest may be excessive in their belief in Asuran superiority, but a lot of Asura make clear that they also believe they’re smartest and best. The Inquest may be more breathtaking in the cruelty of their experiments, but experimentation done on sentient creatures by the mainstream Asura often gets into territory that from our own perspective would be ethically problematic too (to give one example, the Brill research on Skritt.)

Other Asura can and do believe the Inquest takes things too far, but the line that has been established is extremely blurry anyway, and other Asura also seem to stray up to or over that line from time to time without much censure.

Because the Inquest is just further along the spectrum rather than a totally different entity, I think it makes sense that the other groups are able to accept their presence even while disagreeing with their methods.

ZeroArmada.9426:

1. Are there only 2 books pertaining to GW lore? And if I were to buy both of them, what order do they go in?

There are only two so far, but there will be a third one this summer.

Edge of Destiny takes place a few years before Ghosts of Ascalon, but they’re completely separate stories so it doesn’t make a huge difference which you read first.

2. Was it because of Queen Jennah that there is a peace treaty between humans and charr?

Not exclusively (other people on both sides played major parts in it too,) but she was very involved in making it happen.

Fortunately GW1 is still up and running, so if you prefer the older style of celebration, you can do that instead of or along with the new one.

Personally, I’m glad they’re not rehashing the same ground, especially since if you want to do the same thing as other years, all you have to do is run the other game client. I don’t see much point in having both running simultaneously unless they’re actually different.

Mira’s death isn’t precisely scripted; she dies wherever she happens to be when she runs out of health. Sometimes this will result in her dying in a spot where it’s indeed impossible to revive her because of the endlessly spawning Risen directly above her.

If you find you are literally unable to get her on her feet, try reloading the mission. When I did this, she died in a much better place and I was able to sneak around the enemies and rez her.

I really hope at some point the devs look into this, so she either dies in the same place each time or the respawns don’t loop endlessly if she’s directly underneath them.

OTGBionicArm.2417:

(He argues that their physical stature and small size automatically disqualifies their viability in being Warriors.)

I’ve never found this argument compelling, personally. Asura are only small in comparison to the other playable races; by Asura standards, Asura are normal-sized.

When an Asura is choosing a profession, he/she would use the standards of his/her own race, not a human-centered metric of body size.

To argue that Asura can’t be viable warriors because they’re smaller than other playable races is like arguing that humans can’t be viable warriors because they’re smaller than Norn, or that Norn can’t be viable warriors because they’re smaller than Jotuns and Ogres, and so on. If you went by the standard that only the biggest works, none of the playable races work as physical combatants – why single out the Asura?

I don’t think an Asura warrior requires any more justification than a human one. An Asura warrior would simply view the world from his/her own framework… which happens to be a little closer to the ground. When we look at Asura from an Asura perspective, there’s no reason they can’t be fighters.

I’m hoping for movement on another Elder Dragon storyline. It doesn’t necessarily need to lead to the confrontation itself within a two month window, but I think they could start setting it up.

I can’t imagine ANet being willing to comment on the record about that even if they had a fairly firm plan for what to do. If for whatever reason their plan didn’t work as expected, people would feel let down. I don’t expect they’ll say anything until the whole thing is nailed down and somewhat imminent.

I’m sure the Tengu will play a role at some point, though.

It changes pretty frequently. Keep trying.

Thanks for the response.

I ended up succeeding by loading up my bar with summons. That distracted the Kodan enough that I was able to get through them, so I was able to progress.

Thanks, that’s good to know.

When I get in-game mail from gold sellers and have reported it, is it okay to delete the mail or should I save it until the report has been investigated? I have a few of these cluttering my inbox that I’d like to get rid of, but I don’t want to make it harder for support to respond to the reports I made.

Thanks!

I actually find that people tend to be more helpful to my Asura than to any of my other characters (whether I need it or not,) I think because she’s little and cute and thus looks potentially more endangered than she actually is when she fights.

I enjoy the game a lot, and I play just about every day.

I don’t think it’s perfect, but it’s fun and I find it worthy of my time.

I would recommend giving it a try for yourself if it sounds like something that would interest you.

Yeah, I think you could. While there’s evidence that the gods objectively exist, whether they’re worthy of worship would still be very much a matter of individual choice.

To give a more concrete example of this: Imagine you meet someone who worships polar bears. You know polar bears objectively exist, but you don’t attach any religious significance to them. You can thus be an atheist without denying that bears are real, even though someone else sees them as gods. Just because something exists doesn’t automatically make it a deity.

Likewise, there’s ample evidence of the existence of the Six, but your character could see them as powerful beings from olden days who aren’t really around much anymore, but not worship them or consider them legitimate gods.

Can anyone offer me some advice on the Norn personal story mission Preserving the Balance? (It’s the level 19 mission in the Lost Heirloom branch if you opted to destroy Romke’s horn.) I’m playing a Guardian and I’m above the recommended level.

I’ve tried this mission several times, and I always end up at an impasse at the same place.

Everything goes fine until I get to the “Destroy the corrupted Kodan” step. I can’t seem to progress farther than that. The problem is that they won’t pull away from the group, so as soon as I get into range to do any damage, they all just swarm me. I usually only get in a hit or two before I’m downed, and I can’t even seem to pick them off one at a time because they kill me too fast, and by the time I run back from the checkpoint they’ve totally regenerated any damage I did.

The friendly Kodan NPC follows me into the melee but won’t fight, she just stands there. I’ve tried pulling the corrupted Kodan down to Eir and Garm (who just stand there further down the path) but the mob leashes closer to the buildings than that and won’t follow me far enough that I could be helped by the other NPCs. So basically, it’s five against one, and I just end up with broken armour.

I’m sure this is possible to complete, but if you have any advice (that’s more specific than just L2P) I’d appreciate it.

Gaile Gray.6028:

Debit cards are fine, as long as they function properly as a credit card. Now, I am not a debit card user, but I think some do double-duty as CCs, and some do not. If the debit card will function as a CC, and as long as other fraud-related flags are not raised, the purchase should work just fine.

Thanks for your answer; that is very helpful.

Your understanding of how debit cards work is correct – some can be processed as credit cards, but they have to be set up that way by your bank and be backed by one of the major credit card companies. They go through as credit cards on the merchant’s end, and then your bank just takes the money from your account when they get the charge rather than putting it on a credit line.

I’m glad to hear this won’t be a problem for my future GW purchasing; I wanted to make extra sure of that before expansion time. Thanks again for your response.

I’m just asking because I’m curious what happened to the NPC after the plot went down. Should have been more clear about that, sorry.

It sounded like he was headed for Southsun Cove to try to make amends for what he did, but I can’t find him there anymore.

Is Canach still around? If so, where can I find him post-Lost Shores?

Thanks!

I play just about every day. I’m currently playing through the personal story on some alts, and I always see people in the lower level zones.

I think the time of day makes a huge difference. When I’m playing in the afternoon or late at night, I don’t see many people but at peak evening playing time for North Americans I usually see pretty good crowds.

Guys, if you think you should have gotten the chest and haven’t, clear your mailbox. Even if it isn’t full.

Last night my mail said I was only at 50% inbox capacity, but when I started clearing, the karka mail appeared.

I would love if there was an AMA for the writers. Not just to talk about Trahearne, but because it would be fun to hear their thoughts on developing the plot and how the story will evolve moving forward.

ETA: I realized after I posted this that the devs are already aware of the mailbox capacity issue.

I discovered something last night that I think may be of help in tracking down the issue.

I logged in and saw that I didn’t have the chest, and my mailbox was not full – I was only at 50% of capacity. I figured since I had my mail open anyway, I might as well clear out some messages I didn’t need to keep.

When I started clearing out the messages, more messages instantly appeared to replace them (at a one-to-one ratio, so not just a coincidence) even though my box wasn’t reading as full in the first place. One of those replacement messages was the karka reward.

Is it possible that the problem might involve the script perceiving the recipient mailbox as full even if it isn’t? Because I’m fairly sure that happened with my account, so it may have happened to others. Just a thought.

Gaile Gray.6028:

I just spoke with the Billing Team lead, and she explained to me that although you were using a debit card, you were using it as a credit card because we don’t have the technology to accept a PIN, etc. Therefore, the situation that prompted the rejection of the purchase was related to the use as a CC, and you were not charged.

Gaile, could I get a clarification on this? I’m not the original poster, but it seemed silly to start a new thread for the same thing.

Is this never allowed, or is the problem only when the debit card isn’t issued with the logo of a major credit card?

The reason I ask is, I do almost all my online shopping with a debit card issued through one of the major credit card companies. The card is specifically designed to be processed as a credit card when needed, and in fact my banking rep recommended that I key it in as credit whenever possible even for in-person transactions to avoid point of sale debit fees. This has never been an issue with any major retailer (the card is my default credit card for Barnes & Noble, etc.)

Does ANet have different policies than most retailers about the use of credit/debit cards, or should I assume that if it works everywhere else it’ll work with GW also? Just wanted to make sure before it becomes an issue. Thanks!

As long as the players have a good attitude and are willing to treat our adventuring as fun rather than some kind of second job or DPS race, we’ll get along fine in a party. I don’t really care what they’re specifically playing.