Guild Wars 2

Do we really need more exceedingly (and negatively) archetyped characters into the fray? Because that’s exactly what Dougal would provide, and honestly, we’ve enough on the Living Story plates as it is.

Dustfinger.9510:

I’m curious if you have the asuras dialog available.

Wiki scavenging to the rescue!

Speaking with Pokka:

>(if not asura)
Gods, spirits—pfaugh! Give me a good old-fashioned arcanoconverter and some widgets anyday!

> You don’t believe in the Six Gods?
Of course not. I’m an asura! We believe in the Eternal Alchemy, the machine of the universe. We are all just cogs in the apparatus.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cathedral_of_Silence_%28story%29

It is lovely, 90% of the time it makes leveling alts a glorious, lively experience. Simply put before the Megaserver every zone was barren of any life unless it was a particular useful spot; now it feels like there is actual people around. (Even if most of the time it’s a fake feeling, but you get my gist.)

Now the 10% of the time comes from being an EU player, and that’s the fact you stuck people from secluded speech labels into the english speaking servers and vice-versa. You would think this wouldn’t be noticeable, but I have been stuck in French Rata Sum more times than I can count, and the amount of times I’ve ran Tequatl surrounded by german speakers is sky high. I don’t even see the point of language labeled servers at this point, since we’ll keep getting mixed either way.

Granted I can’t imagine anyone will ever agree that instances closing down when the one that starts it leaves can fall under “Convenience”, it is quite possibly one of the most ridiculous things in Guild Wars 2 and something that keeps most of the community confused as to why has it been kept after two years of complaints.

I believe the discussions would fall under the same filing; Before they start to make tournament exclusive skins, they should probably make more widely accessible things.
There is even several set of PvP skins (Like the tribal set) that remain unreleased to the public despite the data was there. Why not release them as compensation for giving out armor skins that will essentially be not accessible to anyone except the handful that bothers with tournaments?

Eszett.6950:

I want them to call me babe.

Braham: “Hey, babe! Come! Eir is here. We must speak with her!”

If you picture this scene with a male human/sylvari/asura, and then proceed to picture Eir’s face, Living Story quality increases by 200%.

The sadness of my character intensified to such degrees, his model just went into a new level of mopey.

And look at how well that has worked out, A.net!

Pretty much, as I won a bet with my partner as to her dying in the mission.

I am just waiting until the Claw of Jormag gives rewards according to the timesink that it is to go through it. And it has been a long wait.

I am inclined to agree with the post above me.

This is just me saying. But is it really such a horribly wrong thing for people to feel entitled to more variety in accessible armor/weapon releases after receiving minimal amounts of these after the game has been out for two years? Because… Two years. It’s not like it was yesterday.

Actually, this is not true. It is not only sylvari. Many humans are also stated to be skeptic of the gods’ existence. An example is the Vigil marksman in the Cathedral of Zephyrs that states he does not believe in the gods, for they have never assisted him in his life.
Asuran scientists, particularily older ones, also have a tendency to discredit spiritual relations between Priests and gods; particular example is the VOED personal storyline teacher, whom you can interact once more in the Cathedral of Silence, in Orr.

Jia Shen.4217:

Snip.

Oh I certainly don’t mean that in the lapse of two years Orr should suddenly be a brilliant land of greenery and cute fluffy bunnies. However, as you said. At least changing of referrals by NPCs, or everyone not pretending we are still trying to breach into Arah for the first time. Of course this would just ruin the experience for the beginner players, but that was my point initially; There really are no means of doing both things at the same time, and probably never will be if we try to cater to both “players starting” and “evolving, changing world”.
More or less the same thing applies to the Nightmare Court, Centaurs and other minor threats. Sure, there should be no reason to -remove- them, however, the Nightmare Court after Faolain’s kickout is quite clearly in heavy disarray and infighting. This should reflect in heavy decrease of numbers, or at least “tribes” fighting each other in some way. The same could be said about the centaurs, specially since their leader, by the current setting’s time, is gone. (And is gone every day for delicious loot.)
Again, it is not something that can be done. But those happenings by now should be heavily altered for all sense-makingness.

And while I of course assume that everything that happens in your Personal Storyline is taken care of by unnamed people even at the times where the dialogues does not establish that it will be done (After all, many of the paths are labeled a choice on how to do it, not which path you want to LEAD), it would certainly have been less “up in the air” if the existence of a racial NPC for each of the Destiny’s Edge had at least fleeting mentions, so as to not feel our character is both adamantly key in the setting because the writers says so and completely irrelevant since things get done anyways if you aren’t there.

But that would mean villagers in the affected settlements would have to do something other than choke on poison and complain about. What do you want them to do, move somewhere not full of death and destruction? Work to fix their surroundings instead of waiting for random passerby’s? Gods forbid.

Flashy-washy particle effects encourage spendage of real bling-bling into the sinkhole that Black Lion Chests are. Thus why.

I will just be here. Literally whacking enemies with a rapier sooner than stabbing with it, because my character is unable to comprehend how to wield a thin blade.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I dislike all of the current (and to be honest, old.) main characters. But reality of the situation is that flawed, quirky “fools” is what attracts the most fake development-feeling for the general crew.

I enjoy Trahearne’s concept, voice actor and design. I would, however, have prefered for Arenanet to actually show me the character, instead of placing him beside me then telling me I should see him as my lifelong friend and leader because “he did stuff before you met him, so he’s cool.”
Which they seem to do with all of their main characters, NPCs and essentially anyone that comes into spotlight just to die two missions afterwards.

To be fair with the still-upset people, the answer is pretty lackluster and confusing as to how it came to be at all. You would figure the Living World team would have someone out there in the management section to point out things like “That’s silly and nobody will agree with it, stop that, you are ruining months of improvement in Living Story writting with a single, easy to apply line of dialogue.”
You could drag in a random fanfic writter for no money and that person would still be able to point these things out. It is just… confusing.

So far the only thing I’ve gathered be it lore wise or writting wise is the basic applicable to all media trying to be taken as innovative and “pro choice”, but not actually wanting to take any risks in the process.

That is; “It’s okay so long it’s females.”

I generally enjoy to think the “Commander of the Pact” as a split set of characters. In my head, the character itself makes no sense whatsoever when in reality it would have taken five different characters to manage what s/he did (Almost literally, as 4 out of 5 Destiny’s Edge members would be nigh dead or maimed without their applicable player character to assist them).
Due to Guild Wars 2 lore swiss cheese syndrome, I tend to roleplay my main character as parts of the ongoing events, in a less “chosen one that fixes everything!” light.
He, and his own group of misfits, assists in the processes to make things happen.
They assisted in the Pact’s initiatives. They went through Arah, as part of the military, and assisted in the fights. They were there to drive away the karka, and joined the armies to fight the Queen.
They are always there as the Living World develops, but they are always and most certainly split from the Multi-commander and his new DE. If anything too overpowered (Omadd’s machine or Scarlet’s death instance falls in this category) comes to play, they simply were not involved, as it would make them far too key to the setting to just be who they are.

I must say, as blunt as this may come off, I am glad she was offed before Destiny’s Edge 2.0 became “Girl Squad with the collaboration of Braham!”
I would really enjoy some more diversity in the lineup. We already have all these powerful and interesting female characters in the setting taking most of the spotlight if we overlook Trahearne, why can’t we get a bit of both in the main characters instead so we are reminded of the availbility in the writting spectrum.

I really just want the costume clothes and town clothes previously released (and those never released yet always used by NPCs everywhere) availble as skins to be purchased.
Still confused and baffled as to why they are not yet there (And even more so as to why do we get tonics and a non-customizable “costume” slot, instead of just releasing the models/skins regardless of clipping issues.), when I haven’t heard of a single player that wouldn’t give “alloftheirmoney.jpg” for, say, the noblewoman dress human noble NPCs use in Divinity’s Reach, or the “showoffey, tight” male bartender shirt.

If we are going to be strictly accurate as to what it makes sense to bring along and not.
Your character is a Pact commander and knows pretty much two thirds of Tyria by the time all of these people are introduced. S/he must be in constant wonder as to why does she rely on all of these mishappen weirdos instead of summoning proper military tacticians and agents and researchers to tag along.

On the other hand, the sole purpose of Destiny’s Edge 2.0 is to drive away from the “You must care about these drama-llamas because they have a book also Snaff died for your sins.” that the original Destiny’s Edge trainwreck was. Their characters have gained development since the start of the Living World, and while Marjory’s has been heavily detrimental, most of them are slowly gaining weight. Taimi included.
Does it make sense in any way for any of these people to be the leader roles of your team? Nope.
But we want to make this as “anime squad” as possible so teenagers get hooked up, so you are in it for the long ride. And you are going to like it.
Otherwise we will bring Trahearne back.

I am sure it has been previously mentioned more than once, but if we are going to go by continuity issues, there is one big priority in the book and that is a heavy dose of updating on Orr, and even renown hearts. It was nice to see Kessex Hills hearts update alongside the Tower of Nightmares, and yet all other maps seem to be frozen in fears that by now are long past history.
Let’s not get started over people freaking out about, say, the Nightmare Court. Or the ever present remnants of the Toxi Alliance (just how many are there!)

While the Personal Storyline dealings are certainly far more immersion breaking than anything else, well, it’s only fair to remind ourselves that, as it is, 97% of Guild Wars 2 is a big slap-to-the-face when it comes to continuity or sense-make. Not to say this in a despective manner, but it’s merely reality. A quick glance into how Personal Story already makes you wonder too many things.
If you are a human, who helped all the other Destiny’s Edge people get to the gathering in Lion’s Arch? If you choose an order, then who cleared the issues in the other orders, allowing them to be there for Claw’s Island? Do the other mentors die as well somehow? Who retrieves the Plot Orb if you don’t go with Apatia? What happens to the NPCs in Orr that would die in certain paths, but not if you choose the alternatives?
Swiss chiss setting and instances are part of the charm. … That being said, we already have so many useless, giant instances, I am sure it wouldn’t kill anyone to research on resource management. (Fire & Frost instances come to mind. Still there. Still no use for them.)

I would certainly hope we don’t go picking off characters based on how poorly their execution has been in the Personal Storyline, otherwise we are killing off a wide, wide, wiiiiide array of characters ranging from everyone in Destiny’s Edge (“We somehow run around killing dragon lieutenants while armies are unable to do so without random mercenaries pitching in! Save the world? Perish the thought. Forced drama comes first!”) to Queen Jennah’s selective capabilities when it comes to her mesmerism, to most leaders of Tyria’s organizations, sooner picking on archetypes than wanting to put minimal cooperation ongoing until Trahearne’s barely-explained past comes into play.
I would say we would also have to blow up Lion’s Arch after their captains still haven’t figured that maybe people may attempt to attack them in some other way than sea, but I guess Scarlett already took the upper hand on that idea.

In short, I would like to agree. Fix his development, rather than make him a loose end. It has worked out well with Braham and Rox. They were like a new heavy dose of uninteresting poison when Fire and Frost came out, but now they are in fact very likeable and developed characters. We can even look past Rox’s terrifying face and Braham’s haircut inspired by Lady Gaga’s stylist! Or looking past Taimi using more makeup than a 60 year old woman going to a senior gathering… and being unnecessarily underaged.
I would say the “replacement female on female” was also a let-down (which to be fair, was also just as unnecessary. I am not bashing it, I am just saying it shouldn’t be a prerequisite to have one of those in every set of main characters!), but Kasmeer and Marjory were in fact very likeable characters from the get go without being spoiled by the abrupt romance situation. (Until lately, at the very least. Tad bit too much clinginess in their dialogues, tad bit too little actioning.)
Everything can be turned around! With a little effort and actually making content that explains and develops on things.
Granted if we look at the whole “I knew Mordremoth, pfft, who doesn’t.” situation, we lose a bit of hope on that area… But. PS has gotten much better lately, so… Almost there.

All fair points in their own way!

1. That’s an acceptable way of looking at it – charr technology begin secluded and hardly widespread is nothing one would think strange given they are hardly the willing type. However they do accept, work and allow asuran technicians into the Iron Legion experimental processes so it’s hard to imagine things like processing machinery – among other basic tools which we have seen clearly part of the legions. – would be beyond acquisition. Specially if we take into account the multicultural pool that Lion’s Arch is. While everyone being freaky egomaniacs is the basic gist of the racial setting in Tyria, it’s hard to wrap one’s head around the idea that no one would, eventually, adapt, re-use or apply knowledge and technology. Except bandits and crazed separatists trying to murder the queen and hypnotize a town, who seemed to have no trouble in doing so, godsbless.

2. This would be the practical issue that comes to mind; Would the populance actually agree to a “fundraiser” using the very idea that literally (literally-literally) exploded on their faces last time? Certainly Faren’s “Yep, fixed ’em.” is reassuring, but I can’t imagine it would be something most of the people would automatically cheer on for, or something that would go smoothly and without due revolts. All things considered last time they were assured they would be just fine as well. Though to be fair towards the developers, actually reflecting political drama in a widespread setting would be too much of a focus. An NPC or two finding the whole setup rather ridiculous -would- have been appreciated, however. The Queen has gone in quite a wild ride of happenings after all.
A fair point towards the centaurs (albeit the refugees I was refering to were mostly Lion’s Arch), though I do am confused as to how the map development works in-setting most of the time since, well. Key things happen, but can’t be altered all the time due to new players and whatnot…

3. Actually you can still chat it up with Tengu about Cantha and choose your character’s origin to be canthan in the Personal Storyline! Though maybe they simply forgot to remove that. Wonder if I killed someone in management for noting this, then. Nah.

4. It’s mostly what I would gather, although even in such time lapses and means it seems like an awfully big project to go unnoticed. But I suppose if dredge can make giant mines to unstoppable degrees, why not. Granted the whole “Oh it was in Twilight Arbor all this time you just didn’t notice.” bit…. eeeeehhh.

5. I really just wish the Orders would live it up a bit more to what the lore boasts about them. Like the Priory. In the end the Priory is this super awesome place full of geniuses and cool adventures, yet what you get to see and experience is a bunch of snotty people barking at you about historical facts and experiments. Asura 0.5, now in Order form.

6. That’s also acceptable; Even though, let’s be fair here. They built a whole fortress worth of milita -while- having to prune back the orrians and wildlife. Several fortresses while making a tactical advance, acquiring recon, and everything else is quite a lot of things to take care of in a year alone. You are right, the people invested in the Pact are certainly more than just a scattered section of the Orders, and of course Trahearne has done many, many things, slaying the old Master of Whispers and whatnot among them. Still, the time schedule does strike me a bit makeshift – but as you said, it may simply be a matter of the usual Personal Story miscommunication. 70% “You are so awesome, please stab things.” and 30%, hidden, actual information on the side.

7. I guess it’s going to be an annoying surprise if any dragons want to take into account the medium to hop around. Heh. Dimensional travel. Just what we’d need to make things even easier to understand.

Well, I’ll try pitching my small grain of salt towards my outlook on the Living Story, as well as personal story. The more the merrier!

I believe Guild Wars 2 has taken a very nice approach to the multiple choice setting with its Personal Story setup. Making sure to keep whenether or not the multiple choices, with due exceptions, take place regardless of your presence; And in many cases hinting that even if you don’t partake in the process of getting things done, someone else will and then succeed in what you would have otherwise done yourself. This, however, is something you must figure out yourself by knowing the NPCs that show up as you course along. I would have very much enjoyed it, personally, if it was made clear and canonical that most of these initiatives happen. Simply because you didn’t want to save the Priory Scholars in Orr, doesn’t mean everyone should have shrugged it off and gone “Oh well, we’ll get more.”; I would have liked to simply appoint someone else to the task. Because it makes sense. Because that’s what anyone with common sense would’ve done, even if they had to lead an army themselves on the other hand.
Choices and NPCs faded over time; This was one of my gripes. Each time I see a cameo of the old start-of-the-game npcs, even now in Living Story, I get fuzzy feelings. This is a good thing! It means the game was NPCs you want to remember. That you -can- remember. And yet, despite we were told our actions would reflect the people that would be interacted with in our storylines, and after these, our home instances… I never get to see the characters I’ve supposedly made to join me. Or my army. Or simply heavily bonded with. These NPCs lose any and all impact on my character soon as he becomes a commander, despite Living Story assumes my character has enough free time to come and save everyone’s behind’s with the guest star appearance of Kasmeer.
This is a let down. And as Valmir noted, there are so many things NPCs, factions and organizations -could- and -should- do, yet they don’t… that I feel as if the world around my character was pretty null and hardly mattered, as everything will fail and everyone will hit against brick walls unless I hand-guide them to not be completely ignorant in their behavior. The setting has so many great leadership and minds that it feels underwhelming no one else in the world can bother to do any of these menial tasks but a passing traveler raising to utmost glory; And while the hero complex is always enjoyable in these games, the “if you are not there, the world implodes.” feeling is rather… lackluster.
How things behave, specially how much time it takes for things to take place, in my opinion, requires a lot of polishing. Armies should take much more preparation, training and refining to ever have a shot at what our characters currently accomplish. And the player should be given much more insight in characters like Destinity’s Edge or Rox ’n Co. sooner than be expected to automatically care about their personal drama and the power of their feelings while the world around is literally being set aflame by giant world ending dragons. Specially when the character leading the group has met far more stable and reliable people in the past that s/he should have no reason not to call to instead of them in times of need.

I will make the arrangement of these queries simple. They may come off as slightly abrasive, but I assure you it’s more curiosity than anything else, and wish to offend no one in the process of this attempt to rationalize some things about the setting.

1. Technology in Tyria; The charr, the asura and to some funny degree the sylvari all have means of advancing the general lifestyle of the average farmer by several decades through the application of their most basic technologies. The setting demonstrates that even complex asura technology can be easily tinkered with by other races with due trial and error. It also makes pretty clear trade between races and mutual sharing of technological knowledge is ongoing. Why is this not reflected at all? Why do farmers continue to live in mud huts strapped with two doors? Why does the average house and setup in Kryta (this including Lion’s Arch) feel and behave like Ye Olde Times when technology is quite clearly accessible? Any logical government would have first and foremost invested in the development of their technological advances through trade soon as the opportunity rose, and while the charr’s truce is barely a new thing, the asura -have- been around for the past 250 years. Despite continuated claims, the setting disproves their technology not being adaptable to other races over and over. Did the Council of Lion’s Arch and The Queen(s) of Kryta simply go “You know, I think I prefer starving peasants.” and left it there?

2. … Stemming from a logical government train of thought; Exactly when did the Queen wake up and go; “Gentlemen! You know this area where we used to host large amounts of civilians? And you know how we have even more refugees and farmers getting murdered outside our city walls by centaurs which we have not yet taken care of at all? Well. I suggest we build a huge arena full of magical mesmer robots and life endagering artillery. None of the aforementioned will be used for the protection of our people, but instead for amusement of tourists. Once per year. This will take a whole district of our city.”

3. … And how has everyone in Divinity’s Reach gone “That’s a wonderful idea!”? Have the canthan not felt an itty bitty offended over the fact that their houses were turned into an arena and they were essentially kicked out to elsewhere?

4. Scarlet (and co.) spent months upon months building giant airships and a whole army. She did so in a time lapse of less than a year (applicable by the main storyline’s time passage.); While the man power can be scrapped off as “Well she’s a creepy woman”, where did she get the materials to do this? She built an airship almost as big as Tyria’s capital center, and absolutely no one noticed the amounts of materials and man power necessary to make this happen. No one. A city’s worth of metal disappeared and no one had any logs on the subject. Lovely Mordremoth being behind the whole Scarlet situation smoothens out most of her plot, but the time+resources deal of her whole initiative still mistifies me.

5. … Which makes one ponder; Exactly what does the Order of Whispers do these days? For the most informed, oldest and widespread organization in Tyria, they never seem to be able to know ahead of… anything, really. They didn’t notice a single one of Scarlet’s plans. Or anyone’s. Not even the basic gists. Even with the Pact’s initiative… I would say that is a bit too blatant that it was left up to complete randoms to figure out everything.

6. … Raising up the subject of the Pact. An elder dragon, one of history’s biggest threats since ancient times, was obliterated in less than a year, with a makeshift army of people that had never cooperated before, led by a randomer from a newborn race, with equipment scrapped and made functional in the aforementioned lapse of time. Is there any explanation as to how wasn’t this whole project a major trainwreck, or in this particular case is it just a mere matter of Zhaitan having a very bad headache that day?

7. Now this is a bit of an extra, but why does no one in Tyria ever mention the possibility of using the lore-adapted portals to the Mists for more, well, necessary processes than mauling each other?

As mentioned before, these are just things I ponder when I see the storyline in motion. It’s hardly meant to be any sort of offensive post, but mostly a plea for a bit of rationalization for bits of it that escape my coherence grasp.

Celestina.2894:

Anmida.4058:

I… don’t understand. How can anyone ever think this is getting better. How is this getting better? I am not bashing you, I swear. Please, explain to me how is this getting better. Because each new update is sending me into an abyssal depression towards the game’s future, and I am seriously worried about them not actually being able to turn this around away from the incoming crash zone.

Because if LA is destroyed, it means the living story is finally making real changes? At this point it doesn’t matter if other games have already done it, it matters that GW2 is finally doing it.

How is that hard to understand?

I thought we were rooting for more content, not for them permanently removing more chunks of the map for fun. But that may just be me.

aspirine.6852:

Anmida.4058:

I… don’t understand. How can anyone ever think this is getting better. How is this getting better? I am not bashing you, I swear. Please, explain to me how is this getting better. Because each new update is sending me into an abyssal depression towards the game’s future, and I am seriously worried about them not actually being able to turn this around away from the incoming crash zone.

Are you kidding me? I have never seen the such a major city change in games, LA is one if not the most important city in the game and it looks like they are about to change that.

Even Ragnarok Online literally blew up two cities and turned them into smocking craters, then filled them with a boss battle hard enough that you had to gather half a server to go through it. Lineage 2 did much of the same. The ways in which the Living Story is developing so far have no explanations nor make any sense whatsoever, and this continues to worry me. Scarlet should have no means to do anything of what she does, each time she tries she should lose resources, yet she still has enough to blow up the most iconic city in the setting.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Because they had it all completed months ago and nobody puts that kind of work into something and doesn’t use it. I mean, except for Minecraft mod developers. But they’re a special sort of insane.

They know we (that is, most of the people on the forum) don’t like Scarlet. They know there were problems with her. What they’re doing is saying “hold your noses people and let’s just get through the first ‘season’ then we will attempt to do better come round two”.

I can only hope that’s it. Because I can’t fathom what kind of developers actually stare at what has become of GW2 and go “Yep. This is a masterpiece of writing and development.”

I… don’t understand. How can anyone ever think this is getting better. How is this getting better? I am not bashing you, I swear. Please, explain to me how is this getting better. Because each new update is sending me into an abyssal depression towards the game’s future, and I am seriously worried about them not actually being able to turn this around away from the incoming crash zone.

Far as how this new DE goes, just search for the sylvari with the most ridiculous, out of place and “far too manga-inspired for how the rest of the game designs actually are”, and that’s likely the one. If Taimi is any indication. It was already blatant with Rox, got better with Marjory and Kasmeer, and then it just fell down into pitch darkness.

I am sincerely confused at this point. For a moment there I thought there was a glimpse of hope and after acknowledging, partially at any rate, how much of a terrible trainwreck Scarlet is overall they would start withdrawing from it. Instead this is getting progressively “No one else has done this, but you can bet Scarlet will because.”

This isn’t even a rage post, I am just confused at this point. What is going on? Why do they keep doing this sort of thing? Does no one in management or quality control ever manage to voice up and go “You may just not want to do that because it is silly.”?