Guild Wars 2

Galen Grey.4709:

Just look at the dark ages, more then one religion was used to justify killing and torture even though said religion strictly prohibited it and you think its not plausable to abuse religion and get one group of people to ally themselves with someone they’d generally never go for?

I’m agreeing to disagree about your assessment on Scarlet, but I highlight this part to say one thing:
Don’t assume that I " think its not plausable to abuse religion and get one group of people to ally themselves with someone they’d generally never go for?"

I know people use and abuse religion to get their means done.
We see it in the bloody news nearly every day.
In fact it was used in GW1 with the White Mantle.
It is one of the most used themes in storytelling.
I’ve used it in some gaming sessions at my table.

So yes I know full well that people will bend a religious order or ideal to their means.

What raises my hackles specifically about the Krait in this release is they are the blackest black hat that GW2 had to offer. Yet now they’ve lost some of that edge in my eyes because of a supposed personal nemesis that really hasn’t earned that title yet to a good portion of the players here.

ANet already admits they kind of dropped the ball with her progression in the Collaborative Development Topic, to which I respect that admission.

You say, “we dont know what seeing the fabric of reality did to her..” well I hope ANet one day does give us a blasted clue. I have faith they will some day. Then maybe I can re-evaluate my stance on her a third time (I started supporting her, now after this Krait business I’ve turned sour) and salvage something from this experience.

So while I disagree with some of your statements, I too want to see if ANet will provide some more on Scarlet’s background or motivations. I want to get back that feeling she was fun.

Septemptus.7164:

Nope. Those skins are awesome and really cheap through conversion, so why would you want to get them in game?
There is plenty of items/skins in game.

They should focus on adding more to direct purchase instead of RNG – thats the fact.

I’m not advocating that the Kasmeer weapon skin right now need to have an in game earn.

I’m advocating that in game skins need more Gem Store purchases.

I’m advocating that skins like this, when they go out of season, could be earned via RNG via that thrice cursed BLTC system. But never am I advocating that RNG is better than Gem Store purchases.

The flow for armor and weapon skins, in my opinion should go:
*Introduce to Gem Store the more exotic ones, like this one.

*If ANet feels that last season’s stuff needs to be retired from the shop, put them in BLTC weapons vendor so folks that couldn’t get them when they were hot still have the chance to earn them. (Ideally this shouldn’t happen. ANet should keep all their Gem Store skins available in the blasted store, but they are a business and they do this to create a scarcity feeling. It sucks, but that’s how businesses turn items around. Our ideal little worlds will conflict with business models, that’s a fact we have to deal with.)

Honestly we’re arguing in circles, that’s the fact. I’ve gone out of my way multiple times to say that people who want to purchase in the Gem Store have been getting the short end of the stick lately. That supports your statement where we need more direct purchases.

ANet, more Gem Store armor and weapons, we’ll throw gems at you. Don’t be afraid.

Aye.8392:

But, you already can if you trade gold for gems. Granted that they are definitely expensive for the gold currency, but at least it isn’t just dumb luck chance. If you want one you can earn it and know what it will cost you, or you can open the wallet and buy it and know what it will cost you. For me this is WAY better than the BLTC junk.

Exactly what I’m saying. If they release skins there should be a pay as well as a earn option.
Don’t want to fork over the money because your wallet it tight? Fine! Go play and earn the (just throwing a name out there) Magic Giggle Stick skin or grind out gold and transfer into gems to buy it.
Don’t want to spend all that time on getting Magic Giggle Stick, but have a few dollars laying around? Fine! Whip out that credit card and throw ANet some money.

That’s exactly how they should market most of their skins for weapons and such.
I’m tired of random chances with those blasted black lion boxes, scrape up enough of those scraps and then get what you want? I did away with that as a kid when I had to collect box tops for some toy that wasn’t in the cereal.

Now stuff out of season, like Halloween skins they might not release in the next year or stuff they’ve ‘retired’ from a store? Maybe that’s a half decent compromise to put them in the Black Lion weapons vendor.

This way people can still access the retired skins, the gem store isn’t stuck with last season stuff when they want to sell a new season look, and ANet still gets some use out of their Lion chests. It is inconvenient, but hey you wanted that Magic Giggle Stick that was out of season 8 months ago.

I bought the staff. I like the skin, and even though I don’t have a female caster (the skin seems very feminine) it supports them doing business in a way that I prefer. I’ll find somewhere to use it

I’m toying with the idea of a Rule 63-ish Kasmeer. Making it a big Norn male who is a Mesmer and epic mustache. The total opposite of her and have him use this skin.

It would be a blast.

(kneels and bestows the Internet crown to NoxInfernus)
You’ve made a beautiful pun, I just want you to know this.

Galen Grey.4709:

I agree that there have been a bit too many alliances. Luckly they ran out of races now though technically there is still centaurs and sons of svanir. Skritt and the Grawl. But no I have faith there is not going to be another alliance.

My money would be on Centaur/Hylek.
The Hoof Hop.

BobbyStein.2315:

People want more details about Scarlet. We know that. Details will be revealed in the near future and will be paced more aggressively. Until then, I hope you enjoy the game and our most recent Living World release and continue to constructively tell us what you think. Thanks.

Gameplay wise I liked the interior of the tower. It is like a villain version of Queen’s Pavillion.

Also I will echo smeen’s comment about the cinematics. Very engaging and I print-screened every one of them.
I apologize if any of my comments seemed confrontational or non constructive.
It mostly was born from frustration more than anything else.
However if no grievances were found in my posts please disregard then no harm no foul.

Seras.5702:

You can absolutely avoid the plants. See those big floaty spores? Don’t go near em.

Plus bring something for stability.

She’s hiding in ol’ DR, right in Faren’s wardrobe.
That’s my speculation after playing this release.

aspirine.6852:

Atlas.9704:

This is what ANet needs to do more.
I’m okay with the idea that you could earn them as well, but at least give us the alternative to buy them too.

No they need to make them drop in game more often. And even if you make them shop items which I find greedy as hell, they are way too expensive now.

How often is more often?
I’m not going to debate on price, because one person’s value of fair is “too greedy” for others.

All I’m stressing is: if they bring new skins into the game then don’t hide behind the random chance of black lion ticket scraps. Give us a chance to earn or buy, but allow both chances. Some folks are willing to fork over the cash, others aren’t so willing. I think we should have both options.

Gameplay wise I love this. The tower is challenging, but I don’t necessarily have to group up, the instances are workable alone if you take your time.
I do want the tower to stay after two weeks.

Galen Grey.4709:

Secondly and perhaps more importantly her experiments with Omadd allowed her to see the fabric of reality itself. She emerged from the chamber understand things like, the nightmare court, the pale dream and how all fits in a grand design. The same could be true for all races and all people in Tyria. That might have enabled her to form alliances in mere days not months because by knowing each people’s design, each time she could have offered them exactly what they were looking for. Her brokering the alliance between krait and nightmare court seems to support this.

Due to this lack of knowledge we now have players who were once interested in her not giving any care about what she does in the future.
The logical thing for the writers to do now would be allow the heroes an update or two which gives us missions that investigate how she went about with these alliances. Find a former pirate who worked with the Inquest that will spill the metaphorical beans or raid some of her old labs.

Simply put: Build up more on the alliances already established instead of just throwing out another one we simply stop in the next release. It starts to get old for some and thus they lose interest.

The only reason why the Krait are working with the nightmare court is because Scarlet promised them the obelisks and a means to get their prophets back. They’re extremely xenophobic and view all races as inferior, imagine a race thats merely a few decades old. Scarlet has a big hold on the Krait, if they betray anyone it will be the nightmare court not Scarlet.

I agree on the first part, but I still can’t stomach the idea that this extremely xenophobic race can be handled by such upstart youngling races.
In my earlier writing I can still see the Krait go blood mad against Scarlet, true they would also attack the Court and I’m perfectly fine with this.

Honestly I don’t care that she has a big hold on them. You promise a group of religious xenophobes the return of their prophet and then don’t deliver.

Then count the seconds before they try to make you a sacrifice, I bet it would be a short time.

Galen Grey.4709:

3. Scarlet has seen the meaning of the universe. Do you seriously expect her to ever do anything that has her go from seeing everything to living in a tiny cell voluntarily? That would be actual bad writing.

Rule number (random number inserted here) on being a bad guy: always lie.
This is why “promising" was in quotes, she wouldn’t really and the players know it.
As for the rest of the characters, well they haven’t been so bright with this leaf being the main villain lately so I would not be surprised if they think now’s our chance.

As players we’d just simply tick off the seconds before she tried to slip away from us, but

4. A very weakened nightmare alliance is impossible to beat?

Never said impossible to beat. In fact I’m rereading my earlier post and can’t even find the part where that’s implied. All I’m saying is Nightmare powered Toxic Krait can still be a thing on this map after the release is done. I’ll go even further in breaking this down and add that it could very well be possible to allow them a fight against the Court elements that betrayed them after they killed Scarlet.

Yes I know, Court potions and magic were a factor in making them toxic. Then have them scrounge up the notes from the corpses of these plants. There wouldn’t be a lot of Nightmare Krait, these toxic abominations, after the release is done. They would be rare enemies to kill, something to break up the numbers of normal Krait we’ve been skinning for a while.

5. With Scarlet dead what possible reason would the Krait have to continue their collaboration with the nightmare court?

Going back to point 4, I’m totally fine with the Krait just going blood thirsty and killing the Court splinter that helped them. Maybe the Courts’ poisons help fuel their power boost like Bane Venom in the Batman universe. This way the only thing keeping them alive is their skill to trade with the Krait.

At the very best for the Court it becomes a horrible drug dealer/user relationship with the Court elements still in some measure of power.

At the absolute worst for them, it turns into a master/slave relationship with the Krait constantly keeping them on their toes. They never know when they’ll die. They could try to escape, but then they will probably be killed.

Without the alliance, the special Toxic infused Nightmare Krait would fall in numbers.
Their potential rise would be diminished like a collapsing star. Showing how a folly can befell a race, much like the mighty Jotun now aren’t even a powerful race anymore. The Krait’s evil tendencies yet again brought them doom.

I know I’m going a bit long in this post, but ANet could have really workable alliances without Scarlet. The Molten were an okay example of this, the Aetherblades were a better example of this. The Toxic… not really so well thought out when you really put together how fracking blood thirsty and evil the Krait are.

The Court aren’t even up to that level of pure hatred yet.

Whatever, kill her off or send her far away so better writing attempts can be made.

Celeras.4980:

My favorite “personal” moment below

…Interesting. Maybe there’s some truth to the rumors about that experiment?

Gameplay wise I find this fun, its like a villain attempt at the Queen Jubilee.
There are plenty of places for groups to meet up and power through, I was able to ride a zerg to the save spots. The triforce keys aren’t that hard to get, and the matches aren’t too hard.

Storywise though I nailed it with my prediction as did many others. Scarlet says a bunch of static, we don’t get anywhere with her, we fight a hybrid, and she says “Next time Gadget, next tiiiiime.”

I know they tease that she’ll be back later, but hopefully she slips on some soap in the shower.

I’ll gladly eat my words if they ever give us a release where we can investigate her and learn about her motives outside of “burn it for the lulz”.

Please keep this going well into Wintersday.

The ending cutscene was nice, seeing all those characters.
If this was supposed to be a recap of her exploits I’m rather meh about it.

Now the game itself was fun. Going through all those levels and playing the instances.

Its a pity, I haven’t seen this yet.

Hamfast.8719:

Oh, gracious! Please do forgive me, sir! I was a bit distracted by a fellow named Redenaz who seems to think I am (you’ll think this is funny) a mermaid of all things! Can you imagine?

HA! The things people imagine.

He must have just come back from watching Waine’s pit fight, I think something was in the water nearby. We had a Sylvari completely losing its mind thinking we were Moa birds and such!

And thank you for the advice about the Thundershrimp. I might try that next time.

Ellisande.5218:

Atlas.9704:

(shrugs) Meh I’ve seen … one drunk human comment that he thought some Asura gal was flirting with him, and so the idea of those two being an item isn’t odd to me.

So in your view homosexual relations are only slightly less perverse than interspecies mating?

Never said they were perverse in the first place.
My stance is it shouldn’t be a big deal and apparently ANet isn’t making it a big deal.

It is the players who are making it a big deal.

Why bring up the perversion angle anyways? Are you against interspecies couplings?

MithranArkanere hit the nail on the head with that one human.
He was being insulted, but his ego protected him and as such he thought that even an Asura would like him.

This is what ANet needs to do more.
I’m okay with the idea that you could earn them as well, but at least give us the alternative to buy them too.

Galen Grey.4709:

Its a story…. whats the alternative…. Scarlet wins, Krait and Nightmare court turn out to be unbeatable, nightmare tower here to stay cause players cant do anything about it?

Nightmare Krait betray Scarlet, she turns coat to briefly help us while “promising” to turn herself in at the end, she doesn’t, Nightmare Krait eventually kill her but are very weakened now.

Her last words are ramblings about all her toys and some experiment to take on a Crystal Dragon. She dies.

Nightmare Krait still become a menace to us, but lost a lot of power due to our accomplishments, Scarlet dies (waiting for applause to die down before continuing) but leaves a tease about potential plot point ANet could pick up some day in the far future.

Now all of my level 80s can enjoy one set passed around. Thank you!

Yes but not structured PvP, where the goal is to kill people.
These are more competitive PvP, where you won a football match or race.

To give a ham fisted example: I would be a great football player but a lousy soldier in the field of battle.

To be honest I didn’t realize Glory could be earned via Activities.
That would make it all the better, but I do agree rank should not be gained that way.

I see Glory akin to PvP Karma of sorts. Rank should determine how long you’ve played in sPvP.

So keep Glory awards, unless they want to give out more money, but Rank shouldn’t advance this way.

Redenaz.8631:

Edit: Adventures in auto-censor continue. “Chest rabbit,” reversed, is what it’s supposed to say.

Oh now I get what it was trying to censor, the naughty word I mean, wow the filter sure does get overzealous at times.

Hamfast.8719:

You are a clever one. I don’t know how you figured out who was helping me. But you are too late! My friends helped me get a job at a little restaurant called “Two-Ters” (delightfully tacky, yet unrefined). Now I am hiding amongst you, accepted as just another one of the people. The patrons really seem to like me, and I like them. So if you come in and try to “bust up the joint”, be prepared for the food fight of your life!

You still didn’t get me a refill on ale when I was eating the Dolyak special a few nights ago.
Yes I tipped lousy because of it. :P

(Final set of reviews, honest)

Here are my take on the Holidays and special events that will cycle again:
Shadow of the Mad King 2012 and Blood and Madness
I didn’t get to fully experience this, real life issues, but the idea of ANet bringing back Halloween with Mad King Thorn was welcomed.
You (ANet) brought back something from GW1, something the players loved, and updated it to fit GW2 without completely alienating it.
Good job!

Wintersday 2012
I did get to experience this more than Mad King ‘12 and it was fun.
The event rotated to all the racial cities(not just Lion’s Arch), the art was wonderful, the workshop mission was fun, and it seemed like every race was getting into the spirit of the Holidays.
Once again Good Job.

Super Adventure Box #1
Fun, innovative, nostalgic, and another good expansion on the possibilities of the GW2 world.
All of this wrapped up in a simple April Fool’s joke, brilliant.

Dragon Bash
Loved it and yet it still was weak in spots.
I loved the event itself. The fact that, once again, you took something from GW1 and put a GW2 spin on it was great.
However if I see another Pinata again I’m joining big Z’s army in Orr and will kill every hero in the Pact.
Plus we get a murder mystery to do, but what was Scarlet’s reason to kill Ashford?
Once again this is one of those failing moments in the storytelling. We don’t know her motives.
After looking in the wiki I noticed that Mai Trin was supposed to be the usurper, but honestly I didn’t even notice that.
That was story telling which needs improvement. So the event itself was memorable, but Scarlet’s reasons obviously weren’t.

(Concluded)

Here’s what “Needed work”, not bad but still I question why certain things went how they did:

Clockwork Chaos
Okay it is the big moment to take down Scarlet.
We’ve been pumped up to finally see this vicious villain.
And….her invasions practically do nothing when they win.
I did like how she took over the celebration and we had to fight her in order to win them back.
I did like how you used Faren and Hobo-tron for humor.
I did like the massive battles open world for the invasions.

I don’t care much for the fact I now have about 8 queen jennah minis and I can’t do anything with the surplus.
I don’t care anymore about the Scarlet invasions because even if she wins the map is just the same.
I don’t really remember why Scarlet went trolololo to the humans at that time.
Was she trying to test the Humans? Kill the Queen? Just there to steal the clockwork?
Is my confusion brought about because we actually stopped her from completing her plan?
Because if so I’ll gladly step back and let her win something just so I can see why she’s doing half this stuff in the first place.

Super Adventure Box Back to School
The levels needed some work, but you gave us Tribulation mode and I’m happy!
You (ANet) could have put Season 1 stuff in the Gem Store, but nope and so folks that never experienced this had two weeks to basically play two achievement ladders.

Lost Shores
I didn’t play this one too much either, once again real life does beckon me, but I’m glad we had Fractals thanks to this.

Tequatl Rising
I did play it and I’m glad you have more patches which make certain bosses get a revamp.
Have we ever found out why Tequila Sunrise got bigger and beefier?
You know what would have made this even better? Fail conditions for the Scarlet assaults added here.
Teq has one, why not give the invasions one? Ah one can dream.

Twilight Assault
Good, we are given another update to something existing (the dungeon) but yet again get strung along with Scarlet.
Now the idea of her having a secret is nice, that shows something more to her, but still this one wasn’t too exciting or rage inducing.

Tower of Nightmares
Speaking of rage inducing I have never found a release which excited me so much and yet bored me at the same time.
Exciting:
-New Skill! YES you can do such things!
-We have altered Kessex! Holy Six this is awesome and now it feels like the Living story is altering and growing things!
-My fave lady team up Kasmeer and Delaqua are starring this one. Good to see this because they needed another case.
-A big tower which looks like the Krait’s doing, Oh yes I’m so excited!
-The Krait, a minor villain in GW1 and GW2, looks like they might be making a power play!

Bored:
-Oh. Wait. It’s Scarlet’s doing huh? (Sighs) Okay let’s see how she managed to convince xenophobic sociopathic religious snakes to follow her.
Apparently we can’t have anyone try something on their own unless she’s behind it, and it looks like the next release isn’t looking good either since she’s on the preview thumbnail. What’s the big motivation for yet another alliance? Will she make a hybrid, leave holo clones of herself, and get away scott free once more?! Because I’m predicting the next release to be that.

(continued)

Here are the events that were “Good”:

Sky Pirates
Heck yeah Pirates! The Dungeon made me want to hate it, but I couldn’t say no in attempting it.
This was a fun sequel to Dragon’s Bash and it was at this point I thought that Scarlet wouldn’t be too bad.
There was a slight problem though, I honestly don’t know if she founded the Aethers first or the Molten.
Hopefully it was the Aethers first, we’ve had established GW2 evidence of Bandits and Inquest working together in Brisban Wildlands.
It looked like you (ANet) were working on expanding what has already been made, good job!

Cutthroat Politics
Good but weak, because we don’t know what Keil is doing now.
Yes she’s part of the Council, and I’m glad we were given the voting ability, but now she seems to have disapeared.
One thing here I didn’t care for was the Aether skins only accessible via BLTC tokens.
I don’t mind it per se but it would have been better if we also had the ability to buy the skins via Gem Store.
We (the players) know you can put out skins via Gem Store, Wintersday was a great example of that, so why not allow us the chance to buy them directly?

Secret of SouthSun/Last Stand
A nice way to explore the fate of those in Flame and Frost.
We were given more to a dead island, we were also given boosters based on who we backed, and Keil starts to take form as a hero figure.
Good start, but after blowing up the contracts what have we done with the refugees?
Technically they can leave, but right now they are “stuck” in the game.
I think this would have been better had we (the players) were given a choice in the fate of the refugees.
Much like Cutthroat Politics did in the future, have folks play as refugee supporters or Consortium.
Based on how we play the refugees’ fate would be in our hands.
Yet we didn’t do anything like that. I’m glad we expanded on the land, but saddened by the loss of opportunity.
Though I like the idea of a single player dungeon, the minesweeper game with Canach wasn’t really inspiring.
Yet you did give us another world boss and I’m happy about that.

(continued)

I originally had a master list of how I felt for every event.
The thread first asked for 1 good and 1 bad review, so I complied.
Now it seems that some of us are posting reviews on all of them, so here are mine.

Here are my votes for “Great!” releases:
Bazaar of the Four Winds
A new spot in the map, a fun series of competitions, great music, and you managed to expand on the Glint and the Brotherhood.
This is yet another great example that you can honor the GW1 stuff while putting your own GW2 energy into it!
I was overjoyed to hear that they may come back again.

Flame and Frost (All four parts)
Individually they were weak, but together you created a story introducing two new characters and concluded it pretty well.
I’d go so far as to say if the Molten weren’t allied with Scarlet this would have still been good on its own.
Since you won’t change the cadence at least have a series of releases close enough to encaspulate the story being told.
The Prelude was boring, but eventually the players were given a great dungeon and good back and forth between Rox and Braham with the last one.

Queen’s Jubilee
A Human celebration, with fun, activities, Hobo-tron, a new zone, and away from Lion’s Arch!
Oh sweet blessed Six I was thrilled to finally have something away from that city.
The Gauntlets were fun, the champions around the map were fun, and I even hunted them down after I completed their achievements.
However once the party was over our lovely new zone was worthless. It still is pretty, but now dead, and that’s a shame.
Also it didn’t make sense to have a mini Lion’s Arch (you are charging for access) in DR when we can just zone to Lion’s Arch for free via PvP swords button.

(continued…)

If Endgame is raid, best weapon stats, and that form of perpetual addictiveness in other games I always try to avoid: 0/10 I don’t like the idea of gw2 having such.

If Endgame means certain skins are craft able at levels, certain story instances require levels for continuity of plot, and lands available for higher leveled characters 8/10.
That’s something I can always enjoy.

So less “raid for best content ever” and more “New map open filled with nasty creatures, bring your toughest characters.”

And definitely less “your stats don’t match up with what’s best now” and more “Oh cool, (new skin name) is out now! Level 80s can only get that look.”

So yes I’m a casual player who likes cosmetics over gear grind because I might get that +2 of toughness or whatever.

Redenaz.8631:

LESS THINKING, MORE BLIND OBEDIENCE

I had an ancestor who fought people that said something like that 250 years ago.
This won’t end well.

I love this thread.

Hamfast.8719:

Oh, poo!

You’re on to me! I must retake my natural form and return from whence I came under the sea.

Note to self: do more underwater parts of map.

Wow, here I thought Lion’s Arch used Asuran/Charr hybrid technology to create a humanoid buoy!
I swam by you, sorry, I would have brought over some food.

BobbyStein.2315:

So you’d like the game to react to you on a more personal level, such that people, places, etc. respond differently depending on your accomplishments, decisions, and so on?

Yes, very much so! I’d love for things that I chose in character creation to matter in the game world. Things like charm/ferocity/dignity/gods(spirits) chosen/etc.

ColinJohanson.2394:

We agree, this is something we’ve been discussing a lot lately and working on some various answers for, but I’m curious:

What rewards would you like to see from rewards? Would they be different when you’re leveling up than when you’re level 80? What would motivate you to want to go around the world playing as many different events as possible, rather than the same 4-5 over and over again?

Some of the fun challenges we are currently solving, but it’s great to hear peoples thoughts on this subject as well.

Put champion boxes at the end of a DE chain, that way we don’t have too bad of a “Champ Train” going on.
Have keys, or something, that are part of the reward. Much like the scavenger hunt in GW1 for the moa chick, we could have something for GW2. A key from the fallen Bandit King, a crystal information piece taken from the dead Inquest researcher, magic McGuffin seeds from a Nightmare Court Baron. Add them all together in Mystic forge and get something awesome or helpful like a buff for reduced WP costs, a exotic weapon, or big bags of money.

People will game the system for the quickest reward. Some will do the events just to see what happens next, some want the challenge.

From a pure monetary reward I’d like to see:
*Skins from BLTC or at least tickets so I don’t need to buy keys
*Keys if you don’t feel like giving out skins
*Rare chance of T6 rare materials like Glacial Lodestones
*Buffs, account bound, that would help our lower leveled alts if they use them
*Maybe even Guild commendations or rewards for those playing a chain in a guild, letting the smaller sized one get a helping hand.

Also cesmode is right about the currencies. ANet, you have so many different ways to reward folks.

I’ll echo the Modus Sceleris disappointment. I never heard of them until I stumbled into the group in Lornar’s Pass one time. Initially it did bring a smile to my face that this was possibly something I haven’t done before, but taking on the whole guild with one Ranger wasn’t too appealing, plus I only found out about the other events related to them via wiki.

Conncept’s post echoes some of my feelings as well. ANet gave us the Sinister Trinity in Brisbane Wildlands and yet in this Living World they seem content with just their little corner? Why? Why forge new alliances when we haven’t properly concluded ones that could be expanded on?

Now I’m not saying that I never wanted the Molten. In fact it would have been neat to have that built up slowly instead of giving us one or two releases where we start investigating them.

They could have been slipped in while the other stories (Centaurs, Nightmare Court attacking the Grove, Bandits, Inquest) are being explored. Eventually they would be given their time to shine and it would have made more sense to the player base.

The player base has seen evidence of build up within the game, this Krait tower is such an example, the Pavillion was such an example. Something big was going to happen, sometimes the players were lucky enough to catch some NPC dialogue (mostly text if I remember) which had us teased about certain things happening. In fact the Heralds were a decent start.

Some players are simply asking ANet to expand on what is already there. That helps bring a world to life. Instead of always predicting that the bandits will strike Curtis’ Ranch why not have us surprised one update where the Troll or Ettins come smashing in? Then we’ll wonder just what the heck is going on? Later we find out somebody disrupted the natural order of things. Whether ANet decides to keep that going or not is up to them, but at least something already established was shaken up.

Full set of Superior Rune of Divinity.

I like the idea of giving boosts to those moving from a higher pop server to a lower one.
If they make the boost or boon generic enough for both WvW and PvE players it would allow either population base a chance to try out the other. For those who like both, even better for them.

My server seems to be more PvE than WvW if the conversations from Lion’s Arch are accurate. I haven’t suffered in finding anyone for stuff, but then I’m also quite happy playing solo.

Countess Anise as the Queen of (Shining) Blades.
I approve.

cesmode.4257:

But seriously. How does Zhaitan commune with his minions to attack specific areas?

There’s probably some magical/psychic communication with a familiar human or humanoid who talks for him, or maybe the creature can interpret the dragon mutters and roars into our language.

Then again I’m using Shadowrun as a reference in my mind.

timmyf.1490:

Edit: I should mention that I don’t have anything against reading: I’ve read all three books! (I even bought extra signed copies of Sea of Sorrows for my guild officers!) I just think it’s better to really bring the world to life. I still want more lore in text form than we have now, I just think there are better options available.

I too love the books, also I’ve had my characters read the in-game books about Ebonhawke. Yeah having just text wouldn’t be optimal, but we’re at a disadvantage with the UI as is.

Someone recommended a Lore section for the site, that is a good first step.
From there maybe we could have in game books contain snippets like the Priory Library did or Ebonhawke.

First try it out with a few topics like the Living Story Flame and Frost, Southsun, and Scarlet. Small sentences, maybe a paragraph at the most, with “Flip next page” or “Put book down” as the choices.

From there, if it works well, move onto some of the GW1 Lore. Hopefully by then in development there will be a change to the UI which allows a better implementation.

I wouldn’t be opposed to a small scavenger hunt achievement like in Ebonhawke for multiple parts of a topic. Something like “Flameseeker Fan” because I found all 10 book parts pertaining to the original Flameseeker Prophecies story, just thinking off the top of my head.

Isle of Janthir has been mostly PvE, we are in silver for WvW (whatever that means), we have helpful guilds and a fun community.

Casual PVE Player
I rate this a 8/10
They can improve the home instance to be worth something, that would improve my gaming experience with this title.

However it ends I just hope we get more villains who step up to harass and attack Tyria.
That will probably be the only good legacy I think Scarlet will leave: That the Pact, the Orders within it, and the races that support it can still be “touched” after conquering an Elder Dragon.

How she did it is the face palm part for some, but the idea that others will start trying to blaze their own trail in the races’ territories make me smile.

I’m hoping the next series of arcs deal with multiple villains, rotating their importance based on release schedules, so we just don’t have one boogeyman.

Erick Alastor.3917:

Anyone said Nyarlathotep?

Cute attachment, with all this talk of the Elder Gods I’m now playing my playlist of A Shoggoth on the Roof .

No its not Abbadon, that theory has been going around for multiple threads.
Chances are it is a Toxic Husk super powered or something along those lines.
Abbadon has been dead since Kormir took over.

Wow pdg, upset about something?
Considering how GHOSTBUSTERS has permeated so much into pop culture I figured it wouldn’t need any explanation.

Now I’ll admit that HP Lovecraft’s works are sometimes missed out by folks, but chances are they have seen enough scary movies to at least get the theme.

Heck, even Thirdspace from BABYLON 5 borrowed from the Cthulhu, or at least the Elder God, theme. (The Asura gate part of my post, in case you were wondering got inspiration from there.)

If you want to play Mr Wiki on a joke thread fine, but please calm down.

ColinJohanson.2394:

For me the original invasion of Southsun Cove was the best example of this, it had a lot of “story” style content that made sense to happen and then go away, and also left a lot of permanent experiences as a result of that storyline.

Southsun itself is a good example of how we can have temporary content but permanent content stay behind.
At the moment players who missed out on Canach can’t play that story element, but they can enjoy the Karhka They can at least get a look at the conditions and think Wow I missed something here

I also felt like the story content that came along with the Queens Jubilee and Clockwork Chaos did a good job of accomplishing this as well, though the outcome of the invasions don’t have enough impact on the world.

And that’s where I’m going to disagree in part with your view.
Queens Jubilee and Clockwork gave us entertaining “one shot” type of moments, but the permanent additions were lacking.
With Southsun we have an island, resources, and all sorts of evil crabs that we can enjoy.
With Crown Pavilion we have a really nice building and a exclusive section that I don’t think the gem store even sells the passes to anymore.
The Pavilion is empty like a dead mall, nothing to do. So not only did the outcome of the invasions not impact the world enough, but the new zone is dead because of no content after those “episodes” were done.

Ironically enough, even though the invasions haven’t made much of an impact they do provide something. When a new person comes in and gets jumped by the invading forces they could have that feeling of What did I miss out?!

Another food for thought: Back when we invaded Southsun, we did a lot of “one time” events with the story content. Folks complained that one time wasn’t fair because they would miss it, so we extended the “story” style content so you now have 2-4 weeks to experience it. Does having it around this long take away from the sense of story progression, and make it feel like it should be permanent when it’s taken away? Or would simply having (using the TV analogy) something like TiVo that allows you to see the story you missed balance out this issue?

Having the ability to catch up didn’t hurt the experience for me.
So when you extended to 2-4 weeks it worked out well.
I think the problem with our TV analogy is this:
*ANet’s story is trying to be deep and extensive with the writing like Lost, B5, Walking Dead, etc. Characters that grow and die, a world ever changing.

*Right now GW2’s release schedule and current toolset is built more for shows back during the I Love Lucy days. Episodes need to be seen when they are broadcasted and there’s no syndication or reruns.

*Part of the solution would be a TiVO, DVR, VCR, Rerun style of tool. Maybe historians in the Priory or various other NPCs give you the ability to play back something missed, but the rewards aren’t exactly the same as those when it first “broadcast”.
This way folks that want to completely catch up can get some satisfaction knowing they played the big moments, while those that don’t need to can just not talk to those NPCs and continue playing how they like.

That was one of my problems with GW1’s version of storytelling. Story Missions littered the map and can be easily accessed whenever with no indicator that it was in the past. If I miss Rurik I can just go back and replay the missions he was in. Everything was time-locked.

Factions and Nightfall at least gave a disclaimer that “These things happened while you weren’t around” so I could put in my mind it was a reenactment of sorts with me in the middle.

GW2 needs to have some happy middle like that. I see we have a replay ability with Jory and the tower in this release. That’s good, and one day I hope to see something like that with a Herald or Skaald talking about Braham’s beginnings which allows me to replay his instanced mission from Flame and Frost.

So we just amp up the “Dude where’s my chugger?” arc in the Norn story?
I’m good with that.

Concept art tends to look better than in game models.

hermescragsniper.2713:

No offense to Maclaine, as I love many of his other creations and I love a crap load of Hard Rock/Metal music, but (if the song in the video is the song in question) this is noise to my ears, putting it mildly

I…I wanted Mustakrakish
I mean c’mon it dealt with awakening a lake monster after all!
In a few hours I’ll listen to the chorus over this video muted and see if “Awaken, Awaken, Awaken..” or “I command you to rise, rise, rise!” fits.