Guild Wars 2

MatthewMedina.5419:

Gargoyles and Mergoyles have disappeared, and at least one person is looking into it. Whether we expand on that story in the future comes down to whether the story of their absence is interesting enough to be worth exploring, and fits in with other stories we want to tell.

So the idea of a small group living high on top of a castle recently built by Caudecus is not off the table I take it?

Because it would make sense since I’ve rarely ever been in Divinity’s Reach during the night, for all we know they could be in a stone prison during the day.

Drakma.1549:

Wow, so much QQ.

Go outside people.

Well the graphics are great and there’s no lag.
However as I check my inventory I realize I can’t hold as much compared to my GW2 character and he’s way richer than I.

Becka Williams.4978:

The best way to keep tabs on the enemy is to infiltrate them. Sides, all we’ve seen of Scarlet since the invasion is holograms.

I thought we saw her once during Twilight Assault and Tower of Nightmares?

That one just looks creepy lol.
Like “we never found their bodies” creepy.

Which only gives further evidence that all three should be strong enough to stand on their own.
That way the hardcore players don’t feel left out, but the folks open to all three only benefit more and more.

I think that runs contrary to what ANet wants to do: find a way to mash all three together.

Ameranth should be GW2’s version.
It would be kind of neat seeing her and her hound all across Tyria.

This is fair, in fact I’m still glad that WvWvW gets this map and Living Story is “light” on the focus.
We will see in a few hours how this goes.

Carighan.6758:

How people can honestly expect ANet to not develop content for all three modes is beyond me.

I don’t think that’s the case.
I can’t honestly believe that folks are out right saying “don’t develop anything else for (insert game mode).” but more like “why should I play this mode if I don’t like the idea of it?”

ANet is going to try and persuade/lure folks from all three camps to try everything.
Their hopes will be to grow gamers who will be comfortable in each environment, but the reality clashes with those hopes. There are people who have tried the other game modes but don’t like them and go back to their camps.

Gearbox.2748:

So I can see that new patch is a force us PvE players into WvW…

We don’t know the full story yet, but it seems like most of it won’t even be in the Edge.

Tyler Bearce.3427:

I stated this during the Ready Up livestream earlier today, but I’ll repeat it again here.

While we are releasing new story related content with the Edge of the Mists update, very little of that content actually occurs inside of the EotM map. Hopefully that alleviates some of your concerns!

Draygo.9473:

Think of enemies in WvW as champion mobs with variable AI.

That’s dangerously close to “Don’t think of them as people”.
I know that wasn’t your intention, but still that’s slightly disturbing.
Besides they won’t drop champ boxes

aspirine.6852:

Why are some of you so scared of being killed or ganked? It happens all the time in wvw and guess what, besides the repair bill nothing happens.

I won’t speak for everyone, I can only speak for myself.
It isn’t about fear of being killed or “ganked”.
It is because I find most PvP in GW2 teeth pulling boring!
So why should I play a game mode I don’t like and I potentially lose in game gold?

I’ve gone into WvWvW, I completed my Map on a server that sometimes got curb stomped. I’ve seen the Oceanic players take over maps for us only to lose that progress
because the North Americans were not as coordinated or numerous.

I’ve done the WvWvW gimmick and what do I get for my troubles?
Gold amounts I have absolutely wasted on repairs for not only my armor but upgrades on waypoints and other things within that game. I have a level 7 which I don’t even care if that’s too low or high for some people’s opinions. I have 35 bonus WvWvW chests I’ll never collect because I don’t want to ever go back there again.

So it isn’t about fear, your game mode is not fun to me.
I can sympathize that it has been marginalized in releases.
PvP sounds like it needs some TLC.

Please acknowledge the possibility that some people find it boring and not worth their time.
I’ve done the same to those who detest PvE, I have no rustled jimmies about their disgust.

Alukah.2063:

Why people talk like if there has never been PvE content in WvW? The living story always reaches WvW and all serious WvW players despise it.

All the more reason to have WvW split from PvE and stand on its own.
No LS, no worries about any impact on PvE related stuff.
Sadly though it seems that WvW is supposed to be a “middle ground”, which to me means diluting the potential of mass PvP.

MarzAttakz.9608:

If you can’t beat them, join them, quite simple really! Maybe it’s time you pve’ers actually did something for the server you’re playing on.

Oh geez here we go again with the false server “be a patriot” speech.
Let it go.

Tyler Bearce.3427:

I stated this during the Ready Up livestream earlier today, but I’ll repeat it again here.

While we are releasing new story related content with the Edge of the Mists update, very little of that content actually occurs inside of the EotM map. Hopefully that alleviates some of your concerns!

I let out a cheer when watching the twitch as this was said.

mtpelion.4562:

They get some achieves for once.

Twice, because there was WvW Season 1

Though yes this is the first Living Story release that focuses on WvW.

Pipra.7580:

Show some class, please.

You ask for much with this.

chronometria.3708:

The time to ignore us is over

Why not direct this to the people who make the game instead?

Orangensaft.7139:

and maybe it was intended to bring more wvw players back to pve? ^^

If anything I’d assume it was the reverse.
We’ve been told in posts before they’re trying to make WvWvW a “middle ground” for PvE and PvP folks to muck about in.

But I guess we’ll see on the release date and whatever is shown on the preview video stream later today.

Because we don’t want to call them what they really are.
“Little Timmy’s cruddy looking art project”.

What we’re really picking up is collections of projects and art that weren’t really good, but we don’t have the heart to say it out loud.

“WvW is a middle ground for PvE and PvP”

Martrim.1078:

Why would u not challange yourself?

i don’t get the dislike for pvp

I challenge myself in PvP with other games.
However games like GW2 don’t inspire me to play PvP mode.
It is boring to some. That’s where some dislike comes from.

BobbyStein.2315:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Zaxares.5419:

… I would TOTALLY ship Ellen and Evon together. XD One rules Lion’s Arch by might and force of arms, the other by the power of coin and trade. They’d be unstoppable together!

…and then scarlet kills them. and kiel was 2 days from retirement when it happened too.

And she just bought her new airship, the Live Forever!

Followed by a very Special Guild Wars 2, Evon tries to kick his addiction to Omnomberries.

BobbyStein.2315:

Naetell.3815:

Lessons learned here should be that writing for an MMO is completely different from how you’d approach a traditional novel.

This is definitely true. We also have to deal with the fact that simply writing something doesn’t guarantee that it will be implemented in a way that represents the original vision (if it’s even implemented). We learned a lot over the past year. I hope you all will see the difference in the next few releases. I look forward to hearing your comments late next week.

If I may be so forward as to ask that one day there needs to be some Anet retrospective on Scarlet.

An article of sorts to show what was envisioned for her versus what came out of it.
Things like that are really interesting.

I didn’t hate him, but I was rather uninspired by him.
There’s a whole listing why in the thread on the defunct personal stories side of this forum.
Long story short I wouldn’t have minded him being the adventurous scholar running around the dungeons trying to find something help fight the Dragons.

That would have been awesome, but he was tacked on at the later act of the story and I never did get much of a chance to work with him before. That’s even with my Sylvari character. We at least saw the failings and successes of the other hero proxies in previous games before something big happened. We didn’t get much with him.

So I’m more on the pity side than hate.

Tommyknocker.6089:

style.6173:

hopefully, players can kill other players while completing this version of LS. It would be a completely new dynamic to the game and I think worth trying.

Welcome to the living story, grievers welcome edition.

We will find out, but hopefully we get instanced and there’s no PvP on that.
That would tweak the griefers and it is fine by me.

Aeolus.3615:

Every LS patch was only about pve, and even at WvW we oftem see LS stuff, so this time Anet changed a bit, why not the otherway?

Agreed and it is logical.
Fact is PvP’ers have been shoved in a dark corner during most of the releases.
So now they’re given a spotlight, about time.

Now I do agree with some of the WvWvW players who don’t want Living Story stuff in their maps. Then again I believe that the PvP areas should craft their own stories based on the player’s interactions instead of storyline like PvE areas should.

ANet doesn’t agree, oh well.

I think it is good, pve players will have a chance to see how WvW/PvP players can get organized in large scale fight and how coordenation is important and it is fun.

And to those who don’t mind sampling a little bit of everything you are absolutely right on the first series of points. Time and personal tastes will tell if the last point is truth for that player.

Personally I’ll agree to disagree.
There will be some, on both sides, who won’t like this release’s ambitions.
To the PvE’ers who might not like it: endure it or wait for the next release.
To the WvWvW players who might not like the integration: Don’t worry, after the next release comes the map will probably be all yours. Enjoy the loot bags from the fallen in the meantime.

They were added late in the Beta Weekends as incentives for folks to look at these nice spots. At least that’s how I remembered the reason why they were incorporated.
So really they aren’t landmarks per se, but just “hey lookie” moments.

As such there’s not much priority towards naming them.

Just prepare to bring lots of money for repairs and charge through to the achievements.
Once completed if you like the game mode then hang around, if not then at least it is over.

So really it is not much different compared to map completion.

kokiman.2364:

And the patch after that will be sPvP exclusive :P

To be completely frank about it, if that happens then good on the PvP’ers.
Gods know they’ve been sidelined in some releases.
It should be about time to give them some spot light.

Vol.7601:

-it wasn’t exactly clear, but it seems there will be no pve version of EoTM and it will be lumped up with WvW players

Well that’s a shame.
Looks like I’ll have two weeks or so to rest until the next release after this.

By the Spirits of the Wild he will have Haaaaaam!
With apologies and love to Ponyo and Nostalgia Critic.

MatthewMedina.5419:

Dear lord, what have I done?

You have given us Ham and Braham liking ham.
Now you must complete this in the most logical way possible:

On April Fool’s you give away meat maces, Braham must wield one for a while.
evil cackle

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The two areas I think we need to work out or improve on are:

1: We need to keep thread and post sizes more manageable. Should we put a limit on the word length of posts?

Though I don’t like reading 5 posts for one idea by one poster, I can’t see how limitations like this will be successful.

I do like the idea, maybe encourage more “elevator pitches”, but I just can’t find a constructive way to help with this.

2: How are we going to chose topics moving forward, for example, by votes or by Anet choosing them etc?

Chris

ANet should choose a small collection of topics they feel ready to tackle and we vote on the winner. We discuss the winning topic, put it to bed, and then take on a brand new topic.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Atlas.9704:

I’ll just blame whatever servers my own is fighting at the moment.
It is your fault, both of you. :P

“You had one job. You were supposed to make sure only Mist War recruits come in through the portals in Lion’s Arch. Now we got these trolling idiots squatting in a tower building god knows what with the supply . . . is . . . is that an airship?! Who knows this Aetherblade guild, is it some other server’s troll guild? Who the heck is this Scarlet person they say is the guild leader? A sylvari engineer? At least she’s not a ranger.”

Scarlet stands on the deck of her Airship and addressed her crew.
“Follow me! You will earn riches, power!”
No one cheers, her eyes turn into slits of anger.
“I said FOLLOW ME or I WILL kill you!”
Once again not a soul responds.
Exasperated, she turns on her Commander Blue Dorito.
Now the masses cheer, bow, and follow her into anything.

I’ll just blame whatever servers my own is fighting at the moment.
It is your fault, both of you. :P

CorneliusCoffin.3169:

2.) The argument that Scarlets’ motives are unrealistic/stupid/illogic etc.

It’s really surprising to see how many members of this forum seem to work at ArenaNet and absolutely, one-hundred percent know the outcome of the Living Story. Since I don’t have that benefit (although, if you need staff members, ANet, hook me up) I honestly have to say that I can’t reliably tell Scarlet’s motives yet. Sure, I’m speculating on how the story is going to end and what her motives for all the madness might be, but as of yet, I’m pretty much left in the dark. You can’t judge the end of a story that hasn’t been fully told yet and expected to be taken serious.

True you can’t predict the future, but if you read enough fiction, heck even reality does this, you can kind of see where certain things are heading.

Case in point, I thought some of the releases were going to feature something other than Scarlet. Boy was I wrong, for a while they all followed the same “Find alliance, bash alliance, Scarlet giggles, and not even a ‘Curse you Gadget next time!’ for my troubles.”

So yes you can’t judge the end of the story that hasn’t been told yet.
You CAN however get bored with the story in the middle if it sound so much like the other boring parts you just snored through.

3.) The argument that Scarlet’s over-the-top superpowers and her whole demeanor are unrealistic.

I am sorry, but I have to fight this one with sarcasm and I apologize in advance, but:
Really?
In a world where centaurs, trolls and giants live, where dragons spawn to spread magic and bring the dead back to life, where gods and demigods used to walk amongst mortals, an insane, superpowered plant-person is unrealistic? That’s where you draw the line? Really?

X-Men did well for a while, Guild Wars Prophecies did well, heck even Shadowrun has stuff like this but the characters can be believable or at least grounded in a way that doesn’t seem like a GM NPC.

darkace has it right, Scarlet went from a concept that sounded neat to a boring “she’s behind everything” type of character. I was an initial supporter of her. I liked the idea of her and I still do. I just don’t like her as she is right now.

Now Origin of Madness has smoothed her out a bit for me, the voice is serious and we can actually see her in some pain. Problem is I’ve lost the heart to give a skritt dropping about her story now and I’m just playing it through hoping that Season two will improve.

Aelphais.3905:

MatthewMedina.5419:

Of course there is a limit: Learning whether or not Braham likes ham

So….

Does Braham like ham?

Confirmed: Ham is OP on Guardians.
He’ll use Bramahamehameha on Scarlet in the game, mark my words.

Delvoire.8930:

Maybe the real problem is in the players themselves. Perhaps they shouldn’t pigeon hole themselves into one play style and just enjoy the game from every aspect.

Or they tried the other aspects, like the one they are sticking to, and wonder why ANet is cramming stuff from one game mode into another that doesn’t really match up.

Kudos to those who like it all though, but some don’t.

Question 1
Not looking for specifics, but will there be more worthwhile incentives to “lure” PvE people into WvW?

Question 2
Are you pursuing more ideas to make WvW stand on its own?

Question 3
How is WvW a “middle ground” for PvE and PvP to ANet?

Korossive.7085:

They can’t attack LA!

Once Zommorros’s hut is broken, thousands and millions of rare swords will pour out and cover the world!

My Gods…
Scarlet attacks LA, Zommorro’s mystical toilet is crushed, hundreds upon hundreds of precursors will scatter across maps and we get to play scavenger hunt for them!

Does she need help with the drill?!

Maybe I have been too harsh on the potential for this development.
I mean if this is true, the amount of Cthulhu jokes I could do on Scarlet would be glorious.

The instance was a nice change to how the LS handled stuff before.
It does feel like a story is progressing now.
Here’s hoping more of 2014 just adds more scenes like this to the tapestry.

“Nothing is sacred, everything can be destroyed” Except for, you know, the stuff that can’t be destroyed because we are using it for Personal Story stuff that folks sometimes drop after their main has gone through it. Now if they burn away the PS I’ll be happy to see that stuff get integrated into the LS more if possible!

“There is a big point here, in terms of the battle between Scarlet’s free will versus this creature’s and you’ll see her transformation” Looks like my fears of her turning good and staying after Season One might be true. I really wanted her to die off like a good little weed. I don’t mind the other characters in the Living Story, but she turned boring after the tower.

“Basically this entire time we’ve been doing this massive story, with lots of undertones and hidden plots throughout this entire year, and over the next four releases we’re tying all that together” I really don’t follow this.
Most of the hidden plots were beaten in a small dungeon here or there. The only two things I’m wondering now are how is Scarlet tied to Dragons and when do we kill her off for stronger villains?

‘Can’ only implies, chances are the fountain will get wrecked again but LA will be fine overall.

I hope I’m wrong, heck I want to be wrong about Lion’s Arch actually being in danger.

Moe, Larry, Curly.

I’ve done previews on it with my Guardian, the look works well with my armor.
Since I like using shields it shouldn’t be a problem hopefully.

Vol.7601:

I’m in the minority when I say that FSP is one of the better legendaries in the game.

Yes, it has no footsteps, but it’s one of the few legendaries that have a detailed animation to it and a reflective shine not only around the shield, but on the ground.

It is the only Legendary I care to save up for in terms of gold or resources.
So I guess I’m in that minority as well.

The new orange circles remind me of WildStar’s video demos.
I’m still on the fence if I like them or not.
On one hand they are useful when things get hairy, but a player should be aware of where they are in a fight and watch for cues.

Your idea of putting in options would be a good compromise if possible.

She could have joined up with the Pact instead of doing all this.
The idea of a Sylvari taking on their own destiny was an interesting idea.
It just didn’t pan out well on her, not little Miss “Die die die die die die!”

I have, however, enjoyed how she’s more serious in this release.
The problem with that is she should have taken this approach when we first met her for me to enjoy this character.

So she’s collecting elemental powers via technology if the Priory NPC was correct.
If so she should have shot down the Zephyrites, because their air magic was superior to most conventional stuff.

I doubt she’s “good” because she’s barely a good character now.
I fear that the writers will try to make some sort of redemption moment for her, or at worst try to have us fight alongside her.

I don’t mind Massive Zerg content, so long as there is a healthy mix of Vet and Champ foes.
Sometimes when it scales up there’s more Champs than the group can handle.
If the content is related to a specific element in the storyline (take the giant metal puppet currently) then I’d rather have that instanced.

So she’s trying to harness the four elements and get a drill.
Is she calling Captain Planet soon?