Guild Wars 2

Can´t formulate it any better than Stramatus has done!
Guess that a lot of people (including myself) were hoping, no waiting, no craving ^^ for a connection to the rich lore from Tyria´s past. I admit that after GW1 and especially “Eye of the North” it was difficult to deliver something eqivalently epic and world-changing. But the whole Scarlet thing felt really weird and disconnected and even if i´m beginning to see now what they were heading for – it was a bumpy start.
So much the better what they are doing now: Telling a story with impact, introducing the next elder dragon, connecting the background (storywise) + new map(s), mechanics, villains (gameplay-wise) and so on.
You´re on the right track ArenaNet and you deserve the praise!!!
kind regards to all players

Ours is the North

Another panorama with proud Norn travelling the mountains.

Dawn

Magic colours capturing the otherworldly atmosphere and the subtle bond which still ties the Norn to the spirit animals. Hope they refocus on their ancestors and the primal, vigorous life force they once called their own. Guess they´re going to need it to defeat Jormag and reclaim the Northern Shiverpeaks…

Hi Monk!

Wanted to tell you that this is a really, really good story. I especially enjoyed the atmospheric opener and its descriptive detail (often dicracefully neglected, even in official novels).
Just read the first chapter so far, but its a gripping yarn ;-)
Thumbs up for your work and thank you for sharing it!!
Best regards
Benjamin

Hi Meve!

Just wanted to say that i love your artwork! Great colour gradients, especially in the work for Taku.6352.

Hope to see more of your artwork in the future :-)

Best Regards
Benjamin

Undead Abominations

Searching her quiver for an arrow with poison potent enough to bring down such a beast…

Hi Lady Kaguya!

Just wanted to say hello and thank you for sharing the pics. Really like your style. Fighting stance, facial expression and colour of the dervish are just great!

Best regards

Benjamin

Caledon Forest

Started as a quick colour study to get a better grasp of the greenish hues of Caledon but somehow kept growing to what you see below…

Hi Meemness,

love your atwork, especially the Asura guardian. Nice way to draw gleaming metal surfaces!

Best regards

Benjamin

I agree; the LS need more tragedy!

But how to achieve this?? Not so easy in a game I would guess. Much of this thread is centred about killing characters as a tool of creating tragedy. Seeing loved ones sacrificed obviously belongs to the most shaking tragic moments but the overall story attempt shouldn´t fall short on that.
What´s really difficult in a game (in comparison to movies, series and especially books) is the lack of time we spent with the characters in non-violent situations. You need time and some buildup to create real drama, interactions on a very personal level (e.g. conflicts between family members, close friends, genders or lovers). But peoples´ “life”: (breathing, eating, speaking, doing their day-to-day business; all contributing to a well-written character and setting the stage for later drama) can be incorporated into a good novel without beeing boring, whereas ingame everyone starts shouting: “Why do i have to click through the 100th Taimi dialogue?” Off course we all want action and the artistic tools ingame are inferior to other media.
Still there are games with really refined characters (though I admit that most of them are single-players…). In my opinion GW1 was better in that respect, too.

Think this time (season 2) thy´re trying to go for the things mentioned above with the Eir-Braham mother-son story or Rox´ struggle for acceptance from Rytlock (or from Charr society as a whole). We´ll see. Really hope they keep inmproving!

Time to thank all the people in this thread for their interesting notes. Enjoy following it!

Kind regards to all players

Benjamin

Hi Selana!

Nice story! I´m actually reading chapter 4b and can already guess how much work went into this. Nice twist to incorporate ingame-characters like Quinn or two-Blade Pete, enhances recognizability and benefits from GW2 brand. Simultaneously you introduced new interesting characters on your own…
I really enjoy your work; thanks for sharing :-)

Kind regards

Benjamin

Hi leviathan!

I think it was an “ok episode” but i totally agree that the open-world/zerg-content was a setback. The instances had felt way better.
And as you mentioned: expanding the game is of vital importance!! Guess what people enjoyed most about chapters 1 and 2 of this season was the progress in story-writing, new maps!, mechanics, monsters and skins.
I would greatly appreciate if there´s going to be an addon one day and gladly pay for it as it would be something more substantial and more satisfying than those “bits and pieces” every two weeks.

Thanks Aerin,

Tengu-stuff was fun to do. Maybe more sunset pics in the future ^^

Hi Kimehcol!

This is a masterpiece! Outstanding!! For me it perfectly captures the mood of the scene. Angle and colors are used in a great way. Thanks for sharing :-)

Hi everybody!

I really hope we´ll get to see Cantha and especially Elona one day. Both continents encompass a fantastic sense of innovation because they disengage themselves from the exhausted medieval Europe origins of most fantasy world. But on the other hand they represent strong, recognisable archetypes on their own. In my opinion this is an advantage and superior to completely spacy high-fantasy, because it depicts altered versions of places that could exsist…

So thumbs up for both Cantha and Elona!!!

Kind regards and have fun ingame

Benjamin

The Tengu-Wall

Llamaria and her companions explore the crumbling remainings of what was once the great Tengu-Wall. Guess they´re not the only ones curious about what lays behind… And yes, those are pterosaurs in the background ;-)

Great job of the devs!

Amazing update with big improvements in storytelling, emotion, maps and other content!! Keep it up ArenaNet!!!

The vegetation and overall feeling of the lush jungle in the gorge is very nice, indeed!

New area looks nothing short of awesome!!!
Beautiful surrounding, i really enjoy this update :-)

Thank you, Nabuko! Here you can see more of my work…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/fangen/Norn-Artwork/first#post4174823

Comic: interesting suggestion. Would be great. Maybe one day, when i run out of real-life hobbies ^^

Best regards

Ben

A little too abstract for my taste!

^^ Thanks!

It´s raptors like the falling fellow who wish evolution to speed up in order to grow wings ;-)

Great stuff! Mimics the overall design of GW2 in a fantastic way!

Best regards

Benajmin

Nice style Yih! The colours of the Sylvari are awesome – ranging from vivid reds to dark blues…

Great job

Raptor Pack

That’s one of my favourites. Maguuma exudes some sort of prehistoric fascination which always draws me back there, no matter how many hostile hylek, raptors or worse might be lurking in the shadows.

Thank you very much Aerin :-)

Maguuma Magic

I´m fascinated by the bioluminescence of the Caledon night. Hope to do more like this in the future.

Stalking the Canyons

Hi folks,

here comes new artwork from the dephts of Maguuma. Tried to capture the spirit of the enchanted forests, steaming jungles and murky waterways within the Sylvari domain. Also established the ranger Llamaria Purpurea as well as her panthers Aranw and Cruáchain.

Enjoy

Raven Shaman

Like the combination of the misty and a little gloomy forest and the raven shaman. I call him Halfdan Blackfeather.

Norn Colour-Studies

Started with blues, blacks and pale grays, only to realize that the Shiverpeaks offer much more. I´m growing fond of the colour and texture, especially the various snow effects.

Great job fey!

Especially the warrior with the norn-helmet looks amazing!!
Please upload more stuff :-)

Best regards

Hi Cynz!

Wow, the pics are really amazing. Love the expression of your characters and the way you use light and shadow. Keep on uploading stuff, please!

Best regards

Ben

Hi everybody!

I think it´s very difficult to compare a book/TV-series to an MMO, the artistic tools are soo different. But nonetheless i would call it… very, VERY daring to compare the overall quality, imaginative force and well-paced, character-driven plot of GoT somehow with the botched mess that was LS season 1.

But let´s be optimistic and hope they do better with season 2, just by realizing there are things like thrones out there!

Wow, the first one is really amazing! ;-)

Hi guys,

did some new artwork, greatly motivated by your comments! :-)

Enjoy!

Some new stuff created during the last week ;-)

Hi everybody!

In my opinion, Tyria is one of the most imaginative fantasy worlds, providing room for fantastic art and creativity! I´m especially fond of the various landscapes with their own light and mood (hoping for new Maguuma maps soon!!)

Since i´ve seen so many excellent paintings/sketches here, i decided to share some of my own ideas with you…

Would be great to receive some feedback!

Kind regards

Ben