Guild Wars 2

Gief Ogden’s-hammer-guy back U-net!

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Don’t think I’ve ever seen a hylek with a pet

The Hylek of the Maguuma Wastes herd giant beetles, I think that should count. Also Grawl can be seen herding grubs in Fireheart Rise.

ElysianEternity.6215:

PeterFries.1057:

Their orphanage will probably burn down soon anyway.

Nothing like the warmth of burning orphan(age)s to keep yourself cozy after a grawl-hit job.

Hohoho, merry Wintersday!

That’s the spirit of the season! A merry Wintersday to all of you!

PeterFries.1057:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

I knew it would be our fault again! Germany: Ruining everybody’s experience since 1871!

Now, now. We <3 our German players. Nobody ruined anything; I just meant that each language has its own considerations that can affect our character display limits. Being concise is always a goal, anyway.

Oh don’t worry I was just joking around. I know it’s all the fault of the french, I mean come on, who else could it be? :P

draxynnic.3719:

1871? Please. The job isn’t being done properly until you get blamed for the Dark Ages.

Let’s be honest, the roman civilization never gave anything useful to the world… apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health. I mean who ever used any of those things?

Jaken.6801:

Yes, for all the ling german words, that do not appear in common conversations and are usually a combination of words instead of one singular.

Hey we use words like Wanderlust, Leitmotiv and Waldeinsamkeit all the time! In every single conversation. We like to talk about the same 3 topics over and over again.

PeterFries.1057:

[…] but conversational text strings have to be kept within a certain length to account for things like German localization.

There’s not a lot that’s “simple” to implement in a game as complicated as an MMO like ours, unfortunately.

Lore books are something we’d like to see happen, but I can’t promise they are on the way soon or anything.

I knew it would be our fault again! Germany: Ruining everybody’s experience since 1871!

Lillith.5724:

I did the dailies, the PVE dailies. The one that you are talking about here. What I’m referring to is the Wintersday Dailies!

I got thru a whole round, got kicked a lot but went back in to stay til it ended. I received 0 points and got no credit for staying. I guess this is gonna be a wash for me and my hubby. Neither one of us are any good at these types of games. Wish there more options.

And yes, it is “that difficult” for some people who just don’t have that type of dexterity for key mashing.
I spent quite a lot of time trying to just practice it, but it was a disaster. I usually just move on if I can’t complete something, like the JP. Spent many hours last year attempting it and I think I got thru once, but it took me about 4 hours.
I don’t usually complain, but there really should be more options to complete some wintersday games for dailies. There’s a lot going on as it is.

Well it’s not that hard, even I managed to do it and I’m both tone deaf and born without any sense of rhythm. My music teacher didn’t believe that was possible, so the two years I had to learn how to play the flute were pure torture. By the end of it I still couldn’t play the most simple of melodies… and I trained almost daily.

Anyway if I can achieve this daily you can do it too. My advice, focus on a few notes, preferably the ones on the “outside” (so 1-2 & 8-9), but whatever your hand-eye coordination can manage. Don’t attempt the others notes, you’ll probably only get damage twice for missing the note and hitting when no note is there. If you stick to the ones you focus on you should be healed enough to survive the ones you miss. And as others have said heal up in between the parts. That should do it.

MakubeC.3026:

Did you guys read what the wiki has to say about this guy?

“Peter Fries is a Writer at ArenaNet. Prior to this year, he was an Environment Artist on Guild Wars Factions, Nightfall, Eye of the North and Guild Wars 2. He has done art for videogames since 1993. To the casual observer, Peter appears to have lived a happy, unremarkable life as a suburban family man. No one has yet uncovered, or even guessed at, the monstrous scheme that Peter set in motion decades ago…”

We better watch our steps…

Well if his last name is any indication he is probably a frisian and in Germany they are known to be exceptionally cunning… uhm no wait they are known for something different.

wildebat.3650:

I’m getting a little sick of the sylvari. First Trahearne, then Scarlet and now Caithe and the Pale Tree. They’re starting to become a creator’s pet.

That’s what I’ve been saying for the last two years. I was overjoyed when they announced flame & frost, too bad it was over without too much happening. And since then we have boarded the train back to Sylvari town; population: Mary-Sue.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Fast temperature changes! My one weakness!

This knowledge might come in handy.

/shifty eyes/

Serophous.9085:

Less bout syvalri, more about other races. Also, no more annoying cliffhangers without at least SOME closure…

Listen to this man, he’s got some good ideas.

Groot: “I am Groot.”

PeterFries.1057:

I know where we’re going, and I advise you to go ahead and fasten your seat belt.

Pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion pls be an expansion.

/Subliminal message or madness mantra, it’s up to you to decide/

Diovid.9506:

I think Ranger magic is actually closer to Ritualist magic than to Elementalist magic (I think something along those lines has even been stated at some point).

Yeah true, I didn’t want to dispute this, however there is certainly an elemental twist to it. So it might be a bit of a mixed bag.

We haven’t seen Peneloopee and Bloomanoo in a while either… I doubt it’s a coincidence, those sinister quaggan are up to something!

draxynnic.3719:

It may be fundamentally the same type of energy as air magic, or combining air and fire magic, or mixing together all of the energies associated with elementalism but in a different fashion (Wind seems to be a mix of Air and Water, kinda like dervish Wind Prayers was a bit water-like in GW1; Bastion in Sun is reminiscent of either Earth in GW1 (Ward of Stability) or the Guardian (Hallowed Ground)). However, it could also be something different entirely.

Regarding elementalists having a ‘unique’ element – they do appear to have a limited connection to ether as well. Mesmers are better with this, of course, but Ether Renewal and the various arcane spells somewhat constitute a ‘fifth element’.

I think dervish and arcane magic are the best answers so far. Maybe Ranger’s nature magic also has an elemental aspect to it, with Sun spirit causing fire, Storm spirit can create an electric shock and so on.

PeterFries.1057:

Goosepinch Gulch

The next time you get to name places on a map, you better not forget this gem!

PeterFries.1057:

One of the names I suggested for the Silverwastes area was “Fractured Mamnoon”…

That is so much better than Far Silverwastes… who made the final decision and why haven’t you replaced the guy/gal yet?^^

I wish Anet would stop teasing us with lore bits and finally give us some good chunks. After echoes of the past I got really excited that we finally get new information about Glint, the Brotherhood of the Dwarves and so on yet instead we just follow one lead after another, which ultimately just bring us to another lead.

And I honestly don’t give even a little bit of a **** about Sylvari and their lore! Could you (Anet) please stop shoving them in my face with every single story? Ok to be fair, not all stories involved Sylvari, like the Lost Shores event, Halloween, Winter’s day (even if it had little to no story) and Flame & Frost. And those were imo the best stories. Everything else was tainted by Scarlet or Trahearne (If you have to have so many salad troopers as main characters, atleast make the interesting. Canach is okay, the rest isn’t.). In little doses I’m okay with them but they got more time in the spotlight than any other playable race and now we even have story about Caithe and Faolain? Why? I don’t care! Give me Asura/Norn/Charr/human lore, anything but the greenthumbs.

And keep the story straight. No more inconsistencies. If Riannoc was the first deku with british accent to die, than stick with that story. I know it’s supposed to be a “bug” (though I don’t know why it was even written if it was known to be wrong), however it still made it into the game. By the way, talking about a story not being kept straight, the Personal Story is still all mixed up, can we have an update on how long it will probably take to fix this? I would like to progress with my Charr ranger, but I wont until it makes sense again.

Last but not least: Please do an expansion, the LS is okay for logging in every 2 weeks and play 2-3 hours, though I would much prefer a (atleast) 12 -15 hour story + new maps, weapons, races, classes, skills and so forth.

Rym.1469:

Who cares?

/15charrs

OP apparently. Not sure why though…

BobbyStein.2315:

Most, but not all, sylvari have the same accent. This was intentional and can be heard throughout the game. Occasionally, an actor’s performance may deviate and that might explain any inconsistencies in certain lines during a VO session.

That stated, I never perceived Faolain as having a British accent but more of a refined manner of speaking. Courtly, formal.

I have a few general question about the voice acting, precisely about the version for the other languages supported by the game. Do you cast the voice actors directly, or do you hire local studios/translations companies to do the cast for you?
Also, do you ensure you get the correct voice actors back? I haven’t payed much attention to Faolain’s voice in the update, mostly since it’s too long ago since I played TA story mode for comparrison, but for all I know it could have been a different actress for the german version.

Yes! That is really annoying. It’s true that the orientation is valid for the original intent of the waypoint, but LA is in this condition for almost a year now and the forge/crafters are now the primary use for this waypoint, so it should place you in the direction, you most likely want to head.

Either that, or they just repair the place altogether. Would be a sad Winter’s day in the rubble.

Even if I wanted to apply it’s for US-residents only. Besides I agree with Shiren, it could lead people stop providing their own commentary and instead developing into Anets speaker.

As a side note: Not sure if you can edit the title of a thread, but it’s “Meister” not “Miester”. “Ei” is pronounced like the english [i], “ie” would be a long [e] like in “seed”.

You know what I think would be great? If I could play the story to the end, but noooooooo. First time I get a server time out right during the last bossfight, have to do it all over again. Sevond time the game bugs out while I try to open the door to the last boss fight. I mean, it’s probably me, I just have no luck today, everything I touch seems to break…. but boy it would be cool if atleast GW2 was playable. Nope, not today. I think I call it a day.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Brings up an interesting question- should it be considered a retcon if there was no specific meaning intended in the first place?

To be honest, I’d say yes. There is a chance that the designer who wrote the text in the first place doesn’t even work at Anet anymore or that (s)he has forgotten about it. So no matter if they say it’s Sylvari now or if they say it’s treants/druids or whatever, it would be technically a retcon in my opinion. Though less obvious if they choose to say it’s the latter, as treants and druids existed in the game (or as concepts atleast) when the text was written.

That’s why I shouldn’t post in the morning, when I’m in a hurry. I was actually thinking about treants, but for some reason I linked to druids instead. Anyway, the text was created long before Sylvari were even a concept, so it can’t be talking about them. Unless of course Anet goes and retcons it, it’s not like they haven’t done that before. Until that, I stay with the explanation that they are treants or possibly druids (they could have given up there corporal forms later voluntary).

One could argue that harpies might be able to breed with anything male, as they don’t really seem to have males. Except maybe the griffons we see hanging around with them in Nightfall and I think in Ascalon (GW2) too.
Also there is an event in Fireheart Rise which involves harpies seducing Grawl, though I think it’s never clear if they want to breed with them or just feed them to their young.

The humans turned into druids.

dsslive.8473:

There were tengu in Tyria too, so nat all are from Cantan heritage. But about 250 years ago, the canthan empire began cleansing the lands of races other than humans, hence why the tengu from cantha either moved or died fighting. (or are still fighting we rly dont know)

But yea, tengu lived on various continents

There was even an interview once, in which, I think Ree, said that there are also Tengu from Elona in the Dominion. As players we never saw Tengu there, but apparently they came from there too.

Btw, shouldn’t this be rather in the Lore forum?

Slow down pal, I was just making a joke, no need to call the cops. I’m not even disagreeing with you, the word being used 4 times in 5 lines just sprung into my eye.

DarcShriek.5829:

It appears you suggest things just to suggest them. After all, you give no clue as to what removing the home instance would fix. Please tell us how everyone would benefit from removing the home instance. In the meantime, if you really want the home instance removed, then I suggest you don’t use it. That way, for you at least, it will be effectively removed and the rest of us don’t have to suffer simply because you feel the need to make a suggestion.

Okay, I think we can retire the word “remove” now.

Others have already debunked many points of your insane ramblings but there is still something that bugs me:

Eirdyne.9843:

- 4
Scarlet is a genius who suicides, knowingly? What? Einstein didn’t join Rommel in Hitler’s closed meetings with a bomb, he went across the ocean and made Atomic Energy; among other things. Scarlet, by all rights, is either a personification of the Library of Alexandra (destroyed by Christian zealots) whose destruction created a 2000 year lag-time for human development after that… yes, the West did something… or she’s the most misused character yet in gaming.

So you say someone can’t be smart but at the same time willing to kill someone directly? Atleast that’s what I’m getting from that. Sure Scarlet is Mary-Sue-level smart, but I just don’t know what that means related to Einstein, Hitler and Rommel. Besides the library of Alexandria was not destroyed by christians; there is a theory that the muslim invaders may have destroyed it, but most historian doubt that too.

Again, I agree with the point that Scarlet was poorly written, with mostly poorly informed abilities of engineering and “diplomacy”. Still try not to spread theories or straight up wrong things as facts, that kind of discredits your whole arguement.

Plagiarised.2865:

If by the ‘other stuff’ you are referring to gay romance and their relationships, then I disagree. Nothing is different than any heterosexual romance. Do all romances distract the writers from writing about the evil gods and big bad dragons? If so, should they have omitted Althea and Rurik’s haunting tale? What about the integral romance of Gwen and Keiran? I would argue that they add to the story, just as the gay romances in this game do.

While I agree completly with you on the part that “who romances who” doesn’t matter at all, I’d also say that most of the romance subplots in any GW chapter felt tagged on and pointless to the overall plot. That includes the cringe worthy Hearts of the North storyline with Kieran and… Gwen. Granted, my vision might be distorted because I loath the character of Gwen so much, but the whole storyline was cheesy and uneventful anyway.
I don’t mind Kasmeer/Majory, as they don’t distract too much from the overall plot, despite pushing Braham and Rox out of focus as others have said before. But the moment their relationship is in the spotlight over my PC’s epic adventures, I will be on of the first to complain. If Anet needs to have NPCs do something so it can be later on referenced in lore (like Kormir ascending to godhood instead of my PC) than they should atleast give that character an interesting backstory and not a run of the mill romance subplot. And I’m one of the few it seems who thinks they got it right in Nightfall, as Kormir was actually a believable character with an interesting subplot, so I have no problem with her becoming a god. If her story was about finding her loved one instead of correcting her past mistakes, I would be one of the people to complain about her becoming a god and not me.

Eluveitie.1290:

Always hated history myself back in highschool, mainly because they taught us only about our history and forced us to remember dates and what every president did.

However, after highschool I started reading more about other cultures and their history and fell in love with it, and a big factor towards my interest was the Total War games. Far from being a historian (I’ve terrible memory, would die hungry if I became one) but games have made me love it, and in consequence, the lore of game as well.

Yeah school history sucks, partly because; atleast in Germany; the people who become teachers are the kind that doesn’t know what else to do for a living. Especially the subject of history falls victim to this as it’s one of those things that you don’t really have to understand to teach it. You can just let your students learn dates and events, while resting your feet on your desk.
Many people fail to realize that history is not about memorizing but about understanding and finding connections. If you understand history, you get invested in it and by default you will be better at teaching it. Heck, there are enough people that claimed to have no interest in history until they had a conversation with me. Suddenly they became interested in things they never cared about before. A good example would be my ex-girlfriend, who now picked up the hobby of genealogy. Before she hardly knew why the people of Alsace (where she’s from) even speak a german dialect.

It’s the same with games though, you get invested in the topic, you want to find out more and you feel the satisfaction of gaining knowledge by research. I don’t think it matters too much if the game is fiction or depicts reality, though the connection between games like the Total War series or Age of Empires and wanting to learn about history is obvioulsy stronger.
And besides, even if you don’t become a historian (please don’t it’s hard enough to find a good job for me anyway, I don’t need more competition T_T*) it atleast raised your awarness for history. Maybe you’ll visit a museum now, or you’ll by a book about a topic that interests you. Important is that you will have your part in the collective memory, so that humanity never forgets where it came from and why it ticks the way it does.
Urgh, I’m rambling again, bottom line is, go play videogames and get inspired by it.

*don’t worry I was just making a joke, I wont end up as a cab driver. :P

That’s what I study history for. I have to though, thinking that there are maybe people out there that got encouraged to take the path of a historian due to videogame lore, kinda warms my heart. (I didn’t though, with me it the reverse order, I love lore because I love history)

WannaFeel.7082:

Somewhere in asura story mode it’s said something about Zhaitan’s will in risen, which means that mob was stronger having more Dragon’s will, like he had corrupted body, not mind, by more or less magic power ?

Ps.
It was the part where you tested some new weapon

I guess you are talking about Magic Sucks from the Order of Whispers storyline.

Professor Gorr: I’m developing a weapon based on my theory of draconic enchanto-consumption. Essentially, it removes the magic from a person or object, poisons it, and then transfers it back.
Professor Gorr: Hypothetically, the Vacuumagic Polarizer will reverse the magical essence of Zhaitan’s tangible will within the Risen, and therefore, destroy them.

Jake.1430:

1. I think they are just normal dragons, made undead. I vaguely read that there are dragons, in some other content. Not sure though.

Yes Cantha had a lot of dragons (1, 2, 3 for example). There were also undead dragons before Zhaitan.

Cuddy.6247:

Hamfast.8719:

For those of you who point to “realism”, and say “give them time”

Give it time for realism, because realistically the new LA is probably still on the drawing table. I imagine we want to move away from Lion’s Arch being a pirate haven and make it more of a “city by the people, for the people” – the beacon of light for those who need a home. Lion’s Arch can be rebuilt as a symbol of Tyria’s unity instead of Tyria’s divide.

I do hope it’s something that they’re actually focusing on though. Lion’s Arch is far too important to be dismissed as a Scarlet casualty forever.

I hope they don’t change LA’s theme. In GW1 it was pretty unimpressive. Sure it had a castle and a few other stone buildings, but for the most part it was a couple of huts, a marketplace and a dock. And I loved that! It was the perfect contrast of backwater Kryta compared to the more impressive Ascalon City (which wasn’t even Ascalon’s capital, from all we know, Rin was even bigger and grander).
And it’s the same with the new LA. It has it’s own unique charm. It’s a patchwork city and that’s what’s so great about it. It isn’t as shiny as DR or RS. It’s at heart still that backwater capital by the sea it always was. It would be a crime to replace that with a generic shiny we-love-each-other-all-so-much Pact build bore fest.

I hope they start with expansions soon, all these continents and islands and we’ve seen barely anything of it, even counting Cantha and Elona.

Judging by their height I thought they were corrupted Skritt, especially since they have a base in Dry Top and have tunnels in the Silver Wastes. They don’t share any other physical features with them though.
In terms of shape Gargoyles would be more fitting, but they never lived in the Maguuma Jungle, atleast not in GW1. A migration from Kryta to the jungle due to the rising of Orr, is not a possibily since that happened in 1219, while the Mergoyles (along with the Gargoyles) had already disappeared in 1185.
The Menders also share physical traits with trolls, so they could be a small variety of them, with their healing power being an enhancement of the trolls natural regeneration ability.

Edit: The Mordrem Trolls summoned by the Iron Troll in Silverwaste also seem to share the Menders ability to heal despite having the Troll model.

Elixir Gun maybe? I usually use the flamethrower for PvE (I hate grenades), it’s much better than it’s reputation and also fits the alchemist approach if you ask me. In addition it has some nice synergies with the alchemy trait line.

I thought we were going to see Rytlock again. Altogether it felt really short, even shorter than usual, probably because it was only 3 missions, with one being nothing but a mission briefing. After the generally good impression the last episode left on me, that was a bit of a let down.

Tachenon.5270:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

How is this relevant to the “lore&story”-subforum?

There could be some lore-y reason these hairstyles went out of style. Maybe some popular actress wore these hairstyles in some popular play, and women folk everywhere copied her (remember Jennifer Aniston’s hairdo from the heyday of Friends?) but then she fell out of favor due to some scandal (Rytlock Brimstone – you ARE the father!) and now nobody, and I mean nobody wants that hairstyle anymore.

Perhaps new evidence might come to light, revealing that the scandal was all a big misunderstanding. The actress’s child is not half-charr, but has hypertrichosis. In a show of support, the actress’s #1 fan, Queen Jennah, might make a public appearance sporting one of the out of favor hairstyles, and then BOOM! They’re back.

And anet could fold ’em into the makeover kit and make a fortune.

>_>
Don’t give them ideas, please.

How is this relevant to the “lore&story”-subforum?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

There isn’t one. Well, there is, but it’s only a single sheet of paper that basically directs you to the GW2 Wiki.

It seems so long ago since developers actually cared enough to create a good manual. I think I’m going to re-read my Baldur’s Gate 2 handbooks, just for Volo and Elminster.

ArtifexDominus.8675:

You miss the key point that the Sylvari are CLEARLY not about the past of Tyria, but the future. Look at the way, and the time they were born, as you state, they are merely 30 years old as a race. It’s very obviously not about enriching the past, but the history about to be made…

As opposed to the other races that have no future?

A) The map is upsite down.
B) That’s the iberian peninsula, not just Spain.
C) See attachment

airick.9850:

I think people have really begun to miss what the OP was saying lol. He means a player event, not an event or something the devs would make (though they are more than welcome to participate).

I don’t see the point in that either to be honest. I mean even with real life reinactments, I get that people think they are fun, but I don’t think they have much educational value. And that would be even less in a game that is not ment to recreate the time frame. I mean with real life reinactments you have atleast the right weapons, uniforms, maybe even battle tactics. I just can’t think that could be translated into GW2.
I may be picky about it, however I work in the field and you see the history we have is the only one we have, so we should go out of our way to represent it correctly, or else we get a skewed image over time.

I’m a history major, I’m all for teaching people the past through fun activities, but it still has to be accurate. What’s the point of making the Confederacy 2m tall fuzzy bull cats?

In german we have a saying: “Schuster, bleib bei deinen Leisten.” (en: “cobbler, stay at your bootstrap stretchers” doesn’t really have a nice flow to it >_>) It means, focus on what you are good at. Anet is good at presenting the history of Tyria (well with varying success), they shouldn’t mingle in real world history, unless they make a new game with the focus on real world historical events (in that case I would offer myself for the position of historical adviser cough cough)

See my new signature. Not the best patch ever, but certainly a step up from previous LS updates.