Guild Wars 2

I don’t think killing Mordremoth will be part of the LS admit-tingly but I do think what we will likely see is a lot centered around the actions of this newly awakened behemoth of a beast causing chaos in the Magus Falls, corrupting a certain “other” pale tree now that its no longer dormant, and quite likely leaving a miasma not so unlike that scarlet inflicted on LA all over Magus.

I have also conjured something else around all this…

If we are to assume that the globe located in the order of whispers HQ is the entirety of Tyria’s full world map (including Cantha, Elona, Battle Isles etc) then one must also assume there are A LOT more than 6 primal dragons, since the world would be FAR too expansive for just six.

That implies that dragons could go as far as being an entire world-amassing species, there are probably hundreds of them all over Tyria.

We also know not all dragons are evil, not just through glint, but through the Dragons in Cantha too.

It certainly asks a great question as to the actual number of dragons beyond the continent of Tyria there potentially are, in GW2.

However, that’s speculation for another time, for Season 2:

Id prefer white mantle returning in Season 3, when we have finished up with the Sylvari, so far we have a lot of Sylvari things happening and I don’t think we’ve “quite” milked that ship to its fullest potential, yet, its not sinking, in contrast, Mordremoth now opens an entire new window for Sylvari lore we haven’t explored before, just how untouchable are they?

However, I do think that Rox, Braham, and Kas/Jory can take a back seat for the next season, I think really we should use that season to give more attention to Taimi, Zojja, Vopp, Treaherne, Caithe, Faolain and existing Sylvari/Asura characters that really need more recognition.

I also think its a good time to bring more Kiel and Evon rivalry into the fore, and give us a kitten good reason why we should have sided with Evon in the first place aside from the “I was right” captain smug syndrome he radiates.

I was gonna hope for South Sun stuff and maybe that will come as a one off thing during S2, but ultimately what id like Season 2 of living world to do is “focus” on a single storyline and do all it can to push every part of that singular plot with a couple of sub stories in the middle of it.

Keep the element of consistency that the last 4 updates have had, and that will make LS more interesting in my opinion. That way it doesn’t feel as much of a cluster F- when things go into the territory of random, but rather a small break from the middle of the ongoing things.

So… one thing I think should be noted is with the reveal of Mordremoth, its safe to say we will be seeing more Sylvari oriented storyline, and while there are a lot of theories about where he awoke, its generally consensus that the lay line trailed past the Thauma Nova Reactor into the Maguuma, so its highly likely that it will be the Maguuma we explore next.

Now my beliefs are this:

1. The Nightmare Court

Something tells me we will be seeing A LOT more of them in the next ‘expansion’ or rather Living Story S2, since these guys will likely be very interested in the awakening of a dark psycho jungle dragon that clearly proved they were right the entire time.

This means more Faolain, more Caithe, possibly the secret Scarlet knew about them, and maybe a small flashback as to how Scarlet even knew Caithe (most likely while she was still Ceara).

I wont be surprised if Faolain becomes the main “humanoid” antagonist of this storyline, given that this is all her kinda thing, practically screams “I was right” I can almost see her dancing around madly laughing about it.

Plus… I am still waiting to see Faolain turn into this:

http://www.talktyria.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Sylvari_11_concept_art_A_Dark_Queen.jpg

Ancient bit of awesome concept art, id love to see this theme revisited for Mordremoth’s corruption.

2. Treahearne

This is not the best time to bring him back but I also get the feeling this is also a pretty good opportunity to bring him back, Treaherne could suffer from the arrogance of defeating Zhaitan, and ultimately get too kitteny, which could lead to a major defeat or two of the Pact trying a bit over enthusiastically to defeat Mordremoth and ultimately screwing up.

His death is something I strongly for see if he is involved in S2, he is a char few like but he could be atoned for by having a pretty epic ending if they do it right.

3. Mordremoth and the Nightmare Minions

Its awakening has now stirred the very likely chance we are going to see jungle dragon minions for the first time, proper ones, not the nightmares experiments, but actual jungle dragon corrupted Sylvari, among other races.

4. The possible redemption of Faolain and the Nightmare Court

This is something of an interesting idea ive had for a while now but after initially going after Mordy’s corrupt influences perhaps she see’s the destruction wrought by the dragon to her own distaste or perhaps regrets it after realizing the raw destruction it unleashes.

I personally find the idea of the Nightmare Court “eventually” pairing with the Dreamers to be an interesting twist, the idea that the former enemy becomes your eventual ally, and the two finally mingle as one, in the balance of all things.

Caithe, Treaherne and Faolain could be very central to this.

5. The other races

While I do think Mordy is gonna be a Sylvari and Jungle heavy figure I think the Asura will get a lot of love and hopefully given the vicinity to the Maguuma they will have the closest impact to it.

The inquest is likely to make a prominent return with this new interesting dragon energy to exploit, and possibly a replacement for their former leader Kudu (in fact Mai-Trin would be perfect for that given she no longer has Scarlet telling her what to do).

As a secondary villain Mai would be ideal for the secondary antagonist role, and I actually like the idea of a reoccurring bad guy, she seems perfect for this since she’s now escaped our clutches and is off causing more chaos once again. I kinda hope she doesn’t die, she could be fun for a fairly long while yet.

I also like the idea that home front escalations, such as the Humans and Charr having increased tensions over Ascalon, while the Norn mediate things, which could explain why the Sylvari/Asura become the central races of this season, assuming they go that way.

What ever happens, id like to see two major things happen with this arc:

The return of the Pact.

And the Return of Mai Trin and Faolain.

Can I say, I loved that ending with all of my heart, it was all that Scarlet deserved, we finally got to deliver the finishing blow this time ourselves to a final boss, and while I do admit we could have had a little more of a “personal” battle with her for the final fight, the idea of finishing her worked just as well.

I would like to congratulate A-net for that amazing animation of Jory X Kas, and hope to see more animations on par with it in future using the in game engine, that was truly a hard amount of work from you guys.

The ending with scarlet? The art work, amazing, the ending fight? Hard, but forgiving, which is just how all future fights should be.

I loved it, I loved it, I loved it, I loved it and I loved it.

Thank, you.

I have had my doubts on this road this was going to end anti-climatically, and while it didn’t end with some epic final one to one with scarlet which would have equally been awesome, again, the idea of actually finishing her while shes down, I think a lot of angry players longed for that moment.

So thank you, also, I’m glad she wasn’t some “redeemable” antagonist in the end, the sadistic lunatic plant was awesome to the very end, finally, we get a satisfying resolution, this, this is what I want more of.

Voice acting, writing, solid graphics design, this was what I paid thousands of gems to see more of, to see more epic encounters, more personal conflicts, this, is what makes GW what it was.

And remember folks, just like all GW battles, in the end, the final battle was solo able, which is, really, what the core of GW1 really was, the fact you could do 90% of the game on your own.

For those that haven’t been paying attention, the franchise leaned that way since its first game.

Either way, loved it, really, I loved it.

Either way I will try to keep suggestions simple in a TL:DR format.

- Lions Arch Destruction was a good move, but focus in future on trying to evoke personal feelings towards important NPCS, not places.
- If Scarlet dies, make a fresh antagonist with stronger, darker and more bluntly malevolent intentions, or even an anti-villain whom from the start we pity, trying to figure out why they cant just side with us in the first place?
- Return characters from the personal story to the living story, and focus more on marrying the two together instead of trying to keep them separate, personal story should focus on personal aspects of the living worlds own evolution but ultimately, the two should stand side by side, thus avoiding confusions about canon.
- By all means continue with the idea of the new destinies edge group being formed, but also bring back the old one, Destinies Edge really needs some char development, which it felt rather lacking in in Gw2’s personal story.
- Dragons are important, but you can still have humanoid antagonists, just use ones already in the game before adding new ones, such as Caudecus, and Faolain who haven’t been seen for a while.
- Evolve the world to eventually allow accessibility to new races (but by the sounds of it that’s your plan anyway!, which I love the sound of!) over the course of great season sized expansion story lines.
- I might suggest refining Underwater Combat, and while doing so, using that as a focus for an entire underwater themed expansion storyline. (Suggestion, replace AOE circles with spheres underwater!)
- New Profession with heavy armor, still trying to fill an arch type? We don’t have a “black knight” class yet. Perhaps some kind of demonologist that uses heavy armor and dark pacts would be an interesting third wheel since we seemingly have a good/neutral/evil class for the other two if you were to stereotype them.
(Confused about that? Simply put: Elementalist/Mesmer/Necromancer or Ranger/Engineer/Thief (From Good to Evil) Guardian/Warrior/????)
- I miss the Consortium.
- Recommend the Largos as the first new playable race, again, refining Underwater would be a good start, even if Tengu are popular, it’d be better to start by giving that aspect of combat a facelift (plus, we could venture towards making underwater weapons useable over water which would be AWESOME by the way).
- Finally, where the hell is my guild HQ already?

Here’s the thing:

Sacking Lions Arch actually wasn’t a bad move, I actually for one liked the idea of them doing something RISKY to the old world such as changing it radically, this is a step in the right direction in SOME respects.

But in others, it also creates an element of forcing change in places no one asked for it. The elimination of GW2’s most central hub for player rallying creates a rather problematic situation for guilds, coordination and a lot of other micro issues but ultimately will change nothing once a new hub is found for everyone to converge to.

What “Does” work in situations like these, is a willingness not to destroy landscapes, BUT to end the lives of important people we have come to know and love over the course of the story personal and living.

Example:

What if at the DR crisis Jennah had died? Some would be outraged, others, shocked, others pleasantly surprised at how dark and twisted the world is.

This actually wouldn’t be as surprising as it sounds to some, GW1 for example was filled with loss and tragedy, most of all, loosing those you cared about. it created an atmosphere that made the setting iconic-ally dark throughout its three main games and their expansion.

GW2’s slowly weaving into this atmosphere as it should, Guild Wars was always a darker setting than say WoW in contrast, but it needs small light too.

This is where GW2 needs to balance, Tragedy AND Hope exist in the balance, where one place is lost, another must be found, for example, someone mentioned the idea of restoring Orr.

That would be fine, slowly removing the presence of undead entirely and making safe zones in Orr would totally compensate for LA’s fall.

But likewise, id love to see pain too, I want to see people I know over the course of an entire season only to have my HEART TORN APART when something horrible happens to them, be it death, or the UNEXPECTED betrayal of someone close.

These things are good for impact, they hurt you personally, you come to CARE for characters fates and over time you don’t WANT them to suffer which is why when they DO it has such a powerful impact on your emotions.

If your going to do this format of continuing episodic Game of Thrones style volumes to GW’s future, you need to give A LOT more into the voice acting, chars need to act harder, deeper, put more emotion into the part since we cant really see the fate that’s talking, nor the emotion in it, we have to depend on visuals to fill in those blanks.

Examples can be given, from Sieren and Tybalt to Kasmeers tragedy and Marjorys unwillingness to talk about her father.

Subject Change, Bad Guys:

Future antagonists have to have clearer goals from day one.

Scarlet is a char I love and hate for many reasons, I loved her short story, but hated the way she was portrayed, I loved Tara Strong’s wonderful VA and it suits her psychotic persona, but it takes away a lot of her potential to just throw her in randomly and say “Oh I did that at every turn MUHAHAHAHA”

Antagonism needs to be done with the right balance of presence and command. There’s a reason the iconic dark knight in a fantasy game is such a powerful char, he rarely speaks, but he smites down a kingdom with his fist, shatters the hopes and dreams of empires, murders the king before your eyes, and you can do NOTHING but WATCH as he overpowers you, casts you down and leaves you for DEAD having ruined your hopes.

You are set against them for a quest for revenge, you learn who this person is, what they did it for, why they did it, and over time, you either sympathize with their cause, or despise them so much you CRAVE the chance to see them maimed for the pain they have inflicted.

You get stronger, growing to their level, eventually you even surpass it, to the point that when you finally confront that black knight, for maiming you, you are ready to see them defeated.

This is a good antagonist, a villain that makes you know them on a personal level, throughout the story, you know who they are, they know who YOU are and this, is what leaves memories of them.

Scarlet… who is she? I know so much of her through the living story, and through the short story but there’s SO many gaps untold.

Why did she need the Twilight Arbor stuff? Why did she need the Inquest to sabotage the reactor? WHY?

Its never Explained, and this frustrates people, people WANT explanation, they LIKE to know this because it leaves a suspense.

Its an even more power evoking emotion to know how helpless you are, even when you KNOW whats about to happen.

That’s why LA’s fall was such a good evolution, because we KNEW Scarlet was going to do it, but we STILL failed to stop it.

In future, focus on making antagonists more unstoppable, but equally make players strong enough to become the immovable object.

Exactly, this is the direction the living story should go in future, granted, this closure to Scarlet is necessary, but after this, I think we need to expand beyond where we are, and start going to places we have “Not” been before.

Ideally? I think the Tengu should come later, really, the Largos seem the most viable candidate for a future playable race in my opinion, since when it comes to racial stereotypes, the Tengu veer too closely to Charr which makes them more or less bird Charr which kind of, eliminates the diversity of their cultures.

For now, I think fleshing out the mysterious Largos, and possibly giving us the first glimpses into the deep sea dragon, as well as giving us a chance to refine Underwater Combat and make it more viable, would be a good first start in the right direction.

Living Story declared itself an expansions worth of content, and it has proven that is exactly what A-net had in mind.

But one has to wonder… what other new ways could one implement this episodic format into a new method of adding features “Later” down the road.

The answer:

Expansion Content unlocked via “story driven” alterations.

Ideas in mind:

So, over time, the races of Tyria who are currently active, and against the Dragons, Scarlet and the machinations of evil, are great, but their secondary allies seem reluctant to help them.

Over the course of the story, I propose the idea of eventually “unlocking” new races/professions by having living world evolutions that lead towards these eventual new transformations.

Example:

Our estranged Tengu Xenophobes, over the course of an entire season of Living World, the A-Net team could focus on eventually making this race both playable, and adding new zones to include playability for them.

In the meantime, while we are in those zones, seeing them being made for the first time, we venture into these foreign lands seeking to gain new allies, learn new professions (classes) and attain new skills (weapons, abilities, even crafting based).

The adventures would act as a story suffusion while A-net focuses on the features and races for a later “eventual” update, this means, initially, we see a race as is, e.g. Largos, or Tengu, while over time, A-net starts working entirely on content devoted to adding new features to that race.

As updates go on, we notice the Tengu get new models, female and male, giving them identity, we unlock Dominon of Winds, venture into it for the first time, before it becomes a leveling zone, and help the Tengu fight off unwanted threats.

At the climax of that story arc, we are given a chance to make an agreement with their race to join the Races of Tyria in their fight with the dragon, with this season closed, they become a playable race, and can be unlocked (Via doing the living world content associated with them, or naturally, by paying for the unlock).

The Tengu are an example, other races being Largos, Kodan, Stone Dwarves and my own personal favorite, the prospect of REDEEMED (possibly even not redeemed) Mursaat (if they still roam Janthir somehow).

I don’t think the idea of denying new playable races and customizations for players is a good idea, I believe they should concentrate on expanding the world around us, rather than revisiting old places.

Its a case of “how can I miss you if you don’t go away?” If you’re always giving us Lions Arch, or some new content in an old world setting, then really its not new, its just refreshing what was already there.

I, for one, would like to see old content get revamped “later” rather than sooner, so that a few years down the line when we finally miss the old stuff and want to see rekindling it could be done as an entire season rather than being bits and pieces now and here.

The problem being, its unwanted bits and pieces, for a world we never really wanted to see change (just yet).

Living Story is admirable, I understand the approach, but I don’t agree with the delivery, I would much rather see this “expansions worth of content” be literally just that, new features, new races, new professions, over the course of living world evolution.

I’m not asking for you to literally spend a month doing one content update then add a new race on the spot, I’m asking an entire season to be devoted over the course of a year, possibly even a year and a quarter, to adding “one” new race, or “one” new class a year, to the game.

That would allow time for testing, equally allow development for story to make a logical, direction so that eventually we “unlock” these races rather than “suddenly playable races”.

Personally, I feel this pace would work more favorably, and I hope A-net is listening.

Thank you for reading, I am curious, how do you all feel about this approach to adding new content?

This speculation goes into deep theory crafting based on a lot of possible ideas but there is one thing that I can say for sure, Scarlet plans to use the Layline below Lions Arch for one of TWO possible motivations.

The first seems to be a popular speculation or at least an idea based on it, the other, is another approach to this that may, surprise people.

Option 1:

Scarlet’s Desperate Gambit:

Scarlet is attempting to use the Layline below Tyria to silence the voice in her head forever, hoping to shut it up and save the world or rather, herself, from the madness within by destroying the entire world.

This theory bases itself on the fact she has been developing a lot of weapons of mass destruction recently, that appear to be focused on great deals of mass damage, and not to mention her weapons are designed at the moment, to flat out level cities (evidenced by LA’s fall).

I really cant go into detail on all of this because if I was to put every small pocket in it would take hours, but the long story short, hypothetically this idea bases itself on the thesis that Scarlet is a Tragic Anti-Villain that wants to save the world using questionable methods, or at least, destroy the Dragons, which she seemingly hates.

This is the theory I most likely suspect to be the right one, since its cliche and predictable, and a little bit obvious.

Option 2:

The Metamorphosis of Scarlet Briar:

Now for the darker, more interesting alternative.

What if Scarlet is not a redeeming antagonist but in fact, a total psychopath, that has an even more sinister motive than we first thought?

Now, this theory uses similar evidence from my previous theory, and I could again go into full detail, but the long story short is that this theory suggests Scarlet’s plan is to use the Layline below Tyria not to DESTROY the dragons.

…But rather.

To BECOME, a Dragon.

Such raw power either way, used to destroy the world, or to bask in its raw chaotic energies, would have TERRIFYING consequences on the entire planet, and equally change the world of Tyria, forever.

Lets assume Scarlet succeeds and that this IS in fact her end goal.

It means we will see more of her ONE DAY, but if, she succeeds, it leaves her changed forever… and likely forced to retreat after the full might of the pact is rushing upon her position to deal with her.

This could lead to a somewhat surprising stage-setting scenario for Season 2, by literally showing us the birth of a new dragon, Mordremoth.

We know Mordremoth by name, and even that a Tooth in CoE is named after “Him” but we have never ENCOUNTERED this dragon before.

Which presumes, that such a creature has yet to awaken…

Yet we have no idea exactly HOW dragons awaken.

Now it could also be another dragon entirely, it may not even be Mordremoth, who says there are only 6 in Tyria when the entire world is clearly much bigger than the continent we have seen?

We have no idea, but it could certainly set the show for a lot of new possibilities which I would be rather excited to see myself.

Either way, this is my take on what “could” be the alternative possibility.

If she doesn’t want to save the world, or simply wants to destroy it, we never considered, she might want to become something more… to achieve that goal, and even possibly succeed.

- Give me back my OP as Hell Beta Ranger.

That is all.

I go back to a suggestion ive been posting in all these topics:

A vote:

Vote to rebuild Lions Arch

OR

Build a new city in South Sun

If Rebuilding LA:

LA gets rebuilt, you have to donate towards it as well as excavating its now “drained” water system (since there’s a giant hole in it) which now leads to destroyers, Depths of Tyria, other interesting little unexplored ruins below to explore, leading to a certain fiery dragon longing to burn the world above.

If you built South Sun City instead:

Consortium become the major profiting company, Gnashblade takes charge and abandons the Lionguard to bankruptcy, invests in new island based voyages to the sea of sorrows hoping to re-establish trade with foreign powers and the deep ocean allowing for better trade for all! (And deep sea monstrosities maybe even dragons!)

I sincerely doubt they will add DOTW after the Tengu blatantly attack you in EFLA

Southsun could easily be “purged” however of its mobs just as LA has been turned into a mob-infested zone.

Dominion of The Winds wont likely be seen for soooome time, especially considering how xenophobic the Tengu are, Scarlets attack has only made them even “more” xenophobic, instead of making them friendly.

Id also eliminate any hope of seeing them as a playable race, since Largos took a more active part in personal story (despite the fact it was only one Largos) and seem more tangible for a playable race considering we also have a deep sea dragon to fight.

Exactly, My biggest issue with Soule is that while you do love that ambient feeling, say, Morrowind from ES, its iconic, but eventually you start hearing themes that sound almost exactly alike.

E.g. Kormirs whispers and Temple of Tyr from NWN, which are almost identical tracks, with very little differences in them.

These new tracks leave a sense of character to events, and id love to see more of this composer in GW2’s future scores.

I’m not necessarily saying I don’t like Soule’s music, hell, the Seraph? I love that track, but I do feel like id like to feel a bit more instruments used in those themes especially in terms of scale.

I still muse the idea of Southsun City which would be a fun idea as a replacement for LA, even so, its most likely La will just get rebuilt over time.

Still like the idea of a new city founded in Southsun, as I suggested on another topic, we should have a vote to rebuild LA or build a new city in SS, which requires a big zone wide event that eventually leaves said zone refurbished into a non-hostile zone for eager players.

Scarlet’s iconic strength was equally her iconic weakness, Chaotic.

The problem is that they spent too long trying to get to the best bit with Scarlet and tried to be too clever in making her seem like this genius mastermind (Which she is, NOW) and even before that she had a pretty good short story written for her.

But a lot of that was told in short story format, people only learned of it now, save those of us that already knew it which annoyed us being hand fed exposition we already knew.

The next antagonist that comes after Scarlet in my opinion should be someone that is already “known” and established rather than someone that is new and unfamiliar.

I would like to see Caudecus take up the mantle (if you know what I jest at!) But also possibly a return of other familiar faces like Faolain who isn’t dead to my memory.

Then there is room for characters that ARE heroes to FALL into villainy, such as an eventual twist of destinies edge themselves becoming the bad guys over time, which would be a very interesting 180 spin on things.

I still believe that Treaherne is also potential for a future antagonist since he leaves some very ominous implications of his future after finishing Zhaitan. He appears very bored and purposeless not to mention there is the faintest potential that he may have been corrupted by Orr’s influence over prolonged exposure to it.

The next Living World Story however, should focus on what is already “there” rather than trying to throw new things down our throats.

GW already has A LOT of rich lore to exploit, mysteries left unfinished and unsolved from the previous guild wars games that need to be researched by the writers and potentially written into some good story content for the present lore to come back to haunt us.

There is also another aspect of this, who assumes we need one major villain? Isn’t that an overdone stereotype anyway? I would rather have multiple antagonists that have plans we cant foil than a single cartoon bad guy that gets defeated in a single arc of the living world.

Another thing id like to see is that destruction is not the only sign of change. For example, with LA destroyed why not try adding even more to the previous capital cities, or even renovate a certain unused Karka infested island into a capital city and purge its unwanted residents from existence once and for all?

I saw another thread about the idea of turning Southsun into a giant city on scale to Lions Arch, “I” for one do not believe that impossible, the Consortium now hold A LOT of leeway with the downfall of LA, and if Evon was to side with them he’d be able to rebuild his own city to replace LA which could be far more profitable and better positioned for sea trade.

I even like the idea of having say, a vote, like the Kiel/Evon vote, where maybe you have to decide vote to rebuild LA, or to build a new capital city in Southsun.

Leaving LA untouched leaves it a permanent leveling zone, while leaving south sun eventually sees an expansion into the underwater segment, with even MORE Karka problems while slowly expanding consortium territory outwards.

Also, where the HELL are the Zephyrites in all this? We made a trade agreement, where the hell is that gonna come through?

Other things worth noting:

- Scarlets Aetherial Drill is currently drilling its way into a magical lay line in the depths of Tyria, which will leave a permanent sinkhole in LA, and slowly drain the water around it until only flooded parts of the city remain sunk under.
- That also leaves potential room for expansion territory in the form of a Depths of Tyria themed expansion, with the entire underworld now exposed and explorable for new exploitation from the former Archers of LA.
- Retaking LA could be part of a personal story, leaving it permanently ruined but after completing it, the mobs there are permanently gone and replaced with npc’s trying to renovate the place over time.
- All the while this sinkhole leaves us with explorable new depths to wonder deep within Tyria, and find a certain deep dragon waiting for us to vanquish them, before they in turn cause quakes and trembles that might yet annihilate the planet.

Thanks! That helps a lot, liking the new composer, even if we see a departure from Soule who’s themes are always iconic, the new composer is more engaging, less ambient and more atmospheric which I like.

I am curious, I rather liked this theme in Edge of The Mists, PS: Credit goes to you tuber who posted it, with no commentary, even so, I am curious, is this theme currently in game anywhere besides Edge of the Mists/Escape From LA Ambiance, because Ive never heard it before.

You can hear the music theme in question around 5:40 onwards behind the audio.

I rather like it.

It has a very game of thrones esque atmospheric theme vibe, very sinister, foreshadowing something terrible.

On behalf of everyone that helped Doodleimp I would like to thank you all, it was difficult to say the least to get this account back.

Its taken a hit, but I think I can manage, although I’ve already filed a ticket to hopefully replace lost items.

Thank you once again for all the support, it goes to show there can be good people in the community.

Let me start by saying this is both a rant, and a series of constrictive criticisms about how better to integrate future living story arcs after Scarlets, but in a TL:DR version that will likely be elaborated in depth at a later point.

Ill start with bullet point format:

- Living Story content for storyline content should be longer, and released less frequently than game play updates, story needs substance and having shallow snippets isn’t good enough to give someone anything more than a sour taste in the mouth.
- Focus more on using current characters in the world and letting them change, suffer, grow stronger, but stop adding more new npc’s with very little personality.
- I would advise from now on keeping “human” antagonists as I call them or humanoid individuals, to personal story expansions, while giving the living story more glorified threats like the dragons themselves, which would play better into the format you’re trying to accomplish in a storytelling design.
- You cannot make humanoid villains into sociopath lunatics that want to murder everyone for no apparently obvious agenda until the very end. Even the Jokers motivations are however psychotic, clear cut enough that people know “okay, this guy is just a pure anarchist”. Its also not fun to see the bad guy thwarted, because players don’t just want to hate the villain, they want the villain to hate them.
E.g.
Scarlets introduction was pretty solid, even if the content after that has become nothing but a “scarlet did it” montage. She did indeed promise to make our lives hell for foiling her plan and shes done just that, so good job in that respects.

But that’s not enough.

Not only is it a personal one to one battle of wit, you need to know what the villain wants, and Scarlet is a classic example of “vague intentions” I get that there’s supposed to be a mystery behind her that keeps us guessing but when it becomes tiresome to see her appear at every turn it shows she isn’t really doing anything that makes sense, and if that’s her motive, its a pretty weak one at best.

There is power in a bad guy, or girl, there is presence, acting is important, design equally so, Scarlets actor? Good, her design? It suits her…

But her story? Her story feels so out of character, especially after you read her short-story which goes against everything she’s been doing, it seemed like she had a calculated plan, and now its just random violence for the sake of it, lulz.

I ask, I beg you, if you intend to make another major humanoid antagonist, this time, make it one:

- A) from present and past lore.
- that can be more clearly relate-able.
- C) That actually does something personal, like hurt a main companion, kill off the queen, “something” that moves the world.

Right now, all Scarlet has done is peeved off everyone, she hasn’t actually “hurt” anyone beyond mindless killing, if that’s supposed to phase me, it doesn’t.

I want the reason for stopping a bad guy to not just be worldly, but personal too, I want to feel like the threat is important to me, not just some random Charr’s problem or humans, and that’s Scarlet’s problem, who is she trying to threaten, who is she trying to hurt personally?

I don’t know, and I want to know, I want to know this for every antagonist in future, so please, next time, try, please try, to make antagonists that actually make, me, care, personally.

Id rather see the Queens palace blown to pieces, than just some random guy I don’t even know cry about how his wife died.

You know why Kasmeer moved me? Because when she cried, about her story, because when she told it with such conviction, I felt moved.

That, is what makes good story, that, more of it, depth, development, involvement, this, is what gives context.

Do it, more often, more effectively, take your time to write a good story, flesh it out, deliver a memorable experience, sometimes, it has to hurt too.

The Reason GW1 was so effective? Dark, things went bad, you wanted to do something right, it got worse, you felt hope only at the very END of the road when something FINALLY went right, but that’s because the things you were against were unstoppable, they killed people you cared about, made you feel sad, pain, anger.

That’s what drove you to kill the Mursaat, to end Abbadon, to stop Shiro Tagachi.

Because you ‘cared’ about what they did to you.

I think people aren’t really putting two and two together well enough here, Scarlet isn’t misunderstood, after seeing this, I am certain now more than ever I know exactly what shes up to.

Lions arch is her final diversion, her real target, is the Pale Tree.

First notes:

Her short story describes that she wished to embrace the pale tree like a vine clinging to a desperate lover, but the vine strangled and bled the tree (or something along those lines).

The tree said if she didn’t conform she was lost, worse, dangerous.

The design of the drill headed machines symbolizes they are mega-thumpers, more advanced versions of the device that Scarlet is using now to summon the worm.

Her goal is obvious:

The dragon is clearly Primordus, evidenced by the fact it resembles the GW1 Destroyer Avatar that was fought in EOTN.

The drills are her “thorns” and Primordus, her fire bringer, she intends to ‘destroy’ the Pale Tree.

Keep in mind her newest poem…

“The next part will sting” referencing a personal affliction to her, which could only imply she was going to harm her own kind, something she didn’t intend to do because what she wanted to do was to break them free of the Pale Tree’s grip evidenced in her short story where she believes she can set dream and nightmare courtier against each other to the detriment of both.

LA is either a diversion or an advanced experiment, an assault on LA is to see if she can actually lure destroyers to the world.

The Aetherized laser is designed as a mega-thumper, its literally going to fire magic down to the core of Tyria to awaken Primordus, and lure it to the Pale Tree.

I’m pretty confident this is her plan.

Why the Aetherized weapons lab in Twilight Arbor? To create a fleet of airships ready for an all out assault on LA, but also, to have an immediate forward base ready to assault the grove directly.

Why the Molten Alliance? Underground assault, driving into the roots of the tree, studying, researching and finding out its weaknesses, its foundation, bringing it to ruin.

Why the Toxic Alliance? Diversion, a means to an end, she wanted to experiment with hallucinogenic devices probably to unleash on LA to cause mass chaos (We have seen that the portals in LA were destroyed from the teaser trailer).

Why the Queen? Because she wanted to make an example, Watchwork knights added to her army, but also gave her a chance to show off her raw capacity at causing the chaotic and the anarchic right out of nowhere.

Scarlet is a twisted genius, but ultimately if they are using Game of Thrones as a reference we all know what that means:

Somebody dies.

I’m calling it now, the Pale Tree gets destroyed.

My ten cents?

Kasmeer’s story gave me enough feels to nearly cry a river, even if it wasn’t related it was kitten dark and tragic, and finally we get to know “who” these people are, you know what, I’m happy I got to hear that.

Also the new Asura char, loving it already.

Taimi for the win.

If people get picky about A-net actually “trying” to do good voice acting over Treesus god awful lack of it, then seriously, look in the mirror and ask yourself who are you to judge.

This was effort, not the best, not the worst, but when it came to Kasmeer talking about her back story to Marjory, that, was moving.

Taimi with Braham? Cute, adorable, funny, I liked it.

Its acting people, criticize it all you want but they are ‘trying’ even if it could still improve.

Also, id rather they over-acted, than didn’t at all, again, I remind you of Treesus wonderfully monotone voice and how little he actually said ANYTHING with feeling other than sounding like the freaking type vocal from the Microsoft word document.

Kasmeer overacting? Good, I want more overacting, I want as much overacting as A-net can throw because if its as good as that performance was then we need “more” of it.

A new race is actually even harder to make because of the fact you’d have to create new animation rigs for an entire race, not to mention new VA scripting, new quest zones and hubs, new personal story updates, new facial models and skin models that takes ‘ages’ to add in comparison to a class.

Balance is actually easy, because its all down to scripting alterations, altering numbers and adding a few new VFX, as well as some new animation rigs but otherwise, the combat plays out the same.

IF they add a new class, it will be a heavy armor class, specially given they already have 2 of those and 3 of the others.

I would suspect it will either be the “dark knight” stereotype class, in the form of some quasi-evil class that does good through brutality and dark magic (similar to Necro but with armor) or some kind of tech based class, or a Mage in armor, perhaps like the Chronomancer.

Either way, there are possibilities for a new class, it seems much more likely we will get this before a new race, the devs themselves stated they are very pensive about adding one.

Personally I think rather than enphasis the good vs evil trope what they need to do is make “personality” tropes more significant.

I am quite fond of being the bad guy myself but I personally see the logic as to why being a muahahahaa world destroying maniac is not a good thing. I like to think that its more a matter of “how” you save the world than “saving” the world.

Using the personality traits would be a good way to make questionable decisions more obvious e.g. using ferocious choices to send men to their death since survival of the strongest is the best dogma, or using dignity in both a good and bad way, representing diplomatic and somewhat cold logic of leaving men to die at a critical moment to save many more.

I think it should be that you aren’t good or evil but a culmination of both, you are a hero, a hero that can be “both” sides of the coin, you are saving the world, be it for your own life’s sake, your glory, or your mercy towards others, but you are saving the world one way or another.

Only way id agree to open world dueling is if they did it WvW style whereby your level is reduced to the level of your opponents skill and abilities making you on even terms with them.

Sorry for the extremely long post, but I felt this was important to convey the point across, I will try to give a TL:DR version but this is basically my over-all summary of suggestions on how to set the tone right and what to do in general that keeps people motivated and why in terms of story development, thank you for reading.

Then… there are the other aspects…., voice acting comes to mind.

Its not just having a voice actor, its having a POWERFUL voice actor, someone that can CARRY the charisma of a good antagonist, their voice filled with deviant ire, powerful authority, playful spite, but most importantly, evil.

They can come across as the hero that stands by your side, maybe a general of the pact that has come to help you all the way, even saved your life once, only for that critical moment to compel the actors personality to change like a brutal twist and suddenly your up against “the” big bad of this arc of your personal story, that’s a kitten harsh turn man, you just lost a friend and they nearly killed you doing it, with all that ire, and that voice acting.

It is very important to not just act the role but to be able to FEEL the role, the bad guy NEEDS to be compelling and NEEDS to have a certain charisma because a humanoid face needs to be someone you KNOW over time.

Take the Vizer from the first Guild Wars, he actually actively helps you achieve your goals and even protects you several times because he knows of your value and your use to him. That was a pretty interesting element of his char, you knew he was sinister in some way, but when he finally betrays you, it comes at the opportune moment for his personal gain.

He takes what is his and leaves you for dead, that’s exactly what a bad guy would do, and how they would do it. Even a sociopath psycho like Scarlet needs some directional plan in her chaotic absence of planning, she likely has an over-all goal, a final product of her actions, that’s whats missing.

We need those motives, that voice acting, the depth of character, from both heroes and bad guys to give us compelling reasons to care for them. We need to feel they care about us too and their actions reflect that, when we help them we truly feel important for it.

A lot of this is missing in Guild Wars 2, the first real sign of showing progress against evil is with the destruction of the tower which was an impressive cinematic and the general direction the living story should take, but I admit, it needs to focus more on monstrous antagonists for the living story.

Why?

Because monsters are easier to do for a story that focuses on multiple people at once, it emphasizes the threat is bigger than just one person alone can handle, its a threat everyone needs to take down.

Scarlet is not a threat, scarlet is an annoyance, scarlet is basically someone that has too many red buttons to touch simultaneously and that’s the problem, she needs to be stopped purely because shes a child with a firework in her hand.

Shes not a threat, shes just a bad pun.

We need a “threat” a “motive” to feel that “threat” needs to be stopped otherwise they will do THIS to our favorite personal city or whatever, things like that are important, very important.

Sometimes we need to mop up the remains of that threat, as we are doing, but what I view as essential either way, is having a reason, even a bad guy needs one.

So please A-net, take this to heart, from a person trying to love Gw2 for its story, id like to see depth, lots, of depth, and just that little bit more than a simple episodic storyline every 2 weeks.

Now regarding antagonists:

This is where Living Story could finally be interesting and finally make more valuable impacts on the game.

Personal story, should be where the humanoid antagonists go, the faces of Tyria that you deal with on a day to day basis, while Living Story focuses more about the ongoing struggle to take down a single overpowering enemy, such as a Dragon.

Personal Nemesis should feel personal, which is why a secondary villain should have a humanoid face while a primary one such as Jormag and the other dragons should just stampede down with a horde of dark forces utterly ravaging the land while you and your friends make a stand against it.

This is how to make living story effective, in my opinion and personal story too, by giving a personal villain you can say that the personal antagonist is someone you get to know, someone you meet regularly and finally fell as part of a build up to the living stories main drive.

This also means: Don’t be afraid to let heroes die, the entire value of a good bad guy is someone that hurts you on a personal level, trashing your player HQ would be a fine start since that would be a good example of loosing something very personal to you, another would be, killing a close friend who over the course of one of the story arcs you have got to know on a personal level.
Another example of a good antagonist is someone that literally does “something” evil, to you, which causes you to in some way or form be the cause of something much greater such as, stealing a part of your soul to summon and awaken Jormag, which would be more than enough incentive to say “that dragon has my soul, I want it back”.

There is also a classic example of bad guy vs good guy, the villains triumph is what empowers the hero to stop them. By the bad guy doing something they actually succeed in achieving, terrible results from, things that especially affect you on a personal level, that shows just how much of an impact you can give, and it has FAR more power than just having a typical villain laugh in your face while trashing your favorite city.

Its the sentimental value of that place, that place you helped build, now being blown to pieces in front of you by some scumbag that wants to hurt “you” personally for interrupting their malevolent plans, someone that has decided you must die, or suffer unspeakably.

There is also the corrupted hero approach, the approach where the real antagonist is actually someone you know personally, someone who has helped you in the past, continues to help you now, only for you to realize that their quest to ‘destroy the dragon orb’ that controls Jormag was actually a ploy to help them get close enough to take it for themselves, and betray you at the critical moment.

A good antagonist leaves scars, a great antagonist leaves scars that you want to inflict deeply into them, you want them to suffer before they die, or go out with an honorable final duel to the death in which the hero triumphantly defeats them in a heroic clash of epicosity. Or in their dying breaths they speak a philosophical view point that leaves you questioning your own ethics and weather you would have done the same in their place.

A good antagonist, leaves you feeling satisfied your chapter with that person reached its closure and now you can move onto a bigger threat like the Dragon itself, now out of control since you defeated the only person able to control it.

Scarlet’s portrayal is one of her biggest crowd-splitters, some love the chaotic nature of this psychopathic Sylvari while others utterly detest her joker like slapstick behavior but if there’s one thing I would advise A-net it is this, make a better bad guy.

The problem with Scarlet is what is she tied to? the answer? Nothing, she is not tied to anything, we don’t know what her motive is and because its been too vague to truly understand that is the problem, there’s no “surprise twist” at the end, you kinda get the impression what ever scarlet attacks next “wont” be surprising because its scarlet, shes mad, she attacks everything, we get it.

Its time to move on, this char’s attempt to be portrayed has failed and its the fault of poor implementation into the game, not giving us enough clear-cut logic as to her behavior, stop treating people like they don’t “read” the web-site or go to the forum, people do both you know.

Now, anger aside, I don’t actually “hate” scarlet, I find the problem is I get why A LOT of people don’t like her.

Instead of proposing what is wrong with Scarlet I will instead offer my own feedback on what might be a better way to implement future antagonists be they a humanoid or monstrous individual.

Lets start with Dragons:

The Dragons in Guild Wars 2 were meant to be the central focus and we have slipped increasingly far from the tree, we have nothing to tell about dragons now because we are busy cleaning up the mess of scarlet briar and her collaboration of comical bandits from different aspects of the world, but they are little better than bandits and are portrayed as generally simple cultures, they are boring, simply put, and have no interesting diversity what so ever.

The Dragons corruption was the main antagonist during the launch and the personal story, the focus was on how the dragons influential powers tore the very world asunder and altered entire vast chunks of land, and that by defeating one, we have eliminated an entire chunk of that threat in one swoop.

But the build up to that plot focused not on the bad guys but the people we knew. The Pact story is a fantastic example of where things went down hill, up until we joined the pact a lot of the personal story revolves around a choice around a decision you make; yet in the end some of those decisions get irrelevant because of plot development.

This is the problem, you should not give people choice then take it away in favor of a narrow path, choices should be less about decisions and consequences and more the method in which you actually go by making a situation. It would make the “Personality” traits that you try to attain more important such as the difference between a dignified approach vs a brutal approach to a situation.

This is why in my opinion the story focus should be in this format from now on:

Focus less on having lots of choices and focus more on having choices that matter, maybe one or two major plot choices in an entire arc of the story that have a radically different approach to the same end but ultimately meet the same general direction, that way you at least feel like the choice is yours on how you proceed.

E.g:

In one situation with the Pact you could have a decision between maybe, sending an entire Vigil Army to deal with a servant of Jormag, vs sending a small team of Priory investigators to research the beast and locate where its hideout is.

This would achieve the same result either way but have a different approach as to how, equally it feels less like you have to suffer for the decision and more that you made a decision to do something, regardless of the morals.

Look I’m not trying to say “the world needs to do what I want” and if that was the case id entitle the entire community to slap me stupid, but everyone has faced the occasional troll that cant be easily defeated by simply /ignoring them on a video game, some are persistent, some even decide to cause long-term trouble.

Reporting them wont fix things, these people are clever, they know the system inside and out which is why I have a right to “deny” people the right to bother me if I so please.

There’s a limit to “freedom of speech” and its when you start using it to abuse it for the sake of hurting others, for fun.

That’s just wrong, unjustifiably wrong, and I am tired of being on MMO’s where I have to ignore someone just for them to log off and onto an alt to continue stalking and harassing you.

So rather than giving power to the GM to fix an already caused problem I’m asking them to think of a way to prevent it, the block command needs upgrading, I want to block peoples emotes, its not much to ask for.

There is a saying, prevention is better than reaction, so in the medium of this this is why I made this topic a raised issue, because by having an improved block function I can prevent this kind of harassment happening in the first place.

The ignorant fail to see there really “are” people out there that cause this kind of problem for others on the internet, in a “continent” that the internet is, where rules are guidelines, the only real way to protect yourself is with your own means to do it.

So why not have a block that can entirely and UTTERLY ignore the person, including their emotes?

I’m not asking you to change the game, I’m asking you to fix what is essentially a bug as posted above.

I may consider trying that too by the way, thanks for that notice.

I love the fact you blew this convo out of proportion Tman, not only did you entirely ignore what I just said but you intended to insult me unprovoked, and its a PERFECT example of what I am trying to say, this kind of problem wont go away until it goes, away.

Maybe I just want to RP in peace with my colleagues and not have to know what the other guy half a block away is doing, maybe I don’t “care” what they are doing, even if I haven’t ignored them.

So why should we have an emote broadcast that can cover an entire district? Its literally as bad as giving trolls a yell that can breach the ignore button.

Anonymity and a desire for isolationism is as much relevant in a game with a multiplayer community, as socializing, after all, the mmo is an escape from reality, not another part of it so if anything, the entitlement to be allowed to live free of some guy abusing the emote button to write “X char is a queer” repeatedly or whatever stupidity I have to endure from people like that just doesn’t justify itself.

No, this “is” a priority issue and it “does” need addressing, players have a right to literally want to “NOT” talk to people if they choose to, multiplayer communities don’t have to be expanded to ‘everyone’ and you don’t “have” to conform with the majority if you don’t want to if the minority you are in are enjoying themselves just fine.

So why should I have to endure the random ramblings of people abusing the /e button? Or for that matter, why should I still be hearing people I have clearly BLOCKED from my account.

Simply put, if I don’t want to talk to you I shouldn’t have to, and I don’t see why peoples emotes should be exempt from that rule of thumb when I can clearly block everything else they do.

As stated, the mature thing to do when you don’t like someone is don’t feed the troll, but clearly Ive given you what you wanted, attention, you wont be getting it again.

Regardless, thank you for the support Don and yes Uknorthener I do fail to see exactly “how” any of that is related to blocking someone.

Dust, my reply to that is interchanging emotes and say is fine, but when I can see your emotes from an entire block away from the tavern your rping in it seems a tad unrealistic to say the least, not to mention maybe I don’t really “care” what you’re doing in that tavern?

As Donari says, sometimes, you can just exploit these things for the wrong reasons, which is why they shouldn’t be exploitable, period.

When I “ignore” someone and I do not wish to speak to them that does not mean I want to hear their emotes not only emoting but emotes from evidently half a block away.

There are two things id like A-net to address for this, minor things but I feel they could easily be added:

1. When you block someone you can no longer hear their emotes just as you can no longer hear their texts.
2. Emotes from unblocked players should only be able to be heard in an area of 10 yards from each other, at most.

While I do understand scripting and time taken would be accounted for, I do not believe this is something that would tax the developers to take into consideration, its a minor gripe that I feel effectively lets people bypass my block command and thus continue to interrupt my friends and I trying to RP in a comfortable environment away from those that want to disrupt it.

So please A-net, think about that minority that we call role players, and even for those that don’t RP and find hearing peoples emotes from 50 miles away quite annoying.

Please give a care.

Based on a piece of concept art I imagine she may attempt to pair up Centaurs and Sons of Svanir:

http://images.mmosite.com/photo/2009/10/09/gw2w31680x1050_centaursY55L68JK38.jpg

It could just be me but these guys look like Icebrood Centaurs.

Scarlet isn’t the problem, Living Story itself “is” in general, remember the Karka events? I certainly do, they were awful.

Removing one bad guy isn’t going to get you a better plot, in fact its the general writing that’s the problem atm, the biggest issue is that the writers are all over the place trying to make complicated new story lines instead of resolving current ones.

The problem lies on the writers part of basically trying to do too many new things at once. Living story introduced us to Karka, Molten/Aether/Watchwork/Toxic stuff, aswell as Scarlet, it also introduced us to Zephyrites and tried to add story to Mad King Thorn that forced you to complete a meta achievement to get further, bad decision.

The fact is that the story atm is “too much” to digest, instead of constantly adding new storyline id advise A-net took a very big look at what it already introduced with a new 250 year later Tyria, the three factions, the pact, the dragons, destinies edge, you know that stuff was also new and interesting and tbh, I’m kinda surprised they haven’t gone back to it.

The problem is A-net has basically rushed out content with the interest of saying “LOOK AT THE SHINY NEW THING” instead of concentrating on content that actually gives PROGRESSION to the storyline.

I have so many unanswered questions here such as:
- Why isn’t the Pact getting involved with Scarlet?
- Why isn’t Destinies Edge teaming up to defeat her after clearly being best buddies fighting Zhaitan.
- Why is there no mention of the other Elder Dragons what so ever save a minor song about Glint’s death.
- Who the hell are the Zephyrites, I actually found them interesting but had no time what so ever to get to know their culture to its fullest. What is their impact on the story and the future of the living story?
- Why did it take so long to get to the Thaumanova Reactor Fractal when really it should have been a month later.
- Scarlet, she had a great intro, a great short story, then went down hill, its time to stop being cryptic with her and start opening up who she is and what she wants, she’s been too cryptic and that’s why people hate her, she clearly has a plan but without having some idea of what were trying to stop, shes more of an annoyance than a threat.
- Where the hell is Treesus in all this? Shouldn’t he do something about a nut job Sylvari after he’s finished his little “restore Orr” mini quest which he evidently achieved.
- Who are The Vigil, who are the Order of Whispers, who Are, the Durmond Priory?
- Why aren’t there more Largos? I liked Largos.
- When will we get to see Psycho-Zealous Anti-Every-Non-Human-Race Cantha invade Tyria?
- When will we get to see Pawaka Joko decide to pop his head over the Crystal Desert and wave at us?
- ANSWERS, A-net, when-will-we-get-them?

That, is the real issue with the Living Story, a million questions and not a single story is resolved, we just get MORE questions.

With so many items now available in the store, particularly in regards to fashion id offer a small pointer, I think its time for a minor change.

The Gemstore’s browsing list is unnecessarily longer than it needs to be, I’m not saying that I cant be bothered to look through every nook and cranny to find the style of clothing I might want to purchase, but the alternative would make things a lot easier in my opinion.

My Proposal:

The Current UI:

Opening the Gemstore gives you a list of things from Style to Services and when the game launched it didn’t need much because there wasn’t much being sold, but now I think it needs a few sub menu’s just to make things easier.

For example….

If one wanted to browse though the Heavy Armor category of the Gemstore then you open up the Style Menu and in the Style Menu is a sub menu, listing:

Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Medium Armor, Weapons, Costumes, Backpacks.

Also, unlike the present menu that is styled by showing you a descending line of equipment, this menu shows you all of the gear in the store browsed horizontally like you would the finishers in the PvP UI.

All I’m really proposing is a minor, yet more conveniently simplified way to browse the store.

With so many new items coming out, it’d be a waste not to change the UI slightly to make it easier to help people browse the ones they want.

People need to understand what an elitist is before they can make any claims:
An Elitist is:
- The obnoxious spoiled child you knew from high school with rich parents and a personal swimming pool.
- Someone that thinks everyone else is below them and unworthy of their time.
- Convicted of their own narcissistic tendencies to the point of hyper stupidity, they may even be good at something, but that doesn’t make them likeable.

These people are the bane of mmo gaming in general, not just dungeons, they have absolutely nothing redeemable or positive to contribute in any way or form.

They expect everything to be either too easy or too difficult, the hardcore elitist is the “I am awesome and nobody else can ever hope to reach me” prat, while the casual elitist is the “I want everything on a silver platter” prick.

They must not be mistaken for either casual or hardcore, hardcore’s are pro gamers that have a degree of respect for those less skilled than themselves, so much so they offer help and guidance, build strategies and tips to help build players up.

Casuals are fun goers that don’t really want to be involved in heavy duty challenges (I’m looking at you queens gauntlet) but don’t necessarily think a challenge shouldn’t exist, they just want the option to play it easy or hard at whim.

How does that tie into this?

As the topic says, Elitists are a problem for dungeons, why? Because the casual elitist will never shut up about how nobody gives him freebies while the hardcore elitist will never shut up about how everyone is under geared and less skilled than he is with his 50 fingers of dexterity.

They “are” a bane to development and the founders of “Toxic” communities because they are the ones that will be downright unpleasant and should consequentially by A-net, be thoroughly ignored, since they are the minority nobody actually “likes” and even the “elitists” hate other elitists, making them the worst people in a community to listen to.

Solution:
This topic needs to be listened to, because it represents one of the biggest issues the community faces right now, toxic players that want to down score everyone else but rise themselves up to a point of epicosity.

Not everyone Anet, wants to be a 12% minority that get the end game, and likewise, not everyone wants the game to spoon fed you.

But it would be nice to have the choice to play a dungeon to a scale that allows newbies and the hardcore to have fun either way.

Well Scarlet did say she wanted to mess with our fun! Even Fun can be evil!

I mean sure there is already a tribulation but it’d be interesting if scarlet tampered with it and turned all the innocent things into even more sinister looking creatures that are pretty much horror themed.

Plus id love to see her mess with it in some way.

One of the problems for WvW is that there is no real way to balance the overwhelming quantity of players on one server vs another with less players so I have a proposal:

We already have an outnumbered buff but it isn’t enough to really force balance, the game is supposed to be a three way death match between three servers but it always ends up being “lowest population looses” because the other two teams go ganktastic on the underdog.

This, is where I propose forcing balance:

[The Underdog Lockout]

A faction with a lower score than the other teams gains the underdog buff, this causes three things to happen for that team:

1. Their home area is locked out from the other two teams, forcing the other two teams to focus on EB and their own home areas until that team has retaken all of the towers and keeps in their home area, they get a 30 minute warning at that point before they are attacked by the other two servers, giving them time to prepare a solid defense.
2. When invading an enemy borderland, that team gets the buff “counter attack” which adds an immediate 100% buff to WvW stats including, killing guards, destroying siege weapons, destroying walls and gates and generally making life difficult for the attacking forces.
3. A special “Overseer” that replaces Keep Lords, during which time these bosses are SIGNIFICANTLY harder to kill for the winning teams. They make capping keeps a lot more difficult, while tower, camp and castle lords remain mostly the same.

In addition, the team becomes UN-attack able in EB by the team in middle place, unless it attacks their towers, camps or keeps which the player then gets a 5 min debuff called “truce breaker” where the player is no longer neutral and thus attack able to both sides.

Now I am not saying this is the perfect solution to the problem but it would definitely make the game more “Planet side 2” opposed to “lets gank the weakest team” because right now the problem is that there’s nothing encouraging the loosing teams to turn on the winning one so much as the winning teams turning on the loosing one.

Thus, it is “not” fun for the loosing team.

Really these are rather radical ideas that take a lot of gameplay work and overhauling so naturally its optimistic to assume they’ll be possible or doable but that doesn’t mean systems like them couldn’t be integrated to encourage two loosing teams to pick on the bigger server and thus stabilize the balance.

Food for thought.

So what if shes a sue to some peoples acclamation shes still an entertaining antagonist more so, I always criticized previous content for having an underdeveloped character, this one was certainly not underdeveloped.

Fantastic work, I really love her, a Sylvari, true to her nature, but a total and utter psychopath, we need more, more more more!

I want to know her past, her origin, why did she become so mad? I want to find out more about this character, I want to know depths, I LOVED the ending of the confrontation with her in the pavilion!

Well, done, A-net, this, is exactly what I had hoped for with a personal nemesis.

I honestly think I’m going to shed a tear.

Please, more of this, more char development with this antagonist, id love to see her more often, she, is what we need to see more of.

Why is a dark story better? Because it has more to give, even for a teenage audience people love stories that make you feel sadness for the chars you’ve grown to love.

Dark doesn’t have to mean bad ending, it simply means making the atmosphere more tragic, loosing major characters, defeating the bad guy, but not without scars or painful memories.

Dark stories make for more personal experiences and as such, more possitive ones because the irony is, the darker a situation is, the more happy you feel when you are the one bringing hope to the lost.

We saw glimmers of it in GW2 but GW1 definatley had a lot more by a long shot.

The living story? I cant say its really been “dark” for me, its more “heroic” and the problem with a heroic fantasy is you know where the twists are going to come, whos going to betray who, whats going to happen next.

That said? I love time travel, the Aetherblades have POTENTIAL to be more interesting than they currently are, but we need more exposition, we need to know who these people are, what they want, we need to feel a closer sense of connection to them, they need to do something “personal” to us.

The reason that the Molten Alliance was so interesting was because as time went on, you saw the world change, you saw the affects of their actions hurt people, and it left you a personal longing to see them suffer for it.

Then you look at south sun and- OH GOD WHY DID YOU EVEN-…

What I mean to say is -coughs politely- Please for the love of Abbadon and Dhuum and Menzies never again do something like South sun because that wasn’t dark that was just PAINFUL.

The villain was dull and uninteresting, why? Because all of his story was told in the short-story, and in background, we never met him until one occasion and he had like what, 3 lines of dialogue?

Even in his previous encounter he wasn’t much of a char to get to know.

The thing is…

People like to KNOW who they are fighting, not just some random nobody but a face, a face they can remember, love to hate, and long for nothing more than the final confrontation with that char that they can FINALLY HAVE THEIR RETRIBUTION.

…Eh hemn, excitable moment there, but yes.

You want to make it interesting A-net? Take some risks, let some heroic chars die, chars we’ve grown to know, Magnus, Jennah, chars that are important to the universe and whose deaths would be significant because we “know” those people now.

If not kill? Seriously injure, cripple, turn them evil for a while, albeit with us to knock some sense into them and bring them back. Do something, risky, do something, interesting.

The Opening Ceremony was a good start, leaving lots of speculation, now hit us with something edgy, something that leaves people going OH SNAP.

Or going T_T BUT I LIKED THAT CHAR.

NOW I’M GOING TO MURDER THE VILLAIN _

See? It works really well at making people motivated to love the universe even more.

Hell, even the player char themselves is shape-able, let US do something bad, or be forced to.

Now wouldn’t that be something?

My final note:

Scarlet is shaping to be the kind of bad guy I want, but I want more, she said she wants to make a special project out of the hero, so what is that project? I want to know!
And if I cant know, I want it to leave enough mystery, and fear in me that I want to find this woman and beat the living snot out of her!

But I want it to hurt…

Because beating up the Saturday cartoon bad guy isn’t always fun, in a universe that’s foundation (gw1) was set on having serious, creepy bad guys whose aims were never clear until the end, yet they always kept you hyped, desperate to confront them, and beat them down.

(spoiler) the death of your pact companion was a good example of personal, I wanted Zhaitan dead after that, set out to make it so. I wasn’t too happy with Treaherne taking most of the glory but at least I got to be the commander, so there was something there.

I like a long chase, I like someone that has minions, lackeys, some of them even redeemable, but more than that, I like a bad guy that is in your face, someone that really makes you angry.

In the case of Zhaitan its excusable because hes the classic example of almighty evil force and forces of evil are simply all world destroying anyway, but…

For a char like Scarlet? It needs to be a human face that makes a human problem for you, as a person, you need to feel a sense of personal hatred for this char from an action that has maimed you personally.

You need a nemesis, to be a nemesis, and just as they make you, you, make them.

My proposition for the Living World would be this:

Add an asura gate that leads to a place in the mists known as “The Glimmer of Memories” or something elaborate, its function? Allowing you to do the living story quest lines and fractal specific dungeons without having to miss out.

It only adds the quests themselves and the area maps they were associated with however, and thus, it does not feature the world or pvp features of living story updates such as achievements.

What I’m saying there is, you miss out on the achievement side, but you can still go to this fractal specific area that allows you to redo the bits you missed out on the story side.

Once again your missing the point…

Some of us physically “cant” play the game the way most hardcores or even casual-hardcores can.

The reasons being for physical impedement and conditions we have no control over and thus you pause in the middle of an encounter with Mai Trin because your fingers ache so much from having to evade cannonfire.

Yes…

Some of us literally “cannot” enjoy the content because it “is” too hard for us, because we “cant” play it.

Learning curve is one thing, but a dungeon that forces you to adapt to the impossible is another.

This is EXACTLY why guild wars 2 needs to be simplified.

Should it be exclusive? No Exclusivity is BS and thus a bad marketing design universally.

It should BE open, the rewards for doing a hardcore mode? Should be for those willing to do it.

But does that mean the casuals should be left out to enjoy the dungeon at a casual pace, enjoy the story?

No, infact they SHOULD be allowed to do that.

It is a cause I will fight for because I suffer enough not doing it. People do nothing and nothing ever gets said or done, so someone has to say something and make it clear that this attitude of making everything “fly or die” is not cool.

Temporary content should not be temporary, on account that adding and removing content forces people to have to adapt in a very, very short time to what they may not physically be able to.

I cannot beat the dungeon, because I physically, cannot endure it.

This is why a mode has to be enabled for people that “can” not to give them epic loot, leave that for the ones happily doing explorable mode, but for those that just “want” to enjoy the content itself?

Give them something easier to enjoy it.

Now, im going to open this with an im special speech because I am…

As a gamer with Tendonitis, I want to enjoy content at a casual and relaxing pace that does not bring agony and suffering to my physically, but content like Aetherblade’s dungeon is a classic agony trip for someone struggling with symptons of this affliction.

I would ask A-net to in seriousness consider appealing to “both” casual and hardcore audiences and stop with the exclusivity of end game content to people with 5 hands, 20 eyeballs and the flexes of jackie chan.

Yes, people like hard stuff, yes, people like to be challanged, but some people, quite alot infact, have many more than one reason they cant enjoy the content.

I would ask… if not plea, that in future, A-net designs a casual mode for people who have time commitements, physical disabilities or simply issues with playing the “hardcore” experience.

Sure, grant the hardcores ascended gear, sure, grant the hardcores the end game reward, thats fine.

But dont leave out the casuals, as someone desperate to continue enjoying the story, it actually breaks my heart that some of it forces me to do content that causes me physical pain to do.

And thats ONLY the story, im not BOTHERED if I have epics or not, id just like to enjoy, the content.

And I am 110% certain that I am NOT alone.

I think its safe to say, A-net, give up on Southsun, no matter how much you try this place really isn’t going to be interesting, it might appeal to the hard cores to give them something to do but the main audience liked flame and frost, the Halloween event, the winter stuff.

The Karka event and now this… honestly, do not work.

This is not what attracted people, the adventure did, not the challenge. When I went to F+F final dungeon I felt like I was venturing into Mordor with the deep tunnels and crevices and the adventure felt great, fun, not repayable mind, but fun!

This…. is really annoying, and bad.

Having mines everywhere, repair bots? I understand that this is a boss evidently for people used to dub step dancing but as someone that isn’t, I can honestly say as creative feedback, please, give up on Southsun, its never, ever, going to be fun.

People want “more” content not “fast” content, sure, we can wait a few months for better stuff but id rather have an entire new area with heart quests, dynamic events, the living story continued (And) my personal story, than this minor little addition with, honestly, no substance.

I’m disappointed given how fantastic the way F+F was done that this was such a miss, but honestly it goes to show that sometimes the best way to deal with something that’s increasingly bad, is to give up on it all together.

In terms of story as well, I found this one extremely “lacking” for a “Living story” it didnt have much “living” or “story”.

Future ideas to keep in mind:
- People enjoy an adventure and GW2’s strong point is the ability to give such a thing, adventuring is really what makes GW2 enjoyable, big areas, heart quest’s dynamic events, the living story quests in F+F, people want that.
- People do not enjoy challenge’s that are only accomplish-able by a select few, a challenge should be hard, yes, but "do"able, granted, most have done the events by now which is a kind of null point, but do-able also means “enjoy”-able challenges. That does not mean add 50 tactics to remember to a single boss, that means make the boss “interesting” give them a hitch that people have to work out, but once they do, they get rewarded for understanding it. Bosses with “random” mechanics, are not, fun.
- For the story side, relativity suspense, people like to feel involved in the plot and so far I feel that none of this has anything to do with F+F aside from the tribute that the guys in F+F are now building things for the consortium, who made a minor cameo in F+F at best. In F+F you had a story that built up to closure, a story that gradually introduced you to a new antagonist, gave you a motive to stop them and set you on an adventure in their main facility to defeat them.
- People, like, that. In the oldest metaphor possible, don’t fix what ain’t broken, which right now means, stop experimenting with what doesn’t work and focus on what does.
- PVE Zerging? I honestly think you should make SS a permanent zone for this, upgrade anyone that enters to level 80 and never lower it, let it be an alternative way to level at best but leave it like that, don’t bother coming back to SS, its just not worth it beyond zerg-farming levels with events. Still, at least it has some use.
- Finally, context, content, purpose. I cannot stress as I already have before in another point, you need to give people a “reason” to do something, people will need a motive to kick them up the backside, motives such as… end game loot, such as… guaranteed drops instead of chance to drop. This game could be SO much more, it just needs tweaking and I honestly think you’ll nail it.

…Anyway, TL:DR?

SS sucks and will never be anything more than what it is, a zone for farming levels and Karka encounters that make Orr more appealing.
Disappointing? But true, its just not going to be anything else… make it a permanent level 1-80 leveling area and leave it at that.

A-net some of us really want to see this! Hehe, you aweful teasers.

We are waiting, but hoping, and I think alot of us are anticipating you’ll make something great, so take your time and make it fantastic but please, when you finally do, bring us this personal nemesis, make sure that ‘she’ (evidently teased) is going to be something we remember.

Please though, dont make this too slap stick, villians can be fun but making one thats too cliche will literally bore people, make it something that develops parallel to your own development, something that continues to evolve, possibly from being funny, to being an extremely serious threat.

(Kefka being a good example from FF6 was an example you should really take into account).

He starts off being literally the comic relief of the story, then turns into argueably the biggest bad in JRPG history and in an awesome, creepy way.

Throughout the plot he goes from complaining about the sand on his shoes, to poisoning an entire cities water supply (consequentially killing everyone) to eventually becomming a dark god.

People like transformation in their villians, people like to have a goliath to rise to their david. A bad guy needs to feel either strong… or powerful, and I dont just mean physically, I mean emotionally, mentally, cunningly.

The big bad really has to hurt you personally to make you want to go to any length to beat their face in with the nearest quaggan plushie.

So…, as a lesson to learn, make this nemesis one to remember.

Were all looking forwards to it, with eager eyes, ears for the VA too.

Make sure its a really good VA, we need someone that isnt just hired to say lines but someone that really enjoys the role of being “EVIL” and having fun with it, aswell as building into something deeper with it.

Im pretty sure im not the only one that feels that having played my fair share of games these days, the bad guy generally tends to be shallow and boring.

People like a deep nemesis.

Sorry but im basically for the Ottillia twist because effectivly its the only one that works. Keep in mind that this individual is tied to the living story and hasnt revealed “herself” which considering the current plot implies the only person we havent seen yet is Ottilia herself.

We also get a snippet
Where in the flame and frost dungeon a prisoner when asked about her says "I dont wanna talk about it".

This leads me to believe that she is clearly the only culprit suspicious enough of the entire deal.

Reading back at the “korean drama” I loved that one btw, I think your thinking and my thinking have become one, its been a clever road, but I think I know where this is going.

If im right, it will be awesome.

One thing id like to know, have we actually met this person yet, or not? Is it a new character because it was implied we’d know them?

The anticipation for a personal nemesis is going to be alot of fun, but at least give us some narrowed down answers you teasing devs you, is this someone we’ve met or not?

Also…

As a little tip for a personal nemesis, I have no doubt the writing team is fantastic but remember something, a personal enemy has to do something “to” you to be personal, it needs to hurt you in a way that its “your” problem or they make their efforts “your” problem, not just the worlds.

Hyping this might be a drawback for some because were expecting this to be a god awesome super villian that will haunt us for timeless tales to tell.

I really hope A-net will deliver so remember the following net:

1. This person needs a TALLENTED voice actress and GOOD acting, not just someone thats over the top, but someone that can be a bit of everything.
2. Make sure that their actions are personal, things that annoy you, to things that really make you want to stab them and one day, beat their face in, because thats the ultimate goal you aspire to with a personal enemy.
3. Make them a bit deeper too, sometimes it can be fun to have a villian that isnt all funny and humor but quite serious, and even edgy and dark, infact dark and edgy is what makes villians epic and memorable.
4. Have them influence actions we ourselves have influenced, undooing the heroic deeds we’ve done, that way you feel like they are really trying their damnedest best to destroy you.
5. Have a kitten good motivation, a bad guy thats personal needs to have been wronged, or feel the need to utterly destroy you for a good reason, not just “because I will take over the world MUAHAHAHAHA” there are better ways, better ways A-net, pay attention to this, you guys do great stuff, I love it so far, I wanna keep loving it.

Some final tips:
- You dont just need one personal nemesis to make a roleplaying story interesting, but if you flesh one out enough, it can make up for many enemies.
- The hero must eventually have their chance to triumph against the villian, but the villian also needs their moment of epicness, it is the way of things and the rule of why people get indulged into villians, they like them to win, because then you want to beat their face in for it.

Signed for approval, something I already had in mind, but some food for thought: Weapon Skill challanges, like they already have with skill challanges.

You have to unlock the right to use new skills.

Too much casual?
-Cough-

Sorry but this entire topic feels like the very fundamental problem incarnate.

There are ENOUGH hardcore games out there for people that “LOVE” that philosophy of mind set, go and enjoy one if you hate this one so much.

Honestly this game actually ISNT casual ENOUGH, fractals are biased, explorable dungoneering is biased, wvw is extremely biased and even more so to end game pvp.

No, this isnt casual friendly so dont even “use” that excuse.

Not sure if thread is made by troll or not.

To the OP’s point: No.

We do not need a holy trinity, we simply need to make every class more universally valueable, like rangers for example, who have needed love for a while now.

PVE isnt necessarily about whos a tank or a dps or a healer, and adding that would literally DESTROY this game, it already has enough wrong with it pve wise.

This game needs more clear-cut abilities that allow every class to be useful for those roles, for example, pets should be more enduring for rangers to allow pet tanking, did I mention rangers need a buff?

I might be a little biased here but. . .

Iregardless, the point is, everyone needs an ability that can help make them useful in some role that isnt just “spam 1 to win”.

Its not a matter of saying warriors need to be the best tank or mesmers the best healer, its a matter of saying everyone needs an ability or utility that can help influence the turn of the combat when it goes stale.

Ideas for this:

Mesmers gain damage soaking abilities, engineers too, and I mean the AOE kind.
Rangers gain pet tanking, and better CC abilities.
Warriors gain healing abilties through banners.
Guardians… …yeah lets leave them alone they already have enough.
Thieves… …already have enough too.
Necros… god, do you guys honestly need a buff?
Elementalists- lets not even go there.

Really, its just a matter of a quick “hey now I can do this” fix, and then its a matter of compitence, not a matter of significance.

We should not prioratise the need for having a “Holy trinity” on the account it forces, not encourages dungeoneering, and it thus destroys accessability in favour of class-utility.

Unfortunatley GW2 already suffers that for some classes being less useful than others, but that doesnt matter, since thats a simple matter of making them AS useful as others.