Guild Wars 2

27 here and loving it so far. Personally I think it helps that apart from GW1 and UO years ago I haven’t played any other MMOs so I came into this with very few expectations. Honestly a lot of the stuff people miss from other games doesn’t sound appealing to me.

ghostchipz.2341:

Well below is a picture of my first gaming machine all 128k of it

Who remembers the load time on this one makes the WvW wait time look short

That was my first as well. Except it was the 48k version (with the squishy rubber buttons and the rainbow across the corner).

I suppose technically I was too young for it since the machine is 3 years older than I am, but until my dad got a 386 laptop in the early 90’s it was the only computer in the house and so a lot of my earliest gaming memories are tied to that thing. Including having to get my dad to put the tape in and then waiting ages for the game to load up. (Somehow at the time it just made it seem more exciting.)

For me the major appeal of a guild is the social side. Most of the time I just like having someone to chat with while I’m playing, but it also means having a group of people I can count on to help me when I need it.

It might be completing a dungeon, or recruiting more people to help with a DE. Sometimes it means someone to craft things for me without charging a fortune, or giving me tips for crafting stuff myself. At least once it meant giving me directions when I couldn’t figure out where I was going. And of course I try to repay the favour whenever I can, which sometimes leads to finding new events and things I’d miss otherwise.

But we also organise our own events. Everything from planned dungeon runs or WvW to parties and quiz nights.

There is no specific “point” to the guild but I get a lot out of being a member. Same as having friends in real life.

Agreed!

As I said in the other thread I think it would work best if we could add a pin to the map and then click it to view/edit the attached note, so that the notes don’t end up covering the map.

I would love to be able to make notes on the map. I think it’d work best if you could just add a pin and then click on it to see the note, otherwise it’d end up too cluttered. (This is one big problem with the DS Zelda games – they let you write on the map, but it’s hard to keep it small and the map quickly becomes so covered in notes it’s hard to see the actual map, at least in my game.)

As it is I’ve started a kind of ‘journal’ in Word to keep track of these things, like the notes page in the journal in the Neverwinter Nights games.

If you’re willing to settle for an out-of-game version there’s the Wiki.

Admittedly it’s a bit short on information at the moment, but it’s improving rapidly and you can always help add to it. (You can look at the GW1 wiki for an idea of what it will probably end up like.)

I don’t know if it’s just the colour but something about it always reminded me of the architecture in the Dwarven cities.

Which made me wonder if the tower itself could be Dwarf-made, maybe a joint effort with humans or other races.

I’ve been wondering if our inability to get into the Underworld is Dhuums doing.

We can get into other areas of the Mists, and obviously portals to the Underworld can open and things can get out of them, but according to NPC’s it’s like there’s an invisible wall there, you can’t go into them. I’m wondering if maybe he’s broken free and either there’s a war going on between him and Grenth or he’s taken over and is stopping us getting in, but can’t yet extend his power to Tyria and stop ressurections and necromancy.

I’m hoping they’ll open it up in future expansions and we can go save all the ghosts. Maybe find a way into the Hall of Heroes again too.

Sokar Rostau – I wish the colour scheme you selected at character creation affected your dye drops, since I intended to stick with the same general colour for each character. Unfortunately all of mine seem to be getting mostly beige and pastel drops even though the colours I picked for them are medium/dark red, green and brown and black, blue and purple.

About the RNG thing I don’t think it’s relevant that computers can’t do true random number generation (for what it’s worth neither can humans). Just because it’s not random doesn’t mean it’s linked to your choice of character, or anything else in the game.

What computers do when programed with a RNG is use a complicated algorithm to generate a long string of numbers with no discernable (mathmatical) pattern. That algorithm doesn’t have to take inputs from your character, the zone, the time of day or any other factor in the game or in real life. The fact that people can and do work out the pattern comes from the fact that it is possible to work out what that algorithm is, from experimentation, or the fact that in many games the computer isn’t constantly running that algorithm – it just creates one string of numbers and then loops it. So sooner or later the pattern will repeat and you can predict what number and therefore what result will come next.

But again the pattern is purely a random string of numbers and I think it’s unlikely to be linked to anything in the game.

The type of patterns people have seen with dye drops I suspect come from the fact that people don’t like things being random, we like to look for rules and meaning in everything. You can see it in a lot of games where people come up with “rules” or “tricks” to make things they know are random go the way they want. Poker players who wear lucky cuff-links; people who mash A+B to make sure the Pokeball closes even though they’ve seen the code and know it’s done by RNG; the 3 million and 1 theories on what will increase your chances of a mini polar bear drop in GW1 etc.

We’d rather have rules that make no sense than accept the idea that there are no rules at all.

I’ve had no problems using a mix of ranged and melee on my ranger so far.

I think a big part of the problem with rangers is they take more getting used to than some of the other classes. Especially warriors which are probably the most straight forward.

For example when we’re talking about movement it’s not just about manually dodging and kiting, which I agree both rangers and warriors (and everyone else) can do. All the rangers sword skills involve movement except the first two of the auto-attack chain. They’ve all got you leaping and evading whilst doing damage. That to me is a pretty strong hint that unlike a warrior who can tank to some extent a ranger is not supposed to stay still and absorb hits, they’re supposed to keep moving so they’re not even getting hit in the first place – which makes armor negligable.

If anything armor is more important to a ranger using a longbow because a lot of those skills tie you in place for at least a couple of seconds. Although there the idea is you’re supposed to take advantage of the range to make sure your target can’t hit you. (And use your pet or weapon swap if anything else gets close.)

You’ve also got the option of taking a pet with high health and using them as a tank to some extent (at least in PVE, PVP enemies should have more sense). Pretty much any pet can help control aggro, but obviously it’s more effective if they can stick it out instead of having to swap and risk the enemies changing target.

Yeah I wondered about that too. One extra person isn’t going to make much of a difference in fighting off the bandits at the well, so why can’t you tell Thackery and the Seraph to do it while you go and save your friend?

I could understand it if you needed the Seraph to come with you to save it but as far as I understand it (I chose the other option) you go in alone and Thackery just meets up with you later to see how you got on.

It’s probably also to cover them in case someone/someone’s family gets offended.

I guarentee you at least one historical figures descendants would be highly offended that someone was running around “pretending to be” their ancestor in a game. And who are they going to go after? Some random who will be virtually impossible to even find, or the relatively big (compared to that one individual) company who just put out a profitable game and are likely to decide a large out of court settlement is better in the long run than a public court case over something that wasn’t even their choice?

According to some people this might as well be my first MMO since GW1 apparently doesn’t count and it’s been over 10 years since I quit UO.

Honestly I think in a lot of ways it’s made it easier to get used to this game because I came into it expecting something new and different that I wasn’t used to. A lot of the complaining I see on the forums seems to be centered around people who are annoyed or confused that GW2 doesn’t play exactly like other MMO’s they’re used to, or at least doesn’t have their favourite aspects.

Whereas I’m mainly comparing it to single player RPGs and finding that a lot of the “problems” really don’t bother me. I’m happy taking my time to get to level 80 and then focusing on other characters, WvW and PVP, the idea of rushing through most of the content in a game as fast as possible and then complaining that there’s nothing to do, or wanting to do the same thing over and over again for hours on end to gather drops just seems rediculous to me. Apart from MMO’s and Pokemon for some people I can’t think of any games where the normal way to play is to finish the game as soon as possible so you can move on to doing other things with the same software.

I think if I wasn’t already used to GW1 the things that would bother me most is a lack of save and pause options because they’re so fundamental to the way single player RPGs work.

GreenZap.1352:

As I said you didn’t have any THAT big MMORPGs back then. MMORPGS was still a Niché in 2004. There wasn’t any “casual” gamers that played Everquest or UO because it’s learning curve was too steep which meant only ppl who dedicated all their time would enjyoy playing it.

UO had at least 3 – me and my brother and sister. Honestly I think the only thing I really struggled with was the realisation that when people said you could max a skill in a day doing certain things they meant literally an entire day, not the couple of hours I normally played.

I assume it’s probably to stop people cheating at WvW.

You could create characters on your opponents severs (either stick to ones you’re often matched against or move them as needed) and then use them to open up gates and generally help your “main” server.

How long does it take you to report a bug that you’re worried about wasting time? I think the longest it’s taken me was 2 minutes and most of that was trying to find the perfect spot for a really illustrative screen shot. Most of the time it takes maybe 30 seconds to hit /bug and type a report.

I like to report every bug I come across, whether it’s a broken event or a comma in the wrong place in NPC dialogue, just because I don’t know if anyone else has reported it and if no one bothers it will take even longer to get fixed.

Although with events it’s good to make sure it is actually broken before you report it. I’ve seen a few people instead the Secrets in the Swamp event chain in Queensdale is bugged because there’s no way to trigger it when even the wiki says it’s on a timer and can only be triggered once every 3 hours or so.

That is a really cool article.

I now can’t decide if I wish people in real life put as much thought into names or if it’d ruin the fun of living in a place with town names like Chipping Sodbury and Christmas Pie and of course the infamous Torpenhow Hill (which translates to Hillhillhill Hill).

Ikoshin.2430:

Sorry but that is not a Merlion but a lion statue that existed in the original Lions Arch before Orr rose up and flooded it and then they built the new lions arch on the ruins of the old using ships and basically anything they could salvage. I do see influences from other cultures in the artwork and game though.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lion%27s_Arch
If you are one who has played the original Guild Wars it would be most familiar to you as the main city of the Kingdom of Kryta before guild wars 2 which it is now a pirate run haven for all races not just humans.

If you look at that statue in GW2 from behind there is a very clear fish body and tail. It took me a while to notice it because with some of them it’s hard to see the whole statue clearly but they are definately one thing.

Whether it was like that in GW1 or not we don’t know because those statues (if they existed) would have been in an inaccessible part of the city. The ones we could see are definately just lions and now underwater.

Personally I think it’s not totally out of the question that during the rebuilding of Lions Arch someone took the time to add a fish body to the existing statue to suit the style of the rebuilt city.

Also he likes to kill players during his apperance. Sometimes because you did something wrong, or did nothing at all, sometimes because you did something right and sometimes just because.

This usually freaks out a few people each year, but it’s even less of an issue that dying in GW usually is.

Bonzoso.7014:

Terazeal.1976:

It would seem that a Norn’s outward appearance does not reflect their age in the way it does humans. In any case, Eir is very much in the latter stages of her life during Guild Wars II, having already created a sizable legend for herself.

That would be a much easier explanation to swallow if several of the Norn male faces didn’t have age-lined, weathered appearances. The male enemy NPC I was referring to (Vidkun, I think) appeared to have aged well beyond Eir herself, and yet he scoffs at her challenge like she’s far too old to be a physical threat.

Maybe it works a bit like the elves in Lord of the Rings who don’t actually age after they’ve reached adulthood but (if I remember correctly) traumatic or stressful experiences can make them look older by human standards.

Alternatively ageism is used as an insult. Whenever my husbands gran is annoyed with one of her neighbours she calls them a “stupid old lady” even though some of them are almost 20 years younger than she is! (And at the other extreme whenever someone wants to dismiss a persons opinion online they call them a teenager, because obviously you don’t gain any life experience at all until you’re 20, or rather about 3 years younger than the person insulting you.)

With Eir it was probably a particularly effective insult because she seems to be having some issues with her age, or at least feeling like she’s achieved everything she’s going to in her life.

Also there aren’t any skill lines/trees. Or rather all the skills are in the same line. You buy any 5 skills and you unlock all the ones in the next tier together.

DirtyDeeds.6075:

Lots of skills points to go around. I know a lot of people who only open the minimum they have to, in each tier, so they can get at the better elite skills sooner.

I’ve been doing this just so I can have all my options open. (Also because I can usually dismiss several skills from each tier as ones that don’t suit my build/playstyle and so won’t get much use. Not at the moment anyway.)

I watch them all, some of them I’ll watch again if I happen to be passing. Some of them just because once I’ve got to them I feel like I might as well but a lot I actually really enjoy.

Also as some people pointed out they can give you hints of jumping puzzles (one in LA in particular) or other cool things in the area.

There are a few I suspect you don’t really get the right impact unless you time it right. The one in Gods Lost Swamp for example, most of the time it just looks like a random patch of swamp, but it’s showing you exactly where the Shadow Behemoth will be and probably looks amazing when it’s there.

Pandemoniac.4739:

I watch almost all of the vistas. Often they have hints to chest areas and hidden jumping puzzles. I’ve been trying to find them without looking at gw2cartographers.com. Only one I’ve caved in on was the particularly tricky entrance to one in Lion’s Arch. I was so excited about finding the other two and a guild mate pointed out there was a third. I could see where I thought it ended, but I was I was stumped when I tried to figure out the start.

That was exactly how I found that one.

I was looking for something completely different and happened to spot the chest, then spent a few hours (not continuously) tracing it back and trying to find the start. I got really stuck on the entrance too, until I decided asking people for help didn’t count as cheating in an MMO because you’re supposed to work together.

Do whatever activities you feel like.
Get gold.
Buy gems.
Get minis/dye packs/costumes/whatever.
????
Profit.

That’s pretty much my approach at the moment. I’m relying almost entirely on drops for my armor and weapons, with occasional karma purchases. I’m using my money to buy minis (at the moment from the trading post because gems are so expensive).

It’s pretty much what I did in GW1 as well (except of course I had to buy my armor in that game).

I’m probably being really slow on the up-take here, but has anyone else noticed that tranditional questing is in this game, it’s just a lot rarer than in most RPGs and kind of hidden because there is no quest log and no announcement that you’ve been given a quest?

For example Gardener Keemi in Overlake Haven tells you how much she wants truffles from the nearby Hylek cave. She doesn’t directly tell you to go get them but if you bring one you can give it to her.

Or there’s a norn (I can’t remember her name) who tells you Kani has gone to the Grawl caves to rescue a bunch of norn hunters who got themselves into trouble. Again she won’t ask you to go and help but you can announce that you’re going to, then you can go to the cave, find Kani and help her out. (Which you might well have done anyway, but even so.)

Those are the two I remember right now, I know I’ve seen more, and it’s made me wonder how much others I’ve missed when I wasn’t paying enough attention to the dialogue.

You don’t get any rewards, other than what you’d normally get for those actions, but it’s fun anyway.

It’s been bothering me slightly not having quests (aside from the personal story) in this game because theres some story arch’s that aren’t suited to dynamic events or heart quests (mainly single-item fetch quests, things that don’t involve large mobs of monsters showing up) and I like the idea of randomly helping out people as you’re passing. But I also like the fact that these people aren’t just standing around waiting for some random to help them. They don’t even ask (and some will turn you down if you offer to help), which combined with the fact that it’s not a designated ‘quest’ makes it feel more like something you, or your character, is choosing to do.

As far as I understand it people in Tyria don’t really have a problem with undead in general, it’s what you do with your minions after creating them that’s the problem.

I think Zhaitans army would get the same reaction if they were still alive, or elementals, or ghosts or whatever. The problem is a seemingly unstoppable army attacking, not so much them being undead.

Similarly I’m sure if a human necro found a way to raise a huge army and sent them marching on inhabited areas they’d get much the same reaction.

So in recent years the GW1 Halloween quests seemed to be hinting at a few things (or screaming them from the battlements in one case). Particularly:

*Mad King Thorn and his minions have been trying to get back into the world permenantly.
*He really, really does not like Palawa Joko.

As the title says this is massive speculation but what if finally, after 250 years of trying they somehow succeed and bring Thorn out of the Underworld permenantly?

Only to find that Joko has been back in the world all that time and has succeeded in conquering most/all of Elona. I can’t imagine Thorn will be happy about that. I’m not quite sure what the issue is between the two of them but I imagine one of his first goals will be revenge.

Maybe he’ll recruit a bunch of random adventurers to bring with him (maybe as a “reward” for helping him get back to Tyria?) when he goes to overthrow Joko and “save” Elona.

Of course Thorn isn’t known as the Mad King for no reason and from what we’ve heard he wasn’t exactly the best ruler in Tyria’s history, so I assume sooner or later we’ll need to take him down too. But I can’t help thinking storming in with his army would be a fantastic was to introduce Elona to GW2.

I know it seems crazy but when you consider Thackery started out as a random festival quest giver, became a main character/hero and his descendant is one of the major GW2 characters it’s not totally out of the question for Thorn to influence the game too.

I’m pretty sure other than rock, paper, scissors and access to the underworld none of those things were in GW1 at launch either. There is no reason they can’t add them as part of the Halloween update or later.

Red Falcon.8257:

For me, complete overhauls of professions are the biggest turn-offs that could ever happen.
Tweaking is fine, changing how a profession behaves completely mid-game is not.

My class is something personal.
If you want to tweak damage, effects, etc, I’m fine.
If you want to move skills on my skillbar, remove skills, remove traits, etc, I’m not fine.

In my experience (of GW1) unless you’re copying the ‘flavour of the month’ builds from websites 100% of the time most skill updates won’t really affect you.

I think the only one that actually impacted me was the big Dervish update where they changed almost every skill, including creating a new type of skill (flash enchantments) and changing a lot of existing skills to that. I had to scrap my entire bar and re-do it from scratch, and this was one of my main characters. And in the end I got something I actually prefered, which worked more like what I’d wanted to be doing all along.

Basically all that’s on your computer is a program to connect you to the server. Your account, your guild and everything else is saved on Anet’s servers so you won’t loose any of it by uninstalling.

(This is also why you can go to a friends house, or an internet cafe or wherever, log into GW2 and play on your account.)

If you really want an outside source to define in-game trolls you’d probably be better off going back to the ancient Norse and Scandinavian legends where they first appeared.

Although according to Wikipedia that doesn’t really give you much to go on either – they were supernatural beings that lived in small isolated groups in mountains and forests away from humans and were typically unhelpful. Everything else varied (probably depending on what characteristics suited the story best).

dybryd.1358:

I was also puzzled to see that two pairs of models were exactly identical in shape, but one of each pair had visible ribs when viewed with no armor, and the other did not.

Erm…those aren’t ribs. They’re muscles.

Just like men women will have a visible six-pack if they’re toned enough. Just look at pretty much any female athlete.

styx.7294:

Elona was inspired by Africa.

Kryta.. I don’t know if I’d call it European. Ascalon was very European. 250 years ago, Krytans were a pretty dark skinned heavily tattooed folk http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Krytan – maybe somewhere in the Mediterranean?

All of the north coast of the Mediterranean is in Europe.

Yeah I think it’s just to make sure your character and your sister look similar. It’d be a bit strange if your character was black and your sister was white and blonde or whatever.

As I said in the other thread warrior gets my vote as the simplest, but I think she should go with whatever she thinks is the most fun.

When you get into it Pokemon has some pretty complicated mechanics (especially when you’re dealing with things like Effort Values and Individual Values) so depending on how into it she is she might well find Gw2 relatively easy to get the hang of by comparison.

From my brief play around with it warrior seems like the easiest to learn to me because most of their attacks are straight-forward damage dealing moves and their profession specific mechanic is pretty simple.

But I’d still say she should go for whatever seems the most fun, because IMO that is more of a deal breaker.

If she’s played Pokemon (depending on how much she got into it) there’s a good chance she’s gotten her heard about some pretty complicated game mechanics already, so nothing in GW2 should be impossible to learn.

I think there’s a lot of minis that were added to various websites during the betas which didn’t actually make it into the game.

As far as I know the only way to aquire minis is by buying the packs – which only gives ones listed in the mini collection tab in the bank – and from the HoM and Digital Deluxe/Collectors Edition which gives the tabby cat, racoon, Orrian baby chicken, servitor golem and Rytlock.

Any others listed I assume didn’t actually make it into the game (yet), even if they’re included on databases.

As far as I know there isn’t much lore regarding trolls. I don’t remember them ever being mentioned in any detail in any quests or anything and neither of the wikis have anything other than stats, locations and drops.

So in the absence of anything else I’m going off what we can see for ourselves in the game.

Kaona, is she a norn? They don’t actually need to wear clothes to keep warm (if I remember right they like the shiverpeaks because it’s the one place they aren’t too hot), they just wear them because they want to.

Whilst there does seem to be an unofficial rule that DnD (Forgotten Realms or otherwise) gets to set the standard for fantasy creatures it doesn’t always apply.

Especially with things that originate in fairy tales and myths like trolls. There have probably been hundreds of variations over the years. Other than generally being bigger, stronger and uglier than humans I don’t think there’s any real rules on trolls.

For one thing Tolkien’s trolls could be turned to stone by sunlight and were implied to be otherwise extremely hard to kill, but they didn’t have to be burned specifically. And I’d say he gets to over-rule DnD by virtue of inventing the genre.

In GW1 trolls regenerated health (specifically by using the skill Troll Unguent), but they could be killed by any form of damage. If I remember correctly they also leave exploitable corpses that necromancers can turn into minions. GW2 seems to be consistent with that, and they have no obligation to be consistent with other franchises.

It can also occur in areas of high narrativium.

Do you have map chat on? On my server people will call out when events are starting, especially the more popular ones.

ClaviculaNox.8762:

If you are getting alot of authentication emails from different places it means
SOMEONE knows your password and logging in
but Anet is sending you the email to ask for your premission if this IP can login
Change your password right away
I had the same thing getting everyday email authentications from Israiel, Colombia and other places
So i changed my password right away
and i stopped recieving the authentication emails cuz the password was changed.
Change your password right away

As I said I’m sure all these login attempts are me. I only ever get one email at a time and only when I’m trying to log in and have been asked to authenticate it. Also clicking the link lets me log in, if it was someone else I’d still be left waiting.

I’m just confused on why the locations it gives me are so wrong.

I don’t know about anyone else but in GW1 I found a build that worked for most of PVE then stuck with it, ocassionally switching skills if I knew they wouldn’t work or something else would work better (for example swapping out poison tip signet if most the enemies were non-fleshy, or adding in frozen soil for Slavers Exile). So the GW2 system isn’t a big change for me.

Also as some people have pointed out before a lot of the bonuses from traits are things that in GW1 would have taken up an entire skill slot, like applying speed boosts or giving buffs in certain situations. When you add up all the weapon skills, the utility skills, the traits and the profession specific mechanics you’ve actually got more options than in GW1, they’re just not laid out as clearly.

wollie.9751:

Gw1 had an ungodly amount of skills and talk about homogenization! Everyone could literally use every skill. They best players all looked up there builds online and it was actaully fairly limited. They have reduced the number of choice but actually increased the number of good choices. Some might not like it, but this GW1 vet thinks they did a great job.

Actually the best players invented those builds and put them online for other people to copy. No matter how simple it is to use someone who understands how and why a build works will always have an advantage over someone who copied and pasted one and was told what order to push the buttons without really knowing why or how it works. Sooner or later they’re going to get into a situation where something unexpected happens and if you don’t really know what your skills do or how they work together you’re not going to be able to adapt as easily (or at all).

Mekboss.5069:

What happens when you limit your choices to the point where you only have 1 or 2 skills worth using? Look at shortbow ranger, the only skills that really get a whole lot of useage are autoattack and the cripple, everything else is just too situational to be used regularly.

I don’t think many people are asking for 2 and 3 skillbars packed with skins, I think people want the level of customization GW1 had [minus dual classing obviously].

Shortbow skills on a ranger aren’t situational, they’re just dependant on your position in relation to the target. The idea is you’re supposed to move around them to get into the best position rather than waiting for it to happen by coincidence.

I’ve played a lot of RPGs over the years and gotten a fairly good idea of my playstyle and found that (because I have a tendancy to try and play a certain way regardless of what my character is built for) picking a class that suits my style makes the game easier and more fun for me.

I like characters who use dexterity or speed to avoid getting hit more than ones who rely on heavy armor or magical shielding or whatever to absorb blows and I like to have a variety of options open to me – most of the time I’ll stick to straight damage from a weapon but I want to be able to add other effects, either through magic or conditions or whatever for tougher battles. So I usually play one of the “middle of the road” classes rather than one purely focused on one aspect.

I also like animals so I tend to be drawn towards pet classes. So for example I play a ranger, druid or sometimes cleric in DnD, rogue with ranger specialisation in Dragon Age and a ranger in GW1 and 2.

IMO my personality tends to come into it more in defining my characters personality. I’ll usually do what I think is right when asked to make a choice in games (which isn’t always the “good” option). Although having used the same one for several years and role-played her to varying degrees she’s got a pretty clearly defined personality of her own. Most of the time we agree but sometimes I find myself thinking “No, wait, she wouldn’t do that.”

But then I also never have just one character in a game. I’ve got 3 others in GW2 and I’m thinking about making a 5th and possibly buying more character slots after that. In GW1 I had 4 rangers who I used for different purposes, in GW2 so far they’re all different professions (ele, engineer and thief, the next will be a guardian) so I’m not sure what that says about me.

Does anyone else find their login authentication emails come up with some really erratic locations?

Last night when I logged in the email had my location as Milton Keynes, England, which is near enough right. This morning I log in from the exact same computer on the same internet connection and it tells me I’m in Carmarthen, South Wales! Off the top of my head I’ve also had Edinburg, Birmingham and Guildford.

I’m sure all of these have been me, because the email is always sent a couple of seconds after I try to log in and get told to authenticate it, and I’ve never had emails at other times, but it still feels like I’m taking a risk by accepting it.

Can anyone tell me why this happens, or if other people get the same thing? Is it something to do with my ISP (BT), or Anets system or what?

GrimShade.8091:

No, I hate levels, GW1 was so much better with a lvl cap of 20 and hitting that cap happened before the game really started.

That said, how many threads do you see with ‘what do I do now that I’m 80?’ People seem to think that getting to the max level is the point of the game. Until people can recognize other things to do in the game aside from getting to the max level, we will be stuck with these levels.

I think getting rid of levels could actually help with this issue. If there were no levels it would be instally obvious to people that levelling is NOT the point of the game.

Personally it doesn’t matter much to me whether it’s there or not, but then I’ve looked at it since the start as simply a way of tracking your progression – how close you are to having all the trait points and skills, what areas you can go into etc. IMO that’s all it really is in most games, so I don’t see GW2 as all that different.

I picked Desolation (EU) purely because I heard it was unofficially nominated an English language server and since I can’t speak any other languages fluently that was my main priority.

I’m happy with it, but then I haven’t tried switching to any others to see what they’re like. But people are friendly and it seems pretty active. I don’t think I’ve looked at the WvW tab and I wouldn’t know what a good score/ranking was if I did, but a lot of people talk about doing it so I assume we’re doing ok.

Absolutionis.9427:

Guesses:

Old Ascalon = English
Old Kryta = Old Spanish
New Kryta = Western European
Orr = Arabic
Shiverpeaks = Scandinavian
Asuran = Mesoamerican
Charr = Steampunk
Vabbi = Wealthy Arabian/Turkish
Kourna = North African
Istan = Nile Delta Egyptian
Kaineng = Former Kowloon, China
Kaineng Palace = Forbidden Palace, China
Shing Jea = Chinese Rural
Echovald = Gothic European
Jade Sea = Fishing Village?

I agree with this, although I’d say Ascalon was more western Europe in general rather than England specifically and Kryta was influenced by the mediterranean region in general (at least visually, culturally it’s a little hard to say because of all the civil war/cultural shifts going on you never really got a decent overview of it).

Also Cantha was a mash-up of many different Asian cultures, but mainly Chinese and Japanese. The Luxons seem to be a based on the general idea of a nomadic fishing/trade/pirate culture, but I don’t think they were based on any one in particular.

The problem is from what the NPCs say most humans (except for those who are citizens of Lions Arch and some of the Ascalonians) seem to think of themselves as Krytan in the first instance, even if their ancestors are mainly from Cantha or Elona or wherever. They acknowledge their ancestry but it’s not a part of their daily life so I’m not sure there could be much of a story relating to it.

vox.5019:

Leiloni.7951:

On North American servers you can’t use any funny characters. If it’s not a part of the English language, the character creation screen won’t even let you use it (this even includes accent marks and other innocent things). European servers I don’t think have that issue. So if I wanted (and I have tried) to make an alt named Leilonì I can’t do it.

I play on servers in the NA world. I make characters with accented characters.

SOME characters are allowed, others are not. Do more research.

Considering that if they’re blocking any at all they had to go through and make a list as to which would be blocked (or vise versa), they are implicitly stating that the ones they have not blocked are allowed.

This seems like the best logic to me. If you want to use a symbol in your characters name give it a try, if you can just type it in and it works then it’s safe to assume it’s allowed.

Danielle Aurorel

In lore (lore I’ve made up myself, with ties to the actual lore) she’s named after the most successful of her ancestors (aka my main GW1 character) with not so subtle implications from her family that she’s expected to live up to it. (Her younger twin sister Deborah got off easy in that respect.)

IRL Danielle was just a name I liked back when I was making what was going to be another random UO character and ended up being my main character in every RPG since. Aurorel is a combination of ‘aurora’ and ‘elen’ and means dawn star.

It’s the only way to share it between multiple characters.

I prefer to have one shared gold store (in the bank) so I don’t waste time saving for something one character needs when another has the money for it. Other people go the other way and prefer to keep their money in the bank so they don’t spend it as often.