Guild Wars 2

This is an entertaining way to build up for the speech on the 20th. I’ve been hoping that we would see more interesting villains in GW2 and Scarlet seems like one with potential. From what we’ve seen, the character clearly has an ego and mischievous streak and that tells us a bit about thier personality. I’m interested in learning more.

Tanith.5264:

Should we attach any significance to the colors used in the vandalism? Red, black, and green?

It’s fun to see the theories that spring up from things like this. But I can’t think of anything in GW2 connected with those colors offhand.

Spendingallmytime.7249:

To sweeten the pot, the forums offer DoctorOverlord.8620 as a pawn in your dastardly deeds.

Bah! I am too preoccupied with my own schemes to aid in other’s plans! My intent is to see whether this Scarlet truly warrants the classification of ‘Villainous Mastermind’ or if it is just graffiti and poems. This mystery entity has shown a skilled ability to avoid a charr ranger’s arrows but how will they deal with the venomous barbs of an MMO forum?

@Dan.2940 – Actually I’d be fine with one of the CM’s who has a sense of humor

To the mysterious Scarlet,

You may be brave enough defacing Queen Jennah’s likeness on a webpage, but do you dare show your presence here in the nest of vipers that is an MMO community forum?

I dare you. Heck, I double dare you.

:)

But seriously, I have to say this is an entertaining way to build up the storyline for the 20th. The poems and gifts sent to gaming sites were a very nice touch as well. I hope the story turns out to be an engaging one. We’ve needed a good, memorable villain and I think there is some real potential here.

bhagwad.4281:

In this case, all I need is one example to disprove the parent’s hypothesis that (and I quote) “Good art is always controversial.”

Note the “always” part of the assertion. And see how just one counter example blows the argument to shreds.

Since you want to get into semantics, you actually can’t disprove the original quote because what is ‘good’ in art is purely a subjective matter of taste.

Perhaps the original poster only considers a piece of art worthwhile unless it is controversial. That would mean they would not consider Starry Night to be a good piece of art which is something left for discussion in an art appreciation class. For what it’s worth, I know artists who dislike Van Gogh’s work but that’s neither here nor there, it’s all a matter of opinion when one is talking about art or perception.

Which probably relates back to this thread in a way that I don’t have time to explore.

bhagwad.4281:

Yeah. Starry night by Van Gogh really got people worked up. All that controversial content.

Picking examples as a counter argument only works when there no other examples that are actually relevant.

Warning artistic statue nudity in links (GASP think about the children!)

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/town-sculpture-david-put-pants-article-1.1257671
http://www.kvue.com/news/Naked-Aphrodite-stirs-SAMA-ad-controversy-175709981.html

These are from about 10 seconds of Google searching. I’m sure there are plenty more examples of great works of art that have sparked controversy, in the past or today.

XcmGT.3847:

She is having Logan’s love child…

PopeUrban in another suggested Rytlock’s love child instead which has far more possibilities for hilarity to see Logan’s reaction.

Volkon suggested a marriage Not-To-Logan announcement which would be nearly as good.

I’m voting for her pulling off her mask, revealing she is Mursaat (look them in the GW1 wiki if you haven’t heard of them) and breaking into maniacal laughter.

My top ten predictions:
4. “Your face is funny! Watch the ledges!!!” (Rambling and utterly drunk on skritt beer, her highness is led from the pavilion leaning on a very embarrased Rox.)

7. “All hail UberQuaggan!”

My favorites of these How about HypnoQuaggen?

Fare Thee Well Culling! We will not miss thine illusions and misleadings!

akamon.2769:

my one gripe – why are they just chilling in random areas? (for the morale events)
though i guess they’re trying to set up a stronghold or ambush the emissaries or something.

They’re supposed to be attacking the balloons, but their cannon fire is rather inaccurate lol Maybe they’re just laying down covering fire to keep the balloons grounded. Though you’d think they’d just bomb a defenseless tower. If there was an anti-aircraft ballista on the tower I could see why they might keep their distance.

Or do they just want to spoil the Jubilee without causing any DR casualities (except the occasional annoying adventurer)?

bhagwad.4281:

This would have been freaking awesome! Why couldn’t the watchknights have been like that if they wanted them to be scary and yet “feminine”?

That kind of scary design would give off an evil ruler vibe lol. Which would be an amusing plot twist if Jennah started to act all paranoid, sent away the Shining Blades and began wearing big black capes.

I think the watchknights were meant to be security devices that resemble statuesque pieces of art that you’d see in a museum. That reflects humanity’s pride of their refined culture which is unique among the races. Charr are all about hard practicality, norn are rough and tumble, sylvari are too new and the asura idea of refinement is mathematical rather than artistic.

ProxyDamage.9826:

Little disappointed that only 1 year old characters get a birthday gift. It’s kinda… “Thank you for supporting us during this first rough year… Sadly, you weren’t here from day 1, so kitten you! Oh you couldn’t afford it on release? Tough kitten!”.

Birthday presents in Guild Wars 1 worked on the age of the character. When a character reached one year, you got a present. I would be surprised if they didn’t do the same for GW2.

This is slightly different because everyone is getting the same mini, previously it was random with a chance for rarer minis. I also wonder whether it will be connected to the age of the account rather than character in GW2.

She’s pregnant.

With Rytlock’s baby.

Drama bomb!

VOLKON.1290:

The Queen will be getting married!

It’s not Logan.

Run.

Both excellent storyline choices, although Volkon’s is the more likely

Personally I think Queen Jennah is going pull off her face and reveal she is Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons then start laughing maniacally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayO1wtXbh_Q

Okay, Volkon’s is still the most likely.

Aerial visuals are much certainly more interesting and noticeable. It’s cool to do the event and see the airship actually fly off. The event is really not much different than the camp spawns we saw with the Molten Alliance but the visuals really add more impact.

I’m looking forward to see more stuff like that, such as more visible storms/smoke/eruptions as well as flying foes.

I have enjoyed this update so far, in particular the new method of in-game cinematics. The Opening Ceremony sequence was entertaining and I’ve become interested in the storyline again.

I think the Queen’s Pavilion is fun in a chaotic zerg grind fashion that is kept enjoyable because it is optional. You can do it or not as you please. The change in champion’s rewards seems to be encouraging players to cooperate more that ever to take them down and getting people to play together like that isn’t a bad thing IMO. I think it’s rather cool to see mapchat announcements of champions in a zone which you can join in if you want.

But I can see some of the OP’s complaints. I would not mind seeing more dynamic event being incporporated or rotated into the open world but we are seeing some of that in this update with the balloon towers and there seems to be a bit more variety than just fighting off spawn camps. I think we’ll see them implement other events with still variety later.

I was disappointed that the balloon rides just led to an instant teleport. It would have been cooler if we could have watched the zone pass by below for a little bit or even just done sometime like a moving Vista cinematic.

I’ll probably never get the Gauntlet achievement but I’m okay with that, the same way I was okay with never getting the Mad King Clocktower achievement. I know that different players like different levels of difficulty and I’m glad that ArenaNet is making content for a range of playstyles. (And that the cool clockwork mini is the Pavilion reward )

hermescragsniper.2713:

Is this meant to be repeatable? Is it a bug or working as intended? I would love to do it again as I didn’t get a good look at the stranger and missed a bit of it due to lag and being afk

I don’t think it’s meant to be repeatable. Although I haven’t checked with my other characters, that would be a interesting way to get a ‘re-run’ of the scene.

I really liked the Opening Ceremony! It was cool seeing the new cinematic system and I think this is a much more engaging way to show the story than the old two person dialog method. I didn’t mind the two-person scenes but it is much more fun being able to move your character around the scene to follow the dialog. (And it was neat seeing the character’s mouth move lol)

I also appreciated how the encounter was interesting but straightforward and not designed to repeatedly faceplant players. I’m all for challenging content but I think it should be kept in Explorer mode dungeons and such. Story instances should focus on presenting the story in the most effective way and encounters that constantly kill players is not a good way to tell any story. I hope ArenaNet continues to follow the balance they showed in the Opening Ceremony for their storytelling.

Finally the story itself was intriguing. It was great seeing Rox and Braham as well as other recurring characters like Lord Faran (great dialog with him hitting on the MILF lol). The bit with Logan being confronted by the illusion of Rytlock was quite cool.
And there is a mysterious villain, always a nice touch. We’ve been lacking really interesting villains in GW2 storylines and based on the personality we see in the Opening Ceremony, I’m hopeful this villain will turn out to be a memorable one.

This storyline has really piqued my interest and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out!

Very cool. Let’s have more VO by her

The watchknights remind me of the robot from the classic silent movie ‘Metropolis’ but with more steam-punk crossed with a modernized design.

Fungalfoot.7213:

They remind me of Baroque sculptures and I find them very pleasing to the eye. But no, I can’t say they evoke any desire. Guess I’m just not into automatons.

There is something Baroque about them too. They seem like they were designed to be striking. I was surprised to see normal sized ones, I thought it would be more imposing if they were all bigger than norn.

I enjoyed the story as well! Rox is a fun character and this helped show a little more of her personality. Plus Frostbite rocks

dargosian.2704:

IMO, this short story should have been an instance in the game. We meet up with Rox under the Death Star, and then journey up with her. We listen to the conversation. We then, in a separate instance in Cragstead, invite Braham to the celebrations on behalf of Rox. Easy-peasy, and it doesn’t feel as random for them to be in the Pavilion when we first enter.

Now that I’m talking about it, might as well say that the instances should be available only to those who got the F&F achievements, and that there are no achievements for doing the instances. Just for the sake of the story being in the game, y’know, and making it feel like you actually are part of Rox’s and Braham’s lives.

It might have been nice to see the scene in-game but that would have taken more resources and time. With a two-week schedule, I don’t mind if they supplement the story by dividing the effort and letting the writers show a little more details with short stories like this.

I have to completely disagree about not allowing access to story if players did not accomplish X achievement or Y goal. Story is one of the unifying elements of the entire community, it should be something all players share whether they are casual or hardcore or in-between. It gives GW2 players something in common like how fans of a TV show can talk about the latest episode.

Access to the story should never be limtied just because someone didn’t have time to attain a particular achievement. And if players are blocked out of later story instances because they missed achievements from an earlier event, how are they supposed to get into the story instances at all? Completing the current event achievement, which would dump them into the middle of a story without being able to see the earlier parts?

I believe story should be accessible to all players of every level of skill and dedication. I really liked the Opening Ceremony instance. It was interesting and straightforward but not designed to constantly faceplant players with needlessly difficult encounters as we’ve sometimes seen in earlier events.

I’m all for challenging content but that should be kept in things like dungeons and WvW. When the goal is telling a story to the players then the presentation of the story should take precedence.

Zone changes based on season would be really neat but I image it would be a pain modifying every zone. Are there any MMOs out there that currently do this?

Poledo.3256:

Your major gripes are what draws most of the current player base in. The model you are describing exists in most MMO’s currently on the market. Have you tried RIFT? I think you would honestly like it.
-Edit-
I wouldn’t want to see raids added in though. That’s another tired mechanic and a scene I am done with after 14 years of playing MMO’s.

Agreed. Implementing many of the points suggested by the OP would turn GW2 into a generic example of the various MMOs we have seen in the past. I think the MMO genre can do better than it has in the past and modern games should try different approaches.

Regarding the OP’s comments of griefing, I say that mechanic does have a place in PvP where it is an accepted and sometimes even needed element of gameplay. (But only when it is part of the game design, like playing a zombie in Left 4 Dead, not exploiting a design flaw like finding an invulnerable spot of terrain).

But griefing has absolutely no place in PvE mechanics. Ninja-looting, mob stealing and the countless other kitten flaws seen in PvE gameplay should be left behind as lessons of how MMOs of the past did it wrong.

That is a convenient idea but I have to think that would cut into the profits from T-stone sales It could be a hard sell to convince ArenaNet to give up that income.

Perhaps the ‘Skin Locker’ you suggest (that just sounds dirty for some reason) could require a T-stone to be expended to deposit a skin into a slot. That would remove the need to get some throwaway weapon to act as a holder for the skin (or finding a whole different exotic as MekubeC suggests) as well as saving bank space being used by that skin holding weapon and ArenaNet could still get sales from T-stones.

I also agree the new wallet is very nice! Freeing up bank space is always welcome, particularly with dungeon tokens since there were some which I only had a few but I wasn’t going to toss them.

I like the OP’s suggestion for customization options but I don’t think it needs to be removed from the Hero Panel. I think allowing it to be accessed from more than one UI element is a good idea.

One bit of customization I would like see is the option to choose elements to keep separated between characters, say gold or Badges of Honor. I’m not into RP-ing that much but I rather liked keeping my individual characters gold separate, each one with their own money as it were. I separated Badges of Honor to see which of my characters was doing better in WvW. It kept the feel of the lower level character which is now gone since I can a level 1 with a bunch of gold (Sure they always had access to the gold but as I said this is about the feel of the characters).

It’s not a big deal and I’d rather have the wallet as it is than not at all. It’s just an option I think would be neat to see in the future.

The Super Adventure Box connection might have been a bit of hyperbole can sometimes show up in interviews. Perhaps SAB was not meant to be listed as one of the seemingly disconnected chapters that have been presented.

The only thing I could imagine would be some kind of ST:TNG-esque scenario where the holograms of SAB go crazy and lethal. Or maybe the holograms weaponized somehow to fight the dragons? Which would just be weird but explain why there are SAB weapon skins.

(If they did that I hope they go to SAB v2.0 where the designs are less cutey, although Risen getting ripped apart by little 8-bit bees would be a laugh. If the holograms turn them into karka killers, I wouldn’t care what they look like)

I just hope they get past the dropping hints stage and actually showing what’s going on. Soon rather than later would be preferable.

This interview really needs to be linked in this thread! Lots of story team behind-the-scenes goodness.

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/exclusive-interview-arenanets-bobby-stein

As usual ArenaNet continues to impress me with their ability to look at themselves. It was very heartening to hear Bobby Stein admit that the Southsun storylines lacked proper ways to direct players to see the content in a linear order.

Order is critical for a story, you don’t randomly jumble the chapters of a book and expect it to tell a good story. The Southsun story was very disappointing to me because I didn’t happen to stumble across the parts needed to understand what was going on.

It is also absolutely critical to be aware how the medium influences the presentation a story. Movies are different from plays which are different from books. Video games have their own strengths and weaknesses and it is very encouraging that the storyteam is realizing they need to think like game designers not just writers.

The updated in-game cinematics will play into one of the great strengths of video game storytelling especially if those cinematics can include our own characters. It is always much more meaningful when we can see our characters taking part in the cinematics.

I hope that we will soon start to see exactly how the SuperAventure Box can possibly be connected to the Molten Alliance and what Ellen Kiel has to do with either. There is such a thing as stringing along your audience for too long and I do not want GW2 to reach that point.

Overall encouraging things to hear.

You do have a point, I’ll grant that Sons of Svanir are different but they not full icebrood minions. There are icebrood norn in the game and you don’t see any of them walking around Hoelbrak anymore than you see zombies walking around Lion’s Arch.

Sons of Svanir actually do have the potential to be more interesting villains than mind-controlled icebrood norn or undead zombies. But rather than focusing on these more interesting possibilities, our personal story sends us up against bunch of throwaway zombie minions who leave no impact.

As for Kralkatorrik’s minions, they may have been created by accident but in the first novel they become another bunch of slaves, just like Zhaiten’s undead, just like Jormag’s icebrood. How they made their minions, what the minions are doing when they’re not killing people, these are superficial details. In the end the Elder Dragon motivations and goals are interchangeable because their personalities or lack thereof are interchangeable. (At least as far as we are shown in the game, I’m still waiting to see what Konig presents).

I was originally talking about what is needed for decent and memorable villains. I didn’t mean for this to get sidetracked into cosmetic differences of the dragons rather than focusing on the lack of differences between them in the most important part, what could have been used to make them into memorable villains.

What is the most memorable thing about our personal story? What do people talk about most? Trahearne and how annoying and glory-stealing he is. Nobody talks about how cool zombie boss minion X was or that amazing scene with eyeball/mouth/zombie boss minion Y. In contrast, WoW players still talk about the storylines with Ragnoros, Onyxia or the Lich King. There is much I don’t like about WoW but I truly hope that someday GW2 players will able to do the same for villains they fight in this game.

There is potential in the lore, as Konig has pointed out, but it is being wasted by giving us generic villains whose motivations don’t extend beyond “Kill everybody because we’re Bad”. If there is evidence that there are deeper motivations to their villains then ArenaNet has not successfully presented them in the game’s story. When we do see villains with more interesting potential like Faolain or Caudecus, they get tossed aside from the main storyline.

In the recent interview, they dropped hints that the SuperAdventure Box and Flame and Frost and Southsun are all connected somehow to an overall story that presumably has something to do about the dragons. They need to stop dropping hints and start showing it.

zallesz.1650:

exactly… back then you killed a god, made a new one from a mortal, the world was in danger and you saved it… now you just…linger… killing the troll/oak/wasp/boar, stopping flame legion in cof for the thousanth time…not heroic…
even (oh lord help me) WoW had an amazing heroic feeling, Illidan, Lich king, deathwing…

You notice how you name the villains when you talk about getting a heroic feeling?

Decent villains are necessary for any memorable heroic story. Right now we haven’t had any.

The Elder Dragons are just generic evil force, their minions are mind-controlled pawns of their masters and then we get villains like Canach, who was nothing but a failed businessman whose major villainous talent was completely messing up everything he touches to an life-threatening degree.

There was much that I didn’t like about WoW but Illidan would not deign to be counted among this bunch.

But I’m remaining hopeful. There are interesting and rather underused villains like Faolain and Caudecus. There is still potential for our characters to face epic and memorable villains. The recent interview with Bobby Stein shows that ArenaNet is putting some serious thought into how they are presenting the stories. Let’s hope they don’t forgot what it takes to tell a good one.

Tyrian moose clearly spring up from holes in the ground.

:)

Seraki.2753:

I agree with the OP. Its so depressing that I stopped doing personal stories.

I agree with the OP as well but I’m a stubborn kitten and I still intend to complete the story on my second level 80 just so I can see the lore and alternate storyline.

I’m doing the PS with my level 80 because I only do the personal story when my character is at least 10-20 level higher than the required level. Even with a level 80, you get scaled down so the PS missions are still barely tolerable. I thought doing it with a level 80 might allow me to actually relax and enjoy the story and it appears I was wrong. I’m not faceplanting as much but the fights are still incredibly irritating when all I want to do is see the story. The loot and rewards are useless for my level 80 so why is my character getting scaled back?

I can’t understand is why ArenaNet makes content that difficult for the personal story but doesn’t offer difficulty settings. They do it in the dungeons with Story and Explorer modes, why the kitten didn’t they do the same with the PS.

Some people just want to relax and see the story, some people just view the PS as another way to get loot. Both can be satisfied by offered a difficulty setting that lets some people easily go through the story with less rewards, and others to go through more annoying content but increased rewards.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

I just checked “Dredging Up the Past” and Sieran wasn’t flagged to resurrect players. I’ve fixed that and it should go live in a future update—though I don’t have an ETA. Thanks!

I don’t know if things have changed since 5 months ago but you might want to double-check every NPC in every mission. I’ve been playing since launch and the ONLY time I have ever witnessed an NPC actually rezzing anyone has been Ellen Kiel in the Aetherblade Retreat. Of course, NPCs tend to suicide and spend so much time on the ground that they may simply not have the chance to actually do anything useful.

TBH, I can’t believe there are NPCs who are not flagged to help players by rezzing them. Why would actually aiding players ever not be a priority for a designer?

This is great to see! Can’t want to do some bank housecleaning.

Tuomir.1830:

For one, Zhaitan recreated a nation, the peasants still tilling the dead ground, priests now revering Zhaitan in their temples, with an army, not of monsters, but of beings still retaining a semblance of their original appearance.

Everyone in Orr is a zombie, they are all generic evil monsters. They all have the singular goal of killing any living thing that shows up. Priest, peasant or whatever facade of their previous personality remains, they are now identical crazy, undead killers who just go around mimicking their lives because there’s nothing in sight to attack. They may have different catchphrases and different powers but they all do the exact same thing and have the exact same goal, just like the minions we see in the books and in-game stories.

You bring up the priests worshipping in Orr We’ve seen icebrood-transformed Son of Svanir worshipping Jormag. This just makes the dragons seem even more identical. It seems a good bet that there are crystallized brood of Kralkatorrik worshiping at shrines to him.

Zhaitan raised an island nation and his minions act like the nation is still functional. Do we have any reason to think the result would be any different if Kralkatorrik raised Orr? Save that we would be fighting Crystal Ships trying to invade Lion’s Arch instead of dead ones?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

DoctorOverlord.8620:

This is in stark contrast to the Elder Dragons and their mindless, throwaway minions that we see in the game.

And this is why you think that the GW2 villains are poor.
The Elder Dragons aren’t mindless. Nor do they only have one motivation – if you looked through Jormag’s minions, or Zhaitan’s minions you’d see this. You’d see personality to them. Sadly, Sea of Sorrows is the best means of finding out the latter.
The problem isn’t the villains, it’s ArenaNet not putting all of their story and their lore at face value. And this has been an issue since day 1.

Perhaps I should not have used the term ‘mindless’, I know from the books that minions retain parts of their personality and rationalize their new lack of will in an attempt to emphasize the horror but in the end every minion has the exact same goal. Their motivation is solely to obey the dragon, and the only thing the dragon wants is for them to kill everything. The minions may make up excuses for doing so based on their individual personalities, but in the end they end up all being the same.

When we see a minion who believes that he can serve Zhaitan best by helping people or by baking pies or anything other than the typical kill-all-living things-and-be-crazy-and-evil then their individual personalities will start to matter. Right now, their personalities are little more than a thin coat painted over a uniformity of generic evilness.

You keep saying there are differences in the dragon’s motivations. Could you list them out? You’ve never said the actual differences in this thread and I’ve never seen anything in the out-of-game material like the novels that points to dragons being anything other than the standard “Forces of Nature” line used by the devs themselves.

Zhaitan wants to feed on magic and turn everyone into zombies, Kralkatorrik wants to feed on magic and turn everyone into crystal beings. What exactly is shown by any of their minions that clearly shows their motives are different? Can you give specific examples from the game or whatever source you are using, because I haven’t found any that clearly show this.

One question, have we ever seen conflict within the ranks of Zhaitan’s forces? From what I’ve seen of the lore and in-game stories, minions are all under the control of Zhaitan’s will, seemingly even connected to it like telepathic insects in a hive. This adds further to the sense of conformity that only serves to make them even more boring.

Also I stand by my point that a story needs account for the medium that is being used to tell it. You say people need to do outside research to appreciate GW2’s story, I say a game’s story should be a compelling and engaging experience solely from playing the game.

Expecting players to appreciate a story only if they do extra homework is like making a movie that is not comprehensible unless you’ve read the book. A movie should stand completely on its own as a movie, otherwise one shouldn’t try to make it. Just as the story of a game should stand on its own.

There are actually encouraging signs that ArenaNet realizes they need to improve their storytelling. The recent interview with Bobby Stein has him outright admitting that they have not been presenting the game’s story with things like the Southsun plot in an effective manner.

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/exclusive-interview-arenanets-bobby-stein

It was good to hear they’ve realized that game writers need to think like game designers. They need to understand the medium that is being used to tell the story. I’m just surprised that they’re figuring this out now, I thought anyone writing for a game would realize that they have to account for the fact that their story is being told through a game, not through text or film or live actors. Every medium is different and every medium is strong enough to tell a good story solely by itself without the need for additional, outside research.

I’m sorry Konig but I have to agree that so far GW2’s villains have been incredibly disappointing.

The only villain I have found to be interesting at all is Faolain. She is twisted but you can understand her perspective and her motivations (her selfish love & willingness to fight the Dragons anyway possible), even without agreeing how she chooses to follow it.

This is in stark contrast to the Elder Dragons and their mindless, throwaway minions that we see in the game. I can’t think of a single dragon minion who has stood out in the story compared Faolain. The only motivation the Dragons and their minions are given is ‘Destroy all life’. There is no empathy for such a one dimensional goal and so as villains they fall flat.

Motivations are what make a villain interesting and there are limitless possibilities that ArenaNet has completely ignored.

Once they become dragon minions, NPCs become cardboard slaves , removing any possibility of interesting characters. Where is an NPC with dying children who becomes a minion of the Dragons in an effort to save them? Where is the dragon minion who willingly submitted to them in the misguided belief they could fight them from inside and now secretly want the players to destroy them? Where is the dragon minions whose goals and motivations are ones the players can appreciate and feel empathy toward?

Because empathy is critical for a good villain. You need to understand their fears and hopes and even see how you might have ended up just like them. You can’t say that about the Elder Dragons, they simply exist and they’re just doing evil because it’s a convenient plot device.

You say that players should be researching more into the lore to appreciate it. (The research I have done only confirms that the dragons are nothing more than ‘Forces of Generic Evil’) I have to disagree with this as well, players should not have to do any out-of-game research to be told a good story in a video game.

The gameplay is the medium ArenaNet has to tell their story. They need to work within that medium. If you read a book or see a movie and then you’re told you have to go and do research to actually appreciate the story, then the writers have failed. Their responsibility is to effectively present their story in the medium they are using. Good writers should not have to rely on the reader researching to make a story worthwhile.

That’s not to say a good story cannot be enhanced by doing research into it, but the story itself should stand on it’s own. The drama, the characters, the essential pull of the story should all be there without any crutches or supplements outside of how the story is presented.

If ArenaNet’s stories can’t be presenting in the format and medium of a video game, then they need to make different stories that can. Every medium is unique and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Ignoring those weaknesses and expecting readers to fill in gaps is not an excuse, ArenaNet needs to be better than that and sometimes they are better than that. Unfortunately, many times so far in GW2 they are not.

The game designers have shown that they learn from their mistakes. I remain hopeful the ArenaNet writers can do the same.

The first step will be creating memorable and interesting villains.

I haven’t had any issues with people rezzing in open world fights like in Orr or the Claw of Jormag. It is very rare that my downed character is completely ignored. Now I make certain to do it myself, I even risk it when it’s inside an AoE even if I have to roll out of there before they are revived, if only to give them a little more health that might be the little bit that keeps from being defeated.

Katai.6240:

A lot of this has to do with culling as well. They can’t res you because they can’t see you! So many people on the screen, and sometimes characters don’t get rendered.

This is a good point, the OP might have thought there were only 30 people in the fight but none of us really know how many players are around us in PvE in the bigger battles. But I think they said they were typing in chat and being ignored which is unfortunate.

Rouven.7409:

“Help, I’m getting kieled.” Said Evon after reading in the pre-polls that he is far far behind.

LOL Nice one. Pity I’ll be at a family reunion for the rest of the voting period. Ah well, I find the whole ting an interesting twist in the Living Story.

Now if a candidate would come out and guarantee swimwear before the summer is over, I would have more of a vest interest but for now I’m going with Kiel simply because she makes it a priority to raise dead players in fights and this kind of behavior in GW2 NPCs should be encouraged.

One thing to keep in mind is that no profession will ever play like a typical MMO tank. Kiting is important for every GW2 profession to learn and no character can just stand there and constantly hold mob agrro, esp. by the vets and champs, no matter how you are specc-ed.

Even with tough, melee characters you should be running in and out of the mob’s melee range and you should be trading off the aggro with others. If you are holding all the aggro all the time, you are going to die (and your fellow players aren’t doing their jobs either).

To envision this, I like to bring up the cave troll fight in the Fellowship of the Ring movie. In that fight you don’t just see Gimli (arguably the most “tank-like” of the Fellowship) just standing in front of the troll holding all of its attention and letting himself get repeatedly hit. Gimli outright retreats when he catches a load of troll ‘aggro’ and many of the group take a turn (or several) at getting the troll’s attention including Legolas and even the hobbits.

GW2 comes much closer to emulating this kind of theatrical (and far more interesting) combat than the typical MMO where one tank stands in front of the mob and is expected to keep its attention the entire fight.

If you don’t want to play a ranged elementalist, try a double dagger ele. It’s very fun and you’re right in the middle of the front of the fight. But even moreso than with other profession you have to be ready to tactically pull back and let someone else fill the line to give you a respite.

If they can’t re-work the chairs, I wonder if they ever considered using a /ledgesit emote as was used in City of Heroes?

https://sites.google.com/site/cohjenny/ledgesit_foot.png

It’s not a perfect solution but it worked pretty well in CoH.

darkace.8925:

It seems like such a relatively easy thing to add; I have no clue why they haven’t done so by this point.

Like so many thing in MMOs, it seems like it would be simple but Colin gives a lists of reasons why it would be time-consuming to fix. They could do it, but it would take away resources from other stuff.

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/colin-johanson-talks-dungeons-dragons-and-chairs

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

On farming in general, there’s a sweet spot that combines good loot with fun, engaging content. I think Southsun had that going for it, especially before certain aspects of the content were isolated as optimal. As someone who’s actively working on upcoming Living World releases, I’m aiming to find that sweet spot and hit it in a big way.

I ran across this post and I had to disagree that the Southsun zone ever had anything positive going for it in terms of fun, engaging content, before or after the nerf. Overall I find it a poorly designed zone filled with so many annoyances and detriments that I avoid it like the plague and regret visiting it on the rare times when I do.

Southsun stands out because every other zone in GW2 is superior to it. ArenaNet seems to understand that travel is not interesting for MMO players. Waypoints allow people to quickly get where they want to go. Mobs, even the high level ones in Orr, can be avoided allowing people to get to anything fun that is occurring in the zone.

Then along comes Southsun where all of these concepts are thrown out the window. Mobs and the zone itself are designed to deliberately inhibit player movement, keeping them from reaching where something interesting might be happening.

It baffles me why anyone would want to inhibit GW2 players from gathering where they can cooperate and play together. Southsun seems to be all about keeping players apart by slowing them down by forcing them through annoying terrain or cc-spamming mobs or generally making the simple act of movement inconvenient and irritating.

Maybe I’m wrong, maybe players like this ‘challenge’. ArenaNet has the metrics, all I know is that I can always find players running around Orr. On the rare times I visit Southsun to get some passiflora, I find it nearly devoid of people. Not that I can blame anyone for avoiding this mistake of a zone.

Been playing since the release, just found out all those Mystic Forge stones that I’ve been piling up can be used to make a much more cost-effect 250 use salvaging kit.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Forge_Stone

Thanks for posting these! I enjoy using the staff and I was interested in builds using Focus. Some nice tips in that video. I’m definitely going to try the Lone Marauder build now that I hit 80 with my mesmer.

I can see how it’s the person playstyle that is most critical, but I think it would be helpful if you could post some comments on your reasoning for your choices of utility skills/traits etc. That helps to get people thinking about whether it fits with their playstyle or not and lets them think about what they might do different.

Doggie.3184:

imo Anet shoulda released swimsuits weeks ago to celebrate the release of the anime; “Free!”

I have not heard of “Free!” but I will agree to any excuse that would result in swimwear being made available.

MokahTGS.7850:

“Unlimited” salvaging
This basic salvage tool can break down items an unlimited number of times, but each use costs a small fee. It does not recover upgrades from armor or weapons."

??? What is the point of buying such a thing for gems? We do not need another gold sink in the game.

It’s a convenience item. You don’t have to go back to merchants and buy kits.

It is odd that they would have a fee associated with it when they introduced infinite picks and sickles without one. But we’ve heard salvaging white and blues can result in bonuses to the new Magic Find mechanic, so perhaps they thought it should have more cost than gathering regular mats.

Interesting stuff! I agree the unlimited salvaging is probably intended for whites and blues. That will be nice not to have keep buying kits for those. The Royal Terrace sounds very promising. And possible hints of the fix for PvE culling?

It should also be pointed out that along with all his other countless qualities the Skritt King is clearly a Browncoat supporter

Danikat.8537:

The only logical conclusion IMO is that for whatever reason Anet don’t want to make it. Which isn’t to say it will never happen, just that they’ve chosen not to do it for now.

Someone claimed they datamined swimwear info along with a bunch of other stuff that has panned out.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/29/guild-wars-2-data-mining-finds-evidence-of-lfg-tool/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1f80pl/lfg_skyhammer_and_more_in_the_updated_gw2dat/

ArenaNet can always pull back their plans but if they do intend to go ahead I can’t think of any good reason why they’re waiting so long.

locoman.1974:

There’s still australian summer..

Now that’s just evil! lol

LHound.8964:

This swimsuit with a yellow duck floater on it… i would buy it for my charr! xD

I wanted to add that an old-timey 1870’s striped swimsuit would be AWESOME to see on a charr!

I’d be happy with just getting some swimwear!

Someone datamined evidence of it, I wonder what is ArenaNet waiting for? Much of the rest of the stuff that was found has come out.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/29/guild-wars-2-data-mining-finds-evidence-of-lfg-tool/

Karizee.8076:

Looks like swimwear is coming on the 28th or maybe sometime in June

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1euooo/upcoming_gemstore_items_may_edition/

This was incorrect

I really hope we get some swimwear before the summer is completely gone.

It’s almost August! Summer is over half over and we don’t have any swimwear

Tell Evon to pay less attention to his campaigning and more attention to his business!

Very cool pics! That last one got a +1 from me

SynfulChaot.3169:

The leader of an organization of that nature will always get saddled with the mundane stuff. That is their job. To lead.

That is how it works in reality, the only problem is the game is supposed to be presenting an epic story about heroes.

For example in Star Trek, there is no good reason for the captain to end up on away missions. Yet Kirk always does it and even Picard, Sisko, Janeway and Archer all ended up getting in the action even with subordinates like Riker who are supposed to fill that role. You never saw King Theoden in LotR dealing with organizing supply lines or figuring out unit organization because that would be bloody boring. Just as his story would be far more boring if he just sat back in this throne sending out troops.

Also this is a video game. There is not a single modern combat FPS game that has ever done a ‘realistic’ portrayal of the actual duties of soldiers, even the elite ones, because it would involve lots of organization, preparation and waiting around rather than the exciting stuff of going around shooting stuff.

Saying that a leader can’t get involved in the action is not a good excuse for a video game (or a fantasy or even science fiction story) where it’s expected to be able to skip over or completely ignored the dull parts that reality requires.

Gmr Leon.1846:

In the case of Ellen, we should’ve been set up under Magnus, and ordered Ellen off, then suggested her to take the role of council member instead of us because politics can shove it, we like blowing things up.

There, you’ve pulled all the strings, get the praise for it, and remained a crazy funloving adventurer.

All the action is the same but your suggestion is a subtle difference in how the actions are presented to the characters. Are the players just peons who could easily be replaced by some other faceless adventurer or are they someone who is making the important decisions and the only one who can actually accomplish what needs to be done?

It is easy to see how MMOs fall into the trap of presenting storylines where characters are just inter-changeable fodder, because let’s face it, in truth that is what they are Warrior X needs to be able to be replaced by Thief Y and the story is being repeated millions of times.

MMOs stories have to present their story so that it hides that fact of the gameplay. I think City of Heroes did a pretty good job at it. NPCs would come to characters for help and never take the spotlight from the characters. NPCs were usually in trouble (as they should be for a superhero story). The stories seemed have the feeling that your character was the only one who could do the job.

Even in City of Villains where you were a follower of the Big Bad Lord Recluse, you had the feeling you were building schemes against him even while being presented as character that was important to the plots.

Maybe CoH/V did is so well because their stories were meant to get a comic book feel where the hero is afterall the focus. I don’t see why this can’t be applied to fantasy stories in MMOs.