Guild Wars 2

What about the Sylvari player character I saw in-game called “Cabbagepants McGee”? Is that a proper Sylvari name?

Basaltface.2786:

cultural stuff? Yes. Outfits again? Nope

Trust me… (or go waaaay back in my posting history and look for yourself), I’ve been vocally against Outfits since before they came out. But I think as “costumes”, they would be acceptable.

I am definitely not saying I don’t want more armor skins. I am telling ANet what they need to do in order to get me to buy any Outfits. For me it is to make special “costumes” or to make “Town Clothes”. I absolutely refuse to buy Outfits that mimic armor. The desire to “steal” a portion and use it with my other armors is too frustrating.

If ANet must make Outfits (and it appears they must), then I want to try to steer them in a direction in which they are acceptable to me.

Cultural Outfits could also be a way to introduce a few CAPES into the game, since they can be withheld from those oh-so-hard to design for Charr characters. (Sorry, Charr).

But no race could pull off a “doggy bandana” as well!

Char.4209:

Things you have to implement (somehow) Accountwide
- Bank Access Express
- Merchant Express
- Instant Repair Canisters
- Revive Orbs
- Trading Post Expresses
- Several different Boosts
I keep them in my Banktab and never use them… Perhaps I would, if I had access to them from everywhere.

Are you saying you keep your Bank Access Express in your Bank, but you don’t use it because you can’t access your Bank from everywhere?

I’m getting a headache.

chemiclord.3978:

Why spend the resources to make 10 outfits that people will only buy 1 of when they can make 1 outfit that’s one size fits all and make just as much (if not more) profit?

I think this is the same problem that Arena.net had with the town clothes… there simply aren’t enough people willing to support a side element that robust.

That seems to be their thinking currently, which is so upsetting to those of us that want more armor skins.

I think Cultural Outfits (and other “costume” Outfits) are sort of a happy medium. They have shown that they can produce Outfits by the truckload. They are definitely one of the places where ANet is already spending lots of resources. But since so many Outfits look like armor, people get upset when they can’t mix ‘n’ match pieces of it with their other gear.

“Costume” style Outfits as described here would mostly not look like armor, so there would be fewer individual parts that people would scream to be able to use with their other armor.

One concern I can see that may need to be addressed is the Costume Brawl Toys.

First, I suggest that they be Culturally limited, just like the Outfits. You can’t give a Norn’s animal claws and teeth to an Asura character.

Second, how can you get multiple weapons if desired? Will they be available individually in the Gem Store at a reduced price? Or are Cultural Costume Brawl Toys “attached” to the Outfit so that every copy includes the Toy as part of it? Does this preclude using a different Toy? Can a Snow Leopard use the Pirate Sword?

Regardless of the mechanics, I feel that all “costume” themed Outfits require inclusion of a Costume Brawl Toy.

If lots of folks really like this idea, then ANet’s purchasing pool won’t be limited. It will be expanded. People will be buying Outfits for multiple races instead of buying a single outfit for every character on the account.

Here’s a dumb idea stemming from a post I made about 2 years ago. Back then I was suggesting potions. But Outfits would be much better suited to the task now.

What about Cultural Outfits?

Each would be usable only by the specific race in question. Each would come with an appropriate Costume Brawl Toy.

Possibilities:

• Asura could have Cultural Outfits based on the colleges. Statics would be mechanical-looking, or robotic. Dynamics would be a wild and crazy “Rube Goldberg Device” outfit, with crazy gizmos that pop out occasionally (a cuckoo bird from his watch, etc.) Synergetics clothing would have weird, mystical particle effects (tied in to specific emotes, maybe?) Each would have its own Costume Brawl Toy.

• Charr Cultural Outfits could be tied into the Legions. Even downtime outfits would probably be militaristic. Or do we want to go fully Roman and outfit them with legion-specific togas? Most likely they’d have Legion-appropriate weapons handy for the Costume Brawl.

• Humans could maybe have Cultural Outfits designed with the six gods in mind. Dwayna outfits would be white, light blue, and/or silver and be feathery. Grenth’s followers could have clothing very at home during Halloween… maybe with a faint greenish cloud around it. Balthazarites would probably have something akin to CoF armor. (A Human-only version would have to be developed since ANet already released this god to everyone). Melandru’s children would have animal skins (Me Tarzan – you Jane!) The Lyssa outfits would be the long, sleek, alluring and graceful sort. And Kormir’s followers might have something akin to Lady Justice, complete with blindfold. All come equipped with a Costume Brawl Toy, naturally.

• Sylvari Cultural Outfits could be tied into the cycle during which they were awakened. I picture a very plain robe, with areas that you can “see into”, similar to the Legendary Greatsword Twilight. Looking closely you could see a scene depicting that time of day. Costume Brawl Toy included.

• Norn would finally be able to able to run around in animal form 24/7! (But please, ANet… make the head NOT toggleable on this one. A giant Raven with a man’s head would be just… disturbing). And even more fun… dye channels for the fur/feathers! Oh, my… did I just see a Hot Pink Bear? Their Costume Brawl Toy can be tooth and nail.

So whaddaya think? I think Outfits serve a far better purpose as “costumes” than as alternate armors. I still hold that I will never buy an Outfit if it is just pretending to be armor, but I would surely buy several of these!

Souto.2716:

Hamfast.8719:

And the female Sylvari, waving her hands around and grinning like she just told herself a funny joke? Why is that still in the cutscenes?

If my character is capable of expressing any range of emotion, then how come the only thing she can express is that her hair needs to be brushed back out of my eyes? It’s pretty boring.

Well then, looks like THAT should have been your topic. Not that goofballs are being, well, goofballs…

So besides editing your original post to compare the female human and sylvari(which then I’ll actually be on your side because you are indeed right about why the female human was the only one to get the axe on some animations that were inappropriate) this point unfortunately does not support the topic of this thread which is comparing a sentient being with… Toys

Actually, someone changed the original title of my post which was “Please address the Double Standard”. (I guess that was too provocative or something?)

I suggested that if cutscene interruption was reason enough to kill the female human animations, then cutscene interruptions should also be reason enough to kill mini pets. But the mini pets were mostly received with laughter. It’s a double standard.

THAT is what my post says. It was another poster who decided that the situations weren’t the same because our characters are “sentient beings” and mini pets are just “goofy toys”. But read the mini pets thread. A few voices there are decrying the goofy little fellows as “immersion breaking”, exactly like the animations in question. So the situations are perhaps more similar than you think.

I don’t really expect them to remove mini pets, and I thought I was making a good case that they should never have removed the animations either. It was a convenient inroad for bringing the lost animations into the foreground again, reminding ANet that people still care.

Souto.2716:

-From what I understand, the team has the tools to reconfigure and re-enable the animations, but the team lead told me that naturally they’ll need to figure out when someone (or maybe more than one person) can be assigned the task. As it turns out, each animation bit needs to be reconfigured individually.-

You said it in your first post man… The problem isn’t that a switch doesn’t exist, it’s that it is a multitude of switches that are time consuming to turn on.

And I am using this fortuitous mini pet thread as a prod to remind ANet of the issue, and let them know there are still people who care. (5 months is quite a lot of consumed time for something that needn’t have been removed in the first place).

What do you say, Gaile? Can we please get an update? A little reassurance that this hasn’t been swept under the rug?

Souto.2716:

dietzero.3514:

RoseofGilead.8907:

I just don’t get the big deal about the animations being removed. Nor do I see a double standard or feel the need to feign rage about said double standard.

It is the very definition of double standard…

Except it’s not?…

In one hand you have a being capable of expressing any range of emotion. Someone who feels pain, is able to die, and is eventually a leader of people.

On the other you have a toy whose purpose is to be goofy.

And the female Sylvari, waving her hands around and grinning like she just told herself a funny joke? Why is that still in the cutscenes?

If my character is capable of expressing any range of emotion, then how come the only thing she can express is that her hair needs to be brushed back out of her eyes? It’s pretty boring.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

The animations are there to convey emotion. The Norn fist smacking can express readiness to fight. The Asura knuckle cracking can show readiness to start a job. Tell me, what does a woman idly kicking the ground or stretching show readiness to do?

Actually, it mirrors my own feelings during most of those cutscenes. Especially the Marjory/Kasmeer soap opera.

We can go on all night like this, arguing why and debating what is “immersion breaking”. What really burns me is that ANet chose to remove them from the entire game (for 5 months and counting) because of a few cutscenes that make up less than 1% of your gaming experience. If that 1% of the time bothers some people, then fix it. But removing it from the other 99% of our game time bothers many more people.

I make sure the Bug Report reappears on their front page periodically, to remind them. But when I saw the mini pet thread, I just had to point out the incongruity as I see it. So I hope you don’t mind that I continue to bring up the subjects that concern me, and press ANet for action when I see an opening.

EDIT: Thanks for digging up my old Beta Test pictures, by the way!

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Seeing my female char idly kicking the ground at a tense moment or stretching sensuously while consulting with important people felt very wrong.

There it is. I was waiting for someone to say it was “sensuous” or “sexy”. I don’t see it. I sincerely hope that isn’t part of the reason for its removal. But then, I’m not worried about the Norn fist-smacking or Asura knuckle-cracking either. My “immersion” isn’t spoiled so easily.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Hamfast.8719:

JustTrogdor.7892:

From your own OP quoting Gaile.

Hamfast.8719:

TL;dr: This change is coming, as soon as it can be scheduled and prioritized. Naturally, some matters that are higher on the priority list but this project will be scheduled as appropriate.

I’m not sure what more you are asking for since Anet stated it will be worked on at some point depending on priority. Maybe they should delay HoT to work on female animations.

I am asking them to “flip a switch” and restore the animations exactly as they were before. (Hopefully it’s that easy).

Ahh, the age old, it’s as easy as flipping a switch argument.

Click yes to create the perfect MMO

Back in the old, old days of programming (anyone remember punch cards?) it was a simple matter to temporarily edit out a line of code by declaring it a “REMark”. That way you keep the code and can restore it at any time by removing the “REMark”, without having to reprogram from scratch.

I dunno what it’s like today, but I find it difficult to believe that they completely hit the recycle bin.

Hmm…

I see someone changed my thread title. Big Brother is watching…

Neural.1824:

It’s time for Anet to either fix it or openly state that they removed it for other reasons (and have the guts to admit what those reasons were).

I suspect something of the sort myself. If female humans acting bored ruined someone’s immersion, what about a male Norn smacking his fist into his palm? An Asura cracking his knuckles, or scratching his head? There are lots of animations that would look out of place in certain cutscenes. But these are still in the game. (Even more double standard here; see?)

JustTrogdor.7892:

From your own OP quoting Gaile.

Hamfast.8719:

TL;dr: This change is coming, as soon as it can be scheduled and prioritized. Naturally, some matters that are higher on the priority list but this project will be scheduled as appropriate.

I’m not sure what more you are asking for since Anet stated it will be worked on at some point depending on priority. Maybe they should delay HoT to work on female animations.

I am asking them to “flip a switch” and restore the animations exactly as they were before. (Hopefully it’s that easy). I do not want to wait another 5 months for them to be “fixed” in cutscenes that make up less than 1% of our everyday play.

If they still want to fix the animations for cutscenes, fine! But there is ZERO necessity to remove them completely from the game in the meantime.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Nor do I see a double standard

Situation: “Fidget” animations distract someone from the seriousness of a death scene.
Response: The animations are removed.

Situation: Goofy mini pets distract someone from the seriousness of a death scene.
Response: Everyone laughs and has a good time.

Still don’t see a double standard here? I can’t make it much plainer than that.

Five months ago, ANet removed several Female Human idle animations (stretching, kicking dirt).

Four months ago, Gaile gave us this report:
______________________________

Soooo sorry! I asked about this and forgot to post!

Some time ago, it was noticed and reported as a “bug” that during cinematics, the “fidget” animations continued. So you’re seeing this exciting story bit about a dragon attack and, behind the scenes, your character is yawning and toeing the sand. It just didn’t fit.

So the animations were temporarily removed to be worked on and reincorporated in a way that allowed them to perform normally in the game but to stop (or maybe change) during cinematics. But getting to a place where the animations could be configured on a more fine-grained basis took more time than anticipated.

From what I understand, the team has the tools to reconfigure and re-enable the animations, but the team lead told me that naturally they’ll need to figure out when someone (or maybe more than one person) can be assigned the task. As it turns out, each animation bit needs to be reconfigured individually.

TL;dr: This change is coming, as soon as it can be scheduled and prioritized. Naturally, some matters that are higher on the priority list but this project will be scheduled as appropriate.
______________________________

Now we have this thread floating around:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/god-dangit-mini-XD/first#post4964429

It is all about mini pets interrupting a poignant death scene… and everyone loves it! Hilarity ensures. Even Gaile joins in on the laugh riot. Twice.

This is a flagrant double standard. At this point, we need to do one of two things:

• Immediately restore the human female idle animations

- or -

• Immediately remove mini pets from the game until they can be “fixed” to behave properly during cutscenes.

Bring back the animations! ’Nuff said.

It isn’t even called “Nearest Target”. It is called “Nearest Enemy”. I have never had a grudge against a wall in my life! Only RED TEXT things should be targeted with that command.

Hmm…

The female human idle animations were supposedly (temporarily) removed from the entire game because they were immersion breaking during some cutscenes.

I guess they need to remove all mini pets from the entire game now until they can fix this horrific problem!

(When are we getting those back, Gaile? As you can see, everybody thinks these minipet intrusions are cute and fun. PLEASE restore the female human idle animations!)

Do you really want a human with a cat head? Check out the loading screen art for the Charr home instance. You might think twice.

THINK ABOUT IT:

Why did they kill Town Clothes and change the system over to Outfits? Because a faction of players in the forums were begging to be able to wear their Town Clothes in combat. But did they get what they wanted? NO! There are precious few Outfits that resemble the old Town Clothes. Most of the stuff they are churning out are competing with the light, medium, and heavy armor looks.

Town Clothes were designed to be worn around town – hence the name (duh!). There is a large community of players who want a relaxed, casual look. But almost everything coming out in the way of Outfits are armor looks. If ANet wants their Outfits to please a lot of people, then they need to release more of them with the Town Clothes feel that people originally asked to be able to wear in combat. They can start by turning all of those wretched “Town Clothes Tonics” into Outfits.

Summary: I think a lot of people are complaining about Outfits because ANet is designing them to look like armor, and then they get upset when they can’t use pieces of Outfits with pieces of armor.

Outfits were supposed to look like Town Clothes. That is what was originally asked for. If they weren’t directly competing with the armor market, I think there would be fewer complaints today. Outfits need to pull back from the “armor” trend, and concentrate more on “Town Clothes” styles, and other “Special Occasion” fashions that don’t make us crave individual pieces so badly.

(Stuck for ideas, ANet? Ask your community! We can give you hundreds of looks we’d like to see!)
______________________________

As a die-hard Mix ‘n’ Matcher, I have said many times that I will never purchase an Outfit. But that was because I have no place for armor that isn’t customizable. But I could very easily buy loads of Outfits that were of the “Town Clothes” or “Special Occasion” variety, even though they aren’t Mix ‘n’ Matchable.

We need to fix a few game mechanics, though:

• First, all of the “optional” pieces – headgear, shoulders, and gloves – should be toggleable on/off for all Outfits, just like armor.

• Second, All 3 toggleable pieces should be able to be toggled directly from the Outfit screen. It is a royal pain to flip back and forth from the armor screen.

• Third, the game should remember our preferences. If I want my hat on with my armor, but off with my Outfit, I shouldn’t have to manually change every time I switch.

• Fourth, they need to reinstate the “Town Clothes toggle” key for Outfits, so that we can bind a key to instantly swap.

ONE FINAL THING:

Perhaps the thing I miss the most about the old Town Clothes, is that many of them came with Costume Brawl toys! With Costume Brawl no longer part of the Daily Achievements, another fun aspect of the game is slowly fading. If more costumes included a TOY, then it would not only help revitalize the Costume Brawl, but it might also get people to buy a costume just for the toy!

Those are my thoughts, ANet. If you can make some of this stuff happen, I will consider buying your Outfits, limited as they are. I am tempted by the upcoming Countess Anise Outfit, since it borders on a less combative look (although hardly “casual”). But I’ll wait and see if you take notice of the growing dissatisfaction, and voice your resolve to look into some changes to the current system.

Elwinson.5962:

Maybe they are holding off on the Exemplar Outfit because they are also working on an Armor Skin version! (Please, ANet?)

Yes!!!!!

#WillNeverBuyAnOutfit

robotosis.4872:

I usually jump and switch weapons so that I can hear him talk more often.

Ahh… so you’re that guy at Tequatl who made me change from my normal station because that annoying thing just wouldn’t shut up!

I am all for racial differences. Each race has a couple Elite skills that are unique to it, but ANet intentionally made them so weak that they are rarely used in serious play. (The idea being game balance).

This thinking probably hurt the Norn more than the Charr or any other race. Their whole big thing when they were introduced in GW1 was that they were shape-shifters. The powers-that-be at ANet decided that shape-shifting was a cultural skill, and then watered it down so that nobody used them.

Charr were animalistic, but now they are more industrial than Humans. You are asking for them to be more animalistic again, because that is how you think of big, rough, clawed and fanged beasts.

I guess my point is that you are on the right track more or less. The different races should have more significant differences. PLAYABLE differences. Each should have it’s advantages and disadvantages. ANet should be able to balance them in some way other than making them so underpowered that they are never used.

Differences add to the flavor of the game.

Whether you are offended or not, it is clearly against their naming policy as set forth in the Rules of Conduct.

In order to receive a limited software license to play Guild Wars 2, you electronically signed their User Agreement. The User Agreement warns that violation of the Rules of Conduct can be punishable by account termination.

Consider yourself lucky. There is a saying that says God takes care of drunks and fools.

Nice find, Lil Puppy! I don’t think this is a “jail” per se… more like an animal pen being used as ad hoc incarceration facilities. But this is definitely an all-Norn establishment, so I would say that they do indeed believe in jailing folks under certain circumstances.

I would conjecture that confinement is just to keep the wrongdoers under wraps while their fate is being decided, rather than as a form of punishment in itself. For example, if that pickpocket got caught while the holding’s master was off hunting, he might have been tossed in the cage until the rightful person was available to pronounce sentence.

Of course, it’s always possible that the GW2 music just needs more cowbell.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/536145

After 20 years, still the best game soundtrack of all time, period: Mechwarrior 2. The perfect compliment for its type of action.

.
(If you go to the YouTube page you can jump directly to all the individual songs. This only plays track one).

It definitely puts you into the mindset of large, inexorable hunters tracking down their prey. Certain tracks still get my blood pumping. (They should… many of the tracks have a “heartbeat” pulsing along).

This soundtrack would work okay in Norn areas, but I think you’ll agree it would be excellent background music for the mechanical-minded Charr. The “jungle drums” sound of some tracks might be good in HoT.

I haven’t played around with custom tracks in GW2… what sort of customization options do I have? Can I specify certain tracks for specific zones, and have them play randomly?

I hear the pro-Outfit crowd saying that they are nice to use when leveling. Since you are updating your armor so often, you can look good without spending money on Transmutation Charges.

That is also the other positive of Outfits; if you have several of them you can change back and forth (on any character) without that pesky Transmutation cost.

And the detail on the outfits is very high. They put many of our old armors to shame.

Great! Outfits are perfect for folks who want to look respectable, but don’t want to spend money to create an individual look. ANet has fed you very well this past year. Your closet is pretty full, and looks as if it will continue to grow.
______________________________

But there is a large percentage of people who have reached the “endgame”. They aren’t leveling new characters. They are older accounts that have money for transmutation stones. And since there is (sort of) no “gear creep” in GW2, the endgame comes down a lot to skins.

People want to stand out. And while Outfits may look nice, you can’t stand out if you look exactly like everyone else. That is why this topic is popping up more and more lately. More people are reaching the endgame, and looking for a way to be noticed. Outfits don’t fill that need for more than a couple days after they are released.

Armor sets are coming at a snails pace, and we don’t have much to work with anymore. Most of our 2-year old pieces and parts have far less detail than the new Outfits.

Endgame is stagnating for those of us who need to express our individuality as a way to keep our post 80 experience fresh. We just ask a little equal time, and would love some of the highly detailed pieces ANet is making nowadays to work with.

That’s my take on this issue. That is your skin vs. Outfit divide. I truly feel the pro-Outfit crowd is (in general) newer to the game than the pro mix ‘n’ match crowd. It seems reasonable that the old fogies who have seen it all aren’t impressed much by cookie cutter content. We want variety. We need variety. We aren’t getting variety.

Side Note: Many RPers and people with older gold-healthy accounts have multiple armor pieces. We don’t really use Transmutation Charges that often. It isn’t as big a deal as the pro-Outfitters think.

I love my Charr as-is. (Well… except that my adrenaline disappears instantly between one opponent and the next).

An OPTION is fine. But if it were CHANGED I would never play my Charr again. That is part of ANet’s historical problem; they change things, taking away existing stuff instead of giving us the option to change if we like.

Case in point: Outfits could have been added as an extra option for people who wanted to enter combat with a look contrary to their normal armor weight styles. There was ZERO reason to remove the Town Clothes. They could be restored exactly as before and not upset a thing.

Another case: Everyone has been forced into a High Population world by the MegaServer. Why do they think I joined a lower population server initially? They could STILL institute 3 tiers of MegaServers with Low, Medium, and High maximum populations.

Sorry; getting totally off-topic. Don’t FORCE a change on my Charr, ANet! You’ve taken away enough stuff I love already.

Nyx.7342:

Hamfast.8719:

So if you get too rowdy there’s no place where they can “put you on ice” for awhile until you “cool off”?

puns are strong with this one

There’s snow doubt. What an ice thing to say! But don’t think that makes me some kind of flake.

So if you get too rowdy there’s no place where they can “put you on ice” for awhile until you “cool off”?

I have been making “Transmutation Charge Runs” of the various cities, and it dawned on me that I don’t think I’ve seen a Norn jail.

• The Humans have a jail in Divinity’s Reach in the basement of the Seraph Headquarters.

• The Sylvari of the Grove keep prisoners in the giant plant cages of the Nightshade Garden.

• The Asura detain wrongdoers in the bowels of Rata Sum.

• The Charr have a stockade immediately inside the entrance to the Imperator’s Core in the Black Citadel.

Of all the races, I would think the Norn more than any other would at least need someplace to “sleep it off”. Has anyone seen a Norn jail?

TexZero.7910:

All game updates run off of server time which is UTC

All I know is that last year April Fools Day was on April 1st for me all day. It has always been that way for me all the way through GW1. This year it was on March 31st, and was all over before I could log in on the 1st. I’m glad I had what time I did, but was looking forward to an evening of more daring feats of Aviation.

RoseofGilead.8907:

It’s a 24 hour event, and the 24 hours ended. I would have loved more of it, but oh well.

It isn’t a 24 hour event. It is an April 1st event.

When it began for me, it was still March 31st. Someone pointed out to me that it was April 1st somewhere.

Well I am simply pointing out that it is still April 1st somewhere… including the Pacific Coast where the game is based.

No more airplanes? I was fortunate enough to be online yesterday when they started up, and was looking forward to an evening of it today. Even as I speak, there’s still 7 hours of April 1st remaining PST.

Don’t let the negative Nancy’s get to you, ANet. You usually have a neat April Fool’s trick.

As a GW1 player, I was completely against creating one of the hated Charr in GW2… until I saw a video clip of their 4-legged running animation. That sold me. I love it. It put a great big grin on my face. It’s the best part of being a Charr for me. If it’s ever considered for change, it had better be an OPTION, and you’ve said.

Re-add them to the Achievement Chests. Those armors and the weapons were the best things we ever got from them. Nowadays they are full of useless garbage. Champ bags are better.

Well cry me a freakin’ river already. Is murder acceptable to you? You play a GAME where you kill all the time for fun. Grow up and get some perspective on reality.

It is an APRIL FOOL’S DAY prank. Nothing more needs to be read into it by paranoid minds. I pity people who have no sense of humor. If you can’t laugh, then what’s the point of living?

All of this political-correctness is half of everything that’s wrong in the world today. People aren’t happy unless they can find something – anything – to complain about, no matter how trivial or unbelievable.

As I have suggested in the past, it would be smart of GW2 to have some way to opt in and out of April Fool’s Day frivolity. But if you think they are being intentionally cruel or insensitive, then perhaps you need to consider your own mass-murdering characters first.

I’M KING OF THE WORLD!

(You beat me too… I was lookin’ for a good ship; and I put on my period costume.)

EDIT: I re-shot the picture (second attachment) after I found out how to remove the aviator’s cap. Much better!

I went AFK to grab a quick bite after Tequatl, and when I came back my airplane had been shot down.

Like Fletch, I also despise “footsteps”. And “auras” and big “swooshes”, etc. What happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas.

I hope they offer some nice new Legendaries without all the hoo-ha, so I can finally sit down and make one. But it bothers me that ANet has a history of changing them. If I go to all that time, trouble, and expense, I sure as hell don’t want them changing it afterwards.

I miss the variety of the old Dailies.

With the community hub destroyed, and without the incentive of a nice variety of Daily achievements, I almost never see anybody Costume Brawling anymore. I didn’t love costume brawl, but it was a nice diversion every now and then from the usual. It is quite a chore now to get people to gather for a short bout.

And without the incentive of the Monthly Puzzle Jumper, I don’t even think about them anymore. It wasn’t my favorite activity, but it was a nice change of pace and it did help me get better at them.

Activities? (Keg Brawl / Crab Toss / Southsun Survival / Sanctum Sprint) It was bad enough when they dropped them to one a day. But now we only see them in the dailies about once a week, so attendance is at an all time low.

The plea for the return of more variety again in our Dailies went unheeded, and we continue to lose “flavor” from the world.

I’ve been pretty free of Gold Sellers for quite awhile now, and all of a sudden this weekend they’re back pretty strong. (It’s our old favorite group, of course, who I can’t name due to forum policy). Expecting a resurgence of players, perhaps, with the approach of Heart of Thorns?

Whatever the reason, Go get ’em, ANet!

If you’ve ever had a poor, laggy connection when entering a new zone, you’ve experienced invisible terrain. Characters standing around in midair until the ground textures load properly. But here’s a lag-induced glitch that I’ve only experienced once; some sort of placeholder graphic for the SKY itself! It makes you feel as if you’re in Star Trek TNG’s holodeck.

I don’t know how “hilarious” it is, but I put in a bug report for my character not closing her mouth after speaking ever since the latest update.

No screenshots, but I have occasionally fallen down at the bottom of a cliff, and started moving before my character stood up. They got frozen in the spread-eagle “splat” position and sort of “glide” over the ground, popping up (but retaining the spread eagle) when I jump. It can be hard to get out of “frozen” poses sometimes, often requiring a zone change. Using skills and taking damage don’t always fix the glitch.

Wow… that works, but it’s sure annoying to have to do it this way. I hope they fix this soon.