Guild Wars 2

Antara.3189:

As the famaous Lore Enthusiast Konig would say;

Konig Des Todes.2086:

GG Anet, kittening up the lore for non-lore reasons.

That made me laugh. Good one. :P

MadDemon.7548:

Can we add “All the watchknights are regular (female) humans infected with SCP-217 (a.k.a. the clockwork virus)” to my list of conspiracy theories?

Haha, would that be some new asuran invention?

These theories are getting rather nefarious. Who is Queen Jennah, really, and what are her (or his?!) hidden goals?

ArchonWing.9480:

Or it could be that she knows that the heroes that saved Tyria aren’t really heroes but actually bloodthirsty mercenaries that know nothing but greed and wealth, and since they were the ones with the power to defeat the dragon, she must appease them with things that would satiate their sick desires, lest they start whining about the lack of an “endgame” thanks to their endless hunger for wealth, violence, and challenge. They’d start taking it out on the citizenry, the wildlife, and even each other.

Aww, you had to go and break the fourth wall, didn’t you? :P

Nilkemia.8507:

I think that since the Living Story is meant to take place after the Personal Story (snip)

That’s kinda a problem with the Living Story. Things change in certain spots but things don’t really change the entire world itself. (snip)

This bothers me as well. I’d like to see a stronger impact on this Living Story in the outside world. I’ve seen threads about it, but in this instance, I would like to see watchknights on patrol. They don’t have to be super powerful and be able to single-handedly crush those centaurs in Queensdale, but I’d like to see an “effect” beyond one watchknight standing outside the Colosseum, erm, Pavilion.

One solution I can think of is that ArenaNet could add a black smoke graphic on the floor for her fight. You can clearly see from the outside the black balls of death forming above the red circles, but once inside the dome you can’t spend the entire time looking up at the sky. Adding some black (opaque) smoke rising up from the ground would be a great indicator and still be in theme with Liadri’s aoe attack. I also think that such a graphic would bypass the color-issue.

Edit: Another thought, the little light vortexes would still need to be visible but I don’t think that would be difficult to manage since you can probably just paste it on top of the smoke effect.

@Jaymee: I can totally understand your frustration. I’m not the most coordinated of people, though I can’t attribute that to a disease. The thing I loved about the Guild Wars: Eye of the North bonuses was that you didn’t have to be good at the game to get all of the bonus skins & pets in Guild Wars 2. You just had to play the game and register your accomplishments in the Hall. For the “Hard Core” players, they put in titles so that the Hard Core could show off their awesomeness with a fancy title over their heads. I liked that participation got you souvenirs and that everything after that was bragging rights.

The mini Liadri is really awesome and it taunts people who can’t unlock her. My personal wish would be that the mini was unlocked in a different way and that beating Liadri and/or finishing the Gauntlet meta-achievement got you some kind of title instead. I would have still tried (no matter the difficulty) for the titles because I think they’re a great way to brag for having accomplished something.

Shiren.9532:

Plot Twist: the Watchknights in the Pavillion aren’t actually robots. They have a second mesmer illusion cast on them to hide the fact that they are really the former residents of the Canthan district and the refugees from the war with the centaurs. Jennah saw them as a financial burden on her empire so she set up the whole Pavilion to fool adventurers into culling off all the displaced people, solving her refugee problem while throwing a party in her own honour. The mysterious disappearances in Divinity’s Reach that Marjory was investigating are actually the work of the Shining Blade, gathering up all the displaced people and anyone who discovered Jennah’s sinister secret.

Haha, awesome!

MadDemon.7548:

Maybe…this isn’t Queen Jennah, but some doppleganger or disguised/memsmer-magic-using usurper.

Maybe the leader or a high ranking member of the Aetherblades or the Separatists or other faction has managed to take Queen Jennah hostage and has replaced her.

Maybe the watchknights have gained sentience and are trying to take over Kryta.

Or maybe the people who say she isn’t fit to rule are all correct and Jennah has officially gone coo coo for Cocoa Puffs.

Haha, those are some amusing theories. Who knows, really? I just find it fun to think about. On the note of Queen Jennah being taken hostage, perhaps Logan will finally have a chance to be a hero rather than her lapdog. :P

Avatara.1042:

I am hoping all this violence has a purpose, like to empower Balthazar somehow.

Maybe she’s just desperate to get the gods to become active again. “Oh Great Balthazar! Behold our tribute to you!”

Soulstar.7812:

Not to mention the Colosseum is built where the “Cantha-influenced” district used to be.

Basically all those made homeless from the collapse, are just amazed the Queen built that blood-sport arena over their former homes.

Can anyone say “Emperor Nero”?

I had forgotten about that! The poor dispossessed Canthans.

Disclaimer: I’m not being entirely serious about the whole Living Story thing, but I find all of this rather amusing given the amount of work put into the Guild Wars Lore through the three novels, the story events added in original Guild Wars during the GW2 pre-release hype, and the tie-ins such as Ogden, the Vizier’s Tower, etc.

So, the Queen’s Jubilee is a part of the Living Story yet people seem focused entirely on the gameplay — which is fine and I’ve seen some valid concerns which should be addressed. That said, I’ve been thinking about this Living Story segment and the implications of Queen Jennah’s rule within the context of the Living Story.

1. Queen Jennah’s spent an extravagant amount of money gathered from her subjects to build a “Pavilion” which is, in reality, a Colosseum dedicated to having people fight to the death for her own amusement. (Ignoring the malfunctioning watchknights and thinking entirely of their purpose plus the gauntlet which kills you if you fail.)
2. Her “Champions” out in the world are all forced to wear pink in her honour and I’ve seen them kill friendly NPCs (in a story context these are farmers, hunters, traders, and other commoners) during their “duels” with the challenging players.
3. Jennah’s had balloon towers built in other countries. Are we even sure that the Asura and the other races gave permission for these towers? The Asura even harass their own merchants within Rata Sum over licensing and paperwork!
4. The balloon towers are often in very dangerous zones, putting the pilots in peril. I’ve seen one in the middle of an inquest zone, some surrounded by dangerous and aggressive beasts, and another surrounded by icebrood (dragon minions!). What kind of queen orders her non-combatant pilots to stand ready in a hostile zone at all times?
5. Her watchknights were made with her permission, so their function as naked-female looking battle robots had to pass her approval and she probably gave her own artistic direction to their building.
6. Queen Jennah seems to have an endless supply of battle-ready watchknights, which could be used against her enemies, be they dragons or another nation. I’m sure Seperatists on both sides will be wanting to either steal them or destroy them, depending on if they’re human or charr.
7. The sovereign weapons are in her own honor and thus are probably carved in her own image (albeit not looking much like her, but after spending all that money on balloons, Pavilion, and an endless army of watchknights, what can you expect?) further glorifying herself in this event.
8. All of this is in celebration of her own 10th anniversary as ruler.
9. All of this at the cost of her subjects’ taxes and labor.

I’ve truly enjoyed the lore involved in Guild Wars and just thinking about this particular Living Story segment has had some disturbing implications if applied to the Guild Wars actual story. Queen Jennah seems to be a self-absorbed tyrant, all things considered. She had stated that the Colosseum/Pavilion was to represent Kryta’s success in fending off enemies, but all of her actions combined in this segment of story speak more of her lust for violence and her disregard for the lives of the heroes who have volunteered to fight dragons in order to keep her and everyone else safe.

Personally, I find Queen Jennah a bit concerning. She had the watchknights built and probably in her own idealized image (I actually find them ugly and a little gross). Her “Champions” out in the world are forced to wear pink in her honour and during duels they’ll kill innocent bystanders (friendly npcs minding their own business) with a bloodthirsty vengeance. Her jubilee is a Colosseum styled battle royale. Even if the watchknights were sabotaged, they’re still built to battle people for her amusement as Logan demonstrated and the gauntlet is working as she intended, besides. The weapons (skins) the emissaries are selling out have a sovereign’s head — probably hers but she probably couldn’t afford a good artist after the expenses of the Pavilion, balloon rides, and watchknights — on them. Then take into account that all of this was probably funded by and built on the backs of the lowly peasants who will never get entry into her Pavilion/Colosseum.

I’ve decided that Queen Jennah’s a closet-tyrant.

Just my two cents here.

I remember Guild Wars (1) events that were limited time were more about participation and less about “only the best and most hardcore of players will succeed.” While I get that challenging things can be fun and even stimulating for hardcore players, putting super-challenging things in a limited-time format is very discouraging. Instead of enjoying the event, people are burning themselves out on trying to succeed at this achievement and rare drop that will disappear in two weeks’ time. I loved participating in the Guild Wars events but with the achievements tied to these Living Story events in Guild Wars 2, I feel like I’m rushed to succeed at all costs. I feel like I must buy special end-game gear, grind for the crafting materials, and make a specific build in order to win and do it all within 2 weeks. Oddly enough, I haven’t felt that way about any Guild Wars game until now. I think WoW was the last game I played that gave me that feeling of time-constrained pressure.

On the Matthew/Martin’s long explanation of “working as intended” and “you’re playing it wrong” paragraphs: The achievement is to succeed at tiers 1-2 then 3-4. The achievement forces players to focus completely on DPSing Plunderers in order to have a chance to get the 4 achievements tied to the Living Story before the 2 weeks expire. If the achievement was based more on Loot Bags or Number of Kills in one play session, that would be different. The “it’s a horde survival challenge” explanation is contradictory to the achievement.

Another note on the “working as intended” super-long paragraphs. The Trial challenge is, in fact, bugged. Putting crowd control on the Plunderers you can’t DPS to death within a few seconds does nothing once they reach one of their target points (loot pile or discard circle). As soon as the Plunderers reach one of these targets, they can loot or discard their loot from anywhere on the map, even if you manage to knock them back to the opposite side of the island. It’s like once they reach a target point they gain a tactical advantage which makes crowd controlling them while waiting on DPS to kill them far more difficult than “intended.”