Guild Wars 2

It occured to me that the lack of non-absolutes in this interview could have been because it was for a french audiance and would have probably had to undergo translation for most of the player base it was for. Subtlities are easily lost in translations.

As for the change… I think it lore wise there is a work around. Hell, for all we know perhaps the Bloodstone wasnt just a way to store magic but was an attempt by them to create an ‘artifical dragon’ or something that consumed excess magic. After all, if magic was permentently regulated, the EDs would never wake.

If that was the case it could be imagined that the gods or even Abaddon along could have done something to mess with it. It would make alot of sense if Abaddon had done something to release the power of the Bloodstone to grant magic to the mortal races. It would explain where the magic they gave to the mortal races came from. Potentially before that the Bloodstone could have been keeping magic regulated.

Of course the problem with all this is it is speculation to try and make sense of the interview. While it could fit, it would be easier if she had either been less absolute in her claims or had clarified certain details that the lack of has left wholes in the current known lore.

I more had the feeling it had to do with Mesmer magic than a relation to Kralkatorik. Do remember ALOT of Mesmer magic is at work at this event.

Kiriwar.7382:

Kain Francois.4328:

Plus we don’t know anything about Kasmeer. She’s always working behind the scenes…

The only things we know about Kasmeer so far are that her noble family went down on hard times and now she has to work, and seems to be Marjory’s partner. And is apparently a childhood friend of Lord Faren.

I think that’s it? Either way, I wish they’d slip more backstories into the dialogue/cutscenes/etc.

Something happened to her father in the last year which is probably why she needs to work for a living.

MauricioCezar.2673:

Drakenvold.9761:

could be Scepter of Orr corrupted 250 years old Livia tho

Damm.. introduce Livia in gw2 would be AWESOME

Hmm… Could be Livia but she was never obviously corrupted by the Scepter of Orr.

She's in Sea of Sorrows so she was still around at the time of the book. It wouldn't be that suprising for her to have made it till now though it raises the question why she gave up her old job (High Exemplar, you know the job Anise has). That was only 70 years or so ago ingame.

mtpelion.4562:

She is a monarch and thus has absolute power, so by definition she is a tyrant since tyranny is laying claim to powers not granted or powers no one can claim.

FWIW, you can be a nice tyrant.

Actually she doesnt have absolute power. She shares power with the Ministry which is composed of representatives from across Kryta. The Ministry has held alot of power in Kryta since the time of Queen Salma.

Infact she actually has less power now than probably any krytan monarch since Salma.

One possibility that occured to me was that Abaddon used the Bloodstone to unleash magic upon Tyria and spliting the Bloodstones was how the Gods limited its flow thus reducing the magic in the world. After all we have never been clearly told exactly how the Gods limited the flow of magic or really how Abaddon started handing out magic like candy in the first place.

One thing we have seen in GW2 (which has been done very well I personally think) is that many of the things people believed as fact in GW1 turned out to not be the whole truth when investigated in more detail. The Bloodstone and the Seers are a perfect example.

dunnberry.2964:

This is true Jennah is an extremely powerful Mesmer. Though she’s so kitten busy with her kitten party’s she may be distracted, or drunk! But in seriousness lets say some arcane eye come into the city dressed as normal asuran tourist and rent a hotel by the palace(we know Asura got the $) and than at night go out pretending to be drunk partiers and than assassinate all the either shining blade guards and go kill Jennah or the gate guards/gate watches and let in a larger Asura force to take the city at night( a la Trojan horse stratgey)

I think your greatly underestimating both Jennah and the Shining Blade there. Jennah has hung onto power for ten year while her half her government has been trying to undermine her and her country has been at war. The Shining Blade are an order that date back to the time of the White Mantle and successfully fought both the Mursaat and the White Mantle and have been rather obsessively protective of the crown during that time. They are humanity’s elite agents. Then theres Anise as well.

Official Dev Word is actually that they havent decided how they will release expansion style content since the Living World is something that is very new and they are still figuring out what works with it and what doesnt.

Colin Johansson has said that they have a large dev crew working on longer term projects for the game but they arent ready to talk about what is being worked on yet. How they release this content, either as super large LS updates or paid expansions, hasnt been decided on yet.

Frankly most of the short stories are of moments thakittens unlikely there would be written copies off. Further, its very unlikely that the key characters in these moments would be likely to share such moments with anyone but very close friends and only if the moment became relivant.

I want to see more written lore and lore items in game but I dont think that should exclude things like the short stories. Different media allow different perspectives on lore. Likewise having a novel ingame would be unweildy and annoying. I dont know about you but I spent my time reading my GW2 books reclined on a comfy sofa. If Im logged into GW2 Im more inclined to play GW2 rather than read a novel.

Xkyline.5267:

We’re yet to see the kittener seduce a prominent ‘chosen one’,take out a Dooku and kitten up the jedi council.Hopefully,a Death Star is being constructed in the backyard of the manor with a giant opening into the main reactor core and Caudecus is researching space travel.

Death Star huh?

I dont know if you have looked at the Imperium Core in the Black Citadel recently…..

Caudecus is a real problem for Jennah cause hes officially and publicly well liked. The people call him Caudecus the Wise. We know he is corrupt as hell but the majority of the population havent seen the evidence we have. He covers his tracks really well.

Jennah cant just kill him. Firstly if he is killed in such a way, or worse if an attempt fails to kill him, the first person everyone will suspect is Jennah and the Shining Blade. Secondly, killing him wont neccesarily solve the problem of corruption she is dealing with. Taking such a step and ignoring her own laws would just be asking to weaken her position.

I get where your coming from Elbegast but the steampunk elements are very much an ingrained part of the game at this point. I wouldn’t want to see steampunk prevailent everywhere but certianly I dont see how they could fesibly remove it at this point.

People seem to overlook the fact that Logan didnt run away from danger when he went to Jennah’s aid when they call him a coward. Infact, he was running towards danger not way from it. Ebonhawke was a slaughterhouse. The only reason that anyone including Logan survived was because Jennah recovered enough to trick the branded into leaving.

Currently I think they are handling their attempt to avoid forcing the living world into a timeline with the PS resonably well. Both Rytlock’s attitude and Logan’s reaction fit both before and after the event. I think its going to reach a point however where they are going to have to let the timeline move beyond the death of Zhiatan within the LS or it will impede them in their story writing as the game proceeds.

As for Anise, I think she was testing Logan. It fits her perfectly. She might seem nice but she is like Livia when it comes to being High Exemplar and is quite willing to push limits or make cold calculating decisions when it comes to Jennah’s safety. Considering Logan is the queen’s champion and frankly hasn’t exactly been the most emotionally at peace fellow it would make sense to me that she would test how together he actually was.

Edit: On as side note, I wonder how many High Exemplar’s there have been before Anise. Not that many I imagine since Livia was still around, what, 100 years prior? For that matter, why after centuries did Livia decide to quit the job?

Einlanzer.1627:

Lutinz.6915:

I think its worth pointing out that the Living World teams are only a portion of their development staff. There is a large number of devs working on longer term stuff. What exactly? They aren’t announcing yet. Colin was pretty clear though that the personal story continuation and larger updates (ie. expansion level) were definely intended.

So… why not both?

It doesn’t matter; every LS type content they release (and then remove) represents resources that could have been better spent elsewhere. The game just flat out doesn’t benefit from it the way they seem to think it does. It’s almost indicative of a self-sabotaging focus on short-term profit spikes in the Gem Store rather than a proper focus on long-term growth and sustainability.

I respectfully disagree with your opinion. Then again, Ive enjoyed the LS. If I was waiting months between updates I probably would be spending a lot less time playing the game. The game would probably be a lot more empty.

The LS also encouraged people to actively go out into the world and visit zones that would otherwise be mostly abandoned. I see that as a pretty big plus too.

The Zephyrites actually connected directly to the dragons (through Glint) and infact kind of hinted at a real issue we may face in fighting them.

I think its worth pointing out that the Living World teams are only a portion of their development staff. There is a large number of devs working on longer term stuff. What exactly? They aren’t announcing yet. Colin was pretty clear though that the personal story continuation and larger updates (ie. expansion level) were definely intended.

So… why not both?

Im not sure where your getting tsundere from. It sounded like classic Rytlock to me. He was just in a bad mood at the time.

About the short stories in general, people need to remember that they are a different medium. In many cases they cant just be transfered into the game in any easy context. Sure we could learn about Braham’s family details or Rox’s past tragidy but would they really open up about that to someone they had just met? Marjory’s story falls under this too. She isnt going to share those details with us until we know her better and they become relivent.

Plus the stories take almost no resources to implement. Trying to put said lore ingame takes alot more manpower and time. Now I do agree that I want more lore in game, but I dont see why they should stop with the short stories. Its not like they are detracting from anything.

The Devs pretty much stated that Jennah and Logan’s affection is real and not the result of magical manipulation back before launch after Destiny’s Edge came out.

The Jubilee is as much a deplomatic statement as it is a celibration. Most of the other races of tyria have a opinion that humanity is a fading power on the edge of extintion. Thats not good for humanity’s position deplomatically with the rest of Tyria. The Jubilee and the Watchknights are to try and change that opinion.

The Charr in the Jubilee are Flame Legion. Note there are human bandits too. Jennah is one of the Treaty’s authors and greatest supporters.

Jennah is also pretty reserved. Shes been struggling to hold power while constantly being undermined by a corrupt ministry.

Do remember the great collapse used to be the arts district so it was to a large extent venues for the arts anyway. There would have been people living there but not as many as in the other sections of the city. Plus, they had to build something there. They couldn’t just leave a huge sinkhole and a damaged outer wall.

Frosch.7809:

What i noticed is that i get recognized as the “Hero of Shaemoor” as a human (although that was, from my point of view, ages ago and rather unimportant) while no one recognizes me as Commander of the Pact. Not that i care, it’s just that once more some little details were overlooked. There should be a different dialogue for those who played F&F when talking to Rox and Braham.

Smolder and the guards in the Imperium Core recongnised you as the Commander of the Pact if you had that rank back in Flame and Frost.

The models really arent sexy. Certianly they are a stylised female form but they are frankly too stylised and artsy to be sexy.

I think part of the problem here is the fact that the interview says alot without being concise on detail which makes it confusing.

It is possible to make most of the things in there work with a bit of headcanon (though generally I dont favor that).

The dragon thing isnt suprising though the fact they she outright states it was. Certainly that was hinted about in game before now. It creates an interesting dilemma for Tyria depending on weither the Dragon’s are just naturally destructive in their culling of the worlds magic, or weither something in Tyria’s past caused the Dragon’s to become as destructive as they are today.

The Bloodstone thing is weird. We can take it one of two ways. Either the growing magic in Tyria makes in unneccesary to rely on the power of the Bloodstones and so they dont have a limiting effect anymore or the Bloodstones never had the effect most people thought and it was a cultural limiting factor on the crossover of magic types. Of course that brings up the question on what spliting the Bloodstones would have acheived in the first place and how the gods really took away/limited magic.

The Calander thing though just seems foolish. Lore shouldnt be retconed so willy nilly.

Because they are from old, past Living Story events which are no longer relivant to the current plot?

He wasnt spamming when I saw him. Nice nod to southsun though. Poor Job-o-Tron.

The theory that Jennah used her magic to glamour Logan was shot down by devs before the game even launched. Yes she created a magical bond between them so she could call on him but he was very willing to receive it.

Jennah is a very powerful mesmer but we haven’t even had a hint that she might actually be abusing her power or have and evil agenda and we have had alot to indicate that she is what she appears to be, a young monarch trying to control a corrupt ministry while dealing with many threats to her people and trying her hardest to see to their wellbeing.

….

AND NO IM NOT BEING MIND CONTROLLED:P

On a side note, Anise is a very powerful mesmer too. She summons a small army of phantasms (about 16 or so) at once during a personal story step for humans.

BobbyStein.2315:

Glad you enjoyed the interview! I don’t get a chance to talk about work that often, so I’m happy you got something useful out of it.

Thanks for doing the interview. Its very reasuring to find out from time to time where the devs are at and that they have picked up on the feedback we are giving.

By the way, whoever wrote the Opening Cerimony dialog, particularly relating to Rox and Braham, did a brilliant job.

We have a watchwork portal generator… I think its more likely that they use a tech similar to the steam portals but not from the same source (ie. They came up with it themselves). They are clearly very high tech and Mai’s defeat really hasnt seemed to do much to phase them. Do remember, they are getting outfitted with Inquest tech so they are gear wise, on par probably with the Pact.

I dont however think they have to do with the steam creatures. After all, such a plot would only really work for Asuran characters.

Im curious however on why attack the DR celibration at all unless it has to do with the Watchknights. Whats the motivation? The Dataminers seem to be hinting things are going to get pretty wild in the next few weeks. Whats the bet that the individual we meet in the Opening Cerimony is Scarlet.

In the live stream they said that Jennah cant afford to keep it open all year round as its taking alot of resources. The Jubilee seems to be for showing off what humanity can do as much as a celibration. After all, theres a sense among various other races that humanity is on the decline. I get the feeling she is trying to counter that somewhat.

Hmmm…

There is clearly a serious threat from Evon supporters towards our elected representative Kiel.

Well, I guess us Kiel supporters will just have to ‘remove’ Evon before they have a chance to ‘replace’ Kiel and then they will have no one to replace her with. You know, chop off the head of the snake…. or in this case cat….

Oh dear. How desperate Evon has gotten that he is having his supporters resort to slander to try and win the election. As if bribery wasnt enough.

Shiren.9532:

Either she’s really stupid (she’s not) or she knew that Logan was part of an elite group of heroes who were on a mission to take out an Elder Dragon. She didn’t know the details but she knew he went off to fight an Elder Dragon. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that calling him away from his team on such a critical mission was going to have serious consequences for the team.

Wrong. Destiny’s Edge were on a mission to kill Glint because they had been informed that she was trying to awaken Kralkatorik (They were obviously wrong). Logan never had left to fight a ED. He’d left to fight a Dragon Champion. She had no idea he or any of Destiny’s Edge were planning to ambush Kralkatorik or that they had Glints aid.

Infact, considering Kralkatorik had woken up it could be strongly argued that their actual mission had already failed.

As far as Kryta being without a leakitten art of the cliché of Destiny’s Edge (and Edge of Destiny’s plot) was the theme about the races needing to come together to fight the dragons. It’s a central plot to the Personal Story and is ultimately symbolised by the Pact and Destiny’s Edge. As big a deal as Jennah may have been, consider a charr and a human working together in an elite team to be the first to ever defeat, not just a dragon champion (which was a big deal at the time) but an actual Elder Dragon? Kralkatorrik is probably the most relevant dragon to the charr, a team of a human and a charr working together to take him down is easily a stronger foothold in human/charr diplomacy, especially with Logan and Rytlock’s elevated status in their respective societies, than whatever Jennah brings to the table.

Kralkatorik’s death would have just as likely lead to the races dismissing the threat of the Elder Dragons. Considering that Logan and Rytlock had already made great fame killing Dragon champions.

Also your ignoring who would replace Jennah and even if the Charr did suddenly turn around and favor peace with the humans the humans certianly wouldnt be looking for peace. Worse, while the Charr would still have problems with the Branded, Ghosts, and Flame Legions they would now be fighting a human nation with far less threats since it wouldnt have its bandit problem and you wouldnt have a corrupt ministry supplying weapons to the Centaur.

The Pact and the Vigil would also have had a hard time forming. For a start, even if the Charr leadership still supported the idea of a unified approach to the EDs (after all if 7 people could kill and ED, why would the Charr need extra help to fight them) theres very little chance that Kryta would except them setting up anywhere near human territory, particularly with a charr in charge.

Jennah’s importance isnt only what she offers Tyria, which is a lot, but also who she keeps out of power by holding the throne. She is what keeps the kryta supporting the unified approach which was hard enough to organise as it is. Its why the Order of Whispers is so interested in protecting her position of power from her rivals.

The thing about leaders is there’s always another. Jennah can be replaced (for all we know, her death could have been the rise of a great Krytan democracy, something the modern world considers far superior to a monarchy).

We now exactly who would and will replace Jennah.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caudecus

Hes not a good guy. He would be a disaster and most definately wouldnt have favored a treaty with the charr.

Further, Kryta’s government is already semi democratic. The Ruler of Kryta shares power with the Ministry, which is made up of elected individuals that represent seperate parts in Kryta. It includes commoners as well as nobles. Unfortunately there is a strong element in the Ministry which is very corrupt and attempting to errode Jennah’s hold on power and popularity, including supporting the bandits and supplying weapons and information to the Centaurs.

Jennah’s replacement would be bad news. Certainly the Order of Whispers thinks so (including Caudecus’s own daughter).

Regardless of what happened in the past, there has been enough successful co-operation between the humans and the charr for their treaty to remain without Jennah. I don’t see any reason why they would kill her this month, but I don’t see why they can’t.

Maybe now but the treaty is still pretty fragile. Its due to both Smolder and Jennah’s efforts that the treaty is working. At best, Caudecus will leave it alone but its likely that he will withdraw Krytan support for efforts against the EDs who he doesn’t seem to consider a major threat to Kryta (so the Order of Whispers says). He would also probably start looking to building up Kryta’s military strength, self interests and be less open to negociation. This would almost certainly be looked at badly by the charr.

Shanna.4762:

As for the bandit’s working for the Ministry, I doubt it. Because there are points in the human story that detail the primary sect of bandits, and they are anarchists. They hate both the ministry & the Queen. One such bandit can be convinced to abandon the anarchist movement, sort of.

Actually, almost every PS path for the first 20 levels for humans shows the Ministry or people connected to the Ministry being behind the bandits. The only two I can think of that dont show a direct connection are the Street Rat personal story arc (where its still hinted) and the Missing Parents arc.

The average bandit might be an anarchist but the ones pulling their strings are in the Ministry.

Shiren.9532:

I understand the open world stuff needs to be temporary, but I have no idea why they removed the Rox and Braham missions or the dungeons. Those were instances that made perfect sense to leave in the game. For all of the personal story’s flaws, I don’t understand why the Living Story didn’t replicate the instanced model for story delivery when it didn’t require open world mechanics. We are now in a situation where a large number of players have no idea what happened in the story so far and they have no tools to experience it themselves.

Why remove instanced content from the game? It doesn’t prevent the open world from evolving and removing it doesn’t make the world feel like it evolves.

Id say two reasons.

Firstly, was thier desire to create a moving story. Having things left in the past as such so it is a past. Im not sure I completely agree with this one as I think the past is still worth referencing. If you think about a TV series, which is an analogy they used, you can still go back and watch past episodes.

The secondly, is contextual. This has some validity and might also tie into how their engine worked. Not all the instanced LS bits make sense together unless you understand the backdrop for the even. For example, in Dragon bash we investigate the death of the captian. In doing so we head out, talk to the individual suspects and bring them back. All those bits are lost without some framework to give context. In short there needs to be some sort of filler explaination between the instanced bits to give that context.

There is also a possibility of an issue with the game engine. My friend was doing his PS in LA during Dragon Bash and commented that all the Dragon Bash decorations were up in the instance. If thats the case events like the Dragon Bash instances would be weird during say, Halloween.

As for the Dungeons, the fractals are the best solution for a simple reason. Dungeon bloat. Just cause a dungeon is doable doesnt mean youll be able to find people to do it with unless you have some interested guildies. This would become even more of an issue as further Story dungeons were added in the future, particularly since these are story dungeons and most people will only do them once or twice. The fractals mean that they are likely to be experianced by anyone wanted to do a fractal eventually and variaty in fractals will be a good thing.

Thats my take on it anyway.

Theres a few facts here people have gotten wrong.

Firstly, Glint would be dead weither Logan was their or not. She was killed putting the collar on Kralkatorik that enabled Snaff to bring him down. She was dead before she hit the ground.

Secondly, though Kralkatorik may have died, there would still be 5 Elder Dragons around, none of who were as exposed as Kralkatorik had been, and theres a very good chance that the races of tyria may not have been incline to take them as seriously if just 7 people managed to kill one. The only reason we could take down Zhaitan is we had the backing and tech of 5 major races and a bunch of others.

Thirdly, Jennah did stop the attack on Ebonhawke by the Branded, but at the start she and Anise were stunned from trying to sense the mind of Kralkatorik who was the one who blew a hole in the wall of the fort. Logan bought her time to recover by getting the charr in the prison to fight with the human defenders. Its worth noting that while she was reeling from touching the mind of an ED is when she sent her paniced ‘SAVE ME’ to Logan.

Fourth, Jennah didnt know Destiny’s Edge was setting a trap to kill Kralkatorik. The last she had heard from the group, they were going to kill Glint to stop Kralkatorik from rising (they had their infomation muddled).

Fifth, Jennah and Logan’s love was both mutual and honest according to the Lore devs. Yes, the book didnt do a good job with it but it was supposed to be real. The whole point of Logan’s choice was that he didnt have a good one. He tried foolishly to do both and only barely managed one.

Sixth, If Jennah died its unlikely that you would see an allaince that allowed the Orders to thrive how they are. We know who would have taken Jennah’s place and at best both the humans and the charr would still be at war. Certainly its unlikely the Vigil would have had the ability or support to form as it did and the Charr would then be forced to divide their forces between fighting ghosts, the Branded, the Ogres, the Flame Legion, the humans (properly supported and organised humans) and potentially anything crawling out of the Crystal Desert.

If Jennah dies now, though it would be quite an event, it would send the whole worlds politics into freefall, particularly considering who would replace her. You would rapidly see things starting to fall apart and the unity between the nations fracture. Needless to say, the chances of any group being able to handle fighting another ED while such chaos was going on is slim, pushing back any further fights with them for quite some time (unless they just came to kick all our collective asses).

At least Kryta wouldnt have its bandit problem any more (since they work for the Ministry).

Its good to see that Arenanet is looking at doing a ‘previously, in the living story’ feature. Really its kind of sorely needed both for those who have missed content and those who want to revise what has happened so far.

I can see it would be a trickly balance since most of Tyria is a persistant world. Leaving a LS active in one area potentially stops that area from being used again for further LS development. I mean it would be odd a year after F&F to have a LS with the Sons of Svanir launching a major attack in the Wayfarer Foothills and have the Molten Allaince doing their refugee thing at the same time. Time line wise, theme wise and story wise it would make no sense.

Having different instances of zones wouldnt work since it would fragment the player base, potentially alot as the LS continued to expand. The story dungeons have the same potential problem with them as after a point there would be more story dungeons spread among the same number of players making it harder to find groups for them. I think the fractal solution really works for bringing them back.

Still having perhaps something like the old story books from GW1 that allowed us to relive key moments in the PS (the instanced bits) while filling in the games with some nice art and either cutscenes or a written tale would be nice. That Marjory cut scene style would be great for this (though Im not sure how resource intensive such a thing would be to do).

Goorman.7916:

Basically, i think that the most obvious solution is the right one.
And the most obvious solution is to combine almost all temporary and story driving content into one mission(GW1 style) every two weeks, then combine missions tied by story arcs into campaigns. NOONE will object this decision, and this will also give opportunity to a)keep track of past living story b)replay past living story as a mission.
Win-win.

I think you would almost certianly have at least someone object:P

Having said that, having one GW1 style mission every two weeks, while having its advantages would create limitations for the story as well. After all, GW1 was a very different game. The other thing is that the story updates would be very focused (since they would be set in only one spot in the world) and feel less tied into the actual ‘Living World’.

Do remember that the GW1 missions didnt live in isolation to the rest of the game world. If you just did the missions you would still miss alot of the lore and the story that happened out of the missions.

The trick I think is for them to have enough ‘highlights’ in each update to create a replayable sense of key moments in the story. This way even if the open world sense of the event has past, key points of the story can be relieved and, more importantly as a hindsight thing, create an overall arc of the living worlds story. In reliving these past events, it should show us not just what happened in individual moments but how they tied together as a story.

Thats just my thoughts though.

Elbegast.6970:

nexxe.7081:

Elbegast.6970:

Quarktastic.1027:

Martin Kerstein.3071:

You did not read my post properly. It is not an option. It is not possible without touching core systems. Which will have other consequences. An MMO is a very complex thing.

So what your telling us is: Removing a key feature from the personal bank doesn’t touch any core systems, but adding a completely new feature while leaving the bank as is would require you to alter core systems.

I may not be a programmer, but something about that statement just seems backwards to me.

He’s not a programmer either. He has no idea how the digital cogs work. In the future, he should refrain from posting comments, in regards to topics outside of his own area of expertise.

Take your own advice then. You, and others, do not know the coding practices or how business is run within Arena-net. It’s not your area of expertise on how to run an MMO.

I’m credited on 20+ video games from ‘Wing Commander’ to ‘Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga’ ….but yeah, I’ve never produced a mmo before. My brother is working on that one. You may have heard of it. It’s called ‘Star Citizen’ .

Seriously dude, I’ve never seen you come to these forums to do anything except spout consperacy theories about how Arenanet is screwing us over, complain and be snide. Why do you even bother with this game if you hate it that much? I mean seriously, is there anything you actually like about this game or are you just here to troll?

There are numerous problems with your idea, starting with the fact that the Ebon Vanguard completely abandoned the north. They were only there to harass the Charr in their own territory and they were recalled. They were then sent in mass to establish Ebonhawke.

Simply put there was noone left in the north to have decendents.

Secondly, it would be unlikely that a force could exist in the northern lands without being noticed by the Charr, particularly if they have enough military power to threaten the Black Citadel. All those northern lands are held by the Blood Legion or the Flame Legion.

Thirdly, if the Ebon Vanguard are willing to fight seperatists from within their own walls, then a strange army from the north who are clearly touched by some type of magic are probably not going to cause them to throw out their treaty, particularly since they have very strong reminders of why the treaty is a good idea right outside Ebonhawke and when they are still quite dependant on aid from Kryta.

I agree that the story has alot of potential for change but I dont expect we will see the races openly pitted against each other and any conflict like the one you suggested would probably play out over a campaign with a final conculsion at the end. It would also be a pretty major update since it would require quite substancial changes to alot of zones. I REALLY dont expect them to do anything vaguely World PvPish.

Then yes, this is the first time Ive heard of this. I might go poking around and see if I can catch it.

Im almost certian he is evil after the human personal story.

Ill be interested to see how the ministry plot and the LS story up till know ties together. We do know that the Bandits were sponsored or controlled by the Ministry and that in the Brisbane Wildlands they were forming an alliance with the Inquest and the Nightmare Court. The Inquest was also involved with the Aetherblades. Perhaps Scarlet is linked to that alliance.

1. We dont know where he came from thought he appears to have been originally human.

2. I imagine the order would love to know how to kill him. They used to be responsable for keeping an eye on where he was sealed away. Infact originally I thought the story was that the Order of Whispers was set up because they cound figure out how to kill Joko so Ossa set up the Order to keep an eye on his prison. I think thats not actually the case any more.

3. We dont know really whats going on in Elona but I wouldn’t be suprised to find pockets of desent and rebels on the fringes of Joko’s domain. There may even be a few lone Sunspears hidden away in far corners. I wouldnt be suprised if if we go to Elona, to help revive the Sunspears as a faction.

4. Describing what Elona was like before Joko took over would take quite alot of time. Id suggest looking at the GW1 wiki entries on Elona for a sample of that.

5. Joko, at least in GW1, seems content to have living subjects. He was very willing to kill and raise any who resisted but I think he was more interested in being an undead emperor. I suspect there are still plenty of living people under Joko’s rule. Infact Joko probably has quite a number of living servants and agents too.

6. Without knowing the true origin story of the Pale Tree and its species, its hard to guess where we will find sylvari. Its unlikely that any of the Pale Tree’s children have been there though.

Likewise we cant be 100% sure with the Asura though they seem more unlikely. For the Asura to be there they would either have had to move their after coming to the surface or would have had to come to the surface at in that area without establishing contact with the ones at Rata Sum since we certianly have nothing to indicate that the Asura know of others of their race in other parts of the world.

Solid answers to your questions are hard since in many cases we can only make educated speculation.

Was the graveyard foggy and was the woman wearing white? Theirs a DE their where you talk to a woman in white wondering around the graves (who looks normal) and offer to walk her to her home. When she reaches the entrance she remembers she is dead and freaks out, attacking you.

Im pretty sure she wasnt called Servant though.

GoldenTruth.2853:

Anyone know whether Queen’s Gauntlet is temporary or permanent?

Id really like to know this too. It sounds like content that would make sense as permanent. After all it’s not like the arena isnt going to be there after the release (barring catastrophic disasters…).

I dont know how many people know this but in the time since Flame and Frost, you’ve been able to go out and visit Rox and Braham. As time as passed they have had some different dialog and a few spoken scenes play out to tell what they are up to.

It seems from talking to alot of people that many dont know it or never get out to visit them (after all the dialog isnt heaps).

This got me thinking that perhaps an extra bit to keep these notable characters in memory could be added in the form of letters from them letting us know what they are up to. Not very frequently but occationally just to let us know what they are up to in the background. It would also build that sense of knowing them.

For example, a letter from Rox venting to us her frustration at Frostbite breaking into the stores while she was away and touching on her discomfort of having to leave him behind at the Hatchery when she is called off on official duty. Or Braham telling us about how things are going at Craigstead and lementing over his love life problems. After all why wouldnt friends send each other letters?

This just seemed to me to be a good way to keep these characters in peoples memory and add to the feeling that they are off living their lives in the background. I also imaged it would be a rather low resource and easy thing to use to develop those characters and add a sense of persistant world.

Are we sure Colin has a dog?

Im kind of hoping the new arena is perminant content, as in we will be able to use it the fights after the update has passed.

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

Gabby.3205:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Braham and Rox are coming to the Jubilee.

Cool! I miss them, they are great.

To be honest, its been so long, if they suddenly reemerge, it would feel out of place.

They have been around in their home instances. You can visit them. They even have had a few bits of spoken dialog.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Korval.3751:

Antara.3189:

Korval.3751:

So all of you are looking for a “Last time in Guild Wars 2…” and continuation?

I’m not following what you’re stating here. please explain.

Each update continues where the last left off.

Honestly don’t see how you get that from temporary random disconnected events, but whatever. Guess in the brave new tyria all it takes is plopping one or two NPCs a player has seen before.

Seriously, this has been answered several times already. They arent random or disconnected even when some of the connections are superficial (such as the Southsun Dragonbash link). Plot wise there are much deeper connection hinted for those who actually want to pay enough attention to find them.

On the topic of festivals, I have to agree that Im starting to feel a bit festivaled out. We dont have that long till Halloween and Wintersday and both of them take up around a month.

Perhaps the solution is to have less focus on the festival and more on the events taking place during a festival for a few of them. That way the festival can be enjoyed but remains a backdrop to the story rather than the focus.

They said they were working on bigger things for WvW. Different teams are working on different parts of the game. It would be wrong for them to take people away from sPvP or PvE features to work on WvW just as it would be for them to take people off WvW to work on other projects.

My guess is the WvW development work takes more time and work to create and test, hence why its taking time. It might not be much but at least it hasnt been forgotten completely. They have been bringing out new WvW masteries and the champion loot change will apply to WvW too.

So we know have details on the next release:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/august-06-2013/

Now it looks interesting for several reasons but this bit really stuck out for me:

Mini Watchknight

Once you complete the Queen’s Jubilee meta achievement, you’ll receive a miniature Watchknight, modeled after the Queen’s new mechanical sentinels, to follow you into battle.

Clockwork soldiers? Not completely unbelievable if we look at what Uzolan did and the verious mechanical structures around kryta but still a suprise to me never the less. So were they comissioned by Jennah herself or the Ministry? How are they controlled?

I suspect one way or the other they are likely to play a big role in whatever twists we see play out. Still kind of cool to see a human spin on GW2 steampunk engineering.

There is more to the world than just the EDs. If all we did was hunt EDs the plot would become pretty stale after the 3rd dragon or so.

There are still many other ‘threats’ from GW1 that can come up in the LS. The White Mantle, the Mursaat, the Centaur, the Foefire and the ghosts of Ascalon, the Krait… and thats ignoring other plot lines like the origins of the Sylvari, the druids and their fate, the other charr homelands and the inter Legion relations…

Theres alot apart from dragons that could be very interesting and will quite possibly be touched on by the LS.

One of the tricky things that Arenanet needs to balance is providing enough content for the gamers that play heaps and yet not overwhelming those who play less. Perhaps the answer is to change how it does achievements.

Most people look at the achievements and feel ‘I need to do all of them’. If set up that way it raises a problem for Arenanet that there is no way they can structure the Achievements to fit both types of players. Maybe the answer is to do something like seperate the Achievement sets into to catagories, say normal and advanced. The normal list hold all the relatively quick and story related LS steps while the advanced hold the more time consuming and hard.

If these lists can be displayed seperately on the UI it will have the psycological effect of giving completionists a sense of accomplishment at completing a achievement set without keeping the more time intensive players from having things still to work towards.

It would be nice if the guys who voted for the loser could get a ’Don’t blame me, I voted for the other guy’ tee shirt after the election.

Northlander.4619:

draxynnic.3719:

Now, you may say that Logan didn’t know all this… but the third paragraph at least is something he’d have been aware of.

Logan didn’t know all that and couldn’t have known all that. Also it still shows he is willing to place his own race above others and thinks he is important enough that he, and humanity, are the only one capable of saving the world.

Also even if slaying the dragon would not automatically cure the world (which it shouldn’t do anyway – that’s bad writing) of the effect it caused it would have certainly halted it.

All I see hubris, ego and human centic world view. Members of other races were ready to see it through. He was not. There’s no point trying to defend him. It’s a simple fact.

This is getting quite off topic and should probably have its own thread but Im gonna reply anyway.

Killing Kralkatorik would have perhaps stopped the Shatterer from turning up but for the part of Tyria we are in, thats about it at this point. Killing an ED doesnt remove its corruption or kill all its minions. Arah and Orr have showed us that. Therefore, its quite likely that Killing Kralkatorik wouldnt have dont much benificial for our part of the world in the short term.

However, if he had been killed AND if Jennah had died, I could see two major effects. Firstly its likely that the races would underestimate the threat of the other EDs. After all if just 6 people can kill one, how tough can they be? Without Jennah there would be no peace between Kryta and the Charr, the Vigil would have had a lot harder time forming, both human and charr resources would be further consumed by their ongoing war leaving the orders with less resources and we could kiss any chance of racial unity good bye.

I dont think those were Logan’s thoughts though. He was concerned for Jennah. If you read what he said and did afterwards he intended to come back. He had to make a choice between the friends he fought with and what he fought for. He chose the later. Its not easy to say any of the other members of Destiny’s Edge wouldnt have done the same if they were in that situation because none of them had that same choice.

Logan’s choice was not black or white. He had no real good choices. If anything his error was to try and do too much.