Guild Wars 2

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Elephant in the room: the heavily implied lesbian innuendo. The fact is that not everyone likes, agrees with, or is comfortable with homosexuality. It could be that they find the physical act to be disconcerting. It could be that they don’t agree with notion of contemporary homosexuality as a whole.

Such people and opinions are best ignored.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

It could be something less, like how many don’t like how the fanservice angle is patronizing men, or how their sexuality is being used to crutch an otherwise uninteresting story, thus exploiting the entire demographic.

This complaint I can accept. However that’s just video games for you, you could say the same about the design of female armor being eyecandy in general. Yet people point out this particular instance when it’s on par with the rest of GW2’s design and writing, which makes me think that a lot of them are actually complaining for the first set of reasons yet trying to hide their own issues by claiming it’s for the last one. Or do you think the OP was complaining about Logan and Jennah or other instances of NPC’s shown as being in a relationship until now?

Rezz.8019:

I still don’t understand why couldn’t they put a standard man-woman relationship. Was point of this to make boys more interested in the story or what?

The question shouldn’t be why show a same sex relationship, the question should be why not? You are assuming the male x female relationship is the default and that there needs to be a reason to do something else. There doesn’t.

I think Kasmeer and Marjory are cute together and their flirting is fun, and it’s cool for Anet to be inclusive like this. I think most people who can’t stomach this are just intolerant bigots, if one of them was a guy even people who dislike how the relationship was written or don’t care would just shrug and move on.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Wrong. GW2 is both PvE and PvP based. Part of the plan ANet had in the beginning was to get GW2 to be an eSport. You can’t win $100,000 from doing just PvE.

GW2 manifesto about WvW

Joining this PvP competition is completely optional, just like it was in the original GW, but if you do compete you’re now going to find that your world welcomes you with open arms.

Handin.4032:

PvE’ers complain a lot when “forced” to do WvW to get a legendary (which heck..is supposed to be LEGENDARY, and NOT essential). WvW players counter by saying “We have to do a LOT more PvE grinding that we don’t want to do than you have to do in WvW”, and PvE players seem to just skirt around it. Why is it ok when WvW players are ‘forced’ to play a gameplay they don’t want for a legendary, but its a crime against humanity when PvE’ers have to a tiny bit of game play they don’t want for the SAME legendary?

Can I make the same argument saying that all the PvE requirements (dungeons for instance) should be taken off the legendaries because I, as a WvW player, is forced to play a game mode I don’t like to get it? (Heck, I mean, you PvE’ers certain don’t want us WvW players going into your dungeon runs in PTV gear taking up spots for players with zerker gear…) I mean, I’d love to be able to turn my badges as well into all the different PvE-only gifts. Would that be ok? You can get your Gift of Battle (without the battle), and we can get our dungeon Gift’s without the dungeons. Deal?

To the first part, because PvP is just a part of GW2, a mainly PvE game – and not the other way around.

For the second part, sure why not? You can already buy a legendary of the TP for gold only, so I see no reason why you shouldn’t be able to buy one for badges of honor or even just glory.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Shinzan.2908:

If anet wants more people in WvW they need to make WvW something more people want to play in, simple as that.

It already is. WvW lets you kill ambient creatures, as well as enemy NPCs. If you’re not good at player vs player combat, simply run away from the red name tags.

Why would you want me to be taking up a slot doing that if people actually wanting to win want to go in though?

eleshazar.6902:

Imo you guys are just super entitled. You never bother to think how much WvW players hate doing the mindless task of world exploration. And I can assure you that takes a lot longer than getting a simple r30 in WvW. If you want a legendary you are going to have to get out of your comfort zone a bit. I hated map completion with a passion, but I did it just like you are going to either have to spend your precious laurels or spend some time in WvW. Why you have come under the assumption that getting a legendary should be easy is beyond me…

The difference is that PvE is the main point of GW2 if you don’t like doing RPG stuff you probably shouldn’t be playing a MMORPG. PvP is a side dish that isn’t for ever everyone and should be optional. And my example was supposed to show that forcing people into PvP just gets you people who don’t want to be there and ruin it for those who do.

If anet wants more people in WvW they need to make WvW something more people want to play in, simple as that.

Bubi.7942:

Shinzan.2908:

I got my gift of battle by running the WvW jumping puzzle in stealth. If I had to grind rank too I’d probably do it naked following a zerg and standing in circles, so basically not contributing to the WvW effort and taking away slots for those who actually care to PvP. Basically glad I don’t have to do this because I was lucky to get my gift before this patch. :p

Why? Just, why?

Because I don’t want to do WvW, and don’t care about winning, so if I was forced to grind rank I’d do just that in the most effortless way possible.

I got my gift of battle by running the WvW jumping puzzle in stealth. If I had to grind rank too I’d probably do it naked following a zerg and standing in circles, so basically not contributing to the WvW effort and taking away slots for those who actually care to PvP. Basically glad I don’t have to do this because I was lucky to get my gift before this patch. :p

Karizee.8076:

I don’t rent games.

This. Wouldn’t pay a sub out of principle, even though I buy gems fairly often.

It will get damaged and some landmarks might get blown up, but ultimately the players will save it from destruction and finally kick Scarlet’s kitten .

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/thumb/1/14/Abaddon%27s_Gate_mission.jpg/800px-Abaddon%27s_Gate_mission.jpg

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Shinzan.2908:

For the future I’d suggest testing content before it goes live.

But they tested it for a whole 2 hours! What more can you ask for!

Honestly, I’m not sure how obvious bugs like this get through. Like, if clicking on a boring npc in a corner of the map while on fire caused a crash, I could see that slipping by the testers. Entering a new zone causing a crash is something that should be caught unless their testing environment is completely different from the live game which would defeat the point of testing stuff.

I just did my WvW world completion nacked and loaded up with blocks, teleports and haste skills, won’t lose anything if some griefer ganks me. I’d suggest doing the same if Pking becomes an issue with doing living story quests.

Then they’d have to create upgrades for all the other cultural armor or people would cry again. Which they could do, but then I’d rather they spend dev time on creating something completely new rather than more reskins.

Seconding (or fourthing, whatever), I was pleasantly surprised to have the group listen to and engage my character directly. Just shows that Anet can create likeable characters and tell a story without stealing our spotlight. Keep up the good work folks.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Frostfang.5109:

No pet skins plz, but I would like to have more tamable pets (like Griffons, Raptors, and Dolphins) instead! And pets that evolve wouldnt be bad at all imo…

All I know is all these pets pale in comparison to the feared Black Moa, fiercest giant chicken to stalk Cantha. One of the greatest rangers of Cantha was able to tame it, even after losing an eye to one.

And it was also feared in Istan, to such a degree I regularly trolled people outside the Sunspear Great Hall with it. Because it was hilarious.

GW2 has those!
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Juvenile_Black_Moa

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

And the Order of Whispers does not employ sylvari in highly sensitive jobs because they suck at keeping secrets . . . secret.

This is off topic, but what? There’s no sign of any such discrimination. Heck, the sylvari Preceptor is in charge of handling the entirety of the Order’s information and analysis departments. It doesn’t get more sensitive than that.

Probably referring to the fact that sylvari have a shared memory via their dream.

He was pretty much universally hated with hundreds of posts about it after release. People jut don’t talk about him much now that most are done with the personal story and moved on to hating Scarlet.

But yea he’s pretty bad, and him being the leader of the pact is not the issue, he could have remained in a tactical/management role with the player moving the story forward while he does the boring coordination and leading thing in the background. Instead we had a mission where he has to prove that he is also an amazing warrior and not just a scholar… and the end of that mission frames it as his victory even though he spend most of the mission downed. :p

A particular point against him that sticks out to me is in one of the story paths where your character becomes the target of an attack, after which Trahearne says something along the lines of “Clearly, they attacked you to get at me, the true target”, when that would have been a great opportunity for him to acknowledge that while he is the leader of the pact the player character is crucial to their success.

Also if you play a sylvari guardian with certain story paths he totally steals your sword!

On the other hand Destiny’s Edge and the story dungeons did it right, the NPC’s acknowledge and recognize the player, in the last Caithe even outright says that it’s you who brought them all together again. And in the ending cut scene you walk with them center, like you are one of them, kind of like an unofficial member of Destiny’s Edge, and it’s clear you took Zhaitan down together.

If the first few episodes of a TV series are bad but later episodes get better you can say that the series is good now, but it won’t make the first few episodes retroactively suck less. :p

Or if you want another analogy, the journey is often just as important as the destination.

A simpler way to do it would be to have veteran versions of the wardens spawn as part of an event while waiting for the marionette or just nearby to that area.

It’s a game, it needs to be playable and functional foremost. I’d actually wish they’d go the other direction and bring back enemy cast bars, having to watch for when a boss lifts his arm when there’s a ton of other things going on sucks.

There’s basically 3 ways to handle this kind of thing.

1 – let bad players ruin the event for everyone else – current situation, bad
2 – separate the good players from the bad players, ex. instanced content – would work but also would be against the spirit of GW2 in my opinion, so still bad
3 – let the good players carry the bad players, in this example this could be done by letting platforms that win their fight help out others, or by working with an acceptable margin of error, for example if only 3 platforms had to finish to sever the chain successfully. – what Anet should aim for going forward.

Maybe this could be done with additional rewards for individual contribution in addition to group completion rewards as a motivation to actually try and do well.

Shufflepants.9785:

Chris RJ.1843:

Shufflepants.9785:

I think I spotted the problem, Akimbo. I think you’ve confused the word ‘achievement’ with the word ‘entitlement’.

Don’t think he did. Did you read his post?

He achieved the criteria. He and his team defeated his warden and destroyed his regulator. He also avoided getting hit by any marionette attacks.

He was unable to get the points because….someone else failed to do the same thing. Someone he didn’t know, couldn’t rely on, and couldn’t even help. I think you should check the meaning of entitlement again.

It’s like showing up to work every day and then on payday getting nothing because someone else in the office wasn’t working. These achievements are not dependent on your efforts; they should be. His problem with it is reasonable.

Oh, right, I forgot that they credit individual players for winning the world series for having the most RBI’s in a season even when their team loses every single game. Your work analogy is not applicable. Group events are failed or succeed as a group. It is more like a team sport. You don’t “win the game” when you personally score more points than any individual, you only win when your team has more points than the other team. And the OP feels like he deserves to “win the game” even though his team lost.

en·ti·tle·ment
noun
the feeling or belief that you deserve to be given something (such as special privileges)

He feels like he has a right to it when no such right exists.
That is entitlement.

Sports teams are made up of people who know each other and learn to work together, and a good player in a bad team has the choice to look for a team that matches his skill level. GW2 matches you with randoms so the analogy doesn’t hold up.

Being a commander just means someone spend 100g on the manual, I could afford one if I wanted but that doesn’t mean people should listen to me.

I think in addition to group rewards there should be rewards for individual contribution. Like players who beat their regulator should get an extra loot box each time they win even if other platforms fail, defenders in lanes should get loot for not letting any champion through.

Rather than disable loot during the event they just need to make finishing the event give better/more loot than not.

Then it’ll be just like tequal where you have to get there an hour earlier anyway or you’ll end up in an overflow with 5 people… The event should loop right away, or after 15 minutes max.

Went to Marionette’s Landing as per the in game mail and there’s just a bunch of people waiting for something to happen. Where’s the event? If this kind of thing has to have a ridiculous timer at least put some activities or smaller events in the area by the ufo.

I remember someone from anet saying their current living story was designed to be standalone and separate from the overall story of GW2 so I don’t think we are getting an elder dragon reveal, as cool as it would be I’m not getting my hopes up just yet.

As a PvE player PvP had little appeal to me because I don’t care for ranks and switching to some ugly armor from my regular gear felt disconnecting. With the proposed changes I could see myself hopping on for a few matches every once in a while though, this gets my approval.

Only thing missing now is a death mach mode.

Alcubierre.7538:

Might as well let me buy the cultural armor from other races. Charr, Sylvari and Norn heavy armor please!

Yes please, I honestly want them to do this.

Just curious, does this actually track antitoxin injections or does it fill up on it’s own anyway? I wonder if there’s an actual target and what happens if it’s not reached.

Where are people getting that Anet is turning away from dragons because of the Chinese launch? Unless I see some dev quote or interview I’ll have to assume it’s unfounded speculation that people keep repeating.

BobbyStein.2315:

So you’re saying that the contents of each release are too light, and that you’d rather the two thematically related releases be part of a single build?

I think this could have been in one big release rather than two, after you gather the required amount of antitoxins for Majorly the tower opens up, there could have been another cut scene or instance for this in my opinion. Rather than having the tower open up in 2 weeks it could have been us opening it which would feel more satisfying and meaningful.

People also can’t do the introduction instance (Nightmare Unveiled) with Majorly and Kasmeer any longer, even though there’s no reason it couldn’t have remained for the length of the event, just don’t let people do the tower before doing the instance if continuity is your concern.

You probably won’t be able to answer this but on the off chance you can, I’d really like to know if defeating the other elder dragons is something we’ll get to do in the near or far future, or are they are to remain in the background while you tell different stories?

Also precursor scavenger hunts and PvP legendaries. Finally!

Arnath.2319:

This is one of the reasons why “Living” Story has not been successful, how can you create a TRUE Living Story when you deliberately limit yourself to characters and storylines. You have us go through a story from 1-80, then forcefully remove us from that story into a completely random storyline and random characters that nobody cares about.

Living Story MUST continue from where the Personal Story left off, you can NOT have two separate storylines, this is your biggest mistake with the Living Story.

I like Queen Jennah, but i wish she had died during the Queens Speech… oh but wait she is bound to the personal story so she has immunity.

Slight change of topic, dont be afraid to learn from other MMO’s. I say this because Blizzard announced there next exspansion and have clearly copied a number of Guild Wars 2 features. I think Guild Wars 2 can learn allot from WoW when it comes to managing and implementing a story.

The reality is World of Warcraft has a significantly superior living story to Guild Wars 2, they only have patches every few months yet the story grows and the world changes accordingly, there last patch had an entire zone destroyed.

You dont need two have patches every two weeks to have a epic story.

Even worse, such a stance doesn’t only limit the characters you can use. A self imposed limitation like this means that we won’t get to see a cleansed orr, since for the purpose of the story Zhaitan has to be both still alive and yet absent. Taken to the extreme this would mean that along with countless existing story threads and plot hooks that have to remain static, we won’t get to fight Jormag or the other elder dragons since they have to be alive for those just starting with GW2? That would pretty much kill any potential for story telling GW2 has.

BobbyStein.2315:

Part of the reason we’ve been including Scarlet in multiple releases is so we can build on her character. It’s kind of funny that we routinely get two types of feedback on the Living World story. From some people it’s, “Stuff feels random. I don’t know these characters.” From others it’s, “Stop using X character. I don’t like them.” So we’re presented with two competing bits of feedback (usually from different people but it’s hard to track opinions on a forum).

Having a character stick around is only one part of the puzzle, in Scarlet’s case I’d say part of the issue is that even though she’s been around for several installments now we still don’t know anything significant about her, and the little we do know is not all that compelling, she’s barely a character at this point. It’s not her sticking around that’s the issue, being unlikable is.

On the other hand I did enjoy Roxx & Braham’s cameo during the royal pavilion, and Faren is always good for a laugh. Having reoccurring characters is the way to go in my opinion, if they are fun and interesting, or even of the love to hate variety, then I think their reappearance would be welcome.

I’ll even give Scarlet the benefit of the doubt for now, even though it won’t magically make up for the past, establishing her character and goals might make her more compelling going forward.

I think it’s great you guys are doing this, hope you’ll be engaging with the community in the future as well.

I also think GW2 is a great game with a lot of potential, and you folks are getting better with each new release. Hearing that we are on the same page about a lot of the issues makes me positive that this trend will continue.

So kudos, keep up the good work.

I bet we’ll just be fighting hallucination versions of previous bosses.

Thought of an analogy that shows what went wrong with Living story in my opinion: We started with GW2 – Rise of the Elder dragons – the movie. What we got now is the GW2 TV series – the Saturday morning cartoon adaptation.

I’d like the story to eventually return to the elder dragons. There’s 4 or 5 more of them that need to be taken down and I wouldn’t want them to just become background fluff while the story revolves around a new threat each time. When the southsun invasion happened I was sure it would lead to a reveal of bubbles, while Flame and Frost had me hoping Primordus is involved…

Drawing from GW1 and GW2 lore more would be appreciated too, I wouldn’t mind seeing Charr made progress towards clearing Ascalon, learn more about the origin of a certain sylvari from the living story, or find out what the heck Livia has been up to since getting the scepter, retaking Elona or allying with Palawa Joko would also awesome. New enemy factions like the Aether blade or smashups like the Molten alliance just don’t hold quite as much interest with me since I feel there’s enough established plot lines and story ties to go with instead. Going with the TV show analogy again, they feel like monster of the week episodes when I’d rather see established story arcs or stories centered about the big bad.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

Pretty much!

Just to be clear, I have no issue with the size or frequency of the content releases, if you want to release small chunks of content every two weeks like you have been doing that’s fine, if you were to decide you’d rather take a month for a bigger update, or even longer for a full expansion then that would be fine with me too.

With episodic I meant content that comes and goes and the attempts to make living story something that is happening right now – and won’t be happening next week. I’d prefer just permanent content in the standard format delivered at whatever rate you feel works for you.

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

Tamps.6125:

One problem that i have with Living World is that when you add a dungeon such as the molten alliance or the sky pirates one, is that they are still there, we didn’t destroy the areas or anything. After the living story patch and when the enemy is defeated i am sure someone would take over the dungeons.
For example the molten alliance one: Maybe some oozes, cave bats or spiders live there now or maybe even destroyers or maybe inquest took over the place and made a research spot out of it. If players go in that dungeon they have a choice to battle the existing threat (Destroyers have taken over the cave and attack nearby settlements or something like that) or we can choose the " Once upon a time this cave was the base of molten alliance, but the heroes of Tyria battled them for the sake of us all" and then we could play the old version of the dungeon( the one we had in the LS).
Same goes for the one near Lions Arch. Maybe pirates took it as their base or even some merchants now sell their goodies there.

Pretty much like dungeons work now. None is complaining that getting to repeat a dungeon story parts is killing their immersion or what else. I think GW2 has a strong core which should be build upon and expanded rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing the whole living world idea ditched and instead keep expanding the personal story. Adding dungeons, new zones and other content updates should still happen, just without the constraints of the Living World.

Nike.2631:

Ug. Worst of all possible solutions. Gold carries no intrinsic value whatsoever (beyond the fixed rate of conversion to Icy runestones). Pumping more gold into the system doesn’t get anyone closer to their goal, it just shuffles the order of who gets theirs first.

And when everybody gets more gold… nobody gets there any faster.

The value necessary to advance towards Legendaries and Ascended is in the accumulation of crating mats. With the built in alternative that if you get mats you don’t want/need, you can sell them for gold. No one ever makes a Gift of Bifrost faster than 250 unidentified dyes enter the system. You could multiply our gold acquisition by a factor of a thousand and the real “progress clock” wouldn’t change.

Items that can be traded for gold would work, so high tier mats, rare and exotic items, laurels, champion bags… as long as the end result can be turned into gold and the earning rate is comparable to other sources.

Unique rewards like specific zone armor skins can (and should!) be added on top of it, but those alone will only draw a limited pool of players (those who want said skin) for a limited time (until they get it), after which they’ll go back to champ farming.

It is also important to avoid the too common case where just farming gold to buy your desired item is easier than trying to get the item itself.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xae Isareth.1364:

I think where the failure is lies in the rewards. You don’t get nowhere near enough rewards for doing DEs compared to other things, because karma is not very useful. Also, doing something extremely short and simple like killing a champion gives the same if not more rewards than a long DE like escorting someone, so no one does the escorts.

We agree, this is something we’ve been discussing a lot lately and working on some various answers for, but I’m curious:

What rewards would you like to see from rewards? Would they be different when you’re leveling up than when you’re level 80? What would motivate you to want to go around the world playing as many different events as possible, rather than the same 4-5 over and over again?

Some of the fun challenges we are currently solving, but it’s great to hear peoples thoughts on this subject as well.

Gold. Rewarding skins or unique items is only going to matter until a player gets a look and stat combo they are happy with, which they eventually will. At that point they’ll be interested in making gold to work towards some of the expensive items like ascended weapons and legendaries, so any reward that does not lead to those items is going to be useless.

I’d suggest increasing the payout for dynamic events considerably, but limit the bonus reward to once per week for each event. Players would be encouraged to do events all over the place and could do their favorite ones without feeling like their time is wasted, while the weekly limit would keep people from just repeating the same one over and over.

While you are moving blasting staff could you please also fix the AOE range indicators with this trait? Skills like lava font and static field don’t show the bigger circle, particularly Static Field would be much more usable if you knew where exactly the stun will be applied.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Targeting-circles-with-blasting-staff-trait/first#post2707398