Guild Wars 2

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

~snipped~

The “context” is clearly written out in the paragraphs above those sections you selected out of my entire post. It’s best to read the whole post instead of just taking cut from the bottom section and trying to post against it for that sake.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Absolutely agree with this. I often find myself not doing much of the Living Story because it isn’t the part of the game I enjoy. However, people who are semi-OCD or don’t want to miss out on certain achieves and rewards, for instance lets say, the gift of quartz, which may have much more significance in the future of the game than it does now, are being pressured by the fact that these things are available for 2-4 weeks and if you are a casual player, this is not always doable.

Because so many of the achievements are not requiring that you win the game but that you play as it is intended (crystal picking up in Sprint) and participate occasionally, Anet is addressing this. That being said, if a group of people in an arena are selfless enough to let others win so that they can get the achievement/title, kudos to them. That’s good karma, (real karma) and that’s a nice thing to do for someone who struggles with PvP like arenas, such as Mario Kar- Sanctum Sprint, and Aspect Arena. If you enter an arena and the people there are doing this, just leave and enter a new one. Not every single one is doing this, but let the people have their fun. If a group of 12 people are attempting to get everyone the achieves, those are 12 people who are working together and who approve of this method. Just because you do not does not mean everyone else is wrong.

What you’re asking others to do is inconvenience themselves by going through two additional loading screens just because other players are basically manipulating content. And yes, it is both manipulation and cheating. To that extent, there are rules related to it in the game’s Code of Conduct.

• While participating in Plaver-vs-Player (PvP) gameplay, you will not participate in any form of match manipulation. Match manipulation is defined as any action taken to fix or manipulate the outcome of a match or alter or manipulate the rankings or ratings of the ladder. This also includes disrupting other people’s game experience by not actively participating in matches in good faith, a.k.a leeching.

• You will not exploit any bug in Guild Wars 2 and you will not communicate the existence of any such exploitable bug (bugs that grant the user unnatural or unintended benefits) either directly or through public posting, to any other user of Guild Wars 2.

…and…

You acknowledge that You may not, without signed written consent from a legally authorized representative of NCSOFT, do any of the following:

• Use, or provide others with, any “hack,” “cheat,” “exploit” or “mod

See there? Those are clauses that you agreed to when deciding to play this game. Everyone agrees to them. Because of this, manipulating the mini-games (which are a form of PvP), is considered breech of User Agreement.

More over is the harassment that happens in chat by those trying to manipulate the game to get their achievement points. The constant complaints in chat; the begging to allow them to get whatever goal is needed; the name calling and hate speech to those who constantly come in 1st Place (in the race, in Southsun Survival, in Aspect Arena, and before in Dragon Ball).

• While playing Guild Wars 2, you must respect the rights of others and their rights to play and enjoy the Game. To this end, you may not defraud, harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players. This includes posting insulting, offensive, or abusive comments about players, repeatedly sending unwanted messages, reporting players maliciously, attacking a player based on race, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, etc. Hate speech is not tolerated.

So, before trying to applaud people for “approving this method”, realize that this method is against the design of the game and the rules outlining the play of the game. If they cannot earn an achievement normally without cheating the system (or other players), then said achievement is outside their grasp of reach. A bummer, sure, but they are in no way entitled for said achievement(s).

Gandarel.5091:

Humans prosper in Kryta, Orr and Ascalon, charr legions did never unite, they either got extinct by inner war + the push of Ascalonians, or lost even more ground.

(maybe)Gods still reside in Arah. When Zhaitan rises, Orr prevails, and the gods have a fight with him.

Cantha – Kaineng isn’t the ghetto it is now, the Jade Sea is really a sea, te Echowald forest isn’t from stone.

Elona: Palawa Joko never got released, and Korna, Istan and Vabbi still stand.

New players would need to know more about the important parts of the lore, and Abaddon is the most important.

No, not really. Those the truly care about the lore can and have read it in the books and the Personal Story (which has TONS of lore related to Abaddon).

However, Abaddon is no more. Period. End of story. We know how he fell to the old God’s, we know that later he was defeated again at the hands of player-characters (and Kormier). Things of his defeat, of his fall, of what happened are KNOWN.

What we know about the reactor is it was a first experimental project by the Inquest to manipulate the Elder Dragon’s minions and magic. This is told throughout lore through the Crucible of Eternity dungeon and personal story. What we do not know is what caused the explosion, which Elder Dragon’s minions were being tested upon, and what possible artifacts related to the Elder Dragons they had stored away. That is more related to GW2 than some 1,000 year dead old human god.

Donari.5237:

I just dropped 60 votes in and I was thinking exactly the same thing.

Try dropping 200+ votes,…my fingers hurt. The clicking, the clicking, the clicking…..

Why do players feel that they are entitled to achievements and the associated rewards?

Achievements used to be a fun sense of accomplishing content. Go do XXX content, get a “You completed XXX, congratulations!” and then go about doing whatever it was that you were doing. Slayer types are the most random of these as we adventures slash our way through the countryside killing everything in site.

However, lately achievements have become a hassle. It’s not that they’re more complicated and/or grind-tastic. That’s not the case. Instead achievements have turned the community upside down.

• “But I need the achievement for my next chest.”

• “I hate this content, but I need XXXX achievement.”

• “Bleh! They really shouldn’t make PvP achievements for a PvE game.”

This is the sour taste of people who apparently hate certain pieces of content, but put themselves through it just to get +5-10 achievement points. Ever heard the term “one rotten apple spoils the whole bunch”? Well, this kind of constant complaining in team/map chat while players are enjoying the game,…well that makes the game less enjoyable. It gets to the point where one wishes they could just do a /votekick and make the complainers leave the game by popular vote.

• “Can someone let me win for the achievement?”

• “Dude, stop griefing! I want the achievement too!”

• “Let’s just swap kills/wins for the achievements.”

Poor sportsmanship. Every mini-game that has come out since the beginning of the year has been plagued with self-centered attitudes. These mini-games are a type of Player-vs-Player (or ‘Team-vs-Team’) challenge. It seems that those achievement chasers try to avoid playing the content as designed, to the best of their abilities; instead opting to cheat their way to some more +achievement numbers.

Definition time:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/achievement

achieve·ment
noun \?-?ch?v-m?nt\
Definition of ACHIEVEMENT
1: the act of achieving : accomplishment
2a : a result gained by effort b : a great or heroic deed
3: the quality and quantity of a student’s work

That seems kind of contradictory of the attitudes within the game as of late. Doesn’t it? What’s one really accomplishing by begging for someone to allow them to kill them or give them first place? Is it really a heroic deed by cheating the system to cause only a single mob to spawn out of what’s designed to be ‘waves’ of them?

A player does not need every achievement in the game.
A person is not forced to do content they don’t want to do, save for by their own will.
Achievements are rewards for accomplishing content completion within the game.
Achievements are EARNED, not handed out.
Achievements are not a requirement, only a want by personal/self reasoning.

Zenith.6403:

Siphaed.9235:

Purely PvP games are niche games. Just look at EVE Online and Darkfall. GW2 is a great game for all types because it’s a blend of all types having it’s sPvP, PvE, and WvW. The ‘obsession’ with raid-for-gear grinding that WoW/EQ had as a their key designs as being the only method for content needs to die. It’s not. There are many other ways to have content out there, as GW2 has proven with it’s Living Story system.

- I’m not sure where you got the idea that games where you play against other players are unpopular.

Unpopular? No.
Niche? yes.

The problem with PvP games is that they lack long-term investment (or in the case of EVE and Darkfall, allow for long term investment to be destroyed in seconds with full-loot options). Players bounce from one to the other to the other rather quickly with no lengthy stay. That’s why CoD/Battlefield/<insert multiplayer rehash here> have nearly yearly releases of practically the same game with slight changes.

But, games that offer mixed content a multiple fashions retain customers longer due to having more options of things to do. Bored with the zerg-vs-zerg of WvW tower flipping? Okay, go play some Sky Cannon sPvP maps. Tired of grinding CoF pt 1 for a while? Okay, go do some Southsun Survival for a bit. Keg Brawl is right around the corner of the Hoelbrok Asura Gate. Exploring the world might help you find something you’ve never seen before.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Asura so far are all about golems. Look at the tutorial area: Norn get a huge iceworm-beast, Sylvari an earth-dragon and Asura a golem. Look at the Asura fractal: golems. Look at the Asura dungeon: more golems… I highly doubt that we’ll see an Elder Dragon in a 15-30min fractal (although I would love it).

Thaumanova was also a lot about elementals. The fire elemental is a quite bland boss compared to the Shatterer, Tequatl or the cool Modnir-bosses. As the dragons represent the elements, I’d say we see an earth-elemental/tornado, an frost-elemental/tornado, etc etc.

I’d rather learn how the gods look like, especially Abaddon with the GW2 engine. In GW1 he looked pretty epic already. :-/

Then do the personal story. As part of it, when you first meet the Eye of Zhiatan, it’s in the lost temple of Abbadon. There is his shrine, and a statue within reflects him. Also the jumping puzzle in the Straights of Devastation has an image mural of him as well.

Could we please get a multiple vote feature instead of individual submissions?

With just under a week and a half left in the election, many people with 100, 200, 300+ votes find it hard to sit there and click the mouse button that many times on singular vote submissions. I do think it would be easier if we had a “Vote 10 Times for XXXX” on each candidate at the very least. Sure, more would be better (something like a Vote 50), but 10 itself cuts down clicks by 1/10th the time frame. Carpel tunnel hurts, man.

My theory on the Thaumanova Reactor is that the Inquest were instead experimenting with Elder Dragon magic in a way of trying to use it to their advantage. In fact, the lore behind Crucible of Eternity is that they built that facility after the TR incident to try to further their research. And that research there is all about harnessing Elder Dragon magic for their own devious reasons.

The reason why this is so key…so essential to the game we’re playing now, is because we’ll get more background lore behind some of the Elder Dragons (whichever one that the Inquest was experimenting on at TR). For all we know, they could be siphoning energy leakage from Primordus through a fissure leading to his domain. This could then play into an eventual expansion into that area of the game, and even the eventual release of Dwarfs as a playable race (yay?).

I’m just putting crazy ideas out there, but I wanted to point out the major flaw in the OP’s theories related to TR: chaos was residual after-effect from the explosion that happened at the facility. So the events leading up to the event will not have chaos creatures in it, but instead have much different enemy play.

Karizee.8076:

http://www.mmoculture.com/2013/07/guild-wars-2-2nd-test-phase-for-china-begins-in-september/

I want that Shatterer statue as well, and the Zojaa/Mr. Sparkles one too. The Rytlock one is kind of lame when compared to glancing over at my Collector’s Edition Rytlock.

And the mugs…teeshirts…bookmarks…wind fans. I want it all. I can understand them trying really hard to promote the game in another market and all, but I would LOVE for them to allow us dedicated fans in the Americas and Europe to purchase that kind of merchandise. (Seriously, all my coffee mug has on it is the word “coffee” and a picture of some beans. It needs some GW2 for my morning joe.)

Araziel.7201:

rchu.8945:

Siphaed.9235:

P.S. Guild Wars 2 is a great game. To you, personally, it might not be. That’s your opinion, however wrong it is. The millions of current players, and the Chinese players who are going to be added end-2013/early-2014, also think it is a great game.

With ESO coming out, this game will become another WoW wannabe with some gear grind but no raid content (lol). Anet chose to please the PvE crowd, and they should pay for it dearly.

Don’t mind that guy. He thinks there are millions playing GW2. As far as China goes any of those players that buy this game will blow through it in 2 weeks and I seriously doubt that will end well. The Asian market is far different than the Western one.

Prove otherwise. …..oh wait, you can’t. Stop with your anti-GW2 hate speech. If you don’t like the game, just go play something else. It’s not required that you play it. It may not be for all, but it’s certainly enjoyable for a lot of people (and yes, that number is in the millions). My question is: “What game is so enjoyable to you that you play currently…that you’re avoiding playing just to troll the GW2 forums?”

P.S. @rchu.8945 Purely PvP games are niche games. Just look at EVE Online and Darkfall. GW2 is a great game for all types because it’s a blend of all types having it’s sPvP, PvE, and WvW. The ‘obsession’ with raid-for-gear grinding that WoW/EQ had as a their key designs as being the only method for content needs to die. It’s not. There are many other ways to have content out there, as GW2 has proven with it’s Living Story system.

Oh, and an added note to you’re assumption in TESO being what I read you saying as the “Holy Grail” MMO: please, wake up. The same thing was said about Age of Conan, Star Trek Online, Warhammer Online, Fallen Earth, Planetside 2, Tera, and many other games too. It might be a good game to you, it might not be. However, try to look at it from something other than rose colored glasses.

SandruDaniel.4386:

So there are 4 days left until 1 August and GW2 didn’t get the 1 mil liked they wanted on facebook. Anyone surprised ? Do you think we will still get what they promised for 1 mil likes even if they didn’t get them ? PS: I really don’t know how they could imagine they will get 1 mil likes….need almoust 60k more likes.Maybeuntil the end of the year. But until August ? -.- Did you recommend the game for your friends to give a like ? I didn’t because Is not a game worth buying anymore. I don’t like to lie my friends in the face saying: Hey look this great game! You should buy it!!!
So in the end the 1 mil likes didn’t happen( a few days left but almoust 60k likes pfff….)

How many people playing GW2 even use Facebook? I know of only 3 people in my guild that even talk about Facebook, and they usually get lambasted in Teamspeak when doing so. It’s easy to read all the posts from ArenaNet about the game on Facebook without actually being required to sign up for it.

As good as the perks are, they’re not worth selling your soul to sign up for a social media service that is so bad that it usually makes the news once a week in relation to stupid criminals.

P.S. Guild Wars 2 is a great game. To you, personally, it might not be. That’s your opinion, however wrong it is. The millions of current players, and the Chinese players who are going to be added end-2013/early-2014, also think it is a great game.

SoLeciTO.3490:

I really dont know why anet put many resources on this temporal content and dont focus on permament greate functions like this duel system.

It will be greate if a dev can tell us something about this.

Sorry for my bad english i try my best.

Because it’s THEIR game and they design it how they want to, not how people tell them is should be. Direct 1vs1 dueling in PvE doesn’t fit into the game at all. The types of dueling that they have added -Costume Brawling & Belcher’s Bluff- do fit into the game and are permanent additions to it. These kinds are also balanced with players having an even chance of winning and it’s about skill rather than gear.

9/10 times the players that want to have dueling in PvE areas with PvE gear, are those wanting to do so for the sake of gear measurement and (forget the barbaric term) kitten measurement. Because 1vs1 is currently possible in sPvP via custom arenas that are set that way (and can have spectators watching, cheering from the /map chat sidelines).

Also, there is a very logical reason for not wanting 1vs1 duels set up in this game: balance. First to note (as already done above) that this game is not set up or balanced around 1vs1. But there are many that lack the comprehension to that fact. Those people will take to the forums, social media, map chat, and whatever means they can to vociferously complain about how one class or another is “OP”. This will plague the PvP forums, plague the normal general forums, and worse yet is plague the ears of the developers that would otherwise be listening to legitimate issues with the game. Don’t tell me it won’t happen, because it’s happened in every other situation like this, and it will happen in this one. To that, I say “NO!”

Linnael.1069:

Dueling where? It was supposed to come out “some time after launch.”

Some people have resorted to making WvW duel-finding guilds to fill this gap. Seriously, it hasn’t even been mentioned in development anywhere, and I’m pretty sure there’s a significant number of players that would love to 1v1 in their PvE gear. When is this going to happen?

Find me one time where the developers have ever said that dueling was coming to this game, let alone after launch.

Speak for yourself, but not a “significant number of players”, as to each their own. I’m sure people understand -or at the very least should understand- that as an MMORPG, this game is not balanced around 1-vs-1 fighting, thus should never have a set up in that fashion. All it would do is cause balance complaints and issues that would bring headaches to A.Net (which I’m sure they don’t want).

……..continued (again).
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Thank you for…
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…Dragon Bash A great mid-summer holiday event with some fun things to do and great decorations. Brought with it Dragon Ball, a very cool Quake like mini-game. And that song, oh that song is still stuck in my head “bash the dragon, smash the dragon, drive him back right into it’s den.”
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…Sky Pirates of Tyria It wasn’t just that that Marjory was a very cool character added, with the whole Columbo murder mystery going on. But they stacked on that the instanced dungeon Aetherblade Retreat. An amazing challenge that was very rewarding and fun. Oh, but then on top of that there’s also the additional other Aetherblade Ship jumping puzzle that’s a permanent part of Gendarran Fields.
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…Achievement Rewards Achievement points used to be a comparable number to the likes of /age. Now it’s a rewarded system of goodies every time a cluster of 500 points is tallied to the score. Each a smile in a box, though some more than others (the 5,000 box was AMAZING!).
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…Bazaar of the Four Winds A very enjoyable new area, mini-games, sPvP map ( Skyhammer ), and lore based faction. The new mechanics introduced with the Aspects are really unique. Sure, there are some that don’t like how it’s very movement and jumping oriented, but more than plenty have fun with it. Sanctum Sprint bringing back the days of Mario Cart as a speedy thing. And the most overlooked part of it, would be the strange artifacts the market people have, which some summon Veteran/Champion creatures that attack the market place.
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…Cutthroat Politics We, the players, exercise the that given upon us by the development team the right to vote. The ability to choose between a well known heroic police officer or a corporate penny-pincher; a choice that also helps pick the design theme for the next Fractal event being added into the game (on top of the Molten Weapons Facility and Aetherblade Retreat being added at the same time). The micro story behind each candidate’s reasoning for obtaining Sky Pirate treasure helps solidify their persona’s. And once again Lion’s Arch gets decorated for an event, though this time it’s covered with posters and banners for each of the runners.
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…Southsun Survival This deserved special solo mention just because it’s the spiritual successor to Hunger Royal from the beta events. The word “AWESOME!” cannot be used enough times when referencing this insane mini-game. Takes major advantage of environmental weapons, trap mechanics, and movement.
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…clarity and communication Referencing the Looking Ahead: Guild Wars 2 in 2013 blog post. That gave information on what the players are to expect from the constant development and evolution of the game. This is besides the interviews, daily forum posts, and the weekly Twitch live streams.

Overall a fantastic progression of the game and it’s enjoyable content. A big ‘thumbs up’ to everyone involved with the game. Keep up the good work.

Will this be confirmed soon?

Treasure hunting

109605_0298 Double-click this item to place an X on your map, then dig at that location to create a treasure event for all nearby players.
109605_0299 Treasure Map(s)
109814_0424 Find Buried Treasure!
109814_0425 Using one of these maps marks a hidden treasure location on your map. Treasures may be guarded by hostile enemies.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1iwok3/dishonorable_mini_pets_motd_armors_and_much_more/

That itself sounds like player-made content in the form of small Dynamic Events called “Treasure Hunts”. This is an exciting and promising progression for this game. It seems to be completely legit, given the source (the game’s .dat file, mined by the infamous that_shaman).

Thoughts on this potentially huge content addition to the game?

LittleFoot MacLoyd.6032:

ANet, I am really kitten ed off at you for this. This mini game is too long, and the karka are too powerful, blah, blah blah.

I don’t give a crap what others say, this is the most entertaining mini game yet!
The ONLY bad part is that I only have 2 weeks to enjoy it.

Actually, you’ll the truly only bad part is that you’ll get 2 weeks solid of it, then it’ll only return on rotation for a week once every 4 weeks.

Zasouna.5470:

Hi,

I played around 30 games in Southsun Survival so far. In general I reach around 25- 70 points each match. I may not be the best player at this game but I am at 585 points in total now out of 2500! Compared to Aspect Arena and the time I had to spend there to get all achievements this seems a bit too much. Is it intended to play 100 games to get this achievement?

Best Regards.

This content is NOT single-day content and will be available for 2 WHOLE WEEKS! With that said, you seem to have completed 1/5th of the achievement in 1 day. That means given 5 days -out of 14- you’ll have it completed. It’s not that hard at all.

P.S. Take advantage of the “grace period” and kill/trap as many people as possible prior to the game’s perma-death each round. That’ll get you points.

Zomaarwat.3912:

I see… Lines of red tape everywhere eh? The Shining Blade covering up the existence of Canthans is definitely suspicious. Cantha sounds cool though, but if its not allowed its not allowed. Maybe a Great Collapse fractal could shed more light?

Talk to the NPC’s by the gate, and then you’ll know why a fractal would be a horrible idea. Apparently the sewage system under that section broke, had a massive leak, and caused the sink hole by eroding support areas above the old catacombs below the city (sited in Ghosts of Ascalon).

Darkmorphos.1530:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

But what you’ll be finding under that tent (very soon) is not Canthan.

When he said ‘very soon’ he might have meant the next update ^^

Speculations on what “QJ” is for the name of the update? Because that’s how they code their update photos with the name initials embedded (as seen in Sky Pirates, Cutthroat Politics, Dragon Bash, and every other update prior).

Quaggan Journey?

Quarter Jubilee?

Quantum Jump?

Queen’s Jubilee?

Queen’s Joke?

Queen Joining (i.e. marriage)?

….MORE GUESSES NEEDED!

A.Net has mentioned that this will not happen. Making your race with your character in this game is a big decision that plays major parts in your Personal Story. Because of it being that fundamental to your character’s development, the only way to truly change your race is to delete your original character and reroll.

There’s a reason these aren’t tabbed….: Bank Slots/Bag Slots.

Spend some in-game gold (about roughly 18-20g per bank section) or cough up the $7.50 worth of Gems, which is cheap for long-term account storage.

Is your mail box full? If so, make sure to delete old mail. Your skins come in a mail in-game.

Many of the Living Stories bleed into each other, some more than others.

The Super Adventure Box ran along side the Flame & Frost section.

The Secretes of Southsun was more low key, in only playing with parts of the remaining from Flame and Frost (i.e. the sad plight of the refugees).

Dragon Bash was far better bleed in with Sky Pirates, simply because an event within that Living Story sparked the other Living Story and they finished side-by-side.

Here with the Bazaar of the Four Winds, it’ll remain through the Cutthroat Politics. We know this because the candidates will be at the Zyphrym Sanctum; and so will the ballot boxes too.

As for Southsun, there’s going to be the upcoming Southsun Survival mini-game added to GW2. I’m sure that will bring much traffic to the island, seeing as how the nostalgic nature of it (being a complete recreation of Hunger Royal from the beta days).

Lucyfer.9517:

No, unless it can be permanently disabled.

Why would it need to be disabled? It’s a simple in-game mail that says something like:

"Hello Adventurer,

The Mist League will be hosting matches between a teams today. If you’d like to watch these matches, please tune in to the http://www.twitch.tv/mistleague and cheer on your favorite team(s)."

It takes all of 10sec to delete that main in-game if you don’t want to read it or care about it. But it’s a good way of informing the player base of matches, and for GW2 to promote it’s eSports agenda.

Hello,

A tweet popped up on GW2’s feed that stated:
“Mist League ?@MistLeague
Mist League – Week 5: Magnus Proelium – is live NOW! Match 1: Rainbow 5 vs Denial Gaming, http://twitch.tv/mistleague @GuildWars2
Retweeted by Guild Wars 2

And this is supposed to get people to watch it? There needs to be some sort of in-game pop up/mail informing players to tune into the Live Stream matches when they happen.

Besides that, some advertisements on the front page of GW2 would be nice. I know you like the website being nice and clean looking (which it is), but there needs to be a banner ad for the eSport that’s being promoted.

Facebook, although I can’t stand it personally, needs to also have something about the tournaments being set up and broadcasted.

It just seems so low key right now that nobody gives a Skritt about it. If it gets more public views, it’ll become more mainstream (and that’s needed to bring publicity to the up coming PAX event that’s going to happen).

Is it a conspiracy that a new Tier of crafting up to level 500 is announced just after the BotFW consumes/dumps most crafting materials in the game for exchange of Quartz/excessive recipes/Kite Fortunes?

Seriously, I just dumped nearly my entire banks worth of ‘useless, excessive’ crafting materials. And now a week later A.Net announced that I’ll need those for future content updates when they’ll be adding 500 crafting in the next few months. <insert /facepalm here>

Is this a very ironic thing? I think not, but that’s just one insane conspiracy theorist’s opinion….

Not sure if anyone’s added it yet, but I found a Canthan related book in Divinity’s Reach called “The Winds of Change.”

“Contact with Cantha was finally lost when the flood from Orr’s rising disrupted trade.”

“They’ve closed their shores to us and left us to fight the Dragons alone. To the Mists with them.”

What that means is that even if Cantha were to ever “return”, it would come back to the tune of disdain from the current Tyrian territories due to the abandonment in hard times.

If you want to know about spying, look know further than the Black Lion Trading Company. They spy on every transaction you do, and also take a “generous cut” for themselves of 15%. That is 5% at time of posting the transaction, and 10% at sale; though if you remove the transaction, they’ll still pocket the 5% just because.

What’s bad is that they then take these transaction records, and add new items to their privately owned shop (know to most as “The Gem Store”), as well as sales, based on what people have mostly dealt with. It’s a mass marketing scheme to separate citizen from coin-purse.

As for the Lion’s Guard reading some mail, I see no issue with this. Recently the city of Lion’s Arch was invaded by Aetherblade Pirates and a captain of the Pirate’s Council was murdered out in the open (during a celebration, no less). The murderer was found to be right under our noses, trying to usurp a seated position. And though still captured, the individual in question still has yet to reveal this mysterious “Scarlet” person she was working for. So, the city of Lion’s Arch could use all the extra security it can take.

#TeamKiel

Singer.8740:

New fractal if you give “Kiel/ Evon” your vote. Nice.
Special Discount on goods or travel. Interesting.
Special Bonuses for pvp/wvw players if you……oh wait, there isn’t.

Why play style discrimination. Do are votes not matter. We play this game too.

There was so much potential here for deciding things such as the next piece of siege equipment to be released in wvw and/ or wvw trait line released and for pvp mabie the next map released. id love to here the thoughts and ideas of my fellow player base on this topic. Discuss.

I’m sorry, but you have no idea what you’re talking about. Essentially a “vote” is for a PvE NPC in a PvE Town for the purposes of LORE, STORY, and PVE. This vote has no relation to sPvP or WvW at all. There’s no effect from it because the candidates aren’t doing a representation for those within those areas.

sPvP gets periodic changes to balance/systems, and a new map every 2-3 months. This is besides being able to unlock most every new skin within the sPvP zone.

WvW gets a new mastery every other patch, the periodic balance/systems updates, and holiday perks through drops/map updates (such as the skeleton NPC’s, ghost Dolyaks, and candcorn nodes from Halloween).

However, the PvE environment gets it’s story progression and content. That’s where this election is coming from. That’s what it’ll effect.

Don’t like it? Sorry, but tough luck.

P.S. Tomorrow is the State of Game blog to be posted, wait until then to complain about future WvW/sPvP updates if you don’t like what’s written.

Edit:
P.P.S. Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG first and foremost, a “pvp game” secondly. The whole system of the game was designed at being friendly to your fellow player (i.e. no loot stealing, no mob tagging, downleveling to prevent zone camping, and so on), as an aspect of trying to be an RPG. Sure WvW is a big thing, but not as big as you’d imagine (in fact, large groups of the PvP obsessives who assumed this was a PvP-centric game have left, but larger groups of PvE players have come in droves thanks to the Living Story). As for sPvP, they get tons of content. But there’s only so much they can get to keep things balanced.

Rainin.9812:

Will the Bazaar events and achievements still be available during this content?

Well, since the Zephrym Sanctum will still be in place during the Cutthroat Politics content, it’s well assumed that all the content will be there too. This is because both candidates are going to be on the Zephrym trying to pitch a trade agreement for L.A.

Gandarel.5091:

DarksunG.9537:

Gandarel.5091:

The charrs don’t even know that Abaddon was behind these events.

Nah, I’m sure they know now. With Charr in the Priory & Order I’m sure they know everything our adventurers knew from GW1.

Well, the fact that a human god manipulated them and without him Ascalon would still be human land isn’t really a thing charrs would admit even if they can blame it on the flame legion.

Yes, we know Charr are a prideful people. So when they’re taking order from Norn, made to be nice-nice with Humans, and forced to supposedly “not eat the Asura or Sylvari” (which I suspect they don’t follow at all), it’s kind of a breaking point for them.

This guy currently runs the mass trade control of all of Tyria with the Black Lion Trading Company. So he’s not after the position for the money. But, the one thing this position comes with it control over a portal tech project into the Mists that goes to past events that were major turning point of Tyria. And of all the events to research, he wants to go back to a point where Abaddon was still alive. Does nobody find that suspicious at all?

Ellen Kiel is a brilliant investigator (with player help), a very lawful officer, and a hero (with help of the player). Her agenda was always what’s best for Lion’s Arch,…what’s Gnashblade’s best interest? His pockets, himself, and …… Charr.

Is anyone really suggesting supporting a Charr’s research into traveling back in time to be there at the Fall of Abaddon?

Abaddon created the Titans (the “Gods” of the Charr). He then ordered them to command the Charr to invade the human kingdoms. To help in this, they were given the Cauldron of Cataclysm and performed The Searing [killing 1,000’s and destroying cities and villages throughout Tyria].

Fast forward to present and we have a Charr trying to get into a seat of power to be able to commune with Abaddon in the Mists. Why? What’s the angle? I’ll tell you. He clearly wants to get some of Abaddon’s power, find some trick to put Charr back on top of military conquest of Tyria.

It’s well known that there are many Charr that oppose the treaty Queen Jenna helped establish between Humans and Charr. It’s also well know that many Charr like to dine on Asura with a side-salad of Sylvari (and I once heard they eat Quaggan for dessert).

Do we really want these war-hungry cats being able to use Mist technology (ASURA MADE TECH, mind you) to talk an old god that once helped them destroy old Tyria?
-I certainly don’t.

*This post was paid for by the Charr Are Terrible For Obvious Obsessive Destructive Symptoms (or C.A.T. F.O.O.D.S. for short).

#TeamKiel

fellyn.5083

All good except for the part about Glint. She wasn’t an elder dragon. She was just a lieutenant like Claw of Jormag and The Shatterer. Only she broke free of her Elder Dragons influence some how.

Ya, my bad on that. Either way, she held a lot of Elder Dragon power. Each of the champions has the ability to summon/create minions much like their masters. They also have power like them as well. Honestly, A.Net could play on these aspects in a future story of a Champion -one not defeated by the player base- taking reign of it’s master’s dominion and absorbing the magic that it’s master contained within it.

Nightarch.2943:

Glint was delusional. The dragons are trying to save Tyria, not destroy it. The dragons are the protectors, not the conquerors. If they wanted to consume Tyria then they would have done it the moment they were created.

Save Tyria? Wrong. You don’t invade cities with an army of undead, kill people, steal their bodies, and make more armies of undead, if you’re “trying to save Tyria”.

The only assumed Elder Dragon trying to save Tryia would be the one following Ventari’s (sp?) tablet: The Pale Tree. But, in that same assumed theory, it’s because the tablet that it went the way of good instead of the way of the Nightmare Court, which are supposedly true aspirations of what the Pale Tree would have become without it.

And if you’re going for the theory that Magic is ‘evil’ and that the Elder Dragon’s consuming of all Tyrian magic in order to drain it from the world…..well, that’ insane. Magic has done so many good things and it’s a gift to all races of the human gods 1 year prior to their exodus from Tyria. The only reason that the Elder Dragons consume magic is that it helps them further become more powerful and push for their control of Tyria. It’s only because of magic that the races of Tyria have been able to hold back the tide of their invasions (like the Dwarven magic used to fight Primordus deep under ground).

Edit:

Traveller.7496:

Siphaed.9235:

The steampunk weapons being hidden behind another RNG ticket system is a bit bothersome. I know they are based on http://raidwarning.com/backend/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/4713599.png being a ticket image, and not a single set has been released as a normal unlock/free save for those Toy Weapons of Wintersday (7 months ago).

Oh man, why?? I saw an awesome rapier-style sword in the previews I’ve been longing for my mesmer ever since the game was released, but you’re telling me it’s behind some random boxes…? My only explanation for it is that ANet hates the players.

Nope, I was wrong on that (going purely off icons, mind you).

Candidate Trials Challenge – Begins July 23

Enter into the Candidate Trials alone or with a group in support of your chosen candidate. You’ll test your battle skills by facing off against waves of Aetherblade pirates – hold out for as long as you can to earn Support Tokens and loot! The challenge is great, but so are the rewards – you may even earn a rare chance at an Aetherized weapon!

Vayne.8563:

Siphaed.9235:

Well, it seems that the Fractals are actually Historical, and not recent events.

-Evon’s research would lead to the Fall of Abbadon

-Ellens research would lead to the Thaumanova Reactor explosion.

So, whoever on reddit kept claiming it would be either Molten Weapons Facility or Aetherblade Retreat was fully, 100% wrong.

With that said, the reduced BL keys vs. reduced Waypoint travel was correct and might be the real deciding factor in this election since nobody has a real knowledge about what either Fractal will contain (other than enemy type and a bit of story).

I don’t know. One fractal shows the destruction of Rata Sum which is clearly in the future. So not necessarily historical.

Um…the reactor in question is the same one the Fire Elemental spawn in, which is in Metrica Provence (a zone and 1/2 away from Rata Sum). I’m guessing the event of the explosion will be in the sub-levels, which are currently filled with tons of radiation and chaos materials. In the past, that stuff wasn’t there (only some crazy Inquest experiments, including the one that caused the explosion).

What would be very cool would be if the players actually got to take part in being the cause of the reactor’s failure. Maybe finding out that there’s some horrible experimental weapon they’re creating, and the only way to destroy it would be to destroy the facility (a very ironic situation in that we cause the meltdown in the past only to have to try to help clean up the mess in the present).

Oh, and they better transform all players into Asura just as they do all players to Charr during the Ascalon invasion fractal. I’d be severely disappointed if they don’t.

Bonus: Here’s a 1920×1080 wallpaper combining both candidates.

Well, it seems that the Fractals are actually Historical, and not recent events.

-Evon’s research would lead to the Fall of Abbadon

-Ellens research would lead to the Thaumanova Reactor explosion.

So, whoever on reddit kept claiming it would be either Molten Weapons Facility or Aetherblade Retreat was fully, 100% wrong.

With that said, the reduced BL keys vs. reduced Waypoint travel was correct and might be the real deciding factor in this election since nobody has a real knowledge about what either Fractal will contain (other than enemy type and a bit of story).

All Norn based, male chest showing gear sets:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Predatory_armor

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sheepskin_armor

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dolyak_armor

OP, you’re not looking at it in a logical fashion, you’re only looking at it from a crippled standpoint.

A leaderboard is competitive. To stay competitive, a player must participate and increase their score. Dailies/monthlies require a player actually log-in and play the game. This is competition at it’s finest. They are not awarded automatically just by logging in (participation in killing, jumping puzzles, salvaging, leveling, crafting, exploring, and many other options is required).

So, just because someone ‘takes a vacation’ or starts the game later than everyone else, doesn’t mean that a leaderboard should skew it’s number to appease those individuals. The people that have logged into the game daily, that have played the game consistently, those people have EARNED their spot on the board. In other words: just deal with it.

Conncept.7638:

Where does it say that we’ll get the molten facility with Gnashblade and the aetherblade retreat with Kiel? ‘Cause honestly, I’ll vote for Gnashblade just for that, the molten facility was amazing and the aetherblade retreat was friggin’ horrible.

It’s apparently something the Reddit data miners have found with related dialog and such within the game’s code (because A.Net releases chunks of it to the game’s client before the massive updates, so as to make them smaller downloads in general [because nobody likes a 3-6hr download on patch date]).

apocalyps.7106:

http://raidwarning.com/guildwars-2-election-banners-armor-weapon-skins/

Nice find! They found the stuff for Bazaar of the Four Winds prior to it’s release, and they were spot on. This gives no doubt to those being legit.

Those armor sets look similar to the Profane, Krytan, and Primeval ones that are already on the trading post. And honestly, the Aetherblade sets look better (but that’s a matter of taste and opinion).

The steampunk weapons being hidden behind another RNG ticket system is a bit bothersome. I know they are based on http://raidwarning.com/backend/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/4713599.png being a ticket image, and not a single set has been released as a normal unlock/free save for those Toy Weapons of Wintersday (7 months ago).

It’s cool that they’re bringing another flower-based back item, and this time it’s a Red Rose. If the icon is any indication, that will be one beautiful back piece.

Am I seeing Ellen and Evon based finishers at the bottom of the 1st page? That looks interesting.

The last icons only help promote that Southsun Survival is going to be Hunger Royal reimagined. Though I’m curious about the Karka icon and what that does (unless it’s a baited trap that, when player triggered will ‘attract’ a Karka that spawn there nearly instantly and attacks whoever triggered it).

You can…by purchasing and playing Guild Wars (the first one).

Hall of Monuments is a lore based achievement system to those that completed content in the old game, happening 100’s of years prior to the new game’s time line.

butch.8136:

^ Isn’t a permanent rotation of minigames still temporary? Because we’ve been getting festivals and minigames since a long time and people consider those temporary.

Unless I don’t get what they mean with a permanent rotation.

No, it’s permanent. Okay, try to see it like tPvP (tournament sPvP) in that they rotate the main map every week. With what they’re doing, the mini-game available for whatever period of time they set (most likely a week) will be there and then a different one the following week, and another one and so on. The thing about this is that most every mini-game has come and gone…and hasn’t returned. So, say we’re going to see Hunger Royal again for a week, or we’re going to see Reaper’s Rumble the following week, and what about Dragon Ball the following after, and followed up by Snowball Fights; the week it becomes empty is when Crab Toss is introduced again (snicker).

So, as you can see by my example above, we’ll have returning mini-games in a full rotation so that by having them week-to-week, they don’t become something that’s stale and boring by being there all the time (like how Keg Brawl is).

Amadan.9451:

but historical events shouldn’t be historical and not something we just did?

why should i vote for them? where’s their propaganda? i don’t trust these guys and they are trying to buy votes with goodies, isn’t it illegal in tyria?

They’re trying to buy your vote with PROMISES of goodies. This is normal politics. Though in real it’s usually [broken] promises of tax cuts, safer living conditions, and better infrastructure. We’ll just have to wait and see what kind of campaign each of these candidates cook up.

P.S. Or if either of them try to assassinate the other one from some sort of back-ally deal.

Poyaqui is going away with the Zephyr Sanctum. This is known and it’s best to get the achievements while he’s here.

Each Living Story section will have achievements that will come and go with the new content.

Not going to change.

This was actually mentioned in an interview with one of the developers a week or two ago.

Why are they doing it like this? Well, it’s to keep the game living, fresh, and exiting for those playing it. To entice new and old customer to come see what’s happening in GW2 while it happens. But, more importantly, this is the the “carrot-on-a-stick” without having some crazy power creep like other games. Instead of players chasing the next +2 Power item, they’re chasing the +5 Achievement Points activity. Get it? Okay, good. This will not change.

Elbegast.6970:

The only thing I hate worse than pirates ( the-go-to-bad-guy-when-you-can’t-think-up-anything-original )… are politics & religion.

Seriously, ArenaNet, who are writing these terrible plot/story lines? The constant ‘Threatwork News’ media bombardment is bad enough but now we have to deal with politics in a freakin’ video game?!?!

I want immersion but, more importantly, I need escapism.

1) The “pirates” were more or less mercenaries-for-hire working for Mai who was also working for a very mysterious person by the name of Scarlet. They also were far less than traditional in that they used lightning weapons, wore steampunk armor, and had floating, flying ships.

2) I’m not sure if you’re aware of it, but the whole “good vs bad” ideal in every video game, book, and movie is about politics of one side vs politics of another. But, this is a long term story in relation to a murdered political figure from the last story line (where we got a Columbo style mystery to solve).

P.S. I find it so tiresome that people continually judge other people’s art (yes, the story writing is just as much art as the visual style of the game). More so when they claim that they can do it so much better, yet never step up to plate with their own.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

I am genuinely conflicted.

My character (as well as I) would always vote for Ellen Kiel.
But I also kinda want the Molten Facility back 100 times more than the Aetherblade retreat.

What to do O_O

For what reasoning?

For the Molten Facility, I’d felt that the ‘trash mobs’ leading up to the boss were too bland. The facility itself had two main fights (the Engineer and the end Bosses) and one mediocre fight against a randomized creature. The problem is that the Engineer fight was just a bit of a watered down version of the Boss fight at the end anyways. And, it wasn’t all that “fight”, as it was everyone standing in the upper Left corner between phases as some sort of exploit.

As for Aetherblade, it too had two main fights (Frizz and Mai/Horrik) and one mediocre fight (the gate gauntlet with cannons). The gate cannon fight was more or less a preview of the end boss fight, same-ish. But the Frizz fight, with it’s constantly moving electric beams/walls, was completely unique compared to the end boss. Mai/Horrik became a phased dance of positioning the boss for debuff, doing the DPS while avoiding condition stacks with teleport stabbing, and timed avoidance runs through crazy cannon fields.

In comparison between the two: Aetherblade is harder, has a larger learning curve, and is a more enjoyable “win” with the challenge presented.

As for the Election: My vote will be purely based on lore aspects and what each of the two can bring to the next Living Story. (Example: If either candidate promises to hunt down and kill Trahern for stealing credit related to Zhaitan’s death, I will vote them in a heart beat.)

Riselight.3695:

We WvW players are still getting the crappiest rewards of them all… More badges, 90% of all rank up chests contains a green item and not even 20s, how can this be considered equal to what you get from one CoF run of 10-15 minutes, or an event that grants a bonus chest of not even 15 minutes…
But yeah, they do not listen, in fact, they make it worse. 300 Badges today from the Heavy Achievement chest, I mean, come on, this is not fair. PvE players who don’t like WvW can now easily complete this part of the Legendary by sitting akitten LA, or doing another CoF run.
When will players with a focus on WvW will finally get reasonable rewards compared to PvE players?

Here’s a secret for you:

Who would most likely purchase a mini-pet pack: PvE player or WvW player?

Who would most likely buy Fun Boxes and Fireworks: PvE player or WvW player?

Town Cloths: PvE player or WvW player?

Boosts: PvE or WvW player?

Dyes, hair cut kits, total makeovers: PvE or WvW?

You understand where I’m coming from, right? WvW is not a central focus of this game. This game is built around the PvE content with WvW being a secondary feature (and even sPvP has more priority over it,…but because Custom Arenas, tournament advertising, and so on).

Emapudapus.1307:

In my opinion gem cost, if you want to buy it with gold, is too high. I barely can afford buying anything with it, actualy i never could buy anything there with gold. Just the additional bank slot would cost me more than 26g, not to mention server transfer over 60g. So my suggestion is make static gem cost more like for 1,5-2g you get 100 gems. And reduce the cost of server transfer to like 1200 gems or something … 1800 is just silly.

Just interesting
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/GEMS-TOO-EXPENSIVE
ppl back than complained they had too expensive.

Those things are intended to be purchased with real $$, not fake coin. The option is there, but it’s not a viable business model for A.Net at all. It’s better for them (and you, as a player) that the gold-to-gem ratio is super high to encourage spending $5 to $15, getting that extra bag slot. That way that money will then transfer into future Living Story and other content updates. Gold transfers into nothing but a currency gone from the economy (instead of buying some fancy hat from another player, transferring the gold there, and rotating it, as should be).

Yes, you can, from the coffers only, I’m pretty sure….but good luck

The Ace.9105:

If you listen npc talks in Zephyr Sanctum you notice that some of them speak about Kralkatorrik. Also these pictures of desert area may suggest that the Crystal Desert is really coming.

1) As said above, those images are from the new Skyhammer sPvP map

2) The Zephrites talk a lot about Kralkatorrik because they got their tech from Glints body after the fight between the two.

Nightarch.2943:

For the love of Sigmar can we just finish off the Elder dragons and salvage the horrible personal storyline already? Then focus on living world content? or better yet, don’t make things up(like Southsun) but rather have it evolve around the main story.

*I understand the need for a breath of fresh air but we need to get back on topic.

And why isn’t THIS (Living Story) part of the Personal Story extension? Yay…we defeated Zhiatan (which Trahern took credit for). But now we the players get to have stopped the Molten Alliance’s push against the Shiverpeaks/Ascalon; saved the removed refugee from corrupt business men and giant monsters; investigated a murder during a festival (dragon related); invaded a pirate liar to stop their corruption plot (but haven’t stopped them, or their mysterious boss “Scarlet”, in full yet); escorted members of Lion’s Arch to the Zyphrym Sanctum’s Bazaar to try to open a trade agreement for magical items (of which most of the Zypherite’s tech is derived from the crystal body of Glint, a dead Elder Dragon).

So there’s already a preview of the next Living Story on MMORPG.com (though I’m pretty sure they were supposed to wait until the official info release on the 16th).

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/view/news/read/28065/Guild-Wars-2-Cutthroat-Politics-Coming-July-23rd-Details-Inside.html

The future of Lion’s Arch is in your hands! The explosive events of the Effigy Ceremony at the Dragon Bash left an empty seat on the Captain’s Council of Lion’s Arch. Now, it’s up to the players to support a new Council candidate to victory! War hero Ellen Kiel and Black Lion Trader Evon Gnashblade are both determined to claim the empty seat – help one of them and the results will seriously impact the future events and the Living World we have come to love and cherish!

Earn support tokens as you play Guild Wars 2 during the two weeks of the Cutthroat Politics release, and then use those tokens to help your favorite candidate accrue influence. The winner will show their appreciation by reducing the cost of certain goods or services , hosting a permanent rotation of well-loved mini-games , and sponsoring Mists research into one of two historical events.

Along with a vibrant campaign, the Cutthroat Politics release brings with it three new activities and new, exclusive rewards. Participate in the Southsun Survival or Aspect Arena activities, or test your mettle in the new Candidate Trials PVE Challenge . When doing so, you can earn a beautiful Desert Rose. stylish Zephyr Rucksack, or a little miniature Ellen Kiel and Evon Gnashblade of your very own!

What to take of it:

1) Mini games will be returning in rotation (possibly holiday ones, but that’s doubtful).

2)Mists+Historical Events = New Fractals! (oh!)

3) New items related to once again back piece items.

4) The election implies serious player impact on both results, and the effects that trickle down the road (though whether this is going to be server based, or an average polling of all servers lumped together, still be determined)

5) Zephyr Sanctum still remains through the new content for another couple weeks (i.e. not ending on 23rd…from what’s implied).

Chase.8415:

You’re absolutely correct, guild Wars 2 has a helpful and friendly community to the point where they have people not place first when they already have it.

Since you are purposely ignoring what the community is doing for others, you have essentially became a taboo.

Now you’re complaining about the reactions of the community when you’re not helpful and friendly??? Such a disgrace.

BlueSoda.6297:

Coldin.2840:

Well. If you want to keep winning, you do have to pay the consequences of people getting upset with you for winning. Not sure why you feel the need to keep making these topics.

Because I should be able to play the game without being called names. If you don’t want to read my threads then don’t, it’s up to you.

Here’s a solution for you, don’t go in first place. Perhaps you should be part of the community, rather then be against it. You’re doing this on purpose to the point where you have made several topics about this to “rub salt” in the wounds of those who have not achieved it.

I don’t know about you, but id rather not have people like this in our community.

Maybe you’re unfamiliar with the concept of this PvP RACE.

It’s a race, against other players, to come in 1st (or 2nd or 3rd). Maybe Blue has set a person goal to come in 1st every time, and that’s fun for him. Who are you -or the people in OP image- to attack him for playing the game the way it was designed ?

You call him “a disgrace”, but you are wrong! Attacking someone who is doing nothing but playing the game and achieving the mechanic set goal is what’s disgraceful. Beggging/demanding that he stop playing the RACE properly, just so some people will cheat the system to get an Achievement they didn’t earn, is what is disgraceful.

BlazingZero.9702:

Siphaed.9235:

I know they sell pirated games at street vendors in China as well. My point? None of the retailers in Hong Kong are “official”. A.Net has yet to launch or ship in China. Just because some businesses imported it to that country to sell to people, doesn’t mean that the product creators support that.

What A.Net HAS done in that region was the Closed Beta between May 2nd through May 9th, which was supported by regionally set up servers.

so what do you think about they didn’t block all IP addresses that are outside US?
Clearly they support players from all over the world.

You’re not understanding my point and just seem to be arguing for the sake of arguing. So, let me try to be as plain as possible…

• Servers are only in select regions. These regions are key demographics for the customer base that A.Net aims for. These are areas that will have the absolute BEST connection to the server.

• A.Net does not region-lock their game so as to not alienate players around the world, especially those that travel. However, regions not supported directly do not have server clusters and will have a longer latency. This is something that the customer should expect and not fault the company for (which this thread in fact DOES seem to be nothing more than a fault against GW2 for latency issues that someone in Hong Kong, a currently unsupported region, is having).

Clear enough?