Guild Wars 2

Michael Walker.8150:

My biggest issue currently is the “2 weeks” format. The Living Story wants to deliver those great cliffhangers but they only make sense if the time to the next chapter is kept short enough in relation to the story.

Oh god yes. Season 2 for me has been phenomenal story/lore wise when compared agaisnt Season 1. The problem is that ANET is still treating how they release this content as if it was Season 1. 10-20 minutes of new story content every 2 weeks, or in this current case 2 months is ridiculous. Either release that type of content faster or do a proper expansion.

A city isn’t rebuilt in a day. It will be slowly rebuilt with time.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

The main thing an expansion can do which a Living World release can’t . . . is deliver it all at once.

Absolutely. Which as a story and lore junky has been my biggest gripe about LS. GW1 kept me going because I enjoyed the rich lore that was interwoven into the storyline as well as even the side quests. GW2’s pacing of 20-30 minutes of story content every 2 weeks is killing me.

With GW2, I’ve really enjoyed Season 2 so far, but let’s face it, it is maybe 2 hours of new story content after 2 years. Season 1’s story part was by comparison so small and only set the stage for zerging events that I can’t even count it.

At best, the scope of the story part of the living story has been a bridge between the Zhaitan story as experienced in the Personal Story and the next Dragon story arc.

Unless the Mordremoth story goes into a Season 3, I don’t see it concluding by the end of Season 2. Especially if we are going to be getting a region as opposed to 1 zone that just opens little by little as we have seen with Dry Top.

So I could theoretically see an expansion being the next major story (maybe Mordremoth and Kralk?), but also more regions of Tyria opening up (rest of the Maguuma Wastes, Crystal Desert?), more gameplay additions, etc.

I get the concept of LS and the idea that it replaces an expansion, but let’s analyze why LS has so far not delivered on that concept and why people are therefore wanting an expansion, myself included.

1. Season 1 is 95% temporary content that cannot be played or experienced again. So really you have little to show for all the work that went into it. About all that is permanent on the story side is the destruction of LA.

2. The story of Season 2 is fantastic and I applaud ANET for the improvement on this front. Season 2 so far is what I envisioned the story part of LS to be as opposed to the shallow zergfest that was Season 1 (not to say there weren’t fun times to be had in S1, just comparing the two). However…

3. The pacing of the story is killing me. The idea that I get 20-30 minutes of story then have to wait 2 weeks, or in the case of this finale, over a month is ludicrous.

So, this is just my opinion as a person who enjoys the rich deep lore and story that began with Guild Wars 1. I would play GW2 so much more than I currently do if it had more than at best 2 hours more story content that I can right now play then it did on release.

As an aside, I recognize additions like EotM, FotM, etc. and I immensely enjoy them and say kudos to ANET for adding those. My gripes are primarily story and map content related. On that front its largely the same exact game it was 2 years ago with the addition of 2 maps (1 that you have no reason to ever go to), a new dungeon path, and 2 hours of story you can actually play and replay.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Last group I had trying to recruit me based on truth wore white and had a hidden agenda. No thanks, I’ll pass.

LOL. The truth about the Charr/Ascalon conflict. Has nothing to do with what you are implying. Stay on topic.

I decided to go see this map myself within the Command Core instance of the Black Citadel.

There are 3 black flags with emblems on these battle plans. The left most on the map appears to be a bandit emblem. But the other 2 outside the Shaemoor Garrison? Iron Legion.

What are you warmongering Charr planning now? Done playing your "we’re the victims, we just wanted our “homeland” back" card, and planning to take out Kryta too? Now I know why Queen Jennah called the cease-fire shaky at best.

Something I have been preaching for ages and yet my guild refuses to believe and has itself been infiltrated by the Charr’s propoganda of being “victims”. As a result, us Ascalonians are now the black sheep of Tyria.

#reclaimascalon #fightforthetruth

Guild Wars and ANet as a whole has been under a lot of DDoS attacks this week, hence the problems lately.

I don’t understand all the hubbub about SAB. Yes I miss it too, but at best it should be a mini-game within GW2 as opposed to being at all tied into the LS. To be seeing it as some integral part of the game seems disingenuous to what GW2 actually is. If anything, it was a fun April Fools update.

Blaeys.3102:

Not everyone feels an expansion is needed – many of us believe the exact opposite.

And that is certainly people’s perogative.

But let’s analyze what LS has given us so far versus what an expansion would have. Let’s remember that the game is now 2 years old.

Season 1 we can largely write off. Why? The narrative was a very minor part and can’t be replayed. The zerg events were just that, massive zerg events that also can’t be replayed. About the only worthwhile thing that came out of Season 1 was the destruction of Lion’s Arch and the awakening of Mordremoth. We did also get FotM and EotM, which I have a lot of fun with too, so I’ll give it that, but neither advance anything within the overall story/lore of the game.

Season 2 saw in my opinion a remarkable improvement in narrative and the fact it can be replayed. I’ve really enjoyed Season 2 actually. (Though I had a heart attack when I thought they were going to allow Rytlock to break the Foefire curse). However, its overall scope of content is still rather small considering we now only have 1 new zone (Dry Top)and at best 2ish hours of story content.

I’m not even going to bother mentioning Southsun because there is really no reason to go there.

Let’s compare that to 2 years into GW1. We had not 1, but 3 continents and campaign. Let’s remember how this worked in GW1 for a second though. Not only did we have story missions, but we also had a wealth of new quests, many of which were well written, interesting, or posed other questions regarding the story/lore. We also had all the features, new content that each campaign brought. And for me this added hundreds of hours of things to do.

So when we compare the two, at least in my mind, it is clear that GW2 has been seriously lacking on content that we can actually go back and play today, right now. So for all intents and purposes, what’s new versus Aug. 28th, 2012 GW2 and what I could do then, really isn’t all that different. 1 dungeon path, FotM, EotM and 2ish hours of story.

So in my mind it would be a crime if either they didn’t ramp up the scope of LS (and I don’t mean just adding zerging events season1 style) or release an all encompassing expansion. I get the sense that Season 2 is building up to an expansion or larger scale season, but at this point, who knows. I will wait and see. ANET is on the right track with Season 2 in my mind. The question is just if they will take it all the way.

Def Pinoy.7029:

There has to be an expansion before we fight Mordremoth, there’s no way an epic battle against a dragon is just through living story update, there’s got to be an expansion coming.

I am inclined to agree with this.

I think GW2 has ha a much longer term strategy, whether that is good or not remains to be seen, in terms of its overarching story and content. Living Story alone can’t keep GW2 floating. As an avid GW fan since it originally released in 2005, I have to say that so far GW2 has been a game to get burnt out on, much faster than GW1 ever was for me. I mean, by this point, we had Tyria, Cantha and Elona, and in turn all 3 of those campaigns and the new gameplay, features etc. each brought. Whereas 2 years later in GW2 we barely have 2 new zones (1 of which you don’t even really need to go to), new dungeon path, a bunch of good features, a LS season that was largely a zergfest of casual content that cannot be replayed and 2 hours worth of story content for season 2. Not exactly widespread enough content for those of us who have been playing for the 2 years since release.

My hunch is that LS seasons 1 and 2 are building up to a Magumma and possibly Crystal Desert expansion (based on the final cutscene from the last LS update). If so, I’ll be very happy. If not, then I have to join the crowd that says we are tired of waiting.

Heck, I’ve had a lot of fun replaying GW1, starting fresh and from the beginning the past week.

Kalavier.1097:

The Charr of today are different then the Charr of GW1. I don’t see how if the dragons get beat the Charr will INSTANTLY turn and go “WAS FUN GUYS, NOW WE KILL ALL OF YOU!”

Wrong. You are forgetting the fact that even after the time of the Flame Legion’s supremecy, the Charr was still at war with the humans until relatively recently when Queen Jennah finally managed to sign a cease-fire with them, which even in the last living story she called shaky at best.

Canidae Canis.2861:

Ashadow.6874:

Countess Anise is clearly Livia.

I think this guy’s got it. The crack about Anise’s true age was the biggest hint, but also the fact that she has a habit of referring to everyone and everything as her “pet” makes her sound like a necromancer (like Livia is/was). She also wields a scepter – possibly the scepter of orr? I’m interested to see where this is going.

I didn’t necessarily embrace or dismiss this theory before, but this is a very good point. The fact is that Livia lived an extremely long time and Anise’s dialogue regarding her age and the constant use of “pet” is rather peculiar. Not to mention the fact that they both fulfill pretty much the same position within the Shining Blade.

CureForLiving.5360:

Stramatus.5219:

Trixie.7614:

I’m not ok with uniting with the Charr, but I guess we don’t get to choose.

This. As an Ascalonian human, its hard for me to stomach the dialogue options I have with the charr as if we are buddy/buddy.

As far as I’m concerned, they will be the next threat to Tyria after we have gotten rid of the Elder Dragons.

Even as a Charr-fan this is probably very true. They’re a militaristic nation of born and bred warriors, no way they’d just sit ideally around during peace times.

Exactly. ANET does a good job of spinning the Charr as just “retaking their homeland” but oh how quickly we forget the fact that they also went after Orr and Kryta which resulted in the sinking of Orr and Kryta would have been obliterated were it not for the Mursaat.

CureForLiving.5360:

If they’re going to announce an expansion we can probably hope to hear something at gamescon.
I fully agree with you that 4 episodes isn’t enough for us to properly get our dragon killing on, and I’ve never felt that LW should be the primary content delivery method (more like snack during main meals). The LW can serve a very useful purpose in telling small, meaningful, character-driven stories but it get’s a bit iffy when trying to directly tackle world wide threats. Expansion packs can be where the big stuff occurs, while the LW can be a means of exploring the world and it’s lore, perhaps opening a new zone or two but primarily telling the story of DE2.0 and their adventures through Tyria.
Although that being said, ANet hasn’t given any indication that they’re working on a expansion (it’s mostly been players going on about it), and if they did announce an expansion pack we’d probably only see it coming out in a year or more likely 2 years. Well I guess ANet could have secretly been working on it in the background (they’ve been talking about these secret projects of there’s) but it would be odd not to announce anything sooner especially when so many players have been going on and on about it.

Absolutely. I mean, zerging events aside, we can break down the first 2 seasons’ contribution to the overall story pretty easily.

Season 1: The buildup to and awakening of the next Elder Dragon (Mordremoth)
Season 2: The threat spreading, the uniting of the races of Tyria, the buildup to full blown war.
Expansion: Rest of the Maguuma Wastes region, possibly a small part of Crystal Desert. The war against Mordremoth.

Well I have to think that the game is now 2 years old and it would be pretty bad if it was another 1-2 years to really get a huge update to the game instead of the small updates we’ve been getting.

I have to believe something bigger is closer. And I absolutely believe ANET could have been secretly working on it. I always go back to the example of when GW2 was first announced at the release of the Eye of the North in 2007. By 2008 we were supposed to have alphas and betas and as such expected to know a lot more by that point. We didn’t. And we didn’t really hear anything about GW2 until a couple trailers released in 2009. But before that, people were starting to think the game was vaporware.

But here we are today.

I think they’ve been working on something larger scale and have just been doing a good job of keeping it under wraps.

I mean let’s jsut have this discussion for a moment. Living story has been fantastic in providing small updates that keep giving us something to do every 2 weeks, but when you put it all together, it is not even close to being an expansion pack’s worth of new story and content. So I mean, they really have to put out something bigger at some point.

Aethelbert.1497:

They may be connected somehow, though I doubt it. I think it’s more about Glint’s progeny and Master of Peace. Everyone seem to ignore the fact that they must be very important and obviously will play bigger role in the future.

Absolutely what I took away from the video as well. Since the Dwarves are gone, the Zepherites are the ones most tied to Glint now. Since we see the Master of Peace in Season 2, and now a cutscene indicating something with Glint’s progeny, its likely the two are connected.

Edit: @Lethe – One of the Bloodstones is located in the Maguuma Wastes.

Trixie.7614:

I’m not ok with uniting with the Charr, but I guess we don’t get to choose.

This. As an Ascalonian human, its hard for me to stomach the dialogue options I have with the charr as if we are buddy/buddy.

As far as I’m concerned, they will be the next threat to Tyria after we have gotten rid of the Elder Dragons.

Blade Syphon.4325:

Well color me impressed again. Anet is actually returning to the respectable company they were during Guild Wars 1’s run, and I applaud them for that.

A shorter season, but with more content in each episode, means that those that miss the full season won’t be paying out the wazoo for it when it’s all over as they wuold if it had as many episodes as Season 1, the breaks give Anet ample time to work on a polished release of the next half of the season and beyond, and it just seems to work out well over all for both developer and consumer.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s still some things I feel they need to take a long, hard look at (the heavy monitziation of the wardrobe feature, for example), but Season 2 is proving that Anet is going back on the right track, so I’m crossing my fingers and staying cautiously optimistic that they may yet make up for all the damage they did from the game’s launch and throughout Season 1 to their integrity as a developer.

Absolutely. I have enjoyed Season 2 immensely more than the shallow zerg fest that was Season 1. As a Guild Wars 1 veteran, the lack of a real story heavily entrenched in the deep, rich lore of the world was my biggest gripe with Guild Wars 2 when it originally released and in the subsequent Season 1. Season 2 on the other hand is really going to right direction to take advantage of the rich lore they created for Tyria. For that, I applaud ANET.

If this is the mid-season finale, it does make me wonder. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, the actual scope has been smaller. We’ve gotten one map of a proposed Maguuma Wastes region, and I don’t think its realistic to say we’ll be killing one or two elder dragons within 4 more episodes, considering the scope the previous ones have been. Considering that, and timing (2 year anniversary of the game), I almost wonder if ANET is gearing up for an expansion announcement. Almost as if Season 2 is the prelude.

Janderson.4670:

people NEED to keep in mind that Ascalon was ORIGINALLY charr territory so a rightful king to it would most likely be a charr.

No. I don’t subscribe to that retconned lore. That only came about when they decided to make charr a playable race. Us Ascalonian humans are once again getting shafted by this game and Anet.

MadDemon.7548:

Rytlock is freeing Ascalon from it’s curse?
To what end does this serve?
Color me interested.

Color me upset. GG Arenanet. I love GW2, but what you’ve done to the Charr/Ascalonian lore since GW1 sickens me.

Harper.4173:

One day we shall reclaim our lands and drive the Charr back!
Ascalon Eternal!

This. The day is coming.

As for GW1, technically you could Ascalonian, Canthan or Elonian. The lost sister chapter of the PS let’s you choose one.

Of course I went with Ascalonian!

Dialogue was great in this release. Had several moments where I chuckled.

I find much of JS’s music to be great. Many memorable and likable themes. I really liked his work on Factions and EotN.

That said, I felt like he missed the mark a bit on GW2. There are a few memorable themes, but a lot of it just didn’t work in my opinion.

I feel like the new music has had a certain sense of immersion and in the case of Lion’s Arch Lament, emotionally compelling that JS’s GW2 soundtrack didn’t really produce in my opinion. Really liking the current music direction.

No capes in this game is a travesty, just like the charr who prevented them.

Deputy Monotone (Mira) is the only one that stands out like a sore thumb to me. Just play the first Claw Island PS and you’ll see what I mean. Extremely monotonous and absolutely emotionless when Talon was dying. That is single-handedly the worst voice acting in the game. Other then that, nothing else really bothered me.

I ordered both the Skyrim 4-disk and GW2 4-disk soundtracks when they released (both signed by Jeremy Soule too) and I got them within a week or 2 of ordering. Disappointed to hear this kinda crap is going on where people aren’t getting their music.

Living Story is great. I enjoy it. But it fails in one regard. Even lumped all together it is not to the level of us having had even one expansion in the 2 years since GW2 released. When there isn’t living story going on, for instance right now with the WvW Tournament, the game feels very much the same it did the day it released with nothing really new to do. Yes there are new things such as dungeon paths, world bosses, pvp, LA destroyed, etc. But let’s not kid ourselves here. Combined, that’s all very minor when compared against having new land areas and new permanent stories/missions we can play through. I can’t replay the whole LA thing. Even if I could it was a massive zerg event which goes into the other problem with LS.

Anyway, I love LS and the fun things it brought us every 2 weeks, but I also think we need an expansion whether that’s a boxed expansion or a gigantic update. But we need something more permanent then world bosses and a new dungeon path after 2 years.

Less zerging, more story. More lore integrated into the experience. Especially if going into the Jungle. White Mantle, Mursaat! An actual permanent story. Why should PS be the only permanent thing we have?

Excited. Loved the Zephyr Sanctum. Too bad I’m on a roadtrip all next week =\

In for Humans vs. Charr.

About a year ago maybe less, there was a commander named Biglady on SoR who I really liked following. Clear instructions, would count down moving out after a stack to avoid long tails, clean chat.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Just recalled something. In one of the charr personal storylines – I believe the Honorable Soldier one, you can ask Rytlock where he got his sword. He pretty much responds with “none of your business”. Reminds me of Braham’s comment in Scarlet’s End. >.>

As a proud Ascalonian human, I will one day make it my business to extract that information from him.

You can make a custom playlist for GW2, however my experience with that has mostly been negative as the volume is always too low or too loud.

Yeah, my reaction is mixed on the whole Megaserver rollout. I think the concept was great to repopulate zones, but one thing I noticed with this is a return of lag. Some zones almost have too many people for certain events that the lag is getting out of hand again. Did a Melandru run last night and it was a little frustrating.

Honestly, what’s the problem with the Districts model from GW1?

With the exception of the Engineer which feels very Charr-ish to me, I think the rest have their basis in humanity purely from a GW1 perspective.

The Guardian represents the monk in many ways (different, but similar) as well as Dwayna. The Warrior is the warrior and represents Balthazar. The Ranger, Melandru. The Mesmer, Lyssa. Necromancers, Grenth. Elementalists are kinda weird in that I don’t think you can tie them to a specific god unless I am having a brainfart, but they were in GW1 as a human profession. And the thief is highly reminiscent of the Assassins of Cantha.

So I think they are all inherently human.

Heraldusluminare.2946:

@Strama: Not sure why you’d believe that the LS of today is going to be the same as the LS of tomorrow? Maybe ANet learned something (albeit very slowly) about storytelling from this first season? Devs did take notice of that ‘15 Lessons from Months of Scarlet’ post on another thread.

I’ll have to find that.

I am not saying that it will be the same. I am simply saying I hope it doesn’t stay the same.

Personal story was just so not the right way to do the “campaign” of the game, as to me it never felt really connected to the world, and it didn’t feel personal, so it lost on both fronts.

Living story achieved one thing that PS didn’t in that the world felt like it was changing and evolving. But on the flip side, the story/lore was so incredibly shallow that I never fully felt fulfilled on that front. LS gave us a cutscene and an instance and then was just massive zerging events every single time.

My thought is this. LS served as a transition between PS and whatever is upcoming with the Jungle dragon. I’d be really disappointed to see that story follow the LS path as opposed to a “campaign” that was deeper, immersive, replayable. I really wouldn’t mind seeing a return of missions/quests format from GW1 in that regard. I thought it did a much better job for the story portion of the game. More so than a cutscene and an isntance with massive zerging events and PS which was more or less soloable and kinda disconnected from the world and not at all as deep as GW1 story format.

Good luck to you!

You know…I never payed attention to that before. I am going to have to test that out now :P

Dustfinger.9510:

Stramatus.5219:

See EOTN, Charr Homelands. Bunch of camps, I think I recall one stronghold, but certainly no cities.

I’d say that stronghold is evidence against the charr being nomadic.

This is what I am thinking of: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Assault_on_the_Stronghold

A fortification is one thing. It was hardly a “city”.

Dustfinger.9510:

How do we know they were nomadic in GW1? That they didn’t have vast cities back in their homelands away from the front lines of their invasion?

See EOTN, Charr Homelands. Bunch of camps, I think I recall one stronghold, but certainly no cities.

Dustfinger.9510:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

And the indians were, just like the charr back then, tribals living in tents. It wasn’t even a nation back then.

This is false. The charr had an empire.

“Internal strife, reckless power-mongering, and brutal feuds threatened to tear apart this otherwise secure empire.”
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Ecology_of_the_Charr

Funny, never saw anything like this prior to GW2…

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

You know whats funny? The Charr actually never won a major battle against humanity.

-Ascalon:
They only laid waste to ascalon because the Titans gave them a magic nuke. All the Charr had to do was clean up the survivors that were left. And they couldn’t even do that because of the foefire.

-Orr:
We blew it up before they could take it, and took their entire army with us.

-Ebonhawke:
Even with all their military might, they couldn’t take a small fortress for at least 200 years.

Let’s not forget Kryta.

-Kryta: Saul D’alessio and the White Mantle defeated the Charr with the help of the Unseen Ones (Mursaat). (Source: GW1, bonus mission pack)

Charr don’t belong in Ascalon. When the treaty is done with, I and my brothers will rise up a drive the Charr back out of our homeland.

What I miss from GW1 most is the deeper more immersive level of story/quests/atmosphere within PvE which in my opinion was always lacking severely in GW2. Personal story was not at all engaging. And the really interesting side quests from GW1 was replaced with what? Hearts? And what are hearts? Like the most casualized version of “kill 10 centaurs” there can be. Living story was cool towards the end, but as a whole, not a very deep experience. I just get the sense with GW2 that everything keeps getting more casualized. I’d really like to see a “campaign” of sorts. Come up with a better story/quest system for the upcoming Jungle dragon and I’d be happy. Would really hate to see that go the way of Living Story where you would never be able to play the content again.

CAPES! Another reason to despise the charr. Because capes clipped with charr, we couldn’t have them.

Alliances. Dear god this is sorely missed. And because of the whole influence, multi-guild, lack of alliances features, my original small guild that had been around since 2006 died. A small guild of mid 20ish people can’t come up with the influence for a good amount of guild features, especially with the ability to rep other guilds in lieu of having alliances. I see both sides of that argument, but I guess I favor having some sense of guild loyalty.

Small or no heads? :P

Zanshin.5379:

Stramatus.5219:

2 years…have hardly played anything else. Guardians are simply the best.

They’re not the best. They’re balanced. Right in the middle. Not the worst, not the best.

Let me rephrase. Out of all the professions, I have had the most fun with the guardian so for me they are the best.

^ A TES theme in the names I see?

I have a Norn Necromancer: Serana Blackheart

Probably not a very Norn name I am thinking. Serana is from Skyrim lol.

^ 8/10 – I like it.

I have a Sylvari Ranger: Orome of the Forest

He is very green :P

Ranger: 9/10 – I like it
Thief: 7/10 – Good, but the two names together don’t fit the best I think
Guardian: 10/10 – I like it
Mesmer: 10/10 – Awesome

Mine (I am bad coming up with last names):

Guardian: Sir Helvidius
Warrior: Sir Beregond
Mesmer: Lady Yavanna

Wow. Great read. Thanks!

See! Charr are evil! =D