Guild Wars 2

Has anyone actually seen the sewers since all this started? It hadn’t occurred to me, but I haven’t even checked to see if they’re accessible. Been too busy looking for giant footprints, dodging giant lasers, and running after confused zergs.

And it’s actually a nexus of leylines not just a mere intersection, as my friends have named it, “the super mega ultra leyline crossroads”

Crossroads.

Oh dear, now I have blues music running through my head. Crossroads tend to be…not happy places.

Autumn Frazee.3158:

Based on more reports, we are investigating further into this issue with the escort events and how they award participation.

That’s good to hear, I also am having trouble getting credit.

I found the charr and human children who used to play near the bank at the Vigil camp this afternoon. I teared up.

Also spotted the lone centaur who spent all his time with Lionguard rifles pointed at him, Remaining Light, and the bartender from the Fort Marriner bar whose name I can’t recall at the moment.

And while I haven’t found Raisin Face, I think the sick charr guard the healer is attending to with Heal-O-Tron at the Vigil camp might be the guard she spoke to.

And if it is…I’m gonna be tearing up again.

I’ve been wondering about this as well. It was pointed out to me that she’s actually “breaching” the soil, but the scope of all this suggests she’s interested in more than digging the bay even deeper.

Also, am I right in guessing that the drill is planted exactly where her probe was sitting?

Shiren.9532:

I know it’s an effective way to role play your Order in the world and it might even make sense from a lore point of view, but as a person who chose Vigil on their “main” I really wish they’d stop putting really important lore information in Order specific dialogue. It really sucks to be missing out on this stuff and it makes me feel like I made the wrong choice.

Well, I’ve got characters in all three (GW2 has turned me into a raging alt-aholic), but I’m doing the content on my Priory mesmer. I hadn’t found this NPC and talked to her last night. Yet. I’ll remedy that today.

And yeah, I’d assumed she was breaching the soil. I just wondered what was so important to her that she built this huge drill and staged a full-on invasion of LA just in order to move it into position. However, I’ll cover all this in a separate post.

I know I can always count on the lore forum denizens for cool ideas.

I know it’s hard to concentrate on these details when one is distracted by fleeing refugees, attacking baddies, and people yelling for help everywhere. But I see that Scarlet’s drill has a name…“the Breachmaker”.

Um…what’s she breaching, do you think? She’s digging the bay even deeper, but the fact that she’s throwing everything she’s got at LA as the excavation goes on suggests she’s got something big in mind.

What could it be?

Will we ever get to find out what those inoperative Asura gates in Coriolis Plaza are for?

Also, what will become of the many NPC’s? Did the guy ever find the water closets? Did the lady ever find the bargains she was hunting? Did that skritt listen to his friend and stay out of the sewers? What about the lone nonviolent centaur who was visiting LA? Did that other woman near Trader’s Forum ever get the guide to Nebo Terrace she was looking for? Is some Asura parent ever going to rein in that precocious kid who keeps taunting the Charr guard about his face? And what about that inquisitive Sylvari who is eagerly awaiting “the next festival”? Boy, is she in for a surprise!

What will become of all these people? Minds that need examining want to know.

Unfortunately this has been an issue (for my guild) for about a week or so. There are a number of factors being blamed, but the biggest culprit is thought to be a an individual or individuals attacking the networks used by Anet and other companies.

Not sure what they can do about it, but they are aware of it. Hopefully the guilty parties will be caught eventually and put in a boot camp where they belong.

Seems these guys also attack a rather infamous “church” known for rabid hate-mongering. Now, why can’t they just stick to targets like that? People would stand up and cheer instead of wishing various physical impossibilities on them.

Jski.6180:

Karizee.8076:

They are not attacking the games directly, they are attacking the internet backbone that these games are hosted on.

I do not get the WHY for all of this is it realty that much of a rush to troll? Is empathy no longer with the human races?

I imagine the bigger kids picked on them a lot in school.

Apparently. I used a word used to describe Jon Snow in Game of Thrones. I knew it would be blocked but then nearly every other word that could accurately describe them would be as well.

Something needs to be done about these little kittens. Is boot camp still a thing?

Aaron Ansari.1604:

It’s kinda funny, in the sad way, but the best shot for scale we have on him is this (cut to the 1:50 minute mark to avoid serious weirdness), where you can see he pretty much stretches from the Shipyard to the Gates of Arah.

“Serious weirdness”? But that…you don’t understand…it’s a metaphor…um…

Okay, I still don’t quite know what some of that’s supposed to mean. But I remember a lot of people being upset by the “spoiler reveal” of Zhaitan in that trailer.

CureForLiving.5360:

At present it seems more like Mesmers and probably other professions don’t have any official organisation, or at least exclusive organisation. The Order of Whispers probably had a large percentage of Thiefs by anyone can join, the Vigil probably Warriors but again anyone can join.
It would be nice if we had profession-based organisations in game, would be nice for lore given opportunity to flesh out how some professions are viewed by society and how they view society and mechanically it could introduce profession specific armour, weapons, quests etc.

I agree, and there’s probably some great storytelling opportunities in that idea.

GoldenTruth.2853:

Pretty sure it is a bug caused by the hologram machine from Dragon Bash.

As long as no more giant holograms of Kiel appear. That was seriously giving me the willies.

I thought it was representing the Mystic Toilet getting kicked to pieces by Scarlet’s BooBot.

Hmm, have we got anyone mapping (and comparing) the “still active” probes and the self-destructed ones? Might be interesting to see if there’s any pattern.

I asked this in the lore forum yesterday, but I’ll reiterate it here. I guess it counts as a “character” question.

I’d like to know more about Kasmeer’s background…specifically, how she came to be with a “Great and Gorgeous Mesmer Collective” that sent her to Kessex Hills to investigate the Tower of Nightmares. It was cloaked by a massive illusion at the time, but I assume one would have to be a powerful mesmer indeed to be in such an organization, or to be tasked with investigating such a thing.

Will we learn more of Kasmeer and her involvement with this “collective”?

Kinda like the Illuminati, huh? I likes it!

I’m pretty much over the whole “Marjory and Kasmeer” thing, so I want to focus on a different aspect of Kasmeer’s background. I’d like to know about the “Great and Gorgeous Mesmer Collective” that allegedly sent her to investigate the Tower of Nightmares. This seemed the best forum for it…I decided against posting it in the mesmer forum since that forum’s for the profession’s mechanics and builds, and this is a piece of the story.

Apparently.

So is this Collective her guild, or some college (a la the colleges of Rata Sum) for mesmerism (There’s in imposing thought, a college full of mesmers)? Might we, during a heated battle in a future LS installment, glance up to see a whole troop of mesmers (and their clones) charging forth to save the day?

I’m quite curious about this, but haven’t seen anything about it other than that one line. Have I missed anything?

timidobserver.7925:

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

I don’t care if Kasmeer and Marjory are in love.. i just don’t want to see ANY romantic stuff, we have way too more important things to do instead of look at two people flirt patch after patch after patch.

Ah, you don’t like having Kasmeer and Marjory shoved down your throat? Well tough. You will swallow it and you will like it!

I’m going to hopefully assume this post was meant as a joke.

Well, if anyone has been keeping tabs on the other thread about this subject, you will know that Anet is well aware of the reaction it has caused, and I daresay it’ll be taken into consideration where future content is concerned.

As for the Kas and Jory “relationship”…I’m not as troubled by it as I was when I first started seeing talk of it. That’s because I (foolishly) was judging the matter by the many tweets and FB postings about it. I say “foolishly” because I’m always admonishing my friends to find out all they can about a subject before posting about it, and there I went flying in the face of my own advice.

What can I say, I’m a silly old Jersey girl.

By the time I sat down to do the content from the “Moment’s Peace” cutscene and the scenes set in The Dead End, I was braced for exactly the sort of blatant, politically correct pandering I’ve seen others decrying both here and on various social networking sites. But I found that the content is nothing like that…the “relationship” is certainly implied, but I don’t find it heavy-handed. Unnecessary, perhaps, but that’s just me. I don’t find commander tags or bows that shoot flying rainbow unicorns necessary either, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the game. Neither does this.

I’m just sad that the lore of the gameworld doesn’t get a fraction of the attention this matter is getting. Again, that’s just me.

Hmm, how to expand “NO” into 15 characters? Oh yeah, like this.

kiba.2768:

perilisk.1874:

But Kasmeer and Delaqua are an analogue for Lyssa, so they’re sort of a package deal. Braham, Rox, Kasmeer/Delaqua, Canach, Taimi, and E aren’t Destiny’s Edge 2.0, they’re the six Gods 2.0, no longer human-only.

Braham: A guardian. Basically, a courageous warrior who lights things on fire. Balthazar, obvs.

Rox: A ranger (in GW1, they were explicitly linked to Melandru). Also, a miner. Name sounds like Rocks. Nature + Earth = Melandru.

Kasmeer/Delaqua: What’s Lyssa all about? Illusion (Kasmeer), Water (“Del Aqua”), Beauty (depends on your taste), and two women entwined tog… uh, I’ll be in my bunk.

Canach: Was a pretty hero Sylvari, then got all grim and dark looking, and acting, but still sort of a good guy. What with Grenth being sort of a better-than-the-alternative deity, he has the attitude, even if he doesn’t have much in the way of an ice motif yet.

Taimi: Not a lot to go on yet. Certainly, her illness could make her more compassionate to the suffering and give her an interest in studying healing magic, but who knows? But, and it may be a stretch, remember that the legs of Dwayna’s statues in GW1 were always broken and fragmented, and the statue was suspended by her magic (presumably, since the whole thing collapsed in the absence of divine favor). Asuran technomancy always seemed sort of air-themed, what with the crystals and sparks (that also being the theme of the Air dragon), and it’s that tech that keeps her mobile. Though if she upgraded Scruffy to fly or at least levitate, so much the better.

E as Kormir is basically just speculation, but E seems to know a lot about things that are pretty deep in the shadows. Secrets are just hidden Truth. Most likely human and male, or else capable of passing as such both vocally and when holding someone from behind with a knife at their throat. Would be the one gender flip, if male, but then again, Abaddon had the role before Kormir. And if we’re talking about secrets…

seems a bit of a reach. the gods were humans for a reason. the other races worship other ‘religions’ and deities if they have them.

Yeah. It’s a creative notion to be sure, but aside from all that I don’t think the Six Gods are…well, all that relevant anymore. I mean, our teams of multi-racial heroes have to go into the heart of Orr on a regular basis and cleanse their temples.

Plus, while it’s true that Rox is a ranger…a profession closely aligned with Melandru—so was Pyre Fierceshot. And we all know what he thought of the gods.

Nike.2631:

No matter what you think of Jory and Kasmeer’s relationship, expect it to be short.

The New Destiny’s Edge has exactly one human too many.

Well, they don’t have a sylvari yet. I don’t count Canach, he’s too much of a loose cannon.

But I agree it will likely be short-lived. I have a growing suspicion that Kasmeer is about to head down a very dark path indeed.

Phooey. I got all excited, thinking I’d found something significant.

Just thought I’d offer this thread something I just found…

…the LA probe is now red again. Not sure if that happened with the patch we had a short time ago or another, but there it is.

Doggie.3184:

Her secret is she died a very long time ago to Scarlet before we even knew about her and she used her Mesmer magic to make her last clone last until it finishes it’s mission. Once Scarlet dies she’ll reveal this to Marjory and we’ll have a sad, dramatic scene of them saying goodbye to eachother~ then the clone explodes…

…which will kill Marjory or at least confuse her horribly. Depends on how Kasmeer’s traited.

Seriously, though, I’m getting a vibe that Kasmeer is just who she says she is…only she’s about to go bad on us. She’s been harboring resentment against the other nobles of DR for years for what was done to her family, remember. Then we have the finger-pricking incident, the perilous pursuit of Scarlet, and the lurking menace of ED corruption she must encounter in her travels.

Many have hypothesized the Scarlet will die at the end of the LS arc, perhaps in the act of redeeming herself. But somebody’s gonna have to take up the mantle of Bad Guy/Gal…

During the “A Moment’s Peace” (I think that’s what it was called) instance in LA Rox tells Braham that “We have to talk about it sooner or later!” Braham makes an excuse about cleaning his gear and stalks off.

So, what is “it”? A lot of people are assuming it’s a romantic entanglement, but it could be anything. His apparently troubled relationship (there’s that kitten word again) with his mother. His hairstyle. Ham. Who knows?

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

MatthewMedina.5419:

The past year of Living World has been a massive learning curve for us for many reasons, and there have been some areas like this where we agree that there is room for improvement. We’re committed to taking the lessons that we’ve learned over this year and applying them to how we author content and deliver story moving forward, and I’m confident that our storytelling in this format will get better and better as a result!

When me and my guildies entered the Dead End Bar for this Living Story, our guild leader commented: “Wow, we are actually being treated as the main character again”.

You can pas that along to the writing team.

I finally sat down last night and did the two “Dead End” instances and I have to say I was very, very impressed with the presentation. Makes me excited for the next chapter in the story!

MatthewMedina.5419:

Tanith.5264:

If Anet’s made any mistakes here, it’s that they should have introduced Scarlet’s torment sooner. By now so many players are fed up with her that they don’t really care about her true motivations.

The past year of Living World has been a massive learning curve for us for many reasons, and there have been some areas like this where we agree that there is room for improvement. We’re committed to taking the lessons that we’ve learned over this year and applying them to how we author content and deliver story moving forward, and I’m confident that our storytelling in this format will get better and better as a result!

I’m glad to hear that.

Exosferatu.2961:

In my opinion, it is more important for a person to be recognized for who they are rather than for what gender they are.

Exactly. The characters themselves should be the powerhouses that drive the story, not the “relationships”. That’s secondary in GW2’s case. The world is imperiled by creatures who wish to destroy everyone regardless of their “relationships”. The Elder Dragons don’t care.

However, Buttercup brings up an excellent point. However we feel about Marjory and Kasmeer’s “relationship”, we can’t deny that they’re two of the strongest characters to come along since launch. Taimi looks to be very interesting (I haven’t fully checked out the new content pertaining to her), and we’re only just now beginning to get a little depth from Scarlet.

If Anet’s made any mistakes here, it’s that they should have introduced Scarlet’s torment sooner. By now so many players are fed up with her that they don’t really care about her true motivations.

…I don’t know nothin’ about keeping my storage tidy, not with you around!

I mean, look at this. Just look: Bits of various cyphers, scraps of random metal thingies, keys, somebody else’s journal, your journal, chunks of that ugly plant you grew in Kessex Hills, colored pieces of the keys from that escapade, on and on and on…

My thief has long since retired, complaining she can no longer stealthily sneak up on enemies because of all this jangling junk in her bags. My my mesmer asks..nay, demands…that you provide us with 20 slot bags free of charge if you’re going to continue with your disorderly disasters.

That is all.

Carbine.4706:

Thanatos.2691:

I’m not trying to give anything away but… the problem may be related to a group of crazed mesmers who are plotting to overthrow the Trading Post and plunge Tyria into chaos.

What are you talking about?

Joke, I think.

I’ve been having trouble with the entire game crashing on me when I open the TP for the last few days, mayhap this will resolve it!

FlamingFoxx.1305:

(There’s also a trio in the grove who run around having conversations and to me personally it looks like they’re a polyamorous trio…. But I don’t think it’s explicit. It’s really adorable anyway!)

Are you talking about the fellow who states that he wants to “leave a handsome corpse”? Yeah, they’re cute.

Well, this thread had now gone on for several pages, quite amiably despite the differing opinions presented in it, and has been visited by a number of Anet luminaries. I know only two have posted, but I’ll bet a pound of Braham’s favorite bacon that they’re all watching it. The fact that it hasn’t degenerated into text-based fisticuffs says something about us as a community.

Also, something I noted last night. My server’s overflow took down the BooBot, and I happened to be standing near Marjory and Kasmeer during the impromptu dance party that broke out afterward. Marjory asks Kasmeer if she’s all right and Kasmeer responds in a troubled voice—something along the lines of “I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”

I think there’s a storm on Kasmeer’s horizon.

The “BooBot”, as my guild has dubbed her, seems to delight in stomping on my little Asuran mesmer. But tonight Gate of Madness took her down on both main and overflow. This was after a frustrating string of failures, so you could say we’re a little proud of ourselves. I find it to be quite enjoyable myself, if a bit harrowing.

MrPersons.1560:

back on the topic of the OP, I am starting to get tired with the gay/lesbian stuff popping up everywhere. I mean, I am ok with it, I may disagree with it, but I wont hate them for it. Its just that I don’t want to have to see it. I would like to hear about it very little, if at all. almost every game has a gay/lesbian character in it, and its part of the main story so its unavoidable. its just getting annoying to me personally

Gonna play devil’s advocate here for a sec; humor me.

First of all, it’s not really part of the main storyline. The main storyline is the fight against the Elder Dragons (remember them?), and even Caithe’s relationship with Faolain is just a side note there. That was the game’s original selling point, though those of us who are fans of GW would have been sold if the fight was against a plague of drop-bears. Anet would have found a way to tell such a story with beauty and class.

Marjory, Kasmeer, and the rest of Destiny’s Edge Jr. are part of the Living Story, a clever and (mostly) enjoyable device to keep us all busy while the devs work on…whatever’s coming next. Both the main storyline and the LW storyline are true to GW2’s overall message…that disparate people, working together, can overcome any obstacle. Go back and look at the original trailers for the game and you’ll see it. And it’s an awesome message, I don’t think anyone has a problem with it.

What people are having a problem with…as I touched on in my earlier posts and also expressed in your post…is that some people will naturally fixate on the relationships in their favorite games. It’s understandable enough; we’re all wired differently and different things are important to us. Combat mechanics, the loot system, the lore…and yes, the romantic relationships of the characters. I call members of this last group “shippers”, for reasons too long and off-topic to go into here.

Shippers tend to be quite vocal, however. And the reason I worried briefly about an “agenda” is the impact I’ve seen them have on other franchises. It has nothing to do with homophobia (many of my favorite writers and artists are gay, and I honestly don’t care), but a concern for the product itself. Some may be snickering at this point, but I’m being serious. Shipperdom, in certain circumstances, can be destructive to a franchise.

And I’ll close by again saying that my previous posts in this thread were made before I’d watched the LA cutscene of Marjory, Kasmeer, and the others. That did a lot to alleviate my fears. I just hope I’ve done a good job of defining them a little better in this post.

The Black Citadel may well go nuts, but what will Gwen do when she sees us humans trading, working, playing, and fighting alongside the Charr?

Thank you for stepping in and weighing in, Matthew. It’s good to know Anet is carefully observing conversations like this one. On a lot of forums, the thread would long since have been locked.

Braham and Logan slugging it out? Funny you should mention that…I heard a genuine note of concern in Rytlock’s voice when he admonished Rox to “be careful”. I’m thinking that he may not take too kindly to Braham’s interest in Rox.

It’s not in LA, friends and neighbors…it’s in the sea, off the coast, thumping merrily away…

That is not dead which can eternal lie, especially if there’s an annoying thumping machine waking it up.

Delvoire.8930:

Scarlet seems keen on Braham?

I don’t know, but he and Rytlock both seem keen on Rox….I can’t wait to see how that plays out.

Egon Vidar.9125:

Tanith.5264:

Some of us just get irritated when we sense that an agenda—-be it social, political, or whatever—-is getting shoehorned into a storyline that it has nothing to do with.

A.. gay agenda?

Any agenda that has nothing explicitly to do with the storyline of a game. The best example of this I can think of off the top of my head would be Bioshock, which clearly draws some of its inspiration from Atlas Shrugged. In that case it actually is part of the storyline and doesn’t come off as, well…pandering. Pandering annoys the living kitten out of me no matter who it’s aimed at. Cheapens the product.

I will say this. Now that I’ve actually had a chance to watch the “touching base” cutscene in LA and seen the interaction of Marjory and Kasmeer (and everyone else), I’m not as concerned as I was about this. There actually is a lot of character depth being introduced and I’m very happy to see that.

“Tri-Wurm” and “Cerberus” are two offered by my guild for our new world boss. I had suggested that he/she/it have a name of its own, especially since we already have a Great Jungle Wurm. What are everyone’s thoughts?

(Anet, if you’re watching, you should totally make a contest out of this! “Name the Wurm!”)

CharrGirl.7896:

Part of the storyline? No, maybe not. Part of the characters and their development? Yeah. You’ll see in lots of stories little character tidbits that get thrown there to flesh em out better and give them more personality that overall may or may not tie in the general storyline but what’s a good storyline without its characters?

Nothing, of course. And as this is an unfolding storyline, only time will tell…and if it turns out I was wrong about it, I’ll happily come here and concede the point.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I suppose a lot of people secretly feel uncomfortable with the topic. Whenever they discuss the topic of homosexuality, they feel the need to point out which side of the biological fence they are on.

Not necessarily. Some of us just get irritated when we sense that an agenda—-be it social, political, or whatever—-is getting shoehorned into a storyline that it has nothing to do with. If it were part of the storyline then yeah, I could see it. It’s not. Whom sleeps with whom has no bearing whatsoever on this particular storyline.

Seems to be the case on Gate of Madness as well.

Elric.6971:

What if the Star Elder Dragon observes us from afar, examining us like one would watch microbe swarm and multiply in a drop of water?

Are you implying that this Star Dragon is an intelligence vast, cool, and unsympathetic? Because if it is, our only hope is to pull a Calvin and catch a quick cold.

An enterprising Priestess of Dwayna, thinking to enlighten one of the “lesser races”, walked up to a skritt colony and approached one of the sentries posted outside.

Smiling benevolently, she asked, “Have you found Dwayna?”

The sentry did not reply but instead stared uneasily at her. Puzzled, she asked a little more firmly, “Have you found Dwayna?”

The skritt began to twitch, but still did not respond. Finally, in exasperation, the priestess said, “I asked you a question…have you found Dwayna?”

With a squeak of terror, the sentry dashed into the tunnel and ran into one of the main chambers filled with other skritt.

“Quick! Hide! Hide!” he shouted. “Dwayna is gone and they think we did it!!!”

Zhaitan rises from the depths of the Sea of Sorrows, bringing the benighted nation of Orr with him, and goes to the doctor’s office.

The doc says, “What’s wrong with you?”

Zhaitan replies, “It all started with a bump on my back…”