She’s the result of some astonishingly bad writing. I have encountered Sonic the Hedgehog Self-Insert Erotic Fanfiction handled with greater skill than Scarlet’s arc. If I hated the character, in a way that made me strive to vanquish her, that would be a success of sorts. But she’s far too shallow to deserve any strong emotion. She inspires only apathy and disdain. As such, I reserve my distaste for the people responsible for inflicting her on us.
I agree. The writing is terrible. People say she is a scapegoat for their dislike towards the game or living story – I disagree. I like both those things, the living story monthly content is a good way to release new content imo. But Scarlet is not a well designed/written character and there has been plenty of posts/threads to explain why, its not just one thing its numerous things. Had it been a better story and villain this game would be in such a better spot than it is atm.
I just hope they understand what they did wrong with the writing and not just pass the blame on the method of delivery. This would be a titanic mistake.
I googled “Book of what not to do in Storytelling”. Lots of interesting reads.
what worries me is Anet’s ‘professional’ writers should know these things already.
Wizard’s Tower.
/thread
This was an interesting take on what it could be about.
It would be nice if it was something like this. It links gw1 to gw2 and perhaps could have a multi tier linear progression dungeon where you work your way up the tower to fight the necromancer. I hope to see more than just one villain, instead we should have multiple personalities to focus on (a henchman, a torturer, a group of creatures that hunt the countryside at night to find more hosts for the necromancers creations). We could even have a darker force leading the necromancer and this darker unknown force could connect other stories together, but minor hints of its existence should be presented early in the story.
just no more stupid characters like silly old scarlet.
Talked to him only to say I voted for him. He’s the true leader of Lion’s Arch.
I would like to see horizontal progression dungeons.
Currently you have dungeons with different paths and a main hub where you start any dungeon path. What I would like to see is a dungeon made up of 4-5 paths but each path access is unlocked from completing the previous path. 1 → 2 → 3 and so on. The final boss will be at the end of path 5.
Once you have unlocked a path you can log out and your progress will be saved. So you can return to complete the next path at a later date. The loot you are rewarded is based on how many paths you have completed. i.e. if you join a group on path 5 you will receive path 1 loot.
This idea came from when I first completed Ascalonian Catacombs and when you kill the ghost king. he says: “You’ve defeated me, but what’ve you gained? Much deadlier things stir beneath us. They’ll consume you all!”
Unfortunately the things he was talking about were boring ol gravelings. But at the time I thought the explorable paths would take you lower and deeper and new powerful enemies would be discovered with a complex storyline to support it. I was wrong – just a bunch of overgrown lizards.
NO, x player pumps $10k into the game and what does he win over me? does looking good = win?
even then he might be colourblind and he looks like crap but wields a legendary. big deal.
furthermore. If I group with him in a dungeon its win/win for both of us.
OR does it give you an advantage in WvW? clearly paying for better gear if you also the superior strategy – maybe not.
clearly the answer is NO.
I love talking to her and saying “I voted for Evon”
The more QQ there is about her on the boards the more I like her.
It seems ANet has inadvertently created an amazing meta-villain. Scarlet is a more effective villain outside the game than she is within it.
She’s about an effective villain as a mosquito buzzing around my head, I want it to go away, I don’t hate it personally, it just an annoying pest. Its neither interesting to me nor dangerous.
they have stated the reasons behind no capes (yet) because they struggle to make them work with char models.
As for mounts, I didn’t like they way they ruined WoW (esp flying mounts – omg that was terrible, they were totally immersion sucking devices that ruined it. No wonder for the next WoW patch they aren’t going to let you fly until a patch months after the release. They (WoW) realise the problem and here are people wanting them in GW2. no, no, NO.
I’m glad to see a lot of people not wanting them. It makes me feel like this community understands the issue.
Because in GW1 maps were instanced which meant everyone had exactly the same amount of chance to get the rare pets. In GW2 you’re proposing having one pet occasionally somewhere on the map which only ONE person would be able to get. People would just end up camping or finding ways to make sure their guild members got it.
With rare armours – all of them are easily attainable in game, you can either work towards crafting them or buy them off the TP. What you’re proposing has no guaranteed way for people to get it.
You didn’t fully read my post then. I suggested numerous was of getting a rare pet.
Some you could find in a dungeon, either as a random spawn or random drop. I would prefer the former. Dungeons are instanced.
Also if we talk about your issue saying guild members would camp spots? I have played a game (WoW) where rare pets would spawn at random locations around the map and never did guild members camp out for their fellow rangers. No one was ever willing to sit in a spot for hours for their fellow guild member, and never did I come across a non-ranger camping those spots either. If fact in that game it was worse because those rare pets could be killed by anyone. I did mention that they are only targetable by rangers, and could open up an instanced fight 1v1 to obtain the pet.
Also once people obtain that pet there is no need to return to get it. You may not be the first but you will eventually obtain one IF you put in the effort.
There are multiple ways to make this work, but it shouldn’t be as straight forward as going to X location and pressing F. They are rare and should be an accomplishment to obtain.
It would even be nice if as a ranger you found clues like footprints, and you could track down its location. This would also help a ranger feel more like a ranger…
They are rare and elusive, I don’t like the way you mention “guaranteed” as if you could simply buy one off the TP. This is not the idea behind obtaining one. Its for a ranger to get out there and track them down, NOT spend some gold on buying one.
I should add that they would respawn after a certain time after last being tamed. I think the confusion you have is when I say unique. I really just meant rare.
(edited by Thobek.1730)
“I feel six feet tall.”
…Then I realized that I was actually saying that and felt stupid.
I actually thought he was saying “He’s six feet tall!” – I thought it was the asura commenting on a human player when they got close to him
State wise, they should be similar to other pets, but their utilities should be stronger/better.
This is the one thing they shouldn’t do. It would be purely a pet for boasting rights. Having any sort of advantage would cause a lot of QQ.
If the game had unique/rare pets that either had different skins or a completely unique model would people be bothered tracking them down and taming them? Or would it be a wasted gimmick only entertaining pet collectors with that “gotta catch em all” mentality?
Just a couple of suggestions. Firstly one of the major things a ranger could do in WoW was find and tame rare pets. It was a source of pride and boasting that you managed to capture these sought after pets. It also made people actually leave the capital cities and go into the world to hunt them down. There was some intentional griefing with their system but I’m sure Anet could come up with a way to do this better. Maybe they were unkillable or if you click on it it was an instanced fight with a ranger only, perhaps some of them could be found in dungeons either as a rare spawn or random loot drop so that would perhaps help limit the griefing.
You would want these pets to have a long spawn timer and they would roam or spawn at different locations so people couldn’t just camp one spot knowing it would appear exactly there. If Anet choose to have it unkillable then it should despawn after a while to reappear somewhere else.
I also think it would be good if you couldn’t rename this pet and it always had its original unique name.
It could be as simple as a unique skin to an existing model. Or preferably a totally unique pet.
Second suggestion is one that has been said a number of times already was to have you pet grow as you level with it. It starts off juvenile and would nice if it matured over time. Rare pets would be the only exception, they would be fully grown upon taming.
All of those conversations and scenes in the post-release camp were done entirely by our writing team this time around.
Well, well… looks like they can write interesting dialogues when it doesn’t involve scarlet. I also really enjoyed moving around listening to all the conversations especially the one where Braham/Rox meets up with Kasmeer/Marjory. Although Marjory comes across a bit nasty pointing out that it was Braham and Rox that let Scarlet escape. I could understand it if they had previously met but for first time introductions finger pointing isn’t going to help you become friends in a hurry.
It says a lot about Marjory’s personality – not very nice.
Don’t you read your mail? You should always read your mail from now on after a patch, it will help you understand things a lot more.
It seems like everyone else hates Scarlet.
But I think the character is interesting, find her dialogue hilarious, have been generally enjoying the story, and am curious to see how it ends.
Does anyone else like the Scarlet arc?
Just out of curiosity, what movies/TV shows do you like?
While the article has some good criticism, it really only talks about half of the problems with Scarlet. Her awful dialog, her level of power, her really poorly presented “insanity” & her extremely annoying personality are just a few things they ignored.
He can’t be that judgemental. truth be told she is just like you said she is… a disgrace. The writers should be ashamed at her creation. I’ve heard half a dozen better ideas from players that eclipse anything these ‘professional’ writers have to offer.
They are low brow/second rate fantasy writers that are trying to be involved in gaming, and its obvious it is proving too much for them.
The only thing that is holding this game together is the amazing art and sound team. Which is amazing… I can’t fault them.
This Singer guy really needs to stop. It’s ok to have a point of view but to attack others and get it wrong then dig his hole deeper. You have to stop Singer.
The fact is you tried to discredit my post but got your facts wrong and went off in some weird tangent talking about her entry to the Asura colleges not what we were talking about which was her degree’s.
Hmmmm try again, or in this case please don’t.
She didn’t graduate from the colleges she just took classes. She didn’t stick around to graduate because she’d leave when she lost interest.
Emissary Vorpp’s dialog during the closing ceremony (source is Closing Ceremony page on gw2wiki):
“Of course. I know of this Scarlet. She earned advanced engineering degrees at each of Rata Sum’s colleges in record time.”
so yeah Hmmmmm try again.
what he says if you talk to him.
“I know she got special dispensation to study at all three Rata Sum colleges.”
here is a link to his entire conversation.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Closing_Ceremony
next time you post please don’t biasedly just cut what only suites you out of part of a conversation. Yes she did finish the courses in record time but they were only special courses the colleges agreed to teach her. so…
“so yeah Hmmmmm try again.”
Well done you completely misunderstood what we were talking about and instead quoted something about her entrance to the schools, not about the degrees in which she received.
Soooo Yeah, Try Again…. and please next time understand the conversation before trying to discredit the poster, and failing.
A lot of the idle conversations are great in this game, you can come across some really good exchanges scattered throughout the world. But the two that I don’t like listening to are Kasmeer and Marjory – I don’t know why but I find them stupid. “I don’t wear clothes, I just run around naked all day and this is an illusion” “ho ho Kasmeer you are a real hoot!”
The Quaggan convo on the other hand was adorable. He felt sad having to leave his home but because of this he meet the female quaggan… its touching.
its called balance and having an unfair advantaged as an organised team – Is it really that hard to understand why they do it this way?!
I don’t think it’s Scarlet’s, the writers’, or anyone’s fault that the story came out pretty bad so far since I don’t know anything about how they set up the Living Story, and there’s probably more variables than good and bad.
The next story will probably be better because they’ll have experience and will know what works and what doesn’t.
I think its the writers fault and they have admitted themselves that the pacing probably wasn’t done correctly, that a big step for any designer to admit they were wrong. But its a step in the right direction because the can see the issue and now have a chance to correct it.
So because of that I totally agree with your second point – “The next story will probably be better”
I still don’t think Scarlet is a good character though. She was badly planned, managed and delivered. Her personality is one dimensional, her accomplishments are unbelievable, her dialogue is weak and childish, her motives unknown, her involvements in stories are second-hand until her silly appearances of her teleporting in/out at the end of chapters which creates a lack of connection between the player and her.
she really is a horribly designed villain.
She didn’t graduate from the colleges she just took classes. She didn’t stick around to graduate because she’d leave when she lost interest.
Emissary Vorpp’s dialog during the closing ceremony (source is Closing Ceremony page on gw2wiki):
“Of course. I know of this Scarlet. She earned advanced engineering degrees at each of Rata Sum’s colleges in record time.”
so yeah Hmmmmm try again.
omg yes! please make it linear or at least have us understand what our goal is. Scarlet could of been introduced next month and we’ll still be in the same spot we are now – with no idea why we are trying to stop her or why we should even bother.
The story is written so badly, you can take any awesome villain you think of and place them into the storyline with with same actions and they come out looking horrible.
True the whole LS is a mess but I think a better Villain would help. The way she just giggles her way through every speech in that annoying tone is terrible. They should of made her to be more like the Joker – insane and evil but he also shows other emotions which scarlet does not. You don’t ever see her angry, upset, or even in control.
I really like this scene from Btman Arkham Origins where you see the Joker switch to a more serious tone. As soon as he does you think this guy isn’t completely crazy…
Theres nothing wrong with the Scarlet story, and anyone with at least half brain knows it.
You couldn’t be more wrong, even the writers say that it could of been done better. But I guess they must have half a brain as well.
why !?
i liked Scarlet xD
liked? has she died? lets hope so.
No Scarlet – check. I like it already.
Also those quests make sense. Its a first nice chapter.
This thread is nice but a bit silly, you see hundreds of names… nobody outside their server knows of them. I vote for that commander over there, the one with the blue thingy on his head.
If I see her turn up in a santa hat I swear I’m going to punch something.
whoa big task. But I’ll bite later on when I have time to jot things down.
You really have to sit back and take a good look of what achievements really offer you. I used to try and complete them all but now I have a different approach and enjoy the game so much more. Just do the ones you enjoy and leave out the painful grindy ones. It helps it become a game again.
Only 2-3 hrs a week? yeah this game isn’t for you if you can’t handle skipping some content but not the LS, Also its a game you really need to sit back and just wandering around soaking up the amazing art.
In saying that though most of the LS content I have come across can be done within a few hours if your not into achievements (which are basically more of the same – a grind) so if you get 8-12hrs every month that’s more than enough to do what you need (minus WvW which 3 hours a week doesn’t feel like enough but that’s got nothing to do with the LS.)
you should really take “QUIT” out of the title, it makes the thread look like one big QQ thread no matter how genuine you are.
Based on a piece of concept art I imagine she may attempt to pair up Centaurs and Sons of Svanir:
http://images.mmosite.com/photo/2009/10/09/gw2w31680x1050_centaursY55L68JK38.jpg
It could just be me but these guys look like Icebrood Centaurs.
lol oh god plz no… this is becoming a bad joke.
I’ll probably add to this saying the commanders have been great in SoS, its been a tough season going up against four stacked servers where you are constantly outnumbered but they have stuck it out and made a good go of it. It must of been frustrating for them at times. /salute.
All I hope for now is Mag and SoS to drop down to silver so we aren’t swamped by these bigger servers and we can have some good close even matches.
Hopefully he delivers his ‘jokes’ with the same dry humour as always.
they have said they know when and how she will die
Could you possibly tell us when and where have they mentioned it?
Bobby the lead writer said this in a thread about Scarlet. But would not reveal anymore details so we don’t know when this happens – could 2015. (omg even typing that gave me a shiver, I’m hoping it’s Jan 2014)
It’s about half way down the page
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Does-lore-matter/first
(edited by Thobek.1730)
That alliance makes no sense but neither did the krait and the nightmare court, or the dredge and the flame legion.
!!!!SPOILER WARNING !!!!
FOR ALL THOSE WHO HAVE NOT TALKED TO THE NPC’S INVOLVED. DID NOT PLAY THE GAME AT THE TIME OR OTHERWISE. BELOW IS HEAVY SPOILERS THAT EXPLAIN WHY SCARLET CREATED THESE TWO ALLIANCES, SUMMERISED FROM INGAME CONVERSATIONS.They make perfect sense if you do a little research. Scarlet persuaded the dredge and FL to ally as it would be mutually beneficial to them do to the fact that dredge have no magic and FL have no tech. Despite this you find out the alliance is very tenuous do to the fact that the two sides don’t see eye to eye culturally and politically. What Scarlet got out of the alliance was the molten alliance created a new metal alloy that she “aquired”.
Oh really? Your the first person to say this – What was the name of this alloy, where did you find this information?
From what I read here people really just want new permanent places to explore and only ask for dragons because new dragon means new areas. I feel the dragons are just as boring character wise as Scarlet but new areas corrupted by another dragon get me excited.
dragons in gw2 look amazing but they are more like forces of nature than a complex character. I would prefer it if they had generals or heralds that had the personality. I did like the eye and mouth of Zhaitan – they should of used them more. Again a lost opportunity.
I like the LS system minus Scarlet, it keeps me entertained but it does not feel as an expansion because it actually creates new characters and conflicts instead of expanding the established lore. I say the LS is a good replacement for the common patches but not for an expansion. I like wow style expansions that add a lot of content (races and maps being the ones I care more), I would like to see both LS and expansions on GW2 going ahead.
I’m with you on this. The LS is good for me because I play regularly taking 3-4 days off now and again but always returning for the next chapter. I used to play a lot more but this scarlet story isn’t interesting. I’ll probably play the LS chapter where I get to kill her 24/7
Although I find this better than the WoW type of expansion where they drop all this content on you at once and you can burn through it very quickly and then have nothing to do for 3-4 months.
Waaaaait a minute. I take it that you never played the human noble story line, did you?
Faren is brave, but also clumsy.
I did the human story where he helped with the bandits. He may be “brave” sometimes but his silly dialogue ruins it. He’s such a twit. I like it when events change people… He is an upper class snob and talks like it, but when you two storm the bandit hideout and come out alive he’s like “oh jolly good, what a dashing good adventure that was!”
I would prefer it if he was visually shaken and if you talked to him he was more like “I wasn’t prepared for that, so much death…” – then I would like him more. It’s ok to show some weakness.
But they don’t with him, he’s such a pathetic character.
If it’s any of these people, that means we’ve gone 9 months (since the announcement) without any hint of who it actually is. I’m beginning to think they meant Scarlet.
I’m afraid you’re right. Consider the following quote:
Again, no spoilers allowed, so I can’t tell you more than that, but you’ll recognize this sassy character when you see…um, him/her/it. <grin>
That was from Angel McCoy, Scarlet’s creator, and was said during the Flame and Frost story. It’s painfully (very very painful, unfortunately) clear that she was talking about her dear Mary Scarlet Sue.
I would call this disappointing, but that point was hit a few months ago.
Hopefully they pretend it isn’t her and someone less crappy appears as our personal nemesis. I need Scarlet to disappear and not become a reoccurring nuisance.
Looks like hobotron is getting festive. Maybe going caroling for money. Or collecting money for the poor<-himself. Or it could just be another golem on preview page.
I would like it if Hobo Tron collected the money then he kept it for himself. That’s the kind of dry stuff I would expect from him.
“Aside from the Living Story main characters, we’ll also be surprising you with interesting villains, one of whom will become your personal nemesis. "
In my opinion we’re still barely on that first part, but we haven’t even reached the second.
So if you want her to be your nemesis, have fun, but I’m waiting for a better one.
lol, yeah I’m waiting to.
Tough question because there isn’t many to choose from that are any good.
Canach would probably top my list because he is interesting and not as one-dimensional as the others. He’s an Anti-Hero, his intentions are good but the way he goes about it is questionable (actually a bit stupid but I think that had more do with being passionate and over zealous). I really hope he breaks out of jail and starts thinking his plans through. I see him as a man of action. You can’t not feel something for the poor guy, he was trying to do good, his former colleagues tried to assassinate him, and finally he went to jail for his actions…meanwhile Kiel steps in at the end and takes all the glory. poor guy.
Gnashblade again an interesting character. He cares about LionsArch enough to go against his warband leader. He seemed competent when talking to the zephyrite leader (unlike Kiel), he also is an opportunist. I like him, he’s got good and bad traits which makes him feel more like a actual person.
Rox I like the interaction between her and Frostbite. She seems intelligent (unlike that dimwit Braham) so I can respect her judgements. I also like the way she tries to gain acceptance from Rytlock.
ALL the other characters are boring, I did like Majory at the beginning but not so much now. I think her weird conversation with Kasmeer made me respect her less. But her first appearance was great (that bar cutscene)
HoboTron is great for comic relief!
- Ability to have commander macros (such as /say Stack on Me!)
- Tag colors as well as having it display the guild of that commander
- Announcements to squad that pop up in the middle of the screen
As a player I would love to see these things implemented. It will help so much in getting information from the commander that can be lost in spam map/team chat.
I think the announcements should allow the player to toggle “receive commander announcements” because some players might find them annoying if they are not part of the commanders squad (As some people like to squad with friends only)
of course coloured tags is a no-brainer and should of been implemented at launch.
Just wondering if anyone knows what her motive is? Why is she doing all this? I’m thinking I might of missed some big reveal because I have no idea.
Can you answer all or maybe one of these questions:
*her main motive.
*the reason to her childlike attitude (bobby has already said there is a reason, its not natural).
*the way she convinced all these races to join forces. pick one of the many
*the way she can teleport at the slightest danger – basically her advanced technology.
*her connection with the steamcreatures
*her ability to grow red vines from her body
*where and how she gained this large group – the aetherblades
*where and how she created the clockwork machines
*the secret she knows about Caithe.
*why her obvious dislike to Queen Jennah.
*how she appeared in the fractal to talk to us about the Thaumanova reactor. Was she part of the fractal or joined like we did to experience it.
The same goes for games. “Character richness” is now defined by how much of their story is told to you up front, not by how much is concealed and revealed later on.
^ this is the issue. Nobody knows what the hell is going on. Who is this Scarlet, how did she do this, how did she do that?! All these question with no answers, no hints, no nothing.
If they wait to the end to reveal everything, sure it might all make sense but it still won’t make up for the months of confusion, boredom and frustration.
You look at one of the greatest twists in cinema history – The Usual Suspects. Even though there was a huge reveal at the end they didn’t wait til the end to show there was a character Keyser Söze, they developed him throughout the movie with the lawyer, Keaton’s knowledge of him, the cop’s knew of him… Nobody in GW2 ever talked about Scarlet and supposedly she’d been everywhere, even talking to the people she studied with don’t mention her and she’s been invading Tyria. In The Usual Suspects they gave you a motive (cocaine + Kesyer Soze) but it was a lie – but they still at least gave you a motive, we have no motive currently in the LS and its been going on for 6 months now.
Honestly the LS is a mess, just random acts and more unanswered questions piled up on other questions.