Guild Wars 2

SkiTz.4590:

I have my doubts about that as well.. but that’s the thing.. they don’t communicate about it lol , so how do I know? I can only make assumptions.

What on earth are they possibly working on that takes soo much time that they don’t want to spend much of an effort on content for WvW/sPvP?

Speculation on that requires information I don’t have, like how they have their employees divided up. But I suspect they have as many people devoted to upcoming changes/content (LS or otherwise) as they do the technical . . . physical . . . maintenance of their systems.

That’s just based on two things: having more than a few friends who work in IT fields who tell me what their day is like as “internal tech support”; and my own experiences trying to work on tabletop RPGs.

SkiTz.4590:

Point is, CDI’s are just a grab and thinking anet is actually doing something… they listen, but don’t want to do anything because it requires too much effort/time… that’s on the suits @ NCsoft/anet imo… not the actual anet devs though. Devs can only do so much and it all comes down the chain of command…

I doubt it’s a matter of “don’t want to do anything”, but a matter of having only so much time to do stuff and trying to find things which can fit the spaces they can cram that work into.

If I have an hour window of time I can do something in, but something everyone wants me to do is going to take two hours, then of course I’m going to fish for something I can actually finish in the time rather than start something I don’t know if I can finish in a timely fashion.

And that’s assuming whatever I do choose is going to be able to get finished, and things don’t crop up which slows it down. The phrase “unintended side effects” should be stuck in awareness for this sort of thing. No single part of the game really isn’t interconnected with other things . . .

SolviteSekai.9816:

Chris Cleary.8017:

There are really two sides to this, and when it comes down to it, you are both right – and you are both wrong. Both sides have the right to complete the task that they set out to do (completing or not completing).

Challenging another player’s play style is the issue here, and since this revolved around an event that was designed to be completed, it is being changed so that the original design of the event can be carried out.

When something in the game (such as this event) changes negatively as this has, we need to step in and remediate the toxicity. The byproduct of this change happens to be that a champion farm is being slowed, but since that was the originating factor for the toxicity, it’s unavoidable.

I encourage players to remember that not everyone has the same goals when they play, and sometimes they will clash.

While you are here, you should address the sweeping changes you have made moving the game toward a gold treadmill.

Why is everything being designed in such a way that it highly encourages buying gems and swapping them for gold?

Maybe if you answered that, less people would accuse you of kitten the Pay 2 Win stuff out to people.

There’s a necessary gold treadmill?

. . . when someone can get to crafting exotics of their own for under 20 Gold? When the game throws rares at you for just about every large boss? When I literally have enough Karma that I can do a temple and grab armor which is relatively suitable for my needs?

Sometimes I really wonder if I’m playing the same game as everyone else.

SkiTz.4590:

Just look at the disaster from the Ranger CDI. Pets were the #1 issue and literally the least amount of work was put into this issue…

Pets aren’t the worst thing about the Ranger class, everyone just thinks they are. More critical to Ranger is how they just don’t have a particular “purpose” to exist. Anything which they can do . . . isn’t as useful as another class, and therefore there’s “not much reason” to bring one along.

Pets are just the perennial scapegoat for any class which has them. Anywhere.

Strange. That map doesn’t look like Queensdale.

Behellagh.1468:

Essence Snow.3194:

They could very easily make them boxes like ascended boxes where you can choose the weapon that you wanted.

Actually that might work. My initial thought was player choice would be unbalanced, lots of greatswords, few foci or torches and even fewer underwater ones, if any. But if the intention of the choice is to sell them for profit, the flood of supply could level out, to a degree, the cost of precursors. Assuming you’re still allow to sell them.

No, if they make precursors available through alternate means they will probably then make them account bound so everyone doesn’t immediately go for Dusk/Dawn and sell them for profit.

Sometimes I think that’s why people want the scavenger hunt to materialize – for the profit, not for the item.

Iason Evan.3806:

I think the first order of business then is getting rid of the PR speak. Saying, “We can’t talk about that, because we aren’t working on that” is better than, “It’s not off the table”.

That PR speak is there because saying “We aren’t working on it” leads to even more hysterical gnashing of teeth than “we’re not ruling it out”.

Even though both are, functionally, the same thing.

Sigh.

Thanks for the red posts. However, I doubt much of the impression is going to change due to the part where “we don’t talk about things which may or may not be in development”.

Honestly, I’d like to avoid more transparency on it – indie games can get away with that. Smaller projects can get away with it. (Terrafirmacraft springs to mind for how transparent the people are, and how much they talk with players.) I’ve seen smaller MMOs where the staff went somewhat crazy dealing with the players’ feedback.

And we’re talking about an MMO here. Where the feedback can paralyze or slow something from getting any sort of progression, and where something in theory can be wonderful but in practice fall apart rapidly. Where what may work for 51% of the population is going to still generate terrible, angry feedback. Even if it’s announced and never actually makes it to the table.

Gotta be cautious about when to announce and collect feedback, and how to take that feedback. And, from the other side? It helps when the feedback is more than “that sucks” “don’t do that” or “this is going to kill the game” . . . as well as more than “sounds awesome”.

ipan.4356:

Ayrilana.1396:

Take away grind in MMO’s and then what else is there for players to do?

The weird thing is that so few people question this.

Why is this normal?

Why should games be slot machines?

Because it’s entertaining and harmless? Because not every game can be chess, a mostly-perfect-balanced game where only experience and strategy are the variables for the people at the table?

Sorry to break it to you, but there are a lot of people who enjoy games with an element of chance and massive repetitiveness. Why else are games like “Monopoly” or “Risk” so popular?

It doesn’t stop at video/board/card games honestly. There is an element of luck and misfortune to sports all the same. People still enjoy watching it.

Challenge it and light a fire under their kitten . Get up and make them do something about it.

Demand better.

Soon as I think a game which lacks these qualities will actually succeed instead of failing massively? I will.

Honestly I don’t think they’re working on something big . . . yet. I think they want to get people around and prepared before they start a big project. Not that there’s any shortage of minor projects they still have to work on . . . perfect to sic new blood on to get them up to speed on working with the game.

Vayne.8563:

I wouldn’t expect to see anything remotely like what you’re talking about for at least five years…and probably longer. Once that floodgate opens, however, we’re going to see a flurry of products.

There still needs to be someone willing to invest millions of dollars to risk it.

You won’t see a floodgate like opening until after a project proves viable/profitable. Then . . . then the clones pop up and mature within X years.

kta.6502:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Getting dangerously close into territory of “calling out an ANet employee” . . . can we trim it back some?

Done! D…. censorship! If it’s still not good enough, let me know.

I’m still shocked about the writers’ backgrounds tho.

I just don’t want this thread locked down due to overpassion. But as I said – doesn’t really surprise me much. I’ve seen much worse out of better authors/writers.

ipan.4356:

Then what are they doing?

Presumably, they worked on getting things up for the China release and for handling the tech side of things we don’t actually see. Also probably to ramp up internal testing since, well . . . that’s been pretty weak.

Getting dangerously close into territory of “calling out an ANet employee” . . . can we trim it back some?

SaltyDave.7346:

WHY THELL IS EVERYONE STUCK WITH THAT REVIEW. STOP IT.

THE THREAD HAD A CLEARLY HIGHLIGHTED QUESTION IT IS ABOUT.

And for all those who seem to be more concerned about my review than you should be, my attitude and overall opinion is VERY far from negative.

It’s hard to take that at face value with a question basically being loaded with shotgun shells and handed off for us to answer. If I do answer it, I ‘admit’ the first Feature Patch was lacking . . . whatever I think of the upcoming one.

So, I’ll do the Socratic thing and answer your question with a question:

Exactly why do you say the first one lacked anything of substance?

zenleto.6179:

Vayne.8563:

When holograms come out, we’ll all be excited by MMOs again. I want a kitten holodeck kitten!

I should have kept your ambience bit since that’s what gets me to play each day, and roll a new character nearly every month.

But I just want to plug myself into my computer Otherland-style and play that way!

. . . given what happened in “Otherland”, I really don’t want to entertain thinking about that. Also, I think when we do get to the holodeck level of recreation? It will be the death of so much progress civilization will backslide. (Not to mention I don’t think it’s probable with the amount of energy which would be required . . .)

More on topic? I’m bored with the concept of needing to play constantly on my off time and forsake other games . . . I’m bored with the grinds which take my gaming time and flush it . . . and I’m bored with needing to chase higher and higher system requirements so I can tune the game to minimal settings anyway once I get in to improve performance.

So far, that’s most of why I stick with GW2. The sys requirements aren’t too bad, the grind is softer than other things I could be playing, and I can take breaks down to one day a week when my life gets busy and still make “progress” with whatever I want to be doing . . . mostly.

Vayne.8563:

That’s a reason to become a mob?

There’s always a “reason” to become an angry mob, really. All it takes is for people to decide that’s the only solution to their problems . . . or for it to work once for it to become a tactic which can be returned to. After all, it worked before . . .

Honestly? I don’t see anything on the list of things they said “no” to which isn’t something which hasn’t been said “no” to consistently for a long while now. Especially the visual things (Field of View, First Person).

The content stuff, they won’t comment on because if it’s slipped they have something they are working on it becomes like the precursor crafting or such – “when is it coming out?!” . . . when I bet what we see with this Mysterious Seed progression was a sketched idea for said thing which was either not chosen or “let’s test and see how this works for the players”.

Especially given how precursors are a cornerstone of the high-value market, they’re going to be really darn careful about anything regarding their availability. They’d have to be . . . as incompetent as a lot of the forums thinks they are in order to overlook “hey, you can craft Dusk now, why don’t you flip it to the TP in the first hour for a crapload of Gold?”.

Harder in the sense of just being more . . . cumbersome, I suppose. It’s not like I could do . . . DID . . . do, back on my last Wintersday and ran around handing out fireworks or sweet goods to people in Kamadan.

Zaxares.5419:

(And let’s be honest. The only real reason people want a face-to-face trading interface is so they can avoid paying the TP taxes.)

The main reason I want to be able to do that is to hand random people treats on holidays, or hand off stuff to friends I actually trust without needing to go through the mail system every time.

However, having seen the myriad scams which were done in the past games? I really am not all that invested in it.

By the way, whomever sent me the mail claiming to be an Elonian prince who needs me to send him 1000 Gold so he can get his platinum exchanged properly and pay me back triple?

That was legitimately funny.

Should it be noted the ratings have tightened up considerably for video games in recent times? And how the writing isn’t really too far off the mark from previous efforts . . . apparently, reading the notes on “Winds of Change”, the story crept further to being less about the player character and more about circumstances they watch unfold.

So, I’d even go so far as to say this sort of story is exactly what could be expected out of ArenaNet following GW1.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

How would ships get through pre-sinking of Orr?

Mesmer portals.

Ashen.2907:

SkiTz.4590:

The majority of the rewards in GW2 is just scraps. You farm enough scraps (T6 mats, daily gold runs node farming, black lion keys etc), you get what you want

There are too few instances where you actually say “OMG an awesome drop” Things like teq mini pet would be an example of a nice drop.. again, they need more things like that… what majority of the time you are doing is farming for scraps… that’s a lazy system…

Heck look at runescape for example – they got plenty of bosses, each with a variety of rewarding loot like a certain chest peice or weapon. People have options on what kind of stuff they want to farm and get a decent reward out of it…

Here you are stuck with farming around the world for scraps or hoping for RNG drops like a teq mini or frac skin..its an extremely weak rewarding system

I don’t think that, “lazy,” is the right word to describe the reward system in GW2. I think that the devs were a bit nervous about a repeat of complaints about the difficulty of getting rare drop X as happened in GW1 (and other games). I think they went too far the other way.

One benefit is how rarely dropped or “scraps-coming-together” gear really isn’t game-changingly powerful. Frankly, I find that a fantastic thing the more I go back in memory to other MMOs where it’s all-consuming to ride that progression as fast and as hard as possible or get locked out of the “fun stuff” . . . why is it fun?

I suppose it’s kind of also worth noting after six years of GW1 I had almost the same sensation: “so . . . what exactly am I rewarded with when I do stuff?” It’s why I focused on getting quests/story done and then half-shelved the game except to come back on interesting weekend events.

. . . relatedly? Also why I dropped Diablo 2, and other games like it. The question of “so I just spent X hours a week on average for Y years and what do I have to show for it?” weighs on me a lot anymore. There’s not really any significant answer . . . at all . . . to most of them.

The only two games I get that feeling from are Minecraft and Terraria, because I can then sit back and look at things I’ve done and built rather than the gear, the shinies, or the achievements.

. . . the thing is I can’t really come up for a “devil’s advocate” position for mounts as there are only two reasons I feel they could be ‘needed’

1 – Cosmetic or immersive use. In short “because it would look cool”. I feel the merits of this are far outweighed by the concerns of getting it to work properly.

2 – In the event of a place where waypoints were either nonexistent or highly limited. This is stickier, but it is related to why you had the Junundu in Nightfall. It’s really the only place I’d see it being a requirement – a zone or a region where waypoints were farther apart (we have lore reasons why this might be so, in fact), so another way of transportation quickly is needed.

In the case of #2 . . . I think it’d be interesting, but would require a substantial amount of creating to the idea of “this region is going to have mounts, so it gets created this way…”. Rather than putting them in the existing game without changing anything.

It’s the only compelling scenario I feel could warrant an extended use of mounts for the primary purpose – to increase speed of travel.

Nerelith.7360:

So weaken the " Lore " argumet all you want… saying " The Lore argument is weak" is not an argument for why we need , or should have mounts.

Is it wrong I’d rather be on the winning side of a debate which won cleanly rather than using really really sloppy or silly arguments? I would like to win because I put up a good effort, not because the other person flipped the board, flipped me off, and stormed out.

chemiclord.3978:

I think what Nerelith is trying to get at is that in the course of a debate, there is a burden of argument.

Defending the status quo does not require presenting argument. They CAN provide counter-argument, but at the the end of the day, the status quo wins by deflating the argument of the other side.

CHANGING the status quo carries the burden of argument. THEY are the ones that have to convince others change is necessary. Otherwise, the status quo wins simply by default.

It’s the traditional terms of victory in any debate.

I’m all for good debates, but it’s infuriating to watch the ones defending the status quo do so sloppily and relying on “because we don’t want change” as the reason to resist it.

A debate is where two sides sit down and start to try to convince each other their side is correct. When one side just sits there and goes “you’re not convincing us because we refuse to entertain your position”, without ever presenting a case . . . that’s a bad debate.

A good debate is where both sides present their cases and they either agree they’re not going to agree, or one side changes their stance.

A great debate is one where both sides actually discuss things and defend their position with things which make sense, and try to answer the other side’s concerns/arguments with rationality.

This whole debate about mounts? It’s never going to reach anything other than a “bad debate” level because both sides don’t want to entertain any idea there might, in fact, be something wrong in their stance and move to correct it. (The “lore excuse”.) If you’re not going to argue in good faith, why should anyone bother trying to talk at all?

That whole thing is why mount threads inevitably hit the trashbin after getting locked. Nobody bothers to try talking about the issue with anything other than the standard political method of “make the opponent look bad” or “question their motives” until people get annoyed and resort to personal attacks, or just plain leave.

ozmaniandevil.6805:

But hey, if you 10 people want ANet to make everyone play how you approve of, then it will end up with 10 players at the end of the day while other move on to something enjoyable. Have fun.

Who said that’s what I want out of the game? I don’t care if it gets fixed or not, I can’t partake anyway with how crowded it gets. I’d rather go play in spots I’m not crippled by the lightshow melting my poor integrated GPU.

I suggested a solution which is less painful than just hitting it with the nerf bat again.

Why in the name of Kormir do you even need all that gold anyway? There’s nothing to really spend it on in great amounts except precursors and legendaries.

I’ve never had an issue running short on cash, or basic crafting supplies, when I just log in and play the whole game. Gather, salvage, sell, do some world bosses or WvW, whatever. It boggles me why people think they have to farm this stuff, or what they’d do with what they get out of it.

That’s why I gave absolutely no care about the Queensdale Train before, except for the people who either ruined it just because they could and it was funny to get a rise out of people . . . or who were downright abusive to those who didn’t want to get on board.

I care less about the farm existing than I do about how it affects the community. Strangely, from what I’m seeing? The same with ArenaNet.

Nerelith.7360:

It sounds Like you want mounts but do not wish to make any compelling arguments for their inclusion.

You need to check my posting history on the topic of mounts before you say things like that. I don’t want mounts, I just only have some specific objections which nobody bothers to bring up anymore in favor of hiding behind either “we just don’t want them” and “lore sez no”.

One of which is false, the other just is . . . impossible to reason around.

So . . . do pardon me, I rather was hoping to inject some common sense into these discussions so they don’t read like “I don’t like spinach because ew” “but it’s good for you” “nuh uh”.

If you want compelling reasons I have not to include mounts, I’ll post them again for the fiftieth time. Though I’ll be brief rather than in-depth because I just don’t care about it enough to get riled up and post a five-post analysis.

- People who don’t want mounts would not be happy, and this would split the community again over “ANet doesn’t value it’s REAL customers”. We really can’t afford to keep having that sort of thing happen.

- The time and energy spent into properly adding mounts and checking clipping (especially with charr) could be better served doing things like fixing existing armor issues or generating new armor/weapon sets, or just new enemies. From reading constant posts on either the mounts or “new appearances” fronts – I think it would make more people happy to put the energy which would be for mounts into developing new weapons and armor models. (Now, if only they could stay out of the Gem Store….)

- The waypoint system exists as a means of quick travel which is considerably better at it, save in places where contested waypoints are common. All mounts for transportation does is paint over the problem of that, rather than actually solve it. The second issue about waypoints costing money assumes the mounts would be given away for free, rather than more likely being another gold sink, time sink, or Gem store purchase. One of these three will happen, but I lean to the first two primarily, since it would be the simplest course of action.

- Technical limitations would rear an ugly head as the program now needs to render more models on the screen, which would make those of us who are playing near minimal system specs (with no real hope of upgrading off that rung of the tech ladder) have more problems than we have already. Performance would suffer, and it would probably annoy way more people than “ooh cool, nice mount” is worth.

The only reason for mounts in my head I can think of ?

- It’d be pretty cool if I could get my norn riding a kveldwulf.

Nerelith.7360:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Nerelith? He’s not arguing for mounts. He’s saying the lore argument is faulty in general, due to it being . . . you know, flimsy. (And not essentially correct )

How about he and you, address the fact that those wanting mounts have not put forward a single compelling argument for their inclusion?

I don’t need to address a gods-be-blasted thing. Least of all because you insist on it. I don’t have a stake in being right or not on this one. I quite simply couldn’t care less if there were mounts in the game or not, provided they don’t tear apart the game just to add them in.

Saying " the lore excuse is weak"… It may be weak in your opinion. But.. the fact is, the only reason the Anti-mount side needs is " we do not want mounts"

The Pro-mount side needs to provide compelling arguments as to why mounts are a beneficial or necessary change that justifies the time, energy and resources used to break lore, to provide them.

If the " Lore excuse" is weak…the Pro-mount arguments are… non-existent.

Your argument isn’t even making sense anymore.

If the “lore excuse” is weak, then it’s not the Pro-Mount argument which is weakened, it’s the “we shouldn’t get mounts because of lore reasons” which is weakened.

If you’re going to start arguments on this thing, keep your line of argument straight or you’re not going to be taken seriously when you have an argument which is worth anything. Like whether to use a trebuchet or a catapult to send asura over enemy walls.

Nerelith? He’s not arguing for mounts. He’s saying the lore argument is faulty in general, due to it being . . . you know, flimsy. (And not essentially correct )

Khyber.2693:

Strawman or not, “fixing” the exploitable events will ruin Orr. It was already nerfed horribly before, anything else and going there will become a waste of time. What you’re doing in contributing to ruining a part of the game for some players.

By the way, people have “contributed to ruining a part of the game for some players” . . . two words: Queensdale Train. Among other things.

Orr needs to be looked at closely and redone anyway. There are parts of it which remain completely untouched and several events nobody wants to do because other things are better off. Strait of Devastation is a mess, and the intended design of it runs counter to the current state of the game. Malchor’s Leap has a lot of stuff nobody really does, and Cursed Shore might as well be “the tunnel”.

I really hope there’s some shaking going on with this. starting with rebalancing the events. You want to know how you can do this with existing tech in the game?

Limit champion spawns to X number at Y intervals, then reward the champion bags after a successful completion. Eliminate all other loot except for grey vendor trash (precedent: “Risen Grubs from Risen Giants” – used to drop loot, was quickly patched out as people just farmed infinite grubs).

Problem solved. Do the same for other events which may spawn champions but don’t have world bosses or bonus chests involved.

rfdarko.4639:

My point was less about the characterization itself, and more in how we experience those characters in game. Whether you find job-o-tron endearing or annoying, they way you encounter him is organic – he is living his life in the in-game world, and we run into him when our paths happen to cross.

No, it’s not organic. It’s forced. That was part of my point; it’s forced and almost assured of how his involvement was going to take place at a given time. He’s not living his live, he’s being paraded at us. Or rather, was.

By sitcom characters I don’t necessarily mean silly and throw away. I mean that we are experiencing the events of tyria through these characters and much of the plot comes from character drama – like you would when watching a TV show. When I’m playing an mmorpg, I don’t want it to be like a TV show – I want it to take full advantage of the fact that my character is IN and A PART of the world, and I have an opportunity to interact with charterers in a more natural way.

Sitcom is “situation comedy”, which is different than “drama” . . . all television shows are not sitcoms. CSI is not a sitcom, neither was Law and Order, NYPD Blue, The West Wing, Star Trek (okay, debatably Voyager may count as a sitcom), Dark Shadows, Game of Thrones . . . of these categories, sitcoms and reality shows are the two which get the biggest eye rolls in general. Sitcom is sometimes used as a means of derision when talking about characterization or plot. So instead of saying “TV show” to begin with, you said “sitcom” which shows where your mind goes subconsciously when you think about this. What you’re telling me, through your choice of words, is how you see the living story and the biconics.

As I said up-thread: there is enough room for character drama to take place around us. That’s not really the issue going on here, the issue is how each part doesn’t have room to breathe or sink in with the characters before the next part is dropped.

Also, and repeating this because it’s relevant: it’s odd you praise a character-centric sideshow in the golemite formerly known by “Job-o-Tron” while condemning the rest of it for even trying. This shows you care less about it actually being present and more about whether it meets what you think is suitably worth your time. “Job-o-Tron” may be having his own thing, but like the biconics it happens without our character’s input, without their interaction, and all on its own.

Yet you like it and praise it while saying the other side of the coin isn’t proper and good. Do you see why I was/am so exasperated yet?

A little side note, though. I came into this game off GW1 and the story there. That means I had some experience with ArenaNet’s style of telling a story . . . and it was exactly the same in the four storylines before Guild Wars 2. Player agency didn’t exist, we were just present to do things to move the story along and get told what to do next. Even in the campaign with arguably the most player agency (Nightfall) it boiled down to riding the rails of a campaign already plotted out with no real changes to the story no matter what you chose. I do not understand how it should be expected we would get anything differently handled when we got six years of that type of story presence.

It’s an Orrian object, I think. Furthermore I think it was a power source like asuran ones, only more . . . aesthetically designed.

Eh, both versions of Tyria (the landmass not the whole game) had an issue with exploration. In the first one, boxy maps were requiring scraping along the edges to get the shiny title of “You Just Wasted 6 Hours Scraping For The Last Lousy Point”. It also had those lovely Z axis issues where something could get “obstructed” near a bridge side or stairs.

GW2 has a ton of stuff and no reason short of “let’s go find it” to go there, really. But if you want to talk about fond remembrances? The first time I chanced into Aurora’s Remains. I’ll spoil nothing for those who haven’t found it in Brisban.

rfdarko.4639:

Job-o-tron feels like he is part of a living, breathing world. I come across him when it makes sense to, and he evolves and shows different sides of his personality.

I don’t know, I think his “evolution” smacked of pandering and the popularity of him probably took root with more people who liked snarky mechanical characters (HK-47) than those like me, who would rather they just . . . go away.

I do find it odd, how his “evolution” gets spotlighted, but because he’s not specifically part of the biconics, anything the writers try to do with them gets labeled like I did above with the lil golemite – “pandering to X base” but when it comes to a side character . . . it’s cool and unusual and they should do more.

No, they should do more reasonable things, like restraint and slowing the story down a tad. It’s falling into the trap (at least of Dragon’s Reach pt1) of moving too quickly through the plot points.

The biconics are more like sitcom characters, and following their narrative feels a bit arbitrary for many of the reasons the OP listed.

See, this here encapsulates why I think it’s sad people only like the side characters in the LS rather than the main biconics. The biconics are “sitcom characters”, but Job-o-Tron is “interesting”. Despite his almost every appearance playing comic relief.

You want to know what I relate the biconics to, with a little sadness? The castaways of Lost. Because they were just as flawed a concept, because there were just as many writing and pacing mishaps, and because there was just as many “okay, that was actually pretty good” moments in that show.

So, are we stuck, again, on the mounts part of the proposal, rather than the rest?

Lostwingman.5034:

Don’t they say you can both be appointed as a noble and inherit it? Plus, how much do we know about the ranking of titles? Maybe appointed nobles can reach only so high like Viscount, Baron, or Knight?

Historically speaking, I think “Baron” was the sort of distant blood relative while “Count” was not. “Knights” are almost certainly not necessarily of noble birth, but require certain qualities which make it harder for the common man/woman to earn it.

Ashen.2907:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I will really always remember her primarily as the annoying girl who turned into a bitter mesmer witch.

Is it a bad thing that this is part of why I liked her ?

No, not really. I liked the adult character for what she was mostly, and in theory it worked for me as someone I could enjoy them working some story around.

But I don’t get how people who played the first game were completely convinced she was the most awesome character in the game. (It’s a personal thing – I similarly don’t get how so many people think Final Fantasy 7 was the bestest one ever, or alternatively how people see Nathan Fillion as overrated.)

Boneheart.3561:

Dusty Moon.4382:

Capes are so yesterday….

Gurl, you speaking my language!
I feel like capes obstruct the eye candy, and there’s already so many things displaying what guild I’m in.

Ahem.

No capes.

It sounds interesting, but it would likely be only perfect for you and a headache for the rest of the players who have their own opinion of what a “perfect Tyria” is.

It’s also less about Tyria being perfected and more about the game being perfected in your eyes. Tyria’s fine the way it is.

Nerelith.7360:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Mosharn.8357:

GW2 would easily be top 5 if the devs had more freedom.

No, I think if the devs had more freedom to do whatever they wished, it’d be outside the top 10. Sometimes too much freedom isn’t as good for creativity. (See, World 2 SAB)

More Freedom is always good, and leads to more creativity. The question is…. is more creativity always good for their bottom line?

No. More freedom is not always good, and limitations are what breed creative answers, especially with games. You figure out a creative solution when you can’t just get around the problem by changing the rules.

Case in point

I’ve had a look at what this person and his team came up with when they ignored rules. It was not good for that particular game, and turned a lot of players away. Something he admitted several times, in fact, concerning sets players considered awesome because they allowed degenerate play rather than smart play.

I’d like to point out this is a game where the rules haven’t been completely altered since its creation, and has been tweaked in minor ways about three times only. Cards from the beginning are still able to be used with cards twenty-one years later (mechanically speaking, and with maybe 1% of an exception), and it’s still very much alive and well after those twenty-one years. This is why I pick up this example often when it comes to talking about how creativity isn’t a simple function of “give them more freedom”. (Then you get the Combo Winter.)

Now, I’m done being almost completely off topic with this I hope I’ve illustrated my argument well enough.

Mosharn.8357:

GW2 would easily be top 5 if the devs had more freedom.

No, I think if the devs had more freedom to do whatever they wished, it’d be outside the top 10. Sometimes too much freedom isn’t as good for creativity. (See, World 2 SAB)

Okay, first . . . examine Gwen as a whole.

Gwen was a child in Pre-Searing Ascalon who followed you through one of the areas and would sometimes heal you for small amounts. She spouted off rather childish dialogue and the only things you could really do were to sink some money into making her happy enough to get a Tapestry Scrap (which at the time had no real use at all).

Far as anyone knew, she was dead since a “Tattered Girl’s Cape” would be located somewhere in Kryta washed ashore. After that there was only one other small hint (“Preserved Red Iris Flower”) which was really odd since you had to search for it in an unlikely and unnecessary side-area.

When she turns up, they try to sell us the idea of Gwen as a mesmer who went from pointless little girl to incredibly talented mesmer . . . by virtue of almost no character development aside from being handed the tools. She’s abrasive and not very likable on her own legs – people liked her primarily because of the nostalgia of “this is GWEN!”.

Later on the writers did a decent job humanizing her back down off the “Sarah Conner” type of character, but I will really always remember her primarily as the annoying girl who turned into a bitter mesmer witch.

That said? . . . too early to tell. I can’t really point at how Gwen became a breakout character other than being some cute girl who was also used to usher in the end of the Beta with fiery death from the sky.

If that’s the case? We don’t have a good analog yet.

Spiuk.8421:

MauricioCezar.2673:

Any list that shows LoL and Minecraft as a 1st places is totally discredited.

You must be living under a rock then, League of Legends and Minecraft are hands down the most played PC games right now.

Minecraft might be the most played game across multiple platforms, with it being on so many and fairly easy on sys requirements.

(Long live Achievement City…)

qwerty.1230:

way to screw up one of the best skins from GW1, anet. why couldn’t you just take the chaos axe the way it was? and it looks like minimal effort was put into the rest of them…

“Best skins” . . . hehe.

I respectfully disagree . . .

And that’s just in axes.

Guhracie.3419:

I’m confused about this. Do you mean that there is a general consensus that most traits aren’t good/worth having?

I’m Ranger. According to people I ask? 90% of them which don’t begin with “Signet” and end in “Beastmaster” are worthless.

Nicholas S Lin.6187:

This is a human favouring space, in my understanding. And Logan is essentially along side Delaqua(s?), Kasmeer and Kiel is one of the leading human champions – on active duty in the field.

“Taunting” him is not acceptable without it being a formal challenge – to the death.

It already was done to the death.

Belinda’s.

CureForLiving.5360:

Yes, in fact all medieval forms of government are insulting to the commoners who get relegated to a role slightly above cattle. The very nature of the nobilis creates a inherent society wide classism where ones value is measures by whom you were born to (cough Jennah cough) or whom you kiss up to.

It is interesting when you start looking about when the whole thing started shifting away from that and rulers realized it was better to try to keep the people happy rather than treat them as expendable or lesser beings. Though, to be fair, that lesson still has to be relearned even in modern times . . .

. . . and let that be all the political talk of modern world reality, please?

Though, on a different note . . . in reality whomever was the King/Queen/Emperor was less important than to whom you were required to pay taxes or tithe to. Sure, the King might be a great guy and popular with his subjects . . . but was the local lord any good for the serfs? The King might be a generous soul, but would the local lord then take more for each bonus given by royal decree?

To translate this into Krytan, it is possible Queen Jennah might want the common folk to have every advantage which they can have under her rule. However, those who are closer to those people and hold higher office can easily make it a moot point and claim it’s only the law and will of the Crown which permits this.

And this, my friends and neighbors, is how a good and just ruler can get overthrown by popular opinion.

Four.

There are four legions, even if one of them isn’t ever going to compromise at peace talks.

Allisa Wonderland.8192:

As for the other various attempts to discredit the information I offered up… i’m rolling my eyes.

I care less about discrediting the information than noting it’s not exact and the article even states at the bottom it’s potentially not an accurate or complete representation of who plays what.

How can I tell GW2 isn’t dead, or dying? They haven’t announced they’re stopping development on anything yet, and it’s highly likely the first to get the cut would be the Living Story project if they needed to go into “crisis fund management mode”.

The second most likely sign? Hearing of people leaving the company in large numbers. (Never fear, I’m sure we’d hear of it even here on the official forums.)

Not many signs of either, though there is some rather odd nostalgia-aimed Black Lion Ticket weapon sets being brought out now, so there may be pressure to try to get what they can out of it. Leading to the team going “let’s find something from the first game which was well-remembered”.

I’ll know the game is in terrible shape when they announce Cantha.

Iason Evan.3806:

I am with a lot of people here in this thread. What happened to playing content and an armor set or weapon representing specific activities? Besides the many backpieces of course. I am so tired of backpieces.

I suppose it’s from people saying they’d happily buy weapon skins if they were on the Trading Post.

ArenaNet went: “Challenge accepted.”

So . . . now you know.