Guild Wars 2

Rhaegar.1203:

When used in good measure.

You have a lot of good points, and believe me, we agree on most things. GW2 storyline is not the game’s strongest suit, but it could have been.

There are a lot of things which could have been better but just aren’t. I pine about watching some shows where I get frustrated at a missed chance which could have been a good tool later on. (And I admire shows where the chances aren’t squandered so often . . . see “Detective Joss Carter” on “Person of Interest” for what I mean by a chance used to what I consider its full potential.)

I don’t like saying this, but I don’t expect ArenaNet’s writing staff to be entirely capable of having the skill (not talent, skill, there is a difference) to recognize when they let a chance sail by without acknowledging it. I think they’re decent enough but don’t have the skill through practice and experience to really seize the full scope of what they’re putting into the world when they make additions.

. . . and it’s not something which is just limited to ArenaNet. It’s a case across the board with writers in many mediums, who want to put something in their narrative/story/world but don’t understand how it necessarily changes things. (See: “Star Trek Replicators” vs “the Stargate”.)

Sorann Peace.9056:

That still sounds a bit nitpicky. Again, Scooby Doo is a corny cartoon. Guild Wars 2 and the biconics are not corny nor are they a cartoon. They’ve been in many situations which involve death and destruction, something Scooby Doo rarely gets itself involved in. It’s like attributing some sort of importance to the fact some of Taimi’s quotes are specifically Jimmy Neutron inspired.

I’d argue GW2 has it’s campy/corny bits floating around in there, before the nitpicks start coming to tear down your point. The problem is it’s usually mixed in and around things which are supposed to be more serious.

All of them are being targeted.

Rhaegar.1203:

Times are real sad if we have to justify it for the writers/designers every time a complaint like this arises.

I don’t have to justify a gods-be-blasted thing.

It’s one of the main problems I have with GW2, the story is not engaging because it lacks urgency or drama. Deaths like Tybalt’s or Forgal’s were meaningful, but at the same time they were downplayed.

Incorrect. They were meaningless and trivialized. Forgal, most likely, could have had his sacrifice actually be meaningful and have impact. Nope. Tybalt could have done anything other than make a lame excuse (pun intended) for why he couldn’t get away – he’s an engineer, for Lyssa’s sake.

That’s just the “meaningless” part. The “trivialized” part comes when afterwards there’s almost no reflection, no real connection which is used to show these people existed as anything other than a mentor to get thrown off a cliff for the drama. There’s nothing to show these people existed at all after they’re gone – they might as well never have been sacrificed, or gone to Claw Island.

And I’d be more upset about it if this wasn’t also what Prophecies did way back in the day. Rurik was done decently. All of the sacrifices after the halfway point? Meaningless. And. Trivialized.

Also, you don’t have to be Brooding Sylvari or Weeping Asura to convey a sense of darkness and peril. If that’s all a writer can come up, just to go to established conventions, tropes and cliches, maybe it’s time to reconsider your choice in career.

Tropes are not bad

Shriketalon.1937:

I fundamentally disagree with the assertion. We are not the main characters of the story the authors are telling.

And I quite strongly disagree with the idea this has nothing to do with my character. Because, honestly, it’s not happening unless Tobias decides he wants to do anything about it. If he isn’t there, things will fail or fall apart.

First and foremost, the way the story is outlined is based entirely around the Biconics: their motivations, their capabilities, their connections, and their way of solving problems.

We upgraded Mordremoth to biconic?

When faced with a horrible threat of the unknown, we didn’t call in air support. We relied on five amateurs to handle the situation. When we discovered a murder mystery revolving around the apparent insanity of a sylvari, we didn’t bother to make inquiries towards any sylvari we knew. We just went with the gut instinct of a small group who didn’t know anything about our favorite resident plant people. When we encountered what looked to be dragon minions, we didn’t investigate using the expertise of the Priory team who were already in the area, nor sent for reinforcements from our dragon-fighting subordinates who have a particular set of skills, skills which are honed for this purpose alone. No, we let a child figure out what was going on.

I’d dissect this point but I think it’d be a waste of space since you’re already dead set on taking it this way. I’ll leave it at “I strongly disagree with your reasoning”.

When we discovered Mordremoth’s vines were infesting the world and hunting down magical artifacts…we didn’t share that information with anyone. No missives, no sharing intel, no frantic messages on down the chain of command yelling “THERE’S A DRAGON COMING FOR YOUR SHINIES, GET THE SWAG ONTO AIRSHIPS NOW!” As a result, our people got killed. We lost lives because we didn’t command.

Repeating: “I strongly disagree with your reasoning”.

And if you don’t believe that’s the case, I’d put forth the second point, one that’s a bit shorter.

That’s one of the main writers, Angel McCoy, in the other thread. And what she says is, in my mind, perfect proof that your assertion is incorrect.

I don’t think it is.

Our character development happened offscreen. No, seriously. Our character development happened completely offscreen. We went from grand commander in charge of the entire pact to a wandering has-been, completely without the game actually showing that scene or giving us that character development. The head writers are telling a story where our transition from one pivotal role in history to a nostalgic figurehead is something they don’t even need a cinematic or story instance to gloss over.

There are many holes and sins of the storytelling which is being put together rapidly for the Living Story. This isn’t one of the sins so much as a hole which isn’t really needed to be dwelling on. Or at least, it’s hard to take it seriously when someone is making a big to-do about this when there’s many more still upset over Trahearne leading instead of “The Big Hero, I”.

I said in that same other topic – I see the holes in the story as an opportunity to slot in something of my own and own the character instead of having the character made for me. These characters are mine that way, and not someone else’s vision I have to embrace – I don’t have to be some two-penny copy of Cloud Strife, or Commander Shephard, or whomever. I can freely be my own character, as I want to make them.

But that’s the story they’re telling, and the degree to which our character development is relevant to their plot. How much time have we spent on Biconic melodrama, from their romances and camaraderie to their loss and despair? Because according to the head writers, they are delivering a very different perspective for our PCs than the end of the Personal Story…but baby-feline if they can spare the slightest effort to actually put it in game.

See, that’s the only sin I would lay on their feet – they’re not very good at communicating the story they’re thinking of, and that’s the story they tend to use when presenting what they did write, not what we actually got.

See: “Who the heck is Mordremoth and how do I know his name again?”

We aren’t the focus of the Living Story thus far. We’re a strong and silent has-been trailing along for the Biconic Power Hour. And that’s not how it should be.

Worked for Adol Cristin.

Kalavier.1097:

Kryta is stable mostly now, so Jennah can provide help.

No, she probably can’t provide too much, lest the opposition to her rule gain some strength of rhetoric again. The most she could do is probably send small amounts of specialists.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

I feel that A-net needs to pull a sword art online with the Biconics, perhaps being a really good way to motivate the player to care about them.

And I feel it’d be more impactful if they wrote it as a “Lower Decks” type storyline where they are in focus for a short time until one of them is killed doing something dangerous and Destiny’s Edge return to the spotlight knowing in essence they let someone die so they could play the politics of their own race rather than act for the good of Tyria.

Don’t repeat the same thing which happened already with Snaff’s death causing drama, because that is what you’re describing, in essence.

darkace.8925:

I agree with everything in your post except the emboldened part. The biconics are, for all intents and purposes, the new main characters of Guild Wars

I disagree. The intent is for the player characters to be the driving personality to make things happen, not the biconics who are merely characters to be moved into the proper locations for them to be useful. The purpose of them is as a resource to be used in the solo instance method of storytelling in case the player doesn’t always have friends to help out (which is actually a somewhat strong way of making sure there’s a coherent story rather than having it all open world).

They have the spotlight, but because they’re around us, rather than us being in the spotlight because we follow them. Therefore, they are not the main characters, we are.

I’m not going to go too far off topic but Tybalt and Sieran, and Forgal were all wastes of interesting potential in the PS. That is all.

I would like to add to the voices asking for an official complete Mac OSX client. I have a friend I’d like to introduce to the game but they cannot/willnot do Boot Camp to go for a Windows system. I told them a year ago there was a client in beta but now I’m just pining away . . .

. . . probably because in order to play in an MMO with them I resorted to trying another one. No, I won’t name which one.

But I don’t want to pay to play so I can game with them, I want them to play this game I really love.

Synesh.1094:

Now, dose any of this make sense or am I just seeings this trough nostalgia goggles after playing the gw1 campains again?

Yes, you are seeing things through the nostalgia goggles. The Nightfall heroes were nice but they were either the first step to dragging the limelight fully away from the player (as many claim Kormir did and Traherne does) or unnecessary baggage to be forced to work with (I have a team to kill Varesh, WHY do I need General Morgahn with me?!).

They all had character, but most of the time they were as flat as the biconics and Destiny’s Edge are claimed to be. Especially Koss, as amusing and fun as he was.

The OP tries laboriously to make the point of the biconics not carrying GW2, and I’d add the heroes couldn’t carry Nightfall or Eye of the North. Boy is it a good thing they didn’t have to . . . and it’s a good thing the biconics aren’t making an attempt carrying GW2.

. . . yet.

Bathos.6341:

Themain thing I see is that trahernes destiny was to clense orr, that’s done, so I was expecting him to befading from center stage, going back to his studies of orr and overseing the cleanup there. Getting him back into things again now seems rather too much like a cameo for me.

I suppose so, but it also opens up a way to clear an issue – if Trahearne’s destiny is done and he has no more purpose on Tyria or leading the Pact . . . he at least needs to surface so he can hand over the leadership to someone responsible, intelligent, and capable of making the mature decisions required.

. . . yes, I mean Taimi.

(Though honestly, I expect him to hand it to Canach.)

Vexander.9850:

There must always be, a Sylvari…

. . . being experimented on hideously and without restraint by the Inquest.

Sorry, I had to finish that thought for you.

Nicholas S Lin.6187:

For my human characters in RP the war against the Charr has never stopped – its only gone underground. Using the Orges as allies – among others.

Further the so called “Separatists” are actually covert operatives of the Ebon Vanguard. With no “official” ties to the regular chain of command to hide their true allegiance – “For Ascalon”, for Freedom.

Interesting view, I sort of like it.

For human characters in RP which I play, Elona never fell to Palawa Joko and Cantha still communicates to some of them with very very clandestine letter drops.

Furthermore, Miyani is obviously not a real Sunspear and is just spying for Palawa Joko, using the Mystic Forge to fund his doomed front against humanity in Elona.

Headcannon is wonderfully fun sometimes

Vayne.8563:

I’ve played a lot of MMOs with mounts and I like them. Probably the group of people who’d be most against mounts are Guild Wars 1 players, who didn’t need them, or even have much experience with them.

Now, the question his how many Guild Wars 1 players play this game, compared to people who have widely played other MMOs.

There’s a third group, people who play Skyrim who never played an MMO before. They might like mounts too.

It just feels like a hole in the game to me. Something I expect in MMOs which was a largely positive experience for me, that just happens not to be in this MMO.

And I do understand your reservations about mounts, but I still like them.

I have some reasons for not wanting mounts, the more serious ones are about technical limitations and the feeling it will wind up splitting the community as hard as that one announcement around October 2012.

The less serious one come with the game not being designed with mounts not being in mind when the game was made. Therefore, the travel boost is unnecessary when the waypoints are working properly.

Kain Francois.4328:

To be fair, Trahearne could be redeemed if he gave me back Caladbold. Now that he’s done his Wyld Hunt, it should go back to its proper owner who fought for it in a contest.

Can’t get it back, it was planted in the Artesian Waters to cleanse them and make it possible to then cleanse Orr over time. Its power is shot, and so it’s done.

Obsidian.1328:

Absence is the mother of Invention.

Actually, I rather thought that was something else entirely but sure, let’s go with that

Given the Pale Tree is being exceptionally stupid anyway . . . don’t really expect anyone to help better. “I could tell you all about it, but I’d rather get all the leaders here to discuss it. Huh? What the heck’s a Pact and why do you think Trahearne should be there?”

hazenvirus.8154:

People like to imagine ANet didn’t say ascended was the final tier. They won’t make another tier if the keep to their word. The title and AP is junk in both cases anyway. Making several legendaries is quite a process if you do it legitimately and aren’t lucky.

People like to assume they’re not going to keep their word. Even if they said “we’re not going to shut down the servers”, there’d be a certain section of population saying it was proof they were planning on it.

Lostwingman.5034:

I’m personally not a fan of the lone male member of the biconics being a pretty stereotypical meathead

Read: “I don’t like the lone male member behaving a typical norn.” Every norn male has behaved that way, and many of the females too. Jora and Sif were the only ones I came across who bothered having slightly different attitudes, and even then it was because Jora had her own problems and Sif was already a legend and didn’t need to prove a darn thing.

Carighan.6758:

Yeah I suspect availability of Felicia is a problem. Then again she does a fair amount of voicework so I would have thought she has a proper recording setup at home and can just do it there.

Felicia! If you’re reading this, we need more Zojja! :O

If you’re reading this, get back to making Wil Wheaton cry in frustration on Tabletop!

Positive comments? I’ll leave one. At least it’s not as bad as how Lost Shores turned out, and the servers aren’t crashing.

kitten y.7236:

its like the battlefield 4 launch. bugged, broken and Anet knew it would not work properly,

I don’t care how much you want to use that, it is not that bad. See . . . unlike Battlefield 4? It doesn’t crash the game. You just have to find something else to do.

I recommend taking to the forums and screeching about how they owe you money.

Anymras.5729:

1 Discovered that the Sylvari are the only ones who aren’t ‘We have bigger problems than an actively aggressive plant monster that’s seeking out our waypoints.’ Of course. Apparently, salad people are the steak of the writing staff. I eat my vegetables in real life – having them shoved down my throat episode after episode is tiresome. Pick a different race to fall in love with for next season.

They do have bigger problems, being incredibly susceptible to Mordremoth if they’re not being shielded by the Pale Tree.

Not that we couldn’t use a couple more crazy weed engineers out there. We could replace all the crazy asura engineers.

Felicia Day has Tabletop to keep her busy, which means it’s absolutely okay if they kill off Zojja.

TheDraco.3965:

Its almost as if instances are vital for a good MMO cough Guild Wars 1 cough.

Wasn’t an MMO, and good MMOs before it had no instancing and were also good.

Better Mass Effect 3 than Ultima 4.

Hmmm. While I don’t agree with most of your points, would like to see your analysis of Episode 3.

Roxhemar.6039:

I miss Tybalt and the vigil dude… On a side note, I like being called boss in DE 2.0, makes me feel like a kitten champion, that’s right Kas and Jory come to the bosses office…

No, sir, I don’t like it.

. . . unless Logan and Rytlock start calling me ‘boss’ too. Together. And Logan has to wear a dress.

. . . and so does Rytlock.

Ronin.7381:

Blaeys.3102:

These events need to be running continuously – or, at the very least, every 5 minutes. They’re fun, but there is way too much time between events (specifically, the sample collection event).

People will get frustrated.

To much time? A minute passes and the event starts up again. Some might be out of synch but the Mordrem Wolf practically respawns after you finish it within a minute.

Someone informed me in-game they are supposed to start when someone needing the step approaches . . . and since right now that’s a lot of people, it kicks off almost constantly.

Seems to work sometimes now, as events are just rapidly repeating as soon as they finish when I did my step.

Zylonite.5913:

Can confirm it is still bugged after the patch. Anet’s dev Derby was there waiting with us.

Did they say they were a dev? Cause I asked once – not everyone with the tag is a dev

Much like another incredibly powerful green villain . . .

He is already here.

Tamasan.6457:

Still broken after recent patch/reset/whatever.

Don’t worry, the crack asuran testing team will figure out a fix. Of course, then you’ll have to worry about what side-effects happened.

Like, not only do mobs get into guilds, but then . . . they start saying their lines in map chat.

Kagusaki.3176:

ilr.9675:

He saw this thread and Ran away. Good Job

+1

lol He reminds me of Simon Belmont in the Captain N series. Anyone remember that show?

Character as- . . . murder . . . has never been so bad as that show was on the characters. Except maybe Link.

Actually, you know who he reminds me of more? Agent Lincoln Lee. (No, the other one.) Real interesting character, and everyone thinks he’s useless.

But I agree. Logan needs to be, like, 20% cooler.

It has to be said.

“This won’t end well.”

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

JustTrogdor.7892:

So the question is if a kite with a 5% boost a mount or not? LOL

That’s not a question.

The real question is . . . why did someone mess with the settings on my catapult. Poor assistant went right into a wall when I was testing.

Actually, there was a quesr in EQ2 that eventually let you use a catapult to fly across half of Zek from docks to DFC. In real time. Was funny. Gnomes.

Later you got to help them build a large cannon, then get shot across a chasm with it. Into a net. also Gnomes.

If it had only been Vah Shir . . . it would have made a nice study for when I adapt the trebuchet for charr warriors.

I’m just happy the Pale Tree remembers meeting me before, and that her warden assistant remembers I was with Caithe killing a dragon . . .

Thobek.1730:

RedStar.4218:

Thobek.1730:

I have no idea what the OP is used to but gw2 has a huge amount of skins that cover all sorts of tastes.

Players that don’t like trenchoats or wannabe coats on their male rangers don’t have their taste covered.

I admit you got me there. Way too many trenchcoats for the leather wearers.

And not enough shoulderpads on the heavy classes either. They need to be about 20% bigger.

chemiclord.3978:

Yes. Thank you. That… was the joke.

It’s okay. I forgive you.

So you didn’t want me to drop the ten thousand cream pies on them?

Um . . . I need to see an asura baker about something totally unrelated to this conversation.

Actually, this would be a good use of time. Where’s my baking goods, I should get on that discovery tab.

Ronin.7381:

A little off topic but suddenly with the current bug in Iron Marches, title is relevant.

Maybe relevant . . .

“When in doubt, set something on fire.”

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

LOL Anet makes content that is zerg based… then it breaks bc of too many people doing it… yeah… it was THOROUGHLY tested I’m sure… lol good one Anet

It probably was thoroughly tested, to the tools and resources they had on hand. Which is about all it’s reasonable to ask of them within their job description.

Now, the fact this screams of the same problem they had during Lost Shores with Canach in Garrenhoff? Tells me they probably have to go find the people who were working that month and pick their brains over for how it got fixed then.

Missy.7356:

That would be called forward planning, but why do that when a hotfix will do.

Exactly my problem with the current crop of development processes across the board. “Release it soon as it can run, we can patch it day one” is something which has taken root quite a bit.

It’s like they’re afraid to go “hey, guys, we know we said we’d patch today but we’re not sure about it so we’d like a couple days…” . . .

. . . actually, I can totally see why they’re afraid, since any announcement of delay would be met with lots of people starting “The game is dying!!!!!!1!” threads all over the internet.

Kalocin.5982:

If you’re an unsatisfied customer you should be allowed to voice your opinion without being criticized. The “entitled gamer generation” has always been there, people just seem to recognize it during specific moments rather than always.

. . . always been there? Always. Like, before Pong always, or only immediately after Pong?

Missy.7356:

So they didnt envision everyone logging in at once, everyone zerging thro a map with NO lower cap, and everyone being in the same place at the same time and it still would work ok?

Eh, it’s not the “didn’t envision it”, it’s the “how do we plan around this” issue. I mean, they knew this was an issue back when Lost Shores launched and failed kitten day one.

At least this isn’t “one time only”. Ugh.

I’m just giggling to myself recalling how broken the ship was to get to Kunark once upon a time, and how that ended terribly for my ranger . . . and I wound up almost losing a corpse over it.

Fun times, fun times.

Zylonite.5913:

Maybe ANet’s game studio should stop with these kind of events and focus on something that is doable within the development team.

Yeah, who needs to push the envelope and try something different when we could have yet another zergfest for people to complain about having instead of something different.

. . . wait . . .

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Paul Belz.7351:

Hey guys,

Just wanted to pop in and say that we are investigating the issues with the iron marches content as fast as we can so that we can get you guys back to progressing through the episode. These issues are indeed proving quite tricky to nail down (it’s not as simple as they simply won’t restart) but we are working hard to get everything addressed as quickly as possible.

Thanks for understanding and sorry for the inconvenience.

I know what would fix 99% of your problems… say it with me… TEST SERVER!!!!!! OMG! This is the ONLY MMO I have EVER seen that doesn’t use one! How much BROKEN CRAP do you have to shove down our throats before you realise you are WRONG?!

Test Server didn’t fix 99% of the broken stuff in EverQuest, or Ultima Online . . . in the latter it was just a place to kick back and do some meaningless PvP zone control stuff.

MithranArkanere.8957:

There’s countless copies of the two swords Rurik and Adebern had.

Elonians also made lots, and lots, and lots of fiery gladii.

And there’s other fiery sword models around.

And then there’s the Elemental Sword, the Icy Dragon Sword, the Vampiric Dragon Sword . . .

JustTrogdor.7892:

So the question is if a kite with a 5% boost a mount or not? LOL

That’s not a question.

The real question is . . . why did someone mess with the settings on my catapult. Poor assistant went right into a wall when I was testing.