Guild Wars 2

I won’t talk too much about the Halloween and Wintersday events mostly because they are separate from the Living Story plotline and because they are seasonal festivals that are for the most part impermanent. I will say that I enjoyed the first two a great deal, but that I didn’t play during the 2013 events because I was so disgusted by this game and company that I didn’t play at all. That being said, I’m glad that someone made a thread for this again. I had little interest in the SAB content so I won’t talk about that either. While novel, it literally has nothing to do with GW and shouldn’t have taken up as much time or resources as it did. Anyway, on to the review:

The Lost Shores 9/10
Truly epic content, though it was slightly flawed due to reward bugs which didn’t work for everyone and frustrated many. I was one of the lucky ones that received an exotic and all my loot as the patch had intended. I loved that they created a whole new area to explore, though I wondered a little why they were deviating from the main storyline a bit. Still, the Karka were unique and the encounters and ideas were inspired. I loved the monster rising out of the sea theme which somewhat relate to Kaiju movies. Great start to the living world concept. The introduction of ascended weapons have been debated forever, but I think this was a badly timed move for Anet if nothing else because it really divided the playerbase and drove a lot of people away. I suppose that could also be attributed to misleading advertising, but that is another issue entirely. Overall this patch was a fun addition to the game.

Flame and Frost: Prelude, The Gathering Storm, The Razing, and Retribution 9/10

I’ll just talk about these all at once since they are thematically related. Braham and Rox are introduced in a fantastic way and are legitimized by their ties to two members of Destiny’s Edge, Eir and Rytlock. They are both generally more likeable than either of those two since they don’t have quite so many hang ups. Brahams story and conflict with his mother was interesting and his motivations for saving the woman he had a crush on were cute. Rox’s introduction as a charr trying to prove herself and earn her place within Rytlock’s warband worked well and having her adopt Frostbite made her more endearing too. I also like how her voice was treated, her voice over was more serious and believable. On a larger scale the introduction of a growing threat in their respective zones were interesting, since it was mixed in with the land itself with the appearance of vents in the ground and portals. The alliance between common enemies could have been so great. While Guild Wars does admittedly have a history of fighting off one Big Bad enemy at a time, (Lich lord, Shiro Tagachi and Abaddon) it would have been so cool if it were more politically inclined. Like if the Dredge somehow felt they were displaced unfairly and were some kind of rising imperialistic power that wanted to combine their military might with the Flame legion in order to gain power and influence for themselves. Maybe the Flame Legion would betray them and instead offer them as sacrifices to their most powerful Shaman in order to fuel their ambitions and disgust with their more technologically inclined brethren at the Black Citadel. Aside from that helping refugees and fighting off the first invaders was a great step toward making the player seem relevant and heroic. The Molten dungeon was fantastic and very well made, repeatable content that felt rewarding aside from the exclusive RNG jet pack that virtually no one could get. Although I said that longer content releases would not be good, I must admit that the shorter, content updates from the last year were less than satisfactory, for the most part. Though I don’t think long, drawn out storylines are the answer either. Real content expansions are a must have for players to feel like they are getting their money’s worth and are better for the overall health of the game.

lol, I love how they nerfed the loot like two days after the patch was released. Like, oh we wouldn’t want everyone to be so happy, now would we? Nope, we love frustration and pain!

Eh, the ending content was fun but not that great. Escape from L.A. was fantastic, the Battle for L.A. was ok up until we get onto the drill. I mean, it was suitably difficult and works well with Scarlet, but I was kind of underwhelmed by the whole thing. I’m glad Scarlet is dead, though it was really anti-climactic. I honestly couldn’t care less about the characters in this living story. Rox and Braham are ok, but I’m not too keen on the forced romance. Don’t get me wrong, a well thought out and subtle romance is fantastic, but if you read the dialogue from the Living Story Kasmeer and Marjory could have just as easily been friends. The only difference is that there was sexual attraction, apparently? Even Caithe and Faolain had a more interesting relationship, due to their conflicting ideals.

Aside from that, I am happy that an Elder Dragon has been unleashed, though I wish that my group leader hadn’t ended the cut scene before I had a chance to watch it. Wish Anet had made it like the living story so that party members could watch the cinematic at their leisure. I had to watch it on youtube after reading on the forums that an ED was shown. Yes, I know about the purple gate and the spinal backpiece, but I just found out about that this morning. :p

My fear regarding future content and Mordremoth is that the story will continue to be exclusively about the Asura and Sylvari since it will take place in the old Maguuma Jungle which happen to be closest to them. It’s like Anet is making excuses to try and erase everything about GW1 in a fruitless effort to cultivate their so called ‘unique’ experience with this game. I mean, can you imagine what the ESO fanbase would have done if the devs had taken Elder Scrolls Lore and dragged it through the mud because ‘this was a totally new game, lulz just deal with it’?

Crossing my fingers that this won’t happen. :p Maybe we can revitalize the old Druids and ask them to help us in defeat Mordy? Maybe we’ll run into the mursaat? Pretty please? I know we will never again have the same caliber of writing that we did in GW1, that is very clear. But more emphasis on the original lore, creatures and the very land itself would be nice. Just something resembling anything at all related to GW would be fantastic. Not just cheap ways to make a quick buck like the tormented weapons from the gemstore.

I enjoy the combat in GW2, but I still find myself wishing I could have the freedom of an 8 skill bar fully customized by me rather than being locked into so few weapon sets. The utility skills are the ones I most look forward to using and setting up. It was half the fun for me really.

And of course campaigns! I miss those a lot.

digiowl.9620:

Or they could just do as every f-ing other game, and give the players a list of overflows, and the ability to pick the one to go to. No need for taxi parties or any of those over-convoluted workarounds…

Would you believe that the original Guild Wars had exactly this, not to mention an international district you could travel too? Honestly not sure why they changed their minds on this, aside from PvP considerations. PvE should have had this old feature.

Aside from clicking on the circles…I don’t really understand how to use it. Mostly I just go to the wiki for any information I missed. It’s a nice feature but it needs to be in game and honestly, I’d rather they pool their resources for an expansion rather than for something like this.

It’s been so long since I’ve actually enjoyed this game, but I have to say the LA event is one of the best I’ve experienced since the Karka one.

I love that you can play once every hour and that once it starts you can run into the event so that everyone can experience it at least once, even if they don’t care about getting all the achievements. I love that it feels rewarding and that you get tons of drops for mats and gold. Though I know most of it is used toward crafting the Blades backpiece it makes the event worth while and is almost as much fun as the old game was. I love that you have to sneak around Lion’s Arch in order to find Heirlooms or to encourage citizens and soldiers. It makes you feel as though you are really contributing to the greater cause and luckily for me, the server I am on has been really positive and works well together for the guard and protection events. I’m more than half way done through my achievements for this and am currently working on the backpiece for my warrior. Best of all, there is practically no trace of Scarlet. I mean, you do see her in a cut scene (which was fantasticly done, by the way), but she’s barely there. Yes I know we have to fight her at some point, but this was the first time in practically a year that I have genuinely enjoyed this game in it’s entirety. The environment was suitably epic and the danger of the situation was more apparent. The burning buildings and screams of dismay here and there were a great flavoring. I love the NPC dialogue with Evon Knashblade and the others in Vigil. Magnus’s dialogue in L.A. works to give people a good idea of how much time is left in the event.

I am having a lot of fun so far and I am hopeful that there will continue to be more content of this caliber in the future.

The only way this LS could possibly redeem itself is if something of significance lies beneath LA. Like a magical artifact, Elder Dragon etc. Not just another, “Look at me I’m Scarlet and I do evil things, teehee.”

If there is something valuable underneath the city itself that will progress the story toward something huge like Mordremoth, then yes, it would be somewhat exciting to see LA go. Other than that this looks like the last of the diversions they are throwing into the LS since they plan these things months in advance.

Emiko.3217:

Just a thought and an interesting possible plot twist here.

Could the 6 gods actually be the 6 elder dragons? I mean, NPC’s have been saying how the spirits doesn’t seem to hear them.

No, not at the moment. If you read the GW wiki you can read more about the history of the human gods.

There is a theory that the Gods may have just been tapping into the power of the dragons themselves, thus their similar abilities, etc. But as far as we know at the moment they are different entities. The gods were much more human like at one point.

I think there is a connection between the dragons and the gods, but not in the way that you are implying.

Meh, sounds like more of their same tired “Out with the old, in with the new” flavoring.
New what exactly? There are no new lands to explore, no expanded areas. It’s like the game is landlocked in it’s own territory.

Maybe the citizens of LA will be forced to seek the aid of the Tengu and go banging on their door yelling and screaming. Yeah, I can keep dreaming. :p

But it’s more likely that this is the last of the temporary content, and people will be able to go back to LA as a town hub after the Scarlet arc ends.

You could have entirely new continents to explore, yet people are excited about one city getting a makeover? Seriously?

VOLKON.1290:

Hey! HEY! Look at the fourth image. Look at it again. Look at it carefully.

Yes… it’s true…

FLYING DOLYAK MOUNTS confirmed!

Now that made me laugh. I am excited about the dragon-like creature on her ceiling. This is also probably the most positive thread I’ve seen over the last few months.

I hope the dragon eats her like that mako shark did in Deep Blue Sea with Samuel L. Jackson.

The living story idea in of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however the way it was implemented pleased only a few and left many wanting. I guess what people were (or are always hoping for) in an MMO is an evolving environment. Now, that does include change, but I guess what people look for are remnants of the old world within that new environment too, to show that something has been built upon it.

It also doesn’t help that many are unable to complete or fully enjoy the living world content because it is removed almost as soon as it appears. Nothing has really been ‘built’ into the world, it’s sort of like a carnival (holiday festivals?) they just appeared and went like nothing really significant happened.

I think one of the reasons why the Scarlet arc was so disappointing is that so many of the living story arcs were used to build up suspense and anticipation for what equates to a badly done saturday morning cartoon. It wasn’t some fantastic creature like an Elder Dragon (which the game was building up to when it was first being advertised) nor was it a God or a fantastical beast that you would normally expect in a fantasy game. It wasn’t the mursaat who are magically advanced and have been in hiding for centuries, nor was it NEW race the Largos, who could have opened up an entirely new world for players to explore.

No, it was a little Sylvari with too many resources at her disposal and no complexity. TL;DR: It wasn’t an EPIC BOSS. Now that isn’t to say that some of the encounters weren’t epic. The clockwork chaos battles were fun but after all is said and done, nothing of significance really occurred. Nothing earth shattering happened. The antics of one sylvari cannot compare to the invasive poison of the dragon’s corruption, something described as “a force of nature”. In the end, she has little impact on the world itself.

And now that I’ve said this, Scarlet will go and blow up half of Tyria. But not before holding it ransom for 1 million gold pieces.

nexxe.7081:

Give us deep storylines, like the way Blizzard did with the Lich King. It was WoW at it’s best, during Wotlk expansion. He was taken seriously. Just watch the wotlk trailer. He wasn’t laughing like a looney toon.

I mostly agree with you (aside from the dragons), but the thing is that Arthas is an important part of the original Warcraft lore, not to mention that WOTLK was an expansion pack that brought on an entire continent with end game instances. But I agree that you can’t build deep storylines if you are unable to create serious antagonists. Or at least ones that we as players can take seriously.

Which brings us back to the original problem: No reverence or use of GW1 lore and no world building within the existing continent of Tyria. There are large areas of land and ocean that have yet to be opened up in over a year. Why couldn’t the living story have slowly created more and more explorable, permanent areas?

Too much of a focus on things like the SAB leads to a loss of identity. If the game were to discard its lore and characters than it would lose it’s identity completely. What separates it from any other generic game out there? The title is already generic enough as it is.

If this were a pvp only game than that probably would be fine. You just need a smattering of aesthetics and flavoring to enhance the battle mechanics and arenas.

Here’s hoping 2014 brings in something the reinvigorate the non-core PvE content, post-Scarlet.

Morrigan.2809:

Zhaneel.9208:

There are five newbie zones to level up in. New players can just use the Asura gates in LA to travel to any of the other four zones if the Champ train in Queensdale really bothers them that much.

Personally I don’t see a problem with it. It’s simple, fun and rewarding. It’s natural that players would immediately seek out more efficient means of attaining gold or achievements and this happens in any game. I enjoyed the interaction you get with other players too.

If level 80 content were a little more fleshed out, you wouldn’t see trains like this occurring in low level zones at all.

real new players don’t know about the asura gates or that they can just travel to other zones- why would they?
What if they roll a human?

Queensdale train is just too stacked- it counts for dailies, monthlies, karma, events and the champs are on short re-spawn and trigger able.

Go to any other map except FS and you will find it filled with champs running around unmolested.

All you have to do is visit your race’s city. It’s right next to your spawning point after the intro battle. How hard can that be?

Not really. You could cherry pick which skills you wanted and weren’t limited by pre-made weapon sets or even by professions. The only grind in the game was entirely optional.

BobbyStein.2315:

Eluveitie.1290:

This would give a lot of people peace of mind, Bobby, I hope you respond: is the end of Scarlet’s arch already on its way?

I mentioned this elsewhere on the forums, but I’ll say it here again. There is an end to the Scarlet story that has been planned out. I’m not at liberty to discuss release dates or the timeline, though.

This is somewhat encouraging news. To be honest though I am burnt out with the development of this game. I think the last time I logged in without immediately logging back out again was during the Tequatl portion of the living story which, while well intended was not as universally appealing as I hoped it would be.

High level difficult content is great (though this event was generally unaccessible to most servers except for the ones with the highest populations) and I was interested in the idea that Zhaitan’s minions could still function as their own separate entities without the aid of an Elder dragon (much like Glint), but then the story just stops there. We hear nothing new about the Elder Dragons from that point onward. It’s only about Scarlet and nothing but. The community keeps arguing over whether or not Scarlet is any good. There is nothing left to develop or reveal. Just put her out of her misery, please.

This is no longer Guild Wars. This is Scarlet Wars. I miss the old game. I like the new mechanics of GW2, but the flavor and essence of the original is long gone. At this point I would be happy if we just returned to something akin to the Personal storyline which is at least relevant to the survival of all of Tyria’s races against huge, overwhelming entities. We don’t even have Guild Halls in place yet. :shrug:

There are five newbie zones to level up in. New players can just use the Asura gates in LA to travel to any of the other four zones if the Champ train in Queensdale really bothers them that much.

Personally I don’t see a problem with it. It’s simple, fun and rewarding. It’s natural that players would immediately seek out more efficient means of attaining gold or achievements and this happens in any game. I enjoyed the interaction you get with other players too.

If level 80 content were a little more fleshed out, you wouldn’t see trains like this occurring in low level zones at all.

I logged in once these past 6 weeks or so. Thinking about this game is too depressing and there are others that at least deliver on what they advertise. It’s hard to care about a game that continues to disappoint over a year later.

A friend of mine is thinking of trying this game for the pvp, so I am planning on leveling one of my lowbies to keep him company. I’m hoping this will revitalize my interest a bit, if nothing else then to see what other professions are like at top level. Other than that I think I’ve only checked the website a few times to see what new content has been released. I’m still waiting for GW1 relevant material to show up, but so far it looks like even more Scarlet nonsense. Maybe a few years down the line we will get a real expansion pack.

Maybe I should just stay away from the Living Story content and play the base content instead. At least it’s somewhat relevant to the original game.

Medieval.1679:

I’m seriously thinking of ditching GW2 to go and play GW1. I never played it but from what fellow guildies tell me, and from reading comments in here, it seems a great deal more in depth than what I seem to be playing now (some of my guildies have never stopped Gw1, though some have stopped playing GW2). GW2 is just zerging from one encounter to another – I can do that in a dozen other games tbh.

You should try GW1, the story is well made and getting through the main storyline won’t take up too much of your time.

So basically it’s up to pure dumb luck that your server will happen to have enough people not on afk, who are willing to constantly revive at waypoints and who know what to do with the turrets. Or maybe you just need to be on a server with a larger population that is willing to learn faster than others. Which eliminates most of the servers out there, save for a handful. The vast majority of the players are unhappy with these changes and it requires small tweeking like lowering the health bar or increasing the time it takes to defeat him.

I’ve seen elitist attitudes about difficulty and fun ruin games like this over and over again. A game that is advertised as casual friendly will only have more deserted areas if the content in said places are too difficult. Has Anet learned nothing from SAB2?

I’m also excited about the new LFG feature. It will be nice to find groups for story and exp mode and hopefully I won’t have to guest on other servers too often.

Maybe she viewed the humans as being too religiously dogmatic for her tastes?

Great observations! It’s intriguing to me that all we are seeing are faces or heads. You’d think something that big would also leave an arm or a leg here and there. It’s almost as though they settled or sunk in to the ground with only their heads facing up, if they are indeed related to the Colossus.

The only thing I liked about Scarlet were the plants resembling Macaw flowers growing out of her head. http://wildlifeofhawaii.com/flowers/1343/heliconia-bihai-macaw-flower/

For a second after I saw them, my imagination went wild and I thought that she had cut them off Van Gogh style, in rebellion against the Pale Tree because when we first see her she’s wearing a hooded cloak that appears flat on her head. I was like: Dang that’s hardcore!

Then I realized it was just armor clipping.

I’m just glad we’re getting gold minis for free. Also loving the Experience scroll and the booster! I’ve already used a bunch of them on my alts and am more motivated to level them up.

I’m so happy they are bringing back so many limited skins and items to the store! I got a few molten alliance picks for my characters and am putting them to good use!

While I’m not thrilled about the continuation of rng tickets and black lion keys, I’m glad we’ll have a chance to acquire fused weapon skins and sclerite skins again.

I’m sure they’ll add more minis to the store in the future, so we shouldn’t worry too much about variety.

I’m also enjoying the world events and though they take a while to complete, they’re pretty epic and require a little coordination which is nice. The loot is definitely great.

Your charr is a thing of splendor.

All Kerrsh was saying in the notebook was that everything is interconnected. We’ve known this for years. It sounds like it was just an easter egg, though still a cool one for us GW vets. He didn’t see anything, aside from the facets and the humanoid that appeared during that particular eotn quest.

I respect Wooden Potatoes for the amount of work he puts into his lore videos, however I also am not particularly thrilled with the amount of misinformation he spreads as a result.

Narcemus.1348:

The only thing is, the Pale Tree would know… Unless she became Soundless…

Yeah this was the impression I had after reading her short story. Wasn’t she intentionally ignoring the pale tree because she was seeking her own sense of individuality? I just wish they had somehow made this more clear within the game content, I think more people would have been happier if they had just mentioned she was a soundless within the game.

Still she was pretty disappointing overall. Her curiosity and desire for individualism was ok, but then it apparently grew into stock villain megalomania. That really takes away from any potentially interesting tidbits of information related to the nature of the Eternal Alchemy. Also it doesn’t really sound like seeing the Eternal Alchemy unhinged her in any way: she acts just like the Inquest by stealing and meddling with others for the sake of furthering her own desires. She was like that from the start. Furthermore she appears to be plagued with confirmation bias and interpreted whatever she saw as proof that she can and should destroy everything she didn’t like about the world. Kinda lame.

So there are equal yet opposing forces in Tyria represented by The Dream vs. Nightmare scenario. We already know that. Does this have anything to do with the rise and fall of the Dragons? Is this some argument for Creation vs. Destruction? Are the Elder Dragons meant to purge the world periodically the begin the cycle again? Or is the conflict between the Pale tree and the Nightmare court something completely different.

Scarlet’s rampage didn’t really answer any significant questions about the world at all. I was hoping there would be more we could sink our teeth into.

Cayenne.6809:

I run fractals on a regular basis and I played GW1. I have no interest in the abaddon fractal. I understand why others are but I just don’t.

I’d rather go for the new one of infinite possibilities than the classic gw1 one that will more than likely never be capable of living up to the magnitude of hype everyone is placing on it.

Do you honestly believe, that after producing the same old themes with the Inquest, living story content, bland good vs. evil etc. that they would try something fresh and exciting?

Biohazard.4196:

I think you’re reading into this too much. The developers know of the desire for old lore. Wasn’t there a giant “Bring back Cantha” thread some time ago with developer responses?

Actually this election was the perfect test to see whether the players wanted ancient lore or steampunk. We chose it as they stated in the live stream so technically we aren’t allowed to complain. I would not be surprised if this extended to abandoning Cantha and Elona as well.

They might as well throw in cyborgs while they are at it. Or the Commando class. The tengu are ancient history too, who cares about them when there are robots in Divinity’s reach for the Jubilee. If we can lazor beam all the Elder Dragons into extinction then they no longer pose a threat to the races of Tyria. That means Anet would need to furiously work on making newer, more imposing baddies.

Mif.3471:

Ketto.6508:

ArenaNet may take it as a sign that players do in fact want to see more content based on GW1 lore, rather than the typical “I’m not saying it’s Asura, but it’s Asura”

Meanwhile all of GW1 lore is human lore, but you don’t have a problem with that…

Face it, you had 4 games and 6 years to play GW1 based on human lore, stop trying to demand that GW2 be about the same old kitten. It’s time to let the other races and new stories have a chance to be in the spotlight.

If that’s the case then they should be focusing more on the Charr in general, not the asura. To most people who are not extremely familiar with GW the Charr have become iconic of this game because they are the most unique race. (and no I’m not talking about Evon) People outside of the GW2 community equate the asura to gnomes because they are small and tech savvy.

Yeah I’m not sure why they keep doing this. The starting and ending dates of every event have been placed everywhere with the exception of the main page. It would probably help people a lot if they made it clearer for future events. Why small, but significant changes like this can’t be made, I will never understand.

Um, we would not have GW2 if it weren’t for the initial success of GW1. To pull away from everything that made this game successful is kind of foolish. Especially with games like EQNext, FFXIV ARR, and Elder Scrolls coming out.

But if Thaumanova does in fact relate in some significant way to GW1 history or the Elder Dragons themselves then it could have a lot of potential. It would be wasted on even more Inquest folly.

There needs to be a section in this forum for off-topic discussions, especially regarding gaming. I thought Anet played other games too? We should be able to discuss the developing trends in other games and platforms, not just MMO’s. WOW has an off- topic forum.

I’m also enjoying it. There are a few bugs here and there that people are exploiting apparently, but other than that it’s the most entertaining pvp game I’ve played from the living story updates.

The devs are really enjoying this aren’t they? XD

Ugh, I’m sad because it looks like Evon may lose. T___T

:continues gathering support tickets:

Mif.3471:

Zhaneel.9208:

There is so much content related to the inquest and ‘science gone bad’ gags in this game already.

Multiple that by 10 and you’ll get the amount of Human gods stories in the GW franchise, but that somehow doesn’t bother you….

The difference is that the GW1 human lore was much richer and more mysterious than what has been revealed to us of the Asuran history. Asura lore could be much more intricate and ancient than “evil, corporate Asura with massive egos trash talk egotistical Asura with some ethics.” I’ve yet to see any inquest encounter that has been more nuanced. I get that the Asura came from under the ground and that they are scientists and tinkerers, but what else beyond that? Where did they come from? Have their beliefs changed at all in the past? I greatly enjoyed Vekk and Oola, but the Asuran lore in GW2 has been disappointing at best. They constantly go for gags and sarcasm, which for me got old very quickly.

I’m looking for something more serious and frankly, I’d rather not take another gamble on content we know nothing about, as opposed to catching a glimpse of something we already know to be EPIC in scale. I’d venture to argue for example, that the City of Arah, once home to the gods is much more grand than anything that the Asura have come up with, especially since much of their history that we know if is much more recent than the humans, who are somewhat ancient by comparison.

After taking a closer look at the sword, I feel kind of bad for criticizing their decision since it does have an interesting looking animation. Like a train. I’m sure they worked kitten it, but still the rapier would have made the people seeking skins in the first place happy.

@Aeosura: Never would have thought of that….now that’s all I can see when I look at it. Argh! lol

Although I was never heavily invested in their releasing a rapier, it is a little disappointing that they didn’t make this particular skin available via black lion chest. People surely would have purchased more keys just to get one! I’m not sure why they didn’t include it. Seems like a missed opportunity.

If this is some swave, mass social experiment via fun new content I have to pay my respects to the development team that came up with this concept. The kinds of responses being made in the forums…the comments in chat, all either intentionally or unintentionally reflect our familiar democratic politics. I’m completely amused. +1 Anet. Comments feel like speculation from political pundits I always see on CNN. XD

As for the topic at hand, I wouldn’t be so sure that Evon is favored just because of the black lion keys. Many people are not interested in the aetherblade weapons, and there are still many supporters of Kiel in general. I wouldn’t assume that this will automatically go Evon’s way just yet.

Just to stir the pot a bit: Since we have no real way of knowing how many votes there will be, for all we know Anet will rig this election from the very start and our votes will count for nothing. So any perceived attempt to sway the public vote would be completely moot.

I doubt they would do that though, it would be much more fun to see what happens with the community while this plays out. I highly doubt it will be as divisive as some are suggesting as well. Or maybe it was their plot all along to turn our frustrations against one another in debate so that the community managers won’t have to look at so many complaints about the game. :shifty eyes: XD

I would have just assumed that Evon had strong financial backers who were interested in the fall of Abaddon and the gods themselves. If he has personal reasons for continuing this research, however that makes him even more intriguing in my mind. Maybe he’s an agent of the Flame legion? Or what if he has another plan entirely? Or maybe he is odd and enjoys old human lore. His interest in this project sounds much more fun than the alternative.

Also wanted to say how much I loved the smear ads for each candidate. Awesome to the max.

That video cracked me up! It made me yearn for Nightfall and the others like Koss and Meloni. Even General Morgahn and the old Master of Secrets, I miss them all.

I actually liked Kormir a lot, but I didn’t care much for Trahearne, nor do I like Kiel. Maybe I was just so caught up in the awesome story that was Nightfall to notice any of Kormir’s flaws. I don’t know, there were just so many great characters in that game it didn’t matter to me.

At least Kormir gave us some insight into what the Gods might be, and I liked her as a leader.

But Trahearne…he was fairly weak. I just…didn’t care about him all that much. I can’t explain why. Kiel is so stereotypical and lame, I’m just waiting for her to get pushed to the side for a more interesting character. I’m not buying into that tough girl act. >:(

Or better yet an ensemble of characters that doesn’t include whiny, sarcastic windbags who can’t take anything seriously.

StinVec.3621:

I would love to have an interactive story (similar to our personal story or a living story) that reveals and allows us to experience all of this lore (Abaddon and Thaumanova) firsthand…but not as a fractal where I need to experience it with other people if I want to experience it at all. Make fractals solo-friendly, or make this lore available outside fractals for solo-content only players.

This entire thing just disappoints me.
I vote for: Lore Content Via Soloable Instances
Not: Required Group Play To Experience Lore Content

I also would have preferred soloable content. Or even content that 2-3 people could complete. However fractals might be a way for Anet to implement old lore related content in a faster, smaller setting. I’m not sure how difficult or easy it is to produce a fractal instance over living story content or dynamic events, but they must have their reasons for wanting to update fractals. This likely won’t be the only thing the add to the game that is lore heavy, but it will allow the players to have some say in what gets added next.

Aside from that I am totally voting for Evon. I want to see the Gods. I want to know why Abaddon did what he did and what the nature of the Gods really is. There’s so much legend and speculation behind who and what they are that I’ve been dying to know more about their origins and intentions. If this means we get to visit a portion of Elona and the crystal desert then it would be worth trying out. I want to see how he became this:

Not that exploring the reactor is a bad idea or anything, it’ll probably have a neat back story and all that, but I’m just really sick of fighting the Inquest all the time.

There is so much content related to the inquest and ‘science gone bad’ gags in this game already. Not to mention Kiel annoys me. She’s so bland as a character. I miss self sacrificing guys like Rurik and even Master Togo. At least Evon has personality, like the rest of the charr from the personal storyline do.

TL;DR:

So unless this chaos + mists energy = GIANT ELDER DRAGON we’ve never seen before with his own massive continent in the clouds voiced by James Earl Jones, I’m much more inclined to vote for a battle between the Six Gods, entities we’ve only seen referenced, whose battles have only been alluded to. And for those who don’t know, Abaddon is HUGE, so I wouldn’t mind seeing some incarnation of him in GW2.

This patch sounds very promising. Letting the players vote for new story paths and content, even though it is only through fractals was an excellent way to let people get more involved. Regardless of who wins, even temporary discounts are always welcome.

The rucksack is bulky but cute. I like the little toucan in the cage.

I hope so! Hunger Royale was such a fun event.