Guild Wars 2

And with your guild of 5 people, were you able to do the first bounty?

I can buy influence. I’m not sure how that’s work, but I can do it. So then what?

Also, as to your rather arrogant ‘discussion ending post’ claim, it’s quite apparent that you don’t understand the discussion at all.

Mackanstein.2503:

stobie.2134:

I doubt I’m the only one going back & forth here. I’ve already seen horrific behavior in game, & heard from others, with big guilds behaving – well, just the way you’d expect, charging to join, insulting those who don’t wish to expand, & generally & absolutely ruining an atmosphere that has been, until now, very positive.

Do those at ArenaNet truly not understand why so many of us left mmos like Warcraft? I used to love the play there, but the people, the players, were awful. Terrible. People will grow into the atmosphere you provide. If you set up Lord of the Flies, that’s what you’re going to get.

If this happens, I’m out. Done. Adios.
The main reason I was sucked in to GW2 was the thought that maybe this game wouldn’t contain that attitude, because it would not be set up to give them the advantage.

I am one of those you mention, who left warcraft for this (actually, left swtor too, but that was a very short transition period). As much as I enjoyed WoW’s wide selection of venues and atmospheres, the attitude of the community cut the game in half for me. I worked on builds to solo older raids, took part in fishing competitions, tried some RP, that kind of stuff. But eventually that other half was not worth the sub fee.

GW2 doesn’t have a sub fee, but I also feel it lacking in that “other half”. If the community goes WoW, i’m out.

I did that, too! (and we played SWTOR for several months, too – it had its perks. I loved the stories & choices, but by the end, it didn’t offer anything more than WoW, though I can’t complain about the community there, since there were maybe 5 of us on that planet… once they crunched servers together, we left for good.) I had a boy elf paladin in WoW who used to solo all kinds of things – I adored him. It actually hurt to leave that game – I’d played it a long time, & I loved my characters. (my little gnome rogue… sigh… she was my favorite) My boy elf was a Fishing King. (It’s almost scary that I loved fishing so much – but I did.) But the atmosphere was so bad that we couldn’t take it anymore. I’m actually not an anti-social person, but neither do I appreciate mass crowds. We’ve met people in all the mmos we’ve tried – and some have come with us through 4-5 games. (and one joined us on a trip to New Zealand this fall.) But when we get to know someone, it’s over time, and if we join up with them, it’s because we’ve developed a level of comfort in their company. It’s not because we needed someone to complete a mission. That just seems the definition of ‘anti-social,’ like the WoW LFG groups where people don’t even bother to say ‘hi,’ or thank you. That’s… dysfunctional, & that’s why we left WoW.

WoW was the worst, but mmos I also loved (lotro) were so focused on big guilds to do the complete content that eventually (and after maxing every class but 2) we left that, too. (I still belong, being lifetime, but I don’t play – and their perhaps too aggressive store didn’t help) At least, LOTRO had a genuinely positive environment, no doubt because of the story on which its based. (it’s pretty hard to get negative with Tolkien’s work, but geez, sometimes those developers did try! Letting people die for an achievement… ugh! It’s like they’d never read the books!)

Anyway – think twice, Anet. You’re not the first mmo many of us have tried. You had a HUGE promise by saying you’d be different. The line that drew me in was your, “If you’ve hated mmos in the past, you’ll really love us!” I had sworn off ever doing this again, until my rarely-plays-games daughter showed me that. (3 of us play a lot – but that one did not. She has a maxed thief here. That’s the kind of person this situation completely betrays.)

Totally agree, Lorelei! (and I am loving the thought of all of us, 18 yrs from now, still plugging away, only to find that we can’t do the bounty missions, anyway. Then a bunch of aged people, crumped from too much play, start a vast protest)

The largest group size we need in this game is 5. Therefore, I’m pretty content with a guild of 5. I hear a few snarky types saying 5 is not a guild. Well, no – in Warcraft, it wasn’t. In other mmos, it isn’t. But Guild Wars isn’t Warcraft – and if it was, I wouldn’t be here. That system encouraged AWFUL behavior. Awful. They didn’t care about community or a positive environment. (their cross server looking for group feature proved that conclusively, & perhaps works for a totally gear-based game) But this is a dramatic shift from the lure of this game.

I found that my thief was hurting in a L73 area, but back to her good form in the 80 shore. So I wondered if it was some revision in area scaling, too. Then again, I didn’t tangle with a krait at 80. They’re mean!

Because it’s just so much better to leave the ‘who cares, it doesn’t effect precious ME’ sitting here uncontested.

Isn’t that why they’re on rangers? Those I’ve seen have had a drake pet, who briefly engages anything that attacks. (the last one I saw was in Orr) Since they port out in combat, they’re obviously hacking past the point where being in combat could stop them.

If bots are often operating on hacked accounts, should we really care if our prices lower? I mean, isn’t this just about the height of selfishness?

eta: ARGH! I can’t believe I have to defend wanting bots gone! This is what happens when you foolishly head to a game forum, for whatever reason! Why do I do it? Oh, thank you so much, Guild Missions, for annoying me enough to send me HERE! Double ARGH!

Shikigami.4013:

Whenever people talk about bots some players come with the argument “I don’t mind them, they just keep prices down”. This is so shortsighted and selfish that it just shows an immature and egoistical mindset. These bots operate for the goldsellers, the gold they make by selling the mats is sold to other players, harming the game and the company.

You could just as well say “Oh, I don’t mind burglars, they are good for the economy, they steal items so that people need to buy new ones”. Likewise: the more drugdealers the better, because they keep the prices on drugs down so the addicts have to commit fewer criminal acts to get their drugs. This brings down criminality, which is great, no? Yes, we definitely need more drug dealers.

And our adorable little harvesting bots are probably operating on a hacked account. A few years ago, I caught a hacker stealing my sister’s wow-account. (this was kind of fun, really – a nice GM, drama!) The little fiend tried to sell ME gold when I confronted him. Ya, I definitely mind them. They’re not ok. The fact I’m seeing so many & have no easy way of reporting them is disturbing.

All over! (for me, mostly lower spots & in Orr) And good luck reporting them – they appear, gather, & disappear while I’m still thinking, “Heyy… That’s weird… Wut?…” Poof! And oh look, there’s that same guy (always a ranger) on the next node, an impossible distance away. (they also walk under water, rather than swim – no clue why)

They’re too fast even for a screenshot, even if I had the presence of mind to try it – and there’s no feature for reporting it anyway. And big surprise, gathering mats are rising in cost at the trading post.

eta: Vorch, there’s no way to confuse this with a player logging in & out. For one thing, you invariably see them pop up at another node, quite a bit faster than a person could log in & out. There’s no gathering animation, from what I’ve seen (and this is FAST, so I could be missing other signs) I’ve seen one underwater in the lost isles, and what struck me is that the animation was for walking, not swimming. I haven’t been able to report a single one. I hope & trust that Anet is aware – because it’s escalated rather dramatically in the last 3 weeks.

Mireles Lore.5942:

“I don’t want” is what i keep hearing, thats not a reason to change the game for everyone because you don’t like the way the game is designed. If you don’t want to don’t do it then. Its not that you can’t its that you don’t want to… well there alot of things people don’t like in this game… do they scream for its removal… no they just don’t play it…

Or, liking this game, people speak up when something seems blatantly wrong & hurtful to the game as it has been, and certainly, as it was advertized at launch? You’re obviously hearing what you want, & not listening, so – I think this conversation is pretty much done. K?

Mireles Lore.5942:

Why? Because more people means more expensive and there no way of knowing if that person will pull his or her cost… because it eliminates incentive to build a large community because its more costly to the leader and members… Goals cant be long term and spoon feed to you… Theres nothing stopping you from recruiting or joining a large guild for a few minutes to do their missions… I don’t see why small guilds need to be baby sitted when were all playing the same game… Large guilds reach the goal faster because it takes more work to maintain the interests of 100+ people than it does 10+

Well, I’m sick of this conversation. But I’ll say this once more, because it’s getting rather rude and too snarky for my tastes here.

I do not want to be in a large guild. I do not want to recruit for the sake of content. As for your exceptionally rude ‘baby sitted’ comment, I’m not sure why big guilds have to be spoon fed content, either. You do not have to work for these missions. Simply by having a city sized guild, you get it anyway. No, the reality is, small guilds DO work for these, & are quite willing to do so. I do not want the gear ‘handed to me,’ & I think that’s a pretty disingenuous way to twist what so many people here have been saying. I do not want my play time directed by people such as yourself, who feel they know how others should be spending their game time. Is that perfectly clear? I fully expect it not to be understood, but just for the sake of saying it – I joined this game when it promised to be something other than WoW or EverQuest, or other mmos that had the same gear-based, raid-oriented system. I did not enjoy those – I wouldn’t return, never did return, & learned my lesson about joining a bunch of people I don’t know, nor want to know.

I’m not sure how ‘social’ came to mean ‘chattering with people you don’t actually know’ over ‘spending time with real friends & actual family,’ but that seems to be the divide here.

Insulting people with ’you’re all just babies!’ does not help your apparent cause.

I wasn’t sure what they did – but they sure did something. I wish these changes were, at least, clearly indicated in the patch notes.

I’m not sure why mmos keep feeling that ‘more annoying & frustrating’ somehow equals ‘more interesting.’ I’d say something unexpected is interesting – like if a krait just stopped & offered me tea. Trapping me in poison would not be my idea of a pleasant surprise.

Yes. I was having all kinds of trouble on my thief. I finally just logged out & came here to find out what was missing in the patch notes. (and here read just how bad the missions are for small guilds – not a good day yesterday!)

Jrunyon.3012:

Pandabro.8743:

Tenicord.9803:

Sorry I don’t like that idea. I shouldn’t be able to get an armor set from a dungeon I never ran.

Why not? This line of reasoning usually associated with the fear of losing prestige or ego through some sense of accomplishment.

Maybe because some dungeons take 10 mins while others take an hour? Sorry, but this is an MMO, there has to be prestige and accomplishment or there just isn’t any point. To convince yourself otherwise.. well, you might as well go play a single player game.

Wow. The “prestige” nonsense is what they were trying to get away from. If this game just has your wow-recycled mentality, it really isn’t the game for me. Or for a lot of people, who hoped this really was a new, different mmo. Just because a big, Disney-fied mmo has done things a certain way does not mean they define the very nature of an mmo. An mmo doesn’t have to appeal to a really sorry level of ego gratification through gear. Just, no.

Sadly, that guild did have rules. But when it’s an officer doing the violation… you’re pretty much stuck.

There’s a whole list of things not to talk about in polite company – adding in all religion & politics. The thing is, when you’re in your own guild, you can talk about whatever you want. My sister & I talk about all sorts of woman things – I’m pretty sure we’d have to refrain from THAT if we started recruiting for the sake of guild missions. And I can’t imagine why a small comfortable group would want to move to ‘politically correct, non-offensive.’ I wouldn’t ask them to – but neither do I want to hear it. It sounds like being in an office – and that may be great for some, & a nightmare for others.

Hence, I’d rather see Anet leave us with choice, & rethink their already odd influence system.

I was just going to say that I think he cast confusion on us.

Also – ignore this confused guy! My mesmer is very happy. However, I’d love to see my little Asura engineer buffed. And my ranger.

FilthyRat.4652:

First off many people don’t like all the BS that is spouted in the larger guilds chat…have been in many of them and seems like it is always an issue.

This! I was in one – long ago in WoW – where the chat got unbelievably bad & so dark. I had half of the guild on ignore, had to minimize guild chat, & finally thought… “No game is worth this!” In another guild, generally more adult & moderate, there was a woman constantly discussing her affairs. There was always something – from the weird stuff to in game drama, to the utter boredom of seeing sports chat roll by. Generally, some core of the guild knew each other in real life, & a lot of personal information flew by. It was like being trapped with strangers all talking on cell phones. It’s like being stuck in a self help meeting – there’s always a few who hold forth & view you as a captive audience, & prattle on.

No… I’m having horror guild flashbacks! Did I say they weren’t evil? Beginning to rethink that… They’re evil because they give a podium to people I cannot avoid & do not want to hear. There’s that.

Evil? No… But not everyone wants to live in a big city.

I’m more confused by why people in big guilds seem so angered by small guilds wanting access to these missions, too. It’s not taking anything away from large guilds (unless they expect to be recruiting those who leave small guilds because of this – and to be clear, this is the kind of thing that makes people leave the game, not their guild)

I’ve been in big guilds, & found them – awful. “Not something I enjoy.” I do not wish to socialize with large groups – I prefer close knit groups, generally with people I actually know. So it’s not that large guilds are deemed evil – just rather cold, necessarily shallow, & impersonal.

You have to unlock the one in Art of War to access any of the others.

I’m not seeing – or feeling – an “I want it NOW” problem. I wasn’t here voicing unhappiness with 1 karma a day to get rings/pets/etc. (and I have my first ring, tyvm)

I left mmos in the past and vowed never to try one again. Early on, in another mmo, we tried merging our little guild into a larger one – and when that failed, we tried simply joining a well known guild. Never again. If you have to disable guild chat because the members are that annoying, and you have to be in a party to speak to the people you actually know – and in some cases, only ‘see’ online, then the large guild isn’t worth it – and has defeated the reason you’re playing in the first place.

I wouldn’t have tried Guild Wars had it not advertised itself as something completely different. I didn’t try Rift, & I was very sorry to find swtor a simple wow clone with mass effect side stories. GW2 sounded like a game that allowed for a lot of interaction without the negatives – and for the most part, that’s been true. That’s why I don’t understand this weird push to reshape that community. What’s the lure? Just getting us to spend gold on something? I can be easily convinced to spend gold on things that I want – but not things I’m pushed into buying. (and if that doesn’t make people stubborn, nothing will)

All guilds, large & small, would obviously love guild missions, & benefit from them. If you want to get to know others in a 200 sized guild, there’s your chance. I want to share missions with people I know & love, & add those to memories I already have of instances with family/friends & other events. I think a lot of us were looking forward to missions, but the idea that we farm influence to unlock them negates the purpose of missions, which was to have something new & interesting to do, over time. It looks to me that the time is now spent simply unlocking it, & I’m not seeing a compelling reason to do that.

I hear that small guilds should ‘work for it,’ though a large guild has access solely by being large. I don’t see that buying influence requires skill or hard work, either. I could do it, but the idea leaves a very bitter taste, & even more, a great deal of apprehension about the game’s future. Should I fork over gold for this, what’s next?

I hope they recognize this as a tipping point. I used to play lotro – I loved the game, & though I thought their store was questionable at times, I kept at it. The day they started offering stat armor in their store, I quit, & never went back. There is such a thing as going too far, & this shove towards large wow-guilds is it. So as to wanting things now, that’s a pretty strange twist on what’s actually happening. If it took 4 months of guild missions to get an earring, I’d be fine with that. If they were incredibly hard, but scaled for group size, I’d be thrilled. But this is only an incentive to find another pastime.

eta: Removing commendation requirements would be a rather easy & reasonable fix. I found those confusing, anyway – I wasn’t entirely sure why they were tiered. But of course, I built up the ones I thought we could use, and not Art of War. Something tells me that’s the category most people ignored – and that would end up costing us the most gold should we cave to that route.

Giving guilds, of any size, new things to do together was a great idea. But setting up small guilds this way is such a huge mistake – unless they only want big guilds. I’d just think, ‘well, it sounded good, but I guess an mmo will always end up this way – too bad,’ & I’d be done with it. Maybe GW2 was the first mmo for people – but I kind of got from their pre-release pitches that they understood people had tried & left other mmos. (I remember this from the trailer video, actually – "If you love mmos, you’ll like us, if you hated them, you’ll love us!’ Something like that. And in some ways, that’s been true – until now.

Well, I haven’t been hovering on these forums – this was just enough to make me endure it, just for tonight. As I see it, this game, which I’ve been enjoying since beta, has suddenly lurched into the WoW/EQ territory – and I never want to go there again.

GW2 seemed to be avoiding the SWTOR face plant, and for me, besides a ridiculous number of servers, that problem was ‘wow-clone’ overshadowing the promised ‘single player aspect mmo.’ I’d be very sorry to leave this game, but I find this turn of events depressing.

The obvious reason to visit this forum, which isn’t something I enjoy at all, is because I’d really like to see this shifted. It seems obvious & easy to scale events, and to alter the method of commencing guild missions. It’s not something that appears impossible to alter – at this point.

Yup! Any other tree, & we’d be able to consider a mission unlock. But Art of War? Not even close.

No, a ‘simple walk in the park’ is joining a huge guild that already has the unlocks. That’s easy. And it’s not going to happen.

Oh, geez – poll: A, B, C

Thanks, but no. I’m afraid I’d end up with a lot of people who call me ‘dude,’ & that isn’t going to happen.

FurySong.6348:

The guild missions are not meant for small guilds anyway.
We just finished one mission at tier 1 and we failed tier 2 three times with more than 20 people spreading out to suspected zones as to where to find the convicts.

So what’s the point of the developers encouraging small guilds to do them in the first place? I see no reason for us to bother with unlocking missions at all. I have no interest in merging or joining a big guild, so the game’s direction isn’t terribly promising.

Deified.7520:

Hello, quick poll for a gaming thing, guess you could consider it journalism. Anyways respond however you feel, don’t turn this into a flame war. Thanks.

1. Which class do you consider to be the “most overpowered”?

2. Which class do you consider to be the “most underpowered”?

3. Which aspect of the game do you think needs the most work done? (sPvP, PvE dungeons, PvE open world, WvW)

4. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being good and 1 being bad, how would you rate the in game economy?

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a lot and 1 being very few, how would you rate the amount of bugs/glitches in the current build of the game?

6. Which aspect of the game do you want to do more, but have no reason to currently do so? (sPvP, PvE dungeons, PvE open world, WvW)

7. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being great and 1 being the worst, how would you rate the community interaction between players? (things such as parties, dungeons, etc)

Thank you for your time

1. Warrior (I do not want my wee little Asuran Warrior nerfed – but I’d like to see my other classes have as many options & be this strong – pie or no pie)
2. Ranger (I have both Ranger & Warrior – and Guardian & Thief, & Mesmer… I love the Ranger, but there are a lot of pet problems & I really feel it could use a flat damage boost)
3. PVE dungeons (I do not care about pvp)
4. <6 (I’m seeing so many hackers out gathering that it’s hard to call it great just now)
5. 3 There was a long period of few glitches, & given how many glitches I’ve seen in other games – eh, this is not game breaking.
6. PVE open world or dungeons
7. 7 – people are fine out in the world (I just turn off chat in Lion’s Arch so I don’t lose faith in humanity’s ability not to be annoying) I’ve only done a few pug groups, & those were limited by the speed run mentality – but the people were ok, in a ‘get it done, too-wow kind of way. And I don’t pvp – so there’s that.

What were GW1 guild alliances like? Was that part of the game, or player implemented?

We know how much it costs to unlock Guild Missions. We know what we unlock, & can easily read how hard some of the missions are, & how many players they require. It will be pretty hard for those of us in small guilds to ‘run an event’ when by pretty simple math, it will take many weeks to unlock any of it.

<—- Almost never posts, because gamer forums can be pretty unpleasant places, but yup, this was upsetting enough to draw me out.

We were just wondering that, too. Assuming we can get the gold & the unlocks, are the bounty missions even do-able for a little guild? Some of them sound fun – but not if I have to drum up the equivalent of a 40 man raid.

Thank you, Matipzieu! That was pretty amazing & stunningly in-depth.

Talk about guild merging, or folding a little guild into a large one for the sake of guild missions seems just silly to me. I’ve tried that in other mmos – we don’t lose our small guild, because our small guild is real life friends & family – but we do end up in an environment that isn’t suited to our needs, nor our initial reasons for playing together.

Some of us live far apart – we communicate in game often, & sometimes, with personal issues. It’s social – not chat room social, but sisters talking, far flung relatives checking in.

When I’ve been a part of large guilds, there’s usually some core element, generally founders, of people who also know each other irl. Many of them expanded just to see content or raid. I’m never terribly interested in their personal chatter, any more than I’d expect them to want to listen to my sister & I talking about our dogs.

Small guilds are small for a reason. The option of ‘join a larger guild’ is no option at all.

Guild Missions sound fun – it gives us something more dynamic to do rather than leveling a new character, or running the same instance over & over. (I’m pretty much leveled out by now – I have the characters I want maxed, & I have most of the gear I want – dynamic missions were very exciting.)

This is a weird direction. Watching that old promo is actually very sad – being shoved into a ‘join a big guild or quit’ scenario is not what I envisioned back then.

People are not complaining about ‘challenge.’ That seems pretty obvious at this point – I don’t really think it needs more explanation.

Rathmus.9840:

I feel betrayed by this patch. Since the release I’ve always told people that GW2 gets it. I thought the developers understood that “end game” doesn’t have to be defined as 10 to 20 people grinding out a raid every night for hours. I thought that the developers understood that even though I don’t want to join a massive zerg guild, it doesn’t mean I don’t want the best gear in the game, nor would I work for it. This game has suited me and my playstyle up until this point.

Essentially what this patch says to me is that sure you can have a small guild but you can’t do any of the new guild missions quickly, especially on day one. I am in a small guild that is around 5 people and we’re all just friends who’ve played games together for a very long time. We’re not looking to be a big guild and meet tons of new people or anything like that. We’ve done it before and are past it. We play to run the dungeons, get the best gear and just have fun. So when I see that the first type of mission is only available though getting your Art of War high, automatically we’re screwed as we don’t pvp and have invested our points elsewhere. Not only that, but the absurd amount of points, which I’m sure wouldn’t be tough for a large guild, are insane for a group of 5.

Another thing, the new ascended pieces. I see you can get them through 5 gold and 12 guild commendations or something like that which is not bad. But if you’re not in a guild you’re charged 50 ectos and 40 laurels? Seriously? I don’t know how easy it is to get the guild commendations but I doubt it’s less than 40 days of laurels and roughly 18 gold worth of ectos.

I’m sorry if my post is all over the place but this patch is really disappointing, to the point where I don’t see what the purpose is of continuing to play. Thanks a lot ANet.

Thank you. This is exactly how I feel.

Well… that’s one way to put it. Ok, I’d like to find fault with the cynicism there, but I can’t help thinking you’re right. The alternative, & what I’m pretty sure will happen for me, is that you end up thinking, “Ya, Guild Missions sounded great. Nothing is worth that much annoyance.”

I like finding people & making new friends in my own way. If I find people I like, I friend them, keep in touch, etc. I’m not seeing the need for ANet to involve itself in this manner now.

It’s not ‘anti-social’ to be in an mmo to socialize with people you know. I didn’t come to an mmo to make 200 ‘friends.’ I came here with friends & family to play a game. I have no interest in ever joining a large guild again. We tried that in other mmos, & it’s not happening again. This isn’t WoW. I don’t understand the strange drive to shove it in that direction.

I’m not happy about the shove toward being in a big guild. It’s not going to happen. I’ve been through that in other mmos, & it’s the main reason I left. I see no reason for it – this isn’t a raiding game (thankfully) and it begins to remove the freedom we’ve had to see content without being in a massive chat room.

As for the dailies – I don’t know. The game has gotten unnecessarily grindy, yes – and that decidedly undercuts the promise at the game’s release.

Small guild on Crystal Desert – We’re just friends & family, with no interest in being a Mega-Guild, so alliances sound good. It would probably be good for other things, too – instances & such.

I’ve been seeing a lot of gathering hackers, but I have yet to be able to report one with the ‘click on character, report bot’ feature. It takes a few seconds to realize what you’re seeing, but even if you’re quick, they move too fast to click. I’m seeing this in all areas – but mostly in Orr & start areas. (I’m assuming mats from those sell best)

I’m absolutely certain these are hacks. (they’re all hunters – first human, now Asura, & my own ranger is unhappy with the association) If you’re in an area with 2 gathering nodes visible, you can see them appear at one, then the other, in the space of a second. If they’re attacked, the pet attacks, and the character disappears. I’ve seen the same ones popping all over the place. (I’m also seeing some underwater ones in the LI)

So – how do we report these? I thought of screen shots, if I could be quick enough to do that. I assume Anet is aware this is happening, but I’m seeing so many of them lately that I thought I’d find a place to mention it, since there’s no sufficient reporting tool for the task.

There’s also the ending, when people you really did care about have died, & Trahearne is still whining about what he’s going to do with his life now. At least, you have one, twit! (and many of those deaths, I credit to his ridiculous leadership. Oh – just shut the doors, Trahearne! Don’t WAIT for anyone to come in! Just save yourself!) You don’t get to see various characters who mattered, or even resolve some hanging thread storylines. (a bereaved widow, for instance – I looked all over her after I’d finished story Arah. She should be there!) And your Order Companions? WHERE are they? We don't get to 'save' them, to set them to real rest, or anything. (I think we can safely assume they're Zhaitanized, in that one of the eyeballs basically says so.) But we have to give Trahearne a pep talk about the vital importance of his Mary Sue life? I don’t think so! At that point, my Asura would have kicked him off the pier, probably into the mouth of that Group Event dead Sharkadon thing no one ever kills!

And Aximand, I went through SWTOR a few times, too. Their personal stories are really great, for the most part. (though the game itself just felt like WoW in Space, & I tired of such limited character models) But story-wise, they did a great job. There are some good choices here, less character building flexibility, but after Claw Island, it really just fades. I’ve only completed it fully once on my Mesmer (my first) and I have 4 others just hanging around at various stages. (All after Claw Island) I’m afraid Trahearne is the biggest reason, because we do still get some interesting choices. They’re just all credited to HIM. (and the one where you beg his forgiveness – NOOOO!) He’s gone into Mary Sue territory, kicked her off her throne, & taken over. He’s Guild Wars Bella – and that horror could be altered by having him take a pleasantly dark turn in some future installment. They could even give us a choice as to whether to redeem him or off him, in deference to whoever still likes him. (I might give him a chance on the mesmer, but the Asura are lined up to take him out.)

Oh – about the continuity issue. I get that, but couldn’t they just say, ‘by the Pact,’ or even better, by Destiny’s Edge ‘with help?’ Anything would be better than the horrible thought that one day, Tyria will be revering the Holy Trahearne.

Still bugged on Crystal Desert, though I did see one player with a ghost. So ‘mostly bugged.’

When I first went through on my Mesmer, I was ok with him. I even worried that he’d die. (because I’d cared about the others who died, after all) By my last venture, on my Asura thief, I was thinking how very pleasant it would be if Trahearne had turned out to be some dragonish manifestation of evil, so that I might impale him with his gaudy sword. There are so many NPCs I would happily have promoted. (I’d go Asura, I’m sure, just because it would never be dull) The older-brother Sylvari from one of the personal stories – he was great, very moving, heroic. Pretty much any NPC would have been less irritating.

I’m not sure entirely why – he’s not as ditzy as the Sylvari girl team (Tegwen? The dimmer one of that pair makes me want to start punching.) He does have some questionable lines, and those get really grating time after time. He also seems to go from, “I’m just a lil’ ole scholar,” to a rather arrogant, narcissistic twit by the end. I did not want to be leader, but ya, when you’ve gone through a fight with him spinning uselessly in the background, & then your team (some of whom you have met previously, & who don’t remember you from your personal story, adding insult to injury) all laud the great Trahearne, you do begin to find yourself fantasizing about his possible demise.

It somewhat annoys me that my characters all value him, beyond my control, when I’m pretty sure they would not. The human mesmer, maybe – she’s agreeable enough. The Asura, however, would have found a way to ‘lose’ him long ago.

My son was done with him early on – my daughter kept trying to find something good about him, then finally questioned if perhaps it wouldn’t have been better to let him be the ‘noble sacrifice.’ When he lost her, he’d really gone past the point of no return.

I’m going to miss the invisible wall, a bit. I came up against it last night, & spent a sad amount of time, with 2 determined Sylvari, trying to bust my way in. They look so fresh, so much cabbage-y goodness, just waiting!

I just got to Victory or Death, too, & I was very disappointed to find a group quest. I think we all understand that it’s an mmo, but as GW2 was presented, it was a ‘different’ mmo. While we have pvp/etc, & instances, there is also the personal story, which is solo, while allowing you to bring more people if you desire. I don’t understand why it didn’t finish up that way. I don’t enjoy mmos as much as some – I prefer DA-Mass Effect type games, but I tried GW2 because it seemed to offer more. I can’t imagine how annoyed I’d be if I managed to get a group, then had someone else in the story scenes. Weird decision there, and extremely disappointing.

Guild: Eternal Night (EN)
Server: Crystal Desert
Leader: Ceridwen Daere

Same problem – I noticed it first yesterday. Before that, everything seemed normal.
We’re trying to add the Guild Stash, & though we have enough points, when I click on ‘add,’ nothing happens. (this is also happening when I try to activate the 5% exp banner, which has already been created.) We’ve done the prerequisites, which worked normally.
As of now, though a pvp boost is in queue, I’m not able to click on anything, including Guild Workshop (well, I do – nothing happens.)