Guild Wars 2

I also appreciated the new way conversations integrate into the story. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m appreciating it more, but I’m noticing voice acting in places I never had before. (I created a new character and the first mail to me from my buddy Quinn was voiced! Was this always there, or had I just noticed it?)

One problem I had, though… did Jory’s voice actor change for parts of this episode? She sounded… different… to me in parts. That could just be because of the situation: she sounded different due to emotional distress. But it just didn’t sound like Jory to me.

Anyway, keep up the great work!

Oh, one more thing! The ambient audio in Dry Top is amazing. The wind sounds, specifically. I know that’s a weird thing to comment on, but I love the wind sounds. I’ve got a decent pair of headphones (Sennheiser 558s) and catch myself just stopping and listening sometimes.

Oogabooga.9138:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Great idea, I’d love this too, as would my poor extra finishers I never remember to use.

Wow a response after 5 posts, yet none in Megaserver or Trait threads with thousands. Maybe you forgot about us too? Is the China player base dealt the same wonderful PR?

It’s almost like they’re being honest when they say they’re always reading the forums but can’t always make time to respond. (Or can’t respond because they don’t speak about upcoming features until they’ve been announced. etc.)

Hey Silevril- what region/server are you on now?

Hi Mita!

I’m a guild leader on SoR. My guild isn’t WvW-focused enough, but I thought I might be able to make a few suggestions.

Primal Fury [PF] is a new guild to SoR that is very WvW-focused. They’re a larger guild with plenty of coverage. They can be a lot of fun to run with and tend to have a player mix that covers lots of ages and both genders. Their main commander is female, so they can often be a more comfortable place if you’re a lady. During primetime, PF is often the main zerg on map.

Rogue Agents [RA] has been around for awhile, though by different names. They tend to run havoc. They tend to be more of the young male demographic and are a smaller guild than PF. I’ve been running with RA a fair bit lately and I have a great time.

Chariots of Fire [FIRE] / [wGOD] is a Christian-oriented guild with PvX and WvW formats. If you’re looking for a guild that keeps its language clean and has a focus on both gaming and God, I’d suggest starting with them.

These guilds and a whole bunch more can be found on the SoR website – sanctumofrall.com. You can read up on them there. If you’d like further recommendations, feel free to contact me here or in-game. (You’ll probably get a faster response in-game.) Knowing a bit more about what you’re looking for will certainly help finding you the best fit.

I can’t tell you how many guildies asked, “Where is Miner Toska?”

“The mine. Seriously?”

“Oh.”

This game teaches quite a bit of laziness and bad habits, it’ll be interesting to see if they can break the mold this far along.

Hey everybody, I was just curious if others have had a similar experience. I was hoping people would come back with the Living Story updates last week, but my guild’s population seemed pretty stable, certainly not the influx I was expecting…

…but then this week, holy cow! We’ve had quite a few folks come back and join us.

Now, I’m in a small guild, so it’s hard to extrapolate too much. I thought it’d be fun to ask: have you seen a lot of people come back and play since the update?

As somebody who runs a “friendly and involved” guild, I’m always somewhat baffled by these claims.

Guess what, guys. We’re out there. We tend to be small because you can’t have 500 members without drama. You probably don’t know about us because we don’t spam mapchat looking for members.

Most of us do want more members, though! We tend to recruit by doing content with other players. Ever run a dungeon with two or three people from the same guild and have a good time? Well… ask about their guild! Ever see a WvW havoc wearing the same tag? You know, that guild you’ve seen before, but you don’t know much about them? Well… ask about their guild!

Small, community-oriented guilds are usually careful about how quickly they add members. My guild, for example, would never add more than a couple new members in a week. Why? Well, we don’t want to dilute ourselves. We have an attitude and a style that we all like. New players need time to adjust (or to realize they don’t fit and leave) and we don’t want to throw off the balance while they do.

Anyway, sorry for the mini-rant.

tl;dr Those guilds exist, you’re just ignoring them or don’t realize they’re around.

Dead server? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs&t=0m56s

Renkencen.6127:

While I won’t say it’s a plothole but I am baffle at how a mining town exist in the firstplace without any proper support like an asuran gate nor have they fully explain why they chose themselves to be isolated from the other major settlements.

Sounds like they get airdrops. The only clue I noticed was “from our friends up north.” Riot Alice also mentioned them, I think. So it could definitely be bandits, but I haven’t seen bandits with airships, have you?

Two storylines I’d enjoy, though I’m not suggesting these are likely: the Consortium, or… bit of a stretch here… minions of Mordremoth.

How cool would it be if Mordy had lieutenants actively extorting the locals, forcing them to produce food and other sustenance for the dragon in exchange for meager compensation?

Zhaitan enslaves through death. Mordremoth enslaves by isolating.

Yo ArenaNet, can you just post it all to Soundcloud so we can binge-listen while waiting for the patch?

I also didn’t get my chest. I’m on SoR, but guildies of mine did get their chest, so it’s not a server thing.

Zelkovan.2630:

Sure, if you just focus on hearts than it does feel rather linear, but that’s on the player not the game.

Sure, but that’s part of the problem. When you’re learning to play GW2, it’s very easy to say, “Oh, hearts are this game’s quests. I’ll just do all of those to level.”

And then the game feels linear and boring.

Yes, it’s on the player, but at the same time, the game doesn’t teach you a better way. Think about the first Personal Story mission: complete a heart. It’s not “complete a dynamic event chain.” Nothing in this game tells you to go look for DEs. In fact, hearts ALWAYS show on the map (assuming you’ve cleared it) but DEs only show if you’re nearby.

The core gameplay in open world PvE was supposed to be DEs, but I think most people try to make it hearts, and that’s a real step down. In my opinion.

Given that Southsun had no hearts, I wouldn’t be surprised if they skip them in the new zones as well. But we’ll see!

I wonder what percentage of the playerbase plays with /map /say and in-game chat bubbles turned off?

I bet that number is shockingly high. :-/

Rauderi.8706:

Yeah, those suck, not gonna lie. :\

I’m experienced enough to know usually which tasks produce the best renown output, but it still leads to waiting. I usually just trot off and kill stuff while I wait. [/shrug]

I’m going to take it a step further. Renown Hearts suck.

Hearts were not originally intended for this game and it shows. (The back story: players were confused about where to go to find Dynamic Events. Hearts were added as a way to guide players to the right places and hopefully make them stick around long enough for an event to start.)

Sure, not all hearts suck. Some of them are pretty fun. But they all have the same problem: they are too much like quests.

GW2 was designed to throw away the old “kill ten rats” quest model, but hearts basically bring that gameplay back. Sure, you get a choice between kill ten rats or click on A, run to B, click on B… (Let’s be real: that’s 80% of the hearts.)

When I started, I was playing with 5 or 6 real-life friends. We were running around together. It was 1) run to heart 2) everybody completes the heart 3) repeat. It was BORING. SO BORING.

Eventually, I split off and tried something different. I pretended the hearts didn’t exist. I’d explore, unlock map and waypoints, get POIs and Vistas that didn’t seem like a pain, and do dynamic events. But no hearts. (Some would complete as I did DEs, that was fine.)

The game INSTANTLY became waaaaay more fun! It felt fresh and new and not at all grindy. I started paying less attention to the UI and more to the world. I started listening to NPCs and following them around to see what they did. (Which often meant DEs were popping.)

So OP, if hearts feel grindy or boring or whatever, stop doing them. I bet, like me, you’ll have a way better time.

Brother Grimm.5176:

timmyf.1490:

…..
Do you all seriously believe there should not be ANY “you had to be there” items?

“You had to be there”, items are fine, but nobody EVER said they would be “exclusive” and never obtainable again. THAT idea (that they are supose to be NEVER be made available again) is just not a reasonable assumption to make.

If you can get it again later, you didn’t “have to be there.”

That’s the meaning of the term “you had to be there.” You… had to be there.

Palador.2170:

FearedbytheGods.8617:

Palador.2170:

If I see you charging into battle with the gasmask, molten gloves, jetpack, and The Moot, I’m going to think you’re a total idiot.

That’s just arguing an extreme point of view. To assume people with prestige gear will simply mash the pieces together because it’s all unique is an idiot thing to say.

You play with character models off, don’t you? Trust me, it happens and it’s ugly.

Luckily, some of us play a fantasy game and not Historical Reenactment Wars 2. ;-)

Tastes vary. I like (some of) my characters to be a bit ridiculous.

windyweather.1238:

I’m surprised and annoyed that Collection Expander only changes the collection pages and not the bank and bag slots. Much less useful if it’s not a real upgrade to the whole thing.
Sigh…

Makes sense to me on bagged inventory, but I would have liked to see it update stacks on bank slots as well. Still think it’s worth the cash, though.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Also, do NOT visit the skillpoint in the most northwestern corner of Fields of Ruin. There’s a major spoiler there.

Oh yeah. It’s a skillpoint, not a POI. So many feels.

Brother Grimm.5176:

It’s kind of sad to see the level of passion, anger and twisted logic they are seriously expressing over this issue.

I feel like Conski is responding very fairly to questions he’s getting. “Anger” doesn’t seem appropriate.

If anything, the anger is coming from others at Conski because of his post.

Do you all seriously believe there should not be ANY “you had to be there” items? Is that the only prestige-type Conski listed (limited time, high skill, expensive) that you think is bad? Or are either of the other two also unacceptable?

Oh man. That Blazeridge POI. Oh man.

NeedCoffee.1402:

timmyf.1490:

I have an alternate question for people opposed to limited-time items: should ArenaNet say “this item is available during the course of this event only” and then bring it back later?

I think my main concern is that we were told items had limited availability, so I moved around my schedule and made time to get items that I wanted… now they’re back and very easy to get.

I’m glad for players who might have missed out, but if I had known they’d be released again later, I certainly would have done other things with my life/game balance.

I guess you could nitpick at the wording and say that the items were always listed as “limited availability” and not “one-time only.”

To answer you question, yes they should.
In your scenario your not realizing because of your sacrifice of time to acquire the items you wanted you got to enjoy them before others.

You don’t think it’d be better to just come out and say, “This item will be available until <date> and won’t return for a while?”

I have an alternate question for people opposed to limited-time items: should ArenaNet say “this item is available during the course of this event only” and then bring it back later?

I think my main concern is that we were told items had limited availability, so I moved around my schedule and made time to get items that I wanted… now they’re back and very easy to get.

I’m glad for players who might have missed out, but if I had known they’d be released again later, I certainly would have done other things with my life/game balance.

I guess you could nitpick at the wording and say that the items were always listed as “limited availability” and not “one-time only.”

Rauderi.8706:

They’ll complain the content is lame and zergy.

Or they’ll complain it is too hard and forces them to spread out.

Rauderi.8706:

They’ll complain about the rewards being nerfed or token-based.

Or they’ll complain that they have to farm or inflation will overcome them.

The problem is that almost any change affects some people in a good way and others in a bad way. Look at the town clothes -> outfit changes. Lots of unhappy people, but it’s been good for me!

I’d do it in this order:

FIRST Ascended amulet: you should already have this. If not, go get it right now.

FIRST AND A HALF Ascended rings and accessories: these are relatively easy to get through Fractals (RNG or 20 runs) and Guild Missions (4 weeks of guild missons)

SECOND Ascended weapons: craft these for most/all of your characters. It’s tough for Mesmer because it stretches across quite a few disciplines if you use Sword/Pistol+Focus like I do.

MAYBE THIRD Ascended armor, including back piece. The stat boost for these is low, 4-5% not counting the ridiculously expensive infusions. Do this if you’re bored and have run out of toons to do the previous steps.

For me, I have 7 80s (and a Ranger I could Tome up if I weren’t waiting for Tengu). They all have Ascended amulets. 5 or 6 have their rings and accessories. 3 or 4 have Ascended weapons. None have Ascended armor. I stage out my progression kind of like that.

Evans.6347:

timmyf.1490:

…EVERYBODY would pick #1. That’s not an option we have, though.

Only because it isn’t given to us. It’s surely possible though, regardless of vague claims we’ve heard.

In the software world, we have a saying. “We can do anything you want, it’s just a matter of time and money.”

ArenaNet determined the resource requirements – whatever they are, and it’s not necessary to know for you to understand this point – were beyond what they wanted to spend.

(Edit: just a bit more color. The requirements here could be in terms of programmers, artists, modelers, or some combination of all of the above. Probably some combination of all of the above. I get the feeling that animating chest and leg pieces for all the gender/race/armor-weight combos is a substantial amount of work, so they try to stick to more universal glove+shoulder+boot+helm+back pieces.)

Individually, you don’t have many options. They knew this change would upset people. Now it’s upsetting people.

If sales of outfits are poor, that will send a message that people don’t like this system.

I was in game last night and ran across tons of people with this outfit. Anecdotal, of course, but it seems to be selling well. I know I bought it. It’s wonderful.

Morte de Angelis.7986:

Do that number of guys really get turned on by looking at a semi-naked chick in a video game? =S

I’m not sure we really want an answer to that question.

Anyway, there are currently more non-skimpy options (as you put it) than skimpy options, but I feel the QUALITY and UNIQUENESS of these pieces often misses the mark. There are lots of “wow” options on the skimpy side, but not nearly as many covering options.

I’d love to see some more variety in design.

If the difference between you enjoying this game and not enjoying this game is the level of participation of developers on the forums, Guild Wars 2 is probably not the game for you.

Given these three options:

1) Mix and match, usable in combat
2) Mix and match, not usable in combat
3) Single style, usable in combat

…EVERYBODY would pick #1. That’s not an option we have, though.

Castrin.8972:

timmyf.1490:

Castrin.8972:

Yet there are those intent on removing all choice and limiting things based on their belief system.

The OP clearly states he has no problems with other people wearing skimpy armor and does not want those removed.

Did anybody bother to read the post?

Yes I read the post and that was just a CYA statement to cover the fact that he didn’t want people thinking he wanted something censored or removed. Did you really read his post?

If (according to the OP) the problem is having them in his inventory, I think he can safely ignore them. Since he is not concerned with how others are wearing skimpy armor.

His complaint is that he would like more high-end skins that aren’t revealing, especially for light armor. Think about the “coolest” human female skins in the game – not the crappy bandit ones that you get. The really sweet looking ones. Most (though not all) of them tend to be ornate push-up bras, not armor.

I think it’s a valid request. It certainly doesn’t constitute censorship. People are reacting waaaayyy too strongly.

Though this is the internet, so I guess I need to recalibrate my expectations.

Beldin.5498:

The OP also states that he has never really looked at all the available outfit, or just showing the face means already “skimpy” to him.

ThunderBadger.3049:

Also, I am a wardrobe nut. I am trying to collect nearly every armor in the game. I have a lot, though far from finished primarily because I still need to get a fair amount of dungeon armor. I think it’s fair to say I have researched my options. There are a couple of good sets, but for someone like me who loves to mix and match, and play around with my armor looks a lot, there’s not much variety. I spend a lot of my time looking for really cool combos to make, and you just can’t make too many tasteful ones. For example, there are a lot of chest pieces that show all of the stomach, which I don’t like and makes it nearly impossible to pair with different leggings.

I don’t see where you get “The OP also states that he has never really looked at all the available outfit.”

Castrin.8972:

Yet there are those intent on removing all choice and limiting things based on their belief system.

The OP clearly states he has no problems with other people wearing skimpy armor and does not want those removed.

Did anybody bother to read the post?

An in-game option would be cool, but what features are you willing to give up to get it? Remember, resources are very limited.

This seems like a case where out-of-game options are sufficient. http://gw2.guildex.org/ as an example. Also, my server has a website with guild registry just for guilds based on our server: sanctumofrall.com

Reading comprehension on this thread is not great. Let’s try quoting the relevant parts.

ThunderBadger.3049:

And for the record, I don’t care about the other players who run around with nothing on. That’s not my problem. My problem is I don’t want to wear that stuff.

Making my character look cool is a huge part of what’s fun to me about playing this game, and it’s really infuriating every time they make a new armor set. “Oh, a new armor! What does it look like?…Aw man I wanted armor, not armor with a big hole in the chest and stomach.”

There are certainly many armors that they could make that aren’t promiscuous, nor full blown “nun” either. They just don’t seem to choose to. Lots of players including me would probably like armor that is practical, or even beautiful and elegant. You don’t have to show any extra skin to do so.

There’s no censorship going on, the OP is just asking for some new female chest armor to be added that’s doesn’t look like a push-up bra.

“Boob windows” are a well-known trope in comics that (I assume) many would prefer not come to the game. I’m not particularly upset by it – I’ve already bought the skin – but there’s nothing wrong with providing feedback.

Rauderi.8706:

Yeeeah, I have a friend who’s a rather strong feminist.

Does she lift?

Edit: also, shame on me for assuming your friend was female. Feminism can and does appeal to non-female gendered individuals as well.

Rauderi.8706:

I shuddered to recommend the game to her after seeing some of the endgame outfits. Masquerade was the worst offender by far. Or maybe it was the craftable harem outfit.

My girlfriend’s response to the Ancestral outfit was basically, “Would buy if it didn’t have a boob window.” I wonder what the net change in sales is due to boob window addition?

Perhaps ArenaNet will one day create this as a natural experiment for us: load two identical versions – except for boob window – and see which sells the best.

My favorite Taimi touch: the way she gets into her golem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_qMAVQbKys

Mortifer.2946:

I know you actually cannot answer to these questions, but at least you can see them and the company can talk about them.

So, I don’t actually work at ArenaNet, so I could be completely wrong, but…

1) They already have seen the complaints
2) Bobby telling other devs that people on the forum are complaining wouldn’t help, because #1
3) In addition, even if Bobby knows, which he may or may not, he can’t tell you that a) they know b) they’re looking into fixing it or c) basically anything else

So instead of constantly derailing red-tagged threads, can we instead focus on how cool it is that the head of all the writers of the game we like cares enough about what we think to not only read through it, but respond as well?

Thanks Bobby. I agree with what everybody else says: Taimi makes me chuckle and I think the way she interacts with other characters – slightly differently for each – is great. The past few releases have gotten noticeably better, especially the cutscene dialogue, and I’m hoping you guys keep it up for season 2.

Which, by the way, Bobby can’t tell us when it will arrive. He also can’t tell us when they’ll tell us it will arrive.

He might be able to tell us that he knows one of those two, but that’s probably a stretch as well.

Living Story/Order tie-in idea 342: Scholar Ela Makkay joins the Zephyrites on their trip to Elona but her communications stop shortly after she reports back on some troubling events. The Priory enlists the help of the Order of Whispers to enter Elona and track down their missing member.

If it’s any consolation, myself and several others pushed Order missions hard during one of the Collaborative Development Initiatives. Activities with/progression within your Order is an area that ArenaNet recognizes interest from players.

That doesn’t mean they’ll add it, just that they know we want it.

Honestly? I’m holding out hope for a surprise in the next 2-3 weeks. If not a surprise content drop, a surprise announcement.

I could be wrong, but I’d bet ArenaNet has a huge amount of content built and waiting for the opportune moment.

Kibazuka.1390:

How did i even for just one second could think it would become something else than a gemshop item

You can get it for 80 gold or so. That’s not completely unreasonable. Granted, I’ll just be buying directly with gems because I’m way wealthier in real life than in game.

Javi.4359:

timmyf.1490:

I don’t get it. I love the outfits. I have Mad King’s and Fancy Winter and I’ll have Ancestral by the end of the day. I guess to each his or her own.

I really like mixing and matching armours to get something that I like. With an outfit like this you can’t do that, and you can’t use other things you’ve bought from the gem shop or otherwise in conjunction with it (in my case reading glasses.)
Kinda a bummer because I really like how it looks.

I mean, if you like it, buy it. I don’t know what else to say. The outfit system works pretty well – far better than town clothes did, in my opinion – and while people are certainly welcome to “boycott” the outfit system, I think it means missing out on some really great sets.

I never bought town clothes because I never used town clothes. I’ve bought several outfits and use them frequently. I guess that’s all I can say.

I don’t get it. I love the outfits. I have Mad King’s and Fancy Winter and I’ll have Ancestral by the end of the day. I guess to each his or her own.

Last night, myself and a few other people built up an instance to do blitz. We did not use Teamspeak. We “recruited” solely through LFG. Anybody was welcome, regardless of gear or level.

They just had to take the initiative to open LFG, look for a taxi, and join.

We got gold within a few attempts and then over and over and over again.

As a small guild leader who has had many concerns that large-scale coordinated events will lead more and more of my members to leave and join 500+ man guilds, it’s been a concern to ensure that these events can be done by PUGs. This event is tuned perfectly for that.

In fact, we typically got gold with the last 15 seconds of the timer. (Once we managed it about a minute early.)

My mantra: I’ll worth with anybody who wants to work with me. I’ll organize with anybody who cares to organize. I’ll do the event with anybody who wants to DO the event.

LFG seems to be a good way to get those people in the same place. I’m curious if I could put together a guild-launched Tequatl or Wurm group that way…

Oh man. Just take all my gems, ArenaNet. sigh.

Astralporing.1957:

timmyf.1490:

That said: do you dispute that splitting into 6 groups and killing all 6 bosses is the “right way” to do Boss Blitz?

I agree – splitting into 6 groups, killing all the bosses at the same time, and making all the additional players sit afk in the middle in order to not upscale any of the groups is the “right way” to do Boss Blitz. Just as killing champs in order was the “right way” to do the Queensdale champ train. Doesn’t mean that either of those was a good idea, or that people playing differently are playing wrong.

6 bosses. About 12 players per boss. 72 players can do bosses.

Given the 100 player soft cap plus the fact that there’s a good number doing Gauntlet, you should NEVER have to ask somebody to stand in the middle and not play.

Unless you mean after a group kills their boss. Then yeah, that’s where this gets tougher.

Astralporing.1957:

And i definitely feel no reason to respect someone based on the fact that they decided to log in during a particular week.

You don’t have to “respect” anybody. Some of us would like ways to show that we’ve been around from the beginning, stuck with the game through thick and thin, and put in the time to complete all the content from all the releases. (Which isn’t all that much, mind you, but I’ve really had to push to complete some of those metas during times when real life got busy.)

I guess I’d say it this way: I used time in Guild Wars 2 that, if not for the desire to acquire one-time-only skins, I would have used for other things. I’m totally fine with ArenaNet releasing skins multiple time – in fact, like an idiot, I missed out on Kasmeer’s staff the first time around and was overjoyed when it was rereleased – but they should be up front about it.

If it’s a one-time-only skin, it should not come back. That’s what “one-time-only” means.

Conski Deshan.2057:

Types of prestige
There are several types of prestige,

-“I was there prestige”: These are attendance rewards usually with some also having to be earned, they show you played back then or that you participated in a limited time event. Most living story skins used to fall into this category. Is destroyed by re-releasing the item by any means as the statement is no longer valid.

-“Skill prestige”: These would be items such as the tribulation mode weapons and Liadri they not only require you to play a certain activity but to do it to a high level of skill. Care has to be taken with these as power creep or an exploit can wipe out all their value in an instant.

- “Investment prestige”: These are items that take a large amount of resources be it time or money to complete and make a general statement about your playtime and choice of activity. Is wrecked by deflation/inflation or awarding of a previously high investment item for a low investment activity.

Requoted because relevant. All three types of these should exist to allow players with different goals and styles of play to acquire items with prestige.

rincewind.9528:

I don’t need having things that show that I’m better than others.
I don’t need symbols of status.

If you ask me it’s pretty stupid be mad because other people can access to your super-dupper-special-leet-status things.

As somebody who I’ve seen be very upset that ArenaNet changed something about the game you liked (the champ train), I’m surprised you have so little empathy for another player who had something they liked changed on them.

Just because you don’t need status symbols doesn’t mean that other people are stupid for liking them.