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Like I said, Kudzu is part awesome, part too girly to be the only option. It syncs with the GW2 world though, so I have no complaints about it now I’m more educated on what it does and does not do (cough). Spreading green mossy textures with each footprint is inspired (I’d make them subtly spread out in a “puddle” the longer the character stayed in one spot) but that’s really nice design/art. I may not want it for my male Ranger, but it fits and adds to the rest of the world – master Rangers spreading natural life wherever they touch the world. That is an elegant visual metaphor reinforcing what it means to be a Ranger. Almost too much, but not quite. Nice work IMO.
The Dreamer is awful not because of what it is, but because it is a stylistic deviation from the world ArenaNet spent 5 years building. This is my only point. If I wanted to shoot rainbows and unicorns – or see them being shot – I’d play a game where that fits. In GW2 it’s utterly wrong (and does absolute violence to the fantasy of playing a Ranger class). It’s not about whether it appeals to men or women; it’s about the aesthetic conflict and undermining of an otherwise meticulously established world tone.
This is all context and continuity, something designers are understanding less and less it seems to me, and games are becoming a pizza patchwork of incompatible ideas because of it.
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What’s so fantastic about firing regular arrows or arrows on fire, where else do you get deadly flying plants and unicorns?
In the Wizard of Oz, or Hello Kitty Online, or My Little Pony MMO…, and I guess now Guild Wars 2 as well.
You missed the point about world tone… but like I said, not everyone gets it.
Either way, they need some serious + less girly Legendary bows.
Re. TBC, it wasn’t that bad IMO. It was the thin edge of the wedge though. The gameplay issues it introduced are another topic. World tone was maintained pretty much (though there was always a bit of cringe-worthy silliness, even at launch).
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Apart from the shooting flowers thing (which is awful), I agree Kudzu is pretty cool. The flowers kill it for me though.
But Kudzu shoots golden arrows…
http://media-ascalon.cursecdn.com/attachments/2/13/634867718501544438.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SR0eW.jpg
I stand corrected. That isn’t as bad then (though the flowers on the bow itself are too much IMO – not totally tone breaking like The Dreamer though). Thanks for the pic link!
This is a common complaint although note that a lot of people love Kudzu and it’s also in very high demand on the trading post—and that happened after ANET buffed the way the unicorn looks when shot. Rumor has it that more lore based legendaries, like flameseeker prophecies, but we’ll have to wait and see. For me, it doesn’t take away from the universe because a lot of woman I know, and some men (though not as much) really like the cuteness of Kudzu.
As I said though, it does violence to the tone of the world (The Dreamer; Kudzu is almost great). I’ve learned though that people either get it, or they don’t. The first time a Harley appeared in Dalaran in WoW for example, was the beginning of the end for those of us who cared about the game as it was when it launched.
If you want things like The Dreamer, build the entire world that way. In this game it’s terribly out of place and the art lead should know that (though perhaps the lead argued against it and was overruled by a witless producer/exec – we’ll never know).
Apart from the shooting flowers thing (which is awful), I agree Kudzu is pretty cool. The flowers kill it for me though.
They should make joke weapons (legendary tier) and real legendary weapons, like Soul Calibur in which you can use a giant squid instead of a greatsword.
The problem with all joke items (and pop culture references BTW) is that they take much more from your world than they give. Things like that reduce the effect of all the great artwork, sound, aesthetics, and design work that go into making a world a world. It’s an enormous, multi-million dollar, many talented effort, and you go and reduce and undermine all that work with cheap, cheesy powderpuff nonsense? Why?
It’s bipolar design, and I’ve never understood it. But then I think the people who do it don’t understand what they are doing either…
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I don’t know who thought shooting rainbows with unicorn heads and shooting flowers was a good idea, and synced in any way with the fantasy of playing a Ranger class, but they should be reprimanded, and relieved of any authority until they redeem themselves with some decent ideas. These things are like sarcastic jokes proposed by people to lighten the mood at a long and difficult design meeting, and yet they actually made it into the game!
What the heck is happening to the games industry. It’s filling up with people who have no taste or sense of consistency and aesthetic tone at all…
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Could I make the suggestion that if infractions are going to be handed out for “thread necroing”, that information on what constitutes “necroing” is made in the Code of Conduct somewhere? I can’t find anything on it. For example:
- A description of what moderators consider thread necroing
- An explanation of why it is considered bad
- A clearly stated time limit (e.g. threads older than 1 month)
Perhaps the forum could automatically lock threads too old, and this issue can be avoided altogether? It seems arbitrary and more than slightly punitive to hand out infractions for something done innocently and in good faith, especially when people can be alternately chastised for starting new threads about topics that already exist.
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I’m in Kessex Hills trying to do the Cereboth Canyon, and the respawn rate makes it really not fun.
95-120 is way too short a standard respawn. It’s not fun to have to grind through mobs you just killed again and again to do anything meaningful. Please rethink this. Enough people have made the point here to warrant revisiting this design decision surely.
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