Guild Wars 2: Season 2 Thoughts and Annoyances
I know what you’re thinking. Every time I post something about Guild Wars 2, I’m always grouchy and annoyed. That’s because they keep giving me reasons to be!
A few weeks back, GW2 announced their plans for the Living Story Journal. I really like this idea! There, that’s one nice thing to say in this post.
It seems a good balance between pushing content at the pace they’re trying to while not forcing people to rush to play it. It gives the ability for this content to be permanent, for story-lovers to do their story and achievement-lovers to do their achievements without stepping on each other’s toes. Overall, it sounded like a good development, and I almost… almost posted a hopeful post about the future of GW2, but didn’t get around to writing it for whatever reason.
Then, today, the announcement of of Gates of Maguuma was released. Yes! Info on season two, which is launching a week from today! So I rush to view the video and what do I get?
Oh, yes. Lovely Zephyr Sanctum, one of my favorite places in the game. Peaceful music… Peaceful Cantha-teasing residents…
But then, my internal warning sensors went off. Since when did Anet show us a pretty, peaceful scene in one of these trailers without…
Yeah… that. Blowing it up, Michael Bay style.
Mmmhmm…
Until nothing’s left but a smoking pile of what was once another favorite place in this game. Here’s to hoping that it was only one ship and not all of them. I could deal with that a bit more.
Still, for what? To try to motivate me to be angry at whatever enemy did this? Really… what’s the point to all this? It’s like GW2 is trying to be Game of Thrones, except it constantly destroys heart-felt places and cultures rather than slaughtering characters right and left.
Did it rile me up? Well, I’m posting this here, so I’m feeling something. But rather than going “Whoa! Flames! Death! Destruction! Let’s take out the bad guy who did this!”… I’m feeling resent towards the writers who are stringing me along. Pretty soon, I’m going to stop investing myself in the lore, culture and places of this game because they keep trying to use the things I like against me, just to earn cheap ire at whatever enemies they’re cooking up.
They’ve already done it with Lion’s Arch, and I was annoyed about it then. While some of the scenario (maybe for the first week) was interesting and fun to farm, I look at the rubble of the city, and I feel like it just wasn’t worth it. I don’t think that’s the reaction ANet is trying to get, but it’s what they’re earning from me — I know I can’t be alone in that feeling.
So, while opening the Maguuma gates — which should have been what this story focuses on… they have a dragon to write about for light’s sake! — is a cool and exciting prospect, all this needless destruction has really put a damper on it for me.
All I’ll have to say is, I’ll play it. I’ll try to keep an open mind, like I did with the destruction of Lion’s Arch. They better have a really, really good reason for what they’re doing, though. I mean they better blow me away with a good, solid plot, and not just blow up places for no other reason than to call attention to their enemies and make them feel intimidating. I think I’d be much more accepting of this if I felt like everything leading up to it was worth it story-wise.
Full video here: