Originally posted by Master10K

Urgh! It would be nice if MMORPG new how to count beyond 360 because the resolution just doesn't do it any justice. But seriously, you rarely ever get MMO devs doing this much to give their game a cinematic feel and they rarely ever tell their fans exactly how they did it, with a bit of humour. Eitherway, kudos ArenaNet. Take your time to continue to add the polish to the game.

In the meantime... SKYRIM!

 

1080p versions of the video, including an extra one can be found at the blog page here

And I am loving the lip syncing as well, this is some good stuff!

Originally posted by Maquiame

Originally posted by Metanol

Well you people sure are strange creatures, if the character customization towards a certain ethnic background is now the thing what decides wether you buy the game or not. Well - at least they've promised far more versatile customization, and from what I've seen it looks like there's more choises than in the first one, so!

Yes, I believe you can make an human who looks like an Elonian or Canthan (african, asian, caucasian, etc. are certainly available as looks, or at least we can assume so.)

But no, in the game you will play an human of Kryta.

"Kryta, united under Queen Salma in 1088 AE, became the last stable, reasonable human nation and refugees fled to it from all of the troubled corners of the three continents. The new capital Divinity's Reach became the center of the human universe and their last hope to recover their feet even as it continues to struggle against centaurs and bandits." Copied fro GW2Wiki, source: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Human

So, humanity "fell" a long time ago and you are Krytan, but surely you can say that your character's ethnic heritage is that of refugees, meaning Elonian or even Canthan - seems reasonable more or less.

"In Cantha, the successor of emperor Kisu defeated the Kurzick and Luxon factions and reunited Cantha under one banner. Cantha then became much more isolationist; all non-human races were pushed out and the borders fortified. With the elder dragon's undead corsair fleet disrupting travel, there has been no contact with mainland Canthans for a generation."

"In Elona, Palawa Joko successfully rebuilds his undead army and lays siege to Elona. Vabbi is all but destroyed, its former splendor ruined by a famine caused by Joko diverting the river Elon. The Sunspears are broken by Joko's armies, those wishing to live recruited as his elite guard. The land bridge between Elona and the Crystal Desert is blocked by Joko's minions and the dragon, and the only news that slips through is carried by the Order of Whispers, who are now spread over all of Tyria."

More quote from GW Wiki, source: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2

 

Of course this post is just speculation and opinions, so nothing should be taken as solid info, except for the quotes from the wiki. Thank you for your time, Meta out.

EDIT: After looking at the link provided by Diovidius, it looks like most of the looks in character customization seem to bear a straight resemblance to Krytan and Ascalonian people (which only makes more sense.) But as Dio-... here said, "Although character creation wasn't done yet so there are likely to be more options in the final game."

 I am assuming that you are caucasian, this is an easy thing to say when a toon that looks like you can be built in every single game ever. My thing is if I cannot build someone that looks like me I am not interested. One of the cool things about GW was the fact that i could make someone that isn't just a brown shaded human form the european place because all humans are alike and they are all european at the end of the day, If I am not part of the audience that you are catering to then why should I spend the money on -your- game, especially if you catered to me in your previous version and I supported you with my dollars because you did. Its no different when the Erudites became grey in EQ2, well guess what, that game did not get my money. I liked the fact that the were different, that they mattered, and when they turned grey and I was only able to make a brown euro human from the euro human area the devs told me "hey we are not catering to you, because we don't like these guys being black and awesome at the same time so we are going to change them", they showed me what they thought of my money. So like any customer I said no thanks, and did not give it to them.

Would you play an mmo that you couldn't make a white guy at all? And all the human choices were from an African area? I don't think you would at all.

If all I can build day one are Krytan and Ascalonian humans then I am not interested. I loved the Nighfalls options when it came to the look of the black folk, I thought it was the best looking attempt at putting black people in a game and not just dark shaded european people. If they are not going to do that this time around, the game doesn't have what I want-so yes it will not get my money because they told me that this time it doesn't matter.

Its easy to say it doesn't matter when it never happens to you......

One thing I noticed during human character creation demos, I saw afros as a hair style option, and I think they're going to allow facial features to be very tweakable, so I am very certain that you will be able to create a character that looks like they're from Cantha or Elona very easily.

I think this game has a lot of potential for creative players, if they'll add the ability to design clothing, and create blueprints for new tools and machines, even buildings, of course, with the approval of the dev team, which may need to get bigger. I don't know if this would be a subscriber only feature, but I could see it where players are rewarded for creating something good and get a cut of the credits that it's sold for, perhaps even they could redeem their credits back for real cash, even more people would play this game and stick with it if they could actually make a bit of change on the side.

I can't believe no one has mentioned back when EQ first came out and how Sony permenantly changed Kithicor forest for the worst, still to this day (unless something changed), it is a hellish place to travel through at night for low-mid level characters. I remember when I played, I would rarely ever go into that zone, even during the daytime, haha.

Originally posted by kramt

That is so cool! And she's playing the badass Charr!

Grandma's like their kitties :)

Originally posted by Sharpeh

Originally posted by yegnats

Originally posted by Sharpeh

Originally posted by Delvie

Personally I hope they don't bite off more than they can chew and the first expansion doesn't come out for at least a year.  The first six months of the game will be all about getting everything settled down and working smoothly.  Yes I know Arena Net puts out a quality product but this is going to be huge, on new hardware, and no matter how much planning and testing you do ahead of time there will be kinks.

 

Keeping the ongoing game lively can be done with just swapping in and out DE's, PVP maps, and holiday stuff.  Paying for extra dungeons seems fair to me - they aren't easy content to create.  Paying for extra character slots, extra storage, etc seems more than fair as these types of things all take up system resources.  Putting in mounts or mini pets or stuff like that is fine with me - then sell them all in the cash shop as they really aren't necessary to play the game.

 

Splitting up expansions and selling them piece meal doesn't sound like something Arena Net would do - it would mean that the overall experience could be fractured.  So I foresee new zones, new professions, new races, etc all coming out in cohesive expansions with story's that help it all fit together.

 

But as someone already posted - let us play the game already :) 

If you're saying that you're cool with them selling dungeons through micro-transactions, then I have to disagree. This will cause the playerbase to split up. You'll have the people who bought the dungeons, and the people who didn't. This is one of the things that ArenaNet wants to avoid. They've stated before that they won't make stand-alone campaigns, simply because they split the playerbase up. The idea behind the micro-transactions is to provide you cosmetic items or fun activities you can do 'ON THE SIDE'. They will never sell anything that will have a big impact on the game.

 

Dungeons are a core part of the game, so if they do release new dungeons, I'd rather see them in boxed expansions.

 Exactly. The only content that they should release through RMT is personal story content. As I said before, this stuff is designed to be soloed and wouldn't split up the player base at all, while providing a way for A-Net to get income between expansions, aside from people buying cosmetic stufff and character slots.

Edit: Not the mention it would provide regular work for the voice actors, as well!

I don't really agree with that either. The personal story is a BIG part of the game. It's one of it's main features. They want to deliver a story that has the same depth and impact as the story of a great single player RPG. Therefore selling additional story content, or progress for your story is - once again - selling content that has an huge impact on the game.

However, if they sell personal story content that does not interfere with the main story line, that's ok with me. As long as it's not something that is gamechanging, or that has an impact on your main personal story line. An example of a type of content could be getting more involved with a non-key character, someone who is not really important to the story.

I just don't want to HAVE to buy content in order to progress my story.

 I was more meaning personal story content post level 80. There would be a ton of personal story content to do from level 1-80. Anything additional could be offered in the store.

Originally posted by Sharpeh

Originally posted by Delvie

Personally I hope they don't bite off more than they can chew and the first expansion doesn't come out for at least a year.  The first six months of the game will be all about getting everything settled down and working smoothly.  Yes I know Arena Net puts out a quality product but this is going to be huge, on new hardware, and no matter how much planning and testing you do ahead of time there will be kinks.

 

Keeping the ongoing game lively can be done with just swapping in and out DE's, PVP maps, and holiday stuff.  Paying for extra dungeons seems fair to me - they aren't easy content to create.  Paying for extra character slots, extra storage, etc seems more than fair as these types of things all take up system resources.  Putting in mounts or mini pets or stuff like that is fine with me - then sell them all in the cash shop as they really aren't necessary to play the game.

 

Splitting up expansions and selling them piece meal doesn't sound like something Arena Net would do - it would mean that the overall experience could be fractured.  So I foresee new zones, new professions, new races, etc all coming out in cohesive expansions with story's that help it all fit together.

 

But as someone already posted - let us play the game already :) 

If you're saying that you're cool with them selling dungeons through micro-transactions, then I have to disagree. This will cause the playerbase to split up. You'll have the people who bought the dungeons, and the people who didn't. This is one of the things that ArenaNet wants to avoid. They've stated before that they won't make stand-alone campaigns, simply because they split the playerbase up. The idea behind the micro-transactions is to provide you cosmetic items or fun activities you can do 'ON THE SIDE'. They will never sell anything that will have a big impact on the game.

 

Dungeons are a core part of the game, so if they do release new dungeons, I'd rather see them in boxed expansions.

 Exactly. The only content that they should release through RMT is personal story content. As I said before, this stuff is designed to be soloed and wouldn't split up the player base at all, while providing a way for A-Net to get income between expansions, aside from people buying cosmetic stufff and character slots.

Edit: Not the mention it would provide regular work for the voice actors, as well!

Originally posted by Unlight

I don't mind paying for extra content through the store, the problem is that it will create situations where you won't be able to play with people that you want because someone is missing the store-bought events or areas.  This was a major issue with DDO and was a constant irritant.  Myself, I had access to everything with a subscription, but the friends I played with were F2P only, so I could rarely run any of the 'exclusive' stuff with them.  I even broke down and bought them passes now and then just so I could play a few of the scenarios with them instead of having to PUG it.

With full-blown expansions, people are far more likely to get them because they are used to doing it that way.  RMTs are just not considered acceptable by many people and they will avoid them.  Not so with expansions, which usually introduces a whole slew of new things when they release.  Even if the value is comparable (which I don't think it is -- expansions generally offer much higher value than individual content purchases), the perception is that they are not.

I don't know how ANet will implement this kind of thing and if it will be just as problematic as DDO's dungeon packs, but I think I would have preferred playable content to remain within official expansions.  Not because I won't touch it otherwise, but because so many others won't and I may end up having run content with people, just because they also have the material, not necessarily because I want to play with them.  That runs a little counter to one of ANet's core design philosophies.

 I totally agree, I think that they should stick to only putting personal story expansion in the store for DLC content. New persistent zones, dynamic events, etc, should either be free content or part of bi-annual expansion packs. It's easier to buy one big expansion pack, but to have to buy each little zone or dungeon individually is a pain. Personal story is content that is designed to be soloed, so there's nothing wrong with it being expanded, and all the players that enjoy single player RPG's like ones made by Bioware will enjoy being able to continue expanding their character's personal story on and on, offer exclusive gear sets, weapons, titles, etc for completing these added DLC personal story packs.

Originally posted by Exilor

Originally posted by yegnats

Originally posted by Exilor

Rangers can also use swords, two handed swords and dagger (as an offhand). They can melee just fine.

 

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ranger#Weapons

The OP already stated that he wants to use axes in melee for stylistic purposes and added flavor. I however think A-Net decided to give Rangers the unique ability to be the only class that has more than just one skill (Warrior) to utilize the throwing of an axe to add extra flavor and make them unique.

But that's like complaining that warriors can't throw swords.

 True that.

Originally posted by Exilor

Rangers can also use swords, two handed swords and dagger (as an offhand). They can melee just fine.

 

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ranger#Weapons

The OP already stated that he wants to use axes in melee for stylistic purposes and added flavor. I however think A-Net decided to give Rangers the unique ability to be the only class that has more than just one skill (Warrior) to utilize the throwing of an axe to add extra flavor and make them unique.

Think of it this way. The ranged skills don't have a minimum range, so if you use them up close, it will look like you're hitting them like a melee weapon, you just have the added advantage of being able to throw them too :)

Originally posted by Tekaelon

I'm sorry for those of you who endured the bad behavior of a healer. No one should ever use their class as leverage in a group. It is a group effort after all.

That being said I enjoy playing a support role. It is very gratifying keeping my team alive. I was a GvG monk for over two years and have yet to surpass that experience within any other game.  It never had anything to do with being singled out as better than anyone else or using the position to make demands. It was just the thrill of keeping my team alive. I will miss it in GW2!  My greatest fear for GW2 is that all classes will lack distinctivmess. I don't want GW2 to be turned into an FPS.

Finally stop pretending healers are the only class with attitude problems. I've met and dealt with aragant and annoying tanks, and DPS. In fact most of the time as a healer you bite your tounge when a warrior over extends or a soft DPS refuses to kite damage. It is not the class floks, but the people who play them.

 

Later

 I think the disctinction of classes is how they perform different roles. The support that a warrior will be very different compared to the support that a guardian can give. It's still support, but it's different. And some classes are more famous for a certain role, like guardians are probably the most famous for support, but they can still kick ass on their own with the rest of them. The variance and distinction is style and how they accomplish the different roles, which I think is a good thing. It gives more freedom and variety in the end.

It has been a long time since i've seen a server que message. If this new influx of players really is from the trial, subscribers really should've been given preference over the free-trial folks, probably would've gotten in faster.

Originally posted by Ragnaven

I'll take the wait and see aproach on this one, I've played mmo's a long time and I've seen a lot of different ideas. From near questless muds, which focus on gm run events and you doing your own thing to make your way in the world. To sandboxes and themeparks, having played GW1 a while I know I got tired of the first one very quickly as if really didn't hold my intrest that well. Yet, it was more of the themepark style game, and focused on collect x of something.  Do I think the dynamic event thing will work or not, I can't say. I think it will be different, but different only does so much and if the game is a short sprint to end level no ammount of extra crap to do will keep me in a game where I am just earning more points to buy skills with.

 I totally understand your boredom with Guild Wars 1. While I found it fun to try out different skill combinations, etc, advancement just didn't matter really. All you were gaining was new options for playing. The only purpose to play the game is for the story, which was pretty well done. However, using Guild Wars 1 as an example as to what Guild Wars 2 will be is a mistake. The most significant thing in common that they have is the lore (and even then, there is a 250 year difference). ArenaNet has been using complaints like your own for the past several years to craft this game to be something that has the depth and challenge that hardcore MMORPG players are looking for, with a fresh approach to content delivery that will feel accessible to the masses.

Watch the videos, check up on the news as it keeps coming. This is definitely a game that you should be looking for if the status quo MMO is boring you (as I'm starting to feel after my first month of RIFT).

Yeah, it's pretty awesome, now for Trion to get their maintenance done so I can actually apply the key and download the game. I am guessing by Direct2Drive having to restock their CE keys that this game is selling pretty well.

I just checked Direct2Drive and got my key today! Now I just have to wait for Trion's account maintenance to be completed and I'll be all ready for head start!

Originally posted by ulpris

My brother and I both ordered the digital CE from Trions own website. I can't imagine they can run out of CE keys since they are the ones releasing the game and they offer the Digital Download option as well for 60 dollars. I am not sure if this is the same deal as Direct2Drives offer but if it is or close you might want to consider it.

The reason I ordered from Direct2Drive is because of the 20% off deal that they have. This makes the Digital Collectors Edition a bit cheaper than what standard normally would be. But I agree, I hope Trion is just taking the day off for Presidents day and has more keys sent in to Direct2Drive tomorrow.

After being on the fence about RIFT until the end of the Open Beta, I bought from D2D today when I saw that they were having a 20% off Presidents day sale. To my disappointment when I clicked the Download button to get my key (which is for beta, headstart and retail), I got the message,

"We are currently restocking keys for RIFT Digital Collector's Edition Preorder, and they will be available shortly. Please check back later."

I just hope "shortly" will give me enough time to download the retail client so I can get into the head start along with everyone else on the 24th.

Sounds like you're baiting people into saying "RIFT" :)

A plate wearer that viably uses a scepter and torch. I love the innovation and stereotypes that A-Net is breaking already.