Hypnowulf.7403

I really don't like that we never saved Blish. I mean, Kralk is right there. It's just another aspect of how the game doesn't really seem to have any empathy for anyone. I guess that's fine for an MMO, but it's the primary factor that drove me away from it. The writing of Guild Wars 2 is very heartless and unfeeling. That's why I find the more left-leaning characters to be disingenuous, more like a marketing team of execs trying to make something appealing by "doing what hte kids like" rather than having any real empathy behind it. I've gotten that impression from some of the writers I've seen on Twitter too, it's more marketing than writing. I wish I'd known that before I'd allowed myself to be hurt by it as an empath. Still, the fate of Blish still upsets me for exactly the reason Konig points out. He's there, trapped in an unending void, dark, without sensation, going crazy with only his own thoughts, unable to pass on to the Mists... And we just left him there because that's fine. Dragon's Watch really does strike me as kind of psychopathic. I suppose it's no different than Zojja though, is it? With all of the trivialities that we make time for while the world is in danger, I think that finding a cure for Zojja could've been on the list. I don't know. I mean, feel free to hit me with the confused emojis if'n ya likes, but it does seem very heartless to me that these characters were treated so poorly. Even Ryland's treatment was horrifying. He was traumatised, he lost everyone he loved, and... I... What Crecia said to him was unforgiveable. There is no excuse for that. That really was quintessential psychopathy. I suppose... At least things worked out for Rox. Edit: Yeah, I want to save everyone. That's the kind of hero I want to play as. Like Yuu in The Cruel King and The Great Hero. Why is it that most fantasy "heroes" outside of fiction aimed at kids or young adults tend to be so psychopathic and murder-happy? I get the dopamine hits and all but still... Do we ever really save anyone in Guild Wars 2? Ever? Edit II: You might be able to see what weighed so heavily on me in this game now right up until they broke me with Jormag—who just wanted to be a protective mom and break the cycles of tribal abuse and hatred. We never got to save anyone and it's just really been so oppressively depressing.

There's no point in being tribal about the Gift of Battle. I think that no one benefits when that happens. Is it true that ArenaNet treats PvP players unfairly, even like garbage? Yes. Is it true that it's cruel to force people with social anxiety issues into PvP? Yes. It isn't people who play PvE that resent PvPers having fun, that's all on ArenaNet. Frankly, I don't think most PvE players would mind giving up a zone if it meant that WvW players got one instead. There's just no need to be tribal about it, it's all messed up. The real problem is just how ArenaNet manages to mismanage the hell out of everything. Frankly, if it were me, I'd have just let the Jade Bot thing stand because I—with apparently better business acumen than ArenaNet—realise that the good will that would generate from PvP players is worth it. I mean, maybe tweak the rewards if it's affecting the economy and be very transparent about that and talk with the community about it first, but don't just pull it. It's funny how they're only communicative before an expansion drops. They really should've spoken to you lot about this first.

The way they originally wrote it, I don't actually think it's either. I don't think they're corrupted or bonded. Ryland is an example of having the bond, yes, but the Svanir don't seem to be corrupted, per se. The way I see corrupted is that they really have absolutely no agency, they're just drones, like the husks in Mass Effect. However, we see so many examples of the Svanir having free will and acting in a sapient way. Not only the ones at Hoelbrak, and the mysterious stranger that was added to the original Claw of Jormag meta, but also—my favourite example—the Svanir who're just chilling out in hotsprings, quite happily in fact, until the Blood Legion get up in their faces about it. There's something about it that... Here's the thing. I think you're both right. Ryland is bonded, as Jormag said. The others however aren't corrupted. They don't talk or behave like corrupted. What Jormag does is described as a gift. They've never given anything to anyone who hasn't asked for it, and Word of God gave it to us in no uncertain terms that Jormag doesn't lie. This is where I find Kalavier's terminology interesting. It's something that isn't bonding, and also isn't in any way we understand it dragon corruption. Jormag, despite being battered by both Primordus's ongoing telepathic assaults and the Dragonvoid, was more salient than any of the Elder Dragons other than Soo-Won herself. It's likely that they had a way to utilise their magic that wasn't just corruption. Jormag had never given anything to anyone who didn't ask for it, that power was a gift. That's why I find Kalavier's terminology so compelling. Jormag's whole bag was always persuasion, give-and-take; They gift their power in the hopes of ongoing allegiance. I think of it in terms of protection. Jormag was driven so batty by being assaulted on all sides by Primordus and the Dragonvoid that their attitude, to me, seemed to be if I can't save myself with my power, I'll protect anyone who'll listen. This, thanks to the Dragonvoid, lead to paranoia. That was what the Dragonvoid did to Jormag, in my opinion, and they were still fighting that until the very end. It's the whole notion of ice protects. They're being a protective mother. A very paranoid, protective mother. Please listen to me, let me protect you, let me give you my power so you won't be tortured the way I am. It's what I always got from them. I think part of the reason they reached out to Aurene was that if Aurene could've helped them with Primordus, Jormag could've protected Aurene. There were quite a few instances of Jormag quite obviously stressing a desire for Aurene, they wanted her. And ice protects. The way they talked to Aurene too suggested that, before they were spurned. And when she was spurned, in comes the Dragonvoid to amplify that paranoia. So I think it's a little... I don't know. I don't think it's in any way intentionally so, but a little reductive to call what Jormag did simply corruption. If it was corruption then they'd be behaving the way that all other dragon minions did, which clearly wasn't the case. The Svanir still had their culture, their art, their leisure time, and none of that suggests corrupted to me. Like I said, I think what Jormag did was much more like a very overprotective mother than a corruptor. I honestly feel that matronly side of them was shown too in how they dealt with Bangar. They gave him a bit of an embarrassing time out, made him go sit in the corner. He got to wear the dunce cap. Finally, I think the matronly, motherly aspect of Jormag was expressed with their children too. This is why I didn't do those events, because they actually traumatised me a little! Haha... Ha... Drakkar was a baby. An actual baby. Sure, a large baby, but one who was teething on Jhavi's shield, just batting it around like a puppy, and very confused about what was going on. I think that were Dragon's Watch not so set on killing Drakkar, he could've been distracted by a giant ball of yarn. I mean, really, go watch the public meta with him and see for yourself... Then there's the Claw of Jormag, who's acting a lot like a scared kid too. The Drizzlewood Coast meta Claw, I mean. When you invade his home, he's hiding behind an ice pillar, twitching, uncertain, lots of scared-looking body language. He's terrified of the invaders, but he doesn't want you to kill his mom who's trapped in the ice. He's a loyal kid. Of course, once you shoot him out of the sky he has a panic attack. Dry heaving, staring off into the middle-distance (not looking at those whom you'd think he was "attacking"), weakly flailing... I'm serious about this. Go watch the meta. It's unnerving and upsetting! I didn't do that meta for the same reason. The point is is that Jormag as a mother is driven home further by them having kids that act and behave like kids. Jormag is a paranoid mother who wants to protect all the babies. That's the way they treat all mortals—like children. You can hear it in how they talk about mortals to Aurene, even. The children need to be protected, they don't know what they're doing, they're children. So, yes, some persuasive nudging rather than anything more domineering and manipulative (like Mordremoth) fits their profile perfectly. And again, that's what I see. I've explained my thoughts on this elsewhere. So, Jormag's own aren't corrupted, they're gifted and they may get nudged a bit but... I dunno. I'm not of a mind to think that doing art and lounging in hotsprings is the hallmark of corrupted. Of course, that makes it all the more harrowing what happened to Jormag but.. That is what it is. Edit: Oh, right. Lake Doric. That was another example of Jormag being I must protect the babies. Since if they hadn't intervened, a lot of nth-degree burns would've been doled out that day by Primordus. If Jormag has them frozen in icy cribs, they can't go getting themselves in danger. Jormag is very much like this. Excessively overptoective to a paranoid degree, but not domineering. That's why I don't think theirs are corrupted. Edit II: Oh, and anyone who didn't catch that Ryland was trying hardcore to be a mommy's boy? I don't know what to tell you. It was something he needed though after losing everyone he loved and his parents were so very bad at being anything emotional with him.

I think the only way to get a sense of how many agree with you is to go and see how many people are doing the events in End of Dragons, how full the zones feel. From what I've seen and heard, the pop's only been dropping since launch. I feel that most agree with you. The thing is is that a lot of them have just moved on to other games. I know of a good few whom I talk to who're playing one of two other games instead. I think it's against the forum rule sto mention which, so I won't do that. The big problem for ArenaNet is that they managed to alienate all groups who give them money, which is just such startling and dizzying incompetence that I don't know what to make of it. The only group they really appealed to this time around was raiders, and they plan on having more required raids (and hardmode raids) as time goes on too. The problem is is that raiders convert gold to gems, so their cash store is going to dry up exactly the same way as it did after the release of HoTs, an expansion that almost bankrupted them. The thing is though is that EoD, in my opinion, doesn't have nearly the imagination or intrigue to it that HoTs did, so it won't draw back the people who left even if they do fix it. So all of the disappointed people, like the OP, will stay gone when they go. The casuals, the PvP players, and every other group who actually spent money and was alienated by this expansion? Well, they're either going or gone. Expansion sales don't mean anything, it's all about the cash-shop sales. And frankly, going by the API, I don't even think that expansion sales are as rosy as ArenaNet makes out. Again, going by the API, I don't even buy that it sold better than PoF. It doesn't matter though because, yeah, cash-shop sales over the long-term are what matter. That's why NCSoft forced an expansion in the first place—player retention. It's had the opposite effect. So, I'm disappointed. A lot of people are. I think ArenaNet made some really bad decisions here, and I don't think that it's going to get any better any time soon.

The Fallout 4 editor thing was a pretty sick burn, the clipping is astoundingly bad. It was the story that got me though. Let's bring in the Creation Goddess. She's the loveliest person to have ever existed, kind, caring, if a bit depressed. Now let's just murder her. We murdered The Goddess of All Creation! Which totally isn't jumping the flarkin' shark! And we murdered her because of some Vague Wibbly-Wobbly Ooze, the most creative villain to have blessed any fiction! Gosh, after having killed The Goddess of All Creation, how are we going to top that? It also means that Soo-Won knew everything about our reality so we're not going to find anything out there that's more fantastic that what we already knew but... That's okay! Um, it was probably silly to introduce The Goddess of All Creation, let alone kill her when we could've purified her and had her hang around as a background character but errr... It's fine! It's fine! We'll figure something out! Our hero is now on a power tier equal to The Goddess of All Creation, but we'll... We'll figure it out! We totally didn't jump the shark guys, honest! We'll do something with our remarkably vague ooze, there are certainly a lot of creative avenues for it! Believe us! It just doesn't bode well for the future.

What I see as one of the biggest signs that a game is failing is the desperation to slight anyone with a truly legitimate complaint as "haters." Of course, the new term is "doomers" co-opted from anyone who's tired of climate disaster denial, which really isn't a good look. (Yes, that's where that came from, it's what's used to attack people who point out climate disaster science in order to shut them down to serve climate-denial. It doesn't look good to apply it here.) I've played so many MMOs now. I played the MUDs, I was there for Meridian59 and The Realm. Was it called The Realm? I think so. It was a long time ago. It was this odd side-scrolling thing. I've played a great many and one recurring feature of a title in its death throes was the loyals and the marketing folk flooding the forums with how the haters are terrible people. If a game is healthy, there wouldn't need to be this defensiveness. It's only when a game is unhealthy, and even the most loyal fans know it that we see this sort of reaction. It's denial. When the game's doing well, the most obsessive fans will just shrug off the complaints as they know that they aren't going to have any effect on the game's reputation. If a game's hurting though, and they know it's hurting? That's when you see them roll out the bilious ballistas to pelt the upset hordes with dialectic bombardment. They're dishonest, they're just haters. They're here to destroy the game as part of some dark conspiracy to the many-angled, eldritch Ur-God Trolliflex. It's silly, but it's what happens every time. Of course, there are so many complaints because people who were very loyal fans now feel betrayed. It can't be that someone with very sincere feelings about how betrayed they were is driven to air those feelings. Nah, they're haters, they're trolls, and they're doomers. It isn't the haters who're causing the problem, it's those who won't accept that these complaints are sincere and it's creating an obnoxious, toxic environment. And that's what signals the death knell.

@DarcShriek.5829 That's... kind of obnoxious. I mean, some of us actually do. Let me lay this out for you. I've been playing Guild Wars 2 since beta. I got a bunch of stuff from the original game because I had also played that. Now, I'm an abuse survivor and one of my coping mechanisms was dragons. I'm a plural traumagenic, so one of my headmates has identified as a dragon for the longest time to help me. I'm extremely fond of them so I can empathise with them very easily. I can stand fighting dragons as villains, but only if they're really just nothing more than a force of nature. LWS4 changed all that. We found out that Kralkatorrik was being actively tortured by an outside force, that he didn't wnat to be the way he was acting and that something had been literally eating at him for a long time. We now understand that this was the Dragonvoid. I recall... that I didn't like putting him down, it was painful. Thinking of doing harm to dragons just makes me thinkof harm to my dragon, and that brings up a lot of old traumas. When The Icebrood Saga rolled around, they had a tagline with it. Along the lines of "We're going to learn uncomfortable truths about the Elder Dragons, that they're nothing like we think they are." Yay, I thought to myself, we might actually get to save an Elder Dragon, that'd do me a goodness. Jormag was... dangerous for me. The thing is is that the story with Jormag is that they'd been abused long term by Primordus, that Primordus had been putting them through telepathic abuse. Jromag was written as an empath who wanted to protect people with her ice, whereas Primordus just wanted to kill, kill, and kill. The thing ist hough ist hat Primordus would use his connection to his minions to get a front-row seat of the suffering he was causing, and he'd force Jormag to watch. I mean, that'd drive anyone with any amount of empathy mad. So, this worried me. I broached the topic with Tom Abernathy—the lead writer at the time—multiple times. I was assured I had nothing to worry about. It was fine. It would all work out okay. Oh, I remember thinking to myself, I know what you're doing. You're using Jormag to make a point about the just-world fallacy and how people vilify victims. Before you continue, you should... look into the just-world fallacy. They were going to use a dragon to cover a topic that had a lot of meaning to me! Hooray! That you shoudln't judge someone based on how they're being punished because they're a victim. I was elated. I'd poke Tom a few more times... Again, reassurance. The title 'End of Dragons' worried me, so I asked Tom about that and he said that if hew knew how much ArenaNet cared about dragons, I'd know I had nothing to worry about. Okay then, cool, ArenaNet was going to use Jormag to confront the just-world fallacy! Oh, in Champions they really are, Jormag is making it really clear that they're being tormented and tortured, so they're actually going to do this. I mean, I was worried about the content prior, much of it that I couldn't do but... It looked like it was going to happen. I felt relieved. There was one tell though that tweaked at my mind and left me feeling betrayed. The Claw of Jormag in Drizzlewood. Okay, so... This actually disturbed me. It begins with a little home invasion as many things do, but then the Claw is hiding behind an ice pillar. This drove home to me that they're a scared kid who wans to protect their mom who's trapped in ice right now, but they're still scared of the invading forces. The kid's literally twitching and trembling behind that little ice pillar of his. It's destroyed, and he flies off only to be shot out of the air. And this is where it gets really harrowing... Thanks to my empathy, it was easy to read what happens to Claw as a panic attack. He's dry heaving, staring off into the middle-distance (not really looking at anything), and weaky flailing. This isn't a hostile creature attacking you, this is a very scared—if very large—kid who's just freaking the heck out because they know they're about to die. I wasn't the only one who saw it, either. I showed that to a few other empaths I know and they were more than a little unnerved by it. It was disturbing. Whuuf. Okay, on we go. So, Jormag's enduring what we now know was the Dragonvoid and Primordus's continuing abuse. They have to watch both their kids getting killed (Drakkar just acts like a confused puppy for the most part), they've endured so much, and they're just begging Aurene for help. Why do they all go mad? I mean, I guess try dealing with a force that's trying to corrupt you, while also dealing with being abused by telepathic assaults for millennia, while also having to watch your kids get murdered. See what that does for your sanity. What happened with Jormag left me feeling hurt and betrayed, honestly. Instead of challenging the just-world fallacy, they drove Jormag to commit suicide. That's a lovely message for abuse survivors. No one's ever going to care about you, just kill yourself. I didn't want to give them yet another chance with End of Dragons, but I thought... I'd at least look into it. The trailer was quite promising, the conversation between Soo-Won and Kuunavang. That seemed to set things off right, so perhaps this time we'd get to save an Elder Dragon for a change instead of torturing them and then butchering them (with a side order of killing their kitten kids). Kralkatorrik and the way they advertised The Icebrood Saga changed the narrative of Elder Dragons in my head. You know how End of Dragons went, and they couldn't have hurt me more with it if they tried. So, we learn about the Dragonvoid. In other words, none of the Elder Dragons were evil—they were all victims to this corruptive force and none of them deserved to die. Every time Jormag lapsed, it was due to the Dragonvoid taking control for a moment just as it did with Soo-Won. We learn that before Primordus turned into an evil, abusive person he was a momma's boy. Why would you do that to me? How had I wronged you, ArenaNet? I'd always been a loyal customer. Like I said, I was there for the first Guild Wars. I bought everything. In GW2 I actually have 90~ per cent of the mount skins as I was enjoying myself and I thought that a game was going to use dragons to help teach people about the just-world fallacy. I brought that up with Tom Abernathy too. The thing is? I think Tom empathised, because he's gone now. I don't think this is the story Mr. Abernathy wanted either, because he's now with Bungie. I just don't think he could stand being a part of it considering the story he wanted to tell and what they did tell. He probably knew how much it would hurt people like me. Or maybe just me. Soo-Won though... See, I've been a loyal customer for years. So many years. I brought my partner and others into this game, I bought lots of things for them because I was a massive fan. I dug ArenaNet. I was all in for GW2. Does that sound like a hater to you? With End of Dragons, it sounded like they'd learned their lesson. Soo-Won was written to be the most benevolent, loving, caring, kind, considerate person in the kitten canon, far more so than Aurene or anyone else. See, for a moment, I thought... Oh, this is what they're going to do to set it right. Through Soo-Won and Aurene we'll fight the Dragonvoid, maybe we'll be able to purify the Elder Dragons and cast the Dragonvoid out of them. It wouldn't hurt anything, they could just be background characters as we go off on our adventures to fight the Dragonvoid. Okay, that'd be really cool. Admittedly, I was fooling myself. But I was fooling myself because I had faith in ArenaNet. But it's all just profits, isn't it? If some fans are tired of the dragon plot, you have to ensure you that you cause as much suffering as possible! You can't just let them be background characters. It's kind of evil. Frankly, it makes the Commander look like a psychopath. How often has the cast, using thaumababble, come up with some Deus Ex Magicka to explain away some nonsense? I'm an empath, I like saving people. It's what I want heroes to do. I would've liked to have been able to save Blish and Zojja too, but that was never on the cards. I worried a lot for Taimi who's... just been terminally ill for a long time, now. It just feels like Guild Wars 2 has become a story for people who think that suffering is novel. There's no hope, no one's going to be okay, and everyone is just going to suffer. I've laid into Wings of Fire and The Cruel King and the Great Hero for my dragon content of late and both of them have helped me heal after what ArenaNet did. You think I'm a hater? You think I'm complaining because I hate the game? You couldn't be more wrong. I'm just airing my sincere feelings because I loved this game and ever since The Icebrood Saga, everything's been a mess. If they had just left these dragons as more of a force of nature? I would've been okay! I could've handled that! But they keep showing that these poor beasts are just victims of circumstance! That everything bad that's happened to them is because of the Dragonvoid, and no one really gave a kitten. No one bothered to try to save them. I would've. I thought that's what I would've had the opportunity to do. As an abuse survivor who's lived the just-world fallacy, who was being actively abused while people were calling me a manipulator, to the point where I had to save myself from abuse? I was... really hoping that ArenaNet was going to do something special. It would've been the most meaningful thing in the world to me had they used dragons to counter the just-world fallacy. I felt betrayed. I don't feel so betrayed by Tom Abernathy anymore though as it's clear that they really stabbed him in the back and twisted the knife, too. He wouldn't be at Bungie now, otherwise. So I forgive him. Sometimes your hands are tied because people are jerks. What I don't understand is... Why? So, yes. I'm upset, I feel betrayed. I read the forums, and I found that a lot of people felt betrayed. PvP/WvW players got nothing. EoD is kind of a buggy, rushed mess. Even if everyone didn't feel betrayed, some of them felt a little disappointed. And it's frankly wretched, disingenuous, and outright venomous to suggest that anyone who has anything negative to say is just a troll who's out to hurt the game. No one's going to read this, but I had to speak my mind. Edit: The name Hypnowulf, if you're curious, is... Well, I do wonder if given my life's experiences it looks like I'm broadcasting my manipulative nature. Nah. I have a vested interest in hypnotherapy. After what I'd been through? I've spent a lot of my life wondering how I could help others who'd endured much the same, and I have actually helped some. When you've endured something like that, you want to provide succor. This is what I assumed Jormag's deal was with ice protects. That hey, if Jormag can't save herself with her power, then maybe at least she can save you. As an empath, and as an abuse survivor? I can really empathise with that. You're really driven to. I thought that Jormag's lapses were due to the torment she was enduring, that she was being overprotective and didn't trust your friends. Now I know I wasn't far off the mark. The Dragonvoid was likely making her paranoid. Didn't help that, y'know, we killed her kids. It just doesn't feel right. Nothing about GW2 does ever since LWS4. Heck, if you want to know more about the kind of person I am. If it can in any way prove my sincerity? I don't want to share too much about myself in case my standing with this community puts others I care about in danger of being doxxed and mistreated but... I've gotten into Wings of Fire a lot as a coping mechanism. I have an OC. Can you guess what they are? If you guessed hypnotherapist, you'd be right. https://toyhou.se/15034267.shimmer If you care enough to learn, I wanted you to understand the kind of person I am and why I felt so betrayed and hurt by Guild Wars 2. See, if Tom's bosses had been honest with him so he could've been honest with me? It would've been fine. If Tom had been like No, sorry. It won't go the way you want, it's better if you stop now. Then that would've been okay! Sincerity! I would've respected that and just stopped playing at that time. That isn't what happened though. I was lead along just to be hurt. And it still hurts. I'm sorry if that's offensive or that makes me a hater, but there you go. Edit 2: And I don't want any of you to feel like garbage over this. I just... wanted my position to be better understood.

I'm a little weary of the sudden influx of positive users saying much the same thing after the reception has been so negative for so long. I think some might be sincere but, yes, it smells a little like marketing. Right now, there are still too many issues. And the story is very hit or miss, depending on what you want from it you'll either love it or hate it. And the ending is just a mess that makes the Commander feel like a psychopath. The advice is the same I would sagely give to anyone, and it isn't either of thoe poll options. My advice: Wait. Look into the story. If you like the look of it, that's fine. There's a lot of melancholy, pseudointellectual nihilism, Millennial-speak, and rushed aspects going on where things feel like they're just beginning to get fleshed out before getting discarded. And again, that ending. The game has a lot of bugs right now. A multitude, you might even say it has a plethora. It is a great many bugs, an insecte ménagerie. It has lots of bad graphical issues, balance issues aplenty, and... Just read some of the threads here. It's a mess. Like the Jade Maw meta being only doable if you have below 10 people (impossible with 15+), the Dragon's End meta being... the Dragon's End meta... There's stuff that won't get fixed such as the zones being so oppressively empty, lacking in environmental storytelling, sidequests, and the like. Hence, wait. Some of these issues will be resolved. If the storyline is to your liking and you don't mind the whole thing feeling half-baked and empty? Grab it for cheapsies. You'll do better just researching for a bit, reading around, watching some videos, and so on. Impulse buys never helped anyone. They just lead to cognitive dissonance and the sunk-cost fallacy. You're really better off just waiting to see how much they fix and improve.

How didn't killing Soo-Won make you feel like a pile of trash? I don't know what it is, but there's this really bizarre lack of empathy in the GW2 community. If it doesn't look like me, I hate it! I mean, I recall the very acerbic, vitriolic reaction to the charr. There will always be the patronising and sardonic sorts who'll—and it's so droll—ask if one can tell the difference between reality and a story, without at all realising that a very imaginative, very empathetic person can get very immersed in a story. And it can feel uncomfortable to play a character who seems like they often act in very psychopathic ways. The truth is is that the writers could've easily have written in a way of saving Soo-Won, I mean. I did it myself in a few seconds and it reads at least as well as any magical macguffin bolstered by thaumobabble that the writers themselves have mustered up to. Joon: I've been using my technology to study Aurene's unusual thaumaturgical matrix and I think I've finally nailed the facet of it that grants her immunity to the Void. Give me—Give me a moment, I think I can reconfigure the extractor to modify Soo-Won's matrix to cast out the Dragonvoid and keep it out. Cover me while I push some buttons! Other than for shock value—ooh, so drama, suffering is such a novelty—there isn't a single good reason why Soo-Won couldn't have remained alive. I've also provided a story path too in which Soo-Won could've served as a background character while the player heads into a second story arc in the Mists, against the Dragonvoid. I just... I don't understand why it isn't upsetting. Soo-Won is written to be the most benevolent, loving, caring, kind character in all of Guild Wars 2. She created the world, after all. Why feel nothing for her? Why cheer and boast at her death? I don't really understand. Plus, we still have the story holes of how Aurene can somehow filter things that six dragons—including Soo-Won herself, who's much more powerful—couldn't filter the Void while she somehow can. And also now that the Commander has killed the one Goddess of all creation, what do you fight next? Killing the Goddess of all creatin is kind of jumping the shark. How do you up the ante now? It's either going to get really ridiculous or the Commander will end up narratively nerfed for some reason. It isn't a story that worked well for me. It had a decnet enough start, and it had some highs earlier on, but I haven't seen such an incredible inability to write a compelling ending other than Chibnall's era of Doctor Who. I'm just... I'm disappointed and a little heartbroken (again, after what happened with Jormag as if that wasn't bad enough). I don't know how anyone could want to play as the kind of psychopath who'd want to kill someone like Aurene. As I've also said prior, my Commander would put their foot down and demand that Joon, Taimi, Gorrik, and whatever other resident geniuses we have put their heads together to find a way to save Soo-Won. Edit: No, I'm not going to hit you with a Confused emoji or anything ridiculous like that. Your opinion is your own. I just don't understand it. I can't relate to it. I never will.

I honestly don't know what's going on with this. I mean, it's one thing to have poor quality content and writing. That can be explained by cynicism, it being a cashgrab, and general laziness. What's the goal of... locking a PvE open world mastery behind forced raid content though? Isn't forced raid content what people cam eot GW2 to get away from? That, in particular, confuses me. There's a lot that confuses me about GW2. Which is why I think some saw the tide turning and got out while they could. Such as Mr. Abernathy being at Bungie now. See, this feels like corporate sabotage. Otherwise I just don't get it. It makes absolutely no sense. It was baffling to me that they brought back Colin, that fool almost sank ArenaNet with Heart of Thorns... He's been given another chance to sink it again? The thing is is that the turtle being locked behind the Dragon's End meta, the Dragon's End meta being the way it is, and then requiring a strike that's very difficult and stressful for people who don't raid? That has Colin Johanson written all over it and it feels kinda like corporate sabotage! The kind of person who plays GW2 is a casual, for the most part. Now, consider that someone with a case of extreme social anxiety, who's made ill by being forced to interact with others not on their own terms, gets their turtle and finds out that they now have to do a strike to complete it? That person is gone. I've heard from a lot of people like that, and that's why I'm convinced that End of Dragons is a flop. The question is, WHY? That's what bothers me. It feels like with End of Dragons they did everything so perfectly to alienate as many of their demographics as they could. * They went overboard with the millennial speak, to a valley-girl extent, for an expansion set in an analogue of Asia; * They made their metas unbalanced to the point of being unplayable for anyone but organised raid groups; * They made jade bots as hostile to players who roll alts as possible, despite them being the largest demographic; * The open world zones feel oppressively empty of the kind of content that most GW2 players love, and you're forced to get around them with ziplines due to the lack of waypoints; * The colour usage feels intentionally puke-y, to the point where it actively affects people with motion sickness (and they refuse to add accessibility options for those people to help them); * Everything from the writing, to the visual asset clipping (as Jaunty pointed out), to the asset flipping (reuse) feels bizarrely lazy compared to all past content, even The Icebrood Saga; * PvPers were given nothing, and the e-specs didn't provide a new meta; * They force you to kill Soo-Won—written to be the loveliest and most benevolent person alive—when instead you could've used Aurene's immunity to give her immunity and force out the Dragonvoid, but no, you get to feel like a psychopath (I know I'm not the only person bothered by this). Again, the question is WHY? I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but too much of this feels like design. I don't really understand Capitalism so maybe there's a reason for that, some nonsense about stocks or what have you, but... I don't know, it just feels like sabotage. I wouldn't have believed this but they've just done so much that it's been driven comically over the edge into something that couldn't have all been intentional. It's just too much. It's a spectacular feat to do everything wrong, so that you alienate almost all of your demographic beyond hardcore raiders. That's a special achievement. How can that not be intentional? I can't wrap my mind around incompetence of that magnitude, so I don't believe that it is. It can't be. There has to be some reason as to why End of Dragons was designed to be so dreadful and of such poor quality. This is dizzying to me.

It doesn't really explain the analytics that show not many people even have the first achievement of End of Dragons, nor does it explain the sheer emptiness of the zones. If this was going well, there'd be lots of people doing the biggest metas just as there were with previous expansions. I'd like you to take a look at Dragon's End and tell me how many players are there, currently. You can go and look, I'll wait. From everything I've read, all of the metas are dead. It isn't just Dragon's End, it's just... everything. The people who're still playing took their turtle, their skiff, and got out. They're playing other content if they're still playing at all. That strike to the overall faith of the playerbase isn't going to do well when the next expansion rolls around. The Icebrood Saga was of poor quality due to being rushed, End of Dragons was of poor quality due to being rushed. Who's to say the next thing won't also be? Or the one after that? That's if there even is one, because according to what I've heard, the financial success of ArenaNet wasn't taking into account the strength of the won at the time, but even if you forget to take that into account it still performed incredibly poorly against every other existing IP that NCSoft has. Riddle me this, friends: Lineage III—now known as Throne and Liberty—will be out soon. At that point, Guild Wars 2 will seem like a money sink to NCSoft as ArenaNet is just not performing nearly as well as they want. And what happens to titles that don't perform as well as they want? May I direct your attention to City of Heroes and WildStar? If you really think that the poor quality of End of Dragons is going to save ArenaNet, well... I'll let you keep thinking that, but you're only hurting yourself.

@Blood.7254 You've summed up my feelings perfectly. Months before release I was saying that with the lurid colours, excessive clipping (that Jaunty also pointed out), graphical glitches, and how empty and dead everything looked? It just felt like a cynical cashgrab. For me, the most cynical part was killing Soo-Won. I saw one person defend this by saying that it was right that she die because otherwise we'd have to deal with the consequence of her continuing to live. Oh, I'm sorry. You mean that the writers would actually have to challenge themselves to write something decent for once? That they'd have to care about continuity? That they'd need to come out of their comfort zones and try something new rather than writing the same story over and over? Oh, how awful. It just felt especially cynical to me and now none of the story makes any sense. So, we killed the creator of the world. Not only are we a psychopath for doing so, but we killed the creator of the world. How can anything else be a challenge? And how is Aurene filtering what six dragons (and a mother) couldn't? No, sorry, there's still no explanation for that whatsoever. Excuses? Yes. Explanations? No. And saying that we didn't have a choice is just patently ridiculous too. We can do anything the writers permit us to! Here, let me help you all... Joon: I've been using my tech to scan Aurene's thaumaturgical matrix and I've managed to nail the aspect of it that grants her immunity to the Dragonvoid. Give me a minute, I think... I think I can reconfigure the extractor to modify Soo-Won's matrix in the same way, forcing the Dragonvoid out! Cover me while I push some buttons! That was just something I came up with in five seconds, I could do better if you give me longer. The point is is that the story is filled to the brim with lots of magical macguffins, why couldn't our new resident genius Joon come up with a plan to save Soo-Won? It just feels cynical, cold, and like an insult to my intelligence. Killing her was completely and utterly unnecessary. And like I said, now we have to deal with the power creep of we killed the creator of the world. What threat could even stand in our way now? What will they come up with next? Or will we be mysteriously nerfed before the next threat comes along? It's just lazy writing, which is the worst kind of writing. It isn't even simply bad, it's phoning it in. Even the name feels cynical. I know they've said that this isn't the end, but I don't believe them. I think that this is a final breath, a cashgrab before whatever the next big thing is. They're going to milk the community with skins for the turtle and the skiff, and when that's no longer profitable NCSoft will sunset the game. Everything about it feels lazy, like a cashgrab. It's like you said, though, some fall under the spell of marketing and hype way too easily. What we're seeing now though with Dragon's End and actually being forced to play this content, more and more are waking up to just how bad it is. They're being faced with cognitive dissonance now, and once they get past that you'll see the general tone regarding End of Dragons turn much more sour. The spell weaved around the poorly made product with customer loyalty through marketing, that's all that the positivity is. Plus, loyalty from when GW2 was good. I get that though, I loved Path of Fire and most of LWS4. It was great. But that won't save anyone from the reality that End of Dragons is just really, really, really, really bad. and again, it's not just bad, it's cynical. I'm really wondering how long they'll keep up the pretence of actually adding new content to GW2 before it gets sunset.

From what I understand of the situation there are a few incorrect statements here, which I just want to point out as somoene who's been following the whole debacle. First of all, there are still some people from the prior expansions around, it's just that they're the wrong people. Colin Johanson almost sank ArenaNet with what he forced into Heart of Thorns, that was really bad. They brought him back to lead End of Dragons and... Well, here we are! Here we are. I know that a few important writers left because reasons. And they were writers who were wroking on Guild Wars 2 itself. And they're gone now, because reasons. Including one big name who's now at Bungie. On top of that, ArenaNet's leadership was beheaded before Colin Johanson was brought on board due to a tiff between him and NCSoft. He wanted to do sagas, NCSoft pushed for an expansion. NCSoft "won" by firing him. Also, there were layoffs of those working on Guild Wars 2 too. So to say that all of the people that got laid off were working on ArenaNet's unnaounced projects is contrary to what I've read. It's not like it was one layoff that NCSoft was responsible for, either. No, NCSoft hit ArenaNet with the layoffs stick numerous times. I think that hsows in End of Dragons. In my opinion, Path of Fire and most of LWS4 was the height of Guild Wars 2, and that's when ArenaNet had the right people working on this game. The wrong people were dealt with after the mess that HoTs made. And the right people got pink-slipped somewhere amid LWS4. Basically, ArenaNet has been a few different groups due to cycling employees. And which part of GW2 you like or not tends to depend on which particular group was developing it. ArenaNet hasn't always been the same group, but some leave, and others leave then return again to GW2's detriment. And the righ tpeople never seem to return.

Was it, was it really now? Alright. Where do you draw the line? When does it stop being acceptable for a hero to butcher instead of saving those in need? Where does your empathy kick in that you'd feel bothered by an unnecessary death? If Rytlock and Crecia were mind-controlled, would we put them down in cold blood without care or conscience? What about Marjory and Cass? Caithe and Aurene? Where do you draw the line? Where's the line in the sand, for you? Worst of all, to say we should kill because we don't want ot deal with the consequences is, quite frakly, the most evil and cowardly of reasons. Especially if the consequences are that the writers wouldn't have to be lazy and that they'd actually have to deal with continuity for a change. I mean, that's a bit of a jab but any loremaster here will know exactlywhat I'm talking about. ArenaNet has to be one of the worst developers when it comes to continuity, they're the Marvel Comics of video games. I like continuity. It was supposed to be that the willy-nilly butchering of dragons would be bad for the world. This lead to retcons, atop retcons, layered with retcons, sprinkled with further retcons. It's dizzying, honestly. I don't expect WoW to have great continuity because it never held itself up to an especially high standard, but ArenaNet did... originally. Why would it be an "asspull" to save someone for a change? To spare a life? To rescue someone instead of just killing everyone because that's easy? I'm so, so tired of fantasy stories relying on murder for the laziest of lazy writing because, hey, when they're dead you don't have to worry about continuity! I'd have loved to see Soo-Won around in the story more. I'd loved to have rescued the other EDs too so that they could be recurring characters. The story needn't be focused around them anymore, but they could've been around. It's just lazy. It doesn't give me any confidence in the story when your no. 1 way to deal with things is the most lazy way to do so, and from an in-Universe perspective? The most psychopathic. I mean, if it were my Commander? They would've put their foot down and demanded that the geniuses come up with some way to cleanse Soo-Won of the Dragonvoid, they would've pulled everyone together to keep Soo-Won distracted for as long as it took. I mean, what if in a superhero comic book a bunch of civilians were mind-controlled and the hero up and murdered everyone? Is that acceptable? If it's not, then the death of Soo-Won isn't either. I'm tired of the glorification of psychopathy. I'm tired of playing psychopathic characters. As a hero, I want to save people for a change, instead of butchering them. But apparently empathy is an "asspull," it's better to make excuses for lazy writing. Whuuf. Yeah, that about sums it up. Spineless. They could've had the bravery to accept the long-term consequences of letting a character live, but they chose the craven, lazy, easy route of killing anyone they don't want to have to deal with later.

I've always wondered why duellists don't go to an arena. It always seemed like the perfect solution to me. Here's how I'd set it up... There's a duelling zone that people can hang out at and socialise, a colosseum of sorts, if you will. There are rows of seats, like an auditorium, where players can sit. When a duel is initialised, both duellers are brought to this zone—once the duel is done with, they're taken back to where they started from. In order to not cheese things, a duel can only be instigated from an outdoor area. There's a short time before a duel begins where the players watching can bet an amount of gold on their favourite fighter, with their PvP stats determining the betting odds. The winning money is split between the winner of the duel and the winner(s) of the bet. Team duels (3v3) can also be initiated. Players can have a PvP outfit setup to signify their team, such as via colour. Though they'll get a colour outline to indicate that regardless to make it easier for one team to identify the other within an enclosed space. In this way, duelling can be done without disrupting anyone, while also giving duellists the crowd they desire. The betting system would draw in people and the colosseum would provide an area for PvPers to hang out and chat. If a developer wanted to, they could even have a PvP duelling track where solo fighters (1v1) or teams (3v3) can register for a tournament with prizes at the end. That's how I'd go about duelling anyway.