Bast.7253

I think it's safe to assume the festivals will see minimum impact from this as most of them haven't really seen huge updates and the team in general seems fairly small. They may be impacted in terms of not receiving updates for awhile, but given that they're automated there's no real reason to cancel them. I think a few of them could receive a little bit more love, like Lunar New Year and potentially Halloween, but considering the updates they've made in the past year alone we've had the reintroduction of Queen's Gauntlet as well as Festival of the Four Winds. Obviously there are things that could be done to them to make them more enticing, but they're in a better spot than they were.

And new worlds for SAB would be great, but even without the cuts I doubt we would have seen those either way. They did make a few collision changes though in a recent patch which is kind of intriguing but doesn't mean much. Now that my passion for decorating my guild hall is diminishing due to guild halls in general not getting any love and lack of a steady increase in decorations combined with the general cost of creating them, I'm not really as in love with SAB as I used to be. It's still a great festival to have and a fun time of the year, but I certainly wouldn't put it high up on my list at this point. Especially given how unlikely it would be either way to get new worlds, which they've pretty much repeatedly stated wasn't even on the table.

I'd rather them just put that focus back into exciting new current events like the Caladbolg quest chain, and roller beetle racing, and things that generally make core Tyria and older content feel alive without having to sacrifice living story updates or expansions if they're even still a thing at this point. I think there's a lot more benefit in making the maps seem a little less stuck in time and vacant than simply refining festivals that last a few weeks. It will help with player retention, help create a more lively game for people just starting, and also give us the feeling that outside of story updates they are actually a part of living world whether it be reconstructing things destroyed by Mordremoth or Zhaitan, or even more steady introduction of the living story updates having an impact on something other than the scope of their new map or episode. (I.e. Rift style events in Tyria similar to the awakened invasions. Addition of bounty boards to core maps that show the excess of magic having an impact on something other than the denizens of Elona.) Theoretically, they could even incorporate some of these changes to the abandoned aspects of the game like Guild Missions. A guild mission where, though we already have bounty missions, could have some where we have to defeat a certain number of bounty board objectives. Or close a certain number of rifts. There's just a lot more benefit in the grand scheme of things that I can see of festivals remaining rather consistent and having more focus be put on some of these other aspects.

The biggest problem with that though, is yet again, resources and staffing. For them to have as many developers as they do, it really makes sense now that they probably pushed a lot of people onto these other projects and the constant reasoning behind them not finding time to invest in some of these other aspects is because they were just stretched far too thin. They genuinely couldn't find the time or want to waste resources because the decision was being made somewhere to ensure that every person had to put in 200% just to produce what they were able to. And hopefully with all of this latest news that will change.

> @"Vlad Morbius.1759" said:

> I think everyone is underestimating the resource power GW2 has and still has going forward. All one has to do is look at the current upcoming offerings for MMO's to know that there is nothing even close to GW2 on the horizon. Many people talk about MMO's dying off but there will always be a strong market for MMO players, maybe not as voracious as it once was but it will always be there. GW2 is very viable for several more expansions and the fact that they have cancelled the other projects and they have restructured the company with intentions of maintaining GW2 where else do you think the remaining personnel will be working?

>

> As I've said in other posts, the best thing that can happen is for them to reiterate the commitments to the title and do so soon to ease players minds and lay out their prospective future plans for the game. After spending hours looking at available MMO's and upcoming MMO's there is very little out there today or in the future for people who enjoy this type of game.

Well, I think to your statement about remaining personnel, many people are concerned that some of the personnel that were moved to those other projects were originally working on Guild Wars 2. With them announcing the immediate transition into Season 5 from Season 4, there's speculation that instead of that being a move to create more time for the expansion team to have extra time to develop and polish, it was more an indication of there not being an expansion in the works at all. That would, to me, imply that perhaps the way they have the living story team set up currently which seems to be not quite the amount of personnel or the right team up for optimal quality, are the only ones producing future content outside of the specialized teams. Obviously the decisions they make when laying people off is going to be to lay off some of the weaker developers and non-necessary developer personnel which means the stronger ones on those other projects could come back and lead to an increase in quality and perhaps a more desirable cadence, but just saying that the focus is being put solely on Guild Wars 2 doesn't guarantee that we'll see any drastic improvements or even sustainability whether they have financial stability or not. And regardless of that, these recent events will still have an impact overall because it will undoubtedly result in some more shuffling and restructuring that may hinder things for awhile.

I definitely agree on that part though, because an update stating that something that's already been in production is still on track, doesn't say much that we couldn't answer for ourselves. I don't think anyone expected an immediate shut down of servers or for them to cancel the content they've already spent months working on and immediately shift into maintenance mode.

Honestly, I don't play any other games because when I find the time to do so, this is the only one I really need. And if this were done, my time with MMO's in general would probably just come to an end. I definitely hope that we actually finally see a benefit from the upcoming restructuring though. Because, assuming it wasn't just to cover up resources being pulled behind the scenes, we've already seen quite a bit of restructuring and "improvements" being made to the benefit of the future with this season alone... and it seems to have shaken things up quite a bit each time as well as not provided a noticeable difference to me at least. And ultimately, I think that's more a case of someone or someones being in a position to make decisions that shouldn't be making decisions because they seem to be a little more business oriented than they are passionate about the game we know and love. Whether these people are directly within ArenaNet or simply NCSoft dictators, it's hard to tell. And of course these people are necessary to run a business successfully, but perhaps they're just a little too distanced or disconnected from the franchise to make the right decisions.

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> Living World episodes differ a lot in quality, don't they? Sometimes maps are great but the story content is bad, sometimes the other way round. Sometimes events are fun and sometimes they are not. Sometimes the story knocks you off your feet and sometimes it just makes you want to bang your head against the wall. There is a distinct lack of consistency with LW content, and a full season rarely feels satisfying because its episodes don't go well together in regard of their quality: the writing (i.e., its presentation, dialogue, plot consistency etc.), story length, story missions and their level of challenge and innovation, cinematics, map content and design, as well as achievements.

>

> That's why I believe that Expansions are preferable: you have _one_ team working on one, and as a result the elements all fit together and you get a full-fledged, (mostly) polished product. I don't mind waiting for expansions, the time in between could be filled with frequent Side Story releases (which are always tons of fun to do) instead of LW episodes. (Also, old content could use some polishing-up.)

>

> I would like ANet to reconsider their approach on the type of content they spend their resources on. In my honest opinion, Living World has proven to be a disappointment overall. You impatiently wait for the continuation of the story, don't know what to expect, and often end up feeling let down by the results of what, no doubt, was the fruit of hard labor on the devs' end. The rush in releasing episodes ASAP as well as the inconsistency due to different teams working on them does not seem to be a good utilization of said resources.

I think part of that is honestly just because people are stretched too thin. I feel like season 3, while with a few questionable story choices, kept up a pretty steady and reliable pace and even if some of the maps had a bit more going for them than others, you weren't always left wondering... is it going to be 3 months this time? 4? 5? And you weren't as worried about situations like Kourna and Gandara where something is obviously holding them back internally from creating something that they probably envisioned to be a bit stronger. But, I think a lot of the issues this season have probably been to shift personnel around to some of these other projects due to them needing the extra help. It's obviously just speculative, and I think the episodes and maps this season are much larger and probably harder to fully flesh out in the amount of time they've given themselves.. but I think that's probably just due to either constant reshuffling of employees or just being generally understaffed.

I've also noticed a huge difference between some of the living story teams in terms of what they put out. Istan and Jahai being done by presumably the same team for instance. Istan had not only a beautiful map but two large scale metas and quite a few side events, like the caravan escorts, Astralaria, and a few smaller events at Champion's Dawn. Even that map has an entire bottom layer behind the gate near the old city docks, and some of the assets under that are stunning but probably didn't quite get finished in time. I presume they were also potentially part of the lead-in to Farahnur. Really, impressive area that's completely closed off. But that's beside the point. Istan also had the Kralk ore weapon collections. Jahai, same team, had the Requiem armor collection, shatter meta, rift events, lots of other smaller events, AND Sun's Refuge. It was an extremely strong release with a lot packed into it. This team in general seems to me to have more experienced devs or just better time management as they seem to consistently produce lively maps with many events and added bonuses to without seeming to have to sacrifice anything or make any drastic cuts. Or perhaps just better direction in general in terms of what they want to put out.

Now compare that to, Sandswept and Thunderhead, while Thunderhead has a weapon collection and two metas, it doesn't have much else. Sandswept had the golem backpack collection that was pretty bugged for awhile, but also had two metas.. and aside from that a few smaller events with interesting hearts but not much else going on with it. I think Thunderhead, interestingly enough, is the one release we've had so far that doesn't have any bounties. So it seems that this team, while delivering a decent product, makes a lot of decision calls on things to cut just to release what they do.

Now, the weakest of the three, is Long Live the Lich, which.. released a mount and that's a huge thing.. but how much of the mount was done prior to that episode in an effort to give something to distract from the fact that while the story and the cinematics were well done, outside of hearts the map has little going on. A meta that seems like it wasn't quite finished and a map with a lot of wasted space. They did however do a very good story and cinematic, and perhaps some of the emphasis on that caused them to sacrifice some of the other aspects of the release. But both this team and team 2 seem to make quite a few probably tough decisions to cut certain things that it seems the first team doesn't have to.

That being said, I'm trying to remember the order of releases for season 3 given that it's implied they are the same teams. We had, Bloodstone Fen & Lake Doric - team 1, Ember Bay & Draconis Mons - team 2, Bitterfrost & Siren's Bay - team 3. Bloodstone Fen and Lake Doric weren't exactly my favorite maps in terms of aesthetics, but they both are very lively with a lot of events. Ember Bay and Draconis Mons - not a huge fan of Ember Bay but Draconis Mons is a beautiful and very creative map. I personally found Draconis Mons to be a bit stronger release in terms of replayability. Both also have seemingly fewer engaging events, but on a much rapid timer.... especially the case with Ember Bay which might have too many going on at the same time. Now, Bitterfrost & Siren's Bay - these are probably two of my favorite maps of the season VISUALLY, but in terms of what they actually provide to the game and keeping people coming back.. it just isn't there. There are few events in each of them, no highly engaging metas outside of the Jormag attack event in Bitterfrost. The Kodan torch mastery was also pretty pointless, just as the turret functionality in Kourna was. It seems this team suffers a lot from having potentially neat ideas that just... don't wind up coming to life. I think this may just be a general lack of direction leading to time management issues.

I'm not sure how relevant or truthful some of their previous remarks about how the teams are made up, or what the numbers are for each team nor number working on current content versus number working on expansion, but given they haven't announced, hinted, or confirmed an expansion is in the works recently, it leads me to believe that perhaps a lot of those people were moved onto one of the canceled projects, as well as perhaps some of the people on the living story teams. It's really hard to tell, but I think it's definitely impacted the releases this season, combined with the fact that some of the teams seem to just have a bit better time management or direction in general.

So, that said, I don't think the delivery of content through living story is an issue, so much as it is resources and personnel being stretched to thin to deliver what they themselves probably want to deliver. I imagine it's probably pretty frustrating having this timeline over your head knowing that you'll have to constantly be weighing the significance of what you're working on and whether it will make it into the final pass. That's obviously the case for more than just these living story teams and this game company in general, but I think this season is more a reflection of some of these issues coming to light due to whatever internal struggle has been going on and far from being a reflection of the devs or the talent of those devs involved in said releases.

And who knows what's going to happen now. If the teams remain this size and nothing changes, we just continue seeing this same pattern I would imagine. But if they wind up making decisions to remove or add people to certain teams, assuming there isn't an expansion team anymore, then we could potentially see a fiasco in the cadence with a long term benefit in what they release with living story episodes depending on if they rearrange the teams and give team 2 and 3 a bit better direction.

I would emphasize the importance of transparency to us again, but I'm just not sure how much I would believe anyway so it may be pointless.

The only way I could see them appeasing their current audience with the removal of living story releases is by doing a bunch of smaller scale and more frequent updates with current events akin to what we had with Caladbolg and shorter expansion releases, but even that I think would still leave people hungry for more. They'll never sate the appetite of the players of an mmo, but I think the current living story philosophy if refined and managed better could continue to suffice. It's just a matter of whether that delivery would suffice in place of an expansion, especially with the current teams assuming they are the only ones left actually working on new releases outside of the balance team and specific game modes like wvw/pvp/raids/fractals. All of which seem to be fairly small teams given the infrequency of related updates.

I can understand wanting to diversify, but it seems a shame to jeopardize such a great game filled with extremely talented developers/artists/etc by devoting so many resources and time into mystery products that seem to just consume and never amount to anything.

Really curious as to what those other projects were. I think it's assumed that at least one of them was mobile related given the slots they've been filling. But I also wonder, given their prior hesitation to visit Cantha, if one of the products was in fact an expansion and perhaps Canthan themed, and NCsoft West said--- nope... we told you not to do that so we're pulling it. I mean, I doubt it. I get the impression they weren't even Guild Wars 2 related, but it would suck if they were trying to give the players something they've been asking for for so long only to have some Korean based executive get offended due to "cultural misrepresentation" or some such. I also imagine that wouldn't be the case either, given that management at Arenanet wouldn't make a decision that risky. So just ignore all of that. Just a brief thought I probably should have kept to myself. :)

I think season 3 also ran more smoothly due to story related issues. They all had smaller more contained plots with a larger overarching story. Whereas season 4 is so linear that if even one change is made, it's probably going to have a huge impact on the other teams. And while, for the most part, the story has been written well this season, I'm just not sure it's the right kind of format for this kind of content delivery. It's also one of the reasons I'm eager to move on from this plot in general, and hopefully one that ends on a much happier note than what we've been experiencing.

All we can really do at this point is offer condolences to those affected by the lay-offs, express our concerns as consumers, use common sense to decipher what those concerns are and how to express them, and hope for a brighter future.

To summarize, I'm sure it's overwhelming to the ones developing these living story releases, but I think it's less their fault or their incapability to deliver and more that they are trying to do the best with what they've got but somewhere up the chain decisions are being made that make it next to impossible. And in doing so, we as the community suffer, and they as artists and people most likely very passionate about what they create suffer just as much. It's a lose-lose, and I hope in light of recent events that this decision is beneficial to the overall state of the game as well as the devs which, while potentially riddled with low morale and doubt, finally get some of the direction or reinforcements they need.

> @"Zania.8461" said:

> While staff bloat due to cancellation of other projects is likely the biggest issue, I am afraid you can't make massive cuts without damaging a lot of developmental flow. It will take time for administration to figure out who will go. It will ruin the company's morale. It will likely take out at least a few people who were shifted to GW2 development after their project got cancelled. Overall this is not a good thing for GW2. However only time will tell just how bad this actually is.

Agreed. We've had a couple statements this season alone, I believe one when Sandswept was delayed, and another after Kourna was released, implying that there was some restructuring that led to the delays but would create a larger benefit later on. The restructuring during Long Live the Lich was apparently so drastic that it not only created the delay, but also created content that many people were dissatisfied with. Now I'm wondering, was it really restructuring or was it just people being pulled out of those teams to work on these unannounced projects in an attempt to get them moving since they were obviously struggling. And the releases suffered because the remaining people in these teams were trying to do the work of multiple people just to meet the quality bar they were boasting about valuing. It was so bad apparently that they had to pull someone from another team just to help finish that episode. So, constantly talking about quality and at the same time potentially pulling people from those teams to work on projects that are being funded by players who have no idea what they're actually investing in. It just all seems a little misleading and doesn't sit well. And the update we got is understandable as I'm sure many people at Arenanet are in panic mode and distraught. And I feel sorry for the ones caught in the crosshairs. I also think that all of the rumors of mismanagement are probably "drastically understated." Is this management at Arenanet, or management at NCSoft, or both?

There's really no way to get a clear picture of what's been going on behind the scenes, and there most likely never will be. But no matter what happens, I certainly don't believe the statement that the release and updates won't be affected by this. Because, back to your point and the original intention of mine, is that multiple times we've seen restructuring that really reflected in not only the release schedule but some of the content that was released. There's no way this COULDN'T affect it in some way or another, whether it's beneficial or harmful to the long term or not. And simply stating what many have pointed out that saying season 5 is still on track, isn't really the question here. Because it's common sense that something that's already likely been in development for months would still come to fruition at some point. Granted, it may be slightly reassuring that their current cadence, whatever that is, won't be drastically impacted.

I understand their decision for making a rather ambiguous pr post reassuring the people that for some reason thought this meant the game is just going to immediately shut down in the next week, and I understand canceling the twitch stream which I honestly didn't care about to begin with.. because they clearly have a lot going on right now and a lot to deal with internally. It just feels like some of this could have been averted, despite corporate greed. And I just have this sour taste in my mouth about the whole situation that leaves me far more pessimistic toward most of their already cut and paste responses about reasoning for delays, restructures, random tech developments, and all of these minor boots that would lead to better content in the future. I'm torn between wanting to believe them because I love the game and think that they have some of the best talent in the business, and feeling like we've all just been consistently lied to.

It's also just really disheartening to think that, yes, we may get regular "updates and releases" and that they're "fully committed to ongoing support of the game," but we may not get elite specs or new features like mounts but instead will continue to get drawn out unpredictable spans of months until a new map is added and another story episode is released that leaves us with yet another end of the world cliffhanger for the next gap. The mount system in this game, granted I haven't played anything with mounts outside of a few console games and WoW, is extremely innovative. They've always been innovative in everything they do, and to think that that time of innovation is nearing an end is really sad. I mean, it might be good for the devs because some of them might branch off and find a new passion, but for the players of this game and this game itself it's pretty sad. Sure, Mike Z implied we could see expansion-level features added with Living Story, but is this just another delicately worded uplifting pr message to create hype or is it potentially a hint that we may actually see some of the things we love about expansions added with these patches... i.e. elite specs/major features like mounts/gliding?

And that's yet another thing, with this latest wave of layoffs, how many people are going to start sending out resumes, even some of the more dedicated people that are just as fearful for the future of the game as we the players are. Another potential major hiccup down the road and something that doesn't bode well. The morale there alone right now is probably going to have a huge impact in upcoming releases.

It may not mean the end of the game, and I never got that impression from any of this, but it's still devastating news all around. Devastating for the morale of the people that will remain, for the people that will be the ones selected to go, devastating for the players that are still highly passionate about the game and devastating for the game itself, pseudo-reassuring posts from random ArenaNet Team.4819 or not.

Hopefully, at least, as time goes on and this settles, we may get to a point again where we get a bit more transparency. I guess the original fiasco that led to the lack thereof was due to the legendary generation 2 weapons not being released with Heart of Thorns? Is that the catalyst that everyone refers to when they mention they switched to a "Show, Not Tell" policy? Because it's implied that people were so violently foaming at the mouth that they decided to create this thick veil of mystery about every decision they make? I guess that's understandable. But that voice at the back of my mind just says, "well maybe this was really just the start of them funneling more people to side projects and keeping things quiet." I don't know. I hate to be THAT GUY, considering what many of them are going through, but I definitely have my concerns despite the "business running as usual" forum response.

On the plus side, school is much more of a priority for me right now anyway. So not having a bunch of new content to distract me for the next 4 months may not be all that bad. Just makes me a little more peeved about the current storyline and general scope of the story and its constant cliffhangers with the wait though.

Come to think of it, the episode a Bug in the system was delayed due to a bug. Now we have the episode All or Nothing, in which essentially all of the focus is being poured back into Guild Wars 2, seems like someone naming these episodes has some gift of premonition or something. lol Maybe the next episode should be a little more uplifting like, "The Light after the Dark" or "Sunrise after the Storm" or "Rhytlock gets his groove back" or something else that's just not even remotely debatably cheerful.

> @"Kam.4092" said:

> I know myself, and many of your players are worried, and want you to succeed. We’ve been left in the dark for a while now, and it hurts. I’ve played GW1 since its launch, and GW2 since launch. These two games have been a part of my life for over 14 years. I grew up with them. I’ve met countless friends, and we still chat from GW1. They mean a lot to me,and I don’t want to see it end.

>

> Is it possible for a more in depth statement from you in the near future? It would help. :/

>

>

We sort of had one. But it was very vague and reassured us that we were still getting Season 5 after season 4, which I don't think was the bigger question for most people.

But it was also done late at night and not even during business hours, so I'd say that was probably just an "oh crap something's happening" quick response almost auto-generated message and they may create another post about it when they themselves get everything figured out.

At least that's my hope.

There are a fair number of trolls in chat, but there's always in my experience at least 1 willing to give you a valid answer. It may be that it's difficult for them to articulate an explanation to your question, or to formulate a response that actually answers your question.

I would say the best resource you can find to help you learn would be to find a good guild. Mine is small but is extremely helpful and we run missions every Tuesday night. Well, they do, I selfishly usually don't partake. But if you're interested in an invite, send me mail in-game and I can get someone with recruiter ability to invite you.

All in all, if you ask a question in this game you'll generally get a valid response. Unlike WoW where you ask something simple and 20 people spam "newb" or insult you for even typing in chat.

And, it may have been mentioned before, but remember the in-game command /wiki. The wiki is pretty picky with spelling and grammer which is the main downside.

> @"CaptainVanguard.4925" said:

> If Aurene returns it will completley invalidate the cruel loss of her death and writing death has to have meaning, its why eir and snaff showing up, as interesting as it was, felt almost like a bad choice.

>

> Death is Death, writing it final is what makes it good, writing it as immaterial makes it bad. The Commander came back from dying for a reason, we are the main protagonist, it worked for us.

>

> It will not work for Aurene.

>

> It'd ruin the entire cruelty of her defeat and while Glint did promise some glorious destiny where Dragons+Mortals can live in peace, I do not think it is via Aurene, that Destiny is meant to unfold, but via us.

>

> I have a feeling we will get some kind of Dragonborn style fate where we are half-dragon half-mortal after Kralk.

How would having a half-dragon half-mortal commander be better?

And this entire expansion death has been somewhat irrelevant. The commander comes back from the dead, steals an army of undead from a lich that up until Aurene could not die, numerous alliances and victories given to us by ghosts that we interact with. The scent of death on us from being previously dead making us immune to dying via the scarab plague. Glint, Eir, Snaff, and the numerous other characters that are all.. you guessed it... dead. Acting like this one death is going to make any difference seems pretty pointless. Especially given the recurring theme so far.

And the cruel loss of her death was already shown to us countless times by she herself through the visions. So, sure, this fight may have been partially about giving ourselves every strategic advantage imaginable to prevent said death from happening, but given that it's revealed Aurene's true big fear was being branded as per Glint's trial, it would seem that Aurene was less afraid of dying and more afraid of being a mindless slave and turning against us. Which would make the cruel loss of her death more impactful to the commander and Dragon's Watch, who would potentially be unaware of her capability of her resurrection. People keep insisting that her death would be cheapened, but ignore the fact that we had several episodes in Season 3 building up to Jormag and Primordus, only to have Lazarus reveal himself as Balthazar and steal a machine that facilitates both threats simultaneously at once while immediately shifting focus to Balthazar. You act as though this one instance would be the greatest literary offense of all time, while ignoring they've already used similar tactics to resolve prior plots. And this plot has had a LOT more invested in it than just a few episodes in one living story season. You're also not truly empathizing with the commander or Dragon's Watch as you're meant to, as the writing is intending to do, but solely as player #33239023 that just consumes an episode and applies a blanket statement critique to something that deserves more. If you see a girl being chased by a serial killer in a movie and trip a thousand times, you know she's going to die and it makes sense, but you aren't supposed to evaluate frame per frame and say, "oh this is cheap", you're intended to empathize with the girl running and feel the fear that she feels in that moment. Terrible analogy with an extremely cliché example, but the point is, if you don't have the ability to empathize with the commander, it's going to feel cheap either way because you're just not connected to the story. If you were, and you felt what the commander feels, you wouldn't see Aurene come back and think... "wow.. this is cheap.." you would be jumping for joy that she's back. And to me, that seems like the real intention of the writing and of the entire development of the character. If you don't feel that way, I think her character and the story in general just doesn't really resonate with you and you're probably going to be disappointed no matter what the outcome. Assigning a value to an event in a story that isn't finished based solely on its divisiveness seems like a rather crude over-simplification of something you weren't intended to appraise to begin with.

But, rant over. With the amount of tweets about gods from Arenanet lately, if it is a hint, I wonder what implications it could have for the story.

Theory 1: Aurene resurrection via underworld or some gods intervention.

Theory 2: Aurene is in fact branded this next episode, and its eluding to a return to Arah and a cleansing of Aurene mirroring Glint.

Theory 3: Aurene stays out of the picture but the gods get involved somehow and help us deal with Kralk.

Theory 4: It's a raid/fractal teaser of somekind.

Theory 5: It's literally anything else, or just nothing in general. Which seems unlikely given they've stated that the gods story wasn't finished yet.

Given the underworld seems like it would have little to do with a dragon, despite the slight foreshadowing last episode about Kralk eating the domain of the lost.. and the fact that Aurene would likely not wind up in the domain of the lost given that we're under the impression that things in the domain of the lost wind up there due to sudden? traumatic deaths which doesn't seem to fit Aurene's… I doubt Theory 1 really applies. Unless they tie the gods in somehow via Aurene and Glint's talk about ascension or something.

Theory 2 seems more plausible as it feels like all of Path of Fire has been a bit of a nostalgia train and mirroring Glint's cleansing would certainly keep us on the tracks. Also somewhat reinforced by Glints trials in that Aurene's greatest fear is being branded, and the whole intention of our bond together and the trials is that we need each other to succeed, which could mean that Aurene NEEDS us to free her from her greatest fear of being branded and potentially that fighting that version of herself may help us free her during her cleansing. The only immediate counter to this that I can think of would be the fact that we ended the episode with her being merely a corpse and Kralk flew away and left her. Though, with us having just killed the death-branded shatterer, having him turn Aurene into his new death-branded champion doesn't seem extremely out of character. (Unless it's explained somehow that, with the sudden emergence of Kralk suddenly having enough character development to announce that he apparently had a vision of himself dying and is hellbent on getting rid of Aurene as his main threat, that he would be afraid to resurrect her in fear of knowing that we have the potential to cleanse her like they did Glint.)

Theory 3 - Seems unlikely to me as 1. the gods always seemed a bit afraid of the elder dragons to me, whether it be their necessity to the balance of Tyria or the sheer power they possess. If they're afraid of killing Kralk for the imbalance, it would seem they would only step in if they had found their new garden and have somewhere for us to go or some way to fix the problem that they didn't have before or are simply yolo'ing it and killing him because they know there won't be anywhere else for them to find if Kralk stays alive. Reasonable. If they're afraid of the power the elder dragons possess, weakened or not, he has essentially the power of two dead elder dragons, and whatever he gained from Balthazar. So, if they were already afraid of elder dragons power to start off with, why would they go up against a superpowered elder dragon, that has a chance of gaining even more power and essentially destroying one or all of them and gaining even more power with each killing blow/nom nom chomp. All that being said, it still feels like to create consistency we would have to have some other replacement for an elder dragon which at the moment may only be the Pale Tree potentially. And that would be a heck of a lot to cover in one episode between the gods, the explanation of the pale tree being able to ascend to elder dragon status, and the final fight with Kralk.

Theory 4 - seems unlikely as well but raids don't seem to follow any specific pattern these days, and given the time span between them I doubt we'll be seeing much of one going forward. I'm not sure how the Djinn place and Underworld tie in together, and Underworld would tie into the gods, but the Djinn wouldn't from what I can see. If we see any continuation, I could see either the Wizard's Tower or the Hidden City and a potential introduction of Shiny as our new Aurene 2.0 similar to how the white mantle were introduced in the first raid wing. But honestly, it just seems like they're keeping raid stories as separate from the main plot as possible in contrast to last season with the White Mantle and Saul/Mursaat. Though I suppose you could tie the Underworld in with our time in the domain of the lost, and the djinn to Vabbi, Joko?, and the region in general. All of which are complimentary more than introductory as they were with the White Mantle.

Last Theory that I didn't include: the gods somehow are involved with us subduing Kralk into hibernation. But subduing Kralk into hibernation would not only be extremely anti-climactic, but be extremely crushing for the commander and Dragon's Watch, as they just lost Aurene and her sacrifice and entire development in general would have only been to grant us more time, leaving us not only heartbroken for our many losses over the years for particular journey, but bringing us right back to square 1 with potential paranoia every time the sky's even a slight shade of purple or a mumble of some elder dragon activity. It just doesn't seem likely and seems like an excessively demoralizing outcome.

Another thing about this Guild Wars 3 business...

Look at WoW. They've been going for years on their stale outdated engine and have released countless expansions and remained titans in the industry. I think the biggest downfall for them has been their upper management, but once you have a loyal fanbase as long as you don't self-sabotage I think you're going to have a much longer lifespan than what Guild Wars 2 has had currently. And in my opinion the people at Arenanet (game engine advantages and graphics aside) are far more talented than what I witnessed in WoW. Guild Wars 2 has had quite a turn around in management in the past few years as well it seems, and given all this latest info I can't help but wonder if that's part of the issue of the discontent some of the playerbase has had and the some of the hiccups we've had this season alone.

But that being said, Guild Wars 2 has a lot of life left in it still and I really don't see how churning out a Guild Wars 3 is going to make any bigger difference than +1. Investing all of that time and money into something that only gives you the advantage of having a potentially more optimal engine seems like a waste when they've already done some pretty amazing things with what they already have and are constantly finding new ways to push those boundaries.

And THAT being said, I think is another thing to look back on. The many ways they've found to push those boundaries that perhaps haven't been reused or have had all of that time and investment but don't seem to get reused later. Sun's Refuge being a one off for example. Though, Sun's Refuge seems kind of like a combination of multiple pre-existing tech like Home Instance/Guild Halls/Aurene's egg chambger all added into one parent feature. The turrets in Kourna. The stealth mission in Kourna. The gravity tech in Sandswept has certainly seen some variation of reuse. Slippery slope has seen and will probably continue to see continuation, potentially via some elite spec skill ability if they still plan on doing elite specs in the future which is anyone's guess at this point. I feel like there are a lot of random tech advancements made here and there by some obviously skilled programmers, but they sometimes fade into the background. (A big offender of this is the Guild Hall system, which in some form or another has had its phasing tech introduced later on i.e. Sun's Refuge or even something as simple as the vine wall in Kourna that Canach plants...). It kind of concerned me at one point when I remembered reading that there was something in Super Adventure Box maybe?... that they couldn't create another world because they didn't even have access to the original code or something? I don't know, it was along the lines of implying that they don't keep a solid record of some of these systems they implement all the time, also making me think that some of these tech advancements could eventually fall into a void at some point and if not expanded upon or reused may wind up being some potentially hefty resource investments with ultimately little payoff.

That rant aside, they have plenty of room to keep transforming what they already have, and they clearly have the creativity and developers to do so, it's just a matter at this point of where exactly the game is going at this point and how some of these aspects have been directed or will continue to be directed. It feels like there's an imbalance somewhere currently in terms of certain people being more passionate about what they release than others. I get the impression that , as with most companies, perhaps the ones in charge aren't quite as passionate about what's released as the ones creating it and the result is an overloaded operation that's only goal is meeting the bottom line. But that interpretation could also be due to this speculative comment about resources being cut and funneled into other projects. (Which, source aside, does tend to line up pretty well with my experiences and interpretations as a consumer who happens to be probably a little too passionate about the game, and probably more openly opinionated than I should be at times.)

It's sad to think back about when I was starry-eyed and going to school for my lowly game-design associates in hopes of one day ascending to be good enough to eventually work for my dream company, only to realize that that dream company is just as run down by the same problems as every other despite how passionate you are about your work. There's always some statistic as a carrot on a measuring stick that determines your worth. I guess the key is to be passionate about becoming the one doing the measuring and not the one chasing the carrot. Money always wins in the end.

Hoping for an exciting patch next Tuesday though. All of this chaos amidst the steady silence only to be met with rather generic pseudo-affirmation P.R. response simply restating their current content trajectory and addressing what they "plan" to keep doing doesn't exactly scream transparency, or at least the transparency I think some people are hoping for right now. Though, if this came as a surprise as much to them as it did some of us in the playerbase I can imagine it's probably even more chaotic there than it has been for awhile over in ole' Bellevue.

> @"BlueIce.6951" said:

> > @"phs.6089" said:

> > Give us a vista for home instance and guild hall. B)

>

> This would be so great!

I've kind of spammed this thread now that I discovered it, so this will be my last post for awhile, but this is a neat idea.

I think Guild Halls in general have been kind of abandoned and may not see any huge developments, but the fractal console and djinn teleportation device do give me a bit of hope. So, other issues aside, I think it would be neat to have a customizable vista in Guild Halls. Though programming that seems like it would be quite a pain. I wonder if it would be possible though creating a vista decoration that gives you the option to set up a path for the camera to pan along? I don't know how much it would be really worth investing in though unless Guild Halls received some update that made them a little more enticing to visit i.e. actual chests loot-predetermined or deposited by person that set the chest, spawnable boss guild mission similar to the initial claiming process, or some other functionality that entices people to actually spend time in them if they aren't passionate about decorating and exploring them like I am.

> @"stabbey.2706" said:

> First time poster here so please be gentle. I’d like to suggest implementing an infinite achievement for reviving downed players. I love playing in Istan and have no problems running across the Great Hall to help out a fellow downed player but there are people who just don’t bother. Perhaps putting an incentive in may actually work in everyone’s favour. Thanks for reading!

Another good idea and seems fairly reasonable to implement. Maybe have the reward be a series of titles earned after x amount of revives. Perhaps even separate title tiers for separate categories or game modes. I.e. Reviving animal npc's, reviving things in fractals like a mists related title, reviving in world versus world, reviving in open world pve. I think titles in general are pretty good incentive for some people, even if the actual amount of achievement points you get aren't all that much.

That's another thing I think could use a little bit of tweaking, achievement points and rewards. As much as I love getting free gems, I'd almost rather have a choice of a hellfire or radiant armor skin than 400 gems. But I suppose that would diminish the value of those skins to the players who've been around long enough and grinded achievement points enough to actually unlock them. From my understanding, before I really got into the game in Heart of Thorns there was a reworking to some of the achievement points to make them harder to come by, given those players a potential advantage over ones coming in later. But I don't know enough about that to really get into it. Just that it's a great system, but the rewards and requirements for some of the rewards could potentially be a little more lenient, especially if it helps incentivize new players to really push themselves to explore more aspects of the game than they would normally.

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> Plz something to explore without being harassed based on Bitterfrost technology "Disguise" within sons of svanir quest.

That's another good point, inventory bloat. (Well, leads me to my point rather.)

There's still a ton of it. Especially with newly added items with living story updates. Bitterfrost items fill up your inventory fast, like the disguises.

But here you have Serpentine Jewels as a crafting ingredient but it can't be deposited. You have the runes in Jahai Bluffs dropping endlessly on all of your characters filling up your inventory. The turrets in Kourna.

Patch after patch there's always some miscellaneous item(s) that just winds up clogging up your inventory. I think unidentified gear and the latest rune salvaging was a great step in the right direction as was the change to make these unbound/voltatile magic resources consumable, but it feels like each release there's always something that tends to go against that general philosophy.

I didn't realize this thread was here. But as I suggested in a separate thread, I know mounts in dungeons like Arah probably aren't feasible, but it would be nice to have the dungeon's map added to the world map, as well as some of the personal story pieces. I.e. Arah explorable and story, the White Mantle hideout in Brisban etc.

Maybe the white mantle hideout is there and I haven't noticed it? I know we have Farahnur on the world map, which is why I find it strange it was done that way and some of the others weren't.

I know it seems small and probably pretty meaningless to a lot of people, but it's just something that's always irked me a bit.. especially on my map completion characters.

> @"ScyeRynn.4218" said:

> I hope they are working on a GW 3. GW 2 is so stale now. Same thing every time. Rinse and repeat. We need new writers, designers, directors, ect. with the same core philosophy and continued storyline.

Well, with the latest news I read on twitter, it sounds like they've moved a lot of guild wars 2 people off to various side projects. So, perhaps if some of them get moved back, it will feel less stale.

And to that note, other than creating a more optimal engine, I don't see how Guild Wars 3 would be beneficial in anyway. They've done a lot of amazing things with the engine they already have, and given the time and resources I'm interested to see how far they can keep pushing it. I think the artists especially have always been some of the best I've seen in the business, especially given how dated the game is and how with each new map it feels like the graphics have improved just from something as small as attention to detail via atmospheric ambience. I.e. - fog and snow, the way the sunlight and shadows hit in Thunderhead Peaks compared to a similar snowy zone like Snowden Drifts. Same engine, but the attention to detail and seemingly small changes here and there have transformed the same snowy premise into something that feels far less flat and stagnant. (Just my personal opinion obviously.) But I think it signifies just how much capability they have with this engine given the right minds and the right passion.

As far as the designers, it's a pretty broad term.

If we're talking about the ones that design the gameplay, I've always loved the combat in Guild Wars 2 and it's hard to play anything else now that I'm used to the rather robust physics system we have in Guild Wars 2. It's pretty impressive to me, at least. In terms of events and map design, I think they may be suffering a little due to these constant restructurings. Aside from Jahai, Istan, and somewhat Sandswept, I can't say that the other releases have really intrigued me that much or kept me coming back to them. Partially due to the quantity and quality of the events in the other maps. Then again, I tend to favor Heart of Thorns large metas because I get more fun from large-scale player events.

I think other areas that could see improvement from a design perspective are things like fractals being added more regularly, raids though I don't participate in them being added more regularly, dungeons potentially being modernized and implemented in a way that the shows that they've really dug deep as to why they are rarely played anymore.

The story right now is where my biggest concern comes from, and that's because it feels like with this method of content release, a story as linear as they've been doing with the impact of some of these aspects of the story have, just makes everything feel a bit more rushed than it probably should. We've gone from Joko potentially releasing a devastating plague to, well the scarabs aren't really evolved enough to do as much damage as they could and they don't care about you because you already died once.. and look here's some ghosts to give you the upper hand, to.... oh look, Kralk decided to come back and can traverse the mists.. and now we can't kill him because we'll destroy Tyria but if we don't kill him he'll just eat reality and we'll all die anyway.... to... oh look the solution to all of our problems didn't pan out the way we needed it to so I guess we're left waiting another 3 months to find out what random thing will pop up to fix this problem. It just feels disjointed to me and a bit jarring. (But who knows, maybe it won't be as jarring as it currently seems by the end.)

ANYWAY, the point is, I don't think Guild Wars 3 or changes to any of those aspects of Guild Wars 2 currently are even necessary, I think it's just a matter of restructuring, refocusing, and better planning? I think all of those people in each of those areas are probably great at what they do, but perhaps they aren't being great TOGETHER, and it's ultimately leading to content that seems stale because it isn't quite living up to its full potential? Guild Wars 2 has a lot of room to grow still, but given these recent articles and news updates, as well as a rather vague and seemingly-to-me hollow post about the future of Guild Wars 2 restating that we're just jumping into season 5 after season 4, maybe it's reached the maximum amount of growth they care to put into it?

Hopefully if they scrap the expansion model they will still add fun and exciting features to make the game feel more alive, i.e. new features like housing or another movement-oriented feature, elite-specs, some new form of fractals that encourages that sense of community it's always been known for. But only time will tell.

My personal opinion is a mixture of hope and disappointment.

I've spent quite a bit of money on this game, especially with new releases and gemstore items. And part of how I justify it is that it's money that I'm essentially reinvesting into the game, and as a thanks for making the content. So, to find out that some of that money I thought I was essentially reinvesting into Guild Wars 2 was potentially getting funneled into a now canceled project is a little disappointing. And the fiasco of Kourna and Gandara and the numerous restructuring they've done since then, as well as what's felt like a very erratic and somewhat inconsistent quality and release cadence, always gave me the impression that there was something going on internally that was really not working. Depending on when they pulled the devs to those other projects, that could align with the shift in this living season. I feel bad for the ones left over that are focused solely on Guild Wars 2, because despite some of the releases not being quite as good as the others, they've potentially been putting in a lot of effort just to release what they have. I'd say the maps don't have the same level of replayability, but if the teams have shrunk and resources have been cut, they've probably been doing the best they could just to meet something even close to that two to three month cadence they originally stated. And that's bad for us as the players and especially bad for the devs that are having to push themselves to create content that may not even meet their personal expectations. It may not be like this at all, but if it rings even remotely true, it leads me to the hopeful part of my opinion which is...

Now that resources and more focus could be put on Guild Wars 2, I wonder what this could mean for the future in terms of quality and release schedule. Hopefully, if some of those focus shifts back to the game that I want to support, it could mean in increase in quality and potentially quantity.

Still though, to make a few posts during delays and what not insisting that each delay or each restructure is in an attempt to increase the quality of the content they put out, the quality that they put so much emphasis on, and then behind-the-scenes funnel devs and resources to other projects does not sit well with me as a consumer. I'm sure it's done all the time in the industry, but to have it really set in right now. Eh...

I don't know how many people can really be surprised though. It's kind of felt like the passion that used to be there was kind of dwindling.

Maybe it will be terrible and ultimately just wind up with no expansions/elite specs/fun new features like housing and just permanently be additional maps and Sun's Refuge style collection hubs.

Or maybe it will be great and we'll start seeing more consistency with release schedules and more replayability beyond collection achievement grinds with each episode.

So to summarize, I'm partially dumfounded and a little mistrusting to find out that we've had numerous posts about valuing quality when resources and devs are being cut from the game, and partially in admiration of the ones that have been left over trying to release the same quality I've always been impressed with in Guild Wars 2. I can't imagine how difficult it must be attempting to create these grandiose maps each episode in an attempt to keep up pace. I'm also far less inclined to believe much of any p.r. in the future, not that I was overly trusting to begin with.

And the latest response to this and the future of Guild Wars 2 said nothing that we didn't already know. Insisted that Guild Wars 2 will see no negative impact of this and that season 4 is jumping into season 5. The latter we already knew, and the former could merely be a way to sway concern.

Whatever this means for Guild Wars 2 though, it seems pretty clear we'll never really know.. which is as to be expected for the most part. But we've already had multiple shake-ups and restructurings that have created issues and delays with content releases, so this could ultimately lead to yet another.

The silence may work to their advantage in terms of keeping player expectations at least somewhat manageable, but it gives situations like this the illusion of complete chaos in the development process.

Only thing we can really do is hope for the best, and despite the bit of angst I have about the reshuffling of resources from the game I wanted to support, again, I commend those focused solely on Guild Wars 2 for potentially putting in far more work now that their teams have potentially shrunk.

Hope you guys get everything squared away. All of this news coming to the surface sure is a bittersweet answer to some of the questions I've been asking myself for quite awhile.

Btdubs - I assume these twitter posts about the gods are potentially teasers of future content, and if they are, thanks for that. Despite all of this silence I still think it's great to keep doing things like this to keep the community stirred and lively with anticipation.

> @"Westenev.5289" said:

> Didn't we get a new Orr map durring LS3 EP 6, leaving two relitively map-sized rectangular chunks in Orr? The way the map looks at the moment, I could imagine a new map in the middle of orr, or a map spanning from the tower of Orr to the Scavanger's Causway - both areas could be cool to visit in the future.

We did. The only parts we haven't technically explored would be the watery area in the center near the Artesian Waters, and the area connecting Scavenger's Causeway. We almost get all the way over to Scavenger's Causeway with the Victory or Death scenario, and we get a large chunk of the southern part of Orr as well. Plus we have the explorable dungeon.

So if both of those were updated on the map, the only parts we would be missing would be the very center where all the blue is, and the far far west of Orr next to the land bridge.

Personally, I'd love to have the center of Orr where all the blue is be an at least somewhat in-tact tropical Arah guild hall. But that's just a pipe dream I'm sure.

1. It's always been a little frustrating to see Arah all blobbed out and unexplored on the world map. Would it be possible to get it and perhaps some of the others painted onto the regular map?

2. Probably completely unreasonable, but could mounts in dungeons be a thing at some point? I mean I know dungeons aren't really used anymore, but if you don't plan on revisiting that area and rebuilding it in a future story update, could we get mounts usable in Arah at least? I'd love to take a look around the place! It would be even neater if we were somehow able to access and use them in the story mode portion where we fought Zhaitan, but based on how that map was constructed it probably would require a lot more effort than its worth for simply allowing exploration.

I'm excited for it. And I can imagine they might be able to be pretty creative with the skins they introduce for it!

> @"Klypto.1703" said:

> The question on this bet now remains can weakened kralk face glint, vlast, and aurene together at once in the mists. Then the magic or whatever he took from the domain of the lost how many dragons can that bring back to life? I figure that is how its going to go down if you contain kralk into the mists and then absorb all that magic without it damaging tyria then you have a victory and collect your winnings.

I still don't understand how Glint, Vlast, and Aurene being in the mists would be necessary as part of this so-called prophecy though. And it's not the magic being set loose that would destroy Tyria, it's the fact that Kralk fits a slot in The All. Once he's gone, we already have 2 others that are missing. It throws the balance out of wack of whatever The All is. Which is the real issue.

One interesting thing to think about regarding your statement is, if someone takes Kralk's place but resides in the Mists. Because, theoretically, the whole purpose of the elder dragons is to cycle magic through each other over time. Sleep, release magic. Wake up, consume magic. Repeat. So if this new elder dragon resides in the mists, I'm not sure how that would be the benefit to the original design or purpose of the elder dragons and their consumption and recycling of magic. How would that impact the aggressiveness of the remaining Tyrian elder dragons when they're awake, and how would that impact the length of their sleep cycles if the mists elder dragon isn't as able to freely cycle through that magic as the others do. Or is their place in the all somehow bypassing the boundaries between mists and Tyria. OR, are places like the Bastion of the Penitent or whatever that are already semi-connected to the mists for mysterious reasons enough of a gap between the boundary to allow the mist dragon to absorb or release the magic of Tyria through.

It just feels like that would be a really complicated route to go. To me, it seems like they will either pull something out of thin air to fix this situation completely unrelated to Aurene involving the mists or the gods or whatever they decide to throw in, or they'll bring Aurene back or pursue some Tyrian-localized solution that at least makes some sense even if it doesn't payoff on the last few years we've spent developing with Aurene (i.e. some Pale Tree solution).

I still think Aurene's original picture being labeled "mini-undead mordremoth dragon" or whatever it was, was a pretty fair indication that she may be the key to resolving part of the problem we have at the moment. With the Pale Tree taking Mordremoth's place and Aurene ultimately taking over Zhaitan. Then perhaps, combined, they would be able to finish off Kralk and split his spheres of influence until a suitable replacement comes in.

Or who knows, with them mentioning Malyck's plot potentially getting development, we could see the Pale Tree taking Mordremoth's place and somehow wind up with a brand new solution of Malyck's tree taking another position. Then we can just have a bunch of random elder dragon trees solving all of our problems for us instead.

It's really anyone's guess at this point as to what's actually going to play out. Apparently they've been posting pictures of Dhuum and Grenth, so perhaps that's a hint that the gods will come back or the underworld will have some larger role in this than people have been able to piece together.

I think if you dig deep enough, at some point or another you're going to find some contradiction to something, and with the stakes being as high as they are currently, something is going to have to give at some point or be "retconned"/tailored to the story to create at least some semblance of cohesiveness.

I suppose it's also possible that if we kill Kralk in the mists, it could somehow be explained that glint takes Kralk's position as the elder crystal dragon, and we could have Aurene replace Zhaitan somehow, and Pale Tree replace Mordremoth, and then wham bam all the dead dragons have been replaced - thanks to Aurene ascending and dying, Kralk traversing the mists to allow Glint to get ahold of that sweet sweet magic, and whatever miraculous plot development Caithe will pull out of her rear end to allow the Pale Tree to ascend to be Mordremoth's replacement.

Or we could just have the six come back and say, screw the all, we want that sweet dragon voodoo and ya'll were fools for thinking you understood The All and the balance in the first place.

Then we just go track down Kunavang, kill Steve because we're just really pumped up and riding the victory train, and use Kunavang to replace steve.

THEN - we say, what's two more? And we go track down Shiny and find some anonymous dragon the flame legion's been holding hostage for all these years and just infuse those dragons with some Primordus and Jormag elderberry juice and call it a day.

UNTIL - the super mega ultra elder dragon of time appears out of thin air and brings them all back, with more power than ever!

I wonder if we'll find out what Canach is spending all of his winnings on.

I bet it's herbs. He seems like he's big into herbs.

Well after finally getting under Windswept Haven and exploring, I can say that there isn't much more to be seen than what's on the surface. But...

When running around the mine in Windswept Haven, I found a secret fake wall that led further into a mine that I have never noticed before. Maybe others have, but there is indeed a fake wall there you can walk through. It's not a lot to look at, but it's a fun little surprise!

> @"avey.4201" said:

> > @"Tails.9372" said:

> > The place where Doctor Manhattan is:

> >

> > 

>

> oh! he has a name? I wondered why a t-pose model was there.

> Also as I've broken every map in game, I have too many places to count, I especially like my wvw hiding places for dorking off, but the inner vault of the gilded hollow is my latest break "still unsure why the door was never openable".

I've been trying to get into that area forever! How on earth....

I managed to get under the crystal chamber platform but not quite into that chamber.

> @"Tremor.7481" said:

> > @"Tyson.5160" said:

> > > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > > > @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > > > > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > > > > I think the most logical solution for the next episode is to have Aurene come back and we kill Kralk and move on, but they could do anything. We could have interdimensional god-like beings pop out of the mists and scatter magic dust all over Kralk and turn him into a rock. Is it likely? No, but it's not impossible. Just seems futile constantly debating and picking apart posts searching for semantics to correct or dissecting sentence after sentence with citations when everything you think you know could easily change with one episode, and could be explained to fit in a way that you wouldn't have imagined because you were too stuck on your personal interpretation.

> > > > >

> > > > > But I think sometimes people are more concerned about appearing correct or superior than they are engaging in meaningful conversation. I can imagine it must get pretty exhausting.

> > > >

> > > > The problem with that line of thinking is that your so-called "meaningful conversations" will never go anywhere, because everything and anything can be countered with "but ArenaNet can add a reason for this to (not) make sense in the very next release!"

> > > >

> > > > Well, by that argument, what's going to happen is that Caithe will go mad with grief and feast on Aurene's corpse and transform thus becoming a dragon herself and will go on to chase Kralkatorrik into the Mists despite being logically far weaker, without visibly killing them, but all will be fine because the magic is no longer building up even though we've been told that The All's imbalance is a more critical issue and magical buildup is merely a visible symptom of that. Oh, and let's not forget how Gaheron Baelfire's soul is gonna come in and stab Taimi with reforged Magdaer after absorbing all the Foefire ghosts. But that'll remain pointless because Taimi will have transferred her consciousness into Blish's golem body so that the two love birds can be together forever in the gut of the ever-fleeing Elder Scardycat Dragon Kralkatorrik.

> > > >

> > > > What, doesn't make sense? No reason for any of that to happen? Well you know it could all easily change with one episode, and could be explained to fit in a way that you wouldn't have imagined because you were too stuck on your personal interpretation.

> > > >

> > > > There's a reason why theories are based off of evidence and testing. Because without that, you can go into such realms of unexpected, random silliness and massive plotholes that you put Gintama to bitter shame.

> > > >

> > > > Can ArenaNet add or change something to make what couldn't feasibly happen, happen? Sure.

> > > >

> > > > But what's the point of theorizing over what's impossible now? Enter that territory, and there won't be any meaningful conversations beyond your own fan-fictions.

> > > >

> > > > People, especially those constantly having their "beloved theories debunked" by established lore, love to proclaim this, that others are "too focused on what lore has established that you forget Anet can change it any moment" but once you go into what ArenaNet can retcon or add that doesn't fit established lore, there's no real point in discussing it because *anything can happen or get retconned*. Might as well talk about how the skyboxes will turn green and Kralkatorrik will suddenly become a good guy next release.

> > > >

> > > > Meh, I think I've made my point about the silliness of that statement.

> > >

> > > That was a pretty creative theory actually, and it could happen. I'm certainly not going to tell you it won't, because I'm not the one writing the story. So kudos to you for thinking outside the box!

> > >

> > > Great way for Taimi to go too. They've certainly been building up to her death these last few episodes, and your suggestion of her becoming a part of Blish ties in with her fascination of him. Though it seems like she's more interested in the other brother these days. Maybe it's a love triangle.

> > >

> > > And now that Sohothin has been abandoned by Rhytlock, that really ties everything in nicely. You should totally write the story from now on.

> > >

> > > Till we meet again, my hero.

> >

> > What is interesting about all this talk about not showing powers and the evidence is that even though eating Zhaitan and Mordremoth’s magic, Kralkatorrik did not display any of this until Season 4. We could have had lots of examples during Path of Fire, but Kralkatorrik shows no death magic powers. Does he use mind magic from Mordremoth? Maybe, but this do much harder to see, if at all.

> >

> > Also back to the Shadow Magic sphere. Where is that? How come no one is using Shadow Magic? Primordus must be swimming in the stuff and you would think Kralkatorrik should have some evidence of using this spectrum too, however it’s not shown.

> >

> >

>

> He may simply not have had to before. Until there was the mention that Kralkatorrik could see the future and was working to avoid one, he seemed one of the more 'primordial force' dragons versus strategy - when you just fly over an area and everything's dead or works for you, it didn't seem he needed any thinking to win. Brandstorm's a pretty winning strategy.

>

> But with the Last Scion of Glint gaining power he's had to up his game.

I think it's a newly established rule that that the elder dragons must use every power they have at all times. Else that power doesn't exist. Or so I've been so eloquently told.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > I think the most logical solution for the next episode is to have Aurene come back and we kill Kralk and move on, but they could do anything. We could have interdimensional god-like beings pop out of the mists and scatter magic dust all over Kralk and turn him into a rock. Is it likely? No, but it's not impossible. Just seems futile constantly debating and picking apart posts searching for semantics to correct or dissecting sentence after sentence with citations when everything you think you know could easily change with one episode, and could be explained to fit in a way that you wouldn't have imagined because you were too stuck on your personal interpretation.

> >

> > But I think sometimes people are more concerned about appearing correct or superior than they are engaging in meaningful conversation. I can imagine it must get pretty exhausting.

>

> The problem with that line of thinking is that your so-called "meaningful conversations" will never go anywhere, because everything and anything can be countered with "but ArenaNet can add a reason for this to (not) make sense in the very next release!"

>

> Well, by that argument, what's going to happen is that Caithe will go mad with grief and feast on Aurene's corpse and transform thus becoming a dragon herself and will go on to chase Kralkatorrik into the Mists despite being logically far weaker, without visibly killing them, but all will be fine because the magic is no longer building up even though we've been told that The All's imbalance is a more critical issue and magical buildup is merely a visible symptom of that. Oh, and let's not forget how Gaheron Baelfire's soul is gonna come in and stab Taimi with reforged Magdaer after absorbing all the Foefire ghosts. But that'll remain pointless because Taimi will have transferred her consciousness into Blish's golem body so that the two love birds can be together forever in the gut of the ever-fleeing Elder Scardycat Dragon Kralkatorrik.

>

> What, doesn't make sense? No reason for any of that to happen? Well you know it could all easily change with one episode, and could be explained to fit in a way that you wouldn't have imagined because you were too stuck on your personal interpretation.

>

> There's a reason why theories are based off of evidence and testing. Because without that, you can go into such realms of unexpected, random silliness and massive plotholes that you put Gintama to bitter shame.

>

> Can ArenaNet add or change something to make what couldn't feasibly happen, happen? Sure.

>

> But what's the point of theorizing over what's impossible now? Enter that territory, and there won't be any meaningful conversations beyond your own fan-fictions.

>

> People, especially those constantly having their "beloved theories debunked" by established lore, love to proclaim this, that others are "too focused on what lore has established that you forget Anet can change it any moment" but once you go into what ArenaNet can retcon or add that doesn't fit established lore, there's no real point in discussing it because *anything can happen or get retconned*. Might as well talk about how the skyboxes will turn green and Kralkatorrik will suddenly become a good guy next release.

>

> Meh, I think I've made my point about the silliness of that statement.

That was a pretty creative theory actually, and it could happen. I'm certainly not going to tell you it won't, because I'm not the one writing the story. So kudos to you for thinking outside the box!

Great way for Taimi to go too. They've certainly been building up to her death these last few episodes, and your suggestion of her becoming a part of Blish ties in with her fascination of him. Though it seems like she's more interested in the other brother these days. Maybe it's a love triangle.

And now that Sohothin has been abandoned by Rhytlock, that really ties everything in nicely. You should totally write the story from now on.

Till we meet again, my hero.

It's kind of silly to think of an artifact imbued with a god's powers not granting something that consumed the artifact the properties of those powers.

Because, what's the point of imbuing that artifact with your powers if not to give it some property or ability intrinsic to the magic you imbued it with? Just to treat the artifact like somekind of magic battery? I get that it's implied that's what you're saying it is to the elder dragon that consumes it, but what's the point of the god doing that? If it's just to boost someone else's pre-existing abilities, why choose a specific artifact?

We also don't really know what specific power Zhaitan could have gotten from Abaddon or whether he would have even chosen to use it over his current arsenal of spheres.

The bloodstone that exploded obviously didn't grant any of the elder dragons special new abilities or Balthazar new abilities because it was just uncorrupted plain magic. It didn't have any innate properties.

I mean, just because we haven't SEEN any glaring examples of elder dragons absorbing an artifact or some magic of a god-power imbued being, doesn't mean it isn't possible.

For that matter, Balthazar was no longer a god when he died yet he still gave his mist-walking abilities to Aurene and Kralk. Even if he was a former god and converted magic to be like his previous abilities, he was stripped of being a god long before. So how is that any different? Because he was presumably born a deity?

If that's the case, and Kormir was born a human, I assume if she were stripped of her abilities then Kralk wouldn't gain any of her abilities then? Even if she still had the potential to convert magic similarly as Balthazar did? How is Kormir any different than just a living artifact that took in Abaddon's magic? If the gods have the ability to grant her a blessing that allows her to absorb his magic and take over his "domains", is it really safe to assume they couldn't use that similar binding of magic to imbue an artifact with properties of whatever magic they're trying to bind?

I don't know. It feels like there are a lot of assumptions being made based on evidence that has too few occurrences to be considered cold hard fact. At any point the writers could write something that contradicts what's currently known or assumed (which again, is far too little to be a guarantee under any circumstance), and then it just winds up with certain people ranting because their hypothesis didn't pan out the way they wanted it to. Until the game and the story explicitly lays out the rules, it's probably better to assume that anything is possible. And it feels like the writers like to keep as many things as open as possible.

I think the most logical solution for the next episode is to have Aurene come back and we kill Kralk and move on, but they could do anything. We could have interdimensional god-like beings pop out of the mists and scatter magic dust all over Kralk and turn him into a rock. Is it likely? No, but it's not impossible. Just seems futile constantly debating and picking apart posts searching for semantics to correct or dissecting sentence after sentence with citations when everything you think you know could easily change with one episode, and could be explained to fit in a way that you wouldn't have imagined because you were too stuck on your personal interpretation.

But I think sometimes people are more concerned about appearing correct or superior than they are engaging in meaningful conversation. I can imagine it must get pretty exhausting.

> @"zolcor.2601" said:

> Given that the Blood Legion's imperator signed the treaty reluctantly, and that a defeated Kralk would lower any problems the Charr Legions have currently, how much do you want to bet on either the Blood Legion or all of the Charr Legions turning on the humans again and starting a new Charr/Human war? Plus I wont be surprised if the next Living World episode takes us the Blood Legion homeland. If I were the game creators and wanted Kralk to follow a specific path, I'd send him flying back to where he was back in the first game.

Isn't the treaty more about the Foefire than Kralk?