After years of waiting, ArenaNet finally released something new about Guild Wars 2. It’s a trailer and it’s a beautiful thing to see. The beginning of the video highlights concept artwork, and then it fades into actual game scenes. If you’re familiar with Guild Wars lore, there shouldn’t be too many surprises here. The game looks amazing. The trailer was impressive. I carefully analyzed the content. But unfortunately, it left me with more questions than answers.
If you haven’t seen the trailer, you can try heading over to guildwars2.com to check it out. For convenience, and detailed analysis, I created a transcript.
Tyria, the dragons have always been here… sleeping deep beneath the earth… beneath the sea… waiting for the time to rise. 100 years ago the drowned empire of Orr rose from the sea at a dragon’s command. A dragon who’s name is written in the legends of the Dwarves. A dragon known as Zhaitan. His soulless armies surge from the waters, hungry for destruction. Our ancestors fought against the tide, but Zhaitan’s power was too great. We have learned from those defeats. We learned that no single nation can fight alone and succeed. The five races must stand together against the ???? and refuse to surrender. Heroes come together in glory, discovering new magic, new technology that will save our world. It is time for legends to become real. Now is the time! Claim your destiny! Forge your legend!
I really like the trailer, but there are things that bother me. The Charr are supposed to be allies in the sequel. I hate the Charr. I didn’t forget what I wrote in my “Could Gwen Forgive The Charr?” article. Gwen might have forgiven them, but I haven’t. Which means, I may not even be playing Guild Wars 2. This really frustrates me, but I’m a man of my word. On one side, there’s really awesome graphics. On the other, there’s the wacky lore. I’m still not convinced that the Charr should be my friends. To me, Charr are still KOS – KILL ON SITE. If I have to group with Charr, if I see them running around in my Guild Hall, I’m not interested in playing.
Here’s another question – Why would Jeff Strain leave ArenaNet now, just when things are starting to get good again?
Here’s a third question – Why now? ArenaNet was silent for years. Aion is about to be released. Why did ArenaNet choose to release this video now? Are they close to release? Why just artwork? Why not some game details? Can I jump? Can I swim? Will there be 1000 different skills?
My feelings are mixed about this moment. I was impressed with the graphics and the music. Wow, it sounded awesome. Yet, Charr and Humans don’t mix – not for me. This video clearly shows ArenaNet’s vision for the game. It clearly shows the Charr aligned with Humans. That whole burning the homeland, slavery and murder thing, it doesn’t matter? GUILD WARS… the game is called Guild Wars. Why can’t I simply make a guild and wage war against the Charr… noooooo noooo noooo… I have to fight the Undead and Dragons!
What do you think? Did you enjoy the video and the direction for Guild Wars 2?
I can understand your frustration, to me the Charr are evil to. But not quite to that extent. Gwen never forgave them, she hates them. You should go to the wiki and look up the missions videos.. Their pretty emotional on Gwens side.. Like angry teenage emotional.
There was some game-play footage tucked in there, it showed a bear jumping through the Charr homelands (I assume it was Charr homelands, with those big trees and grassy lands…) and it made me excited, also the naga things swimming in the water, those are some clues… I think there’s still going to be Charr vs. Humans PvP, The Kurzicks and the Luxons kind of made up at the end of factions, but theres still Alliance Battles. Although I hope it won’t be lame like alliance battles…
I was blown away… It was awesome…. Yay for ArenaNet and their wonderful new game!
I don’t think that the Charr are exactly friends with humans. According to an article on the Guild Wars 2 wiki site Ascalon was conquered by the Charr.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/101/1015971p1.html I’m not sure if you’ve read this article yet, but I’m linking to it anyway c;
I think it looks amazing! It gave me goosebumps just to watch it!
Also this saying comes to mind “In a hundred years I’ll be dead anyway.”
I don’t think everything will be sunshine and rainbows in between Charr and humans in GW2. They destroyed more of Ascalon, made Ascalon City untouchable, and you probably saw the city with all those machines in the trailer. From certain angles you can see what look like the ruins of Ascalon buildings behind them.
Wasn’t there one point before Eye of The North was released that you were considering not playing if you were forced to ally with the Charr? (I may be mixing this up with “Could Gwen Forgive the Charr”) And then ArenaNet came through with a way so that, yes, you did have to play with some Charr, but there was still animosity between the two groups.
I think it’s still a little quick to jump on an “ONOES” bandwagon. We only just got the first trailer after all. I’m sure ArenaNet’s fantastic writers are doing their jobs still.
P.S. And although I do dislike the Charr, I think my main will be one. Hmm, maybe my secondary will be a human… I think these “alliances” will give you a chance to create more detailed lore behind your characters… their interactions with other races as your character’s children, and their children, live throughout the 250 years could affect their decisions and feelings about allying with races.
I’m rambling. xD
Don’t kill me Mr. Photics but I’m actually quite fond of the Charr. I guess it’s because compared to the humans their desires and their views on honor and death is a nice breather from the politics and backstabbing I have to deal with everyday. The Charr think differently, their values inflexible and I like to think of them to be an element in nature. Human need to deal with Charr with caution and respect- just like fire. Fire is very destructive if abused but can be very productive when respected. I think humans being innovative and productive can come to terms with Charr if they tried…but because of pride I’m sure they don’t. Humans have a tendency to think that nature should be dominated. To humans the Charr must be too uncivilised and war like, just beast to be hunted and only takes up space in their territory. I think alike Charr humans like to kill before speaking, it’s just that humans make excuses like “oh they’re so different there is no way we can work together” or “they’re evil and must be purged”.
I agree with your mixed feelings about the trailer. Kekai’s art work is AMAZING to behold and Horia did a great job in directing that trailer but…alike those flashy JRPG trailers that don’t show content I feel like it’s just made to hype people up (and it’s working) instead of informing us about how the game really is.
According to rumours though there will be jumping and swimming elements. They also have an underwater ruin exploration thing that they think will be very exciting. It looks like they’re improved upon their GW1 engine so the graphics should be amazing. There will also be crafting and open pvp (omg yess).
And wow the team is huge for GW2 with 170+ people.
…I’m so excited yet so afraid to pin my hopes on this game.
My little post about the Char. If you remember from EotN we learned that the char started the war with the humans because they were tricked and being lead by false gods. The char that began to worship the demons and other abominations and not the true 5 gods. It reminds me a little about a child that is being brought up to hate a certain nation will believe that because it is what their fathers taught them. I dont think the new generation of char should be held accountable for the mistakes their parents made. They should be given a chance. This is, remember, 250 years after the story we left off in GW1. Would you kill the child of a mass murderer just because of what his father did? Obviously not, you would be wary because of what was taught, you would try to convince him of the incorrect traditions of his fathers, and if he choose evil then of course, slaughter him. but if not….anyway, just my thoughts on the matter.
You can jump and you can swim according to interviews given by the devs.
Also, there will exist Charr enemies, the shamans, who still worship their old gods (the one in the end of the trailer, according to Regina). That does it for me. If I have a chance, I’ll buy this game.
If you listened to the trailer, you would have heard that the races were forced to unite against a common enemy. The humans alone were to week to fight the dragons, and were forced to ally with the Asurans, Sylvari, and, yes, even the Charr. None could stand against the dragons alone. The dragons threatened them all, and only together could they stand against them. The animosity is still there, but without the humans allying with the Charr, they would all be doomed.
Oh, and about your jumping and swimming questions, if you remember Guild Wars 2 will have a Z-Axis. They will be adding jumping, swimming, sliding, and climbing. Also note the characters jumping from boat to boat on that boat bridge thing in the trailer.
I just hope that Ascalon will actually be reclaimed at some point in GW2 and not just used for some AB-style pvp. Ascalonians have been fighting for two and a half centuries to get it back, it’s about time they did.
Ok I don’t get it, why are you uspet with Char allying with Humans…. Even if they are allys on paper that doesn’t mean that they are always going to get along, it’s alliance from neccesity, and it has been, what, like 250 years since GW1, don’t you think they will change.Just look at our world, people and nations have done some thing that can’t be forgiven, but still we found a way to put our differences and past behind.. for example, do you hate germans for killing so many innocent people in their camps, especialy Hebrews, Gypsy, and all Slovenian people. But still today, it’s different story you don’t see Germans like Natzi bastard, so why Char and Humans shouldn’t look each other a little bit different. OFC grouge will remain.. But like they said, no civilization can stand alone against dragons….
And no offense, but if you are’nt going to pay GW2 beacuse of that, you take stories for games way to serious…
Way before Guild Wars, I remember when I used to mindlessly click through the story. Turbo controller, hold down the button, skip the blocks of text. I remember playing games like Phantasy Star II, where I was more interested in the game’s graphics than the game’s story. It is not uncommon for gamers to obsess over graphics and frames per second. Yet, how much improvement can be done in that area?
So, for modern games to stand out, they have to improve in other areas… like the story. The original Guild Wars is you meeting a series of NPCs and watching them die for no good reason. Gwen, one of the most important characters in the game, was missing for years. When you finally meet her again, she’s like “Oh… Hi… I’m over here.” ArenaNet makes players work harder for the drunkard title than finding Gwen.
Good graphics bring you into the game, but so does the story. The Charr are not like Nazis. They’re like aliens. Imagine a UFO blowing away a major city… I don’t see how an alliance can be forged with creatures like that. Germans, Italians, Japanese… they’re all human. That’s how we can look past our differences. The Charr are monsters… savages… you don’t befriend monsters, you kill them.
So OK… some players might think it’s cool to play as a Charr. Others do not. In such a massive world, shouldn’t players have the freedom to play as they want?
I tend to agree with Ammon… Would you kill the child of a serial killer for what his father did? What if the aliens in that UFO only did it because their leader told them he had monitored humans and they were evil. And then 250 years later, those aliens came back, and said “we still think your a bad race, but there are these other badder aliens and we cant do it without you.” And the humans say, we think your bad to, because you destroyed New York, but those aliens will kill us to, ok we’ll do an alliance. Wouldn’t that make sense?
This is a good discussion.
What about territory? Look at Isreal, a small piece of land is the source of intense fighting. The Crusades – still a sore subject even after ~1000 years. We’re all human. The religious beliefs are not that far apart. Why can’t we all get along?
I’ll tell you why – vanity! To align myself with the Charr is to admit that they are better than me. It means that my people were unable to purge the Charr from the homeland. It means that my people are too weak to fight the undead alone – even though holy magic does double damage against such enemies
I play these types of games because I want to feel like a hero. I want to be a hero. “What calls us is victory!” Those are words from ArenaNet, so why are they forcing me to play a loser? The greatest enemy to Ascalon won. I don’t care about this “Titan” nonsense. The Charr and the Humans were never friends. The Charr are savage monsters that burn and destroy things.
There’s a saying that I learned when I was little, “It is better alone than in bad company.”
Yet, you and Ammon do make a good point. Children could be innocent. What is in their hearts? Maybe they are great heroes and great friends. If they are played by people like you, then that would be true.
I think ArenaNet needs to work harder on the lore to explain this part in the story. They better drop that Charr attitude too. I don’t like my allies calling me mouse or meat.
Ok don’t take this wrong, but you take Lore and game too serious man.
And I h8 game were you all become heroes esspecialy in mmo’s. Every1 being a hero in mmo is kinda dum, ok when you play single player RPG, then you can be a hero, but again it;s boring, all stories are based on you being a hero….
I’m sure that creators and story writers will tell why did Humans allied themselves with Charr…
O yea, I woulnd’t call Charr savage monsters, maybe to humans they look like monsters, but wouldn’t it go also other way around… I think that from Charr point of view humans are the monsters and were needed to be purged from lands that they think it belongs to them… So you can debate all you like, there are so many different opinions on this subject, milion and mlions of them…
Also I would like to use one say that explains it best: “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies even closer” I hope I got it right, but never the less you get the point.
Haha.. Photics. The first thing i thought about when watching the trailer (after the “holy crap! This is so cool!” feeling) was if Photics would ever play this game. I hurried over to see what you had to say about it. Ive rarely been to this site since TC broke up. Get out of my mind!
“There’s going to be a slightly different story for each race,” says Soesbee. “To start off, everyone knows that there is this great threat, but at the beginning the races are operating on their own, they don’t understand that the threat is so great that they simply must come together… It’s going to take the player character being a hero to get these races to overcome their pasts: the humans who hate the Charr, the Asura who are naturally sceptical about every other race, who think they’re better, the Sylvari who are young and new and don’t understand the nature of the world, and the Norn who are just naturally independent. Someone has to bring them together, and that someone is the player character.”
Looks like we’ll be directly working with all the races, including the Charr, to come together. My advice, Photics, don’t play as a human. Make yourself a Norn, the Charr didn’t destroy their homeland.
They tried to destroy the Norn… It didn’t work, the Norn weren’t wimpy like the humans.