GuildCast: 100% More Sylvari and Asura

Written by: Larry Everett (Twitter @Shaddoe - Google+) | July 11, 2012 8:00 am

97 Comments

ArenaNet held back two of the five races in its upcoming epic MMORPG Guild Wars 2 for unannounced reasons, but luckily for fans of the Sylvari and Asura, these two races and starting areas can be tested in the next beta weekend event.

Our panel just like every other Guild Wars 2 fan cannot wait to get its hands on its favorite MMO, again. In fact, Elizabeth said that she wants to hold back, but knows in the end that she will give into the temptation of these two radically different races. Where does your heart lie? Are you going to try out these new exciting races, or do you think that you will be able to hold off until launch.

New races aren’t the only groundbreaking news for Guild Wars 2. Gary Gannon is joined by Elizabeth Cardy and Richard Procopio from Massively to talk mini-games, dungeons, and character builds. Catch it all on GuildCast!

50:06

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13 comments

Bradley Phillips

A simple solution to the guild privacy issue: “Show invisible to this guild while not representing it”

Essentially, it’s a check box in each guild that states whether or not that guild can see you as online while you are not representing them. As soon as you represent them they see you as online (so long as you aren’t anon).

This would be configurable for each guild you are a member of. So you can set certain guilds of close friends to always see you online (the default behavior we have now). And if you have certain guilds you don’t want to “follow you” around, simply make it so that they only see you while you are repping them.

This is sooooo much simpler than joining guilds with only one character, because that’s messy and not what Anet wants guilds to be about. This lets you have your big public guilds you want to pop into and help but still keep your close friend guilds.

/solving problems
- Bradley Phillips
  
  Oh, the show was great. I <3 richie and elixabeth, they are both fantastic hosts.
  
  No offense to "<—- Scott" who is a generally insightful person, but I actually think the dynamic on the show is better without him.
P V

Isn’t it Elisabeth Cardy
http://twitter.com/Jetmorph jason

gary is sooo jelly of scott
http://www.youtube.com/user/cpjontek cpjontek

Great show… we’re almost there!
http://twitter.com/Mantose Leo P

I thought the title this week was going to be something like “guildcast 25% less fun without hawkes”
Chris Wing

Guild Bowling!
lee long

is it just me or a lot of aspects of Sylvari kinda like Avatar movie?
- Andrew C
  
  There is a similar culture going on, but there’s only so many ways you can make an extremely nature-friendly society.
- Diequex
  
  Same thing I thought when Elizabeth explained it
- Sklys
  
  I have had the same thought for a while, with the tree of life/pale tree etc.
  The big difference is, the Sylvari have not been around as long as the people
  of Pandora. Will say this, the Sylvrai look to be a fun race to play.
http://profile.yahoo.com/KWJ3DENURUVD7F4QTTF2W7FRVA ahmed

Elizabeth has this hot thing to her. her excited look is getting to me. Great show guys, keep it up.
Andrew C

My understanding is that the Sylvari’s Personal Story has much closer ties to the Elder Dragons. Not sure how the Asura’s plays out though.
http://profile.yahoo.com/WUO7JRPFS2K52LUXIY2LLJ4TSU Sean

I found it kind of funny that in Divinities Reach sometimes you would hear somebody talking and you would stop to listen to these npcs. Then you notice there’s actually these two other players standing beside you listening to them too.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Took my Charr to Divinity Reach, it was funny listening to the npc children say, if you don’t behave a Charr will eat you.
http://www.facebook.com/marcus.b.aberg Marcus Badgerattack Åberg

I dont understamd why everyone “hates” Asura
- Sklys
  
  Because they are the little folks of the game. First Jason and now Richie, how sad
  I can just see a Asura war swiinging a great sword being the sword would be
  3 times the height he is.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Means Arenanet is doing it right. Asura needs to be little mean, nasty gnome-like creatures. The should end up a walking cannonball carrying a Great sword.
http://www.facebook.com/Bakunawa John-Edward Barana Fajardo

Gary can you stop mumbling then bursting into yelling? It’s really annoying putting my volume up when you mumble only for you to yell and fuck my ears up. Thanks
http://twitter.com/DontCallMeDaz Not Daz

My favourite time of the week and another great show, even without Scott. Loved the aftershow on the livestream. Kickstarter idea sounds good to me, but then I’d be happy with a premium subscription too. The mini tour of the studio was fun, would love to see “a day in the life” type one off show. Keep up the great work and here’s hoping Scott is feeling better.
http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

What was her name again? She’s cute. Obviously.
http://profile.yahoo.com/SMGRLFM4UASOO7QO26HTHBLIOI Shawn

Can’t wait for Guild Wars 2! MMO of the Year!
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Good show.

Very interested in seeing how Arenanet handles the Sylvari story. Total counter story to an ancient elven race, going through a long steady decline, rising up to battle a legendary foe.

Noticed no one wanted to address the how do you join a guild question.
- http://twitter.com/elixabethclaire Elisabeth Claire
  
  We said that pretty much any community site (mentioned specifically were Gamebreaker and Guild Wars 2 Guru) will be able to help people find guilds. GW2G’s social groups are a pretty good way of doing so.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Thanks Elisabeth,
    
    Have you heard of any changes to the 100 player limit on guilds? Am I over-reaching that this is going to be a problem? At launch, I suspect you could go to GW2G find a social guild, reach out to them in game and find the guild is full or holding back slots for friends.
    - http://twitter.com/RichieProcopio Richie Procopio
      
      They have confirmed that they will raise the 100-player limit….but no further information has been given yet. If they keep it the same without any type of alliance chat, then I think some players will be very unhappy.
      - Sklys
        
        They do/will need a alliance set up for muilt guilds to talk. i.e.
        WvW take over or to invade.
      - http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
        
        That can be done with a squad. An alliance should be for something more permanent and long term.
      - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
        
        Players are spending in game gold(gems?) to become squad leaders. Wish it had some robust social media hook, that would allow you to coordinate WvW both in and out of game.
      - http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
        
        If you have enough people to need a squad you should be able to pool together enough gold for the item. I know there are arguments against that but it’s the practical solution.
        
        and I would prefer things outside the game to STAY OUT. Last thing I need to see in game are tweets and status updates.
      - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
        
        Good to hear. While alliance chat is a great idea, it still doesn’t help with finding a guild.
        
        I am surprised that ArenaNet did not invest in the technology to create guilds before launch. One of the things BW did right for SWTOR was allow you to create guilds before launch and invite members.
Dekin

<—–scott? No Scott!? I vote when he is better he take's his old square and the middle square!

The whole Micro Game Macro Game. I mean isnt that Blizzards new thing? "Lets make millions of time consuming minigames" (as they rub their hands together and eviliy heckling.)

I think pretty much all MMO's are going to become segmented with minigames. I remeber when people downloaded the bejewel addon for WoW, it popped up whn you took a flight path, and you had to beat it before you landed.
- Old Ben
  
  > I think pretty much all MMO’s are going to become segmented with minigames.
  
  It depends on the games and how they’re presented. If it’s something that fits into the game world, it can actually make that world feel more realistic and “sandboxy”. If it’s something clearly isolated from the rest of the world, then it can fragment gameplay and even break immersion.
  
  One of the problems with “dungeons finders” in some games is how it turns those dungeons into a separate game that you just “launch” from a menu. I guess that appeals to those elusive “casuals” I keep hearing about, but in my experience “casuals” prefer other game genres anyway, and people playing RPGs like immersion, so it would make a lot more sense to implement that kind of thing as part of the game world.
  
  For example, talk to an NPC (“General Dunn Junfinder”), say that you are ready to help battle the forces of evil, and he writes your name on his roster. You then go about your business and, when a group is ready, a mage (“Teller, the Porter”) appears near you in a puff of smoke, tells you that he was sent by Dunn Junfinder, and opens a portal that you can use to travel to the dungeon entrance. If you don’t walk in within a minute, the portal disappears, Teller looks at you disapprovingly, and you’re removed from the roster (queue).
  
  In the end, it’s almost the same thing, but wrapped up in a way that doesn’t break immersion.
- Jay
  
  I would like to see the card game from Final Fantasy 8 implemented. Make some of the rare cards drop from tough bosses, or maybe having some only attainable by defeating certain NPCs in the card game.
  
  Also have a wager system, so that if you lose, you’ll risk losing one of you precious cards.
NoorElBahrain

Get well soon Scott
http://twitter.com/EdwardvanRaak Edward van Raak

The minigames can give unique gear.
AkumaShogun259

Please keep Scott Hawkes off the show permanently thanks!
- http://twitter.com/xCrabanx Mathias Roller
  
  So… Do you have any reasonable arguments why they should?
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-Quinn/504633100 Jason Quinn
  
  Two reasons why that’s stupid:
  English Witt
  Plays a guardian like me
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Scott is perfect on the show. He represent a long time WoW player who wants to try something new and is committed to giving it his all.
Old Ben

> They must be fairly confident because they waited for the
> last weekend to [give players access to the asura and sylvari].

Since there are some pretty obvious bugs even in the gameplay demo their lead content designer gave to Gamespot, I think it’s pretty clear that they waited until BWE3 simply because those areas weren’t ready for large-scale testing in the previous BWE.

One could say “they must be pretty confident, since they’ve already set the launch date”, but that assumes the decision to launch was based exclusively on the state of the game, which I doubt.

Based on what I saw in previous BWE and on my own experience as a coder / QA tester, I’d say that (from a development point of view) they would rather be launching in mid or late September (with one more BWE), but moved it up to late August for commercial reasons.
Old Ben

Vistas are clearly part of a devious plan to force people to spend money in the cash shop (i.e., to upgrade them to Windows 7).
- Jay
  
  I wonder how many people will get this joke…
  
  Vista did indeed suck. Windows 7 was my idea.
dakumaro

challenge accepted and completed. OP build #1 for thief’s has already been proven. 1v3 -1v5 is lawls for me
and people say thief’s are squishy hahahaha silly people thief’s are for pros.
- Jay
  
  Thief has a high skill ceiling… Not many people can wrap their head around the whole Initiative system. If you spam with Thief, you’ll be much less effective.
  
  So yes, in a way, thieves are for pros.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
    
    The Initiative system actually makes it play more like a GW1 character. One reason I like it more than Warrior. Haven’t had enough time on the other professions to make any sort of assessment.
- http://www.kaiketsu.enjin.com/ Corey “Crimzen”
  
  ya, I had a defensive thief build with a lot of toughness and evasion mechanics and no one could kill me and because people assumed i was going to be squishy I was able to distract people from capping points in pvp lol..was kind of cool.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-Quinn/504633100 Jason Quinn

My raiding guild disbanded before Cata and the game just sucked after that. I hope I can find a good group.
Old Ben

I think Gary has a point about the cities. I don’t know if it’s going to be big events, but as they exist now, the cities seem like a waste. Lots of NPCs walking / standing around, lots of buildings (many of which even have interiors), but almost nothing for players to do. No quest givers, no events, no gathering nodes, no baddies to kill.

I think Arena Net must have something else planned for the cities. Either they’re going to let guilds rent specific buildings as their guild halls (which would be a great gold sink) or they’re going to add some interactive content besides the occasional vendor standing in a corner.

I’m not saying it’s gonna be aliens, but…
- Sklys
  
  That is a great idea, rent a building for a guild hall.
  A thought, if they hold an event in the city (any of them) once a month for different
  holidays of the races would be neat.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
  
  Well there are at least going to be some mini games in Divnity’s Reach and Hoelbrak. I don’t recall running into anything similar in the black citadal but that arena looks suspiciously like it could be used for something like that. On the beach of Lion’s Arch there is a thing that looks like the ArenaNet logo which looks like it might be for some sort of mini-pet fighting thing. Could be GW2′s version of Polymock.
  - Old Ben
    
    …or it could be aliens.
- Spammerbam
  
  I’ve been wondering the same. Of course, every major city will have some sort of mini-game, but what else will there be? Each city is enormous and it would be a waste to not have anything in it.
  I also can’t wait to try out different builds.
  - RolyVento
    
    Well in the Norm city there is a section that spawns a Dynamic Event, where you get to kill NPC. So they technically have the tools to copy and paste this to other sections of the city. Hopefully the developers will get enough feedback this coming beta that they will do this for release?
    - Spammerbam
      
      That’s good to hear that the Norn city has this. But I’m hoping they don’t “copy and paste” this to other cities because that will defeat the purpose of each city being unique.
      Of course, more contents will be added later on; I know this for sure because GW1 was very well updated.
Sklys

Scott hope you get well soon, with out you being there the team was not at it best.
Sorry folks but it takes all of you.
Krzysztof Kotarba

I hope AN changed skills que for thief…
Adam Armstrong

Can’t believe no one has mentioned Assassin’s Creed for those vistas. One of my favorite parts of AC is climbing up to those Eagle Eye spots and surveying the city in a beautiful, short little cinematic. I’m so happy they put something like this in especially since the world is so amazing looking.

If you don’t care (or you’ve seen a particular vista a few times), “skip to end” is a nice touch as well. You can still get the credit for it without bothering with the cinematic if you don’t want to.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Schirf/1083275070 Paul Schirf

I felt it was a really good show – always good when there is a lot of new info for the week. But I do think Scott brings a lot to the table. My only complaint is that the empty square should have been a Scott thumbs-up stillframe or Dubstep Elixabeth…
- http://www.facebook.com/liam.is.teh.bestist Liam Gormley
  
  Haha, a scott still definitely. Dubstep Elix should be in every episode though. Maybe replace the intro thing with her.
Eric Beaton

“Are you mocking me Elizabeth?” HAHA!
- http://twitter.com/elixabethclaire Elisabeth Claire
  
  *whistles innocently*
http://www.facebook.com/brian.sperduto.1 Brian Sperduto

The other thing I’ve heard about Vistas is that there are more Dynamic Events that are off the beaten path, and the Vistas encourage you to explore more and thus catch some of these more obscure events.
pandora005

100% more of zero still makes zero …
- http://twitter.com/elixabethclaire Elisabeth Claire
  
  Technically, there were already asura and sylvari in the game (around LA and in explorable areas). So while the percentage definitely isn’t right, it’s closer to accurate!
  - http://www.facebook.com/liam.is.teh.bestist Liam Gormley
    
    lol, true story. Btw, Elisabeth, you’re amaaaaaziiing <3
    
    That's all
ArcherAvatar

Hope you feel better soon Scott.
Great show again folks.
pandora005

Balance is only a problem if you are a whining idiot who thinks he should be able to bring a sword to a gunfight and have a chance at winning.
- Old Ben
  
  When you have to reload, you might find that you brought a gun to a sword fight.
http://www.facebook.com/rasmus.nielsen.75491 Rasmus Nielsen

I’ll be trying out the Sylvari, no real interest in playing Stitch from Lilo and Stitch though
Shagral

Here’s to another great epicsode! Get well soon Scott. Side note: there’s a newer version of disqus. Just need to tick a box in the settings to enable it.
http://www.facebook.com/rasmus.nielsen.75491 Rasmus Nielsen

As an aside, I think you missed the point of what he said about offense and defense, the context of his sentence, he implies that Guardians and Necromancers are more defensive now, and that needs to be viable as well, thus indicating that they’ll probably be boosting Guardians and Necromancers to be able to, as Defensive specs compete with the more offensive specs
- http://www.facebook.com/liam.is.teh.bestist Liam Gormley
  
  Hope you’re right about this. Don’t want my Guardian getting nerfed
jgelling

100% more of something is double. If you have no Sylvari and Asura and then add them, that’s not 100% more. Just FYI.

Everyone’s looking forward to this game, which seems like it could finally be the first AAA non-sub MMO to change the game.

Just don’t forget there’s still competition out there.
Tommy_NOR

so Scott was sick when you did this…. what kind of guardian lets some illness hold him back??
- http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
  
  Maybe what really happened is that Scott got into the alpha …
  Of course with the NDA he can’t tell you about that.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Filip-Buhov/1379207683 Filip Buhov

they did not say a thing about Ratasum being a not asura origin. Just sayn
RolyVento

Anyone else found a recent video of the Sylvari lands or Sylvari character model like the one we just saw on Gamespot for the Asura?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Caliolo/100003765889295 Robert Caliolo

Add in a mini game of chess or checkers against the AI
http://www.facebook.com/liam.is.teh.bestist Liam Gormley

Good show, can’t wait to check out the Asura and Sylvari. It’s just not right without Scott though. Bet he’s not really ill. He’s just moping because he’s worried that guardians might be getting nerfed. I feel your pain my friend
http://twitter.com/Pieterjan369 Pieter-Jan

Is it known that there will be something like FoWsc or UWsc like team farm things in GW2 ?
Sharuko

Asura are basically miniature Telebubbies. Slyvaria are literally clones of the Navi from Avatar.

Doesn’t hurt to cater to your target.
- stfanalan
  
  GW2 began development 2 years before Avatar came out. If anything, Navi from Avatar are copies of Sylvari.
  
  And obviously, Asura = Teletubby… of course.
  - Sharuko
    
    They redesigned the Slyvaria during 2010, Avatar came out in 2009. Surely that is a random coincidence.
    - Spammerbam
      
      1. The Sylvari was part of the lore and was created during/after the Eye of the North expansion (2007), meaning, it was already thought of long ago.
      
      2. Sylvari are made of plants. The Navi from Avatar have flesh.
      
      Either way, it’s amusing to see that each race in GW2 is unique and having their own starting zones.
      - pandora005
        
        I have to agree … EXCEPT for the last half sentence. Everything is copied and inspired from somewhere.
        
        GW2 has races which feel different … YES
        GW2 races are original and they really created all of them with no influences from somewhere … NO (Charr and Sylvari are original, but the others arent)
        
        Before playing a Sylvari and experiencing their storyline we cant draw any conclusions as to them being copied / inspired by Avatar (or anything else) and people who say so are idiots who give too much on the looks of things.
      - Spammerbam
        
        By that, I was referring to Tera
        
        You know, the game that has Elves, Dark Elves, and little skimpy females running around? Except they just had their names changed. Very original indeed.
        
        “…we can’t draw any conclusions as to them [Sylvari] being copied / inspired by Avatar…and people who say so are idiots who give too much on the looks of things.”
        
        >> Haha, exactly. Sometimes, you just gotta reply with your own idiotic remarks like I did; nothing wrong with mind challenging the troll.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Johnson/1353890372 Michael Johnson
  
  Sharuko, you’re the dumbest mother fucker I’ve ever seen. Just lay down on a highway for Christ sake.
  NO ONE BUT YOU is dumb enough to believe that the Slyvaria look ANYTHING like the Navi from Avatar.
  YOU ARE LITERALLY THE ONLY PERSON ON THE PLANET WHO IS THAT STUPID.
  Congratulations.
  - Sharuko
    
    Thanks for the kind words. But if you think I am the only person that thinks that you are in for a surprise. Go Google “Navi Sylvari” and you will get 10s of thousands of results. Not a hundred but thousands.
    
    Sylvari were heavily influenced by the Navi, and I won’t blame you if you roleplay a Navi.
    - Spammerbam
      
      You’re entitled to what you believe, nothing wrong with that. We need people in this world who thinks differently to create diversity.
      
      I googled “Navi Sylvari” and wow, to my surprise, there was less than 100 results that actually related to people on forums talking about Sylvari looking like a navi from Avatar. So what happened to the other “thousands of results”?
      
      And it’s funny how you say “Sylvari were heavily influenced by the Navi”,
      when the Sylvari was created during the EoTN expansion in 2007 and while Avatar was out in 2009.
      
      What happened?
      Did you run out of negative things to say about GW2?
      
      Because the last thing I remember, Tera didn’t have any unique races; Popori, Baraka, Elin, and Aman were obviously influenced by and ripped off of Final Fantasy, and the rest of the races were recycled from previous MMOs.
      
      You definitely can do better trolling than this, you’re not stupid.
      I have faith in you.
      - Sharuko
        
        “In the past, our design iterations would always lean towards one or two of these descriptors, but in the end we really wanted to have a race that would represent all three characteristics clearly. I began to develop an alternate version of the race on my own at night, while preparing for our debut in gamescom 2010 by day.” – Kristen Perry
        
        Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Enjoy.
      - Spammerbam
        
        And here is the original. Photoshop much?
        
        Here’s what you also left out as part of the paragraph:
        
        “Every race in Guild Wars 2 started with a simplified description—a way to describe the essence of the people in a sentence or less. The sylvari description was pared down to just three words: noble, beautiful, plant…”
        
        Nice try.
        
        You have to admit, Tera did a much better job at ripping off and recycling characters.
        
        Anything else?
      - Spammerbam
        
        It was smart of you to cut out her words and relating it to the photoshopped picture, btw. Very misleading, but smart.
        
        I’ll give you credit for that.
- http://www.facebook.com/miroslav.kazimirovic Miroslav Kazimirovic
  
  Navi arent’ plant-like people, how are the Sylvari then clones of them?
David Manchester

Right 100% of none is still none; that from a playable race perspective of course.
DoctorOverlord

Good episode GBTV.   Cool to hear about a new website and the new Buildcast show!

Thanks for the details about Confusion.   I never liked that mechanic in GW1 because as Elisabeth pointed out there is *nothing* fun about being forced to sit there and not do anything in combat if you’re taking too much damage to try anything.

Hearing this mechanic in GW2 had me deeply worried but it is good to hear that ArenaNet realizes the specific problems with it and are taking steps to address them.   They need to balance it so everyone has an option to remove it or the damage is not so much in when stacked that it removes all tactical decision making.   Of course it would be simpler to just dump the mechanic but perhaps they can make it work.      Like stealth they seem intent on keeping mechanics that have been problematic in other games and perhaps they can finally make them work right.
http://www.facebook.com/miroslav.kazimirovic Miroslav Kazimirovic

Uhm where is the giveaway code .. lol didn’t see it anywhere

GuildCast: 100% More Sylvari and Asura

The Republic Ep142:
SWTOR On Consoles?

Unicorn Duck Shadow Puppet Ep4:
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How To Play:
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