User:Erasculio
From Guild Wars 2 Wiki
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[edit] Who are you?
Just one more Guild Wars player who's interested in GW2.
[edit] What are you doing now?
Since every cool kid is doing it, my guess at the professions based on the pieces of concept art from GDC slideshow. Those images have the same style as the elementalist wallpaper, and most follow the profession color scheme used in GW1 (such as elementalists in red, what appears to be warriors in orange, etc).
- Elementalist, also seen here, known to be a Scholar profession.
- Warrior, also seen here, very likely a Soldier profession.
- Ranger, also seen here (note what appears to be a bow, and what appears to be a pet, with the tail to the left and the head to the right; it's probably a sylvari crouching by the side of a pet), probably an Adventurer.
- Mesmer, also seen here (same position, same kind of dress), probably going to be a Scholar profession.
- Cleric or something like that. Blue was the color linked to monks (and also dervishes, but mostly monks) in GW1, not to mention the color linked to Dwayna. The idea of a heavy armored profession focused on party support/healing is becoming rather common on MMORPGs these days (from Paragons to Aion's Chanters), and it was seen once in a while before (such as Clerics in D&D). Its shadow is likely here; notice what appears to be a large shield and a heavy helmet. It's probably going to be the second Soldier profession.
- Assassin, also seen here (same head, same trenchcoat), despite how black was not the color linked to assassins in GW1 (it was an odd shade of purple). I wonder if Arena Net will change the name of the profession together with its color. It's likely an Adventurer.
- Necromancer was mentioned in the artbook as being the profession of a Sylvari; it's likely represented by this shadow, which appears to be an Asura wearing caster clothes, and hence a Scholar profession.
- Engineer fits the theme of Guild Wars 2 (with all the guns and other modern devices), plus one interview mentioned how a profession was built relying heavily on environmental weapons, which would be rather compatible with these guys. Ritualists were added to GW1 meant to behave as engineers; while I would miss the look of the Factions profession, having true engineers on GW2 would be basically an evolution of such idea. I believe its shadow is seen here: the Charr has both a large gun over its shoulders and the metalic glove often seen in concept art pieces and which is likely a tool of this profession. My guess is that they are Adventurers.
[edit] Ghosts of Ascalon (no spoilers)
Exposition, exposition, exposition. It's the bulk of Ghosts of Ascalon, which could be summarized as a very long introduction to the world of Guild Wars 2. The book has a story to tell, of course, but it becomes rather obvious why Jeff Grubb had to be listed as one of the authors: most of what the book tells is actually the lore of Tyria, focusing on the five races and on recent events that have plagued the world. Which highlights the book's main problem: its main appeal is to the avid Guild Wars fans who are willing to learn anything they can about the game universe; but at the same time, most of the lore described in the book (which equals to most of the content of the book) had already been described to those same Guild Wars players, through The Movement of the World and other sources. While there are a few new revelations, and it's definitely a good tool to the wiki for confirming some pieces of speculation, those who would get the most out of Ghosts of Ascalon are the newcomers to the world of Guild Wars who are unlikely to even read the book in the first place.
The main story itself is mildly interesting, even if the characters are mostly stereotypes of the races they represent (which, again, fits the theme of trying to introduce readers to the world of Guild Wars). The book is well written, with action sequences being easy to follow despite one or two somewhat confusing moments, and the story really shines when it tries to emphasize how different individuals have very different points of view when seeing the world, which unfortunately is not done often enough.
The book itself has a very beautiful cover, which looks better in real like than through the many screenshots available in the wiki and elsewhere. The paper used is the standard for pocket books, with a slightly gray shade on the pages in order to avoid a blinding pure white color. It amazed me how the book is short; it's somewhat thick, with 370 pages, but its height is less than even those of other pocket books.
In the end, Ghosts of Ascalon is an okay book, yet I couldn't help but feel disappointed. I hope the next book will rely on the introduction offered here and focus on telling a better story with more diverse characters and more varied settings, instead of focusing on a retelling of the lore of Tyria.
[edit] Things to do
- Keep an eternal watch over Category:ArenaNet images to make sure everything there has been properly categorized and tagged.
- Categorize all skills based on the recent discussion we had.
- Properly categorize all traits, which has still to be discussed.
- Seeing if people will want to merge categories and lists as proposed here.
- Write a Formatting: Images guideline based on the discussion here.
- Write a "Development of Guild Wars 2" article (although I'll name it something else). Considering how wikipedia has a section about the development of most recent games, this wiki is lacking documentation about the real world Guild Wars 2.
