This isn't gonna be related to the video specifically, but I love seeing these videos that we are getting ever since the announcement, very inspired and I personally much prefer these kinda speculating lore based videos with all sorts of ideas and enthusiasm.
Yap, re-viewing this videos multiple times is my ways of waiting for future news. I will gladly see a series of videos in witch you expand on this ideas and developed them for a bit longer 🥰
We are truly getting blessed by the WP videos lately. It’s like my enjoyment of GW2 is tied to your content and I’m having a blast getting back into the game and watching your content after taking a break shortly after EOD.
The opportunity to fit in smaller stores more frequently is maybe the biggest upside of this new model. Love the ideas, can't wait to see how things shake out.
Me too! (I know I'm weird, but I actually don't much like the huge epic stories. I don't care for being a military-style commander either -- I'd rather just be an adventurer. )
I want a true water expansion. Agreed the mysterious water monster seems like a great new villain, especially since a lot of us were disappointed with Soo-Won. That said, my big concern is pacing for mini-expansions. The writers already struggle badly with pacing, spending way too much time on filler and side plots and then the main plot and villain tend to feel very rushed or unfulfilling, if they're going to make the expansions even shorter, they really need to focus in on the plot, get to the meat of it much faster.
Using the Mini Expaxs to clean up and touch on the lore that the living world/Older expacs didn't have scope for, is a perfect idea. I like the idea of just going back to locations. Im fine with a mini-X adding to Elona, or a Mini X-pac that adds more Maguma Jungle. Like, just because we been there doesn't mean we can't go back.
These are the videos, that 11 years on, keep me coming back to WP. I hope you are finding more fulfillment in your life and I hope you appreciate that your work means something to lots of us!
I've said it before - I'd be 10000% down for an underwater expansion in the near future. I really feel like it's the most natural "next step" after the additions to EoD wrap up - especially considering the fact that they included Largos with the Adolescent Leviathan events, the mystery of the underwater entity (or entities) now back on the table, and of course all of the water-based masteries they introduced with EoD. Even if we don't get Largos as a playable race, it would still be AWESOME to discover their city as a new underwater player hub, and learn more about their race and history. I believe the Largos are also a Gw2-exclusive race like Sylvari, so that would give Arenanet full creative freedom to build up their lore. The Unending Ocean is a massive, empty expanse of water on the world map - perfect space to add a new layer of maps. And lastly, this would be a perfect opportunity to take a break from traditional elite specs, and instead overhaul underwater combat for each class. Underwater exploration is an ever-present aspect of Gw2, and yet it's the most frustrating and underdeveloped when it comes to combat (in my opinion). To me, it feels like an afterthought - with clunky weapon skills and having to toss on whatever utility skills happen to be available from your land combat list. An overhaul/revamp to the underwater combat system could: - Provide a new way to experience the world of Gw2 (similarly to elite specs) - Revitalize underwater areas in older content - Open the door to more underwater maps/content/events in the future
Thank you for the speculation, been a while since we could last open op and think more broadly on future story. I know you avoided talking about features to not extend the video too much, but one thing that comes to mind in a lot of these ideas, from battle isles to kodan iceberg cities, is the water and how we could interact with it using the skiffs we have acquired (maybe even upgrade the same tech to larger scale ships!?). Even back when skiffs was announced, I was always of the impression that skiffs are just the start of something great potentially. Imagine boarding your skiff/boat/ship in Lion's Arch and crossing the Unending Ocean and suddenly sailing into a kraken meta event!
Such nostalgia, watching a long lore-ish WP video!! 🥰 All wonderful, exciting ideas! Wouldn't want it as first cab off the rank, but new lands that only exist in the Durmand Priory map would be absolutely incredible!! Elseworld would also be super cool, especially seeing how we and fellow companions react to the bizarro cultures.. opens up the door for character conflict and such, even giving a lot of different content based on your race.
You know, I think that having mini expansions can be a good thing for trying more risky and experimental content such as an underwater or underground expansion. Obviously an underwater expansion would need some serious tweaking of the underwater combat system, but it is a good opportunity to do that when you have only two or three maps, and you also don’t have to put four years of development time into a very risky concept such as an underwater expansion, since if players don’t love it then you have another expansion just around the corner.
Could the underwater creature be a failed Aurene? Basically another ancient race tried to make there own Elder Dragon and it failed, causing that particular creature to go mad?
I'd love to get some more Scrying Pool style storylines. Playing through as Livia during the 250 years between, the fall of Rata Novus, the fall of Orr, Charr civil war... Like they did in GW1 I guess with the books that let you play as Togo, Gwen etc. A lot of the issue for me at the moment is that we're this character that's killed gods, and dragons, we're known continent over... and yet we're meant to feel like characters like Anka/Mai are troublesome for us... but also accept that a random mob in the real world is more powerful than anything we've ever come across before (does that mean the local npcs are too?!). Letting us play as other characters resets those scales somewhat. (or as you say maybe we need to travel to somewhere where we are scaled appropriately, like the realms of the Gods/other areas through the mists)
My biggest wants for mini expansions are a proper resolution for the Norn people, an exploration to the woodland cascades, and something to do with Kryta and their relations to Cantha and Elona.
Nice to be getting the slightly more edited/scripted videos again! Well not scripted but not as long form as the live vids. Love both but love the balance too.
I think Malyks' Pale Tree is the Blighting Tree we see in the northern part of Verdant Brink. So, my assumption is that Malyk's people were the... shall we say "fertilizer" for the highly intelligent Mordrem we see in HoT.
i think we've been looking at mini-expacs the wrong way. Its not that we should be scared that a couple episodes isnt enough for a story, its more we can now tackle story arcs that dont need to be full expac scope. I know it gets tiring talking about abaddon but your mention of Desmina has me thinking about the Realm of Torment. Mists based maps mean they might be able to cut corners on the world map too. If you scrutinise the Gw1 plot - factions does make sense on its own but theres still mysteries. Tying it to Abaddon made it even more confusing, as there was no reason behind corrupting Shiro. Though theres a lot of interesting parrelels for contemporary story, with both plot points ending at the harvest temple - linking Abaddon's corruption to void seems sensible, and in turn the Realm of Torment wouldn't take much to link to void. I think void is more than a convenient excuse. Ok im rambling, but one more thing is can we get answers about Lyssa. Who also took the water domain from Abaddon. Thats weirdly convenient as this is the element associated with Soo-won? i know its just a string of tenuous connections but someone a lot more intelligent than myself could tie this all up.
THANK YOU for mentioning Orr! I really really hope to see a cleansed version of Orr some time. Also the depths of Tyria thing would be really nice to visit. Personally I don't care too much for underwater maps/combat, but it would be oddly satisfying to see all those still unexplorable land-areas of the map though. Oh, and I love this kind of content. Its perfect to listen to while doing chores and stuff. Thanks for your work :)
We've been saying for years how many smaller-scale mysteries there are. If ANet really takes this opportunity to explore them and others, take our retired Commander on various odd adventures, I'd be happier than ever. Give the world a chance to breathe again, to heal, to shape its cultures in the wake of the dragons. I love all your ideas, and I just want to add one detail: in the Janthir concept, if we really do rope in the Krytan bloodlines idea, Majesty's Rest is RIGHT THERE. The Mausoleum would be such a great area! I would love to go adventuring with our favorite grumpy old-timers: Livia, Ogden, and Rhoban. Livia's a great character, she just got shoehorned in at the wrong time.
Lot of fun ideas. I'd like to go through an unexplored thread or two first, like your suggestion of the Capricorn or maybe Janthir, and then maybe get a follow up expansion on a hanging thread like the other Pale Trees or the Kodan and Norn heading back North ideas. Fun ideas all around, hope to see these smaller expansions pan out so we do get more stories.
This is all really interesting. If they do an expac to follow up on a Raid story then for many of us it will be like WTF is this? Who? Did what when? So they'd have to find an interesting way to retell it. Of course they retold the LWS1 plot points to us so much I wanted to beat Kasmeer over the head by the end of it, so they aren't repeat averse. I think the most captivating places to explore still are 1- The Sunset Cresent/Arid, all that expanded map stuff. 2 - The Area East of the Legion Homelands, the expanses unseen even on the newest world map, but yeah, I'd like to see Dzalana too. & 3 - The southern half of Cantha! The people fleeing the Dragon's End map said they'd never been to the southern shore of the Jade Sea and had no idea what was down there. That intrigues me.
I'm excited about the idea of Malyck being possibly back on the table of course. I would also like an expansion that had a sort of "Back Home" part to it, where you visit your home city again and characters from your personal story. You would also catch up on what the Pact and the Orders are doing now that the elder dragon threat is over. Player housing feature would go great with this kind of set up. I know that GW2 isn't an rpg exactly, but it would be nice to have this calmer break in the story. It feels like we've been thrown around the map for quite some time. I liked the ending chapter of EoD in Divinity's Reach where you get to just gather with your friends and have a party. I'm also thinking we should get some new characters in the story. The elder dragon threat is done so Aurene might be taking a back seat. If she's out then Caithe is likely to follow, although she might still be involved if there is a sylvari related plot. I'm also thinking that Canach's current arc is done. He has his own business now. He might still help us around but I don't think he'll be following commander around anymore.
Fun video! Another exciting part of the announcement is that Anet seems dedicated to adding more fractals. I think fractals have an opportunity to touch on lots of unique stories and places in a confined way without needing to dedicate an entire expansion. Similar to the way these mini expansions has opened up the possibility for exploring some of these smaller areas like Janthir.
@@caesarsalad-xu4vy The fallout of the charr civil war alone could probably fill one of these mini expansions. How does a society rebuild when the winners were the minority backed by foreign powers, and the larger population is physically broken/drained? (An while we know the Dominion outnumbered the legion, we don't know how many were converted, and thus would be suffering Post-Jormag sickness)
Another interesting place would be that weird alien mushroom cave we save in one of the LWS4 episodes due to reality rift or something . Would be cool if its from another planet in the same star system
wow! i've never seen the concept art at 27:32 looks like a render of caithe from one of the earliest trailers showing the sylavri, her hair in that video looks pretty identical to this concept art. as always, it's a real treat to have lore videos from you WP🥔
Re: revisiting the Maguuma Jungle, I would love the idea of encountering something along the lines of feral Mordrem, similar to how we encountered Unchained Risen in LWS3 and EoD. Similar things could be done with all the Dragon Minions, but Mordrem in particular seemed to be both particularly sentient and wholly created by an Elder Dragon, and seeing what happened to them post HoT could open some interesting possibilities
Your Idea of the “Garden of the Gods” and having the gods return to Tyria, could be a similar spin that WOW did with dragon flight and the Titans, where for all this time we believed the gods to be these benevolent beings, but In actually all they really did was kind of just dick around with the native races of Tyria to impose their will and put the Humans on top. Could be a fun story to see the world of Tyria Reject the gods. Like “you left us and we are doing just fine without you” kind of mentality. Just a thought! Keep the lore videos coming!! LOVE them!
I am getting really excited for these mini releases I have to say. It really is a possibility as you say in the video to drop in and out waaay more easily in different areas of the world to touch on story arcs or just regions in general. It really feels like a model that would fit GW2 better than how the release model up until now has been. Keep up the good work WP, loving these speculation videos! :)
Honestly, I love all of those ideas, this video could be made by me XD It gives a very nice mix between finishing up open lose threads and mysteries and visiting new places at the same time. Imo GW2 is quite good at setting up interesting stories and enigmas, but rarely resolve a lot of the stuff or actually deal with the aftermath. Which is my biggest fear with the story right now, that the writters just don't want to deal with "old" stuff relating to the dragons anymore, because they think that people will be bored by it (or they themselves). But a lot of the aftershock of the death of the dargons needs to be dealt with and you covered basically all the bases for me. From Sylvary stuff, to the dephts of Tyria, Charr homelands and their inner politics and relations to the humans, what happenes in the crystal desert area now that Joko and Kralkatorik are gone, god relates stories and all those misterious little side bits and stories they scattered across those 10 years of dealing with the elder dragons. I just hope the devs think similarly to what you presented in your video, because I want to see all of that stuff, including a proper "underwater expansion" where they finally add stuff like seperate trait lines ore somehting along that line, for that type of content.
It be pretty cool if Bal's replacement was the Eternal Forgemaster so that now humanity has to face the shock of a centaur of all races being part of the six as the war deity no less..
One accidental byproduct of Utopia is the concept art for the city on gears became the most used piece of art to represent Mechanus, the clockwork plane of law in Dungeons and Dragons
I made a post on Reddit about it not long ago, but I would LOVE to see acquatic Sylvari. Sea plants exists too, and glowing Sylvari of the deep unending ocean would be something truly amazing.
I would love to see a water expansion! under water too but it eventually builds into ships that go up north with norn where we have to explore the artic north of tyria in another expansion perhaps.
You mentioning Mehtani Keys is so random and scary at the same time. I just vanquished this area last night for the first time in gw1. This morning I went to Istan in gw2 and bordered the south east side of the map in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Methani Keys. Sadly even though on the minimap I should have seen something, it was all water.
Its been a while but this and Bahltek were vintage WP things that always find their way into speculation. Its quite nice to see him mentioning it agian ha
In the Joko/PoF2 story, I'd like to see something including finding a way to restore or release Tahlkora. I just hate the thought of her trapped as she is forever. Seems like it would be an interesting side story for that area.
I know this is a bit off topic but I was curious and checked how many full maps we've gotten since the release of the game. At release, we got 25 zones with 5 cities, 31 in total. Since then, an additional 31 full zones have been added to the game, coming to an average of 3 zones a year since launch; please correct me here if I missed something. I think its understandable that people will be disappointed that the big drop of 4 or 5 new maps with a new expansion will be gone, but at the end of the day we'll still be getting the same number of maps every year (on average of course) if they can keep this pace up with the new expansion structure.
If Anet is going to expand further into more stories one story I would LOVE for them to do is focus on the Asura and Taimi. Almost every Living World or Major Expansion has focused on certain races and characters. (HoT for Sylvari, PoF and EoD was Human focused, IBS was Norn and Charr). But one group we haven't gotten a deep focus on yet are the Asura. Plus, nearly every character in Dragon's Watch has had their personal story pretty much concluded with the exception of Taimi. We don't know what's going to happen with her disease. Plus, if they want to expand into the Underground it would the perfect since the Asura originally lived underground, and I personally would like to see us explore Dzalana, a section in the Crystal Desert. Perhaps have it where when Primordus drove the Asura above ground a splinter group of Asura went further in the underground and settled in Dzalana. Just a thought I've had brewing. Also, always great to see more GW2 content from you!
Speaking of things from the mist. One of my favorite things in gw1 was once you become ascended we start to see all these Eidolon in highly magical places like close to bloodstones. We still havent become ascended and we still haven't seen or heard of any of them, so I'd love to see some kind of Eidolon storyline with them all doing things hiding in plain sight.
I've been thinking that I'd love to see Anet go back to giving their fantasy spin to different cultures the way they did with the original Guild Wars Factions and Nightfall campaigns. It was so cool back then seeing something totally new and I'd like to see what they come up with now, apart from Xotecha which of course would require some reimagining now. Something that I'd really love to see Anet try is a new continent thats distinctly south asian, as I find that these cultures are really underrepresented in fantasy in general. Usually when fantasy worldbuilders pull from eastern cultures they go with far eastern (Cantha) or middle eastern/arab world mixed with africa (which basically describes Elona exactly). But i'd love to see, say, a mountainous biome modelled off the himalayas that mixes Indian, Bangladeshi and Tibetan influences, with varying climates and an emphasis on verticality and densely packed mountainside cities. I actually had a thought about meeting a different race of Norn similar to what you were saying with Braham's father. These norn on this new continent would be similar in how they view themselves as a race of mighty warriors all seeking to forge their own legend, but instead of being modelled after vikings I thought they could be modelled loosely after traditional Sikh warriors, long wrapped hair and beards and all that. Maybe they could have their own set of animal spirits like Lion, Monkey, Elephant and... idk, Water Buffalo? Bengal Tiger? Point is, its a set of cultures thats really rich with potential that I haven't seen done before. Fun to think about.
I would love to see them add back in the Utopia stuff. The Asura were originally supposed to be from there, and it was hinted that the big gate in the Depths was supposed to lead us to Utopia. It would be fun to see this land removed from time and could tie in with the Fractals and the Gods. In fact, if they are going to be leaning into the darker side of things, which it feels like whatever is in the Deep Ocean is doing. I would love to see a story that maybe ties into the re-emergence of the Elder Gods like the unnamed Spider God and the like since the Dragons have passed and the Human Gods have gone as well.
20:27 - One simple way to write this out if they don't want to deal with the Void problem: It only effect areas where an Elder Dragon had been or was killed.
They could technically do what warcraft did for old maps being updated, but instead have it either involved with the wizards tower or some Mist-Enhanced Chronomancers. So you talk with these individuals and they'll phase you to/from core map, to an up-to-date with lore version of the map (vice versa) to play around in. letting the devs use old maps for new story where they can completely change how it looks if the story needs it too. Possibly put a new icon on the map so you can see where the new maps can be accessed after completing the story without a scroll portal. Edit: Technically already done something like it with lions arch/old lions arch~ 😌 (i know it's an item, but still lol)
i would love an sailing thematic expansion, gigantic sea map full of islands each with their quests and little stories, with ship sailing like SC black flag stile, and a full under sea second level of quests. the main enemy would be a giant kraken instead of a dragon. You could use your ship as a mobile mini base and gather some crew from quests , and even take them as companions like in the first GW expansion.
Hey WP, as one of the GW2 content creators who isn't afraid to be critical of the developers mistakes, as well as praising them when they do good work, how about a video discussing what the Anet studio needs for the future and how can the community act as a positive feedback loop? How can the community actually contribute to making the game better, or making the job of the Anet developers easier, so that we all end up with better and more content for the game? I'd love to see this passionate community work with Anet in some way that perhaps has never been seen in the gaming industry before, that results in a huge success. Anet is just the perfect studio to pull something like this off, after all of their innovative genre changing ideas over the years. What do you think? Can any game studio work directly with their target community of players and make it work for everyone's benefit? Edit: Personally, I could see the community contributing with fan art and story ideas, plot lines, like you have laid out in this video, but there might be many other ways that the community could work with Anet, to accomplish something special that has never been tried before. Perhaps a team of highly skilled players could work in tandem with Anet's balance team to assist with the impossibly difficult task of balancing this game (which I think is the hardest thing to get right in the game). I believe that staffing levels for Anet are a big part of what holds this game back from being an even bigger success, so if the studio could tap into all of the talent and passion of the community, it could make a huge difference.
SO here's a wild idea I had -- do the whole region in time thing, right? Make chronomancers part of the story... ... then they could break the fourth wall somewhat and point out how regions we visit ARE locked in time. And new mini expac stuff could be old regions but "updated" to the current story. Like I'm genuinely curious for instance how Beetletun is doing without Caudecus. Or one of the Ascalon maps now that the Flame Legion has fixed up their nonsense. It'd both scratch a lore nerd itch for me AND be a lot less difficult to develop for ArenaNet since it'd be reusing most of the land assets.
Some cool ideas! You mentioned you were wondering if the background footage was interesting enough. You spent quite a bit of time talking about which maps could be added, so I think having a map of current Tyria where you outline the hypothetical maps would have added something to this video. Also, Arenanet so far has been quite adamant about keeping all openworld maps "on the map" so to speak (They've mentioned that as a requirement). They would have to come up with a new system for these mists and alternate world ideas. I'm (slowly) working on an eu4 mod for Tyria, so I would also prefer them keeping things on one map :p
I am glad you brought up the infinity ball. Imagine visiting the steam realm seeing a more steampunk version of Lions arch or fortress with steam creatures new and old. We could even see new threats like a massive steampunk dragon created as a super weapon to help conquer this world. There are still the steam creatures spilling into the world. Perhaps numbers and strength of these new creatures starts to grow with new portals popping up everywhere forcing us to enter this realm and stop the invasion at its source.
I've been wondering if the little quest about the Mesmer order with extra life last year was setting up for next expac - I'd say it was a one-off except 1. It went pretty depth in lore and 2. They added other stuff with the Mesmer veils in season 1. Lots of directions they could take that.
We haven't had a meso-american inspired location yet. Imagine an Incan or Aztec looking empire with new races. Going to a completely new location would also work well for its own story, because they have no ties to Tyrian events or stories. That way it can work as a standalone story. I think it would be interesting to explore stories that has a beginning and an end within the same expansion.
xoluteca in utopia expac is a meso-american themed expac idea from gw1, WP mentions this idea in the beginning n shows old gw1 art designs where you can see some of the inspired characters from this world looking aztec-themed.
Tengus, yes! Also would love to see more old Kaineng & Jade seas as well; my favourite things in Factions (my favourite GW) were the Kaineng slumps with its verticality and the vast jade seas (and not the radioactive jade, one can hope), both are wholly missing in EoD. And as much as I am interested in the underwater lore, the underwater combat will need to be changed drastically; just thinking about it gives me headache lol
Dude.. just woke up around 6am here in Aus on patch day.. woke up from a dream.. dream where I was in Elseworld Tyria!!! It was like the next day after EoD finale.. we'd our gang had gathered.. I said a few expected "Commander" things speechwise.. then Kas ran off, and the others were like, "How could you be so heartless to your love??" Pleeeeease let this be what I find in-game!!! 😍😁
One of the cool things is that there are literally no limits. We have the Mists and the Mists could theoretically explain every single thing imaginable. Then they just have to do the rest of the work in grounding it around that setting.
7:48 adding onto this, we still only got a taste of those primordius corrupted dwarves and its confirmed destroyers are still out there so with luck we can see them return.
The immediate consequence of the end of the elder dragons would be the lack of a common threat to unite different factions anymore. The Pact will need to find a reason to justify its continued existence or get disbanded. The Vigil, in particular, was built to face the elder dragons and has no other reason to its existence. A lot of soldiers are likely to be discharged which could provide fodder for bandits, mercenaries and opportunists seeking fortune. At the same times, all the major states are exhausted. From the Charr United Legions, to the kingdom of Kryta, to the Republic of Elona, even the Canthan Empire and the Asura, all have endured major instability and strife both internal and from the Elder Dragons. This state of affairs seems conducive to period of low-level strife similar to the Guild Wars rather than major interstate wars.
I'm curious about other 'Pale Trees'. We know the Pale Tree was influenced by Ventari and his teachings, which I believe helped it guide the Sylvari and avoid or minimize its Sylvari being subject to Mordy's influence. If the other Pale Trees didn't have Ventari's influence, wouldn't it and it's Sylvari have been more subject to Mordy?
What about E ? What if E was hiding in the shadows in Cantha ? Can we get Lucia in the mix as well that further extend to gods for the next expansion ? Would love to see that for the game.
Possibly one of my favorite out of context lines: "We could find his headless corpse and confirm that Balthazaar chopped his head off, which would be quite nice." Didn't play GW1, but bringing it up Xotecha would be neat and I feel like we have a legendary alluding to it, the second scepter. 2-4 are definitely ones I've considered and wanted to delve into at some point, just figured they were on the back burner/waiting for a bit more relevance and I'd really hoped with Primdordus focus we'd get more on the asura. Overall though it does seem like this more single story focus for the expacs might be good times to explore some of the mysteries that never really had time to breathe in their related stories, or just never really fit the timing or story focus at all. I do want to explore some of the current worlds and maybe not focus so hard on the humans, who really have a lot of legacy story from GW1 so I get why they have high focus, but there is still a part of me that wants to explore the gods a bit more too. Did Lyssa give Balthazaar that mirror, or did he simply loot it as he knew about it to use? I also think that they can do some linked stories, just that with this style of expac they don't HAVE to link, but I want to leave it open that if they wanted to do a chained pair exploring the gods that'd be cool. Would also be cool to have a cut scene panning through ghosts from the Foefire as they're finally permitted their peace, no longer locked in permanent strife and distress
Love all your ideas, except the Charr one, oh god, after IBS no more Charr please, too soon. Also groaned when you said WvW at the end, thought you were going to suggest a purely WvW expansion, but yes ! An alternate Tyria where Joko is still alive ?? Love it, he's one of my all time favourite NPCs. Love all the lore too !! Said it before, so many lore moments in GW2 are lost on new players who have never played vanilla Guild Wars.
If they tackle those kind of stories with mini expansions, I'd be very happy. Overall it needs to not feel like just living world, even if we don't have many maps they need to be filled with content, more story, I'd love more of those achievements that are basically quests, hell I think they shouldn't be afraid of calling them quests because right now they're a bit of a pain hidden in the achievement tab. Overall wait and see, we'll have our first glimpse of what's to come in just 2 weeks anyway. I'm worried but also enthusiastic about new stories and if they can nail that kind of expensive maps feel with lots to do.
Wp we do see that several Sylvari goto the Echovald talking to the wardens and natural spirits asking questions about their origin and how it relates to them.
I would love to see more pirate lore, more centaur lore, more racial and/or civil wars, secret dark societies, demon enemies that are horrifying to look at, perhaps even existential horrors seeing as we don't know how this world exists w its laws of physics combined w awesome magic and wondering gods, thereby pondering our own existence within this creation, and perhaps these existential monsters bring a lot of philosophical paradoxes. I want to head further west in the magumma jungle and find prehistoric creatures of enormous size, I would like more horror themed dungeons and areas like the tower of nightmares. but really, everything WP mentions in this video is super exciting and I'd love to see it all! like the dwarves coming up to the surface once more could launch a whole host of new content. I am just extremely excited for the future of gw2, I don't want a gw3 (the death of gw2), just more gw2 content going forward for another 10yrs at least.
Gw2 needs to add a Asuran mastery that is a history codex. That just has WP break down the lore of an Area. It would be very cool to explore around maps, scan something with your codex and then just have a robotic WP voice start dropping knowledge on you.
I would love to see the existing map filled out similar to the way living world does it. Realistically there's not much difference between an expansion map vs a living world map if you look at them individually. So I would love to see an expansion that just fills in the gaps of the existing map(s). More desert maps for POF, some areas in maguma, and of course more areas in cantha. Smaller story threads would be perfect for that.
I definitely dont expect them to make seperate stories per expansion. Much like LWS3 expanded on HoT and LWS4 expanded on PoF without being complete retreads, i expect we'll end up with the same thing with these expansions, think of it them like a split story arc Expansion 1) Solid story, tightly themed maps around one topic Expansion 2) continues the story of expansion 1, intoduces new ideas, maps still mostly themed around the expansion 1, finishes expansion 1 story, sets up expansion 3 Expansion 3) restart cycle from expansion 1 We'd end up with 4 to 5 heavily themed maps on one idea and a transitory one to move us into the next arc. Great ideas over all, excited to see where we go from here
For me at least, WP often manages to get me excited thinking about so many possibilities and details that I forget about. I feel there's much more promise for the future of the game than I previously realized.
From a pure story perspective, I think smaller more frequent expansions are maybe actually the best move for the franchise. I think the idea of self contained stories exploring some of the loose ends could provide a great avenue for expansion, rather than constantly searching for ways for the threat to get ever larger with no end
the void affecting other parts of the world always seemed funny to me, like you get there and theyre still trying to figure out what it was and why it happened and we walk in like "oh yea that was us, dont worry about it its been dealt with"
and about the gods, in kormir's secret section of the library, she confirms the gods all thought tyria was doomed. they abandoned it because they didnt see a way to win without destroying it. they probably think we all died.
Brahm having roots somewhere with a warm/hot climate would also retroactively have it make more sense why he was able to channel/merge with Primordus and what not
Isn't Joko chilling with Abbadon? Didn't something about Aurene eating him send his soul to the Realm of Torment? I think I heard that from Divinity Reach map chat a while back. If true, thats some potential conflict for the future.
I really think a few expansions each dealing with each of the Gods is an easy homerun for anet. Could do 1-3 of them per expansion and have stories for the next half decade. Human homeworld, etc
Something I wonder about these self -contained stories is their chronology. Will they still occur in order, or will that be left vague so that they make sense in any order you play them in.
I personally wish to see the map fill out more before going into the mists or alternate realities: now that the map has expanded showing new territories that can tie to old lore it tickles me the right way. So I'm more for the Maguuma west coast, the Isles of Janthir, depths of Tyria etc
i am at work... and this video is the best thing i could listen ... i enjoy all your ideas m8, i am kinda new to h this game... and i dont know the lore very well but it made me go to places. (I love.the main story so far. i am currently at the living world 4 right now.
Im hoping for either a asura/norn/charr focused as they havent a good one focused on them, if we have to have another human one, a utopia expansion would be grand as well as a one versus the gods, or demons. always happy to have more demon lore again.
This isn't gonna be related to the video specifically, but I love seeing these videos that we are getting ever since the announcement, very inspired and I personally much prefer these kinda speculating lore based videos with all sorts of ideas and enthusiasm.
Yap, re-viewing this videos multiple times is my ways of waiting for future news. I will gladly see a series of videos in witch you expand on this ideas and developed them for a bit longer 🥰
she strikes again! 🧙♀️🧹
@@imanolm.ibarra4007 I'm happy I'm not the only one doing this. I could listen to him for hours (well I kinda do already), it makes me hyped!
WP: We could see Devona in GW2
Herald of Balthazar: My secret identity remains safe
Here is my like & comment for the potato man
This is wholesome
We are truly getting blessed by the WP videos lately. It’s like my enjoyment of GW2 is tied to your content and I’m having a blast getting back into the game and watching your content after taking a break shortly after EOD.
Something I adore about WP videos is that he makes me realize how deep the lore goes and how vast it is. Really makes Tyria feel like a world.
The opportunity to fit in smaller stores more frequently is maybe the biggest upside of this new model. Love the ideas, can't wait to see how things shake out.
Me too! (I know I'm weird, but I actually don't much like the huge epic stories. I don't care for being a military-style commander either -- I'd rather just be an adventurer. )
@@stevnatedagreed ^ !!
I want a true water expansion. Agreed the mysterious water monster seems like a great new villain, especially since a lot of us were disappointed with Soo-Won. That said, my big concern is pacing for mini-expansions. The writers already struggle badly with pacing, spending way too much time on filler and side plots and then the main plot and villain tend to feel very rushed or unfulfilling, if they're going to make the expansions even shorter, they really need to focus in on the plot, get to the meat of it much faster.
Using the Mini Expaxs to clean up and touch on the lore that the living world/Older expacs didn't have scope for, is a perfect idea. I like the idea of just going back to locations. Im fine with a mini-X adding to Elona, or a Mini X-pac that adds more Maguma Jungle. Like, just because we been there doesn't mean we can't go back.
These are the videos, that 11 years on, keep me coming back to WP. I hope you are finding more fulfillment in your life and I hope you appreciate that your work means something to lots of us!
I've said it before - I'd be 10000% down for an underwater expansion in the near future. I really feel like it's the most natural "next step" after the additions to EoD wrap up - especially considering the fact that they included Largos with the Adolescent Leviathan events, the mystery of the underwater entity (or entities) now back on the table, and of course all of the water-based masteries they introduced with EoD.
Even if we don't get Largos as a playable race, it would still be AWESOME to discover their city as a new underwater player hub, and learn more about their race and history. I believe the Largos are also a Gw2-exclusive race like Sylvari, so that would give Arenanet full creative freedom to build up their lore. The Unending Ocean is a massive, empty expanse of water on the world map - perfect space to add a new layer of maps.
And lastly, this would be a perfect opportunity to take a break from traditional elite specs, and instead overhaul underwater combat for each class. Underwater exploration is an ever-present aspect of Gw2, and yet it's the most frustrating and underdeveloped when it comes to combat (in my opinion). To me, it feels like an afterthought - with clunky weapon skills and having to toss on whatever utility skills happen to be available from your land combat list. An overhaul/revamp to the underwater combat system could:
- Provide a new way to experience the world of Gw2 (similarly to elite specs)
- Revitalize underwater areas in older content
- Open the door to more underwater maps/content/events in the future
Thank you for the speculation, been a while since we could last open op and think more broadly on future story.
I know you avoided talking about features to not extend the video too much, but one thing that comes to mind in a lot of these ideas, from battle isles to kodan iceberg cities, is the water and how we could interact with it using the skiffs we have acquired (maybe even upgrade the same tech to larger scale ships!?). Even back when skiffs was announced, I was always of the impression that skiffs are just the start of something great potentially. Imagine boarding your skiff/boat/ship in Lion's Arch and crossing the Unending Ocean and suddenly sailing into a kraken meta event!
Such nostalgia, watching a long lore-ish WP video!! 🥰
All wonderful, exciting ideas! Wouldn't want it as first cab off the rank, but new lands that only exist in the Durmand Priory map would be absolutely incredible!! Elseworld would also be super cool, especially seeing how we and fellow companions react to the bizarro cultures.. opens up the door for character conflict and such, even giving a lot of different content based on your race.
You know, I think that having mini expansions can be a good thing for trying more risky and experimental content such as an underwater or underground expansion. Obviously an underwater expansion would need some serious tweaking of the underwater combat system, but it is a good opportunity to do that when you have only two or three maps, and you also don’t have to put four years of development time into a very risky concept such as an underwater expansion, since if players don’t love it then you have another expansion just around the corner.
Could the underwater creature be a failed Aurene? Basically another ancient race tried to make there own Elder Dragon and it failed, causing that particular creature to go mad?
I'd love to get some more Scrying Pool style storylines. Playing through as Livia during the 250 years between, the fall of Rata Novus, the fall of Orr, Charr civil war... Like they did in GW1 I guess with the books that let you play as Togo, Gwen etc. A lot of the issue for me at the moment is that we're this character that's killed gods, and dragons, we're known continent over... and yet we're meant to feel like characters like Anka/Mai are troublesome for us... but also accept that a random mob in the real world is more powerful than anything we've ever come across before (does that mean the local npcs are too?!).
Letting us play as other characters resets those scales somewhat.
(or as you say maybe we need to travel to somewhere where we are scaled appropriately, like the realms of the Gods/other areas through the mists)
The Sylvari Story is the one most captivating for me. Still love this race.
My biggest wants for mini expansions are a proper resolution for the Norn people, an exploration to the woodland cascades, and something to do with Kryta and their relations to Cantha and Elona.
Nice to be getting the slightly more edited/scripted videos again! Well not scripted but not as long form as the live vids. Love both but love the balance too.
I think Malyks' Pale Tree is the Blighting Tree we see in the northern part of Verdant Brink. So, my assumption is that Malyk's people were the... shall we say "fertilizer" for the highly intelligent Mordrem we see in HoT.
i think we've been looking at mini-expacs the wrong way. Its not that we should be scared that a couple episodes isnt enough for a story, its more we can now tackle story arcs that dont need to be full expac scope. I know it gets tiring talking about abaddon but your mention of Desmina has me thinking about the Realm of Torment. Mists based maps mean they might be able to cut corners on the world map too.
If you scrutinise the Gw1 plot - factions does make sense on its own but theres still mysteries. Tying it to Abaddon made it even more confusing, as there was no reason behind corrupting Shiro. Though theres a lot of interesting parrelels for contemporary story, with both plot points ending at the harvest temple - linking Abaddon's corruption to void seems sensible, and in turn the Realm of Torment wouldn't take much to link to void. I think void is more than a convenient excuse.
Ok im rambling, but one more thing is can we get answers about Lyssa. Who also took the water domain from Abaddon. Thats weirdly convenient as this is the element associated with Soo-won? i know its just a string of tenuous connections but someone a lot more intelligent than myself could tie this all up.
THANK YOU for mentioning Orr! I really really hope to see a cleansed version of Orr some time. Also the depths of Tyria thing would be really nice to visit. Personally I don't care too much for underwater maps/combat, but it would be oddly satisfying to see all those still unexplorable land-areas of the map though.
Oh, and I love this kind of content. Its perfect to listen to while doing chores and stuff. Thanks for your work :)
We've been saying for years how many smaller-scale mysteries there are. If ANet really takes this opportunity to explore them and others, take our retired Commander on various odd adventures, I'd be happier than ever.
Give the world a chance to breathe again, to heal, to shape its cultures in the wake of the dragons.
I love all your ideas, and I just want to add one detail: in the Janthir concept, if we really do rope in the Krytan bloodlines idea, Majesty's Rest is RIGHT THERE. The Mausoleum would be such a great area!
I would love to go adventuring with our favorite grumpy old-timers: Livia, Ogden, and Rhoban. Livia's a great character, she just got shoehorned in at the wrong time.
My favorite videos of yours are when you talk back to people and when you geek out over lore. One out of two isn't bad.
i missed your GW2 content :D i still cant believe how can u have so much content and ideas :) ^^ man you should be gw2 story writer :)
Lot of fun ideas. I'd like to go through an unexplored thread or two first, like your suggestion of the Capricorn or maybe Janthir, and then maybe get a follow up expansion on a hanging thread like the other Pale Trees or the Kodan and Norn heading back North ideas. Fun ideas all around, hope to see these smaller expansions pan out so we do get more stories.
This is all really interesting. If they do an expac to follow up on a Raid story then for many of us it will be like WTF is this? Who? Did what when? So they'd have to find an interesting way to retell it. Of course they retold the LWS1 plot points to us so much I wanted to beat Kasmeer over the head by the end of it, so they aren't repeat averse.
I think the most captivating places to explore still are 1- The Sunset Cresent/Arid, all that expanded map stuff. 2 - The Area East of the Legion Homelands, the expanses unseen even on the newest world map, but yeah, I'd like to see Dzalana too. & 3 - The southern half of Cantha! The people fleeing the Dragon's End map said they'd never been to the southern shore of the Jade Sea and had no idea what was down there. That intrigues me.
I'm excited about the idea of Malyck being possibly back on the table of course. I would also like an expansion that had a sort of "Back Home" part to it, where you visit your home city again and characters from your personal story. You would also catch up on what the Pact and the Orders are doing now that the elder dragon threat is over. Player housing feature would go great with this kind of set up. I know that GW2 isn't an rpg exactly, but it would be nice to have this calmer break in the story. It feels like we've been thrown around the map for quite some time. I liked the ending chapter of EoD in Divinity's Reach where you get to just gather with your friends and have a party.
I'm also thinking we should get some new characters in the story. The elder dragon threat is done so Aurene might be taking a back seat. If she's out then Caithe is likely to follow, although she might still be involved if there is a sylvari related plot. I'm also thinking that Canach's current arc is done. He has his own business now. He might still help us around but I don't think he'll be following commander around anymore.
Fun video! Another exciting part of the announcement is that Anet seems dedicated to adding more fractals. I think fractals have an opportunity to touch on lots of unique stories and places in a confined way without needing to dedicate an entire expansion. Similar to the way these mini expansions has opened up the possibility for exploring some of these smaller areas like Janthir.
More of a charr history please. There isn't enough of their story for a fan to go around.
Good idea, putting more story and content to flesh out the existing race's lore will be neat, small but meaningful improvement for new and old players
the charr and norn got shafted during the Icebrood Saga. Revisiting both races and explore more lands would be amazing.
@@caesarsalad-xu4vy The fallout of the charr civil war alone could probably fill one of these mini expansions. How does a society rebuild when the winners were the minority backed by foreign powers, and the larger population is physically broken/drained?
(An while we know the Dominion outnumbered the legion, we don't know how many were converted, and thus would be suffering Post-Jormag sickness)
Another interesting place would be that weird alien mushroom cave we save in one of the LWS4 episodes due to reality rift or something . Would be cool if its from another planet in the same star system
Love this! The lore of this game is amazing and very dear to me! Excited to see what is to come!
Yaya this is the kinda content I miss. I know it’s not as fulfilling for you recently. But it makes my day when you put out content like this
Every time I run Deepstone all I can think of is "ENTIRE EXPANSION WITH THIS AESTHETIC/VIBE PLEASE"
Your Bjorn the Sunchaser idea reminds me when you started that theory about a Norn soldier in Cantha based on the Sunqua Peak poem.
wow! i've never seen the concept art at 27:32 looks like a render of caithe from one of the earliest trailers showing the sylavri, her hair in that video looks pretty identical to this concept art.
as always, it's a real treat to have lore videos from you WP🥔
Re: revisiting the Maguuma Jungle, I would love the idea of encountering something along the lines of feral Mordrem, similar to how we encountered Unchained Risen in LWS3 and EoD. Similar things could be done with all the Dragon Minions, but Mordrem in particular seemed to be both particularly sentient and wholly created by an Elder Dragon, and seeing what happened to them post HoT could open some interesting possibilities
Your Idea of the “Garden of the Gods” and having the gods return to Tyria, could be a similar spin that WOW did with dragon flight and the Titans, where for all this time we believed the gods to be these benevolent beings, but In actually all they really did was kind of just dick around with the native races of Tyria to impose their will and put the Humans on top. Could be a fun story to see the world of Tyria Reject the gods. Like “you left us and we are doing just fine without you” kind of mentality. Just a thought!
Keep the lore videos coming!! LOVE them!
I am getting really excited for these mini releases I have to say. It really is a possibility as you say in the video to drop in and out waaay more easily in different areas of the world to touch on story arcs or just regions in general. It really feels like a model that would fit GW2 better than how the release model up until now has been. Keep up the good work WP, loving these speculation videos! :)
Honestly, I love all of those ideas, this video could be made by me XD
It gives a very nice mix between finishing up open lose threads and mysteries and visiting new places at the same time.
Imo GW2 is quite good at setting up interesting stories and enigmas, but rarely resolve a lot of the stuff or actually deal with the aftermath.
Which is my biggest fear with the story right now, that the writters just don't want to deal with "old" stuff relating to the dragons anymore, because they think that people will be bored by it (or they themselves).
But a lot of the aftershock of the death of the dargons needs to be dealt with and you covered basically all the bases for me. From Sylvary stuff, to the dephts of Tyria, Charr homelands and their inner politics and relations to the humans, what happenes in the crystal desert area now that Joko and Kralkatorik are gone, god relates stories and all those misterious little side bits and stories they scattered across those 10 years of dealing with the elder dragons.
I just hope the devs think similarly to what you presented in your video, because I want to see all of that stuff, including a proper "underwater expansion" where they finally add stuff like seperate trait lines ore somehting along that line, for that type of content.
Need to see more about the origins of Kanaxai and that mystery door! 👀
It be pretty cool if Bal's replacement was the Eternal Forgemaster so that now humanity has to face the shock of a centaur of all races being part of the six as the war deity no less..
That's a really fantastic idea
These ideas are great! We can get sharks as a mount for an underwater expansion.
One accidental byproduct of Utopia is the concept art for the city on gears became the most used piece of art to represent Mechanus, the clockwork plane of law in Dungeons and Dragons
I made a post on Reddit about it not long ago, but I would LOVE to see acquatic Sylvari. Sea plants exists too, and glowing Sylvari of the deep unending ocean would be something truly amazing.
I would love to see a water expansion! under water too but it eventually builds into ships that go up north with norn where we have to explore the artic north of tyria in another expansion perhaps.
You mentioning Mehtani Keys is so random and scary at the same time. I just vanquished this area last night for the first time in gw1. This morning I went to Istan in gw2 and bordered the south east side of the map in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Methani Keys. Sadly even though on the minimap I should have seen something, it was all water.
Its been a while but this and Bahltek were vintage WP things that always find their way into speculation. Its quite nice to see him mentioning it agian ha
In the Joko/PoF2 story, I'd like to see something including finding a way to restore or release Tahlkora. I just hate the thought of her trapped as she is forever. Seems like it would be an interesting side story for that area.
I know this is a bit off topic but I was curious and checked how many full maps we've gotten since the release of the game. At release, we got 25 zones with 5 cities, 31 in total. Since then, an additional 31 full zones have been added to the game, coming to an average of 3 zones a year since launch; please correct me here if I missed something. I think its understandable that people will be disappointed that the big drop of 4 or 5 new maps with a new expansion will be gone, but at the end of the day we'll still be getting the same number of maps every year (on average of course) if they can keep this pace up with the new expansion structure.
If Anet is going to expand further into more stories one story I would LOVE for them to do is focus on the Asura and Taimi. Almost every Living World or Major Expansion has focused on certain races and characters. (HoT for Sylvari, PoF and EoD was Human focused, IBS was Norn and Charr). But one group we haven't gotten a deep focus on yet are the Asura.
Plus, nearly every character in Dragon's Watch has had their personal story pretty much concluded with the exception of Taimi. We don't know what's going to happen with her disease. Plus, if they want to expand into the Underground it would the perfect since the Asura originally lived underground, and I personally would like to see us explore Dzalana, a section in the Crystal Desert. Perhaps have it where when Primordus drove the Asura above ground a splinter group of Asura went further in the underground and settled in Dzalana. Just a thought I've had brewing.
Also, always great to see more GW2 content from you!
Speaking of things from the mist. One of my favorite things in gw1 was once you become ascended we start to see all these Eidolon in highly magical places like close to bloodstones. We still havent become ascended and we still haven't seen or heard of any of them, so I'd love to see some kind of Eidolon storyline with them all doing things hiding in plain sight.
An expansion with a little love for the Ascalonians would be great. I feel like GW2 has been shitting on them since launch with all the retcons.
I've been thinking that I'd love to see Anet go back to giving their fantasy spin to different cultures the way they did with the original Guild Wars Factions and Nightfall campaigns. It was so cool back then seeing something totally new and I'd like to see what they come up with now, apart from Xotecha which of course would require some reimagining now. Something that I'd really love to see Anet try is a new continent thats distinctly south asian, as I find that these cultures are really underrepresented in fantasy in general.
Usually when fantasy worldbuilders pull from eastern cultures they go with far eastern (Cantha) or middle eastern/arab world mixed with africa (which basically describes Elona exactly). But i'd love to see, say, a mountainous biome modelled off the himalayas that mixes Indian, Bangladeshi and Tibetan influences, with varying climates and an emphasis on verticality and densely packed mountainside cities.
I actually had a thought about meeting a different race of Norn similar to what you were saying with Braham's father. These norn on this new continent would be similar in how they view themselves as a race of mighty warriors all seeking to forge their own legend, but instead of being modelled after vikings I thought they could be modelled loosely after traditional Sikh warriors, long wrapped hair and beards and all that. Maybe they could have their own set of animal spirits like Lion, Monkey, Elephant and... idk, Water Buffalo? Bengal Tiger?
Point is, its a set of cultures thats really rich with potential that I haven't seen done before. Fun to think about.
I would love to see them add back in the Utopia stuff. The Asura were originally supposed to be from there, and it was hinted that the big gate in the Depths was supposed to lead us to Utopia. It would be fun to see this land removed from time and could tie in with the Fractals and the Gods. In fact, if they are going to be leaning into the darker side of things, which it feels like whatever is in the Deep Ocean is doing. I would love to see a story that maybe ties into the re-emergence of the Elder Gods like the unnamed Spider God and the like since the Dragons have passed and the Human Gods have gone as well.
20:27 - One simple way to write this out if they don't want to deal with the Void problem: It only effect areas where an Elder Dragon had been or was killed.
Oh my god, I completely forgot about the Dinosaur zone on the Maguma coast in GW.... I need it back in GW2 now absolutely.
They could technically do what warcraft did for old maps being updated, but instead have it either involved with the wizards tower or some Mist-Enhanced Chronomancers.
So you talk with these individuals and they'll phase you to/from core map, to an up-to-date with lore version of the map (vice versa) to play around in.
letting the devs use old maps for new story where they can completely change how it looks if the story needs it too.
Possibly put a new icon on the map so you can see where the new maps can be accessed after completing the story without a scroll portal.
Edit: Technically already done something like it with lions arch/old lions arch~ 😌 (i know it's an item, but still lol)
Deal WP! When can you have those expansions ready? ;) Love your insights and the great art shown...
i would love an sailing thematic expansion, gigantic sea map full of islands each with their quests and little stories, with ship sailing like SC black flag stile, and a full under sea second level of quests. the main enemy would be a giant kraken instead of a dragon. You could use your ship as a mobile mini base and gather some crew from quests , and even take them as companions like in the first GW expansion.
Hey WP, as one of the GW2 content creators who isn't afraid to be critical of the developers mistakes, as well as praising them when they do good work, how about a video discussing what the Anet studio needs for the future and how can the community act as a positive feedback loop? How can the community actually contribute to making the game better, or making the job of the Anet developers easier, so that we all end up with better and more content for the game? I'd love to see this passionate community work with Anet in some way that perhaps has never been seen in the gaming industry before, that results in a huge success. Anet is just the perfect studio to pull something like this off, after all of their innovative genre changing ideas over the years. What do you think? Can any game studio work directly with their target community of players and make it work for everyone's benefit?
Edit: Personally, I could see the community contributing with fan art and story ideas, plot lines, like you have laid out in this video, but there might be many other ways that the community could work with Anet, to accomplish something special that has never been tried before. Perhaps a team of highly skilled players could work in tandem with Anet's balance team to assist with the impossibly difficult task of balancing this game (which I think is the hardest thing to get right in the game). I believe that staffing levels for Anet are a big part of what holds this game back from being an even bigger success, so if the studio could tap into all of the talent and passion of the community, it could make a huge difference.
SO here's a wild idea I had -- do the whole region in time thing, right? Make chronomancers part of the story... ... then they could break the fourth wall somewhat and point out how regions we visit ARE locked in time. And new mini expac stuff could be old regions but "updated" to the current story. Like I'm genuinely curious for instance how Beetletun is doing without Caudecus. Or one of the Ascalon maps now that the Flame Legion has fixed up their nonsense. It'd both scratch a lore nerd itch for me AND be a lot less difficult to develop for ArenaNet since it'd be reusing most of the land assets.
Some cool ideas!
You mentioned you were wondering if the background footage was interesting enough. You spent quite a bit of time talking about which maps could be added, so I think having a map of current Tyria where you outline the hypothetical maps would have added something to this video.
Also, Arenanet so far has been quite adamant about keeping all openworld maps "on the map" so to speak (They've mentioned that as a requirement). They would have to come up with a new system for these mists and alternate world ideas. I'm (slowly) working on an eu4 mod for Tyria, so I would also prefer them keeping things on one map :p
I am glad you brought up the infinity ball. Imagine visiting the steam realm seeing a more steampunk version of Lions arch or fortress with steam creatures new and old. We could even see new threats like a massive steampunk dragon created as a super weapon to help conquer this world. There are still the steam creatures spilling into the world. Perhaps numbers and strength of these new creatures starts to grow with new portals popping up everywhere forcing us to enter this realm and stop the invasion at its source.
I've been wondering if the little quest about the Mesmer order with extra life last year was setting up for next expac - I'd say it was a one-off except 1. It went pretty depth in lore and 2. They added other stuff with the Mesmer veils in season 1.
Lots of directions they could take that.
We haven't had a meso-american inspired location yet. Imagine an Incan or Aztec looking empire with new races. Going to a completely new location would also work well for its own story, because they have no ties to Tyrian events or stories. That way it can work as a standalone story. I think it would be interesting to explore stories that has a beginning and an end within the same expansion.
this ^
or giving us a better look at asura which have such influences in their architecture
Tengu as a playable race and new map as their starting zone would be cool :o
xoluteca in utopia expac is a meso-american themed expac idea from gw1, WP mentions this idea in the beginning n shows old gw1 art designs where you can see some of the inspired characters from this world looking aztec-themed.
HoT had plenty of that.
Tengus, yes! Also would love to see more old Kaineng & Jade seas as well; my favourite things in Factions (my favourite GW) were the Kaineng slumps with its verticality and the vast jade seas (and not the radioactive jade, one can hope), both are wholly missing in EoD. And as much as I am interested in the underwater lore, the underwater combat will need to be changed drastically; just thinking about it gives me headache lol
Dude.. just woke up around 6am here in Aus on patch day.. woke up from a dream.. dream where I was in Elseworld Tyria!!!
It was like the next day after EoD finale.. we'd our gang had gathered.. I said a few expected "Commander" things speechwise.. then Kas ran off, and the others were like, "How could you be so heartless to your love??"
Pleeeeease let this be what I find in-game!!! 😍😁
One of the cool things is that there are literally no limits. We have the Mists and the Mists could theoretically explain every single thing imaginable. Then they just have to do the rest of the work in grounding it around that setting.
7:48 adding onto this, we still only got a taste of those primordius corrupted dwarves and its confirmed destroyers are still out there so with luck we can see them return.
The immediate consequence of the end of the elder dragons would be the lack of a common threat to unite different factions anymore. The Pact will need to find a reason to justify its continued existence or get disbanded. The Vigil, in particular, was built to face the elder dragons and has no other reason to its existence. A lot of soldiers are likely to be discharged which could provide fodder for bandits, mercenaries and opportunists seeking fortune.
At the same times, all the major states are exhausted. From the Charr United Legions, to the kingdom of Kryta, to the Republic of Elona, even the Canthan Empire and the Asura, all have endured major instability and strife both internal and from the Elder Dragons. This state of affairs seems conducive to period of low-level strife similar to the Guild Wars rather than major interstate wars.
I really hope they do any of these because all of them are amazing
This is literally one of the most exciting videos for GW2 in 2023
I'm curious about other 'Pale Trees'. We know the Pale Tree was influenced by Ventari and his teachings, which I believe helped it guide the Sylvari and avoid or minimize its Sylvari being subject to Mordy's influence. If the other Pale Trees didn't have Ventari's influence, wouldn't it and it's Sylvari have been more subject to Mordy?
What about E ? What if E was hiding in the shadows in Cantha ? Can we get Lucia in the mix as well that further extend to gods for the next expansion ?
Would love to see that for the game.
Possibly one of my favorite out of context lines: "We could find his headless corpse and confirm that Balthazaar chopped his head off, which would be quite nice."
Didn't play GW1, but bringing it up Xotecha would be neat and I feel like we have a legendary alluding to it, the second scepter. 2-4 are definitely ones I've considered and wanted to delve into at some point, just figured they were on the back burner/waiting for a bit more relevance and I'd really hoped with Primdordus focus we'd get more on the asura.
Overall though it does seem like this more single story focus for the expacs might be good times to explore some of the mysteries that never really had time to breathe in their related stories, or just never really fit the timing or story focus at all. I do want to explore some of the current worlds and maybe not focus so hard on the humans, who really have a lot of legacy story from GW1 so I get why they have high focus, but there is still a part of me that wants to explore the gods a bit more too. Did Lyssa give Balthazaar that mirror, or did he simply loot it as he knew about it to use? I also think that they can do some linked stories, just that with this style of expac they don't HAVE to link, but I want to leave it open that if they wanted to do a chained pair exploring the gods that'd be cool.
Would also be cool to have a cut scene panning through ghosts from the Foefire as they're finally permitted their peace, no longer locked in permanent strife and distress
Love all your ideas, except the Charr one, oh god, after IBS no more Charr please, too soon. Also groaned when you said WvW at the end, thought you were going to suggest a purely WvW expansion, but yes ! An alternate Tyria where Joko is still alive ?? Love it, he's one of my all time favourite NPCs. Love all the lore too !! Said it before, so many lore moments in GW2 are lost on new players who have never played vanilla Guild Wars.
If they tackle those kind of stories with mini expansions, I'd be very happy. Overall it needs to not feel like just living world, even if we don't have many maps they need to be filled with content, more story, I'd love more of those achievements that are basically quests, hell I think they shouldn't be afraid of calling them quests because right now they're a bit of a pain hidden in the achievement tab.
Overall wait and see, we'll have our first glimpse of what's to come in just 2 weeks anyway. I'm worried but also enthusiastic about new stories and if they can nail that kind of expensive maps feel with lots to do.
Wp we do see that several Sylvari goto the Echovald talking to the wardens and natural spirits asking questions about their origin and how it relates to them.
So excited for the new xpacs. Really seems like we’ll be getting a new part of the world every year
I would love to see more pirate lore, more centaur lore, more racial and/or civil wars, secret dark societies, demon enemies that are horrifying to look at, perhaps even existential horrors seeing as we don't know how this world exists w its laws of physics combined w awesome magic and wondering gods, thereby pondering our own existence within this creation, and perhaps these existential monsters bring a lot of philosophical paradoxes. I want to head further west in the magumma jungle and find prehistoric creatures of enormous size, I would like more horror themed dungeons and areas like the tower of nightmares. but really, everything WP mentions in this video is super exciting and I'd love to see it all! like the dwarves coming up to the surface once more could launch a whole host of new content. I am just extremely excited for the future of gw2, I don't want a gw3 (the death of gw2), just more gw2 content going forward for another 10yrs at least.
Gw2 needs to add a Asuran mastery that is a history codex. That just has WP break down the lore of an Area.
It would be very cool to explore around maps, scan something with your codex and then just have a robotic WP voice start dropping knowledge on you.
I would love to see the existing map filled out similar to the way living world does it. Realistically there's not much difference between an expansion map vs a living world map if you look at them individually. So I would love to see an expansion that just fills in the gaps of the existing map(s). More desert maps for POF, some areas in maguma, and of course more areas in cantha. Smaller story threads would be perfect for that.
I definitely dont expect them to make seperate stories per expansion. Much like LWS3 expanded on HoT and LWS4 expanded on PoF without being complete retreads, i expect we'll end up with the same thing with these expansions, think of it them like a split story arc
Expansion 1) Solid story, tightly themed maps around one topic
Expansion 2) continues the story of expansion 1, intoduces new ideas, maps still mostly themed around the expansion 1, finishes expansion 1 story, sets up expansion 3
Expansion 3) restart cycle from expansion 1
We'd end up with 4 to 5 heavily themed maps on one idea and a transitory one to move us into the next arc.
Great ideas over all, excited to see where we go from here
I think anet may want to move towards separate storylines after the elder dragon saga.
@@andrevanas85 for sure so do I. I just dont see all of the future expansions being completely separate from one another story wise.
For me at least, WP often manages to get me excited thinking about so many possibilities and details that I forget about. I feel there's much more promise for the future of the game than I previously realized.
nobody:
WoodenPotatoes : casualy write the next 14 years of GW2's lore
From a pure story perspective, I think smaller more frequent expansions are maybe actually the best move for the franchise. I think the idea of self contained stories exploring some of the loose ends could provide a great avenue for expansion, rather than constantly searching for ways for the threat to get ever larger with no end
the void affecting other parts of the world always seemed funny to me, like you get there and theyre still trying to figure out what it was and why it happened and we walk in like "oh yea that was us, dont worry about it its been dealt with"
and about the gods, in kormir's secret section of the library, she confirms the gods all thought tyria was doomed. they abandoned it because they didnt see a way to win without destroying it. they probably think we all died.
Brahm having roots somewhere with a warm/hot climate would also retroactively have it make more sense why he was able to channel/merge with Primordus and what not
Also he is pretty tan for a norn, so that's a visual hint at that
@@aminboumerdassi2334 yeah
Isn't Joko chilling with Abbadon? Didn't something about Aurene eating him send his soul to the Realm of Torment? I think I heard that from Divinity Reach map chat a while back. If true, thats some potential conflict for the future.
I really think a few expansions each dealing with each of the Gods is an easy homerun for anet. Could do 1-3 of them per expansion and have stories for the next half decade. Human homeworld, etc
Something I wonder about these self -contained stories is their chronology. Will they still occur in order, or will that be left vague so that they make sense in any order you play them in.
I personally wish to see the map fill out more before going into the mists or alternate realities: now that the map has expanded showing new territories that can tie to old lore it tickles me the right way. So I'm more for the Maguuma west coast, the Isles of Janthir, depths of Tyria etc
i am at work... and this video is the best thing i could listen ... i enjoy all your ideas m8, i am kinda new to h
this game... and i dont know the lore very well but it made me go to places. (I love.the main story so far. i am currently at the living world 4 right now.
Haha nothing better then waking up to a new WP video! much love!
For the Depths expansion it could also introduce Dwarves as a playable race.
Rewatching to see if any of these come up for our next xpac :)
Im hoping for either a asura/norn/charr focused as they havent a good one focused on them, if we have to have another human one, a utopia expansion would be grand as well as a one versus the gods, or demons. always happy to have more demon lore again.
Man, that Beta loading screen. Still gives me nostalgia
So many good ideas. Hopefully they are watching.
Good suggestions. Suprised you never mentioned abaddons mouth. That is definitely high up on my list
They finally could use those map portal in mount maelstorm most south east point, sparkfly fen, brisban wildlands, etc..