History Videogame / GuildWars

* BellyDancer: Female elementalists, especially with armor from ''Nightfall''.

** Female elementalists in general always wore more-revealing armour than females of other light classes like necromancers and mesmers (and wore the smallest and frilliest underwear too) but it was taken up to eleven in ''Nightfall'' when the Sunspear/Elite Sunspear Sets were released, which are actual BellyDancer outfits to match their /dance emote.

* TheGreatPlayerVersusPlayerDebate: [=PvE=] and [=PvP=] are segregated. Some players and guilds only focus on one or the other, and the strategies for each are vastly different.
** ''Guild Wars 2'' is similar, limiting [=PvP=] to specific areas and events. The addition of [=WvW=] in ''Guild Wars 2'' blends both, however, allowing large scale [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] battles in large open maps dedicated to the gamemode.

** Many character names. The Kurzick elite armor crafter in ''Factions'' is named [[Videogame/EarthBound Giygas]], an Asuran named [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Sokka]] is a warrior and tinkerer, another couple of Asurans named [[Film/{{Aliens}} Hicks and Vask]] accompany you when burning out a bug nest, and there's an Inquisitor [[Series/TwentyFour Bauer]] who's very enthusiastic about torture. And that's just for starters.

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Done twice in Nightfall, first to bust up a bad guy negotiation and then (depending on which exclusive mission you took) to rescue your commanding officer. Also used when the players have to stop the Jade Brotherhood from setting a crazed golem into the streets. Your party is listed under a 'disguise' that affects all but non-human characters, leading to some pretty funny dialogue ([[ShoutOut borrowed from]] ''StarWars'') when they try [[TrojanPrisoner putting shackles on the bad-tempered centaur]].

* PausedInterrupt: But only in textual dialog.

* AncientAfrica: The early part of ''Nightfall'' takes place in the FantasyCounterpartCulture of this before moving on to ArabianNightsDays.

* RealMenWearPink: Paragons, male and female alike, wear skirts hemmed above the knees. To a lesser extent, male Warriors can sport Gladiator armor, which [[BareYourMidriff bares the midriff]] for both sexes.

* BareYourMidriff: Wouldn't be a fantasy game if some costumes didn't. But it's not too common compared to other fantasy games.
** More specifically, elementalist females do this with almost every set they have. The feel to them is of a tease, what with all the running away and smiting with fire, so it evens out.
** Paragons of both genders do this at times.

** Ritualists as well. They could be seen as sort of the precursor to the Engineer in ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'', since one of their abilities was about summoning spirits. ''Un''like the Engineer, you had little ways to simply pack up your spirits and move them. They were considered to be great for point defence maps in [=PvP=] but in [=PvE-] most people preferred to use Ritualists as secondary healers.

* KillEmAll: Seems to be [=ArenaNet=]'s default way to end an event. The preview for the game, before ''Prophecies'' came out, ended with hundreds of clones of Gwen annihilating everyone in Ascalon City with ridiculously powerful fire magic. Wintersday tends to end with Grenches running around murdering people, while Dwayna revives the fallen, only for them to get Grenched again.
** To be more specific, that happens during the finale, if you're playing on Grenth's side during the Grenth-versus-Dwayna contest. (This is one reason why it's noted above in the DarkIsNotEvil entry that Grenth can be kind of a dick during the Wintersday celebrations.)
** Heck, they even do this in player-run events. A sizable crowd of players got together and threw a party/protest in hopes of getting the [[WingedHumanoid Mursaat]] a role in the upcoming Eye of the North game. A-Net's response? They listened...and spawned an army of Mursaat to slaughter all the partiers.

* TurtlePower: The Luxons use turtles as mobile siege platforms.

** A number of other skills are {{shout out}}s as well, such as [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Rodgort's Invocation]]. Certain missions are chock-full out shout-outs as well, the most obvious being [[Film/SnakesOnAPlane "Drakes on a Plain"]], also the [[Machinima/RedVsBlue Tekks vs Giriff]] quests.

** The War in Kryta update also introduced the Ebon Falcons. Except for Lieutenant Thackeray, they're all named after characters from ''LightNovel/SpiceAndWolf''. Some of their dialogue references this.

** Female elementalists in general always wore more-revealing armour than females of other light classes like necromancers and mesmers (and wore the smallest and frilliest underwear too) but it was taken UpToEleven in ''Nightfall'' when the Sunspear/Elite Sunspear Sets were released, which are actual BellyDancer outfits to match their /dance emote.

* DanceBattler: Female Dervishs.

* DifficultButAwesome: Mesmers, when played well, can completely shut down the enemy team. The only problem is, one requires lightning-quick reflexes and a thorough knowledge of the MetaGame to play a mesmer well.
** Not to mention a decent latency...

* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: The ''old'' god of Death, Dhuum. Suffice it to say that Grenth is the ''nice'' one.

** When you take a character below level 20 into the Eye of the North expansion, they have an effect called Journey To The North that bumps them up to level 20 while they're there. The description of the effect says [[Music/{{Journey}} "Don't stop believing."]]

* {{Retcon}}: The original game, ''Guild Wars'', was given the subtitle "Prophecies" to distinguish from the later two campaigns. For the same reason, [[PlanetEngland Tyria]] is both the name of a continent and the entire world, as originally there was only one continent for that world.

*** This is incorrect, the lore states that the Charr had magic long before the Humans even settled on Tyria (Ecology of the Charr lore). However, their magic was more natural and not powerful enough to combat the Humans, who were god-powered. This allowed the Humans to mount their first offense against the charr (before the Charr even knew what a Human was), purging Charr by the bucketload so that the greedy Humans could steal their lands. (Sound familiar?) One caste of the Charr tried to prove that they could out-magic humans only to learn that [[OurGodsAreDifferent the human gods were still more powerful]]. After that, the charr turned to technology and atheism.

* BodyHorror: All of the [[NotUsingTheZWord Afflicted]]. They range from the mostly-humanoid hunchbacks that are their [[http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Afflicted_warrior.jpg Warriors]], to the [[http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Afflicted_Ritualist.jpg Ritualists]], which are basically a malformed mass of flesh lurching around on four of its six arms to resurrect its fellow Afflicted. They explode when they die, inflicting damage, and leave behind such lovely VendorTrash as pulsating flesh and putrid cysts.

* VendorTrash: Subverted. Most seemingly useless items are either used in Fetch Quests or can be broken down into [[ItemCrafting crafting components]].
** Also, since 2009, many "collector's items" dropped by enemies can be redeemed by the NPC "Nicholas the Traveler", who'll ask for a different item each week and give you one gift per stated number of items, up to five per player account per week.
** Might be played straight nowadays, though, in the case of many once-rare "gold" weapons. Due to the longevity of the game and the fact that a number of areas boasting once-highly-desirable weapons have been excessively farmed, many once-rare weapon skins are now considered strictly merchant fodder.
* VictoriousChildhoodFriend: [[spoiler: Koss and Melonni]].

* WarpWhistle: map travel
* WasOnceAMan: The Undead, Afflicted and [[spoiler: Margonites]].
* WaterfallIntoTheAbyss: Nightfall had some in the Vabbi region.

%%* GradualGrinder: Rangers and Mesmers.

%%* StandardStatusEffects

** Also due to the account-based nature of Guild Wars 2 rewards referred to above, since a player only needs to obtain one of each of a certain kind of weapon or set of armor per account to accrue the reward point on his/her account.

*** This troper particularly liked the subtitles if the language was set to Bork! Bork! , making cutscenes he had seen dozens of times enjoyable again.

* WildMassGuessing: Before GW:EN, the fate of Gwen. Somehow an inconspicuous little girl managed to provoke thousands of people to write fanfics and ask what happened to her. Of course, it was [[{{Jossed}} shot to hell]] by GW:EN which blatantly told us.

* FiveManBand:
** TheHero[=/=]TheMedic: Mhenlo.
** TheLancer[=/=]PlayingWithFire: Cynn
** TheBigGuy[=/=]TheCaptain: Devona
** TheSmartGuy[=/=]TeamDad: Aidan
** DarkActionGirl[=/=]TheMinionMaster: Eve
** TheSixthRanger[=/=]PlayerCharacter: You.
* FiveRaces
** Asura: TheSmartGuy, Guild Wars' equivalent of gnomes and [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]]
** Charr: ProudWarriorRaceGuy[=/=]BeastMan
** Dwarves: [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Standard dwarves]] [[spoiler: until they transform themselves into [[LivingStatue immortal beings of living stone]] in Eye of the North. Their minds are severele degraded by it though, and it is literally said to be the end of the dwarven race as their ultimate sacrifice]].
** Humans
** Norn: [[OurGiantsAreBigger Giants]] who can transform into [[BeastMan beast men]], ProudWarriorRaceGuy / TheBigGuy
* TheFourGods: Played straight in the Asia-inspired continent of Cantha.

* OurHumansAreDifferent: Humans are one of the [[FiveRaces five main races]] in Tyria, and while typical humans in most respects they play the roles elves usually do in fantasy settings. Humans are a race that was once very powerful but have now fallen into decline. They tend to shun technology and consequently are socially stuck in the past, especially the isolated human nations of Elona and Cantha in ''Guild Wars 2''. They originally had a special affinity and respect for magic, due to it being granted to them by their gods, who brought humans to Tyria.

** Asura: TheSmartGuy, Guild Wars' equivalent of [[OurGnomesAreWierder gnomes]] and [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]]

* FungusHumongous: Echovald Forest.

* GondorCallsForAid
* GorgeousPeriodDress: Anything worn by Mesmers.
* GradualGrinder: Rangers and Mesmers.

** ''Guild Wars 2'' is similar, limiting [=PvP=] to specific areas and events. The addition of WvW in ''Guild Wars 2'' blends both, however, allowing large scale [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] battles in large open maps dedicated to the gamemode.

* HitPoints

*** In fact, the lack of Z-axis in GW1 allowed melee characters and creatures hit others that were on top of a bridge they were standing under. And vice-versa.

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: All three campaigns have had a Limited Edition, featuring such {{Feelies}} as a soundtrack CD, art book, world map posters, in-game extras, and a desk calendar.

* MeditationPowerup
* MegaCity: Kaineng City.

* PirateGirl: Magrid the Sly.

* PreOrderBonus: Normally, small things, like unique weapons or "mini-pets."

* SequelDifficultySpike: Prophecies has a couple hard missions but some of them are because a monk boss might spawn in the worst possible spot and be near impossible to kill unless you're being run through. ''Factions'' meanwhile...Despite that it's far easier to hit the level cap (quests give you ''thousands'' of experience points whereas quests in Prophecies gave you ''hundreds'') the game does ''not'' screw around and immediately throws you in some difficult missions early on. (Vizunah Square ''was'' nerfed, though.) ''Nightfall'' is perhaps the friendliest; it doesn't take forever to level up or get started, and it doesn't throw you into the hard missions before you even had a chance to get an elite skill yet. It does have ''several'' tough missions, but they come in late into the game after a steady difficulty increase.
** The main reason Prophecies is easy by now is mostly due to power creep of skills not in the original and the introduction of Heroes, customisable NPC's which you can take along instead of the henchmen with pre-set skills. Try playing trough it with only prophecies skills, no consumable items and no heroes, and you'll see how some missions are a lot harder than you thought them to be. Granted, the skill sets of some enemies are simply outdated by now.

* TheSpartanWay: The Charrs live by this trope.

* StandardStatusEffects

*** Lampshaded by Mad King Thorn: "How are a paragon and a drunk alike? Both like to shout at strangers and run around without any pants."

* UnbreakableWeapons

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: ''Guild Wars Utopia'', a planned fourth campaign with an Aztec theme. Eventually canceled in favor of doing an entire sequel, since ArenaNet found themselves so limited by the current game. Instead, they put out Eye of the North, a smaller expansion that presumably reused some of the assets, like the Mesoamerican stuff in the Asuran areas and the Silver Eagle armor.

* WhyIsntItAttacking