History VideoGame / GuildWars

* DarkIsNotEvil: Neither the Necromancers or their divine patron, Grenth, is at all evil, [[spoiler:and in Grenth's case, he's the usurper of a [[GodIsEvil definitely corrupt]] deity, and he himself has no power over death, being advertised rather as a god of justice]]. Though, during Wintersday, Grenth can be kind of a dick.

* OfCorsetsSexy: several outfits available to Mesmers (for example, elite Kurzick armor) and adult Gwen's basic outfit.

* TheSpartanWay: Charr.

** Monks have some armour sets consisting of underwear and tattoos, while necromancers have sets consisting of underwear and tattoos or scars

* TurtlePower: The Luxon. Turtles as mobile siege platforms, anyone?

* WasOnceAMan: The Afflicted, [[spoiler: Margonites]].

* LaRésistance: The Shining Blade in ''Prophecies''.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Meteor Shower, which hits for massive damage and knocks things down 3 times with a gap just long enough for them to stand back up, unfortunately it takes 5 seconds to cast, in [[PvE PvE]] most enemies have probably already scattered or died by this point and in [[PvP PvP]] you'll be lucky to get 4 seconds through casting before someone decides it's time to interrupt it. It is useful against monk-walls though.

* CripplingOverspecialisation: Players may only equip eight skills at any one time, and when you start forming teams, there's a cap at eight characters per party. Without careful planning, it's easy to overspecialize. Therefore, one of the keys to successful play in both PvE and PvP is the careful balancing and combination of skills, and there's a website, http://www.gwpvx.com, dedicated to collecting and distributing builds of particular effectiveness for all the ''Guild Wars'' professions. On the other hand though, [[MasterOfNone under-specializing can be just as disastrous]].

*** This last was reduced when they set a limit on "PvE-only" skills; now you can have a max of four elites, and temporarily more if you utilize some of the skill-stealing moves right.

* MegaManning: Several Mesmer skills, like Inspired Hex[[hottip:*:removes a hex from an ally and is replaced with that hex]] and Arcane Mimicry[[hottip:*:copies over with an Elite skill an ally knows]], but only temporarily. The universal skill, Signet of Capture, involves permanent acquisition but is limited to one use. It also used to be the only way to acquire Elite Skills in PvE.

** 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 [[{{Journey}} "Don't stop believing."]]

** Lonai must be wearing flesh-tone tights. Either that or she's got AnimeAnatomy.

* EnemyMine: During the Winds of Change storyline, [[spoiler: after the Ministry of Purity goes on a killing rampage, the Jade Brotherhood and Am Fah decided to end their rivalry and focus on taking down both the Canthan Empire and the Ministry of Purity. Taken into BeyondTheImpossible levels where in "Calling All Thugs," where the Jade Brotherhood and Am Fah brought in ''all'' enemy criminal organizations and corrupt governments the player faced in Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and War in Kryta storylines, which includes [[CorruptChurch the White Mantle]], [[FantasticRacism the Stone Summit]], [[PsychoForHire the Peacekeepers]], [[{{Pirates}} The Crimson Skull, and the Corsairs]]. Although additional dialogues indicate that another reason for teaming up is mainly your actions against them if you completed the said storylines]].

* JigglePhysics: Usually handled pretty realistically, however there are some [[StaffChick monk]] [[LivingStatue statue monsters]] which use the same wireframes, animations and jiggle physics as female human monks.

* CrapsackWorld: In the Tyrian continent of the first campaign, [[{{Arcadia}} Ascalon]] is [[spoiler: burnt to a crisp wasteland]], the Dwarf Kingdom is in being destroyed from within by civil war with the AlwaysChaoticEvil Stone Summit, Kryta is taken over by the [[ChurchMilitant White Mantle]] who [[spoiler: use human sacrifice and worship [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens the Mursaat]] ]], the Kingdom of Orr was completely obliterated off-camera [[Spoiler: By Grand Vizier Khiliborn, who then turned into the Lich lord]], and then [[spoiler: the Lich Lord shows up to release the [[EvilSealedInACan Titans]] and take over everything that's left]]. Cantha and Elona tone this back to more reasonable levels.

* CartographySidequest: You get titles for exploring the map. There is also a mapmaker in Kaineng Center that gives you a quest to visit five points in each explorable area of both the Jade Sea and Echovald Forest.

*** They're not really evil, only their leaders are, they just have to follow orders. Admittedly, 2 of the 3 generals are truly evil, but [[Spoiler: the third one defects after seeing what the Warmarshal was doing]].

-->'''Player:''' "[[HeroicSociopath A killer?]] It isn't as noble when you say it like that, is it? I have [[MassMonsterSlaughterSidequest slaughtered thousands]] simply because someone told me it was for a just cause. But something you'll learn over time is, everyone thinks their cause is just.... I looked at them and saw myself. Gullible. Idealistic. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Willing to do whatever was asked of me, so long as the intentions were good.]] Evil acts with good intentions are still evil acts, Xin Ji. [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Make sure that in your quest to destroy evil, you don't become it.]]"

'''Xin Ji:''' "How can you sit there and tell me to do nothing while you take up arms against [[spoiler: the Ministry of Purity]]? I know your history. You are a hero, you are..."
->'''Player:''' "A killer? it isn't as noble when you say it like that, is it? I have [[MassMonsterSlaughterSidequest slaughtered thousands]] simply because someone told me it was for a just cause. But something you'll learn over time is, everyone thinks their cause is just.... I looked at them and saw myself. Gullible. Idealistic. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Willing to do whatever was asked of me, so long as the intentions were good.]] Evil acts with good intentions are still evil acts, Xin Ji. [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Make sure that in your quest to destroy evil, you don't become it.]]"

* TakeYourTime: Plenty of occasions, arguably justified so you can actually prepare for the missions more effectively. Varesh never completes any ritual in ''Nightfall'', Togo and Mhenlo never get slaughtered by Shiro'ken and afflicted in ''Factions'', Evennia and Salma never get sacrificed on the bloodstone in ''Prophecies'', Thunderhead Keep never truly goes under siege until you go there...Pretty much a ''lot'' to count.

** [[Spoiler:[[UnexplainedRecovery She]] [[http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kormir got better]].]]

** [[Spoiler: [[UnexplainedRecovery She]] [[http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kormir got better]].]]

** Partially subverted in Eye of the North. Pyre Fierceshot's warband aren't particularly friendly, but they're willing to work with you to take down the Shamans.
*** And in ''Guild Wars 2'', they are set to be a ''player race'', so likely will be shifting to {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s.
**** But they will still start out as opposed to the other races, or at least opposed to the humans.
**** Maybe not all humans. The novel released in summer of 2010, which was backed by ANet (so that one can consider the lore and backstory revealed therein to be, at least at this point, WordOfGod) shows [[spoiler:that while the Charr are still at war with the remnants of Ascalon centered around Ebonhawke, many are willing to work with humans and other races to fight the threat of the Great Dragons - in fact, the Vigil, which is one of the organizations Guild Wars 2 player characters can be associated with, is led by a Charr general.]]
** Or maybe no humans at all. Recent lore releases show that the current Iron Legion Imperator (Smodur the Unflinching) has been the definition of an [[OpenMindedParent open-minded parent]], not only keeping the other two legions in check but also offering an olive branch to the other races by permitting anyone who'd earned their worth free access to their main city (the Black Citadel). Moreover, Smodur had worked with Almorra (the charr leader of the Vigil organisation) to ensure not only a complete cessation of war and hostilities with Ebonhawke, but an overall peace treaty to boot. Smodur and Almorra, both charr, wewre the first to make any moves toward peace, and Smodur was willing to show more lenience to the humans than the humans were willing to show the charr. Moreover, Guild Wars 2 pretty much subverts the idea of the charr as a faceless evil by painting Ascalon as a propaganda machine, and people simply bought that the charr were evil [[BecauseISaidSo because they said so]]. (The lore revealed furthermore even that the idea of the charr eating people was an invention of human propaganda-sources, all in an effort to show the charr as being much more evil than they really were. All the while there were humans like Gwen, known as Gwen the Goremonger to the charr, who took joy from killing and viciously torturing charr.)
*** That doesn't explain the repeated references by charr themselves to humans as "meat" or "lunch", unless of course those are [[SarcasmMode terms of sarcastic contempt in reaction to Ascalonian propaganda]]. But it does explain Pyre Fierceshot's bitter rejoinder to Gwen after the quest "Warband of Brothers":
-->'''Gwen''': "You are savage, treacherous animals!"
-->'''Pyre Fierceshot''': "You know nothing of my people."
** In ArenaNet's race to RaceLift the Charr, they seem to have swept some of their more hendious deeds under the carpet... like say... having a 12 year old girl fight to the death in gladiator combat, or executing Prisoners of War in the same fashion.
*** Well, there are two things to consider. The first of which is that the use of 'meat' is psychological warfare. It's no different than what the humans call the charr on the field of battle. Each side is trying to shake the other. This is a very basic and old militaristic concept, and ArenaNet has actually said that this was the case on countless occasions. As for the Bonus Mission Pack, that was all from the perspectives and mind of Gwen alone, and she's a very sick person. I dare say even she's even [[KnightTemplar completely out of her mind]]. She's the sort of person who believes that torturing completely helpless and unarmed prisoners is the correct thing to do, for the greater good. Thus I cannot trust the veracity of her mind or the stability of her sanity, let alone her word. So once again I think that this is the old [[PropagandaMachine Ascalon propaganda machine]] making [[BrainwashedAndCrazy zealous nutjobs]] out of people. That pretty much covers everything and is perfectly in line with Guild Wars 2 lore.

** At least in this troper's opinion, this justifies the game's brand of SceneryPorn. Soseared Ascalon has absolutely ''gorgeous'' crystals sticking out of the landscape, among other things; they were so shiny they brought this stoic troper to tears, even though the crapsack aspect of it still had him quite irked (rather than being a TearJerker).

*** Livia is still kinda creepy and cruel sometimes. See how she treats the [[SacrasmMode cute and fluffy]] Asura [[spoiler:during the War in Kryta]].
*** [[spoiler:Justified, to an extent, because Kryta is in the grip of all-out civil war, and the Asura in question are, after all, convicted and banished felons - one of Zinn's golem creations actually attempted to assassinate Princess Salma! Given all that, Livia is perhaps understandably not in a mood to be overly generous with Zinn and Blimm]].
**** [[spoiler: Plus, given their racial superiority complex, ''forcing'' them to listen is probably the only way ''to'' get them to listen.]]

** Inverted as well, in that the Charr enslave humans (the ones they don't EAT).
*** Not inverted in the least. Guild Wars 2 tells us that these notions came from human propaganda sources, the charr keep prisoners of war but they don't enslave any more than the humans do. And the idea of charr eating their prey was an entirely human fabrication to cause hatred of the charr in their troops. Ascalon was a very, very successful [[PropagandaMachine propaganda machine]] and the players bought into this propaganda wholeheartedly.
**** Except that in GW:EN gwen, the Charr NPC's will often refer to you as morsel and in other ways refer to eating you, so it's not entirely propaganda, or at least the charr helped create the myth.

** The engine DOES allow it, and they do jiggle - Livia at least, and some female player characters, such as when attacking with a bow. That troper merely needs to turn its settings above minimum.

** You can get max weapons and armor very early though.
*** For instance, in Nightfall, it's common for experienced players who have just created a new character to obtain a "ferry" to a certain mission outpost (Consulate Docks) where a NPC trader offering max armor is available, so that their new character can equip with the best possible armor at the start of the game. "Ferries" can also be obtained to the Factions campaign, as max armor and weapons are also to be had in Kaineng Center.
*** That isn't so much "sequence breaking" as it is "speeding up what normally takes a long time in other, similar, games" (for factions and Nightfall at least. Prophecies has Droknar's forge.)
*** Of course, now with Eye of the North, not only can you get the max weapons and armor very early on (though you need to obtain a certain level in "reputation points" with one or another of the four races - Norn, Dwarven, Asura or Ebon Vanguard (human) before you can get max equipment), you can experience the EOTN storyline even before you complete more than half of the missions in any campaign, all of which occur before the EOTN story. Many players choose to do this in order to get the necromancer hero Livia, who is a key component of the multi-necromancer-hero "Sabway" and "Discordway" skill builds.
**** You can get max armor from the beginning outpost in EotN. The rep is only needed for the prestige armor.

** ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' plays with this, since the max level is 80 (just like ''WorldOfWarcraft'', at least for the time being), but apparently it still won't be the major part of how the game works. [[PlayerVersusPLayer PvP]] will apparently scale the levels of the players, for instance. And then there's all the talk about the fact that "each level will require approximately the same time".

** It should be noted however that the original overarching goal (though considerably downplayed later in the story) was the defense, evacuation, and protection of thousands of Ascalonian refuges seeking a new life away from the Charr. The PCs originally joined the Shining Blade only because they would have eventually come for the refugees as well.

** Actually fixed in a recent patch, adding quests that have enemies of a level close to one's own, allowing players to get the title without "DeathLeveling."

* CrapsackWorld: In the Tyrian continent of the first campaign, [[{{Arcadia}} Ascalon]] is [[spoiler: burnt to a crisp wasteland]], the Dwarf Kingdom is in being destroyed from within by civil war with the AlwaysChaoticEvil Stone Summit, Kryta is taken over by the [[ChurchMilitant White Mantle]] who [[spoiler: use human sacrifice and worship [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens the Murssat]] ]], the Kingdom of Orr was completely obliterated off-camera, and then [[spoiler: the Lich Lord shows up to release the [[EvilSealedInACan Titans]] and take over everything that's left]]. Cantha and Elona tone this back to more reasonable levels.

** At least in this troper's opinion, this justifies the game's brand of SceneryPorn. So [[spoiler:seared Ascalon has absolutely ''gorgeous'' crystals sticking out of the landscape]], among other things; they were so shiny they brought this stoic troper to tears, even though the crapsack aspect of it still had him quite irked (rather than being a TearJerker).

** Subverted though in the case of the Canthan Imperial Army which is depicted as being full of [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Reasonable Auuthority Figures.]]

* {{Filler}}: ''Prophecies'' fits itself into the definition by the end, especially in hindsight. The campaign starts with your homeland, Ascalon, being destroyed by the charr and you leading refugees to safety in a nearby kingdom, Kryta. You find that this kingdom has its own troubles with an oppressive militant church, [[spoiler: the White Mantle]], and agree to help. This leads you on a great journey to distant lands to seek a way to defeat their "unseen" masters, the Mursaat. Along the way, you are occasionally helped by a mysterious vizier who tells you of a power that can defeat the Mursaat. When you finally reach that power, [[spoiler:the vizier reveals himself to be an evil lich]] that wants to use the Titans it summons to take over the world. You defeat him of course, and then the campaign ends. The epilogue has a closing line about the lich's Titans wiping out the Mursaat before getting sealed away, but none of this seems to have any series momentum.
** The charr continue to use the power of the Titans (and eventually [[spoiler:win in completely wiping out your country]] by the time of Guild Wars 2, and the War in Kryta events prove that neither the White Mantle nor the Mursaat were ultimately hindered in Kryta. Even the Scepter of Orr, a MacGuffin early in Prophecies that was scooped up by the villain by the end, ends up conveniently back in the Shining Blade's hands in ''Eye of the North'''s epilogue. In other words, the two main plot lines in Prophecies: Ascalon being under attack and the White Mantle's evil are not advanced ''at all'' by the actual campaign. The only thing you do is defeat the Lich, who officially reveals himself literally for the last level and has no direct connection to any of the other major events, and even his defeat almost doesn't carry story momentum, as he attempts to [[spoiler:do virtually the same thing again in ''Nightfall'', this time from the underworld]].

** Debatable in Nightfall when you [[spoiler: help out Palawa Joko to get his help in stopping Abbadon.]] In the game it is helping a SealedEvilInACan to stop a bigger SealedEvilInACan, but by ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'', [[spoiler: Joko has[[ZombieApocalypse taken over the whole continent]]. Not quite played straight in that this is still preferable to Abbadon taking over the world.]]

** As of October 2010, the beta version of the "Hall of Monuments Reward Calculator" is now available at the Guild Wars 2 website. As promised, the bonuses awarded to players with a stated number of points (up to 30 of 50 so far, though it's possible more "tangible" rewards may be added later - from 30 to 50 points, it's strictly titles) are goodies of various kinds, some of which, judging by the reaction on various discussion forums, players have been waiting/hoping for for a long time. The reaction to the new schedule of rewards has so far been overwhelmingly positive, though it did spark a major run on crafting materials, miniature pets and other such items by players anxious to fill up their Halls of Monuments (even though Guild Wars 2 is, at this writing, likely to come out in late 2011).

* ReligionOfEvil: The followers of Abaddon, Dhuum and Menzies. [[spoiler: And don't forgetthe White Mantle.]]

* Tsundere : Gwen to Keiran Thackeray in the "Hearts of the North" content, and Cynn to Mhenlo as well