If you’ve spent a lot of time in Lion’s Arch, your map chat is inevitably filled with the same old complaints about dungeons, about Orr, about WvW. Recently, it’s increasingly easier to see a common theme about these complaints. People.
People in this game sounds like a fantastic bunch. Sit in Lion’s Arch for an hour and hear the stories for yourself. My favorites are always about the fresh level 80s returning from their first trips to Orr. Mobs are too tough, Respawns are too fast, and only recently, people are too unhelpful.
Remember Halloween in Lion’s Arch? Remember LFM MK? Level 80s high dps ONLY. Remember the first thing you have to do as the PuG in a group of guildies? Take screenshots. Remember the reason why commanders keep quiet more often than not? Spies watching their every command. Most of us do, because in Guild Wars 2, TRUST is not a commodity. Trust is an endless tonic in a trick-or-treat bag. Trust is a Dusk from Mystic Forge. Trust seems to have evaporated like the Human Gods of Tyria.
Guild Wars 2 is about open access. The price we all pay for open access is people. We run into good people, we run into bad people. It’s only once you enter Orr, you will see a lot more bad people than good people. Orr forces the unprepared players to keep running for their lives. Orr pushes desperate players to run toward others for help. Orr gives excuse for the careful players to get out of the way.
When Joe the Mighty is being chased by a pack of Risen and running for help, he’ll find others unmoved by his plight, completely ignoring him and continue on their way. More often, he’ll see people rapidly running away from him like he’s a scourge of mankind. It is only when the Risens are stomping the life out of Joe, does he finally see packs of players running at him, plucking the flowers next to his soon to be crushed face and dash away as quickly as they came.
One week later, Joe the Mighty spots a node of Orichalcum entering his map range. As he zigzags toward his goal, he sees a stranger in the motley armor and ugly weapon running from the direction of the node towards him. “Everyone, COME!” That’s Joe’s cue to hop on the ledge and get out of the way as the train of Risen proceeds to give the stranger a warm welcome to Orr. With his Omnombar ticking down, Joe takes this opportunity that will save him two minutes and harvests the unguarded Orichalcum node unintentionally cleared by the hapless noob. As Joe finishes harvesting and the stranger gets his face stomped into the dirt, someone shouted in mapchat, PLINX! Thus, the cycle begins anew.
