A Place We've Never Been Before

Syp asks, "Is Cantha enough draw for Guild Wars 2?"

It may not be for a casual player. After all, the last time Guild Wars players saw anything of Cantha (other than some cosmetic items like outfits and weapon skins) was approximately 12 years ago. And I can see how someone who never played the OG GW would not be drawn back to such lands in the sequel.

For me and Scooter, though currently slightly behind, making our way through the Ice Brood Saga will hopefully have us ready for the next phase of the story for the first time since launch. That's a good feeling. We missed out on Season 1 of the Living World because we were still working through the Personal Story at the time (on multiple characters). As it turns out, the biggest changes to the open world since launch occurred during that first season. After that, ArenaNet started adding to the map (and occasionally using instances) for new LW episodes. The learning curve for the Dev Team would be worthy of a post all by itself, if I had any real insight.

But I don't know how many players care that much about new mount systems, or the "opportunity" to fish our way across Tyria. As Redditor Dr_Koss points out in this post from just this morning, "I am simply excited for an opportunity to play something new." I, too, enjoy seeing new places in the game. I'm sure GW1 veterans are interested to see old haunts in a more modern graphics engine. The game has always been gorgeous, even when grotesque.

Perhaps of most interest to me, personally, is seeing the Gothic rendering of the Echovald Forest. You see, Heide Uhrmacher, my first character (and largely unchanged from the Summer of Betas), is "from" there. Or descended from there. As is Scooter's corresponding character, Reina Echowald. So going to Cantha, and the land of the Kurzicks in particular, is almost like going home to a place we've never been before.

And, as always for me, it's a new place to explore and adventure together with Scooter. 

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