Is Anet brave enough to make Joko's plan successful?

When I read this article it was just like I was reading my thoughts and observations: https://www.mmorpg.com/guild-wars-2/columns/know-your-enemy-praise-joko-the-greatest-villain-in-guild-wars-2-1000012571

That would be the greatest moment in any MMO's history if he would unleash the plague and maybe even make himself the king of Tyria over the Awakened Tyrians.

Very interesting things are yet to come...

lol no, too edgy

I could see him being temporarily successful, but we’d stop him in the end.

of course they're not brave enough. its a story for 12 year olds (literally). and people who want villains to win and the good guys to lose are minority. and thats not a good thing - i think destruction, defeat and death of many opens up a lot of possibilities and emotional interaction for players. destruction of LA and the Pact were very good examples but I would go even further and make the damage permanent (LA and Pact regenerated). things like Foefire , Searing, Cataclysm, Rise of Orr - these are the things I would like to see more in game and not just backstories.

Guild Wars is the kind of game where the hero wins, but with dire consequences - either self caused or because it reflects the simple reality of life that is "not everything goes the way you hope".

They've begun this trend with Prophecies and how the latter half of the story is the player fixing their own mistakes. They continued this in Factions were despite our attempts the player fails twice against Shiro and the plague ravages the country. They continued this all the way until Path of Fire still, with the Elder Dragons' deaths causing magical mishaps and world imbalance, and the death of a former god making Kralkatorrik far more powerful.

It's very, very likely they'll continue this trend with Joko. Joko will not win, but he will do significant damage.

I doubt it, for Joko to release the plague anet would have to go back to its roots.Its been way too happy-go-lucky lately, I doubt anet will pull a plague stunt.Either that, or we’ll see just a single zone with the plague with where the players are plotarmor immune to it, and the plague is contained by the map borders

I’m calling it now, that someone will sacrifice themselves while being inflicted by the plague to end the threat, much like many outbreak films.

@"Ayakaru.6583" said:Its been way too happy-go-lucky lately

Are we playing the same game?

Coping with world-ending stress via humor is not "happy-go-lucky".

Witnessing a woman left broken in the wilds after losing everything is not happy-go-lucky. Seeing an 18 year old cripple nearly die of suffication is not happy-go-lucky.

Are we playing the same game?

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@"Ayakaru.6583" said:Its been way too happy-go-lucky lately

Most of the time, if not every time, the game is finally taking a bit of a dark turn, everyone becomes friends again, and we make jokes.Have you even paid attention in PoF? people are dying left and right, like, by the dozens. but no one, including the NPCs care, as if it's normal."yea, we got a few forged hanging around killing everyone I know and love, if you can kill them for me, that'd be nice, but if not, sure I'll wait for the next hero to pass by"

lets not forget the choya being put everywhere like it's some kind of joke. it's obnoxious.

the good place for a joke in PoF was after the beast-taming story, when we laughed at how we shouted at canach and rytlock during disguise. it asked for a joke. but when you enter a guarded crypt of jokos betrothed who are there unwillingly or for the good of their people, it really kills the mood when there's a choya. and there are many other instances of bad taste

Better start teaching your musically-inclined characters "Don't Fear the Reaper", y'all. I'm just saying. :)

it is not a matter of lack of courage, but in-game mechanics. if you employ to them 500 developers to remake entire Tyria maps in a post-Joko win version, I think it would be possible.

Do I think they would? No. That being said, I would like this a lot, and it would open the possibility of the awakened becoming a race, I feel. Especially if it's like "the hero saves the day... but with consequences" i.e. being just a little too late to save everyone.

Chekhov's Gun: "Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there."

Or reiterated: "One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off. It's wrong to make promises you don't mean to keep."

Of course the plague is going to work. Forget the loaded rifle, if you hang a devastating plague virus on the stage it must absolutely go off and affect a bunch of people in the most emotionally gripping way possible. The question is when, how, who is going to be infected, and what's going to happen to them afterward.

Star Wars IV: A New Hope. How do we know that the Death Star is a world-ending superweapon? We see it blow up a planet.

Leia's home planet.

While she watches it happen.

Joko is absolutely going to need to demonstrate the power of his plague and that means a lot of people are going to need to die to prove it to the audience. Will he succeed in his ultimate goal of conquering Tyria? Most certainly not, but his victory needs to be portrayed as almost certainly inevitable by the start of the third act of Living World, Season 4 or else no one is going to be emotionally invested enough when he's defeated. Show him conquer some territory and become an absolute menace the likes of which no one has ever seen before. We'll see alliances tested, bonds shaken, and heroes pushed beyond their breaking points until they're forced to overcome their deepest flaws right when they're needed most.

Now, that would be an exciting story.

@"Tanith.5264" said:Better start teaching your musically-inclined characters "Don't Fear the Reaper", y'all. I'm just saying. :)Fear Not This Night. It's the morning that'll get you.

I replayed the episode one more time and I noticed that he threw out the Scarab Plague to the portal (if those 4 orbs or whatever is Scarab Plague), then he laughed and entered his own portal to somewhere else...

The Scarab Plague is real and he doesn't keep it with him, it's already on Tyria...

So I guess ANet was brave enough to make such a thing, I wonder where he threw the plague and will we stop it?

It'll probably be work for Gorrik to at least stop it, and don't let this go over the whole Tyria, only in one location. I think 3 locations are safe, and we shouldn't be worried about Divinity's Reach. Mount Maelstrom and Frostgorge Sound. It leaves 5 cities and countless locations.

So the Scarab Plague could be unleashed anywhere...

The problem with MMOs from a story narrative point of view is timelines. The open world is a snapshot of a point in time. While the heroes tend to function in a more present time period. Any changes in the open world too dramatic displace the converging narratives.

I agree that Anet goes dark with the narrative quite regularly.

@Brother.1504 said:The problem with MMOs from a story narrative point of view is timelines. The open world is a snapshot of a point in time. While the heroes tend to function in a more present time period. Any changes in the open world too dramatic displace the converging narratives.

I agree that Anet goes dark with the narrative quite regularly.

Well, they did cause the damage on Lion's Arch and everybody could see it- even newbies- they were asking what happened etc and that was pretty good (also Kessex Hills is still a wreckage), so it was something what I expect from this season, of course not a destruction of all life in Tyria, but destroying one map isn't a big deal for GW2 engine.

@"Arden.7480" said:When I read this article it was just like I was reading my thoughts and observations: https://www.mmorpg.com/guild-wars-2/columns/know-your-enemy-praise-joko-the-greatest-villain-in-guild-wars-2-1000012571

That would be the greatest moment in any MMO's history if he would unleash the plague and maybe even make himself the king of Tyria over the Awakened Tyrians.

Very interesting things are yet to come...

I fail to realise how Joko is a threat to Tyria...he didnt even had total control over Elona, his army got nearly wiped against the fight Balthazar and his Forged and now he want to take on Tyria? This sounds to me just like Scarlet...Joko right now would probably try to stay away as far as possible from the Commander, since diferent from him, we did actually killed 2 Elder Dragons(Mordremoth was a legit kill) and a bloodstone powered up Balthazar...but no, we still are treated like noobs that just left the starting area hiding from bounty hunter(lol), making deals with pirates and stuff(its not like we are champion from a dragon right now...)...the only game that I can think of that breaks immersion this much is Skyrim lol.

@"Felipe.1807" said:his army got nearly wiped against the fight Balthazar and his Forged

Did it really? They were pretty even ground during the campaign, even if they seemed to be strained on reinforcements. But we only ever saw the armies in Vabbi and the Desolation. We never got to see how Istan and Kourna fared.

And while Daybreak told us that the war allowed the Sunspears in Istan to take Champion's Dawn, the town was very quickly retaken by the Awakened forces. And it was only with Aurene and the Tyrians' help that Palawadan and the Mordant Crescent Great Hall could be raided - and never taken, it should be strained.

Not only that, but they can re-Awaken the undead, so long as the corpse is in good enough state.

People keep saying "the Awakened forces are nearly wiped out", but the constant invasions into Tyria, even with small forces, rather imply otherwise. Especially since it happens while Joko maintains a strong Awakened presence in Istan and, I have little doubt, elsewhere in Elona.

Besides, Joko's not using his army to threaten Tyria in the first place. So the state of his army is rather irrelevant.

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@"Felipe.1807" said:his army got nearly wiped against the fight Balthazar and his Forged

Thats why I said that Anet is pulling a Scarlet again, but this time with this Joko fella...come on, the awaken just went on war against a ex-God and his army, you gonna tell that just cause they can "re-Awaken the undead" they still on full force? What about our old friend kralkatorrik, we saw the damage he did on Amnoon, gonna tell that he didnt even touched Joko domains? Do Joko and the Elder Dragons have some kind of peace treaty that we aint aware lol?What about the fellas back on the Priory and the Order of Whispers, this guys were supposed to be all about information and espionage, and yet, none of the orders have a clue about any of this nonsense lol those dudes spend 24/7 studying old scrolls and stuff, gonna tell me that nobody there know about this plague and how to deal with it allready?Our own characters a pretty much literal gods walking on Tyria, our enemies should run and cower from us and yet they react like are just a random warriors..."oh you killed a elder dragon, which is basically a primordial entity of pure power, and also killed a God...yeah whatever...."

@Ayakaru.6583 said:Its been way too happy-go-lucky lately, I doubt anet will pull a plague stunt.

Two main characters are perma dead, one of which was brutally tortured before we had to kill him by our own hand and one 'died' in PoF. Two more are most likely permanently crippled. Jory almost died from being lit on fire by Balthy, Timi almost suffocated (, her 'friend' died and was shoved in a robot) and is now super depressed, Canach almost kills the whole group (on accident) with a ceiling and is covering his mental distress with silly quips, Rytlock is also deflecting to hid his own emotional distress. To top it off the PC is fraying at the seams. How is this 'Happy-go-Lucky'???

Moreover, Joko throws the plag in the portal. The already pulled the plague stunt friend.

@Felipe.1807 said:Thats why I said that Anet is pulling a Scarlet again, but this time with this Joko fella...come on, the awaken just went on war against a ex-God and his army, you gonna tell that just cause they can "re-Awaken the undead" they still on full force?

We literally only see the Awakened forces from half of Joko's empire - if that. And the forces we do see weren't decimated in the least. Strained, yes, but not decimated. We already see pivotal figures like Iberu being brought back, so it's not unlikely for many other Awakened forces being brought back either - heck, it's a plot point made for many of the events regarding named Awakened that they were re-Awakened in that very short time of days and weeks.

@Felipe.1807 said:What about our old friend kralkatorrik, we saw the damage he did on Amnoon, gonna tell that he didnt even touched Joko domains?

We've not heard of such, so there's no reason to believe he didn't simply assault where the champion of the only living dragon capable of harming him, who themselves have slain two other Elder Dragons, has been for a while.

@Felipe.1807 said:What about the fellas back on the Priory and the Order of Whispers, this guys were supposed to be all about information and espionage, and yet, none of the orders have a clue about any of this nonsense lol those dudes spend 24/7 studying old scrolls and stuff, gonna tell me that nobody there know about this plague and how to deal with it allready?

Given that the Scarab Plague is ancient history that held no cure, and the samples even during GW1's time were limited at best, it wouldn't be surprising that a Tyrian-founded organization that has spent most of its existence dedicated to researching the Elder Dragons and with zero access to Elona wouldn't know of a cure for a pestilence. And the Order of Whispers on the other hand has never focused on disease control in its history.

If one could even cure a pestilence, given that it's not an actual pathogen.

@Felipe.1807 said:Our own characters a pretty much literal gods walking on Tyria, our enemies should run and cower from us and yet they react like are just a random warriors..."oh you killed a elder dragon, which is basically a primordial entity of pure power, and also killed a God...yeah whatever...."

Probably because we killed an Elder Dragon with an army at our back. Even the "legit" kill against Mordremoth couldn't happen without the Pact assaulting its body and dividing its attention.

And well over half of the people in Elona believe that Joko killed Zhaitan, Mordremoth, and Balthazar.

Besides, the Commander isn't immortal. Even if they're capable of insane feets, a knife to the heart will kill the Commander. And everyone knows it.

@DawnSketch.7105 said:

@Ayakaru.6583 said:Its been way too happy-go-lucky lately, I doubt anet will pull a plague stunt.

I’m not saying bad stuff doesn’t happen, but everytime its like“Oops, he he”“NOO!! .. oh well”“Those people died, better make a funny joke to lighten everyone’s moods”

@Ayakaru.6583 said:

@DawnSketch.7105 said:

@Ayakaru.6583 said:Its been way too happy-go-lucky lately, I doubt anet will pull a plague stunt.

And part of that is likely the 'if you don't laugh, you cry' effect. If I recall correctly, in fact, there are a few researchers who theorise that humour and laughter evolved as a stress relief mechanism.