War Eternal Interview from Buffed.de (English Translation)

Following is a translation of an interview by buffed.de (a German gaming site).The translation is by u/TheMrMilchmann, with some additional formatting by me

Translator Notes

Below you can find a full translation of the War Internal interview by buffed.de. I put it together rather quickly and didn't proofread it so feel free to point out any mistakes.

On "Magic Poisoning of Elder Dragons

buffed:

After we finished the story and put an end to Kralkatorriks suffering, we know that the different kinds of magic he consumed corrupted him. Are his brothers Jormag, Primordus, and the deepsea dragon also effected by this "magic-poisoning"?

Julia Nardin:

The existential threat by Tyria's dragons and the cycle of dragonrise is the core of Guild Wars 2's narrative. Aurenes birth and her ascend at the end of season 4 made us question what we think we know about dragons and their function. The experience the player made with Kralkatorrik in War Eternal is certainly a hint at what the future will bring. However, the cycle of consuming magic and hungering may not have had the same effect on all of the remaining dragons. They are all unique entities with fixed areas of influence [/domains] and personalities.

On Dragon Minions, After Dragons Die

buffed:

What happens to a dragon minion when it's master dies? We know that the unleashed risen are a threat even without Zhaitan's control. But what about the creatures of Mordremoth (minus the Syvari who obviously regained their free will) and the branded?

Julia Nardin:

They are still out there! Areas damaged by Kralkatorrik during Path of Fire and season four will need a long time to fully recover. Luckily there are Zaeim and Zafirah [taking care of Elona]. One can assume that the Sylvari are doing the same for the Maguuma-Jungle.

Is Joko Really Really Dead?

buffed:

Since War Enternal made clear that Aurene is basically immortal now there is another important question to answer: Is Palawa Joko now "just" dead without the ability to revive himselve or was his entire essence destroyed? We must admit - we'd miss him wholeheartedly.

Julia Nardin:

We miss Joko too! We have (currently) no plans to bring him back but we see that the players really liked something about his character. Villains are only as interesting as their motivations and initially Joko's motiviations were not as clear as we wanted the players to think. We hope to continue this approach with future living world content in which everyone is the protagonist of their own story - even the villains. (It is worth mentioning, that immortality is somewhat of a delusion. Aurene can and did already die once and when it is even possible to annihilate Joko... well.)

What Happened to Marjory & Kasmeer?

buffed:

Are Marjory and Kasmeer going to play a bigger role in the upcoming living world? And what did they to while we were fighting Kralkatorrik?

Julia Nardin:

We promise that we did not forget Marjory and Kas! While you were busy with Kralkatorrik, they evacuated settlements in his path and helped refugees. We want you to meet them again and learn how these experiences changes them - in a positive and a negative way.

More Mounts?

buffed:

The addition of the roller beetle and the skyskale indicate that you really love expanding our little zoo. Do you have ideas or maybe even concrete plans for another mount?

Jason Reynolds:

We really love expanding our mount-menagery! Developing an unique mount for GW2 is an incredibly interesting, challenging, rewarding, and long porcess that requires collaboration of designers, engineers, and artists. The mounts already part of the menagery already cover many [aspects of the game] and over a great variety of functions. New additions must come with something that justifies putting them in line with the existing ones. TLDR; We have always ideas for new mount designs. But for one to make it into the game it must conform to our quality standards.

Can We Get a Third Type of Mistshard or Requiem Armor, With Effects and Without Ornamentation (e.g crystals)?

buffed:

The mistshard armour is probably one of the best armor sets that you have put into the game via living story. However, players pointed out that one can not enjoy the amount of detail of the blooming variant without also taking the crystals that are too much for some into account. The requiem armor shares a similar problem. What do you think about offering two versions of the upgraded variant? One with crystals/particles and one without? (Since the base version is missing some other details.)

Jason Reynolds:

It makes me glad to hear that you liked the mistshard armor that much! Finding an aesthetic that as may players as possible enjoy is one of the biggest challenges when designing upgradable armor sets. It would be naive to think that we can please everyone but we try to vary the designs of the different sets as much as possible. This challenge is further emphasized when we try to break down this overarching aethestic into two unique yet similar pieces. In reality is creating a third variant (or a version of the final variant without extras) not as easy as deleting a few affects and moving a few textures. The development process would take exponentially longer. We try to make sure that both variants of the armor stick out in their own way. Receiving feedback and acting appropriately is certainly part of it and we think that this two-variant-approach we currently follow our current goals accomplishes.

Will We See More of Norn & Charr?

buffed:

While there certainly were Norn that fought Krakatorrik (als follower of Aurene, as part of an order, or the ghost army), players complained that the [giant] heroes have not played as big of a part in the story of GW2 as any other of the other races had. The Sylyvari had Mordremoth, the Asura solve every problem, the Charr had the olmakhan and the humans were in the focus multiple times.

Julia Nardin:

The Silvary could shine during Heart of Thorns and we decided to focus on human-centric stories in Path of Fire. We plan to put more emphasis on some of the other races that have not been as prominently highlighted yet to explore what makes them unique in the future of living world. Is is too soon to give any further details but we know that the players asked for more insight into Norn and Charr culture and we are happy about putting those two into spotlight when possible.

Will We See More Awakened Sylvari?

buffed:

Immediately before fighting Kralkatorrik in All or Nothing the player can talk to an awakened Sylvari - a concept that has not been touched previously. Did those Sylvari play a larger role in some of the scrapped content of Long Live the Lich in line with the moon fortress? What was the idea behind them?

Julia Nardin:

We have no bigger plans for the awakened Sylvari but we wanted to continue or tradition of extending the world since this is what makes the Guild-Wars-Universe that great. Sylvari are curious creatures. Eventhough they don't exist for that long, are adventurous Sylvari - like Caithe or Canach - already well-versed globetrotters. And the world happens to be a dangerous place...

Sources

• Original: https://www.buffed.de/Guild-Wars-2-Spiel-17072/Specials/Interview-Ewiger-Krieg-1305213/
• Reddit post (source of translation): https://redd.it/cogqgk
• Second reddit discussion: https://redd.it/cog5xz
• Translator: u/TheMrMilchmann

Unfortunately didn’t really tell us anything about the future

Thanks for posting this interview. :+1: