Thoughts on Thoughts

Asuran NPCs don’t heal other Asuran NPCs when they are down.  I’ve seen charr and humans do it, but asurans don’t.  One less krewe member to compete with or pay?  Kinda ruthless asuran are.  Do Norn or Sylvari NPCs heal other NPCs?  I haven’t been in the Shiverpeaks or The Grove too much so I don’t know.

A wet pancake sounds better than my LCD screen speakers, so I finally decided to plug in my nice head phones.  Oh auditory nirvana!  Did you know the mesmer wand cast has a sound and the energy bolt as it travels?  The music plus the sound effects…what I’ve been missing!  If you don’t have good speakers, plug in headphones when you play, it will be an amazing experience.  But turn off the back ground chatter in Divinity’s Reach…to much moaning.  What’s with that? 

Have you noticed the engineer and warrior shoot rifles differently?  Engineers shoot from the hip, a very “commando” style.  Add a monocle to the character and it’s pretty sweet.  The warrior shoots by aiming the rifle.  They will bring it up to eye level, aim and shoot.  Warriors are trained in arms, precision is important to them. Engineers are trying to just control their overpowered micro-cannon. Pretty awesome ANet gives that feel through the animations.  

Speaking of animations, the charr need a different dance ANet. Please!  Mauri dances are amazing but only when added to the loud voice accompaniment.  Without the shouting it just looks...stompy.

The only other MMO I've ever played was WoW and I came in during Wrath of the Lich King and left after Cataclysm.  To be honest, I'm glad I left it all, it had become a tedium, but I do miss one thing most - the machinima.  "Who's the Tank", "Balad of the Noob", Oxhorn's "Inventing Swear Words", any of Cranius' or Greyfoo's videos, "Blind" and WoW Credor vids were all amazingly entertaining and added a unique dimension to the game outside of the game.  GW2 needs machinima.  It needs the emotes that help make it and/or the tools to create it.  The creative opportunities are just plain limitless.

If you are feeling rather pluckish toward annoying kids, go to Taigan Groves, east of Hoelbrak.  Grab a snowball and start chuckin', it's theraputic.


There is a prison at the bottom of Rata Sum.  I do not want to spoil it but the prisoners are hilariously funny, from talking bears to invisible chickens to catching stupid.  Just go there, you'll be glad you did.

I have very little understanding of guild Wars lore.  It's taken some reading on the wikis to get a feel for it.  The I ran across Wooden Potatoes' You Tube videos.   These videos explain how Tyria's history created the situations that currently exist in the game.  They are easy to watch, quite coherent,  have many "Aha!" moments and gave me an excellent link to Tyria's past.  There are currently 5 videos with more on the way.  

One more lore plug - Project Tyria. by Alucardalina Claire.  The blog is a visual exposé of Tyrian landmarks and cities and their how they have changed over the past 250 years.  Each picture compares a screenshot from GW1 with one from GW2.  It is an amazing compilation that brings to life visually connects past and present Tyria.       


Grawl are the walking comic relief of Tyria.  Best grawl dynamic event is by Balthazar's old statue (Deadgod's Lair POI).  Some grawl are going to complete a ritual to honor Badazar.  Jumping grawl on the attack yelling "Badazar!"  I was in stitches.

Speaking of Grawl, where is the meme "Its so easy, even a Grawl can do it."

See you in Tyria!

Wintersday is AMAZING! A quick review.

I didn't log in until 10:00 pm central on 14 Dec.  i didn't now what to expect.  I was in Metrica Province on my asura and noticed huge gifts laying about, so I opened them.  KABOOM!!! presents and skritt everywhere.  I grab the presents in case they are on a timer or the skritt get them and then dispatch the skritt.

"okay....that was...interesting."  "Wait!  The loot."

I check through the inventory, find the gifts and I got a .....what?   A dirty ole sock!   Well not to be deterred I started hunting the map for gifts falling form the sky.  Explosions, skritt and gifts again and again.  I finally got some snow flakes, which fetched almost 2 silver a piece on the trading post. 

Curiosity has me now by the neck and I have to go see Lion's Arch.  I get to LA via the PvP/Mists quick travel.  The loading screen is gorgeous. 

I come out of the Vigil's fort, over the bridge and into a visual winter decoration eye-candy feast.  I'm blown away.  All I can do is just stand and watch, charr, kodan, tengu, skritt, and every other race throw snow balls at each other.  I notice a snow ball pile, grab some and start pelting.  Oh, and if you chuck a snowball at anyone, expect the NPCs to hit you back.  A snowball fight is a quintessential winter past time;  I can only imagine the snowball fights that will ensue as the Christmas holidays go on. 

A polar bear having a snowball fight with a human child.  There's a Coca-Cola commercial in there some where.

KODAN HAS A  GUN-ARM MAN!

Notice the Tengu has the big pile of snowballs.

Told you the Kodan can throw hard.

 

 

As I made my way toward the genie I was met with a fantastic sight.  The genie is now a massive snow globe and the area is decorated with presents, floating glass stars, snowflakes, evergreen trees and snow, snow, snow, snow!  I'm telling you all, ANet put that vista on the bridge so all the screen shot junkies could take snap shots of the genie during every holiday season event.

The fountains redesign is just magical and amazing!

I then jumped in the the jumping puzzle.  Yes, you go into the jumping puzzle and it is HUGE!  In addition, players have to keep jumping.  Stand still and the snow flakes melt or you can get frostbite.  This thing is fun, even though I haven't gotten past the first part!  

Whoa...

 
Here are some shots of the puzzle from the starting point.  I'm totally amazed and the sheer size of the puzzle, its design and just all the attention put into it.

The next event I tried was the Guitar Hero inspired bell game.  Colored me impressed on this one, it is quite creative.  Upon entering a new song the players are place on a stage with two other players.  Your skills become notes associated with the colors painted on the stage.  

Glowing orbs start at the end of the stage and will move toward you.  When they hit the white line you have to hit the correct note/color on keys 1-4 or 6-9.  The songs become progressively harder; I actually got to the fourth round and it was tough.  I think with a little practice players can pick this up pretty quick, of course they'll need a lil' bit of rhythm.  Also, after some songs you get a "free play" for about 30 seconds wherein you can play what ever song you like.

Hit 8! No Blue!  I mean...what color is that?

   Finally, I got in the the snowball fight on steroids, "Snowball Mayhem"!!!!

Two teams are trying to get a gift near the center of the map and carry it back to their base, essentially capture the flag.  However, each player must choose a role: scout, heavy gunner or supporter.  Each role can do specific things.  Scouts are a hunter/thief mix with rapid shooting, a stealth and an awesome snowball sniper skill.  Heavy gunner is just that, massive spiked snow ball shooter with a mix of other heavy hitting shots but a slow mover when their skills are deployed.  The supporter is a blast!  players can lay down ice slicks, snow walls, a heal or turn themselves into a massive snowball and run people over!  I vote this best skill in Wintersday, you have to try it.

Yes, that is my Asura as a massive snowball.

 Folks, Wintersday has blown me away.  I thought I knew what level of detail and design to expect after halloween but this exceeded my expectations.  Oh and the music, I can't forget to comment on the music.  The music is perfect holiday, winter wonderland themed music, it perfectly fits.  I am going to enjoy myself thoroughly this Christmas season.

See you in Tyria.    

Bah Bye Bots. Bah Bye now. Bah Bye.

Mike Lewis posted on the GW2 official forums a post about the War Against the Bots!  Sounds like a B grade science fiction film, doesn't it?  I am so glad they are after these things.  They can be a pain in the neck but yet sometimes they are a source of fun.  I took a screen shot of the one of those fun moments.  Below there are a set of bots running around Queensdale near where the champ cave troll event occurs.  Can you see where this is going?  Oh yes.  We trolled the troll into the bots path and let the champ troll do all the dirty work.  Pity I didn't get screen shots of that moment.

DIE multi-consonant named nude ranger bots!

Bot hunting was fun I must admit but just for a couple of times.  This helped me remember how ANet handled botting in GW1.  The following video illustrates.

Yes ladies and gents, that is ole' Grenth displaying his extreme displeasure with a bot.  It would be so cool to see that again but I guess it would not fit in with the current story with the six being rather silent and withdrawn these days.  Maybe getting run over by a massive herd of Skritt?  Or a dragon comes down and just swallows them up?  If you got a creative idea post it in the comments.

I know this is not the end of bots.  As long as there are player who buy gold there will be gold farmers.  Nevertheless, I'm glad to see ANet dealing with the issue since it has been a sore spot to so many.  In addition, it reinforces what we should already know - ANet is working through all the kinks of only a 4 month old game and doing a rather good job of it.  

See you in Tyria!

How Stats Affect You - the work of Tasha Darke

From http://xkcd.com/138/

I was roaming the internet looking for information on stats in GW2. My toons are starting to get up in level and gear is becoming more and more important. I also started crafting and fiddling around with relics, sigils, jewels, etc. but to be honest, I have a low grasp on how different stats truly affect my characters. I happened upon a post at Attached to Keyboard which was quite illuminating and I wanted to share them.

The first post you need to read is Attributes and Equipment in Guild Wars 2. Tasha does an excellent job describing primary and secondary attributes and what they affect, how condition damage is calculated, what are the base health pools at level 80 and how to improve everything through armor and accessories. There is a lot of detail and information and I've found it to be a fantastic reference guide for helping my choose armor depending on what I'm looking for. in my build/play-style. And if that were not enough, she discusses back items (I didn't know we could have these!), crests, sigils, runes and aqua breathers.


Power vs Precision is the next post that is a must read. Do you want crit? Raw power? Which is better and how much do you need? Don't know, read the post. She calculates how power and precision affect damage for 1 hit and for 100 hits. She does the math so you don't have to.

Vitality vs Toughness - I cannot recommend this post enough. If you just want to read one, read this. I knew there was a difference between vitality, aka health, and toughness, which only reduces direct damage, but really didn't understand them until reading this post. Ultra condensed understanding - Vitality helps you avoid dying to conditions, toughness keeps you from getting crit'd to the ground. I still go back to this post as a refresher.

I highly recommend checking Tasha's page periodically. She produces excellent posts and information. You can find here page here http://www.tashadarke.co.uk/ or in the links section titled "Warband Board".

See you in Tyria!

Posted with Blogsy

When Karka Attack...Attack Back! Lost Shores.

Yesterday I was able to log in and participate in the taking of the Lost Shores.  Oh what a fun and entertaining zerg fest it was.  Being leveled-up to 80 yet still lacking in the gear and skills department,  I decided to equip a scepter/focus on my guardian and a long sword.  I jumped into the melee fray just long enough to get in some hits, light a karka on fire, drop a seal and then got out of the area so I could spam long range attacks.  It was challenging.  It was fun.  We had folks weaving in heals, running in to revive others, boons going off left and right, spamming condition removers, it was GREAT!

Join the Lion Guard today!  Explore distant new lands.  Discover new creatures and kill them!

 In addition, I got to see the establishment/building of all the camps and bridges that are now a permanent part of the island.  One fella joked, "Whenever I come back here I can say I was here when they built this bridge!"  He was right.  As a one time event that will not be repeated it was enjoyable to be a part of the experience precisely because it was a singular and unique event.  Some players might have a problem with this, I for one do not.  I know I will not be part of every special event, kinda like real life.  Sometimes we are there to witness things happen and sometimes we miss them only to see the after effect.  It is a bold move by ANet but one I think is good for the game.  For a more in depth discussion on transient events I suggest reading Syl's post "Experiencing Event, Impacts and Player Mindset" over at Raging Monkeys.

I have not had a chance to participate in the fractal dungeon yet so I can't write about it.  Nevertheless, if you are curious about it, Emtombed has a good post titled Fractals and Frizzles wherein he explains his experiences with the new style dungeon.

For what little I could participate, I greatly enjoyed myself and hope other players did too.   I am enjoying how ANet is implementing stories or events in chapters or acts.  They still need some polish and that will improve with each one they produce, but for a game to be out only a few months and offer us all this for free, i.e. no subs, I'm impressed.

See you in Tyria!

--Random Screen Shots--

That is one BIG Asuran laser.  I wonder if they are compensating for something?

Champion karka hit have a jump attack that hits HARD!  Luckily I was revived by another player.

I don't know if this is a glitch or on purpose but I thought it funny.  Joe Ranger: "This island is full of abnormal and vicious creatures!"  Bill Elementalist:  "No it's not, it says it's normal all over the ground."  "Nothing to worry about."

  

Zomorros Speaks! and gets bored with me.

With karka running amok the enigmatic genie of Lion's Arch has decided to revel himself a little and speak to Tyrians.  I present my little conversation. (click to embiggin)

So what do we learn.  Karka are really old creatures from the dawn of Tyria and the Quaggan, Hylek and Largos (haven't met them yet) can fill us in on the details.  By the way, I love how, "The Mighty Zommoros has spoken." equals "I'm bored now."  hehe.

I also discovered the lighthouse has been snapped in two. Lion's Arch just can't get a break can they?  

Of course I dive into the monster infested waters to see what I can see and I find the other portion of the lighthouse in the water.

I must say, I'm impressed that ANet has no qualms about destroying part of the world and then rebuilding it as part of telling the story.  For example, Lion's Arch is slowly rebuilding the the main fountain again after King Thorn destroyed it. 

I know I will not be able to participate in everything that is going to happen during the "Lost Shores" weekend and that is fine.  It's kinda like real life, you see somethings, you miss others because you have priorities.  Nevertheless, I'm going to poke around all over the place and see as much as I can when I have a chance.

See you in Tyria!
 

Brought to you buy the CONSORTIUM!!!

Well it looks like our mysterious new building in Lion's Arch is home to the Consortium - self proclaimed rival to Lion's Arch.  The building is now a marked point-of-interest and numerous NPCs are roaming around.  The guards will tell you nothing...literally, they tell you they shouldn't be talking to you. 

Then there is Blingg.  Talk about a name being an understatement!  He has the following to say and he doesn't reveal much as of yet if you talk to him.

If you go inside the only open building this charming woman is there but again no real information on what they are selling or doing, etc.

Not to far from the gates, there is a spunky Asuran researcher named Levvi (a name allusion to something that is about to break loose, hmmm) who is raising a fuss about rising bioetheric measurements. 

If you go the Moran Memorial you will find ruptured cargo barrels washed up on shore, evacuation kits and crowbars lying around

There is jetsam all over the beach and then there is this...Was this always here in Lion's Arch?

So I decide to go underwater exploring.  You can't into the Sea of Sorrow outlet but you can go down to the very bottom below the anchored boat.  Umm. look what I found.

A crab-like midsection and what looks like two legs.  Holy Mackerel!  I bet its one of our sea monsters.

What is going to happen folks?  Mutant death crabs, three eyed mermaids, Jimmy Hoffa popping out of the water?  Who knows!

See you in Tyria!

It's the little things...

As I've played through the various personal stories of races and journeyed around I've have enjoyed discovering some of the amazing details ANet has woven into the game.  I wanted to share a few of them.

I made a female charr elementalist - I wanted to try it out and see if I like the character combination.  I made her an Ash Legion member and as soon as I could I jumped into her personal story.  I do not want to give away the plot so I'll just say she goes under cover.  It is important to remember, flame legion does not allow females to be part of their forces so being a female trying to infiltrate flame legion poses a challenge.

Now what is amazing to me is ANet wrote two separate scripts depending on the gender of the charr. A male charr goes up to a sentry and give the pass word and the sentry let's him in after some short dialogue.  On the other hand, the female charr talks in a fake low voice that is just hilarious and the sentry responds, "Whoa! Do you have a cold or something?"

Her response:

I love it!  They took in to account there would be both female and male genders and how it would play against the flame legion.

Here is another example.  I've noticed when you click on another character, be it NPC or another player's, your character's head moves to keep focused on their face.  Take a look at the following picture.

 My guardian is looking up at her, focused on her face.  Now lets see what happens when you look at someone shorter than your character.

Here my character is looking down to focus on the shorter sylvari's face.  Little unnoticed details that we take for granted but really add a unspoken realism to the game.  Want another example?  You know you do  :)  Put your character near some bushes.  Walk through them or shoot through them and see what happens.  They move!  They respond to the character and what it is doing.

Finally, this little gem.  In GW2 a player can wonder around any open house or building and talk with the NPCs inside.  Sometimes you get a story, info, something funny or just general chit-chat but shouldn't it strike people as an odd thing that you are wandering around their home?  Well this guy thinks so!

I laughed so hard at this when I first experienced it.  Especially the treasure answer because the old fella doesn't have much in the house.

Keep your eyes open as you explore Tyria.  There are so many little gems that are right there in the open that add to the enjoyment of the game.

See you in Tyria!

When Plastic Spiders Attack!

I'm working a late shift all week, 10:00pm to 6:00am.  Uhg is the best way to describe it.  Nevertheless, I get a moment or two to pop in and see what is going on in Tyria to celebrate Halloween.  Oh boy was I in for a treat!

Have daggers, will carve.

As I started wandering around Shaemoor with Zinjin, he's site seeing right now, I come across a pumpkin.  I can interact with it? Ok.  I hit "F" and Zinjin carves it with exquisite flipping  ninja like style.  Well that was fun and my sons got a kick out of it.  So I start wandering around toward the garrison so I can pick up a skill point or two in that area.  As I'm wading through the river area I spot some ore nodes on the map.  Off  I go to mine when I discover candy corn! 

Too much mining can contribute to tooth decay.

You can mine candy corn and it gives you candy.  If you eat the candy you get a 10% speed boost called sugar rush for about 5 seconds.  After the boon wears off, you get a sugar crash which reduces speed by 50%.  The debuff wears off in about 5 seconds or you can eat more candy to kick in another sugar rush.

Obviously creepy door that must be investigated. 

I get my two skill points, help out the Seraph and then I see an erie looking door in the middle of a field.  Spooky looking door, obviously in the wrong place, sure to have something sinister behind it...LET'S CHECK THIS OUT!  BUT, it vanishes before I can get to it.  Grrr.  So now I'm really curious as to what that door holds and then my keen eye boys spot one in the distance.  I run across the lumber yard, dive in to the water, swim as fast as I can all the time with one of my sons finger hover over the screen shot button.

plastic spider - "Made in Cantha"

I get to the door and open it.  The inside just looks like an odd spacey scene but before I can fully view it something jumps out at me.  A plastic spider attacks me!  Yes you read that correctly, a plastic spider.  Okay, having a large spider attack you is creepy enough, have a large toy spider is just shivers creepy!  For a 40 minute stint of play it was full of surprises, but can Anet offer more?  You bet they can!

Okay, what exactly is thick air?

Well, well, well.  Look who is hanging around the graveyard in Shaemoor, next to the Grenth priest no less.  I spoke with this spook but just got what you see in the screen shot.  The GW2 wiki lists some dialogue I did not see, reference here.  Maybe I need to be a higher level.  Either way I think I need to visit Lion's Arch and do some investigating.  Halloween is going to be fun in Tyria. 

I just want to make one final observation.  I was not driven/guided to any of these things I just wrote about.  No NPC said, "You must go here and talk to person X, blah, blah blah." in an effort to get me to do anything halloween related.  I just let my curiosity take over and it led to some fun moments.  :)

See you in Tyria!


It's not the destination, its the journey.

Being a military guy I’ve travelled cross country quite a number of times. It could be duty related, moving to a new base or a vacation. I’ve driven from North Dakota/Canada to Alabama and back; from California to Mississippi; from middle USA Nebraska to Virginia and everywhere in between. If I add travel by flying it would look like spaghetti all over the map. The trips usual fall into two categories – time restrained or leisurely. Time restrained means I have to be somewhere by a certain day or time. They are usually stressful, rush-rush, eat in the car, sleep when needed and the main goal is – arrive quickly. I do not enjoy those trips. On the other hand, leisurely travel allows me to enjoy the varied terrain, the cities, the monuments, the weather, everything. The destination is important but not the full experience, why, even the travel itself is part of one long destination. I prefer the later form of travel.

 

Have you ever seen the St Louis Arch? It’s pretty amazing. A polished metal arch and if you see it a sunrise or sunset it shines oranges and reds. When I’ve travel I’m usually on I-70 or on the I-55/I-64 (Poplar St Bridge) depending on which way I’m going. It wasn’t until my kids were older and I pointed it out to them that I noticed how amazing it is. I’ve passed by it numerous times but still missed it. Another great hidden gem is the Mississippi Gulf Coast. You can fly right by it on I-10 but you’ll miss out on some great food and vistas. From BBQ to Creole to seafood, I don’t know why but the food is stellar. Of special mention is “The Bamboo” Chinese restaurant in D’Iberville, Mississippi. It has the best Chinese food…ever. If you take, I-110 to Hwy 90 you can cruise along the coast and enjoy the antebellum houses that survived Katrina, the wood sculptures in the center run of the highway, the beach and all its activity. I can go on and on about different locations since there are so many, but you get my drift.

“Hey this is a GW2 site, why the travel story?” Funny you should ask. There has been a lot of chatter regarding GW2 “endgame” and questing. It ranges from “it totally lacks traditional endgame e.g. raiding” to the quest hearts have no story/continuity. These observations surprised me at first. No end game, really? Maybe it’s because many people are conditioned to think max level is the end or the supposed real beginning of the game. For me, the whole game is design as one big end game. You can reach level 80 and still have only seen a fraction of the explorable world. As such, a player can go to an unvisited area, auto down level and experience all the vistas, quests, jumping puzzles, stories and world events it has to offer. In addition, they can acquire more skill points, karma and gold. To get to the end, if we want to use that term, is going to take a while.

 

In regards to quests and their stories, I have enjoyed the many multiple parts or inter-connections. After many events, players just need to wait or explore a little and a new event soon kicks off related to what they just did. Take the pumping station in Shaemoor, Queensdale. In this event, players can participate in one of two main events with multiple pieces. The first has bandits trying to poison the water. If players prevent the poisoning, they chase the bandits off, if not, a few things happen. Some villagers in the main part of town, will have a green poison skull icon above their head. If you talk to them they will complain about the water and direct you to the pumping station. In addition, many of the farms will have green globs, caused by the poison, making a mess of things. Players have to kill the blobs and deliver the goo to a fellow located near the pump station. After he has enough he can neutralize the poison. Also, if player’s character comes from the poor side of town, their personal story will hook into this particular event.

 

 The other main event has bandits trying to blow up the water pipes. In the first part, players have to stop bandits from blowing up all three water mains. If successful, the bandits run away. If they blow up one or more of the pipes a new event starts wherein the pipe repair personnel must be protected as they rebuild the pipes. If players fail, bandits infest the pipes and players have to revive the workers and push the bandits back, essentially a recapture. This event also has a relation to the middle class personal story.

 

I wonder how many players speed through any one of the many parts I just outlined.  If so, they don't even realize they have only seen a part of the event, a part of the story.  I imagine they are thinking it was fun but not too involving.  Maybe it's because much of GW2's stories are played out with player participating and watching it unfold.  Sometimes they need to something to move it forward, other times it just moves along.  It's like speeding past the St Louis Arch, I got a glimpse but did I really see it?    

 

GW2 players, a word of advice, take your leisure and enjoy the journey through Tyria.

 

P.S.

I found a great video by Emmanuel showing in game footage examples of how dynamic events' stories unfold and how slowing down can help players enjoy them more.  It is well done and worth the view.  His blog entry with the video can be found here.

 

 

Musical Echos from Ascalon

During the BWEs I was positive one of the the songs in the background music of Queensdale was either a song from the starter area music from GW1,pre-searing, or close to it.  The problem was as soon as I realized it was there it ended since the background music cycles through different songs.  Finally I waited until I heard the music and then recorded it with my kid's Bloggie.  It is not the exact same song but the musical similarites are striking.  Listen for your self and decide.

First, listen to the the song "Gwen's Theme".  This is the song that plays in the pre-searing Ascalon starter area.  Pay attention to the flute at the 30 second mark.

Now the Queensdale music from GW2.  Again, pay attention to the flute around the 30 second mark.  (The video is black since I was just recording the audio.  Also, my apologies for the sound quality.)     

This sounds amazingly similar, not the same...more like similar themes.  For me this is one of the many amazing ways GW2 ties into GW1, like listening to a familiar echo of the past.

Players and NPCs actually NOT getting in the way!

Uncoordinated Coordination

Not the event I'm describing but I needed a picture :)

I was exploring Shaemoor and had just passed through the Ettin pass. I made my way past a host of harpies and noticed a way-point down the hill, so off I went. After the way-point was discovered a familiar notification appeared - a world event was starting. I ran over on my human thief only to run into an ugly, over sized cave troll running rampant around the fields. a few other folks had engaged the nasty beast so I attacked it from range as others came in closer. Now here is where things become amazing. An asuran necro gets aggro, and goes down. A melee player pops a trinket/seal which ever and hit the troll hard so it turns to him. I and an elementalist kite around to the downed necro and revive him. We only get the necro to half when the troll comes storming back toward us, swinging hard. We both dodge out of the way, I stab the troll and shadow step backward. A ranger pulls troll-face off and we aid the necro and another elementalist that went down. Melee start hoping in and out, dodging, evading and range is pouring it on. If someone went down, two people went in to revive them while others distracted the troll. The troll finally goes down and there is much rejoicing. "TY"s and "GJ"s go out and everyone splits up. There were about 15 people involved in the event and none of us said a word to each other - we just simply worked as a team.  I continue to find this in GW2 event after event after event.
    
NPCs actually HELPING?!?!?

Playing in the Charr starting area I realized something about most of the NPCs, they actually interact with what is going on around them.  In the first screen-shot, I was cleaning up and organizing the scrap yard and I disturbed a Rust Ooze.  Notice in the NPC is shooting it.  The oozes are ornery lil' slimes that spit out a fire AOE and it hit the NPC.  He was none to happy about having his fur singed so he popped a cap into it-an typical charr response to solve problems with aggressive adversaries.

Now in the next screen shot you'll see a three charr iron legion patrol attacking a tar elemental.  One of the patrol members was downed and the two remaining are fighting.  The blue is a guardians shield spell.  They continue fighting until only one is left standing. 

I helped finish-off the tar elemental and once it was defeated the remaining charr immediately starts reviving the others and I ran over to lend a hand as shown in the third screen shot.  Oh the insanity but yes, some NPCs actually do something helpful.



This game is amazing!

:)