Kotaku 
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Denver, 4:55 PM
Sat Dec 5
35 posts in the last 24 hours
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Brian Crecente
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Deputy Editor:
Stephen Totilo
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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
12/04/09
12/04/09
still, major props for the visuals. guild wars is, as always, miles ahead of its peers in terms of artistic direction.
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I always recall the very first cutscene where you're going into a temple being overrun by whoever and the guard greets "Master Togo" in what can only be described as a very bad impersonation of Kermit the Frog.
12/04/09
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12/04/09
These races seems pulled right from WoW. I know that elves and gnomes and humans are all pretty common in many fantasy settings but that Charr fellow sure looks a lot like a Tauren. Maybe a Tauren and a wolf.
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12/04/09
Please tell me you know that World of Warcraft pulled designs for humans, elves, dwarves and orcs from source material like Warhammer (not the MMO, the tabletop game)? And that Dark Age of Camelot invented Realm vs. Realm (aka Battlegrounds)?
The team at ArenaNet have worked very hard to create a unique universe. Tyria is not a cookie-cutter setting by any means and has not pulled its races or lore from World of Warcraft... if anything, the argument can be made that Worgen are a poor man's Charr.
Tyria is highly influenced by tabletop roleplaying, considering that Jeff Grubb co-developed Abeir-Toril into a campaign world (better known as Forgotten Realms).
Really nice guy, by the by, when I met him and Daniel Dociu at PAX - they signed my free artbook!
Guild Wars 2 looks amazing. It would be a shame for anyone to miss out on a wonderful experience because of misconceptions.
12/04/09
12/04/09
I didn't mean my post to be grandstanding... I'll admit to being a long-time Guild Wars player and fan.
It just bothers me that some people are so devoted to WoW as the end-all be all (yourself excluded, of course) that they've missed out on a lot of other great games in the process.
The thing I've always loved about Guild Wars is that it's based on skill just as much as level.
I have a full-time job, you know? I can't compete with the grind that high school kids can put in. But in a skill based game, we're on more level ground.
12/04/09
I'm a pretty big fan of Sci-Fi and fantasy so I'm well aware that WoW has borrowed from both. If there's an elf, an orc, or some magic and swords you can trace those roots right back to D&D or LotR. I'm sure there were other stories and books with what we associated with fantasy before Tolkien's LotR series, but he really popularized and brought these fictional races into the light.
My comment about these races being pulled right from WoW was said because just looking at that screen shot sure looks like they could have been. Sure they could have been taken from many other games, movies, or books. But since WoW is so popular these days anything that looks even remotely like it will be compared to it.
Gnomes, orcs, big hairy races, and whatever else are all fine and dandy. I'd just like to see a new take on them. Those Charr are the only thing I've never really seen before, but it is so similar to many things. Worgen, Werewolves, the Tauren, a Minotaur. It'd be nice to see some of these popular races redone from the ground up.
Or just make up something completely new.
12/04/09
Possible relation?
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11/11/09
Let's just hope it stays free- hopefully their monetization methods are a bit more creative than a monthly gouging. #guildwars2
11/11/09
It's getting hard to tell where one game ends and the other begins. #guildwars2
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11/11/09
Oh well, at least you went down fighting the good fight and not screaming FIRST!?!?!?!??!!!! !111!!1!! #guildwars2
11/11/09
11/11/09
Personally, it seems like Kotaku is really pandering of late. Nothing gets objectively shredded anymore, and the article about "What to play while boycotting MW2" was just downright condescending and borderline insulting. They can review MW2 on day one, and we still haven't seen a Demon's Souls review? There's a million other things I could nitpick, but to be blunt, Kotaku feels like it's sold out. #guildwars2
11/11/09
I think the problem is that Kotaku has started focusing almost solely on the big-hype, hit-driving games (like, sadly, MW2), and ignoring the little guys for the most part. I hate to KEEP bringing Torchlight up, but it's a perfect example. That game is one of the best Diablo-type RPGs ever created, and yet it hasn't garnered even a single mention on this site that I know of aside from me bringing it up in the comments!
It's a shame. I originally started coming to Kotaku because I was looking for an unique take on the industry, unclouded by corporate politics and hype machines, where I could learn more about smaller, less-known games. Somewhere over the course of my three years here, that seems to have changed. Somewhere along the line, probably as Gawker's control grew, the site has become just another part of the gaming industry hype machine.
As it stands, it's up to us, the community, to do what the editors can't. To say what their contracts don't allow them to say. To focus on what their schedules force them to overlook. We are just as much Kotaku as they are at this point. If that's taken away from us, Kotaku is just another IGN or 1UP, simply with more relatable editors.
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11/11/09
That's Jim Sterling-level shit right there. #guildwars2
11/11/09
For now the majority of commenters are great, and Owen's had his week off so I still keep coming.
But I agree with Archaotic, the site started out great. It covered some good issues, great games, lesser known stuff. Totillo joined us and it got even better, we got TAY which was nice.
Then Comment 2.0 rolled around and..its workable but it just doesn't feel as good as it used to.
And the past 3 days of almost solid fever pitch MW2 coverage got silly enough you had to question how much money crossed under the table. #guildwars2
11/11/09
I've read the site for quite a bit longer than I've commented--only reason I started commenting was because of a few discussions I found interesting...and usually because of Archaotic's comments.
But on a decent amount of the articles I saw the tone at times was pretty condescending and unnecessary. The reason I kept coming back was aside from the insulting and overly opinionated bits, they had decent information regarding games, and it seemed they had it up faster than other places I went to.
@Archaotic: My thought on them hitting the more popular or big-hype games more often has to do with increased popularity with the site. That, and possibly being owned by Gawker. But I am somewhat unfamiliar with how things were, so I can't really say.
As for the article at hand. I'm looking forward to GW2. I've played the original a decent amount, and I hope the sequel improves upon what they created. A beta would be great too. I don't get into enough interesting looking betas. #guildwars2
11/11/09
However the many folks that have been here for a long time, that also helped make the site popular ( as many also come for the commenter's) are starting to feel a bit wary of the change to covering mainstream press so much,. We can go to a multitude of other sites for that stuff if we want, but for most of the time Kotaku has pretty much remained one of the few sites to cover the niche stuff. #guildwars2
11/11/09
I obviously can't say what caused any change. But it seems when with increased popularity, publications such as this suddenly have greater reach than just the niche stuff and, possibly without meaning to, start to post more on the mainstream games. #guildwars2
11/11/09
There was an interview on some journalism site that was done before the Comment 2.0 that was passed about which pretty much detailed the changes his was trying to force on the sites. pretty much because Gawker Network has become more popular, from it came the whole Star's with power, the hidden comments n all that. it's kinda shit changes, but it made sense to him. #guildwars2
11/11/09