Winds of Change launches

[Ruse]

We have a thread in Factions discussing our personal involvement right here, but I started thinking an announcement here was probably in order, too.

For the Future of Cantha!

Change is coming to Cantha, land of ancient traditions. The Ministry of Purity seeks to unite the Canthan people in defense of their homeland from the hideous Afflicted and other threats. But change can be difficult. Will this rising power usher in a new era of safety and peace or rip Cantha apart?

Winds of Change is a multi-stage storyline set in Cantha that features new quests, new Canthan costumes, and history-making battles. As part of Guild Wars Beyond, Winds of Change sets the stage for the upcoming Guild Wars 2 by portraying crucial historical events.

The official page

[Haresean]

They should spend more work on GW2 than on GW1 expansions in my opinion.
or is it another dev team?

[ComplexNuber]

It's another dev team, called the "Live team" IIRC. They're also a relatively small team, but they've pumped out a really impressive amount of content and updates in the last year.

[Winterbay]

Yep indeed. Two completely different teams, also I love the work they do in showing the transission from GW1-tiem to GW2-time. I love this lore building work that giveme insights into what made things the way they are in GW2.

[Centaur]

On his wiki page, John Stumme comments on some of the comments they have received:

(This is) Exactly the kind of thing I had hoped to see, I enjoyed reading it. On this note, "I have a feeling this was more like the prologue to the real meaty stuff." Yes - I wanted to make sure that we invested a proper amount of time in making sure that the Ministry of Purity was not a faceless organization - that there was a human element to it, to make their purpose and motivations believable. We have plenty of soulless armies or groups out in the world already. Basically, there's a lot of parts that we have to set in motion for what is to follow to have impact and meaning.

As always, we continue to read the forums and we're paying attention to what people are, and aren't enjoying about the content. We will apply that going forward, and if need be, make changes retroactively.

[ComplexNuber]

I thought as much, it makes sense really - this wasn't necessary in WiK because there was so much lore already in place to work with, as well as factions that were well known and had a compelling story behind them show throughout almost all of the Prophecies missions. The plot in Factions is... Questionable... at best. So they had to release somewhat tedious quests to show the player that there is a story behind it all.

[Ragnar]

Them working continuously on Guild Wars is awesome, showing that the company actually cares about the people playing the game. I'll have to look into Winds of Change.

[Centaur]

UPDATE: Winds of Change, phase 2 is now live. If you had previously completed the quests for part 1, then talk to the Herald of Purity in Kaineng Center to continue the story...

[ComplexNuber]

Woo! Can't wait. I have a database assignment due in 5 hours, though, so it must wait )':

Why am I browsing the inter webs when I have an assignment due? I'm OCD with clicking every tab on my bookmark bar every 10 minutes (;

[Centaur]

Minor spoiler:

"By the six! The ministry is slaughtering them like animals! Even criminals deserve better than this!"

I laughed so hard when my character said this. I thought, yeah, that's not right. The ministry shouldn't be slaughtering them. That's my task!