Guild Wars 2 - New SAB Update(!), Fashion Inspect, & A Little GW1

So much happening! Lots of news to chat about and I figured a quick stream would be fun for it today. Yes, still procrastinating on SOTO.
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[@Zooft11]

Your Legend of Grimrock II Let's play is my favourite ever, I still watch it now and again.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Shame what happened to those guys.

[@Zooft11]

@@WoodenPotatoes Aye it sucks indeed. They are really fun games, and I would have never even thought of buying or playing them if it wasn't for your infectious excitement during your Let's play. Thanks man keep it up.

[@IceChomp]

I completely agree. It’s something I feel like I can always go back to and enjoy again.

[@RPGCrash]

i agree my favourite too

[@KotMatroskin]

Agree with you WP, the cosmetic inspector criticism has no substance to it, and ignoring it is the best course, imho.

[@hardy83]

It's a tiny, vocal, faction of the community, they are irrelevant. It's like changing functions of the games for raiders, but then again, I bet the raiding crowd is even bigger than this crowd. Drama for dramas sake and a handful of people that actually care. No one will be talking about it in 2 weeks.

[@RPGCrash]

i hadnt heard of this and hearing it on the video i couldnt even laugh just... huh??

[@CatarinaStone]

as someone who does enjoy playing with fashion, most I can imagine using the fashion inspect is if I want to know what a specific skin is (like a weapon or armor piece). In my experience most of the times it's black lion stuff tho

[@Spartan21111]

DONT SCRAP THE GW1 VIDEO WP, PLEASE!

[@WoodenPotatoes]

It's not finished that's all!

[@gjits5307]

The fashion inspect thing is mirroring the current conflict in the fashion/makeup/influencer space. The ones that drop links (to the products / clothes) and are relatively forthcoming about actual routines and methods are "people's princesses." The ones that don't are subjected to criticism for being elitist or gatekeeping or whatever, but argue that their curation is hard work that they put into their personal brand/look/style, and of monetary value to them.

[@relentlessnights4211]

Just finished your Zeus game, I’m here for you brother! Definitely love the idea of account touring gw1 and gw2, and eventually ff or anything else you decide to play. I’ve watched every account tour and character showcase online, often recommending it to people because it’s so enjoyable to connect and hear what others have and are doing in game.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

That's awesome you like the tours so much! I think there are a few fun things to say about gw1 for sure.

[@ognyannedev5979]

They should add statistics for fashion inspect so you can see how many times people have inspected you for an ego boost

[@CyprienCole]

It's pretty much easy to figure out what someone is using even without the tool as only so much items/skins with the game.

[@Feaniel]

You're not alone in excluding Pre from the next Expac location lineup. XD I think people forgot how Sacnoth Valley and the others zone were, too.

[@danearistygerian1421]

I really look forward to the GW1 video!

[@Somebody374-bv8cd]

6:20 Frankly, its the same feeling I have with both the gw2 and FF14 community. It's part of the reason why I unsubbed from FF14 (although not the main reason). I honestly feel like people on the internet really have nothing better to do so they latch onto something to rage about - in chinese we tend to call it 吃饱没事做 , although I usually use the FAR ruder hokkien version of that phrase when talking about internet rage to my friends. I know its not really a lot of people, but it gets blown out of proportion in such a huge way because the people angry make such a huge stink that I just roll my eyes and further distance myself from the online community of both games. It isn't just limited to online games too - last month there was that stink about inconsequential DLCs for dragon's dogma 2 on the internet which also made me roll my eyes.

[@GeminiKLY]

Man that intro loading screen. QoL team! We all need this for a login screen.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

It's fantastic isn't it!

[@Ojyh]

If GW is all about fashions, then your number one problem should be the crazy amount of fashion stuff that appears in the BLC.

[@Somebody374-bv8cd]

1:16:55 Not just the frost legion, what about the sons of svanir now that jormag is gone? Must have been a bloody big crisis for them considering the other spirits of the wild are still around and the one they worshiped was gone.

[@Becii]

The only thing thats upsetting me about the Cosmetic Inspector is that isnt not called Fashion Inspector xD

[@WoodenPotatoes]

They missed a real opportunity on that one!

[@xHeigoux]

love your videos because I don't care what you are playing. usually not huge on let's plays, but I've started listening to dnd sessions a lot.

[@KotMatroskin]

I love how you say SooooToooo 😂❤

[@kairos1519]

In my opinion in would be better to do ARR playthrough after finishing Endwalker. Once you know full story it gives you new perspective on events of base game. If you do it before playing Endwalker and start to speculate, it might be really frustrating to people who played it, because if you speculate about something that is answered in EW, I think it would be hard for viewers to not point that out and potentially spoil EW story for you.

[@Bookah09]

The talk about the LP brought back memories of your azurik let's play. Loved that shit

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Thanks man! I love that game too, I wonder if they got the emulation working well yet.

[@disco2660]

10:30 Reminds me of the old joke we told in journalism school: How does a journalist count? 1, 2, trend

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Okay that's fantastic.

[@SirBiscuitPlays]

i would love to see a GW1 account tour, hell i would love an updated GW2 account tour!

[@WordsOfTheTeacher]

Same I have nostalgia for the 2019 GW2 tour its been so long now

[@WoodenPotatoes]

I really don't think my account changed too much since 2019, it would just be an overview of the achievements arriving in the new content pieces and that's about it honestly.

[@Somebody374-bv8cd]

Regarding GGG, I'm currently playing (on and off) the latest league for path of exile, and they sure as heck don't feel indie anymore. The voice actor for Undertaker Arimor is extremely good and considering GGG are maintaining poe while still developing poe2 certainly makes them at the very least double A.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Very nice! Yeah they are def shedding the reputation but it sustained them for years.

[@niclastname]

Something felt weird the whole video, and it took me until almost the end to realize it was that you have your game music off or very very low. SAB really loses a chunk of its lighthearted tone without the music haha.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Oh damn! That was it! Yeah I could barely hear it myself.

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

You’re pretty cool and your Level 80 guide got me into GW2 👍

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Oh nice! I always would have assumed people watched that video AFTER picking up the game, lol.

[@uggron666]

That bit about GW1 money - I don't think you're taking advantage of RMT players, I just think a lot of players that are sticking with GW1 have way more money than they care about anymore. I have a friend who started playing GW1 for the first time just to get HoM stuff for GW2 a couple years ago. At one point, a random player he met in GW1 (not even a prior friend) just gave him a full stack of ectos for free. Just because. I as well gave him basically whatever I had on my account that he could make use of (which wasn't much, some random minis and a couple plat, I was never wealthy) because I'd rather someone make use of it.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

I like this view a lot.

[@relentlessnights4211]

Loved to hear more of your thoughts and a sort of behind the scenes perspective. For FF, aside from feeling rushed to play catch up, consider if you would prefer the graphics update or be there at launch. One side will probably be better down the road, but am I understanding it correctly that the let’s play will from the very beginning, I’ll enjoy it but hot damn that sounds like a lot of content, maybe do dawntrail then begin the restart. I believe dawntrail is supposed to be beginning of a new story arc.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Thanks for the thoughts, I'm chewing on it still

[@JorikPar]

People in Switzerland speak German, Italian or French depending on the region they live in. It is a quite unique country for that. Their German dialect is very heavy though - not easy to understand for other German speaking people.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

That's really cool! I didn't realise it depended on region, I just knew they spoke a lot of languages hah

[@MrIllMind]

One of the things I’ve noticed about the gw2 community especially since 2019 is the community they’ve cultivated is very much a care bear community as Nike would put it. They couldn’t tell you what a good story or a bad story is and all they seem to care about is how special they are in their own eyes and a net should cater to them specifically.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Why especially since 2019?

[@MrIllMind]

@@WoodenPotatoes mostly because that’s when IBS started and well we know that whole shit show, the game just wasn’t in a great place. Then the focus with EoD was on getting new players into the game which it did that but this crop of players are absolute zoomers. I say this as one myself, but I’m referring to the worst zoomer tendencies.

[@emilymalkieri]

56:40 ❤❤ Don't think I was watching during the actual GW1 days. I think I probably found you with one of the GW2 hype videos, the no healer one perhaps? Definitely didn't watch the Let's Play back in the day.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Yeah even as I spoke I thought.... actually, you werent there that early. LOL.

[@lauren5185]

I agree with Boots about SOTO/SOOTOO I just figured it was one of your charms lol

[@WoodenPotatoes]

That's a nice way of putting it lol

[@CatarinaStone]

ok, so on the GW economy I do think there's other stuff going on. Like, the only real sink for ectos is obsidian armor so the player base has to be completely flooded with them. couple that with the going rate for like Nick's gifts and it's very easy for a casual player to get a ton of ectos over time (it's how I funded my HoM last year; not quite done yet cause I got bored XD) PS: wtb party and sweet points XD I'm only missing those for gwamm

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Good luck with your points!

[@NifarisRed]

so do you think its worth it to pick up GW1? i see they are all pretty cheep my only worry is how long do i think the servers will stay up? when they start work on 3 and start adding in hero charicters to gw2 will they keep gw1 around?

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Servers will stay up as long as Gw2 servers are up.

[@NifarisRed]

@@WoodenPotatoes awesome i might looke into doing a full playthrough of it and all the dlcs

[@foxx32]

I'm still waiting for the Little Big Adventure 2 let's play, WP!

[@WoodenPotatoes]

One day in the distant future! If pre-searing is the last thing I do for GW then LBA2 is the last thing I do full stop.

[@leonminusmensch8745]

If you click on more on the infobox, youtube will always show you the exact date of any video

[@WoodenPotatoes]

You're a genius

[@RPGCrash]

hi wp im worried about natalie your big norn warrior i dont see him on the character list dont tell me he got sent to the aether :(

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Gender swapped that's all!

[@OneMorePotion]

On the topic why I am annoyed with Arena Net and GW2... It constantly feels they are all over the place for ne reason. If they would have said after LW4 that they can't keep up with living world and a new map every 2 months plus an expansion right after, then dial it down. Give us a patch every 4 to 5 months with the promise that there is a new expansion at the end. Sure, we maybe only get 3 patches in between, but we know things are in the works and coming. Many people always are quick to compare to FFXIV. A 50 to 60 hour expansion and then a new patch every 3 months until the next 50 to 60 hour expansion arrives. But what many people don't see is... FFXIV has a sub fee. And with that, a lot more resources. Also... I don't think that Arena Net's idea of "We need another game" is doing any good for GW2. If we want to compare GW2 to FFXIV, we should compare that. Business Unit 3 works on FFXIV and also created FFXVI over the years. And what happened with Endwalker, while they were working on FFXVI? It got stale and boring. A lot of throw away, one time content. No challange. Nothing. To the point that the devs themselves even say "We hear you, and we change that". The post Endwalker player bleed was worse than with any expansion I've seen before, because the content wasn't there. And exactly the same happened to GW2. Then Arena Net got projects canned, and now they are working on another Game again and we have mini expansions. The ideal way would have been slowing down the LW patches, and making the expansions meatier in return. It's like... We tried the same thing multiple times and we failed and now we are forced to live with mini expansions because of the same thing again. And that's frustrating.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Yeah the sub fee difference really seems HUGE in terms of content depth and quality. I've basically U-turned on my opinion about subs because of that game.

[@SmashToonsTv]

everytime since the start anet adds a new feature like they have now with the fashion inspect it's really nice, the game is truly a pleasure to play, but i always think just whyyy the fuck they don't add a "show 1 bag" in inventory options, or even better a second inventory window...

[@WoodenPotatoes]

For consumables?

[@SmashToonsTv]

@@WoodenPotatoes jeez! good thing i rewatch your videos, I didn't know you replied so fast! Not only consumables of course, sure the armory and having tonics and so in the hero panel are nice features, but we all (especially new players) keep either a top or bottom row of slots in our inventorys for whatever items we don't want to get rid of, or just want to have them there for whatever (even a really cool looking square like a legy weap), for new players thats probably a weapon or two, an armor piece, for HOT & POF that's items like lore books, warbler etc... surely i don't have to explain this! especially judging by your beautiful ascended armor collection before the armory! it's hard to separate items or groups of items like 6 armor pieces from other junk flying into the inventory, every item in gw2 is a square, and there is no onther option in inventory to separate items other then have all of the bags separated.. wouldn't it be absolutely perfect to have a second inventory window? a button next to the 58/120 slots, that switched your inventory to the 2nd inventory page? hell even a seperate only 1 bag from the rest would be fantastic

[@Jbills]

21:00 the transition from cartoonish GW2 to the grandeur of GW1 😂

[@WoodenPotatoes]

I mean to be fair it was SAB

[@Jbills]

@@WoodenPotatoes fair enough!

[@angels2online]

​@@WoodenPotatoesSAB is more grounded than wing infusion magical girl explosion at this point xD jk

[@iOmgTom]

Hey WP you've been pronouncing SOTO wrong. Jk, I don't even play GW2, been following since GW1 (a real good game). Still enjoy the vids, even though I never know whats going on lols. Account tour pls, also how long have I been subbed? xd

[@WoodenPotatoes]

You don't have a sub marker at all so I couldn't say sadly!

[@panaku3963]

that true about gw1 and bots. there many people that told me that they just buy ecto cause most people are doing it and there almost no chance of getting ban now and a lot of people did it. and there many bots farming gold weapon in faction kurz side . you see them getting out for 5 min and teleport back and going back out. now all item are either shit no price. or over price now. its sad

[@panaku3963]

like i try to get gothic style for kurz style, the axe was like 50ecto . the shield is like 5-10 armbrace.. or more...

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Yeah kind of makes it hard to invest in.

[@kwaddell]

Social Media gives the illusion that way more people think something is true because of a non-realistic sample size of crazy people, and then people argue because they got “one guy”’d. This is why I can’t hang around these sites for long.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Good way of phrasing it! Hard agree.

[@kwaddell]

H-how many characters do you have?!

[@WoodenPotatoes]

uh... some

[@AwesomeDeBawesome]

This might be harsh, but I think it's embarrassing how many people think the Pre-Searing idea is something worthwhile. It makes no sense in the setting of GW2, it's only functional in GW1 as a starting point and toturial of a much larger game, it would require time travel which would destroy whatever story and world-building is left even more, and it's based on one image that has no landmarks to connect it to Pre at all. It simply wouldn't work. And you'll get the same response anyways, just like with Cantha and Elona: a blimp of hype fueled on nostalgia, followed by the realization that GW2 isn't GW1 and the areas feel completely different from each other. I would love for the pointless cycle of hype based on nostalgia to end. Go to new areas, explore new ideas, try to write something approaching a decent story.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Dude I totally agree

[@sl5945]

re: the ff14 talk... I dont care about the gfx update - like you said its not going to make a difference in any meaningful capacity. I'd rather it be sooner than later to start watching a restart of your ff14 content. I'm in the market for it right now, especially during the downtime between content of all the games I play. Don't know if I'll be in the same headspace when these games start launching their content. (though to be fair I've been wanting to watch it since you stopped playing it years ago lol)

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Hah that last bit is very honest of you! Yeah I guess it depends on the scale of the changes.

[@MegaKaims]

@@WoodenPotatoes You can kinda experience the changes if you try the Dawntrail benchmark which is basically glorified tech demo :D

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Does it have many early game maps?

[@MegaKaims]

@@WoodenPotatoes No, Its not even playable, its more of a long 5 min cutscene. Honestly, they showed ARR graphical update in the recent Live Letter. And it looks much better ,but nothings outstanding. Its more like updating old textures, and visually bringing the game into more modern standard. The benchmark, Its more like a video that shows off Dawntrails graphical tech also while stresstesting your PC. Theres a video on FFXIV youtube page with the default Warrior of Light. But if you download benchmark, you can play around with the new graphical settings also see how a cutscene will run on your own screen. Every expanion has "Benchmark" trailer. I recommmended it, so you could get a feel for the scale and expectation of the graphical update, without doing bunch of research nor delving into the nitty critty of Dawntrail expansion details.

[@naryktaryk225]

Hi can i get some of the gw1 mini pets from the stream? I dont have much to trade for them sadly. I am happy about the new serie of old obscure game since my favorit wp's serie is azurik.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Yeah just throw me a message when you see me online!

[@Exar.Kun42]

I also have a ton of them, add me in gw2 and we arrange a meeting in gw1. bahne.3162

[@rbardy]

56:40 😉

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Yeah you know

[@Spartan21111]

Stop sugarcoating Anet, it is ENTIRELY their fault that they are a small scrappy (crappy) company. Entirely due to their poor decisions.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

I mean the point wasn't to sugarcoat them, just an observation on how a bit of candour would get the community more on side.

[@Somebody374-bv8cd]

Honestly (yes I'm doing that lord of the rings Elrond thing) I was there when gw2 launched in 2012. The map zergs were *massive* - any zerg in 2024 GW2 is puny in comparison. The hype that an MMO might finally topple WoW from its throne made a lot of people try the game - it was unreal - and it had no sub in a time most MMOs had sub fees. I'm pretty sure Blizzard was legitimately worried about gw2 back then in 2012. All the big youtubers of the time were covering it - yogscast, total biscuit (RIP), angry joe etc. Anet had the MMO world in their hands - and they let alllll that slip through their fingers - because of a terrible end boss fight (Zhaitan) and essentially having no clue about what to do after launch. The hype drained away and slowly people were starting to think the company (and the game) wasn't really all that - and LS1 was likely the nail in the coffin for a lot of people. I left and played ARR (which was starting to get traction even though many were leery about it due to 1.0) before I ever saw the revamped teq or the new path for Twilight Arbor and I would only return some time before HoT.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

As far as I'm concerned this is a very accurate retelling of the post launch months.

[@CyprienCole]

inspect is fine as long it stays with fashion. If it heads to armor inspect (stats) then it would be a problem.

[@NifarisRed]

I feel like 5-6 years ago maybe more i lost contact with the community, when it launched i loved exploring and seeing cool outfits and people doing RP in pubs as i walked by, but as more and more cosmetics came in there was a need to make the new cosmetics bigger, and brighter and more flashy it was no longer hey looks at these cool outfits it was a char that is super big, and has every flashy effect and i just lost love for the faction personally. but i dont see any negative to have an inspector to show off what you have

[@WoodenPotatoes]

How did you feel about the giant wing backpacks?

[@NifarisRed]

@@WoodenPotatoes I liked them, the white wings and black ones could makes some cool angelic looks same we demonic wings and bat wings, i love the PVP ascended wings. that being said I have not looked at the newer wings there could be some really big obnoxious ones

[@fesely6746]

My problem with GW2 is Anet start lot of think and nothink finish or continue like DRM, riads, fractal od strike, they develop like 5-7 instances and stop do any work on in, i woudl rather continue developman on i type of content and not start new every 2 years, and announce like we have this many ppl and we will producent content like this, I hope you will undrestand, I know my english is good

[@Rairosu]

If asking for QoL feature is a bad thing then we are surely doomed. Why should I a player ask someone what they are using if you can just inspect it. Why force me to talk to strangers? If 99% of players in a community asks for a feature and your that 1% of person who is against it. Then you have fallen into the minority group plain and simple. Besides no one expecting you to inspect ever living soul in GW2, A lot of my "Fashion" is already set in stone. Besides I don't have all the slots in the world for extra gear hoarding, Is why I spread out my themed ideas to 25 characters instead of all that on 1 character. I make THEMED Characters based on the armor skins/outfits based on that Profession/elite spec with my own creative idea. Even if Themed characters are the weakest of the weak of the bunch.

[@QPoily]

GW2's already been doomed in that regard for awhile. I remember suggesting on the GW2 subreddit like 5 years ago for a way to allow players to set character-specific keybinds since on some classes I liked having my 1-5 buttons in different orders than on others. I got dragged through the mud for even DARING to suggest a feature like that, a feature that literally every single MMO on the market has had since the inception of their games. Many people have this very odd obsession with shooting down suggestions that, quite literally, does not affect anyone negatively. All because they, themselves, wouldn't make much use of it. It's oddly selfish and pretentious behavior, but it happens. And I've noticed it happen more often in GW2 and FFXIV. Both games that are more on the casual side.

[@HummingbirdSound]

That girl is my ex! The only one with whom I still have some contact, really nice person and kind soul. Yeah, Swiss people are something different. We (EDIT: my family and I) moved here 22 years ago and we just loved it so much that we decided to stay forever. People are so nice and well educated, very open minded and helpful, without being intrusive. Come and visit us someday, I'm sure she'd be glad to know WP enjoyed her content!

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Holy shit small world! I feel like I was a bit mean with the "young" stuff but I really am/was a fan of her channel! The whole country seemed very nice. Edit: If you can get her to come back for the remasters that would be cool.

[@HummingbirdSound]

@@WoodenPotatoes Haha, sure is! Don't worry, she's not the susceptible kind; I'm sure she would appreciate your words. I'll tell her you're a big fan; maybe that will make her come back for the remasters...! Although she has quite a busy career and a lovely family (yes, she is a mommy... time flies...!), so she may not be able to find the time for it, but I know for a fact that she would love to be able to game more.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Just remind her that she started her channel while going to school, taking an economics final, working at an office, learning to drive, going on runs and having sleepovers and random stuff with her friends. All while making YT videos. I know, I just watched the series! (Crazy stuff)

[@HummingbirdSound]

@@WoodenPotatoes That is a good argument, I'll tell her that! :)

[@3renegade3]

The whole controversy about gear inspect is ridiculous. When I heard about it my first thought was I don't care but I know people have been asking for this years, well done for finally getting it done anet. Then I hear that some people are upset about it... wtf? Some people will always find something to complain about I guess. Also, yes it's always bothered me that you say SooToo, but it's not worth commenting on... except I just did.. haha

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Hah well lots came out of the woodwork on that!

[@hardy83]

I'm sure the community would like them admitting they are small, however they answer to an openly traded NCSoft and a company already in trouble for their other properties struggling, to have one of their higher profile companies say they are small and can't compete with FFXIV and WoW would probably hurt them and piss them off. Especially after the exec ran his mouth about GW3. And I do agree people don't give GW2 and ANet enough credit. The game is far from perfect, especially the story telling, but this game does A LOT of things right, and in an industry that has most full price games have more predatory microtransactions than GW2 has shown how much ANet still cares about their players. They could EASILY start making this game disgusting with things like a paid tier for the battle pass, designing xp grinds like masteries to be a slog without XP boosts, straight up selling legendaries in the shop or Black Lion Chest and I wouldn't be surprised if NCSoft has pushed that. And they could easily just stop releasing updates and milk the shit out of the existing players or make some crappy F2P mess on mobile like AFK Journey or something, but they don't. They continue to do things like small QoL things, like the fashion checker, which does takes time and money to do for such a small group of players. People like to bitch, some of it valid, but ANet definitely deserves A LOT more credit. The world is very jaded (also the video game industry is getting more and more toxic) as you've mentioned a bit, espeically online communities.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Good point about the publicly traded company...

[@spittinglama91]

Every time ANet releases some nice new QoL feature or system, this community reminds me why they deserve nothing.