[SPOILER] Resources wasted in final zone?

[SirShady]

The fact that it was temporary is what makes it so poignant... Or at least it would be if the writing wasn't crap and the concept of The Endless was explored any more than "they're AI, we should kill them".

[HighlanderClone]

The fact that it was temporary is what makes it so poignant... Or at least it would be if the writing wasn't crap and the concept of The Endless was explored any more than "they're AI, we should kill them".

Agreed.

In principle it would be a powerful statement but the execution makes the turning off of the memories pointless...

It's a very ambitious zone. Every zone in this expansion has pushed graphics and assets used beyond anything before it. Most of Ultima Thule was a skybox, with fog and a bit of other stuff added in after. To tell a good story, they gave us a grand theme park, complete with every asset that they have. Every zone is chock full of life and sights to see. When we're done and we've turned off the supply of aether to the area, we see it for what it is: a massive hulk of Electrope, the thing that the society warred over to begin with. It is by far the best zone they've ever put in the game story wise, and its loss is to be felt intimately as you progress through it. Its existence is a comfort to no one except the dead, and some of the residents themselves don't even want to exist in it. It all still exists on characters who have not finished the zone, but as of now, it is a drab, grey zone with not much in it except some fates, some elite marks and a few gather nodes. That is a good thing, and I'd prefer those things didn't exist there either. It should be a place we close up and leave forever. But, lorewise, the scientists of our planet will most likely be studying the shard extensively, and introduce electrope to Eitherys.

Yes, it's ambitious. Yes, it is horrifying. Yes, it feels horrible to progress through the zone, get to know these people, and summarily delete them. But they shouldn't exist to begin with. They should be dead, with the only thing remaining of them being books, memories and monuments. The answer is: No, it's not simple to build a zone like that. I'm betting a large part of the development time was dedicated to making it the way it is. I'm glad they gave us the zone as it was, and I'll forever remember that it existed. I can experience it again on alts, and I might just do that when I'm done leveling all my jobs on my main. But for now, I'll keep it as it should be: a memory.

It's sad that I completely understand what you're saying at an intellectual level, and I was playing through it I thought the exact same things as you're saying...

but I just never felt it. I literally didn't care that we're shutting off the "servers". When the game warned that it would be irreversible, I didn't even hesitate to press "Yes, continue."

If that's not an indicator of how shoddy the writing and execution was I don't know what is.

I only started to feel anything when we got to Krile and Erenville, but even then I could hardly care less about the rest of the zone.