Talk:Pygmy Hippopotamus

Gaile Comments on Removal

Gaile has been kind enough to clarify the removal of this and several other pets from the game, or modifications of pets, in a very comprehensive post on her talk page. I wanted to add it on each relevant page so this information exists out there and clarifies these issues for a lot of people. I will post her comments relating to this here, and people can decide if they want to quote her directly in the article or paraphrase for encyclopaedic style and clarity:

In the case of the hippo, we liked the design, but it was a model/skeleton that was really only useful for the hippo, where certain other skeletons can be used more broadly, meaning that load time and asset manifests are more modest. (This is relevant when you're in a map and someone brings a pet and you have to download the assets for the creature.) We wanted to keep the number of tame-able pets to a reasonable number and keep the asset list manageable, therefore, with regret, we decided to remove the hippo. -- Gaile 01:19, 10 October 2007 (UTC).

I've seen a couple of clarifications on this but this is the most detailed one and is a lot more satisfieing than some others. It is very sad they didn't include it but it's interesting the decision was made to protect people from having to load to much (as my understanding is), which I find to be a satisfieing decision, and gives insight to the tough calls they make for game design! 122.104.229.93 03:29, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Here is the link to the original disussion: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User_talk:Gaile_Gray#Fern_Lizard_and_Panda_Pet.3F 122.104.229.93 03:42, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Better Screen Shot?

Does anyone have a better screen shot of the Hippo? One in a brighter area, maybe also not in the water. I did a little work on the Panda image and wanted to do some work on this one as well, clean it up and make it look like the ones I think Emily? gives us for the existing pets - with the white background. An image with the Hippo from an angle similar to the Panda would be best. Dancing Gnome 02:00, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

We could bug Emily for a render, I am sure they must have the model on file somewhere. --Lemming 18:30, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Or....you could let the creature rest in peace, and allow Emily to work on the projects she has at hand, and not add to her workload.......Just a thought though. Med Luvin 19:03, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Sure be considerate of A-Net employee workload but simply asking for something and allowing them to say yes or no is no big drama I'm sure - I don't like to make decisions for other people, give them the opportunity to decide. I don't mind trying to make a normal screenshot of the hippo look a bit more like the stuff Emily does, and I don't mind doing it simply because this is content which isn't currently in the game, but a little project of mine atm is fixing up these "missing pet" pages so that accurate information is recorded somewhere and the questions can be answered once and for all. At the same time I would like to make them look nice and I need a better screen shot of the Hippo to do that. Dancing Gnome 05:02, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

I can probably go and grab a few of the Aggressive Hippo and just use those now. Dancing Gnome 04:09, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Hippos are back in game!

They are in Arbor Bay, Hard Mode. Around Ventari's island with the Sylvari tree. See Guru Thread: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10208506

I think we will need another article now :(. Dancing Gnome 05:39, 16 October 2007 (UTC)