User:Tennessee Ernie Ford/Rants/Reliability of in-game source material

How reliable is the game as a source of definitive information?

Over the lifetime of the wiki, various contributors have argued that we should rely on the game as the definitive source of information about Tyria, Cantha, and Elona. The problem is that Guild Wars is riddled with both written and visual anomalies and/or bugs. Although most of these are inconsequential, there are just enough that we should be careful before accepting the game as the unadulterated gospel for lore.

How do we decide? When the body of evidence leads us in one direction, Occam's Razor tells us to take the simplest interpretation as most likely. In other words, if we see an anomaly, we should not use it to validate a theory about mechanics or lore in the absence of other confirming examples or citations from ANet staff.

Examples

Warning: This key section of the article is incomplete. You have permission to improve it. (Although the author reserves the right to revert any edits not in the intended spirit.)

• Terrik zu Heltzer is listed as a "nephew of Rutger zu Heltzer", but his image is clearly that of a female Necromancer. Anomaly? Or is cross-dressing accepted as part of Kurzick society?
• Vess the Disputant uses a female model, but the bounty quest targeting this boss clearly refers to his victims. Is Vess the first transgender boss in the game? Or did ANet fail to properly copy edit the dialogue (or check the file for consistency)?
• Captain Lumanda is a female, but in-game, she's always referred to as a male. Someone awaiting a sex-change operation in Cantha? Or just another typo? (Thanks to Blue Totoro for spotting this.)
• Chieftain Ulgrimar Gnash is a Jotun boss, but his image is clearly that of a Yeti. Anomaly? Or are the Yetis (of Cantha) intermingling with the Jotun (of northern Tyria).
• Nicholas the Traveler makes all the usual claims of a traveling Snake Oil salesman. Should we believe it all? Or is it possible he is exaggerating the properties of certain items (mostly trophies) or simply misled himself by the natives?