Guild Wars - Six Years of my Life

Seven years of questing, fighting, winning and losing, casting, slashing, bashing and bruising, exploring, raiding, running and rupting, capping, crippling, poisoning, dazing, blinding, binding, customising, flashing, clashing, charming, farming, emoting, demoting, promoting, buffing, nerfing, chatting, raging, ascending, befriending and finally reaching the ending... Six years of Guild Wars, and finally I stand on the edge of the next chapter. On the brink of a new plunge into waters (at least relatively) unknown. What better time to turn and take one last look at what lies behind?

 

Early Days in Ascalon

Six years ago, I bought Guild Wars because I had a little pocket money from working as a lifeguard and was looking for a cheap new game to play during my holidays. As I mentioned to Tasha when we spoke on Split Infinity Radio early last year, I seem to remember thinking that the game was single player – so you can imagine my surprise upon logging in when I saw other people running around my luscious Ascalon. This was back in the days of refund points, no titles, heroes or expansions – the game was much more difficult back then (compounded, I’m sure, by my unavoidable newbieness and utterly terrible computer).

 

I got as far as Aurora Glade before the family computer finally took a turn for the worse and decided to explode. I tried that mission a hundred times and would always crash just before or after we had to attune each of the pedestals with the crystals. I can’t imagine how annoying it must have been for my teammates! Back then, without consumables, PvE skills, heroes and only the core and prophecies skills, every player counted. So, having suffered one-crash-too-many, I eventually lost patience, deleted my character and quit the game. Guild Wars gathered dust on my shelf for a few months.

 

With a new computer came the ability to actually complete Aurora without wanting to reach through the screen, fashion a neck for Windows and then throttle it. The game was a joy to play on the new machine. I decided to allow my brother to have two of the character slots on my account, so between the two of us we racked up A LOT of hours. Before I knew it, I had completed Prophecies... literally before I knew it, as in, I completed Hell’s Precipice and then headed off to my first term at University (where the network would not allow multiplayer games) thinking that I still had some missions to go. Incidentally, when I completed Hell’s, I did it using the only elite I had at the time – Spiteful Spirit. On a Ranger.

 

 Thankfully, by the time I returned home after my second term (around Easter 2006) it was about time for Factions to drop.

Forging the Blades

My early days in Ascalon were spent as part of a guild called “Gods Elite Army”. Side note: I’m not Christian, but I think I always interpreted it as “The Gods’ Elite Army” rather than “God’s Elite Army” (grammar buffs, unite!) anyway, the cape was silver with a spider motif so I never really associated it with any Abrahamic religion. At some point the guild leader left and he inexplicably passed the guild on to me. It was only then that it struck me that I don’t think I could, in all good faith, start wandering through Lion’s Arch shouting “Recruiting to God’s Elite Army!” without being struck by lightning. So I unceremoniously dropped the guild into someone else’s lap and set off to create my own.

 

 

So, the “Legion of the Blue Blade” was born. The Blue Blade itself never really existed. It wasn’t a reference to Frodo’s sword in Lord of the Rings, as some people seemed to think, I just thought it sounded kinda cool. Those were the halcyon days of Guild Wars in my eyes. This was when the Blue Blades reached their peak – 70+ members, a forum and website, regular guild events and a democratic voting system to appoint officers, all with me and my brother at the helm. We had epic members such as Litle Healing Monk (a perpetual guild-hopper, who seemed to flit in and out of the guild whenever she pleased, but was someone who was always friendly and helpful), Dragonian Wizzard (who pretty much taught me everything I knew about Guild Wars at the time; if me and my brother were the guild leaders, he was our second in command), the Zurrieq brothers (both avid monk players, snarky and sarcastic, but always game for a laugh), Matt Tiger (one of our longest serving and most loyal members) and the infamous Hobo Mania (infamous for what happened while we were on holiday one year – more later).

In our alliance (one which never dropped below 9 guilds, but the composition of those guilds varied almost monthly) we were known for our weekly Big Blue Blade Race – a group race with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place on the track shown below.
 

 

Ah, those were the days. Questing, racing and lots of Alliance Battles and FoW runs – even one ill-fated attempt at GvG. Halcyon days, fo sho. All was well, until one fateful summer when my brother and I were on holiday with the family. I’d left the running of the guild in the capable hands of Litle, Drag and Hobo – our officers. At some point during the fortnight we were away, Hobo Mania lived up to the latter part of his name – in a fit of madness he kicked all our members, every single member of our 70+ guild was nowhere to be found, just myself and my officers remained. Needless to say I was not best pleased, and I kicked him from the guild immediately upon my return – he protested, stating that it was his little brother, but I was furious and would not be moved. It was closing the stable door after the horse has bolted – the damage was done.

 

The Blue Blades never really recovered from that set back, and though we managed to regain some of the members we lost, we could never quite push back to the levels of our glory-days. We hovered around the 20 member mark for a good many years, and though I still saw Litle about, and Drag hopped on once in a blue moon the Blue Blades eventually shrank down to its current composition – just me and my bro (now with his own account). About a year ago, to mark the fall of the Blades I changed the cape from the vibrant turquoise blade motif on a royal blue background with a white starburst, to a blue rapier and rose on black.

 

 

All of the kerfuffle with the guild happened just a few months after Factions was released.

Factions felt like a totally different world (well, I suppose it was) but every environment we’d encountered so far had been vast landscapes: scorching deserts, freezing mountains, sprawling jungles etc. The land of Cantha had us fighting in claustrophobic city streets and through sewers and ratways. At first I didn’t like it – the learning curve was too steep once you were off the starter island and the towering walls of hovels and shanty-lodgings felt cloying and choking. Finally making it to the open fields of the Jade Sea was a huge relief, I found the vibrant turquoise waves and frothy outcrops to be a far friendlier place than the Petrified Forest or the bustling Kaineng City and after the trouble we’d had with Hobo and the guild I needed somewhere a bit more cheerful to spend my time. Our guild had allied themselves with the Luxons by this point, and it felt right to be fighting alongside the rag-tag Luxon pirates and gigantic siege turtles, rather than the pale and dour Kurzicks and their juggernauts.

I developed my skills as an effective guerrilla ranger in Alliance Battles. I tried to teach myself how to predict the movements of the mob from shrine-to-shrine, and how to read the tide of a battle to know when to press and when to retreat. Without tooting my own horn, I think I became pretty effective! More often than not, I would drop into an AB with a PUG and start directing the team around, whether or not they listened was an entirely different matter, but it was one of the first times since the fall of the Blue Blades that I felt in control of something in the game. Using long arrow strokes to show movement, circles to indicate targets and crosses to show where to avoid I could direct a four-man team around all the maps effectively and with half-talented teammates we could effectively hold off most enemy attacks.

When Night Falls we see who the real heroes are

Nightfall brought with it a whole new set of challenges to play with. I enjoyed the campaign and all, but my real interest was with the heroes. I loved coming up with new and interesting skill combinations, I embraced the new(ish) idea of build synergy and the old idea of energy management to come up with teams which worked as well-oiled machines. Inspired by Sab’s exceedingly popular three necro build and the also prevalent dual paragon and dervish/necro build, I set out to create hundreds of my own builds based on the principles of synergy and e-management. I spent a lot of time discussing new ideas and helping out other players on GWguru Hero and AI Section. I even had a couple of people message me in-game to thank me for my help and to tell me that they used builds I had posted and really enjoyed them.

 

 

With the introduction of Nightfall my PvP focus shifted dramatically. I’ve never been one for organised PvP – I’ve never liked using vent, and I don’t like the kerfuffle of trying to gather enough people to GvG or HA, so the new format of Hero Battles suited me perfectly. “A whole team who would follow my commands to a tee without complaining or messing around? Sign me up!” Teams were composed of yourself and three NPC heroes. You picked the builds and set their gear, then entered the fray. Battles were fought on relatively small arenas, where you capped shrines in an effort to accrue more points and gain more kills than your opponent and his team.

Hero Battles were like a game of chess – you had your four pieces (yourself and 3 heroes) which you directed around the battlefield. You had to be aware of where you and your heroes were and the opponents they would be facing at every moment of every match. If you had the upper hand, you had to press like there was no tomorrow. If you were on the back foot, you had to know how and where to retreat. I liked it because it involved a lot of mind-games with your opponent: scaring them with a bold-faced show of power from the start, or holding back and fooling them into thinking that you were weak before unleashing your entire arsenal on one of their unsuspecting heroes all at once – then picking them off one-by-one.

 

 

Strangely, I was better at Hero Battles when drunk or... well, “differently minded”, probably because it made me unpredictable. At one point I cracked into the top 100 HB players in the game. But underneath I knew that the format wasn’t getting the love it needed. If it was a stand-alone game, it would have flourished, but every skill-balance was made with GvG or PvE in mind and it almost always negatively affected the HB format (due to certain skills becoming overly powerful when used by a hero). Eventually, in response to dramatically low player populations for the game type, ANet came to the conclusion to shut the format down. I don’t blame them, though I missed it terribly.

 

One Eye on the Titles, the other on the Sequel

With Eye of the North came the realisation that the game was winding down. The time spent gallivanting around the frozen wastes of the north was mostly spent pursuing titles and scraping together enough gold to buy thousands of points-worth of Frosty Tonics. The same goes for the GW:Beyond project, both were indications that ANet wanted us to start looking ahead to GW2 and gathering the resources to start taking our achievements with us. So, I worked hard. I died a lot. I spent a lot of money. But eventually I got the God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals title. I'd finished.

 

The game wasn't any less fun, but it had lost it's spark - we were waiting it out. Waiting for Guild Wars 2.

So, here we are, in the present day. 7 years down the line, and what have I learned?

If you want to have something to show your achievements, you have to be willing to work your ass off for them. I didn't get GWAMM by begging, I got it through hard work and perseverance (if you know how many times I lost survivor, you will see where I'm coming from). I also achieved it by having a lot of fun, with a lot of fun people. The people I will spent GW2 with will no doubt be a whole different group of people, but I'm sure they will still be a heap of laughs.

I have a whole section of my life which is punctuated by memories of Guild Wars. I'll carry them with me for the rest of my life.

But now, I think, I'm ready to start making some new ones.

[GW2] A little SoS Speculation

The post scheduled (if I’ve done it right) to be posted on Talk Tyria a little later today borrows heavily from the fact-mixed-with-fiction style of Ree Soesby’s race week posts. I thought I’d try my hand at a bit of prose, rather than just blathering on about my opinion on this, and my staggeringly obvious advice about that. I was rather pleased with the result (especially the bit about a warriors bowels turning to water).


I always really enjoyed the posts which came on the last evening of the race weeks. Although I’ve never really read any of Ms Soesby’s work before, I understand her to be a very accomplished fantasy writer – and this is particularly apparent when she has such a small space to portray a compelling story, and still manages to write something interesting, funny and engaging.

For this reason, I’m eagerly awaiting Sea of Sorrows (the third and final GW2 interim book). The book is like one of the final few puzzle pieces which will link the years between the end of the EotN storyline and the start of the GW2 (along with the Elonan GW:B storyline). I was somewhat disappointed by the second instalment in the series. “Edge of Destiny” felt like it was trying to fit 100 stories into 100 pages, and consequently could never really get to grips with any of them. It’s not wholly the writers’ fault – they would have topics they had to cover and a timescale to do it in, and if the two didn’t marry up then the result was inevitable.

Sea of Sorrows is likely to be placed sometime soon after the end of EotN. Ghosts of Ascalon was set a few years before the timeframe of GW2 – after the truce between charr and humans, Edge of Destiny was set before that and told about the exploits of Destiny’s Edge and the aforementioned eventual ceasefire, so it makes sense that SoS will be even earlier.

The title “Sea of Sorrows” obviously suggests something vaguely nautical. If previous books hadn’t set a precedent for concerning themselves only with Ascalonian/Krytan exploits I would be tempted to suggest the story might be about the unfreezing of the Jade Sea in Cantha. As it is, the “Sorrows” element suggests to me that it will be about the rising of the continent of Orr from beneath the sea by Zhaitan – bringing thousands of angry undead with it. I imagine that hundreds of years moping around on the bottom of the ocean can leave you rather “sorrowful”.

Either way, I can’t wait to slot that final piece into the puzzle that is the intervening years between 1 and 2. One of the things which keeps me interested in Guild Wars 2 is that it isn’t just a new game to play, it is a continuation of a story which I’ve been watching play out for the past six years.

[GW2] Expectations of Observations

One of my absolute favourite features of Guild Wars has always been the observer feature. Allowing you to look in on the top Guild v Guild and Heroes' Ascent matches (and hero battles, when it still existed :(), it was a great way to pick up tips for those just starting PvP, and, of course, it was a great way to wile away the many lonely hours of a student trying to avoid that final essay ("I can't finish my dissertation now, the Monthly GvG final is on!")

We haven't really had any word of what format the feature might take, if it even makes it into the new game (word seems a bit blurry on the subject - they want it in there, but it might not be in at release). Eric Flannum, in an interview with GW2Guru a while back, said:


Eric Flannum: It’s definitely a goal of ours to make PvP in Guild Wars 2 as spectator friendly as possible. We haven’t worked out all the details yet but you should see something comparable to observer mode at some point in Guild Wars 2.

"Some point" suggests not straight away, but I think we can probably speculate that it will make its way in eventually (after all, without the ability to spectate I can't imagine the game would be very "spectator friendly").

Anyway! There are some obvious improvements upon the basic GW observer mode which I'm sure ANet will consider. In the original game, you pretty much had the basic package - follow the action, chat with other observers and that's about it. I understand that the limitations of Guild Wars' observer mode was probably mainly due to capacity and practicality - they had more important things to worry about. But if they are interested in making Guild Wars 2 a viable e-sport, then having a top-notch fantastico observer mode would be a great place to start.

The main big improvement would be the ability to rewind, pause, fast forward etc.

The issue with this would be that either you would have to remove the "social" element of it, as it would be very irritating to have some guy pausing the game at the pivotal moment to go and take a wizz. Alternatively, you could assign some kind of "group leader" who had control over these options for the stream. Or you could have a system where when you start fiddling with the playback options the video becomes "your stream" and breaks off from the action, leaving you free to freeze-frame and slo-mo to your hearts delight, and you can choose to rejoin the "group stream" once you've stopped fannying about with the fast forward button.

Add in some extra social options, a list of fellow observers, some kind of notification system for big games, maybe even a player-by-player rating system (ie, "Fuzzy Balls fought really well today, I'll give him a thumbs up! Grognak the Grawl was a complete donkey, his team carried him the entire fight - thumbs down for him!") and we'd have a pretty solid way for me to further avoid work once I start my PhD!

[GW2] The Jotun: Just as Cuddly as they Look

When entering the Eye of the North campaign for the first time (in the preview weekend) I remember one of the most surprising and imposing opponents were the Jotun. Standing twice as tall as the tallest of norn they towered over every opponent, and their potent combination of fast-cast hexes and devastating melee attacks really packed a punch on us intrepid southern explorers.

As with a lot of the Guild Wars enemies, the Jotun have received a bit of a revamp in the new game. The latest article on the ANet blog tells us the story of their fall from grace; torn apart by their own greed and violent rivalries. The Jotun were once great and fierce warriors and spell casters; their giant-kings drove out all enemies and established themselves as top dogs in the north through sheer force and determination. But their own explosively competitive nature got the better of them when, seeing no other enemies to conquer, they turned their attentions inwards. Eventually, after generations of infighting and systematic slaughter – family against family – they were reduced to the slobbering louts we encountered upon our early furores in the north so many years ago.

ANet have diligently attributed back stories to enemies which provided little more than an obstacle to be overcome in the previous game. I hope that these stories will go further than just the words on their blog, and properly transmute into the game. It’s all well-and-good setting up a back-story for a race, and then plonking them in the game to be just another piece of meat to fry, but hopefully ANet will weave these back stories into the dynamic events and personal stories of each of our characters. Perhaps we might invoke the ancient spirit of a long-lost giant king (just for shits and giggles) or maybe we could help to rebuild a crumbling monument in order to quell the fury of a particularly violent Jotun family? Stories are great for us lore-buds and I’m more than happy to devour any literature which ANet can provide which further serves to flesh out the world they are providing. But, as my lecturer would always say “something is real if it is real in its consequences” and the stories won’t become “real” until you can touch, see and play your own part in them.

[GW] Atomisation: Building with Raw Materials

If you atomise (i.e. split it up into its smallest parts) any skill system you can see it is essentially comprised of the following raw materials:

An effect (or a number of effects). These could be damage, healing, reduced movement speed, increased attack speed or other fancy things such as teleporting the player etc. The effect can vary in three respects: magnitude, condition and duration.

A cost. Usually energy/mana/magicka. It is the resource you deplete when you use the skill.

Limiting factors. These are cast time, recharge time and other fancier things like requiring skill chaining or environmental factors.

Part of the job of balancing a skill is finding an equilibrium between these three elements; and making sure that for each point of energy/adrenaline you spend (when factoring in the limiting factors) you gain the same amount of effect for every skill in the game.

E.g. if one skill costs 10 energy and does 100 damage with a 1 second cast time and 5 second recharge, and another skill costs 20 energy and does 150 damage with the same limiting factors you could say that the two skills are not balanced, because for each energy point you spend on the first skill you get 10 damage, but for each point spent on the second skill you only get 7.5 damage.

Part of what makes balancing MMOs so difficult is that you have to factor in all these elements in relation to each other both within the skill itself and in relation to every other skill in the game (this is particularly true with GW1, considering the secondary profession system gives you access to every skill in the game) and also take into account how the effect of the skill interacts with other skills available to the player. Anyway, I’m getting way off topic, for my views on balancing head here: CLICKY!

Back to my point; learning the relative weights of each of these elements can help you look at a skill and assess its worth. You can come to an axe attack which does 100 damage and know that it is garbage because of its 20 energy cost. Or look at a fireball spell which causes 50 damage for only 5 energy and know that it is essentially useless because of its 45 second recharge. On the flip-side, you could spot that a skill which does 35 damage and know that it is the dogs-bollocks because of its 1 second recharge time and ¼ second cast time.

Effective team builders are able to do this process of weighing up a skill’s worth in the context of the bar itself, in relation to every other bar in their team’s build and also in relation to the enemies they are likely to face when they step into the combat zone. The vast majority of you do these kind of mental gymnastics almost every time you log into the game, it probably comes naturally and you don’t even realise you’re doing it.

It becomes more impressive when you use it in the field: it’s more than just reacting to a gunshot in Call of Duty or deftly taking the ball around a keeper in FIFA. It is lightning-fast mental arithmetic on a grand scale; if an Iboga casts Conjure Phantasm on your Elementalist and you see that he is struggling to stay alive, you quickly calculate the advantages and disadvantages of using the mechanics and tools set in front of you. If you use your hex removal (15e, 1s cast, 15s recharge) it will remove the threat initially, but the Iboga will likely recast his hexes pretty quickly and you will have spent 15 energy and be back to square 1 without a hex removal, so that’s out of the question. You could throw Healing Breeze on him and hope to counteract the hex, but you know that you would just stem the tide (because you can see by how fast his bar is dropping that your regeneration will only neutralise the degeneration on your ally and not heal him). You decide on straight out healing and cast Orison of Healing on him to bring his health back up – this gives you a buffer, and will counter both the degeneration and the base damage he is likely receiving from other sources.
In the split second which you made this decision you calculated the relative weights of each of the skills on your bar in relation to the context of the situation and in relation to the relative weights of the skills on the opponents bar.
And they say playing video games rots your brain.

[GW2] A VERY Dragon-y Year to Come

With all their cards now laid out on the table, ArenaNet have seen fit to release the dragon. Although the announcement of the beta and 2012 release are a relief, I wouldn’t say they were that much of a surprise. Most people were predicting a Q2/3 2012 release anyway, and that was always going to be preceded by beta testing. Still, the Guild Wars Posse (yes, you are a Posse) is a-buzz with excitement and the more optimistic of us are praying for a June release.

It’s a particularly Dragon-y year this year. Here’s just a short list of the dragon-y things which are going on:

• Release of the final book in the Inheritance cycle (Eragon series) – a book I consumed with voracious hunger. Started reading the series years and years ago and have been devouring the books upon release ever since. A story of one boy’s slightly sexual relationship with a gigantic lizard.

• Rise of the “Fire and Ice” series (particularly owing to the Sky 1 series with SEEEEN BEEEEEN!). Once again, *SPOILER* involves dragons. Kudos goes to these particular dragons for their interesting introduction involving breast-feeding. Epic nipple-rash.

• Skyrim (FUS RO DA!). This game is jam-packed with dragons. It is full to the brim with scaly, screechy winged demons. I must be the only person on the planet not to have completed it, but from what I can gather (and without having fiddled with the difficulty slider); a typical dragon can be dispatched by shouting at it. Wuss.

• Minecraft. Apparently, there are dragons in Minecraft now. *shrug*

• And, of course, Guild Wars 2 will be dropping the D-bomb before the year is out.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to invest in some fire-retardant underpants.

Also, considering the beta is going to step up in April and taking into account any changes they might need to make, perhaps we are thinking release around end of June/early July?

Anyone else looking forward to the DRAGON FESTIVAL this year? (take note of the date)

[GW] Kicking the Habit: Moving from Needs to Wants

My life in Guild Wars over the past few years has been defined two parallel, but often converging, lines of action.

On the one hand there is the line which contains all that I want to do. I want to explore the world, I want to obtain all the titles, I want to complete all the quests, I want to finish the Underworld Elite Mission. They aren't things which necessarily lead to any kind of reward (although most of them certainly do) rather they are things which I want to achieve and experience before I move on with the game.

On the other hand there is the line which contains all that I feel I need to do. This line mainly comes from a sense of urgency I've felt with the impending release of the new game. They aren't needs like how I need to breathe, or I need to go to work to earn a living, but they are actions which I will put above all other actions in the game in order to get done quickly - even if they might be unpleasant or boring.

I understand the pathological connotations of having needs which stem from a video game, it seems rather backward and childish, even anti-social or damaging. But everyone who has worked hard for their titles knows how addictive it can be, and how infuriating it is to leave some of them unfinished when you're SO close.

Over the past year or two the game has seen a divergence between the two lines. I felt that what I wanted to do was slipping further and further away from what I needed to do before Guild Wars 2 comes out. I have wanted to complete the Guild Wars Beyond storyline for a while now, but the need to glug down hundreds of tonics, endlessly zoning between the Guild Hall and Zaishen Menagerie, has somewhat taken precedence and even before that my focus on not losing my Survivor title was my primary objective.

Thankfully, having now completed GWAMM I can feel the two lines converging again. I can say to myself; "I don't really need to do anything", I've achieved most of what I need to achieve to maximise my enjoyment of the new game. I can finally ask myself "what do I want to do". At the moment the answer is "not play Guild Wars" at least for a few weeks. After that, who knows? I still need to complete Underworld (in both Normal and Hard Mode), I'd quite like to buy some obsidian armour and gather a few more minis.

I suppose the title of this post is rather misleading: I haven't kicked the habit at all. I'm like a drug addict who has found the perfect drug and achieved the perfect high. For now there is no need to start injecting myself with anything else (there is nothing else above GWAMM to compare) but as soon as there is you know I'll be right back on the wagon.

[GW] GWAMM - I have drank SO many Frosty Tonics

*Snaps Guild Wars disc over knee*
You can't hurt anyone anymore!

ps. what do you mean you don't need the disc to play the game?!

Frosty the Zone-Man

You know that a game is reaching the end of its life-span when you’re zoning repeatedly between the guild hall and the zoo, slurping down Frosty Tonics and popping off crates of fireworks. I’ve managed to consume 250 tonics this way so far. Only another 1000 to go. It’s arduous, yes, but at least it’s cheap. One stack of tonics costs 10k: 10000/250 = 40g per tonic. Each tonic is 2 points, so each point is only costing me 20g, compare that to the 100g it might usually cost (for the spammable items) and you’ve got a pretty good deal. The only downside is this tiresome zoning which is required, still, I can while away the time listening to podcasts or reading.

I think I’ll stop once I hit God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals. I don’t think I have the heart to strive for a 50/50 Hall of Monuments. Seeing as I’ve already reached the 30/50 required to get all the items and I’ve spent all my money on these blasted tonics, I don’t think I’ll be able to work up the funds required for the obsidian armour, tormented weapons and numerous minipets required to bump that 30 up to 50.

At least Wintersday has brought my Ranger out of retirement. After 5 and a half years his bones are a little creaky, but he’s still a dab hand in a snowball fight and he and his warband make light work of most other nasties which step in their way. Plus, he’s laying the foundations for his children (or however I want to justify a sylvari Mesmer have a human Ranger ancestor).

Pink Day in LA (and a little context)

I’m going to start this post with a bit of background info; it’s a little sombre but I promise I’ll perk up in a minute. Skip over it for Pink Day in LA info - this is just some context as to why it is important to me.

There is a history of cancer in my family, most recently with my little sister battling lymphoma from the ages of 14-16. I opened my 18th birthday presents at the foot of her hospital bed. It’s not a wholly remarkable story; if you threw an orange in a crowded bar you’d hit 5 different people who have had some friend or family member who suffered with cancer (you might also get glassed, depends on the type of bar). However, just because the story is common, doesn’t make it any less important. If anything, it is all the more important on account of its prevalence.

Since my sister’s illness we’ve all done what we can. My sister is a spokesperson for a charity that helps teenage cancer suffers; she is a confident public speaker and, at the age of only 18 was regularly speaking to large audiences, alongside my dad, about her experiences. I worked for the charity committee whilst at university and managed to raise a total of £30000 for various charities over the three years I was involved. Since leaving university I’ve been working in clinical research and have had the opportunity to assist on a number of cancer research network studies. Most relevant, I suppose, to the real topic of this post is my mother – she works in a breast care centre; screening women for breast cancer.

So, I guess you could say we have a vested interest in encouraging cancer research and breast cancer awareness.

With that in mind: PINK DAY IN LA!

This is a brilliant player run event, conducted in conjuction with Gamers Giving Back and Gaming World Entertainment Network (GW-EN) which seeks to spur doudy grey and green gamers into perfect, pretty in pink cancer research behemoths. Started in 2007 by some kind-hearted individuals, the whole event is an annual fund raising extravaganza which, this year, hopes to hit the holy grail of gamer's numbers by raising $13,370.00 in funds for The Canadian Cancer Society.

Head over to the GW-EN site to donate some dough for cancer research - donate $10 and you could win a host of tasty-wasty prizes!

We already have the NPC ready and willing to sell you some pink dye (I, in all my compulsive hoarding glory, still have some from last year) to make you look the part. I'll be lurking around LA all day Saturday, probably drinking heavily and popping party poppers like a madman.

[GW2]The Flow of Gold

I don't know about you, but in Guild Wars recently I've become somewhat tight-fisted. My arms have most definitely become shorter whilst my pockets have become considerably deeper. I cling onto my coffers of platinum like a wizened old miser and am loathed to shell out for even a salvage kit or lockpick if I can really avoid it.

Currency is a necessary thing in online games, it adds "value" to items so that they might be traded for other items of equal "value". If a developer doesn't implement a currency system you could be damn sure that the player base would soon create one (Ectos being a perfect example). As time goes on and I set my sights higher and higher the monetary demands upon my bank become greater and greater. I know it's a long slog to attain the kind of wealth I'm going to need to buy the Party Animal title so every single penny which is wasted buying ID kits and salvage bags hurts like a bitch.

I'm hoping that Guild Wars 2 will engender a much more laid-back approach to accountancy in my playstyle. Rewards for dynamic events pop up in the corner, glow and glint for a bit and then disappear into your inventory. You could be ranging through the undergrowth and encounter 10 different events and complete them each (probably obtaining different levels of participation depending upon the effort you put in) and with each one completed the little notice would shine in the top right hand corner showing exp, karma, and coins earned. It seems so blasè:  
"Oh, those coins? Oh yeah, I got them for killing those undead or something. I dunno man, I was busy, I had a whole pack of kvedulf to deal with".

The money flows out just as easily; the travel costs a few coins here and there and I can't imagine it becoming an issue that it costs a little bit of dough to travel from one side of the map to the other.  
"But it's 1 silver and 36 copper, Marjorie! It's not the cost, it's the PRINCIPLE of the thing." 
 "Sigh, just pay the man, Arthur, christ - have you checked your account recently?"

I'm not saying that it's going to be very easy to make money in the game, just that I get the feeling that the flow of money will be far more dynamic with the introduction of the marketplace, minigames and minor monetary transactions for travel, mail etc. I'm sincerely hoping that in 5 years time, when GW3 is just on the horizon I'm not sitting on the wall at Lion's Arch saying:
"Nope, not getting down. No! Have you seen the price of the travel to Divinity's Reach? 2 SILVER! 2!! I've got a party title to fund, you know?"

[GW2] Guilds: My most Laboured Metaphor yet!

The first game's guild system is like having a full time job, not in that it's a chore - just in the way it's set up.

You can't have two full time jobs (you ain't got a time turner, crazy fool) you have one job and you work hard at it. A job can be heaps of fun if you work alongside the right people and enjoy the work. It can be a pain in the arse if you don't have the right people by your side, because it's the only damn job you have and for the moment you have to stick by it. If your boss is a douchebag then it's going to be extra difficult to get along - they're the one in the driver's seat, after all (but that's a whole other metaphor, stay focused!). Even if your workmates are the best in the world, if your boss is a wankstain it's not going to be an easy ride. Changing jobs can be equally painful; if you move to a rival company then you're going to piss off the people you leave behind and workmates who became good friends can easily lose touch over time.

Ballbag

Don't get me wrong, if you enjoy your job and work alongside some really great people then you probably wake up in the morning (ie, log in) and think "DAMN I can't wait to get to work and start that freaking filing!". However, imagine if you work alongside some really great people and your working life is great, but then an old friend approaches you with an idea for a start up company - selling porcelain elephants.
It can't fail; its-a-freaking-GOLDMINE!
You'd have to leave those workmates behind to start your porcelain pachyderm factory.

(Still with me on the metaphor? About halfway now, how about taking a break: stretch and take a deep breath... ready to start again?)

In the new game the guild system is like going to a bar. Walk through the door and there could be any number of people milling about. It's likely you've come here with a few friends and that's great, but you know that there will be people in and out of this bar all night. You might choose to visit a few bars over the course of the evening, maybe jump from group to group and socialise with a number of different people. One night you might choose to spend the whole evening in a chill out bar, drinking ice cold vodka from frozen shot glasses. The next you might flit from sports bar to nightclub to strip club - you saucy devil. It doesn't matter if you decide to leave a bar and go elsewhere, you can come back later just as easily if the shisha bar across the street turns out to be a little crappier than you thought it would be.

If you're enjoying an ice cold beer with a group of friends from college (probably discussing the viability of starting up some sort of porcelain elephant production) and you're approached by the smoking hot barmaid from the pub just around the corner, you can excuse yourself from your current group - promising to return once you inevitably strike out - and attempt to woo the frisky young vixen with your talk of dynamic events and epic dungeon crawls whilst enjoying a cloudy ale and a packet of pork scratchings.

Besides, don't you spend most of your time at work wishing you were at a bar?

ps. the metaphor works equally well for class vs playground, but this was the more "mature" version.

I could fight any one of you!

I got thiss. I *hic* am totally going to get *hic* that BLASTED title tonight. Phew, haha... why is the floor spinning?

*hic* I love you guys.

Sylvari Week, Gamescon Fun and Metrosexual Rangers

Thangis the Red has informed me that ANet dropped the S-Bomb on the Guild Wars community not that long ago. It appears that Sylvari week will fall between now and Gamescon, and the race will be available to play in Cologne at the end of August. 

I personally believe that ANet have set out to humiliate me. Back in April I said on my my wildly successful (and still often hit) Sylvari redesign post that:

"I think it's because they've got this whole schedule set out for when they want to reveal information. They know that the two things people are most eager to see are the final adventurer class and the Sylvari. So they will do the adventurer class reveal last, and Sylvari week will come after Asura and Charr week."

Stupid ANet, making me look like an IDIOT.

Nonetheless, I'm excited about seeing where they've actually taken the race. The week will be punctuated by my typical coverage; like I did for Charr Week, Norn Week and Human Week. So - keep a look out for when that hits!


In Guild Wars 1 news: I've finally hit survivor! Woooo! Now I can die all I want - isn't that what everyone wants, really?
So, now it is just the simple matter of making money to buy booze and party points. And what better way to mark this milestone than some new threads:

It's me, btw, I'm fabulous.

Anywhere the Wind Blows

Winds of Change has hit Guild Wars. It's the Canthan chapter of the Guild Wars: Beyond quest series which hopes to begin to introduce players to the events which unfold shortly after the end of Nightfall/Eye of the North and before the events in GW2.

Winds of Change appears to be telling the story of the Ministry of Purity: an organisation which seeks to wipe out all threats to the nation of Cantha. They begin with the afflicted, a worthy cause... but you lore-buds out there will know that once they wipe the afflicted off the map they get on a bit of a roll eventually leading to the expulsion of all non-human and non-Canthan intelligent life from the continent. Bad times. I want to get started... NOW!



However, having consulted with my twitter peeps about whether it would be safe for my main to venture into this treacherous world - they responded with a nay. So, I have reached an impasse: either I sit out the long slog of survivor and start Winds of Change in a couple of weeks. Or, I go freaking batshit bonkers and get survivor over the next couple of days.



Bring on the dwarves!

Guest Post: 10 Thing ANet has Learned from GW1 - On TalkTyria!

I've got a new post up on Talk Tyria

10 Things ANet has Learned from GW1

click the image below to be taken there:

Gemeinschaft - What Guild Wars has which the World Lacks

Ferdinand Tönnies stated that the new world order had no time for personable relationships, no time for exploring community and companionship. It was an alienated world, to put it Marx-ly. One where you are separated from your kin, separated from your craft and certainly separated from your community. He called this state "Gesselschaft" - a world where individuals act purely upon self interest. The ying to this yang is "Gemeinschaft", a state where individuals act in favour of the community (in fact, gemeinschaft is often translated directly into community), they work towards common goals and expectations.Tonnies stated that, in our world, Gesselschaft is increasingly replacing Gemeinschaft.

[/sociology lesson]

When I started blogging last November I kinda jumped in blind. I started off by flailing wildly into the communities with which I was most involved - Guild Wars and Alternative Reality Gaming. This gained me a few views here and there; the unFiction lot are an incredibly passionate bunch, but the community is solely centered around 2/3 core websites and these are somewhat difficult to crack. Since then my interest in ARGs has waned but my interest in Guild Wars has waxed, this significant waxing has been assisted by, quite frankly,  a staggeringly receptive blogging community.

The Guild Wars bloggers (without, hopefully, offending too many of them) are a friendly bunch; quirky, chatty, sometimes foul mouthed and opinionated; they are the backbone of the community which surrounds this game. They disperse information, conduct interviews, analyse media releases, corral opinions and rationalise the sometimes rather erratic behaviour of this burgeoning gaming populace. They put a staggering amount of effort into providing not only a valuable information resource for old and new players, but also creating a space in which social interaction can take place.

The MMO community can be a barren and unfriendly place. If you've ever frequented a gaming forum you will know that gamers, by and large, are not the most understanding of groups. They may seem to be a largely reward driven bunch, interested in self-advancement and self-preservation above all things. On the surface the MMO community is Gesselschaft in it's purest - only in it for themselves.

Having looked at the Guild Wars community of bloggers, contributors and other writers; having seen the effort they go to, the time they spend and the zeal with which they approach their work (for little to no reward), I really think Tonnies would call this a step towards Gemeinschaft.

PS. a couple of weeks ago, in an interview with Cornish, Tasha asked if he thought there was room for more bloggers in the GW community. I agree with Cornish that yes, the more the merrier. So, if you are considering getting involved I would encourage you to take the plunge (You don't have to start your own site, you could start by submitting a couple of articles to Talk Tyria or to me!). You won't regret it.

How the Dervish Lost its Whirl

Hooded against the hot Elonian sands they slash their way to the center of a pack, twirling their scythes in high arcs; cutting great swathes of opponents down like sheaves of corn. They bend sand, earth, dust, wind and even light to their will. They invoke the power of the six Gods to fill their bodies with divine energy; assuming the form of Godly avatars to further enhance their ferocity. With all this power at their disposal; is there anything the Dervish can't do?

Well, apart from make the transition from Guild Wars to its sequel, of course.

Why not? Almost all of the core professions (bar the obviously Monkly odd one out) have made the leap, and we can see elements of the Paragon in the Guardian, the Ritualist in the Engineer and the Assassin in the Thief. How is it that the Dervish has drawn the short straw? Aside from the gameplay balance considerations, there are also significant lore-based influences on the choice to leave the Dervish at home when GW2 comes out to play.

It is well documented that, following Nightfall, the Six Gods have been increasingly withdrawn from human affairs. A significant section of the human race have even began to doubt whether the Gods have any interest in humanity at all. In "Against the Wall: Humanity in Guild Wars" we can hear a snippet of conversation taken from a human settlement:

A: Just because proof is not immediately apparent, doesn't mean it's not there.
B: What prayers have they answered for you lately? What miracles performed?

It makes sense that, in a world where the influence of the Gods felt by the people is dwindling day by day, a class of fighter which draws its might from the power borrowed from the Gods would also begin to die out.Without the Gods there to fuel their enchantments, the Dervish is little more than a human in a skirt wielding a farming tool.

That is also a significant problem with the Dervish; their powers were drawn from ostensibly human Gods.
For the most part, the other races of Tyria accept the existence of the six Gods; the Norn see them as an extension of their Spirits of the Wild, the Charr see them as powerful beings, but focus mainly upon Melandru as the creator of the world, the Asura see the Six as another part in the Eternal alchemy. The only race not to have experience of the Gods are the Sylvari, but they've not really been around long enough to form an opinion on the matter. It is only Humanity which worships them as the six Gods which created and govern the world.
With this in mind, it would be very difficult to justify a player of another race abandoning their religious beliefs in order to follow the Six's guidance and become a Dervish. The Norn and Asuran religion is central to their race as a whole, it is difficult to imagine a Norn without their dedication to the bear spirit and you can hardly imagine an Asura going an hour without mentioning the Eternal Alchemy. Conversely, the Charr, following the events in Eye of the North, have rejected the influence of the Gods - having been burnt one too many times with their experience with the Titans and then with the Destroyers.

To force the profession to deal with all these competing influences would probably create a class which would, in attempting to resolve and incorporate each race's religious leanings, end up very scattered and without focus - which is certainly an end which ANet want to avoid at all costs.

The Dervish was a fun class to play in Guild Wars, and will certainly be missed by a significant number of players. ArenaNet are no doubt hoping that former Dervishes will find a new home with the Warrior or Guardian and will not feel too hard done by. If you still feel a little miffed about the loss of your holy-warrior, never fear, you may have missed this years West Country Scything championship, but there's always next year!