I am nearing overload like other blogger compatriots. Guild Wars 2 is haunting my dreams and is almost on every brain cycle throughout the day. Yet, I have no plan for the game. I am still undecided on my first character, although a small cut has been made. I have names though. Oh yes, my preciousss.
I was talking with a friend about our plans. He was rolling a sylvari elementalist, and another good buddy was going to be rolling a norn guardian. At the time a sylvari necromancer was my top choice for a character. Since then I’ve been trying out the engineer big time during stress tests to see if possibly it might be the fit. Oh, and I do love thieves so, but it was my main beta character. Do I re-tread that ground?
My poor friend was relegated to a much longer version of my woes, but eventually we got around to discussions on grouping up. It was easy to do so with waypoints, and unlocking other racial cities was doable in less than 15 minutes. We began to talk about when to actually explore those cities, and how we would share crafting responsibilities.
It all made sense on paper. Yet, it felt wrong. Why was I planning anything?
With the imminent launch it is so hard not to imagine play. This time it’s for real! My character’s decisions will matter. I will be stuck with their eye color. I cannot re-decide critical life decisions like my lost sister or dreams of the circus by going back. It became too much. I moved our conversation to generalities instead.
I will need to decide a final character’s race and profession before Saturday. However anything beyond that feels like I will be hurting the experience of just playing. I don’t know when I will hit 30, or when I will begin crafting. I have no clue if I will seek out points-of-interest or jumping puzzles, or save them for some rainy day. I don’t want to know either. I want to Just Play.
I decided, cutting off my friend, that I could not plan anything else. I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to either. I wanted to just walk Tyria to create adventures as I went, you know like Caine from Kung Fu. Guild Wars 2 supports this playstyle. I want to be present in the game world. I cannot stop to smell roses if I don’t even notice the flowers.
Instead, it is a much better time to dance. I am simply amazed at the amount of video content some fans recorded during yesterday’s stress test, which included the /dance emote. Here are a few of my favorites: All Dance Moves with Music!,  Just /dance, “Jumpin” Joe Maguuma and the Krytans, and Guild Wars 2 Sexy Dancing [Gangnam Style] Also be sure to check out Wooden Potatoes’ epic recounting of the lore of Guild Wars Prophecies. It is a great storytelling experience with new art. These are good ways to pass the time. Tick tock.
–Ravious
Haha, I’m having the exact same problem on choosing a profession. I’m stuck between necro, mesmer, ele, and engineer. I know ill make my first character an asura though. Their rofl emote is simply too adorable to resist.
Help me decide T-T http://mmoauthority.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/what-is-my-story/
I didn’t think I’d be affected until 24 hours before launch but the combination of the thrill of the new and the fact that I also have 10 days off work starting on the 25th is making the week drag a bit.
I agree on not planning, too. I’ve known since my first BWE that I’ll be playing a Charr Ranger so that’s sorted, and he’ll almost certainly be a Leatherworker, but beyond that I have no plans and no plans to make plans.
I really must decide on a name though. Don’t want to be sat at character select for 45 minutes on Saturday trying to come up with one as per usual.
I was completely sold with a Sylvari Elementalist…. until i saw the damn human dance….. soooooooo awwwwssssooome :D
Damn you ANET!!!! lol
After 3 BW and some stress tests, I have my decision. I will create, in that order:
1- a sylvari ranger (name reserved at GW1, I created a toon just for it);
2- an asura elementalist;
3- a drunk norn warrior;
4- a charr necromancer;
5- a human guardian, that will be a jerk worse than Logan.
And I hope that is enough, if that cover all races (if they make tengu a playable race, I will need buy slots…).
You will see me at Tanished Coast.
[okay, let me say it… my abstinence symptons are geting out of control, please let the pre-launch start soon, I need my fix!]
I wouldn’t worry, they always added character slots with the campaigns, I’m sure they will do the same with expansions.
They didn’t add one with GWEN if i am not mistaken. I do expect them to add one if they add race or class, but i kind of feel like they have change a bit in the last years…
I’ve been deliberately staying away from as much GW2 as I could. Even back in the mists of time when the HoM was announced for GW1, I didn’t even care one bit.
I haven’t made plans, my expectations are for it to be better than GW1, I remained well away from most videos regarding classes and gameplay… I’m gonna approach it with as much of a blank slate as I can.
I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts upon doing so, in that case!
*has read every ArenaNet blog post and a multitude of fan discussions for the last three years and could use some perspective*
Have names picked, but still a bit hazy on what I’ll be trying first, asura elementalist or charr necro are at the top of the list at the moment. Basing some of my choices on what cultural clothes are available, then again I could be boring and go with human, because most armour seems to turn out nicest on humans, the store bought Primeval armour as a case in point. Think sylvari will be the hardest to pin down, might put that off and see what other players come up with in game, deciding on the base skin colour, the skin pattern, the bioluminescence, and not taking into account the cultural armour that’ll blend with their skin, but those snapdragon wings for a sylvari mesmer look awesome.
I got a name, a profesion…but a race? I just can’t choose, they are way too awesome ^^
A)It’s seriously only Wednesday? Longest. Week. Ever.
B)Will definitely pay for unlock of better dances. Well played, Anet (although the humans in the disco (town?) clothes was kinda funny, that won’t last).
C)Yep. Still only Wednesday.
D) I don’t want to just walk the earth (Tyria) – want to RUN! JUMP! SWIM! FIGHT! HARVEST! SEE! DO!
E) Wednesday. Grr.
Agreed, Wednesday Thursday and Friday all just need to go away. Like, right now.
I need to come up with a few alternate names if I can’t nab some in time (the planned multiple word names are less of a concern, not even saved.) I’ve narrowed down planned characters. Only a few planned alts changed over the course of the BWEs. That’s the nice thing. Working out what did and didn’t work for me in advance so when it’s for real, it’s forever.
I have a long list of very specific plans for Headstart Day 1. Like, down to “watch Sylvari intro cinematic. Squee.”