Although, like many of the casual hardcore club, I have kept my eyes on the prize of having a super-Saiyan Hall of Monuments simply because of the link between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2.  This goal has conflicted with more fun Guild Wars gameplay like the recent War in Kryta mini-campaign or the inefficient Fort Aspenwood PvP map.  Other things like Eye of the North reputations have slowly been built up, my Sweet Tooth and Party Animal titles are about to break 2,000, and I’ve been hoarding diamonds for the hopeful market jump.  With upcoming Hall of Monuments news, this might all change.

The biggest “sleeper” hit for Guild Wars 1/2 coming out of gamescom was, in my opinion, about the Hall of Monuments. This reward system would comprise a point-system to unlock the goody bags in Guild Wars 2, and the Hall of Monuments guide was coming to ArenaNet’s website(s) “very soon.”

Until this news hit, I was pushing for some openness, but now that the golden carrot is peeking over the horizon, I have to wonder.  I am reminded about the now-cancelled ABC series Flash Forward, which as bad as it was in parts (like the main characters and their actors), it was a decent mystery placebo for not having LOST.  The whole premise of the show is that the entire human population gets a flash forward of themselves in the future.  The daughter of the main character says that because of this flash forward there will be “no more good days.”

For better or worse, having the link between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 is going to have a big effect on how players will play Guild Wars.  It’s going to be a struggle between playing Guild Wars for the shiny Guild Wars 2 future or playing Guild Wars to… uhh, play Guild Wars.  This struggle has been present in the meta-conscious since the original Hall of Monuments announcement, but I feel that having an objective reward schedule will solidify the struggle in to a true meme.

Take the Guild Wars Beyond chapter the War in Kryta, for example.  There is very little War in Kryta content that relates to the Hall of Monuments.  The chapter was filled with new daily quests, some new mini-missions, and a nice story to push Kryta’s history towards Guild Wars 2.  There were even two new purchasable costumes that players could wear to commemorate this great addition to Guild Wars.  Now let’s assume we know all about the Hall of Monuments.  Would players be as excited knowing the hours they put in to playing War in Kryta was wasted for Guild Wars 2?  Would players be as excited to purchase the 2 costumes for $10 knowing that the $10 would never pay off for Guild Wars 2?

Of course, this is all my Achiever-ego talking.  The other three Bartlettes, and likely many intelligent readers, are scoffing at the struggle.  It’s a game.  Play to have fun.  If it is more fun to put in work to prep for Guild Wars 2, then do that.  If it is more fun to play through a well-crafted story, or do the dailies, or jump into some casual PvP, then do that.

ArenaNet’s decisions on the reward system will have the biggest effect on this Achiever struggle.  I am hoping that the top tier unlocks will be accessible to most dedicated players.  That way with a little effort a Guild Wars player can unlock all the Guild Wars 2 goodies, and then get back to just playing Guild Wars.  It will be interesting to see how much ArenaNet panders to the “elite.”  But, that’s an article to write when the Hall of Monuments article drops.  Until then…

–Ravious
echoes in eternity

HoM-rizon is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

Ghosts of Ascalon is the first of three planned novels for the Guild Wars universe.  The novels are meant to help tie the events between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2.  Ghosts of Ascalon takes place approximately a year before Guild Wars 2.  It follows the story of unlikely hero, Dougal Keane, a human with ties to the major human cities and the fallen, ghost-ridden Ascalon City, who leads a racially diverse group of adventurers to Ascalon City to retrieve a powerful artifact, the Claw of the Khan-Ur.  The retrieval will ultimately set the tentative peace between the bitter enemies, the humans and charr, we will see in Guild Wars 2.

The first thing I always notice in pulp fantasy fiction created for big IPs, like Star Wars or Magic the Gathering, is the quality of writing compared to fantasy novels written by, say, David Eddings or George R. R. Martin.  It seems that the writers and editors seem to ride on the IP to cover up any poor quality writing.  For example, I received a firsthand review of Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum, a Magic the Gathering novel, where the characters were flat and forgettable, the translation of game mechanics to story effects was poor, and ultimately a deus ex type wrapup was required to complete the story.  It feels that sometimes these fantasy IP novels are created as a product more than a story.  This was the extreme prejudice I brought when reading the Ghosts of Ascalon.

For this book, it completely shattered my pessimistic outlook.  The writing quality was absolutely top notch.  The dialogue was interesting.  The flow of events was kept at a steady, exciting pace, but not to the degree where the reader gets tired.  The characters had depth and growth.  But, what really stood out in my mind as expertise by the authors, Matt Forbeck and Jeff Grubb, in the use of foreshadowing.  It was used all over the place, but I did not completely see it until it was too late.  Then, I had my “ah”-moment remembering when, you know, the authors did kind of set up this thing a few chapters ago.  My one caveat is that as a Guild Wars lore freak, I cannot be a fair judge on the proper nouns description.  It is one big pitfall of writing under an IP because the reader may not be an expert in lore, and the writer will have to take time to describe some of the Things with Capital Letters to the less knowledgeable reader. The authors are sometimes forced to tell, instead of show, to try and get the reader up to speed on the lore.  Here’s an example from Ghosts of Ascalon:

“The Dragonbrand.”  Dougal breathed the word with horrified respect.
Soulkeeper nodded. “The curse the dragon laid upon the land stretched for untold miles in the direction of flight, coming from the north and reaching for the south.  Everything in its path had turned to crystal: the trees, the animals, even the land itself nearby.
“The worst part of it all is that the dragon didn’t care about the destruction it caused.  It was going elsewhere, on a mission known only to itself.  To it, the Dragonbrand, was worth nothing more than your boot prints are to you.  We might as well have been ants.  Everything I lost that day mattered to it not one bit.”

I tried my best to keep an impartial view on the descriptions, but I was pretty pleased and rarely bored with them even with my lore knowledge. Each description of Something Important was smudged with a little personal view by the character speaking. It was little things like this that made Ghosts of Ascalon soar above so many other fantasy IP novels I had read. The authors really proved that this was a work of love and not just some product to be sold under the Guild Wars name.

The story itself is a well-timed string of events and waylays, but the authors were very careful to put some downtime in between the excitement. In my mind, this just further showed Forbeck and Grubb’s expertise as writers because they took care not to tire the reader with too much conflict, action, or other Michael Bay awesomeness.  They kept the downtime interesting by adding a lot of character perspective that may have been lacking in a fight scene.  The book is a whirlwind tour that largely focuses on the human areas of Guild Wars 2 with a splash of charr.  The human cities Divinity’s Reach (the human’s Rome), Lion’s Arch (a racially integrated Tortuga), and Ebonhawke (last bastion of human presence in the charr-controlled Ascalon) are each visited, and the book ends in ghost-plagued Ascalon City.  I found myself envisioning from the descriptions what it would be like to, myself, visit those cities in Guild Wars 2.  This, as a quick aside, is a problem because for those anticipating Guild Wars 2 this book can raise the anticipation for the game to 11.

The characters are fairly distributed between the various playable races of Guild Wars 2.  The two humans and the charr take center stage, but the norn, sylvari, and asura are each given their stage time.  The first, and only time, I questioned whether the authors had gone from quality to pulp was when the norn, Gullik Oddsson, seemed to magically appear.  It felt for a moment like he was wedged in to the book to push the story (and racial equality) forward.  Not only was this explained in the next chapter, but this brash hero’s hero became one of my favorite characters in the book.  In an interview, Grubb said that they wrote each character so people looking forward to Guild Wars 2 would have a hard time definitively choosing a race because each one was so well-defined.  Each race is well presented, and on the forums I am noticing a lot of people taken to the sylvari character, Killeen.

Finally, the lore – the reason so many Guild Wars fans will buy Ghosts of Ascalon.  It does not really expand the lore so much as refine it.  It gives perspective on racial views, past events, and the current conflicts.  For example, the main character Dougal continues to note that he lives in “dragon-haunted” times.  It’s the emphasis on “haunted” that really shows that, to some, the dragons are not the immediate danger.  Kryta, the human nation, is noted throughout to have most of its problems coming from centaurs and bandits instead of an Elder Dragon.  Dougal also recounts the charr invasions of the three human nations (Ascalon, Orr, and Kryta), and he leaves out any mention that the charr also invaded Kryta.  Another example is that the charr view the human’s temporary, centuries old occupation of any part of Ascalon as an Insurrection, instead of a colonization.  The Ascalonian humans, 0f course, view it as their home.

I highly recommend Ghosts of Ascalon.  It was a great, fun read, and I am really excited with the two more novels coming to the Guild Wars world.  The next, Edge of Destiny, is rumored to be released this December.  The book stands leagues above many other fantasy IP novels that surround it both in quality and style.  For people interested in Guild Wars lore or Guild Wars 2, I’d say this book is a must have.  I can only hope that when Guild Wars 2 finally comes, the world and lore will be all the richer because of Ghosts of Ascalon. 

–Ravious
norness. nornitude.

Ghosts of Ascalon Review is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

The Battle for Lion’s Arch is the final conflict between the White Mantle with their mursaat lords versus the free peoples of Kryta lead by newly crowned Queen Salma.  Since heroes of legend (read: players) have been assassinating remaining mursaat in well-fortified keeps, the mursaat have decided to risk everything with an attack on the capital city.  With a win, Kryta is freed from the tyranny of the White Mantle, and Queen Salma creates the royal guard, newly named the Seraph Guard, which has been well noted in Guild Wars 2 lore.  A few new weapon skins are then available, and the bounties can be continued in the frame of a historical re-enactment.

One interesting possible lore conflict comes from the timeline in the free Guild Wars 2 book Ghosts of Ascalon preview.  The timeline claims Ebonhawke, the human citadel in southeast Ascalon, is established in 1080 AE while the Ebon Vanguard was recalled.  In 1088 AE Kryta unifies behind Queen Salma.  However, in game, Kryta “unifies” behind Queen Salma at the destruction of the White Mantle, yet Gwen, of the Ebon Vanguard, remains at the Eye of the North trying to find her love interest who was lost in the Battle for Lion’s Arch.  Gwen is one of the founders of Ebonhawke.  I guess it can be argued that Kryta will not completely unify for nearly a decade after the Battle for Lion’s Arch, but Queen Salma’s speech in 1079 AE (after the Battle is won) made that sound unlikely.  It’s not a huge deal, but it is a little surprising because ArenaNet seems to run a tight lore-ship.

Anyway, I actually ran the Battle for Lion’s Arch completely solo.  This is doubly difficult because not only did I have to rely on heroes and henchmen more than happy to sit in enemy AoE’s, I also had to take 2 level 10 henchmen that are not infused against the mursaat’s Spectral Agony.  I had planned on going with a friend, but he was nowhere to be found last night.  I am not sure he could have joined me anyway since he has not started any War in Kryta stuff.  I took an Aura of the Lich / Minion Master necro (me), a Signet of Spirits hero, a Panic hero, a necromancer / ritualist healer, the elementalist henchmen, and the monk henchmen.

The Battle is a defense against waves and waves of assaulting White Mantle and mursaat.  Players do not have to be the absolute frontline because there are quite a few friendly NPCs standing their ground.  They are mostly speedbumps that resurrect from time to time.  If the party dies, they are resurrected at Queen Salma to rush back toward the battlelines before too many speedbumps die.  Of course, if the enemy gets to Queen Salma and kills her, the quest fails.

The first bit was not too hard.  Waves of fleshy human White Mantle crashed against our wall of minions and spirits while being constantly interrupted by Panic.  There were a couple deaths with the level 10 henchmen when a group of White Mantle would warp right on top of me, but I was pretty confident in maintaining the battlefield.  Then the mursaat and their constructs started coming.  Minions were dying way too fast against the mursaat’s spectral agony, and enemy AoE spells were ripping apart our spirit walls (and dumb NPCs).  I was burning through consumables to keep my Death Penalty as small as possible because we were dying plenty.  The final wave with 2 mursaat (one of them a monk!) and a boatload of their constructs made it to the Keep’s doors.  Somehow we killed the mursaat monk because he was continuously interrupted by my mesmer hero, and I knew the fight was ours.  I came so close to defeat, which would’ve been a big deal considering all the consumables I used.

I feel very confident in saying that the Guild Wars Live Team has really hit a great stride with the War in Kryta.  The content that was actually playable, like the mini-missions and bounties were an excellent addition to the game.  I feel the next bit of Guild Wars Beyond will focus on Ascalon since a lot of hints like Kryta’s ambassador to Ascalon gone missing and the uncompleted Gwen love story.  It will be exciting to see.

–Ravious
zinnsational

Guild Wars – Battle for Lion’s Arch is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

These are well known in MMOs in the form of exclusive companion miniature pets from conventions or an exclusive cloak gained from contests.  One that is in the forefront of my mind are the Guild Wars festival hats (now with costume slot).  Last weekend was the 2010 Dragon Festival complete with a brand new Sinister Dragon Mask.  When worn about town in Guild Wars, it signifies for the world around, in the manner of the aforesaid t-shirt, that the player was out and about at the 2010 Dragon Festival.

The debate springs up in that players that went off to the Bahamas for the U.S. holiday will never be able to receive the Sinister Dragon Mask.  Players that did not pre-order Guild Wars Factions will never be able to wear a Tengu Mask.  And, with new festival hats for each of the five years of Halloween and Wintersday, it is very easy to have missed out on a favorite.  Those that missed out ask for something like Guild Wars costumes that can be purchased any time.  Those with the specific festival hats, appreciably, want them to maintain their exclusivity.  This debate springs up like clockwork nearly every Guild Wars festival.

A huge part of their charm is the fact they are exclusive.  I love pulling my Pumpkin Crown, the first ever festival hat in Guild Wars, out among the crowds during the Halloween festivities.  I don’t care if no one notices or appreciates my account’s age, wearing the Pumpkin Crown is nostalgic for me.  If everybody could purchase the simple festival hat for a couple bucks, it is unlikely that the Festival Hat Maker would ever create another Pumpkin Crown for me again.  The charm would be lost.  Instead of “hard earned” unlockables, nearly all of the festival hats would become mere notches in some invisible belt.

I do not have every available notch in my festival hat.  I believe I am missing 4-6 hats.  At the very least, I know I missed the festival hat payday of Wintersday 2006 with four festival hats dropping instead of the usual two.  It’s a double sting because it has the single Wintersday hat (out of 12) that I want for my head-banging necro – the Great Horns of Grenth.  As far as I know, I will never get it.

It’s so easy, though, ArenaNet!  Just put the Great Horns of Grenth up for sale at the in-game store for $5, and I can guarantee at least one sale.  You won’t have to pay for any artist time.  Oh, how a boy can dream.

In reality, the slope is way too slippery.  Festival hats seem like a good candidate for monetization because they are so widely available.  Players can nearly view them as an item available to all.  Yet, there is no good way to determine how much exclusivity can be sacrificed.  What about birthday miniatures?  Everybody can get a 5-year pet eventually.  How about an ultra-rare item skin with a drop rate zeros below the decimal place?  All the societal leech did was spend a month of straight grinding to get it.  There is no good way to determine how much exclusivity could be sacrificed to the microtransaction gods before the golden goose gets gibbed.

The best way, in my humble opinion, is to sell similar items.  The items should have shades of the same exclusivity of the original item, even if any perceived exclusivity would be false.  If anything this would increase the exclusivity of the original.  I wouldn’t mind a Guild Wars Festival Hats pack with a new take on some of the greatest hits (with a Great Horns of Grenth knockoff).  I’m sure there is a market for a Green Murloc Egg in World of Warcraft, and I am looking forward to see what buyable cosmetic items will be available in F2P Lord of the Rings Online.  Just leave my Cloak of the Dark Halls alone.

–Ravious
gift horse in the mouth

…Was This T-Shirt is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

The sylvari set her chin and concentrated on a patch of the bones lining the left side of the passage. She swung her arms and fingers in a complex pattern and spoke words that made Dougal’s head ache slightly. A greenish glow formed in the wall of bones and coalesced around a human-sized set of remains.

As Dougal watched, the bones detached from the surrounding patch and assembled themselves into a coherent skeleton. The deep-green glow, rather than sinew and tendons, held it together. The right side of its skull had been bashed in, and its jaw was missing, as was the lower part of its right arm, which terminated in a pair of jagged breaks. It stood before them like a servant presenting itself to its betters.

- Ethic

Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon – Excerpt is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

My unofficial answer: the shift-eyed asura already have ways to recombobulate DNA and shift for humans in the time of Guild Wars 1.  No reason a fair-skinned norn would not want to hire the Anatomical Engineer’s services because he is sick of being sunburned.  I know where I would get my inspiration for a black norn.  But, this is all kind of shirking the big issue.  Should character-based online games allow players of any skin color to replicate their skin (and hair!) color in game for any race (and by race we really mean species)? 

My answer is “no,” but it’s not that simple.  When the norn were created the Norse mythology was muddled with giantism.  Instead of a diverse species, such as the humans, the norn were a very homogeneous species with regard to skin color.  Lore wise, one can attribute the norn’s lifestyle in the cold climates to lack of skin pigmentation.  This is kind of stupid in reality, but that’s how the species was created.  ArenaNet created a species of white-skinned Norse-like giants, which is becoming a player race in Guild Wars 2.  If players want to be norn, then they should know they will be playing a white-skinned Norse-like giant.  Is it fair?

It goes both ways.  Wanting to play a white-skinned drow (dark elf) would be looking at it from a different angle.  The problem is privilege.  MMOs are created by and largely cater to fairer skinned people.  Take a look at most World of Warcraft human NPCs for example.  Guild Wars already is ahead of the curve in my mind because the human species in Guild Wars 2 is a race of Ascalonian (Caucasian), Krytan (Hispanic-like), Canthan (Asian), and Elonian (African) all mixed together, which mirrors our melting pot culture in the U.S.  However, in each Guild Wars 1 campaign, a player could play a Caucasian looking character.  For Guild Wars 2 though, I don’t believe every other Guild Wars 2 player race has to mirror our real world culture.

When I pick a species to play, I have to adopt the conventions the creators of that species set forth.  It does not matter whether it’s a Jamaican-accented troll in World of Warcraft, a bearded dwarf in Lord of the Rings Online, a dark-skinned drow in Dungeons and Dragons Online, or a fair-skinned Norn in Guild Wars 2.  Once conventions start breaking, the feel of the species starts to get muddled.  Therefore, I think that it’s the designers job at conception to make the conventions inclusionary to as many real world players as possible.  I am just not sure that the norn were not envisioned in this inclusionary way.  It will be interesting to see how ArenaNet responds in game.

–Ravious
i’m not racist, i just hate elves

The Black Norn is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

With the aftershock of E3, there has not been much in the way of Guild Wars 2 news.  There was a pretty cool article for lore nerds, like me, about the alphabets of Tyria, and how they will be a larger lore puzzle than in Guild Wars 1.  I don’t know what we are getting this week, but we are promised an upcoming article on Guild Wars 2 extensive voice work.  Going to be interesting to see what they have to say above and beyond their voice actor video based on the trailers.

Otherwise, Guild Wars has been at the top of my gaming charts.  I have been happily assassinating the remnants of the mursaat race and various White Mantle allies in the War in Kryta updates.  We seem to be getting close to a culmination, and I am very interested to see where they take the Guild Wars Beyond campaign. I am also coming extremely close to beating all the missions in the Prophecies campaign on Hard Mode.  My goal is to hit 20 max titles by the time they announce the Halls of Monuments rewards for Guild Wars 2.  Going to be a tough one on my end though.

–Ravious
were the stuff of legend

Guild Wars on the Front is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

Surely the marketing people understand the gravitational pull of a content explosion.  Everybody has already got World of Warcraft’s next expansion on the radar even if they don’t play.  Even the MMO whipping boy du jour, Age of Conan, received a lot of positive attention from across the board with its latest expansion.  Yet, I wonder now having a library of MMOs, where no sub is necessary, if such a content explosion is necessary or even the best option.  To get subs back, a content explosion’s gravity might be necessary to overcome the activation energy required to pull out a credit card and resubscribe, but what if the player could simply log in.

The reason I am writing this is in large part to the War in Kryta chapter of the ongoing Guild Wars Beyond campaign.  In the past ArenaNet would launch the content with huge fanfare.  A campaign would be a complete box, buyable in store, filled with missions, skills, and a world-saving story.  Now, Guild Wars Beyond is going to continue running conceivably for as long as people want to play and support Guild Wars.

Each week or two the War in Kryta updates with another small piece of the puzzle.  Many times the patch notes leave it up to the community to find the new content through an in-character announcement.  Regardless, the game feels consistently fresh throughout its multi-month run of the War in Kryta (and we seem to be just getting to the good part).  Even if the content is a couple cut scenes or new mobs with no quest related to them, the community seems to respond positively to this activity.  This keeps people checking in on a regular pace and continuing to be part of the community rather than shelving the game for the next huge content explosion.

The aforementioned World of Warcraft has also been doing something slower, yet similar, with their time-locked dungeons wings.  When, for example, Ice Crown Citadel was released it dropped with, I believe, one wing open.  A couple weeks later another wing opened, and so on.  Although there was a lot of fan outrage at Blizzard artificially slowing raiders through progression, I think Blizzard’s method was really smart.  The drip of content kept people talking and playing fresh content, and it kept players around to see what would be opening up in a couple weeks.

There is a danger, though, which is an issue in Guild Wars War in Kryta story.  If content drips through in a weekly fashion rather than a content explosion, the devs should make sure that there are means to get a player up to speed.  It’s one thing for a dungeon wing to open every two weeks, but it’s another to add things to completely separate zones with little connection across those weeks.  Thankfully, forums and fan guides help, but those that use the resources are a lucky few.

In a perfect world, I think both a content explosion coupled with a content drip would be the best option.  It seems more and more that the roar from the content explosions collapse all the more quickly as veteran MMO players tear through the intricately designed content like a one-year old’s first birthday cake.  And, then comes the waiting period for more content, which breeds, in the worst cases, negativity, speculation, and a feeling of abandonment.  If small changes and additions became the norm instead of waiting for “patch day” a constant thrum of player involvement might be better in the long run than a loud, short-lived spike.

–Ravious
he keeps me in a bubble, so I swam away from home

Content Drip is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

–Ravious
were I as tedious as a king

Guildcast’d is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

For the uninitiated, the Guild Wars Beyond campaign is a series of updates occurring this year that will advance the story of Guild Wars towards the story in Guild Wars 2.  The first part is the War in Kryta dealing with the destruction of the White Mantle religious sect and the Krytan reclamation of the throne.  In Guild Wars 2, it appears that there are two main human bastions: Kryta (country) and Ebonhawke (fortress), and the founding characters of the two bastions are acting now in the War in Kryta.

This weekend, I heard there were new bounty quests to kill White Mantle bosses similar to those that have been experienced with the Zaishen bounties.  There are even new War in Kryta rewards.  I stepped in to an updated explorable area, and a temporary ally dropped down from the trees to join me. I could see a White Mantle blockade just ahead, and already I have felt more a part of the world than ever before.  There was no accompanying quest to trigger all this activity.

Around the forums there are many comparisons to the announced Guild Wars 2 event system and the War in Kryta content.  I find the similarities fairly apparent (considering limitations of Guild Wars 1 tech).  The explorable areas randomize and shift to give the feeling that things are changing.  There have been bits and pieces of this feeling throughout the official Guild Wars releases, but never to this degree.  I can only ask “why did it take so freaking long?”

ArenaNet’s current design philosophy of “explore and experience” are not without problems.  As I believed, the checklist explorers are doing their best to unravel the knot of events to catalogue and to share what feels like a more personal experience.  The results look iffy on paper even if great in gameplay.  I can only imagine the flowchart for a Guild Wars 2 map filled with dynamic events.

The War in Kryta is still evolving towards, what many believe, the big showdown.  We already have Krytan White Mantle hiring thugs from regions beyond Tyria.  The Shining Blade forcing asurans at swordpoint to find a weakness in the Mursaat’s magic; whereupon, the asurans go ahead and take a dead Seer and apply their own brand of magic to the powerful creature.  Princess Salma reclaiming the Krytan throne, and a Krytan ambassador going to beg to Ascalon for help.  It’s going to be very interesting to see how the Guild Wars Live Team wraps this all up!

–Ravious
enter quietly into the realm of genius

War in Explorables is a post from: Kill Ten Rats