Author: Ravious

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[GW2] The Appeal Brief

If you find that you’ve been caught red-handed with an exploit in Guild Wars 2, here is some good data on the success rate of various appeal inquiries:

Players who wrote, “I’ll delete the items,” are getting their appeals approved. Players who wrote, “f— off, I’ll see you in hell before I delete these items,” are not getting their appeals approved.

~ MO (via Reddit)

It might also help more if you learned to say sorry.

In other news, be sure to check out this truly fantastic jumping puzzle guide at Hunter’s Insight. The fact that he tries to keep it puzzle spoiler free and just wants to get players to the beginning is a really good idea.

–Ravious

Dear Bookah

I would leave you theories, outside your retreat, in this interim space between order and chaos. I would leave you gems and data vessels, but the data vessels have become corrupted and I have run out of gems. I would warp you back to the Mists in a transparent energy shell but I fear we would both be driven mad by the etchings of boundless energies.  Continue reading Dear Bookah

[GW2] Questless Side-Effects

Going through the PvE zones at a calmer, realer pace is an eye opener compared to the brief periods of play I had before launch. The questless design is simply a different animal than a quest-based MMO. I wouldn’t say that one has victory of the other, but I do know that I am having more fun in Guild Wars 2 than I’ve had knocking out all the quests in a hub and then moving on.

The biggest side effect is the “who cares” effect. I am not fighting for resources or time against other players anymore. We are not racing to the shiny moss or seeing who can tag the respawn first. I am just about to kill a centaur and Joe Bob Ranger runs up and hits it for a few shots. I know he will get experience and loot, and who cares. Some people still do, it seems, as I’ve seen a few chat occasions where players whine about leeching.

For the most part open world PvE can be played “solo”. Ignore downed players. Don’t join events. Play how you want to. The game, I feel, is a lot more fun when my actions do respond to the nearby players. If I see a player taking down a normal mob, I will help out. I may have only saved that player a second or two of their time, but I also get an easier pass at experience and loot. Not a bad tradeoff. Continue reading [GW2] Questless Side-Effects

Dear Bookah

Dear Bookah. I have lost track of how long I have been here, and how many visits I have made overall. Certainly, the labs are now so familiar to me that I have to remind myself to actually see some useful structure instead of a few slabs of rock housing a few more idiots. I could stumble in to these labs and easily fix their problems as if in hindsight. Perhaps time is nonlinear here repeating everso with problems that will never be solved. Besides, I have always considered that if one is to progress, it is critical to help those of lesser intelligence. Continue reading Dear Bookah

[GW2] The Battle for Wychmire Swamp

Each race’s starting zone has a capstone meta-event that ends the zone in a nice bang. Of the five, I have played every one but the asuran one. The sylvari starting zone finale, The Battle for Wychmire Swamp, is by far my favorite. It also provides a really good starting point for what to expect as far as open world “raid”-like content.

The meta-event kicks off unassumingly when the Nightmare Court (evil syvlari) attacks a small warden encampment, Falias Thorp, in the swamp. After the camp is defended, Gamarien pokes his head out and asks players to escort him as he checks for more Nightmare Court activity because he believes that some summoned husks are harbingers of a greater foe. The summoned husks are tree-like elementals clearly twisted by nightmare. Then players escort Gamarien in a loop around the swamp to eventually land near the center, where chaos begins and Gamarien flees. I would call these first two events, the defense event and the escort event, the prelude to the battle. Continue reading [GW2] The Battle for Wychmire Swamp

Dear Bookah

Dear Bookah. You bookahs don’t waypoint here anymore; I’ve noticed that this year, you seem to shun the place. Maybe it’s the genius of the asura coupled with our sheer force of unbridled will to tame this tarnished coast. Perhaps it’s me. When he first travelled here, Drojjenny wrote that the jungles were filled with the chaos of magic and life and bookahs seeking the druids lived in this jungle. A hundred years later, even they have departed. Continue reading Dear Bookah

[GW2] Creating Community by Serving Crow

The other day on Reddit’s Guild Wars 2 page, a discussion was had about a Guild Wars 2 Guru forum thread about the three-day bannings regarding names and speech. Most of the smarter comments with people that wrote like they knew what they were talking about seemed to suggest that there was little difference between a stonewall ban using form letters and writing a personal “This is why you were banned” letter. I tended to agree.

ArenaNet decided that it would be better to air some dirty laundry. The effect? It appears that they are reinforcing how they want their community to be, and people appear to be rallying behind them in force. I won’t reiterate them here, but a few are absolutely golden. The way ArenaNet presents them is so deadpan. “Name: OK Chat: Not OK [some horrible thing where your mother would slap you until you bled].

I realize that different people have different jobs. For instance the valiant(s) behind ArenaNetSupportTeam are not the people fixing the Trading Post. Still, I was initially amazed that they could spend the time checking into people’s accounts, and responding so publicly. Hopefully what this really does is give a few more people pause before making a character based on something crass.

At the same time, ArenaNet Zeus, Mike O’Brien made sure to clear the air that the first player to reach level 80 did so with ArenaNet’s good graces. It’s interactivity like these that makes me an ArenaNet fan. I can’t wait until the Guild Wars 2 forums open up. I expect a lot of good developer interaction.

–Ravious

Dear Bookah

Dear Bookah. I sometimes feel as if I’ve given birth to this Province. Somewhere, between the verisimilitudes of the jungle and geodesic batteries a split opened up and order evolved here. No matter how hard I ponder, Metrica Province remains a singularity, an alpha point in my life that refuses all hypotheses. I return each time making my mark in this zone that I hope, in the blinding glare of my genius, will have blossomed into progress beyond this anomaly.  Continue reading Dear Bookah