Author: Ravious

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[GW2] Why the Guardian Matters

I think that Guild Wars 2 fans are going to be on a self-propelled roller coaster of excitement and energy until the guardian profession drops. It’s fun to speculate on upcoming Guild Wars 2 news with such focus, rather than trying to have a meaningful conversation about all the things we don’t know about Guild Wars 2. I am very happy that the guardian is the next profession of the four. I am much more likely to play a “mesmer,” but I think the guardian is more important in telling the story of combat and group dynamics.

With the few hints we know from concept art and the Edge of Destiny novel, the guardian is support melee. I’ll link the Edge of Destiny guardian breakdown over at Hunter’s Insight again because the article is so good. The guardian, as written, seems to minimize the effect of enemy’s attacks and control their movements. The profession also appears to have some sort of direct healing capabilities and may have assimilated a bit of ye ol’ ritualist profession by taking the weapon spells piece of the pie. Whereas the warrior profession has an offense-is-the-best-defense feel, the guardian well… guards.

Continue reading [GW2] Why the Guardian Matters

[GW2] Guardian Profession on the Way

PC Gamer created a bit of a hubbub within a multi-page article discussing the biggest PC games coming in 2011. Apparently they leaked the name of the fifth profession: the Guardian. I mean they were allowed to leak it by ArenaNet, but it was a very tricky maneuver by all parties. So the Guardian name was pretty much all but confirmed. Still, the community managers gave us a great gift by telling us that the official reveal will be next Thursday (January 27, 2011).

I love that ArenaNet is putting so much faith in the community by letting people know when an information dump is coming.  Says a lot, in my opinion. Going to be cool to see the second and last, what is assumed to be, soldier profession.

–Ravious

Parents on Parents

When parents want to give other parents unsolicited advice, it’s always to be a reminder rather than a preacher. There are simply too many unknown variables in the incredibly complex equation it takes to equal a family for an outsider to make many “laws of parenting.” Very good messages to start the new year with; just have to be careful about the delivery.

Anecdotally, my toddler (1.75 yo) used to give me raspberries on my stomach. I miss those since she’d rather stand on my stomach now (good for strength exercises) or give me a fist bump. I often wonder if I got enough of those raspberries.*

–Ravious
i know it was you, fredo

*Good parents already know the answer.

RIFT on a Short Sale

Small public service announcement: RIFT is on sale at GoGamer.com for $40 + $3 shipping until about the end of 1/19/11 in the states (~40 hours from the time of this post). Once you take into account taxes at the local Gamestop, it still should come out to nearly $10 in savings. I have to say that $40 for a game I will be paying $15/month for after that first injection feels like a much more comfortable price point than $50, but buyers will have to rely on shipping lag (as opposed to the instantaneous digital delivery at Trion, Steam, etc.).

–Ravious

World of Warcraft Player’s Guide to Guild Wars 2

There are still many misconceptions to the unreleased Guild Wars 2. Blogger-in-arms, Hunter, tackled many of these (especially the ones that irritated him) over at Hunter’s Insight. I’ve had this post in draft mode for awhile, and Hunter’s article finally pushed me to complete it.

So, you’ve heard about that Guild Wars game, and you’ve noticed that Guild Wars 2 is one of the most anticipated MMOs to launch. However, your digital home is World of Warcraft. Then this guide is for you!

Continue reading World of Warcraft Player’s Guide to Guild Wars 2

RIFT: Cthulhu Toolkit

I was listening to Massively Speaking yesterday where they interviewed Scott Hartsman, head honcho at Trion Worlds. It’s a great MMO podcast to even begin with, but it was also a great interview. One of my big concerns with Rift, coming off of a lot of play time during Beta 4, was the mushiness of the invasion system. Players need focus and sense, and the middle portion of the dynamic content system seemed to lose both. Hartsman eased my fears in the interview because he talked about how we were seeing the early use of tools in their dynamic content system, and there was a lot more to come.

Continue reading RIFT: Cthulhu Toolkit

Rift Overrun

As I go in to this fourth open beta weekend for RIFT, I have a overbearring question in my head. So many people are upset with languished tutorial zone and the themepark feel of the plethora of kill ten rats quests. What if those didn’t exist? What if I was just playing for the dungeon content, which I’ve heard decent things about so far, and especially the dynamic open world content?

That’s how I intend to play this weekend. I am going to roll a Defiant mage because I can roll through that tutorial really quickly. Then I am going to try and level and play with as much focus on the dynamic content as possible.

This dynamic war comes so close to the MMO I have designed in my head, I just wish it was not so tarnished by the lackluster quest system set in place, and I wish it was a tad more scalable, especially in early areas where small rifts open and are vanquished in less than a minute.

–Ravious
the dance of angry feet

10 Years of ArenaNet

It’s been a full decade of life over at ArenaNet. I can still remember anticipating their first offering, and getting way more excited than World of Warcraft (I did not like Everquest). I still remember seeing some of their first screenshots with the horrible-crafted trolls. I can still remember posting my first suggestion on the only Guild Wars forum at the time (I think it was The Guild Hall, but I can’t remember). I wanted to be able to have grizzled trophies of foes I had slain in my own guild hall. I suggested that if a guild kills 500 goblins, they could get a goblin head mounted by the fireplace. Sadly, it never made it in the game.

More importantly, ArenaNet is sharing their memories in this amazing video. I think with how Guild Wars 2 is shaping up, they will definitely have ten more.

What are your first memories of Guild Wars and ArenaNet?

–Ravious

Oh, the Controversy!

Pundits across the board must have had some soul-bearing New Year’s resolutions. No longer will they toe the line. They will say what they have to, goddammit! It seems that this was also the week to strike. The surprising thing is that most MMO blogs around the ‘sphere have been pretty tame when it came to 2011 predictions and 2011 posts. It has been the big gamesites that are deciding to no longer be kept down by The Man.  In no particular order:

Continue reading Oh, the Controversy!