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[GW2] Trangressive Characterization

I am obviously not reading the right sites because I have yet to find anyone really offended by Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet is not flaunting iconoclasm, and my expectations about levels of outrage are distorted by the current American election year, but GW2 is quietly doing some things about which folks have flipped out in other contexts. Continue reading [GW2] Trangressive Characterization

[GW2] Toys, Toys, Toys

These past few days have been ones of healing in Guild Wars 2. Yes I have finished up most of Kryta now with the 100% completion of Bloodtide Coast, yet I went at a more relaxed pace. I got my cooking and artificing up above 200 too. It’s been much more relaxed for sure. This is a good thing.

Another good thing, so far I’ve dropped $40 on Guild Wars 2. $20 was necessary because I wanted a 6th character slot on launch day, and then $20 was on a whim because I had a neat gift card from a rebate, and why not. Regardless, ArenaNet has created only the second game ever where I have had glee in throwing money at them (another sophomore game being the other). Continue reading [GW2] Toys, Toys, Toys

Defying the Sophomore Slump

Our blogging world has adopted Guild Wars 2 en masse. Orcs Must Die! 2 was an unexpected treat earlier this summer. Torchlight 2 will be out later this month, and I preferred waiting for Torchlight 2 to playing Diablo 3. Borderlands 2 is coming. Team Fortress 2 remains my go-to FPS, and it added PvE content earlier this year.

Like TF2, some games reached their defining points only in their sequels: Master of Orion 2, Diablo 2, Street Fighter 2, WarCraft 2. Second try’s a charm?

: Zubon

[GW2] The Gathering Economy

There seems to be a certain stereotypical perception on crafting in MMOs. I feel, right now, that Guild Wars 2 does not fit the mold. With minor adjustments a whole new economy has emerged. It has a lot of people wondering whether it’s a failure, success, or what. Conventional MMOs work on the basis that crafting is a smaller niche in gameplay. This is why I feel it is much harder for many to wrap their heads around the economy that Guild Wars 2 creates.

I would call Guild Wars 2 a gathering-based economy. Continue reading [GW2] The Gathering Economy

Dear Bookah

The lake is clearly the focal point of this landscape; it almost appears so well placed as to be artificial. I find myself easily slipping into the delusional state of ascribing purpose, deliberate motive to everything here. Was this Province formed during the moment of resurgence; when we erupted from the depths of Tyria and the chaotic energy broke through the air like a sol-plasma blade, did it first break surface then? A wonderful sight. The laboratory maintaining the distinction between the lake and the jungle. It casts a reflection across the water as if you had trampled through the order in untidy handwriting. Continue reading Dear Bookah

[GW2] Heartbreaker

Many Guild Wars 2 hearts ask you to collect or retrieve things. Somewhat breaking the logic of the hearts, you do not need to do anything with those. Picking them up gives you credit. You get more credit if you return them, but by the time you carve your way out of the bandit caves, your bandit-slaying has probably filled the heart already.

The game mechanics work just fine, but the logic is sometimes broken. Continue reading [GW2] Heartbreaker

Censoriousness and Circumvention

Victor Mair at Language Log posts about a Chinese news blackout, with online censorship that includes an inability to search for relevant terms. Such is the nature of running a search engine under a censorious government. The post is interesting for the means used to circumvent censorship through nicknames, references, and homophones. This last is especially flexible in Chinese, although gamers will be familiar with a great many ways to beat name and chat filters.

Commenter Jason observes: “China has a strategy of censoring just about anything, randomly and arbitrarily, which makes drawing conclusions about what’s important based on whether it’s censored or not a difficult proposition.” This is an exciting strategy, likely stumbled upon rather than by design (perhaps now intentional). Absence is meaningful when it is conspicuous, but it can be made inconspicuous through overuse. It takes an authoritarian regime to practice the strategy on that scale, but they have one. Someone in the Communist Party bureaucracy has the job of really serious theorycrafting.

: Zubon

[GW2] Re-Finding the Forest

I feel like I have played enough of Guild Wars 2 to review it, and yet I don’t even feel close to seeing everything. I have not done any PvP since launch yet for no good reason except the forthcoming. I am only level 55 with only the most western portion of maps at 100%. I have not done any explorable dungeon modes since launch. There is still so much to see and do.

Wooden Potatoes says that he feels that about 250 hours is when end game starts. I know I won’t even come close to that /age by the year’s end (unless I AFK me some festivals). I still have so much to see, and the training wheels have definitely come off. I feel like I am being pulled in a plethora of directions, and I am having trouble choosing which way to go. I’ve come close to 100% chasing burnout… Continue reading [GW2] Re-Finding the Forest

Dear Bookah

Those caverns diverging in the cliff face, I am sure, are nothing more than relics of another time, empty hollows, barren antimatter laid down for a final translocation. I wash the blood from my armor and grip my weapon ever more tightly, my shaking arms will barely support waylays with the Inquest against the lake labs, much less my gifts of guidance to you. Continue reading Dear Bookah