Support for New Bloggers

We all start somewhere. Why, I remember back in the day when I had to blog uphill both ways in the snow….

And it was deep snow.

History Lesson

I started this blog for GW because once upon a time a guild leader (who shall not be named) /ragequit his guild and banned people from the forums, thus cutting me off from pages of fan fiction and character stories that I worked hard on and naively stored only on the forum.

Lesson learned.

I kept a personal blog on livejournal, but it didn’t have the capability I wanted for a character-centric blog. Also, like myspace before it, people were leaving livejournal and going other places. So I followed.

If you’re a new blogger, check out the Newbie Blogger Initiative site. Mind the mess and watch where you step, it’s a new site and there are ads everywhere right now. I expect the site will be much prettier in weeks/months to come and as more and more “veteran bloggers” or “sponsors” make their way to the site, there will be more and more useful content to help people just starting out.

Advice from Belzan about blogging

Two pieces of advice today and prolly more down the road.

1. Find a site that meets your needs. WordPress was recommended to me by a friend, but there are lots and lots and lots of blog sites out there. I of course recommend WordPress, but Blogger, Xanga, and LiveJournal are all good places to start. The biggest question early on is: how serious are you? I’m a casual blogger and I use WordPress to host my site. You can generally do that for free, but you can also pay a small fee to host your own site. You get a lot more options that way. For now though, I recommend finding a site you like, posting, and tinkering with your options. If you’re really starting from scratch, do a Google Search. There are lots of quality how-to guides out there.

2. Share! Post! Comment! While I believe I write quality material from time to time, I wouldn’t have half the traffic or followers I do now if it weren’t for fellow bloggers. Hunter paved the road to my site in a big way back when GW2 was first announced. I stumbled upon his site and liked what he had to say, so I started following him and commenting. Soon he started following me. Then people started noticing he followed me and were like “cool, Hunter thinks this site is worth following, maybe I’ll check it out.”

Lather. Rinse. Repeat folks. Make connections and people will read your blog. Every time I find a blog I like I add it to my blogroll <–. I also write for Talk Tyria and people follow the breadcrumbs from that site to mine. The blogging community is just that–a community.

Why Blog?

ArenaNet’s take on the Guild Wars 2 community will change the status quo of Guild Wars fandom. Hundreds of fansites cropped up around Guild Wars covering every topic imaginable. With ANet’s official GW2 forum and official wiki, many of the fansites of old are likely to go the way of the dodo. A blog is a great way to offer your unique perspective on the game and on your interests. My interest is writing fan fiction and creating detailed character stories for roleplaying. And occasionally screaming from high atop a soapbox…. I write my blog because I feel like there are at least a few people out there who enjoy reading my stories. I write my blog because it is a place where I can write freely about what I want. I write my blog because I like to connect and communicate with others who are interested in the same things I am.

So feel free to start a blog and claim your slice of the internet. Share your interests. And explore other blogs. Sites like Newbie Blogger Initiative and events like GuildMag’s Blog Carnival will help you get started and help put eyeballs on your site. It’s up to you to make your blog interesting. Now there’s the challenge

Conventions, Naming Schemes, and Reinventing Oneself

Three topics. Here we go!

Gamescom and PAX

Arenanet has presented a lot of new information over the past couple of weeks at the yearly conventions, including a new video and a new demo. Most blogs have commented in the moment and picked apart some of the changes already, but I want to offer my opinion on some things that I found interesting. GW2Guru has threads dedicated to all of the new information. You can find a great collection of videos, articles, and tweets for Gamescom and Pax here and here, respectively (if you haven’t already found them yourself). Big thanks also to Karasu, MeWulf, and Elixabeth at Talk Tyria for posting about their experiences at the conventions. You can read what they posted about Gamescom and PAX starting here and here, respectively.

On with the blogging!

I think the Gamescom Trailer (here) was very well done. Great music, great “cinematic” video of the dragon boss in the demo, lots of great scenes showing off Destiny’s Edge. The latter half of the video is a lot of clips of skills, including those we’ve already seen, but there are several new ones including the necromancer elite skill Lich Form. Check it out if you haven’t seen it.

ANet is iterating several game mechanics including energy, dodge, skill acquisition, and traits. Energy has been removed and dodge has it’s own button now with the biggest limiting factor for both being recharge times. Skills 1-5 (weapon skills) are now acquired by using the weapon several times, rather than purchasing them from a trainer. I think this is a nice change and it looks like the grind factor will be minimal, which was the biggest complaint from fans. Also, they are currently revamping the traits system (this was discussed in one of the panels), but there is little info on what that means. I think it is tied into the skill acquisition stuff. Nothing major though.

All 5 races were playable in the demo, so there are a lot of videos of each race on youtube. In addition, character customization was implemented in the demo (it was limited, but still quite nice). I’m very excited about this and had I been at one of the conventions I’m sure I would have spent the majority of my demo time customizing my characters. There are several videos on the GW2Guru Gamescom thread that show this, but give Tigerfeet’s blog a read. She’s posting several pics of the customization options for each race as part of her extended “pelt watch” series.

PvP was a major showcase of both conventions. While this is not my forte or interest area, it looked pretty nice. It’s very FPS oriented and is similar to GW PvP. I’m more excited about the casual PvP of WvWvW where there are lots of people involved. If PvP is your thing, check out the Guru threads and see the videos there. ANet takes on a couple guilds head to head and Izzy shows off his mad skills.

What’s in a Name?

Changing topics, there has been an interesting discussion going on over on Hunter’s blog about “Guild Wars.” There has been very little information about guilds released so far and what we know can be found on the wiki. What I would like to highlight are the apparent lack of guild vs guild (GvG) and the discussion of how many guilds a player can join.

In my opinion, ANet needs to spend a bit more time addressing the name of the game. Yes, the guild wars are in the lore and are part of Tyria’s history, but they were history in GW1 with the Searing supposedly ending the wars. The only thing close to representing the name of the game in GW1 was GvG. By comparison, the MMO “Rifts” is about, you guessed it, rifts.

GW2 is about Dragons. It is about races coming together to slay dragons. It is about suspending racial hatreds and forming alliances. Perhaps there will be an emphasis on these alliances being called guilds, but they surely won’t be at war. The name “Guild Wars” has less meaning, in my opinion, without the guild emphasis, which is sad, since there are millions of people playing the game and waiting to play the sequel. Hunter wrote something that I agree with completely on the subject on a different post. He said: “I guess in the end its just a name that serves no other purpose, which is fine, I didn’t buy it for the name.” I personally would like the name to mean something, but if it doesn’t, oh well. I’ll still have fun playing it.

As for the number of guilds available to players, this is a feature I’m excited about. In GW1 you could have 1 guild per account and be a part of an alliance of up to 10 guilds. In GW2, you can be in as many guilds as you want. That’s my favorite part. No limit. You want to be in 8 guilds? Go right ahead. Have a guild for every gaming interest. Have a different guild for every character. Or, join one guild only, if that’s what you want. I plan on being in several guilds and maybe starting one of my own. It looks like there will be lots of goodies for guilds too, but we’ll know more on that later.

Belzan 2.0

Finally, I want to briefly talk Belzan. I am making several changes to Belzan and his story. He will be a very different character in GW2 and I’ll be writing a bit more of his lore in the coming months. This is in part an extension of what I’d planned to do with him all along and in part a response to some of the cool stuff I saw in the Gamescom/PAX videos. I will be posting a story that tells Belzan’s origin in the near future, as well as at least one post talking about my plans for him in GW2. He’s very old and there are many stories about him. Fæcce will separate truth from fiction (pun intended). Stay tuned.

The Wise Centaur

Written in the voice of Belzan Furu.

I knew the great centaur Ventari once. I shared a campfire with him in the Maguuma Jungle after outrunning and outwitting a group of White Mantle. He spoke of his race as a proud one and he and I debated the human-centaur war. I was a fool back then. Arrogant too. I saw the centaurs as a nuisance to be ignored or tolerated as we Krytans fought our civil war with the White Mantle. “Throw in with us or get out of our way!”

Ventari and Belzan under the Pale Tree

He helped me to see things differently. He helped me to see how foolish the human-centaur fighting was. We had common enemies and we once lived in peace.

I visited him twice more in Maguuma and once at the Pale Tree. We oft debated human and centaur relations and only now do I realize how wise he truly was. Now, as the Elder Dragons are bearing down upon the races–races who have long been rivals. Races who do not see eye to eye. Proud and narcissistic and arrogant alike. How will we survive against these forces of nature if we do not resolve our own interracial quarrels?

I was not there the day Ventari died. Indeed, I didn’t visit the Pale Tree again until it began to sprout its children–the sylvari. Curious creatures. Naive, inexperienced children in a lot of ways, yet they share the wisdom of the aged centaur who preached peace between the races. Very little is known about the sylvari and I have only befriended a couple of them. I have a feeling their insight into Ventari’s teachings and their understanding of the ancient lessons he scribed upon his tablet will be of paramount importance in uniting the races against the Elder Dragons.

As I said, very little is known about this young race of plant-beings. They are intriguing, mysterious, and, well, dangerous–the Nightmare Court especially. This week we will get a glimpse at their world, a peek into their culture, and perhaps gain a bit of an understanding of their motivations.

I for one am eager to see how Ventari’s teachings have grown and blossomed since our last debate. I will be posting an article later this week on Talk Tyria to discuss Belzan’s thoughts about the sylvari. I hope you give it a read.

RP is alive and well

I’ve been doing a bit of writing and a bit of reading lately. I’m keeping up with all the juicy morsels ANet keeps setting out in our food bowls. Yummy information. I haven’t had a lot of time to post lately because of RL commitments. Sorry folks. I’ve been thinking and creating, but haven’t had time to put it down on the computer.

I wanted to write a few posts about Role Playing. It’s been on my mind as of late and I’ve been giving thought to the creation of a guild for one of my characters. I’ve also been fleshing out my character stories in my head and working on a timeline for them between GW1 and GW2. I wanted to write about things to consider when creating a character, including values, goals, race chosen, profession, playstyle, etc…

…but someone beat me too it. And, really, did it better than I would have. And prolly reached a lot more readers.

The Guild Wars 2 RP Community has sprung up and made a home for RPers in GW2. The site offers lots of info about RPing including general guides and discussion about races and character creation. There is a forum I haven’t checked out yet and a list of GW and GW2 guilds (still growing). The forum includes The Elder Dragon Tavern which is a forum-based RP, which is something I have missed for a while now. Articles about RPing and a lore page that covers both individual character and guild-based lore rounds things out. Really, they did everything I had planned to do, but better and more socialized.

I know when I’ve been beaten

Anyway, go check the site out. I’ll prolly introduce myself there in a while. Also, check out some of the other sites linked there under Notable Resources and Fan Sites.

As it turns out, RP is on more minds that just mine. Izari posted an article on Talk Tyria discussing RP servers. I’m all for them and I know other games have done well including them, but I don’t believe they’re required. We RPers in GW have done just fine without them.

That’s all for now. I’m going to check out some RP sites and eventually get back to getting work done. I hope to spend more time blogging and playing GW real soon.

The Iterative Process, or “how we plan to bring you the best game possible”

[Originally posted on Talk Tyria]

Iteration, or the iterative process, is something ANet has discussed many times. It accounts for changes between versions of their games. Each GW update involves iteration and iteration accounts for the content and mechanic changes we see between GW2 status updates. Put simply, the iterative process is simultaneously responsible for what makes the Guild Wars franchise worth playing and what is delaying the release of GW2. Over the past years and coming months (I refuse to think of GW2 as over a year away) we have enjoyed teasers, concept art, videos, updates, interviews, profession reveals, and demos of GW2. One thing has remained constant about the information we receive about GW2: nothing is set in stone.

Isaiah “Izzy” Cartwright (left) and Martin Kerstein (right) at Gamescom in 2010 (from ANet’s Flickr)

Iteration in Guild Wars 2

Case in point, Izzy, that is Isaiah Cartwright from ANet, not our own personal Izzie here on Talk Tyria, posted an article today talking about changes to the attribute system and some of the skills we’ve seen in profession reveals and gameplay from PAX Prime. For details of those changes, give the article a read. Izzy was primarily responsible for balancing skills and other systems in Guild Wars, but now plays a larger role in the development of Guild Wars 2. He has talked a number of times about changes made to yet-to-be-released GW2 content and the above article talks about some of the content from GW2 that we are already familiar with, including some of the necromancer and warrior skills, that have changed since we last saw them. A quick example is the necromancer skill Grasping Dead which was changed from a line effect to an AoE. The skill video on the GW2 necromancer profession page is therefore outdated and incorrect–a constant reminder that everything is subject to change until, and after, the game is in the box and on shelves.

The aforementioned article focuses primarily on changes to the attribute system in GW2. The short version is that ANet is interested in simplicity and versatility regarding attributes. This is explained in detail in Izzy’s article. Here is a quick visual of the old and new attribute systems:

Attributes as we saw them at Gamescom and PAX

Attributes as we will see them at PAX East

Iteration in Guild Wars

The iterative process still plays a big part of the original Guild Wars game. A recent major update added lots of new features to GW and changed many others. It is under constant debate even here on Talk Tyria. The update can be boiled down into three major changes: 1) Parties/Grouping, 2) Pre-Searing, and 3) Titles. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Parties and Grouping

Embark Beach is a location that functions simultaneously as a guildless guild hall for the purposes of venders and a hub for Pick Up Groups (PUGs). It is accessible from the map like the major ports of each campaign (i.e., Lion’s Arch, Kamadan, Kaineng Center, and Great Temple of Balthazar) and allows every character to join groups who are interested in completing any/all missions across any/all campaigns. Of course, you can’t participate in mission you haven’t yet accessed in the game. The major purpose of Embark Beach is to help people group together more efficiently and cut down on group splitting (moving from larger to smaller areas and having to split the party up to enter the area because it only allows parties of 6 or 4 instead of 8). This will ideally save people time when working to complete missions and progress the game.

Seven (7) hero parties and Mercenary Heroes are another change for groups. This is primarily a change that will affect solo players, but is also a perk for people who want their alternative characters (alts) to be heroes. Seven heroes allows a player to make whatever party they want/need for pretty much any situation. Mercenary Heroes allow for people to have additional control over the heroes in their party and allows for truly unique parties of 4+ heroes of the same profession. It puts a whole new spin on Discordway for sure. Again, the benefit of additional heroes is to streamline the PvE process. For people playing GW once GW2 goes live, this will be almost a necessity considering GW will likely be a ghost town for sometime for anyone not seeking titles.

Pre-Searing

Pre-Searing got a nice shot in the arm. ANet provided an alternative to death leveling with daily quests. Now people can get Legendary Defender of Ascalon in a slightly more appropriate, if completely non-epic, way. Props to all of the death levelers out there with LDoA. Now I can go for the title because it doesn’t take hundreds of hours at the screen that I just don’t have. Additionally, now perma-pres (people who keep their characters in Pre-Searing permanently) can put titles in the HoM and have access to barred secondary skills from a vendor. Things are looking up for the past.

Titles

Changes were made to the Survivor and Drunkard titles. Everyone now has a second chance for Survivor based on the time span between the last time you died and reaching the XP requirement. This means that all of us old school GWers who made characters back in the day before Survivor can earn that title on those characters (FINALLY!). Also, there was a minor change to the Drunkard title that made it the same as Sweet Tooth and Party Animal. Essentially, use the item and get a point for it. The old way (the way I did it) was maintaining a “level of drunkenness” for one minute per point. That amounts to a minimum of 10,000 minutes sitting at the computer. Most people I know did this by playing the game regularly and occasionally clicking on the booze. I did it by watching season after season of Scrubs and clicking the button every three minutes on a timer while sitting in my guild hall. To each his/her own I guess. I’d personally love to have that time back. Additionally, there was the addition of Zaishen Vanquishes that encourage vanquishing. Despite the title and the minuscule rewards of XP and gold following a successful vanquish, this daily update allows for more significant rewards for killing all the baddies in a given zone. Incentive and reward: they’re what make the world go around.

Summary

Iteration, however, is what makes the GW world go around. Without it, the game would stagnate and become very unbalanced. Though we balk at game balance updates and skill nerfs, they are there for a reason. I wasn’t happy when they added a minion cap based on Death Magic and I was very outspoken with all of the changes to Soul Reaping, but in the end it made the necromancer more manageable and less of an overpowered energy and minion factory. We all have fond memories of the “good ol’ days” and times pre-nerf or pre-updates. They bring us together as a gaming community and give us something to talk about on the forums. Ultimately, however, the iterative process and subsequent changes make GW and GW2 better, more efficient, and more fun to play. And really, who doesn’t want to have more fun?