[GW2] Asura: The most badass "MMO shorties" ever?

Gibberlings / Gnomes / Taru-Taru

Most traditional MMORPGs with a classic race palette feature them – just as much as they struggle with them, too: short folk. Put in to create racial and character diversity which is usually lacking in customization menus (you cannot create seriously short characters yourself), many MMOs still fall horribly short (!) with their portrayal of short races. In fact, heavy cliches will often overpower the whole purpose behind racial diversity, completely.

Let’s take Allods’ Gibberlings as a first example. One of the most original attempts ever made in an MMO, namely to make the player character appear as a group of three with individual customization and name for each, falls flat on its nose by serving every conceivable stereotype associated with short and therefore less intimidating people. Or as the Allods Wiki describes them:

The Gibberlings are creatures from a destroyed part of Sarnaut. Due to their curiosity, peacefulness and friendliness, they quickly adjusted to the new conditions. They are trusted, reliable friends for their allies and a dangerous foe for those that don’t take them seriously. However, unlike other races, they have no ambitions for this world. Their greatest desire is to return to the times of Isa, when the whole world was open to them for exploration. Will the Gibberlings find a way to be as happy as they were before, or will they think of something new?

The only bone thrown towards the Gibberlings’ prowess is that they’re “a dangerous foe for those that don’t take them seriously”. Oh, wicked! That aside, they are everything you can expect from a friendly, inherently good and physically weak civilization: they have no ambitions, are great pals and wanna explore the world in peace. Ahem…too bad you’re also supposed to pick them for your alter ego in a game mostly revolving around war and combat! Who feels like picking the Gibberlings for battle when they also happen to be all furry cuteness, big eyed with a goofy gait? Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re adorable but that’s about it.

Next up, World of Warcraft’s gnomes. While directly ripped off the awesome gnomish races of engineers established in classic D&D storytelling, I’ve never been a fan of the presentation of gnomes in WoW – despite the odd crazed and power hungry NPC persona among them. Gnomes are no doubt cunning and smart a people, but they’re also awfully cute; freaky hairstyles and colors aside, they come with the classic baby-face effect, a-sexual bodies and childish voices. They appear as infantilized humans when they should be an original race in their own right.

To complete a trio, let’s consider the Taru-Taru of Final Fantasy XI online. A race of powerful magic users, Tarus live in a peaceful and lush Forrest town, deeply devoted to their studies. Unlike other races, they are unable to age physically, they look and move like children, come with a cute button nose and have been referred to posses “chipmunk-like” attributes.

…I think we are getting the picture. No need to continue with Hobbits or other races from the classic fantasy genre. Obviously we are dealing with a stereotype that could be called positive racism – at least as far as the magical or intellectual capabilities of all these races go. And while we do get a degree of stereotyping for most races in classic MMOs, I still need to ask why in fictional, magical worlds especially, small statures must equal a cute, friendly and nerdy personality?

Enter Guild Wars 2: Asura

To follow up my question, I am not opposed to cute or peace-loving characters in MMOs (paradox as it may seem in places…), or even entire races/cultures. What I do object to however, is that the great majority of these characters are also short folk. Surely in a world of powerful magic, body size is not exactly a limiting factor? And how come that traits like being nice and cute are automatically associated with being little? If you follow that train of thought, you’ll end up at the underlying suggestion that having a tall, athletic physique leads to aggressive or evil behavior, whereas a lack thereof takes that choice away and somehow forces short people to be friendly people.

Can the MMO genre not outgrow the idea of small folk as human children already? Add to this that in most games, the short race is always on the good/alliance side if such exists (in WoW too goblins were a neutral faction a long time before getting added to the horde). Why should short races not be inherently evil? Badass, scary and intimidating? Aggressive and combative even? Well, a first and second look at Guild Wars’ Asura has me filled with hope in this department. Already briefly featured in GW1, many players like myself currently waiting for GW2 will not have encountered this unique race before. By no means innovative on every account, a few aspects stood out to me when checking beta reviews and footage. The Asura do come with the same associated knack for technology and study as gnomes in WoW, but that’s where the similarities end.

For one thing, the Asura are not your standard aww-inspiring staple shorties; there is something very uncanny, almost creepy about their facial physiognomy. Indeed, the Asura are about as cute to me as the tooth fairies in the Hellboy movie. It is remarkable character design that evokes such feelings despite the small stature, big eyes and floppy ears. The pointy teeth undoubtedly play a part and then there’s many arrogant looking or grumpy stares to be found in their character creation. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like pinching an Asura’s cheek!

Spot the cute Asura!

Naturally, there will still be some cute asuran faces, especially for the females (shocker) which is why I included one in the above picture. However, these appear to be a minority. It gets very obvious that cuddliness is not the standard overall theme for this race. Many Asura look angry, superior or plain ugly – and unlike some players have commented on GW2 Guru, I happen to love it!

I also welcomed the information in an article on Talk Tyria (which beat me to this topic!) that introduces Asura as a very competitive culture, haughty and dismissive towards everyone else to the point of plain racist. There exist dark ambitions within special factions among them (called Inquest), displaying amoral and cruel behavior. The entire article is a very interesting read, especially if you happen to love your lore and roleplay. I also quite enjoyed reading ANet’s developer commentary where Heron Prior talks about the challenge of creating a less boring and fresh look for their shortest race – and how difficult a task this was considering the overall more realistic character design of GW2.

He also mentions that the Asura were given a clumsier movement style to counter their arrogance with an overall “more endearing” feel. I can understand how this choice is unpopular with some GW1 players. From their point of view, the original Asura have been softened down or goofed up to appeal to a wider audience in GW2. Having not played GW1 myself however, they are still one of the most refreshing races in the game, the most badass short race I’ve personally come across and at the very least, the most well-balanced one compared to other games!

For the very first time ever in an MMO am I actually considering playing a shorty; they’re a very close second to my already announced Norn crush. I will definitely spend some time on creating an Asura alt when GW2 finally launches, they are pure win!

Is ArenaNet suffering from Blizzard angst?

It’s an old tale that MMO developers will constantly eye their competition with worry where release dates are concerned and that they withhold or adjust new launches depending on who else is in the race the same year. Frequently, it’s been Blizzard that’s been accused of stalling the entire industry; the reason why Age of Conan did so badly, the reason why Rift was delayed, the reason why SWTOR took so long…..et cetera. You can find a forum discussion for them all. No matter what, somehow there’s a WoW expansion or other Blizzard culprit behind it.

…Or isn’t there?

I generally eye such claims with much skepticism. However, the whole argument was revived for me when reading this insistent comment by Doone the other day:

“I’m holding out hope for Arenanet, but they’re even more vulnerable than ever: their lack of reliable release date lies in their fear of Blizzard making plans to absolutely crush them by releasing something from their stock simultaneously. I’ve also written recently on this point too: Blizzard is releasing every game IP they own THIS YEAR. You think that’s coincidence? Arenet is being held by the neck because of this. They want to be sure they can drop their game when it’s not competing with a Blizzard title, and this is even more true because their game doesn’t profit from subscriptions. It only has a chance in hell of making money if players are playing (item shop). The stakes are too high for them”

Now, I don’t doubt that game companies would engage in market analysis and politics when potential multi-million profits are involved; but just how realistic is it to “blame” Diablo III or MoP for ArenaNet’s current release date hesitation? Is it really wise to attribute that much power to a single factor or aren’t we entering the realm of conspiratorial speculation at this point? For what its worth, here’s ArenaNet’s more recent, official statement on the matter:

“No, we won’t. It’s not like we have a secret release date and we’re not telling you. We meant what we said: we’ll release the game when it’s ready. And beta testing is where we find out if it’s ready.”

That’s pretty much the reply we’ve heard for a year now. It’s ready when it’s ready – an applaudable approach too. One we can still believe though?

I’m not an MMO developer or publisher, so I cannot make judgements on why/if ArenaNet would be under severe Blizzard angst right now, any more than the other way around. What we probably can say is that GW2 looks very ready and its launch seems imminent. Nobody is under the illusion that the pre-purchase betas are going to serve much testing purposes. It’s safe to say too, that it might prove tricky to find a perfect “launch gap” when trying to dodge major releases this year. But aren’t there many more factors at play and stake when it comes to finalizing MMO release dates? You know, on the development (final polish) or administrative side (servers, retails, community management etc.) of such a great undertaking? And how much power does truly lie in such launch timing, anyway? Maybe ArenaNet are simply looking to push the hype on for a few more weeks? This too would seem plausible to me.

I’d really like to hear more opinions on the matter. When do you think GW2 will be released and is there any close connection to Diablo III (due May 15th) or Mists of Pandaria which coincidentally is still missing a release date too? Personally, I still believe we are looking at late June to July for Guild Wars 2, fingers crossed.

Could we please NOT have targeting highlights!

I hated them in every MMO I’ve ever played. Still hate them bigtime whenever I’m playing Rift.
I mean, just look at this!

Can you see me NAO?

What is it with the white frame all around my target? I have eyes and a target window popping up – I can already see what I got targeted! It doesn’t matter if they are white, green or any other shade; full-body target highlights are obtrusive, ugly and unnecessary!

I am extremely bugged by this type of visual aid in MMOs. I already have a UI with floating symbols, bars and buttons overlaying my illusion; do I really need the immersion destroyed further by bright highlights all over targets, myself included? Am I dealing with people, NPCs and mobs or RTS style units?

There are a few games that handle this more delicately, with a faint shadow or ring on the ground, maybe a brighter name-tag. It’s obviously a big deal for PvP especially, although one could argue that players should just learn to tell opponents or aggressive mobs apart themselves without a visual crutch. Brave adventurers that we all are, we can’t seem to go anywhere without our GPS, quest markers and target highlights…..

Why am I bringing this up now? Because I really do hope Guild Wars 2 will let you switch it off! There’s not just a target ring on the ground and a floating arrow above, but apparently also full scale highlights in different colors for targeting/mouse-hover:

Yikes! A target window is all I need. Add a shadow if you have to – but enough with the highlight disco already! I guess this is the perfect time to name my top 5 UI gripes in MMOs:

  • Bright and colorful target highlights
  • Sparkling quest objects or areas
  • Quest/event markers and paths on the map
  • White/yellow/green/red NPC state indicators
  • Chat bubbles (eugh)

…and pretty much every flavor of not so subtle hints and themepark rails. I know, this ain’t the real thing, I know I’m not really a fire mage but please – please let me delude myself as far as choosing my own path and knowing my own targets will go, thanks!

Weekend challenge: Guess the MMO UI!

Is it just me or has the blogosphere been rather full on strife and negativity of late? Damn all item shops, ME3 ending drama, the EVE Online controversy….and pretty much every flavor of “what devs do wrong and why they all suck”-type of posts. I’ve raised so many eyebrows lately, my eyes start feeling a little sore. I suspect some are burned out from playing old games or bored waiting for new ones. That’s usually the phase when MMO players are a particularly edgy bunch. I remember waiting for the next expansion in WoW – not a good time for raidguilds either.

Well, whatever it is – I think it’s perfect timing for a QUIZ! In my first weekend challenge, I asked people to find the name of five MMO developers in a rebus. It was immensely entertaining to create and despite being pretty difficult in places, some readers did an impressive job at being creative and figuring out the correct answers. In case you’ve missed that first challenge and love quizzing and wordplay, here’s the link (don’t read comments if you still want to take the quiz).

High time for the new game! This time around, I present you all with a mixed pictures challenge and the topic is, you guessed right, MMO user interfaces. MMO players can spend years on end looking at the same UI – windows, bars, icons and maps. Every UI comes in slightly different colors and shapes, but in terms of functionality most games will copy what’s worked for years. So…just how well do you think you can tell them apart?

How-To: The following SWTOR screenshot contains a total of 12 common UI elements from many different MMOs, old and young. I’ve mixed them up and worked them into a new, completely fictional interface. Your job is to guess them all correctly and be specific about what item belongs to which game. Like last time, I won’t acknowledge any correct or wrong answers in the comments until someone has succeeded to name everything correctly. As usual, eternal fame & glory goes to the winner!

Happy guessing and apologies to the UI-modders!

(click to enlarge)

Wanted UI elements:
1. Main game menu (bottom left)
2. Chat window
3. Stat window
4. Character & target frame
5. Buff bar
6. Mini-map
7. Quest tracker
8. Side bar
9. Bag
10. EXP bar
11. Action bar
12. Cast bar

GW2 pre-purchase ponderings

So there it is at last, lying on my desk. Things are getting more tangible. A white sober DVD case – nothing fancy. Very under-statement. It’s shockingly empty inside, just a card with a serial key telling me to go online and register. Not sure why it comes with the standard case at all, staring at me with a naked eye but there you go. Beta weekends, three days headstart is all I need to know. First time I ever paid for an MMO that doesn’t even have an official release date yet. How odd! But then, I didn’t know either how great the LotR movies were gonna be when I bought out two complete theater rows for the EU premieres several weeks in advance (every year!). I knew my friends were going to be there though; that tends to have a reliably positive effect on one’s enjoyment. There’s also an oddly lackluster trailer full of old footage. For once the goons on youtube got it right. Not that anyone cared.

On the beta weekends

Some players stay away from the beta for spoiler reasons but I’m way past that stage. Not sure what I could possibly spoil at this point; the game is as overdue as a Swedish bus and I just want to FINALLY see something for myself. The only thing the WoW beta did for me was confirming what I already suspected, along with exclamations of “omg I want moar of this!”. I can’t wait for end of April now. I’ve watched too many videos by other people. As for bugs – bugs don’t bug me. There’s something strangely nostalgic about them.

On playing GW1

I’ve wondered briefly whether to follow other players in giving the first title a go. There’s the wait time until release and it might not be the worst idea to have a quick look at GW1. Not sure what it can truly teach me though – aren’t the dissimilarities going to be a lot bigger than anything? I’m still undecided whether I should really expose my eyes to this ancient predecessor. Feels more like spoiling for no good reason to me. The real deal is still out there and in desperate need of an ETA.

Time to part

As I worry about my dated PC specifications a little (will I be able to play in PvP battles of 300 people with a “WoW machine?”), it’s definitely time to pull the plug on an old love. Disc space is running low and it feels strangely well timed: good-bye WoW, time to uninstall. It was fun for a very long time, thanks! I’ll keep the screenshots folder. May GW2 be worthy of your passing. May it bring us new stories and epic memories.

We are waiting. (And definitely prepared!)

P.S. Priest T5 and Anathema forever in our hearts!

Tunes of Magic IV – Indie Edition

This is the fourth chapter of an ongoing series on amazing video-game soundtrack and tunes. 
Previous posts featured on MMO Gypsy:

Delving deeper into the world of indie games over the past couple of months, it struck me how much love and creative spirit can go into games that may never reach a wider audience. Granted, many indie games are worth forgetting (just like games in general) – but those we like to remember are rare and precious gems sticking out of the grey mass of average shelf-huggers and annual top titles from big labels.

In many ways, playing indie games reminds me of my early console days; sessions were as immersive as they were short. What games lacked in technical polish or scope, they made up for with heart, care for detail and memorable stories and characters. And then, the tunes….who could ever forget the tunes?

The multi-platform era, with digital stores and community portals such as Steam, presents video-gamers with an unprecedented opportunity to discover smaller projects doomed to lurk in the shadows before. Several have left a notable mark in my recent memory, boldly reaching across genre frontiers or celebrating the past in brilliant colors. They’ve also made it into my personal soundtrack lists, adding elaborate and amazing tunes to a unique experience. I highly encourage anyone to give such titles a shot sometime and to not miss out on their music of which you can find my six personal picks for today below.

Dear Esther – Twenty One
Fans of Journey might enjoy Dear Esther for its similar narrative focus while wandering a map with no sense of direction. After playing it multiple times I’d call it a visualized ghost story, as aerial as its brilliant soundtrack and dream vistas, but also eerie and oppressive while the player tries puzzling together snippets of memories told by mysterious narrators. This title is “more book than game” and will attract fans of unorthodox design concepts.
Bastion – Faith of Jevel
The entire soundtrack of Bastion reflects the diversity of this highly artistic action RPG, with its unforgettable narrator’s voice. The tracks go from more pensive and epic tunes to electric guitars and western/country inspired pieces. A definite must-have for all collectors!
Braid – Downstream
Whether you call it colorful 2D-platform game or puzzle adventure similar to Limbo, Braid’s soundtrack adds much to an in places confusing journey. The tracks are mostly on the quiet and dreamy side, with a folk guitar or violin/cello tuning in ever so often.
Trine 2 – Forlorn Wilderness
Both Trine titles feature the genuine, oldschool RPG music experience – from light fairy flutes to dark caves and spooky forest tunes. Lovers of the classic fantasy genre cannot go wrong here. Having only recently stumbled on Trine 2, I was blown away by its beautiful 2D/3D graphics style and backgrounds. Whether you like jumpy action and puzzles or not, I highly recommend playing the demo!
Super Meat Boy – The Battle of ‘Lil Slugger
Although not personally into excruciatingly difficult platformers and dark humor  with chainsaws, Super Meat Boy features one of the most accomplished, up-tempo soundtracks out there. A thrilling firework of industrial music meets classic meets retro, there are tracks aplenty to shake or headbang along.
To the Moon – Main Theme
A game of limited gameplay and visual attraction, To the Moon is all about profound storytelling, the minds and hearts of its characters and the struggle of life. The entire soundtrack is a stunning, achieved work of beauty while merry and up-lifting tracks are few and far between. However, anyone with a soft spot for slow piano tunes should absolutely love this soundtrack!

I hope you enjoy these picks and it’s definitely worth browsing on from there! As usual, further recommendations are much appreciated!

50 Reasons to be excited about GW2

So I had to run my big mouth last week and mention the “50 or so features” I’m excited about for GW2. And having such an attentive (and cunning) readership, someone had to take me up on this via email – of course!

“Fifty things you look forward to in Guild Wars 2, Syl? Well, let’s hear’em!”

Fine. In fact, I did not just use a random number to exaggerate a point. Fifty is a pretty adequate size for a list of things I personally can’t wait to see. I don’t know if you will like them, but I dare say there’s lots of freshness and exciting potential! And so, challenge accepted. I’ll share my personal list with you so that the uncertain may be convinced and the unhappy may see the light! Let me convert you to try GW2!

For sanity’s sake though, I am not gonna give a link or source for any of the items mentioned. That would be way too time-consuming and if you are really interested to hear more about one, there are GW2 Guru, Youtube and Google. However, in the light of all the first-hand info out there by now and having read major part of it, I am not making anything up (I hope).

50 Reasons to be excited about GW2 (in no particular order):

  1. The side-kicking feature
  2. Flat leveling curve
  3. Lots of dyes!
  4. Personal character story and personality
  5. Extensive character customization
  6. No holy trinity
  7. No potions
  8. Small UI / minimal actionbar
  9. The downed state
  10. Dynamic/scaling events and quests
  11. Massive WvWvW battles
  12. PvP from level 1
  13. Gear equalization for group PvP
  14. The home instance / player housing
  15. Linked home cities
  16. Mini-games (bar brawls! snow balls!)
  17. Audio dialogue
  18. Flat highlvl gear progression
  19. Cosmetic items
  20. The Mesmer, the Engineer and pretty much all classes
  21. Large scale maps
  22. No flying mounts
  23. Original soundtrack by Jeremy Soule
  24. Beautiful 2D background artworks
  25. The Norn, Asura and Charr
  26. Underwater combat
  27. The weapon/-skill system
  28. Cross-profession combos
  29. Small HP bar
  30. More area spells and effects
  31. Dedicated self-utility / self-healing
  32. 5man content all the way
  33. No raids
  34. Individual trait lines
  35. Inclusive crafting system
  36. Multi-guild system
  37. Adventure modes for dungeons
  38. Outdoor bosses
  39. Easy server switching
  40. Transmutation stone for gear
  41. No abilities directly target allies
  42. Active combat; dodge, block
  43. Interactive environment
  44. Mostly universal attributes system
  45. Most abilities and skills usable while moving
  46. No language/coop barrier between factions
  47. Over-flow server while in queue
  48. Public FFA events and quests with scaling loot
  49. More frequent day/night-cycle (non-realtime)
  50. Guild halls announced for later

So….what’s not to love? I could have come up with more to tell you the truth!

What are you personally looking forward to the most? Or are you still convinced GW2 is not for you?

Few essential reads – For everybody

I had a special weekend challenge ready for today, but I decided otherwise and pushed the post back to draft. It’s been a rather hectic week for me and in the blogosphere too, there were many ups and downs where the ever-returning topic of feminism was concerned. And return it must – as has become very obvious from some of the voices and comment sections I’ve read through (yes Matt, every drop counts!).

I’m not going to write my own personal article here though, on why I think sexism and systematic discrimination are still rampant in our society; how tired I am of derailing discourse; or how I came to hold my current beliefs and outgrew the stereotype of a judgmental geek girl who was only ever friends with boys. Maybe I will one day, but today is not that day.

Today, I want you to do me a favor – whoever you are, wherever, woman or man reading the MMO Gypsy: I want you to go through a shortlist of links to blog articles I consider most valuable, essential reads on the topic of feminism, covering a large ground of recurring questions and potential misunderstandings. I know that every smart and intelligent person is on a private search for wisdom and most of us are honest in their wish to learn and understand each other. I won’t tell you what to think of any of the articles or what you should do with them. All I wish is that they become a consideration, a part of whatever personal outlook and tone you settle for in the future. I promise that they will be worth your time, no matter where you go from here.

Many of these posts have been linked on various blogs this week and they cannot be re-posted often enough. They’re the kind of reads that I send forward to friends and return to when my own words fail me. I often feel that my words fall short and don’t do these matters enough justice, for several personal reasons. However, I’ve been immensely grateful for the strong voices on feminism and gender equality in the blogosphere and many invaluable insights offered over the past years. I have been able to perceive the kind of blind spots within myself I never knew existed. Some of these revelations have made me sad and most have made me very humble. All of them however, have freed me one way or another. Free to make my own choices, more informed choices. I will keep making mistakes but at least more of them will feel like my own.

The following links are me saying thanks to all the thoughtful and relentless bloggers out there, gracefully sharing their insights on complex issues, never backing down in the face of adversity and near-paralyzing amounts of “unpack”. I raise my hat to you.

Essential reads on the topic of gender, social equality and feminism

I’ve taken the liberty to add a few selective “teasers” to what each article may answer and for whom it might be first stop. You should of course absolutely read all of them.

What is feminism? Why are all feminists so angry? What about the men? Please educate me!
Finally, a Feminism 101 blog – A basic introduction and FAQ.
Derailing for Dummies – Tactics to avoid when discussing feminism or anything else for that matter.

What is male privilege and why are you all so negative? I’m new, can you help a guy out?
Feminism for dudes (from a dude) – Indispensable advice for subject rookies.
Dear Apple Cider – An open letter from a male reader. 

Does our society still need feminism? I’m a woman and I don’t see the problem!
FYI, you’re a Feminist 
Oh, we haven’t had a feminist post for at least a month
Feminists all the way down

A restful weekend to all of you – the bold who dare to speak and the wise who know when to listen.

GW2: Will WvW be the next Alterac Valley?

I realized that my last two post titles were rhetorical questions both – time for a real one then.

All WoW PvP veterans would agree that the golden age of Alterac Valley lies in vanilla; when the battles between the horde and alliance would last for days, mighty allies would be summoned to the cause and the Field of Strife was soaked with the blood of countless enemies. Okay, there were actually a few who complained about the long duration and queues – but those are people who want to do quests in a BG and ninja-pull Drek’Thar. Through the ages, no other battleground in WoW has undergone so many traumatic changes; for players today the days of AV greatness remain but a distant memory or a sad legend told by their friends.

One of GW2’s possibly most alluring features is the epic World vs World PvP mode where hundreds(!) of players from three different servers will lay siege to one another on a large scale map. ArenaNet has announced that these type of conflicts can last up to two weeks, with only a few minutes of downtime in between battles to update the server rankings. Players of level 1-80 will be able to participate and join at any given time, anyone below max level will receive a level/stat boost to match a level 80 character. There are objectives for any type of play-style, from solo ventures to more coordinated mass assaults.

Does all this information not make your heart jump wildly in your chest?

With another press beta NDA lifted this week, we received another wave of GW2 echoes by the select and important. Me, I was only ears for the Massively article on WvW by Matt Daniel – a most exhilarating read. It is very hard not to feel incredibly pumped for GW2 PvP at this point! Just to highlight a few passages (you should really read the full article!) –

“Let’s get one thing out of the way for the people with short attention spans: I had a blast. For quite some time I have lamented the lack of meaningful player-vs-player combat in modern MMOs. I’ve gotten tired of PvP being relegated to self-contained battlegrounds and arenas that have no impact on the greater world, and most attempts at world PvP tend either to flounder out once the majority of the population have leveled past the zone in which the PvP objectives are located or to become dominated by max-level characters to the exclusion of all others. Guild Wars 2‘s WvW solves this problem beautifully by…..“
[…]
“I would have to say, however, that the absolute best part of my time in WvW was being involved in a fortress siege. Madness! Sweet, glorious havoc! Catapults fired everywhere while castle defenders rained hell from the battlements and the infantry of both sides duked it out in front of the keep’s gates. It was one of the most intense, edge-of-my-seat experiences I’ve had in quite some time, and I absolutely can’t wait to do it again.”

Madness and havoc! Two of my favorite PvP words!
And might we dare it? Might we hope to see the glory of old AV days return in Guild Wars 2?

Maybe it’s time to bring out our old battle standards. What say you, fellow PvP veterans?

Are Rift players the better people?

There’s the Carneval of the Ascended world event currently going on in Rift and having re-subbed a couple of weeks ago, I did of course jump into the whole affair while trying to remember how to play my old character. Out of a whim one night (and desperation), I decided to use general chat to get some guidance, not expecting much in terms of help on boring noob questions.

I was shocked to be proven so utterly wrong. Not only did I receive a perfect answer within the minute, I received several more tells from different people. My rusty thank-you muscles were sore afterwards. Surely that was first time luck though, some rare cosmic constellation working in mysterious ways! I had to try again.

And so I did, several more times over the coming weeks. Nothing changed. I was never ignored and never met with uncivil tongue though I must have offered plenty of temptation. Moreover, sometimes players would send me tells after 5 minutes, making sure I had actually received an answer to my problem, while a quicker player was still briefing me on more than I originally dared ask for –

What is it with these friendly, helpful Rift players???

Sadly, I am a complete stranger to this level of support. I gave up in WoW years ago and other MMOs that will even feature beginner channels (such as AoC), were just as big a disappointment. I can only begin to speculate why Rift’s community is so different – is it the cosier size? The numerous WoW quitters? The fresh air in Telara?

….Or do I just happen to find myself on a freak server? Whatever it is, I am duly impressed. Maybe the stars do have something to do with it after all, though; Kleps just ran into an outrageous bunch of Robin Hoods recently, in WoW of all places. If that’s not supernatural, I don’t know what is!