2 weeks in

Obviously I've been too busy playing GW2 to blog. We've been taking our time, doing a little bit of everything, exploring all the zones pretty thoroughly. We just hit 30 a couple nights ago, which brings me to my point.

Ascalonian Catacombs was ridiculously fun.

With a guild group, we rocked it (and by rocked it I mean there were a lot of deaths, but we didn't wipe on any bosses and only spent a little more than an hour in there). I loved it. All of the bosses were interesting (although the necro boss drove me crazy). I think the ranger was totally fun, but Mal really enjoyed the lovers because he could knock Vassar down over and over again with his hammer. Apparently the hammer gets a win.

Thumbs up to AC. Thumbs up to our guild. Thumbs up to GW2.

I've been taking screenshots of all the vistas, but was too busy kicking trash to screenie the dungeon. 

Launch Thoughts

I thought I might die waiting for it, but the game seems to have finally launched...well at least early access has started. I can only imagine the insanity that is waiting tomorrow when it officially launches. Either way, I've been reasonably pleased with the launch. Here are a few thoughts:

Server stability:

Generally I've been able to get on and play from the time the game launched without too much trouble. I had some issues logging on Saturday morning, but the game started working fairly quickly and I haven't had any hiccups since then. The overflow servers have worked well, and the queues to get into the regular server haven't been overly long.

Grade: B+

Performance:

I'm a little biased on this one. I have a reasonably good system, but it's not top of the line or anything. It was a budget build that I did back in November. For some reason, my computer runs much more slowly than my wife's, so while I'm stuck at like 20fps, she's getting like 50. Our builds are very similar. My screen is larger, but I don't know that it's big enough to make that much difference. I've also heard that AMD is coming out with new drivers soon, so hopefully that will make a difference in my performance.

Grade: B

Grouping:

I like the group system. It is hugely improved from BWE1. It still has some issues though. The major one for me is that it doesn't seem to function unless both characters are in physical proximity to each other. That's irritating when I'm on one side of the map and Lira is on the other. We have to pick a waypoint or some other place to meet before we can use the "join in" feature. Even when we're both on the same server it won't detect the other person unless you're physically close. Things that force players to behave in a strange way to make your system work drive me a little nuts.

Grade: B-

Balance:

I think the game is pretty well balanced even at this point. There are definitely some issues, but for the most part I don't feel like any class is particularly gimped. GS warrior is probably a little too powerful in pve, but since there's no raiding I don't really mind pve balance being a little borked. I'm told that ranger pets still get shredded like tissue paper--which is bad--but in groups I've seen far fewer dead pets than I used to (and before you say anything not everyone is using a bear).

Grade: A-

Fun:

I know, this is totally subjective, but frankly all of the grades that I'm giving are totally subjective. I've been having a blast with the game. It's a good mix of directed objectives and random events. I can't tell you how many times we've been running around and decided to go explore some random corner of the map, where conveniently there is an interesting cave or something sitting there. This game really rewards you for just looking around and being curious about what you can find in the world around you. It makes the experience feel more organic and interesting.

Grade: A

Final Thoughts:

I feel like in general ArenaNet has been responsive. In my real life, I'm a performer and I have a performing philosophy that applies well to game launches. There are two kinds of mistakes (or bugs): The kind that you've had before and the kind that are new to the performance. If you make a mistake that you've already made in a performance, it represents inadequate preparation on your part. On the other hand, every performance will have several brand new mistakes that you've never made before. You can't beat yourself up about those because in all your rehearsals (or stress tests) you never experienced those mistakes and thus had no way of predicting or countering them. In general I feel like the people running GW2 have done a good job of fixing mistakes that showed up during beta, and while there have been some new and irritating bugs, they generally haven't been game breaking.

Final Launch Grade: B+

I love to see other people now.

So the game is (more or less) live now. I’m waiting for Lira to join me in the game, so I’m taking a quick second to write something that happened to me earlier today. I was playing an alt and I saw a vendor in the middle of this big cave. In real life that would be odd, but in an mmo I didn’t think much of it. [minor spoiler alert] It turns out that talking to this “vendor” starts a dynamic event. Anyway, I nearly died, but I got to a (somewhat) safe area at the last minute.

While I was trying to figure out what to do, I saw a group of about four players headed my way. I fought my way out to them and together we completed the event (even though we needed several rezzes from each other to make it work.

This moment stuck out to me because it was so different from most other mmos. I loved having a “trap” that I could spring or not. I loved getting rewarded with something interesting just for exploring, and most of all I loved the feeling of being excited to see other players. Rather than being my competition, they were my saviors. It was just another small thing that Arenanet has done very right with the game.

Guild Wars 2 Infographic

I got this from White Charr (Mal will be a white charr too - he always plays a crazy white character with black markings), and looks like he got it from here. I'm interested to see how this plays out when the game goes live. This is based on one of the BWEs. I'm planning to be a cook, so I secretly hope that it continues to be the least popular crafting profession. Pretty sure Mal's planning on being a Jeweler, so...we'll see how that goes down.

I really like that they're going to try to keep the wealth distribution equal. Although that does mess with my plans to be a tycoon...

It was tough, but I pulled through

Decision: Made

Liralia will be a human engineer.

I may roll an alt (Guardian? That home-run hammer looks awesome) named Lira - probably a Sylvari.

Conundrum

Perhaps 'dilemma' is a better word. Or 'personal crisis of epic proportions.' I can't decide what race my main should be.

I loved the look of the Norn in BWE#1. I was able to create a fiery redhead that fit Liralia's personality perfectly. But...the voice...can we talk about the female norn's voice? So bad. Just because I'm big doesn't mean I'm a man. Or batting for the other team. In addition, the storyline wasn't grabbing me and everytime I had personal story with Eir the outfit just really, really bothered me. X to being Norn.

I never really considered Charr. The story was okay, but the look of the toons just isn't me. Besides, they look more like cows than cats, amiright? This has nothing to do with the fact that they're the enemy in GW, because I never played it. I just kinda hate them. X to being Charr

Asura = shaved ewoks. 'Nuff said. X to being Asura

Sylvari. I like them. I like them a lot. I like their look and their story and their starting area. I think the idea of being a Silvari engineer is quirky and a little odd, which really appeals to me. So the only hesitation is a silly, frivolous one. I want HAIR, not leaves in odd shapes on my head. Lira's supposed to be a redhead, not a poinsettia. Bleurgh. I'm conflicted.

Humans. I like their look and all the options in character creation. There are a bunch of hairstyles I like. The starting area is okay, but I've done it a couple times in beta weekends so there's that. It also seems so prosaic. I've never played a human in an MMO. Why start now?

Obviously, I've narrowed it down to Human or Sylvari, but can't make any progress past that point.

As you can see, this is a big deal. Probably world-changing. Have I mentioned that I want to play GW2 now?

Stress Test Fun

Today brought another ninja stress test for GW2. I happened to be home and have access to a computer for the whole hour that the stress test lasted. This one was a little strange for me because they wiped all our characters from the previous beta weekends.

I decided to be adventurous and rolled a Norn Ranger (The only class I haven’t touched yet). I had a good time doing the tutorial stuff, but immediately after I killed the big worm,  I ran out and saw this:

I spent virtually the entire stress test trying to get up there and get that thing. That probably says more about my lack of gaming skills than anything, but the fact that I could be engrossed in a game for a good thirty minutes trying to get on top of what is basically a fancy barn is a good sign in my mind. I can finally do whatever strikes my fancy without feeling like I'm wasting time.