The Cold Water of Bad Presentation

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arenanet, dev livestream, dev stream, developers, end of dragons, give me the bottles mother, guild wars 2, gw2, livestream, MMO, mmorpg, mmorpgs, mmos, presentation, stream

So a few days ago I put out a tweet and wrote a blog about expansion hype, both of which was prompted by Guild Wars 2 and the incoming End of Dragons expansion. Initially, I was very curious about the three elite specs that were previewed and was eager to try my hand at the game again to see if perhaps I’m in the right mood for the MMO.

That was all before I watched a large portion of an official beta preview stream, primarily for MOP work purposes and also partially for my own curiosity. And after having gone through that video, I am now significantly less interested in both End of Dragons and GW2. And it’s all thanks to some extremely bad presentation.

That Old Expansion Hype Again

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expansion, expansion pack, fomo, guild wars, guild wars 2, gw2, hype, MMO, mmo dlc, mmorpg, mmorpg dlc, mmorpg expansion, mmorpgs, mmos, new game, new games, new things

Something about Guild Wars 2 continues to not sink in even though I feel like it should. It’s got a nice little open world vibe. It’s combat is… well, it’s something I’ve gotten used to even if it’s not something I’m in love with. It has a big fluffy cat race. It has raids that I’d like to try and see someday. And it has a more relaxed, open, and cooperative sort of leveling playstyle. Yet I still can’t get into it.

Even knowing this, I still find myself becoming enthralled by the siren song of the End of Dragons expansion and I’m reminded that this is a trap I just can’t stop falling in to.

ArenaNet and the Price Paid

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anet, arenanet, community, games, gaming, guild wars 2, gw2, MMO, mmo gaming, mmorpg, mmorpg gaming, reddit, social media, twitter

By now, everyone has had more than enough time to process the matter of ArenaNet’s actions against two of the writers of Guild Wars 2, including the resultant blowback that still seems to be washing onward at the point of my writing this blog. As someone who likes to follow and write about MMOs and multiplayer games, there’s something of a compulsion to provide my own opinion on the whole sorry affair, but there’s also quite a lot of thoughts I would like to get off of my chest.

Before I begin, though, I do want to mention that links that I provide in this post are very likely going to direct to some unpleasant content, so if that’s a sensitive spot for you, then I implore you to not click any links in this post if that will cause you to be upset.

I’ll also be including pictures of owls to further smooth the edges.

The Joy of Doing It “Wrong”

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gameplay, gaming, group, guild wars, guild wars 2, gw2, MMO, mmorpg, path of fire, play, pve, solo

Below is a picture of my build in Guild Wars 2.

I’m running a Guardian right now who wades into battle almost exclusively with a mace and a shield. I’m not entirely sure that I’ve gotten this build optimized, but damn if it isn’t optimized for me.