Flameseeker Chronicles: Waiting for Guild Wars 2

There are two weeks left until the official launch of Guild Wars 2. That's a little nutso because a significant portion of my (and a great deal many other folks') energy in last few years has been dedicated to anticipating the game. Seeing it live will be something of an adjustment.

I keep wanting to talk about memories of development and standing in lines at PAX and meeting devs and other fans as a way of describing my involvement with this game up 'til this point. I sometimes feel that that's odd, saying that the most exciting part of following Guild Wars 2's development has been the people I've met rather than the game that we're all congregating around. ArenaNet seems to agree with my take on things, though, if global brand manager Chris Lye can be trusted. He says of ArenaNet, "We're not a video game company; we're a community building company. We just happen to have one of the coolest ways to build a community, which is through a video game."

Be it trite or not, I find that that kind of statement aligns nicely with the reason I, someone who plays MMOs largely for the sense of shared experience, have enjoyed Guild Wars 2 and its community so much.

Last week saw the end of GuildMag's blog carnival focusing on memories of the development of Guild Wars 2. I was a little preoccupied with the history of Tyria at the time, but it's a subject that I'd like to talk about. You should take a spin through GuildMag's collection of entries; there are scads of awesome memories and reflections. One of the coolest and most significant things about the entries, though, is that pretty much all of them talk about a communal experience. Many of them are incredibly distinct and divergent, but almost none of them describes a solo journey.

That's really beautiful, and it matches up with my own experiences rather nicely.

My first real thought of Guild Wars 2 was that it was incredibly far off in the future -- more so, in retrospect, than anyone really had reason to think at the time. When Eye of the North came out and I got my awesome miniature Destroyer of Flesh, the Hall of Monuments meant little and less to me in terms of points, so I ended up letting my then-boyfriend dedicate the mini in his HoM. Before there was any real and substantial information on which to speculate, my guildies and I were discussing hopes and possibilities in guild chat. I still discuss hopes and possibilities with those guildies, and the circle of friends with whom I look forward to Guild Wars 2 has only grown from them.

My most precious memories from PAX 2010 aren't of demo time. They're of meeting Izzie of TalkTyria and of standing in line with Rhonda of GW-EN to answer trivia questions and getting a spare ticket for ArenaNet's PAX party, which I eventually gave to Evan Teicheira. TalkTyria became a home to me not long after, and I ran into Rhonda and GW-EN a month or so later when I started involving myself with Pink Day in LA and other player-run events.

Fan Day was another key experience in my wait for Guild Was 2. Aside from meeting amazing members of the community like Ravious and Poke and Rubi and so many others and finding out that Evan Teicheira had become a part of ArenaNet conglomerate, I think the fact that we had a chance to interact with ArenaNet developers was really the selling point of the trip for me. Playing the game was lovely, but it was so very secondary to everything else that went on that day. Ravious wrote a lovely entry for the blog carnival that says a lot of what I'd most like to say about Fan Day, so you should read it and imagine my shouting "ditto" at the end.

PAX 2011 saw me planning to meet up with Guild Wars 2 Guru people and seeing friends for the second or third time, whether they were part of ArenaNet or not. It was my first PAX without a travel buddy, but I think I spent more time with folks than I had previously because that was the whole point of the experience. Here's what I wrote way back when:

Don't get me wrong; I'm obviously a fan of Guild Wars 2 as a game and I fully appreciated every opportunity I had to play it, but a great deal of what makes it so neat is the people with whom I've shared the experience. You all and all of the game's twitter fans and all the people on Guild Wars 2 Guru and everyone in any of the communities I've interacted with have been a part of that.

For that reason, I'm really looking forward to seeing people again at PAX this year. For me, it'll be the summation of the long wait through the game's announcement and development and the start to enjoying the post-launch life of Guild Wars 2.

What have been some of your favorite moments? Whom have you shared them with?

And other stuff

You might've noticed that the images for this post look like they'd fit right at home in an appreciation post of the Asura area. I just can't get enough of it! Where have you been hanging out for the stress tests? I've heard a bit of whining about the stress tests (which is a whole 'nother bucket of fish), but the window for stress testing is rapidly diminishing, so I can't help but feel gleeful about the whole thing.

Elisabeth Cardy is a longtime Guild Wars player, a personal friend of Rytlock Brimstone, and the writer of Flameseeker Chronicles here at Massively. The column updates on Tuesdays and keeps a close eye on Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, and anything bridging the two. Email Elisabeth at elisabeth@massively.com.