flameseeker-chronicles
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Flameseeker Chronicles: Cultivating positive growth in Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2's Tower of Nightmares release has been with us for the past week, transforming formerly beautiful (if centaur-populated) Kessex Hills into a toxic wasteland. The source of the devastation is a massive, thistle-topped structure in Viathan Lake, which was built and defended by the Krait and Nightmare Court. A whole lot of mystery is tied up in that thing, from Krait religion to Nightmare ambitions to the involvement of Scarlet Briar, but Marjory Delaqua and her partner Kasmeer Meade are on the case. The Pact has also gotten involved by aiding with research and demolishing the tower plant's offshoots, which are spreading on the wind like dandelions, only I wouldn't recommend adding them to salads, and they're not fluffy. The ArenaNet team responsible for this release has made some praiseworthy improvements over previous releases, which supports the idea that GW2's living world is still a work in progress with lots of room to grow. Combined with some interesting developer responses from the collaborative development initiative, I think it paints a promising picture of where the story is going in the upcoming months.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's rogue's gallery remixes
Guild Wars 2's wicked snake people, the Krait, are nasty on their best of days, and ArenaNet is making them even nastier in the new Tower of Nightmares release. The titular tower has been built in secret in Viathan Lake under a force field, and its unveiling will cause massive changes in the area. The trailer shows us green skies filled with black seeds and sinister winds; at the top of the tower is a plant of some kind. I'm not used to describing plants as lurking or looming, but this one is definitely doing both. I'm excited for this release because it looks creepy, and regardless of how effective it ends up being, I almost always appreciate it when MMOs attempt to be scary. I like that the lore of GW2 doesn't always take itself too seriously, but when it goes dark, it can hit some disturbing notes. My misgivings about the patch lie in this being the third enemy mashup we've seen: Dredge and Flame Legion, Inquest and Aetherblades, and now Krait and what have to be some extremely persuasive snake charmers.
Flameseeker Chronicles: How to get your Halloween on in Guild Wars 2
It's the most wonderful time of the year. Halloween has returned to Guild Wars 2, and ArenaNet has introduced a new member of Mad King Thorn's family to cause mayhem all around Tyria. While this year's Blood and Madness event isn't quite as involved as last year's Shadow of the Mad King, there's still lots to do and some new rewards to earn. It helps that the content will be hanging around GW2 until November 11th, giving us quite a bit of time to soak in the jack-o'-lantern-lit atmosphere and get sick on candy -- not that any of us would do that (much). You've also got plenty of opportunity to finish up the storyline and the associated achievements, but it's probably more fun to get it done while it's fresh. With that in mind, I've written up a guide to help you chase off that whiny Thorn kid before the trick-or-treaters come knocking.
Flameseeker Chronicles: How to win friends and influence Guild Wars 2's development
By the time this article goes to press, it'll be Halloween in Guild Wars 2. No, not October 31st; a little known fact is that Halloween actually encompasses the entire month of October and is allowed to sneakily take over part of September if you're particularly excited about it or even seep into November if you're having difficulty letting go. Since it's too early to carve pumpkins and expect them to still be around at the end of the month, MMOs are great places to get your scary on without spending a lot of money on perishable gourds or "stocking up early" on bags of candy that will also mysteriously disappear by the 31st (pro tip: blame ghosts). In the meantime, though, I have one more week before this column can officially turn into the Fearspooky Creepicles and it becomes professionally acceptable to devote at least 200 words to candy corn (note to self: double check with lead editors [Editor's note: /approved! -Bree]). So let's discuss something awesome that's happening on the GW2 official forums under the direction of ArenaNet's Studio Design Director, Chris Whiteside. Let's talk about collaborative development.
Flameseeker Chronicles: The Guild Wars 2 expansion blues
It's the beginning of autumn at last. In the past few months, Guild Wars 2 fans have cleaned some clocks, gone back to school, and beat up on Tequatl the Sunless. At the moment, we're trying to kick Scarlet Briar out of Twilight Arbor. We've been busy! ArenaNet has continued to toss content our way at lightning speed, and unlike many of the previous releases, much of the content in the past month has been in the form of permanent adjustments to the game. It might seem nuts to complain about lacking an expansion for a game where content releases happen every two weeks, but for some reason the GW2 community seems to be feelin' that vibe lately. Popular YouTube personality and lore expert WoodenPotatoes created a video about it. Threads criticizing the living story and arguing for expansions are common on the official forums. Admittedly, I'm feeling a little restless for a change in the air myself. But what's so important about an expansion, and what isn't the living story offering?
Flameseeker Chronicles: When good Guild Wars 2 commentary goes bad
I'm aware that not everybody who reads this column loves Guild Wars 2, and I'm cool with that. Occasionally I'm baffled by a comment or two left by people who apparently just swung by to give a brief, negative review of the game, completely independent of the topic of the article they left it on, but that's mostly harmless. I appreciate the vast majority of thoughtful comments, whether positive or negative; I like to think that most of you love MMOs as much as I do, and I believe that a person doesn't necessarily have to like a game in order to have something insightful to say about it and its role in influencing the industry. I mention all of this because I want to make it clear that when I talk about toxic GW2 commentary, I don't mean people leaving negative criticism in general, or saying that they don't like the game. In fact, the majority of what I'd like to discuss comes from people who apparently play the game regularly and who are deeply invested in it. Some of them say that they love it. And because they love it, it's easy to see why they might feel protective of it and take perceived threats to it personally.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's dragon evolution
I'm praying to Grenth -- not just because he's lord of the dead and my human Necromancer's supreme master but because being in Sparkfly Fen during a Tequatl-stomping session has been threatening to down my usually robust computer and I'm hoping Grenth will take mercy on it. That, or I could just upgrade it. Every little bit helps, though. I've spent most of this past week finishing up the move to a new apartment, but I've still made time to throw myself at Guild Wars 2's buffed-up Tequatl the Sunless fight. I was pleasantly surprised by the encounter and the community's reception of it, and it's definitely given me hope that ArenaNet will be able to add more complex and fun fights of this kind to GW2's open world in the future. Tequatl is like the star of a teen movie, turning every head at the prom after a radical makeover. I know you needed that mental image. You're welcome.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Ain't no party like a Guild Wars 2 party 'cause a GW2 party don't stop
There's something in the water, and it's rising. Word travels along the shore of Sparkfly Fen in terrified whispers, and the names of the beast that stalks the Splintered Coast are on every tongue: Tequila the Sunrise. Taco the Soft Shell. Loot Piñata. At the very least, poor Tequatl the Sunless will hopefully be shedding the last nickname with the upcoming Tequatl Rising content patch for Guild Wars 2. That one's kind of mean; the others are just affectionate. You know, as affectionate as we can be toward an undead servant of Zhaitan bent on subjugating all life. ArenaNet previewed the new and improved Tequatl fight mechanics at PAX Prime, but apart from that (and the new LFG tool and the new World vs. World mechanics), this latest GW2 release seems a little bit...quiet. I'm OK with that. In fact, it may be exactly what we need.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Why I love Guild Wars 2's Super Adventure Box
Back in April, ArenaNet played what was arguably the greatest MMO-related April Fool's Day prank of all time when it released level designer and jumping puzzle maestro Josh Foreman's labor of love, Super Adventure Box, in Guild Wars 2. I was but a wee Massively commenter then, and I recall that my comment on the news post about that particular revelation was something to the effect of "I'm not leaving this place until they kick me out. See you all next month!" I remember this because I was only half joking, and I really did spend most of April inside Moto's palace of 8-bit wonders. I love Super Adventure Box. I don't just love it because it's retro or because I get the references or because my first foray into it left me laughing fit to kill (OK, maybe the last one). I love it because, entirely independent of GW2, it's a game I can spend a whole month playing and not get tired of it. Jump with me past the cut, and I'll tell you why.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living story and the Orrian menace
The cleansing of Orr has long been a popular source of speculation in the community, which is why I asked Colin Johanson about the possibility of it happening in the course of Guild Wars 2's living story when I interviewed him in July. Although I understood his reasoning, I was still disappointed by the answer: that it'd be very difficult to change Orr due to its intersection with the personal story but that in future chapters ArenaNet will do its best to make sure no areas end up locked in time. In a recent Q&A session, our own Richie Procopio asked ArenaNet president Mike O'Brien a similar question and got a somewhat different response. According to O'Brien, the studio's original intent was to steer away from content that could impact the personal story in the interest of simplicity; however, ArenaNet wants to make sure that nothing is off limits to the living story overall. I'm trying not to read too much into that, since it could just be a different way of phrasing what Johanson said, but given a little hope to cling to I'd like to discuss why it's so important that ArenaNet not establish any existing content as off-limits -- especially not Orr.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Who watches Guild Wars 2's watchknights?
A few weeks ago, I covered a few possibilities for the direction of the Guild Wars 2 patch that was known at the time as The Queen's Speech, now revealed to actually be Clockwork Chaos. The majority of it didn't pan out, which is to be expected when engaging in wild mass guessing; I'll be a little disappointed if ArenaNet has really decided to retcon the hints it previously set up around the Great Collapse, but we know that the Crown Pavilion Arena will probably be revisited at some point and there's always a chance for things to go wrong in lots of different ways. The plus side is that Scarlet Briar is exactly the kind of villain GW2 has been hurting for, and her presence on the playing field is opening up all kinds of potential directions for the plot. Behind the cut are spoilers for this chapter of the living story as well as Scott McGough's short story What Scarlet Saw. Join me in the depths of hopeless nerditude and let's discuss the new lore elements this release has introduced!
Flameseeker Chronicles: A Guild Wars 2 anniversary wish list
Guild Wars 2 is doing very well. Even setting aside ArenaNet's announcement last week that the game is officially the fastest-selling MMO ever, GW2 has enough players who are dedicated to it and spending money on it to justify a content patch every two weeks, and the development team is showing no signs of slowing down. It's a success story in an unforgiving industry where successes are few and far between; while many other studios are restructuring and redefining their games -- or even shutting games down altogether -- GW2 is holding steady a year after launch. Happy birthday, GW2! I love this game. If I didn't, I'd be nuts to devote time to writing a weekly column about it, let alone play it almost every day. Even though I had nothing to do with its creation, I'm proud of it in a way, and I'm happy for the people who made it because they deserve success. Based on what's been talked about, I feel pretty good about what's coming up in the second half of the year. There are a few lingering nitpicks I have, though, that run the risk of becoming so entrenched that they hang out on the back of the priority list for years -- and they're at the top of my wish list for things I'd like to see before GW2's two-year anniversary rolls around.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2 election postmortem
We were young. We were trusting. We didn't understand the power we wielded. When the voting booths closed and the last ballots were cast, a dark portal yawned wide in Lion's Arch, unleashing the terrible titan version of candidate Ellen Kiel upon the unsuspecting Guild Wars 2 playerbase. ArenaNet didn't see fit to warn us of the true consequences of the Cutthroat Politics update, but at least we can take some comfort in the fact that Evon Gnashblade didn't win the election. He's got claws. And really pointy teeth. Fortunately, the citizens of Tyria have been distracted from their inevitable doom by the current Queen's Jubilee patch, which is showering us with loot in the manner of a quenching summer rain. I'm the kind of person who will happily farm for multiple hours if given the opportunity, but I'm going to try to drag my hollow eyes from the slaughter long enough to talk about how the previous living story chapter was a great experiment in evolving the world of GW2 -- and how it didn't quite hit the mark.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Crashing Guild Wars 2's anniversary bash
ArenaNet's latest release for Guild Wars 2, the Queen's Jubilee, takes place in the human capital city of Divinity's Reach. Not everyone is as giddy about this as I am. Humans are boring. Do we really need another festival-based event? Where's the real lore? However, Divinity's Reach is a hotspot for plot-based drama and intrigue, and setting an event there does more than just encourage players to return to the city for the sake of livening it up: it also sets the stage for ArenaNet to (hopefully) revisit some of the plot elements introduced at the launch of the game. The update will have gone live by the time this article is published, but chances are we won't know every bit of the story right away, so I'm going to take this opportunity to recap some of the pieces on the chess board which could make this event important to more than just humanity. This will necessarily include massive spoilers for the plot of GW2.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Getting what you pay for in Guild Wars 2
Despite a number of unfortunate sword-clipping issues, it seems that Ellen Kiel is our lead candidate so far in Guild Wars 2's player-decided election! It's close though, and Evon Gnashblade's supporters still have plenty of time to make the push to victory. The playerbase is mired in furious controversy over a number of very pressing concerns: Can the fall of Abaddon possibly live up to our expectations, given that it would take place in a short Fractal? What kind of secrets could the Thaumanova Reactor meltdown hold? Why can Kiel wear her spiffy-lookin' town clothes in combat while we can't? A more serious problem is how ArenaNet's handling of Aetherized weapon skins has reignited dissatisfaction over the gem store. Granted, it's mostly settled into dark mutterings at this point, but the issue has still been cropping up with nearly every major event. Changes are made to Black Lion chests and event boxes; players give the boxes another chance, hoping to get their money's worth; disappointment follows when that doesn't happen. This is a cycle that's going to keep occurring if we don't acknowledge the reason for its existence.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's endgame progression is leveling up
I don't like Guild Wars 2's Ascended gear. I've never liked it. My initial response to the controversy surrounding it was "wait and see," but after the details came out and the first pieces were implemented, my opinion of it settled somewhere between frustrated disappointment and apathy and has lived there ever since. While I didn't have much of a problem giving ArenaNet the benefit of the doubt where its desire to avoid a never-ending gear treadmill was concerned, what did bother me was how reactionary and rushed Ascended's inclusion seemed. When I thought of all the cool things the developers could have done to provide players with ways to continue progressing our characters after level 80, a new tier of gear with slightly higher stats and largely time-gated acquisition was not even on the list. I'm sure it was on the very top of some people's lists, because I remember reading several of their comments and thinking, "Wow, I could not be less excited for this, but at least somebody likes it."
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living whirl
Hi there! I'm Anatoli Ingram, and starting today I'll be your friendly neighborhood Flameseeker Chronicles columnist. Some of you probably know me from my previous life as commenter RingBonefield, but thanks to the kindness and pure heart power of the Massively lead editors, I've evolved into my final form: a guy who not only won't shut up about Guild Wars 2 but gets paid to not shut up about Guild Wars 2. If you're anywhere near as easily distracted as I am by shiny objects placed tantalizingly out of reach, it's probably been difficult to tear yourself away from the Zephyr Sanctum. But GW2 fans have recently gotten huge chunks of information regarding the future of the game -- biweekly content updates, big plans for upcoming content, a possible lack of expansions, holy cats! -- and there's been no shortage of player concern and controversy to go along with them. Join me after the break, where I'll take a breather from dashing around as an ethereal being of light and wind to talk about what all of this potentially means for GW2's living world.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2 Bazaar of the Four Winds patch primer
In continuing with its two-week content release cadence, ArenaNet is set to launch the Bazaar of the Four Winds patch today in Guild Wars 2. Yesterday, we teased the new features, but today I want to talk more in-depth about my experiences during the preview event this past weekend. The Bazaar of the Four Winds features a ridiculously beautiful zone called the Labyrinthine Cliffs, where players can trade wares with some unusual and shady vendors. The Zephyrites have docked their floating airship, the Zephyr Sanctum, and seek terrestrial supplies from the land-dwelling inhabitants. Sun, moon, and lightning adepts are scattered around the new area and are eager to teach players special movement powers, which are locked inside sky crystals. These movement skills will allow players to reach special areas in a vertical scavenger hunt and compete with each other in a race called the Sanctum Sprint.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Revamping rewards in Guild Wars 2
ArenaNet has improved the reward systems in Guild Wars 2 this year by adding new features such as world vs. world skill trees, laurel and guild merit vendors, and better loot for world boss encounters. However, many players still feel that there should be more tangible incentives urging them to log in each day and engage in the content that they enjoy. Fortunately, Colin Johanson agrees and has taken to the forums several times to tease an upcoming reward revamp for all areas of the game. This redesign involves adding rewards for hitting certain thresholds of achievement points, creating more uses for blue and green items, and making fighting champion-level creatures more worthwhile. This month, we should expect to hear more about ArenaNet's plans for the second half of 2013, akin to the road map laid out back in January. While we wait for the official word, check out the video edition of the Flameseeker Chronicles for some loot-themed speculation.
Flameseeker Chronicles: The history of weapon and armor skins in Guild Wars 2
The Sky Pirates of Tyria game update for Guild Wars 2 launches today, and if you haven't checked out our video preview, there's no time like the present to catch up. Along with a smattering of in-game activities for players to experience, ArenaNet has added three new armor skins to the gem store. The Aetherblade armor sets will be the first light, medium, and heavy skins to hit the gem store since the game's launch last August, and unlike town clothing, these steampunk-themed items can be worn in combat. Many fans will also appreciate that this new gear is available for direct purchase and not offered as a rare drop from a gambling chest. Guild Wars 2 players realize that ArenaNet needs the financial support of its gem store to sustain the game for years to come. But there has been a rash of negative feedback lately whenever a new weapon skin is offered as a rare drop from a gem store purchase. Whether we like it or not, however, randomizing the contents of a product has been proven to increase profits since the days of baseball cards. In this week's video edition of the Flameseeker Chronicles, I dissect the weapon and armor skin offerings in Guild Wars 2 since launch and analyze the various methods ArenaNet has used to distribute them. Have the gem store weapons been distributed most often through random loot boxes, direct purchases, or through in-game activities? Let's investigate.
