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Storyboard: Getting to know you (hopefully)
In real life, I'm not what you'd call a social butterfly. More of a social weevil, or a social stick insect, or a social whatever arthropod it is that hides and avoids talking to people. The point is that I'm not really grand at parties. This cannot be who I am in roleplaying terms, and not just because it's not roleplaying in the strictest sense but because a roleplaying character who never roleplays isn't. Some of my characters are incredibly gregarious, some are more insular, but all of them need to find some way to interact with others or the entire system falls apart. Some of you reading this have never had a problem walking up and introducing yourself to someone you've never met before, which is great. You might even be able to stop reading now. For the rest of us, the question remains: How do you strike up conversations with new people for roleplaying?
A look at Guild Wars 2's Sylvari cinematic
How do you introduce the Sylvari in Guild Wars 2? It might seem like a simple question, but this is a race that's completely new to Tyria. Every element of introduction is up to the opening cinematic. All of the other four races can call back to Guild Wars, but the Sylvari are a blank slate. As Ree Soesbee explains in her rundown of the process for the trailer, this made the Sylvari opening especially challenging for the designers. At the same time, being able to introduce the race with no preconceptions freed up the creative team to make the fundamental elements of the race comprehensible right from the start. That means covering the Dream of Dreams that all Sylvari share as well as the nature of a race whose members are born as fully developed adults. How well did it work? Jump on past the cut and decide for yourself.
Ask Massively: Declaring a moratorium edition
I am declaring a moratorium as of this edition of Ask Massively. A moratorium on what, you ask? Well, I hadn't actually gotten that far in my planning. I'm going to go ahead and declare this moratorium on Katy Perry, songs about California, episodes of The Office, films in the X-Men franchise, all movies featuring male losers hooking up with trophy women, questions about the site redesign, people in SUVs who feel the need to tailgate someone else, head colds, and Boggle. So all of those things have to stop right now. You heard it here first. Of course, since this week's batch of questions came in before a moratorium was declared, it would be unfair not to answer the site redesign questions that were already submitted. But no more, seriously. It would also be unfair to not answer the other questions that were asked, although they aren't related to anything within the moratorium. So click on past the break for this week's questions, and send your own along to ask@massively.com. Or just leave them in the comment field, no biggie.
Asheron's Call's June update arrives today with patch notes in tow
Today, Asheron's Call receives its monthly update and corresponding event for June. This time, the event is called "Introductions." According to the release notes, you'll have to complete last month's quest before you can take on the new one. If you haven't gotten around to it, don't fret; there are now two Jesters in the graveyard -- one for the previous quest, and one for the current.Other changes included in the release notes include minor equipment and quest tweaks, typo fixes, and other standard patch fare. It's not a big patch by any definition, but it's still good to see that Turbine continues to honor its commitment to support the game with new content every month.
