Game pride

I am a guy. I have been same-sex attracted since my early teenage years. I have been with my boyfriend for over 3 years.

I am a gamer. I have played games since my first brick Gameboy around 1993. I have been playing Guild Wars for over 5 years.

I have a rainbow belt, but I am afraid to wear it; I have a Guild Wars shirt, and I LOVE wearing it.

Why am I happy to be identified as a gamer, and not as a gay?

The gay community is full of sleazy sluts, bitchy queens, gym junkie bears, flag-waving activists and wrist-flopping pansies. I’m not any of that. I don’t want to be associated with any of that. I don’t belong to the gay community.

The gamer community plays games. It’s not the most productive hobby, but it can be very social. Gaming is almost mainstream entertainment. So, while there are still griefers, loudmouths, shitstirrers and all that, they are a minority. At its core, gaming is about having fun.

Merchandise gives me the opportunity to be identified as a part of a special community, or subculture. When I walk around in my Guild Wars shirt, I feel like a beacon to other gamers. I’m waiting for the day when someone walks up to me and says, “Hey, that’s a great game!” Or better, “Hey, are you Nox?” When I wear the Guild Wars shirt, or any of my game-related shirts, I get a little nod of recognition and a little respect; I wear my geeky gamer interests with pride.

Effective licensed merchandise walks the fine line between marketing and fan service. It is a form of advertising, but I don’t want to be a walking billboard. It should be affordable, high quality, and look great. I need to feel comfortable wearing it.

I’ll give you an example of merchandise I will never buy: the Guild Wars hooded jumper. I’m not an ArenaNet employee. I’m not selling their product. Why would I spend good money on a logo? There’s nothing about this product that appeals to me.

Compare that with the Charr t-shirt:

It’s got style. I love that t-shirt… and the little Guild Wars logo on the sleeve is the badge.

Take a look at Bunny Thumper and Toucher designs by a fan named Spotlight on DeviantArt:

They look amazing, and are references to in-game character skillbars. They would make non-fans go “WTF?lol” and make fans go “HAHA!nice”. There was so much potential for this kind of merchandise in Guild Wars. There are big bad bosses, ten unique professions, over a thousand skills, game-specific memes. What we got out of ArenaNet was one nice t-shirt and a heap of junk. I wanted to wear awesome stuff, like the Toucher above. I wanted to see Mesmer merchandise! But all I saw was a few shiny (pointless) skill pins.

So when you fill out ArenaNet’s merchandise survey, think about the things you will actually want to buy. Personally, I will never buy:

• Mouse & mouse pads – Any technology item, I’d prefer unbranded and high quality.
• Keyboards
• Headphones/headsets
• Socks - It’s just not worth it, I mean, they go on your feet.
• Standees – I paid $$ for Nightfall CE and got some cardboard, ffs.
• Lighters – I don’t smoke.

I would buy (provided they meet my expectations, above):

• T-shirts – If I need +1 t-shirt, why not a GW one?
• Hoodies – Big investment, worn alot; needs to be awesome.
• Undergarments – OMG, YES! There’s SO much humor to get out of genitals and sex, and there’s always room for +1 underwear.
• Messenger bag – Only because I need a new one for university. It has to be usable, and lots of pockets for my leet gear.
• Stickers – Just a couple, as a freebie with the other stuff. I have Tweetie and Evernote stickers, and I like lookin at em.
• Posters – I’d like just 1 that epitomizes Guild Wars. I have 1 at the moment – it’s from the pre-release “PvP Tournament Guide” and features Aidan and Cynn. I wish there were more.
• Figures & Statues – I love plastic things. They tend to be on the pricey side, but if they are perfect I’ll get them. I have Halo, Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy, Batman, Futurama, Family Guy, Pokemon (lol) & Zelda figures already. Where’s Guild Wars?!!?
• Plushies – Very similar to Figures situation. I have plushies from a range of licenses. If WoW does it, GW should too.
• Keychains – I am fussy about keychains. I want to be able to use it, and not have it get in the way. My current keychain is a small Wind Waker Link in shiny metal. Previously I had a plastic Mario Mushroom.

I’m on the fence with:

• Jewellery – I don’t usually wear any. It’s too weird for me.
• Calendars – I have to look at it every day for 365 days, so it needs to be awesome – art and layout. I’m sure ArenaNet could make something nice.
• Strategy Guide – Not really needed any more, but I do like having a physical book to sit down and process, flick around pages, look at nice pictures. If it had lots of lore and behind-the-scenes, I’d buy it.
• Art prints – Not all that different to Posters.
• Comics – It’s a tangent to the game, not one I usually bother with.
• Trading Cards – Fine balance here between price vs. awesomeness.
• Cellphone cases
• Board game – This could be super cheesy and a waste of time.
• Replica weapons – They gotta be awesome.
• Mugs / steins / shotglasses – Maybe. One fo the only items where I’d prefer a simple logo.
• Pens – They run out of ink, and branded pens typically are uncomfortable and just bad.
• Patches & Pins – I want a better selection to choose from.

… and that’s my thoughts on merchandise. This blog post was supposed to be about how gay pride is related to gamer pride! I suck at planning these things.

GW2 Wiki and Fansites

What is a notable fansite, and who decides? Is the GW2 wiki solely for documenting the game, or should it include references to the community that surround it?

This is a follow-on from my previous “Bloggers unite” post. The wiki is ideal for a fansite directory, because it is a simple list, officially-linked, and allows anybody to update it.

I’ve suggested criteria and classification structure for the Guild Wars 2 Wiki: List of fansites in the Talk Page. I’m not very cluey when it comes to policies and procedures on the Wiki, so it’s possible my idea is totally crap. The original Guild Wars wiki Fansite list contained only sites listed by ArenaNet on the Fansite Roster.

It’s worth discussing, and don’t let the current lack of websites get in the way; as the time approaches, rest assured we’ll see a boom in Guild Wars 2 websites. So go ahead and have your say. I’ve disabled comments here so you’re forced to go there instead (mwahahahaha).

I understand the “less” approach taken so far. It’s easier. It’s cleaner. It’s safer. But the community is huge, from mega-sites to micro-blogs. It will only get huge-r, and I think the wiki should have a place as the hub, that vital starting-point for new players, looking for a place to discuss their love of the game.

Go! Discuss!

Warhorns [GW2 Speculation]

The official Weapons, Professions and Races combat article lists all the standard wieldable weapons in Guild Wars 2.

Could Warhorns grant players skills like Shouts to buff allies or demoralise enemies? Could they be used to summon allies? Could they be used to control pets or minions?

The profession/weapon/skill system could be so versatile if you think about items and how professions will use them differently.

Beware the angry Norn with a Cane

Thanks to Martin Kerstein and Eric Flannum for posting on Guru the following points:

The first five skills (what I call “Weapon skills”) are fixed per Weapon type/Profession combination. I already recognized this, however there was some confusion in the community. Weapon skills can be affected by character traits, which are passive abilities that are equipped.

This actually sounds somewhat similar to Signets they’ve already announced, especially how they were envisioned for Guild Wars – physical items (a signet is a ring) that can be equipped for passive benefits – and (speculation here) may provide modifiers like Vampiric or Enchantment mods.

Attunements are special skills, and do not take up precious slots on your 10-skill bar. Characters will eventually have access to all elements to all times using this skill. It can be used in combat, has significant cast time and energy cost, and a long recharge. It enables Elementalists to react to situations or combine skill effects.

This is the “unique mechanic” which enables Elementalists to play 4 entirely different weapon skill bars, and possibly more depending on weapon sets available at a time.

In response to concerns and queries around the community, Eric flannum has posted Nine GW2 Follow Up Questions including:

You’ve got 5 slots that you can slot freely, with the caveat that you have to bring one heal and one elite skill. Your other 5 skills are determined by the weapon set you bring. Most professions can equip two weapon sets and switch freely between them in combat, even stringing together combinations of attacks between them.

I keep telling people: there is still plenty of choice. This system reduces the likelihood of overpowered gimmicks and entirely useless skill combinations. Professions have access to multiple weapon types, they have racial skills, and they have the traits mentioned above. I think this system is intuitive. If you don’t see that now, please wait until you learn more or play it for yourself. Negativity in the community really bugs me.

Norn shapeshifting changes your skillbar.

No shit. You transform into a powerful half-animal form. Did you really think we’d be using swords and shields? Or canes and chakrams?

Previously mentioned Companion system is not in the game.

I take this as a good sign that their difficulty scaling and solo-ability works well. Also, less NPCs = happier Nox! They ruined the game.

Characters cannot change Profession.

I understand why people don’t like this. They invest time into creating a character, and as their reward they want to switch to a different Profession and have access to that Profession’s skills, without playing the content involved in getting there. It sounds like a good reward. But that’s not how a Roleplaying game works. And it’s not how a business model based on microtransactions (for something like a character slot, or, in future, a profession changer *gasp*). They don’t want to be stuck with a poor Race/Profession combination.

I don’t care about the last point. In PvE, I play whatever I want to play. My guildies tolerate my usage of Echo -> Chaos Storm or Signet of Illusions -> Ruby Djinn. If your friends say:,

“Hey idiot you can’t come, Norn Mesmers suck dolyak balls,”

reply with,

“Fuck you,”

and shove your oversized Norn Cane up their asses.

Well, that’s what I will do.

GW2 Predictions

New professions? Expanded races? Micro-transactions from the beginning… Here’s what I think might happen in Guild Wars 2. These are just predictions, mostly unfounded! Take them with a grain of salt (or a bucketful!) and please, comments are very welcome.

Mesmers defending Fort Ranik! Hoo-rah! Now, back to the post...

1. The Mesmer & Necromancer professions may be changed drastically, perhaps beyond recognition.
2. All Nightfall & Factions professions may be removed, although their style of play will be worked into other professions.
3. A Summoner/Controller profession may be introduced, combining some styles of play we now see from Necromancers’s minions, Ritualists’ spirits, and Rangers’ pets. This profession would have different options depending on the race – for example: druid, golem, machine, pet.
4. The Ranger profession may be transformed to enable the use of guns for spike damage, while still making Bows a viable option for DPS or degen.
5. The entire mechanics of Enchantment/Hex/Condition/Shout may be overhauled.
6. Primary/secondary profession system may be replaced by Race/Profession.
7. Races may bring their own racial abilities in PvP, as a result of the Race/Profession system.
8. The most potent skills may be PvE-only, and your strength in using them would be a result of the choices you make in the storyline/character creation.
9. Underwater combat may take place on the sea-bed. The complexity of having melee-range combat, and ranged targeting, would make swimming-combat too difficult.
10. A beta may be announced, or playable, around the time of PAX 2010. Release would be scheduled for Spring 2011.
11. Hall of Monuments achievements may simply add a badge to your armor, or give you access to pretty weapon skins.
12. Charr players selecting a magic-using profession would have a very interesting storyline :)
13. The dynamic event system would be exploitable. It would be totally different to everything you’ve seen before, however this would not make it good automatically. There will be lots of tweaking scenarios from ArenaNet.
14. This time they won’t make any promises regarding “not being charged for content added to the game” (relevant to Goddess Serqet’s argument in GToB AD1 yesterday). Micro-transactions would be a part of the business model from the very beginning, principally for lazy and vain players.
15. Centaurs & tengu would become playable races in the Cantha & Nightfall expansions. They will be more careful about expanding, after what happened with GW1; they are probably already planning ahead to compensate (by making key skill areas lacking).
16. Each playable race may have self-heals that negate the need for dedicated healer in low-to-mid difficulty PvE. The roles of Protection & Healing may be split into different professions.
17. They should be more wary of passive play – defensively & offensively. This extends to anything with a duration – Enchantments, Hexes, Stances, Shouts, and so on – or whatever their related new skill types are. I have doubts on this point, though.
18. There may be integration with the website & social network(s), for example, “Post this achievement to Facebook”. This will get people to play more, and more often.
19. You would either love or hate World-versus-World battles.
20. Some of the variety of Heroes’ Ascent battles may be integrated into the new Guild-versus-Guild format.
21. The Sidekick system may be one of the games most basic, yet outstanding features – the one that makes reviewers give glowing reviews. It would be simple and effective.
22. The battle with Zhaitan would bring new meaning to the word “epic”.
23. Grinding for power. The trend from Factions to Eye of the North is for PvE grinding improving skills, ultimately coming to a crisis point with Ursan Blessing, Pain Inverter & Cry of Pain. I would hope otherwise, but the trend is too much to ignore. The basic mechanic of “kill x enemies and become more powerful using y skills” will most likely pervade the game. Much to my dismay. Hopefully the PvP is totallyfrickinawesome, otherwise I will not play this game.
24. Normal play through the campaign will always ensure you have appropriate skills, level & player know-how to succeed. In this respect it will be similar to GW1. Completion of the campaign (which will be very long) will almost see a character to the maximum level – perhaps 80-90% of the way. The remainder of the levels will be attainable either through completing side-quests, WvW, or some kind of farming. The top 10-20% will be seen as unnecessary, from a gameplay viewpoint – little to no effect on character potency… but plenty of people will get to max level to achieve access to pretty armor (with no gameplay bonus).
25. NPC heroes – such as those we’ve seen in the Races of Tyria video – will have amazing stories and characters – enough to make you feel like you’re reading a good book or movie. A lot more emphasis is put on quality voice acting. No more “Saidra! No!”, or whatever Evennia’s voice actress spells out into the microphone.
26. You will be able to guard an NPC caravan from one side of the world to the other. Epic. You gain access to NPC-faction-style armor and weapons by helping them out. Similar to the EotN race-specific items.