Gaming: When Guild Wars 2 disappoints

I've tried to write this post a number of times in order to express my disappointment in and frustration with the new "Feature Pack" that Guild Wars 2 released on April 15, 2014. It's taken me nine days to personally digest the monumental game changes, sort through public opinion of them, and boil it all down into something that makes sense to me.

Then I realized that through out the whole process one important question remained unanswered. "Why?" Why did the development team at ArenaNet feel these changes had to be made? Sure, they gave a myriad of reasons in the teaser articles they shared under the guise of keeping us informed. Those reasons ranged from the typical need to balance the game to untypical need to keep our armor from clipping during combat. In fact, pre-release the game developers seemed very free with information, as if they wanted us to understand what was going to happen to the game. Looking back now, I see that those articles are full of just enough of the right kind of information to head off a pre-release revolt.

I have eight characters. Seven of them are below the maximum level of 80. Thanks to the reengineering of traits, I now have no desire to level them the rest of the way to 80. My sense of progression, my sense of accomplishment, has been completely wiped out. If I wanted to grind levels, I'd go back to Lineage II! The really sad thing is, though, that when I heard about having to hunt grandmaster traits in the open world a la the original Guild Wars, I was very excited. I loved the thrill of finding the boss, killing it, and taking it's elite skill for my own. How much fun would it be to do that in Guild Wars 2? Well, not much, to be honest. Join a zerg (if you're lucky enough to be on at event's scheduled time - because everything's scheduled now), auto-attack, and go get a snack. No thrill. No excitement. Whooo, you got the grandmaster trait. Whoopee. Pretty soon I'll be able to face-roll the keyboard and win the game!

One group this "Feature Pack" has shined a lot of light on are the role players. I'm not a role player myself but I feel for them and the fact that their communities, and role playing in the game in general, have been shredded by the institution of the mega-servers. Not only are they are being trolled (sometimes rather rudely, too), but they've lost the ability to tell the stories they want, how they want, when they want, and with whom they want. They can't meet up with friends or guild mates to role play because the mega-server has spread them across various shards with no way to sync up except to log in and out repeatedly. Even then there is no guarantee they'll all make it to the same shard.

I'm not even going to go into the new wardrobe, dye, transmutation, and town clothes fiasco except to ask, "Why?"

Why, ArenaNet? What was the thinking behind the redesign of these game systems? As professionals, you should know that to take away a player's sense of progression in a game is a huge, HUGE, no-no. You should also know that messing with the cosmetic elements of the game is also a huge no-no. As an aspiring game and narrative designer, I'd love to know what the thought process was behind these changes.

As an avid player that loves Guild Wars 2, I'd love to see these changes rolled back. Please. Give back my reason to pla

FSU: I did it!

After four long years I've finally graduated from Full Sail University with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing for Entertainment. What an accomplishment. What a trip! It was one of the most frustrating, exhilarating, and transformative experiences of my life. I certainly will never forget it, the lessons learned, or the friends I made along the way. Thank you, Full Sail, for giving me this opportunity. Thank you, professors, for seeing my potential and forcing me to rise to it. Thank you Emily, Amanda, Katti-Anne, Yshaia, Jessica, Mari-Anne, and Corey for commiserating and supporting me along the way. Y'all are the best! Lastly, thank you to my family. I never would have accomplished this with out your love, understanding, and support.

I can't believe it. It still hasn't sunk in. I'm a college graduate!

Now, what to do with my degree? Oh, the possibilities!