First I will need to say sorry for my poor english. I wrote this, very late at night, and english is not my first language. I know that's a stupid excuse to suck at grammar, but I hope you will forgive my flaws.
I have had some time to reflect upon what I first wrote, and I would like to add something -
Mates. My sweet mates. I care so much for gaming and online communities. Probably so much that it's sort of ehh... Wrong.
I used be very negative and pessimistic. I have gotten a few nods from people, telling me to chill out, because they think im "over selling it" or are afraid that my words will have it not live up to the wisdom.
You people are right. How the hell would I know! I played the preview like over 600,000 other people, but still - In does 15 hours that it took me to beat the event, get a ton of quests done and reach lvl 15, I came to the conclusion I made in my first post.
I feel postitive and confident in ArenaNet. I belive in being positive. I belive optimism helps a company, game, and community blossom. I don't belive under-hyped before-release arguments, will make the game look better. I used to think like that, but in later years I have realised that life is to short for this mentality.
It's funny. For the first 1,5 half year of GWs life, I used alot of time on fansite forums to suggest changes that would make it comparable to other games. "Do this, because it's in Diablo 2". "Do this! WoW has it"! "Do this Halo has it...".
I guess sometimes as a fan and GW player I and others, can become blind sighted to how uniqe and cool GW is. We know it, but sometimes we forget, in the endless hate and misunderstandings that this great new franchise endures for just being different, innovatiove and just plain awesome.
Take a chill pill right? It's just a game? Hell no! Not to me it ain't. To me this is a revolution. Sure I enjoy other games. But... I don't enjoy other games like this.
Im not a skilled PvP player. I don't got FoW armors or any "rare" equipment. Or am rich! I am not in any worthy guild of memberence. Im just another GW player. I could care freakin less if all of you will rot to hell while enduring time down in WoW or whatever you are playing. As a gamer I just felt it was my right to "inform" you.
Am I fanboy? Am I biased? I honestly don't know. I am a boy(or a man.. rather). And yet I also am a fan of the game. So In that sense I am a fanboy, or fanman(prefered)!
I understand that GW is not a game for everyone. Im not blind to acknowledging this. I know people are different, but I gotta say. It's beyond my grasph to why people wanna hate this game so much. To why people will rate it 1 on this site and call it the recarnation of all bad things in life. Every single forum I go to are filled with people who hate this game. It puzzles me. I have never met a person who has been into this game extensively and called it a bad game. Sure it, has supposed "quitters" like any other game, except this game does not have a fee - So there is not really any subscription to cancel, meaning you can come back, until the end of time.
And even within the GW communities I feel a sad sort of cynical feeling.
Let me talk about something else for a second, to put it into context. My job is to work with kids. After school projects for children in elementry school aged 6. We have this one kid in my class who is a Mensa kid. He is absolutely insanely smart. What happens is that, because of his advanced IQ and brain, he has serious trouble fitting in with the other kids. Sometimes being to good or two cleaver can be awesome.
I belive the above senario is GW representing the GW kid, and the rest of the MMORPGs and the average MMO gamer representing the other kids. It's like GW is before it's time.
The game has never down time, it's insanely balanced, it's deeply focused, it has amazing graphics, its quickly streamlined, its awesomely optimized for most systems, but most of all, it's mad fun for people who give it a chance. People who sit down and bother reading the skill descriptions before logging onto MMORPG.Com and writing a new threads about "GW sucking balls".
GW is a game that is what you make of it. As I said before, I personally belive that it's succes has something to do with it's design sheet. It's focused onto balanced tactical gameplay. It does not have other sorts of systems. It just does what it does, in a uniqe and revolutionary way.
It's something like Max Payne. It works so well, because it focus on two things and it does two perfectly well. Action and story. And that's it. That's what Max Payne is. A really solid and understand action game. And thats why the game does not suffer from all sorts of stupid problems.
Take any big MMORPG. Crafting, player housing and so on.. the list of flawed mechanics and qurantine-over-quality-elements, place holder effects/items/quests/gameplay designs have no end. Of course its impossible given the size and scope of does projects, but it still sucks that so many gameplay fundamentals are broken in all these games.
Who the hell is not sick of buying a new first person shooter or RTS and fidning out that the online component is crap or the single player is merely a skimish? Why do developers settle crap? IMO if a feature is not great it should not be in a product. I think gamers have become way to unforgiven with devs just releasing a game with a ton of crap features and then thinking that it can be labeled as awesome because they have "impressive looking" features on the back on the box or that banner that is spammed on the top of your favorite gaming site.
Dammit! Hatred, agony, insanity, passion, love, hate, deceit, excitement, indivndualism, teamwork, valor, power, spirit, horses, flamingos and fun is all part of a cocktail that makes Guild Wars Nightfall such a great game. Forget what you heard from your WoW or EVE friends saying that this game sucks becuase it has no jumping and bla bla bla. Don't do it because I say so. Don't because anyone else say so. Do it because you should try it for yourself and give it a chance. Try to really see and appreciate the massive amount of depth and balance that went into this.
There is so much going on behind the scenes. Things you can not see in the hours played of GW players. Or the gear their avatars wear. But the experience, fun, appreciation, and sense of accomplishment that runs through their veins while they try to conquer the depths of the underworld, or fight of people from all over the world in the glorious hall of heroes.
Im not a messiah or game guru or a preacher. I f**king suck. my life is a mess, and under any other circumstances you should not listen to me. But do me this. Do me this favor and try this game. I don't care if Anet killed your father and raped your mother(Family guy reference FTW!) but damn. DAMN DAMN DAMN. Just do it. I know ending this with a nike clichee is lame but for god sakes.
I hate myself. I would have commited suicide a long time ago if it was not for this game. Im not just talking about the global awesomeness of the community. People are ignorant enough to denie this games innovative, and yet over 2 million people are able to play on the same freakin shard. Only EVE has done that before, but GW has many more players. Not that it makes GW superior over EVE. No! The masses don't mean a thing. But im just saying that when your standing, in the sunset at lions arch and you are having a discussion in the internation district with a 40 year old guy from pakistan and a 16 year old teenage girl from singapore. It does something to you. There is a sense of community, of hardship, of competition that no game can beat. all continents are against each other and yet we are all the same.
we got noobs, we got gold farmers, we got skilled players, we got hardcore gamers with over 5-10,000 hours played in 15 months, we got funny people, we got strange people, we got developers, a crazy but fun community manager who runs around strange shores with us, we got casual gamers, we got standard gamers, we got Iwayers, and we got dancing people, we got crazy people, we wammos and we got spikers, we got tankers and we got slankers, we got guild leaders, and we got spammers. we got all sorts of things and even more.
Im done. I did my thing. I don't feel obligated to inform you people anymore. I was in ever debt when I was informed by this game by another game and my greatful for that. Im even more greatful that I stuck with it despite hating it in the beginning because of my incompetence - my lack of understanding. for my lack of willing to learn and try new things. for my pessimism, for my stupid negative will about everything new. In a way this game made me a better person. was it my culturel learning from other people around the globe? or the fact that actually having to think and get skilled at this game that challanged my brain capacity and made my freakin brain grow, as that muslce-like mass it is? I dunno.
I also know it's insanely far fedged and I know that if you have read all this, or just skimmed it through, your a delusional wonderful person that at least has the will. That will to fight. That will to try new things. That's what seperates the wolfs from the sheep.
Are you a sheep?
Meh meh.
-Pingo
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