My Fantastical Journey: Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event 2

So this weird thing happened about two weeks ago. It was Friday, I was at work browsing Reddit because pfft work, and I saw a thread on AskReddit about "What moments in your life became epic after learning the details?"

And for once, I thought to myself, "hmm, I actually have a good story about this type of situation!" So I typed up my story while cautiously minimizing Reddit every time I heard footsteps...

Then I went back to work, doing statistical analysis of a whole bunch of measurements, generating graphs, and all of that other mathematical wizardry that I do...and in about an hour, I slacked back to Reddit...and THIS happened:

Oh...my...god. I started freaking out at my desk. Luckily my office is at the end of the hallway so nobody could hear my girly squeals of excitement. I quickly grabbed my keys and went down to the bathroom so I could do a quick "this is so cool!" dance. And when I got back to my desk, THIS happened:

So then I started freaking out even more. I spent the rest of the day at work smiling like a fool and checking my email continuously to see if I had gotten a reply yet.

One week later...

 
Wow! So here I am playing a game that I've been excited about for the last few years. For some background, I played the original Guild Wars for about 2000 hours over the course of two years, created a nerdy guild called "Dragons of Eternal Twilight" (wow, that's lame, blame 15 year old me), met some incredibly amazing people, and lost my virginity (but that's a whole different story).

My Guild Wars 1 main character in the final area of the original storyline.

To be honest, I've been avoiding Guild Wars 2 information for a long time like a little kid covering her ears, shouting "lalalalala". I have been avoiding press releases, information about betas, release date speculation, everything - because in the past I have encountered a little thing I like to call, "hype-burn", which is kind of like heart burn but not really at all. Hype burn happens when you follow a game for so long and get so hyped about it that when it finally comes out and you get to play it, it can never meet the inflated expectations that you have created from obsessively following kick ass screenshots and cinematic previews.

But clearly the universe wanted me to experience Guild Wars 2 now, so how was I going to say no to that?

Oooooh Castle!

So anyways, instead of boring you with long descriptions of why the Guild Wars 2 beta absolutely blew me away and broke the limits of my hype-o-meter and left me in a deep, seething depression now that the beta is over... look at all the pretty pictures I took! 

The environments are so damn colorful and nice to look at. Just running around and exploring all of the different areas kept me occupied for hours.

The main human city was MASSIVE. Stop looking at my character's butt. There's an auction house, bank storage, tons of merchants, and crafting seems like it's going to be a huge part of the game...for me anyways. It's really nice because the bank storage has a slotted tab for all different types of crafting materials so you never really run out of space to put your 300 tanned hides and you can send crafting materials directly from your inventory to the storage from any place on the map.

This vendor said, "I have everything that you need!" ...I don't even like tomatoes, you sarcastic asshole.

I think they did an excellent job with character customization. It's nice when everybody looks a little bit different and unique. Armor dyes are unlocked by character and then you can use them at any time which really saves the hassle of buying individual dyes for every piece of armor like in GW1. Also each piece of armor usually has multiple dye slots so you can make your armor rainbow colored if you really would like. That makes me happy.

I can't get over how beautifully crafted the environments are... This is in Lion's Arch. The lore explains that Lion's Arch was destroyed by a massive flood caused by a dragon and the people came together to rebuild the important hub town using ship parts that remained from the destruction. You can see that influence in the architecture and I think it's absolutely brilliant.

I found a bug while I was playing...

And then there was this kid... I think this child somehow stumbled from the Skyrim universe into the Guild Wars universe.

The combat is superb, absolutely THE best that I have ever experienced in an MMO. Other MMOs that I've played have grown a little bit stale. You end up paying more attention to pressing shortcut keys than actually being involved in the battle. The Guild Wars 2 combat system absolutely fixes that awful trend by implementing a very fluid movement-based combat system. You can roll, dodge, run, and move - all while casting spells and delivering powerful attacks. Dodging becomes increasingly important in battles such as this one. This boss randomly popped up out of the swamp and about 30 people rushed to the area to fight it together. This Shadow Behemoth would launch area attacks that were basically a one hit kill if you didn't get the fuck out of the way with a well-timed roll dodge.

Should I be running towards this monster or away!? Yikes!

Victory! After we defeated it, everybody ran in to grab their share of the giant loot chest. As you can see in the chat window, we were all pretty fucking pleased with the experience.

WvWvW - aka extreme clusterfuck PvP battle of doom. Here is a group of about 25 people from my server attempting to capture a fortified post being guarded by 20 people from another server. It was glorious, glorious chaos. Pictured: my incredible fireballs of doom raining from the sky.

Treasure is that much better when it comes from a chest that is two times as tall as you.

One thing I wasn't expecting... fully crafted underwater environments with underwater residents and even underwater combat. I can't imagine the kinds of crazy underwater boss battles there will be. You also have a specific, unique skill set for underwater combat which will certainly make for some more diverse fights.

Well okay, I like Quaggon too I guess...

I have no idea what this is going to be for in the final game since it didn't do anything in the beta...but it looked freaking awesome.

At some point in the beta, I joined a guild of some pretty cool people. We partied up, went on voice chat, and stood majestically on a mountain like a band of benevolent heroes...with a canon.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and I was extremely impressed with the beta. Now I just have to wait until it gets released for real... So until then... maybe I'll finally finish Mass Effect 3, HAH, right.

A Matter of Perspective

                “Bite me,” the man snarled at me as my bike tires screeched to a stopping halt. He stared back at me, his tiny Welsh corgi sniffing in the grass beside the trail, causing the leash around his neck to form a tight line across the path.
                “Oh, I’m…I’m sorry,” I replied. And I steered my shiny new blue bike into the grass around his dog. I followed the path for a bit longer, passing some hardcore cyclists in skin clinging body suits that gave me a condescending frown as if I were not worthy to share the trail. Garbage littered the sides of the path – empty McDonald’s bags and soda cans and the occasional used condom left from spontaneous forest teenage fornication.
                I hung my head low, turned around, and rode my bike back home.
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                It took me a few weeks to save up the money and work up the courage to wander, completely clueless, into a bike shop.
                “Can I help you?” a young guy asked as the store front door bells jingled at my entrance.
                “Yes, well…I think I want to buy a bike. The last time I had a bike, I was like thirteen so I’m a little bit clueless about what I need to get.”
                The worker was an obvious bicycle aficionado – he explained to me the different types of bikes and brands and prices and sizing and my mind swirled with all of the options – when did bikes become so complicated?
                “Try this one,” he said, lowering a bicycle with a navy blue frame and white trim onto the floor in front of me.
                I awkwardly swung my leg over the frame, positioned myself into the seat, and unsteadily pedaled forward. Wobbly as a drunken sailor, I barreled through the middle of the store, until I came to a stop inches from a group of customers.  
                I lowered my feet to the floor. “I like this one. Can I get it today?”
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                “This court sentences you to one year in the county jail,” the judge’s sturdy voice echoed over and over in my mind and I counted on my fingers… January, February, March, April, May…June, July. July…July…this is such a long time. How, how will we ever make it through this? What, what should I do?
                I cried, for a long time, I cried.
                And then at some moment, when I could no longer produce tears, I realized – I was going to have to get through this time one way or another. I have no power to change this outcome. I had to stay positive, stay optimistic – it was up to me whether the temporary loss of my best friend would throw me into a depression or be a life lesson. Change was going to come, whether I wanted it or not.

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                “April 10^th, Say Anything at the Water Street Music Hall” – I clutched the ticket between my fingers and read it over and over again. “Doors open 6:00PM,” – I looked at the clock, the back-lit screen flashed “6:30.”
                I got into my car and drove towards the venue. A line weaved around the sidewalk outside of the concert hall, and I circled and circled around the block – my heart racing, palms sweating. I pulled into a parking lot, and alone, I walked to the back of the line.

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                I decided to ride my bicycle down to the public farmer’s market today.
                I crossed over this bridge and slowed down, lingering for a while – gazing at the river at each side of me, a sight I had never witnessed in this city. Actually, the bridge had a nice arch to it, so it was a little bit tough to get up the slope and it slowed me down considerably, but it was more like it majestically decreased my pace so I could admire the scenery. At the other side of the bridge, I merged onto a path, passing a nice young bearded fellow on a bike headed the opposite direction. He smiled. I smiled. In my mind, we shared a moment of – “hey we’re both chubby, pale, indoors-y people, look at us doing outside things!”
                I continued down the path, tracing the river, until I reached the city and ventured to the sidewalk to continue my journey. Once I reached the road where I needed to turn, I decided that I was really just enjoying the thrill of exploration and began to take a series of random and unrelated turns at my heart’s whimsy. Actually, there was construction on the road I needed to go down and as I attempted to create a detour, I got very, very lost.
                I circled around the streets, trying to find my way back the river. And around me, I was surrounded by things. There were people I didn’t know, buildings I never knew existed, streets with names I’d never encountered. These are the things that frightened me – that scared me from ever being alive.
                I passed a group of people in the middle of a little park – a family, children and seniors gathering to take photographs under a large white tent next to a table full of fruit salads and freshly grilled hot dogs. Nearby, a woman in raggedy torn clothes dug through a trash can. A young guy walked with two golden retrievers and a couple walked hand-in-hand to a restaurant. A large group was gathered around an arena in caps and gowns, snapping photographs with well-dressed parents and grandparents holding "congrats grad" signs.  Life was everywhere.
                After a lot of aimless wandering, I stumbled upon a street that looked familiar: the sign - Water Street. This was the place that I had seen one of my favorite bands, where one of my favorite musicians walked right passed me. I knew where I was now.
                I headed back towards my home. Along the way, I passed another familiar building – the hall of justice. This is where the courtroom is at, where he was taken away. The place I left in tears, months ago.
                As I continued down the road, I found myself at the other side of the river that I had followed before. I looked across and recognized the buildings I had seen just an hour ago, the place that I had just been. At the end of the road, I had an option – I could continue along the road I had been down so many times, or I could follow the path along the river, of which I was uncertain exactly where it would lead.
                I stopped to sit on a rock and have a drink of water. When I got back on my bike, I steered towards the river trail, and a man was walking by. I nearly cut in front of him.
                The man just smiled and held his arm out to the side, gesturing for me to pass, “have a good day!” He said.
                “You too.”  

Mass Effect 3 - Before I Face the End

Caution: This blog contains minor Mass Effect 3 spoilers if you happen to be even slower than I am at finishing video games.

                 I’ve been hearing a lot of opinions now about the conclusion of Mass Effect 3. It has taken a lot of willpower, initiative, and persistence to keep my uncorrupted ears free from spoilers. But there seems to be a pretty general consensus from the gaming population – including my twitter followers, Facebook friends, and roommates – that the ending “sucks.”
                Currently, I have only made it through the mission on the Geth ship, in which you reunite with Tali to disable the reaper communication to the Geth and encounter Legion along the way. Since I am at least a little bit away from finishing the game and I will certainly have an opinion when I reach the conclusion to this story, I thought it would be interesting to record my thoughts while my mind is still relatively protected from bias.
                So far, I can’t begin to fathom what could possibly happen in the ending that would cause such a widespread and unified hatred. I can’t say that I have heard a single positive thing about the “last five minutes of the game.” In fact, I have been advised to shut off the game and never return to it once I reach that point.          

                This mass outrage certainly has me theorizing about the ending. There aren’t many ways I could imagine that would cause such a negative response. So I’m thinking, it has to be:

1. The ending is overwhelmingly gloomy, depressing, and disheartening. e.g. The reapers win, all of humanity is destroyed and everybody dies. OR the Reapers enslave all species and all of our hard work was for absolutely nothing.
   
2. Cerberus has played a huge role in this game thus far. In Mass Effect 2, The Illusive Man basically rebuilt Shepard, brought her back to life. Did he implant something and has been using her as a pawn all along – e.g. the ending has a big Bioshock Atlas reveal, everything you have done has been preconceived and predetermined a la “would you kindly”
3. The ending is vague or inconclusive, and thus it ends up being dissatisfying – i.e. Some sort of cliffhanger, loose ends left untied, plot holes.
4. There is some sort of cliché “this was all a dream” reveal. Shepard was a psycho war vet stuck in a hospital somewhere having delusions aka “The Catcher in the Rye” effect and humanity has never reached this level of space travel. This could go in many super cliché ways including a “Wizard of Oz” effect, a “Lost” effect, or a “Princess Bride” effect (it’s really just a child’s interpretation of a fairy tale, a book). 

Is this even reality?! Have we all been dead...OR have we been trapped on an island in the Bermuda Triangle?!

                Beyond those ideas, I cannot possibly fathom what would make the ending so “awful”. I know people have also cited that “your decisions have no effect on the ending at all,” and of course I don’t doubt anybody on that… But I wonder if your decisions have an effect on the actual game itself. If the ending is simply one linear conclusion, okay fine, but what would have happened if most of my team died in Mass Effect 2? Would the missions with those squad mates have not appeared, would there have been a nameless member of the species in their place, or would that person magically have been alive anyways? What about the dialogue, the cut scenes, the interactions? How much variability was there in the story at all really?

                I’m going to address this right now because I’m pretty firm on this regardless of the ending. Yes, it is kind of a bummer that the ending isn’t drastically affected by our choices. Bioware had been promising us this extremely divergent conclusion to a five year animated choose your own adventure book. I can understand the knee jerk negative reaction to finding out that the ending isn’t as in your hands as was promised. But on this one simple thing, I have to defend Bioware. Unfortunately they gave us the Peter Molyneux effect. They promised us an experience that they ultimately were not able to deliver. But was Fable a bad game because it didn’t ultimately meet the original expectations? Absolutely not. It was still a fantastic game that won tons of awards, left a mark on the industry, and provided a completely new experience. 

Some might call it a failure - I say he was just a wee bit too enthusiastic and ambitious...like three times.

                I think it is important to differentiate between disappointment and poor quality. It is pretty safe to say that Mass Effect is not a bad game. Bioware created an entire galaxy. An entire galaxy with an entire history. And it’s an extremely rich history – full of different species, conflicts, traditions, mannerisms, locations, wars, technology, Science – I can’t think of another game that even scratches the surface of what they created. Beyond the depth of the background of the setting, they also developed extremely realistic characters with legitimate personalities. These characters are dynamic, they personally develop as the story progresses. They change and grow and learn things with you. You create a relationship with them that is so much deeper than anything I have ever experienced in a video game, book, or movie.

                Mass Effect is absolutely, no doubt, one of the most in depth, detailed, elaborate, and mystifying stories ever told through the storytelling medium of video games. So what could possibly go SO WRONG that leaves a fowl mark on everybody’s experience? I guess I just have to keep playing.

The lines by which he knows me

 This is part of a larger collection of short pieces I wrote for a class project about a month ago. It's still a work in progress (in fact I just re-edited this today because I absolutely hated some of the lines after revisiting it from the last time I read it.)

We’re sitting on a wooden bench in the corner of the bustling Hall of Justice. Men in black suits like resolute legal soldiers march urgently past us with their leather briefcases clutched close to their sides. Guards in navy blue uniforms with shining gold badges stand stiff like statues outside of courtroom doors. The elevator dings and takes on a group of diverse passengers – young men in button up dress shirts, women in pressed skirt suits, men in baggy jeans and large hoodies. A guy sits across from us clutching his hat; he stares at the ground, averting his eyes from the activity surrounding him. A woman walks past us towards the exit, a smile across her cheeks, eyes glowing with joy, with victory – she drags a child hand-in-hand behind her towards the exit.
            Pat pulls a pen out of his pocket and opens to a blank page in his little black sketch book, “look at me,” he says. My cheeks flush pink and I smile bashfully. His pen begins to work quickly; he traces the curvature of my jaw. The paper emits a musical whoosh, a swish as he sketches the streamlines of my hair. “I wish he would get here already,” he states, glancing up at my face, he pauses for a moment to examine his subject, and returns to the drawing.
            “Yeah, I um… It’s already like one thirty; doesn’t it usually end by two?” I ask, awkwardly trying to hold the expression on my face.
              His pen scratches across the paper effortlessly, elegantly like a musician improvising a song. His glance moves from me to the paper and he carves the almond shape of my eyes. “Yeah, he’ll probably be here soon, it’s fine,” he replies. His pen dances over the paper, crafting smooth and perfect lines around the waves of my lips. Drawing is his native language, the ink flows fluently through his pen, and he translates the images in his mind to the paper.
            He sketches a few final lines and closes the book. I snatch it from his grasp and turn to the page of the new drawing. Every line has life - the sketch breathes with my likeness and beats with the pulse of his hands. I gaze at him and smile, my chest fills with warmth, and I loop my arm through his arm. We sit in silence and continue to wait.
            A voice carries across the bustling room and a man wearing a bright purple tie shuffles towards us, “hey, Pat, look I checked and tried to get somebody down here, but they are having a graduation ceremony for the mental health court today so they aren’t doing screens. I recorded that you were here, you’re fine to go.”
            “Okay, thanks,” Pat replies, shaking the man’s hand while standing to leave. “Well that was a waste of time,” he directs to me.
            “It’s okay,” I smile.

The Journey to Adulthood

       I’ve been an adult for three years and four months now. Three and a third years. But that’s not really accurate – it was only recently that I began to look around at my apartment and my life and think to myself: “well…damn, I’m an adult now.”

      See, I’m starting to realize that it’s not one of those transitions that happens instantaneously like that 18^th birthday when you go out and buy a pack of cigs and a porno mag for the first time. Or like that first day you look down and notice weird things going on in your underpants and your body is screaming at you - “hey, you’re growing up!” The transition to adulthood has been more of a gradual thing, building up with defining moments such as the day that I finally convinced my parents to trust my judgment (aka back the fuck off) and the first time I had to schedule my own doctor appointment. (I still don’t understand all of this “health insurance” nonsense.) Also the traumatizing laundry incident when I accidentally dyed my favorite shirt pink.

This guy accidentally dyed his entire outfit pink - how embarrassing!

      I think the real defining moment that kicked off this metamorphosis, though, was the first time I went to go pee and the toilet paper was completely gone – not a single square of TP to be found in my whole house. And it stayed that way for a few days. And I resorted to tissues and paper towels and the old drip n’ dry method until finally I accepted that toilet paper was never going to magically re-spawn. I had to actually make a trip out to the store and buy it. But the life changing hysteria and confusion did not end there...

      Once I got to the store I was faced with the monumental decision of what kind of toilet paper to buy. It absolutely bewildered me – for something as simple as potty paper to wipe my nether regions, there were A LOT of choices. For the first time in my life I had to make this really earth-shattering decision between saving money and the cushy softness of the paper that I use to wipe my butt. It was a seriously jarring experience…

Don't even get me started on the mind bending decisions of cheese, paper towels, and shampoo

      Life as an adult is interesting. Rather, I’d call it my life as a pseudo-adult because right now I don’t think I’m quite there yet…even though I can legally drink alcohol and join the army and vote. I’m in this sort of transitional mentality where I’m beginning to understand my parents’ overbearing perspective yet everything is also terrifyingly new and I still awkwardly stumble over hurdles like managing my finances and leaving the grocery store with things other than alcohol, ice cream, and ramen.

      I think I’m also realizing too, that this child to adult cocoon doesn’t occur the same for anybody. I’m pretty helpless for a 21 year old; I’ve never used a lawn mower, I have no idea what those random blinky lights in my car mean, and at times my newly found independence is slightly overwhelming.

Hey guys! I just found out I don't have to ask my mom if it's okay to watch R rated movies

      I had the luxury in my childhood that I never had to worry about money or food or having a place to live. My biggest fear as a kid was losing one of my gazillion stuffed animals in a Best Buy parking lot. I was a materialistic little bugger! Not everybody grows up with that kind of carefree childhood lifestyle. And likewise, some people continue to have that worry free existence for their entire life.
 

      Growing up, I always had this idea that being a certain age, being an adult meant having everything figured out. The doctors and teachers and scientists – all of the adults were just “right” all the time. But as I have progressed into the stage of my life where I am now fully aware that I’m not away at summer camp anymore – I’m really living as an adult – I have realized how little anybody ever has figured out. The more I learn, the more I recognize how much I don’t understand. Every fact or lesson arises ten more unanswered questions.
 

      I’m starting to wonder if anybody ever really figures out anything…or if being endlessly confused and curious is just part of being alive. Maybe we form some delusion of understanding and hold onto the simple things so we can feel safe from uncertainty. Or maybe we are just supposed to fake it until the explanations emerge naturally.

(Yep...next time I'm going with the Charmin Ultra Soft.)

Introduction...

Hello! Welcome to my new blog area thing. It's been a long time since I have posted words on the internet, so we shall see how this goes. Here's just some random explanations instead of boring you with things that make sense:

I only have two fingers (lobster claws!) because Zoidberg.

There is a turtle in the heading picture because turtles are one of the only animals that I can draw. He has a party hat because originally he looked really sad and I wanted him to feel better.

I'm not uniquely clever - The name "Miss Leading" came from the band The Dear Hunter and their second album "Act II: The Meaning Of, And All Things Regarding Ms. Leading"

For Reference:

I should mention that the character "Ms. Leading" in this album is a prostitute (as you can probably tell by lyrics such as "I hate to tell you that I no longer need your services"). I, however, am not a prostitute. Though there are probably at least a few people in this world that may describe me as a "bitter fabricating manufacturer of lust." But that's not the point. I DO enjoy word play though.

It really is a great album. Has a great transition from naivete to this corrupted clear view of reality. But anyways, enough of that.

Welcome.