This year is going to be exciting for me, both professionally and as a gamer. Last week, ArenaNet made a big announcement:
Guild Wars 2 has captured the imagination of gamers and media all over the world with its action-oriented combat, its living world full of dynamic events, its highly personalized role-playing experience, and the handcrafted artistry that suffuses every element of the game. Last year, thousands of you joined us at shows and events all over the world to try Guild Wars 2 for yourself. This year, you’ll finally be able to immerse yourself in the vast, diverse world of Tyria.
Although I work at ArenaNet now, I have been a fan of Guild Wars for more than half a dozen years. Not too long ago, I was speculating and theory-crafting along with all the other fans. And this year, Guild Wars 2 is coming out. Exciting stuff.
Obviously, because I work for ArenaNet, I have access to Guild Wars 2. However, there’s a significant experiential difference between play-testing the game and actually, really playing it as a player. One adopts different mindsets for each. As such, I’m very much looking forward to playing Guild Wars 2 when it is released. I’m looking forward to creating a persistent character I care about, to which I am attached, and having that character live and be a hero in a world as exciting and vibrant as Tyria.
Work will become increasingly busy, with longer hours at the office a given. It will impact my gaming time at home. Unfortunately, this means that I probably won’t make much of a dent in my backlog, either before Guild Wars 2 launches or afterwards. I’m reading more books and playing more quick games these days anyway.
On a side note it always makes me happy when mainstream media outlets like Forbes and VentureBeat publish stories about Guild Wars 2. I hope to see more mainstream media coverage.
By the way, the standard rules of engagement still apply to this post and this entire space. This is my personal game blog, not a work/company space. I won’t be answering work questions here, so please don’t ask me about beta events or release dates, or whatever.
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It always made me wonder what it was like to work on a project directly related to something one is already fan of — I would have a hard time not growing apprehensive about it, if not downright wanting to avoid it in my leisure time.
Glad to see you’re still excited about it!