We are getting closer to Guild Wars 2′s launch and the long time of waiting is almost over. Several bloggers shared their memories of waiting for the game with us, with very interesting results. Thank you to everybody who contributed!
This time, we even have one entry in another language. It certainly shows that we are a very international community! I sometimes forget about that fact with all of us here speaking and writing in English – yes, even though I am not a native speaker myself, I still forget that others aren’t either! Anyway, if you know Turkish, do not miss the last link in our list!
Feel free to check out the entries below and leave comments on the authors’ entries if you liked what they had to share with us.
Genesis, Exodus, and the fish one – by icbat
“Originally I played Guild Wars with my friend Cross. We’d grown up together, spending nearly every spare moment with one another. Our departure from the world of Tyria was a sign of things to come, but I still hope that Guild Wars 2 will find me far from alone. I grew up playing. Everything was a game to me, and I strive to keep that the case.
With games and Cross, I found a comrade. I had the N64, he had the PS2 and Dreamcast, between us we had the world. We played soccer 5+ days a week, year-round together. We played obscure games, we played mainsream games. It was with my friend that I found love in Harvest Moon, that we saved the world countless times, and destroyed it with reckless abandon…”
Five Long Years of Waiting for Guild Wars 2 – by Carvious
“Five years. That’s about as long as my relationship with my then-girlfriend-now-wife before I proposed to her. Is that long? Well that depends on the context doesn’t it? When it comes to waiting for a video game to release, it IS bloody long! And it is about time.
I found out about the Blog Carnival being held by GuildMag where you submit your blog entry to them about your memories from 5 years of waiting for Guild Wars 2. When I read the statement “Maybe Guild Wars 2 was the reason you even started blogging”, I was dumbfounded. It WAS the reason I started blogging. Is it that common that it is actually part of paeroka’s post? I feel a little embarrassed. But never mind, life goes on and I will write about my memories or lack thereof (apparently I have a memory span similar to that of a goldfish’)…”
Blog Carnival; 5 years of waiting for Guild Wars 2. – by Naveen from Chronicles of Tyria/Outrun a Centaur
“5 years.
5 long years of enduring Kamadan and its trading system, or lack there of. 5 years where the space bar kept my E/Mo on auto follow and allowed me to take a sip of Diet Dr. Pepper between battles. Maybe perhaps allow me a stretch and yawn or two. Exciting stuff in the click-to-move tyrian lands. 5 years of thinking “Nothing’s going to beat this game. There is no game that will even compare to it. Not even close.“
Nothing except maybe a sequel…”
Blog Carnival: Memories of waiting for Guild Wars 2 – by bookahnerk and Paeroka from Nerdy Bookahs
“Of course, we were at GamesCom again in 2011. Our first stop, just as in 2010, was at the NCsoft booth. This time, however, we also met our first fellow Guild Wars 2 fans. For all the years I have been online, this has always been a part of the fascination for me: Getting to know people online and then, sooner or later, also meeting them offline. It’s just a really great part of the internet that you get the chance to meet people from all over the world that you simply wouldn’t have met otherwise. What GamesCom 2011 also brought us was the realization that the folks at ArenaNet (well, the community managers, at least) apparently read what the blogosphere has to say about the game and the company…”
Lens on Two Is Greater Than One – by Lens from Magnifying Lens on MMOs
“…I am a bit more than just an average MMO player. I actually own (and have read!) maybe a dozen books on MMO design. I have a keen interest in games, game theory, game history, and more than 30 years of playing computer games. I also like to keep my eye on games in development…even games that might otherwise make me yawn.
My yawning stopped when I read the first interview with one of the ArenaNet team where they specifically said that Guild Wars 2 would be a full-blown MMO. Now I was going to start paying attention…”
The Wait is Almost Over… – by Adam from Guild Wars 2 Riches
“Most people at this point are foaming at the mouth in anticipation of finally playing Guild Wars 2. It has been an incredibly long wait and now we are just a few short, or eternally long, weeks away from getting our hands on it. If you think all the way back to March 2007 just think of all that has changed since that time. At a certain point I stopped viewing the ultimate goal of playing Guild Wars 2 not as a long wait, but a journey. I know that it sounds cliche, but really it was the only way to keep from going stir-crazy. Five years is such a long time to wait for anything. The world was a much different place back then…”
After Years of Waiting for GW2 Release – by Verene from Under the Pale Tree
“And history was made. Prophecies still had a hard time drawing me in, but a coworker bought me Factions for Christmas, and that was it, I was hooked. I bought myself and my brother both Nightfall that year just after Christmas. I got Eye of the North not much longer after that. I talked about it enough that my boyfriend bought the Platinum edition, and then I bought him a copy of Factions. When helping out at another store, I discovered they still had a Nightfall CE – and it was only $10! I bought it in a heartbeat. I managed to get the Factions CE online. I fell in love with the Dervish profession, and my Dervish became my main.
Then two things happened in pretty quick succession – the Guild Wars 2 announcement at gamescom in 2009, and me getting into twitter…”
Guild Wars vet talks 2007 announcement Guild Wars 2 – by Jeff from That Short Guy
“The popular Guild Wars community website, GuildMag, asked bloggers to reminisce on the 2007 announcement of Guild Wars 2 for its fourth Blog Carnival. To be honest, at the time I didn’t like that ArenaNet was giving up on Guild Wars to create a sequel. At least that’s how I felt.
It had been only two years since I started playing the original and I had just started to feel comfortable in structured PvP. My guild — my home in Guild Wars — Inyurface Gaming was a constant sight in Heroes’ Accent; challenging and holding The Hall of Heroes. I had turned into a decent Monk for my team, evening helping my guild reach the top 40 on the Guild Ladder…”
Five Years of Waiting for Guild Wars 2 – by sevendash
“I need to start off first of all by saying that this account of my wait for Guild Wars 2 hits on some really emotional subjects for me. It includes the passing of someone I looked up to as well as the progression of myself emotionally, being homosexual, and how I learned better through gaming to be a part of a community.
For five years I have awaited the release of Guild Wars 2. The sequel to MMO Guild Wars. I came into Guild Wars soon after Factions had released, and was thrust into everything if offered. This was my first MMO…”
5 Years of Waiting – by Greibach from Greibach’s Normal Form
“This was the year GW2 was announced, and the end of GW1′s new retail content. I was finishing my Jr./entering my Sr. year of college at the time, living with my best friends who all shared my love of GW. The news was both exciting and a little disappointing for us. We had bonded a lot over the past two years of GW, and we still loved the game. As excited as we were for GWEN, and subsequently GW2, I couldn’t help but feel a slight sadness. It felt like the end of an era, like moving into uncertain waters where everything was about to change in my life. Would I graduate this year? When I moved away, would I still be in touch with my best friends of the past 4 years? What game would we play once we “finished” GWEN? When would GW2 come out, and more importantly, would we like it as much as GW1?…”
Five Years of Waiting for Guild Wars 2 – by Iaroslav from Thoughts and Pictures about Guild Wars 2
“- (obvious thing) I became 5 years older and (I hope) a little bit wiser;
- I became a father!
- I changed my career twice. I was working in the videogames industry as scenario writer and game designer and switched to the position of editor in the videogames magazine. Not typical choice. It’s no surprise when magazine writers continue their careers in industry. But switching back? I got a lot of questions. Anyway in time I found myself back in the industry again. I write stories and create gameflow.
- And all of this time I followed every piece of information about the Guild Wars 2. I even decided to start my own GW-blog (which is you’re reading right now)…”
‘All Good Things…’ A Look Back on Eight Years with Guild Wars – by The Lazy Geek
“It’s story time, and with the release of Guild Wars 2 nearing ever so close, I figured it was time to tell my tale. You see, before Guild Wars 2, there was just Guild Wars. And before Guild Wars, there was a hole in my brain that could only be filled with a MMO. So, to tell you about the five-year wait for Guild Wars 2, I have to tell you about EVERYTHING. We have to travel back through time to when I was a troubled teen barley passing through high school with what little friends I had.
I have to tell you about the beginning, before I can tell you about the end, and then the future…”
Memories of Guild Wars 2 Development – by Ravious from Kill Ten Rats
“It’s a weird thing to love a game because of ownership. I love the ideas and rules man has placed with regard to property, especially intellectual property. Property of the mind. Guild Wars was the first MMO that made me feel like I owned the game. Amidst subscription services and embryonic free-to-play games, Guild Wars made me feel like a customer empowered. Memories of Guild Wars 2’s development have amplified that feeling of ownership to an unexpected level for the upcoming game.
My first memory of Guild Wars 2 surrounded a text string somebody found in the Guild Wars 1 data file. A developer had created some quest text involving a centaur attack on a village. That made Guild Wars 2 feel more real than any press announcement. They had been prototyping the dynamic event system using the Guild Wars 1 engine…”
What are my memories from five years of waiting? – by Entombed from Divinity’s Reach
“Well to start to answer the question, I have to admit a personal failure. I never played the original Guild Wars, and I’m pretty sure that I never will. <insert gasp> Yes, I confess, I am not an original Guild Wars fan. Thus, I arrived pretty late to the party, roughly two years ago.
I actually found out about Guild Wars 2 after a sort of falling out with World of Warcraft. (I know, first I say I’m not a Guild Wars fan and now I’m telling you I am a past-WoW player. Maybe I should be entering this carnival as an anonymous author, eh?) I was tired of the repetitive gear grind at the top, whether in PvP or PvE, and worst of all, I was bored. I tried changing classes and even switching to a healing role, but that only delayed my inevitable leave of absence from WoW…”
Five years of waiting…” – by Mattsta from The Ninja
“I remember being incredibly excited when Guild Wars 2 was announced. I always loved the story of Guild Wars even though I was not a big fan of the combat system in the game. So to see ArenaNet continuing to create their amazing stories on top of an entirely new system was like a dream come true. Looking back I’m surprised I was even that excited. I had only just reached the Southern Shiverpeaks in Prophecies, not even to Vabbi in Nightfall, and didn’t even own Factions. Heck, I didn’t even know yet that you got birthday presents every year on your character’s birthday.
What doesn’t surprise me is that ArenaNet is as focused on their community as they are on their new game…”
Learning to Wait – by Will from Distilled Willpower
“Rather frustratingly, the 5 year development of Guild Wars 2 has been somewhat “atomic”. Not just in its explosive rise to one of the most anticipated games of the new decade which we’ve seen over the past year or so; but also in its composition – vast amount of wide update-less space punctuated by the occasional proton of news or neutron of a blog-post.
My life is drastically different to what it was like 5 years ago. I was in the final year of my undergraduate degree – studying hard… *cough* no, REALLY! I was living in a flat in Durham with a couple of friends, watching daytime TV and playing Guild Wars while sitting on a purple plastic chair with a broken back…”
Growing Up and Guild Wars 2 – by Erik from tl-dr
“So…
yeaaaaaaahhh.
Naturally I jumped on this opportunity to talk about the greatest game to ever saunter towards existence (you know, cuz it’s not actually released yet and all), but five years ago I was a 7th grader battling my way through the great awkward hell known as middle school. I wasn’t one of the people who saw the press release from ArenaNet announcing GW2 minutes after it happened singing hallelujah, I wasn’t one of the people that caught sight of it in the corner of their eye on some video game news site. I wasn’t even a semi-logical functioning adult yet!…”
Memories of waiting for Guild Wars 2 – by Lady Lala
“When my friend told me to try Guild Wars, I was skeptical. I had heard of World of Warcraft (who hadn’t), and didn’t know if it would be the same. At least it wasn’t a monthly subscription, I thought. If I didn’t like it, at least I hadn’t wasted too much money. Instead, I was delighted, even though I had less of a clue of what I was doing than a five year old trying to do calculus. Imagine this for a second if you would: You’re jogging along, enjoying the fresh air of Ascalon – when suddenly you run headfirst into a tree. Repeatedly. That was me for the first month or so, before I finally figured out how to run like a normal human being. I never really heard too much about GW2 at the start, just through the words of a few hardcore players, so to me it was a distant myth, like Bigfoot, or unicorns.”
Little Moments – How I and a Franchise went from strangers to friends – by fearsomebits from A Viable Minty Grog
“…By the time I had not played Guild Wars, I played Allods Online, my first and only MMORPG ever that strictly followed the WoW-formula of adventuring from quest to quest, killing 10 bears and collecting 10 bear asses.
One day, while minding my own business in one of the faction capitals, I ran into members of a guild, whose name immediately caught my attention. It was a lighthearted play on words using the german translation of “cow”. If these people aren’t ashamed, I thought to myself, of running around with such a comedic name floating above their head, in an online realm where being the coolest pimp with the most imba gear was usually the goal to reach for, those might be the people I’d like to hang out with…”
A boy and his raccoon – by Jorn from Beer & Diapers
“When Guild Wars 2 was first announced in 2007, I was a rabid Guild Wars fan. From soloing the Underworld to joining guildmates in the Realm of Torment to defending Kurzick honor in Alliance Battles, I loved every aspect of the game. With so much to do, I figured I would one day get around to finishing Eye of the North and unlocking all of the heritage items for GW 2.
But in the intervening years, I went from a series of part-time jobs to a “career” with all the extra hours and early morning commute that entailed. And then I embarked on the greatest hero’s journey of all when my son was born. Like many other players, I’m now spending the next few weeks scrambling to make up for lost time. But my goal isn’t the Champion of the Gods title or the Stygian Reaver. I just want the rockfur raccoon minipet because my son loves raccoons. ”
What was I waiting for again? – by j3w3l from Healing the Masses
“…The truth is though that I have the attention span equal to any one of the the 3 year-olds I care for, sometimes worse and if it isn’t currently on my desktop.. like right now it in all probability doesn’t exist. I have a steam library full of little and big titles that may never get played, I could blame this on my current mmo addiction but that would be a lie as it has always been a factor in my play.
GW2 has been a bit special in regards to this as I become aware and even researched the title after pax of last year as the gameplay looked amazing and the tournie looked good too. It wasn’t just the nice looking combat that won me over though it was that their guiding philosophy resounded well with my own, it felt like here was a game being made just for me…”
5 Years inthe Making – by Jeshe from The Centaur’s Satchel
“I’ve only played a few MMO’s and none of the communities have really sucked me in and assimilated me like this one. From the players to the developers and everyone in between, this game and community has changed my life. It’s changed the way I view game companies and how I view video games. It has given me more than any of the creators or the players will ever know…”
Guildwars’a Veda Ederken – by Devasa (Turkish)
“Guildwars’ı oynamaya başlamam ile birlikte, aramızda hiç kopmayacak olan duygusal bağ da kurulmuş oldu. Bilgisayar başında fazla kaldığınızı ve ara vermeniz gerektiğini söyleyen, sizi sizden daha fazla düşünen bir oyuna nasıl olur da bağlanmazsınız ? Birçok uzun gecede, zamanın nasıl geçtiğini anımsatan bu uyarılar oldu. “You have been playing for 2-3….6… hours, please take a break.” Guildwars masamın üstünde duran kum saatim oldu…”
Update (August 14, 2012): Elizabeth from Massively added her own submission, a little bit late but a good read nonetheless!
“I keep wanting to talk about memories of development and standing in lines at PAX and meeting devs and other fans as a way of describing my involvement with this game up ’til this point. I sometimes feel that that’s odd, saying that the most exciting part of following Guild Wars 2′s development has been the people I’ve met rather than the game that we’re all congregating around. ArenaNet seems to agree with my take on things, though, if global brand manager Chris Lye can be trusted. He says of ArenaNet, ‘We’re not a video game company; we’re a community building company. We just happen to have one of the coolest ways to build a community, which is through a video game.’”
[...] You can read the entry I did for the first Blog Carnival or read more blogs from this Carnival here. [...]
Last Turkish article was awesome.
I’ve only managed to read it via Google Translate… which means that I only got a general grasp of it. A very general grasp. ;) It seemed like a good article, though!
guild wars is MY LIFE at this point. i played gw1 so much, simply running around in those deserts in Elona or walking through the ghettos of Cantha HOPING no one else will fall from the sky was everything for me. Listening to certain bands 5 years ago while collecting mandibles brings back COUNTLESS memories and feelings when i listen to those bands now. It truly is a great thing to reminisce back to the world of guild wars :) much support from Trinidad and Tobago !!
Oh yes, how I’ve come to hate those groups falling from the sky at the most inconvenient times. ^^
I was wandering the lands of Tyria many many years before GW2 was ever announced, I found a few loyal friends that have never left my side through all my ups and downs, my adventures and mis-adventures. So naturally when the announcement came, I about flipped out of my skin with excitement. Then the years kept passing by, and I’m not ashamed to admit I got a little stir crazy, but just at the right moment Anet began cranking out blogs, interviews, articles, and eventually trailers about the upcoming GW2. Just in the nick of time I might add. That only served to renew my fervor for the game. Over the years I drifted in and out of Guild Wars 1 after I had accomplished pretty much all you could several times over, but I never turned my back on it and never will. That says something about the quality of game Arena Net produces. Through guild wars I have made friends, said goodbye to friends, made allies, and made enemies, and I hope to share this new experience with them all in the years to come (yes, even the enemies, gotta have someone to aim for in pvp right? Hehe). They ask us “what’s your story?” Well….let’s go find out shall we?
Guild wars 2 tbh shocked me i never thought a game could be this good to make me a not so often gamer i only played 1 game before gw2 so this is gonna be one of my first ever “good” mmorpg my friend ingame told me about it and i snstantly loved it
I hope you’ll have fun then! :)
can’t wait for release :D
can’t wait for release :D
Only 7 more days now! ^^
I have played lotta games, my big start was 8 yrs in Daoc,played SWG till they ruined our guild,went to GW1cause it was just releasing.We did well with 8vs8 guild wars in the GH,but to me somehing was missing so I was a in an out player took up beta tessting, really looking to find a new home.One thing I liked bout Gw1 it was ol reliable if nothing going on and everything down cause of maint. there was always gw1 I keep it up to date and bought all the expansions.Never found a game in beta peek my interest at all,sept Swtor comming out got all excited being a major SW fan,but got into the weekend betas and by time they were done I was bored,not game for me.Well always planned on having Gw2 for same reason as Gw1, then I got invited 1st beta weekend,and was HOOKEd big time.Has WvW alot like Daoc RvR only on steriods hahaha.Also in all the games I played beta found most ppl ignor u unless ur iin their guild,so most all them was solo,and most gamesu need groups for alotta content (not all but alot).Here comes Gw2 and cured all that.So went back to Gw1 to get my HoM going meet up with some ppl, and now waiting for GW2but wait is sooo long, am so glad aint been waiting 5 yrs like most of u,I would have no hair, and hole in my wall from banging head, and -prob be in a ward some were tolking to myself, and drooling.11 more day feels like a yr hahaha.
I liked SWTOR but not enough to actually buy the game.
I’ve only played WAR but not DAoC. GW2′s WvW certainly reminds me of WAR and the dynamic events remind me of the public quests in WAR. In other words: The two things I loved in WAR, I find again in GW2.
10 1/2 days now! ;)
Sorry typo’s am highly dislectic dont see numbers and letters right, hope u can read it alright.
ehem… so everybody is talking about how good the game is… im new to GW and i came from a lot of MMOs starting from the ever famous Ragnarok. i played the stress test last sunday for 45min. i hope by the 25th, i can see why all gamers are waiting for this game… btw a lot of my friends are now here too and also noobs like me hahaha… goodluck to all…
I’d imagine that the game may take a while to grow on people. At least, if you’re a fan of things like quests, the holy trinity, etc. And for some, this game just isn’t “the” game. ;) Still, I hope you’ll have fun because that’s what a game should be. :)
I was late to the GW1 party and just played on and off with my husband after my sordid breakup with EQ2 so I could have something to do. We never joined a guild, but we got to 30 HoM points without a problem (could surely get more if we tried, but I don’t know if I’ll ever touch it again at this point haha). I was impressed by Anet, especially their handling of the cash shop, after EQ2′s RMT fiasco.
We started following the Anet/GW2 blog about 2.5 years ago, not long after the ele was revealed. We’ve been there faithfully reading articles and awaiting reveals with bated breath ever since. It was scary waiting for the beta; we kept thinking that there was no way this would live up to the hype. During the first beta, there were several points where our jaws dropped–it was a beautiful world delivering on all the promises we’d gotten. Since then we’ve helped with all the betas/stress tests and proselytized to friends. These last two weeks are certainly feeling like a longer wait than the last two years!
(I’ve actually read about 12 chapters of my school books for the next college semester ahead of time so that I can slack a bit when GW2 launches, lol. Why couldn’t you have come out earlier and given me something to do after the summer semester!?)
Well, it’s good to be prepared, isn’t it? :)
And we’re now looking at only 7 more days. It’s coming closer. Slowly, but steadily. ^^
I stoppedplaying Guild Wars 1 in 2008 and the plan was to play World of Warcraft until Guild Wars 2 was going to be released in 2009. I cancelled my WoW account last month, it’s been a long wait, but playing the BWE:s it looks like it was worth it. What excites me most about GW2 is being able to play a great MMO from the release and see how the community and the game develops.
I hit 45/50 in the HoM today so now I’m ready for GW2 with my cool title and all. Love you Anet <3
I always find it interesting to watch a game after its launch. It’s also great to just be among the huge crowd that’s exploring a new world together. :)
I originally played WoW, But once I tried Guild Wars, I was hooked.
Me and my roommate would play WoW for hours. It actually wasn’t that bad, we even did that whole thing where you get triple experience. Can’t remember for the life of me what it was called, but one day he said I should try Guild Wars out. At that time, I had never heard of Guild Wars, or the closest thing I had known about it was that it was a game. That’s it lol.
After I researched it for about 5-10 minutes, I made a Trial account and my first character. Floyd Hunter. Funny thing, I came up with that name because my name in WoW was Floyd, and I played the Hunter class as my main. Yet my main in GW is Necromancer. I got hooked on that game right away. Oh it sucked how the trial lasted either a couple of days or a couple of hours; which ever happened first. I flew threw those hours in almost one day. Needless to say, I ended up buying the game of the year edition. I ended up getting everything except GW:EN, and once I got that, I got even more hooked into the game.
I ended up uninstalling WoW because I was playing Guild Wars so much. I love the game. It’s a great game, and its sequel is just as great. After launch, That’s where you will find me most of the time. ^^
Thanks for sharing your memories. :)
My first character was a necromancer as well, but that didn’t work out… ;) I really couldn’t play her well and I don’t like having minions around, so I switched to the warrior.
Urgh, I LOVE this blog carnival! Thanks everyone for sharing :D
I only wished I had played Guild Wars AFTER they released HoM, and by the time I realized it existed, it was too late …. oh cute little in game items! Most of you will never be mine, because I will be too busy playing GW2 to obtain yOU!
After they released it? But the bonuses are retroactive – or did you play “the wrong way” that didn’t lead to points (like I did ^^)?
There are guides around that can help you get some easy points in the HoM for the armor, at least. Just in case you’re interested. :)
[...] Blog Carnival: Five Years of Waiting for Guild Wars 2. “We are getting closer to Guild Wars 2′s launch and the long time of waiting is almost over. Several bloggers shared their memories of waiting for the game with us, with very interesting results. Thank you to everybody who contributed!” [...]
[...] critical look at Guild Wars 2 | MassivelyUser:Stephane Lo Presti – Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W)Blog Carnival: Five Years of Waiting for Guild Wars 2 | GuildMag … No related posts. /* placeholder inline styles */ body { font-family: arial, verdana; } a, a [...]
From
England to Africa, every country is arranging the carnival with too much
publicity. you might have visited many famous festivals to have real fun and
enjoyment but you have not taste of carnival, you have not get the original
refreshment yet.