We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. Once a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

One of the recent hot topics on the official GW2 forums has been the subject of grind in Guild Wars 2. What is grind, exactly? The easiest way to define grind in an MMO is to compare it with how we normally think about the saying “back to the ol’ grind.” It refers to work, right? Going to a boring 9 to 5 job day after day, repeating the same, uninspiring tasks. That’s a grind.

Now, in an MMORPG grind can refer to a few things. Usually weeks worth of daily quests are the perfect example. Want something cool? Better prepare to do something boring for a while to get it. Farming over and over for certain materials or extra cash also fits. Running dungeon run after dungeon run to the point where you’re kind of sick of the place is another good example.

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. Once a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

With the addition of ascended gear, Guild Wars 2 definitely has more options when it comes to grabbing gear at max level. This fact can be good, since options are generally welcome among the MMO community, but ascended gear has seen quite a bit of negative feedback as well. So negative, in fact, that Chris Whiteside addressed the issue more than once during a recent GW2 Reddit AMA chat. ArenaNet admitted that the introduction of the new tier-set-of-sorts wasn’t communicated well, but the team was confident that the gear was a step in the right direction.

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. Once a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

Ouch. So, despite ArenaNet’s best intentions, The Lost Shores didn’t go exactly as planned for most folks as far as the one-time world event was concerned. It’s a shame what happened, but it’s also reassuring to know that the development team plans on making some much-needed improvements to the way the game handles events like these. I also found it reassuring to know that ArenaNet really wanted our feedback on one-time events in general. Why? Personally, I tend to think that in today’s MMO world, there are simply better options.

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. Once a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

So, The Lost Shores starts today! Some exciting stuff heading our way. I must say– I’m pleasantly impressed with ArenaNet’s content release schedule thus far. At any rate, The Lost Shores has some nifty stuff in store for us, including a one-time world event, which can sometimes be the most enjoyable events in an MMO and a new dungeon made out of mini-dungeons that seems like an awesome way to spend an evening with friends. The video for Fractals of the Mists is simple and quite interesting because it displays the fact that each fractal will be entirely different as far as theme and environment go.

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. Once a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

We’re currently knee deep in the middle of our Halloween event, Shadow of the Mad King. The Mad King himself has well, a few things to say to us now in his little dungeon, and the rewards for the overall event are starting to show themselves in the green-tinted eerie light of day. There’s still one more act to go, and let’s hope it’s worth the wait, but for the moment– what’s your favorite part about the event? How does it stack up to other Halloween events you’ve experienced in other MMORPGS?

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. Once a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

So, organized group content. Raiders sometimes receive a lot of flack because of how raid-centric and loot treadmill-like many MMORPGs have become. Want the shiniest gear? Better get your raid group together, clear three nights a week off your schedule, and get ready to stand in–er, avoid fires. Despite the negativity that some gamers feel towards raiding, however, there’s no denying the fact that a challenging raid or 5-man dungeon run with friends can be an extremely fun way to spend an evening. Challenging group content– when made well and completed with the right group– promotes teamwork, communication, leadership skills, and it makes us want to become better players.

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. A couple times a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

Guild Wars 2 is filled with some very gorgeous maps and locations, and not just locations situated plain in sight, open to the air. Even hidden caves and light-filled crevices can be quite beautiful, which kind of adds to the whole exploration theme the game has going on. Another place of beauty is underwater. The oceans and inlets around Lion’s Arch are some of the most beautiful underwater spots in the game, full of tropical life, plants, and just about everything you’d expect in a real ocean. Props to the environment team! The ice-covered lakes out in the middle of the snowdrift-covered areas are also particularly enchanting, in my opinion.

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. A couple times a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

Early on during headstart, I noticed quite a few players questioning their order choice (you know, that whole Vigil, Durmand Priory, or Order of Whispers choice). The decision comes fairly early in the personal story quest line, and interestingly enough, affects a large portion of the nature of the story quests that follow the decision.

Durmand Priory characters, for example, are given some quests that require the player to make use of gadgets while continuing the storyline. Vigil characters, naturally, are given quests that follow the whole “shoot first– ask questions later” philosophy. Order of Whispers characters follow a more sneaky route, but still get the job done. The three orders also gain access to different armor sets.

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. A couple times a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

So, this past week I’ve been doing quite a bit of crafting on my main. I’m rounding my way to level 40 now as a weaponsmith/jeweler, and still finding myself needing iron and silver (along with, of course, fine materials (fangs, vials of blood, etc.)). I’ve managed to keep my crafting fairly current with my level, but it does take some extra ore farming occasionally. I don’t mind this. In fact, I find it somewhat refreshing that crafting takes a bit of work sometimes. Having goals is a good excuse– er, reason– to explore if you ask me, and it keeps me wandering eagerly.

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. A couple times a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

Last week I talked a bit about leveling areas. This week my brain’s still stuck in leveling mode, mostly due to my super slow (yet super fun!) leveling style. So, what’s your leveling style? Have you been 80 for a week or so, or are you taking your sweet time to smell the roses– er, cow pies and herds of grazing dolyaks?

I know. You’re thinking this title’s crazy. It probably is, but hey– you can’t totally fault me. I was inspired by a piece of in-game architecture! An old pillar in Metrica Province reads “Given asura ‘Place of Ultra-Mega-Importance’ status in 1325 A.E.” When I first found the pillar a couple hours into my Metric Province leveling adventure during Headstart, I instantly fell in love with the area, and everything to do with the asura race– even though, you know, I’m really a tiger-striped lumbering charr. No matter. Awesomeness is awesomeness, right?

With that attitude in mind, I come to you with a brand new Guild Wars 2 Junkies feature. You can call it the Question Box. You can call it whatever you want, really, but what I’m calling it is a “Place of Ultra-Mega Awesomeness.” We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. A couple times a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions.

Psst, over here! Just in case, you know, you’re taking a break from the game– I’m here to distract you from work, er, chat about Guild Wars 2! Or specifically, headstart. The game’s off to an interesting start so far. I say ‘interesting’ because– let’s face it– not everyone has been pleased with their headstart experience. Despite ArenaNet managing to pull up the servers exactly when they said they probably would, it seems the servers had a hard time keeping up with the player load, and produced quite a large number of issues and game lockups.

Over the course of the weekend, players have experienced issues with logging in, staying logged in, account validation, guilds/guild membership disappearing, the trading post, the Black Lion Trading Company, HoM deliveries, WvWvW, and more. At the same time, not everyone experienced every issue, and in fact, quite a few players experienced a weekend of worry-free gaming. Some players were able to put in about seven hours of stable playtime before problems arose, and for the most part, those same players were able to log in a couple hours later. Not bad, right? Perhaps. But let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?

Welcome to This is My Story, a brand new column on Guild Wars 2 Junkies where I’ll be diving deep into the corner pockets of Tyria and showcasing interesting tidbits I happen to find along the way. For the most part, this column will focus on the PvE adventures of a casual gamer with a raiding past who’s a bit of an altaholic and very much an exploration nut. Colorful nuggets to hunt for in the wild and dangerous battles to charge haphazardly into are among my delicious recipes for… happiness? Disaster? A bit of both, sure– but think of the potential! Join me as I bring a little randomness to the GW2 scene.

As we make our way toward the much-anticipated GW2 headstart, I’ll be talking a bit about what there is to look forward to once we’re unleashed in Tyria. If you’re thinking something along the lines of, “Duh– everything!” right now, you’re probably correct, but hey, let’s narrow it down a bit, eh? First up this week, let’s talk about how awesome the different races of Guild Wars 2 are, and what a difficult decision it can be to choose between them.