I seem to be in the minority of Guild Wars 2 fans. My experience during the beta was pretty positive overall, aside from the hardware/network problems that led to errors while trying to log in, and also an inability to group up with friends. There were some minor issues, such as the auction house and the mail system. Once in, though, the game ran well and I had a lot of fun. I didn’t experience any issues with quests or content aside from some wild swings in difficulty level. Overall, very smooth considering the sheer amount of people playing that first weekend.

If you read any articles addressing speculation regarding a launch date, however, there seem to be tons of people saying that the game is rough to the point of being broken, and that they would expect months of extra polish before the game launch. We’d be lucky to see it by December, if at all, blahblahblah. What the actual frack? Were we playing completely different games? Or do some people feel so entitled that they would be happy to pay for a game and then wait over half a year to actually play it, just to have a highly-polished experience? I just don’t understand that viewpoint.

I think that GW2 is going to suffer from a miscalculation in its marketing timeline. ArenaNet has been hyping the hell out of it, and they’ve actually done a very good job to this point. But we’ve reached saturation level, and rather than building toward a peak of interest, it is going to start to die and turn to ennui and resentment. Also, even though Blizzard and the Mists of Pandaria beta have taken a pretty good thrashing to this point, if I were a game company I really, really wouldn’t want to go head-to-head against Warcraft’s latest expansion. I would expect a MoP launch sometime in November-December, and waiting that long with GW2 would be sheer insanity.

These are the features that I feel are totally broken, and would have to be fixed before the game launches:

1. The server overflow system. As implemented, it is horrible and breaks immersion. I would prefer to see different channels on the same server than this.

2. On a related note, we need the ability to party up with friends. I am amazed that we would have made it to an open beta without this working. What the hell, ArenaNet?

3. If you can’t get server overflow working, you need a queue system. It was really horrible experiencing error after error while trying to log in, knowing from reading the forums and Twitter that it was possibly due to servers being full, possibly due to some other unspecified actual problem.

4. Yes, the game still needs to be optimised, but surely that has been built into their launch timeline.

Secondly, there are some “nice to have” features that I would like to see. I wouldn’t delay launch for them, but it would be nice to see them before if possible.

1. Better human faces. This is the only thing that would be nice to fix prior to launch, as my main will be human and I wouldn’t want to run around forever with a little-girl doll’s face. Would I push launch back because of it? No.

2. It would be nice if the auction house worked better. I was confused during the beta that I seemed to be able to successfully buy things, but never received them. I later read that you have to visit a certain NPC to receive your goods. This is quite odd, and if they’re going to handle it that way, then there needs to be some dialogue to tell you where to receive the items that you have purchased. Easy fix.

Aside from that? If the game went ahead and launched with the first section of issues above addressed, I would be happy. I don’t need a perfect, problem-free world for the first launch of a game, and there will always be issues to address. I would be more demanding if this was a game with a monthly sub – I pay for that polish, damn it. But as it is? I have already paid for it, I just want to be able to play.

And that is part of what is contributing to my general irritation and ennui regarding the wait until launch, and why I would prefer to launch with minor issues rather than wait until the end of the year. I have paid for this. I like ArenaNet as a company, and I have a lot of goodwill towards them. This summer (aside from the probable June launch of The Secret World) is yawning pretty much MMO-free. I am no longer playing SWTOR or Rift. I haven’t played Warcraft in ages, although I did pay for the Annual Pass. The Secret World is better than I’d thought it was…but I still wanted to be playing GW2 in June.

But perhaps I’m crazy, and my experience was vastly different from the experience that other players had. Your mileage may vary.

I’ve been on The Secret World beta for a long time, and quite honestly had been thinking about cancelling my pre-order. After an original week or so of playing and providing feedback, the shortcut has been languishing untouched on my desktop – it just hadn’t been fun enough to continue playing, and as normal for very early beta testing, the game was rough.

When Funcom debited my credit card for the pre-order (not pre-purchase, mind you) I was furious. For two people squeaking out a living on very sporadic freelance work, a new game is a huge purchase. It has to be something that you really, really want to play. Double or triple that if it is a subscription game. The Secret World just wasn’t going to be one of those games.

Recently, though, I went back and played during the open beta and the game has greatly changed. The combat system still feels disconnected, and the skill system isn’t very intuitive, but there is a lot of new polish and more content in the game. It feels more like a real world. Although I’m still pissed off at Funcom for prematurely (and possibly illegally) debiting the money, I think it is worth the purchase price. The game is enjoyable now, enough so that I am actually looking forward to launch.

One of the things that they haven’t changed, unfortunately, is the butt-ugly and limited character creation tool. For someone who will twiddle face sliders for ages, that is unfortunate. However, my character does manage to actually retain her hair rather than going bald upon entering the game like my original one, which is a big bonus. More clothing choices would be great. But definitely, definitely, please put some work into character creation! I totally admit that that was one of the reasons why I couldn’t get into LotRO – my character was just so damned ugly.

I haven’t seen much of the overall conspiracy theory plotlines – in the beginning, you mainly kill zombies. Lots and lots of zombies. But I look forward to experiencing the mystery behind the world. And you know what? I am really looking forward to this game.

Just to keep my hand in, because I haven’t done any art in too long, and because there can never be enough drowned girl covers. /sarcasm

Click for credits on stock used

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

- From Dune by Frank Herbert

But the wild things cried, “Oh please don’t go – we’ll eat you up – we love you so!”

And Max said, “No!”

The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws but Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye.

Rest in peace, Maurice Sendak. Where the Wild Things Are was a book that I loved as a child, and one that my daughter loved in turn. I still have her copy, complete with crayon scribbles. We all have wanted to be the King of all Wild Things now and then.

I’ve been trying to casually work on some Guild Wars 1 achievements for the Hall of Monuments. When I say casually, I mean to say “bouts of work culminating in complete frustration and avowal to never play that stupid game again.” Then I forget, or someone posts how carefree and easy their trek to 30 points have been, and I think that I must have missed something and I try again. And again.

If GW1 was a person, I would totally smack them right in the face, and not feel guilty about it at all. Totally.

Much of my frustration has to do with lack of information. Now, I know how to Google, I’m not an idiot. It’s not as though I haven’t tried to find information to fill the gap left by inadequacies in the original (admittedly very dated) game design. They just aren’t there, for the most part. Take Zaishen dailies, for example. Oh, sure, the various wikis list all the rotating quests and a bit about what you need to do on them (which is taken from the quest text). What I haven’t been able to find is things like how you get to wherever you’re supposed to go to do them. Basic stuff, amiright? I took a mission quest at Embark Beach which informed me that I needed to rescue hostages in The Wilds of the Maguuma Jungle. Fine…but I have no frickin idea where said jungle is. It’s not on my map, I’ve never discovered anything called the Maguuma Jungle. I haven’t completed all the expansions yet – is that why? Surely I shouldn’t have been eligible for that quest in that event?

Everything through the whole damned game is like that.

I was levelling an Elementalist on Phil’s account so that he could do some of the HoM stuff with me. He doesn’t like GW1, and wouldn’t level one on his own, but if I got a character to 20 for him, he could help me with a few things. And I got stuck at level 15 with no Nightfall quests, sent to Cantha and Kaineng City, where all mobs are level 20+ and travel in massive packs. Even with a full group of heroes I get slaughtered over and over and eventually log off.

Do me a favour…the next time I start talking about Hall of Monuments stuff? Smack me in the face, really really hard, until I come to my senses. OK?