[Message] Thankfulness

[Rivlet.9174]

Before I start unravelling the content of this long-ish story, I would like to warn you about its purpose and intended audience. As you may have guessed by the title given to it, its goal is to share and justify the feeling of gratitude that I treasure towards everyone who made and makes the Guild Wars franchise possible (developers, players… you name it). Do not get me wrong, however. This is not the result of a too young and enthusiastic fanboy eagerly sharing his thoughts on something he loves. This is about a thirty-year-old reflecting and being grateful for the moments and consequences brought upon his life by a specific series, with its strengths and weaknesses.

 

My story with Guild Wars is somewhat ‘complex’ and starts with Prophecies. Somewhere around 2006 and 2007 I got tired of playing Ragnarok Online on a private server and started checking other options. Of course, for a high school student with absolutely no income, paying a monthly fee was unthinkable. A friend of mine told me about Guild Wars and, surprised by the scale of it, its design and by the fact that it did not require a fee, I decided to give it a go. After earning it, my mother bought me the standalone Prophecies version and I tried it out. I went for a warrior-monk and had fun for a while, but I eventually dropped it and went back to Ragnarok Online.

 

We fast forward a year and a half and we find ourselves in February 2008, when I was diagnosed with bone marrow failure (a complex and very rare autoimmune disease). After some months fighting the illness while carrying on with my studies, I was finally discharged from the hospital and continued my treatment from home. To celebrate the occasion, my mother asked me whether there was something I was looking forward to. Guild Wars came back to my mind. By then, all of its expansions had come out and there was a comprehensive bundle called Guild Wars: The Complete Collection that caught my eye. She bought it for me (thank you again, mom), and, after donating my old Prophecies account to a friend, I delved into it.

 

I do not know what made it work this time. Maybe it was the different starting class (elementalist), maybe it was the people I met in game, maybe the game had improved or perhaps I was the one who changed. Probably all of it at once. In any case, I was completely captivated by it and, as I began my university degree, Guild Wars became my unwinding tool. Setting after setting, I became both a hero and a cartographer across Tyria, Elona and Cantha and I absolutely loved it. I fell in love with the story, with its marvellous soundtrack, with the different settings, with many of the quests I completed, the characters… In a situation in which what I could do was limited by the treatment I was following, Guild Wars provided me with that extra degree of physical and psychological freedom that was much needed.

 

In August 2009, right after my first school year at university, I, like many others, felt a massive hype wave as I watched the Guild Wars 2 teaser over and over and over again. The time of the Hall of Monuments rush had come. Together with a good-hearted player that acted as my mentor, I had a blast trying to collect minipets, armor pieces and the like. It felt like I was achieving something, truly building up a legacy that would act as an insanely deep background for the characters to come. Little did I know that I was as unready as I could be.

 

You see, I was not the kind of gamer that thoroughly informed himself about the new title he wanted to play. Back then, I relied mostly on emotions: excitement, trust, subjective expectations and so on. In regards to Guild Wars 2, I only knew that it was set two hundred and fifty years after the events of the first game; that it looked awesome; that it sounded even better; that you could jump; that you could select a race; and that it was fully persistent this time. Basically, the information included on the aforementioned teaser trailer. So, when the game launched and I got my day-one copy, I was not expecting to feel so disappointed.

 

Entirely my fault.

 

After the announcement of Guild Wars 2, I had just envisioned a game of my own: the first Guild Wars with more and improved mechanics and graphics. I tried it, of course (I had bought it already and I had to look after my pennies), but I was unable to feel engaged with the dynamic quest system, parts of the story, some of the characters, the absence of cutscenes and so on. I missed Guild Wars’ questing, built upon walls of text that usually provided rich backgrounds full of separate and sometimes compelling stories. I missed Guild Wars’ cutscenes, as clumsy as they were. I missed the race-based geopolitical tribulations and the subsequential dramatic situation that framed the world (Ascalon’s destruction and refugee crisis at the hands of the Charr; Kryta’s issues with the White Mantle; Cantha’s insane situation; Elona’s downfall…). Back then (at launch, 2012), I could not feel that with Guild Wars 2. Probably because it was less linear than Guild Wars. It felt like the world had changed too much, even having many of its landmarks almost completely wiped out. Anyway, the thing is that I stopped playing after a month and a half, give or take, so my human guardian sat there for years.

 

And yet, unknowingly, such a discouraging beginning would have the sweetest of ‘endings’. But before that, we would have to fail yet again. In 2017, I was sitting in front of my PC on a hot summer break morning and I was trying to make up my mind about what to play. In a digital era, my eyes laid upon my humble collection of physically cased videogames. I sighted my beloved Guild Wars: The Complete Collection copy and, next to it, the infamous Guild Wars 2 one. I went online and I started gathering information on the latter, finding out about Hearts of Thorns and Path of Fire. Still unwilling to invest more on a game that I had not liked, I just went on with what I had and proceeded to download and install Guild Wars 2.

 

I was determined to test it thoroughly, attempting to get the best experience that it could offer, so I read some posts which recommended to sign up into a guild as soon as possible and try to play the game with people (it is an MMO after all). So, I did: I carefully chose one, got admitted and I set off on my adventure as a Norn ranger. The guild’s atmosphere was lovely, but people were logically not too interested in walking around the first maps, completing hearts, getting vistas and all that not-so-fun part. Especially with a guy they did not know yet and who did not own the much-needed expansions. I did not mind at the beginning. On my own, I did every quest I could find, read every text I came across, thoroughly and systematically explored and completed every map… I was doing quite well. I was having fun in a chilled way… until I got to Lornar’s Pass.

 

After playing the game for hours, I happily completed Snowden Drifts and proceeded to get into Lornar’s Pass. I found the first waypoint, quit there and went to bed. The following morning, I launched the game, saw myself standing at that waypoint, briefly thought of what I had to do (run around, get hearts done, get vistas…) and I got discouraged. It was 2012 all over again. Had I had mounts, the story could have been completely different, but I am glad it went down like this: the best was yet to come.

 

Fate or chance —however you prefer to call it— is a factor that can turn our lives into something shockingly surprising, for good or bad. The fact that I had logged out in that location in 2017 is also the event that made me log in on that same region in early 2019 when I was yet again willing to try the game. Ten minutes in, I read a guild advertisement message on the map chat. At first, I had no intention of joining, but I also felt a little bit more careless about my third attempt at Guild Wars 2 so I thought ‘I have nothing to lose: let’s take a look’.

 

A portal to a different world. That is what it was.

 

I could have overlooked that message or simply ignored it, but I decided to pay attention and let it change my life. In that guild I found the right ingredients that made me enjoy the game fully. It carried me through the surface of the early-to-mid-game phase of the base game and beyond: into the overwhelming depths of the end-game and the incredible and endless riches of its expansions. But I found something way more important than that: the wonderful woman that became my life companion. It happened in the most casual of ways and now, fast forwarding to 2021, we find ourselves living together —we resided in different countries within the European Union—, about to build our future home and sharing lots of great moments every day.

 

Needless to say, all of this would not have happened without Guild Wars. Just reflect on my story and you will easily understand. Things would have been different, yes, but not how they were (and I am damn happy with how things were and, subsequently, with how things are). Isn’t life random? I am well aware that this is nothing new. People have referred to it as the ripple effect or the butterfly effect. Lots of movies, shows and games have explored this aspect of life, but that fact does not make it less magical. An incredible feeling strikes me when I ponder how two extremely distant events are irremediably related: the moment of ArenaNet’s formation and the first drafts for what would end up being Guild Wars are directly connected to some of the most important milestones of my life so far. If there is a lesson to be learnt from this, I think it is the following one: never underestimate the power of the ordinary. Never underestimate the grains of sand. You never know what these things entail. That is what life is truly about, I believe.

 

Thankfulness, then. Infinite gratitude to the minds and hearts that configured the Guild Wars experience. From the creators of the universe to its inhabitants. And I know there is not one without the other, but if you allow me to, I would like to give a special shout out to the people behind the curtains of this big stage: all of the developers and staff members who made and make this possible. And yes: I know that the road has not been easy. It never is. A human life in itself is incredibly complex, let alone a whole company of them. There were ups and downs at a micro and macro level and they will continue to come in cycles. But do not give up. Keep on pushing. Keep on pouring passion into what you do. As one of the characters says in a musical I am infatuated with ‘Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder.’ You have my full support and affection. You earned it. Count me in for End of Dragons.

 

PS: I am also extremely thankful for what you did with Auric Basin. What a map, what a story and what a soundtrack. Unbelievable.

 

PS 2: Happy Valentine’s Day.

[Lyssia.4637]

I thought about writing this in the thread about the cooking recipes, but this seems a better place for it. Thank you, Rivelt, for opening this thread and sharing. I hope it's all right with you if I follow in your footsteps.

 

I'm also well into my 30s. Very long ago, now, my then-new husband got into Guild Wars at the release of Nightfall, for much the same reasons as Rivelt; I was still in college, my husband had a new job, and there was no monthly fee; getting the game for both of us was a celebration of his first paycheck. He had friends who played, and he and Guild Wars turned me into a gamer... though not a very good one. Guild Wars and Diablo were about the only games we could agree on, though; he was a StarCraft kind of guy, while I got into modding for Morrowind and followed the Elder Scrolls game. But we always played Guild Wars together.

 

Back when it was the Canthan New Year festival in Shing Jea, we had a tradition: we'd go out for Asian food on the day the festival opened (we lived in a city where there were amazing, authentic Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese places all within a mile of our apartment), play all night, and set our characters up for AFK gambling all day. One year, things were tight, though; the Great Recession had just started, and we were both out of work. Instead of going out, I got creative and made Red Bean Buns and my own version of one of the dishes from the Celestial Feast... I don't even remember which one, now. My husband teased me about it, so I wrote a little vinaigrette, describing how one of his characters invented the recipe. We were playing World of Warcraft as well, with it's more robust cooking system than GW1 had at the time, and that became our new tradition; every new game festival, I'd make a dish from it. Wintersday Cookies and Egg Nog, Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving, Birthday Cake on GW's anniversary... And all came with stories about his characters, mine, and the game, just because it made him laugh.

 

Fast forward to the release of GW2; it was also the year our first child was born. I was thrilled with the new crafting system, particularly cooking; especially as I could craft one-handed while nursing, rocking, or holding a sleeping infant. We timed our second daughter better; she was a year old when Heart of Thorns came out.

 

And then, between the testing of Heart of Thorns and it's release, my 38 year old husband had a stroke, and was dead a week later.

 

We'd pre-purchased Heart of Thrones, but I didn't play it. For a long time, I couldn't even log in to do dailies. His friends had moved on, from the game and from our lives, and I was never great at the game. But a couple of years later, after yet another move, I found the notebook where I'd collected all the recipes I'd been developing from the new crafting system. Path of Fire had come out; he would have enjoyed the mounts. For the first time since he had passed away, logging back into the game, I felt close to him again. I began to play again, slowly; and I began to cook the recipes during the festivals for my two girls, without saying anything about it. But one day, I was leveling my cooking when my then-6 year old eldest daughter wandered by. She figured she'd "help" me, and was hooked. Although terrified of actually fighting any creatures, she LOVED exploring the safer parts of the world, dressing up my characters, and crafting. (And, weirdly, PVP. Other players were just playing like her, she explained to me once, but the poor monsters weren't doing anything wrong, and it wasn't nice to wander around killing them.) After she spent a couple hundred of my gold buying mostly blueberries on the trading post, I dug up my husband's account information and let her create her first character of her own. I had no idea, then, what I was doing.

 

Two years later, my oldest daughter is now very much the gamer her father was. She completed the main story of Guild Wars 2, is more or less carrying me along Path of Fire, and has her own account, while using the festivals to teach her little sister the basics ("dont' run over the townspeople when you are racing; they don't like it!"), and coding Minecraft. Her younger sister just received her own account for Christmas; she's ready to move on from dressing up characters to getting her first mount, but she wants to be a baker or a chef when she grows up, and has taken over the Big Book of Game Recipes; we're working on rice balls this week. When we've had a bad week, when it's hard to be without husband and father, when we just need to spend time together, when we can't take another moment in Covid quarantine... we come back to Guild Wars. Gaming was my husband's passion; but the Guild Wars series, with all it's little flaws and hiccups and problems, was the reason I became a gamer, and became one of the biggest things that still connects me and our daughters to him, even with him gone. Every time I finish an achievement or a story mission I was sure I'd never be able to do without him to help me, every time my daughter and I earn a new piece of armor together, every time we make another pot of Cold Wurm Stew or Moa Poultry Noodle Soup, I am so grateful for the Guild Wars franchise. Yes, I know for hardcore gamers, it has it's problems. But every time Lander or Violina Masma walks Tyria, my husband is still alive, just a little, and remembered; and I so grateful to all the people who worked so hard to make this game fun for that. As Rivlet said, count us in for End of Dragons; I can't wait to show my girls Cantha! Thank you so much for all you've done with this game! And Happy Valentines Day, all.

[yoni.7015]

wow, these are two incredible stories! Thanks you two for sharing them with us.

[Rivlet.9174]

> @"Lyssia.4637" said:

> I thought about writing this in the thread about the cooking recipes, but this seems a better place for it. Thank you, Rivelt, for opening this thread and sharing. I hope it's all right with you if I follow in your footsteps.

 

Of course not! What a beautiful, bittersweet story you shared with us. And I am genuinely glad that it has sort of a happy 'ending'.

 

I only hope that people won't miss it because of being embedded within the thread I started. It deserves to be read and fully appreciated. I surely did so. Greetings to your daughters as well. You are all 3 great heroines.