Small in Stature, Not in Mind

There are have been many fantastic depictions of the power of the little person, ranging from the infamous Yoda, to Gollum, to Harry Potter's Dobby, to Stitch (c'mon he's cute!). Now we have the Asurans to add to that continuum of small beings with big hearts and bigger brains. (Well, except for Stitch; he wasn't that bright.)

Asuran creation screen in Guild Wars 2
Note the crazy sliders just for eyes!

I finally got a chance to make an Asuran in BWE3. I had always thought mine would be like a female Yoda, wizened and wise and ass-kicking, but it turned out that despite all the sliders, she just looked too damn cute! There was even a slider for "cheek puff". Everyone say, "Awwwwww." I guess could have tried harder to make her ugly, but why bother?
As for the body shape choices, you could select pot-bellied, pot-bellied or more pot-bellied. They all look like two-year-olds with their little tummies stretched out after a nice meal.

I played on my Asuran engineer for a little bit, but didn't much like the class, so I ended up switching over to other races and classes so as not to waste time. However, I did get to quest for quite a while with Dogmatichades' toon, an Asuran Ele named Vort. Fiesty little bugger, and quick to boot. We chased his little butt all over Metrica Province and then some!

Asuran townclothes

All the lore talks about how bright the Asurans are, how intelligent and witty and mechanically minded. I think ANet did a great job of incorporating that into the Asuran personal storylines, quests and attitude, while at the same time putting in a huge dollop of humour and cuteness that makes it much harder to hate them for being waaaaaay smarter than you.
For example, when they run and fight, their little floppy ears stand up on end. Adorable! Of course, if you mention that, they'll order their golem to kick you in the shins, but still I couldn't help but smile at Vort's undeniable cuteness as he raced towards the next battle, ears flapping. And when they strafe, they stop as if their momentum is almost too much to handle, tilting them over to one side as they screech to a halt on their stumpy little legs.

I was also amused with a lot of the first quests in the starting area. I had the most fun there of all the zones. The dialogue was clever and silly, and I discovered later that the quest choices were different according to which race you were playing. It makes sense that a newborn Sylvari wouldn't be able to understand the complexity of an Asuran invention. ("Fiddle with the triangular thingy")
I won't give any spoilers, but the next time you're in Lollipop Land and you need a good giggle, I suggest you try out the heart quest Doola's Golemancing Research and talk to a Golem Assistant to help him collect data. "Squeee!"

It looks like my guildies are settling into their preferred races, and we are quite varied in our tastes. Dezi has always known she wanted to be a Norn, Dogmatichades couldn't be anything but an Asura, and I have pretty much accepted the fact that I was born to be a Sylvari. It'll be fun to see what our guild race and class distribution will be. Of course, I'm making one of each!

Vort, Dezi and Spiral in a very hot hot tub!

Hoelbrak Theme Music

I was telling my guildies in game this weekend to turn their music on and go to Hoelbrak, the Norn capital city. The music there is amazing! Here it is for your audio enjoyment.



The part that makes me want to raise my arms and bless the sky is at 1:45.

You can buy the soundtrack, composed by Jeremy Soule, from DirectSong. ArenaNet is putting a $5 coupon in the Collector's Edition, if  you're silly enough to have not yet purchased this great game!

Dynamic Events per Colin

Guild Wars 2 Lead Content Designer, Colin Johanson, had this to say on the GW2 forums about Dynamic Events (DEs). It's worth a read if you haven't seen it already.

"It’s absolutely a challenge, trying to get folks to change the mentality they’ve become so used to after years of gaming in MMO’s where nothing really happens after something ends.
Since events will likely create new events, or unlock new merchants, or create access to stuff like treasure chests and gathering nodes; often times the most efficient thing to do is actually hang out out and see what happens after the event is over.
Also, you just might see some fun stuff like moa dance teams. ;)
At the end of the day, it’s entirely up to everyone how they choose to play, but the most rewarding experience from a world immersion and game-play standpoint is absolutely to hang out after an event and see what happens. It’s probably going to take a while for people to adjust to this style, but Guild Wars 2 is absolutely a game that rewards people most who take the time to explore, enjoy themselves and stop and smell the roses. A lot of the great mystery and discovery of the world comes from taking your time and enjoying it, more like a Skyrim RPG type experience than a rush as fast as possible from one quest hub to another experience.
You’ll get as much out of Gw2 as you choose to put into it from a game-play perspective, over time I think we’ll see more and more folks become adjusted to that and be able to sit back, relax, and just enjoy the game!"


Have fun, that's the GW2 motto. It's hard to let go of that "should" mentality, in real life and in gaming. I find myself thinking "What should I do next?" when really I should be thinking "What CAN I do next?"
Could GW2 be possibly teaching gamers a life of Zen? Type As are going to find this frustrating. List-checkers (like me!) are going to find this frustrating.
Let's all take a deep breath, look up from our path, release our inner child and just PLAY.

Misc. Tidbits from BWE3

Little screens and comments from the ongoing BWE3. Having too much fun to blog longer right now. Must get back in Tyria before it disappears for another month.

Dogmatichades took us to see the Arena! So cute. He jumped in there like the mad-fun Asuran he is, while Dezi and I watched. I don't know what this arena is actually for. It didn't do anything or have any clickable NPCs. Guess we'll find out later. 

I love Hoelbrak. Can't stop taking pictures of the place.

Found a guide! She was actually very helpful and put a Personal Waypoint marker on my map so could find my way to the Asuran Gate to L.A.

Dogmatichades was impressed that the Sylvari Grove actually held the Ventari's Tablet AND you could read them. I found the laws to be quite inspiring and wise. I'm falling in love with the Sylvari. 

Dobby journeys to Divinity's Reach!  :)

Um, Did I do all that? RAWR!!

Mousekin teaching cubs what it is to be a fierce Charr Guardian

Found the Norn Cultural Armor vendor in Hoelbrak.
The gear was all over level 35 and cost at least 1 gold.
You can now preview gear by right-clicking.
This is the wolf mask, as if Norn aren't ferocious enough!

Beta Weekend Sylvari Screens

As has been customary for this blog during a beta weekend, I am starting with some quick screenshots, as I don't want to waste too much time outside of Tyria.
The sylvari are a gorgeous race living in a utopian jungle. Love them! I could have spent days in the character creation screen. Well done, artists of Anet!

Caffeina, my sylvari necro

Dyed pink, in a talk-scene

Caffeina's townclothes, dyed orange. So beautiful!
I wanted to take a picture of the male sylvari's townclothes but we decided
that they were gawd-awful. I said to Majyst, "It looks like your rolled in honey and
fell in a leaf pile!"

Leafy Land. Funny how the actual name escapes me right now. The whole night we kept making jokes
about leafy people and leafy dogs and leafy butts, so it just stuck. 

Naked sylvari!
Modra said about the male, "It looks like he took a poop in the woods, wiped his butt and it got stuck!"
And here I was thinking the male butt-leaf was kinda cute. He wrecked it for me.  LOL
And yes, that is a mushroom head. And yes, it is very phallic. ;)