When I started playing Gw2 and started seeing comments such as Dynamic Events have no back story I was really hoping this would be a passing phase. I thought people just had to discover that dynamic events chain and enjoy the stories these bring to the game. Over one month later this has not happened yet. Even while playing the game I got used to doing every Dynamic event in a chain with different people as I see people rushing in to complete the event at hand and rush away once this issues its reward. 

Another interesting phenomena is when someone says dynamic events are boring because they have no story and they all resemble each other people jump at them treating them like liars trying to destroy the game. However I believe for the most part these people are genuine so to hit 2 birds with one stone I create the video below that shows how a person rushing through the game experiances Gw2, then I expand the canvas to show the big picture such people are miss

Guild Wars 2 has many stories to tell and as such has a lot of ways how the game delivers story to the players. In this video I go through each of those story delivery methods and discuss what makes them stand out from the crowd.

One of the most controversial aspects of guild wars 2 is the XP rate. Some people were very annoyed that when they finished their 1 - 15 area they were still under-leveled some as low as level 11. Other claim this is none sense as they found themselves even level 19 by the time they finished the starter zone. Why this discrepancy in what different people experienced? In my new video I try to explain established the reason and give suggestions on what one can do to level faster even if you do not want to play in the starter zone of other races to keep them fresh for alts.

Having now played in 2 of the Guild Wars 2 beta weekend events, I have seen quite a number of things that in my opinion make this MMO stand out. There is an obvious passion put in by the developers in this title as it can be seen both in the great attention to detail as well as the numerous little things put in the game for not other reason than to make the world feel more alive and authentic.

Below is a video that illustrates some of these little things that make Guild Wars 2 a really great MMO

For some reason I cannot really understand quite a number of people insist Guild Wars 2 has really bad graphics. Some even insist it looks like a game from 10 years ago. ArenaNet have said that Guild Wars 2 has a stylized look resembling hand painted art. These critics however insist this is nothing more then an excuse to justify what in their opinion is sub-par graphics.

In my opinion this is completely absurd. Last Monday I spend most of the stress test running around hunting for proof of how Guild Wars 2 graphic engine is not just up to par with any modern MMO graphic engine but in many cases surpases them.

Visuals is not the only aspect I explore. There is more to art then what the eye can see. I also took the time to hear how Guild Wars 2 sounds like and just like dynamic events and the visuals one can find great depth in how Guild Wars 2 sounds like as well.

One cannot really describe effectively such things so how about watching it instead?

Guild Wars 2 combat has been quite controversial, some people think it is very engaging due to its actiony feel while others trivialized it as nothing more then spamming skills over and over again.

Personally I have found it very engaging and deep, It is different then other MMOs where as instead of focusing on specific skills and their "rotation" you have a set of skills that all have their own damage / conditions and boosts. In order to engage in optimal combat one needs to think of each of these as a tool and simply use the skills thats most appropriate in that instance. Facing the same enemy twice doesnt necessary mean the same skills can be used.

Its a bit complicated so I created this video to try and explain it as best I can:

Every MMO has its defining features. For Tera its the Action Combat, For WoW its the amount of polish and while Guild Wars 2 has many things that it does differently one of the major defining features is without a doubt the Dynamic Event system.

The Dynamic event system has been described to us as a way where traditional quests are replaced with a more immersive event system. It is a system where you're not supposed to read a lot of text to understand what is happening. Impression is without a doubt a major issue for MMOs and I was curious to see how well it would work out in Guild Wars 2. This weekend I got the chance to finally experience it first hand rather then through other people's eyes.

It all started while I was doing what Guild Wars 2 calls heart events. This is generally an NPC who needs help. He would have multiple tasks that needs doing and it's up to the players to decide which one to do. You can also diversity and do a little bit of all, you don’t need to do any se

Guild Wars 2 is currently in that state of love it or hate it. Some people think this game will shape the future landscape of MMOs while others swear it is all hype and Guild Wars 2 is really more of the same. I personally subscribe to the love it crowd but not because of all the nice things the developers promise but because of what I see.

Today I was watching a video of a panel of developer and designers who were talking about the future of MMOs. At the start of the panel each person was asked to describe what makes their game stand out. Jon Peters who was appearing for Arenanet said that the defining factor of guild wars 2 is “GW2 is an MMO that encourages players to play with each other not along side each other”

some one in the comments replied to that by saying “GW2: We encourage

Just how big can Guild Wars 2 really be?

I have been seeing so much material of the upcoming Guild Wars 2 that sometimes I fear I might finish it without actually playing it. Or I would if it weren't that often I end up seeing a video / interview of some new aspect I did not even know about.

Today for example thanks to a post by RainySunnyDay I discovered Jumping Puzzles.

The amount of content in this game seems Out of this world!

We have 5 races with their own storyline. Granted we do not know to what extend these intersect but considering that stories branch even based on your profession, based on your background choices and choices you make in-game I would expect at least the major race stories will seem fresh on every play-through.

We have World vs World which from what I saw so far

While in many MMOs one generally finds the same mechanics in play, when it comes to crafting many games take different approaches. Like everything else some of the approaches I end up loving while some are often quite annoying. Whats the good and the bad of crafting in MMOs?

Why cannot all developers implement the perfect crafting system. I can imagine it is not easy to balance crafting in a game. If crafting provides the best equipment it will be hard to do an end game that’s engaging for there will be no incentive for it. This situation has indirectly forced games to implement crafting with a variety of different philosophies. This is my experience:

Unless Crafting:

The thing that annoys me the most is when the crafted product is useless. In some games Crafting appears to be nothing more then a sort of mini-game aimed at providing a little break from your normal game-play. In such games, Monster Drops or Vendors would provide better equipment then anything you could ever craft. Why