Thursday, June 6, 2013

Loose Ends, The Tying Up Of : GW2

There's a lagstorm in Southsun right now, the worst I've ever seen. The original Lost Shores event has nothing on it. I disconnected five times in 30 minutes and it was only because it was taking up to three or four minutes for the server to finally kick me out that I got credit for killing the Karka Queen at all. My contribution to the team effort was limited to lying down in a salt pan right at the beginning, standing up briefly half-way through after a revive, then lying down again watching a freeze-frame of the Queen at 25% health until I dropped to character select.

An earlier attempt, in which I survived but so, unfortunately, did the Queen
Logging back in to find my head in a large treasure chest was a bonus, although not as literally so as the actual two-rare Bonus chest jiggling suggestively at me from the lower right corner of the screen. At that point I decided to quit while I was ahead and go elsewhere. I did think about Guesting somewhere quieter but in the middle of the American working day every single US server was running Very High except for Blackgate, Dragonbrand and Tarnished Coast, which were Full. Read into that what you will.

Is that an original Hokusai, Braham?
That's how I came to be wandering idly through Wayfarer's Foothills and into Diessa Plateau where, just as I passed Charrgate Haven, I happened to notice that steam was still venting from the mountainside, which in turn got me to wondering if Cragstead was still there and if so was the gate unlocked. It is and it was.

Cragstead is a hive of activity. Norns are hammering away right and left, children chase each other through the frozen streets between the newbuilt Steads, there are vendors selling food and drink and plenty of people have a moment to chat. Some of them even remembered me, albeit after a little prompting.

Braham has a very nicely decorated new place and some choice things to say about his mother. There's a Shaman of Owl that I found intriguing, and a Charr gladium who's thrown his lot in with the Norn to become a Dolyak Herder, who I found very touching. All in all Cragstead seems to be turning into rather a promising settlement.

And what of The Hatchery? That was something of a surprise, not because it was back in business, nor because Rox was there, both of which I'd expected, but because most of the Charr refugees for whom we recovered precious lost possessions from the Diessa dust seem to have ended up working there too. Even the little cub with the toy soldier has found a Fahrar to take on her training.

As a comic fan of extremely long standing I have a very fine appreciation of continuity but it's something I am not at all used to seeing taken seriously in MMOs. This attention to detail after the fact, unattached as far as I can tell to any Achievement, Event or other practical in-game benefit, is most heartening and strongly to be
encouraged. I fear it may also largely be a wasted effort. I wonder how many players have stopped back to either of these ex-instances to catch up with the folks they supposedly went so far out of their way to help just a few weeks ago?

If Southsun hadn't been so laggy today, I wouldn't have.


8 comments:

  1. went to cragstead and talked to anyone with a unique name but didn't go back to hatchery but now i will

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    1. My guess is a lot more people went to take another look at Cragstead than the Hatchery if only because Cragstead is an actual settlement and it's right there next to the main road between Wayfarer's and Diessa.

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  2. I went in yesterday to get the POIs on an old alt.

    Didn't stay in either longer than the 2 seconds it took the POI to ping.

    What have I become.

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    1. Heh! I have to make an effort to remember to talk to all the NPCs sometimes. It is worth it - ANet buried so much of the lore and background there - but it's very easy to miss when you're tearing around doing events or filling out maps.

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  3. "I did think about Guesting somewhere quieter but in the middle of the American working day every single US server was running Very High except for Blackgate, Dragonbrand and Tarnished Coast, which were Full. Read into that what you will."

    I am from Tarnished Coast, everytime that I enter Southsun I end in an overflow, it is normal friday night have a 4 hours queue for enter wvw, currently saturady nights too have a hour long queues, there are queues for enter EB wvw map everyday, almost evverytime go to Lions Arch I enter overflow, people are joking that Dragon Bash festival will be a lag fest in Lions Arch.

    Yesterday I was at Southsun overflow and other player sent me a whisper asking where I get my sclerite karka shell backpack (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sclerite_Karka_Shell). I explained that I get it from completing 25 achievement for the Southsun event and the he had until june 11th for complete it if he wanted same backpack. But I was feeling, there is no best words, what the h***, we both are at southsun, zerg runing from one side to other for get the karka queen and that guy have no idea what is happening around him? Was he under a rock? New player? Returning one? He lost the shores?

    And other day at southsun overflow I had a talk with a player from other server that sayd me they had a guild of 150 brazilians in their server...

    Ok, it is only anedoctal evidence. But I read it as that servers are really full and there a good quantity of servers close to full. Too I see many returning players or new players. Not very bad for a game the haters say "it is dead". My guess is that GW2 is at the “Slope of Enlightnement” phase in the Gartner curve.

    My fear is that Anet decides to make a free weekend soon. Dragon Bash festival is a very good moment for it, because LA will go overpopulated and LA is an easy to go zone and everyone will be there making events and parties and socializing. And Anet will think, "why not? let's make more money!" They have some servers that are not completelly full...

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    1. Lion's Arch is already busy all the time. I dread to think what it will be like with a popular event running. To my eyes, GW2 has been very busy since launch and if anything is getting busier still. Compared with Rift, just to take a recent example, which was merging servers within six months and which felt like a ghost town at times after a year even on the merged servers, this seems crazy busy.

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  4. Let's see... According to my screenshots, I said Hi to Malia and co. on May 14th, about 2-3 hours before Ellen Kiel sent the first deputizing Southsun mail.

    But I'm sure I'm not representative of the typical achiever player who would be unlikely to revisit the place without a signpost or directed goal or reward. It's nice of ArenaNet to put in the effort to cater to the road less explored, story-focused subset though.

    For the record, the lonely sacred wolf pup in the far end of Cragstead whom you can play with and make a "Happy Sacred Wolf Pup" put a smile on my face.

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    1. Oh thanks for the tip! I completely missed that wolf shaman cave. Just went back and visited it. The wolf pup is hysterical, the way he races around the cave after you speak to him. I also found the Norn girl we gave the ship in a bottle back to as well.

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