As one who has been actively checking the Guild Wars 2 website daily for updates, and as a thrice-over-nerd who's been dying for an excuse to start going to conventions, I was very excited that the second Guild Wars 2 playable demo in the world would be right here in Seattle. After quickly convincing two other Guild Wars fans and dragging in a few other people into it we bought our passes a little over a month ago and the waiting began.
Thankfully time passed fairly painlessly and we came to today, the first day of the Penny Arcade Expo! PAX is the biggest gaming conference in the Northwest, and one of the bigger ones in the US. But on with it!
Travel went amazingly well for labor day weekend traffic, or any day's traffic in Seattle for that matter, and we arrived an hour and a half early. After picking up a couple late passes we grabbed our packets containing info and the first of the day's many free offers and items, including a couple decks of trading cards. The wait in line wasn't that bad as there were games and such for the audience to participate in up on two jumbo screens (as well as the first few rounds of free stuff) while the first swarm of people arrived.
We lucked out and got placed at the start of one of the first three lines that was let in, so we rushed right to our main attraction: The Guild Wars 2 booth! We first got in line to grab our free t-shirt passes, but even after that we managed to be some of the first to get to play the demo. Out of the people there, the three of us were of the first 50 people to get to play the game in the US. Yup, a game at least 6 million people are dying to play, and we got to be three of the first handful to try it. That's one of the factors that made this trip unbelievably worthwhile.
***beginning of GW2 Demo impressions***
But hey, I'm sure I'm going to get hits from Google from people who want to hear about the actual demo, yeah? Here's some of my initial impressions of it. Two of us got to play at one of the stations that had 3D graphics, so we got the unique experience of playing in the snazzy new 3D gaming tech. This ended up actually being one of the bigger influences on our experience with the demo. I was the only one who could stomach it for more than a few minutes, as the others were experiencing headaches and disorientation while playing, which a handful of other people seemed to be experiencing as well. This points out that the whole 3D gaming thing just might not be for everyone. Also, even though I said I was fine with the 3D, I found myself having a hard time grasping the new combat system as well as being confused by what were some simple tasks, and I often lost track of where my mouse was at. As a pretty seasoned gamer, I blame these on the 3D effects having a major impact on my senses and ability to play. Yeah, sound like a cheap cop-out, but it was just different. This is unfortunate, and I kinda wish I had gotten a normal computer screen so I could have enjoyed the game more.
The demo itself both excited me about the game and raised a few concerns I didn't have until I got my hands dirty playing. One highly unusual fact is that apparently in GW2 there is no auto attack. None. All skills. Only skills. This is different, and comes across as a mix between high maintenance and highly interactive, bittersweet overall. Another odd fact was the movement controls were entirely WASD, without the ability to click on a character or on the ground for movement. As we played we found the only times we actually used the mouse was for camera panning and talking to a few quest-important NPC's. The interesting effect resulting from these two combined factors was that it made combat a very dynamic experience. For instance, as a warrior when I used a sword skill it would actually slice into the air in front of me, whether or not there was an enemy in front of me. The same went for when I used a bow skill, if there was no enemy in front of me it would shoot into the hillside, but if there was it would automatically target any foes towards the middle of my vision. This sounds like a pain, and for most of my 40 minutes of play time it was, but I actually saw a lot of potential in this. For instance, say you're attacking a monster, but suddenly need to attack or heal someone else. Instead of changing targets, all you have to do is simply change your camera view and start using skills on your new target.
Beyond that I didn't get too far out of the starting zones as that wasn't really my goal, but my initial impressions were definitely positive overall.
***end of GW2 Demo impressions***
Conventions are great for free stuff. You can easily get your money back.
Anyway, after we all finished our 40 minutes of demo play, we got some free GW2 Bandannas and special trading cards available only at PAX. The idea was that when you wore the bandanna around the conference, wandering GW2 staff would give out more of these trading cards as the day went on. Unfortunately, we only got a few cards this way, and as the day stretched on we noticed less and less people wearing the bandannas until almost no one else was wearing them at 5:30 when we left. Fun to get the bandannas and cards anyway. We then moved on to visiting the other booths and collecting items and punches around the conference in order to grab even more free stuff, of course. Some interesting items we passed by were Lego Universe (a Lego MMO), two floors of floorspace covered in beanbag chairs for socializing, and a service called OnLive that allows you to play games without downloading or installing them. This is particularly interesting because it allows people with crappy computers but a good internet connection to play all the games they couldn't before, even netbook users I'd imagine. I'll have to try the free month of membership I got to see how it works.
There was a lot more that happened I could write about, but at this point I'm feeling a little too tired from the day to continue writing. Oh! If you're ever at the convention center try the Brazilian grill a few blocks away. Delicious all-you-can-eat of what was probably the best cuts of steak I have eaten in my entire life. $17 lunch $40 dinner.
Today's (classic game) songs are:
"Hyrule Field" (from Twilight Princess, I believe) by Nintendo
&&
the "Mario Theme Music" by Nintendo
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