Entitlement

So about three days ago Guild Wars 2 became available for pre-purchase. Here's how it works: you pay for the game up front, and then you get into every Beta Weekend Event that Arenanet puts out for the game until release, a three day headstart come release, and a token in-game item that will only be useful for the first ten levels or so.

Ever since Arenanet started ramping things up towards release, the hype train has been chugging full speed ahead, but this comes with an ugly, ugly downside. There are thousands upon thousands of people who seem to be endlessly and terribly misinformed about the way things, and distrustful of Arenanet's own official word on things to a level that can only be called spiteful. Sometimes it seems like the buzz around Arenanet is a firestorm of awesome, and then you read the Facebook comments and it looks a lot more like a seething, maggot-infested mass of entitled twelve-year olds.

I'm a fanboy for Guild Wars 2. I'm a raving fanboy, hiding my madness inside from all but my wife, who appears totally chill about this game in contrast. I tend to love everything that comes out Arenanet's gates about Guild Wars 2. But I have no illusions that the game will be perfect. I just think it will be amazing, and I hope that a lot of people agree with me.

I also have the decency to let Arenanet say what they want about the game, and then digest it and make my own conclusions about it.

So anyway, the latest thing is that Arenanet is running a stress test on their servers today, which was pretty well unannounced and isn't open to the general public. People are incensed, even though this is not a Beta Event—it's a stress test to help them prepare for this month's Event. I don't want to tell people what to think, but—

CHILL. OUT.

That's what I'm thinking about today. Tomorrow, my wife and I are going to go pre-purchase Guild Wars 2 for ourselves, and we're super excited.