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.

Hereafter

He is Risen, praise God!

Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, whatever day you want to call it, Christ has Risen and lives today, and He's way better at living than I am, so I think I'm gonna try to follow His example.

Later today I'll be back with my other family, and then tomorrow I'm driving the rest of the way back to college, where I'll spend a month laboring the final stretch until someone hands me a piece of paper and it's time to drive all the way home again.

What really strikes me is that I'll be leaving behind a load of good friends when I leave school again. Yeah, I've got Facebook and Twitter and Skype and Steam to keep in touch, but it's not the same as seeing them in person. I've got so many good memories built up from my time there, and it will certainly be a sad thing to go away knowing there are some of them I'll never see again, barring class reunions. I ought to think of some way to let them all know how grateful I am for the time we had.

I'm a writer, maybe I can think of something.