Whee! Bring on the hectic!

Wow, last night was kinda crazy and I loved every second of it.

See, Thursday night is Massively night in Guild Wars. I get together with our readers and we play through Guild Wars together. We started with Prophecies in pre-searing and are working our way through. In the past few weeks we've thrown Eye of the North into the mix, proceeding through those storylines to add some interest.

Last night was Bloodstone Fen and part of the Knowledgeable Asura storyline. After getting my kiddos to bed for the night, I headed to Bloodstone Fen early as usual to help everyone get settled in. Fielded a few guild invitation requests, chatted with guildies and alliance mates, and wrapped up a few work things. Besides the usual contingent of guildies, some alliance people joined, and an old friend from the original Guildcast alliance showed up.

At the appointed time, we divided up into groups -- we've always got too many for a single group -- and off we went. And then all heck broke loose. One guy's mic wasn't working on Vent, and someone else was having volume issues that caused every person's voice to come booming out of her speakers. Then someone else had a minor medical issue that required her to afk and re-apply a bandage/brace.

We stood around at the beginning of the mission for quite a while trying to get everything sorted. This is exactly the sort of thing that causes more impatient players to throw their hands up in annoyance and rely on heroes. But here's the thing: I revel in it. Sure, we weren't accomplishing the mission at top speed, but I was with five people that I *really* like. We were laughing, joking around, helping one another sort out technical glitches, and generally having time.

Now. I haven't even gotten to the fun part yet. We finally got settled and started the mission in earnest. We got about a third of the way through when I got an IM from my husband, who'd been web browsing during some downtime at work. There was a new ArenaNet blog post about Guild Wars 2.

Now here's the thing about Guild Wars 2 news: It's...well, it's Guild Wars 2 news. I jump on it and write it up immediately, and it usually gets published asap. Other stuff, particularly gaming, has to take a back seat. Now I want to be very clear that this is not a complaint. Not a day goes by that I don't smile at *some* point because of what I do for a living. I'm the lead Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2 writer for our site. I *get paid* to write about this game that introduced me to MMOs. I *get paid* to do something that I am incredibly passionate about and that I'd do for free.

So when this sort of thing happens, I have this crazy combination of "/shriek New info, new info!!!" and "OMG MUST WRITE NOW." My fangirl self and my work self are both hopped up on adrenaline and excitement and my biggest problem is trying to stay under a certain word count.

What's funny is that the very same thing happened last Thursday night. New GW2 info surfaced just as our Massively GW mission was well underway. I told my group what was happening, and they sent me off to a safe place to leech while I wrote. They were so kind about it.

I felt too guilty to do that again this week, so I explained on Vent what had happened and that I needed just a moment to talk with Shawn and figure out how long the story was going to be. Once I got that settled, we finished the mission in record time and everyone shooed me off to get to work.

I am so, so, so fortunate to have gameplay friends who "get it." Things like this interrupt their gameplay, and in their shoes I might be a bit impatient. They are saints about it. Partly because they are great people, but partly because this sort of thing is incredibly exciting for them too and they completely get why I'm so preoccupied and anxious to get to work.

My gamer friends are the best. <3 And keep the hectic coming, everyone involved. I love it so much!

Convention season -- it's a storm of OMGOMGOMG for me

I am really sad that I won't be at gamescom for the first hands-on with Guild Wars 2, but honestly, I find it hard to stay disappointed for long. Gen Con is this weekend, and then PAX.

Oh my gosh, PAX. This is an event I've wanted to attend for several years, but never had the opportunity. (That sentence was so mangled. If Bree ever sees that, she'll kill me in my sleep.) And in 29 days, I will be in Seattle, WA, attending PAX Prime. 28 days, actually, since I plan to arrive a day early.

It's ridiculous how excited I am about this. Every time I think about it I break into this huge grin and get a few little butterflies in my stomach. I am going to PAX. I have an appointment with the GW2 crew already, and my little fangirl heart can barely stand that fact.

Shawn told me I'd probably need to look at Aion 2.0 as well, to which I replied "As long as they show me that pet that poops out loot, I'm totally cool with that. I've never seen anything literally crap a weapon before." Aion's been tugging at the edge of my attention anyway, and I may give it a try after PAX. Just need to find space in the budget for a sub game.

But for now, in two days I'll be in Indianapolis for Gen Con with my Kev, and Shawn and Justin from Massively. That's going to be such fun. Matt Forbeck is there, and Felicia Day. I'm hoping for photos with both. Shawn and I interviewed Jeff Grubb a while back, and I'd love the chance to say thanks to the other half of that team for such a great book.

Once I return from Gen Con, I'll resume my countdown to PAX. Lots of prep work to be done: making appointments, confirming reservations, and making sure everything's in place for a Massively fan meetup. (The lovely and talented Seraphina is setting that up.) Every step of the preparation process is just insanely exciting for me, and I hope I can convey that excitement to Massively's readers that week.

(28 days. OMG.)

I should be fired. We should all be fired.

The downside of what I do is that someone will always be ready and willing to tell you exactly where they think you've gone wrong.

Sometimes they're correct. Maybe you've made a typo, or missed a fact, or God forbid, presented old news as new. In which case, you fix it, learn your lesson, and just accept that much of the wailing and gnashing of teeth over your mistake is going to be wildly out of proportion to the actual error.

I saw an excellent example of this the other day. Some sort of weird glitch -- possibly on Facebook's end, who knows -- caused information about the Guild Wars Wintersday in July event to be posted on the official Guild Wars Facebook page. The event itself was back in mid-July, so it was well over and done with. The text of the announcement contained the correct date (July 16th), but the Facebook posting had the current date, August second or something.

The commenters went insane. There were numerous all-caps comments stating simply "EPIC FAIL." One person said "The person who posted this should be fired." (Really? You think a person should lose his livelihood, his health benefits, the way he supports his family and keeps food in his fridge, over a Facebook error? Really?) People went on and on about what a travesty this was.

It's weird. It was the internet equivalent to... I don't even know. The cashier at Macy's forgetting to add one of the items you purchased to your bag. You see it still sitting there, you remind her, she fixes the error, and everyone moves on. Nobody is rallying his friends, standing outside Macy's, screaming EPIC FAIL at the top of his lungs and calling for the cashier to be fired.

Things online are amplified so much. You will be tarred and feathered for every typo. You can write 1,500 words, and if one of those words is out of place it will become the focus of the entire piece for the majority of the readers.

So why even bother? Why not turn off your computer, walk away from these lunatics, and go work at Macy's instead?

Because there's an upside too. For every person who is demanding that you be fired and put in stocks, there are two who love what you do and want to tell you that. Unfortunately, just like those people I was talking about earlier, we have a tendency to focus on the negative. It's just human nature. Ten great comments should be more than adequate to bolster your ego after three or four negative ones, but it never seems to work that way.

Growing a thick skin and learning to deal with jerks is probably the hardest part of this job. I guess any job where you deal with the internet masses. These days I'm shutting down and walking away more often, to go hang out with the RL people, the ones who really matter. They're the ones keeping me sane. But I still work hard and often, and at the end of the day, I still have the best job in the world.

(Note to self. Read that last paragraph 2-3 times a day as needed.)

Revival

I need to revive this poor old blog. It's been an amazing year and this thing fell by the wayside.

On September 17th, 2009, I was offered what is seriously the best job I've ever had in my life. I am a contributing editor for Massively.com, and even after nearly a year I find myself amazed that I actually do this for a living.

I play MMOs for fun and relaxation, and suddenly I write about them for pay. It's mind-boggling.

Most days I'm confident that I'm good at what I do. I've still got miles of room for improvement, but I think I started out well, and I've learned so much from my incredible editors. I should probably thank them more -- they seem to only hear from me in a professional capacity when there is a complaint. Note to self, do something about that.

Actually, that segues nicely into what's been on my mind this weekend. People seem to have an endless capacity for negativity, and I wonder if it will ever stop taking me by surprise. There is always someone who is just dying to tell you all about why "x" game sucks, what you did wrong, how another gamer or commenter sucks, just anything negative. They love it so much, and every now and again the flood of negativity just knocks me flat.

It's another facet of that tendency: we focus on the negative and blow off the positive. I could get 50 people saying how much they love my work, and five telling me in great detail exactly how and why I am a disgrace to my profession. Guess what I'll focus on. My current project is to break myself of that habit.

If I figure out the secret, do you suppose I could bottle it and sell it?

So much yay right now!

Well, after a crazy busy summer, the kids are back in school, the remodeling is (somewhat) done, and I'm getting back into a routine. (Don't worry, this isn't turning into a non-gaming blog, I promise). It feels great to be settled in again, as much as a mom ever gets settled in. My evenings still seem to be crazy, but I'm used to that. I really enjoy my mornings and daytimes. Once the flurry of getting kids fed and off to school is over, my days fall into a regular routine, and I love that so much. (See? Yay!)

Of course, that routine includes indulging in some uninterrupted gaming time. Love it. Earlier this week I took a break to hang out with Shawn again on Massively Speaking, where I got to squee my little fangirl heart out about Guild Wars 2. I've come down from my initial omgomgomgomgGW2 excitement, but I'm still just loving every piece of information they have given us. Noon in Cologne is 5 AM for me, and I was out of bed at 4:50, watching the live feed, and logged into Skype with an Austrian friend who had kindly agreed to translate for me. The fan excitement was so much fun to watch, I loved it. And hey? If someone could just hook me up with one of those tshirts? That'd be great, thanks. I loved those, and wanted to be in that crowd really badly.

While you're at it, someone needs to have a telethon or something, and sponsor my trip to PAX. I want NCSoft swag!! I'd love to win that art book - given what we've seen so far, you just know it's going to be stunning. I was glad to hear it would be for sale at a later date. If you're heading to PAX, a recap would be more than welcome.

Lunchtime looms, but more squeeing is on the way.

Grind? Yes please!

I spent nearly an hour yesterday morning playing Guild Wars with my son. He's been playing for less than a month, and is still running around pre-searing at level 8, so it's all very new to him.

I keep a pre character on my main account for Nicholas Sandford, since the party points he gives out help my title hunt. But every time I head over there, I seem to burn out after five minutes. Kill a level one monster in under two seconds. Hope it drops whatever Nicholas is asking for. Kill another one. Rinse, repeat, snooze. I get so bored I just can't do it anymore.

Playing with my son made it a completely different experience. It's all still a challenge to him. He's been asking me over and over and over to go kill some Charr, mom! Bad mommy moment here - I put him off for quite a while because I couldn't bear the thought of staying in pre for more than ten minutes. Finally, the other day, I decided to suck it up, and finally play with the poor kid.

We crossed the wall with my level 9 elementalist and his level 8 ranger and went to find the Charr. And I was so surprised to find myself having a blast. We killed, and were killed (a lot) for almost an hour until we'd killed off nearly everything in the zone. There was a lot of yelling "Ahhhh! runrunrunrunrun! Aaghh, I'm dead!", and laughing like crazy. My son reached level 9 in the middle of it all and was delighted.

He is off to day camp today, but before he left he said "Mom, can we kill more Charr when I get home tonight?" I can't wait.

Sometimes looking at the old stuff through new eyes leads to the most fun you can have.

Wow, I stink!

My poor blog. She has suffered from a combination of my super busy schedule (the kids are home from school for the summer and we're still mired in remodeling hell), and my suffering from a fit of "Oh shush, nobody wants to hear what you have to say!"

I do have a lot to say, though, so I'm going to make the effort to sit down every morning and bang out some of my thoughts. It's fun and relaxing when I force myself to stop, breathe, and write for a bit.

We're currently working on putting our house back together after remodeling the kids rooms, and doing the decorating in their bedrooms. Mine and Kev's room has turned into a landfill of sorts for everything that has been displaced in the rest of the house. Every time I dig something out of the pile, or install a new item in a bedroom or closet, I feel like I should get some kind of scavenging or crafting points. I'm getting better at it, I suppose that's what that is. I'm levelling up!

Right, gaming. My Guild Wars guild is turning four, and I organized a celebration beginning July 14th and wrapping up on August 1st with an in game party. I've had a ton of fun posting games in the forum and planning in game events, and as always, watching the reaction and behavior of people during this time fascinates me.

It's been a chance for people to show off their best sides - people flocked to donate in game items, and not just their junk. Nice things that I am excited to give away, and so many things that I had to create a gift mule to handle it all. My guild leader and another officer came up with some wonderful (and not cheap - I was amazed at their generosity) real world prizes to hand out, including a pretty pricey headset that I am dying to win. People have stepped in to help me out when real life keeps me too busy to keep up with some games most days. Seeing how generous people can be with their time and their money - both real and virtual - makes me smile.

There is the other side too - those people who set out to denigrate it for some reason. In a way, it makes me smile because it's a tiny fraction of the amount of good that I've seen. I had an incident the other day where someone got my character name from the forums, not hard to do at all. This person was a stranger to me, but came after me in game, whispering for almost two hours that I was a "fagget" (at least he gave me a chuckle with the spelling, and the assumption that I was a male.) and various other forms of verbal abuse. That type of person is a large part of the gaming community, and I notice that it's much more prevalant in the summer when school is out. I tend to take the negativity with a grain of salt because it speaks more to what kind of a person they are, than what kind of person I am.

I also tend to assume that these people are young, and mom/dad isn't keeping a close enough eye on what is happening on their child's computer. They have too much keyboard courage and too little supervision. It serves a bit to keep me vigilant on what's going on with my own kids.

Hm, parental supervision on teh interwebz. More to ponder on tomorrow morning. For now, it's time to do some of the work that I'm getting paid for. Off I go!