So, recently I’ve been putting into perspective the last several years of Guild Wars, from that very first day of setting foot on the lush grass of Pre-sear Ascalon to that sweet blissful day of logging into the Guild Wars 2 along side hundreds of thousands of other eager heroes. I’m thinking my gosh, time is flying. Soon it will be a decade ago that we were first able to experience Tyria and all of the adventure contained within.
I remember a lot of turbulence during that time, both in game and in real life. There were a lot of ups and downs, lost friends and new ones gained. To be honest, I was one of those socially awkward 12 year olds that would flame you if you stomped me hard in the Random Arenas. Still think I’m like that at times but anyway, after a while of figuring out how to run around and never fully understanding what the letters "MMO’ stood for, I found a group of people in a guild called the Mystic Empire, led by a Humble King (Shout out yo!).
This group of people showed me so many things, and in particular they helped me to not be so socially awkward (I really like you o.o). I have some of the grandest memories with them that I wouldn’t give up for anything. I remember lots of desert runs for level 2 Elementalist’s, and a LOT of dying in Thunderhead Keep. After finally defeating the Lich at the end of Prophicies some ages later, I started getting into PvP pretty heavily.
Factions came around and on the day I got a copy, my mom had upgraded our internet – I was rolling through Tyria on DSL after a year and a half on dial up! I was finally able to use Meteor Shower in RA before my character appeared dead mid cast on my screen. I could get on Vent and participate in Ele and Ranger spikes. It was beautiful.
I eventually ended up joining a guild called the Sofa Kingdom Guild [hint] after Nightfall was released. If you played Heroes Ascent there is a good chance that you probably called us noobs for running Sway nearly every night for like a month straight. Or maybe we never had the privilege to fight you. In any case, some more memories that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
If you have made it this far into my random story, you are a hero in your own right and you deserve much praise lol. Like with Mystic Empire, my endeavors with [hint] eventually concluded as well. I think around this time Hard Mode was introduced and I set my sights on tackling this new content, and some time after that they announced Guild Wars 2.
For myself, and I’m sure for countless other people that make up the spirit of this game, there are so many stories that we could share – it would take hours upon hours just to go through half of it all. I just wanted join the voice of the community and throw my thanks out to Arenanet for crafting such a wonderful masterpiece. You really capture that magical feeling of being a part of something bigger and continue to soar with it. Thank you <3