Guild Wars 2

Chapter nine is up!

In the meantime, chapter ten is shaping up to be long--probably longer than chapter six, which should push this crazy project over 70,000 words, and we’re like…halfway done? Maybe a bit beyond that? And for anyone asking “Is this story actually going somewhere?”, the answer is a resounding “yes”.

I figure one long kitten chapter will be a fine way to celebrate Thorn‘s tenth, and until then, enjoy!

Oh, and once again, to all you readers out there, you guys frickin’ rule.

I certainly find myself playing less these days, however, the Ascended gear fiasco is really only a small part of the issues I have with the game.

Bugged classes, bugged events, getting constantly jerked around as a ranger, and watching the devs attempt to pass off PR releases and double-speak to an increasingly irate forum of people wanting straight answers are the main things that are really wearing me down as far as GW2 goes. Some days I feel a bit bad that I worked as hard as I did to bring the 40+ people currently in the guild into the game (as most of them had never even heard of GW2 at this time last year).

Do I still log in almost every day? Still play my ranger? Still have fun? Sure, but I know with 100% certainty that if my wife and close friends we not also playing, I’d’ve been long gone more than a month ago. Sadly, recently, there have been a number of things that have reminded me of my WoW days, when, more often than not, we had fun despite the game.

Honestly, though, the biggest factor in my decreased play time is that I’ve having far more fun writing about the game than actually playing it—and that’s really not meant as a knock or cheap shot. I’m just having a blast with the writing (and, at nearly 70,000 words at this point, and only slightly over halfway done, no small time commitment).

Maybe I’m too naive, or too idealistic, but I still hold out hope that, a year from now (if any of us are still playing), I’ll look back and laugh at those first rocky months the same way I do when I think of the first year or so of vanilla WoW.

Chapter eight of Thorn is now live!

With the great feedback from the revised chapter one, I think I’ll go back and do a small amount of editing and fiddling with chapter two once I have ten—which I’m starting on today—in the bag.

Once more into the word-mines, and, as always, thanks for the support!

EDIT: FAQ updated, specifically:

Q: The prologue is written in a pretty different style than the rest of the chapters. Comment?
A: I’ll be the very first to admit that the prologue is overly dramatic and full of stilted dialogue—which I actually think matches up with the sylvari as presented in the lore and in-game quite well. There may be other reasons, as well, which don’t become apparent for quite some time.

The rest of the book? It’s more of a spy thriller and character study than anything else, and written, as the question above stated, in quite a different style than the prologue. If you enjoy well thought-out dialogue, characters with some actual depth to them, and a solid plot, then I think you’ll enjoy Thorn quite a bit. If you’re after monster-of-the-chapter-type fights and action movie banter, then, no, this probably isn’t for you.

(Not to say there isn’t combat, but it’s hardly the focus.)

Fate.8673:

IS SHORTBOW 1 WORKING PROPERLY WITH QZ ACCORDING TO YOUR TESTS AND DO YOU PLAN ON DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT 3 PATCHES LATER?

One would think the deafening silence on the issue would be all the answer you’d need.

It’s times like these I miss the /golfclap emote.

I’d feel bad saying “I told you so”, but…

Nurse.1085:

lol I’ve decided that there will be a bullet for each individual Signet and Spirit. The rest will be typo corrections.

-Fixed an animation bug that allowed rangers to equip weapons.

I envy anyone anticipating this patch (the ranger bit of it, I mean) with any degree of optimism.

Here’s to hoping that I’m proven very wrong in my cynicism.

The long-overdue revised version of chapter one is now live, with plenty of rewrites and edits, bringing it quite a bit closer to, and hopefully up to par with the quality of the later writing. I’m pretty pleased anyway.

Chapters eight and nine are currently out of my hands, and with the editor—expect chapter eight on Monday the 19th.

What? Chapter seven is live? It most certainly is, and here’s a little extra surprise for ya – chapter eight will be out next week.

Thanks, as always, for the continued support!

Chapter six is live!

A broken shortbow
Selling a nerf as a fix
Jon Peters laughing

No content changes
Updates with nothing of use
Zetsuboushi ta
(Kittening filter can cram it with a ball of yarn.)

A lack of testing
A zephyr no longer quick
Silence from the devs

Chapter five is out, and with that, Act I comes to an end. Stay tuned for new faces, new places, and maybe even a villain or two!

Thanks for the continued support!

Addressing the idea that we should bear with a console-tier FOV “for art’s sake” (paraphrasing) is absurd. I can only assume that the majority of players spend the bulk of their play time staring at low-rez ground textures, rather than many of the graphically impressive things that the environmental artists have created.

Fixes for low FOV in PC games is usually one of the first things to come from the modding community, and with good reason. Citing it (low FOV) as industry standard when higher FOV options are among the most requested additions to PC games, and most complained about omissions when they’re absent boggles the mind.

The other thread is now locked, so hopefully the discussion will continue here – hopefully with less ad hominem.

Chapter 4 is now live, back from the editor much more quickly than I was expecting. Enjoy!

We’ve updated the first post with a FAQ, and chapter 4 will be along in the next couple of days (with chapter 5 close on its heels)!

-Mozu

The link below is to my GW2 blog where this is actually hosted in PDF, MOBI, and EPUB format, as it is far, far too long (well over 300 pages by now) for posting on a forum. Also, you can check out the FAQ for a bit of a primer if you want, before heading on over.

Bearzu Smash! presents Thorn

The Official Thorn FAQ!

Q: What is all this?
A: Thorn is a full-length Guild Wars 2 novel that’s been in the works, and released chapter by chapter since August of 2012. I started it partly because I wanted to get my hand back into writing, partly to tell the story of a character that’s been around for the better part of a decade in one form or other, and also as an experiment to try and transcend the fanfic/video game novel genre—to create something with a bit of actual literary merit. I daresay I’ve succeeded on all three counts.

To be brief, Thorn is the story of the life and personal journey of one sylvari, and hopefully told in a mature and serious fashion. It’s a bit bleak and dark and funny and sad.

I blame Cormac McCarthy and Dmitry Glukhovsky for fueling my desire to begin writing again, as should you.

Q: That sounds pretty arrogant.
A: That’s not a question, but I’ll address it anyway. I don’t claim to be working on the next Great American Novel, but even as my own worst critic by far, I’m actually very proud of what’s been written to date—even if I’m now unsatisfied with some of the very earliest chapters—and watching my writing develop and mature just over the space of a few, short months has been absolutely fascinating.

I’ve done rewrites at this point on the prologue and first chapter, but once the entire work is finished, I’ll be going back to do a full rewrite with much bigger plans than I have for Thorn at the moment—but more on that at a later date.

Q: Aha, Mozu does X in chapter Y! I call Mary Sue!
A: Yes, you got me. No main character is allowed to be good at anything, especially female ones. Next “question”.

Q: How long is this going to be?
A: As of chapter 13, we’ve passed the 100,000 word mark, which puts this somewhere around 325 pages—and we’ve still a ways to go. My guess is 400-450 in the end.

Q: You play pretty fast and loose with the lore at times—what’s up with that?
A: I assume you mean mainly the distance and placement of things that aren’t necessarily on the game map. The entire story is—as I’ve said earlier—one of a personal journey, and not a retelling of the game. I thought it better to begin that story in solitude and with a dose of bleak, harsh “reality”, rather than having Mozu running through Caledon forest with poorly voice-acted yahoos screaming, “MORE VIOLETS, LESS VIOLENCE! THAT’S WOT OI SAY!” at her every fifty feet or so while she performs menial tasks for every ding-dong she comes across.

So, yes, I will occasionally change or just make up bits of lore, or entire locations, if it makes for a better story.

Q: Aha, the dog’s name is Ibara (thorn)! I’ve figured out your whole book already – the dog will save the day in the end!
A: Try again—or better yet, keep reading.

Q: Bad words offend me, and there are a lot of them at times.
A: Some folks just say “@$%#” a lot, and the second half seems to be a lot less profanity-laden. Also, cowboy-up.

Q: Anything else you’d like to say to potential readers?
A: I’m pleased—thrilled, really—that you’d take time out of your day to head over to our humble blog and check Thorn out. I can only hope that you’ll give it a chance, and enjoy reading it just as much as I’ve enjoyed working on it.

Any and all feedback is always appreciated, folks.
-Mozu