It's one thing to love an author's books, especially when you recognize how much of themselves they put into their written worlds. It's something more when you realize that these authors are actually *gasp* real human beings with hopes and dreams and even similar interests!
Freya Robertson isn't shy about her love of gaming and it's no secret that one of her favourite past times
has snuck into her epic fantasy,
Heartwood. I love the gorgeous world of Anguis she has created and the epic sense of adventure she has packed into the quests her characters undertake. I could certainly feel that MMORPG influence and was very excited to discover that she counts
Guild Wars 2 as one of her many influences. She even writes fanfic about
the adventures of Freya Wildstorm for the Chronicles of Tyria.
I love doing author interviews and digging beyond the story they've written, but this time, I just wanted to have fun with someone who clearly shared my love of a wonderful game. Freya indulged my whims and voila! We ended up running around Tyria completing hearts, poking at strange objects, exploring...
And, in honour of our
uncoordinated gaming club, we even dared to try a jumping puzzle or two, making it almost all the way to the top before we crashed and burned!
We had such enormous fun, that we called for everyone to come! That is, we invited my co-bloggers Tiara and Mogsy to hop on board for the Winterfest Infinitarium dungeon. After overcoming obstacles that included overheating laptops and chicken wings, we successfully completed the dungeon.
Many thanks to Freya, her husband and Mogsy and Tiara. Gaming is always that much better with friends and it was fantastic to get to spend the time with you!
The Christmas dungeon was so much fun! Glad I got to do that, though I'm glad I missed the jumping puzzles ;-)
ReplyDeletePraise goes to Freya for getting us as high as we did in the jumping puzzle ... although, now that I think about it, the parts she got us through didn't really involve that much jumping...
DeleteI'm glad the dungeon worked out. It was much harder last year and I was worried that we wouldn't be able to finish it within the time limit.
What the heck!!! YOu guys need to invite me next time! I'm so jealous. I haven't played Guild Wars - I do have Final Fantasy A Realm Reborn but I just stopped playing it didn't suck me in for some reason like WoW did back in the day. So so so should I buy Guild Wars? *evil laughter*
ReplyDeleteFreya you rock just saying...yeah you do.
I got suckered into FFXIV by FFXI friends. FFXI is my first MMO, which I played for almost 10 years. FFXIV had some elements that reminded me of it (and some elements that I wish other MMOs would consider, instead of always skimming off of WoW), but as you said, it didn't suck me in. Story was lacking and I'm so tired of the constant and obvious question process with no other way to level.
DeleteGuild Wars 2 is fun, though the story isn't as rich as the original. Why not check it out in the next free trial? It's my casual, go too game. Also playing SWTOR and DCUO... and just got my beta invite for ESO....
...MMOers Anonymous here I come...
I did not give FF a look at all, though a lot of my friends played. "Reborn", version 2.0 or not, the franchise just isn't my thing.
DeleteGuild Wars 2 is pretty good though, even if I did get sidetracked by The Secret World. It's pretty worth it though, to pay the retail box price then play forever for free.
Cool, Wendy! I'm in the ESO beta as well. Now if I can only get my hands on a Wildstar beta key.