Guild Wars: We Got Us a Convo!

As I keep on trucking away at the fringes of the Guild Wars experience. Not quite playing. Not quite not playing, either. But somewhere in that nebulous void between the two where I'm torn between the extremes. As I keep plugging away, hiding out on the fringes, I've still managed to bump into some old friends. Insomuch as you can bump into someone when all you've ever known of them has been a few lines of text or a comforting voice in your headset.

But over the weekend, I managed to speak with a few of those people who'll always bring a smile to my face. Old friend, old accomplises all, but fellow travelers along those old familiar roads I so love to retread. People whom I could never apologize to or thank nearly enough so I don't even bother to try. Not that we hard that sort of heart t heart as I ran through my latests zone or in-between my latest casts. We just talked.

After the pleasantries, the "what have you been up to you old so and so"s were over, we stared in on the game. Starting with how bad it all was, how poor a state the game was in, and how many of our companions had dropped off along the way. All while we avoided the question of just what we doing still playing, then (For me the answer's simple. Boredom. And a masochistic streak.). But those brief talks soon veered wildly off course. Into topics and discussions both airy and edifying.

That's the way it always goes. Sure, we might talk about the latest update or the virtues of a particular skills, the way office workers might talk about their latest report or their vacation schedule. But talk soon turns to other matters. To chew over other concepts, other ideas, and leaving the rude details of actually playing the game far behind.

A long time ago, I used to wonder why it was that those conversation I had in the game were so seldom about the game itself. How, with my friends, talk about strategy or the latest build fashions would soon give way. The topic shift to anything and, as I had some pretty smart friends, everything but.

Now, though, I realize that it's all about the community that draws you back to the game. That the controls, the skills, the details of playing and competing, well, they don't matter. Not as much as those bonds you forge with the ones beside you.