Hindsight and the great BETA mistake

As a long standing loyal Guild Wars fan since 2005, definitely considered hardcore with 46/50 points at the time of HoM release, more than 200 farming guides on youtube and a loyal following, along with countless guides as i contributed to the development of a great community that is MARA i am now looking back and realising how huge a mistake the staggered beta testing for GW2 was...for me!

Up until beta began i stuck it out with GW1 (with a little Minecraft and Aion when it went free mixed in toward the end) and it remained my regular evening and weekend form of entertainment. And then the long awaited beta began. I loved it, any concerns were diminished and my next game for the next x years was confirmed. There was no point getting into another MMO too heavily when i intended to drop it after GW2 release.

So whats the problem?

Now stuck in no mans land that was the beta, no point getting heavily into any other game and little point going back to GW1 when i had nothing left to achieve and no need for the new skins of the new update content (which i didn't really enjoy anyway), i took the opportunity to pursue some of my other hobbies and interests.

My hobbies and interests will of course differ to yours, scuba diving, astronomy, my ancestral research and history being the main. I now find myself actively seeking to advance in scuba, complete my PADI courses and add some dive hours. I have bought my first beginner telescope 1400/150 and find myself constantly watching Stellarium and the sky to clear of the clouds. My family tree is now upto 3000+ members as far back as the 15th century, a tree doesn't tell you much so much additional research is needed to put a story to names/faces, researching being something i enjoy doing but very time consuming yet rewarding. This naturally expanded out into gaining an interest in my local area as my bloodline so far has not had any outside influence outside of England (some have emigrated to other countries but no foreign influence into it) and much of it has remained within a 25 mile radius of where i was born and bred for the last 2-300 years at the least. My local church being the first stone church built after the Norman invasion in about 1100 at a similar time to Pontefract castle a few miles away and a Priory of Monks (still there) down the road shortly after when the Pope stepped in helped spur my local interest. I now find myself researching Queen Cartimandua of the Brigante tribe (the only true successful queen at the time of the Roman invasion, Boudica was never a queen or intended to be) along with the Harrowing of the North, and the impact of the War of the Roses and Cromwell's Civil War on my area along with the various industrial revolutions. I've purchased countless documentaries on space, science, nature and history and even started reading books and bought an ebook which i actually enjoy (yes i'm getting old). And we're just scratching the surface, yes i can call myself a nerd, rare in such a hard working class area, only now i'm currently much less of a gaming nerd.

These things have always been of interest to me, along with ancient history and evolution in general. I'm a truth seeker rather than conspiracy wannabe. But i blame/thank the beta system used for GW2 for giving me that push i needed.

I still love GW2, i think its an awesome game the industry needed. But i do believe the way the beta was carried out was wrong, and the time its taking to push guild related stuff such as guild halls, guesting etc is a mistake and damaging as a whole. I have no intention of looking elsewhere for a home for my game or guild of choice (MARA rocks whether your hardcore or casual). But now i've been given the push needed i'm really not sure there's any turning back anytime soon. I've never been interested in PvP so where our server stands in the WvW ranking is of zero consequence to me personally, so i now find myself for the first time in a lot of years more than content to be casual.

Am i alone? Has anyone else experienced a similar impact to their social and gaming time that they can attribute to the beta? I'm not complaining, i'm greatful.

All I can say, it good for you, go out and enjoy yourself, GW2 is likely to still be here on that wet, cold Sunday afternoon when you don't feel like diving, star gazing etc. Too many people live their life in a virtual world, its nice to hear someone with other interests. I'm keen on history as well, but my family tree only got back to about 1800, it just got too complicated, too many common names kept cropping up, it seems that my family had no imagination when it came to name their kids. I'm a member of the National Trust and English Heritage, so roaming around old buildings is fairly common, and walking can be great fun. With all that and full time work I still manage to play on a casual basis, but I know I can never commit to the hours demanded by hardcore end gamers on some other games. However I enjoy myself, I even have one character at level 30 now, I do things at my speed and don't let a game get in the way of Real Life.

So have fun, whatever you are up to.

hehe yeh i can certainly sympaphise with the ancestral research. I hit an omg moment when researching my dad's mothers line. She's a Smith, her grandparents were two different Smith families who married :P but i managed to get past it. I hit a brick wall on my mothers paternal line at about 1800 with a birth cert that stated 'born bastard son of Mary Hampshire' and then came across a marriage in the Smith line to a Hampshire in the same area in about 1700 and now trying to open all that line up to hopefully find a link to my Mary. It is a head thrash but starts getting interesting when you start to find interesting links that lead to researching who some of them actually were. I have no one rich or famous, mostly hardly working class people with some engineering in my own paternal line, which fits perfectly with me, my dad and one of my brothers who did 22 years in the REME

I haven't joined any societies yet but recently read a book called From Wakefield to Towton which is all about my area during the War of the Roses and includes some interesting maps, monuments and battlements thats tempting me that way, and i know the Wakefield archives have a lot to offer in my interests. If you look on the map for Wakefield, Barnsley and Pontefract you see a triangle form and i live bang in the middle, with a lot of less than common knowledge history affiliated to the past people of our area

I've already done a lot of the stuff I wanted to do in life (snorkeling, visiting a rainforest, traveling) and I'm not in a position to do so at this point. There are things I can do but none of the things I really want to do, so Guild Wars 2 is really my social contact, as well as my game of choice.

Should my situation change, I'd probably play more casually but life doesn't always let you do exactly what you want. I'm quite lucky to have done a good percentage of what I want when I was younger and more agile. lol

well when i was young i got into the rave scene in the early 90s when it was still underground and used to play sat/sun league football and 5-a-side but retired from all that now. Now i'm older i don't mind embracing my nerdy tendancies so much, its just took a few years to get into some new hobbies. I used to get plenty of stimulus from working my way up the ladder with work as an automotive quality engineer but don't get that now so moved towards my own personal interests. I've found when change happens it tends to do so pretty quick for me when i embrace it. I've always been a bit of a miser when it comes to gaming but already spent a few k on the new hobbies :P I've not done much travelling but thats defo one for the future, but for now, with scuba, there's so much i'd like to see in UK waters i'm in no immediate rush...one day though!

oh and RIP Sir Patrick Moore...a true legend and inspiration to generations!

Same for me. In the last 6 years I have taken a great interest in the Anglo Saxon period of history in the U.K. To the point now that the only history that interests me is now is from 500AD to 1400AD. Maybe a bit of the tudors after that. I am even nerdy when it comes to my guitar playing. But then again, guitar players have always been nerds. Just a slightly cooler variation. I love my games, but not to the point of obsession. I don't even own a T.V. I just download stuff I wanna watch. I think the lucky ones are the people that gain cultural interests as you get older rather than vegging out like you see in so many households.
I also love astronomy, reading about it as I don't actually have anywhere for a telescope even though I own one. I love reading about theory and cosmology. One day it will sink in if I read enough. Recently I changed careers and am taking courses in teaching in order to help people in all situations.

I'm actually in the middle of reading through the Saxon Chronicles. You should check out a book called Cartimandua Queen of the Brigantes by Nicki Howarth, bit before your area of interest but an interesting read still. She gets very little mention in mainstream history but ruled successfully as Queen for a good 30 years without ever being dethroned by the Romans with the Brigante support being a critical buffer zone for the Romans rear guard during conquests and rebellions. Mainstream history tells of Caesar failed attempt at conquest before Nero's success but not really how it happened. We were already actively trading with the Romans, i doubt Caesar made any real attempt at conquest, just surveying the area for himself, but it made Nero sound better. The Dark Ages obviously lacks in documentation and seems quite confusing with all the various anglo and saxon tribes and conflicts but interesting once you start to put the jigsaw pieces together, i'm way behind you on that one lol

The history for my local village starts during the Saxon period with the Vikings coming over in the 9th century capturing York then moving towards us seeking fertile farmland and mingling with the existing Anglo/Saxon population and building a wooden church. The village name itself relates to Rye so we were very much agricultural with said church likely being burnt down during the Harrowing of the North and Doomesday suggesting most of the people and farmland being wiped out almost completely for a decade.

Good luck with the teaching course, i'm sure it'll be very self rewarding :D

Harrying of the north was William 1st wasn't it doing his best to wipe out the English (as in Saxons) and tame the north. He was lucky to win that one against Harold at Hastings. How things may have been different.

It seems one of the big problems in the UK is the amount of history, and the similar names given to events, you mention the Harrowing of the North, and at first I thought you meant the Border Reavers, then realised you meant the bit following the battle of Hastings and thats a section of history I don't know a lot about. My knowledge is far too patchy, I do fairly well through, Stone, Bronze, Iron, Roman and Dark ages but then after the Battle of Hastings it gets hit and miss. At least it always means there is something new to follow up.

I would love to do more astronomy, I even got a second hand telescope a few years ago and used it to watch the lunar eclipse, being partially sighted the moon had only ever been a vague silver blob in the sky, it was an eye opener to see it better. Unfortunately living in Wolverhampton, doesn't help with the light levels, and I can't see well enough to drive.

So history, and a husband willing to drive me around ancient sites will have to suffice, that and good books.

yeh the Battle of Hasting and the 1066 date is the common knowledge part of history that is taught at school but they don't really teach you anything about why William the Bastard invaded, that his force was an alliance from Normandy France Spain and Portugal, that he, and Normandy itself, were of Viking decendancy (Nord Land), note the Viking ships depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. That on landing in England Harold was at the time in the north successfully fighting off a Viking invasion from Denmark which allowed William to freely land his forces intact, and the defeat of Harold was only the conquering of the South with a lucky twist at the end of the days battle, the Harrowing was in 1086 with all the land being covered in salt and rendered useless, entire communities slaughtered with some even resorting to cannabilism to survive afterwards. Its not surprising kids don't get interested in history when what they are taught is boring propaganda rubbish, and don't get me started with Horrible Histories lol its funny but very inaccurate and misleading