Launch Week: Survive and Thrive

My poor old Aunt Alice. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s about to kick the bucket. Being that she has no children to speak of, I’ll be forced to see to her arrangements. Luckily Aunty Ali doesn’t actually exist, but as far as my employer is concerned, I’m going to be indisposed with putting her cold dead corpse in the ground for the better part of a week.

That’s right my friends, launch week cometh! It’s time to prepare for grueling sessions and a distinct lack of personal hygiene. Here are a couple essential tips and tricks that I’ve learned from participation in more MMO launches then I care to admit.

Warn your significant others. Warn them early. Warn them often.
There’s really not much you can do to brunt the damaging effect of MMO’s on your love life, unless your one of the lucky few who is bagging a fellow gamer. But at least if you give them a good amount of time to come to grips with the fact that you’re going to be completely ignoring them for a solid week, they might make plans to go on vacation or something and feel slightly less animosity.

Prepare your rig.
Nothing could possibly suck worse than waking up on a launch day to a fried power supply or a busted headset. Make sure your rig is solid and pick up some upgrades so you can actually enjoy what promises to be a beautiful game. Your guild mates are not going to feel sorry for your commodore 64 having ass when you get ganked because you can’t see spell effects on super-shit settings.

Stock up on the hard stuff.
Hit Costco and make sure you’ve got the essentials for sustaining life during your epic gaming session. Beer, whiskey, frozen pizza and… that’s about it really. Maybe throw in some toilet paper if you’re feeling spendy.

Know when to lay down thy sword.
Even the hardiest PvP lord must eventually rest his eyes a bit. Else wise you’ll end up like one of those Korean dudes they find in the corner of the internet cafe after they start to get ripe. A well-planned sleep schedule is essential if you’re going to maintain the long haul to 80. Coordinate with guildies to set up a WvW raid schedule and then bend your sleep cycle to fit.

If I may be serious though for a moment my dear DDH denizens… Burn out is a very real threat. We’ve planted our flag in GW2 for the long haul, so take your time and do enjoy the game. All too often, we’ve speed leveled to max only to find half-finished end-game content and nonexistent competition. All indications point towards win with Guild Wars, but the way we play as individuals and as a group will be equally important in ensuring a sustained and enjoyable presence in this game.