GW2 Community Creators Spotlight - Corvus

Q: What do you do in the Guild Wars community and where can everyone find you?

A: Hey! I’m Corvus and I make crappy music inspired by the Guild Wars 2 universe over on my channel - http://youtube.com/Corvus. I’m also lucky enough to appear in Aurora Peachy’s weekly podcast GuildGab, so you should check out our streams and uploads over on her Youtube and Twitch channels: http://youtube.com/AuroraPeachy

Q: Did you hear of/play GW1 and what was your experiences/ your impressions? What is your earliest memory if so?

A: I’d heard of GW back in the day, around release. A lot of my friends were getting into WoW and such, but I was never able to afford a subscription fee. Unfortunately, I was unable to play any kind of PC games because I didn't have anything even close to a PC that could run games, haha. It wasn't until the run up to the launch of GW2 that I actually had a PC worth having, and so I jumped in not long after that, and I've never looked back since!

Q: Did you/are you playing other MMO's? What attracted you to them?

A: The idea of an MMO gripped me from the start. I play games for the story and immersion, primarily, and so the idea that I could step into a world and get swept away has been such an incredible concept ever since I first heard of the genre. I don’t play any other MMOs, though, despite my love for the genre - I get everything I need from GW and GW2 and I’m far too invested in the universe to step into any other worlds at this point.

Q: When did you start playing GW2 and what got you involved in the game itself?

A:It was a friend that suggested I jumped into GW2, back at the launch of the game, as he was interested as well. I jumped in and it’s just been my main game ever since!

Q: What have you enjoyed about GW2 and what has kept you playing?

A: There’s so much that has kept me hooked - being such a lover of stories, the PvE aspect has been my main focus, but I've grown to love and appreciate everything in the game. There’s always something to do. I love how GW2 is a game where the end goals are set and decided on by you, the player.

Q: What has been your favourite memory of GW2?

A: As for my favourite memory, there’s so much I could say here too! From spending hours fighting through the final personal story step for the first time, to crafting my first legendary. In all honesty, though, it has to be the community. The people I've met, the things I've been involved with and the close friends, or more, that I’ve made has been incredible and I could never forget them. It’s in this regard that GW2 has truly changed my life forever.

Q: What class do you main/ What is your least liked class and why?

A: I main a necromancer! I actually played through the game with my warrior at first - right until the end of the personal story. Once I’d finished, I straight away made my necro and it changed the game for me, completely. I just love the mechanics, the flavour of the class and how involving I found the game-play. After that, it’d be the Elementalist - for the same reasons.

As for my least favourite, though, I’d have to choose Engineer. I tend to go for more magic based classes in games, rather than the technological ones. Definitely still appreciate it, though.

Q: What is your preferred game mode/Have you been drawn to any other modes?

A: As I said earlier, PvE is my main focus - the story beyond that - but I regularly jump into PvP to battle it out with other players.

Q: What is your opinion on the lore of the game?

A: Being the aforementioned story dude, the lore of the game is probably the largest aspects of my love for it. Had the GW universe been entirely expressed through books, my love would have still been birthed. The storytelling differences between GW1 and GW2 are definitely notable, but the world is just so well crafted and detailed, I love every single story that takes place inside of it, no matter how it’s told.

Q: How do you feel about the upcoming expansion HoT?

A: HYPE! Supreme, immeasurable amounts of hype. I'm looking forward to seeing where the plot takes our band of heroes, along with the incredible sounding features - Guild Halls, anyone?!

Q: Is there a place, theme or person you would want new content to include?

A: As many places as possible! I crave that feeling of exploration that we all had back at the start, and the more places to explore, the more we’ll feel that again. In terms of themes, I’d love for there to be darker themes that play on questioning what is right. Kill the dragons and go against natural order, or try to defeat them to save ourselves, potentially acting selfishly in the face of nature? As for key characters, any and all references to old lore, Glint, the Gods, the Mursaat. Anyone and everyone!

Q: What do you speculate as the next possible race?

A: I think there are a few strong candidates - Tengu, of course, are likely at some point. I think whatever race we see introduced will be seen coming for miles - as there’d likely be implications throughout the story. The Tengu being attacked and having to rally to war with us, for instance.

Q: How did you get started with the community, what inspired you to get involved?

A: I've been making music since I was super young, it’s really the only thing I'm not awful at, and it’s how I express myself, in all honesty. I’d been wanting to do YouTube stuff properly for a while as well, and I enjoy sharing my music and feels with other people. The first thing that properly kicked it off, though, was having nobody to really talk about the game with. It inspired me to contact Aurora, back when GuildGab was still young, to see if I could get involved. To my surprise, she actually wanted me there and it threw me into this incredible network of people and friends that fuelled my inspiration and drive to produce content.

Q: Why do you think GW2 has such a great community around it?

A: This is actually a really tough question! It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly makes it so friendly, compared with other games. I do think a lot of the credit has to go to ArenaNet for being the type of developer they are - open, warm, inviting and supportive of their fans - that’s mirrored by the fans back to them, creating this amazing community between both parties, who have a love for the game in common.

Q: Could Arenanet do more to curate and develop its community?

A: Again, another tough one! The fact that ArenaNet support content creators so well, without controlling the content they produce is amazing and helps the audience, the creators and the company without there being any shady business whatsoever. Highlighting community events, creations and being so welcoming to everyone involved, no matter who they are is another thing you rarely see from companies of their size. I can’t think of anything that really needs changing. The game sells itself, the content creators help promote and the friendliness of the community welcomes in new people with open arms. I think all that’s needed to develop the community further is just time - more people, more content, more love and happiness for everyone.

Q: What changes (if at all) have you seen in the community since you started playing GW2?

A: Nothing that I can really remark on. I think the biggest step that’s been taken was just everyone getting used to the system of the Living Story and being won over by it. This, combined with the occasional expansion release, was just something people had to get their heads around. I think the community has remained fairly similar to that at launch, although obviously growing exponentially.

Q: Why did you choose that particular format  [Youtube/Twitch/blogs ect] ?

A: I do videos because it’s easy to share content and to network, while also letting me add more of a cinematic vibe to my videos! I just like the whole process of making videos - from composing the music, to editing. It’s great fun. I do also use SoundCloud, but mainly as a host for my music to allow for downloads.

Q: How much does the audience and community influence your production/creations?

A: Not so much, actually. Of course, I want everyone to be happy with whatever I produce, but at the same time, I write whatever music I feel like, haha. I even did a crappy dubstep remix of the HoT announcement. It’s a balance of being free to make what I want and making sure that it’s content people will actually want to consume.

Q: Do you have any advice for people wanting to follow in your footsteps?

A: Don’t! I’m a bad human who can’t do things gud. But really, the only advice I can give is this: Do what makes you happy. If you want to start a channel, GO! If you want to make music, DO IT! Art and creativity is the fuel of everybody’s life, whether you create it or just consume it and there’s nothing more important in life than just doing what makes you happy.

Q: Do you play anything else which you make content for?

A: Nope! I have a massive love for Zelda, though, so who knows - I might bring out some Zelda lore based music at some point! I have a lot of plans for more GW2 content that varies in style, so I’m already pretty busy planning out my schedule!

Q: What type of games do you play for your own enjoyment?

A: RPGs have always been a love of mine - I absolutely adore them. Pokémon, Zelda - as I said - and GW kinda take up the most of my time though. I have a soft spot for horror games (the classics; Silent Hill 2, YUS), old school plat-formers and Crash/Spyro style games too.

Q: Apart from the immediate cast group, who else would you recommend?

A: Wow, everyone! There are too many people to name; Eexa is amazing, and there’s Deroir, Sammpo, DeanyKong, World of Enders/Boottspurr, Killchain, Levi, Wubdor, Monkeyherb, Tough Love Critic, That_shaman, MightyTeapot, JD Shadow, TapDatMouse, the guys over at GuildMag and DragonSeason as well as those amazing screenshot people over on Instagram: Necro_Phoea, TairaPlays and m5kit. Of course you as well - what you’re doing is awesome; bringing these people together and helping promote the wonderful members of this community. But yeah, I just wanted to list everyone, haha, they’re all amazing - I'm truly sorry if I've missed anybody!

Q: Who is your favourite Youtuber/streamer [non gw2]?

A: Non GW2? Wow, that’s a hard one. A really really hard one. I don’t even think I can answer, haha.

Q: If you could ask Peachy/Inks/Alex/Corvus/Akasaurus Rex/Modremoth a question what would it be?

A: I don’t really have anything to ask them. I’d just like to thank them all for being the best, and I hope they realize how happy they make me.