Q :What do you do in the Guild Wars community and where can everyone find you?
A: I have a blog (http://nerdybookahs.wordpress.com) where I mostly write about MMOs. Guild Wars 2 is one of the main topics in there (as the name of the blog already suggests), but I regularly write about some other games as well.
Q :Did you hear of/play GW1 and what was your experiences/ you're impressions? What is your earliest memory if so?
A: Yes, I did play the original Guild Wars. I first heard about the game before Factions was released and tried out the Factions preview weekend where you got a max level character, but no tutorial. So my earliest memory was getting thrown into the game with no clue what I’m doing, lots of skills to choose from and a gorgeous game world, most notably the Jade Sea. This enchanting world was also the reason why I did not get Guild Wars out of my head again. I did later buy Nightfall and that’s when I was really hooked. :)
Q :Did you/are you playing other MMO's? What attracted you to them?
A: Too many currently, I fear. I play Rift mostly for its housing. They released a patch a bit ago with a new dimension that I’ve wanted ever since it first appeared on the public test server: An island in the middle of the ocean! Then I also recently started playing Wildstar after they (finally) announced that free to play is coming. Oddly enough, I am currently paying a monthly fee. :p But I know it’s not forever and I enjoy playing it at the moment. What attracted me to Wildstar is the humor and the comic graphics. In general, I prefer vivid colours over realistic grey worlds and I don’t mind comic graphics. Speaking of graphics, I also play Trove which probably counts as an online game, at least, but doesn’t exactly fall into the same category as the other games.
I started playing MMOs with World of Warcraft. Later, I also played Lord of the Rings Online and Warhammer Online and tried to get into several others like Aion, Allods Online, Star Trek Online and The Secret World. In general, I really love giving MMOs a try and I stick around in some and leave others very fast (Alganon would be such an example. I didn’t last longer than two hours or so in that game).
Q :When did you start playing GW2 and what got you involved in the game itself?
A: The first time I got to play was during a closed beta event, but only for a very short amount of time. The first time I got to play the game for a bit longer was in Brighton, UK. I had been lucky enough to be invited by ArenaNet and NCsoft to play the game with several others who have fansites and blogs (like Tilion from Dragon Season and Tasha from Attached to Keyboard).
The reason I got involved in the first place and got interested in the game was the original Guild Wars. I loved the world and wanted to see more of it and I also really liked that I’d get to play an asura! I pre-purchased the game, so I’ve been playing since headstart.
Q :What has been your favourite memory of GW2?
A: The guild parties we have had. Well, the guild parties that I mostly organized. I stopped doing them due to time constraints, mostly, but the idea was mentioned that we could have another one soon. It’s always great to see how many we actually are and to have them all around and enjoy themselves. :) Also, we usually have games and prizes to win during such games and those are both fun to plan and fun to do during the party. :)
Q :How do you feel about the upcoming expansion HoT?
A: As much as I like Guild Wars 2, I am not really hyped about the expansion. For one, because I would like to hear more details (how many maps are we getting? What is that ominous “challenging group combat”? Which specialization will thieves and warriors get?) and then because I’ve been burned by hype in the past. I had been so hyped about Warhammer Online and what it would be and feel like… the reality of that game showed me never to get my expectations up too high again. ;) So I will sit here and wait patiently for what is going to come and will later decide whether it was worth my money or not.
Q :What class do you main/ What is your least liked class and why?.
A: In beta and at release mesmer, then warrior, now mesmer again. I expect it to switch to warrior again sooner or later. ;) In general, I really like playing melee classes with tricks up their sleeve. But nothing that relies on stealth or positional combat (such as “do x amount of extra damage when attacking from the side”). I really like playing my mesmer with sword/pistol, but have switched to scepter now which is fine as well. Just from time to time, I enjoy the direct damage that a warrior does more than the tricky gameplay of a mesmer.
Least favourite is the guardian probably. That profession is okay and from the description, I should theoretically really like it! But in reality, I got very bored when levelling mine. No other profession was as boring to play as that one, no matter which weapons I tried.
Q :What is your preferred game mode/Have you been drawn to any other modes?
A: I like all game modes in theory. I would love to love WvW, but I just don’t. It seems a bit pointless to me. In Warhammer Online (a game with great ideas and very, very poor execution), you pushed against the enemy forces with the goal of invading their city and killing their faction leader. I guess I just miss something like this here. Consequently, I have not spent much time in WvW at all, even though I would love to. sPvP is great, but gets a bit repetitive. I hope this will change once Stronghold is here. And PvE is always nice, but I’m not a fan of the new maps and I don’t like doing dungeons without the traditional healer. So there’s not much for me to do.
Q :Do you do Guild Missions, if so, which one is your favourite and why?
A: I used to love guild missions and played them every week, sometimes I even joined a second time just to help out. Our guild has stopped doing guild missions twice a week and now only does them once a week which falls into a time where I can’t play comfortably. However, that’s not too bad. No new guild missions have been added and it just gets boring and repetitive to do the same ones over and over again.
In general, I really love the guild puzzles. I also really love doing the Spider Scurry when we manage to place helping guildies all over the track and it just works flawlessly then. :)
Q :What do you enjoy so much about the profession you play as most and why?
A: I’ve almost exclusively played my mesmer in PvP. I just like tricking my enemies with clones, putting torment and confusion on them. :)
Q :What is your favourite/least favourite PvP map and why?
A: I used to not like Courtyard at all, because it’s a boring map. But from time to time, it’s actually not bad to just battle in one space with nothing else to worry about, basically. But my all-time favourite map is Battle of Kyhlo. It’s connected with “nostalgia” as at gamescom 2011 bookahnerk (the other half of the Nerdy Bookahs blog) and I stood at the PvP booth and filmed the spvp matches that fans could play there, so we could show the matches on our YouTube channel later on. Crappy quality, of course, as this was done with a small digital camera. But that aside, I remember the excitement not only from us watching the matches, but also from those who got to play - and over the next few weeks, those who could watch the videos on YouTube which, again, have a bad quality, but it was “the best” of watching sPvP matches that we could get at that time. :p
My least favourite is Skyhammer. It annoys me with the jumping and the holes in the ground.
Q :How do you feel about the new PvP mode to be introduced in HoT?
A: I am excited, although I am also skeptical and hope that they can make the map fun and enjoyable for every PvP player out there.
Q :How did you get started with the community, what inspired you to get involved?
A: I started a blog because I wanted a place to share my thoughts and adventures in MMOs. It was pretty clear from the beginning that I would write about Guild Wars 2, so when bookahnerk and I decided to write a blog together, we came up with “Nerdy Bookahs”, a name clearly related to the GW2 lore. But writing blog posts is only one very small part and sometimes an isolated one. I slowly got involved on Twitter, communicated with others who also wrote about the game or were just fans in general. Then, in 2011, I got invited to Brighton as part of the EU Fan Day. I met lots of others who maintained fan sites and that’s where I really got involved. I’ve since helped organize Pink Day in LA on the EU server Aurora Glade and the German Foostival events in 2014 and 2015. It’s just fun connecting with others who share the same hobby (inside the game and out there in the real world) and without those people, I don’t think blogging would be even half as much fun as it is. :)
Q :Why did you choose your particular format [youtube/twitch/blogs ect] ?
A: I prefer writing. I have more time to carefully lay out my thoughts. Not that I’d always do that, but the possibility is there, at least. My train of thought can be very confusing for others sometimes, so believe me, you wouldn’t want to listen to me anyway. ;) Also, I am not a native speaker. While my understanding of the English language had always stayed at a really good level (I had to read countless scientific texts in English for my studies), my “language production skills” were lacking. So I decided to use this blog, write in English and improve my language skills again.
Q :What content do you create? Anything of note coming up soon?
A: I am currently participating in “Blaugust”. 31 posts over the course of August. So theoretically, one post a day. I am not doing this alone, of course. This initiative was started by Belghast (http://aggronaut.com/) and a lot of people joined (I think we’re more than 70 now?). I will return to being a quieter blogger once August is over.
Q :Do you have any advice for people wanting to follow in your footsteps?
A: If you want to write a blog, because you want to write a blog, then… well, write a blog. ;) Do not worry about people not liking what you write, or how you write. Do not start writing for your audience. You will lose the fun of blogging very fast. Write because you love writing. And to those who aren’t native speakers either: Do not worry! We are many, actually. So many, in fact, that at the EU Fan Day out of all the “English European fan sites” that had been invited, only ONE person was actually a native speaker.
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