Monday, July 27, 2015

Cooling off in Kryta

North of Beetletun, there is a field that is well watered by a giant overhead irrigation tower with two spouts like the world's largest double-barreled genii lamp.

On a hot day, in my little attic room, I have to keep the AC a bit low for financial and power draw issues, so it can get stuffy -- so Horione and I go to that field for a bit and stand in the pulsing rain.  The sound is too regular for precipitation.  Soft and angular at the same time, the foley - the sound art - manages to bring the scene to life in a way that lightens the load on my poor AC unit.

Outside my window is the ticky tacky of urban housing, early 1990s two and three family units near Boston MA USA.  In Horione's near distance, the rural Beetleshire landscape fades into hills shattered by war with the centaurs, marred by trenches and fortifications.

But all around me, farmers grunt and "whup!" as they hoe the clumps of golden crops in the circular field, and a few cows helpfully graze on the grass weeds in the field.  Four children play near the aquaduct shed, and a couple pigs snuffle in the shade of the shed's porch.  One of the children suddenly says, "Follow me!  I'll take you there!" and the children are off like a shot and gone.

Someday I'll follow them.

This is what Guild Wars 2 is to me.  Sure, I play the game (I am working on my ascended armor, I have HoT thanks to a birthday present, I will get my 4000 chest this week despite taking a year or so off for illness), but unlike some critics, I see this landscape as partaking in the tradition of Van Gogh, Kurasawa, and Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki -- in art, in social commentary, in whimsy and magic, in awe (and sometime reverence) of what humans do in the face of evil, greed and violence.  There is truth and beauty in the game.

That it is also a business makes it different from VanGogh, but gives it something in common with Kurasawa and Miyasaki.  There are worlds where art doesn't require the suffering of the artist, at least financially, as seems to be the vogue in the West.  Perhaps that is where the Japan/Seattle partnership Arenanet operates under gives it strength.

As a person nearly shut in with health issues, I love being part of what has truly bloomed into a living world, with living stories -- not only for the players, but for the people who live their lives around them.

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