User:Linsey Murdock/Journal/Archive 2008

Tuesday, December 30th 2008
Ok, I finally have some time to work on my talk page so today I will be answering questions and archiving as much as I can. I generally only archive something after it has been answered and has sat for a little while so people can see the answer but since my talk has gotten so freaking out of hand, I don't think there is time for that. So. As I archive things, I will say in the comment that it has been archived and list which page it has been archived to so that people can look in the history and easily find where I have put things... hmm... that might be a good idea in general...

That is all. Time to get to it!

[EDIT] I'm going to head home now, I'll pick this back up post-New Years festivities on Friday. Man, it's slow going having to read everything over again (yes I actually read everything on my talk in a timely manner, I just don't respond that way) so I am fresh on the discussion and able to give good answers.

Friday, December 12th 2008
Between yesterday and this: http://www.guildwars.com/events/ingame/wintersday2008/ I think you guys can understand why I have been so freaking busy this month. Still going to be mostly inactive as far as posting goes since I am still working away on Wintersday as well as monitoring and fixing issues from yesterdays build. I think I will try to catch up over Christmas vacation, but since I will have family in town I'm not sure if I'll be able to. I'll try though!!

<3 Linsey

Tuesday, December 9th 2008
Just wanted to say a quick hi and apologize to anyone who has tried to message me in game lately.

I have been more busy than you guys will probably ever know, although hopefully after this week and the next you'll have at least an idea of what I have taken on this month. Because of all that, just about every time I have hopped in game it was for research or some other work related issue so I've had to go on Do Not Disturb or tell people I can't talk. Both things I don't really like to do, especially going on DnD but I just can't chat when I am focusing or crunched for time like that.

To give you guys a better idea of when I am truly available to chat...
 * When I'm testing something, doing research, or just playing some PvE I usually log into either my main, Leitha Ambrai, or one of my other PvE characters and it's less likely that I will be able to chat.
 * If you see me on a character with some kind of variation of my name (Linsle Mudrock, Linsey Is Me, I Am Linsey, etc) then I am likely PvP'ing and I will only be able to talk between matches.
 * If I am logged into Linsey Murdock then it is an open invitation to message me with questions, comments, etc without any fear of pestering me.

So that's the basic breakdown. You guys should never be afraid to drop me a line, but at least this way you might know if I'll actually have time to have a conversation. :D

... And now back to work I go!

Wednesday, December 3rd 2008
This month has been a crazy one... I feel like I say that a lot...

Last month, I had this little fantasy that once the big title build went out I would take a nice breather, not need to work on a weekend or late after work and just fix bugs and tweak title balance a little bit. *sigh* Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. I'm working on two builds (next weeks and Wintersday) right now as well as trying to plan out what the Live Team will be doing next year and what we will need to do it. Fun stuff, but there are clearly not enough hours in the day. Someone should really work on that. Oh and I also signed ~150 Christmas cards today, to be continued tomorrow.

As promised, I need to bring my camera to work so I can take a picture of the cute warrior doll in Chainmaille that Zehnchu made and sent up here. I had my camera ready to bring to work with me this morning, but somehow managed to forget on my way to the door and it was left behind on the table. I will make another attempt tomorrow.

I feel really guilty about all the unanswered stuff on my talk page, but I just don't have the time right now unless I was to forgo the short time I reserve for myself to play a game or watch a movie each day. I would spend a day this weekend here, but I have an old friend coming into town. So it's going to be a little while longer to when my schedule eases up a little bit... wait... now that I think about it, I can't think of any time in the next... 8-10 months(?) where my schedule could possibly be called "light" so I'm just going to have to find a weekend or weeknight (or 2 or 3) that can be sacrificed to the wiki. I will do my best.

I did a little interview with Kill Ten Rats to talk about the title build recently. I liked doing the interview and having the chance to explain in a little more detail, the process of putting together parts of that build but I've got to say that the couple of comments suggesting that I was "demoted" to or "stuck" on the Guild Wars Live Team have irked me just a bit. I very much consider this job to have been a rare opportunity for me to do exactly what I had daydreamed about doing for years and not only that, but truly grow as a designer and as a team leader. I eagerly sought this position from the moment I first heard about it and there is nothing that I would rather be doing. It's a dream job. Hard work, no doubt, but as far as I am concerned there isn't anything cooler or more fun than this. AND I actually get paid for it. So, don't you guys ever think that I don't want to be right where I am, or that I was in any way forced into it. Say what you will about the work I have done, or disagree with my decisions, but please don't say I was demoted. Makes me sad /pout.

Heading to bed now. <3

Wednesday, November 19th 2008
The build is out, so yay for that. I took a couple days off so now I'm trying to get caught up on the fallout. It's going to take a couple days before I'll be able to start replying to all the posts here on the wiki, but I promise I will get to it! And now... back to work!

Thursday, November 6th 2008
Sorry I haven't been super active lately. This build has been crazy. I really want to make sure that I hit up everything I can and that takes a lot of time. At this point, the update is so big that I can't even remember all the things I've done lol. I started writing the update notes the other day and I think this might be one of the largest set of update notes we have ever done. Which now makes me curious as to what the largest update actually was... anyone know?

I'm already starting to get nervous about next week. I really hope that people like what I have done. I'm going to be a huge ball of nerves for the next week. Luckily I have SO MUCH work still left to do that I'll be too busy to think about anything. It's gonna be a loooong weekend. Come Wednesday though, my stomach will start doing flips, I promise you. And Thursday! Oh man, I'm going to be freaking out. FREAKING OUT.

I think I'll take a couple days off once this build is out. I'm gonna need it heh. You people best appreciate what I do for you! lol

<3 GW. <3 GW players.

Oh and for all those people with topics on my talk that are still unanswered, I am sorry it's taking so long to get to everything. I'll get there, I promise! I keep trying to get things answered and archived but every time I do, more and more topics pop up. It's hard to keep up with and it takes hours to really answer stuff thoroughly. When I do answer something, I like to leave up the topic for a while in case anyone wants to respond to me before I archive it. And I don't want to archive anything that hasn't been answered by me personally (sometimes you wiki'ers give the perfect answer though, so I'll make an exception). All that makes for a super long talk page. eep.

Friday, October 31st 2008
I noticed that some people were wondering what the build was yesterday. We were just updating some sounds for the Mad King with some new stuff our sound guys whipped up. That is all!

Oh and for anyone that tried to message me last night (and through out today for that matter), I have been idling for ToTs!

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!

Monday, October 27th 2008
Things have been pretty busy for me trying to get everything ready for the upcoming title balance build as well as making sure that Halloween was good to go.

I just wanted to stop in a let everyone know that the Treasure Hunter and Wisdom title tracks will be made account-wide in the upcoming title balance build. We will be pooling the current point totals that players have on any character on the account. Players will need to log in with any character that has points towards this title track for those points to count towards the total, but they will be counted. So you can all feel free to open any chest you like on any character. To identify any rare you come across without ferrying it to your "main". For those concerned about the ability to farm unlucky points with this change, we will also be making adjustments so that this merging of titles will not negatively effect your game play.

Huzzah!

Wednesday, October 1st
I'm deep into the design process on the big title rebalance we have planned to release in the November content update. I'm about a week away from having the design locked down and then will start working on implementing it. Because I am trying to hit so many different areas of the game, this is going to be a pretty big update. As such, we won't be able to put it out there in Octobers build which will make that build a bit light but I think it will be worth the wait. Plus we have the Halloween event this month so it won't be too light.

I'm going to get back to analyzing the rates of faction gain now, just wanted to let people know how we are doing over here.

Thursday, September 25th 2008
Oh man, it has been a seriously packed last couple of months. Trying to get the M.O.X. quests out the door was a little intense even with two people taking care of two of the quests. It actually felt a little bit like that last month before we'd release a game. Not quite as crazy since this is on a much smaller scale, but still pretty wild. I think it came out really well especially since we only really had a month to work on it. Joe and I both happened to go out of town for a week after that, but we managed to get in the Talk Like a Pirate Day stuff right before hand which is awesome! A big thank you to the writers for coming out with a ton of amazing and hilarious lines for the Grog! I'm super happy no one found out about it in advance and spoil the surprise. Linsey likes her surprises.

I'm on to R&D on the next big thing I want to do which is "grind" title re-evaluation/re-balance. It takes a lot of research and number crunching which is a tiny bit tedious but somehow fun at the same time. If anyone was wondering what I have been doing in game when I am non-responsive or set to Do Not Disturb; it's that. I don't like going on DND but it was really distracting when people would message me and it made it hard for me to keep focus on the work I was doing. So sorry for that. It also explains why I was involved in discussion so much on my talk today. I was on the wiki data mining most of the day. I'm actually kind of in the mood to work right now, which is odd since I had intended to play games all evening.

I think I'm going to dial in to the office now...

Thursday, September 4th 2008
yay! M.O.X. is Live! I hope people like the quests. I can't take all the credit for them, I pulled in John Stumme and Colin Johanson for a Team Quest/BMP reunion. John did Deactivating R.O.X. and Colin did Deactivation P.O.X.

Enjoy!

Sunday, August 31th 2008
Did my panel on Friday and it seemed to go well. Gamespot posted a good short article on it that was factually accurate. Kotaku posted a lengthy list of misquotes, summary and misrepresentation of what was said at the panel. So if you want to get an idea of what we talked about please check out the Gamespot article and not the Kotaku one so that you don't get the idea that I am a blunt, vulgar person that speaks in broken English lol.

Anet had it's big Gameworks party last night and we had a blast. I signed lots of Dev Scavenger Hunt cards and lots of Art books and gave away tons of swag. I talked to lots of players and people really excited to be there and we gave away some pretty cool prizes in the raffle. When I finally got away from manning the swag tables, I went looking for people I knew and ran into Joe Hostile who dragged Hargrove and I back to Izzy's place for drinks and games with a bunch of PvP'ers.

In a few moments, I'll be heading back over to Seattle to work our booth in the Exhibition Hall and help out with the clean up.

Wednesday, August 27th 2008
If my lack of posting hasn't been any indication of how busy I am, let me tell you all, omg am I busy. And there is still a lot of work to be done.

PAX is this weekend and I'll be speaking on the Girls and Games: The Growing Role of Women in the Game Industry Panel on Friday from 4:30 to 5:30. Panelists are: Jo Clowes [Microsoft] - Moderator Annie Carlson [Game Designer, Obsidian Entertainment] Marlo Huang [Media Director, Liquid Advertising] Me!

It's my first non-Anet specific panel so I'm excited about that. Of course I'm super nervous as I always get before any kind of public speaking. Thankfully, I have been soooo busy that I haven't gotten the chance to actually think about anything but M.O.X.

Oh and I will also be at the Anet party at Gameworks on Saturday and working the Anet booth on Sunday from 4-6pm.

Tuesday, August 12th 2008
I totally forgot to log out of Guild Wars last night before I went home, so I idled in game all night. Sorry to all the people that messaged me, I swear I wasn't just blowing you off! I was sleeeeeeping.

The build is out and for the most part it was well received. We are continuing to monitor the changes we made and trying to track down any bugs.

I'm in full swing on the next big thing. I'm pretty excited about. Should be cool.

Wednesday, August 6th 2008
Two simple words. "Monster Update". Little did I know it would cause such a stir. I may have underestimated you guys. :P

Well, the update is out of my hands now. The Dev Update is being localized and before you know it, the build will be out. I'll admit that I am a little nervous. I mean, I'm always anxious before something I've worked on goes Live. Will people love it? Will they hate it? How many flames will I get? I know with this update that some people will be upset. There isn't anything I can do about that, but I hope that there is enough good to balance it out. Plus, this is my first update as the Live Team designer. So that equals double nervous.

I've gotten soooo many messages in game this past week. Mostly people just saying hi and that they are looking forward to this weeks build. Everyone has been super respectful which is cool.

I'm working on getting my character info up here soon but it's a lot of work. Taking screenshots and whatnot. Maybe it will be ready next week. Then again, I'm already behind on next months update so I may not have time.

Thursday, July 31st 2008
I have a level 20 of every profession now which is cool. Been farming whenever I have the time. Mostly Chaos Plains perma-SF or Ranger FoW Forest Farm. I have enough ecto and 1/3 of the shards I need to get my Derv her FoW skirt. Still no where near enough cash to get my Warrior her Vabbian though. At least I finally realized that I like my Necro best in Shing Jea so I don't have to get her Vabbian too.

Work has been crazy for me this week. Trying to get everything ready for the next build, which barring complications, should be out next week. Plus working on getting things rolling on the stuff planned for next month. Right now I'm working on writing up the Dev Update for all the changes incoming. I don't know if I can actually explain all the thoughts behind the stuff we are doing, but we'll see. If people have questions, which I'm sure they will, I would be happy to answer them here once it's Live. Man, it's going to be one monster of an update. Should be interesting. Heh.

I've started to get more and more messaged in game from random people which can be both cool and awkward. I hope people aren't expecting me to remember everyone I talk to throughout the day. My friends list has been full for a long time so I can't really add more people to be able to recognize all the alts they have too. I'm not unfamiliar with talking to people I don't know, just not when they act like they know me. That part is where the weirdness comes from. Oh, and for those people that do message me in game, I have taken to idling a lot on Live, so if you message me and I don't get back to you for a while it's because I just didn't notice since I was off working. Same goes from if I am not super chatty. Just trying to get work done. :D

Oh and it cracks me up when someone messages me asking who I am cuz I'm on their friends list and they don't remember if they played with me or not. One guy was VERY insistent that he ONLY adds people he plays with. I haven't pugged anything in a very very long time so I assured him that it was highly unlikely that we have played together. That wasn't really something he was willing to accept. *shrug*

Monday, July 21st 2008
My Assassin is level 20 now and I've been taking her down into UW to farm some ectos. I spent a lunch hour last week writing out all the armor sets that I want to get on my other characters and figuring out the cost. Holy crap. So yeah I need to get to farming or learn to have less expensive tastes.

I leveled my ranger up to 20 this weekend and took her down to FoW to try out the good ole Forest Farm. Got a Shard on my first kill! Course it's the only shard I got but it's progress! I also got her to rank 3 Norn, cuz the Norn armor for female Ranger = win. I don't feel like grinding Varajar Fells anymore though. I already got my ele to r10 Norn on that zone when it first came out. Don't think I have the energy to do another char there. Books it is!

Testing on Ursan and Shadow Form is going well. It feels like we are really close to finding a good balance with these skills. Balance changes will be ready for next months build. Yay!

Thursday, July 7th 2008
Oh man, I have been so busy lately. This whole new position thing is a lot of work. I am really enjoying it though. We have a few big things coming up in the next couple months that should be pretty exciting. I'm hoping to get into a rhythm where I can release something cool every month.

On another note, got my Necro to 20 but I don't have nearly enough to get her Vabbian. My Assassin is lvl 16 now and I have all the mats I need to get her armor of choice. Yay. Not sure who I'm going to work on next. Either Rit, Ranger or Derv I think.

Monday, June 30th 2008
I finally got my mesmer her armor of choice (Kurzick 15k mask, Kurzick 1.5k chest, pants and boots, Luxon 1.5k gloves all dyed black) yay!! Sadly, it drained the remains of my dwindling bank account. Next up I think I'll finish off my Necro (she's only 18) but I think it'll be a while before I can get her the Vabbian armor she so covets. Looks like I'm going to have to get back to farming... sigh, my favorite.

Thursday, June 26th 2008
Today I officially moved over to the Guild Wars Live Team. I spent the morning moving my desk over to the Systems Design room and finally am settled into my little corner over here. It's cozy, I like it. Testing for the Dragon Festival continues and will be ready next week and I'm also working on a couple other projects that I can't talk about yet. On a personal note, my parents and little brother are in town and we are heading out in about an hour to take a trip out to the coast. Yay!

Friday, June 20th 2008
Been working on re-formatting my wiki page this past week. Finally ready to role the basics out. I stole Emily's formatting since it is so neat and clean. As I continue to work on it, I'll tailor it more to my tastes, but it's a really good place to start from. Obviously very much a work in progress, but it'll get there!