As I write this, it's 3 a.m. and all the cool things that happened yesterday are still sinking in. First on my agenda was the Guild Wars 2 rally, which was a bit confusing because it was moved to a different location. We arrived at the appointed place and started taking pics of the waiting people, but the crowd seemed a little thin. I was chatting with Justin and Larry and kept eyeing this guy nearby who was wearing a green Sylvari t-shirt. I was in love with that shirt and wanted one so badly. I was thinking about plucking up my courage to go ask him how he got it when he struck up a conversation with us first. It turns out he's a Massively fan, so it was incredibly cool to meet him. (Hi, green Sylvari shirt guy! I was so happy to talk to you!)

We chatted with him for a few more minutes then saw a couple of people in those white Guild Wars 2 t-shirts -- which I also covet for myself. Figuring they'd know what was happening, we wandered over, and they told us the rally had been moved inside to the main queue. Then the guy, who turned out to be Jon Peters, glanced at my name badge and said he really liked my work on Massively. His companion, Tirzah Bauer, agreed with him. My mind was sort of blown by that, so I spent a couple of minutes stammering all silly-like then asked for a photo with them. They were both incredibly nice -- they seemed genuinely happy to be there chatting and hanging out with the fans.

The next few hours were taken up by work in other areas of PAX, but soon enough it was time for my demo with Colin Johanson and Elijah Miller. It was the standard demo that we've all seen, but that did not make it any less exciting. This was my very first up-close and in-person view of Guild Wars 2, and my eyes were huge the whole time. It was stunning. I'll be honest and say that when I saw the Gamescom coverage, I really disliked the UI. It was jarring after seeing so much gameplay footage of a pristine, UI-free screen -- it made the UI seem really intrusive, and I hated that big yellow "NEW EVENT NEARBY" announcement across the screen. So part of me was prepared to question that and challenge the sense of immersion that the game is supposed to have.

However, once I saw it in person it all fell into place, and I felt like, "Oh. Well that's all right then." It just works. It doesn't give the sense of a huge green exclamation point flashing in your face, which is what I feared. It's more of a quick glance at a signpost to back up and clarify what the surrounding NPCs are telling you. It works beautifully, and I will say that I was very pleasantly surprised.

Colin was a delight to spend time with, but the guy is impossible to outsmart. I asked so many sneaky questions in an attempt to wrangle new information, and every time he gave me this hilarious look that said "I know exactly what you are doing, so don't even try it" and set me laughing over and over. I finally gave up trying to be tricky at the end and just said, "I want to know all about the Hall of Monuments." He wouldn't tell me anything but promised lots of information soon. And not "Soon TM," but really soon, so I'll be watching for that like a hawk.

In between appointments with other developers, I kept wandering back to the GW2 area to take photos and meet devs. I saw Emily Diehl and she seemed to be the least mobbed at the moment, so I made my way over to say hello. We chatted for a few minutes, and then she took me over to meet John Corpening. On the way we bumped into Martin Kerstein. I saw him approaching, and before I could stop myself I squealed, "Oh my gosh it's Martin Kerstein!" Emily was polite enough to pretend not to notice my lapse into crazed fandom and stopped him to introduce me. He was rushing to get to the 3-D demo at the nVidia booth, so he couldn't stay, but was really friendly. (He had much more time later in the weekend and was such fun to talk to.) I had the pleasure of meeting Regina for the first time too. I wrapped up the Guild Wars 2 part of my day with some photos of Rytlock, then spent the evening preparing for Saturday, which I knew was going to be extremely busy.

Quote from Massively.