When I’m not building wierdo crap for Halloween, you’ll likely find me on the computer.
And, one of my favorites remains Guild Wars. Originally, I gravitated towards Guild Wars as it was one of the few games that my (at the time) dial up connection could actually allowe me to play. But as time has gone on, the whole casual nature of the game continues to draw me back. I take breaks where I don’t play it for months on end, but always come back to it. No fee, no deletions for inactivity, no penalties, everything just the way I left it. More should follow this example of online play.
So, I’ve been playing it since 2005, and have consistantly bought the chapters as they came out, and even bought a few extras on my account. Still, it was this last year that Guild Wars was truly inspiring.
I had started making skulls early in the year last year, and had already decided they would be thrust up on stakes. However, the prevailing image going into September was 100 skulls on top of 100 stakes.
This was brought about, largely by the original, original idea I had for the whole yard that I’ld have different animal skulls up on stakes, and the collection would just grow year by year. Switch animal for human, and add in a brief scene from “The Fountain” that depicted the same in front of a Mayan Temple, and we were heading down that path. Every skull up on top.
Then September hit. I was mostly wrapped up with Halloween preparation, and Guild Wars had recently released it’s Eye of the North expansion. So, with a little free time, I set out and started playing. A couple weeks later, I walked into the following cave.
It was beautiful. In a totally Halloween kind of way.
I walked around the place, literally, for 20 minutes, staring, examining, and taking pictures.
“The Fountain” had nothing on the visuals here.
It was here. A few poles scattered in this cavern, impaling human skulls that the vision for my own yard changed for the better.
I had to get to work to IMPALE the skulls, not just casually set them on top. Suddenly, a casual leadup to Halloween became real busy again, and I had to leave Guild Wars once more to get to work on Halloween. Fortunately, Guild Wars, as always, is forgiving and would not punish me for leaving.
And, for a few nights prior to the big night there when we light the torches, we even lit it up in homage to that cavern in Guild Wars
