MMO player and writer Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats knows how to ask the hard questions. Questions that other journalists are afraid to ask. Questions like, "If you were omniscient with regard to all corollary Guild Wars 2 data (including player emotion, all chat including voice chat, current snacks eaten, etc.), what crazy thing would you most like to know?"

Happily for the Guild Wars 2 fanbase, he also asks much more practical questions, and he directed some of those questions at ArenaNet's Izzy Cartwright. He even got some answers! Cartwright talked about how ArenaNet's ability to track players led to the implementation of certain dynamic events, meant to split up the player population in a map, which would trigger when there were too many players in an area. Another benefit of the team's data gathering is the ability to see where players are dying most often in order to adjust content difficulty as necessary. The economy is especially dependent on player activity, and Cartwright says that the team keeps a very close eye on item fluctuations to be sure that a relatively healthy stat is maintained.

Read the full interview over at KTR. If data, design, and programming really get your gears turning, consider checking out ArenaNet programmer Cameron Dunn's GDC talk on that subject.

There are two weeks left until the official launch of Guild Wars 2. That's a little nutso because a significant portion of my (and a great deal many other folks') energy in last few years has been dedicated to anticipating the game. Seeing it live will be something of an adjustment.

I keep wanting to talk about memories of development and standing in lines at PAX and meeting devs and other fans as a way of describing my involvement with this game up 'til this point. I sometimes feel that that's odd, saying that the most exciting part of following Guild Wars 2's development has been the people I've met rather than the game that we're all congregating around. ArenaNet seems to agree with my take on things, though, if global brand manager Chris Lye can be trusted. He says of ArenaNet, "We're not a video game company; we're a community building company. We just happen to have one of the coolest ways to build a community, which is through a video game."

Be it trite or not, I find that that kind of statement aligns nicely with the reason I, someone who plays MMOs largely for the sense of shared experience, have enjoyed Guild Wars 2 and its community so much.