The best holiday of the year is almost here! I’m talking about Black Friday, of course, that magical day when everything is on sale! I’m not even being sarcastic: I save up for Black Friday for months. (And then I shop the sales on my PC in my PJs. I’m not going out in the shopping mess. Those people are bonkers.)
This year, we’re rolling out a guide a day all week in the lead up to the Black Friday hoopla, all MMO-related, all useful for gamers who read Massively OP — and useful for us, too, because anything you buy through Amazon through us kicks some monies our way and helps us stay online, all for stuff you were going to buy anyway. In fact, even if you don’t like any of our suggestions, clicking through us to get to Amazon and buying whatever you want helps us out. We love those of you who already do that!
Today’s edition is all about Guild Wars 2, since even though I tease its foibles from time to time, it is my favorite modern MMORPG. Enjoy!
Heart of Thorns if you somehow don’t already own it |
 If you’re reading this before November 22nd, 2016, you should really just mosey on over to the official Guild Wars 2 website and buy Heart of Thorns straight from ArenaNet. It’s half off, and Massively OP’s GW2 columnist Tina has already outlined why every MMORPG gamer needs to get it, especially if you’re at all interested in the current living story season, the third episode of which lands tomorrow. If you missed the sale, however, you can still pick it up on Amazon. Occasionally, it’s cheaper than on the official site. |
Gems! All the gems. |
  If Guild Wars 2 is your thing, you’re probably a cosmetics junkie, and I’m basing this on the wild, freaky, and often ugly as sin costumes that I see some of you folks wearing in-game. The wackiest outfits and shiniest gliders all require stacks and stacks of gems. Word to the wise: You can purchase gems from ArenaNet directly at a ratio of 800 gems for $10, so never pay more on Amazon. But the current deal on Amazon, 2000 gems for $25, is a fair one, plus it helps us, allows you to avoid handing your credit card info over to a third party, and lets you more easily slip the card into someone’s stocking. And by someone, I mean mine, if my husband’s reading this. |
Ghosts of Ascalon |
  Confession time: I am not a lore junkie, and everything I know about the Guild Wars franchise’s lore I absorbed while grinding one of every class through everything in the original Guild Wars 1. But Matt Forbeck and Jeff Grubb’s Ghosts of Ascalon novel is considered a useful backstory for some of the iconic characters and locations in the game (and yes, it’s canon). Edge of Destiny and Sea of Sorrows are worthy followups, lore fiends on our team tell me, but you should definitely start with the original. And if you’re really into MMORPG-related books, definitely check back later this week as we’re doing a big roundup of others you might like! |
The soundtrack on vinyl |
  I can’t even believe this is a thing that exists, but it does! I’m pretty sure I paid less than this for my first record-player-CD-player-cassette-deck-all-in-one monstrosity in sixth grade (how else were you going to make a proper mix tape, am I right?), but for all you hardcore hipsters, the Guild Wars 2 soundtrack exists in vinyl record format. |
Your very own Quaggan plushie |
  Sometimes I don’t get the plushie craze. Sometimes I marvel at all you folks who keep messaging us about Mo plushies. You know it’s going to sit on your bed and do nothing, right? You know it’s just going to cost 10 times more than what you’d pay for a kid’s stuffie, right? And then I see a cute one, and I get it. Here’s a quaggan you can buy and put in your actual house, and yoooooou didn’t even have tooooo go swimming tooo doooo so. Even I want one. |
