The Looming Spectre of NaNoWriMo, and Guild Wars Qualifiers

National Novel Writing Month - or NaNoWriMo - is almost upon us; for once, I will participate. The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month, which is about 1,600 words a day. I said to my friends that using a manuscript in progress is cheating, they said I needed to stop beginning new projects and finish one, so I will be attempting to add 50,000 words to my ongoing work. 

It's actually quite a cool system - writing is gamified with badges and goals, and you get to see your friends' progress and nudge them along. I'm looking forward to it. 

The European and North American qualifiers finished this weekend for Guild Wars 2. Not only were there some prize giveaways to the viewers (a good reason to let it run in the background), but the final matches were very close and I was able to pick up some new tricks for when (or if) I go back to playing more. My usual cycle is to play whenever new content comes out, then once I finish the story pack (usually an evening or two) I putter around for a little while in competitive play, then finally get bored and wander off until I get an email saying there's another content pack. GW2's content and competitive play just never lived up to that of its predecessor.