ArenaNet is an interesting company. Some love them, for their innovative and unforgettable games, and some hate them, both for trying to introduce completely new stuff and not always being able to do so. But there is no doubt that these guys love what they are doing and do everything to make Guild Wars 2 unique. With the Dragon Bash festival currently in full bloom, Maclaine Diemer and Matthew Moore give us some insight at what is probably the craziest element of the celebration – the theme song!
"Bash The Dragon" song's origins reach all the way back to 2010's demo at Gamescon in Cologne. During the time the demo was available, the developer team, back at the studio did everything they could to emulate a server full of players, which actually meant staying up all night and helping the players do the same quests over and over again. Sounds exhausting, eh? Well, it was, so to cheer the team up, Matthew Moore put together a song, "Spawn The Dragon". For these who know their way around Tyria to some extent I will say that it was connected with multiple instances of spawning The Shatterer, so that the players could kill him right away. And again. And again. Anyways, the song was a hit in the studio and when the preparations for Dragon Bash festival begun earlier this year, an idea came up to use it as a base for the theme!
The initial concept was to have Logan Thackeray walk into a pub, followed by someone striking up the song. Logan would take it up and lead the crowd in singing. Unfortunately, the Logan's voice actor was not available fast enough, so the team had to think of something else. And hell they did think of something!
On the above video you can see the team recording the final version. You can like these guys, you can hate them, but you got to admit that there are one of the few studios expressing so much joy and fun in what they do! The recording was later tweaked and the final version may be found below. Listen to it and I assure you that, even if you do not know Guild Wars 2, it will take a lot of strong will not to go bash some dragons right away!
