Just for Fun: The WAFU Way (VIDEO)

Dear Chlorine,

Just so you know, I am writing this when you are 1.5 years old (555 days to be exact). By the time you’re able to read this, you’ll have probably known that I like playing video games and I like playing them with friends, brothers, your mother, and most probably even you. I like sharing gaming experiences, and I actually enjoy playing games while someone is watching (ask Mommy how many times I forced her to watch me play). A lot of times these experiences get posted to Facebook, or Twitter, or Google+. By the time you’re reading this, though, Social Networking might have become obsolete (who knows?). And besides, they’re too cluttered with other posts such as check-ins, vacation photos, and many more.

So I decided to compile these gaming experiences into one blog, so that one day I get to share them with you, and so that as I play these games right now while you’re still a baby, I can play them as if I’m already showing them to a grown-up you.

In fact, I’ve taken the liberty to give you a temporary gaming nickname – Chlorine. Feel free to change it when you’re old enough.

When your Daddy and your Ninongs Paolo and Henry first played Guild Wars 2, we set up our private guild with the guild name Warriors of the Fareast Union, and WAFU as the guild tag. “Wafu” is a play on the word “gwapo” or good-looking, which is commonly used by Filipino MMO players. So despite the serious implications of the guild name, the guild tag shows we were just having fun.

As “noobs”, we had the tendency to keep trying tasks not meant for our levels or numbers.


At level 30, your Uncle Jason (who was, I think, level 27 or 28 at the time) and I explored the Level 30 dungeon, just the two of us. In Guild Wars 2, all dungeons are designed for 5 players and are not scaled, so by numbers alone we were doomed, never mind the level deficit.

Even when we reached max level, we tried doing 5-man dungeons with 3 people. A lot of times we failed. Sometimes, though, after 4-5 hours of trying, armors ripped to destructions several times and silvers and golds spent on armor repairs, we finally complete the task.

It’s not rewarding at all! In fact, it costs a lot of coins and a lot of game time, so it is by no means the “correct” way of playing the game. But with so much investment, trials, and failures, once we actually finished it, it becomes so much more fulfilling. The sense of accomplishment is just there, and though we gained nothing – no good items, no real achievements – just the fact that we knew we did it was enough for us to do it again.

This became known as the WAFU way – trying and trying, despite the odds, and succeeding.
And with the WAFU way comes an incredible feeling of joy once the task is done, which can be depicted by this video I made, just for fun. The instance we did here, Scarlet’s Playhouse, is actually very easy, and it scales so it can actually be done solo.

Still, this is how we feel after a WAFU victory. Enjoy!

The WAFU Way!