Content Producer Mathew Medina is responsible for creating 5 fictional alphabets for the different civilizations of Guild Wars 2

A Monday morning water cooler conversation between myself and Guild Wars 2's Matthew Medina would probably go a little like this:

Matthew Medina: Hey, what did you do this weekend?

MisterBones: I saw Iron man 2. What did you do?

Matthew Medina: I created a language.

MisterBones: ...You win.

Matthew Medina is responsible for creating no less than 5 fictional alphabets for Guild Wars 2, some of which have already appeared in the original Guild Wars. His first was a completely new Ascalonian alphabet based on ancient Phoenician (whoa!). That puts him in a class with other creative linguists like J.R.R. Tolkien when he created Elvish.

Medina is also responsible for creating the Canthan lonograms from Guild Wars: Factions, the asuran script from Guild Wars: Eye of the North and two languages from Guild Wars 2: New Krytan and a secret, yet-to-be-disclosed language. Even if you don't care about translating the fictional languages you find on runes and sign posts throughout Guild Wars 2, it's impressive and refreshing to see such attention to detail in game design. Read more about Medina's feat here.