Guild Wars 2 Articles

[Morreion]

Check Out The Beta Reviews!



Guild Wars 2 Asura preview: Experimental science and our exclusive hands-on impressions (PC Gamer)

My big takeaway from the first 10 levels: life is anything but safe as an asura. The polite and seemingly friendly golem who offered me a weather-control staff forgot to mention that it has a very high likelihood of backfiring in humorously ridiculous ways. Equipping it replaced all of my skills with new ones related to weather effects. Create an shockwave, summon a lightning storm, rain down healing water on your enemies, it promised! Instead, I ended up puking my guts out and turning my corpse into a barbecue pit. But as the Asura say, “If it’s not broken, you’re not innovating.”

Guild Wars 2 Facebook milestone brings new art, more to come (Massively)

Anticipation for Guild Wars 2 is reaching a fever pitch thanks to beta invite emails. ArenaNet's publicity machine is capitalizing on the mania, too, especially on Facebook. The game recently reached the 470,000 "likes" milestone, and fans were rewarded with a new piece of concept art.

Flameseeker Chronicles: Dreaming of green knights (Massively)

I'm incredibly pleased with the Sylvari redesign. Kristen Perry, heavens bless her, took the Sylvari from being children who looked a lot more like brightly colored elves walking around with leaves and twigs attached to parts of their body to being much more fantastical humanoid plants whose appearance is less of a costume and more of a fundamental embodiment of nature. Not only does this give them a marvelous aesthetic that ties them much more closely to nature, but it also makes it easier to appreciate the Sylvari as complex and potent.

Beta Weekend Event Survival Guide (Guild Wars Insider)

There are no breadcrumbs and no quest hubs. You progress in this game by EXPLORING. Pick a direction that looks good and you will stumble upon adventure. Getting sidetracked is how you will spend most of your time.

Beta Impressions

30 things about Guild Wars 2′s beta weekend (Bio Break)

4. This is a world I genuinely want to explore. After giving some of the heart activities and events a try, I spent most of my time simply exploring Queensland and Divinity’s Reach. If you’re going to approach GW2 by rushing through it, let me tell you that you’ll be missing so much. The world is absolutely alive in its details, nooks and crannies, and I had a blast doing things even as mundane as reading gravestones for 15 minutes or so.

[GW2] Early Beta Impressions (Kill Ten Rats)

This game is worth every penny of $60, and I intend to buy another copy for my wife, but this is nothing new in the genre, and doesn’t even do things as well as other Theme Park MMOs.. if this and WoW were launching side by side, I would play WoW. This will fall into the category of ‘entertaining diversion’ rather than ‘full-time MMO’ for me. Something to mess around with in between playing other games.

[GW2] Malaise in Melee (Kill Ten Rats)

My gut feeling is that the path to becoming a great melee player requires balance from ArenaNet and the player. Right now, I’d say it is less apparent what ArenaNet intends for PvE melee combat, which makes it tougher for a player to balance the playstyle accordingly. Ranged combat does seem a lot easier to get. I must admit that I’ve spent the least amount of time with warrior and guardian professions, so my views will be a bit skewed towards the squishier classes in melee.

And...Relax! : GW2 (Inventory Full)

My experience of GW2 was one of playing a very, very good iteration of the same MMO model I've been playing for over a decade. Many things are done more organically and elegantly than maybe we're used to but the things themselves are the same things. If you still enjoy Everquest (1 or 2), Lord of the Rings, WoW, Warhammer, Vanguard or any of the countless games that have become known as Diku-MUD MMOs, chances are you'll enjoy this latest variation on that theme. If you feel you've been there and done that then it will probably take more than you'll find here to put the fizz back in your mouse finger. Ironically, perhaps, if you were a huge fan of the original Guild Wars you may be less keen to dance to this old tune on a new fiddle. It's plainly the same world but the gameplay is something else altogether.

Burning Down The House: GW2 (Inventory Full)

I think it will be impossible to tell how significant this "dynamism" is until the game is Live and we are able to live in the world. At the moment all we see are snapshots. The prospect of not knowing when you log in whether you will be able to go to the same place you were hunting yesterday is appealing and I can see now how this could happen. I hope it does. If it leaves places people want to go in a state that prevents them from going there without letting them do much about it, though, that might not be quite as much fun.

Plink Plink Fizz... GW2 (Inventory Full)

I would encourage anyone who found the whole action combat hype too daunting to make a Charr ranger next beta, take up leatherworking and go hunt drakes until you have enough leather for a full suit of crafted, runed armor and enough action points to buy Troll Unguent and Signet of the Wild. which together will let your pet tank pretty much anything you're likely to want to solo. Make sure you don't pull any mob that "reflects projectiles", stand back and plink plink plink ! It's a classic and classics never go out of style.

Overflow has Got to Go (or change) (Keen & Graev)

The overflow system needs to allow groups to stay together. Let people transfer to the group leader’s instance or move between them. Some of the zones in Guild Wars 2 are so big that they should not have overflow at all. WoW has 10 million players but manages to not redundantly instance their zones. Phasing didn’t come around for years, and I’m not sure phasing even moves people.

I thought the overflow would be a great way to avoid the queue, but once you start utilizing overflow on me when I’m actually in-game playing normally it crosses the line. Use it for logging in, but let me get out of the overflow immediately.

GW2 Combat (Keen & Graev)

I keep changing my mind over what I like most in GW2. This morning it was the combat that really captured my interest. I made a quick video showing off a newbie Warrior’s attacks. You’ll see in the video that GW2 has a very traditional “Lock on” and hotkey combat system. While still not quite at WoW’s level of polish in terms of ‘feel’, since there are times when combat feels clunky, ArenaNet has definitely created a good looking visual experience. Auto attacks with weapons aren’t simple swings — in the video you’ll notice my mace auto attack looked very stylish. It also ‘feels’ like I’m connecting with my opponent because of the camera shake and proximity of weapon swings.

What I Learned from GW2′s BWE Day 1 (Keen & Graev)

Events are the Orange Circles -> They’re better than Hearts

I realized the events are the orange things that pop up sometimes on top of the hearts, and even sometimes coordinate with the heart areas (or do they always?) to provide an augmented experience. I was doing some quest right at the beginning of the Norn area to transform into a leopard and kill rabbits, then suddenly an event starts and has me utilize that same leopord transformation to kill other bad guys that appear out of the ground. The orange events are more rewarding since they give karma (currency), and seem more difficult and interesting. I assume these can be repeated.

GW2 Questing: Great for Groups (Keen & Graev)

I really enjoy the questing/leveling in GW2 so far for one reason: group friendly. I took a video w/ commentary to show you the basics.

If you overlook the overflow issues, GW2 accommodates groups very well. Having to worry about being on all the same quests, or even being the same level, as your friends is a problem of the past. In GW2 you group up and find areas of the map to go and do together. You can also roam and find events going on.

GW2 WvW Impressions (Keen & Graev)

WvW is the closest I have ever come to reliving Dark Age of Camelot RvR. I chose to lead off with that comment because WvW is the reason why I will play GW2, and the reason why many of my friends decided to even give GW2 a chance. I want to begin by giving you a narrative of the video I shot below.

Guild Wars 2–Introduction (Levelcapped)

Guild Wars 2 is trying to be just a little bit beyond what we see in most MMOs, which is minor tweaks to standard systems. There is the art style, which is very watercolor-esque for both the landscape and even the UI. You don’t have to visit a trainer to get skills; you unlock them in sequence by using existing skills, and combat abilities are weapons based. You will unlock them all in a very short time. There is no quest journal aside from your personal story, everything is public-quest, and no one is holding your hand, pointing the next area for you to visit. Your goal is to step foot outside the city, and just do it. People will freak out over this. When you step back, it’s not a huge departure from base MMO mechanics, but it has enough difference that after years and years of 20 hot-bars with customizable skill selections, a “golden path” of quests designed to move us from area to area, and reliance upon skill vendors and even server queues, Guild Wars 2 is just different enough to make it different enough.

And After A Weekend, The Verdict (Tremayne's Law)

Conclusion – I like this game. I’m looking forward to playing some more. I’m convinced that the money I spent on a copy was money well spent. But I STILL think there are going to be some bitterly disappointed people spewing venom in places like MMORPG.com when they realise that their paradigm-shifting, brave new world of a game really isn’t.

Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Rundown (Tales of the Aggronaut)

Dynamic Mentoring:

This is by far my favorite feature of the game. As you move through the world, and it is a huge one, your level is automatically mentored down to the content. If you wander back in a level 4 area at level 15, you will be scaled down to level 6 or so allowing you to participate in events. The best part of this is that you gain experience and karma similar to your native level...

Scarybooster put the game in perspective for me this weekend. Essentially he said that he is viewing this game as competing with the other free to play experiences. When you view it in that way, then it wins hands down against the other f2p titles. The world is huge, engaging, and as you move through it you are in no way gimped for not having spent money. When you look at the game like that, it is a complete no-brainer to buy.

GW2 Beta Weekend - Overflow, Exploration, Combat and a second Look at Customization (Raging Monkey's)

Temporary bottom line

After a rocky start, the GW2 has been a lot fun; so much to see and explore and especially so much to learn! Guild Wars 2 IS its very own game and that is good to remark at this point! You will not be tempted to compare this MMO to other games you've likely played in the past.

ArenaNet will certainly need a few more months (so much has become clear) to take care of some balancing and technical issues now and there is missing polish where ingame functionality (for example on guild management level), menu options and indicators are concerned. Early overflow gripes aside, I have not come across any major disappointments or annoyances though. I think we can agree that GW2 is a safe bet for anyone looking to immerse himself in a fresh and original MMO world this year. I'm off to play some much anticipated WvW now - more on that another time!

A wedding? I love weddings! Drinks all around! (Killed in a Smiling Accident)

I can’t really report much on the game content as such, because I didn’t advance terribly far with any one character; I have no intention of playing through it all again come release – O, that way burnout lies. I’d rather save the content for when I can savour it, knowing that any progression my character makes will actually count for something.

The beta simply hasn’t changed my opinion for better or worse – I think that Guild Wars 2 will be a great game, that I will get a lot out of it, and that ArenaNet will have a very solid foundation on which to continue building their Guild Wars franchise. Is it going to change the world? No. Is it going to be a very strong player in the MMO market and influence those theme park MMOs which follow it? Yes, I do believe so.

[Morreion]

More Beta Weekend Reactions



Guild Wars 2 General Article: Crafting Preview (MMORPG.com)
During this past weekend's Guild Wars 2 closed beta event, we spent some time learning some of the intricacies of the crafting system. We've got some thoughts to share about GW2 crafting that you won't want to miss. Did you try it? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Once you’ve unlocked some new recipes at skill levels 5 and 50 is when things start to really pick up and get interesting. For me, I get hooked on trying to discover as many recipes as I can. While the mechanics here are nothing groundbreaking, it’s still a fun and satisfying system. My favorite crafting system just may be a tie between Lord of the Rings Online and The Matrix Online. In the former, you’re able to gather your materials, but in some cases grow or process the materials. The Matrix Online let you break down nearly all items in the game and, if successful, granted you the recipe. Guild Wars 2’s system falls somewhere in the middle for me. It’s fun; aiming to keep pace until 80 with you. Some of the unknown recipes had difficulty ratings over 300. It’s rewarding, in both XP and items, and once you get past the initial barrier to entry, welcomes you with open arms like so much in this game does.

The Daily Grind: Did you participate in the Guild Wars 2 beta weekend? (Massively)

Hundreds of comments on how things went here.

Flameseeker Chronicles: After beta action report (Massively)

The overflow server technology that ArenaNet's using to virtually do away with queues and wait times for players to enter the game was heralded as yet another sign of the second coming of the savior of MMORPGs. While I still think it's totally awesome and still did a little jig every time I was able to just transfer to an overflow server rather than queue up for goodness knows how long to wait to play, the mechanism definitely needs some love before the game goes live. Why? Because it kept some people from playing with their friends for the entire weekend.

GW2 BWE#1 Wrap-up (Keen & Graev)

I don’t know what’s up with the whole ‘mail everything’ system. You can’t trade with anyone which will prove to be an oddity if stays that way.

GW2 is definitely a themepark, and there isn’t a whole lot of ‘new’ being brought to the genre. ArenaNet hasn’t just copied WoW, though. There is a lot borrowed from games like DAOC — qualified and proven features — that were ignored for years, and things like weapon swapping that feel innovative.

Guild Wars 2 Column: Beta Rage! (MMORPG.com)
Over the course of this past weekend's first major Guild Wars 2 closed beta event, players were often faced with inexplicable error messages that, of necessity, resulted in BETA RAGE! Read more about what we think of this phenomenon and then weigh in with your own thoughts in the comments.

There will be more Guild Wars 2 beta events. A question was asked on the forums about how many beta events were still left. A developer answered saying they had a plan, but if needed, it would change. To me that means they will do what it takes to make the game run smooth in time for the release. ArenaNet learned a lot, and they will continue to learn as more of these events come and go. The issues we experienced now will be gone in the future, and if they aren’t then we can get mad. Heck, it seems like things cleared up a lot on Sunday, so already we can see progress being made. I also hope that many of you toss your anger aside and take a look at what a developer has to go through to get a game finished. The last moments can be the craziest, and are personally my least favorite in game design, but it must be endured. If you think you had a rough weekend, just imagine what the ANet team went through.

Guild Wars 2 Previews: Dunking on Nooblords in Tyria (MMORPG.com)
We spent some time doing PvP during the recent Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event and today we're sharing our report on the experience.

Like Structured PvP, it’s pretty easy to just jump into World vs. World. All you need to do is hit the ‘Be in the Mists’ button on your character sheet and you are instantly whisked away to the holding area from which you can enter the actual WvW zone. However, unlike Structured PvP, you’ll enter WvW with your actual PvE gear, skill unlocks, and traits, but your power level will artificially be bolstered to 80. Also unlike Structured PvP, experience and loot can be earned from WvW, so it is theoretically possible to level exclusively via WvW, though your mileage may vary with regards to the rate of progression.

Guild Wars 2 Column: 5 Things People Are B*tching About (MMORPG.com)
This past weekend's first major closed beta event for Guild Wars 2 was a very exciting time for players looking forward to the game from Arena.Net. There is so much to love about GW2 and most of the weekend went without a hitch. Still there -are- things that people are kvetching about. See what we discovered people are talking about in The List today and then add your own thoughts in the comments.

2. Changing the MMO Game Play Paradigm

This is one that I actually like when it comes to Guild Wars 2 but that won’t stop people from kvetching about it. Guild Wars 2 does not follow the same paradigm as every other MMO out there. Players choosing to play GW2 the same way they do LOTRO or Rift or even WoW will find themselves struggling to survive. It will be essential to dodge and weave and move and use ranged and melee attacks for nearly every character type out there. In a way, it’s sort of like combining the dynamic dodge system that TERA utilizes with the more traditional form of MMO gaming. But if you leave one or the other out, you’ll find yourself dying a lot.

Oh and that every character can heal itself thing? Simply awesome and it does require grouping to be more of a thoughtful process rather than simply spamming for members of the Holy Trinity.

GW2 BWE1: Social Gaming Strikes Back (GW2Hub)

Your own experiences during the BWE may differ, but I’m happy to report that players were just as helpful this past weekend as in previous events. In fact, the only times I ever had to use a waypoint after being defeated were when my group of 2 wandered into areas too high for our level and were defeated in areas where there were no other players around. Whenever there were other players present, however, in all cases they would take a few moments to revive us when needed.

It’s a deceptively simple mechanic, but does help illustrate another of ArenaNet’s successes in the social gaming department. The only negative I found with the system came into play during competitive PvP, but we’ll touch on that aspect of the downed and rallying mechanics later this week.

Social Diamonds in the Rough (GW2Hub)

In general, I’m a big fan of the guild system in Guild Wars 2. While more competitive or focused guilds will likely require their members to refrain from belonging to multiple guilds, it’s still a great option for those gamers who want more flexibility than traditional MMO guild systems provide.

The only real sticking point I have with multi-guilding currently is that it is far too easy to log in, begin playing, and discover hours later that you never selected to “represent” one of the guilds you belong to. Eventually players may get into the habit of opening up the guild UI at login and selecting which guild to represent, but even knowing full well that’s how the system worked I still caught myself forgetting to on numerous occasions.

Profession Pondering (GW2Hub)

What has surprised me coming out of last weekend’s Guild Wars 2 Beta event is that I now find myself undecided, even after several phases and countless hours. Unlike in other MMOG’s where you can categorically define yourself as having a ranged or melee preference (me preferring the former) the waters are muddied in Guild Wars 2, with profession capabilities blurred by the ability to wield both melee and ranged weapons, to great effect.

[Morreion]

Guild Wars 2 Preview (The Escapist)

The part I enjoyed most during my time with Guild Wars 2 was how it encourages players to actually work together, even outside of typical party mechanics. There is no monster tagging where the first person to attack a NPC gets all the loot and experience for killing it, a feature most MMOs adhere to. Instead, everyone who helped defeat a monster gets rewarded with experience and the chance for items, which encourages players to help each other even if you're not formally grouped with them. This also ties into questing. Rather than specific goals like "Bring me 10 wolf pelts," the world questing in Guild Wars 2 has broader area based goals. You might be tasked with assisting a local farmer, but you can help her out in a number of different ways. Defeating bandits, recovering supplies or simply tracking down her lost livestock are all actions that will contribute towards completing the quest. This means that you can spend more time playing and completing your goals with the help of others and less time waiting for that last wolf to respawn.

Guild Wars 2 BWE Roundtable Impressions (Ten Ton Hammer)

Sardu: For me, it’s a bit of an offbeat thing, and something I discovered very late into the weekend.

Since Lion’s Arch had been opened up to players for the first time, I spent some time on one of my characters roaming around the city, unlocking all the waypoints and points of interest. Along the way I discovered that, at the very highest point above the water there’s an awesome diving board with a pair of Diving Goggles sitting next to it.

You can put those on, and when you dive off the board you gain a pair of new skills that let you do little flips and stuff before hitting the water. So I’m probably most looking forward to going back and messing around with that as much as possible. While simple, it represents one of my favorite things about the game in general; that payoff for taking the time to explore, even if it’s not monetary or XP rewards, there are still really cool things to find all over the place.

Guild Wars 2: First Impressions of the Beta (Forbes)

You know when Forbes Magazine is previewing GW2 that this is going to be a big game!

A Gorgeous, Living World Sets Guild Wars 2 Apart (Kotaku)

Guild Wars 2 very clearly had no intention of holding my hand, and in one sense I appreciated it for that. The structure is very much about the world, and about the openness of the world. The character has an individually tailored storyline to play through, but otherwise the game offers very little traditional guidance about where to go and what to try next. I focused at first on my story, but very quickly I found that the suggested level for my next chapter was two levels ahead of where my character was, and I couldn't handle the newer, stronger baddies. She simply wasn't strong enough yet to continue her own story.

Mike O’Brien on the Guild Wars 2 Beta (ArenaNet Blog)

At the same time, we’re also working on server capacity to make sure that we’re prepared for the even greater flood of players who will participate in the next Beta. To that end, we’ve announced a Stress Test on Monday May 14th to test some changes we’ve implemented. This 7-hour test event, which runs from 11 AM to 6 PM PDT (-7 GMT) is open to all players who have pre-purchased Guild Wars 2. The good news is that we’re not wiping characters for this test; we’re using the same build that we used in the first Beta Weekend Event, so you’ll be able to pick up right where you left off. For more information about the Stress Test, log in to the Beta Forums. Please join us on May 14 if you can.

Guide to Daily Achievements in Guild Wars 2 (GW2Hub)

Daily Gatherer

Another simple achievement, you will unlock this very quickly by gathering metal, wood, and various types of plants as you’re out adventuring.

Tip: Make sure to purchase and equip gathering tools or else you won’t be able to gather from nodes

Tip: It doesn’t matter which node types you gather from, so gathering metal, plants, or wood 20 times each or some combination of the three will help you complete the achievement.

Tip: Remember to keep an eye on the mini-map for gathering nodes while out adventuring!


ArenaNet Founder Mike O'Brien Will Be Satisfied When Guild Wars 2 Is The Most Successful MMO, Period (Forbes)

As for the World of Warcraft-killer slogan that has been bandied about in the press, O’Brien said “nothing is going to kill WoW other than WoW. Games just don’t die. But do gamers think we’ve seen the most popular online game we’ve ever seen and we’ll never see something more popular than that? I don’t think so. One MMO has been on the top of the heap for seven years now, but there’s been a progression in the industry for other games being able to attract more and more players. And we’re set to climb to the top.”

Guild Wars 2 Interview with ArenaNet’s Chris Lye (Kill Ten Rats)

In a recent ArenaNet blog article about community, Martin Kerstein mentioned that the community behind an MMO is actually now multiple communities that each require a different touch. Can you touch on how you see the different communities responding to Guild Wars 2? What do you envision for the “official forums” community?

We’ve definitely seen distinct “personas” emerge from our different communities. They’ll be divided by medium (Twitter fans want up-to-the-minute updates, Facebook fans only want to hear from us a few times a week) or by playstyle, such as role-players or PvP-ers. We really want to encourage creative ways for our community to engage with our game—machinima, cosplay, and stuff that we haven’t even dreamed of. The key to this is fostering a community that is respectful toward one another—this will be a big focus of our forums.

Three Common Misconceptions about Guild Wars 2 (Ten Ton Hammer)

...The point here is this: in Guild Wars 2, PvP is an option, not a requirement. From all early appearances, you will find plenty to do in this game even if you never want to enter The Mists or tear it up in PvP. The options are yours to explore at your leisure, and at your own pace, with no pressure to race through levels in order to get to the end game fun.

Flameseeker Chronicles: Five things to love about Lion's Arch (Massively)

Huge... tracts of land

Like all the major cities we've seen so far in Guild Wars 2, Lion's Arch is massive. While the city proper takes up a manageable portion of of the map, it's got outlying villages and training centers and nooks and crannies aplenty. There are two gorgeous waterfalls, some epic vistas, scads of interesting flavor conversations, and generally enough goings-on to keep you running around like a kitten on 'nip. A giant tower of boats, at the top of which is a nautical tavern? Sure. Piratical hideout with some truly impressive stalactites (and it must be admitted, equally daunting stalagmites)? Of course. Weird cave behind the waterfall full of spiders that looks like it's just begging to be explored? Naturally. While you might never be in fear for your life (unless your aim is way, way off on the diving board jump like this poor chap or chappess), Lion's Arch is far from dull.

Guild Wars 2 fan compares new game map to original (Massively)

The full Guild Wars 2 map encompasses around 25 zones, six cities, and some odds and ends. Of course, not all of Guild Wars 1 areas are revisited in GW2 (at least, not yet), and Guild Wars 2 has a few areas that were never explored in its predecessor.

Guild Wars 2 gem store goes (partially) online (Massively)

One of the more controversial aspects of the upcoming Guild Wars 2 is its microtransaction system, the details of which were tightly under wraps until the recent NDA-free public beta weekend. Now that the public's had a look-see, ArenaNet brought its gem store out into the open for all to see.

Ranger Revision (GW2Hub)

It is clear to anyone who has played the ranger that the pet is plagued by every problem a pet class shouldn’t have; a lack of responsiv​eness in commanding, a mind of its own, a tendency to cling to scenery, refusing to move and an inability to avoid AOE damage, all coupled with unresponsive skill activations.

[Morreion]

Guild Wars 2 - Is it All That? (Ten Ton Hammer)

With the possible exception of Rift, these Public Quests didn't work in other games so I'm not sure why anyone would think they'd work in Guild Wars 2. Don't get me wrong... I love the concept but the truth of the matter is that no matter how many players will be playing the game after launch there is likely rarely to be enough to create a critical mass of players for every event (or Public Quest) of every level of every area in the game at all times. In fact, I dare be so bold and say that most of these events will likely have to be done solo most of the time after the initial launch surge of new players. While that is certainly possible given the scaling technology employed with the events, many of these events would be just as boring and in some cases more frustrating than your average quest in other MMOs. A lot of these events took a good deal of time to collect ground spawns, fight off creatures, and return the items to NPCs, even with multiple players. I would can't imagine the time it would take to do it solo, even if you only had to collect 10 rocks instead of 100.

Diary Of - Entry 2: Raining Death (GW2Hub)

Don’t die in World versus World. That’s what I’ve just learned after crawling my way back to where I died, from a waypoint that felt a million miles away. I can’t complain too loudly as it was my own fault. I was a little too eager and ended up face down on the sodden decks surrounding Ascension Bay, having walked straight into the firing line of several arrow carts. That’ll teach me for rushing.

Mike O'Brien: Guild Wars 2's beta weekend 'overwhelming' (Massively)

According to O'Brien, while the feedback from the event was quite positive, the team had to struggle with unexpected demand for the game. Even after the management temporarily turned off the ability for players' ability to pre-purchase the title through ArenaNet, the game's 48 servers couldn't contain the influx of testers and beta tourists.

Might have found my favorite GW2 Class today (Keen & Graev)

During the few hours I played around I tried an Elementalist for the first time and fell completely in love with the class. I felt like a bender from Avatar with the four different elemental schools. I could switch to fire, water, and air with one more school locked which I assume was earth. Switching to the different schools gave me different abilities for each element. Switching weapons gave me additional different abilities. I tried three different weapons, with three different school, giving me more abilities to mess around with than any other GW2 class I’ve tried.

My first play experience with Guild Wars 2 (The Last Bastion)

The most clear and concise thing I can say about Guild Wars 2 after playing it for roughly 20 hours last weekend is that it’s like the Matrix. You just have to experience it for yourself. If you are even remotely a fan of the MMORPG genre…if the promise of these games excites you in the least…whether your relatively new to the genre or an old-school fan like me…you owe it to yourself to give this game a try. Open your mind the best you can to some very new ideas, and jump in. I’m willing to bet that you will be pleasantly surprised, no matter how high or low your expectations going in…and in this genre, that’s really saying something.

Better Living through Inventory Management (GW2Hub)

Perhaps the easiest way to increase the size of your bags is through crafting. Armorsmiths, Tailors, and Leatherworkers can make new boxes or bags fairly cheaply, and can be a good choice for one of your 2 trades depending on which profession you’re playing since it will allow you to craft armor upgrades as you level.

ArenaNet president discusses careful monetization of Guild Wars 2, the least greedy Western MMO (Venture Beat)

Guild Wars 2 isn’t one of those games that masquerades as free-to-play but is really designed so that you can’t get far without having to buy lots of microtransactions. We recognize that customers paid $60 for the game and they have the right to play the full game. So the microtransactions we offer are non-essential additions to the game and convenience services for players who want to trade money for time.

What’s in a Name? Annie VanderMeer Mitsoda on Naming Tyria (ArenaNet)

Names in Guild Wars 2 have their origins in many different sources—real-world lore, established naming schemes, onomatopoeia, outside media, cheeky references to Colin Johanson, and—of course—button mashing. (Although, obviously, that last one isn’t meant to be permanent.) Whether it’s for a monster, a character, or an item, all names begin life in a placeholder state, and are subjected to what we like to call the “sanity check.” This is a safety pass to ensure proper spelling and pronunciation, the latter of which is even more important if the name is ever going to be voiced by an actor. As Guild Wars 2 has moved into using a lot more voice-over work than the original games, the importance of this pass has grown tremendously, and the rule of thumb is to say any name or phrase out loud a few times before committing to it. “Xanthoaediax” may seem like a lovely name, but it’s going to be a nightmare to pronounce!

Flameseeker Chronicles: WvW primer (Massively)

Remember those supply camps and dolyak caravans we talked about? Those are crucial. Without the resource called supply, defending armies can't do awesome stuff like making arrow carts (oh sweet Lord, how I hate those damnable carts!) and other reinforcements for their stations. With supply, attacking armies can make siege golems, ballistae, and more. Each player can carry 10 supply, and it takes quite a bit of the stuff to make different weapons of war, so the more your team has access to, the better off you are. If you're looking for a small mission, stopping other teams' supply caravans and capturing depots for your own team is an invaluable aid.

Criticizing Guild Wars 2 (NerdyBookahs)

1) Mystic Chests
Syp over at Massively wrote a good piece about lockboxes in MMOs. To be honest, I was shocked when I saw my first lockbox in Guild Wars 2. I’ve always found it cheap when games had those and it was disappointing to see it appear in this game. While there may not be any “advantage” in there, I still think it’s a terrible way to earn money. What annoys me is the whole gambling part: You never know if spending money on yet another key will result in you getting that special item from the lockbox.

Beta Weekend 2 Set for June 8-10 (GW2Hub)

Another important thing of note in the blog post is that characters from the first BWE will not be wiped, so you will be able to continue progressing right where you left off following the stress test earlier this month.

Guild Wars 2 beta brings new zones, PvP tournaments, and more (Massively)

Updates have been made to general gameplay and design, as well. Overflow server technology is now being made functional by the ability to see when party members are on overflow worlds, travel to those party members' worlds, and stick together between zones. Chat has been improved with chat bubbles, map chat, and an update to local chat. Those of you who've been waiting on key-binding functionality will find that it's got a new interface (which includes the binding of modifier keys, thank the five gods). Skills have been split into three tiers, so players now have to unlock a certain number of skills on one tier to be able to unlock any skills on the next level, in order to encourage a sense of progression and to make adding new skills more feasible in the future.

ArenaNet doubles servers for beta weekend event (Massively)

In an official blog post today, the team announced that it has doubled the number of servers available to BWE players, which should help provide a smoother and more accessible experience for everyone involved.

ArenaNet and SteelSeries unveil Guild Wars 2 gaming peripherals (Massively)

With Guild Wars 2's release creeping slowly closer, it's the perfect time for fans and potential players to invest in some new gaming peripherals. With this in mind, ArenaNet has partnered with the folks at SteelSeries to produce a new line of Guild-Wars-2-branded gaming peripherals for the discerning fan who wants red dragons on everything.

[Morreion]

Guild Wars 2 announces launch date of August 28, 2012 (Massively)

Guild Wars 2 devs answer anything, including launch date speculation (Massively)

ArenaNet President Mike O'Brien and his motley crew of pirates, flibbertigibbets, and developers just stormed the seas of Reddit and fought valiantly through a dynamic event of Q&As concerning Guild Wars 2. No topic was off-limits, although the team didn't necessarily address all of the hundreds of queries put forth.

ArenaNet Lore Master Delves into the Story of Guild Wars 2 (PCWorld)

Guild Wars 2 is set in the world of the original Guild Wars, which was released seven years ago. The original game was a non-standard MMO. Basically, you had human characters adventuring in a fantasy world. It’s the same world, but it’s 250 years later. We have built off the foundation of that world to show a brand new Tyria to the players. In the time between the original game and now, a lot of things have happened. Other races have shown up. The original game was primarily about your player character was always a human. Now we have five races: the Humans, the feline war-like Charr, the shape-shifting barbarians, the Norn, the plant-like Sylvari, and the smart and irritating Asura, who came up from below. They are all player character races.

Dye Colours Preview [Image Heavy] (GW2Guru forums)

Thoughts on grouping and social gameplay in PvE (GW2Guru forums)

From what I understand, Anet has the goal of removing barriers between players' interactions with one another, and in PvE, creating as much of a spirit of cooperation as possible. For this I applaud their efforts. On one hand, I definitely felt a more congenial attitude towards my colleagues as I ran around questing. With the exception of some players stealing the apples that fell from apple trees before I could grab them (damn you!), I didn't worry when there were other players around, like I did in WoW. On the other hand, there was no NEED to group with other players, so I didn't. I also never spoke to a single other player. Not once. Looking back on it, though I was very much enjoying myself, it was much more akin to the WoW experience, than the DDO experience. It was like I was playing a single-player game alongside other players, but not WITH them. Because there was no necessity in grouping, I didn't feel like I should. My rating for GW2's social systems is a 5, on par with WoW's.

Leveling to 80 through pure crafting possible in Guild Wars 2 (Massively)

Leveling a single crafting profession to level 400 will grant enough XP to gain 10 character levels. As a result, by maxing out all eight crafting professions, a player can go all the way to the level cap without ever laying hand on a weapon.

Guild Wars 2 Launch Date Announcement "Imminent"? (Gamebreaker TV)

The report predicts 3.12 million sales of Guild Wars 2 in North America and Europe in 2012, far exceeding NCSoft’s last big Western release, Aion, which sold 1.5 million copies in 2009. Also, NCSoft will receive $48 out of every $59.99 copy of GW2 sold.

BWE2 Survey Results are here! (Reddit)

Vast majority of respondents are male (over 90%)
The average age overall - 24
Average age among females - 27.5
Average age among males - 23.6
Elementalist continues to be the most popular class in BWE2. About twice as many play Elementalist as played Engineer, Mesmer, or Necromancer.
Females are significantly more likely to play Necromancer and Mesmer. Males more likely to play Warrior.
For release, relatively fewer respondents plan to play Charr or Norn. We'll have to see if this changes if they ever let us test Asura and Sylvari
Unsurprisingly, the likelihood to purchase gems increases with age. A fair number of people overall indicate they are very likely to purchase gems.

The Spectator Mode We Deserve (GW2Hub)

I know from various places Arenanet has mentioned that "spectator mode" is currently road mapped for "whenever the community yells enough about it that they prioritize it over other features," so before we get too far, this is me yelling about it.

ArenaNet asks of Guild Wars 2, 'Is it fun?' (Massively)

Colin Johanson, Lead Content Designer for Guild Wars 2, has just posted an update to the ArenaNet blog. In it, he discusses some of the company's philosophy regarding measuring the success of Guild Wars 2 and how best to achieve that success. A big part of that philosophy is to constantly evaluate how fun the game is and whether that fun makes the content compelling enough to stand on its own.

[Regolyth]

Nice. Who all is planning on playing GW2?

[Morreion]

At least 3, up to 6 of us here are playing!

Are You Going To Play GW2?

[Regolyth]

I need better digging skills, apparently.

[Morreion]

Profession and Traits Interview with Jon Peters (GW2Hub)

Jon: I don’t think this system is ever going to allow a full-on “soft trinity” because we made a number of decisions that directly counter it—from the small set of boons and conditions to everyone having a self heal. That being said, the point of the builds is to help define areas where your character can feel they have a sense of specialization, which I do believe is accomplished within the limits of the system.

Profession & Traits Interview with Jon Peters Pt. 2 (GW2Hub)

Jon: One of the goals of Guild Wars 2 is that offense is greater than defense in the long run. It doesn’t mean that spec’ing defense is bad or that we don’t want you playing defensively. It means that we want to make sure that stuff dies and there is progress.

Exclusive Interview with Colin Johanson - Part One (GW2Hub)

Colin: I’d probably be demoted to lead content designer of toilet cleaning if I gave away any of the exact numbers…so instead I’ll just say the pre-purchase sign-ups have surpassed any of our expectations at this point, and they just keep going up. Thanks to everyone who has pre-purchased the game, we’ve been overwhelmed by the level of support from the gaming community for Guild Wars 2—the sky’s the limit at this point on where things can go from here.

Exclusive Interview with Colin Johanson - Part Two (GW2Hub)

There is a second value to these events that’s actually more internal and psychological in nature that cannot be overlooked, which is the effect it has on all of us at ArenaNet. The beta weekends are a chance for all of us designers to take three days off from developing and do nothing but just play the game with the fans; it helps us better understand our own game and our fan base, and it also helps us take a break from all this hard work to just have fun.

GW2 Legendary Weapons: Best GW2 Feature Yet (Keen & Graev)

Some examples of Legendary Weapons were talked about:

*A bow that shoots rainbows with a unicorn head on it.
* An ironman “juggernaut” weapon with liquid metal footstep effects that also changes your armor appearance.
*A piece of night or day sky into a single greatsword that changes appearance of night and day. Looks like you’re holding the sky. Hardest of all legendary to get because you have to earn two.

Dynamic Events Dev Journal by Colin Johanson (GW2Hub)

Unlike any game ever made before Guild Wars 2, these events are our core content model for the game world. In other games you might find hundreds or thousands of quests, and some events scattered around as well; we literally have thousands of events with additional content scattered around to help support those events. The events are the core world content in Guild Wars 2 and make up the bulk of the content in the game between the open world and dungeons, with stuff like more traditional-style renown regions and exploration challenges there to provide a supporting hand to the events. We believe this creates a fundamental paradigm shift in the way you play and experience the game.

Diary Of - Entry 12: The Finish Line (GW2Hub)

Without care or hesitation my friend skips across the stepping stones, as if the drop below wouldn't kill him instantly. Looking down I realize the drop would almost certainly see me fall through the ancient globe to the depths beneath. Taking a leap of faith I clear the huge expanse and land safely on the opposite side. Climbing up, the pathway is littered with gargoyle heads but like the rest we've encountered they lye dormant and allow us to pass by unharmed.

For the Love of the (end) Game (GW2Hub)

I think Guild Wars 2 does a lot to answer those questions smartly. Making low level content stay relevant with down-leveling, ensuring gear doesn't ever make content irrelevant. Not punishing players with sub fees is obvious added value, and contrary to what some in the MMO-sphere seem to think, having no sub fee makes it more likely I'll come back to a game day in and day out, not less likely.

Guild Wars 2 chat with game designer Mike Zadorojny (Massively)

Finally, GW2 will have a live team that will try to roll out new content each month. Each month. While this mainly sounded like it was for the PvE events in the game world, it's still interesting to hear so soon after Funcom made similar proclamations about The Secret World. The big thing the team stressed was its goal to avoid a grind feeling and to ensure that each play-through the game feels different on every character. There's no subscription fee for GW2, so the developers don't need to add grinds. Instead, they want people coming back asking, "What's going on this month with the game?" It's what kept me subscribed to Asheron's Call 1 and AC2 for years.

Excelsior! The cheerful insanity of the Guild Wars 2 Asura (Massively)

When you first emerge from character creation, you land in Soren Draa in Metrica Province. If you've never played classic Guild Wars, you'll be in for a treat. Originally, the lands inhabited by the Asura in the GW franchise were meant to be a South American-inspired zone of a Guild Wars campaign called Utopia, which was canned in favor of the Eye of the North expansion and Guild Wars 2 itself. But the Mayan- and Aztec-flavored assets remained. So instead of bumbling around hobbit holes in a bucolic countryside or tinkering in huts surrounded by piles of gears, you'll be wandering around zones that look more like a Stargate spaceship crashed on the edge of a verdant swamp. All of the structures (and even the armor!) have a wonderful geometric quality to them; they're an organic combination of stone-and-metal temples and pyramids, lush greenery, and glowing sci-fi holograms. Expect an overabundance of contraptions, floating orbs, and straight lines. It's really pretty, perfectly juxtaposed, and not at all what you'd expect out of a stock "steampunk gizmo" race.

Turning over a new leaf in Guild Wars 2's Sylvari starting experience (Massively)

And Caledon Forest, my friends, is beautiful. The entire Sylvari area is marked by massive organic structures, such as 50-foot lily blossoms and monumental, cloud-grasping trees. I made my way through this surreally oversized garden assisting the Sylvari in a number of tasks ranging from slaying marauding undead to transforming into a fern hound to play with the pups of the pack and lead stray hounds back to the pen. The renown hearts present a fairly wide variety of objectives ranging beyond the usual kill-10-rats, and the zone's dynamic events are myriad and varied. My personal favorite occurred near the end of the Caledon Forest zone, where a number of "unclean" creatures were rampaging through the swamp. After I put the beasts down, the event progressed to a battle with the true threat of the swamp: a massive jungle wurm that would give Shai-hulud a run for its money. Upon the creepy-crawler's demise, everyone was rewarded with a glowing chest full of fabulous prizes. It was suitably epic and felt very rewarding when the gargantuan wurm finally collapsed to the ground.

The Daily Grind: Did you take part in the last Guild Wars 2 beta weekend? (Massively)

Warigami said:

I hadn't been in any of the other beta weekends and was also on the fence with GW2, since the hype has been insane, the highest I've seen since SWTOR. For the record, I am anything but a Guild Wars "fanboy." If anything, I was a bit skeptical, heading into beta and I was not super enthused about the original GW. I've tried all the big MMOs and have been a WoW devotee for almost 7 years, but like many players of Blizzard's goliath game, I've been waiting and wanting something different but good. Each game released has brought something new to the table but they all have felt evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. That is, until now.

After playing GW2 beta most of the weekend, I had to make myself stop because I don't want to spoil anything further when I start playing live at the end of August. Is the game perfect and represent the pinnacle of all things gaming? No, nothing is, of course, but GW2 is the first MMO I've played in years which felt like it has captured that, "different but good," feeling I've been searching for. It truly feels like the first in what I hope will be a change in the MMO paradigm, away from the EQ/WoW model of gear/grind progression and "raid or die" mentality. I still respect and have affection for that type of gameplay (I'm an ex-raider) but I'm ready for something else and I'm cautiously optimistic that GW2 just might be what I'm looking for. And as someone who has grown weary of being nickeled and dimed by Blizzard over the years ($25 just to change servers? Seriously??) ,the lack of monthly sub is simply icing on the cake for me. Guild Wars 2, you got my full attention, please don't let me down...

Guild Wars 2's Sanctum of Rall shard named after late gamer (Massively)

Guild Wars 2's Sanctum of Rall shard named after deceased gamerWhat's in a server name? Quite a lot if you're talking about Guild Wars 2's Sanctum of Rall shard. Roger "Oldroar" Rall passed away last fall, but his name will live on when ArenaNet launches its fantasy opus on August 28th.

[Regolyth]

Jul 24, 2012 14:11:08 GMT -5 Morreion said:

Guild Wars 2's Sanctum of Rall shard named after deceased gamerWhat's in a server name? Quite a lot if you're talking about Guild Wars 2's Sanctum of Rall shard. Roger "Oldroar" Rall passed away last fall, but his name will live on when ArenaNet launches its fantasy opus on August 28th.

This is awesome. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. Kudos to Foghdalha for getting GW2 to do this, and ArenaNet for going through with it.