It started off as a quiet week but you just can’t keep the Guild Wars 2 fan community quiet for long. Nothing new directly from the official website, but we have been given hints from ArenaNet that much more information will be coming our way in the near future. Until that happens, here’s the last week’s worth of blog posts, articles, podcasts, and videos on Guild Wars 2:

• Guild Wars Insider — Voice Overs: Are they the future of games? “Like many others, I have seen the voice over work in Guild Wars 2 and have been very impressed. The work they have done on The voice overs alone has been extensive. I thoroughly enjoyed the videos and following along on Twitter when Peter Fries went down to Burbank California for two weeks to record more voice overs. It was a great thing to experience from a distance and know they were hard at work. While I find this all really exciting and intriguing, many are asking themselves if this is really good for gaming as a whole, especially since there is another game that just came out with full VO work.”
• Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: ArenaNet talks PvE vs. PvP. “‘I don’t care for PvP, so Guild Wars 2 doesn’t really interest me.’ This is something that I’ve heard with some regularity over the past year or two, and every time I sort of shake my head in confusion. How could anyone perceive Guild Wars 2 as a PvP-only game? Really, just take a look at what we’ve seen from the development team and how PvE-centric it is and it seems that you’d get the impression that if anything, there’s more of a PvE focus. Of course, I can see where this perception comes from — Guild Wars 1 holds the same perception for a lot of people, so it carries over. As a huge fan of both games and a pure PvE player, I thought it would be fun to take this week and clear things up. Eric Flannum and John Stumme were kind enough to help, stepping in to answer a few questions about the balance of things both past and present.”
• Kill Ten Rats — Questing Against Your Interests. “Many games have challenges and achievements for making things harder, like beating a boss without using any potions or cutting down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring. Early the the Guild Wars Nightfall primary quest chain, the Master’s rewards are mostly for intentionally delaying and acting against your interests during wartime. You are in disguise and headed to a rendezvous with a traitor general, being guided through the swamps by her lieutenant … so why not slip away at hunt down some cobra=headed velociraptors? You are leading an assault on the enemy base, where time is of the essence as reinforcements are arriving and artillery fire is raining down … so why not take your time and scour the corners for enemies who are not engaging? You are sneaking a group of monks through enemy territory, with a primary objective of avoiding notice from the troops garrisoned there … with a special bonus for visiting every guard post and slaughtering the troops.”
• Want some Guild Wars 2 desktop wallpaper images? Purple Llama has you covered. “Guild Wars 2 has eight professions, and now you can enjoy all of them on your desktop!”
• MMORPG.com — Guild Wars 2 Column: More Than Quest Givers. “Guild Wars 2 is shaping up to be a very diverse MMORPG, and by that I mean its races. Races are an important part of MMOs. They offer options to the player and help make the in game world feel whole. We have gone over the races that we will have the opportunity to play as, but many of us have forgotten about the other races. We will be able to explore their villages and cities, accept quests from them, and even meet them on the battlefield. Given all this interaction with them, it makes sense that a lot goes into these races, even if we won’t be playing as them. So let’s go over what makes these races awesome, and not just a random race put in for players to get a few quests from.”
• Flame Throwing — Content Gating Part 3. “I’ve put off writing this post because I really wanted to stew over it, and form a real opinion of progress and accessing content in Guild Wars 2. And now I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a little bit worried about it. Ever since EverQuest came out, I’ve had one game that I consider my primary game. I still play plenty of others, but there’s one that I play for at least half of my game time over an extended period of time, like, years. I’m hoping that Guild Wars 2 will be that game, but at this point, I’m not sure it has the staying power. In the end, a game needs to control the flow of content and gameplay in order to keep players engaged. Will Guild Wars 2 do that?”
• MMORPG.com — The Tao of ArenaNet. “An essay in many parts, but mostly pertaining to the design philosophies driving Guild Wars 2, how and why they are innovative, the game features they affect, and why this means that Meowhead is totally hyped for this game while some people just don’t see why. First off, a warning. This is going to be a wall of text. This is going to be SEVERAL walls of text. I’ve tried to highlight things like topic headings, so you can skim through a bit, but if you don’t want a giant wall of text, you should probably go visit another topic. There is no real TL;DR for this. The closest I can give you is ‘I like Arenanet’s philosophies but because you’re not going to read all this, I can’t tell you why in this single sentence’. This is all in no particular order, but I’ll try to organize it as best I can. Good luck!”
• Guild Wars 2 makes the IGN Top 10 PC Games of 2012 list. “It’s been such a long time since Eye of the North. The last expansion to the original Guild Wars came out in 2007, and even back then ArenaNet teased the tie-ins to Guild Wars 2. Years went by without any information, until the studio finally revealed its plans for the sequel. Since then we’ve seen demos, we’ve played it, we’ve interviewed the development team, and every time we walk away with the same impression: Guild Wars 2 is absolutely brilliant. It’s beautiful and packed with creative takes on MMO standards, and will offer plenty for PvPers. Combining an open world, clever ways to encourage social questing and an amazingly flexible customization and combat system, Guild Wars 2 may very well wind up being the best MMO, well, ever. “
• In case you missed it, our own alexridiculous completes his 8 Professions video series.
• Dragon Season — Missions. “Today, I am going to talk about the Mission system in Guild Wars. On a basic level, Missions are the same thing as dungeons as in any other MMO RPG within the past 8 years since World of Warcraft was released on the unsuspecting world. But missions do something very different than traditional dungeons. “
• Kill Ten Rats — Alone Together. “Guild Wars is a sort of accidental MMO, a something else that acquired more MMO elements over time. It was not built with the World of Warcraft feeling of soloing alone together. When you’re soloing, you’re not really ‘together’ in any sense.”
• The Feral Engineer — No Raids! “World of Warcraft defined a generation of games. This is something completely irrefutable. No matter how you look at it, for the past several years since WoW first came into the MMO world, every game after that point was modeled in some way to follow the success of the behemoth. Take RIFT as an example, that entire game is essentially WoW with a more diverse talent system. Even SWTOR does not shy away from the WoW model and the statements of the game being WoW in space are very founded. But without trying to force an argument over which game is better, why that game is better or how those games are not similar in any way, lets get onto topic here.”
• Tales of Tyria #13: Hardcore vs. Casual. “Not a lot of news this week so we dig into the mailbag to answer some listener questions. We still had time so we figured it was time to try to pin down some definitions: Hardcore and Casual. They mean different things to different types of gamers. Why is there always so much contention beween these two groups? Is there even a separation or are they more alike than they know? That’s the challenge set before our panel this week.”
• GWOnline.net (reposting from Console-toi.fr) — Daniel Dociu thinks Fans will find Guild Wars 2 Worth the Wait. “Paris Games Week may have been over for a couple of months now, but that does not mean that it is done. Just this week, the French site Console-toi.fr uploaded this video interview with Daniel Dociu, Jeff Grubb and Ben Miller. With a 90-strong art team Daniel Dociu is doing everything to ensure that the Guild Wars 2 fans will find the wait for release well worth it, as is the rest of the ArenaNet crew.”
• NeoGAF.com — Guild Wars 2 News And Information Thread [End of the year update]. I don’t have a handy pull-quote to direct you to this item, but it’s an exhaustive collection of information intended to draw non-GW fans to Guild Wars 2. (H/T to Lensor at GWOnline.net for the link to this item.)
• Guild Wars Insider — Interview with Ree Soesbee. “Earlier this week we had the chance to sit down and chat with ArenaNet’s Ree Soesbee, Writer and Lore & Continuity Designer for Guild Wars 2. The following article is a transcription of the audio interview (also available on iTunes) put together by several people in the community. We highly recommended you give it a listen as Ree is very passionate about gaming, GW2, and her previous works.”
• Hunter’s Insight — A Profession for Guild Wars 2. “I’ve spent the last month mulling over which of the 8 professions in Guild Wars 2 I might play. There is a lot to consider. Overall I have to pick a profession that is right for me. This is more of a personal rundown of my choices for a profession than a guide for others. The most difficult part of choosing is that Arenanet seems to have included several options to vary your gameplay on each profession. A melee thief can switch to a ranged shortbow or pistols. Both elementalist and necromancer have close ranged options along with the normal spell casting range. Saying I prefer a ranged caster over armoured melee doesn’t seem to matter much.”
• Guild Wars Insider — Hey, Bookah! ”It’s that time again. The time where I’ve completely missed a deadline. That happens quite a bit, the whole, “missing deadlines,” conundrum. But, as I say, you can’t rush genius. Especially genius of my particular caliber. At any rate, it’s time to answer as many silly questions as I can.”
• The Vigilant — Video Round Up! “Greetings my fellow Guild Wars 2 fans! It’s about time we got a video round up of some of the best and coolest GW2 videos out there. From the informative to the just plain fun, lets take a look” [Raphia: I missed the original TotalBiscuit PvE video when it first came out and it's great. The second half is almost a love letter to ArenaNet as the self-described "Cynical Brit" totally falls in love with the game during his first demo session.]
• In case you missed it, our own LittleBoat has a year-end wrap-up of Guild Wars 2 news.
• GameBreaker.tv — Guildcast: Will Guild Wars 2 have endgame? “The rumors you’ve heard are true. According to resident Guild Wars 2 fangirl Rubi Bayer, our most anticipated MMO of next year will have no endgame raiding. What does that mean? Rubi says that ArenaNet, the game developer, tells her that the whole game is endgame. Huge bosses and world-changing group events start no more than ten minutes outside of character creation, but it doesn’t end there. As you gain levels, your character and the other players he interacts with have an actual impact on the world. The really good content starts right out of the gate, not just at max level. Many gamers follow the sentiments of our host Gary Gannon when he asks, “What am I going to do when I get [to max level]? Am I just going to be standing around?” Shawn Schuster, editor-in-chief at Massively, describes it as a sandbox of themeparks. However, ArenaNet remains quite vague on the details.”
• Kill Ten Rats — Ree: Focus on the Enemy. “I admit I was a little concerned with the story of Guild Wars 2 within the game. Of the three starting zones we’ve seen, there seems to be absolutely no mention of Zhaitan, the Elder Dragon of Death. This seems very much unlike ArenaNet’s Guild Wars mode of storytelling where the crisis is told early on, such as the dragon-forged destroyers chasing players towards an asura gate. It really wasn’t until late last year at the big conventions did ArenaNet show us “the Enemy” with Sparkfly Fen and the Tequatl the Sunless zone boss. How would our character stories progress from racial issues to Big Bad Zhaitan? How much focus would there be on the villain that had the first Guild Wars 2 trailer dedicated to it?”
• Guild Wars 2 Guru — Guild Wars 2 Fan Art: The Admin’s Pick! ”I was exploring the Library of Whispers today, just perusing the endless collection of creativity this community possesses, and then had a profound thought: “Holy S$%*.” I was just flabbergasted by the wealth of talent that generally flies under the radar. Anyway, now I write to you all, as I happily sit here with a glass of merlot, wanting to share with you some of my favourite finds.”
• Uncertain whether this is real, but if it is, then someone at ArenaNet is going outside official channels: Web dev from ArenaNet opened up on SomethingAwful forums, releasing some info on the closed beta. “Tivac, a web developer on ArenaNet opened up and answered a few common questions on SomethingAwful Forums. Here is a list of what he let out of new info: ‘We just finished up the first Closed Beta Test at the end of 2011. More will follow, depending on how those go we’ll do a few short open betas, then assuming everything goes as planned it’ll launch. The lack of dates there is deliberate, FYI.’” (H/T to Hunter Hamilton from SPQT for the link.)

Community events

• DJ Metaldragon and Larky’s Farewell to Blade. “Come and bid us a fond farewell on Saturday, January 14th 2012 starting at 7PM PST in Embark Beach American English District 1. We want to thank you, our friends for tuning into us for the past two years for without you and Blade Radio this wild and sometimes crazy trip would never have been possible. “
• Canthan New Year for the amazingly appropriate ”Year of the Dragon” will be upon us soon, and I’m sure many guilds and alliances will be sponsoring districts to celebrate. For example, my own alliance (SPQT) has gathered up materials to sponsor a district (thanks for doing the co-ordination, Lysette Healer!). Let us know about your guild/alliance district sponsorship and we’ll list it here in the community events section.

If you’d like us to publicize your community event, send us the details at community@guildmag.com and I’ll try to get it out to the fan community (given that we only do a weekly wrap-up, try to send the information at least a week in advance). As long as your event is open to everyone in the community, we’re here to help you get the news out.

2011 is over. Out the door. Whoosh. As arch-curmudgeon editor here at GuildMag, I’m here to bring you an overview of how Guild Wars 2 developed over the year.

Sadly, there was nothing worth noting—no follow-ups to Bobby Stein’s House (of) Style post from 2010. Surely the 16th Edition of the Chicago Manual of Style brought desk-rattling changes to the writing staff and challenged their very core beliefs? Perhaps they’re keeping a lid on the bitter war among the Order of Whispers, Durmand Priory, and the Vigil over the serial comma? That must be it.

Wulp, there you have it. The year in Guild Wars 2 as brought to you by the editor. See you next year.

CORRECTION: We may have overlooked a couple things in the original post. Included below are the blog posts, events, and updates that have helped make Guild Wars 2 one of the most anticipated games. We regret the error.

JANUARY
in which the old is out and the new is in

ArenaNet began the year by celebrating their 10-year anniversary and released a retrospective video.
http://www.arena.net/blog/our-first-decade-the-arenanet-retrospective-video

Here we go guys, the final four Alexridiculous videos featuring the professions of Guild Wars 2. Check them out after the break!
Read the rest of this entry »

2011 is over, which means we can now prove with science that we are indeed excited for Guild Wars 2. Just look at all the data! ArenaNet has collected the links to the many, many awards Guild Wars 2 has received at the end of the year. So much praise, of which they are well deserving!

Source: http://www.arena.net/blog/link-round-up-year-end-awards-edition

Happy New Year everyone. I hope everyone had a great holiday and you’re all back in heightened anticipation mode for Guild Wars 2 (I certainly am). Here are the articles, blog posts, and videos related to the game over the past week. Update: Added a couple of links that broke just after we posted this article.

• Arenanet blog — Guild Wars 2 Charr Plush. “Everyone needs a little charr in their life! This adorable plush version of Guild Wars 2‘s ferocious feline charr will stand guard as you work, sleep, or play! Made from huggable high-quality material, this 17 inch long plush is as fierce and rugged as a charr centurion.”
• [An update from the Live Team on Guild Wars 1] Arenanet — Elementalist update. “With this update, we are making some changes to Elementalists to improve their viability in PvE. Where relevant, we are also making some changes to Elementalist skills used in PvP in order to address certain powerful options and to provide some new playstyles. This update focuses mainly on improving elite skill options and adding a global change to Hard Mode foes. Even though this update is mostly limited to Elementalist elite skills, we are also addressing some normal skills for Elementalists that we felt could use some changes and a few non-Elementalist skills that have become too powerful.”
• GWOnline.net — Interview with the Live Team Part 2. “Here is the second and final part of the interview we had with the Guild Wars Live Team. Robert Gee talks about the changes we will see to the Elementalist profession in Guild Wars in the near future. This update was originally scheduled to be released before Wintersday, but it got pushed back, so it might not interfere with the festivities. There also has been a “leak” about the changes, so we already know what to expect. We anticipated the update and handed in the questions before the leak, so keep that in mind when reading. Enjoy.”
• Gamebreaker.tv — Guild Wars 2: Can it compete? “Guild Wars 2 does not plan to be a flash-in-the pan MMO. According to Massively Community Manager Rubi Bayer, the developers at ArenaNet will attempt to delve into eSports. However, given the other big MMOs on the market — Star Wars: The Old Republic and World of Warcraft specifically — will a lesser known IP like Guild Wars be able to compete in this market? In a very diplomatic twist, Rubi responds with, “This isn’t the Highlander; there can be more than one.” She goes on to say that there are no MMO police going to break down her door to uninstall her other games once GW2 releases. In fact, given the business model of Guild Wars 2 — no monthly subscription — players have no guilt about “wasted money” for playing one of their subscription MMOs and letting Guild Wars 2 sit for a bit.”
• Conspiracy Theory: Did Guild Wars 2‘s closed beta really happen? ”So did the closed beta really happen? Why act like the closed beta was something anybody could apply to and suddenly say ‘Not open to the public’ right before the end of the year? According to Anet’s community rep they have an ‘Internal selection process’ for closed beta and there will be no public application. What list of potential applicants do they even have to select people from? I can only think of those who signed up for the newsletter or previous Guild Wars 1 players. But then how can they ‘Select candidates carefully’?” [Raphia: Do read the comments ... if the article doesn't have enough conspiracy theory for you, the comments certainly will.]
• PC Gamer — Games of 2012: Guild Wars 2. “As the MMO coalesced into its modern form, quirks that were initially necessary compromises became widely-accepted features. Mute characters that embody utility rather than personality; quest objectives that only relate tangentially to the story that frames them; raid bosses designed to be killed and killed again by the same groups of people. Good games have been made — and are being made — on those principles, but it’s hard to argue that they’re sacred cows. Instead, they’re the elephants in the room that Guild Wars 2 is setting out to slay.”
• Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars‘ Urgoz’s Warren. “All was quiet at ArenaNet last week as the various members of the Guild Wars 2 team enjoyed a well-deserved vacation. I’m going to consider it a welcome breather after being drowned in so many squee-worthy updates the previous week and take the opportunity to turn my attention back to Guild Wars 1 and another elite area: Urgoz’s Warren. I really enjoy Urgoz’s Warren for a couple of reasons. Obviously, it gives me tons of Kurzick faction, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s a fun challenge even without the perks. It’s full of environmental effects and hidden enemies that prevent you from simply charging in and blasting away, so you have to think ahead, be careful, and play strategically.”
• YouTube — Tube Elephant on Guild Wars 2 vs Other MMOs. [Raphia: A nice expansion on the philosophy of Guild Wars 2]
• Ten Ton Hammer — Most Anticipated Game of 2012 Winner Announced. “At the end of November, Ten Ton Hammer asked its readers to vote for their favorite games in each of two categories — Most Anticipated MMOG of 2012 and Most Anticipated RPG of 2012. About 78,000 votes poured in to help us determine the winners and finalists in each category.”
• Dragon Season — Bounty Hunter. “Welcome to Guild Tech! While this has nothing to do with the rest of the column, I figured I would introduce myself and the column to those who have not really frequented my home page theferalengineer.wordpress.com. My name is Feral, I am a fat American (really, I am quite large) who enjoys gaming and basically has been since I was 8. I am now 23. The primary topic of this blog is to cover various systems and mechanics found in both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. Since I am still learning Guild Wars, it will most definitely be about that most of the time until Guild Wars 2 comes out.”
• Kill Ten Rats — Coming Late to Early Guild Wars. “I am enjoying Guild Wars in a non-focused way. I have not seen much of the game, but I have been enjoying what is around. I feel absolutely no pressure except maybe that I might want some Hall of Monuments points by the time Guild Wars 2 comes out, assuming those do something useful for me.”
• The Feral Engineer — BETA and the lost test. “Many people view beta as a type of privilege where you were chosen to play the game early. Almost as a type of super early access without any permanent character development or progress. In fact, most of the time, people just look at beta as a means of playing their longly waited game. This is a symptom of the times. We live in a society with the internet and everything can be gained instantly to create an era of instant gratification. People just want to play the games they so eagerly wait for so that they can have those experiences, see if they like it, and then move on to the next game they eagerly await. There is definitely many problems with this type of view point and that is because beta is not early access. Beta used to be a privilege to do exactly what beta is, and that was to test. Beta testing has lost the word test and nobody participates in beta to test it. Is there any way to regain that lost word or the sense of honor you got for testing out the game before it was launched? Or how about regaining that sense of participation that you helped make your game a great? Only time will tell to see. Once again, Arena.Net is changing everything up with their approach to beta, so far, it is the only application-less beta in the current market.”
• The Vigilant — Back to Basics. “We’ve had some great info come out of Anet recently, but now with the new year upon us, I think it’s time we get back down to the basics. What are those little things that are going to help Guild Wars 2 stand out from the other mundane MMO’s? In this blog post, I’ll go over some of the key factors which help support Anet’s innovative mind set. “
• The Vigilant — My skillbar goes to 15! ”A lot has been made of the changes to the Guild Wars 2 skillbar in comparison to it’s predecessor. Most of the negative comments have focused on how the first five skills are set by the weapon choice of the player and so they only really have five slot with which to make their build.”
• The Wars of Guilds — HoM Guide to 30. “Hi! Welcome back to the second part of my Hall of Monuments Guide! In this section, I am going to talk about the Heroes and Pets section and the Weapons section, if it doesn’t get to wordy, I will also cover the Titles section since I didn’t end up getting very many of those. Feel free to refer back to Part 1 if you need to!”
• The Vigilant — GW2 n00b Top Ten. “For something a little different, instead of talking about the game or relating a story, I thought I’d try and provide some humour with a list of the ‘Top Ten ways to spot a GW2 n00b’. The assumption here is that not everyone we’ll be playing with has been a rabid fan, following the development with bated breath and latching on to every Facebook post, Tweet or blog entry. This list is how to spot these people in-game. So, without further ado, here we go with ‘How to spot a Guild Wars 2 n00b once we get to play the game’”
• Gamebreaker.tv — Will Guild Wars 2 have endgame? “The rumors you’ve heard are true. According to resident Guild Wars 2 fangirl Rubi Bayer, our most anticipated MMO of next year will have no endgame raiding. What does that mean? Rubi says that the ArenaNet, the game developer, tells her that the whole game is endgame. Huge bosses and world-changing group events start no more than ten minutes outside of character creation, but it doesn’t end there. As you gain levels, your character and the other players he interacts with have an actual impact on the world. The really good content starts right out of the gate, not just at max level. Many gamers follow the sentiments of our host Gary Gannon when he asks, “What am I going to do when I get [to max level]? Am I just going to be standing around?” Shawn Schuster, editor-in-chief at Massively, describes it as a sandbox of themeparks. However, ArenaNet remains quite vague on the details.”
• Arenanet blog — Year End Awards. “It’s that time of year again: when fans reflect on the past year of gaming and look forward to the year ahead. That’s right: time for end of year awards! Let’s look at how Guild Wars 2 did.”

Community Events

We didn’t receive any community event notifications this week. Hopefully we’ll have some next week.

If you’d like us to publicize your community event, send us the details at community@guildmag.com and I’ll try to get it out to the fan community (given that we only do a weekly wrap-up, try to send the information at least a week in advance). As long as your event is open to everyone in the community, we’re here to help you get the news out.

In the lull between Christmas and New Year’s, some of us spend lots of time with friends and family. Some of us spend lots of time in game. Some folks try to do both. For that last group, here are this week’s news and commentary from around the Guild Wars 2 community:

• GAMEBREAKER.tv — Guildcast: Thief Reveal. “If have not caught the Guild Wars 2 fever yet, then it’s time to get sick. Guild Wars 2 in on the crux of release, and our team at GAMEBREAKER is here to help contract the virus. Our panel consists of MMO experts from all over the genre. Our host Gary Gannon invited Community Manager and Guild Wars expert from Massively Rubi Bayer and MMO PvPer and host of ZAM’s BFF Report Mike B to the show to exchange ideas about the latest Guild Wars 2 news.”
• Flame Throwing — Content Gating Part 2 vs Progression. “I sort of let this go for awhile. I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been mulling over every grain of thought in the realm of content gating. But really: the holidays. Last week I tried to define content gating and give common examples of it. This week I promised to talk about when it is good, and when it is bad. Let’s start with the bad, because I think most people are familiar with the term “content gating” in a negative sense.”
• MESMER.me — To Beta or Not to Beta? “If ArenaNet sent you an invite to take part in the Guild Wars 2 closed beta, would you take them up on the offer? I’ve wondered this myself for the last few days after ArenaNet announced that closed beta would begin on the 16th December. Many would instantly say yes, hit the link and download the client. But having taken part in dozens of closed and open betas, it is unquestionable that your perspective begins to shift. Taking part in the launch of a brand new MMOG, having not played any of the alpha or beta stages, is an incredibly exciting time; a brand new world, classes and archetypes, making new friends and taking part in new adventures. In direct contrast, these feelings dwindle to but a flicker when you’ve already invested countless hours into the game and a character that was deleted several days prior.” [Raphia: Good points here, but I'd certainly accept a beta invite, even though I've worked for many years in the software industry (not gaming software).]
• The Feral Engineer — The Grind. “WARNING: This will most likely come out as a QQ post. Remember when games were so fun that you just played them because you wanted to? Because they were fun? I do. Hell, I can even recall how much fun I was having back when I first started to play WoW. Or even how much fun I was having back when I started playing RIFT. But how come after the cleanest launch to date (I guess SWTOR was pretty clean, but I am not here to argue yet and its too early to tell), how come the game is suffering from a rapidly declining population and the people that still play it are mostly just holding out until the next MMO that comes their way? Honestly, I think there are a number of things that contribute to this. Personally, and this is highly opinionated, I feel that there is one reason why MMOs these days are failing and the reason is quite simple. I have yet to figure out why developers feel the need for this. But why is there more grind in MMOs these days than at any Starbucks? I have yet to find anyone that finds grinds to be fun, so why do developers do them? Why do they feel the need to stagnant player progression so? To be honest, I find that if developers keep going with the grind, they will be their own downfall.”
• Greibach’s Normal Form — The 2/3 Theory. “It’s been a long time since we first started hearing about professions, going on two years now. A lot has changed between then and now, but one thing that hasn’t is the concept of Guild Wars 2′s version of the trinity — control, support, and damage. They have been consistent for the past two years in stating that their goal is for any party composition to be viable because every profession can operate in each of these three roles, frequently changing on the fly between them via either profession mechanics (kits and attunements) or weapon swapping. No class is relegated to any one role, and in theory all are able to fill all three. Brace yourself for a wall of text few have seen the likes of.”
• Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: High achievers. “Well, ArenaNet certainly didn’t let 2011 go out on a quiet note. The team had a few last tricks up its sleeve before closing down shop until the new year. We chatted with Eric Flannum about the Guild Wars 2 Mesmer, and the newest ArenaNet blog post contained some exciting talk of combat, achievements, and some tweaking to the Thief class. I loved hearing about the updates to the Thief and to combat because the fact that the developers are talking about fine-tuning says good things to me about the development process. However, it was the talk of achievements that really caught my attention because it’s such a sweeping, game-wide system. Follow along after the jump and let’s take a closer look!”
• Dragon Season — Professions: Ranger. “No, I cannot recall neither when it began nor how. What I do know for a fact is that this is the oldest memory I have. Ever since I can remember myself, I have been surrounded by animals of various species. It is strange, really; I cannot bring to mind the faces of my parents… but I can still see very vividly my first dog’s muzzle! I’ve learned how to walk by holding on to this dog’s ears and I’ve learned how to run by yanking his tail. Hell, I even think I learned how to ride on this poor dog’s back! “
• GWOnline.net — Amazing Guild Wars 2 Music Remix. “Browsing through YouTube I stumbled upon this rather amazing remix of the piano theme from the Guild Wars 2 Gamescom 2011 trailer. Made by YouTuber Matt Visual. “
• Guild Wars Journal — Guild Wars 2: The Year 2011 in Review. “The year 2011 had a lot in store for Guild Wars 2 fans as it not only brought us from only four known professions up to all eight, we also had several big race weeks and a very busy convention season with playable demos and PvP. Here is our Guild Wars 2 Year 2011 in Review.”

Community Events:

No new community event items have come by this week. Hopefully we’ll see more activity here in the new year.