This week in Guild Wars 2

Written by  //  February 17, 2012  //  Editorials  //  1 Comment

Early Thursday morning, I’d accumulated a reasonable list of links to put in this week’s round-up, but the big stories were not particularly exciting: the brief interlude of insanity when some fans took the wrong interpretation from NCsoft’s investor conference call (ArenaNet’s Community Managers went to DefCon 4 to settle the ruffled feathers and quash the more outlandish rumours), the announcement of Spanish localization at launch (excellent news for our Spanish-speaking friends, but not of great interest to most of us), and the release of the final chapter of Winds of Change. I’d even written the following line to finish the introduction: “This may be our last ‘calm’ week before the press Non Disclosure Agreements allow a flood of information starting on Monday.”

That all changed mid-morning on Thursday, as ArenaNet released a lot of news about World versus World combat. I’d mentioned in a previous column that I’m primarily a PvE player, but that some of the new PvP stuff looked more interesting than I expected. After reading Mike Ferguson’s overview of WvW, I can’t wait to try it out. And, based on the feedback I’ve seen from other sites, I’m far from alone in that reaction.

Monday will be a very busy day, as the gloves come off the Non-Disclosure Agreements will allow the press participants in this weekend’s beta event to share at least some of their experiences. It should be very interesting. I’m vastly envious of the folks taking part this weekend.


Official Guild Wars 2 news

  • Winds of Change Wrap-Up. “The theme of looking forward in Miku’s story is also a subtle theme for us as the focus shifts more and more to Guild Wars 2, and I want to touch on of the other hints of Guild Wars 2 that were felt in Winds of Change. From the very beginning, we knew that one thing we really wanted was to build up Reiko as a memorable end boss who felt different from those that had come before her, both thematically and mechanically. We felt that Guild Wars lacked a really strong mesmer character — they tend to be comical and flamboyant or prima donnas. The Guild Wars 2 mesmer treats the concept of illusion magic as a physical manifestation, and that was something that we really wanted to leverage for Reiko. Our work with her helps set the precedent for this type of mesmer within the Guild Wars continuity.”
  • Announcing Guild Wars 2 Spanish Localization. “ArenaNet is excited to announce the confirmed language list for the localization of Guild Wars 2. As you may already know, the game will include full localization of both voice and text into German and French. Today, we’re happy to announce that we will also feature Spanish text localization for Guild Wars 2 at launch.”
  • Mike Ferguson on Guild Wars 2 World vs. World — “We have amazing PvE gameplay and intense competitive PvP in Guild Wars 2, but we also offer huge, open-field, server-versus-server warfare the likes of which you’ve never seen. We call it world vs. world or WvW. Hello, everyone, I’m Mike Ferguson, one of the systems designers here at ArenaNet. I’m here to tell you about one of the most eagerly anticipated aspects of Guild Wars 2: world vs. world! This is a huge game type, and there’s a lot to talk about, so get comfy!”
  • Guild Wars 2 Limited Beta Test Begins Today! “It starts today. Hundreds of invited players and press from around the world will be logging into Guild Wars 2 for a beta test weekend of high adventure, exploration, in-depth personal stories, and teeth-rattling combat. We love playing our game as much as we love showing it off to our fellow gamers, so damn near everyone at ArenaNet will be logging in this weekend to play alongside our beta testers.”

Recent GuildMag posts

  • Guild Wars 2: Why the Developers Love It! “Elite Guild Wars fansite Wartower has published an amazing video in their Spotlight series, which was recorded during GamesCom 2011. In this video the Wartower team asks the Guild Wars 2 developers what they like the most about Guild Wars 2 and what the game means for them. During the video you’ll hear exactly what the developers like about the personal story, the dynamic event system, the art, the races, the pvp, the community and more! It’s definitely a great video on par with the Guild Wars 2 Manifesto released during GamesCom 2009.” [Raphia: Here's the original post at Wartower.de (the video is in English, but most of the commentary on the page is in German, naturally)]
  • An Open Letter to the Afflicted. “Farewell, Afflicted. I haven’t played all of Winds of Change yet, but I’ve played enough to have wiped you out. I don’t often get the chance to say this to monstrously mutated homicidal disease-ridden people, but I’ll miss you.” [Raphia: In which LittleBoat wonders briefly if the fate of the Afflicted might be "a taste of what Guild Wars 2 will bring"]
  • Letters of Love. “Twenty four hours ago, the TransTyrian Postal Service had its biggest hiccup since the accidental combustion of all letters containing the word ‘bookah’. During this crisis, the Postal Service managed to deliver every single letter sent over the past week to GuildMag Head Quarters in Lion’s Arch. Naturally, we were all surprised when we had to fight our way through the front door being held shut by piles of letters, using Konig Des Todes’ head as a battering ram. We emerged to see our entire head quarters filled to the rafters with letters of all shapes and sizes, and I for one was rather surprised to see Dutch Sunshine’s head poking through the top of the pile; he’d been buried alive working late into the night when the onslaught had begun.”
  • The Winds of Change: Looking Back. “Having given us a few days to complete the final chapter of the trilogy, John Stumme gives us his reflections on the trilogy — the characters, the feelings it was intended to evoke in the players (and where it went wrong) and the ways in which it was intended to form a bridge between Guild Wars 1 and it’s close-to-completion sequel (including effectively confirming one speculation voiced by many that had reached its conclusion).”
  • Mike Ferguson on Guild Wars 2 World vs. World. “World vs World — One of the most anticipated features of Guild Wars 2 has now received a huge news update! In this blog Mike Ferguson talks about how the warfare on great scale takes place, what the objectives and weapons are at your disposal, upgrades, Orbs of Power and much more!”
  • Shiverpeaks Archaeology and the Jotun. “A reader would be forgiven for missing the significance of the ArenaNet’s recent blog on the Jotun. After all, ironic as it is, their spotlight was somewhat overshadowed by the bigger news of Guild Wars 2′s impending release and beta events. However, of all the racial blogs, the newest is perhaps the biggest, if you’ll excuse the expression, in terms of its impact in the greater context of Tyrian history.”

Fan articles and blog posts

  • Guild Wars Insider — Gamer Safety Week. “What’s more important to note is a game like Guild Wars 2, where part of the advertising allure has been geared towards people who haven’t ever played an MMO before. These newcomers are potentially extremely high-risk security goobers, who just haven’t had the experience in the community to know just how many dangers lurk just around the corner. That’s not to say MMOs are outright dangerous, but think about how naive we all were when we first started playing our first online game, whatever it may have been. There’s certain things we pick up over time, and a huge release like GW2 attracting a theoretically large number of security infants is a somewhat daunting thought. The effects of a rampant spree of hackings and gold selling would have much larger consequences than just ruining some kid’s weekend: it could ruin the entire game.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — The Shape Of What’s To Come. “Guild Wars 2 is slowly creeping towards release, but there are still a few things we haven’t seen and don’t know about. I guess I’m just wondering what we’ll see next, or what will come out of the upcoming beta events.”
  • Tyrian Stories — The Tyrian Post. “The printing press changed the world; it enabled an increase in literacy, education and allowed copies of the manuscripts to maintain greater consistency. Enterprising individuals used the printing press to create tracts and begin publishing magazines and news papers a revolution in data sharing on par with the internet age. Oddly enough the warlike Charr are the race that brought this revolution to Tyria. You may be thinking to yourself ‘wow Shongaqu, the printing press, why do I care’. For role players the answer is simple as the majority of their characters were probably illiterate before the printing press was developed; now literate characters are much less of a social anomaly. For everyone else I submit the idea of the Tyrian Post an in game news paper.”
  • GuildWars2Live.com — Dear ArenaNet; A Collector’s Dream. “I hate collection quests, but I do have a quest to grab the collector’s edition of Guild Wars 2 when it comes out. In fact I’ve sworn to buy everything that says Guild Wars 2 on it, including magazines with a few pages of Guild Wars 2 content. Those of us who often pre-order games and buy collector’s editions of games have a pretty good idea of what to expect. The usual. I mean personally, I think the collector’s edition of any game is usually only unique from the regular box variant. Today I want to share some of my ideas for a unique collector’s edition from ArenaNet.”
  • Demajen — Day & Night. “Guild Wars 2 is a beautiful game with outstanding, dynamic environments. Accentuating this is the day/night cycle, which isn’t just cosmetic: the devs have stated that it will make changes to the game world. Some monsters, for example, will only come out night. Or certain NPCs might not open up shop or be available during the night. (It has never made sense to me that Farmer Giles will always be standing in the same place, even in the middle of the night, to offer quests to you in other MMORPGs.) Some people will argue that this kind of design will cause frustration. Others respond with how great it will be for immersion. I, personally, can see both points of view but will wait for more information before settling in a camp — if I ever do so.”
  • Talk Tyria — Valentine’s in Dragon-Blasted Time. “Even in times such as these, the good people of Tyria need a little frivolity to take their minds off the centaur attacks, the threat of the Elder Dragons and the almost constant smell of swamp water emanating from the local Hylek mercenaries. You are all; I’m sure, well-versed in how to woo a human, but here’s how to romance the other races of Tyria:”
  • Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: Big changes. “Winds of Change (and in fact, all of Guild Wars Beyond) has the stated purpose of bridging the gap between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. That’s a very real need; a lot happens in the 250 years between bidding our original characters farewell and reentering the world as we find it in Guild Wars 2. The danger of that is that people may feel a disconnect — as if the games aren’t two parts of the same story but rather two worlds that happen to have a shared name. Between the events of the companion novels and the story-building in Guild Wars Beyond, however, players should feel much more acclimated to the state of things in the sequel. It’s building emotional connections before we even set foot in the world and updating our understanding of in-game politics and affairs.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — PvP Action Screenshot Extras. “We decided it would be really cool to kick off our partnership with GuildLaunch by posting a few extra screenshots from our original batch of PVP images.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Guru — Picking Your Profession. “As any MMORPG gamer knows, the single most important aspect of creating your character is signing off on a class choice. It’s what decides your role, your aesthetic appearance in terms of abilities, your range of equipment, and your playstyle. In a way, it’s your long term future. I doubt any other choice more single-handedly affects the way you look and play, so it’s probably safe to call it quite the significant choice. Well, probably less significant in Guild Wars 2 what with the range of roles every profession can fill, though I’d argue that there are definitely inclinations. For example, I’d doubt anyone would debate that guardian is support inclined. After all, its class mechanic is designed to aid others at all levels and every one of its weapon combinations, even offensive ones, come packed with some way to help others through healing, condition removal, or some form of protection. That’s in sharp contrast to, say, warrior which has more options centered around simply doing damage faster or harder. This means that while both classes can be either supportive or offensive each does seem to have a natural inclination, and that means that the significance of choosing a class isn’t quite as diluted as one might think.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Roses. “Guild Wars 2 will have an auction house, but it’s not called an auction house. It’s called a Marketplace. So why the new name? Arenanet has included features in their auction house that other games don’t have. To emphasize that change they’ve renamed the very familiar notion of the auction house. In the Marketplace you can put up bids to buy things that no one has put up for auction. You can access the auction house from the web or perhaps from your iPhone. It’s global across all servers. It’s not an auction house! It’s a marketplace! Semantics. It is an auction house. I don’t really begrudge them the right to describe the game in any way they see fit, but at some point I just feel like it needs to be said. Let’s call a spade a spade.”
  • Dragon Season — The Elder Dragons Demystified. “In the year 2011, on the 83rd day of the Season of Colossus according to the Mouvelian Calendar, a seminal article was published on our site, regarding the Elder Dragons of Tyria. The Dragon Season Scholars and Academics, however, never rest. As a result of their tireless efforts and following a scrutinous study of recently discovered manuscripts, we present today as an appendix of the aforementioned articles, these here below tables.”
  • GWOnline.net — Of Water Glasses and the Missing Calm Before the Storm. “With the press betas this weekend, and the expected information overload come Monday, I think it is safe to say that the Guild Wars 2 community are being worked (or working themselves) into a frenzy. And probably in pure delirium they are latching on to any “scandal” they catch the slightest whiff of. Now, one might say that this is always the case, but I would contend that the drive is extra strong this week.”
  • The Vigilant — GW2 on consoles: tempest in a tea pot? “As you’re probably aware by now, NCSoft, the parent company of ArenaNet and publisher of Guild Wars and the sometime-to-be-released Guild Wars 2 had their investor’s conference call today. Many sites listened in and seemed to focus on one specific comment: Guild Wars 2 is coming to a console near you! Now, before you get the pitchforks sharpened and torches lit, ArenaNet has already been downplaying this, as evidenced by this forum post which was referenced by several tweets.”
  • The Feral Engineer — Pacing. “Today is a big news day, a lot of stuff being announced, like a Spanish localization and a console version. Spanish localization is awesome, console version, not so much. Even though it is a free game, console ports of MMO’s don’t work well. There, I said it. I do not enjoy console versions of games that deserve to be on the PC (all MMOs basically). If it is a game that has development started on it from the beginning to be both console and PC, then it works (Bethesda games is an example), but stating that they have a small team working on it but focusing on the PC means the console version doesn’t have much luck in doing well. If it does, awesome! I have nothing against console players and a port will definitely expand the player base. But if you have to play it on mouse and keyboard anyways, what is the point? I am looking at you FFXI!”
  • Thomas A. Knight — Interview: Jeff Grubb. “TAK: You’re a busy guy. What can you tell my readers about what you are currently working on? JG: My day job is as a content designer for ArenaNet for the upcoming Guild Wars 2 game. Ree Soesbee and I are the “Lore and Continuity” designers responsible for world-building in a dynamic creative setting. On the outside world, I am currently going through the page proofs for my first Star Wars novel: Scourge, which is slated for release at the end of April. I also help out Wolfgang Baur and Kobold Quarterly reviewing articles, and contributed a small piece on the Grand Duchy of Dornig for Open Design’s Midgard campaign setting.” [Raphia: Most of this interview concentrates on his non-ArenaNet work.]
  • Guild Wars Insider — Editorial: The Devil Is In The Details. “This article is an attempt to describe the events that happened yesterday. Before I do this though, if you came here with the intent of cutting and pasting parts without reading the article – please skip to the bottom now. There, I will even include an awesome quote for you that will help you with your endeavors.” [Raphia: It's long, and isn't really game information so much as it's corporate and financial information, but read the whole thing anyway. I've been on corporate earnings calls for some of my past employers and I can say for sure that what the CEO and CFO said to the investors sometimes sounded distinctly different from what we in the development organization knew to be true. There's a "fog of war" effect in corporations that sometimes allows very odd notions to be honestly held by higher-ups, and sometimes they deliberately stray from the literal truth. Customers have a very different set of interests and concerns from investors, and corporations have to carefully craft their communications to both audiences.]
  • Attached to Keyboard — Seriously… “What happened yesterday with regards to the “news” about Guild Wars 2 maybe coming on a console was a load of crap. It seems to be a reoccurring theme of late — small piece of maybe news gets twisted in some person’s head, rabid population explodes, community manager has to put it in perspective.”
  • Under the Pale Tree — Let’s all take a deep breath. “Unfortunately, sometimes the Guild Wars 2 community is really good at getting worked up over little things, which results in people blowing their tops over things that may not even be true in the least, misinterpreting what was said, and then this spreads, and others that may not have been familiar with the original item that was causing the issue will just see the misinterpretations, and people who aren’t connected to it at all will just think we’re all nuts.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Fans — GW2 to be released on console after future PC release. “I have to say my interest in GW2 just decreased by about 1000% Any large scale PC title let alone an MMO that wants to jump onto console makes me want to jump ship. It will only hurt what the game can do in the future.”
  • Kill Ten Rats — WuvWuv Combat. “I came back from vacation just in time for a rise and shiny blog post from ArenaNet discussing the particulars of their World vs. World vs. World system (a.k.a. WvW pronounced WuvWuv [says my cold-addled brain]) in Guild Wars 2. To recap: three servers are pitted against each other to fight over objectives on 3 Borderlands maps spoked out from a central Eternal Battlegrounds map. Points accumulate for your server to create server-wide bonuses. Every two-weeks servers are re-ranked and pitted against servers of like rank. So yes, all the RP servers will have the chance to /emote battle since they will all be ranked together. The whole article is great, and really in-depth. It is a must read for any RvR, or the like, fan.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — World Versus World. “With the upcoming press beta embargo to release on Monday flooding the internet with Guild Wars 2 news I didn’t have much expectation of anything new until then. But I guess we know one thing that is going to be talked about a lot. Arenanet just released a blog post on World Versus World, their 3 faction PvP scenario inspired by Dark Age of Camelot or Guild Wars’ own Alliance Battles.”
  • Guild Wars Journal — World vs World PvP details revealed. “World vs World PvP is heavily inspired by Dark Age of Camelot‘s PvP system and pits 3 servers against each other in the Mists for two weeks. Four maps with strategic locations like keeps, towers, resource camps and more, are the battleground for fights between hundreds of players. Every of these strategic objective grants points for the server completing and conquering them, and at the end of the two week period the server with the most points wins, and servers get ranked depending on their performance. Then, servers are matched against new opponents.”
  • Demajen — Hopes for Music in GW2. “I love music. Most likely you love music too. Chances are, our tastes in music are completely different. And that is fine. Today I want to share with you my thoughts about videogame music and how it pertains to Guild Wars 2. Inspiration for this post came from one thing, which flipped a chain of switches in my head, going back through streams of consciousness and thought for several months. Let me explain.”
  • Greibach’s Normal Form — GW2 Wubstep. “World vs World vs World. WvWvW. WvW. WuvWuv. We have many names for it, but today we finally have some concrete information. Having read that fantastic blog post early this morning, I have to say that I was truly filled with hope about this PvP mode. Typically I have found large-scale PvP to be something that always sounded cool in concept and almost always ended up in tears and Zerg. Is that inevitable? Is large-scale PvP just a dream that in the end will always come down to Zerg-fests? Can players coordinate large-scale tactics, and what’s more, is there any incentive to? Can server imbalance break PvP in half? Do the developers even care? These are all very important questions to be asking when developing a system meant for large-scale combat. The infrastructure and design decisions laid down in the infancy of a feature can have wide-ranging and powerful consequences.”
  • The Vigilant — Leveling: PvE vs WvW. “ArenaNet recently released an article regarding WvW, and a lengthy one at that, which has sent fan’s hype meters back up to 11. With all the info the article talks about, it raises the question about leveling. In the article, it mentions that a player is capable of leveling from 1 to 80 just in WvW alone (which a lot of us already knew). Some of the ways you’re able to gain experience is through objectives. It was not directly mentioned, but one would think you could gain experience by taking control of an objective like a keep, tower, or even escorting your supply caravans. Experience can also be gained by defeating NPC’s that dot the map or are in control of capture points. Lastly, players can gain experience from defeating other players, which will also yield loot as if you downed a mob in PvE (don’t worry, you keep your stuff if you’re the one defeated).”
  • Guild Wars 2 Junkies — ArenaNet Devblog: Mike Ferguson on GW2 World vs. World. “In the blog, Mike gives us an incredible amount of information regarding WvW maps and how things work and what ArenaNet’s philosophy is behind this part of the game. World vs. World is comprised of three different sides against each other. ArenaNet knew right away that they wanted to use three sides instead of the typical two that you see in today’s MMORPGs.”
  • Thrangis the Red — A World vs World of Ideas. “Finally, we begin to analyze some of the finer details about World vs World (WvW) for GW2. Earlier today Arenanet provided a blog post going over multiple features of large scale, three-way, PvP. Most of the article restates information that many GW2 fans are familiar with [...] There are other specific details that I’m sure GW2 fans are aware of, but let’s continue. The focus and overall goals of WvW is heading in the right direction. They’re drawing from multiple resources to produce one of the best large-scale open PvP experiences. I wish them the best in their endeavor. However, this is where I can suggest some improvements.”
  • The Vigilant — When Worlds Collide. “The reveal of information about World vs. World (WvW) PvP in ArenaNet’s upcoming Guild Wars 2 came as a bit of a surprise this week. Not that we didn’t know what it was or that they were working on it, but the timing of the reveal and the amount of detail was unexpected (for me, at least). I’ve never been a big fan of PvP for a couple of reasons. The first is that I don’t seem to be that good at it and the second is that I generally don’t find it fun (which is probably a result of the first reason!) However, as I read the blog post about WvW, I started thinking that this was PvP that I could get into.”
  • Under the Pale Tree — In a World… vs. World! “The first thing that catches my attention is the scope of it all. Massive maps designed to support 300 people at a time, filled with majestic castles, keeps, and camps awaiting worthy adventurers to swarm into them swords and staves swinging. Battles so prodigious they’ll take two weeks to play out. Just the prospect of being a part of something so colossal is alluring in its own way. Even if I am a tad squeamish at the thought of joining a group of adventurers and thus having to cooperate with people I don’t know, the size of the undertaking in this case — combined with GW2′s simple and painless grouping system — reverses that worry: in a group of 100, I can work with the force as if they were much smarter AI NPCs in dynamic events. Thank you ArenaNet, for developing a style of PvP that suits those of us who don’t like the pressure of close-knit teamwork.”
  • Demajen — When Worlds Collide: WvWvW PvP in GW2. “Now, let it be said that I am not generally a PvPer. I am not competitive in my gaming. As I think I stated (a plethora of times) in my post about Factions, my experience with player vs player combat is very limited because I would much rather work with people than against them. I have enough working against people in my day job: the last thing I want to do when I get home is compete with teenagers some more. [...] So it is surprising for me to say, with my general bias against competitive PvP, that I’m really looking forwards to PvP in GW2.”

Videos and podcasts

  • Gamebreaker.tv — Guildcast: Underwater PvP? “Even with Guild Wars 2‘s release just over the horizon, the ArenaNet camp has been surprisingly quiet. However, that will not stop the crew at GuildCast from putting on an amazing show for you this week. In fact, the whole show is for you and about you, the viewer. This week, we asked you pose any question about anything and everything about Guild Wars 2, and our experts will delve into their vast GW2 knowledge base (their brains) to bring you the answers you need. The big topic for the day centered on underwater combat and most importantly the possibility of underwater PvP.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — No Skill Choice? “Short little video discussing the finer points of skills in GW2“
  • Tales of Tyria — Predictions. “This week we decided to lay out predictions for various topics and then compare them to actual events a month after release. Which class will be most popular? Which Race? Which class will be considered “most OP”? How many active players on week 1? All this and more Table Scraps as well as a mailbag question about “Storytelling” in games.”
  • STARNEWS23 — Who the $@%# are these guys? “STARNEWS23 by HAPPYcatProductions makes its return after nearly five years of silence! In this episode, the 9th as it were, the cast reports on the events of Canthan New Year 2012.” [Raphia: Language warning. Definitely Not Safe For Work. H/T to GWOnline.net.]
  • YouTube — TotalBiscuit to attempt 24 hours of GW2 Beta coverage.
  • Guild Wars Insider — Guild Wars 2 Mini-Games Overview Video. “Bonk Studios has a great video about some of the mini-games you’ll get to experience in GW2.”

Community Events

Once again, we didn’t receive any information about community events this week.

This section is intended to help you to publicize your guild or alliance event, and as long as your event is open to the whole Guild Wars community, we’ll list it here. Send us the details at community@guildmag.com and we’ll 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).