This week in Guild Wars 2

Written by  //  March 16, 2012  //  Editorials  //  1 Comment

Ho-hum. Another quiet week in the news. There really wasn’t too much to talk about, except for this minor bit of news about the pre-purchase page but I guess nobody’s too worried about that, amirite? In all seriousness, the floodgates will open on April 10th and like most of you, I’m going to be virtually lined up with my credit card in hand, waiting to give ArenaNet my money. What’s the over/under on how quickly we can melt down the servers?

In other news, a fan site may have leaked the fact that there will be another closed beta test event for the press next weekend. The information was posted, then about an hour later it disappeared (one must assume that ArenaNet communicated with the fan site that this was not supposed to be public information). This is apparently a separate event from the beta event a million of us signed up for earlier.

Official Guild Wars 2 news

  • Brace Yourselves, Pre-Purchase is Coming On April 10. “Enter the ever-changing fantasy world of Tyria, where you control the story and your actions shape the world around you! With action-oriented combat, deep personal storylines, epic dynamic events, world-class PvP, and no subscription fees, Guild Wars 2 defines the future of online roleplaying games.”
  • Game FAQ – Pre-Purchase FAQ. “What do I get with a Pre-Purchase of the game? Customers who pre-purchase the game in full will enjoy guaranteed access to our Beta Weekend Events, three-day Headstart Access to the final game, and five digital items designed to enhance your gameplay experience. “
  • Videogamer.com — The state of Guild Wars 2 so far. “Lead designer Eric Flannum describes the game so far and how it might affect the industry. Guild Wars 2 is set to turn many of the traditional MMO tropes on their head. We speak to lead designer Eric Flannum about the state of the game as of now.”
  • ArenaNet blog — Building Community. “Community is an essential part of every online game. As our Global Brand Manager Chris Lye likes to say, “We’re not a video game company, we’re a community building company. We just happen to have one of the coolest ways to build a community, which is through a video game.” Community is at the heart of all of us here at ArenaNet; it was at the core of the philosophy of Guild Wars from the beginning. And, like ArenaNet is innovating and changing the genre by thinking boldly (and going boldly where no game development studio has gone before), we’re always coming up with new ways to work together with all of our passionate fans out there.”

Recent GuildMag posts

  • Viva la Difference! “Good whatever-time-it-happens-to-be-where-you-are, ladies and gents and honoured readers that do not identify with either category. By now, you’ve probably read Jon Peters’ blog article on traits and attributes, and if you’ve been paying attention to the community, you’re probably aware that there’s a bit of a controversy regarding the decision to make respecifying a character’s attributes require paying an ingame fee. Watching that unfold has made me think of a recent piece of Australian political history, which I’d like to share with you before I continue. I’m aware that that’s a topic that’s probably of little interest to most of you, but please bear with me — it’s only a brief three paragraphs, and there is method to my madness.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Collector’s Edition & More Detailed! “It seems as things are slowly coming together, today, ArenaNet has released an image detailing the contents of three of their launch versions of Guild Wars 2: the Collector’s Edition ($149.99), Digital Deluxe ($79.99) and the Digital Edition ($59.99). You can start purchasing these versions of the game starting April 10th on a special dedicated page on the Guild Wars 2 website: https://buy.guildwars2.com/.” [Raphia: Oh, good: we can stop throwing money at the monitor!]
  • Blog Carnival 3: Character Diversity “We were both honoured and flattered with the success of the first and second blog carnivals: both included lots of entries each with their own ways of expressing the authors’ sense of what excited and encouraged them. We had great entries that were informative, insightful, and some simply hilarious as well. There are some great writers in our fan community, and we were delighted to provide both new and old writers with an opportunity to share their vision and their passion in this way.”
  • ArenaNet: official GW2 forums and a new approach. “The large and growing fan community — including GuildMag and our friends at other Guild Wars 2 fan sites, blogs, and forums and in the social media world — have become too diverse for ArenaNet to support in the same way they did for Guild Wars: we’re “victims” of our own enthusiasm. Instead, ArenaNet will be introducing their own official forums.”
  • Serpentine Races: the Krait and Naga. “In the world of Tyria there are (known to us) three serpentine races: krait, naga, and forgotten (sometimes called “forgotten ones”). Of these, we know that the forgotten are not related — originating from a world other than Tyria. But what of the krait and naga? Both are upright serpentine races that thrive primarily underwater, and are (in modern times) both fairly hostile to humanity. Though what we know of their cultures diverge well enough, their appearances now do not.”

Fan articles and blog posts

  • afk5min — Guild Wars 2 Artwork – Moved by Pictures. “Guild Wars 2 has already previewed some of the greatest game art that I’ve ever seen. The game hasn’t been released yet, but we’ve already been treated to some fantastic drawings, concept art and even screenshots. ArenaNet has wisely chosen to go the extra mile on visuals, (not necessarily in-game graphics) which is doing wonders for the hype surrounding the game. Creating an artistic atmosphere around a game gives off a feeling of maturity… of importance. It also helps to broaden the audience’s imagination. We see beautiful images of a world we know fairly little about. If the image peaks some interest in us or kindles some kind of emotion within our psyche, then we tend to want to learn more. A picture is worth a thousand words they say. For me, the artwork alone for Guild Wars 2 has done more to get me thinking, hoping, and daydreaming about the game than all of the previews and opinion posts around the Internet have. With that said, let’s take a look at some of the artwork from Guild Wars 2 and how it has all been coming together.”
  • GWOnline.net — If I Were In Guild Wars 2 Beta: Jono Mozza’s Story. “The first rule of the Guild Wars 2 beta is: you do not talk about the Guild Wars 2 beta. The second rule of the Guild Wars 2 beta is: you DO NOT talk about the Guild Wars 2 beta. That isn’t just me trying to slip in a Fight Club reference, I’m serious. The Non Disclosure Agreement makes sure of that. So I guess I’ll get my coat… Oh, well, okay, I’ll tell you what I’d do. But if I do get in, I won’t actually tell you what I did. Or even that I got in.”
  • Mesmer.pl — You won’t play Jedi. “It’s been a while since Guild Wars 2 development team announced, that they discarded the Holy Trinity mechanics. In spite of that, it’s still the subject of many heated debates. Some people are delighted, others — complain. However, there is also a bunch of players, who don’t realize the effects of this choice and how it can change the game. If you feel like you’re one of them — you definitely should read this article!” [Raphia: This is an article originally written in Polish, but the kind folks at Mesmer.pl also provide an English translation.]
  • Dragon Season — ArenaNet: Play your way. “In the latest ArenaNet blog post, Jon Peters introduced us to the revamped system of Traits. In addition to that he presented a whole new line of attributes which aim to provide the players with more build possibilities.”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — Nightfall: Alone in the Dark. “So tonight let’s look at the lore and story behind Nightfall. This occurs in 1075AE, three years after the events of Prophecies and Factions. It also occurs in a different land known as Elona, located on the other side of the Crystal Desert from Tyria. Elona is divided into multiple nations. Istan is a small, tribal island nation off the coast of Kourna. Kourna is the military might in the area, ruled by its Warmarshal. Further east of Kourna is Vabbi, an oligarchal land ruled by three merchant princes. The story begins in Istan among a group known as the Sunspears, defenders of Istan.”
  • Blog of the Vagabond — Traits and Updates. “First and foremost, an apology. Life came kicking down the door and responsibility was not far behind. I have been very busy with work and school and I am nearing completion of both. My goal is to have everything finished before GW2 hits the shelves. I also plan to post more once I am able to play GW or GW2. As it turns out, I haven’t been in GW in several months either. My titles are just sitting there incomplete”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — GW:EN – Hey That’s A Character Name! “Time to close off the section of lore articles on the stories of the current game expansions with Eye of the North. Factions and Nightfall, weren’t set in Tyria. Eye of the North, however, is. I tried to avoid too much detail with the last two, because a lot of it isn’t really pertinent to Guild Wars 2, especially Factions. However, both Factions and Nightfall need to be established for some of the events that occurred in the 250-year span between GW and GW2. Tomorrow I’ll be back into lore outside of GW to talk about how GW2 came about. Before we start, Eye of the North is unlike other campaigns in that, rather than starting with a specific group of heroes following the general line of history of their home land, it simply happens to everyone everywhere after the other stories took place.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Guru — AI War. “Of the four professions I spent considerable time playing during the press event, all four, in some form, were reliant on AI in order to function effectively. Whilst the ranger and mesmer are more reliant on AI than others and the engineer and necromancer can theoretically be played without AI intervention simply by not equipping turrets or minions, it’s difficult to not have some reservations about the risks involved in some professions relying so heavily on artificial intelligence.”
  • TalkTyria.net — Asura: Cute and cuddly or heartless and selfish? “Asura are the smallest of the playable races in Guild Wars 2. They’re the cute* race. Fuzzy, cuddly… wait — are those pointy teeth? And what’s with this maniac grin? Is… is that a golem running towards me? In other words: They are everything but cuddly and cute, that is for sure. I wonder what it will be like playing an asura…”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Just Dungeons And Stuff. “I was talking with Spirit Hime and Csquirrel Run the other day and we got to talking about dungeons. I guess what interested us in the topic is how little people seem to know even though there are videos galore and bits of information just about everywhere. Not to mention how disappointed raid fans seem to be that there are no large scale raid type instances.”
  • Bio Break — Choosing my Guild Wars 2 skinsuit. “Whether or not debate rages over its promise-to-possibility ratio, I’m feeling quite confident in what I’ve seen and heard (and, y’know, played), and thus the question isn’t “whether” for me but “when.” As in, when will this puppy come out? And since I can’t impact that, I’m going to turn my attention to something I can do, which is to make my pre-game picks for race and class.”
  • Massively — Guild Wars 2 pre-purchase details announced. “Things are just getting more and more exciting for Guild Wars 2 fans. Since ArenaNet’s blog post confirming a 2012 launch, things seem to be warming up: We’ve had a press beta, an intensely busy beta signup period, the promise of another late March beta, and now an announcement about Guild Wars 2 pre-purchase. NCsoft sent out a press release today with some juicy details regarding the game’s Collector’s Edition and the benefits of purchasing early.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — Guild Wars 2: Play By Your Rules. “I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I dread tutorials in games, particularly MMORPGs. You know what I mean, that awkward phase starting the game when it treats you like an idiot, literally flashes controller actions on the screen or won’t allow progression till even the most menial of tasks is completed? It’s disappointing when the developers can’t think of a more creative or inspiring manner in which to teach the rules of the game to a player without a ‘tutorial‘. Worse is when these are not skippable. Worst is when they are staggered to such a degree that it encompasses a huge portion of your playtime, to the point of being detrimental in your impression of the game itself.”
  • Distilled Will — I’ll Buy it but I won’t Like it! “Well… that was a bit of a bolt from the blue, wasn’t it? Here we all are, minding our own business when: BLAM – Collector’s Edition information. Probably one of the remaining “Big 3” when it comes to Guild Wars 2 information (the others being beta date and release date). Of course, there is a lot to get into: physical content, digital content, beta access, early access, and the ever present question of whether it comes with a naked picture of Martin Kerstein? But it is no surprise that the little piece of information which is producing the most amount of controversy is the price.”
  • Attached To Keyboard — Pre-purchase Analysis. “Less than a month til pre-purchase starts. Anyone else excited? Let’s pull apart the bags of goodies and see what’s inside. Starting off with the goodies that everyone will receive — participation in beta, a 3 day headstart and the Hero’s Band. These items are a great incentive to pre-purchase the game. A million people want to participate in beta and few of them will get to do so for the end of March beta, so lumping inclusion in beta with any purchase helps people part with their cash now. Headstarts are becoming standard with MMO pre-purchases, and help developers by dispersing the population rather than creating a day 1 crunch on the starter zones. The Hero’s Band is a nice prestige item, but will undoubtedly be surpassed by other items your character can get rather quickly.”
  • TalkTyria.net — Everything’s Blown Up to Holy Hell. “Yup, you read that right. I haven’t read the thread on GW2Guru but I’m sure the entire onlinesphere has blown up to holy hell with the release of Guild Wars 2′s pre-order details about 2 hours ago. I’ll leave the hot honeyed mess of a forum thread to sift through later because I can bet my upcoming Collector’s Edition of GW2 that there’re angry, angry people with their pitchforks threatening to stab it into the eyes of the staff members of ArenaNet.”
  • Kill Ten Rats — Collector’s Edition Announced. “This skritt is getting real, girls and boys. ArenaNet announced this morning the three editions of their game to purchase. Basic access is $60, which was pretty much expected. A Digital Deluxe edition jumps to $80 and has all the digital extras, while the monstrous Collector’s Edition tops out at $150 and includes a statue of Rytlock, custom prints with a frame, a book on making Guild Wars 2, and of course the soundtrack. Pre-purchase any of these and get beta access, a three-day head start, and a nice little Hero’s Band starter item that gives small buffs to a bunch of stats. The Buy Guild Wars 2 site has a nice little scroll over feature that describes all the different features to each edition. It looks like the pre-purchase sale date will be April 10th.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Live — Pre-Purchase Guild Wars 2 April 10th. “So what are your thoughts on the Collector’s Edition? First I want to get this off my chest. Collector’s Edition doesn’t mean bargain, in fact sometimes it means the stuff included would bump its value just for branding. In my opinion the Guild Wars 2 collector’s edition is just right. “
  • Demajen — Guild Wars 2 Digital and Boxed Edition Preorders Announced. “Of course, there will be people coming out of the woodwork crying about how expensive this all is, how they should be able to get the collector’s edition et cetera. My opinion? You want it, you save for it. Start now. If you don’t have £130 worth of savings by April 10th when preorder starts, then you should probably be prioritizing other things in your life… Now that isn’t to say that I wouldn’t mind an edition that has all the arty stuff and the soundtrack without the Rytlock statue. I don’t have a handy display shelf for that kind of stuff, but having inspiring art hanging on the walls is always good from my point of view.”
  • Forbes.com — NCsoft Aims To Break The Static Online Game Mold With ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2. “According to Mike O’Brien, president of ArenaNet and executive producer of NCsoft’s Guild Wars 2, not much has changed in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) genre. Despite the continued success of Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft and Electronic Arts’ recent success with BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, O’Brien said the content model has been the same quest-based model in every MMO.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Pre-Purchase Details. “The digital deluxe version is slightly more intriguing but I’m still thinking it over. I didn’t end up getting the DD for SWTOR but I’ve been enjoying the game and haven’t regretted it at all. If that is anything to go by then maybe I shouldn’t get the DD. But I’ll go ahead and explain why I’m personally (seriously, my own personal reasons) not impressed.”
  • The Feral Engineer — Happy 6 Months. “A Wild News Post Appears! Hey everyone, sorry, no editorial today. Today is actually the surprise I talked about last week. This is essentially a giant news post about the future of the blog and what this blog has achieved since its inception.”
  • Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: Quest education. “Looking around the Guild Warsy corners of the internet, I’ve found some confusion about quests and dynamic events. Having this handy platform to stand on, I thought I’d try to clarify things for those who aren’t really sure what standard XP-gain looks like in Guild Wars 2. If this is old news to some of you, I apologize, but please remember that not everybody’s been leaping on news scraps like a ravenous puppy for the last two or three years.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — Guild Wars 2 As A Spectator Esport. “Ever since the PvP footage from conventions like PAX or Gamescom struck YouTube it has been frequently discussed if Guild Wars 2 would make a good esport. In fact it is ArenaNet’s declared goal to design a game which can achieve just that. Balance is always mentioned as the most crucial point and though this is certainly very important, it has been discussed quite enough already and isn’t part of this article. Here we will discuss only the audience side of things.”
  • GWOnline.net — Traits: An Analysis. “It seems that the trait system is complicated enough for the min-max crowd to sweat over it for a long time. Meanwhile, here’s a handy guide for the rest of us.”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — What Is It? Dragons? “Continuing with lore postings tonight, let’s talk about dragons. Guild Wars 2 is even more about dragons than Skyrim. Most everyone knows there are dragons, but tonight I’m going to talk about the dragons in a bit more detail than some (or a lot) of people know.”
  • Kill Ten Rats — Momentary Deluxe. “The original Guild Wars set a lot of precedent for Guild Wars 2. Some was bad, and it needed to be broken. Yet, there was a lot of good things in Guild Wars that worked. The Collector’s Editions of the campaigns, in my opinion, were one of those things that worked well. Specifically, for this post, the digital items in the Collector’s Editions. They set a pretty good precedent for future ArenaNet games.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Leaked Screenshots. “I’m not really a fan of leaking stuff. It craps all over people who have actually managed to keep their mouth shut, game developers who have worked hard on their project, and community managers who are trying to keep a tight lid on things so that everyone sees everything at once. But I’m also realistic. Once things get out there, it’s out there, and people are going to see it. I saw these on Reddit which apparently caught them on Guild Wars 2 Guru.”
  • Demajen — Cash Shop? SMASH SHOP! “I’ve played quite a few games with cash shops over the years. Admittedly, I’m never played said games for particularly long. Normally I’ve purchased an MMO at or close to its release, it has done badly, and after a few months has gone free-to-play and added a cash shop as a monetary source. Guild Wars is different, of course, but I came back to the game so late that its cash shop was well established. The “big issue” people have with cash shops is their implementation and contents, and this seems to be causing a stir within the GW2 “community”.”
  • Attached to Keyboard — International Pricing Inequalities. “I could have stuck this as a reply to comments on my last post regarding the Guild Wars 2 Pre-Purchase but felt it deserved more attention. There’s a lot of crying about the inequalities between the amount that USA, UK and EU will have to pay for the CE. It is understandable. There’s is a lot of money difference. But this post by DoubleFine on Steam lends a whole new perspective on the issue.” [Raphia: Canadians are used to seeing this sort of thing all the time: things like books and magazines from the US carry both a US and a Canadian price ... and the Canadian price is always higher, even when our dollar is at or above parity with the US dollar.]
  • Demajen — Official Forums for GW2: Thoughts. “Today’s Building Community blog by Martin Kerstein fills me with mixed emotion. The theory behind their plans seem sound: they want to foster a community that is free of the “toxic and unwelcoming atmosphere” that many MMO communities have to put up with. The problem I have is that I think it is pretty much an impossible thing to do. I’ve stood on the sidelines of a lot of gaming communities, and each time I’ve tried to dip my toe into the waters, the piranhas have attempted to bite it off. I cannot think of a gaming community forum, official or unofficial, that has ever been particularly welcoming.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Official Forums. “Guild Wars had no official forums. Arenanet relied on a number of unofficial fan forums to disseminate their message. This had good points and bad. It helped foster a community outside the game, but for any fan site that didn’t receive direct contact from Arenanet community reps, it meant they were not the place to go. I always thought the last part did more bad than good. And if you were not a fan of the sometimes negative atmosphere in some places Arenanet chose to tread, you were pretty much out of luck.”
  • Under the Pale Tree — Everyone’s in this together. “This, I feel, is really an admirable goal. It’ll be a difficult one for them to pull off, for certain. I’ve mentioned before how good people are at blowing up at little things. However, I’ve also mentioned just how awesome the community can be — between doing things like crashing sites in our excitement, making really amazing creations (both practical for the game and just awesomely creative works of art), and then Gamers Giving Back and their annual fundraisers … the Guild Wars communities can be pretty amazing.”
  • Kill Ten Rats — Demand More. “Why should we let people pollute our community? It’s going to happen anyway. No, I say, demand more. The ArenaNet CMs are the point-men and women. They are not the community. We are the community, and we should demand more of ourselves. We should be inclusive, patient, and clear-headed. If you want to result to the lowest common denominator, and just accept that ‘that’s the way of things.’ I won’t be joining you. I’d rather believe we can do better, and act as best I can to that effect.”
  • 321spike.com — Guide | How to Create an Effective Team Build (Build Analysis, Pt. 3/5). “Finally, Part 3 is here! In this section of our guide, you’ll learn about Build Analysis. Build Analysis is all about pointing out flaws, making changes, or even a possible rewrite of a build. However, this task can be sometimes hard to do. It’s difficult to point out flaws of a build that you yourself created, mostly because of a biased opinion by you, the builder. This article will guide you through how to correctly critique and evaluate the build you just created. In many ways, this step is similar to Research & Development and you see why as you continue to read.”
  • The Wars of Guilds — Community and Guild Wars 2. “I have only been an integral part of the Guild Wars Community for a relatively short time compared to a vast majority of you. That might cause you to not take what I have to say as seriously as others, but please listen as I feel that I can offer some valid insight being a “newcomer”.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Junkies — MMORPG.com’s Guild Wars 2 Live-Stream Interview Wrap Up (Recording). “While most of the information provided in this interview will not be new to those that are die hard fans, it is nice to see the continuity in development ideology from the various developers. I’m glad to see them not only talk about their triumphs but also what they see to be weaknesses and letting the community know they are working on it. It is the small weaknesses that developers often ignore that accumulate and end the games life. Hopefully ArenaNet will keep this energy and motivation well into the future. Ensuring the game is not only a success but more importantly it is FUN!”
  • Under the Pale Tree — Guild Wars: Just as diverse as reality. “Last week, I wrote about how Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 are in terms of representing women in their games, and the consensus I reached was — rather well done. Not 100% perfect, but well done. Better than most games around. This week I am going to talk about another area where GW has shown themselves to be more progressive than many other games — the presentation of race and ethnicity. Put short, this isn’t a white-washed series of games.”
  • Noxxy’s Den — Comparison between Guild Wars 2 and other MMORPGs. “Guild Wars 2 is an upcoming MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Player Game) that has raised a huge interest among the online games community. Despite the big hype generated by this game, I still hear a lot of skeptical people saying “Yeah yeah… it’s always the same, every new MMO is supposed to be a revolution, but in the end they all fail”. This is not really true. Some of them will fail or fade after a while, but recent games like Rift or Star Wars: The Old Republic still have a relatively big success. These games added a few new elements to the genre: semi-dynamic events for Rift; spoken dialogs and good story telling for Star Wars.”
  • Talk Tyria — Playing the Race Card on Builds. “With the recent Press Beta, and the bombardment of news that followed, we were presented with an influx of information fully revealing weapon skill sets and a large chunk (if not all) of each profession’s utility skills. We also saw the new Trait System that players have at their disposal to customize their chosen profession to suite their wanted play style. Now there have already been several websites that have used this information by creating helpful tools that many future players have begun to use to make their preferred builds. Although it’s great seeing these theorycrafters work with the information given to them, there is still one piece missing in this customization pie; Racial skills.”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — Band of Brothers: An Early Look At Party Make-Up. “So by now, we all know that the trinity is abandoned, so you don’t need to have a tank or healer in GW2. A lot of people, including GBTV, have taken to the idea of a “soft trinity” where you simply pass those roles around the group as need be. The idea was better explained on GuildCast of having different roles, that are a little more vaguely defined, that pass around. I prefer to think of it as, rather than having roles that go around, having builds that can do a little bit of everything but also can do one part relatively well. It’s not going 100% in any direction, but maybe more 40%-30%-30%. ANet has told us already that one person won’t be able to take the full damage of mobs straight-out going toe-to-toe when we get to higher level content.”

Videos and podcasts

  • Gamebreaker.tv — GuildCast: Trinity Killer. “ArenaNet Game Designer Eric Flannum spoke up on Guild Wars 2 Guru this week explaining what would happen if a player would attempt to build his character as a “classic trinity” character. He explained that the character would be weakened against harder mobs and eventually become useless. Although our panel of experts can see his point, they believe that a trinity can exist; it will just be a softer version. Mike B remarked that it would be similar to a co-op, third-person shooter, where everyone does everything. However, there will be some classes that do certain things slightly better than others. Unfortunately, most players have not experienced the game thoroughly enough to make a qualified decision regarding the existence of the traditional trinity. At this point, we have to take the devs at their word and say that the trinity is not there.”
  • PC Gamer — Guild Wars 2 beta: Q&A discusses WvW, events, and more. “Even though the Guild Wars 2 beta has been over for a few weeks, we’re still talking about all the fantastic features we saw during our three day adventure in Tyria. Hollander Cooper of GamesRadar sits down to pick the brains of Josh and Gavin about everything from World vs World to why the event systems were a bit disappointing. “
  • YouTube — Nymru: Let’s Play Guild Wars 2 Episode 0 with Commentary (PC) HD 1080p Announcement! “Hello everyone! This video is a video announcement. It explains how I will start making a Let’s Play of Guild Wars 2 the moment it comes out!”
  • YouTube — WoodenPotatoes: Guild Wars 2 Lore: Mr Sparkles. [Raphia: WoodenPotatoes reads the story of Mr Sparkles over some beta footage.]
  • YouTube — WoodenPotatoes: Guild Wars 2: No PvP?! “Well that title seems forced. Leave me a comment if you have a better one! In this video I talk a bit about a couple of the things people thing will cause Gw2 PvP to suffer.”
  • YouTube — KaeyiDream: Updates & Ideas: ArenaNet Dev Interview? [Raphia: Kaeyi has the opportunity to interview an ArenaNet developer and invites your comments and questions.]
  • Gamebreaker.tv — Seven Reasons Why Guild Wars 2 WvW Wins. “For Guild Wars 2, it appears that three is the magic number. Is WvW the Emperor’s new clothes? Does it matter if the Emperor is really hot? Join me in my latest attempt to prove I’m not going insane — well, more insane than usual — with my unfettered excitement for Guild Wars 2. Here are my top seven reasons why World v World will make you forget about sunlight”
  • Tales of Tyria — Tales of Tyria #22: Traits vs. Talents. “This week continues last week’s discusion on the recently revealed Traits and Attributes system. We shift our focus from PvP to a more PvE perspective this week, even rolling into a short discussion on the pros and cons of GW2‘s Traits system vs. WoW‘s Talents system.”
  • YouTube — SageLikeOne: Guild Wars 2 – Preorder and system requirements. “Today, March 13th, Arenanet released information on the pre-order of the upcoming game Guild Wars 2 which will open April 10th. I collected the information on the Arenanet homepage and did a quick runthrough so that you all can get the most current information. There is still no release date announced.”
  • GW2 Sauce — GW2 Saucecast! “With some well meaning prodding and poking from a good friend, we here at GW2 Sauce (all 2 of us) have decided to give podcasting a go. So without futher ado…”
  • PC Gamer — Guild Wars 2 Beta: Video tour of three major cities. “Cities in Guild Wars 2 are gigantic — as in “takes ten minutes to run around the city” gigantic. They’re so big, in fact, that I got lost in human capital city, Divinity’s Reach. I wandered down a side street and, like a true tourist, couldn’t find the path out of the neighborhood on my way to the crafting center. Each city has districts, networks of dark alleys, giant forges, and hundreds of NPCs living out their digital lives. We’ve put together some videos of our run around Divinity’s Reach, Hoelbrak, and The Black Citadel to help give you an idea of just how massive and detailed each of these capitals are.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — Podcast EP11: The Return. “Like Zhaitan raising Orr, minus the undead and foul smell of course, the Guild Wars Insider Podcast is back! Seven, Gallo and Feral resurrect the GWI Podcast with a news-filled show you won’t want to miss! Get their take on the latest GW2 info to hit the web including info about guilds, attributes, jumping puzzles, meta events and more.”
  • YouTube — Guild Wars 2 – Tyria Talk – Pre-Order Editions. “Tyria Talk is a show dedicated to chatting about the upcoming MMO, Guild Wars 2. In episode 19, I discuss my thoughts on the three editions of the game you can pre-order starting on April 10th. Don’t forget to watch the entire video to make sure you don’t miss anything.”
  • Gamebreaker.tv — Guild Wars 2 WvW Map Scoring Broken Down. “With 710 total points available each scoring period, that means to gain a majority, you’d need to average about 237 points per scoring period. Getting 145 in your home region and 50 from Stonemist Castle makes 195, thus requiring only another 45 points to achieve that goal. Valuable as it is, will Stonemist becomes a zerg-fest, with players hurling themselves at this one huge objective while ignoring most everything else? Will players be disciplined enough to peel off from the major battle and attempt to take “lesser” objectives? We shall see…”
  • YouTube — Guild Wars 2 Q&A (#13) (economy, broken armor (no pants) and death). “I started this little series, and if you have any more questions, just send them my way. Details are in the video. Today: economy, broken armor (no pants) and death”
  • YouTube — TTO – Guild Wars 2 Together as one. “Together as one, we will free Tyria.”
  • Gamebreaker.tv — Interview Reveals GW2 Pre-order Beta Weekends Not Under NDA. “Time to take off the tin foil hats. This morning, Mike B and I speculated that due to the amount of anticipated business the pre-order — or pre-purchase – will generate for Guild Wars 2, the post April 10 betas would have to be open. It seems that has been confirmed.”
  • YouTube — Yogscast: Guild Wars 2 Charr Questing [Extra Footage]. “Lewis found another video that he recorded during the Guild Wars 2 beta and we thought we’d go through it. Here’s some random highlights of the Charr 5-15 area!”
  • YouTube — Bonk Studios: Guild Wars 2 Waypoints, Repair System & Overflows [Ep. 23] “Bonk! Studios presents Guild Wars 2 — Waypoints, Repairing & Queues Commentary by: Donald “Scylol” Dobbin Edited by: JJ “theselol” P-S There are some little things that make Guild Wars 2 THAT much better, but may be overlooked. We go over those things in this episode.”
  • MMORPG.com — Guild Wars 2 Live Interview with Jon Peters of ArenaNet. “Systems designer Jon Peters talks Professions and Traits in Guild Wars 2.”
  • Gamebreaker.tv — ArenaNet’s Jon Peters Talks Guild Wars 2 Profession Balance In Livestream Q&A. “Jon Peters spent Monday night playing Guild Wars 2 until 4 a.m. As jealous as I am of that fact, it wasn’t purely fun and games. In today’s live stream event at MMORPG.com, Peters — systems designer for ArenaNet — explained that a lot of time is currently being spend on balancing. The team is focused on 1 v 1 and 5 v 5 balancing as that is the competitive esport aspect of the game. He described how he started playing at around 7 p.m. in the evening on Monday, getting a close feel for balance among the team of testers then making adjustments using the development tools before pushing a new iteration and then playing with those. Apparently, five or six pushes for balance were made just that night.”
  • Gamebreaker.tv — GuildCast: Beta Fast Approaching — the Guild Wars 2 Show. “Last week, ArenaNet opened its virtual doors a while back for beta sign-ups. After receiving just over one million interested in beta test in under 48 hours, Lead Content Designer Collin Johanson and the other devs wanted to thank everyone for their interest in testing out Guild Wars 2. He — and his goofy grin — stated that not everyone will make it into every round of weekend testing — sad face — but he would like to show off a bit of never-before-seen footage for all the fans. However, that doesn’t answer the all-important question: When does the bloody beta start? Our panel would like to know, too. However, the announcement of pre-purchase beta invites does suggest to Shawn Schuster that beta will begin sometime before April 10th (the first day of pre-purchasing), and based on statements by director of marketing Chris Lye suggest that beta will be open in the since that there will be little in regards to NDA restrictions.”

Fanfic

Community Events

  • Gamers Giving Back (GW-EN.com) will be hosting a Toga Party in Guild Wars to support suffers of Multiple Sclerosis on April 21st. More details here.

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).