This week in Guild Wars 2

Posted by on March 23, 2012 in | | 5 Responses

I do sometimes feel sorry for the folks at ArenaNet, especially the community managers. Their jobs, for all the benefits they may enjoy, must sometimes seem like blend of babysitting a pack of hungry, angry toddlers at nap time and being orderlies in a mental hospital. Almost every time the company announces new information about Guild Wars 2, there’s a strong roar of “You’re ruining the game!” from a small-but-vocal hard core of the fan base.

They go from Facebook updates and Twitter messages of passion and life-long devotion to the game to “Worst. Game. Ever.” in five seconds flat. I don’t mean the reasoned, rational responses, but the “OMG! WTF??!” whining. The developers could announce free cupcakes and ice cream and the complainers would be right back at them with accusations that they’re ruining the game — and the ice cream is fattening, and don’t they know some people are lactose-intolerant. I know fans have a lot emotionally invested in the game — after all, I’m a fan too — but this “The glass is half empty, and it’s dirty too” attitude has been getting worse the closer we get to finding out the release date.

Enough of me complaining about the complainers, or I risk getting complaints. The next closed beta event is timed just about perfectly — the folks who do videos are in desperate need of new footage. The lack of new video material is more than compensated for by the folks who write articles and blog posts, as you can see below.

Before the break, a couple of housekeeping items:

  1. If you’re one of the lucky folks who got into this weekend’s beta event, don’t break the NDA. I saw reports just before posting this column where someone was livestreaming the beta. I’m betting that person is out of the beta by the time you read this.

    2. Update: Yep. Not only has ArenaNet kicked the offenders out of the beta, but they’ve explicitly stated that violating your NDA can result in permanent loss of access to all ArenaNet games.

  2. If you’ve written a blog post or recorded a video that you think I should include in this column, send a link to community@guildmag.com to let me know about it. In the few short months since I started doing this column, I’m following more than twice the number of blogs and YouTube channels and I’m certain that I don’t find even half of what’s out there.

Official Guild Wars 2 news

  • ArenaNet blog — The Evolution of Narrative in Personal Story. “Hey, everyone! I’m Leif Chappelle, a member of the content design team responsible for implementing the personal story in Guild Wars 2. While we have gone into detail about some of our other content types, including dynamic events and PvP, we haven’t yet given you a behind-the-scenes look at how the personal story is designed. This blog post is here to remedy that, with a personal story of my own to help illuminate the process of creating the stories that will guide you through the vast world of Tyria.”
  • ArenaNet blog — Mike O’Brien on Microtransactions in Guild Wars 2. “In this month’s closed beta event, we’ll do some early testing of the Guild Wars 2 microtransactions system. Our microtransaction content isn’t nailed down yet, but we have a good framework in place to support it. So, I’d like to take a moment to explain our goals and the system we have developed to meet them.”
  • VG24/7 — Sitting comfortably? Guild Wars 2′s lore boss on story. “Guild Wars 2 is attempting to revolutionise story in MMOs by offering non-cosmetic choices and a personal touch to a genre filled with cookie-cutter options. We speak with Ree Soesbee, ArenaNet’s lore and continuity designer, on how this new-found sense of freedom ties into the biggest MMO release of the year.”

Recent GuildMag posts

  • Guild Wars 2 Pre-Purchase — Good News, Bad News? “A few days ago, ArenaNet finally spread the news of when you will be able to pre-purchase Guild Wars 2, and what goodies you can expect from pre-purchasing one of three upcoming editions. While still not an announcement of the much yearned for release date, the news are an important milestone in the development of the game. On April 10, those who are sure about the success of Guild Wars 2 will be able to voice their certainty with their wallets, and ArenaNet will be able to gauge the preliminary measure of interest there is in their ambitious project. In addition to this mutual benefit, the news also come with a subliminal message — ArenaNet are steadily nearing completion. Good news all around, and that’s not even mentioning the goodies all three editions will come with — a free ticket to all beta events, the ability to join the game three days ahead of launch, and a fashionable ring to aid you in early levels.”
  • ArenaNet blog: Microtransactions. “Mike O’Brien has a post at the ArenaNet blog on the vexatious-to-many topic of microtransactions”
  • Blooming Minds in Dark Times. “Enduring the centuries in a small corner of a bay along the Tarnished Coast, the Pale Tree grew and grew, avoiding the devastation that was sweeping around her. Finally, around two decades before the present, the tree began to bear fruit of sorts, except it was not fruit at all, but cocoons holding members of a new race, called the sylvari. Fully grown, yet not fully experienced with the world, these beings approached existence with a sense of wonder and curiosity, unlike the other, much older and more experienced races.”
  • Guild Wars 2 vs. The Traditional MMO. “After two days of downloading over the university’s internet connection, I finally exit the launcher for Star Wars: The Old Republic and start packing up my laptop. One of my friends had given me one of the seven-day free trials they were passing out to subscribers so we could play together, and with a strange curiosity I accepted. There was a lot of confusion on how well SWTOR was going and whether people liked it or not. As I was still waiting for any info from ArenaNet, I wanted to see what it was like for myself, and what Guild Wars 2 was going to compete with. Trying to have an open mind, I set everything up and jumped onto Skype, joining the server my friends were on.”

Fan articles and blog posts

  • Flamethrowing — Engineer Trait Synergy. “Some of the synergies in the trait trees are fairly obvious, especially when considering combinations with weapons. [...] Because there’s a lot of crossover, I made a little tool to help me sort through them. You can see the tool in action at engineertraits.herokuapp.com. I basically tagged all the traits by what they affect and color coded them. You can use the list on the side to filter the traits.”
  • Mana Obscura — Guild Wars 2: Spellcasters Quick Guide. “If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll probably notice that I have an ongoing love-affair with spellcasters in MMOs. Call it a mage, wizard or sorcerer — if it hurls magic then I’ll probably be playing it. Perhaps it’s because I identify with the thought of an intellectual magus studying to become proficient in arcane lore. Maybe I just have a primal desire to launch balls of fire from my hands. Who knows.”
  • Dragon Season — Meet the Professions. “Classes in Guild Wars 2 are called professions. One of the main factors that determine the identity and the role of the player in the game, is the choice of the profession of his/her character. The player is able to choose the profession of their character during the third step of its creation. This choice has great impact on the character’s design, because it determines the type of armor that they can wear and also defines the weapons they can use. Each profession provides you with a very different pool of skills, allowing for a completely different play style.”
  • Dragon Season have a Guild Wars 2 pre-purchase countdown timer on their home page. [Raphia: But note that it's set to GMT-2, for those of us not on that side of the Atlantic.]
  • Guild Wars 2 Headquarters — ANet Killed our Fansites. “In their blog, ANet said that they would continue to work with their fansites and would continue to support them, but let’s be honest here…this is an attempt to save face for basically saying…sorry for s*&^#ing you! (But in a professional manner). Don’t p*ss in my tea and tell me it’s lemon! If this is the direction you decided to take, why don’t you take the time and contact your fansites to tell them exactly how you plan to support them. You just shocked a big minority of your player base, but a very dedicated minority at that for spending their time and money into creating fansites for your product.”
  • Team Baka — Signator. “Create your personalized signature in one minute!”
  • Guild Wars 2 Junkies — Beta Invites!! Not Another Media Only Event!!! “Log into your email client and check to see if you have been selected for the end of March beta event. If you didn’t find an invite in your box yet and you hit refresh every thirty seconds for the last eleven hours since this was posted on Facebook (yes I know I was slow with this) don’t lose hope. The invites are being spread out over the next few days.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Guru — Twilight Arbor Dungeon – PCGamer Preview. “The latest PCGamer has an article about the high level dungeon near the Sylvari starting area. Obviously I can’t scan the pages and post them here, but if you are interested, the May 2012 Issue 226 has it. But I’ll share some of the interesting details.”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — Sum of the Parts – A Look At PvP Dynamics. “Since the PvE party post was so popular, I thought I’d do one for structured PvP and talk a little about that. But before we do this post, take a quick jump to this one and tell me what other things you want me to post about! Thanks, now let’s hope to it.”
  • GW2 Evolution — Dynamic Event System. “Dynamic events refer to any event that occurs in a persistent area as a result of players interacting with and exploring the world. They are called “dynamic” because there are multiple outcomes that also result in new events, creating a cascade effect. Once an event has triggered, it will develop whether or not a player attends it. Because of this, there is no real concept of failure or success — the result of any event will simply cause a change in the surrounding area. For example, if monsters are successful in raiding an area, they may become strong enough to occupy a fort, which could then be taken by players.”
  • GW2 Evolution — How to be a Great Beta Tester. “I thought with the upcoming beta of Guild Wars 2 (which most of us won’t be in, but we can hope) I would write a short article on how to excel as a beta tester, with one point to developers. This is based on being a beta tester for over 15 years (in both gaming and military weapon system software applications), and being honored in almost every beta test for giving great feedback. In that time I’ve only had one developer who shunned their testers outright, so that bodes well for the developers. ArenaNet in my opinion is going to do a great job with their beta process so we have little to worry about.”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — Human Life – Not At All Like Second Life. “Before you read this post, go to this one and let me know what kinds of topics you’d like to see me post about. I’ll do my best to cover them all! That said, now we return to the lore of GW2. Last time, we finished the lore of the present-day GW expansions, which means we can now move on to the 250 years leading up to GW2. I was going to go chronologically, but it was considerably easier to do this topically. So, we’re going to go race-by-race and go through the last two-and-a-half centuries.”
  • Blog of the Vagabond — Beta to the Max. “Lots of news this week about betas. In a post by ANet talking about Pre-Purchasing, we learned that all pre-purchase orders (digital, deluxe, and collector’s editions) come with three perks: a Hero’s Band in-game item, 3 days headstart access pre-launch, and access to all beta weekend events.”
  • Under the Pale Tree — Guild Wars 2: Not as straightforward as it seems. “Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve covered how both gender and race are represented in Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, pointing out that despite not being perfect (and let’s be honest, unfortunately nothing ever will be), ANet does a damn good job with how they portray these things. This post is going to be talking about the subject of sexuality and how it’s portrayed within the games.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Armour Sets From Beta. “MMO Champion has a great thread that has compiled armour sets from the beta. Included are 8 sets, for each profession and gender in the beta. Not to mention a few asura styles at the end. I’ll post the sets below, but one of the really amazing aspects of the thread is that someone compiled what you could see in the PvP storage area for armours into 3 lists. Each list has around 30 sets of armour. Not much you can tell from just the names of sets but it’s pretty cool. So be sure to check that out.”
  • Demajen — Assuming Direct Control. “Control is important in any game. Controls are the means with which you interact with whatever character or characters you are playing. Controls can make or break a game. And, in my opinion, they should be completely invisible. Now I don’t mean that literally. I don’t mean that you shouldn’t have any kind of visual interface, or be able to change key bindings or anything like that.”
  • Shewstr — Separation Anxiety: Sylvari vs. Reality. “This post on love and sexuality in Guild Wars 2 is a semi-response to Verene’s recent post, “Guild Wars 2: Not as straight as it seems”. Note that I am in no way an expert on human love and sexuality; however, I do have opinions.”
  • Are You Hunting Something? — Evolving into the GW2 Ecosystem. “Some days ago, ArenaNet Community team leader Martin Kerstein posted an intriguing article on what he hopes the Guild Wars 2 community will evolve into when fansites, wikis and blogs all get together on release of the game. He stated that there will be an official Guild Wars 2 forum, but not a “traditional fansite program”, ok, no probs, because there’s something much more exciting in the works.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — Beliasta’s GW2 Effects Breakdown. “Here I’m going to cover the gamut of boons/conditions and keywords relevant to skills in Guild Wars 2. Also touched upon is the new Guild Wars 2 trinity of Damage, Support and Control. Learn it, live it, love it!”
  • Talk Tyria — Diversity in Sexuality. “Okay fine, there’s not much diversity per se because we fall into one of three categories: Straight, bi or gay. Well, before I continue, I figured that another article about how diverse characters on Guild Wars 2 will be based on traits/races/professions/weapons/skills/play styles or any combination of the six will just be rehashing what everyone is saying and it doesn’t really contribute much for discussion. We’ve already established that very well, thank you very much, so let’s move on.”
  • Dragon Season — 10 Things to expect in Guild Wars 2: A Guild Wars Perspective. “It’s because of this and the upcoming release of Guild Wars 2 that prompted me to write this. And by all means.. I am NOT a good writer, I would love to contribute my thoughts to the GW community more often but I tend to ramble on mindlessly. This is why I am writing a “10 Things” List. Because 10 List do well! They are short, to the point, informative, organized and easy! Unlike this incredibly long introduction!”
  • GWOnline.net — Spreading The Love: Conditions in GW2. “Conditions in GW2 don’t just affect combat, they rain upon it; casting a rainbow the many colors of demise. Whether or not its natural to take down a target in record time via every affliction under the sun can be left to debate — I confess though, it warms my soul. I find nothing more deviously entertaining than putting one through a myriad of conditions; watching them limp towards you as poison and bleeding drains their life low; to see their heap finally collapse yards away. Yes, Necromancer is my favorite profession, but this is besides the point. If your idea of connection with both AI and live player alike generally involves ailments and affliction, then GW2 will not leave you a sad panda — a panda with the sniffles perhaps. A cute sniffling yet deadly…”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — The Grind: Why Levels Are Important. “I won’t bother you with the OP’s post, because it was written incredibly poorly. But, the gist of the argument is that leveling is usually not a very fun experience in an MMORPG, the game would be easier to balance out and pace, and that the “sidekick” or biscuit level adjustment system makes it all a moot point anyway. I will concede that leveling generally sucks in most games. It’s either so quick that it’s trivial and just throws you right to “endgame” (looking at you, Factions and Nightfall) or it’s long, boring and tedious and involves meaninglessly killing a lot of things to finally get to endgame (EQ, original WoW, WoW:WotLK). GW2 isn’t going with either of these. That’s not going to be part of the argument. Leveling is an adventure, not a chore. With no endgame to worry about, they’re ensuring the leveling process is actually fun and meaningful, not trivial or “grindy”.”
  • luna-atra.fr — Skills tool. [Raphia: The skills tool has now been updated to include Ranger pets.]
  • Kill Ten Rats — Microtransactions – Philosophy and Market. “There is a lot that was said in what will likely be a seminal blog article by ArenaNet’s co-founder Mike O’Brien. Fans are going to point to this piece for years, I would imagine. There are two major encircling themes in the post “philosophy” and “market.” O’Brien does a good job showing how ArenaNet envisions that the two will entwine in Guild Wars 2.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Buy Gems With Gold Or Money In Guild Wars 2. “Arenanet has finally released some details on microtransactions in Guild Wars 2 and frankly, I’m happy with some of the decisions they’re making. They didn’t get into specific items, but they did cover the model they’ll be using. Essentially it’s simple. You buy gems and use them to purchase microtransactions. It’s a model similar to many other games, Eve Online being the one to draw comparisons in the blog post itself.”
  • Demajen — Deus ex Machina. “There are many pitfalls you can fall into as a writer. When creating worlds and epic stories, we set the stakes high, the emotions roiling, the action at fever pitch, and (hopefully) the cliches at minimum. But sometimes you can write yourself into a corner. You can set the stakes too high. The enemy is too big, too powerful to overcome through conventional means. In situations like this it is often far too simple to take the easy way out. In ancient Greek plays, the playwright would often have an actor playing one of the many Greek gods descending onto stage via way of a mechanical crane to fix the story’s problems. It is from this crane that we get the phrase deux ex machina: a god from the machine.”
  • Eternal Alchemy — Economic Ramifications of Gems. “In a recent blog post by, president of ArenaNet and executive producer of Guild Wars 2, Mike O’Brien, discussing the purpose and function of micro-transactions in Guild Wars 2. It was stated that, “We have a new player-driven market that allows players to trade gold for gems and gems for gold. If you want something, whether it’s an in-game item or a microtransaction, you ultimately have two ways to get it: you can play to earn gold or you can use money to buy gems.” This may seem perfectly fine to you however, I believe this could have potentially unwanted and unexpected ramifications on the economy of Guild Wars 2. Follow me beyond the break for the rest of the story.”
  • The Feral Engineer — Micro Evils? “Well, I wasn’t going to write anything this week, but with the most recent micro transaction blog post, I feel like I should give me opinion on the matter. I am not a fan of the system. I honestly never really have liked the idea of micro transactions in any game despite my history with using them (I like my characters looking pretty, OK!). There are few systems that work well, and few systems that do not and even fewer systems that work but have severe repercussions for using them.”
  • Greibach’s Normal Form — The Economy of Gems. “Oh boy. So the new post from ANet is out about their microtransaction system. If you haven’t read that yet, go do that first. Anyway, I knew that this was going to be a hot topic when we were preemptively warned on Guru to read the post carefully and “not jump to conclusions”. If you have to warn people to not jump to conclusions, you have to know that what you are about to say is going to cause controversy. Given that clear understanding, I’m not quite sure why they then proceeded to make as many vague statements as they did. Vagueness will always beget debates that can’t really be resolved because by definition, both sides have only vague evidence. Regardless, we do know (at least officially now) more than we knew before about how the microtransaction system will work. It has some obvious pros and cons, and some of that will hinge on the specifics that we sadly do not have.”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — The Asura: Short People Got No Reason… “Anyway, let’s look tonight at the asura and what’s happened to them over the last 250 years. By the way, for anyone that doesn’t know, it is proper to not capitalize any of the races (asura, charr, sylvari, humans, norn), and the proper plural of each race, excepting the humans, is the same as the singular. The plural of asura is simply asura, not asuras or asurans, and it is certainly not Asuras or Asurans. Enjoy your free syntax lesson of the day. “
  • The Vigilant — Welcome to our new digs! “We here at The Vigilant are proud to announce and welcome you to our new home :) After only a few short months on our old site we rapidly began to out grow it.”
  • Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: Setting up for success. “Community Team Lead Martin Kerstein updated the ArenaNet blog a few days ago with some information about his team’s plans for the Guild Wars 2 community. The two big bits of news were that there will be official forums (to the evident skepticism of the Guild Wars 2 Guru mods) and there will not be a typical fan site program.”
  • The Tyrian Order — Guild Wars 2: Understanding the gem system. “Rest assured, that the tradeable gem system in Guild Wars 2, will have no direct advantage to players. People will not be able to get rich super fast, for the reasons stated above. Players will not have a direct advantage over other players. It is quite the opposite. Through the tradeable gem system, all players will have access to the microtransaction shop. There really is no negatives to the gem system and if you have read all of this article, you will agree.”
  • Twitter — Thomas_Penney. “Made an image summary of #Guildwars2 in-game microtransactions http://i.imgur.com/VIrYg.png“
  • Demajen — Guild Influence and Microtransactions. “Another day, another ArenaNet post, another shitstorm kicked up by the community. What are they up in arms about this time?! Well, Mike O’Brien offered some clarity on GW2′s microtransaction policies. It is pretty simple. For real world money you can buy Gems. You can use these Gems to purchase stuff in the cash shop. You can also trade these Gems to other players for gold, and vice versa. At its most basic level, this means that anyone who has sufficient gold in game will never have to spend real world money on anything in the cash shop. They can get gold, buy Gems from people, and use those Gems to buy cash shop items without ever having to fork out another penny.”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — The Sylvari Learning Center: Please Don’t Leaf Me!!! “Once upon a time, there was a civil war in Kryta. There were also centaur raids plaguing the human kingdom. In this civil war, there was a warrior for the Shining Blade named Ronan. One day, while adventuring between battles, he found a mysterious cave with enormous seeds. He grabbed one to show his little girl, but when he returned to his village the entire village had been razed and its people slaughtered. He planted the seed on their graves and forever gave up fighting. This happened sometime between 1072AE and 1079AE; we don’t know for sure, but it was during the civil war which occurred after 1072AE and finished by 1079AE. There was also an elder centaur named Ventari, who escaped south of the Maguuma jungle, feeling the war between his people and the humans. He met Ronan, and they formed a friendship in peace despite their racial differences. The two cared for the seed and established a safe haven for those tired of war. After Ronan passed, Ventari lived on and recorded the lessons he’d learned in life on a stone tablet, which he lay beside the sapling for all that came by to read. He joined Ronan in death in 1080AE.”
  • Team Legacy — How the Professions Differ: Trait Lines. “It’s been a few weeks since the trait system has been revealed, and some are suggesting that there are issues with it, so I decided to sit down and do some research. One of the things that was nagging at me when I read through the traits/attributes article “Play Your Way” was that the fact that not all the trait lines were the same. Some professions got specific combinations of trait lines that other professions did not. It was hard to really see how everything fit together while I was staring at a wall of text, so I decided to make a visual examination possible.”
  • ZAM.com — Counting Coins: The Dangers of Virtual Currency. “Since the dawn of massively multiplayer gaming we’ve been using credit cards to fund our gaming habits. Whether it’s picking up the boxed game from the local store or running the monthly subscription, the rectangular piece of plastic has been our constant companion throughout our online adventures. Today we reach for our credit or debit cards for almost every MMO purchase. It’s not just subscriptions either: we’re now pulling out the plastic to cover account services, vanity items and more. But all this may be set to change, with virtual currencies sweeping in to replace them. Led by free-to-play stalwarts such as Nexon and since followed by both Turbine and Cryptic, this approach trades our cash for bundles of points to spend in digital stores.”
  • PC Gamer — Guild Wars 2 microtransactions work like EVE PLEX, claim ArenaNet. “Everyone wins.” “O’Brien highlights EVE’s PLEX system as a model. “As in that case, our system takes gold trading out of the hands of real-money trading (RMT) companies and puts it directly in the hands of players.” Specifics on what players will be able to buy with gems haven’t been announced. ArenaNet are careful to stress that they’re approaching microtransactions with the player’s interests in mind, and while the proof will be in the execution this should reassure anyone worried that there’ll be a sting in the tail of the subscription-free MMO.”
  • Massively — The Soapbox: The hidden perils of Guild Wars 2‘s microtransactions. “There is nothing inherent to an integrated cash shop that will curtail or dissuade gold-sellers. In fact, this system is just another sandbox within a sandbox for gold-sellers and buyers to play in. I know the argument is that the cash shop won’t sell power (so the desire to buy gold will be lessened) or that it cuts out the middle-man, but ArenaNet wants you to buy. It doesn’t matter what’s being sold; the company wants you to buy it. If the studio’s done its job well, which I’m assuming it did, based on all the videos and hype, then there’s a good chance that you will want what it’s selling, and that’s the fuel that keeps gold-sellers in business. It’s about creating value and selling what is valuable. Up until now, the point of contention has always been about power-oriented items, or more accurately, items related to combat, and we may see a shift in where GW2 places value, but that value will still be sold at a price.”
  • Under the Pale Tree — Gold, karma, and gems, oh my. “The biggest issue will be the effect the economy in the game. I see that taking a while to really balance out; especially early on, no one’s going to really have any gold since we’ll all be starting out on a clean slate. Anyone that buys a bunch of gems right away hoping to translate it into a full bank vault of gold will be a bit foolish. But it’ll be interesting to see how things work out over time. I’m just hoping it won’t be like ecto and armbraces in GW1, where your fortune will fluctuate constantly depending on the current market. Hopefully it will reach a stable level pretty quickly and not constantly go all over the place.”
  • The Vigilant — Microtransactions: a little more info. “A little over a month ago I wrote a blog speculating on what microtransactions ArenaNet might include. Today, on the official blog, ArenaNet posted some more information on their microtransactions without actually giving details on what might be purchased. So what does their announcement mean? How are my previous guesses holding up in light of this new information?”
  • The Vigilant — A Casual Gamer’s Perspective on Microtransactions. “I woke this morning to find that indeed the sky was falling. Branches of the Guild Wars 2 community had drifted into anarchy as all rationality flew out the window and again we signalled the end of the world. Of course, the fears of “pay to win” are understandable. I wouldn’t want to play a game that rewards those with the most disposable income. My kids would probably start complaining about 2 minute noodles, mind you, they would save cooking time. Hmmm… less cooking time… I’m obviously joking around. My kids would never complain about noodles.”
  • Distilled Willpower — Another 2c – Gem Trading. “Here’s my two cents. I’ve read all I can on the subject, absorbed all the knowledge, so here it is: I 100% understand the effort made by ArenaNet to combat Real Money Trading. By accepting that the only way to combat it would be to reverse the trend and bring the system “in house” ArenaNet have made RMT pretty much defunct — this is only a good thing, and trying as many options as possible to combat this blight on the MMO system is great.”
  • Kormir’s High Road — “Stand and Deliver”: ArenaNet’s Goal for the Community. “The day I became a moderator on Guild Wars 2 Guru I remember being especially excited because I felt like I was going to get the chance to make a difference in the community, help it to grow, if only a little. I also made a promise to myself that I would not let my position compromise how I treat people on the forums and that if I had to moderate someone’s behavior, I would aim to be as respectful to them as I would hope they would be to me and their fellow forum-goers. In the end, I think it came down to me imagining a better Guru and that improving it would always be an ongoing process; something I think ArenaNet knows well by now.”
  • Flamethrowing — Let’s Talk About Builds Man. “Builds were a really fun part of Guild Wars. In fact, after all of the story content was finished, it was the most fun part, at least for me. So I’m a little bummed about returning to a trainer to respec traits. This afternoon I was talking to a friend about having a niche spec for everything we do, when he brought up the trainer. I had apparently pushed it to the back of my mind. All of these builds I had been making were useless. Or are they?”
  • Demajen — Somebody Grab the Mop… (More on Microtransactions). “Hello and welcome to another episode of “Closer to the Stars”, or, as I call it in my head, “Demajen talks random crap about GW2 in a sometimes coherent manner”. There has been a lot of focus in the last twenty four hours about the negatives of a micro transaction model. My first, naturally cynical reaction to this is “you’re not paying a subscription, get over it”. The rest of my reactions fortunately have a little more depth to them. Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin!”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — Giving the Most Bang For Your Buck: How to Contribute in WvW. “So, let’s real quick talk about what’s going to be happening when you’re joining into WvW. First, you have to take an asura gate to get to WvW. You pick which of the four maps you want to join. If the map is full, you enter a queue to get in. Or, you can simply pick one of the other three maps, unless they’re all full. This means you can easily join in with a bunch of your friends in a group to go do stuff. So once you’re in, what can you do?”
  • The Vigilant — A New Game to Play. “The guild that I’m a part of has about 50 members. Every one of us has applied for beta. Yet every one of us knows that the Non Disclosure Agreement prevents us from telling others if we are a part of it. Unless you’ve had your head under a rock that’s had another rock put on top of it and covered in rock sauce, you’d know that there’s beta testing this weekend that is on a much larger scale than previous tests. As this weekend draws near, here’s a list of clues I’ve put together to work out who from my guild is in beta. “
  • Under the Pale Tree — Shame. “There was a pretty big NDA breach and info leak today, regarding the cash shop. No, I will not post the images that were leaked, nor will I point you towards where to find them. Chances are if you’re here you’ve seen them already, and if you haven’t, it’s not hard to find them. And, as ever, people are flipping out. What do I have to say? Shame on you all.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — And The Cash Shop Gets Leaked. “I’m sure once people have had a few months to digest the whole cash shop they’ll be at ease with it. I’m also pretty sure a calm and reasoned blog post explaining what is in the cash shop would have made the whole thing go down much easier. Apparently that is not going to happen. Somewhere on 4chan someone leaked things (as is my understanding) and from there it went to Guild Wars 2 Guru and then Reddit. Of course it was deleted on Guru but here we are.”
  • The Vigilant — Two shields or not two shields… that is the question. “Last year while at Comic Con 2011, I had a chance to check out Guild Wars 2 first hand and play a little bit of the Guardian. I tried a few different weapon combinations but the staff and its defensive style really caught my attention. This got me thinking… what else could you use in a defensive manner? Well… a shield is a given, so… what about two shields!?”
  • Massively — The Guild Counsel: Are you ready to lead a guild? “The Guild Counsel has explored lots of tips and advice that make running a guild more enjoyable and (hopefully!) more successful. But I’m constantly amazed at the number of players I meet in MMOs who would probably make great leaders and would probably enjoy it but don’t give it a try. Making the leap from player to guild leader can be both tempting and daunting, and unfortunately, there’s no easy way to tell who will make a good leader and who won’t. Plenty of us have come across people who really should not have taken on the guild leader role, but for every bad guild leader, there are probably dozens of good people who could become great leaders if they chose to make the leap.” [Raphia: Not GW2-specific, but a good look at what it takes to be a good guild leader in any MMO.]
  • Corpse Run — The Guild Wars 2 Cash Shop: Much Ado About Nothing. “I finally got my new PC put together and am back at it and checking for Guild Wars 2 news, seemingly every two minutes. One of the first things I saw was ArenaNet’s blog about micro-transactions and the cash shop. One of the second things I saw was all the whining and worrying from the GW2 ‘community’ about micro-transactions and the cash shop. I swear I don’t remember MMO fans whining so much and so easily back in the early DAoC days but maybe that is just rose-colored glasses?”
  • Ten Ton Hammer — Announcing the Launch of GuildWars2Hub.com! “We’re pleased to announce the launch of Ten Ton Hammer‘s all-new fansite for Guild Wars 2! If you’re thinking Guild Wars 2 Hub is simply our original community portal with a fresh coat of paint slapped on top, guess again. The entire site has been completely rebuilt from the ground up to provide an even better place for fans to meet, interact, and learn about the game.”
  • NecroBator — Announcing the Launch of GuildWars2Hub.com! “For the past couple of months I’ve been secretly locked away in my hidden underground laboratory, foregoing silly things like sleep, and working on a secret project that I’ve made mention of here a few times now. It’s with great pleasure that I’m finally able to unveil my latest creation: GuildWars2Hub.com. What is GW2Hub? I’m glad you asked! If NecroBator is my ‘Frankenstein’ project for Guild Wars 2, then you could easily call GW2Hub my ‘Re-Animator’ project. To explain what that means, let’s take a brief walk down memory lane…”
  • Demajen — A Sour Taste. “I have yet to see anything in the cash store that I would consider pay to win. There are plenty of cool cosmetics. There are several convenience items that save you tiny amounts of time and, in my opinion, aren’t even worth the money. But there’s nothing that shouts “ANet have balanced the game around the cash shop”. So no, I’m not boycotting GW2, because it doesn’t violate my definition of a pay4power or pay2win system. If they start selling stat boosting items, then sure. If they start selling equipment that is more than cosmetic, again, I’ll be forced to take a stand. But seriously, a series of convenience boosts have you up in arms enough to actually email me personally and call me names? I’d love to stick my hand up and say I know that this chap wasn’t representative of the entire community, but having seen some of the GW2Guru forum posts and their attitudes…”
  • GWOnline.net — Guest Blog: SageLikeOne – Making a YouTube Channel. “This is the first of what we here at GWOnline hope to be a string of guest bloggers at the site. YouTuber SageLikeOne just passed one thousand subscribers last week, so we thought that he would be a great guy to give us some pointers on how to create fan videos and see them to an audience.”

Videos and podcasts

Fanfic

No new fanfic posts this week (I’m sure there were, but I didn’t spot any in my trawl of the usual sites).

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).

5 Responses

  1. This week in Guild Wars 2 « Quotulatiousness
    This week in Guild Wars 2 « Quotulatiousness March 23, 2012 at 19:54 |

    [...] weekly column at GuildMag has been posted: This week in Guild Wars 2. The big issues roiling the community this week revolve around microtransactions, but there’s [...]

  2. Jesse Wan
    Jesse Wan March 23, 2012 at 21:07 |

    AHAHAHAAAA, who was stupid enough to livestream the beta?

  3. Raphia Naon
    Raphia Naon March 23, 2012 at 21:31 |

    Dunno who it was, but they may have played their last few hours of Guild Wars 2 … and any other ArenaNet games.

  4. Jo
    Jo March 26, 2012 at 20:25 |

    Thanks a lot for the listing, much appreciated. :)

  5. Jared
    Jared March 29, 2012 at 03:31 |

    I would just like to let you guys know about my podcast “Ascendants of Ascalon” We released episode 3 on Sunday March 25.  The link to the show and notes are found at ascendantsofascalon.wordpress.com and we’re available on iTunes and Stitcher as well.  Thanks!

Comments are closed.