This week in Guild Wars 2

Posted by on June 29, 2012 in | | 1 Response

The stress test dropped out of everyone’s thoughts less than 24 hours after it finished as we got the big news from ArenaNet we’ve been waiting for all this time: Guild Wars 2 goes live on August 28th (and the head start begins on the 25th). I’d written a short journal entry about the stress test, but thanks to the miracle of bad timing, I published it almost to the minute of the release date announcement being posted to Twitter. And you know, I don’t blame anyone for skipping over anything to to do with the stress test when news of that urgency comes out. Almost completely drowned out by the big news was the smaller nugget of information about the final beta event running from July 20th to the 22nd.

I like to think that this weekly round-up is the most comprehensive in the GW2 community, but I certainly don’t find everything. If you’re a blogger, podcaster, or video maker and you’d like me to link to your material, you can send me a link to your site at the community email address (that’s community@guildmag.com). I can’t guarantee that you’ll always get a link: I try to avoid linking to too many posts that are similar to others I’ve already linked, but I will try to help get new content out to our readers.

Official Guild Wars 2 news

  • Art of Kekai Kotaki — Farewell ArenaNet. “This is a farewell from me. I am leaving ArenaNet after a little more than over 8 years of being here (my first day was 11/24/2003, it was so long ago that I was 21). This comes with a certain amount of sadness as this was my first job in the gaming industry. I first started doing ground textures for the original Guild Wars and I end it being the Concept Art Lead on Guild Wars 2. I’ve had a pretty good run, worked hard played hard, but all things must eventually come to an end. I am leaving to go search for new endeavors. For all I have done here, this is all I have done.”
  • Announcing the Guild Wars 2 Launch Date. “Earlier this year I told you that 2012 would be the Year of the Dragon, and that the next few betas would help us nail down our actual launch date. Well, after the results of our latest stress test, I’m happy to announce that we’re ready to nail down that date. Guild Wars 2 will officially launch on Tuesday, August 28th.”
  • Guild Wars2 Junkies — Interview with Lead Designer Eric Flannum. “We got a chance to ask Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer, Eric Flannum, a few questions about the game ranging from World vs World, class balance, PVP vs. PVE progression and more. We’re very excited to share this with, especially on the same day that Arenanet has announced that the game’s launch is August 28, just two months from now!”

Recent GuildMag posts

  • Age of Deceit – Diplomacy. ““It is an outrage! How dare these savage barbarians leave my Empire like that!” The second Emperor of the Dragon was almost as hysterical as a child whose favorite toy was taken. He stamped with his feet and hit the intricately carved armrest at every word, while the courtiers and servants worriedly looked around, fearing the emperor might start a fire in his anger. “I will show them that traitors will be dealt with extreme prejudice. General!” Yian Zho looked sternly at the armor-clad statue that stood beside the throne. Ralahn-Tor thought that he had to wear his heavy war uniform the whole day as a form of punishment for his former disobediences – or to break his will.”
  • The Road to Guild Wars 2 Chart. “NCSoft redistributed all of their old press asset kits this week in one big asset kit containing all kits from the past few years. Since I’ve skimmed through those all myself before it was pretty easy to filter out the old stuff until I stumbled upon the interesting chart below, which details the road from the original Guild Wars till the release of Guild Wars 2, somewhere in 2012.”
  • Dynamically Spoken — Episode 3: Rewriting the Code. “Welcome to the next episode of Dynamically Spoken! As always, Steven and I are joined by a guest speaker; this time Sly Lasko from LootJunkie! Our third episode is all about uncovering exactly how ArenaNet are making Guild Wars 2 the herald of next-generation MMOs — and this time we actually reached our target of 40 minutes!”
  • Four brief hours in Tyria. “It was the briefest of visits: Wednesday’s stress test lasted only four hours. Barely enough time to get comfortable before the end-of-event activities began. I wanted to squeeze as much enjoyment out of this time as I could: deciding what to do meant eliminating a few otherwise attractive options. My guild is on Cavalon, which is a lightly populated North American server: WvW would probably not be worthwhile in the middle of the work day (especially if ArenaNet’s ranking algorithm is still having issues — there’s no fun in losing when the winning server has many, many times the number of points that yours has).”

Fan articles and blog posts

  • Reddit — Latest leaks and rumors. “I want to share some of the latest leaks and rumors for this week because well, why not. As always, don’t take this too serious because it COULD be fake.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — Lock & Key: Murder in the Mists. “I have a question for you, my fellow thieves. You’re in WvW, and your team is on the ropes. What, as a Thief, do you do?”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Profession Impressions. “It’s a little late to call these first impressions. We’ve had 2 beta weekends and a stress test so I’ve had a bit of time to think about it. Still it’s not as though I’ve been playing the game for months so here are some basic thoughts. I’ve got more time logged on the medium classes, thief, engineer, and ranger, so there will be more detailed thoughts there. Also as I didn’t play a whole lot in the 2nd weekend, perhaps some of these concerns have been addressed? I’m not sure.”
  • TalkTyria.net — New Krytan; the language of Tyria. “Running around Tyria, exploring hidden places, jumping puzzles and overhearing NPC conversations are some of the things that make Guild Wars 2 such a great game. The world of Tyria is filled with details, most of which we walk by and leave unnoticed. Not because we don’t care, but because they are so very well camouflaged into the world that we don’t pay attention. Just like “in real life”. So much to see, so much to do, so very little time to get everything done!”
  • New Krytan Translator “Want to know what the symbol means? Want to practice your new Krytan? Use the symbols to start.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — AETA: Supporting as an Engineer in WvW Part 1. “Hello everyone! Welcome once again to another meeting of Alchemists Explosions and Tinkerers Anonymous. This week, I’d like to talk about how to be a team player – specifically, being on either a red, blue, or green team with ambitions of taking over the world. That’s right, this week we’re going to talk about what it takes to be an effective team player in World vs World conquest! There are several roles one can take when going into the Mists, but we’re going to focus on supporting everyone else as they have all the bloodletting fun.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Mesmer: An Analysis. “You would think if you read the official Guild Wars 2 forums, that the Mesmer was unplayable in its current form. The last profession to be revealed and confirmed by Jon Peters as the roughest around the edges, there has to be a certain level of acceptance from the community that changes will be made and tweaks implemented in order for ArenaNet to get it to where they want it to be.”
  • Reddit — Stitched the map of the planet Tyria together (not the continent). “With a little bit of exploring I found a globe portraying the planet Tyria, so I saved the textures and stitched them together to form this map.”
  • GW2 WvW — Classroom of Immaculate Siege Dominance – Catapults: The Nuts and Bolts. “What’s that, Timmy? I couldn’t hear you over the sounds of large boulders hitting stone walls. Oh, you’re wondering why we are out by a big stone wall today? That is an excellent question! Class, we are on a field trip today to see in action, a living, breathing catapult!”
  • Guild Wars 2 Junkies — Five Reasons to Love the Guild System. “Never underestimate the influence of guilds in MMO’s. There’s a reason why many MMO developers hold summits and conferences to share information and solicit feedback from guild leaders. Being in a close knit guild helps to bring the multiplayer aspect of these games to the players. Guilds mean so many different things to different people, some people value the friendship of their guild mates, while others value the skill and competency, and others still value just having people who share common interests in their guild chat. Regardless of the reasoning, most people would agree that guilds help to foster community, as they give players a reason to come together, even if that reason is as simple as meaningful conversation.”
  • GW2 WvW — The Minion Master. “So. I think we all need to be clear about this, right off the bat, and I don’t think there’s really much “discussion” that will need to happen to reach an honest consensus. Everybody hates warriors. Especially when they run up to you with that manic look in their eyes, that we all know means their adrenaline bar is full and you’re about to be smote out of existence. We all know that feeling. So, in our theoretical world, you’re alone at a control point and one of those pesky warriors comes frolicking along. He looks over at you and it’s hate at first sight; suddenly, there’s the look in his eye.”
  • Guild-Hall.cz — BWE2 Turnaje z pohledu hráčů (část 2). “Today we asked some of the top GW1 players about their opinion on GW2 and PvP stuff, their answers are very interesting and be sure to expect another part of that article with next 4 guys from TOP guilds of GW1 within few days..” [Raphia: Don't worry: only the title is in Czech, the interview is in English.]
  • Reddit — I’ve cracked the Asuran alphabet. “Took me quite awhile, but it was very exciting when the pieces started to come together. I have the cipher written down on a notepad, but it’s full of scribbles and crossed-out runes and terrible handwriting! I don’t know if I have a scanner or not, but if I do, I’ll try cleaning it up and uploading it for the future.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — An Ocean Of Bloody Bargains. “Guild Wars 2 hasn’t really made a secret of the fact that they are going to merchandize the hell out of the game. You’ve got the insane $150 Collector’s Edition, the Rytlock Plushie, various books, and more recently the mouse and headset from Steel Series.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Examining the Focused Rituals Necro. “In today’s spine-tingling installment of Grenth’s Grog, Sardu dives headfirst into the pros and cons of a build wholly focused on ground targeted area attacks. The playstyle of a Focused Rituals necro is far more active than many other build concepts, but offers an extremely high degree of control over the battlefield than those that focus primarily on single target attacks.”
  • The Feral Engineer — Mechanics. “Engineers did receive a substantial boost across the board but a few bugs ruined the experience for most (such as blunderbuss not working correctly). I agree with the point that turrets need more tool belt integration rather than another deploy button while inactive and a detonate button while active. This is where ArenaNet can really make turrets shine and the primary component to fixing the problems with turrets. However, the randomness of the Elixirs adds to the fun of the Engineer and really shows that Alchemy is not a perfected practice yet (if you notice, most of the engineer technology isn’t really perfect). And the utility kits are fine, we have too much of it as is.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — Death becomes you: The Lowdown On Traits? “Looking through the various trait lines of the Necromancer, it’s not difficult to spot traits that are useful in almost any build, such as Hemophilia and Close to Death. On the flip side of the coin, you’ve got to wonder what the devs were thinking when they designed some of our traits. The clearest example is Toxic Landing in the Curses line, which creates a poison cloud when you take falling damage. The trait also halves falling damage. How is this useful?”
  • Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: What to do when zombies chew your face off. “I’ve been having something of a Guild Wars renaissance of late. Part of it has to do with a few friends getting into the game again (mostly for Hall of Monuments reasons), and part of it has to do with having time to breathe, which means time to play Guild Wars. Mostly, I feel, it has to do with the sound of time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near: I know that after Guild Wars 2 releases, the likelihood of going back to the home I’ve made in Guild Wars is pretty slim. Sure, it’ll still be there, and diehards like me will still be logging in, but the stage will have a new star (if, in fact, it doesn’t already), and that’s kind of sad. So I’m taking what time I have to enjoy Guild Wars as thoroughly as possible.”
  • Divinity’s Reach — Niche Traits. “Today, I want to address a seemingly simple question, do niche traits have a place in Guild Wars 2? Let me place a definition on what I mean by a “niche trait” to start out this discussion. To me (and I believe most people), the term simply means a trait that is activated by a very specific condition, and occasionally out of the ordinary situation.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Junkies — Discovering Tyria: The Vigil. “Last week we explored some of the flora and fauna of the Maguuma Jungle. We went over some of the monsters you’re likely to find there and how the Asura and Sylvari survive in such a harsh environment. Then, at the end of last week’s column I let out a bit of a teaser about what I’ll have going on the next few weeks; The orders of Tyria.”
  • Under the Pale Tree — The long wait…has come to an end. “For years now, we’ve been obsessively tracking every bit of info about Guild Wars 2 that makes it to our impatient hands. We’ve watched videos, speculated on everything to the sun and back, theorycrafted builds, planned characters, drew fanart, even got to finally try then game recently… And today, we learned when that journey of waiting will come to an end.”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — Profession Guide: Elementalist. “I started this blog with my current profession guides four months ago. Needless to say, they’re out of date. We hadn’t even seen the trait system at that time, so it’s time to write a whole new set, starting with the elementalist.”
  • GW2 Guru — Ten Things To Do To Prepare Yourself For Release. “Today we have ten things for you that you can do to prepare for Guild Wars 2.”
  • Greibach’s Normal Form — 8/28/2012. It’s Been a Long Road. “It’s finally here. I’m going to say that again, just to get the tingles that accompany it: it’s finally here. We have a concrete release date for GW2. No longer will we have to speculate, dissect every piece of information, and feel like we are taking shots in the dark. It’s finally here. I just can’t stop saying it. We’ve come a really long way together as a community. We’ve seen huge swings in information, excitement, and numbers throughout the past 5 years. Just thinking about the history of GW and GW2 combined is staggering. A total of 7 years, 4 months, and a few days separated the release of GW1 and GW2. For those of you still in primary/secondary school, that is over half the time you will spend in your pre-college years. For those who are/were in university, that’s almost 2 full degrees worth. To put it in terms for those of us die-hard GW1-ers, we’ve been waiting for GW2 for almost three times as long as new content was being released for GW1. And our wait is finally coming to an end. I’m just going to take another minute to let this feeling sink in.”
  • GW2 WvW — How to Prepare for the Guild Wars 2 Launch. “For a while now I’ve been withholding this article. Quite frankly there wasn’t much reason to release it until the time was right — and that time is now. For many months people have been bouncing around the theory that there was to be some big announcement from ArenaNet on a certain date. This date was 06/28/2012. Originally this date was 28/06/2012, which was more of an EU date-time table, but was altered when ArenaNET released additional photos of their office.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — The Vanguard: Guardian Utility Skills – Heals & Consecrations. “Hello again, my shield brothers and sisters! Last week we went over the new skill tier system for our utility and elite skills, and now the time has come to look at individual skills in depth.”
  • Malefic Incantations — A Somewhat Religious Experience. “Today is a big deal. Some stuff happened in the real world and that’s important too, but this is a gaming blog. We have a release date. It’s safe to say that my friends won’t see me for awhile once August 28, 2012 rolls around. The wait isn’t over — but we know exactly how long we’ll be waiting. The burning question that everyone has — and only superfans knew not to ask — finally has an answer.”
  • Player Attack — Guild Wars 2 melee is bad, let me count the ways. “Unfortunately what they’ve ended up doing is creating a sort of Unholy Trinity: Ranged, Regeneration and Running the hell away. There’s a little more to it, I just like the idea of an Unholy Trinity. (Suggest your own gaming-related unholy trinities in the comments?)”
  • GW2 WvW — Love is a Battlefield. “Welcome, everyone, to another week of The Structure! I’m sure you all know by now, but ArenaNet announced to us yesterday that Guild Wars 2 will launch on August 28! That means head-start access for pre-purchasers beings August 25. Also, the final BWE will be July 20-22. Now with that out of the way, I figured I would go with another “for new players” topic this week and give everyone the lay of the land — literally! This week I’m going to cover the important points of the two SPvP maps we have thus far: Battle of Kyhlo and Forest of Niflhel!”
  • Attached to Keyboard — Quest Types in RPGs. “Escort the caravan. Rescue the princess. Kill ten rats. Cliches, everyone one. Aren’t you sick of them? Don’t you wish that developers would drop them and do something different? This actually has nothing to do with Guild Wars 2 or any other particular MMO. It’s a general problem with all rpg games. In order to progress through the game you have to have your character do something, and there’s only so many different types of somethings you can do.”
  • GW2 WvW — Beer and MMOs, The Final Chapter. “We reach the last installment of the series, the swan song, the conclusion of an epic trilogy, if you will. The hope here is for this to be more Return of the King or Toy Story 3, rather than Godfather III, or gasp, Alien 3. Trilogies are hard, if only due to creative lethargy and the general difficulty of surpassing the impact and overall success (lol) of the predecessors in the series. The reality is that this article is likely more along the lines of a Rob Schneider film, like, say, Deuce Bigalo. For the masses, an absolute trainwreck and disgrace, but for the few who find the humor in it simply because it’s odd and highly sophomoric, an under appreciated gem.”

Videos and podcasts

Fanfic

  • Chronicles of Tyria — Azalea, The Sylvari. “I ran. My ripped feet seared upon burning red earth, as hot embers from crackling flames stung my eyes. Withering corpses followed me, and their shapeless darkness gained swiftly. Sickly flesh snagged my foot, and I stumbled. Offal and flesh hung loosely on blackened bones as they slowly lurched forward, and decayed fingers raked against my green skin.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Diary Of – Entry 9: Into The Dark. “Squeezing past the gargoyles that failed to spew fire, like the first we encountered when we arrived in the dungeon, we leap over the edge to a nearby wall and begin to work our way across a series of collapsed archways and pillars that form a rugged path. I’m tentative to make the last jump as looking down, I can see the fall may kill me, but also I’d be forced to rerun the spike trap gauntlet we narrowly avoided. I can still see the corpses of those crippled by the spikes, lying at the base of the pillar.”

Community Events

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/Guild Wars 2 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).

One Response

  1. This week in Guild Wars 2 « Quotulatiousness
    This week in Guild Wars 2 « Quotulatiousness June 30, 2012 at 02:38 |

    [...] weekly community round-up column at GuildMag is now online. The big news this week was the announcement of a release date, which rather [...]

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