This week in Guild Wars 2

Written by  //  August 17, 2012  //  Community, Editorials  //  1 Comment

The waiting is almost over: just over a week from now, the Guild Wars 2 headstart period begins. We’ve scoured the four corners of the internet, gathering up blog posts, podcasts, and videos to keep you occupied until the magic moment arrives. You’ve got time to stock up on gaming supplies — food, drink, excuses for why you’re not at work, and so on. Don’t waste this final week!

Official Guild Wars 2 news

  • Forbes — NCsoft Exec Matt Turetzky Explains How Guild Wars 2 Was Designed For Every Gamer. “With Guild Wars 2, a packaged PC massively multiplayer online (MMO) game that foregoes monthly subscriptions, readying for its global release, gamers finally will be able to explore the world of Tyria for more than a beta weekend. Matt Turetzky, executive vice president at NCsoft, took some time to talk about how ArenaNet designed the fantasy MMO game for a broad audience and what the challenges are in the fast-evolving online games space in this exclusive interview.”
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 Facebook page: “With the release of Guild Wars 2 just around the corner, the community team is heading off to Cologne for gamescom. If you are attending gamescom from the 15th to 19th of August, why not drop by our booth in Hall 8, enjoy a drink, have a chat with the team and fellow fans alike.”
  • GuildWars2.com — The Final Countdown – Guild Wars 2 Launch Times “August 28th, 2012 — the day Guild Wars 2 launches — is fast approaching. Everyone here at ArenaNet is anxiously counting the days right along with every Guild Wars 2 fan. In just a few weeks, the servers will go live and each of us will be setting out on our adventures in Tyria!”
  • GuildWars2.com — Introducing the Worlds of Guild Wars 2. “With Headstart Access right around the corner, we understand that you and your friends need to organize and figure out which world you want to play on. Well, we’ve got you covered. Below you will find a list of all the worlds that will be available at Headstart on August 25. Tell your friends and make sure you all start your adventure together!”
  • Gamezone — Umbra 3 optimizing Guild Wars 2 for your enjoyment. “Graphics software technology company, Umbra Software, announced today that highly-anticipated MMO Guild Wars 2 is taking advantage of Umbra’s occlusion culling technology.”
  • YouTube — arenanetofficial: Guild Wars 2 Chillout Lounge at Gamescom 2012. “Head of Community Martin Kerstein presents the Guild Wars 2 chillout lounge at 2012′s gamescom trade fair in germany.”
  • GuildWars2.com — Guild Wars 2 Giveaways on European Fansites. “Hopefully you have followed all our recent news and know that the long awaited Guild Wars 2 will be released on the 28th August 2012. As you all know, our Collector’s Edition is very special (and quite limited). We managed to hold on to a few of these and have teamed up with many fansites in in Europe to help us give them away.”
  • Reddit — Arenanet dev answering questions on Gandara. “So Mr Mike Ferguson was on Gandara next to the portals after we got booted out of wvw. He took the time to kindly answer some questions that were being asked, two of which caught my eye.”
  • Forbes — Guild Wars 2 Lead Producer Chris Whiteside Doesn’t Want To Let The Community Down. “With the end clearly in site, NCsoft and ArenaNet are ready to unleash one of the most-anticipated massively multiplayer (MMO) games of the year. With the August 28 launch of Guild Wars 2 upon us, the game’s lead producer, Chris Whiteside, explains how important the community has been in developing the new game in the exclusive interview below. He also reveals what he’ll be doing as soon as he gets some post-launch down time, and it’s not what you’d think.”
  • GuildWars2.com — A World of Choice – The Regions of Guild Wars 2. “Here at ArenaNet, we’ve always held that you should be able to play with your friends, whether they’re next door or a continent away. Today we’d like to outline a number of policies and technologies we’re implementing to support this belief.”
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 Facebook page: “We had a great day at gamescom today! We met lots of fans and had fantastic conversations with you all. We really appreciate your love and support and for coming out to speak with us. One piece of feedback we took on board from our experience and from talking with you is about the item code distribution at our booth. After considering all your feedback, we’ve decided that we needed more community-focused approach to handing out those item codes.”
  • Guild Wars 2 has been nominated for the IGN People’s Choice Award 2012. If you’d like to cast a vote, you can do so here.

Recent GuildMag posts

  • Raphia’s August 10th stress test journal. “I got into the stress test about an hour after the official start, so I may have missed any initial lagginess (although there were still folks loudly complaining about the lag when I got through the character creation process). While there were certainly occasional bursts of lag, and the odd rubberbanding event, I thought it was better than the first August stress test (but I can’t speak for Thursday’s test).”
  • Blog Carnival: Five Years of Waiting for Guild Wars 2. “We are getting closer to Guild Wars 2′s launch and the long time of waiting is almost over. Several bloggers shared their memories of waiting for the game with us, with very interesting results. Thank you to everybody who contributed!”
  • Age of Deceit – Lust in Moonlight. “‘Push it, Arianthe! He’s almost out now!’ The aged midwife shouted as she prepared more towels. ‘Aaaaaaaaaarrrghhhaaaa’ Zannos crouched right beside his mother. He grabbed Arianthe’s right hand and gently held it in both hands.”
  • Raphia’s August 12th stress test journal. “The briefest stress test so far — just one hour — meant there was really not much that I could do that wouldn’t run the risk of being longer than the stress test access period. No point in starting a new character, especially as I’d created a warrior on Friday, the only profession I hadn’t tried before. While the Sylvari area was fun, and I certainly hadn’t completed it on my warrior, I didn’t want to jump back in quite yet.”
  • Fear Not This Night – Guild Wars 2 Song. “If Jeremy Soule’s music wasn’t already a big hit for Guild Wars 2, how about their own song on a tune that Jeremy Soule created for the first trailer released during GamesCom 2009? While it has not yet been released, Amazon states that on August 17th it will be available for purchase and right now, you can already listen to a small sample of the song.”
  • Raphia’s August 15th stress test journal. “After the last stress test being only one hour long, there was some speculation among the GuildMag staff: Dutch was joking that the next stress test would be even shorter. Thank goodness he was wrong: Wednesday’s event was a full four-hour stress test.”

Fan articles and blog posts

  • GW2 Guru — Absolute Beginners Guide to sPvP. “This article is designed to present new players with enough information that will bring them from knowing nothing about the game to doing PvP in Guild Wars 2!”
  • FunSponge.net — Guild Wars 2 – Don’t believe the hype. “As my old mucker Chuck D once said – “Back caught you lookin’ for the same thing. It’s a new thing-check out this I bring.” So here we are again 14 days and counting before another MMO launches onto our televisual mediums and infests our brains with stats and rats, shiny graphics and mass digital slaughter of the ethically justifiable.”
  • Rant Gaming — Keeping You Alive in GW2 Without a Dedicated Healing Class. “By now you already know that Guild Wars 2 has broken the holy trinity of MMOs, the tank/healer/dps combination that so many of us are used to. The biggest example of how they’re strayed off the beaten path is their lack of a dedicated healing class, which is not onl exciting to those of us seeking a real challenge, but a step in the right direction toward active, real time MMOs.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Notes on the Stress Test 2. “Obviously between the stress test Thursday and the stress test Friday there weren’t going to be any big developments. So I just sort of flitted around from one thing to the next fooling around.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — The New Krewe: Why Guild Wars 2 is the Best MMO for Busy Adults. “According to a study from the Entertainment Software Association presented at E3 2011, the median video gamer age is 37 and has been gaming for well over a decade. This is a far cry from the image many outside the industry have of a teenager-dominated market. The fact is, as the gaming generation has grown older, we’ve kept right on gaming. Our lifestyles may have changed; we may have increased responsibilities at work, less free time due to family obligations, and busy social lives outside of gaming, but we still make time for our favorite hobby. The great news for players like us is that ArenaNet may have created the perfect MMO for busy adults!”
  • Guild Wars 2 Riches — Guild Wars 2 trading post strategy to make easy gold in the first 24 hours. “One of the crafting materials that you’re going to run across early in the game, and often, is going to be copper ore. Since all of the starting zones for Guild Wars 2 have copper ore in them there’s going to be a massive influx of it. Also, many of the disciplines use it as well so it’s also going to be used up just as quickly. With a massive quantity of copper on the Guild Wars 2 Trading Post you’re probably expecting to make very little profit off of it if you tried. Many people feel the exact same way. I’m here today to tell you guys that there is a potential for huge profits just selling copper on the trading post when the game launches. It will require very little risk and can have a high reward for you.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Death Shroud and Life Force Guide. “Death Shroud is the unique profession mechanic for the necromancer, and can be thought of in a couple of different ways. First, it will temporarily provide you with 4 unique skills, so you could think of death shroud as an extension of your normal hotbar skills while in combat. Death shroud also increases the necro’s survivability while active since incoming damage will deplete your available Life Force instead of your health.”
  • Twitter — Marco S. “Do you like Joss Whedons Firefly? A small tribute to all hilarious nerdstuff!”
  • devilmotors — Guild Wars 2: A Beta Review. “Being a gamer you will, at one time, encounter the inevitable moment when you realize that the game you had been so eagerly looking forward to just can’t live up to the Hype. In fact, if you’re a bit more than a casual gamer, you’ll probably experience this situation more than you’d like. Of course those moments are all influenced by and depending on your personal preferences. There were several titles in the last few months that looked awesome on (electronic) paper or in videos to me, but when I actually had the chance to play them, all that was left for me to do was closing the game, pressing Uninstall with a crestfallen muttered “Meh!” and starting to look for my next fix.”
  • Mistress of Illusions — Navigating PvE content in Guild Wars 2. “I came up with an idea for an advice article with new and future players in mind, as well as existing players who may still be overwhelmed by the depth of PvE content. Sadly, I didn’t have the needed screen shots to support it. Thankfully ArenaNet had another stress test yesterday, and while I didn’t get to play long due to illness, I managed to jump on long enough to get what I needed for this article.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Thief’s Guide to Stealth. “One of the thief’s most important mechanics in Guild Wars 2 is stealth. Attacking from the shadows is not only fun, but also smart in just about every type of combat situation. Everybody knows that thieves are not supposed to fight fair. This guide examines the various skills and traits that grant or impact stealth for the thief and the various weapon skills the thief can use while in stealth.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Guardian Guide. “Guardians work night and day in Guild Wars 2 to protect what they hold dearest the most: Tyria and beyond. While not a tank nor a healer, the guardian is a class that focuses on defense and support, achiving victory through protection, honor, and virtue. Our guide goes over all the basics, from what guardians are and why you’d want to play one, to traits, skills, tips, and more.”
  • Divinity’s Reach — The Purpose of CGI Trailers. “I absolutely love a well made trailer. Whether it was made for a video game or movie, I admire the skill it takes to create a hook and throw it out and catch someone so deeply, so impulsively that they reel themselves in. It’s an art form, and the artist must know their craft to be successful.”
  • manylaughs — Guild Wars 2: 5 things to do while you’re waiting for the release. “If you’ve pre-purchased Guild Wars 2, you still have nearly 13 days until you can play! What to do? What to do? Here are 5 things you can do while you’re waiting for the release”
  • Attached To Keyboard — Another look at the Guild Wars 2 ranger. “It’s no secret that when it comes to MMOs, I generally play a ranger class. In Guild Wars 1, I’ve spent over 6000 hours in the company of my Ranger – nearly half of all the time my main account has accumulated. I’ve played one in Aion and cobbled one together in Rift. Generally, I love them with a passion that’s only occasionally rivalled by healing classes. I also haven’t exactly been quiet about how disappointing my experiences with Ranger in early demos of Guild Wars 2 were. Frankly, I felt like the heart had been ripped from the profession I loved. I was not, to put it lightly, a happy bunny. But that was all a long time ago now, so on Friday night during the stress test I figured it was only fair to give the Ranger another shot. Would the changes, balances and tweaks have made my experiences better?”
  • Flame Throwing — Engineers in sPvP. “Disclaimer: I’m not a ranked eSport arena master. And I’ve never made a dime beating people at a video games. But there are a few things I have learned both from experience and from talking to world class competitive PvP players. If you are willing to admit that someone knows more than you, and you are willing to listen, you can learn a great deal and improve your own game.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Elementalist Attunement Guide. “Attunement​ is the unique profession mechanic for elementalists and allows them to have four weapon skill sets per weapon, at the tradeoff of not being able to switch weapon sets. There are four elements, with each one granting the elementalist a specific role. Fire and air are damage, water is support, and earth is defense. Switching between each attunement is the core part of playing an elementalist and our guide helps define when and where each attunement is best.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Guardian Virtue Guide. “Guardians use ​Virtues​ to passively support themselves. In certain situations, they can give up the passive benefit for duration in exchange for a greater one, for themselves and their allies. Guardians play as a defensive / support profession, so knowing when the tradeoff of saving the passive effect or giving it up to help nearby allies is important, which our guide fully explores in-depth.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Guide to Structured PvP. “In this beginners guide to structured PvP, we explore the basics of what happens when you enter the Mists, while providing you with an overview of Hot join and Tournament play, as well as a brief look at structured PvP ranks”
  • Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: Waiting for Guild Wars 2. “There are two weeks left until the official launch of Guild Wars 2. That’s a little nutso because a significant portion of my (and a great deal many other folks’) energy in last few years has been dedicated to anticipating the game. Seeing it live will be something of an adjustment.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — Build your warrior: Against ranged professions. “Have troubles struggling against ranged professions ? This new “Build your Warrior” subject will help you deal with this issue in a PvP area!”
  • GW2 WvW — Us, Not Me: A Mesmer’s Guide to WvW. “Besides objectives and team strategy, the primary difference between WvW and sPvP in Guild Wars 2 is scale. While matches in sPvP will be able to support up to a maximum of 20 players (10 on each team), instances in WvW will consist of hundreds and hundreds of players. I would argue that your ability to 1v1 and your ability to support allies should be equal priorities in sPvP. In WvW, however, supportive roles dwarf what individual skill alone can accomplish, and you should make your build accordingly.”
  • GW2GM — Official World Vs World Guide. “Welcome to our Official Guild Wars 2 WvW Guide that will help you understand the details of various aspects of World vs World. World vs World or WvW is a platform where players from 3 different servers get to match up against each other on a very large scale.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Experiencing Guild Wars 2 in 3D. “The 3D Vision kit from Nvidia is unlike any other peripheral available for PC gamers, and I’m not just talking about providing the ability to experience certain titles in 3D. Most hardware tends to have various levels of usefulness, but so long as it serves its core function you can usually deal with any minor funkiness in the mix.”
  • Pink Post — Leveling Guide for Crafting of Weapons and Armor. “Welcome! This guide will show you the details of how to level the crafting professions of making weapons and armor. The examples will use the Artificer crafting profession. However, Weaponsmith and Huntsman recipes work exactly the same as Artificer recipes, and the Armorsmith, Leatherworker and Tailor recipes work exactly the same as Artificer recipes except armor recipes use insignias instead of the inscriptions used in weapon recipes. Insignias work in armor recipes the same way that inscriptions work in weapon recipes, so once you’ve learned how to do Artificer, you’ll know how to do all of the weapons and armor crafting professions.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Legacy of the Foefire Guide. “Legacy of the Foefire (or Foefire as it is known) is a structured PvP map reminiscent of Guild Wars 1’s Guild versus Guild matches, with the exception that guild lords and their guards have become the secondary mechanic rather than the primary. Like all the other sPvP maps, Foefire is a conquest map with three capture points. The first team to 500 points is the winner while defeating the Lord provides an instant boost of 100 points.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Dynamic Level Adjustment Guide. “All content in Guild Wars 2 can be considered end game content thanks to the dynamic level adjustment mechanic. Your character will automatically be adjusted down to whatever area you are in, should you over level it, keeping the content challenging while still providing rewards at your level. Our basics guide goes over how the system works, what that green arrow at the bottom left of your screen means, and how it works in PvP.”
  • Chronicles of Tyria — Stress Test edition : Playing World of Warcraft… “Welcome adventurers, ArenaNet suprised us with 3 stress tests these pass few days. In the second stress test, I decided to do some New Krytan searching and here’s what I and some other members of the forums found.”
  • GW2 WvW — Necromancer: The Time is Nigh. “After years of eagerly digging through press releases, watching strange youtube videos in German, and digging through blog posts, the day is finally here. In just over a week, Guild Wars 2 will launch. We’ve made it.”
  • Heeding the Call — Guild Wars 2: Farbsystem und Aussehen Teil 2 – Dye system and appearance Part 2. “There’s a wide range of colors on GW2. It was one of my aims on beta weekends to collect as many different dyes as possible. According to a statement made by ArenaNet’s Crystin Cox (sorry, no link available for the beta forums have been closed) there are 400 colors ingame. I managed to get 216 different dyes in total. So variety is indeed huge! Depending on the material your armor is made of, dyes are supposed to look a bit different. Dyes can be sorted by three different categories. Set sorts by rarity (starter, common, uncommon and rare), hue sorts by the different tones (gray, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) and finally you can sort by material (vibrant, natural leather, natural metallic).”
  • New Krytan Machine — Countdown. “For the bookahs who can’t read New Krytan yet”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Strut. “I’m going to take my sweet ass time. Once Guild Wars 2 releases for pre-purchasers on August 25th, I am going to level slower than a fundie christian at science camp. I’ll be leveling a few characters at a time, stopping off to see any little thing that catches my interest. I’ll be that hyper-active dog that catches an unfamiliar scent and runs off in pursuit.”
  • Divinity’s Reach — A War is Coming. “Today, I could talk about many things. The latest round of stress tests, tomorrow’s impending stress test (3-7 EST), the latest round of information about the worlds on launch, but instead I want to focus on something more profound.”
  • Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 Hub — Good News And Bad News. “So, with great sorrow, I have to announce today that I will no longer be publishing this blog. I’ll be joining all of my readers as part of the regular joe’s playing the game. I will still continue to write The Structure at GW2 WvW until such a time as that becomes an issue for me. I will also, from time to time, still publish the occasional video, which go up on my Youtube page.”
  • The Tyrian Order — Take a Chance. “Scattered throughout the lands of Tyria, players are actively encouraged to take a chance. Such as; Jump puzzles, where you risk your characters life through a mixture of leaps and careful movement or buying Glory Chests and hoping you get an item you want – are both ways that you can face a risk in order to gain a reward.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Intro Guide to Dynamic Events. “One of the more exciting aspects of Guild Wars 2 is the dynamic event system. These events go a long way towards making Tyria feel like much more of a living, breathing world than you experience in most MMOGs. But how do dynamic events work? What can you gain from participating in them? What the heck are dynamic events anyway? To answer these questions, we’ve put together this intro guide to dynamic events.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — The New Krewe: Meet the Asura. “Welcome back, my new friends, to another introduction of the races that populate Tyria. We’ve covered the humans, we’ve meet the charr, and we’ve seen the norn. Today I’d like you to meet a race that is larger than life even though they are are the smallest of all the playable races. Give a warm welcome to the ASURA.”
  • Guild Wars Insider — The Vanguard: Guardian Arsenal Part 2 – Main Hand & Off-Hand Weapons. “Time is running out, my shield brothers and sisters, and the launch of Guild Wars 2 is one week closer! My sacred charge is to prepare you for your first days in Tyria. We’ve already covered utility skills in depth, discussing heals & consecrations, meditations, shouts & signets, and spirit weapons & elite skills in three consecutive weeks. Now it’s time to look at our arsenal.”
  • Asura Labs — Server Poll. [Raphia: This poll asks you what your preferred play style is (casual or hardcore), which environment you'll spend most of your time (PvE, SPvP, WvW, or RP), and the server you'll be starting out on. It then shows you the results from everyone else who's taking part. For example, when I took part, Yak's Bend was the most popular North American server, and players there were PvE first, WvW second, SPvP third, and (no surprise) RP last. The RP fans were mostly headed to the Tarnished Coast server, the only NA world where RPers outnumbered the rest.]
  • GW2 Guru — Stress Test Changes: Skills, Traits, Recipes & Achievements. “The dev team has been working hard today to give you these latest changes from today’s stress test! Below you’ll find significant skill, trait, recipe and achievement changes. (Please note that the damage and healing numbers are a work in progress.)”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Launch Information. “There are a few things you need to know before the launch of Guild Wars 2. The most important thing to note would probably be that the client used for the beta weekends and stress tests is also the launch client. You should run it every couple of days to keep it updated.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Character Advancement from A to Z. “At launch, Guild Wars 2 will have more methods to help advance your character than many MMOs have much later in their overall life cycle. To help give you some ideas of the multitude of things you’ll be able to do in GW2, we put together the following list of activities and aspects of the game that will have a direct impact on ways you can advance your character.”
  • Examiner.com — Guild Wars 2: Not a revolution, but a renovation. “With the official world-wide release of Guild Wars 2 roughly two weeks away, beta events and public stress tests have given some people a glimpse at what they can expect when the doors open and the game goes live. The product as presented doesn’t quite mesh with the pre-release hype that it is a revolution in the Massively Multiplayer Online genre; it copies many elements of those games and really doesn’t change the game the way that Arena.net would like you to believe. “
  • GW2GM — Engineer: Using Bombs and Turrets for Healing and Control. “If you are looking for an Engineer healing build for Guild Wars 2 look no further. The best part about this build is that you’re going to be using bombs for damage and healing at the same time. You even drop a bomb every time you dodge which is going to be annoying and helpful!”
  • Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog — Will GW2 be a 3 Monther? “Early last year I coined the phrase “3 monther” to categorize those MMO’s that launch and then fizzle out for *most* people anywhere in the first 90 days. Since then I’ve been using the 3 monther as a metric for evaluating a lot of MMO’s. The worst part about a 3 monther is that it isn’t always apparent before launch.”
  • Kill Ten Rats — MMO Baby Fat. “Keen has a post up asking whether Guild Wars 2 will surpass his “3-month” rule-of-thumb. He uses it as a metric for MMO success. How much of the launch population stays around after three months? If “most” have left, then Keen chalks it up to a bad-egg MMO. Rift, Warhammer Online, and the like seem to fall under his rule. The problem with his rule is whether it is even a valid measurement. Has any recent MMO passed 3 months under Keen’s rule-of-thumb?”
  • Guild Wars 2 Junkies — Tools for GW2 Victory: Logitech G600 Gaming Mouse. “Every aspiring old-west gunfighter dreams of the day when he receives his Colt pistol. Every paladin wishes for his holy avenger. Arthur sought out Excalibur. Just like these heroic figures, every PvP gamer worth his salt seeks out a great gaming mouse.”
  • GW2 Fans — Guild Wars 2 Trait Calculator iPhone Application by Dark Saga. “As a gift to the whole GW2 community — from the Turkish Competitive PvP Guild Dark Saga, a GW2 Trait Calculator application developed by one of our PvP officers, Cora, became available in App Store. It is free (and add-free as we dislike ads too). Application is available globally in App Store.”
  • Mistress of Illusions — My Favorite Guild Wars 2 Armors (So Far). “One of my favorite things about the original Guild Wars was the armors. I also expected it to be one of my favorite things about the sequel. Alas, the corset dress I’ve coveted since the first images were released appears to be NPC only despite being worn by the mesmer in concept art and by trainers in game. It’s possible we haven’t seen everything, but the PvP lockers appear to be pretty stuffed and many of the armors are identical to known PvE armors.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — It Ain’t All Golden. “You don’t come out of launch smelling like roses. How many MMOs can we name that have been perfect from day one? Guild Wars 2 will not go unscathed and there are basically three things that I’ve taken note of that I’m a little disappointed about going into August 25th. No, I’m not talking about lag or glitches or bugs. That’s what stress tests and beta weekends are for. I also don’t really want to talk about balance or petty nonsense like clipping issues.”
  • Divinity’s Reach — How to (Really) Choose A Profession. “It’s a question everyone asks themselves when they first play Guild Wars 2. You can have every little part of your character mapped out, log in, and that whole plan can be thrown immediately out the window. The whole process is actually very simple, but you need to account for the game being an MMO. Balance is in constant flux, one day you may have a God-like build and the next you may be sitting low on the totem pole. So how do you resist the urge to switch and cave in to your “grass is always greener” syndrome?”
  • GW2 WvW — A Case of the Splits. “Hey everyone! Earlier this week, I broke the sad news that life has gotten in the way of my blog that I’ve run since late February, after the first press beta. However, rest assured that until such a time as everything in the world falls apart, I will continue writing The Structure for you all here at Guild Wars 2 WvW. This week, we’re going to look at one of the more interesting things in GW2’s SPvP format: splitting. In other genres with successful eSports (i.e., RTS and MOBA games like StarCraft 2 and League of Legends), we see different forms of splitting.”
  • GW2 Organizer — “GW2Organizer.com is an event organizer tool tailor-made for Guild Wars 2. Users can create new events, or register for existing ones. There are Public Events listed on servers and to which everyone can register, and Private Guild Events that can be access only by your guild’s members.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Leveling in World vs. World. “There are plenty of ways to level in Guild Wars 2​ and World vs. World is an excellent way to level while having tons of fun. Everything you do in WvW grants experience, from seige keeps, to bringing mercenaries under control, and even denying the enemy their supply lines. There are tasks small to large, for small groups and big groups, and you even get loot appropriate for your level.”
  • GWOnline.net — 7 unique skill types in Guild Wars 2. “Every new MMORPG claims to re-invent the wheel to get new customers. But many have failed to live up to their own generated hype. Here I discuss 7 skill types that, while not entirely new to the MMORPG genre, have been considerably re-worked and re-tooled, making them feel fresh, fresh, exciting!”
  • GW2 Machinima — Beta Weekend Engineer Changes: For Better or Worse? “If you’ve played the Engineer over the course of all 3 Beta Weekend Events, you might have noticed changes to some of your favorite Engineer skills. ArenaNet has done some behind-the-scenes number balancing as well as complete skill reworks. I’m going to look at four previously lacking aspects of the Engineer’s arsenal and what the developers have done to revamp them!”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Complete Trait System Guide. “Traits are one of the ways you will be able to continue improving your character as you level, and customize your build to suit your combat style. In this guide we’ll explain how the trait system works, the direct impact traits will have on your attributes, and how traits factor into your overall character build.”
  • Under the Pale Tree — A pair of star-crossed sylvari. “Caithe and Faolain. Two of the Firstborn sylvari – one born of Night, the other born of Dusk. Together the two left the Grove to explore Tyria, to see their world for their own. They became friends and lovers, but they are no longer. That fact is not for a lack of trying on either of their parts, though.”

Videos and podcasts

Fanfic

  • Chronicles of Tyria — Playing God – World Creation Made Easy(er). “My first entry not relevant to Guild Wars or the works at CoT is, by request, on building a universe. It is an important aspect of any fantasy or science-fiction writing. There is, as always, no ‘right’ way to go about it, nor is it always necessary to create something as detailed and complex as Middle Earth or Westeros. However, creating a world can still be mind-blowing. Geography, history, culture and religion are not small things to design. Hopefully, this blog post will help you wrap your head around what can appear to be an enormous task.”
  • Chronicles of Tyria — Fighting Nightmare with Nightmares. “So… Caelan didn’t show for our meeting, and I went to the Constellation Shelter bar and asked after him, and someone had seen him go off with some suspicious honey trap of a sylvari.”
  • Foundation — Ache – Chapter II: The Hunter. “The Citadel was nothing short of disgusting. Colored like rust, with spiraling towers that looked more like lesions than anything inspiring, it was home to some of the filthiest, angriest beasts to ever roam Tyria. The entire city looked as if it was nothing more than thrown together from scrap metal — I didn’t know how they could live here. Truly, these charr had no appreciation for beauty.”
  • Foundation — Ayroh : Chapter 8 ~ The Stable Chapter. “I rolled over in my bed and found myself staring straight into her eyes. They were blue, like I imagined the sea might be. They were a gambler’s eyes, wild with chance and careless to their root. Small flecks of gold radiated out from their center, briefly approaching but never meeting the green outline that rimmed her irises.”

Community Events

  • Guild Wars Guru — Guild Wars 1 – End of an Era Party. “As the launch of Guild Wars 2 approaches….myself and the GW-EN Krewe were approached about having a party in GW 1 to celebrate good times from the past and celebration of the future in Guild Wars 2. With that — we decided to have a party where it all began… Ascalon City! So join us in Ascalon City International 1 (More districts will be attended to as the need rises) as we celebrate our future with the Guild Wars Community! The event will be from 12pm-3pm Central (-6 GMT) (or longer if need be) August 18th”

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).