The release date lottery for Guild Wars 2 begins as Amazon.de post up their pre-order page for the game with a release date of June and a price of 49 Euros. As you know retailer’s dates are never that accurate and we have to take them with a pinch of salt. It is however nice to see some action on the sales front as the release date excitement gets underwat. Of course we still have the Beta to come first.
Thanks PCGamesHardware.
Of Squee and QQ
Every new game eventually butts head with the full gaming community – upon release. With expectations and ideals so diverse among the community, there will always be those who do not like the cake. Whether the cake gets devoured, is awkwardly accepted with lingering disappointment, or altogether shunned; one can imagine hearts to quicken for even experienced game developers. The line between genius and insanity may be fine, but developers continue to bravely walk the gamble of originality required for such a competitive market.
Gamers have seen the good, a lot of the mediocre, and have on occasion been smacked hard with the ugly. Even though community expectations and ideals can differ greatly – whether Squee or QQ is the reaction given – gamers will always hold passion in common. This passion for engaging and fun creative gaming can be seen across many favorite titles from companies who have found the right connection with their market audiences. ArenaNet (ANet) is one of these companies.
People who know me know I love summons. But more than that, I do love hybrids. Guild Wars 2 will offer a lot of ways to play hybrid with all professions, especially with the weapon swaps. However, the two most flexible on-the-fly hybrids have one thing in common… they do not have a weapon swap.
The elementalist swaps between 4 elements instead of swapping weapons, effectively changing his 5 weapon skills therefore changing his role during combat. He thus has access to 5*4=20 weapon skills during combat. The engineer uses kits that also changes his 5 weapon skills. He can equip up to 4 kits, giving him up to (4+1)*5=25 weapon skills during combat.
Players who like to adapt to the situation or to the needs of the team will want to keep an eye on those two professions.
ArenaNet’s developer blog has received another update and in this instalment they take a look at the race of giants called the Jotun. The blog comes with a stack of lore as well as some developer notes on the Jotun.
Even though we had established the jotun in the original games, we wanted to really bring them to life in Guild Wars 2, particularly for the norn areas of the world. We wanted them to be more than “nasty customers with big clubs,” and the way we chose to do that was to give them a long history—but a tragic one. We wanted to make the ogres an old race and follow that with the jotun, since the two species are interlinked. Giving the jotun a history that had been lost—ruined by their own flaws—gives them a lot of depth and plays into the overall story of Guild Wars 2.
The new jotun art depicts the race as being taller and more intelligent looking than the art from the original Guild Wars, which helps to better illustrate the race’s history and the fact that they are sentient, smart creatures—not rock-tossing droolers. The primitivism we see in their clothing and weapons is a sharp contrast to the magical monuments located at their camps—and that, too, is deliberate. Showing the decline of a race from power and civilization into primitivism, all because they could not stop fighting amongst themselves, is important to the game’s theme. It illustrates what might happen if the player character races can’t give up their old arguments and unite against the threat of the Elder Dragons.
Guild Wars Insider recently had a sit-down with three of the more PvP-savvy ArenaNet developers – PvP Systems Designers Matt Witter, Mike Ferguson and Jonathan Sharp. In the interview, available in audio as well as transcribed text, the three fellows really let their love for the Guild Wars 2 PvP shine through and they sound like they are having a lot of fun with it. The gentlemen also share some new details about the Guild Wars 2 PvP systems, like how a PvP lobby will offer a PvP-specific tutorial available for those players who want to jump right in.
It will also be a place too where new players can come in and pick up the tutorial on just PvP. Because we’re assuming that you can come and just make a PvP character if you want to. Maybe you’ve never done any of the tutorials for any of the other PvE content, and if that’s the case, we wanted you to be able to jump in and understand what’s going on before you get thrown into a PvP match. We’re going to have some tutorial stuff that you can do there to figure out what’s happening in the game. - Mike Ferguson
Other subjects include the possibility of an observer mode (planning one, but wont be in at release), how it felt like to be beat by fans in PvP (they deny it ever happening) and inspirations for making Guild Wars 2 an e-sport (everything from soccer to boxing). Read the full interview here.
OK so I am super excited! Mike O’Brian the ArenaNet blog this morning to announce that the beta will start in February!
Welcome to the Year of the Dragon!
Today is Lunar New Year’s Day, and according to the Asian zodiac system, the first day of the Year of the Dragon. It’s an auspicious omen for all of us at ArenaNet, as we get ready to make this our own Year of the Dragon.
According to tradition, the dragon embodies passion, independence, and ambition. We think it’s a perfect analogy for what we’re trying to accomplish with Guild Wars 2. We’re a company full of MMO and RPG fans, and we’ve set out to fundamentally rethink how you deliver an RPG experience online. So this year, the Year of the Dragon, let’s usher out old thinking – the tired old quest model, stiff repetitive combat, and monthly fees – and usher in the new.
Guild Wars 2 has captured the imagination of gamers and media all over the world with its action-oriented combat, its living world full of dynamic events, its highly personalized role-playing experience, and the handcrafted artistry that suffuses every element of the game. Last year, thousands of you joined us at shows and events all over the world to try Guild Wars 2 for yourself. This year, you’ll finally be able to immerse yourself in the vast, diverse world of Tyria.
We recently finished our first closed beta test, and we’re now ready to hold progressively larger events. In February we’ll invite select press to participate in beta testing, and in March and April we’ll aggressively ramp up the size of our beta test events so that many of you will have a chance to participate. And of course, this all leads to the release of Guild Wars 2 later this year.
So stay tuned to our official Guild Wars 2 website, our Facebook page, and this blog for more information about how to participate in an upcoming beta event.
It’s been an incredible adventure over the past five years, working with our community and our team of dedicated artists, designers, and programmers to realize this vision. This year, the seeds of that work come to fruition. We can’t wait to play the game with you.
So welcome to the Year of the Dragon – the year of Guild Wars 2.
This week we have seen new information on cross-profession skill combos, the “Hearts” system glimpsed in Guild Wars 2 demo videos, and the winner of the AlienWare Guild Wars 2 diorama contest was announced. As per usual, there have also been podcasts, videos, blog posts, columns, as well as even more 2012 most anticipated lists. Follow after the jump for the full run-down!
IGN managed to pin down the ArenaNet dev team to find out exactly what their favourite professions and skills are in the game. It’s fun read and there are nine to read through. Here’s a snip:
Well of Darkness + Churning Earth = Rockin’ AoE DamageProfessions: Necromancer, Elementalist
“This is a brutal combo. A necro can use Well of Darkness to create a Dark Field, which blinds enemies in the area. Along comes an elementalist attuned to earth, who cast Churning Earth to cripple enemies inside the Well of Darkness. When Churning Earth ends, it combines with the Dark Field to deliver additional AoE damage. Guaranteed to rock your enemies world – in a bad way.”
-Ryan Diederich, Programmer
Angel Leigh McCoy
Angel Leigh McCoy is one of the writers and game designers at Arenanet currently working on GW2. She recently gave an interview at Nevermetpress about her work, and her writing. The interview covers her early career as a writer for table-top RPG but also includes a discussion about how she ended up at Arenanet as well as a discussion about the difference between writing for a table-top RPGs as opposed to writing for a computer game.
With respect to GW2, readers of this news site will find an interesting tid-bit: Apparently, planning for a GW2 open beta has recently started. But anyone gets too excited, it is important to emphasize that there is no set date mentioned. Head over to Nevermetpress and read the full interview!
As we reported last week, ArenaNet now has the Charr Plushie back in stock. And we here at GWOnline have gotten our hands on two of them. Furthermore, we are offering them to our community as prizes! Head over to the GWOnline community forums for the full details. Other news this week include several ArenaNet interviews (break is over!), podcasts, blog posts and more. For instance, IGN exclaimed that “Guild Wars 2 may very well wind up being the best MMO, well, ever”. We can only agree! Follow after the jump for the full list of this week’s Guild Wars News!
Since the start of the Guild Wars 2 closed beta almost a month ago, the community has been craving every snipped about how that beta is coming along. Therefore, it was a real treat when one of the ArenaNet web developers, Tivac, recently were able to share a few snippets over at the Something Awful forums. User christmastere over at Reddit made a comprehensive summary, but here is the cliff notes version:
Did you look at the Charr Plush and thought “awww“? Or maybe you had an idea about your very own Charr Plush puppet animation video? Whichever the case, you will be happy to hear that there is currently a contest over at our Community Forums featuring not one, but two Charr Plushies as prizes! With a sole judge to decide, contestants have to do their very best to impress, wow and dazzle.
All categories of entries are valid (music, art, literature, video), as long as they are about Guild Wars 2.
The fan site Guild Wars Insider just published a very excellent and long interview with Ree Soesbee, Writer and Lore & Continuity Designer for Guild Wars 2. In the interview Ree talks about when she first got interested in fantasy, how she got into writing, and gives us the inside scoop on some of her previous projects. She really is a multifaceted and talented woman, and the interview was a treat to read!
When I was a small child, my mother died when I was about 6. A very well meaning Aunt gave me a red box marked Dungeons and Dragons. That might have gotten me a little interested in the game except my father, who is a southern traditionalist from the Appalachian Mountains, said “that there’s demon stuff.” He hid it. I immediately became fascinated by it. He hid it and I found it. And he hid it and I found it for about two and a half years, and by that time I went and got my own so he can hide it all he wanted and I was still able to play. – Ree Soesbee
The full interview is available as iTune download or as streamed audio and transcribed on the Guild Wars Insider page.
This last week two forum posts have been all the buzz in the Guild Wars 2 community. First there was the huge, ginormous, all encompassing beast of a forum post made by Jira/omlech/Chelmo (different nicks at different forums). Originally posted at NeoGAF all the way back in April, it has since found its way to Reddit, Guru, MMO-Champion and this last week it has been going almost viral!
Then there was a somewhat sorter but no less eloquent forum post by user Meowhead over at the MMORPG.com forums, titled “The Tao of Arenanet – The Design Philosophy of Guild Wars 2“. This one focuses on the design philosophies behind the game.
Both of these posts takes some time to plow through (no TL;DR allowed!), but are well worth it for anyone wanting to catch up on all that Guild Wars 2 info us veteran fans like to throw around in casual conversation.
Paris Games Week may have been over for a couple of months now, but that does not mean that it is done. Just this week, the French site Console-toi.fr uploaded this video interview with Daniel Dociu, Jeff Grubb and Ben Miller. With a 90-strong art team Daniel Dociu is doing everything to ensure that the Guild Wars 2 fans will find the wait for release well worth it, as is the rest of the ArenaNet crew.
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