Archive for April 2012

Where Will All Your Money Go?

Posted 29/04/12 by

For everybody that played during the beta weekend, it is obvious where all the money from players is supposed to go: To some Arena.Net vault managed by Asura and guarded by little golems.

Unlike the first Guild Wars, where you don’t have to spend a lot of money just to play, Guild Wars 2 will be a game where you will have to spend a lot more “in-game currency”.
Money drops from foes are far less frequent in GW2, so you have to salvage & gather/harvest a lot if items for your every day life on Tyria. Of course, you might argue, doing your personal story quests, dynamic events lines and “heart-quests” rewards you with coin, too. But there are a lot of things that a pure money sinks: First the gathering & crafting. The pick, sickle & axe are the first tools you have to buy to be able to get a single ore, onion or log. Then there are all the way points, which charge just a small fee, but that adds up with other stuff, like damaged armor (especially in WvWvW, where your income is pretty bad), unlocking the use of traits for 10 silver, re-setting trait points, changing crafting professions …

The thing that bugged me the most and I am honest with that, is the limited access to the in-game bank account, which can only be done when you are in one of the big cities, like Lion’s Arch. Accessing the bank from anywhere else, requires the use of an Asura Bank portal, which costs 35 gems from the “commerce tab”. Yes, I can send basic materials, like jute or ore through a “free service” towards my storage tab in the bank, but I had hoped that at least some bank access would be scattered on the maps as well.

With all those commercial additions around gems, including the server swap for 1.800 gems, Arena.Net has left the “buy once, play free”-road and set its feet on the muddy path of “pay to play”. Not everybody will be happy about that choice.

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WvW as Level 1? Checking Arena.net’s Claim

Posted 28/04/12 by

This morning, after not being able to log on last evening, I wanted to check out WvWvW, which was not very populated during the March press beta, we at GWO could attend.

How much would the lag I experienced every time when meeting more than 10 people affect WvWvW?

A lot. I had the impression, that once you got into a major fight, e.g. at a gate of a tower, the team with less lag would win the Zerg rush. I lagged so much (being on the EU Vabbi Server), that when I saw (well felt) the tide turning, I dodge rolled back two times and hoped I would not be downed by then. Skilled game play, like knocking down foes that prepare a big attack was not possible. I basically started to hit buttons.

Can you really start out as a Level 1 character?

As you can see on the screen shot, I tried, but having so few skills available – and in my case not all attunements unlocked – is a great hindrance to defeat your foes that have utility skills and better items. It would not have mattered if you could react without lag, but as I have written in the last paragraph: Push 1-2-3 has happened a lot.
It was also incredibly difficult to pick up loot from other players (the auto-loot from the last beta is gone on default, but you can enable it in the options. I discovered that too late) and I hardly got any coin for defeating foes – but had to pay for armor repair a lot more.

Will I return to WvWvW?

Sure, yes, but right now it is not the best experience to start with.

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Free and Unlimited World Transfers During BWE

Posted 27/04/12 by

The very first Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend is now well(-ish) underway. Legions of fans are battling it out in game as we speak, and legions more are banging their fists at the door, hoping to get in. ArenaNet is aware of the problems many have with gaining access and are hard at work getting everyone in game as soon as possible. One piece of good news though is that ArenaNet just announced on their Beta Forums that, for a limited time, world transfers will be free and unlimited. Great news for people wanting to play with friends or just test out different World’s atmosphere and latency!

And also a great chance for the community to show that we really are the best equipped to distribute ourselves between the servers. ;)

In order to test transfers and world balance, from Friday, April 27 at 15:00 PDT to Saturday, April 28 at 18:00 PDT, players will have free and unrestricted World transfers.
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US Digital Pre-orders Temporarily Sold Out

Posted 27/04/12 by

If you’re in the US I hope you got in nice and early with your pre-order because the digital pre-order are now temporarily “sold out”. Regina posted this a little while ago to explain the situation.

“We have sold out of keys for digital distribution in North America. GameStop and Best Buy still have stock available.

We limit sales to ensure we have enough capacity for our customers. We’re likely to have capacity available after the initial crunch at the start of the weekend. Players who purchase when we’re able to resume digital sales at buy.guildwars2.com will still be able to play for the remainder of the weekend”

European fans are not affected, you can still grab a pre-order of the digital version now.

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Press Beta Weekend Q&A Roundup

Posted 27/04/12 by

After the last Press Beta Weekend back in March we here at GWOnline let all of our members ask questions about the game. And they asked!

We have collected the questions and answers here in this post, so you have something to read while waiting those last few hours before the Beta Weekend Event starts. We find out that Lady Rhonwyn got turned into a table, that Alaris could not use jump shot to climb  and that CMEPTb found dynamic events surprisingly addicting. And that is just a tiny little bit, so make sure to follow after the jump for the whole run-down! Also, remember that you can share all of your Beta Weekend Event experiences on our community forums (don’t forget the Fanart subforum!), in your personal GWOnline Blog and on GWOnline TV, where you can also find all the GWOnline videos referenced below.

 

Qanar: How does the underwater movement work? Is there plenty of water to swim around or does it feel really defined?

Lady Rhonwyn: One word: awesome! And think 3D! You look in front of you and to the sides, but then: boom, a fish coming up from below! (and I presume you mean confined, rather than defined). There are huge, deep lakes and there are small, shallow lakes. And there are grottoes that only have an underwater access. But overall, the underwater areas feel very natural, and not something like: oh we want to add swimming to the game, let’s put some lakes down. And the breathing mask you have by default, is a stroke of brilliance. This means you can actually do complete events under water (yes, I’ve seen at least one event that took place purely under water!)

Alaris: There is not a lot of water in the starting area, probably they want people to learn to play a bit before throwing them with the sharks. Movement is easy and intuitive. If you swam in games before, this will be easy for you.

Gorani: Seconded: awesome! Watch my Elementalist underwater video.

CMEPTb: This is something that actually bugged me at PAX West 2011. I feel they have really smoothed it out since and while it takes a little getting use to at first, it is quickly sorted out especially when one starts using their skills. I am looking forward to some PvP underwater combat.

Teina: Water movement works pretty much like other 3D movements in other games with flights and swimming. It was very intuitive if you’ve played any other games with flights and swimming. The bodies of water I’ve came across have been small (swamps, small lakes).

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Blog your Hearts out

Posted 26/04/12 by

… and your Dynamic Events, and your World vs World stories, and your character creation experiences, and ….

Whatever you’re doing this weekend, come share it on the GWOnline blogs! It’s the best way to immortalise your experiences and opinions of the weekend!

Creating a blog is super easy, one of our wonderful admins, Lensor, has already made a quick guide to the Blog system and even shows off the things you can do to make your own blog unique! Details are over here.

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Alaris’s Beta Weekend Event Guide

Posted 26/04/12 by
New in beta: Lion's Arch

New in beta: Lion's Arch

This guide is meant to help people get the most out of their weekend event… because even if you forgo sleep, eating, and biobreaks, there is much more to be done than you can do in one weekend.
Here I provide some ideas for your to-do list, and some advice to help you find what you are looking for.

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Join the GWOnline Alliance in the Beta Wekend Event!

Posted 26/04/12 by
WvWGroup

Join GWO Alliance for some Guild Wars 2 Beta action!

GWOnline’s resident Guild Wars 1 alliance* has decided on making one huge alliance guild for the very first Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event, and all of you are invited to join the fun! PvE, WvW or structured PvP, we will do it all! On the European servers you will find us in Vabbi, and on the North American ones we will grace the Steamspur Mountains. If you want to join up you can either ask anyone you see in game wearing the [GWO] tag for an invite, or you can leave your in-game contact details in this thread. We will also update the thread with some GWOnline alliance contact people.

See you in game!

*The GWOnline Alliance of Friends consist of the GWOnline Community Guild [GWO], The Order of Dii [Dii], Veritas Invictus [TRUE], Embers of the Flame [PHX], The Guild of the Blade and Rose [BaR], Massively Overpowered [MVOP], Blood of the Martyr [HOPE], In Pace Requiescat [RIP] and U L G G [ULGG].

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The Aesthetics and Creative Side of GW2 – Part 3: Customization

Posted 25/04/12 by

continued from Part 2: Audio

It’s expected that the developer team of a game is creative. They come up with ideas to make the game more enjoyable and attractive for the gamers. But what about you, the gamer?

I, being an artist and crafter, enjoy being creative even while I’m playing a game. It’s nice to be able to outfit my characters the way I like and stand out from the crowd in my own special way. It’s also enjoyable to solve puzzles or hunt for the Easter eggs that the developers leave in the game for the players to find and enjoy. I therefore want to shine a spotlight to these features in Guild Wars 2 that I enjoy.

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Anet Blog: Choosing and Transferring Worlds in GW2

Posted 25/04/12 by

ArenaNet has posted a blog detailing server selection, including a list of servers at launch:
http://www.arena.net/blog/choosing-and-transferring-worlds-in-guild-wars-2

For our first Beta Weekend Event (April 27-29), home-world selection and world transfers will work just as they will when Guild Wars 2 launches.

When you log in to the game for the first time, you will have the opportunity to pick any available server, or home world. If you choose to select a home world that is in a different region from where you purchased your game, you will be logged out for a short period of time while your account is moved to your new region. Once you have selected a home world, all the characters you create will play on this world and will represent it in our world-versus-world (WvW) format.

Needless to say, there are a lot of important tidbits to be found in this post, so make sure to check it out and discuss server selection in the forums!

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Guild Wars 7th Anniversary

Posted 24/04/12 by

Time to party hardy?  Why, yes it is!

The Guild Wars Live Team is taking out all the stops as this will be the last Guild Wars Anniversary before Guild Wars 2 releases.  The festivities have already started and will continue until May 8th.

A lot of fun new stuff including new special drops and the chance to charm a new ranger pet: Hound of Balthazar–indeed a nice nod to GW2!

So join the party–be careful on that Rice Wine!  We here at GWOnline raise our Firewater in toast of an awesome 7 years of Guild Wars–thank you ArenaNet!

Check out the official site for details.

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Guild Wars 2 on the Social Media Front

Posted 24/04/12 by

Rubi Bayer has posted a blog showing how ANet is reaching out to the community on the social media front.  While the “like” Facebook challenge continues en route to unveiling more unseen concept art, and Twitter remains abuzz, fans can now share their Guild Wars inspired creations on Pinterest.  There is also the opportunity to upload your GW2 beta screenshots.  Who knows, maybe your screenshot will catch ANet’s eye and be pinned as a favorite for all to see!  Check out the blog for full details.

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