The official ArenaNet twitter just posted the following video:
There is also an accompanying post on the Arenanet blog which mentions the launch date for GW2, August 28th, as well as the third and final BWE, on July 20-22.
Read more & comment >>Archive for June 2012
This Week on IncGamers
Posted 27/06/12 by Rushster
It’s time for a round-up pf some of the things that have been going on around IncGamers. This week’s new content includes:
- Endless Space [Preview] – Streamlined Strategy
- The Secret World [Preview] – Conspiracy Theories
- Lollipop Chainsaw [Review] – Bizarrely brilliant
- Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 [Review]
- Quantum Conundrum [Review] – A Portal through dimensions
- Dead State [Interview] – The style and politics of a Kickstarter project
Watch now!
This weeks’s IncGamers Podcast/Vidcast is also now live for your viewing and listening pleasure.
This week the team discuss the rather mental Lollipop Chainsaw, the Descent-like six axis shooter Retrovirus, the new adventure Resonance, the strategy Endless Space and this week’s news in our usual quiz  format.
Don’t forget to check the site daily for new content and the latest gaming news.
Read more & comment >>Guild Wars 2 Weekly
Posted 25/06/12 by Lensor
A somewhat slow week, the largest news were that ArenaNet will run a Guild Wars 2 stress test on Wednesday June 27th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT (GMT-7). A short stint during European prime time. All thumbs are held that BWE3 will be announced soon thereafter.
In other news, long-time ArenaNet artist Kekai Kotaki will be leaving the company shortly, leaving with the profound quote “For all I have done here, this is all I have done”. After eight years it is understandable that he wants to do something else, but he will for sure be missed by the Guild Wars 2 fans who have come to adore his style.
Other than that the week saw a blog post by Colin Johanson about ArenaNet’s “Is it fun?“, philosophy on game design, we got an inside peek on the ArenaNet studio and RPGamer published an interview with Chris Whiteside and Eric Flannum.
Read more & comment >>RPGamer Interviews Chris Whiteside and Eric Flannum
Posted 22/06/12 by AJ Wolf
In a new interview by RPGamer’s Becky Cunningham, ArenaNet’s Chris Whiteside and Eric Flannum talked about the feedback ArenaNet has been getting from the beta weekend events, and changes fans can expect to see in the future beta event(s) and at launch. The interview covers a large range of topics from combat, mini-games, to dyes.
Be sure to read the entire article for all the details. However, the biggest takeaway seems to be upcoming changes to both Melee combat and Telegraphing as detailed by Chris Whiteside.
Much of the feedback we are looking into now surrounds balancing, accessibility, tutorials, and a number of “nice to have” requests from the community.
Aside from the areas listed above, we are doing some work on melee vs. ranged balancing (across the game) as well as finishing off a handful of core systems and features, based on the feedback we received from the previous event. We also have a few new things to show off!
When asked about the difficulty of the Ascalonian Catacombs:
We felt that the difficulty shouldn’t be lowered, however, as we don’t believe this to be the issue.
Instead, we isolated two key areas that we will be working on to ensure that all players have more of an equal footing based on the diversity of their previous game experiences. First, we are going to do some work on melee combat to give players more time to react to enemy attacks and behaviors. Second, we will be putting in systems that telegraph changes in the game states and behaviors of enemies and bosses dependent on how the group is interacting with them. A good example of this is the lack of perceivable telegraphs when the Spider Queen spawns her spiders.
They also comment that the feedback between the two beta events has shift from what they call “macro” changes, to “micro” changes. They also thank fans for their continued feedback and support.
Read more & comment >>Kekai Kotaki Leaving ArenaNet
Posted 22/06/12 by AJ Wolf
Today on his blog Lead Concept Artist Kekai Kotaki announced he will be leaving 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.But now it’s time for me to go out into the world. ArenaNet and the Guild Wars franchise have done so much for my career and I will always be thankful for it. I am leaving great people, and a great game behind me. This game will be awesome and will be a success, and I look forward to seeing it being released. I look forward to all the awesome projects that have yet to be made here.
I must say thank you ArenaNet and all the great fans of the Guild Wars franchise for all the love and support. Thank you for all the wonderful memories. This wouldn’t have happened without you. I hope everyone can understand and wish me luck in the new adventure I am about to take.
Mahalo nui loa,
Kekai “Cake” Kotaki
Over the past 8 years, Kotaki has become a staple and icon of the Guild Wars franchise, racking up multiple awards, and producing beautiful concept are for Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. He will be surely missed, both by his co-workers at ArenaNet, and the fans who ahve grown to love his work.
Be sure to visit his website for more information about his art and follow him on Twitter @KekaiKotaki.
Mahalo Kekai.
Stress Test!
Posted 21/06/12 by AJ Wolf
ArenaNet has announced the next Beta Stress test!
All players who have pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 are invited to participate in our upcoming stress test. This four-hour test event will run on Wednesday, June 27th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).
Characters from previous betas will not be wiped for this event, which is set to be the shortest beta to date.
The entire article can be seen on ArenaNet’s blog.
Read more & comment >>Is it Fun?
Posted 19/06/12 by AJ Wolf
Have you ever logged into a game and played for a few hours, seeking to complete a task? When you complete that task, do you ever stop to ask yourself, “Was that fun?” Take out the cool reward – you don’t get any cool gear, you don’t get a shiny title; you just complete the task. Was it fun?
The answer was probably no.
In a new blog post today, Colin Johanson, Lead Content Developer for Guild Wars 2, talks about fun in an MMO and how Guild Wars 2 wants you to have it. Arenanet doesn’t want you coming back to Guild Wars 2 day after day because you paid for your subscription and might as well use it; they want you coming back because you want to.
Be sure to check out the full article for all the details on how ArenaNet tries to not only create fun, but measure it. And next time you enter Tyria in a Beta Weekend, don’t just click past the survey, make sure to fill it out; especially the question, “Was it fun?”
Read more & comment >>GameSpy Compares GW2 and SWTOR
Posted 18/06/12 by AJ Wolf
Today, GameSpy’s Leif Johnson took a look at Guild Wars 2 (GW2) and Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR), and compared some of SWTOR’s faults with some of what he sees as GW2′s successes. The comparisons are easy to see; SWTOR was one of the most hyped games on last year, Bioware spent hundreds of millions of dollar, producing what everyone was sure would be a blockbuster hit, only to have it quickly fizzle (at least compared to pre-launch predictions) amongst fan frustration over seemingly basic gameplay issues.
After the second Beta Weekend event, some feared that Guild Wars 2 might be missing the boat as well, when fans took to the forums with, admittedly, some legitimate concerns. In his article, Leif brings up 5 good points that show why he believes GW2 and ArenaNet will succeed where SWTOR and Bioware failed:
1. Story Doesn’t Get in the Way of Gameplay
2. Guild Wars 2 Understands MMORPGs Should Be About Player Interaction
3. Guild Wars 2′s World Feels Much More Alive
4. Guild Wars 2 Doesn’t Have a Traditional Endgame
5. So Far, ArenaNet is Better at Addressing Player Concerns Than BioWare
So if you’re hesitant about certain aspects of Guild Wars 2, be sure to check out the full article at GameSpy.
Read more & comment >>Telegraphing 101: A Lesson in Boss Design with Prof. Diablo
Posted 18/06/12 by shawn
Warning: This article details the Act 1 boss encounter of Diablo 3. If you haven’t played the game yet and you’re spoilerphobic, you may not wish to read this.
So now that the second GW2 beta weekend is behind us and we’ve had a chance to process everything and settle down, most people have gone back to killing time in other, less exciting, games until the third beta starts. And since the majority of gamers are more or less done with Guild Wars 1 and/or World of Wacraft, that leaves us with the newest Blizzard behemoth to spend some time with: Diablo 3. After finishing off a few acts in Hell difficulty during my last play session, something stuck out in my mind with regards to how boss fights are played out. Diablo 3′s implementation of boss mechanics (and how it conveys the abilities which might one-shot you) are done exceptionally well, while on the other hand.. GW2 has somewhat dropped the ball so far. Or if you’re on the receiving end of a champion’s attention, it would be more accurate to say they’ve dropped the health globe. ..Instantly.
But wait, don’t roll your eyes, cry scrub, and scroll past just yet. Hear me out.
Read more & comment >>An Inside Look at ArenaNet Studios
Posted 18/06/12 by AJ Wolf
If you are a follower of Guild Wars 2 on Facebook, be sure to check out their page today for a look inside their studios and staff. You can find all the pictures here!
Here are two images for those who don’t have Facebook.
Sound Team – Audio Director James Ackley, Sound Designer Maclaine Diemer, and Sound Designer Drew Cady
Community Team
Forbes on ArenaNet’s Focus on the Fans
Posted 18/06/12 by AJ Wolf
Forbes has released a new article about ArenaNet, and their parent company NCSoft, talking specifically about the dedication the company has shown to their fans. The full article can be viewed here.
In the article there is an extended video interview with Community Manager, Martin Kerstein; and a peak at a fan-made, life-sized Charr that travels around ArenaNet studios.
They also speak with Executive Producer Mike O’Brien who says:
“How we’ve built our company is that we’re very iterative when designing games. “We do like 20 new versions of our game a day and we constantly tweak gameplay according to what’s working. We bring in external testers, alpha testers for a long time and they play these new versions. We’re also able to get broad feedback from players. We’ve all been trained to read alpha forums for years now. Everybody reads them. We have really thick skin. We’re providing a service to our customers and if there’s something our customers aren’t getting, we need to make it more clear, or make the system more fun so that it becomes second nature once the game is released.”
-Mike O’Brien
As for the all important question of the release date? Forbes says the announcement will be “soon”.
Read more & comment >>Queensdale – Cry Havoc and Let Loose the Centaurs of War
Posted 18/06/12 by Shrandar
Guild Wars 2 has done away with traditional questing in favor of dynamic events. Even though the personal story lets players still experience a more familiar quest structure, when exploring the world outside of these tailored instances they will be hard pressed to find to now so well known exclamation marks. In stead hearing of a village being under attack in a long winded text or dialog from ‘NPC village Joe’ you will actually experience the attack yourself and if you don’t hurry and get involved ‘village Joe’ might end up dead and you singing his long winded eulogy instead. Warhammer started it, Rift continued it – how is Guild Wars 2 faring with their radical implementation of dynamic events? Read some of my impressions from the beta weekends below.
The Cynical Part First
Dynamic events were supposed to make the world feel more alive in contrast to the static mobs standing around in other MMO’s but do they really? As much fun as I had in the BWE (both of them) I couldn’t shake the feeling I was playing themepark 2.0 with an invisible puppet master dev pushing the button every 20 minutes, releasing the centaurs to entertain gamers. The events didn’t flow from world occurrences but rather from underlying mechanics alien to the world itself. (Unless of course the centaurs set their invasions by the clock: “its been half an hour guys , lets stretch our legs and swing our swords – again”)
Read more & comment >>
