The last quivering week before Guild Wars 2 pre-purchase finally starts, and the community is on edge. Which retailers will have the game for sale? What if retailers oversell their copies? What about currency? Region locks? The questions have been many, luckily we have gotten some answers as well. The game also got it’s official ESRB rating (“Teen”), driving the point home that it really is coming for real.

On Monday and Tuesday ArenaNet hosted an EU Fanday at it’s Brighton offices for fan sites and blogs who hadn’t previously been in the press beta events. The day was attended by several of our friends and from what we hear it was a blast!

The week also had an official blog post about Squads in WvW, an unusual number of ArenaNet interviews including a GWOnline exclusive(!) and of course loads and loads of videos, podcasts and articles. Oh, and we made friends with Nerdy Bookahs and Boons & Conditions! So without further ado, here we go!

Official

• Jordan Massey on the role of the squad in WvW. ArenaNet’s Jordan Massey published an in-depth blog postabout the Squad system in Guild Wars 2′s World versus World (WvW) PvP mode at the ArenaNet blog. (Forum Discussion)
• Region locks in Guild Wars 2. Rubi Payer announced on Guild Wars 2′s Facebook bage that Guild Wars 2 will be region locked upon account creation (you have to buy the game in the region the account is created). She later clarified that you will still be able to play with all international friends, and that they are working on solutions for people who travel/move. (Forum Discussion)
• Prepurchasing the Collector’s Edition Mike O’Brien made this clarification on Reddit about the Collector Edition and pre-purchasing. In short: Sales made before APril 10 are not sanctioned, and whether or not a local Amazon branch will offer the CE is up to that branch’s system. (Forum Discussion)
• ESRB “Teen” rating official. The Entertainment Software Rating Board has officially rated Guild Wars 2 “Teen”. (Forum Discussion)

Interviews – ArenaNet

• GameStar: Guild Wars 2 – Interview with Jon Peters & Ben Miller. Gamestar asks about the endgame of Guild Wars 2, matchmaking, guilds, tournaments and the engineer.
• GuildMag/Attached to Keyboard: EU Fanday transcription. The two fanday participants collaborated on transcribing the EU Fanday Q&A session for the rest of us to read. Lots of good info! (Forum Discussion)
• Guild Wars 2 Journal: Mike Ferguson talks WvW. Yalu of GW2J talks with Mike Ferguson about some of the finer points of World versus World. Great stuff. (Forum Discussion)
• GuildWars2Live: ArenaNet Interview – Personal Story. Annie VanderMeer Mitsoda, Theo Nguyen, Leif Chappelle and Eric Flannum talks personal story in this in-depth interview.
• GW2.nl: Exclusive Q&A with Arenanet by GW2NL. GW2NL had some questions of their own at EUFanday.
• GWOnline: GWO Interview With ArenaNet – Beta Insights and Skills. We at GWOnline were very happy to talk to ArenaNet about where they are in the beta process and how they go about balancing the game. With Mike Ferguson, Annie VanderMeer Mitsoda, Theo Nguyen, Leif Chappelle, Eric Flannum and Isaiah Cartwright. (Forum Discussion)
• PAX East: Future of MMOs panel. Part 1, 2, 3, .4, 5. Representatives from current and upcoming MMO discuss the future of MMOs. One of the people is Jon Peters from ArenaNet
• Wartower: Interview with Ree Soesbee. Ellisandre has a chat with Ree Soesbee about the lore of the Humans in Guild Wars 2. (Introduction in German, the actual interview is in English though)

Community Interviews

• PAX East: Video Games Aren’t Just for Playing – Gameplay as Spectator Entertainment.  Bridger from Tales of Tyria attended this PAX panel and asks about Guild Wars 2 and what impact its lack of a spectator mode at launch will have on the game’s eSport ambitions. The relevant part starts at 5:14:58

Videos and Podcasts

• Boons & Conditions: Episode 3 – Outside beta observations. Faelor, Arithion, Luperza and Esloan talk about the footage released from the most recent press beta.
• Gamebreaker: Guild Wars 2 blog post describes Squad and Commanders, ArenaNet hosts Guild Wars 2 Q&A on Twitter and ArenaNet’s Martin Kerstein talks Guild Wars 2 forums. With Jason Winter, Mike B and Mike S.
• Gamesovercast: Episode 92 – Guilds will have wars and crusades will have kings.  Ninazu and Radarhead talk all about the Guild Wars 2 closed beta event they took part in, among talk of other games.
• GetBonkd: Episode 24 – Guild System. The team explores the innovative Guild system that ArenaNet has added to Guild Wars 2.
• GoingPostalGW: Guild Wars 2 – Region lock. Going postal has something to say about region locks.
• Guildcast: Episode 17 – PvP pirates. Elizabeth Cardy, Mike B aka Fony, Scott Hawkes and Mike Schaffnit sits down for a massive round-table discussion on everything they experienced during the Press Beta Weekend.
• Guild Wars Insider: GWI had more videos for us this week. First they checked out running GW2 through bootcamp in Guild Wars 2 on a Mac? Then they explore the mists in From the Mists, Details Emerge and check out the Personal Home Instances, and finally HAPPYcat checks out the Achievements system.
• KaeyiDream: Kaeyi started a 10-day countdown to Guild Wars 2 pre-purchase start; 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5!
• KirbyzaGamer: Guild Wars 2 – Know your conditions, Know your boons, Control Effects  and Cross-Profession combos. Newcomer GW2 YouTuber Kirbyza starts out strong!
• MattVisual: EU Fanday and Website spotlight! MattVisual wraps up the week’s GW2 events and grumps about not being in EU Fanday
• MMORPG: The hunt for WvW PvP action, The Black Citadel preview and Hoelbrak, the city of the Norn. More MMORPG video previews after their Press Beta weekend.
• PCGamer: Watch 45 minutes of Guild Wars 2 dungeon footage, plus commentary! Comment superfluous, it is 45 minutes of Ascalonian Catacombs story mode dungeon footage. With commentary.
• SagelikeOne: Sage announced the winner of his 1k subscribers contest ans answers some questions from the entires. He also did Q&A #18 (names, pets, cookie-cutters, pet-controls)
  and announced the winner in the “What to play” vote.
• Tales of Lumin: Guild Wars 2 Beta – Celebrity Character Creation – Liam Neeson, Clint Eastwood, Megan Fox & More! ToL shows us some examples on what the Guild Wars 2 character creator is capable of.
• Tales of Tyria: Episode 25 -LegacyCast The team talk about the holy trinity and Dependancy vs. Teamwork, as well as how end game gear will work. Also, World of Warcraft! (do have the recording date in mind here..)
• TapRepeatedly: Guild Wars 2 Engineer PvP and Ranger PvP. Lewis B over at Tap gave us some pretty neat footage from the beta weekend.
• Totalbiscuit: TB had a whole slew of commented Press Beta videos this week, finally being able to play himself. Thief gameplay & Dynamic Events, Charrzooka, Impressions so far and Building a better stabby stabby (Thief) (Forum discussion)
• Tubeelephant: The Elephant looked at the Prepurchase Retailers
• Tyria Talk: Episode 21 – Gear vs Skill. Richie talks about one of the more defining points of the Guild Wars franchise – skill based gameplay.
• WoodenTomatoes: WP continued to release videos on a daily basis. Mailing split names, Ritualists floating tower, Loyal order disadvantages, The decendant of Arah Night Wastes, Servers restricting city roleplaying, The Origin of Orrian Sylvari and New underwater weapons
• Yogscast: Yogscast also had some beta videos to share.  Caves & Castles, questing highlights Part 2 and Heads & Riddles, questing highlights Part 3 (Forum Discussion)

Articles and blog posts

• Ashenfold Cartel: Easter update is here. The fellows over at Ashenfold have updated a load of their articles, do check it out.
• Attached to Keyboard: Tasha had several write-ups from EU FAnday (apart from the transcript linked above). Part 1 – Norn starter area, Part 2 – PvP, dinner and beaches, and Part 3 – Ascalonian catacombs.
• Biobreak: Phrase retirenment. Biobreak is so very sick of the phrase “making a sandwich while taking on a boss” to describe MMO combat
• Demajen: Training and the ups & downs of power. Demajen talks power in MMOs. He also worried about where general literacy is ehading in Client region “locks” and the loss of basic literacy.
• Dragon Season: To the Beach. Dragon Season shares their experience from EU Fanday.
• Flameseeker Chronicles: What’s your golden carrot. Elisabeth Cardy talks incentive.
• GamesOnNet: Official Australian GW2 site promises local cache servers but not local game servers. As mentioned above, all non-EU players will default to the NA data centres, however there will be local cache servers, at least in Australia. Gamesonnet also posted this preview article about Guild Wars 2, Staying flexible – What Guild Wars 2 does right, putting the emphasis on player freedom.
• Girl vs MMO: Now Guild Wars 2 has been on my radar for a while… Girls vs MMOs is looking forward to GW2, but is also apprehensive about the hype.
• GuildMag: GuildMag were also at EUFanday, and had much to say! Rytlock Statue up Close, Journey and Meetings, Norn and PvP and Dinner, Beach, Goodbye.
• Guild Wars 2 Elementalist: More Anger for Guild Wars 2 Fans at ArenaNet Pre-purchase Fiasco.
• Guild Wars 2 Hub: Beta preview: Hands-on with the ranger. Sardu posted his take on the current state of the Ranger.
• GuildWars2Live: GW2ing. GW2L is hoping to start a new trend!
• Guild Wars 2 Universe: Guild Wars 2 Dynamic Events another name for traditional quests? A great Top-10 list on how quests and Dynamic Events are different.
• Guild Wars Insider: The great GWI Hunt: Find the free Guild Wars 2 beta key  GWI kicks of an Easter egg hunt sure to catch the community’s attention. Beliasta presented GWI Art Spotlight #3 – Divinity’s Celebration and Guild Wars 2 wishlist: CTF.
• GW2 Evolution: Add your voice to the community. GW2 Evolution invites the community to write and see thier work published on the site.
• GWOnline: The Aesthetics and Creative Side of GW2 – Part 1: Visuals. Satomz presents part one of her write-up on the creative qualities of Guild Wars 2 as experienced in the Press Beta Weekend.
• Hunter’s Insight: Keen Commander. Hunter’s take on the squads and commanders.
• Kill Ten Rats: The speed of gold. Ravious gives his take on the gems-to-gold system. Also about Gamestop and the CE.
• Lazy Gamer: I nearly player the Guild Wars 2 beta. A self-professed MMO addict is actually a little happy that he didn’t get to play the Guild Wars 2 beta all weekend due to technical issues.
• Maggie’s Marbles: My Constructive Rage? Maggie wish there were were more “pro” PvP players showing off Guild Wars 2 PvP.
• MMORPG: Opinions from a long time fan. David North muses about how Guild Wars 2 beta is standing up to the expectations of a veteran fan, Garrett Fuller talks WvW in Why World vs. World will rule.
• Nerdy Boohkas: Being at the EUFanday, or musings about ArenaNet’s game philosophy. NB was also at EUFanday. Also, EU Fanday – the interview and EU Fanday in Brighton April 2 and April 3, a very nice collection of all the fansite posts from the event.
• ParadoX: Rambo Wins… a Strategic Analysis of Splits in PVP. shocklat talks PvP strategies. Also Necromancer – Death revealed, where he theorycrafts on Necromancer builds.
• PC Gamer: Guild Wars 2 dungeons preview. Chris Thursten talks about his dungeon experiences during Press beta weekend.
• TechGadgetsWeb: Blizzard about to be dethroned? suhail wonders if Blizzard days as king of the hill are numbered.
• Under the Pale Tree: Guild Wars 2 for preorder not prepurchase. Verene explains the difference between preorder and prepurchase.
• Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 hub: Busy as always!  Character blog project. Flipping coins and rolling dice  - Decisions made easy. Carrot on a stick – For the love of the game. Expansions- Too soon?

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