Last weekend was the second Press Beta Event, and when the embargo lifted on Monday afternoon we were once more assaulted with an absolutely torrent of beta coverage. We at GWOnline are proud to say that we really were able to step it up this time, and could thus present a long row of articles and videos, and we are still not quite done, so stay tuned! Also, ArenaNet finally released a list of retailers that will offer the game, including the limited Collector’s Edition, for pre-purchase.

We also launched our very first FANtastic Friends Friday where we got some of our friends together to surprise the community with syncronised pieces about a common subject.  It was great fun and we hope to make this a regular thing! Finally we made friends with newly started Elementalist fansite Elemental Attunement as well as with news and guides aggregator GW2 Evolution. So without further ado, here we go!

I will make no attempt to list absolutely everything coming out from the second Press Beta Weekend, but will rather focus on a subset of the beta articles and commented videos. For more articles and to discuss the press beta coverage you can visit our forum thread, and for a complete list you should visit our friends over at GuildMag who once again did a gargantuan job keeping an updated list of all the Press Beta coverage, including gameplay footage, in one giant blog post.

Official

Interviews – ArenaNet

• PC Gamer: ArenaNet president talks microtransactions and the risks of going subscription-free. Mike O’Brien talks about the Guild Wars 2 business model. (Forum discussion)
• PC Gamer: NCSoft explain why Guild Wars 2 collector’s edition is more expensive in Europe NCSoft quotes “currency fluctuations, distribution costs, taxes and market conditions in addition to the cost of goods” as reasons for the EU prices. (Forum discussion)
• PC Gamer: How Team fortress influenced Guild Wars 2‘s class system. Ben Miller and Jon Peters answers some questions about the GW2 class system.
• Wartower: Interview with Martin Kerstein. 4rthVariety talked to Martin Kerstein in this audio interview. In German, but an English translation is available.

Videos and Podcasts

• Eurogamer: Podcast #106 – Guild Wars HQ! Eve online fanfest 2012!
• Gamebreaker: Guild Wars 2 video shows off town clothes. Mike S and Jason Winter talks town clothes and how PvE content takes cues from PvP. In Eternal battlegrounds, Mike B takes us on a tour of the Eternal Balltegrounds and Mike S talks storycrafting in Ree Soesbee Explains Personal Story.
• GoingPostalGW: Guild Wars 2‘s Cash Shop. Going postal has something to say about the microtransaction system
• Guildcast: Episode 16 – Beta Roundtable. 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: What do you want on your tombstone? Mesmer Mantras, If it looks like a plant, talks like a plant, and acts like a plant.. Queensdale Dynamic Events, Human starting zone. Dye System: Color me impressed. GWI also had several commented videos to offer.
• IncGamers Podcast #75. In light of the Press beta weekend, this week the Incgamer podcast features Guild Wars 2. Incgamers also has some commented Beta PvP gameplay.
• KaeyiDream: Kaeyi made a heart-warming video about the emerging Guild Wars 2 community in Embrace the online community. She also did an commentary on a Ranger gameplay video.
• MattVisual: MattVisual has had a busy week! Let’s talk: Flaws of GW2? W/SageLikeOne and Philetic, Guild Wars 2 can you run it? – System requirements, Pre-Purchase retailers list, Guild Wars 2 violin cover (Norn theme) and Breaking news- Combat changes and motion controls! (note post date..).
• MMORPG: The UI Video Preview, Guild Interface Video Preview, Divinity’s Reach Video Preview. MMORPG released these commented video previews after their Press Beta weekend.
• SagelikeOne: Sage started a new series called “Competitive Builds”. In the first one he and our good friend Cuth talked Engineer builds (Part 1, Part 2). In the second one Sage and MattVisual talk Guardian. He also did a Q&A #17 (factions, scaling and where are the Asura?) and participated on our very first Fantastic Friends Friday with a list of Top 10 reasons for the Commando being in Guild Wars 2.
• Tales of Tyria: Episode 24 - Gems, economy, and press, Oh My! The team dissects some Press Beta footage, talk in-game trading, and microtransactions. Tales of Tyria also released a feature video this week, How to Guild Wars 2: The economy.
• 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
• WoodenTomatoes: WP continued to release videos on a daily basis. Janthir’s hunger, Companions following release date, Glint’s stone champions, Spamming compass duels, Time traveling jewelers (featuring GWOnline beta footage), Sex changing laggy healers, Underground Norn slaves, and 1,000,000 views! (again, do make note of the post date..).
• Yogscast: Yogscast also had some beta videos to share. Human, Norn and Charr elite skills, Pigs & witches, questing highlights and Keep defense, awesome World vs World,

Articles and blog posts

• Angerina Warpride: The six true Wooden Potato Gods. Ok, these are just adorable!
• Demajen: Crafting discipline. Demajen talks crafting in different MMOs. He also offered this beautiful list of Top 10 Pieces of eyecatching Guild Wars 2 concept art for FANtastic Friends Friday.
• Distilled Will: Expectations of observations. Distilled speculates about a Guild Wars 2 PvP observation system.
• Dragon Season: Character creation guide, the noob edition! Thevalliant made this handy guide.
• Flameseeker Chronicles: Life in the legions. Elisabeth Cardy talks about personal story.
• Flamethrowing: What I learned while building. Cuth has come to some realisations about Engineer builds.
• Forbes: Cleaving a path through Guild Wars 2 beta. 
• GuildMag: Blog Carnival 3: Character Diversity GuildMag’s blog carnival concluded with a whole bunch of participants! Konig des Todes talks lore in Mysteries of the Sea: The Deep Sea Dragon and CorruptDropBear talks PvP in PvP maps: The battle of Kyhlo.
• Guild Wars 2 Guru: What we know about World Vs World. Also an overview of their Press Beta weekend coverage.
• Guild Wars 2 Hub: Personal story in GW2 vs. Class quests in SWTOR. Sardu stirred up some controversy with this comparative piece on story in the two MMOs
• Guild Wars 2 Junkies: A graphical primer on how combos work in GW2.
• Guild Wars Insider: Beginner tops for Guild Wars 2. Feral gives a helping hand for the GW2 newcomer. Beliasta makes a Effect Stacking Breakdown and we get a history lesson in First Guild Wars 2 news, five years later.
• GW2 Evolution: ArenaNet and leaks, Interview with Gixx, Key mapping and PvP, Interview with Rytlock Brimstone. Newly started News and Guides site GW2 Evolution is starting off strong.
• GWOnline: Top 10 Guild Wars 2 skills with a Guild Wars 1 predecessor. A GWOnline contribution to FANtastic Friends Friday, by RDarken.
• Hunter’s Insight: Go for the eyes!  Hunter is happy to see eye colour in character creation. In The quiet storm he wonders what will come of all the changes ArenaNet is doing to the MMO formula.
• Keen and Graev: Stances on the GW2 cash shop and pre-order Q’s.
• Kill Ten Rats: The opening crush of closed beta. Ravious gives his very first impressions of the Press beta weekend. He continued with Beta interfase video, Crafting in the March Beta and An in-depth look at the commoner story arc.
• Mana Obscura: Guild Wars 2 – Keybindings and Razer Naga. gazimoff ponders mouse setups.
• MMORPG: The best silly moments. David North talking silly and Suzie Ford listed the best 5 little great things.
• Necrobator: An exclusive video of the Necro in structured PvP. Sardu played PvP and wrote an article about it (putting it in the article section since the video itself is uncommented and the article is quite in-depth).
• PC Gamer: Guild Wars 2 dungeons preview. Chris Thursten talks about his dungeon experiences during Press beta weekend.
• The Feral Engineer: Feral Gaming? Feral asks if he should expand to other professions (the answer is yes!)
• Yoshi’s Guild Wars 2 hub: Busy busy busy.  Wealth and power – Microtransaction mania, Pulling the race card – Racial elites. Dungeoneering- Yes that is a proper term. Beta wrap-up and guilds. Starting up a posse, organizations and factions, Viva la revolution – The Charr.
• ZAM: Guild Wars 2 – a social story. Gazimoff talks guilds and social aspects.

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