Guild Wars 2

[Hakumen]

NCSoft confirms Guild Wars 2 beta for 2011, 2012 launch hinted

NCSoft’s confirmed it’ll launch a beta of Guild Wars 2 later this year.

The company’s CFO Jaeho Lee confirmed in a call to investors that the beta would take place within the second half of 2011. Lee also hinted at a 2012 release for the ArenaNet MMO.

“Starting from year 2012, we believe substantial growth will be driven by new blockbuster titles like [Blade & Soul] and Guild Wars 2,” he said.
“Also, Guild Wars 2 will go into beta testing stage in the second half of this year.”

It was previously thought that the game would arrive at some point this year.

NCSoft has already promised 2011 will be its biggest year yet, telling VG247 yesterday it will “steal headlines” from gamescom in the “major presence” it’ll have there in Cologne in three months time.

Read our recent impressions of the game here.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/18/ncso...d/#more-171583

ArenaNet prepping extra Guild Wars 2 security measures

Guild Wars 2 designers Eric Flannum and John Peters have said ArenaNet is on the alert for user data security breaches with the MMORPG sequel.

“One of the things that we’ve done is we have a team who looks at that stuff and we have a lot of features that we think will help out with security,” the pair told IncGamers.

“We’re not quite ready to talk exactly what those things are, but yes, security is a big, big priority for us.

“We understand having operated Guild Wars and seeing all the account theft that has happened. Obviously we’re hoping to shoot for accounts never being stolen, but there’s only so much you can do. At the moment though we’re not quite ready to talk about exactly what we’re doing.”

ArenaNet suffered negative press after a spate of stolen accounts, alongside other affected MMOs such as RIFT and Lord of the Rings Online.

Thanks, Blue’s News.

http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/16/aren...rity-measures/

ArenaNet: No retail expansions for Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet’s confirmed that there’ll be no retail expansions for Guild Wars 2 following the MMO’s release.

“At this time we don’t plan to continue with the standalone expansion model,” GW2′s lead designer Eric Flannum told Gamerzines.

“We felt that this model split our player base unnecessarily and also caused us to focus development effort on things that were redundant with the original release of the game such as tutorial areas and duplicates of already existing skills.”

Guild Wars 1 seen two expansions released for retail. But despite getting rid of the boxed expansions, Flannum said that items sold in GW2 via the in-game store would be “the kinds of things” which was included in the first game.

Guild Wars 2 goes into beta in second-half 2011, with a full launch likely in 2012.

http://www.vg247.com/2011/06/14/aren...2/#more-179802

[Sultan]

Norn. I wonder if I can get my character to be less fixated with the wild and more affiliated with technicism. Would be an interesting twist in character progression if the game allows it.

[Cyberdelius]

I'm rolling Sylvari or Asura, because they're both looking pretty fucking awesome. However, I'm leaning towards Sylvari. I just hope their redesign is good.

[Hakumen]

Guild Wars 2 video shows a battle with a dragon called Tequatl the Sunless

Posted below the break is a Guild Wars 2 video, with ArenaNet’s Ree Soesbee setting the viewer up for the footage to follow. Said footage, which is really cool, features a battle against Tequatl the Sunless, a which is one of the dragon bosses in the game. Enjoy. Thanks, Wartower.de.

http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/20/guil...s/#more-197343

[Hakumen]

ArenaNet reveals the Jotun race of Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet has unveiled the latest race to grace Guild Wars 2, and those familiar with the first game, should recognize there giants.

According to the latest blog post from Ree Soesbee, since Guild Wars, the Jotun “fallen far from their state of grace, losing command of technology and magic they once utilized, and remembering their place as kings of the land only in legend and story.”

Soesbee said the team really wanted to bring the race to life with GW2, “particularly for the Norn areas of the world,” and show just how far this once might race has fallen.

“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,S’ she wrote. “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.”

In GW2, the race is taller and more intelligent looking than depicted in 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, ” Soesbee continued. “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.”

Check out the Jotun in the gallery below.

Guild Wars 2 will go into open beta this spring and will launch in 2012.


http://www.vg247.com/2012/01/25/aren...2/#more-228789

[Cyberdelius]

And for anyone interested, Guild Wars 2 Beta Signups are going on right now. I'm too lazy to link, so google it or something, damn.

[ribbit]

https://beta.guildwars2.com/


I'm signing up as soon as I get home. Sadly, I can't submit my PC specs from an iPod Touch.

[Hakumen]

One million people sign up for Guild Wars 2 beta

As of yesterday afternoon, one million people signed up for the Guild Wars 2 beta. The official Twitter account for the game broke the good news, and ArenNet posted a video of the studio celebrating the milestone on Facebook. Sign ups ended at 6pm UK time, and open beta testing will go live this spring, with the game releasing later this year. You can check out our impressions piece for what to expect during the opening levels.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/02/25/one-...d-wars-2-beta/

Update

Guild Wars 2 video demonstrates crafting

Footage from the press beta shows Guild Wars 2′s crafting in action.

Massively posted this video, captured during the recent press beta, along with a detailed description of the gathering, salvaging and crafting processes.

MMO veteran Steph sallied forth into the test on our behalf; you can read her impressions here.

Guild Wars 2 is expected to release this year. An upcoming public beta drew 1 million sign ups.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/02/26/guil...g/#more-236691

[Hakumen]

Guild Wars 2 customisation extended with 13 extra attributes, 40 traits

ArenaNet has introduced a new system of attributes and traits for Guild Wars 2, giving players loads of different ways to build characters.

The new system, which includes 13 attributes and 40 traits, is an addendum the original Guild Wars’ four attribute system.

“Two of our four primary attributes – toughness and power – were serving double duty. Toughness improved heals, while power improved damage done by conditions. This essentially left us with two offensive styles: do more damage, or get more critical hits and react to their effects. That wasn’t quite good enough,” designer Jon Peters wrote in a developer update.

“We wanted there to be at least four offensive play styles as well as more diversity of builds overall, so we added several new player attributes to mix things up.”

The four base attributes increase as players level up, but the new attributes only grow as players equip gear and choose traits.

Each of the eight professions has five available traits. Each trait has up to 30 points to invest in, and a max level character will have 70 trait points to assign, allowing for more than one trait line to be explored fully in a single build.

Hit the link above for a more detailed break down, and if you find yourself confused, be advised that respecs are available.

Guild Wars 2 is currently in closed beta testing and expected to launch this year.

Thanks, Massively.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/02/29/guil...s/#more-237420

[Hakumen]

Guild Wars 2: ArenaNet’s MMO Manifesto put to video

ArenaNet has released a video which features the team discussing its Game Design Manifesto for Guild Wars 2. According to the developers, when creating the MMO, it had three main themes to adhere to: making an MMORPG a great RPG, rethinking combat, and making the MMO more social. You can watch it for yourself below, or if you would rather read about it, the Manifesto has been posted on the official site since 2010. You should still watch it, though. The next closed beta is scheduled for later this month and the game will be released this year.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/03/10/guil...o/#more-241591

Update

Guild Wars 2 video shows battle gameplay

Check out some sweet snippets of footage from battles of varying scale in Guild Wars 2.

ArenaNet issued a thank you video to those who signed up for the upcoming beta, but you can watch it too – simply visit the Facebook page and Like Guild Wars 2.

The footage therein shows glimpses of a huge battle; two smaller groups facing off; magic effects filling the air with haze; and a castle under siege, with players fighting across the battlements and siege engines firing.

Guild Wars 2 opened beta sign ups for 48 hours and attracted over 1 million sign ups at a rate of 4,000 per second.

The next beta event is expected this month, with the MMORPG due some time this year.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/03/12/guil...y/#more-241947