Guild Wars 2 Message Board

When those embroiled in the eternal conflict known as Guild Wars 2 log into their favorite online roleplaying game on April 1, they'll notice something a bit odd about their characters - specifically, each inhabitant of the game will now feature a gigantic head.

The momentary alteration has no effect on a player's stats, but as you can see in the Vine footage below the break, all Guild Wars 2 characters now resemble ambulatory bobblehead dolls. Developer ArenaNet justifies the change by saying, "If players like characters that have heads, logic dictates that they'll love characters with freakishly large heads, which is why we've added [200 percent] more cranium to all player characters!"

Though there's no official word on when the noggins of Guild Wars 2 will return to their normal dimensions, we don't expect the change to last beyond 12AM on April 2. [Image: ArenaNet]

When the April 2014 Feature Pack for Guild Wars 2 drops next month, players are getting an account-wide wardrobe filled with every weapon and armor skin they've unlocked in the game. Then the dress-up parties begin. Read more...

Recently a video appeared online across Chinese social media creating a buzz among Chinese gamers. The video, quite possibly an ad for Guild Wars 2, has a Caucasian speaking fluent Mandarin angrily at Chinese gamers. That's right, an angry white man shouting at Chinese gamers in Chinese.Read more...

This is Scarlet Briar, posing here next to her massive drill ship, currently tearing a gigantic hole in the harbor outside of one of Guild Wars 2's most important cities. Somebody should probably put a stop to that. Read more...

ArenaNet announced that it will not institute a subscription model or introduce free-to-play elements when its MMORPG Guild Wars 2 launches in China this year, subverting the region's dominant time-based, pay-to-play trends for online games.

Guild Wars 2 will launch in China as a one-time purchase supported by frequent free updates, maintaining the same business model supporting the game since its launch in 2012. The upcoming Chinese version, which ArenaNet will produce in a publishing partnership with KongZhong Corporation, will see timely updates that mirror content additions in North America and Europe.

The Chinese version of Guild Wars 2 will enter a two-week closed beta test on March 11.

[Image: ArenaNet]

"Something people forget is that we're already the fastest-selling MMO in history, so even if sales are declining a little bit, that's on the fastest selling MMO in history." Colin Johanson, game director of Guild Wars 2, sharing his opinion with Eurogamer about ArenaNet's declining sales figures.Read more...

Tonight on Guild Wars: Scooby-Doo: The gang gets lost in Twilight Arbor while searching for the Lake of Fear. They should have picked another MMO, they won't find any Scooby Snacks here. It's still an awesome shot, made by Guild Wars 2 player Lua and her friends.Read more...

I basically didn’t understand a word of this video. I thought it would help bring me up to speed on a game I haven’t played since launch, but now I just feel even more lost. As far as I can tell thingy did wotsit with the whojathunk, but thingy turned up and did thingy instead, and then a thing happened which meant more things and now another thing is going to happen, and apparently that will mean the end of the ‘living world’ storyline in Guild Wars 2. The current one, anyway.(more…)

Developer ArenaNet has announced that the ongoing Guild Wars 2 free trial will be extended through next week. Instead of ending today as initially planned, European and American players will be able to experience the MMORPG free of charge until Monday, October 7 at 3AM EST.

ArenaNet is also extending its sale on Guild Wars 2, a bargain which now comes to an end on Wednesday, October 9 at 3AM EST. Until that time, prospective adventurers can purchase the Digital Heroic Version of Guild Wars 2 for $40 ($10 less than its standard price) or the Digital Deluxe Edition for $45 (a $25 discount from its normal $70 price tag). As ArenaNet points out, Guild Wars 2 requires no subscription fees; once you've purchased the game, it's yours to enjoy.

Delicious Guild Wars 2 has more content in it than the National Content Library Of Australia, which has been furiously archiving content from across the world since the great content famine of 1840. Inevitably, you have a chance to access some of that Guild Warsy content via the magic No Pennies, from September 27th. The sign up page isn’t ready yet – perhaps delay that press release, guys? Oh, no, you already sent it and I am writing about it right now! Nevermind – you’ll be able to sign up there once the freeness exposes the content to your inquisitive nibbling. Arenanet have also sent word of the accompanying update, which is due October 1st: The Twilight Assault, which adds a new dungeon, the spooks of which you can see below. Sure looks like some evil is up for having its loot collected. That’ll teach ‘em.(more…)

Super Adventure Box was created as an April Fools' Day joke, but thanks to fan support, the virtual "virtual reality simulator" has made a return to Guild Wars 2.

Within the MMO, Super Adventure Box is described as a training simulation designed to educate young members of the industrious, diminutive Asuran race. Outside of Guild Wars 2 canon however, Super Adventure Box is best known as a joke that found unexpected success. Earlier this year, developer ArenaNet created a commercial for the then-fictional platformer as an April Fools' Day joke. The commercial was an instant hit with fans, so as part of the developer's commitment to launching new content for Guild Wars 2 every two weeks, ArenaNet developed Super Adventure Box in earnest, first releasing it as a browser-based 2D platformer, then as a full-fledged 3D addition to Guild Wars 2.

For more information on Super Adventure Box and the rewards it offers, have a look at ArenaNet's handy study guide.

So, I admit, I bounced off Guild Wars 2. After promises of its being a brand new approach to the MMO, finding myself in a generic fantasy world being asked to kill five of something, I pretty much gave up straight away. I know, I know, I should have dug in, but as you can imagine it’s not possible to dedicate time to every MMO I’m not going to be writing about. Then I see the details of the new Super Adventure Box: Back To School update, and I regret my decision.

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Those of you with special organic brains that can actually retain information for more than a few moments will recall the Guild Wars 2 April fool that materialised into something real: Super Adventure Box was an 8-bit “demake” of the MMO, a free standalone dungeon which amused the MMOing masses. It turns out that ArenaNet were rather pleased with the idea, too, because they’re revisiting it with Super Adventure Box: Back To School. “The asuran genius Moto is back with his new and improved Super Adventure Box! This virtual reality simulator was designed to educate young asura, but anyone can enroll! Face new challenges and new enemies in World 2, or put your skills to the ultimate test with the aptly-named Tribulation Mode!” There are a bunch of new rewards and such, too, of course, so you might want to get your 8-bit pauldrons ready for its September 3rd release.

The most fun I've had in Guild Wars 2 was back in April, when ArenaNet launched a homage to 16-bit adventure games called Super Adventure Box. Only open for a month, the game has been a depressingly high resolution place ever since. That all changes next week, when an expanded Super Adventure Box takes players back to school. Read more...

Those lovely scamps over at Arenanet are planning a Jubilee on the 6th of August to celebrate Queen Jennah’s ten year rule. It seems like a super nice idea, they are putting on a hot air balloon collection service to the Crown Pavilion so you can go to the gladiatorial events and jump around or whatever it is that people do when they are watching something in Guild Wars 2.

Is Queen Jennah a good queen? Does she deserve a Jubilee? Will Jubilee from the X-Men show up? She had better. (more…)

We sent Cara to talk to meet Guild Wars 2‘s Mike Zadorojny and find out about their new “Living World” system. This is her report.

Remember Guild Wars 2? It is this really pretty MMO that looks sort of bluey-purply like the side of Ben Nevis and has magic in it and stuff. Well anyway, I have totally sussed out their plan. Arenanet want to take over the world by instigating real war via virtual war in Europe. There is no real evidence for this, but it is fact. They sent for me to talk to them about their new episodic story system, Living World, but I stumbled across their sinister machiavellian undertones after too long. Read on for Hard Hitting Journalisms On An MMO Scale. (more…)

Continuing its mad quest to deliver fresh content at a rate faster than any other MMO on the planet, free-to-play or otherwise, ArenaNet rolls out the Sky Pirates of Tyria updates for Guild Wars 2 today. What's in store for our brave heroes? Why, a new temporary story dungeon with fresh booty to be had, a new permanent airship-based jumping puzzle coming July 1, treasure caches scattered across the continent and the chance to score a fancy new monocle? Hit up the update's page for all this and more. I'm really loving the frequency of Guild Wars 2 updates lately. Screw large updates every couple of months — this is the way to do it.

ArenaNet is live-streaming a run through a new dungeon coming in tomorrow's Guild Wars 2 Sky Pirates of Tyria update. Head over to Twitch to check it out.

The world of Guild Wars 2 has survived another (the first, technically) year, despite the looming threat of dragons so powerful they could easily destroy the entire world if they so desired. Next week ArenaNet launches the Dragon Bash festival, a month-long celebration packed with events that would make me incredibly cross, were I an all-powerful magic lizard. Hooray! We survived for another year! Let's see if we can fix that by smashing dragon effigies and singing songs about how badly we're going to kick their scaly asses. We'll hold Moa Races, which are Chocobo Races, only ... they're Chocobo Races. We'll project phantasmal dragons into the sky, which surely won't attract unwanted attention. If this festival doesn't end with the city of Lion's Arch burned to the ground, then nothing will make sense to me anymore.

Now that they've got regular content updates in the bag, ArenaNet hopes to bring more players to its subscription-free MMO Guild Wars 2 by lowering the cost of entry to $49.99 for the regular edition and $69.99 for the digital deluxe. Hooray, $10 off.

I haven’t been back, or even been inclined to go back, to Guild Wars 2 since its initial release, though that probably says at least as much about me and my grasshopper mind as it does about it. I know a bunch of people are playing it, but I don’t know how I can usefully address them about what’s going on with the game, at least not without becoming something of a fraud. A free, tongue-in-cheek retro platformer based on GW2 though? That I can tell you about, and I don’t need to say even a single thing about high-level content to do it.

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ArenaNet, the developer behind Guild Wars 2, has released a 2D platformer called Rytlock's Critter Rampage, available to play for free in your browser.

The game's derived from an '80s-style commercial the company made as an April Fools' joke earlier this month. The commercial itself was for a 3D platformer called Super Adventure Box, which ArenaNet also created for real inside its popular MMO.

ArenaNet says Rytlock's Critter Rampage was going to be cobbled together from a few sprites for the sake of the joke, but cinematic artist Delly Sartika had wanted to build a retro platformer and did the whole thing in about three weeks.

Not content to simply create a fake 16-bit game to base their real 3D Guild Wars 2 April Fools' surprise on, ArenaNet has created a full playable version of Rytlock's Critter Rampage, and it's gleefully brutal. Play it here.

ArenaNet made a bunch of handsome noises about their support of the titular guilds of Guild Wars 2 when they brought us their impossibly beautiful subscription-free MMO, and they’re starting to make good on them. Guild missions will be unlockable missions that are part of the guild tech tree – giving the groups more questy content that they can do to bolster their ability to high-five, fist-bump, and all the other things that people do in groups. ArenaNet explain a bit more about this in their video, which is below here.(more…)

It perhaps goes without saying – although after typing this I realise we said it anyway – that Guild Wars 2 will be busy this year. The updates have begun to materialise with customer-luring intent, and the closest of these is a big old PvP update, with a new map called Spirit Watch, which I assume is the afterlife version of something presented by Chris Packham. There’s a video of that below, and small stash of details over on the ArenaNet site. They explain: “In this map, we combine our established conquest gameplay with intense capture-the-flag gameplay—except instead of a flag, players will battle over the glowing Orb of Ascension!” Woo! No one likes flags, anyway. This is the 21st century, for goodness sakes!

The update appears on the 26th. Video below, of course.(more…)

#guildwars You'd think that the game being out, and out for a while now, would have stopped me lusting after the concept art behind Guild Wars 2, but nope. Not gonna happen. More »

Guild Wars 2 has been around for four whole months now, and – in gaming industry time – that means it’s become A Man. So it’s time to grow up or go home, and ArenaNet has no intention of doing the latter. Last year was about experimentation – nervously fumbling around in the dark, fondling at things it couldn’t quite fully grasp – but now it’s older and wiser. Multiple events have come and gone, but more are on the way. They’ll just be bigger and better, apparently, as will daily achievements and other rewards, World vs World PvP, various progression paths, and heaps more. Don’t believe me? Well then, perhaps having a different man tell you the exact same things will do the trick. He’s trapped inside a tiny, HTML-powered rectangle after the break.

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#yearinbeauty When we started putting together a list of the best-looking games of 2012, Guild Wars 2 was an easy choice. The massive world of Tyria contains all manner of visual wonder, and every hilltop invites a pause for wide-eyed gazing. It's a very good game, too. More »

A couple weeks ago, Jim brought attention to the fact that holiday cheer in Tyria is often eclipsed by the scariest parade float balloon any world has ever known. And when I say “eclipsed,” I mean it. Guild Wars 2‘s toymaker workshop is quite capable of blotting out the sun. But what purpose does such a titanic sky nightmare actually serve? Well, it belches out toys for children, naturally. And occasionally, those toys come to life in a frenzied bid to commandeer the massive humanoid airship and take over the world. But it sounds like things will be quite pleasant otherwise. Discover what exactly an “arsenal of gaiety” entails after the break.

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#guildwars The folks at ArenaNet keep on adding new content to Guild Wars 2, from seasonal updates to new instances, group events and other tweaks that will live on past any holiday. More »