Guild Wars 2 Message Board older than one year ago

For those familiar with the original Guild Wars and comfortable with its lore, premise and gameplay systems, it goes without saying that Guild Wars 2 has a tremendous amount to offer. Elsewhere, those knowledgeable about the established tropes of a online RPGs will be confident in their ability to identify and appreciate the myriad ways in which ArenaNet is breaking from the traditional MMORPG mould...

Guild Wars 2 does things so well it can steal away hours of your time in a colorful, loot-filled flash. With phenomenal questing and combat design, Guild Wars 2 is poised to enthrall countless gamers -- even those of you unacquainted with MMOs. One of the first choices you make when crafting a chara...

In any MMO some classes are considered harder to play than others. Maybe they have more abilities, or maybe they require the most research and thought when you're tailoring them to your needs, but some tend to have some of the more elaborate gameplay than the rest. Watch an Elementist Commentary...

As a pet class, the Ranger profession in Guild Wars 2 has a lot of ways to maintain distance from a target and nuke enemies from long range. Rangers use a short bow, long bow and axe to attack from afar, and can get in close with other weapons including a greatsword to pile on damage in case you're looking for a change of pace...

Guild Wars 2 isn’t just the next big MMO on the horizon. It’s the one everyone seems to be pinning their hopes on to reinvent the genre and finally kick World of Warcraft off its high perch. But is it really the RPG you’re looking for? We sent Richard to Tyria to find out.

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#guildwars As I mentioned in my questions and answers post, I'm not allowed to share my own screenshots of the Guild Wars 2 beta weekend with you folks, so Arenanet and NCsoft provided me with ten official screens vaguely connected to this weekend's experience. More »

#guildwars Last month I shared what I learned during the first Guild Wars 2 press beta weekend. Now the student becomes the master as I tackle the questions Kotaku posed had about the eagerly anticipated massively-multiplayer game after spending another beta weekend adventuring in the world of Tyria. More »

Like the original Guild Wars, you will not have to pay a subscription fee to play ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2. Instead, you buy the game and play for free. For alternative revenue, ArenaNet will implement a microtransaction system, something explained by studio president Mike O'Brien...

Sometime in the last five or so years, the notion that a game is something you keep on paying for after you’ve bought it took hold. We’d understood expansions and subscriptions for years, but this was something different. It wasn’t about a drip feed of more stuff, or a wholesale extension to the original game, it was about paying for optional bits and pieces that came later. I no longer hear about an online game and wonder whether microtransactions are going to be introduced, but I do want to know how they’ll be implemented. That’s the bit that hasn’t really become standardised, and each game that arrives seems to have its own take. Guild Wars already had a bit of a shonky payment model, but it was bolted on after the fact. Guild Wars 2, however, will have additional paid-for elements from the moment you start playing the game.

That’s not to say that it’s easy to understand, either. Guild Wars 2 will have three currencies: gold, gems and karma. Let’s take a look at what that means.

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#guildwars Another round of Guild Wars 2 beta testing begins soon, and this time I around am arming myself with your questions before taking the plunge into Tyria once again. What can I do for you? More »

After looking at the cost of Guild Wars 2 and feeling a muscle in my eyeball involuntarily spasm, I started considering my spending habits. I’m currently splitting my money in three ways: indie games, Steam, and funding in Kickstarter. I don’t have any MMO subs, as I’m mainly action focused, and obviously my Steam account is already crammed with games. But none of this made me twitch. Instead it’s because as PC gamer I’ve never had to spend much on games, and in this odd, new free-to-pay future, in my eyes the cost of games feels like it’s getting cheaper. At least that’s what I thought. The one consistent expenditure I have is when I want to buy something in Team Fortress 2′s store, which saves every transaction. Going over my purchases I realise it’s not cheaper at all, and, in comparison, £50 on Guild Wars isn’t that bad.(more…)

Like everyone else, I’m eager to set foot into Guild Wars 2 as early as possible. I wastched from the outside as people enjoyed the first closed beta weekend and I’m determined to not be left out again. Now I can’t tell if this is manipulative or extremely nice, but ArenaNet have announced that those who pre-order the game from April 10th will be given access to the game’s weekend beta events, as well as a three-day head start when the game eventually launches. That exact date is still under wraps. What’s not still a secret is what you get when you pre-order, and now I have an expensive decision to make.(more…)

Guild Wars 2's official site has revealed three editions of the game available for pre-order...

#guildwars Fans clamoring for a chance to put down money on ArenaNet's massively multiplayer sequel get their chance on April 10, when NCsoft begins taking preorders for Guild Wars 2 standard, digital deluxe, and collector's editions. What do they get for putting their money down? More »

You might think playing a supporting role in an MMO sounds boring. Maybe you'll activate a few group buffs to boost your friends' critical chance or armor rating and then generally keep your distance to avoid capturing the attention of the enemy and stay alive. Guild Wars 2's Guardian profession has several skills that benefit a group, but the way they're designed means the play style is far from boring...

Just a quick reminder, since you probably want to get on there as much as we will be on there. Does that make sense? No. But anyway: sign up for peace of mind, and also access to an MMO before it is finished. The link.

During a recent beta testing period, NCsoft and ArenaNet let in members of the press to try out Guild Wars 2 for a weekend, and there was much rejoicing. With a beautiful art style, complex, flexible skill system for each of the eight professions, and well-implemented public questing mechanics it seems like Guild Wars 2 could turn out to be one of 2012's best games...

I don't think I've ever been more attached to a character than my level 46 Chiss bounty hunter in The Old Republic. With over 144 hours logged into his story, making countless decisions that determine how other characters feel about him, I think BioWare's MMO has come closest to letting me create a ...

#guildwars When I asked you folks to suggest games for me to test out the Razer Blade, Guild Wars 2's name came up an awful lot. At the time I replied that I wouldn't have the Blade when the press beta rolled around. Well, turns out I lied. More »

According to the Guild Wars 2 Twitter account, you have less than 48 hours to sign-up for a chance to beta test this year's hottest new MMO. You should probably do that. [Guild Wars 2 Beta Page - Thanks, Matthew!] More »

Want you access to the Guild Wars 2 beta? Well, from this very minute and for the next 48 hours you can sign up. It doesn’t seem that it will guarantee you a spot, but you’ll certainly be on the list for future beta events. You need only head here, put in your details, drip one drop of blood from your palm into the gauze pad by your keyboard, and you’re done. I’d suggest doing it right now, but you’ve got until 6pm (Queen’s Time) on Friday before the offer is up.

Guild Wars 2's skill system is not a simple one, but thankfully right from the beginning you can hop into a PvP lobby and play around with a level-capped character, testing out skills you might not have a chance to otherwise use for many hours of play through the main game. This PvP character is separate from the one you level through the storyline, and you use it to hop into Conquest battles, which revolve around capture point control...

If, like me, you were left out of this weekend’s Guild Wars 2 beta then you’ll know the tang of anger, the boiling of bile, that welled up inside against those that did. Felt good, didn’t it? Don’t lie: that directed spew of internal grrrrr made you feel all war-like, yeah? Me too, which is why I’m starting a guild of non-Guild War 2 players. Our mission: to not be playing Guild Wars 2 while other are enjoying it and videoing their fun. We shall, instead, watch them with twitching eyeballs, consuming all the video we can and learning about their ways, ready to exploit any weaknesses we witness. Join me, for I will be your leader and guide you through the land of Guild War 2 beta videos, unless I’m invited to play, in which case I never knew you and I was never here.(more…)

#guildwars After spending the weekend playing Guild Wars 2 with select members of the press, I felt I had gather enough knowledge to create a video guide to the game's standard player-versus-player combat. Then I played this round. More »

#guildwars Once I finished recording the voice over character creation video for my Guild Wars 2 beta article that ran this morning, I turned off my microphone to capture the story the game generated based on the decisions I made while building my Charr thief. More »

#guildwars To celebrate the successful press beta weekend for Guild Wars 2, the nice folks at ArenaNet gathered us all together in the main courtyard of Divinity's Reach and killed us over and over again. More »

#guildwars Of the more than a dozen hours I spent playing in the Guild Wars 2 press beta event this past weekend, seven involved actively battling enemies, three and a half were spent exploring, and a half hour was dedicated to creating my four different characters. More »

Based on a weekend of beta testing, it's clear ArenaNet is building an incredible game. Beautiful, imaginative landscapes stretch in all directions, free of the off-putting copy / paste feel of some virtual worlds. Run through the starting city of the cat-like Charr and you'll see dark towers twisti...

Everything I hear from Arenanet about Guild Wars 2 just baffles me. The scale of what they’re trying to achieve is so big all I can do is stare confusedly. I’m making a face right now, my eyebrows are trying to pinch the top my nose and my eyes are wide open, because I’ve been reading about their server vs server battlegrounds: two-week long fights between three servers (hundreds of people), on the biggest maps Guild Wars has. There will be siege weapons, alliances, and boss fights, and I’ll in the middle going “huh?”

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2012 is going to be an especially big year for MMOs, and Guild Wars is one of the major reasons why. Everyone at IGN who's had a chance to play has been extremely impressed with what ArenaNet is working on, from the art style to the flexible combat systems to the questing mechanics. Most recently, ArenaNet systems designer Mike Ferguson talked in detail about another aspect of the game, world versus world combat, which pits hundreds of players against each other in team-based PvP combat...