Guild Wars 2 Message Board older than one year ago

We Earthpeople might face abject terror each Christmas when a supernatural fat man dressed in red tries to stuff himself down all our chimneys at once, but spare a thought for the denizens of Tyria, who must face being given things they don’t want or need by a nightmarish airship (pictured). The Guild Wars 2 site explains this impending abomination in their precis for the “Wintersday” event which will take place between December 14th and January 3rd: “This year the city of Lion’s Arch will host the asuran Toymaker Tixx as their special Wintersday guest of honor. Before Tixx arrives in Lion’s Arch in his massive airship toy workshop, he’ll visit every major city in Tyria to deliver Wintersday toys and holiday cheer.”

Brr.

#kotakuqa ArenaNet's massively multiplayer Guild Wars 2 has been out for a few months now, and many of us here at Kotaku really like the game. Like any MMO, it's already changed quite a bit since launch, and ArenaNet has begun regularly adding new content, quests, and gear to extend the game's life well into the future. More »

AAAAAH TOO MUCH GUILD WARS 2. But then, I suppose ArenaNet’s adding quite a lot of fairly novel content with its Lost Shores event, so there’s a decent deal of ground to cover. So cover it we will. Exhaustively. On today’s docket is the Fractals of the Mist dungeon, which actually takes the form of multiple itsy-bitsy baby dungeons. Now, when I put it that way, they sound cute as the dickens. In reality, however, Fractals is more like one of those giant horrifying spiders that carry writhing tangles of young on their backs. Each mini-dungeon scales and gets progressively tougher at higher levels. And then, of course, there’s the matter of that whole Ascended gear brouhaha. Take a brief tour after the break.

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#guildwars Oh, you like that Exotic weapon you've got? Yeah, but is it Ascended? That's the name of the newest sort of gear in Guild Wars 2, another addition to extend the MMO's endgame and give hardcore players more to do in the already gigantic game. More »

So this is potentially a bit problematic. Once upon a time, ArenaNet prided itself on taking the “end” out of endgame in Guild Wars 2. And admittedly, it’s not like Tyria’s baddest beasties and best quests are suddenly making a beeline for the back of the bus. But ArenaNet is moving full-steam ahead with that oh-so-restrictive of popular MMO practices: gear checking. Put simply, if your stuff’s not up to snuff, the upcoming Fractals of the Mists dungeon will eventually chew you up and spit you out. The solution? A brand new “Ascended” gear tier that’ll allow for special upgrades that mitigate progress-slowing (and in tougher cases, halting) debuffs.

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How do you feel about giant crabs? I ask this because they tend to be quite a divisive subject (I’ve lost a good many friends over debates about the merits of their anachronistic cultural leanings and gigantic torso-cleaving claws), yet Guild Wars 2 is tackling it head-on. Lost Shores – which kicks off on November 16th and runs until the 18th – is a colossal “once in a lifetime” world event that centers around said colossal crustaceans. They’ll invade, they’ll fight, and they might even do a fun dance number to a mash-up of the decade’s most memorable showtunes. Meanwhile, some of the less-crab-focused new additions – like a series of “fractal” mini-dungeons – sound quite interesting. Delve into the break’s mysterious depths for more.

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#guildwars Lion's Arch is under attack! More »

#fineart It's all just so...beautiful. Where most game artists have a palette that starts at "violent" and ends at "dark", Theo Prins' work here has a warmth and colour to it that's as refreshing as it is a pleasure to look at. More »

#guildwars It's Halloween in Tyria, and the Mad King has returned. Starting today, all Guild Wars 2 players will log in to find a ton of new content in the MMO, from holiday-themed decorations to transformative costumes all the way up to whole new areas, mini-dungeons, and bosses. Some of these events will only happen for the duration of the event, and will vanish on October 31st. But many more of them will linger on, evidence of ArenaNet's ongoing commitment to constantly adding new content to their already massive game. More »

#guildwars Canadian artist Jeffufu, a big Guild Wars 2 fan, has been paying tribute to the game of late with some amazingly adorable pieces of fan art. More »

The Shadow of the Mad King begins to crawl across Guild Wars 2 today, carrying folktales, fear and pumpkins in its umbrage. It’s an event in four acts, with the final one beginning on Halloween and ending the next day. The concept art is beautiful, the story is suitably spooky in a daft sort of way, and now there’s a trailer full of whimsy and bubbling cauldrons. You can watch that below, as well as historical footage of the only undead king to ever haunt my sleep. Veeeengeaaance.

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My eyes might be my favourite part of my body. I tried touching this concept art for the Guild Wars 2 Halloween update, but all I could feel was a flat monitor and dried snot. I tried listening to it, but it was cunningly silent. Upon sniffing it all I managed to ascertain was that I needed a shower. Tasting it was utterly pointless: it tasted of light and electricity, and nothing like a richly designed concept art I was licking. No, the eyes have it. I’m currently attempting to go without blinking, so I get maximum use out of them. A nano second of darkness is waste when I’m trying to absorb all this.(more…)

#guildwars If there is one overwhelming theme to gaming in 2012, it seems to be the rise of eSports and competitive PvP. MOBAs attract millions of players and tens or even hundreds of millions of watchers logged into livestreams. Prize pools for competitions grow ever larger, and more and more games are jumping into the fray. Including, apparently, Guild Wars 2. More »

#guildwars For an MMORPG like Guild Wars 2, getting the game launched is just a small fraction of its development. The team needs not only to keep developing new content as time goes by, but also to be able to address bugs, security concerns, and balance in existing content as the game evolves. More »

(Part one.)

You are looking at my Guild Wars 2 character, a necromancer from a bloodline of great Defenders of Ascalon, standing proudly before his guild banner. A descendant of great heroes, who once lay forgotten and hopeless in the dirt like a sack of cats – now restored to the glory that is his birthright.

But how did he arrive there? How did he achieve this?(more…)

#review The true heart and essence of Guild Wars 2 lies in its map. More »

You are looking at my Guild Wars 2 character, a necromancer from a bloodline of great Defenders of Ascalon, lying dead under a bridge. A descendant of great heroes, lying forgotten and hopeless in the dirt like a sack of cats. (more…)

#guildwars Hell, it has famously been said, is other people. Play enough games online and you'll come to understand where Sartre was coming from. Many online games can feel a lot like No Exit—a world populated only by the meddling, the griefing, and the incompetent, where even death isn't an escape. More »

#guildwars Do you like Guild Wars 2 but wish it could feel a little bit more action-packed? pvpPROJECT has got you covered with this "Combat Mode" mod that adds free mouse-look to the game, more or less turning it into a third-person shooter depending on the ability you're using. More »

#guildwars In my weekly summaries of Guild Wars 2, I've looked at exploration, combat, and crafting. I've been chasing vistas, leveling slowly, and getting sucked into events as they pop up around me. I've even been cautiously exploring the big, boisterous, overwhelming experience that is world vs world PvP. More »

Are you moderately to incredibly affluent? Then chances are high that you own a Macintosh computer. There is a slimmer chance beyond this that you have installed Boot Camp and thus Windows on your Macintosh computer, in turn allowing you to play whatever PC games you so wish. More likely you think it too complicated by half, or are like the guy who visibly recoiled, started shaking in fury/grief and needed consolation from his girlfriend upon seeing Windows running on my own Macbook.* Apple people. Whatever the reason you don’t also have Windows on your Mac, you might be happy to hear that Ncsoft’s jolly good subscription-free MMO Guild Wars 2 has just released a beta client for Macintosh computers.(more…)

How much do you think you’ll have to pay for more Guild Wars 2 content? Several hundred thousand dollars? All of your most prized possessions? Your immortal soul? Well then, sheesh, you have clearly never purchased a videogame before. ArenaNet, though, is opting to go below and beyond the typical standard of game content pricing – that is, the part where it, you know, costs money. There will be many free things, and they will arrive often – like home-baked goods from an affectionate, nurturing grandparent, except with more swords and fewer messages supporting uncomfortable social norms from 60 years ago.

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I am a shameful, loathsome creature. Unlike the rest of the world, I’m not even within awkward-glancing-because-you-think-it’s-someone-you-know-but-you’re-not-entirely-sure distance of Guild Wars 2‘s level cap yet. On some level, though, I think I only feel bad because other MMOs have taught me to feel bad. Moreso than just about any other MMO to date, ArenaNet’s latest gingerly ties the carrot to a stick, sets the treadmill on low (with only a bit of incline), and funnels a syrupy slick of smooth jazz through the loudspeakers. “Relax,” it says in a soothing growl. “Take your time.” And that, explains ArenaNet, was a very intentional design goal – which is why Guild Wars 2′s endgame, well, isn’t.

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This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. I suppose that people wouldn't complain about massively multiplayer RPGs all seeming the same if they didn't all have the same perspective, interface, combat system, and progression models, to name just a few things (there are many, many more). Yet I think the most important similarity is in how MMRPGs all use time and space - what you spend your time doing and where it happens. It seems that no matter the game in the genre, you spend roughly the same amount of time questing, walking, fighting, or crafting in similar places - this is part of why The Secret World's investigation quests felt so fresh.

Compare the lack of variety on these terms with first-person shooters, and it's easy to see that MMRPGs (with the exception of EVE Online) lack variety in their rhythm. It doesn't have to be this way. There's no conceptual reason why many persistent worlds have to be notable only for how much it deviates from models set by game such as EverQuest and World Of Warcraft.

Guild Wars 2 doesn't change the common perspective, interface, etc., making it look and play much like just about everything else in the genre. However, in terms of time and space, and how accessible (both in the literal and metaphorical sense of the word) it is. It's a dramatic shift for the genre. Guild Wars 2 makes traveling easy.

#guildwars Massively multiplayer online games have this way of becoming a rush to the top. If a game has 50 levels, 49 of them will end up being considered inconsequential as players float up to the level cap and then stay there. As more and more players reach the limit, more and more of the game ends up focusing around them. Even a game like Diablo III, technically not an MMORPG at all, ends up with endgame woes. More »

There’s a lot of received wisdom when it comes to MMOs, with people quick to announce trends and patterns with very minimal data. “You can’t launch a full price MMO any more!” they’ll cry. “Free-to-play or bust!” And then along comes Guild Wars 2, and sells over 2 million copies in a fortnight. A fortnight where at some points they had to even stop selling the game.

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#guildwars Oh, dear. I have begun crafting. More »

#guildwars Guild Wars 2 has some of the medium's finest concept art. And while the actual game engine often struggles to do it justice, the game's environments can still look absolutely beautiful, proving once again that powerful "graphics" are often no match for strong art design. More »

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We like Guild Wars 2 quite a lot, and evidently, so does everyone else on Earth. Servers began to collapse under the sheer ferocity of unquenchable purchase-lust, so ArenaNet made a rather uncommon business decision and stopped letting people give them money. At least, directly. But now, Guild Wars 2 is back up for download, order has been restored, and I need a new excuse to riot in the streets and take more than one free sample at the grocery store. ArenaNet, meanwhile, is celebrating with a launch trailer that’s, er… hm. Maybe you should just watch it.

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