Pre-release news/Archives/2012/Jan-March

March

Link Round-Up: CBT3 Edition

By Rubi Bayer, March 30th, 2012

Character creation, WvW, exploration, crafting, epic boss battles, dungeons, and more: you name it, and it got a thorough test in last weekend’s closed beta event. The world of Tyria was crowded with many thousands of testers, and our media partners put in overtime to bring you plenty of coverage of the weekend’s festivities. Read more…

Mike O’Brien on Microtransactions in Guild Wars 2

By Mike O'Brien, March 20th, 2012

In this month’s closed beta event, we’ll do some early testing of the Guild Wars 2 microtransactions system. Our microtransaction content isn’t nailed down yet, but we have a good framework in place to support it. So, I’d like to take a moment to explain our goals and the system we have developed to meet them. Read more…

The Evolution of Narrative in Personal Story

By Leif Chappelle, March 19th, 2012

Hey, everyone! I’m Leif Chappelle, a member of the content design team responsible for implementing the personal story in Guild Wars 2. While we have gone into detail about some of our other content types, including dynamic events and PvP, we haven’t yet given you a behind-the-scenes look at how the personal story is designed. This blog post is here to remedy that, with a personal story of my own to help illuminate the process of creating the stories that will guide you through the vast world of Tyria. Read more…

Building Community

By Martin Kerstein, March 15th, 2012

Community is an essential part of every online game. As our Global Brand Manager Chris Lye likes to say, “We’re not a video game company, we’re a community building company. We just happen to have one of the coolest ways to build a community, which is through a video game.” Community is at the heart of all of us here at ArenaNet; it was at the core of the philosophy of Guild Wars from the beginning. And, like ArenaNet is innovating and changing the genre by thinking boldly (and going boldly where no game development studio has gone before), we’re always coming up with new ways to work together with all of our passionate fans out there. Read more…

February

Play Your Way – Jon Peters on Traits and Attributes

By Jon Peters, February 28th, 2012

Hey everybody, Jon Peters here with a look at how traits and attributes provide a deep level of customization to your Guild Wars 2 character. Put simply, attributes are characteristics that players can invest points into in order to increase their effectiveness. We have four basic attributes – power, vitality, precision, and toughness. Read more…

Link Roundup – WvW and Beta

By Rubi Bayer, February 24th, 2012

It’s been an incredibly exciting week in the ArenaNet offices, and we were thrilled to see all of you enjoying the festivities along with us. We had a great response to last weekend’s beta event and this week’s beta signups, so it’s time to take a look at what everyone had to say! Read more…

Mike Ferguson Takes Your WvW Questions Here and on Reddit

By Mike Ferguson, February 23rd, 2012

Hello again, everyone! After reading tons of fan reactions to our World vs. World blog post, there were a number of comments and questions that we wanted to touch on to hopefully clarify some things. Read more…

Beta Development Update

By Eric Flannum, February 21st, 2012

Hey, everyone, Lead Game Designer Eric Flannum here. As most of you know by now, it’s a very exciting time for all of us here at ArenaNet. We just finished a huge beta event weekend, and we’ve got beta events just around the corner. We have a lot of work to do to get the game ready, but we’re definitely up to the challenge and eager to show off the game to a larger audience. With that in mind, we’ve been adding all sorts of new things to the game, as well as revising and improving on as many aspects of the game as we think need it.

In this blog post, we’ve got Randy Knapp explaining improvements to the compass, Devon Carver discussing some of the additions we’ve made to our open-world content, and Jon Peters talking about changes and additions to our boons and conditions. But first, I’d like to talk about some changes to being downed and defeated. Read more…

Guild Wars 2 Limited Beta Test Begins Today!

By Martin Kerstein, February 17th, 2012

It starts today.

Hundreds of invited players and press from around the world will be logging into Guild Wars 2 for a beta test weekend of high adventure, exploration, in-depth personal stories, and teeth-rattling combat. We love playing our game as much as we love showing it off to our fellow gamers, so damn near everyone at ArenaNet will be logging in this weekend to play alongside our beta testers. Read more…

Mike Ferguson on Guild Wars 2 World vs. World

By Mike Ferguson, February 16th, 2012

We have amazing PvE gameplay and intense competitive PvP in Guild Wars 2, but we also offer huge, open-field, server-versus-server warfare the likes of which you’ve never seen. We call it world vs. world or WvW.

Hello, everyone, I’m Mike Ferguson, one of the systems designers here at ArenaNet. I’m here to tell you about one of the most eagerly anticipated aspects of Guild Wars 2: world vs. world! This is a huge game type, and there’s a lot to talk about, so get comfy! Read more…

Announcing Guild Wars 2 Spanish Localization

By Adam Vance, February 15th, 2012

ArenaNet is excited to announce the confirmed language list for the localization of Guild Wars 2. As you may already know, the game will include full localization of both voice and text into German and French. Today, we’re happy to announce that we will also feature Spanish text localization for Guild Wars 2 at launch. Read more…

January

The Savage Pride of the Jotun

By Ree Soesbee, January 25th, 2012

The jotun (pronounced JŌ-tun) are the last remnants of an ancient society of giants. Once powerful, advanced, and arrogant, they proclaimed themselves rulers of the Shiverpeak Mountains and raised great monuments to themselves on the highest peaks. Their leaders, known as giant-kings, were tremendously powerful beings, as skilled in feats of strength as they were in magic and lore. Read More…

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon

By Mike O'Brien, January 23rd, 2012

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon!

Today is Lunar New Year’s Day, and according to the Asian zodiac system, the first day of the Year of the Dragon. It’s an auspicious omen for all of us at ArenaNet, as we get ready to make this our own Year of the Dragon. Read More…

Link Round-Up: Year End Awards Edition

By David Campbell, January 6th, 2012

It’s that time of year again: when fans reflect on the past year of gaming and look forward to the year ahead. That’s right: time for end of year awards! Let’s look at how Guild Wars 2 did. Read More…