Weekly Round Up

July 1st 2012 - July 7th 2012

Last week when we got the release date announcement Greibach took a look at the long road that has carried us to this point. His blog post starts with some Guild Wars alpha screenshots, which make us glad that Daniel Dociu was hired, before looking at the trailers for the rest of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. It is a great look at our journey as a community and ArenaNet’s journey as a developer, plus the trailers are always fun to watch.

Guild Wars 2 Hub is starting up an interview series as we prepare for release. Their first interview is all about the trait system and profession balancing with Jon Peters. The interview is split into two parts so be sure to check out both for all the details.

Game designer Ben Miller outlines the six Golden Rules for the development of Guild Wars 2 that have kept the game true to ArenaNet’s vision. His post on the ArenaNet blog is a great look at why Guild Wars 2 will be able to deliver the experience so many are looking forward to.

On Thursday ArenaNet announced Wintersday in July. While the in game festivities don’t kick off until Friday the 13th they have begun the first week of their store sales. If you are looking to get something special for your Guild Wars account before we move on to Guild Wars 2 be sure to check out when it will be on sale.

The Guild Wars 2 Facebook posted a gallery of T-Shirt designs and asked fans to vote on a poll to help them pick three designs to produce. The first, lifestyle logo, design had a strong lead while the full color charr and the Caithe looked close to leading the rest of the pack.

There was a tweet that stated we would be sticking with the same client for launch so you will only have to patch it for the coming BWE and before launch to play. If you haven't already it might be time to move the associated folder into your Program Files.

Sinner-PWA has a full gallery of wonderful papercrafts. Recently he has turned his focus towards Guild Wars and produced three wonderful pieces. Pay him a visit to see them all full size along with the templates that will let you print your own.

nice review , thank you

Thanks Kaden for the updates of what's going on out there in GW Land!

thanks very nice.

Glad you are all finding this useful.

July 8th - July 14th

All of the music of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 has been composed by British Academy Award winner Jeremy Soule. He has also worked on soundtracks for a number of other games including many in the Elder Scrolls collection. His site, Direct Song has all of his work for sale including the newest four disc collection for Guild Wars 2. If you act quickly you can even reserve an autographed copy, while supplies last.

The ArenaNet Blog shared a short post that confirmed the presence of asura and sylvari in the final BWE next weekend. David Campbell briefly describes the races and their starting zones in addition to providing a couple screenshots in the blog post. Gamespot got to film more than an hour of asura video with developer Mike Zadorojny along to answer questions. JeuxOnLine got a 24 hour preview of the new asura content which they covered with video, screenshots, and a French blog post.

Author Matt Forbeck posted on his blog about the Ghosts of Ascalon E-Book being half price until July 15th.

Guild Wars 2 Hub is continuing their interview series this week by talking to Colin Johanson. The two part interview covers many topics about Guild Wars 2. The value of beta weekends, the live support goals, new and improved features, innovation, and more are all covered in wonderful detail.

Eric Flannum and Colin Johanson had a short talk about end game on the Guild Wars 2 Twitch channel. Give it a watch to learn more about Orr, dungeons, skill points, legendary weapons, and holidays in Guild Wars 2.

Ramon Domke, the new German Community Manager, took a video tour of the ArenaNet offices and spoke with a few developers about what they were working on after the first beta weekend. Take a look inside the offices and see some of the developers in their natural habitat as they talk about Guild Wars 2 and thank the community for such wonderful support.

RyomaNinja has a gallery full of great art. Only his two most recent pieces are related to Guild Wars 2 but they stand out for being so well done and so similar to official wallpapers from ArenaNet.

was that a gw2 mug?.... *loads shotgun* im getting one.

good job , keep it up !

It is a mug but it is made of paper. So while it might not work for drinking you could build one to hold pens on your desk. His blog has a link to a downloadable file that will let you make your own.

lol , i also want a real mug !!! would be total bad ass in the office

This week’s round up is early since most of us will be busy for the weekend and there is some news that might help you as you prepare for BWE #3.

Last week Kaeyi Dream sat down with Matthew Medina on Skype to talk about his history in the game industry and at ArenaNet. In the video he answers questions about his favorite professions, favorite race, building Lion’s Arch, cartography of Tyria, the New Krytan alphabet, and more.

TowerTalk has a new interview with Lead Writer Bobby Stein about his work on the writing and voice acting that is in Guild Wars 2. With more than 100 actors providing more than 200 voices for around 80 films worth of dialog that is a big job. Be sure to listen in as he shares insight on the process of writing and voicing the world of Tyria.

Colin Johanson expanded upon his interview by sharing a Dev Journal on Guild Wars 2 Hub about dynamic events. He shares insight on the design and implementation of dynamic events as well as urging players to stick around at the end to take in the way the world changes.

Sylvari got their turn with press previews this week. MMORPG, IGN, JeuxOnLine (French), and Gamestar (German) have a mix of videos, screenshots, and opinions.

The ArenaNet Blog shared a post on what would be new in the third Beta Weekend Event. Asura, Sylvari, Brisban Wildlands, Keg Brawl, Vistas, Legacy of the Foefire, and more. Also be advised we will be starting fresh for this BWE and for the Head Start/Release with only our contact list preserved.

If you want the full game score but already bought the Collector’s Edition you may want to wait to purchase. There was a ArenaNet blog post about the $5 off coupon that will be included in the physical CE box.

The server list for BWE #3 was decreased from that seen in BWE #2, along with an update on how WvW will work, and some server side tools for managing player population without downtime. Be sure to check out the update and figure out where you want to be this weekend.

Ree Soesbee explains the importance of watching the opening cinematics after character creation in a new post on the ArenaNet blog. Human, norn, and charr are shown in the first post while asura and sylvari are seen later in the week.

German fansite Gaming Insight had an interview with Eric Flannum, although most of the content was recently covered in their Twitch talk and blog posts.

There was an important announcement made on the Guild Wars 2 forum about server transfers, the gem shop, and more.

Interview with Jonathan Sharp about PvP on Guild Wars Insider.

This is a very nice story about ArenaNet’s response to their community and the story behind the Sanctum of Rall server.

very nice once again

feel free to create a new thread for each edition