I’ve been accumulating news snippets about the as-yet-to-be-formally-scheduled release of Guild Wars 2 for an email newsletter I send out to my friends and acquaintances in the Guild Wars community.
There’s been so much information this week, thanks to the early leak of information that ArenaNet intended to release next week at PAX East, that I’m dividing the newsletter into sections:
Part 1: Commentary on earlier information
- Economy and Consuming Goods — An interesting discussion thread about the Guild Wars economy (pro and con).
- Flameseeker Chronicles: Norn Week — Rubi Bayer rounds up her impressions of the “Norn Week” revelations.
- GuildMag‘s “Thalador Doomspeaker” talks about the Norn information we got during “Norn Week”.
Part 2: New information on Guild Wars
- The latest issue of GuildMag is now available for download.
- NCSoft is introducing new password security features for your Master Account. Check the page for details.
- Wartower.de video interview with John Stumme on the new (March 3rd) Guild Wars update. Includes information on “the Embark Beach Content Update, featuring the seven hero group, a new mission-hub, enhancements to the user interface, changes to pre-searing Ascalon, Titles and a new hero mechanic.”
- Summary of the GW2 Thief introduction and the March 3rd GW game update.
- Kill Ten Rats looks at the GW March 3rd update: “This update will change the game to such a degree that it might as well be Guild Wars 1.5 now.”
- FAQ on the new Mercenary Hero feature (where you can “hire out” your other characters as heroes — a nice, but potentially expensive, way to fill out your new seven-hero parties).
Part 3: New information on Guild Wars 2
- Localization for Guild Wars — Localizing is a big issue for software, especially one with as rich a selection of user interface options, text prompts, storylines, and all the rest of the things that set Guild Wars apart from other MMORPGs. I work in the software industry, and localization is one of the big ticket items for smaller companies (in this context ArenaNet counts as a small company).
- J. Robert King talks about the process of developing and writing Edge of Destiny, the second Guild Wars 2 tie-in novel.
- The next new GW2 class is officially theThief.
- Walkthrough of a new Norn Guardian’s first quest and dynamic event.
- A Thief packing twin pistols beats up the wildlife in a high-level area.
- A Thief demonstrates interesting attack skills, the downed skill, and being defeated during a high-level dynamic event.
- Massively reviews the new Thief profession.
- Even more on the Thief, including the importance of an attribute called Initiative: “Initiative regenerates at one point a second, which allows you to fight at a fairly consistent pace without letting you spam your strongest skills. There’s a profession ability (not tied to which weapon you’re using) called Roll For Initiative (ha!) that moves the Thief well away from his current position, while giving him an Initiative boost.”
