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.

A mix of real and “real” news this week.

Part 1: Discussion of previous news

• Not technically Guild Wars-related, but the company from which ArenaNet’s founders started off: Blizzard, celebrates their 20th anniversary.
  “You’ll find commercials for console games stuffed into just about every 30-second nook and cranny in primetime TV. After all, the audience is sitting in front of the TV for entertainment, and if you’re a console game developer or publisher, these are your people. So when Blizzard announced that it would air an advertisement for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm during a nationally televised Dallas Cowboys vs. Minnesota Vikings game, it was unprecedented. WoW has become such a staggeringly big and widly accepted entertainment product that broadcasting the opening cinematic for Cataclysm to an audience traditionally more interested in lime-flavored beer and Madden games doesn’t sound crazy. In the PC gaming ecosystem, only Blizzard has the clout to pull that off.”
• Another WoW news item, but one that may impact other MMO games: Canada’s biggest internet service provider, Rogers Communications, has been deliberately throttling the internet connections of WoW players. “Rogers said that it was Blizzard’s use of BitTorrent to deliver updates that triggered the throttling, and said that customers who disabled this setting — as well as any other peer-to-peer applications — would not see a slowdown in speed. “

Part 2: Guild Wars news

• Creating the seven-hero vanquish team. “I run as an SoS ranger. If you’re a rit, even better. Most professions can run a decent SoS easy if you’ve got good energy management: necros, mesmers, eles, and rangers are your best bet. Dervs and Monks can pull it off with some major tweaking. You’ll struggle as a warrior, sin, or paragon, however. If you’re not an SoS, no worries. The team build I use allots for one.”
• Game update including a sneak peak at the new Guild Wars 2 profession — the Commando.
• The commandos are here. “Cpl. Bane will be stationed at Embark Beach until ~noon PDT on Monday. Speak to him before then — the very future depends on it! “

Part 3: Guild Wars 2 news

• Elixabeth at TalkTyria looks at the recently introduced Hylek: “One word has changed. The nature of the hylek really hasn’t changed at all. They are a sentient people with which we as player characters may have peaceable relations or full-on warfare. We see that they still look very much like the frog-men we’ve all come to love stomping on. Their tribal culture seems relatively unaltered. They are still more or less behind on the technology curve, since they have to trade with other sentients for weapons and other goods. The hylek are in most ways indistinguishable from the heket — which leads many people to beg the question “why change the name at all?” What purpose does this serve?”
• Another gameplay example from PAX East, this time in HD. The background crowd noise is a bit irritating, but this is a single player trying out a Guardian, so there’s some good views of individual and group combat, including recovering from the downed state and the use of chained skills.
• ArenaNet announces their convention schedule for the summer, including Comic-Con — July 20-24, 2011, Gamescom — Aug 17-21, 2011, and PAX — Aug 26 -28, 2011.
• Part 1 of an interview with Daniel Dociu, ArenaNet’s Art Director for Guild Wars 2. “The development team has grown a great deal, with the size of the art department having more than doubled. We’re currently in the mid 80s as far as number of artists on the team and that has lead to my role evolving into more of an oversight role. I still insist on art directing in a very hands-on fashion and still spend a fair amount of time getting my hands dirty creating concept art, but I also have to delegate a lot more. The lead artists and all artists in general are encouraged to contribute more of their own vision to the game. Growth is a mixed blessing as it creates a new set of difficulties: more structure is needed; more processes have to be implemented, policed, and massaged to fit our development culture. But it’s also more rewarding. The game we feel is going to be so much better. Bigger, better, and more beautiful.”
• GW2Guru’s exclusive interview with ArenaNet. “How this information has not been leaked yet, I do not know. It’s big, folks. And when I say big, I mean game changing big. Today, ArenaNet has given the go-ahead to release this information, so here goes. Given that the GW2 beta is scheduled for late August 2012, ArenaNet wanted to give everyone a head start on purchasing their iPads. Wait, what did you just say? That’s right, folks. Guild Wars 2 will be releasing exclusively to the iPad!”
• Revealing the seventh profession: the Shadowmancer! “The shadowmancer is a spell casting, scholar profession which is able to effectively prevent damage to itself by becoming invisible and invincible while at the same time dealing out considerable damage.”
• Revealing the eighth profession: the Commando! “A master of the battlefield, this elite soldier is equally at home on the mean streets of Lion’s Arch, in the steamy Maguuma Jungle, or on the Orrian front. The multi-role commando is a combat medic, an infiltrator, and a tank. By land, sea, or air, the commando is a technological force to be reckoned with. Come get some.”
• Interview with Jon Peters about the Commando. “Flamethrower is good in a variety of situations — you can create a basic flamethrower fire attack, but you can also air blast projectiles, create a burning area on the ground, or flame-jump around the map.”
• Another look at the Commando.
  “PC Gamer: The Commando’s motto is “if it bleeds, I can kill it.” If it’s, say, undead, and it doesn’t bleed, then can he still kill it?
  “Jon Peters: The good thing is that everything in the game can be bled, so that lets the Commando pretty much kill everything, but in future we may introduce some none bleeding types to see if that has any balance impact for him.”
• April Fool’s Day video from GuildMag.
• Interview with Eric Flannum on the Commando.