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.

This was Sylvari Week at the official Guild Wars 2 website, so there are lots of links to official and unofficial articles about the Sylvari.

Part 1: Discussion of previous news

• If you listen to podcasts, you might want to subscribe to the Guildcast weekly podcast
• Reminder: the official Guild Wars 2 wiki is still growing, so it’s worth checking it out now and again for new information.

Part 2: Guild Wars news

• Reminder: If you’d like to keep track of the Guild Wars Beyond material, keep this page bookmarked.
• Reminder: Guild Wars official support forum. Here is the FAQ page for the forums.

Part 3: Guild Wars 2 news

• Should Guild Wars 2 have official forums? “This has been brought up a few times on fan-run forums over the years, but I noticed that the discussion never really took off and there didn’t seem to be much thought from the OPs. It’s certainly something I’ve mused over several times as well. I’ve always been a forum fan for any game I’ve played, some more than others. As such, I am personally in favor of official forums and can’t help but curiously suspect that the recently released GW1 support forums may be an attempt to test the waters.”
• Flameseeker Chronicles: PvP in flux. “The Flux effect, if you’re not familiar with it, is a regularly changing environmental effect that is present in PvP areas. It changes the damage you give or receive based on varying factors such as movement, profession, death penalty, and so on. It’s been a big deal in the PvP community, serving to shake up the meta a bit and keep things interesting. Now that we’ve had several months to settle into it, I took the opportunity to chat with a few PvP players about Flux. Follow along after the jump to see what they had to say!”
• Kristen Perry on Designing and Redesigning the Sylvari. “Every race in Guild Wars 2 started with a simplified description—a way to describe the essence of the people in a sentence or less. The sylvari description was pared down to just three words: noble, beautiful, plant. In the past, our design iterations would always lean towards one or two of these descriptors, but in the end we really wanted to have a race that would represent all three characteristics clearly. I began to develop an alternate version of the race on my own at night, while preparing for our debut in gamescom 2010 by day. “
• Hunter’s Insight: Sylvari Redesign Win. “Several months ago Arenanet let slip that they were redesigning the sylvari. It seemed pretty late into development to be doing so and to be honest I didn’t see the point. The old sylvari design seemed well done. The colours were a bit monotone, some of the plant characteristics seemed a bit tacked on, but they looked nice and in some cases, quite cute.”
• The Sylvari Soul – Angel McCoy on Writing the Sylvari. “All the races of Guild Wars 2 are fun to write, but sylvari rank in the top three for me. I love how their virtue blends with their innocence and then contrasts with the darkness of the world surrounding them. This disparity illuminates the sacrifices, gallantry, and tragedies of Tyria’s war with the dragons. Remarkably, the sylvari race didn’t come into existence until 25 years ago (in game years) when the twelve firstborn awoke. Since then, new sylvari have continued to awaken on a regular basis, their numbers growing as time advances.”
• Hunter’s Insight: Hot Plant On Plant Action. “The challenges of creating a new race must be fairly unique. You know when starting out to make a dwarf race that they will be grumpy, gruff, hardy, drunk, and stubborn. An elf will be elegant, civilized, educated, and proper. Humans will be… humans. So when Arenanet set out to make a new race for Guild Wars 2, I think they made an interesting choice in making the race a brand new one to Tyria. It allows players to encounter sylvari at nearly the same time as NPCs in a way. Few entire races spring up before an audiences eyes. So already they were starting from an original place, but they still needed to differentiate.”
• Growing the Sylvari video.
• Updated official Sylvari page. “The sylvari are an enigma. Humanoid in form, plantlike in nature, they are recent arrivals in Tyria and have roamed the world for only twenty-five years. They are all born of a single parent—the mighty Pale Tree that dominates the Tarnished Coast. They are bound together with a common origin and a shared dream. No one knows why they have suddenly appeared in Tyria, least of all the sylvari themselves, and they seek to discover their purpose in the world. Of all the races, they have the greatest appreciation of the danger posed by the Elder Dragons; the sylvari battle the undead minions of Zhaitan on a regular basis.”
• Casual is as casual does: Why Do Sylvari Have Boobs? Or, Sexual Dimorphism in Guild Wars 2. “Now that the sylvari have made their grand re-entrance in numerous articles in gaming news, this is a question that has been popping up as those who haven’t been following GW2 (or simply not following as rabidly as others) get exposed to this new race. So, why is it, folks wonder, that a race of sentient plant people whose bodies are mere illusions of humanoid forms, have secondary sex characteristics such as breasts (or beards; nobody seems to ask why sylvari have beards)?”
• Under the Pale Tree: Sylvari – Incorruptible? “But there was something from the blog post about writing the sylvari that also stood out to me. Essentially, sylvari lack the prejudices and that the other races have. They have a strong sense of honor, and stand by it. They’re highly curious and wish to experience all they can. And while sylvari are capable of love and loving (in all manners of the terms), they do not reproduce, and hence do not subscribe to human-style gender roles. Who they love is not defined by gender”
• Hunter’s Insight: Are Sylvari Unique? “I’ll admit what many are saying. The sylvari resemble elves or dryads, especially at first glance. What happens when you go beyond the first glance though? It’s easy to generalize and compare sylvari to basic concepts, but do they compare similarly when you go into detail?”
• IGN: Guild Wars 2: The Sylvari. “The Sylvari in Guild Wars 2 are a fascinating race that seem to draw upon several traditional fantasy races — elves, nymphs, dryads — but the Sylvari’s design and situation are unique. Originally planned to be humanoids adorned with leaves and branches, now they’re actually made of plant materials. Hair is replaced by rough branch-like structures jutting from their heads, or sprouting leaves cascading down their backs. A collection of leaves and wooded textures that form their eyebrows and cheekbones, and muscles clothes are replicated with wood grain and draped foliage. “
• Talk Tyria: Sylvari Lore Interview with Ree Soesbee & Kristen Perry. “We here at TalkTyria are excited to bring you guys our first interview with ArenaNet! The lovely ladies Ree Soesbee (Lore & Continuity) and Kristen Perry (Character Artist) were kind enough to answer some of our questions regarding the mysterious sylvari, their emerging place in Tyria, and a few other tib-bits regarding the story of Guild Wars.”
• Greibach’s Normal Form: Sylvari Culture- Preconceived Notions. “This week has proven to be a very excellent source of information about our favorite plant-race, the Sylvari. While I found the first day’s contribution of the new design to be interesting, I was actually the most interested in the article that came out today and yesterday on the blog. We got a much more in-depth analysis of the teachings of the Sylvari, their place in the world, and of the Nightmare Court. It’s time to go over their strange history and go down speculation lane.”
• (Possibly) the first image of a Guild Wars 2 PvP map.
• Hunter’s Insight: Guild Wars 2 PvP Map Possibly Leaked. “Guild Wars 2 will have a 3 faction open PvP format called World vs World in which 3 servers fight for control of keeps, resources, and a central location. You’ll be able to jump in at any level, and the numbers of people involved have been quoted as being as many as perhaps 500 or more.”
• Dream and Nightmare. “The sylvari are the youngest race in Guild Wars 2, awakened with the rise of the new age in Tyria. They may be unfamiliar with the world, but they have dreamed of it, and they share a rich and compelling vision that guides their path. From the day of their awakening, each sylvari feels called to defend the land and fight the Elder Dragons. They are united in this purpose beneath their mother, the Pale Tree.”