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.

More stuff from GamesCom 2011 last week and the start of more information in time for PAX Prime this weekend.

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

• Guildmag: GamesCom roundup day 3.
• Guildmag: Gamescom screenshots — characters. “As part of the Gamescom press package, ArenaNet released a set of new screenshots for our enjoyment. Due to some technical issues, we’ve been a little slow getting them up ourselves, so if you’ve been looking at our Roundups you’ll probably have already seen them. But you’ll probably have seen them in the form of dozens of images competing with each other for attention in a gallery.”
• Bringing the World of Tyria to Life — Guild Wars 2 Q&A video with Ree Soesbee.
• Guildmag: PvP interview with Jon Peters. “Before we went to GamesCom last week, we promised you to keep you up to date with our findings throughout GamesCom, sadly we ran into some internet problems and were not able to bring you any stuff while we were there. However, since we were not able to upload any stuff before, this means that we still got tons of content to share with you!”
• Guild Wars 2 at GamesCom. “Well it’s been a mad week and I made it back from Gamescom in one piece. There’s a lot to catch up on with regards to what was on show this year as ArenaNet were showing quite a few new features such as the PvP, character customisation and the Sylvari. I am in the process of sifting through all the coverage from this year’s GamesCom but I will say that on Wednesday I saw a total of seven MMOs which are still to come out and I can safely say that Guild Wars 2 is THE one to watch, it was by far the most impressive based on what ArenaNet were showing at Gamescom. I think if you’re waiting for GW2 over any other MMO the wait will be worth it. I was pretty much blown away by the quality of the game and I saw a lot of MMOs at the show.”
• Massively: Guild Wars 2‘s crafting system detailed and demonstrated. “Guild Wars 2 fans, it’s time to get out your smithing hammers and fire up your forges. Freshly imported from Gamescom 2011 is a new video outlining Guild Wars 2’s crafting system. The game offers eight different professions, and — like many other MMOs — you are granted your choice of two of those professions at any given time.”
• Interview with Eric Flannum video.
• Interview with Colin Johanson video.
• GuildMag: Lore interview with Ree Soesbee. “This interview also gives us a second confirmation that the Dominion of Winds itself will not be accesible at the release of Guild Wars 2, but we might still be spotting some tengu outside of their walls!”
• Gamespot PvP Walkthrough video. “A new video showing the PvP that was on show at Gamescom has been released by Gamespot. This was the same PvP zone that was shown on the press briefing and it did look pretty cool. As you know by now, this PvP is more in the style of an FPS with individual servers which can be selected from the a list of current games. I’ll go more into this in my report which is incoming shortly but give this video a watch as it does explain how the system will work.”
• GuildMag: Tirzah Bauer PvP level design interview. “Tirzah was kind enough to take a break from the ESL booth and answer us a few questions about the PvP maps. Tirzah is one of the level designers at ArenaNet. We talk about the symmetry and development of the maps and the inspiration for their theme. See the video interview below, we hope you enjoy.”
• Talk Tyria: GamesCom 2011 — Day 3. “PvE: Pleasure your ears and eyes, for glory. Given an early headstart we were able to place our beloved cameraman MeWulf and his camera behind one of the stations. Because of this we’re proud to present a full playsession of the Norn starter area in 1080p direct-audio, this time without the sound distortion”
• Flameseeker Chronicles: Information overload. “Early last week I had a fail-proof strategy in place for handling Gamescom. I’d diligently watch the Guild Wars 2 news coming from the event, and at the end of the week, do a nice neat wrap-up for all of you. It’s OK, you can laugh — I am. Talk about trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon! There is one thing I can wrap up for you: Last week there were ArenaNet blog posts and site updates, over a dozen interviews and articles written, nine photo galleries (one from ArenaNet), 17 video interviews, and over 100 game footage videos. So how do you even begin to process all of that, especially when you consider that there’s another wave coming in just a few days? Follow along after the jump and let’s take a look!”
• Kill Ten Rats: It takes a village to raise an MMO. “The one thing that I will commend ArenaNet for in this pre-release hype-building phase is that they are illustrating the time, work, and love that is being poured in to each ounce of Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet could do the simple thing and just prop up the charismatic Colin Johanson with a video blog. Maybe ask him to wear sunglasses, only black shirts, and sport an English accent to make it seem like developers are all rock-stars, but that’s not real. What is real is hearing from all the people that it takes to make one small part of a video game. In the latest ArenaNet blog post they do just that.”
• MMORPG.com: Gamescom interview with Colin Johanson. “During last week’s Gamescom in Germany, MMORPG.com‘s John Milburn had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Arena.Net’s Colin Johanson about all things Guild Wars 2. It’s an entertaining and enlightening interview that is not to be missed. Keep reading for our exclusive Gamescom Interview with Colin Johanson.”
• Talk Tyria: Is ArenaNet doing enough? “Is ArenaNet casting their net wide enough and educating gamers on GW2‘s mechanics and their own philosophy and design goals? Because I felt that the overarching problem was the lack of awareness of the game’s mechanics and the design philosophy. Granted, it’s not completely ANet’s fault — heck I don’t even know if it’s their fault because GW2 is the only other highly hyped MMO besides SWTOR — because the guest speakers should have gone to brush up on GW2 news.”
• Hunter’s Insight: Asura emotes. “One thing that has come out about asura that makes them one of my top choices for a race in Guild Wars 2 is their animations. “
• Talk Tyria: Guilds and Alliance Wishlist for Guild Wars 2. “One of our writers, Distilled, wrote a great blog post* on the state (or lack thereof) of guild information for GW2. That reminded me that I had this one sitting in pending for months. In a game called Guild Wars, one would expect that the “guild” would play an large role within its world. Certainly, GW puts a big emphasis on the importance of this classic MMO brotherhood by offering halls with purchasable upgrades, a large selection of environments, and a few PvP options such as GvG tournaments and alliance battles only accessible through your hall. Unlike other MMOs, it’s very rare you find an unguilded player in GW.”
• ArenaNet’s PAX Prime plans. “PAX is here! We’ve planned a three-day weekend packed full of Guild Wars 2 goodness. If you’re attending the Penny Arcade Expo in sunny Seattle, WA this weekend, you will definitely want to read this blog post, which will answer your GW2 PAX FAQs!”
• Hunter’s Insight: Customizing Your Asura Afro. “I talked a bit about customization when I posted the Videos You Have To See post last week. I just wanted to throw up this video of a much more extensive look at customization for all races. You’ll get to see virtually every option for every race completed so far. The game is still in friends & family beta, so keep in mind many options are missing.”
• Secret Agent Cat: Pelt Watch, The Ultimate Part 1. “Last year when I made my first Pelt Watch post I had no idea it would be as popular as it became. Granted, its popularity is pretty much completely thanks to ArenaNet Community Manager Regina Buenaobra linking to it on twitter. (Thanks for that btw) Even beyond the official noteriety though, I figured that since I can spend the lion’s share of my playtime basically playing with character customization, perhaps there’s some other people out there who feel the same. So I continue Pelt Watch. And today I bring you a chart of the pelts that started it all. The beastly, the ferocious, the often bloodthirsty and surprisingly loyal, the male charr.”
• The Guild Counsel: I’m just a number. “Sometimes it seems that numbers dominate MMOs. We play in worlds that are filled with stat-based items, resists, crits, parses, rankings, heck, even little tech issues like framerate and latency often come into play. After a while, you start to wonder if you’ve somehow turned into Cypher from the Matrix, able to see things in the steady stream of green numbers. But the most worrisome of all the numbers comes up when members of your guild feel like one. There are several ways that this issue can manifest itself, and it always leads to people feeling alienated and frustrated, and at its worst, it can lead to a complete breakdown of a guild. In this week’s Guild Counsel, let’s crank up the Bob Seger, look at some of the ways that members end up feeling like just a number, and focus on how to avoid it.”
• Hunter’s Insight: Hints of guild info. “I was cruising around the Guild Wars 2 Guru forums to see if I had missed anything major at gamescom or PAX so far. In one thread I came across a user, Rehnahvah Gahro, who had watched this video and seen this pop up on screen.”