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.

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

• Talk Tyria: Thoughts on the Multi-Guild System. “During PAX Prime, among all of the demo and PvP playing there was also a myriad of panels from the ANet team. Most of the information wasn’t strictly news, but we did manage to snag some tidbits about the upcoming guild system. Although it is far from complete, the biggest announcement was the structuring of guilds and their relation to accounts.”
• Charr tutorial video.
• Matt Barrett on asura design. “Asura, the little goblin-y, flappy-eared tinkerer creatures… They make magic machines, right? They’re tinkerers, yes, but also intuitively powerful masters of the elemental energies surrounding them in the caverns of their native sub-Tyrian world. The talents of the asura carried their civilization through ages of harmonious existence beneath the lands of Tyria. When the destroyers forced them to the surface, their truly exotic technology and traditions flooded out and changed the world.”
• Guild Wars 2 fan community video.
• Distilled Willpower: [GW2] Asura Week: Littlest, but not Least. “As I type this I know a number of my Guild Wars buddies are eagerly sitting by their blog feed waiting for ANet to drop the first article of the much anticipated asura week. The asura have claimed a lot of attention since they were released during Gamescom — mainly due to their freaking adorable animations and fantastic character modelling — but they have a long history at their back, and that’s what I’m here to cover today.”
• Mr. Sparkles, A Tale of the Asura. “Fans have seen a lot of concept art. This is a concept story, written three years ago, when we were exploring what the Guild Wars 2 characters were like. Many of those concept stories are no longer applicable, but this one — about an asura artificer and his sylvari assistant — has hung on. There is just one change we made: Originally, the asura’s name was Gixx—he was going to be the iconic asura, before we replaced him with Zojja—but we took that name for the leader of the Durmand Priory. Short of that name change, the story stands as written in 2008.”
• Flameseeker Chronicles: The care and feeding of your PUG. “As I joined the rest of you in anxiously awaiting the beginning of Asura Week, I thought over what to discuss in this week’s Flameseeker Chronicles. Last week was the usual calm before the storm, so I was a little stuck for a topic. As is often the way, some quality time with Guild Wars and my alliance solved that problem! While I was playing last week, I was keeping an eye on a discussion in alliance chat regarding PUG groups and the frustration that some of my allies were experiencing at their virtual hands. It set me to thinking about the unusual situation PUGs find themselves in in Guild Wars, so follow along after the jump and let’s talk about it!”
• Talk Tyria: GuildWars2 Machinima: Thoughts and Suggestions. “A game’s community consists of a wide variety of aspects. Today I want to talk about a part of the extended experience offered by a game’s community: player-made videos. Otherwise known as Machinima. For years now YouTube and other video sites have been swarmed by videos of gaming footage, music video’s, series and even South Park episodes entirely created in-game. It allows players to enjoy the game in new ways as a self-sustaining part of community plus it offers free promotion to get your game out there.”
• GW2Guru: Census site updated. “The ultimate goal is to produce a website that displays useful information about popular builds and trends in the characters we play in Guild Wars 2. Eventually, ArenaNet will launch (don’t quote me) a website where we can look up character sheets from the game, similar to WoWArmory.com (which is now plugged into the World Of Warcraft official site). Once they launch this website, I’ll figure out a way to parse the data and compile it for accurate statistics. Wouldn’t it be nice to easily find out what’s the most popular build for a particular profession? That would be possible.”
• Ambition on a Grand Scale — Matt Barrett Talks Asura Environment Art. “When the asura make things, it’s not as much an exercise of craft or dexterity as it is an act of will — ambition made manifest in stone and metal. Every asuran artifact bears the imprint of their ancient masters of elemental energies. Blind adherents to ancient traditions, however, they are not: if something can be done better, they’re on it yesterday.”
• MMORPG.com: Guild Wars 2: The Cries of the Players. “I’ve had my fair share of experiences playing different types of MMOs. I traveled from one to the other, both big name developers to others that few have ever heard of. I went on this quest for years, trying to find an experience that was different, epic and actually good. When I first downloaded and played the original Guild Wars, it was like Arena Net had kidnapped me while I was sleeping, hooked me up to a machine and read my thoughts on what I wanted. It was awesome. Now, Guild Wars wasn’t perfect, but it was the closest thing I could find to what I was looking for. ArenaNet has done it yet again with Guild Wars 2, and this time they seem to be getting what I want perfectly. How did they accomplish this? Well first by breaking the mold that most MMOs follow, but what I really want to talk about is that they listen to players. They look at how people play games, why people hate playing their games and what people are expecting.”
• Secret Agent Cat: In The Mind Of Genius. “While my love for the charr is widely known (dare I say legendary?), the knowledge of my fondness for the asura may be more obscure. In this spirit I approached ArenaNet with a request for an interview about Tyria’s most diminutive of geniuses. Mister Jeff Grubb was gracious enough to enlighten this poor bookah. He also answered my questions. I tried to cover a wide variety of topics from lore to mechanics to design, and Mister Grubb did not disappoint. Enjoy!”
• Hey Bookah! Smart Asura Answers to Stupid Questions. “The asura are known throughout Tyria for their analytical approach to life and the pragmatic way they handle problems. Who is better suited to dispensing doses of wisdom to the cranially challenged than an asura advice columnist? “
• Snarky Little Geniuses – Angel McCoy on Writing the Asura. “Hi! It’s Angel Leigh McCoy, wordsmith on the Guild Wars 2 design team, and I get to tell you about the work we’re doing with the asura. The races of Tyria are each unique, in their own special-snowflake way, and the asura are the flakiest of all—which is why we love them so much!”
• Heron Prior on Animating the Asura. “My name is Heron Prior, and I’m the animation team lead for Guild Wars 2. Today, I’m going to talk a bit about the asura and explain some of the thinking and processes that went into bringing this character to life. Although they posed some unique challenges, the asura ended up being one of the animation team’s favorite races to work on, and we’re excited for players to get a closer look.”
• That Old College Try. “Rising up from their cities beneath the earth, the asura prove, time and time again, the old adage ”Difficulty is just another word for opportunity.“ From their humble beginnings among the ruins of the Tarnished Coast, the asura have risen to prominence. Their magical gates connect the major cities of Tyria, and their intelligence makes them an ally to be respected—or an enemy to be feared.”
• Hunter’s Insight: Asura DNA. “I think some of the college choices actually provide something different than simple charming attributes. It’s a more solid foundation for people thinking about their characters background. I hope this information is in the character creator, maybe a ‘more information’ button or something for those who really like to get a better idea of their choices. For people unfamiliar with Guild Wars 2 but giving it a try, I think this would be extremely helpful.”