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. The big news this week is the release of the second part of the “War in Cantha” content.

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.
• Massively: New Guild Wars Winds of Change content has arrived. “Guild Wars fans, have you finished the first 17 quests in Winds of Change? We hope so, because the next round has arrived! The conflict between the Ministry of Purity and the gangs of Kaineng continues with what is being called Guild Wars‘ largest content expansion to date! The focus moves from eliminating the Afflicted to watching the Ministry rise in power as its motives become more unclear.”
• Guild Wars Winds of Change Livestream with Rubi.

Part 3: Guild Wars 2 news

• GuildMag: A Bookah’s Look at Midgets. “Little bodies, amazing craniums, magnificent minds, gigantic egos. That’s the asura for you in just a few words. Last week, the rabid fans who closely watch for any signs and bits of news that leave ArenaNet regarding Guild Wars 2 were pleasantly distracted from their dreaded longing (that nearly matches the hunger of an Elder Dragon) with well thought-out and well presented articles and blog posts about this race of brilliant, tiny geniuses.”
• Norn thief in PvP.
• Inc Gamers: GeForce UK | EuroGamer Expo Colin Johanson Interview. “The fellows over at GeForce UK were able to snag Colin Johanson for a chat at EuroGamer Expo 2011 at Earl Courts, London, England. They talk about the asura, the history of the Pale tree, how the development is coming along and more!”
• Talk Tyria: Your Eurogamer Questions – Answered! “Boy-howdy, you guys sure know how to bombard a man with questions! I had a truckload to ask and I can’t guarantee that I asked them all. If I missed yours off or haven’t included it I’m very sorry but either I couldn’t find time with the devs to ask them or the answer would have been too similar to another person’s question. Oh, and I ignored all of you who asked about the release date.”
• EG Expo Editors’ Game of the Show: Guild Wars 2. “Guild Wars 2 has been selected by Eurogamer.net editorial staff as Editors’ Game of the Show at Eurogamer Expo 2011. Although still without a release date, ArenaNet and NCsoft’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game impressed with its fine polish and forward-thinking design in playable demos and at two packed developer sessions. “
• Flameseeker Chronicles: The clock is ticking. “It’s been well over a year since the Hall of Monuments was unveiled for Guild Wars 2, bringing with it a large and ongoing influx of new players. These are players who either tried Guild Wars 1 and it didn’t stick for them, or players who never tried it in the first place but are here now to prepare for Guild Wars 2. New players are great — a bigger community is often a win for everyone involved. But this new playerbase isn’t exactly what we’ve been used to. Follow along after the jump and let’s take a look.”
• GuildMag: Blog Carnival 2 | The Guild Wars 2 Guild System. “The fans have weighed in, and it’s time to check out what the community is saying about what we know so far concerning the GW2 Guild system; specifically, the ability to join unlimited guilds. We got a whopping 28 submissions for this carnival… more than three times as much as our first! How awesome is that? Very! There’s been a lot of debate and varying opinions on the issue, which is why I thought it’d be an excellent opportunity for an open discussion across the web. And have no fear, ArenaNet & friends! It would seem the reaction is overwhelmingly positive”
• Inc Gamers: ArenaNet Confirms Closed Beta This Year. “It has been known for some time that ArenaNet are looking to get the beta up and running this year but there has not been any real confirmation. Speaking to Eurogamer, ArenaNet’ lead content designer Colin Johanson confirmed that the closed Beta will get underway this year”
• GuildMag: 4 Years in the Making: Finally Playing Guild Wars 2. “Like many, since Guild Wars 2’s first announcement four years ago I have wanted to play it. Now that dream has been realised with the still surprising appearance of Guild Wars 2 and the London Eurogamer Expo. Coincidently I got to play the game four times over the two days I was there, and I shall now explain my experiences and thoughts of the game.”
• Eurogamer: Guild Wars 2 – Preview. “Guild Wars 2 was a major draw at this year’s Eurogamer Expo, and yesterday we named it as our Editors’ Game of the Show. Below, John Bedford tries out player-versus-player and discusses it with lead content designer Colin Johanson; on page 3, Robert Purchese interviews Johanson about dungeons, the endgame and Guild Wars 2‘s distinctive dynamic events.”
• Bitgamer: Guild Wars 2 Developer Interview. “You actually don’t need to know anything about the first game to appreciate Guild Wars 2. All of the history and lore of the first game is contained within the second, and we’ve made the story so it teaches you the history of the world – you never need to have played Guild Wars to understand what’s going on. That’s very important to us – we don’t want to alienate new players.”
• Guild Wars – Guild Wars 2 – High Level Asura Guardian Gameplay – Part 1 “TotalBiscuit plays around with the Asura Guardian with co-commentary from Arenanet’s Lead Content Designer”
• PC Gamer: Guild Wars 2 preview. “Guild Wars 2’s underwater combat is peculiarly responsive. Venturing below the waves in games is usually an exercise in mouse-slamming frustration; here, it’s like flying. My character moved quickly and turned on the spot, a rebreather clamped to his face meant I didn’t have to worry about oxygen supply – even the weapon-set changed, switching my Engineer’s blunderbuss for a harpoon and net combo. Given that much freedom, I was confident in my combat ability. Too confident.”
• GuildMag: Community Interview with Colin Johanson. “At GamesCom we were joined by Colin Johanson, who gave us a bit of his time to answer the questions that you submitted, but also a few that we included ourselves! Questions about professions, the sylvari and engineer lore, the Iron Forgeman, airships and much, much more pass by! Let’s get this thing started!”
• Talk Tyria: Dear people of Tyria. “First of all, I am Bamff, a genius in my own right. I am currently working on many fantastic inventions, the most current being the stealthometric module, or simply, a cloaking device that also works in reverse. And by works in reverse, I don’t mean that it is simply able to uncloak the user, but it is able render anything nearby, that is currently invisible, visible. My specialty, however, does not quite lie within the alchemagical realm. I am, moreover, focused on rapid hydrugic photosynthetical replication. To you common folk, that would basically mean farming. I study the genomagical makeup of the flora, and am able to extract long-lost magic from within. Plants are excellent windows into the past. Through generations and generations, they extract nutrients and neutromagical elements from the ground. Plants are practically timecapsules filled with magic! But I digress.”
• Charr intro cinematic
• Human and Charr customization
• Talk Tyria: Snaff, the Greatest Asura. “SPOILER ALERT! Please be forewarned that reading from this point forward is going into material covered in the book Edge of Destiny and from an impromptu Q&A with Lore Master Jeff Grubb!”
• Three part interview w/ two GW PvPers who played GW2 at PAX. Part 2. Part 3. “Welcome everybody! This is our 3rd take on expert talking and today we’re quite excited to receive two famous players who had the chance to have a hands-on with the GW2 PvP demo at Pax”
• Hunter’s Insight: Guild Wars lately. “Lately in Guild Wars I’ve been relegated to doing some pretty boring stuff. It all started back when the Hall of Monuments Calculator was released about 11 months ago. So this will be kind of a long post.”