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 game is still in closed alpha testing, and no substantive new information has leaked out about when the closed beta will begin. We’re still expecting it “by the end of the year”, based on the original announcement.
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 Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and EotN 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.
- Guild Wars Account Restorations. “We are pleased to announce that in the process of developing tools for Guild Wars 2, our programming team has created a tool that will provide limited restoration options for existing Guild Wars accounts. In the past, account restorations or roll-backs were not technologically possible. With the development of the new tool, our Support Team is ready to move forward with account restorations on a case-by-case basis.”
- NCsoft sale – Half off on the GW 1 trilogy + Eye of the North. “This coming weekend, NCsoft is offering the original Guild Wars 1 trilogy and the expansion Eye of the North for half price.”
Part 3: Guild Wars 2 news
- ActionJack321’s “Can I Play GW2“ comic gallery.
- Flameseeker Chronicles: Memory lane and the delights of anticipation. “The clock is ticking — 2011 is winding down (less than six weeks left!) and Guild Wars 2 fans everywhere have closed beta on the brain. This news has been out there for a very long time, but just to eliminate any confusion, I’ll go straight to a recent quote from Martin Kerstein: “We will enter CBT before the end of the year, and depending on the results we get from it, we will decide on Open Beta and Launch.” The phrase “small closed beta” has also been tossed around, so I seriously doubt ArenaNet plans to go all BioWare on us and start slinging hundreds of thousands of keys in every direction. (Of course, Star Wars: The Old Republic is exactly one month out from launch at this point, and Guild Wars 2 is definitely not.)”
- Jim Boer on the Evolution of Cinematic Conversations. “One of the things we game developers always have to struggle with is reconciling our ambition with the reality of a production environment. In the case of our cinematic conversations, there’s certainly been a significant challenge in designing a system that not only meets all of our design requirements, but that is also realistic enough in scope to allow us to meet our production goals.”
- Hunter’s Insight: Comparing Conversations. “I read the latest Arenanet blog post and while it is interesting, it isn’t anything they haven’t spoken about before. It did trigger a few thoughts however. I’ve been thinking about the Guild Wars 2 cinematics in comparison to Star Wars: The Old Republic.”
- G4TV: In The Booth With The Guild Wars 2 Voice Actors – The MMO Report. “There’s been a lot of talk about all the hours of voice acting Star Wars: The Old Republic had to record for their game, but there are a few other MMOs with just as much vocalization. Guild Wars 2 has been recording voice-over for the past 3 years and they’re just now approaching the finish line. On this very special Thanksgiving edition of The MMO Report Casey Schreiner will part the curtain and show you what it takes to voice a cast of thousands for one of the most anticipated MMOs, while simultaneously trying to shoehorn himself into the game. Happy Turkey Day!”
This Guild Wars 2 information is already stated at all the major fan sites but thanks anyways 😛 Bookmarking your blog!
Comment by John Kim — November 26, 2011 @ 21:39
Well, yes, as this is a summary of what was published last week, it’s clearly not going to be breaking any really new stuff except for the odd item that gets posted late Friday night. I’ve been doing this weekly summary for the folks in my guild and alliance who don’t check the fan sites regularly.
Comment by Nicholas — November 27, 2011 @ 10:21