We still don’t know when the game will be launching, but at least we can finally stop throwing wads of cash at the monitor … Our summary of the details at GuildMag:

It seems as things are slowly coming together, today, ArenaNet has released an image detailing the contents of three of their launch versions of Guild Wars 2: the Collector’s Edition ($149.99), Digital Deluxe ($79.99) and the Digital Edition ($59.99). You can start purchasing these versions of the game starting April 10th on a special dedicated page on the Guild Wars 2 website

My weekly column at GuildMag is up: This week in Guild Wars 2. There was no major news from ArenaNet — although sure as fate, something will be announced right after I post — but there’s lots of articles, videos, and podcasts from the fan community.

I liked this video, and not just because the ranger in the game footage is a clone of my own ranger, Raphia Naon.

My weekly column at GuildMag is now posted: http://www.guildmag.com/this-week-in-guild-wars-2-12. This week, there’s less raw gameplay footage from the press closed beta weekend and more analysis and further spectulation as we wait for the next Guild Wars 2 beta event later in March. More than a million eager players are watching their email inboxes for one of those treasured beta invitations (although a million applied, ArenaNet is inviting an unspecified number to take part in the next beta event).

After the leap of faith, I’d posted a recounting of my most recent vanquish in Guild Wars to Facebook and thought one or two of you might be interested…

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My weekly column on news, commentary, podcasts, and videos from the Guild Wars 2 world is now up at GuildMag.com. This week’s column is somewhat truncated, as much of the news was being tracked on an ongoing basis in an aggregation post that Dutch and I began on Monday and Dutch has been adding to over the last few days.

Beta requests were approaching one million (the counter was still spinning when I grabbed this screenshot) and the site had issues keeping up:

They extended the beta request period for just long enough to break the one million barrier.

There’s been so much material posted after the ArenaNet closed beta test event last weekend that there’s no way to summarize it. Over at GuildMag, Dutch Sunshine has been aggregating everything into a very long post (probably the most comprehensive list out there, he said modestly). I helped out with gathering material on Monday, and Dutch has been busy since then, adding more and more to the list.

Top-posting Update: The beta program is being widened. You can apply to join the next phase of the Guild Wars 2 beta at beta.guildwars2.com. No guarantees that you’ll get in, however, as they will be looking for people with various hardware configurations and (probably) different gaming backgrounds. Also note that this is not an open beta: it’s a closed beta and you have to sign (and be governed by) a non-disclosure agreement — which means the first rule of Guild Wars 2 beta is that you don’t talk about it if you’re in. Beta FAQ page is here. <End of update>

Just to give a sense of the (overwhelmingly positive) press reaction to their weekend access, here’s Sardu at Ten Ton Hammer:

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I’ll be busy for much of this morning, working on a big aggregation post over at GuildMag (Dutch Sunshine is the author, I’m just assisting in the background). Today is when the press embargo will lift for this past weekend’s press beta event. I’ll eventually update this post with information from there.

Update: Of course, we’ve been so busy with the aggregation that I didn’t even notice a typo in the headline for several hours…

Update, the second (21 February): I really had intended to come back and update this post with some of the highlights from the beta event, but there is literally too much material to go through. Dutch Sunshine and I worked all of yesterday, and we’re still finding more to add to the post today (actually, Dutch is doing that … today isn’t a holiday for me). All I can recommend is going to the updated post at GuildMag for what I believe to be the most comprehensive collection of links.

My weekly column on news, commentary, podcasts, and videos from the Guild Wars 2 world is now up at GuildMag.com.

There’s a massively informative article up on the ArenaNet blog discussing the “World versus World” PvP format, including lots of details about how up to 300 players will be able to contribute to their side’s efforts regardless of each player’s current experience level:

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My weekly column on news, commentary, podcasts, and videos from the Guild Wars 2 world is now up at GuildMag.com.

My weekly column on news, commentary, podcasts, and videos from the Guild Wars 2 world is now up at GuildMag.com.

This week’s column on news, commentary, podcasts and videos from the Guild Wars 2 world is now up at GuildMag.com.

I’m very excited that the folks at ArenaNet have finally announced when their Guild Wars 2 open beta program will start (and confirmed that the game will be released later in 2012):

Guild Wars 2 has captured the imagination of gamers and media all over the world with its action-oriented combat, its living world full of dynamic events, its highly personalized role-playing experience, and the handcrafted artistry that suffuses every element of the game. Last year, thousands of you joined us at shows and events all over the world to try Guild Wars 2 for yourself. This year, you’ll finally be able to immerse yourself in the vast, diverse world of Tyria.

We recently finished our first closed beta test, and we’re now ready to hold progressively larger events. In February we’ll invite select press to participate in beta testing, and in March and April we’ll aggressively ramp up the size of our beta test events so that many of you will have a chance to participate. And of course, this all leads to the release of Guild Wars 2 later this year.

I’m very eager to finally get my hands, so to speak, on the game I’ve been reporting on for over a year both here and more recently on GuildMag (I haven’t been able to get to any of the shows where ArenaNet has had demo sessions running, so video clips on YouTube have been all I’ve seen).

Update, 24 January: A comment from ArenaNet Community Manager Martin Kerstein to clarify that it’s not an “open” beta as many of us were assuming:

We purposely didn’t use the term “Open Beta”, we mentioned Beta Events. To some people Open Beta means unlimited access to the game and everybody on the interwebs can play it. This is not what we will do.

We will do Beta Weekend Events. Those of you who played Guild Wars might already be familiar with the concept. It means that many of you (like the blogpost says) will get a chance to participate in specific Events, but access won’t be unlimited – there will be some kind of selection criteria and the beta period will usually start on a Friday and end on the following Sunday.