Should the Desert borderlands be removed from Guild Wars 2 World vs World? The team at Arenanet is holding a community poll and wants your opinion on whether or not the changes would provide a superior play experience. Players can log in and vote at the link below.
Vote here.
How should Arenanet prioritize world vs world content? They want to know, and they’d like you to tell them. In a post on the official website, players have been invited to vote on which project the team will work on next.
The polls are open until May 4th.
(Source: Guild Wars 2)
Ever had any interest in what goes into animating your favorite characters and bosses? In the latest episode of Guild Chat, Arenanet’s game designers discuss concepts like reusing animation rigs, how to scale bosses up to a larger size, and dealing with animation speeds. The entire video is nearly an hour and has plenty of footage of in-game animations from start to finish.
Guild Wars 2 players have reason to rejoice today, as Arenanet has launched the latest and first paid expansion to the MMO. The expansion adds a number of firsts to the game, from raids to the new mastery system, guild halls, and more. The Heart of Thorns expansion is available on the Guild Wars 2 website, while the base game is available for free for anyone interested in giving it a go.
Arenanet co-founder Mike O’Brien had the following to say about the launch:
“We energized our fans in January with the announcement of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns as the first expansion to Guild Wars 2, and we’ve seen steady growth in our player base ever since. Our community is widely recognized as one of the best and friendliest in MMOs—many of our veteran players organized in starter zones to welcome new players the weekend we made the core Guild Wars 2 game free. We’re eager to see how our fast growing community continues to flourish, and we hope they’re eager to embrace where their Guild Wars 2 journey takes them next in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.”
Since launch, over seven million accounts have been created in Guild Wars 2.
(Source: Guild Wars 2)
With Heart of Thorns right around the corner, Arenanet has announced a major change in the Guild Wars 2 business model. Starting yesterday (the 29th), anyone can now access the core game for no down payment. In the announcement, Arenanet discusses the move being partially in response to other games where the heavy list of expansions made getting into the game as a new player confusing.
We’ve seen examples in the industry where that kind of thing has gotten out of control. It doesn’t seem right, and we want to do better. As we get ready to ship our first expansion forGuild Wars 2, we want to ensure that we keep the business model friendly and simple. So let’s be clear that when we say Guild Wars 2 is buy-to-play, we’re only asking you to buy one thing: the current release, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.
What does “access the core game” mean? Well in this context, free players are limited in character and bag slots, cannot use map chat, and can only buy/sell common goods on the market. They also cannot mail items/gold, trade gold for gems, or access guild vaults. Free accounts are also limited from leaving the starting zone until level 10, from using the LFG tool until 30, and to level 60 until they can compete in world v world, to prevent players from disrupting the game.
Arenanet also promises that this change will not usher in heavy microtransaction marketing.
(Source: Guild Wars 2)
In response to recent criticism over the handling of Heart of Thorns, Arenanet has posted a comprehensive compensation and refund policy. For veteran players, Arenanet is offering a free character slot to anyone who owns the base game and pre-orders the Heart of Thorns expansion and registers it prior to launch.
The announcement that Heart of Thorns would come packaged with the base Guild Wars 2 game drew heavy fire from gamers who purchased the game following Arenanet’s warning that the expansion would not be a standalone as was the case with Guild Wars 1.
Anyone who purchased Guild Wars 2 from the official website between January 23rd and June 16th will be eligible for a full refund should they purchase Heart of Thorns also from the official website before July 31st. If you purchased the core game during that same time and no longer want to play it, Arenanet will offer a full refund.
For Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, we didn’t want the core game’s price to be a factor in a new player’s decision to begin playing Guild Wars 2. In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.
Copies purchased from third party vendors during the above period will be upgraded with the extra character slot if the expansion is pre-ordered and registered to the account prior to launch.
(Source: Arenanet)
What could be worse than having your account publicly banned on an MMO? When the developer films themself logging into your account and manually deleting your characters. Chris Cleary, game security lead over at Arenanet, did just this against a rather notable cheater, first committing suicide and then logging out and deleting his characters, all uploaded to Youtube.
Cleary posted later in the same thread that the cheater’s other accounts were banned as well. You can see the video at the link below.
(Source: Guild Wars 2)
If you still haven’t gotten around to picking up Guild Wars 2, now is the time to do so. The game is on sale for 75% off beginning today, March 6th, until the sale ends on March 8th. The sale applies only to the Digital Heroic Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition.
In other Guild Wars 2 news, a closed beta for Heart of Thorns will be up after PAX East. You can sign up for the beta on the Guild Wars 2 website.
(Source: Guild Wars 2)
It looks like our friends at Daewoo Securities knew a lot more than we gave them credit for. Today at PAX South, ArenaNet has officially confirmed the first Guild Wars 2 expansion: Heart of Thorns.
Among the list of confirmed features includes:
More on Heart of Thorns is sure to come with today’s presentation. You can find more details at the link below.
(Source: Guild Wars 2)
This weekend looks to be a big one for Guild Wars 2, and ArenaNet is kicking off with a double experience weekend and the biggest sale the game has seen yet. New players will be able to pick up Guild Wars 2 for $9.99, the cheapest the game has been in some time, while all players will be able to take advantage of double experience all weekend in-game.
On Saturday, ArenaNet will be broadcasting a special presentation titled “Beyond the Point of No Return,” featuring studio president Mike O’Brien and game director Colin Johanson. ArenaNet is expected to announce something large coming to Guild Wars 2.
(Source: NCSoft Press Release)
MMO Fallout 