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Guild Wars 2: For glory!
The second Guild Wars 2 press beta weekend has come and gone, and Massively was there every step of the way. Stay tuned throughout the day today for even more guides, impressions, videos, and Q&As to get you ready for the highly anticipated sequel to Guild Wars. A lot of my weekend was devoted to glory, both the in-game resource that you earn for competing in PvP and that distinction that you wallow in after doing something cool. The game allows for a lot of something-cools to be done, but the ones I'm presently interested in are hot-joinable PvP and the beta's one accessible dungeon.
A sneak peek at Guild Wars 2's PvP Scholar armor [Updated]
Admit it: You aren't always out just for the thrill of the experience -- you want the bling-bling to go with it. A shopping spree, with your sword playing the role of "credit card" and each corpse a potential bonanza of fashion acquisitions. That's okay; we're not here to judge you. In fact, if fancy armor gets your motor running, Guild Wars Insider has a treat for you: two pictures of Guild Wars 2's PvP Scholar armor set modeled by a majestic Norn Elementalist. While the armor may not maximize skin coverage, the detail and design is certainly fetching. These pictures were taken inside of the PvP lobbies, which are breathtaking environments all to themselves. The picture on the left was taken in the Battle of Khylo lobby. ArenaNet has been rolling out the news of Guild Wars 2's PvP system ever since Gamescom last year. [Thanks to Seven for the tip!] [Update: Guild Wars Insider has posted up additional screenshots of PvP, pets, and even more armor.]
Flameseeker Chronicles: Information overload
Early last week I had a fail-proof strategy in place for handling Gamescom. I'd diligently watch the Guild Wars 2 news coming from the event, and at the end of the week, do a nice neat wrap-up for all of you. It's OK, you can laugh -- I am. Talk about trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon! There is one thing I can wrap up for you: Last week there were ArenaNet blog posts and site updates, over a dozen interviews and articles written, nine photo galleries (one from ArenaNet), 17 video interviews, and over 100 game footage videos. So how do you even begin to process all of that, especially when you consider that there's another wave coming in just a few days? Follow along after the jump and let's take a look!
New ArenaNet dev diary outlines the making of the Battle of Kyhlo
ArenaNet's last Guild Wars 2 blog post explained the ins and outs of the Battle of Kyhlo PvP map, which will be playable later this month at PAX Prime. The team is now following up on that with a new blog post that outlines what went into the creation of the capture point-based battlefield. The post notes that "collaboration and iteration are the keys to making good games," so with that in mind, we get to hear from a veritable legion of ArenaNet devs, each reporting on his or her role in the creation of the map. We hear from Jeff Grubb on the lore of the arena, we hear from Egan Hirvela on the process of map design, and Habib Loew tells us how the programmers make it work. Then it's up to designer Nick Mhley and his designers to say things like, "You know what's cool? When you shoot the [trebuchet] and blow stuff up. But you know what would be cooler? Blowing up even more stuff!" Outstanding. Then Peter Fries, Scott McGough, and the rest of GW2's writers whip up some dialogue for the announcer and oversee the recording of the lines. Lastly, it falls to Shen-Ming Spurgeon, Mclaine Diemer, Tirzah Bauer, Chuck Knigge, and the rest of the team's visual and audio artists to bring the area to life with their super-artistic magics, followed by Tyler Bearce and the other folks in QA to make sure it works as intended. Phew, what a crowd! At any rate, for the full, uncensored details on the process involved in bringing a map such as the Battle of Kyhlo to life, head on over to the ArenaNet blog.
