Flameseeker Chronicles: Community guide, part two

As information about Guild Wars 2 continues to be made available, community activity has increased greatly. The sheer number of resources can be pretty overwhelming at this point, and for a while I considered updating the original community guide.

However, there are new podcasts, fansites, images, and much more, so in the end I decided that it was more than enough to warrant a new community guide. So without further delay, I bring you Community Guide Two (go ahead and say electric boogaloo, you know you want to. I'll wait.). Hit the jump to see what's what in the Guild Wars 2 community these days.

Just a few months ago, fan podcasts were completely lacking -- it was something that I noticed when putting together the previous community guide. In the recent few months, that lack has been remedied with great enthusiasm. Podcasts have popped up everywhere:

SabreWolf's video series: Began April 30th, 2010. While it's a videocast rather than a podcast, this absolutely deserves some attention. SabreWolf has been working on this fantastic video series since the end of April, providing a new video every few days. The videos contain commentary on the latest news, wrapped up neatly in a 4-8 minute video that's perfect for those who are looking for a quick, clear overview.

Guildcast: Began May 21st, 2010. The original Guild Wars podcast, Guildcast began its first iteration over four years ago thanks to Massively's own Shawn Schuster. The show went on hiatus a while back, and after about a month's worth of background work, it returned to the podcast scene. This round of Guildcast is hosted by Shawn and co-hosted by yours truly, with a new episode airing every Friday.

Relics of Orr: Began June 14th, 2010. Relics of Orr was the next Guild Wars 2 podcast to show up, featuring Lady Sinaea -- another familiar name to the Guild Wars community -- Ryan Singleton, and Trevor Covington.

GuildMag podcast: Began June 24th, 2010. This podcast is the newest effort from the team at the (spectacularly done) digital fan magazine. They're only in episode two as of this writing, but if the podcast is as well-done as the magazine, we can expect great things.

Ryan at Relics of Orr has been hard at work pulling together a fansite listing, and it's becoming a valuable resource that I highly recommend you bookmark and keep an eye on. I want to add a few of my own favorites here as well.

Guild Wars 2 Guru: GW2G is one of my favorite sites, and deservedly so. JR and the rest of the crew over there have laid the foundation for the most well-organized, consistent site I've seen in a long time, and the community built on that foundation to turn it into one of the best resources out there. The forums are home to some great discussion, and the News, Interviews, and Articles forum is a great archive for all GW2 news.

Guild Wars Online: The other "main" fansite. The site admins recently added a blogging team, choosing from some of their most active and helpful forum members. The blog team covers current Guild Wars news, but gives plenty of attention to Guild Wars 2 news as well. The forums are home to the GWO alliance and an active discussion forum for Guild Wars 2.

Guild Wars 2 wiki: I'm calling this one a fansite, because while it's hosted by ArenaNet, the community holds the responsibility for making it what it is. This has grown from a handful of entries based on the skimpy information that we had last year to an incredibly detailed knowledge base. The Guild Wars 2 fans have worked together to make and keep the Guild Wars 2 wiki up-to-date and accurate on what is almost a daily basis.

The online presence of Guild Wars 2 has increased dramatically in recent months, and while some sites are well-known, such as the official site, it's good to have them in one place for reference.

The official Guild Wars 2 site: Remember that day last year when Guildwars2.com suddenly stopped redirecting to Guildwars.com? The excitement that flew through the community when word spread that the site now contained a logo set the stage for fans to check the site faithfully each day to see what's new.

The ArenaNet blog: This was a great idea from ArenaNet, because it's helped to bridge the gap between the ANet staff and the community. Through the blog, we've gotten to meet some of the Guild Wars 2 team and learn much more than before about the thoughts and ideas behind the scenes.

Guild Wars 2 on Facebook: The Facebook page oftentimes seems to be the last thing updated by ArenaNet, but it serves as a nice archive of official news as well as a home for some fun images from past events.

Guild Wars 2 Twitter: Community Manager Regina Buenaobra is the queen of the Twitter feed, communicating with and responding to fan questions. It's a good feed to keep an eye on -- there are lots of fun and interesting tidbits here.

There you have it! A roundup of some of the best of the best in the Guild Wars 2 community. Have a fansite you want added? Be sure to give Ryan a heads-up at Relics of Orr. Don't forget to keep an eye on Massively's Guild Wars 2 coverage as well, and I'll see you next week.