Guild Wars 2
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Music MMO Anthymn rebrands and preps Kickstarter campaign
After falling well short of fundraising goals in 2013, music-focused Anthymn is gearing up for another shot at a Kickstarter campaign in the near future. The title has rebranded itself as Maestros of the Anthymn, and according to its Facebook page, it is getting ready to make the case for crowdfunding. "To all of our amazing friends and fans -- we are proud to formally announce the name of our upcoming Kickstarter project," String Theory posted. "Welcome to Maestros of the Anthymn, a groundbreaking episodic adventure of song, sword, and sorcery for PC and Mac. Stay tuned later today for our big update on the game, our vision and what's next for the Kickstarter launch plans!" It is unclear whether or not Anthymn will be retaining its MMO focus or going another route entirely with this rebranding. The original concept was for an entire fantasy world where music and magic infused entire nations and where every class had a musical focus and theme.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Is 2015 the Guild Wars 2 expansion year?
Way back in the ancient era of 2013, I wrote an article about why I thought Guild Wars 2 could use one of those fancy expansion doodlehoppers MMORPGs tend to get after they've been running for a while. You might not be surprised to learn that my opinions have changed only slightly since then, and mostly in the direction of, "Yes, GW2 really does need an expansion pack." If GW2 fans have sounded a little like hungry baby birds repeatedly peeping, "Expansion!" for the past couple of months, it's not without reason: The most recent NCsoft financial report conference call reportedly contained hints at expansion plans, and ArenaNet seems to have something mysterious in the works for PAX South this year. But are there any real reasons to think that we might be getting an expansion announcement in 2015 when we've gotten our hopes up to no avail before?
Guild Wars 2's Season 2 finale is past the point of no return
Guild Wars 2 is gearing up for the finale of its Living World Season 2 story arc. "With Glint's egg still missing, Tyria's heroes must rally their allies and prepare the pact fleet as they begin to launch an assault against Mordremoth," ArenaNet says in its latest press blurb. Players will ultimately face "a decisive moment" during the finale, which is probably why ANet dubbed the update "Point of No Return." Be sure and catch the teaser clip just beyond the break.
Guild Wars 2 hosts a Wintersday twitter contest this week
The holiday season is over. It's over. We're done. But you could still win some stuff from Guild Wars 2 if you're willing to slap some stencils up on your window. The team behind the game is hosting a Twitter-based contest this week, starting today and running until January 9th, with one lucky winner each day receiving a Griffon Mail Carrier. How can you win? Put some Guild Wars 2-themed stencils up on your window of choice, take a picture, and tweet it to the main Twitter account for the game this week with the hashtags #GW2 and #Wintersday. For those not feeling terribly creative, there are pre-made stencils available to fulfill the requirements. Sure, maybe you're happy to have the holiday decorations taken down, but if you want that mail carrier, you'll get to it. There's still time to enter the other Wintersday contests as well, although those are a little more elaborate; you can read the full details on the contests page.
Last Week on Massively: The fastest way to lose $1500 in an MMO
This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post. This week, a player in EVE Online, most likely someone involved in an RMT deal, managed to kick off the new year right: by getting his unprotected ship and its cargo, $1500 worth of PLEX that didn't need to be transported that way to begin with, blown to smithereens. Is there an MMO Darwin award yet? Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories, though I promise that none will make you facepalm as hard as this one.
Guild Wars 2 looks to the future at PAX South
If you're a Guild Wars 2 fan and live in the right region to head to PAX South, you're in for a treat. Director Colin Johanson and ArenaNet president Mike O'Brien will be taking on a panel for the game on January 24th, one ominously titled Beyond the Point of No Return. And what will they be discussing? Waypoints, possibly! Sure, the actual panel description doesn't include any mention of waypoints, but it also doesn't specifically rule out talking about waypoints. Actually, the panel will discuss the framework for the next phase of updates for the game, teasing that "the Living World was just the beginning." There's also the promise of a sneak peek at what comes next, which could mean expansions, new areas, new standalone titles... almost anything. Short version: If you're a fan, you will want to be at that panel next month. [Thanks to Dystopiq for the tip!]
One Shots: Ignore physics and jump already!
Out of all of the reality-bending game mechanics that we deal with in MMOs on a regular basis, I'd have to say that my immersion is the most broken when I jump from fantastic heights and walk away with nary a crushed spine to show for it. And this particular diving board in Guild Wars 2 that's like 300 feet above the water? Yeah, diving goggles aren't going to help you with squat. But jump anyway! Reader Mike took the plunge: "While playing my Norn Warrior, I found something I never saw before. Just above one of the waypoints in Lion's Arch is a diving platform! The kind people at ArenaNet even had goggles and a swimsuit for you to put on before you take that massive dive into the cold waters below. It was so funny I just had to send it to you." Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots!
One Shots: Grim Raider
"Here's my Guild Wars 2 Necromancer haunting the countryside of Divinity's Reach, bleeding and poisoning souls to fuel his demonic rituals and Necromancing zealotry," Russel announced, as if that was the sort of thing that you can say in polite society. Actually, as a fellow Necro, I have to say that I agree with looking the part. You got to have a skulls motif; there's no way around it. Way to commit to the role! Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots!
One Shots: A prince among men
Trust me, we're getting somewhere with putting out all of these neglected screenshot submissions from earlier this year! Today's attractive One Shot comes from reader Skorry, who can't help but look amazing anywhere he goes. "I took a break from adventuring to admire the artwork inside the Central Plaza in Divinity's Reach with my elementalist, Mirka Wallace," Skorry writes. "I swung my camera around and, through the oddities of Guild Wars 2's third-person view, found I had randomly struck a fantastic view of him standing in front of the Royal Palace. Massive screenshotting ensued. In my opinion, this was the best of the lot, just a pretty noble boy posing regal in the symbol of Krytan majesty." Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots!
One Shots: Mandy the Christmas Whale
Last year in our household we started up a new tradition, the legend of Mandy the Christmas Whale. Mandy, I told my children, was a green-and-red whale with lights on her tail that would swim through the first snow of the year to deliver cookies to the bedsides of good little boys and girls. Sometimes she even brought a snowsuit (an actual suit of snow) when it came to houses in warmer climes. Maybe reader James' Guild Wars 2 picture here isn't of Mandy, but one never knows what she might look like in disguise during the other days of the year. Have you been good enough to deserve cookies lately? Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots!
Flameseeker Chronicles: Crafting up a storm in Guild Wars 2
Merry Wintersday! Guild Wars 2's non-denominational twinkly winter celebration is in full swing. Despite earlier reports from ArenaNet that we'd get pure repeats of both Halloween and Wintersday, this year has added some new quests and a thematically appropriate relocation to Divinity's Reach. I was wrong last week about the sad Dickensian atmosphere of ruined Lion's Arch decorated with snowflakes, but there are still plenty of unfortunate children, so it all evens out. As your resident Scrooge, I'm going to skirt around the topic of candy canes and jumping puzzles to talk about a game feature that's much closer to my heart: crafting. However, I come to lob snowballs at GW2's crafting system, not to praise it.
Win part of a $50,000 pool at Guild Wars 2's PAX East tournament
Fancy yourself a not-half-bad PvP player? Are you keen on the notion of winning enough money to avoid work or school for a year so that you can concentrate on MMO gaming? Then step right up to Guild Wars 2's World Tournament Series Championship at PAX East next spring, where the winners will dip into a $50,000 prize pool. The tournament will take place on March 7th, 2015, at the gaming convention in Boston. Players from several countries are welcome to face off against each other, although teams will have to compete and win in earlier qualifiers to make it to the championship. You'll have to be at least 18 and from the US, Canada, Mexico, or the EU to participate. A cool perk of making it to the championship is that ArenaNet will foot the bill for teams' airfare, hotel, and a per diem.
WoW and FFXIV see boosted playtime on Raptr; ArcheAge playtime 'cratered'
Another month, another Raptr report. Yesterday Raptr.com posted its most played PC games list for November, and MMOs did rather well. Unsurprisingly, World of Warcraft surged up the list to #2 thanks to the Warlords of Draenor expansion. "The MMO's monthly play time was up 71.3% versus October," Raptr's press release says. And though WoW "likely" drew from League of Legends' numbers, it couldn't quite usurp the MOBA's #1 seat. Among other MMOs, ArcheAge playtime "cratered by 39.97%," but World of Tanks and Final Fantasy XIV both saw rises in theirs. Guild Wars 2 rose in rank, Raptr says, but lost playtime in November vs. October. SWTOR fell two places since October. As always, Raptr roundups come with the caveat that they represent Raptr users on PC, not all gamers; some MMO studios are also known to boost their Raptr numbers with in-game incentives. But since some of these games refuse to release population data, you might call this the next best snapshot of popularity outside of touring the servers yourself.
Guild Wars 2 kicks off Wintersday events
The event avalanche of Guild Wars 2's Wintersday has gotten up to full speed and is currently roaring down upon the game's population. Today's update activates the previous years' Wintersday content as well as a few new additions. There's the Wondrous Workshop to explore, jumping puzzles, bell choir minigames, the Snowball Mayhem battle royale, and a quest to track down Grawnk to get a Wintersday tree for home instances. The patch also activates a couple of PvP events, new Wintersday-themed cash shop cosmetics, the daily login rewards, and the latest overhaul of the daily achievement system.
Guild Wars 2 celebrates the holidays with a player murder spree
Don't get too comfy and cozy with that hot cocoa and crackling fire; Guild Wars 2 is calling all fighters to arms for epic PvP conflict over the next month. Today, the team posted details for the game's two upcoming PvP events, both starting tomorrow and ending on January 13th. The fun and casualties begin with the WvW Sneak Attack event, which will change some of the established rules for this setting to make it harder to see who is attacking what and give a bonus to experience and rewards earned. Then the team is testing out a PvP ladder season, with prizes such as mini llamas and glorious hero's armor pieces to those who kick and claw their way up the rankings.
Last Week on Massively: Zombies incoming
This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post. SOE announced this week that its post-apoc zombie survival sandbox MMO (do we have an acronym for that yet?) H1Z1 will enter early access testing on January 15th. Like Landmark's beta before it, H1Z1's early access represents a serious test phase, says studio boss John Smedley. Tickets for early entry will run you just under 20 bucks. And don't forget Massively's ongoing 2014 awards, the first seven of which have already been announced. We're leading up to our MMO of the year on Friday! Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories.
Perfect Ten: Looking back at the biggest MMO news of 2014
Well, my chums, here we are at the tail-end of 2014, having achieved all of our goals and new year's resolutions. Even better, we've survived what's turned out to be one of the wildest, rockiest, and most exciting years of MMO news in recent memory. This was the year of high-profile game launches, even more popular expansions, layoffs, and some epic-level studio face-palming decisions. It's easy to sit here and say that we predicted everything that was going to happen this year, but c'mon, you have to admit that you were surprised by at least one or two events in this industry. It's incredibly difficult to sum up the biggest news of the year without coming to grips with the fact that many stories aren't one-and-done; a lot of what I'm going to be talking about in this list happened over the course of weeks or months and still may not be fully over. That's how news stories are sometimes!
Guild Wars 2 is revamping dailies... again
ArenaNet has just announced that it's revamping Guild Wars 2's daily achievements... again. "We want to give players the opportunity to try things they may not normally experience and feel like the rewards they earn for doing so mean something," says the studio. "Rather than [give] a generic reward for all achievements, each one will give players something that is thematically tied to the content they're playing." Completing dailies will allow players to earn everything from achievement points to fractal relics and badges of honor, depending on the daily's difficulty and type (PvE, PvP, WvW). The studio is also rolling out a new achievement track that replaces the old monthlies system and rewards players just for logging in. "One way to think of this is like a holiday calendar that gives you a new present from ArenaNet each day," the devs write. "There are 28 individual rewards on the track, each one building toward an epic chest containing a permanent 1% increase to account gold find and your choice of either ascended crafting materials, materials necessary for crafting your legendary weapon (including mystic clovers), an additional sum of laurels, or tomes of knowledge." Yesterday, the studio revealed that the ongoing season two plotline will be on hiatus through the holidays, being replaced by Wintersday. Season two resumes on January 13th.
Guild Wars 2 season 2 to continue on January 13th
The living world episodes for Guild Wars 2 are taking a month off for the holiday season, as ArenaNet announced today that Season 2 will reconvene on January 13th for "moments that will forever change the course of Tyria." That doesn't mean that Guild Wars 2 will go silent during this time, however. Wintersday is scheduled to return on December 16th, although this time it will take place in Divinity's Reach. ArenaNet is also hosting a test of its ladder season from December 16th through January 13th, allowing players to compete for various rewards, and a WvW Sneak Attack event during this same period. Finally, there will be the game's "first-ever" ESL monthly championship on December 10th.
Last Week in Massively: Revan returns in SWTOR
This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post. Star Wars: The Old Republic's Shadow of Revan expansion launched for early-access players this week, adding new locations and storylines, revamping skill trees, selling strongholds for a song, and nuking training costs. And yes, it's that Revan. Massively's SWTOR expert Larry Everett scoped out the expansion ahead of launch and judged it worthy even for soloers. Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories.
