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Flameseeker Chronicles: Why we don't have Cantha in Guild Wars 2
How about those predictions, huh? Last week I guessed that Guild Wars 2 would get a visit from the Zephyr Sanctum soon, and boom: Festival of the Four Winds exploding all over the place. Having used up my allotment of precognitive accuracy for the year, I plan to gorge myself on delicious sky candy and spend the next week or so literally bouncing off the walls. Before the festivities start, though, we've got just enough time to visit a topic near to my heart: Cantha. ArenaNet receives very frequent requests to revive the setting of Guild Wars: Factions in GW2, and between GW2's Chinese release, the level of mystery surrounding season two of the living world, and the return of the Zephyrites, it's natural that people would start talking about Cantha again. It might seem baffling that ArenaNet hasn't rushed to steer the living world story in such an obviously popular direction, but unfortunately it's not as simple as loading us on the next airship and flying away to Seitung Harbor -- at least not yet.
The Daily Grind: What game deserves an expansion?
I'm actually really happy to see that Ultima Online might be getting expansions once again because I love seeing classic MMOs bucking the trend of fading away and becoming irrelevant. Actually, I'd really like to witness many more games get expansions, since an expansion gets the excitement, attention, and community interest like a mini-launch. That's always good for the genre as a whole. So what game deserves an expansion? What would you like to see in it? You get bonus points if you manage to go the entire comment without using the word "Cantha" in it! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Flameseeker Chronicles: Big changes
The last chapter of Guild Wars Beyond's Winds of Change was released just a handful of days ago, bringing nine new quests, fancy weapons, fresh rewards, and a heaping helping of story to the land of Cantha, not to mention a significant update to the way ArenaNet is telling the tale. Miku's Tale in particular boasts a few distinct differences from earlier parts of this storyline -- largely, the consensus seems to be, for the better. There was a fair bit of griping after the first portion of Winds of Change went live and a widespread agreement that something was not quite right about the way the quests at the start of Winds of Change were being handled. ArenaNet responded to this with promises to go back and retune quests, mostly in response to the argument that mobs were too hard. While I certainly understand a fiendish level of mob difficulty acting as an intimidating gateway to players less comfortable with fighting in Guild Wars, I don't think it was really the heart of the problem with the earlier Winds of Change content.
Guild Wars: The winds just keep on a-changin'
ArenaNet has just announced that the third installment of Winds of Change, Miku's Tale, will be going live tomorrow! Part of Guild Wars Beyond, an effort to bridge the story between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, Winds of Change has been following the shifting states of affairs in Cantha. The rise of the Ministry of Purity, a new governmental organization, has had a central role in the story. First fighting with player characters against the blighted Afflicted then gangs of criminals, the Ministry slowly grew in influence and power. Guild Wars players aided the Ministry of Purity in its fight for justice until a chance encounter at a Ministry rally turned things sour. Since then, players have been rescuing captives, working with the Tengu, and generally making a nuisance of themselves as far as the Ministry is concerned. Now, with things in Cantha at the edge of chaos, we can once again pick up the story -- and dive into the final chapter of Winds of Change. If you'd like to see the new content in action, join us tomorrow, February 9th, at 7 p.m. EST for a special edition livestream. Our own Richie Procopio will be joined by ArenaNet staff as he streams the game live on our Twitch channel!
Flameseeker Chronicles: Who wants to go kill some afflicted?
These winds, they are a changin'. Sorry, sorry. I couldn't resist. Anyway, the first round of Winds of Change content dropped Thursday night, so the Guild Wars community is abuzz with talk of the new content, costumes, and enemies in Cantha. Several members of our guild were sitting around playing the "What do you wanna do? Eh, I dunno, what do you wanna do?" game when Winds of Change arrived, so we were all pretty much free. Six of us bolted for Kaineng Center, partied up, jumped on vent, and took off. We were in for a bit of a surprise. You see, most of us have been playing for a very long time and are pretty comfortable with normal-mode content. We threw in a couple of hero monks, loaded up some standard builds, and off we went. We were treating it like a casual exploration thing, heading out to see what was out there. Whoops. The Live Team has been working overtime, I see. We slunk back to town to lick our wounds and tried again, this time with more (relative) success. So how was it? Follow along after the jump and let's take a look!
Boardwalk, booze, and bean cakes: It's almost time for the Guild Wars Dragon Festival
It's that time of year again. The Guild Wars Dragon Festival is nearly upon us, bringing quests and special missions, re-opening the Monastery Boardwalk, and putting a huge amount of sweets, alcohol, party supplies, and presents into circulation. The festival, which celebrates the survival of the Empire of the Dragon, is an old favorite with the Guild Wars community. The party begins this year on July 1st, and the official Guild Wars site offers a nicely-done schedule of events, dates and times for players. Another time-honored Dragon Festival tradition is the ritual chanting of "How do I get a hat?" in local chat. The answer to this question is "Have 250 Victory Tokens in your inventory and be here when the Emperor comes on Sunday." It's a good thing to know, because this year's hat (mask) hints at something special: "This year's mask design is inspired by the great dragons of legend." Shades of Guild Wars 2? We'll know in just over a week.
Come celebrate the Year of the Ox in Guild Wars
It's that time of year again for the Canthan New Year's celebrations in ArenaNet's Guild Wars. This year's festivities begin at Noon Pacific on Friday, January 30, 2009 and run until Noon Pacific on Monday, February 2, 2009.The in-game event will include special gifts to boost your sugar or booze titles, festival quests, fireworks displays, fortune telling, boardwalk games, Rollerbeetle Racing and much more! Plus, as a special gift, there will be a miniature Celestial Ox to replace the miniature Celestial Rat you may have received last year. The finale will include a visit from the great Celestial Ox himself every three hours. See ya there!
Take a New Year's vacation in Guild Wars
Have a bit of spare time early in this brand-new year? You might consider a vacation to the exotic locales of Guild Wars. The Gamer 2.0 site is featuring a humorous travelogue of parts of Cantha, Elona, and Tyria, with commentary on the suitability of various zones as travel destinations.For more sights of Guild Wars, check out our own gallery below, or some of the highly talented screenshot artists plying their trade on Flickr. You never know what might be your next hot-spot for travel!%Gallery-9135%
Guild Wars: Nightfall announced
NCsoft has announced the third Guild Wars campaign, Nightfall, which will have an exclusive PvP preview for current members on July 28-30. Like its predecessors, Nightfall is a standalone module with a new continent to explore, and will only require the earlier games if you have characters to transfer. However, veterans might be tempted to start fresh with one of the two new professions -- the angelic Paragon or the scythe-wielding Dervish, both of which are previewed at GameSpot. Visit the game's official web site for more details on the Nightfall preview event, as well as updates on the Guild Wars Factions Championship.See also: Guild Wars goings-on NCsoft's E3 booth tour Guild Wars: character slots for cash coming soon
