dhuum
Latest
Flameseeker Chronicles: Prince Rurik is on the phone, and he says you got banned
Last week's Massively outing into Guild Wars was another success, with [MVOP] -- Massively's Thursday night Guild Wars group -- tearing through the Great Northern Wall and Fort Ranik missions. As usual there was much fun and hilarity, including the above pictured gangsta Necro and someone's incredibly loud cellphone ringing on Vent in the middle of a cutscene. In the end we were divided over whether Rurik was making or receiving a phone call, but either way it was another dose of our standard silliness. Guild Wars -- as with any MMO -- is so much better when you have a good group that you can have fun with along the way, and [MVOP] has it down to an art. So what's up next? Well, at the end of our last outing we all landed at the Frontier Gate, so we'll be picking up the primary quest from Warmaster Riga. That will take us on to Ruins of Surmia, then to Nolani Academy. Once Nolani Academy is finished, we'll land in Yak's Bend and it's time to wave goodbye to Ascalon as we enter the Northern Shiverpeaks. I want to make a quick note about our overall goals for [MVOP]. The overall goal of the group is to play through Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, then Eye of the North, moving through the campaigns and expansions in the order of release just like they did back in the olden days. Guild Wars is a huge game, with side quests and extra towns in every area. To try to do them all together would take us a few years, so on Thursday nights we're going to focus strictly on missions and the main storyline. One of the great things about this group is that so many of us are playing together outside of the scheduled time, so if you get a chance, make sure you explore some of these extra quests in the places we've been. Finally, if you'd like to join [MVOP], we'd love to have you. It's certainly not too late to catch up, so send a whisper to my IGN -- Rubi Djinn -- and I'll be happy to add you to our group. Now that we're all caught up on Thursday nights, what's going on in the rest of Tyria? It's been an interesting week, so follow along after the jump as we look at why the population of Tyria is suddenly a little thinner.
[Updated] If you cheat in Guild Wars, Dhuum will kill you
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Cheating_in_Guild_Wars_gets_you_banned_by_the_God_of_Death'; No, seriously. Guild Wars players hanging out in Heroes' Ascent this afternoon noticed an interesting sight. Dhuum in all his giant shiny glory was popping in and out of different districts, banning people with a swing of his scythe. What was it all about? ArenaNet announced today that they have banned over 3,700 accounts and disbanded over a dozen guilds in Guild Wars for botting and match manipulation. Design Director James Phinney, addressed the issue in the newest ArenaNet blog post, explaining more about what they're doing. First of all, if you break the User Agreement, you may get banned at any time in the future, it's as simple as that. "...there is no expiration date for breaches of the User Agreement or RoC." Just don't cheat. Second, they plan to take a much more active and public approach to this problem from here on out, so you'll see more in the future. All Guild Wars players need to read through the blog post to understand what's going to happen from here on out, but James' closing statement encompassed it nicely: "For those of you who raised concerns about this issue, we're sorry it took as long as it did to put these changes in place. We should have been faster and more prepared. With your help, we will be more responsive in the future. We are listening, and we are ready to take action." [Update] The Guild Wars team, including Emily Diehl, spent some time in Great Temple of Balthazar this afternoon, and Emily stated: "We checked and have been told that the following mods are OK: KSmod, GWstats, TextMod, and MultiLaunch. NOTE THOUGH: this is the original code of these guys. So we cannot guarantee that future updates of these mods will remain pure. So use caution, and if you're truly unsure, err on the side of caution." Regina chimed in as well on the forums to remind us that while it's okay, you are on your own should anything go wrong. Want to see the Dhuum-slaughter for yourself? Follow along after the jump for a video.
Guild Wars updates Halloween quest, bringing permanant changes
We can all stop making "Waiting for Godot" (Godhuum?) jokes. Thursday evening ArenaNet quietly updated "The Waiting Game", the Guild Wars quest we all picked up back around Halloween. Dhuum is awake, he's not happy, and the Shadow Form debate rages on. The update to The Waiting Game revealed that Dhuum will appear once all of the Underworld quests have been completed, and defeating him is now required to "complete" the Underworld. With a skill set including things like "Judgement of Dhuum", this new addition to the Underworld is most likely the challenge that bored Guild Wars players have been looking for. Shadow Form continues to be a hot topic, however. Many players expected this to be the thing that put an end to Shadow Form Underworld farming, but one of the earliest reported successes proved that wrong very quickly. Players responded quickly with one commenter summing up many people's thoughts: "It's...disappointing that even a God of Unholy Death can't bypass shadowform...". (Community Manager Regina Buenaobra stepped in to mention that the goal was new content, not a nerf of SF farming.) In the meantime, Dhuum seems to be the biggest challenge around in Guild Wars -- kudos to ArenaNet for the new content!
