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GW2 interview with Jeff Grubb goes deep into lore
If you're a Guild Wars lore-junkie, we have found the perfect Guild Wars 2 interview for you. Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats claims he can talk GW lore for hours and after reading the deep questions he put forth to ArenaNet World Designer and Writer Jeff Grubb, we'll take his word for it.If you're looking for information about instancing, world PvP, and progression rates, this isn't the interview for you. If, however, it makes you giddy that one of either the Bahltek, undeciphered Asuran banner, or giganticus lupicus will be further explained in GW2, then it might be right up your alley. Jeff also drops some hints about the origins of humans, the dragon prophet Glint, the complex relationship between the world of Tyria, the human gods, and dragons, and a number of other things. The anticipation for everything GW2 related is heating up, so stay tuned to Massively as our very own Shawn Schuster will be speaking with someone from ArenaNet soon.
The art of Guild Wars 2 to be available in book form
Feeling in an artsy mood? Then you'll be happy to know that Guild Wars 2 now has a forthcoming official art book entitled The Art of Guild Wars 2. The book will be hardbound and stuffed with 128 pages of work by ArenaNet's award-winning artists.The official website touts that this book is a must-have for Guild Wars fans. If the concept art available online is any indication, that doesn't really seem like an overstatement. We wouldn't be too shy about putting some of these pieces of art on our walls in a nice frame, so huge a hardbound art book wouldn't be such a bad coffee table item. If you don't believe us, just take a look at the gallery. %Gallery-70495%
The Daily Grind: Guild Wars 2 for you?
For those folks who enjoyed (or still enjoy) the original Guild Wars, the news out of GamesCom this last week was nothing short of epic. A brand new trailer for the long anticipated Guild Wars 2 has finally come out of ArenaNet with an amazing vision of the future. With the beautiful, lush work that we've come to expect out of their studio, the flyovers and underwater areas have an attention to detail and a grand scape that makes us want to play Guild Wars 2 right now. Of course, we're but a tiny bunch of writers scattered across the world. This morning we wanted to ask you if you're interested in picking up GW2 as well? What is it that has fired up your interest? Is it the idea of the lore expanding from the previous games? The idea of battling hordes of Zhaitan's undead minions? Playing underwater? Something else? Perhaps you are completely new to the Guild Wars series, and are interested because it's something new. Or are you completely uninterested in Guild Wars 2, for whatever reason?
Guild Wars 2 previewed at GamesCom
Guild Wars broke a lot of standard MMO conventions when it first came out. It teetered on the peripheral to the point of nearly not fitting within the established definitions of the genre. ArenaNet was all right with that, and apparently, so were six million players. It doesn't appear that Guild Wars 2 will be completely conforming to the MMO norms either based upon a new GamesCom preview by Eurogamer. It's as if the developers have been taking notes from our Redefining MMOs series (or so we'd like to think)!If there's one buzzword for the MMO genre in 2009, it's probably "story." Lead Designer, Eric Flannum explains that ArenaNet is throwing their entire bag of tricks at the story in GW2, which will combine a mix of instances and persistent world events. Don't expect to find any exclamation marks in this MMO. But do expect crafting, jumping, underwater exploration, and other welcome additions in the sequel. Of course, PvP remains this franchise's bread and butter and players will be able to test their mettle against each other in instances as well as a new open-world area called The Mists. For all the gory details, head on over to Eurogamer's official preview and don't miss the amazing GW2 trailer. We can't stop watching it!
ArenaNet releases Guild Wars 2 trailer
The wait is finally up. At GamesCom today, ArenaNet delivered on their teasers throughout the week and released a brand new trailer for Guild Wars 2. This is something Guild Wars fans have been anticipating for years, and it's finally here.This gorgeous trailer shows everything from animated concept art to actual in-game footage. It takes us through the awakening of the dragons beneath the surface of Tyria to the call of the five races to join forces against them. We see Humans, Norn, Asura, Charr and Silvari rising up to defeat the undead armies of the dragon Zhaitan. Check out the trailer after the jump below, or in high definition at the main Guild Wars 2 website.
Guild Wars 2 concept art spotted
Guild Wars has some fantastic concept art. We've mentioned this in the past, particularly in the context of the work of ArenaNet art director Daniel Dociu and concept art lead Kekai Kotaki as seen at Spectrum Fantastic Art. In fact, the last thing we asked was, "Does this give some hints as to what we'll be seeing in Guild Wars 2?" It turns out, it does. In fact, Guild Wars 2 concept art is now appearing in other places as well. Ravious at Kill Ten Rats hunted down more GW2 art by Dociu and Kotaki, as confirmed by ArenaNet's Regina Buenaobra. Check out the post on GW2 concept art by Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats, which features some examples of what he's found along with some background on what they may show of the next game's setting, "250 years after the original Guild Wars."
ArenaNet sets record straight on Guild Wars 2 'delay'
How can you delay a game that never had a set release date to begin with? This is the logic ArenaNet's Mike O'Brien pointed out in a recent open letter to Guild Wars 2 fans. Speculation about the 'delay' began late last week when ArenaNet's parent company, NCsoft, released their Q4 2008 financials that scheduled a 2010-2011 release for GW2.Guild Wars 2 was originally announced in March 2007 alongside Guild Wars' first expansion titled Eye of the North. At the time, PC Gamer magazine confirmed that ArenaNet was hoping for GW2 to go into beta in the second half of 2008. When June 2008 rolled around, the official GW2 FAQ was updated to say that a beta would not be commencing in 2008 as originally planned. During NCsoft's earning call, it was stated that while they originally intended to make GW2 a sequel, it really became a whole new game in development. Mike O'Brien stated in his letter that the game will be ready "when it's done" and not any sooner. "Guild Wars 2 is a large and ambitious game, and we're going to take the time to do it right."
NCsoft 2008 profits down and Guild Wars 2 TBA in 2010-2011
After hearing recent news of NCsoft's lay-offs/restructuring at their European studio, it may not come as a surprise that their latest financial report for Q4 2008 is showing a 22% net income loss compared to Q4 2007 even though sales were up 11%. This loss was attributed to higher marketing costs for the quarter. Their overall 2008 net profits plummeted 40% compared to 2007. The high quarterly marketing costs probably had a lot to do with their Korean release of Aion, which accounted for 3% of their overall sales by games in 2008.What does this mean for fans anxiously anticipating the release of Guild Wars 2? It means you'll have to wait a while longer. According to an anonymous source and ex-NCsoft employee, the company is heavily focused on both Aion and GW2 right now. After a successful launch in Korea, NCsoft plans to release Aion in Japan and Taiwan in Q3 2009 and in the US and Europe in Q4 2009. With such a strong Aion push in 2009, it seems to leave little room for GW2 in the calendar year. Their strong dedication to each title might explain why GW2 was pushed into 2010-2011 when many fans were hoping for a 2009 launch. Given the marketing costs of promoting Aion in Korea, it would be quite a financial burden to promote both titles simultaneously around the world.
The week in Massively features
Massively Exclusive: Tabula Rasa's AFS War CollegeLast week we got a chance to visit NCsoft's Austin offices to attend the first ever AFS War College, where some of Tabula Rasa's finest soldiers were invited to join NCsoft's developers for a day of discussions, questions, and demos. Gearing up for Guild Wars 2It's been a long time since we've heard any news about Guild Wars 2, so we thought it was about time to sit down and have a refresher course on what we can expect with the sequel to one of the most successful MMOs of all time. Anti-Aliased: Fourth Edition and the Kamehameha FallacyI've wanted to do a post on Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition for a while now, but I just couldn't put my finger on what I wanted to talk about with it. The rules are very much made in the vein of World of Warcraft -- you can tell that by just opening up the book. Player vs. Everything: The quirks of D&D OnlineFrom the first time I stepped into Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach, I was amazed by how well it managed to capture the dungeon crawling feel of the franchise that I knew, loved, and grew up with. Player Consequences: Pervasive Map FeaturesThere are a lot of reasons for the increasing popularity of MMOs and the amount of game developers who are entering into the market. I personally think that MMOs with their rich and complex fantasy worlds have a huge advantage over most single player games.
