This weekend is the first time we get to see the iteration process of Arenanet and their patching methods. Now we get to see if they took our feedback or not. Today, in a new developer blog going over some of the bigger changes GW2 has gone through since we last got to see the game:

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• Keep Your Characters!
• Enter the Catacombs (Explorable Mode)
• Visit Lovely Gendarran Fields
• Unlock the Mysteries of the Mystic Forge
• Expanded World vs. World
• New Automated Player vs. Player Tournaments and More
• Combat— “A Sense of Hitting”
• Improved Overflow Servers
• Improved Chat
• New Key-Binding Feature
• UI Improvements
• Tiers for Skills
• The Gem Store is under New Management

We’ll see you in-game from Friday, June 8th, at noon PDT (GMT-7) until Sunday, June 10th, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).

There’s a lot of repetition going on in MMORPGs these days. Developers subscribe to this trend of continuing to implement features that mirror other games because they assume those features are why the games are popular. Class trainers who teach 30+ abilities, for instance. Sure, some gamers like huge arsenals at their disposal. But when one game comes out with 30 abilities learned by spamming the “train” button, the next 35, and the next 45, at some point we have to stand back and say, “Well, wait a minute. Why do we need all this? Why can’t we just customize our abilities right on the battlefield?”

Lucky for us, ArenaNet hasn’t given into the trend. The developers are attempting to think outside of the repetitive MMO box. Even down to the little details of Guild Wars 2, the hints of immersion and innovation are there. Yes, the game has trainers, but not for every aspect of combat. Players are able to switch abilities based on their equipped equipped. Combat can vary extensively between one encounter to the next– all without needing to spend 20 minutes clicking at the trainer. Minor details like this make the difference upon embarking on an adventure into Tyria, because we know that the developers didn’t say, “Let’s do this like those other games.” They said, “Let’s do something different.”

The next Beta Weekend Event is just days away and the wait is just plain torture. To sate your hungry for all things GW2 we found a video we haven’t seen before from gameinformer as the give us some fantastic footage from the first press event back in April. We figured that since you’re itching to play, the next best (or worst?) thing to do is to watch other people play!

To watch the video hit us after the break.

I’m in the same boat as a lot of other people, since the bulk of my MMO experiences have been games that require a monthly subscription, I have virtually no experience buying items from a cash shop for use in my gaming. The Guild Wars 2 Gem Shop will be the first time that I’m actually planning on plunking down some cash to make my gaming experience better. I logged into the game and started browsing the available items, and I couldn’t help but feel a little underwhelmed by what was in there. Now I know that we’re still quite some time out from launch, so I figured what better time than the present to put out some ideas about some new items for the Gem Shop. For those of you who aren’t aware of the items for sale, my colleague Laura Hardgrave wrote an outstanding article titled Previewing the Gem Store. In that article she outlines all the items that currently exist in the Gem Store, and she also touches on the fact that there are no “Pay-to-Win” items in the Gem Shop as well. Keeping with the idea that the Gem Store shouldn’t contain these “Pay-to-Win” items, here are 5 things that I’d like to see on the Guild Wars 2 Gem Store.

If you love information, and speak German or French, today is your lucky day. Anet has announced that they are official launching their German and French wikis today.

Hello, everyone, my name is Stéphane Lo Presti. As a community manager for ArenaNet, one of my roles is to act as a liaison between our studio and the wiki community. And today, I’d like to share some exciting news for French and German gamers: we’re launching official French and German Guild Wars 2 wikis! But before we get into details, I’d like to say a few words about wikis in general.

In case you didn’t know, GW2 already has an official English Wiki, which you can find right here. Make sure you read the full dev blog for all the info you could possibly want on the whats, whys and whos of the Guild Wars 2 wikis.

Source: Official German and French Guild Wars 2 Wikis Launch Today

During the last stress test, one player took it upon himself to explore the areas of Guild Wars 2 with his jumping abilities.

All of these clips were recorded during a two hour period during the stress test. The last jump is probably one of the more awesome things that I’ve ever done in a game. Expect more videos when the next BWE comes!

Youtube user TheLinkUnit gives us a pretty cool demonstration of what off-the-wall things you can do inside GW2. Check the video out after the break.

This morning we get an announcement of the date of the next BWE:

Heroes of Tyria!
My name is Chris Whiteside, and I’m the lead producer of Guild Wars 2. Normally, I’m head-down in the trenches, making sure we’re producing the best MMO possible, but I wanted to come up for air and share some exciting news with you:

Beta Weekend Event 2 will begin on Friday, June 8th, at noon PDT (GMT-7) and will run until Sunday, June 10th, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).

If that isn’t enough to get you all bursting with excitement, here is some more news:

Your existing beta characters have not been deleted, and you will be able to continue right where you left off! This means that enterprising players with characters level 35 or higher will be able to test their mettle against the explorable version of the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon!

In addition to sharing this news with you, I want to convey a massive “thank you” to all of you for playing in our beta events so far. The participation and enthusiasm we’ve seen has exceeded our expectations, and we’re all very grateful and appreciative here at the studio. Your support during our first Beta Weekend Event and throughout development has been instrumental in getting us prepared for launch and helping us take massive steps in the evolution of Guild Wars 2 as a whole. You, our community, are an integral part of the development process, and Guild Wars 2 simply would not be what it is today without you.

To read the full dev blog, please visit this link.

MMO Reviews has an interview up with Eric Flannum, Lead Game Designer, where they discuss a myriad of topics on Guild Wars 2. The interview opens up with these two questions:

What are your plans for the WvW content of the game in the long run?

One of the coolest things that we’ve added to WvW recently is a persistent mini-dungeon that can be accessed through the three keeps in the center map. This area is designed with multiplayer PvP in mind and players can do things like activate the traps in the mini-dungeon to defeat enemy players. Of course, at the end of the area there’s a chest full of rewards.

We also have some exciting plans for WvW post-launch, but of course we don’t want to talk about our post-launch plans until after we ship the game and have had some time to implement things.

Will there be PvP tournaments or some other kind of scheduled competitions?

We fully plan to support tournaments in competitive PvP. We will have a variety of tournament types, from automated tournaments to more competitive scheduled tournaments.

We are still talking about whether or not we want to support any type of WvW tournaments after we launch. If player interest is high, then I think it’s definitely something we’d consider.

Make sure you read the rest of the article over at MMO Reviews.

Source: Exclusive interview with Eric Flannum the Lead Game Designer of Guild wars 2

Today we were made aware of a financial report put out by KDB Daewood Securities in regards to their future outlook of NCSoft. According to their speculation, they have confirmed that Guild Wars 2 will be released in the US and Europe before the Thanksgiving holiday.

We reiterate our Buy call on NCsoft with a target price of W510,000. We were able to confirm the company’s plans to launch Blade & Soul domestically in 1H and GuildWars 2 in the Us and Europe in 2H. … And we anticipate that Guild Wars 2 will be rolled out in the US and Europe before the Thanksgiving holiday.

These dates are not confirmed by Arenanet or NCSoft and all we have are these financial documents of this Korean based financial firm. Take them with a grain of salt. You can find the original document here.

These speculations match up with most prognosticators; even though there are rumors of an internal ongoing Beta Test, Arenanet has only completed one BWE that has only showcased three out of the five playable races, level capped of 30 out of 80, and the storyline quests are stopped early. We do know, from Arenanet, that the game will be launched this year. It is often speculated that this game will launch this fall and these reports match up with that guess.

Last week, we discussed at length about how cooking will be my tradeskill of choice in Guild Wars 2. Based on feedback that I received, I know there are plenty of you who are looking very seriously at also making this your crafting discipline as well. Here are five tips to help you master the cooking discipline.

1. A great place to start if you’re trying to get some recipes discovered is to think about realistic recipes, as was suggested in my previous article. Taking it a step further, remember that discovered recipes have a maximum of 4 ingredients, so breaking real recipes into 4 basic ingredients is important. We can assume that most real life recipes start with a base such as a meat or a starch, they then have some sort of sauce or water added, and then have a vegetable, and either seasonings or another vegetable added.

We’ve got another dev blog published by Arenanet on the process of naming things in Tyria! Find out more how the development team goes through the process of creating names for people and places in Guild Wars 2, it’s pretty fascinating.

Keep reading to find out more.

NOTE: the following article is based off the BWE1 build.

“Mesmers are magical duelists who rely on deception and confusion to keep their opponents in check. Indecision is their greatest ally. Using powerful illusions to distract, they make sure they never go toe to toe with an enemy; they use their powers and tactics to set up an unfair fight.”

Mesmers were the last class revealed in Guild Wars 2 and also one of the most anticipated when it was revealed. This was because Mesmers in Guild Wars 1 had a prestigious position as the most technical and interesting class to play. The Mesmer reveal video showed many interesting new mechanics such as illusions, group invisibility, blinks and showed unconventional weapon choice for a caster such as greatsword, swords and pistols. Now that the beta is upon us, let’s take a look at the Mesmer class and find out how exactly it works and plays. Obviously since this is an early beta phase, all of this is subject to change in the coming weeks/months until and even after release.

Recently published today, Venturebeat discusses the monetization of Guild Wars 2 in an interview with studio president Mike O’Brien. Here are a few things we found interesting:

GB: What are the key features that set Guild Wars 2 apart from free-to-play MMORPGs and simultaneously justify a $60 purchase?

O’Brien: [...]I think Guild Wars 2 is one of the best values in gaming, period. Where else can you get this many hours of enjoyment, of content, of polish, of replayability for $60?

I’ll give a direct comparison. Guild Wars 2 is both a great MMO and a great RPG, so anyone who plays offline RPGs like Skyrim or online RPGs like Diablo III is going to love Guild Wars 2. Those games cost $60. Compared to them, Guild Wars 2 has at least as much content, world exploration, personal storylines, and replayability. And then for no additional charge, Guild Wars 2 gives you a fully persistent world where you can hang out with your friends online, lots of social features, a live team dedicated to introducing lots of new content into the game, and two integrated forms of [player-versus-player].
…
Once you get in that mindset, microtransactions in Guild Wars 2 are pretty straightforward, and it’s not as controversial as you’d think. If players need something to play the game, it’s part of the game. If something is a fun add-on or service, it can be a microtransaction.

Keep reading for more.

Today we get a new update from GW2′s Facebook page:

We know you are all very eager to begin the next Beta Weekend Event. Our community did an amazing job in the previous Beta Weekend Event and stress tests, providing our team with great feedback. Our goal has always been to do this right and treat the beta testing process as what it should be: a way to work out the bugs beforehand and give you the best game we possibly can at launch.

With that as our goal, the development team is working extremely hard to address your current feedback and prepare Guild Wars 2 for the next Beta Weekend Event. Once they’re finished, they’ll be ready for you to head back to Tyria for the next phase of testing.

We’re going to adhere to a monthly schedule as much as feedback and development allow, so it may be a little more or a little less each time, depending on how things progress. For now, we will have more information on upcoming Beta Weekend Events and stress tests as soon as we’re able, and we thank each of you for being an important part of the creation of Guild Wars 2. ~RB2

Since I am well-versed in dev speak, you can interpret this message as, “We’re not quite yet ready to have BWE2 yet.” Reading the tea-leaves, I would guess that the next beta weekend event is coming the first or second week of June. Arenanet hasn’t given us a set schedule yet other than once a month. Perhaps with “little more or a little less” than a month apart we might see two events in June.

Today, The Verge wrote a very interesting article on their view on dynamic questing when comparing Guild Wars 2 to the rest of the MMORPG market.

Dynamic content like the bandit raid is ArenaNet’s alternative to questing. In more traditional games a user will enter a quest hub, usually a town or city where they can pick up tasks then journey outside to reach their goal in a specific area of the map. But when bandits attack a wandering NPC or a fighting horde of centaurs turn up at a nearby village, that’s something else entirely. You can’t plan for that. All you can do is stand together.

Check out the rest of the article as they tackle other subjects like the Holy Trinity and how players interact with each other.

Source: Guild Wars 2 on rifts, Waterworld and putting a nail in the coffin of quests