Today we get a great hands on preview of the Asura from PCGamer. Check out the article as the author takes us through character creation through the starting area.

Now, this one really wasn’t my fault, I swear! It’s those crazy developers at ArenaNet and their awesome dynamic event system, which kept the kiddie scientists’ lab in seemingly constant peril from enraged fire elementals, giant yaks and the like. Every time I ran by the laboratory, the kids were running outside, fleeing some new horrible disaster they’d created—and no matter how times I helped, they always found some horrible new way to endanger their lives. It was, frankly, quite exciting to see what they’d cook up next and I kept poking my head in to sadistically spy on their unfortunate circumstances. The nastiest brought this angry broodmother to their doorstep.

Also included in the article are a bunch of new screenshots that you might not have seen yet!

Source: Guild Wars 2 Asura preview: Experimental science and our exclusive hands-on impressions

We have another developer’s blog givings the rules of switching worlds, and how the whole system works. Players will be able to play and transfer to different servers at will. While all players will have a “home world”, you will be able to guest on any server that you want to play with friends. Server transfers are available once a week for a fee.

While you can change your home world, there is a limit of one world transfer every seven days per account and a charge of 1,800 gems for each transfer. A world transfer moves all of your existing characters to your new home world. Any subsequent characters you create will also play in this new home world.
When Guild Wars 2 launches, you will also have the option to play with your friends on another world with our free “guesting” feature. With guesting, your characters can play on any world where you have friends—with certain restrictions. For instance, you will not be able to participate in WvW while guesting.

While home-world selection and world transfers will be available during our Beta Weekend Event, guesting is not currently available. All players will be able to receive 2,000 gems free for the Beta Weekend Event, so you will be able to purchase a world transfer if you find yourself in need of one. Since the limit is one transfer every seven days, you’ll only be able to change worlds once during the Beta Weekend Event.

Source: Choosing and Transferring Worlds in Guild Wars 2

Keep reading for a list of the servers for this weekend’s Beta Test Event.

Guild Wars 2 has reach a new Like milestone and has released a new piece of concept art. Keep liking them so we can get more!

Today we get a short developer’s blog on how and why Arenanet uses social media to help promote their game. We’ve seen recently with their Facebook campaign for more likes as the PR campaign begins.

We’re days away from the first Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event, and it’s no exaggeration to say that we’re as eager as all of you for the event to begin. While the developers are busy preparing the game, we here on the community team are keeping busy by keeping all of you, our Guild Wars family, informed, with help from a few popular social media outlets.

Hundreds of thousands of Guild Wars 2 fans have become followers on Facebook, and we’ve worked hard to make our fan page a reflection of the community we want in Guild Wars 2: a place where newcomers can learn the basics from longtime fans, where everyone can share their excitement over Guild Wars 2, and where we can share news, fansite projects, art, and more.

Source: Guild Wars 2 on the Social Media Front

Eurogamer’s Robert Purchese takes a tour of Arenanet and gets a chance to interview the team. Here’s a snippet from his time with Mike O’Brien. Make sure you read the rest of the article for more quotes from the team.

Mike O’Brien stressed at the very beginning of our visit that Guild Wars 2 doesn’t have a release date. The “when?” of this gigantic operation will depend on the beta. But it’s clear the end is in sight, and that every facet of ArenaNet wants the world to see what it’s poured five years of hard work into, because they genuinely believe they’ve made something great.

Having seen their knowledge and dedication first hand, the sentiment is infectious. But one day not long from now Guild Wars 2 will be judged, by its numbers and by its quality. Another chapter will open for Guild Wars 2 as this five-year chapter ends. And there’s something bittersweet about that for ArenaNet. This moment, this team, may never come again.

“At my age, I don’t feel like I have the luxury of wasting a development cycle, of putting five years of my life into something that’s less than relevant or game changing,” Daniel Dociu says. “Will it feel big enough, relevant enough, to where I can look back and say, ‘Hell, this was definitely worth putting five of my last years into?’ And I hope that’s going to be the case, but you can’t help but be nervous about it.”

Source: Guild Wars 2: The Inside Stories

Hello fellow Junkies!

When we attended PAX East last weekend we happened to get a few cards that gave us beta codes to use for this weekend! Now, there really is no need to be jealous, because we’re not bragging. On those cards, they gave us extra codes to give to our friends. To get a shot of taking home a code for this weekend’s beta, make sure to follow us on twitter and give us a shout-out, “Hey @GWars2Junkies, I want to get into #GuildWars2 Beta Weekend!“.

We’ll select winners at random, but also making sure you have enough time to download the game and get started!

Finally Beta Weekend is almost here! We get a full update on what will be going on by Arenanet’s Dave Campbell

We’re counting the days until the first public Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event, which begins on Friday, April 27, at noon PDT (GMT-8) and ends on Sunday, April 29, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-8). Hundreds of thousands of players from around the world will get their first taste of Guild Wars 2—and rest assured, we’ll be playing alongside them!

There are a couple important things you need to know about this Beta Weekend Event:

• The only way to absolutely guarantee your access to this or any future Beta Weekend Events is to pre-purchase any edition of Guild Wars 2.
• Customers who have pre-purchased the game will receive an e-mail next week with instructions on how to download the client and participate in the Beta.
• This is a public event, which means that you’re not bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). So go ahead, feel free to take screenshots, shoot video, blog, tweet, write, or compose a rock opera to share your Guild Wars 2 experience with the world.

The rest of the blogs gets you pumped up to explore the world and take part in PVP. What we do see is that ArenaNet is still not ready to beta test the Asura and Sylvari races as only the Human, Norn and Charr will be available to play. This may suggest that we’ll be seeing many more Beta Weekends before Guild Wars 2 will be released.

“Eir Swimming”

For hitting the 460,000 fan milestone, we give you some gorgeous concept art of Eir: “This piece by concept artist Jamie Ro shows the iconic norn heroine Eir Stegalkin making an underwater discovery.”

The more Likes GW2 gets, the more concept art they will put out. Give them a Like now! With every 10,000 likes they will release a new image.

One of the more unique design elements of Guild Wars 2 is the way skills are set up in the game. There have been countless blogs and articles describing the skill system and how it relates your Hotbar layout, but it also one of the biggest misconceptions about the game. So let’s clear it up now. People who’ve played games like Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, RIFT and Star Wars: The Old Republic are used to looking at multiple hotbars full of skills and abilities that do a large variety of things. In Guild Wars 2 this is greatly reduced and you don’t have to be a master pianist to manipulate your character.

If you want to know all about keybinds, weapon swapping and individual profession skills keep reading!

Today we got the news we’ve been waiting for. Arenanet has announced that the first public Beta Weekend, for those who have pre-purchased the game, will be in just 9 days from now during the weekend of the 27th. We’ve also learned that Guild Wars 2 will not have official forums yet, however they will have Beta Forums open specifically for this event only. Live Official Forums will come much closer to launch.

Arenanet will be publishing a blog with more details sometime soon.

Just a friendly reminder to all those out there lucky to play this weekend.

Game Informer brings us a 30 minute preview today that was assisted by Anet’s own Jonathan Sharp. You’ll find the video in the link provided below.

ArenaNet designer Jonathan Sharp walks us through Guild Wars 2′s innovative dynamic questing system and shows off a never-before-seen PvP map.

The video below touches on a few of Guild Wars 2′s most important elements. Curious about how the game eschews traditional MMO leveling content, or how the combat system works, or what the scoop on the massive “world vs. world” open-world PvP battles is? Sharp narrates all those answers and more over raw gameplay footage recorded at the Game Informer offices.

Source: Guild Wars 2 – 30-Minute Video Preview

Today we get to learn a bit more about what we’ll get from the Collector’s Edition with a look at the making of the GW2 Book:

Loaded with gorgeous concept art, designs, and screenshots, the Making of Guild Wars 2 is a beautiful book on its own, but we’ve also packed each page with fascinating details about the evolution of the game from an ambitious dream to the final product. Brady Games author Doug Walsh interviewed ArenaNet staffers from every discipline to create the story of the creative journey we’ve taken as a company. Whether you’re a hardcore Guild Wars fan, you’re interested in game developments, or you just like to look at spectacular art, there’s something between these covers for you – and you can only get it by ordering the Guild Wars 2 Collector’s Edition.

Source: Inside the Collector’s Edition – Making of GW2 Book

We get a new Dev Blog today as David Campbell talks about the awesome figurine included in the Collector’s Edition.

We really felt that the Collector’s Edition deserved an impressive centerpiece that captured the painstaking handcrafted design of the game and was evocative of the dangerous, beautiful world of Tyria. We considered sylvari figurines, norn warriors, and asura golems, but we kept returning to one concept for the figurine – the charr. And what better charr than the baddest tribune in the Blood Legion, the legendary Rytlock Brimstone?

Source: Inside the Collector’s Edition – Rytlock Figurine

Today, GW2Hub put out their second part of their interview with Jon Peters where they discussed a bit of everything from social interaction to changes in the game. Here’s a quick clip:

Sardu: And that kind of interaction also helps promote more of the social aspects of the game which are obviously very important in GW2.

Jon Peters: I played in the beta weekends before the Prophecies release, and now I’ve been able to play in the beta events for GW2 as well. What’s interesting is that we’re currently right back in that stage where people are deeply theorycrafting builds, deciding what the cornerstones of X build should be based on Y.

So we’re seeing that exact same cycle repeat itself now, and I expect that will be even more the case when the next beta event hits. At that point, a lot of theorycrafted builds will be put into action and people will begin to discover why they may or may not work the way they expected.

Source: Traits and Builds Interview with Jon Peters Pt. 2