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Guild Wars 2 News And Information Thread [Large Beta Weekends In March/April]
- Thread starter Jira
- Start date
Wait what? Clarify! This has me excited.
I highly doubt that this will be the case with this game.
Nah both SWTOR guilds are running well especially the Empire side. Close knit group of guys. Some guilds have fallen quickly like the Rift guild and stuff but I don't see that happening with this guild.
I've been in three GAF guilds for GW, one for Warhammer and one for Rift. They die after free months. The first GW guild lasted the longest, but the last two died within weeks.
Then I guess this game will never die.
And you CLEARLY havent followed every other MMO to release ....ever.
Every MMO developer thinks they can internally test their games and everything will be fine. Their MMO will launch without a hitch and the world will rejoice.
BioWare thought that.
Trion did too.
Guess what, Mythic is here too(or at least, was here)
Oh, and Funcom.
Lets not forget about Blizzard.
Nor SOE.
If you want to use BioWare and Star Wars The Old Republic as an example, then lets use them.
BioWare wasnt just another MMO developer, they were BioWare. BioWare had Star Wars in development for years and was carefully testing every little thing.
Everyone thought(including me) they were going to change things and there was no way that a major developer like BioWare(with hundreds of millions from EA) would ever release a buggy mess of a half finished MMO. Boy did they prove us wrong.
You can drink the hype Kool Aid all you want, thats cool. Im going to remain cautious.
Kayos and myself will be the lifesblood of the guild. We shall not let it die that easily
. Seeing as how this has no financial commitment past the initial buy, I see it being a game people take breaks from and come back over and over. I felt the GW community was strong and with the way GW2 is sounding, I see this one holding people in longer.
I wouldn't be surprised if NCSoft ends up avoiding steam altogether. GW1 was released before Valve updated its DLC policy (which now states that ingame DLC has to be sold through steam, where valve takes a cut), so dlc for that game could instead be sold through the NCSoft store.
And seeing as how DLC offers the only long-term revenue available for GW2, I expect nothing but a middle finger to every steam user out there.
I'm actually going with the opposite. Sticking to one guild in GW1 for PvP was really bothersome. Going freelance is the way to go and what I did for the latter part of my stay. But I always like to dig in there sometimes to do PvP runs for those willing. Just need the numbers and interest.
I'm sorry but if you think Bioware actually has as high a pedigree as you think it does as inferenced by that post, I think you're very mistaken. Despite it being in development for years, I have never played such a cookie cutter, safe, and unrefined experience in a while. I don't know how certain mechanics or sections in the game as a whole passed testing stage. Tell me how the crappy on-rails shooters style of the space battle is any good. It has no redeeming value other than to get experience and items. The way TOR was at release tells me they didn't care in the least about refining the game. From what I've seen of Guild Wars 2 compared to what Bioware announced with TOR prior to release shows that Anet knows what they're doing far superior to Bioware. Anet knows what works and doesn't. Anet knows how to actually receive feedback from people and ACTUALLY use it.
mysteriousmage09
Member
BioWare is EA's bitch now, if you ever thought Bioware would release their first major online game without a hitch while EA is in charge, then LOL! ArenaNet has had the game in a playable state for a very long time and has shown off pretty much every aspect of the game to the public while allowing them to play it as well. BioWare held off from having the game be playable to the public for a long time and instead were so damn obsessed with cramming story, story, story down everyone's throats, they forgot to focus on the core MMO part of the game and forgot the game was suppose to be a large open world. It's clear as day they had no clue what they were doing during the beta process with giving people as little as 1 day to play at certain points, completely ignored the bugs reported and just launched the game for a holiday release and now they are desperate to keep people playing, don't have a clue how to fix the problems, and have no clue how to run an MMO.
If we were basing everything off of words that would be another story completely, but the fact that tons of people from press to fans have played the game at one of the many gaming events over the years and have seen the alpha build of all things as polished as it is with there own eyes, the statement is true that ArenaNet handles development very differently. Sure the game won't be bug free but no way in hell will it be SWTOR level of problems, not even close.
I admit i may be slightly bias towards GW2 as it's my most anticipated game, but i could have told you a year before SWTOR launch from looking at footage that the game was going to be a mess on release. I don't think anybody can say that about GW2, no matter their opinion of the game itself.
User Name Here
Member
Yeah, definitely. I'm really curious to see the new changes they made to combat.
I feel like this time around the number 2 in Guild Wars 2 actually means nothing. Where numbers signified sequels or a rework of the formula, this is a completely different beast.
You can be in multiple guilds at once? That sounds really weird... Sticking with the same group of people is nice sometimes, and I think having alliances worked quite well as an expansion of guilds.
But yeah, I'd love to be apart of a GAF guild. Euro player though, does anyone know if we'll share the same servers?
But yeah, I'd love to be apart of a GAF guild. Euro player though, does anyone know if we'll share the same servers?
You can be in as many guilds as you want and switch between them right from the UI, you can choose to represent any guild of your choosing at any time or no guilds but still be guilded.
As for servers, we know that they're using a server infrastructure similar to GW1 where all characters are on a centralized database and so what that means is all server or worlds will be linked up so you can move between them with ease and for free. Because of this one would ASSUME that you can play with everyone worldwide, however don't quote me on that bit because it's not really confirmed.
A Black Falcon
Member
The first Guild Wars was incredible not just from release, but from the first public test a year BEFORE release on. The tech worked perfectly from day one, and the game was amazing from the first time the public could play it on.
Now, I know that GW isn't an MMO, while this game is, so it is a higher test, but still, given how brilliantly the succeeded the first time, and with how long this game has been in development, I imagine that they'll get it right. I'm not really expecting to like the game as much as the first GW, because I have serious questions about a bunch of the changes required to make it an MMO -- I loved GW as it was, and have never thought tha making it into an MMO would improve it -- but I have little doubt that they'll get their design right from early on, they proved their ability with the first game. (And, before that, with Battle.net, which was originally made by some of ANet's founders.)
I've followed and played every single major MMO release since 2003. Bioware had never created a true multiplayer game (yeah BG & NWN but those weren't really MP games, but more SP games where you could play with multiple people) and they sure as hell have never made an MMO before. So to jump into the genre that requires the most monetary risk and longest development times when you don't have any MP experience under your belt isn't exactly the best idea. You hold Bioware up to a standard they can no longer hold and haven't held this since BG2. If you think TOR isn't buggy nor poorly designed, I have a bridge to sell you.
As I said above I've followed every release and played them all and you know what I see in GW2 that I didn't see in those other titles? A company that really gets it, not only as developers but gamers, they understand that trying to best Blizzard at their own game simply won't work. Their design philosophy is about the best I've ever seen, right up there with Valve in terms of understanding exactly what it is that makes great games and how to interact with your community. You can remain cautious and that's fine, just don't come in here spouting crap about look at history and how only Bioware(lol) and Blizzard can make an MMO worth playing. You also neglect the fact that ANet created one of the highest selling franchises in gaming history. As far as internal testing, what part of THOUSANDS of people for YEARS within Alpha don't you get?
ANet's pedigree speaks for itself:
Mike O' Brien - Previously, he worked as a company director and a lead programmer at Blizzard Entertainment where he developed the 3D rendering engine of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and led the development of Battle.net. He also worked on Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo and StarCraft, where he, among other things, designed and created the MPQ archives used in all Blizzard games after Diablo.
Jeff Strain is a game programmer and one of the three founders of ArenaNet. He served ArenaNet and NCsoft as the leader of the Art and Production teams and President of Product Development respectively. He was previously the lead programmer of Blizzard's MMORPG World of Warcraft; he also created the StarCraft campaign editor and worked on Diablo and Warcraft III. He is credited as a programmer and executive producer for Guild Wars.
Patrick Wyatt is a game programmer and one of the three co-founders of ArenaNet.[1] He is the leader of the Network and Technology teams and a programmer for Guild Wars. Before the founding of ArenaNet, he was working in Blizzard Entertainment where he was the Vice President of Research and Development and a senior programmer. Wyatt was the leader of Battle.net gaming network's programming and a major contributor on the multiplayer parts of Blizzard's popular games including StarCraft, Diablo and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.[1] Having been in Blizzard for more than eight years, his work also includes earlier Blizzard games like Lost Vikings and Rock N' Roll Racing.
Granted Jeff left shortly after GW2 began development to go work on a zombie MMO and Patrick left in 2010 to work on TERA, their influence is still felt at ANet. It doesn't seem like ANet has ever lost sight of their initial goals when they were founded in 2000.
Anyone who hasn't done so needs to read Jeff's keynote here:
http://www.guildwars.com/events/tradeshows/gc2007/gcspeech.php
Every MMO player and developer needs to read that.
Daniel Dociu is one of the greatest concept artists in the world, he's won 17 awards for his work, one of which landed him the Grand Master award which is a career achievement in art design.
Horia Dociu does all of the storyboarding, directing, and camera work for cutscenes/cinematics for GW2, his work speaks for itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRUvqgz53c0&hd=1
Kekai Kotaki is another lead concept artists at ANet who's won 6 awards for his work and recognized for 14 others.
Need I go on?
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1070552&postcount=652
"Ok, to clarify a couple of points:
We purposely didn’t use the term “Open Beta”, we mentioned Beta Events. To some people Open Beta means unlimited access to the game and everybody on the interwebs can play it. This is not what we will do.
We will do Beta Weekend Events. Those of you who played Guild Wars might already be familiar with the concept. It means that many of you (like the blogpost says) will get a chance to participate in specific Events, but access won’t be unlimited – there will be some kind of selection criteria and the beta period will usually start on a Friday and end on the following Sunday."
My guess is fansite drawings and pre-orders get access.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1070552&postcount=652
"Ok, to clarify a couple of points:
We purposely didn’t use the term “Open Beta”, we mentioned Beta Events. To some people Open Beta means unlimited access to the game and everybody on the interwebs can play it. This is not what we will do.
We will do Beta Weekend Events. Those of you who played Guild Wars might already be familiar with the concept. It means that many of you (like the blogpost says) will get a chance to participate in specific Events, but access won’t be unlimited – there will be some kind of selection criteria and the beta period will usually start on a Friday and end on the following Sunday."
My guess is fansite drawings and pre-orders get access.
I'd preorder...if I knew where I should preorder from. I'd do it right at this very second. Any recommendations?
I'd wait till they announce the CE or more info regarding beta weekends to be sure. Amazon is always the safest bet IMO. GW2 will be on Steam with 99.9% certainty given all of NCSofts other titles are on there.
So beta weekeds like Nightfall and Faction had? Those were starter areas + PVP access with limited amount of skills. Those were handled by simply having a GW1 account. Curious to see how they select people for GW2.
I expect the game to need balancing fixes in the beta, but not have game breaking bugs or be missing vital features. ANet's response time to issues in the first Guild Wars was very quick. Some things took much longer, like refining henchmen into heroes, but balance issues and such were daily to weekly fixes. ANet also creates systems that allow them to more quickly implement fixes than what people may be used to in MMOs. GW1 had no down time. I imagine they have an updated version of their streaming system for GW2.
I expect the game to need balancing fixes in the beta, but not have game breaking bugs or be missing vital features. ANet's response time to issues in the first Guild Wars was very quick. Some things took much longer, like refining henchmen into heroes, but balance issues and such were daily to weekly fixes. ANet also creates systems that allow them to more quickly implement fixes than what people may be used to in MMOs. GW1 had no down time. I imagine they have an updated version of their streaming system for GW2.
Yeah, I'll wait and stick with Steam then. It's been so many years... my patience is wearing thin.
People playing a demo for 10 minutes at some convention wont be able to tell anything about the greater over all picture on an MMOs health.
SWTOR was playable at Comic Con, GDC, Pax East, Gamescom and a few other places this year and the previews were very favorable. These small controlled demos are always going to be perfect because they are carefully hand chosen.
It doesnt matter how dedicated a development team is they wont have the manpower or time to properly bug test. Thats why MMOs have extended closed betas with tens of thousands(sometimes hundreds of thousands) of people participating.
The developer can run through a dungeon a couple times on development computers and have no problems and think everything is fine. However, in a closed beta that dungeon will be run thousands of times. Thats when bugs get discovered.
It doesnt matter how very differently ArenaNet handles development, they cant run a dungeon thousands of times to bug test.
If the CE comes with an Charr plushie, it will be so bought 
Wasn't the demo at conventions 30min or 1 hour? Nice way to understate for the sake of the argument.
Wasn't the demo at conventions 30min or 1 hour? Nice way to understate for the sake of the argument.
mysteriousmage09
Member
The game has been playable for the general public for 2 years now. They showed off events as grand as The Shatterer back in 2010, which contains a shit load of players and it runs flawlessly, and shows the amount of polish they already had in the game back then. With SWTOR, you could tell the game wasn't polished for shit even going into beta and to top it off, Bioware doesn't care as shown by the fact they ignored all the bug reports during the beta process and knowingly released it anyways. ArenaNet has had the majority of the game up and running and have been showing it off to the public with no strings attached. They have shown off damn near everything you would want to see from multiple starting areas, multiple events, large scale battles, pvp, crafting, character customization, the dye system, the combat features, underwater sections, animations, cities, cutscenes, the works.
Most of the stuff was shown in 2010 and has been getting polished and refined this whole time. ArenaNet didn't show off the game and go "sorry we only have a 2 min demo that only shows off 1 event, come back next year when more of the game is complete". No, they came out and showed the bulk of their work pretty much right out of the gate and were not dodging questions left and right, they have been very open and very informative during their demonstrations and interviews. The game wasn't shown off to the public in a bare bones form and it's evident they were proud with what they were showing to the public. If you don't believe that they have been working their asses off polishing the game as best they can over the last couple of years then i'm at a loss of words.
As I said the game won't be bug free at launch, no game will ever be bug free no matter how much testing they do. I will tell you, there is no way the game will be as buggy and unpolished as SWTOR is. If ArenaNet's alpha build of Guild Wars 2 is more fleshed out and polished then SWTOR's official release, you should easily be able to see that they are not sitting on their asses waiting until the last 4-5 months to start fixing all the broken shit with the game.
That's awesome. I was worried about choosing between being in a guild with my old GW buddies, my RL friends, or GAF, but if this is the case I shouldn't have to.
I just hope the beta isn't random draw. I'd be so depressed if I didn't get in, considering how much time I invested in the first game.
I hope the beta is randomly drawn, considering how I never played GW1, or browse their forums or follow them on twitter or whatever. I'm just so fucking hyped for this game
Yeah, but I meant something more along the lines of letting everyone who signs up in (less likely), or maybe allowing all pre-orders in (somewhat likely). Either of those two things would be great. Or hey, just let GWAMM people like me inI hope the beta is randomly drawn, considering how I never played GW1, or browse their forums or follow them on twitter or whatever. I'm just so fucking hyped for this game
.I don't understand how you're still remaining to stay at your current stance in this argument. The game they showed is very polished and refined even in Alpha stages. Sure the demo is very limited in scope since we can't do whatever we want but what they've showed us, which is what they had done, is very well done. I cannot believe the crap that SWTOR was when it launched last month. I don't even understand how it went into actually going gold before fixing the problems in beta. Guild Wars 2 is one of the if not the polished MMO that will launch this generation.