Changes Are Coming

Now that the game is out; it seems that there needs to be some sort of community update on here linking different people together with useful links and news. To do this I have come up with a group of ideas and changes that could be made to improve the community aspects of this blog. What do you guys think? I will be altering the links on the right of the blog as soon as I get time, linking to many of the community projects so people have a centre point for everything the community are getting up to. Maybe add a forum or another form of community gathering as the blog *hopefully* grows.

Guild Wars Lore Joins Twitter

Guild Wars Lore has a Facebook and Google+ page, both of which need to get a little more attention I feel. Up till now, Twitter hasn't had it's own Guild Wars Lore page, but today; that has changed! Feel free to pop over to the Guild Wars Lore Twitter Page and give it a follow for news and updates. There will also be a new link coming on the right of the page soon.

The Countdown: The Official Release

Many of us have been playing for three days now and the final group of people have logged into Guild Wars 2 today. I have created my Norn Warrior "Rhaen Cheris" on "Desolation (EU)" and have been rather casual with my experience with the game. I have generally been exploring Tyria and have touched on many of the elements I felt that I didn't play enough during the beta events and stress tests, this has led to a surprise with the amount of depth in the reward system within structured player vs player.

The Countdown: Release

The Countdown: 1 Day

Less than a day from the release of Guild Wars 2 (for people who have pre-purchased the game) and the excitement rises still. ArenaNet have held another two stress tests which I have managed to completely miss, they were both only an hour long (with minimal extensions). In these tests the epic castle of "Ebonhawke" to the south of Ascalon was accessible, this wasn't an announced addition so was very easy to miss since the stress tests were so short. On the Guild Wars 2 website's news section; ArenaNet have also gave us an update on linking accounts, if you have a Guild Wars 1 account and have not linked it with your Guild Wars 2 account; you are now able to link the accounts using this link: Your Account. With that out of the way, lets get to today's topic - No Subscription Fee, the main and final element of Guild Wars 2 in this countdown.

The Countdown: 2 Days

Only two more days left before we'll be in Tyria! ArenaNet have posted another two posts over on the Guild Wars 2 website. The first detailing how ArenaNet have improved and optimised the performance of the game so far, as well as their plans to improve the performance further after the game has released since they will be able to use the data they receive from players during the opening weeks of the game's release. The other post is regarding the Hall of Monuments, how we get it and other details, read that here. Moving onto today's topic - Personal Story.

The Countdown: 3 Days

With what seems like the final stress test before release over (after being extended by two hours); the long wait for release it coming very nicely to a close. I played for the main four hours, played a good bit of structured player vs player and world vs world. I also made a few new characters. The stress test seemed very near release; the culling of textures and objects was fixed, there was next to no connection issues or lag, the "report bug" button was gone and we were getting our "Hero's Band" accessory in the mail for each character. There were still a few issues however, certain skills in the world vs world maps would teleport the player to the centre of the map, in the water and on many people's cases; the performance could still be improved. All in all, the release is looking good! Right, onto todays topic - The Mystic Forge.

The Countdown: 4 Days

Just four days until the pre-purchase head start release of Guild Wars 2 and the excitement levels are beginning to rise. I cannot wait to be traversing the full map of Tyria, enjoying the new areas never seen in betas and stress tests, feeling the thrill of the huge battles that take place in the world vs world areas and pushing my tactical skills in structured player vs player. Enough of that, we wouldn't want to get too excited. Onto today's topic - World vs World.

The Countdown: 5 Days

Today there is big news; yet ANOTHER stress test will be taking place today. It's another four hour test so we have some time to get some testing done and personally, I've just built a new computer build with a new motherboard, processor, RAM and SSD which I would like to test with the game.

"We will be conducting a stress test tomorrow Tuesday, August 21 from 12:00 Noon PACIFIC Time to 4:00 PM PACIFIC Time.

We will be actively working on the game during the event, so you might experience connectivity problems or discover features that are not working as designed.

Any issues you experience are a result of the rigorous conditions of the stress test, and are in no way representative of the state of the game at launch.

By participating in this stress test, you’re helping us make Guild Wars 2 a better game. Thanks for your cooperation—we’ll see you in-game!"

Again, the characters from beta weekend three and the other stress tests will be kept for this stress test. See you guys in game and lets get onto today's topic - Guilds!

The Countdown: 6 Days

Six days left until the release of Guild Wars 2 and now we are under a week away from the pre-purchase head start. ArenaNet have also released a news post on the Guild Wars 2 website's news section detailing the exact times that the servers will go live based on the Pacific Time they always seem to use called "The Final Countdown". My brother and I have made a plan based on these times on the current time in the UK; the UK is currently in BST (British Summer Time) which is GMT + 1, this means that the servers should be up for 8am. We have decided to get an early night on the friday to get up early on the saturday before the game's release to get on the servers "up to 3 hours prior" to the release time (based on ArenaNet's predictions). Anyway, without further ado; onto today's topic - the skill system.

The Countdown: 7 Days

After a rather hectic and event-filled weekend; I've managed to lose so much time that I was unable to update the blog, apologies! Anyway, getting back on topic, there is not long now until the release of Guild Wars 2. There doesn't appear to have been much news other than a few photos and updates about an ArenaNet bike ride and their visit to GamesCom on the Guild Wars 2 Facebook page. Let's get to today's topic; Huge Bosses!

The Countdown: 8 Days

Here we are, as promised; the second countdown post at eight days until the head start release of Guild Wars 2. Yesterday there was another four hour stress test that I managed to completely missed, I was sat on my computer looking up news, updating this blog and talking to friends and somehow managed to miss the whole thing. I only realised today through the Facebook page that there was a stress test.

The Countdown: 9 Days

Yesterday (again), it was nine days before the release of Guild Wars 2. Everything appears to get getting closer and closer and before we know it we will be enjoying our home instances, exploring the stretches of each map within Tyria, storming stonemist castle in world vs world and carefully selecting which weapon/utility skills for structured player vs player. In this post we will delve into the topic the leveling curve, or the lack of a leveling curve in Guild Wars 2.

The Countdown: 10 Days

Yesterday left our countdown at ten days. Only ten more days until the final release of Guild Wars 2. I wanted to write this up yesterday but I was tied up with a group of things, however I didn't want to leave readers without the entire final ten days before release. I thought that I would post up the top ten features of Guild Wars 2 that I am most looking forward to, going into detail about each feature along with why I believe they are great features. I will try to get either ten and nine posted today and continue from there or get nine and eight done tomorrow to get in time with the countdown. So here we go, starting with Dynamic Events (DEs), one of the key features of Guild Wars 2.

Another Stress Test Today (10th of August)

ArenaNet have posted yet another announcement regarding a stress test today via their Facebook Profile. This stress test will be from 4pm to 8pm PDT. Which is 00:00 - 04:00 (or 12am to 4am) in the UK. I won't say this will be the last time since I thought the last one would be! Let's get back on and enjoy another 4 hours of Guild Wars 2 before release.

"Thank you for all your help in today’s Stress Test!

We will be conducting a Stress Test on Friday, August 10 from 4:00 PM PACIFIC Time to 8:00 PM PACIFIC Time.

REMEMBER: We will be actively working on the game during the event, so you might experience connectivity problems or discover features that are not working as designed. Any issues you experience are a result of the rigorous conditions of the stress test, and are in no way representative of the state of the game at launch. By participating in this stress test, you’re helping us make Guild Wars 2 a better game. Thanks for your cooperation—we’ll see you in-game!

Additional notes:

* Stress Tests are open to those who have PRE-PURCHASED the game.

* Characters will not be wiped for tomorrow's Stress Test.

~RB"

Stress Test Today (9th of August)

Yesterday ArenaNet announced that there will in-fact be another stress test and that it is today! They announced it via their Facebook Profile. Here in the UK it will be running from 20:00 - 00:00 (or 8pm - 12am). Let's get back on the game for what seems to be the final time before release, remember to get your client up-to-date before the event starts.

"We will be conducting a stress test on Thursday, August 9 from 12:00 Noon PACIFIC Time to 4:00 PM PACIFIC Time.

The stress test is open to anyone who has pre-purchased Guild Wars 2.

We will be actively working on the game during the event, so you might experience connectivity problems or discover features that are not working as designed. Any issues you experience are a result of the rigorous conditions of the stress test, and are in no way representative of the state of the game at launch. By participating in this stress test, you’re helping us make Guild Wars 2 a better game. Thanks for your cooperation—we’ll see you in-game! ~RB2"

Lore: The Birth of the World

"Remnants of the past lay scattered within forgotten lands, reminding those living of what their world has endured over the past thousand years. Those who seek to preserve this history know full well the power of this knowledge. An understanding of the past breeds an understanding of the present, as it is not uncommon in this world for long forgotten evils to arise once more and terrorize those that have ceased to remember."

A Solution to the Heart Event Problem

Through playing the beta events and listening to the feedback (especially through a recent video posted by WoodenPotatoes) it had come to my attention that there was a general problem with the Heart Event system in Guild Wars 2. I will start here by explaining the problem at hand along with several solution ideas I have read/heard filtering around the community before giving a suggestion myself.

New Mini-Series

I thought, since this is a "Guild Wars Lore" blog about the lore of Guild Wars; that I would start up a new mini series. This series will consist of blogs detailing specific elements of the game, I thought it would be enjoyable for me to learn all the smaller elements of the game as well as the chance to get the readers involved. I'll be posting potential topics for this series on the Guild Wars Lore Facebook and Google+ pages and I'll sit back and let the community/readers decide. This could take a while to get running since this blog is fresh, but I'm working on it. Look out for "Lore:" posts for the start of the new mini-series.

Hall of Monuments

I'm sure we all know what the Hall of Monuments is by now, but for those of you that don't; it's a system where all of your achievements in the form of story completion, gathering of mini-pets, obtaining and armouring of heroes and the acquiring of titles you (may have) got while playing the original Guild Wars will all give you cosmetic items or titles in Guild Wars 2. I write this now due to a recent blog post by ArenaNet showing off some of the items you'll be able to get as Hall of Monuments rewards. There are links at the end of this post to the blog post and a YouTube video by ArenaNet showing off some of the items in-game in case you haven't been able to see them.

I have been playing a great deal of Guild Wars in an attempt to build up as many HoM points as possible before the release of Guild Wars 2, and with only 23 days left (with 3 day head start) till the game is released; I'm feeling rather rushed. You can see how many points you have built up over the course of your Guild Wars game time by heading over to the Guild Wars 2 Hall of Monuments Calculator.

Social Networking

Here we are, in the era of social networking and up to now I have simply been posting the story of Andru Rhaelis with a selection of news posts on here without building any sort of community or getting any interaction with readers. Let's change that, let's get some interaction and a community going. I've got a Guild Wars Lore page on both Facebook and Google+ running, this will hopefully be where the reader interaction will come from. You may have noticed the new Facebook and Google+ links on the right hand side of the blog, these (of course) link to the Guild Wars Lore pages on the corresponding social network. So if you like this blog, view it a fair amount or simply would like to hear updates on what has been posted and what will be coming soon, like, +1, follow and enjoy!

Final Beta Weekend Event: Impressions

Now that all of the Guild Wars 2 beta weekend events are over; I thought I would collect my thoughts together within a single post. This will outline what I generally enjoyed about the beta, I'll be breaking down my thoughts into the three distinct sections of the game; Player vs Environment (PvE), Structured Player vs Player (PvP) and World vs World (WvW). This will allow me to collect my thought and feelings more specifically regarding the core elements and design.