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.

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.

The Final Wait

The beta is over and the wait begins, now comes the days where the withdraw from the game starts to feel as if something is missing. Looking on the bright side; we have only 32 days left till the release of the game so it wont be long until we are back in Divinitys Reach checking the trading post for Masterwork items, stood playing with the dyes you have unlocked through unidentified dye loot drops and enjoying the true variety and alive feeling of dynamic events.

The Beta is Almost Here

The wait is almost over, it is a matter of hours before the start of the final Guild War 2 beta weekend event and I'm sure there are there are thousands, hundreds of thousands of players who have their Beta keys. They'll have the client ready, fully updated and be counting down the seconds before the event. Let's have a great time this weekend and attempt to pick up on all of the final issues in order to get the game in the best shape possible before it's release on the 28th (25th for us pre-purchase people).

Changes Since Beta Weekend 2

Yesterday, ArenaNet posted a blog containing the new additions and changes since the second beta weekend event. Here is a quick list of the major changes:

• The ability to play as both Asura and Sylvari,
• New explorable map area named "Brisban Wildlands",
• The first mini-game within beta "Keg Brawl",
• All new game element "Vistas",
• New PvP map "Legacy of the Foefire",
• Changes, such as turrets added to World Vs World, and
• Fully open Gem Store (Gems will be refreshed at release).

There is also a reminder that all character data will be deleted before and after this beta. ArenaNet will be streaming gameplay from their channel on Twitch.tv (links below). A final addition I would like to add is that the client that will be used for this beta will be updated further to become the full game so do NOT delete the beta client after this beta as you will have to re-download many of the same files for the full release of the game.

Links;

ArenaNet blog post "What’s New in the Final Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event",
ArenaNet's Twitch.tv channel

The Final Beta Weekend Event Before Release

The Final Beta Weekend has been announced while I was on holiday, it was a good job I had a decent 3G connection, a smartphone and an obsession with checking the official ArenaNet Guild Wars 2 blog on a daily basis. Not only was I happily surprised to hear how close the beta was; I was also massively excited by the announcement that we could play as all five races for the first time within the final beta, what a send-off!