Heart of Thorns

Another year of Guild Wars 2 has shot by and there are yet more huge changes to almost every area of the game. On top of all of those changes, as I am sure if you're reading this you are very aware that at PAX South just last week the first expansion pack for Guild Wars 2 was finally announced; Heart of Thorns. I've always wanted to continue this blog, and have never said that it has come to an end! Of course, it could so easily have been assumed to have ended - but I'm sure you will agree that there is no better time to restart (for the second time) a lore based blog surrounding Guild Wars when there is an expansion on the horizon full of juicy lore to cover! Now, I will not promise as I have done the previous time that this will go smoothly, but much has changed and I can only hope that it will not follow the same fate as the previous re-launch attempt.

A Year Of Guild Wars 2: Part 2

The second part of the year of Guild Wars 2 continues, starting right where we left off after the Super Adventure Box update. We were taken back to Southsun Cove, in the secret of southsun update; refugees were over-filling the cities. A body of traders by the name of the Consortium gave shelter to those refugees in need of a new home. The island is a beautiful, tropical place and at first it appeared to be a great idea but it wasn't long before the traders began to treat the refugees like prisoners. The wildlife on the island had also began to become more and more aggressive, it was up to the player and inspector Kiel to get to the bottom of the problems and discover the secret of southsun cove.

A Year Of Guild Wars 2: Part 1

There has been a rather long break with this blog, I thought that starting with a summary of how the game has grown and evolved since release seems apt. Firstly, we had the Karka attacks on Lion's Arch, this gave us Ascended gear, Southsun Cove and a group of story based events which brought us to the defeat of the ancient Karka. This was the first major event within the game, it showed a few problems with the initial design in terms of the culling and overflow server population. The event wasn't the best experience since there were several issues with client side performance and even when there wasn't so many issues; the culling removed a great deal of players from view. ArenaNet have been working and, for the most part have solved the issues which surfaced with the lost shores update (the Karka event).

The Lost Shores

With the release of the first main content release for Guild Wars 2; this blog gets an update. I'm ready, back from a much-needed break from blogging due to the transfer from work into the third year of university. Now that the blog is back going, I will get as many updates out as possible; the pictures from the previous group of posts will be altered (as promised) along with the addition of the twitter link on the right over the next week things should be back in order. Enough of "my story" and onto the main content of the post; The Lost Shores.

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"

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!

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!