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- Updated the 2012 Automated Tournament Series Trophy in the Great Temple of Balthazar.
- Updated the Automated Tournament map rotation.
Update – Thursday, May 10, 2012
Mike O’Brien on the Guild Wars 2 Beta
The other week we hosted our first Beta Weekend Event, when hundreds of thousands of players who pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 got their first chance to play the game. This was a huge milestone for ArenaNet; with no NDAs and no press embargoes, the beta version of Guild Wars 2 would have to stand on its own before the full force of the Internet.
I think it’s safe to say that the response was overwhelming in more ways than one. Firstly, the number of people who pre-purchased the game far exceeded our expectations, and we had to temporarily disable pre-purchases. In the end that wasn’t enough, and even with 48 worlds we didn’t have enough server capacity to meet the huge demand.
Fortunately, the vast majority of players were able to get into the game and experience Guild Wars 2 in all its glory. Seeing Tyria come alive, with players interacting with dynamic events or engaging in epic World vs. World battles, was an amazing experience. We’ve highlighted some of the great coverage coming out of the Beta Weekend in another blog post, but suffice it say that we were blown away by the reaction from the community. The positive feedback just strengthens our resolve to deliver the best game possible.
This was definitely a real beta, designed to find problems, gather player input, and learn what work still needs to be done before we ship the game. We’ve listened to your feedback and we’re making some important improvements to the game for the next Beta Weekend Event.
At the same time, we’re also working on server capacity to make sure that we’re prepared for the even greater flood of players who will participate in the next Beta. To that end, we’ve announced a Stress Test on Monday May 14th to test some changes we’ve implemented. This 7-hour test event, which runs from 11 AM to 6 PM PDT (-7 GMT) is open to all players who have pre-purchased Guild Wars 2. The good news is that we’re not wiping characters for this test; we’re using the same build that we used in the first Beta Weekend Event, so you’ll be able to pick up right where you left off. For more information about the Stress Test, log in to the Beta Forums. Please join us on May 14 if you can.
I want to thank each and every one of you for your support—every time you participate in our test events you help make the game better. We’ll see you in-game!
-Mike O’Brien
Update – Thursday, May 3, 2012
PvP Updates
- Added support for the May Flux.
MYST Patch Notes v1.2
On to the third round of Patch Notes and the month where we finally got our hands on Guild Wars 2!
After battling through server crashes and connection problems, well over 30 of us joined the guild and started exploring Guild Wars 2. Some got lost in PvE while some waged war in world vs world. Over the weekend we gained over 11,000 influence; more than enough to build a 50 slot guild bank and allow everyone to put a guild emblem on their armor and weapons. Reading the early feedback it seems that all of us found at least one profession we love! We’d love to hear your impressions, tips and criticisms of the game, which you can do in our Guild Wars 2 area. Likewise if you took screenshots, send them in! We’re getting quite a nice collection on our Flickr account which you should check out.
In Guild Wars, members have continued to work on their Hall of Monuments through working on titles and farming. This month we induct Eki into meganerdstardom as he’s achieved the dizzying heights of 50 Hall of Monuments points. We’ve also had a load of people progress their work towards 30 or 50 – congratulations to Sacred, choas kast, sevenforce, lyuna, Silver and Auronold amongst others. The Hall of Monuments progression scheme is still ongoing – if you’re reaching for 30, don’t miss it!
In other news, DOTA2 has continued to be popular with the MOBA players amongst us and looks to be replacing Heroes of Newerth in the near future. The game is still in beta and you can get a key from their website. Andy and Sevenforce have continued on the Minecraft server and you can view a live map of the server and interact with those who are playing from our website! And as I know many of our members were Diablo 2 players, it’s worth mentioning that Diablo 3 launches this month.
Onto the stats…
This month, 449 posts were made by 37 people. 2 of them were new posters and 5 were returning members.
Top 5 Posters
- Tasha (66)
- Tunk (44)
- Lazarus (39)
- Ku Ku (36)
- Eki (26)
Top 5 Topics
- First Beta Weekend Announced
- Pre-purchased? Check in here
- A tormenting suggestion
- Guild Roster Alpha – It’s here!
- What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you while gaming?
Congratulations to qwazy for making the 23,000th post!
May is a month of change for us on an administration level. I will be taking some time off (going on honeymoon!) so I’ll be leaving the guild in the hands capable hands of Andy and Tunk. We’ll be doing some dry runs of them being in charge at the start of the month, so do provide them with the same feedback and ask them the same questions you’d ask me. I’ll be back in time for our barbeque at the start of June.
Happy adventuring,
Tasha
- Let’s see the colour of your coin
What you need to know about the Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend
Hi everyone!
Hope you’re as excited as I am about the upcoming weekend. Before we get too involved in adventuring there’s a few things I’d like to bring to everyone’s attention.
This weekend is not only the first Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event, it’s also the 7th birthday of Guild Wars. There are all the usual celebrations in game including access to the 9 rings and addiction drops as normal. This year however there is also a limited edition ranger pet which can be picked up from Embark Beach. The event is live now and will be running until 8th May! For more details, see the Guild Wars homepage.
Back on Guild Wars 2, you can download the game and access the official forums now, so get a head start! The download is currently around 13Gb in size but be prepared for patches closer to the start of the beta. We are in the process of choosing our homeserver for this beta.
It’s worth noting that the guild system is very different to that in Guild Wars 1. It will take some adjustment and there will be experimentation going on with ranks. Do not be alarmed if you end up somewhere you think you should not be. It will get sorted in the end. Once invited, please represent the guild as you would if you were playing normally – this will give us a better idea of how much influence we can gain and how much we’ll be able to build come release.
In addition to testing the game, we also have a new feature on the website that requires your testing – the guild roster. This feature, specially written for this site, takes the maintenance of the guild roster out of the hands of admins and into yours. You can view the entire roster here (you’ll need to select the game you’re interested in) and you can enter your own details via your user control panel on the forum. Please do use it once you have a character name – it will make adding people a lot easier! Detailed usage notes can be found here.
Over the weekend, do use ventrilo and the forum to keep in touch with your fellow players. The ventrilo server has been expanded to 25 slots in anticipation of additional usage. If required, we’ll expand it again. Even if you aren’t comfortable talking, you are more than welcome to come on to listen and soak up the atmosphere. Connection details can be found here.
That in mind, be aware of any spoilers you may expose others to and do all you can to shield others from them. A spoiler is classified as anything relating to the main or personal story, dungeons and world boss encounters. We’ve set up a separate area of the forum for people to discuss and share pictures that would count as a spoiler. If you’re not sure, err on the side of caution. This embargo will last until after 6 weeks since the game’s release date, which is yet to be announced. Please review the spoiler policy - it will be policed heavily.
Finally, we will be streaming the event over the entire weekend, so keep an eye out for the recording bots in ventrilo. If you’re ok with your voice being broadcast then do pop in the channel. Kobus and I will both be streaming – I’ll be on the guild channel, while he’ll be on his channel. We’re aiming to provide the ability for people to experience the same encounters from 2 different perspectives.
Hope you have fun and enjoy this weekend. See you in Tyria!