Guild Wars 2 concept art spotted
by James Egan 
Jun 8th 2009 at 7:30PM
Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars has some fantastic concept art. We've mentioned this in the past, particularly in the context of the work of ArenaNet art director Daniel Dociu and concept art lead Kekai Kotaki as seen at Spectrum Fantastic Art. In fact, the last thing we asked was, "Does this give some hints as to what we'll be seeing in Guild Wars 2?" It turns out, it does.
In fact, Guild Wars 2 concept art is now appearing in other places as well. Ravious at Kill Ten Rats hunted down more GW2 art by Dociu and Kotaki, as confirmed by ArenaNet's Regina Buenaobra. Check out the post on GW2 concept art by Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats, which features some examples of what he's found along with some background on what they may show of the next game's setting, "250 years after the original Guild Wars."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
HexDSL said on 7:39PM 6-08-2009
YES! any GW2 news is GOOD NEWS even lame concept art that looks nothing like this when it gets to game... GW2, maybe not vapour-ware!
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Tom said on 8:41AM 6-09-2009
As to whether GW has gone "futuristic", I think Jarin raises an intriguing point. It might be kind of fun if the setting for GW2 (assuming the game ever gets made) transitions from a classic premodern fantasy setting to a futuristic fantasy/sci-fi setting, blending magic with science and technology (the Asurans, remember) in a brand new way. Golems, for example, would look a whole lot more "high-tech" after 250 years of refinement.
Now, *that* really does sound kind of cool -- a sci-fi/fantasy MMO -- and might also explain NCSoft's total silence about GW2.
Tom said on 8:43AM 6-09-2009
Gah, Massively's mysterious reply system strikes again.
I was replying to HexDSL's post BELOW this one. :(
Cacheelma said on 8:12PM 6-08-2009
Ummm... that "Construction Site" image is a little too... I don't know, modern? I can even see some kind of urban city not faraway in the back. I highly doubt we'll be in such place in GW2
...I think Anet should've picked images more carefully when they want to make people believe the game is not vaporware...
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HexDSL said on 8:33PM 6-08-2009
actually now you mention it i can see a city in the distance (bottom right) and it looks very sky scraper-like, not very GW at all.... god damn it, id this game EVER going to happen???
Jarin said on 11:22PM 6-08-2009
I think you're forgetting that the United States went from log cabins to sky scrapers in under 250 years. Seems likely to me.
Jack said on 8:38PM 6-08-2009
Look a lot like the lich king on the pic 2 and 3 look like his mount ;) Anyway this art work does not really do anything to make me believe that this game is even in production....
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max said on 8:39PM 6-08-2009
So, it's going to, what, be in space?
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CindyL said on 9:50PM 6-08-2009
This concept makes no sense. There's two images on Into The Pixel that I could see as GW2 art but this one here I won't be surprised if we find out later it's not supposed to be GW2.
Unless, GW2 is set wayyyyy far more into the future then we thought, or this another planet, or dimension or.... :p
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Cithrax said on 10:43PM 6-08-2009
Meh, they'll likely make some of the things in this look less futuristic, like they did with golems, by changing their material to stone. I was very impressed by the Asura's magical tech in EotN, because it looked like they had taken organic materials and made them function like high tech stuff. Not too futuristic looking, but the same effect.
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Dethgar said on 10:56PM 6-08-2009
Why are people crying vaporware? I only first heard of the game a year or so ago, that's nowhere near enough time to build the game engine let alone have anything for us to actually see.
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Myria said on 12:05AM 6-09-2009
GW2 was originally announced in March of 2007, a bit over two years ago, though GW players had been aware of it (as well as the end of new GW content past GW:EN) for some time. Beta testing was originally announced to start in 2008, leaving everyone with the impression that it was fairly far along in development. That impression turned out to be false, as beta has since been pushed out to 2010-11, well into the "we have no clue so we'll toss a tba date out". To date no one has seen much of squat from or really about the game past the original announcement, basically the concept art (discussed on Guru some days ago) is about it. Add in some fake videos, a skittish player base hoping against hope that the promises surrounding their halls of monuments will actually pan out, and both Anet's and NCSoft's somewhat tarnished reputations, and whispers of 'vaporware' were all but inevitable.
Personally I'll be very, very, very surprised if GW2 ever sees the light of day, but stranger things have happened and until or unless Anet decides to start talking I shan't lose any sleep over it.
Tom said on 8:31AM 6-09-2009
Well said, Myria.
I loved Guild Wars but have been extremely disappointed by the lack of information and (apparent) lack of progress on GW2. I have ascribed this various things, mainly that I think NCSoft wants to keep the focus on Aion and so is keeping almost totally mum about GW2.
These GW2 concept art images (if that is what they really are) represent some major scraping for a few pictorial crumbs about GW2. It's kinda pathetic, really.
STO and TOR have replaced GW2 on my "most anticipated games" list, mainly because I just hate the way NCSoft has kept GW players and fans in the dark about GW2. At least I can be reasonably certain that STO and TPR are actually going to be released.
NCSoft's handling of GW2 (assuming the game ever sees the light of day) been a major fail, imho. In that context, terms like "vaporware" being applied to this game are pretty understandable.
Arnie said on 11:11PM 6-08-2009
Also, another factor to consider is that when they started making the game, they were going only for Dx9. However, I am not sure when but they decided to go Dx10 as well for Vista PCs. I so want this game but am glad they have the money and inclination to do it so that we get a good product especially considering the radical changes they are doing(why? god why? are they increasing the XP cap!) Anet has a good pedigree especially in the art department. Also, we must remember that Daniel Dociu whose image it is(above) is the Art Director but not for GW2.
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Vulturion said on 5:40AM 6-09-2009
Huh; if Regina hadn't confirmed there's no way I'd have taken that for GW2 art.
Reminds me of the Canthan 'box city' though, if someone with fancy equipment tore it down and started building something out of the junk.
As confirmed GW2 info... I like it - seemed a little odd to progress 250 years only for a high fantasy world to still be a high fantasy world, so pseudo-modern and eras inbetween the two will spice things up.
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dodginglightning said on 8:01AM 6-09-2009
Looks like the Factions concept art. Kudos to ArenaNet if they can get the game looking anywhere close to this. Or if GW2 comes out before the end of the decade.
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THAC0 said on 9:16AM 6-09-2009
Thanks massively! Now we can only hope that GW2 wont be vaporware!
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Box said on 10:19AM 6-09-2009
Easily the best artwork for any game I've ever seen. Simply stunning. A bit saddening though is that it's pretty much impossible to make the real game look that good.
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Dethgar said on 1:33PM 6-09-2009
We've known Blizzard has another MMO in the works for a while now(2 or 3 years) and no one is screaming vaporware about it. I am kinda surprised that they would bother making a GW2, when they could just keep shoveling out expansions for the original.
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Cacheelma said on 2:59AM 6-10-2009
It's simple; there's no reason to cry "vaporware" about an unannounced game. GW2 was announced long time ago.
And in the case of Blizzard, we all know quite well how they suspend the development of their games, announced or otherwise, as they see fit (and they have done it quite a few times already). So it's quite reassuring that unless the game is quite good, it won't EVER get to see the light of days.