arenanet posts

Flameseeker Chronicles: Keeping an old game new

by Rubi Bayer Feb 8th 2010 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Opinion, Flameseeker Chronicles

"Guild Wars is an old game." As the game approaches its fifth birthday and Guild Wars 2 continues production, that's a phrase you'll hear more and more. While it's true that the game has been around for a while now, age doesn't necessarily equal stale or boring. On the contrary, it means you've got an established game with an experienced development team behind it, and they've had time to work out all those bugs, kinks, and emergency patches that are so common in new games. Even better, you've got a strong player base that knows their way around.

The largest factor in what makes a game fun for you is your attitude and outlook, so let's take a look at some ways to keep from falling into the trap of assuming there's nothing left for you to do in Guild Wars.

Tags: arenanet, arenanet-guild-wars, featured, flameseeker-chronicles, guild-wars, Guild-Wars-2, guildwars, gw

Guild Wars fans to raise money for Haiti

by Rubi Bayer Feb 6th 2010 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Events, in-game, News items

Gaming World Events, a fan-created organization, will be holding their first ever Guild Wars in-game event tomorrow: Gamers Giving Back to Haiti.

The fans behind Gaming Gamers Giving Back to Haiti will happen in Lion's Arch International District 1, from 10AM - 4PM PST. The six hour event will offer quite a few in-game prizes of items and gold for participants.

The group has set a fundraising goal of (of course) $1,337.00, but a look at their Red Cross donation page shows that they are already approaching the $700.00 mark. Gamers are known to be a generous bunch, so maybe Gaming World Events can reach their goal twice: once before the event and once after. You can donate via the donation page, and read more about the event on their Facebook page or the forum announcement.

We at Massively join the community in thanking Gaming World Events for organizing the event, and all of the players for their support.

Tags: arenanet, gamers-giving-back-to-haiti, gaming-world-events, guild-wars, gw

The Flameseeker Chronicles: A guide to the Canthan New Year festival

by Rubi Bayer Feb 1st 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Events, in-game, Flameseeker Chronicles

Token farming, Rollerbeetle racing, and AFK-ing the rings. Hot on the heels of Wintersday Redux comes Canthan New Year 2010. Guild Wars players joke about the AFK-fest, and while it's a great opportunity to work on those lucky and unlucky titles, there is much more going on. ArenaNet puts together a great festival every year, with old favorite quests and NPCs returning to dole out Lunar tokens and Fortunes as well as a heap of other treats. There is a lot going on, and it can be a bit overwhelming if this is your first Canthan New Year, so let's take a peek at the festivities.

Tags: arenanet, canthan-new-year, celestial-tiger, featured, flameseeker-chronicles, guild-wars, shing-jea-boardwalk

The Digital Continuum: The 'Next Big Thing' in MMOs

by Kyle Horner Feb 1st 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, New titles, Opinion, The Digital Continuum, All Points Bulletin, Crime

Is All Points Bulletin the "Next Big Thing" in MMOs? While I'm fully aware that Realtime Worlds doesn't specifically prefer to associate the game with this genre, it's very much a part of it -- but it also orbits the fringes of what we commonly refer to as a massively multiplayer online game.

Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2 and All Points Bulletin come from a different school of business models. These games hinge on the idea that most people dislike coughing up 15 bucks a month to keep playing their favorite title. Just look to the success of the original Guild Wars, having a year ago passed six million copies sold. That's a pretty great start for non-subscription MMOs, and because of that success we now have GW's sequel and APB on the way.

Tags: all-points-bulletin, all-points-bulletin-game, apb, apb-ea, apb-game, arenanet, blizzard, brutal-legend, crimecraft, double-fine, ea, ea-all-points-bulletin, ea-apb, ea-games, ea-partners, electronic-arts, electronic-arts-all-points-bulletin, featured, gamerankings, guild-wars, jack-black, metacritic, ncsoft, opinion, realtime-worlds, the-digital-continuum, world-of-warcraft, wow

ArenaNet LFM for Guild Wars 2

by Krystalle Voecks Jan 28th 2010 at 1:30PM

Filed under: MMO industry, New titles, News items, Guild Wars 2

Do you have mad programming, writing, or art skills? (We're going to assume you love MMOs since you're here.) If you do and are either in the Bellevue, WA area, or are willing to relocate, then you'll want to check this out. The ArenaNet team have over a dozen positions currently posted on their website, and looking for more people to help them bring Guild Wars 2 to life.

Current openings are for a host of positions: animators; QT specialists; web services and game programming; writing; and even a French community manager. So if you've ever wanted to join the ranks of the games industry and have the chops, get your resume and cover letter together and send them over to ArenaNet! Who knows -- perhaps we'll wind up interviewing you for Massively some day!

Tags: arenanet, games-industry, guild-wars-2, gw2, hiring, jobs, ncsoft, writers

One Shots: Chained

by Krystalle Voecks Jan 26th 2010 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Guild Wars, One Shots

One of the things many people love about Guild Wars is the tremendous imagination and feel of the artwork in the games. While we didn't get a description to go with this interesting screenshot taken by Logen, it reminds me of a gorgeous piece of art from Guild Wars. The work in question won a prize at the Into The Pixel showing at E3 2008. Thankfully, the artwork is available on the Into The Pixel site for everyone to enjoy. Check out today's great One Shots full size, and then look at the ITP gallery piece from artist Tyler West. We think you'll see the connection too.

Are you one of the people who really love the artwork in Guild Wars? We'd love to show off more, but we need your screenshots to make that happen. Send your best screenshots (all MMOs welcome) to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, a description of the area, and the name of the game. We'll post them out here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit.

Gallery: One Shots

Tags: arenanet, guild-wars, gw, into-the-pixel, logen, ncsoft, one-shots, screenshot, screenshots

The Flameseeker Chronicles: Community guide to Guild Wars

by Rubi Bayer Jan 25th 2010 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Flameseeker Chronicles

Welcome to Tyria! The Flameseeker Chronicles will be a regular feature here at Massively, in which we cover all things Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, beginning with this handy-dandy community guide.

Guild Wars has been around for a while now, and has the advantage of a strong, knowledgeable fan-based community. There are literally hundreds of fan sites and forums, Twitter pages and Facebook pages all devoted to Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. It's very easy to get overwhelmed, so view this as a guide to where you can find the most comprehensive information for whatever you are looking for, be it gameplay information, news on game development, skill and build help, and much more.

Tags: arenanet, facebook, fansites, featured, flameseeker-chronicles, forums, guild-wars, Guild-Wars-2, gw, gw2, twitter

Guild Wars releases preliminary skill update notes

by Rubi Bayer Jan 23rd 2010 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Patches, PvP

No, they are not nerfing Shadow Form. Yet. But Guild Wars community manager Regina Buenaobra released a preview of some skill updates and updated GvG restrictions that are coming. Since they'll be released shortly before a Monthly Automated Tournament, and affect PvP heavily, the preview is being offered to give players a chance to plan for the changes. Regina does note, however, that these are preliminary notes, and subject to change.

So what about the rest of the promised skill update? Regina says "While we continue a larger playbalance project that includes drastic changes to Shadow Form, we believe it is important to release a small skill balance to address a few other pressing issues" So the project is still underway, and Shadow Form is still in the crosshairs. (You can either be glad of that, or farm even faster while you still can, depending on your point of view on the entire issue.)

We'll continue watching for further information on the update.

Tags: arenanet, guild-wars, gvg, pvp, regina-buenaobra, shadow-form, skill-update

The sounds of Guild Wars 2: a Q&A with ArenaNet's Audio Director

by Rubi Bayer Jan 22nd 2010 at 9:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, New titles, News items, Guild Wars 2

The members of the Guild Wars 2 Guru forums, just like all of us, are making the wait more bearable with loads of speculation and discussion about Guild Wars 2.

A recent discussion has been going on regarding sound effects and ambient sounds, with everyone generally agreeing that those details are a wonderful addition to a game environment -- the more the better. Guild Wars is a game that already does this well, with details such as a change in the sound of footsteps depending on the surface one is walking on. Fans have the expectation and hope that things will be even better in Guild Wars 2.

As it turns out, ArenaNet's Audio Director James Ackley was keeping an eye on the conversation, and jumped in via Community Manager Regina Buenaobra to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at what the foley team has been up to for GW2.

Ackley went through the thread, and addressed each individual wish and suggestion that had come up, and then provided a handful of photos as a bonus. Take a look a the photos in the gallery below, and you can read the full Q & A here.

We at Massively join the fans in thanking Ackley for taking the time to give a behind the scenes look at some of the production process!

Tags: arenanet, foley, guild-wars-2, guild-wars-2-sounds, james-ackley, regina-buenaobra

New information on Guild Wars Wintersday redux and next skill update

by Rubi Bayer Jan 20th 2010 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Patches, PvP, News items

The Guild Wars Wintersday festival had a few issues this year, but ArenaNet kindly offered up a Wintersday redux. Anyone who missed out on their hats or didn't get to participate as much as they wanted thanks to lag now gets a second chance. If you were lucky enough to have smooth sailing on the first round, just enjoy the bonus! We've been waiting on a date for the festivities, and yesterday community manager Regina Buenaobra announced that it will begin January 29 and run until the finale on February 7. (It doesn't look like the event will overlap Canthan New Year, of course.)

Regina's announcement also included new information on the large skill update that the team originally planned to roll out in full this month: "The next skill updates will be rolled out in stages. First, GvG skills will be updated, and this will come next week, before the Monthly Tournament. We will release preliminary patch notes with details of those GvG changes later this week, so that those participating in the Monthly Tournament will have some notice of the changes".

We'll keep a close eye out for those patch notes for you, and happy Wintersday! (Again)

Tags: arenanet, guild-wars, MAT, monthly-tournament, regina-buenaobra, skill-update, wintersday, wintersday-2009, wintersday-redux

The problem with 'exciting' starting zones

by Kyle Horner Jan 19th 2010 at 9:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Opinion

We love it when game designers make an observation that sometimes escapes us, like Dusty Monk's insightful post about the issue surrounding starting zones -- specifically in Cryptic Studio's last three games. His problem stems from the way in which the developer is responding to gamers' demands of a starting zone experience that doesn't involve a newly minted character thwacking sickly rabbits with a twig. It's an old -- almost passe -- gripe that was well founded back in the first half of the 00's.

As many of you no doubt know, City of Villains, Champions Online and Star Trek Online tutorials all begin by inundating the character with chaotic immediacy, and information. Dusty's problem is the combination of these two elements. He posits that any sense of urgency is killed immediately upon the opening of a substantially novella-like text window. On the flip side of that problem, he contends that it's tough to learn a new system(s) while a Hollywoood blockbuster is taking place around you.

And like any good person with an opinion, he's got a solution for the problem, too.

Tags: arenanet, blizzard, blockbuster, champions-online, city-of-villains, cov, cryptic-studios, ddo, dungeons-and-dragons-online, dusty-monk, guild-wars, hollywood, ncsoft, rabbits, sickly-rabbits, star-trek-online, sto, turbine, tutorial, twig, world-of-warcraft, wow

CEO of SecurePlay discusses account security

by Rubi Bayer Jan 18th 2010 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Interviews, News items, Massively Interviews

Anyone even slightly in touch with the MMO community is aware that account security has been an even bigger concern than usual for the past few months. While it's more in the forefront of everyone's mind these days, it's important to remember that this isn't a brand new problem. It's very important for people on both sides of a game -- both the player side and the development side -- to work to make player accounts as safe as possible.

Steven Davis, CEO of SecurePlay and the mind behind PlayNoEvil, has been watching the events with interest and spent some time recently talking to us about his take on the situation as well as overall account security. Follow along after the jump and see what he had to say.

Tags: Account-Security, account-theft, aion, arenanet, blizzard, featured, gold-farmers, gold-frauders, guild-wars, hacking, interview, john-smedley, ncsoft, playnoevil, protecting-games, secureplay, steven-davis, world-of-warcraft

One Shots: Looking forward to the future

by Krystalle Voecks Jan 17th 2010 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Guild Wars, One Shots

One of the many wonderful things about Guild Wars is the fact that once you've paid for it, you can jump in and out without having to worry about a subscription fee. There's none of that "I'm paying for this monthly, I should play it exclusively" going on. Another of the great things is the care that went into crafting the graphics in-game, such as this lovely scene sent in to us today by Nick. He writes in: I just got back into Guild Wars after some expenses made me quit playing pay to play MMOs -- and watching the trailer for Guild Wars 2. Here we have Moris Linth with his party searching for Arred the Unready near Fahranur, the First City. It was here [that] I saw great scenery with some ruins. Here's to hoping Guild Wars 2 can bring screens like this!

MMOs from big to small, we want to see them all! Just send in your screenshots to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description. We'll post them out here and give you the credit for sending them in.

Gallery: One Shots

Tags: arenanet, guild-wars, gw, ncsoft, nick, one-shots, screenshot, screenshots

Guild Wars Wintersday Art Contest winners announced

by Rubi Bayer Jan 16th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Contests, Fan art, Free-to-play

Last month ArenaNet began their annual Guild Wars Wintersday art contest, offering some coveted prizes in the form of signed copies of The Art of Guild Wars 2, signed art prints from PAX, and everlasting reindeer tonics. As always, participants brought some outstanding talent and creativity to the table, and all the winning entries -- including the adorable Yakkington doll -- showed a fun variety of ideas and themes ranging from funny and random to practical to downright beautiful.

The Guild Wars community pitched in to encourage one another in the form of the Wintersday Workshop, a fan-sponsored forum event and contest designed to encourage new artists and old alike. Workshop participants were very happy to see quite a few of their number gaining recognition in the contest.

All of the winning entries can be viewed at the official site, and we at Massively join ArenaNet in offering our congratulations to them all.

Tags: arenanet, contest, guild-wars, gw, the-art-of-guild-wars-2, wintersday-2009, wintersday-art-contest, wintersday-workshop

ArenaNet promises Guild Wars Wintersday redux

by Rubi Bayer Jan 2nd 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Bugs, Events, in-game, News items, Free-to-play

"OMG lag!" "Ugh, I got dc'ed." "Hey, why didn't I get the hat?"

If you were logged into Guild Wars for more than five minutes on Friday, you most likely either saw people saying one (or all three) of those things, or said them yourself. As the Wintersday finale approached and district numbers soared in Lion's Arch and Kamadan, lag -- a typical festival issue -- became the most used word in the game, with Error 007 messages popping up all over the place.

Most players are used to that around festival times and understand that the server load in some areas is much higher than usual. However, another little glitch showed up Friday that players weren't quite so forgiving of: a huge number of players weren't getting their Wintersday hats, and Guild Wars players do not love it when they don't get their hats.

The outcry hit the forums pretty quickly, and community manager Regina Buenaobra logged an extra long workday communicating with the community and the ArenaNet team, trying to fix the bug. Eventually the bug was fixed, with a very welcome announcement from Regina: they will be re-running Wintersday. Dates are still to be announced, but it's welcome news for all players.

Good luck on round two, and thanks to ArenaNet!

Tags: arenanet, bugs, guild-wars, gw, holiday-2009, wintersday, wintersday-2009