GuildCast 33: Guild Wars 2 Brings Asura And Sylvari Out To Play

Written by: (Twitter @jarimor - ) | July 26, 2012 4:30 am
93 Comments

The beta weekends are over, are you ready for the real deal now?

With the Asura and Sylvari making their debut, Guild Wars 2‘s BWE3 had a lot of new content to look at.

It’s a challenging task to make a lush vegetation-filled area look outstanding with so many similar environments in MMOs, did ArenaNet wow our crew with The Grove? The Sylvari character creator also comes under scrutiny. Did we get lost in it, or run away screaming?

With two new cities, can either take the crown as most enthralling capital?

Keg Brawl is apparently just a mini-game, but you wouldn’t have thought so if you stumbled into the crazy antics of this Norn-inspired sport. The gang talk about their experiences while bashing kegs off various noggins.

Guilds have undergone a major overhaul. Has ArenaNet calmed the fury of a certain enraged Brit? Or is there a lot more to be done to put the Guild into Guild Wars 2?

We had to pick out just a few of the 50 questions we received this week — thank you everyone who sent in a query — in order to give them the time they deserved, but our regulars were on hand to deliver the answers.

Join GAMEBREAKER’s Gary Gannon, Massively‘s Richie “Bogotter” Procopio and Elisabeth Cardy with Scott Hawkes for this week’s GuildCast!

 

GuildCast 33: Guild Wars 2 Brings Asura And Sylvari Out To Play
  • Spammerbam

    I wonder how many times Sharuko will needing to watch this week’s GuildCast episode. Any wild guesses?

    We should turn this into a drinking game, where everyone takes a shot for every troll comment Sharuko makes about GW2. That would be pretty fun, actually..

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr

      Very interesting contest there, but let’s face facts. GW2 is not for everyone and it’s not the savior of the MMO genre nor the WoW killer (like so many other games have been claimed by fanbois and media over the last 5-6 years). I am a GW1 fanboi, but lost complete interest in playing GW2 years ago. I was hoping the Betas would blow me away and make me a believer, but after the first two, just came away with a “uhh whatever” feeling. Nothing compelled me about the game the way I have been compelled by other games, and certainly not the way I was compelled by GW1 (and still am, after 7+ years).

      I certainly believe GW2 will be successful, and hopefully that success will help keep GW1 fueled for a long time as well, but ultimately I found nothing in the game that made me want to add the box to the nearly-packed-to-the-brim 5 shelf bookcase of games I already have.

      • Odeezee

        most of your post had NOTHING to do with the person you were even responding to, hahaha.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr

           Yours even less so…;O

        • http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

          I think you missed his point.  He was responding to Spammerbam making a game out of another posters opinions about a game and he then posting his own opinion.

          • Odeezee

            i know what he was trying to do. what made it comical for me was how he took it as an opportunity to give is “opinion” on the game, yet all the poster was talking about was a running joke about Sharuko for anyone who has been on the boards for a while, hell for any of the Guildcast live shows for that matter.

            troll comment != reasoned opinion so…yeah…his post was kinda irrelevant to the post he replied to, he should have just made him post not as a reply and it would have made a lot more sense.

      • Spammerbam

         Umm.. yeah.

        That’s great, I somewhat agree with you too. I enjoyed the game, but was never here to say GW2 is the best and is the savior of the MMO genre; never stated anything like that in any of my posts (including the one above).

        Anything could happen to an MMO, and every game has its ups and downs.

        But, if you stick around long enough, you can observe our very own resident troll, Sharuko, in his natural habitat.

      • Jay

        It’s always better to hope for the best and expect the worst. I played GW2 with realistic expectations, being that it’s still an MMO and still has to run on a wide variety of machines. I feel what they’ve been able to accomplish with that in mind is a bit mind blowing… Of course, no game is perfect, but if you have a shelf full of games and are admittedly a GW1 fanboi, then your standards are naturally going to be higher.

        Trying to replace your favorite game is never an easy task… Enjoy GW1.

  • http://twitter.com/c_l_horstmann Pants

    Are there any plans to make Guildcast downloadable? I listen to podcasts on my cell phone while I’m working and the only way to watch/listen to Guildcast is through the browser. Then if I lock my phone it stops or if I get a call or text message I have to start over. I really love your show and wish there was a better way to view it.

    • Sathure

      It’s available on iTunes as a podcast. Not sure about android.

  • TheHolgar

    something i was thinking about when i saw the Sylvari sarting area was, how about in a year or two – something killed the paled tree and the players cant do any more sylvaris, and Arenanet add a new race in the same time, and added a “maincity” to the sylvaris that is in the game. Now that whould be some inmersion. :)

  • TheHolgar

    Something i was thinking about when i saw the Sylvari starting area was, how about in a year or two – something killed the paled tree and the players cant do any more sylvaris, and Arenanet add a new race in the same time, and added a “maincity” to the sylvaris that is in the game. Now that whould be some inmersion. :)

  • TheHolgar

    something i was thinking about when i saw the Sylvari sarting area was, how about in a year or two – something killed the paled tree and the players cant do any more sylvaris, and Arenanet add a new race in the same time, and added a “maincity” to the sylvaris that is in the game. Now that whould be some inmersion. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/oneniisama Bear Powell

    Wish (by Mutable Realms) was the game you meant for Massive Dynamic Events that never made it to release. When we were doing beta for the game all the “Quest” NPC’s were played by real GM’s which was also planned for release. All of the quests given were one shots so there were no repeatable quests and once it was completed you were etched in as part of the story. I remember my favorite quest I was given was one to go guard a caravan of trade goods and I needed to gather people to help me. After getting a dozen or so people we went to the merchant to help him with the escort. One of my friends who was in beta at the time also was sent to the city we were heading too and told to warn a rival trading company about us. They had him gather up a group to go stop the caravan and stop us. In the middle of the wilderness when we were fighting random mobs on the way they surprise attacked us. It was just such an awesome experience to be part of as we were trying to get the goods delivered and my friend was trying to stop us. We won the battle and made it to town with the merchandise. ^^

  • http://www.facebook.com/oneniisama Bear Powell

    Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted (Formerly: Horizons: Empire of Istaria) is still one of my favorite of all time “Sandbox MMORPG’s”. It unfortunately had terrible people running it at the end of beta, suring launch, and swapped hands to worst people over the years. All you need to know is that Edward Andercheck was involved and he is a plague upon gaming.

  • tommythepower

     super super fanboys from massively recruiting for Arena net ?

  • http://twitter.com/borded nathan law

    people worried about having to ask members to farm and contribute for 4g? looks like some people didn’t play the original, or at least were never in a guild that was in the process of building its guild hall.

    • http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

      I’m assuming alot of players never played Guild Wars.  I would guess the trepidation is coming from the Guild Wars 2 launch and any feelings of pay to win.  

      For the original Guild Wars, how long after the game launch did a guild start building guild halls? How were the guild halls important? Was recruiting skilled players important to Guild Wars?  Did guild perks help with recruitment?

      • http://twitter.com/elixabethclaire Elisabeth Claire

        Guild halls were significant because they were upgradable, though at significant cost. What I assume Nathan is referring to is the cost of adding all thr vendors and service NPCs to one’s guild hall to make it an effective gathering place for before/after runs, so members could take care of any services (buying skills, bank, dye vending, etc).

        • Jay

           Yup, I know ANet mentioned considering Guild Halls for GW2. Let’s hope that plan comes to fruition. Except this time, they’ll need to add a dock for the Guild Airships!

          *Jazz Hands*

  • http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

    I really enjoy the enthusiasm the GamebreakerTV hosts have for GW2.  But, (always the But) halfway through the show, I started to feel like I was watching some type of home shopping network show.  All was missing was a flashing 800 number for Arenanet with a countdown timer on box sales. 

    Once I got that feeling, the second half was hilarious. 

    Felt like:
    -  Buy Guild Wars 2 and get Netflix free for 30 days
    - Cant afford a guild within Guild Wars 2, we have an easy pay plan.
    - Already have an MMO, that’s okay, Guild Wars 2 has (insert flashy effect) No monthly Subscription (end flashy effect) just buy the box.
    - Not sure about Guild Wars 2 progression system, that’s okay, Guild Wars 2 has (insert flashy effect) No monthly Subscription (end flashy effect) just buy the box.
    - Not sure about Guild Wars 2 character gear, that’s okay, Guild Wars 2 has (insert flashy effect) No monthly Subscription (end flashy effect) just buy the box.

    Gary, you really need a two camera shot for the show.  Watching Elisabeth reactions to what the other host say is one of the highlights of the show.   With most shows, the host are intent on what they are going to say next, for Guildcast watching Elizabeth’s natural reactions to the other hosts is very entertaining.  

    Great show as always.

    • http://twitter.com/DaPhoolz Rp TheFoolz

      i’d love more ppl to buy GW2 and play :) since more ppl is kind of fun in GW2

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Mac/777995513 Alex Mac

        I think it’s definitely a fair point that Dularr’s making though. There’s a line between genuine enthusiasm and pure adulation. Regardless, I’m still excited for the game. But I do hope that as time goes on, this show doesn’t forget to engage in criticism as well. Because there is certainly criticism to be had.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-Lazarowitz/100000420795554 Steve Lazarowitz

          I don’t know, only a week ago they were seriously complaining about the guild system, so it’s not like criticism doesn’t happen. It just so happens that everyone was having fun this time, so there was less criticism.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Mac/777995513 Alex Mac

            Then perhaps the question is one of balance? The guild system drew proper questioning, you’re right. So I suppose the question will become how long the hosts let the game’s novelties dazzle them. As said, the line between enthusiastic and fawning is razor thin at time.

            Please don’t misunderstand me either. I’m quite excited for the game too. I merely hope that this show doesn’t sort of let hype distract from topics that warrant discussion.

          • http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan

            A show full of nitpicking doesn’t sound much better.

  • Fandros

    Please get wooden potatoes on this show! His videos for the jumping puzzles and extra super secret boss are awesome. 

    • Jay

       He would make an awesome special guest.

  • http://twitter.com/djinntwit Dustin Moon

    Caught the show live yesterday and seeing all the pre show antics I realize now why it looks like Liz is about to pee herself laughing all the time when the show starts. they are so funny before a show.. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tj-Vossos/647768691 Tj Vossos

    love the new video players

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/W76UOX2IDTRMMYTPASSJDLXLRM Bob

    I love the tiers of paying for guild size. It’s a great idea.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R35J5EUERGS3E6JRIQMBCDTRRY Nathan I

    anybody who complains about the gold cost of getting a 500 person cap on their guild needs to seriously think. Let’s be conservative here and say you want a 500 person guild cap, because you actually have 401  members. That’s 103 copper per member. Guess what? 103 copper you can get by completing 2 reknown hearts at level 2. That’s it 2 reknown hearts, takes you  what? 10 minutes? 15 assuming all your members are really really slow at feeding cows? add maybe 15 minutes for you to get through the tutorial, that’s a 500 person guild within half an hour.

    Personally, my guild will never reach 50 members (we have about 30), so I’m glad they can save some space on their server by having it start at 50 member cap.

    • http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

      A few weeks or months after launch, this will not be an issue.

      I think the concern is what happens on August 25th and August 28th.
      If I’m a guild leader of an alliance of guilds or the guild leader of a larger community, the Guild Leader will be struggling and jumping through hoops on August 25th.

      On August 25th the Guild Leader will have to purchase a guild and then collect the funds to create a guild of the appropriate size.  Sounds like a pain in the ass.

      What else I wonder about is what happens if your guild members can’t get on the same server.  If you create your guild on August 25th and a few hours later the server is full, will some of your guildies have to join another server and only guest on your server? 

      Sounds like launch has the potential for a giant cluster.

      • Odeezee

        **On August 25th the Guild Leader will have to purchase a guild and then collect the funds to create a guild of the appropriate size.  Sounds like a pain in the ass.**

        how is this even an issue? you can receive mail from anywhere in the game world and  collecting the few copper required is VERY easy so what pain are you actually talking about. it only seems like it would be an issue if the guild is not made of friends and just people who hang out with each other just for convenience. i mean your guild has an entire month to work it out, it’s not hard at all.

        **What else I wonder about is what happens if your guild members can’t get on the same server.  If you create your guild on August 25th and a few hours later the server is full, will some of your guildies have to join another server and only guest on your server? Sounds like launch has the potential for a giant cluster.**

        this is COMPLETELY a player issue and not a game issue. want to have a large guild? make sure your logistics are on point otherwise you end up with a split up guild. completely avoidable.

        • http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

          Of course these are player issues.  Player issues created by Arenanet.
          I can see a Guild Leaders having to open hundreds of mail messages to collect Guild fee, that’s dynamic gameplay there.

          Am I missing something here?  Do guild really don’t matter in a game called Guild Wars?  Are guild really okay if half their guildies end up on another server, because the server is full?   Or my favorite, “The guild is full, check back in a few days and see if we have come up with the funds to expand the guild. Don’t forget to send in your one silver.”

          • Odeezee

            they are all PLAYER caused issues. all servers for all server-based MMOs have caps. if the cap is exceeded then you will either be behind a long server queue or will have to go to a new server. it is NOT ANet’s problem that you chose a popular server. what would you have ANet do, kick people from the server so you can fit the rest of your guild in?

            the cost of upgrading the guild cap is not a surprise here, hence the whole advanced notice so i fail to see how this cannot be a very smooth transition for large guilds onto their server of choice. it’s not even a lot of money per person, i mean wow. are people really going to cry over 1 silver? WOW, i don’t even…./sigh

          • Jay

            Guild size and Realm size are 2 separate issues… Realm size is pretty much an issue in almost any MMO, and at least ArenaNet has guesting so you can still join up with anyone. Everyone should know by now, if you want to join a particular server, it’s best to show up early.

            As far as the guild thing goes, if you have 300+ people ready to join your guild, you surely have a plan in place to get things setup. I’d almost argue that people who *choose* to run a guild of that size may even have fun collecting dues and building up their ridiculously large guild. I think it actually makes people think a bit more about their guild choices… Which some people were concerned about GW2 having less guild loyalty. Having to pay and earn you spot in a guild gives people a sense of entitlement.

            Me personally, I’m staying far away from any guild with over 400 members.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/Z36GPOU3Q2QIQYBIDVNQAVGNGE Raul

    Unable to watch the vid : (

    Really really enjoyed playing an asuran thief.

    They do need to fix the ai for the ground worm-creatures and hatchlings in the sylvari area, that allowed me (as a lvl3 thief) to easily kill lvl 12 mobs.

    also, shooting level 8 water mobs at lvl 2/3 was as easy as, well…
    shooting fish in a barrel.
    (srry, had to say it)

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/Z36GPOU3Q2QIQYBIDVNQAVGNGE Raul

      fixed the bad player:
      Cashsky, in Your forums is a God.He posted a fix, for those of us having player issues.

      http://forum.gamebreaker.tv/viewtopic.php?id=5253 

      Thank You Cashsky!

    • Odeezee

      yeah, the reduction in difficulty is something i am concerned about, especially when down-scaling kicks in. easy content becomes the stuff of boredom, while challenging content is the stuff of legend.

    • Old Ben

      Level 1-17 areas need to be tuned so that even completely inexperienced players feel like they can progress. I expect difficulty will ramp up slowly in level 15-35 areas (I didn’t play much in those in this BWE), and anything above that is designed to be challenging even with downleveling.

      More experienced players can simply level in zones above their level or pull multiple enemies at the same time. 

  • Dekin

    In guild wars 1 didnt they do events that never happened again each year? Because they had to reopen the events so you could complete them and get th achievements for the transition stuffz you get in GW1 that rolls into GW2.

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan

      The events repeat each year but the items(pretty much all costume hats) you can get from the events didn’t except for that 7 year anniversary event.

  • Kicknpups

    Great Show guys! and Richie I did the same thing man changed my mind from Element to a Asura Warr!

  • Avan Gore

    If 500 players would not be able to get together 5g then I wouldn’t want to be in a guild with them epic fails!

    EDIT: 1 silver each? Why the heck would anybody complain about that is beyond me.

  • Old Ben

    Any launch date _after_ August 25th is equally bad for MoP. The only way Blizzard could have minimized GW2′s impact on subscription loss would have been to launch before that date, so that WoW players got back on the gear treadmill and never even _tried_ GW2.

    From what I’ve heard, MoP is still quite buggy, so if they’re rushing it, that seems like a shot in the foot. Very few players will have “run out of content” in GW2 after one month (in fact, most will probably just be reaching level 80 and starting to get more into WvW, high-level dungeons, chasing legendaries, etc.). 

    Having missed the objective of launching before GW2, Blizzard should focus on making sure MoP is as polished and bug-free as possible. If the people who have been playing GW2 for one month decide to check out MoP and start encountering bugs, they’ll just go back to GW2 and not bother with MoP again. If MoP is polished and stable (even if it launches only in November), they’ll probably keep playing both games.

    Then again, WoW’s main market is in Asia, these days, and I think GW2 doesn’t even have any Asian-language versions (yet), so they probably don’t care as much about each other as one might think.

  • http://twitter.com/Kalcipher Daniel Lawson

    Where can i watch the first buildcast?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Caliolo/100003765889295 Robert Caliolo

    People keep thinking that there will not be a gear grind at “endgame” Well I am here to tell you there will be a gear grind. Not in the true sense but in the sense that people will see the various cool looking gear, and the need to socket that gear. There will be that grind to get rare socket items that WILL make a difference in your characters performance. Not in Structured PvP but for sure in PvE and WvW.
    There will be specific socket items that people will say , you need to go farm those because they make the best difference. be it any specific stat. That and when you see those cool looking high end items you will want to raid for it over and over to get it.

    • pandora005

      The “grind” is PERSONAL for each and every one and you dont have to compete with other players over the same loot from one boss. So the “grind” will actually not be a grind … unless you consider “being required to do something for a reward” to be a grind. If you do then you are a spoiled and entitled brat who thinks GW2 should give him everything for no work whatsoever.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan

    I don’t know about enthralling but Rata Sum could easily take the crown for the city where you are most likely to die by accident.

    • saluk

      It’s also the city where you are most likely to die on purpose :P

  • http://twitter.com/Leithian Duane Lee Hampson

    I only played a little of this final beta as I wanted to have some new things to do in the launch. However I am one of the people who is still worried about what there is to drive me to keep playing.

    It doesnt have to be better stats but there has to be more than a look. I hope there are plenty of instances to beat as there are no raids. What is my drive to get to lvl 80? What is there to do at cap that I couldnt do at lvl 1?

    In the first 15 lvls or less you will most likely have unlocked all the different weapon abilities, you still have the different traits but is that enough? Dynamic evens and world bosses will have to be exponentially more gripping than they are at the lower lvls.

    I am definitely looking forward to finding out I just hope that the omission of any raid content will not be the games undoing, as most of the recent crop of games failed due to lack of end game content. Even take a look at Cataclysm in WoW, the alt grind expansion. I’d say that was their least successful yet also the least amount of end game.

    • Old Ben

      > I am one of the people who is still worried about
      > what there is to drive me to keep playing.

      Why do you feel the need to have “something to drive you to keep playing” ? If you don’t feel like playing, don’t play. Isn’t that how leisure activities are supposed to work? 

      When you’re listening to music are you also worried about “what is going to drive you to keep listening” ? Or when you eat chocolate, do you worry about what will “drive you to keep eating” ? 

      Have gear-grind MMOs destroyed players’ brains to the point that they forgot what “having fun” means?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ian-Smith/100000531128393 Ian Smith

    Were guilds by account like now or by character in GW1? 

    • http://www.facebook.com/pedro.ducos Pedro Ducos

      They were the same

  • virtually more

    what happened to the comment somebody made about downloading this episode? somebody said they can’t download it anymore cos of this new streaming-only format (vs previous format of cached in browser temp folder) for the intent of watching on mobile devices, to which somebody replied with comment about the podcasts are on itunes  (thus, alienating all android phones from using this site)… etc blabla..

    why were the comments deleted? will this comment be deleted? do gamebreaker want to stop people discussing and requesting the ability to download episodes to watch on their non-apple mobile devices? or (dare i say it) a gamebreaker android app!

    so whats the deal.. why change the format of the video on the website?

    • Old Ben

      > what happened to the comment [...]

      If you click the “Load more comments” button at the bottom, you’ll find it.

      And the videos are still downloaded into the browser’s cache. I’ve just watched the second half of this episode while my internet connection was down, and opening the relevant xxxxxxxx.tmp file in VLC plays back the episode jut fine.

      • virtually more

        really? oh.. which browser do you use for this?

        • Old Ben

          On this system I’m using Opera, but it shouldn’t make any difference. You just need to find where the file is being stored and then figure out which file is the video (which shouldn’t be too hard, based on size). Your client always caches the video, unless you’re watching an actual live stream (in which case it might not even show you the playback bar “filling up”).

          Note that no (competently coded) browser will preserve the actual video file name or extension while in the cache, for security reasons. Just check the date / size and it should be obvious which of the files is the video.

          • virtually more

            no i understand this, i used this method for previous vids of this site, but since it moved to this new video streamer in their site, my opera doesn’t seem to do this, but i’ll try updating to opera 12, and other things like refresh a few more times, view fullscreen, try different ways of playing.. but it seems just to stream only without buffering entire vid… kinda annoying since mostly i only watch these shows on my phone, thx for info.

          • Old Ben

            I’ve tried both 12 and 11.67 and it’s there on both. Assuming you’re on Windows 7 and didn’t change the default paths, it should be in:

            C:Users[username]AppDataLocalOperaOperacacheg_XXXX

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan

    Making guild expansion cost Influence wouldn’t be much different from having it costing gold/silver/copper. You can buy 10 Influence for 10 silver. You can also speed up a guild upgrade by paying more Influence.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco

    i don’t like this new player :(

    • Old Ben

      It is a bit annoying how clicking on it takes you to a different site instead of simply pausing the video. Also, the playback bar never hides, and on my HTPC for some reason sometimes I just get a black rectangle on the embedded player (works fine in fullscreen, though).

      And the worst part is that it doesn’t solve the problem of the previous player (i.e., it’s always set to auto-play, so if you open multiple articles you then have to pause each one manually – and even then they all still transfer the full videos, wasting your bandwidth).

      I guess GBTV doesn’t have “wait for a click before downloading and playing the video” technology yet…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco

    guilds were account wide iirc. was difficult to not be on a single server structure.

  • Old Ben

    I suspect Hunger Royale will be a frequent (or even permanent) event, but I doubt they will spawn portals to it all over the place. More likely, they’ll just have a smaller map dedicated to it and a single Asura portal that you go through when you want to play it (or maybe it will be a weekly  activity, a bit like the fishing contests in WoW).

    As to the previous events, I doubt we’ll see them in that form, but I’m sure they were testing some mechanics that will be used in other areas.

  • itsJUSTINduh

    They need to add zombies to the hunger games event so that is like DayZ lol.

  • Old Ben

    Requiring guilds to already have X number of players before they can buy a roster expansion is just silly. It’s not going to help reduce spam or “conserve resources” in any way.

    If someone wants to have a 500-slot guild purely for e-peen reasons, let him spend the gold. If you force him to actually get 400 members before he can buy the expansion to 500, then he won’t rest until he has those 400 members, which means more spam invites, not less.

    What the guild system (and the chat system) really need is a way to let people join guilds (or post in chat, or be added to friends lists) without revealing their account name and full character list. I don’t necessarily want everyone in every guild I join to know which other characters I play, and be able to check if they’re “representing” that guild or not. 

    This is one area where Arena Net can (and needs to) learn from Blizzard. Your account ID should be reserved for your actual friends (people you authorize explicitly); other players should only see the characters you want them to see.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco

    i also just wanna say that i survived the hunger games, by finding a tree that continually spawned rations, having 10 at any given time, killing anyone who showed up, and smacking the faces of robots for ammunition.

    • Old Ben

      > just wanna say that i survived the hunger games

      So you never found the secret reward available only to the robots?

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco

        not sure if troll, or serious

        • Spammerbam

           LOL too funny

        • Old Ben

          Oh, it was probably the best thing I’ve seen in the game so far. And I’ve heard that everyone who became a robot will get one at launch.

          • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco

            the line is no longer blurry

          • Old Ben

            You’re just jealous. :-P

      • SiderFace

        troll

  • ctap

    Does she realize how damn hot she is?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas-Kozma-Jr/100000683276285 Thomas Kozma Jr.

    I’ve played WoW 4 years, will still play but LOVING GW2, i’ll honestly be interested to see if over the next year I play more hours of Guildwars 2 then WoW.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ron-Tiben/100002211078223 Ron Tiben

    i can t view guidcast thaks to viddler

  • http://www.facebook.com/Sean.MP.Rice Sean M P Rice

    In regards to your gear treadmill question, A Flaming sword that shoots Rainbows is Always better then a cool looking sword. And it does not detract from the competitiveness of our players. Simply like the gladiator drake of WoW.

  • http://twitter.com/Amantis_Asoko John Doe

    You were talking about this, sorry to burst Gary’s bubble but this is a direct quote from collin ”
    I’ve seen feedback where people were truly upset an event could happen more than once in the world, though we’ve been saying all along that they do continue to occur in the world. I think it’s easy to try and picture this world filled with events that just happen for you and never happen again—heck, I would love to play a game like that—but the amount of work and manpower it would take is simply not in the scope of what is possible for us in Guild Wars 2. Millions of people need to be able to play through the game and be entertained, so we need to have events be part of chains and branches that can chain back in the other direction and repeat, or one-off events that can occasionally repeat so there is simply enough for people to do in the game.”

  • pandora005

    Sooo … according to Gary the Asura are actually the “inventors” of the Borg with their cubes?

    Next Guild Wars will be in space then …

  • http://twitter.com/quickshot10101 Rick ‘Quickshot’

    Just thought I would add this. I made 11g in my first hour in the last bwe (knowing what I should be doing). So the gold price for a full guild really isn’t a big deal. Tis all.

  • Boz1632

    Where’s “BuildCast”?

  • Boz1632
  • Shogunz

    22:12 did a brit just casually say “soccer”?  :O  the mayans were right, the end is nigh!

  • RockerDC3

    Can guilds be merged?

    • http://www.kaiketsu.enjin.com/ Corey “Crimzen”

      There’s no guild merge button if that’s what you’re asking. The only way to physically merge a guild would be to have everyone from guild A go to Guild B. Or have guild A and B dissolve in order to form Guild C

  • DoctorOverlord

    Good to hear Richie missed the bioluminescence in sylvari creation as well.   

    It’s a minor thing and I’m sure they’ll fix it but the fact that they didn’t bother is a worrisome example of what I think is ArenaNet’s greatest flaw - mechanics that they think are intuitive but are not.   Labeling the little lightbulb ‘bioluminesnce’ would take all of a second and yet no one in ArenaNet thought to do that or point it out and they left it for people to figure out.   

    They have made such great strides fixing mistakes from GW1 but I still see backsliding on this point.   I’m worried new players are going need to do nearly as much reading to effectively play this game as was needed for GW1 because the game doesn’t to a proper job of explaining itself.   The lack of tutorials is another example of this.

    The thing that really gets me is that once you figure out the mechanics they are very fun.   Or if they just keep the mechanics are simple and straightforward.  Kegball is a good example of this, it is an AWESOME minigame.  We need to have this as a tournament lol

    • Randa_Sue

      I would just like to point out that the lightbulb does not equal ‘bioluminesence’; all it does is toggle the lighting from day to night so you can see your character in both day and night lighting; this does happen to allow you to see the change made to the character but the tool tip would make more sense on the slider which changes how bright the lighting on the character is.  the lightbulb itself is self explanatory – it toggles light – it’s not only a sylvari thing.

      • DoctorOverlord

        Wherever the label is placed the point is that there needs to be something that indicates that sylvari have bioluminescent options because right now there is nothing  to indicate that in the character creation.  I’ve seen multiple reviews where the reviewer go through the character creation only to realize their sylvari characters glow with some random color forcing them to go back and create another.

        This is simply bad UI design on a basic level and easily fixed yet no one at ArenaNet felt it was needed.  Unfortunately, it’s indicative of what has always been one of ArenaNet’s biggest problems.   They constantly assume that players can figure out their non-intuitive mechanics and systems rather than providing simple in-game explanations.   

        They did this all the time in GW1 and it’s distressing to see it reappearing in parts of GW2.   Maybe all of the closed testers in the ArenaNet offices know that sylvari glow in the dark but the rest of the world doesn’t and providing a simple, one-word label to show this should have been a high priority on the UI.  It clearly wasn’t. 

        I worry that if they are ignoring the simple, easy-to-do explanations, will we ever see ones for the more complicated systems in the game or will players be expected to read Wiki articles and do research as they needed to do in GW1.

  • Jeffrey Lobaugh

    Nobody is mentioning that we are less than a month away from release and Arena Net still hasn’t lived up to this promise from their support site:  

    “We know that some players do not have a valid email address for their linked Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 account name and want to change it. At this time, it is not possible to change your Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2 account name or email address. However, we plan to have this ability before Guild Wars 2 launches.”

    If you open a ticket about this, all they say is “it will be done” but meanwhile… time is ticking away to a promise not fulfilled.  If you have 30/50 points on an account that doesn’t have a valid email linked to it anymore and since you need a valid email to register a new GW2 account… so far you are SOL.  Will this promise make launch?  If it doesn’t… GW people that have 30/50 but can’t link their accounts to GW2 may have their names taken from them.  And all of that hard work getting 30/50 before release… is that all for naught?

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