Guild Wars 2

[Mat Linnett]

Another beta gone, and yet again, all the other games have lost their lustre.
They've got this thing so damn right it hurts.

[U4EA]

I think the levelling curve may need adjustment, although it could just be because of the way I was playing. If you simply follow hearts sequentially in the map [even whilst partaking in any and all random events], you'll soon end up way behind. I was level 20 on the level 24 hearts in my race's 15-25 zone.

I suspect that if you supplement PvE with PvP, crafting etc. it will be better. It's one way to "encourage" participation in all aspects of the game, but seems kind of forced at the moment if all you want to do is PvE without having to grind.

[U4EA]

I found myself in lvl 18 territory at 12 and was getting my arse kicked, so I went back

That's a problem. If you are playing normally and then find yourself underlevelled and have to go back and repeat something you've already done, it's essentially grinding. Not fun.

and then found another, more managable way out of the previous area.

What did you do? I ended up moving from my race's 15-25 to a different race's zone to find new content.

The fact is, doing all the hearts [and POIs, skill points and waypoints] in my zone didn't get me enough XP to be able to keep going. My options were: go back and grind mobs closer to my level and repeat random events until I gained a few levels. PvP. Crafting. Anything else?

Forcing alternate methods of levelling on players is bad design. Having optional alternate methods of levelling is great and adds to variety.

I think if you're also actively working trade skills (which I wasn't) you gain XP through that.

Yep, a friend of mine gained almost a whole level using all the materials he had gathered. I didn't bother with crafting as I saw it as a waste of the limited time during which the beta was open.

[Transient]

I managed to play for a whopping 2 hours while not at work. It was fun while it lasted. Can't wait for release!

[Mat Linnett]

I had no problems being the level I should have been when moving on to new areas, which is weird. Did you guys do many of the events that popped up?
Also, I didn't really seriously look at crafting until the last day of this beta. I went up 2-3 levels crafting alone, but I was already over 40 by the time I looked into it.
I honestly think I'm going to be able to hit top level in a week, maybe a little over.
By the end of the beta, I was 45.

Of course, there's a lot of people coming to Guild Wars 2 having never played the first, and I think their WoW-oriented sensibilities are going to be somewhat offended by that fact that levelling doesn't take months, and end game won't be about grinding out gear with better stats, just more aesthetic differences.

Personally, I absolutely love that
I spent ages arguing with people in AoC that as long as PvP was more reliant on gear than player skill, it couldn't be considered anywhere near fair, yet they always, ALWAYS argued that getting said gear, even if it took months, was the sign of a better player.

It's another variant of Stockholm Syndrome; companies in traditional MMOs abuse their userbase so badly that eventually, any sign of compassion is seen as a massive display of generosity from the point of view of the abused.
They're also paying a monthly subscription, and if they're paying for it, they're going to defend it any way they can, even if it's plainly complete shit.

Every now and then I forget that this is how traditional MMOs work and I log back in to either AoC or DCUO, only to be confronted by the expectation that I should be happy grinding the same old, limited content over and over again in the hopes that one piece of slightly better gear.

Guild Wars 2 breaks this HARD.
At top level, I'll be able to go ANYWHERE in Tyria and have a rewarding experience, be that open world or dungeon.
And the Karma system means I won't be constrained to repeating the same content in order to get interesting rewards; Karma earned anywhere can be spent on any reward available from any Karma vendor.
Brilliant.

Edit:
Oh, and once you get into it, the crafting is brilliant.
I hit the cooking tree hard on Sunday, and had a great time with it. It's intuitive and the Experimentation side is really rewarding. Putting different ingredients together and getting a result is really cool.
And while you can only have 2 crafting professions active at a time, if you decide to disable one in order to experiment with another, you don't lose the levels or recipes in the disabled profession.
I always thought that taking away your experience in a crafting skill if you wanted to try another was a particularly vicious way of punishing players, so I'm really happy with this little change.

[Eraser]

Do I understand correctly that Guild Wars 2 plays out roughly in the same geographical area as the original Guild Wars Prophecies?

[Mat Linnett]

Yup, and there's really cool moments of recognition as you come across scenery from the original game that's been affected by 200 years of history.
Lion's Arch for example; the city itself is barely recognisable, until you go for a swim. That's when you realise the original LA has been submerged because of the rising sea level, and you can swim around amongst the ruins.
Similarly, the Temple of the Ages is now underwater in the swamp, yet portals from the Underworld regularly appear on the surface, leading to Aatxe invasions, and the Shadow Behemoth I posted about from last beta.

[Eraser]

Sounds good. I'm wondering if I should invest in this, considering there's a good chance none of my friends will be playing this at a normal pace (with which I mean they're not playing it 20 hours a day, storming through the entire game in less than a week)

[Transient]

Mat Linnett secretly works for ArenaNet.

[xer0s]

Will there be another beta before release?

[Mat Linnett]

Apparently, yes. ArenaNet have said they intend to have at least one more beta weekend before release. Can't remember where I read it for the life of me however.

[xer0s]

So how do I get in on that?

[Transient]

Pre-purchase the game directly from ArenaNet. Pre-orders don't get in.

[Mat Linnett]

Um, some places are sending out physical pre-order boxes with access keys.
Here ya go, Amazon link.

[Mat Linnett]

Mate, that's a massive rip-off.
Buy direct
Prices on the official site are:
£49.99 for Standard Digital Download
£69.99 for Digital Download Deluxe

Edit: And you don't need the pre-order, 'cos you already have the one I gave you fo'

[Therac-25]

Anywhere in Canadia that I can pre-order the CE? Best Buy might be carrying it, but they don't do preorders for CEs.

I guess I can line up, getting a Diablo 3 CE was easy enough. And I don't trust EB preorders in the slightest.

The last rumored street date was the 28th -- is that still the case?

[Mat Linnett]

Therac, do you mean the boxed CE with the statuette?
That and "The Making of Guild Wars 2" book are about all that's different to the Digital Deluxe version.

But if you still want it, the dealers listed here with CE against their names should stock it.
Looks like EBGames is your only choice, much like Zavvi is over here.

[Therac-25]

Yeah, the boxed CE. Looks like best buy here will be getting in 10 or so, so it should be easy enough to snag one on release day.

[Mat Linnett]

GreenManGaming have got some excellent prices for GW2.
Digital Deluxe for £48.71
Standard for £37.46

[Mat Linnett]

Next beta is July 20th-22nd mind you, so some time to play in between.
I'm also curious to know if that release date includes the 3 day first access for pre-orders, or whether that means I'll be able to play from the 25th onwards.

[Mat Linnett]

Confirmed via twitter, early access is from the 25th. Sweeeeeet.

[Transient]

A month until the next beta weekend? Laaaaame...

[Transient]

Do you have any idea of the shitstorm of complaints they'd get from entitled little teenage whelps crying about their servers going down left and right if they did that? Not gonna happen.

[Eraser]

Eurogamer is giving away beta keys. They got 500 of them. When they're gone, they're gone. I just claimed my own, registered my account and automatically got the beta invite (20 - 22 july).

Now I'm just hoping that my old laptop won't blow up when I try to run it.

[Eraser]

Wow, that was fast. Sorry bro!