Oh my god. This has fallen off my radar, as it tends to do, but I watched through those and shit my pants.

I'm pretty psyched about SW:ToR, but watching this, the animation, the attacks....I am really get excited about it. The attacks based on weapon choice is awesome, and so are the ones based on class. The combos are what really interest me.

The customized intro's was a brilliant choice in my opinion instead of the standard all race one. (Granted the only MMO I've played to any amount of depth is WoW. So all my comparisons come from that.)

Also, talking and having my character respond is pretty awesome.

Also, loving the cinema style they're using. Shit, just about all of it has got me thinking 'wow.'

Definitely am going to check this out when it hits the stores, price be damned. Hell, I'll work extra shifts just to get this.

There going to be a DLP guild set-up? Is there enough interest?

 

Considering what I mentioned in my last post about the currently intended guild functionality, I don't see anything wrong with there being a DLP guild. It wouldn't require you to only be in that guild.

Presuming they keep it as is of course.

 

Simon of the Yogscast has an interview with Eric Flannum, Lead Game Designer.

Favourite line: "I think Guild Wars 2 will kick it in the balls" -On WoW.

 

@Fenraeillis: Sounds good. The Guild option does sound flexible.

@SeraphrimeNoSable: I truly hope that is the case. Everything, to me at least, is looking awesome. However, I have heard those exact same words uttered by every MMO to take on WoW.

 

The thing that makes me the most interested about this game, is the idea of breaking the holy trinity. (Tank, Healing, DPS) While the holy trinity has had some pretty amazing times (Just look at WoW for example) there are clear and present issues with that system. The most obvious clearly being finding someone willing to take on all of those roles.

The way classes work however, definitely has me quite interested. Ie, the elementalist, you don't just have spells from all four elements, you actually switch attunements between elements, each one giving you different strengths and spells. Combine that with different types of weapons, and you have quite a customizable setup.

The clear area where I feel that issues will be however, will be with balance. Once you reach the level cap, it's all going to come down to numbers, to min/maxing. There will be one clear combo of weapons etc that will be the best. And that could be incredibly limiting to the game.

I guess in the end it comes down to whether they can pull it off or not. Every single other MMO since the release of WoW has had it's "wow killer" feature. None of them pulled it off. Let's see if this one can.

Oh, and on a side note, the thing I like the most is that characters cannot fly in this game. That to me is the one HUGE upside it has on WoW. Flying really takes away from the immersion and scale of a game imo. I don't go anywhere in WoW and think "man that looks cool up there, I wonder what's there". Because I know I can just fly up there, the game has been designed in that I can just fly up there.

Still looking forward to TOR more than this I think. The immersive story TOR promises is a killer for me.

 

Rofl, did you ever play the original Guild Wars?

I mean hell, I'm sure GW2 will have its problems, but this is the last thing I would expect, considering how the first one worked.

You saw Hammer warriors, axe warriors, sword warriors, hell, even some bow warriors. The way GW1 worked you weren't limited by class to use any weapon at all... And it worked.

One of the most irritating builds I remember running across when I played my assassin, was a Dervish build that used throwing spears instead of Scythes.

Every weapon had its situational power, and they threw so many situations at you that there never was a clear winner in PvP. People took advantage of particular builds that worked well, but there was always something else you could use to fuck those people over.

In PvE, sure, there was particular weapons and builds that were better for farming, in certain areas... But in PvP I had fun with nearly every weapon on every class. Rangers with daggers, Assassins who only used spells, ect.

The incredible amount of variety was the most addicting thing about the first Guild Wars, and probably the reason I got so attached to it.

You could PvP all day and never run into two people running the exact same build.(Except for the newbies that'd copy builds directly off the wiki, anyway)

Again, GW2 will have problems. Many, probably, in the beginning. I do not think that that in particular will be one.

 

TOUCH RANGERS?

 

Also @Ellisande: One of the things that I have actually appreciated is their mindset that, while it would certainly be wonderful/nice/awesome to be successful enough to overtake a giant like WoW, that isn't really their intent. To be more accurate, they have essentially stated that, in quite different words, "This town is big enough for the two/many of us." Especially with the fact that their pay model doesn't include a subscription, such that it is far less likely to interfere with someone's decision to play both a subscription game and Guild Wars 2.

Personally, I certainly wouldn't feel overly inclined to get invested in two different major MMO's, but some people would. If nothing else, the Structured PvP system allows you to, amount of practice time aside, play at the same level and effectiveness as anybody else, without investing what would likely be days of time to develop a new character.

Only YOU can stop pedophiles.

 

Asura Week is going on right now, and I rather enjoyed the video shown in the blog post from today:
Matt Barrett on Asura Design

I've only really dabbled a little bit in drawn art, myself, but it was still interesting to observe the process displayed.

 

Heh, it's a little silly, but I chuckled some at their mock 'Dear Abby' blog post:
Hey Bookah! Smart Asura Answers to Stupid Questions

Oh, and they also posted a rather nice little concept story from three years ago:
Mr. Sparkles, A Tale of the Asura

All things considered, while I should have expected the ending, it still caught me and caused a smile.

 

I'm seriously considering playing an Asura now. There's something about the little buggers that has really caught my interest. Not sure what profession yet though, maybe something silly like warrior...

All this fluff info is also really making me want to play a Guild Wars pnp RPG. I might have to get my homebrewing hat on at some point, not quite sure where I'd start though.

 

So, Asura Week has come and gone, a ways back. There have been recent news updates though, so I thought I would share them.

First off, a much desired Guild Wars 2 Development Update, which primarily discusses the current iterations of the Engineer's Tool Belt mechanic, the Ranger's Pet mechanic, and the Combo system. The latter is technically called "Cross Profession Combos," but some 'combos' can be done solo as well.

Following that about a week later, there was a blog post regarding the changes as of the newest Demo shown at the Korean G-Star game show. This includes updates to Character Creation, UI improvements, as well as the current method to learn new skills(nothing concrete on Traits yet, as they are being revamped). There are several other minor bits and pieces, but they can mostly be found elsewhere.
(Just in case there is some confusion, I'll add links to these relevant Dev posts. Some people on the Guru forums were initially confused, prior to Dev statements: Here, and here, are the main ones.)

Lastly, the long-awaited Updated Cinematic Conversations. Mostly self-explanatory, but still quite pleasant for those that were concerned about that aspect previously. Apparently their method works quite well at synchronizing mouth movements even for different languages.


There have also certainly been several new videos posted up on youtube. The new character creation, the new demo, and of course PvP, including one where a famed(apparently) Korean Guild Wars team managed to beat the representing Dev team. In fairness, it was stated that the Dev team only had two skilled PvP players sent to the game show, unlike previously, but it's an accomplishment nonetheless.

 

Fuck, why isn't this game out yet? I want to play so much.

 

...and there was much rejoicing...
Guild Wars 2 Profession - Mesmer

 

That has to be my favorite class-preview yet. The mesmer looks exactly like the kind of character I love.

Annoying and confusing as shit to fight, because you never know exactly what's going on in the first place.

 

Kind of like in Guild Wars 1...?

That said, I've always intended to run a Mesmer as my main character in Guild Wars 2, so it's nice that they have finally released information about them. I think that it's a good rendition, considering the removal of hexes from the game system. That, and they have a surprising variety of weapon types, even including a Great-sword.:awesome

 

My primary character in GW1 was a minion master. I'm not sure what i'll play in GW2

 

http://www.arena.net/blog/dragon

Needless to say, I squealed like a fangirl.

 

God the easiest way to make dat muny was running kids through missions. I miss that game.

 

So... in case anybody was interested in knowing more about World vs. World (often referred to previously as WvWvW), they came out with a new article today that goes into quite a bit of detail. Including such things as defensible/capturable locations, several sorts of siege machinery, as well as temporarily recruitable neutral parties.

Here is the article:
Mike Ferguson on Guild Wars 2 World vs World