I'll start by posting a couple of videos, kind of a cool little overview of character creation. 3 races are covered, I believe. The second is a well-put-together top 10 list of reasons to be interested. The best reason I like that he listed is Jeremy Soule. He's responsible for some epic scores, and has done the music for the recent Elder Scrolls games. He is also responsible for Secret of Evermore, one of my favorite game OSTs of all time.





And, since I had no idea people here were already interested(I'm so used to being the forever alone MMO-head), I figured I would post some content about it occasionally, and welcome everyone to share media, etc. The game is indeed an MMO, however, it's a more action RPG styled one in many ways, and it is F2P aside from having to buy the game itself.

I'm also playing Guild Wars at the moment, and that game is ahead of its time alone. It is heavily instanced however, and cities are the only areas you see other players unless you're partied up. I'm trying to get some of the Hall of Monuments stuff from it for GW2, which include stuff like getting certain heroes leveled and collecting stuff.

It looks to be one of the most promising MMOs thus far. Dynamic events, entire server vs. server PvP with matches than can last for two weeks, with players dropping in and out. And a ton of other stuff, like a dynamic system in which you can party with your lower level buddies or higher leveled ones sans having to use alts.

So far, I'm thinking of making a Norn Female Warrior or Guardian. Depends on which is hybrid enough for me, though another fun fact of the game is that there ain't a holy trinity. Meaning, no DPS/Heal/Tank. Everyone gets a heal, etc. So I'll see where things take me.

I usually stray away from MMOs, but this one seems significantly different. If we can get a few Magonians on it, I'll be glad to get in on it.

Awesome. I'm just glad this game is garnering more interest than most- and a lot of the usual mmoers are yelling that the sky is falling since it's F2P, and has MICROTRANSACTIONS. Y'know, where people can buy costumes, and optional questlines that are tiny currently in Guild Wars, currently. I seriously need to finish the first game before this one comes out. Despite the fact that GW2 takes place 250 years into the future, the Charr, Asura, and Norn at least show up in Eye of the North, I believe. And the Charr are full-on "bad guys" then. And, the tree that was so tiny and gave birth to an entire race of Sylvari is in the first game as well. Apparently, they stem from philosophy a couple of NPCs left with them in the first game. Humans, of course... are there! It's all you can play as in GW1, sadly.

EDITING since this thing is so newish:

In 48 hours, 1 million people have signed up for the closed beta(This house is two of em!). I consider this a good sign, but will wait to see who actually buys the game. I actually have good faith that everyone who likes the game even moderately will buy it, since it's F2P besides the box. Makes people feel like they're buying a regular ol' PC game instead of a commitment.

I'll have to try it first, but several videos and articles are leaning towards an affirmative for a go ahead on operation acquisition.

Then again, I might not want to have to fight for time in this versus time in PSO2...

There should be an open beta before release. The usually MMO trend here has been closed alpha, closed beta weekends for a month or two, and then open beta, headstart, release. They just finished taking closed beta signups recently, and mid-March is their first beta weekend sometime.

I think Guild Wars 2 is closer to a release in the US than PSO2(PSO2 isn't even confirmed yet for the US, and is still technically in Alpha in Japan). But I can definitely see that concern. I'll probably just get both since GW2 is F2P.

Pre-purchase starts TODAY!!!

What this means is, you pay in full, and get game access from the first closed beta to headstart to the retail game.

Normal - Regular game.
Digital Deluxe - Regular game, couple of bonuses
CE(Collector's Edition) - THE AWESOME. You get a Charr Statue, Art book(yum!), OST, everything else above.

List of retailers:
ArenaNet - Digital versions of the Digital Deluxe and Normal editions(They will NOT be selling the CEs at all)
Amazon - Digital Deluxe and Normal Edition only(No pre-purchase- at all)
Best Buy - All Three, not sure on site
Gamestop - All Three, Also on Website

PROBLEMS.

CHAOS.

Currently, people cannot get pre-purchases working correctly, especially on the Collector's Edition that is physical, which ArenaNet has confirmed is only at Gamestop and Best Buy in the US. Gamestop has it in their system, with no pre-purchase like ArenaNet has promise(also makes sense since it is the MOST expensive.) They are currently working on fixing this, so you might want to wait on that.

Best Buy folks apparently are saying they don't even have a CE to people, and it isn't on their site.

The Gamestop site currently only has the Digital Deluxe and Normal versions for pre-purchase, ergo the only ones currently that have headstart and beta benefit.

If you are seriously interested though, and not nuts like me to love Art Books and collectibles with a fiery passion, the digital and retail buyings of the Digital Deluxe and Normal version of the game work on Gamestop.com and in-store. Currently, in Gamestop stores they have no codes to print for Collector's Editions.

ArenaNet is working on fixing the CE-not-giving-a-pre-purchase-code-issue... and I hope they do. Cause I already paid mine off at Gamestop in town.

EDIT: Gamestop has officially fixed the issue, and I went back today to get my code. Which is awesome. We went half and half on the CE (it is a boatload), but I am glad the code problem got fixed so fast.

That, and some Best Buy employees are mentioning they may or may not have pre-purchase until Friday. Depends on the store.

Either way, the regular version of the game won't be rare. The digital copy, I imagine, will be pretty easy to get from ArenaNet direct up until the game releases, and long after.

Been a LONG WHILE since I updated.

So, we're two weeks from launch. I'm excited, though I know this game won't cast as wide of a net as others, but I am excited that there are no subscription fees. And no, it does not feel like a freemium game in the least. The best thing in the cash shop? THE AVIATOR SHADES!!! Okay, seriously. The most "game-breaking" thing is that you can get a small exp boost coupon that lasts an hour. If people buy stuff to support to the game so others can play, it's a good thing. I actually see more and more MMOs going down this path. You may have noticed that PSO2 is also F2P, but you are required to buy things like extra character slots(at this time, I believe you can only have 1 PSO2 character without buying more, with GW2 I believe you start out with 5 slots and can add on.)

Since then, I've played in a couple of the beta weekends, made some videos here(character creation, etc, and from CBW3, some Sylvari stream gameplay):


I am legit excited for this game. The combat is stunning, the world feels alive, Jeremy Soule's sweeping musical compositions fill out the rest of the landscape.

For one last thing, here's the booth ANet has at Gamescom this year.

4 days. norn ranger here i cometh. and goodbye wow. for a little while anyway.

That's how I'm feeling, too. I love how in MOP they were like "WE DON'T WANT A GRIND BYE BYE HEAD ENCHANTS" and now it's been revealed on MMO Champ that your Valor/HP gear will come from 4 factions... but you have to be revered with them. Blurgh.



The first single from the OST composed by Jeremy Soule(you may have heard his stuff, his very first video game OST was Secret of Evermore, his most recent was Skyrim)! I love it so much. It pertains to the Pale Tree singing- but it so makes me think of Caithe and Faolain, which makes me happy to no end.

Soule's notes:


I'm currently planning on a Sylvari Guardian(I fell in love with that race, haha).

After that, I'll probably make a Norn Mesmer. I never thought that combo would go together, but I tried both out last stress test. I almost passed on Guardian entirely, but the game difficulty has definitely been more balanced since the first beta weekend.

WELL TOMORROW NIGHT IS REAL RELEASE. WHOOAAA.

I actually got an interesting tidbit about ANY game that releases on the night of another game's midnight release(at Gamestop)- you can pick up any game in the store that releases the same day as the midnight release game at midnight. Okay so that sounds confusing still. But, uhm. Madden is coming out the same day as Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 isn't getting its own specific midnight release. BUT, the local store where I pre-purchased the Guild Wars 2 CE is doing a midnight release event for Madden the same night. So then you can pick up any pre-ordered game that comes out the 28th(in this case, that Tuesday) during the Madden midnight release thing. I never knew that, I bet some people already know. Gamestop also keeps a midnight event tracker in the very bottom of their website- in the footer box, there's an "events" page in the left-most column. Good to know for the future!

However: Madden midnight release in the south... in order to pick up the game. I mean, I know it can't be TOO bad, but that punched up my anxiety a little bit. Maybe I should pre-game it and just go in and be like MADDEN 2013 TAILGATING PARTY WOOOOOOO!!!

In the game, I made my Sylvari Guardian on Tarnished Coast. I've mainly been working on Grove Completion and story quests. I need to get my Guild Wars 2 tag thing on here, but I'll edit later since I forgot the numbers. But, I chose the Moon Shield quest since I knew it involved Caithe and The Nightmare Court from the beta. I was a couple cutscenes late into it, but from when you heal Tiachren, I started to record all the cutscenes with fraps. I'll probably toss up a video of them all in segments whenever Asus decides to put their store back online so I can actually use my computer with Vegas on it.

EDIT: GAME ROCKS. And so does ArenaNet. So many entitled children are SO MAD that they actually have repercussions for sending people hate speech, racist and otherwise slurs, etc. Makes me so happy to see a game actually cares. I think people forget that people of all ages and creeds are playing. I can see how it's sooo hard to be a decent human being. But it makes me want to just buy a ton of gems and hand over my money even more.