Written on January 26, 2012 at 12:08 am, by Roun Lyriel
Earlier today another ArenaNet blog post was put up, giving some extensive details on the lore of the Jotun, including bits on their religion, society, and behind-the-scenes design. Definitely an interesting read if you’re into lore, so make sure to check it out!
The jotun (pronounced JŌ-tun) are the last remnants of an ancient society of giants. Once powerful, advanced, and arrogant, they proclaimed themselves rulers of the Shiverpeak Mountains and raised great monuments to themselves on the highest peaks. Their leaders, known as giant-kings, were tremendously powerful beings, as skilled in feats of strength as they were in magic and lore.
Written on January 24, 2012 at 6:45 am, by Corsair
MMOs have long had one type of mentor system or another. It’s supposed to be a way to help new players learn the game and foster a constructive community. Guild Wars 2 has also not shown any such similar feature, which is the perfect time to highlight a thread detailing a Mentor System by forum member Strongback. Unlike most systems, Strongback’s mentor system is more a set of trials to complete based on the profession. It would be designed to teach and test proficiency in abilities that the profession possesses. The mentor is rewarded for participation with a unique cosmetic reward, while the newbie is rewarded with a statistically superior weapon/item. Now, to make this a better Primordus Visions thread, all it needs is a bit more depth to the idea. Strongback already put plenty of thought into the idea and how it might play out, it just needs fleshing out a little bit more.
To go along with the beginning of the Year of the Dragon and the exciting Guild Wars 2 news that we received today, we’ve decided that it’s time that we begin our site transformation by holding a Guru Logo Contest! Forget about the current theme and look – because that’ll be changing – and let your imagination soar! Entries will be accepted starting January 23rd until February 13th, 11:59 PM PST/7:59 PM GMT. After that, Jenn and I will hold a judging session where we’ll pick the logo we think best represents Guru.
Good luck and can’t wait to see what you fabulous people come up with!
Rules
• Members are allowed to enter as many submissions as they want.
• Please post your submissions to this thread and use a spoiler tag if necessary.
• The logo must be unique, original and reflect both Guild Wars 2 and Guild Wars 2 Guru. (It must be unique as we cannot accept anything that looks too official/too much like the official logo.)
• The image size should be a minimum of 600 pixels wide at 72 DPI in RGB. (Please also keep a file with as many layers as you used for future editing as it will need to be provided if you win.)
• Entries should be submitted in this thread.
• Winner will be chosen by Jenn and Kvinna once the contest is over.
• Entries will be accepted until February 13th, 11:59 PM PST/7:59 PM GMT.
Prize
The knowledge that your art will be represented on GW2Guru as well as trademark of our site on any other ventures made by GW2Guru! The winner will also receive a custom user title reflecting their contribution.
Legal
• By entering the contest you agree to the terms and conditions.
• All submissions must be tasteful, non-destructive and created by the individual.
• Entering this contest constitutes as an agreement by the submitting artists to relinquish all copyrights of the submitted works to Curse, Inc.
• We reserve the right to publish your forum username at our discretion.
• We reserve the right to deny any submission to the contest.
• We reserve the right to not choose a winner if expectations are not met.
Written on January 23, 2012 at 12:34 pm, by Kvinna
Early this morning, Mike O’Brien, Co-Founder and President of ArenaNet, updated the official blog with some very exciting news for Guild Wars 2 fans. To celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Dragon – the Chinese New Year – Mike has announced that there will be an upcoming beta test in February for selected press. He went on to say that in March and April, we’ll be seeing more larger-scaled beta events and a Guild Wars 2 release later in the year! (What say you, release date speculation junkies?)
It’s been an incredible adventure over the past five years, working with our community and our team of dedicated artists, designers, and programmers to realize this vision. This year, the seeds of that work come to fruition. We can’t wait to play the game with you.
So welcome to the Year of the Dragon – the year of Guild Wars 2.
The controversy revolving around Guild Wars 2 supposed lack of endgame continues. It’s about time we had an expert on the show that has had at least as much game time as our resident expert Rubi Bayer. We introduce to you the winner of the Guild Wars 2 Ambassador video contest, Dan Workman. For the first half of the show, we place Dan in the line of fire allowing him to explain the exciting intricacies of the GW2 dungeon system and how unlike most themepark MMOs the endgame for Guild Wars 2 is pretty similar to what the player has been doing before he hit max level.
We’ve been telling you this has been coming for some time. It’s finally here! We bring on 3 special guests (Angerina, Edwin, and Malchior) to discuss the backgrounds and histories of the 5 playable races in Guild Wars 2. If you were still trying to fiure out which race you should play, or just never played Guild Wars 1, this is the show you need to hear.
• 03:21 – News: Ree Soesby Interview
• 05:00 – Lore: A Brief History of Tyria
• 05:00 – Geography 101: Refer to this map while listening.
• 07:00 – In the Begining: Time scale and ancient history
• 09:45 – Human History: Founding of Ascalon through the Searing and the Exodus.
• 24:40 – Charr History: Charr Culture, the machinations of Abaddon, and the Rebellion
• 31:55 – Dwarf History: The fight with the Great Destroyer
• 34:53 – Primordeous: The First Dragon to Awaken, Asura backstory/Culture
• 40:45 – Zhaitan: The Undead Dragon Awakens
• 43:50 – Jormag: The Ice Dragon, Norn Backstory/Culture
• 52:32 – Sylvari History: 25 Years of Sylvari History/Culture
• 64:04 – Kralkatorrik: The Crystal Dragon
• 68:38 – (Spoiler Free) Book Review: Ghosts of Ascalon
• 77:40 – (Spoilers) Book Review: Ghosts of Ascalon
Thanks to Guild Wars Insider, which sat down with Guild Wars 2 Lore and Continuity Designer Ree Soesbee, we actually have some very interesting news to talk about. Lore really is the pillar of the Guild Wars franchise. Most MMOs have lore, but it’s really not a focal point; certainly most players cannot tell you one bit about why things are the way they are in certain games. However, the fans of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 have a firm grasp on why the thing happens in the land of Tyria. With over 1500 different dynamic events scheduled to be in GW2, the writers and lore experts at ArenaNet have a lot of intricate details to keep track of.
Not a lot of news this week so we dig into the mailbag to answer some listener questions. We still had time so we figured it was time to try to pin down some definitions: Hardcore and Casual. They mean different things to diferent types of gamers. Why is there always so much contention beween these two groups? Is there even a separation or are they more alike than they know? That’s the challenge set before our panel this week.
I was exploring the Library of Whispers today, just perusing the endless collection of creativity this community possesses, and then had a profound thought: “Holy S$%*.” I was just flabbergasted by the wealth of talent that generally flies under the radar. Anyway, now I write to you all, as I happily sit here with a glass of merlot, wanting to share with you some of my favourite finds.
The first piece of work I want to highlight is a ranger piece. It was designed by CKABEH 3BEPOB (click here to see their entire thread of artwork).
Fahran designed what is now my newest desktop background! It’s an impressive and gorgeous display of what embodies the Sylvari.
We also have people designing pieces for the community to use! Kail has designed multiple GW2-themed emoticons for your use. Can anyone say, “Hello!” to custom emoticons in MSN?!
I generally don’t watch much of anything on YouTube, but I was very happy to see this fan-made GW2 trailer. It’s nothing short of epic – it does an amazing job of selling the game. Draken Burst made this great video.
By now I’m sure you all get the point I’m trying to make. Visit the Library of Whispers and check out the vast stores of talent!!! Lots of time and love have gone into all kinds of pieces: computer art, sketches, developing amateurs, videos, comics, stories and more! If I could post about everything I fell in love with at first sight, I’d crash your computer with everything that was trying to load! I promise – you’ll be pleasantly surprised with what this community has to offer.
