Guild Wars 2 at PAX 2009

[Inde]

That's a wrap. The curtain closes on another PAX. Thanks everybody for making this a memorable show! ~DC

Guild Wars 2 Booth:

Guild Wars 2 Booth during construction:




Guild Wars 2 Booth shot courtesy of Martin Kerstein:



Anet Team at PAX courtesy of Martin Kerstein:



Video of the Guild Wars 2 booth w/ them getting ready. Starts at 3:18
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The video has a rotate button if it's facing the ^ wrong way

Next is the back of the Guild Wars 2 booth:


You can check out more Guild Wars 2 booth pics from PAX 2009 on ArenaNet's Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/

Twitter Updates:

The Art of Guild Wars 2 Book, Concept Art, Armor... basically Art:

@Hyrenguy The art books will be available for sale at some point in the near future -we'll announce when and how to get em ~DC #PAX

It's official - we're out of the GW2 art books for PAX. I should get an exact count on how many we gave away. A couple thousand? ~DC #PAX

The final GW2 art book signing of the day is nigh! Artists Horia Dociu and Katy Hargrove will sign starting at 4:30. ~DC

Release of the trailer at gamescom was thrilling for art team, a chance to share what they've been working on for so long. ~DC #GuildWars2

Josh: "Concept art is not a blueprint, it's meant to inspire in-game design." ~DC #GuildWars2

Art panel: Bobby Pontillas talks designing asura: "I try to go for a naive, kid like quality." ~DC #GuildWars2

@kaiserdammerung Yes, the art book will be available. Details to be announced soon. ~DC

52 people in line. No, wait...60 people and counting... I'd get in line now for a book... ~DC

Let's count how many people are in line for the GW2 art book giveaway at 2PM. Be right back... ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

The final GW2 art book giveaway begins at 2PM. You will physically kick yourself if you're at PAX and don't get one! ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

Book signing with Donald Phan, Hyojin Ahn, Matt Medina. No truth to rumor about free lollypops. Our artists don't do lollypops. ~DC #PAX

arenanet: We'll definitely post video of this Q&A session- Kristen Perry REALLY gets into detail re: character design. Good stuff. ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet: If you're at PAX and haven't picked up an art book, we're giving them away Sun at 11AM and 2PM. Don't snooze + lose. ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

arenanet: The last book signing of the day is almost under way! Hey, another awkward rhyme! ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

arenanet: Great panel, very interesting stuff. Next up at 4:30, GW2 artbook signing with Matt Barrett, Kekai, and Joe Pikop. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

arenanet: Kekai: Sometimes concept art is created to fill a game need, but sometimes art is so awesome it gets integrated into game. ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet: Kristen frequently goes in-game to check out what people are wearing, finds it gratifying that people dig her designs. ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet: Kristen does character art, Matt handles "everything Kristen doesn't draw," Kekai is the rockstar concept art lead. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

arenanet: AT the table for our Artist Q&A: Kristen Perry, Kekai Kotaki, and Matt Barrett ~DC

arenanet: The Art of Guild Wars 2 Q&A panel at booth 842 starts in mere seconds. Nanoseconds, even. ~DC

arenanet: Kristen talks about multitude of factors in armor design: Armor must be practical, culturally relevant, "dyeable and look good." ~DC

arenanet: Kekai: The daily challenge is to create recognizable fantasy creatures and environments that have that Guild Wars quality. ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet: Kekai: Animating concept art was challenge. One image had over 80 different moving elements. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX~DC

arenanet: Kristen on armor design: The silhouette is a key component in creating armor. Start with the silhouette, build from there. ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet: Matt recommends that aspiring artists master the real world as a foundation for more fantastical work. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

arenanet - Line for the GW2 Art Book giveaway is HUGE, extends into different time zone. People are psyched for this book! ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

arenanet - Daniel Dociu is talking about how the diversity on the art staff translates into diverse and eclectic art. ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet - Jason Stokes: Converting D Dociu's concept art into game environment is more than a little nerve wracking + rewarding. ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

arenanet - Another steampunk question! Dociu: GW2 is not sci-fi, but is departure of sorts from traditional fantasy aesthetic. ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

arenanet - Favorite elements in GW2? Jason loves the asura city, Richard digs the norn iceberg ship, Daniel doesn't play favorites ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

arenanet - Daniel: "I push my artists a lot, but they force me to stay on top of my game. They don't allow me to get rusty." ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet - More art panel: Jason Stokes finds the GW2 environments much more engaging and fun to design and explore. Jump! Swim! ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet - Richard : expect a painterly approach to in-game art. GW2 engine enables art team to really bring concept art to life. ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet - I can confirm the art book will be for sale, which is cool, but can't *officially* confirm the price point. ~DC #GuildWars2

False alarm: no juggling planned for Art of Guild Wars 2 panel. Instead: fascinating look into world of game artists ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

At 3:30, artists Kekai Kotaki, Matt Barrett + Kristen Perry take the stage for Art of GW2 panel. Possible juggling. ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

Next: Art book giveaway at 2 PM. Line up now! Don't run, though, the PAX enforcers frown on running. ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

@thelazygeek No info on pre-orders right now, but the art book will definitely be available after PAX. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Fall of Ascalon Novel:

arenanet: Jeff Grubb on The Fall of Ascalon novel: "It's like Canterbury Tales... with explosions." ~DC #GuildWars 2 #PAX

FoA will have characters of all races, will provide valuable background lore of GW2 world, but no concrete game advantage. ~DC #GuildWars2

How about the characters in the books, will they appear in the game? Will says that is the plan, yes. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Will 3 GW novels be a trilogy? No. They're all designed to stand alone, but there is some coordination among authors ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

When will Fall of Ascalon come out? Roughly spring of 2010. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Will GW book feel... "gamey?" No, game mechanics don't factor in. "It's first and foremost a fantasy novel." ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Eric Flannum reviews draft of novel, offers comments to "make sure that the game and novel agree as much as possible." ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Forbeck has long history writing fiction and in gaming - worked on Deadlands RPG. Remember that game? I loved that one. ~DC #GuildWars2

Novels will all be canon, Forbeck works closely w/ development team, as do the authors for the 2 other GW novels. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Forbeck: Fall of Ascalon bridges the story between GW and GW2, takes place one year before start of GW2 game. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Now on deck: GW2 Lore / Fall of Ascalon discussion with Eric Flannum, Will McDermott, and author Matt Forbeck. ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

Guild Wars 2:

@thelazygeek No word yet on possibility of dragon infected hippos. That's a scary idea. ~DC #GuildWars2

Josh H: Not only can you explore underwater, but the aqua zones are HUGE and just as legit as above ground areas. ~DC #GuildWars2

Bobby on the tiny asura - they're a third the size of other character but still have to keep up with them. ~DC

Josh's big challenge: create fully explorable world that characters can jump, slid, swim, but still design clear routes. ~DC #GuildWars2

Katy on the key to creating bad-ass characters: "Spikes." That's all you need to know! LOL, she's cracking me up today. ~DC #GuildWars2

Will there be animals from GW in GW2? Some animals will be recognizable from GW, some new, some mutated by dragon power. ~DC #GuildWars2

Katy H loves the idea of charr with guns. "I think it's awesome, I already have a character called Kitty Kitty Bang Bang!" ~DC #GuildWars2

Good question! "Will there be emotes only for underwater?" No answer to that, but great suggestion... ~DC #GuildWars2

Players can participate in events (e.g., centaur invasion) or not, can come in halfway or at end of event if they want. ~DC #GuildWars2

Quests in GW2 are specific to your particular character's story, not mundane "kill ten rats" errands. ~DC #GuildWars2

"Event system is designed so that players will want to work together." Events = incidents in world that you can influence. ~DC #GuildWars2

The event system in GW2's persistent world was big topic of conversation. ~DC #GuildWars2

Press just finished interviewing Colin Johansen, Linsey Murdock, and Eric Flannum - lots of info about GW2... ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

AT 3:30, GW2 artist Q&A session with art ninjas Bobby Pontillas, Katy Hargrove, Josh Foreman. ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

ArenaNet staff talking to press about the huge underwater zones in GW2. Don't stress about drowning, just explore! ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

arenanet: Kekai: "The biggest difference between the games is that for Guild Wars 2 we have to be so much better." ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet: Biggest difference between GW and GW2. "The scale of the game," Matt says. Biggest undertaking they've done. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

arenanet - From Q&A: Is GW2 "steampunk?" Not so much says Jeff Grubb. Asura use magic tech, charr are military industrial ~DC

arenanet - Jeff Grubb: "Things don't happen on a small scale in Tyria." ~DC #GuildWars2

arenanet - "Mursaat are on the list," for GW2 Jeff Grubb says. "You won't see them immediately, but they will appear." ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

arenanet - Just revealed: Palawa Joko was inspired by Christopher Walken. We kid you not. ~DC #GuildWars2 #GuildWars

arenanet - Daniel: Fan support is "extremely inspiring to us... We promise the game will meet your expectations. ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

arenanet: Kekai on GW2 video: "We wanted to tell a story, show characters, and put our best art out there." ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

PAX Miscellaneous:

arenanet: Community meet and greet was a blast. Lots of fun conversation with a bunch of fantastic folks. Our fans are the best! Much <3 ~RB

arenanet: We'll talk to y'all tomorrow for the epic finale of PAX 2009. ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

arenanet: @JRGuru Regina + Martin are here to answer questions but aren't participating in panels other than as charming hosts ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

arenanet: We're hosting a smallish community meet and greet tonight - come by booth 842 and talk to Regina. Answer trivia for a ticket! ~DC #PAX

Guild Wars Info:

Most rewarding part? Katy and Bobby love watching people experience the game and how creative players can be with game. ~DC #GuildWars2

What do Live Team play. Joe: Assassin, Robert: Mesmer, Linsey: Ele, Mike Z: monk ~DC #GuildWars

Joe K would like to get his hands on the GW log in screen, but it's not as easy as just changing some code... ~DC #GuildWars

Lins: "There's a rewarding immediacy to Live Team." Create content, roll it out, play it, and see how community reacts. ~DC #GuildWars

Lins plans more frequent, smaller GW content updates instead of infrequent massively huge updates like Anniversary ~DC #GuildWars

Q: Will GW2 skills influence GW game play? Lins: Game mechanics won't trickle down, but GW2 lore will trickle down to GW ~DC #GuildWars

Live Team didn't think Stylist was possible at first, but Joe Kimmes worked his Joe Kimmes Magic and voila! Stylist. ~DC #GuildWars

Life cycle of skill balance: research, play, discuss/meet, implement changes on dev server, test test test, coding, birth ~DC #GuildWars

Here we go, Live Team is in the proverbial house: Linsey Murdock, Robert Gee, Joe Kimmes, and the inimitable Mike Z ~DC

Next on tap: The Guild Wars Live Team Q&A session, starting at noon. ~DC

Just to confirm - Shadow Form is on the Live Team's big list of things to do this year. ~DC #GuildWars

Test Krewe will employ expertise of community to work on PvP and eventually PvE. FAQ about TK should be posted soon. ~DC #GuildWars

Shadowform allows solos to access Underworld, Fissure, etc much easier, but it is becoming more prevalent and may be issue. ~DC #GuildWars

Lins: "It can be tough to play GM solo, so we're often hesitant to nerf certain solo builds..."~DC

Live Team have long list of projects to last thru end of year, but want to create more PvE content + explore lore next year. ~DC #GuildWars

Lins: Sealed Deck is a limited format where you choose from a skills pool to create your bar, has origins in Magic CCG. ~DC #GuildWars

Robert Gee new developer, talks about transition from player to pro. Enjoys examining game mechanics from new perspective... ~DC #GuildWars

Live Team introduces themselves, describe their jobs and favorite colors. Kidding; their favorite colors remain a mystery. ~DC #GuildWars

The GW Live Panel is a go. Linsey Murdock, Joe Kimmes, Robert Gee, and Mike Zadorojny. ~DC

@timschmoyer We're filming the discussion and plan to post it on YouTube. We'll definitely let you know. ~DC

arenanet - We'll post the video of the Q&A panels on YouTube - we'll pop a link up on the ArenaNet Facebook page when they're up. ~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

Guild Wars 2 Artbook and Lore Info:

Guild Wars 2: Bringing Art To Life - Small article by Kotaku.com

Thanks to patrickvp, FreeRunner and Joiry for reporting and the heads up:

Originally Posted by patrickvp

Reporting in from PAX...
Humongous line, took forty minutes for my section of the line to actually make it onto the show floor. I figured the art books would be long gone by then, but they still had some (yay me!). I haven't actually had a chance to look through most of it yet, though the first section on Ascalon features mostly shots of burning wastelands and iron fortresses and cities of the Charr, along with various creature pics. There's a note that the Grawl and Ettins are still active in the area.

Just flipped through the Kryta section, and there's a large picture of a female warrior opposite a block of text about what has become of Kryta, discussing Queen Jennah, etc (matter of fact, the picture is probably a picture of her, although it is VERY "warrior-ish"). There's also a beautiful shot by Jason Wiggin of a street within Divinity's Reach, showing what the streets might look like (looks very much in line with the exterior of Divinity's Reach in the trailer). I'll report on the rest of the book later, or others who have it can chime in.

I got to talk to Jeff Grubb a little this morning. He didn't really drop any new info, as he's trying to stick to lore questions now, and gameplay/mechanics questions next year. He did say the devs are having a lot of fun jumping off cliffs without the damage mechanics at the moment. I asked about "boats" and he kind of dodged that one, deferring it to the gameplay discussions.

At the first Q&A with Matt Forbeck and the others, it was tough to hear most of the questions, and some of the answers. Time-wise, he said the story takes place about one year before our starting time in GW2, although much of the prior history is explained in flashbacks. Interestingly, he said each of the five races will be "flashing-back," each with their own perspective on the events. The story itself will have something to do with the humans and the Charr working out a "truce" in the face of the dragons, and it seems to follow some characters as they try to do what is needed to facilitate that truce (it sounded like some Charr relic needs to be rescued from somewhere, possibly in Ghost-Adelbern's territory). Take some of that with a grain of salt, though, as I was having trouble hearing all of it and probably got a few facts wrong.

Beyond that, not much new. They're running the trailer in loops, and pretty much every Anet employee is signing the books, along with the artists. I managed to score both Dociu's, Jeff Grubb's, Richard Anderson's, Kristen Perry's, Matt Barrett's, and even Regina's initials. Heading back now to see if I can score any more. http://guildwars.incgamers.com/showt...37#post5560437

Originally Posted by patrickvp

EDIT 1: Okay, I had to leave PAX a bit early (took me four hours to drive back home), and didn't get a chance to ask any more questions. Apologies to all who posted questions to ask; I should have asked for them beforehand, as I seem to go blank right when its time to ask them. Maybe if someone else goes tomorrow or Sunday, they may get a chance to ask them.

Anyway, I DO have more info to share, most of which is remembered stuff from this morning, or stuff from the artbook.

1. Those big armored polar bears seem to be called the "kodan," and look like a new race in the Norn areas as far as I can tell. There's a few killer concepts of them in the book. Nevermind the Norn, I wanna play one of these guys!

2. There is a wardrobe concept for a Sylvari Necromancer, and one for what looks like a Norn Elementalist. The Sylvari looks much like the one at the end of the trailer, but with much smoother hair, and wearing an all black/dark purple, more covered outfit. The picture of the Norn has armor that looks reminiscent of the old hydromancer armor (female), but with more fur lining.

3. There's a note that the Sylvari are divided into groups, one for each season based on the hour of their birth. Theres a few artworks that show presumably a Spring and a Fall Sylvari.

4. Jeff talked a little about the evolution of Turai Ossa's story as an example of their storytelling process. He said originally it was very loose, with just some names (Turai, Jahai, Palawa Joko, etc) with no real set lore behind it. As they got into Nightfall, they took it and started fleshing it out. They talked about who they would cast in the dream "movie-version," and he said Palawa Joko would have been played by Christpher Walken. Now I'm having images in my head of Palawa begging for "more cowbell."

5. Mursaat. Someone asked about them, and the response was that they won't be in the novel (or not the first one at least), but they kind of danced around their role in the game, if any.

6. Glint. There's definitely some story to what happens to her, although I'm not sure if it will be in the book. Its in the game for sure, though.

7. Talking about story again, and said that talking about the "story" of GW2 is like talking about the story of WWII. Of course there's the main overarching tale, but there's also a million stories within that that go in all different directions. Basically saying there's a lot of layering of subplots and sideplots.

8. Found one costume picture that reminds me a lot of Vampire Hunter D/Van Helsing (more Van Helsing, actually). I'm guessing its a ranger, or whatever the ranger-ish class will be. It's in a section talking about how Lion's Arch has become a bit of a free-for-all, with all sorts of characters mixing about (notably bandits). Sounds like a sort of Mos Eisley town.

9. They talk a little about costumes. Where GW1 generally hit a more medieval look, costumes in GW2 evoke a bit more of a Renaissance feel. There's a picture of a male and female in what looks like it could be Mesmer armor, and yet there's something Ranger-ish about it, too (fancy rangers, if so).

10. I mentioned I was a little surprised about them releasing the trailer and artbook this close to Aion's release, and how I figured NCsoft wanted all the focus to be on Aion for the next month or two. He laughed and said they really wanted to get this stuff out there at Cologne and PAX this year, as they are the two main Anet conventions. I kind of got the feeling that any attention given towards one NCsoft game is a potential benefit to their other games too (in terms of visibility), so its all good.

Okay, need dinner. Will probably be back later after I've gone over the artbook with a magnifying glass. I might post a few crappy pics of some important images, like the Jennah(?) one, although they'll be poor quality due to my camera, and the ever present copyright concerns.

Originally Posted by patrickvp

EDIT 2: Finished going through the book again, and cobbled together what answers I could to some of the questions people asked. Here goes:

11. Ascalon is under the rule of the Iron Legion of the Charr. Grubb mentioned that there are still pockets of human resistance (sounded like multiple, besides Ebonhawke, though that is the main one). Ascalon is still at war, though mostly controlled by the Charr.

12. There is one odd picture in the Ascalon/Charr section. It looks like a lunar/mars rover actually. Its a wheeled vehicle, hinged in the middle for turning, and with either a crane or some kind of torch arm. Remote controlled flamethrower maybe?

13. There seems to be a running carnival in the central plaza of Divinity's Reach, and they mention it being the perfect place for minigames and holiday events.

14. Divinity's Reach is a mixed bag of human culture. Largely Krytan, but the Ascalonians in particular kind of have their own area, and are just biding their time until they can return to Ascalon. (this comes partly from the lore Q&A)

15. The second dragon to awaken seems to be Drakkar in the Northern Shiverpeaks. They mention that (like the Nornbear), the creatures and some of the Norn have been corrupted by this dragon. The rest of the Norn were driven south. Looks like we'll be fighting more Nornbears...

16. On Page 41, there are a few sample male face illustrations. One of them looks a lot like Brian Blessed (actor), and another looks a lot like Daniel Dociu!

17. There is a Sylvari necromancer named "Trahearne." Explaining the Sylvari take on necromancy, death is just part of the life cycle, so its not considered dark or evil, just a special part of life.

18. Ironic given the above line, there is apparently an evil Sylvari faction known as the Nightmare Court. Their artwork is much more harsh, and kind of evokes the wardens to me, though it is not stated anywhere.

19. Found a picture of a warrior/ranger looking female with a beautiful rapier. The armor seems to be plate, but she's also wearing a nice hood and cloak.

20. Jeff talked a bit about how much they liked some of the techniques they used in the trailer (the moving images, and in particular the transition from art to game shot) and hinted that those techniques might be used later one, perhaps for in-game cinematics. This was very loose talk, though.

21. I also asked Daniel Dociu when he's planning on getting his store open on his website so we can buy prints. He laughed and said it wouldn't be anytime soon due to the GW2 focus, and also because Anet owns the rights to the images from GW, so there's legal issues there.

Okay, Q&A time! I obviously don't have answers to all the questions, and most of these are partial (even just scratches, really).

Alright, I think that's everything I was able to squeeze out of my memory and the artbook. Going to sleep for a long time now...

Thanks to gigashadow for reporting from PAX!

Originally Posted by Gigashadow

I asked Jeff one question at the Q&A (my buddy asked some crazy number of questions though), which was whether we would see something like the trailer for GW2 cutscenes, with animated concept art, as opposed to GW1-style cutscenes. He responded that they have tools to do the moving concept art, and the trailer was a demonstration of what they could do. So I would to see more of that sort of thing in the game.

His comments on the races; the charr are the most technologically advanced race, and he compared them to the Romans. They don't believe in the gods, they don't feel their gods have done much for them, and that they should accomplish things by themselves. The Asura are magical in that they understand magic, how to manipulate it, and use it as a tool like they would anything else. The norn are more spiritual. The humans are the resilient race.

From some other question, some humans are trying to make peace with the Charr and are trying to do this by obtaining something lost to the Charr (an artifact I think; this part or my memory was kind of vague).

The line for the art book was ridiculously long, but barely managed to get one at the second giveaway, and the artwork is just beautiful. It looks like dervish armors are in there (ref: page 99). There is also a drawing of 3 Norn guys next to each other (ref page 84 for those with the book, or people make scans later, etc.), the first one is a warrior, the third one is covered in a tattoos, and not in the cute cuddly GW1-monk way; this guy looks like a prison inmate. Very badass. It's possible he could be a norn monk, or maybe you can have the naked plus tattooed look on any character.

There is something that looks very much like a ritualist (ref page 80), with a very cool looking helmet obscuring his vision, that is frosted over on one side. A reference is made to a Sylvari necromancer named Trahearne (ref page 67), along with a picture of a sylvari necromancer. There is a picture of what is clearly a ranger (ref page 43), with a big hat with a feather in it. There are some things that look clearly like mesmers (ref page 37), but with an eyepatch that covers only one eye rather than the usual mesmer mask. There is also something that I couldn't tell whether it's a mesmer or a ranger; looks like some cross of both, with an eyepatch over one eye (ref page 18).

Later on I asked why start the rampup of information on GW2 now, given Aion is coming out, and Jeff said that the next convention cycle in March would be too late to start.

Matt Forbeck made a reference to being able to walk around in the world and actually see the places being talked about.

Anyway, looking forward to meeting the devs at the meet and greet tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Gigashadow

Spent a few hours at the meet and greet tonight and talked to various people including Matt Forbeck, Regina and Lindsey. Actually spent at least 90 minutes talking to Matt Forbeck, almost entirely about writing, RPGs (he has a huge history in the industry), favorite books and authors, and some personal stories of his involving his getting into fights -- he certainly has a great storytelling ability in person (maybe helped by his downing a lot of booze!).

On the GW2 front, Matt mentioned that he had got the chance to run around in GW2 at ANet's offices to more directly experience the various locations. He said the graphics were breathtaking. So I asked "Have you played Aion at all?" and he responded that yes, he had. I followed up with, "So does GW2 look better than Aion?" and he responded "Yes, oh god yes."

With Lindsey we talked about sealed deck and skills such as Mind Blast, Immolate, and Distortion. She said she likes that elementalists actually deal damage, and have a role where they are a good stand and split character, and they don't want to nerf the ele back into the role where it's a blind bitch or a runner. If they nerfed Mind Blast (already tried last year, which killed it), there are other characters often used today that would just do the sort of thing that ele does, so attacking Mind Blast doesn't really address the problem. Immolate and Distortion will likely see nerfs, so I asked whether Distortion is going to at least be viable for Mesmers to use, maybe at high illusion (or fast casting), because it is a mesmer skill. She said that some skills aren't actually intended to be used by the primary class; for example, warriors don't use balanced stance, but monks do. We reminisced about past GvG metas, and I mentioned that it's annoying that blood spike is still around. She said "not for long!"

On the sealed deck front, adding the rated ladder stuff is apparently a lot of work. I was curious as to how they would manage to do the UI for sealed deck, given people want quick games (and wouldn't switching characters be inconvenient?), and you don't want to fight over a skill with your party members. The process is being made very PUG friendly. Apparently each class will get a certain number of skills chosen at random (so e.g. it won't turn out that you can't play mesmers this week because there's nothing to work with), and everyone in the party can use the skill. However, there is a max 1 of each class in a team, to prevent overloading on degenerate or overpowered characters for the current meta.

I also overheard someone nearby asking one of the developers about the skill system where skills do different things if you are running or jumping. Apparently that idea has been scrapped, due to some combination of latency concerns and it feeling more like a fighting game than what people are looking for in an MMO. However, there are skill combos in the game, as Jeff Grubb mentioned it on Friday.

Also, everyone at the meet and greet got a cool GW2 t-shirt, which is cooler looking than the one you see ArenaNet employees wearing, white-shirt, big GW2 logo on a concept art black city background. Hopefully they will be available for sale, they are really really cool. I will post a picture of it when I sort out some camera software device driver issues.

Interesting info from NFi, too!

Originally Posted by NFi

A Guildie of mine went to PAX as well and managed to round up one of the devs for a few questions as well... most the info im sure you guys know but there was some other stuff i hadn't seen on here yet so yeah here it is. Apologies in advance if this is known.

Dwarves are still around but are very, very rare. There are no flesh and blood dwarves left. Only stone. And that means they are all a little bit unbalanced in the head.

Areas are more fully explorable. One thing that people may have not picked up on from the GW2 video is just how much freedom a player has. That means the cities have buildings that a player can enter and exit. It was pointed out to me on the human city that a good number of those buildings can be entered. The scene from the damn with all those wooden bulwarks? fully explorable. All those ships that are stacked on top of each other? You can enter them. The snow-capped mountains? You can climb them. Those huge Norn lodges? You can go in them. The city with all those spinning gears and smokestacks? That's a charr city and you can enter a good number of buildings. I think you get the idea.

Cheers
NFi

Publicly available pictures of the Art of Guild Wars 2 book:






PAX Loot:



Eric Flannum Interview from PAX highlights courtesy of Remnant:

• They are throwing around ideas for Customer Loyalty other than the HoM but they are unable to go into further details on anything like that.
  
• They rely on their artists rather than new hardware in order to make their game more beautiful while still able to run on lower end computers.
  
• All races can use guns. They dont want to restrict professions or weapons based on race choice. Example being a player who might want their Asura character to use a gun -you will be able to do that with no restrictions.
  
• They want the races to have their own unique abilities but not to the point of forcing players into a certain set. Example being they dont want Norn to be pushed into being warriors. They want the players to play any profession on any race so they are working hard to make sure the racial abilities dont give players huge advantages over one profession or another.
  
• Players will be able to see familiar places and some familiar characters from GW1 who managed to survive the 250 year gap.
  
• They dont want barriers (level requirements to get into areas) in GW2. They want an open world so you'll be able to go to higher areas at a low level but you probably wont surivive there

http://ufragtv.com/recorded/video/22562 around 4:52 is eric flannum

[Neo Nugget]

Sweet, thanks Inde

Originally Posted by Inde

Jeff Grubb on The Fall of Ascalon novel: "It's like Canterbury Tales... with explosions." ~DC #GuildWars 2 #PAX

Now they've got my attention.

[Tr0n]

Cool, keep it coming!

[Plumpsy]

Nice, I'm looking forward to some new information!

[Rhododendron]

sorry for the awkward question but can anyone get inside PAX? or do you have to get an invitation?

[Thalador Doomspeaker]

Very nice! Unfortunately I can't stay up to date the whole time. Seattle is away by several timezones, and I'm getting rather tired.

I hope I'll see some good news tomorrow, when I wake up!

[slowerpoke]

source on the video?

wasn't there a Lore panel an hour ago

[Omer21]

Originally Posted by Rhododendron

sorry for the awkward question but can anyone get inside PAX? or do you have to get an invitation?

I think you can buy tickets. Anyway, Inde, are you in PAX or is there someway to see whats going on somewhere on the internetz?

[zelgadissan]

I miss being able to go to PAX

Keep it coming Inde!

[Inde]

Originally Posted by Wuhy

is that reggie in the beginning? xO

No, random PAX attendee.

Originally Posted by slowerpoke

source on the video? wasn't there a Lore panel an hour ago

Source is girlgamer: http://www.twitvid.com/49E6D

Schedule for Anet here: http://www.guildwars.com/events/tradeshows/pax2009/

Originally Posted by Omer21

I think you can buy tickets. Anyway, Inde, are you in PAX or is there someway to see whats going on somewhere on the internetz?

Nope not there this year. Just browsing around on the web gathering stuff. PAX sold out about 2 days ago.

[Obie]

That video has like 3 seconds of the guild wars 2 booth.
Hopefully, some new info comes out. But I am sure Regina will be nice enough to tweet/post it to those of us not in attendance.

[Inde]

Originally Posted by Obie

That video has like 3 seconds of the guild wars 2 booth.
Hopefully, some new info comes out. But I am sure Regina will be nice enough to tweet/post it to those of us not in attendance.

I'll just be updating this as I find tidbits... and technically, it has 5 seconds. But it's more then you've seen anywhere else!

[Tr0n]

arenanet Alas, no plans for video. Sorry! ~DC

I asked if they're gonna release a video of the lore panel.

Oh well. ;(

[slowerpoke]

Don't need a video as long as someone was transcripting at least.

[Joiry]

Jeff Grubb on The Fall of Ascalon novel: "It's like Canterbury Tales... with explosions." ~DC #GuildWars 2 #PAX

Hmmm, so perhaps its a bunch of stories surrounding the events of the Fall of Ascalon. For example: Perhaps one veteran foot soldier's view told in a tavern years later. A recounting by a Charr warband leader. A tale from a peasant who saw the battle from afar and has finally reached Kryta to escape. An Asura who helped the evacuations of civilians thru a hastily constructed gate, etc.

This would give many perspectives, and yet as personal, biased retellings, could leave key details of some of the final events a mystery.

[PlasticBlue]

Live from PAX http://www.gamekicker.com/Gaming-New...Gamekicker-com

Nothing on GW2 atm, but you never know ^^

[Eliz Genevieve]

we got a new tweet:

2:30: GW2 Lore Q&A, 3:30: GW2 Art Book giveaway at booth 842. Just listen for charr roaring and triumphant GW music.~DC #PAX #GuildWars2

[Huginn]

Originally Posted by PlasticBlue

Live from PAX http://www.gamekicker.com/Gaming-New...Gamekicker-com

Nothing on GW2 atm, but you never know ^^

Ty, i was bored and was thinking of going to bed, but now I'll stay a bit longer

[Rain King]

I require more slower walks through the GW2 booth and closeups.

[Inde]

More twitter quotes! Check first post.