While I wasn't a big fan of the original Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2 is shaping up to be the sort of game I can really get behind. It's got amazing artistic direction, a nice selection of races to play with, and an expansive world to run my adorable little asura through.

This trailer features the voices of Troy Baker from Fullmetal Alchemist, Steve Blum from just about everything, Jocelyn Blue from Invader Zim, Felicia Day from The Guild, and Kari Wahlgren, who has appeared as countless video game and anime characters. Need to figure out who's who? Check out the Q&A NCsoft provided with the clip under the video.

RACES OF TYRIA TRAILER QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS with Ree Soesbee - World Designer and Writer

In the Races of Tyria, the latest preview video for NCsoft's upcoming MMO Guild Wars 2, we explore the world of Tyria through the eyes of the five playable races in the game. Meet the noble and resilient humans, the war-mongering charr, the brilliant inventors known as the asura, the mighty shapeshifting norn, and a new race of nature spirits, the sylvari. From these five races, mighty heroes shall rise!

Who are these characters in this video and what's their significance in the overall story of the game?

The characters in the video are the members of the famous adventuring group, Destiny's Edge, renowned for their bravery and skill. Although Destiny's Edge no longer travels together, tales of their heroic deeds are told in every part of Tyria.

· Logan Thackeray-Captain Logan Thackeray is a commander in the Seraph guard of Divinity's Reach, defender of the last human kingdom. When danger threatens, Logan faces it with the determination of a man who knows that he is the only thing standing between all that he loves… and its utter destruction.
· Rytlock Brimstone-This ruthless charr warrior has risen quickly through the ranks of the Blood Legion to become a Tribune of great renown. He stands foremost among the charr of the Black Citadel, carrying a sword of fire and leading their armies to greatness.
· Eir Stegalkin-Eir is a norn hero and tactician of great renown. There are those who call her a visionary, who say she speaks to the Spirits of the Wild. With her companion wolf, Garm, Eir roams the icy Shiverpeaks, bow and blade in hand, searching for meaning in the snow's silence.
· Zojja- The foremost apprentice of the venerable asura inventor Snaff, Zojja seeks to live up to her mentor's legacy. Zojja's intellect is unrivaled even by members of the Arcane Council of Rata Sum, and her ability to multitask across a spectrum of disciplines inspires awe and jealousy among her fellow asura.
· Caithe- Her blades are as swift as a blooded sunset, her movement as silent as the fall of night. Caithe was among the first sylvari to step upon the earth of Tyria, but where the others turned toward the sun, she sought shadow. She has never been afraid to gaze into darkness – or to seek truths that others fear.

You show off some very interesting environments in the Races of Tyria video. Can you tell us more about them?

The video takes us across the vastness of Tyria to the homelands of each of the five signature races of Guild Wars 2.

· Divinity's Reach-A breathtaking monument to the human spirit, this shining city is the capital of Kryta and a bastion of hope to embattled mankind.
· The Black Citadel-Capital of the Iron Legion, this massive charr war-keep was built on the ruins of the conquered human kingdom of Ascalon.
· Hoelbrak – In the frigid heights of the Shiverpeaks the norn have built this grand encampment, with huge lodges where they seek the wisdom of the Spirits of the Wild.
· The Grove-Deep in the Maguuma Jungle, this mystical settlement has grown around the Pale Tree, the birthplace of all sylvari.
· Rata Sum-Rising from the jungle, this metropolis of geomystic generators and giant ziggurats is full of brilliant asura and their golem servants.

Some of the voices in this video seem familiar, can you identify the actors? How big is voice going to be in Guild Wars 2?

Seamlessly integrating voice into the game experience is a key feature of Guild Wars 2, so we have gathered world-class voice talent to help bring the world of Tyria alive. This video introduces the five iconic heroes of each race, all voiced by accomplished actors:

· Logan Thackeray the human defender is voiced by Troy Baker (Fullmetal Alchemist, One Piece).
· Rytlock Brimstone the charr warrior is voiced by Steve Blum (Spectacular Spider-Man).
· Eir Stegalkin the norn is voiced by Jocelyn Blue (Invader Zim, Space Jam).
· Zojja the asura is voiced by Felicia Day (Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, The Guild, Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
· Caithe the sylvari is voiced by Kari Wuhlgren (Wolverine and the X-Men, Aliens in the Attic).

The video ends with the question, "What's your story?" – how important is story in Guild Wars 2?

Story is a huge element in Guild Wars 2. From the moment you choose your character's race, you're taking your first step down a road that only you can travel. You'll explore a vast, living world where your actions have real consequences. You'll immerse yourself in a rich, powerful narrative that is personalized to and influenced by your character.

We've learned how big a focus ArenaNet was putting on the art for Guild Wars 2 during our annual pilgrimage to the Penny Arcade Expo, which really puts the The Art of Guild Wars 2 into perspective. This isn't just concept art. As far as ArenaNet is concerned, this is the game itself. Consider the book a way of getting your hands on the MMO a little early.

North American fans can snag the book from the Penny Arcade Store for $30, while our friends in Europia can order directly from NCsoft for £20.00 or €25.00.

The Art of Guild Wars 2 [Guild Wars 2 Website - Thanks Connor!]

When I first found out about ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 art book being available at PAX, I questioned whether or not it was the right time for such a promotion. Company founder and president Mike O'Brien explains why art is such a huge focus in Guild Wars 2.

"We have the best artists in the industry. I know it sounds like hyperbole, but our artists are winning every industry award here. We have brilliant artists, and that's why we are featuring the art so heavily".

You can see this in action in the trailer, first unveiled at GamesCom in Germany, which depicts pieces of concept art coming to life almost seamlessly.

"That's a theme of Guild Wars 2 - taking this art and bringing it to life."

Well, a trailer and some concept art. Still, the game seems to be at a really early stage of development, which is not generally the time you announce a big book of "eye-candy by ArenaNet's award-winning artists." The whole value of a video game art book, for me at least, is that the images are enhanced by my memories of playing the game. This just seems like a bit of a tease.

With no real release date listed for the volume, who really knows? Perhaps it's just a really early tease for an art book coming in the far future? A portent of things to come? Time echoes? The mind reels.

Update: NCsoft dropped me a line to let me know that they'll have a limited number of the Guild Wars 2 art books at PAX next week, so if you are attending and are among the lucky few, all this could be yours!

Guild Wars 2 Art Page [Official Website via Massively]

"While Guild Wars 2 adds a persistent world, it retains the unique characteristics of the original game, including a strong narrative, extensive instanced game play, an anti-grind design philosophy, and strong support for competitive play."

The teasing has begun, the website is stirring, and the official Guild Wars 2 Twitter is now active, pointing the said web page, where the above image hovers, awaiting a day this week when it shall give way to something that should hopefully please patient fans immensely.

ArenaNet head Mike O'Brien has been teasing up a storm at the Guild Wars wiki, hinting at a big reveal to take place this week.

I want to thank all our fans for their patience as we developed the game to the point where we can start talking about it publically. I know you've all been anxiously awaiting this moment. You'll soon understand how ambitious we've been and what we've accomplished during these past two years of development. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but from here on out we'll be able to provide you with more regular updates.

Guild Wars 2 is going to be a huge leap beyond the original. We have the best team in the industry executing at the top of their game, and I'm very proud of what our team has accomplished so far. As I said last week, I'm confident that when you get your first look at what we've been working on, you're going to love what you see. Stay tuned for an exciting week ahead.

Excited yet? Not only is O'Brien teasing, but during communications regarding press appointments at Gamescom, NCsoft said that had a big announcement coming, along with the reveal of Aion 1.5. Certainly looks like this is shaping up to be a big week for fans of guilds and the wars they have.

Thanks to Morgan for pointing us to all of these helpful Guild Wars 2 places!

"We are humbled by how gamers have responded to Guild Wars over the past four years, and we are proud that the game and its community have helped to continually shape, define, and expand the genre," said ArenaNet studio boss Mike O'Brien. "Our subscription-free business model has proven to be a big hit with gamers, bringing an enormous and diverse online community to the game."

ArenaNet has released a new content update to commemorate this — with a new quest and extra storage. There will also be in-game anniversary festivities to boot!

To date, Guild Wars is comprised of three campaigns and an expansion pack. All three campaigns were bundled and released as Guild Wars Triology.

Guild Wars [NCsoft]

In an open letter to Guild Wars fans, O'Brien points out that Guild wars 2 never had a firm release date attached to it, so there really is no delay, as many gaming websites had reported. Furthermore, O'Brian explains that the recent layoffs at NCsoft West actually worked in ArenaNet's favor.

You've all seen announcements about restructuring at NCsoft West, and it's natural to wonder whether that restructuring impacts ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 development. In fact, the reason NCsoft West is restructuring itself is so that the company can put all of its focus into its top-tier games like Guild Wars 2. Our team continues to grow, and has the strong support and financial backing we need to achieve our goal of making Guild Wars 2 the best online role-playing game ever created.

There we go. Job cuts affected the team positively, the game will be done when it is done, and all is right with the world.

A Letter to Our Fans [Guild Wars via Blue's News]

While the headquarters for the newly named company will be established in Seattle by the end of 2008, the offices in Europe and Austin will not be closed. The announcement today does not address whether there will be job cuts in Europe, Austin or at ArenaNet.

NC West will be led by Chris Chung as CEO, Jeff Strain as president, product development, David Reid as president, publishing, and Patrick Wyatt as CTO as well as yet to be announced European executives.

“We are confident that by combining our subsidiaries into a unified global organization under Chris Chung’s leadership, NC West will become a more powerful force to be reckoned with in the western MMO market,” said TJ Kim. “Chris has become a guiding force within our company and has been extremely successful at every position he has held with us. His detailed first-hand knowledge of all aspects of our business is invaluable and will help establish NC West as a global leader.”

Official release on the jump.

NCsoft Announces Formation of “NC West”
CEO Taek Jin Kim Promotes Chris Chung, Jeff Strain, David Reid, and Patrick Wyatt

SEOUL, Korea, Sept. 10, 2008— NCsoft ® Corporation (KSE: 036570.KS), the world’s leading publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), including award-winning franchises Lineage ®, Guild Wars ® and City of Heroes ®, today announced the formation of “NC West™”. A wholly-owned subsidiary of NCsoft with operating responsibility for western regions including the US and Europe, NC West will be led by Chris Chung as CEO, Jeff Strain as president, product development, David Reid as president, publishing, and Patrick Wyatt as CTO as well as yet unannounced European executives.

NCsoft’s existing subsidiaries NC Interactive, NC Europe, NC Austin, and ArenaNet will be led as a unified organization under NC West with a dedicated focus towards becoming the world’s premier western publisher of MMOs. NC West is the tentative name for the organization, and the company expects to announce final naming and corporate structure in the near future. NC West's headquarters is planned to be established in Seattle, WA by the end of 2008.

Chris Chung, previously CEO of NC Interactive, has a long history with NCsoft. He began his tenure at NCsoft’s ArenaNet® studio, where he managed that studio’s business and helped launch the multi-platinum selling Guild Wars franchise. Chung later went on to become the chief publishing officer for NCsoft’s Seoul headquarters. Prior to NCsoft, Chung spent more than five years at Microsoft and later co-founded a marketing research firm. As CEO of NC West, Chung will continue to report directly to NCsoft CEO Taek Jin (TJ) Kim.

“We are confident that by combining our subsidiaries into a unified global organization under Chris Chung’s leadership, NC West will become a more powerful force to be reckoned with in the western MMO market,” said TJ Kim. “Chris has become a guiding force within our company and has been extremely successful at every position he has held with us. His detailed first-hand knowledge of all aspects of our business is invaluable and will help establish NC West as a global leader.”

Jeff Strain was formerly the president and co-founder of ArenaNet, a company he formed with Patrick Wyatt and Mike O’Brien when they left senior roles at Blizzard Entertainment in 2000. Additionally, Strain held the position of executive producer of Guild Wars 2™ prior to taking this new role. Strain will report directly to Chung and manage all NC West development studios across all existing and future products. Strain will also direct the production of NCsoft’s Asian-developed titles for NC West territories.

David Reid began with NCsoft in March 2008 as vice-president, marketing for North America. Reid came to NCsoft from Turner Broadcasting’s GameTap, where he served as vice-president, marketing. Prior to that, he worked at Microsoft as director of global platform marketing, where he launched the Xbox 360. In his new role, Reid will continue to report to Chung and will lead franchise management, marketing, public relations, sales, and customer support for NC West.

As a founder of ArenaNet, Patrick Wyatt led the development of the network and server technologies for the Guild Wars franchise, and directed the architecture and deployment of ArenaNet's global game network infrastructure. Before co-founding ArenaNet with Strain and O'Brien, Wyatt was the vice president of research and development for Blizzard Entertainment, where he led programming for the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises. As CTO for NC West, Wyatt will report to Chung and will focus on platform technology development, network operations, and systems engineering.

“There is an unparalleled opportunity for growth in the massively multiplayer online market,” said Chris Chung. “By combining the strength of our US and European teams, NCsoft has the best global infrastructure to win in new and existing markets, and the best developer talent capable of creating blockbuster MMO franchises.”

About NC West
NC West is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation, a world leading publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games including Lineage/Lineage II, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa®, and Aion®: The Tower of Eternity™. More information about NCsoft can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.

Contrary to earlier plans, there will be no beta of Guild Wars 2 this year. That per an official FAQ from developer ArenaNet, which also helpfully states the game will be released "when it's finished," among other tidbits. Here's the complete excuse explanation.

Although we publically alpha- and beta-tested the original Guild Wars while it was still in early development, with Guild Wars 2 we will commence beta testing closer to the game's release. With that in mind, we will not start beta testing in 2008 as we had originally planned. Guild Wars 2 is a very large and ambitious game, and Guild Wars players rightfully have very high expectations of its quality. We want players to be absolutely blown away by the game the first time they experience it.

Hear that, Guild Wars 2 fans? It's all because of your rightful high expectations. Hope you're happy.

Guild Wars 2 Frequently Asked Questions [Guildwars.com via Blue's News]

Free-to-play dungeon crawler Dungeon Runner is expected to get its next big update this week. I chatted briefly with lead designer Mark Tucker earlier today about what we can expect to see from the update, labeled Chunk Number One.

In a nutshell, the update will add player versus player worlds, multiple character support per an account, in-chat item linking and a new high level dungeon.

With the update players will be able to three characters per an account, they will also be able to link to item descriptions (for better bragging rights in chats) and the team has done a bit more tweaking on latency issues.

"We've gotten a lot of criticism about the responsiveness of the controls," Tucker said. "We've done some major edits so your avatar will respond more quickly."

The player versus player worlds will work a lot like the instanced PvP battles of Guild Wars. Players will have to log into a PVP server and then go up to a non-player character to launch a team battle in a randomly generated dungeon. Initially, this dungeons will be relatively straight forward, but the development team hopes to eventually include special items for use in battle.

"Right now there's not a lot of variety in the maps, but we're hoping to change that in the future," Tucker said. "Players might stumble across a buff shrine, or something that can change areas of the map, or find items or power-ups like what you would find in a first person shooter."

Currently the points earned in PvP battles won't be good for anything but bragging rights, but that could also change.

While PvP is a relatively big addition to the game, the biggest add-on coming from Chunk Number One will be the inclusion of a new level designed for characters level 75 to 100.

The new area is called Ratsputin's Gulag, named after the boss of the area, and will include lots of new quests and monster types. Keeping with the theme of the game, there will be plenty of inside jokes, like a quest that pits you against Gold Farmers.

While NCSoft is still hesitant to talk about the profitability of the mostly free game, you can pay for access to a small set of exclusive features and a new members only server, they do say they are quite happy with how the game is shaping up.

'We are tracking well compared to other NC Soft titles," Tucker said. "The development team has a goal in terms of number of subscribers. There is a point when we become profitable and it's not a very big number. At that point we can grow the development team."

NC Soft spokeswoman Opal Lertutai said they have 120,000 active accounts and that they have about 75 percent of the $5 a month paid accounts needed for the game to break even.

In the coming months, Dungeon Runners will also be getting loading screen advertising for the non-paid accounts through Double Fusion Advertising, something that will surely help the game survive.

The Arena Net guys are messing with me.

Jeff Strain, former Blizzard coder and co-founder of the dev team behind Guild Wars, is clearly enjoying having me on the hook while I'm on the horn.

He's talking up Guild Wars 2 when I break in with the most, I believe, relavent question: Are you going to charge a monthly subscription fee this time around?

"With Guild Wars 2 we will be introducing a persistent world," he says, as almost an excuse. "We will have playable races. Everything you expect in a subscription system..."

He pauses for dramatic effect.

"...and we decided not to charge a subscription fee."

Strain and the people on his side of the phone call break into laughter.

"Funny," I say, genuinely amused.

The phone call is about two things, first that Guild Wars, what NC Soft believes to be the second largest massively multiplayer online game around, is getting a final expansion and that the final expansion will prepare gamers for Guild Wars 2.

Eye of the North
Eye of the North, set to hit this holiday, will be Guild War's first expansion. In the past the games that came out to bolster Guild Wars were all stand-alone titles which while they could be played with the original title, didn't need to be.

This first expansion brings you back to Tyria, the setting and storyline of the original Guild Wars.
In it, Strain says, you will be finding out what happened to some of the storylines and characters that peopled that first game.

The game will feature 18 new multi-level dungeons, 150 new skills across all ten Guild Wars professions, 10 new heroes and 40 new armor sets.

Because the game will require you to own one of the three Guild Wars campaigns the price will be less than a full campaign, Strain said.

Eye of the North, which will take place mostly underground, will also introduce three new races, but they won't be playable, at least not yet.

The Asura are an underground dwelling race that begin to come to the surface. They are ver "goblinesque" and the builders of the Guild Wars world.

The Norn are Viking savages of the mountains and the Sylvari are a kind of forest dwelling race which you witness the birth of the Eye of the North expansion.

While the character races won't be playable in the expansion, they will be in Guild Wars 2 as will the Guild Wars' perpetual enemy, the Charr.

A lot, it seems, that happens in this final expansion is about preparing for the launch of the new Guild Wars.

I asked Strain why Arena Net decided to stop producing expansions and campaigns and instead develop an entirely new game with Guild Wars 2.

Strain said that after shipping the last campaign, Nightfall, this past October the team sat back and evaluated where they were in terms of game design .

When they looked at what they had accomplished with Guild Wars and its campaigns they were happy with what they saw. Then they looked at what their gamers were asking for and it wasn't one more campaign, one more continent to explore, new professions to learn.

"What people wanted, I think, was more content for the existing models," Strain said.

So the team started creating a wishlist of all of the things they'd love to see added to Guild Wars and when they were done they realized it was too much to stuff into the existing game.

Instead it was a master plan for how to build the "ultimate Guild Wars game," Strain said.

But the plan required something to transition current players from the original campaigns into the new experience and, in many ways, that's where Eye of the North comes in.

Most central to that idea is the Eye's Hall of Monuments.

In the hall you can store achievements that can then be transferred to a Guild Wars 2 account.

This hall will be located in a sort of base of operations you can establish in Eye of the North. The instanced base will allow you to store not only the Eye of the North achievements in the form of monuments but the achievements earned in all three campaigns.

Every monument earned will unlock something, from heroes and pets to weapons, clothes and miniatures, in Guild Wars 2.

When you create your character in Guild Wars 2 you can choose a character from Guild War to inherit these unlocks from.

Kind of a neat idea, I think. To bad these new character don't also inherit some other attributes or traits from your Guild Wars characters, that would be fantastic.

Strain said the team decided to include this form of inter-character inheritance to make sure that all of the time players spent playing Guild Wars wouldn't be wasted.

Guild Wars 2
Since the game is essentially starting with a clean slate, Arena Net decided to make some pretty substantive changes to the game.

First, and most importantly though, the game will remain subscription free.

This time around the game will have a persistence world, one still set in Tyria, but now hundreds of years after the events that took place in the original Guild Wars.

"The big new feature is a persistent world," Strain said. "I think Guild Wars has some very radical departures from typical role-playng. One of those was the instancing model.

As each of the campaigns was released we took greater and greater pains to do that.
On the other hand, there are things we missed out on, like the more organic type of community building where you wandering through the area and hook-up with other people."

"In Guild Wars 2 we wanted to have the best of both worlds. We are retaining the strengths of instanced areas, but we are also integrating a persistenced world. We are not making a World of Warcraft clone here, we are not trying to do what other MMOs have done."

Arena Net's new spin is sort of an amalgam of both instanced and massive environments, where instanced events can have domino effects on other parts of the world, or zone..

Here's one example of this Strain used:

You are wandering through the countryside and you see a dragon flying overhead. You and a group try to stave off the dragon. If you are successful the nearby town gives you a treasure.

But if you don't drive off the dragon, the bridge will be destroyed. This will lead to a team of carpenters gathering at the bridge to try to fix it and then you will have to protect them from bandits.

"The idea is that there will always be something going on in the world," Strain said.

He said that there will be hundreds of these types of events that happen in the world, some daily, some hourly, some will be triggered by specific player actions.

"That is what persistence allows us to do. That is the type of content and play experience that we can offer in Guild Wars 2 that we couldn't offer in Guild Wars."

Another major change will be in the way the game handles player versus player.

In Guild Wars 2, the same character you use in-game will be used for player-versus-player conflicts that will take place in the Mists, the place between the many worlds, aka servers, of this new Guild Wars. Despite having several worlds, the game uses a global database so you can instantly transfer between worlds, Strain said.

And these inter-world battles in the Mists, which Strain says almost play like a large real-time strategy game, can have a real impact on the worlds.

"By achieving victories in these battles there will be benefits to your world," Strain said. "Bonuses, advantages, maybe everyone gets increased energy regeneration or healing rate or enhanced loot drop rate."

Strain says the world-versus-world match-ups will be shuffled every couple of weeks to make sure things stay fair.

Every week or every two weeks we will shuffle who is matched up.

Arena Net, it seems, is trying to tackle many of the biggest drawbacks most current massively multiplayer online games face. Chief among them is level capping. Why, once you top out, should you stick around in a game?

Guild Wars 2 is trying to deal with that issue by using a system with a high level cap once that could be set to 100 or even boundless.

"So there is not a level 20 cap," Strain said. "Either it will be a high level like 100 or unbounded, we haven't decided."
Besides these significant changes to the game, Guild Wars 2 will also introduce plenty of smaller ones, like the ability for your characters to do things like jump, swim, even climb trees.

The combat though, Strain says, will remain purely RPG

"Our belief is that role players aren't playing a RPG because they want a twitch action," Strain said, "there is a difference between playing a game like an RPG and playing a game like God of War."

Guild Wars 2 is expected to hit public beta next year, but now release date has yet been set.

Factions facing off online [Gamespot]

Over at the official site, NCSoft and ArenaNet slung some PR on the upcoming Guild Wars: Factions setting. The heavily PvP MMO will receive a new continent to quest and PvP on, in addition to two new professions (Assassin and Ritualist) as well as a new observer mode so that the carebears can watch the PvP as it happens.

The most innovative part of all of this, however, isn't the changes NCSoft is making to the game, but instead that they are giving existing players and anyone who wants to try it out a chance to demo the Factions gameplay during the Jan. 20-22 weekend.

NCsoft, ArenaNet Announce Guild Wars: Factions [Guild Wars]