Into the Pixel is a juried art exhibition that selects sixteen works of video game art to be displayed both digitally and in actual exhibits, like the one currently at E3. The exhibit is an opportunity for video and computer game artists to showcase their work and receive critical feedback from both digital and fine art experts; it also showcases the actual visual art of games in creative and unique ways. The pieces range from playful to serious, and utilize a variety of visual styles to convey their subjects. Now in its fifth year, the selected entries are usually quite impressive, and this year was no exception.

The exhibition hall was quiet compared to the chaos both above and below it — a few people wandered through, but it was otherwise silent. The exhibition included some of the winners from the 2007 competition (including my personal favorite, "Defeated Dragon" by Daniel Dociu (Guild Wars)), and it was nice to see the art in large format. Four of the sixteen entries were takes on Guild Wars (I was particularly fond of the one entitled "Four Knights" by Richard Anderson); also covered were games like flOw, Fallout 3, and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, and untitled DS game (seen at the top; "Puzzle World Twilight" by Jay Epperson).

The exhibition will be headed to E for All in October, but you can all see the winning entries over at the Into the Pixel website, which also includes archives of art and commentary from previous years. A few selections from the silent gallery hall are below.

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]

If not for the write-off, NCsoft stood to gain in profit 48 percent on the quarter and 8 percent on the year. The publisher's sales increased 4 percent to $84.3 million on the popularity of the Lineage series in Asia and strong performance for Guild Wars and City of Heroes in North America and Europe.

In particular, NCsoft said its first quarter brought all-time record sales for Lineage II, which launched in 2003 and continues to be the company's top-selling title with 35 percent of the publisher's total sales.

NCsoft's U.S. sales reached $10.4 million in North America and $8.5 million in Europe, and $9.2 million in Japan, numbers dwarfed by its $47.7 million performance in Korea, which accounts for 57 percent of the publisher's total sales.

Later this year, NCsoft will launch its third closed beta for Aion, slated for a launch later this year. NCsoft will also roll out a more casual online portfolio with Point Blank, Punch Monster, Dragonica and Love Beat

"As proven once again in the Q1 financial results, we strongly believe our key franchise products, such as Lineage and Guild Wars, will meet our sales target with a strong customer base and continued content updates going forward," said NCsoft CFO Jaeho Lee. "We plan to ensure the smooth launch of many new products in the next two to three years, which will strengthen our position as a global leader in online games."

... I look back all the way to the dawn of mankind: to ruins, and Greek architecture, and Mycenean architecture, all the way up to the architecture of the Crusades, and castles in North Africa, and the Romanesque and Gothic and Baroque and Rococo - even to neo-Classical and art deco and Bauhaus and Modernist. I mean, there are bits and pieces here and there that make a strong impression on me, and I blend them - but that's the beauty of games. You don't have to be stylistically pure, or even coherent. You can afford a certain eclecticism to your work. It's a more forgiving medium. I can blend elements from the Potala Palace in Tibet with, say, La Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudí's cathedral. I really take a lot of liberties with whatever I can use, wherever I can find it.

You can find more examples of Dociu's work at his website or BLDGBLOG's Flickr photostream.

Game/Space: An Interview With Daniel Dociu [BLDBLOG]

"Guild Wars is a proven success and has set a new standard for online RPG games with its unique business model and superior playability," said NCsoft CEO Taek Jin Kim.

Guild Wars Tops Five Million Units Sold

Guild Wars franchise breaks major milestone in less than three years.

Bellevue, WA. Feb. 26, 2008—NCsoft® and ArenaNet® have announced that the Guild Wars® franchise of online roleplaying games has surpassed five million units sold in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Published by NCsoft and developed by ArenaNet, the Guild Wars franchise consists of the original Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions®, Guild Wars Nightfall®, and the recently released expansion, Guild Wars: Eye of the North™. The Guild Wars games have been commercial and critical successes since the release of the original campaign in April of 2005. Its award-winning content and innovative subscription-free business model have created a large and loyal following that is highly anticipating Guild Wars 2™.

"Guild Wars is a proven success and has set a new standard for online RPG games with its unique business model and superior playability," said NCsoft CEO Taek Jin Kim. "ArenaNet is dedicated to creating games that expand the market and provide great new content to our loyal player base. This success has built a great foundation from which the next generation of Guild Wars games will grow."

With the development of Guild Wars 2 underway, ArenaNet will continue to provide dedicated support to current Guild Wars games and its millions of customers.

"Reaching the five million mark is extremely gratifying for us at ArenaNet because it shows the hard work and dedication we put into our games has resonated with the fans," said Mike O'Brien, co-founder of ArenaNet. "We are committed to supporting all of our Guild Wars players, and at the same time, we're extremely excited to work on the game's evolution. Certainly the future of Guild Wars is as bright as its past and present."

For more information on the Guild Wars franchise, visit the Guild Wars website at www.guildwars.com. The award-winning Guild Wars series, including the recently released Guild Wars: Eye of the North, can be purchased from retailers or downloaded from the PlayNC store at secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl.

- Crash of the Titans," written by Christopher Mitchell for Sierra Entertainment
- "Dead Head Fred," written by Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan for D3 Publisher
- "The Simpsons Game," with lead writer Matt Selman, written by Tim Long and Matt Warburton, dialogue by Jeff Poliquin for Electronic Arts
- "The Witcher," with lead story designer Artur Ganszyniec, dialogue by Sebastian Stepien, additional dialogue by Marcin Blacha and writers Sande Chen and Anne Toole for Atari
- "World in Conflict," story design by Christofer Emgard, story consultant Larry Bond and script consultant Ed Zuckerman for Sierra Entertainment.

WGA announces videogame nominees [Variety]

Guild Wars Holiday event includes 5 free hours of Eye of the North and Triple XP

Starting today at noon, and lasting for 10 days, Guild Wars players can try out Guild Wars: Eye of the North for free for five hours. Also, the level requirement to play Eye of the North has been lowered from 20 to 10 to make it easier for players to access the exciting content in Guild Wars first true expansion. To help players be competitive in the level-20 plus world of Eye of the North, players at levels 10-19 will be buffed up to in order to go toe-to-toe with the new content.

Additionally, to help celebrate the holidays, players in Eye of the North will receive:

- Triple experience from all primary storyline quests in Eye of the North.

- Double the chance to receive rare items from chests, and triple the drop rate of Lockpicks in Eye of the North.

- Double gold and experience rewards for vanquishing Eye of the North explorable areas while playing in Hard Mode.

In addition, all weekend long, three special items will be added that can drop from all creatures in Eye of the North: Sparklers, Hunter's Ale, and Honeycombs.

For more information on the event and to receive a "universal access code", go to http://guildwars.com/products/eyeofthenorth/trial/.

"Writers are finally being recognized and valued in the video game industry. Both artistically and financially, video games matter - and video game writers matter to the WGA," commented WGAW New Media Caucus member Jay Lender.

Writers Guild creates videogame writing award [GamesIndustry.biz]

Oh, you can't email more than once a day. The winner will be contacted through the winning email address.
GWEN [Official Site]

Oh, you can't email more than once a day. The winner will be contacted through the winning email address.
GWEN [Official Site]

• 18 multi-level dungeons
• 50 new skills across all 10 Guild Wars professions
• 10 new Heroes
• 40 new armor sets
• New items, weapons, and titles.

With Guild Wars 2 right around the corner, NCSoft and AreaNet have promised that players will be able to transfer the characters they've been working on smoothly from the previous incarnations to the new version with all their accomplishments in tact. I have to commend NCSoft and AreaNet for creating all this new content and continuing to keep it subscription free. After all, you paid for the game, why should you have to pay a monthly fee to actually play it? All of the Guild Wars games, including Eye of the North can be purchased at your local game store or downloaded from the NCSoft Website.

"Four million units sold is an impressive number and demonstrates that Guild Wars is a proven franchise," said Bob McKenzie, Senior Vice President of Merchandising, GameStop Corporation. "The Guild Wars franchise delivers an outstanding gaming experience and is clearly an important part of our PC games offerings."

NCsoft's Guild Wars Breaks Four Million

Subscription-free business model sets new standard for online multiplayer games

Bellevue, WA. Aug. 21, 2007—The Guild Wars® franchise of online roleplaying games has broken the four million units sold mark in just over two years. Published by NCsoft® and developed by ArenaNet®, the Guild Wars series (consisting of Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions™, and Guild Wars Nightfall™) has set the standard for online co-operative and competitive play with award-winning content and a subscription-free business model. Since the first campaign launched in 2005, Guild Wars has developed legions of loyal fans who are hotly anticipating the August 31 release of the game's first true expansion, Guild Wars: Eye of the North™.

"ArenaNet's fantastic work on Guild Wars has helped make NCsoft the leading online gaming publisher in the world," said Robert Garriott, CEO of NCsoft North America. "Guild Wars players continue to join in droves and stay loyal to the franchise thanks to a business model that makes for a very accessible product. We are all excited about the future of Guild Wars with the expansion ready to be released and Guild Wars 2™ on the horizon."

"Four million units sold is an impressive number and demonstrates that Guild Wars is a proven franchise," said Bob McKenzie, Senior Vice President of Merchandising, GameStop Corporation. "The Guild Wars franchise delivers an outstanding gaming experience and is clearly an important part of our PC games offerings."

Guild Wars: Eye of the North
Prerelease Bonus Pack to Hit Shelves July 20th
Tuesday 17th July/...NCsoft® Europe and ArenaNet® announced today that the prerelease bonus pack for Guild Wars: Eye of the North™ is set to arrive on retailer's shelves on July 20th and will include a host of compelling features, including exclusive in-game items and access to the Guild Wars: Eye of the North Sneak Peek Weekend set for later this summer.

The Guild Wars: Eye of the North prerelease bonus pack will be available from retailers in North America and Europe as well as at the NCsoft store at PlayNC.com and via the Official Guild Wars online store.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North is the first ever expansion to the subscription-free Guild Wars franchise of fantasy online role playing games, which will be released to the public on August 31, 2007. This expansion will provide new content accessible to players who have any of the previously released Guild Wars campaigns (Guild Wars, Guild Wars: Factions™, or Guild Wars: Nightfall™).

Players who pre-order Guild Wars: Eye of the North will gain access to the Sneak Peek Weekend, August 24-26, 2007, where they will be able to log into the game for a first look at Eye of the North. Players will be able to explore the Far Shiverpeaks region of the world, home of the barbaric Norn. Everything players obtain during the Sneak Peek Weekend, including items, XP, Heroes, and loot, will be permanent and available when the expansion goes live.

The Guild Wars: Eye of the North prerelease bonus pack also comes with exclusive weapons, including the Glacial Blade, the Hourglass Staff, and the Darksteel Longbow. These new weapons are based on the winning designs from the Guild Wars Design-a-Weapon Contest held earlier this year. In addition, the prerelease bonus pack includes a Guild Wars Trilogy Trial DVD that provides access to all three of the Guild Wars campaigns for a special trial promotion lasting 10 hours or 14 days, whichever comes first*.

"We believe this feature-packed prerelease delivers real value to our players," said Mike O'Brien, co-founder of ArenaNet. "From past experience, we expect the Sneak Peek Weekend alone to be hugely popular, and players won't want to miss this chance to get a leg-up before the game goes live."

With almost four million copies sold across the original game and its two expansions, Guild Wars is doing just fine as a franchise.

With Eye of the North, the final expansion before next year's Guild Wars 2, NCSoft aims to both bridge the gap between the old and new games while giving the dedicated Guild Wars players something to sink their (sword's) teeth into over the next year.

Guild Wars 2 will feature multiple races for characters instead of just humans. All three are introduced in Eye of the North as hero companions. Consider the mish-mash of influences that form Guild Wars's backstory, it doesn't feel that strange to suddenly have friendy cat warriors, goblins, and elves appear in the world.

Most of the content in Eye of the North are inspired by traditional pen-and-paper dungeon crawls, which may be something new to Guild Wars, but won't likely entice too many other genre fans into the fold. A new "battle music engine"—I'm not quite sure if that should be capitalized or not—will change the ambient soundtrack depending on how well—or how poorly—you're doing in the fight.

The new "Hall of Monuments," once discovered, will let you memorialize your achievements from past Guild Wars games. When Guild Wars 2 arrives, each achievement will garner you unlockables in the sequel, although in the interest of fairness none of the new gear will be too overpowered.

Although you'll barely see them in game—and then only as loading screens—the concept art for Guild Wars: Eye of the North is really great stuff. Paintings mostly. They'll be on display at a special gallery at this year's PAX.
Joel Johnson

AUSTIN, Texas, July 3, 2007— NCsoft® today revealed its line up for the E3 Media & Business Summit July 11-13 in Santa Monica where the company will provide a preview of several of the most anticipated online games coming out in 2007 and 2008, including Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa™, Aion™, Guild Wars: Eye of the North™ and Dungeon Runners™.
NCsoft North America CEO Robert Garriott said, "NCsoft strives to deliver the highest quality online entertainment possible, and these products represent the next generation of online games. This E3 meeting will provide a window for the public to see the breadth of the variety of game genres and business models NCsoft provides, as well as show off how advanced and exciting our products are."
NCsoft products to be featured at E3 are:

RICHARD GARRIOTT'S TABULA RASA
Tabula Rasa has been in closed beta testing since May and is set for launch this fall. Tabula Rasa is poised to evolve the massively multiplayer online genre with a host of fresh features such as a character cloning system, dynamic battlefields with contested control points, deep storylines with ethical parables and fully integrated voice chat. Tabula Rasa also offers players an original alien language named Logos that unlocks special powers, and fast paced combat that combines real time action with role-playing game style character development. These kinds of features are the types of touches that players have come to expect over the years from a Richard Garriott game.

AION
From NCsoft's Seoul studios, Aion, is one of the most visually stunning MMOGs in development. Cutting-edge graphics redefine players' expectations of online role-playing and reveal a true fantasy world where divine beings wage a war that will determine the future of the world. This highly anticipated title is set for release in 2008.

GUILD WARS: EYE OF THE NORTH
Guild Wars: Eye of the North is the first true expansion to the Guild Wars® franchise, one of the most popular online role-playing game franchises on the market today. Guild Wars: Eye of the North delves into the dungeons and caverns of the lands of Tyria that players first explored in the original Guild Wars game. Guild Wars: Eye of the North continues Guild Wars' no subscription fee model and will provide new content accessible to players who own both the expansion and any one of the three previously released Guild Wars campaigns. Guild Wars: Eye of the North is set for release on August 31 at an anticipated price of $39.99.

DUNGEON RUNNERS
Dungeon Runners is a free to download and play online multiplayer role playing game set in a sword-and-shield world where players get piles of loot and treasure by defeating hordes of evil monsters enemies. It's a different game model that fits right in to NCsoft's diversified online game lineup. Dungeon Runners has recently opened up play to the general public and will have large chunks of new content implemented through the summer.

"Guild Wars has one of the most committed and loyal player bases I've ever seen, and Guild Wars: Eye of the North is our way of delivering prized content to veteran players and creating a link to the future of Guild Wars," said Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North Readies For August 31 Release

NCsoft and ArenaNet set $39.99 price for first ever expansion of Guild Wars franchise

Bellevue, WA., July 2, 2007—NCsoft® and ArenaNet® announced that Guild Wars: Eye of the NorthTM, the first ever expansion to the subscription-free Guild Wars® franchise of fantasy online role-playing games, will be released to the public on August 31, 2007. The Guild Wars: Eye of the North expansion will be available for an expected price of $39.99 in North America and €34.99 in Europe, as well as through the NCsoft store at PlayNC.com and in the Guild Wars in-game store.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North will continue the no subscription fee model pioneered by ArenaNet, and will provide new content accessible to players who own both the expansion and any one of the three previously released Guild Wars campaigns (Guild Wars, FactionsTM, or NightfallTM).

The Guild Wars franchise has sold more than 3.5 million units since the release of the original Guild Wars campaign, in 2005, making it one of the most popular online role-playing games of all time.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North follows up on events told in the original Guild Wars campaign, and is set in previously unexplored areas of the continent of Tyria. The expansion contains a host of new features that will appeal directly to veteran Guild Wars players, including 18 large, multi-level dungeons, 150 new skills across all ten Guild Wars professions, ten new Heroes, 40 new armor sets, and more items, weapons, and titles. Additionally, through the innovative Hall of Monuments, Guild Wars: Eye of the North creates a path for players to carry the legacy of their characters into the upcoming Guild Wars 2. The Hall of Monuments will allow players to preserve their accomplishments and titles from Guild Wars, Factions, and Nightfall, which can then be claimed in Guild Wars 2.

"Guild Wars has one of the most committed and loyal player bases I've ever seen, and Guild Wars: Eye of the North is our way of delivering prized content to veteran players and creating a link to the future of Guild Wars," said Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet.

For more information on the Guild Wars franchise, go to: www.GuildWars.com. The award-winning Guild Wars campaigns can be purchased from retailers or downloaded from the PlayNC store at https://secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl.

It looks like PC Gamer got some quality time with the new Guild Wars campaign and recently announced Guild Wars 2. We touched on some of the major points of the upcoming game in broad-strokes, but if you're a fan of the franchise you'll probably want to pick up the mag too. Brian Crecente

Feature: Guild Wars 2, GW Expansion Unveiled [Kotaku]

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.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

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.

While I love the animation, the main reason I'm posting this video is because the MMO by NCSoft has been coming up a lot lately among game designers and gamers.

Last week at GDC I spent a lot of time ranting about MMOs and how they seem stuck in the mud right now. What I suddenly came to realize is that Guild Wars is, I believe, the second largest MMO right now with 3.5 million users. The question is, is that because of the game, which was created by a bunch of former ex-Blizzard guys, the fact that there's no subscription fees or a combination of the two? Brian Crecente

In the spirit of the holidays the festival is being extended for a week, now ending on January 11th in part to give Taiwanese players affected by the earthquake last week time to enjoy themselves. Sounds like a perfect time for lapsed players to stop by and check things out. Say, players who bought the collector's edition at launch, played for a month and then uninstalled the game because they were bored. *whistles innocently* Michael Fahey

Players Flock to Guild Wars in Record-Breaking Numbers and Rack Up 20 Million Hours of Gameplay

Extended Wintersday Festival a Smash Success!

January 8, 2007 (BELLEVUE, WA) — The annual Guild Wars Wintersday Festival kicked off on December 20, 2006, drawing new and existing players into the game in record-breaking numbers. Players racked up more than 20 million hours of gameplay during the Wintersday Festival alone as they participated in holiday-themed quests, festive events, competitive snowball fights and received unique Wintersday gifts. This year's Wintersday Festival was the fifth major holiday festival to be celebrated in Guild Wars, the hugely popular online roleplaying game developed by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft Corporation, the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games.

In keeping with that spirit of giving, the festival has been extended for a week, now ending at noon PST (8 p.m. GMT) on January 11, 2007. This extension allows Taiwanese players affected by last week's earthquake and countrywide Internet outage a chance to revel in the festivities. In an additional show of holiday spirit and goodwill, Guild Wars players have offered to share their Wintersday gifts with those affected. Plans are currently underway for a massive in-game gift donation.

Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions , and Guild Wars Nightfall are online roleplaying games in which millions of players from around the globe explore a rich fantasy world, acquire skills, build personalized characters, and compete in fierce player-versus-player battles. The Guild Wars games have garnered numerous awards, including Billboard Magazine's DEMMX Award for 2006 Multiplayer Game of the Year, GameSpy's Best PC MMORPG of 2006, Play Magazine's 2005 PC Game of the Year, 1Up's 2006 Best Roleplaying Game, and IGN's 2005 Best PC Game, among others.

For more information, please contact Jenny Bendel at ArenaNet at 206.979.2202 or jenny@arena.net.

About ArenaNet
ArenaNet, located in Bellevue, Washington, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NCsoft Corporation. ArenaNet has built a state-of-the-art interactive game network and develops premier multiplayer online games for dedicated game players. ArenaNet's titles, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, and Guild Wars Nightfall are global online roleplaying games that allow gamers to play with anyone, anytime, and anywhere in the world. More information about ArenaNet can be found at www.arena.net.

About NCsoft Corporation

NCsoft North America is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NCsoft, with its own development and publishing offices in Texas and California, also works with other NCsoft subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. The company has successfully launched multiple online titles in the last three years and continues to support its franchises, which include Lineage /Lineage II, City of Heroes /City of Villains , Guild Wars/Guild Wars Factions/Guild Wars Nightfall, and Auto Assault . More information about NCsoft can be found at www.plaync.com.

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, PlayNC, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, Nightfall, ArenaNet, Lineage, Auto Assault, and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes, City of Villains, and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCsoft Corporation. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

—-—--

The Producers Guild of America just announced that the 2007 Vanguard Award will be presented to Will Wright. Past recipients include George Lucas, James Cameron, Pixar Animation Studios and AOL Chairman and CEO Jon Miller.

Wright, recently named by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 100 most creative people in entertainment, was selected for his innovative perspective and because he helped revolutionize the gaming industry.

PGA Awards co-chairs, Mark Gordon and Hawk Koch commented, "Will Wright is the icon of the gaming industry and one of the great producers of entertainment content. His creations have transcended into feature films and continue to entertain a global audience. We are proud to have him be the first Vanguard recipient from the gaming universe."

"The PGA's decision to honor a game designer is a big moment for game designers such as myself, and those who would like to follow in our footsteps. The PGA is signaling that games are an integral part of the entertainment industry, and an art form worthy of recognition," said Wright. "For that reason, I am incredibly honored to be the first game designer to receive the Vanguard award."

So, to summarize, Roger Ebert is a tool. Brian Crecente

2007 PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS TO HONOR VIDEO GAME PIONEERWILL WRIGHT WITH VANGUARD AWARD

December 14, 2006, Los Angeles—The Producers Guild of America is pleased to announce that the 2007 Vanguard Award will be presented to celebrated game designer Will Wright whose creative vision has inspired some of the most critically acclaimed and popular video games in the short history of the medium. The Vanguard Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in new media and technology, will be presented to Wright at the 2007 Producers Guild Awards on Saturday, January 20th at the Century Plaza.

Deemed by Entertainment Weekly to be one "the 100 most creative people in entertainment" Wright draws on academic and artistic sources as the original producer of games such as the

classic urban planning game, SimCity, and most notably, The Sims, which became the best selling PC game in history. As the originator of the "God Game", Wright introduced the concept of allowing players to control simulated individuals or groups of individuals by serving as an omnipotent entity that influences various scenarios within a game. This innovative perspective changed the face of the video game model and revolutionized the gaming industry. He is currently developing Spore—an epic journey that takes players from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and eventually all the way into the deepest reaches of outer space.

PGA Awards co-chairs, Mark Gordon and Hawk Koch commented, "Will Wright is the icon of the gaming industry and one of the great producers of entertainment content. His creations have transcended into feature films and continue to entertain a global audience. We are proud to have him be the first Vanguard recipient from the gaming universe."

"The PGA's decision to honor a game designer is a big moment for game designers such as myself, and those who would like to follow in our footsteps. The PGA is signaling that games are an integral part of the entertainment industry, and an art form worthy of recognition," said Wright. "For that reason, I am incredibly honored to be the first game designer to receive the Vanguard award."

The PGA will also honor Ron Meyer with their Milestone Award. Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher will receive the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer will receive the Norman Lear Producers Guild Achievement Award in Television. Ken Ehrlich will be honored with the Visionary Award, and the Stanley Kramer Award will be presented to An Inconvenient Truth.

Previous recipients of the Vanguard Award include George Lucas, James Cameron, Pixar Animation Studios and AOL Chairman and CEO Jon Miller.

The Producers Guild will announce their 2007 nominees for Producer of the Year in Theatrical Motion Picture, Animated Film, Long-Form and Non-Fiction Television on January 4th, 2007.

Over at ConceptArt.org, one of their posters has published a huge amount of really amazing Guild Wars: Factions concept art. Some of it is really just Cthulhu cool. Of course, the actual game looks nothing like this, but there's scarce a picture in the bunch that wouldn't make a great wallpaper. Florian Eckhardt

Guild Wars Factions - Concept Art [Conceptart.org]

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this cinematic trailer for the upcoming Guild Wars expansion pack, Nightfall is the windmill at the end, which looks the milliner architecture that might well have been forged in an alternate universe where Egypt conquered Holland. But some of Nightfall's new monsters, settings and classes are well on display here, if you're not as interested in Egypto-Dutch architecture. Florian Eckhardt

In preperation for the upcoming Guild Wars Nightfall expansion pack (yes, I know it's a stand alone game), NCSoft is prereleasing a bonus pack.
The bonus pack, set to hit stores on Sept. 15, will include a 10-hour, 14-day trial of Guild Wars Prophecies and Guild Wars Factions, an extra character slot for your GW Nightfall account, a Firey Sunspear of Shelter for your Paragon character, an Icy Soulbreaker of Enchanting for your Dervish character and a mini strategy guide.

The above video shows some Nightfall play in action. Brian Crecente

A surprisingly well done mash-up of Doom and Guild Wars shows how the God features for the Dervish class will work. Needs more gibs and no two minutes video should ever require half its length to accommodate the end credits. Florian Eckhardt

Aw. This really does squeeze a single drop of the ichor of love out of my cold, black, dead heart. Okay, Zack's a dork, but his Guild Wars Valentine's Day message at least takes dork love to an unmatched extreme. Florian Eckhardt

NCSoft today confirmed the name of the new Guild Wars title. Nightfall will introduce two new professions to the game: the Dervish, a scythe-wielding holy warrior, and the Paragon: a guardian angel of the Elonian people.

NCsoft will be holding a first-look, player-versus-player event for the expansion, which is in the beta testing stage. The event will run from July 28 (which happens to be my birthday, hooray birthday) through July 30.

During the event players will get to check out the new professions and some new arenas. They also get to compete for "items that will be exchangeable for a variety of rewards throughout the weekend event." Brian Crecente

Today's prize is copies of Might and Magic: Heroes V and Guild Wars Factions for the PC and an XL XPS Experience T-Shirt. Brian Crecente

July=A Prize a Day on Kotaku

A fan-made music video sets out to settle if Guild Wars or World of Warcraft is better by editing in-game footage of characters in both games dancing. While the video doesn't really answer that debate, it raises a new question: Why isn't there more Hammertime in RPGs? Brian Ashcraft

Thanks, Evin

2 Legit 2 Quit [Wiki]

Hot newsflash only in today's Slow News Day Herald! The next Guild Wars expansion has a name and it is Nightfall. With a name like that, you'd think it'd be about vampires, but apparently it's about Tunisian habibs or something. As we explained before, 'the two new classes will be 'white robed woman wielding a wicked looking double bladed staff, and an unarmed bald monk-like man, possibly a bare-knuckle combat class.'"

There's still no release date, but you can probably extrapolate an end-of-year release from NCSoft's "an expansion every six months!" promise. - Florian Eckhardt

Next Guild Wars Titled 'Nightfall' [1UP]

As opposed to the original game's Charlemagnesque setting and Factions' Asian motif, the new game is supposedly reminiscent of Morocco and Tunisia. Having been to both of those countries, we assume this means there will be a lot of NPCs hiking up their habibs to defecate in the gutter, only to come sprinting at your character to hit them up for spare change every time you zone.

In addition, the two new classes will apparently be "white robed woman wielding a wicked looking double bladed staff, and an unarmed bald monk-like man, possibly a bare-knuckle combat class." Like a monk, right?

No release date, no announcement, no title. Simply effluvium. However, the NCSoft guys claimed that they were going to try to release an expansion every six months or so, so maybe you can expect this as early as late this year.

Guild Wars Keeps Expanding [1UP]

The new game will be set in a North African environment, with appropriate new costume options and mobs to match. New classes should also be expected.

Instead of a single team working on a 6 month product cycle, which is ball-crunchingly difficult, they have two teams working on a 12 month product cycle. This means the Guild Wars: Factions team will be making the the next, next expansion.

Factions facing off online [Gamespot]

Kotaku reader Shawn sends word that Guild Wars Factions Collector's Edition has been delayed, at least according to GameStop.

Shawn said he received this email from the retailer about his pre-order:

Dear Guild Wars Factions Collector's Edition Customer,

We have received word from the publisher NCSoft that Guild Wars Factions
Collector's Edition has been delayed beyond the April 28th launch of Guild Wars
Factions. At this time, we do not have an ETA for the Collector's Edition,
although the regular edition is still scheduled to ship on time. This delay
affects all US retailers. You have the following options available to you:

1)Keep your Guild Wars Factions Collector's Edition order as is. No action on
your part is required; we will ship you Guild Wars Factions Collector's Edition
as soon as it is available from NCSoft. We currently have our release date set
at May 4th, 2006 but THIS IS ONLY AN ESTIMATE AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

2)Exchange your order for Guild Wars Factions Collector's Edition with Guild
Wars Factions Regular Edition. To do this you must do the following:
-Reply to this email by tomorrow, Wednesday April 26th at 6pm CST.
-When replying, copy and paste this text into the subject line: EXCHANGE GWFCE
-Your Collector's Edition order will be canceled and you will receive the
regular edition at $49.99, plus tax and shipping.

3)Cancel your order for Guild Wars Factions Collector's Edition. To do this you
must do the following:
-Reply to this email by Friday, April 28th at 6pm CST.
-When replying, copy and paste this text into the subject line: CANCEL GWFCE
-You will receive email confirmation once your order is cancelled.

We realize this is very disappointing, but if you opt to keep your Guild Wars
Factions Collector's Edition order, we will notify you via email again as soon
as we have a firm release date from NCSoft.

Sincerely,
GameStop.com/EBgames.com Customer Service

Players who have used up all four character slots from the original and the two additional slots for the upcoming Factions will be able to purchase additional slots for alts at the price of of GBP 5.99, EUR 8.99 or USD 9.99, depending on which Mickey Mouse currency you use to stuff into belly dancer's g-strings.

We suspect that this will only really appeal to the hardcore, but we've begun to wonder if Guild Wars will start heading more and more in the direction of Korean MMOs as time goes on, where additional content like areas to explore or items to wear can all be purchased.

NCsoft to charge for extra Guild Wars character slots [Gamesindustry.biz]

Guild Wars, the subscription-free instance-based MMO, will be getting two expansions a year from now on, according to Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet. Each pack will be in development for a year and, I'm betting, will cost as much as a full game.
VGM Daily talked with Strain in their latest podcast. The cast also includes an interview with Eric Flannum, one of the designers of the next GW pack, Factions.

VGM Daily Podcast [VGM Fusion]

The chat filter for NCsoft's hugely popular MMORPG Guild Wars does just that. It filters. Bad words are stricken from the record, giving gamers a clean environment to shoot the breeze. However, Kotaku reader Antipode points out obvious hypocrisies like the word "damn" is negged, even though one of the monsters is called "Damned Cleric." Other unfairness includes the censoring of "Sega." However, "Nintendo" makes it through as does "Sony" and "Microsoft." That's some funny filtering over there at Guild Wars.

Guild Wars [Official Site]

The E3 06 details are rolling in, the latest comes from NCSoft. The MMO company will be showing off Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners, Aion and some Guild Wars stuff.

I'll be interested to see if Dungeon Runners feels as much as it looks like World of Warcraft. I'm hoping more for a Diablo take-off than a single player WoW.