Guild Wars 2 Public Beta Dated, Coming Soon
Guild Wars fans will be able to test-drive the sequel's beta starting March, says ArenaNet.
It's the first day of the Year of the Dragon, and ArenaNet founder and president Mike O'Brien chose this opportunity to reveal the studio's plans for public beta testing Guild Wars 2, as the first closed beta test is now complete.
Up first will be select members of the press who will be invited to participate in beta testing during February so they can get fans all hot and bothered with hands-on impressions. Then in March and April, the studio will "aggressively ramp up" the size of the beta test events so that fans will have a chance to participate.
So far there's no indication of when fans will be notified, or if the test will be truly "open" in that it's an ongoing test, or merely weekend-length events. So far the MMOG itself is expected to launch later this year although it's still marked as TBA (GameSpy thinks it will be June launch).
"Today is Lunar New Year’s Day, and according to the Asian zodiac system, the first day of the Year of the Dragon," he said. "It’s an auspicious omen for all of us at ArenaNet, as we get ready to make this our own Year of the Dragon. According to tradition, the dragon embodies passion, independence, and ambition. We think it’s a perfect analogy for what we’re trying to accomplish with Guild Wars 2."
"We’re a company full of MMO and RPG fans, and we’ve set out to fundamentally rethink how you deliver an RPG experience online," he added. "So this year, the Year of the Dragon, let’s usher out old thinking – the tired old quest model, stiff repetitive combat, and monthly fees – and usher in the new."
Unlike its predecessor, Guild Wars 2 will feature a fully-persistent world and a storyline that will reportedly respond to player actions. The traditional questing will also be replaced by a dynamic event system. But like the original Guild Wars, the upcoming MMOG won't require a monthly fee, but will instead rely on the game's initial purchase and microtransactions to generate revenue for ArenaNet and publisher NCsoft.
O'Brien sad that more information regarding the March and April beta openings will be revealed soon.
I do want to check out the sequel to Guild Wars but I'm still butt hurt about NCSoft killing Dungeon Runners.
From my experience with "dynamic events," they get boring after a while. It's nothing more than the content being rotated
There will not be 1 tank and 1 healer and 3 dps.. everyone will be able to tank(not a meat shield but just hold aggro while using defensive cooldowns to stay alive) and everyone will be able to heal and everyone will be able to dps. Imagine, if you will, 5 frost mages doing a heroic and have some limited ability to self heal and aoe heal. They would all take turns kiting/grabbing aggro/ cc'ing/ healing(somewhat) their way through the instance. That is how GW2 will work in a group scenario.
Still much better than the content NOT rotating... JMO
Not to mention covering costs of development and testing?
They get there income from game sales *rolls eyes*.
Not to mention covering costs of development and testing?
1. Game sales
2. In game promotion sales (e.g. special costume, extra storage, extra character, make over of chracter)
3. New installment sales
4. Panhandling
And GW's was NOT a real MMO. I hope GW2 is better, but the microtransaction model had better not screw up the game. 250 hours is nothing in a MMO. That is just over 10 days of play time. In DAOC, my main character alone had over 120 DAYS (2880 hours) of play time. Not to count numerous alts etc. Sure, I was younger and single back then so I don't get to play near those hours any more. But I've put in a few days of play time for SW:TOR and its only been out for about a month.
I would gladly pay $25+ a month for a high quality game with good updates and support. Heck, movie tickets are $10+ each these days for 90 minutes.