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.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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lashabane I forgot that GW is published by NCSoft.Reply
I do want to check out the sequel to Guild Wars but I'm still butt hurt about NCSoft killing Dungeon Runners. -
samwelaye Guild Wars was (in my opinion) one of the greatest PC games ever. GW2 can only hope to be as good, or maybe even a little bit better, and it must also be modern while not losing what made the original one fun.Reply -
RazorBurn Not trolling but Guild Wars 2 is way much better than WoW or any other mmorpg at the moment.. With better graphics, dynamic events, no holy trinity and "NO MONTHLY SUBCRIPTIONS"...Reply -
royalcrown RIIIGHT, this gume should be renamed, "Guild Wars 2: Duke nukem forever edition" Seriously, this it'll be released someday is f'in rediculous. They should just have said, "We're not even close to releasing it yet" instead of "coming soon" almost 2 years ago, soon means soon, not "maybe".Reply -
xerroz RazorBurnNot trolling but Guild Wars 2 is way much better than WoW or any other mmorpg at the moment.. With better graphics, dynamic events, no holy trinity and "NO MONTHLY SUBCRIPTIONS"...From my experience with "dynamic events," they get boring after a while. It's nothing more than the content being rotatedReply -
phishy714 To clarify, the holy trinity is still present in the game. That being, tanking(kinda), healing and dps. The difference will be that all players will be able to do every role at the same time and different levels of effectiveness depending on your choice of class/weapons.Reply
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.