A few links

[kelik]

Just checked the GW2 site today. There are a few interviews from the start of October I missed.

If you haven't seen them, they are here:
http://www.onlinewelten.com/games/articles/interviews/4633-guild-wars-2-arenanet-im-interview-teil-1/4/
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/new-onlinewelten-guild-wars-2-interview.html

The official youtube channel has a few extra interviews as well:
http://www.youtube.com/user/arenanetofficial
On the youtube channel are all the videos from PAX .

[Klas]

All packed with information everybody already knew

Getting info out of Anet is like getting water out of stone.

[kelik]

There is a new video on the guild wars 2 website, it shows off each race with some scenes that are in game footage (minus HUD). Looks pretty cool, I can't direct link it but go to guildwars2.com then click news.

EDIT: there is now an MMORPG.com interview here: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/3812/Guild-Wars-2-Update-Interview.html

[kelik]

FINALLY, something new. Still now much but a new interview: http://guildwars.incgamers.com/blog/comments/guild_wars_2_interview/

[kelik]

A heap of information has suddenly appeared, here are links to the new articles (definitely worth the read).

http://www.arena.net/blog/guild-wars-2-design-manifesto

This one will have a new article tomorrow and I think a few more articles after, they explain the game mechanics(Seem to have changed a lot from Guild Wars):

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/part-one/

[tranquil]

**** yeah this is looking quite good, without a doubt i will be getting this. the combat changes have me intrigued.

(on a side note, i love the GW concept art)

[kelik]

Some of the new information released looks awesome! Smooth animations, cool sounds and fire effects. Plus Sever Artery now == Blood!

[Klas]

Bleeding stacks! Deep wound is gone! Sever Artery->Gash->Final Thrust combo returns as single skill!

http://www.arena.net/blog/eric-and-ben- ... and-traits

[tycn]

Eric: This is an issue that we’re looking at, but it isn’t as simple as it might seem. We don’t want to encourage people to feel that the way they need to play is to constantly switch their builds. That’s a pretty advanced sort of mentality and we can’t balance our game around it.

You've got to be **** me. Switching builds is hard? How do these people maintain homeostasis?

Because of many issues with collision in a persistent world, players will not be able to collide with one another in Guild Wars 2.

Another mechanic that required a modicum of skill.

Eric: One of our primary goals is to make Guild Wars 2 as accessible and fun as possible for more casual players.

Big surprise there.

A warrior can easily switch between his two active weapon sets in combat as needed, but swapping weapons triggers a cool-down that prevents warriors from constantly flip-flopping between weapons.

I guess pressing F2 occasionally is also too much of a challenge.

A warrior can use nine different weapons. He can combine any of the nine weapons available to him in 19 different ways.

Wait, so they've 'streamlined' every other thing about the game to make it easier to balance but added a bunch of weapon types?

Deep wound is gone!

Why would they do such a cruel, cruel thing?

I'm going to reserve judgment until we get a beta, but the way things are going it looks like my disposable income just went up by $80

[Klas]

I don't think it's as bad as it sounds regarding the build switching. I think the idea is that in GW2 it's not so much your build that matters but how you use it, similar to different weapons in FPS games. You've got to break out of the GW1 mindset where there are drastically more nonviable builds than viable ones. They're just trying to cut the **** so to speak by offering a much smaller pool of skills.

I agree with Anet on removing collision, there's no way to make it work in a persistent world. I'm also a noob and rubber-banding pissed me off so I don't care that it's also gone from PvP instances

I'm hopeful it turns out well. I think it looks pretty good so far and I'm looking forward to seeing some actual real game-play. It's going to be playable at Gamescom and at PAX so not long now! (http://www.arena.net/blog/arenanet-hits ... on-circuit)

[tycn]

I think the idea is that in GW2 it's not so much your build that matters but how you use it, similar to different weapons in FPS games.

They should both be of importance. In an FPS I can pick a sniper rifle which supports one playstyle at the expense of another. Or I might elect to pick an assault rifle for a more 'balanced' kit. In Guild Wars the sniper rifle saturates the map with nuclear warheads, but that's more of a fault of the skill balancing 'team' (read: Izzy) than the nature of the skills themselves.

You've got to break out of the GW1 mindset where there are drastically more nonviable builds than viable ones. They're just trying to cut the **** so to speak by offering a much smaller pool of skills.

I don't know. A lot of builds weren't viable in the sense that if you fill your bar with random skills you're obviously going to get screwed. It's not like there were a lot of promising concepts that were left untapped. Things like hammer bash firestorm warriors were useless because they were built on fundamentally broken concepts, not because of useless skills.

It sounds like they're trying to remove all the build differentiation so you'll play just about the same way regardless of what skills you have equipped. The bigger skillbar and mandatory slots seem to support this. While it might fare better with the really casual players, to me they're taking away everything that made the first one tactically and strategically deep. I loved how your playstyle could change drastically if you swapped out a single skill (especially from the now defunct secondary profession). Maybe it won't negate the tactics portion entirely but instead force everyone to adopt a 'balanced' build - which I can see getting boring pretty fast, because the viability of novel concepts is a large part of what made the PvP fun (until they became vastly overpowered, of course).

Body blocking was a useful mechanic and even though the occasional rubberbanding was annoying, I doubt that they removed it out of consideration for any of us - a server in our half of the world would be a lot more useful in that regard. It sounds like it will make positioning a lot less important, since you can kite away from people by running through them.

Funny thing is, even if it turns out to be horrifically gimped it'll probably the most enjoyable MMORPG on the market. Maybe we'll get some more insightful videos later.

[tranquil]

i agree i liked having the wide range of skills to use in builds, just one skill made all the difference in any build. i remember spending hours just brainstorming builds and testing them in the arenas, seeing what skills work well with others etc. that was half the fun playing around with different strategies.

i guess it will make grouping easier and less discrimination to players who aren't running the 'correct' build. we'll see how it turns out, but so far i can still say it looks great and will definitely be getting it.

[kelik]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoICk5E9X7g

A huge gameplay video, there are a lot of spoilers but you also get to see some of the towns, the dye system etc.