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Guild Wars 2 Press Beta [Prepurchase Is Live]

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I think that an actual release announcement would put even more consumers into a frenzy, creating a lot more buzz/pre-purchases. From a marketing stance, it's the perfect move.
Even though I have no frickin' idea about marketing! I blame Arken, Retro, Jira, and Maxrpg!

You don't need to be a marketing wiz to know that throwing a single spark of news into a puddle of quietly-waiting gasoline creates a hype explosion.

The Beta Signup got a million people in ~48 hours on word of mouth alone. If every single one of those people gets an e-mail listing the release date this weekend right before the pre-purchase period begins...? Boom, baby.
 
You don't need to be a marketing wiz to know that throwing a single spark of news into a puddle of quietly-waiting gasoline creates a hype explosion.

The Beta Signup got a million people in ~48 hours on word of mouth alone. If every single one of those people gets an e-mail listing the release date this weekend right before the pre-purchase period begins...? Boom, baby.

This. Plus how many people probably are on the fence about the game simply waiting for a release date. Sure a lot of people will pre-purchase without one just for the beta, but a set release date will help.
 
You don't need to be a marketing wiz to know that throwing a single spark of news into a puddle of quietly-waiting gasoline creates a hype explosion.

The Beta Signup got a million people in ~48 hours on word of mouth alone. If every single one of those people gets an e-mail listing the release date this weekend right before the pre-purchase period begins...? Boom, baby.

Mmmmmm. Catalysts. I'll have some of that.
 
This. Plus how many people probably are on the fence about the game simply waiting for a release date. Sure a lot of people will pre-purchase without one just for the beta, but a set release date will help.

Exactly. Right now it's in that nebulous "Soon" stage, and while all the press events and videos are nice, we're still stuck in standby. But when a solid release date hits the street and all of these videos and pictures suddenly have a date where the game becomes tangible?

That, as they say, is when this shit gets real, boys and girls.

Headphones get. Glorious. I can now enjoy talking about video games.

Fixed for ya. Glad we'll have your voice in the next Podcast.
 
Headphones get. Glorious. I can now enjoy video games.

Awesome. What did you get? I've had terrible luck with Tritton (when they were the Voodoo team, not MadCatz), Razer, and Plantronics. At the moment, I'm running the cheapest set of Logitech's...forget the name. But so far, the wire hasn't broken or the headset hasn't fallen apart like the aforementioned headsets.
 
You don't need to be a marketing wiz to know that throwing a single spark of news into a puddle of quietly-waiting gasoline creates a hype explosion.

The Beta Signup got a million people in ~48 hours on word of mouth alone. If every single one of those people gets an e-mail listing the release date this weekend right before the pre-purchase period begins...? Boom, baby.

Yup this is pretty much spot on.
 
Loving the podcast so far, Grizz you rock! When can I expect the video? :P

I already said... When It's Ready. I'm doing an extra special thing for it so it might be a while, but I promise it will be worth it.

Awesome. What did you get? I've had terrible luck with Tritton (when they were the Voodoo team, not MadCatz), Razer, and Plantronics. At the moment, I'm running the cheapest set of Logitech's...forget the name. But so far, the wire hasn't broken or the headset hasn't fallen apart like the aforementioned headsets.

Well my Xbox headset was broken in half and the one for my PC died because the wires fell apart on the inside, so I decided to cover both replacements at the same time and get this. Arken made me do it. Tried BF3 on them so far, and I'm pretty impressed.
 
Podcast time!

Episode 2: Pre-Pre-Purchase

Featured in this episode:

- Retro gets older
- I become the bad cop without speaking at all
- Awkward pauses
- 60+ minutes of no news
- Ferny saves the day and talks about the guild

Enjoy!

The Youtube version will be uploaded When It's Ready.

My new headphones are arriving today so expect me to be back on next week.

Edit: Thanks for doing this.
I like to listen to podcasts while playing/programming.
 

We were particularly excited to learn that ArenaNet can roll out and test changes to 100 skills in mere minutes, allowing for quicker and more responsive balancing in Guild Wars 2.

Haha, awesome. Anyone remember Blizzard's glacial pace at fixing clearly-broken gameplay issues?

im on the ball today
Yep, thanks for scouring the internet to give GW2GAF the news it deserves.
 
Haha, awesome. Anyone remember Blizzard's glacial pace at fixing clearly-broken gameplay issues?


Yep, thanks for scouring the internet to give GW2GAF the news it deserves.

haha no prob...if everyone else is like me then any tidbit of new info will calm our anxiousness if only for a little while lol
 
Wife found this on Guru:

Well, today the only pre-purchase partner in poland started a page describing guildwars2 pre-purchases that will start on 10th april. Will be sent on 11th, a key in the box which allows for betas and retail ect.., everything standard.
Whats more interesting is "anyone who pre-purchases can also get the standard edition box (without key) once the game launches if they want it and accept having to pay for the shipping. In May 2012 mails will be sent to those that pre-purchased to make a decision about it."

so , why would they need to ask for it in may if it wasnt for a release soon after:P? (Source)

Sounds like June is becoming more and more likely.

new arenanet blog post as well :-)
http://www.arena.net/blog/jordan-massey-on-the-role-of-the-squad-in-wvw
im on the ball today

Squads basically sound like Raids with Leader-only chat and open join rather than invites. Nothing amazing, but just different and cool enough to be useful without it being a clusterfuck of people yuking it up. Especially if you're in a small group running around in WvW and want to hop in and participate with people you come across. The fee to become a commander basically prevents everyone from running around and being their own Squad.
 
I dislike the necessity of real gold in WvWvW. It prevents a pretty high barrier of entry for lower level players. On launch day, WvWvW will be a ghost town, or 100 people attacking a gate for 5 minutes in order to cap one node.
 
Hmm...

GWOnline: The demos during the year 2011 unraveled more and more starter areas for the different races in Guild Wars 2. Can we expect to see asura and sylvari starter areas on upcoming demos before the final release of Guild Wars 2. Could you share some favorite moment or experience from those starter areas?

Eric: We will definitely be expanding what we show as we progress through our beta events but we do want to keep some content back since we don’t want to spoil too much. As far as favorite things about the starter areas go, I think the boss in the asura tutorial is just amazing. Our artists and animators really outdid themselves with that one! (Source)

Guess that explains why the Asura are still under wraps; they were just too awesome.

I dislike the necessity of real gold in WvWvW. It prevents a pretty high barrier of entry for lower level players. On launch day, WvWvW will be a ghost town, or 100 people attacking a gate for 5 minutes in order to cap one node.

The only gold-based barrier to entry in WvW is if you want to be a Squad Commander or set up a siege weapon (and we don't know how expensive those will be but I would imagine not too expensive). There will still be tons of people in there playing, and the article Kaotic just linked to mentions how they are bringing the health of doors down.

Also, remember that you can loot enemies, allowing you to have a source of income in WvW.
 
Grr retro replying while I'm at work!

Sorry man, I was gone for 2 weeks, you had your chance.
JUWnj.gif


The Sylvari in that photo looks awesome.

I was more interested in the giant dragon behind her, but okay. The Asura is pretty cool too, those beady red eyes.
 
The only gold-based barrier to entry in WvW is if you want to be a Squad Commander or set up a siege weapon (and we don't know how expensive those will be but I would imagine not too expensive). There will still be tons of people in there playing, and the article Kaotic just linked to mentions how they are bringing the health of doors down.

Also, remember that you can loot enemies, allowing you to have a source of income in WvW.
The siege weapons is the big part, I won't elaborate on it but it's not to be sneezed at.
 
Sorry man, I was gone for 2 weeks, you had your chance.
JUWnj.gif




I was more interested in the giant dragon behind her, but okay. The Asura is pretty cool too, those beady red eyes.

Lol i didnt even notice the dragon until you mentioned it and i went back and looked again o_0
 
Curious as to how the prepurchase @ amazon is going to work. I've had the game preordered since June last year, wounder if I'll have to change it...
 
The squads and the management themselves seem good.

Should be interesting to see if there are any problems in the months ahead as to whether there will be too many commanders running around à la too many lords, not enough knights.
 
Curious as to how the prepurchase @ amazon is going to work. I've had the game preordered since June last year, wounder if I'll have to change it...

The German Amazon pre-purchase is already up. The way they're doing it is they're selling the item under the name "Guild Wars 2 Pre-Purchase with Beta Access" and have set the release date as April 10th. On April 10th you get charged the full price of the game and Amazon ships you the pre-purchase box with your serial key in it. You then activate that serial key and you officially own Guild Wars 2.

I imagine you will have to re-purchase it, because Guild Wars 2 Pre-Order without Beta Access is a different item with a different release date.
 
The German Amazon pre-purchase is already up. The way they're doing it is they're selling the item under the name "Guild Wars 2 Pre-Purchase with Beta Access" and have set the release date as April 10th. On April 10th you get charged the full price of the game and Amazon ships you the pre-purchase box with your serial key in it. You then activate that serial key and you officially own Guild Wars 2.

I imagine you will have to re-purchase it, because Guild Wars 2 Pre-Order without Beta Access is a different item with a different release date.

Awesome thanks! Sounds like the logical way to do it, o well guess the extra $5 is worth the beta access and headstart. Wonder if they'll ship you the box that was posted above or just email us codes?
 
Awesome thanks! Sounds like the logical way to do it, o well guess the extra $5 is worth the beta access and headstart. Wonder if they'll ship you the box that was posted above or just email us codes?

I imagine ship the box, but I have absolutely no basis for my answer, just a hunch.
 
a little interesting bit of info they just posted

"Is my copy of Guild Wars 2 tied to my region?

Yes. To play from North America you must purchase a North American copy of the game. To play from Europe you must purchase a European copy of the game. Note that this restriction impacts where you can play from, not which game worlds you can choose to play on.

By purchasing the correct copy of the game, you're supporting the game in your country, and you'll be connecting to your local data center, using your local customer support team, and downloading the correct language support for your country."

~RB2


"Here are some answers and clarifications for you! First, if you purchase the game from https://buy.guildwars2.com/ you'll automatically be sorted into the right region.

And don't worry -- we want you to play with your friends wherever you are. This policy only affects where you can login from -- not which worlds you can access. People from NA will be able to play with people from EU at launch. We've got two datacenters -- one in NA and one in EU. Those who do not fall into either of those two regions will default to the NA datacenter.

Finally, we are aware that a lot of our players travel, and we are looking into a solution for you.

Hope that helps some!" ~RB2


im 3 for 3 today :-D lol
 
What about it makes you want it? I can't see any reason to go for anything besides the standard.

well i dont like the fact that the in game items are like one time use stuff or the banker that only lasts 5 days...im mostly just thinking of getting the DD just for the extra glory for pvp and for the extra guild influence points for our gaf guild :-)
 
I got my copy of the Collector's Edition pre-ordered, and I figured out that:

no matter what amount of money you put on the collector's edition, you will get the pre-purchase 3 day beta code;

and

the beta codes will arrive next week.

So there!

I also picked up Kid Icarus Uprising.
 
a little interesting bit of info they just posted

"Is my copy of Guild Wars 2 tied to my region?

Yes. To play from North America you must purchase a North American copy of the game. To play from Europe you must purchase a European copy of the game. Note that this restriction impacts where you can play from, not which game worlds you can choose to play on.

By purchasing the correct copy of the game, you're supporting the game in your country, and you'll be connecting to your local data center, using your local customer support team, and downloading the correct language support for your country."

~RB2


"Here are some answers and clarifications for you! First, if you purchase the game from https://buy.guildwars2.com/ you'll automatically be sorted into the right region.

And don't worry -- we want you to play with your friends wherever you are. This policy only affects where you can login from -- not which worlds you can access. People from NA will be able to play with people from EU at launch. We've got two datacenters -- one in NA and one in EU. Those who do not fall into either of those two regions will default to the NA datacenter.

Finally, we are aware that a lot of our players travel, and we are looking into a solution for you.

Hope that helps some!" ~RB2


im 3 for 3 today :-D lol

Good stuff they clarified the first post, but wasn't GW1 big in Korea? Weird that they don't put some servers in Korea.
 
Still bummed there's no soundtrack bonus in either digital download version. Also, the Digital Deluxe extras, save the skill & pet don't seem to be worth the extra $20 to me. Might as well go for the regular DD ed. as I don't think any retailer is going to carry the CE in my country =/
 
I hope that means that there is a french version in North America otherwise my friend will be upset since he wont be able to buy the European version(in other words I hope they make it bilingual for the Province of Quebec,heck all across Canada as well).
 
Awesome. What did you get? I've had terrible luck with Tritton (when they were the Voodoo team, not MadCatz), Razer, and Plantronics. At the moment, I'm running the cheapest set of Logitech's...forget the name. But so far, the wire hasn't broken or the headset hasn't fallen apart like the aforementioned headsets.

I have the Tritton Ax Pros, and I love them actually. It was either them or Astros at the time, glad I went Tritton, though the wires up to the mixer is a nightmare. But I believe the newer models address this somewhat.
 
Podcast time!

Episode 2: Pre-Pre-Purchase

Featured in this episode:

- Retro gets older
- I become the bad cop without speaking at all
- Awkward pauses
- 60+ minutes of no news
- Ferny saves the day and talks about the guild

Enjoy!

The Youtube version will be uploaded When It's Ready.

My new headphones are arriving today so expect me to be back on next week.

It was awesome to be apart of and can't wait till next week when we hopefully have a release date to discuss and other things as well.
 
a little interesting bit of info they just posted

"Is my copy of Guild Wars 2 tied to my region?

Yes. To play from North America you must purchase a North American copy of the game. To play from Europe you must purchase a European copy of the game. Note that this restriction impacts where you can play from, not which game worlds you can choose to play on.

By purchasing the correct copy of the game, you're supporting the game in your country, and you'll be connecting to your local data center, using your local customer support team, and downloading the correct language support for your country."

~RB2


"Here are some answers and clarifications for you! First, if you purchase the game from https://buy.guildwars2.com/ you'll automatically be sorted into the right region.

And don't worry -- we want you to play with your friends wherever you are. This policy only affects where you can login from -- not which worlds you can access. People from NA will be able to play with people from EU at launch. We've got two datacenters -- one in NA and one in EU. Those who do not fall into either of those two regions will default to the NA datacenter.

Finally, we are aware that a lot of our players travel, and we are looking into a solution for you.

Hope that helps some!" ~RB2


im 3 for 3 today :-D lol
I really hope they'll work out a plausible solution for this problem.
I'll be purchasing the game from Japan and the US data centers are not a problem. But I'm going back to Poland in Fall and I don't really want to need to buy the game again just because I'm changing my region.
 
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