Coverage history, finalists and the whole shebang can be found in the write up!The RAWR Cup series has been a great boon to the PvP community, coming along as the monthly Automated Tournaments hosted by ArenaNet will soon transition to offering in-game prizes. ArenaNet has offered to help facilitate third-party sponsored tournaments such as the RAWR Cup, so players can continue winning real world prizes. In fact, ArenaNet is looking forward to such tournaments, and plans to dedicate the needed developer time for each event, as long as the sponsors have enough prize support and infrastructure.
Similar to ArenaNet's own mATs, the RAWR Cup provides real world prizes and reward points to the winners. In this case, the guild winning the elite Dragon Division won KillerTM M1 Gaming Network Cards with an MSRP of $279.99 each. The guild winning the middle Phoenix Division took home Logitech G9 laser gaming mice. The winner of the Tiger Division (formally the Titan Division), received Logitech ClearChat Pro headsets. Finalists for all three divisions were awarded special mini-pet key codes provided by ArenaNet, and many participants earned tournament reward points.
As some of our eagle-eyed players have noticed, Symphony, the latest album from world-renowned vocalist Sarah Brightman features art from Guild Wars. Several months ago Ms. Brightman approached ArenaNet Art Director Daniel Dociu, feeling that his art style was a great match for this album. The album and website include concept art from Guild Wars, as well as original art created specifically for Symphony.The music and art does indeed make a perfect match!
We'd like to introduce the newest member to the Guild Wars community team. Her name is Regina Buenaobra, and she starts today! She's created a user page on the wiki, so check it out.Regina likes tea! And of course, GW! Good luck girl, you're gonna need it!
The Guild Wars® 2008 tournament series takes place online and culminates each month in Guild-versus-Guild and 1v1 Hero Battle championship tournaments that feature exciting prizes for the top finishers.The rules are straight forward, and just about anyone can compete! Good luck all!
The Soldiers of Thunderstorm [SoT] is a well-established, Russian gaming community. Early on, the core members realized where the future of gaming was going, and their friendship jelled in May of 1998 with the birth of their game child, the Soldiers of Thunderstorm.
Prior to the new millennium, this relatively small band of avid gamers focused on the hottest thing at that time, Diablo. However, the pinnacle of [SoT]'s gaming achievements was the vested interest in Ultima Online from 1999 to 2005. The first Russian UO shard was Lostfort. At this time, the [SoT] leadership split clan projects by assigning in-game squads led by a Guild Master. Guild Masters were responsible for PvP activities and official interactions that the squads established in-game.
These ex-UO players have made quite a stab in the GW world!
Bellevue, WA. February 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 NorthTM. 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 2TM.
"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."
The Wintersday 2007 Contest offered one Guild Wars player the opportunity to make a significant and historic mark on the annual holiday celebration. Players were invited to get into the spirit of the season and create a piece of concept art for our traditional Wintersday giveaway: a splendid piece of holiday headgear.
This special seasonal hat is only available on the final day of the festival when Grenth, Lord of Death and Ice, and Dwayna, Goddess of Air and Life, vie for the support of the citizens of Tyria in the thrilling climax to their yearly contest. The winner of this heavenly battle rules the wintry weather in the coming months, and generously rewards his or her loyal supporters with gifts, including a brand new hat.
The winners and their entries can be found here. Congrats to everyone who won and participate!
In GvG matches, games are most often won through teamwork. While coordination spanning all eight members of a team is important, high-end play actually places greater emphasis on compartmentalization. A typical balanced build of two Warriors, Ranger, Mesmer, Elementalist, two Monks, and a flagger can be divided into smaller teams. These teams commonly work in pairs, such as Monk pairs, Warrior pairs, midline pairs, and so on. Each pair needs excellent synergy to coordinate maneuvers and play at the maximum effective level. And, if the players themselves lack synchronization, they may have difficulty playing with one another. There may be discomfort, silence, or too much clutter over voice chat.
This discussion focuses on the offensive unit. This is typically composed of a pair of Warriors, so we will use the two-Warrior frontline as the standard template for explanations. For GvG battles, Warriors usually provide most of the offense because they are the most efficient killing power in the game. However, without proper synergy between two Warriors, much of this efficiency can get lost.
For up to date info on Guild Rankings, see the Guild Ladder!
ArenaNet® has announced that music from its Guild Wars® franchise of games will be performed as part of the "PLAY! A Video Game Symphony". This world-wide symphonic tour features music from a number of top videogames, including songs from Guild Wars. The tour kicks off in Fort Worth, Texas, on January 19, 2008.The "PLAY! A Video Game Symphony" program will be performed by world-class orchestras and choirs in some of the most prestigious venues, including the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth and the Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington. Game images projected on large screens above the orchestra accompany the scores, highlighting memorable moments from the video games and enhancing the entire experience.
The press release also includes links to Play!, and if you haven't seen them, you totally should!!
By winning in November, Heart of Ashes and Dust [HAnD] became the third guild to win two Monthly Automatic Tournaments (ATs) in the Guild Wars $100,000 Tournament Series (Virtual Dragons [vD] and Rebel Rising [rawr] were the other two). Unlike the previous repeat winners, [HAnD] went six months between its May and November wins, while [vD] won back-to-back in June and July, and [rawr] won back-to-back in August and September.Read all about it, and be sure to sign up for the next AT!
The members of [HAnD] were gracious enough to meet early morning (1-2 AM their time) to accommodate an interview. Members of [HAnD] present at the interview included: Andkun, Smith, Aris Kick, Fle, Mashiro, Rufa, Pixy, and Noji. Also participating was Mehdi, an ArenaNet interpreter present to facilitate the interview. Below is a summary of the topics discussed during that interview.