All Stories Tagged: NCSoft, Page 13

Guild Wars 2 is getting a large world event with its November "Lost Shores" update, but details are sketchy so far.

Halloween has always been a merry time in Guild Wars, with the Mad King Thorn visiting the capital cities of Tyria to dole out tricks and treats. It seems he'll be returning in Guild Wars 2 as part of "the first major game release" for ArenaNet's subscription-free MMORPG, which shall also bring paid PvP tournaments and gobs of new stuff to see, do and kill.

Surprise! A beta version of Guild Wars 2 for Mac OS X entered public beta today, for anyone who already owns the game to try out on their shiny white box. Delightfully, the beta version runs on the live servers, you Macateers can jump right into playing with their chums on William Gates' Windows.

Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet has again assured that, like its predecessor, the subscription-free MMORPG will receive "consistent free content updates" as well as more microtransaction doodads and, eventually, "large-scale" expansions. After players ummed and erred about running out of things to do, game director Colin Johanson stepped in to say all was peachy keen and new content was coming.

When I first encountered Guild Wars, it was creating a reputation for itself as one of the main alternatives to World of Warcraft, offering a similar experience without the crippling monthly fee. Guild Wars 2 represents a major step forward for NCsoft and ArenaNet, completely stepping out of WoW's shadow and firmly planting itself as the new standard for MMORPG's.

The Guild Wars 2 team shares its thoughts on making the entire game feel like end-game content.

Free-to-play games were once seen as a bit low-budget and janky compared to 'proper' games, but the F2P revolution of recent years has shown they can be just as pleasant and polished as anything wot comes in a box. NCsoft's Blade & Soul certainly has prettiness down pat, and the publisher announced yesterday it's bringing the F2P MMORPG westward following a smash hit launch in South Korea.

Though the days of plain old WoW-alike subscription MMORPGs seem numbered, Guild Wars 2 is proving you don't need to go fully free-to-play to find an audience. The subscription-free MMORPG has sold over two million physical and digital copies, publisher NCsoft announced today, and hit over 400,000 concurrent players.

Ozzie's Sylvari Mesmer hits level 30 and explores the dungeon and world v. world aspects of Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet has finally reopened online sales for Guild Wars 2 on the official site after a strong influx of players during the first week of the game's release forced the developer to find a way to lower player "concurrency" rates.