Beta Weekend 3 - July 20-22

[Whoami]

Play Asura and Sylvari in the July 20-22 Beta Weekend Event! – ArenaNet Blog

Yes, asura and sylvari will be playable in the next Beta Weekend Event! Keep an eye on

www.arena.net/blog

for all the details later this morning. ~RB2

[NiCKYNiTRO]

How do I get a beta key?

[Whoami]

Either buy the game or cross your fingers that you get one from:

Curse's July BWE Beta Key Giveaway! - News - Guild Wars 2 Guru

How do I get a beta key?

[Voudoun]

Good news. I was tempted not to play as Sylvari so as not to spoil the experience when final release occurs, but I'm thinking playing the opening now will enable me to know what I'm doing at final release.

Nicky: WhoamI's right, it really is a case of being lucky or pre-purchasing, which does give a 3 day head-start on playing ie 25th August instead of the release date of 28th August:

https://buy.guildwars2.com

Pre-ordering might be cheaper, but if I remember right it only gives a one day head-start, and I'm not sure it comes with other stuff that pre-purchasing does.

It's a big game though with 5 races (species technically), eight professions, and a range of background choices which play out in a personal story, so it seems to offer good value for money, especially as there are no monthly fees.

[Whoami]

I don't plan on playing the last two races. I'll mostly work on trying to figure out the WvW pvp.

[Voudoun]

That's a good idea, and will hopefully help people who join the guild and want to play PvP/WvW.

The last stress test I tried to get a handle on weapon/armour crafting. I made some progress, but it wasn't really long enough, to get anywhere. I think I'll try to continue that as well.

[Whoami]

Reminder today starts the last beta before release. 12PDT Start!

[Voudoun]

Thanks to ArenaNet for another beta weekend. The personal stories are in units of ten levels, and this weekend I played the Sylvari and Asura. In my view, the Sylvari story that I experienced started out slow, but peaked towards and at level ten. What was happening next held a lot of promise for the rest of the game. The Asura one went the other way, with the level ten mission being a pain, but what was happening beyond that was also promising. Overall they're looking good. I think they could be dreary in places, but they never stay that way. A new element always seems to come in and revitalise the story.

Waking up early today also meant I had a chance to experience the end of beta event, which was called Hunger Royale. I'd like to thank ArenaNet for implementing it. After all, it was effectively a one-off PvP that only ran for an hour. It held a lot of promise, but the map was way too big so there was often a lot of running around doing nothing. In the final sequence I was changed into a supply golem for my team, and whilst I had a skill to tell me where the enemy was, I didn't have one to tell me where my team-mates were. As a result, I encounter a team-mate until there was less than thirty seconds left. I might have seen team-mates earlier, but it was fleeting, I lost them, so I couldn't be sure. After a while a number of players playing supply droids just gave up and had a get-together in a swamp, irrespective of their team allegiance. Good idea, but I think it needed more time than they had available to nail it down.

Roll on August 25th.

[Whoami]

The size of the map is what drew me away halfway through. I loved the idea and hope they implement this as a pvp event. But it does need some work.

Waking up early today also meant I had a chance to experience the end of beta event, which was called Hunger Royale. I'd like to thank ArenaNet for implementing it. After all, it was effectively a one-off PvP that only ran for an hour. It held a lot of promise, but the map was way too big so there was often a lot of running around doing nothing. In the final sequence I was changed into a supply golem for my team, and whilst I had a skill to tell me where the enemy was, I didn't have one to tell me where my team-mates were. As a result, I encounter a team-mate until there was less than thirty seconds left. I might have seen team-mates earlier, but it was fleeting, I lost them, so I couldn't be sure. After a while a number of players playing supply droids just gave up and had a get-together in a swamp, irrespective of their team allegiance. Good idea, but I think it needed more time than they had available to nail it down.

Roll on August 25th.