Archive for the ‘ArenaNet’ Category
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ArenaNet Suits Up for Halloween
Every holiday is exciting, but Halloween is especially dear to a number of people around the office. How could it not be? There are art contests, pumpkin pies, in-game festivals with new hats and costumes, pumpkin waffles, the annual return of my personal favorite Guild Wars NPC, pumpkin carvings, and the opportunity to wear something strange and wonderful to work!
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Party with ArenaNet at New York City Comic Con
We love New York, so we’re packing our bags and flying out to the New York City Comic Con, which runs from October 8-10 at the Javits Center. We’ve planned some interesting panel discussions at NYCC and a Friday night fan party that will include the East Coast premiere of the Guild Wars 2 demo!
Come party with us on Friday night, October 8, at the NCsoft Meet and Greet! Hang out with ArenaNet and NCsoft devs and get your hands on the Guild Wars 2 demo. Yes, we’ll have a few demo stations at the party, so you’ll definitely want to attend! We’ll have more details about our NYCC party soon, so stay tuned for more information.
On Saturday, October 9 at 1:30PM, lead ArenaNet designers Eric Flannum and Colin Johanson will present a panel discussion, Guild Wars 2: Building a Better MMO, which goes behind the scenes of our game design process. At 5:15PM we’ll be participating in MMORPG.com’s panel discussion, The Future of Online Gaming. Both of these events take place in Panel Room 6, so be sure to pick up a NYCC pass if you’d like to attend.
See you in New York!
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Guild Wars 2 Wins Machinima's Best in Show Award for PAX
We were excited to receive one of Machinima’s two Best in Show Awards for PAX Prime 2010!
The good people at Machinima chose Guild Wars 2 over a crowded field of other games for this honor, and we couldn’t be more happy.
The Machinima crew appreciated the artistry and sheer fun of the playable Guild Wars 2 demo at PAX. “The art style bleeds beauty, and it plays better than most games on the market today,” they said. “We can’t wait to play it.”
Check out Machinima’s Best in Show video for a full recap of the PAX madness, delivered in the inimitable Machinima style.
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Daniel Dociu Featured in io9 Art Appreciation 101 Article
Lauren Panepinto, Creative Director of Orbit Books, wrote an interesting piece about science fiction and fantasy art this week on io9, in which she discussed ArenaNet Creative Director Daniel Dociu’s artwork alongside such luminaries as Frank Frazetta and Alan Lee.
Panepinto gives us a 101 course in appreciating fantastic art and describes her two vital rules of speculative artwork. Regarding Daniel Dociu’s work, she says:
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As with the work of Alan Lee, much of the magic is in the composition and balance of elements, but I love Dociu’s brush-heavy painterly style – which is ironic, since I know he paints digitally, not with a brush — it gives a real energy to his work that I love.
Read the whole thing right here!
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Guild Wars 2 Wins Gamescom Best Online Game Award
We’re right in the middle of a busy, exciting gamescom, but I thought I’d take a moment on day three of the show to share some great news: Guild Wars 2 has just been awarded Best Online Game for gamescom 2010!
We’ve been eager to show off Guild Wars 2 for the first time at gamescom, and the response from fans to the hands-on demo has been overwhelmingly positive. This is our opportunity to demonstrate that all of the features we’ve been talking about for the past few months are real, not just hype, and we’re gratified that fans have really enjoyed playing the demo. Awards are fantastic, but let’s face it: connecting with players and earning their enthusiasm is the real prize at gamescom.
Those ArenaNet staffers who aren’t in Cologne are still playing a vital role at gamescom; our entire studio here in the Seattle area has been playing the game remotely with show attendees all week. We’ve been having a blast meeting and playing alongside our European fans in-game – it’s been like one big international LAN party!
We’re bringing the hands-on Guild Wars 2 demo to the States in two weeks at PAX in Seattle (Sept 3-5), and we’d love to see you there. Even if you can’t play the demo, keep an eye on this blog for more Guild Wars 2 news and information.
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Walking the Walk
It’s been a few months since I posted our design manifesto for Guild Wars 2, and since then we’ve written a lot about how we’re re-thinking the MMO – everything from combat and dynamic events to personal story – through dozens of detailed follow-up articles and interviews.
You can tell by now how passionate we are about this. At ArenaNet we still dream of the promise that online worlds once held, before they all started following the same MMO formula: the same level grind and scheduled rewards; the same static, unchanging worlds; the same quest mechanics; the same “holy trinity” of class balance. We know the industry can do better. We’ve dedicated ourselves to innovating in online worlds, and we’re going to hold ourselves to the highest standards.
So you’ve read these articles, and in general we know your reaction has been, “That all sounds great in theory, but I’ll believe it when I see it.” Well, get ready, because we’ve talked the talk, and now we’re going to walk the walk. Today we’re releasing a video that showcases all this innovative gameplay we’ve been talking about, and next week we’ll present a hands-on demo to the 250,000 attendees of gamescom in Cologne, followed by a second showing at PAX Prime in Seattle two weeks later.
Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll see in the demo.
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Watch Daniel Dociu's Incredible Concept Art Slideshow
Wanna see something really cool? How about a slideshow packed with amazing Guild Wars 2 concept art accompanied by ambient sound effects and composer Jeremy Soule’s haunting score?
ArenaNet Creative Director Daniel Dociu recently returned from a trip to Shanghai, where he presented a multimedia lecture at the China Games Developers Conference. Daniel’s multi-media presentation examined how concept art, when properly integrated into game design can impact and influence the success of a game.
As you might imagine, Daniel’s presentation was loaded with jaw-dropping Guild Wars 2 concept art, designs, and sketches. It was so cool that we had to share it with you; below you’ll find the background art presentation that was playing during his GDC presentation.
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After Con Report: ArenaNet at Comic Con 2010
Comic-Con 2010 has come and gone! We had an amazing time in San Diego this year. Between our heavily-attended panel and our book signings, we got a chance to meet a lot of cool people. I’m here to recap all the exciting stuff that went on last week at Comic-Con – let’s get started!