magnet
5701
Nate Silver has Ellen Kiel at 78% likelihood to win election.
Gedd
5702
CNN is calling it for Gnashblade with 0.00000% of the precincts reporting based on pre-exit polls.
In other news, I love this game. First we get Mario Kart. Now it’s time for Hunger Games, Guild Wars style.
New Activity – Southsun Survival – Begins July 23
Scheme, kill, and scavenge your way to the top in this new competitive activity! Armed with only a bow and whatever supplies you can find, you’ll face off against other players in a battle to be the last one standing. Earn karma and coins for each round you play, plus a rare chance at an exclusive Back Item!
I’m stocking up on camouflage kits.
A vote for Gnashblade is a vote for the enemy.
It’s going to be hard for Kiel to overcome cheap Black Lion keys.
Not just that, but I think more people are interested in Abaddon than the Thaumanova Reactor so that is another thing in his favor. I was all ready to vote Kiel until I read that tidbit, now I’m probably going to vote for the Charr!
Dear ArenaNet,
Please stop. Just stop. Please. There are other games I should be playing, other things I should be doing.
-Tom
Daagar
5707
Hahah. “Other games I should be playing”. First world problems :)
Yeah me too for the same reason.
Arenanet has posted an article detailing what’s to come in 2013 for Guild Wars 2. Here’s a summary taken from reddit:
[ul]
[li]Removing Magic Find as a stat on gear and instead giving you an account-wide magic find stat you can raise through different means.[/li][li] Buffing the drops you get from Champions.[/li][li] Introducing new skills and traits, and later down the line, new weapons for professions.[/li][li] More permanent content as well as temporary content.[/li][li] Reworking dungeon cash rewards. New bonuses for running different dungeons and paths now instead of the same over and over.[/li][li] Increasing crafting max level to 500.[/li][li] New crafting materials through salvaging blues and greens.[/li][li] New ways to acquire precursors - via crafting.[/li][li] Changable stats on Legendaries.[/li][li] sPvP Legendaries.[/li][li] New Legendary weapons and gear.[/li][li] Reworking dungeons, world bosses.[/li][li] Ongoing WvW changes - bring back the Orb of Power.[/li][li] LFG tool.[/li][li] Ongoing sPvP changes - $10,000 PAX Tournament[/li][/ul]
As someone who hasn’t played the game in 6 months in any serious capacity, I have to say this is exciting and impressive the way they can continue to shape the game without any sub fees.
In the future, you’ll see a wider array of content and experiences in each release, with a greater focus on permanently expanding content. We’ll go into specifics on the variety of playable content you’ll be receiving as each update approaches, but some of our focuses will include improving our existing world bosses, continuing to update and refine our dungeons and fractals, creating world events with a larger and more permanent impact, and expanding the number of dynamic events across the world.
On top of all of this, look for the return of some of your favorite holiday festivals and super adventures mixed in among our Living World updates, though the focus for the second half of the year will be on a mix of permanent and more impactful content.
There. Right there. Can people stop bitching about missing update stuff now and can others stop bitching about this not being as permanent as a “real” expansion?
Dunno, maybe all the bitching influenced their pipeline to include more permanent content =p
[li] Reworking dungeon cash rewards. New bonuses for running different dungeons and paths now instead of the same over and over.[/li]Finally COF1 gets its well deserved nerf.
EDIT: Heh. GW2 Market At Work.
http://www.guildwarstrade.com/item/24314-molten-core
The instant theres an indication of a nerf.
Maybe? We’ll see what they implement and how, but there’s a lot of good stuff there.
Dammit. I’m trying to make Juggernaut, and one of the few reliefs is that the Molten Lodestones were so cheap. They’ve already jumped 20% (50->60s) in price, and I still need the full 250.
So, I finally headed to the Zephyr Sanctum tonight. What a cool bit of content they provided with that. I had a lot of fun with the race and just fooling around the area, taking on bigger baddies with other folks. I have to give ArenaNet credit with what they are doing. It seems to be a very intriguing way to keep the game fresh and, well, living.
Wolff
5715
The new hunger games mini game is a ton of fun! Complete with a pile of goodies at the start that will get you killed.
So I’m a little flummoxed by the Zephyr Sanctum area. Besides the race, is there a particular goal I should be trying to accomplish? I got the various Aspects and made it to the giant ship, but am I trying to reach the top? Or is it just a matter of finding the various crystals hidden around the area? And is there something I should be doing in the town below, like a special vendor or something? I’m just not sure what the purpose of the area is, besides giving me new abilities to play around with.
Thanks for any advice.
It’s all entirely optional. Once you get to the deck of the airship, you’ve seen the basics. What I do is check the living world achievements screen to see if there’s anything I want to track down. If so, that’s the perfect guide for what to do. I even found some really cool jumping puzzles in the core game because I was hunting those kite baskets. I really liked the sprint races and the sky crystal scavenger hunt for how they brought into play the new movement powers, but they’re not for everyone. If you don’t like platformers – although I’m assuming you do, Andy, since I seem to recall you’re a bit of an old-school Nintendo guy – you won’t care for the sky crystal hunt. The new crystals are an addition to the high-end crafting.
But mostly, it’s just a set of optional activities and a new twist on the lore. Keep in mind you’ll definitely advance your character if you pursue any of these activities.
-Tom
Thanks Tom, that definitely helps! I didn’t even think to examine the Living World achievements page. (As a recovering WoW player, I guess I need to start looking somewhere other than the Quest Log for things to do.) I did participate in the jumping puzzles around the ship, but I thought the crystals were leading me to the top of something…maybe a guy in a crow’s nest who gives me a hat or something. Glad to know that it’s more of a scavenger hunt. I’ll have to look for kite baskets around the world too.
Getting back into the game after a long break, I have to admit that it feels a little undirected. Or should I say, self-directed. Guild Wars 2 says, “Hey, do whatever you want! Have fun!”, which can be a little daunting if you don’t remember where you were questing before. With WoW, there was always some guy still waiting on those carrots for the broth he started making six months ago.
Daagar
5719
Getting out of the WoW (or whatever MMO) mindset is the hardest thing to do. I don’t play GW2 nearly enough because I’m so entrenched in the ‘classic’ MMO style (since the time of the original LPMud) that starting up GW2 is almost like sitting at a typewriter with a blank page. No outline, no table of contents. Heck, I’m even worse now than before with the rise of wowhead, youtube guides, etc. Playing a game just for the sake of playing feels… strange.
New update stuff for next week got revealed. Nick already posted about it on the front page.
I’m really looking forward to the account wallet system (specifically, the part where it sounds like item-based currency like Fractal Relics won’t take up precious inventory/bank space anymore) and the new loot drops from champions.
