Guild Wars 2

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ArenaNet has not one, not two, but three website updates that should scratch your stuck-at-work-on-a-Friday-but-thinking-about-Guild-Wars-2 itch.

The first is a Dragon Bash video featuring the dev team doing its best Schuster family pinata-destroying imitation. Next we have another video blurb, this time chronicling Dragon Bash shenanigans at Cologne, Germany's RPC 2013 event. The third and final update concerns the Dragon Bash climax coming your way on June 18th. The festival will conclude with a single-player instance called Memories on the Pyre, which you can read about via the source link below. You can see the two videos behind the break.

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If you like music, Guild Wars 2, or Guild Wars 2 music, you'll probably want to scope out the latest ArenaNet dev blog. It's all about the new Dragon Bash theme song, which originated way back in 2010 when ANet's Matthew Moore penned Spawn the Dragon, an a cappella ditty that captured the punchy spirit of the devs who pulled an all-nighter getting the fledgling game ready for its Gamescom debut.

The blog entry also details how the original song evolved into the boisterous pub-crawling tune that's present in today's live game. You can watch a behind-the-scenes recording video after the break, then head to the official Guild Wars 2 site for the full write-up.

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I couldn't just sit back and let Justin Olivetti have all the fun, could I? When he published The Perfect Ten: My gaming pet peeves, I swept my fist to the sky and screamed "Sypsterrrr!" Literally a week earlier I had jotted down an idea for a similar column. I mean jotted down because I keep yellow pads around the house for late-night ideas or dog-walk eurekas.

Of course his will probably end up the superior article as he is the better writer (and has a good bit of facial hair), but I'm going to present mine anyway. In fact I'll do one better by listing 11 of my MMO pet peeves because, well, I jotted down 11.

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Dragon Bash hits Guild Wars 2 today, and if you haven't yet checked out our video preview of the festivities, what are you waiting for? Dragon Bash is a holiday event, so much of what we'll be seeing in this update will be temporary content. These limited-time events have been the subject of much conversation in the community of late and, consequently, they're the topic of today's video edition of the Flameseeker Chronicles. Let's get to it!

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ArenaNet's content train for Guild Wars 2 continues to chug along at full speed, and the next stop is the Dragon Bash festival. Unlike the Dragon Festival of the original Guild Wars, this festival won't find anyone revering dragons. The Elder Dragons put a kibosh on any warm sentiments that the humanoids of Tyria might have had for them in the past. Dragon Bash is all about unifying the races in celebration during these dark and terrifying times by distracting them with fireworks, gambling, and candy-filled dragon piñatas!

The celebrations officially kick off tomorrow, but we have a video preview of the Dragon Bash celebrations to whet your appetite.

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Man, it's downright shadowy underneath the raptor's wings! Reader Draxos is kicking off our player screenshot exhibition this week with an interestingly lit picture from Star Trek Online's new expansion.

"This picture is of my new Romulan character inside a Romulan space station that was having a few ... issues," Draxos wrote in. "When the lights suddenly go out in a space station, you become thankful for the brightness outside the window because then at least there is some chance of seeing what may now be lurking within the darkness. Although you could say that my Reman crew members are the true ones to be fearful of in the dark."

Couldn't you use the Borg's head as a flashlight? That's what I would do. Join us for more shadowy flights into dangerous worlds of characters who do not exist in today's One Shots!

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According to ArenaNet, the introduction of Custom Arenas and Spectator Mode to Guild Wars 2 has resulted in a surge of new tournaments, which naturally has been accompanied by a surge in people shouting about those tournaments. ArenaNet hopes to keep the shouts coming with the introduction of its Authorized Shoutcaster Program.

Under the new program, Authorized Shoutcasters will receive notifications when highly rated teams square off against one another. Those shoutcasters can then jump into the match and stream the content live to what we can assume is a cheering throng of e-sports/Guild Wars fanatics. Streams will be delayed to prevent them from influencing the outcome of matches.

ArenaNet has already selected its first set of shoutcasters based on their community contributions and shoutcasting bona-fides. If you'd like to be considered for the role, you can post a link to your stream on the official Guild Wars 2 forums.

In other, somewhat related news, character slot expansions will be half-off 20% off (math!) from June 7th to June 9th. You can find the offer by checking in with the Black Lion Trading Company in-game.

Oh! And don't forget: Massively is in the market for a new Guild Wars 2 columnist.

Yes folks, it's that time again: the time when Massively hops into the hiring channel and says, "Looking for more!" We're looking to hire fresh meat a new staff member for the site, a Guild Wars 2 columnist to keep up the quality of our GW2 coverage as produced by past experts Lis Cardy and Rubi Bayer and our interim Flameseeker Chronicles video guru Richie Procopio.

Here's the skinny on us: Massively is Joystiq's geeky MMO cousin. We're owned by AOL; we're all paid, remote contractors; and we uphold a strict set of ethical standards you won't find among our rivals. We focus on high-quality writing with fair sourcing and a mix of news and features. We employ actual copyediting and editorial oversight, so you won't see trainwreck English in every headline. In short, we are the MMO site the other sites use as an RSS feed.

This position would be an awesome chance to break into paid gaming journalism if you happen to have just the right blend of Guild Wars 2 experience, availability, excellent writing skills, and passion for the MMO genre. If that describes you, then read on and apply!

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ArenaNet designer Devon Carver has teased the team's vision for the future of Guild Wars 2 world-vs.-world PvP in a lengthy new blog post.

The entry is broken down into an analysis of the feature's current state as well as ANet's immediate and long-term goals. Among the latter are plans to address the zerg, player roles, and matchups and matchup scoring.

"Right now our game rewards you for holding an objective, not necessarily for taking it, and overwhelmingly favors the last server to log out for the day," Carver says. "We have some ideas in the pipeline to try to increase scoring when people are playing the game and to make it much more difficult to keep your territory without actively guarding it."

In other GW2 news, the dev team released a new video yesterday that focuses on the lore behind the Last Stand at Southsun and how it affects the game's "living story." Watch it after the break.

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Last week, the Last Stand at Southsun game update hit Guild Wars 2, and players were urged to infiltrate Canach's Lair to curtail the villainous Sylvari's latest scheme. While there may not be an official patch today, ArenaNet has offered up a guide previewing some new content that will be made available today.

Players bested the Ancient Karka during the November Lost Shores event, and now the Crazed Karka Queen has emerged to exact her sweet revenge. Unlike most of the Living Story content, however, this crabby boss encounter (and the event chains that accompany it) are permanent additions to the game.

If you're a fan of world boss encounters, map-wide event chains, and vendors with new loot, then you'll want to check out the special video edition of the Flameseeker Chronicles after the cut.

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If you're a fan of ArenaNet's parties (no, not those epic PAX parties -- in-game parties!) then we have a treat for you.

Starting June 11, Guild Wars 2 will be celebrating the Dragon Bash festival in game where players can build and destroy giant dragon effigies for candy and boosts, compete at mini-games like Dragon Ball and Moa Racing, win special rewards including exclusive weapon skins and holographic dragon wings, shoot off fireworks, and more. The grand finale will culminate in a lighting ceremony on June 18 in Lion's Arch.

To help kick off this year's event, ArenaNet sent around a few real-life piñatas for various gaming website staff to break open themselves and record on video. You can bet that we went a little... overboard with this one. Follow along in the gallery below for images from the festival and after the cut for some piñata bashing, Massively style.

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Are you looking for a how-to on Guild Wars 2's Last Stand at Southsun Cove content? You're in luck, because ArenaNet has penned a guide that will point you in the right direction. Depending on your level of spoiler sensitivity, you may want to stick with the Spoiler-Free Mini Guide. If you're more of an all-spoilers-all-the-time type, go ahead and peruse the New Rewards and New Achievements section of the guide while you're at it.

We would tell you more, but then there'd be no reason to click through to the guide itself, now would there?

An enterprising Redditor has discovered evidence of a looking for group tool in Guild Wars 2's current files. After plowing through file strings in the game's .dat file, the player found hints that a LFG tool is not just in development but may be coming soon to a game near us.

The files imply players will be able to filter/advertise/find/pull an LFG search, advertising one's group, finding players for living world content, and pulling together a party for a full range of dungeons and PvP.

The .dat file has a few more insights into the future of Guild Wars 2, including back-to-school town clothes, swimwear, a dragon mask, an unlimited logging axe, festive dragon coffers, and something called Skyhammer. Regarding the latter, one of its commands reads, "Maintain control of the Skyhammer cannon to call down lightning and vaporize your foes." Obviously, you need one of these, don't you?

Later today, Guild Wars 2 players will get to enjoy new content when the Last Stand at Southsun update goes live. But why wait to see what's in store? ArenaNet has released a gameplay video showing off footage of some of this update's highlights, including a glimpse of a new boss encounter and a glance at the limited-time achievements and rewards available.

Not enough detail in that short clip nestled after the break? Then join the ArenaNet community team on the studio's official Twitch.tv channel at 3:00 p.m. EDT today (May 28th) for a livestream look.

[Source: ArenaNet press release]

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