Having arrived back home from a rather lackluster interview experience, my good old PC has finished all its work in the meantime – the GW2 beta hath installeth! My install auto-switched to German, no doubt thanks to blasted IP-detection (I don’t even live in Germany!), but then I sincerely hope ingame language can be changed after logging in.
To those of you who, like myself, did still not receive the official invite email, fret not: head here, follow “News and Announcements”, login and go for “Getting Started”. If you have registered via pre-purchase before, you can download the client and install the game no questions asked. Obviously, it will not let you do much from there as there is no beta game available until this Friday…..when the American sun has made its way to noon. Yeah, that means Friday evening for us EU people (*whine*).
The server lists for the beta are officially out. It comes as a bit of a surprise to me personally that permanent server switches are going to cost 1800 gems, but I guess it’s too big a profit to lose as future item shop service. Alas, beta players will be awarded 2000 gems currency in advance; you still want to plan ahead on what servers to meet up with your friends though!
That brings me to the inevitable question of how people are planning their beta weekend – if there are any plans at all. What will be your personal first stop and what’s your review focus for later?
Alternatively, what would other players like to see and read after this coming weekend?
I am definitely going to have my own thorough look at the character customization, to follow-up a previous post. It’s a shame that the Asura won’t be available especially, but then I understand and support the notion (see second last question) of not giving away everything before official launch. Another major focus of mine will be exploring the setting and WvW – yesh please! I hope playing elementalist will be as interesting and exciting as I imagine.
Oh, and in case you’re about to change your mind about this weekend, the pre-purchase is currently still available! If you’re joining any EU server by chance, drop a note in the comments, twitter or elsewhere and maybe some of us can make it to the same place. Let the weekend come!
Apparently I am blessed with uncommon amounts of GW2 voodoo, as I got in the beta without pre-ordering. (This makes up for the fact that for years I never, ever got into closed betas.)
It looks like we’re going to have ~6 guildies in this test, and I think the plan is basically to play RvR until our fingers fall off. 🙂
Ohhh shiny, I was actually thinking about you there! all sorted then – and ofc I expect a podcast on it! =)
I succumbed and placed a pre-purchase with Amazon this week… apparently the box with my code was dispatched today, with an ETA of next Tuesday. Based on past experience, the odds are good that it will actually arrive on Friday or Saturday so I may get a chance to take a look at GW2 this weekend. If not, I’ll be there for the next one.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!
I’ve been wondering lately about when/if a next BWE may take place, I’d rather see it launch than join for another beta but that’s probably too optimistic.
Just got home from work to find the pre-purchase box waiting for me.
Cheers – evidently the finger-crossing worked!
Believe it or not, until I read your post just now I hadn’t give a moment’s thought to what I might do in the beta weekend. I’ve been so focused on the simple existence of the BWE I really hadn’t thought past making certain I’d be able to participate.
Hmm, better have a think about it…
Well, the Chinese have a saying that the true traveler does not know where the journey leads – there’s such a thing as having too many plans! I have few main interests in the BWE, but I will spend a great deal of time off the beaten path exploring and following my nose. it’s what I love best about MMOs.
Not sure if only language selections is a problem for you, or if the region matters, too. As this post by Arenanet points out, you can change the region.
I pre-ordered on the 10th but never got my invite, not that i wanted to actually go in – but it would have been nice! Wonder if I can actually get in without the code? Just need to figure out where to create an account (having a blind moment)
So then Sylv, tell us what you’ve gotten up to so far!