Guild Wars 2: 24 Hours to Launch

For those with Head Start access to GW2, it’s easy to forget that the official launch of the game is tomorrow afternoon (exact details here). It’s been a fairly successful early access period, albeit with some early server issues.

Since then, things have stabilised although I’m still spending as much time playing in the overflow queue as being on my server. For me that’s no real issue but it is for a lot of people, and the full launch may exacerbate things. That said, we’re not hearing a lot of negative talk overall – people seem to be loving the game on the whole. We’ll have a full review up this week sometime, but I’ll need to play more than the couple of hours I’ve done so far to make a final call.

Other key info for launch:

Other key bits of info for oceanic players to keep in mind:

Unofficial Oceanic Server: Sea of Sorrows
Unofficial secondary oceanic server: Gate of Madness
Guild Wars 2 Server List: here
Guild Wars 2 Guilds List: here
Guild Wars Oceanic Facebook Page: here

For Head Starters: how have you found the game so far?

Guild Wars 2: 3-Day Headstart Launches

For those who pre-purchased GW2, access to the game started at 2pm today AEST, a little ahead of the 5pm formal start as the servers opened up.

I jumped in pretty much from the start and as expected, was greeted with rather a large crowd of toons:

Lag has been minimal given the server loads, so kudos to ArenaNet there. There are some queues but that’s to be expected as well.

Other key bits of info for oceanic players to keep in mind:

Unofficial Oceanic Server: Sea of Sorrows
Unofficial secondary oceanic server: Gate of Madness
Guild Wars 2 Server List: here
Guild Wars 2 Guilds List: here
Guild Wars Oceanic Facebook Page: here

Over to you: tell those without the early access how you’re finding the game!

Guild Wars 2 Launch Details (With Australian and NZ Time Conversions)

ArenaNet have provided some further clarification of how launch of the game will work in just over nine days time. Read on below for the official details then for our local time conversions to make things a little easier for you!

Official blurb:

  • Pre-Purchase with 3-Day Headstart: Everyone who pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 will enjoy three full days of Headstart Access. The three-day Headstart Access will officially begin at 0:00 AM Pacific time (GMT -7:00) on August 25thHowever, please note that in order to ensure that we’re fully prepared for that fateful hour we may bring servers online up to 3 hours prior. If you’re a player committed to getting in first to grab that character name of your dreams you’ll want to be keeping an eye on things during that time period.
  • Pre-Order with 1-Day Headstart: Those who pre-ordered Guild Wars 2 will be able to participate in one day of Headstart Access. The one-day Headstart Access will begin at 0:00 AM Pacific time (GMT -7:00) on August 27thNOTE – Pre-Order code registration is now enabled.
  • For those players who have not pre-purchased or pre-ordered the game, Guild Wars 2 will officially launch at 0:00 AM Pacific time (GMT -7:00) on August 28th.
  • Download the Client today: If you’ve registered your pre-purchase or pre-order and created your Guild Wars account you can go to account management today and download the client. Be sure to update the client periodically to minimize your download at launch.

Now for the time conversions:

3-day headstart

AEST: 5pm on Saturday August 25th (and possibly a few hours earlier as per announcement above)

AWST: 3pm on Saturday August 25th (and possibly a few hours earlier as per announcement above)

NZST: 7pm on Saturday August 25th (and possibly a few hours earlier as per announcement above)

 1-day headstart

AEST: 5pm on Monday 27th August

AWST: 3pm on Monday 27th August

NZST 7pm on Monday 27th August

Official Launch:

AEST: 5pm on Tuesday 28th August

AWST: 3pm on Tuesday 28th August

NZST: 7pm on Tuesday 28th August

So overall it’s a pretty Oceanic-friendly launch window! We’ll be covering the launch as well as any happenings with unofficial oceanic servers etc. Also don’t forger we’re keen to profile GW2 guilds or local GW2 events and we’ll always have the latest patch notes and news. Also, if you’d like to write about GW2 for us, drop us a line!