Yesterday, Reddit set up an AMA for a bunch of Arenanet Developers to answer all of your questions about this weekend’s BWE2. We’ve distilled down all of the questions and answers for you, however if you want the raw feed, you can head over to Reddit right now and check it out. Here’s who was there to answer questions:

Mike O’Brien – President/Founder – MO
Chris Whiteside – Lead Producer – Chris
Mike Zadorojny‎‎ – Content Designer – z
Mike Ferguson – WvW Designer – Ferg
Peter Giuntoli – Programmer – Peter
Jon Peters – Systems Designer – Jon
Isaiah Cartwright – Lead Systems Designer – Izzy
Regina Buenaobra – Community Manager ~RB

Keep reading for the full transcript.

This weekend is fast approaching and Arenanet is now allowing people to do some free World (server) transfers so you can get and play with friends that might be joining the BWEs for the first time.

If you played in our first Beta Weekend Event, you will already have an existing home world. We’ll have a lot more players participating in this second beta, so you may want to change your home world so you can play together with your friends. Good news, everyone! World transfers will be free of charge on June 8 from Noon PDT (GMT -7) until 6PM PDT (GMT -7) on June 9. After this point, a world transfer will cost 1800 gems with a limit of one transfer every 7 days.

What if you need a server transfer after the free grace period expires?
Every beta player will get 500 free gems automatically, and you can get 2000 free gems by entering a valid credit card in the Gem Store. You will not be charged, but your credit card company might place a $1 hold charge on your account. Don’t worry; it’s not an actual charge!

Not only will you be able to transfer, but you get to help Arenanet test out their RMT/Cashshop system. If you wish to read the full blog and get a list of all available servers, follow this link to Arenanet’s homepage.

Eric Flannum, Lead Game Designer, talked to Massively yesterday about the new changes posted in the recent dev blog and here’s what he had to say:

On the newly added Mystic Forge:

Massively: The Mystic Forge that players will now be able to find in Lion’s Arch seems exciting. Will it be random, or will players be able to develop “recipes” of what to toss in in order to receive certain items?

Eric Flannum: The Mystic Forge uses a combination of random and non-random recipes. For example, if I throw four rare swords into the forge, it will return a random sword to me with a chance for that sword to be substantially better. There are also specific items that can be created by throwing four very specific items into the forge with no random involved at all. Players should look for clues hidden around the world and in items for what combinations might work. Another exciting aspect of the Mystic Forge is that it is very easy for us to add recipes, so post-launch, we can continue to add new things for players to discover.

And on the new PVP mini-dungeon:

Massively: How will the new PvE elements feel like they’re intersecting with WvW gameplay, rather than running parallel to it? Will they have any bearing on WvW? Might players find blueprints in treasure chests or anything else to help them feel like they’re contributing to the greater fight?

Eric Flannum: The mini-dungeon we added to the WvW center map was added with PvP specifically in mind. This goes for how the area flows, how traps work, and what reward you get at the end. There are definitely blueprints in the chest as well as other things that WvW players will find valuable.

You can read the rest of the interview over at Massively.

This weekend is the first time we get to see the iteration process of Arenanet and their patching methods. Now we get to see if they took our feedback or not. Today, in a new developer blog going over some of the bigger changes GW2 has gone through since we last got to see the game:

>
• Keep Your Characters!
• Enter the Catacombs (Explorable Mode)
• Visit Lovely Gendarran Fields
• Unlock the Mysteries of the Mystic Forge
• Expanded World vs. World
• New Automated Player vs. Player Tournaments and More
• Combat— “A Sense of Hitting”
• Improved Overflow Servers
• Improved Chat
• New Key-Binding Feature
• UI Improvements
• Tiers for Skills
• The Gem Store is under New Management

We’ll see you in-game from Friday, June 8th, at noon PDT (GMT-7) until Sunday, June 10th, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).

If you love information, and speak German or French, today is your lucky day. Anet has announced that they are official launching their German and French wikis today.

Hello, everyone, my name is Stéphane Lo Presti. As a community manager for ArenaNet, one of my roles is to act as a liaison between our studio and the wiki community. And today, I’d like to share some exciting news for French and German gamers: we’re launching official French and German Guild Wars 2 wikis! But before we get into details, I’d like to say a few words about wikis in general.

In case you didn’t know, GW2 already has an official English Wiki, which you can find right here. Make sure you read the full dev blog for all the info you could possibly want on the whats, whys and whos of the Guild Wars 2 wikis.

Source: Official German and French Guild Wars 2 Wikis Launch Today

This morning we get an announcement of the date of the next BWE:

Heroes of Tyria!
My name is Chris Whiteside, and I’m the lead producer of Guild Wars 2. Normally, I’m head-down in the trenches, making sure we’re producing the best MMO possible, but I wanted to come up for air and share some exciting news with you:

Beta Weekend Event 2 will begin on Friday, June 8th, at noon PDT (GMT-7) and will run until Sunday, June 10th, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).

If that isn’t enough to get you all bursting with excitement, here is some more news:

Your existing beta characters have not been deleted, and you will be able to continue right where you left off! This means that enterprising players with characters level 35 or higher will be able to test their mettle against the explorable version of the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon!

In addition to sharing this news with you, I want to convey a massive “thank you” to all of you for playing in our beta events so far. The participation and enthusiasm we’ve seen has exceeded our expectations, and we’re all very grateful and appreciative here at the studio. Your support during our first Beta Weekend Event and throughout development has been instrumental in getting us prepared for launch and helping us take massive steps in the evolution of Guild Wars 2 as a whole. You, our community, are an integral part of the development process, and Guild Wars 2 simply would not be what it is today without you.

To read the full dev blog, please visit this link.

MMO Reviews has an interview up with Eric Flannum, Lead Game Designer, where they discuss a myriad of topics on Guild Wars 2. The interview opens up with these two questions:

What are your plans for the WvW content of the game in the long run?

One of the coolest things that we’ve added to WvW recently is a persistent mini-dungeon that can be accessed through the three keeps in the center map. This area is designed with multiplayer PvP in mind and players can do things like activate the traps in the mini-dungeon to defeat enemy players. Of course, at the end of the area there’s a chest full of rewards.

We also have some exciting plans for WvW post-launch, but of course we don’t want to talk about our post-launch plans until after we ship the game and have had some time to implement things.

Will there be PvP tournaments or some other kind of scheduled competitions?

We fully plan to support tournaments in competitive PvP. We will have a variety of tournament types, from automated tournaments to more competitive scheduled tournaments.

We are still talking about whether or not we want to support any type of WvW tournaments after we launch. If player interest is high, then I think it’s definitely something we’d consider.

Make sure you read the rest of the article over at MMO Reviews.

Source: Exclusive interview with Eric Flannum the Lead Game Designer of Guild wars 2

We’ve got another dev blog published by Arenanet on the process of naming things in Tyria! Find out more how the development team goes through the process of creating names for people and places in Guild Wars 2, it’s pretty fascinating.

Keep reading to find out more.

Recently published today, Venturebeat discusses the monetization of Guild Wars 2 in an interview with studio president Mike O’Brien. Here are a few things we found interesting:

GB: What are the key features that set Guild Wars 2 apart from free-to-play MMORPGs and simultaneously justify a $60 purchase?

O’Brien: [...]I think Guild Wars 2 is one of the best values in gaming, period. Where else can you get this many hours of enjoyment, of content, of polish, of replayability for $60?

I’ll give a direct comparison. Guild Wars 2 is both a great MMO and a great RPG, so anyone who plays offline RPGs like Skyrim or online RPGs like Diablo III is going to love Guild Wars 2. Those games cost $60. Compared to them, Guild Wars 2 has at least as much content, world exploration, personal storylines, and replayability. And then for no additional charge, Guild Wars 2 gives you a fully persistent world where you can hang out with your friends online, lots of social features, a live team dedicated to introducing lots of new content into the game, and two integrated forms of [player-versus-player].
…
Once you get in that mindset, microtransactions in Guild Wars 2 are pretty straightforward, and it’s not as controversial as you’d think. If players need something to play the game, it’s part of the game. If something is a fun add-on or service, it can be a microtransaction.

Keep reading for more.

Today, The Verge wrote a very interesting article on their view on dynamic questing when comparing Guild Wars 2 to the rest of the MMORPG market.

Dynamic content like the bandit raid is ArenaNet’s alternative to questing. In more traditional games a user will enter a quest hub, usually a town or city where they can pick up tasks then journey outside to reach their goal in a specific area of the map. But when bandits attack a wandering NPC or a fighting horde of centaurs turn up at a nearby village, that’s something else entirely. You can’t plan for that. All you can do is stand together.

Check out the rest of the article as they tackle other subjects like the Holy Trinity and how players interact with each other.

Source: Guild Wars 2 on rifts, Waterworld and putting a nail in the coffin of quests

Today we get a brand new developer’s blog with a bit of lore attached to it.

Meet Ameranth, a sylvari who shares the same sense of wonder and curiosity about her world as her kin—and yet who stands out because of how she has chosen to act upon it. You see, she decided to satisfy her curiosity by seeing Tyria firsthand, walking from one end of the land to the other.

In Guild Wars 2, you’ll find her as far away from the Grove as Black Citadel, eager to see all there is to see in Tyria. Ameranth is joined by her faithful sylvan hound, Anna, and if you happen to run into her, she’s more than happy to tell you about their journey. “Ever since emerging from the Pale Tree, I’ve had the itch to see what the world has to offer. And what better way than with my own two feet?” she’ll tell you.

Read the rest of the story over at Guildwars 2′s official homepage.

We’re really starting to like these guys, check out Tales of Tyria’s latest vidcast (while you’re taking a break from Diablo 3) as they discuss the latest and greatest of the stress test and a few other topics including, Is the holy trinity really gone?

Episode 31:

06:34 – Feedback: WvW Keep Balance
12:14 – News: Guided Tour of Lion’s Arch, Stress Test, and Post Launch Content
29:30 – Bridger Rant: $1 = 80 gems? WTF?!?!
34:02 – Roundtable: PvE Revisited – Is the holy trinity truly gone?
Weekly Question:
Question of the Week – Having played the beta, what are your thoughts on the holy trinity?

Video after the break.

The stress test yesterday yielded some great PVP videos and today we’re noting TOPvP with some great commentary regarding his elementalist and engineer builds. Check them out after the break.

New screenshot from Arenanet for our long awaited 500k Like milemark. From GW2′s Facebook page:

Ding! We’ve reached 500,000 Facebook followers and have the long-promised epicness for you: Destiny’s Edge, together and taking on a foe that you’ll find familiar. This is an actual in-game screenshot embellished by Daniel Dociu.

For different image resolutions follow this link.

From SoundStrategyNetwork presents Tales of Tyria, we get a great video giving us a tour or Lion’s Arch, the central city in Guild Wars 2.

Take a walk with us around Lion’s Arch, and explore all of it’s hidden secrets. From the High Dive into Old Lion’s Arch to the Order of Whispers and back, we cover every area of interest that resides in Lion’s Arch.

Full video after the break.