Here's a heartwarmer today - one woman, Kelly Wells, was a Guild Wars fan who spent a lot of her time imagining the awesome adventure of wandering aimlessly and meeting new people, like a real world MMO. Then, she decided, "Why not?" And did it. Kelly walked from Maine to California, and before ending her incredible trip, stopped by the ArenaNet studios in Washington state. The devs instantly were inspired by her story, and couldn't help but put her in the upcoming game. If you're in Guild Wars 2, look for Ameranth - she has quite a tale to tell.

Quick news today - a stress test for Guild Wars 2 is happening Monday, for some reason! Surprise! Don't ask questions, just get excited to get back into the game! Well, if you pre-ordered anyway. And you certainly can't anymore...but hey, if you did, nice opportunity! 

Last weekend, ArenaNet threw the doors to Guild Wars 2 wide open, inviting everyone who had pre-purchased the upcoming MMO to join in a Beta Weekend Event. With over a hundred thousand players ready to explore Tyria for themselves, the event would be GW2's first test by the gaming public at large.

During our previous adventures in the Guild Wars 2 beta, we've shared our first impressions of the MMO and how it seeks to reinvent the genre. We've also considered its eSports aspirations and the arguments against the game. This time, we wanted to see if it could truly scale to the massively multiplayer, as hordes of fresh faces logged in.

That said, this is a snapshot of a continually evolving beta. Over the coming months, bugs will be fixed and features will be improved. Although the beta weekend has been an undeniable triumph for the team, there are likely to be a few bumps on the road between now and launch later this year.

It's no secret that the eSports scene is on the rise and, with strong titles like Riot Games' League of Legends and Hi-Rez Studios' Tribes: Ascend paving the way, the future certainly looks bright for all. But while we've made large strides in most gaming genres (FPSs, RTSs, MOBAs), competitive PvP in MMORPGs has largely remained in the shadows. In March, I had the opportunity to chat with ArenaNet's Jon Peters on Guild Wars 2's competitive PvP and, while most were delighted to hear Jon call eSports one of their "primary goals" with competitive PvP, there were others who were curious as to how ArenaNet planned to achieve these lofty goals. I decided to spend most of my weekend in Guild Wars 2's instanced PvP to get some insight.

Guild Wars 2 is...sold out? Of digital copies? That might be a head-scratcher, but via ArenaNet's facebook page, they explain in greater detail; it's to ensure the servers aren't clogged at release. When they get into the launch, they will re-allow orders for the game. Sad for anyone who wanted to snag their copy, but such is the way online gaming works. To those of you who got your copies - best of luck! 

Lots of important details for understanding the servers in today's Guild Wars 2 post. Short version - server and region selection are made at first launch, and all characters will be on those servers, or worlds. Guesting is the act of going from one world to another to play with friends, but when guesting you cannot engage in World vs World fights. Pretty straightforward, but good to have explained all the same! 

There’s a strange new MMO that’s hitting the streets later this year, and it’s like nothing else we’ve played before. There’s no dedicated tanking or healing, so combat looks completely different. It doesn’t have any endgame raiding, with everything revolving around PvP combat. It doesn’t even require a monthly subscription in order to play.

You’ve probably heard us talking about how Guild Wars 2 breaks the traditional MMO rule set, but doesn’t that mean it’s setting itself up to fail? ArenaNet doesn’t believe so, and for once we’re inclined to agree with them. The choices they’ve made actually make sense for the game that they’ve built, even though sometimes it’s not immediately obvious. I mean, why does end-game begin at level one?

We’ve done a bit of a thought experiment here at ZAM, collecting the top five most common arguments against Guild Wars 2. We’ve then applied intense scrutiny to these arguments before pulling them apart like delicious cake, all for your pleasure. See which ones stand up to our analysis and which ones crumble like the finest chocolate sponge. Grab yourself a plate as we dig in but remember: no leaving crumbs.