Chris InglisGuild Wars 2 is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary this month, and with it comes the long-awaited launch on Steam. Guild Wars 2 is an award-winning online roleplaying game with fast-paced action combat, deep character customisation, and no subscription fee required. Players choose from an arsenal of professions and weapons, explore a vast open world, compete in PVP modes, complete environment jumping puzzles and heaps more. I’ve been playing this game on and off since release and it’s always in my MMORPG rotation each year. It’s important to note though that we can’t use our existing GW2 accounts on Steam. The Steam client will require new accounts to be set up, which is a great excuse to start fresh and jump back into the game.
Guild Wars 2 launched on August 28, 2012, and since then, over sixteen million players from across the globe have stepped into Tyria. Ten years is a remarkable achievement for an online game, especially when you consider that many don’t make it through the first year. Developers ArenaNet created an immersive world that focuses on fun rather than endless gear grind. Guild Wars 2’s open world is all about discovery and exploration. Tyria is full of characters with their own stories and goals, and you’ll be rewarded for helping them out—or thwarting their plans—by completing renown hearts and dynamic events.
From the official ArenaNet post on GuildWars2.com:
It’s time to tell your friends to update their Steam wishlists—we’re pleased to announce that Guild Wars 2 will launch on Steam on August 23 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7)! This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, and the tenth anniversary felt like the perfect moment to make it happen.
Steam players will be able to experience the core Guild Wars 2 game for free (with the same restrictions applied to free accounts created on GuildWars2.com), with options to upgrade to Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire™, and Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons™ from day one. We’ve heard your feedback that Living World unlocks should be better communicated to prospective players, so we’ll also be creating a Complete Collection bundle that includes Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire, Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons, and Living World Seasons 2 through 5 (Living World Season 1 is free for everyone).
The Complete Collection won’t be immediately available to players outside of Steam, but we’ll be working to add it to our web store and the in-game store for players with accounts created via GuildWars2.com in the near future. (Note: Existing Guild Wars 2 accounts can’t be linked to Steam and vice versa. Please visit our knowledge base for more info.) Additionally, we’ll be making it clear on our Steam page that Living World seasons must be purchased separately from expansions. No surprises.
We want to make the most of the Steam launch, so over the past few months we’ve been working on improvements to the new player experience. We’ve improved leveling pacing, updated default options and key binds to be more sensible, added multiple tiers of new achievements that guide players up through level 80, added a free trial for the raptor mount once players reach level 10 (which becomes a permanent unlock after purchasing an expansion), adjusted level-up rewards and Black Lion Instant Level 80 Tickets, updated early game content like world bosses with revised mechanics and tutorials, streamlined dungeon currencies and increased their rewards, made it easier to get into raid content, added accessibility options, improved the player experience in story instances, revamped fractal instabilities, improved raid and Strike Mission rewards and currencies, removed tedious mechanics like equipment repairing, fixed some long-standing content bugs, and implemented DirectX 11 to improve game performance. We also released the first three episodes of Living World Season 1, which gives new players a better understanding of the story as they head into later content. The fourth episode will drop on September 13.
Guild Wars 2 10th Anniversary Event
It wouldn’t be a true celebration if we didn’t show some love to the community that’s supported us all these years. When you log in on August 23, you’ll find a new series of achievements waiting for you that will take you on a journey to experience the best of world bosses, the three expansions Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire, End of Dragons, Living World, World vs. World, Player vs. Player, and more. As you complete these tasks, you’ll earn Proofs of Legend, which can be traded in for the new Decade armor set.
These achievements are permanent additions to the game, so our new friends joining us from Steam will be able to make progress on these achievements as they explore Tyria at their own pace. A +30% bonus to karma, magic find, and PvP and WvW reward-track progress will be active for one week starting on August 23. As is traditional, we’ll also have a wide range of Gem Store sales to celebrate the anniversary, and maybe even a few freebies to collect (spoiler: mount skin).
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