May 12, 2012 | 
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Blizzard has dropped a short-and-sweet press release (reprinted below) informing us that it has landed on a “mutual agreement” with Valve regarding the contested “DOTA” trademark. DOTA, of course, stands for “Defense of the Ancients,” which is a fanmade map and mode for Blizzard’s Warcraft 3, originally based on a Starcraft map. Developer “IceFrog,” who’s overseen the DOTA map since 2005, has gone to work for Valve on DOTA 2, while Blizzard has been working on its official variation of the game, previously called Blizzard DOTA.
The mutual agreement means that Valve will get the rights to use the “DOTA” trademark commercially, so DOTA 2‘s name won’t change. Blizzard reserves the right for fans to use the trademark noncommercially, but will give up the DOTAname for its official variant. That game will instead be called Blizzard All-Stars, “which ultimately better reflects the design of our game,” said Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo. “We look forward to going into more detail on that at a later date.”
Valve’s Gabe Newell also gave comment, saying that Valve is “pleased that we could come to an agreement with Blizzard without drawing things out in a way that would benefit no one.” Blizzard All-Stars doesn’t have a release date yet, and DOTA 2 is due out next year.
Tags: agreement, blizzard, blizzard-all-stars, blizzard-dota, dota, dota-2, gabe-newell, noncommercial, pc, rob-pardo, trademark, valve | 
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Are you in withdrawal after the last Guild Wars 2 testing weekend? Feeling the need to get back in the game, even if it’s just for one night? If so, you’re in luck, as the team has just recently announced that the game will be performing a surprise stress test on Monday, May 14th between 2:00 p.m. EDT until 9:00 p.m. EDT. It’s a chance to log back in, play for a bit, and get more of a taste for the game over those seven hours.
Worth noting is that the stress test is only for pre-purchasers, but beyond that there are no specific test requirements — you can continue using the characters you created during the beta weekend. Players may experience some slight performance issues, since the purpose is to try and alleviate issues before the next beta weekend rolls around. So if you’ve pre-purchased the game, get ready to head back to Tyria in less than a week’s time.
Tags: Betas, events, fantasy, Guild-Wars-2, News items, previews, real-world | No Comments »
If you want to get in on the fun but don’t have a beta key, don’t fret. The tweet also reminds players that prepurchasing the game will grant instant beta event access for this weekend and others to follow. So that’s it, folks: You’ve got a little over a week to call in sick, stock up on the most dangerously caffeinated beverages you can find, and kiss your sleep schedule goodbye. We’ll see you in Tyria.
- Source: Guild Wars 2 official Twitter
- More coverage: Guild Wars 2 official site
Tags: Betas, events, fantasy, Guild-Wars-2, in-game, News items | No Comments »
So what the heck is a squad as it relates to Guild Wars 2? I surely don’t know, but ArenaNet’s Jordan Massey does. Fortunately for all of us, he’s explained it via the latest GW2 dev blog that’s hot off the presses.
Essentially, squads are ANet’s answer to the problem of WvW communication. As Massey says, “team chat was too large because everyone in the entire map could talk in it, resulting in too much noise. On the other hand, parties [...] were too small.”
The squad, then, is a “one-to-many” command structure with its own chat channel that only accepts chat from the leader. Squad leaders also get squad map markers, which function much as normal waypoints. Massey also says that while the squad mechanics were designed with PvP in mind, they’ll be quite helpful for larger PvE events. Read all about it at the official ArenaNet blog.
[Update: ArenaNet has also clarified whether GW2 will be region-bound. The Facebookstatements are after the break.]
The first post:
Is my copy of Guild Wars 2 tied to my region?
Yes. To play from North America you must purchase a North American copy of the game. To play from Europe you must purchase a European copy of the game. Note that this restriction impacts where you can play from, not which game worlds you can choose to play on.
By purchasing the correct copy of the game, you’re supporting the game in your country, and you’ll be connecting to your local data center, using your local customer support team, and downloading the correct language support for your country.
The second post:
Here are some answers and clarifications for you! First, if you purchase the game fromhttps://buy.guildwars2.com/ you’ll automatically be sorted into the right region.
And don’t worry — we want you to play with your friends wherever you are. This policy only affects where you can login from — not which worlds you can access. People from NA will be able to play with people from EU at launch. We’ve got two datacenters — one in NA and one in EU. Those who do not fall into either of those two regions will default to the NA datacenter.
Finally, we are aware that a lot of our players travel, and we are looking into a solution for you.
- Source: Squads explained
- More coverage: Official site
Tags: anet, arenanet, dev-blog, dev-diary, fantasy, Guild-Wars-2, guild-wars-2-squads, GW2, gw2-squads, jordan-massey, ncsoft, squad-chat, squad-communication, squads | No Comments »
- admin : gotta love a good old ban stick
- admin : lol some more trolls...
- admin : a bring on the trolls. still cant stay away huh
- admin : It appears we are still going strong, having
- Guest_1472 : "we just assumed that everyone went with knives and dark to the new guild which folded after about 3 weeks" Lulz, folded? WQe're still going strong. Can't say the same about you lot. See you on Tera when you get bored of SWTOR
- admin : I might be playing Tera, but i really like the updated Lineage 3 type gfx
. Im sucker for Big boobed female toons. 
- Dave : Hiya, okay thanks, will do.
- Guest_84 : You guys going to be playing Tera?
- admin : Hi dave sorry about the time too come back. If you goto the forums and sign up. Get a post on and someone will get in contact and sort something out soon.
- jock : Hello zaidan the peeps are playing SWTOR and are waiting for GW2 as well. The PvP looks good mateare
- Zaidan : «link»
- Zaidan : My self been stuck in Age of conan for a shile now but waiting for GW2
- Zaidan : ALO! Long time no see! What are you guys upto?
- Dave : Hi, thanks for replying, we kind of gathered something wasn't quite right towards the end. When the new version came out we lost contact. We are a family of three generations, who love MMORPG's. We will probably play unsupported in Crystal Saga but I certainly like the look of GW2, my sons tell me it's great. What is your advice on staying in touch please?
- admin : Hi Dave, the founder of your guild was expelled from Team Virus. Any of the games that they created guilds in was abandoned. We are currently playing STWOR and will be starting GW2 pretty soon.
- Guest_4034 : Hi, we used to play Archlord, our guild was Virus and the founder was part of the Team here, we would like to keep in touch. We now play Crystal Saga.Dave
- BashYaUp : Haha hello all you old Novus RF players xD
- RiV : I heard he was testing chairs for squeaks at some big company
- madjock : Last we heard was he was going rambo on pigeons arses
- Guest_4778 : has anybody heard of pogo recently?
- Omega : whats the account name Artek?
- madjock : Riv make an account in the media tab iun forums
- madjock : Sorting it outm omega is being a welshy enough said
- Artek : is it? where!!! add me on stor guild gents. i applied
- RiV : got those files done for you jock. Wil try to get them loaded soon
- madjock : holy crap its artek
- artek : mmmm sexytime
- admin : what video is that mate
- admin : lol
- RiV : your racist
- RiV : hell jocky, more overseas video restrictions on the video you posted recently.
- admin : read about the irishman in the forums then top that
- RiV : ok. I made a post about custom forum avatars. I can make just about anything
