Guild Wars 2 Press Beta Weekend

[Naithallis]

Holy crap!

I feel that this is more appropriate for a general forum, but since we kind of lack one I'm posting this here. Just posted on IGN.com in this article.

We have an invite, expect coverage on February 20.

Good news, we just received an invite to play in an upcoming round of beta testing in ArenaNet's highly anticipated Guild Wars 2. Unfortunately we can't share, but you can expect plenty of coverage to hit on Monday, February 20 at 6 AM Pacific.

We'll have previews, video and features covering everything we're able to see during our limited play session. Why is this exciting? Because Guild Wars 2 looks amazing, as we've said in multiple previews so far.

Lucky bastards. Time is going to drag by...

[Centaur]

Today beta invites for the press event later this month have started arriving at various destinations.

Several press members have shown their excitement on twitter about receiving an invite. From the info it appears that the press beta weekend will be before February 20, and that the NDA will be lifted on that day (EDIT: no, it won't - see below!), so we can expect a lot more info during the last week of February:

* Charles Onyett (writer for IGN):

"Guild Wars 2 beta invite acquired. Look for coverage at 6 AM pacific on February 20."

* Devin Connors, Senior Editor, Tom's Guide:

"GUILD WARS 2 BETA! Operation High-Five Everyone In Sight is go!"

and

"After getting the GW2 Beta invite, I could barely contain myself from doing the Squeak vicory dance."

* Johnathon Ross - Destructoid:

"Invites are out for the Guild Wars 2 beta weekend. Expect an impressions post on Destructoid from me later this month!"

* Curse Network:

"Guild Wars 2 CBT invite here we come! Expect lots of juicy details later this month. :] #guildwars2?

[JohnnyV]

gave these a good merging. No spankings required though.

I will also use this post to take the time and make my official pouty face at Arenanet for not giving me an invite.

[Centaur]

We're not the only ones. Some other big GW2 fan press sites (such as guildwarsinsider and totalbiscuit) seem to not have received any invites either. Maybe they are targeting more general (non-GW-dedicated) press this round?

[JohnnyV]

Yeah, but I'm still going to pout.

[Erik]

Beta, and then evaluation in X number of months, before the release....

I should welcome the lesson in patience and restraint, but I still feel like punching someone.

[iDwarf]

I wish they'd just tell us when open beta will start! I'm going to be drooling over all of the new footage of this amazing game

[roshamjoe]

If I were in the marketing driver seat and looking to get my game some publicity and I had the choice between sharing it with the people who've followed me for the last 5 years or showing it with a crowd who hasn't hung on every picture, video and press release... I'm unfortunately going to give it to the latter. Now that doesn't mean I think that the people who've been with them the whole time shouldn't also get an invite, but I think that perhaps they're trying to get out info to a newer crowd knowing that we the faithful will doing our due diligence to find any new info about the game like we've always done.

Still quite exciting to see official press invites go out because if you put me back in that marketing driver seat, I'm not going to invite people in to check out the game, give first impressions, take video/screenshots and give a rating, though I don't trust professional game reviewers, if the game isn't just about ready to be released. If the NDA is to be lifted on the 20th that's one step further towards nerdgasm. I'm still hoping for an end of April release but I hope to win the lotto without playing too, so take that for what it's worth.

[Centaur]

I wish they'd just tell us when open beta will start! I'm going to be drooling over all of the new footage of this amazing game

To quote Martin Kerstein:

We purposely didn’t use the term “Open Beta”, we mentioned Beta Events. To some people Open Beta means unlimited access to the game and everybody on the interwebs can play it. This is not what we will do.

We will do Beta Weekend Events. Those of you who played Guild Wars might already be familiar with the concept. It means that many of you (like the blogpost says) will get a chance to participate in specific Events, but access won’t be unlimited – there will be some kind of selection criteria and the beta period will usually start on a Friday and end on the following Sunday.

I hope this helps.

and

In general people: Just purge the term "Open Beta" from your brain. We are not using that terminology as it is a wrong one for what we are doing (see my earlier posting).

It is really simple: We are currently in Closed Beta. And then there will be Beta Events.
And once we are ready to talk about specifics, we will also tell you about how to get in etc.

So expect beta weekend events, but do not expect an open beta!

[Naithallis]

I expect a beta invite with my preorder! Nay, DEMAND it!

Also, no announcement from Yogscast about an invite. So far it seems to be the bigger press sites that are being...targeted, for a lack of a better term.

Total NDA lift on Feb 20th then? Sure seems that way. I'm expecting a June, maybe early July release.

EDIT: Hmm...this was just posted by Martin Kerstein.

Ok, before this get's out of hand:

We just started sending out invites. And no, I personally do not have the list of who will get invited.

Also: We will NOT lift the NDA, selected members of the press will be allowed to talk about their gaming experience. No general lifting of the NDA.

Hope that helps, you all have a great weekend.