Hello, future fellow adventurer, and welcome to our multi-part preview of Guild Wars 2. Do you like MMORPGs? Great! Guild Wars 2 is for you. Do you hate MMORPGs? Great! Guild Wars 2 is for you. Taking advantage of Arenanet’s recent Open Beta and release date announcements, I’ll try to condense as much as possible of all the GW2 info we’ve been fed to this moment, without loss of quality of information. On this first part of this preview series, I’ll cover two of the biggest things about GW2: the world and the storytelling. So let’s start with the latter.

 

Set 250 years after the original Guild Wars games, Guild Wars 2 is set in the continent of Tyria. There, the races struggle not only with their past and present conflicts, but with a much bigger threat: the Elder Dragons have awakened. These dragons will destroy anything in sight, and only the united forces of the five main races (Humans, Charr, Norn, Asura and Sylvari) can stand a chance.

 

It is a time for heroes. For heroes to rise, and for heroes to claim their glory. For heroes to make a difference in this world.

 

Are you willing to become one?

 

 

Right at the character creation screen, together with the usual stuff (race, profession, appearance, etc), you are asked a handful of questions about your past, your present, and your character as a whole. They depend on your race, as each race has different customs and some things that are normal for one race have no meaning for another. The answers to these questions are the beginning of your story in the world of Tyria.