Guild Wars 2

This seems to be new info -

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/guild-wars-2china-commercialization-strategy-confirmed-free-closed-beta-test-starts-on-march-11-2014-02-27?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Same payment model ($ not confirmed) and beta starts March 11.

I’m curious.

Will they have the LS too, started from the beginning, or will theirs be S2 onwards?

From this -

“In order to deliver Chinese players fresh new content at the same time as western players, Guild Wars 2China will be synchronized with the western version in terms of game updates, operation scale, tech support, and customer service. Game content will largely remain the same in both versions, with the exception of some adjustments to the new-player tutorial that are designed for and requested by Chinese players. "

I assume it will be the same. It may also explain why they’re “taking a break” after the last LS update next week and then only having a feature update before more LS updates.

“Guild Wars 2 China will become the first online game to allow players to purchase the game once and play thereafter with no subscription fee – a revolutionary new approach in the China PC game market. "

^ seems to be following our billing system here in NA and EU

i do hope gw2 china will do incredibly well so gw2 NA and EU will benefit as well.

perhaps then they will start work on cantha and elona.

Will gw china have a English client ? And I would love to know if I can transfer to a Chinese server. I played wow in china and it was possible to play the game in English there but it was a little complicated to do so.

Balsa.3951:

Will gw china have a English client ? And I would love to know if I can transfer to a Chinese server. I played wow in china and it was possible to play the game in English there but it was a little complicated to do so.

I don’t imagine the client will be in English as well – mostly because anyone who wants to play the game in English should really be playing on the NA or EU servers.

Forget all of that, I want this armor for my Ranger!

(Image from this page: http://gw2.kongzhong.com/act/tiro/index.html)

I would love play eu server but the lag makes it unplayable sadly….

Backward Sass.6791:

Forget all of that, I want this armor for my Ranger!

(Image from this page: http://gw2.kongzhong.com/act/tiro/index.html)

I remember that piece of artwork, it was in the artbook I got with the game.

Also, I wonder if this will stop a majority of the gold sellers that have been sporadically appearing during the Escape from Lion’s Arch event.

Balsa.3951:

I would love play eu server but the lag makes it unplayable sadly….

Where do you live?

Uhm, if Chinese people would discover about Cantha and Elona, and start pressing for them to happen, we may be able to see it happen.

Sad to say, but I’ve got the feeling now that this western launch was just a huge experimental ground where we are the test subjects and they are testing the LS system, content, things, etc. One year of testing sounds good and plausible.
Also wouldn’t be the first time that a MMORPG takes in bigger consideration the eastern market than the western one. After all we are crumbs compared to over the 1 bilion chinese people alone.

I wanna transfer to Chinese server

Another good news from KongZhong GW2 page: over 4 million copies are sold now

Within four months, “Guild Wars 2” sold more than 3 million copies of the client, breaking sales records in Europe and America online game market has become the fastest selling game in the history of Western online games. The world has sold over 4 million copies. On-line in China, and will make this figure to get a bigger breakthrough!

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=de&rurl=translate.google.de&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http://gw2.kongzhong.com/news/20140227/1220.html&usg=ALkJrhggQZ4uxncbJmh6D9r-RNrmvGWf6Q

I’m original from Germany but bcs of work I’m now in shanghai. I know I could just buy a new copy but is hard leave my chars behind

The important thing to take away from this (speculation) is that since China will be synchronized LS-wise with NA, and the fact that they just ended closed beta, we may not see the next LS season until open beta ends in China and they officially release.

Open betas usually last a few months, and no announcement has been made for official release, so the next LS season may not start anytime soon.

Expect it to come out mid summer

Apparently the name for GW2 in China just means " Intense Fight 2". Lol .

Wonder if they will share the same Trading Post… inflation is going to be crazy if they do.

Straegen.2938:

Wonder if they will share the same Trading Post… inflation is going to be crazy if they do.

I’ve always gotten the impression that the Chinese version is an entirely different client, like that they may have items or features we won’t have and so on (remember that much ado about nothing over the “premium membership” or whatever they were experimenting with for China?)

It was also be kind of brutal on all the new players with zero gold if it was the same TP. Their precusors are going to be selling for an unobtainable 7 gold while ours will sell for 1700.

Why do they need a beta testing phase when they will release the exact same game?

Would be funny if they released Cantha only to Chinese servers.

Interesting, they have more realistic system requirements (looking at their site).

And God I love Google Translate. Funny as ever.

“Air network, today announced that its “Guild Wars 2” (gw2.kongzhong.com) national service fee model has been officially confirmed by the North American Development subversion ArenaNet blood level 3D fantasy gaming masterpiece, the game will use the global synchronization of the system to pay by way of buyout fee (once paid, free smooth play), with the greatest guarantee fairness of the game! Meanwhile, on March 11, “Guild Wars 2” will also open a large-scale free demo experience, the majority of players invited to demo tasting, feel this level of world-class online subversion charm!"

Asumita.2174:

Why do they need a beta testing phase when they will release the exact same game?

As quoted above “Game content will largely remain the same in both versions, with the exception of some adjustments to the new-player tutorial that are designed for and requested by Chinese players.”

So it sounds like it won’t be exactly the same. I don’t know what exactly that means (although I can think of a few things that could definitely be improved) but I’ve often heard that Asian MMO players have very different attitudes and expectations to Western players, even when playing the same game.

So presumably they’re either changing the game to fit that or (more likely since they said it’s the tutorial that’s being changed) doing more to explain how, and why, it’s different to other MMOs.

Even if they were keeping the game identical they’d still need to test all the localisation stuff.

Currently the 2nd close beta only has Humans, Charr and Norns. The first had Humans, Asura and Sylvari. This open beta looks to include the entire world.

First you have to have a native language translation of the entire game. Then every DE and Heart quest needs to be vetted by the powers that be so nothing subversive is allowed. Then morality/taste issue in critter models and armors. While GW2 isn’t anything close to Blade & Soul in the amount of skin showing, there may be some tweaking required. Then there’s all the voice overs. So they need to audition, cast, record and unless lip flapping is an automatic thing based on audio, possibly resync the lips. Personal stories/choices may be changed to be more culturally relevant. Then there’s the in game jokes that they may want to change so China gets them rather than think it’s wacky dialog.

Localizing a game isn’t the same as localizing a word processor.

I also read in one of those articles that they’re changing the XP/leveling requirements to make it a little longer to level.

Behellagh.1468:

Then there’s the in game jokes that they may want to change so China gets them rather than think it’s wacky dialog.

Localizing a game isn’t the same as localizing a word processor.

How much wood could a fahrar charr tar…

Yeah, things like that will translate but it’ll lose the joke. Arenanet is quite fond of wordplay – keeping the spirit would require a rewrite. Because Chinese has so many homphones it’s easy enough to do but requires knowledge of the language that can’t be expected of the writers in Seattle.

Backward Sass.6791:

Forget all of that, I want this armor for my Ranger!

(Image from this page: http://gw2.kongzhong.com/act/tiro/index.html)

nope sorry trench coats only for medium armor

Wonder if Chinese players playing GW2 will influence the chance of us getting our Cantha armor back.

Ben K.6238:

Behellagh.1468:

Then there’s the in game jokes that they may want to change so China gets them rather than think it’s wacky dialog.

Localizing a game isn’t the same as localizing a word processor.

How much wood could a fahrar charr tar…

Yeah, things like that will translate but it’ll lose the joke. Arenanet is quite fond of wordplay – keeping the spirit would require a rewrite. Because Chinese has so many homphones it’s easy enough to do but requires knowledge of the language that can’t be expected of the writers in Seattle.

Exactly. Things like this are why translating video games, movies etc. is a life-time job in it’s own right. It’s not enough to simply know the language, you need to know the culture (and keep on top of pop-culture) as well in order to get the proper effect.

Some companies will even do things like separate English translations for America and the UK, even though the differences are usually minor.

We’ve come a long way since the days of “All your base are belong to us”.

Vol.7601:

The important thing to take away from this (speculation) is that since China will be synchronized LS-wise with NA, and the fact that they just ended closed beta, we may not see the next LS season until open beta ends in China and they officially release.

Open betas usually last a few months, and no announcement has been made for official release, so the next LS season may not start anytime soon.

Expect it to come out mid summer

If you read the article they said the open beta would last for two weeks.

Danikat.8537:

It’s not enough to simply know the language, you need to know the culture (and keep on top of pop-culture) as well in order to get the proper effect.

A Chinese language site discussing GW2 (and FFXIV) pricing model – http://game.163.com/special/xin/zyhxy_46.html

This is what Google came up with -

“Originally these two games have been a lot of attention on the industry and the players, although they charging system abroad is not “free game”, but considering the special circumstances and the case has been a lot of Chinese localization of the final Decision suddenly let insiders players excitedly spread the news, as if the long-term constipation excitement through the canal, the eunuchs of men must grow!"

jamesg.7128:

Danikat.8537:

It’s not enough to simply know the language, you need to know the culture (and keep on top of pop-culture) as well in order to get the proper effect.

A Chinese language site discussing GW2 (and FFXIV) pricing model – http://game.163.com/special/xin/zyhxy_46.html

This is what Google came up with -

“Originally these two games have been a lot of attention on the industry and the players, although they charging system abroad is not “free game”, but considering the special circumstances and the case has been a lot of Chinese localization of the final Decision suddenly let insiders players excitedly spread the news, as if the long-term constipation excitement through the canal, the eunuchs of men must grow!"

Oh, dear! That is quite the translation!