Yep, closed beta starts today, but it is NDA, which means no one who is participating are allowed to talk about it, especially capture videos and put it on the internet. The success of the closed beta will determine when the open beta will begin and same with the open beta and the release date. Knowing Arenanet a lot of things could be changed between now and a couple months from now, so definitely not early 2012 imo. My guess would be 08/2012 for a release date, but again, just a guess.

I have followed this game for about a year now, and I agree with mav. I was pretty stoked when I heard closed beta confirmation, but I think it was more a "keep face" sort of move than a "ZOMG, we are close" move.

I immediately thought feb 2012, but have since changed my opinion to thanksgiving 2012. Hoping for a really large open beta

http://www.arena.net/blog/dragon

We recently finished our first closed beta test, and we’re now ready to hold progressively larger events. In February we’ll invite select press to participate in beta testing, and in March and April we’ll aggressively ramp up the size of our beta test events so that many of you will have a chance to participate. And of course, this all leads to the release of Guild Wars 2 later this year.

So stay tuned to our official Guild Wars 2 website, our Facebook page, and this blog for more information about how to participate in an upcoming beta event.

That is awesome news, now to hope we get a beta spot in March/April.

Hey guys. Im surprised nobody has posted this yet.

If you have not heard of or care about GW2 Im pretty sure this article can change your mind. This MMO is going to be INCREDIBLE.

http://www.arena.net/blog/mike-fergu...world-vs-world

Hate reading and want a quick video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=EAhBveHtLFw

And 1 last link. This is a long read and gives out incredible information.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ated.-READ-ME!

On Feb 20th there will be some solid game play videos. I will come back and post em then for some eye candy.

There are so many good, innovative ideas here. Really hope they can pull it off. The end of the "Holy Trinity" would be particularly welcome. Currently playing TOR and feeling the frustration of trying to get a group together for flashpoints. The informal approach to grouping that GW2 is taking sounds great. As does the level scaling - I can't believe that no-one's thought of that yet.

Lots of great stuff from ArenaNet here. And the best part of it all is NO SUBSCRIPTION FEES!

So pumped!

The beta weekend for press is going on right now. We`ll get lots of footage and reviews on Monday.

Yeah there should be news on an open beta soon Im thinking now meaning the game isnt going to be far behind that for release.

Open beta as for beta weekends. Who knows, really. I am still sticking with the August though.

Yeah GW2 looks pretty awesome, lot of new ideas for sure. I'm cautiously looking forward to it.

My guess will be sometime in mid April release. Im pretty sure the game is done right now and they are just working on bugs.

That would be awesome, but I think we would already know the date if it was mid April, plus Tera online is set to launch on May 1. Not a big competitor for GW2, but still, dont think it would be clever to release two big mmos at the same time.

fyp

+1

eeeeeee, it's the 20th. I'm giddy