Yesterday, I found a new toy to play with. Thanks to a software update from Apple, my iPod Touch is now able to use iBooks. This app allows me to read books and magazines in PDF and ebook formats… but what does that have to do about Guild Wars? Well, naturally, I grabbed the latest issue of my Guild Wars fanzine to test it out. It was pretty awesome… slow… but awesome. I was reading about Guild Wars, and looking at the pretty pictures, on my iPod Touch.
It felt so majestic to see my work perched up on a digital shelf. Ah, take a whiff of the prestige. “My Guild Hall Smells of Rich Mahogany.”
No wait, that doesn’t look like Mahogany. That looks more like Pine. Anyway, it’s digital. It doesn’t have a scent at all, but the feeling is real. I was quite proud to see my magazine make it this far.
That got me wondering, isn’t it summertime? Shouldn’t the first official Guild Wars book – The Ghosts of Ascalon – be hitting the market now? I checked online. Apparently not. But while searching, I was also bit surprised to see the list price for Guild Wars 2… it’s $59.99. It looks like ArenaNet is following the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 pricing model. The game looks awesome, and the vast majority of the Guild Wars community is looking forward to the sequel, so clearly the game warrants an additional $10.
I still play the original and I got that game over five years ago!
Heh, maybe ArenaNet is factoring the cost of inflation. $49.99 from 2005 is about $55.85 in today’s dollars. With continued inflation, Guild Wars 2 would have to be released within 2-3 years or it would be worth less than the original – even at the higher price of $59.99. So, that might suggest that Guild Wars 2 will be ready by 2013.
But according to Gamestop.com, the game is going to ship on 11/2/2010. There is a disclaimer that states, “Official pricing and release dates have not been announced. Price and release date listed are estimates only and subject to change.” Yet, that information seems pretty precise. So, that gives me a good estimate… sometime between this fall and 2013. That’s probably when I’ll have to decide if I’m actually going to play the sequel. I still have issues with the lore… like the Ascalonian / Charr alliance. Making friends with a Charr is like kissing ash.