On friday NCSoft held its quarterly financial conference call, and while answering to the question from an investor the company’s Managing Direcor Nah Seong Chan had something to say about an upcoming expansion for Guild Wars 2.

We Are Preparing an Expansion pack, but in terms of when we will actually launch it, it’s something that we’re still monitoring the situation on.

We’re looking at the performance of the game and deciding when it would be the best time to do the launch, and that’s still something we’re thinking about.

Of course the term “preparing” is a little vague, as it doesn’t really specify if the expansion is already in development or just in the planning stage. That said, it definitely means that we’ll get one sooner or later, considering that, while sales have been defined “strong”, the latest financial results dropped significantly compared to the last quarter of 2012 mostly due to the radical reduction in Guild Wars 2 package sales.

In-game microtransactions surely help, but the buy to play model relies heavily on boxed sales, meaning that one or more expansions are definitely to be expected.

Hey everybody, Matt Witter here. Our team has been hard at work on a new WvW character progression system that will be coming to Guild Wars 2 on March 26. I know a lot of you are curious about what that entails, so I thought I’d go into some more detail about the new system.


WXP and World Ranks
When you participate in WvW events and defeat enemy players, you will earn World Experience (WXP). When you earn enough WXP you’ll unlock World Ranks. Every World Rank earned will come with a World Ability Point, and some ranks can even give you a new World Title.

The amount of WXP you receive from defeating another player is directly related to how long the victim has been alive. Players who have recently been killed are potentially worth no points, while a player that has survived for a longer period of time is worth more.


World Ability Points
World Ability Points can be spent on unique WvW abilities that improve your character in whatever roll you may find yourself in—anything from increasing the amount of supply you can hold to increasing defense from siege attacks to new siege weapon skills. You can train multiple times in the same ability, which increases the effectiveness of the ability, but also increases the cost.

Keep in mind, the choices you make with your World Ability Points are permanent. Much like our skill system, over time all of the abilities will be unlocked as you progress in World Rank.


World Titles
World Titles are a great way to show off your expertise to your enemies. World Titles, which are given to players at specific ranks, replace the display name that your enemies see. Currently when you see enemy players in WvW, you always see their server name plus the title of ‘invader’ after it, like so: “Sanctum of Rall Invader.” With the new system you will see players as their world name plus their World Title. For instance, if your enemy has reached the rank that gives them the World Title of “Recruit,” you will now see their name as: “Sanctum of Rall Recruit.”

These World Titles have no effect on any already existing titles or achievements. This is a separate system in addition to what is available now.


Overhauled WvW Scoreboard
The March 26 update will also bring a new and improved WvW Scoreboard! The new WvW UI is accessed the exact same way (press B) and will house multiple tabs to maximize the flow of information for players spread out across all maps. It will also have a tab to house all of our World Rank information.



On this tab you can train World Abilities, view your current World Rank, and much more.


Our Goal
The goal for this system is to ensure that players always have something to constantly work towards. We want each character to have a unique experience in WvW, so World Ranks and WXP are all character-based values rather than account-based. We believe that in the long run, this will actually help incentivize players to experiment with various different ability builds for each character. It also creates a long term goal for players of multiple characters, as they can strive to rank up multiple characters to help show off their dedication to WvW.

One of the goals our team set for ourselves with the WvW progression system was to ensure that it could be expanded in the future. In fact, we’re already working on additional abilities that we plan to release in the future, and we’ll increase the amount and variety of abilities available for purchase in future updates. We do hope you enjoy the abilities we are initially releasing with this system, and we appreciate any feedback players have so we can improve on the system in the future.
We’ll see you on the battlefield!

Last month we rolled out our new guild missions, open-world content specifically created with guilds in mind. That was just the beginning. We designed guild missions as a platform feature. It wasn’t enough to simply add some content for guilds to play and then call it done, we wanted to build the groundwork for future teams so they could extend and improve guild missions with relative ease.

Even though the guild content team is much smaller now, all of our previous members are now a part of those future teams, where they’ll be… you know, influencing the outcomes of those projects. So while the guild content team is very happy to bring you this month’s update, we’re positively thrilled that even if we stopped working on guild missions today, this would be just the first morsel of many delicious guild updates to come.


New Mission Type: Bounty Hunt Training
One of the most exciting aspects of the guild mission feature is our ability to add completely new types of missions. And while the sky’s the limit on what these new types could be, this month we set our sights on something much closer to the ground level: the Bounty Hunt training mission.

This mission is designed to provide small and casual guilds with an avenue for accessing and unlocking guild content. The objective is simple: defeat one bounty target within fifteen minutes. Make no mistake, this is still very much a group activity, as tracking and defeating even a single bounty is no trivial task. Those players who belong to a one-person guild may still have to join forces with some other players for at least a limited run.

An important detail to note is that the Bounty Hunt training mission is automatically available to be built once the guild has researched Art of War Level 3. It costs 300 Guild Influence and 72 hours of research time. Instead of Guild Merits, 3000 Guild Influence will be rewarded. This ought to be perfect for the smaller or less active guild that can’t earn at least 1000 Influence a day.


Three New Guild Bounty Targets
The Tyrian authorities are happy to report that guilds are hunting down hundreds of bounties every day. But the nefarious criminals of Tyria haven’t been deterred, and now they’re hitting back hard. This month we’re bringing you three new bounty hunt targets that are more insidious, more deadly, and more elusive than ever before. Take a look at this bit of intel, if only so you’re not caught completely off guard when you have to adapt your strategy:
2-MULT – This defective prototype weather golem has been storming around Timberline Falls. Target needs to be brought in for a software patch.
Big Mayana – This voracious hylek is wanted for questioning about a recent poisoning. Target is thought to have taken refuge in the canopy of Sparkfly Fen.
Yanonka the Rat-Wrangler – This rogue ogre is wanted for spying on and sabotaging various factions vying for control of the Fields of Ruin. Target is notorious for using pet rats to do her dirtiest work.


New Rewards
Extending guild missions isn’t limited to just content. We aim to improve rewards as well. To that end, a completely new set of weapons has been commissioned and made available at the Guild Commendation vendor.


And More...
Aside from new content and minor bug fixes, we’re also making as many incremental improvements to the usability of Guild Missions in general. For example, mission activation, success, and failure are now displayed in your guild’s history. We’ve also updated the descriptions of many bounty hunt targets for accuracy. Stay tuned for more to come in this department.
We’ll see you in-game!

Flame & Frost: The Razing

A hybrid army erupts through fiery portals in the Shiverpeaks. A Molten Alliance between the dredge and the charr Flame Legion has created a force powerful enough to massacre any who stand in their way. One settlement, one homestead at a time, they’re wiping out all resistance. The razing has begun.

In Flame and Frost: The Razing you’ll meet the norn Braham and Rox the charr, two Tyrians who fervently believe in doing what’s right, no matter the risk. Join Braham and Rox in a desperate battle to defend their homelands from annihilation in the third installment in this four-part series!

New Features

Braham’s Struggle
As the cities struggle to handle the influx of refugees, a valiant young norn named Braham seeks help for the besieged people of his homestead. Join Braham on his journey to find aid for those norn who stayed behind in the foothills of the Shiverpeaks—a journey that will bring you into conflict with the deadly Molten Alliance!

Rox’s Mission
During the chaos, Rox—a charr ranger lacking a warband—is sent on a desperate mercy mission by Rytlock Brimstone himself. Team up with this young charr gladium as she strives to prove her worth on a dangerous errand in the midst of a war zone!

We’ve Been Infiltrated!
The dredge have constructed a series of surveillance posts throughout the Diessa Plateau and Wayfarer Foothills to keep tabs on their prospective new territory. Confound the Molten Alliance’s war efforts by destroying these spy posts wherever you find them!

New WvW Progressions and Abilities
There’s never been a better time to play World vs. World! We’re adding a brand-new WvW progression system—which includes new World XP and new WvW Ranks. You can use your WvW Ranks to purchase new titles and abilities that are exclusive to WvW. We’re also rolling out new WvW achievements to help you track and plan your progress; you can keep track of them in your Achievement panel.

Improved World vs. World Performance
We’ve made vast improvements in World vs. World with the elimination of culling, a process that used to make some enemy players invisible in large groups. Beginning March 26, you’ll be able to see way more players on-screen in WvW, even in the largest pitched battles!

New Guild Bounty Hunt Targets
More fugitives are on the run, and the Tyrian authorities need your guild to bring them in! Prepare yourself for a challenge, because these three new bounty targets are more elusive and menacing than ever. Bounty Hunt Training missions are perfect for a new or small guild looking to work their way up to bigger challenges.

Introducing Leaderboards
We’re excited to announce that we’ll activate Guild Wars 2 leaderboards with the release of Flame and Frost: The Razing on March 26. However, the leaderboards website won’t be visible to players until we’re sure it has stable information, which could take up to a week after the release goes live on March 26. Initially, the leaderboards will feature WvW rankings, PvP player rankings, and total achievement points.

Need Guidance?
Heralds in each capital city will bring you up to date on the latest Living Story content. Look for special scouts in Diessa Plateau and the Wayfarer Foothills who will point you towards nearby activities.

Operation BOHICA
Fubar and the Seafarers Rest Community has gone to war, It's time to stop Vizunah Square and their boring ways of conducting themselves in World V World.

Too many times has a Server been on the end of there Night Capping. Setting times where they can take full advantage of other servers when they're not online.

We as a community call for either a change in attitude from Vizunah Square or we will commit all of our resources to making sure they are not in Tier 1. Too Long has this server been first spot, with no real impressive guilds or tactics to show for it, except a willingness to PvD during times when the opposition cannot defend either when they are at work or sleeping.

Starting from 9/03/2013 we will start Operation BOHICA, Are main objective to take out the trash, and make Tier 1 interesting again.

We will not be making alliances with other servers.

[...]

These first couple months of teaser content have allowed us to ramp up to make the long-term Living Story an even fuller and more satisfying experience for you all. As designers have come off other projects and joined us, we’ve increased the amount of content we’ll be delivering, starting at the end of March.

[...]