The first Guild Wars 2 pre-purchase weekend beta, giving players early access to the MMO if the game was bought, is getting its second event. It begins June 8, and ends June 10.
Specifically it's from Friday, June 8 at noon PDT (GMT -7) until Sunday, June 10 11:59PM PDT (GMT -7). The news comes days after ArenaNet revealed on Facebook that the next beta weekend would begin after additional servers had been installed; the first weekend beta for Guild Wars 2 went down during the early moments, prompting ArenaNet to take the game down completely to implement fixes.
"Your existing beta characters have not been deleted, and you will be able continue right where you left off! This means that enterprising players with characters level 35 or higher will be able to test their mettle against the explorable version of the Ascalon Catacombs dungeon!" ArenaNet revealed. Fans had been unsure whether existing characters would be removed on a beta-by-beta basis. However, characters are wiped before full release.
The developer also thanked fans for participating in the first beta. The support fans gave during the first weekend beta was "instrumental" in helping the developers take "massive steps in the evolution of Guild Wars 2 as a whole." On a release date, ArenaNet has previously said it will release the game when it's done as the development process will be dictated by feedback from the betas.
The developer also insisted the term "beta" didn't mean a demo, but a "development-centric event" to test the game. In the post, ArenaNet said feedback had been listened to and seemed to be implemented in the game or the next beta weekend. Some changes are key bindings, server stability and performance. On performance, ArenaNet previously revealed the first weekend's build was CPU-only. As a result, some fans running high-end systems experienced poor performance.
Guild Wars 2 keys for the second Beta Weekend Event are being given away on the Guild Wars 2 Facebook page and Twitter profile. To pre-purchase Guild Wars 2, head here for more information. Around the last beta weekend ArenaNet stopped selling some editions of the game, but participating retailers also sell the game.
