RSS Link Round-Up: Year End Awards Edition

http://www.arena.net/blog/wp-content...log-304x62.jpg
It’s that time of year again: when fans reflect on the past year of gaming and look forward to the year ahead. That’s right: time for end of year awards! Let’s look at how Guild Wars 2 did.
PC Gamer’s Games of 2012 series shines a spotlight on Guild Wars 2. Chris Thursten explains why PC Gamer is so psyched about the game and chats with our Lead Game Developer Eric Flannum about the core Guild Wars 2 gameplay experience.
http://www.arena.net/blog/wp-content...ame-Winner.pngOver at Ten Ton Hammer, the fan votes have been tallied and Guild Wars 2 has emerged as the Reader’s Choice 2012’s Most Anticipated Game.* “When it comes to ‘fanticipation’ our winner took the prize handily,” they say.
Guild Wars 2 was included in IGN’s list of the top 30 most anticipated games of 2012.
G4TV’s *The Feed featured Guild Wars 2 as one of the Best MMO Games of 2012, saying, “Guild Wars 2 is taking absolutely everything to the next level, and it’s hard to not be impressed by its potential […]Guild Wars 2 features a stunning art style, beautiful music, and enough story and lore to get any MMO fan hyped for what it has to offer.”
Game Informer declares Guild Wars 2 as one of the most anticipated RPGs of 2012, citing “the fast-paced combat,” the “genuinely interesting story” and the lack of a subscription fee as some of the reasons they’re excited.
Massively awarded us the Most Anticipated for 2012 in their Best of 2011 Awards, citing but a few of the “hundreds of reasons we are pulling our hair out in anticipation for this game’s launch.”
We won MMORPG.com’s annual awards in the Most Anticipated MMO category. “Though we don’t know when it’s coming out, we all know one thing: we want it now.”
MMOCrunch declared Guild Wars 2 as the Most Anticipated MMO in 2012. MMOCrunch have also peered ahead into the next twelve months and have made their bold 2012 predictions. “I predict players will flock to GW2 and before 2012 ends,*Guild Wars 2 will have a larger active player base than [unnamed MMO].”
In Beckett Massive Online Gamer’s fan poll, Guild Wars 2 was the runner-up for the Most Anticipated MMO category.
AnotherMMO.com picked Guild Wars 2 as #2 in their Top 10 Upcoming Games for 2011-2012, saying, “This amazingly artistic looking game with its awesome fighting animations is bringing you a whole new level of MMO with their revolutionary ideas and it doesn’t hurt to be free to play.
Pr0 Gaming listed Guild Wars 2 in their Top 10 Most Anticipated Games feature, while at Shack News staffer Xav chose Guild Wars 2 for his Most Anticipated of 2012, saying, “It’s gorgeous, massive, and takes cues from lessons learned around the industry.”
We also made gamerFeed’s Top 10 Most Anticipated Games of 2012 list. “Guild Wars 2 could very well be the MMO of 2012.”
The European game press love to make New Year’s lists as much as everybody else. In France, Jeuxvideo.com ranked our game among the top 10 most anticipated games of the new year. German website PC Games.de features Guild Wars 2 in their PC Releases of 2012 video (around the 4:17 mark), while German print magazine GameStar ranks it as the #4 most anticipated PC game of 2012.
OnRPG picked Guild Wars 2 as one of their most anticipated MMORPGs of 2012 in a cool video countdown of staff favorites.
Across the channel in the UK, the print magazine PC Gamer UK rated Guild Wars 2 as the #10 best game of 2012 and GameSpot UK calls it out as in their Editors’ Most Anticipated Games of 2012.
Finally, Britain’s own Rock Paper Shotgun found a place for Guild Wars 2 on their Exciting List of PC Games for 2012. They describe the game as “one of the most promising multiplayer titles we’ve ever seen, with a vast and beautiful MMO world, an astonishing array of characters and potential customisation, and more of an open-world focus…”
Thank you to our fans and everyone who voted for us! We appreciate your confidence and continued support, and we look forward to another great year!

More...