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They played the "name game" and won!

Congrats to the grand prize winners in NCSoft's boss-naming contest! My entries: Graygrowl Monkeyteazer, FranzJoseph Gemuetlichkeit, o0bah haxx0rz, and Giggling Schoolgirl - well, they didn't even make the outtakes reel.

We are happy to announce the winners of the Brand the Bosses Contest. Out of more than 8,000 entries, we have selected 6 Grand Prize winners and 18 Finalists. All 24 names will be incorporated into the Summer Update: Sorrow's Furnace and will be part of Guild Wars history!

Winners of the six (6) Grand Prizes will receive:

* An exclusive Guild Wars Team t-shirt
* A Guild Wars hat
* A copy of the game signed by the development team

Each of the 18 Finalists will receive:

* An exclusive Guild Wars Team t-shirt

See the winning entries at the Guild Wars Official Site.

Possibly the best movie of the summer movie season.
The Official Guild Wars Site has posted the summer update preview movie. Confusing War of the Worlds with Guild Wars Tom Cruise appeared on national television, but apparently didn't say:

"Featuring new Music from the Special Edition of the Guild Wars soundtrack by Jeremy Soule."

You can grab the Guild Wars Summer Preview Movie at The Official Site.
Dozens of Guild Wars guides are yours for the taking at GuildWars.TenTonHammer.com

Phinney's Fantabulous Foray into Fan Feedback!

James Phinney, lead designer for Guild Wars, posted his responses to a player roundtable hosted late Thursday based on Phinney's "State of the Game" letter. Guild Hall improvements, changes to PvP and ladder sessions, and general room for improvement were on the docket.

Despite the cries and tumult of numerous guilds warring in the hallway outside, Phinney managed to poset a few responses:

Question: What is the one area of GW *you* would like tweak?

James: "One" area? You must be kidding. As a game designer, you have to be incredibly foolish or incredibly egotistical to not see a ton of things to improve in any game you've worked on. The way I see it, every game you make is a learning experience. Usually, you just have to take the lessons with you and try to apply them to your next game, but with Guild Wars we have the opportunity to keep making the game better.

There's a lot of passion for Guild Wars on the team. We like to play the game. We experience a lot of the same things everyone else does. We know that at its best, Guild Wars offers experiences that are unique and insanely fun. We're going to keep working to make every part of the game live up to those moments. The user interface guys are always looking to make improvements where and when they can. The mission and quest design guys are really looking forward to taking the lessons we learned in Chapter 1 (oh so many lessons) and making Chapter 2 that much better. We're currently reviewing balance on all the Chapter 1 skills in preparation for the first official ladder season. The artists are doing amazing things for Sorrow's Furnace and for Chapter 2. And, of course, we're always looking at the economy and rate of character advancement.

Click here for answers to more of your Guild Wars questions!

Free MMOG Updates
ArenaNet has posted new Guild Wars game update notes. It's been a few weeks since the last update notes and the players were getting restless for information:

"Because it has been a few weeks since we've posted a major update, we wanted to let everyone know what's in the works. Typically, a few weeks is a short amount of time in the development cycle of a game, but we know there are many people who play Guild Wars with such dedication and intensity that a few weeks without an update seems more like an eternity. Here's what's on the way..."

You can read the Guild Wars Game Update Notes at The Official Site.
More Guild Wars information than Planter's has peanuts at GuildWars.TenTonHammer.com.