New Guild Wars Website

The fansite kit skill icon downloads are temporary unavailable.

wow looks awesome. i pity the fool with dialup tho...

zomg its sooooo beautiful!

Well, the site certainly sets up the mood to go Across the Ocean.

The Battle for Cantha Begins...

Very catchy. Or what a forum member would say, "O rly?"

It loads faster now for me.

I think the site is much more attractive now. We'll just need to get used to the navigation.

There is no such equation. Both have their strengths and weaknesses and can be used for very different things. If you take a closer look at the new site, they are using Flash primarily to get around a certain browser quirk. The added visual effects are only secondary. What did they bypass, you say? Well, it's a bit of a nuisance in the web developing world that stifles a bit of our creativity... Internet Explorer does not support transparent PNGs. So some types of designs are off limits. It wouldn't matter if everyone could do the smart thing and use Firefox, but the majority isn't exactly educated on such matters. So designers stick with bland alternatives, or they use a work around. Like using the PNG inside of Flash, which works in IE because Microsoft doesn't get to make the plugin

The whole site isn't optimized that way (notice the checkered GIF in the sub menu and the GIFs on the corners of the content panes), but I did enjoy their use of Flash

But then again, what do I know? I only make websites for a living...

Very nice work I must say that really spiced up their Site. Thus I must say Bravo AN web dev team very well done.

~Konohamaru

Thumbs up on the design. I think it's gorgeous and a great way to bring in Chapter 2.

Thanks for all the kind words, and hey, even for the problem reports. We want to hear your feedback, and the Web Team will be working hard to correct any issues that you share with us. Mostly, though, I'd call this a Big Thumbs Up from GWG.

I'll be pointing the team in your direction, so keep the comments, critiques, and praise (I think they deserve it!) coming!

The website is pretty kick ass! Great job ArenaNet Web Team.

looks nice. the loading speed is ok. not that much better

wow this is cool

Oh nevermind, I found the skill listings under Gameplay.

There's also pictures and screenshots of Factions that are probably new under Community>Fansite>Kit.

I'm sure the website would be beautiful... Provided I was using a platform that had working Flash support. Which I (usually, when I'm not playing) don't.

Please, for the love of Balthazar, put up a similar page in all markup!

Directsong.com

They don't even want your money if you have no flash support, enough said.

someone asked for a high res graphic of the world map. i blew it up to about 400% and its the exact same world map you get by pressing M in game but not as detailed.

but here ya go.

That's not what he meant by "high-res". Anyone can make a small image all big and fuzzy.

I get a "File not found" error when trying to watch the videos.

good job A.net, love the new website look

Not to get off the topic of the thread, but this comment is like a red flag that says "Look at me, I don't actually develop websites for a living."

1. Your opinion is very naive - you obviously have never seen or built a 3 tiered Flash / ColdFusion / database architecture that "just works" as both a web AND desktop application with no modification.

2. Don't be a language / technology bigot - all languages and databases have their strengths and weaknesses. Flash can do some things that PHP can only dream of, while PHP makes a lot of things a cinch to do, that to accomplish the same thing in Flash would take a heck of a lot more work.

Best piece of advice I've ever been given:

"Use the tools that help get the work done. Don't change the work to fit the tools."