Note: Not official. Edit: Now official. Blog post.

News from Massively. They seem to have the scoop on an upcoming blog post detailing the changes for BWE3. Apparently Asura and Sylvari will be playable!

Assuming this is true, it's not surprising. These areas need to be mass beta tested. They also probably don't want a flood into these areas at launch at the expense of the others. Finally, they may want to wipe the characters and simulate a launch.

I've also heard this may be the case. Seen as I'm going to roll every character as a Sylvari I look forward to seeing how I can make my guys look but I honestly think I'll stick with my human for the BWE so I don't spoil it for myself.

Guild-conquest PVP?! As far as I had heard they weren't doing GVG at launch! We'll have to wait for the official post before speculating any further I guess.

Official now.

https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/222331281634111490

Asura and sylvari will be playable in the next Beta Weekend Event! Keep an eye onhttp://www.arena.net/blog for details later this morning. ~RB2

So who wants to play these two races for a bit with me in the beta. I must determine which I prefer for my first character at release.

I won't be playing much next BWE, but I might dip into the Asura area for a bit because that's on the bottom of the list of races to play.

http://www.arena.net/blog/play-asura-and-sylvari-in-the-july-20-22-beta-weekend-event

Official Anet Blog.

@RobbieMac said:

So who wants to play these two races for a bit with me in the beta. I must determine which I prefer for my first character at release.

I'm going to try out an Asura guardian and a Sylvari ranger next BWE. Both of the zones look awesome from the screen shots.

@RobbieMac said:

So who wants to play these two races for a bit with me in the beta. I must determine which I prefer for my first character at release.

You know I got your back.

This was really the only way it could have gone at this point. Holding back content is "neat," I guess, but at some point you're just warping the players' launch-day focus.
 
@Subjugation said:

@RobbieMac said:

So who wants to play these two races for a bit with me in the beta. I must determine which I prefer for my first character at release.

You know I got your back.

Finally, they may want to wipe the characters and simulate a launch.

Whats the difference between the races that people feel they have to test?

@Funkydupe: It's more the starting areas, with all the different events that need to be tested to make sure everything's fine there.

@Benny said:

Guild-conquest PVP?! As far as I had heard they weren't doing GVG at launch! We'll have to wait for the official post before speculating any further I guess.

It's only a GW1 map. It isn't the actual GvG game mode.

This one here: http://i.imgur.com/SyF0Y.png

@Benny said:

Guild-conquest PVP?! As far as I had heard they weren't doing GVG at launch! We'll have to wait for the official post before speculating any further I guess.

It's only a GW1 map. It isn't the actual GvG game mode.

This one here: http://i.imgur.com/SyF0Y.png

Oh man, I don't think I'll be able to resist playing sylvari this beta : /

Or maybe I can - I still haven't seen divinity's reach, so yeah - @RobbieMac , let me know when you're doing Asura stuff and I'll tag along.

I'm also hearing unconfirmed reports that they wont be wiping characters? Any news here?

ED: Also, our bros over at GameSpot have a hour+ long play of the Asura area;

@Dark_Lord_Spam said:

@UssjTrunks said:

@Benny said:

Guild-conquest PVP?! As far as I had heard they weren't doing GVG at launch! We'll have to wait for the official post before speculating any further I guess.

It's only a GW1 map. It isn't the actual GvG game mode.

This one here: http://i.imgur.com/SyF0Y.png

That's not entirely accurate. While the primary mechanic is still capture and hold, the map's secondary mechanic imitates GvG, with each team having an NPC-stocked fort with a "guild lord" inside. If you kill opposing team's lord, you win the match. It's why I hope they move one of those sideline capture-points to the inside of each team's base, to more closely resemble the GvG from Guild Wars. It focuses the action on the center lane, where the "flag stand" is, both teams have incentive to break through the enemy defenses, and the side lanes are clear for solo or duo ganks.

Ah, I didn't know that. I thought it was just going to be a new NPC map like Forest of Niflhel. That definitely makes things more interesting.

Different people keep saying this, so I must be an idiot. It seems to me that if you wipe the characters that people have already done 30 levels of content for, they'll just abandon those races entirely and the starter zones for the last two will be choked. Right?

@Dark_Lord_Spam: There is the risk of that, although I suspect there'll be a flood to those areas regardless. They have to judge whether wiping would overpopulate the zones, or whether they want a lot of people in there to test and how best to achieve that.

They could avoid the rush somewhat by having an NPC that auto-levels you to 30 like they did for the press. However, this defeats the point of wiping to simulate launch, and unless they think there's not enough people at 30 and 35 to test the dungeon modes they'd probably be better off leaving characters as is.

@Funkydupe said:

Whats the difference between the races that people feel they have to test?

Well, it's more their personal stories, starting zones, and capital cities, I'd imagine.

Heads up, you guys: DO NOT watch this video if you're saving the different cities for later for whatever reason (like Cynic).

Behold the splendor of Rata Sum, with a few of the new vista cutscenes to spice things up: