Starting this Friday, Guild Wars 2 will be available to play absolutely free through the following week (ending midnight, October 3rd). To coincide with this, ArenaNet will be discounting the Digital Heroic Edition by ten buckaroos - down to $39.99/€31.99 - during the same period. It's also a great opportunity to check out the game's living world, with the Twilight Assault update going live on the 1st.

You can register for the trial here (if you have an existing GW2 trial account, it should also work). To ask questions or coordinate a get-together with other duders, feel free to post a comment on the Lincoln Force guild thread or message one of the officers in-game.

Unfortunately during account creation the system doesn't seem to want to take any password I can think of. Anybody else having trouble signing up for this?

And now it's saying the free weekend is over. Wtf.

I know ANet said on twitter they were having trouble, but that it should be fixed. I would give it another shot.

Awesome! Will be using this offer to hopefully convince my 'on the fence' friends about the game.

I've been pondering to get back into it, but I just can't seem to find the time. Any word yet when the first real expansion comes out? And did they finally add an official in-game group finder for dungeons?

No on the expansion and yes to the in-game group finder.

Hmm I just tried to sign up for it again and it's doing the "password must be unique" shit again. I would really love this to work, I've got a strong feeling that a day or two of playing would convince me to buy the full game. You're making this hard Area Net!

@seppli: If you are looking for a proper traditional expansion, I wouldn't be surprised if one never comes out.

I'd completely forgotten this trial was happening. I guess that's the reason why I saw a really mouthy level 9 player calling people noobs earlier today.

The unclean masses, right? xD

Their entire business model is about *shipping* product. I'm surprised they haven't announced the next one yet. Where did you get that idea?

How does the group finder work? Is it like a dedicated LFG channel, or a tool creating groups automatically?

@seppli: the developers have actually said several times that they're pretty happy with the living story model, which in fairness has been getting better and better, and that they may never release an expansion, because they're basically doing that slowly over a period of time with the LS anyway. But yeah, I completely agree with you. I think they need to do an expansion at some point to build up a lot of new excitement for the game and bring in a load of new content in one large chunk, instead of the smaller updates we've been getting.

I've been taking a break since finishing the new super adventure box content, but the LFG tool seems to work pretty much the same as the old LFG website did.

@wintersnowblind: A content dump coupled with a new profession and maybe some new weapon types would definitely get me to jump back in. I was runnin around thinkin about how cool it would be to have a spear and ride a moa, then I caught wind of FF14 and ditched GW2.

The fact that they have said repeatedly that with the way that the living story is structured they can get the content/features they wont out there. Along with this are a ton of (usually time limited) Gem Store items, which seem to be selling really well. This isn't some idea I cam up with myself, but something the devs themselves have been harping on for some time.

@wintersnowblind: @shinboy630:

Cool, thx for the info.

Heads up! The free trial has been extended through the 6th, and the sale price will last until the 8th.

From what devs have said, it's "not likely" on new professions and "definitely" on new weapons. I'm still staggered by the amount they're putting into the biweekly updates, but I can understand the impulse behind BIG NEW EXPANSION ANNOUNCEMENT!

@seppli: Only about half of their team is working on living world content right now, and they've hinted that the other half is planning "bigger stuff." Wouldn't surprise me at all if that meant expansion content.