Ever since we announced the Guild Wars 2 Pre-Purchase program and Headstart Access, we’ve had a lot of questions about how name reservation will work for existing Guild Wars players. Here’s how it will work:

Character names in the Guild Wars universe work differently than they do in most other MMOs. Whereas in most MMOs character names are unique only within their world/server, in Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, character names are unique across the entire game. In Guild Wars 2, when a player acquires a name like Wizardex, he or she is acquiring it across all worlds. Clearly this places more importance on grabbing the name early.

Today no one actually has the name Wizardex, because all character names from the original Guild Wars were two words or more. All one-word names will be up for grabs at the start of the Guild Wars 2 Headstart Access period. But there are currently 20 million two-word names in use by existing Guild Wars players. We need a policy that allows dedicated players to hold on to their established names, while freeing up the bulk of names for the rush of Guild Wars 2 players who will come into the game at launch.

Thus our policy will simply be as follows: to preserve your character name from Guild Wars into Guild Wars 2, you must be an active Guild Wars player (more on that below), and you must create a Guild Wars 2 character with the same name as your Guild Wars character during the Headstart Access period or on launch day.

After launch day (and after we work through support tickets filed on launch day), we’ll free up the millions of unclaimed names for new Guild Wars 2 players to use.

To implement this name reservation system, we need to build a list of the character names of active Guild Wars players that we’ll reserve through launch day. We actually need to build that list a few weeks prior to the launch of Guild Wars 2.

So we’ll use the following very generous definition of active: Guild Wars players will be considered active—thus having their Guild Wars names reserved and available to claim during Headstart Access and on launch day—if they have logged into the game at least once between January 1, 2012 and the day we build the name reservation list.

We’ll warn the community before we build the list, but that’s irrelevant, because there’s no reason for anyone to wait. If you want to reserve character names from Guild Wars into Guild Wars 2, log in to the original game now so we know you’re active!

We’ll see you in-game,

The Guild Wars 2 Team

Meet Ameranth, a sylvari who shares the same sense of wonder and curiosity about her world as her kin—and yet who stands out because of how she has chosen to act upon it. You see, she decided to satisfy her curiosity by seeing Tyria firsthand, walking from one end of the land to the other.

In Guild Wars 2, you’ll find her as far away from the Grove as Black Citadel, eager to see all there is to see in Tyria. Ameranth is joined by her faithful sylvan hound, Anna, and if you happen to run into her, she’s more than happy to tell you about their journey. "Ever since emerging from the Pale Tree, I’ve had the itch to see what the world has to offer. And what better way than with my own two feet?” she’ll tell you.

While Ameranth and Anna are an interesting pair of NPCs in their own right, it’s the story of how Ameranth came into being that is truly fascinating. You see, Ameranth is a real person. She is Kelly Wells, the mind (and feet) behind Adventure Awaits: The Story of a Woman and Her Dog."Kelly and her dog, Anna, walked from Maine to California.…”

Kelly, who goes by Ameranth online, is a longtime Guild Wars player who was inspired by her character: "One day I was playing Guild Wars, running around in Ascalon, helping pig farmers round up their pigs and little girls find their flutes, and I thought, ‘Man, I wish I could live here. Just running around, seeing the land, helping people in need, and having adventures.’ Then came the epiphany: Why the heck not?”

Her decision was cemented by a video entitled Gaming Can Make a Better World. After watching Jane McGonigal talk about how great it would be if gamers approached real-life challenges with the same determination, passion, and excitement with which they undertake gaming challenges, Kelly decided to do just that and go on an adventure.

"There are awesome environments waiting to be seen, quests and stories waiting to be fulfilled, battles waiting to be won.” So, largely inspired by Guild Wars, Kelly set out to see those environments and win those battles. Was it risky, and maybe even a little scary? Sure, but doing it in spite of that was part of the adventure.

Kelly and her dog, Anna, walked from Maine to California. When she completed her journey in San Diego, she was met by her mother for the trip home.

Before heading home, however, there was one other thing to do: take a road trip up the coast to the ArenaNet studios to spend some time with the team that created Guild Wars.

While Kelly’s journey may have been inspired by Guild Wars, she in turn proved to be a source of substantial inspiration to the ArenaNet staff. "I think that what Kelly did is one of the coolest things I have ever heard of! Ever!” said Game Designer Linsey Murdock. "I’ve always been impressed by fans who get tattoos inspired by their favorite game, but to be motivated to take an epic journey across the country on foot with your trusty animal companion? That’s magical. It’s something that immediately shot up to the top of my list of reasons to be incredibly proud of being a game developer.”

Lead Content Designer Colin Johanson had similar feelings. "I found Kelly to be an incredibly down-to-earth, thoughtful young lady who has lived more in her life than many people twice her age. I’ve always wanted to drive across the country in an RV, but she made me realize it’d be far more profound—albeit a lot more time consuming—to walk it.”

"I was also struck by how easy she made the decision sound by just deciding to up and do it,” Colin said. "From talking to her mom, it seems like there was a ton of preparation, planning, and thought behind the whole thing, but Kelly really made it sound like it was just something she needed to do, and she did it. If we all took that perspective on life, deciding to make positive changes and refusing to let anything get in our way, it’d be amazing to see how much we’d all be able to accomplish.”

After hearing about Kelly’s adventure, learning what prompted it, and meeting her in person, we knew that Ameranth had to be a part of Guild Wars 2. Look for her in your travels through Tyria—she’s got quite a story to tell.

"I want an adventure, and I want others to realize that they can have an adventure—that all you have to do is go out there and try. You don’t have to be super fit, or have the special equipment, or have a million dollars. You just have to walk out that door and throw yourself into the world.”

—Kelly Wells