Guild Wars 2: Pre-Release Discussion

[Dragir]

Guild Wars 2 Interview (Part 1/2)
An exclusive chat with the MMO sequel's lead designer Eric Flannum. In part one, mini-pets, quests and events are discussed.
by Andy Griffiths for Gamerzine on June 10, 2011

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GZ: Guild Wars was very much a trend setter in the MMO space. Do ArenaNet aspire to do the same thing with Guild Wars 2? Is it as much about introducing new ideas as it is about adding what the modern gamer expects from an MMO?

ERIC: At ArenaNet we believe that one of the things that gamers want out of their games is to experience new things. We think we were able to offer a unique game play experience with the first Guild Wars games and we certainly hope to continue that trend with Guild Wars 2. That being said, we don't believe in changing things just for the sake of changing them, nor do we believe in keeping to conventions simply because they're what people are used to. What we try to do is look at the big picture vision of what we want to create and then look at how each feature both individually and collectively accomplishes that goal.

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GZ: A lot has been said about Guild Wars 2's new quest structure. How exactly will tasks be initiated? Is it true you've gotten rid of the stationary NPC and the glowing exclamation mark phenomenon?

ERIC: It is true that we don't have typical MMO quests. What we do have are two different systems that work together and form the backbone of our content.

First we have our personal story system. This system begins during character creation, when the player is asked to answer some questions about their character's background. The answers to these questions will determine the story that the player experiences. Combine this with branching storylines based on explicit player choices, and you have a unique story being experienced by each player.

We do guide our players through their story with markers (which resemble a green star burst) and these markers will sometimes appear over an NPC's head. The important difference in this case is that a player will only ever have one step in their story, one thing that they are trying to accomplish, not a journal full of 20 tasks that by their very nature and quantity start to seem unimportant. The things that the player is asked to do while on their personal story are often long and involved and they should always feel like they flow organically from the narrative that the player is experiencing. In short, the player should never be asked to kill X monsters by someone who they've never met before. Think of the personal story in Guild Wars 2 as you would the "main" storyline of a great single player RPG.

Guild Wars 2 is an MMO and we provide players with a massive world that would feel empty and without context if they didn't have something aside from focused, narrative driven things to do. That's where our event system comes into play.

Our event system is the primary way that players interact with our world. Events differ from traditional quests in that there is no start or end NPC, and they can be joined at any time by any player who happens to come across them. Events also have a persistent effect on the world. If bandits take over a village then that village will stay taken until players do something about it.

So although you will see the occasional icon above an NPC's head, you won't see a traditional MMO quest anywhere in Guild Wars 2.

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GZ: One of the aspects which we think enabled Guild Wars to stand out so much in the MMO space was the richness of Tyria and how exploring that continent felt unique to the player. Do you think this is something that will be lost when Guild Wars 2 no longer adopts the small instanced approach?

ERIC: We are building Guild Wars 2 with players who love exploration firmly in mind. We design our world to have a lot of nooks and crannies just waiting for players to discover and we reward exploration with rare events, XP for visiting new areas, profession challenges, and a host of other incentives.

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GZ: As much as players and developers pretend, no mainstream MMO - outside of EVE - allows players to change the game-world permanently. Will Guild Wars 2 deliver on this often promised feature?

ERIC: Our event system offers persistent change but not permanent change. If a village burns down it is not gone forever, but rather gone until players help rebuild it. More permanent change can be found in our personal story instances where characters that die will stay dead, buildings will stay destroyed, etc?

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GZ: Calendar-based events are the main reason why we've been going back to Guild Wars over the past few years. Will there be more things to do in GW 2's live events, than just taking part in rollerbeetle races (as much as we love them!) and setting off bottle rockets?

ERIC: We haven't planned out exactly what we're doing yet, but we certainly plan to support all of our usual holiday events in Guild Wars 2. Since our event system is very robust I imagine we'll be able to do a lot more things than we were able to do in the first game.

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GZ: You must get asked this a lot, but as the proud owner of more mini-pets than we care to mention, how exactly will the collectible cuties feature in Guild Wars 2?

ERIC: Our mini-pet system is undergoing development as we speak. I can't offer much in the way of details yet, but I can say that we want to push the fun and collectability of our mini-pets to new levels.

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[Dragir]

Guild Wars 2 Interview (Part 2/2)
The second part of an exclusive chat with lead designer, Eric Flannum. Today he discusses the in-game store and the competition.
by Andy Griffiths for Gamerzine on June 13, 2011

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GZ: Both ArenaNet and NCsoft have been really bullish about reclaiming the number one MMO spot from WoW. Do you think it's a lot harder to aim for that label now than it was when Guild Wars launched seven years ago?

ERIC: It's definitely more of a challenge now that so many MMOs have had so many years of development behind them. You can't compete with the state a current game launched in; you have to compete with what they are like now. Despite this, we're always up for a challenge here at ArenaNet - if we don't aim for the top, we'll never be able to reach it.

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GZ: Not charging a subscription for Guild Wars 2 is seen to be generous by gamers and foolish by business types, especially with how good the game looks. How soon in development did you elect for that revenue model and why are you doing it?

ERIC: I think it's fair to say we chose our business model before we even began development. We chose it when we chose to go with this model for the original Guild Wars. We feel like we made a promise to our fans that Guild Wars games will never have monthly fees and we wanted to uphold that promise.

We also truly believe that the no subscription fee model is better both for us as developers and for our fans as customers. Without being able to rely on a monthly income it puts us into the position where we have to justify any new content or features to our existing customers, which means that we have to give them what they want. This means we can focus development on the things that will make our customers happy and make the game better. It's a better situation for us than if we relied on a monthly fee.

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GZ: What sort of things will players be able to buy via the in-game store?

ERIC: We're testing various things right now, so I can't give specifics. In general, we want to include the kinds of things that we included in the first game, though of course the list will not be identical.

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GZ: Will the standalone expansion model return? We really enjoyed how Factions and Nightfall took the series in new thematic directions...

ERIC: At this time we don't plan to continue with the standalone expansion model. We felt that this model split our player base unnecessarily and also caused us to focus development effort on things that were redundant with the original release of the game such as tutorial areas and duplicates of already existing skills.

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GZ: The combat system in Guild Wars 2 is much more impactful than most offerings in the MMO genre. Do you think this will attract a wider audience to the game and have you guys done away with the more 'by the numbers' based feel of combat?

ERIC: We hope that our combat will appeal to players who may find traditional MMO combat static and boring while not alienating fans of traditional MMO combat. We've done this by making strategic positioning important, making skills feel more impactful, taking the focus off of reading the user interface, and moving away from the traditional tank/healer/DPS roles.

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GZ: Guild Wars was a massive PvP favourite across the world, especially Korea. How are you evolving that aspect for the sequel?

ERIC: We have two very distinct types of PvP in Guild Wars 2.

First we have what we call "competitive" PvP which features small teams matched against each other. In this type of PvP players are all on an even footing, having access to the same skills and abilities as every other player. The only progressions featured in this type of PvP are purely cosmetic upgrades.

Then we have World vs. World PvP (WvW), which features full player progression and leveling. In this type of PvP, players are transported to a large area of the world where they take part in a multi-week persistent match against two other worlds (what you might call servers in another game). This match features castle sieges, supply lines, and lots of objectives of varying size.

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GZ: It's funny how Guild Wars transformed from a very social game to one where it was possible to almost do the entire story on your own with the aid of the customizable henchmen. What does the sequel offer players that prefer to play on their own and see the world at their own pace?

ERIC: Players should be able to take part in almost every aspect of Guild Wars 2 as a solo player. The only content that players must find a group for are dungeons which are designed for group play.

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GZ: How does Guild Wars 2's plot allow players to express themselves and carry out their role-playing fantasies?

ERIC: Players in Guild Wars 2 can express themselves in a variety of ways. We have a huge amount of visual customization but in addition to that we provide players with a branching storyline that is tailored to their character. For those who want more free form role-playing possibilities we offer a world where their characters can have an impact by participating in events. Developing the world of Guild Wars 2 has been one of the most important things for us and we hope to provide players with as rich a fantasy world as any they have ever experienced.

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[Takiwaki]

[Takiwaki]

BTW I just noticed not much soundtrack stuff been posted

[vrumpt]

Soon as i found out Jeremy Soule was doing music for this game my interest skyrocketed. Loved all of those tracks. Can't wait to see how this game turns out.

[Foxer]

And wallpaper'd.

I see too much ArchAge/LO in this for reason.

[Purrrfect]

Excellent works there.^^ The downside: way too short. They need to be at least... three times bigger! I hope there is a collector's edition or something that will include the OST. And it may just be from previous GW2 vids, but that Charr theme sounded really familiar.

[Takiwaki]

Expect lots of info coming Friday

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[Kuya]

clenching butt

edit: i love the thunderstorm song

[vrumpt]

whats on friday?

[Takiwaki]

ArenaNet is holding a "Fanday" open house event for 16 members of different community fan sites and media (community reps etc) and I think the video contest winners also. There is no NDA but no filming will be allowed. A new demo will be playable, so alot of new hands on info will be available.

#GW2FanDay

[Lucavi]

That balding guy looks like a boss.

[Tonka]

http://twitter.com/#!/GuildWars2/gw2fanday

Combined Twitter feeds for the participants in today's Fan Day. Waiting for good stuff. They will share info on underwater combat, dungeons and not sure what else.

[Takiwaki]

http://guildcast.wordpress.com/2011/...ars-2-day-one/

btw thats how u introduce dungeons lol

[Takiwaki]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/24/gu...eve-played-it/

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[Takiwaki]

http://www.arena.net/blog/jonathan-s...erwater-combat

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam...-the-dungeons/

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[avelle]

http://guildcast.wordpress.com/2011/...ars-2-day-one/

btw thats how u introduce dungeons lol

The dungeon intro with the lore and stuff was pretty cool. The gameplay video didn't look particularly exciting though.

[Takiwaki]

The dungeon intro with the lore and stuff was pretty cool. The gameplay video didn't look particularly exciting though.

more exciting than that recent other dungeon reveal. lol

[Takiwaki]

[[removed]]

[Takiwaki]

"Each dungeon comes with its own unique armor and weapons. The armor from the Ascalonian dungeon is different from what you'll receive in the dungeon of Sorrow's Embrace, which is different from the treasure found in Lord Beetlestone's estate (remember that I said not all the dungeons are underground). While we expect that people will encounter the story mode once, they may run the explorable versions as many times as they want, increasing the quantity of armor and weapons that are available from that dungeon. Also, these armors and weapons are unique to that particular dungeon, and will not be found elsewhere."

This is how you keep lower level stuff fresh.