I got to play the demo of GW2 at CES in Las vegas, I think GW2 is sooo much better than the first and can't wait for it come out!
Table of Contents
Guild Wars 2
Platform(s): PC
Release: 2011
Guild Wars 2 will continue the trend set by its predecessor of trying to create an online role-playing game experience that straddles the line between traditional action RPGs and massively multiplayer online games. But, if anything, Guild Wars 2 will try to tie your character closer to the world and its players. Biographies will give you a chance to experience events and interact with characters tied to the choices you make when creating your characters backstory. Additionally, Guild Wars 2 will feature plenty of new gameplay mechanics, including one that allows characters from different classes to combine their skills to create new combo attacks. We spoke with Eric Flannum, lead designer on Guild Wars 2, to get a development update and find out more about Guild Wars 2's features.
GameSpot: Could you give us an update on the development of Guild Wars 2? What aspects of the game is the team working on now? What are you most excited about at this time?
Eric Flannum: Various parts of the game are in different stages right now, so we're really working on a little bit of everything; implementing some things, refining and polishing others. Some of the major features that we are concentrating on at this time include underwater combat, social features, player versus player--both competitive player versus player and world versus world--and overall game balance and flow. It's really hard to pick out the one thing that I'm most excited about, but if I had to choose, I would say our world-versus-world experience is the thing I most want to play after release. I love strategy games, PVP, and MMOs, and our WVW combines all of those things!
GS: Considering the current state of popular online games, where do you see Guild Wars 2 in the spectrum? Now that development has progressed a good deal, what kind of players do you see getting the most out of the Guild Wars 2 experience?
EF: We've always had the goal that anyone who enjoys PC games should enjoy Guild Wars 2. Now, obviously, not everyone is going to enjoy our game, but we try to design things to appeal to a broad audience. That means that we try to support a lot of different play styles and provide our players with a lot of variety if they want it. A person who wants to play Guild Wars 2 as a primarily solo experience can choose to concentrate on the personal story and will never have to group in order to experience dynamic events. Other players might choose to bring their friends along for their personal story and travel around experiencing dynamic events and dungeons as a group. I think we're making a game that MMO players will love, but it will also appeal to people who may not enjoy MMOs.
GS: We understand that there are continued plans to interconnect the original game to the sequel, not just in terms of the story, but in terms of actual in-game events and changes to the world. Can you give us some insight--or at least a few hints--on what lies ahead for current Guild Wars players who are looking forward to the sequel?
EF: Since Guild Wars 2 takes place 250 years after the first game, there is some limit to how much we can carry plotlines or characters from one game to another. The live team has a whole slew of cool content for Guild Wars that is designed to set up the state of the world that we see in the second game. I just spoke to John Stumme, who heads up the live team, and he told me that their next big project takes place in Cantha and involves the plight of the tengu, the origins of the Ministry of Purity, and the isolation of the entire continent. By that same token, we have a lot of little surprises in Guild Wars 2 for fans of the first game. We'll see a few returning characters, places in the world that have changed dramatically or even stayed remarkably the same, and monuments to some of the heroes from Tyria's past.
GS: There is a push to take games mobile--playable, accessible--can you expand on your plans with Guild Wars 2?
EF: We plan to make the mobile experience in Guild Wars 2 an integral part of the game. We've spoken a bit about plans for things such as being able to chat with friends, see a map that shows the location of guild mates, and interact with the marketplace. Those things are just the start of what we can allow players to do. Since we consider this an integral part of the game, we want to do this all without charging any sort of monthly fee and for a minimal app price, if not for free.
GS: Finally, is there anything else you'd like to add about Guild Wars 2?
EF: It's going to be a big year for Guild Wars 2. We know our fans have had to be patient awaiting news, for which we give them huge thanks, but we think they'll really like what they see!
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75 comments
GuildWars 1 it's simply the best mmorpg i ever played, cant wait for the GW2 and i hope that the GW1 will then be free to play and that no production code will be needed :))
I spent most of my teenage years in the worlds of Guild Wars 1 and it's expensions, which also caused me to completely f**k up my school. So yeah... Cant friggin wait for GW2. Absolute game of the year for me already
really looking forward to this one, spent lots and lots of hours with gw1 (and it's expansions)
really looking forward to this one, spent lots and lots of hours with gw1 (and it's expansions)
I personally don't care about Guild Wars but it's great for those that played/play the first one.
i am sooooo looking forward to this, probs one of my most anticipated games this year :-D gunna be epic!!!
@slpr21, and all the others who dismiss GW2 as "just another fantasy MMO" check this out first: http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/guild-wars-2-manifesto-trailer-1 then check out the GW2 Site and the ArenaNet blog (google it), for more detailed info. The motto is: "If you like MMORPG's, you should check out GW2. If you HATE MMORPG's, you should DEFINITLEY check out GW2". I usually don't really like MMORPG's, i prefer solo RPG's, and most of them don't really encourage solo well enough, or make party play that fun (idiotic unforgiving players don't really help either). I found Guild Wars tolerable, and considering i did not have to pay $15 a month for, as you put it (and i agree), "just another fantasy MMORPG". Fun players, good options for solo players, and ease of participating in part play without having to feel forced to do anything (with double profession system in GW), made GW a fun way to participate in the MMO-craze. GW2 will be even better, more forgiving, more fun for both solo and group play, and it makes a point to eliminate everything we hate about MMORPG's (even if we love them). Please don't dismiss it yet, and if you can get to PAX, check out their new demo. A lot of both enthusiastic fans and skeptic journalists had a lot of fun with their last demo, and seem to agree that so far ArenaNet are following through with their promises.
noclue_27 TERA online already did that and it was the best launchin mmo in asia ever made so far with 37 + servers runnng right now and they are all full,guikd wars have only the name and its a f2p so ofc it will do well in the market
@ voods07 So I'm guessing that (with that logic) newcomers to Monster Hunter Tri shouldn't get it? With that idea, then only those that got into MH1 would have 'rights' to play the game. So were there any games that you played that were sequels (as your first foray into the series)?
@voods07 : Wow, I bought Guild Wars Prophecies, before it was called Prophecies. I've played every bit of content there is in Guild Wars. Heck, I'm even a regular poster on the GW2 forums (you might know me as Quinci). But I implore new players, ignore this guy. GW2 is going to be a much better game than GW1 imo, and it's going to appeal to a much broader audience. Trust me when I say there are very few in the GW community that are d-bags and will desire to ostrasize GW2 players who didn't play GW1. Honestly the GW community is in general much more mature than this and I really hope GW2 gets a lot more support than GW had, as Anet deserves it for making such a good game.
@tyco_ex -- great article link, thanks. Just goes to show you how little these things cost (for crying outloud that 200 mill included everyone's salaries and cust service centers), yet somehow they think they deserve (or more likely think they can get away with charging stupid people) exorbanent fees for mystery services. P.S. Is this an article about guild wars or 2011 upcoming games, because id prefer they pay more attention to the games the majority of people care about, e.g. UC3 ... but no, that gets one measly paragraph.
@Entropy730 Thats because Diablo III doesn't exist, and it never will. Tangent: I'm gonna hate all the band-wagoneers in-game when it is released; if you didn't play/ or are not playing GW1, stay out of GW2.
@Entropy730 These selections aren't presented in any particular order and the week isn't over yet. There are more games coming.
@fps_d0minat0r: Anet is pretty good at making the graphics "scalable," so that they look pretty on good pc's but can also be turned down to run well on crappy pc's. You'll probably be able to run the game fine.
how many more games/days are they picking because there is such a good lineup comming up.
@ Darth_Pietrus: Yes there is no subscription fee. The idea that subscription fees are needed to fun an mmo is a scam developed to separate gullible players from their money. Here's a little article to show you just how much money WoW actually makes (although it is a little old): http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330507,00.asp And Anet was quite profitable with the first Guild Wars series, despite it having a relatively small player-base.
@JokerPRO10 That's it! this game is changing all the rules of MMO and tring to make it good for people who don't like that genre, you need to watch the game's mainfesto. but never mund that, I'm waiting for this game so much, this looks so epic just come out already!
come on man think MASS EFFECT 3 what is guild wars never herd of it the DUKE is gonna flop killzone and uncharted are good but lose the other two
so Star Wars: The Old Republic is the most anticipated this year... but it's not even on day 3 yet? Same for Diablo 3... it's like number two or three on the list and it's not on the anticipated picks? wtf is this?
My top game priorities for this year are: Resistance3, Gears3, Killzone3, Uncharted3, Arkham City, Socom4 in no particular order. These games will have me occupied during February, March, April, September and the Holiday season. It is going to be awesome!. Currently replaying Gears and Gears2, KZ2 and Uncharted 2... simply awesome
I so curious as to how well this game will be. Suppose to be such better improvements over the first game. Let hope it delivers.
I think GW2 will change alot in the MMO genre. http://www.killtenrats.com/2010/11/29/gw2-interview-on-energy-and-skills-pt-1/ http://www.killtenrats.com/2010/11/30/gw2-interview-on-energy-and-skills-pt-2/
You have to feel for all the WoWers out there, because when this drops, im going to play it for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! :D
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