First, if you haven’t seen this new gem from ArenaNet then feast on it in as high a def as you can muster. It’s an updated video version of their earlier manifesto newly born for the upcoming games conventions. The video starts out with a few of ArenaNet’s top devs giving some quick phrases on their design philosophy to shatter the current MMO mold. The video is interspersed with in-game footage and a little concept art, and about halfway it switches over to full in-game footage showing some very impressive events. The locations largely focus on the human starting zone and the Brand, a late game charr zone. According to the accompanying ArenaNet blog post Walking the Walk these will be the two areas gamers will experience in the convention demos. A deeper look at the video and the post after the break.
Author Archive for Ravious
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Lots of Guild Wars 2 news has been dropping as the energy for the game ramps up to the first public hands-on demo of Guild Wars 2 at gamescom next week. Thanks as always to the community at Guild Wars 2 Guru for keeping super up to date on any Guild Wars 2 rustling in the internet.
First up is a small note. The guys at Penny Arcade and Scott Kurtz of PvP Online were invited by ArenaNet to play Guild Wars 2. Later on the UStream channel for PvPTV, Scott talked briefly about his play experience. One interesting point he made was how there was usually a watermelon collecting event at a farm, but when he got to the farm it was instead overrun by rabbits. There were no instructions as to what to do with the rabbits, but with a moment’s search he found a cage to put the rabbits in. It should be noted that he completely ignored the ongoing “large” event where some big monster was attacking and NPCs were running to defend. In other words, he played how he wanted to with all the ongoing events.
Hello, gamers, listen to your MMO, now back to Guild Wars 2, now back to your MMO, now back to Guild Wars 2. Sadly, your MMO isn’t Guild Wars 2, but if it stopped using stock Pokemon sounds and switched to something that would blow Hollywood away, it could sound like Guild Wars 2.
Listen around, back here, where are you? You’re in the marketplace with the MMO your MMO could sound like. What’s in your ear, back at me. They have it, it’s a farmer with a fresh harvest of that thing you love. Listen again, the produce is now a crazy fisherman. Anything sounds possible when your MMO sounds like Guild Wars 2 and not 8-bit audio.
Do you want an MMO that can sound like an actual living city with drunk patrons at the Busted Flagon talking about the illegal deal that went down in the alley by the bar while crickets chirped? Of course you do! Swan Dive – into the best aural experience of your life. So gamers should your MMO sound like Guild Wars 2? You tell me!
–Ravious
on a pale horse
“Tao” is one of the most simple [religious] concepts ever to describe, and one of the hardest to fully comprehend. Simply put it is “the way.” In smaller personalized chunks it can represent the way of living, the way of living, or the way of self. Every MMO, whether I like it or not, has a player Tao. In so-called amusement park MMOs (e.g., World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online) the way to play is nearly set in stone. Sure there are filthy roleplayers that clog up an inn or ancient, ruined megastructure now and then, but all they are doing is forcing sandbox play into the set of preordained rides. It’s very hard to fight the collectively defined way to play. It’s even harder for a player to feel like the way of playing is his or her own.
Even though ArenaNet kept away from this deep waters concept, their latest blog article basically presents their view of Tao through an MMO through their systems of “personality” and “karma.” They are systems to help define a player path, but also to let the player personalize it.
Things have been a little slow since Dungeons and Dragons Online killed my computer. I kid, a little. I mean it was the game I was playing when my HP “gaming” laptop’s video card was reduced to short-circuited rubble. The game was not at fault because a simple Google search revealed that my laptop series had huge video card problems, and I was very lucky to have mine last so long. I attribute it to judicious use of a separate laptop fan. In the meantime I am waiting for a desktop; the first I’ve had in six years. Anyway…
The NDA for Lord of the Ring’s big update has dropped. I was not in beta (mostly by choice), so I am learning everything with the public. I was accidentally leaked the fact about adding Lua scripting to the UI, and I pray we have some sort of Scrolling Combat Text mod up on Book release. Thank you, devs, for listening. The API for the mods is very, very limited so don’t expect anything on the order of World of Warcraft or GearScore. Still, it is nice to give some more moddable access to a fanbase, which has infinite dev time by comparison.
There is so much to learn, like exceptional Captain updates, new bank usage, the freeish-to-play (F2P) system, the new zone Enedwaith, and so much more. I am so far behind in information that I will have to severely piece meal it over the week. Any Legendary Item changes? What’s available to purchase in the cash shop? And so on.
I clearly burnt out on Lord of the Rings Online early this year during a very stressful time in my life. Now, with a new computer and a new game update, I feel it is time to ride in to the Enedwaithian dawn…. drunk…. on a new keg-carrying Inn League horse… with permanent drunk effect.
–Ravious
in the middle of the street
ArenaNet more than graciously gave Kill Ten Rats a chunk of Jeff Grubb’s very busy time to ask five follow-up questions stemming from Ghosts of Ascalon. Who better to ask than one of the co-authors of Ghosts of Ascalon himself? Read on to hear about hints at the developer’s cut of the shadow show, more on the Deep Sea Dragon, and most importantly, thoughts on perspective.
ArenaNet has been on a roll with dropping bombs from MMO heaven. When Tycho from Penny Arcade even calls them out as warriors of sooth and justice on the MMO scene, they’re doing something right. So, last night could have been the same when they announced the level cap for Guild Wars 2 at 80 on the ArenaNet blog. There were two pieces of information: level cap is 80, and level progression is constant vs. time. This could have been a Tweet.
It’s not that this new information isn’t nice to have; it’s that out of context it is nearly meaningless. It’s like if they came on and said “the best sword in the game does 444-555 damage per hit.” Okay, sounds good, I guess. I mean clearly they restate their goal that they don’t want leveling in itself to be the content. However, the more important question that should have been immediately followed up is “how do levels matter?” Continue reading ‘Guild Wars 2 – Level Cap, And?’
When ArenaNet drops megaton bombs like the Guild Wars 2 classes, it’s easy for the community to remain focused. However, there are still downtimes as ArenaNet preps for the upcoming conventions Gamescom and PAX East where players will be able to demo Guild Wars 2! Even if megaton bombs are not dropping there are nice little tidbits across the ether. Here’s a few that caught my eye:
I was really lucky, in a way, to have forgotten my license on a tequila run because of the bookstore right next to the ABC. As a karmic request to the universe for my lack of dinner margaritas I asked that if it could provide an early stocking of the first Guild Wars novel, Ghosts of Ascalon (for official release July 27). My hopes sank when I did not find it in the new sci-fi/fantasy section. I decided on my way out of the bookstore to pass all the Star Wars, Magic the Gathering, and Dungeons and Dragons novels. The amazing cover art of this book jumped right out at me on the top shelf of that section. With Ghosts of Ascalon in hand, the need for a watermelon margarita evaporated (I found out later the book did not have the same effect on my wife); I had a book to consume!
Ghosts of Ascalon is the first of three planned novels for the Guild Wars universe. The novels are meant to help tie the events between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2. Ghosts of Ascalon takes place approximately a year before Guild Wars 2. It follows the story of unlikely hero, Dougal Keane, a human with ties to the major human cities and the fallen, ghost-ridden Ascalon City, who leads a racially diverse group of adventurers to Ascalon City to retrieve a powerful artifact, the Claw of the Khan-Ur. The retrieval will ultimately set the tentative peace between the bitter enemies, the humans and charr, we will see in Guild Wars 2.
The final-ish part of the War in Kryta chapter of Guild Wars Beyond dropped awhile go, but I didn’t have the time or sheer will to complete it until last night. The Battle for Lion’s Arch might be one of the most intense instances in Guild Wars. The road to this mini-mission (a quest with its own instance) can be long and frustrating, but the end result is very much worth it. Even the rewards along the way are pretty nice.