Thanks to Naoroji at Guild Wars 2 Guru we received a translation from an interview from a Dutch magazine regarding Guild Wars 2. There are a lot of good tidbits from Naoroji’s post on racial abilities and underwater exploration, but the best cut is on World PvP. Continue reading ‘Guild Wars 2 RTS’
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The Guild Wars 2 Art Book is now available for sale for all of us unfortunates that could not make it to PAX (unfortunate, yet PAX flu-free). It is a beautiful hardbound treasure filled with art from ArenaNet’s award-winning concept artists, and for once I do not have to buy the collector’s edition for the art. I don’t understand why game companies, especially MMO companies with very loyal fans, do not constantly utilize these generated assets. I’ve seen some beautiful Aion Online and Lord of the Rings Online concept art in video presentations, and I fear I might never see it again. Like music, I see no reason not to double dip.
–Ravious
logic and common sense will only interfere
EDIT: This book will not be included in the Guild Wars 2 Collector’s Edition.
Thanks to the fine folks at ArenaNet, I had a chance to ask Linsey Murdock and Isaiah “Izzy” Cartwright some questions on the Guild Wars series. Linsey is the current lead designer for the Guild Wars 1 Live Team, and Izzy is hard at work on Guild Wars 2. The interview gives some good insight for what both may have in store for the future. Continue reading ‘Guild Wars Interview’
Guild Wars 2 is fast becoming one of the most anticipated MMO-type games since the release of the Guild Wars 2 trailer and follow up articles and interviews. Jeff Grubb – World Designer and Writer for Guild Wars 2 - just back from a busy time at Germany’s Gamescom, and he was graciously able to answer a few questions before heading off to PAX 2009, where ArenaNet will have plenty of events. (Be sure to check out their giveaway times for their 128-page Guild Wars 2 concept art book.) On to the questions! Continue reading ‘Guild Wars 2 Interview’
If Guild Wars 2 was not enough, ArenaNet seems to have really been paying attention to what fans have been asking for in other mediums. One of ArenaNet’s crown jewels is their art team. They have produced hands-down some of the best concept art I have ever seen. Their art constantly appears in trade magazines and books like Spectrum. Now, they are going to be releasing a hardback, 128-page concept art book for Guild Wars 2. Fans have been asking for something like this for a long time. The book’s first showing will be at the upcoming PAX, where they will be giving the books away! Worry not, those stranded in sunnier climes, the book will go on sale at a later date.
On another note, while Guild Wars 2 news is still coming at a decent pace, some of it is crafted through lore forum theory, wiki postings by the devs, or other “off the radar” bits. Right now the folks at Guild Wars 2 Guru are doing a great job at putting these blips on a central radar on their front page. Things like Guild Wars 2 gun concept art!
–Ravious
a speed understander
There is a lot of discussion when a new MMO pops in on whether its advancements to our beloved genre are iterant evolutionary steps or something revolutionary. World of Warcraft was often seen as the perfect evolutionary game coming off of the Everquest-type MMO. I think there was one revolutionary step that World of Warcraft had that is often overlooked: quests.
Lots of RPGs and MMOs had quests, but World of Warcraft took the concept and ran with it. It changed the MMO landscape forever. No longer were people supposed to go grind and putz around in the zone made for their level. They now had a keen purpose. The quest-based MMO design demarcated a term called grind. If a player had to go out and kill ten rats to gain a level it was grind. If an NPC rewarded a player with quest text and a quest reward for killing ten rats, it was not. Could the MMO genre imagine a PvE-MMO with purpose that was not saturated with quests in every zone? Continue reading ‘A Revolutionary Step?’
This early morning (or lunchtime in Germany), ArenaNet finally opened the gates to their much anticipated sequel to the original Guild Wars. The Guild Wars 2 website has gone live with the trailer available for download or streaming.
The trailer is done in a 2.5D paper-doll fashion (which is why the ship in the first few seconds looks off), and it tells the story of a dragon named Zhaitan raising the sunken nation of Orr. It’s undead armies then waged war on the five main races of Tyria, which just happen to be the playable races. The trailer then goes on to show some of the vistas in-game. It is beautiful, and will likely even give Aion Online a run for the money in best-looking MMO once Guild Wars 2 launches.
I find it interesting that the trailer and website focus on Zhaitan, whose name was not known before today. Eye of the North focused on the elder dragon Primordus, but the first conflict we are told about is with Zhaitan. I wonder if Guild Wars 2 will be episodic in that each battle with another elder dragon will bring on a new expansion of content. Too early to tell.
A few more quickies from the flood of information. Aside from Asuran “magitech,” the weapon technology of the world seems to be at a rudimentary firearms stage. There will be day and night cycles in the persistent zones. There will be instancing, but the hub system of Guild Wars 1 is mostly going to be replaced, which is very interesting. Hopefully they still keep the same level of map travel as in the original. The event system is the main focus of getting people working together.
The opening bomb has dropped in great style, and we will be getting lore updates for the rest of the year. Gameplay discussion will begin next year according to the Guild Wars 2 FAQ.
–Ravious
twice as bright burns half as long
Finally. Kick off likely at Cologne or PAX. You can also follow them on Twitter. I’ll try to limit myself to weekly updates here. It’s going to be tough though.
It seems that most cool things happen on the internet, when I am disconnected from it. Yesterday, three things rocked Guild Wars’ small corner of the internet, most of which happened while I was on the train home.
The first was the USK’s certification of a Guild Wars 2 (gamescom – Trailer). ArenaNet will have a good presence at the convention (Jeff Grubb would be my personal target to stalk), but they will not have a booth. The certification has since publicly been taken down. Although I would love to see any Guild Wars 2 trailer sooner, PAX would be a much better convention to present it because ArenaNet will have a booth and very strong presence there. I am excited about the possibility of a CG trailer because the Guild Wars Factions trailer is one of my all time favorite video game trailers.
Then Jeff Strain, one of ArenaNet’s co-founders, amicablyleft NCSoft as President of Product Development. The public is not really sure as to the reasons of the departure only about a month before the NA/EU launch of Aion Online. Strain is an MMO giant, and I hope one day to be able to chat with him. Hopefully someday, somehow he will be back in our little niche market. Regardless, Mike O’Brien, one of the other ArenaNet co-founders and current executive producer of Guild Wars 2, has the best thoughts, especially with regard to Guild Wars 2:
Jeff is a personal friend of mine. We worked together very closely from the time he joined Blizzard in 1996, through our founding of ArenaNet in 2000, until he left ArenaNet to join NCsoft West in 2008. I’m sad to see him leaving NCsoft now. We remain good friends and I wish him great success in his next endeavor.
It’s important to understand that ArenaNet is a separate and self-contained development studio. Jeff hasn’t been involved in the day-to-day development of Guild Wars 2since he left ArenaNet more than a year ago, and I don’t expect his departure to have a direct impact on our studio or on Guild Wars 2. I continue to lead ArenaNet, and I’m not going anywhere.
The final bit of news is the application process for the Guild Wars Test Krewe is now almost open. The application went up and down most of last night because there were backend issues that prevented actual submission of the application. It seems like it is currently down, but should be re-opened sometime in the west coast morning. The application asks for beta experience, age of your favorite Guild Wars character, and a very open-ended “what would you bring to the Test Krewe.” If you want to help Guild Wars Live Team development, with a possible jump to get into Guild Wars 2 testing, check it out. I highly recommend reading this wisdom before submitting an application.
I finally logged off last night, and XKCD, as usual, knew exactly how I felt.
–Ravious
sleep tight in your cot
For the minority of players that read the patch notes, there is an even smaller minority. Let’s call them nicely the Caretakers. The Caretakers are players that love the game to a degree that emphasizes the definition of a love/hate relationship. They read the patch notes for your favorite MMO, and whereas more casual players just nod that things are getting better, the Caretakers see holes.
The bear skill is still overpowered. Those fire wizards are still overpowered. The combo-class is still weak and still not wanted in parties. The Cap of Pulcritude (sic) is still (sic). And, what are all these needless things that the developers wasted their time on. Who gives a rodent turd about the stuff they actually did? Except for that one thing, that was pretty good. A light salve for the godhanded slap in the Caretakers’ faces.
The Caretakers then unite in their public council for all casual forumgoers to see, and they pontificate on how the developers clearly do not understand the problems in their own game. Which makes me wonder… Should developers put some defensive, non-patch notes in their patch notes? I don’t just mean the “we understand the issues with [a most reviled feature], and are looking in to it” (which rarely makes it into the patch notes anyway). I mean something that a game designer would query another game designer on.
At the end of the day the Caretakers truly care about the game. Sane community managers and developers know this. Caretakers are also some of the most expert of people on the game. They know the game better than many of the developers. Sane community managers and developers also know this. So could the Caretakers be used manipulatively as an unknowing think tank? Continue reading ‘Defensive Patch Notes’
