Category: Guild Wars 2

Responding to my gloom about MMO designs that make “Massively Multiplayer” mean “solo or be griefed (more),” Axiom comments:

You might want to check out Guild Wars 2, which is nearing the end of development and is slated for Closed Beta in November or December.

The game was designed from the ground up to eliminate a lot of the ways that typical MMOs fail to encourage cooperation and rather foster anti-social behavior.

Some of the ways they have addressed this are:

1. No mob tapping or kill stealing. Everyone, grouped or not, who does a minimal percent of damage to a mob (5% to 10%) gets full XP and their own individual loot, both at the same level as if they had defeated the mob alone.

2. Rather than traditional quests, the PVE content is mostly in the form of Dynamic Event chains that branch and cascade through out each game zone. Events scale up with more players, offering more challenge and reward. At the completion of the event, in addition to mob xp and loot, everyone gains a reward based on their level of participation vs. predetermined thresholds, adjusted for the number of participants. The rewards are issued whether players succeed or fail the event and you aren’t competing with others for a finite number of reward slots.

3. The game does away with the “holy trinity” of class roles; tank, dps, heals. Continue reading Comments of the Week: Guild Wars 2 in Summary

I’ve played Guild Wars 2 on two separate occasions at PAX East and when I was invited to ArenaNet. I remember the first time I sat down and played the game, but so much of that feeling was muddled because as much as I wanted to play Guild Wars 2, I wanted to meet the makers of the game as much, if not moreso. I miss that feeling now of discovery, mystery, and imagination.

So, it was really nice to read comrade-in-arms, Lewis B’s first impressions post over at Tap Repeatedly. He gives a bunch of facts and feedbacks, but most importantly he writes with emotion. His excitement bleeds through the article. I feel that as more people see actual plays on YouTube and get to see the demo themselves, this excitement period will be lost. At least until launch. Then all bets are off.

–Ravious

I was a little silent over Asura Week. Usually my goal during those weeks is to find some different angle to push and provoke thoughts along different lines. I just wasn’t finding it with the asura. I wasn’t finding anything of depth. I would easily say they are the most superficial player-race in Guild Wars 2. What you see is what you get. Continue reading [GW2] Asuran Intricacies

I, Norman the Wary, have cataloged some of the many guilds of Tyria in interviewing so many of the races. I have done my best to transcribe the, shall we say, intricacies of each race as I learned and sought to find a guild of my own.

The Charr

My guild, meat? Are you looking to join us? Well you can’t. Plain and simple. My guild is my warband, and my warband is my guild. We cut our teeth toegther; we will die together. That’s why you can’t join. You haven’t known us for the better part of a decade. We don’t allow outsiders, and our focus and dedication is to the guild. We are going to be the best guild on the field because of it.

You did not see Triok speaking with another guild! No, he would never defect even if they explore more dungeons. It doesn’t matter that he’s allowed to join another guild. He’s not allowed with us. We’re too close for that bull skritt. Go away, meat, I have a Triok to deal with.

The Norn

So, you want to join our guild, huh? Good, the more the merrier. Bring me another drink so we can celebrate you and those other five guys in the guild. Here’s to you six more! Naw, I don’t know how big our guild is. It just is. We’re here just to have fun. Exclusivity? Exclusivity of what? You can be in as many guilds as you want.

Look, our guild is based on ancient norn tradition of “do what you want.” It’s a good tradition too! Norn a plenty, I say. Sure, there are penalties. If you pee in my cask of ale, I probably break your legs and might kick you out of the guild. I don’t know though, some guild drama let’s me sit back and eat this new asura snack. Something like ‘Popp’s butter-injected density-modified kernels.’ There’s probably a few other words I’m missing. So, anyway, I might just break your legs.

The Sylvari

What is a guild? “Guild” is a word. Like “love.” A way of saying “these are the people I play with.” I do not resent the people outside my guilds – I am grateful that they too are part of Tyria. We are all here together, and that is a gift.

You’ve never heard of a sylvari speak of “love”? Oh, “guilds.” No, it is just a word. What matters is the connection the word implies. I see you wearing guild colors. Can you tell me what you would give to hold on to that connection? Then perhaps the reason you’re here is not so different from the reason I’m here. Perhaps we will start a guild too then.

The Humans

This guild here is based out of Queensdale County. We’re good farm folk and bandit-killers. No, that’s the Queen’s Reach Gate guild. They’re located at a different tavern. Look, I don’t mean to be rude, I mean you can join our guild if you want. I just don’t think you’ll understand the nature of our guild. We have deeper roots than just, going to the Mists to beat back the Sparkfly Swamp boys.

It’s just, I don’t know you, and even though I don’t really know Bynn the Breaker over there neither. I know her stock. I know that she knows the taste of Queensdale pork shoulder smoked with Queensdale apple wood. That means a lot around here. Each year we head to a tavern in the Mists for a meet and greet. Like I said, just because I don’t know you, don’t mean I don’t know you. Not, you, I mean… Bynn over there.

The Asura

Why are you wasting my time? Asuran archives already has volumes on the guilds of the lesser races and the mighty asura. What do I think? Well, you’re right, the volumes are probably a bit off from what’s true. Asura build guilds for purpose. It is purpose that binds us; purpose that drives us. For without purpose, our guilds would not exist. No, I am not angry. You stop talking in your angry voice!

Anyway, do the job is what we say. I don’t care about Glikk over there any more than I care about you. I know that he will do what it takes to get the perfect ioniclear crystal amplifier off of some ancient desert king’s grave. and I got his back for it. There is no other connection. When we are done, we part ways.

–Norman the Wary

(This post is for the GuildMag Blog Carnival 2. Be sure to check out all the other entries! I will update this post with the Blog Carnival 2 link when it goes up. –Rav)

I’ve just received word that next week (9/12-9/16) is Asura Week for Guild Wars 2. The week is chock full of blog articles fans would expect from the Guild Wars 2 race weeks. Monday and Tuesday, Matt Barrett will be discussing asura character and then environment design with a special “Hey Bookah” asura advice column on Tuesday. Wednesday, Angel McCoy is going to discuss writing about the asura and the article is sure to be peppered with asura audio. Thursday, Helen Prior is going to show off the asura animation style while Jeff Grubb helps to update the official site’s asura entry, and Ree Soesbee is going to top it all off with a lore post on Friday.

I find this interesting in terms of development and possible the beta because there is really only one more big arrow, the eighth profession, after Asura Week. I say big arrow because, in my opinion, it’s the last bit of news that all Guild Wars 2 fans are interested in. Things like guild specifics, PvP specifics, and the like won’t hit everybody’s bullseye, so to speak. Those anti-gremlin asura are sure to get the mental juices flowing!

–Ravious

 

That buzz word in the title should get some attention. Regardless of your stance, good reader, on federalism and what any U.S. founders believed, the premise of “big government” is control. It’s this issue of control, or perceived lack of control, with the hinted Guild Wars 2 guild system that has the community in a tizzy.

The Guild Wars 2 guild system lets players join multiple guilds through their account and characters. My asura warrior, Guvvernator, might be in some main guild, an asura-only role-playing guild, a 6-man real-life friends guild, and a casual PvP guild. The full details of the guild system are missing, but I suspect that since I can rack up influence for my guilds, I would likely have to choose one guild as my “main,” which would receive the benefits of my activities. The others would be exclusive chat rooms with whatever other guild features ArenaNet is planning, hopefully like a guild bank. Continue reading [GW2] Big Government Guilds

As I’ve said before, with the mind crush of information coming out of PAX for Guild Wars 2 I have to focus on one feature with laser-like intensity for my sanity and ability to communicerfuffle*error*. Anyway, possibly one of the first features most players think about for Guild Wars 2 is the guilds themselves. We aren’t doing a guildless war, people!

Elixabeth, Bringer-of-Sunshine, finishes up her thoughts on day 2 at PAX, where significant news of guilds in Guild Wars 2 was released. There’s some cool stuff like gaining “influence” for a guild by doing activities, which seems to be getting more standard in MMOs, such as Rift. Guilds will be able to capture, hold, and upgrade keeps in the world v. world PvP combat zone, which again is pretty standard for an MMO with that persistent PvP zonage. I would say that these are pretty good additions, but the best news is how each player and that player’s character joins guilds. Continue reading [GW2] Unshackling Guilds

The one thing that I will commend ArenaNet for in this pre-release hype-building phase is that they are illustrating the time, work, and love that is being poured in to each ounce of Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet could do the simple thing and just prop up the charismatic Colin Johanson with a video blog. Maybe ask him to wear sunglasses, only black shirts, and sport an English accent to make it seem like developers are all rock-stars, but that’s not real. What is real is hearing from all the people that it takes to make one small part of a video game. In the latest ArenaNet blog post they do just that.

This beautiful article goes through a complete process of creating a single PvP map from lore to design to programming. Even my man, Peter Fries, talks about the PvP announcer’s voice with his cohort, Scott McGough. It is readily apparent that each developer wrote their own portion. Habib Loew raises the banner for game programmers and gives an overview of the programming required for PvP within the engine designed for massive PvE. Shen-Ming Spurgeon goes pretty specific discussing one of the major visuals for the map: great balls of fire. I really like how in-depth Spurgeon went for the task.

It’s really a nice read, and I hope that the developers have more time to do this. A big challenge when the polite request is likely “how do I make my job interesting?” I think they did a great job. I think it really helped that these were all bounded in a focused part of the game rather than, “Yo, Chuck Knigge, tell us what you do.”

Like Rubi over at Massively says, there is serious information overload. So many interviews, articles, videos, etc. that it is nearly impossible to focus. For those wanting links I’d check out Guild Wars 2 Guru’s thread, Talk Tyria, and GuildMag for some great updates. For faster commentary than I can handle make sure to look up Hunter’s Insight. With PAX coming, it’s not going to stop for quite some time.

–Ravious

EDIT: Thanks to Mr Crackers for clarification, but it appears that conquest is not the only PvP game type.. I guess even including WvWvW. 

Holy NCSoft information crush coming from Germany this morning. Carbine Studios shows off their shiny new MMO with a funny trailer. Seems like an MMO worth watching with gameplay a tad more action than the vanilla norm (“don’t stand in the poop” red circles) and a theme that shares creative space with Firefly or Borderlands with more magic. More on that later. ArenaNet also joins in on the crush with a brand new Guild Wars 2 trailer with a fantastic, artistic opening. This is on top of everything else coming out of gamescom. I don’t have the mental fortitude to digest all of this so I will focus on one small offering. Guild Wars 2 PvP.

Continue reading [GW2] PvP Unveiled

If ArenaNet is teaching us anything it’s that the game we see today might not live until launch. Some interviews here are now part of a mirror-world Guild Wars 2 that won’t exist in this timeline. Yet this is the double-edged sword ArenaNet knows it is welding, and as they swing that sword again, I believe everybody on all sides are learning just a little bit more. Jon Peters spends some time on the ArenaNet Blog discussing what players will be seeing in the upcoming demo builds for Guild Wars 2 for the lucky players at gamescom and PAX. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything has he starts out by saying energy is gone.

Continue reading [GW2] Demo Changes (Turn and Face the Strain)