guild wars
<div class="IPBDescription">eye of the north & gw2</div>GW: EotN will be an expansion, Guild Wars 2 standalone.
Translated articles from a gaming mag I have a subscription for [PC GamePlay] (probably with loads of errors and crappy English, but you get the idea):
<b><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Guild Wars - Eye of the North<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
The MMORPG Guild wars has been on our hard drive since april 2005. Prophecies was a real Classic and Factions and Nightfall were also on the mark for the millions of Guild Wars-fans who were all too happy they didn't have to pay a monthly fee for these games (unlike many other MMORPG's). As such, Guild Wars offers a lot of MMORPG playing pleasure at a low price and that's surely one of the main reasons of its success. But the formula's getting old. After Nightfall, we started to wonder how the Guild Wars series would evolve and if ArenaNet could keep the formula of a new continent and two new Professions each campaign interresting. All in all, we were wondering more and more about the future of the Guild Wars series and took the bull by the horns and asked our questions to Jeff Strain, producer and co-founder of ArenaNet and lead designet James Phinney. The answers were more than surprising.
<b>A new evil and many new victims</b>
We found out that ArenaNet doesn't have one but two new Guild Wars games in developement, namely Eye of the North and Guild Wars 2. Eye of the North is the first expansion to the Guild Wars universe and isn't a standalone campaign like Factions or Nightfall. As a gamer, you have to own at least one campaign (Prophecies, Factions or Nightfall) if you want to play Eye of the North. The story behind Eye of the North is as follows: the Guild Wars areas Tyria, Cantha and Elona are plagued by huge earthquakes. These earthquakes reveal several passage ways to gigantic underground complexes or dungeons. As a gamer, you can swiftly explore these Dungeuns and will soon make contact with the Dwarves, who are in a life or death battle with the ancient enemy named The Great Destroyer and his companions. Besides that, you'll also get to meet two new races, the Asura and the Norn, who will also play a big role in Guild Wars 2. The Asura are an extraordinary intelligent and inventive race that dominates the underground of Tyria. However, they think that the time has come to make their way to the surface and expand their territory. Actually, they had been working on subtly recreating the Maguuma Jungle (Prophecies campaign) and started to build huge temples here and there. The Asura are proficient in magic and very good at making objects from rock and steel. They are small in statue, but make up for this with their solid confidence that they will soon - as the most intelligent race - subjugate all other races. The other races beg to differ. The Norn are completely different. They believe in pure strength above all and have as a slogan "Only trust the might of steel". The fact that they're Half-Giants who can shapeshift to gigantic beasts might help that. Norn decendants strongly believe in the individual, in pure strength and cleansing the mind by honorable combat. the Norn don't have leaders but Heroes, to which other Norn decendants look up to. the Norn honor the spirits of dead animals, which gives them something Shaman-like.
<b>New Areas</b>
Eye of the North offers four new regions: namely the Charr Homeland, the Dungeons, the Far Shiverpeaks and the Tarnished Coast. Of course, we remember the Charr from the Prophecies campaign and this time you get to explore their home land, which lookss a little like pre-Searing Ascalon: with an abundant and magnificent nature including green fields full of little flowers, wonderful waterfalls and trees bathing in beautiful fall colors. In this home land of the Charr, one thing you get to look for is a lost Ascalon Legion. The underground dungeons, of which there are 18 planned, offer wonderful catacombs excavated by the Asura, Dwarves or other (hostile) races and vary from rock formations to excavated igneous rocks in which there's still a trail of flowing lava to ice caves and tunnels excavated in glaciers. These Dungeons are inspired by the many dungeons in nightfall who were stocked full of traps. Many of these dungeons will be unrelated to the story, have a high difficulty and can just be explored when you encounter them on your journey. Basides these dungeons, there are also the Far Shiverpeaks, a nearly uninhabitalble area full of pointy rock formations and big icy fields where the Norn live. Last but not least, the Tarnished Coast borders the Maguuma Jungle and is considered uninhabitable by the inhabitants of Kryta (Prophecies). As such, it's the ideal hiding place for the Asura, who are on the run from The Great Destroyer.
<b>Watch yourself!</b>
All in all, in this expansion, the battle against the Charr continues and you can support the Dwarves, Asura and Norn in their battle against numerous problems which will once more deliver a bunch of quests. Important to know is that ehe entire Eye of the North expansion is meant for level 20 characters. As such, you won't find a training island like in Factions or Nightfall in Eye of the North. The expansion won't deliver any new Professions, but will however make for around 150 new skills for the 10 known Professions, of which about 50 will be Player versus Environment exclusive. These skills have special traits, such as having a bonus versus a certain type of enemy (for example Giants), skill so powerful they would unbalance Player versus Player (PvP) fights or skills you simply wouldn't need in PvP such as Disarming Traps. Also worth mentioning is that this expansion will take over the Nightfall Heroes system and will introduce 10 new heroes. And because some eye-candy is necessary as well, this expansion will offer 40 new armor set. Want to know more? We thought so, so we put producor Jeff Strain on our Dwarven Grill (not too well done, he still needs to be able to finish the game), after which he was eager to answer all of our questions.
<u><b>Interview</b></u>
<b>PCGP: ArenaNet is suddenly going for an expansion and not a stand alone campaign. Why?</b>
Jeff Strain: Well, because we think the Guild Wars world has by now grown large enough that the already offered Professions are more than enough. In stead of adding new areas and new Professions, with this expansion we want to return to the story and atmosphere of the Prophecies campaign and mainly add a lot of content for the highlevel players. This expansion is also the connection between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. The Asura and Norn will be introduced and this will be playable races in Guild wars 2 and the battle between the Humans and Charr will be an important theme in Guild Wars 2 where the Charr will also be a playable race. Also, this expansion will introduce the big evil that will threaten Tyria in Guild Wars 2.
<b>PCGP: To make things clear, this expansion has a strong link with the Prophecies campaign, but that won't be in the same package, I assume?</b>
Jeff Strain: No, the new areas are on their own and are lovated North of the areas in the Prophecies campaign. You won't be able to just walk from the new areas to Ascalon. After all, you can also play this expansion if you just bought Factions or Nightfall.
<b>PCGP: Eye of the North will also have Heroes. What do you think of the criticism that Heroes encourage a singleplayer experience, while Guild Wars is actually an MMORPG?</b>
Jeff Strain: Well, I can understand that, but we're actually offering both possibilities and that's very important for an MMORPG. Look, playing with Henchmen or Heroes will never give an advantage in our game. You can't collect more loot, can't get more experience and can't get through the game faster. An AI Healer can't come near what a human player with a Healer can, but we make sure that, if you want to, you can take Henchmen and Heroes and experience and interresting singleplayer experience.
<b>PCGP: Will this expansion use a new 3D-engine, an improved Nightfall engine or maybe even the Guild Wars 2-engine?'</b>
Jeff Strain: Eye of the North uses an improved Nightfall engine without changing the system requirements. If you can run Nightfall, you'll be able to play this expansion.
<b>PCGP: Guild Wars players always talk about Prophecies as a real classic; but with Factions and Nightfall we noticed some criticism, while these campaigns had huge improvements such as better PvP-arena's and a better salvage system. Why do you think this is?</b>
Jeff Strain: Well, gamers were all over Prophecies and the problem we had is that we had to make sure there was a delicate balance between new elements and offering 'more of the same'. Because every campaign had to be standalone, we offered a training island, an entire new continent and new Professions and skills and with that we scattered the Guild Wars players over the continents and added a lot of complexity to the game. This is something we don't want to do anymore. Don't get me wrong, we're very proud of the improvements we made to Factions and Nightfall, but we think enough is enough and we should focus on improving the excisting continent and work on something new and that'll be Guild Wars 2.
<b><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Guild Wars 2<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
Guild Wars 2 will be the first sequel for Guild Wars. The game, expected in 2009, will take the best elements from Guild Wars and add a persistent world like we've seen in other MMORPG's. Guild Wars 2 will also make use of a new 3D-engine which should garantee amazing graphics. We had to know more, so we put James Phinney, the lead designer of Guild Wars 2, on our Dwarven Grill. This is what we found out.
<b>Return to Tyria</b>
Guild Wars 2 takes place in Tyria and offers the gamer the opportunity to return to Ascalon, Kryta etc, but hundred of years after the last 3 Guild Wars campaigns. Tyria is threatened by a new Evil, which by the way will be introduced in Eye of the North, so the need for Heroes whi won't mind hundreds of life threatening quests, is high. You start your game creating your character. Guild Wars 2 offers several races from which you can choose such as the Humans, Charr, Norn, Asura and Sylvari. Each race has a new look and unique Racial Abilities. The Norn decendants are able to shapeshift to a big and imposing bear which can take and deal a lot of damage. The point of the Racial Abilities is that, as a gamer, you can feel an actual difference playing the different races. James Phinney also said that the Racial Abilities will be equal in power. A Human Warrior and a Norn Warrior will be equally strong. Besides that, you'll be able to pick a Profession, but what those are exactly, is a secret as of yet. What we did find out, is that it isn't the idea to completely change the Guild Wars formula. The known Professions will return in one form or another, but in a smaller number that the current 10 Professions. They're also working on the skill system. Guild Wars 2 will offer less skills, but with bigger differences from one another. Two skills that do approximately the same thing won't be found anymore in Guild Wars 2.
<b>MMORPG with a story</b>
The strong point of Guild Wars when comparing it to other MMORPG's is that the story could, with an ingenious structure, tell a decent structure with great ingame cut-scenes. Like you're playing a singleplayer RPG. Which is why we were surprised to hear that Guild Wars 2 will add a persistent world to the Guild Wars-formula. Won't this ruin the typical Guild Wars way to tell a story? We asked James Phinney. James: "It won't. You shouldn't see this persistent world as a replacement for the Guild Wars-formula, it won't turn into World of Warcraft. That's not the deal. We retained all the good elements from Guild Wars, such as the instanced missions that tell the story, and have persistent areas alongside those, where you can run around with hundreds of other players. In Guild Wars, you were walking around in town, made a party of 8, and took off for an instanced area where there wouldn't be other players. This is over. In Guild Wars 2, you take off for an unknown area for quests, and will find other players in this area. With these players, you can make a party on the spot and do fulfill quests. We also added a new type of quest called an Event, to have players cooperate. I'll give you an example. Imagine, you're walking through an area and see a dragon heading for a village. People are screaming for help and you can see other players firing at the dragon and manning the ballista's in the village. You rush to help them (or don't, the choice is yours) and fire at the dragon as well (if you have ranged attacks), or man a ballista. If you manage to kill the dragon, the mayor comes out and awards all players that helped beat the dragon, depending on their share they had in the battle. So you don't have to shoot the dragon first to get part of the loot or experience, and you don't have to quickly make a party to split loot between those players. In Guild Wars 2, this all happens automatically and in a natural way. Now, imagine you aren't able to kill the dragon, but it takes off and out of frustration, destroys a bridge at the edge of town. Farmers come out of the village with horse and carriage filled with building materials, and head for the bridge. But, they are getting robbed by gangs of thieves that want the building materials. You and other players could join and stop this from happening as well. Events will often contain several missions linked together in some way, and will have different solutions depending on the result that you and other players attain. This formula is aimed to make players work together, much more so than in Guild Wars. On the other side, we'll change the instanced mission party size, which will tell much of the story, to be smaller. This will make you feel more involved with the story." Doesn't this sound interresting? And luckily for us the man wanted to tell us much more, that Dwarven Grill really was worth it.
<u><b>Interview</b></u>
<b>PCGP: Why did you increase the Guild Wars level 20 cap?</b>
James Phinney: A while ago, we had a big Guild Wars survey, and a very large group of Guild Wars 2 players has over 500 hours on the game, a surprisingly large group even has over 2000 hours on the game. If players are prepared to spend so much time in Guild Wars, it's our job to make that experience as intriguing and interresting as possible, that's why we massively increased the maximum level.
<b>PCGP: You also changed the combat system. Could you tell us some more about that?</b>
James Phinney: Sure. Look, we think we did a lot of things right in Guild Wars like working out the Professions and skills and the possible Profession combinations. But we should have made it easier for the beginning player, that's why we will make the skills more visual. For example, if you do a circular attack with an axe that strikes multiple opponents, you'll be able to see this way better from your opponents. This also goes for spells such as firing a fireball at your enemies. You'll simply be able to feel better which enemies are struch and how hard, so combat will become much more dynamic. And you'll be able to move better during combat and you'll even be able to jump, but Guild Wars 2 will definately not become a 3D-Action game. The strategical espects and calculating skills during a fight will be the biggest part of combat.
<b>PCGP: Why did you replace the Heroes and Henchmen by Companions?</b>
James Phinney: Well, heroes and henchmen were useful, but they kept taking a character slot. You used to have situations where players dumped others because they wanted to play with - for example - the hero Koss. The new Companion which we will introduce in Guild Wars 2, won't take a character slot and will be usable at all times. You'll also be able to instruct your companions, like heroes, to do certain things.
<b>PCGP: Can we expect more than the known +30 health, 20/20 sundering or 10 furious as weapon upgrades this time?</b>
James Phinney: Most definately. As the level cap was increased, we added a way larger offer of weapon upgrades. We'll also offer a lot of new types of weapon upgrades.
<b>PCGP: The salvage system in Nightfall was a big improvement when compared to the previous campaigns. Can we expect this system to be in Guild Wars 2 as well?</b>
James Phinney: Well, Guild Wars 2 will have a Crafting chapter of which Salvaging will be an important part. But the system will be different from Nightfall.
<b>PCGP: Can you tell us some more about the 3D-engine?</b>
James Phinney: The engine we use for Guild Wars 2 is a 3D-engine which is still lightly based on the Guild Wars-engine, but is rewritten completely to improve it. We added a much better 3D-display of the terrain, along with improved 3D-pathfinding and support for the most recent shaders and graphic effects. So you can expect next generation graphics for Guild Wars 2.
<b>PCGP: What new things can we expect for PvP?</b>
James Phinney: The PvP in guild Wars was pretty hardcore. We're going to make sure that players who aren't interrested in intense PvP Arena's or Guild vs Guild Battles, which will ofcourse be in the game again, will be able to play in World vs World PvP Battlefields just for fun. These are maps where groups of hundreds of players can fight eachother. You can almost compare them to RTS maps where you, as a player, can fulfill several roles. You can take over mining spots and defend them, so a caravan can bring rocks to your stronghold, which your catapults can fire at the enemy. You can attack the enemy's caravans to cut off their resources, become a scout to report enemy movement, station yourself in an outlook or take part into intense PvP action. The interresting part about this formula is that you can enter and exit it whenever you want, and you don't have to be maximum level to take part in them. We hope to do the casual PvP-player a favor with this.
<b>PCGP: We have to ask, will there be Auction Houses in Guild Wars 2?</b>
James Phinney (laughs): Well, I thought you'd ask that. We don't know if there will actually be Auction Houses in Guild Wars 2, but the Trade system will be changed completely so it will be a lot more pleasant and easy to promote your items for sale.
<b>PCGP: Can you guarantee the "no monthly fees!" system for Guild Wars 2?</b>
James Phinney: Absolutely, because this system works great. Look, we know we can make more money if we make players pay a monthly fee, but that's not our goal. We want to be able to keep paying our employees, keep investing in the Guild Wars-franchise and guarantee support and that's plenty for us. We want to confirm our position as "gamerfriendly" developer.
<b>PCGP: Great! May I thank you for this interview?</b>
James Phinney: You're welcome.
<b>Expected release date: 2009</b>
Should I scan in the articles (6 pages)? Has some concept art etc.
Also: discuss.
Translated articles from a gaming mag I have a subscription for [PC GamePlay] (probably with loads of errors and crappy English, but you get the idea):
<b><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Guild Wars - Eye of the North<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
The MMORPG Guild wars has been on our hard drive since april 2005. Prophecies was a real Classic and Factions and Nightfall were also on the mark for the millions of Guild Wars-fans who were all too happy they didn't have to pay a monthly fee for these games (unlike many other MMORPG's). As such, Guild Wars offers a lot of MMORPG playing pleasure at a low price and that's surely one of the main reasons of its success. But the formula's getting old. After Nightfall, we started to wonder how the Guild Wars series would evolve and if ArenaNet could keep the formula of a new continent and two new Professions each campaign interresting. All in all, we were wondering more and more about the future of the Guild Wars series and took the bull by the horns and asked our questions to Jeff Strain, producer and co-founder of ArenaNet and lead designet James Phinney. The answers were more than surprising.
<b>A new evil and many new victims</b>
We found out that ArenaNet doesn't have one but two new Guild Wars games in developement, namely Eye of the North and Guild Wars 2. Eye of the North is the first expansion to the Guild Wars universe and isn't a standalone campaign like Factions or Nightfall. As a gamer, you have to own at least one campaign (Prophecies, Factions or Nightfall) if you want to play Eye of the North. The story behind Eye of the North is as follows: the Guild Wars areas Tyria, Cantha and Elona are plagued by huge earthquakes. These earthquakes reveal several passage ways to gigantic underground complexes or dungeons. As a gamer, you can swiftly explore these Dungeuns and will soon make contact with the Dwarves, who are in a life or death battle with the ancient enemy named The Great Destroyer and his companions. Besides that, you'll also get to meet two new races, the Asura and the Norn, who will also play a big role in Guild Wars 2. The Asura are an extraordinary intelligent and inventive race that dominates the underground of Tyria. However, they think that the time has come to make their way to the surface and expand their territory. Actually, they had been working on subtly recreating the Maguuma Jungle (Prophecies campaign) and started to build huge temples here and there. The Asura are proficient in magic and very good at making objects from rock and steel. They are small in statue, but make up for this with their solid confidence that they will soon - as the most intelligent race - subjugate all other races. The other races beg to differ. The Norn are completely different. They believe in pure strength above all and have as a slogan "Only trust the might of steel". The fact that they're Half-Giants who can shapeshift to gigantic beasts might help that. Norn decendants strongly believe in the individual, in pure strength and cleansing the mind by honorable combat. the Norn don't have leaders but Heroes, to which other Norn decendants look up to. the Norn honor the spirits of dead animals, which gives them something Shaman-like.
<b>New Areas</b>
Eye of the North offers four new regions: namely the Charr Homeland, the Dungeons, the Far Shiverpeaks and the Tarnished Coast. Of course, we remember the Charr from the Prophecies campaign and this time you get to explore their home land, which lookss a little like pre-Searing Ascalon: with an abundant and magnificent nature including green fields full of little flowers, wonderful waterfalls and trees bathing in beautiful fall colors. In this home land of the Charr, one thing you get to look for is a lost Ascalon Legion. The underground dungeons, of which there are 18 planned, offer wonderful catacombs excavated by the Asura, Dwarves or other (hostile) races and vary from rock formations to excavated igneous rocks in which there's still a trail of flowing lava to ice caves and tunnels excavated in glaciers. These Dungeons are inspired by the many dungeons in nightfall who were stocked full of traps. Many of these dungeons will be unrelated to the story, have a high difficulty and can just be explored when you encounter them on your journey. Basides these dungeons, there are also the Far Shiverpeaks, a nearly uninhabitalble area full of pointy rock formations and big icy fields where the Norn live. Last but not least, the Tarnished Coast borders the Maguuma Jungle and is considered uninhabitable by the inhabitants of Kryta (Prophecies). As such, it's the ideal hiding place for the Asura, who are on the run from The Great Destroyer.
<b>Watch yourself!</b>
All in all, in this expansion, the battle against the Charr continues and you can support the Dwarves, Asura and Norn in their battle against numerous problems which will once more deliver a bunch of quests. Important to know is that ehe entire Eye of the North expansion is meant for level 20 characters. As such, you won't find a training island like in Factions or Nightfall in Eye of the North. The expansion won't deliver any new Professions, but will however make for around 150 new skills for the 10 known Professions, of which about 50 will be Player versus Environment exclusive. These skills have special traits, such as having a bonus versus a certain type of enemy (for example Giants), skill so powerful they would unbalance Player versus Player (PvP) fights or skills you simply wouldn't need in PvP such as Disarming Traps. Also worth mentioning is that this expansion will take over the Nightfall Heroes system and will introduce 10 new heroes. And because some eye-candy is necessary as well, this expansion will offer 40 new armor set. Want to know more? We thought so, so we put producor Jeff Strain on our Dwarven Grill (not too well done, he still needs to be able to finish the game), after which he was eager to answer all of our questions.
<u><b>Interview</b></u>
<b>PCGP: ArenaNet is suddenly going for an expansion and not a stand alone campaign. Why?</b>
Jeff Strain: Well, because we think the Guild Wars world has by now grown large enough that the already offered Professions are more than enough. In stead of adding new areas and new Professions, with this expansion we want to return to the story and atmosphere of the Prophecies campaign and mainly add a lot of content for the highlevel players. This expansion is also the connection between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. The Asura and Norn will be introduced and this will be playable races in Guild wars 2 and the battle between the Humans and Charr will be an important theme in Guild Wars 2 where the Charr will also be a playable race. Also, this expansion will introduce the big evil that will threaten Tyria in Guild Wars 2.
<b>PCGP: To make things clear, this expansion has a strong link with the Prophecies campaign, but that won't be in the same package, I assume?</b>
Jeff Strain: No, the new areas are on their own and are lovated North of the areas in the Prophecies campaign. You won't be able to just walk from the new areas to Ascalon. After all, you can also play this expansion if you just bought Factions or Nightfall.
<b>PCGP: Eye of the North will also have Heroes. What do you think of the criticism that Heroes encourage a singleplayer experience, while Guild Wars is actually an MMORPG?</b>
Jeff Strain: Well, I can understand that, but we're actually offering both possibilities and that's very important for an MMORPG. Look, playing with Henchmen or Heroes will never give an advantage in our game. You can't collect more loot, can't get more experience and can't get through the game faster. An AI Healer can't come near what a human player with a Healer can, but we make sure that, if you want to, you can take Henchmen and Heroes and experience and interresting singleplayer experience.
<b>PCGP: Will this expansion use a new 3D-engine, an improved Nightfall engine or maybe even the Guild Wars 2-engine?'</b>
Jeff Strain: Eye of the North uses an improved Nightfall engine without changing the system requirements. If you can run Nightfall, you'll be able to play this expansion.
<b>PCGP: Guild Wars players always talk about Prophecies as a real classic; but with Factions and Nightfall we noticed some criticism, while these campaigns had huge improvements such as better PvP-arena's and a better salvage system. Why do you think this is?</b>
Jeff Strain: Well, gamers were all over Prophecies and the problem we had is that we had to make sure there was a delicate balance between new elements and offering 'more of the same'. Because every campaign had to be standalone, we offered a training island, an entire new continent and new Professions and skills and with that we scattered the Guild Wars players over the continents and added a lot of complexity to the game. This is something we don't want to do anymore. Don't get me wrong, we're very proud of the improvements we made to Factions and Nightfall, but we think enough is enough and we should focus on improving the excisting continent and work on something new and that'll be Guild Wars 2.
<b><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Guild Wars 2<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
Guild Wars 2 will be the first sequel for Guild Wars. The game, expected in 2009, will take the best elements from Guild Wars and add a persistent world like we've seen in other MMORPG's. Guild Wars 2 will also make use of a new 3D-engine which should garantee amazing graphics. We had to know more, so we put James Phinney, the lead designer of Guild Wars 2, on our Dwarven Grill. This is what we found out.
<b>Return to Tyria</b>
Guild Wars 2 takes place in Tyria and offers the gamer the opportunity to return to Ascalon, Kryta etc, but hundred of years after the last 3 Guild Wars campaigns. Tyria is threatened by a new Evil, which by the way will be introduced in Eye of the North, so the need for Heroes whi won't mind hundreds of life threatening quests, is high. You start your game creating your character. Guild Wars 2 offers several races from which you can choose such as the Humans, Charr, Norn, Asura and Sylvari. Each race has a new look and unique Racial Abilities. The Norn decendants are able to shapeshift to a big and imposing bear which can take and deal a lot of damage. The point of the Racial Abilities is that, as a gamer, you can feel an actual difference playing the different races. James Phinney also said that the Racial Abilities will be equal in power. A Human Warrior and a Norn Warrior will be equally strong. Besides that, you'll be able to pick a Profession, but what those are exactly, is a secret as of yet. What we did find out, is that it isn't the idea to completely change the Guild Wars formula. The known Professions will return in one form or another, but in a smaller number that the current 10 Professions. They're also working on the skill system. Guild Wars 2 will offer less skills, but with bigger differences from one another. Two skills that do approximately the same thing won't be found anymore in Guild Wars 2.
<b>MMORPG with a story</b>
The strong point of Guild Wars when comparing it to other MMORPG's is that the story could, with an ingenious structure, tell a decent structure with great ingame cut-scenes. Like you're playing a singleplayer RPG. Which is why we were surprised to hear that Guild Wars 2 will add a persistent world to the Guild Wars-formula. Won't this ruin the typical Guild Wars way to tell a story? We asked James Phinney. James: "It won't. You shouldn't see this persistent world as a replacement for the Guild Wars-formula, it won't turn into World of Warcraft. That's not the deal. We retained all the good elements from Guild Wars, such as the instanced missions that tell the story, and have persistent areas alongside those, where you can run around with hundreds of other players. In Guild Wars, you were walking around in town, made a party of 8, and took off for an instanced area where there wouldn't be other players. This is over. In Guild Wars 2, you take off for an unknown area for quests, and will find other players in this area. With these players, you can make a party on the spot and do fulfill quests. We also added a new type of quest called an Event, to have players cooperate. I'll give you an example. Imagine, you're walking through an area and see a dragon heading for a village. People are screaming for help and you can see other players firing at the dragon and manning the ballista's in the village. You rush to help them (or don't, the choice is yours) and fire at the dragon as well (if you have ranged attacks), or man a ballista. If you manage to kill the dragon, the mayor comes out and awards all players that helped beat the dragon, depending on their share they had in the battle. So you don't have to shoot the dragon first to get part of the loot or experience, and you don't have to quickly make a party to split loot between those players. In Guild Wars 2, this all happens automatically and in a natural way. Now, imagine you aren't able to kill the dragon, but it takes off and out of frustration, destroys a bridge at the edge of town. Farmers come out of the village with horse and carriage filled with building materials, and head for the bridge. But, they are getting robbed by gangs of thieves that want the building materials. You and other players could join and stop this from happening as well. Events will often contain several missions linked together in some way, and will have different solutions depending on the result that you and other players attain. This formula is aimed to make players work together, much more so than in Guild Wars. On the other side, we'll change the instanced mission party size, which will tell much of the story, to be smaller. This will make you feel more involved with the story." Doesn't this sound interresting? And luckily for us the man wanted to tell us much more, that Dwarven Grill really was worth it.
<u><b>Interview</b></u>
<b>PCGP: Why did you increase the Guild Wars level 20 cap?</b>
James Phinney: A while ago, we had a big Guild Wars survey, and a very large group of Guild Wars 2 players has over 500 hours on the game, a surprisingly large group even has over 2000 hours on the game. If players are prepared to spend so much time in Guild Wars, it's our job to make that experience as intriguing and interresting as possible, that's why we massively increased the maximum level.
<b>PCGP: You also changed the combat system. Could you tell us some more about that?</b>
James Phinney: Sure. Look, we think we did a lot of things right in Guild Wars like working out the Professions and skills and the possible Profession combinations. But we should have made it easier for the beginning player, that's why we will make the skills more visual. For example, if you do a circular attack with an axe that strikes multiple opponents, you'll be able to see this way better from your opponents. This also goes for spells such as firing a fireball at your enemies. You'll simply be able to feel better which enemies are struch and how hard, so combat will become much more dynamic. And you'll be able to move better during combat and you'll even be able to jump, but Guild Wars 2 will definately not become a 3D-Action game. The strategical espects and calculating skills during a fight will be the biggest part of combat.
<b>PCGP: Why did you replace the Heroes and Henchmen by Companions?</b>
James Phinney: Well, heroes and henchmen were useful, but they kept taking a character slot. You used to have situations where players dumped others because they wanted to play with - for example - the hero Koss. The new Companion which we will introduce in Guild Wars 2, won't take a character slot and will be usable at all times. You'll also be able to instruct your companions, like heroes, to do certain things.
<b>PCGP: Can we expect more than the known +30 health, 20/20 sundering or 10 furious as weapon upgrades this time?</b>
James Phinney: Most definately. As the level cap was increased, we added a way larger offer of weapon upgrades. We'll also offer a lot of new types of weapon upgrades.
<b>PCGP: The salvage system in Nightfall was a big improvement when compared to the previous campaigns. Can we expect this system to be in Guild Wars 2 as well?</b>
James Phinney: Well, Guild Wars 2 will have a Crafting chapter of which Salvaging will be an important part. But the system will be different from Nightfall.
<b>PCGP: Can you tell us some more about the 3D-engine?</b>
James Phinney: The engine we use for Guild Wars 2 is a 3D-engine which is still lightly based on the Guild Wars-engine, but is rewritten completely to improve it. We added a much better 3D-display of the terrain, along with improved 3D-pathfinding and support for the most recent shaders and graphic effects. So you can expect next generation graphics for Guild Wars 2.
<b>PCGP: What new things can we expect for PvP?</b>
James Phinney: The PvP in guild Wars was pretty hardcore. We're going to make sure that players who aren't interrested in intense PvP Arena's or Guild vs Guild Battles, which will ofcourse be in the game again, will be able to play in World vs World PvP Battlefields just for fun. These are maps where groups of hundreds of players can fight eachother. You can almost compare them to RTS maps where you, as a player, can fulfill several roles. You can take over mining spots and defend them, so a caravan can bring rocks to your stronghold, which your catapults can fire at the enemy. You can attack the enemy's caravans to cut off their resources, become a scout to report enemy movement, station yourself in an outlook or take part into intense PvP action. The interresting part about this formula is that you can enter and exit it whenever you want, and you don't have to be maximum level to take part in them. We hope to do the casual PvP-player a favor with this.
<b>PCGP: We have to ask, will there be Auction Houses in Guild Wars 2?</b>
James Phinney (laughs): Well, I thought you'd ask that. We don't know if there will actually be Auction Houses in Guild Wars 2, but the Trade system will be changed completely so it will be a lot more pleasant and easy to promote your items for sale.
<b>PCGP: Can you guarantee the "no monthly fees!" system for Guild Wars 2?</b>
James Phinney: Absolutely, because this system works great. Look, we know we can make more money if we make players pay a monthly fee, but that's not our goal. We want to be able to keep paying our employees, keep investing in the Guild Wars-franchise and guarantee support and that's plenty for us. We want to confirm our position as "gamerfriendly" developer.
<b>PCGP: Great! May I thank you for this interview?</b>
James Phinney: You're welcome.
<b>Expected release date: 2009</b>
Should I scan in the articles (6 pages)? Has some concept art etc.
Also: discuss.
Comments
SPOILERS: <a href="http://xs414.xs.to/xs414/07140/sekrat.PNG" target="_blank">http://xs414.xs.to/xs414/07140/sekrat.PNG</a>
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They already said she was coming back anyway. >_>
Not that guild wars wasn't nifty, but, come on.
+Play as Charr
+No paytoplay
-level cap > 9000
-more mmorpg, less skill
Edit: Oh, and I'd love to look at the scans.
If someones going to play an MMO screw the instances.
who cares, its not being released till 2009, factions are retarded and any MMO based off the system similiar to D2 sucks.
If someones going to play an MMO screw the instances.
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Feel the <3
Got bored with quests.
Can't get anybody to do Elite Mission.
PvP filled with the same cookie-cut builds.
I don't like RPGs.
I don't think posting scans is legal..
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Changed to link, no problem now, right?
Feel the <3
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i feel the love alright !111111one
lol wow r bettre
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Herd Instinct: Racial trait available to sheep level 1 and higher. When an allied sheep claims something is "totally cool", all other sheep are forced to follow its lead.
Herd Instinct: Racial trait available to sheep level 1 and higher. When an allied sheep claims something is "totally cool", all other sheep are forced to follow its lead.
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hahaha <3
i have a confession, ive been playing WoW the past 4 days but my xfire r broken lolol
I never really liked Guild Wars. The environments I PvE'd in felt very, very enclosed and linear - which they were, you never 'roamed' anywhere, it was always a path you were on. The PvP lacked a feeling of real hands on control to me, and the fact that I was limited to only 8 of my skills never truly appealed to me. It also irked the hell out of me when people would refer to it as an MMORPG - <b>its not an MMORPG, its a multiplayer game with an interactive lobby ala battle.net with diablo 2.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Depends on your definition of massively multiplayer is.
But why spend your time getting frustrated on how someone else defines his world? Why should I be ###### off at the way someone else greets another in another country? Find peace.