f13.net

Please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck.

Please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck.

If anyone can tell a rpg story in a perstitent world it's areanet.

The fact that you only need to pay for the box garuntees this game longevity.

Man, I really wanted to like GW1, but it just wasn't sticky enough. I drop in on the game from time to time, kind of like Planetside, but I never had the "gotta play!" for this one.

if only I could fucking jump.

Really my complaint was never at release but that they did this wild swing from PvP with a PvE sidegame to almost exclusively their halfassed PvE. And then by the time GWEN rolled around they stuck on this stupid layer of grind. Now, the grind was optional in the sense that you didn't have to do it to complete the game but it wasn't in practice because it became quite clear the content roll outs were drying up entirely. So you basically just had to grind and grind for shit that didn't even make a difference for your character.

Although let me say that we all bitch about players being obsessed with stats and minmaxing to varying degrees. It's always struck me as refreshing to see people do stupid grinds for no other reason than it made their characters look cool.

Trailer and FAQ now up on the website.

Edit:  IGN has an article up already also (http://pc.ign.com/articles/101/1015971p1.html).

During the past two years of development we made huge advances to our game engine, adding a persistent world with free-form movement and exploration,

You see an NPC jump in the trailer.

Not good enough!


The next gameplay trailer should just be a shot of someone mashing the spacebar while the character leaps in tune.

That better mean I can Jump!

Trailer and FAQ now up on the website.

What engine is this?

Apparently other NC soft games use it, I'm thinking aion.

According to an interview I read, not only will you jump, but also swim and climb.

Well, trailer is out and it shows a very similar style to GW and the same trend of 90% cardboard cutout scenery (passive backgrounds and huge structures whose only purpose is to look pretty).

Not impressed.

Almost none of the scenery in that trailer is cardboard cutout... you can go play around on 90% of it. For instance the giant dam, the massive asura city, the snowy mountains, all places you can go.

What about interiors?

In GW all buildings were solid blocks of nothing. If the environment is a bit more open and without barriers everywhere the game would have solved a significant problem

GW 2 has full support for interiors. The game is very open with only the sort of barriers you'd expect to see in just about any open world type game.

Our goal with Guild Wars 2 is to create nothing less than the definitive online role-playing game of all time.

Also, to allow players the freedom to play together even if their friends are at a much higher (or lower) level, we are planning to implement a strong sidekick system, similar to that used in City of Heroes™.

We're applying this same philosophy to competitive play. Players will be able to engage in organized, balanced PvP (similar to GvG in the original Guild Wars) without first leveling up characters, finding equipment, and unlocking skills. While inside the organized PvP area, all characters will be the same power level and will have access to the same equipment.

"We actually don't have a traditional RPG/MMO quest system," Flannum continues. "Instead what we've got are Events. Think of them as group-orientated activities. This is one of the many things that will encourage the player to explore the world - you can wander through and never quite know what you're going to see. You might come across a fortress that's being attacked by centaurs, or it might be that the centaurs attacked half an hour before you got there and they hold it now. You might start walking along a road you've walked a hundred times and suddenly there's a caravan travelling along that road that you may not have seen, and you can go help that caravan out."

There's also an attempt to introduce more variety into how the players can interact with this new, living world - and not just the welcome addition of a jump. To say that Guild Wars was combat-focussed would be something of an understatement; the absence of crafting and non-combat professions meant that there wasn't a whole lot else for players to take up on a whim if they felt like it.

"We're definitely introducing crafting, as well as a few other things that are going to provide players with other things to do," assures Flannum, although he can't say what those other things are. "I don't want to say it'd take the focus off combat, but it's definitely not going to be the case that the only way to interact with someone in Guild Wars 2 is to hit them on the head with a sword."

There are significant new areas, of course: most excitingly, the prospect of exploring an underwater continent. Flannum claims that there will be "a lot" of underwater exploration, and it will be possible for all races and players.

"Competition has always been consensual in Guild Wars, and we've retained that as one of our core tenets. It also goes along with accessibility and being able to play with your friends," says Flannum. "We looked into dividing the races early on, and we decided against that, specifically because we want you to be able to play the race that you want and also be able to play with your friends. We didn't want to fracture our player base by having a good-versus-evil vibe going on between the players themselves."

In addition, there's also a new World PvP system, which lets you use your PvE character and equipment to play against other people on a more open battlefield, the Mists. "It's very casual PvP where you can gain levels and have ten-on-one fights or 100-on-20 fights or whatever, where everything flows naturally on the battlefield and there's no limits to how many players can be involved," elaborates Flannum, though the team can't go into specifics about exactly how players will gain access to the Mists.

"We wanted to give our competitive players, who were a really important part of our GW1 audience, what they want," says Flannum. "Those people don't want to lose to someone who's just played more time than them. They want access to all the same skills as the other person, and they want it to be their skill in making and executing a character build to be what wins them the day."

Their art technique is unstoppable.

Actually Jumping is the new crafting system.  Jumps have to be created for combining athletic resources.

Fordel, while not an emoticon, I find *squee* fulfills that purpose nicely.

any ideas on how this will be actually different from GW1?  it also didn't grab me (too much instancing)

why the sequel, in other words (?)

They've said that GW2 will be a true persistent World with casual but open PvP (battlegrounds, zones, etc I assume). That is was the major thing missing from Guild Wars 1. Also, crafting and other meta systems. In other words, it's an MMOG. Without a monthly fee. Whee.

But I don't how a greedy corp can resist sticking their hands in player's wallet.

are they really going to keep the no-sub? 

Will there be a subscription fee for Guild Wars 2?
Nope. Like the original Guild Wars, there will be no subscription fee for Guild Wars 2. You just buy the game and play it online without paying a monthly fee.

Guild Wars was a very unique game. It takes a different approach to role-playing. Looking at our competitors, it has its genesis in the Magic the Gathering tradition rather than a straight Dungeons and Dragons tradition[.]

Yes, exactly. I'm not a MtG guy but the people who turned their noses up at only eight powers active at a time missed the entire point. That allowed for some awesome synergy between powers that everyone in more traditional MMOs is always bitching about missing.

I need an emoticon to express the fact that I did, in fact, climax, at the confirmed jumping news and am thoroughly satisfied.

They've said that GW2 will be a true persistent World with casual but open PvP (battlegrounds, zones, etc I assume). That is was the major thing missing from Guild Wars 1. Also, crafting and other meta systems. In other words, it's an MMOG. Without a monthly fee. Whee.

This thread inspires me: is it possible to play through the story of Nightfall solo? Are the hero henchmen thingies enough for the tough fights?

So did GW make enough money without a monthly sub to keep the lolservers running? I know Blizz managed it with battle.net, but I was under the impression that a 'real' MMOG would require more $$$ to pay da billz.

It is enough.  You'll have to figure out the best party composition and skills to give your heroes, but I have done most of the game 'solo' this way.

Hero skills - Any skill you unlock for any of the characters on your account, or by spending Balthazar faction for, becomes available to your heroes.  So no matter which character you play, learning skills benefits all of your heroes in the future.  From a mechanics standpoint, GW has one of the best companion systems out there.

Your heroes with Ranger as a class can also have pets if you are so inclined.  I like running around with a Black, White, and regular brown Moa.

The only bad thing about GW mechanics was how unforgiving it was to players with bad pings (super-spammable abilities, extremely short cast times, etc). But then, my mistake was probably choosing a mesmer as my original character.  :awesome_for_real:

Six million sold, two campaigns and an expansion, and funding for a GW2.  I don't know if they're driving Ferrari's while wearing their money hats, but it seems to have at least paid the bills.

It is enough.  You'll have to figure out the best party composition and skills to give your heroes, but I have done most of the game 'solo' this way.

Hero skills - Any skill you unlock for any of the characters on your account, or by spending Balthazar faction for, becomes available to your heroes.  So no matter which character you play, learning skills benefits all of your heroes in the future.  From a mechanics standpoint, GW has one of the best companion systems out there.

Your heroes with Ranger as a class can also have pets if you are so inclined.  I like running around with a Black, White, and regular brown Moa.

Ingmar runs around with like 2-3 Necormancer Hero's, so whenever I play with him, it's like a zombie movie.  :ye_gods:

Was going to buy GW1 off steam last night because I'm fellowship-quest-blocked in LOTRO.  Little more expensive than I thought it was going to be.  $20 for the main game and each expansion.  Guess they can't discount it too much since I'm leeching servers and bandwidth.  I suspect it will get cheaper as GW2 gets closer.

Preordered? When is this supposed to come out?

Leveling isn't like most other MMO's, it's more like a tutorial then anything. You can hit the level cap in a afternoon really.

How does the 3 separate games thing work?  When Factions came out did everyone start new characters because their originals were already maxed?  Or did they increase the level cap?  If not, was there any point to bringing a maxed character over?

Saw the trailer on their site and it looked awesome. Will definitely be picking it up. The art as always was amazing.

In case anyone hasn't seen or was curious about the concept art from the GW artists on the expansions. It's pretty amazing how close the illustrations look to the ingame environment.

GW Factions Concept Art - http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=74118 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=74118)

GW Nightfall Concept Art - http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83394 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83394)

So, If I have a Prophecies character, can I buy Nightfall and then just take that Prophecies character into the Nightfall content?

I'm so sick of beating my head aginst Prohpecies and getting nowhere.

Unlike Guild Wars, which has always been considered at most a borderline MMO due to its heavy use of instances, Guild Wars 2 is going to be a fully persistent world. There will also be no separation of PvP and so-called "roleplaying" characters. In Guild Wars 2, there will be two different forms of PvP. They have something called "world-vs-world" play, which matches up entire servers against each other. Eric describes this as a more casual type of PvP with big open-world maps featuring castle sieges, siege weaponry and objectives for both solo players and big groups of like a hundred people. Competitive PvP, which was the hallmark of the original GW, will be there as well. Players will be able to level up their characters through world PvP as experience points will be granted for it. However, competitive PvP will put everyone on an even playing field so it becomes more about skill than about level.

The story in Guild Wars 2 happens two hundred fifty years after the original GW. The Charr, who used to be religious fanatics driven to conquest by their beliefs, have forsaken their false gods and magic, relying more on themselves and as a result, becoming the driving force of technological advancement. Meaning that you will see guns in the game, although they will be old-fashioned muskets rather than machine guns and such.

The Charr will also be a playable race. These big cat-like people were the main bad guys in GW so don't expect them to be peaceful and timid in the sequel. They are godless conquerors that have these technologically advanced cities and weapons and who like to win at all cost. In GW2, they are not at war with the humans anymore but that doesn't mean that they like them, and the feeling is mutual.

Humans were originally the only playable race and were once the dominant force in Tyria. With the dragons rising, beings of other races have been forced out of their homelands and into human territory. As a result, the humans have been pushed back and are not the mighty race that they once were. They are now clustered around the city of Divinity's Reach and are ruled by a Queen, a descendant of the last queen of Kryta, who is at times in conflict with the elected ministers of parliament.

The third playable race is the Norn, a race introduced in Guild Wars' Eye of the North expansion. They are giant Viking-type characters who are very individualistic. They worship four animal spirits – the bear, the raven, the wolf and the snow leopard – and they are able to shapeshift into these animals. The Norn don't have a formal government. Their religion is very shamanistic and they value strength, honesty and fair play.

The Asura, another race introduced in Eye of the North, is the fourth playable race. They are short magical creatures who have been driven from their underground homes by the dragons. They believe in the Eternal Alchemy which is their religion, a belief that everything in this world has a power running through it and that it's all part of this one big equation. The Asura are smarter than the other races and are rather proud and arrogant about it. They build golems and magical teleportation devices, objects which they like to use to insinuate themselves into the other societies as they are not very combative. As such, they have spread themselves out all over the face of Tyria.

The Sylvari is the fifth playable race. These are elf-like creatures that spring full-grown from this magical tree. As such, their physique is plant-like but their form is humanoid since a human planted the tree from whence they came. The Sylvari have only been around for twenty-five years so none of them have died of old age and they don't bear children. They're very empathetic and they have this shared dream. They are born with knowledge of the world but no experience, which makes them very childlike in their behavior. So they want to go out into the world and experience the things of which they only know about. They also have this instinctive drive to hunt and kill the dragons because they perceive them to be evil. However not all Sylvari are good. The ones who have turned against their own kind are called the Nightmare Court.

Each of these races will have their own starting cities. According to Eric, the trailer shows the Human and Asura starting cities, Divinity's Reach and Rata Sum. Perhaps the most welcome change in GW 2 is that these beautiful cities will not just be mere backdrops but vibrant places with buildings and houses that you can actually walk into. I did a double take when he mentioned houses, but unfortunately, player housing isn't something the developers are ready to discuss. Eric mentioned that they will probably reveal more about classes and gameplay early next year, so hopefully we won't have to wait too long.

In closing, Eric mentioned two philosophies behind Guild Wars 1 that will continue on to Guild Wars 2: 1) that people shouldn't have to pay a monthly fee to play the game, and 2) that a player should be able to play a game casually if he wants to and that he doesn't have to belong to a group or guild to grind his life away in order to be competitive, and 3) storytelling that will make the player feel that he is a part of the Guild Wars world.

In the meantime, "The Art of Guild Wars 2", a 128-page hardbound book filled with beautiful concept art for the game, was unveiled at PAX and all attendees who went up to the ArenaNet booth got a copy signed by some of the artists. The book is not on sale yet but will be soon after PAX.

Neato, server vs server like sport teams.  You could power match servers so the strong fight the strong or a playoff system.  At least that's what I would do.  No-sub conformation.  :)  Still have to wonder why he thinks there was no grind to be competitive in GW1.

I've met a couple of people who play in the belief it's just as good as WoW but free and I cry for them.

Crafting in Guild War sucks.  :grin:

Crafting in Guild War sucks.  :grin:

Hey, I have an idea, let's have a THIS SUCKS / NO THIS SUCKS / NO YOU / NO YOU argument for a couple pages, that will really be great.

NO U

Anyway, my main concern is that PvE in GW2 will be less fun than PvE in GW.

That would be quite the feat.

You rag on all PvE.  Which game has the good PvE?

You rag on all PvE.  Which game has the good PvE?

Isn't it more like point-click-several rounds later kill? Monsters don't circle strafe in conan that's why its fun.

How long is a round?

Arena Net recently published a new video, titled "The Races of Tyria", which show off some in-game scenes of the new races, their homelands, plus the voice acting. The number of cliches hit reached new heights and caused me to squirm with a little embarrassment on their behalf, but I still hope they manage to pull it off well.

Factions was a hell of a lot of fun and I bought a few extra character slots as levelling is a joke... more a "hey, this is how you play the game" than "lets keep you playing by grinding your balls against a rust cheese grater" process.

I like GW, but after Arena.net dropped their "successful" game like it was radioactive.  I am worried about their commitment to their games.

And its been over 2 years since the last one.  We would have at least a campaigns and 2 more expansions if they hadn't put this game on the shelf.

And its been over 2 years since the last one.  We would have at least a campaigns and 2 more expansions if they hadn't put this game on the shelf.

If you mean Hoax, it's Hunter S. Thompson and around here, where we use Bat Country for a guild name, it's not all that out there.

If you mean Hoax, it's Hunter S. Thompson and around here, where we use Bat Country for a guild name, it's not all that out there.

This week we’re celebrating the 5th anniversary of the release of Guild Wars. Coincidentally, this year also marks the 10th anniversary of the founding of our company. We founded this company because we wanted to shake up a risk-averse industry, and show that game companies don’t have to just keep making the same games over and over again to be successful. We believe that gamers want to try new things, new experiences, and that they’ll reward the companies who can bring them something new.wars-2-design-manifesto
So five years ago we released Guild Wars, which was really a new thing. It was an RPG, but it also had elements of a strategy game; unlike most RPGs it was inspired more by M:tG than D&D; it was an online world with no monthly fees. We called it a CORPG but the ‘net raged with debates about whether or not it was an MMORPG. However you categorized it didn’t matter; it was a fun, new, different experience. We thought we could sell a million copies, and we ended up selling over 6 million.

We’re not going to rest on our laurels now. We started this company to innovate and bring players new experiences. Guild Wars 2 is the perfect game for Guild Wars players, but it’s not just the same game repeated again. We took this opportunity to question everything, and we have some exciting answers for you today.

The first thing you should know about Guild Wars 2 is that, this time around, there’s no question that it’s an MMORPG. It’s an enormous, persistent, living, social world, filled with a wide variety of combat and non-combat activities. There’s so much depth here that you’re never going to run out of new things to discover.

So if you love MMORPGs, you should check out Guild Wars 2. But if you hate traditional MMORPGs, then you should really check out Guild Wars 2. Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn’t have a monthly fee.


Shouldn’t great MMORPGs be great RPGs too?

It sometimes feels like our industry has thrown the baby out with the bathwater. When you play an RPG, you want to experience a compelling and memorable storyline. You want your choices to matter. You want your actions to leave their mark on the world. Let’s start demanding those things of MMOs too.

The original Guild Wars was known for the level of storytelling it brought to online RPGs, so with GW2 we obviously wanted to take it to the next level. In GW you experience the story of the world, but the story in GW2 is the personal story of your character as well. You fill out a biography at character creation time that defines your background and your place within the world, and that starts you on your path. Then the choices you make will take the story in different directions. Each time you play through the game, you can experience a different storyline.

Some games mostly tell story through quest text. But we’ve all clicked so many exclamation points and accepted so many quests in our lives that we’re pretty immune to quest text at this point. GW2 tells story by allowing the player to befriend and adventure with key characters, by presenting him with moral dilemmas that will impact the lives of the people around him, and by having him live through world-changing events and all the key moments of the storyline.

In addition to great storyline and important player choices, another hallmark of great RPGs is that they create a world that feels real and alive. Let’s say a village is being terrorized by bandits. You don’t want to find out about that because there’s a villager standing there motionless with an exclamation mark over his head who says when you click on him, “Help, we’re being terrorized by bandits.” You want to find out like you would in GW2: because the bandits are attacking, chasing villagers through the streets, slaying them and setting their houses on fire. You can stand up for the villagers, or you can watch their village burn to the ground and then deal with the consequences. We’ve worked hard to create a living, dynamic world for you, where there’s always something new to do.
It’s time to make MMORPGs more social

MMOs are social games. So why do they sometimes seem to work so hard to punish you for playing with other players? If I’m out hunting and another player walks by, shouldn’t I welcome his help, rather than worrying that he’s going to steal my kills or consume all the mobs I wanted to kill? Or if I want to play with someone, shouldn’t we naturally have the same goals and objectives, rather than discovering that we’re in the same area but working on a different set of quests?

We think of GW2 as the first MMO that actually has a cooperative PvE experience. When I’m out hunting and suddenly there’s a huge explosion over the next hill – the ground is shaking and smoke is pouring into the sky – I’m going to want to investigate, and most other players in the area will too. Or if the sky darkens on a sunny day, and I look up and see a dragon circling overhead preparing to attack, I know I’d better fight or flee, and everyone around me knows that too.

With traditional MMOs you can choose to solo or you can find a good guild or party to play with. With GW2 there’s a third option too: you can just naturally play with all the people around you. I personally spend a big chunk of my time in traditional MMOs soloing, but when I play GW2 I always find myself naturally working with everyone around me to accomplish world objectives, and before long we find ourselves saying, “Hey, there’s a bunch of us here; let’s see if we can take down the swamp boss together,” without ever having bothered to form a party.

With GW2 there’s a third option too: you can just naturally play with all the people around you
Of course GW2 has great support for parties, but they just don’t feel as necessary as they do in other MMOs, because your interests are always aligned with all other nearby players anyway. When someone kills a monster, not just that player’s party but everyone who was seriously involved in the fight gets 100% of the XP and loot for the kill. When an event is happening in the world – when the bandits are terrorizing a village – everyone in the area has the same motivation, and when the event ends, everyone gets rewarded.

We even redesigned the competitive part of the game to be friendly like this. Now worlds can compete against each other, through the mists that separate them, for scarce resources that benefit an entire world. Joining this PvP competition is completely optional, just like it was in the original GW, but if you do compete you’re now going to find that your world welcomes you with open arms. You don’t have to join a party to join the fight. All you have to do is get out there and start helping. Everyone has the same objective, and if your world can get 501 people working for the same goal, that’s only going to be more helpful than 500 people.
Rethinking combat

Finally, since combat is such a core part of the gameplay of any MMO, we’ve put a lot of emphasis into rethinking combat. So much of traditional MMO combat is rote and repetitive. You execute the same strategy over and over again, just augmented over time with better and better gear. After a while it starts to feel like you’re playing a spreadsheet. Combat needs to be about making creative choices, and it needs to feel immediate, active, and visceralCombat needs to be about making creative choices, and it needs to feel immediate, active, and visceral. So we’ve put a huge focus on strengthening our combat, giving the player limitless choices, and providing the thrill and joy of being in combat.

The original GW featured a CCG-like skill system that allowed each player to discover unique combos and new strategies. Theoretically every Elementalist in the game could approach combat with a different strategy. In fact players found thousands of interesting strategies over the years, most of which our designers never anticipated, which is always the sign of a flexible system.

GW2 shares this flexible skill system. The big difference is that now skills are much more visual in explaining what they do. The process of actually discovering combos, or understanding them when they’re used against you, is a lot more clear, because you can visually see how skills combo with each other. An Elementalist can cast Fire Wall next to an opponent, and then switch to Water attunement, which freezes all enemies around him. Using the concussive force of Water Trident, he can slam his frozen enemy into the Fire Wall, leaving him to roast in the flames.

GW2 adds even more possibilities for distinguishing yourself in combat. Now you can choose a race, and each race comes with unique combat abilities, such as the Norn’s ability to transform himself into a bear. And now you can build up and select traits for your character which give you new intrinsic abilities, such as the Elementalist’s Stone Boots trait, which keeps his feet firmly planted on the ground even when an attack or skill effect would normally toss him through the air.

And like the original GW, in GW2 the creativity doesn’t end with your own character. When you play with others, you’ll find that your abilities can complement theirs, and that you can discover new skill combos and strategies between professions. So if you’re playing an Elementalist, try casting a fire wall, and then see what happens when your friends shoot projectiles through it.

Then we add environmental weapons to mix up combat even more. In the original GW you’d sometimes find a catapult or trebuchet that you could take over and fire at enemies. That’s one type of environmental weapon, and in GW2 we have dozens more. If a Stone Elemental throws a boulder at you, pick it up and throw it back. Or as an Elementalist, use that boulder to create a meteor storm. If you’re fighting an Oakheart with an axe and you manage to hack off a branch, pick up the branch and try using it as a weapon. If you meet a beekeeper outside town, buy a jar of bees from him and see what happens when you lob it at nearby enemies. If you come across a stash of powder kegs, don’t just blow them up in place, but try moving them to where they can do the most damage. If a centaur wheels a siege machine up to the outskirts of a village, don’t just destroy it; take it over and use it to turn the tide of battle.

And while you’re discovering new opportunities, new weapons, new combos, and new strategies, you’re surrounded by the pure visceral joy of combat. Smash a monster with a plank and watch him fly through the air. Avoid the Oakheart’s roots as they creep out of the ground looking to entangle you. Launch yourself on a sweeping attack that takes you behind your enemy. Smash open the garrison gate and begin your assault. Dodge out of the way before the Drake Broodmother unleashes her fire attack.

It all gets back to our basic design philosophy. Our games aren’t about preparing to have fun, or about grinding for a future fun reward. Our games are designed to be fun from moment to momentOur games are designed to be fun from moment to moment.

Guild Wars 2 is a deep and rich game, and we have so much more to tell you. What I covered here is just the tip of the iceberg. So in the coming days we’ll be releasing a series of in-depth articles on different aspects of the game. The first one is written by our lead designer, Eric Flannum, and will tell you all about our combat systems.

This is an exciting time for ArenaNet. We’re a company of passionate gamers with one mission: to make Guild Wars 2 the best MMORPG ever created. We are a 150+ person development team and we’re betting our company on Guild Wars 2. If this sounds like the kind of game you’ve been waiting for, join us on Facebook and Twitter, and help us get the word out to other gamers as well. As you’re reading this, we’re playing the game constantly, tweaking it and polishing it, adding more content, and getting it ready for you. Over the next few months we’ll be revealing more and more about the game, and we’ll be working with our community every step of the way. Because in the end, this isn’t just our game – we want it to be yours as well – and we can’t wait to play it with you.

When someone kills a monster, not just that player’s party but everyone who was seriously involved in the fight gets 100% of the XP and loot for the kill. When an event is happening in the world – when the bandits are terrorizing a village – everyone in the area has the same motivation, and when the event ends, everyone gets rewarded.

Why does that get a face of disapproval!

I thought it got the face of disapproval because the system as stated rewards, fully, serial tap-and-run in fights others are engaged in. 100% EXP for one arrow, I'm in! And out and on to the next, good luck pal!

I can't remember what game it was, but I remember somewhere playing a healer and not caring whether my heals were effective at keeping my side alive - only that I landed a heal on as many people as possible, because it would increase my odds of getting rewards, or something like that.  I don't recall the details, but I distinctly recall being annoyed at having to approach with that attitude in order to maximize rewards.

Am I the only person here that didn't think Guild Wars was an MMO?

The Basics
Hi! I'm Eric Flannum, the lead designer for Guild Wars 2. Over the next few months, we'll be telling you about the professions, races, lore, and game systems of Guild Wars 2, as well as talking about our design philosophy and thoughts about the game. First up: combat!

We've got a lot of amazing things planned for combat in Guild Wars 2, and I'll try to cover as many of them as possible before wearing out my welcome. Let's start with the basics.

One of our priorities in developing Guild Wars 2 has been to make the simple act of moving around and interacting with the world an enjoyable experience for our players. We often refer to this as introducing "joy of movement" into the game. This means being able to jump and swim freely, but it also translates directly into combat.

To reinforce the importance of movement in the game, we want your character's position in combat to really matter. You'll see a lot of attacks in Guild Wars 2 that encourage and reward tactical player movement and positioning.

To illustrate what I'm talking about, I was watching two of our game designers--Jon and Isaiah--play the other day. Jon is using his shield to deflect the fire breath of a drake, when Isaiah hits the drake from behind with a skill called Devastating Hammer, launching it into the air. The drake is sent flying over Jon's head, who immediately turns and uses a skill called Savage Leap to impale and finish the drake right as it hits the ground. This was a very cool looking (and effective!) sequence of events that flowed very naturally from how combat in Guild Wars 2 works.

We want combat in Guild Wars 2 to really be visually appealing. We want you to be able to identify the skills being used at a glance and also have a good idea of what that skill is doing. Does a skill have an area of effect? Is it doing damage? What type of damage? Our goal is to design skills that are visually unique and explain them without overly complex skill descriptions. This has resulted in a lot of distinct and impressive skill effects in the game. Even a simple skill like fireball explodes in such a way that you can clearly see the area that they will affect. Beyond your typical fireballs and lightning bolts, you'll see skills that create giant crushing stone hands, turn their users into massive tornadoes, and summon flocks of vicious birds of prey (a particular favorite skill of many people after they see it in action).

(http://www.guildwars2.com/global/includes/images/screenshots/combat/gw260.jpg)
(http://www.guildwars2.com/global/includes/images/screenshots/combat/gw002.jpg)


The Skill System
Much like in Guild Wars, the skill bar in Guild Wars 2 is limited to a set number of skills. Like a collectible card game, we provide the player with a wide variety of choices and allow them to pick and choose skills to create a build that best suits their particular play style. For example, one Guild Wars 2 warrior might decide to build his character around gradual damage which causes his opponents to bleed out, while another may choose to knock his opponents down, controlling their movement with slow, large attacks. Both warriors can choose to equip the skills that matter most to them. It is also very important to us that our skill system be simple to use, leaving the screen as clean and unintimidating as possible. All of this combines to give us a skill bar and skill system that's a bit different than what you'd typically find in an MMO.


The Ten Slot Skill Bar
The first five skills on the skill bar are not slotted directly by the player; instead they are determined by the player's choice of weapon and profession. Because of this, we can ensure that each weapon is balanced with a fun combination of skills. For example, a warrior wielding a mace and shield would get access to strong but slow damage skills like Obliterate, as well as powerful defensive skills such as Block and Shield Bash. A warrior wielding a greatsword would have access to a lot of movement-oriented skills like Rush, and area-of-effect skills like 100 Blades. In each case, the warrior's first five skills are determined by what he's holding in his hands. Weapon skills also take profession into account, so a warrior wielding a sword will have different skills than a different sword-wielding profession.

To provide additional variety to the mix, most professions can have two different weapon sets equipped and can very quickly and easily swap between the sets. For example, a warrior might keep a longbow or rifle for engaging foes at a distance, and then switch to a hammer when that enemy gets close.

We've talked about the first five skills being determined by weapon and profession. What about the second five? These skills are all chosen by the player from a pool of skills determined by both profession and race. To slot a skill, a player simply clicks on a skill slot and it will bring up a list of skills that can be put into that slot. One of these slots is dedicated to healing skills that replenish the health of the character and his allies, while another slot is dedicated to elite skills that trigger visually spectacular and powerful effects. No matter what type of skill is involved, it's important that we give the player a diverse set of tools to choose from so that he can create a build that he'll enjoy playing.

For example, a human Elementalist can choose to bring Aura of Restoration, which is a buff that heals him every time he uses a skill, or he can choose to bring Glyph of Healing, which is a more straightforward heal. A warrior might take the Frenzy skill, which will fill his adrenaline gauge instantly; the shout skill Fear Me! which inflicts the weakness condition on surrounding foes; or the Banner of Courage skill, which inspires his allies and increases their melee damage.

Elite skills are designed to be infrequently-used, ultra-powerful skills that have a dramatic impact on the game. An Elementalist can call upon the power of the wind to shapeshift into a tornado that knocks enemies around and inflicts heavy damage, while a warrior might choose to harness the power of Destruction, to make all of his blows inflict area-of-effect damage.

Tomorrow: Weapons, Professions and Races

Am I the only person here that didn't think Guild Wars was an MMO?

One of our priorities in developing Guild Wars 2 has been to make the simple act of moving around and interacting with the world an enjoyable experience for our players. We often refer to this as introducing "joy of movement" into the game. This means being able to jump and swim freely, but it also translates directly into combat.

We often refer to this as introducing "joy of movement" into the game. This means being able to jump and swim freely, but it also translates directly into combat.

This means being able to jump and swim freely, but it also translates directly into combat.

jump

First thing to turn off: stupid catchphrases the characters say.

Wow, that's purty.

Dx11?

Perfect Bad Example: Voices in Aion.

You may be the only person who thinks it matters if it is.

It's as much of an MMO as DDO.

Considering how many skills were tied to weapons to begin with in GW, it isn't that big of a change really.


Having dedicated support slots could also be a way of insuring that we don't end up with stalemate builds.

Wow, that's purty.

Dx11?

Presumably in this system, the Main Healer weapons would provide those skills, no?

Imagine if CCP decided to make EVE 2 but for the masses. I would imagine something like "not losing your ship if it is destroyed" would set this entire forum ablaze in riot and protest.

I'm hoping they open up a little bit of variety with the first five.  I don't tend to use any key past 5 or 6, so if we have no control over what they are, it will effectively keep me from using my obtained and racial skills.  (I simply don't have the coordination for it in any fast-paced combat.)

Now if they make 1-5 weapon/shield strikes that you can select from for each weapon combination, that wouldn't be so bad.

Weapons
One of the things that became apparent early in the development of Guild Wars 2 was that we needed a diverse set of weapons to support our skill system. The full list of standard wieldable weapons in Guild Wars 2 is as follows:

One-Handed: Axe, dagger, mace, pistol, scepter, and sword.

Two-Handed: Greatsword, hammer, longbow, rifle, shortbow, and staff.

Offhand only: Focus, shield, torch, and warhorn.

No single profession is able to use all of these weapons, and some of them can wield a lot more than others. Many professions can also wield a one-handed weapon in their offhand. A weapon in the offhand will have different skills than that same weapon wielded in the main hand. A warrior, for example, can learn to dual-wield and choose to equip two swords, which would give him three skills from the sword in his main hand and two skills from the sword in his offhand.


Environmental Weapons
So the weapons you're currently holding in your hands determine your first five skills. This system is the basic building block of Guild Wars 2 combat, but when playing around with it we found that we could extend it into a huge variety of cool situations. For example, when a player interacts with a siege weapon, his first five skills change to skills that are specific to that siege weapon. A player might encounter a boulder in the world and, upon picking it up, find that his skills have changed so that he can now throw that boulder. Discovering a drake nest might yield eggs that can be picked up, and then eaten or thrown. The things a character can do with an environmental weapon vary by profession or race. An Elementalist with a boulder can not only throw it, but can launch it into the air, causing it to rocket down from the sky with the impact of a meteor. In addition to objects that are simply found in the world, many of these environmental weapons are created spontaneously through various events and activities. Wooden planks used to smack enemies can be gained by killing oakhearts, or found in the rubble caused by centaurs breaking down a wooden gate. Breaking a barstool over the head of a rowdy bar patron can yield a chair leg that can be used to great effect as a club. These are just a few of the many environment objects that players will be able to interact with. There are even a few professions whose mechanics are built heavily upon these sorts of interactions, like the Elementalist skill Conjure Flame that creates several large flaming rocks that can then be picked up and thrown at the enemy.


Professions
Choice of profession will of course have a huge impact on how the game plays. There are eight professions in Guild Wars 2, many of which will be familiar to fans of Guild Wars, as well as a few professions new to the Guild Wars world. Each of these professions is roughly categorized by the type of armor they wear: scholars wear light armor, adventurers wear medium armor, and soldiers wear heavy armor. Currently there are three scholar professions, three adventurer professions and two soldier professions.

When designing our professions it was very important to us to make each of them feel as unique and different as possible. In addition to weapon, armor and skill choice, we've developed a number of cool profession mechanics for each one. We'll be revealing new professions on our website, so it should start becoming apparent just how much we've tried to push the unique play style of each of them.

Many players from Guild Wars are familiar with the concept of secondary professions. We included secondary professions in early versions of Guild Wars 2, but due to the unique mechanics of each profession and the increased role of race in character customization, they are no longer a feature of the game. We feel that this decision will allow us to create a more balanced game with really distinct professions that are fun to play.


Cross Profession Combos
It's very important that professions in an MMO have interesting ways to interact with each other. In the past this has mostly been limited to healing and buffing teammates and managing agro in combat. We wanted to expand considerably upon the types of teamwork available to our players. With this in mind, we've implemented a system of cross-profession combinations.

A warrior and an Elementalist playing together could combine their abilities in several different ways. The Elementalist could drop down Static Field, which is an area-targeted lightning effect. A warrior who fires a rifle bullet through the static field would cause his shot to be charged up with electricity, inflicting additional damage. If that didn't suit their style, then the Elementalist might drop a Wall of Fire in front of a group of enemies. The warrior could enter the firewall and use Cyclone Axe, an attack which causes him to spin rapidly, sending the firewall outward and hitting his foes. There are literally hundreds of combinations for players to discover.


Races
A player's choice of race is also an important decision which will affect his combat prowess. We've already discussed how a player can choose racial skills among his second five skills. These skills are designed to provide the player with additional options that capture the flavor of his particular race. A sylvari warrior might choose to bring Grasping Roots, which immobilizes a foe, while an asura warrior might choose to bring Arcane Blast for some additional ranged damage.

A player can also choose to bring elite racial skills. A norn Elementalist might take the norn skill Wolf Form and transform into a giant half-norn half-wolf able to tear across the battlefield, savaging enemies. A human might bring the Hounds of Balthazaar, a skill which summons two massive fiery dogs into the battle. Racial skills can combine with profession skills to give players a wealth of choices when deciding how they want to play their characters.

In The Not So Distant Future
What I've covered here is just the tip of the iceberg! I hope that you all have a clearer view of how combat in Guild Wars 2 works, what some of our goals with the combat system are, and why we've made some of the decisions we've made. I also wanted to note that we have an iterative development process here at ArenaNet. What that means is that we like to implement things early, then play them and see how they are working out. If a feature isn't living up to our expectations, we'll change it, sometimes even cutting it entirely. Anything that I've talked about is subject to change if we find it just isn't working. Look for the next update of this type to be from our Lead Content Designer Colin Johanson, who'll talk to you about our dynamic event system and why it will make playing Guild Wars 2  a very different experience from a more traditional quest-based MMO.

So am I, but I've never moused with my left hand. I still refuse to use right-handed mice though, on principle.

Doesn't work. CCP and EVE live off the loldrama, while Guild Wars needs the box sales. Therefore, accessibility is king, or at least some sort of royalty.

I don't tend to use any key past 5 or 6, so if we have no control over what they are, it will effectively keep me from using my obtained and racial skills.

As another left-handed person, you people are crazy. Just use a right handed mouse with your right hand, it isn't hard! It isn't like it is a pair of scissors!  :grin:

You never had to use those second class citizen left handed safety scissors in elementary school?

They only had right handed scissors and were all like "you fucking use them son!"

Says who? (http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/acatalog/scissors.html)

...Some events are triggered by players, and are almost Easter-eggy. There’s one where if players kill the deer in the forest then one of the predators who are used to feeding on the deer will come out and attack one of the villages...

This sounds oddly familiar.




source http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/04/29/guild-wars-2-interview-part-2-a-major-event/

Imagine if CCP decided to make EVE 2 but for the masses. I would imagine something like "not losing your ship if it is destroyed" would set this entire forum ablaze in riot and protest.

You're all alone here.  The rest of us don't give a shit how skilled the game is telling us we are, we just want to find the fun.

Regardless, they are doing something right. They have a lot of subs. Just because you don't find it fun doesn't make it so. I have a co-worker that loves mining after she wakes up. She has a cup of coffee, mines for like 30 minutes then goes to work.

Boy, Arenanet, you are indeed promising the moon here.  But I am interested in how close you're going to get.

I did see one mention of instancing in the this recent marketing blast, to whoever said something about GW not being instanced this time around.

Regardless, they are doing something right. They have a lot of subs. Just because you don't find it fun doesn't make it so.

:heart: Closer look at characters, female this time:  

:heart: Closer look at characters, female this time:  

I never played GW, can you expect alot of clothing options or is it one of those every lvl 20 mage wears the same robe type of games?

Is it just me of does her belly button look too far up? Other than that looks nice.

As another left-handed person, you people are crazy. Just use a right handed mouse with your right hand, it isn't hard! It isn't like it is a pair of scissors!  :grin:

Am i right in reading the skill system when i understand it as - five abilities keyed to weapon, five left to customize, with one being reserved for a healing ability and one reserved for shiny magical explodey things. That leaves only three for actual 'customization'? Isn't that a little low?

You can choose which weapons to use!

Yeah, it is to me unless you can customize those weapon-specific slots, too.  I'd much rather two or three weapon-specific while it lets me pick the rest.  As-is, depending upon key mapping, I'll make as many of those as I can passives or rarely-used utility skills.

There will be multiple "healing" abilities with different effects and purposes. Ditto elites and, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot more skills available with any particular weapon/profession combo than you can slot at one time.

It's worth noting that the restrictions may well serve to increase the skill required to play, not lower it. Forcing everybody to take exactly one healing skill (for example) will force people to coordinate their healing, rather than one person playing health bar whack-a-mole while the rest faceroll their ten different variants of fireball.

Eric Flannum addresses the new skill system, particularly concerns about it limiting creativity. Says it will be easier to maintain balance, will act as a safety net for new players, but allows for a lot of flexibility at the higher end of play. Low end builds should always at least be functional.

He also described a scenario where Izzy leapt behind someone and pushed them off a cliff with a skill called 'Stomp', illustrating how fast paced and interesting the combat is. There's still a lot of strategy for players to learn, despite the supposedly simplified system.

Hammers home the point by saying there are literally millions of possible elementalist builds in GW2.

Moves on to classes. Mentions that the warrior class has already been confirmed in other interviews, but may have some changes/upgrades. They want the same reaction that the Elementalist received when it was unveiled.

Moves on again to talking about the non-traditional tank system in Guild Wars, where it's not limited to heavily armored classes or even encouraged as a strategy at all. "Holy Trinity" builds were not a feature of GW1, and will not be a feature of GW2.

Chris Lye fields some questions about marketing, says they are ready to 'take the gloves off'. If you're going to conventions this summer they might have something for you... very cryptic.(

Eric Flannum addresses the new skill system, particularly concerns about it limiting creativity. Says it will be easier to maintain balance, will act as a safety net for new players, but allows for a lot of flexibility at the higher end of play. Low end builds should always at least be functional.

He also described a scenario where Izzy leapt behind someone and pushed them off a cliff with a skill called 'Stomp', illustrating how fast paced and interesting the combat is. There's still a lot of strategy for players to learn, despite the supposedly simplified system.

Holy crap... does this mean we'll be able to jump in GW 2?  That alone might get me to buy the box.

Very excited for this game, the only thing I'm unthrilled about personally is the new races. I liked it better when everyone was human.

If it makes you feel better, I'm just a nine foot tall human.  And a human that likes to cosplay as a plant.  And a nine foot tall human in a cat suit.

Also I think you'd play a dwarf if it were an option.

If it makes you feel better, I'm just a nine foot tall human.  And a human that likes to cosplay as a plant.  And a nine foot tall human in a cat suit.

Also I think you'd play a dwarf if it were an option.

And was that Vrex from Mass Effect?

New info released today, with some neat screenshots:


Article on the Dynamic Event system:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/ (http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/)

Article on the Dynamic Event system:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/ (http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/)

This is essentially what I wanted to do for Ninth Domain back in 2002, with the addition of having procedurally-generated worlds/zones that would periodically open and close (endless new frontiers for the explorers). We didn't have the resources to do it - we were small, poor startup. Arena Net has the resources and ambition, though I predict the events will either not be as spectacular as their examples, or will be rife with exploitable/griefable edge cases.

I'm expecting that the players will still drill it down to finding out which series of "dynamic" events gives the most bang for the buck reward and spend all their time gaming the system and ruining any sort of dynamic feel that may be intended. It sounds great but I can still see a lot of possible problems. Hopefully they are planning for these sorts of things and have some solutions in store.

It's always going to be a fixed number of mechanics in some combination. They might be able to create more and more content but there WILL be repetition.

It will be nice if you can get back to character advancement from a fun activity with occasional special events rather than a guided tour, but there will be repetition.

I do want to try this game and see how it goes now that they appear to be doing more than just Guild Wars 2.0.

New info released today, with some neat screenshots:


Article on the Dynamic Event system:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/ (http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/)

Screens:

New info released today, with some neat screenshots:


Article on the Dynamic Event system:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/ (http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/)

Screens:

I see a few problems:

- Failing a quest, for whatever reason, does not give you the option to abandon and re-take it.  It's fine, except if the reason you fail is asshats, lag, disconnects, a mis-click, a bug, or anything not your fault, really.  And people never blame themselves.

- There is at least the perception that if you're not playing at release, you're missing out on the content, as it will be altered by players by the time you get there.

- They're expecting players to spontaneously organize themselves to respond to events (such as a dragon attacking the nearby town)?  They seem to forget how much work player-herding really is.

- Developments (like that dredge fort example) aren't easier to stop as time passes, but rather seem to have a point of no return: once the fort is built, that's it, might as well give up as it's now a 25-man raid area/zone.  The effects on the server are, IMO, similar to bacterial or viral infections of the body - they're letting the playerbase be the immune system.  They should make it the other way around:   players as the bacteria or virii, and NPC's as the immune system. 

- Also, "as time pases" creates timezone issues.

I hope ArenaNet really takes a critical look at the kind of choice and consequence system they marry these timed events to. While randomly triggered event chains that cascade according to player participation sure sound neat, they're a form of content presentation that risk turning a portion of the players from protagonists into spectators, as Ajax said. If I'm not needed to instigate an event, nor is it critically contingent on my participation, why am I supposed to care again? How is, for example, the ogre attacking the farmer subjectively meaningful to me, as opposed to yet another example of a world where random stuff just happens? And don't say loot, or I'll scream.

Oh well, wait and see. ArenaNet's next article will be focusing on "the personal story system", so it seems they are way ahead of me.

This game is really pretty for an MMO (more (big) screenshots):

It is pretty, but the screens you posted look like another title that does it for less overhead.

- Also, "as time pases" creates timezone issues.

What title? Because there really isn't one that looks like anything Arena produces. Not with the same level of polish and raw talent.

I fully expect some criticism in my comparison.




Granted, arena people clearly have a higher tech set, lots of Normal maps, HDR, soft particles, and perhaps a higher texture resolution. But the first thing I thought of was lotro when I looked at those screens.

Not to say arena net isn't exactly what you say they are, because it is a beautiful game and body of work so far. I guess it struck me more than turbine artists have done more with less and come out with comparable art with out the reliance and overhead of such systems. My post was not a knock, or flame in anyway, simply an observation.

I couldn't believe it is a three years old game.

Stop it, you're ruining my hopes and dreams.

Why does anyone ever care about a quest in an MMO?  This would at least give you more reason to care than normal because your action actually has some effect on the game world, as does you inaction (if what they say is true).    The ogre and the farmer should matter to you because you are playing a hero in a high fantasy setting.  If that isn't enough then I imagine you've never completed any task in any game for lack of meaning.

Why does anyone ever care about a quest in an MMO?  This would at least give you more reason to care than normal because your action actually has some effect on the game world, as does you inaction (if what they say is true).    The ogre and the farmer should matter to you because you are playing a hero in a high fantasy setting.  If that isn't enough then I imagine you've never completed any task in any game for lack of meaning.

- They're expecting players to spontaneously organize themselves to respond to events (such as a dragon attacking the nearby town)?  They seem to forget how much work player-herding really is.

Not to say arena net isn't exactly what you say they are, because it is a beautiful game and body of work so far. I guess it struck me more than turbine artists have done more with less and come out with comparable art with out the reliance and overhead of such systems. My post was not a knock, or flame in anyway, simply an observation.

Day 1: "Hey, there's a dragon attacking the village! EVERYONE DEFEND IT!"

Day 50: "Hey, that dragon's attacking the village. Anyone want to team up, take it out?"

Day 350: "Drag atack vill agin. 5% rare loot drop. PST. Need healer."

Let me give you an example of the Guild Wars 2 dynamic event system in action. Players can gain access to the home city of the skritt -a bunch of rat people- but first, they need to progress an event chain in order to win over their trust. The event chain begins with skritt outside the closed city being kidnapped by members of the Nightmare Court - evil sylvari. Players can join in the event chain and attempt to stop the skritt from being kidnapped.

If the Nightmare Court succeeds in kidnapping the skritt, they take their captives back to a prison, where they prepare to torture and brainwash them. A new event will kick off to rescue the skritt from their captors before they become brainwashed. If the players don’t save the skritt prisoners, the Nightmare Court will drive them insane, and these brainwashed skritt will launch an attack on their brethren back at the home city - which will kick off a new event to help defend the skritt city from the insane ones!

On the other hand, should the players save the skritt from their kidnappers, the event chain will alter dramatically. The skritt will become more trusting towards the players and open the front gate of their home city, allowing players inside. From there, events will cascade out into further chains that kick off as a result of the skritt city being opened. Eventually the chains will reach a point where the players can complete events that open up an audience with the king of the skritt, which will in turn launch an entire new set of events. Should the skritt king ever be slain in the ensuing chains of events that follow, the event chain cycles back around as the skritt throw the players out of the city and turn their backs on the “untrustworthy” outsiders. Players will then need to complete different event chains in order to win back the trust of the skritt and get invited into their city once again, where they will access different event chains. The particular events in this area involve dozens of different events, all contained within various chains involving the skritt city.

MMORPG got an interview regarding Dynamic Content.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/4235/page/1


Interesting cycle, especially when he talks about it "resetting" and different things that need to be done.  So apparently it's just not a linear chain of events.

Heh that makes me laugh.  So what happens to the city when half the players try to rescue the rats and the other half start farming them for loot and xp?  What happens when 50 roleplaying guilds get together to roleplay meeting with the King and one asshole attacks the king and gets everyone kicked out?

All these examples are single-player-game examples.  MMO players don't act in an unified way like that.  If what they're saying is that access to the city will depend on your faction standing with the rats, then that I can understand, but it's not "something new."

Sure, but everyone will die when I train a shit ton of insane rats into the room.  (Unless it's instanced)

I'm playing LotR right now since I got the $10 digital deal.  The game is pretty, and you picked carefully chosen screenshots for examples, but if you compare GW1 and LotR in action, Guild Wars is already way ahead of them.  If you take the few vids we have have GW2, then LotR is completely blown away.

(Caveat:  I have not seen their new zones, and the LotR artists are really talented, however seeing both games in play makes a huge difference over screenshots.)

I squee'd big time for this article on GW2 clothing design. (http://www.arena.net/blog/the-fashion-of-guild-wars-2-an-interview-with-kristen-perry)

Orlando again? I swear, I don't see the appeal at all.

I'd be more interested on how the clothing moves than looks.

WTF?  What thread am I in?  ...  what site am I on?!

Vu's was after Bloom, but purely as a joke since one of the faces is the spitting image.  There isn't really any 'appeal' there, for either of us.  I never got what my friend saw in him (she likes bishies, so had this huge thing for Legolas, but... ugh, no).

I was curious if Sjofn used the face to match the name or it just happened to represent the character's... flair.

And I liked the outfits they showed. :sad:

The new GW costumes have a fair amount of movement.  I'd be expecting at least as much cloth physics on those in GW2.

You've died and gone to Heaven.  Well, at least my version of it.

Not Bloom.

I wouldn't expect it to move much if at all, if history is a guide ArenaNet is going to aim low for the minimum specs to run this thing.

Most people have hardware T&L these days.  Do you still play on a Voodoo card?

MMORPG got an interview regarding Dynamic Content.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/4235/page/1


Interesting cycle, especially when he talks about it "resetting" and different things that need to be done.  So apparently it's just not a linear chain of events.

Most people have hardware T&L these days.  Do you still play on a Voodoo card?

Loot will never be directly given as a reward for an event. The idea here is you should never feel like you need to participate in a specific event, or feel let down that you missed an event because it had a reward you really wanted.

All events reward you with experience, gold, and karma, which you can spend at merchants and vendors in the game to purchase rewards. This way, we’re rewarding you for participating in any event equally, so you can play in the events you discover, or the event types you really enjoy.

I'm mixed with that.  I really really hate the badge system in WOW. 

On one hand it makes the game fun in spurts.  You can get certain gear over time.  However it kills the content of the game.  You find the one way to do the best badge/hour and leave it at that.  I'd much rather get loot rewards for doing certain things (whether that's hard or easy).

In the short turn it's a good system but in the long turn it destroys the content.  However we're looking at this in a vacuum, there might be other rewards etc.

I'd say the LFD system just made it worse. It removed all sense of geography, scale and persistence from that aspect of the game. Combine with the fact that they're just rock stupid easy to run now and the dungeons went from "NEAT CONTENT" to "oh god this is awful" pretty quickly for just about everyone I know. Not that they aren't still doing it while complaining because they're hopeless addicts or anything.

then why am I playing it?

That may not be true given the prevalence of Intel's POS "GPUs" like the GMA950 which don't do hardware T&L (and their software T&L is broken to boot). That isn't true for "gamer" PCs, though.

On one hand it makes the game fun in spurts.  You can get certain gear over time.  However it kills the content of the game.  You find the one way to do the best badge/hour and leave it at that.  I'd much rather get loot rewards for doing certain things (whether that's hard or easy).

Ultimately a well designed variable ratio reward system is more engaging than a well designed fixed ratio / continuous ratio reward system. We may not like ultra-rare loot, but we'll keep playing if the next mob killed might just drop the Hat of Kingliness. However, if it is 5000 mobs guaranteed to the Hat, a lot of people will look at it and go, "Why bother?".

I'd much rather be able to sit down and plan out what I need to do instead of just being resigned to pure luck.

Then again maybe the fact that I am using a work analogy to talk about MMO loot is the bigger problem.  :awesome_for_real:

Imagine going to work and every time you complete a task, you have a chance of getting paid your whole month's salary, OR you can keep your current monthly wage.  Sure, if you are super lucky, you might get 2 months salary one month, and then nothing for 2 months after that if you are unlucky.  I'd much rather take the guaranteed money than the chance at winning big or getting screwed.

A whopping 2% drop rate. The fact that people even bothered is a grim testament to the mind-numbing power of the Skinner box.

The gambling industry says, "Hello!".

There's a balance, of course, but we're wired to focus on that slight chance we'll will what we want over the near inevitability that we won't.

Raiding?

Other than jumping I can't think of how it's different than any other MMO though.

Why do I feel as if I'll be upgrading my 8800gtx/q6600/4gig for this game?

I havnt played in years but I do remember that the wasd movement wasn't smooth.  Something was off on it but its been too long to say what it was.

I havnt played in years but I do remember that the wasd movement wasn't smooth.  Something was off on it but its been too long to say what it was.

They are tough motherfuckers, taking all those heavy hits like it's nothing.

http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/68524/PC/Guild-Wars-2/Gameplay/Guild-Wars-2-Warriors

That looks fun. 

GuildWars 2 makes me want to believe!

http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/68524/PC/Guild-Wars-2/Gameplay/Guild-Wars-2-Warriors

That looks fun. 

Traits explained.

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/traits-overview/

I hate, hate, hate having endless skill bars.  It always makes me feel like I'm inferior for only being able to handle 5-6 abilities.  It's a system that works well for me, and I'm glad there is a game balanced around it.

I may be the odd man out, but I always hated the trait concept.  It was a combination of Pokemon "gotta catch em all" with major build micromanagement for each zone/encounter.   It's almost like a CCG meets MMO.  You have all these cool abilities, but you can only ever take a subset with you.  It makes me miss the 6 action bars worth of options I have in other games.   

To be fair I give Blizzard 1 for 1 in the mmog department.

If the game got better with every expansion, you probably should give them more credit then just 1 for 1.

Not having played any of the expansions, I wouldn't know firsthand, but they seemed well recieved.

The weakest point is probably Eye of the North.. it's not a bad expansion (mission pack? whatever) but it's kind of on the grindy side with title tracks that you grind to grind your title tracks, dawg.

This.

A WOW prot warrior is a tame example, even. My shaman easily had 40+ keybinds...

The bread and butter skills you're using 90% of the time should all fit on one bar. Your battery of utilities and special-case tools can stretch over another two or three.

My initial point was: If the game is going to give me access to 20 abilities, let me use 20 abilities at my discretion.  

If you want me to use 10 abilities, then make sure that you balance those 10 abilities better.  

GW is a game of very specific boutique builds that seem to change with every patch.  I don't enjoy micromanaging builds for every encounter and would rather alter my play on the fly than have to change my preset build every time I zone into a new area.  Last time I played, I had like 20 saved setups on my main.  Then you have to repeat the hassle for all of your henchmen.  If I want to micromanage, I'll play Civ.  

On behalf of every happy and effective Lore-Master in LotRO, I reject your least-common denominator, anti-intellectual, Glenn Beck Kool-Aide drinking single skillbars!

...with a caveat.

The bread and butter skills you're using 90% of the time should all fit on one bar. Your battery of utilities and special-case tools can stretch over another two or three.

That would be hard, given that the Shaman class has 23 non-talent / non-totem / non-weapon imbue spells according to what I can filter out of the Wowhead list.

GW is a game of very specific boutique builds that seem to change with every patch.  I don't enjoy micromanaging builds for every encounter and would rather alter my play on the fly than have to change my preset build every time I zone into a new area.  Last time I played, I had like 20 saved setups on my main.  Then you have to repeat the hassle for all of your henchmen.  If I want to micromanage, I'll play Civ.  

That would be hard, given that the Shaman class has 23 non-talent / non-totem / non-weapon imbue spells according to what I can filter out of the Wowhead list.

Got it, only shaman can engineer or bandage.

I laughed at your list of totems.  Call buttons, use them.  Also, fuck healing stream, searing, and possibly stoneclaw.  Also, macros and clique.

I laughed at your list of totems.  Call buttons, use them.

Um, no. In PVP you really do need to have some of those on individual binds, especially tremor, grounding, and earthbind. And stoneclaw totem with the personal shield glyph is *invaluable* in PVP at times.

Yes, less of this kind of setups, please:

(http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/9800/wowscrnshot051910201843.gif)

Guild Wars has the best out-of-the-box UI

wat

The UI is possibly the worst thing about GW. Healing is a huge pain in the ass, and the icons that tell you what effect are on you are pastel colored and nearly indecipherable. The power/health/mana bit of the UI is OK, but the rest of it is  :ye_gods:.

Interface is one of the areas I am really, really hoping GW2 improves on because there is a LOT of room for improvement.

Oddly enough, I never really played a healer in GW so I can't speak to that except the party interface was a bit crappy if I remember right.

We're making players more self sufficient, but are also providing appealing ways for them to effortlessly work together to create a more inspired moment-to-moment experience. That is why Guild Wars 2 does not have a dedicated healing class.

From the new post/article it appears you won't be playing one in GW2 either.

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/healing-death/

I can't tell you how happy I am to hear this.  For those that love healing, or love the holy trinity, sincerely sorry (but it's not like you don't have enough holy trinity games already).  REALLY looking forward to this game now.

The heal spells are just spread among the class it looks like.  An elementalist with a Healing Rain ability that's a targeted AOE.

I wonder if 'dedicated healer' will still exist in the NPC companion/hero types?

Why should we debuff you, take away experience, or make you run around for five minutes as a ghost instead of letting you actually play the game? We couldn't think of a reason. Well, we did actually think of a reason--it just wasn't a good one. Death penalties make death in-game a more tense experience. It just isn't fun. We want to get you back into the action (fun) as quickly as possible. Defeat is the penalty; we don't have to penalize you a second time.

Someone's been reading my rants for the last 8 years.  :Love_Letters:

That sounds good on paper, but we'll see if zerging like in Champions Online or Star Trek Online becomes problematic.  Its pretty silly to be able to beat any encounter in the game by just respawning and bum rushing and while "running back" might not be fun, either is a game in which all the group play devolves into DPS until you die, respawn, and dps more.

People do that even with death penalties (a la EQ back in the old days :geezer:).

Fair enough.  Regardless of the death penalty though, I hope they find a way to stop zerging to victory.

If waypoints are far enough away there can't be much of a zerg.

If waypoints are far enough away there can't be much of a zerg.

They did away with companions except for a few pet classes.  They mentioned this in one of the early blogs.  Since I liked collecting and outfitting heroes, I was a bit bummed by it.

Update: http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ranger/

sharks.

Update: http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ranger/


Standard Issue Bow + Pet class, with added bonus of tiny bird minions to peck your enemies eyes out!

That ranger looks like hotness. I may have to pick this up after all, is there a release date yet?

Read where?  Because it sounds like you're confusing this with Rift.

Speaking to investors, NCsoft CEO Jaeho Lee has hinted that Guild Wars II will not release until 2011, but a BETA for the MMO will arrive in 2010:
“I believe there will be certain public events in the year 2010, at least a closed Beta test for those titles. Commercialization will be expected, at this point, probably some time in the year 2011.”

Our goal with Guild Wars 2 is to flatten out the leveling curve, keeping progression simple and straightforward. We expect everyone to make a reasonable amount of progression with each play session. It shouldn’t take days of playing before you feel like you have made any progress, and you definitely shouldn’t have to kill a bunch of creatures or do a bunch of repetitive tasks just to see what’s over that next hill. We want our progression to keep up with your play style. If you’re a causal gamer who plays for a few hours here and there, why should you feel like it’s going to take you a decade to finish your character? If you’re a hardcore player, why shouldn’t you be able to blast through the game with skill and speed, trying to experience every last bit of content?

So how did we accomplish our goals, you ask? Good question! First off, we set the level cap for the game at 80, but we made the time between levels rather short. Instead of taking longer and longer to reach each level, it takes about the same time to go through each level. It’s pretty simple; if we expect you to level up every few hours, then why shouldn’t it be that way all through the game?

They're saying all the right things about this game.  Of course we all know what that means. 

Do want. Funny you reference sb.exe. Shadowbane was actually one of the few games that had a flat experience curve, IIRC.

...level 80? That's a big difference from before.

This iis like the hot chick everyone wants to date but we all know she will have herpes and other shit wrong with her.  Too perfect, something has to give.  

It's too perfect.  There is something that has to be fundamentally flawed with GW2.

Please, for the love of god, not this conversation again

There are no reasons at all to have levels in guild wars.  None.

These forums are nothing but rehash.  Eliminate these conversations and you're left with game reviews and politics!  :why_so_serious:

The levels in GuildWars, especially the two expansion versions, were more like a tutorial then "leveling up".

Did you play GW? 

Levels are meaningless in GW because a) gear is pretty easily obtained and b) your character progresses through abilities obtained during encounters... not through levels. 

Even henchmen levels become a pretty tedious and worthless grind.

Adding levels to GW 2 adds nothing but a grind.  Nothing. 

In Prophecies it took you a lot longer to reach 20, and there were two quests you had to do to gain those two final chunks of 15 attribute points.  Because of that, it did seem to take a while to "power up" which is what you are remembering.  They made it so you get past that point a lot faster in the other two campaigns.  Once you've done the first 4-5 missions and are on the mainland, you're done with levels and getting more attributes.

Your feelings on getting new spells and skills and the occasional item drop that was better is more along the lines of normal play.  There are runes and inscriptions which can change your health, though it takes a while to build them up and on average your health will be about the same.  There isn't a huge power curve with most of your increases.  You might find a neat synergy or get a nice item, but most things are minor increases or side-grades.

There are no reasons at all to have levels in guild wars.  None.

I think someone should make a game with a billion levels so that ding! can be had every few seconds.  That'll keep 'em playing.

Now that's what I call the hype train.

Guild Wars manifesto (new movie) is up on the front page:  http://www.guildwars2.com/en/

Plethora of new in-game footage and a whole lot of awesomeness.

Ok, that video was awesome, even to a jaded MMO gamer like myself.

I've quite liked all their previous more substantial videos but this one just kind of made me go  :oh_i_see:. I think it was the sort of forced enthusiasm from the designers that did it.

You can log into GW1 right now, crank your graphics up to the top in a four year old machine and it STILL looks better than any other MMO on the market. I've been saying since day one that they have the best art team on the market. I see no reason for GW2 to be any different.

Not really, no.  GW1 looks good, but it's really a low-res/low-poly Aion with slightly better art direction.

At this point, the only part of their FAQ dealing with PvP is buried in their character advancement question and only mentions something "similar to GvG in the original Guild Wars" (and their blog posts only mention it in questions about other systems) so I still have my cynical trousers on.

Also, I noticed boob physics.

I've quite liked all their previous more substantial videos but this one just kind of made me go  :oh_i_see:. I think it was the sort of forced enthusiasm from the designers that did it.

Female characters should get bigger boobs that jiggle more as they level up.

LotRO-style deed grinds for +1 cup size.

I'm now tired of hearing NCSoft talk about how immersive and awesome GW2 is going to be. It's all jibber jabber that other companies have done. Let's play the game already, so we can tell if they're full of crap or not.

I'm never going to be able to leave my bunk long enough to play the actual game.

New EE-cup jiggle physics are interfering with new jump physics. Plz fix.

yeah that video looks spectacular

the water dragon swimming past at the end, after the credits, made me giddy too. I guess I am a sucker for underwater monsters

ToA turned an entire generation of gamers against anything related to water. I have the same fears.

I liked Pirates! but they could never implement boats in an MMO that wouldn't have me getting all stabby.

EQ didn't help either with Kedge Keep.

Most MMGs can't even get cloak physics right...

Kedge Keep was awesome, the kind of awesome devs don't even bother to try anymore because MMOG players are whiny douches with sandy vag syndrome that can't take anything with a little bit of a challenge.

Sure, water-breathing requirements meant you'd probably die at least once in the night, but if you could get a decent group, it was as challenging or more challenging than planes runs.

It was mostly challenging because of how poorly implemented it was.  AOE spells, derp derp derp. 

Most MMGs can't even get cloak physics right...

Its not the underwater that's the problem, its the z-axis.  Developers are not used to design for and players are not used to dealing with z-axis navigation.  They could remove "underwater" and call it a zone where you can fly around like Superman and you'd still have the same issues.

Given that most of these people are going to be wearing heavy armor anyway, and wouldn't float, you could handwave it by having people able to swim around as a replacement for jump, with people that don't keep swimming inevitably sinking to the floor where they walk and attack like normal with some kind of slow effect. This would keep combat and most travel stuck on the xy axis, while still allowing some 3d design to the layout of the level.

Water levels have sucked since SMB1 and will continue to suck for many years to come.

First actual gameplay video:
http://multiplayer.it/video/guild-wars-2-per-pc/guild-wars-2-gameplay-gamescom-2010.hi/

Hey, just like a normal zone except I have a slow effect on me all the time, sound fantastic. 

Of course we don't expect you to swim, you're saving our civilization!

Well I can cross the Charr off of my "will I play one of these" list now, I hate that running on all fours thing.

Well I can cross the Charr off of my "will I play one of these" list now, I hate that running on all fours thing.

more gameplay, with the necromancer I think;

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/30947
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/30949

Wow am I the only one completely unimpressed? This same old same old MMO gameplay ,with retarded mobs ,tanking mechanics and  clickable powers. I mean not that its very bad per se but combat wise its not gonna be any better than wow

I actually give GW2 almost 100% chance of success. What they have on show is already rock solid, and their business model is good. I'm certainly going to be there, and this time there's no WoW to steal their show.

Unless Blizzard decides to suddenly announce their mystery MMO.  :oh_i_see:

This was my thought.  I was feeling good about SWTOR, GW2 and Rift for different reasons, and Blizzard wil wait until release and then drop a single trailer for their next MMO.

And proceed not to talk about it for another year.

Here, try this (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gc-10-guild-wars-2/703344).  Much better quality videos of walk throughs.  (There are several on the right, so don't miss 'em.)

Edit: Fixed.  Dunno what happened there.

Running from event point to event point until I find one with a big enough zerg rush to join doesn't sound all that much better than kill ten rats.