Thursday, April 23, 2009

ArenaNet’s community manager reflects on four years of Guild Wars
By Michael Lafferty

“ … we were confident that we had something special in Guild Wars”

Guild Wars was a bit of a trendsetter when it launched four years ago – while the game maps were a bit on the restricted side, the ArenaNet/NCsoft title was the first time that a major massively multiplayer online game offered a free subscription.

That’s right – no monthly fee to play the game online. Not only that, but the game was graphically inviting, featured a rich storyline and was geared for both solo players (in instanced zones) as well as teams. Players were also given the option of dual-classing and entering arenas for some player-versus-player action.

Over the years the game has evolved its story arcs through several expansions (it started with Prophecies and moved to Factions, Nightfall and Eye of the North) but has maintained its level 20 character cap, while introducing new elements to continue to expand the overall quality of the game itself. And in addition to the big expansion, new elements are constantly added through monthly updates.

Ok, it’s the fourth anniversary of the game and what better time to revisit the world of Tyria along with Guild Wars community manager Regina Buenaobra.

Question: When Guild Wars first launched, the story was quite linear but well told. It was obvious that you put a premium on the story. With more developers emphasizing gameplay, did you view this as a risk?  

Regina: Certainly whenever a developer does something that goes in a slightly different direction to what everyone else does, there is some risk. But we were confident that we had something special in Guild Wars. The instancing system allows for a rich story experience for the player. Our gameplay is tight and engaging. In terms of PvP, we have one of the most balanced games out there.

Q: How has the game changed in the four years since its launch?

Regina: Guild Wars is a game that changes constantly. We update the game every single month. Many of our players pride themselves on their adaptability to our skill updates, especially our PvP players. Our design team regularly tweaks the game in response to how players use skills, and this is most evident in PvP. These updates keep the game exciting and give players different challenges. If you played Guild Wars four years ago and hop back into the game today, whether you play PvP or PvE, you will find that you have a fresh new gameplay experience because of those skill updates.

Over the years, we've learned that players enjoy deep PvE gameplay experiences, and this is shown in Guild Wars: Eye of the North, where we emphasized that deeper style of play, rather than a more broad design emphasis where content is spread more thinly.

Q: You teased pre-Searing characters and then gave players the opportunity to revisit them later. Do you have other surprises in store as the game moves forward?

Regina: You never know what'll happen in the future. Our Live Team is full of surprises!

Q: How much input has the community had on the direction that the game has taken?

Regina: As community managers, Martin and I keep an eye on what our players are talking about — in the fansite forums, on our official wiki, through personal emails and letters, through blogs, and elsewhere on the internet — and what they consider the most pressing issues. Members of our development team also take an active interest in what our players consider important. Community managers act not just as messengers, but as advocates for our players. Through us and other members of the studio, our players definitely have a strong voice at ArenaNet. Some of the features being released in the Fourth Anniversary Update are a direct result of requests from our community  — in particular, the expanded options for item storage and the Zaishen Menagerie. We have a few surprises up our collective sleeves that we think will resonate favorably with players as the community has definitely expressed interest in having us deliver these features.

Q: You have introduced new classes in previous expansions, and with the hybrids players can create, players can mix and match well. Do you have plans for new classes, or even new gameplay mechanics?

Regina: One of the key gameplay aspects of Guild Wars and one of the things that makes it special is choosing and synergizing your primary and secondary professions. There are 90 possible profession combinations in Guild Wars, giving players a huge variety of options to experiment with and to enjoy different types of gameplay. At the moment, we don’t have plans to add more professions to the game.

Q: Did it surprise you that the arena combat areas would be so popular? How did you find a balance between creating templates for characters that would stand up to PvE and PvP gameplay?

Regina: We always hope for the best, and our team has made it relatively easy. The easier it is to start playing a game type, the more popular it will be. So in that sense, it’s not surprising. If you have a game type that requires eight people versus a format that requires one player, a different amount of time and organization is needed to get into each format. One of the things we may have underestimated is how many different formats we would end up with. This gives our designers interesting challenges when it comes to game balance. Different templates are going to work well in different places. Different formats have different goals, so skills will vary in terms of how powerful they are, depending on the type of PvP format. But some of these skills are core components of each profession, and for our designers the key is finding the skills that are good across the board, and considering this when balancing.

Q: While it is appreciated for its consistency, why have you kept the level cap at 20?

Regina: We want player skill to be more important than time spent grinding. We never want levels to be the determining factor in beating enemies. When you win because you're a more skilled player, you get a different feeling than from knowing you only beat someone because you were 5 levels above them. You feel powerful, and you feel a greater sense of accomplishment. The level cap at 20 is also a key element of PvP, where it's important for players to have a level playing field.

Q: Why do you think Guild Wars continues to be a popular destination for online gaming? Does this have to do with the subscription model, the graphical quality, the story arcs, or a combination of all of these?

Regina: All of the above! Guild Wars gives players a very unique experience, with not only challenging gameplay and an incredible solo storyline combined with fantastic art and brilliant music, but also a great PvP system. There’s something for everyone in Guild Wars. You mentioned the business model. We know that a lot of people have been hit hard by the tough economic times, and Guild Wars continues to be a great value for money in online gaming because there’s no subscription fee to play online with your friends. People can hop back into the game whenever they want without worrying about being tied to a subscription and, combined with great gameplay, these are all definitely reasons for why it’s continued to be so popular.

Q: What do you like the most about this game?

Regina: I really like the unique profession system the developers created. You could bring the same profession combination and set of skills into two different maps and get a different play experience. Part of enjoying this game, whether you play PvP or PvE, is judging what skills your enemies are bringing, and building your Skill Bar so you can best counter whatever they’re throwing at you. Likewise, you do the same for the Heroes and henchmen in your party, making sure that your bringing in the right professions and that your Heroes have the right skills. In PvP, you do that as a team with other players. Part of what’s really enjoyable about the game is this skill-building and analysis aspect, and then seeing it all come together when you play.

Q: How will you celebrate the fourth anniversary of the title?

Regina: We’re introducing exciting new features for players. One of the coolest new features is Zaishen Challenge Quests, which let players complete certain challenges each day, such as replaying a storyline mission or winning battles in different types of PvP play. These new types of quests will change each day.

One of the most requested features is more storage. In celebration of our four-year anniversary, we’re giving players a free storage pane so they’ll have more inventory space for items that all characters on a single account can access. Not only that, players will be able to buy more storage panes for additional account-wide inventory space.

Another requested feature is the ability for players to access different pets after they have already charmed them. Players can do this by heading over to the to the Zaishen Menagerie outpost. Access to this area is completely free. There are several ways to unlock different levels and evolutions of pets, such as having members of the Zaishen Order train your pets in exchange for Balthazar Faction. We’ll also give players the additional option of unlocking all standard pets by purchasing the Pet Unlock Pack.

We’ve saved some surprises for the anniversary, so check the Web site for more details.

We have loads of in-game events going on for our four-year anniversary. The Shing Jea Boardwalk will re-open, where players can test their luck in the Boardwalk games. The Dragon Arena and Rollerbeetle Races will be open. Birthday Cupcakes will drop from monsters in explorable areas. Starting on April 28, characters turning four years old will receive new miniatures from the fourth year birthday series. Characters turning four will receive these presents on their creation date.

Share | Digg This | Glink It

---