If you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been too enthusiastic about Guild Wars lately. This week, ArenaNet is celebrating the 5 year anniversary celebration for Guild Wars… but I haven’t even logged into the game to check it out. I ran out of patience. Originally, I thought that the sequel would be in beta during the second-half of 2008. As the calendar hit 2010, I became discouraged. Where is it?! WHERE IS THE BETA?! How long does ArenaNet expect players to wait? From what I’ve seen of the sequel, I was wondering if I should simply give up on the sequel. But today, some encouraging words were found on the official ArenaNet blog. Mike O’Brien made the first post.
What kind of word is Manifesto? It sounds socialist… bah… why should I care about the words from the only remaining founder? (That’s right, if you haven’t heard, Patrick Wyatt left ArenaNet / NCsoft too.) Well, I like Mike. Not only does he have a cool first name like me, I remember the days of Alpha / Beta. He seemed like a levelheaded individual, with a good sense of game design. So OK Mike, what ya got?
…we’re betting our company on Guild Wars 2
Bold words are used in this blog post. If you’re interested in the future of the franchise, I highly recommend reading what Mike O’Brien has to say. It explains the direction and the core design decisions for the sequel. It makes a lot of sense.
The 2,000+ word article crosses many topics, but basically Guild Wars 2 is going to be more about grouping and the battlefield is going to be more dynamic. Here are some highlights…
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.
I don’t think developers of other MMORPGs were being stingy. I just think that’s a fundamental way game economies work. How do you control inflation when more people means more gold inserted into the economy? Yet, without that approach, the game probably wouldn’t have this…
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.
That sounds awesome! But here’s the most interesting piece of the article for me…
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.
There are some issues about the sequel that concern me. I know that others share my concerns as well. So, I look forward to working with ArenaNet. Maybe we can fix those issues. ArenaNet knows about this website and they know my email address, but I haven’t heard anything from them yet. Hopefully ArenaNet returns to their more communicative days.
Anyway, I recommend checking out the article. The ArenaNet blog doesn’t seem to have a comment section, but the GuildWars.us comment system is open. If you want to comment on this matter, just sign up for an account to make a post.
Combat sounds interesting, not sure about the changes to the skill system though… Also Manifesto has nothing to do with socialism. The reason people believe it does is because of the Communist Manifesto.