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Guild Wars 2 previewed at GamesCom
Guild Wars broke a lot of standard MMO conventions when it first came out. It teetered on the peripheral to the point of nearly not fitting within the established definitions of the genre. ArenaNet was all right with that, and apparently, so were six million players. It doesn't appear that Guild Wars 2 will be completely conforming to the MMO norms either based upon a new GamesCom preview by Eurogamer. It's as if the developers have been taking notes from our Redefining MMOs series (or so we'd like to think)!If there's one buzzword for the MMO genre in 2009, it's probably "story." Lead Designer, Eric Flannum explains that ArenaNet is throwing their entire bag of tricks at the story in GW2, which will combine a mix of instances and persistent world events. Don't expect to find any exclamation marks in this MMO. But do expect crafting, jumping, underwater exploration, and other welcome additions in the sequel. Of course, PvP remains this franchise's bread and butter and players will be able to test their mettle against each other in instances as well as a new open-world area called The Mists. For all the gory details, head on over to Eurogamer's official preview and don't miss the amazing GW2 trailer. We can't stop watching it!
