Flameseeker Chronicles: A year of hype
This was one of the quietest weeks on the Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2 front that I can remember in a long time. Even during convention weeks, the folks at ArenaNet have kept busy churning out new information. It might be something big like a class reveal, or it might be something tiny like a hint at a new hero, but there's always something.
The team seems to have taken a well-deserved breather this week, which might mean nothing or might mean that the devs are about to spring something big on us. Either way, I thought it would be a good time to look back over the past months. It's been just over a year since ArenaNet pushed the start button on the hype machine, so follow along after the jump to see how far the team -- and we as fans -- has come in a year!
August 2009. The Duke Nukem Forever jokes were flying and even the most hardcore fans (me) were fast losing patience with ArenaNet's coyness and secretive approach toward development. As it turns out, the development team could not have timed it better. Many people were beginning to make noises about just throwing their hands up and walking away when Mike O'Brien dropped just enough information to make us pause and say "Wait, what?"
The collective fanbase decided to hold on and see what was coming, and ArenaNet made it worth our while and then some. After Mike's announcement, all was quiet for two days. On the 19th and 20th, the hype machine chugged to life with a series of concept art on Facebook and our very first trailer. Surprisingly, ArenaNet chose to release the trailer not at PAX in the team's hometown of Seattle, but rather at Gamescom in Germany.
Fan reaction was huge -- after so much waiting, here was something solid. And in typical ArenaNet-style, the trailer teased us with animated concept art and a voiceover for the first two minutes, giving fans just enough time to think, "Concept art? That's it? How disappointing," and then knocking us for a loop. The voiceover said, "It is time for legends to become real," then the concept art morphed into actual in-game footage, and then a sweeping aerial shot introduced us to the world of Guild Wars 2 for the first time. Set to Jeremy Soule's stirring music, the trailer tempted more than one fan to applaud at the end. (Don't look at me like that; you know you thought about it.)
The trailer was spectacular on its own, but the way in which it was presented was just as important and effective. I've talked before about how ArenaNet won't show us anything until it's complete and definitely going to be in the game. What this means is that when the foundation of all of this -- the very world itself -- was in development, there was simply nothing to see. We knew it existed; we knew the developers were working on it. But there was nothing to do but wait and wonder.
At PAX earlier this month, I was chatting with another game developer about game demos and beta testing. We were discussing how many players view a beta test these days as a free trial and get upset when it's glitchy and crashy and buggy and all other sorts of bad things that end in -y. This developer said, "A beta test means it's broken and free." He was absolutely right, and there's not a thing in the world wrong with that.
ArenaNet is breaking the mold right from the start, it seems. As fans, we deserve better than something broken, and we're going to get it. What this means is that we'll endure lots of silence when we're dying for answers, and "when it's ready" will be burned into our brains. But when it is ready, it's going to be something amazing -- like the first trailer was.
The progression continued, with information building on information and one thing leading naturally to another. For example, at the end of that trailer we got a look at the group we now know as Destiny's Edge. The next trailer came a few months later, and again, there was no half-baked, unfinished gameplay footage for Guild Wars 2 fans. The trailer was first and foremost an introduction to the five playable races, presented as individual biographies of the members of Destiny's Edge. That wasn't all, though -- the four-minute trailer included extensive footage of the game, giving us a further look at what we can expect to see in Guild Wars 2.
2010 has kept pace with the information we got last year -- sometimes a trickle, sometimes a flood, always exciting. 2009 was the year for introducing us to this new world, and 2010 has taken that even further. This has been the year to link the Tyria of the future with the one we know now, thanks to the War in Kryta and the history given in Ghosts of Ascalon. Even better, we've become more and more familiar with Guild Wars 2 thanks to class reveals and hands-on gameplay.
What will the rest of 2010 bring? I have no idea, but given the events of the past year, I expect to be blown away yet again.
Rubi is a longtime Guild Wars player and the writer of Flameseeker Chronicles here at Massively. The column keeps a close eye on all the events in Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, and anything bridging the two. It's also the home of a weekly summary of the travels of [MVOP], Massively's Guild Wars guild. Email Rubi at rubi@massively.com.
