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Guild Wars 2's Festival of the Four Winds launches today
As promised, today ArenaNet will update Guild Wars 2's western servers with the Festival of the Four Winds, a Chinese-themed patch that will return the Zephyrite festival to the game and mark the game's launch in China. Says the studio, The Zephyrites have returned to Labyrinthine Cliffs in their large-sailed flying ships to support Lion's Arch in its time of need. Although Lion's Arch suffered a devastating blow as a result of Scarlet's nefarious plans, Captain Ellen Kiel of the Captain's Council is grateful to see the Zephyrites return with their generous offer of materials and moral support. And to help reinvigorate trade and provide some joy to its citizens, the Zephyrite Master of Peace and Queen Jennah of Kryta are hosting a festival to honor Lion's Arch. Visit Labyrinthine Cliffs and experience the rush of Aspect movement skills, take part in the Sanctum Sprint, or enjoy one of the brand-new events; then take a hot-air balloon to Divinity's Reach and enjoy the reopened Crown Pavilion, including a new version of the Queen's Gauntlet, the Boss Blitz. Join Braham, Rox, Marjory, Kasmeer, Taimi, and Scruffy as they enjoy the festivities and usher in the return of Lion's Arch services! We spoke to ArenaNet Game Design Lead Mike Zadorojny and Associate Game Director Steven Waller about the update and how players will gradually aid in the rebuilding of the Tyrian capital.
ArenaNet offers sneak peek at future Guild Wars 2 balance changes
Game design lead Jonathan Sharp took to the Guild Wars 2 official forums yesterday to offer players a "high level" look at ArenaNet's plans for profession balance and improvements. Although the changes won't be going into effect until the October 15th release -- and Sharp cautions that some of them might not make it in that early -- ArenaNet wants to provide fans with a chance to see where each profession is headed and to offer feedback. Several nifty quality of life improvements are also in the works, such as updated trait tooltips and more options for fast cast ground targeting. In another forum post, lead content designer Mike Zadorojny gave fans an update on GW2's highly anticipated looking-for-group tool. To ensure quality and stability, a beta version of the tool will be released with next week's Tequatl Rising content patch and will initially be available to a limited number of players. As the week goes on, greater numbers of players will have access to the tool. [Thank you to Siphaed for the tip!]
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living story and the Orrian menace
The cleansing of Orr has long been a popular source of speculation in the community, which is why I asked Colin Johanson about the possibility of it happening in the course of Guild Wars 2's living story when I interviewed him in July. Although I understood his reasoning, I was still disappointed by the answer: that it'd be very difficult to change Orr due to its intersection with the personal story but that in future chapters ArenaNet will do its best to make sure no areas end up locked in time. In a recent Q&A session, our own Richie Procopio asked ArenaNet president Mike O'Brien a similar question and got a somewhat different response. According to O'Brien, the studio's original intent was to steer away from content that could impact the personal story in the interest of simplicity; however, ArenaNet wants to make sure that nothing is off limits to the living story overall. I'm trying not to read too much into that, since it could just be a different way of phrasing what Johanson said, but given a little hope to cling to I'd like to discuss why it's so important that ArenaNet not establish any existing content as off-limits -- especially not Orr.
ArenaNet's Mike Zadorojny reflects on one year of Guild Wars 2 and its 'absurd' content pace
Birthdays are great for a number of reasons. There's the cake, the gathering of friends, some jubilant cake-chomping, and even the ability to get violent with anyone who goes near your stack of gift-wrapped loot. If something doesn't go as planned, feel free to cry if you want to. Fun aside, these anniversaries also serve as a great time for reflection. Guild Wars 2 officially turns one today, so ArenaNet Lead Content Designer Mike Zadorojny spoke with us in San Francisco about the challenges the team faced in the first year and how it opened the doors for the living world and future content.
Guild Wars 2's Zadorojny clarifies that Cantha and Elona are still possible
There's a lot of space covered in Guild Wars that doesn't exist in Guild Wars 2 at this time, the sort of space that would seem to be tailor-made for expansion content. Yet earlier this week Mike Zadorojny, the game's lead content designer, told reporters that expansions are off the table at least for the moment. But if you're worried that the regions of Cantha and Elona are equally inaccessible, fear not: Zadorojny has clarified that he will not rule out either area for inclusion. Zadorojny explained that these regions still have stories to tell and that the living world setup allows the Guild Wars 2 devs to explore these regions in the future and add permanent content down the road if they so choose. He further stressed that the game has added what he considers to be an entire region's worth of content since its launch, with more coming as part of the game's current update schedule. [Thanks to Andy for the tip!]
Are developers afraid of the MMO label?
MMOs are dead! Long live MMOs! In a recent editorial at Eurogamer, several top MMO developers chime in on the fate of our beloved genre. "I don't see the traditional MMO having much of a chance in the future, but games that bring tons of people together -- they're definitely going to exist," says Ragnar Tornquist who recently left Funcom to concentrate on a continuation of his The Longest Journey game series that was successfully Kickstarterted in March. Even the rare successful MMO companies are voicing a bit of concern. "Definitely the landscape of the industry is changing," says ArenaNet's MIke Zadorojny. But the editorial goes on to point out that it's not so much the genre that's changing, it's the label. Games are still massively, online, and multiplayer, but not in the traditional sense. Five years ago, everyone and their grandmother were making an MMO version of top IPs, but now, developers are actually distancing themselves from the three-letter buzzword. Ubisoft's The Division, Bungie's Destiny, and even the highly anticipated Elder Scrolls Online have all stated that their games are not traditional MMOs. So where are we headed, and how do you feel about the changes? Check out the full article for more and let us know what you think in the comments.
Guild Wars 2 might never have an expansion [Updated]
Whether or not you like the "Living World" style of Guild Wars 2, you may very well see it as a long-running prelude to a full expansion. ArenaNet's lead content designer Mike Zadorojny recently went on record puncturing that particular balloon, saying that if the team manages these updates correctly, it will "probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy." This stands in direct contrast to previous speculation and forecasts that the game would receive one on some sort of timetable. According to Zadorojny, the end goal is to provide the same sort of content as in an expansion, simply at a faster pace with a more episodic nature. He likens the experience to television, providing constant motivation to tune in next week for something new and exciting. While he declined to offer hard numbers on the game's performance, he did say that the game is doing quite well and has no plans to sell powerful items in the gem store, with the current business model supporting the game without any need for an expansion. [Update]: Game director Colin Johanson has posted a clarification on the GW2 forums. Just to clarify a bit, as Mike said there are numerous teams beyond our Living World teams, and some of them are working on much longer term projects which we'll go into details on much further down the road. It's entirely possible some of the types of content which you might traditionally find in expansions would be released through an expansion in the future for Gw2, and it's possible we'd try something different when it comes to integrating those type of releases. We have no final plans one way or another about expansions at this time, and certainly haven't ruled them out, it's something we'll discuss more in the future. Edited to add: Our primary focus right now is on making the core Gw2 experience as strong and compelling as possible, we'll release a blog post later this month detailing more specifically our plans for Gw2 in the second half of 2013.
ArenaNet aiming for new Guild Wars 2 content every two weeks
How would fresh Guild Wars 2 content twice a month grab you? If that sounds pretty good, you'll probably want to read ArenaNet lead content designer Mike Zadorojny's comments on GamerZines.com. "We're doing three weeks [updates] currently, but now we're pushing to two weeks," Zadorojny told the website. "It's a marathon not a sprint and we've been getting better with each of our releases in terms of how we budget, how we plan it out, how we manage personnel, etc. Now we have four full living world teams that are building these content updates, so that we can stagger releases and make sure that people can decompress and get the quality time necessary to build a good design document before going back in and trying to implement it all over again." The twice monthly updates will reportedly include new features and story content as well as new loot and achievements. [Thanks Andy!]
ArenaNet devs dish on WvW, new achievements, and more
ArenaNet trotted out a trio of game devs yesterday to answer your Guild Wars 2 questions via livestream. The vidcast has since been archived on the company's TwitchTV channel, and we've also embedded it just past the cut for your convenience. Taking center stage are Anet's Mike Zadorojny, Jonathan Sharp, and Matt Witter. Topics include revitalizing deserted PvE areas, a new achievement system, and various world-vs. world tweaks.
ArenaNet on Guild Wars 2's reimagined endgame
Fan scuttlebutt has long held that Guild Wars 2 has no traditional MMO endgame, but now you can get a summation of the design manifesto straight from the horse's mouth. ArenaNet Lead Content Designer Mike Zadorojny has authored a blog post called The Endgame Reimagined, and in it he says that yes, Guild Wars 2 seeks to avoid making players grind "through chunks of boring, repetitive content to get to the occasional pockets of fun." How, specifically, does the game manage it? For starters, it introduces elements typically associated with endgame "at every level and every possible opportunity." Things like large-scale boss fights are commonplace, as are the title's dynamic events that spread across the level range. Once you do get to the actual endgame, ANet says that there's still plenty to do. Read all about it at the official site.
Guild Wars 2 chat with game designer Mike Zadorojny
Earlier this week, ArenaNet's Mike Zadorojny was in Los Angeles conducting interviews for the upcoming Guild Wars 2 beta event. We sent local freelancer Andrew Ross to conduct the interview. This is largely a preview piece with opinions that may not reflect that of Massively as a whole. Guild Wars 2's final beta weekend is here, and we had a chance to talk with game designer Mike Zadorojny about what we can expect for the upcoming weekend event and next month's launch. We got a sneak peek at the Asura and Sylvari starting experiences and asked a few questions about beta, release, player retention, and the future. Whether you're a die-hard fan or still sitting on the fence, we've got some information that's sure to turn your head.
ArenaNet prepares fans for Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event
ArenaNet has followed up its recent beta weekend event blogpost with a short video going through the details of the upcoming Guild Wars 2 BWE. The team has also confirmed that emails are being sent out to get BWE participants the information they need to download the beta client and be ready for the weekend. The event, which runs from Friday the 27th at 3:00pm EDT to 3:00am on Monday the 30th, will introduce players to the Charr, Human, and Norn early zones as well as allowing players to get into epic WvW battles and hotjoinable PvP. Lion's Arch, a huge city that's undergone massive changes since the original Guild Wars, will be explorable for the first time. Check out what Martin Kerstein and Mike Zadorojny have to say about it in the video after the cut.
Take a behind-the-scenes tour of ArenaNet's (totally awesome) offices
Guild Wars 2 fans are surely champing at the bit to get their hands on the game next week in the game's first public beta weekend, but you know what's cooler than taking part in GW2's beta weekends? Doing so at ArenaNet's offices in Seattle, which is exactly what the folks at Eurogamer got to do just recently. Not only did they get the opportunity to sit down and play the Guild Wars 2 beta with the team, but they also got the chance to chat with many of the key figures behind it all. Virtually every department of development is represented in the lengthy article, which includes interviews with head honcho Mike O'Brien, QA manager Mike Zadorojny, art director Daniel Dociu, lead content designer Colin Johanson, and many, many more. So if you're interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the studio behind what could be this year's biggest MMO, just head on over and check out the full piece.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Life in the legions
Last week, Leif Chapelle, a content designer, took some time to update the ArenaNet blog with a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at personal story in Guild Wars 2. He sketched out the structure of how players' biography choices affect their storyline: "To experience every potential storyline being told from level one to 10, you'd need to play the game 30 times (five races times three initial storylines times two internal branches in each storyline)... We have 80 levels of progression for your character, and every 10 levels or so, you'll begin a new chapter in your story." To someone who has rolled a seemingly endless string of alts in virtually every game I've played and is extraordinarily trigger-happy when it comes to remaking characters, this shows a great deal of promise. I'm sure it's quite an angstilicious idea for people who want to savor ALL THE STORY, but I hope that such types might admit (however grudgingly) that too much story is a better option than too little.
Guild Wars 2 info keeps on comin'
If you're a Guild Wars 2 fan, you're used to the jarring transitions between droughts and floods of information. This week, happily, it's flood time. It's been a busy week for ArenaNet, but the team gives no signs of slowing down. After a successful press beta weekend and opening up a signup form for upcoming beta tests, ArenaNet has kept up the flow of information -- and excitement -- by gracing GuildCast with the presence of a few of its devs, clarifying some points on world vs. world in a new blog post, and setting up a Reddit Ask Me Anything session for 11:00 a.m. EST on Friday the 24th. The blog post clarifies some of the more prominent questions the community has been voicing about WvW over the last few days, while the Reddit AMA is a good chance to get in those nit-picky questions that you're still dying to get clarified (no, "can I have a beta key" should not be one of 'em). The most important information out of all of this? Mike Ferguson put a stop to a debate that might otherwise have been endless: WvW is "wuv-wuh." You're welcome.
Redefining MMOs: More developers weigh in
In 2009, the staffers of Massively were more than aware of the changes happening in the MMO industry. The game was changing; technology was allowing the MMO to step out of its turn-based comfort zone and take on new challenges. We began to see the MMO-shooter, the MMO-RTS, and the MMO-does-that-even-fit-in-a-genre. The staff penned a series of articles called Redefining MMOs. Have things changed in two years? On the surface, I'd say no. We still can't figure out exactly what an MMO is. If you ask six different people the same question, you'll get six different answers (if not more). In fact, while I was at PAX East, I did just that. I spoke to six different designers: three from the most anticipated games of this year, two from studios that have been doing this MMO thing for a long time, and one from a studio that refuses to label its game as an MMO. After the break, find out what developers of Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, City of Heroes, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and Firefall have to say about the new definition of MMOs.
Flameseeker Chronicles: The best souvenir from PAX East
When Massively staffer Larry Everett was writing about a PAX East panel he attended, he asked me to help him find a picture of Colin Johanson. I begged him to use the one above, created by GuildWars2Guru member Rolin, but my pleas were unheeded. Since today's Flameseeker Chronicles is in part about Colin, I finally got my way -- albeit indirectly. Since I didn't get the pleasure of attending PAX East, Larry sent me a wonderful souvenir: recordings of a couple of casual chats he had with Colin and Mike Zadorojny all about the MMO industry and Guild Wars 2's place in it. They were such fun to listen to that I decided to share some of them with you guys in today's column. Follow along after the jump for the best bits of Larry's discussion with these two!
An ArenaNet retrospective: "We're not a video game company, we're a community building company"
"I don't think I've seen a studio more passionate about its work." Massively contributing editor Larry Everett made this comment regarding ArenaNet in our recent Staff Choice Awards, and his timing couldn't have been better. ArenaNet has begun 2011 in a big way with the ArenaNet retrospective. The 15-minute video is a trip back in time to the earliest days of ArenaNet and Guild Wars, but it doesn't stop there. Over 20 ArenaNet team members give their perspectives on where the company has been, where it's going, the company's take on Guild Wars 2, and what makes it great. If you loved the Manifesto video, you're likely going to find this one an even bigger treat. Follow along after the jump to see the ArenaNet retrospective video and Massively's take on it.
Costume design and hints of what's to come: Massively's interview with the Guild Wars team
Halloween may be over, but it lingers on in Guild Wars. The new costumes and the new Halloween masks can still be seen all over Tyria as players show off their latest dye mixes and combine the masks with various armor sets and costumes. The event resonates in another way too. We got so many hints and details on new and old characters in Tyria: we were introduced to the Lunatic Court, we met Mad King Thorn's ex-wife, and even Palawa Joko made an appearance. All of this seemed to hint at more to come, and fans were left wondering: is this the last we've seen of all this? We at Massively were anxious to know too, so we went straight to the source. Live Team Lead John Stumme, along with artists Susan Jessup and Kristen Perry, spent some time answering our questions about the thoughts and ideas behind the creation of the new costumes and masks. In between their answers, they managed to drop all sorts of exciting tidbits about what's coming in Guild Wars. Read on past the break to see for yourself!
Flameseeker Chronicles: PAX 2010 travel diary
It's Sunday night and PAX is over. My iPhone and laptop are screaming for mercy. It's been a wild ride, I have the Con Crud, my feet hurt so much I keep checking to make sure they're not stumps, and all I want is to turn the clock back to last Friday so I can do it again. I had appointments and interviews with so many different game studios, and I was excited about every single one of them, but you guys know I was making Guild Wars 2 a top priority. I squeezed in time to indulge at every opportunity and have a lot to say. When I was spending time with Guild Wars 2 this weekend, something struck me over and over. Every employee whom ArenaNet could possibly spare from the office was there in force. I asked at one point and was told that every person wearing that white shirt was an ArenaNet employee. They were out there doing everything they could to spend time with the fans, and more than one developer told me that it was a huge thrill to finally be able to share all of this with people who love it as much as they do. The inability to share all of this exciting news has been as frustrating for them as it was for us, but it was for a good cause, and I think every fan at PAX this weekend agreed it was worth the wait. With that in mind, it was an easy decision to share my weekend experiences and photos with you guys for today's Flameseeker Chronicles. Follow along after the jump while I go find more Nyquil.