Fansite Friday/GameAmp

Fansite:  GameAmp

Date:  26 August 2005

Number:  56

url:  http://guildwars.gameamp.com/guildwars/gwInterview

Q&A
Question: The Guild Wars loot system is now randomly generated between runes, salvages, collector items, weapons, shields and gold. With the absence of armor piece drops, the end-game gear is relatively easy to obtain and can be said to lack the luster of finding your ultimate set of gear. What are the developer's thoughts on the introducing unique items that have a set name and compiled with a set statistics (and perhaps 1 variable statistic) into the loot system? This will give players a new goal to focus on once they've reached end game as well as invigorate the economy.

Answer: It's an interesting question. This would tie in to basic principles of Guild Wars: The game is not based on the notion of "uber" items, and balance is the foremost objective, always. But what about the "collectability" and sheer coolness factor of having unique items and special looks for our characters? The answer is "Yes, why not!?" We won't add something that's going to tip the delicate scale of item balance, but we absolutely are looking at offering a lot more items for their sheer specialness factor and with the recognition that such items offer the ability to personalize your characters even more. Set items? Under consideration. Now, keep in mind there is a collectability factor in armor sets such as Druid's, Tormentor's, etc. But the idea of special items - that wonderful feeling of "I have the only one of this type" - is very popular with everyone on our team. (Oh, how I remember that from other games, too!) And one more thing about armor: For the next campaign, I expect we'll see the opportunity for making a fashion statement increasing in a bunch of ways, including what you wear in town and into battle, and in seeing a difference between the two.

Question: I've always loved to see what "roles" gamers invent that were not intended by the developers upon the release of the game. One of the more popular of these roles is the game's growing population of runners that allow low level players to "hitch a ride" to the higher level zones in the game. The most popular run is obviously the Lornar's Pass run that allows a player to reach Droknor's Forge [sic] through Beacon's Pearch [sic] with the aid of a competent runner. Running has turned into a fun mini-game for a portion of the game's population but it also gives the ability for low level players to reach content they should not be permitted to access. It would be a shame to make Lornar's Pass un-runnable but "twinking" low level characters is often something that the developers address with an iron fist. Are precautions being taken to put level requirements on some of the higher level zone portals or perhaps even the armor purchased at the higher stages of the game without completely crippling the runner's ability to be unique?

Answer: Wanna know a secret? We put in the ability to make such runs as an intended design element. Sure we could prevent it, but it's not our objective to do so. If people want to power-level a friend, or even turn offering a running service into a cash-raising profession, it's really ok with us.

There are two ways in which it would not be ok:
 * If someone scams players by taking money and not making the run, they become a nuisance factor rather than a clever entrepreneur, and we would take action on that account.
 * If we find that players are using runners to develop a character that is then abusive in PvP play by virtue of their higher-level acquisitions (particularly armor) we will need to take steps to prevent this.

In other words, to the extent that a practice like "running" or taking a shortcut might negatively affect other players, we'll be taking a look at it very carefully. If there's a lot of abuse of lower-level characters (those who are playing through the missions) by those who are taking the shortcut, we'll address it. I note that we did not choose to address the matter with last night's major game update, and I believe that is because the possible problems are not evident to such a degree that we need to make an amendment. But I just spoke with Lead Designer James Phinney, and he assured me that we will continue to assess the situation and we will come up with solutions if the scales tip towards the negative.

Question: Community involvement obviously ranks very high with the Guild Wars team. Fansite Fridays, Guilds of the Week, the guild ladders and various contests hosted by Guild Wars allow the community surrounding the game to get involved and feel they are a part of the game. This level of community involvement is not often seen from other games and it's obvious how much of an impact it has made on the promotion of the game. Why does Guild Wars make such a fierce effort on the community's involvement and is there anything new planned in the future that allows players or fansites to "get involved" with Guild Wars?

Answer: Hey, you noticed! : There are two ways to build a community: early and late. You can develop a commitment to fans as a core studio philosophy, or you can do the more common practice of looking at a calendar and saying, "Hey, the game is coming out in a few months, we better think about the players." ;) Obviously, early is must better - for the game, the dev team, and the fans. Naturally, listening to fans for years, instead of weeks, helps to make a better game. I am pretty sure that ArenaNet is the first company to hire a CRM four years before the release of its first title. That's a long, long time for the dev team to be involved with the growing community; to consider how best to reach out to our fellow gamers; to listen to the wants, needs and desires of those who will be playing the game.

And the philosophy of building a community early, and staying in touch daily, reverberates in all our staff. We all have a commitment to the hundreds of thousands of players in the game, and we know that there are ardent, bright, motivated fans visiting our community's sites, making suggestions, reporting bugs, helping us to make Guild Wars even better with their interest and their sharing. We're in those forums daily, we're in the game listening, and we'll continue to do that. We won't please all the people all the time - there are going to be desires that are diametrically opposed to one another - but we'll make an honest effort to move in directions that are the best for the overall game and the individual gamer. As for future plans for involvement of fans, well, that would be telling. Let's just say that events, contests, features and other fun things will make fan involvement even more present in the Guild Wars community.

Question: One of the common gripes I hear from Guild Wars gamers is the inability to create more than four characters with a single account. With such a low level cap and fast game progression, why did Guild Wars feel that they would limit the character slots to four rather then increase it to six and allow everyone to make a primary profession with each character on their account? In addition, will the options to have more character slots become available in future expansions?

Answer: Four seemed a good number at the time of release. Making decisions is part of an RPG, we all know that. No one can expect a limitless inventory, for instance. We like four, but we're considering the possibilities of more in the future. I believe that when the next campaign comes along, we will see an increase in slots. No idea by how much, but we wouldn't release a new campaign and ask that you wipe a character to play it!

Thanks to Gameamp for the chat!