Fansite Friday/AlienPod

Fansite:  Guild Wars @ AlienPod (site no longer operating)

Date:  1 July 2005

Number:  49

Q&A
Question: As more and more players join into the fray, it becomes increasingly difficult to reach the upper ranks as the raw number of those competing is so high. As your player base continues to grow at a rapid rate, how does Arena.net plan to accommodate such a large player base in their official tournaments and competitions?

Answer: Well, actually, that's a very timely question, as we are currently discussing some of the finer details of those competitions in preparation for making a significant announcement in the near future. As you know, ArenaNet and NCsoft are planning to sponsor tournaments. There's nothing as exciting as offering a truly global game like Guild Wars, and our technology places us in a unique position to allow us to hold the most meaningful worldwide tournament of all. There is no need for a server shift or a "best of this shard" or "mightiest in that realm" theme with our game. As we've always said, "The top team in Guild Wars will be the top team in the world."

In order to accomplish this, we'll be holding seasonal events. And with the beginning of each season, we will reset the ladder. This prevents "ladder atrophy" or "ladder lock" where a team makes it to the top and simply stops playing in order to preserve its rank. A ladder reset prevents that "the rich get rich and the poor get poorer" feeling for newer guilds who can't hope to rise to the top because of their lack of longevity. This means that the best team in any given season could well make its way to the top of the Guild Wars Ladder three or six months later, or they could find themselves completely supplanted by the up-and-coming newer groups, or by another veteran guild that simply plays a better game during that season. With seasonal resets, all teams will have the opportunity to reach the top.

Oh, and we will have more details about the Guild Wars tournaments very soon.

Question: The feature our guild in particular misses most often is a way to have extensive guild storage at our Guild Hall. We also greatly desire a way to have inner guild PvP as a way to practice our team builds. Are these two features on the radar for a nearby update?

Answer: Guild storage and intra-guild combat or practice options are two features that are quite important to us, too. Of the many features that have been requested, these two have shown consistent popularity with fans. And the features in which fans have shown a decided interest will always be the ones to which we pay special attention. So have these ideas been on the consideration list? Yes, most definitely, and they have been for a while. Will they be in the game? Yes, they will. Is there a timeline? There’s no definite release date as of yet.

You know, if I had to take a guess, I would imagine that skirmishes, or intra-guild combat, would be added before guild storage. But I'm engaging in pure speculation on that part. In fact, both features could roll out on in the same update. In short, I would predict we’ll see either or both pretty soon.

Question: I believe the game would benefit greatly from having a way to search for people based on level, job, area, looking for party, name, etc. This function would make forming a party in PvE make easier. Are there any plans to incorporate a player search function?

Answer: My first thought when reading this question was to consider how we form a party at present and to think how it could be improved. It seems to me that the system in place that offers towns and outposts is pretty supportive of party formation. After all, when you’re in an outpost, it’s pretty clear that you're preparing to do either the mission or one of the quests associated with that location. And of course, with the keyboard commands, anyone can see the tag above your head which shows your character name, your professions and the level you have achieved.

However, this is decidedly not a "we've already got this covered" answer, because it's true that at the present time it's not easy to display which quest you want to do, nor can it be easily shown if you are ready to take on the mission, if you’re looking for players to join a questing party, or if you are simply shopping, trading, or hanging out with friends.

So I would say that the current view in towns and outposts gives you some of the information that you might want, but that we should make it possible for you to get the rest of that desired info. This means that we should show, at a minimum, the part that currently has us calling out to "R/Mo Looking for Group - Mission and bonus" or "LFG (quest name), need Mesmer." The details of how best we could do that are something we discuss often.

The world search concept is a nice idea. It may be most helpful for finding friends and guild mates, and figuring out who’s doing what. For party formation, I also like the “local display/local search” idea, where you can voluntarily show your availability for a quest or mission right there in the outpost or town. You could indicate which mission or quest you’d like to do, and also show your preferences for grouping and interacting with other players. With a scan of the area, a player could pick party members quickly and easily, knowing that everyone would be on board for the same experience. Consider it a sort of “personal ads,” where you are “Ele/Nec seeking party, particularly one with a beefy Warrior or two, a Monk and at least one Ranger. I deal in minions and fire magic. I like long walks on the Krytan beaches and drinking Dwarven Ale by the flames of an incinerated Imp corpse.” ;)

Anyway, the entire Guild Wars team is very open to working on general features like a world search. I definitely believe you will see it added to the game. Look for that and a lot of other such features in the coming months!

Thanks to Guild Wars @ Alienpod for the chance to visit with you and your visitors!