Fansite Friday/Legendary Wars

Fansite:  Legendary Wars (site not longer operating)

Date:  24 September 2004

Number:  16

Q&A
Question: Will Guild Wars incorporate a day / night cycle into the game? If yes, how long will it be? If not, could you tell us why and was there anything else that influenced your decision?

Answer: The Guild Wars story plays out as you undertake the missions, rather like a movie or a book, where scenes fade or chapters end. Because these scenes or vignettes are story driven and capture a specific moment in time, the missions take place either in the daytime or at night and don't change from one to the other. The world will have other sorts of transitions, though, such as seasonal changes and special holiday-oriented additions. And in subsequent chapters of Guild Wars, certainly anything is possible and there may be missions that have a day-to-night cycle within them.

Question: Will there be any large-scale PvP battles with more than 16 people (8v8)? If not, what made you decide to keep it at 8v8?

Answer: At present, we have the capability of hosting 8 v 8 v 8 v 8 v 8 v 8 battles. That's 48 people fighting it out on a single level of the tournament. The battles get pretty fierce when you're engaged in combat with those numbers; such tournaments have proven to be very fast-paced and a ton of fun. You see quite a high number of strategic and tactical maneuvers, not just in combat choices but in such elements as secret alliances and switching loyalties. And of course profession and skill selection for each character plays a major role in the success of a team, even at such a large scale. In the future, we may have more people on the battlefield at a given time, and of course with the game in alpha state, its hard to predict the final numbers. For the release of Guild Wars, offering the tournament with a 48-player cap may be our decision. Keep in mind, though, that the tournament is a multi-level elimination system, so those who win move up to the next level where they again meet multiple teams.

Question: What made you decide on only having one melee profession for the initial release?

Answer: I hadn't really thought about this, but I guess it is true that there is only one melee specialist in the form of the warrior. With the Guild Wars dual-profession system, it feels as if there are other melee professions, because many players add warrior to their character build. Also, because there aren't strict weapon restrictions, any character can wield a sword, axe, or hammer, therefore you will see some non-traditional character classes engaging in melee combat.

Our goal in choosing the six initial Guild Wars professions was to go with strong archetypes, so that there would be an instant understanding of each of them, and a perception of how they fit into the world and onto a team. We feel that the professions we have chosen for the first chapter of Guild Wars are some of the more distinctive character types. Each has a strong connection to role-playing games and to fantasy in general. There are other character types to consider as melee combatants, and we will have opportunities for those others to be included at a later date.