Fansite Friday/Wartower

Fansite:  Wartower.de

Date:  16 July 2004

Number:  6

url:  http://gw.gamona.de/artikel/artikel.php?id=20

Q&A
Question: Which restrictions will there actually be if you don't buy the add-ons? We know that acquiring those will not be necessary and many features like new items won't depend on whether you've got a specific add-on or not. But we also know that Guild Wars does not cost any monthly fee and therefore there must be a certain "urge" for buying the add-ons.

Answer: Your incentive to purchase the expansion packs will be driven simply by the quality of the content that we offer you. We will make each chapter so compelling and of such high quality that you will want to experience it for yourself. Having played the first chapter of Guild Wars, you’ll know what to expect -- great gameplay, fulfilling cooperative missions, excellent guild support, worldwide tournaments – all backed by streaming technology that allows us to add even more content over time. Having enjoyed Guild Wars, you will be confident that you will get real value in purchasing each subsequent chapter.

The next chapter of Guild Wars will give you access to new regions, professions, abilities, spells, items, and much more. As we’ve said before, friends will be able to play together in shared areas of the game world, even if some of them do not have all the chapters. And we are committed to designing the game so that the characters of those who purchase the new chapters will not become strictly more powerful than those who don’t have the new chapter. But the chance to explore and conquer whole new areas, to master new tournaments and arenas, to play as a new profession, to experiment with a huge number of new spells and skills, and to acquire and customize the great new items in the game will certainly provide that “urge” to jump into the next chapter of Guild Wars.

Question: What about guild banners and emblems? Will there be paint tools to design own logos or do you have to pick a symbol from a prefab selection? Will players be able to show off their guild emblems on shields, robes etc?

Answer: When designing guild logos, you will find that you have a very large number of customization choices. Color will definitely play an important role, as will individual design components of a logo. It’s possible that other elements, such as overall shape and border customization, will also be involved in the final design process. At this point we don’t intend to use art that is created externally as part of the design process. There are a couple of reasons for this: We need to protect the security of the game, and we want very much to prevent the use of offensive images. We do intend to provide you with a very large resource from which you can construct your guild tabards or other team identifiers. Remember, too, that with dyes that are mixable, for which a guild could develop a “secret recipe,” you’ll have another level of customization.

And you can count on a lot of options for showing off your guild logo or emblem on any character you have. Placement of the logo is still being discussed; the logo may be shown on a tabard, on armor, or on a shield or cape. But wherever it shows itself, your affiliation will be clear to all who see you. In addition, an important display for guild emblems will be on the banners that mark you as champions of a tournament or conquerors of a certain arena. And of course your guild hall will prominently display your guild emblem, as well.

Question: Will you be able to reach any continent right from the beginning or do you have to complete specific missions first to enter a certain continent? Are the continents aligned in a linear order?

Answer: Missions take place in specific regions of the continent, and your Guild Wars story unfolds as you play through the missions in those areas. You may have seen a few regions while playing the E3 for Everyone demo, which contained five missions in the Kingdom of Ascalon as well as previews for a jungle and snow region. You have seen an additional coastal region called the Kingdom of Kryta in several of our recent screenshots. Other areas of the world feature terrain as distinctive as that in Ascalon and Kryta; they will be revealed as your story unfolds.

One way in which the regions will become accessible to you is by progressing through the missions. As you complete a mission, your over-map is marked with the location, and you can travel there again with a simple click on the map. While there is an alternative to mission completion that results in getting access to most areas of the world map, in order to experience the Guild Wars story in full, it’s probably most logical to progress through Guild Wars by undertaking the missions as they unfold. After all, if you have a mission that involves avenging the death of a comrade, you probably want to know what happened to him! A few of the mission areas and maps are tied solely to quests, and they can only be accessed by completion of certain objectives.

You can also access areas in a different way: By exploration. You could conceivably start at the beginning of the game and travel by foot throughout the entire region, discovering the outposts as you venture. There would be dangers, and there is a chance that you would die along the journey. But if that happened, you would simply resurrect at the closest outpost, making it possible for you to venture out again.

We think that these two methods of game exploration allow people to make a choice about how they experience the game. And as you know, we’re really committed to giving players a lot of choices in Guild Wars!

Thanks very much to Wartower.de, and its fine staff, for this discussion!