Fansite Friday/Czech Legends

Fansite: Czech Legends

Date: 10 December 2004

Number: 25

Q&A

Question: Do you plan to have more events like the dragon invasion in Lion's Arch in the end of the last Beta weekend event? And if yes, how often?

Answer: Ah, you were there, then? That was fun! I think everyone was surprised to see ol’ Rotscale appear in town. And then to see him multiplied by two, then by four, until the town was filled with enormous Bone Dragons, all casting poison and generally wreaking havoc! Good times. :)

The beauty of streaming technology is that we can do this sort of thing at the drop of a hat. Now that doesn’t mean it doesn’t take time to plan such an event. You have to involve artists and programmers, and the concept usually has to start with the designers, of course. But with the special way in which Guild Wars files are created and saved, there is no worry about having to modify millions of files, and then having those files create a massive patch. If we want to add a seasonal look to the world, or hold a special limited-time event like a mini-tournament, or invade town for a 15-minute rampage by certain Bone Dragons ;) we can do it with a modest update that modifies only the necessary files and takes only a minute or two to download.

When you ask how often we will hold events, the word is “often.” Whether it’s decorating a town with Christmas trees for the holidays or turning the lakes to ice in the winter to adding a new mission or a new monster, the Live Team intends to keep the Guild Wars world a dynamic and exciting place. And of course, just as there is no subscription fee for Guild Wars, there will be no charge for our updates. We’ll refresh and add to the world on a regular basis. The only things for which there will be a charge will be the new chapters of Guild Wars, and as we’ve said many times, the purchase of all chapters is entirely optional.

Question: Is the game going to be released in all countries at the same time, or is the US market going to have a priority? And are the players from all over the world going to be able to start playing the game at the very same moment?

Answer: This is a particular point of pride to us: Yes, the Guild Wars world will open to the world’s gamers at the same time. Too many times a game comes out in the United States and then takes months to open in other countries. This creates not only frustration in those players who are asked to wait, it also fractures the community, when you have so many international friends and global guilds who want to play together but are not allowed to do so.

Now, with Guild Wars it’s not a problem to play with those who have newer characters. The game doesn’t inspire the usual “shun the newbie” feeling that some games do, where if you start playing after your friends have built up their characters, you pretty much have to hunt bunnies for 20 hours before you can hope to play with them. With the rapid leveling system of Guild Wars, you won’t be left behind. Sure, when you are a newer player you may have fewer skills, but the ones you have will be good skills. And you will be able to contribute to a party even if your character is a lower level than that of your friends.

But I mention this only as an aside, to assure people of how different and how more inclusive the Guild Wars system will be for the newer player or to the person who purchases the game a bit later than release date. The answer to your question is that Guild Wars will have a worldwide simultaneous release, and everyone will be able to play at the same time.

Question: Do you plan to have any extra-rare items in the game? Something every player would desire, but there would be only a very few pieces of this item in the world of GuildWars. Also, some players speak about "Cradle of Secrets", a secret location hidden somewhere in the mountains, does this location really exist? (We were searching for it three hours, but we haven't found anything.)

Answer: I understand this question and the interest behind it, because I’m one of those “collector” sorts myself, and I love rare and unusual items. I’m currently using a shield that is lower than many I’ve found simply because it’s a unique item and has the fancy gold lettering on the description.

There will definitely be exceptional items in Guild Wars, those sorts of things that are the talk of a guild and the envy of townsfolk throughout Tyria. The reason that you may not have seen too many of those items yet is that we’ve not opened up the high-end missions that will offer the greater level of remarkable drops. If you recall our recent revelations about the concept that we’re calling “Worlds at War,” you’ll remember that this system provides an opportunity for a guild holding the Hall of Heroes to open up new maps for everyone in their world. These maps will feature new quests and objectives, and upon participating in these challenging tasks you may earn the reward of a special item drop or two.

It’s important to the core design philosophy of Guild Wars that items not unbalance the professions. We certainly do not want to offer one item that everyone “needs” to have in order to be successful. We want to assure a fairness factor, and we want to avoid items that displace strategy as the greater factor in victory. And of course we would like to avoid cookie cutter characters who, despite the wide variety of choices in Guild Wars, might all look alike due to those certain few uber items. The bottom line is that we are developing exceptional items and we’ll incorporate them in a way that makes them fun and challenging to obtain and very exciting to own.