Fansite Friday/NL

Fansite: GW-NL

Date: 15 July 2005

Number: 51

Q&A

Question: In the explorable areas there are regions you won't need to travel to or through doing side quests. In one of those regions (Majesty's Rest) you can find Rotscale level 30 accompanied by four bone dragons. But unfortunately killing that group was quite easy for six level 20 players. Are you planning to have more big boss monsters in 'out of the way' regions, and make them also challenging for a group of Ascended players?

Answer: Oh, I know what you mean! I fought that group of dragons with one other Level 16 and Henchies, and the dragons died pretty easily. You too, eh? (And here I thought maybe I was just that good! *grin* )

We will definitely be adding the type of content that you envision, the sort that draws you away from the beaten path, the kind that offers up something totally unexpected and cool that may be a side-story or an "extra" project. These will be very fun to accomplish and definitely worth your efforts as a world explorer or as a person wanting a cool reward for extra effort. Part of our philosophy is to continually add optional challenging content for ascended individuals and groups. This philosophy applies both to our free updates (like the one coming this summer) and to the ascended character content in future chapters. So keep watching for bonus missions and special secret objectives!

Question: Sometimes you create a character and after a while playing you're not happy with the name you chose, but it would be a waste to delete the character and start again. Also, sometimes a guild leader quits leading a guild and hands over the guild to someone else, who might want to change the guild name to something of his own choice. Will ArenaNet sometime in the future add a possibility to change a character name or for a guild leader to change the name of the guild? (This could maybe even be done for a fee in certain towns as another gold-sink.)

Answer: You know, at first I looked at this and I thought, "What a great idea!" But then, a few concerns arose in my mind, and talking to Designer James Phinney, the concerns solidified into a regretful but certain belief that we simply cannot offer this feature. Why? Because it would probably have a cost for the community as a whole, and there is nothing about which we are more protective than the Guild Wars community.

Renaming a character would be super for an innocent individual - a good player - who simply decided to make a harmless change. But what if abusive players or scammers had renaming opportunities? What if such players could bury the past with a new name? They could change names and start right in again with abusing other players because, with a brand new name, there would be less likelihood that they would be avoided, less chance that they would have been pointed out through community discussion.

Players do a good job of communicating with one another about problem players, and they do a great job of reporting problems to us. Naturally we do our part to stop abuse in all the ways that we are able. We respond as quickly and as firmly as we are able to amend or prevent player abuse. But character names can form part of our ability to help, and guild names are tied to reputation, as well. That's really a good thing, and for the vast majority of players, that reputation connected with name is beneficial. "My friend traded with you, I know you're a good person," or "I remember reading on a fan forum where you helped someone with a quest, and you're someone I would like to party with as well."

If you trade happily with someone, you will tell friends. If you have a less-than-positive experience with another player, you'll also tell friends. It's a good thing that reputation, though character name identity, remains with all of us. Obviously any player can delete a character and make a new one. But if he or she decides to do that, there is a rather compelling reason to disallow carryover of items and achievements. Keeping names in place, not offering an automatic name-changing device, is one way to assure that our history - good or bad - stays with us.

Question: Considering the popularity of Guild Wars also in Europe, are you planning on holding special European Tournaments, where the winning team gets to fight against the winning teams from the USA and Korea? And will there also be real-world prizes to be won in those tournaments?

Answer: Well, this is certainly a timely question, for we are in the planning stages of just such an event! As you know, we've been working on a novel form of Observer Mode for some time, and we will be offering that feature in conjunction with a very significant tournament. Guild Wars is uniquely suited to holding a true world championship, and to drawing players from around the world into one single event. Real-world prizes? Count on it. Travel, too! (And no doubt spiffy lewt, as well. ;) ) There will be many exciting levels to the event, and, for the winner, the title of true World Champion. Look for more news about the 1st Guild Wars [World Championship]] before the end of this month!

Bonus Question: While the first expansion for Guild Wars is still months away we're all very curious about it. Could you maybe lift up the veil a tiny bit and reveal a bit of information about it? Like for example if it will only contain new PvE regions for Ascended players or whether it will also contain new PvE areas for lower level players?

Answer: You know we don't talk about Chapter 2. It's just not done!

However�

The word around the water cooler is that there will be a number of cooperative areas for non-ascended players. It's not only about 'moving on from ascension' with Chapter 2. If I had to take a guess, there will be a way for unascended characters to enjoy at least some of the new lands of Chapter 2. But, you didn't hear that from me, ok? ;)