Fansite Friday/Norden

Fansite: Guild Wars Norden

Date: 01 April 2005

Number: 39

url: http://gwnorden.no-ip.org/gwn/index.php?tfs=33

Q&A

Question: We are getting close to release and some have been wondering about a manual. Will the game come with a manual and if so, how detailed will it be?

Answer: The game will have not one but two manuals. The first manual will come in the box. I've seen the final proofs and I can honestly say – hand on heart – it's the most beautiful game manual I've ever seen. It's really like a collector's book, with a ton of lore and back story and images of all types, from renders to concept art to screenshots. With this manual, you'll really become immersed in the story of Guild Wars, and you'll know a lot about how the world came to be and who the important personages are in Tyria. It will provide the sort of information that helps you feel an emotional connection to the storyline, and a realization of your essential role in propelling that story forward.

But there's more. In addition to the full-colour printed manual, there will also be a complete online manual. I don't know exactly how that will look, yet, but I know from talking to our excellent writing team that it will be a very useful tool for learning the essential gameplay elements. You will consult the online manual if you need a quick guide to the default hotkeys. You'll consult the printed manual if you want to know the story behind why Rurik keeps impulsively charging ahead and getting himself into trouble. (I have a feeling it was a blow to the head in his youth. ;) ) With these two manuals, you will find that you have both the history and the future of Guild Wars, combined.

Question: How will the 27th of April work? Do we need both the full game and Beta key to play that day? If we need the game when will the game be sent to those that pre-ordered? Will they get it in time for the 27th?

Answer: In order to get into the Early Access period on April 27th, you will only need your preorder key. You see, there are three different types of access keys for Guild Wars:

• A preorder key . This key entitles you to all the benefits of preordering, including an invitation to every Beta Weekend Event, character name reservations, and one of six special in-game items, determined by the retailer with whom you placed your preorder.
• A standard retail access key . This key will come with the standard version of Guild Wars and will allow access into the game as of April 28th.
• A Collector's Edition retail access key. This special key will get you into the game on April 28th. But it will also entitle you to a different special item for each of your characters: the Divine Aura.

Now, you may have a combination of keys, and all will work at their appointed time. The preorder key works now for Beta Weekend Events and will be functional for the April 15th BWE and for the Early Access period, which begins at 12:01 a.m. on April 27th and ends at 11:59 p.m. on the day that Guild Wars becomes available, April 28 th . During this 48-hour Early Access period, you can come into the game, start your characters and attain levels, skills, items, and quest rewards that you will keep after the official launch takes place. To play in the Early Access period, you won't need the physical CD on which Guild Wars will be shipped because you can acquire the game assets – all the maps, characters, monsters, and spell effects – via our streaming technology.

The retail keys for the Standard and Collector's Edition retail access keys will be "turned on" about 12:01 a.m. on April 28th. If you're in the Early Access group when this happens, you will most likely be asked to rejoin the game. At that time, you simply input your retail key and you are off and running with your special item (or special items) for each character. If you are joining Guild Wars for the first time, that is if you did not preorder, you input your retail key and start up the game, acquiring assets from the CD and some streamed assets as well.

Question: Players who have participated in the last couple of betas have seen a few changes in the interface. Will the interface from the March BWE be the final one we will see on release as well?

Answer: The interface that you saw in March was only another one of many in our iterative design process. "Iterative design" means that you design something, and then analyze it, redesign it, analyze again, design yet again, and so forth. You "iterate" concept after concept and of course you are always moving towards what will be the final product, be it art, programming, animation, a mission map, the details of a quest, storyline expansions, spell effects and statistics… even a draft for the Knowledge Base or an interview.

Iterative design isn't always a straight path. Sometimes it involves taking a genuine detour in order to investigate a potential new concept. For an example of this, you might consider the various ways that your characters have stored items over the last several months. You may remember when there was one single large inventory window, just a holding page for a mass of unsorted items. Another month, you had one small and three or four smaller inventory bags, which was both good (for sorting) and not so good for sales and trading, since the bags were rather cumbersome to use. Now you have one bag at a modest size and the ability to acquire or purchase additional inventory bags. The newest system helps make sales and trade go ever so much more smoothly, as you are not required to sort through your bags in order to conduct a transaction.

In short, the interface has undergone major changes since the March BWE, and will probably have more changes before release. As you know, few things are permanent or “set in stone” when a game is in the beta phase. We're going to be looking at the feedback that we receive from players as a result of the April BWE before we consider any UI feature to be permanent.

Bonus Question: What has happened to the beloved 'Wallpaper Wednesdays'? Are you planning some more in-game footage or similar stuff?

Answer: You mailed this interview several days ago, so of course you had no way of knowing what we were working on. But very good instincts must have prompted your question – or you have a secret camera in my office ;) – for today we did release a substantial new in-game movie. We have been hoping to offer a wallpaper these last two weeks, but several of us have been involved in another major project whose outcome should be apparent tomorrow. And we're very much hoping that we will be able to resume Wallpaper Wednesdays next week.

Thanks a lot to everyone at Guild Wars Norden for the opportunity to share a Swedish interview. :-)