Fansite Friday/The Guild Hall

Fansite: The Guild Hall

Date: 6 August 2004

Number: 9

Q&A

Question: Having eliminated so much grind from the leveling process, how do you intend to keep non-PvP gamers who play frequently coming back for more (between expansion packs)? What sorts of goals might these players have to aim for once they have reached Ascension?

Answer: Well, the first thing that comes to mind is "stuff!" I don't know about you, but part of my gamer personality profile includes the word "collector." For us collector types, what will keep us coming back to Guild Wars after we're maxed on levels is the hunt for the unique items or for that bow with just one more point in damage or the unusual rune for an armor upgrade. Judging from the way the game plays now, I don't think that the highly-sought-after or unusual items will be found in great profusion. I don't see people passing on the special items in the alpha test, and I believe that the desirability factor will remain. "Rare" really means rare in Guild Wars! You won't have an inventory filled with items with yellow text, and when such an item drops and you see that it's assigned to you, your heart does a little happy dance.

But there are a lot of things besides the inventory that are involved in game longevity. In addition, it's important to remember our streaming technology. That tech is not just a mechanism for keeping the world safe and secure, or for fixing exploits and bugs. Streaming technology allows us to send you new content on a regular basis. I've mentioned holiday or seasonal events before, but keep in mind that we could easily send you a whole new mission, complete with two or three sub-quests. We will be evolving the world in many ways, and will be giving you new opportunities for combat of all kinds. The opportunity to develop a deeper inventory of skills will draw many people. In fact, some folks may well be driven more by the notion of owning and mastering every skill in the game than they are by the tournament itself. So speaking about what would draw you to play post-Ascension there are several things, including: The acquisition of items, mastery of skills, exploration of different professions, attainment of a great number of skills, creation of a new guild, support of guild recruits as they complete quests and learn the ropes, improvements to your guild hall, and of course, the inclusion of tantalizing new content.

In short, there are a multitude of gameplay opportunities and a number of gaming styles supported in Guild Wars. And yes, for the non PvP player, there is definitely life after Ascension. :-)

Question: What drives the creative process behind the class design and balance? What is your ultimate goal when it comes to profession and skill design?

Answer: Wow, it's really difficult to name a single ultimate goal for profession and skill design. I guess that would be something along the lines of "creating professions that are balanced and fun to play." But I know you'd rather have details and perhaps a bit of philosophy in there, too. First of all, the Guild Wars professions are designed to give you archetypes with which you are familiar, like the warrior or necromancer, but with a "twist" that makes them uniquely Guild Wars.

Talking with James Phinney, our game designer, he mentioned a lot of the specific goals of profession design. Many of these goals are already implemented in the characters now being played in the alpha version of Guild Wars, and the others are being tweaked with every build that involves new elements of balance. I'll mention them not with some sort of "Design Document" formality, but as a casual list:

• There will not be a single dominant strategy for any profession.
• Each profession you play will be fun and distinct from the others.
• There will be enough depth that your gameplay style will evolve and you will find that you adapt to what others do in different ways as you play each profession.
• Professions will be interdependent, but that interdependence will come without making those playing any particular profession feel useless or like a second-class citizen. Note: This does not mean that every party needs to have a member of each profession; it simply means that working together makes the whole of the team greater than the sum of its parts.
• In any instance of combat, each profession plays a crucial role; each profession is valuable.
• You should be paying attention to what is going on not just with your own profession but with those on your team. You'll have an advantage the more you look at the bigger picture of team interplay.
• Professions will be designed so that new mechanics are introduced later in the game. This means that people playing at first have a simple game, but that each profession gains a new depth as you get further into Guild Wars.
• Each profession has unique mechanics. For instance, the monk is the only profession that can give up energy regeneration to benefit another character. The ranger is the only profession with a pet. The necromancer is the only profession that summons minions out of corpses. The warrior is the only profession that performs shouts that affect friendly characters around him. The elementalist is the only profession with glyphs. And the Mesmer is the only profession who can steal the skills of others and duplicate them for his own use.

Question: What is the theory behind introducing the "Elite" skills mechanism? What makes Throw Dirt, a Ranger skill, Elite while the Elementalist Blinding Flash is not?

Answer: As you know, characters in Guild Wars may learn a larger number of skills, but must choose only eight to bring along per mission. The individual skills and the interactions between them are meant to make choosing your eight skills a fun and interesting part of the game. Elite skills are intended to add an interesting wrinkle to that decision-making process, for after all, "There can be only one." ;)

Now, you may wonder why certain skills are designated as elite as opposed to being considered normal. There are three possible reasons for such a designation:

• The skill may be more powerful than a normal skill.
• The skill may have more extreme effects than a normal skill.
• The skill is designed to address and exploit a specific profession weakness.

The third reason explains why Throw Dirt is an elite skill for Rangers, but Blinding Flash is not elite for the Elementalist. And this is the reason that Jawbreaker is elite, while Tongue Biter is not.

Some skills function better against characters of a specific profession, or when used against certain monsters, or when used in a particular setting, or in partnership with certain other professions, etc. Sometimes skills are given balance factors such as a long recharge time or a longer casting animation which means they cannot be cast frequently or instantly. Sometimes skills require Adrenaline or cause Exhaustion. And of course all skills have energy costs that play a role in how often they can be used. Finally, some skills are designed to play a role as the single one of their type on the belt - these are the ones called elite skills.

Thanks to everyone at The Guild Hall for the opportunity to answer a few more questions about Guild Wars!