PC Gamer May 2007 Information - "Guild Wars Reborn"

@ Ruby Lightheart:
On the one hand, you say they have no right of even calling the game GW2, but on the other hand you say not beeing able to transfer your character into a completely different game is a "slap in the face". Isn't that just a little inconsistent?

You also complain about the increased level cap. I have to admitt that I'm somewhat weary about it myself, but we don't know what will change with that: Have you considert the fact that the higher levels might be just for "cosmetic" reasons and add little to no advantages? I think we shouldn't jump to conlusions at this stage.

Gwen will be in GW:EN, not in GW2, so you needn't worry about that either.

They can call it whatever they want. They own the IP.

Did you get to keep your XP? Your equipment? I think not. In any case, the beta was close to Guild Wars. Similar mechanics. Guild Wars 2 will not have the same mechanics, ergo, no character transfer (although it would be cool to have our Guild Wars 2 beta characters move on to GW 2...)

I would agree if we knew ANYTHING about how this will be implemented. For all we know, it will just be a number, with actual stats being capped at level 20. Until I know exactly how this will work (and at this point, I don't even think Anet knows!), I'm waiting to pass judgement.

Again, remains to be seen. Since Gaile on the front page addressed the very issue you brought up (waiting an hour to kill a monster in EQ), I would find it hard to believe Anet would do something so stupid. If anything, Anet has a unique vision of how these persistant areas would work, and it's clear that the Instances we know and love will remain as well.

You're right. She's only in Eye of the North (the first and last expansion for the original Guild Wars).

Again, I recommend you go back and read Gaile's quotes. This is not the feeling I get for the direction of Guild Wars 2.

To put it in perspective, you're reading a summary of a 12 page article, of vaporware that's 2 years away from Beta!

The death of Guild Wars has been greatly exaggerated.

[QUOTE]
hi

from page 1 of the article and i quote the article

our visit to the offices showed a development team that

has redefined its ambitions altogether.

Cosmetic or not it will lead to elitism only seen in that of HA.Don't have enough levels?lol n00b u sux rofl i pwn u!

The name reservation means nothing to me unless it is my GW1 toon coming over. It would not be the same.

I dont like this new game Anet is passing off as Guild Wars2. No amount of flaming me or arguing is gonna change my mind on what i just read bout it either. ONly one who can change my mind is Anet and I seriously doubt thats gonna happen since they already allowed that monstrosity to be announced in 11pages of detail in PC Gamer. If I wanted to grind or fight against instance campers I woulda stayed with WoW

I hope so...

That way I can avoid those Elitists with a sharp, pointy stick.

I'm sure there will be enough casual level 20 players for me to find a group with....

Let's clarify some things here.

They are carrying over a lot of the old game mechanics. The GW1 engine will be the base for the GW2 engine. All of the old Lore is still valid.

If that isn't GW2, I don't know what is.

The new engine most likely will not support the old skeletal systems and aesthetics. But they are giving you a Hall Of Monuments to carry over your achievements from your old Account. That personally is enough for me. I can always recreate my old characters.


That honestly depends. Its only grind when you are trying to get from point A to Point B at an ultra slow pace. They haven't revealed how grind and progress was going to be handled yet.

According to the article, crucial things like missions were still going to be completely instanced so that camping won't be a problem. They hate that too.

Gwen is going to be in Eye of the North if you were actually reading that article.

That is ridiculous. They are going out of their way to convert the gameplay and art/atmosphere to a more robust system and all you can do is whine and complain.

Not to mention that its a YEAR away until the Beta test when things become even more clear. You can wait until more details arrive before crying can't you?

That was the point of making GW2. The current GW model couldn't support all of their new ideas. SO they are starting from scratch so to speak.

I personally don't see that. But maybe I can comprehend the article a little better?

Ruby - I'm sorry you see my refutes of your argument as "flaming."

It's pretty clear you have not read all of Gaile's quotes that addresses many of your concerns.

As for bringing your character over - did your Beta character import to Guild Wars with all the XP and stuff you acquired in Beta?

Wow all the complaining is rather funny ~ I'm so excited, Guild Wars 2 is the best thing to happen to Guild Wars~ Plus I don't know why people would want to bring over characters. I would think the majority would like to explore the starting level content for GW2 anyway.

GW2 FTW!

unbelievale...

well... as Loviatar said and quoted...

its a new game... don't like it... don't play it... don't buy it... simple as that...

in the first post of this thread gaile states that Anet will continue to support Guild Wars... why change? if there are so many sceptics about the new Guild Wars then simply continue on the first Guild Wars...

i know i'll give a shot to GW2...

Character name reservation: I'm curious about how long our names will be reserved for. A few weeks after launch? A few months? Permanently? I can imagine the confusion if people are able to swipe prominent names and pretend to be them.

I'm sure no one has the answer, but it's something I've been thinking about.

No to uncapped levels.

I remember the old days of Diablo 2. I'd be working with friends and get to a stage where my character wouldn't be powerful enough any more. So, before our next session, I'd have to go and grind my way up 4-5 levels by repeat-killing stuff... just to earn some more health and skill points. And of course, if I died, I could easily lose 30 mins' work of XP as a death penalty.

The max level of 20 is fundamental to GW. The whole game is balanced around a 'normal' level of attributes, health, armour etc. This is about the most successful thing in the format. There are enough posts in this thread that make this point for A-Net to seriously reconsider putting 100's of levels of grind in.

Furthermore, instanced environments just for my party, and allocated drops, are the second most defining feature of Guild Wars for me. The last thing I want to see is unknown idiots buzzing in and out of my gameplay and people stealing my drops. At the moment I can choose at party creation stage who I want to associate myself with. This is really important. If other people can invade my quests it will feel like someone has broken into my house!

I know we are just talking about a game that will beta next year, but these are pretty fundamental features that go to the heart of the game's engine. A-Net needs to listen to what the customer base is saying because the community is worried about two things that are crucial to the success of the current game, and should make the new one, too.

As for transfer of characters - I've spent ages lovingly crafting mine too - but I honestly don't mind about starting some new ones. I am sure that GW2 will have some beautiful models and armours. If you want to see your current characters, simply load GW1. For some reason I am just not sentimental about this at all. Give me new, next-gen characters ... fine! I will still make them, they will still be mine.

they stated a combination of persistant areas along with instanced parts just to prevent spawn camping/ganking/loot stealing

the toon would not fit the new graphics engine
the new skills wipe out what you have
and all your millions of ecto items will only be good in the lowest levels.

cosmetic level increase? NO WAY COSMETIC or they wont get the players they are after.

as long as a person can do something in an hour and see they did a quest/whatever and made some tiny tangible bit of progress they will keep most of the current ITS MONTHLY FEE FREE players and may nick into the PTP crowd who are tired of paying and will settle for a lighter version that has its own unique benefits.

Charr FTW sounds cool, i hate the charr atm but it would be cool to be able to play as other races...sounds kinda like its turning into...warcraft...

I'm actully happy about GW:EN and GW2 first i wanted to know more about Charr homeland so i will buy Eyes of north.

Now my question why is everybody so frekin scared of GW2 and it will suck sentences.You don't even know how the game will work.Personally i think that alot of people would have got bored if GW had like 10 campigns and all i would read is blah another main evil boss another repitaive story so stop bitching and play Eyes of nother when it gets out and wait for 2008.

Nice summary. No level cap is a welcome change. Although the thought of a single uber high level player kicking the crap out of other lower level players... reminds me of a quote from South Park. "How do you kill someone that has no life?"

Hate to burst your bubble man, but truth is original business model wouldn't have worked well in the end. Each campaign would get more and more the same and few new BIG features would be added, the "new" player customer base will dwindle as graphics get outdated and it will be left to the people who had played this for a year or 2, and even they might quit because of boredom. They NEED to change to keep in the market. It adds some really new stuff that they couldn't do before. Why NOT change.

I disagree with this very strongly.

I was attracted to guild wars by the promise of an equal playing field, the promise of skill over time investment. I was sick of D2, sick of no skill involved grinding. Sick of days on end spent doing nothing to get a level so I could be "1337". A higher skill cap absolutely does equate to grinding. A level 50 IS better than a level 20, or else there is no reason to even be able to get to level 50. This means that before a player can play at the highest level, they MUST get to level 50 or be rejected as a level 20 n00b. Now, how do players gain levels in guild wars? Quest and monster XP. More levels, more XP to gain. Therefore you will have to grind far more to hit 50 than 20. An increased level cap is increased grinding. It will also result in an increase of eliteism. There absolutely will be people saying "I'm all that because I was the first to reach Level X." The current Guild Wars system keeps that to a minimum, clearing the stifling press of ego seen in the top levels of many other MMOs.
A sense of "veterancy" should be hitting a 1/2 sec cast time spell with an interrupt, or soloing something thought impossible. Time investment should equate to being a veteran, but it should not be accessible to anyone. ANYONE can go grind easy mobs untill they hit max level. If you want material seniority, Guild Wars already has it in the form of things like original holiday items, experience, and discontinued items [etc.]. I have an original pumpkin helmet, over 1 Million XP, and a HoD sword I paid 500k for, and I absolutely derive a sense of seniority from them.
Am I the only one that thinks this undermines the principles Guild Wars is based on [Equality & Skill]? The entire reason I [and many more] don't quit it to go grind WoW? If Guild Wars 2 has an increased level cap, I for one, am going to go play the real grind game, not a knockoff.

[Edit] I just realized how much of an anti GW2 rant that looks like. I do support GW2, I'm psyched for it's release. However I am concerned that it will turn into a WoW grind clone, and I'd rather play WoW than a WoW clone.

Most of this sounds pretty good to me. Races, finally, where do people find the time to complain about races? And movement modes (this came up on another board what the pho)? And crafting? Some people, I guess maybe they're just violently opposed to content, would be happiest playing with a sixty dollar box of rocks because that's about as far as you can get from WoW.

The level cap, though. Everyone's sick of hearing about the level cap but it's there and it's important and Gaile did not do a very good job, and I don't say that maliciously, of resolving the questions about the level cap. Nobody cares if some people want bigger numbers to impress captive friends and family members with. Have all the useless glowing crap you want and make it sing, too. What people are worried about is whether their character will need to be level 100 to be competitive, and it will if there is a significant benefit to gaining levels after a certain point, or if the upper portion of the level cap will be for prestige as a lot of people have been speculating. How tedious will the process of getting to level 100+ be? Every developer claims that their method for character advancement (protracted addition) is like Disneyland on pixie sticks but that's been a damn lie since Ultima Online.

More information, and only a very little could clear up a lot of debate, about the level cap could not possibly hurt. Looking way forward to GW2. Gonna get my Norn on.

No, but they are persistant on not allowing it to happen. I am glad though that equipment and names are transferable along with titles. Looks like I will just try to attain PKM. Then call it that and if GW2 gains my interest I'll buy it, otherwise I completely agree that WoW seems to have been the better choice atm.

ohhh why didn't i just stick to reading the first page! Why do people have to moan so much about things they haven't got a clue about!

Lets face it, there is a hell of a lot that's in the article that people are GUESSING about. Take the level cap for example it could easily mean attribute points stay capped at level 20, but each level adds one to the purely cosmetic level that's next to your name. If people wanted to reach for the sky let them, if people didn't it wouldn't matter!

As for the new race = WoW, i am just stunned and lost for words....

I agree with that.

The reason I play GW is that I can play together with my friends.

5-10 levels difference in a level based game - byebye, level up, you are useless weight. It is also total against the GW philosophy of balance and skill over grind.


But I got PC Gamer and read the whole article, so I can add that there will be different modes of PvP:

World PvP, 3 worlds with hundreds of players competing against each other with small or major objectives on supposedly huge maps. pve chars of all levels.

Structured PvP, very much like GvG with pvp chars.


Not sure how this will turn out.

All i can say is YEH BABY YEH......im so keen for Gw 2...its gonna be gr8...Change is good. I have full belief that GW 2 is gonna be the ultimate online game...Nice work guys...keep it up...

And for all the moaners....HA HA HA HA .....Your loss

You're quite right -- I don't understand why people are complaining. Why not provide constructive criticism and give reasons and examples for how you feel about proposed elements for GW2? It's one thing to say "If they do this they have screwed us over and I'm leaving." It's another thing to say "I disagree agree with this because _________, here's my suggestion for a better way ___________."

I'm confused: On the one hand you say you knew GW would not go on forever, but at the same time you're also mad that they aren't going to continue releasing new chapters every 6 months even after moving on to a new game (GW2)? I don't know how to make sense of that. /ponder

Where did it say the devs got bored? I admit I haven't gotten the mag yet but I will be certain to look for that part. Perhaps, just perhaps, they have learned from the past 2 years of GW and want to take the game in a different (and in their opinion better) direction. Is that not possible at least?

And I am at a total loss for why everyone is so upset about having to start new characters. You're basically saying you don't want to experience any of the "growing up" content of GW2 even though it will clearly be a different game. Instead you just want to step off the boat, sorta speak, and have people waiting on hand and knee for you because of your amazing life accomplishments in GW1. Weird.

If your characters are that incredibly important to you, why not continue playing GW1 for the rest of your lives? Seems a little odd to me, but whatever floats your boat I guess. Also, it has been mentioned before, but if you decide to leave and regardless of where you go, you will have to start from the beginning, so you might want to get used to the idea.

QTF! I haven't actually played it, but when I have thought about trying WoW, I've turned ill after seeing 1 or 2 screens lol... that plus the many negative experiences I have heard from friends/guildmates/other players. I happen to play GW PvE because I enjoy it. A crazy notion I know.

EDIT: Another thing that cracks me up is people making their decision to not get GW2 soley based off of what they have heard about this article, or at best the article itself. I'm sorry, but that's even prior to premature.

Looks like the only thing GW and GW2 have in common is no monthy fees.

they are making a new game ?


HOW ABOUT FIXING THE OLD ONES FIRST SO WE CAN PLAY THEM NORMALY ????


how dare they work on a new game while the old ones still need working on and by that i don't mean screwing up skills and messing up builds but acctualy fixing something that needs fixing god damit !!

Anet... don't turn this game into WoW. If you do this to GW I will go for WoW because at least it didn't turn into a wannabe of another game.

I read whole article. Doesn't change my mind even a bit. It'll be different game. Much worse, imo.

I...WANT.... TO KEEP MY CHARACTER O.o

PLEAAAse... i want character transfer from 1 -> 2
i dnt want to start all over again... AHH =(

It would help stating what need fixing....

They raise the level cap and instantly everyone assumes it will be a WoW clone. Noone knows how fast the levelling will be. It could be faster levelling. There may only be 35 levels etc. There are dozens of other mmorpgs with high level caps and noone cries they are a copy of WoW.

Thanks Gaile for all the good news

Considering Guild Wars 2 will probably be a entirely new game, with a new engine and new everything. You'd have to start over again because nothing would work with GW 1. If that's not true, then I don't know. But consider that first point!

Fixing the old ones? what u mean? did they not already constantly working to nerf the uber l33t builds? what more do you want? they are still working the same... Discord builds and other gimmicks are already being nerfed constantly...so they are still doing what they said they would...

Unless you are complaining about HA, in that case, that has nothing to do with GW2...you are just venting for no real reason... HA thread belongs to HA forum. enuff said.

And what do mean by "how dare they release a new game"? Do you prefer them to keep with the 6 months chapter and release another chapter with new prof that will unbalance the game even more?

Fact is : A new GW is the best option and it will result in more balance since everything will be started from scratch than actually adding a new chapter which will destroy the balance with their uber new skills and professions...

They took the right decision in stopping with the unpromising 6 months chapter deal...

I think people need to read the articles about GW before its release, I remember reading about things that never even came close to being in the final game.

2 years is alot of time, heck thats like them making 2 whole chapters worth with dev time.

im pretty sure it will have changes between now and then.

not to mention people dont even know how they will feel about guild wars 1 in 2 years, you may actually want change by then.


also take into account the stuff they WONT change. they wouldnt have talked about that in the article cause they just wanted to talk about new things.

Why even call it Guild Wars? The only relation it has to Guild Wars 1 is that it will have no monthly fees and will be set in Tyria...but not look like it because of the updated Graphics Engine.

I am really hoping the Anet team will making SOMETHING different because right now it has nothing new except for a couple different races.

The pvp system seems really...stupid.

I like the sidekick idea though. Way to go on that idea Anet. Good job!

BTW.. will there be a new trading system in GWEN or GW2?
this system doesn't really work, i'd like to see an Auction House or something like it...

Ok, first of all, who cares about a level cap in PvE? Yeah there might be a difference between a lv20 and lv50, but there will be other lv50's to play with. Some PvP will still have level caps it sounds like, which is the main reason level capping works so great in GW1.

I do agree with some things previously said though - releasing GWEN is in some ways worthless as your characters don't continue on anyway. And the long wait time of 1-2+ years is killer.

I knew (and tried not to think about) the day would come when GW1 died out. I thought they might continue a bit longer on the 6 month chapters but hey, they are trying to take GW to the next level.

As for people whining about the transformation of "World of Guildcraft" and "Grind Wars 2" - give it some time. This is just the tip of the iceberg of info we will find. The truth is both games have their pros and cons. So don't complain about Anet trying to combine the best of both. I think it would be really cool to have more players in a big world, not just in a town. And Gaile said that characters will be able to switch between districts/worlds/etc... so you can still meet up with your buds.

I personally am looking forward to GW2 and I look forward to finding more about the game as info is released. For now I am going to continue playing GW1, but in the mindset of titles and things that may get carried over. It's not like now that GW2 is coming out that GW1 is no fun. And they wil continue the GW1 servers even after the release. I trust Anet because of what they have already done, if you really love the game that much you know that they can pull it off again even better. Now they have experience and a story under their belt and can really blow us away.

Oh and I forgot to add earlier - sure grinding is a pain, but if there is no monthly fee - WHO CARES.

Keep going Anet and keep us updated.

-Tibincrunch

Since I dont play competitively I dont care what my level is or anything. What sucks is RPGs that make you level up by killing things just so you can get to a high enough level to complete a quest. Many of the older RPGs do this.

If the level up bonuses are small enough that make it so you dont have to grind, then at least the PvE will be ok. Most games will give more than enough side quests (which themselves are annoying if you have too many) to help you get the xp needed to avoid grinding, and GW is the same - so from a purely PvE perspective, I dont thing grind will be a problem.

This is how i see it...First off they didnt give enough time to complete all the other campaings...now they are going to release GWEN and ....a long time from now GW2. pfft i still havnt even started playing nightfall pve yet...What about those of us that play pvp only. I could care less about what they do for pve but now it seems we have to start doing pve... This monument crap means that if i want to carry over my pvp titles (WHICH I HAVE WORKED HARD TO GET) then that means i gotta dish out 50 bucks to by a game that i most likely have to play pve..just to get to this monument crap. anyways...the changes do look interesting. besides not giving us enough time to digest Gw more...its all looks good. i mean its only been 2 years and GW is about to become obsolete...and for all of those who say it wont...BS...what happend to diablo 1 when d2 came out ??? huh huh exactly ...this whole thing about being able to slide jump and swin tho is VERY interesting...would make for some really kick arse pvp senarios...hmmmm well anyways...the level cap...stop crying over it...pve sucks anyways lmao..j/k

dear gaile,

just a couple things hope you have the time to reply
just wondering after the release of gw2 will there still be festivals hosted in gw1 such as halloween and wintersday?
also not shure if you would know this but will we be able to take our festival hats to our gw2 characters? that would be great


also just want to say i love the sound of this hall of monuments thing! does this mean if you still update gw1 with new titles and such we can come back earn the titles and then send them to our guild wars 2 characters? if so i take my hat off to you anet it gives us a reason to go back and play gw1 to earn things for our gw2 account. i think its an amazing idea! if true it means that gw1 will still be a part of gw2 and your characters are kind of like distant relitives just sending some presents to there favorate nephews lol