PC Gamer May 2007 Information - "Guild Wars Reborn"

The article says, "Holiday 2007" Which probably is some time in November/December.

Actually I think I'm the only one who's demanded answers.

It's not that there isn't enough info, it's that they gave almost no concrete info, which leaves everyone to guess and assume like idiots.

And what happens if GW2 ends up being like everyone's bitching about? To be honest I'd seriously rather apologize for my pre-emptive nay saying than to say I told you so, especially since I like Guild Wars so much.

They're calling GW2 a WoW clone based ON THE VAGUE INFORMATION GIVEN BY THE DEVS.

I do agree that it will seriously suck that you cant cross over money or items to GW2, and all this charaecter leveling and item collecting that everyone took part in for hundereds of hours will be in vein. Although when GW2 opens this brand new world and game play style I think people will start to love it, just as they had when GW first started and it was new and different. People were excited and happy to explore the world even up till today. Honestly the new game mechanics sound quite interesting. Jumping, swimming and sliding? Yea that sounds neat. Disabling click to walk? Ok I can live with that.

On the other hand, while I never expirienced first hand what it could be like to have you and your guildies kill a boss only to have some noob (WoW) walk in mid-battle and steal the drop or somehow get more credit for killing it than you did. Or swarms of people standing around waiting for a boss to appear to maul it. That type of game play sounds uninteresting to me and probably most that are intune with how GW plays wont like it either.

Guess we just have to hope Anet finds a good cure for that. All in all Anet has my support with their desicions after all they kept all of these GW fans hooked for some time now. I'll end with saying im looking forward to GW2.

I have browsed through this thread at leisure, grinning at some responses, unfortunately wincing at others.

To be honest, I was shocked at the announcements to begin with. However, having read the article, I honestly cannot wait. It will be great to have a new game which is both similar and different to the old one. Wasn't Halflife 2 better than the first? Not all sequels are crappy.

Questions have been asked and answered about individual characters. What about guilds? Characters are important, yes. However, imho, guilds are what make the game great. Will these be kept in GW2? Or will we be forming new ones?

The subject of grinding is an interesting one. Guild Wars "broke open" the genre in regard to gaming fees. Who says that GW2 will be based on exactly the same "grinding" principles as other MMORPGs? I'm sure that's the very thing developers DON'T want to happen. Guild Wars isn't just another game, it's Guild Wars. Unique. I bet the developers want to keep it that way.

Heh, one thing's for certain, GW2 will never be developed to have the same cartoonish graphics seen in WoW. On this basis alone, I think all comparisons between the two are wholly unfair.

Oh, and I love the whole GW:EN thing. I bet here's where we find out she was the true cause of the searing.

since the article stated that the new GW 2 was going to be completely different with a huge raise in the level cap from GW1 why are you so anxious to run around in what will become low level armor/weapons/shields anyway?

quote the article

Last I checked Halflife 2 is an FPS, not an MMORPG. Apples and Oranges.

I don't see the big deal in making a new guild, since you could just organize the move via GW1.

Most of the things that made GW unique are being removed for things that are in other RPGs (multiple race, raids, instanced areas, etc.)

They're not comparing WoW to GW2 on graphics, but on ideals. Most of the people are concered that the ideals of the original GW series might be in jeopardy with the influx of things from other MMO's

The Charr caused the searing.

Some of you guys are saying that it will be crap when there is no regular content updates... what they said was that there will be regular "Expansion Packs" - now we have no idea how often etc but i think its better.

Down side - new players will have to always buy the origonal game and then whatever expansion packs they want.

Positives - there wont have to be a "newbie" area in any of the expansion packs meaning less coding, and more "lvl 20" content. They can come more often as less work has to be done. Also skills dont have to be balanced so that if one person only has (in the current model) factions that they are still competitive. There will be more skills that aren't just copies of current skills from other campains.

This is all just a prediction - but it goes to show some of you that maybe this new model - if it does end up like this could be a hell of a lot better.

Might as well bump this question since I'm here.

you insult them and ask for an answer?

also, it would be a pr person that would have to answer your question.

even though i agree with you, you do realize eye of the north is the last actual bought chapter/expansion yadayada for guildwars 1 right?

I don't see how I insulted them, aside from saying that their PR people lack in experience to give us vague information. The words could have been a bit less crude, but sometimes crude gets your point across.

Gaile seems to answer questions on behalf of the Devs so she might as well answer mine.

wow I agree with spooky...there is to much hype and now everyone is argueing about it...I was happy with just knowing that GW:EN was coming out, and with hard mode explained, but now Anet gave a little info on GW2 and now people are saying that its going to be like WoW or whatever.just my oppinion though.

gaile IS a pr person

and if you look at the posts made by them, they almost always ignore the posts like that and answer the people that ask nicely. same goes for when gaile visits the game, the insultes get ignored

The reason for the vauge info may be because THE GAMES ARE STILL AWAYS OFF. we usually dont get concret info on chapters till 1-2 months before it comes out. and GW:EN is still quite a ways off

David_Spooky and I have already discussed this in a different forum, and I completely agree. This was one of the most incredibly lame marketing errors I could ever personally imagine. The timing was off, the details leaked to the public were... "wow" (no, not WoW) to say the least. All-in-all I am fairly amused/shocked and irked at the same time.

A lot of elements in GW2 sound... not-so-intriguing to me, but I suppose I will give it a whirl. But if some one SIGNIFICANT could answer his question I would greatly appreciate it. Because, quite frankly... this is one disappointed little girl...

Why should I have to ask nicely, being a long time customer to the company and having concerns about their decision making? That question is actually toned down considering how I could have asked it.

I don't recall ever hearing about vauge info when it comes to either of the other chapters, they usually kept us well-informed about changes to the game. Every rumor about GW:EN was refuted with "if it's not official, don't believe it." They seriously should have held off announcing GW2 until the beginning of next year at the earliest.

Why should you have to ask nicely? How bout this. You're a busy person with a job and want to communicate with your fans. 5 ask nicely and five don't. If you only have time to answer five people, who would you answer...

not being happy about something is never an excuse to be rude. if you want a question answerd its alot smarter to be nicer to the person you want to answer it.

and as for the other chapters, well then you must not have been around the forums cause people freaked otu quite a while before nightfall came out cause of inscriptions. original info on heros was also vauge, as well as early info on how factions worked.

it never fails when something new is coming people freak, and they totally forget they made some of the same reactions months earlier when other new anouncments were made, and they never learn from it. its kinda getting old to see people react like this.

though the good thing is, in a week people will be toi tired to whine any more and will actually wait for info

The job for people in PR is to answer ALL questions customers and potential customers have.

At first I was completely opposed to Guild Wars 2. But, as long as the level cap doesn't require grind to reach, and PvP only characters cant compete in the World PvP Arena (if they could, it would completely defeat the purpose of it- taking on people of all levels), it looks like the game will be pretty good from the news released so far. Of course, until we get more information, nothing can be guaranteed good or bad.

It's also smart to calm down the angry customers and assure them that everything's being taken care of by answering their questions, comments and concerns.

Point conceded, since I didn't start actively posting at this forum until about a month or two ago.

again I agree with spooky on this.

You would think that they would perhaps take this route, but allegedly we are just ignored...

Honestly. If GW2 is so far off, they shouldn't have attempted to leak as much information as they did. He's right... that was a very bad and inexperienced move on every one's part. It's just not the PR's fault, though, y'know...

Agreed with completely.

... well lets see, if the didnt release any info, then the community would start yelling at anet for not having new info becasue april would have been the month chapter 4 comes out.

its not anets fault, they have to say SOMETHING. you should really chalk it up to the fans not being happy with any response they get. its really impossible to make all the fans happy. especially with an mmo

blizzard is a huge comapny and has 8 million players for wow, and they also cant please all ther fans all the time

I'll start by saying that i am a GW fan and i am gonna buy GW2 and maybe even GW:EoN

Just a quick note in case no one didn't noticed: Buying the 3 GW chapters every six months is the same (or almost) as paying WOW six month fee...

Since Anet decided to "discuss" BUSINESS with gamers i will give 2 my cents in that way also.

Anet discovered that they need to remake the game to fight the WOW cash cow. yes boys and gals this is business, and business means profit and consumer satisfaction, at least thats all we ask.
I've played WOW 10 day trial and GW for more than 1 year, and theres no point in comparing the 2 games because GW 2 is a NEW GAME.

i catch your drift, but we all know that evolution provides us with better games, because if it wasn't like that i will still be playing pacman...

i have the three campaigns and i remember reading something like this when factions came out, saying that prophecies will continue to be updated with new stuff, of course not as often because of the new chapter.
well we are in the third chapter and i'm still waiting to see those prophecies updates, because not everyone can/wants to own three different chapters of the same game...
i know this is business, but costumer respect is appreciated.

of course you wont shut down the servers, the players are will take care of that, because like i said, the evolution (GW2) will result in a drastic decrease of the number of GW1 players when the NEW GAME comes out...

- yes, Anet is asking us to start fresh, ok with me!
- i think that the GW gamers in general didn't asked to jump, swim or whatever, but you're are going to apply new programming features, ok with me!
- you´re gonna take my gold, my weapons, my armors, my items, my hundreds of hours characters when GW2 is ready, ok with me!

just don't justify that change/game transition with a monument of old memories or a family tree (this is a computer game) trying to make it sound like a reward.
I, as a gamer/customer find it outrageous that "basic" things like pet controls weren't in the game since day one, or the fact that gamers/customers had to wait until factions to a ridiculous storage upgrade, any many other details that gamers/costumers want to see as a reward instead of a monument of achievements.
but of course i understand that Anet needs one more expansion of GW1 to juice up the capability of creating a great GW2, after all business is business.

when a company like Anet creates a marketing campaign with a games magazine about a "totally" new game thats coming in sometime in 2008, only two things come to my mind:

1st- theres no point in investing the same amount of time in the actual GW, despite of my love to the game

2nd- you guys can add whatever you want to make GW2 great even if it requires a NASA computer to run it, but...

ANET YOU HAD 3 CHAPTERS OF BETA TESTING AND STILL HAVE UNTIL 2008 TO CONTINUE TESTING, AND WE THE GAMERS/CUSTOMERS DEMAND THE BEST MMO GAME EVER!!!

ty

Here's what they should have posted in the article (having to copy-pasta from a post I made on page 70)

* Mention last-minute info on GW:EN
* Mention it's the last release for the line of GW1 games
* Announce that they're working on GW2
* Tell the fans to keep their eyes peeled for info on GW2 in the future

There you have it, the guidline of an article that wouldn't generate (as much) arguing and assuming as they did with the current information they divuldged.

Well let's see... This was an ignorant response, seeing as how I was addressing the leak of GW2 information, not GW:EN information. GW:EN info was more than welcomed, as I have been anticipating a new campaign/extension. If they had refrained from GW2 information, they would have avoided a world of heartache, criticism, and possibly losing a portion of their fanbase.

I do not know what people are more upset about in regards to these two things: The vague information, or the talk of GW2 (and so early I might add). They honestly should have waited.

At any rate, I would not have yelled... but now I am certainly disgruntled with all of this GW2 talk circulating. They didn't have to do it this early and in this way.

Bad move. Bad move.

so now you are calling me stupid. thats kinda funny. especially since you keep saying they leaked info even though they let it out officially. maybe you need to understand what it is to leak info before you call others ignorant. and stop trying to flame and instead partake in an intelligent conversation.

and on top of that the whole point of GWEN is to get people ready for 2, so its kind of impossible to talk about it and not talk about 2. but you are choosing to overlook that I guess.

Then they should have just explained that GWEN is to transistion between GW and GW2, not give out that vague info all willy-nilly like they did. =P

chaotic_chiron have you even read the article yourself? It has just about as much EotN info in it as it does GW2 info

Nooo... I did not call YOU ignorant, I called your response ignorant. And I think in no shape or form am I ignorant considering as how I clearly stated my my stance: They could have waited to "leak" GW2 info (as aforesaid).

[EDIT: "Ignorant" and "stupid"... two different things, imo.]


As for how I meant "leaking info", and how you interpretted it... I cannot help how you interpretted it. I didn't mean it in the context I know you took it in, so perhaps my words could have been chosen better for people such as yourself who care to pick them apart.


They could have gone about with an OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE in a bit more intelligent way.


Now, if my wording has satisfied your PC appetite... I would like to get back to the question proposed...

The GWEN info was expected, the GW2 info was completely unecessary so early in the develoment stage. Seriously

except then people would want to know about 2 and then start all sorts of more crazy speculation, and then compain to anet when the speculation gets to crazy.

the major point here, is people would be mad at anet no matter what they said. no matter how vague or clear they are.


well chaotic, im sorry, but if you want people to get what you mean you have to say it, this is the internet, i do not know you, nor can i sense when you are being sarcastic or serious, so dont belittle me just cause you are using the wrong words.

To everyone whining about how there won't be any more expansion packs: Did you expect the flow of expansion packs to be never-ending? *Everything* ends. So did the flow of expansion packs. Deal with it, preferably without raging. Do something constructive with your energy instead.

That aside... This is great news! This is just what I've been wanting for a long time! =) Anet, ignore all the emo kids and the whiners. They're just afraid of change. Change can be very good, I say!

I've pretty much grown out of GW, it was fun for a year but then, well, people change. Of course, I didn't touch PvP (as I had a 56k modem at the time) and little "pro" work, so I could probably mine more fun out of it if I tried. It took 4 months or so before I mastered the basics (Yes, I'm stupid, only like 120 IQ) and after that I just played for fun, nothing serious. I collected about 880 hours in that year. It was may 05 to april 06. Still, I play it from time to time. That's another great thing about GW, no matter how long you're absent you can log in one day and leap into the action. It's really cool how you feel welcome that way. There's no aggressive "Pay or begone!" coming your way.

And now this. GW2 seems awesome, for the following reasons.

1) Better graphics. There's a reason this is #1. I love good graphics. It's even better when you get something good to look at! Loved the women in GW, and I hope for more of that (and more diversity). More faces, more clothes, maybe even an option to alter the body shape a bit? A morphing tool could be cool, as long as it's like The Sims 2 (easy to make 'em basically good-looking with one of the pre-set looks, and it's not too difficult to make your own), and not like Oblivion (one tiny mistake and your character looks like a mishappen freak).

2) Races! I like picking between races. It gives alot of choice, and flavor. I hope they have distinct (cool!) looks and distinct abilities. I also hope that the races don't force the power players into making certain race choices for certain clases, e.g., every warrior in PvP is inevitably Race X, every spellcaster is inevitably Race Y. That would be bad. Still, giving them distinct abilities and looks is important, I think. Otherwise it'll be like in Baldur's Gate 2, where your race doesn't make that much of a difference (except for romances and a few other minor things). Don't get me wrong, BG2 owns like hell, but that minor point is a flaw. I also hope for race-specific quests, like maybe if there's a distrust for "your kind" in a village, you could do a quest and show them you're just as good-hearted as they are. Of course, having another optional "path" to take where you'd instead "take your revenge" on them for their stupid prejudice, would be super great. Please, ANet, give us moral-involving choices like these! Even really simple ones that had no gameplay effect would be so incredibly awesome. Almost like a *real* role-playing game, only with the added benefit of being online!

Speaking of which, please give more room for those of us that want to role-play in the game. It's not fun when you want to role-play while everyone's going, "WTS 30 FURS!1!111" every few seconds. Having districts (or whatever the equivalent in GW2 will be) for role-players would be a massive boon.

I hope the gameplay will be similar to the first game. I like the lock-on battle system, it makes the combat look smooth and cool, you can look on while only minding the buttons associated with your skills. The battle system in WoW is H O R R I B L E, I hope the devs don't make it like that. That goes for the rest of the game as well. I really hope they continue on their own track and don't try to incorporate any of WoW's stuff. Devs, if you're reading this, don't bend for the temptation (or the marketing department, perhaps)! Anyways.

One thing that would be cool would be to make it so the combatants actually lock blades and such, and really interact in battle. That would really make the battling more immersive than the constant clipping in the first game, where they simply took turns to hit each other. Look at the Knights of the Old Republic game for a good example of what I want (not to say I want a clean rip-off of that battle system).

The huge level is a big mistake IMO. What's the point? From what I've read, it seems the whole point is that the devs want players to impress people. There doesn't seem to be a solid reason behind it. It's like, "look, I'm level 677, that means my e-dick is huge, omg". Veterancy should not be about having a high level. The 20 cap in GW is perfect. It really emphasizes how the game focuses on real player skill. You reach level 20, and from then on you have to continually optimize and use real skill to win (which is a lot of fun), rather than just keep leveling to beat every obstacle, like in WoW. That is completely braindead. I'm really sad about this change, I don't want to have levels with three digits in them or some such blasphemy. I prefer REAL gameplay improvements rather than a crude "raise level cap". In this area the developers have given in to many a level-greedy player's whining, and I'm saddened by that. There are better ways to make the game more fun/better. How about slowing the leveling a bit? Make each level a bigger deal. The gameplay shouldn't be about levels, IMO.

The high level cap will also lead to grinding. Please, ArenaNET. If you insist on a high level, at least do your UTMOST to prevent grinding. I don't want this to dissolve into the endless, braindead grinding we see in all the other games that have high level caps (EQ2, WoW, etc).

Another thing I'd like to see in GW2 would be other things to do than slaughtering monsters. How about some mini-games in the villages and cities? Perhaps some kind of thinking game (there could be arcade games as well, but there needs to be variety) that you play against other people (these would be regional, so you'd actually see locals (NPCs) playing the games in some places). As an extra incentive, make it possible (but optional) to put money/items into the game, and also put up tournaments now and then (with a special prize so people are inclined to join). It would be cool if a player got 'fame' for being, for example, good at game X. Then NPCs he met in cities would sometimes go, "Look, it's [player name]! He's the champion of [game X]!" (something like that would really 'help' the immersion, metinks). Of course, if his fame was small he'd only be known in the area where he plays the most. Maybe even some reward for long-time devotion to a game, like a title.

About the music, I think it's okay as is (it's quite enjoyable sometimes), but I do believe having some "battle music" would be a good idea. It would be pretty annoying to hear the drums roll every time you fought a super-sized squirrel though, so I don't know. Still, it's worthy of consideration. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a 'smart' music system which would play battle music appropriate to the danger level. Like, when fighting the aforementioned squirrel, you'd hear a low rumble and the violins being mildly stressful. And when you later fought a number of master assassins, you'd hear the trumpets and drums rumble threateningly, like the night closing on you (well, maybe that's a bit too good, lol), and when you fought a massive troll for the first time the drums would throb mightily in your ears. The music in GW is a bit too 'dormant' IMO, it never really stands out. I like it in games where the music picks enough so that you notice it, it makes it possible to enjoy it in a different way.

I don't know if I like the ditching of the click-to-move maneuver. It made it possible to shave/brush your teeth while running somewhere right before going to bed. You could also chat while running. And now it's going to be gone forever. I hope they don't change too much of the movement system, I like it the way it is. Except for the invisible walls (though there's few of them, luckily). I hope you can still click a monster to make your character run up and flog it to death. =) That's quite handy.

The animations could use some polishing. Especially the mesmer. I could never play as a mesmer, the way it cast spells just didn't work for me. It looked wrong somehow. The whole spinning-every-time-you-cast gets old very quickly. There's also how both mesmers and elementalists hover while casting. I don't see how that's necessary. I still think the casting animations in Baldur's Gate 2 rule, they're so simple yet cool and just scream "wizard!!". Most of all, there needs to be multiple different animations for each action. That's probably a lot of work, but on the other hand it gets pretty repetive when it's doing the same thing over and over, especially when you play a character that casts alot. The female monk's casting is much, much better than the other classes'. =) It looks so athletic and graceful. I really love the female monk, it's probably the best gender/class combination in all of GW as far as I'm concerned. Monk's the most fun, after all. Too bad the female monk doesn't have any good-looking clothes, like most of the other classes have. Most of the clothes she has are pretty plain and forgettable. But I digress.

What I want most of all in GW2 is the same as I got in GW, but simply improved. I do not want a whole new experience. I want a new experience that builds upon the one in the first game (there's a difference). I do not want tons of pointless new features just for the flash, I want features that logically and carefully build upon those in the first game. And so on.

Overall, looks quite promising. Unless the game becomes terrible somehow, I am definitely getting it. I hope there's an open beta (a bigger one than the one for GW, which I was in), that's fun.

I am not a subscriber, but I plan on going to Borders on April 3 and getting the magazine. Until then, I have this vague "official release" stuff to read and quite honestly, it's rather disappointing how they went about it...

if anet did allow it i guess people could feel 1337 at gw 2 release when standing around in town with their fow armour until they can obtain the next 1337 armour.

hahahaha, is that all you are going on? cause there has bee no "offical release" we only know what we know from the magazine.

the vague info you talk of was the summery made by the original poster. right now pc gamer si the only one that has rights to have that info, so not even the offical site can talk about till the info is useless to the magazine

But you see, if Anet gave out little to no info (and what little info being clear) any speculations and assumptions would be the cause of soley the gamers. The cause of these speculations and assumptions are the product of Anet not being clear and concrete with us.

My thoughts:

WHAT THE RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO?!

I hope they make GW:2 and Eye of the North something magnificently spectacular and other such positive adjectives, or else i'll be dropping away from this franchise. I'm not too excited by this article...I personally hoped they'd never add in new races. I guess it's unavoidable in a fantasy MMO, though.

New slogan for the internet: "People bitch"


Seriously, there was nothing that Anet could do or say that would make 100% of the population happy. The best they can do is shoot for the majority, which I think they did. Now we just have to sit back and listen to the screaming minority.