PC Gamer May 2007 Information - "Guild Wars Reborn"

How is it a compromise? You can either play with other people, or "solo" it. That's not a compromise, it's an ultimatum!

(Companions don't take a slot. It's already been said if you don't take a companion, you get buffed).

For some reason, I don't view parties that currently involve 2 people and 6 heroes as truly "playing with other people".

A 50/50 split between playing with people and AI seems to be "somewhere in the middle"...how is that not a compromise?

I agree with Mordakai. I don't like this idea either. I always liked the fact that if I didn't have friends online to play with, I could play with AI (I really don't like playing with PUGs). It seems all those people complaining about how people didn't PUG often enough are getting their way.

And there isn't a compromise here. It's either you play with other people, or you can take one of these companions. If you don't take a companion, you get advantages. So basically, it's a choice between soloing and PUGing. There's no middle ground at all.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the article.

No henchies or Heros. The only AI is a Companion, which doesn't even take a slot!

So, if I'm looking for 4 people for a quest, I have to take 3 regular people to fill in the slots. My companion and their companions don't count as slots.

in terms of taking up space, Companions aren't Heroes, they're Allies like Pets or NPCs.

In PCGamer it states people who choose not to take Companions will be Buffed (so they are equal to those who take companions).

So, again, unless I want to join other people, I have to "solo" an area (either by myself, or with my one Companion).

This is a huge change from even before Heroes, where you at least always had the option to include Henchies.

The only positive spin I can possibly put on this is that supposedly Guild Wars 2 will be more solo friendly. Otherwise, with the level cap gone and no henchies, it sounds like the Casual player is getting shafted!

EDIT: Another possibility is scalable content. A Mission could get harder depending on the amount of people in the party. This wouldn't be a bad idea, but I see most people in this situation soloing the area anyway!

2nd Edit: Content, according to PC Gamer, will be scalable. My bad!

Good....no more having my fun taken away and being forced to scream LFG for hours and watching one person after another come in with a 4 on their head then see the number jump up to 8 then disappear. And no, I refuse to freaking play with AI bots constantly in a supposedly multiplayer game.

Thank god the focus is being brought back to actual "multiplayer"

although having henchmen in a persistant world wouldn't work at all.

Overall I am pleased with this.

[QUOTE]you missed the line in the article where it specifically states *SOLO FRIENDLY*

that to me is a great big plus

I agree with Mordakai. Seems like I might just as well play WoW (I subscribe to it anyway as my daughter likes to play it).

EDIT: Apologies to Loviatar. I lost my mind. Emotional response removed.


Please. Does WoW have Heroes or Henchies? Why would I pay monthly fees for a worse game?

I mean, I'm upset at the decision, but I'm not stupid.

It's so hilarious, this concept of "solo friendly" for Guild Wars.

If you want to play solo - go pick up Oblivion or Neverwinter Nights 2. Both have better graphics and storylines than Guild Wars. In fact, there are many more titles that offer better single-player experience than Guild Wars, all it takes is 5 minutes of looking.

This post stopped my brain.

What does that have to do with Guild Wars 2?

But then you can't show off your achievements to everyone else...

Make no mistake, even solo players enjoy the social aspects of MMORPGs. That's what's so great about Guild Wars, it's the best of both worlds.

I'm starting to calm down now, Anet's not stupid, they probably have something special planned. They won't abandon the casual player.

EDIT: Well, I am stupid. This isn't news at all, it's been in PCGamer the whole time!

Jeff Strain: "Not everyone wants to play Guild Wars the same way. We want you to play the game the way you want and we'll reward you for it." PCGamer, no. 161, pg. 34

Kristin Salvatore (PCGamer editor) continues in the article, "Guild Wars 2 content and professions will be specifically designed to work well for solo play (though it will scale up well for groups). But, instead of heroes and henchmen, Guild Wars 2 will introduce pets and companions - NPCs whose skills you can customize... If you don't want to play with a companion, you're character will be 'buffed' so you're not at a disadvantage."

Quoted for truth.Why the hell would you buy an online game to play by yourself in the first place anyway?

Seems pretty retarded if you ask me.

Why are you calling Jeff Strain retarded? He's the one who says "We want you to play the game the way you want to play it."

I'm feeling better about Guild Wars 2 all the time if it pisses off the elitists.

hi

i didnt know how much i could quote but thats what i meant

I don't dislike the idea of not having heroes/henchies becauase I'd rather play by myself; on the contrary, I love playing with people. However there are always going to be pretty empty towns, or an obscure quest somewhere, that it would be impossible to find a team for. Then what?

Try to solo it. If what they say is true, it should be possible.

What irks me are people who keep saying, "OMG this is a multiplayer game you MUST play with other people!!!! RaWWR!!!"

Who the hell says that we must ALWAYS play with people ALL THE TIME? And who says that just because sometimes we'd prefer to play with A.I. teammates due to limited time or just doing something casual that it means that we don't want to play with other people? It's called freaking options and choices people. You get to play your own way and others get to play thiers.

Now, I dont know how doing PARTY SPECIFIC missions (I'm not talking soloable areas) will work in GW2 without the use of henchies and heroes but at first glance it sounds like they've taken the bad route of forcing people to group up. Sorry but that's a step backwards from what GW1 is.

Choice is what it's all about. Hmm, page 100...

As before, being unable to read an american mag in the uk has made it difficult to get accurate information here.

I enjoy playing GW with other people, but on some missions where playing with pug's to try to do them had resulted in redoing the mission 30 times, to get either bonus or completion put me off them all together. The introduction of heroes was a boon to me as it meant some missions were now doable without the need of several unknown players, and the ability to craft your team to be able to beat the mission more easily. Here im thinking of the Raisu Palace mission which i could only get masters on with hench and heroes, and Bloodstone Fen, where the bonus was impossible as every time i joined a group somone would kill a jungle guardian despite me repeatedly saying to leave them alone every time.

The idea that we may have a reduced capacity for this in GW2 is daunting as I believe there will be quests or missions in the game further on that will require some form of collaboration. An assurance of the game being capable of being done solo doesn not fully allay this as some missions here are supposedly doable with heroes and hench, for example Gate of Madness, but that requires some serioussly excellent play. I like to have increasing difficulty and challenge but i also like to be able to do the thing on my own sometimes, this sounds like its either going to be too easy or too difficult with what has been suggested.

I suppose what i hate about pug's is that no matter how many times i enter them and know what to do, half the group dont listen, and it takes a few hours to do one mission that should take 20 to 40 mins at most. I find that not only fristrating but depressing and it puts me off playing, well im sure repeatedly failing at some point and being unable to pass to the mext stage for all is boring i just dont want to see that happening in GW2, as the remainder of what i have heard is very pleasing

Presumably, they are getting rid of heroes and henchies so that we'll play with other people. So then why make it so that areas can be solod?

Oh and to the people who insist that people MUST play with other players....well you do NOT want me on your team during my evenings. I go AFK so much and so often because of real life interruptions it would make you tear your chicken feathers out. That's why A.I. teammates are great. They're patient and will stand still for hours if they have to. I'll say it again, if you like playing with people then go ahead. I do too at times, but will people put up with me? Do I expect them to? No.

From what I've read, there are areas that can be soloed. I'm sure that these are the persistant world grounds where monsters just stand around for someone to come pummel them into the ground much like in other MMOs. Then I assume that missions which are instanced are the ones where you NEED to have a party of people. I just hope they change their mind and allow henchies and heroes.

...so you don't have to look for people?

It looks sort of like GW2 will be going down the traditional MMO Group formula - soloable explorable areas with monsters and quests, and instances/missions that require players because of their difficulty.

Or maybe the whole game will be soloable, and difficulty will change depending on the number of people? That would be something cool to see.

Yeah i agree real life is sometimes annoying, often im called away from the comp, with 4 kids running riot its not easy to be here, and then 3 hours later i get back to my quest lol, not many seem to care or understand when you have a sick 9 month baby in the house n you cant be there 24/7

I wouldn't worry too much about it. The beta is almost 2 years away - chances are, this magazine won't exactly match the final product.

Because your presumption is wrong. "We want you to play the game the way you want to play it." - Jeff Strain

I'll just keep posting this quote over and over until everyone gets it: Anet is NOT against solo play. Period.

EDIT: I'll also repeat the idea in PCgamer that the content of GW2 will be scalable for large groups.

PC Zone is hosting that same article

Some short bits before the big chunk of text:
I have not read the PC GAMER article, but the article on the German PC GAMES (which by the way is obviously tending to favor WoW whenever possible even if there were two or three really nice comments in the article), which should be about equal.
I don't really know if this posting belongs here or if it will be read. But I don't want to make another new mindless topic and I don't want to argue about bits and pieces when I can tell stuff in completeness. Please, bear with me.
This text has been written, slept over, showed to my Guild Leader, approved by her...
It is a second, abbreviated version of a longer one I had written before. It's now about half the original length, maybe even a bit shorter. Excuse my english by the way. I'm not a native english speaker.
I mostly do this now because I belong to those who say: "Now is the time to voice your opinions." It's not my intention to whine or to rant or something. I want to give a description of what my experience of GW was and is. And what conclusions I draw, what fears and what hopes I have for Guild Wars 2. The next few lines will sound awfully bragging, but believe me. As a casual gamer, I know there are much more experienced people around. But it... it belongs to the story, somehow, I think. I just hope you don't discard my words as "elitist" or something because of the prologue:

I've been around for a while. In this forum, only reading. But in the auction house. And in Guild Wars. I was one of the first supporters. I know. There were thousands like me. Probably still are. But I actually belonged to those who Pre-ordered even Prophecies. Guild Wars struck me, one fine day in 2004... definetly on the World Preview Event. Ask my best friend, my now-guild-leader... she'd tell you I wasn't like myself (normally, I'm calm and thoughtful) and the closer the release day came, the more I was like that (excited). And then, I bombarded her with Screenshots until she joined.
It's hard to believe that the times of this game, in which you actually only pay for content that you can use and that you want, are more or less over. Struck me with disbelief, somewhat.

The more I read the different pieces of press coverage given - especially more of the interviews - the more my fears subside. There are still doubts, but after all, if someone can make this good, it's those guys at Arena.Net. I trust them... well, as far as you can trust people who decided to name a boss "Yxthoshth". But well, I can spell it without having to read it, so I guess it has left some impression on me. Like everything else in this fine game.

And for that, THANK YOU, A.Net. I never really sticked to one game - except Guild Wars. It's great.
A multilanguage game with different sound Versions in one, a one-key toggle for setting text language to another temporarily. Mapdrawing. Inherent possibility to easily change the interface and built-in calling and stuff. No macros needed, no mods needed. One of the greatest skill-systems I've seen so far. Beautiful graphics. Interesting classes. Being able to play with everyone. Low level cap creating 80% high-end content (except Prophecies). Great stories.

I still have some doubts on that level cap issue and the skill system for Guild Wars 2. I've seen one of the strengths of Guild Wars in not having to level up. It just wasn't what you primarily had to do. In Prophecies, it marked some sort of progress, but everywhere else... you'd be fine after a brief leveling introduction. You played to continue a story, to see new areas, find new skills and bosses, and get better. It's such a great feeling of accomplishment to revisit an area you've been before and now to rock it - and easily... This feeling of "Yes. I'm better now." is soo much better than revisiting and saying "Wow, with level 50 those level 30 monsters are soo much easier than with level 25."
Other big plus was the skill system: Enchantments, Hexes, Spells, Attacks, Stances, class-specifics (preparations, glyphes...) and with them conditions, exhaustion, blocking, but then also dodging and using cover. Everything about the whole fighting system is soo... brilliant. I really hope it doesn't come to button pushing (running towards the enemy. turning around to face him. beat. beat. beat. Cast spell #21. do triple damage. etc.)
Also, I think the flexible use of the term "roleplaying" is defined by the skill and class system. The possibility to fill out a very limited role, but technically be able to fill out ANY of such role at a time (such as, redefining your character from healer to protection monk, from fire ele nuker to air ele spiker or from beastmaster to ranger) with roleplaying being "filling out the particular role in your party" instead of "developing your character along the given line of a specific rolemodel". This flexibility, being able to say: "Okay, I can do that." is bliss.
I've not yet found my peace with equipment playing a greater role. Found it nice to be able to get the "best" stuff and then more or less ignore equipment altogether.

So I have my fair share of doubts, but I guess - if anyone can do it, it's those guys at arena.net. According to that MSNBC interview, Jeff Strain asked for the indulgence and the trust of the old-school Guild Wars 1 players. You have it, Mister Strain. My indulgence, and my trust. Repeat what you've done three times now: Strike me with awe, blow me away.
Make it feel RIGHT. Make it feel GOOD.

And some things about some stuff mentioned already:
A. Updates and Servers for GW1 won't simply stop. It hasn't even been decided if GW:EN REALLY will be the last buyable add-on. Hasn't been decided that it isn't, either. I trust ANet on those points. They have taken good care of their fans.
B. Something rewarding the old, loyal Guild Wars Players would be nice. A.Net doesn't owe us anything, it's more like the other way around. But the privilege of participating in a beta or being able to playtest before buying (for a couple of days) has always been given away as a reward or a prize. There is certainly no obligation, but it would be nice rewarding the loyal fans with privileges such as these.
C. You don't play a game for anyone but yourself. Nobody owes you your time spent. What you do with your gaming time is up to you. You don't have to grind, you don't have to take repetative action to get something. That's entirely your choice. So don't blame anyone else if you don't feel it was rewarding. It was and is up to you. Gaming is passing time for fun. You do stuff that you want. If you wanted to do it, don't complain. If you didn't want to do it, why did you do it anyways? It's not like you'd NEED anything in GW.
D. On races. I hope they will NOT be doing something like "Charr and Humans have relations -200 standard, so you cannot get along." Especially since races will play a role, even if they can avoid the common misconception that class a only makes sense with race 4 as race 3 only makes sense with classes b and d. I want to be free in my selection of character abilities (that includes race) and still be able to play with the characters my guildies and friends like to play.
E. Auction House? EXCUSE ME?! The GWguru Auction house, here on this fine site, already has more registered members than most of the World of Warcraft Auction Houses. Sure, it's some more work to do it, and it's not ingame, so it's not 100% secure as it is not automatic or even integrated so rulebreakers would be punished (game-wise). But it IS there, and with over 50.000 registered users, it is somewhere between twice and as large as the average WoW Auction House (which only are realm-wide, and most realms have a population of 20.000 to 50.000, afaik, plus they distinguish between two sides often).

Finally...
The Hall of Monuments. Sounds good. Sounds really good. I like the idea of "energy transfer". Not character transfer, that would be silly. I like the idea of leaving a heritage with my GW1 characters. I just hope that A.Net is going into the details here, with the Monuments. That it will NOT be just titles and armor and missions. But also skills captured (not only the hunter title), missions and quests done (not only the protectors title). It's not so much that I actually fear to be disadvantaged, because I've never been a freak for titles, but I guess it would after all be punishing those who "just played" the game, did their fair share of quests and played much and rewarding those who did the grinding, repetative stuff and most likely complained in one way or another about it.
So I hope they do this thing right. It's not that I'd really get something. I have 9, soon to be 10 role-playing characters out there. Even my main character only takes up roughly 33% of the time played. Considering there will be a much higher level cap, it will most likely be less viable to pick up as many characters, so if every character only inherits from one other character... a great deal of my characters will leave a heritage unclaimed.

But, if... if it works right. If they really make it. If they really succeed in preserving guild wars and just making it better... I can imagine:
"Lay your soul to rest now, Syrae. You've done what you could. More than that. You've saved the world. Four times. Let another generation handle those fights."
With the knowledge that my new character could put his trust in an artifact from this greatest of my characters would make this moment...
so brilliant.
so sad.
so glorious.
so beautiful.
*sighs* We'll see, won't we?

So: Yes. Yes. I actually DO have faith. Faith, not knowledge. But faith will have to do for now.
And Jeff Strain and the people at A.Net have my trust and indulgence.
Thanks for your time, your patience, and your understanding.

Wow. Great post Caith-Avar. At first, I thought it was going to be another whiney post, but you surprised me.

I agree with a lot of your points, especially on races. I do not want a silly WoW Alliance vs Horde feud.

I think an in-game Auction House or some other system for improved trade is a necessity in Guild Wars 2. I honestly don't see how they could ignore such a dominant request (although I don't expect to see one in the original Guild Wars, Anet has always surprised me).

But, generally, I agree: In Anet I trust.

While all this sounds amazing...I still feel a bit angry as I just went out and bought all three campaigns for my nephew before I read all this jolly good news. *ugh*

I know something I definately do not want to see is being forced to play in pugs if I do not wish to. For one I do not want to spend an hour trying to find a group or to find that one lone monk that decided to go soloing somewhere. I totally agree with others concerning Heroes and Henchmen. Leave something in for those times that finding a party or party members is not feasible for the lack of time or for the lack of patience.

Well, at least he has 2 more years to play them all!

(plus, he wouldn't be able to access GW: EN w/o at least one campaign...)

Why? GW is still a great game, especialy for younger gamers to get started in and on top of that, the incorporation into Guild Wars 2 will keep sales of the GW 1 chapters for a while after GW 2 is realesed anyway...

Yeah, but had I known that GW2 was coming out I would have only purchased Nightfall Collector's Edition for him...instead I went crazy and bought all of them because I was excited about getting another family member addicted to the game. Lol. How lame am I? Anyways! What's done is done and I'm kind of glad I splurged on him. I've already gotten him hooked of NF...*muahahaha*

oooo, over 100 pages, and it seems that most of the whiners have (hopefully) gone.

i retain my initial hopes for gw 2, and even if that fails, ill jus stick with original. i mean, it seems to me that everyone is saying "well, if GW2 fails, tahts it." however, they said they'll keep updatin original (i think) so theres no reason not to play it.

i cant wait fo the expansion, personally. im interested to see the kind o "dungeons" they add. i thought sf wuz sweet, and i still dont think ive cleared it, with henchies, yet.

Strain said that after Eye of the North, Guild Wars 1 will recieve no more major updates or content additions.

Guild Wars will essentially become as stale as Diablo II - and you'll be forced to switch to GW2.

Finally someone has read the fine print.


Hehe. Now for the fun stuff as i may have to talk to the pre sear bunny again and see what else hes got to say. Itll be fun since hes been in hiding lately.

ya know whats funny? 3 months ago, i was hanging with a friend in Pre-Searing, and i was talking about how it would be cool if in another expansion, you could explore the charr homelands, and stuff... i also said it would be cool if Gwen (the girl) would be implemented into the story, lol it seem my wishes have come true lol

im really excited about this, i hope ANet takes their time in making GW2, cause i dont want a dolled up game witha good control system with a horrible background or whatever :P

:edit: i agree with everything caith-avar said : )

_kain_

Yes... I haven't even seen the article and I could have told you that, heh....
actually, I think I did o.O

Fine print? Well, I (at least... see my long post (point A)) wasn't talking about Updates (= patches, free, downloadable, or, in case of Guild Wars, automatically streamed stuff), but about additional Add-Ons (and "smaller updates" that would be maintenance. this can be seen by the context of "shutting down servers" - for "new stuff" I clearly changed to buyable Add-Ons such as EotN will be). My Source was, in this case, the Interview on about.com (you can find it on the GW2 details (Home > Press) under "Press coverage).
The answer to the question if "Eye of the North would [is] really the end" and if "further expansions" would be, I quote, "considered" was, and I am likewise quoting Strain here:
That's of course only half the answer. Please read the full one on the site.

There's not much fine print there. It clearly states: "Undecided on the point of further Expansions". And why shouldn't they try to create a smaller amount of content to preserve a source of revenue from those players that won't change over to GW2? They wouldn't even need to do starters territories (which, as we know of the interviews, are - with some other stuff -a lot of work and one main reason why they decided to stop the "new-player-attracting-campaign" system) and such, so they'd probably have an easier go at it anyhow.

Okay. Clearly: This is not "There WILL be additional add-ons." but it's "There will NOT be additional add-ons." neither. We'll see.

I liked it better when it was just campaigns. An expansion I could also handle.
But now, with the sequel? I don't think I'm gonna get it and play it. It'll cost me even more time that I don't even have. I think I'm just gonna stick with regular old GW, because GW2's just too much for me.

Hopefully they're still be stuff to even do there, I hope they keep the Festivals in GW.