GWEN Interview at IGN.com

http://pc.ign.com/articles/800/800521p1.html

Also some discussion of Guild Wars 2.

looking forward to reading, thanks

i clicked on the link and its not there.

Some interesting things:
And IGN made a few typos like:
and ">" instead of "?", among other things.

Was a good read, now i'm just waiting for dates, price (not that it matters anyway), and anet bound news....


I'm tired of waiting lol, i want it now...

Meh. A lot of general questions and general answers..not surprising.

awesome article, cant wait.

Pretty cool... I'd prefer videos and screenshots though.

Hah!

Double Hah!

lol @ zingers post

lol, it's funny how the guy keeps saying "kick ass"

Notice the shift from the level 20 paradigm.


IGN: So in Guild Wars 2 everyone's going to have to do the level thing again. Is it going to be more or less the game starts at twenty, where it's a quick run from one to twenty, or is it going to be more of a focus on the leveling process?

Ben Miller: Guild Wars 2 right now, so what we've talked about publicly, as far as the whole leveling thing in Guild Wars 2, is it's going to be significantly different than our current paradigm of the whole plateau at level twenty.


IGN: It's going to be a different level cap then or a different rate of progression?

Chris Lye: It's going to be a different level cap. At this point we have not confirmed what that level cap will be.

Ben Miller: It's all around going to be significantly different in terms of progression and level cap. Fundamentally there are some things about Guild Wars that we are going to carry forward, so even though we are going to change some things, at its heart it's still going to be Guild Wars.


I am not happy about that. Get it, the level 20 cap and that equipment does not make or break your char WAS what appealed to me. The progression of your char in GW was more tied to the skills you acquired.

Now, what are they trying to do? To stretch the progression to make people play longer??? Does not make so much sense for a non-subscription MMO as for a proper MMO.

They mentioned a flat power curve before, but I liked that I soon got level 20 and then it was about ME, not the stats of my char, what I made out of it.


I do not see the point of this higher level cap and more char progression and blabla.

If people would have wanted the mechanics of EverQuest, World of Warcraft or any other pure levelling and quest-based MMO, they would not have played Guild Wars for sure!


Seems as if the "OMG I AM LEVEL 20 I AM DONE WHAT TO DO NOW" section was too vocal or too many people belong to it.

We have already seen the introduction of PvE skill grind introduction, it is not much, but it seems to be the direction GW2 is going.


P.S.: "It is going to be significantly different than our current paradigm, but even I, a lead designer, have no clue how it will be. Or I just do not want to tell you yet."

Fear that people would run away after the new core mechanics of GW2 are explained to the public? :>

^ your a bit late the Lvl cap outrage was a while ago with the info in PC gamer.

Anyways GW:EN sounds cool because I'll fight smart ememies as well as."Uhh? human! ATTACK! USE FRENZY! ARRRGGGGGG....*DEAD*"

After farming SF a bit I'm definitely ready to navigate through areas killing monsters, solving puzzles, and finding secrets.

So we wont be able to use the heroes we've spent time on from Nightfall in GWEN? We have to start with new Heroes all over again.

We won't? They've said only that we will be able to have gwen heros without nightfall, not something like nightfall heros being disabled.

Doesn't matter anyway. Storyline areas will most certainly make parties take along GW:EN heroes like the NF storyline made you take along NF ones.


According to that interview, they haven't fully decided if eight skill slots is going to be kept for GW2. IMO, I hope they expand the bar a bit beyond the eight slots. GW (GW1) is seen as a more "shallow" type of game than some of the other more in-depth MMOs out there, and I think that miniscule skill bar really exemplifies that. I see WoW and all these other games with their large skillbars, places for item/potion drop slots, etc. and get kind of jealous. The bottom line is that only being able to carry eight skills with you at a time is pretty limiting, especially in a PvE sense. In GW1 you mainly set up builds for specific purposes/mobs or go general with the skills. There isn't room for both. Gameplay really feels less 'skill-based' and more 'paper-rock-scissors'. If GW2 is going to be on a much larger scale than GW1 was (seems to be the general vibe I'm getting), then it's time to get larger scale with the skillbars too.

No, you'll be able to acquire 10 new heros with GWEN.

It’s going to be funny; one month before they release EotN, they will finally release the price and date for the game. We are getting close to the beginning of the end of third quarter; other prices have been already set fourth for some major AAA titles. I mean seriously the value of the thing is not so hard to define. I know they will just knock off $10 U.S. and have it at $39.99 U.S. I would be shocked otherwise.

My only concern with adding 10 more heroes is how messy the drop-down box list of heroes (in your party list) is already. It's not in alphabetical order. Add 10 more heroes to that and you have a mess Mess MESS of a much higher magnitude.

ANet really needs to sort that list before or at the GW:EN release.

Hmm. Female chara holding a fire wand and a shield... wearing very interesting attire. New Elementalist armor or just an EOTN NPC?


P.S. I agree with Tide 100% on the Hero list in the Party window, it need sorting or some kind of new interface.

No, this is why Guildwars feels much deeper than WoW. You actually have to think about what skills you might bring instead of just bringing every single skill. I for one hope they stay with the 8 skills, it sets Guildwars apart from the other games.

A lot of this "deep" GW gameplay you describe was more or less thrown out the window in GW PvE probably by the 2nd month of the first game's release. Most of a profession's skills are outright ignored for PvE builds because players bring general builds that can help for the entire instance rather than one mob or difficult area. You can only pick 8 skills to bring and the average instance is pretty long, with lots of variety. Why bring something that's so limited if a general build is much safer to use? With only 8 slots, I'll take my chances that my "general" PvE skillbar and the "general" PvE skillbars of the rest of my party are enough to simply overpower every mob in our next instance rather than being able to use finesse to get by one particular mob out there a little quicker. You call that "depth"? I don't. You call that "skill"? I don't.

Fact is, I'd love to bring along lots of these GW skills into PvE instances but there's just no damn room on my bar for the lot of them. Make room, you say? Between my res, my actual class-dependent skills (ie. the general skills that are the main reason I'm using that primary in the first place), a self-heal or condition/hex remover, etc., there simply is no room to BE made. The "skill" is knowing what to do, not being the "rock" build to the AI's "scissors" build one time out of a hundred and all but useless the other ninety-nine. There are obvious exceptions to this, for example Gate of Madness where someone in my party always takes a build to counter Shiro specifically, or bringing along a Mesmer/broadhead arrow Ranger to counter Willa The Unpleasant in Abaddon's Mouth. Those are far and beyond the exceptions, not the norm for all of GW PvE.

It won't be the end of the world if the eight-slot skillbar is kept for GW2, but in no way does it make PvE deeper than a larger skillbar would. If anything, the larger skillbar would since there would be more build possibilities. I'm not saying make a gigantic skillbar that would allow you to take your full list along, but (at least) a few more skill slots wouldn't be such a bad thing to consider. One could argue that even now, with all the PvE items that can be used in instances now (holiday items, scrolls, etc.), not having a space on the main window to have these items to click on, and always having to open that huge inventory window to double-click on them, is a bit tedious.

Forcing people to take heroes along is what I feel to be the worst part of nightfall. Especially for heroes you don't know how to setup. Though since GW:EN is level 20 content, I hope the heroes start at level 20 which would remove some of my complaints.

If the mission/quest requires the hero come along, put it as a non-party ally and use the alt name if we take the hero along anyway.

My worry here is that the title based PvE skills will be so good compared to other skills that you won't be able to get into PUGs without having them at a level that requires a lot of grind.

Also isn't forcing the use of a hero we don't want to use dictating the build to the players ?

What about jungle trolls with warrior and ranger skills ?
Because of them, I say that guild wars has had dual profession enemies from the prophesies release.

Let's hope so.

Well I guess it's going to be like Prophecies (the lore), Faction's (the fork in the road aka Kurzick/Luxon split/different paths), and NF (the heroes, smarter AI, better puzzles, etc). Sounds interesting and it sounds like the only reason they'll support PvP is because of all the people that play GW for PvP, if they get rid of/stop supporting it bye bye money. I just hope they don't try to rob us with a (US) $50 price or a $40 one, highest it should be is ~$30.

I just hope we get some, and I quote, "kick ass" armors, weapons, heroes, and skillz.

I was actually shocked that dual-professioned enemies weren't part of Hard Mode. I would love to see dual-profession enemies used more, certainly.

Its messy. I always press "P" click heroes and add them that way, and then add the henchmen that way too. MUCH MUCH cleaner

I have to agree with that... GW:EN will not have new professions nor the two character slots added to it and I wonder if it'd have another storage slot added. Either way, no expansion is really worth more than (US) $30. A few will buy it if it's (US) $40 I'm sure but I know I will wait till it comes to a reasonable price for an expansion only as I know others will as well.

Lol all that moaning about prices.
Here in Belgium I've bought my games at an average of € 45 which makes that about $ 60.
So far i've seen GW:EN being set at a rate of € 35 which comes down to $ 47 and you're whining about prices.

I beleive somewhere it was said that GW:EN would be cheaper then the previews campains since its a expansion. I was hopeing for a CE but since there isn't one oh well, hopefull we will find out what the Pre-order will contan soon and also get a offical date, but alot of things point to Aug or Sept for it.

I nearly poop.

Finally! Hard mode in normal mode! I hope it's skills that work well together... not a Mo/R with no pet and Otyugh's Cry.

I don't care what the damn thing costs. I'm in.

I think there's some confusion about the 10 heroes and being able to carry over your NF heroes into GWEN. I believe that comment in the article concerned someone who didn't have NF and had only Prophecies or Factions and then bought GWEN. They would be able to get heroes w/o getting NF via GWEN, but they wouldn't have access to the heroes from NF. They would have access to the 10 new heroes from GWEN.
I think we'll still have access to the heroes we got now, plus the 10 new ones. This is provided you own NF.
Sounds like GWEN owners that do not have NF will not be able to unlock NF heroes though. Makes sense to me.

Ben Miller sure says "actually" and "basically" an awful lot. I'm getting a headache from reading his responses.

First off, I could care less about the price. The reason for being; I already saved up for it, but it’s going to be under $50 U.S., as far as the official statement goes. Which brings me to the official statement on the price set, “there is none;” so in your case you probably got ripped off.

My problem stems that they have yet to release the official price and date for the game yet. As I have stated before the question is: “why have they not released this information a couple of months back, instead of procrastinating till the beginning of the third quarter of 2007?”

well actually....

I'm excited about EotN and, honestly, a bit concerned about GW2. Higher level cap? Larger skill bar? No heroes or henchmen? If the thing can't be played solo or with small groups of friends it's of no use to me, and if it requires the kind of time and investment a high skill cap implies I'll probably pass as well. It's too early to conclude anything, of course, I'm just... concerned.

First, larger skill bar is not confirmed.

Second, I'm concerned as well. I think most fans are. But, they've stated over and over that GW2 will be solo friendly (not sure how), and that there will be something for all playstyles.

Not much to do but take them at their word for now.

When they talk about the higher level cap they still mention that even with it the heart of Guild Wars will be the same... that does seem to imply that beyond a certain point the effects are limited.

Otherwise, they don't realize what the heart of their own game is...

I can only agree. It's too early to draw any real conclusions anyway, there's lots of time for changes. GW's the only online game I've really enjoyed, I'm really hoping that they can keep that going with GW2.

Not again! NOOOOO!
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/896/89...g_4561367.html