Live Team, Test Krewe, Guild Wars Novel, Shadowform Info Updates

From Twitter:

Fall of Ascalon Novel information:

How about the characters in the books, will they appear in the game? Will says that is the plan, yes. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Will 3 GW novels be a trilogy? No. They're all designed to stand alone, but there is some coordination among authors ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

When will Fall of Ascalon come out? Roughly spring of 2010. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Will GW book feel... "gamey?" No, game mechanics don't factor in. "It's first and foremost a fantasy novel." ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Eric Flannum reviews draft of novel, offers comments to "make sure that the game and novel agree as much as possible." ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Forbeck has long history writing fiction and in gaming - worked on Deadlands RPG. Remember that game? I loved that one. ~DC #GuildWars2

Novels will all be canon, Forbeck works closely w/ development team, as do the authors for the 2 other GW novels. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Forbeck: Fall of Ascalon bridges the story between GW and GW2, takes place one year before start of GW2 game. ~DC #GuildWars2 #PAX

Shadowform information <- Link to thread all ready going.

Test Krewe information:

Test Krewe will employ expertise of community to work on PvP and eventually PvE. FAQ about TK should be posted soon. ~DC #GuildWars
Quote:

Live Team information

Lins: "It can be tough to play GM solo, so we're often hesitant to nerf certain solo builds..."~DC

Live Team have long list of projects to last thru end of year, but want to create more PvE content + explore lore next year. ~DC #GuildWars

Robert Gee new developer, talks about transition from player to pro. Enjoys examining game mechanics from new perspective... ~DC #GuildWars

Live Team introduces themselves, describe their jobs and favorite colors. Kidding; their favorite colors remain a mystery. ~DC #GuildWars

Sealed Deck information:

Lins: Sealed Deck is a limited format where you choose from a skills pool to create your bar, has origins in Magic CCG. ~DC #GuildWars

more PvE content? Is this content going to bridge between FoA and the end of EoTN?

Theory: Since the books will be released some time in spring of '10, and they foreshadow events that are one year prior to GW2's release, GW2 will be opened on the one year anniversary of the books' release.

Where did that come from? Link please.

Excellent. Can't wait for what they have in store for new PvE content. Glad we got some information on this burning question.

Well I feel like an idiot applying for Test Krewe if PvE is an afterthought.

see

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notice the first thing he said was THEORY?

So will it be announced who made it to be a part of the Test Krewe?

Is there/will there be any kind of indication as to how long an applicant should wait for an email of confirmation if accepted?
Or is it already done and the Krewe is selected?

Sigh, I'm with Racthoh on this one. Way to go ANet for making that one abundantly clear up front...

This. PvE should be more important. Besides, if it's only an afterthought, why did they add options such as Elite Missions and Vanquishing? Meh, hopefully they create two Test Krewes, a PvE and PvP one.

I suspect that's the plan... and even as a primarily PvE player myself, PvP balance should be more important.

I suspect they may keep the PvE entries and send out a second wave when they set that up.

This would make so much sense, especially considering the "great divide" between PvE and PvP players.

I do play both a lot though, but most of the people I know play one or the other exclusively.

Same here, I have very limited experience with high end PVP and if that will be the first task of the krewe, then I am not qualified. I guess i could mess up a lot lol. On the other hand it would be equally bad if the pve side was tested/evaluated by people who are born pvp' ers.

No. They should be able to act like adults and work together in a professional manner.

Keep in mind that the devs are the people that make the final decisions. Just because someone makes a suggestion (stupid or not), it doesn't mean it's going to be in the next build.

This isn't the first group of testers that Anet has put together. They know all about the divide and I'm pretty sure they will be expecting everyone to check their egos at the door. Hopefully they will be able to find the experienced people in the sea of not-so-expreienced. Assuming they can, I don't think there will be as big of an issue as you guys are thinking.

By the way, there are options for PvP on the application as well. They simply want to know which parts of the game you enjoy. I'm not sure why you would expect PvE to be a top priority just because they put vanquishing and elite missions as options.

I hear/experience the divide when playing with friends, and reading it here on gwguru.

Since I play both high end PvP and a lot of PvE, I am not part of this divide myself, really. I enjoy both "sides" of the game immensely.

I think I'm most disheartened by the use of the word "eventually". Maybe it is time to give PVP some love, but I would have been more encouraged by a term like "near future" or "upcoming months" as opposed to "eventually". Frankly, I'm expecting GW2 to be here "eventually", and I don't want to see the GW1 PVE Krewe operating on the same timeline.

Tomato/tomato (different pronunciations, of course) - maybe it's all semantics.

It would be nice to see the PVE Krewe at least periperally involved soon...at least in the same sort of time frame as the SF changes they've indicated are coming. Constructive feedback from the PVE community would be a good addition to any SF change (as it will affect many players, regardless of which side of the SF fence you're on), and involving the community would go a long way towards reducing the QQ factor when changes occur. At least ANet would be able to say, "Hey, we went to the players and this is what the Krewe thought was the best option."

To plainly say this while it's an obvious fact, the best kind of Test Krewe people at this point are those who understand both PvP and PvE.

If there is someone in those applications that checked on both PvE and PvP plays (AB or Elite Missions) than they should get the mark of consideration.

Apparently the Krewe will be seeing a lot of testing for PvP. That's understandable considering how broken PvP is (JQ). Regardless of that opinion, it is up to Anet and the Krewe to determine what is balanced, be it nerfing meta builds or not. The GW community will be depending on the two to work together and act accordingly to the issues within the community involving skills. It's going to be a difficult one, but let's hope Anet will pick well minded, sensible people instead of elitists who only caters to the upper grounds of the community and behave in a sovereign manner like uber kids. (Anet, please don't let that happen.)

I am being optimistic about this, though. If anything goes wrong, I, and others who have applied can still make a difference while we are active in the community. Believe me, there are ways we can do something for the game. Although this work won't be so official as the title of the Test Krewe.

The Test Krewe will probably focus on PvE areas once they are designed (new PvE areas) and since those don't exist at the moment they will get to them "eventually." This seems perfectly reasonable...

And god only knows that they need a huge amount of help to balance PvP skills.

Damn, just like Racthoh I feel I've applied for the Test Krewe under false pretences.

If I get in, I'm going to have to pretend to be someone who has an intimate knowledge of all aspects of PvP - and I've never even set foot in RA.

How hard can it be? >_<

Or you could just admit you don't know how PvP works and just look for bugs with skills so that you don't make suggestions that would ruin the game even more than it already is.

Anyone can find bugs with skills (which is probably the main job of the test krewe). Very few people have the knowledge and understanding to be able to accurately foresee how certain changes will effect the game. If you aren't one of those few, don't pretend to be. That goes for everybody, not you specifically.

You left it way way to late to even think about going there now.. at least there's no "Must be R3+" to make a team, but it's still not a pretty place.

It's a tall order I know, considering... but please don't turn this into PvP vs. PvE. This is certainly new information but we don't need to debate the value of PvP over PvE and vice versa in this thread.

I fail to see why not. This is one of the times Anet has directly told us how much time and who is going to what projects. The community should surely let Anet know whether they are happy or unhappy about it.

Doesnt that happen in pretty much every thread anyways?

Just go "hmm..." a lot and agree with anyone who sounds intelligent.
And make sure you criticise the current meta a lot.

At least that's what I'd do, given I know nothing about organised PvP. But fortunatly, I didn't apply.

That's not what Inde means. She means, "Don't turn the rest of the thread into a PvP vs. PvE bitchfest where all we do is yell at each other back and forth via QuoteWars."

It does nothing for the topic at hand, so she's trying to stop it before it starts.

Hummm, defenetly agree with what you say ^^

Back on topic, I hope ractoh's knowledge (and of the people that know PvE much) will be also used to revamp PvE... that's on of the test Krewe's duty right ?
I've been a long time PvE guy and some freshness in monsters or builds would add some interest to the game.

Hmmm...You know, a thought occurred to me about the test krewe and their ability to actually test stuff.

If/when Anet decides to fix dervishes, this might actually allow them to try to bring back enchantment spam.

The problem facing dervishes is not a simple one, but a complex one with varying reasons (the reasons warriors use dervish skills better than they do is different from why a sin does, for example) and smaller problems that comprise it (lack of decent energy management, for example). And none of the simple fixes (making them the best with scythes, giving them more useful gimmicks, etc) would really make them good at what Anet originally envisioned them as (or at least, what we think Anet envisioned them as; I'm not entirely convinced for various reasons).

However, making enchantment spam viable again would require a huge overhaul of the dervish's skills. And as we know, making lots of changes at once is like an invitation for unforseen synergies and overpowered-ness.

That is, unless it's tested thoroughly first to ensure that it is both powerful enough to be worthwhile (after all, why spam PBAoEs if MSDB is superior in every way?), but not so powerful that it steps on another profession's toes (don't want to solve one problem by replacing it with another). And now, Anet will actually have a vehicle with which it might be able to do so.

Of course, this is only one of many challenges that the test krewe could be used to take on that would previously have been much more difficult (honestly, I still don't expect dervishes to get fixed for quite some time, if ever).