War in Kryta - this is just the beginning!

For everyone worried about that what we have been seeing over the last couple weeks was just a large ad campagin to sell the new pair of costumes - this is not the case. It's just the beginning of war. Gamespot has just posted an interview with Linsey Murdock - lead designer of GW1 live team.

and there will be much more to come over this whole year:

Read the whole thing at: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/guild...ml?sid=6258414

Personally I expect the biggest bulk of actual playable content to be available at the moment of 5th Anniversary event, but it's also likely the events will be revealed at a slower steady pace in the coming days and weeks, without any culmination point.

I hate not being able to side with the white mantle.

Grr I want to be a double agent

This. I want to be the bad guy .

Be a good player and buy you're new costume for $9.99......

OBEY!!!

So We Cant Side With The Mantle.. Understandable But Still Fail.
I Bet Many Of Us Dont Want To Be Living In A Tree "/

Well, anyone who mistakenly considered this a fusion RPG can officially hang up those thoughts.

Any coincidence the microtransactions came before the actual content? It's no longer a coincidence, it's a trend.

In all fairness they should have quests that involve both sides. Counterquests if you will. One quest given by a shining blade the other by a White Mantle, and allow for players to choose which side to aide.

To make that idea even better, make it so each player can only choose one quest and has to live with the choice (I.E. if they pick the White Mantle for the quest Shining Blade quests become unavailable and the poor sap has to forever "OBEY" the White Mantle's quest chain.) I don't think this would add all that much, but then again I'm not a developer. It has already been done with other GW quests, why not do it with these?

p.s. #DISMANTLE!

I think what people forget is that the White Mantle's sacrifices powered to soul batteries that kept the door of Komale shut. I think a couple of sacrifices here and there more than makes up for the great service the White mantle did in protecting the world. And if we look at the Shining Blade... what have they done? They supported the Lich and his attempt to rule the world and the titans.

I apologize if you already were aware of this, but there is a bit of new content which we we released even before the costumes. The trial of Zinn, the random encounters with Peacekeepers, the scenes between Gwen and Keiran,... and that's not the end of it. There is more to come. And we've also been using the web site (guildwars.com/warinkryta) to enhance the in-game content with regular updates from our observant war chronicler, Murro.

Why wouldn't they? If they're trying to make money off these costumes (which they obviously are, considering you have to pay for them), why not start selling them when the new content we're going to get is hyped?

I am really stoked on all of this stuff. I remember an interview with someone on staff that said something about a, "cataclysmic event" too. I think huge things are in store for us players! Sorry I have nothing negative to say. People probably won't read what I posted

It's something I've realised today - despite the whole viral campagin going on for quite some time and bits of new content already in game, and even the announcement on the login screen, a huge number of players didn't knew about this War in Kryta thing until they saw the big costume sales ad on the character selection screen!

And even for those who have been following all the new things being updated every day on the website, social media and in game it seemed that all this fuss is just a campagin to sell the new costumes. That's because NOTHING (outside of this Gamespot article and Arenanet folks forum posts) really suggests that it's just the beginning and there's much more to come, so many players got under the impression THIS is the culminating point.

I think the sales launched at a wrong time in relation to the ingame events. It would have been much better if players first experienced some of the new content and got involved in it. For example by doing one quest and learning from it that it's just the beginning of war and they should expect more soon. The way it has been done now most players didn't get to see the Peacekeepers or the Shining Blade camp.

Another large mistake in this campagin is that when it started it looked like a "Choose a side" type of thing, but we now know it's not the case at all. We won't be able to play on the White Mantle side, so all the #OBEY crowd gets is to buy a costume and look like one, despite having to fight against them.

As awesome as this is I'm actually quite disappointed about not being able to #OBEY in game other than getting a costume. :I Don't get me wrong, it still sounds awesome.



*cough* #OBEY *cough*

Viral campaigns are meant to engage just the most hardcore fans. People who read forums, for instance. We knew we wouldn't be reaching everyone. We didn't want to over-hype the bits of in-game content we've been dishing out over the past few weeks, therefore it did not make sense to do a massive marketing campaign.

Your point about people not seeing the link to the War in Kryta page on the login screen is noted. We also posted a news post when the War in Kryta page went live. The War in Kryta page is the biggest sign to players that there is more to come, and it launched a full week before the costumes, and it was filled with regular updates. We received some pretty good coverage from a few news outlets in the past few weeks, too.

Your point about experiencing the content is also noted, however if you take a look at the content that's been released so far, it didn't come in a huge pile, but in small, gradual updates each week. And a lot of the lore-based content is coming on the website. Players actually have gotten involved with the War in Kryta event: by creating artwork, by writing in-character accounts of the war, by showing their excitement in various places like the forums, Twitter, and Facebook.

Lastly, the "choose a side" / #obey and #dismantle thing was a player-generated initiative. It started on the Guild Wars 2 Guru forums, and it organically spread out from there. We didn't state one way or the other that players would not be able to play as one side or not. Players know that, from the in-game lore, as well as what happened at the end of Prophecies, what became of the White Mantle and what the White Mantle really stood for. One of the goals of this campaign was to try and show the ways that each side rallies their supporters.

Anyway, players really took the entire viral campaign and made it their own. It's been incredible, the amount of enthusiasm generated by this. It makes us all very happy. The Facebook pages were provided as platforms for the players to express themselves, as well as channels that we could use to enhance the content on the web site and in-game, by giving those things a bit more flavor and showing another side to the war besides what is going on in-game and from the observations of historian Murro on the War in Kryta page.

where is this gwen and keiran cutscene? I havn't heard about this one

I just hope you'll be able to play through all of it if you happen to be away for a day/week. I would hate to permanently miss anything.

Just not as much fun anymore knowing we can't go white mantle. Oh well im sure there might be something else worth while in the next few weeks.

Ugh, I like GW, which is why I post. This is just a little too far for me, though. It's hard to get excited about an event in a game whose number will soon be up.

I find this effort laughable after the neglect GW has gotten since 2007. It seems more like setting the stage for a round-up of oblivious GW players for the inevitable switch to GW2, which will ironically make the purchase (or lack thereof) of these costumes moot.

*shakes head*

Everything you want to know about it: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/t...t10432400.html

Some people might disagree.

If you think viral marketing is targeted at the existing fans then, well, I don't think it means what you think it means.

For years the white mantle sacrificed the chosen. This may be seen as evil but we also know that those sacrifices powered the soul batteries to keep the Door of Komalie shut. (SEE: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Door_of_Komalie)
What would have happened if there was no sacrifices to power those soul batteries?
Tyria as we know it would be dead.
The ends by far justifies the means.

The White Mantle followed false gods. But those 'gods' were saving the world. I assume the Mursaat care about nothing but them selves. They are creatures of great power and have a common purpose with the other races... they do not want to die.

The reason I made this rant was because I think that people forget that while the White Mantle was saving the world... The shining blade was helping a lich.

Look the whole concept of Guild Wars from the start was to build a Successful, profitable, MMORPG style game that could be run and supported without charging a monthly fee to do so.

In almost all aspects this was a great success. However part of building a free game is that they make the money on people buying the software itself. So part of what you give up in playing a game that is sustained by the development of its next chapter is having limited updates in the between time.

Now this is an abnormally long between time sure however this is something that we all have to accept as part of what we give up for not paying more for this game then we did already.

so with this new storyline and whatever's bound to come next, I wanna clarify one thing. Are we gonna have to pay for the so called quests/missions/whatever there is, is it going to be something like a new campaign? Or are the costumes the only ones whom we will have the possibility to buy, the rest of the new content being added for free?

With the way things are going, I would say that the new content would be free, with only the costumes or other non-essentials being offered for sale

This place is filled with negative nancys...You like it good? You dont like it? Then dont buy the costumes and go play another game. You want something fixed? Then make a constructive post about it than whine all the time. I love the updates and this viral campaign and i cant wait for whats in store for us.

This kind of viral marketing relies on hints and clues that mean very little to anyone outside the existing fan community. You target the marketing at the fans, who will then create buzz and excitement. Number one goal is creating greater loyalty amongst your fan base and pulling fringe members in closer, number two is attracting others through word of mouth or press attention.

Take the Portal 2 campaign. A lot of that was subtle in-game additions, or vague references. How can that apply to anyone who is not already a fan of Portal? It was discussed by Portal fans, and it was written about on the same sites that cover Portal news already.

The cleverest one I've seen was the Blizzard WotLK announcement, with the frozen over page that slowly cracked open over time. It generated a huge amount of attention, at a low cost. The Starcraft community thought it might be Starcraft 2, the World of Warcraft community thought it might be Wrath of the Lich King, and the Diablo community thought it might be Diablo 3. They managed to get three large communities all interested in one campaign. Why is that clever? Because you usually only get one.

So, yes; the end result of a viral campaign is certainly generating greater interest in a product. Most of that interest will be within your current community, or fringe communities, which is fine. It's important to build brand loyalty and a strong core of evangelists. The buzz and press attention might also bring in some fresh blood too, but that's just a bonus on the side. That growth can be attained much more easily by just throwing out some exclusives and a couple of interviews to A-list gaming press.

"Several travelers reported that a White Mantle supply caravan en route to Bergen Hot Springs had been ambushed by rebel forces. The Shining Blade allegedly burned a great quantity of Wartime Travel Permits and absconded with a supply of White Mantle uniforms, which they will no doubt disperse to their troops."
- Murro, Apr 15

There is a reason those are labled Shining Blade Uniform and White Mantle Disguise.

Ha wow if I hadn't had read this I so wouldn't have noticed.

Hmmmm this phrasing worries me just a bit. I hope it won't turn out to be a "BMP" sort of thing where you can only take part if you have bought the costumes.

Is Guild Wars Beyond going to be free? Or something like the BMP? I am actually surprised that Linsey/Marketing/PR didn't say "free" a bunch of times in the interview.

Nit picking - net picking whatever you call it some of you are missing the point. Any update to a 5 year old game with no monthly fee that for some reason keeps peoples attention almost daily is great. Kudos to a-net. Personally I like the way it slowly got seeped out it actual added some hype. (Speculation) I just hope this is not a carrot for having to push back GW2 release for some unknown reason. At least I hope everything is on schedule

Is that a new Golem Construct, the third Assassin Hero we've always wanted?

me too!

I just figured it out this morning lol "live" ummm I'm a bit slow

This is just so great!! And I love those costumes they're top notch

Nah, he's not new.

What the White Mantle and Mursaat were doing was a temporary solution with no foreseeable end. In comparison, the players actions took out the stone summet, the lich, the titans, and saved countless innocent lives from an ultimately pointless death at the hands of the mantle.

Ahah lol, that was meant to be a pun, yet we actually had a P.O.X named golem, didn't remeber that!

Wait, does this mean we have to buy the costumes in order to play those new quests?