'Spotlight on Skill Developers' Article

For the most part, I don't really care what the Frog and Gaile say anymore. That's not to be equated with not appreciating them, or disliking them. On the contrary, they're both pleasant people, and they both provide information for the community. And I do eventually get around to reading them, they're just not really anywhere near my top priority of what I want to hear, these days.

I've drifted away from caring about the frivolous stuff (many discussions involve conveniences that are nice, but non-essential, and are slated for incorporations months away) often spoken of in those articles. I'd like to learn more from the technical perspective on how the game is being shaped.

As a pre-cursor, I have a working knowledge of Magic the Gathering. However, I do not play it at all.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...m/daily/mr220b
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/af118
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr229
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr5

I read a handful of these articles, a number of which I started reading after a former Guru user provided links. They're amazingly insightful, informative, and really help to understand why some cards are the way they are. (And in turn, this knowledge of developement and balance translates across other mediums, albeit loosely.)


Guild Wars is often equated to Magic the Gathering, in CORPG form. And we have many of the same questions that I'm assuming Magic players have.

What were the developers thinking when they made [Skill Name]?
Why is [Skill Name] even an Elite?
What environment is [Skill Name] intended to be played in?

These are the kind of things I'd like to see addressed. About skills, and about professions in general.

Obviously, it doesn't have to be a 'tell-all' article. Little insights into certain things go a long way towards understanding, and overall satisfaction. I'm not at all asking for the developers to tell us how to play.

I'm also a bit curious as to how skills take shape, undergo evolution, and the situations they're playtested in before they're deemed worthy of game inclusion.

If such an article existed for Guild Wars, you can be assured I'd read it almost religiously. <_< And I hope I'm not the only person that shows interest in this.

Edit:
As an afterthought, here's the old thread that inspired this.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=45301

This is an excellent idea.

I would love to read in-depth articles from the ArenaNet team concerning the creation and evolution of skills. There are a lot of questions we have about the skills that exist in Guild Wars, and how they have changed/are changing, but for the most part at the moment we ask ourselves here on the forums and provoke discussion. While these discussions can be constructive and interesting to read or get involved in, I think more information from the people at ArenaNet who work on such things would go a long way to help people understand the reasons behind skills and their development over time.

In my opinion and I'm sure in many others' too, the Guild Wars skill mechanism is ultimately very balanced and well thought out. However, it would be interesting to find out more about how the game developers have achieved and are continuing to achieve this, despite the flaws pointed out by some.

Mark Rosewater is a damned good writer when it comes to the topic. Unlike most of the rest of mtg.com's current writing staff, I always read his articles. They're a great insight to game design and theory, even though it's directly related to Magic.

This would be a great thing to see on the GW website: insight from the developers. They only have to dig out their notes from meetings and whitepapers. It'd effectively be letting the community attend the meetings.

I have to agree with all of what you've said, and you are definitely not the only one interested in something like this. This is an absolutely wonderful suggestion, and something I'd really like to see. I've said this in other threads for other arguments, but the Fansite Fridays were very enjoyable for me because they were, to an extent, giving us some insight into the developer's thoughts and ideas.

I've been wanting the FFs to come back, but I would still love any articles as well. Something that adds another level of communication between the developers and players is great. I suppose I'm spoiled by ANets commitment to communiation to begin with, and I simply want more more more.


A couple of questions I might ask myself:


1. In playtesting, what was the most suprising skill setup you've seen used?
2. What are your thoughts on classes seeing little use in PvE/PvP but heavy use in the other? Is it an issue at all, in your opinion?

May not be the kind of questions you're looking for, or would be answered, but they're questions I wonder about all the time.

Yes, I would love to find out why Arenanet went through all that trouble to nerf IWAY, then make a skill (order of apostasy) which makes it the best build in the game.

Why did arenanet come up with assassins that do 200 damage per hit? The world will never know...

Hammers killing you in 3 hits monks? suck it up, it's a "balanced" game.

Up until factions came out, this game was about skill. Now it's about who can abuse broken skills the most.

wow. I used to play MtG on the casual level for a few years.

How they design skills, Now this is something I would like to see the devs answer.

EDIT: also, 8314 MTG cards... ~800 GW skills so we ARE slowly building up a skillbase.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

/signed a million times over

Wonderful wonderful idea. I'm a religious reader of many of the columns on MtG.com, even though I don't play the game anymore--it's still wonderful insight into the world of game design. A GW version of this would be amazing.

I want to know what they were thinking when they made Otyugh's Cry. I mean, it is impossible to use in PvP, and in PvE there might be 1-2 animals (lvl 5 wohoo) in the area if any.