Ask GW Game Designer James Phinney a few questions!

Yes I second that question, I really want to know.

******

Will pet commands ever be added in? Or are any planned at this moment in time?

Do you have any concrete plans on how to make Guildwars into a competative PvP game? If so, what suggestions are you considering these days?

I'd like to go with this question, Seeing as it was advertised as a CORPG, and then turned out to be a GFRPG (Grind and Failure RPG) I just made that up, Aren't I clever like Gaile?

Are there any plans for future professions that are non-casters? More specifically, will we see more physical combat professions that are not reliant on magic or range?

I apologize if these have already been asked.

Are there plans to open up the other "favor" areas in the Temple of Ages, and if so, when?

Are there any plans to un-nerf areas or otherwise make it easier to get high end items? (IMO it's a little ridiculous when you've played 330 hours all but 10 or 15 PvE and have only found 1 superior rune)

Are there plans for any more PvE content between the summer update and the next chapter next year?

Are there any plans for faction with the other gods like melandru or dwayna?

Are there any plans to possibly introduce flying pets?

Is PvE going to recieve some TLC since PvP seems to have been hogging the spotlight for some time now?

Will the new PvE areas only be open to people who have completed all the missions?

How many people will be able to participate in Observer Mode?

How long will the ladder seasons run?

Are you still banning the accounts of botters?

I have a lot of questions...so here we go:

1. In the PvE, we aren't really given the choice whether or not we wish to stay as part of the White Mantle, even though the Leader of the Shining Blades tells us that we will face a difficult decision while doing Bloodstone Fen. Will be ever be given a "fork in the road" so to speak concerning our destiny rather than following the road which we are currently forced to take?

2. Otyugh's Cry is one of the many skills which cannot be effectively used after the wilds area. Are there supposed to be skills such as this that are only useful in the low level missions, or are there going to changes made to encourage players to use these skills more often?

3. Will there ever be wild animals implemented into the GvG maps and Tombs maps?

4. There are many guilds who are struggling to get their very own guild hall because of the current dominating tombs build that are controlling the hall, such as the spirit builds. Will there ever be another way to to earn a celestial sigil other than through Tombs?

5. Can the ever popular mystery about where Gwen is be solved currently, or is everyone just wasting there time?

6. It has been awhile since we have seen any of the special features that were implemented during the beta weekend events such as the special effects which occured at the end of each beta event. Are there plans on continuing that sort of thing in order to show off the stream downloading feature?

7. (Removed after seeing the letter)

8. Are there any thoughts as to whether or not you will have monthly or even weekly contests for guild wars merchandise or a special untradeable in game item?

9. I always hated how the beautiful hair on all my girl characters are hidden within some ugly helmet, any thoughts?

10. *new question*: A lot of times i've bought skills and then found the mission I needed in order to unlock them afterward. Are there any plans on adding missions which will recognize skills you havent unlocked and then use those as the rewards?

How much time do you think the spirit spammers will need to ruin the game completely?

1. Will mobs ever incorporate other tactics (perhaps PvP style ones with combos)? I want to see some air spiking mob teams, or heal ball mob teams!

2. Does this game HAVE to use the heal/tank/nuke method as a measure of 'difficulty'? Although it's a viable strategy, can we please require groups to have more strategy and thought into PvE builds before leaving on a mission so 99% of groups aren't just monks/warriors/eles?

3. Will post ascension missions and future expansions increase the difficulty and challenges of PvE? It's too easy and boring if all you have to do is pull. (Example.. Snake's Dance)

4. What happened to DISRUPTION as a tactic in PvE? What's the use of distracting shot or countering spells if you can steam roll everything with heal/tank/nuke?

5. Will we have more arena types? I want to see more 4 v 4 maps in different flavors, even a 6 v 6 map would be fun too.

Will our concerns with Natures Renewal (overpoweredness), Ether Renewal (infinite energy), and Putrid Explosion (cheesy spammable) ever be addressed?

Will you consider adding more PVP variety? Different Arenas (6v6 team, 8v8 team), tombs game types, maybe some stuff resembling PK in other games? Like PVP explorable areas with teams possibly?

How do you justify "Skill over time spent" in PvP when unlocking all content takes ~1000 hours per character, and merely tweaking your build to include a skill you don't have, takes at least 30 minutes, up to an hour if it's an elite? (after ascension)

Why was faction introduced with laughably worse skillpoints/time compared to PvE? And why is elite skills 3 times as expensive, considering they don't really take 3 times longer to get in PvE? (Unless in a faraway location)

Why the sudden, no-feedback changes, between last BWE and release?

Why are late-game PvE rewards and PvP "requirements"
overlapping entities?

How come I only have a .0001% chance of meeting again someone I played with earlier (and liked) unless I added them to friends list before the party split and I forgot their name?

Why do you think Guild Wars (according to ML report) was a major letdown in Korea?

Will you ever apologize for lying and misleading thousands of people to buy your "grind free, all about player skill" game?

Will you stop focusing on PvE even though NcSoft makes you spend 99% of your time improving it so they can keep attracting koreans who pay monthly fees? (I'm not racist in the slightest its just that they have to pay monthly fees and NcSoft is a Korean company)

Will you start focusing on PvP which was your whole selling point in North America and Europe?

Will you stop giving us rediculously redundant public addresses (Fansite Fridays for one example) with your witty phrases and lies like your famous "to-do list"?

Will you realize how many people have stopped playing guild wars because of the above said follies of ArenaNet and NcSoft?

Have you ever played tombs in a pick up group?

Have you compared the amount of districts in tombs this week to when Guild Wars was released?

Will you finally realize how pointless it is to try and build a correlation between PvE players and PvP players.

Will you guess how many hours I've spent on guild wars in not even three months and how much I have left to unlock (if you guessed less than 800 hours and a bit over half of unlockable content your dead wrong)

Will you tell me how faction isn't making the top guilds better and the low guilds angrier?

Will you admit that your fabulous faction system is a blatant copy of WoW which in all probablility took you about a week to implement?

Will you tell me what you REALLY think the divine aura is? Because it's a sparkly hand-trail. ADMIT IT.

Will you tell my why the item descriptions on various retail websites for pre-order items are completely false and technically against the law (think about false advertisement next time)

Will you publish your own games in the future so that your not held back by a publisher with possibly the worst reputation in the gaming industry?

And will you please give me a goodbye hug in 3 weeks when I move on to other games because you still haven't changed anything in PvP?

Edit add in: Will you fire Gaile or tell her to thoroughly think before she says anything which will damage her(and consequently ArenaNets) reputation even more?(lies, lies, everywhere a lie. wreckin your game so I says goodbyes.)

My name is Chris. I loved Guild Wars. My guild is in the top 20 and it is only them keeping me playing this game for the moment. If you haven't deleted this post for whatever reason thank you for taking time to read my thoughts.

ANOTHER add in:
To the GWGuru Staff,
after reviewal of all previous posts to mine, I would like to plead to you NOT to ask any questions that have not been addressed in previous fansite fridays. In no way am I asking you to post my questions specifically. Please stop asking about the trade system or PvE or the host of other questions I see again and again in these weekly charades (not the game but: A readily perceived pretense; a travesty). There is a growing crisis in the dominant Guild Wars community bordering a climax. We need to address PvP and we need to do it now. We need to stop hearing this silly to-do list and we need to see results. We need to stop arguing about the unlock all skills debate and think of another solution if that will never happen. We Need Changes. We need them now.

"Think of me
as one you'd never figured
Would fade away so young
With so much left undone
Remember me to my love,"
-Neil Young
If Guild Wars was a sentient being I'm sure that's what it would say to us all.

Why are the traders making such huge profits?

The temporary thrill of finding a purple item which yields a major/superior rune is quickly extinguished when the rune trader will only offer you 25gp for it. He is selling the same item for several hundred gp thus marking it up by several thousand percent.

Selling to players takes too much time under the current system. Time which should be spent enjoying playing the game.

Are there plans to balance the actual GP value of the drops. After all a charr stalker may drop 25gp cash - the equivalent of my hard earned major rune.

i would ask some of the following...

please, do NOT give up on PvE here in euro, since not everyone here is a blatant PvP lover, some of us are here to PvE, even when some players INSIST that euro and usa are only in the game for PvP reasons.

consider adding, possably as another add on, a player driven crafting system that even if you have no intention to craft yourself, you can still get benifits from if you simply purchace crafted-by-charater itmes. some of us obsessive types also love to make stuff, be it cause we can, or for friends.

think about adding special arena scripts that will cause those that run to specific areas specifiacly to get a high end armour then run back to low end arenas to show off in to be unable to use those armours in the arena. these people have no real reson to do this other than to rub it in and exploit the system. running to an area once you have been there with another charater is not so bad, IMHO as doing it simply to get cool armour to cause havoc in the low arena areas.

consider adding white to the dye list, along with making the cost of buying dyes stable. i feel that the cost of the dyes, specialy the popular black and silver, is causing people to not be able to enjoy you added Mix a Dye feature. i for one, can not afford to experiment with dyes much, since i like to take my time progressing through areas.

i have a good question (i think)

Why cant we swim or climb on rocks and ladders or just simple jump? Wouldnt it be cool to have some underwater missions? The invisible walls take away the freedom in the game.

In the early stages of PvE, both in pre-searing and post-searing Ascalon, the focus of gameplay was primarily quest-based. As the game progressed, the focus shifted more and more to missions, and by the time one got to the Crystal Desert, quests were few and far between, and missions were practically the only element of game play.

While I am enjoying missions and the challenge they bring, I often miss the freedom of having several quests and choosing what order to do them in, and the freedom of exploring large areas.

Is this an intentional design change to slowly shift people from quest to mission based play? Is there any intent to implement large numbers of new quests with the upcoming large PvE summer update?

Will there be an upgraded friends list? So that we can have more people on the list, and organize the list (i.e. a sub-category for real life friends, P.U.G. friends, and guild friends).

How do you decide on what suggestions to implement from the fanbase? (beyond thinking it is good or bad)

1.) Major Runes are pretty much worthless right now with their -50 health and +2 attributes. Nobody I know uses them. Any plans in the near future to make these more worthwhile to the players?

2.) Is it generally safe to assume that as the PvE game evolves (expansions, updates, etc.), that the level cap will slowly rise, and the max damages of weapons and max upgrades on weapons (and so forth) will also rise? The PvE game as it stands now is fairly balanced, but how much more "game" can one reasonably expect to play through with their skills, weapons, etc., already maxed out early through even what we have now?

3.) Why is gambling generally frowned upon by the development team? I think something like a monster arena (where various teams of mobs fight each other, and the players bet gold on their winner choice) would be a huge hit. RPG's for YEARS have long since had some sort of gold-gambling setup, and right now there's not much to do in towns and outposts except sell your offs to the merchant and go. While spending your gold on weapons/items/armor/etc. is always useful, there aren't really any fun ways to spend it, other than dyes and dwarven ale.

4.) Henchmen are a pain in the butt to control in battle. They always stick close to you so monsters like the Hydra will mess your whole hench party up with their meteors. Are there any plans to give the henchies some sort of "order around" system? If I'm a healer monk, I want to send Stefan and Thom up to the mob while I stay back at a safe distance. Right now, to even get them to fight I have to go up and start the fight myself, which completely defeats the purpose of my character type. While I agree that pets need a user system as well, please don't forget how lame the henchies can be at times too.

5.) I love the XP scrolls, and liken them to a sort of "bending the rules" item for GW. Are there any plans to add new types of scrolls, that could bend other rules? For example, maybe a scroll that cuts down the amount of items/gold henchmen get in battle compared to the humans? A scroll that adds an extra tick of energy regen for 10 minutes or so? +5 armor? Invulnerability to blindness for a short time? Reduced death penalty? Stuff like that could be useful.

Most of the questions I wanted to ask have been asked but here are a few I would like to have asked in reponse to others questsions?

Was UAS really the ideal to be released for PVP or was it just a one time thing?

Is PVP the main selling point as some are saying it is while others are saying it is PVE? I personally think it was designed as both in mind not one or the other.

Is there a possible solution to griefers/afkers with the idea of a kick/remove from party into own instance implement?

In furutre expansions/downloads, will there be more small outposts/towns in areas that are in generally skipped over due to missions taking you to new areas? For example, between Kryta and the Wilds, there is a HUGE gap. One can run from TOA to The Wilds and there are some neat areas there, but no drive to get people to explore there.

Will this summer update/future expansions be truly limited to Ascended players? OR will we find Lvl 1-5's running around becuase they got rushed there and have no idea what to do? (not all of them will be newer players, of course).

Is there a possibility if implementing small quests/jobs/fun games for the purpose of entertaining people if they need a break from fighting or farming?

Thank you for your time.

Will there be aby weapons/armor skin unlocking system? like if you get a fellblade drop, will you be able to change the normal pvp sword look into a pvp fellblade? and if you buys a new aeromancer 15k armor, will you be able to chance the pvp aeromancer look to the 15k one?

and on that note, will casters get more weapons? it seems that warrior and ranger have a wide selection of weapons such as dragon swords, chaos axes, storm bows, eternal bows, and even not high level drops such as gaient slayer hammers, piercing axes and more, while caster basiclly can choose from 1 handed weapon, staff of their type (which most types have the same look), raven staffs and ghostly staffs (which the chance you'll even get one is so low, and eve lower to get it for your type of casting, and even lower to get it gold with stuff that worths selling for it's rarety), so will you add more skins to casters weapons?

Will there always be the necessity to create more than one chararacter to unlock skills?

I have one char, and am grinding to get skill points to get skills, but it seems it would be easier to start a new char and go through the game again. Which is something that I don't want to do and don't have the time to do. I want to get more into PvP but am being heldback by the current lvl up to get a skill point. Which is keeping me tied to PvE.

will there be new pvp implimations or "improvements" so we can keep them from being rude and constantly complaining about how they dont want to do any work whatsoever and get all the top skills right off the bat? a deidacted pvp server for only pvp created characters? or vice versa a pvp arena designated for ONLY high end pve charcters who are more casual about it?

Will there ever be a battle recorder? Recordings should be small enough to trade them over the Net without too much traffic. The recorder should feature the ability to somehow view or extract every player's (friend or foe) used skills; and of course it should offer time controls, i.e. pause, slow/fast forward/backward, and time jump to a certain frame.

If such a recorder is planned, will it be in the first or any other expansion, or will it come with a free update? And most importantly, how long until then?

Is it just me or would it make more sense to allow faction points to be spent on PvE items in addition to PvP items? Perhaps then those who typically PvE only would have reason to PvP.

Altair hit it right on the head...my question would basically be a different way of saying his.

Will there be added benefits to purchasing a guildhall (such as the suggestions used on these boards, per the link that Altair mentioned) to make guildhalls more useful in general and practical for non-GvGing Guilds (if there are any) or Guilds that have not entered GvG yet to have reason enough to purchase?

I only ask this because I basically spent over 60k for a Guildhall for my small guild and the 15 minutes of excitement I got for it simply was not worth it. I don't mind if they cost more, I just want purchasing a Guildhall to be a massive step (and massive fun) for a Guild that works together to purchase one.

My question:
Why are faction rewards so low? Do you enjoy torturing PvP players? Playing PvE would unlock things like 15 times faster. Why dont you raise the rewards??
"Skill over time spent"

Are you considering adding an option to allow high-res armor textures in town? Those of us with 256 or 512 MB video cards would appreciate everyone else not looking pixelated.

Have you considered adding energy bars to the ally window? This would be very useful for people that use henchmen and would probably help the "aggro-syndrome" of warriors running off to the next group while the elem and monk scream about their low energy. There would be positive effects for PvP as well.

I'd also like to hear about toggleable guildcapes. I paid 60k for this stuff, let me look at it with out an ugly cape clipping through it.

Will there be two handed swords in the future ? I would really like to see some big swords

I know the plan is to increase the overall size of the game and to allow players to compete without the "grinding" that is normally associated with mmorpgs.

I assume there will always be money sinks such as the "pretty" armor with the extravagant price tags to balance the economy, but my question is this...

a) do these inflate price tags improve the economy, or hurt it? One could argue that the money sinks help to take some of the extra gold out of the market but others will argue that it inspires the real life buying/selling of items or that it drives up the price of in game items.

2) Will there be an increased level cap? Perhaps another 10-20 levels. This would allow players to feel that they have something to grow towards. At the same time, we know how quickly one can reach level 20 (under a week if you want) so a similar progression wouldn't hurt.

3) Will there be level restrictions on items? Or any means of stopping players from being "rushed" through the game?

4) New items... will the new items in the expansion make all previous items obsolete?

5) Game balance, and class usefulness. Right now, EVERYTHING revolves around having 2 healers and 2 warriors in the end came. In many cases, full groups of monks team together and farm high end content. Is there any chance that we could see group restrictions?

---- no more than 3 of primary class x in 1 group


6) Class desirability: Right now there's little demand in the game for rangers and necromancers. Both are fun to play, but often have a difficult time getting groups. Is there any plan to add more utility to these classes or to improve them so that they can function in a different roll?

7) Necromancer Pets: Any chance of undead spirtits as pets or ghostly apparitions? Rather than just having pets summoned from corpses (which only works on living creatured) could pets be summoned from purchased components?

8) Improved benefits of secondary class: a) can we have better armor, if you are a necro/war, could you have a quests for armor specific to that combination of character? (similar quests, though not generic collection quests for each class...)

9) "Epic" quests / rewards: I know, this isn't everquest, but is there any chance of epic quests. Combining quests, and possibly even skills (actually abilities) and having them fused into a weapon or piece of armor?

10) Any chance of adding actual abilities, skills (preferrably, ones which are not already associated with your primary class) to RARE pieces of armor?

1) Do ANet have any plans to implement some sort of skills screen whereby players can see each others builds before entering a mission/arena? This would simplify the process of party preparation and could even help random PUGs to be more effective.

2) Any plans for a tactfully implemented kick vote or player rating system? Too many players are just coasting through the game by idling and letting others do the work for them, or intentionally ruining the experience for them.

3) Will major runes be tweaked at some point to make them actually useful? -50hp for +2 to an attribute is worthless when you can get -75hp for +3.

4) Will Guild Wars ever have the ability to save templates for skill sets? This would be a huge time saver, and would be really useful for both PvP and PvE players.

1.) How do you feel the new changes to the trading system will effect the game in the future, and do you see it really balancing itself out?

2.) All of the playable characters are human, are there any plans to add more varity of playable characters, i.e, elves, dwarves, orcs and/or other playable creatures/characters?

3.)Will there ever be tools for players to create their own arena maps for GvG, or PvP, etc? Or even private PvP games?

:::End Transmission:::

More Character Slots
Will you be increasing the number of character slots prior to erleasing the second chapter?

Stats System
What are you doing to improve statistics and information on guilds and will you be implementing a stat stracker similar to the ones that exist for Unreal tournament, that track kills, wins, losses weapons, equipments etc?

Skill Balance
As you are no doubt aware, there's been huge debate on a number of skills recently (Natures renewal, etc) do you recognise these concerns and if so what is being done to address them, i.e rebalancing?

Questions:

1. What can we expect not in updates but in future expansions?

2. Will the level cap ever be raised and new skills for it added in future expansions?

3. Will an interface be added to wear belts, rings, etc?

4. Can we have more armors for Elementalists that look different?

5. Can we have more customization in armors ie adding spikes, guild embloms on shields, etc?

6. Can we see more races like dwarves and centaurs and more player classes maybe a rogue type with a dual wield ability?

7. Can you please also add a switch character function to the interface so we can stop having to completely log out from the game.


Thanx for your time and consideration.

1) Will there be non-storyline related missions in future updates/expansions?

2) Will we be able to change the appearance of our characters (ie hair, skin colour, etc) at some sort of trader?

3) Will there be more to do in PvE after you've finished the game than just FoW & UW?

4) Is there going to be a better way of selling things?

5) Do you intend on adding an extra channel for people looking for groups?

6) Will there be more quests introduced at later areas and more explorable areas?

7) Can we expect another melee profession soon?

8) Why is there no centralised forum? You're spending resources on checking up on all the fan sites; you may as well just have you own forum and not have all us players scattered on different sites.

Dear James Phinney (Guild Wars Game Designer),

Can we have guild storage at Guild Hall?

Can we have duels in our Guild hall?

More pve content with more races and pvp type missions with two teams fight in pve area's?

More armours + customisation ?

More weapons and item + customisation?

More slot for more characters?

More characters look customisation?

Change plat for silver?

Tavern and inn are needed for RP and good old drinking sessions?

Make me a alpha tester?

Kindest Regards,

Philorth de Vaird

Strength and Honour...

First of all thank you for the time, and for whatever anyone says a game that has kept my attention for over 700 ( a feat given the fact my attention span is not long enough for me to remember i was microwaving a poptart , no joke)

for expansion:

Will there be more non-linear quests? (as well as in zone so people will have to explore)

will there be mods for shields?

Will we get to see more of the areas not currently used on the map...other planes (for the gods like UW and FoW), other lands in Tyria?

More crafters with different weapons?
different looking weapons ex. short sword = long sword = gladius?

Higher leveling for characters?

will there be A larger variety of quests, ex puzzles,things that force a group to divide.

personally, I did not have any expectations coming into this game, what it was supposed to be or not I really have no care. It is just fun thank you for it and your time listening to me.

-Crim

Are there any plans to improve the way guilds can organize parties for PvP?

I made a suggestion for party management system a few days ago.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=39064

If there will be other races implemented with one of the coming expansions, will the players be able to change the race of their current characters at the first log in ?

sorry one more question: if there are new races, will their be differences in stats and weapon preferences benefits and disbenefits?

I dont know if questions will be picked due to popularity, so I'll ask my questions even if other have already.

How often do devs look at ideas from forums such as the Sardelac Sanitarium here in GWGuru?

Will new pve areas be more random, variable and replayable? (and also provide better skill = progress, as opposed to merely being incredibly hard from the beginning.) It would be bad if they were structured in the same linear fashion as the current pve content.

Will you improve spell/skill graphic effects and combat graphics and animations for the existing player skills/models in the game, before the expansion?

Will more pvp maps with significantly different design, strategy, and environmental conditions be added? Soon?

Are we going to see new skills available before the expansion?

Why cant you allow all classes to use all faces and all hairstyles? It'd be a cheap, easy way to increase the customisability of our characters.

Currently most of the armours are so similar in both looks and bonuses as to have no real difference in choosing between them. Are you going to introduce armors with better tradeoffs and choices?

Are you going to make weapons crafters useful in some way?

What's the policy on changing/balancing skills? Are you going to do it extremely rarely, or more often after the "big patch" comes?

What's your intended vision for pvp vs. pve? How many unlocks do you think most people should play pvp with? How much time do you think is the intended amount before people can enjoy pvp to the fullest?

How many development staff do you actually HAVE over there? What rate of additional patches and content can we reasonably expect from you?

What ideas will you be looking at in the near future to aid in the organisation and formation of parties, guilds, friends, etc?

Dear GW Desiger,

I have enjoyed GW tremendously. I honestly think it is a revolution among massively multiplayer games. I would like to see it grow, expand and improve. A few bothersome issues have cropped up for myself as well as for hundreds if not thousands of GW players. Here are 3 hotly discussed questions which keep coming back.

1) I know you have mentioned plans for having an auction-house implemented in the game in the future. Is it possible to give an ETA on that or perhaps do you have plans to at least temporarily separate the trade channel from the main chat screen. The way auction works now, creates a tremendous amount of spam and is bothersome to everyone.

2) GW is a very community oriented game. It is very difficult to communicate with guild members without being able to leave messages for them. Are there plans to add a mail system in the future? I feel that it would help the community tremendously and allow for easier communication among players and guild members.

3) What are your plans in regard to player's advancement? Will future expansions allow members to earn more attribute points or advance in level? I know leveling is not the point of GW and I'm glad, however I'm very interested to know how you are planning to allow for characters to advance and expand themselves.

4) Do you have any plans to fix the Thunderhead Keep mission? As of now, it is simply too difficult to pass and creates a conglameration of hundreds of frustrated players trying to pass it for the 20th time. I myself have done it 15 times and am yet to pass it. This mission is very difficult due to general scarcity of Monks and people dedicated enough to pass this very long quest.

Thanks.

Rabid GW fan.

You're aware that all of these folks proclaiming the 'doom' of GW and calling you 'liars' aren't the majority, and that they aren't speaking for all players, aren't you? A lot of us are very satisfied and are grateful for all the work you put into it.

Will we be getting any increased functionality with Ranger's pets in the future? Commands, fewer punishments, etc. I heard a suggestion that the 'charm animal' and 'comfort animal' skills should be merged; is this an idea you may also consider?

Got any lore that hasn't been released? I like a world with a back story .