IGN Interview with dev today - PVP stuff

Good stuff




Guild Wars Multiplayer Weekend Interview
We chat with ArenaNet about the changes and what players can expect.
by Dan Adams

IGNPC: What do you do at ArenaNet?

Isaiah Cartwright: I am the game designer in charge of skills. It's my job to not only help design skills, but to ensure that they are unique, well-balanced, and appealing. I also help design new professions and assist with item balance, and I pretty much dabble in anything that has the word "PvP" in it.

IGNPC: Now that the game is out and a big success, have you taken any time to relax or is it a constant drive to get new content and fixes up, as well as plan for the second chapter?

Isaiah Cartwright: Relax? What's that? On a serious note, watching skills at work in their natural environment is extremely important. You can't really tell how powerful or effective a skill is until you see it in action with other skills. We constantly analyze current trends, listen to tester and player feedback, and review skills to determine if there are tweaks or changes that should be made. Making even a minor change to one skill can change how a number of other skills feel, so it's really a tricky process. Right now, we're focused on Chapter 2, but we've all been watching Chapter 1 closely, as well, to see what we can do to improve it, and to make sure that it has a great flow into Chapter 2.


IGNPC: Are the upcoming changes being made specifically for PvP play? If so, will they have any effect on the single-player experience?

Isaiah Cartwright: Most of these changes where based on feedback from PvP play, although I think most of the changes will affect cooperative play as well. Whenever we change skills, it really affects the entire game.


IGNPC: Are any more awards being granted for faction points with this update? Will players have new skills or weapons to look forward to?

Isaiah Cartwright: There are no new skills or weapons coming with this update, it's purely a large boost to faction, and tweaks to the existing skills.


IGNPC: What kind of challenges do you face when balancing the skills in guild wars?

Isaiah Cartwright: The Guild Wars skill system makes extensive use of combinations; between the basic 6 professions and the ability to multi-class, you end up with 30 different class combinations. With 450+ skills, that leaves room for an extremely large number of possible combinations, so we are always keeping an eye out for combinations that are just too powerful, and then we tweak them until they are more balanced.


IGNPC: What are your views on unlock acquisition rate?

Isaiah Cartwright: Balancing the rate of unlock acquisition is something we are always debating. I am a strong believer in faster unlock acquisition, as I feel the game really opens up when you've unlocked everything. The upcoming PvP Extreme event (PvPX) will enable us to study the effects of our changes to that area of the game and help us make the right decisions for future updates.


IGNPC: How did you decide what skills to change in your upcoming update?

Isaiah Cartwright: We studied in-game trends a lot, and we have a very active group of testers who provide us with invaluable feedback on how the skills are working, or not working, as the case might be. I myself spend countless hours in-game and on the forums debating skill functionality and proposed changes (along with everything else in our game).


IGNPC: How do you see skills improving in future chapters of Guild wars?

Isaiah Cartwright: I'm glad you asked that. I see the first set of skills as just scratching the surface of what Guild Wars will eventually contain. Down the road when we have a few chapters under our belt, I expect to see thousands of skills in the game. The way I see it, the more skills and combinations we create, the more fun and interesting the Guild Wars skill system becomes.


IGNPC: What have you learned from chapter 1 that you are taking in account for Chapter 2?

Isaiah Cartwright: I've learned a lot about what makes skills interesting—what makes them work really well, and how to make them work well together. In creating skills for Chapter 2, we're definitely taking into account the Chapter 1 skills to ensure that those in Chapter 2 combine with them effectively.


IGNPC: How much time have you played Guild Wars

Isaiah Cartwright: A lot! I've logged 550 hours and 26 minutes on my main account and 205 hours and 15 minutes on my second account. That's an unbeaten record at ArenaNet.





This guy rocks. He understands the skill system - not a surprise considering his job - so maybe there's still hope for the PVP side of the game to get more UAS-type system to appreciate the skills in their glory.

Alright, this guy is cool, but where is the idiot that hiding his work under the proverbial mountain of grind?

Just post a link to it, no need to repost the whole thing.

I feel as if there is something wrong with me...I've clocked well over 200 hours more than him

thanks for posting this. I'm not fan of IGN and probably would never have read it.

I'm glad to see that something substantive has been stated "for the record" and hope that ANet's accountability will go along with it. The interview confirms what a lot of people have believed for a long while: ANet does listen and is working to improve the game for everyone. It just takes time.

Well... he's spent 750+ hours on this game, plus he also has a job at ANet... He must not sleep much.

thousands of skills?
good luck on the balancing.....

He works for ArenaNet balancing the skills....it IS his job to play the game....

It's quite possible that he has a life... and we already know that he has a job.

This is key. Reason will prevail.

Damn, I want a job like that.

true..........but whose definition of reason?

whatever the faction multiplier is i have already gotten a fresh pair of sonic protectors for when the *vocal minority* screams that is not fast enough

The game designer's.

/agreed with pleasure

and i am PVE to the core and feel the people making the game are in the best position with the most data to make it work

so far i am very happy with their results

pvp gets a boost this time (maybe next as well) and i will get something eventually.

they can only put out one thing at a time to see how it interacts with what is already there

enjoy

I think the interview shows that even the skill designer realises we need faster faction. ANet listens to us, but do they listen to each other within ANet? I get the impression there is indicisiveness within.

Indeed.

Interesting interview...

No. Izzy does. The only person I know at A.Net that isn't full of bullshit. He created all ~450 skills, balanced them, and has more playing experience than any of the other developers... And yet, there is still debate as to wether or not he knows what the hell he's talking about when it comes to PvP. I guess it's not his fault the higher ups have steered the game in the wrong direction and I feel sorry for him - I'd hate to see all my hard work go to waste like that.

Agreed. Any group of people whether they are working, playing or living together disagree with one another. Like the game, I'd bet that the employees are split between PvPers and PvEers and that they go 'round and 'round just like we do here.

Hopefully they will find a nice middle ground and work on the suggestions made by the player base. I find it encouraging that they are indeed going to be watching the skill changes/balances and faction increases to see how it changes the game.

Being a teacher, I find that data driven instruction is best for my kids. I'm glad to see that ANet is going with the same data driven development. This weekend should give them a snootful!

And, Weezer: As long as he is employed by ANet and has a voice in the decision-making process, it is proof that ANet does indeed listen. And you have no empirical proof that his voice is not heard or that he agrees with all the implementation ideas that people have tossed out there.

Either way, ANet's employees are hearing the voices of their community and doing their best to make those voices and their ideas become a reality as far as it fits in the scheme of their vision. Let's just hope that the things people really want are implemented.

Things don't move at the speeds we would like all the time. But I believe that, in the end, -most- people will be satisfied over the long haul.

Ah man, I kinda liked the relative simplicity of the current skillset

When I read this, my face turned red immediately and my monitor screamed get the hell off of me. Well I can say I surely got my money's worth if I can cleanly beat Anet's unprecidented record holder in hours logged. (turning redder as we speak)

That he was getting ready to up and quit from his job a few weeks ago would constitute pretty hard proof that something was seriously wrong with communcation within that company. I can guarantee you that he does not agree with most of the implementation ideas here, mostly because the vast majority of implementation ideas posted here make no sense whatsoever, but when it comes to the balance issues that actually matter, the Fertile Seasons and Nature's Renewals and Putrid Explosions, he's well aware of the problems and already has solutions worked out. The only problem would be the aformentioned internal issues that prevented him from doing his job of balancing the game.


That's hours logged on the *live* server. Time spent playing the game when he *wasn't* at work. Add those hours on to the time he's certainly spent on the test servers, playing with balance changes and expansion content, and I'm sure his total hours played would put just about everyone to shame. That is, if there was shame in playing a computer game *less* than one of its most important developers.

Peace,
-CxE

I am really sorry to hear that. Pardon not having known that. That said, hopefully his voice will be heard enough and loudly enough that the changes he sees fit come to fruition.

The fact that he's still there is good, right?

Damn....I'm bummed now.

I think the work the man has done with the skill system is a credit to great game design... right now it's like this company has locked away a masterpiece and only beta players know about it... such a shame, but we'll see what comes forth yet from these troubling times.

He also have 8 hours job in designing the game. You know, running balance tests, collecting the data, analyzing that shitloads fo data, writing new skills, etc, etc.
I'm amazed he actually finds time to play.

BTW, isn't he the same guy who was balancing Starcraft and Warcraft series?
He is probably best skill designer on this entire planet

Nope, we are totally agreed on the need for better rewards. The implementation is one that we discuss, to assure that it's good for the overall game. But upping rewards? It's a definite "yes" from all of us.

You're up next. That's a promise.

Sorry, Weez, but you're full of ... bull feathers. No way. We had a ton of skills created years before Isaiah joined us. He's a great guy, I love working with him, but crediting him for a full team's work? He'd be the first to say "No way!"Helps, yes. Leads, sometimes, sure. But it's not Isaiah in a closet working up some divine test for calls from heaven on skill balance. There is a full team doing this, and it's fair you credit all designers, even if they all look to Isaiah for a great number of suggestions, guidance, and input.Sorry, no. Believe it or not, even I have more hours invested in game playing than Isaiah. In my case, it might simply be a matter of great age but believe you me, there are people on staff who would amaze you with the number of titles they've played and the hours they've invested. Again taking nothing away from Isaiah, but he'd not claim some sort of superior experience over those with many years more at a PC or behind a console!Geez, I don't know where you come up with this stuff! We're a team. No decision is made unilaterally. You sound like it's Knight Isaiah against the rest of the very-experience, very-qualified, very-brilliant team. Played StarCraft? Know the name James Phinney? How about Mike O'Brien, one of the "Game Gods," so named years ago, back with Isaiah was in, I don't know, junior high school? Read Mike's resume and stand in wonderment, for goodness sake!

Now, I'll say again, I adore Isaiah, and I love his work, too. But he's uncomfortable with this role that people like you are giving him, and he will be the first to say it's undeserved. Don Quixote against the Windmill? No, and no again. I'm sorry if the wording was such that it appeared to be "Izzy against the rest of the team." I think that such dissent happens seldom, and I think it's important to keep the full Design Team in mind for credit for the good that has been accomplished, and the good that is to come.

PvE players are up next? woohoo!!! i can't wait for the next update

Hopefully wednesday. If not i'm going to go and hold the frog hostage.