Guild Wars 2 finally starts to come to life

Two years after its announcement effectively ended further development on Guild Wars 1- a game that was meant to keep evolving- Arenanet have finally gone public with actual details on the game.

Being the sequel to a game in the top 10 of most popular PC games of all time, with apparently over a billion hours of it played, this is quite a biggie and Arenanet's total silence on the game for so long had some wondering if it was even still going to happen.

Guild Wars 2 will continue to have no monthly fees, but in a drastic change to its predecessor it will be a persistent game world, instead iof everywhere outside ot outposts and towns being instanced. How they are pulling this off without monthly fees is not year clear, as instancig is what kept costs down on the original.

The game also has multiple races and, although the details of this are not clear, will apparently have a far more active approach to character control, inlcluding running, jumping, sliding, possibly climbing and definitely swimming, with 3d movement including underwater areas. It will NOT be a 'click here to move here' game, it seems.

As with its predecessors it will be a plot-heavy game with an anti-grind philosophy, though again details on the level structure are not yet clear. It will also have the same dedication as the first game to PvP combat, with one form designed for those who just want to jump in and play against others, and other related to your role-playing character.

Anyway- here is the official site with the trailer front page. Watch the trailer! Impressive stuff.

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/

And here is coverage from two sites thus far.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/101/1015971p1.html

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/guild-wars-2-preview_4?page=1

I cannot remember the last time I was surprised by how much I liked a game when I played Guild Wars, so this is definitely one I am looking out for.

I know I have some misgivings on the changes they're making for GW2, but...I love GW, if no one's managed to notice yet. I really did not expect to get into it as much as I did. And that trailer is freaking awesome.

So. Yes. Want want want want want.

Right now I am very much wanting to hear about professions and how they will work and stuff. As I definitely see at least one character that looks like a Dervish in that video 😛 Very curious as to what will be available, if any of the races will have any advantages, and so on.

Also, the Sylvari look awesome and I am going to definitely play one. Hee.

Oh good. I remember reading an article in PC Gamer about this like 2 years ago and then never heard another peep about it. Glad it's back on the radar.

The thing that kept me from really getting into the first game despite me thinking it was a very solid game was that it wasn't a persistent world, if they follow through and make the sequel have a persistent world I will be very pleased.

Was always a fan of GW's graphics and they look splendid in this one as well. The trailer impressed.

Any news of a release date yet? Hopefully it's not too far off.

Also odd that they chose today to try and bring the game back to the spotlight, the very day that they knew Blizzard would be announcing the next WoW expansion. I fear that this won't get the recognition it otherwise would as it seems it's being overshadowed by all the WoW news today.

The stuff was actually announced yesterday. It was at GamesCon in Cologne, I think. I was going to make a thread yesterday about it but it would have been more along the lines of "TRAILER. GO WATCH. AWESOME".

(which is basically what our guild announcement says right now, thanks to me 😄)

No release date yet, of course. Probably late next year or early 2011. I'm hoping sooner, of course, but I'd rather wait and have a well-polished great game. Really, though, no one knows at this point.

Also, the persistent world is one of the changes that's made me slightly iffy. I love instances.

They say they will still make use of instancing so people can still get that personal experience... but I am yet to be convinced in a wider sense that it will work for the game world. For example, in response to the problems of griefing and player conflict, their plan is this:

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"For example, our event system is designed to give players shared goals, so they should always feel that working together on a problem is the best option available to them. "

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Yeah... IF everyone is acting sensibly and as you want them to in the game world. What about the ones deliberately being assholes? It happens all the time.

This is the risk a fully persistent world brings- people are a problem. I can see the beneits of persistence, of course, but I am cautious about it buggering up my experience. This quote is more comforting:

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"The story will take place through a combination of instancing and persistent areas. We're really throwing our entire bag of tricks at the storytelling in GW2. I think we're going to be doing some things, especially with narrative, that people haven't seen before in an MMO."

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That event system, btw, apparently replaces traditional quests- "I think I can safely say that you won't see a single exclamation mark floating above a character's head in Guild Wars 2," claims lead designer Eric Flannum..

Exciting stuff, anyway.

From what I've heard, most of the world will be persistent, but missions and elite areas and that sort of thing will be instanced. Which will be nice. I screw up missions enough on my own, I don't need some random jackass who has nothing better to do mess things up for me. And I especially don't want anyone else messing me up if I decide to venture into the Underworld or any other areas like that they have.

Also, I am hoping with the persistent areas, that it's going to be like how you said a while ago - in that there will be districts, like now in towns and outposts, and if you want a less crowded map, just switch to a different district. It'd make sense, it'd go well with how they do things already, and it'd let people decide just how much privacy they want while playing. Because personally, I'd like to avoid as many other people as possible while playing 😛

I am not 100% sure there are going to be any missions as we recognise the term. And instancing just in mission-like areas is pretty much how WoW does it anyway

Hmm.

Well, you know what I think of missions to begin with, so yeah. But I think they'll at least keep it in some form, since it was a pretty distinct part of GW.

Also, I'm still far too amused that my sister wants to play a Charr. Ever since I showed her that video yesterday she's been asking me when the game is going to come out.

Well, they're giant battlekitties. Some people just can't resist. 😛

Been playing GW since June 05, can honestly say no other computer game has ever engrossed me so much. EVER. 3500+ Hours. Tried WoW. Tried Aion. Tried em'all, nothing has grabbed me like Guild wars did and i'll sure be ordering the Collectors Edition of this sequal. Man ive been waiting for info on this for 2 years, and now we get a 5 min trailer and a couple of interviews with more to come im sure.

Pray to the Gods they keep the limited skill bar, specialization/customization of available skills is what kept me playing guild wars, inventing new builds, group builds, duo builds, solo builds. Some how having every skill you ever bought available at any time seems like a step backwards tactically. The limited skill bar was definetely one of the best and most innovative gameplay features in any online action/semi-mmo/rpg ever made.

All in all 2010 just looked a little bit brighter for gaming.

And boy, they really do have the best creative team/artists in the business over at ArenaNet don't they.

Have you seen the concept arts? Man. ANet's artists are amazing.

And I definitely agree on the limited skill bar. For as much as I ***** about wanting just one more space...it's awesome.

And, yeah, I've kinda logged a ridiculous amount of hours in the less than a year I've been playing...😛

Word is they are indeed keeping a similar skill system- but they want fewer skills overall. One of their self-criticisms of GW1 is that the nuimber of skills got out of control, which caused detriments of duplication and complication.

It also makes things difficult to balance when you've got a billion skills you're trying to deal with, so yeah. I definitely think it's a good idea that they want to cut down on that.

I think I heard something about how skills might act differently depending on how they're being used, or something? I can't exactly recall what it was but it was something similar to that.

There was talk of loosing some professions aswell, when it was first announced, well not completley loosing them , just merging them with similar attributes from the Core 6 professions, which i hope they still have.

Paragon, Dervish and Ritualist were broken imo (not totally, but enough to warrant their exclusion from future games) But some of the Paragon shouts should have definetley been in the Warrior line, so in that respect i hope they streamline the Proffs, and ditch the exploitable crap ;p

Ritualist is far more viable now, they updated all of the spirits and they're pretty awesome right now. But I play a Dervish the most and Ritualist second-most, so I'm aware that they're not perfect even though I love the professions. I find Dervish to be the most fun of the melee professions, it's the mix between magic and melee that does it for me. And they're definitely powerful when done right.

I really hope they find a way to fix them for GW2 and make them more viable as a whole. I'm not a huge fan of most of the core professions. Elementalist and Mesmer are fun, Ranger can be fun, but I can do without the other three.

There really hasn't been any talk about professions at all, though, beyond that I believe it was said that they don't want to have more than 10 total.

I love Paragons, my main character is a Paragon, and conceptually there is always room for a party buffer, but I actually would agree that they would work better as a Warrior specialisation, which stops Warriors always just being one-dimensional tanks. And spears should be melee weapons.

I very much reckon this game will be looking at the core professions. The only one of the new professions that was directly viable was the assasisn, as there were no other melee types and a rogue-like was not in the original game. Ritualists, Dervishes and Paragons were all variants of things that already existed- Ritualists were super-summoners, Dervishes were Warriors + magic (which kinda messed up the point of taking two classes),and as I say, Paragons were an extension to Warrior Shouts with unlimited throwing spears put in. All the timing involved with Paragon echoes etc. is part of the complication they wish to avoid, I feel.

I will forever grouch that Paragons are mid-liners that support the team and have more armor than Dervishes, who are front-line melee. Grrrrr. However, some of my self-heals outdo Monk heals, so yeah...

And I definitely agree that pretty much all of the added-in professions can be folded into the core professions. Paragon is basically a ranged Warrior. Dervish is a Warrior/Monk/Elementalist. Ritualist is...sort of Necro-like, with some Monk-ish-ness thrown in. Assassins are...well, they're their own thing, more or less. Though I'd say they can be the most broken profession in some ways.

However, I will also state that despite the similarities, I really prefer the styles of the Dervishes and Ritualists over Warriors and Necromancers, a million times over. There's no doubt there. They're so much cooler.

If they could successfully re-tune Paragons into being Bards (as they basically are, without the music) then that would be fine as well. As I say, there IS an archetype for a party buffer. It is always difficult though, as you have the problem that if a party has LOTS of party buffers in it bcomes a nightmare to balance. And Monks did defensive party buffing anyway, so that was half of what Paragons do already done.

(and what is the central skill of the only to-class Paragon build? A Warrior shout...)

This is one of the bgi reasons they wanted to start again from scratch. None of what they did was BAD, and as I say I love my Paragon, but it was just getting out of control and was going to be impossible to balance if they carruied on like it. So simplicity is the key for the re-start and I will be very surprised if thy don't cut out classes that overlap.

And you can't not have Warriors in a fantasy game!

@PEACH Thats where i gotta disagree, Can't have an RPG without the holy trinity (Warrior/Nuke/Monk) ;p. Im a Warrior to the Bone, i hated dervish because they were a hybrid class that negated the whole dual class system. They took Monk-ish skills and Warrior-ish skills and made a clas that could outlast/damage both over a short time. They were impressive to see, but they're not COre like the straite up warrior. I could stand a variation on the Rogue/assassin though, another melee is definetley needed, they just need to make sure it's balanced from the Go.

Talking of Monks- they were always a mistake. One of Guild Wars' innovations was to remove healing potions etc. and give everyone their own healing solution.

But then they made Monks BETTER at healing... which means that, relatively speaking, it was exactly the same as every other fantasy game, that a healer was essential.

Which is exactly how it is- virtually every single party in GW MUST have a Monk in it. And that should never happen.