The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[CreamySpinach]

I actually have had many of my long distance girl friends on Guild Wars.

The only way to get banned from that game is being outright abusive and/or cheating.

Suicide threats or just plain trying to meet a girl is fine I guess.

@Guild War Dev,

I have been following your Guild Wars 2 mottos very closely. I hope to recreate at least a scene with as great quality as you and your team have managed.

Btw is this what i think it is? I stumbled across it on google images.

 

[Angthoron]

Yes, the similarity is striking, a bridge over a ravine, one could almost think they had influences from Fallout 2 or some real-life location


Annie, at one point it was mentioned that the original plans didn't involve adding an option to toggle Walk on and it's just constant Run. Have the plans changed? That is, of course, if you're free to reveal such info.

Basically what I mean to say is that Walk animation will be in huge demand (by myself and my friends that I've converted from trying TOR to trying GW2 instead, among other people!), and that so far, I've seen the Walk feature added to pretty much MMOs I've ended up trying - at least of the post-WoW generation. The only thing that has been a problem is that often this is slapped on as an after-thought and generally takes a while to start looking decent.

So I was thereby thinking that since Anet treats cities as player social hubs, they would definitely want to add the Walk function early enough to make the game look as good as it should, rather than make it look like the player character has been ill for his/her early years and never figured the walking part well


Also, is the Player Story Neighbourhood comparable to, say, LotRO housing? In fact, is there actual player house at the moment? I've been trying to figure this out, but there just isn't enough direct info about this. Seeing as you're working on personal story progression, I thought you'd be a good person to ask this!

 

[Mangoose]

Wb Annie! Copy and pasting my old comments and questions to your earlier response on Personality and Personal Story:

So would you say it's the 3 stats are kinda like Paragon/Renegade in ME1? Will you be given choices more significant than the example you gave, or are they all purely cosmetic like that?

I understand you want to encourage character-based decisions, but on the other hand it would be nice if you and/or others could see the consequences of your personality/choices from your personal storyline. It is a MMO of course. So when you say that NPCs will react to the things you've done, does that mean that you'll just get some change in tone when you talk to an NPC, or will NPCs actually perform actions in the open world that can signify your choices to yourself and others. For example, if you are mean and evil, people run away from you in towns, and other players can see this happening.

I'm curious what your workmates' opinions of the Codex are, given that almost everybody else hates us (except for your hubby, of course).

Also, I noticed some of the Elementalist skills seem to need the element in the terrain to activate the skill. E.g. Water Trident was activated in a pool of water. Is this an actual prerequisite, and are there many other examples of similar skills? Even if this isn't the case, it is a very good idea for making magic skills tactical.

 

[Angthoron]

Man, you scared her away

 

[Kane]

many places in Guild Wars have resemblances to real world places, so I wouldn't be too astonished if it's the same with GW2.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Why does anyone even pay attention to CreamySpinach?

 

[Angthoron]

Mainly because I had a witty retort that flowed seamlessly into my question to Annie. Alas, my eloquence was for naught.

 

[Hegel]

many places in Guild Wars have resemblances to real world places, so I wouldn't be too astonished if it's the same with GW2.

Yeah there was a place in Stygian Veil which looked like a vagina, but I doubt many codexers have been there

 

[Data4]

many places in Guild Wars have resemblances to real world places, so I wouldn't be too astonished if it's the same with GW2.

Yeah there was a place in Stygian Veil which looked like a vagina, but I doubt many codexers have been there

Pics or it doesn't exist.

 

[Mangoose]

Angtharon, you're generally cool and all, but suggesting - actually, even caring about Walking is extremely gay.

 

[Angthoron]

Angthoron, you're generally cool and all, but suggesting - actually, even caring about Walking is extremely gay.

I'm used to playing on RP servers

Besides, it'll be added sooner or later anyway, so I'd rather see decent walking animation than the abomination that was appearing in LotRO. But I do apologize and will peruse the TITS thread on GD for the next hour.

 

[Shannow]

Angthoron, you're generally cool and all, but suggesting - actually, even caring about Walking is extremely gay.

I'm used to playing on RP servers

Besides, it'll be added sooner or later anyway, so I'd rather see decent walking animation than the abomination that was appearing in LotRO. But I do apologize and will peruse the TITS thread on GD for the next hour.

First "walking" now birds... You're getting faggier by the post. Well, at least it's tits and not boobs. Tits are far cuter

Anyhow...since you're not allowed to release any details early, Annie, would you drop in and point out interesting blog-entries once in a while like you did before? It'd save me the effort of checking myself

 

[Hegel]

Angthoron, you're generally cool and all, but suggesting - actually, even caring about Walking is extremely gay.

I'm used to playing on RP servers

Besides, it'll be added sooner or later anyway, so I'd rather see decent walking animation than the abomination that was appearing in LotRO. But I do apologize and will peruse the TITS thread on GD for the next hour.

First "walking" now birds... You're getting faggier by the post. Well, at least it's tits and not boobs. Tits are far cuter

Anyhow...since you're not allowed to release any details early, Annie, would you drop in and point out interesting blog-entries once in a while like you did before? It'd save me the effort of checking myself

Is skill balancing going to be a clusterfuck as it was for GW1 post NF? Cough Izzy cough.
These should be the questions we should ask.

 

[bossjimbob]

Btw is this what i think it is? I stumbled across it on google images.

That's an area in Divinity's Reach called the Great Collapse. It used to be a residential quarter that turned into a giant sinkhole, so the queen put a big bridge over the expanse.

 

[Angthoron]

Is skill balancing going to be a clusterfuck as it was for GW1 post NF? Cough Izzy cough.
These should be the questions we should ask.

These are the questions you're least likely to have an answer for though - for reasons like NDA, being part of a different design team, and simple "parental" love devs often have for their games. In general, I'd expect ranged-based classes to dominate over melee like the Warrior - frankly I don't see how a warrior can survive in a CC-based environment in PvP unless there are quick "close the gap" skills at melee's disposal - or stealth, or a huge pool of HPs.

PvE interests me a lot as well, obviously - I just am pretty aware that we won't get any answers about core mechanics until it's officially available.

 

[Mangoose]

So I guess I really did scare her off.

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

Nope! You didn't scare me away. I'm just hugely fucking busy, and as said I don't like checking Codex at work. I'm also a bit more skittish giving answers to GW2 stuff vs. Dead State stuff because if I fuck up and answer something wrong it's not my boss going GODDAMMIT ANNIE, it's just Brian, and I can be like AUGH NOT MY FAULT and stuff, and yeah. Also a lot of times, I just don't know - I'm on one group out of a HUGE FUCKING TEAM (versus Dead State where I can give conclusive answers) and I dislike making presumptions that may be inaccurate. My specific arena of knowledge is the personal story, but this doesn't mean I won't give a stab at answering something else.

BUT BASICALLY. Don't know about player walking anims! I know you run faster when you've got your weapons stowed vs. weapons out and ready, which helps for combat, and I know they're working on a bunch more anims, and there's an NPC walk anim, but I'm not sure how it applies to players just yet - I couldn't say anything right now for certain. I would wager walking will get discussed at a later date, but Jesu Christo, the scale of the cities is so amazingly ginormous I can't imagine wanting a super-leisurely stroll on a regular basis. I sort of just stop and gawk, myself

GW1 had a fuckton of skills, and balancing them could indeed lead to madness. GW2 has it so you can get a great variety of skills, but never inadvertently screw yourself over. With traits and utility skills in the mix, you've got an insane variety, but not so much and balanced in such a way as one is HAX and another build is SUK. It's very approachable, and yet my calculating min-max brain sees the options available and cackles with glee. It's really awesome, and very complex and flexible.

Mangoose! You have many questions. Alas, I was talked out to try some holiday beers tonight (damn you Seattle, having too many rad breweries) and it's a bad idea to answer complex questions when drinking, so I'ma pause on the personality one. As for the Codex, I think many of my co-workers don't have much truck with it, but our lead (Eric Flannum) knows about it, does NOT in fact hate it, but respects it as the hardcore set who know what they want and do not have any compunctions about saying so. When the Codex seems positive towards something, it is usually a sign that there's probably something rad going on there.

 

[MapMan]

Some new info:
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/gamespace ... Bgamespace


Check page 3, it contains the most interesting (atleast for me) info.

EDIT: Annie, don't be afraid to check codex at work. We're really a nice bunch of people. Here, check out these puppies:

 

[Mangoose]

Thanks for the replies, Annie. I did read them earlier but I forgot to thank you. Were you able to find out anything about the personality questions I had?


Mapman, nice interview. They sound like they know their game well, like how they give many examples of skills instead of like how other game devs just mention the same 3 skills every preview.

 

[Tycn]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the PvP balance with the removal of dedicated heal/prot. I can't imagine it playing the same way.

 

[Data4]

Annie, possibly a stupid little fluff question, but what the hell. I like walking in buildings. It's immersive. It gives the impression that it's a world you're experiencing rather than a movie set. GW1 had a lot of movie set buildings with no interiors. Rift, the beta of which I'm enjoying at the moment, nevertheless suffers the same problem. Will GW2 open up the cities a bit to exploration, or will they just be big, pretty looking mazes with building facades as walls?

Oh, and drink a Mac & Jack's for me next time you're out. I can't get enough of the stuff, and the brewer refuses to bottle it. :D

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Will GW2 open up the cities a bit to exploration, or will they just be big, pretty looking mazes with building facades as walls?

There was at least one in-doors location (tavern I think) in gameplay vids.

 

[Black]

Anyone going to PAX East? They're supposed to have a new demo of GW2 there.
Maybe Annie and her tits also will be there!

 

[Black]

AN started to post some articles about races in GW, so far only humans and norn.
http://www.arena.net/blog/against-the-w ... ild-wars-2
http://www.arena.net/blog/legend-and-legacy-of-the-norn

In the last audio of the norn article I found a familiar voice- it sounds like Gann from MotB.

 

[Mangoose]

AN started to post some articles about races in GW, so far only humans and norn.
http://www.arena.net/blog/against-the-w ... ild-wars-2
http://www.arena.net/blog/legend-and-legacy-of-the-norn

In the last audio of the norn article I found a familiar voice- it sounds like Gann from MotB.

Heh the Snow Leopard quote is funny.