Guild Chat - Episode 71

The following is an unofficial, player-written transcript of the episode. The accuracy of this transcription has not been verified by ArenaNet.

The 71st episode of Guild Chat aired on August 28, 2018. It features the sixth anniversary celebration for Guild Wars 2 with birthday messages from partners, interviews with Guild Wars 2 voice actors, and developer guests to talk about the past year in Tyria.

Transcription[edit]

Introduction [6:36][edit]

Rubi Bayer: Hi Tyria, and welcome to the Guild Wars 2 sixth anniversary livestream. Six years! I’m your host Ruby and we’re going to spend the next couple of hours celebrating the last year of development of Guild Wars 2 with you guys as a community. Whether you as a player took your first steps out of your player character’s racial city; Hoelbrak, The Grove, Black Citadel, Divinity’s Reach, Rata Sum. Whether you took those first steps in August of 2012, or if you took them yesterday, we are really, really grateful that you’re part of our community and that you participate in this world that we built. So, thank you for spending this afternoon with us to join in the celebration, and I hope you enjoy the next couple of hours. We’re going to be talking to some of the development team that has worked on Guild Wars 2 over the past year, looking back over some of our favorite memories, we’re going to hear from members of the Guild Wars 2 partner program, we’re going to watch some interviews with Guild Wars 2 voice actors and just kind of look back over the past year and enjoy ourselves. We’re going to start with the Guild Wars 2 game director Mike Zadorojny, but first we’re going to take a quick look at a video that some of you may have seen earlier this morning, the Guild Wars 2 sixth anniversary video. So, sit back, and enjoy with us!

Guild Wars 2 Sixth Anniversary Video [8:01][edit]

Mike Zadorojny: Over six years ago, we launched Guild Wars 2. It was the start of epic journey for us as developers and for you, the fans, and together we’ve seen the community grow and flourish into what it is today. Now we want to take a chance to look back at the journey we’ve been on, as we’ve been learning and iterating on how to support and grow this game and celebrate together what it is to be part of Guild Wars 2. From the very beginning, we knew we wanted to bring Guild Wars 2 to life, continually evolving it through new story content and features. We started with small things that rippled throughout the world and then we went to lost shores. We told a brand new story line on a brand new map, with a brand new feature, the Fractals of the Mists, and it just kept evolving from there.

Tom Abernathy: We were embarking on a journey that nobody else had really tried to take before. To tell these stories that basically are richer and deeper because of the fact that they go on.

Mike: It’s like watching your favorite television show, except being a part of it.

Tom: Over the seasons, Living World has evolved constantly in terms of how we think about what the story is that we’re trying to tell.

Linsey Murdock: We had a ton freedom early on in Season 1 to figure out what Living World really was.

Tom: We were trying out new ways of telling stories in games, and it took us a while to sort of get a feel for what we could do.

Linsey: With Season 2, we tried out something pretty radically different from Season 1. We decided to tell a continuing story that would lead into our first expansion.

Mike: And we started to explore new areas like the Dry Top and the Silverwastes.

Linsey: With Season 3, we tried to develop a bit of a formula for what each episode was going to be, creating a process that would allow us to release big, meaty story updates, and then also start layering in some of the content that happens in between episodes.

Crystal Reid: Things like new rewards, new masteries, new raids and fractals.

Mike: New ways for players to explore, to discover and to be a part of this evolving world.

Tom: With Season 4, we wanted to push the boundaries a little bit and see how big our story could get.

Linsey: We wanted to really show players what we could do with this kind of storytelling.

Mike: Bigger adventures, more exciting foes, and a more epic storyline. Living World just isn’t about content, it’s also about features.

Tom: Living World provides us the opportunity to tell a larger story across multiple episodes in a way that dovetails with other things about the game; features and mounts, to all sort of integrate and support each other.

Linsey: With Living World, we like to provide something for all of our players. So, with each release, we make sure to include updates to our story, but we also have a lot of other content types that we add like raid and fractals, and new legendary weapons, and new festivals, and the current events that come out in between. They’re all part of the Living World.

Crystal: Festivals are great because it’s smaller bite-sized content that we can give players something to do during episodes. We have festivals like Wintersday, the Festival of the Four Winds, and Halloween.

Linsey: They all show the status of the world and show the way that it’s moving forward.

Mike: Looking towards the future, we’re excited to keep delivering on the promise of free, engaging, episodic content in Guild Wars 2. You can expect more great things from us as we move directly from Season 4 into Season 5.

Linsey: This means more engaging stories that expand the world of Tyria, new maps to dive into and explore, and more gameplay features that change the way the game is experienced. We’ve already introduced the Roller Beetle mount in episode 3, added a new raid, fractals and more, and we’re going to continue this season’s story and add new feature content in the coming months. We’ve got another raid, a new fractal and one of my favorite features of the season, Sun’s Refuge. It’s a personal character instance in a familiar and historic location, that goes all the way back to the original Guild Wars. You’ll be able to rebuild the settlement with opportunities to unlock NPCs, collections, and rewards.

Mike: And all of this without a monthly subscription fee. The remainder of this season is going to be one heck of a ride.

Tom: We’ve really got this hurtling cannonball of a story that is so powerful that it needs to keep going.

Linsey: The most epic stuff we’ve ever done for Living World is coming in Season 4.

Mike: We’re pushing the limits of what the game can do, and what we can do with the story, and we’re excited to see this payoff in cool ways for you, the players, and to keep the story going into the future with Season 5.

Discussion [12:58][edit]

Rubi: Wow, congratulations, that is a lot.

Mike: Thank you, yeah, it has been quite the ride. It's hard to think about that it's been six years since we started on this journey. And there was another, you know, 4 or 5 years before that in terms of development. This franchise, the legacy of everything that we're doing, is just, it's exciting to be a part of the passion that you see around the studio. You know, internally, we're celebrating and just really happy that we've had a chance to share this journey with the players because at the end of the day we couldn't do this without our fans. And to see how welcoming they are to each other, how kind they are to new players, to us as long term developers is just phenomenal. So yeah, I love hearing all the personal stories that we get from this in terms of what the game has meant to players and it inspires me to push harder in terms of what we can deliver because it's just, again, we can't do this without the fandom that has generated around this game. And I really feel like the community that we have built or that we have laid the foundation for is just one that I'm just blessed to be a part of because this group is just so much fun and I hope we get to come back and do this for years to come, because this is great this is what I live for. And to kind of see where we go and what happens next is just going to be one hell of a ride.

Rubi: Yeah, it is something that I wanted to touch on. You mentioned seeing the community support each other, which is absolutely one of my favorite things and makes me so happy, you and I and a couple of our developers, Clayton and Byron, we're running around Gamescom last week, first of all, it already feels like so long ago. But, we were talking with members of the community on the show floor and I remember, there was one, it was a group of three and they were all guild mates that we were chatting with and they have been planning getting together since this last spring and it was all like this big road trip that one of them organized and this was their in-person meetup, because they are such good friends and they've known each other in-game for so long and Gamescom was their time to get together, because this friendship has transferred into the real world and there were a lot of things that they told me and I don't want to go into them too deeply, but there's a lot of real world support that they give one another.

Mike: Absolutely. And it's great, because every year that we go to all those Gamecoms, PAX, Paris Games Week, any of these these conventions, even the smaller ones that we attend, whether officially or unofficially, it's always nice to see the same faces coming back and they're always bringing new friends, it's always about 'Hey, look, I met somebody else now and this is the friendship that we've developed.' and so, you know, I am, I'm so honored to be a part of this this legacy of this game, because I care more about what we've done for the community than anything else, because again, this is, I look at my job in terms of what I'm doing for this game as I will know I have succeeded when people come to me in five, ten years down the road and talk about what Guild Wars 2 has meant to them, that they remember fondly the events that we were, you know, how we were fighting Palawa Joko, what it meant for the conclusion of season four and how the big epic journey that we're going on at the moment. These are the things that I want people to have fond memories of and about the friendships that they made along the way, and then I will know that this, everything that I've done here all the hard work that team has done, has paid off, has been worth it.

Rubi: Yeah, thank you guys, thank all of you for that, because that's why I think everyone in this building does what they do. There was a player who works on one of our fan sites that I was talking to at Gamescom and the reason we were talking way back in 2008, when I was a brand new player, one of my, excuse me, one of my first Guild Wars friends was someone who met her now-husband in Guild Wars and they're now married with a son, but they founded a fan site that is still going strong to this day and I was chatting with them at Gamescom and that's one of those legacies that started in Tyria and lives out 10 years later, and that's exactly why.

Mike: Yep.

Rubi: yeah, so we were watching the anniversary video and we're not done.

Mike: No.

Rubi: We're not gonna go home today and not come back. It ,I hope, I'm planning on coming back to work tomorrow.

Mike: Yeah.

Rubi: We have a lot to do.

Mike: I think I left the Gamescom community event in Germany last week and I said I'm not done yet.

Rubi: Nope

Mike: There's so much more that we want to do. So many more stories that we want to tell, you know new fractals, new raids.

Rubi: Yeah.

Mike: Improvements to PvP, to World versus world. Like, this is a living, breathing game and the, the enthusiasm and the passion of the people that walk down these halls is that collectively we have more to give, we have more to show and our story and our journey with Guild Wars 2 is not done yet.

Rubi: Yeah, so we're going right into season five. We're not, I mean, we're still, episode four is coming.

Mike: Yep.

Rubi: And but, we're already looking ahead to the next season.

Mike: Oh absolutely, you know these are exciting times for us in terms of what we're trying to accomplish with the great strides we've told in terms of the narrative storytelling, the cinematic storytelling, the overall gameplay design, the features the systems design. All of us has been working towards building up and, and being able to accomplish greater tasks and greater feats for what we want for this franchise and you know a lot of the foundation that we've been lying this year has been getting ready for what comes beyond. So we still have some amazing things to sights to see in season four, some great climactic fights.

Rubi: Yes.

Mike: That we need to overcome as a group, but the, the anniversary video was more of a promise to our fan base that this is not it. Like this is, we're just laying down the foundation to continue this and and go beyond what we've already kind of just been doing already.

Rubi: Yeah and all of you, please keep talking to us. We, we love hearing from you. We love that feedback. We, we listen and we want to know what you love. We want to know what you want more of. We want to know what you think could be improved.

Mike: Absolutely, internally we are paying attention to all the communication channels, whether it's the forums, whether it's Reddit, whether you know messages in-game. You'll always find me running off my tag, because I want to hear this stuff.

Rubi: Yes.

Mike: Like I said at the beginning, like this game does not exist without you, the fans and so your voice matters and so we do collect. We do look at the feedback. Obviously, we can't do everything all at once, but we have some internal priorities that we're trying to to work through, so that we can make sure that we are creating something together with the player base and it isn't just us kind of just releasing things without a plan or without a purpose.

Rubi: Yeah, so but we have PAX coming up in just a matter of a few days and I'm thinking back this time last year we were gearing up to announce Path of Fire.

Mike: Right

Rubi: And again like Gamescom it seems like it was both five minutes ago and forever ago. Before I let you go. What have some of your absolute highlights of the past twelve months been?

Mike: Shipping Path of Fire is my number one.

Rubi: It's amazing.

Mike: Yeah, like a lot of the initial planning and what we were trying to accomplish with the mount system building on top of the masteries was, was a huge challenge for us to overcome and how we were going to use that in the open world. The, the stories that we were telling not only on the maps, but in the the personal story or through the story journal. Those were very, very personal moments not to use the term over again, but I mean and we also threw some twists in there. Like, I'm not sure everyone saw how the first time you fought Balthazar was going to end and so that allowed us to kind of lay the foundation of where we were going moving forward and we made a bunch of decisions on Path of Fire knowing that living world was coming on the heels of it. So we knew that we were going to be able to spend more time focusing things on, on more challenging group content, meta events, those types of things or map wide events. And then you know some of the stories that we were telling like just going into episode 1. We had like a fractal, we had the open-world story and the, the you know the personal story was taking you through that map all telling you about the same location in different moments in time and a key character that was there throughout all of it. So it was a lot of fun to kind of be able to tell those stories in those moments, but I think a lot of the stuff I'm looking forward to at this point now, is like the road ahead. Like, I'm super excited and we're super ambitious in terms of we're trying to accomplish. So thank you all for this past year. Thank you for six years of supporting us in Guild Wars 2 and buckle up because we're not done yet.

Rubi: Oh man, right. All right, well we're going to let Mike get back to work and stick around, because earlier this year. We've mentioned it a couple times on Guild Chat. We were down in Burbank recording for Episode four and Festival of the Four Winds and episode three. It was a pretty long recording session and something that we did, was a series of interviews with the Guild Wars 2 voice actors that happen to be in for recording sessions. So we're gonna watch several of those this afternoon and the first one is coming up right now. So let's hear what Steve Blum has to say about playing in Guild Wars 2.

Interview with Steve Blum [22:58][edit]

Steve Blum: I'm Steve Blum and I play Rytlock Brimstone. Charr! Rytlock is- He's amazing! He's... I think that, besides having a warrior's heart, he has the purity of someone that comes from a place that wouldn't necessarily be as barbaric and that shows through every now and then. He really cares about the people around him. "The fool was on death's door and you could have been killed rescuing him."

My favorite thing about Rytlock is actually something I found this morning when I was looking stuff up on Wikipedia. He was sort of the runt of the litter. He was... They called him Runtlock, I guess when he was training as a young kitty cat and I was kind of that kid, too. I was the smallest and the weakest and bullied a lot and having to fight through that, emotionally and physically, made me a much stronger person as I navigated the world and I think that that's worked in his favor also. For me, Rytlock's voice has remained the same pretty much. He is who he is, but I think that just carrying the weight with him that he unleashed Balthazar unwittingly... There's some guilt there and I think that that comes through every now and then, and that wasn't necessarily present in the very beginning. I think he was just trying to figure out his place and his new surroundings, but that that guilt, I think, has become a factor for him and may be a driving factor for him. "It's true that we're stuck. The bridge towers in front of Joko's fortress make it impossible to approach."

If I was to give Rytlock some advice, I would tell him to let go of the guilt. It's time. He's a good guy. He didn't mean to do it and (whispering) Sohothin was worth it. It was worth it! I love emotionally difficult scenes. For a large part of my life, I tried to hide vulnerability. I tried to hide emotion. That's kind of what a lot of us are taught in our families and when I have the opportunity to do that through any character, I relish it. I like to go to the deep, dark places. I love to bring stuff up that's uncomfortable for me, the more uncomfortable the better. So, as long as I don't blow my throat out doing it, I'm willing to to go to every emotional depth required for the character. It's actually fun for me.

I don't think I know anything about Rytlock that nobody else knows because you guys know everything about this game. You know everything about our characters. You tell me what my life story is. The only thing that I would say that I do know is that there's this guy who is not necessarily a warrior on a daily basis who is voicing this character for you, so if you've never met me in person: I'm a lover, not a fighter. So take that to the bank. "We'll keep the Awakened off your back, guaranteed."

So many great moments in voicing Rytlock. It's hard to pick one out. I think the greatest moments for me actually were after the fact. When I go to conventions and I see how Rytlock has affected people out there in the world because I'm sort of insulated in this little capsule here, this padded room. When we're recording this, we don't know what the response is gonna be until we get out there in the world and people come to me at signings at conventions all across the world with their warbands talking about their experience. And to embody any character that has an afterlife like that, and affects people and touches people, makes everything worthwhile to me. "Okay, charr! We'll take point! You with me?!"

???: And they're like, "Nah."^{[verification requested]}

???: "We're gonna go get a Starbucks. You tell us when you're done."

(laughter)

Living World Season 4 Episode 3 Long Live the Lich Trailer [26:55][edit]

Palawa Joko: 10 seconds to curtain. Places for act 1! Places for act 1! Break a leg people. It's showtime!

Pact Commander: Joko has declared war and we have to meet him head on.

Taimi: Guess we are really doing this. I am equal part exhilarated and terrified.

Palawa Joko: Enough waiting, Joko is bored. Let's pick up the pace.

On-Screen: LEGENDARY WARHORN VERDARACH

On-Screen: NEW MAP: DORMAIN OF KOURNA

On-Screen: NEW FRACTAL: DEEPSTONE

On-Screen: ALL-NEW STORY CONTENT

On-Screen: NEW MOUNT: ROLLER BEETLE

Palawa Joko: End scene. (Laughter)

Discussion with Matt Pennebaker (Game Designer) and Alexander Youngblood (Game Designer) [26:55][edit]

Rubi: Hi and welcome back. Alright, let's introduce our next two dev guests, Matthew.

Matthew Pennebaker: Hi, I'm Matt Pennebaker, the systems design lead on Guild Wars 2.

Rubi: Alexander?

Alexander Youngblood: I'm Alexander Youngblood, game designer.

Rubi: Are you sure?

Alex: Game designer. That's why I'm here today.

Rubi: Ok, that's what it says. Sometimes he is other people.

Alex: Yeah.

Rubi: Alright well, why don't you guys talk a little about what you do here in Arenanet.

Matt: I will let Alex go first because his is a little easier.

Rubi: Surprise.

Alex: Easier? Alright, I'm a game designer on the current activities team. We had a behind-the-scenes where we talked about everything we do but we work on festivals, legendaries, birthday gifts. We do little events-

Rubi: All of those things.

Alex: All of those things, everything that falls between the cracks comes to us. I have been brought in to several different projects. I helped rebuild Lion's Arch. Actually, one of the first projects I worked on was helping Matt do the item collections. So that was a fun system.

Rubi: Oh nice.

Alex: I also helped out Path of Fire with the underworlds. So you guys can either hate or love me for Eater of Souls. I'm sorry.

Rubi: You hurt my feelings. Alright, how about you Matt?

Matt: So, I'm one of the design leads on Guild Wars 2. So I do things across the whole game. Primarily, I just help set goals and review, jump in on stuff when there is emergency needs for extra hands but yeah, more of systems level things with the game in the department.

Alex: You are being modest. He's done alot.

Matt: Yeah I was kind of like, I mean, I will let you have this but-

Alex: Matt's kind of an inspiration to me. He's been a mentor to me throughout my time here and-

Matt: And now I'm going to feel awkward to continue talking so the two of you-

Alex: He inspired me, because when I first started working here, I would talk about the game like "Oh this is really cool" and he is like "Oh yeah, I worked on that", "Oh this is cool" and "Yeah, I did that thing there".

Rubi: If he gets up and leave, I am going to be so angry with you.

Matt: What I do like to tell people when somebody asks me what I have worked on is usually anything you have loved about the game and anything you have hated about the game, I have probably worked on both of them.

Rubi: Alright, you mentioned birthday presents. Let's talk about those because this armor set just came out.

Alex: Yes, so this is a big year. Umm, every year we've kind of been upping the stakes a bit and we knew we wanted to do a really big gift this year. Umm, the armor is - we wanted to create assets that would look kind of unique and have lots of metal and look Salvatori and almost parade-like and I think the artists a great job on them.

Rubi: Yeah and I mean there was a lot of internal talk about that but in the end we went with armor set and it wasn't the only thing. It was just like alright here's your armor set and that's it for the birthday gift.

Alex: No, I mean every year we've been layering on more and more so you know this year you get to pick one of the armors, you get to pick two weapons, you get to pick a backpack the each character gets like a bunch of dye kits and a bunch of stuff.

Rubi: Yeah, I'm super happy with the dye kits and the Karma. Yeah, all right well thank you so much. I was - that's such an awesome thing to have in there. I was I spent probably way too much time saying there going "I don't know, I like them all".

Alex: What did you pick?

Rubi: I ended up with white.

Alex: Okay.

Rubi: I'm, I'm both happy and not happy with my choice because I also want a medium so...

Matt: I picked medium.

Rubi: I should have picked medium!

Alex: You should have. You made a mistake.

Rubi: I know! Right?

Matt: I also play Engie and Ranger so it was a easy choice.

Rubi: But, okay, see here's the problem; I have two mains it's an elementalist and a thief. There's no good choice here.

Alex: Yeah, but they're both very unique because they have like I know saying they have lots of armor on them right and they have actual metal.

Rubi: Give me both of them Alex. Give me both of them, right now.

Alex: You have to wait a year.

Rubi: I don't want to wait a year. I want them now. They are they're gorgeous and it's nice having the armor set as a birthday gift so thank you for that.

Alex: Yeah, of course.

Rubi: It's not the only new thing that we had though. So it turns out there's there's another thing that you worked on, Mr. Modesty.

All: (laugh)

Rubi: Let's talk a little bit about the novelties wardrobe and what is this, and how does it work?

Matt: Okay so for people who haven't been in game yet, or who haven't read the blog post or the patch notes, the novelties wardrobe was a place in your in your hero panel and in your wardrobe to store all sorts of kind of random bits and bobs we've added over the years. You know a lot of these started out as a 'hey can we do this thing?' and some designer made it work, and then it became a thing we do in the game and we kept doing it. Uh, accessing them from your inventory was really sort of cumbersome and that was the main thing we wanted to solve here was to just add a little ease of use, and so you know we added the wardrobe. There's four slots currently, chairs at the top one. Funny enough, chairs was actually the real motivating factor behind this...

Rubi: What!

Matt: ...which was probably this has been talked about, Byron added the first chair with one of the raids, see I never remember the name of it, I call it the Dhuum throne. [crosstalk 34:24] It was the bench bench of the I can't read the screen from here... of the final judge.

Rubi: Yes.

Matt: And I actually sort of told him if he wanted to add more chairs we needed a better system than it just sitting in your inventory and that was the catalyst behind all of this.

Rubi: You have to calm down with this.

All: (laugh)

Matt: So yeah we have that and we have musical instruments. This one was really important to me to have its own slot because I think there's a certain like very specific like player fantasy want to encourage with like I can walk around and pull out my guitar whenever I want like be that guy at the party. (laugh)

Rubi: Sure (laugh). Don't be that guy. Eh, be that guy what the heck why not.

Alex: That's so cool, that's a really good instrument.

Matt: You want to give a little background on the Charr bass guitar?

Rubi: What is this oh my gosh.

Alex: That is the first thing I came up with for the commerce team when I was an intern on that team.

Rubi: Are you serious? What is this.

Note: The text below hasn't yet been converted from raw subtitle text into pretty print like above.https://youtu.be/OQItV-R4kKk?t=2118


it's a t-shirt all right guitar the
guitar is a guitar or the Charter in
game is the musical bass guitar but
really it is supposed to be guitar good
Char Char Char Char okay I just want
this fight to have
okay I don't have a horse in this race
all right Nexus health items is very
exclusively bundle items which is a
phrase we use sometimes but it's not
super clear which are just you know it's
a item you hold in your hand this is
primarily kites and balloons yeah look
we added a bunch of really fun ones and
look at that first one the big two I'm
just I'm like just frantically hoping
that Paul cooperates when I'm like we
please look at that so this is this came
out today this is uh what's the name of
it the dragon emblem balloon so this if
players will get a free novelty choice
box currently I don't know I don't know
specifics of how the Black Lion trading
post work so I don't know if it's gonna
be there but you can get this for free
if you log in if you already picked
something else from the Box you can
purchase it for gems but this is this is
what I picked with my box so well I
don't know yeah yeah I've been running
around on my roller beetle find this
balloon all day have you really I mean
not all day it's I chose how to live in
life for three hours and we had a naked
dance party in LA today as you do yeah
so anyone who's there thank you for that
[Laughter]
final spot is the toys which is just and
the rest I guess is the best way to put
it things that don't really categorize
terribly well we have travel toys and
[Laughter]
you know some this one didn't go there's
some confusion I was on like it didn't
go into held items this is the bouquet
of roses because because it has skills
and it does other stuff it's do I think
it does costume for all like it's it's
got other functionality and so we want
to make sure that was a clear
distinction so okay oh this might be the
best look I've ever had at the bobble
head laboratory down in a crown runway
okay so this is this is just part of
your
wardrobe now it's you don't have to do
anything it's just there what what do
you do do you just right-click the
things and add to wardrobe like
everything else yes that's correct
you know I this account looks like it's
already got pretty much everything it
has unlock yeah if you had sign in your
inventory just right click on it you can
unlock a thing
I believe the tooltip on these should
all say novelty locked or novelty
unlocked so you they are somewhat
searchable in your inventory but what
about tonics oh I did not see you there
and again for people I've read the blog
post a a question we knew which was
going to come up which is what about all
of the transformed products of which
there are dozens of they because there
are actually over a hundred of them it's
taking a little longer to you know
migrate them over to the system and get
them thoroughly tested so we don't
accidentally break the whole game by
shipping something fun so so they're in
the works you're working I don't I don't
have a specific estimates but but pretty
soon and you know shorter than some of
our sins that's shorter than some soon's
longer than other sins but in the
meantime we've got all of this stuff
that is now coming out of your inventory
and in the wardrobe and here's a whole
lot of free inventory slots yeah that
are now available
I don't know I'm gonna do with my share
different Tori anymore oh my gosh yeah
oh I just got three free shared I have
to go what I'm now curious okay water
balloon well it's yeah I just I know the
bobblehead lab and the water blowing
thing I like to run in the middle of a
giant crowd anywhere I see like a ton of
players I'll just like run over to one
side of the crowd throw down the
bobblehead lab run to the other side and
throw down the water balloon thing jeez
what was the other I'd have to go back I
know there's the third one I'd have to
go back and look at the thing again and
I'm not asking I'm not making Paul
gleich go through everything but
there was another thing in the wardrobe
where I looked at it and it like
registered in the back of my head oh
I've got that in a shared inventory slot
and I was so excited to have those
inventory slots freedo
Paulo's actors are maybe a little more
helpful and professional and I am but
he's showing the so all the slots in the
in the novelties wardrobe can have key
binds associated with them and so you
can set its we want to make it work a
lot like the mounts button and key
bindings okay
let's talk about that throw in a little
bit it's just real quick because that
looks kind of amazing and how can I get
one well this is safe I just don't like
to mess up the names so is the blazoned
dragon throne I believe right it is
available right now from the black line
train company yay
can we have Paul sit in it and that will
entertain us while I ask you I have one
more question for you guys I would love
to hear about some of the your
highlights from the past year of Guild
Wars 2 development what have been some
of your favorite things I think my
favorite is we did this ley-line anomaly
event yes big energy boss that runs like
that immediately starts laughing a
little bit yeah well because there was
kind of a weird thing to happen with it
after we released that content people
started seeing that anomaly in the world
and we had no idea what's going on if it
but like players were freaking out so we
added like some achievements to say here
you saw it a good job and we added a
quest that said you know you're not
seeing anymore and the placebo worked we
saw have no idea why that happened but
it okay yeah that bosses fun the work on
was it alright you met so working on the
novelties wardrobe was a lot of fun I
actually don't get to you know work on
content much these days and so this was
an opportunity for me to to you know get
in and implement some stuff again which
is really fun but beyond the thing we
just talked about for 20 minutes I just
have to say working on the roller beetle
yes I worked with Joel a lot on sort of
you know how do we make it feel as good
as possible with breaking as little of
the game as possible turns out we didn't
iron all of that out but you players may
have noticed there's some world that's
you can do with the roller beetle
surprise surprise this is my stunned
face yeah I had never really worked with
Joel before and you know I think bands
fans of this stream know Joel well at
this point and he's just yeah he's super
bright and super fun to work yes and
super sassy yes once you like once you
get Joel talking about something he's
passionate about I just want to sit
there be like keep going
tell me more because this is amazing it
is is an experience in a very good way
that's awesome
well congratulations on another year of
Guild Wars to both of you thank you for
all of your hard work very very much
appreciated
all right well happy birthday yeah
all right you guys stick around we have
another short video and then a couple
more deaths to hang out with Congrats
guys thanks
[Music]
zero idea where the base is but I did
find the name of a scientist there so if
we find the scientist we find the base
djoko's using to launch his attacks one
of their convoys just received an
unusual order to delay their
taking their place should go inside the
commander leaving me around in Chains
not a chance
[Music]
and this
[Music]
still the star
fine
[Music]
[Applause]
my
[Music]
hey guys it's Aurora peachy I'm like oh
force to livestreamer reactor and
reviewer I just want to say happy sixth
anniversary to go Boris - thank you so
much for everything that you ArenaNet as
well as the community of this game has
given me over the past six years it's
been an absolute blast
happy birthday everyone welcome my name
is Reagan and this is the sixth
anniversary for Guild Wars 2 and I
actually stopped playing around the time
hotter phones was launched and then I
came back for pacifier when I saw the
news articles online and saw that a
reading that was adding mounts to the
game which I thought that is exciting I
got to check that out and I think I can
actually speak for his to the community
when I say a reading that
single-handedly has managed to create
the most alive and characteristic mounts
in any MMO out there today greetings
ladies and gentlemen I am Durham
Adrienne and I've been creating Guild
Wars 2 content and live streams for
about a year now and I want to start
things off by saying congratulations to
everybody involved with Guild Wars 2
from arena net right down to you guys
the community it's awesome that we're
celebrating the game's sixth anniversary
so keep being awesome everybody and
enjoy gilworth juice sixth anniversary
celebrations I'm gonna leave you guys
with a question what does falah wa gilko
taste like serious question
hey everyone Jeff Roe here guild will
sue shop caster for PvP it's been an
amazing six years six anniversary of
Guild Wars 2 with this awesome community
I've had the opportunity of course a
shoutcast around the world at different
events including packs south where it
was part of the panel for part phone's
the expansion
announcement where I met my wife my
whole life changed and I am now in
America of course good well soon has
meant a lot to me it's meant a lot to so
many people to create as the team
obviously create the game and you the
player in the viewer at home have a
great sick for anniversary I will see
you soon his to another six and I'll see
you in the mists
welcome back to the Guild Wars 2
anniversary livestream and a couple more
of our guild wars to developers why
don't you guys introduce yourself and
talk about what you've worked on here
the past year I'm Matthew Medina I'm a
game designer here the last 12 months
for me have been pacifier shipping that
getting them out the door and then
spending a good amount time on festival
to four wins that's right yeah which we
just released as it says up there my
name is Nick Hernandez I am one of the
world qan beds and my job is pretty much
you just make sure that all the content
is meeting standards that we set for
ourselves three minute and the past year
has been pretty much bridging season
three with Episode six two paths a fire
and now us rolling into season four and
kind of just the whole cadence that
we've got going on yeah yeah it's been a
really busy year and that's like I was
talking about with Mike earlier this
time last year we were just gearing up
to announce path of fire and it was like
this frenzy we knew it was coming and we
were preparing we're going to tell the
players this is coming and not only is
it coming it's coming very very very
soon which was just incredibly exciting
and also kind of terrifying and it was
like it has been this non-stop ride ever
since and in between there we were
bringing back festival of the four winds
which is something that we talked about
in a recent guild chat that you've been
working on for so long yeah and I know
for me that was one of the highlights of
the past 12 months and this was
something that we talked we touched on
briefly in guild chat yeah but you and I
were chatting after work and I don't
even remember how it came up but it's
one of those moments that like sticks in
your head and you said fest over the
Four Winds is coming back yeah and I
just went I'm sorry what because it
sounds like you said festival for the
Four Winds is coming back and I know you
wouldn't just like dangle that in front
of me only to take it away
yes that's mean and this
like January yeah yeah January is when I
really kind of got started on you know
the first certain design pass paper
design and and prototyping and figuring
out what we were gonna do and obviously
the the festival had run before so we
had a lot of the groundwork laid but it
was a lot of figuring out like what
worked what didn't what are we bringing
back what are we gonna leave on the
table what do we want to add to it this
year and especially because we wanted it
to be a recurring festival making sure
that was set up so that it was sort of a
timeless thing that could come back year
on here and not having to be you know
revisited by the team every single time
because we want to try to automate as
much as we can so that festivals run
smoothly on an eye on a nice cadence so
yeah that was back in January which is
you know not too long after pacifier
ship so it was sort of a nice change of
pace for me because pacifier as we know
is big undertaking so it was it was a
lot of a lot of late nights and stress
of like oh my gosh this thing is really
gonna ship after however long we worked
on it so you know this was a it was a
nice balance to my year actually because
path fire was such a big thing and this
was it's not that it wasn't a big thing
the festival for wins but it was a nice
sort of light-hearted he's a concert you
know put a lot of like grueling time in
on it yeah well and there is there is a
difference between we have this story
about you know we've got Krakatoa cruise
this looming threat and we're fighting
Balthazar and oh look flying doing
upgrades yes exactly and not to
trivialize one or the other but like you
said that light heartedness it's it's
nice to have that balance and I know a
conversation that I've seen here and
there is wire how dare the Zephyr rights
party how dare you hey well because you
need that you've gotta have the good
with the bad right yes you can't just
you know there's plenty of bad stuff
that happens in the world all the time
and if we just sat in
well Don it all the time nothing would
ever get done like you have to have that
fun you know light-hearted approach to
life sometimes there's definitely a
metaphor for real life and gaming and
there's some where that final but it's
it's there
well how about you Nick what were some
of your highlights over the past 12
months
oh god you have to pick one note pick
several well I think at least something
that I enjoyed working on the most was
the Griffin collection from Pat the fire
that's right that one was just
absolutely amazing and shout out to rob
Stokes who was the designer that went
absolutely insane on that thing like he
it was his passion project and you could
tell I just remember like like the
question itself in my opinion is amazing
it is really real developed but like
just seeing the system's behind it isn't
saying like yeah so with episodes 1 & 2
we introduced these things called
visibility channels which is basically
NPCs will show up at certain points
ability channels yeah okay and that
depends on you know like this buff bag
gets placed on the kit on the player
it's all client-side before that we
didn't have that path of fire so what
Rob actually did was he made some absurd
amount of different teams and stell
thing like because if you look at the
Sunspear sanctuary there is like what 15
NPCs there and like each one shows up
depending on like the things that you do
within the world throughout path the
fire so whereas now you just set
visibility channels before he had to do
a lot of different team switching and
applying of stealth and things like that
and a lot of checking its progress it
was insane like I actually remember
looking at it and he had like just
upwards of hundreds and hundreds of
different teams and I think if I
remember correctly dodge also worked on
it he was like one of the programmers
that worked on it so shot dodge -
because lake without that kind of
programming backbone to be able support
this it would not have Co not though it
would have not gone out the way that it
did okay so when you say teams
I hear teams here in the building
yeah I'm sorry and I'm like wait a
minute you said
yeah and are we are we changing up the
team's more than I realized Wow so in
game what we do is we have different
teams for different agents you know or
our characters so like there are hostile
teams like the enemies that you fight
against Shen Guild Wars - and they're
all red
there's neutral teams and those are like
the ambience they earned not the
ambience those are like the neutral
character is like the like the rock
gazelle and stuff like that okay and
then there's ambient teams which are
like bunnies and bunny rabbits rats you
know those those things and if you
notice like some teams will fight like
some creatures will fight other
creatures but not fight you and
vice-versa yeah each of those is a
different team basically says like I can
fight these teams I'm friends with these
teams and so on and so forth so
basically what we needed to do all right
Lisa brought me in to do with this he
needed to make sure that you're put on
teams that made it that way the NPC's
would actually be stealth to you but not
attack you so they had to be hostile but
not hostile towards the player it was
absolutely just crazy I'm pretty sure it
broke a few times yes I remember any
time you mess with players and teams
that yeah I remember there was one time
actually on on that there was an example
where I was standing there and one of
our testers name was Johnny shot Johnny
because he also worked heavily on this I
just started like like he was taking
damage he's like what's going on it I
could see the NPC but he couldn't see
the NPC and the NPC was just like
attacking him and I was like don't move
I was right now so if he's like but it
hurt yeah it is I guess that's why this
that one at least to me was the most
exciting and I'm gonna stop rambling now
because that's kind of exactly that
scenario is exactly what I was picturing
like something invisible is beating me
to death what's happening you're
supposed to be my Ally what's going on
friends so I can't see what's happening
I just know it hurts and I can't see it
that's amazing it was it was a trip to
work on Ellis yeah the behind the scene
of a lot of these things that on the
surface seem very simple but it's like
this Rube Goldberg machine underneath is
consistently incredible to me yeah
and watching what like when when we
found the Griffin and this is a
conversation that I had with some
players last week when players found the
Griffin it was it was this absolutely
incredible rush because we managed to
keep that a secret and there were some
players I don't know if you guys happen
to be watching but thank you because you
made my week last week this group that
was saying we we figured that something
that cool like the graphic you would
advertise make a huge deal of this
before the game but then we found it on
her own in game and it was incredible
and one of the guys who was talking to
me said I was just like riding through
the desert and I saw something swoop
past me and I stopped he like pulled up
and went what what was that and it was
it was like not something he recognized
and afterwards and he said retro
actively going back and looking at the
mount art and realizing that way in the
background it was a little silhouette of
a Griffin and putting all those pieces
together afterwards was so incredibly
gratifying yeah and everything
surrounding that Griffin was just so
much fun and knowing that it had that
effect on the players and that all of
you enjoy that as much as we did it was
one of those where I I've been around
the industry a long time and it takes a
lot to sort of surprise me and when I
suddenly oh we're we're not gonna
announce this we're gonna hide it and
we're gonna let players discover I
thought why like this is like the
premier thing that we're like should be
with this expansion you would want to
you would you know toodle you think I
want to make a big deal shoes it's you
know I also went to art school where the
marketing was a big part of my education
and so like that was like marketing anti
marketing it was like no no we're not
gonna put the big bullet point on the
back of the box got weird right yeah I
was like why would we do that that seems
counterintuitive but then it works and
so it was just one of those things of
like wow that was an awesome moment
yeah yeah and like to go off of that we
like of course we all knew about it so
we just had to kind of sit there and
watch and wait for players to finally
discover it to finally figure out the
pieces because like you know we we
couldn't touch it like that it was
mandated it's like nobody in the studio
can be the first one to get the Griffin
yeah that was the thing I was gonna say
because I don't know I wasn't sure if
you guys remembered but and I think we
may have talked about this at some point
in the past but as soon as somebody
unlocked it was going to show up in the
API yeah so we had a studio wide mandate
like Nick said where nobody in the
studio we couldn't start the collection
it didn't matter if they were ready to
start the collection we're like sitting
there waiting for one of you to do this
and then there was like this mad in
studio rush like yes we can find that
but not in a bad way though it wasn't
like hurry up it was mostly like just
pure like we were waiting generosity it
was like Christmas morning it was we're
just waiting and so excited I think yeah
we were just waiting for you guys to
find this wonderful amazing thing and we
didn't want to ruin it from in the
studio yeah so yeah we were just like
all kind of don't touch it don't ruin it
yeah but he messed it up also because
the fact that like we didn't we reward
the first player that that's like and
stumbled upon it and or discovered it
correctly so yeah and with with this
much notice I can't remember exactly
what it's like in the back of my head
going what I have for dinner last night
I remember correctly but yeah we were
going to give a prize to whoever the
first person was actually discovered it
because it just it's an undertaking to
even get to that point yeah so and yeah
I think remember correctly the person
definitely tweeted out about it and
they're like oh my God look what I got
stuff like that that's I don't know
that's what makes me love working here
yeah just we we care about our community
quite a bit yeah so the door just opened
and I I figured it was going to be
somebody coming in here to tell us what
we did for the first player here's what
it was three so is also there was this
moment after you know because you got
the unlock for the Griffin but then you
had all the masteries that really kind
of you gotta really need to really make
use of the
Griffen in a way that is super cool and
like so watching players as they you
know unlocked all of those it was just
it was so much fun from start to finish
to see how that collection was
implemented and was delivered to players
yeah it really was
um and it was something that was a big
topic of conversation was that it was a
more expensive mount total of 250 gold
in the end and something that I as a
player who does not have that in my
mattress appreciated was that it was
broken down in chunks of 25 gold RIA
like oh I can still progress I don't
have to just sit here and twiddle my
thumb's and farm up that 250 gold all at
once it was it was a considerate thing
for those of us who do not I don't have
like a dragon horde okay and like you
know the the Griffon was supposed to be
this like staple amount like the the
prime mount so I remember like we had
conversations at least pertaining the
roller butyl where it was like we wanted
to make something that was like good and
fun and that player does enjoyed what
was more accessible than the Griffon but
then over shine or wasn't over shined by
the Griffon
yeah yeah yeah which you know is a
struggle also in itself yeah yeah we we
have a problem at the studio setting the
bar high for ourselves and then trying
to figure out what we're going to do to
take away from the bar we just there's
there is that weird little dance of okay
we did a really cool thing now we have
to do a cooler thing that doesn't make
it this thing yeah it's this weird
little line to walk because I appreciate
that whoop I mean I love that we have
high standards yeah but it is yeah let's
not let's not render things obsolete
please yeah I mean it allows us to push
for innovation like what I was saying
from visibility channels like Rob kind
of bought in this thing of like hey this
is a new way that we can play things
that like sets the bar but it's also
like through that we found out a new way
to do things that allowed us to push
that bar even further so it's not just
like one upping ourselves behind a new
branches that we could take which just
makes it super exciting to work here it
does and I think the theme that I'm
finding in everything that we're talking
about and the thing that makes me so
incredibly happy is the thing the
underlying theme in all of what our
highlights are is watching players
discover these cool things that we've
put in game and virtually speaking
watching watching your faces light up
and watching how much you love finding
these things that you guys have created
yeah so again like we've been saying
thank you so much for enjoying this
world and making all of this hard work
worth it so yeah it definitely does make
it all worth it yeah definitely yeah
because I mean we're here because we
love to be here and we're here because
we love that you guys love to be here
well I will let you guys get back to
work congratulations on another year of
Guild Wars 2 yes and you guys have more
things to do to prepare for what's
coming I think Z Z said buckle up and
that's I was going through some upcoming
content yesterday and buckle up oh my
gosh yeah I know what you're both
working on and I cannot wait for you
guys to see what's coming up so it's
gonna be exciting all right well why
don't we take a look at another
interview with one of our guild wars to
voice actors and I will let you guys get
back to it thank you and congratulations
and have Anniversary you too we'll be
right back
hi my name is Yuri Lowenthal and I voice
among among others Ferran and hero
Truong sometimes hobo Tron sometimes
Java Tron who hopefully will just he
Letran they just keep keep trotting when
I come in to record a session and I'm
playing you know ashram ale or whatever
that's great it's always a good time but
when I see Ferran when I see as Ferran
script I know it's gonna be an amazing
day
the delegation will be so impressed
received by not one but two of the most
distinguished heroes in the world Ferran
is such a delight
he is memorable to me and and and so
dear to my heart because he is so
earnest and so in love with himself and
yet he is without malice at all if you
were using that somehow or if you were
treating people poorly because I mean
you know except for Bongo who's you know
bongos dude that's just bongos a lot in
life I guess but he's just he's just so
charming and clueless that that I I
adore him I adore him mightily do I have
anything in common with Ferran I wear
both were both on the clueless I think
on the clew the scale were both pretty
far to that to that and and I do my best
to live without malice so I would have
to say and and and he's always got
here's the thing I think we might we
might share most of all is that he is
infinitely optimistic but more so than
he should be and I think I think we
definitely share that because I am I am
also I live on the on the optimistic end
of the scale Ferran has changed over the
time that I've played him for sure
and and I love that I mean any actor
will tell you that we love to play
characters with arcs and characters who
change as much as I love fair in the way
he is it has been marvelous to watch him
change over over time and dare I say
grow up a little is that horrible but we
don't want to grow up too much maybe
maybe just a little bit seems to me this
Joko has already declared war
on us and I for one I'm joining the
fight something that I know about Ferren
that nobody else knows I'm always
loathed to give up secrets about about
fair and though the bluster covers I
think the fact that he is very
uncomfortable with with the ladies very
easy do you didn't have quite the
confidence that he would he would like
you to believe but I think Ferran would
contrary to popular belief he would love
to settle down with wit with someone but
but he's never been able to find that
personal also also his first name's Bob
Bob Ferran if I could give fair in one
piece of advice it would be to wear
pants more often no you know what no cuz
I cuz I cuz I love I love that it would
be to actually take those lessons that
that Bongo gave him and practice more
cuz I think I think he's growing into
into a type of fare and that's gonna
need to back up the words that that he
says so so I think well well nobody's
looking behind the scenes he should be
practicing the he rowing so that when it
comes time to actually be the hero he's
got something you know like to stand on
commander I did it the scarabs almost
got me but that day needed saving
[Music]
Bob Ferran you heard it here for he's so
great I liked talking with URI so much I
could just sit there and chat with him
all day he's like the sweetest dude
so well thank you guys for joining for
our Guild Wars 2 anniversary livestream
thank you guys for sticking around with
us happy anniversary congratulations on
another year why don't you guys
introduce yourselves to our viewers and
talk a little bit about what you've been
working on over the past twelve months
remember everything
Yvette Becker and the voice-over lead
and I have been working on all of the vo
for the past year and plus I'm Tom
Abernathy I'm the studio narrative
director which means I'm also the
narrative director for doors to and over
the last year we have finished and sent
path a fire out into the world and we
have done finished off Episode six of
season three in the time that I've been
here and then of course done the first
released the first three episodes of
season four this year and we're coming
up sometime soon not gonna say when - an
episode four it'll happen
mister when at Gamescom asked me if I
could tell them anything about Episode
four I was like I can are you ready are
you ready and episode four like winter
it is coming for sure
so um like you said the past twelve
months and more because vo
does like way way in advance as does
narrative even further because you can't
just get in front of the actors and be
like make something up together in post
there are some days when it's just kind
of you do you and we'll figure but it is
good to have some words well not yet I
mean you know we we create the fictional
context that everything happens in in
all of the gameplay so in fact narrative
is is you know for us at this company
and
this game especially narrative is
basically it kicks off the process and a
lot of senses it's us usually working
closely with Lindsey Murdock who is the
lead content lead design lead on gw2 and
we start figuring out what the season is
going to be a year before the first
episode will be released on average I
would say probably yeah 9 9 to 12 months
so we have a pretty good idea at this
point of things going into the future
and that video came out today right yes
yes yes there will be a season 5 so
everybody now knows there will be a
season 5 yay
so that is the thing we've been working
on for longer than frankly you probably
would would think we would have been
working on it and and at the same time
we are in process we're literally in
production for there all the remaining
episodes for this season and you know
that that process the process of from
initially conceiving a living world
season to the release of the last
episode of the season is probably two
and a half years plus yeah from
beginning to end you know there is
there's a well so what have been some of
your favorite I mean the things that
we've released and you guys get a pass
on going much farther back into the past
the past year what are some of the
things that we've released that have
been your favorite or some of or even
with you Eve some of the vo stuff that
we've had some really great sessions
with our actions see we recorded episode
three back in April I think it was April
or was July eyes are coming up and so
I'm living in late talked about it three
different episodes right now yeah that's
what Thomas thing we went and saw
infinitive or whatever done I was just
like traumatized yep yeah trying to keep
everything straight in my head it's like
which episode
is that again because I gotta remember
okay here we go
it is hard because for us it's like
everything so many episodes are in
production at the same time at different
stages and we do forget what happens in
which one we just knew what the sort of
total story is yeah like what's coming
to my mind right now is all stuff that I
can't talk about because that's episode
four stuff that hasn't Trey it's coming
yeah it's coming there's an awesome
stuff coming we've got some some really
great stuff that we've done as well
we've gotten more diversity in our cast
and that's something that was really
important to me you know being able to
add new actors and new voices and new
types of voices in rather than just
having a whole bunch of people you know
diversifying getting more more people
and and some of these some of the actors
that we've brought in have just been
amazing I mean all of our cast is
amazing to start with but you know when
you bring in a new person you're like I
hope this works out and then you they
come in and they just blow you away like
yes well it has to be super stressful
it's an unknown quantity and there's a
lot at stake and that is that's an
important thing to think about and I
know we've worked very hard on that the
past couple of years because of the
regions of Tyria that we were moving
into and we did need to diversify our
cast a little bit and I feel like that's
been really successful the actors that
we've hired have been so unbelievably
talented yeah I mean Ilona was an
amazing opportunity for that and we've
discovered excuse me a bunch as you said
actors of color who we didn't know about
and who ought to be getting work to be
perfectly frank more often than they do
who are fantastic and so that's a great
resource for us because we love using
them the pool of actors that we is now
sort of part of our company has been
greatly enlarged and diversified and and
gives us all sorts of new sort of
flavors to work with we called in a
couple new actors I'm just thinking of
her path of fire Sonya Leslie and
Cherise booth and you know we we just
wanted to make sure we had a breadth of
voices in in Ilona they we got them in
the booth they their credits on IMDB
were you know kind of sparse compared
but we get them in the booth
oh my goodness these guys are amazing
like find more stuff for them put them
in the game wherever we can yeah I
started writing roles for them
specifically really they were that good
well I I listen I met Sonia Leslie and I
listened to her work and I was just
sitting there in awe of how good her
voice was she's very very good I had a
funny story actually so near Leslie she
is also the voice of the mother and
teacher Susie on a kids show called Sid
the Science Kid which my son and I
watched yeah okay and so when I saw her
name come up I'm like oh she's teacher
Susie
this is gonna be awesome and we call her
in she's recording with us and I was
like just so you know my son absolutely
loves to decided kid you know watch
together she's like I think that's the
first time I can say that Sid the
Science Kid has gotten me a job oh and
meanwhile my kids over here going will
you get Matthew Mercer's autograph well
going back to what you were saying about
you know we record so much in one
session I'm thinking back to April
because you guys are down there's so
much more than I I've gone like once
twice in four years but I remember back
in April we were doing like episode
three fest over the Four Winds a little
bit of episode four and there was just
so much crammed into that week and there
was one there a fractal two or something
oh gosh that's right there was also the
fractal yeah that session I think was
thirty five hundred lines yes so much
yeah that's pretty big for us for sure
it was yeah I'm just I'm just like
counting how it's like two Studios eight
hours a day five days yep hopping back
and forth and we always have to do we
have to record cinematics for an episode
with the previous episodes session
because the cinematics team needs that
audio in advance because their work
takes longer to do right so like you
said a little bit of episode four and
all of these all these various things
you know yeah it's a lot it's a lot
there's a it's a good thing we have
great producers because and and Eve
because you know it's a lot of material
yeah
well seeing some of once you see all of
this work you've seen it done in the
booth and you've seen it through you've
seen it through the table reads and
everything would have been some of your
favorite scenes to see once we got past
fire out the door what were some of the
favorite things that you got to see on
live and play reactions yeah and we've
talked about this for but the the scenes
in Episode one when the commander goes
to the jail to bust out sighing and and
and you yes and you hear oh yeah over
the comm you hear timey begging for you
wanted to know where you are in a very
hushed tone and she begins weeping and
and you hear people dying and screams
and stuff and then it becomes clear that
Joko has kidnapped her and is killing
and awakening people in front of her
basically to torture you to get at you
right that for us was a really big scene
because because it sort of staked out
new ground in terms of how real we were
planning to get with the emotional
stakes and the the you know the weight
of stuff that happens and and so we knew
we were taking a risk we crossed our
fingers thought it would work when we
when we got the performance from Debbie
that we got we knew as far as that was
concerned she was amazing and and but
you know honestly I thought we're gonna
put this out and they're you know how
far players are gonna be like this is
awesome and the other half can be like
whoa that's kind of a little bit's right
people yeah and what was shocking to me
in the best possible way was that within
a couple of hours of the release of
episode one we started already seeing
people talking online about how how
affected they had been by that and how
for the rest of the episode they were
just I've got to find Tommy like it lit
exactly the sense of urgency and and and
sort of ramping up the pressure that we
wanted it to and they can't cuz I cared
about her so much and everything right
and and so it clearly succeeded in a way
that speaking for myself at least I had
no
dared to hope that it would with a lot
more people than I expected that it
would and and it felt like a real
validation of the direction that we were
sort of wanting to go in and and the
thing that's that's unique in a lot of
ways about living world is that that you
know we put that out and we're seeing
that reaction within a couple of hours
and and that very day we can then take
that knowledge into our session sessions
working on the other episodes that go
okay now we have a sense of what they're
going to be willing to go with us one
right and and so the immediacy of that
feedback loop is astonishing and so
incredibly fun that's so that's that's
the big one that sticks with me yeah
again this speaks to something that Mike
and I were talking about earlier we are
here listening to you guys so hard and
we we need to hear this and we want to
hear what you have to say about this
like people like Tom and Eve are
literally taking it right back into the
recording studio and saying okay here's
here's what they're saying and it's
right it makes an enormous difference it
really is helpful yep and and and of
course we wanted the impact on time II
of those events to be something which
lingered across episodes because we're a
serial we're not just an episodic show
our story line crosses episodes our
character arcs across episodes and so
there is we knew then what we could do
with Debbie and what we could do with
time II that she could handle the and we
thought the players could handle and and
not all of that has has come out yet but
but it will and you know I think people
like it well and it helps with Debbie
specifically it helps talking to her and
hearing what she has to say over the
years she cares deeply for this
character on a personal level she's not
just coming in like okay who is this
this this taemi but I I'll read this
thing on this paper she knows this
character and she loves her and she
cares for her very very much and relates
to her and she's got she's got this
character in her head and it you can
really tell yeah we have so many actors
in URIs another one who's with Verity
who do they've been playing these
characters for a long time
and and they have watched and
participated in the evolution of those
characters as well right one thing that
we talk about a lot is is that a number
of our characters including the the PC
frankly are not exactly the same now six
years down the line yeah as they were
when the game first started and we we
hope that we're always working to give
actors an ever more rich and fully
dimensional sort of a set of material to
work with when they come into the booth
and they do we give them the scripts and
information ahead of time they know that
what the story's gonna be they know what
the arcs are and they come in really
ready to play ball in a way that they
don't have the opportunity to and a lot
of the jobs they work and so that's
another reason I think that they really
like working with us yeah if there's a
behind the scenes story that I kind of
want you to tell because it really
affected me we were talking about when
Joe go kidnap Tommy and you were she was
she was having to do that weeping oh
yeah and I I will just find out this
week because me oh yeah it was one of
the most stressful sessions I've been in
not because of anything that you know
like was going poorly but because it was
going so well because that session was
like Debi Derryberry sobbing for four
straight hours and she was like yeah we
dim the lights everybody is just sitting
there in the booth watching her
performance like you know yes
biting our nails were also stressed and
please understand how tall is she she's
no she's amazing but we're all sitting
there just like like panicked and
stressed for her listening to her
deliver these lines and I have a Fitbit
that my my pedometer here it also
watches my heart rate so I bring up my
data after the session and my heart rate
was spiked like for the entirety of this
session I'm just like in high anxiety
just watching her I'm sitting there
going this is going to be amazing when
we get this into the game because if it
affecting me that much just sitting here
listening to it Beering being recorded
like it's gonna it's going to blow
people's minds yeah and everybody had
very strict instructions you're going to
want to comfort her when she comes out
dude leave her alone don't just let her
deal in her own way yeah we had more
people probably in the control room that
day then we then we ordinarily would
like for a scene like that you you want
to not put too much force on add stress
to the actors you know situation but
just because of various things that were
going on we needed to have that many
people down there at the time and my
recollection was that at least three of
them were in tears of various points
during the session
it was super intense and and and we you
know we had a long talk with Debbie
beforehand about what it was gonna be
like what we're gonna want oh yeah she
was she was before she went into the
booth she had a good grasp on where we
were going to be going and and was ready
to go there and and and you have to I
think respect actors and and the
difficulty of what they do and and
extend to them that courtesy of letting
them know what you want and letting
giving them the opportunity to to agree
to go there with you because yeah you
know it's not an easy job that kind of a
session for sure normally you know
normally with a recording session and
I'm speaking in broad generalities of
all recording sessions for vo games a
lot of times the actors will you know
see the material for the first time when
they come to the booth and we made sure
you know that we got a hold of her
beforehand and said just so you know
we're gonna be doing something very
different just you know be ready for it
we're gonna talk to you beforehand you
know just to kind of mentally prep her
for the session because it wasn't the
normal guild water session yeah it's
it's good to eventually prepare our
voice actors for surprising things yeah
story for another day but we want to
elevate our material and the and the
performances and everything to a level
above what you usually get in those
video games and other animated stuff
things avoid right I mean if you're an
on-camera actor or you're in a stage
play you have at least part of a script
and frequently the whole thing and you
can study who your character is and and
sort of do your homework before you come
in
do the thing right and we feel like it's
only going to help our actors and get
better performances out of them if they
have that same kind of information
available to them ahead of time so yeah
absolutely
so that is Tommy's time he's kidnapping
and watching or hearing the things that
Yoko
it was absolutely I highlight in a very
upsetting and stressful past year but
something I'm going to I'm gonna jump in
and give one of my own hearing Ferrand
grow up a little bit has been because he
kind of had to yeah has been such a huge
highlight for me because again like you
said Yuri is another actor who has a
very real affection for his character
and who knows him and has taken a hit
who has walked this path over the years
in Guild Wars 2 and it seemed fair and
turn like and I say this with all love
and affection from this gigantic doofus
he is still like this lovable gigantic
doofus but he's had to very suddenly
like stuff got real right and he's had
to very suddenly grow up a little bit
and he's kind of he had this line at one
point like you gave me a busy work
before and I'm not having it anymore and
I'm still kind of an idiot but I'm
working on it right like Yuri is selling
this because he's he's like got this
thing where he's so proud of Ferren yeah
cuz she's trying yeah he's an amazing
actor
yeah and hearing that when it translated
into game I was like oh my gosh it's it
worked because he believes it yeah well
and and part of the the kinds of
directions that we're going in that we
were talking about a minute ago involves
that right involves involves characters
who we feel like the last time we left
them maybe they weren't quite in a place
that is where we want them to stay we
won't we want we want to yeah I mean you
know he's a character another example of
somebody who who we felt like and and
and this isn't just us I mean we were we
were studying players talking about him
and
clearly they were not satisfied as a
group with sort of where he'd been left
as a character they felt he'd he'd
become this emo mopey kind of
stick-in-the-mud whom who they did enjoy
yeah I mean you know well and his mom -
I mean reason granted there was a lot of
discussion about that back then and the
a lot of the sentiment was players
you're feeling something you're feeling
anger and people don't always handle
grief well right sometimes you handle
grief like an enormous jerk right right
or a child yes absolutely and and and I
think yeah so I'm not slamming brandman
saying that I think very good reasons
for being in the space he was in but we
felt like he'd been in it long enough
and and we wanted to yeah we thought
that that what the commander would want
for him basically would be to give him a
little kick in the seat and and say look
you know you can't spend your whole life
grieving for the things that you've lost
we all lose things and it matters for
sure and again that's a thing it that's
not going away Bram's carrying that with
him even as we move forward in a lot of
different senses not to give anything
away but you know we felt it was
important that Bram began to grow up a
little bit and begin to recognize that
that he has a life that he needs to live
and he has his own legend he needs to go
make happen right and yeah and and and
and it's funny because of course in
Episode three particularly we had joke
Oh joke was pretty hard on Bram choko
choko makes some pretty harsh get whole
scene mo keep like man you know yeah
yeah the joke being stupid and all that
kind of stuff Bram is not stupid but but
we loved one particular thing that the
writers are really really loved was I
forget whose idea it was but when when
Bram goes EP i de am i C forgot about
that yeah
so we're he still has a little ways to
go he's not we're you know quite quite
over all those things yet but there's
more to come in terms of his journey and
he's definitely a character that we're
bringing back to life in that way
I mean I'm glad we're moving out of that
right yeah and I love that we didn't
just flip the switch like oh he's fine
yes he's growing this is the thing we
don't want to make any anything like
that happen like that right everything
needs to be a multi-episode sort of arc
it's a slow walk for all these
characters yeah it is it's weird or it
would have been weird for brimm to be
like what no I was never awful to you
right no no it's everything's fine we're
happy now there were things that had to
get worked through and so another thing
that I really love is the end of episode
2 where you know they keep going through
the portals trying to find their way
back home and then the last one they're
sort of stuck on this rock in the middle
of space you know Thanos land basically
right and they've got nothing to do and
it becomes clear that the thing the only
thing they have to do maybe is talk
about right they're about to do it the
gorg comes throwing them on the calm and
it's a go thank god you're here okay
we'll go home down right like we we
wanted to bring them to that point but
not actually let them have the
conversation yet okay this is
uncomfortable enough here we go right
right yeah it's it's gonna be
interesting watching his progression in
his journey but I am glad like you said
it's gradual thing not just okay
everything's fine now yep snapping was
in super poor taste go me there are more
characters who those things similar
things can be happening with yes we can
we can say a lot more in a couple months
oh man my theme for the day is I cannot
wait for you guys to see what's coming
yeah so alright well thank you both
happy anniversary congratulations on
another year and save me some pizza
alright well we have you guys actually
might want to hang out the room for a
little bit longer because we have
another vo actor interview yeah we're
gonna talk with kari wahlgren
oh yes she is awesome so stick around
and we will be back in just a couple
minutes thank you guys thank you
hi I'm kari wahlgren and I play Kate
Kate is very enigmatic I always like
characters that aren't straight up good
or straight up evil
so her alliances are always a little bit
in question in the game which is a lot
of fun
she's a sylvari and she kind of does
what she wants she's not really playing
for any one team hello tiny commander we
have a lot to talk about don't we
I think one of the most fun moments of
voicing case was some of her her scenes
with Faolain they were so lovely and
deep and very touching and and I think
they just kind of showed us some insight
into her character that we hadn't seen
before so for me personally I just I I
really enjoyed that keith has gone
through a lot and changed through the
game and I think vocally it just kind of
adds layers
it adds subtext to the character which
is always great you know when you have a
game that is long-running and you get to
know the characters on a deeper and
deeper level that's like really fun for
us on the voice-acting side because you
get to explore different parts of their
personality and you get to learn more
about them and I think that comes
through in the performance we have a lot
of work ahead of us I think I can help
with that I think my favorite thing
about Keith is that we never know what
to expect from her we never know who
she's going to side with we never know
if she's going to help us or lead us
astray we never know who she's going to
love she's just very very enigmatic if I
could give Kate the piece of advice
maybe watch her back we should
collaborate again sometime
[Laughter]
here we go as you kind of
we the gods saw there could be no
victory in our inevitable conflict with
the Elder Dragons
that conflict could only end in two ways
the ruin of the six or the utter
destruction of t Ria's magical balance
we only handed an elder dragon the
energy of God
what could go
the awaken have been terrorizing our
town
caging anyone who resists
know how much longer we can survive
or even
if she still remembers who her friends
are
[Music]
[Music]
welcome back thank you guys for joining
happy Anniversary happy Guild Wars 2
birthday it's it's a happy day I am I am
so happy that we're going through this
and getting talked to all of you guys
why don't you two introduce yourselves
and talk about what you've been working
on the past year I'm Alex Kane I'm a
writer and narrative designer here at
ArenaNet this year gosh I've been on a
lot of things I started by writing books
that showed up in episode 1 of living
world I did some open world stuff
for episode 2 I worked on fractal for
the deep stone fractal I was the writer
on that and next raid that we're hinting
at but haven't really talked about too
much but that's coming yes it is indeed
something people know it's coming they
don't know what it is I do sorry Ben
same thing as him I worked on raids oh
and Ben Arnold
I am the Condor programmer for fractals
and raids so obviously worked on raids
and you know the random fractal updates
new fractal is qol sometimes random
things for living world and obviously
path of fire stuff well first of all
before wins - oh that's right yeah
you're working a lot of the same things
I guess yeah which is why I scheduled
you gather yeah well what have been some
of your favorite highlights over the
past year oh you go first you don't have
to just pick one I was kidding earlier
oh okay I mean all my favorite
highlights are like I think my most
favorite highlight is the things that I
can't talk about yet so yeah it is
pretty frustrating but just being able
to work with the fractals and rate seams
together has been pretty amazing
originally we were kind of more
separated but our content had a lot of
overlap so while we would kind of come
together for for some meetings and
things there were a lot of resources
that like once one team would sort of
miss out on that the other team had so
when we sort of combine the teams it
allowed us to kind of share those
resources more efficiently we had
meetings together to sort of plan out
all the different encounters using the
skillsets of both teams together and
that's just been a joy I've enjoyed it
and I think it's gonna be a good thing
for the content going forward it's a fun
group - just telling everyone in the
same room you can toss ideas between the
teams like oh this isn't good for the
fractal but it'd be good for the raid
you know and there's a lot exactly but
gosh
yeah I mean I'm also really excited for
things I can't talk about but yeah III
want to say that the festival the Four
Winds
was a really fun sort of highlight it
was really great to see that stuff go
out as quickly as it did you know that's
that's just the nature of the festival I
suppose and you know people have a very
strong connection to the original
festival of the four winds
so was it was really fun to see that
sort of immediate payoff for that but I
think that the deep stone fractal was
probably the most satisfying thing that
I worked on that I can talk about that
was you know sort of the first big solo
project that I worked on
yeah insofar as something is solo here
yeah writing capacity you're always
talking through your scripts with other
writers and you're working with your
table reads and you're talking with
designers and yeah so that was a lot of
fun I think it's I think it's on my mind
because we were just talking with Tom
and Eve about vio stuff but like we said
we were working on I just happened to be
in the recording studio watching when we
were recording some of the vo for the
deep stone fractal and hearing some of
the vo was like the spookiest session
I've ever I was just sitting there going
oh I think that's Cthulhu stuff
happening and maybe I should just leave
because everyone here is definitely
gonna die yes people I you know I I knew
that players would figure it out
eventually and I figured it out very
quickly that the language that John
DiMaggio's are not John DiMaggio's steve
blooms
character is speaking in the deep stone
fractal is a vocalization of a written
only text only cipher that was in
earlier content in the Guild Wars
universe and it translate perfectly to
English like spoken word it was kind of
nonsense and it you did get a lot of
these you know it looks like a
Lovecraftian sort of like there are 14
consonants back-to-back what am I
supposed to do with that you know my
kingdom for a vowel
but yeah he he is Steve bloom he
performed it admirably I I do I do
remember hearing John DiMaggio there's a
bit at the end where he's talking he's
tea and Steve bloom were like overlapped
a little bit and so he was timing it to
Steve Bloom's original dialogue and you
know just hearing John sort of you know
like like what exactly is going on here
who what is he saying just do it yeah
and he did he did it really well it was
a lot of fun yeah it was I was that a
session that you Skyped in for I did
Skype in for that one I wanted to go but
I got to go to the next one instead
which was so jealous I wanted to go to
that I desperately yeah so that one was
for the raid I actually got it wrong
when I was just stick you lating wildly
to even Tom before about the last record
session it was okay it was for the raid
and it was a lot of fun and people are
should be very excited about it I am
like chewing my tongue in half over here
yeah quick talk about the last raid way
the last one you mean the one before the
new one yes don't talk about the one
it's not totally code of change was
really great all chains was a good one
it was we should talk about that yeah
please now on that one was a lot of fun
to work with because we it was another
thing where we were sort of like making
a boss fight that was a god which
reminds me of like Balthazar when we had
to make Balthasar how do you make a
fight with a god that feels like you're
fighting a god but isn't actually like
fighting a god because he would just
wipe the floor with you and sure Byron
did a really good job with like the
actual doom encounter and just the whole
aesthetic of the raid itself just the
underworld it was a location we hadn't
been to before raids and it was
something that just the whole aesthetic
give it it's not something we'd really
seen before
yeah and just that in itself and just
all the encounters I think came together
really nicely so if you enjoyed that one
I think you're gonna enjoy the next one
for sure
III and I didn't work on it but I enjoy
it as a fan yeah I've seen many
playthroughs of it well going back I
mean the underworld right in particular
I mean that's a place that is iconic
from the first guild wars and that feels
like
was that intimidating I mean was that
something that you had to step back and
take a harder look at before you went
back there so luckily I didn't really
have to because I didn't we didn't
really fully merge the teams until sort
of at the end of the development I just
sort of jumped in there to help with
building some of the skills out and kind
of polishing up things like making all
the weird cracky patterns on the ground
for for doing for instance yeah yeah but
just working in that space and working
on all those things was a little
intimidating because you have to make
these skills that kind of complement the
whole arena and complements the fact
that you're in the underworld and you're
fighting you know like a god of death
yeah I feel like the god of death is
probably going to win yeah had to feel
that way but you have to always be able
to triumph right yeah you get at least a
shot yeah so what were some of the ql'
things that you put out well actually
just recently one of the big ones was
that we shipped today the agony
resistance changes now in fractal you
can see the agony resistance up in the
top left-hand corner which was a problem
before because you would sort of jump
into a fractal with somebody who maybe
wasn't familiar with agony resistance or
didn't realize they didn't have enough
so then they were dyed to it and then we
also moved the instabilities to the top
right hand corner because having all
those buffs on your bars all constantly
shuffling around makes it really hard to
tell what's going on sometimes but
there's been a lot of things like we are
I added the thick health bars options so
you can look at how I see so you can see
health better for your party or your
squad you can see like who's in your
subgroup instead of just in the squad
and actually help healers kind of be
healers in our game yeah and probably a
lot of other stuff that I'm blanking on
right now I try to do little qol things
every now and then in between bigger
projects if I have some downtime I kind
of look at some of the low-hanging fruit
and try to do some of that honestly all
of those little touches like that they
add up to make an enormous difference
and make the game so much better yeah
usually the little key oil patch notes
are the ones that get the most comments
and things like the smallest little
feature but everybody freaks out about
it yeah it's very true so all right well
I will let you guys get back to work
because apparently there's something
else coming stuff we're like we're dying
here you got
seriously can we like push this
anniversary back buy it buy a bit know
there's there's stuff that you guys need
to get finished yeah yeah okay all right
congratulations
happy Anniversary universe you're that
HAP you never get back to work you have
something to get out the door it's true
alright guys stick around we will be
back in just a couple of minutes
[Music]
what happened to you out in the desert
it's a powder keg over there and that
maniac has already lit the fuse
one person against a god of war
we know there's something in the desert
that will help us turn the tide against
Balthasar
[Music]
[Music]
will this be your first god fight yeah
you
[Music]
our fear he may get the weapon if he
does the consequences will be
[Music]
we're gonna kill a god or what
[Music]
cannot defeat him on our own
there's no coming back we must right now
running both beside face me
[Applause]
[Music]
head over to page three
hey I'm misty Lee and I play rocks
whetstone and various and sundry other
human people and sometimes people that
are dying stepping into the rule of an
established characters sometimes really
scary because you want to make sure that
you're honoring all the mythology that
has come before while also bringing a
new heart and honoring the new line and
the new adventures that they're about to
take so it's a huge responsibility but
it's also a tremendous privilege because
what an awesome role right Oh Mike on
our place is on the front with Rick
Locke brimstone today we fight to take
down a tyrant rocks is awesome because
she's gruff and tough and has always
been so independent but really she just
wants to belong and she never really
thought she could so the fact that she's
now on this new journey and learning to
function within this community she's
kind of cracking open and it's a really
beautiful wonderful thing to see this
gruff exterior but this beautiful light
on the inside they really are amazing
fighters but they don't let fighting
define them my favorite thing about
rocks is that she has this playful
gruffness that's followed by a lot of
heart so she's got the sass and this
brass and this really gold glow if I
could give rocks one piece of advice it
would be you are enough rocks and I have
them coming cuz you know I'm pretty
brassy and I'm pretty tough on the
exterior but very soft and squishy in
the inside like a lobster and it affects
everything about her because you want to
honor all this badassery and yet you
want to bring that warmth because it's
always there even though she's worked so
hard to try to fight it and try so hard
to be independent she loves everybody
someday he'll grow up I have to keep
believing that one of the most fun
moments I've had doing righteous voices
well it's all of them every time Bram is
in the room with her I mean it's just
it's like you know he'll grow up someday
I have to keep believing that
you know she's just so optimistic and
yet tolerates so much oh my God we're
done fantastic welcome back to the guild
wars 2 sixth anniversary livestream I am
here with two more of our developers why
don't you two introduce yourselves and
talk about what you've been working on
here
hello I'm just Croft I am currently a
rewards designer you might have known me
from living world from story from raid
from everything all the things yeah a
little bit of everything
I'm Carmel claim and I am a game
designer I are working on the skills
side of things doing all the elite
specializations you know I can answer
lots of questions about those we did a
lot of design on those so yeah that's
basically all again alright well let's
talk about some of what you guys have
enjoyed working on over the past a year
I know there's a lot so you can just
pick out some of your favorites yeah
whatever you ask me that I struggle
because I'm like wait oh yeah that was
no that was two years ago things it was
here and half ago
oh I'll prompt to you first Jessica how
about Hall of chains so you were you
were watching you interview abandoned
and like you asked him some questions
and I just wanted like I was sitting
over there and I just want to dive on
screen and be like wait I can answer
that but I'm pretty sure no I'm pretty
sure people want to appreciate now is
your moment I would have appreciated it
so much pains so I worked on Hart reins
primarily on the regional concept of
raid and primarily on does Mina's
character and oh yeah eyes and
everything leading up to that it was I
think the thing you asked was like is
there a lot of concern is it scary
working with something as well-known to
players as the underworld and the answer
is hell yeah it is I mean like the thing
is
in its that rose-colored glasses thing
like no matter what you do if you try
and make something that was like the
original you're inevitably gonna not
live up to what players expect in their
hash because like it looks amazing their
head look it didn't look that amazing go
look good nostalgic glasses are so yeah
so like the the thing you run into is
like do we try and ultimately like
disappoint some people to recreate that
experience or do we kind of like branch
out we go for some of the same themes
but kind of describe into in your
direction make it our own make it the
very guilt worth to experience and
that's what we did it works for the lore
of the underworld especially since it's
an ever-shifting place and you know it's
been a long time since you've been in
there there's also love upheaval when
you go in there if you felt no spoilers
I guess for the raid but yeah it's our
so far past the spoiler time limit on
this race it's okay it's like being
handed this cherished thing and then
being expected to live up to the
expectations of that that's what that
that that's kind of the scary part it
can be super scary because again the
nostalgia goggles are so hard
you're never gonna live up to someone's
someone's memory of what they think it
was like when it's not necessarily the
reality I mean for me in particular to
see that for me in particular is tricky
because Lindsey was my direct boss at
the time
Brooke made the original underworld just
taken up residence under my desk you are
a brave person to me hmm
this industry makes you brave it's it's
very true there's a sound bite for you
but it came out extremely extremely well
I've seen a lot of player feedback on
that one and a lot of people had a lot
of fun with that so congratulations yeah
how about a highlight over the past year
it certainly was a big part of that year
of my life
right how about you Karl what were some
of your highlights of the past 12 months
the past well well I guess the the
pacifier stuff the yeah I mean we were
hard at work in trying to like get a
bunch of new and cool elite
specializations out there I put a lot of
time and effort into like the the Weaver
the elementalist stuff and working on a
lot of like kind of fine-tuning like
little pieces of like animation and and
and and making sure that it felt like a
very complete unique experience you just
reminded me of something when you
mentioned the Weaver because we had a we
had a lot of our members of the partner
program visit the studio to preview some
of the new elite specializations oh yeah
there's one partner and you and I like
prowling around waiting for somebody to
log in on the Weaver and one of our
partners did and you and I were like
standing behind that person waiting for
them to start figuring out the Weaver it
was it took a little while and then and
then they are like as soon as they like
you know like like change it to mints
and they like oh what's this okay not
changed in two minutes again oh what's
this
and then they started poking around I
was like oh oh my goodness bigger and
bigger and bigger know who you are that
was every bit as gratifying as I hoped
it be when we started figuring out way
cool to see kind of one of the
excitement building and like that just
that that that realization of like what
this is yes is really fun it was and it
was hard for me just and I just I loved
it just as someone who played that elite
spec it was hard for me not to just like
shove their hands away and be like okay
let me show you I can't imagine how you
were feeling just like keep it behind
your back holding on yeah you know you
know there's been so sad formally
specialization is it kind of like and
working on those and seeing those go out
and people we are all excited and play
the heck out of them yeah there's been
we've been working out balance we've
been working on like doing change
reworks and all that kind of stuff and
underwater was one of those dogs you got
to kind of work on together Jessica and
I and we had I I got to do a bunch of
I'm wearing the shirt today we revenant
hey underwater we get to work on that
trident stuff that the that went out for
them adding a new weapon to the game was
really fun to just kind of like hey
here's an update for underwire new
weapon let's go and just get work on a
bunch of the the reward stuff for that
yeah I mean that was a really fun
process just because as systems I don't
know how much you guys know about the
structure of our teams but systems does
whatever any other team needs in terms
of systems requests so like very often
like I'll be working on one thing for
like we're all Carl be working on like
some pvp update and like they're like
we're all on different things but for
that on water stuff we're all on the
same thing like Carl was showing me all
these cool skills all the time and then
I was like oh man okay I think about
this I got it I'm looking super
motivating for players actually see this
stuff and so it was really fun like
having that kind of that mutually
supporting relationship there yeah um do
you want to talk a little bit more about
the systems team because most of you
guys don't work here so I imagine a
couple of you do guys outside the office
don't work no we're celebrating today
but a little bit please we have a lot to
do but if you guys want to give like a
high level what the systems team does
and introduce your team to people you
girls like things lead right this is a
weird time to be askin right no y'all
met everybody met they met panabaker a
little bit earlier has been running he's
been working on getting everything you
say you're not more important than I am
completely changed yeah so araignee has
been working on
I'm like kind of getting everybody
together and and working as this
advanced units over the last well that's
another thing over the last like a bit
of time and that's something's been
developing recently we actually had a
forum chat a little bit yeah and we got
on there and like kind of a new
introduced the systems team and talked
about like you know the things we do and
one of my posts was more about like how
we choose to rework things or like what
like what we do when we when we're
looking at feedback and reading through
the analytics and stuff like that and
how we choose what what to work on for
that period of time turn what we're
learning here is karl has a very
commanding personality oh cool she just
believed in in this and you I would like
to see us probably feeling it from you
on the other hand I am awestruck at your
ability to long no you're not leader and
now she's gonna push you around so yeah
at one point that was the that was my
job to kind of like kind of steer some
of the elite specialization stuff so but
you know we we can we can work around
all that kind of stuff I love it
so back to underwater how was the player
feedback how did it feel seeing the
player feedback and all of these new
things that you could do underwater once
you guys got done working on on this
because I know I loved reading wow look
at all of these things that we've added
I think I'm most satisfying part of that
for me is much like the real world there
is a lot of water in your eyes going to
that one and they're like a hundred
places you could have so yeah I took it
the good way
you're welcome there's so many there's
just so many places underwater that
players really had either no reason to
explore and it's all of this content
like it's entirely like landmass
well kind of a landmass
that just players don't go to and it was
really exciting to see players actually
be reinvigorated too and actually taking
the dive back into the water
yeah slip one pot in it's fine remember
what we talked about before the water
puns were just they were everywhere
there was a flood of them thank you well
I'm glad some of you got your toes wet
okay so well thank you guys I know a lot
of the work your team does is kind of in
the background so thank you for
everything especially things like the
underwater revamp that goes out there
and gives players a whole new area to
explore and a reason to go back in there
you guys have had a lot to put out in
the past year and I know there's a lot
more coming that again
can't quite talked about yet okay even
today we get to do some of that some
reworks we got the The Herald stuff
going that's right and then like we got
the Guardian staff reworked I guess
surprise surprise the gardius Taff got a
little bit of a rework this this update
we felt like the the weapon it wasn't
cohesive at all is it its whole goal was
supposed to be like this is your you
know support weapon and it's sort of
like it wants to be a little bit of
healer and wants to be like kind of like
this area control thing and it's also
melee and so we kind of took one of
those aspects we said it's less of a
melee weapon now now it is it's going to
be range it's going to be it's gonna
happen it's to skill it's one of its
defining abilities is now going to have
some heels on it and it's gonna and so
you're the Guardian is able to a little
bit provide a little more support as
with that weapon itself you know and it
wasn't intended like this wasn't like
we're gonna take this weapon we're gonna
turn it into a damage weapon that's not
what what this was about it's supposed
to be like you have the ability to you
know hit multiple targets at range now
if you if you so choose but you know
this is we're taking in kind of shifting
to focus more toward that support
awesome I got new effects and got to put
those
some cool new effects onto onto the onto
the weapon itself it was really fun to
see something like change
I'm just haven't had time to log in at
all today so I will go look very soon
but I I was a little busy getting ready
for the cameras speaking of heralds
mm-hmm so I want to talk about a whole
different Harold and that's you're
giving me that look like I'm trying so
hard to remember an employee named
Harold I don't think we've ever employed
okay not that we discriminated against
Harold's don't take it that way
but one of the things that's really
satisfying to me as a designer is seeing
something that just started off as a
small side project blossom and and just
become something that the fans are
really excited about and I'm of course
speaking to the lady kamila who is your
Harold for so three uh like I was I
needed to have an MPC that you could
work with that knew things about you
that's very excited about your history
in order to do the the banner collection
the back banner collection and the idea
destruct me it's like there's this
Harold that has sent you some mail
throughout the course of your leveling
up and seem to know a lot about you but
you've never found out anything about
them
you've not you don't know what they look
like you don't know what gender they are
the owner what race they are it's like
we should we should fill that out just
to round out the world a little bit more
and to bring back a surprised character
that people might actually be interested
in knowing more about totally and so
yeah I ended up throwing it together the
composite the composite is like what the
character physically looks like in the
world it's complicated but yeah I threw
it together and I put her in the game
and you know I thought she would just be
like a stepping stone for the whole
collection but then like one day I was
being read it and there was this thread
and I cannot remember the person who did
the art but thank you so much shout-out
to you person from reddit I don't
remember the name but they did this
thread about how like it lady Camilla is
criminally unappreciated
and it's like this appreciation thread
for your Harold and they did fan art of
the character and I was just so touched
by that I love that yeah that's way cool
tons of tons of comments about how she's
the perfect gw2 wife who's that is
honestly that kind of thing where you
put this character in there because you
felt like she needed she needed more
there's this Harold that's been writing
you letters and acknowledging your
accomplishments all of this time yeah
and this was just like a little labor of
love over here on the side and that
player feedback that's what we've been
talking about all afternoon is that this
is the kind of feedback that we love
that keeps us going and it feels amazing
to have that kind of feedback yeah I
mean we were people we read read it
sometimes it's not the best idea but
sometimes you read it and I read
everything
picturing cereal boxes and like the
bottles and yes I read everything I read
everything I read those detailing off
first because that's terrible no so but
that kind of thing it is it's really
gratifying to know that that work that
you put in is seen and loved and
appreciated yeah that's why I lot of us
are in this industry yeah we're here
because we love it and we appreciate
that you do too so well thank you both
for your time I appreciate it
congratulations on another year of Guild
Wars 2 six years you guys yes years
strong yes here's to here's to six more
we're still not off to drink my water
okay cheers Cheers
congratulations you guys you all stick
around we will be back in just a couple
minutes for the six years I have played
girl to us too I have witnessed how this
game that I love has have redefined the
MMORPG genre
I have adventured her beautiful lance
and discovered in myself a spark of
creativity kindled by a community of
gamers I am
proud to be a part of I am the Crichton
Herald and I invite you to come and
celebrate the sixth anniversary of Guild
Wars 2 with me the sixth anniversary
Guild Wars 2 is upon us and I am mighty
teapot have been enjoying the world of
Tyria since the very beginning let's all
hope for at least another six years
and remember our favorite experiences in
the game some of mine include organizing
the two glorious raid tournaments with
thousands of viewers watching and of
course racing for world's first in the
five raid wings with Chaeronea
I can't wait to see what a reading that
hasn't still for us in the future
I am confident there will be a truly
epic adventure hello everyone my name is
Sam and I have been an iron and a
partner for nearly a year
this almost coincides with the sixth
birthday of this amazing game that we're
all playing together this game that I
call amazing because it has allowed me
throughout my active years to meet some
of the most wonderful people I could
have ever wished for funnily enough I'm
gonna be spending today's leading up to
the anniversary with these very people
at the gamescom festival and none of
that could have ever happened without
Guild Wars 2 bringing us together hi my
name is Cassandra Logan and I'm an
aspiring game artist my passion for
video game art began 10 years ago
because of a Guild Wars art contest this
year like the exciting launch of path of
fire as well as my invitation into the
creative partner program
ArenaNet and the killers - community has
constantly inspired me to strive towards
my dream thank you so much for your
support of me and others like me happy
sixth anniversary My name is Matthew
Mercer and I'm the voice of the male
Norn player-character I've been with
Guild Wars 2 for a while now quite a
while it's been a gracious and awesome
ride but I've done a lot of things in
between between each expansion of the
game and so it's always kind of a fun
way to keep to keep the character voice
and personality it's a little bit of
dialing back into the world
thankfully they do have audio reference
the last time you record so when you get
in the booth you can match but your
previous they did but also it's kind of
a drive to the session is very much
getting in the mind space your character
and thankfully my character in this game
the male Norn is a lot taller and brawny
er than I am so it's it's a fun little
little play in the freeway on the way
over just feeling larger in there more
dangerous I think I'll deal with it
don't go anywhere the Sun spears will
decide what to do with you one of the
challenges for voicing a player
character versus a non player character
is non-player characters are generally
story fixed meaning they're there's a
moment in time and a scene in which you
have to really encompass what the
mindset of that character is and you can
be more dynamic you can be more in the
moment as a player because a lot of bits
of dialogue have to fit together you
have to find this sweet spot where
things don't stand out against each
other too much in case any of these
branching trees of dialogue and such
intersect but also sound natural and not
everything sounds monotone and and the
same note over over again so it's a very
it's a very more technical element in
the back ear - you're doing these lines
so that's that's one of the challenges
of doing a player character also the
volume of lines comparatively cuz NPCs
will pop in and out but the player is
always there so the script is definitely
a lot more formidable when it comes to
recording for player character is
definitely pacifier has been a real
interesting experience for for my
character of as a player character in
general the it's not often that a
character gets the opportunity to die
peruse the afterlife and then struggle
their way back and in doing so possibly
upset other evils into the world that
might come to fruition so for me I think
it's it's fun to explore that kind of
encapsulated trivia on the underworld
and and and trying to salvage your soul
in the face of despair it was really fun
to take a character that has been very
stoic up to this point you know the male
Nord is very sure of himself and risen
to a commander and to then be brought to
that level of almost lost mortality I
was kind of fun to bring that back and
what kind of haunts him after that and
then eventually just the the general
loathing for Balthazar and and what he
represents and his done world around him
has been such fun to inhabit that I'm
plenty of accounts to back that up then
again Joko says a lot of things
he claims he killed both Azhar I have
everything to bring to this role is oh
man I think for me who's generally not a
big brawny guy I think it's it's fun to
bring brings a thought that I can
pretend to be and some people might
believe it I see the player character at
this point is now on this path of not
just renowned heroism but it has
responsibility so it's been great to
write him to that point where he's now
at the super frontline of these
cataclysmic events do-or-die situations
as to where it can go man I can't even
begin to fathom like the scope is
already so intense okay everyone listen
up if you're human stay behind the
bramble walls your roller support only I
would like to see this hardened burly
warrior have to make sacrifices that
affect him in a way that normally a Norn
who's a very masculine character cannot
hide the emotions that brim beneath I
think that'd be a fun exploration and
for me it's always it's for some reason
it's very impactful to watch the the
armored exterior of a
a hardened mercenary or warrior crack
you know it has almost more impact at
that point you know berm to break that
masculine shell so I would like to see
that explored more definitely if I could
give my character any advice I'd say
don't forget what you don't forget where
you came from
don't forget hard-drinking and whole
brick cuz I know you've been on the road
a lot you're not giving yourself time to
relax unwind and get in a fistfight just
for the hell of exciting that's the norm
way and for me I would like to see some
of that classic noir and kind of Norse
influence you know come on here because
it feels good kind of a scenario come
back in but this is me okay
[Music]
[Music]
that might be one of my favorite
interviews I love that he's good sense
of humor and energy yeah yeah and just
shoots up like eight octaves there at
the end so well thank you both for
giving me a little bit of your time
thank you all for sticking around with
us for a couple of hours McClane welcome
to time welcome to ten I'm talking
because finally be here all this time
I've made it to time yes thank you for
our welcome to our time zone yeah well
why don't you two introduce yourselves
and talk about what you've been working
on here the past year sure
so my name is MacLean Deemer and I am
the composer and musical director for
ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2 and I work on
music lots and lots of music much
neverending train just barreling down
the track Caitlin hi I'm Caitlin
Isaacson
I actually was the audio intern for the
past ten months but as of a couple of
hours ago and now an associate sound
designer thanks yeah it's exciting it
kind of definitely feels pretty surreal
I'm happy you look like you feel a tiny
bit shell-shocked yeah yeah I can dress
you absolutely deserve this thanks sir I
am glad to have you on board
so all right well why don't we talk a
little bit about what you've been
focused on the past year because you've
had a lot going on not just this yeah
definitely uh what I've been working on
I've got I've had a lot more kind of
responsibility on the living world maps
and stuff that I assumed I would as an
intern coming in but I've done a lot of
the ambience design different props and
things like that I've helped out in the
Foley room for a variety of things
should I go into detail about stuff go
for it yes please okay uh yeah I guess
one thing that took me a while but was
also kind of was really rewarding when
it worked out was the turret system in
Episode three it was kind of a thing
that the audio team discovered like
fairly later on into production cuz it's
a little hidden in there and we were
like oh boy look at all these turret
look at all these effects okay so I kind
of just did all of that and I got a lot
of really good feedback from the team
and kind of rework things and that sort
of thing and I got some good feedback
from from the players so it was really
cool yeah that's incredibly gratifying
again that's something that we've been
talking about in here is that that
player feedback hearing okay we've got
this thing on life and we've working on
it for months in some case we've been
working on it for over a year now it's
on live players have gotten their hands
on it and we've gotten hear what they
think and they love it
thank God yes definitely yeah and I for
sure check Reddit and stuff like that's
that's real what have been some of your
highlights would've been some of your
favorite things to work on over the past
year well there's two big ones I can
think of that we're also pretty big hits
with the fans so one of which was the
quasi remix reimagining of of if you're
not this night for the episode 3 teaser
we were all thinking it yeah yeah so
that was something that was kind of long
in gestation that was an idea that that
was kind of a collaboration between
marketing and the cinematics team they
you know they said what if we did kind
of a spookier version of the song and
they came to me and said what do you
think and of course I was like sure
let's try it and they said they wanted
to do it with a male voice instead of a
female voice as on the original with
Asya and as soon as they said that I was
like I'm gonna end up singing this I
knew it I knew it because you know just
from from this perspective of like time
and budget reasons and stuff I was like
why I know I can sing I'm a man with
voice that can sing and so if I'm gonna
be writing it I might as well just try
and so it took a lot of there was a lot
of like jumping around like what key
works best for me because the melody
actually has a lot of it goes very low
before it gets really high yeah it's
kind of all over the place it's kind of
all over the place yeah yeah and just
the physics of the way voices work it's
it can be tricky to you know you're like
oh this you know try it like singing the
national anthem like you got to pick
what note you start on there
carefully and so this is kind of the
same idea in that there's a huge jump
kind of towards the end so I did some
experimenting with the trailer came out
and I didn't feel great about that
version it was like good enough and it
had to get it out but then you know the
request came in of like there has to be
a longer version of this and so I gave
you a chance it was coming yeah yeah
yeah so give me a chance to uh that's
okay it gave me a chance to fix the
mistakes usually when you put stuff out
there in the world all you see is what
was wrong with this and you never get a
chance to go back and so this was a
chance to go back and revisit it and we
had some on the trailer too but I guess
it on the final version there was some
more contributions from Caitlin there's
sort of an ethereal voice floating over
the top of it that I think just gives it
like this it turned it from something
that was pretty good where all I could
do was focus on my own voice and how
much I hate hearing my own the sound of
my own voice to something that I thought
was really special and and the final
product I think came out great and it
was like the day came out I was I'm a
late riser so we'll definitely roll over
and grab my phone check Twitter and say
10 billion notifications I'm like oh my
god today must have come out today sorry
about that again yeah so that was cool
that was cool it was amazing yeah thanks
and then the other big thing was some
sort of indirectly related to me was I
was happy to bring back another fan
favorite composer into the family uh
Lena Lena rain
she left ArenaNet
maybe two years ago at this point as
from left as a designer
she went did something else and then she
came back to Seattle around the end of
last year and she had reached out and
said hey I'm back and I'm trying to
really kickstart this composing thing if
you you know I loved working with you
ever want to work together again I said
it's funny you should mention that
because you know Guild Wars is a very
large game and I'm just one person and
there's been other people that have
contributed over the years and when Lena
was here it was so great having her here
because she was so deeply involved in
the content and could write music for it
I mean I understood it on a level that I
couldn't because she was the one that
created it so when she left
like oh my god I'm alone I'm alone again
I'm scared yeah and having her back was
amazing and and I think it was something
we kept secret for a very long time just
like when can we tell people when can we
tell people yeah I don't know I don't
know but to have her back was really
great so those are two kind of
highlights of musically of for the last
year for me yeah it feels really good
having Lena back as part of our family
yeah yeah and if you all wanted a couple
of phases to go with the new version if
you're not this night here they are so
both of you that was that was something
when we first put that trailer out and
honestly when we first heard the trailer
behind the scenes before it was even
public we were all looking at each other
going they're gonna want the full
version we should warn him should
probably let him know that they're going
to be screaming for this yeah
well it's you know I was really worried
about doing actual full version because
the lyrics there's a lot of words in
that song and yes at the tempo yeah that
the tempo that the trailer was at it
would be like this 12-minute epic you
know just constantly go here's the next
verse here's the next verse but
fortunately the first verse of that song
the lyrics are pretty spooky like if you
read them they're very dark and yeah you
know the arc of the song is it starts
off dark and then it's like hope and all
this stuff and sunrise and all that kind
of business but the first the first you
have the first verse is all very dark
lyrics and then there was that one
change that Tom Abernathy suggested
which was who needs the light instead
but that one thing was the sort of whole
thing that it pivots on and it makes
that first verse very very dark which
was fun to sing yeah I'm sure was yeah
adding on adding on kaitlin's vocals yes
and beautiful thank you I appreciate it
yeah and Kahlan and Chris Burgess who's
was part of the audio team as well he
did the final mixing and he I think his
voice might be in there a little bit too
it was on the trailer version yeah I'm
not sure if he put it in the the full
version too maybe
yeah I think I think when we did the
trailer Kailen was out sick and I wanted
her voice on it so Chris ended up doing
a kind of falsetto thing and then when
we got the long one yeah yeah when we
got to do the long one kill his back so
but Chris also did the final Mick
and he's the one that really put the
finishing touches on it so it was a
collaborative effort for sure oh man I
did not know that about Chris I figured
he just saved it all for the jug-band
version
no he's got it he's got a great year and
yeah better than mine for mixing like
that but I'll take your word for it yeah
okay that's awesome well thank you for
contributing to the final one that was
it really did add a lot to it thanks I
appreciate it I'm super happy that I've
been able to sing here I did a lot of
singing in LA before I moved here so
it's nice to keep going yeah yeah I was
mostly professional singing in freelance
variety of music and audio stuff okay a
couple years Oh keep going yeah yeah
we're just now meeting you on this show
so yeah yeah sorry I wanted to do I went
to USC for music mostly voice and
Composition and took some classes and
sound design and things like that and I
chose USC because it has a really good
games program so go USC free publicity
alright they don't need it there yeah so
I once I graduated I was I sang it a
whole bunch of churches which is an
interesting thing to do as a Jewish
person I probably wouldn't have thought
that that would be my future as a child
but you know it is and different
different choirs and oh yeah I've been
taking lessons since I was kid and man
was I've been in choirs since I was nine
and it's kind of like the most sort of
like consistent thing in my life for
sure awesome yeah and the hope at least
for me is that we get more opportunities
for her to sing on on things it's nice
to have a new voice as part of the pool
yeah so we're gonna try to make that
happen
super down well I'm like locking eyes
with your boss going oh well what are
you guys without giving too much
spoilers what are you guys looking
forward to oh boy
without too many spoilers I mean I
forged the players yeah I definitely
look forward to the players reactions I
feel like some of the stuff we're
working on for the future is really
really fun and just I mean it's fun when
as a person working on the game and you
have to kind of like play the content
over and over and at least as a sound
person you're kind of sitting there like
yeah that sound I know and you like
watch the same thing
over and over to make sure it's kind of
good but it's and I'm still enjoying it
so I think that's a really good sign for
yeah well so I guess they semaine ssin
that season is happening so so season 5
is coming and just this past week I have
been working on new music for the end of
season 4 trying to use eclis set up
season 5 and so a big goal of mine is to
do something that III just because of
time constraints I haven't had as much
time to put this level of thought into
what melodies what motifs are gonna
represent what and and how they can
develop and and there's been a lot of
like laying the tracks before the Train
just to get stuff finished but now I've
got a little bit of breathing room and
what I really wanted to do is have
longer melodies rather than just couple
note a couple notes that represent
characters different things that can be
broken apart and expanded and there's
there's some really cool stuff coming up
for the end of the season that's gonna
set up season 5 musically and for all
the kind of musical detectives out there
which I know there are hopefully there
are some bread crumbs that they can
follow all right you guys have something
to look for awesome
well Kaitlyn we've had you for a year
now just about all right so well
congratulations on year one thank you
and here's to another great one with you
thank you for being a part of our team
and congratulations again Thank You
Elliot yeah and congratulations to both
Fiona another awesome year of guild wars
2 thank you and here's to many many more
yes absolutely you guys stick around we
will be back in just a couple minutes hi
my name is Camille Meese but you may
know me as Randy Orton I'm a full-time
freelance artist that streams on Twitch
and also create a partner for Guild Wars
2 six years ago I ventured into this
beautiful world and has since been a
one-trick asura engineers striving to be
a great DPS and even better floor tank
for my raid group I've traveled the
world to visit all of you amazing people
have become my peers my mentors my best
friends and even found my love I will
cherish these years of in-game events
story updates and forever be thankful to
all of you who have made a difference in
my life thank you so much and we'll see
you around
coming years friends hey guys this is
joy from the French community here was
to shop so six years already ready this
is going so fast
so Dan scarlet mordremoth laughter love
Chuck oooh what's next
I'm so excited to discover this I like
to thank Aaron with permitting this game
but under all the players in the
community to be so amazing through the
years in game or outside like at the
first Elan we're organizing every year
see you are interior hi there I'm joined
Jess a partner twitch variety streamer
I've been playing Guild Wars 2 for the
past 5 years and I love enjoying at this
charming game and had some wonderful
community from the heart of thorns and
path of fire expansions to living world
seasons that set our hearts on fire like
Corinne to updates to existing game
modes like PvP and world versus world
two new players joining us and old
fronds returning to the game there's
been a lot to praise joke over the years
so please join us in celebrating the
sixth Guild Wars 2 anniversary oh hi
there I'm crew from proof gaming and
congratulations Guild Wars 2 for
reaching six years time flies so fast
now my favorite moments from Guild Wars
2 would probably be the expansion
launches for harder thorns and paths
afire specifically path the fire because
I skipped school and played and reported
and I'm not condoning skipping school
but if you happen to be sick I won't
tell anyone
now go out and save the world and save
tyria hey guys how's it going choksi
here I just wanted to say congrats to
ArenaNet for pulling its sixth year with
Guild Wars 2 the community itself is
just amazing because you can find just
about anything from talented artists
fashion enthusiasts and there's about
anything between I really do cherish
each moment I've had in this game
especially with all the people I've met
from all over the world enjoying the
same thing but with that said I just
can't wait to see what's to come for the
future of the game and I wish everyone
everything that a happy sixth
anniversary
bring that down under pray for them and
this is too far
139 or 30 the name is Lex Lang and I
play the character char male who's the
playable character well it's always
exciting to voice a non human character
mainly because you get to do lots of
vocalizations that are more animalistic
and the body size is a lot different and
you know when you're playing an animal
versus a human and so you can adapt your
performance based on you know those
qualities and it's always very exciting
for me anyway to play creatures and you
know demons and big characters Wolfie
both that kind of stuff
Kanak get back to work we can handle
this I like the stability that he brings
when he's present you know there's a
certain strength that the charr male has
also a sense of knowing that he has when
it comes to like maybe what to do next I
like to bring that sense of myself
towards into that character as well
because every once in a while like I
feel like I know what I'm doing or I
know what to do next it's very rare but
yeah that's a fun trait to bring he's
constantly going up against bigger and
more capable opponents and so you know
he went from starting where where it was
killing a dragon and then it was killing
you know God and undead and now you know
he's going through all these different
challenges and so it's it's it's pretty
cool to see that character evolve and
like keep on taking the steps and power
up and up each time lead the omec on and
ghost legions to the frontlines the
scarabs will be thickest there if I
could give the charm male any advice it
would be forge ahead and keep going even
though you feel like quitting sometimes
he just keeps on having to face these
insurmountable tasks and opponents and
somehow he continues to get through it
and you know I would say that would be
my advice is even though you want to
just throw in the towel keep going keep
going
that that that end result that you're
looking for is there
follow your dream charm ale just follow
it keep going
I will Bram for you and for Tommy the
acting challenges are just that we're as
opposed to character that's like a
stationary character you know saloon
owner or whatever it may be you know as
a city dweller or whatever their role is
to be plot points sort of throughout
this story where as a playable character
is constantly making these different
choices and there's a variety of
different choices in the performances as
well that will take the story down
different paths depending upon which
adventure you go on
unfortunately farad's right djoko's
declared war and we have to meet him
head-on where do you see your
character's role and his voice heading
in the future why don't you like it to
go ah well you will have to play the
game to see the answer to that I already
know where it's going and it's awesome
it's awesome you're gonna love it you
people at home are gonna love it
everyone's gonna load it so it's awesome
this is I can't say I've already been I
ready to sign the things say I can't say
but it's it's off the charge cool off
the charts cool yeah
Guild Wars 2 char male baby
[Music]
you
[Music]
commander there's something I have to
tell you I went into the mists after my
sword but I found something else
refugees are pouring in from Alona if he
kills an elder dragon
tyria will
they cannot stand history above his arse
right
[Music]
I just can't
I believe one of the guards gave up on
us
all this
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
all right welcome back to the guild wars
2 sixth anniversary livestream we're
going to chat with one final round of
guild wars 2 developers why don't you
all go down the line talk about who you
are and what you've been working on here
at over the past 12 months Wow
my name is Alena Chadwick I'm a Content
program of a living world
I worked on the first instance for
episode three and a whole lot of things
in the background my name is Clayton
Kisco I'm a game designer here at
ArenaNet I was the team lead for episode
2 so I've been working on little world
content and I am Lindsey Murdock I'm the
lead designer on living world I work on
all the episodes do all the things I do
all thanks I try poorly well let's do
just like we have with some of the other
devs let's just talk about some of our
highlights and what your favorite things
have been over the past 12 months
there's a whole lot to choose from
hi whoever kit you guys can fight it out
over who wants to go first I guess I
started talking so I guess I just
volunteered myself okay so in the first
instance of episode 3 you rescue yeah
I'm terrible with names do your robot
friend you place from being turned off
and it's terrible oh yeah and this is
adorable
and there's that scream and we got a
custom animation specifically for bushes
scream oh my gosh Ellie is a magic
person just to be clear yeah yeah I
guess we didn't have super emotional
golem anims did we No
not really it makes sense so oh wow I
had no idea I mean I I noticed the
animation I picked up on it but it
hadn't been like I didn't know to
register the absence of that animation
in every golem I've ever seen in the
game in the past years so that's wild
yeah we've actually been getting a lot
of custom animations for living world
this season yeah
both for cinematics and for just in-game
moments to try to elevate that quality
and get some more emotion out of our
characters so it's been pretty great I
don't want to put you two on the spot
but can you think of more as examples if
you can't that's all the examples I'm
gonna be able to think of are in content
that we haven't shipped or talked about
I always I work like so many months and
it's hard to like rewind my brain be
like okay all people have seen is up to
episode 3 while we were breaking for the
videos that we were showing about that
that internal panic of trying to
remember is that released or not yeah
that's scary that's okay that's that's
super interesting though and I'm glad to
hear that we have these custom
animations coming out and how because we
talked earlier a couple of segments back
about how those little things add so
much to the game and it makes the world
feel more alive yeah yeah
so we'll keep rewinding your brain yeah
I think my favorite thing so far has
been the fans reactions to episode three
is ending if that's a spoiler no we're
right eyelid deep blue somatic right
like we did mocap for djoko's you know
all of that was super custom Orient's
animations coming out of the cinematic
all that super custom that's right I am
will not forget the first time I saw
that when he's I mean like he's just
building to his crescendo and she just
comes out a freaking note incredible I
was reading the Twitter stream and
people were saying the exact same
reaction like that I just lived
generally gasped in real life out loud
where that when we were talking in the
in the meetings trying to figure out how
to play that moment there was a lot of
sort of contention and back and forth of
like exactly how to get the drama that
we wanted and I think the way I put it
is what if she just punches him straight
out of the cinematic takes care of his
most dragony way she can problem solve
that thump when she hits like kudos to
the audio team yeah because that was
like visually it was really shocking but
the audio was unbelievable - it all
worked so beautifully dusty yeah okay
yeah that was absolutely one of the one
of the best surprises because I was not
spoiled the first time I played it I
played it before release just checking
it out so I generally try not to come on
guild chat not knowing what I'm talking
about I like to at least know what the
content is sorry I'd played through it
and I remember I was at my desk and just
like whoa that definitely just happened
one leading up to it was the episode 3
trailer wait was that the episode 2
trailer again I'm trying to rewind my
brain going I know the one with fear not
this night in it yeah yeah we really
teased out joke oh you know you first
hear his voice over comm and episode 1
we didn't let you see him yet and then
you get a glimpse of him for the first
time in episode 2
and then three is when he has this big
moment of course yeah so um I want to
ask and probably this is mostly a
question for you Lindsay because you've
been on the game for so long how I guess
how did we get Joko to where he is
because he basically was in Guild Wars 1
he was a huge joke he was a joke and the
thing that I was always thinking about
when we got to Guild Wars 2 I was like
oh my gosh I can't wait to I would love
to see like some slapstick between him
and the Mad King and I'm so much happier
now like this I never six years ago I
never would have seen this coming but I
loved it
like how did we get here yeah internally
Wow
yeah you know I I was nervous for season
4 to be taking on Joko because he was
such a joke and um and gilworth one and
let me just say really quick that I
think the best cinematic we ever made
for Guild Wars 1 was the cinematic at
the end of her eyes story where he kills
plow joko and I think the best cinematic
we've ever made for Guild Wars 2 is also
plow jogos death so nice entry there
yeah I was nervous about how we could
you know really make a great villain out
of him cuz he seems sort of
one-dimensional and and that's that's
largely why we decided to kill him off
fairly quickly to take care of him
fairly quickly rather than build you
know multiple seasons out of him as a
villain since he is fairly OneNote right
he's just laughably evil legitimately
like freaking terrifying yeah yeah so
once once we kind of like nailed down
our arc for him and our amazing
narrative design team got their paws on
him started writing lines for him they
just elevated him so much that by the
time we were in you know getting close
to our vo deadline for episode 3
everyone was saying man I kind of wish
we hadn't decided to kill him off so
fast like we're enjoying this so much
we're enjoying writing for him we're
enjoying listening to his lines his
lines the the stuff that the statues
spit out in the open world map
oh man amazing so good and and I
actually was really fortunate to be
invited into the writers room while they
were working on on those lines really
developing them in table reads and and
that sort of powwow brainstorm you know
um place where you're just spitting out
you know how about this how about that
was some of the most fun I've ever had
in my job narrative folks like is really
fun and then when you get them like
reading lines in character hilarious
Alex Kane does it great anything Alex
Kane did a pretty pretty great joke Oh
in those meetings although although I
really loved Samantha
doing line reads for a character in
Episode four that I will not spoil which
was absolutely great cuz she's just
loves that guy so yeah no table reads
can be real fun we're going into table
reads on Clayton's content soon here
exciting so yeah oh my gosh that's yeah
we we just tackled him I don't know like
we just we decided we built that this
arc we we were like okay we're gonna
have him do these things and these two I
put in these episodes leading up to this
big thing and then we'll kill them in
three originally in our original work on
this season we're actually going to kill
him at episode 2 but we wanted to
stretch it out a little bit more and and
then just our writers they did too good
of a job really did I
I remember I passed by and I don't
remember which story step I was on but
you walked in and like there's this this
guy's like sobbing by his dead wife's
bedside and joke I was like it's like
you don't even want to see your wife
again and I'm pondering how to sit this
isn't it's like the worst kind of
torture and I'm going wow really we kind
of went all in here didn't we look at
that
yeah he's a very poorly mustache
seriously what fun villain and now he
did know he did
[Laughter]
yeah when she's like sitting there
knowing on him and time he comes in and
time he's just like oh oh that's not
okay yeah we were talking about vo
earlier and that was one of the sessions
that I was fortunate enough to get to
watch and tie me or Debi Derryberry
giving these like time ease gags and and
retching reactions were amazing because
they were even even like down to that
like the nuance of how ill do you want
her to be exactly was that was like how
hard we were working on getting this
exactly right yeah it was it was very
fun to watch good question to her to be
like yeah how ill are we talking
everyone we scale from one to test and
then I have Volkoff is right like she's
amazing at what she does she'll be able
to like hit any anything you were to
give her I'm sure there was a whole like
scale of retching yeah Debbie's
performances this weekend yeah this
season timey has been through a lot and
Debbie's Debbie's performance has been
really magical and something that's
really emotional
you know so that's that's kind of this
season has been that's a good highlight
it's just Joe goes whole thing and Irene
coming out of nowhere and I love
knocking him right out of the frame that
was that was such a good call so I
actually want to back up because you
mentioned you worked on a lot of things
behind the scenes are there things that
you worked on that got into game that
players would recognize that are a
recognizable change like Ben was talking
about like QL changes so I'm trying to
remember exactly when this went in but
at some point between Episode six of
season three and Episode one of season
four
we added what what we internally call
visibility channel tech
oh yeah we were talking about that
earlier yeah yeah basically you have the
ability to assign a channel to various
characters in the world and then turn on
and off those various channels put
playoff yeah Nick was talking about that
I'm saying that it was much more
difficult than he kind of anticipated at
first and there were some fun bugs in
figuring that out yeah this there's some
there's some rules you have to follow
just because you can't see something
doesn't mean it can't attack you you can
change that you can make it so the
problem is just because you can't see
them that doesn't mean they can't see
you if they can't see you they can't
attack you so yeah when I implement this
I'm like okay I'm implementing this
technically you can use this on hostile
creatures you hold don't do it you don't
want to do that famous last words he
tells us things to designers the
designers get all creative and
visibility channels have some
restrictions to them but it's allowed us
to do so much more storytelling in the
open world it's a big reason why we're
starting to actually see our friends in
the open world Maps interacting with us
yeah on certain steps because we can
actually do when you're on this step see
this scene you know that kind of stuff
and have States changed that way yeah
and it just I think it allows us to tell
the story in a way that feels more
integrated with the world ok we can't
just when you're on your own story and
you want it like we have an instance
where you want to talk to Bram in the
open world and we would love for Bram to
follow you and talk or do everything
right but we can't because if someone
else is also on the instance right and
wants to come up and talk to brim start
out all over again we don't have the
ability to do that we still don't really
have them to move around yeah but we can
have a static Bram and you can have this
conversation the open world with him now
and he could be invisible for people who
are not on that stuff ok yeah so if we
need a character to come in and have a
moment with you in the open world we can
do that now thanks
we play a specific visibility and that
is that is actually an interesting
limitation that's come up multiple times
where like designers will be like design
Eocene I'll be like hold on wait a
second you just had that character do
something recurring in action like play
Nemo to something and everybody is going
to see that regardless of what this part
of the step that on you know it's it
it's tricky it sounds like it but it
worth it
oh yeah oh yeah but like I said Ali's a
magic person she just makes things work
so there's a lot of tricky things that
we wouldn't be able to do without her
she just jumps in suddenly it's
happening I have a call to my desk yes
all right yes well I will accept that I
will completely accept that so we've
been talking about just some highlights
over the past year and one thing that
we've talked about over and over is
feedback from you the player and things
that we've heard about the content that
we've released and things that we've put
in what's been some of your favorite
player feedback over the past year what
have been some of the your favorite
things that you've heard from players
there's a lot there's covered and that
could be in person - oh hold on now I
got rich gears and I guess I'm gonna
give I'm gonna what you guys are
thinking I'm gonna talk about one that
just I got a kick out of when I was
watching Clayton talked to players last
week because Clayton was like talking to
a big circle of maybe like six or eight
players while we were at Gamescom and
one guy was like okay what's the easiest
content to make in game and I think I
think maybe the goal right and I could I
saw the same look on Clayton's face that
I see on Lindsay's now because Lindsey's
like thinking about this she's like huh
okay and Clayton's immediately like the
wheels start turning
and it was too static and pcs having a
scripted conversation just like like
emoting yeah it's just like throw some
emotes on them and give them and it was
like it's their video no and there you
go emote talk loop and it looks like
they're just having this random
conversation and simple and it was it
was the answer and it wasn't really it's
not necessarily like playable but it was
I mean watching and Byron had a lot of
similar conversations um
Byron's they were asking Byron to
explain what is what is your job what
exactly does it mean what you do and
Byron said okay what I tell people is
that I tell the guy tell the game if
things are a cat or if they are not a
cat I wish you would have used to just
tell people that I write quests and I
spawn monsters now trying to describe my
job well my job is different now I don't
know how to describe my job you like
make sure you make sure the people who
are doing those things do it well yeah
right I would imagine you're basically
looking at all the other people never
making monsters yeah yeah I definitely
that is definitely a piece of it yeah
right now yeah I also kind of help
people get set up with the stories that
we're telling I'm also like lore
continuity in a bunch of ways there's a
lot yeah there's a lot but those
questions and the answers that you and
Byron gave yeah opens the door for okay
I kind of understand this so now I can
ask slightly deeper questions about what
you do and how this gameplay works and
watching those conversations and that
feedback once once you guys were giving
players a better understanding of here's
how my job works and here's exactly what
I do like what does game designer mean I
design games what does that mean
watching the players ask more and more
intricate questions was an absolute
thrill that was like one of the coolest
things I've seen in a while yeah yeah
I've definitely done my even with
players in game asking me like what I do
and a lot of times they think when they
hear designer they think art do you guys
get that too
yeah they think art and I don't actually
I'm I went to school for art but I don't
actually do any art in my job and so
playing that almost like 20 questions to
like narrow and for them understanding
what we kind of do it's it's tricky
explaining this sort of it's like the
ideas behind the world I mean we're
talking to players who play these games
specifically ours but like then you go
home to like holidays and talk to
in-laws and like what do you do like I
don't know where to start but it is so
cool to see the fans so interested right
and and it's always an amazing
opportunity to like educate them or
share with them or like kind of show
them a little bit behind the curtain
yeah I feel like we get better feedback
at that point because as soon as I
started describing those easy pieces of
content we had a couple like of the
those people asked those questions the
fans asked us questions like started to
like brainstorm ideas oh you could do
this like yeah exactly yeah and that
really opened up you know it was a fun
conversation to have yeah that was
enormous ly exciting I love that yeah
yeah we're running okay so we are
running a tiny bit short on time we have
about five minutes left so um we can
talk a little bit more about player
feedback and what some of your favorite
responses have been and what some of
your favorite content is that you've
worked on over the past years past year
yeah you can do years to if there's
something that super stands out because
you guys are wrapping up this
anniversary celebration yeah I mean
every for me ever since I work on every
living world episode from start to
finish they're all kind of like my
special children like I love each of
them for their own things I almost feel
like every time we're shipping an
episode it's my favorite episode yet I'm
like getting to that point where every
I'm like this is my favorite episode yet
like I'm feeling this way about the next
one but then I'm like oh but wait that
next one oh but wait the next two you
know but wait the other stuff coming up
it's so easy to get focused on
what's next you know what I'm super
looking forward to that I can say now
since we released a video his son's
refuge yeah I am doesn't feel good that
we can actually say like hey this thing
is coming yeah such like nice weight off
your shoulders when something that's
like an outside okay that's one less I
love sons refuge I said it in the video
it's one of my favorite things that
we've done when we when we originally
were working on home instances and
talking about what we wanted to do with
home instances we talked a lot about it
being a Content hub we didn't really get
to realize that dream because largely
because of time and so when when we
decided to make this little instance out
of Suns refuge that was kind of the
direction that I gave to the designer
who was working on it is think about it
as a place that you come to and you get
to learn more about the area you get a
lot of lore you get a lot of NPC
interaction but think of it as also a
jumping off point for content you know
we don't have quest hubs in our game but
this is pretty close and getting to sort
of build out that space through content
through these interesting ways of
delivering stories is really exciting to
me it really to me is sort of home
instances realized I'm really excited
about it I know neither of you worked on
it you helped out with tech magic
personnel that we developed for guild
halls for like well visibility once
again yeah yeah because it's a space
that you can build out based on what
content you've done it really takes
advantage it's awesome
yeah and visibility of pops in the map
and morphing the map so it looks
different than that stuff I get so
excited when people use that pack I'm
sure because it sounds like there was a
lot of work that went into it oh yeah oh
yeah that was that was several months it
keeps better - she keeps we keep
developing it a little bit more and a
little bit more and like I said it's
just allowed us to do a lot more
storytelling in the open world yank so
we'll continue seeing it realized in the
game absolutely
well how about you Clayton what are you
most excited about most excited about so
if I can't talk about badly I want you
to join the living world with this
season yes with episode 2 actually
through development and I want to like I
don't want to like be like well that one
is it kind of is though like it was a -
like I was like that trailer is probably
the highlight just like because it
immediately encapsulated what we were
doing from everybody working on it and
it got everybody excited and so I had
nothing to do with that trailer but I
was super proud of that trailer and so
that was the thing that like I was but
like I feel like that's selfish or
something cause like that was the
episode I worked out but like that is
the thing that I think the content that
was that's fair yeah yeah but yeah that
I think that was like like oh yeah I was
just so well done I know we've talked
about McLean's like like the the songs
all that stuff but it really is just so
good and yeah there's a great piece yeah
and the song really did make an enormous
part of the trailer but this the whole
tonal shift yeah of that trailer really
reflected what was going on in the
content because it was you know it was
like hey we're going on we're going on a
fun caper with you Oh everything is bad
James Connelly call out like that
structure of like very like Ocean's
eleven yeah they're like that was so
cool it's like okay I'm glad you liked
it like that's great and like the
cinematics team for going in there and
like getting those shots of like those
mummies behind that like sewage water
like yeah it was really creepy so like
yeah I keep going back to that in my
mind but I was trying to avoid it but
there you go you got it for me like
that's literally why you're here so just
enjoy it okay it's fine yeah we really
did talk about that one as like okay it
starts out as the heist movie and then
it switches and you really just realize
you're in contagion alright well let's
call it good and let you guys get to
work thank you all and congratulations
so much on another year of Guild Wars 2
happy sixth anniversary no here's to
many many many more years I really
appreciate your time I appreciate you
guys coming on too
chat about the last year we got past the
fire out the door we got season four
underway we talked this morning about
season five for the first time and so I
know I can't decide if that's terror or
excitement or half we have so many
exciting things coming for you guys and
we really appreciate the past six years
with all of you spending time with us
interior
here's to six more and thank you for
continuing in this journey with us
because all of you
the players are why we are here this is
why we do it
and we appreciate you talking to us and
spending your time with us so alright I
will let you guys get back to work all
of you stick around because the folks
over at loot crate are going to be doing
a Guild Wars 2 live stream so hang
around and we're going to be hosting
them here on this channel so we will see
you right here thanks everybody happy
anniversary
congratulations again

External links[edit]

Guild Wars 2 Episode 71 - Sixth Anniversary Livestream on ArenaNet's official channel on YouTube

Guild Chat - Episode 71

Contents

Transcription[edit]

Introduction [6:36][edit]

Guild Wars 2 Sixth Anniversary Video [8:01][edit]

Discussion [12:58][edit]

Interview with Steve Blum [22:58][edit]

Living World Season 4 Episode 3 Long Live the Lich Trailer [26:55][edit]

Discussion with Matt Pennebaker (Game Designer) and Alexander Youngblood (Game Designer) [26:55][edit]

External links[edit]

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