User:Chriskang/FlannumApr29
While we were waiting for the release of Guild Wars 2, still planned for 2011, we asked a few questions to the game designer Eric Flannum. Way to discover some news about the highly anticipated sequel of GW.
jeuxvideo.com : GW is well known for its very personal artistic direction and its stunning graphic design. Will you keep those specificities in GW2?
Eric Flannum : Absolutely. GW was awesome and GW2 takes the same path. Our artists did a fantastic work in making the world of Tyria alive, with a sense of style and design that is rarely seen in MMOs. From cinematics to UI via the game itself, GW2 has a very strong visual identity, close to painting. Sometimes you'll inevitably stop playing, just to stare at your screen. The game is like a living drawing.
jeuxvideo.com : Will we see henchmen -like those of GW- join our character to help us playing alone?
Eric Flannum : Early in the game development, we realized that we couldn't allow players to have a complete group of NPC around them in a persistent world. Then we thought about a "companion" system where each player had a unique sidekick controlled by AI. But after playing with this system for some time and as development went along, it appeared clearly that those companions weren't needed for people to be able to play alone. What makes the solo experience that good in GW2 is the design of each profession and the dynamic balance of content.
Our professions can live by themselves. Each one has some kind of self healing. We created them so that they can produce some funny results when combined together but this is never required to play solo. For example, an elementalist can create a Fire Wall and let a warrior shoot arrows through it. The burning arrows will then do more damage. This combination is not required for the warrior to be efficient with his bow but it's fun and works fine.
The content of our events and the storyline are dynamically balanced. A good example of this was seen a few days ago, when we were playing at the office. We had to defend a group of workers -busy repairing a building- against a group of bandits. At first, just a few of us were fighting and so only a handful of bandits spawned. But when the game went along, more players joined the fight and the number of bandits increased at the same time. We finished with 20 to 30 bandits attacking the workers from all sides. With the dynamic balance of content we can handle large groups of players who want to do the same thing as well as solo players.
For all those reasons, we finally decided that the companion system wasn't needed and we focused on making professions with pets really cool. We'll talk about this again when we'll reveal those professions.
jeuxvideo.com : GW2 will use a new skill system. What can you tell us about this system?
Eric Flannum : There's so much I can tell that we would soon fill the interview! We're going to update our website with a detailed presentation of the combats, so I'll just talk about the basics now. Those who want the details will find them on the site.
We have some basic objectives to create good combats in GW2. We want them to be more accessible. It doesn't mean removing the tactical aspects of the game but rather make them more visual and more easily understandable. For example, in GW2, for all skills with an area of effect, the zone will be clearly visible.
We want combats to have a real impact. We want the link between a skill usage and its animation to be obvious. We also want the impact of the skill on the enemies to bring some kind of satisfaction to the player. That's why you'll see many skills that throw your enemies in the air, knock them down or freeze them... To sum up, your skills will have a physical influence on them.
It was also important for us to keep the depth of GW. We want to offer players a huge degree of customization so they can choose the way they want to play. Like in GW, we have a skill bar that lets players insert some -but not all- of their known skills. Players will have to choose, like in a collectible card game. Will my warrior be a defense specialist who knocks enemies down with a mace and a shield or a rusher who wields an axe in each hand? Players will have to choose the skill bar that fits the way they're playing.
jeuxvideo.com : Many players wonder how the PvP will be in GW2. You already talked about "World PvP"... what is it exactly?
Eric Flannum : World vs. World PvP, or WvW as we call it, can be figured as a massive strategy game in which each player is a unit in the conflict. Each week, we'll take 3 worlds (what they call "servers" in other games) and make them fight in WvW. Each world will be in charge of castles, mercenary camps, mines, lumberjack camps and villages in the starting zone. Between those starting points there'll be a neutral zone, controlled by no clan, that will contain fortresses, mines and villages too. WvW is the battle between those 3 worlds for the control of strategic points. Players may decide to fight alone against a supply caravan, join a single group and capture a mine or create a large alliance to assault one of the numerous fortress that could give an advantage in the zone.
The battle may continue in any zone, including the starting territory of a world. Hold control points and control territories will grant bonuses to your world. At the end of the week, a world will be called victorious and 3 other worlds will be picked to fight in the next battle.
jeuxvideo.com : GW2 is based on a dynamic and living world. What does it implies for gameplay?
Eric Flannum : The main consequence in my opinion is that the game experience won't be the same from one player to the other. In an MMO based on static quests, players tend to do the same quests in a very similar order. In our game, players can live events in several different ways. After entering in a new map, one player will discover a group of undeads assaulting a village while another will find the village at peace. There are some rare events too, that players will learn to trigger. Each map has so many variations that players will never know what surprise they're going to encounter.
jeuxvideo.com : You talked about custom quests. Could you tell us more about this? Are they all like this?
Eric Flannum : The personal adventure of each character is built specifically for him, based on the character's history and the choices he made through the game. For example, a player may choose to save an NPC and start a mission to free him while another may let the NPC die. In this case, the NPC will be alive in one storyline and dead in the other. The aim of this custom storyline is to make everyone feel like the game is reacting to their choices. If a character fears spiders and another is afraid of the opposite sex, their meeting with the villain of the Nightmare Court -who materializes your deepest fears- will be very different.
That said, we absolutely want to let every player choose the way he wants to play GW2. If someone doesn't want to follow the storyline and play WvW all day, or just take a walk around the world and see what goes on, then he's free to ignore the storyline.
jeuxvideo.com : What is the business model of GW2? Can we keep playing without monthly fees?
Eric Flannum : There'll be no subscription fee in GW2.
jeuxvideo.com : Thanks.
