Guild Wars 2 Interview

MMOG Nation has conducted an interview with ArenaNet’s Mike O’Brien and Jeff Strain, asking the co-founders about their upcoming Guild Wars sequel, the future of Guild Wars PvP, and more.

Q: The traditional fantasy game elements that you’ve announced for Guild Wars II such as multiple races, many levels, why are you moving more in the direction of a more traditional game when I think part of the charm of Guild Wars is that you don’t use a lot of the standard fantasy tropes?

A: You know, when you talk about traditional directions, I think you’re talking about things that not even just MMOs but just roleplaying games in general use. So I just have to clarify, Guild Wars is I think unique and innovative in ways that are deeper than just the issues you’re talking about here. Are you playing a human, etc. First of all, Guild Wars is kind of a hybrid between two genres. It combines strategy with roleplaying elements. Guild Wars is, I think, the most story-based online roleplaying experience that players have had. I think so many MMOs just try to put you in a world, and not tell a story. Guild Wars, because of the type of game it is, can really tell a story. What we wanted to do is we wanted to take the things that really separate Guild Wars, that makes it unique, and push those as far as we possibly can. Make Guild Wars the best Guild Wars it can be.

I’ve seen the same reaction on the forums that you’ve probably seen; (Why add races to the game? Everybody else has races.) Well, because we’re trying to make Guild Wars the best Guild Wars it can be. We want to tell the best story we can, and races are great for storytelling. We want to make characters with as much freedom of expression, freedom of appearance as we can. Races are a great way to have freedom in your character choice.

I think players worry about something that is not our intent. When players look at decisions like that, what they worry about is (Guild Wars is trying not to be Guild Wars. Guild Wars is trying to be some other game.) We’re absolutely not trying to be some other game. What we are trying to do is say that we are defined by the fundamental intent of the game, not by minor implementation decisions that we’ve made in the past. Races or no races, that’s not what makes Guild Wars Guild Wars. What makes the game the way it is, is the way we tell a story. We want to push that as hard as we can, and do everything we can in order to make the best Guild Wars game we can.