Guild Wars Interview

GameSpot has conducted an interview with ArenaNet’s Jeff Strain, asking the producer several questions about their MMORPG, Guild Wars. Here’s a bit to get you started:

Q: The game will feature an ongoing tournament that will let guilds battle each other in a structured setting, but let’s say your guild gets knocked out early. What other activities will guilds be able to pursue?

A: The ongoing worldwide tournaments in Guild Wars are managed by our tournament servers, so if a guild is knocked out early, they can simply reenter the tournament at the bottom level. While there is only one battle taking place at the top level of the tournament, the entry level of the tournament may be simultaneously hosting thousands of battles, and the victorious team from each will progress to the next level.

In addition to the automated tournaments, we plan to host seasonal global tournaments in which guilds will compete for prizes as well as for the honor of being acknowledged as the best in the world. In these seasonal tournaments, guilds that are knocked out early can go back to the automated tournament for training, tackle a few cooperative missions, hold new guild elections to replace their clearly flawed leadership, or send angry e-mail to the developers about how the skills the winning team used are obviously too powerful and unbalanced. That’s a joke, by the way.