Guild Wars Mini-Interview #18

ArenaNet has answered another small batch of questions about their upcoming Guild Wars, and this time the interview is over at TheGuildWars.net. Check it out:

Q: Obviously Guild Wars is focused heavily in the PvP area. Will you be adding any large scale Guild vs. Environment content to provide additional challenges for guilds? If so, what kind of PvE content can we expect on the guild level?

A: The PvE content is extensive, as we’ve mentioned before, and has a very deep and involving storyline. PvP will also involve a story, but it’s in PvE that you learn the back-story of Tyria, and discover the factions, the shifting loyalties, and the surprising revelations of who is friend and who is foe.

One of the aspects that I have always felt would be interesting for guilds was trying not just different skills sets, of which there are probably tens of thousands of possible combinations, but also different profession combinations on the various maps. For instance, an all-caster build on one map, a no-ranger or all-summoner build on another. These would be yet another factor in involving and varied gameplay.

I haven’t asked specifically about largescale guild challenges in PvE, but I think we may have an answer when you look at the E3 for Everyone Event, and consider the quest added on the final day of the demo. If you recall, Prince Rurik appeared in Khylo and entreated us to form a party and help slay the evil bone dragon, Rotscale. The quest involved the largest party size possible in a mission, and it ended up being quite a challenge to complete. A guild could certainly make a study of such a quest, to devise the best manner of attaining success. And with quests of even greater difficulty, and with the potential for many subquests and hidden objectives within each major quest, there would be many exciting new challenges to overcome.