Guild Wars Mini-Interview #40

ArenaNet has answered another small batch of questions about their upcoming Guild Wars, and this time the interview is at the Australian & New Zealand Guild Wars community website. Here’s a bit to get you started:

Q: Are there any plans for cooperative PvPs / PvE where several teams can group together and fight large scale battles versus other teams of players or groups of “epic?” monsters. Are there any plans for the ability to play in a relatively larger battle that involves several teams working together trying to achieve the same objective on the same map?

A: At this time, the focus of Guild Wars is on battles that involve direct head-to-head combat on a level that allows a great deal of strategic depth. As you know, we believe playing in a team of eight players offers you the best opportunity to develop and use complex and refined gameplay strategies. We don’t support 50- or 100-member warring parties, because for the most part, a whole lot of strategy and skill flies out the window at high numbers. The loss of those key game elements would be one reason why we might hesitate to support allied team play that involves a large number of players.

I’ve taken part in large-scale combat, and I have to say it was so un-fun that I left before the battle was finished. Now I’ll be the first to admit that this is just one player’s opinion, and that I didn’t care for it because the sort of hectic, disorganized onslaught combat I experienced just wasn’t my cup of tea. It might appeal to any number of other players, though.

I guess what I want to say is that as a player, I believe that large-group combat can surely be better conceptualized than what I’ve experienced. If the Guild Wars design team takes on the challenge of allowing wide-scale team alliances, I feel sure that the outcome and the experience will be altogether superior to the large-scale battles players have been offered in other games. After all, Guild Wars is and will remain a game that is centered on player skill. So in designing for this type of large-scale combat and for team alliances, the Guild Wars team will be careful to assure that the promise of rewarding players for their skill is upheld, even when there are a large number of players involved.