GW Chapter 4 & GW II

[Dana Hawkeye]

Guild Wars Chapter 4 and Guild Wars II

the-inquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37986

Fresh Guild Wars announced

GDC 2007 New add-on and complete new game coming your way

By Theo Valich in San Francisco: Monday 05 March 2007, 06:36

NCSOFT HAS ANNOUNCED the development and release dates for regular annual expansion of Guild Wars universe, and not too surprisingly, that this expansion will be the last throw of the dice before its successor appears on the market.

The add-on will be known as Eye of the North, and stands to be released in Q3 of 2007. The price of the add-on is not known at the time of annoucement, but it will be less than already present campaigns. In order to play the game, gamers must own at least one of the already released GW campaigns, like Nightfall, Factions or Prophecies.

Eye of the North brings a conclusion what happened in Tyria after Guild Wars: Prophecies ended, and as such - is 100% oriented towards games with characters of maximum level. We know GW gamers want the numbers, so here they are: 18 new multi-level dungeons, 40 new armour sets, 10 new Heroes and massive 150 new skills, out of which 50 belong only to PvE (Player versus Enviroment).

Enter the end of Guild Wars 1 and beginning of Guild Wars 2...

On the other hand, there are Guild Wars 2. This is a full sequel and will be released in 2009-10 timeframe, with a public beta being released sometime next year. This game will be set several hundred years after GW: Prophecies and Eye of the North, but the main drool factor will be zone-wide events (read, open war in DaoC and Alterac Valley style), combined with refined control system, oriented for action and ease of use. Playable races include Humans, Charr, Norns, Asurians and Sylvarians. Level cap is set, but it is not known at the time, while characters will now progress through the game in a more sensitive way.

The graphics engine will be brought up to date with latest graphics developments in 2009-10, so you can expect a game engine which will offer unrivalled graphics features in world of MMOs.

NCSoft's roadmap now should be pretty clear, as far as GW world is concerned: GW1 add-on, GW2 public beta, GW2 final. Next 18 months will be very busy for these guys.

[Twisted Sister Jane]

Well, all good things had to come to an end I guess.

Firstly as I see it, the new chapter will indeed add new content and that is nice. But where we are to continue with the characters we already have. That is also ok, as I think increasing the number of professions will make things very confusing.

But at some point there will be a move to the GW2 world. And that means we get to abandon all our favorite characters that we have played with for so long, because it sounds like GW2 will be a completely new world. That is good and bad, it is a new game and with new content. But will anyone care to take the time to keep playing GW1? Will Anet dedicate the servers to it?

Heh heh, and the improved graphics engine means certainly I will need to upgrade my computer, but what the heck, it is surely time for that come 2009!

[hadus]

coolsti said:

Well, all good things had to come to an end I guess.

Firstly as I see it, the new chapter will indeed add new content and that is nice. But where we are to continue with the characters we already have. That is also ok, as I think increasing the number of professions will make things very confusing.

But at some point there will be a move to the GW2 world. And that means we get to abandon all our favorite characters that we have played with for so long, because it sounds like GW2 will be a completely new world. That is good and bad, it is a new game and with new content. But will anyone care to take the time to keep playing GW1? Will Anet dedicate the servers to it?

Heh heh, and the improved graphics engine means certainly I will need to upgrade my computer, but what the heck, it is surely time for that come 2009!

Hehe...Jane, I've never heard you so pessimistic on GW's....lmao. This looks all good to me... ;D
Every game has a timeline and it's nice to see that Anet is thinking ahead and keeping things fresh. Without this news one might begin to think that Anet is slipping and allowing GW's to become stagnate. I don't see that happening ... instead I see GW's (whether I or II) continuing to lead the market in online gaming.

Thanks for the info Dana...
It gives us all something to drool over for awhile...hehe.

[Gigs]

Oh oh,

Anyone know any good pills I can take so I can keep up 24/7 continuously. I need time, time, time, to play all these nice games.

[Dana Hawkeye]

Who knows, we may be able to 'transfer' our existing characters across to GW2.

In Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights you were able to transfer existing characters.

As for the '100 year' gap - There could be numerous inventive ways of getting around that.

I cannot see that ANET would 'disenfanchise' their player base from GW to GW2 somehow. This is all a long way off and I am sure that their fan-base websites would get onto this quite quickly and vent any anger and frustrations out.

[Stydracos Rivenbow]

It will be interesting to see Gailes response to this article on the fansites .

Dana with that 'transfer' how much 'stuff' was transfered? what actually geta transfered in those other games? (name and lvl or more).

The idea has me curious.

[Dana Hawkeye]

If i remember correctly, you transferred your character, though you dropped a few xp levels. Your weapons transferred to you a little later in the game after some quest and when you were at an appropriate level.

Apart from that, basically you were starting over again just for a few levels until you got to the point where you would be if you had started a character from scratch.

[Zalis]

wotan said:

In Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights you were able to transfer existing characters.

Both single-player games. No MMORPG sequel (that I know of) lets you transfer characters from previous games. I don't think ANet will let us transfer. But I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.

For the expansion, it sounds great and I'm all for it. Kudos on posting this, Dana.

As far as GW2 is concerned, I just hope they don't screw it up. MMORPG sequels are a tricky business. I played Asheron's Call for a few years and, when the sequel was announced, it was a very exciting time. Problem is, AC2 was a complete flop. They introduced new races and skills and it was set hundreds of years in the future too. (so this is all kind of a flashback for me, heh) Long-story-short, AC2 didn't get off the ground and it hurt the original AC player base.

So, like I said, GW2 sounds fine as long as they don't screw up what makes us enjoy GW.

[Pass The Towel]

Interesting article, Dana.

It would be nice to have some press release or word from ArenaNet about this, but I've not been able to find anything.

The best I could find was the disussion on GuildWiki:

gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Talk:Campaign_Four

(apparently you can't put colons in links on proboards)

[Stydracos Rivenbow]

Interesting idea, I might be happy if I can transfer my main chars name and perhaps wealth (whether gold & materials some total or some other figure).

However for some reason the idea of being at the beginning as a complete newbie is appealing, the difference this time is I'll have an alliance of friends with me (and I can sort out my names for the other characters).

Oh well we shall see what we see I guess and act accordingly - thanks for the info Dana!

[Dana Hawkeye]

I believe that NWN2 is an online game isnt it? Also i think though basically a RPG, it could also be considered an MMO. There is a lot of discussion about this atm on Guru, etc.

By allowing you to transfer your existing characters over, would ensure ANET retains a large number of players and also rewards its loyal ones.

They could drop your xp, 5 levels say, and take away your gold, armour, weapons, etc. This could then be 'found' later on in some quest when you are at the appropriate level for that timescale/area.

If they dont do the above, I believe they will seriously lose a lot players and support, Not only from when GW2 starts, but from an 'Official Announcement' that this may happen. people will start to think, that ''Why should they bother grinding, if its all for nothing in a couple of years, I may as well go and play WoW now''.

[Cerryl Nyrim]

Sounds interesting. But it also sound slike it may diverge too much from what makes GW apeal to everyone so much. We'll just have to wait for more info.

Sounds a little similar to wow to me. Lets hope they can keep their own identity on that.

I'm not going to let myself buy another GW expansion til I finish the ones I have. But it'll be nice to hear about.

[Zalis]

NWN and NWN2 are normal RPGs w/ a slightly more robust online module community. So it kind of is and kind of isn't online. Myself, I plan on playing it, but not really doing anything more than the single player. And I don't know if NWN2 let's you port characters over like the original NWN did. (through BG2, like you said) Semantics, really, since they're all Bioware/BlackIsle games... and we're talking Anet. (I have more trust in Bioware than Anet, personally)

Again, I would love it if they let you port characters over... but I seriously doubt they will. It gives them points with previous GW players... But a sequel is a sequel, and they have to draw the line somewhere. Part of the new experience is beginning a new character. But that's part of what makes MMO sequels risky... "Will our players jump to the newer, shinier ship?" Only time will tell.

But, heck, I'll probably buy GW2 regardless. (assuming I've got time to play when the game's released)

[Dana Hawkeye]

I am pretty sure NWN2 let you bring characters over in the way i described in an above post.

You are right in one respect.........Would GW players jump ship to the new GW? It is a big gamble. That's why I believe that they would introduce a way of bringing in your existing characters.

There is still over 2 years to go until 'proposed GW2 time' so a lot of these things would be ironed out and the GW Community would know where it stood and so would ANET. I am sure that at the end of the day, commonsense would prevail and that ANET would listen to its player-base. They do listen, players have made a difference to the game.

[Radicc Tyranntt]

wotan said:

10 new Heroes and massive 150 new skills

Great just what we needed even more heros. I guess so you can play guild wars one solo all the time.

massive 150 new skills. Thats 15 skill per profession. massive?

I'll most likely get this last expansion.

I like guild wars but I don't think that anet had any concept of a pvp with their original game model and just threw it in as an after thought, and then shifted focus to it when they realized that they were nowhere close to putting the intend expansion out. Hence factions and then all the uber gimping of everything to it either balanced or resembled pvp. Which at least 60% or more of the guild wars community doesn't even play.


Don't know if I will be getting Guild Wars 2 or not. I guess it depends on if it is compatible with the original and if its actually any good.

Time to wait and see. 2010 is a long way off, or at least I like to think so.

[Zalis]

radicc said:

...2010...

Speaking of that... where's my flying car? Lousy scientists.

Some are doubting the validity of this news post on the alliance board. Since I can't post in that GWNews subforum, I'd like to reply here. If it's info that came out of GDC '07 this morning, then it's likely not going to be announced anywhere else yet for another day or two.

I expect to see an official announcement very soon. Otherwise, call me a sucker.

[Radicc Tyranntt]

zalis said:

radicc said:

...2010...

Speaking of that... where's my flying car? Lousy scientists.

I've been saying that for years.

[omino]

if we are unable to transfer our chars (to new graphic engine) do they they excpect us to start from scratch? good things don't last forever i know that. But id so love to take my chars to GW2 i dunno how that hard it is to implement, but im worried already , im but a simple farmer (3 fow sets) but what about ppl with KOABD title,(everyone has there styles play) do they excpect them to simply "put them to bed"? a lot of hours went into our/there chars and if it means starting all over, i think i'll give it a miss tbh. but whos to say? 2009 is still a long way away. i for 1 hope they think about all this before suddenly deciding SHUTDOWN on gw1 and give us the oppurtunity to carry on enjoying our fav chars we put lots of hours into and continue to enjoy them in gw2

[hadus]

Yeah.....I wouldn't worry about it yet...

Lets enjoy what we have and look forward to the next expansion. At this point I'm willing to bet there are lots of loose ends to start thinking about (3 versions worth) before the late 2007 release hits.

Geeeez...if they stop the expansions for 2 years I doubt any of us will even be around for a 2009 release of GW II...lmao!!

Now where is that thread about a birthday celebration?

*starts thumbing through the pages

[Twisted Sister Jane]

Yeah Hadus, you are right, hit me with a stick! I was too pessimistic.

It is just that I feel like I haven't even begun to play some of my favorite toons (like my long lost smite-a-be monk) and it was a shock to hear that the world may move on to a GW2!

Oh well. Some day I will be retired and can play online games 24/7 ;D