Dana Hawkeye
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I have many leather-bound books
Posts: 390
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Post by Dana Hawkeye on Mar 6, 2007 10:18:03 GMT
POST FROM GAILE GRAY06/03/2007 @ 2254Just a quick word to let you know that we haven't made any official announcements about Guild Wars in, oh, a couple of months. Sure, there's a little *ahem* info circulating this week. But you guys know the drill: Until we say it, it's not official. I can tell you that some of what you've read is right, some of it is wrong, and quite a bit of it is misleading. Unfortunately, we can't offer a fact check quite yet. The good news is that the top game publications in Europe and the U.S. are preparing feature articles with major Guild Wars news -- I wasn't joking when I said a few days ago that I think it'll knock your socks off. In the U.S., PC Gamer will begin delivery of the May issue to subscribers on March 15, and it will be on newsstands on April 3. European magazines, including Joystick in France, PC Zone in the U.K., PC GamePlay in Benelux, Games Machine in Italy, and PC Gamer in Germany, will reach subscribers and newsstands before the end of March. Knowing you guys, no matter where you're located, you'll be sharing the info from your regional magazines, and that's great. I want to make sure that I let you know, this isn't some small feature -- I would boldly say that any Guild Wars player would want to buy one of these magazines, subscriber or not! In part this is because they'll offer great articles with a lot of cool info. In part it's because the magazines will give you the chance to adopt your very own exclusive new miniature. Check our website for more info tomorrow! __________________ Gaile Gray Community Relations Manager ArenaNet www.guildwars.com
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Post by Pass The Towel on Mar 6, 2007 12:45:16 GMT
Oh well. Some day I will be retired and can play online games 24/7 ;D Hmm Maybe I've got this student concept all wrong! Hehe just joking before Hadus gets all fathery.
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Post by Zalis on Mar 6, 2007 15:22:39 GMT
I'd have a hard time freelancing at home, I think. It would be too easy to procrastinate and put jobs off until the last minute. At least w/ games installed. Then again, I could buy an iMac and use it for work... it would keep me away from my pc games. As for the "news", I'll eagerly await the official word. Glad Gaile made a post to clue us in to upcoming events.
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Post by Cerryl Nyrim on Mar 6, 2007 16:20:20 GMT
And of course we will all be buying the magazines in order to get the news. I mean, where else would you turn for news and info these days?
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Dana Hawkeye
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I have many leather-bound books
Posts: 390
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Post by Dana Hawkeye on Mar 6, 2007 17:13:09 GMT
I think if it is 'true' about a Guild Wars II, then ANET is playing a dangerous game.
This game is all about GUILDS.
What if, only half the Guild or even a quarter of the Guild makes the switch? This could destroy the Guild and its Alliance.
Some people will not make the switch because of the possibility of not being able to 'import' their existing characters (I place myself in that category).
I thought that GW was a streaming game, therefor new content could be added adhoc without the need to make an entirely new game.
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Post by Zalis on Mar 6, 2007 17:47:39 GMT
This game is all about GUILDS. What if, only half the Guild or even a quarter of the Guild makes the switch? This could destroy the Guild and its Alliance. Some people will not make the switch because of the possibility of not being able to 'import' their existing characters (I place myself in that category). That's exactly what happened with Asheron's Call and its sequel, since its Monarchy system was quite close to GW's guilds. Some switched, some didn't. And it resulted in both games having a weaker community as a result. Then once AC2 crashed & burned, the original AC player base began to plummet. (despite effort & updates on behalf of devs) It's not dead yet, but it's really struggling. No one wants to see that happen to Guild Wars. I would argue that GW's level cap makes for a smaller issue when starting new characters. At least compared to a game like AC, where the level cap is 275 and requires eons to crank those high levels out. There may be titles, equipment, and plain effort spent on GW characters... but it's still less measureable than in other MMORPGs. Though that varies from player to player also. Someone such as Dana or Vol, who have the Big Deal title could easily feel disenchanted with the idea of starting completely from scratch. No titles, greens, caps, etc. Problem is, we can't expect GW2 to be entirely compatible with our existing characters. Skills, equipment, titles... they'll all be altered if they all even make the cut for the sequel. So many things wil be different that we'd only be left with class templates, assuming they all exist in GW2. So what's that leave us with? Importing a "max level" character into a brand new world. This gives an advantage to previous GW players and, if you ask me, takes a lot of the "new" fun out of a fresh game. An MMO sequel is a dangerous game, indeed. Do you cater to existing fans at the expense of entirely new content? Or push forward and hope for the best? The line has between GW and GW2 has to be drawn somewhere. We'll just have to wait and see what changes and what doesn't. Regardless, ANet has to sweeten the deal of GW2 to make "jumping ship" worthwhile for most players. It's a case of having your cake and eating it too.
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Post by Twisted Sister Jane on Mar 7, 2007 11:57:43 GMT
From a business point of view, Anet has little to lose here. The GW we play today is free once we buy the game. Only way Anet can earn more money is by putting the effort into making a new chapter (unless they have a department out there selling gold on Ebay, may not be a bad way for them to supplement their income, heh heh).
So after you have made 4 chapters and seem to run out of story and new character classes, and any further expansion makes the whole issue of character balancing too complicated, and you notice (or at least predict) that interest in the original game will begin to fade, what do you do? You start from scratch, design a new game that supposedly will be more modern and better, and hope it also will be a financial success.
The risk is that a large number of die hard players do not make the move to GW2, thus diluting the potential market. But there is no hardship for Anet if GW1 fades and dies away, as they have earned all the money that they probably ever will earn from it already. And the faster it dies, the quicker the migration of the diehards over to GW2.
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Post by Pass The Towel on Mar 7, 2007 12:13:01 GMT
Gaile was in Kamadan again this morning, there wasn't much of interest, nothing about this rumor, but here are a few things I took down: They are currently taking opinions of users as to what a good 2nd birthday present should be. "Hard mode" is not far away, but there are no concrete details currently available. Some nonsense about a weirdo minipet. The devs are looking at doing something to the domain of anguish. A title related to XP sound like a great idea - but Gaille's not the one that makes the decisions They realise there are issues with getting Razah (I don't know anything about this - got got far enough myself). My guess is a new Rit hero will be introduced, but they will not remove Razah. Engine upgrades are not a problem and can and have been done via the standard update method. Pet controls are coming soon. ----- So a lot of irrelevant waffle and not much relevant substance basically There are some interesting points though.
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Post by Twisted Sister Jane on Mar 7, 2007 12:55:53 GMT
I would like a mini of myself as minipet, heh heh. Would love to kick myself around!
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Post by hadus on Mar 7, 2007 15:45:53 GMT
From a business point of view, Anet has little to lose here. The GW we play today is free once we buy the game. Only way Anet can earn more money is by putting the effort into making a new chapter (unless they have a department out there selling gold on Ebay, may not be a bad way for them to supplement their income, heh heh). So after you have made 4 chapters and seem to run out of story and new character classes, and any further expansion makes the whole issue of character balancing too complicated, and you notice (or at least predict) that interest in the original game will begin to fade, what do you do? You start from scratch, design a new game that supposedly will be more modern and better, and hope it also will be a financial success. The risk is that a large number of die hard players do not make the move to GW2, thus diluting the potential market. But there is no hardship for Anet if GW1 fades and dies away, as they have earned all the money that they probably ever will earn from it already. And the faster it dies, the quicker the migration of the diehards over to GW2. Good observation.... Add in the number of new players that have come of gaming age between now and the GW2 release and the risk factor comes down slightly...hehe
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Post by Radicc Tyranntt on Mar 10, 2007 3:35:04 GMT
When I see stuff like this: www.guildwars.com/support/gamecontents/trilogytrial.php I'm never sure what to think about the future of a game. Its obvious that they are trying to get as much money out of this as they can. But does that mean they are boxing gw and going on to something new, or does it just mean they don't have any other way of generating income for the time being. Well at least we get one more expansion before its quits.
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Post by Twisted Sister Jane on Mar 10, 2007 12:46:01 GMT
The trial deal just sounds like a good thing from a marketing point of view. Like I got fixed on WOW because of the 10 or 14 day trial key, where I could get a taste for the game. Anet must be hoping here that they can attract some new interest to a game that is now considered "older" and possibly on the way out. It would be difficult to imagine that many new customers who have not tried GW before would be willing to lay out the money for the game, without getting a chance to see what it is all about.
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Post by Cerryl Nyrim on Mar 12, 2007 12:05:43 GMT
Yeah, but the Prophecies chapter is only $30 or so these days. That's relatively cheap for a computer game. Considering Nightfall is still $50. Since most of us GW veterans think of Proph. as the best chapter so far, with NF a close second, that's a great deal. I almost bought it for my brothers so we could play together.
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Post by Volitar on Mar 20, 2007 22:35:22 GMT
Here is a summary of the PC Gamer article I got from GWG. www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10133054GW: Eye of the North Summary:They are abandoning the Campaign format because it required them to reinvent GW completely for every chapter, and it began to feel 'bloated' to them. The Expansion, and increased timeframe, allow them to do what they want to with the game, without worrying about new professions, or pre-lvl20 content BETA for GW2 in 2008 eye of the north HOLIDAY 2007 RELEASE 40 new armor sets, 150 new skills (including 50 pve only), 10 new heroes "extend character development beyond level 20" ~James Phinney~ EOTN will supposedly link GW1 and 2 underground complex of tunnels through all three 'continents' present thus far is revealed. Three acts: Act1 takes you through 18 underground dungeons to help the dwarves defend against 'the fiery Destroyer', eventually taking you to the Asura and Norns (races) Act2 has three story arcs ranging from exploring the Norns, to the Charr homeland, to an Asura resistance of the Destroyer Act3 pits you against the Great Destroyer Far shiverpeaks are Norn Lands, Charr homeland is north of ascalon, Asurans are near Maguuma, Tyrian catacombs stretch across the entire continent presumably Guild Wars 2 SummaryHundreds of years later, in Tyria... sounds more of a race-reliant struggle. Predominately open worlds, with Instancing as a secondary feature in some areas (not positive on the interpretation). Hundreds of people in the same area, and choices that the population as a whole change the quest structure. PCG gave an example of choosing to rally against a dragon or not. Those that help, gain loot and xp. If the dragon isnt driven away, another 'quest' may trigger, leaving more options for the population. Very cool idea IMO. I'll just take the level cap stuff directly - "Events will also offer a way for players of different levels to keep interacting in the persistent world - which is crucial, since right now, ArenaNet is planning a very high [100-plus], or possibly no level cap" Sidekicks simlar to CoH, allowing powers to seep from a high level character to a friendly lower level char. 'Click to move' will be abandonned in favor of a more freedom-rich control scheme, including 'jumping, swimming, and sliding' destroyable environments? no real world limitations to servers. you pick a 'world', but can switch between the realms. World vs World combat sounds to be a massive scale capture the flag (AB style?) with no minimum or maximum party size. Big-ass raids that can supposedly take place for weeks on end. At the end, the 'world' will be reset, and it will start again it seems. GvG will still be present, as a more balanced form where everyone is on a level playing field. Companions: NPC like heros can join you (like a pet it sounds), and dont count towards your party. Not using this feature lets you be mroe powerful. I think I read somewhere in here that it will be mission-based, but I didn't see it in my quick second-look. As of now, there will be no monthly fees, and no 'campaigns'... mini-expansions, and expansions are hinted at.
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Post by Cerryl Nyrim on Mar 21, 2007 10:07:26 GMT
Sounds like fun to me. I know the new movement controls will be nice. I had a feeling they couldn't keep up with more campaigns.
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Post by mercia on Mar 21, 2007 18:01:30 GMT
Another link for info on GW2. www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37986ANet are a business. Imho they've done a great job with GW. But if a business stands still and assumes the good times will last forever eventually there won't be a business. I can see that an expansion later this year and then on to GW2 makes sense from their perspective. It makes sense to me as well and what little I've read about GW2 so far is intriguing. Still, we should take what we hear at this stage with a pinch of salt. No doubt more will be revealed eventually.
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Post by Pass The Towel on Mar 22, 2007 2:31:38 GMT
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Post by mercia on Mar 22, 2007 11:15:27 GMT
The link supplied by Towel is a *** MUST READ *** for every one of us.
I imagine it's going to provoke some discussion.
Personally I found it pretty exciting stuff.
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Lago Mortis
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Post by Lago Mortis on Mar 22, 2007 12:26:03 GMT
Yes, a lot of interesting stuff there!
Most of it looks very good, others I may not cheer loud about.
I'm not a big fan of skipping the lvl 20 cap. That is a nice thing making sure that rather new players and ancient ones, at least have same statistics. But it will of course depend on how they implement it.
In GW a "good" new lvl 20 player will be better than an ancient "bad" player. But I have understood it that in many games a new player no matter how good, will never be competative with one of the old ones with much higher lvl.
That feature, that time and gold spent in game is secondary to actual playing skill, is what I like most in GW. That would also mean that single character players (like me and Dana) would have different possibilities in the game than those who likes to play around and learn to play different proffessions.
I can't say I would jump around happily if a lvl 150, 30 mill exp, solo monk with utterly expensive gear automatically would be far superior than anything any of us in the Scouts could come up with.
Regards, Lago Mortis
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Dana Hawkeye
Ally
I have many leather-bound books
Posts: 390
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Post by Dana Hawkeye on Mar 22, 2007 13:29:14 GMT
I must admit after reading that link/post, I am a little relieved that any acomplishments gained in Guild Wars plus our character names can be carried over in some form or another.
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