SPOnG: Can you describe the world
Guild Wars 2 is structured? In
Guild Wars we had a series of instances, with each one connected to a hub. Will
Guild Wars 2 have something similar?
Theo Nguyen: One of the problems with
Guild Wars was that it never designed to be an MMO, it was just how people ended up playing it. It was a very instanced, segmented experience. So with
Guild Wars 2, we wanted to make it a more like a full on MMO in that it will be a fully persistent world, you will be playing with hundreds and thousands of other people at the same time, running around in persistent maps together. That is part of our focus in wanting players to play together, so if we have a segmented world that becomes more difficult. So we're fully committed to actually making it a huge persistent world.
SPOnG: So is it fair to say that you have done away with the instancing element from the previous game?
Theo Nguyen: The game does still using instancing, but only in cases where it really makes it better for the multiplayer experience we're trying to promote. So for a dungeon we will have instances, as well as story sets. These tell a really tight story to the player as they progress through the game. It's really dramatic, really emotionally packed and has consequences. By instancing this element of the game we can develop a much better story.
SPOnG: Can you expand on the PvP aspect of the game, more specifically the World vs World vs World system?
Theo Nguyen: This is the interserver combat that has three servers in combat at any one time, they will be up 24/7, and battles will take place over a period of 2 weeks. This will encourage epic battles as each server seeks to be the best for that period and thus earn bonuses for their server by doing so.
SPOnG: Finally, tell us about these dynamic events that feature in
Guild Wars 2.
Theo Nguyen: Yes, there are events in the game that can alter how the player interacts with the world. Let's say there's a garrison, it's full of merchants and guards. At some point it come under attack by centaurs. So you get an alert that this garrison is under attack and requests that you help defend the garrison. It's not a quest, it's not something that triggers when you select a quest to complete, it just starts up, whether you help or not. It's something that happens organically in the world. The consequences of what you do there will have an impact on the world space. Let's say you and a bunch of other players fight off the centaurs and manage to save the garrison. Because it's still safe and remains in the hands of the good guys, there might be a merchant there that needs goods to be escorted somewhere. So that might kick off another event where you escort the goods to another location.
But let's say for example you fail to save the garrison, for whatever reason. The garrison gets taken over by centaurs and the NPCs inside are killed and the merchant that would have given the escort quest is now dead. This means his quest doesn't kick off and instead the garrison area that was a safe haven for players is now hostile because it's full of centaurs. After that you might get another event that request you retake the garrison. If you're successful at that then it returns to its former glory as a haven.
What we're trying to do here is create a world that changes depending on player actions within it.
SPOnG:Thank you very much for your time.
Guild Wars 2 is set to appear some time in 2012 for the PC.
