Guild Wars Interview
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GB: Do you plan on implementing player housing? If so, will this feature be available at the game's initial release? ArenaNet: We don't plan to have player housing, but we'll handle many of the needs that player housing addresses with our Guild Halls.
GB: Can you explain how the leveling system will work in the game? Is there a maximum character level? Will lower level characters stand a chance against higher level characters in PvP?
ArenaNet: The leveling system is something that most RPG players will be familiar with. As you complete quests and slay monsters, you gain experience points and acquire gold. The experience points and gold can then be used to obtain skills.
But here is where there is a difference between Guild Wars and many other games: The skills that you obtain are not variations on a few basic abilities, and do not grow ever more powerful as your levels rise. You won't find a (Level 15 Fire Blast) in our game. Instead of higher levels, you'll have access to many more unique skills. This means that as a lower level character you won't be weaker, you will just have fewer skills from which to draw. If you use good strategy and play skillfully, you may be able to defeat a higher-level character.
Guild Wars supports dual professions, and there will be a ceiling on character levels. Currently we believe that Level 50 is the appropriate maximum, but that may change during development. You will be able to achieve the maximum character level faster in Guild Wars than you do in most other RPG's.
GB: How do you intend to deal with massive amounts of "player-killing"? Will there be "safe" zones for those players that do not want to participate in Player-versus-Player games?
ArenaNet: Guild Wars is designed first and foremost as a competitive online role playing game. Nobody complains about player killing in StarCraft or chess, because those games are created to be competitive. Of course, as we've said before, Guild Wars will offer you the choice of competitive or cooperative games. You will make that choice simply by choosing the type of mission you want to play. Some quests or missions will be competitive, and in those, player-versus-player gaming and player-killing can be part of and maybe even the entire objective of the game. Those sorts of games would include the traditional PvP games, such as (Capture the Flag) or (King of the Hill.) Other quests or missions will be designated as strictly cooperative, and in those missions it will not be possible to kill other players.
GB: Will there be multiple phases to the public beta? Have you decided on a time period of when a first phase might begin?
ArenaNet: Yes, there will be two phases to the public beta consisting of the Closed Beta and the Open Beta. The Closed Beta will involve a limited number of people and the Open Beta will be opened to the public. We haven't set the exact time period yet, but the Closed Beta will start around 3 to 4 months before the final release date.
GB: To conclude, what would you say differentiates Guild Wars from the other online games on the market? What will it offer that other games don't?
ArenaNet: There are a few things that really set Guild Wars apart from other games:
- Guild Wars is a fully hosted and supported online game without a monthly subscription fee, which we will continue to support and expand with free content and with regular purchasable expansion sets.
- Guild Wars is a mission-based game, which increases the fun while taking out the tedium that is sometimes associated with MMORPG's.
- Guild Wars is designed for competitive play, but offers many styles of playing: competitive, cooperative, and single-player.
- With our (no servers, no shards) technology, gamers can compete against or play with anyone, anywhere, at any time, with no artificial boundaries between players or game worlds. Using this technology, Guild Wars players can unequivocally answer the question of (Who is the world champion?)
We'd like to issue our thanks to everyone at ArenaNet for taking the time to answer our questions!
