UPDATE: Pax info starting to leak in, the first of which is that they announced there will be ipad/smartphone app that allows you to chat with everyone in-game.
At launch, the app will have tons of features available, designed to help offline players connect with their friends in-game. Along with the ability to chat with your friends and guildmates from your portable device, players will also be able to view the location of their friends via a fullscreen map, showing their actions and movement in real-time.
Other planned features of the app include a remote auction house and the ability to add new friends straight from your portable device. The app will be available to Guild Wars 2 players for no extra charge
Lots of info in the links above, HIGHLY recommend you read all of it personally for me, this is extremely exciting. I felt that the RPG part of MMORPG really has been missing from most recent MMOs, or well, all MMOs. I've always wondered what it'd be like if an MMO would allow for suspension of disbelief. In most of them, each quest you did, each boss you killed would be available to another character, or to yourself even after a little while, which always, in the back of my mind while playing, seemed super lame. Of course I never imagined it could be any other way. What do you guys think?
I never played past pre-alpha, but Hellgate: London used a system that was like this, so no it's not revolutionary. There were randomly-generated events in various parts of the world that functioned as quests and made the world appear a little more dynamic.
Though I never played it, friends and co-workers tell me Warhammer Online used a similar system called Public Quests, where randomly an event would trigger and anyone in the vicinity would automatically be grouped into a party to complete the quest and receive loot.
It's a smart system, but it's not new, and it's probably a balancing nightmare for the system that GW2 describes. Enemies would just scale up in strength based on the number of players in the zone?
Aww, so no Questhelper addon to tell me where to go next?
Seriously though, this will be a refreshing change from all the generic quest systems out there. But I think they can only take it so far. WoW quests felt artificial because of respawning enemies and the world remained the same state no matter if you succeeded or not. But the respawns and unchanging world aspect was so that other players can have a chance to do something.
GW2 may have a different way of STARTING quests, but I think the respawning issue will still be there, because other players need a chance to do the quest too.
Excalibur_Z: Hellgate wasn't even an MMO and all of its dungeons were instances. this isn't at all like what the article describes. can't comment on Warhammer Online.
To me that sounds awesome, but we'll have to wait how exactly it turns out. I don't think there's a solution to the problem really. If they make a dragon attack a village like every other hour that's as unspectacular as what WOW currently offers.
I wonder what the unannounced MMO from Blizzard looks like.
Sounds like Public quests from Warhammer Online, an event happens in an area and everyone in that area works together to fix it. Of course its always in the same area and it restarts after like 15 minutes so it really doesn't add any immersion, just a bit different and a fun way to get some items and whatnot.
On May 14 2010 02:21 Tinithor wrote: Sounds like Public quests from Warhammer Online, an event happens in an area and everyone in that area works together to fix it. Of course its always in the same area and it restarts after like 15 minutes so it really doesn't add any immersion, just a bit different and a fun way to get some items and whatnot.
Not quite. The big difference between the Event system and PQs from WAR are that passing/failing/somewherebetween an event will actually change the game world for all players. If you read the blog past the quote where the OP ends, they give some good examples of this. Also events have their difficulty dynamically balanced so that it gets harder with each player joining in. This way a solo player during low-player times of the day can complete events himself.
If it's been a while since you've been to an area of the world, when you go back it may be completely different due to player actions (or inactions).
EDIT: Another reason that it's different is that due to the changes to the game world, entire chains of events can happen. If you let a force of bad guys advance towards a settlement unopposed, they'll make a fort there and begin raiding the settlement and there will be new events to deal with that. If you go out and crush the force early, new events will happen where you can start a counter attack to take over their base. If you complete that, even new events will begin.
On May 14 2010 02:21 Tinithor wrote: Sounds like Public quests from Warhammer Online, an event happens in an area and everyone in that area works together to fix it. Of course its always in the same area and it restarts after like 15 minutes so it really doesn't add any immersion, just a bit different and a fun way to get some items and whatnot.
Not quite. The big difference between the Event system and PQs from WAR are that passing/failing/somewherebetween an event will actually change the game world for all players. If you read the blog past the quote where the OP ends, they give some good examples of this. Also events have their difficulty dynamically balanced so that it gets harder with each player joining in. This way a solo player during low-player times of the day can complete events himself.
If it's been a while since you've been to an area of the world, when you go back it may be completely different due to player actions (or inactions).
EDIT: Another reason that it's different is that due to the changes to the game world, entire chains of events can happen. If you let a force of bad guys advance towards a settlement unopposed, they'll make a fort there and begin raiding the settlement and there will be new events to deal with that. If you go out and crush the force early, new events will happen where you can start a counter attack to take over their base. If you complete that, even new events will begin.
It does sound great, but how the hell are they doing it?? I can only imagine they (developers) are constantly keeping an eye on things and making changes as necessary? Like if the players didnt beat the bandits, the developers have to build a fort for them, and then implement new quests due to the change. That seems like a TON of work!!! And a changeable gameworld i guess. cause downloading a new patch every day because some1 didnt do the "defend my home quest" would be rather annoying. Also what about the millions of players constantly changing the world?? Anyway if it really works this way, i sure would love to try it, cause that was the only thing i disliked about WOW: Your action changed ABSOLUTELY nothing.... And it got boring after a while...
I wonder what type of servers they'll have to use for what they describe…
Traditional MMO are largely static and run in large part on the client's computer. From what they describe it seems like it will take a lot of computing power to have an entire world that is intelligently evolving in real time.
For example in most games monster spawn points are essentially static in that they are all predetermined so require little server work. What the game developers seem to be trying to do is having the server dynamically determine the spawn points for potentially tens if not hundreds of thousands of monsters ever few minutes. Gives me a headache just thinking about how much code and processing power it would take to do such a thing.
Won't take anything special. Neither server- nor event-wise.
Won't even take constant patching or developer update.
It's just like in other MMOs. Maybe in WoW or L2 etc you had linear quest chains containing 10 quests. In these settings it's pretty much the same with branching quest chains - I guess the branches are not going to be that wide, but it doesn't really matter.
As for the ogres attack your home there's still gonna be hubs where the characters are from, or maybe you choose a city or village from a list, but all in all they will still be hub points which are 'attackable' by npc mobs.
Sieges, snipers, whatevers can be covered with one single variable given to each area - defining where the area stands, is there a fort, is it at peace, etc. Imagine the loadtimes when you enter the area in 'old-time' MMOs - my guess is it's gonna be the same. No need for bigger servers, during the loadtime you'll just receive the few variables from the server that defines the state of the particular area and your own pc will handle the rest.
Yes they can keep it somewhat more dynamic with a monthly patch where they completely demolish undefended villages and such, and that could be a nice option which doesn't take as much testing as a deep change to the game's engine.
It's a neat try and probably going to be new for a while, but all in all the same things will happen over and over. Once all the branches are experienced it won't be more than, say a usual daily.
I don't say it will take from the fun. I still remember playing L2 after my operation and it was fun. I made a ton of screenshots and ran around like and idiot. Or when I first played WoW because that was the only way to keep in touch with some friends, or some other web-based games due to distance and it was kinda fun. What I'm saying is - the DK quest chain is fun for most WoW players for the first time, but once you do it for the nth you just want to kick Tirion in the arse to gtfo already.
Or maybe I'm just not an avid player since I only ever play online games with a friend.
I read the article a while ago. I'd just like to say that if this game becomes everything that was described, it will be amazing. I probably won't get it right away, but I'll def be checking in on it when when it releases.
Guild Wars is the only MMO i've ever played for more than 2 days. I actually think I played it like 2-3 months or so. Great fun, I hope this will be free to play as well.
I'd like to note for all of those that don't know, this MMO is being made by ArenaNet, who employ some of the old blizzard lead design/programming team from sc1, wc games and wow, before they left around the time of the first wow expansion. Should probably put that in the OP seeing as it might gain this thread more interest on TL for those that don't already know that! From wikipeida:
The founders of ArenaNet were former employees of Blizzard Entertainment who played important roles in developing the highly successful computer games Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Diablo II, and the Battle.net gaming network. Their new studio was briefly called Triforge, Inc.[4] before changing its name to ArenaNet and being acquired by NCsoft.
Patrick Wyatt is a game programmer and one of the three co-founders of ArenaNet. He is the leader of the Network and Technology teams and a programmer for Guild Wars. Before the foundation of ArenaNet, he was working in Blizzard Entertainment where he was the Vice President of Research and Development and a senior programmer. Wyatt was the leader of Battle.net gaming network's programming and a major contributor on the multiplayer parts of Blizzard's popular games including StarCraft, Diablo and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. Having been in Blizzard for more than eight years, his work also includes earlier Blizzard games like Lost Vikings and Rock N' Roll Racing.
Jeff Strain is a game programmer and one of the three founders of ArenaNet. He served ArenaNet and NCsoft as the leader of the Art and Production teams and President of Product Development respectively. He was previously the lead programmer of Blizzard's MMORPG World of Warcraft; he also created the StarCraft campaign editor and worked on Diablo and Warcraft III. He is credited as a programmer and executive producer for Guild Wars.
Mike O'Brien is one of the three co-founders of ArenaNet and the leader of the Design and Content teams for Guild Wars. Previously, he worked as a company director and a lead programmer at Blizzard Entertainment where he developed the 3D rendering engine of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and led the development of Battle.net. He also worked on Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo and StarCraft, where he, among other things, designed and created the MPQ archives used in all Blizzard games after Diablo. Mike O'Brien was featured as one of the most influential people in the computer and video game industry on PC Gamer's September 1999 cover story "Game Gods".
On May 18 2010 00:40 UdderChaos wrote: I'd like to note for all of those that don't know, this MMO is being made by ArenaNet, who employ some of the old blizzard lead design/programming team from sc1, wc games and wow, before they left around the time of the first wow expansion. Should probably put that in the OP seeing as it might gain this thread more interest on TL for those that don't already know that! From wikipeida:
The founders of ArenaNet were former employees of Blizzard Entertainment who played important roles in developing the highly successful computer games Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Diablo II, and the Battle.net gaming network. Their new studio was briefly called Triforge, Inc.[4] before changing its name to ArenaNet and being acquired by NCsoft.
Patrick Wyatt is a game programmer and one of the three co-founders of ArenaNet. He is the leader of the Network and Technology teams and a programmer for Guild Wars. Before the foundation of ArenaNet, he was working in Blizzard Entertainment where he was the Vice President of Research and Development and a senior programmer. Wyatt was the leader of Battle.net gaming network's programming and a major contributor on the multiplayer parts of Blizzard's popular games including StarCraft, Diablo and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. Having been in Blizzard for more than eight years, his work also includes earlier Blizzard games like Lost Vikings and Rock N' Roll Racing.
Jeff Strain is a game programmer and one of the three founders of ArenaNet. He served ArenaNet and NCsoft as the leader of the Art and Production teams and President of Product Development respectively. He was previously the lead programmer of Blizzard's MMORPG World of Warcraft; he also created the StarCraft campaign editor and worked on Diablo and Warcraft III. He is credited as a programmer and executive producer for Guild Wars.
Mike O'Brien is one of the three co-founders of ArenaNet and the leader of the Design and Content teams for Guild Wars. Previously, he worked as a company director and a lead programmer at Blizzard Entertainment where he developed the 3D rendering engine of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and led the development of Battle.net. He also worked on Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo and StarCraft, where he, among other things, designed and created the MPQ archives used in all Blizzard games after Diablo. Mike O'Brien was featured as one of the most influential people in the computer and video game industry on PC Gamer's September 1999 cover story "Game Gods".
On May 20 2010 08:10 Angra wrote: It looks pretty cool but if it doesn't have competitive PvP/guild vs guild like GW1 has, I'll lose interest pretty fast. ;o
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.guildwars2.com/global/includes/images/hero-dynamic-article.jpg)
Neither server- nor event-wise.
