Guild Wars 2

Some stuff was recently revealed about it:

In Guild Wars 2, our event system won't make you read a huge quest description to find out what's going on. You'll experience it by seeing and hearing things in the world. If a dragon is attacking, you won't read three paragraphs telling you about it, you'll see buildings exploding in giant balls of fire, and hear characters in the game world screaming about a dragon attack. You'll hear guards from nearby cities trying to recruit players to go help fight the dragon, and see huge clouds of smoke in the distance, rising from the village under siege.


Colin goes on to describe how quests are flawed, in that if you are sent out on a quest to kill 10 Ogres who are supposedly going to destroy an NPC's home, you'd typically just find these Ogres "standing around in a field picking daises," basically just waiting for you to kill them at the quest's marked location. This won't be the case in Guild Wars 2 due to the dynamic events system. Instead, if an NPC tells you Ogres are coming to level his house -- you'd better believe it!


A single player decision can cascade across a zone, changing the direction of a chain of events until they dramatically alter the content played by players in a map.


The threat of a dredge army marching out of their base is given as an example of just how these events will chain together. Players can mobilize and attack the dredge army defeating them, which then allows them to push into the enemy base, defeat its commander, rescue captured troops, and even defend the base against the dredge who attempt to recapture it.

On the other hand, players can simply ignore (or fail to vanquish) the dredge army, who will then proceed to establish a foothold in friendly territory, including building up walls, setting up siege engines, etc to defend their new territory. They'll even send out attack parties to sack friendly villages, and snipers may even take out the merchants. In order to restore things to order, players will have to band together and liberate the area from the dredge. And as Colin points out, both these outcomes all stem from one single event -- the dredge marching their army out, and we're told that Guild Wars 2 will feature thousands of such events.


Colin notes that in most games an explorer can explore the game world, but once he's been everywhere, that's it. He's essentially seen it all. Since the dynamic events system in Guild Wars 2 is said to create a living breathing world, this may no longer be the case:
A village that was previously filled with friendly norn could, on a return trip, have been taken over by evil Sons of Svanir who are now using it as a base of operations and have put up their own architecture in place of the norn's.


The game will also feature tons of hidden events that require player interaction in addition to the larger ones that are readily visible and occuring openly in the game world, which should be of interest to the explorer types out there. Colin provides a quick example below:
Finding an entrance to a secret cave deep at the bottom of the ocean and removing a glowing orb from the cave could let an evil creature loose from its ancient prison and kick off a chain of events as the creature terrorizes the ocean shipping lanes. Reading the spells written on an ancient wizard's spell book in a ruined castle at the top of the highest mountain peak could open a portal to another world and trigger a chain of events as creatures from that world come through the portal.


Rounding things out Colin sheds some light on what we'll be hearing about next. In the future we'll be hearing from Ree Soesbee, a world designer on Guild Wars 2, who will describe how ArenaNet is tackling the lack of character development and personal story of MMOs through the use of their own personal story system.



This thing will be the most fucking advanced game ever made. Can't wait.

okei, gonna reply also otherwise Half Prince, thinks its his own head where he is talking alone...

WELL. GW 2 is going.... to...be... totally..... AWESOME. if they can do it how they, promise us..
seems that gw2 is gonna change mmorpg totally.
cant even afk in town since mobs gonna raid it:D

About NPC clothing designs. They even put a lot of effort into minor things.

http://www.arena.net/blog/the-fashion-of-guild-wars-2-an-interview-with-kristen-perry

There are several distinct, but intertwined, storylines in Guild Wars 2. One is the overall story of the world - the awakening of the Elder Dragons and their ravages and destruction across Tyria. Another is the rise and fall of the adventuring guild 'Destiny's Edge.' We also have a personal storyline shaped for each character at creation. Choices a character makes in this storyline will affect their lives, their homes, and their interactions. Lastly, there are the ongoing stories of the world, with constantly changing events occurring throughout each region that allow the various factions, races, and individuals of the world to interact. Tyria is a busy place!

When you first build a character in the world of Guild Wars 2, you are faced with many questions. What race will you be? What profession? Most MMOs ask that much, and the answers are fairly straightforward. But Guild Wars 2 takes character creation a step beyond. It offers the player an opportunity to go deeper, with another roster of questions designed to develop a character's personality. These comprise a character's 'Biography,' and cover relevant parts of the character's history as well as their hopes for the future and the story they will experience.

Your character is already a part of the world around them; they have friends, enemies, and a past. As the character advances, different stories will become available. As the game progresses, biography choices and decisions made in the game will shape your character's future. Every character experiences an interactive, distinct tale. We want you to build a character, not a character sheet.

A character's biography will influence their storyline immediately. Once you have created your character's race, class, and gender, you may choose your physical appearance - and there are a ton of options! From there, you are offered a chance to answer several detailed questions about your character's personality, history, and background.

If you describe your character as intimidating and unfriendly, the reactions of NPCs will be different than if you choose to portray yourself as charming and kind.

A player's biography choices immediately tailor physical parts of the game to their character. Each character is given a home instance, personalized to their biography choices, located in their racial capital - Hoelbrak for the norn, the Grove for the sylvari, and so forth. Within this home area, things are more personalized to your character. Your home instance never stops updating; as your character becomes more involved in their story, it will alter accordingly. Two norn will quickly differentiate their personal area through choices in the storyline. They will encounter different adventures, make different decisions, and their home will change to match their story.



Destiny's Edge was once a brave alliance of heroes dedicated to preventing the dragons from destroying the world. They have been torn apart, and old wounds prevent them from unifying. These heroes must be gathered once more, by the player character, for a final assault against the dragon of Orr.

Each of the races has an iconic figure – Rytlock Brimstone, Logan Thackeray, Eir Stegalkin, Caithe, and Zojja. Like the player character, the iconic has a history, a personality and a story to tell. Each one has their own opinion on the others, complete with misperceptions, assumptions, harsh truths, and inaccuracies. As the character progresses through the world, their relationship with the members of Destiny's Edge will also evolve. The player character has the opportunity to learn more about the guild's history and to befriend the various Iconics, becoming a friend, or even a confidant, and possibly even helping to reforge Destiny's Edge. By helping them face their differences, the player character sets the stage for the overarching storyline of the game, and prepares for one of the largest and most epic battles in Guild Wars 2 - the fight against Zhaitan, the dragon of Orr.



"The number of stories is gigantic, and it will only get bigger over time."

E.P.I.C

cat get eough of name RYTLOCK BRIMSTONE and that voice. i have no tought time choosing charming charrXD

Link above talks about new Warrior class.

Here is some information about a thing called trait system:


“Traits make you better at what you choose to do.” explained Ben. Traits can be acquired by completing certain profession challenges strewn throughout the game world, such as defeating a swordsman you meet at Divinity’s Reach in a duel, or discovering a tome filled with arcane knowledge, and each class masters their traits differently. For example, the highly physical Warrior fights, drinks, and eats to develop his traits, while the Elementalist seeks to fill herself with ancient knowledge.

Builds, something Guild Wars players should be quite familiar with, are returning in Guild Wars 2, however, this time players will have to take traits into account with their builds in addition to skills and attributes. You won’t be able to equip all the traits your class has access to, either, you’ll have to choose traits that complement the rest of your build, and with around 100 traits per class there should be a ton of diversity. Traits are structured in “Trait lines”, which are similar in nature to the attribute lines each class had in the original Guild Wars, and consist of both Major and Minor slots. Ben uses the Warrior class to illustrate an example; the Warrior (right now) has two General trait lines dubbed “Power” and “Tactics”, as well as a line for each weapon type he can wield, and you basically slot the appropriate Traits into these lines as you acquire them over time. Traits are flexible as well, as players can change our their traits free of charge anywhere in the game world as long as they are out of combat The original Guild Wars allowed players to switch their builds out in town for free as well, however, the additional freedoms allowed by being able to change builds anywhere in the game world are sure to be appreciated by fans.

Rounding things out, Ben uses the Warrior example again to show us what an example build would look like. Giving the build a bit of context, it is being designed to defeat a giant boar that is rampaging through the forest as part of one of Guild Wars 2’s dynamic events. To that end, Ben’s Warrior build consists of dual wielding swords and a Longbow in his second weapon set for kiting, the healing skill Healing Surge (restores both health and Adrenaline), the On My Mark elite shout skill (calls out a target and debuffs enemy armor), the amusingly named For Great Justice (ally Fury/Might Boon), Frenzy (boost to Adrenaline gain), and Battle Standard, which boosts allies with a number of powerful buffs.
Now this is where the traits come in. Ben opted for dual wielding swords as opposed to a warhorn or shield to optimize his damage output, and so he places a number of Traits into the Power trait line that boost the Strength attribute, passively boosting the damage of his Warrior’s melee attacks. He then slots the Weapon Master trait into the Tactics line, which lowers the cooldown on switching between weapon sets, which is key when having to kite the boar. In the Sword line, Ben slots in Swordmastery to increase his sword damage, and in the Longbow line he slots in a damage trait as well.

One of the more exciting examples of the activities ArenaNet has planned is the bar brawl, which removes the player's weapon and pits them in a battle royale where the environment is the only thing that can give them an edge. Picking up a beer stein and smashing it over the head of another patron, for example, is an acceptable – even encouraged – course of action. As is chugging a beer and spewing its toxic contents, or waiting until the last moment to get the killing blow on a worn-down enemy. It's an activity that is far-flung from the tight, organized combat we can expect from the main game.


Personality is another aspect being introduced. Previously known as diplomacy, in Guild Wars 2, it serves to establish the type of character you are playing. Over time, the way you respond to NPCs will categorize you as a certain personality archetype, and from there NPCs will act differently, and your actions towards them will change. The example we were given was the "badass" character who would use intimidation to obtain food or an experience buff from an NPC. A more honorable character might inspire the NPC to help, or talk them into it.

http://www.arena.net/blog/john-and-ben-answer-your-questions-about-activities-travel


Some questions that especially caught my eye:

Q: Cities seem to be big since you mention travelling inside cities. Are cities divided into multiple zones?

Ben: Yes. All of our cities are quite large and divided into different thematic areas, with some special places you can instance into. The actual Divinity’s Reach map has different sections that reflect the different social groups, sections devoted to the six human gods, a large carnival area, and several instanced areas like the Queen’s Palace or the headquarters of the Seraph that are their own smaller maps.

Okei official list here also

I CALL DIBS ON CHARR WARRIOR... so everyone fuck it...

Sylvari Thief....probably.
If 8th class is illusionst I might change my mind.

Half Prince wrote:

Sylvari Thief....probably.
If 8th class is illusionst I might change my mind.

ATM dibs then:P