Guild Wars 2 Journal : News, Guides, Forum

Guild Wars 2 is better [than other MMOs] for the things it doesn’t do. For once, this is one case where focusing on the negative is actually a positive. We’re already aware of most of these, but maybe it hasn’t really sunk in just how aware we are of them, especially when we’re playing other games... Guild Wars 2 might not revolutionize MMO gameplay, but it will almost certainly revolutionize how MMOs are played. That’s a fine difference.

If Guild Wars 2 pulls MMOs into the next decade, it’ll be because ArenaNet realized the underlying problem with MMOs, and it’s not class balance, combat dynamics, or even graphic presentation. Those have progressed as the years have gone on, but too many MMOs are still stuck in a decade-plus-old rut when it comes to the fundamental nature of their games. Guild Wars 2 is looking to break out of that rut. Even in beta, that’s easy enough to see.

Please tell us something about yourself.

My official gamer name is Gambit728 (sometimes Gambit72890), better known simply as “Gambit.” I began playing MMOs in 2005 with RuneScape, the game in which the original Ascendance was founded in 2008. Upon leaving RuneScape in 2009, I started Aion in January, 2010, in which I was an officer in the legion Onslaught as well as the PvP raid leader of the Blackwing Alliance, and later a member of the elite legion Sin Filled Afterlife. I, along with my associates, reformed Ascendance in May of 2011 in preparation for the release of Guild Wars 2.

Can you tell us about the history of your guild?

Ascendance (ASC) formed four years ago as a name under which a group of friends organized themselves in the variety of MMOs that they played together, which included (at various points) RuneScape, Aion, World of Warcraft, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. In May of 2011, as a result of heightened anticipation of Guild Wars 2's release, Ascendance came together as a formal guild with the goal of creating a community that would be ready to start strong with the game's release. Recent months have shown an influx of activity within Ascendance as members plan and ponder their goals and expectations for GW2's — hopefully early — 2012 release.

What other games are you currently playing as a guild while waiting for Guild Wars 2?

Though much of Ascendance's leadership currently focuses on preparing for the release of Guild Wars 2 – as evidenced by our fully developed website, Facebook group, Twitter feed, and YouTube channel – we currently have a division playing Star Wars: The Old Republic that is ranked number one on its server on the Republic side.

What are your plans for Guild Wars 2?

Ascendance will operate as a guild that is committed to successfully tackling all types of content in Guild Wars 2. Technically, we are a PvPvE guild that is also focused on building a strong community of players capable of meeting any type of challenge. What is more, ASC will strive to be a top-ranking guild that earns the respect and admiration of other guilds.

What feature/part of Guild Wars 2 are you most excited about as a guild?

Above all else, PvP is the most attractive element of Guild Wars 2 and the one that our guild is highly anticipating. While we will place a major emphasis on consistent participation in PvP (including WvWvW), Ascendance will also focus on completing PvE elements, such as dungeons and dynamic events. Since we are an “all of the above guild,” we aspire to tackle each element of gameplay with tenacity and dedication, always striving to be the very best.

Did you play the original Guild Wars?

We did not play the original Guild Wars as a guild; however, many of our members are Guild Wars veterans who will have an impressive lineup for their Hall of Monuments.

Can you tell us something about the atmosphere in your guild?

Ascendance would commonly be classified as a “hardcore” guild, although our members are very friendly and expect only that their peers exhibit an undying shared commitment to excellence. At present, we have roughly 60 members prior to the release of the game. There are nine full-time officer positions whose functions range from carrying out internal and external affairs, record-keeping, PvP direction, and coordinating events. We plan to incorporate players from Western Europe, North America, and Australia into our guild’s activities. We have sizable divisions of players from each region with management and coordination directives in place to seamlessly integrate members in all time zones.

What sets your guild apart from other guilds out there?

Ascendance was one of the earliest guilds to be formed that is exclusively focused on Guild Wars 2 (i.e., not a mass gaming community opening a small division for a game that they may or may not have passion and priority for). We have been following the development of Guild Wars 2 since its announcement nearly four years ago and have gone to great lengths in order to play demos at gaming conventions, attend information panels, and chat with ArenaNet developers to gain the best perspective on the game. Additionally, we plan to give equal priority to all aspects of the game so long as members commit to undertaking them with the utmost dedication.

Are you recruiting and how can interested players get in touch with you?

We are currently accepting provisional applications for membership in Ascendance. Any individual who applies before the game’s release is subject to performance review following the game’s launch (as are all members during their tenure in ASC), and must be willing to participate in the earliest open beta event. Those interested in applying may visit our website, www.guildasc.com, create an account, and click on the “Recruitment” tab to fill out a member application form. Submissions are typically processed within 24 hours. Feedback is issued to the applicant in addition to an up or down acceptance decision on the application. If someone is looking for a fully-fledged, highly organized guild led by experienced players, he or she need look no further than ASC.

We’ll be conducting a stress test on Monday May 14 from 11 AM to 6:00 PM PDT (-7 GMT).

This special test event is open only to Pre-Purchase customers who have registered their accounts. With your help, we can conduct important tests and address some of the issues we identified during our first Beta Weekend Event. During this event, all you need to do is play normally with a new or existing character on your Beta account using the same game client. Please note that since this is a stress test of our servers, you may experience some in-game performance issues. If you’ve pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 and wish to participate in the stress test, we recommend that you register the account and download the game client.

Pre-Purchase customers, log in to the Beta Forums for more information and/or to download the Beta client if needed. https://forum-en.gui...-Started/169235

Having issues logging in? Contact Support: https://support.guildwars2.com/

[Your] Home Server determines which side you play for in our World vs. World combat as well as which bonuses from World vs. World are available to you... A player may transfer from their home world to a new home world for a fee... Once a player pays to transfer, there’s a seven-day period during which they cannot transfer again.

Beyond this, a player’s not eligible to receive any of the World vs. World bonuses during the match that is ongoing when they transfer. Because of our matchmaking system, you can never be certain that your side is going to win the next matchup, so you’d be risking your money without any guarantee of being able to reap the rewards that come with victory.

There are quite a few things that we implemented intentionally to help facilitate players playing with each other. For example, our waypoint system is designed to allow players to quickly and easily travel to wherever their friends are. Friends lists and guild membership are account-based to help people play with each other and not force them to remember a long list of alts. Whenever we design a new feature we always ask ourselves how it impacts our players’ ability to play with their friends.

"One of the big things we really focus on is building a world that is very dynamic... On top of that, it's about bringing players together, and allowing them to play that game the way that they want to... It's about choice, it's about a society of players coming together and just playing the game the way that they want to."
-Mike Zadorojny, Content Designer

"I think right from the beginning what we really wanted was to offer players new options and new experiences... We try to not follow existing patterns. We try to innovate in all the things we do. We ask ourselves the more fundamental questions. What do players really want in our online worlds? ... Let's go back to the beginning of online worlds. What did we dream online worlds would be? And that's what we built Guild Wars 2 into.

"The most exciting thing for me about GW2 is the degree to which the world is really dynamic now. We've just completely gotten rid of the traditional questing model. Instead, the world is full of events, and everything you do now, you're with other players and you come together now. You all have the same motivations all the time."
-Mike O'Brien, Executive Producer and ArenaNet Co-Founder

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
– Albert Einstein

Hey guys!

I’d like to start off by saying THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking time out of your lives to play GW2 and give us feedback. You gave up the most valuable resource you have on this planet – your time. Due to that, I wanted to give you guys some of my time to show how much we appreciate your feedback and criticisms. Rather than posting individually to your multitudes of concerns, I tried to consolidate them into broad categories, and respond to them all here. I’ll do my best to try to cover as many issues as quickly as possible.

Feedback

• We may not have time to reply to every thread (some of these, as you guys know, are many pages long), but we do read them all. We have many people (other designers, programmers, QA, artists) who read the forums, and we bounce emails around internally to talk about issues and ways to fix them. So even if you don’t see responses, please know that we’re reading your feedback and taking it into consideration! I get many messages/emails/people walking by my desk who say, “Hey Chap, did you see X thread? They had some good points.” Even if I can’t respond to everything in the PvP forums, please know that I still greatly appreciate your feedback!
  

Conquest as our only game type at launch:

• We feel that Conquest will be just fine as our only game type at ship! It does a lot of things for us, and I’ll talk more about this in the esport section. But quickly, conquest allows new players to quickly understand how they can help their team. It also creates great tension that’s easy to follow for spectators/announcers. Our scoring system makes it very easy for observers to follow – with a quick glance up at the score screen, you know how close the game is.
  
• The secondary mechanics really change the flow/feel of the map. Our maps all have different strategies/builds that work well on them, and we feel that the secondary/layout really show what conquest is – a strong backbone for our competitive play.
  

Organized pvp/playing with party:

• I think a lot of people are enjoying our PvP, especially people who are new to PvP in general, or new to Guild Wars PvP. This is great! This weekend was a great test for us, and showed that it’s pretty welcoming to new players. But what else is there to the game type? This is where organized play/playing with organized teams/using voice communication/tournaments come in. Keep in mind that this weekend allowed you to join games and play with random teams in order to learn the game. Down the road you’ll be able to play in organized 5on5 squads, and that’s where the game will become deeper and more complex. You’ll need to start thinking about 5 person builds, class synergies, battlefield tactics, controlling secondary objectives and conquest points, etc. The game really changes when you start to play in a 5 person organized team vs. an opposing 5 person organized team. We want both to be fun! I’ll talk about this more in the Esport section.
  

Tournaments:

• Tournaments will allow you to play with an organized 5 person team and see your results as you make your way through a tournament! We didn’t show them this weekend, but they’re something we think a lot of you will really enjoy. Sit tight, they’re coming!
  

Balance:

• First off, balance is not yet final. A lot of us played with you this weekend (even if you didn’t know we were there) and many of us know how to deal with some situations that may not be salient to our newer players. The game is still evolving, even on a daily basis. Things are being added/tweaked/fixed/iterated upon EVERY DAY, and due to that, the game is still in flux. Let’s give an example – the Thief.
  
• Thief. I saw a ton of posts this weekend about the Thief being OP (overpowered) and imba (imbalanced). The Thief can be very strong in some 1on1 matchups, and is weak in others. The Thief is also great in some team compositions, and very weak in others. We’ll keep an eye on Thief balance, but overall they are pretty balanced in the grand scope of things. There are many great Thieves in the office who still run from other classes if they’re well played. Once you learn how the Thief works, you learn how to counter them. As your knowledge base a community matures, you’ll learn how to deal with the Thief as well. Keep in mind you guys only played for a few days, you’ll get better every time you play it, and your view on what’s balanced/imbalanced may change in time.
  
• Melee vs ranged. I also saw a lot of threads on melee vs ranged. I think ranged abilities are much easier to use than melee ones. It’s easier to pick a ranged class, back up a lot, and keep hitting your opponent….but…once a good melee character figures out how to disable your movement, dodge your attacks, and then get you in range, YOU ARE IN TROUBLE. There are many melee builds that destroy ranged builds, but the trick is getting there. Once melee players learn how to work together, you’ll see them dishing out a ton of pain on ranged foes. BUT, having said that, don’t worry – balance isn’t final, and we’re still tweaking things. We’ll keep an eye on the balance, as we always do.
  
• Secondary mechanics. So ya. Svanir and Jotun on the forest map are a little easy. They were way too hard for a bit, and I toned them down, but with the data I collected this weekend, I can safely say they need to be bumped up a little bit. I’ll keep watching the balance on those guys, and the buff they give you, and make sure that they are hard to attain, but well worth the effort. They definitely still need some balance, so I’ll keep looking at that.
  

E-sport aspirations:
Let’s start this with a question: What does it take to make an Esport? I’d say you need a few things:

• Fun. It has to be fun. This is pretty obvious, but let’s be sure to add it to the list. If people don’t enjoy your game, they won’t play it. And “fun” is different from player to player. We need to make a game (with the help of our community), that’s fun for new players as well as professionals. It can’t just be good for one or the other.
  
• Accessible. It has to be something new players can get into. Magic the gathering. Starcraft. Counterstrike. Basketball. You need the entry level game to be accessible to new players, or you’ll lose your playerbase! You need to feed the pro levels with good players, who in turn come from the mid-tier level, who come from brand new players. And don’t forget, the only way that you get sponsored, if you’re an aspiring pro gamer, if it a LOT of people want to watch your game of choice. Because then they create a spectator base, and sponsors take notice, and want to sponsor athletes in those games. New player accessibility is CRUCIAL to an esport. League of Legends is a very newb-friendly game (mechanically) and it has had great success. That’s why there are so many sponsors…the spectator base is MASSIVE.
  
• Easily understood. Capture points and secondary mechanics are pretty simple. That’s why we’ve based our competitive game on them. Now, once you start to play in 5on5 teams, you learn how far you can push the game, how much you can do with your team, and how skill is involved.
  
• Skill cap. In order for a game to succeed, there has to be a skill cap where a good player can exert dominance over a lesser-skilled opponent. This weekend I saw my share of 1on2’s, 2on3’s, 2on4’s, etc. where skill > number of players. I know a lot of you guys are good at other games, but we have some people internally who have played hundreds of hours in PvP. I took my share of 1on3’s at a cap point this weekend, and I’m sure the guys on the other team thought something was broken. The point is – when skilled players start to make teams, and they start to play other organized teams, you’re going to see some amazing stuff. That’s where we’ll start to see players like SlayerS Boxer (SC), Heaton (CS), [Evil] (GW1), and Daigo (fighters).
  
• Support. This is where we come in. We’ll keep balancing the game after ship. We’ll keep listening to feedback from players. As we make new maps, we’ll be listening to the community to see which of the existing maps they like the most, which maps they’d like to see in the future, etc. Our job doesn’t end once the game ships – in many ways, that’s when it starts.
  

So ya, that’s it. I need to get to work on stuff for our next weekend event! We learned a ton this weekend from watching you guys play, and from reading your posts. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR GIVING US some of your time, love, and effort. We’ll keep working to make the game the best we can, so that new players and pros alike are able to enjoy GW2. We are a company built on iteration, so now it’s time to do another iteration of PvP and balance! Thanks for supporting us and giving us so much constructive feedback to go on!

-Chaplan