Four years of Guild Wars: A retrospective

By Amanda Rivera
April 24, 2009 16:40 PM PST
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With all the expansions and additional content added to the game over the years, how does the team deal with the gap between legacy players and new ones?

We knew from the beginning that we wanted to create a game where players could bring their friends in, even years after they started playing. By having one world, there's no danger of being separated from new friends or new players by server boundaries. We kept the level limit to a point where it doesn't take long to master the basic game, while at the same time providing more adventures for long-term players to master and customize their play. We've added features like Observer mode so everyone can see how the best players in the world play, learn from them, and eventually compete with them. More recently, we've added aids like the Fire Imp companion to help new players get started and catch up even quicker.

Looking back over the progression of the game, do you consider the story complete, or is there more in store for Ascalon?

I'm very proud of the stories we put together. While I do think we've come full circle on a lot of the stories and characters, I think in a fantasy world there's always the question of "What happens next?" One of the fun things we were able to do in the Guild Wars: Eye of the North expansion was revisit existing areas with new dangers and open up dungeons and other adventures. There's always another story to tell and we're definitely going to pick up some of those stories in Guild Wars 2, as well as build on themes that were already there but never developed. We purposely left a gap and a lot to the imagination to give players room for adventures in between, because it is a fantasy game and it's as much a world in the players mind as it is in ours.

Was there a moment during the last four years that stood out as a pivotal point in the community's adolescence?

There was a point in the first year when the dev team realized pretty quickly we couldn't win at Guild vs. Guild anymore! But more specifically, I think every time we released a new set of skills or story, the community evolved. Every time we held a seasonal event, the community rallied and picked up a new fondness for the Guild Wars world and its characters, whether it's the young girl Gwen, the Mad King Thorn, or the ever-impressive henchman Koss. I think players really got into the game at the point where seeing an in-game character progress, re-appear, or get new recognition became as much an attraction as achieving the next level. In fact, that may have happened even before launch with the characters players met in beta events.

We've heard talk of a sequel. How do you plan to transition your fan base to Guild Wars 2?

I think we can say Guild Wars 2 will have many things we wanted to do in Guild Wars, but done better. I think it's also valid to say that since Guild Wars 2 will continue the tradition of no monthly fee, there is no downside to our fan base playing both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 together. In that way, it is very much an extension of the Guild Wars universe and doesn't require the player to leave Guild Wars. On top of all that, we have the Hall of Monuments in Guild Wars, which is designed to allow players to carry the prestige of some of their Guild Wars achievements over to Guild Wars 2.