Martin Kerstein Interview (German) | TowerTalk

[Ravious]

The folks at Wartower.de had an interview with Martin Kerstein some time ago, and they just released it today. It's in German, so if any body that speaks the language wants to put up a synopsis it would be appreciated.

Judging by the comments, which I can machine translate at least, there is really no new GW2 information, but a lot of the commentors thought it was a good interview. Some other commentors discussed the PvP types in GW1 that disappeared and the upcoming 5th birthday.

[Geikamir]

That's neat, either way. Maybe we have someone fluent in German?

[Default]

Uh, I kind of never paid attention during German class, but lets see what I remember ( ITS BEEN 5 YEARS :l )

He says the Charr are simple, but how this is handled makes them cool.

Martin likes Windows and Pepsi? ( Or he worked at Windows, not sure D: )

Says they feel Codex Arena was the right move? ( No idea what this means, what is Codex Arena? )

Mentions something about a 5th birthday being big, and tying to heritage, which could be HoM.

And suddenly they started talking really fast.

Something about balancing is being looked at more, its hard, all the people that work on it, a loud HMM, then I think he says they are putting focus on it, testers, testing studio? Possibly test krewe, this might not be GW2 but GW.

Mentions something about the new companion method, but thats all I caught from that bit.

Test Krewe they are happy with, good with input, community knows the game, test krewe helps, something about GW2 ( might be starting GW2 with test krewe at start? )

Hero Battle and Team Battle are gone, due to something, ( I have no idea what Zair means, but I am suddenly curious due to all the ZAIR ZAIR ZAIR ZAIR that Martin just said )

[Desert Rose]

- The number of skills in GW2 will be reduced because many players were crushed by the sheer number of skills and possible builds.
- The entrance into PvP is to high in GW1, they will to try to make it easier in GW2.
- In GW2 the number of PvP formats will be reduced.
- Balancing will never stop.
- There will be new content for GW1, but the definition of "content" may varies from player to player. Mainly new content will expend the story of GW1 and will build a bridge to GW2.
- They may expand the Test Krewe.
- HB and TA will not return.
- Even negative feedback has something positive; if people criticize a game it means they're (still) interested into it.
- There will be something special for the 5th birthday.
- New costumes are very likely.
- HoM will be account based in GW2. One GW2 account will be abled to linked to another GW1 accont. With a special item you will be able to enter a instance of the HoM. There are no informations what the bonuses are at this point.
- They seriously consider to enable player organized tournaments. It hasn't made clear if they also consider if players will be able to make custom maps.
- There isn't a easy way to show who is online in the alliance guilds, so it's very unlikely it will be implemented in GW1.
- The build system in GW2 will be similar to GW1; you can make a build out of different possibilities.

There were also some informations about Martin himself and how can you get a job at ANet.

[Joiry]

Cool that there'll be something special for the 5th birthday. Makes you wonder if its the last birthday before GW2 - yes, I can dream about having a vague, totally speculative clue about a bounding date for release.

Martin likes Pepsi? Hmmm, GW2 is doooommmmed I say, doomed. Actually, I think I've heard that pepsi is just generally more popular in Europe than the US.

I'm hoping Melandru costumes for spring (fingers crossed).

[Default]

Originally Posted by Desert Rose

- The number of skills in GW2 will be reduced because many players were crushed by the sheer number of skills and possible builds.
- The entrance into PvP is to high in GW1, they will to try to make it easier in GW2.
- In GW2 the number of PvP formats will be reduced.
- Balancing will never stop.
- There will be new content for GW1, but the definition of "content" may varies from player to player. Mainly new content will expend the story of GW1 and will build a bridge to GW2.
- They may expand the Test Krewe.
- HB and TA will not return.
- Even negative feedback has something positive; if people criticize a game it means they're (still) interested into it.
- There will be something special for the 5th birthday.
- New costumes are very likely.
- HoM will be account based in GW2. One GW2 account will be abled to linked to another GW1 accont. With a special item you will be able to enter a instance of the HoM. There are no informations what the bonuses are at this point.
- They seriously consider to enable player based tournaments. It hasn't made clear if they also consider if players will be able to make custom maps.
- There isn't a easy way to show who is online in the alliance guilds, so it's very unlikely it will be implemented in GW1.
- The build system in GW2 will be similar to GW1; you can make a build out of different possibilities.

There were also some informations about Martin himself and how can you get a job at ANet.

So I have to ask you now.

What does Zair mean, and why does Martin say it so loudly and vigorously when talking about HB/TA?

[Ravious]

Cool! Thanks. Yeah I saw something about heritage popping up in the comments. 5th Anniversary could be pretty cool. ^ ^

[Feathermoore]

Originally Posted by Default

So I have to ask you now.

What does Zair mean, and why does Martin say it so loudly and vigorously when talking about HB/TA?

all I can thing about is SSB when I see that written XD

[amazing]

Originally Posted by Default

So I have to ask you now.

What does Zair mean, and why does Martin say it so loudly and vigorously when talking about HB/TA?

Well, it's actually "sehr" which means 'very' in English.

[Tr0n]

Player run tournaments sounds cooler the more I hear about it.

Imagine if you really could build your own map with an in-game editor.

[Geikamir]

Originally Posted by Tr0n

Player run tournaments sounds cooler the more I hear about it.

Imagine if you really could build your own map with an in-game editor.

I wonder how long it'd take until WoW and Halo maps became made and popular/over-played?

[Dutch Sunshine]

Guys, do you remember the statement about the HoM and GW2?

When will we find out the specific benefits that the Hall of Monuments provides to Guild Wars 2 characters?
We will reveal exactly how the Hall of Monuments works when we're closer to the launch of the game.

Martin kind of hinted that it would probably be this year, as he said that it would come THIS year and we wouldnt have to wait too long to get that information. He says that at a rough 2/3th of the interview.

[IDarko]

Creating own maps for ranked play would be the most stupid move ever! Why? The creater knows every path/glitch and whatnot. So he will have an very big advantage. Creating maps for unranked pvp would be ok for me tho

Also, thanks for the translation Desert Rose.

[Geikamir]

Originally Posted by IDarko

Creating own maps for ranked play would be the most stupid move ever! Why? The creater knows every path/glitch and whatnot. So he will have an very big advantage. Creating maps for unranked pvp would be ok for me tho

Also, thanks for the translation Desert Rose.

Default, too.

[Dove]

Zair.

I'd be interested in hearing more about the 5th birthday and the companion thing.

[Konig Des Todes]

Thanks for the summary Desert Rose.

Originally Posted by Desert Rose

- Even negative feedback has something positive; if people criticize a game it means they're (still) interested into it.

I hope I wasn't the only one who chuckled at this. It's very true.

Originally Posted by Desert Rose

- The build system in GW2 will be similar to GW1; you can make a build out of different possibilities.

That's good, and kind of clears up a bit of debate that was going on a few weeks ago regarding how different GW2 will be from GW1 in terms of skill bars.

Originally Posted by Desert Rose

There were also some informations about Martin himself and how can you get a job at ANet.

Please translate on the job part. There are people who would be interested in that.

[Agar]

Some nice info there, thanks alot Ravious and Desert Iam more interested too in the HoM part and the 5th anniversary.

[CookieTime]

Originally Posted by Konig Des Todes

Please translate on the job part. There are people who would be interested in that.

From what i understood, you just have to be very good at what you do (programming, graphics design etc.) if you want to get employed, especially if you're from Europe since the procedure to get a visa is complicated and long. Correct me if im wrong.

[Desert Rose]

Originally Posted by Default

What does Zair mean, and why does Martin say it so loudly and vigorously when talking about HB/TA?

Originally Posted by amazing

Well, it's actually "sehr" which means 'very' in English.

Thanks, now I understand what he wants to know.

Martins says: (not a literal translation) "The number of players in TA/HB was very, very, very little. (...) Mostly only three to four teams played TA at a given time."

[domicro]

Can someone please translate the interview! There has to be someone on this forum who speaks deutsch fluently. Or is what Desert Rose wrote really everything?