Wiispace Interview With Ree Soesbee, World Designer and Writer For Guild Wars 2

[Inde]

Saw this interview and searched and didn't see it posted anywhere. Was done back on Sept. 1st. Looks like just a rehash but maybe somebody can dissect something new out of it:

http://www.wiispace.com/?p=vB23788

Hey readers, Kyle here, Wiispace is bringing you another Q&A interview, this time from Ree Soesbee, World Designer and Writer for Guild Wars 2! We’d like to thank Ree, and anyone else involved with this for their willingness to answer our questions!

Wiispace: Will there be any continuation of the original Guild Wars story or at least some mention of it in Guild Wars 2? Will there be any old characters revisiting us in Guild Wars 2?

RS: The world of Tyria in Guild Wars 2 is the same as the one players are familiar with from the original Guild Wars game. The passage of more than two hundred and fifty years has changed the world, altering both the culture and the landscape significantly, but the world has many things that will be familiar to returning players. The story of the world is a continual one, and events that the player characters shaped in the first Guild Wars game are turning points in the history of Guild Wars 2.

Due to the passage of time, most characters that were important in Guild Wars are no longer present. Their names are legendary, and their contributions are still recognized in the game, as are the events of our previous releases. From those starting points, we shaped the new world of Tyria – and many of the organizations, gods, and locations from the first Guild Wars will be present in the second.

Wiispace: What can you tell us about the Sylvari race, and how they fit into the whole picture?

RS: The sylvari are a very young race of nature spirits, who have awakened with the rise of a new age in Tyria. They are beings of light, as yet uncorrupted by the world. As a people, they have not yet truly learned of sorrow, suspicion or hatred. The typical sylvari approaches life with curiosity, openness, and resolution, always seeking new experiences. The sylvari do not have the history or learned traditions of older races, but they do have a shared connection with one another, learning things instinctively through the Dream that guides them. With the guidance of their Firstborn and the gentle Call of their dream, the sylvari quest throughout Tyria, going where destiny leads them.

Wiispace: The Guild Wars 2 trailer showed a lot of impressive environments, one of the shots being that there is a sense of real time as the sun went down and the moon came up. Will there be a real time environment as in transitions between daytime and night time and weather changes?

RS: We do, indeed, have a day/night cycle! The transition will not be real time, but rather a sped-up in-game cycle based on the game timer. The transition of day to night will have a big effect on the world, as certain events in the game won’t happen until it is an appropriate time of day. Centaurs may attack the garrison at first light, for example, or spooky ghosts appear at a haunted ruin only during nighttime.

Wiispace: Guild Wars had a very strong lore involving the gods and goddesses in the world, will this also be a major factor in the lore of Guild Wars 2?

RS: Lore will always be a strong factor in the guild Wars franchise. We love writing story and creating a strong world of imagination; our players love experiencing the epic quests and seeing their actions change the world. However, the gods of Tyria as our players have experienced them are primarily human gods – and while the humans continue to maintain a very strong faith, the other races have their own forms of religion. The atheistic charr swear to never again accept the yoke of ‘false idols,’ the mathematical asura keep a steady eye on their Eternal Alchemy, and the norn respect, but do not ‘worship’ Bear and the other Spirits of the Wild. The sylvari are more agnostic, sensing that there is a greater force directing their actions, but not yet able to give it a name – their path is one of questing, seeking answers rather than following blindly another race’s path.

Wiispace: Previous Guild Wars installments have proven that you tend to follow a theme for your environments and lore.(Factions based off Asian themes, Nightfall based off African themes) Will you have set themes for environments in Guild Wars 2 that are based off of real world locations?

RS: The majority of Guild Wars 2 takes place on the primary continent of Tyria, within the lands that Guild wars players would recognize as Kryta, Maguuma, Shiverpeaks and Ascalon. Orr, as we have mentioned in the trailer, has risen from the sea and is also an explorable area. Those areas have definite ‘themes,’ but are shaped more by the events going on in our game.

Wiispace: In the Guild Wars 2 trailer there was a clip of an underwater environment, will there be fully explorable underwater environments in Guild Wars 2?

RS: Absolutely. One of the things we’re extremely excited about is the new ability to explore the lakes and underwater areas of Tyria. We’re designing underwater activities to be fun, and easy to take part in – the ability to go underwater won’t be an extraordinarily annoying or difficult thing to do, because we actively want the players to explored this new environment and enjoy the events occurring beneath the surface of the water.

Wiispace: Will we be seeing anything familiar; as in cities from Guild Wars in Guild Wars 2?

RS: Definitely. The city of Lion’s Arch still exists, although it has changed a lot. Many of the territories of Ascalon retain their original names, if not their original owners. Rata Sum, Kryta, the Shiverpeaks all exist and will be explorable. Other familiar areas, like Sorrow’s Furnace, may have retained their location and be recognizable – but the passage of two hundred and fifty years has changed them in dramatic and exciting ways.

Again, Wiispace like to thank Ree and everyone else over at NC Soft/ArenaNet for their cooperation with this Q&A!

[Nodakim]

Nothing new.
Ok the Sylvari thing is confirming some "theories"...

[Falthron]

Well this shows us that the day or night cycles will not be in real time (which is awesome) It also gives us a little more on the sylvari and how they act.

[Arkhan]

They didn't mention anything about the weather though.

I really hope there will be rain in GW2.

[BobTheTank]

Wait, I'm confused. How can they have a day/night cycle that's not in real time?

[Arkhan]

It will probably be accelerated compared to IRL cycle. Lots of games have already done this before so not that special.

[BobTheTank]

Oh I thought they meant 'real time' in a different way. 'Real time' is often a buzzword used by game developers to refer to things that are actually happening as you play.

[Konig Des Todes]

I learned one thing in this interview:

Jeff is more open than Ree (that, or Ravious has the right questions to get good answers out of).

Edit:At second glance it does tell us a few things about lore afterall, and one thing I'm sad about - Elona will indeed not be a part of the initial release (two in-game footage scenes kind of point to Elona for their location, guess not...).

Originally Posted by T-D-C

I wonder about the Day/Night Cycle, If people can only be on for an hour or so each day does that mean that their activities will be restricted to the Day/night cycle of the server.

Example I am only on from 8pm (GMT + 10) doe that mean that it will be day or night always at that time, how will they work Day & night with the different timezones all over the world? Will this mean that with specific events happening during the D/N cycle that people may missout due to their timezone & playing time?

This won't be the case if they make the D/N cycling not a number of hours that is a factor of 24. That is, if it is 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, or 23 hours for one day, and the same amount of time for one night. I hope that it is either 5 or 7.

[T-D-C]

I wonder about the Day/Night Cycle, If people can only be on for an hour or so each day does that mean that their activities will be restricted to the Day/night cycle of the server.

Example I am only on from 8pm (GMT + 10) doe that mean that it will be day or night always at that time, how will they work Day & night with the different timezones all over the world? Will this mean that with specific events happening during the D/N cycle that people may missout due to their timezone & playing time?

[Orithil]

Well, if they do a day/night cycle that is an odd number of hours long, say 5, then each time it rolls over into a new 24 hour period the day/night cycle will have staggered, so everyone will eventually get to play each side of the cycle no matter when/where they log in.

[Drago]

I would imagine that when they do finally tell us about the day/night system that it will be a system that would go in large increments. Something like.. a day in the game, is 10 hours real-time.

[Sabre Wolf]

Originally Posted by Ree Soesbee

The majority of Guild Wars 2 takes place on the primary continent of Tyria, within the lands that Guild wars players would recognize as Kryta, Maguuma, Shiverpeaks and Ascalon. Orr, as we have mentioned in the trailer, has risen from the sea and is also an explorable area. Those areas have definite ‘themes,’ but are shaped more by the events going on in our game.

I guess this means that Joko wont be a part of the first portion of GW2; since she makes no mention of the Crystal Dessert or Elona... But does that mean that Jormag and "Krakel" are out as well and its just Zhaitan this time round?

[Bob Slydell]

Originally Posted by BobTheTank

Wait, I'm confused. How can they have a day/night cycle that's not in real time?

Their day/night cycle for the game will probably be like 1 or 2 hours on earth.

[Sabre Wolf]

D/N Cycle... I think it will probably go on a 4 or 6 hour pattern, based on PST-US (ANET local time) and IGT (In Game Time)



The 6 hour table basicully means that for every hour you play, 2 hours go by in the game...
For the 4 hour table, every hour you play, 3 hours go by in the game.

So on the 6 hour table, 9pm at night PST, means that in game it is 6am morning
And on the 4 hour table, if it is 9pm at night PST, then in the game it is 3pm afternoon

I think anything beyond this would be too fast for game play...

[zwei2stein]

So, SF will still exist in GW2 and be accessible to players?

First GW2 news i dub 'awesome'.

[Fril Estelin]

Originally Posted by zwei2stein

So, SF will still exist in GW2 and be accessible to players?

First GW2 news i dub 'awesome'.

Exactly my thoughts. I think it confirms what I was saying in another thread that we'll have quite a lot of underground content to explore, which is an excellent news. Looking forward to seeing the Great Forge equivalent in GW2.

[Eliz Genevieve]

Originally Posted by Sabre Wolf

I guess this means that Joko wont be a part of the first portion of GW2; since she makes no mention of the Crystal Dessert or Elona... But does that mean that Jormag and "Krakel" are out as well and its just Zhaitan this time round?

They've already mention that we will only be able to... uhm , deal with 'The Zhaitan Problem'; but Kralky, Jormag, Primordus and The Deep Sea Dragon (argh) will be present and fightable, but we won't 'deal with Their Problem'.


OT: loved the news about the D/N Cycle. I was getting worried that they'd follow a real time horary. Guess not, happy me!

[Vorsakan]

Thanks for posting, Inde, it's a good read.

[zgomot]

I, for one, was hoping the day/night cycle would be just like in real world - ie 24h/day. But I can live with it being on a shorter time-table. However, anything lower than 6 IRL hours/in game day would be kind of ridiculous imo. Like this would be.

Originally Posted by Chrisworld

Their day/night cycle for the game will probably be like 1 or 2 hours on earth.

[tmakinen]

Originally Posted by zgomot

However, anything lower than 6 IRL hours/in game day would be kind of ridiculous imo.

That gave me a mental image. Two adventurers are standing by the gate of a garrison ...

Jumper Boy: Gee, that's a gorgeous sunset! Take a look, Cranky!
Cranky Lobster: What? Oh, missed it. Good night!
Jumper Boy: Well, should we have a nap then?
Cranky Lobster: Too late, it's way past midnight. Ah, there we go, Good morning!
Jumper Boy: Look, there's a centaur raiding party coming this way. To arms, to arms!
Cranky Lobster: Don't bother, they'll never get far ...
Cranky Lobster: ... see, centaurs always have siesta in the afternoon.
Jumper Boy: Oh, right. Good night!
Cranky Lobster: Good morning!
Jumper Boy: ...
Jumper Boy: Can somebody please stop the Sun? I'm getting dizzy!