Guild Wars is celebrating its fourth anniversary this weekend, four years since its unusual business model hit the scene. Since then, they've released two stand-alone campaigns, one expansion, and are now hard at work on the sequel. It's cool that they've made it this far, accounting for the fact that lack one thing you expect from AAA MMORPGs: a subscription fee.

So, in honor of outlasting pretty much every MMO that was released AW (after WoW), we've had a talk with one of Guild War's community managers, Regina Buenaobra, about how Guild Wars got where it was, what it's doing to celebrate, and where it is going.

Read the interview after the jump.

RB: At its core, Guild Wars is still a game that emphasizes skill over grind, and the core Guild Wars experience remains true to its roots. We update the game regularly, and there have been a lot of smaller changes over the years, such as changes to skills. Many of our players pride themselves on their ability to adapt to our skill updates, especially our PvP players. Our design team regularly tweaks the game in response to how players use skills, and this is most evident in PvP. If you played Guild Wars four years ago and hop back into the game today, whether you play PvP or PvE, you will find that you have a fresh new gameplay experience because of those skill updates.

Another change was the addition of customizable AI-controlled Heroes. We’ve always allowed players to bring along henchmen to fill out their party in case they didn’t have enough players, but if players bring Heroes into their party, they can customize the Skill Bars on their Heroes. Heroes give players more options when taking a party out on quests and missions. This feature adds a deeper dimension to exploration and gameplay, because players need to be aware of skills that work for different professions, not just ones that they play. That deep play experience is something we’ve learned our players enjoy.

How much has the community affected the changes over the years?

RB: Community managers act not just as messengers, but as advocates for our players. Members of our development team also take an active interest in what our players consider important. Through us and other members of the studio, our players definitely have a strong voice at ArenaNet. We have the community in mind when our team develops new features. Some of the features being released in the Fourth Anniversary Update are frequently requested features from our community—in particular, the expanded options for item storage and the Zaishen Menagerie. We have other features in store for the anniversary, so check those out when the update goes live!

What has been the most controversial patch or change made?

RB: A fairly controversial update in recent memory happened last year when we balanced key skills separately for PvP and PvE. We introduced PvP versions of certain skills, which were functionally the same but had their number values adjusted to change variables such as damage, healing, cost, and recharge rate. This change was done to avoid nerfing PvE to a huge degree while keeping the PvP game balanced. Players are incredibly adaptable, and it’s a regular challenge for our designers to keep the game interesting and encourage a variety of play styles. There have been other controversial decisions over the years, such as loot-scaling or allowing Heroes in Heroes’ Ascent, but this is a more recent example.

Why do people keep playing Guild Wars?

RB: People keep playing because of the engaging storyline, the fantastic art, the exciting gameplay, and because our subscription-free model makes it easy for players to come back to Guild Wars after a break and experience it anew. Because of our regular updates to skills, players returning to the game can have a fresh set of challenges to tackle.

What influence has the non-conventional gameplay model had in drawing and keeping players?

RB: It’s had a huge influence. Because we’ve done something a little different from other games, this has made Guild Wars distinct. We’ve been able to attract our own audience of passionate players who want something different and unique.

How has the art direction and storytelling aspect influenced the game?

RB: Our Art Director, Daniel Dociu, has developed a very strong artistic culture at ArenaNet, with a focus on fine art skills and craftsmanship. This focus on fine arts has had a strong influence on the creative process, from concept all the way to implementation in the game. Likewise, our writers’ attention to crafting lore and developing the story has created a very rich world for players to interact with and explore.

What are the celebration plans for the fourth anniversary?

RB: Apart from the in-game events, we’re also introducing exciting new features for players. One of the coolest new features is Zaishen Challenge Quests, which let players complete certain challenges each day, such as replaying a storyline mission or winning battles in different types of PvP. The quests offered will change each day.

One of the most suggested features we’re delivering is more storage options. In celebration of our Fourth Anniversary, we’re giving players a free storage pane so they’ll have more inventory space for items that all characters on a single account can access. Not only that, players will be able to buy more storage panes for additional account-wide inventory space.

Another requested feature is the ability for players to access different pets after they have already charmed them. Players can do this by heading over to the Zaishen Menagerie outpost. Access to this area is completely free. There are several ways to unlock different evolutions and levels of pets, such as having members of the Zaishen Order train your pets in exchange for Balthazar Faction. We’ll also give players the additional option of unlocking all standard pets by purchasing the Pet Unlock Pack.

We’ve saved some surprises for the anniversary, so check the website for more details.

Are there plans for in-game celebrations or special items for the fourth anniversary?

RB: We have loads of in-game events going on for our four-year anniversary. The Shing Jea Boardwalk will re-open, where players can test their luck in the Boardwalk games. The Dragon Arena and Rollerbeetle Races will be open. Birthday Cupcakes will drop from monsters in explorable areas. Starting on April 28, characters turning four years old receive the new miniatures from the fourth year birthday series. Characters turning four will receive these presents on their creation date.

What is the current division between PvP and PvE players, and which group tends to be more active? Do you expect this to change?

RB: Most of our players (about 90%) play PvE, but our PvP players are among the most vocal and passionate of our player base. Both types of players are active in their own ways, so it’s difficult to say which group is more active.

Why should someone start playing Guild Wars now?

RB: For the rich, compelling solo storyline, challenging and deep gameplay, awesome PvP combat, and the incredible art and music. We think all kinds of players will find something to like in Guild Wars. Also, in these trying times Guild Wars still represents one of the best gaming values out there since we don’t charge a subscription fee and you can play online as much as you want. Plus, we recently released the Guild Wars Trilogy, so you can grab the first three campaigns at a great price.

What is the team currently working on?

RB: Guild Wars 2!

Is the team planning any more purchasable updates to Guild Wars?

RB: Right now it’s hard to say for sure. We want to see how much the players like these updates first.

Do you imagine that people will continue to play Guild Wars for years to come?

RB: We hope that Guild Wars will continue to be a game players enjoy and continue to play. I can tell you from our end, we are constantly working toward keeping the world of Guild Wars engaging and compelling  

What is the progress of Guild Wars 2, and when will we start hearing more about the sequel?

RB: We’ll have more to share about this later in the year, so stay tuned!

Comments (3)

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munky said:

... I anyone here a GW player? If so, I would be up for a casual round or two. I bought 2 copies of Nightfall hoping the missus would play, but that didn't last long. I have a buddy trying to pull me into WoW, but I'm just too much of a cheap azz to pay a monthly fee - especially how little gaming time I have.

April 23, 2009

SardethWynn said:

... Please Explain to us little folks why you Regina and Martin were listed as staff as a in game radio station and when another in game station, that told everyone that they were going to be there weeks in advance, Martin gets to mute the on air Dj and a few others then lie about it? Nice, ethical conduct that was, wasn't it?

May 01, 2009

SardethWynn said:

... My official response as to why I am going on the war path against Martin and Regina, their actions in game and their temporary employment with Santiarum.fm as Djs. Their actions damaged my industry, its bad enough that it would be cheeper to run a terrestrial radio station and these are the fees we as online radio stations must pay to play content, if a Gm, Community Director or say a Dev becomes listed as a on air personality, automatically in game players will tune in just for novelty or with the chance of scoring points with the game company. The actions taken by Martin and Regina IE: Muting other radio station Djs in game then lying and saying they didnt, being listed as on air personalities for the benefit of Sanitarium.fm and then decided to grace other radio stations with on air appearances after the already damaged everyone else ratings for the day. No this is unacceptable even though I still consider David of Bladeradio.com a friend I will honor his request to stop posting on GWs offical Wiki, but I will be pursuing this with other avenues available to me. I do not know what kind of bargain was made between that radio station and Matin and Regina. Regina said “Their were listed as Djs to access the forums” this is obviously mushroom feed in the hopes that it will calm everyone down. Anyone that runs a website knows this is a lie, register to read the forum and get forum admin. Martin comes from Europe and so does that station so, come to your own conclusions. Oddly though because of who they are, no one will stand up and call their actions and the lies they have used to justify their actions what they are lies and smoke screens. This just shows their ethics and business professionalism is sadly lacking. These actions are an Oprah Whinfrey grandstanding and a slap to the face of every fan site or internet radio station out there. If Anet allows this to go un-punished this will also show their total lack of professionalism indifference to fan sites and their ethical behavior. I will pursue this to the best of my ability. Understand outside of their lack of professional behavior and poor judgement and perhaps a side deal or two with that radio station, I have nothing against them. I do not even know them as individuals, (however; their abuse of their in game status as admin and company position kind of shows me their character), and it is only their timing that has me looking for Anet to punish them instead of say a different MMO. I would be going after any game Admin if they abused their position and in game status this way. The message they sent was, it doesnt matter how long this other station or fansite has been in this game we will back this one and the rest of you can fall to the dirt. No, this is very unacceptable and unethical in any part of the world.

May 01, 2009