Guild Wars 2: Social Activities Revealed

MikeB

Eager fans awaiting the release of Guild Wars 2 have more information to digest today as IGN is featuring a preview full of tons of little known details about the game.

The main focus of the preview is on that of non-combat/non-progression related activities. Social activities. Guild Wars 2 will feature many social activities ranging anywhere from bar fights, to playing instruments,  to shooting galleries at a carnivals. The designers are having a lot of fun putting together tons of activities for players weary of being heroes of Tyria. Social activities will grant players rewards as well, which will sometimes consist of tangible rewards such as unique item skins, but will also include intangible rewards, such as NPCs reacting to what you've done (like say beating the crap out of everyone in a bar!).

The game's achievement system was also explored in a bit more detail. Achievements in Guild Wars 2 will be account wide instead of character specific, as some achievements are not even possible to accomplish on a single character, and there won't be any tangible rewards associated with accomplishing these milestones, however players may be rewarded with titles and such. Feats, which are basically much shorter term achievements, will also be available and will reset daily. Feats can be as simple as a kill count for a particular type of monster and they serve to encourage certain actions from players. No details on any Feat related rewards were provided, though.

The team also discussed "personality", which will affect the way NPCs react to you based on the conversation choices and actions you take when interacting with them. Eventually you'll earn a reputation and you'll be able to approach obstacles in different ways. For example, a "badass" character might intimidate an NPC into getting information, while a more honorable type would pursue a less brash method of gaining information, like you know, perhaps talking them into speaking. It's important to note the Personality feature will not affect the game in any way, you'll still accomplish the same things, you just may do them in a different manner, offering a bit of flavor and individuality to players who appreciate it.

Finally, maps were discussed. Yes. Maps. Not terribly exciting, but Guild Wars 2 will feature a robust map system that takes inspiration from Yahoo and Google Maps, apeing features such as the ability to click and slide as well as zoom in.

Read the full preview over at IGN.

[Thanks AmazingAvery for the tip!]

Cola

Sounds like they are doing some cool things with gw2.

illyana

GW2 is shaping up quite nicely and has great RP possibilities!

Jadetooth

This game can't come soon enough! (well, yeah it can, don't want them to rush it or anything.. but you know.. i want it now!)

Talthanys

Great news for role-players (like me)! It also has something for the achievement junkies (not necessarily me)! And even a bar brawl system for PvPers (like me!).

Better get that last one in quick, AoC!

illyana

from a different interview abt social activities : 

 

Alright. Because I was thinking about, you brought up the bar brawl, for example Funcom had something like that planned for Age of Conan, and I'm not sure that made it in at launch. Is there any risk that something similar would happen to the activities? Or is it an integral part of the game experience in itself?

John: These are getting built into the game itself, they will be there at launch. They are not something that we will tack on later, they are part of the cities.

Eric Flannum: One of the things I can say is that we tend to, you know, we were pretty tight-lipped about the game for a long time and we tend not to talk about things unless they are actually in the game. So when we talk about activities, like when we talk about the bar brawl, or the shooting gallery, because they are actually in the game you can go in and experience them right now. And so there is actually very little chance that most things we talk about are not going to make it into the game just because we run out of time or anything like that. Because, as I said, we tend not to talk about things unless we're very, very certain that we can do them. Certain as in they are in already.

MMO.Maverick

Damn, this game is going to be hot as hell.

 

Other companies should take lessons from ANet in their general policy of not making statements and promises they can't keep (*cough* Funcom) and in their flair and courage to innovate and be creative (*cough* Blizzard).

 

And I love their artists! Best around in the gaming business.

Their artwork and ingame screenshots shown so far are simply marvelous already.

Alberel

If the activities unlock cosmetic improvements for your characters then you can guarantee that they're gonna be popular. A-Net seems to have a very solid understanding of what drives their players and how to best use it to create a fun and varied game. They also seem to be going out of their way to appeal to all the different types of players quite specifically; they have features aimed at certain audiences rather than a mish mash of things intended to somehow please everyone. Definately looking forward to this one.

Unknown

GW2 continues to impress the socks of me - I love this sort of attention to detail (mainly thinking of the maps thing here). Does anyone know if there are plans for an open or closed beta, and if so whether one can sign up?

Also, does anyone know if there is a fan site to GW2 like Darth Hater is to TOR? I've looked around briefly with no real success.

Khorrax

Originally posted by Strap

GW2 continues to impress the socks of me - I love this sort of attention to detail (mainly thinking of the maps thing here). Does anyone know if there are plans for an open or closed beta, and if so whether one can sign up?

Also, does anyone know if there is a fan site to GW2 like Darth Hater is to TOR? I've looked around briefly with no real success.

 

The ones I know of are http://www.guildwars2guru.com/ and http://guildwars.incgamers.com. Actually, the last one only has a subforum dedicated to Guild Wars 2.

Voltlives

Good stuff!  I can't wait to try it out, hope it sticks.

 

END OF LINE_

~V

Electriceye

Honestly? The amount of content, diversity, innovations that is going to be present at launch, the sheer scale of everything they're working on is out of this world. It's almost too good to be true.

It's as if Arenanet had 1million developers and billions of dollars.

Good luck to them, they are definitely onto something really special with GW2!

Lazerou

Originally posted by illyana

from a different interview abt social activities :

Eric Flannum: One of the things I can say is that we tend to, you know, we were pretty tight-lipped about the game for a long time and we tend not to talk about things unless they are actually in the game. So when we talk about activities, like when we talk about the bar brawl, or the shooting gallery, because they are actually in the game you can go in and experience them right now. And so there is actually very little chance that most things we talk about are not going to make it into the game just because we run out of time or anything like that. Because, as I said, we tend not to talk about things unless we're very, very certain that we can do them. Certain as in they are in already.

The above reason I think is such an amazingly refreshing approach to developing an MMO. It sounds bizarre doesn't it - that someone is actually using common sense and only talking about deliverable product. I don't know of any other industry that talks about features of a final product before they have even been tested at a beta stage. Not only talks about them but promises they will be in the game at launch - only to find out afterwards that they never got past the internal testing phase.

The only thing from the IGN article that I didn't really like was the talk of the feats, and how they would reset daily. If these are done right, and only add bonuses to your current game session for XP, reputation or whatever, then ok. But if these daily resets are used in the wrong way they simply become one of those features that makes people feel like they have to log in or they are missing out, or that they will fall behind everyone else who is logging in every single day. No one likes to feel beholden to a game.

I have faith in Arenanet to implement them correctly though - we know too little about them to make too much of an assumption. It is just the first thing that I have heard that has the potential to be bad. And at this stage of the development of an MMO, that is a phenomenal achievement.

felinemagic

Sounds very exciting!  I am waitng with bated breath (>.<)

Czargio

I haven't been this excited for a game since GW1, and that's the truth! The pre-order weekends were the best.

slashbeast

The only game coming out with certaintly that it'll be good! Excited to finally get my hands on a quality MMO after all these years.

Nephaerius

"Eric Flannum: One of the things I can say is that we tend to, you know, we were pretty tight-lipped about the game for a long time and we tend not to talk about things unless they are actually in the game. So when we talk about activities, like when we talk about the bar brawl, or the shooting gallery, because they are actually in the game you can go in and experience them right now. And so there is actually very little chance that most things we talk about are not going to make it into the game just because we run out of time or anything like that. Because, as I said, we tend not to talk about things unless we're very, very certain that we can do them. Certain as in they are in already."

Man I love Anet.  There is a lot that all game developers should take from this quote.  This game is shaping up to be better and better with each piece of info they release.  Haven't been too excited about an MMO release in a while, but this one may get me there.

natuxatu

I used to say "I'll play FFXIV and GW2 on the side." But the more I hear about GW2 the more I'm thinking that might be my main MMO.

Great stuff. I love their approach and their philosophy on creating an MMO.

I've been saying they are putting the MMO and the RPG back in the MMORPG.

Unknown

Originally posted by Lazerou

Originally posted by illyana

from a different interview abt social activities :

Eric Flannum: One of the things I can say is that we tend to, you know, we were pretty tight-lipped about the game for a long time and we tend not to talk about things unless they are actually in the game. So when we talk about activities, like when we talk about the bar brawl, or the shooting gallery, because they are actually in the game you can go in and experience them right now. And so there is actually very little chance that most things we talk about are not going to make it into the game just because we run out of time or anything like that. Because, as I said, we tend not to talk about things unless we're very, very certain that we can do them. Certain as in they are in already.

The above reason I think is such an amazingly refreshing approach to developing an MMO. It sounds bizarre doesn't it - that someone is actually using common sense and only talking about deliverable product.

 

It is much easier for companies like Bioware with TOR, where the hint of a rumour is enough to crash their site, to take this strict approach.

 

In the case of TOR though, "we aren't talking about that yet" is getting old. So, I commend Anet on (i) not talking up things that are not definitely in the game, AND (ii) not pissing us all off by starting to talk when they can really talk about lots of things in the game.

Evile

GW2 is the sleeper hit.

Guild Wars (like it or not) is a very high quality game. It has been my backup MMO since launch. Tons of hours of solid content. GW2 has potential, is well funded, and a different more open direction. I look forward to trying this one.

Logos1326

Originally posted by Lazerou

Originally posted by illyana

from a different interview abt social activities :

Eric Flannum: One of the things I can say is that we tend to, you know, we were pretty tight-lipped about the game for a long time and we tend not to talk about things unless they are actually in the game. So when we talk about activities, like when we talk about the bar brawl, or the shooting gallery, because they are actually in the game you can go in and experience them right now. And so there is actually very little chance that most things we talk about are not going to make it into the game just because we run out of time or anything like that. Because, as I said, we tend not to talk about things unless we're very, very certain that we can do them. Certain as in they are in already.

The above reason I think is such an amazingly refreshing approach to developing an MMO. It sounds bizarre doesn't it - that someone is actually using common sense and only talking about deliverable product. I don't know of any other industry that talks about features of a final product before they have even been tested at a beta stage. Not only talks about them but promises they will be in the game at launch - only to find out afterwards that they never got past the internal testing phase.

Totally agree.. other companies should pay attention. The gaming industry desperately needs more professionalism like this. Too many people get away with broken promises because they put out BS ideas that haven't even been worked on yet.

BlahTeeb

Again... nothing short of wonderful. I can't even pick on anything in this interview to deem bad or flavorless.

TweFoju

i officially stop waiting for FFXIV as for today

so probably il be waiting for Earthrise or GW2

EvilGeek

It's great to see they are using their experience from creating mini games for their current festivities in GW and running with it to make permanent features in GW2, anyone else hoping there will be a permanent version of roller beetle racing ?

Great to see a developer acknowledge and provide starting points for the RP community, GW2's personal storylines and now personality are a nod in the right direction, if their armour system is as flexible and as broad as GW, my character has a chance of feeling truly unique.

More stuff to get excited about and more reason to get myself over to gamescon in August to get some hands on time

Edit: Just popped over to the Anet blog and discovered a nice little article about lore and languages, seems we have another mini game set up for us in deciphering ancient text, read about that here

illyana

finally bar fights!

its only logical that ANET adds these great social games within GW2 cuz if you visit GW1 right now, players spend a lot of time in LA, Kamadan and Shing Jea dancing, playing air instruments, getting drunk, showing off their minis, setting off fireworks, and arguing abt politics

bumfman

I have no doubt about how great this game is going to be and I always enjoy hearing more about it.