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Making the 'jump' from Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2

Brianna Royce — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Guild Wars, Business models, Classes, Economy, Game mechanics, Guilds, Lore, Previews, PvP, Endgame, Guild Wars 2, Hands-on, Guides, Dungeons, Crafting

The second Guild Wars 2 press beta weekend has come and gone, and Massively was there every step of the way. Stay tuned throughout the day today for even more guides, impressions, videos, and Q&As to get you ready for the highly anticipated sequel to Guild Wars.

Guild Wars 2 is on the way (when it's ready), and classic Guild Wars players probably understand that soon they'll be competing with a younger sibling -- a smarter, more attractive one who's sure to get more of mom's attention. And while we're sure that some of the more stalwart Guild Wars 2 fans are also Guild Wars players, not all veterans of the first edition are dedicated to licking up every drop of sequel info squeezed out of blogs, conventions, and betas. Those veterans might just be wondering, what exactly can Guild Wars 2 offer them, other than Hall of Monuments tie-ins? What's changed? What's the same? What will they love, what will they hate, and what could possibly make them jump ship to the new hotness?

The first and most important thing you must know is that yes, you can jump in Guild Wars 2! Seriously, though, jumping is more than just a thing you do with your spacebar when you're bored; it's a symbol of boundlessness. Guild Wars 2 itself is trying to jump a lot higher than its elder brother, and probably the essential difference between the games is that feeling that the walls have come down and gravity is letting loose. That alone should urge classic players to take a peek, but if that's not enough for you, fire up your Jeremy Soule soundtracks (yes, he's onboard for an encore!) and read on...

Continue reading Making the 'jump' from Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2

Making the 'jump' from Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Should MMOs balance for PvP, PvE, or yes?

Brianna Royce — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Game mechanics, MMO industry, PvP, PvE, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

The original concept for Guild Wars is right there in the name: guild wars. There was no question that regardless of how much PvE content the game planned to feature, there'd be at least as much or more GvG content for the competitive folks.

But as more and more skills were added to the game, the devs ran into serious balancing problems and began tweaking the skills so that the PvP meta was less affected by the powercreep slowly taking over PvE. Eventually, ArenaNet split the skills, giving some skills different effects depending on whether they were being used against players or monsters; some newer skills were designed to be PvE-only from the start.

Do you think Guild Wars offers a pragmatic solution to the PvE/PvP balance problems that plague so many MMOs? Or do you think games should strive to balance their gameplay without creating skills (or gear) that do different things in different situations?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: Should MMOs balance for PvP, PvE, or yes? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 12 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively Exclusive: Lucent Heart unleashes guild vs. guild

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Previews, PvP, Free-to-play

With Lucent Heart's Scaena expansion fast on the way, the developers have yet to run out of new and exciting features to share with the game's players. This week, it's all about pitting guild against guild in mortal conflict. Who will rise? Who will fall? And most importantly of all, who will be pwned and who will be leet?

It seems as though Gamania is angling this expansion toward as wide an array of player types as possible, with not only GvG combat satiating the PvP crowd, but Scaena's custom dancing tools pleasing the fluff nuts and new bosses and zones appealing to the PvE questers.

Today we have several exclusive pictures showing off Lucent Heart's guild vs. guild combat, as well as an in-depth look into this system from the developers after the jump!

Gallery: Lucent Heart Core Gallery

Continue reading Massively Exclusive: Lucent Heart unleashes guild vs. guild

Massively Exclusive: Lucent Heart unleashes guild vs. guild originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Guild Wars ups the ante for PvP

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Patches, PvP, Dev Diaries

"This has been a longstanding problem with our competitive formats," the June Guild Wars dev diary bemoans. "There are a great variety to try, but many people haven't found enough reasons to jump in."

Hence the impetus behind Guild Wars' June update, which contains a number of new incentives to entice players into the PvP arenas. Some of the biggest changes include the ability to trade Z-coins, new PvP quests, and additional formats that award Zaishen Strongboxes.

Another significant change to Guild Wars is that Alliance PvP formats now award Imperial faction. Imperial faction can be converted to one of three types, depending on the player's need: Luxon, Kurzick or Balthazar. This way a player can fight for one side but earn points toward the other, which should go a long way to increasing the frequency of matches. ArenaNet hopes that these changes will encourage players to branch out into different types of PvP instead of sticking to one format that's tied to specific rewards.

There are plenty of other tweaks in this update, so be sure to read the full dev diary to learn about changes to titles, the Codex Arena, GvG emotes and more!

Guild Wars ups the ante for PvP originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Guild Wars fansite announces PvP championship series

Rubi Bayer — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Events, in-game, PvP

Core Guild Wars fansite Guild Wars Guru has some exciting news for PvP-oriented GW fans. The 2011 GvG Championship Series begins in April, and the Guru folks are working with sponsors to offer some great prizes. NVidia, Logitech, Rude Gameware, and Bigfoot are providing prizes for every member of the winning team in each division.

Even if you're not a hardcore PvP player, you won't be left out. The organizers have arranged for GvG workshops for new players as well as a casual tournament division that offers a mentoring program. Registration for the event begins in just a few weeks, so check out all the details -- and watch for more information over time -- over at Guild Wars Guru!

Guild Wars fansite announces PvP championship series originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Volume 3: The Fury of War coming to Allods Online this December

Larry Everett — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Expansions, Game mechanics, Guilds, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, Allods Online

The free-to-play developer gPotato has announced a third volume for its popular F2P fantasy title Allods Online. The Fury of War follows in the footsteps of the second volume, Rise of Gorluxor, by offering more free options, items, and content. However, this volume will focus more on guilds and high-level content. Two completely new zones will open up for players: the level 40 PvP areas (Melting Isle and the Junes Catacombs) and a level 40 allod called the Lost Isle.

The Melting Isle is a faction-forgotten free-for-all PvP arena with a greater chest guaranteed to spawn if there are more than 20 participants. The Junes Catacombs also ignores factional alignments in this PvP maze, but as an added challenge, there are three bosses, including an ultimate boss, that groups must defeat in order to claim the instance rewards. Each time you enter this maze, it changes.

After the launch of Volume 3, guilds in Allods can claim ownership of specific allods or entire astral sectors by a new guild-leveling mechanic. This new addition will pit guild against guild for control -- if you claim ownership, you must be able to defend it. Other guilds will want what you have.

The Fury of War will launch before Christmas. For more information, visit the Allods official website, where you can download the game and try it out for yourself.

Gallery: Allods: Fury of War

Volume 3: The Fury of War coming to Allods Online this December originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Guild Wars releases preliminary skill update notes

Rubi Bayer — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Patches, PvP

No, they are not nerfing Shadow Form. Yet. But Guild Wars community manager Regina Buenaobra released a preview of some skill updates and updated GvG restrictions that are coming. Since they'll be released shortly before a Monthly Automated Tournament, and affect PvP heavily, the preview is being offered to give players a chance to plan for the changes. Regina does note, however, that these are preliminary notes, and subject to change.

So what about the rest of the promised skill update? Regina says "While we continue a larger playbalance project that includes drastic changes to Shadow Form, we believe it is important to release a small skill balance to address a few other pressing issues" So the project is still underway, and Shadow Form is still in the crosshairs. (You can either be glad of that, or farm even faster while you still can, depending on your point of view on the entire issue.)

We'll continue watching for further information on the update.

Guild Wars releases preliminary skill update notes originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Major skill update now added to Guild Wars

Lesley Smith — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, News items, PvE, Free-to-play

Guild Wars fans are in for a treat with the announcement of a whole host of PvP and PvE skill updates designed to balance gameplay which have just been added to the game. ArenaNet have posted a nice explanation of what this latest update is trying to achieve:

"The major goals for this update are to address the power of certain spike builds, make pressure builds a more viable option, adjust some skills to encourage tactical use, and provide some buffs to underused skills. In GvG, we have continued to see extremely versatile spike builds dominating; they are able to split, be defensive, and output high damage spikes while still having many of the tools needed to counter other build types. They could do it all, and do it all a bit too well. We've targeted certain key skills to tone down these builds' ability to do high damage spikes and shut down other build types."

You can find the full run down of the changes here.

Major skill update now added to Guild Wars originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 May 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Secondary class balance is the focus of this month's Guild Wars dev blog

Shawn Schuster — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Classes, Game mechanics

This month's skill balance for Guild Wars provides a refocus to a few aspects of the game: namely Guild vs Guild battles and the importance of secondary professions. For GvG, ArenaNet has decided to ditch the additional health bonus given to Guild Lords during a morale boost. They've also tweaked the Amulet of Protection to reach maximum damage at around 12 minutes instead of 22 minutes. These changes were put in place to steer GvG gameplay away from rushing the Guild Lord immediately and balance the action throughout the match.

The secondary profession balance is mostly set up with skill usage in mind. Since there are literally hundreds of thousands of skill combination choices available in the game, the developers thought it necessary to take measures to enforce primary profession choice. This is certain to change the way energy pools are managed and Elite skills are used. You can view the detailed developer diary for February to get more details on this month's changes.

Secondary class balance is the focus of this month's Guild Wars dev blog originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Esteemed Guild Wars guild punished for cheating

Shawn Schuster — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Guilds, PvP, Opinion

Guild tournaments are serious business in Guild Wars. The arena-based PvP in ArenaNet's successful MMO is widely popular as global guilds face up for a top spot on the Tournament Ladder. One of the most popular and powerful of these competitive guilds is Rebel Rising [rawr], who has been in the spotlight many times for their own separate Rawr Cup Tournament. Recently though, Rebel Rising was caught cheating in a Guild versus Guild tournament. According to ArenaNet, both teams stopped fighting at the end of a match, allowing the timer to run down and guaranteeing both teams a spot in the Top 16. As punishment, Rebel Rising will have their gold cape trim removed for one month, while the other team, Survival Rate [zero] will not receive their silver cape trim, as would usually be awarded for a guild placing in the top 16.

Since this was the first offense for both guilds, the punishment was light. ArenaNet has stated that any future offenses will be met with temporary or permanent bans for any players involved. So how do you feel about this decision? When guilds knowingly break the rules to manipulate the ladder, should the punishment be more harsh or more lenient?

Esteemed Guild Wars guild punished for cheating originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Masthead Studios CEO discusses Earthrise's sandbox philosophy

James Egan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Guilds, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, Earthrise

It looks like the sci-fi MMO genre is going to experience quite an influx of new titles in the months and years to come. Beyond the more standard sci-fi MMOs we've reported on in the past, one that's caught our attention at Massively is the upcoming post-apocalyptic title, Earthrise. It seems that beta testing is going to begin "in autumn", as confirmed by Masthead Studios CEO Atanas Atanasov in an interview with Polish MMO-centric gaming site The Art of MMO.

While the interview brought to light some interesting revelations about Earthrise as a sandbox MMO, it also nailed down some details such as the system requirements to run the title: minimum requirements are 2 GHz CPU, 1024 MB RAM and 256 MB VRAM video card supporting shader model v3.0, according to Atanasov. But the interview also gives confirmations about guild-based PvP (which Atanasov refers to as 'Guild-vs-Guild' or 'GvG'), character advancement, and the roleplaying opportunities he sees being available to players in the Earthrise sandbox. Check out the entire English version of the interview over at The Art of MMO for more on this title.

Masthead Studios CEO discusses Earthrise's sandbox philosophy originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Major Guild Wars update drastically changes GvG

Shawn Schuster — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Forums, Game mechanics, Guilds, Patches, PvP, PvE

Guild Wars players have been anxiously awaiting this large skill balance for a long time, but many weren't expecting this much of a change. Not only have many key skills been buffed, but the nerfing of Ursan Blessing has finally happened. Plus, Guild versus Guild battles have been drastically changed. As with any gameplay changes, there are those who love it, and those who hate it.

The key component to the GvG changes involves the complete removal of the Victory or Death finale effect. This means the Guild Battle NPCs no longer walk to the flag stand and the Guild Lord's health has been reduced to 1680, yet he gets a 300 max health boost for the rest of the game when a team obtains a morale boost. What does this all mean for GvG? Basically, previous strategies will need a complete revamp to be effective anymore. This should be interesting for those guilds who have dominated the ladder for so long.

Major Guild Wars update drastically changes GvG originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Guild Wars Guru GvG Challenge 2008 starts this weekend

Shawn Schuster — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Contests, Events, in-game, Forums, PvP

If you've thought about joining the Guild Wars Guru GvG Contest, but just haven't gotten around to it yet, you still have time! Guild registration will close tomorrow at 12PM EDT and there are still a few spots left.

If you're unfamiliar with this contest, it is a guild vs guild battle arranged into 5 separate divisions, much like tournaments of the past. There is a division for premier guilds, gold guilds, silver guilds, bronze guilds and casual. The tournament will take place on Saturday, July 12th and the prizes are certainly nothing to scoff at. The grand prizes include a Shiro'ken mini-pet, 500 Tournament Reward Points and a Compaq Presario laptop. Well, at least the mini-pet and reward points are cool.

Guild Wars Guru GvG Challenge 2008 starts this weekend originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Guild Wars balance discussed, changes hinted

Louis McLaughlin — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Game mechanics, PvP

The latest Guild Wars State of the Game is Talking Skill Balance with Izzy and Ensign, and it's a good look at the the current metagame in PvP.

For the uninitiated, it provides a snapshot for just how seriously PvP balance is considered in Guild Wars; and for existing players, it seems like ArenaNet are at least aware of the current stagnation.

I don't envy the job of balancing GW PvP in the state it's currently in. When it's not so much a case of skill balance but how the game is played, it's a different issue altogether. Merely changing skills like Light of Deliverance probably won't be enough, because GvG teams run with such defensively stronger lineups at present -- and regardless of skill changes, that will continue until more guilds start experimenting with split builds and greater offense again, and find one that works enough to break things up.

Any hardcore PvPers got thoughts on this?

Guild Wars balance discussed, changes hinted originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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