Make It So: Design Manifesto Part 4

Today in Make It So, we are going to dissect the final portion of the GW2 Design Manifesto.  If you’ve been following the Make It So series, awesome.  If you haven’t, I recommend going back and reading Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 before reading the rest of this article.  This is the last Make It So dedicated to the Manifesto.


Combat can make or break your game.  Just as with everything else in GW2, ArenaNet is really seeking to break out of the ‘’cookie cutter’’ traditional MMO style combat.


Click past the break to find out how.

Make It So: GW2 Design Manifesto Part 3

If you haven't been following Make It So, I recommend going back and reading GW2 Design Manifesto Part 1, and GW2 Design Manifesto Part 2.  It will help today's post make more sense when read in context of the other two parts.  We start today off with the title of the next section in the Manifesto:

It's time to make MMORPG's more social.

How can MMORPG's be more social?  Aren't these real people around us playing the game at the same time we are?  Isn't this tank a real person? You know, the one that has to stand and do nothing the entire time, then flip out when he dies because he decided to stand in the big black circle labeled death?

When ArenaNet says things like "time to make MMORPG's more social", or ''how can we do ____ better?", what they really are saying is "This is how we are making Guild Wars 2 more awesome".

Click past the break to see how GW2 is taking the social aspect of MMO's to the next level.

Make It So: GW2 Design Manifesto Part 2

Choices, choices, choices.  Wait, what?  This is a blog about MMO's, and there's no such thing as choices and consequences in MMO's.  You run over, click the random NPC, accept a quest without reading what he/she (or it) wants you to do and then follow the map queues to complete the quest.  

Optional quest to help save a burning village?  Why would I want to do that when it will be burning for the next, oh I don't know, FOREVER?  

If it's one thing that has plagued MMO's since day one, it is the lack of a dynamic and changing world.  I understand there are technical limitations,  as you have hundreds of players doing the same thing. If one person completes the quest to save the burning village, then no one else can?  Or what about that critical choice to have the soup or the salad?

Choice and consequence have been severely lacking in MMO's over the last decade.    Join us after the break to see how ArenaNet is addressing this problem.

Make It So: GW2 Design Manifesto

Click the pic above, or here to read the original GW2 Design Manifesto post.

I made a rhyme (accidentally on purpose)!

I have been excited to write on this topic since I started the Make it So series.  It is awesome how you can read something almost 2 years old, and have it be as exciting to read today as it was then.  This post will most likely be split into 2 or 3 parts, depending on how much we can get through in today's edition of Make it So.

If you've been following Make it So, you'll notice that we're going to be jumping a few months into 2010.  Up through March 2010, major news consisted of an interview on lore, as well as a short post detailing development of races and professions.

In April of 2010, Mike O'Brien posted the Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto.  As far as I am concerned, this article is one of the best postings on the ArenaNet blog.  It is blunt, honest, and blatantly calls out current MMO design.  When I first read this, I was overjoyed that someone in the gaming community finally understood what players really wanted from playing their favorite MMO.  Not only does ArenaNet understand what players want in an MMO, they also have come up with fresh new ideas that are going to shape the MMO culture for years to come.

Click past the break and join in as we discuss the Manifesto.

Make It So: Number 4

The rest of 2009 saw the release of an interview at Onlinewelten detailing aspects of the game such as underwater exploration, Charr legions and much more.

On December 3rd, Arenanet released the Races of Tyria video.

Straight up amazing eye candy, and a ton of information to be gathered from this newest Guild Wars 2 video.  Head over to Massively.com (another favorite site of mine) for their in depth analysis of the video.

Our goal with Make it So is to educate those new to Guild Wars 2, with a basic timeline of major news announcements.

Make it So: Number 3

August 2009 was a critical month in the history of Guild Wars 2.  The president of ArenaNet, Mike O'Brien started off the excitement on August 17th, saying:

"Hey all, 

Last week I promised you’d get your first glimpse of Guild Wars 2 “very soon now”. That day is almost here. 

I want to thank all our fans for their patience as we developed the game to the point where we can start talking about it publicly. I know you’ve all been anxiously awaiting this moment. You’ll soon understand how ambitious we've been and what we’ve accomplished during these past two years of development. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but from here on out we’ll be able to provide you with more regular updates.

Guild Wars 2 is going to be a huge leap beyond the original. We have the best team in the industry executing at the top of their game, and I’m very proud of what our team has accomplished so far. As I said last week, I’m confident that when you get your first look at what we've been working on, you’re going to love what you see. Stay tuned for an exciting week ahead." - Source

My first thought was 'Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet'.  Up to this point (and past it as you'll see in future posts), ArenaNet had virtually starved its community of Guild Wars 2.  The anticipation of what was to come was overwhelming.

Click past the break to see more news from August 2009, as well as the incredibly amazing first Guild Wars 2 trailer.

Make It So: Number 2

Click here for the original Guild Wars 2 FAQ.

June 27, 2008.  One year and 3 months after the first press release, we got our first Guild Wars 2 FAQ, and the now outdated GW2 logo.  My excitement exploded, just due to the fact that we finally got some solid news about the game after waiting so long.  

The biggest piece of news that came with the FAQ was that in GW2, we would have the option to play a race other than Human.

By the time this information came out, Eye of the North had been out for almost a year, and each of the races (minus the Sylvari) had been heavily featured in the EotN storyline.  Not only did we have a great idea of what each race looked like, but EotN did an amazing job of telling the story of each race's culture.

This is where my real anticipation for GW2 began.  From here forward, the majority of my time spent looking up info on the newest games coming out was spent scouring the interwebs for any slice of info on Guild Wars 2.  

Next in Make it So, we will fast forward to August 2009, the first time the floodgates opened and we were overwhelmed with sweet, sweet, wonderful, and tasty GW2 news.  Our goal with Make it So is to educate those new to Guild Wars 2, with a basic timeline of major news announcements.

Make It So: Number 1

Original Guild Wars 2/Eye of the North Press Release
Make It So is our first series, chronicling the history of Guild Wars 2.

March 27, 2007.  NCSoft and Arenanet dropped two huge bombshell announcements for Guild Wars.

The first being that they were working on a sequel to Guild Wars, implementing some key features like a persistent world, as well as still holding to the no subscription fee business model.

The second was that they were working on the first true expansion for Guild Wars.  Eye of the North would require players to own one of the three original campaigns (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall) and would sport content for level 20 players only.
     For more info on Eye of the North, click here.

The announcement for GW2 came as a shock to some, considering that Guild Wars was only two years old.  Rarely in the MMO scene do sequels outshine their predecessors.  I'll admit, with the lack of news over the months after this announcement,  myself, and friends that played Guild Wars were also a bit nervous.  How would gameplay change with a persistent world?  Would Eye of the North be a worthy release considering that we had received 3 full campaigns prior?

With the jitters also came a sense of excitement.  We already knew the quality work Arenanet could produce, and immediately set high hopes for what was to come.

And so began the waiting...the waiting for any tidbit of news...and little did we know how much waiting we would do.

Our goal with Make it So is to educate those new to Guild Wars 2, with a basic timeline of major news announcements.