I’m always a big fan of when game developers share philosophies and general development methodologies behind the games that they are working on. This week, Mike Ferguson — of the Guild Wars 2 development team at ArenaNet — took a lofty chunk of time to discuss the large-scale Player vs. Player that will be seen in Guild Wars 2.
When I say “large scale,” I mean it. One of the first things mentioned is the size of the encounters. Instead of the usual setup of pretty much every other game, Guild Wars 2 will have a three-sided conflict. The three teams are promised to be massive in scale, with each team referred to as being “composed of an entire server full of players.” Because of this, Ferguson mentions that they call it “World vs. World” as opposed to merely “Player vs. Player.”
Those are just the basics. There was a lot of information shared, such as decisions behind including a third team, accommodating three servers’ worth of players, the PvP affecting a player’s progression, objectives within the mode, as well as other unique aspects. It sounds even RTS inspired at times; resources are spread about that can be used to hire NPCs to help players attack or defend objectives. There are even massive siege weapons that can further be built to swing a conflict to one team’s favor.
It all sounds like something that will be really amazing if it works as intended. Our very own Jonathan Ross has gotten a chance to play in the closed beta for Guild Wars 2, and will be back on Monday with his own impressions.
