![PC Games (Games) PC Games (Games)](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/pcgames_64.png)
![Entertainment Entertainment](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/entertainment_64.png)
![Games Games](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/games_64.png)
Ex-Blizzard lead men, Strain and O'Brian, Profiled 112
obchrisj writes "Wondering how Guild Wars came to be? FileFront profiles the conceptualizing, trials, and tribulations of ArenaNet's MMORPG, slated to be released sometime early this year, in an article titled, "F! True Game Story: Guild Wars". In case you're not in the know, Guild Wars was started by well-known ex-Blizzard employees, Jeff Strain and Mike O'Brian."
Well Known... (Score:3, Funny)
I miss "Tagu" (Score:2, Insightful)
Honestly, the voices of the previous games were sorely missing from WarCraft III's lame "can the formalities" dialogue and phrasing. Most of the humans and Orcs were missing that vocal quality we loved from before.
Anyway, I don't think Blizzard has really been the same company for years. Not since StarCraft. There's a paraphrased story about one of the programmers for StarCraft whose wife went into labor. He checked out a laptop and headed to the hospital and continued work
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:1, Informative)
Miss sex to code? Shit no! Sex is a precious commodity.
The little brat will be around to pester you for the rest of your life (unless you run for it while you still can). Missing it's birth is a GOOD idea. You shouldn't absorb in all it's gory detail the moment that heaves your life into a huge fucking mess. That's mental scarring, it is. Besides you're sure as shit not seeing either the kid or the mother at their best.
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:2)
Yes, second and third births are gonna be pretty humdrum, though. It's the fifteenth that becomes magical again
True, but (Score:2)
Remembered at 10, hell it will be played at 10 (Score:2)
First the story sounds apocryphal so there is not much to say there. However I will point out that Starcraft is not only going to be remembered at its ten year anniversary but it is on track to still being **played** at that time. It has gone far beyond the nostalgic rememberance point. You point is good in ge
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:2)
Actually, it's the other way round - the mere fact that something was an accepted practice doesn't mean it's not a stupid thing to do. And if you read a book, you'll find that only 50 years ago there were a lot of accepted practices that were very stupid.
On a sidenote, your criticism is invalid for another reason: I have a feeling that the OP would have less of a problem with
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:2)
And not long before that there were no delivery rooms and fathers - assuming they
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:2)
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:1)
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:1)
STOP POKING ME!!!
Gotta love them Orcs...
the passion! (Score:2)
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:2)
Warcraft 3 has character. That is hard to do 8 years after their first and 7 years after their second release in the series. Technology was very limited compared to the 2002 release of Warcraft 3 and I think they did an excellent job. So many times companies screw up the feel of a game when they do a sequel that has access to better hardware than the original had. The dialogue and phrasing in Warcraft 3 were sufficient to bring an interesting tale, that had you playi
Re:I miss "Tagu" (Score:1)
More than 3-4 clicks on an NPC usually results in "stop clicking me", "you're rocking the boat", "you're making me sea-sick", "*sound of vomit splattering*" style dialogue
Cool story, though when I first heard it, the programmer was one of their head honchos (can't remember his name).
This game is gonna shake things up in 2005 (Score:2, Interesting)
Unlike Blizzards pay-to-play World Of Warcraft game, Guild Wars does not require a monthly subscription fee.
Guild Wars has streaming patches which makes the game up to date on a daily basis. No more having to wait weeks or months for a patch like other games on the market.
This is not competition for MMORPGs. (Score:5, Insightful)
But it is an entirely different beast than a full-on MMORPG like WoW, which are geared to having groups of 40 players fight dragons and such at the same time. Or huge PVP battles with hundreds of people in the same location just battling it out. You simply cannot compare Guild Wars to games like WoW, EQ 1/2, etc .. Totally different games entirely.
Re:This is not competition for MMORPGs. (Score:1)
Re:This is not competition for MMORPGs. (Score:1, Funny)
Online - CHECK.
Role Playing Game - CHECK.
What were you saying, now? I couldn't read your comment with the word "FANBOY" flashing so violently across my field of vision.
Re:This is not competition for MMORPGs. (Score:2)
Re:This is not competition for MMORPGs. (Score:1)
Re:This is not competition for MMORPGs. (Score:2)
Emotionally crippling? (Score:2, Funny)
Having 200,000 people play wasn't just emotionally crippling. I imagine it would be "server" crippling too.
Re:Emotionally crippling? (Score:2)
Re:Emotionally crippling? (Score:1)
Text of article (Score:5, Informative)
Overview: Wondering how Guild Wars came to be? We profile the conceptualizing, trials, and tribulations of ArenaNet's MMORPG, slated to be released sometime early this year.
When Blizzard Entertainment began development on World of Warcraft, a few of its employees had other things in mind.
"Blizzard is a phenomenal developing company," Jeff Strain, lead designer for Guild Wars, said. "But we decided to leave and form ArenaNet to pursue this unique game."
ArenaNet is the result of two men getting together with a certain discontent and a desire to see their own visions of an MMORPG come to life. The other man responsible for starting ArenaNet is Mike O'Brian, team lead for Warcraft III. Their meeting might have been more than a coincidence.
Back in 2000, Strain and O'Brian met through their respective work within Blizzard, and found that they had a lot in common. Strain was one of the original leads for World of Warcraft, but found that he did not quite want to design just another MMORPG based on the Warcraft series. And O'Brian's ideas for multiplayer were really motivational.
"The more we talked, the more we found that there was this great game in the middle," Strain said. "The original goal was [to] make an MMO that is truly unique and avoids the classic design elements that only makes it fun for hardcore players."
ArenaNet's list of key designers read like a who's who of classic Blizzard titles, including Starcraft, Warcraft III, and now Worlds of Warcraft. Along with Strain and O'Brian are James Phinney, who was the lead designer of Starcraft.
"We brought on James [Phinney] because he was the one that was responsible for balancing three different races in Starcraft," Strain said. "We had a great deal of confidence that he could take the game with thrity different professions and 450 unique skills and balance it so that it really puts together this concept that Guild Wars is a game of skill."
Another key component to the design team was Steve Hwang, who formerly worked at Lucas Arts as a level designer on titles such as Dark Forces and Jedi Knights. With all the experience on the team from many successful games and backgrounds, it was a hopeful start for ArenaNet. But what it did not have was a guarantee.
"As a new studio, we did not form a publishing relationship," Strain said. The usual route for game development is that publishing companies set up a line of funding for the development to get done, but sometimes this means creative control may end up in the hands of the publishers. "We decided to self-fund so that we could be completely independent for a few years," he said.
The article continues below..
Close ad.
ArenaNet started development on Guild Wars in the summer of 2000, and Strain said that while it was not a great time to be a developing company, they managed to stay on track with their development as they had planned. However, there was always pressure to stay on track because, as he said, they did not have a safety net of a "big fluffy developing contract from day one."
However, it was not long before they found financial backing. Well, actually, they did not find a company to publish their game, a company found them because they had been tracking their progress since they left Blizzard.
NC Soft was anxious to see exactly what ArenaNet was up to, but the developing team held off until two years after they started development because they wanted to be able to show NC Soft exactly what type of game they were going to be publishing. During the summer of 2002, ArenaNet agreed to begin talking to NC Soft and by the fall of that year they agreed to publish Guild Wars. Strain said the company saw the originality of the game, and appreciated the fact that it was "not just another MMO."
"We were really excited working with NC Soft," Strain said. "They share a lot of the same goals and vision that we do. We've never heard
Blizzard (Score:1)
I guess they're implying that blizzard was holding them back and they wanted to see a change in management. No wonder Starcraft: Ghost took 10 years to develope
Re:Blizzard (Score:2)
Personal experience (Score:3, Informative)
Since the last Beta Weekend though, I've been playing World of Warcraft. Certainly WoW is more of an MMORPG in the traditional sense than Guild Wars, but it makes the same effort to ensure casual players get as much enjoyment out of it as hardcore players.
I'll still probably buy Guild Wars when it's released, but I think I'll skip the next Beta Weekend. I don't think I can split my interest between two RPGs just yet.
Re:Personal experience (Score:2)
Same here... massive online games really work better when you have friends online to share the experience with, and it's hard to cultivate two online families at once.
World of Warcraft (Score:2)
Beta Weekend (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Beta Weekend (Score:2, Informative)
Always room for Improvement (Score:2)
Still, I can see alot of things that could make it better, and I have my own visions of what a good MMORPG would include, including more dynamic environment
Re:Always room for Improvement (Score:1)
I've been playing on Free Servers for EQ and Lineage II. When I can afford
Battlegrounds (Score:1)
Speaking of Guild Wars... (Score:2)
Personally, I have ordered the pre-order package for a key that will be good for all BWE's and it's a good tip if you end up liking the game, since it's not certain they'll give awa
Re:Speaking of Guild Wars... (Score:1)
oh, well, still got 2 more cds with keys on them.
if there is even that many beta weekends left...
oh, I would of modded your post up, parent, but I had already posted to this topic (yours, is the second or 3rd post)
Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:3, Informative)
I've played every beta since the WPE, and it has always been an enjoyable experience. Even though the game is in Beta, it is thoroughly playable and remarkably stable. Most developers would have been satisfied and launched already- ANet wants to be sure the final game is satisfactory AT LAUNCH, despite the fact that they can fix bugs almost immediately and stream patches to the clients.
I hate MMORGPs. I really do. But a few things that drew me to Guild Wars were:
1) No Monthly Fees. EVER
2) No grinding.
3) No 1337 uber-skills and items.
4) extremely balanced, EVERYTHING literally has a counter and no one player is overly powerful.
5) extremely intuitive and clean interface.
6) elimination of PKing and KSing.
Straight from their ads:
An open Promise to gamers from the Guild Wars team-
- Guild Wars will not require a subscription fee.
- Guild Wars will reward playing SKILL, not hours played
- Guild Wars is an Online RPG to be ENJOYED, not endured
Guild Wars is an important step in gaming for me, because I don't have the time to dedicate to a subscription-based service. I don't have the time to play for hours on end- with Guild Wars I can jump in for 15 minutes or 5 hours. It doesn't matter, I always have fun.
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:2)
Yes, invisible "dice rolling" indeed, but you're basically always going to lose if you don't know how to counte
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
That sounds like GuildWars, alright...
At least make you AIM the arrows or something. Then a skilled player could outshoot an unskilled player.
Not that, however. GuildWars rewards skill as in strategy and tactics, ala Chess or (perhaps more appropriately) Magic: the Gathering (indeed, there's two different levels of skill, constructing your deck or build, carefully choosing what to bring and wha
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:2, Insightful)
If Guild Wars rewards playing skill, I'll play it. Somehow, though, I think my character's damage, or chance to dodge an arrow or a sword, is going to be based on invisible dice rolling and not my actions
You might want to play it first, yes there is invis dice rolling, yes it depends how high oyu're skills are, point is though you're capped on skills, as soon as you hit level 20, bang, no more point to improve you're skills in, ex now only earns you points with which you can buy skill/actions (Of whic
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
In WoW every class has set skills they get per their lev
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
Re:But they aren't keeping their promise. (Score:1)
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
Isn't there a code needed to get into the Beta? (Score:1)
Re:Isn't there a code needed to get into the Beta? (Score:1)
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:2)
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:1)
Re:Play GW this weekend (morning of Jan 7) (Score:2)
Well, that's inviting in and of itself. With that one move you've gotten rid of all the 15-year-old shits whose mama's never bitch-slapped any manners into them. And the older shits who never managed to get past the age of 15, at least mentally.
Max
GW is plain boring (Score:2)
Re:GW is plain boring (Score:1)
My experience with the game (Score:1)
Re:My experience with the game (Score:1)
Well, my thoughts on the game (been playing since WPE) One of the things this game has been compared to often is Magic: the Gathering, which is a nice indicator of what to expect from the game, as GW does share some pros and cons.
1) Superficial similarities: The classes correspond roughly to the colors in Magic. Monk = White, Elementalist = Red, Ranger = Green, Mesmer = Blue, Necromancers = Black, and Warriors are something else. Someone suggested Artifa
What About Eli Cannon? (Score:1)
Guild Wars not as fun as WoW regardless (Score:1)
Re:How Did This Make The Front Page (Score:1)
Re:Wake me.... (Score:1)
Well if you bothered to look at the FAQ [guildwars.com] you'd see
Will the game be released on a different OS (Macintosh, Linux, etc.), or on other video game consoles?
Guild Wars is being developed on and will initially be released for the PC. We are aware that there is an interest in having the game available on other operating systems or other platforms, and we will continue to evaluate these possibilities as we get closer to release.
But of course yo
Re:Wake me.... (Score:3, Funny)
Now is that PC 2000 or PC XP?
Re:Wake me.... (Score:1)