Guild Wars is a game by NCsoft and Arenanet, released in April of 2005. While it has made an impact on the MMO industry by offering free online play with no subscription, it has been sacked by many due to the fact that the “MMO” part of it is limited to the cities and PVP Arenas. Many people consider it to be a CORPG (Co-Op RPG) instead of an MMO due to these restrictions. While the game is still widely popular, it suffers from having a barren wasteland-feeling once you leave the main cities. However, with the release of the expansion packs, the amount of content has increased greatly.

I had the chance to spend some time checking out the sequel to it at PAX Prime 2010, and there are some stellar changes from the original GW game play structure. The world of GW2 is vastly different to GW1 when it comes to how the player can interact with others. Check past the break for more of my impressions.

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During the 30 minute demo that was available at PAX, the player was introduced to a completely new world. Starting off, you’re presented with a choose your own adventure style character creation system where you make choices based on the scenarios put before you. The choices you make effect your starting class, abilities, and the way your character looks.  Currently there are 5 races and 8 professions confirmed. The professions themselves are broken down into 3 categories, which dictate which type of armor you will be able to wear later in the game and, of course, your starting base stats. Even little choices have an impact. If you choose a noble birth you will enter the world clothed in fancy fineries and looking like an overall well-off person. Choose a pauper’s birth and you start the game in rags. All of the choices you make in the character builder have their  advantages and disadvantages. Be it one choice starting you with more armor, or a specific elemental affiliation. Essentially what you are creating is not just a soulless blank character that is yours and yours alone, but a small piece in a large story. As you exit the character creation screen it says just that “I am (your characters name), and this is my story.”

As the starting area progresses, your character is woven into this grander story of the world, and the typical training area tasks are long gone. They have been replaced by immediately more epic adventures and quests. The quest I remember most was defending a stockade from centaurs who were periodically attacking it from all sides. The game takes a page from more of the action oriented titles and starts you off with some higher level spells and abilities to show you the ropes, then strips them from you as you enter the real world.

Once you enter the real world you will notice the biggest change. Along with your normal hub quests, there are dynamic events and randomly generated quests that litter the landscape. The game announces this to you by way of a message that says “A Quest has been located nearby.” I was surprised by this as I exited the town to complete one quest, and as I ran back in I was alerted to a random quest because a farmer that I had passed on the way out was yelling about rabbits devouring his crops. He was tending the farm when I left and now the game decided to throw this in for any passerby that came along. The developers said this was one of the dynamic events on a smaller scale. Each of these events has an effect on the world. On the larger scale if you’re wandering across the land and you see a town or building being over run by enemies, you can choose to help out or keep walking. If you keep walking the enemies will take over and if you want access to the shops and quest hubs, you will have to band together other players and take the town back.

Arenanet has also made sure that other players cant impede your quest progress. GW2 has a mechanic in it that gives all players who are currently actively working on a quest (Killing x creature, collecting x thing) credit for what other players near them are doing. For example the dynamic quest with the farmers crops. As I was getting rid of the rabbits, other players starting to work on the quest at the same time. Instead of not being able to complete the quest because of their intervention, they immediately received credit for the 5 rabbits I had already taken care of and I received credit for the rabbits they went after. The XP is also given in full to all players who participate. A griefer is no longer able to steal XP and Gold by last hitting an enemy. If you land a few hits on a creature someone else is attacking all parties get full xp from the kill.

As the game progresses the open world aspect is interspersed with plot pieces where your character is directly involved. Remember again that the choices you make effect your story. As a member of nobility my story revolved around meeting someone at a ball, as I was entering it the noblemen and women behind me were attacked by bandits. The choice had to be made again whether to continue inside, or turn and fight.

The point was pressed time and time again in the demo that Guild Wars 2 is all about choices. The choices you make have an impact not just on yourself but the world around you. Ultimately the question is will the player be a paradigm or a pariah. A hero to the people, or someone who wanders by because it isnt their problem. With each choice there are consequences good or bad, and its up to you to decide how the world plays out, both in your personal story (the instances essentially) and the story of the world around you.

The world of Guild Wars 2 seems completely alive and organic. It is an ever changing and breathing world. Arenanet have also stayed true to their subscription-less business model. When asked why they did that, the developers simply stated:

“As gamers, we dont like to have to continue to pay for something we’ve already bought. Because of this, we dont want to charge the players to play a game they’ve already given us their money for.”

If Arenanet continues this model, and their support for Guild Wars 2, I feel that they can bring back gamers like myself who have given up on MMO’s long ago. Keep an eye out for it, as a date hasn’t been announced yet, but expect it to drop late 2010 or early 2011.