Fansite Friday/Europe

Fansite: Guild Wars Europe (site no longer operating)

Date: 3 September 2004

Number: 13

Q&A

Question: Recently we have seen Guild Features implemented. Has there been any development on how Guild Tournaments will work and what rewards a Guild can get from reaching a certain objective?

Answer: Yes, tournament development is moving forward. I thought I’d talk a bit about a new system being implemented in support of tournaments: Automated Matchmaking. Alpha Testers are witnessing the beginning of automated matchmaking for one-on-one guild battles. A guild is able to challenge another guild to a battle, and the challenge match takes place in the guild halls of the combatants and in the areas surrounding those halls.

Guild rankings are currently being developed and will be part of the information that can be viewed by players within the game. But rankings are also useful in a technological sense, too. For by reviewing the ranks, the automated matchmaking system will be able to match up two opposing teams of approximately the same level. Your readers may have heard of one of our maps, which at one time was called Coastal Guilds and is currently named Guild Battle.. This is one of the maps on which guild-on-guild challenges take place. You team will start in your own guild hall and, depending on the progress of the battle, you could end up all the way in the other hall as you make the final move to conquer your opponent.

We’re still determining rewards for guild victory. A lot of really good ideas have been proposed. I can say that there will be exciting ways of seeing, right in the game, those who belong to the higher-ranking guilds, and that both fame, and Fame, will be part of the reward. ;)

Question: In a previous Fansite Friday you said that you don't have to go to the store to buy an expansion chapter. Our question is how you pay for these chapters, since they will be streamed towards you once you have 'pulled the switch'; so how do you pay for them? And in case you have to pay with a credit card, don't you think that you cut out people who don't have a credit card or don't want to use it via Internet?

Answer: Oh, please know that no one will be given only one option to purchase Guild Wars! It is our objective to make getting a copy of any of the Guild Wars chapters as simple and trouble-free as possible. When we say that you will be able to obtain subsequent chapters of Guild Wars without going to a store, that simply means that downloading directly from ArenaNet or NCsoft will be one option. You will still be able to purchase new chapters of Guild Wars through your local retailers. We’re aware that there are folks who don’t care to make a purchase online, and that there are those who don’t possess a credit card. We’ll be sure that you find it easy to purchase each chapter of Guild Wars that you choose to buy!

Question: From the E3 we know that it was possible to equip runes on your character's items. But at that time only runes of the first profession could be attached, would it be possible to attach secondary class runes as well?

Answer: Runes are only one of the elements that allow you to customize or personalize the assets of your individual characters. There are other special elements that can be used in weapons. I believe that in some cases you’ll be able to use more than one element per weapon. It’s entirely possible that wands, too, will be upgradeable with another kind of special element.

However, to answer your question, runes are intended specifically for armor. As you know, your character’s appearance is determined by your primary profession. Your armor is directly tied to your character’s primary profession as well, since armor is part of the way your character looks. You don’t see a necromancer in heavy plate mail, nor an elementalist in leather. All of which means that runes are useful only when they are suitable for your primary profession; you can’t use a rune from your secondary profession in your armor.

There are very few runes in the game at present, but eventually there will be a lot of them. Runes will allow you to make a wide variety of choices about how you customize your armor, which will result in a lot of different “styles” within each armor class, depending on how you have altered your armor with upgrades and customization.

We from GW Europe would like to thank ArenaNet for their support in our Guild Wars Fansite.