Guild Wars “Fourth Anniversary” Interview

This week NCsoft is celebrating both Guild Wars’ 4th anniversary and the fact that they’ve sold over six million units of the ever-popular franchise.  With this in mind, we had the opportunity to sit down and interview Martin Kerstein, Community Manager for ArenaNet.  Martin has been working on Guild Wars since 2006, first for NCsoft Europe in Brighton, and most recently at ArenaNet in Bellevue.  He’s a dedicated gamer, love MMOs, and has been playing games since the days of Pong.  Sounds like our kind of guy.

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.

1- First of all, how does it feel to have a strong and dedicated community after 4 years?

It feels great. Our players love the game, and we would not be where we are today without their passion and dedication. It is a great pleasure to interact with them.
2- Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North. Does the team feel they’ve accomplished everything they set out to do with the 3 expansions?

Well, to clarify this a little bit, Factions and Nightfall were actually not expansions but full-blown stand-alone campaigns. You could just buy them and play without owning any of the other campaigns. We created them to grow our player base and introduced exciting new game mechanics with each campaign. Eye of the North was different, as this truly was an expansion. We wanted to create deeper content for our existing players so they had new things to explore with their existing high-level characters.

To come back to the question: I think the team came a long way and was able to implement tons of great ideas and features throughout three campaigns and one expansion-but of course, there is always more you want to do.  

3- What special plans does the team have to celebrate the 4 year anniversary (both within the game and in the offices)?

We are very excited about the upcoming anniversary! We will have a full week of in-game celebrations leading up to it. Our players will be able to play games at the Shing Jea Boardwalk and compete in two very popular mini-games: the Dragon Arena and Rollerbeetle races. Players will also be able to gather special festival rewards that will put them in a celebratory mood.

We also have a very special gift for them: our 4th anniversary update, which offers new content like extended storage, a pet menagerie, and Zaishen challenge quests (among other content that we’re saving as a surprise)!
In the office, we will probably put our party hats on, raise a toast, and then join our community for the in-game celebrations. 
4- Why do you think people are still playing Guild Wars?

Guild Wars is a great game. It is very easy to get into, although it takes some time to master all its aspects, as Guild Wars values skill over time. We also have a dedicated Live Team, which works on adding new content to the game and balancing the gameplay. Our PvP system is still one of the best on the market in terms of structured competitive play, and all our campaigns have compelling storytelling that lets you feel you are part of the world.

5- Why should someone new consider picking up Guild Wars at this stage?

Well, first of all because it is a great game with a vibrant community that offers hours and hours of fun! And if you look at our business model (no monthly fees, buy the box and play), you get a lot of value for your money. We also offer the Trilogy, combining all three campaigns in one box, so you basically get three games for the price of one. If I did not already play Guild Wars, I would pick it up immediately and start playing. *smiles*
6- How much has Guild Wars changed over the past four years?

Wow, that is a tough one. *laughs* Where do I begin….

We have seen so many changes over the course of the last four years, because the development team has constantly been working to add more exciting features to the game. With Factions, we introduced a new form of PvP to the game, Alliance battles, that actually let you influence the outcome of the war between the two warring factions. This was a more “casual” form of PvP than our very competitive Guild vs. Guild, and it was picked up by a lot of players who usually do not engage in PvP.

With Nightfall, we introduced Heroes (NPCs that you can customize and control), giving players more options for how to play the game. Want a full group of human players? No problem. Just want some quick action on your own, because you do not have a lot of time? Grab your Heroes and jump right into it.

Eye of the North brought the classic “dungeon crawler” feeling to the game, with players being able to explore multilevel dungeons filled with dangerous traps and fierce enemies. We also introduced the Hall of Monuments, which tracks your achievements across all campaigns and will be your “heritage” once we release Guild Wars 2.

Our competitive GvG gameplay also changed a lot over the course of the last four years, with our developers reacting to the way our PvP community worked the system.

So yes, the game has changed quite a bit over the course of the last four years, but that is to be expected from a living and breathing game like Guild Wars.

7- I’ve always felt the artist who does the box art is phenomenal. Who’s responsible for that?

The original concepts are designed by our internal concept art team-as you might know, they won a lot of awards for their exceptional work. The final high-res renders are then created by the Visual Services team based at the NCsoft headquarters in Korea.
8- What’s one aspect of Guild Wars you wished could have been changed or improved upon?

I think it would have been great if we had a dedicated Live Team earlier on. Those guys are doing exceptional work to keep Guild Wars as exciting as it was on the first day.
9- When you look around the game industry, who are some of the developers you admire, and why?

I think our friends over at Paragon Studios are doing a great job. Just look at their latest addition, the Mission Architect. It is awesome! And their game is approaching its 5 year anniversary on the same date that we celebrate our 4th anniversary, so best of luck to all of them. From a community point of view, I also have to say that the guys over at CCP do a great job with viral videos and using web 2.0 features like Twitter and Facebook to interact with their community.

10- What is the team currently working on? (It better be Guild Wars 2

Yes, the majority of us here at ArenaNet are obviously working on Guild Wars 2, and it is coming along nicely. But like I mentioned before, we now also have a dedicated Live Team for Guild Wars that keeps the live game fresh and exciting.
11- Is there anything new you can share regarding GW2?

I can tell you that we are working on it and that it will be released “When it’s done^TM.” *laughs*
12- Looking at GW’s successful free-to-play model, and other popular up-and-comers like Runes of Magic and Free Realms, do you think this is where the future of MMOGs is heading?

I personally think that the future of MMOs will be great. We have seen a lot of new MMOs emerging over the last couple of years, and there are a lot of promising ones on the horizon. I think what we will see is a variety of different business models, and the market will be there to support all of them.
Thank you for your time!

Interview Conducted By: Alex Hammond