Guru Heart of the North Interview

We have internal timelines for the major events that happen between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 that serve as a guideline for some of the topics that we’d like to hit upon. I’ll use Cantha: Winds of Change as an example of how this process works. I know that there are certain things that will have happened of importance for GW2 that I think would make for a compelling experience to players. I talk with our keepers of the lore, Jeff Grubb and Ree Soesbee, and pitch them what I’d like to do – this is sort of a sanity pass, with the hope being that if I propose something like “A History of Guild Wars: The Musical,” it will immediately and understandably be shot down.

Once I’ve got the green light, I go back and start filling out the story in greater detail – what is the overall plot arc, who are the important characters, and how is this all going to play out? When that’s done, we reconvene to talk it over again, to refine and finalize it. There can be a fair amount of back and forth, but it’s all part of the iterative design process that we follow here at ArenaNet, and I feel like we’ve come away with something really strong because of it.


As for how many of these major events will occur before Guild Wars 2 – there’s a lot of story that we can tell in the time that we have, even within the limitation of things that would reasonably happen within the player’s lifetime. That isn’t to say we aren’t also looking at ways to let players experience some things that happen beyond their time, as well.

Keiran has been missing for quite some time (at least real world time) after the events of the War in Kryta. However, players who have been following Guild Wars 2 are probably already familiar with Logan Thackeray, one of our iconic characters, which presents something of a conundrum – how does he end up being if we never explain the rest of Keiran’s tale? This was a story that I didn’t want to leave hanging before we moved on to explore other parts of the world, and what has been happening within them. There’s a lot of story still to be told – not just for existing characters, but for a host of new faces as well.

There will be a new Hero unlocked at the end of the content – when completing story arcs like this, I’d like to try and make sure we’re giving the players a tangible reward as opposed to something that is strictly cosmetic!

The wedding will be playing out as part of the story line – I didn’t want to make something like this as a one-time event, that would be unfair to players who come in later on. It’s a culmination to a pretty large storyline, so I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out. The wedding itself is going to be something of a breather after all of the action of the Keiran missions. It was something I really felt that the content needed – a chance for something to happen that was just simple and positive – no death, destruction, war, or strife. After coming off a major storyline of conflict, we needed a moment of peace. I feel like if we let ourselves get caught up in telling nothing but increasingly epic conflicts, the player can begin to lose sight of why they’re even fighting at all. It’s the simple moments that let you know that the world is something that’s still worth caring about.