GW Factions Interview with ArenaNet Tournament Coordinator Michael Gills

Guild Wars Factions
10-Jul-2006

Michael Gills, ArenaNet Tournament Coordinator, talks the MMO's tentative steps into the pro-gaming world of e-sports

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...42682&skip=yes

Until now, the heady world of pro-gaming e-sports has been focussed around FPS or RTS - two largely PC-centric genres of game that lend themselves well to competitive play. With professional gamers like Fatal1ty ripping the very soul out of titles like Counter-Strike for fame and bundles of cash, there's now a new breed of game entering the arena.

Guild Wars Factions has single-handedly created an entirely new e-sports genre, won over thousands of fans and provided a brand new way to earn a Ferrari. We recently caught up with Michael Gills, ArenaNet Tournament Coordinator, and asked him about Guild Wars's fledging steps into e-sports status, and what the future holds for the game.

What challenges have you faced when attempting to stay on top of keeping the game balanced, and how has the introduction of large cash prizes changed the way you run the league?

Gills: As with any game, whether computer, card, or even a board game, there are many, many more players than there are the people who create it. While the designers do their best to create a fair and balanced game, the simple reality is that the player base will do a much more thorough job in testing the game and stretching the rules of it than can ever be done in-house.

With that said, one of the advantages that Guild Wars has over more static games such as trading card or videogames is the ability to be constantly monitoring and making changes to maintain the overall competitive balance of the game. With our streaming technology we are able to quickly make needed game balances and upload them to our entire player base. This was done constantly before high level PvP play was started and is watched even more closely now.

As for the second part of your question, the first thing we did was to clearly spell out the rules for each tournament and for participant behavior so that each event is clear in how it is run and who is eligible to play. It is always important to make the rules of any competitive system easy to find and clear to understand and that was even more important prior to the start of high level competitive play.

Other e-sports are usually based on set-in-stone skill sets, i.e. FPS games and RTS games. But as you plan to release a new campaign every six months with new classes and skills, the demands on the player may well change dramatically. What do you think are the implications of this?

Gills: This is actually the best thing that can happen for the players and for the game itself. Change provides more players more opportunities to excel.

Games that have set-in-stone rules and skill options can end up feeling limited in strategic scope over time. There are certainly a lot of skills and knowledge that are needed to compete at high levels in these games, but there end up limited options for the individual to contribute their own discoveries to the strategic history of the game.

Players first learning their competitive skills in a static game certainly have their work cut out for them in mastering the game rules, improving their reflexive skills (if needed) and such, but can learn pretty much all there is to learn of the strategy of the game based upon everything that has been done before. Hundreds of books on chess, net decks for trading card games, and other similar sources make it easy for a new player to gain all of the knowledge of past masters. Then it all comes down to practice and recognizing what set strategy to use in which specific situation.

A game that is constantly growing and evolving such as Guild Wars however provides an ever changing strategic environment. New skills and professions coming into the game expand the amount of strategic possibilities for the game at a set pace.

It had always been our intent that half of the strategy of the game takes place before your match even begins. We want players to feel they should look at the ever increasing number of skill, profession, and team build combinations to help maximize their chances for victory prior to actually competing. Every player should feel like they could be the one to come up with the next "big thing".

After the release of Guild Wars Factions we saw new builds and skill combinations start to come in to the state of the game from different guilds right away. First the Assassin was in vogue and now the Ritualist is seen as a necessary component in competitive guild builds. As time passes and more players experiment with the new skills and classes, we will see new strategies and tactics developed that keep everyone involved.

With the influx of these new skills and professions as well as the constant skill balancing, an interesting and ever evolving game environment is created. New ideas and experimentation are encouraged and are talked about by the community itself and players end up looking forward to the next campaign in order to see what great ideas they can come up with first.

Will past champions be able to keep up with the state of the game? Or will new challengers appear with new ideas and a better understanding of the updated environment? This is what keeps a game vibrant and enticing for all.

Online games have much stronger links with their players than offline games. How has the introduction of real money prizes affected how you monitor feedback from the community, if at all?

Gills: It is important for any entertainment company to pay attention to what their customers say, period. Anyone can be lucky and come up with a good idea in a vacuum, but to ignore what your player base says means you won't have a long future in your industry.

Guild Wars has always had a large Community Management staff that spends all of their time talking with the Guild Wars player base, listening to what they have to say, and reading what they don't directly say but post publicly for others to discuss.

With the introduction of high level organized play, we spend as much time as possible collecting feedback, taking in suggestions, answering concerns, and so on. Our championship event rules and systems have been evolving as we learn more about what our player base like and want. We also factor in the changing state of the game along with the technological improvements (such as observer mode) that are added to game as time goes by.

We are currently discussing our future organized play plans with a select group of Guild Wars players (our alpha testers) to allow them to help us constantly improve our tournament systems.

Has there been much interest from serious players from other genres in coming over to Guild Wars and what has the reaction from the other scenes been like?

Gills: We have already been contacted by various organizations that run high level events for other genres to help support Guild Wars tournaments at their events and locations. These groups - whether retail, fan groups, or conventions - have recognized that Guild Wars can provide a high level competitive play experience for their existing customers and fans and we are working with them to help support their efforts.

For example, we have a Guild Wars tournament and event sanctioning system that will be going live within the next several weeks that will make it easier for us to provide marketing support as well as offering exciting prize support opportunities for these events to provide even more competitive opportunities for both existing and new Guild Wars competitors.

In addition, we will be running exciting introductory competitive events at various events and conventions where high level competitors of other game types and genres congregate so that they will have the opportunity to learn about Guild Wars and compete for fame and prizes.

Now that the game has reached e-sports status, have you had to make any revisions to the control system or UI to accommodate the elite players and the way they operate?

Gills: There have always been and will always be constant improvements in Guild Wars for both the PvE and PvP experiences in the game.

One of the first revisions that were added to the game was our observer mode technology. This allows us to mark special games (matches held between high rated guilds, playoff matches, etc.) so that they are available to be watched by any Guild Wars player. And not just idly watched like a movie, the observer is able to manipulate the map, zoom in on particular areas or players, and watch what skills and tactics these high level guilds employ.

Another example is the upcoming upgrade that is coming for our tournament ladder. While we have always provided the necessary information to determine overall ratings and rank, we will be providing the additional sorts of information (history, streaks, call out large changes, etc.) that any competitive sports fan wants. Look for this to come out soon.

Other PvE and PvP game improvements are always being worked on and will be announced in the future.

Large community management staff? There must be a few foreign CR people I don't know.

Mr T bot, I thought the same thing. Because we've been repeatedly told that Gaile Gray is the spokesperson for ArenaNet and Alex Weekes posts occassionally as well. Also, I know she does more and has more responsibility than "spend all of their time talking with the Guild Wars player base, listening to what they have to say, and reading what they don't directly say but post publicly for others to discuss."

This of course doesn't mean that she's the only one in the position so perhaps there are significantly more community management for asia? Anyone know? I thought perhaps there might be a larger team then this but no one has ever made mention of them.

Once again Anet caters to the elete players, but spits on everyone else. I have noticed just how unfair the tournament system is with GW. I don't mean to complain, but my guild I will admit is certainly not the best by a long shot, however when we do GvG it never seems to be a fair fight, in the end.

What I notice is that the tounraments always have the same guilds playing, you may reset them to 1000, but we all know it does not take them very long to get back too their original statis because they go up against low ranking guild and defeat then very easily, that is unfair. So how is it balenced?

I suggest that who ever wins a tourament championship either have to rotate it's rosters of players, or compete every other season. Lastly I suggest that during the latter reset, that you use past ranking to determine matches in groups of ten, from the top to the bottom of the latters so matches are fair.

Example: everyone starts at 1000 ranking, but games will be determined by past rankings so a top ten guild does not have to face a guild in the below 500 rank. Thus getting points will be more difficult to increase their latter rank.

Well I admit that the gvg matching system is rather wonky (hurray for my rankless guild getting demolished by a top 200 korean guild).

However in the context of actual fighting, its as fair as Anet can get it so far (note my choice of words).


Mr T/Inde:

I think Gaile is merely the person that speaks for a much larger staff of people. Anet is on top of issues, imo, and i dont think thats possible with just 2 people. They might have a large staff just reading our forums and discussing what they read and what they can respond to.

Also i dont believe that being CR is gaile's exclusive job. If you look at the Arenanet site, Gaile has several articles about getting jobs in the gaming industry which makes me think she has functions in management/hiring/personel.

what is this? the guild wars 'special' olympics?

people need to get out of the mindset that top guilds are somehow so godly that they can't be touched. its depressing how many guilds i guest for will mentally resign themselves before a match starts, when they come across a decent guild.

the only difference between a good guild and any other is that the good guild is less prone to totally screwing up. i have never seen any guild play a perfect game, nor have i lost matches where something couldn't have been done better.

it makes no sense to limit the playing field by cutting off high level competitors. thats fine for those who want to live in lala land and play wammo-way, but i think most gvg guilds have bigger aspirations.

I can see you either have no idea how the latter system works or just don't care. By making it a ranked system, matches will be fair and give lower guilds a chance to excel, thus as they go up in the ranks the challenge gets harder, however since we all start at 1000, if my guild goes against last pride, yes we will try to give them a run for their money, but given their experience I bet we would most likely lose the match, now we are down to 986 rank, then we end up against a guild who is 1050 ranked and normally they are a 300 ranked guild, we do our best but are defeated, and our rank goes down to 965 rank, at this point we might win or lose, but do you see what I am getting at.

If we are all the same there is no way to tell who is who in most cases, and being honest some of these europen and korean guilds play like it is a job to them, I am sorry but I have a real life, yet I would still like to have an opportunity to compete for prizes, but a last I guess I just live in an unfair world. I have the comfort to know that the United States which made GW possible, in the strongest nation both economicly and military in the world.

Um, that naturally ranks them out. After a couple days, then the higher ranked guilds are playing against each other, and the lower ranked guilds against each other. By resetting everyone to 1000, it allows guilds who have gained skill, but not points, to climb the ladder easier as they do not have such a dramatic difference in points.

As it is, such guilds that play the game as a job ARE the ones that are going to win. It is that simple. Kind of like with sports. A neighborhood team wouldn't likely beat a pro team, now would it? As you said yourself, you have a life. You don't have the time to devote to becoming "pro." Just realize that these highly skilled players have to make a much more dramatic time investment. While I can understand the desire to be able to compete for a prize, just realize that by participating in the GvG ladder, you ARE competing for a prize. While you are probably unlikely to be victorious in this endevear (to judge by the general tone of your post), you are still competing.

Finally, if you can't get to this high levels, try to take a vicarious pride when a guild from your region DOES succeed at these levels.

i feel the same way.

i don't wanna have to gvg a lot to go to the championships.

nor do i want to work to get paid.

i don't feel like studying much to get A's either.

What, you mean your screen doesn't have the magic "Play a better game" button that everyone else has?

Piffle. You get access to the same resources as everyone else -- including the number of hours in your day. Teams that allocate their resources strategically for GvG (including the time they spend playing) and use them well will beat teams that don't. That's supremely fair.

People who say "This is unfair!" usually mean "I don't like losing!" It's not the same thing at all. I used to play in chess tournaments. I sucked badly at it, my rating barely beat 1300, but that's nobody else's fault. I didn't rail against the game for it, or complain because grandmasters got to make a living from chess and I didn't. I just had fun playing, even though I lost a lot, and gradually came to suck a bit less.


This is a complaint? Why? Being randomly matched against Last Pride sounds like a great opportunity to learn something and have some fun. "Sure, we got our ass handed to us -- by the best team in Guild Wars!" That's gotta be worth a few lousy ELO points which (if you're any good) you can recover in the next couple games. And if you then lose against a team that's normally ranked 300 -- could it not be argued that you deserve to lose more ranking points, because that 300 team is still better than you are?

Anyway, if this is such a game-breaker for you, the solution is obvious and simple. Wait a few days until the rankings start to normalize, then leap in and begin to climb (or plummet) to your proper place.


Because that is exactly what is supposed to happen. Teams that are good get high rankings. Teams that are not good get lower ones. The ranking is not a cause. It's an effect.

Can you really point to an injustice here? Someone who is getting more than an equal share of resources? Or do you simply not like losing?

Meaning; When a low ranking guild loses from a much higher ranking Guild, the points lost and won are neglectable, but when a low ranking Guild wins from a high ranking Guild, the benefits are enormous for the low ranking.
For a low ranking Guild the loss of the battle will still be a good experience, with amost no ranking lost.
The next battle might be to a slightly higher ranking guild than yours, and you might raise enormous in rank. Elo is a genious

QFT (well, for good use of sarcasm actually)

Sorry- you are complaining because guilds that are better than you beat you? and thats unfair?

Lets let you enter the superbowl (i presume you live in america) but stop you coming up against any teams that are better than you because they might win. That way you only play teams that are worse than you, but then it's unfair on them, so they cant play you, only teams that are worse, so nobody plays anything at all, but it's ok because you get a prize for being special.

Or is it just you want to compete in the tournaments because you think you are special (possibly why conventional spelling doesn't seem to apply to you) and therefore deserve one of the limited number of places just because you [u]dont want to play against teams that beat you.

I don't think it will make it into pro-gaming, probably because not everyone's build is set on an equal playing field damage wise or whatever the goal of the build is set for compared to another person's build. And if every thing has a counter that means no one can be the best, and to try to win you would need to make a counter for someone's build, but when they know you have a counter, they need a counter for your build, and infinity + 1. And pretty much your as good as your build is.
The thing I like about factions pvp is that they have the alliance battles, which I like to call pvp for everyone when compared to HoH or GvG. It's way more fun and you can do it pretty much whenever you want, and you don't have to work up a huge gimmic build.
If I wanted to invest my time for pro gaming I'd have to go with the major league for console games, the U.S site's www.mlgpro.com
The prizes are enough to support you as a full time gamer and sponsorships if your good enough. Just having 10k divided up bettween 8 people for guild wars once per year is kinda skimpy compared to the multiple yearly tournaments the mlg has.

P.S

I'd go for the Super smash bros sect of mlg.

Gaile is the representative from ANET, along with two others that supposedly are under her.

http://www.guildwars.com/support/con...onscredits.php (U.S.)
http://eu.guildwars.com/support/article/gwf_credits/ (second source EU)


Under 'Community':
There are two other players. Natasha Hoover & John Stumme.
Their profiles can be found under here:
http://www.arena.net/about/team.html

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Gaile Gray, Community Relations Manager
Gaile coordinates our Alpha Test and manages our website content, internal forums, fansites, fan events and communications.
Natasha Hoover, Community Relations Assistant
assists with fan correspondence, contests and prize fulfillment, and with the Alpha Test.
John Stumme, Community Coordinator
was involved with gaming fansites for many years. As part of the Community Relations team, John coordinates the Alpha Test, writes the "Guild of the Week" feature, helps with live events and demos, and assists with our fansite program.
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Really though, Gaile is the only one that should be perusing the forums, because of that listing, 'fansites', in the profile. But obviously we can't rule out the other 2, or anyone else at ANET or NCSOFT. Note John Stumme has been "involved with gaming fansites for many years."

Alex Weekes is the representative from NCSOFT.

He is listed under that first link, under 'NCSOFT Europe'.
There is also an NCSOFT Japan, Taiwan, etc. So there are probably a number of them out there, on non-english forums of course.


As a sidenote, Steve Blum is listed one of the Voice Actors. Some of you probably already knew it via audio clues in-game, since his voice is very well known on Adult Swim, being the voices of 'Spike' on Cowboy Bebop, as well as many other anime shows.