Guild Wars: Factions Interview

Exactly. They are more concerned about game play that making people grind for levels.

They could of set the limit at lvl 100, give you 2 attr points per level and make it near impossible to get to level 100 in 8 months or more. You would be complaining then too wouldn't you? And there would be even more complaints from casual players.

They make you earn skills (or buy them), unlock weapon mods, etc., but eventually everyone is at the same level, no one has an advantage over any other, even the high-end armor is no better protectionwise than Droknar's armor.

Maybe there will be a lvl 50 monster, it may take a whole group of 8 (or more) with complimentary skills to defeat it - so what, enjoy the game or go play something else.

I love it the way it is. I've unlocked the all the skills for my Ranger, Monk, and Warrior - still gotta work on the three other classes without deleting any chars (probably just end up buying them from skill vendor when I want to try out different R/?, W/?, M/? builds). And I've been playing since public release, with some time off here and there. I can't wait for Factions to come out.

Lvl 20 cap complaints: perhaps you don't understand. My level 20 characters have spent more time playing as level 20 than not. My characters keep getting more and more powerful even though they remain level 20. Why? Because I keep learning to play better. I am improving, not counting levels.

Elite content complaints: compare elite conent to the current state of the game. I feel people will be able to gain access to elite content through skilled gameplay, not by the size of your guild. Just like the current game, if you aren't good enough you won't reach the elite content.

The point of this game is that strategy (using the map well, choosing the right skills) wins the game, NOT that you can do 50 more damage because you're 10 levels higher. They've stated numerous times that this is a game for casual gamers as well as the hardcore gamers. Meaning someone who has not much gaming time isn't gonna come back to find that all the enemies are 30 levels higher than them, and to join in PvP they need to reach level 60.

Whilst I love levelling up in games, I see this as one reason for them NOT to increase the level cap; its unique. Tons of games increase the cap with each expansion. And then you get owned by a level 40 because you happened to go away on holiday for two weeks.

Maybe a few years down the line when the game is dying out they'll change it, but for the forseeable future it has been stated many times that the cap isn't going to change. It's even stated in this interview

On the elite stuff, it sounds to me like it will be possible to take control away, but you'll have to do a lot of PvP AND PvE to do it. Not sure how I feel on it, but hey, I'm sure it'll work out, and if it doesn't then there'll be enough of us complaining to them after release that they'll fix it

But how would you know which side IQ decided to join? And I am sure if they do it the way I described I doubt they would let you change "sides" constantly...maybe once you chosse a "side" you can't change to the other one.

Hear, hear!! How about we wait for the game to come out and see what it si before complaining, 'kay?

I think A-net is looking at guilds and seeing thousands of 2-10 active member guilds and then they see top guilds who each have a smurf or 3. There are several guilds which regularly compete unrated or are on each other priority guest list. The new playing styles will do one of two things:1) increase guilds to reasonable size so that players have more access to more content, 2) officially connect smurfs, friendly guilds and small (3-8 guy) teams. More communication between guilds will connect the community a bit more and keep people in the game.

More guild content is a good thing. Some of these towns sound like they will be miserable whole in the wall places, but for you rank 1000 guild it gives them something to do as a guild where the can (and will) be successful. IQ and company will definitely sit on some of the favorites, but I feel top guilds should be rewarded. Considering the current level of tombs competition, I can't see it being difficult for 2 guilds with 20-30 guys total to grap an alliance town and run the elite mission for a bit.

One more try to convince you that this is doable. I'm guessing a challenge won't be much harder than running a few underworld missions or a greens run. Get 8 guys to unlock the town doing that and jump into the elite mission. The whole thing will be quicker than some of the fissure/underworld runs I've been on and more rewarding since it is acheived as a guild. Alternatively, a pvp team keeps control by wracking up points while the alliance farmers reap the rewards and split the profit.

PvP is incredibly pointless and centralized at the moment. GvG is great, but a half hour battle to get 2 spots on the ladder is kind of a grind if you are a second class guild (150-300 range in my book). Is split between fame grinder and occasional good teams holding and reaping faction. At the very least this will be several minor "hall of hero's" type battles with varying flavors of pvp. It is unlikely that any one objective will be more difficult than winning and holding the hall.

The game needs more high end content. High end content should not be easy to access... defeats the purpose. Game needs more pvp objectives--done. Too many people got to the end of the game(quests,hall, fissure, underworld) quickly and quit the first time around. This format could allow players to continue discovering content after 200+ hours.

Most importantly, guilds will begin to mean something substantive outside of the top 100; important in a game called guilds wars IMO.

Well the top guild might not like each other and team up with smaller guilds and help them out.

Overall I like this Alliance thingy. I'm going to make friends with top guilds .

I REALLY like the PvP and The PvE communities being connected more then just favor.

PvE only guy: Hurry up PvPers get Favor of the Gods so I can Solo-farm

PvP only guy: O I'm just fame farming with IWAY.

Overall I CAN'T WAIT FOR FACTIONS!

afaik , strong people , know they are strong , they dont a need a level cap , thats the point in guildwars. in some way , the real power is hiden , and that is the skill knolage.

i dont mean to be rude or say bad things about wow im going to do it. but if "People will eventually want to become stronger then they currently are " go play /coff wow im doing it

I admit, this whole alliance thing does have me worried a bit. But, as others have said, let's wait and see before jumping on the 'Anet is evil' bandwagon, hmmm?

People are far to sceptical...
Sure, a company that relies on shear number sales to survive is going to make the game only good for 200 people... grow up

I thought this game wasn't going to cater to people who play it relentlessly for hours on end. Those are the only people who will be able to get to these elite areas. Once you add areas that the casual (i.e. married) gamer can't get to, whats the point of playing. Either this gets fixed, or they will lose lots of players. If i wanted this crap, I'd play WOW.

I just hope there is plenty there for the casual PVE'er who hates PVP. I'm especially worried that they will force players to do lots of PVP to make it to the end of the storyline. Either that, or they're so worried about coming up with new ways for guilds to fight with each other that the PVE story will be an afterthought. I'd feel good if just once they'd brag about how cool and immersive the new PVE storyline will be.

Oh well, I'll reserve judgement until the game is actually out. Anet does admittedly have a good record of pleasing its players.

APPARENTLY NO ONE READ THIS

so I will post it again.

Apparently, you missed the point of freedom of speech. You also missed the point of a game FORUM, which allows people from all walks of life to discuss whatever topic they choose within the guidelines of the forum. Last time I checked, this forum, and more specifically, this thread, was started for the purpose to DISCUSS the interview, and people's reactions to it, based on the content of that interview.

Thus, if you have no real input into the article, the interview, or people's comments about the interview, Factions, or GW in general, what are you doing here?

For my .02 cents - I am DEEPLY disturbed at the direction GW is moving, catering even MORE to guild play. From everything I've read, they are practically forcing players to A) join a guild and B) join top-10 guilds or guilds allied with top-10 guilds, and participate in GvG fights (now referred to co-op alliance missions) to access content. Talk about polarizing the community.

Oh, and whoever said that in GW only elite players have access to elite content obviously have not played the past 5 months of running level 1 characters to Droknar's, seeing lvl 3 characters up at Granite Citadel, or countless low level characters begging to join a Thunderhead Keep mission. I see "non elite" players every day, either based on their level, or based on their incompetency, in every "elite" area of the game, including Shiverpeaks, Crystal Desert, SF, UW, FoW, Fire Islands, etc.

haa, my exact thought.

I guess they run out of things to complain about the current game?

GW stands for Guild Wars...

and what makes you think anet is "forcing" you to join top 10 guild and forcing you to go PvP or GvG. last time I checked, faction has about the same size of PvE content as chapter 1, improved group PvE missions.

Yeah, maybe the top 10% of the game can only be accessed if you are actually in a guild that's allied with one of the two controlling faction, but is that a bad thing?

if everything is readily openly accessible to everyone regardless of server/faction/level, what's the point of having "faction", or wars?

always fun complaining about presidents haha

now on a serious note, I agree that we should first see how this faction thing works, but I do agree that I don't like the idea that only the top 50 guilds maybe can join these "elite missions" wich have very nice drops.

They should make it possible for guilds to fight ppl of their own skill level and compete against them for these missions.

But time will tell

I for one would like to volunteer my services as a PvE player to whichever of the PvP guilds will have me! Me and my friends form a smallish, 5 person PvE only guild. We'd be honoured to join a large PvP guild and head up their PvE department for GW:F!

*Fills out the iQ PvE Dept application* :-)

Apparently spoken by someone that was clamoring six months ago for UAS, I bet.

And you're wrong about how much content there will be for casual PVE players. From what I've read, I get the impression that almost all of the new content in factions will be catering to PVP play, whether it's GvG, co-op alliance, etc. The "map" will be about the same size, but in order to play in it, you must be in a guild or fighting in an alliance against other players. There apparently will be little (if any) strictly PVE content in the same vein as the first chapter.

As a PVE player, I'm reading the interview from my POV which is going to be a lot different than from someone that has a PVP POV.

No, I am a 95% PvE player.

From what I've read from various sources, espcially from the latest issue of Computer Gaming World, Faction is (or can be) a stand-alone game, in which you can start new characters and level them up to 20 and unlock skills just like you did with chapter one.

It has more PvP elements built into PvE, for example, in certain missions, you'll be fighting real players for mission objectives. Remember the little battle when you are leaving pre-seering? I imagine it'll be something like that.