So this post is actually a repost of a job post from early june (here's the old archive of it), some changes, like the mention of GW3 and more details at the bottom. Except you will not find the old version of it in my spreadsheet, because I missed it being posted at the time. Why? Firstly probably because of all the excitement about the announcement, but secondly because it replaced another Material Artist job post that was also there at the time.
Well, added the new to the spreadsheet anyway, and probably update it with the old one retroactively too sometime maybe...
There is also a HR & Recruiting Coordinator post that is new too. It obviously a general position, but it's funny how it seems HR expects the next 6 months to be quite hectic at the studio that they are looking for a contractor for the period to help manage.
When Guild Wars 2 was released, many Guild Wars players were disappointed with it (I’m not even going to try to guess a number or a percentage here). But that didn’t prevent Guild Wars 2 from being a bigger game than the original ever was; I think one developer mentioned that the number of players trying World vs World alone was bigger than the amount of players Guild Wars had.
I think, in retrospect, that many of us were expecting Guild Wars 2 to be “Guild Wars, but more”, and that’s definitely not what we got. It’s a very different game, not for the exact same audience.
Now comes Guild Wars 3. And I have seen two different groups here on Reddit: one who wants it to be “Guild Wars, but more”, and another who expects is to be, “Guild Wars 2, but more”. Honestly, I expect both to be disappointed by Guild Wars 3. Not that they necessarily won’t like the game, but it will probably be as different from the previous games as GW2 was from GW, and purposedly not made for the exact same audience.
And that’s ok.
Guild Wars 3 may not be for me or for you, but we will still have Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. It’s good that ArenaNet is trying something different, maybe something that will be a lot more successful than GW2, even if it’s not for all of us.
Hopefully the devs check this subreddit as development of GW3 progresses.
Please give us Gathering Levels + Gathering Prestige’s.
I know the request or mention of New World + WoWs gathering systems might trigger some but I would love to see a more extensive gathering system. Me, and many others truly felt that New World got gathering right, and one of those aspects for me was the level grind and the prestige system upon maxing.
Imagine a levelling system to 250/300 where you can then choose to reset it to get a +1 Mining prestige star and a bonus of sorts for each time. 0.25/0.5% increase to something.
This would add huge longevity to the gathering and make it more than about just gaining the actual materials. Incrimental bonuses for huge active/passive gathering grinds or reward boxes would be awesome!!
Would also love to see more gathering skills.
Like skinning,
Autopsy gathering (body part recovery of corpses)
Essence/magic gathering from magical nodes.
On the topic of innovation, one thing I personally hope the devs look at is how they develop quest/stories. I am not talking about Open world events. Those are mostly fun.
My point of feedback/criticism goes to how Guildwar2 had one of the most boring quests i can think of. For example, carry x to point B, collect to fill progress bar with pickup progress bars, look for 12 artifacts in the most obscure locations (VoE), fix/heal NPC to by running around, listening to endless dialogues, piano hacking, etc. All of this feels like a chore just to stall time just to get my progress/rewards.
I might be in the minority here, but i consider dated and lazy mechanics to fill the gap for actual content. Guildwars 1 was actually better at this, and I remember its story much better because it impacted the story.
The solutions I could see are:
Focus events on a bigger scale like WvW did, where you actually see a settlement/progress being built.
Make the mechanics less tedious to interact with so I can focus on the gameplay/narrative rather than the interaction.
Use your actual profession or skills to complete tasks while getting better at it, or give skills context-sensitive actions
Also, meta-events are much better at this because they feel more meaningful, and the fact you are doing it together makes it more fun because inam contributing.
Gw2 does a lot of things well, and their attenpt to innovation was, in my eyes, a success. They just felt back too muchbon tradition of older MMOs.
I don't think it needs to be overcomplicated, but at the very least, it should be made less tedious/chore-like.
Anyway, this is my opinion, I am curious how you see this.
So I had a little trouble fining out just how far back in time we're actually going for GW3, but it does seem to be so far back that Abaddon has not yet been banished, and Dhuum is the current God of Death.
With the speculation around playable races, particularly _awesome looking_ races, the Margonites came to mind:
This struck me while browsing another thread, so I'll add in the same pull quote from the wiki I did there:
"Before the Exodus of the Gods, the Margonites were a seafaring nation of humans that had settled in and around the Crystal Sea, later transformed into ethereal demons by Abaddon. In their demonic form, the Margonites have a natural life span that has been seen to reach to over one thousand years, as evidenced by Lord Jadoth's being older than 1076 years. According to The Lost, their long life and demonic powers come at the price of sterility, thus the Margonites can only increase their numbers by transforming others into Margonites.
Margonites, even after their demonic transformation, are capable of individual thinking. Two examples of this are The Lost and Apostate, who decided to betray Abaddon."
Now, it could be that we're going so far back in time that the Margonites haven't been turned into demons yet. But this is also so far back in time that they could be partially demonic or otherwise "not entirely human" due to Abaddon's influence as the God of Magic (and Secrets, Water, and all that good stuff)...
Anyway, just wanted to float the idea of a cool magic-infused playable race tied to one of the legendary gods of days past.
Do you think the next GW will have everything one can expect to find in the game written on the map, like GW2 ?
Everytime I tried to play this one, a few moments in the game I always find myself questionning why I bother travelling if everything is already handed on the map. It turns exploration into a boring chores list.
I sure hope mystery will be a thing in the next GW.
I would think this goes without saying, but since you are developing the game to launch on PS5, please make sure the PC version also works with controllers. It's a big pain point on GW2 since it wasn't designed with controller use in mind. I would love to see it be a supported feature on the PC launch for GW3.
In addition to saying that skill collecting will be an important part of the game, I noticed something interesting in some quest dialogue of my Factions playthrough. The Canthans use information in an old Orrian tome to create their signets of capture. This is impressive given the distance between the two empires. In Prophecies to get your first signets you also need to beat up some clay golems and return tablet shards to Magi Malaqi, which are artifacts of Orrian origin brought there by wizards from Orr.
Orr appears to have been the pioneers of this particular branch of magic, the ability to copy and learn a technique from a foe. Perhaps this even predates the gift of magic and was how humanity got a leg up on their initial push into Orr and central Tyria.
With this info, I believe that GW3 will have a flexible class system like ff14 or more like The Secret World, or even more extreme a classless. I think this aligns with ANet's philosophy in a couple major ways. It rewards investment in your character, allowing them more flexibility and build variety the longer they play. And it also encourages people to play together because everybody can benefit from doing whatever activity is required to capture instead of just the ranger for this next ability.
So I put on my tinfoil hat today and had a (rather involved) go at speculating where the Orrian borders in GW3 may begin and end, and what sort of biomes it may contain.
GW1 map with potential GW3 regions marked up
First, I did my absolute best to align the GW1 map on top of the GW2 one, with some very small discrepancies (I prioritised aligning Port Sledge and the Shards of Orr in GW1, as they both align with known locations in GW2 - Old Sledge Site and "almost" The Grove, respectively). I'm assuming the GW1 map will be somewhat more accurate to what we get in GW3, as it is post-cataclysm but pre-rising of Orr, which hopefully means the shorelines and biomes are a bit more closely aligned.
I then jumped into GW2 and tried to locate the farthest Orrian landmark from Orr (definitely Sunken Chaladeen in Sparkfly Fen, given its Arabic name and definitive architecture). This map though... is interesting. It seems to either merge Orrian architecture with more obscure looking ruins (see Stone of Hazaan), or does not use Orrian architecture at all for points of interest with Arabic names (Ruins of Vallah/Aleem's Penance). Perhaps the more obscure ruins are reference to an older or less iconic Orrian architectural style, or maybe ANet just didn't want to spoil too much of what to expect in the original Orr maps beneath - but I thought I'd mark them out anyway because of the language of origin.
GW2 map with potential GW3 regions marked up
We already know much of past Orr is still underwater. The Straits of Devastation feature the Cathedral of Hidden Depths and a Lost Conservatory POI deep underwater, very close to the shoreline bordering Sparkfly Fen. There's a similar story with plenty of sunken architecture in Malchor's Leap. I felt it was pretty safe to expand the borders here, at least to the edges of the GW2 maps. Due to all this, I theorise that Orr was originally connected to what is now known as the Steamspur Mountains. If we look at the GW1 map, we can see that Orr is very much connected to the Scavenger's Causeway as well. All of this suggests that the Crystal Sea could have been a massive landlocked body of water before it dried up (similar to the Jade Sea in Cantha).
This makes the Rata Pten connection very valid as a potential Orrian starting zone for Asura, which could have been a snowy region if we look at its location on the GW1 map (maybe another reason why they have fur?). From the GW3 concept art, we can assume much of central Orr will be lush and green, and from what little we have seen of its verdance in GW2 (Straits of Devastation & Siren's Landing), it seems to have a tropical biome to it as well. Scavenger's Causeway appears to have always been somewhat arid when looking at the GW1 and GW2 maps, which could suggest a desert biome. I then just had a bit of fun and theorised Orr having a volcanic region to the west, given that the map in GW1 has a partially sunken Orrian landmass very close to the Ring of Fire Islands themselves.
I'd be interested to hear your takes on how far Orr may reach!
Other speculative tidbits:
- The Shards of Orr is a dungeon in GW1, and is described as being an old Orrian armory/storehouse. Could Orr have expanded their reach across the strait? I took a bit of liberty here and drew a little region that Orr may inhabit.
- The Tower of Modius in GW2 is questionable, though the event there involves a powerful lich controlling Risen forces, which is very analogous of Vizier Khilbron.
The problem with weapon swapping in gw2 is not that we swapping our ability. Is that we swap it to create dps.
If our weapon swapping was restricted to 1 main dps weapon and one utility weapon (defensive, crowd control, healing , ranged) Than it would have been super fun. But you need to create downside on those so its doesnt become jsut swaping for the sake of using all your coldowns...
That's what modern action rpg do.
Gw2 weapon swaping is a circle of boon, going throught your coldown using ability on coldown. That is why people dislike it. You dont swap cause the situation require it but because you are doing combo without yourself and normal rotation.
In my opinion one of the best things about Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 is the community. This could potentially be hindered in Guild Wars 3 with the game will also be on console. So I’m curious what sort of social options you’d like to see on console to help keep console players engaged? Keyboard support? Poxy voice chat? Party voice chat? What do you think GW3 needs to include in that regard?
This is the first post since the announcement that mentions Unreal and does not mention GW3 by name. So regarding it going into my spreadsheet of gw3/unannounced project job posts, is once again can be vetoed by this fine community. Make a comment if you think it should not be there and get at least five upvotes and I'll remove it.
But anyways, regarding it's content... it feels like it is like the fourth similarly named job post with copy pasted-ish content over the years. But it has this tidbit, we can use to make unfounded conspiracy theories:
We are looking for an experienced engine programmer to hit the Unreal Engine with a wrench and shout “I’m givin’er all she’s got Cap’n” and then give us some more, as we navigate the uncharted space of the next generation of games at ArenaNet.
I know I’m comparing apples to oranges, but I have not been this excited for a game in a long time.
I remember being in middle school, living in a country town and many times feeling lonely as friends were miles away. WoW my parents wouldn’t like paying the subscription which led me to discovering guild wars.
It helped fill that lonely void. I loved the socialness of the game. I have fond memories of staying up late, playing for hours straight while being on a team trying to complete the end game content. I wish I remember what it was called, but I remember all of us being Rangers with Barrage for our elite skill.
Now I’m a father of two, who plays games every now and then on console. By the time GW3 comes out my son will be old enough to learn the mechanics and I’m excited to play alongside him, with one on computer, one on console (our other child will still be too young lol).
Anywas, so many great memories with this series, and perhaps I have my expectations set too high but nonetheless am excited to see what’s in store for GW3.
The one thing I'm most concerned about when it comes to GW3, is their combat and class design. (Or the lack thereof) And it would be interesting to see what the community thinks Arena Net should do.
I played a lot of MMO's over the years. Some with very strict class fantasies (FFXIV), strict roles within each class (WoW), more open systems with no fix roles (GW2) and cross class possibilities (GW1 and ESO). All of these systems come with good and bad aspects. Especially when we look at a more action like combat system.
Since the focus is on action combat, and it releases as well on PS5, makes me believe that we stick with lighter party roles like what we have in GW2. At least when it comes to healing. Direct targeting for heals on consoles, never felt good or fluid. So I assume, healers will still just throw out AoE effects for their healing. Now as for tanking, I really hope we will see a more prominent role for that in GW3. Action combat can become overwhelming fast. Especially when we also need to keep character momentum in mind (whatever that means). Arena Net also didn't really manage to break through the holy Trinity in GW2 anyways. In fact, they made it worse considering that the main healer is usually also the tank now. Pulling this apart again and designing clear role profiles, would be a good thing for their next game.
Now... As for class fantasy, no classes or mixed ones... I have some strong personal feelings about classless MMO's. You loose so much character identity when there are no class defining mechanics. And just throwing everything in one big "skill" tree to make us all pick freely, will kill build crafting long term. It's also often a nightmare to balance and I didn't see any MMO pulling a system like this off, in a satisfying way. But there are a lot of games with strong systems around classes, or mixed classes.
GW1 and their dual class system is the obvious one for us. But I want to highlight a different game. ESO implemented a system not too long ago, where you can switch to any trait line, of any other class that is in the game. The general setup works similar to GW2. You have 3 class trait lines, but you can switch 2 of these 3 out for trait lines (and skills) of any other class. Now... Did ESO do it perfectly? No, simply because the class system was never designed to support something like this. But it's a fun idea that could work very well, if the system was build from the ground up to support it. And you leave the decision in the hands of the player, if they want to stick to a pre-set class fantasy, or combine two or more classes with each other while keeping the core base class mechanic intact. They could also make core class defining mechanics their own "skill" tree. Everyone could start classless, but you have a slot where you slot Guardian Virtues. Or Mesmer Shatters. Or Elements. Basically giving us full freedom to also switch the base mechanics on our character, whenever we want.
So yeah... What does everyone else think about GW3 classes and their design?
I've read the released blog posts several times already, and there are two parts from the second post that I find especially interesting:
"The world is designed to reward curiosity, exploration, and most of all, return visits where you can find entirely new experiences in places your character has previously adventured."
And:
"You'll see the results of conflicts play out in the places you spend time in, and, over time, your relationship with those places—and most importantly, the people who live there—will start to evolve."
These two quotes make me think about a few points:
No traditional character levels. I have a feeling there won't be a traditional leveling system. Instead, we'll probably have some combination of achievements, mastery progression, collectible skills, and a horizontal gear system (some of those can be somehow combined). If the goal is to make every zone relevant throughout the entire game, removing character power levels is (in my opinion) cleanest ways to avoid hassle of correct amount of level scaling. GW2 does scaling quite well but enemies in low level areas are still very easy for max level characters. ANet seems to be putting a huge emphasis on exploration and combat, and neither of those systems actually requires traditional levels.
Reputation or trust with settlements. I also think we'll build "trust" or reputation with different villages (or other types of settlements). NPCs could treat you differently depending on your standing with them, affecting things like available merchants, fast travel options, quests, or other services.
The trust could also slowly declined over time. If you ignored a village for a long period, the inhabitants might become less trusting (or perhaps even hostile). That would encourage players to revisit older locations instead of abandoning them forever after completing them once.
A world that visibly changes based on things what happens there. I expect the world itself to change visually based on the outcomes of events. For example, imagine a troll camp launching attacks against nearby kodan villages. If no players come to defend the village, the trolls could burn it down. After they leave, the villagers would begin rebuilding, creating a completely different set of events than before. During the rebuilding phase, players might gather supplies or protect workers, and once the village is restored, there could even be a retaliatory assault on the troll camp. That couls happen hours later as the rebuilding will take time.
There are SO many possibilities now that they aren't limited by a decades-old engine and can design system for today's hardware and server technology.
After reading the blog post I short of agree with everything they said. ArenaNet's vision has always been something I agree with even though I connected less with GW2 than I did with Gw1, they did innovate.
The new combat system is a something I look forward to and its great they are innovating on it. That being said, I also think one thing does not need to be reinvented (or not much) and that's GW1 skill system. It was a ahead of it's time and still is in some ways. Many games tried to recreate something in this spirit, some succeeded.
What I believe made it great was that there were so many valid option between skills and most of all they were easy to connect. The skills had clear conditions and effects that allowed synergies, and there were counters for pretty much anything. Some builds were downright OP and hard to fight, but the builds were always unique and creative and winnable, like: EdgeBomb > check early and run, IWay > Ball up and spiteful spirit, Balthazar Smite > Mesmer energy drain, Lightning spike > protective spirit and the list goes on.
I played a lot of Hall of Heroes as a healer, but it did not change the fact we were creating builds as a team. The best part was that this was also true for solo play to some extend. For me, Guild Wars 2 made it too streamlined and therefore lacked depth.
My aim with this post is not to change how ArenaNet decides to build the game, but I believe is something worth reflecting on because it truly one of the best system I have seen.
With GW3 seemingly being a "true" open world, I made a video talking about scale.
Hi! I guess this could be posted on GW3 but I am technically talking about things present in GW2.
With Guild Wars 3 being announced, the trailer showing wall-running and Colin talking about movement, it got me thinking about the scale of Guild Wars.
When Preach tried GW2 a few years back, he talked about how impressed he was with GW2's set pieces. Things like world bosses and how the game didn't wait until max level to deliver spectacle.
I agree with Preach that this is GW2's greatest strength and that they don't do enough of it (I am not saying they aren't doing it, but I would like it to be a clearer focus).
ArenaNet has obviously identified movement as a strength of the studio (impossible to miss since the entire MMO sphere praises GW2's mount system) and thus I want them to also see that scale and spectacle is another strength they need to focus on.
Yes, there are other MMO-RPGs that do scale very well, but GW2 simply does it better because it is such a core part of the game. Not just reserved for climactic story set pieces, but a constant aspect of the world of Tyria.
What other aspects could contribute to this feeling? NPC density perhaps? Share some ideas.
While recommended system requirements aren't available, I'm trying to determine if now is the best time to build s new PC. This would be primarily for GW3, but that's 1.5-2 years away (maybe Fable, as well). My concern on waiting is ram and storage prices will continue to increase. Does now make the most sense to build? Or just ram/ssd and wait on the rest (CPU, GPU, etc)? I known most won't know what the market will look like. I figure this is something folks may want to consider.
Yes yes I know it's a whole year till even beta but I'm DYING to learn more. Any crumb of information would sustain me for weeks. So I'm wondering if there's any cons/showcases to look forward to that y'all know about
I've never played GW1 or GW2. GW3 is the first Guild Wars that has my attention, and I've been lurking here trying to figure out if it's my kind of MMO.
Here's the thing that'll decide it for me, and I don't see anyone talking about it: what will race actually mean? Every MMO I've played treats race as a slider, pick a face, get a starting zone, and by mid-game everyone's living the same life regardless of what they chose.
What I want is for race to be a homeland. A culture, an architecture, a grudge. Something you're from, that other players recognize.
So, question for the vets: did race ever actually matter in GW past the early game? And what would it take for it to matter in GW3?
