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HEAD OF THE GUILD - JEFF STRAIN ON GUILD WARS

Guild Wars producer spills the beans on a new breed of MMORPG

17:05 Jeff Strain from developer Arena Net tells us exactly what's wrong with the MMORPG - and how Guild Wars puts it right

When we sat down to watch a presentation of Guild Wars last week we were prepared for the worst. As much as we love a good bit of concentrated PC MMORPG dedication, sitting listening to some guy droning on about hit points, mage's magic levels, armour values and the splash damage of a fireball can freeze our note-taking hand like a +10 paralysis spell.

Guild Wars, however, is a very different kind of MMORPG, and developer Arena Net speaks about it in a very different way. Forget the l33t speak jargon and the image of overweight, smelly men spending 17 hours at a time in front of their screens.

The point of Guild Wars is that it's fun. Instant, accessible fun, that nevertheless provides gamers with enough depth to keep them coming back for more. Everything about the game has been designed to streamline the experience, making it less nerdy but equally as compelling.

We couldn't put it better than Jeff Strain, the game's producer at Arena Net, so we cornered him and got the lowdown on how Guild Wars will redefine the genre:

We were immediately surprised at how arcadey Guild Wars looks and plays, and Fable was an instant reference point for us. What are you trying to achieve with this less hardcore MMORPG style?

Jeff Strain: I'm really glad you had that impression, because that was something we were shooting for. One of the main reasons for the visual and gameplay style is that if you're not into the level-grinding mindset then what you're looking for is the minute-by-minute experience to be fun. We have a mantra: 'What am I doing right now?' It's not about 'what am I working for?' or 'what will I be doing when I finally get to level X?' Whatever the answer is, it should be fun.

We've designed the combat system to be very fast and quick and we wanted to strike a balance between twitch games or 3D fighting games and MMO games where you set a target, click a few buttons and see how it comes out. We wanted combat to be something you managed, something you felt like you were really doing. When you launch a really skilful Guild Wars player their hands are never still. They're continuously managing their health and magic and engaging in the act of combat. And that skill doesn't just come from sitting in front of your PC and level-grinding for hundreds of hours - in Guild Wars we've limited the effect of levelling up so players have to rely on their ability, not how much free time they have. It works: we've found that the speed and accessibility of the action and the animation really adds to the adrenaline and excitement of the experience.

Of course, there are financial reasons too. In general, even if you look at the most successful MMORPG games the total number of players is nowhere near the penetration of a hit console title or even a hit PC title that's not an MMO. While 400,000 people may subscribe to EverQuest, 3 or 4 million people played Diablo. We want to give as many gamers as possible the game they want.

How does the combat system actually work? Do mouse clicks activate sword swings and magic attacks and what's the balance between that and traditional MMO combat?

Jeff Strain: We wanted to ensure our combat system was accessible to casual players and not just designed for the hardcore. One thing we always wanted was that if you click the mouse, something should happen. That's true of Guild Wars. Every character has what we call a 'grunt attack', so if battle begins and you're not sure what to do you can just select a target, click the mouse, and your character will attack. You always have that satisfaction of something starting.

Then, as your skills increase, you have the added management of the eight skills you can choose before a mission or a player versus player contest. As you progress you'll develop skills that you open with, ones that you sustain with, ones you use in a pinch, ones you use when you're trying to escape and ones where all your team mates are dying and you've got to pull out a big nuke. Managing the energy cost is something that's constantly ongoing.

The other side of the combat system is that your movement is very important. You can also dodge attacks as you would in an arcade game, so if someone's shooting arrows or magic missiles at you, you can avoid them.

In what other ways have you pared back the features in other MMOs which require a lot of effort for very little payback?

Jeff Strain: If you read the box copy for a lot of MMORPGs they list things like 10,000 square miles of pre-rendered 3D terrain which takes eight hours to cross as a selling point. That sounds really cool, but what essentially is happening is that you're taking an hour of content and stretching it as far as you can. Richard Garriot from NCSoft Austin likes to say 'concentrated coolness', which is something we focus on.

So in Guild Wars world travelling is done by opening up a map and clicking on a location. It's as simple as that. We're sticking in magic portals to make it more believable, but it's not something we're getting hung up on. The emphasis is on getting where you want to go and having fun. It's the same with getting into missions and forming parties - you go where you want and there should be people there who want to do the same thing. Even the item system is designed for ease of use. You don't get rewarded with a more powerful weapon for playing sixty hours, but you may have a very different sword because you've customised it with all the items and rewards you've collected. Again, it's not about how long you spend in the game but what you do with that time.

Does this increased accessibility apply to the social side of the game as well? Is it easier to meet people in the game and form friendships, teams and Guilds than in other MMOs?

Jeff Strain: Some aspects are a lot easier. We want to channel people by their immediate desires. There are persistent areas in the world like cities, towns and outposts and sometimes they're just there for socialising. Some of the towns are very working areas, the places you go when you need to see a trader or a craftsman, when you're ready to have items made for you or have a skill enhanced. The outposts are there strictly for the purposes of meeting people before you embark on a mission. We really tried to eliminate you having to wander around hundreds of nameless and faceless people before you find somebody who wants to do what you want to do.

We've also got a messenger-style system that lists all your friends in the game, tells you where they are in the world, lets you know when they come online, and allows you to talk to them instantly. We're channelling the community so you can experience it when you want to experience it and prevent it from becoming overwhelming.

How does the Guild system work?

Jeff Strain: You don't have to form a Guild, and you can quite happily operate a team of players without forming one. But if you want to make your Guild official someone has to go to the Guildmaster, pay him a fee, then select the Guild logo and the Guild tabard. He can then issue invitations to anyone to come and join the Guild. When you form a Guild you automatically get a Guild hall which is your own little world where members can hang out, meet up to embark on co-op missions, or challenge another Guild.

Guild Wars allows you to both play missions against NPCs in co-op multiplayer and indulge in player versus player gladiatorial combat. How do these two styles of play fit together?

Jeff Strain: When you create your character you place it within a certain world that corresponds to the real world, so you can decide to play with other Europeans or Americans, and so on. When you go to social areas and on missions in your world you'll be with people from the same world. You can challenge other Guilds from within your world, but the coolest thing is that we'll be running an International Guild Tournament between Guilds from the different worlds. If you have a team and that Guild fights its way to the top of the intra-world Tournament then your specific world will receive benefits like exclusive missions, items and special features that'll be unlocked. That's why we call it the International Tournament because you're always pulling for the team from your world to be in the top spot.

Is there a worry that hardcore MMORPG players might accuse Guild Wars of being dumbed-down and turn their backs on it?

Jeff Strain: There are definitely players who enjoy that hardcore level-grinding kind of game and I think there are some fantastic games out there that do that very well. Guild Wars isn't that kind of game. You're not going to be chopping wood for five hours so you can raise your wood chopping skill by one point so you can make a bench to sell to somebody. Guild Wars is designed to be a much more accessible, much faster action game. It's Diablo meets EverQuest rather than EverQuest with some Diablo in it.

So who is your target Guild Wars player?

Jeff Strain: I think the ideal Guild Wars player is probably the kind of person who has enjoyed online action-based RPGs like Diablo but who yearns for more infrastructure and support for social gaming, and who wants to feel more like they're party of a community and a vast world.

Guild Wars is due for release in the UK in the first quarter of next year, but you can participate in the game's World Preview Event - for free - from today until Sunday night. Go here for more information about Guild Wars and how you can get involved in the World Preview Event.

However if you want to see Guild Wars in the flesh right now, why not check out this brand new movie from the game, which showcases the MMORPG action at its finest?