Guild Wars 2 looks to revamp the way we think about combat, social gaming and story in MMORPGs

ArenaNet's Mike O'Brien posted the Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto today on ArenaNet's blog. The post contained a wealth of information on the much anticipated sequel to the 2005 no-subscription MMORPG, but may have roused the most excitement by describing what they won't be doing, rather than what they will be doing. The post stressed that this is an MMORPG that will fix the problems that even the most successful MMORPGs have.

"If you love MMORPGs, you should check out Guild Wars 2," says O'Brien, "But if you hate traditional MMORPGs, then you should really check out Guild Wars 2. Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn't fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn't suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn't make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn't have a monthly fee."

O'Brien stressed that MMORPGs should be great RPGs as well, but many lose the emphasis great RPGs have on story and player choice. "Shouldn't great MMORPGs be great RPGs too? It sometimes feels like our industry has thrown the baby out with the bathwater. When you play an RPG, you want to experience a compelling and memorable storyline. You want your choices to matter. You want your actions to leave their mark on the world. Let's start demanding those things of MMOs too."

Story
According to O'Brien, two of main culprits for story killing are quest text and not having a unique identity in the world. "We've all clicked so many exclamation points and accepted so many quests in our lives that we're pretty immune to quest text at this point. GW2 tells story by allowing the player to befriend and adventure with key characters, by presenting him with moral dilemmas that will impact the lives of the people around him, and by having him live through world-changing events and all the key moments of the storyline."

O'Brien also spoke of creating a character biography during character creation that will define your path in the game, with different biographies offering a different player experiences.

And what's a story with out a world that feels alive? O'Brien says a quest in a living world should have a real impact on that living world. "Let's say a village is being terrorized by bandits. You don't want to find out about that because there's a villager standing there motionless with an exclamation mark over his head who says when you click on him, 'Help, we're being terrorized by bandits.' You want to find out like you would in GW2: because the bandits are attacking, chasing villagers through the streets, slaying them and setting their houses on fire."

A Truly Cooperative Experience
"With traditional MMOs you can choose to solo or you can find a good guild or party to play with" says O'Brien. "With GW2 there's a third option too: you can just naturally play with all the people around you." Guild Wars 2 is a game where cooperation happens organically, where you don't have to worry about another player killing the beasts you wanted to kill or stealing anything that you've earned.

O'Brien seems to stress that when you cooperate with another player, it will always benefit you. "Of course GW2 has great support for parties, but they just don't feel as necessary as they do in other MMOs, because your interests are always aligned with all other nearby players anyway. When someone kills a monster, not just that player's party but everyone who was seriously involved in the fight gets 100% of the XP and loot for the kill."

Combat
O'Brien continues to stress that combat should never feel like a grind. It should never be robotic. "Combat needs to be about making creative choices, and it needs to feel immediate, active, and visceral." One huge part of Guild Wars 2's combat is finding creative combos with your skills.  O'Brien speaks of an Elementalist being able to create a fire wall, freeze some opponents and push their frozen bodies into the fire. 

He also speaks of improvisational, environmental weapons. A limb hacked off an Oakheart can be used as a club. "If a Stone Elemental throws a boulder at you, pick it up and throw it back. Or as an Elementalist, use that boulder to create a meteor storm," says O'Brien. "It all gets back to our basic design philosophy. Our games aren't about preparing to have fun, or about grinding for a future fun reward. Our games are designed to be fun from moment to moment."

Guild Wars 2's Design Manifesto did the trick. It got us truly excited about what this game could be. ArenaNet achieved the impossible by selling 6 million copies of the original Guild Wars and they hope to do the same by completely revamping the genre with Guild Wars 2. "We're a company of passionate gamers with one mission: to make Guild Wars 2 the best MMORPG ever created," O'Brien says. Good luck, ArenaNet, we'll be keeping an eye on you.