A few weeks ago ArenaNet released the Guild Wars 2 Design
Manifesto, covering some of the things they feel are failing with
MMORPGs currently and what they plan to do about that. One of the topics they talked about was the fact that quests and stories are static
and do not truly convey what's going on in the world. Thanks to Lead Content Designer Colin Johanson, we now have more of an
idea of ArenaNet's goals relating to this topic, with today's Dynamic Events
Overview.
"Traditional quest systems involve walking up to a character who usually
has an exclamation point or question mark hovering over their head and
talking to them. From here, you get a massive wall of text hardly anyone
reads that describes a horrible or totally mundane thing going on in
the world that you need to help with. You run off, complete this task,
then return and talk to this character again to receive another wall of
text and a reward. Traditional quest systems rely on these blocks of
quest text to tell you what is happening in the world; this is just an
outdated form of storytelling," Johanson says.
They plan to change this, though. When you come across a quest in Guild
Wars 2, it will naturally take place; you won't run up and see an NPC
with an exclamation point over their head. You'll see guards
frantically recruiting those willing to take on the dragon which is
destroying a nearby village. You'll hear the screams coming from the
village, see rooftops burning, and villagers running for their lives.
It's these types of events ArenaNet hopes will help to usher in a new
age of questing in MMOs, where the world actually feels alive.
"In traditional MMOs, when a quest is completed it has no real effect on
the game world. You receive your reward and then move on, looking for
the next quest to do. The world appears no better or worse for your
actions. In GW2, the outcome of every event will directly affect the
game world around you," he says while providing the example of a dredge
army marching out of their base which, if defeated, will cause cascading
events to take place. But if players fail to defeat the dredge army,
they will establish a fort in player territory, using it to send out
additional attacks against players and nearby villages.
What I've covered is just the tip of the iceberg in what sounds like an
extremely ambitious, but potentially genre-changing set of goals. Be
sure to head over to the Dynamic Events
Overview to learn more.
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