IAmA Guild Wars 2 Game Designer AMA About World vs. World PvP

Edit: Chelmo's [Omlech's] awesome compilation of all Q+As! We'll be updating and organizing it as the day goes on

A big THANK YOU to Mike and everyone at ArenaNet for the AmA and all of their continuing communication with the fans. You can probably tell from those beta numbers how much we're all (and that's a lot of alls) a little excited for the game!

OMG Beta signups

These are some questions compiled from /r/guildwars2. And some answers! Isn't Mike Awesome?

Server, technical, and general questions

1. You mentioned visiting other worlds in the blog post, is this for PvE content or just PvP content? Could someone on one server ask friends from another world for help with an event? Some clarification

2. Can you only join guilds on your home server?

3. Will server change fees be cash or in game currency? Answered

4. Can you switch between regions on one account (EU to USA etc)? Answer 1 Answer 2

5. Are you able to share more on the server structure and network backbone yet? Any possibility for EU to play with USA but still have optimal latency? *Effect Lag Answered *

6. Is there any in game support for voice chat? No

7. Can you queue and enter your server’s WvW from an overflow server? Answer

8. Will there be WvW on overflow servers? Answered

9. What kind of name recognition will there be between worlds? Are names reserved across worlds? Unknown

Rewards

1. Will there be personal (unique) rewards from WvW? E.g. titles, skills, traits, gear, etc. Answered Clarification

2. Is it actually viable to level up by only participating in WvW or will it be significantly slower compared to PvE? Do we need to leave the Mists to complete skill challenges to unlock utility skills and traits? Answer1 Answer 2 Answer 3 Answer 4 Answer 5

3. Does the winning server get additional bonuses at the end of the 2 weeks? Answer

4. How long do bonuses last? Answer

5. Will there be ways to see which characters and guilds are doing the best in WvW? Will we get to see the ranking ladders? Answer1 Answer 2

WvW Command and Tactics

1. Are maps for each world the same in WvW? If not, will there be a map rotation? Answered

2. What formal game functionality will there be for Command and Control in WvW? Things like parties forming into warbands, and WvW chat and command chat, and some way of designating leaders of warbands, and an overall leader. And what other kinds of organization tools are there in WvW? Answer 1 Answer 2 Relevant Answer 3 Answer 4

3. Any info on the iOS/Android apps that will related to WvW? Unknown

4. How does vision work on the battle map? Does a player from that server need to be present for vision of a fight occurring or is it universal? Answer 1 Answer 2

5. Will enemy names show up in WvW? Will there be kill spam/death spam? Answer1 Answer 2

6. Are there limits to obtaining certain types of equipment you receive from supply? For example could a server slowly stockpile siege golems in a base until they have one for everyone? Answer

7. Can siege weapons be moved? Are there any range indicators on siege weapons so we can build them at optimal range (and on other abilities for that matter)? Answered

8. Internally, what tactics were more common when testing WvWvW? Answer

DAOC questions Answered

1. Has there been any consideration of the group vs. group sub-game in WvW? 8v8 was very popular in DAoC. Groups of 8 skilled, well-coordinated people ran around fighting other such groups. They also fought larger groups of less coordinated people.

2. Any plans to implement something similar to Darkness Falls (a large open pvp area that has mostly pve content, and can be locked for your own pilfering by success in the RvR overworld)?

3. In DAoC a cool aspect of RvR was the ability of someone with high Stealth to climb walls. Is there going to be a similar skill for say, a Thief, to infiltrate WvW structures and harass/gather information? Stonemist for example looks big enough for this to be really viable.

1. Absolutely, we are building the objectives to try and give our 5 man groups something to do as well as accommodating larger assault forces.

2. Not currently.

3. We don't have the ability to climb walls. We've talked about possibly allowing thief the ability to steal something that could let them through the teleporter gates, but we haven't decided if we actually want to add that yet. It is obviously something that we'd have to be very careful about so we don't want to just add it and have it break the game.

Ok gonna try and hit as many that I personally know about..thought the camelot questions were an entirely different post (boo early morning grogginess!)

• Is there any in game support for voice chat? - not currently

• Can you queue and enter your server’s WvW from an overflow server? I'm not certain as we haven't finished implementing the wvw part of that system, but I would guess that is going to be possible.

• What kind of name recognition will there be between worlds? Are names reserved across worlds? Don't know, sorry!

• Does the winning server get additional bonuses at the end of the 2 weeks? Possibly, but we aren't quite ready to reveal that.

• How long do bonuses last? As long as the battle is going on. When a battle resets, so do your world bonuses.

• Any info on the iOS/Android apps that will related to WvW? Sorry, I dont have any info on that.

• How does vision work on the battle map? Does a player from that server need to be present for vision of a fight occurring or is it universal? You can see the scoreboard from anywhere in the game and the scoreboard has a chart that shows who owns what, but for exact breakdowns you have to be in WvW to look at the map.

• Are there limits to obtaining certain types of equipment you receive from supply? For example could a server slowly stockpile siege golems in a base until they have one for everyone? You have to have the supply to build all those golems, but if you can stockpile that much supply and want to build a rampaging army of golems, go for it! Isaiah has done it a few times in beta already, and while it looks awesome, it's surprisingly not that effective since golems are super slow.

• Internally, what tactics were more common when testing WvWvW? Well people almost always starts out in a zerg when they first enter the game, and as they gradually learn more they start breaking off and taking side obejctives to choke supply out of keeps and towers. We've seen flanking maneuvers, massive assaults with quick building of siege , small squads raiding camps, it's really been quite amazing seeing what people are coming up with!

Whew...hope that covers it!

Thank you so much! The whole AMA is beyond awesome, we're so grateful for all the clarification.

You're very welcome, glad to be here!

Hey folks, please try to keep question as short and simple as possible, I want to answer as many questions as possible and the longer the questions are, the less I can answer. I can only type so fast :)

One hour left to signup for beta! Have YOU signed up yet? https://beta.guildwars2.com/

Will you guys test WxW during every march/april beta weekend?

Yes.

We all saw that enemy players are currently listed as generic invaders, and some are turned off by that. Will there be a toggle option for showing our name if we want to?

There's been a lot of discussion about seeing enemy names in WvW. While I certainly understand the reasoning behind the request to see enemy names, we are fairly firm about not showing names of the opposing teams. I think of it this way, in a war people dont introduce themselves before trying to kill each other. When you are fighting in the mists for your world, you are in the middle of a giant war against two opposing forces who want nothing more than to take everything you own and kill you as many times as they possibly can. That guy who just shot you is not Bob the Engineer, he's the enemy.

Not showing enemy names in WvW also helps players that are less pvp-oriented feel less threatened about venturing into the battle because seeing enemies as anonymous 'invaders' creates a sense that opponents won't be able to recognize them and pick on them because of their lack of skill in a fight, so they in turn feel more embolded to go out and fight in the first place. Not showing names also makes it so people can feel as if they can 'hide' in a fight if need be, but still be around to help out. That's a pretty critical part of making WvW feel more inviting for people that would normally never think about playing PvP in any other game.

We've heard "I usually dont PvP, but I love WvW" again and again from people in our beta, so even though showing names might make for a more competitive pvp environment, we'd much rather create a game that is more welcoming for people that don't normally play the more hardcore PvP games. If you want to see enemy names and get to know the community of people you are fighting against, competitive PvP is the place to get that sort of thing in Guild Wars 2. WvW is the place where you fight with your friends and show your might against a faceless never-ending horde of enemies. It's not about taking names, it's about taking back that tower and claiming it for your guild so it can wave your flag right in the enemies face!

Ok, I guess we can live with that given the sheer awesomeness of WvW.

BUT, guild tags are still displayed, right? So we could at least have some GvG metagame skirmish if we do our research.

Guild tags are still displayed.

Morning Mike,

Does WvW have any systems in place to deal with the leaching in PvP that occurs in other games?

Our event system is being used all over wvw and if you don't do something that counts towards that event you dont get any rewards for it.

That's nice but what about people that are just sitting afk and filling a spot in the server. Would they be kicked out so someone who will actually play would have the chance to join?

We have idle timeouts so anyone just afking will eventually get booted, i dont know what the length of that timer is though.

Will NPCs be aware of WvW? Will they talk about whether your server is doing well or victories/loses?

They should, we just spent the last few weeks writing a whole bunch of text for that exact purpose :)

A few questions about leaderboards:

• How does the WvW leaderboard work?
• Is it cumulative for the 2 weeks?
• Does it only show players that are currently active?
• How are players rewarded for outstanding contributions, like being first in damage? (e.g., title, HoF)

@Tirochi If by leaderboard you mean the scoreboard, it is updated every few minutes and it is cumulative for the 2 week battle. Scores reset every two weeks and the scoreboard is visible anywhere in the game. We will have some WvW achievements, but we aren't quite ready to reveal those yet :)

Thanks, Mike.

Can you give us some details on how the score is calculated for the players? For example, how much weight is given to kills vs. resurrecting vs. building a siege?

EDIT: I wasn't referring to the world's score, but to the individual player's score in a leaderboard that would show what their contributions have been (healing done, damage done, buildings razed, etc.)

Ahh ok that makes more sense. We already track a large range of values for things just like that, so we just have to get a system in place to track and display them for users. :)

Ok everybody, time to get back to work and make WvW even more awesome. thanks for coming out, it's been really fun for me and hopefully it's been just as informative for you. See you on the battlefield!

Hey folks, wanna see something REALLY cool?? Take a look at how many people have signed up for the beta!

http://cot.ag/xczZ3o

Uh oh...we may have just crashed the server..whoops!

Are there pets to tame in WvW? If so, are all the pets available in PvE available in WvW?

Yes rangers will be able to find pets to tame in WvW.

will the game engine be able to support hundreds of players in the same area?

We've had hundreds of players in the same area already, and even as we speak our programmers are hard at work on making that experience even better!

I've always liked how in Ragnarok Online the guild banners were displayed in the cities whenever a guild managed to hold one of the castles, will there be a similar feature for WvW in Guild Wars 2?

Yes, you will be able to display your guilds emblem on banners in objectives you hold.

Server stability, What can you tell us about the power of the servers that will help with hundreds of people firing off skills?

Over the past weekend we had many fights where large groups of all three teams were fighting each other and we didnt have any server crashes!

For all the people asking about EU/US servers, I really dont know anything about that. All I know about servers is that there are three of them fighting in each WvW battle :)

welcome Mike. Could you please explain what a "Squad" is?

@Myramar Squads are a way for larger groups of people to band together for a common goal. Squads are led by a commander, and that commander has the ability to talk to everyone in their squad in a chat channel that only the commander can talk in. Commanders can also place waypoints on the map that are viewable by all of their squad members. These waypoints tell the squad to do things like' attack here', 'regroup here', and 'bring supply here'. Squads are extremely useful in WvW, but they are also useable in PvE and are the perfect thing for taking down our epic world bosses.

What is the size limit for a squad, and how is the commander chosen? How is the squad formed?

The commander is self appointed. We have an item that people purchase for gold that gives the ability to turn on the Commander function. When you become a commander, anyone not in a squad will see the commander icon over your head and can select you, right click on your portrait and select 'join squad'. Also, when someone is following a commander, you can right click on their portait to join their squad and follow the same commander. I dont believe there is a limit to who can be in a squad, but that might not be true, I'll have to check with the programmer who implemented the system.

Is it a consumable item or can you use it multiple times?

One time use. You buy the item and use it to enable the ability to become a commander. After that you can select if you want to be a commander at any time!

I imagine being defeated in PvP is going to be a lot more frequent, will you allowed PvP gear to be damaged as well?

Yes, it is important to remember that WvW is a PvE area where it just so happens that three servers meet and can fight for territory control. This is our open world PvP so the rules must be the same because it is all part of the same game economy. Items and gold can be looted from players so if you die you will have to repair, but you will also be earning currency to offset those repair costs. You will not be looting actual items from enemy inventory, rather getting drops from a loot table like you would from a mob.

Will particles animations be reduced as mass skill usage in massive fights would be a maelstrom of confusion!

Our graphics programmers and tech art team are working on that issue right now! We're well aware of the effect soup that can happen in large fights and it's something we're going to do our best to address.

If a guild owns a keep in WvW, will they be alerted if their keep is under attack? Also, will there be a mechanism in the game to quickly travel to your own keep to defend?

We will be adding alerts to game that will communicate when an objective your guild owns is under attack. There is no quick travel though, you have to hoof it there and hopefully make it before the enemy breaks through and captures it!

Besides cross class combos what else is in WvW that would give a small organized group an advantage against an unorganized zerg?

A smaller group can fan out and take objective on other maps or in areas that the zerg isnt covering. Zerg are great for facerolling people, but WvW is won by having more objectives, so while the zerg is baning away on one keep, your smaller groups can fan out and take all the resource camps to keep the zerg from having any supply sources.

and how does the guild system work with the guild i read that guilds can own keeps etc but there gonna b alot of guilds so how can you obtain a keep.

Each guild can only claim one location, and if you've seen the map of WvW, you can see that we have a lot of locations you can capture and claim. When you assault a location, we track how many people are participating in that assault and the guild with the largest participation gets a minute after the capture where they are the only guild that can claim that objective.

With the largest participation, is it just the number or the most percentage of the guild participating?

it's based on active participation. If you bring all of your 20 member guild and another 1000 person guild only brings 15 people to the fight, as long as all 20 of your people kill guards or help take the location in some fashion, you will get first priority for the claim.

is it possible in WvW to wear a cloak with guild emblen?

We dont have cloaks, but you can put a guild emblem on your armor and weapons!

How did you integrate underwater sections in WvW? I really want to fight people underwater, but I want to make sure there will be other people there.

There is a quaggan mercenary camp in each borderland map that can play a pretty cirical part of assaulting or defending the keeps in that map as gaining favor with the quaggans lets them build weather control stations that shower the nearest keep with healing rain for your allies or zaps your enemies with bolts of lighting. I assume that's enough to make people want to fight there ;)

Just throwin' this out there - probably been thought of, but w/e

Under water entrances into keeps. Lead an assault through the sewers and surprise attack! Obviously, befriending the locals would be a huge help in defending this weakness.

Oh you mean like the ones we have in some of the keeps already? :)

We're still debating about whether or not we should allow assaulting underwater doors as we don't have any underwater siege apparatus and bashing doors down with your weapons just isnt very fun, but in the last beta it was totally possible to go underwater, bash down a door and take a secret path into a keep. I actually was part of a raid that did just that this weekend.

I remember someone saying that in WvW there are PvE elements to it so can we expect to see mobs or even bosses making problems for each of the servers?

There are definitly mobs, and there will be some Bosses and PvE events out in WvW.

This "home server transfer" fee - is it ingame currency or real world money?

We haven't finalized our plans for what that fee will be, if there will be any 'amnesty' period for new accounts, or what currency that fee will require, but I can assure you that we are examining and discussing all possible options and as soon as we have a firm plan in place we'll let you know more!

Hey Mike! CAn Siege weapons be moved after they've been built?

Most siege weapons cannot be moved, with the exception of siege golems.

After 4k+ hours put into my original GW account, I have huge excitement for this. I don't want to ask anything really, except to thank you and your staff for doing such a great job with the fans and tolerating all the recurring questions. Keep it up and GW2 will blow every game out of their socks. Rock on!

Fans like you make it all worth it! Thank you for your dedication!

Can we start playing WvW immediately, or do we have to be a certain level?

Is the difference in levels noticeable?

Do we get exp/loot from WvW?

@Manwlatsi You can play WvW as soon as you leave the tutorial section. You will gain exp and loot during wvw so you can level up in WvW all the way to 80. The level difference is noticeable as higher level folks have more skills and better gear, but we've been working hard ot make ot so even a lower level person can contribute and not get instantly killed by higher level folks.

What kind of loot do we get for killing other players?

The same loot you get from killing mobs. I've gotten quite a few rare drops from players in the beta already :)

I've heard that any/all loot you get is scaled for your level.

Confirm/Deny?

Confirm

Can you earn skill points to unlock new skills in wvw?

Yes, you can progress any aspects of your character through WvW.

Will certain abilities be restricted or altered while participating in WvW game play?

Hopefully not, but we always reserve the right to change things for balance reasons.

Hi there. I have a question regarding dodging.

When dodging, do you have to roll out of the way of the incoming attack? i.e. roll left or right to avoid an arrow, or would it be sufficient to simply roll backwards due to any dodge action simply negating the incoming attack?

What I am trying to say is, is dodging about avoiding collision or simply knowing WHEN to dodge and not WHERE to?

Thank you!

Both. Dodging does make you 100% evade attacks while you are doing it, however because positioning is so important in the game it is crucial to make informed decisions about the direction you dodge as well.

Official term: WvW or WvWvW? ;)

Internally it's always WvW :)

Given that WorldvWorld will be active from the start, will it be available on overflow servers for the inevitable server congestion?

No it will not, world versus world is not available on overflow shards. Overflow shards for world versus world don't really work since world versus world has a number of bonuses that apply to your world, and there is no sense of a larger community in an overflow shard.

Hi Mike, thanks for holding the AMA session! I have 3 questions: 1. Is there a way to chat with the other servers in WvW? So you can organise a (temporary) Alliance if you want to call in help? 2. If a guild takes over a keep or tower, is it still possible to enter that keep and help defending it against attackers if you are not in that guild? 3. What's (aprox.) the limit per server for people to log on? It's confusing to get a sense of scale. Once it's said about 1000, other times, in your last log, it's hunderds.

1. We will not allow cross server chat in game.
2. Yes, as long as you are on the same team you can always enter a location your team owns.
3. (no fair adding edits later :P) I can't give you an exact figure yet as we are still working on optimizing capacity numbers. We can already support about 300 people in each map as we demonstrated this weekend, now we'll be working to keep pushing that number higher!

If cross server chat isn't happening, what kinda of system is gonna be put in place for server to server alliances?

Trust me, people will find a way to organize backstabb...err..treaties with the other teams ;)

Also, for the record: Will all four maps be different? Or are the maps which we currently saw the final composition?

Those are the maps we will launch with, the borderlands will be the same map for all three worlds.

Someone suggested it could be a good idea to give some different textures for each map (e.g., one is summer/green, another is autumn/yellowish, third one is winter/white). Was there any discussion in that aspect?

yeah it's almost as much work as building an entirely new map so we just can't do that unfortunately :(

I am concerned about the experience coming from WvWvW. Will I be able to get the same type of experience flow to level up my toon like in PvE, for instance, if there is not enough people to kill (especially during odd hours in the night) or I am alone playing?

Our goal is for the rate of XP, and loot gain to be similar in WvW and PvE. It will never be exactly the same but it should be close enough that you don't feel disadvantaged by playing one vs the other.

Will WvW have any system to prevent "deathmatches" (mass mindless PvP fights) to make players focus in the objectives?

if you're just deathmatching you aren't gaining any score for your team. Score is only gained by holding objectives, capturing orbs, and killing dolyaks. So sure, you can deathmatch if you really want to, it just doesn't help your world's standing in the battle at all.

I saw in some beta vids that once you are building a trebouchet it is destroyed pretty fast. Is this still being looked into or working as intended?

Balance is always going back and forth. We did bump up Trebuchet hit points after beta based on feedback, but you will absolutely be encouraged to defend your siege weapons.

I think WvW sounds great, a true spiritual successor to DAoC of old. My only big concern is this: How are the red/blue/green teams decided?

Followup questions: if my world is "blue" this week and then the 2-week resuffle happens, will we be blue again in the following round? Is it random? Won't it be difficult for many players to remember which color they are "this time" if they are switching around every two weeks? Or will there be some very obvious way to tell which team you are on "today"?

It is decided by which server you choose to play on. You will not always be on the same color. We will however make it clear which color you are.

Can colorblind people easily differentiate between colors?

Not right now as we use Red/green for team colors but it's a topic we discuss regularly because we know there are a lot of red/green colorblind people in our community and we want them to have as much fun as everybody else!

Is there alternative way to attack a fort? Like accessing a fort from underwater. And is there any underwater forts/outposts or anything like that?

Every objective has multiple ways in. Some of many different gates, while others have a single gate, but each objective has multiple walls that can also be knocked down to break into them.

Are the UI related elements for supplies still a WIP? The current display of a small piece of white text doesn't look good at all, and is very out of place compared to the rest of the map elements.

Yes.

What will the nature of PVP (WvW) loot? Assuming normal PvE mob loot is, say, an item, armor, or weapon, will WvW loot be similarly randomized? Or will there be an award of a piece of special currency (medal?) that you will use to purchase loot of your choice?

We actually have both! You can get regular loot drops and tokens that can be turned in at level 80 for gear.

If i kill a player in WvW then will i gain some points like in aion pvp points ? Or hot i gain the points to buy pvp armor or weapons ?

When you kill someone you get gold or even sometimes items. There is no PvP armor in WvW, its just armor.

If players are instantly able to teleport to any objective they control, wouldn't that make it near impossible to capture any new objectives if the enemy team is constanly spawning in?

you cant instantly teleport to every objective. The only waypoints that exist in the map are at the safe areas and at keeps that have been upgraded to have a waypoint.

[deleted]

yes

Ok folks, got about 10 minutes left before I need to get back to working on the game instead of just talking about it. Thanks for showing up and asking so many good questions!

Can you convince my wife, who normally has no interest in pvp, to take part in WvW?

We've heard "I usually dont PvP, but I love WvW" again and again from people in our beta, so there's a vgood chance she might just like it with no convincing required :)

Given that WvW is based on your original server, how hard will it be for a guild to get everyone on the server? Will we have to distribute a server name/number before game launch to make sure everyone's on the same page? How regional are these servers, could our euro members choose to home in a US server?

We will do our best to provide tools that help people find the same server so they can play together, but it's inevitable that someone will have friends that end up on a different server. We want you to be able to play with those friends as well as the ones you know from your day to day adventures in Tyria, which is why we allow people to visit other servers but to fight in the mists together everyone has to be fighting for the same nworld.

When first entering WvW how will we be able to tell where the actions is?

Pulling up your map will give indications as to where some of the hots spots are.

My question regarding WvWvW is, is the battle area instanced off? Is this something you have to queue up for, or is it an area you can physically run to?

I would hope that it is an area that feels integrated into the whole map so that it feels like your world is being invaded, rather than feeling like a mini-game with no particular impact on the world.

You have to take an asura gate into the maps. The maps aren't instances, so unfortunately if they reach capacity you will need to queue up to enter that map.

will there be underwater entrances to the castle or keeps?

There are a few sneaky entrances to keeps, but I don't want to spoil it for everyone! You will need to go out exploring.

Can you craft in WvW, or do you have to leave the mists?

We are aiming for WvW to function much like PvE. You will be able to gather and craft.

Will be some WvsW rank/title?

We have WvW achievements. No ranks as of yet, titles are a possibility but we don't have those in the game yet.

Well, how do you feel after answering so many questions? ;)

Excited! Keep them coming!

[deleted]

At the start of a Wuvly match (see what I did there?) all objectives will be reset to a neutral state.

Suggestion noted!

Could you elaborate or point towards an article that explains the two week process? From what I understand, you are locked with two other servers for those two weeks and after that time period, you are given a different, random two servers to compete with for the next two weeks, so on and so forth? So, will this process actually be random, or is there a list "Server A will fight B and C this cycle, then D and E next," so on and so forth? And, is there ever a possibility of getting the same server twice in a row? Thanks, very excited for Guild Wars 2! Necromancers unite >:)

We have a scoring system based loosely on elo that will rank each server based on how well they did in the match. Once the battle ends we look at final scores, adjust each servers ranking accordingly and then rematch servers to place team with similar ranking together.

My necro (Ferginomicon) approves this message!

Will some of the items be limited to drop only in PvE or PvP?

We will have some PvE uniques that wont be obtainable in WvW.

Is it possible to destroy a whole outpost, rather than to capture it?

It is possible to destroy walls that protect that outpost, or the gates. It is not possible to raze the tower to completely nothing.

what will happen if one server conquers the entire map?

The other two servers need to work together to beat them back.. We saw that very thing happen this weekend when green took the entire map. We were red and we decided that blue was not who we should be fighting. Within hours we has fought back and recaptured a large portion of the map.

Also, since servers get rematched every two weeks, that server will get matched up with other servers when the battle ends.

No fault of your own, but those that signed up for beta just had their hearts broken wide open by seeing how many signed up for beta... They realize their chances are slim! But, this is more of a congratulations on such an incredible feat (in 48 hours no less). Awesome!

Don't be too discouraged, we're going to need tend of thousands of people to help test :)

I know it's a bit off-topic and not about WvW at all.

But is Hoelbrak currently in revamping? All the structures in the middle of the city have been removed. I'm worried about that :(

Don't be!

How much can lower level players realistically contribute in WvW?

Lower level players are bumped to 80. While going toe to toe with a level 80 will be difficult, you will still be able to compete.

Does each of your characters have a home server? Or is it account-based?

Home server is account based.

Hey Mike,

What will be the population cap for WvW ?

We are still doing tests to see just how far we can push the numbers for WvW. We have pushed over 300 on our last test.

I have been watching what is available on Youtube etc for the press beta that just happened.

I have come to fear that, although I love the scaling and events etc, some people might be able to troll by simply getting close to an area in order to make it scale.... but then just sit idle and not actually help.

Even if they aren't going to get any rewards... to a troll...

that may not be enough just to make your boss fight like.... it should have 4 people dealing damage... when in fact there are only 2 or 3...

anything on this?

It's actually really hard to do that. One person trolling an event area isn't going to have that much of an impact. It might make the event slightly harder, but if that person is in the event area, they're probably not going to be able to just stand there as our events cover big areas and mobs can come in from all directions.

No questions, just wanted to say thanks to ArenaNet for following through with such original ideas for fantasy mmorpg's and for offering them without a monthly fee.

Thank you! Without our fans pointing us in the right direction we'd be lost.

As you already have "Invader" tags for enemy players, why did you stop there instead of expanding on this system and using it for ranks like DAoC did?

Mostly because of time. We want to ship the game at some point (honestly we do!) and we've been focused on getting the core mechanics in and working before working on things like that.

Is there anything in place to allow a guild to take control of a large keep from another guild that is from their own server?

Nope, you cannot claim something that another guild has claimed.

is there any objectives underwater for underwater pvp?

There are currently no underwater objectives. This is not to say they wont make their way in later.

Thank you ArenaNet for this awesome opportunity to get some things clears out! Stayed up all night for this but unfortunately I can't stay up any longer (its 5:20am). Guess I'll have alot of reading to do tomorrow :). p.s- Any chance you guys would release an asura plush toy? I love my charr xD

This is unrelated to my team, so i'm not sure. I'd love an Asura plush though!

You're welcome, thanks for staying up!

I would totally buy an Asura plushie! I don't know if we have any plans for one, but I'll definitely suggest it once I'm done here!

A few years ago I bought WAR for the open RvR. The problem was that they had these choke points in keeps where all of the players would need to gather and every time there was afight the server would crash. Can you say something that will reassure me that this game engine and servers will be able to handle scenarios where upwards of 100 players are in the same location?

Having played my fair share of War, I can say we do have bottle necks in some locations, but they are not stressed. We also do not have mechanics that take you out of the action as the area is to busy. There are multiple ways to assault 1 objective, and the way objectives are balanced it is better tactically to split your forces.

We had hundreds of players playing in WvW this weekend and the servers didnt crash. Does that help?

in wuv-wuh can we see character names from our own server?

Indeed you can!

From what ive seen on the recent press beta videos, frequently it takes a lot of time to get a player kill, do you have any backup plan to either increase xp gain/money drop per kill in order to balance it out how much you get from doing WvW or just go PvE.

Rewards are currently not balanced at all for WvW. This is something we will be balancing in the future.

I had hoped to level up from 1 - 80 in WvW but after watching some beta videos I am not sure that is feasible. I watched a player fighting in the mist for 45 mins and he did not gain a single point of exp. He was assaulting a keep with a group and it was being defended. Since they had not managed to get through the front gate even he received no exp. He would have gained way more experience leveling in PvE during that time than being in the mist. I think killing a player should provide some XP so you do progress even if the fighting is a stale mate. Same hold true if you were defending.

This almost makes WvW a level 80 activity(end-game'ish). Players will get less XP by spending time in the mist at lower levels than PvE'ing. They are less effective at lower levels as well too. It entices them to level up to 80 in PvE so they can then begin to WvW.

Rewards for WvW where not balanced prior to our recent test. This is why rewards seemed slim, to none.

Can't believe your coffee mug is still keeping you afloat! Thanks for the replies.

I'ts tea, but yeah it's helping :)

This is going on 3 hours. Have we forgot to ask you anything? OR is there anything special you want to tell us about WvW which we haven't asked?

I'd like to tell you all to play it, love it and explore in it! there are a lot of hidden places.