Even so, not having to worry about backward-compatibility with the original Guild Wars Gold engine and tools gives us an abundance of opportunities to make Guild Wars 2jaw-droppingly beautiful. At the same time, new budgets for texturesand poly-counts, and a whole new bag of tricks from our in-housegraphics gurus, mean that every environment, character, and effectwe’re making truly looks like a whole new game.
Getting excited about new graphics and new gameplay ideas is only part of the equation for us, though. As some fans noted when Guild Wars 2 was announced, by adding persistent areas and extensive character advancement to Guild Wars Gold, we risked creating another me-too MMO in the Everquesttradition. Plenty of those games already exist, though, and making yetanother has never been our goal. Instead, from the start, we talked alot about the core principles of Guild Wars.
Guild Warsisn't a hassle to play. Fundamentally, we made a choice to not build agame around time-sinks and inconvenience. Our streaming updates,instant map travel, character templates, account-wide storage, easilyremoved death penalty, and myriad of core features are all based onthis principle. Although some details would need to change, we wantedthe sequel to stay true to this tradition.
Guild Warslets you play the way you want to play. We've had a few years now ofobserving our players and their tendencies and preferences. Whethertheir play-style focuses on exploration, story, wealth, collection,achievements, socializing, PvP, playing solo or with strangers orfriends, our goal is to give them a rich and rewarding experienceplaying the game they want to play. With Guild Wars 2, we'd seek to diversify their options even further.
Guild Warsencourages skillful play. If you’re going to spend as much time playinga game as people spend playing their favorite online RPG, it had betterengage you socially, viscerally, and, yes, intellectually. From thevery foundation of the Guild Wars design, we’ve tried to createa game that rewards Guild Wars Gold clever and active play. We’re confident we’ll do aneven better job this time around.