Guild Wars has no monthly fee. Let's face it: one of the reasons that Guild Warshas enjoyed so much success is that people like owning a game afterthey buy it. They like being able to take a break without asubscription continuing to drain their bank account. They like beingable to buy and experience other games, too. Now we plan to bring thatsame model to a game with persistent areas, playable races, freedom ofmovement, incredible depth, spectacular graphics, and gameplay thatbuilds on the best of Guild Wars while Guild Wars Gold taking things to new heights.
Yowza.Looking back on what I’ve written, I’m a little surprised at howeffusive I’ve been. Thing is . . . that’s just the sort of energy andenthusiasm we’re feeling around the office right now. I believe it’sbecause all of the guiding principles, lessons learned, and new ideasamount to one simple thing: we are moving forward, making the best Guild Wars we know how to make. And we can’t wait to play it.
James Phinney, Guild Wars Game Design Team Lead
James Phinney is currently the Game Design Team Lead for Guild Wars. He started as a programmer at Chaos Studios, which later became Blizzard Entertainment. James worked on Warcraft II and Diablo, then as lead designer and producer on StarCraft. He also wrote the story and dialogue for Shiny Entertainment's Sacrifice.