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Everyone is so excited to have a launch date for Guild Wars 2! Can't you feel the excitement in the air? I know I sure do!
Thanks to John Gaudiosi over atb Forbes for this great interview with Mike O'Brien
ArenaNet Founder Mike O'Brien Discusses Guild Wars 2 MMO Launch On August 28
The wait is almost over for MMO fans who have been reading about NCsoft and ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2, and playing the public beta weekends. After taking E3 2012 off to focus on polishing the game, the developer has finally revealed when Tyria will be open for exploration.
“Guild Wars 2 and gaming fans have been asking us since our announcement that we were working on the game when they will be able to jump in and experience the game that will define this and future generations of games, and today we are thrilled we can give them what they’ve been asking for, the release date – August 28, 2012,” said Mike O’Brien, head of ArenaNet and executive producer of Guild Wars 2. “And only in a matter of months, after years of development, they will have that opportunity to do what they have been waiting for.”
But just because the game launches doesn’t mean the work stops at the Bellevue, WA development studio.
“We always want to pioneer, we’re not going to stop,” said O’Brien. “We’re building the genesis of a world that has a foundation resting on the importance of community and innovation. We’re going to continue to try to break through boundaries and exceed expectations.”
With millions of fans who have been waiting over five years for the release of Guild Wars 2, it’s still too early for the founder to think about defining success.
“Success is when you reach critical mass and there’s so much interest in the game and you continue to ride that momentum up the mountain in terms of how many people are in the world,” said O’Brien. “We’re doing everything we can to meet and exceed expectations, but the world only starts when we go live. We need to have a critical mass of people who care about what we’re doing and that will propel us forward. We’re confident about the work we do because we do have a support network for our community. The key to success is making this world special.”
The development team has been working with that community over the past five years of development, most recently asking them to participate in stress tests and open beta weekends. Once the game launches August 28, that community will continue to help evolve the game.
“One reason I came to the online world building business from the console business is because of the creative power and iterative power it brings to game development,” said Chris Chung, CEO, NC West. “It’s not easy to make these kinds of games, but if you have the infrastructure and tools to get feedback regularly, it becomes a powerful tool. We have a very passionate fan base and when there are things that become clear that need to be addressed, we’ll fix it and make things better. We value their opinions.”
Colin Johanson, who leads the development team that is responsible for building the content for Guild Wars 2, believes one of the keys to the game’s success after launch will be the depth of choice for game players.
“Guild Wars 2 offers a personal story that has diverse changes and branches as you play and a dynamic event system filled with mini-quests to go and do,” said Johanson. “In World vs. World you can level from 1 to 80 and never play the story. It’s up to the player what they want to do in the game world. We want to offer a top-of-the-line RPG experience that they can enjoy with friends, but the entire game is available to those who don’t want to play story. And for those who do, one of our core design decisions was to kill the mandatory text and allow people to be visually drawn into events and participate, rather than having to read about things in a giant block of text.”
Come August 28, gamers around the world will be drawn into Guild Wars 2.
Thanks to John Gaudiosi over atb Forbes for this great interview with Mike O'Brien
