Guild Wars 2 Dynamic Events Overview

Guild Wars 2’s Lead Content Designer has talked about the dynamic event system, how it works and how it makes GW2 different from all the other MMOs out there. Colin Johanson explains how questing in most current MMOs leaves a lot to be desired, and how the GW2 team set out the improve the experience for gamers: “In Guild Wars 2, our event system won’t make you read a huge quest description to find out what’s going on.” He continues “You’ll experience it by seeing and hearing things in the world. If a dragon is attacking, you won’t read three paragraphs telling you about it, you’ll see buildings exploding in giant balls of fire, and hear characters in the game world screaming about a dragon attack. You’ll hear guards from nearby cities trying to recruit players to go help fight the dragon, and see huge clouds of smoke in the distance, rising from the village under siege.” Johanson goes on to give further examples of dynamic event quests, where buildings may actually be destroyed if players don’t prevent it. In GW2, completing a quest doesn’t just mean getting a cool reward, it means that the game world has been altered. If you fail a quest, other players will be faced with the consequences. He also talks about putting the MMO back into MMORPG. A major problem with some games is mob tagging, waiting for others to finish killing certain monsters in an area so quests can be completed. This makes sharing a gaming world with others frustrating sometimes, but it isn’t an issue in GW: “All players that fully participate in an event are rewarded for doing so; everyone who helps kill a monster or blow up an enemy catapult will get credit for doing so. There is no kill stealing and no quest camping. Everyone works together towards the common goal of the event and everyone is rewarded for doing so.” Read more about this exciting new approach to gaming at the official site.