Lead designer for Guild Wars 2, Eric Flannum, has said that the upcoming sequel will share more features with other MMOs than the first game does.
While speaking to Mmorpg, Flannum said that there are “almost too many things to mention” when asked to describe the differences between the original Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. He points out that there are now five races to choose from instead of just the one, but the main change is the shift from a mainly instanced world to a mainly persistent one.
“The game is structured much more like other MMOs, with the world consisting almost entirely of fully persistent areas,” But instances will still play a familiar role; “Dungeons, for example, are instanced areas designed for group play.”
Storylines will continue to have a strong presence in GW2 though, and instances will be used to reflect player choices, “We also use instancing very heavily in the players’ personal quest chain to reflect decisions that the player has made on those quests. For example, Logan Thackeray, captain of the Seraph, has an office located in Divinity’s Reach; his office is instanced because we need to update his status based on choices the player has made.”
Despite these changes, GW2 will retain GW’s payment model which consists of a one-off payment when purchasing the game, then free-to-play after that.See the recent trailer for Guild Wars 2, which stars The Guild’s Felicia Day, as it re-introduces the five classes and their backgrounds.
