Tweets from the Hamburg Community Lunch with Colin

A few minutes ago, the community lunch with Colin that took place in Hamburg, ended. I’m pretty sure we’ll get more information from the interviews soon on the various fansites that were invited. But Ramon Domke already tweeted a few things. Those tweets are all in German, so I’m certain that there are people out there looking at the letters wondering if they’re missing out.

But don’t worry, here is the English translation (with the German original next to it). All original tweets can be found on the official German Guild Wars 2 twitter account.

German tweet	English translation
Colin lernt gerade allerhand über Currywurst, während er Sushi bestellt.	Colin learns a lot about “Currywurst” while ordering sushi.
Colin spricht über die neuen Gildenmissionen. Je nach Gildengröße kann man die Aufgaben skalieren – für Gruppen größer als 5	Colin speaks about the new guild missions. The tasks can be scaled according to guild size – for groups larger than 5.
Gildenhallen werden definitiv kommen, werden allerdings derzeit noch nicht entwickelt.	Guild Halls will definitely come, but they’re currently not in development.
Gildenmissionen sind so gestaltet, dass auch nicht-Gildenmitglieder daran teilnehmen können um kleineren Gilden zu helfen.	Guild missions are designed in a way that non-guild members can participate in order to help small guilds.
Politik Stufe 5 für Gilden wird sehr bald mehr nutzen haben.	Politics Level 5 for guilds will soon be more useful.
Das Spiel wird in Zukunft mehr und mehr neue Events in alten Zonen erhalten um die Event-Dichte zu erhöhen.	In the future, the game will have more and new events in old zones in order to increase the density of events.
Es gibt bereits jetzt zahlreiche Hinweise über den Verbleib von Evenia in GW2. Also haltet die Augen und Ohren offen.	There are already numerous hints about the whereabouts of Evennia in GW2. Keep your eyes and ears open.
WvW Meta-Game: Orbs sollen in veränderter Form zurückkommen, Grenzlande sollen wichtiger werden.	WvW Meta game: Orbs are to come back in a modified version, borderlands should become more important.
Colin würde sehr gerne einen Plüsh-Quaggan haben… Er will gleich 3 :)	Colin would really love to have a quaggan plushie… he wants 3 :)
Auch am dritten Buch wird noch gearbeitet. der Release steht bald(tm) bevor.	The third book is still being worked on. The release will be soon(tm).
Die persönliche Geschichte soll in Zukunft fortgesetzt werden. Derzeit wird allerdings an der lebenden Geschichte gearbeitet.	The personal story will be continued in the future. At the moment, however, they are working on the living story.
Der nächste Drache wird NICHT der Untersee-Drache sein.	The next dragon will NOT be the deep sea dragon.
Zhaitan könnte später eine Überarbeitung erfahren. derzeit werden alle “geringeren” Dungeon-Bosse überarbeitet.	Zhaitan could probably be overhauled later. Currently, all “lesser” dungeon bosses are being overhauled.
Support-Charaktere sollen durch die neue Anpassung der Loot-Tabelle bessere Belohnungen erhalten.	Support characters should get better loot thanks to adapting the loot table.
Colins Lieblingsbier ist Hefeweizen. damit ist er gerade zum Super-Liebling des #GW2 #ComLunch aufgestiegen!	Colin’s favourite beer is Hefeweizen (beer brewed from wheat) which made him to the super-favourite of the #GW2 #ComLunch!
Das erste Halloween Event in GW1 war eine spontane Idee, die vom gesamten Team übers Wochenende gestemmt wurde.	The first Halloween event in GW1 was a spontaneous idea, which had been done by the whole team over the course of a weekend.
Extended Experience: Sie wird kommen, hat aber leider eine geringere Priorität. Die API soll CommunityApps ermöglichen.	Extended Experience: This will come, but unfortunately, it has a low priority. The API should allow CommunityApps.
Wenn die Hauptsysteme ausgereift sind, kann sich Colin vorstellen, dass neue Features für Machinima Macher kommen werden.	When the main systems are polished, Colin thinks there could be coming new features for machinima makers.
PvP Ranglisten werde sehr bald kommen, als erster Schritt Richtung eSport. Danach Beobachtermodus für Shoutcaster.	PvP ranking lists will come very soon, as first step towards e-sports. After that, observer mode for shoutcasters.
YouTube Monetarisierung verstößt technisch gegen die EULA, aber wir gehen nicht dagegen vor! Viel Spaß beim Casten! shayaliz auf Twitter: Gilt dasselbe auch für Twitch.tv und co? @shayaliz Ja, generell für CommunityVideos und Berichterstattung. bitte haltet euch nur an die Quellen-Regeln (Fanseite Kit)	YouTube monetarization does technically violate the EULA, but they aren’t taking action against it. Have fun creating! shayaliz on Twitter: Does this also apply for twitch.tv etc.? @shayaliz: Yes, community videos and reporting in general. Please abide by the rules for sources (fansite kit)
Colin spielt privat gerne WvW, üblicherweise kommt er nach einer guten Sitzung zu spät zur Arbeit. *lacht*	Colin likes playing WvW in his free time. After a good session, he’s usually late for work. *laughs*
Neues Daily System: Man kann aus 10 Dailies 5 pro Tag auswählen, die sehr spezifisch sein werden.	New dailies system: You can choose 5 per day out of 10 dailies, which will be very specific.
Kneipenschlägerei wird das nächste Minispiel sein, dass in das Spiel integriert werden wird.	Bar brawl will be the next mini game, which will get into the game.
Polymock: Irgendwann wird es ins Spiel kommen. Colin hatte Polymock für GW1 entwickelt und will es zurück.	Polymock: It will come into the game eventually. Colin has developed Polymock for GW1 and he wants it back.
Gildenmissionen: kleinere Gildengruppen können Hilfe von Spielern in der Welt bekommen. Alle finden in offener Welt statt	Guild missions: smaller guild groups can get help from other players in the open world. All missions will take place in the open world.
Die lebendige Geschichte (aktuell: Flamme und Frost) wird bleibende Inhalte zur Spielwelt hinzufügen.	The living story (currently: Flame and Frost) will add content to the game world that’ll be permanent.
Chat Spam in Löwenstein wegen der Fraktale: Das neue LFG System soll Abhilfe schaffen. Entwicklung schreitet voran.	Chat spam in Lion’s Arch because of fractals: The new LFG system should change this. Development is progressing.
Das neue LFG System soll Gruppen nicht de-personalisieren und entfremden, wie das manche Dungeonfinder Systeme tun.	The new LFG system should not de-personalize and estrange, as happens with some dungeon-finder systems.
Colin will mehr langfristige Welt-Veränderungen und Zonenübergreifende Einflüsse durch Events im Spiel sehen.	Colin wants to see more long-term changes to the world and cross-zone influences through events in the game.
Das Commander System: es soll robuster gestaltet werden und neue Funktionen hinzufügt werden.	The commander system: it should be more robust and new functions should be added.
Ein System ähnlich dem Template-System von GW1 soll kommen um leichteres Umskillen zu ermöglichen. aber nicht allzu bald.	A system similar to the template system in GW1 should come in order to enable easier re-skilling. But not in the near future.
Warum die Entscheidung, dass im WvW in Zukunft erst ab 25 Spieler orange Kreuze gibt? Spieler in kleinen Gruppen sollen die Möglichkeiten haben taktische Commando-Einsätze durchzuführen.	Why the decision to only show orange crosses for WvW fights when there are more than 25 players? Players in small groups should have the possibility to undertake tactical commando operations.

EuFanDay: The interview

Cross-posted from Talk Tyria. As always, please go there if you want to comment on the article. Thank you. :)

As I said in my last entry here on Talk Tyria, Nerdy Bookahs had been invited to the EUFanDay that took place this Monday and Tuesday in Brighton. I was the one representing our blog there (a first post about this went up on our blog. It includes a growing link collection for write-ups etc. from the EUFanDay). As part of this event, we got to talk with some of the developers about Guild Wars 2. Or rather, each of us (the invited fan sites) were allowed to ask one question. I’d collected a few more than just that, so that was a bit sad. Fortunately, I didn’t have as many questions as some others, so the disappointment from those who sent in their questions wasn’t that big on my site. ;)

Tasha Darke and Dutch Sunshine have just posted the transcription of the interview. You can find the first part on her blog and the second one on GuildMag.

As those two already transcribed the interview, I will refrain from doing the same. It’s a lot of work and time, after all (thank you for doing that, by the way!). Time which I rather want to spend on ranting and musing about which we got to know from the interview. ;)

I’ll assume that you’ve read the interview now. But I’ll try to write in a way that you know what I’m talking about even if you haven’t. ;) As I said, we had about 25 people (give or take 3) who all asked one question. So the questions were very mixed. We had a few about PvP and what we now know is that ArenaNet want to have structured PvP as an esport. We don’t know anything new about the observer mode but it’s probably a safe bet that they’ll do everything they can to include this as fast as possible post-launch because it’s needed if they want it to succeed as esport. Other than the observer mode, I don’t see a reason why they shouldn’t succeed here. Every character in structured PvP is the same level, has the same quality gear, access to all skills, etc. They also want their structured PvP (and WvW) to be easy to understand and get into. Overflow shards will also allow you to join structured PvP matches (but not WvW), so even if your server is crowded, you can still join those PvP matches. From the interview, I take it that we can expect some kind of announcement about additional PvP maps before release. They mentioned one that has lots of underwater combat and a pirate ship! Another one is supposedly going to make GW1 players feel nostalgic.

On to another area of the game, the community. It was stated again that there will be no restrictions or penalties for switching guilds. You’re supposed to be able to switch whenever you feel like it. How that works in the end remains to be seen. It requires us to let go of what we’ve gotten used to (it really shouldn’t surprise us anymore as it’s not the only thing that will work differently than in previous MMOs). Another thing that a lot of people are worried about is how the fansites will survive (I think there was a huge discussion about this on guildwars2guru) when Guild Wars 2 will have official forums. Regina said that while they will have less time, they’re still going to read the inofficial forums, fan sites etc. and that there will, of course, be people who’ll rather post on non-official sites than on the official ones out of fear of being censored on the official forums. If you ask me, I think it’ll be like we have it now: There isn’t just ONE fan site and ONE blog out there. We have so many different ones and so far, there’s space for all of them. Because people have different preferences and thus, will want to post on one site but not on the other. The official forum will just be “one more” site that you can go to but it won’t be necessary. If all you want is get news about the game and chat with a few friends, why not do that where you’re currently doing it already? There’s no need to move on to the official forums as ArenaNet won’t ask us to shut down our fan sites or blogs.

Something that disappointed me greatly were the answers about the customization for female humans mostly. ArenaNet want them to be idealized and beautiful. So no wrinkles, scars, etc. From what I have seen in pictures (or the customization videos from GamesCom), it looks like all female humans are dolls. I’d really like there to be the option to have different faces (I’m thinking of Warhammer Online here which made it possible to add scars. We’re fighting dragons here, after all! It’d make sense to have scars!). But oh well, it can’t be changed, I guess. And since I want to play Asura and Charr anyway, I don’t really need to worry about the humans. The thing that then made me squeal again was when they mentioned that there will be dances. I feared that we wouldn’t get those (again, like in Warhammer Online where I first realised that I really love fluff like that and I miss it when it’s not there… just like minipets, emotes,… – thankfully, Guild Wars 2 will have all of those!).

One last thing that I want to comment on is the question by gaming-insight.de about where to get the “good items” (that is, the high-level armor). ArenaNet’s philosophy about how we should be playing the game is “do what is fun for you”. In other words: If you enjoy WvW, you should be able to get the gear from WvW. If you enjoy crafting, you should be able to get similar gear with similar stats (in power) from crafting, and so on. However, certain looks will only be obtainable through WvW, crafting etc. So that when you see a player in a certain armor, you know they have done WvW a lot. But they’re not more powerful than you are when it comes to the stats they have on their armor. If you ask me, this is a great direction and one they’ve already done in Guild Wars 1. There’s nothing wrong with having bragging rights. But make them about the look/uniqueness of the gear and not about the stats on the gear! This will make the game much better than handing out gear with much better stats because it means that the whole game world remains open to you even if you decide to ignore a certain part.