So there I was, bouncing along on my way from one bit of crime-fighting to the next through the skyscrapers of Talos Island in City of Heroes and I noticed a small red dot on the corner of the zone map. I'd seen it before of course; a transfer point from one zone to the next, many times in fact, but had never actually taken the time to investigate further. I was always on my way to somewhere else, usually to stop some madman or another from destroying the world, but today I was determined to confront my ignorance, and bounced on through.

The other side was an entire zone I'd never seen before, despite more than nine months of play; Dark Astoria. Almost immediately I could see why I'd never heard of the place, in game or out. It is a Hazard Zone, designed and balanced to be appropriate content for groups of three to five Level 21 to 29 players, which is quite specific. No monorail travel links, no facilities apart from an obligatory Hospital, no contacts and no task forces. Practically no reason to be there at all, compared to anywhere else of that level and just to drive the point home, the entire zone labours under a very thick grey fog which reduces visibility down to about 80 yards; not helpful in a game with such extravagant travel powers. Atmospheric, but also extremely oppressive.

The backstory is that the place is a ghost town, which turns out to be true in more ways than one, and throughout my entire time there I was the only player in the zone. Here was one of those fascinating quirks of virtual geography that crop up in nearly every MMO; the abandoned places.

Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as the ultimate goal is reached, we'll do it all over again in a new game!

After Monday's post getting us on our way in Guild Wars, you voted on what type of character I should make to begin my adventures. The character has been made and the first goal has been reached: getting a second profession. In this installment, you'll vote on the next goal and the ultimate goal I should reach before moving on to another game.

I've decided to make this project go two ways: one as a basic rundown of what I've done in the game to achieve my goals, and another to be more of a supplementary 'in-character' journal provided in the captions of the gallery, linked below. So follow along after the jump for an explanation of how your choices molded my newest Guild Wars character, and don't forget to vote in the newest polls before tomorrow at this same time, when the polls will close.

Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as the ultimate goal is reached, we'll do it all over again in a new game!

Last Friday, I asked the Massively readers to choose which game I'll be beginning my adventures, and Guild Wars has won with almost 24% of the vote. Now that we have a game chosen, let's move on to character creation, class specialization and initial direction.

In Guild Wars, players get to initially choose what type of character they will be: PvE (Roleplaying) or PvP-only. The PvE characters are played much as your run-of-the-mill RPG character, with level progression, storyline quests and the like, but PvP-only characters are a bit different. They start at max level (20) and are confined to the PvP arenas. Their items and skills are restricted to those previously unlocked on your account through the advancement of a PvE character, or through the purchase of PvP unlock packs on the Guild Wars store.

Guild Wars fans are in for a treat with the announcement of a whole host of PvP and PvE skill updates designed to balance gameplay which have just been added to the game. ArenaNet have posted a nice explanation of what this latest update is trying to achieve:

"The major goals for this update are to address the power of certain spike builds, make pressure builds a more viable option, adjust some skills to encourage tactical use, and provide some buffs to underused skills. In GvG, we have continued to see extremely versatile spike builds dominating; they are able to split, be defensive, and output high damage spikes while still having many of the tools needed to counter other build types. They could do it all, and do it all a bit too well. We've targeted certain key skills to tone down these builds' ability to do high damage spikes and shut down other build types."

You can find the full run down of the changes here.

With Guild Wars' recent 4th Anniversary, it seems like more eyes are turning towards the various campaigns released under the Guild Wars banner. Today's One Shots shows off a darkly intriguing image sent in to us by Bob J. who writes in: Hell's Precipice is the switchback path that leads along the ridge of Abaddon's Mouth, an incredibly fierce volcano. It is along this path that the Titans prepare to wage war against the entire world of Tyria. Will no one stop the unholy army? What about that dashing Elementalist over there? This is the setting for the last mission in the original Guild Wars. And it's awesome.

We love to see screens from MMOs both big and small, but we need you to send them in! It's really easy to do - just drop an email to oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and a quick description. We'll post it out here for everyone to check out, and give you the credit.

While we don't often get to see into the lovely lands of Guild Wars, but we definitely think it's right up there as one of the most graphically pretty games we've seen. Today, to brighten up your Monday, we have this lovely cityscape at dusk to remind you of the relaxation waiting for you once the day of work is done! Reader Sam submitted this great One Shots and tells us a bit more about this part of Guild Wars: Twilight at Kaineng City. Named by the Lord Emperor Kaineng Tah, Kaineng City is the capital of the Empire of the Dragon. It is a huge metropolis that covers a large portion of northwestern Cantha. Gorgeous! (Can we have Guild Wars 2 now guys?)

We're looking for screenshots of lots of games we don't get to see often, but we need you to send them in! So if you're playing something we don't often see, grab a killer screen and send it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, a quick description, and the game it's from. We'll post it here and give you the bragging rights!

The subject of microtransactions has long been a point of contention. Not only do some people feel that the practice somehow lessens a game's worth, they consider the very act to be malicious in nature. Other people seem to be welcoming the idea with open arms, and more and more game developers are redoubling their efforts in North America and Europe. The reason? They don't want to get left behind.

I'm very ambivalent about questing, I have to be 'in the zone' or motivated by some reward, be it loot, lore, money or the kudos of helping out a guildie. Some days I just can't face seeing another giant yellow question mark floating over an NPC's head as I wander Azeroth -- which makes me glad to be level 80. There were times when group quests were more like mini boss fights and the call would go out across the server to an able band of players to help kill one of Gruul's kids or that giant spider in the corner of Terrokar Forest.

However recently, as I worked my way though the Wrath quests, I noticed that rather than making you collar your friends for the group quests, WoW has taken a few leaves out of Guild Wars' book and provided you with the occasional elite NPC or army of earthen to help you down giant elites which would probably pawn you and your friends otherwise. It's a nice mechanic that gets just enough usage in WoW to stop group quests feeling nightmarish. But I wonder, is this mechanic something you'd like to see used in many different MMOs or do you think this works best in Guild Wars? Do you prefer it to the old fashioned group quests or feel like a group should mean a group of players rather than a bunch of NPCs? Speak up, constant readers, and tell us in the comment box.

What's in a name? That's an interesting question. For some players, there's obviously not much in a name. For instance, how many VanHellsings, Grandalfs, or RougeKillas have you come across in your MMO travels? We're not quite sure if these people are trying to be clever, innocently paying homage to their favourite pop culture references, or simply don't care what others think.

For others, a lot of thought goes into a name. These players want to have unique, meaningful, and/or perhaps a wee bit pretentious names for their avatar. Maybe there's even a back story for how they got their name.

One thing is certain; developers usually put lots of thought into naming various cities, locations, and NPCs in their MMO worlds. Why? Jess Lebow, MMO storyteller for over a decade, believes players are smart and pay attention to detail. He also knows they're easily annoyed by things like too many consonants with too few vowels or oddly punctuated names. When naming one of the first cities in Guild Wars, he used a feature-based naming generation system that came up with Lagbourough for the city by a lake. This resulted in a few chuckles from testers and not-so-pleased programmers. That city name changed five times before releasing as Lion's Arch.

There's something to be said for running through picturesque ruins in an MMO. Of course, there's also something to be said for running through picturesque ruins in an MMO you don't have to pay for every month! Makes it all the sweeter, we think. Today's Guild Wars: Factions screenshot sent in to us by Riavan shows off the eerie beauty of this frozen life-form. He tells us a bit more about the scene: This is a large peculiar Jellyfish that has been permanently and perfectly fossilized in solid jade from back when the Jade Sea was created by Shiro's death cry. Now a sea-less people, the Luxon's mine the Jade, collecting any resources or magic obscurities within it's now solid depths - such as this jelly fish, I assume.

Guild Wars players! It's been far too long since we've seen your images. We'd love to see more! So if you're playing in any of the Guild Wars campaigns, send us some screenshots to oneshots AT massively DOT com along with a quick description of what we're seeing in the screenshot, and your name. We'll post it here for everyone else to check out.

Massively Speaking Episode 51 is just full of Jo(h)ns this week as Contributing Editor Jon Shute and special guest John Nicholson from Limited Edition join Shawn to discuss all things MMO. Topics include Free Realms' launch, WoW on the iPhone, tons of MMO anniversaries and more!

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot us an email to podcast AT massively DOT com. Maybe we'll read your letter on the air!

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The big Guild Wars 4^th Anniversary patch arrived a few days ago and brought all sorts of presents for the currently playing pseudo-subscribership, including a special island for Rangers to keep their pets on, new equipment packs for weapon and armour storage, extra unlockable bank box tabs, character makeover services and more, along with the reactivation of various festival mini-games during the anniversary festivities.

Perhaps the most significant of the new features added this patch was the introduction of the new Zaishen Challenge Quests at the Great Temple of Balthazar. Three new banners now offer tasks which change every day; a particular highlighted mission, a bounty on a specific named boss, and a specified type of PvP challenge. In exchange for completing these tasks, new Zaishen Coins are offered, which can be exchanged for item rewards of varying quality. Daily Quests have arrived in Guild Wars.

ArenaNet and NCSoft are celebrating the fourth anniversary of free-to-play MMO Guild Wars this month so we decided to sit down an chat with Community Manager Regina Buenaobra about the games success and it's beginnings.

How did Guild Wars come about?
When the ArenaNet founders (Jeff Strain, Mike O'Brien, and Pat Wyatt) were still working at Blizzard, they had a lot of discussions about the design underpinnings of World of Warcraft, which Jeff Strain was working on, and Warcraft III, which Mike O'Brien was working on. They thought that it might be cool to mix the two genres, since there was already a lot of overlap between them. Strategy games are more fun when you've got an emotional connection to not just your character but also the game world, and when roleplaying games are infused with a bit of a competitive dimension, that's exciting for players.

What were you looking to achieve when you first launched the game?
Even before Guild Wars was launched, the team aimed to do something different from what other online roleplaying games were doing. This uniqueness is at the very core of many of the design decisions-for example, the focus on player skill rather than time spent playing. The team wanted Guild Wars to deliver something different from what was already out there on the market, and have it be a success. At the time, it was a risk to diverge from the route that other online games were taking, both in terms of game design and business model. And of course, the goal was to give players a really fun and enjoyable game.

Why do you think gamers have been so attracted to the game?
I think there are a lot of reasons for the enduring draw of Guild Wars. Guild Wars provides a skill-based gameplay experience that includes a brilliant solo campaign. Here, a player feels immersed in a game world through fantastic storytelling and questing. The player feels powerful, in control of their destiny and their ability to influence events. Guild Wars also includes a deep profession and skill system which is really compelling from a strategic sense. The business model-buy the box and play online without subscription fees-presents great value for the money, especially in the current economic climate. These are all reasons for why Guild Wars is still really popular.

You have a much more segregated view of PvE and PVP content, do you think this makes the game more enjoyable for players? Will it influence gameplay in future titles, such as Guild Wars 2?
We have different forms of PvP for different player types. We have more easily accessible formats like Alliance Battles as well as more competitive formats like GvG. The various different PvP formats give players multiple options to play and enjoy the challenge of PvP.

This will have an influence in Guild Wars 2 in the sense that we want there to be a similar kind of accessible PvP format, like World PvP, that players can get into easily, as well as more competitive forms of PvP. We want to be able to give players different options, because we know that players will want to play and enjoy different forms of PvP.

What do you think you have learned from Guild Wars?
With the Guild Wars experience under our belts, we've learned that it's worth taking some risks to provide an innovative new gaming experience. We think we've succeeded in delivering a unique online RPG to players. We've learned that players enjoy deep PvE gameplay experiences, and this is shown in Guild Wars: Eye of the North, where we emphasized that deeper style of play rather than a more broad design emphasis where content is spread more thinly.

Of course, forging a new path and doing something different from everyone else wasn't totally smooth, and we've had learning experiences that are relevant for development on Guild Wars 2. One of the things we would have reconsidered in hindsight is the fact that adding a large number of skills to the game increases the complexity of the system, and increases the amount of information that a player feels she has to absorb. This is potentially overwhelming, especially for new players. One of the strongest design decisions the team made was the use of instancing, which gives players a personal experience and the feeling that they have an impact and a stake in the destiny of the world. In games where there's more persistence, players don't feel that same kind of power. Having said that, persistent worlds give players a stronger sense of a world that's alive with the excitement and activity of other players. Guild Wars is unique from other games in a similar genre, both in the design sense and in terms of its business model, and we continue to be successful, so the lesson there is that it was worth taking those risks.

Is there anything in particular you are looking to improve upon in terms of gameplay or storyline in future?
Our Guild Wars Live Team is continuing to work on improving the game through smaller monthly tweaks as well as more substantial content updates. We don't have specific details on what's in store for the immediate future.

In terms of Guild Wars 2, we've got a lot of great ideas, but you'll just have to wait and see when we're ready to start talking about them in more detail.



Guild Wars 2 is on the horizon, are you preparing players for the transition or do you hope both games will be played side-by-side?
We're really excited about Guild Wars 2, and we hope that our longstanding players will check out Guild Wars 2 when it comes out. In Guild Wars, we have the Hall of Monuments, which records and displays players' achievements. This will help transition players over to Guild Wars 2 by giving existing characters some unique rewards in Guild Wars 2. We'll continue to support Guild Wars for as long as players are playing it.

Over the last four years, has your method of delivering new content changed? Do you think players prefer mini updates or the WoW-style of three or four huge patches per year/expansion?
Yes. We went from releasing large content updates in the form of brand new games, such as Factions and Nightfall, and our expansion Eye of the North, to shifting our focus on Guild Wars 2 while continuing to support Guild Wars with smaller updates. We currently release both mini updates as well as larger patches. These come in the form of our monthly maintenance updates where we do skill balances and monthly tournament updates, and also our less frequent content updates, such as the Fourth Anniversary update, which are larger in scope. Less frequent, larger updates give the Live Team more time for planning and development for larger projects.

Do you think the player community has been an important part of the Guild Wars experience?
Absolutely. Our players have a strong voice at ArenaNet through our community managers, me and Martin Kerstein, as well as other members of the studio who take an interest in community matters. Some of the features being released in the Fourth Anniversary Update are very popular requests in the community-in particular, the expanded options for item storage and the Zaishen Menagerie. We have a few surprises up our collective sleeves, and the community has definitely asked for them.

Guild Wars wouldn't be what it is today without our player community. Our community is passionate and they continue to show their enthusiasm and excitement, whether it's through holding in-game community events, helping new players in and out of the game, showing up to support us at gaming conventions, or contributing articles on our Wiki.



Anything you can tell us about Guild Wars 2? How is development progressing?
Guild Wars 2 is going to be a much bigger game than the original Guild Wars. Our development team is twice as large as the dev team for Guild Wars, so we're putting a lot of development resources into it. We have regular company-wide play sessions in Guild Wars 2, and it's a blast to play with everyone. The development team also does regular playtesting every day. I can say that it's an absolutely gorgeous game and I'm always astounded at how great our artists are at bringing a world to life.

We're not ready to share more just now, but stay tuned for more information later this year. Keep in mind that unlike most development teams, we've been very open about our decision to start development on Guild Wars 2 right from the very beginning. We've also been building almost everything in Guild Wars 2 from the ground up. A lot of games start development in total secrecy before fans even hear a whisper about it. Our fans have been clamouring for news and updates, and we know it feels like a long time for them. When Guild Wars 2 is released, they'll see that it was worth the wait.

Do you think players will find it easy to move so far in to the game's future?
While we are going to have a fresh start with Guild Wars 2, we're also going to ensure that players still feel a close connection with the lore and mythology of the world. For existing player characters, they'll feel connected to the past of Tyria through the Hall of Monuments, which is where their current Guild Wars characters record their achievements.

Anything else you'd like to add?
Be sure to check out all the details of the Guild Wars Fourth Anniversary celebrations on our official website!