Guild Wars 2

[Badfur 13]

"We founded

ArenaNet to innovate, so Guild Wars 2 was our opportunity to question everything, to make a game that defies existing conventions." Mike O'Brien, the Founder of ArenaNet kept this promise; Guild Wars 2 is the result of six years of innovation, six years of questioning everything, and six years of making a game that defies existing conventions. The game uses a heavily modified Guild Wars game engine; bringing with it several new features and upgrades, including: support for a 3D environment, highly detailed environments and models, better lighting and shadows, new animation and effects, and a more flexible combat and skill-casting system.

Guild Wars 2 features a new event system instead of the traditional method of completing quests. Before, a player would get a quest to go kill 10 centaurs, because they are "disrupting the village", only to find them standing in a field. Now, those centaurs are seen running through the village, destroying buildings and ransacking the town. The new event system gives life to what would be a static world elsewhere. While exploring the world, dynamic events and occurrences happen around the player. When visiting a local outpost, it might suddenly be attacked by a tribe of barbarians, or wild animals might decide to take tools from a construction site and bring it into their den. Minotaurs might decide it is a fine day for raiding, and attack the local country-side. Participating in various events yields experience and changes the world. Saving a village from minotaurs means the village will still exist when the character returns to it. The villagers will remember the character, and how the character helped them.

The game takes place 250 years after the events of Guild Wars. Elder Dragons - massive forces of nature - have awoken, causing destruction across the continent of Tyria. Members of each race must stand together if they are going to defend their homes from the destruction the dragons leave in their wake. Character creation options include five playable races:

Asura, Charr, Human, Norn, and Sylvari, eight distinct professions split among three archetypes; soldiers, adventurers, and scholars, and various background options that will decide how the character grew up.

ArenaNet has also included a unique personal story for every character that changes based on decisions made during character creation, and while exploring the world. These decisions then affect how the story advances and how people perceive the character.

Guild Wars 2 will be released August 28, 2012.