Wiispace Interview With Ree Soesbee, World Designer and Writer For Guild Wars 2

Hey readers, Kyle here, Wiispace is bringing you another Q&A interview, this time from Ree Soesbee, World Designer and Writer for Guild Wars 2! We’d like to thank Ree, and anyone else involved with this for their willingness to answer our questions!

Wiispace: Will there be any continuation of the original Guild Wars story or at least some mention of it in Guild Wars 2? Will there be any old characters revisiting us in Guild Wars 2?

RS: The world of Tyria in Guild Wars 2 is the same as the one players are familiar with from the original Guild Wars game. The passage of more than two hundred and fifty years has changed the world, altering both the culture and the landscape significantly, but the world has many things that will be familiar to returning players. The story of the world is a continual one, and events that the player characters shaped in the first Guild Wars game are turning points in the history of Guild Wars 2.

Due to the passage of time, most characters that were important in Guild Wars are no longer present. Their names are legendary, and their contributions are still recognized in the game, as are the events of our previous releases. From those starting points, we shaped the new world of Tyria – and many of the organizations, gods, and locations from the first Guild Wars will be present in the second.

Wiispace: What can you tell us about the Sylvari race, and how they fit into the whole picture?

RS: The sylvari are a very young race of nature spirits, who have awakened with the rise of a new age in Tyria. They are beings of light, as yet uncorrupted by the world. As a people, they have not yet truly learned of sorrow, suspicion or hatred. The typical sylvari approaches life with curiosity, openness, and resolution, always seeking new experiences. The sylvari do not have the history or learned traditions of older races, but they do have a shared connection with one another, learning things instinctively through the Dream that guides them. With the guidance of their Firstborn and the gentle Call of their dream, the sylvari quest throughout Tyria, going where destiny leads them.

Wiispace: The Guild Wars 2 trailer showed a lot of impressive environments, one of the shots being that there is a sense of real time as the sun went down and the moon came up. Will there be a real time environment as in transitions between daytime and night time and weather changes?

RS: We do, indeed, have a day/night cycle! The transition will not be real time, but rather a sped-up in-game cycle based on the game timer. The transition of day to night will have a big effect on the world, as certain events in the game won’t happen until it is an appropriate time of day. Centaurs may attack the garrison at first light, for example, or spooky ghosts appear at a haunted ruin only during nighttime.

Wiispace: Guild Wars had a very strong lore involving the gods and goddesses in the world, will this also be a major factor in the lore of Guild Wars 2?
RS: Lore will always be a strong factor in the guild Wars franchise. We love writing story and creating a strong world of imagination; our players love experiencing the epic quests and seeing their actions change the world. However, the gods of Tyria as our players have experienced them are primarily human gods – and while the humans continue to maintain a very strong faith, the other races have their own forms of religion. The atheistic charr swear to never again accept the yoke of ‘false idols,’ the mathematical asura keep a steady eye on their Eternal Alchemy, and the norn respect, but do not ‘worship’ Bear and the other Spirits of the Wild. The sylvari are more agnostic, sensing that there is a greater force directing their actions, but not yet able to give it a name – their path is one of questing, seeking answers rather than following blindly another race’s path.

Wiispace: Previous Guild Wars installments have proven that you tend to follow a theme for your environments and lore.(Factions based off Asian themes, Nightfall based off African themes) Will you have set themes for environments in Guild Wars 2 that are based off of real world locations?

RS: The majority of Guild Wars 2 takes place on the primary continent of Tyria, within the lands that Guild wars players would recognize as Kryta, Maguuma, Shiverpeaks and Ascalon. Orr, as we have mentioned in the trailer, has risen from the sea and is also an explorable area. Those areas have definite ‘themes,’ but are shaped more by the events going on in our game.

Wiispace: In the Guild Wars 2 trailer there was a clip of an underwater environment, will there be fully explorable underwater environments in Guild Wars 2?

RS: Absolutely. One of the things we’re extremely excited about is the new ability to explore the lakes and underwater areas of Tyria. We’re designing underwater activities to be fun, and easy to take part in – the ability to go underwater won’t be an extraordinarily annoying or difficult thing to do, because we actively want the players to explored this new environment and enjoy the events occurring beneath the surface of the water.

Wiispace: Will we be seeing anything familiar; as in cities from Guild Wars in Guild Wars 2?

RS: Definitely. The city of Lion’s Arch still exists, although it has changed a lot. Many of the territories of Ascalon retain their original names, if not their original owners. Rata Sum, Kryta, the Shiverpeaks all exist and will be explorable. Other familiar areas, like Sorrow’s Furnace, may have retained their location and be recognizable – but the passage of two hundred and fifty years has changed them in dramatic and exciting ways.

Again, Wiispace like to thank Ree and everyone else over at NC Soft/ArenaNet for their cooperation with this Q&A!