In depth Analysis of Guild Wars level design as an MMOG

Guild Wars is the game I have spent the most amount of ENJOYABLE time in. Sure, I logged more hours on Maple Story, but the chore of grinding really hits home when I stated playing Guildwars which was so different in many ways, to the extent that even though I bought all 3 “campaigns” I never really finished playing any one of them to the end because I keep getting distracted by the many things I could do in game! But I digress, on to the analysis.

Guild Wars may look similar to the many fantasy based MMOGs in the market, but it stands out as being the only one that actually offers unlimited free-to play time, requiring users to only buy the original boxed installation copy. In terms of revenue, it also supports micro transactions, allowing players to purchase more “character slots” as well as skill sets unique to other episodes (not available to the actual campaignd depending on which box one buys).

Originally, it was slated to have new campaigns coming out every 6 months. Beginning with Guild Wars: Prophecy, which introduced the medieval fantasy based continent of Tyria, and offering 6 initial character classes (Warrior, Monk, Mesmer, Necromancer, Ranger and Elementalist; the 2nd episode introduced the Chinese/Japanese based continent of Cantha, with 2 new classes (assassin and ritualist) as well as a some new skills to the original classes, while the 3rd episode introduced the African savannah based lands of Elona, more skills for the base classes, and again introduced 2 new classes, the paragon and the Dervish, as well as recruitable characters called heroes who can be leveled up and customized via equipping and skill sets. Each campaign is playable standalone, though most players have commented that 1st stand out for the being the most balanced, the 3rd for bringing the heroes system into the mix, which the second was quite weak in comparison (though it offered a strong storyline as usual).

Guild Wars places players in a PVE environment with optional PVP elements. Being called Guild Wars, the PVP element is useful for climbing ranking ladders and earning points towards equipment upgrades not normally availably through PVE only playthroughs. Game play is done through “instances”, where each player’s character (together with any other human controlled players they have partied with) and their hired henchmen are placed in their own unique “instance” of the map. This is a “closed” run of the map where no other players may enter, though players can leave, and “world”-wide broadcasted messages can still be seen on screen. By doing this, most of the resources are actually carried out on the client side, resulting in minimal lag as well as of course less cost to the servers (after all it is effectively free to play after purchase).

Back to analysis, I shall do a run through using the first “episode”, Guild Wars: Prophecies, as I have clocked the most number of hours in this.

The Game Begins:
Unlike Granado Espada and Maple Story, Guild Wars starts off with an action packed intro movie showcasing a battle between a group of 6 humans (each representing one of the 6 available classes) huge Char (The main protagonist race in the game) many would consider this superficial, but the abilities shown in the movie gives players a good feel of how each indiviual class works within the group dynamics.

Birth
Character creation starts with deciding on a class, gender, name and features. Creation here is quite customizable. Although other than when setting the character’s height, it does not use a slider concept used in some of the newer games which allow players to customize appearances. However, the options available are still staggering. Selecting a class opens up its own set of customizable variable features include hair style, hair color, eyes, facial features, skin tone, eyes, basic armor type and armor color, with 6 options in each variable to choose from. There are literally tens of thousands of combinations one can end up with, even before equipping the various types of armor and equipment one will receive during gameplay! And that’s just looks alone.

When the game really starts, the player is introduced as a new recruit for the Ascalon army, a border city alone a "Great Wall" that is keeping the Charr at bay. He is then given some initial quests which gradually introduce the game mechanics. One good thing about Guild Wars is the way it writes he quests to introduce the main history and gameplay mechanics. For example, one of the quests require you to party with another player. But instead of just forcing you to ask some random player to join you to complete the quest, you and your partnerhave to activate 2 switches at the same time, impossible with one player but effortless for 2 persons.

After a short series of quests, a BIG EVENT occurs, which has a cutscene showign the Charr launching a megical attack that turns the once beautiful land of Tyria into an apocalyptic landscape. This cutscene effectively ends the tutorial chapter and brings you into the thick of the story.

And get this. YOU'RE in the cutscene (at least your avatar is).

The player is actively involved in every cutscene that brings the campaign from the 1st chapter to the last as he helps lead the survivors from a paradise to a wasteland towards a new land and time of hope. He is there when the heroic prince of the people dies, and he is among the group that brings back the ultimate weapon with which to keep the Charr at bay. This is how Guild Wars effectively makes the character feel important. By combining the story-telling mechanics of a single player game, the player feels very involved as he/she HELPS carry the story forward. Its an illusion (since every other player has the same experience), but done very well.

Exploration and Growth
In terms of exploration, Guild Wars's use of strong story telling is a great plot device to introduce and bring players to various new places in the world. For example, from charging deep within eneme territory to secure a great weapon, to being exiled from the kingdom, to seeking a new home for the survivors, the player is easily introduced to 3 different locales within the space of 1 large quest.

Of course, special note has to be made of how the players chose their secondary class, to compliment their primary class which was chosen at the start of the game. Before deciding on their seconday class, players are actually given quests by each of the class trainers, related to the class them self (i.e. the monk asks you to protect another character with the monk's signature healing skills). Whats great is, you are actually given these skills temporarily during these quests, so you get to try out how these combination works. Unlike other MMORPGs where a class selection is usually permanent, and youdon't get to try the skills out before selction, you are now able to make a choice AFTER trying it out.

Another important expect of exploration is finding good class and skill combinations that work well. One thing about Guild Wars is that although each character access 2 class skill sets (a primary and seconday class), they are only allowed to bring to 8 skills into play at any one time. Finding what skills work best in the situations they face is a greate part of the game, as different situations require different skillsets. simply swapping a few skills can turn your character from an offensive monster to a defensive character into an important supportive character for the whole team. Infact, getting to the level cap is easy. Most of the game is about experimenting and finding good skill combinations.

Challenge
As mentioned, the game is mostly about finding great skill combos in order to lead you towards the next phase in the game. Almost evey challenge can be tackeld, provided the right skillset is equipend, and the player actually knows what he is doing.

Another thing to note about Guild Wars is that there are no potions or pots to help characters recover, so managing one's health and energy levels is very important, as different skillsets use energy at different rates and being diffensive/offensive oriented affects your health/mana recharge rates.

This makes Guild Wars a very intellectual game, where brute force does not win the day.... unless you are tasked with being the "tank" in the team;) The player is constantly thinking, planning and timing his next move. It gets even more interesting when he hire's henchmen, or when using the 3rd campaign's requitable heroes. With so many options to play with, there is never a truly boring moment in the game.

Resolution and Continuation

Interestingly, the level-cap of the game is only at level 20, meaning that getting to the highest level is actually easy. And other the completion of the main storylines, what keeps the player playing? The lure lies in the skills.

As mentioned, some skills can be acquired during the questlines. Many, however, especially the most powerful ones, have to be "captured" from enemies. and even after you capture the skills, there is again the fun experience how finding how these new skills combine with your existing skills.

Later on in the game, you are also able to actuall change your secondary class upon completion of a certain quest. This is seldom seen in other MMOPGs as the game usually requires you to start from scratch to try anotehr quest, but the creators of Guild Wars probably this is a potential drop off point, as some players would feel frustrated about having to level up their characters and complete all the quests from scratch, but it fits in well with their focus on skill acquisition. After all, even though they might have switched classes, they still have to gather all the skills for this new class from scratch! So its win win for all!

Assessment
I feel that this game is one of the better MMOPGs in the market; it is definitely the best I've played so far. By gradually leading the player through the intro parts of the game gently, then using a strong narrative style borrowed from Single Player games to drive the player forward, and encouraging team play as humans definitely fight and coordinate smarter than AI henchmen, it is designed for both a solo and MMOPG experience, not forcing players into joining up yet leaving the option open for them.