14 DAY TRIAL // Guild Wars 2 was hit by a number of problems, ranging from server crashes to security issues that left passwords exposed, but the ArenaNet team working on the game plans to increase both security and stability and avoid any new issues.
Colin Johanson, the game director working on Guild Wars 2, talks about the launch of the MMO and tells VG247 that, “It’s one of the hardest things you will ever do in the game industry. There are times where I am envious of developers who get to make offline games that don’t have to deal with these kind of issues, it’s insane how complicated it is.”
The developer admits that his MMO had problems on launch, but blames most of them on the big number of initial players, which ArenaNet failed to predict despite the solid interest that fans showed in the beta stage.
Johanson adds, “our security team, IT team, server programming team, and customer support team will all continue to work proactively to make these parts of the game even more structurally sound than they already are. We don’t ever want to stand still and say ‘good enough, mission accomplished’ we’ll keep finding ways to make our already extremely stable system even stronger.”
Guild Wars 2 is unique in the MMO world because it does not only offer a free-to-play experience, but also stays clear of the subscription business model.
The game is funded by players purchasing retail packages and by store transactions and ArenaNet needs to keep gamers interested in the long term in order to sell expansions and create a solid revenue stream.
Guild Wars 2 was launched in late August and was widely praised by reviewers.
ArenaNet has already introduced a number of events for the game and in 2013, the first big expansion for the MMO might be announced and launched.