Guild Wars 2 Gives Players Predefined Skills to Limit Confusion

All players starting the upcoming Guild Wars 2 will begin with a number of pre-defined weapon-oriented skills because the development team at ArenaNet understood from the first MMO in the series that too much freedom was a little confusing for the players.

Jonathan Sharp, who is a system designer working on Guild Wars 2, stated, “We saw that in Guild Wars 1 people could basically go anywhere they wanted to with all the different skills. You had two different classes, you had a primary profession and a secondary. What we found was that for a lot of people that was just too much. It was a lot of overwhelming stuff.”

He added, “Some people absolutely loved it, though, so what we tried to do for Guild Wars 2 is we said ‘okay, with your utilities, with your heal, with your elite you can decide those things. But for your main skills, your first five, what if it’s just tied to your weapon?’ Which makes it much much easier for a new player – they have a sword that’s the same as somebody else’s sword.”

Once the gamer understands what he can do in the game and how to use those basic skills he can then look for better equipment, figure out which skills he needs in order to get the best out of them and can then customize his overall build for the character.

Sharp also revealed that ArenaNet was interested in making Guild Wars 2 as welcoming to veterans as possible, giving them quick ways to understand the new mechanics and jump right into the action.

At the same time, the developers also want to attract a new player base made up of people that might have been put off by the complexity of the first Guild Wars.

Guild Wars 2 is out on the PC on August 28.