Guild Wars 2 Infosplosion: Branching Storylines, Revamped PVE, and Persistent World Added, Subscription Fee Not

Posted 04/28/2010 at 12:41am | by Nathan Grayson

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The road to Guild Wars 2’s launch has been long and, well, mostly uneventful. Until now. Today, ArenaNet – virtually silent for the past couple years -- finally pried the cat from its tongue, resulting in a blog post that, in another time, might have been an epic poem or a hieroglyphic masterwork. Or a long magazine article.

So we’ve boiled it down a bit for you. First things first: no subscription fee. Like Guild Wars before it, Guild Wars 2 won’t send you rifling through your couch cushions for loose change each month. However, unlike Guild Wars the first, Guild Wars 2 will be a full-fledged MMORPG, replete with “a wide variety of combat and non-combat activities.” However, grinding and other traditional MMO missteps apparently won’t be an issue.

This time around, story’s also a major focus, and the game will allow you to create a unique background for your character, which will significantly affect the plot’s progression. “Each time you play through the game, you can experience a different storyline,” ArenaNet wrote. Better still, said plot won’t be a series of “Who cares? Get to the point!” quest prompts. Instead, you’ll interact with NPCs, make moral choices, and even participate in “world-changing” events.

Solo questing is bucking tired MMORPG trends as well, allowing all players – partied up or not – who were “seriously involved” in killing a monster to reap full experience benefits. As in, 100 percent of the experience you would have received for downing that beast all by your lonesome.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg of an article that is, by its author, described as “the tip of the iceberg.” If you’re into guilds, wars, or some combination of the two, you owe it to yourself to click through the link and read the full thing. Better get cracking asap, though, because apparently there’s tons more coming this week.