In this edition of Flameseeker Chronicles, I will unfold the new guild hall system in as much detail as we know, and I’ll also look to the further development of the feature and inclusions I’d love to see upon release. Game Director Colin Johanson’s time on PC Gamer’s PC Gaming Show was admittedly very brief, and I wasn’t blown away with the show’s format in comparison to other E3 presentations. Nevertheless, there’s plenty to unpack before we see the guild halls running in-game this Friday in a special livestream on the official GW2 Twitch channel.
How did you envision guild halls?
Firstly, let’s run through a quick top-five list of features that players requested during the guild hall CDI proposal research. Studio Design Director Chris Whiteside collated the thread’s submissions and highlighted the most requested features:
1: Customization and Identity: The ability to customize your guild hall in a manner that provides your guild with its own identity as well as a wide variety of guild hall customization progression.
2: Small Guilds: The ability for small guilds and large guilds to enjoy the progression and benefits of Guild Halls without either making progression to easy or two hard (potentially through scaling)
3: Guild Activities: The ability to progress Guild Halls by taking on activities of varying types with your guild.
4: GvG Access and Functionality: We are discussing this after Raids.
5: Town Convenience: The ability to have town services in the Guild Hall. (I just want to point out that I am not a big fan of this due to the impact it could have on our current Cities.)
With this shortlist in mind, I was expecting greatness: I personally envisioned a place that my guild could use as an expression of our collective entity while completing exciting guild content together. I’m not usually a big fan of PvP (though this has changed since playing Stronghold and I now PvP regularly), but even I was hyped for the aforementioned guild vs. guild support. Raiding is an absolute passion of mine, so I was hoping for a guild hall that would facilitate easier group management and that would allow me to invite guests to join us.
Aside from the quick cheat sheet above, plenty of other additions popped into my head as time went on, and I quickly developed my own list of expectations for guild halls. It always annoyed me that despite being a member of multiple guilds, I could chat only with one, and if my guild partnered with another for content, we didn’t have a set chat channel just for us. If I were designing an MMO, advanced interguild communication would be top of my list to complement such a freeform approach to group content. I wanted the location to be somewhere exciting with plenty of opportunity for guild growth… our own little corner of the Mists, perhaps? Getting a nice clean map for world bosses is a little clunky now, so I wanted some system through which it was easier to jump with my guildies.
So what’s the reality?
This seems like a fantastic time to share the guild halls trailer, huh? If you haven’t checked out the E3 trailer already, have a watch and then we’ll gather back up to discuss!
Close your mouths, everyone… the drool is distracting! My wee mind was blown by the scale of the guild hall space; rather than just be thrown into a building, we have a choice of two absolutely stunning outdoor areas to settle in. I say settling because guilds aren’t immediately handed a guild hall without any effort, and the space that is initially presented to you is far from the finished product.
Set in the Heart of Maguuma, guilds must wrest control of the zone away from the influence of Mordremoth by banding together to slay an immense amount of occupying mordrem. We don’t know too much about what that fight will look like yet, but I’m going to go out on a limb and propose that this could be a new guild mission. I was delighted to see that a guild needs to pull together in order to gain the guild hall.
Once successful, guilds can begin to rebuild the ruins that they’ve fought so hard to control, and the decision of what buildings to construct or how to personalise the guild hall is down to each individual guild. I love the few decorative items we’ve seen so far, and I’m confident that I’ll be able to make an attractive little guild hall with them. We know that there will be even more selection available to purchase with gems too.
I’m happy to see that small guilds have been considered in the guild hall design process, especially since my own guild is modest in size. Time-sensitive progress will prevent larger guilds from steaming too far ahead of the little guys. Guild buildings will unlock much-requested features, such as guild crafting through the new Scribe system and a brawling arena in which you can pit your guild’s best against a guest guild’s members. The guild Workshop and War Room buildings had me squeeing at my PC, especially when I learned that WvW tools such as airships could be created to enhance the gameplay and GvG was being made possible.
What do you think about the pre-order pricing?
If you checked out MJ’s reveal post, you’ll see plenty of, umm… healthy debate about the pricepoint for Heart of Thorns. The good news is that the expansion is available on pre-order now, and those who do will be given the Maguuma Trailblazer title and access to all beta tests from the date of ordering until release. The bad news for some is that the expansion is bundled with the core game and at its cheapest is priced at $50 (£35) with no extras. I don’t find the price in pounds to be too over-the-top if I’m honest, and I think it’s quite a smart move to bundle the core game with the expansion to incentivise sales to the untapped MMO playerbase. It’s most definitely fantastic timing for opening prepurchases since sales will naturally flow well during the E3 buzz.
Having said that, I do feel that the pricing could have been more sensitively handled with both the existing playerbase and those who just recently forked out for the base game since the FAQ said it was required for HoT. The GW2 Twitch channel comments flooded with protests when people checked out the pricing and discovered that new players purchasing now were essentially getting a better deal. The FAQ has now been edited to reflect that the expansion is bundled with the base game, but some players feel swindled.
Although we know people aren’t realistically paying much more than sale prices for the core game at this point in its shelf life, many players feel that the $10 or so that it’s worth should be deducted from the expansion price for those who already own GW2. I hope ArenaNet does address these concerns today by better explaining its logic to the fanbase and listening to both sides of the great price debate.
Over to you!
For me, guild halls will be an absolute game-changer that’ll significantly improve my play experience, and I can honestly say that my expectations have very much been exceeded. I cannot wait to share in-game space with my guild and build up a shared identity with the people I most like to play with. The mechanics brought along with guilds halls cannot be underplayed either, and I believe that the E3 reveal is just the beginning of what we can expect from guild halls. I’ve been screaming, “take my money!” at ArenaNet for a long time, and not even the controversial pricing will slow me down. Have I prepurchased? Why yes, yes I have! Have you? Be sure to let me know in the comments.
Tina Lauro has been playing Guild Wars 2 since it launched and now pens the long-running Flameseeker Chronicles column, which runs every other Wednesday and covers everything from GW2 guides and news to opinion pieces and dev diary breakdowns. If there’s a GW2 topic you’d love to see covered, drop a comment Tina’s way or mail her at tina@massivelyop.com.
