Jeff Strain Talks About Guild Wars Factions

Guild Wars came out last year to almost instant acclaim – but it was no big deal for Arena.net founders Mike O’Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain. The three were seasoned veterans, having created other popular MMO’s: Warcraft III, Diablo and StarCraft. All three games – like GW – can be played free over Battle.net.

Unlike most MMO’s, the only fees associated with Guild Wars were for extra content, which Arena.net planned to release on a bi-yearly basis. Six months later, Guild Wars Factions has arrived. Jeff Strain doesn’t call it an expansion, though… just a “resounding success.”

Acoording to industry analyst Anita Frazier, the popularity of MMO’s is on the rise. “From 2004 to 2005, usage of MMOGs grew nearly 29 percent, and that combined with the significant increase of sales at retail for these products illustrates the growing importance of this genre,” she says.

The new content for GW, as well as the continent of Cantha, has a strong Asian look to it. This seems to be a hit all around – Western players love the exotic setting, while players in Korea and Japan (rabid MMO gamers) find it comfortably familiar.

Will Guild Wars come to  PS3 and Xbox 360? Probably not right away, Strain says: “[There are] technical concerns, especially with the 360 because the HDD is optional, needed for content…there’s a huge a difference between the way a PC and consoles are controlled… controllers compared to mouse/keyboard is very different.“

Strain acknowledges that a PS3 and/or an XBox 360 version may be a future possibility. In the meantime, he’s confident about the PC version: “We have a solid engine, and we’ll see where we can take it. News about Guild Wars Campaign 3 will be coming out this summer, so stay tuned!”

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Guild Wars came out last year to almost instant acclaim – but it was no big deal for Arena.net founders Mike O’Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain. The three were seasoned veterans, having created other popular MMO’s: Warcraft III, Diablo and StarCraft. All three games – like GW – can be played free over Battle.net.

Unlike most MMO’s, the only fees associated with Guild Wars were for extra content, which Arena.net planned to release on a bi-yearly basis. Six months later, Guild Wars Factions has arrived. Jeff Strain doesn’t call it an expansion, though… just a “resounding success.”

Would gamers pay $50 for Guild Wars Factions? After all, the competition in the MMO industry is savage. Nonetheless, GWF  topped the sales charts the week of its release and is still in the top five three weeks later. NCSoft’s European CEO Geoff Heath said, “What has become increasingly obvious over the past year is that our policy of exploring new business models and pricing structures in the MMO space has proved to be a big hit with our player base, who have put the Guild Wars series at the top of the charts for the second year.”

Acoording to industry analyst Anita Frazier, the popularity of MMO’s is on the rise. “From 2004 to 2005, usage of MMOGs grew nearly 29 percent, and that combined with the significant increase of sales at retail for these products illustrates the growing importance of this genre,” she says.

How does all of this bode for GWF? Jeff Strain’s not worried. “We’re not prepared to talk numbers yet, comparing the two releases,” he says. “We’ll just say that we feel that, as a brand-new studio, with a brand-new franchise, we think we performed well with the original Guild Wars. That game picked up steam after its release, making it the success it was. With the fanbase built up there was a lot of hype for Factions, and the game came out with a bang. At this point, I’d say that Factions is stronger out of the gate than Guild Wars.”

The new content for GW, as well as the continent of Cantha, has a strong Asian look to it. This seems to be a hit all around – Western players love the exotic setting, while players in Korea and Japan (rabid MMO gamers) find it comfortably familiar.

“Factions is all about new mechanics. This includes entirely new ways to play the game, like factions and alliances. Factions and every new campaign released will have new mechanics like this and bring fresh experiences with every new release,” says Strain. “We view Factions as a standalone game, a full game and not an expansion. All the original professions from the first game, Prophecies, are in Factions. Overall, it’s more comparable to a full game because you can buy it, bring it home and play it without the first game.”

“Solid word of mouth contributed as much as anything to our success,” he adds. “Our ad campaign was important for communicating what is different and unique about this MMO, that it is a skill-based game and does not have a fee. It’s very important to tell people what the campaign is all about.”

Will Guild Wars come to  PS3 and Xbox 360? Strain says: “The subject of console development and us has been in the news a lot over the past 4-6 months. We’ve had some serious concerns with console business models in the past, but we’re happy to see that things are starting to change. Technical concerns, especially with the 360 because the HDD is optional, needed for content. We all love consoles at Arena.net… we just believe there’s a huge a difference between the way a PC and consoles are controlled… controllers compared to mouse/keyboard is very different. Guild Wars, as it stands, will not be ported to consoles. However, it is in the realm of possibility that a new game could be built for next-gen consoles.”

As for the future of GW, Strain says, “We will continue to fully support Guild Wars and Guild Wars Factions with balance changes and features, like new ways to join parties. We will not, however, be working on new missions… those sorts of things will be part of new campaigns. We have two development teams working on a staggered release schedule, so we’ll have a new campaign out every 6 months. We also have a ‘Live’ team which makes sure that content is constantly being added, often for holidays like Halloween and ‘Winter’s’ day. So people can expect a lot of incoming content.”

In conclusion, Strain is confident: “We have a solid engine, and we’ll see where we can take it. News about Guild Wars Campaign 3 will be coming out this summer, so stay tuned!”