These days it seems that a game cannot survive without a strong community behind it, as everyone can be connected through the internet.  ArenaNet did a very good job in Guild Wars building a strong connection with, and for the community.   They connected players to guild events and even posted links to community-run online magazines.   So will this tradition continue with Guild Wars 2?  There are a lot of signs that point to yes, so let’s take a look at how the game will connect players, and how ArenaNet can continue to keep themselves in touch with the players.

Guild Wars 2 has one single advantage over the first game that allows players to connect to each other.  The world is open, compared to the instanced PvE areas.  With the new dynamic events and open world environment, players can automatically be placed in parties when they fight for the same cause.  No more needing to run around shouting LFG all the time.  Now players can be connected instantly and effortlessly.  The dynamic events alone visually invite other players to join in during the middle of a fight.  With this connection, players are more likely to befriend each other, as the events require team work towards a common goal.

With our powers combined, we make the game even better!

While I am on the subject, with players all working towards a common goal, it will increase the chance they will act friendly towards each other.  Playing online games, and I am sure that many of you will agree with me and have experienced this yourselves, it isn’t uncommon for players to snap and yell at each other over the silliest of things. For MMOs, it is often for stealing agro on a mob or looting a quest item ahead of someone, or stealing a mineral node.  Guild Wars 2 makes it so that players will always be working together and everyone will get the same level of rewards.  This will really keep the game’s community more positive, getting rid of those “negative Nancys”. Or so I hope.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GUILDS

Let’s move on.  Guilds were a huge part of Guild Wars, which is probably a good thing since it’s in the name.  Anyways, a huge change for Guild Wars 2 is that players can join multiple guilds.  In a way this can split a player’s loyalties, but ultimately this is a good thing.  With a player having the option to join more guilds, they can meet more people.  Now all we need are some alliances to connect all these guilds together (ED: I’m excited by this because guilds can have different focuses this way… a thieves’ guild anyone?).

So how does an alliance setup like from Guild Wars benefit Guild Wars 2?  With players joining different guilds, they can introduce guilds to each other.  This brings even more people together, allowing guilds to schedule a time to take on some of the crazy dynamic events that will happen in the world.  Alliances can even go into PvP to fight for their world.  I think you can see now that having alliances can really strengthen the game’s community.  It would also spread world pride, as WvWvW PvP will more than likely be fueled by alliances. 

It doesn’t matter who plays what race, or what class. We all need to work together if we are going to get through the game. It’s more fun that way anyhow.

STAY STRONG OUT OF TYRIA

There are a lot of ways for players to become connected while playing the game, but what happens outside of the game?  For Guild Wars, ArenaNet had a strong connection with the games wiki page.  They also paid attention to blogs, online zines, and some great fan sites produced by players from the community.  All of these were linked on a separate section of the official Guild Wars site.  I really enjoyed this information being easily available, and I felt like the game was even more enjoyable.  I really would like to see this connection to the community continue for Guild Wars 2.

Guild Wars was such a huge success for the then fledging developer, and a big part of it was due to the huge community that still continues to stand behind it.  Now Guild Wars 2 is on the horizon and it seems like it will be easy, and very beneficial, for players to all connect to each other.  In the past ArenaNet did a lot to reach out to us and help players become a tighter knit group.  I look forward to the future to see how ArenaNet will do the same for Guild Wars 2.  I’m sure they will continue to use a wiki and guilds to connect to players, but they have been doing their best to redo the way MMOs are made.  I am sure they will try to create new and exciting ways to stay connected to the players in light of this goal.

Is there something you would like to see ArenaNet do to reach out to the players?  Leave any comments below to let us, and everyone else know.