Labeled as the series' first "true expansion," Guild Wars Eye of the North marks the beginning of a new direction for the free-to-play MMO. Don't expect another tutorial starting zone or new professions to level up till 20. Unlike the last three stand-alone campaigns - Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall - Eye of the North has been designed from the ground up to cater to Guild Wars vets looking for higher level content to explore with their bank of characters instead of starting new ones from scratch. And, of course, it's also meant to serve as a bridge to the highly anticipated sequel, Guild Wars 2.

"We want Guild Wars to go out with a bang and leave a lasting impression on players, so we've decided to delve deep into RPG history in an attempt to recreate the thrill of the classic dungeon crawl," said ArenaNet's Eye of the North Lead Designer, Ben Miller in a recent developer diary. We just got a chance to pick the brains of Mr. Miller, and Marketing Director, Chris Lye about Eye of the North to glean some insights into what players can expect from ArenaNet's new take on our old favorite as we get ready for the upcoming expansion and Guild Wars 2.


GamesRadar: Considering the success of the previous Guild Wars business model, where each new campaign was playable on its own, why did you folks decide to require players to own one of the previous campaigns this time around?

Ben Miller: Part of the drive behind making an expansion is the fact that we can focus on creating the content that existing players want. And basically what that means is with the expansion we can devote all our time and energy and creativity into other more interesting things aside from making a brand new tutorial experience, which takes a lot of our time and a lot of our focus to reinvent the wheel…

No matter how exciting we would end up making a beginning area again, it's still the beginning area. The player has already invested a ton of time into creating their level 20 characters. So it was really exciting for us to be able to provide content for all these level 20 characters that had finished up playing the other campaigns and basically needed something to do.

Miller: Also touching on another benefit of making an expansion as opposed to a campaign is that with each new campaign we introduced two new professions that had brand new game mechanics and also a whole new slew of skills for all the previously existing professions. So that - in and of itself - was a ton of creative energy that we can now devote to other things that are in the expansion. But it also served to upset whatever PvP balance we previously had. So Eye of the North isn't going to be as tumultuous to our current PvP environment as say another campaign would've been.

GR: Speaking of keeping the balance, we see that there will still be 150 new skills added. Was it challenging with there being so many skills already?

Miller: Well there's already a ton of skills and the people that we have balancing them are very, very, very adept at doing that. So certainly this time around, it's been a lot easier because actually only a hundred of those skills are PvP legal. The other fifty are… "PvE-only" skills. But they're more akin to what players have seen with the Sunspear and Lightbringer skills, where they're tied specifically to a group of NPCs in the world. So you get sort of a cool immersion factor out of them. They're a little bit different, and a little bit more dynamic, and a little bit cooler from a role-playing perspective than the PvP-legal skills are to some degree.

GR: Could you give us some examples of these PvE-only skills?

Miller: So the example that I've been publicly giving a lot is the skill we're calling The Light of Deldrimor. A dwarf teaches it to you via a quest… and then it kind of has two uses. It has an affect in battle and outside of battle. When you use it, it does a large blast of [Area of Effect] light energy, and it also helps you find secrets within the dungeon. And that's kind of a theme we've been trying to do with these PvE-only skills is to kind of break the rules a little bit on what we've previously done with skills because we don't necessarily have to worry about the player versus player balance. And that also means we can invest the time and energy to make them do cool things in and outside of battle.


Miller: Another example would be… It's another dwarf skill. It's basically this dwarf priest who has been researching a way to combat the Destroyers, who are the main nemesis in Eye of the North. And basically through that research, he's developed an acidic grenade-bomb kind of thing that you essentially chuck at the Destroyers and it cracks their armor. So you're able to do more damage to them and it's kind of something that we could've done as a regular skill. But it's set in the context of the world, and it has a cool narrative flavor, and it helps you against one of the largest armies that you're going to be battling over the whole time that you're playing Eye of the North.

Lye: And when Ben was talking about the Light of Deldrimor earlier, one of the abilities is the ability to uncover secrets. That's really important because it's actually a skill that is really well-geared for basically dungeon crawling. And so to be explicit about the types of secrets the Light will reveal are things like hidden doors, secret passages, that kind of thing.

GR: Thanks. We were going to ask you about what sorts of "secrets" the Light of Deldrimor skill would reveal. Also, with these PvE-only skills, will they get stronger as you improve your standing with the factions they're associated?

Miller: Yup. That's exactly how they work… For all [intents] and purposes, it functions like an extra attribute that we use to gauge the skills' power.

GR: Regarding the new multi-level dungeons, can you tell us how they'll differ from what we've seen in previous Guild Wars campaigns?

Miller: As far as the multi-level dungeons go, probably what a player could think of them as are super cool, redone, epic versions of Sorrow's Furnace. Sorrow's Furnace is only one level, but it's a super huge map. It has distinct areas, it has NPCs with quests that kind of explain the areas and at the time we released it, it had some of the most unique rewards that we had in the game, which at that time, when we did Sorrow's Furnace, we released the unique green items that dropped off of bosses. And we carried that over to Factions and Nightfall… and so it's basically gonna be an expanded, epic version of Sorrow's Furnace and it's going to have some of the most unique loot and experiences that Eye of the North has to offer.

GR: We've heard that players will be able to acquire Norn and Asura Heroes in Eye of the North. Can you confirm this?

Miller: Yup! They are by far not the only heroes you'll be able to obtain. But they are definitely two of the more entertaining ones.


GR: But little has been said about the third new race, the Sylvari. Are you going to be able to acquire them as one of the heroes as well?

Miller: No. You won't be able to get a Sylvari hero. But, in general, you can look at Guild Wars Eye of the North as a prologue - lore wise - to Guild Wars 2. So there's going to be plenty of stuff that will be hinted at and left wide open…

GR: Can you tell us a little bit more about the background of the Sylvari then?

Miller: I think the last time I did, it was with three ellipsis…

GR: So nothing new about that then? Well regarding the Hall of Monuments, will the rewards you gain have any affect on your characters in Eye of the North? Or will they only be for when you pick up Guild Wars 2?

Miller: So the Hall of Monuments is in some ways meant to facilitate the transference of your accomplishments over to Guild Wars 2. So the Hall of Monuments itself - as far as it being rewarding to your actual character - it's a personalized instance that's going to change based on what you've accomplished in Guild Warsone.


Lye: Right. It doesn't provide rewards in and of itself to your Guild Wars one characters. It's meant as a way to preserve your investment - for all the things you did with your Guild Wars characters - in the first series of campaigns so you can carry over your legacy to Guild Wars 2.

Miller: But in a lot of ways it is kind of a reward in and of itself because it's a personal space that - for lack of a better term - you get to pimp out with all of your accomplishments. So it actually changes over time and actually looks cooler and cooler as you accomplish more and more. So it's one of the more unique dynamic things that we've ever done.

GR: We understand you'll be able to explore the Charr homeland.

Miller: And kill them!

GR: But will you be able to get quests from them? Will they be their own sort of faction?

Miller: They aren't going to be their own allegiance. And they're not going to have their own title track. But the story itself involving them is really compelling and it's better to experience it for your…


Lye: We don't want to give too much away. I think what we can say though is that we treat the Charr in a way that's a little bit more complex in Eye of the North. So they don't seem like - you know - just this bad maniacal race. We actually provide a greater insight into the Charr society so you understand that some of them are not completely aligned with each other.

Miller: Yeah. You'll get to see the full breadth and width of Charr society. And I think it's going to be one of the more entertaining and compelling parts of the story and probably one of the coolest narrative things that we've done.

GR: We were curious to know from your point of view, do any particular countries regularly dominate the PvP scene?

Miller: Well as far as the World Championships go, I think all of them have been won by Koreans.


GR: When we play we constantly see the Korean characters popping up on the screen saying that they've won "this" or that they've won "that." And we were wondering if there just happens to be that there are certain times when more people from one country are playing than the others.

Miller: That certainly has a little bit to do with it. And to be fair, there are very, very, very, very, very good and accomplished European PvP guilds, and American PvP guilds, and Asian PvP guilds, which is part of what makes Guild Wars so cool. You are able to compete at such a professional, almost sports-like level. But it just so happens that Koreans have won the past couple World Championships so you can't really argue with that.

GR: We recently did a video feature about naked dancing in MMOs. And one of the things that surprised us is that the only players - from what we saw - was that the only people that were down to dance naked with our experimental character were Guild Wars players.

Miller: Well our characters look sexy without their armor.

GR: So is that what it is? Your characters look sexier?

Lye: And our dances are pretty awesome.

Miller: Yeah. You've got to give it up for the animators that do our dances. It's definitely a combination of those two things. Our dances are kicking ass and our characters are just looking downright sexy without their armor on, male and female.


GR: We've been reading some strange speculation about Guild Wars Eye of the North abbreviated as GWEN and that this is somehow an allusion to the pre-searing character Gwen from the tutorial in Prophecies. Is there anything to that? Will we see a grown up badass Gwen?

Miller: Well I think I'm going to have to refer you back to my response about the Sylvari…

Lye: We love reading fan speculation. We think it's some of the most creative stuff that we can see.

GR: Well can players expect any memorable characters to return in Eye of the North?

Miller: Absolutely! I mean, you're going back to Tyria. You're going to expect to see some old friends and some old enemies.

GR: Thanks much for taking the time to meet with us.