Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Rapid Development! GO!

Last Friday I sat down and started to cut out little pieces of paper. With these little pieces and a sheet of graph paper Mike and I played a rough paper prototype of a turn based Strategy game.

Three days later I had a working build, and HERE it is.

So please go ahead and play and let me know what you think on either facebook or via email on birnamwoodgame@gmail.com. Your input is important because by Friday, we will be sending it along to apple.

Our submission to apple will be a dry run for the game. It will come out for free and that way we can build a base of users who might be interested in it, as well as incorporate their feedback should we decided to push the game to the next level where we build it in Unity.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Sandy Strikes!

So our landlord started to hand out pamphlets letting all the residents know that they should probably stock up on the basics. Road Crews had been prepped and ready, schools were preemptively closed, and people were sent home early yesterday.

And this morning we wake up to bright skies, a few downed trees and a rainbow.

So for us here in Vermont, just another day at work, our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the storm.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Techjam Wrap up

The Tech Jam is over and done with for the year, and I have to say that I really enjoyed the experience.

It was a great chance for us to introduce ourselves to not only the Vermont tech community, but also to the public. At the TechJam we showcased Loc, playable on an iPad as well as on a large television we borrowed from Marguerites parents.

We pulled out all the leftover kick starter goods, printed a banner for Off-shoot Studios, and created some simple twitter cards. By the end of Saturday, almost all of it was gone.

The first half of the day Friday came as a tidal force of middle school students. They we bused up to Winooski from nearby districts and at points we had a crowd two or three people deep trying to see what we had available. It mellowed out after the kids got back on their buses to head on back to school, and Saturday was pretty laid back.

Developers tend to really like these events. Letting the public play your game is always a great moment, and watching someone get it, and get pulled into the experience is priceless. After all of the negative comments on Steam Green light, it felt really good to have other people tell us that they enjoyed the game.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Vermont TechJam





We’re are back again at the Champlain Mill, one room down from where we spent all day programming the weekend before. So through today and tomorrow, from 10 until 5, we will be manning our very own Birnam Wood Games booth!


The Vermont TechJam is a once a year event that brings the software/tech community to the public spectrum. Job Seekers can submit their resume in person to a variety of different companies looking to hire and those looking to hire the services of a technology company can sit down and talk.


So come on down to the Champlain Mill in Winooski, our table is A9, either Marguerite or I will be manning the fort, so feel free to ask us questions and play Loc on either the iPad we have available or on the computer.


 

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Flickr Stream

Finally got my HackVT Project live and on the web.

Had some serious problems getting it up, was working fine in engine, but the moment I stuck it on the web things started to fall apart. Had a crossdomain.xml page and everything. Went back onto campus Tuesday night to pick Manely’s brain about how to fix it, but for once I stumped him.

He did point me in the direction of Flash Firebug, a firefox plugin, that allowed flash debug messages to appear on the web! And bam, I instantly get an error message, about an hour later I have it working on the web.

So please go check it out here:

And let me know what you think.

So why did I make it?

Well, I wanted to create an aesthetically pleasing application that focused on photography that incorporated moving images.

Movement was a key aspect because it lends a few things: 1. Makes the application feel alive and dynamic, information is always changing and I wanted it to feel fresh and new every time. 2. Most users, when browsing images immediately begin scrolling down the page, so why not make the images move.

Possibilities:

This is a unique, engaging way to view a photographer’s portfolio, and artists work, or a company’s finished products in a slick new way. This is done way easier with a folder of images, as you can see here.

What I might add:

The ability to pause the screen, select individual images to see more about them, save them into favorites, search additional databases, make this available for free on mobile.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

100th Blog Post!

For every day we have been in the office there is a blog post, which means that Birnam Wood Games has also reached its 100th day. Four former students, recent graduates, have managed to not only start, but maintain a game company in Burlington VT.

Go us.

And this weekend we will be at the VermontTech Jam to showcase Loc and interact with the Vermont community! So come by and visit our booth at A9.

Right now we are continuing to plug away at our upcoming iOS game, had some issues with the latest build we just pushed out to our testing pool. Those who have an iPhone 5 or iPad 3 seem to be unable to play it. Mike thinks that should be an easy fix, so hopefully we can get it out the door.

Our potential future work includes creating a website from the ground up, so Matt has been busy buried in all things Drupal, seems like we might have to create a custom module.

Marguerite has been chipping away at the ginormous asset list we created for the iOS game, and I am still trying to figure out how to get my hackVT Flickr search program on the web, oh a Daisy is currently asleep.

It’s just another day at the office.

 

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Hack-a-thon Part 2

On Saturday morning things got a little tense.

Matt took off at 11 the night before, marguerite left at midnight, I turned in at 1, and Mike was up until 3 in the morning. We came back in at 8 to pick up where we left off and quickly started to run into some problems.

When searching through the towns, just to view who was willing to barter, no matter how many results were stored in the database, we would only be able to view 1 of them. We ran in circles for hours trying to figure out this experience breaking bug. Even when the hack-a-thon finished the issue still persisted.

It wasn’t until the following Sunday morning Mike discovered that we had hit our limit of API calls that can be made to Google Maps within a 24 hour period…

So it was at 3 we sat down, a little defeated and frustrated at our application, to watch the other 30 groups present.

The best thing about these really tight time limits is that it there is always some really great ideas that find root. For instance: These guys created an app which allows any user to report a sighting of wildlife. The application takes in their location data and the current weather outside. This could potentially be used to track the migratory pattern of animals, or the spread of infestations, or even dangerous animal sightings. But this group went beyond that, they create their own API so that other developers could use this new dataset.

There was a downside to hackVT though, at least in my opinion. This year it was really well organized, tables had been laid out, teams were pre matched to their location, big money was at stake, and somehow it all felt wrong…

It was somehow just too slick.

For me, these kinds of experiences are like camping: you throw everything you might need in a car & go. If you leave something behind, you leave it behind and you figure out how to live without it.

HackVT didn’t feel like that, it had grown out of a grassroots livelihood and had become corporate and too big for its own shoes.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Survivors

In a little less the 24 hours, over the course of Friday/Saturday, we created not 1 new applications, but two.

The Hack-a-Thon kicked off at 6’o-clock Friday evening at the Champlain Mill in Winooski Vermont. We had come in a few hours earlier to set up our equipment and sign in. We had a great little corner in what used to be an old retail store; back in the day the mill, used to be a mall.

Instead it found itself crammed with over 100 different developers, ranging from students from nearby Champlain, St. Mikes, and UVM, to professionals. Teams were as small as 1 and as large as five.

We came in with four valid ideas that we believed fit the initial criteria: Make an app that in some way is helpful to the Vermont community and utilizes at least 1 of the data sets. Earlier that week we had been given the data sets, and it was almost too much, we could basically use anything that was available to the public.

We deliberated for about an hour, narrowing our choice down to what we ultimately called BarterVT. Just like it sounds, BarterVT would allow Vermont residents to post what they had to trade as well as what they were interested in.

Utilizing google maps posters would appear as pins. Anyone could search by city to see all available bartering opportunities available to them. You can see the finished product HERE.

There was some risk in attempting this though:

  1.  we had never done anything like it before

  2. The Google Maps API is written in Java Script. :( which is no fun, Mike told me.


The other thing was that for this project, I was basically useless. My java script skills are rusty, and Mike had been poking at Google Maps earlier in the week, so he was the most qualified to try to tackle that part. Matt was creating our database and handling the website aspect of things, the portal where users could create listings. The PHP he wrote was what passed the information gathered over to Mike to be viewed with Google Maps. Marguerite was in charge of UI, which left me out.

So I started my own project.

I wanted to create something simple, a scrollable, dynamic array of images. In order to shoehorn the concept into helping Vermont I decided to learn how to do REST api calls in AS3, and created an application that plucked images that were tagged as Vermont from the Flickr photostream. And the best part is, is that it works!

So overall, a tired, yet successful weekend at the hack-a-ton.

 

Thursday, October 18, 2012

HackVT

So tomorrow we won’t be coming in to work, because instead we will be across the street!

This year MyWebGrocer is holding the annual Vermont Hackathon, an event that brings Vermont software developers together. We will have 24 hours to create an app that will in some way help the Vermont community.

The only other stipulation is that the application must use one of the many free open data sets that have been provided. The list of them is massive, ranging from NASA to a list of Vemont Cheese makers, so basically the sky is the limit.

Final products are graded on how closely they comply with the theme (of being useful to Vermonters), innovation, presentation, user experience, and overall quality.

So we are going to give it a shot, there is a little reward for the first place product, however the event is more about getting like minded individuals together to encourage cooperation, as well as letting developers, who have all probably been working on persistent projects, to let go and be creative.

Whatever we end up creating, I’ll let you all know on Monday.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Congrats Lucas!

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare has been released!

I posted about the game a while back when it was first put up on Kickstarter and again in its last moments when it successfully cleared its funding goal.

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare began as a mod on the source engine, called Age of Chivalry. From its success Torn Banner studios was created. Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, created with the Unreal 3 engine is impressive to look at, gritty/brutal melee combat coupled with the chaos of siege engines makes for a truly unique experience.

Lucas, who graduated with us in May, went to work for them a few months ago and now emerges with a shipped title under his belt that is now available on steam. For more information, or to purchase the game head on over to Steam!

 

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

8.

I am not a big television person, in my opinion its already been eclipsed by the superior services of Hulu (ads are terrible), but yesterday I turned it on and saw for the first time a windows 8 ad.

The new OS will be arriving in less than 2 weeks now and I don’t know of anyone who is holding their breath in anticipation.

It’s actually quite the reverse, from all reports Windows 8 could be one of the biggest blunders by Microsoft since the abomination they called Vista. I jumped in on the developer preview almost sixth months ago and watched as it blue screened when I tried to install some drivers… On the upside, they had one of the best Blue Screen images I have ever seen and sincerely hope that they kept it.

Metro – The new flagship layout of all things Microsoft will be an integral feature in Windows 8. Mike has a Windows 7 phone with Metro and I can’t help but say it does have a sleek and well organized appearance. The Developer preview also came with an early layout of Metro and from my experience adding its look and feel was a poor choice.

Metro is perfect for touch interfaces with large panels (easy to tap) and sliding features (simple to drag). However in a mouse and keyboard interface, the reality is that the interface is too simple. Scrolling left to right with the mouse is unintuitive and because of the high fidelity of a normal computer monitor the panels feel as they are a waste of valuable space.

Windows 8 is not all bad. We finally get native multi-monitor support (finally), native USB 3 support, improved Task manager, etc.

But the biggest news will be the introduction of the Microsoft Store, a blatant attempt to copy iTunes, and where everything becomes controversial. Gabe Newell, President of Valve, spoke out against this feature, saying that the top tier PC/OEM’s will leave the market and that margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people.

The issue is that on the Windows RT version will only support applications that are sold directly through the windows store. Which means that only applications they approve will run on these devices, in short they are creating a monopoly on a platform, which has long been open and free for users to do what they want with.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Keep Them Coming Back

Games, like all media, demand a time commitment.

But unlike many others, games usually have a much longer lifetime. Books, depending on your reading speed, can take anywhere between a few days to a week at most and film only asks for about an hour or two of your time.

But Games, games can last anywhere between a few minutes to an endless number of hours.

For reviewer’s sake, a games length is usually determined by the time it takes to “complete” them. This “completion” point is determined usually by a story element, if there is one, ends. Yet most games have additional content that extends beyond the primary narrative arc of the game. This additional content, whether in the form of multiplayer, side quests, world completion, etc. changes the definition of completion.

A player may continue to explore and interact with the world of the game beyond its predetermined length, which is often built into the design. Games are becoming less of a product, and more of a service. Content is continually rolled out to entice players to continue their experience. The longer a player plays, the more likely it will be that they will spend additional money on said game.

And now it’s October 15th, which means according to retailers Halloween stuff was in the windows two weeks ago. And now games have jumped on the bandwagon. Guild Wars 2 will be coming out with holiday Themed Content, when Borderlands was released the Zombie Island of Doctor Zed came out during the end of October, The Festival of Blood DLC for Infamous 2, TF2 now has an annual Halloween event, and the list goes on.

The events will start up this week and into next week. I’ll post some of the best ones here.


Friday, October 12, 2012

#’s

Over the past few days I have seen some articles written in not only the gaming press, but in the normal media as well about the current NPD numbers of the industry.

Gaming Faces Its Archenemy: Financial Reality is head line for the New York Times article, I recently read through. The article goes into depth in how much sales have dropped over the course of the year and then begins to make comparisons to the famous crash of the game industry in the 80’s.

The article paints the industry to be in dire straits and on the verge of another crash; however the truth could never be farther. These numbers, as stated in the article, are purely based on retail only sales.

Game Informer just released a similar article about NPD numbers, stating the same facts the physical sales were on the decline by 20%, however they did acknowledge that if digital sales had been added, the resulting NPD numbers would have shown that game sales are on the rise.

I attended MIGS, the Montreal International Game Summit, which is a miniature version of GDC about 2 years ago when a representative of Valve gave a keynote. During his presentation he reveled the sales data for just Team Fortress 2 (TF2). The graph was unbelievable… When Super Meat Boy was released on Steam, the Super Meat team said that the game sold four times as well as it did on Xbox Live (XBLA)

I for one cannot remember the last time I bought a physical copy of a game, nor do any of my friends. With the advent of Steam and other digital distribution platforms who needs physical media anymore?

The thing is other industries have trouble accepting this fact.

As a rule of thumb, every three years is a major technology shift. The Game Industry is one of the leaders in creating new technology, so naturally it adapts to the new practices developed. Others like Film, Television, Newspaper and Print, have a lag time in adjusting to these technology changes and are suffering for it.

At the end of the day, the Game Industry is here to stay and it’s not going anywhere.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Reaching for the Sky

Yesterday, the team at Irrational put up a countdown timer. In 9 days we will finally be getting another taste of the world of Columbia in Bioshock Infinite.

For those who may not know, Bioshock came out 2007 and was heralded as one of the most ground breaking games of a decade. It took place in Rapture, a ruined underwater city where scientists, free thinkers, and geniuses of all professions could work in peace without having to be under the heel of the government.

The world, heavily influenced by the writing of Ayn Rand in her novel Atlas Shrugged, predictably falls apart and the player must find a way to survive to reach the surface.

Filled with some of the most unique art direction of its kind, a powerful story, and tight gameplay, Bioshock went on to win dozens of awards.

Four years later, the Irrational team revealed their next project: Bioshock Infinite. However, players will not be returning to the underwater city of Rapture, instead they will take on a new persona and be traveling to the floating city of Columbia.

The trailer, seen HERE, is simply amazing and promises to deliver a game that will once again rock the game industry.

Since its release in July 2011, the drip of information covering this game has dwindled to silence. A set of four videos showcasing a few enemies were released later in the year, as well as podcasts from the development team and voice actors, but throughout the entirety of 2012 there has yet to even be a whisper.

But the quiet will end! In 9 day something is happening, and the whole of the game industry will be watching.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Importance of Deadlines

Last year the four of us were working on Loc and just before school began I stumbled upon the IGF submission to student category. That became the first real, hard, deadline that we wanted to hit. Before that we had set deadlines for ourselves, but there was nothing really motivating us to buckle down to reach it. The IGF entry was exactly what we needed, an external pressure with a date we could not miss October 30th.

So while doing all the crazy work for school, the essays, the projects, etc, we worked on Loc to get it to a better playable state then what it was in. And 4 hours before October 31st we submitted.

The amount of growth that Loc underwent during that time was enormous, a huge learning experience that broadened so much of our skill set. It didn’t really matter that we didn’t win anything, because right away we learned that at that stage Loc was incomplete, and everything else we were up against was polished to a T.

And now, a year later we find ourselves working on another game and striving for another deadline. December the 15th is the last call for entrants into the Boston Indie Showcase. This year they are focusing on Mobile development, which is precisely what we are doing. Those chosen get a free table at PAX East, which is worth $1,500, along with the very good chance of media coverage.

So 1 day down, 66 more to go.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Newest Recruit!

We have added a new member to the team! Meet Daisy!

She is a sixth month old pup who is now living with Matt. She has a hard day of work, providing what my writing teacher used to call Dog Therapy, cheaper than a shrink and you end up feeling better anyway.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Indiecade

Indiecade just wrapped up. The half week event is held annually in LA and is exclusive to Independent development.

While it does not rank in as one the larger industry events it does bring together the largest group of independent developers. Open to the public it comprises a series of keynotes, activities, workshops, and hands of gameplay demos.

Like GDC, Indiecade has an official festival contest. Anyone may enter to compete for a varied array of awards. We entered, a $50 entry fee. Unfortunately, unlike GDC, Indiecade makes no distinction between student and profession which means that we were going up against the likes of Fez, Bonticula, Dyad, and other “professional” indies.

Which means that we had little chance of getting anywhere. However, they did give us actual feedback, which has never happened before in the contests we have entered! That all by itself is a great thing to get back. To have someone else, in the industry, give a critique, however short, is great. Maybe next year we will be able to pull together enough to go out and attend.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Retiree’s

Over the past few months major industry leaders have stepped down from their positions. Of those who have retired to a less hectic life, three stand out above the rest.

On September 18th  The Bioware Doctors, Ray Muzka and Greg Zeschuk each wrote a public letter, giving a farewell to not only the company, but to the industry in general.

They founded Bioware in 1995 and played a major role in creating the Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age franchises as well as managing the merging of Bioware into Electronic Arts (EA). This is the end of their long road and the two partners will be splitting off to go pursue alternate, less stressful careers, in different fields.

Just this week Cliff Bleszinski has left Epic games. He was a 20 year veteran who helped to shape Unreal Tournament and Gears of War Franchise along with making the Unreal Development Kit available for free, to help kickstart independent development.

Known as one of the loudest voices of the industry, Cliff Bleszinski had a rare talent of not only being a great programmer and designer, but of being capable of showing his face to the world. He was not afraid to be a true gamer and was one of the biggest positive forces in bringing games into the public perception.

As of this moment he has taken his “retirement” has a well deserved break, and will hopefully be returning to the industry.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Orbit Math :(

One of the biggest challenges I faced with Oribit, was the amount of math involved simply because the game is so circle oriented.

The ship’s movement code is based off a piece of code that creates orbits ala planets. Which for that purpose, it would work great. If you just hold down the left or right arrow keys, the ship orbits at a smooth, consistent rate that looks convincing.

However, I needed to break that code in order to allow changes in direction. Here is what was needed to just move left:


//Used to fix ship Twitch
if (!left)
{
angle += spaceshipSpeed + 1;
}
//Circle Math :<

var rad:Number = angle * (Math.PI / 180);

display.x = origin.x + (Math.cos(rad) * radius);
display.y = origin.y + (Math.sin(rad) * radius);

angle += spaceshipSpeed;

display.rotation = angle - 90;

left = true;


And one of the first things you might notice from playing the game is that changing direction is not perfect. The ship just doesn’t quite go to exactly where it should. The reason is when there is a change in direction the sin/cos numbers flip creating a different angle which is a massive pain. My little fix for that was the left bool, which tried to counteract it to a limited degree of success.

Getting the bullets to travel in a straight line, based on the parent object (whatever is firing the bullets) rotation. This was a key problem which was also eventually solved with math


display.rotation = parentRotation - 90;

vy += Math.sin(degreesToRadians(display.rotation)) * bulletSpeed;
vx += Math.cos(degreesToRadians(display.rotation)) * bulletSpeed;

public function degreesToRadians(degrees:Number) : Number
{
return degrees * Math.PI / 180;
}


All this was before any gameplay was actually realized.

Bullet Patterns underwent a huge overhaul after I discovered that the built-in function of Event Timers in AS3 cause problems quickly. For those who don’t understand here is an example. The Eye (The big floating thing that inexplicably tries to kill you) has 36 individual bullet spawners. When a pattern is created I tell each bullet spawner how fast it should spawn bullets and how many.

Originally the bullet spawner would set a timer based on how fast the bullets were supposed to spawn, when the timer hit 0, a bullet would then spawn. Simple right? Well, the inherit problem with timers is that different computers do those timer calculations quicker than other sometimes. This causes all sorts of scary things like patterns becoming desynced.

So the solution was to make everything dependent on the frame rate. Frame Rates are set in-game and no matter how fast a computer is, it stays consistent. Thank you Matt for showing me what real programmers do.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Orbit Postmortem

I just finished my prototype for a flash game I have been working over the past week. Originally designed for the iPhone, Orbit is a shoot-em-up, or otherwise known as a bullet hell game. As the name implies, bullets are flying everywhere. The game is top down and you control a spaceship, which constantly fires.

Your enemy is a giant HAL like eye in the center of the screen and by pressing left or right your ship moves in a circle around it. That’s it. Just dodge the bullets. You can play the full game HERE.

So why did I make it?

For the past few months I have been creating mostly puzzle games or turn based. These are all very methodical, logic/strategy oriented and I wanted to try to break away from that. So I created what is known as a twitch based game; something that players need to react too immediately, on almost a gut instinct in order to survive.

What is new about it?

Bullet Hell games have been around for a while, Ikaruga and Geometry Wars are fantastic examples of the genre. However, when you look at all of them, most of them all play in a similar fashion. The game is vertical, with enemies streaming down towards the players ship, raining bullets.

On the iPhone specifically that control set is extraordinarily difficult, as it almost requires the use of four way directional movement.

I order to create a game designed at this target platform, I chose to go with a defined circular method of movement. First, as far as I am aware it is unique, no other bullet hell game has done something like that before.

Secondly, by binding the player to the circumference of a circle they are only given two options, Go left, or Go right. Which fits perfectly with the iPhone, by pressing the left hand side of the screen, the ship rotates counterclockwise, and by pressing the right the ship rotates clockwise.

Designing the Game

Bullet Hell games are all about creating patterns and directing the player where they can go. Depending on the rate of fire, the number of rounds, and the reload time of the bullet spawners an infinite number of patterns are available, which becomes the fun part of the design process.

Over the course of the game the player is challenged by five different stages of bullet patterns that get progressively harder.

The bullet patterns are the meat of the game, but to add flavor there is a powerup system, which gives added bonus’s to the player. Double shot, rapid fire, creating a shield, are all genre standards. However, I wanted to add a bit of Galaga to the game. One of the powerups allows for a second ship to be created that is 180 degrees opposite from the player. And the way all of the bullet patterns are designed there is consistently a safe spot 180 degrees away from the player’s ship. So in theory as long as the player next makes a mistake, their firepower is doubled.

Choice has always been something I strive to give the player and at the beginning of the game they are face with 1 of three. More aggressive players can get a permanent increase to their damage, defensive players can get an increase to the number of lives at the beginning of the game, and the last option doubles the amount of powerups that drop from the eye.

The game is still a prototype, bug probably still happen (I’m not the best coder in the world), but it should be playable and beatable. If you enjoy it, or have suggestions let me know at zach@birnamwoodgames or on facebook.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

On the State of Reviews

A medium is only taken seriously when someone can make a living critiquing it.

And with the number of media outlets dedicated to gaming, I think its safe to assume the business world takes us seriously.

We have had our own, with Loc, which has had its share of reviews, both good and bad, from a huge array of different people. And they come to the game as players, as blank slates, who are not connected to the development process whatsoever, which allows them to be critical.

Resident Evil 6 came out today, and yesterday it was blasted by a score of negative reviews, calling it a monstrosity of gameplay that is attempting to reach too many audiences.

But the thing is, no one besides the development team knows what went into creating that game. There is an untold story under the surface, which could have been nightmarish. The critic’s have no idea, and only other developers could attempt to speculate and understand. But until someone at Capcom attempts to bring light to that story, no one will ever know.

And the thing is, every game is like this. It takes anywhere between 6 months to sometimes 3 years to put out a game and during that time, anything can happen. A game can be remade three times, a team could internally combust, or someone could accidentally delete an entire repository.

Yet how good a game is, is determined by those who are peering through the glass, looking in at the boiler that development is and making a judgment.

The fact that any game actually finishes production is a unsung feat and for that alone every developer deserves a round of applause, no matter how monstrous their product may seem.

Monday, October 1, 2012

World vs. World

How do you get 100 random people, of different skill levels and play styles, to cooperate in order for the greater whole to succeed? That is the question World vs. World combat asks in Guild Wars 2.

This unique player vs. player (PVP) environment pits three severs against one another in a week long territory war. Key locations on each of the four maps generate points, depending on their value, and those points slowly accumulate to grant bonuses (better health, healing, etc) to every player within the world.

Unlike most traditional pvp modes, the fact that three different servers battle for supremacy is unique. What this allows to have happen is a more balanced prolonged experience. If one particular server rises up as a dominate force, the other two band together to push it back down.

This creates a fluid tide of battle where everything can change in just a matter of hours.

So how does this system work? How do so many people cooperate?

Spontaneous Leaders rise up and utilizing a server wide chat they attempt to direct the horde of players. Everyone else can simply ignore them, go along their merry way, but the way the game type is setup that can be extraordinarily difficult because very few things can be accomplished alone. To be a positive contributing force, players need to band together.

And as a result everyone has a bit of ownership towards the current situation, and as such they become responsible for relaying any important information they gather.

The incredible thing is, is that for the most part it actually works. Siege happen on an epic scale with trebuchets knocking holes into walls, arrows raining down, supply lines getting ambushed and secured, and as whole it is one of the most memorable experiences you can have in online gaming.