We were invited along with our colleagues from Mondes Persistants and GuildMag to a fansite meeting scheduled at the last minute. As we didn't know it was an interview of Jeff Grubb and Colin Johanson, we came in empty handed of questions and had to improvise a few of them. Besides this, consider that we recently did a long interview with ArenaNet and another one with Chris Lye just the day before, it wasn't easy to think fast of good questions to ask. Sorry about that, and we want to thank Jeff and Colin who were absoluty great!

Univers Virtuels: Since the first GW2 fan videos have been released, there has been a huge buzz about energy potions. Can you explain the new energy system so that players can have a more detailed idea of how energy potions will become a new part of Guild Wars 2’s gameplay?

Colin : (smiles) Okay. So first off, let me say that it’s really exciting that the biggest thing that people are worried about in the game is energy potions.

Jeff : Yeah. (laughs)

Colin : It means that all the other major systems in the game, all of the key things that we consider to be the innovations in Guild Wars 2 are being well received. For the most part, people feel that we accomplished those things, and that we’re doing what we said we wanted to do. So we’re really excited about that. We believe that we did it, but we needed the fans to tell us about their concerns too. So, the fans getting upset about potions, somewhere, it’s great because the biggest problem in our game is a really easy one to deal with.

As for the potions themselves, I think what we are going to do is more evaluate all the feedback the players give and more evaluate the game as it plays. Then we’ll make a decision on any system that doesn’t make it a better game. And if it isn’t something that we will have in there, then we will continue to make it better and improve it until we’re having a better system.

And if it’s something that takes away from the game, it’s a system we will remove. At this time, all we want is to sit down and talk about energy potions a little bit based on the feedback. Then we’ll see where it goes from here.

Univers Virtuels : We already know that Rangers are able to put traps. Will they also be able to disarm enemy ones?

Colin : That’s something that currently isn’t implemented in the game. However, in the future it’s something that may be. We’re not going to talk about disarming traps at this time, but you can check out the Ranger profession and see the ability to put down the traps in the demo.

Univers Virtuels : My next question is about the link between Guild Wars 2 and Ghosts of Ascalon – which is a great book by the way (Jeff laughs and says thanks you). Aside from main lore characters like Logan, will we see things and characters in the game the way they are described in the book?

Jeff : The book and the game were written very closely together. As the game continues to evolve, lots of parts and characters from the book do appear in the game. If you go into Divinity’s Reach, in the Seraph headquarters, you run into Lieutenant Groban, who’s a minor character in the book. He’s the one who basically interrogates Dougal Keane in the early chapters. And there he is. You cannot find Dougal in the game yet, but that’s not to say he won’t appear. Almorra, the leader of the Vigil: she’s there. So basic characters, large and small, will be in there, connected within the book and the game.

Plus, you got characters in the game showing up in the books. We talked about Logan, we talked about references from characters from Guild Wars 1. Their legends exist in the book.

Univers Virtuels : The map that is shown in the demo looks like it is shorter from of one of Prophecies+GWEN. I’m not talking about the quantity of content of course, but it looks like some areas we know from Prophecies are partly cut off. Is it only for the demo or will the map stay the way it is?

Colin : We’re still trying to determine just how big this game is going to be, and how much of the world will be available to players. We can’t say for sure that this is the final world. It may be larger. We will have to figure that out as we go further into development. We know that there are a lot of places that people really love from GW1, and they want to go back and see what happened to them. Even if these locations are not included on the initial release of Guild Wars 2, it’s certainly something that we will look at: going back to these places in the future, after the initial release. So people can see the places that they love and see what happened to them.

Jeff : We’re full of legacy sites and when we’re doing the maps and the zones, we think : “What was here 250 years ago? Will it still be here?” In the Brand map, you see the Great northern wall. You see the ruins of Serenity temple. (looking at Colin : ) I don’t know if anybody has met with Shiva’s ghost yet?

Colin : I’m not sure about that.

Jeff : So there is a legacy. 250 years have passed and things change. New cities and new towns grow up. So not everything that is into GW1 will be coming over to Guild Wars 2. We’re choosing from the rule of cool. Now as far as size is concerned, the original Prophecies was a big chunk of land. And we have a big chunk of land here.

Colin : This is a much larger game than the original GW Prophecies.

Univers Virtuels : Alex here managed to defeat the Shatterer in the Brand. However, we saw that we can't kill that boss, it only flies away when it's defeated. Is it because it is part of a dynamic event ?

(note : the following text is not an exact transcription of what has been said, rather a summary of the answer)
Colin : Yes. We have to make cycles so that any player can enjoy the possibility to fight the Shatterer. When it is defeated, it flees and something else will take its place as another chain of this dynamic event. Eventually the Shatterer will be coming back after a series of other events.

Jeff : In your personal story however, any boss you kill will remain dead. So if you would cross that Shatterer during your personal story and defeat it, it would remain dead permanently. (laughs)

Univers Virtuels : Ghosts of Ascalon says that the Temple of the Ages is now flooded. Please, please, pleaaaase tell me that we will be able to visit it underwater!

(Colin and Jeff look at each other and laugh)

Jeff : Actually, the Temple of the ages is in the Gamescom demo. You can go there.

Colin : I’ll tell you what. Let’s go there.

(They log into the game and start showing us the Temple of the ages. You can see the video on this page)

Jeff : You probably would need to be higher level than you are right now, as you start at level 1 in the demo. We’ve got level 10 mobs roaming around in this area.

Colin : In 40 minutes (note: the maximum amount of time we can play a character in the demo) you can’t get very far in that map, but yes, the Temple of the ages is in the demo map.

Jeff : I don’t think anybody has found it yet.

Colin : It’s a little exclusive for you guys.

(When arriving at the Shadow Behemoth) Colin : There’s actually a whole event chain with that big Shadow Behemoth guy you see there. It happens throughout the entire swamp and ends in him showing up. You got a big boss at the end of this chain. So you see a lot of the story of the Temple of the ages in that event chain, how it got to this point.