ArenaNet has announced activities in Guild Wars 2, which are mini games that take place in the cities. Do you plan to reward players for activities in any way or are they just for fun?

We are currently planning on rewarding activities. As an example we are particularly using the bar brawl. If there is someone outside that is in the employ of the local dentist, he could be persuaded to give you rewards for turning in teeth that you have knocked out from people.

Do you have plans for any parlor game activities like poker, chess or something along those lines?

At the moment we don’t have any that are along those lines. We do have a really wide range of stuff that we have planned. Ranging from “one player by himself” solo games to team based games and some, which are chaotic free for all. We have a lot of different things that are coming down the line. Each home city for the different races has activities that are unique to it, so there will be a lot of different stuff for players to find.

You have mentioned snowball fights and bar brawls as examples for activities. Are these activities limited in scale or is it possible to initiate a brawl of epic proportions? Can everybody join the fun?

In terms of size or how many people are actually participating in the activity we do have it full scale up to a certain number and it casts off at that. In terms of accessibility every event is being designed so that regardless of your level you can participate on the exact same footing; from someone that is max level to someone who just started the game.

You talk about earning titles through achievements, but can players also gain bonuses by accomplishing them?

The achievements are all account based. It is really just a massive personal recognition and a player acknowledgement. The achievements kind of take your in-game activities and promote them up to an account level. You accumulate points; it doesn’t turn back into buffs.

What exactly is the difference between feats and achievements? Are they based upon each other, for example killing 10 mobs is a feat while killing 1000 mobs is an achievement?

Achievements can be done in very specific areas. While there is no “1000 mobs”-achievement, there is one for 100 centaurs or 1000 centaurs. It is a very specific thing. Feats on the other hand are done daily. They repeat and every session you log in you have a new section of feats to go through. There are four kind of feats you can do right now and we tried to make them so, that they appeal to different kind of players. There is the straight forward “count feat” where you get rewarded for the miles you hit or the amount of fighting you do every day. It is also important how many different kind of things you do and what challenges you face while running into creatures. There are some skill-based feats as well, such as how fast you kill, how many things you kill and how long of a killing streak you can do. We set them up to be valid no matter where you are playing or the kind of style you are playing, while achievements are something you do in an area before moving to the next map.

You speak of rewards for accomplishing these simple combat tasks. Could you please elaborate what exactly that means or give us an example? Are we talking about buffs?

When you accomplish a feat you get some significant bonus. What basically happens is you are awarded something from our feat rewards. In addition to the normal loot from creatures for example you may get some professional loot, you’ll get extensive experience, some additional economy bonuses and that kind of thing. It is a direct reward and not so much about additional fighting.

Your intention for the feats system was for casual players to keep up with hardcore players. Why do you think that this is important? Shouldn’t the best and most dedicated players be able to shine above the rest?

I think they still will. We recognize that casual players are never going to fully keep up in any kind of progress system. The hardcore players will of course find more efficient ways to use the feats as well, but as getting higher each day in your feat level becomes harder and harder to do, it gives casual players a boost of XP early on to keep up. The person who plays really deep into the game has to find other ways to continue to keep up pace.

You have revealed a quick and easy to use travel system. Does that mean that mounts won’t make it into the game?

We are not really ready to talk about mounts right now.

Okay. You speak about a small fee for using the waypoints. Does the amount we have to pay correspond to the distance or is it fixed?

This is something we are still balancing. Well, we actually have both. For example in the cities the amount is fixed. Once you are in a city you can travel anywhere within that city for free. Over longer distances there is some range based price to it.

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