Guild Wars 2: Finding
Our Voice
Speakers: Angel Leigh McCoy (ArenaNet), Bobby Stein
(ArenaNet)
--
Team worked in the shadow of Guild Wars 1
1)
Processes/Lora and Legacy
2)
2 writing teams
a.
Lore and Continuity -> dungeons, personal story,
and cinematics
b.
Writing -> dynamic events and ambient voices
(crowd chatter)
The Voice of the Game
1)
Evolving voice
a.
Evaluate past work and seek improvement
2)
Be concise
a.
Quality vs. Quantity
3)
Breaking bad habits
a.
Reduce rampant capitalization from the first
game
b.
Improve punctuation and sentence support
structures
Writing Team Goals
1)
Make the world feel alive
a.
Use ambient scenes and dynamic events
2)
Naturalize dialogue for the characters speaking
it
a.
Ex: Speak pirate if a pirate
3)
Get out of player’s way
4)
Provide optional lore via dialogue trees
‘Added Complexity’ in Giving Voice
1)
Text objects
a.
Painterly cinematics
b.
Barks/chatter
c.
Branching conversations
d.
Head-to-head conversations
2)
Lore and continuity challenges
a.
Lore documentation going through a single point
b.
Lore Masters writing ahead of gameplay
development
Ambient Story via Scenes
1)
Goals:
a.
Impart lore to any player
b.
Tell short stories
c.
Establish characters
d.
Reward exploration
2)
Challenges:
a.
Can’t rely on player to see an entire scene
b.
Free form nature can lead to bad writing
Writing Alongside Designers
1)
Dynamic event team handles:
a.
Living world, spontaneous events, local/regional
stories, and event chains
2)
Challenge:
a.
Character development, unavoidable player
confusion
Iteration -> Lots of rebuilding makes the game better,
but lots of lost work, and squeezed for time a lot
Lessons Learned
1)
Writer/designer relationship is very important
2)
Assign areas of responsibility through expertise
3)
Keep a writer on the character story team
4)
How to fail saving money
a.
Use generic voice-overs for specific characters
b.
Writing way ahead of designers
What Worked
1)
Whole ambient scenes are completed first
a.
Sets the feel of the location
2)
Maintaining the lore wiki
3)
Use writers and editors on the same team
4)
Create and encourage experts with specific
expertise
5)
Have table reads
a.
If it is not read as intended, rewrite it
6)
Combine writing and lore teams
7)
Have a new team to handle final copy edits
8)
Keep a record after the design lockdown
9)
Scripts need good notes for context
10)
Constrain voice-over budget across multiple content
lines
11)
Plan ahead what generic lines are needed
(Questions)
What is the relationship of designer and writer?
Define
the options of what is wanted to be done.
Mechanics drive events.
Had a 5:1
designer to writer ratio.
How are ambient scenes triggered?
They
may be run whenever; for example, on a timer.
They are defined based on NPC interactions.
