Well it looks like Guild Wars gets dynamic content. Something I’ve been talking about forever. He explains what needs to happen in an MMOG to push it to “the next level”. I’m not going to sit around and quote a bunch of things because it mirrors my last article on the subject. So take a few minutes and read what Colin Johanson, Lead Content Designer of Guild Wars 2, has to say on the subject. Looks like he agrees with me or more likely, I agree with him!

Oh and here are some screens.

[View with PicLens]

If you’ve been watching the internets and you like MMORPGs you might of noticed a few new games that stopped being quiet and started talking. Those two games are Guild Wars 2 and Rift: Planes of Telara. We don’t know much about either game yet. We’ve gotten a few descriptions about lore and combat and other things, but the two things the PR-speak for both games has in common are “Dynamic Content”. What is dynamic content and are we ready for it?

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MMO-Champion’s got a ton of screenshots up from the Friends and Family testing that started recently. There are some great shots and the additional textures bring the old world up to WOTLK standards.

Also through the link is some preliminary data-mining of some of the professions and stuff.

My Favorite is the redone Stormwind. No more visual tricks.

If you recall, not to long ago, Black Prophecy announced that it will become a free to play title. Now Closed Beta will be beginning.

From a recent Press Release:

Hamburg (April 30, 2010) – It’s the moment players have all been waiting for. gamigo and Reakktor Media have given the green light for closed beta testing of the space action MMOG “Black Prophecy”. The virtual universe is now open to a select crew of daring pilots looking to join the Genide or Tyi factions.

In the past few weeks, the Reakktor team has been working very hard to get “Black Prophecy” ready go to into beta testing. The focus during the first phase of testing will be on server and program stability. For that reason, only a small group of about 100 players will have access to the game server. More fighter pilots will be recruited in time.

Registration for beta testing remains open at http://www.blackprophecy.com

Here is the first Developer Diary for Rift: Planes of Telara, featuring Scott Hartsman, Simon Ffinch, and Darren Pattenden.

As mentioned yesterday, Guild Wars 2 will be releasing information over time about their game. Today Lead Designer, Eric Flannum, describesd how combat will work in Guild Wars 2.

We want combat in Guild Wars 2 to really be visually appealing. We want you to be able to identify the skills being used at a glance and also have a good idea of what that skill is doing. Does a skill have an area of effect? Is it doing damage? What type of damage? Our goal is to design skills that are visually unique and explain them without overly complex skill descriptions. This has resulted in a lot of distinct and impressive skill effects in the game. Even a simple skill like fireball explodes in such a way that you can clearly see the area that they will affect. Beyond your typical fireballs and lightning bolts, you’ll see skills that create giant crushing stone hands, turn their users into massive tornadoes, and summon flocks of vicious birds of prey (a particular favorite skill of many people after they see it in action).

The skill system described here will be a lot like the first Guild Wars.

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