Mike O’Brien | Guild Wars 2

Posts Tagged Mike O’Brien

Your Guild Wars 2 Questions Answered on Reddit

Posted 06/06/12 by CMEPTb

Latest ANet Blog just in!

As you may have heard, our next massive Beta Weekend Event kicks off on June 8 at Noon (Pacific). In advance of the Beta, ArenaNet President Mike O’Brien himself is jumping on Reddit for an Ask Me Anything session, starting at Noon (Pacific) on June 6 on the /r/gaming subreddit for three hours. Mike will also be joined by other Guild Wars 2 team members to answer your questions. Got a Guild Wars 2 question for Mike and the rest of the ArenaNet Team? Don’t be shy–they don’t call it Ask Me Anything for nothing!

The conversation is over, but you can read all of it here!

Mike O’Brien on Microtransactions

Posted 28/03/12 by Rushster

With so much coverage going on here at GWO following the Beta weekend, this almost slipped through the net. Mike O’Brien has been talking to PCGamers about the microtransacton model in Guild Wars 2 following last week’s announcement. The article/interview can be checked out on PCGamer. Here’s a quick snip:

“You know it’s not going to last”, O’Brien continues. “You see a lot of success in MMOs that don’t have monthly fees, however they monetise. Free-to-play or premium microtransactions, whatever. Now everybody’s catching onto it, and there’s going to be a lot more diversity in MMO business models. And as a gamer I’ve got to say – thank god.”

O’Brien Talks GW2 Currency and Microtransactions

Posted 21/03/12 by Rushster

Mike O’Brien posted an interesting update on the ArenaNet blog this evening detailing the game currency and the microtransaction system, an area which has not previously been discussed. Here’s some of the juice from the article.

In Guild Wars 2 we have three currencies: gold, karma, and gems. Gold is the common in-game currency. Karma, which players earn in-game but cannot trade, is used for unique rewards. And gems are the currency that’s bought and used to purchase microtransactions.

We have a new player-driven market that allows players to trade gold for gems and gems for gold. If you want something, whether it’s an in-game item or a microtransaction, you ultimately have two ways to get it: you can play to earn gold or you can use money to buy gems. We think that’s important, because it lets more players participate on a level playing field, whether they use their free time or their disposable income to do it.

MMO veterans will note the similarities of our system to EVE Online’s PLEX system. As in that case, our system takes gold trading out of the hands of real-money trading (RMT) companies and puts it directly in the hands of players.

We think that’s a great thing.

What are your thoughts on the plans?