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自3月11日《激战2》开启测试以来,疑似国服VIP系统的皇家爵位的出现在玩家中引起了广泛讨论。第一时间与ArenaNet取得联系,并采访了公司CEO

Mike O’Brien,这是《激战2》官方第一次正面回应“皇家爵位”系统,他强调皇家爵位绝非中国玩家概念上的VIP,不限号的试玩也即将到来。

ArenaNet

CEO Mike O’Brien

专访要点汇总:

·皇家爵位绝不是中国玩家认为的VIP

·即将开放全体玩家无门槛进入游戏

·国服和外服染料系统差异较大,国服染料账号绑定更便利

·等级解锁武器技能是个更好的系统

·所说的版本同步,是指保证玩家能体验到每一次新的世界动态章节和新功能

·允许版本间有所差异,是因为在中国适用的改动不一定会适用于美服和欧服

·国服版本玩家也可以2级就参与到WVW

皇室爵位”绝非花钱称霸 不能等同于VIP

:空中网此前称游戏中不会出现VIP,但国服中“皇家爵位”功能争议巨大,玩家普遍认为这就是VIP系统,作为研发方你们怎么看这种情况?

Mike:作为研发方,对于出售什么物品和服务,我们十分重视并坚守标准。玩家花钱购买外形道具来装扮自己,或者购买账号服务来节省时间以获得一些便利,我们认为这些都是合理的。但是,如果购买了游戏,却不能通过额外消费来丰富自己的游戏体验,这才是不合理的。并且单纯只靠消费就能够比那些在游戏中投入更多时间的玩家更加优越,这也不合理。

这些是我们的原则,我们相信《激战2》的“皇室爵位”系统绝非“花钱称霸”的系统,它绝不是中国玩家认为的那种VIP。它本质是一个忠诚度系统:爵位系统中基本所有功能都是商城中原有物品的整合,这些只是提供便利的内容,并非“更优越的能力”。游戏里绝不会有“花钱称霸”的内容

。

备受国服玩家争议的“皇家爵位”

:那么爵位系统在《激战2》究竟有什么样的作用?

Mike:《激战2》中的黑狮商城道具是大多是一些虚拟服装等不破坏平衡性的物品,而爵位系统中基本所有功能都是商城中原有物品的整合,只是相当于增加了一项打包优惠的功能。

我知道,现在很多游戏里都在大肆出售道具,所以玩家会怀疑《激战2》里也会有这样的情况。我不会请求你们相信我的话,只请你们自己到游戏里去看。我们和空中网经过商议,即将将开放全体玩家无门槛的游戏进入,希望在游戏里和大家见面:)。(采访/

Chris)

国服爵位(左)和部分美服商城道具(右)对比A社认为爵位是商城原有物品整合,不影响游戏平衡

下一页:国服染料账号绑定和外服差异大

国服染料账号绑定和外服差异大

:国服染料需要鉴定器,而美服染料不用鉴定,商城有出售染料包,为什么会做出这样的改变?

Mike:染料系统国服和外服确实差异较大,事实上,外服玩家要从宝石商店购买染料包,在中国,玩家购买的是鉴定器,无论采取哪种方式,你总需要先进行购买。虽然国服染料需要鉴定,但国服染料是账号绑定的,玩家只需要收集一次染料,同账号内所有人物都能使用。而美服和欧服却不行,他们的玩家一直都在要求这个功能。

爵位系统赠送每日礼包,可以开出金币、染料鉴定器等

17713:那为什么外服能通过打怪的方式获取染料,而国服却不行?

Mike:这和国服染料账号绑定有关,染料账号绑定让国服玩家收集的更便捷,同时也意味着染料需求会减少,所以我们相应减少了染料供应,因此国服染料主要是通过制作和宝石商店的道具开启。

国服染料需要鉴定器,而美服染料不用鉴定

下一页:A社对于武器技能、技能点以及WVW等改动的回应

A社对于武器技能、技能点以及WVW等改动的回应

:《激战2》国服这次免费测试,玩家发现国服和美服存在一些不同的地方,从研发商的角度来看,相较于美服,国服有哪些不同的改动?

Mike:中国服务器的改动主要是在新手引导方面。《激战2》是一个非常庞大的世界,在美服中我们的做法是让玩家自己去自由探索。

但是在中国,我们发现许多中国玩家是第一次接触到《激战2》这样类型的游戏,有很大一部分玩家不知道该怎么体验游戏。所以我们做出了相应的一些微调,比如说,武器技能、技能点、跳跳乐等都是跟随着玩家等级解锁。

武器技能美服采取熟练度解锁,而国服必需达到一定等级

:《激战2》国服与美服有很多不同。比如美服通过战斗打怪解锁武器技能;而国服通过等级解锁,为什么会这样设置?

Mike:我们认为通过等级解锁武器技能是个更好的系统——更简单,让玩家有更多时间学习他们的第一个武器,在此之后,当他们在游戏中找到其他新武器类型时,所有的技能都已经解锁了。

对这个问题可以总体解释为:我们所说的版本同步,中心思想是为了保证玩家能体验到每一次新的世界动态章节和新功能,而这些我们会在同一时间在各个地区同时发布。因此,每个地区共享共同的核心系统非常重要,这样我们发布的新内容在世界各地才能同步运作。

回到武器技能解锁这个例子上,无论玩家是通过战斗解锁还是升级解锁,这都不会影响到玩家在世界动态或新功能中的体验。无论是何种方式,技能都会解锁。我们为中国做的这项改动,是因为我们认为这适合中国,然后我们还有很多时间来决定我们是否也会把这项改动做到美服和欧服上去。

而在有些时候我们允许版本间有所差异,是因为在中国适用的改动不一定会适用于美服和欧服。我举个例子:在《激战2》中,每个服务器都有许多公会;在美服和欧服,不同服务器的公会成员为公会获取或花费影响力时是分开计算的;而在国服版本中,公会的影响力是集中计算的,在不同服务器的公会成员都能享受到公会用影响力购买的升级。很明显,国服的系统更好,但是要把这个系统做回到美服和欧服中就很困难了,因为各个公会已经在不同服务器有了不同的解锁选项。

有些时候我们并不能让美服和国服有一点点差异,尤其那可能会影响到全球同步发布新的世界动态和新功能。举例来说:在美服和欧服上线时,世界之战的排队时间很长,随着时间推移,世界之战只会越来越受欢迎,因此我们预计在国服也有很长的排队时间。我们的当务之急就是在国服上线之前要修复好世界之战的排队问题。但我们不能接受在这个问题上有版本差异,所以我们确保了在国服上线前就在所有地区首先发布了新的世界之战地图——迷雾边界。

:除上述问题外,还有如参与WVW,美服新手任务后(2级)就可以通过图标直接进入战场。国服却要达到35级之后才能参与WVW,并且还没有图标直接传送,要靠自己跑路进去,为什么这样设置?

Mike:同样的在中国版本中,玩家仍然可以在2级时就进入世界之战。其实我们觉得这样的游戏体验并不理想,但高端玩家还是有方式选择自己的游玩方式。

你可以看到我们在巅峰体验中做出了一些系统调整。现在的机制是这样的:账号上至少一个人物到达35级,或者账号上至少一个人物的世界之战等级提升一级,只有满足两个条件之一,世界之战的按钮才会显示。所以,如果你想尽早进入世界之战,你只需在2级时使用阿苏拉星门进入世界之战,提升一级,这样你所有的人物就都可以看到世界之战的按钮。

下一页:采访Mike O’Brien(附英文全文)

:During the China CBT3, players found that there are some differences

with the US version. From developers view, what changes and differences of GW2

China version in your opinion网页传奇pared to the west version?

Mike O’Brien, president and co-founder, ArenaNet: The largest set of

improvements we made was to the new player experience. We used our experience

launching the game in NA/EU to identify what players found confusing as they

joined GW2, and made sure to fix those things before launching in China.

In the NA/EU launch version, the game only properly introduced a few

systems, but mostly it provided everything with no introduction at levels one

and two: downed state, profession abilities, off-hand weapons, underwater,

crafting, gathering, map网页传奇pletion, fast travel, banking, trading post, PvP,

and WvW. In the China version we spread out more of these so we could provide a

proper introduction of each. Note though that advanced players can still skip

ahead: they can work on various aspects of map网页传奇pletion, travel with Asura

Gates, and join PvP or WvW, before the level at which these features are

introduced.

In the NA/EU launch version, the game introduced a new personal story step

every few levels, so after网页传奇pleting each story step the player was expected to

do some leveling up before attempting the next. In the China version story steps

are grouped together so that players can网页传奇plete an entire section of the story

at once.

In the NA/EU launch version, the game provided a skill point, a trait

point, and some attribute points on each level up. These were very incremental

changes that were difficult to notice or appreciate. In the China version the

game provides rewards in bigger batches so that players can immediately notice

and appreciate the difference. For example, one level you get five skill points

at once, another level you get a big boost to your attributes.

In addition to improving the new player experience, we also made changes

that we think are right for the long-term play experience. The biggest of those

must be the change to the dye system. In the NA/EU launch version dyes were

character unlocks, whereas in the China version they're account unlocks. With

this new system you only need to collect a dye once and you can use it on any

character. This is more convenient, but it means demand for dye will go down, so

we're also reducing supply. Dye unlocks now网页传奇e only from crafting and from the

gem store.

Actually NA/EU players have been asking for dyes to be account unlocks for

a long time and we'll want to make essentially this same change for NA/EU. The

differences will be in phrasing. In the NA/EU version players purchase dye packs

from the gem store; in China players purchase dye identifiers from the gem

store. Either way you purchase something and it gives you random dye,

permanently unlocked for all characters on your account.

Getting back to the question, I have provided a sampling of changes we made

for the China version but this list is by no means exhaustive. A lot of our work

went into changes that seem detailed or hard to notice, but to us, those details

matter a lot. We re-implemented every hint in the game. We made the game teach

itself and removed the old ineffective help system. We added a content direction

system so that the game always points you to something you can do next. We even

made behind-the-scenes changes, like changing the way the game stores its data

on disk, and rewriting critical back-end servers to prepare for launch

capacity.

:GW2 China announced will sync with the global version previously but

we found actually there are a lot things that do not synchronized. For instance,

in the US version, the weapon skills unlock by battles but in China server this

is by level. What is the reason here?

Mike O’Brien: We think that unlocking weapon skills by level is a better

system. It's simpler, it gives players more time to learn their first weapon,

and then it means that they have all skills unlocked immediately when they find

new weapon types later in the game.

To answer your question more generally, when we talk about keeping the

versions synchronized, our core concern is to ensure that players can experience

every new Living World episode and every new Feature Pack when we release them

at about the same time in each territory. Thus it's important to us that the

territories shares网页传奇mon core systems so that new content we introduce works

the same everywhere in the world.

Going back to the example of weapon skill unlocks, it doesn't particularly

matter to a player's enjoyment of Living World episodes or of a new Feature Pack

release whether he had originally unlocked his weapon skills through网页传奇bat or

through leveling. Either way, the skills are unlocked. So we made that change

for China because we think it's right for China, and we have plenty of time to

decide later whether we should bring that change back to NA/EU too.

In some cases we have allowed the versions to diverge because there's a

change we can make for China that would be very difficult to bring back to

NA/EU. I'll give an example. In GW2, guilds can exist across multiple worlds. In

the NA/EU version, guilds earn influence separately and spend it separately on

each world that their members play on. In the China version, guilds have a

single pool of influence, and the upgrades they purchase with influence benefit

members on all worlds. Obviously the China system is better, but it's not easy

to take a system like that back to NA/EU where guilds already have different

unlocks on different worlds.

In some cases we couldn't allow even a temporary divergence without

threatening our ability to ship new Living World releases and Feature Packs

globally. I'll give an example. At launch in NA/EU we had long queue times for

WvW, and WvW is only getting more popular over time, so we expected very long

queue times in China. It was important for us to fix the WvW queuing situation

before launching in China. But this was not something we could allow to diverge,

so we ensured that we released the new WvW map, Edge of the Mists, in all

territories prior to the launch in China.

Keep in mind, we'll be releasing a Feature Pack after CBT3 but before the

launch of the game in China, so you'll see more of that type of global change

then.

:Besides the above questions, others like WvW, in the US server, a new

player can directly enter WvW at level 2 through the WvW icon; but on China

Server this needs level 35 without WvW icon and playeres have to run in it.

What’s your consideration here?

Mike O’Brien: In China also, players can enter WvW at level 2. We don't

think that's a very good experience, but it's there for advanced players.

You're seeing a partially implemented system in CBT3. Here's how it will

work: the WvW button will appear at level 35 or when any character on your

account has earned a single rank in WvW. So if you want early access, you can

use an Asura gate to travel there at level 2, earn a single rank, and all of

your characters will get the WvW button.

:KongZhong once said there will be no VIP system in game, but in the

CBT3 that the Royal Title system caused big controversy here as players

basically regard this indeed is the VIP system. As a GW2 developer, how do you

think about the situation here?

Mike O’Brien: As developers, the important thing to us is that we hold true

to our standards of what should be and what shouldn't be purchasable. You may

have read my 2012 blog post on this subject. For those of you who haven't, I'll

summarize. We think it's right that players can spend money on items to provide

visual distinction or customization, and can spend money on account services and

time-saving conveniences. We think it's right that players can trade gems for

gold and vice-versa, such that players can keep up with other players and be on

a level playing field, whether they use their time or money to do so. But we

think it's never ok for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they

paid for without additional purchases. And we think it's never ok for players

who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.

These are our guiding principles. They're obviously different from what you

see other developers doing. Particularly in China it seems网页传奇mon for games to

have VIP systems that make characters more powerful than they could ever be

without VIP. That's not a level playing field; that's "pay to win".

We believe the royal title system in GW2 is absolutely not a “pay to win”

system. It certainly is a loyalty system: it gives you a reusable package of

convenience items, plus gifts, plus discounts on everything else in the gem

store, and the more you play the game the more convenience items you get. But

the things it gives you are almost all things you could purchase with gems

anyway. And they're convenience items, not power. There's no "pay to win"

here.

I know that players everywhere are skeptical of microtransactions after

having seen them abused in other games. So I wouldn't ask you to take my word

for it; I ask you to see for yourself. In talks with KongZhong we've decided to

expand CBT3 and allow players to experience the game soon without a CD key. I

hope to see you there.

下一页:更多《激战2》截图欣赏

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