There’s something brewing in the Eternal Battlegrounds. ArenaNet have just unveiled their plans to kick some life into Guild Wars 2’s never-ending triple threat: World vs World Seasons. Each region will be split up into multiple leagues, where they will face each and every world in that league. It’s a chance to find out which world really is the best of them all. The winners will receive cool loot too, such as unique WvW finishers. If you want to know what it takes to attain glory and riches for your world, read on, fellow warrior.
Starting October 4th, and running through to November 21st, ArenaNet are going to create four leagues in North America and three leagues in Europe. These leagues will be made up of different worlds based on their current rating. For example, Europe has 27 worlds, so three leagues of nine: the top nine, middle nine and bottom nine.
Each and every world in a league will face every other world in the same league over the seven week period. Within this time there will be weekly rewards, culminating in a end of season reward for each world that tops their respective league. An example reward was a trophy styled finisher unique to those who win their leagues.
The main reason ArenaNet have chosen to do this is to make it easier for each world to fight for their own world pride:
“We’re hoping that this will introduce some variety to World vs World” said Devon Carver, the coordinator of the WvW team. “It’s also about a variety in match-ups, which have been pretty static at the moment. The Seasons update will give each and every world a chance to fight every other world and get a real sense at where they stand.”
Also of note is how ArenaNet will handle WvW updates during the league. As soon as the season is underway, there will be a halt on all WvW content updates to make sure things are fair for the duration. After the season is over, ArenaNet will dump a big meaty update.
World vs World Seasons looks like to be just what Guild Wars 2 players needs to really be rewarded for their hard work on the battlefield. Then again, I don’t see the there being any surprise winners in each league. There’s a reason we have the same three worlds in each region at the top: they have the biggest population, the most WvW centric guilds, and usually the most experience.
Right now worlds fight for their position on the leaderboards, but that’s about it. There’s no substantial incentive to keep fighting apart from keeping a numerical value from decreasing. Seasons is a step in the right direction, but it’s only going to last for seven weeks. Players want rewards, on a regular basis, permanently.
If it’s a success, we could even see this becoming a regular event. Until then, you’ve all got just over a month to nail down your teamwork and strategies to assert your dominance in the battles ahead.