Guild Wars 2 API opened up to community
Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet has opened up the game's API to the community, which will allow players to create their own tools, mobile apps and bolt-ons for the MMO moving forward.
PCGamesN reports that the opening up of Guild Wars 2's code will help spark creativity and input from the community. According to the team, its code is so versatile that users can even make their own iOS and Android apps for all sorts of purposes.
In a statement, lead content designer Mike Zadorojny said, "We have a team working on exposing some of the code to the player base. We have APIs the players can tie into. The fans are already working on a Google Maps for Tyria that lets you zoom in and see what’s going on at the individual map level.
"We’ve exposed what events are running and where they’re running too, so say you’re on Metrica Province, you’ll be able to determine what events are on right now and where they are at that location. If you want to know the current World versus World status and who owns what towers and keeps, all that information is being exposed. We’re going to keep adding new features and exposing more code."
ArenaNet hopes to use player interaction triggered by the API floodgates in its content updates moving forward. The company is now looking to update the game with new content every two weeks, so it may use this to alleviate some of the workload.
Zadorojny continued, "When we originally did the dynamic event system we were thinking about how we could take the traditional quest and make it more co-operative, more enjoyable, to have it have more of an impact on the world. As we launched the game and we started supporting it we realised we could take it one step further.
"Now we're seriously looking at how the world changes based on player interaction. That’s why we’ve been moving towards this more frequent build structure. We’ve got four teams building content that will be coming out every two weeks, because we want to create a true living world that reacts to what the players are doing as much as possible.
"That’s kind of been the holy grail for MMOs. If you can have enough engaging content, you keep the player excited and challenged. They’re always going to have something new every time they log in. That’s really the impetus behind what we’re doing."
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