Hello, fellow Tyrians!
Today we're going to kick off conversations around one of the hottest topics we've seen being discussed across the Guild Wars® community since the announcement of the game. It’s time to talk about playable species in Guild Wars 3. Note: While we’ve previously used the term ‘playable races’ for Guild Wars 2®, over time we felt that it didn’t accurately describe the biological differences between the peoples of Tyria, so we’ll be using ‘playable species’ for Guild Wars 3 going forward.
How Many Playable Species for Launch in Guild Wars 3?
All right, with the setup done, let's begin by confirming one detail: Guild Wars 3 will launch with four different playable species. Two of these species will be ones you've been able to play in previous Guild Wars games: humans and asura. The third is a species you've met before that will be playable for the first time—our awesome bear people, the kodan. The fourth is a new species whose story connects deeply to Orr's past but has been lost to history. You'll have to wait to find out more about them in the future.
Starting next week, we'll tell you more about the lore of each species and what makes them unique in Orr during our timeline in upcoming blogs penned by members of our studio's narrative team.
Different Approaches for Different Games
In Guild Wars Reforged, we focused on the story of humanity, starting in Ascalon and later expanding to allow players to create human characters from Cantha and Elona. The game and the stories it told were human focused, and so the roster of playable species was never expanded beyond humans.
In Guild Wars 2, we introduced five different playable species: humans, asura, norn, charr, and sylvari. The species were built with bespoke personal stories, environments, cities, animations, and cosmetic options. This investment helped make each species feel distinct and aligned with our high-level story theme of Tyria's species being separated at first but having to band together to succeed.
It also established a scope and quality bar that made adding another species a major cross-disciplinary undertaking. Meeting that same quality bar for an additional species would require substantial work across narrative, world art, animation, character art, and other systems. This has made adding new species incredibly difficult to prioritize alongside the other content and features we continue to build for Guild Wars 2.
For Guild Wars 3, we're once again focusing on picking the playable species for launch that best align with the stories and themes of the game. The four species you'll be able to play as are central to the story, cultures, and conflicts we'll explore in Orr at launch. Our focus is on making each of them feel deeply rooted in the world.
You'll note I said four playable species at the launch of the game. This wording is very important, as we're taking a different approach to building playable characters for Guild Wars 3 in order to support expanded options in the future.
Designing for Future Flexibility
To help tell the stories we want to tell in Guild Wars 3, we are approaching development from the beginning with the goal of adding more playable species in the future. The story of the game for launch is a unified one, with all our player characters operating under the Vaelwarden banner across the vast wilderness and pockets of civilization in Orr.
On the technical side, everything about how we build playable species—including animation systems, rigs, and clothing—is being carefully examined to ensure the systems can be expanded. We are establishing shared technical foundations and deliberate constraints that make it easier to extend armor, clothing, and animation support to additional species.
This means that if a species you are eager to play isn't in Guild Wars 3 at launch, there is always a chance we might add them in the future. The only exception would be a species with an extreme body silhouette that would require extensive, unique custom support that can't leverage the systems we've built. For example, playable Forgotten, with their four arms and serpentine body, are not a viable option. (Apologies to the community member who proposed that one recently!)
Play What You Love
While evaluating lessons from playable species in MMOs and deciding how to approach them in Guild Wars 3, we identified one additional area we will take a firm stance on up front. We are carrying forward a principle that has been important in Guild Wars 2: the species you choose should express your character's identity and fantasy, not determine the most powerful way to play.
There will be no statistical or mechanical differences between different playable species. We don't want players to feel they have to choose a specific character model to get a certain power advantage for their characters, and we'd rather you just play what you love.
We realize many RPGs approach this differently and it works great for them, but we feel like for Guild Wars, this is the right approach for us.
Looking Ahead
So, that's our kickoff for playable species in Guild Wars 3 and the approach we'll be taking at launch and beyond. We're really excited for you to meet the species you'll be able to play at launch, and we're just as excited to explore the opportunity to introduce new options to the game in the future.
Next week, you'll hear from our Narrative team, who will be introducing the first of our four playable species and telling you more about what makes them unique and different in the timeline and setting of our game world.
Until next time, may the Six watch over you.
—Colin