Si Chuan Sheng-3000

Si Chuan Sheng-3000 and Hong Kong Magic System are the two virtual gaming communities which had more than a million viewers on Facebook on the day Si Chuan entered its third birthday. The pair's virtual communities began November 20, 1998 with the virtual online gaming community. Since the "beginning of the week" process, many MMO gamers have gathered around a home console or laptop, and online games like EverQuest, Ultima Online, and Unreal Tournament have helped boost their virtual players.

But the real world has seen a number of additions in recent years, most notably the Si Chuan Virtual worlds, which are filled with imaginative characters and environments. The latest example is Si Chuan's Virtual World servers, which offer a combined 24,000 people and new content to catch in the real world. The servers also feature over 15,000 testers.

While the virtual worlds weren't quite the most talked about place on the Internet, they have grown over time, creating huge communities around them. CNC stated that the "8,000+ players" logged on over the last five months were most interested in playing Si Chuan. The company is currently promoting a collaboration with the gaming community on the Web, which will give CNC the exclusive rights to make Si Chuan-based games in addition to existing non-game publications like GameSpot.

A big change is coming to the Web that was introduced in Si Chuan II, and this one is a massive improvement. In the past, CNC has hosted multiple projects with close to 1,000 people. As part of this team effort, they have found a way to accelerate server usage. But unlike in other Web sites, there is a lot of data to show you what the results are. It is not a 100 percent functional world yet. And while that might sound overwhelming, the reality is that the information is accurate, so there will be "approximately 500" of them.

At the same time, they hope to reduce the amount of data they will be monitoring and updating. That would reduce the amount of time needed to actually check the databases.

GS: What are some of the changes in the upcoming expansion pack?

PC: We're doing a two-part "Japan-Novel-style" quest and an enhancement patch that will be released in May. It is titled "The Guild of Forces." It will be available for all users in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.

The other major change is that the expansion pack will include six new single-player scenarios. Also, it will have new items and content that will require a new method of dealing with online components, so the areas that won't be available at launch will be covered.

GS: How will the new scenarios be added to the game?

PC: The Guild of Forces will be available for all players in English, French, German, Italian, and Russian. We are adding a lot of content to the game, including a new five-level story.

GS: What about the Xbox Live support?

PC: We've created a seamless-to-join service in Guild Wars 2 that allows you to play together with friends in certain online game modes. Since it is free, it is relatively easy to play online in ArenaNet's multiplayer games, and a handful of multiplayer games require a subscription for things like competitive gameplay. Guild Wars 2 for Xbox Live has expanded our support for the Xbox Live service.

GS: Can you talk about the new characters or new creatures, and whether the existing races will be ported to the game?

PC: Yes, all the existing characters and creatures will be playable in ArenaNet's game.

GS: We understand that the game will ship in the second half of 2010. How did you get the keys to the Necromancer class?

PC: In the original Guild Wars, players went through six basic game modes: single-player, competitive, endurance, time attack, battle arena, and sandbox. But in Guild Wars 2, every of these modes, like Team Deathmatch, Tower, and the new fatigue option, are completely original. And even though it's much more challenging to play against other players, as well as to meet other players, we believe that Guild Wars 2 will be an awesome new addition to the RPG genre. We have enjoyed listening to feedback from the gaming community and will continue to work on the game as a service as well as to make it a special product for fans and newcomers alike.

GS: How does Guild Wars 2's art direction hold up? Will it retain the MMO genre that Guild Wars was originally known for?

PC: That's a very important question, because we're going to look at the art direction very carefully. For instance, what if we moved away from the visceral, super-realistic style of gameplay from ArenaNet's previous games and had more abstract, realistic graphics, like we had in those games?