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Ten Ton Hammer: On an individual level, how do each of these races play into the story of Guild Wars? Can you give us any details, especially on the Norn and Sylvari?

Ben: Each of the races plays an integral role in the story of GW:EN. You spend a lot of time with the Norn, Asura, and Charr in pretty equal amounts, but in ways that really serve to deepen them as cultures and societies. They all serve as valuable, and in some cases un expected allies in the various struggles and obstacles you'll encounter in GW:EN.

The Sylvari have a mysterious beginning, one that is foreshadowed in GW:EN.

The Charr were the first new race to be conceptually rendered.

Ten Ton Hammer: What sort of importance do the new races play in terms of actual gameplay in GW:EotN? Do the NPCs exist simply as quest-givers and targets, or will they have more interactive roles with the players? Could the Asura be used to create new magical weapons for the player? Or will you be able to recruit Norn NPCs to adventure with you into the depths of the multi-level dungeons?

Ben: When you get right down to it any RPG is only as good as its characters, its story, and its world. The new races are far more than just your run of the mill quest giving NPCs. Some become powerful allies, in the form of unlockable Heroes that you can use even if you haven't purchased Nightfall (the campaign that introduces the Hero mechanic). Many  NPCs that you gain reputation with will teach you valuable skills as quest rewards. Some you can dynamically hire to follow you around and dispense things like exploding powder kegs to your party. Some are masters of the Asura game of polymock, while others are always looking for a bare-knuckle brawl. From all the races there are some amazingly memorable characters, and we hope you have fun discovering all the dynamic content we packed into these guys and gals.

Ten Ton Hammer: Speaking of multi-level dungeons, you have implemented eighteen of these massive PvE instances into the game, what drew you towards the reimplementation of the dungeon into Guild Wars? Why do so many of them in one broad stroke?

Ben: Why so many? Well, we figured we might as well go big or go home. As to what drew us towards doing dungeons in the first place, it was actually a combination of things. We all love a good dungeon crawl and have a few folks here with some experience making them. The other thing is we looked at some of the coolest things we have done, and the Sorrow's Furnace update is always high on that list. We look at that as our first real "dungeon", and decided to really expand on those design elements. Improving leaps and bounds over what we started with Kilroy, Alkar, and the rest of that crew.

Ten Ton Hammer: In the dungeon developer diary that you recently released, you made mention that events in many MMORPGs lack permanency and revert back to a normal state if a player waits long enough. On the contrary, in Guild Wars: Eye of the North, you take a very solid approach to permanency and are trying to implement it into the dungeons. How will this be seen by the players? Aside from NPCs dying, how else can a player character affect the dungeon around him?

Ben: We wanted the individual dungeons to really be challenges in and of themselves so there is a lot the player will be able to that will affect the dungeon around them. Players can actively interact with elements of the dungeon environment, opening new passageways, disabling traps, finding allies, uncovering secret passageways etc.

Ten Ton Hammer: You’ve claimed that the boss monsters at the end of these multi-level dungeons will have some pretty extensive A.I. How does this A.I. operate, and do you have any examples? Does the A.I. change if the characters are grouped with other player characters or varying classes / strengths?

Dungeons will feature persistent environments and extensive monster A.I.

Ben: It is a combination of improvements really. Part it comes from refinements of systems we already have, along with custom scripting boss skills and situational behaviors based on various conditions. We have made it extremely easy for us to have a group of creatures choose a leader and make a formation around that leader, or to flee and call for reinforcements, or to target a character that is under a specific condition. We spent a lot of time making it really simple for us to create really dynamic behavior at the designer level that we never had before. This functionality instantly changes the feel of the encounters into ones that are far more exciting than ones you may have previously seen in any other Guild Wars campaign to date.