The bulk of the Guild Wars 2 panel at PAX East featured members of the ArenaNet team answering questions from fans.

To give you an indication of the anticipation surrounding Guild Wars 2, the game's PAX East panel reached maximum capacity long before the doors even opened. Eager fans poured into the large room to listen to members of the ArenaNet team discuss the upcoming fantasy MMO and explain how it has evolved from the original game. Audience members also got the chance to ask a variety of questions about Guild Wars 2 during the Q&A session.

The panel was comprised of Lead Content Designer Colin Johanson, Game Designer Jon Peters, Community Manager Regina Buenaobra, Senior VP of Global Business Randy Price, Designer Jeff Grubb, Environment Artist Tirzah Bauer and Global Brand Manager Brian Porter. Now that the introduction is out of the way, let's dive into what was covered at the event.

Compared to other panels, the team's opening discussion of the game was kept fairly short to allow ample time for the Q&A session. They kicked things off by showing the Guild Wars 2 Manifesto video, which features developers discussing the major points of the game. Check it out:

Johanson then wanted to clarify three points about the game:

• Guild Wars 2 is a true MMO with a persistent world.
• There is jumping.
• There is is no monthly fee.

Following some applause, Johanson explained that ArenaNet was founded to be innovative with game design. He said that the three main areas of focus on Guild Wars 2 are personal story, dynamic events and combat. If these sound familiar, that's because they're the same points that were discussed during our live demo of the Norn starting area at the Game Developers Conference earlier this month.

“We want your character to have a personality,” Johanson said. You're going to fill out a biography for your character, which will be showcased in an in-game journal. Everything that happens in the storyline is permanent and will be reflected in your home instance. For example, you may have to choose whether or not to save one of your friends. If you do, you'll find them in your home instance. If you don't, they'll disappear.

Johanson seemed most excited to talk about dynamic content. “"We're trying to take the concept of traditional quests in MMOs and throwing them out in the window,” he said. Dynamic events will be going on all around you, and players will be able to join in without reading a ton of text.

He gave the example of a dynamic event chain involving the infamous centaur army attacking a town. If they win, the town is overrun and is lost to the world until players help liberate it. The centaurs will tthen go out to chop down trees to fortify the town. If you fail to stop them, the centaurs will have stronger defenses in place. If you don't drive the centaurs out fast enough, they'll spread their domination to surrounding areas.

These events will dynamically scale based on the number of players actively participating in the event. Basically, more players means more centaurs. World bosses will also grow in power as more people fight them. “We're trying to build a community between our players,” Johanson said, noting that there is no kill stealing. Everyone will get experience, loot and rewards from these dynamic events.

As far as combat is concerned, Peters said they “want players to have a role in combat that matters.” Every character in Guild Wars 2 can fill every role, such as a tank or healer. “The role you play is how you do it, not what you do,” he said. If you and your friends all want to play warriors, that should be an option. The team then played the newly released thief skill videos for the audience to cheers and clapping.

Q&A session is on Page 2.