Guild Wars: Izzy Interview

I finally got round to listening to Izzy's interview on Weapon of Choice. Here are some choice tidbits:

• ArenaNet made a conscious decision not to prioritize PvP balance testing in Alpha because it wasn't working well for them. The most competitive players didn't have a big enough incentive to play Alpha regularly to really bring out the issues.
  
• Balance changes don't happen overnight - it takes a lot of people and time (translations to a zillion languages, etc).
  
• Yes, Jade Isle needs some love.
  
• Right now they're planning on the Automated Tournament system having daily, weekly and monthly tournaments with prizes for different levels of play and support for different time zones. Izzy seemed pretty sad they didn't have the system from the start.
  
• The PvP priority from their point of view is building a larger PvP base and that's the point of the AT system - to energize the PvP community.
  

It's an interesting interview, and recommended if you're interested in the PvP game. I invariably agree with Izzy - I think he does a good job of moving the game in the right direction. Even though he has my fish.