Guild Wars 2 has introduced a drum set for players to purchase in-game. It lets users create actual personalized music within the game.
Players will be able to choose from two different drum modes to begin to play along with. Preset groove mode and User groove mode. The best bit is you don’t have to have a ear for music, as the game will automatically auto-tune music to the best of its ability to make sure it always sounds good.
Preset grooves will give you five different sorts of pre-made drum beats, and you can then riff off of them in solo mode. Solo mode also lets you join in to someone else’s preset groove that they’re jamming to as well.
User groove though is more complicated. While you’ll have access to the same drum sounds as solo mode does, these will firstly be auto-tuned, or quantized, to be in-tune and in-rhythm with you. You’ll be able to loop-record your own chosen beat track and then play it over on top of another solo mode for different kinds of tunes.
This isn’t something you can keep and store—not yet anyway, say ArenaNet. And the tunes don’t transfer across maps either. The other downside is good ol’ fashioned lag, which might make things go out of step with what you hear. Bummer, but ArenaNet has said they’re looking into a way to fix both of these in the future.
The last time we heard of such a concept was back in Lord of the Rings Online, where classes could sit down and bang it out with several different kinds of instruments as well. It’s sheer fun, though, and certainly helps to add that little bit of “role playing” back into a massively multiplayer online role playing game.
Guild Wars 2 is out now on PC.
