Guild Wars 2 getting global in-game leaderboards

The massively multiplayer online game Guild Wars 2 will be getting global in-game leaderboards in an upcoming update, developer ArenaNet has said.

The move comes alongside the launch of February's Flame & Frost content patch this week, which adds more competitive player-versus-player options to the game. Leaderboards will not arrive with the February content patch, however, but will be rolled out in stages as part of their own update.

"From the PVP side of the game, one of the things we're really trying to do right now is provide all the core support to build the base that you need for a really compelling PVP experience," said Guild Wars 2 director Colin Johanson in an interview with GameSpot. "This month we've got our two team-rated games going in, so teams can play against each other in competitive play, and they earn a rating for it."

Johanson says in-game leaderboards are a "big thing that our PVP community has been asking for, and this will basically allow people to see who are the best PVP players in the world and have that updated on a constant basis."

Getting PVP into the new leaderboards is the first goal for ArenaNet, says Johanson, though not all players will be able to get recorded on the leaderboards to begin with. "We're going to be rolling out in stages, so we'll roll them out with a small number of people first--maybe the top 100 players will be on the leaderboard when we first roll it out--and we're going to make sure that it's really stable and functional, and then we're going to keep adding to that and expanding on them going forward," adds Johanson.

Guild Wars 2 has no subscription rates, but offers services such as paid PVP tournaments as a way for the company to generate its revenue. Tickets to take part in these tournaments can also be earned in-game, however.

In the future, ArenaNet plans to have its in-game leaderboards cover multiple game modes, such as World versus World. "The current World versus World rankings happen on our forums, and we'd like to move that into the leaderboards," says Johanson, adding, "We'll be looking at PVE stuff for the leaderboards as well."

ArenaNet isn't prepared to date the inclusion of the leaderboards into the game, but says players should be able to expect it "soon."

Guild Wars 2 has sold 3 million copies and was the winner of GameSpot's 2012 PC Game of the Year award.