Dungeon screenshots are still under NDA, so here's a shot of a Norn Ranger instead.

As an Engineer, I needed to put down a healing turret to lessen the damage and use my rifle's net to keep the bad guys off of my fellow teammates.

The problem with the video footage is that I had to run the dungeons on computers without FRAPs. Hey, look! Engineers are cool!

"Most bosses in our dungeons will punish you for just sitting back and shooting fireballs."

The problem with the video footage is that I had to run the dungeons on computers without FRAPs. Hey, look! Engineers are cool!

These explorable dungeons are meant to attract the crowd that would normally be raiding in other MMOs.

When your head's bigger than your opponent's torso, does that mean you're headstrong?

"Each playthrough feels a little different than the last... In our dungeons, you might run into a boss that wasn't there before, or there might be a trap that you didn't realize was there."

What's he guarding? Probably my screenshots.

Guild Wars 2 seems to be more about the fun of the experience than the intricacies of progression snobbery.

Norn pastimes apparently include shooting Dimetrodons at point blank range. Poor guys.

I found myself reluctant to pull away. Not only because I wanted to get as much experience as I could for this article, but simply because I was having fun.

I'd started to wonder if ArenaNet was hiding something from me. Exploring dungeons in MMORPGs has always been one of my favorite pastimes, but each of my attempts to sample those in Guild Wars 2 seemed thwarted by fate or design. My six or so requests for a dungeon run in the little guild the developers had set up with the press a few weeks back went completely ignored, and they were barely touched on during my trip to ArenaNet's studio last weekend. Finally, with only three or so hours left before I had to be at the airport, I broke off from the Charr discussion and begged for a dungeon playthrough and an interview with Designer William Fairfield, a member of the team responsible for designing them. He agreed. And you know what? From what I can tell, ArenaNet has a lot to be proud of in here.Part of the reason we haven't heard all that much about the dungeons in Guild Wars 2 is because they don't appear until level 30, comparatively late in the game. I only leveled to level 24 myself in the beta, but it wasn't enough to do anything but get slaughtered by the first enemy the second I attempted the first dungeon. "Level 30 is when you really start to open up your character," Fairfield said. "You get your first elite skill, you've made it out of the beginning racial storylines, and you're moving out into the world. We want to give you a chance to learn how to play your character and get a feel for it and then."I learned just how important that was not long after, when we and three members of the development team ventured into the Ascalonian Catacombs, the first dungeon that players will encounter. It's frankly a gloomy place for a starter dungeon, and the claustrophobic passages within both complement the movement-based combat and surprise you with attacks around corners. Here, the ghosts of Ascalon (a human zone in Guild Wars 1) take out their revenge on the Charr who finally overcame them in the intervening years. The best way I can describe the combat within is orderly chaos -- even though I was playing with four people who'd tinkered with this game almost every day for the last five years, it wasn't long before they were dying on the damp floor and needing assistance via Guild Wars 2's co-op shooter-style resurrection mechanic (think Borderlands). As an Engineer, I needed to put down a healing turret to lessen the damage and use my rifle's net to keep the bad guys off of my fellow teammates. And these, mind you, were just run-of-the-mill ghostly 'trash mobs,' although I couldn't help but notice that there were a few more minibosses than I was used to seeing."You have to get used to falling in battle," Fairfield says with a laugh. "Our dungeons may lack the 'holy trinity' of tanks, heals, and DPS, but that doesn't mean they're easier. We still give people the ability to play defensively or supportively, so there will be moments when you need one person to control the fight or heal." He was right. Once we settled into our abilities, there were times when I became a tank of sorts and used my rocket turret to take aggro away from the Guardian. I spent most of my time pumping bullets into the baddies, but on occasion I became a healer with my alchemical goodies and specialized turrets. It was an experience that came closer to approximating what I imagine as a real battle than what you find in other MMOs, because, after all, how realistic is it to think that an intelligent fighter would keep beating on the most heavily armored dude in the room if there are other targets around?That commitment to a slightly "smarter" style of AI extends to the bosses. "Most bosses in our dungeons will punish you for just sitting back and shooting fireballs," Fairfield said. "It's more about the boss being a free thinker and switching targets depending on who's being the most annoying. All four of five of you are going to be moving the entire time, though, and we want you to rely on other people and be more of a fighting unit. We want to keep you challenged."Surprisingly, for all the times I was having to help revive my experienced teammates in combat, we weren't even playing the hard mode. This was the casual friendly "story-mode," which advances the tale of Destiny's Edge, the motley band of memorable heroes from the book Edge of Destiny. "Our story dungeons are made so that any group of five people that you met on the street can get together and finish," Fairfield said. "It'll still feel challenging, but you won't feel like you're having to play your class at its full potential. These will probably run about 30 to 45 minutes on average." In the case of the Ascalonian Catacombs, you head into the Catacombs to find one of the missing members of Destiny's Edge. Along the way, you'll fight the ghostly King Adelbern and Master Ranger Nente from the first Guild Wars and uncover an even deeper secret."The 'explorable' dungeon modes are definitely for the more hardcore crowd," Fairfield said, also noting that the world bosses outside the dungeons serve the same purpose. "These are people who are looking for controlled gameplay, they're looking for dynamic events, and they're looking for a challenge." These explorable dungeons, Fairfield explains, are meant to attract the crowd that would normally be raiding in other MMOs, and they'll last for about an hour and half. There are even major stylistic differences for each dungeon, which should prove appealing for people who like a little roleplay."The explorable version will continue the story that you started in the story mode, but it won't necessarily be about Destiny's Edge anymore," Fairfield said. "It'll be something about the dungeon itself and the consequences of your actions in the story section. Killing King Adelberg, for example, allows the gravelings to run free, who have been kept in check by all the ghosts running around in there. They start attacking other ghosts and taking over the dungeon, and you're told to put an end to that."That switch is impressive in itself, but I was more intrigued by Fairfield's revelation that the dynamic and random events of the outside world make their way into the explorable dungeons as well. "Each playthrough feels a little different than the last," he said. "Something that we've tried to get away from are dungeons that you just rinse and repeat once you've learned the pattern. In our dungeons, you might run into a boss that wasn't there before, or there might be a trap that you didn't realize was there. In the Catacombs, there's an event where a troll will break through a section of wall and you really never know which section of wall he's going to come from. And since players always like to kill critters, and we've kind of punished you for that by triggering a spider boss whenever you kill too many spiderlings." I'd had a taste of that myself when I messed with a clickable sarcophagus and triggered a mass of spiders that threatened to kill us all. If that weren't interesting enough, Fairfield mentioned occasional puzzles that need to be completed while engaging in combat.I found myself wanting to cancel my flight just so I could experience all this myself, but what I saw in the story mode was enough to make me realize that Guild Wars 2 has plenty to offer for players who aren't so turned on by PvP. ArenaNet plans to have eight dungeons ready for launch (and almost all news up to this point has centered on the Catacombs), but the combination of available story and explorable modes means that there are around 40 different experiences waiting for players. The main issue that I see is that Fairfield says that much of the same gear will be available to people who PvP and those who prefer PvE combat in the dungeons, with the main difference being that the dungeon gear will have a different model for cosmetic purposes. That should theoretically make everyone happy, but in reality players might start griping that it's easier to get gear for one or the other. I also have to wonder how good of a substitute this will be for a traditional endgame. When I asked Fairfield about the existence of a group finding tool, he simply said that he thinks all MMOs in 2012 should have one in some form or another. Beyond that, though, he refused to elaborate.But Guild Wars 2 seems to be more about the fun of the experience than the intricacies of progression snobbery, which also shows up in ArenaNet's decision to let you fight in dungeons you've long outleveled. "Let's say you go to Ascalonian Catacombs with your low-level friends when you're at the level cap," Fairfield says. "You won't be level 80; you'll be dynamically leveled down to 35 or 37 when running through there -- we haven't decided. But you'll still have all your abilities and all your traits. Your gear will be slightly 'normalized.' You'll be a little more powerful, but it'll still be a tough encounter." I'd seen a little of this when my level 30 Engineer was running around in the Charr starting zone, and I loved how it brought some life to zones that would be all but dead in a mature game.I also liked how the focus on movement does away with the restraints of boss fights other MMOs. In Guild Wars 2, you're generally encouraged to pull a bosses to areas that might be ripe for exploitation in, say, World of Warcraft. "You'll see some mechanics that we've resurrected from games like EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot," Fairfield says, "but then you'll see our fresh takes on those mechanics as we try to spice things up." One example of this is a pair of bosses that grow stronger when they're closer together. In WoW, these bosses might reset if you tried to pull one of them into another room; in Guild Wars 2, that's considered using your head. "We tried to make bosses fit in with our visceral combat. It's more about placement and control than just standing there and getting beat on and healed."Eventually, ArenaNet's PR representative started tapping his watch to remind me about my flight (now less than two hours from take off), but I found myself reluctant to pull away. Not only because I wanted to get as much experience as I could for this article, but simply because I was having fun. I looked around me. Every single one of the developers I was playing with was laughing and having a good time, even though they'd probably run this same dungeon hundreds of times before. Watching them, I could believe that it actually felt different with every playthrough. They continued to play after I got up, and another even took my place and they finished together.Not long after, I received an invitation from them asking if I wanted to finish running dungeons with them in the upcoming beta weekend since I ran out of time on my trip, sounding all the world like normal gamers out for a good time.Truth be told, I can't wait.: I fear that Guild Wars 2 will be responsible for a Spy Guy crisis or two -- no doubt I'll be spending more time playing GW2 than keeping tabs on my enemies. This could be a problem.