Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2

[Bridger - Retired Paladin]

Has anyone played Guild Wars?

www.gameogre.com/topmmorpgs.htm

It is rated as being a very good MMORPG.

I haven't played it yet, just read a lot about it.

Some of the attractive features are:

*Instancing
*Being able to hire a computerized jobs to level up/adventure with.
*Free Online Play
*Designed to not take a year to hit max level.
*Good graphics

My gf is interested in playing this, and she doesn't seem interested in playing WoW because she doesn't like how the graphics look, so I'm looking into this game.

The only downfall I've seen with this game is that there is NO Auction House. That's a pretty big down point, because people end up shouting in towns what they want to sell.

The sequel may have an Auction House, there is a lot of demand for it.

Other than that it looks pretty good, and the sequel looks even better.

Has anyone played this game? Are there any thoughts on it?

[Milara]

Yeah I played the original and the first expansion. I got stuck in the storylines of both. On the original storyline I was able to make it to near the end but couldn't complete those last 2 or so missions. On the expansion, I couldn't get past the third mission I think it was. That one required 2 teams, one from the original continent's seperate beginning storyline and one from the expansion's continent's storyline... they start in different places but end up in the middle as a kind of merging of the storyline's I guess... and you have to keep some people alive as waves of mobs attack. I tried it a number of times with both other players and npc teams. We'd either wipe on the adds or they'd kill the guys we were supposed to protect. After being stuck for so long I gave up. Then WoW caught my interest. :-)

[Markus]

Heyas Bridger!

Nyet, I haven't played it. I've played FF > WoW.... Totally addicted now.


EDIT: Yea WoW's graphics turned me off too at first. Especially when you are used to FFs graphics.

This game makes me think of UO! No AH >.>

[Grimgore]

I played it briefly before I started playing WoW, and I didn't care for it at all. The biggest gripe I had with it is that (unless they changed it) the entire game is 'instanced' with the exception of the main cities. To put it in WoW terms, it would be like leaving Orgrimmar and there literally being no other people questing, unless they were in your group. Leaving town was like walking through an instance portal... only people you were partied with would come with you. If you went outside alone, it was you and only you.

I kinda like how in WoW you'll run across other people, either for short-term quest help or maybe just having some random stranger save your ass when you pulled a bit more than you could handle. In GW the ONLY time you ever saw any other players was when you entered cities... just didn't care for it. I can't really remember what the gameplay was like, but I know that I had completely lost interest in the game w/i a week of purchasing it, and haven't played it since.

[Bridger - Retired Paladin]

Actually, that's right, I remember reading one of the complaints being that EVERYTHING was instanced.

They have responded to that in the GW2, they are making less things instanced.

I'm going to take a stab in the dark and guess that they tried instancing so they didn't have complaints about camping. You can't beat running into new people, and that feature does need to be in an MMORPG, especially when you have bitten off more than you can chew and end up running for your life shouting "OH ? OH ? SAVE ME SAVE ME!

[Xaero]

one other addin. the npc's are pretty much retarded. about the only thing they are good for are targets to be killed really

[Sosa]

I've played Guild Wars and both its expansions off and on since its release. I haven't touched Guild Wars 2 yet, but it's supposed to be more of the same (in both good ways and bad.)

From my viewpoint, it was a fantastic online RPG, but it is by no stretch an MMORPG in the traditional sense. Towns in the game are instanced hubs where you can find members to perform storyline missions or quests (you'll almost always be questing alone, however,)

Every time you leave a hub zone, however, you receive a personal instance of the zone or mission you enter. You will not meet other players outside of hub areas unless they are invited into your party and enter the same zone.

This is both Guild Wars' best and worst feature, in my opinion. On one hand, you don't have to put up with a lot off the bull that other MMOs force you through, like unwanted PVP and ganking, mob stealing, ect. Whenever you wish, you can recieve your own personal copy of any zone in the game.

The bad news is that the game basically boils down to a single player game where you can invite a few people into a party to do missions (as mentioned above, you can invite NPCs but they're not very effective.)

The skill system is interesting and addicting. You essentially have a primary and secondary skill, but don't receive all of the skill-enhancing attributes for your secondary, making it slightly weaker with many spells. Since you can mix and match any two classes in the game, swap your skills out and readjust your attribute points every time you enter a town or mission hub, this basically boils down to a highly refined version of the sub-job system from FFXI. There are an unfathomable number of skill combinations you can use, and you can change them up on the fly.

Lastly, the expansions do offer some significant new features. Both Factions and Nightfall add a new class of NPC character, called "Heroes." Heroes are basically smart henchmen - you can modify their skills, equipment and attributes just like you would your own, and modify their behavior to a greater extent. Having these customized henchmen (which level up with you, which is also an advantage over NPCs who have static levels,) makes them much more effective partners, and you can solo a lot of missions with them now.

Lastly, as you probably know, there's no subscription fee. This is nice, since you can basically quit/restart anytime you want with no guilt or financial burden.

So, to summarize, if you want a game with a strong focus on co-operative and competitive PVP, that you can pick up and play any time you want, you may want to check into it. It's a fantastic "online game" that is very much worth the money to play through the story arcs. If, however, you want an authentic online experience with a lot of PVE and social content, a decent economy and useful item system, you are going to be sorely disppointed with the game.

[Xaero]

yep, totally agree wit Sosa

[Markus]

Jun 23, 2008 18:47:38 GMT -5 Xaero said:

yep, totally agree wit Sosa

How's life treating you?

[geriatrix]

i played it and play it when i can get the chances it fun and the pvp is the best around only thing i dont like is the instance like loading off all maps

[geriatrix]

and an other good thing is you can play with people from any region whicris good and can switch back to your home region at any time only bad thing with that is farmers and germans lol

[Sosa]

Yeah. That's a nice feature, but the player matching is non-existant.

Grouping for a mission consists of: shout in your current zone. If it doesn't work, keep switching zones until you finally get one.

Of course, the best groups will be with your friends anyway. The most fun I've had in that game (as with any online game) was when I set up a group in advance with a few friends and we padded our ranks with a hero or two.

[NECRO!]

guild wars is pretty terrible


if you like to space walk 24/7 this is the game for you