What's right with games like Guild Wars?

I have been gaming since the days of the Sinclair Spectrum..

I even taught myself Sinclair Basic and wrote a few games myself.

I am 42 now and I doubt that I will ever stop gaming!

Watching the advances in gaming technology over the last 25 or more years has been huge fun.

Anyway, my son who is 12 and I often play Guildwars together. As tough as it is for him to admit, I am still slightly better than he is, but I am sure this won't last for ever LOL

Me and my dad used to play Tetris. Tengen's version

Now we occassionally play yahoo pool, his PC cant handle gaphics intensive games.

I think gaming is just like anything... its an activity and it can bring people together.

Like when my friends set up 3 Xboxes and played Halo/ate pizza/smoked weed on a friend's birthday. it was fun, the best players got handicapped with the crappy TV >.>

omg i pwned at yahoo pool 3200 odd points i think it was wayyy back when i had AOhell

rofl


My sister enjoyed very much playing with the character creation screen. she made a cute little redhead necro chick...

First game I ever played was Gorilla. Back then I used to mess around with QBASIC a lot and make my own games.

All you really need in life is a DOS prompt anyway.

I play GW with my son and daughter, who now live in other states- a good way to have fun and keep in touch. It was so nice having another player in the same room, helping me out when I was running into walls and getting lost in pre-searing. Alas, my other son is devoted to Ultima Online. We are slowly drawing my son-in-law into GW, however.

Our family started on a Commodore 64, and would crowd around the screen, passing the joystick back and forth. Does anyone remember a wizard game, walking around the map, squish, squish through the marshes? And Sheep in Space- we all still say we're getting "peckish" when we're hungry.

I've tried to get my husband to play GW, but he prefers Call of Duty. We considered it a necessity to each have our own computer!

You know you are old if the word "tiltowait" makes you smile

I am married with 3 kids and one on the way. Normally (when I'm not dieing of a head cold) I am homeschooling my 6yr old and almost 3yr old during the daytime hours.
My husband and I play GW together and my son (the 6yr old) really wants to play, but since he can't read very well I wont let him yet. As soon as he can read a bit better I am very inclined to buy him his own PC and get GW for him.
However at least once a week we sit down with the PS2 or Gamecube and play something as a family for several hours. My son pwns me with Monkey Ball >_<
Our almost 3yr old daughter can go into a gaming store and point out many of the games there and its always exciting for her, and its just cute! Our youngest is 18mths old and already he loves to sit down with a controler at the PS2 and pretend he is playing with Daddy or his older brother. We are a gaming family and none of my children are violent. Our oldest loves KH and KH2 and it inspires him to learn to read better.

I've been told so many times that I shouldn't be gaming and neither should my children. Why not? There is nothing wrong with me or my kids, we are for the most part a well rounded family and we don't play anything that shows nudity or extreme violence. Heck compared to whats in schools and in cartoons this is toned down marginally.

My parents are not gamers but when they come to visit they will sit down and play things like monkey ball or katamari. They've stopped moaning about how my husband and I are always on GW because they know that during the week and our kids waking hours they are getting plenty of love and education.
Although there is nothing better than watching your parents who are sick and doped up on hot toddies playing a race car game XD That was just silly and my brother and I have never laughed so hard!

I am of the opinion that overly violent games are not for anyone under the age of 15.
I also believe that a family who plays together stays together in a lot of ways. Its a good way to get with your children on their level and enjoy some quality time.

Also my 56yr old boss for when I worked for a small company came in one day to my husband playing FF10 with his PS2 hooked up to the TV..... He spent an hour watching and like to never got back to work lol. He said he wanted that game XD

Man I loved that Game

My parents are too old fasion to play games lol.
I do have to fight My girl friend over who gets to play games on the computer.She can't stand GW yet (I'm still working on it)

My boys and I are avid gamers which translates into other aspects of our lives. I'm 36 and have been playing since the vic-20/atari/intelivision days... Anyway, games get a bad rap often since theres a lot of violent behaviors involved in most games and kids are influenced. I think if there is a parent willing and able to interact with thier kids in a enjoyable way, then the kid will easily learn methods of behavior. Honestly though, there are a lot of violent adults just as well, it's never been soley a video game deal.

My g/f and i (who also live together) play gw religiously and together which has done plenty to keep our time together fun (among other activities ). I think any activity commonly shared among people will make for closer relationships, anything at all, including bank robbing and murder, it's pretty much the backbone of the populations intamacies.

First game was pong :P favorite oldies are galaga and pitfall.

Exactly! It's not the game that makes children violent, it's their parent.

Now it's that easy part. Go buy him that game and he'll give you a raise, promote you, or just a bonus

Yeah lightblade I am of the opinion that its children who are unsupervised or where their parents dont care to spend time with them that allows things such as violence to grow. I am the type that freaks out at the idea of letting my kids alone outside (especially in the city), but so many parents just let their kids run free without a care in the world!


And as for my boss, I dun work there anymore, I am a full time mommy/teacher and part time gamer XD I couldn't keep from not being pregnant long enough to commit to full time work there and his daughter needed a job so I stepped out.

I started playing GW as a way to hang out with my brother more. We don't usually get to see that much of each other, and he and his fiance wrangled me in during a family event. I later got my stepson and husband playing. We're all in a guild together, and it's a ton of fun because we're all pretty laid back and just like to have fun.

I'd like my dad to play gw (or gramps), but I'd hate it at the same time. Like I'm the leader of a guild now, and if my dad joins maybe he'll screw things up. Also, he can see my friends and maybe get in a fight with them, or embarras me in front of my friends :P

Old gamer here (59) going WAY back. I bought two copies of Prophecies the day it hit the stores, for my youngest daughter's birthday the following day -- one for her, one for me. She's the only kid still at home, and we play GW quite a bit.

My son joined in, as well as another daughter and two grandkids. It's kind of like the days of yore, when the three oldest and I would sit around the table doing pen/paper games.

The wife doesn't game, but then she's on a computer most of the day at work, and wants a break from it in the off hours.

Dad and I used to play Super Contra on the NES together. Good times. Other than that, he really likes Rogue Squadron on N64.

This thread is totally awesome. Almost makes me teary eyed.

I remember when my grandparents bought me Final Fantasy for NES back in grade school, and my grandpa thought it was really cool although he never played it- he appreciated the strategy involved. I miss you grandpa- you were always my real hero.

I used to play atari with my dad- we had epic 'combat' battles. He liked "bump n jump" for nintendo too :P

Me and my girlfriend started GW back at X-mas last year and now we both are in the same guild, this was her 1st mmorpg game & 2nd video game she’s ever played (the 1st game was Morrowind). In which there are 3-4 other couples also father and son, and lots of people from different background & ages (14-49), 1 of the officer is the guild leader’s real life partner, and 1 of our member just had a baby boy. So I guess that the game can somehow, bring people together in some wired way, because some time you don’t even talk to the person that live in the same house as you. People seem to spend so much time, y’know apart sometime. It always made me smile to see my girlfriend’s face when she finished her mission and get master reward or bonus, or when our side won the allies battle. The only downside is that she always made me run to a lot of places that are really far! :P and she’s getting better and better at this game more than I do.

This is a good article about a family who plays gw together from across the nation http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...041902617.html

WOW! u guys make me feel as young as i am for some weird reason.

especcially people above 25 up. u guys are really hardcore gamers

p.s. im 13

Aww that article was touching, especially the last part!
*sighs* I guess GW might be the only way for my husband and I to be together if he gets his internship in the summer. And yes, better and cheaper than phone calls usually!

Ya, I was trying to figure that out... senior moment I guess.

Here is a story about my mom:

When I was small, my cousin showed me the wonderful world of gaming, yes I played Doom and Quake when I was five. My mom always shouted at me, "go do your home work", "study now no play". As I grew my curousity for gaming increased, but it did not overtake my life, I get good grades in school, join sports teams. To my surprise my mom changed too, she's gone from anti gaming to pro gaming, she believes gaming is not all bad, it can make you smarter in a way as long as you are not addicted to it.

We've had people over 60 playing in our guild... so they're out there.

Just thinking, playing games like Guild Wars has helped my typing, reading, and spelling skills. Being the leader of my own guild, the guys love to hound me when I misspell something. Yet another positive thing that comes out of gaming that bad press doesn't recognize. Not to mention the hand and eye coordination envolved.

This is great, I wish I could reply to all of the posts... I just read everyone so far and it puts a smile on my face. I'm glad that people can share the joy, excitment, and benefits of online gaming. It's also really touching to see that people have bonded with family members that have since past, and that they actually apprecaited the gaming time together while it lasted. All I have to say is it takes a special group of people to make the time for eachother like that.

Keep the posts coming!!! Let's show them that gamerz rock, and have family values too!!!

Neither of my family apreaciates games very much. My mother loves to use computers for work (shes a teacher) but belives games are a waste of time.

one of my brothers has already devoted his life to soccer (we're soccer referees together)

my youngest brother is just like me though, he likes the imagination involved in games and i have to remind him alot of times that it is.. just a game and not to get upset at losing. =/

My father believes firmly that any game that isnt a Airplane/piolot simulation is of the devil and a horrid waste of time not deserving of anything over and hour or so a week.

I got started into games my good o'l starcraft when i was twelve years old or so. I then bought diablo 2 and warcraft 3 and played them quite a bit untill buying guildwars. Guild wars is my first non-Blizzerd game and i have enjoyed the smaller company feel, although i know its not really small, the only thing i miss is the culture and connectivity of blizzard games. lotta official forums and things like that.

the Main reason i like game ( I'm writing the story of my life here it seems) is because of been in love with art and drawing as long as i can remember, playing a game were i can observe other peopels artwork with a (if I do say so myself) practiced eye is most of the fun of playing.

That's funny, I met a lot of teachers online that play games too. In fact I always see the MATH guild winning HOH. With articles like this describing how bad simple spelling and grammar skills are teachers need to think of different ways to reach today's students:
http://education.independent.co.uk/n...icle340014.ece

Let me start by saying I work in education as well (at a Community College in MI). One of the biggest challenges for teachers now a days is how to reach today's students. They could leverage gaming to relate/teach students in a creative sense. To an extent, as I mentioned above we teach ourselves spelling and grammar skills the more we play online. You can't just type in nonsense and expect not to get flamed by someone. I'm not saying it's right to flame people, but just that I see it happen all the time in the local channels.

Anyway... this is going off on a separate topic in a way. Yes anything in excess is bad, because you shouldn't focus all your energy on one subject. However, people should try to change their paradigm that all gaming is bad, and there's nothing to learn from it. Course there is yet another factor, people have to want to change in order to learn.

Set I just dont want to come back to my storage being emptied by my son cause he doesn't know better.... My husband was all kinds of upset when he realized that our son (4 at the time) had erased all of his FF10 saves and so many others.... But yeah since the internet my typing speed has improved, but I think my grammar and spelling have gone downhill lol XD ESPECIALLY once I started gaming. My son has a great memory and so for most games he memorizes what daddy did and follows through instead of reading it or the skills. I've let him farm charr once but that was about it. He usually recognizes the cities we are in as well just from memory. Everytime we get the money we go and get a couple of new games to make it more challenging for him. Right now my son has snatched my game Magna Carta -_- It sucks when he gets so far ahead of me that I no longer want to play >_<

Right now he is grounded, cause while I've been sick he's been playing non stop other than when he is wrecking my livingroom and dining room. He was supposed to stop playing for 30mins and pick up the mess... He failed all day to do so, so he's grounded!

Guild Wars has Socialistic interface.

And they don't enforce the statement "You are your own lucks crafter", which is a bad translation of a typical Liberal statement.

That shouldn't be a problem with sharing accounts.... the User Agreement [section 4 (a)] states that you can't share accounts. http://www.guildwars.com/support/leg...-agreement.php

BTW, how are you suppose to catch up when you're busy cleaning his mess? LOL...

I have two girls and I totally understand what you're saying. I don't know if they would be ready for Guild Wars yet. One is 5 and the other is almost 2.

I just wanted to state that there are things they could learn. For example, I've been wondering all day about that MATH guild. I wonder if they calculate the probablilities of the different builds they come in contact with, or maybe calculate the best way to build and create a PVP character via the skill timing, and cost. Interesting... I guess there's all different ways to look at this stuff.

I use to be a chat room fanatic back when i had AOhell, my spelling, grammar and typing speed improved over the years.

BTW, im not sure if MATH are really math teachers..they are fairly good but dont win that much anymore since IWay got nerfed.

Me My Brother and My Sister all had computers from the age of four, we were all started off on text based adventures (Space Quest 1-6 , Kings quest ect), by the time i was 8 i had the reading age of a 15 year old .

I think computers are good for young children, but they should not be State of the art, and more importently The Child should Set Up the Computer

If the child wants to use the computer , the child will learn (and if i could install windows 95 at 8, your can do the diddle that is windows XP at 10 )

Children today are too used to on demand entertainment, this teaches they need to do work before they can enjoy somthing

GW is the first online game ive played and i have to say its great for binging people together! I've got my boyfriend playing and recently got my mates who have now all gone to Uni to join in. It's helping keep us in contact - meeting up in the game is kinda like in real life! tonight i shall be gaming with friends who untill a few weeks ago lived down the road from me - now they are in Cornwall, Wales and Scotland. not to mention the meny wonderful and helpful people i have met through the game from arround the world

Its helped my faimily too - my Sister and i no longer want to kill eachother, she plays with her bloke and we have a shared intrest to talk about, wich is really nice.

Computer gaming has really replaced stuff like bordgames and they were a family activity so i dont see why gaming cant be too.

Ahh... sibling rivalry. We have a brother and sister in our guild, and it's fun to do mock up GVGs so that they can go head to head. They prefer to be on different teams so they can fight each other. It's actually really fun.