A few questions before I buy the game...

Ok, so I have a few questions before I buy Guild Wars.

1. Is the Guild Wars: Game of the Year Edition pretty much the same thing as the first except, you get the weapon when you start? Or is it different?

2. During online play, is it possible to play people that have different Guild Wars games? Such as, playing with someone who has Nightfall rather than Factions.

3. Is it hard to reach level 20? Level 20 seems pretty low compared to other MMOs.

4. Which game has probably the most people playing it?

5. Does the appearance of each class change based on the setting of the game?

Sorry if this is in the wrong place or something.

1. The game is the same, just a few bonus items added to it.
2. You can only play in the chapter(s) that you own, people that own more than one chapter can move freely between them all.
3. It is very quick and gernally easy to reach lvl 20. It is low to create a balance of skilled players vs those that have been playing for a longer time.
4. A large group of people have all chapters and move between them all, generally speaking the newest released chapters have a few more people in them.
5. In each chapter the setting is a bit different, so each class does look slightly different from Prophicies/Factions/Nightfall. Once you make a char its look does not alter when moving from chapter to chapter, though you can purchase different armor from each chapter to alter apperance.

So, if I were to make a character with a medieval theme in the original, then moved them to Nightfall, they wouldn't change to a sort of Egyptian, Middle-Eastern theme?

Nope, it will not change.

Is it possible for me to change, then change back to a style from a different game? And, if I had Nightfall, then got Prophecies, could I change to Prophecies' style? Sorry about all of the questions. :P

The "style" you speak of is really only cosmetic, and it pertains to 3 main things:

1. Your character's facial features are based upon the game they were created in - so factions has more Asian faces and hair styles, while prophecies has more European ones.

2. The armor you wear, while functionally the same as every other armor for your chosen profession, looks different depending where you got it; so Nightfall armor has an African/Egyptian flair, while Prophecies is more European.

3. The equipment you get is also equivalent in stats, but looks vary - katanas in factions, broadswords in prophecies, etc.

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In general, I prefer Nightfall because of heroes and a good selection of skills. Factions has some very good specific skills, and many of the weapon models are top-notch. It is the shortest campaign, though. The other thing to consider is that prophecies has only the 6 core professions, while factions has them and 2 additional ones, and nightfall has the 6 core and its own additional 2 professions.

Also, keep in mind that level 20 is actually just an early point on the road that is the storyline to each campaign. Level is really only a small component to what your character is capable of. The real key is to get a good load out of skills for your character so he or she can really perform to their full potential. You'd be amazed how fulfilling finding that perfect combination of skills can be!

no they wont they keep appearance. to get the "egyptian theme" you have to make it in the campaign with that theme

I would suggest buying nightfall first because it has a great tutorial area. reffered to in game as noob island usually. You have acess to heroes and can customize there builds wich make them better then henchmen(ai allies).

After that i would buy prophecies and gwen and factions last if your strapped for cash. If not buy them all and play them through in order they were released. Prophecies factions nightfall gwen. O srry gwen stands for guild wars eye of the north also reffered to as eotn.

Finally gwen/eotn is the only one that isn't a stand alone. So don't just buy that one.

Prophecies also has a nice starting area because it doesnt advance as rapidly as the other 2 stand alones. You have a larger area with monsters only maxing about about lvl 8 or so. That is called pre. After the pre searing. In that game when u go post (referring to post searing) You start facing larger lvl monsters. You have more of an ability to decide when your ready to do that though.

Oh, so you can't keep your character from previous chapters?

As long as you link your game at the time you set up second campaign (and others subsequent ones you may buy) you can travel back and forth between the chapters with any character created in any campaign after they reach a certain point in their respective game.

So I have to restart when I start a new chapter? Or am I still the same level?

Here's how it works - when you bring a character from 1 campaign to another, they retain all their levels, equipment, and skills, but they only start partway through that other campaign. In other words, character A came form Prophecies to Nightfall. They keep all their stuff, but are only in the early-middle of the Nightfall campaign, so they have to play a bunch of the Nightfall missions to get to the end of that campaign. You can still go back and do the stuff before the point at which you entered the Nightfall campaign, in this case, but I generally just go forward...

So you do NOT need to restart your character when going from 1 campaign to the other, but you don't start at the end of the new campaign when you travel there form the other. You DO get to keep all your stuff, though.

Oh ok, but im still not really getting the appearance part. If you play as a Warrior in Prophecies, do you keep your knight-like appearance if you play Nightfall? Or do you switch to Nightfall's appearance of a Warrior?

If you create a warrior in prophecies and purchase armor from prophecies, no matter where you travel, your warrior will still look the same. Once you create a character, the facial features, height, hair style and hair color will never change. You can if you wish, change their armor if you like something from a different campaign but it is not necessary. If you bought your prophecies warrior factions armor...the only thing that would change would be the armor.

If you were to buy more than one game and link them together, your prophecies warrior could go to any of the other games you owned. He would not change...he would just travel.

Does this answer your question?

Ok.. let's say your warrior has plate armor on and he's from Prophecies. Now you travel to Nightfall. Your armor looks exactly the same as it did before. But now let's say you meet up w/ a warrior that started out in Nightfall - he will have armor that provides just as much protection as yours, but his looks completely different. However, since you can travel between the 2 campaigns, you could go and get the "native" armor from Nightfall, if you wanted.

Your character keeps *everything* when he or she travels between campaigns - it's just that you couldn't buy the same armor in Nightfall as you could in Prophecies - they look different, but you can still wear them...

Sorry should have clarified better. Your char can go to any campaign you own. However it looks the same in all of them (minus the armor if u change it). Make a prophecies char it gets midevil look, faction-chinese look, nightfall-desert egyptian style, gwen-cant create chars in

I think you've got it! However, there are several different armors available for each profession in each chapter (Prophecies, Nightfall, factions)

Edit: Here's a link that will give you all the info you need about armor: http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Armor_types

I have Eye of the North Asuran armour, when I travel to Nightfall area, I have Asuran armour, when I travel to Factions area, I have Asuran armour, I'm sure you can see a pattern developing .

I think Nightfall and Factions has extra armours you can buy, but you come and go looking the same way you did when you arrived (unless you buy an armour from that campaign obviously)

Ah, ok. That's all I needed to know, thanks guys. ^^ ...Now to figure out which game to buy. :P

Prophicies is a great place to start, the learning curve there is slowest and most forgiving.

Factions has some nice skills, 2 new proffesions(Ritualists and Assassins) however it has a steep learning curve(ie you reach max lvl fastest) and suffers from locked doors you must complete tasks to open inorder to progress.

Nightfall has Heros(NPC's who you can build to your liking and control) 2 new proffesions(Paragons and Dervish's) it has a balanced learning curve, some locked doors but mostly open ended.

If you can't afford all three I would sugest Prophicies, its the first and by far the largest of the three. (speaking of PvE content)