guild wars for my son

Heroes are AI "people" who you can make exactly how you want (skills, items, armor runes etc.) and you can pretty much fully control them, where they go, and what skills they use.

Kaineng is the hardest of the 3 to reach. the rest are alot easier to access which is why the traders swarm to them instead.

It's a hard question to answer, but generally if it's a big town or mission, then it'll have a lot of people in it. There are also certain places in each game where people gather. I'd say that Nightfall & Prophecies have the most, followed by GWEN, then Factions. Factions is a good campaign, don't get me wrong, but it's not as populated as the others, (but that doesn't mean it's vacant).

Dang...another question. Outside of the cost of buying the game and since there is no internet fee ala WoW, are there hidden costs? Such as if you want certain powers you have to pay for them.

ever heard of ferrying? ok enough said.

Prophecies only has "henchmen" witch are completely ai controlled while heroes can be directed, you can change their equipment, builds etc... they are really useful for players who know how to set them up because it means you don't have to rely on henchmen or pugs(pick up groups) to complete a mission. Nightfall is the only campaign with heroes but the expansion Eye of the North also has heroes.

there are a few things you can pay for..such as extra character slots etc. but nothing that will give you an advantage over other players.

There are little things you can pay extra for, but none of them affect in-game play. You can, for example, get a bonus mission pack for $10, but it's in no way mandatory. There are PvP skill packs you can buy, but those are strictly for player-vs-player stuff, and not the main storyline side of things. Your first campaign comes w/ slots for making 4 characters, but that's a good amount to start w/, and should last your son a while. Adding one of the other campaigns will give 2 additional character slots, and any existing character will be able to travel to the new campaign as well. All in all, G is very good about actually being free to play.

the only "hidden" cost I can think of, which isn't really hidden, is the Bonus Mission Pack (BMP). It is completely optional - just gives more story backround to a few of the characters you encounter through all three games.

Ok...then what is the difference between P v E and P v P. Also as frakking sweet as this game sounds and appears to be, why doesn't it get the accolades that WoW gets, which mind you there is no way I would ever pay 20 a month to play. No matter how fondly I remember WarCraft 2

prophecies. its not that slow for a new player. factions is to short and fast. nightfall is boring as hell and dosnt teach you how to play.

if you can the pack with prophecies + GWEN i dont think it is much more than nightfall at the store. that would be best.

pve = player vs enviroment, its where you and other players fight a.i. controlled monsters doing quests and missions etc..

pvp = player vs player, its where you fight other players in a variety of arenas.

edit: part of it is advertising and part of it is luck. World of Warcraft not only had a large fan base from the previous warcraft games but they also advertise quite a bit(the office space commercial was my personal favorite.) I have yet to see a Guild Wars ad or a Guild Wars episode of south park lol.

PvE = player vs. environment. usually a story-based gameplay or you have a "Role" in the world.
PvP = player vs. player. fighting against one another.

WoW is $15 a month. It doesn't really have accoldates... you don't even level up a title anymore from PvP-play anymore due to the fact they killed the rank system.

the reason WoW seems to get more credit than it should is because it has a persistent world, whereas GW is completely composed of instance areas.

wow has more hardcore players, whereas GW has more casual players because theyr not pressured to play because it has no cost to them unlike WoW which charges 15 bucks a month.

if you your son to grow up secluded to the world, buy WoW, if you want your son have some fun and have breaks buy gw.

No we have enough going on, that I don't need to worry about playing a game constantly to justify its purchase.

Just checked EB Games and they have the prophecies and a Free headset for sale for $29.00 (A head set and Vent/Team speak are a tremendous help and vent and team speak are also free to use)
I hope this helps

I suggest Nightfall (for the heroes) AND the pvp unlock packs from the store. Buying all the unlock packs has the fringe benefit (it's huge) of allowing heroes to use all the skills, including all the Elites.

While the heart says you should start in Prophecies, the head says, barring a few places, finding a group in Prophecies nowadays is next to impossible. And lacking heroes leaves only the henchway grind, which is a steep learning curve.

To clarify, Heroes are player-customizable, AI controlled Henchmen. You can customise their armor with runes (making them more powerful) and you can choose their selection of skills. This gives a large benefit compared to outpost Henchmen, making the game more easily played and less frustrating.

There is essentially nowhere in guildwars that you can totally solo (ie party of 1) when questing, apart from most of pre-searing.

Like most people have suggested, I'd go with Guildwars Prophecies. (Usually the one that only says "Guildwars".)
From being a newby myself, I originally bought Factions. Since I didn't know much about the game I confused myself with it. xD
But, then I decided to give Guildwars another chance and bought Prophecies. Prophecies, has gotten me addicted to it, so from experience it's newby friendly. And you gotta love when you just own mobs of Charr, and to think you were once afraid of them. xD
Anyway, from what it looks like Guildwars: Game Of The Year edition is at most Best Buy stores for $29.99.
It teaches you the game basics in "pre" which is before the searing occurs. (Your son will find out what the is later.) And, most people from what I've seen are nice in the game but you get the occasional ass...

Be a hero. Get Proph.

I'll add my thoughts and say go for prophecies. Having been playing for nearing 3 years and remembering how exciting the the whole thing was from the start it is (imo) the best way to begin.

I see alot of peeps have said nightfall for the heroes aspect, but, as your son will be just starting out, he wont have a wealth of skills unlocked to give said heroes which in all honesty, will make them pretty useless for him at first. I think what people are forgetting is that when Nightfall came along, we all had X amount of skills unlocked, or knew enough about how the game works to go unlock the skills needed to make heroes work,

all in all, despite owning all chapters (and GWEN) i always come back to prophecies as my favourite.

Anything other then Prophecies for his beginning game. Its slow, long, its boring and quite a bit of its envirorment is ugly. Factions might be a good choice because of its exclusive event comming up, its easy to level, it has AB and some interesting professions. I think as far as scenery goes factions takes the cake. Nightfall would probably be the best, it doesn't drag of forever like prophecies but its not as fast as factions. The learning curve is pretty nice as well.

Please don't listen to the others that suggest Prophecies, I feel as though they want your son to suffer as they did.

The pack that has both Prophecies and Eye of the North.
I think it's called the platinum pack.
You'll get the oldest campaign and the newest expansion. Which is a lot better than just the oldest campaign! Prophecies is dated, but it is the longest.

Even though prophecies has a great learning curve, i would say Nightfall.

Because nightfall introduces some of the most powerfull skills in the game, as well as heroes wich are 99% of the time better than the average player you find in mission outposts. Oh and koss is cool, ofcourse.

proph is best.. ... ...

Chapter 1 due to the reason above.

Also, no point having heroes if you don't have the required skills/items to kit them out with. A hero with a bad skillbar/items isn't much better then a hench, if at all.

OMG you just asked one of the major questions you dont ask unless you want a 10 page essay!!!!

But in brief...

Prophercies is a longer game and takes longer to reach areas, level up and get max gear. BUT its got a better storyline and just rocks.

Factions is a short game, you level up really fast and everything is given you to easier ingame. BUT the storyline is kind of rubbish.

Nightfall is almost a happy medium. BUT the storyline is a bit naff and it has some areas in it which get very tough without warning and it can get frustrating.

My advice is get the special deal package of prophercies + GWEN from play.com (cheaper then anywhere else) because GWEN makes prophercies a lot friendly for leveling up and so on.

GWEN = Guild Wars eye of the north expansion.

Note that both Nightfall and GWEN introduce what we call "heroes" which are more advanced henches which you can take anywhere and develop yourself.

Tell your son that once he reaches level 10, to then do the quest to enter GWEN (read guildwiki.net if you need help) and once he does that ONE quest he gets two heroes free and it makes his life a lot easier.

We went through this a year or so ago... ended up getting Prophecies first, because the learning curve was the gentlest and we didn't want him to get frustrated out of the gate. 6 months later, he got Nightfall and enjoyed that. This Christmas he received Factions and GW:EN. He likes Factions quite a bit - the pace is more his style- but we do end up getting called to help more often ^^

I would say Prophecies if hes new to the game as Prophecies teaches you more to play the game more than the others.

I'd recommend the double deal package (Prophecies and Eye of the North)

-You get a campaign with the best learning curve
-Dungeons (Very fun)
-Heroes

Many other things I can't think of off the top of my head

I'd recommend getting them in order - proph, faction, then nf, then gwen. but that's just my opinion. And for the user above who said factions has the best scenery, ugh. When my proph char went to factions and was in that city so long, I really regretted getting factions because it was so ugly. Later the echovald forest and jade sea were a little better, but factions is a really short game and if he's only going to get 1 game at least make it a big one.

Factions is the most annoying game for newbies to play in...the city just sucks if you are not aware of mass damagers etc....

Prophecies has a learning area which is great for newbs...before going into the main game....

go for Prophecies its the best learners environment in my opinion...

up to you really !

The only thing difficult about Factions is afflicted soul explosion, and Eternal Grove.
Theres more than enough in Factions to keep him busy for months.

If it's a child, the parents probably would only be having him play maybe 1 or 2 hours a day. Also since he's a child it could take him quite a while to do everything in Factions.

Then he can go into AB/FA if he wants too.

The learning curve is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be, the first time he will have really any true difficulty is Zen Daijun do to the Soul explosion and possibly the quest that leads to it where you defend that small town.

If he's not rushing through the game I see absolutely no reason why it would be annoying for any new player. The only reason the learning curve may be hard is because people rushed through.


Factions may be a bit steep, but it doesn't drag, and drag blows.

To add to this, unless you have some Elites unlocked for your heros, Henchies are actually better.

Thus, for new players, I would suggest the original Guild Wars.

You can probably skip factions unless you want an Assassin (not recommended personally) or Ritualist.


Another bonus to the Platinum Pack of Guild Wars and GWEN: Now you can enter GWEN at level 10 (not recommended for new players, but still an option) it is much faster to level up your character.

Propecies and EN sounds like your best bet and the most common suggestions.


Why not Factions?
Factions is pretty awesome. The scenery is great and the music and environment are unique. However it is VERY fast paced and easily beatable in 1 day. Or should I say WAS. You need groups to get through the Factions missions and you're lucky if you find one nowadays. Even if you got Factions+EN for the heroes, what are you going to do after the 1 day game beating time? Well I guess faction farm and AB, not much other than that.

Why not Nightfall?
Let me just start by saying: I, a three year GW fan, could have done without. The entire game was a HARSH environment. HUGE groups of enemies everywhere. You can barely weave through zones, its just slowly cutting through group after group. It did have a good set of challenging misions which I loved, and an interesting storyline. However, if you get Proph+EN you'll be dealling with a longer and continued storyline. A lot of people like Nightfall, but I feel that its to difficult and plain for a new player.

Why buy Prophecies?
This is the game that got most of us hooked. It's the largest and longest. Even while it might be easier than NF, it still has a lot of places to return to after beating the game for farming and exploring and all kinds of stuff. Prophecies has the best exploring HANDS DOWN, Arenanet made a few zones that arent even neccesary for major quests but they are amazing. Now thanks to NF and a later development by Arena.net, most of the cool features have been added in to this old game.

Why buy Eye of The North?
It is the most current and pretty cool. A lot of people whining about it though. Personaly I loved it. It is short, but the enemies are set up WAY better than Nightfall, making exploring much more fun. It also includes random armor peices like blindfolds and glasses and dragon gauntlets (dont tell him about the dragon gauntlets please). It also includes heroes, one of every proffesion.

If he wants to get into PvP
Go for the opposite. Get Factions and Nightfall instead. You'll be dealing with 4 new proffesions and open to all of the cool PvP modes.

I recomend getting the GuildWars "Platinum" pack.

Its got both Prophecies and also Eye of the north.

Its usually a tiny bit more expensive than Prophecies

Same here, I recommand "Guild Wars: Platinum Edition." U get 2 games for the price of slightly over that of 1.

Right, he should learn skills before he has to set up skills for 3 others.

I vote for Prophecies. There's much more content in Prophecies than in the other two. And I vote for adding EOtN as soon as he feels comfortable with using heroes. You can get Prophecies and EOtN separately for less than you'd pay for the bundle with some smart shopping.

I recommend prophecies, then nightfall,then gwen or vice versa for nightfall and gwen

i would like ot point out that the people saying prophecies is boring are experienced players that are not taking into consideration the perspective of a new player. prophecies is boring if you have played this game for 3 years, its not if you are new.