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.

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.