Hello. I'm a new player with a few questions about the game.

Hello,

I'm a new player looking to get into Guild Wars, but first I have a few questions about it. First, let me introduce myself. My name is Bryce, I'm a 19 years old and a freelance web developer. I'm currently in college for a degree in Web Technologies and I love gaming a LOT. I've played FPS games to MMO games and RTS games. I've played World of Warcraft, but that didn't really interest me so I quit it. Then I moved to a 'free to play' MMORPG, Maple Story, but I ended up quitting that due to the company inventing new ways to get money out of their players. I then moved to another 'free to play' MMORPG, Trickster Online, which pretty much ended up like Maple Story, so I quit that. I've played quit a few 'FREE' MMO's online, but in the end I stuck with Starcraft for a while. Still playing that on the side now, hopeing to become better like the PROs over in Korea, LOL. So, now I'm here to play and see what Guild Wars is like. On to my questions.

1.) What's the gameplay like? How's the leveling system in this game? Jobs? Professions? Skills?

2.) How friendly is the community? Do they help newbies a lot or what? Any guilds devoted to helping newbies out?

3.) Is there a subscription you have to play like World of Warcraft? Or is it a one-time fee? If the latter, how much for the game and subscription fee?

4.) Is there a decent storyline to the game? PvE? PvP?

5.) Any active people you wouldn't mind helping a newbie out from time to time? When I say active, I mean people online for 6-10 hours a day like me.

Well, those are the first few questions I have before I buy it. If I find it's a good game, I'll be buying it and starting it.

Hello

1) Game play is very straight forward, you lvl up to a max of 20, and it happens early on in the game giving all players a level playing field. You learn many skills, but can only use 8 at a time. You start with one proffesions but quickly learn a second one, later in the game you can change your secondary proffesion at will to any in the game.

2) Varries. You get every age group and maturity playing GW. Lots of guilds will help, some more than others.

3) No subscription, one time only for purchase of the game. There are 3 chapters and one expansion + one bonus pack. Other options like skill unlocks and extra char slots also availible, but not really needed.

4) Story is very good, Prophicies has the best with Nightfall and GWEN second best, Factions story was a little weak, but thats just my oppinion.
PvP only has one real story and that is in Factions, otherwise its just about the win.

5) Game has been out for 3+ years so many of us old timers tend to play for shorter durations, some still do the long hauls but those are often for specific runs(clearing Elite Zones for example)

Hope that lends some light on GW for you.

1)too lazy to explain.

2)The community on forums and such is generally friendly and there are indeed many good guilds to helping out newbies I think, however there are also a few bad apples.

3)No

4)In my opinion the story line of the game is average to above average, and the PVP is the most famous portion of the game with regards to competitions and such, Guild wars is very high up there.

5)There are probably many and I used to, but I don't have that kind of time anymore.

So, how many games/expansions are there? I'm confused about that part. Also, is there only 1 server unlike WoW's hundreds? Also, how much is the base game and how far can I get with just the base game before I'll need the other expansions? Also, where can I find the system specs for it? I couldn't find em on the official website.

3 Stand alone games that can be linked, and 1 expansion. And the way the server works is that you have towns which have multiple districts which are like servers I guess where players can form a party. Then when they go off to actually play the game, they have their own "instance" where it's just them. Each game has its own campaign so you'll never NEED other expansions for that game unless you want a particularly set of skills or gameplay features.

How is the leveling system? Is it like WoW's, where it takes forever to level up or what? What's the max level? Do I need the first game in order to install the other games? Also, which of the games has the best campaign in your opinion? To me, the assassin seems nice, is that the case or are they like crap or something?

No you do not. Best campaign award goes to Prophecies or Nightfall, and assassin's are very fun but not a beginner's class to play at all. In Guild Wars with the number of quests and linear storyline, you'll find your character maxing out his/her level very soon at 20. However once you're at 20 it means you're not so much better than, but on par with everyone else and can then start experimenting and tapping into the more fun bits of the game like endgame content, or Fissure of Woe

leveling system--You kill things for EXP, and you get some EXP from quest rewards and completing missions. You will probably hit the max level (which is 20) relatively quickly, but thankfully that is when the fun really begins.
There are 3 completely independent chapters, Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall, as well as one expansion pack, Eye of the North, which requires one of the stand alone games to play. The funnest imo is Prophecies, and its also the longest, however nightfall is newer and many like it alot as well. Keep in mind that if you want to play assassin, you will have to have factions.

Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall are all their own individual games, you can buy them in any order. Eye of the North is the only expansion which requires you to buy one of the other games to play it.

System specs for the 3 games are almost the same.

Recommended System Specs:

* Windows XP/2000/ME/98
* Intel Pentium III 1GHz or equivalent
* 512 MB RAM
* CD-ROM Drive
* 2 GB Available HDD Space
* ATI Radeon 9000 or GeForce 4 Ti Series Video Card with 64MB of VRAM
* 16-bit Sound Card
* Internet connection
* Keyboard and mouse


The expansion uses better graphics:

Recommended System Specs:

* Windows XP/2000/Vista
* Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or equivalent
* 1 GB RAM
* DVD-ROM Drive
* 4 GB Available HDD Space
* ATI Radeon 9600 or NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 series video card or above
* 16-bit Sound Card
* Internet connection
* Keyboard and mouse
* DirectX 9

Are Necromancers any good? Also, how much is Prophecies or Nightfall right now?

Any class is good, experiment with all of them.

Proph you can get for under $20, Nightfall is anywhere from $39-49.99

The levelling system is simple, and the level cap is level 20. Although the game only really gets going once you hit level 20, as this is when most of the big opportunities start to open up and you'll have enough attribute points on hand to really work at builds.

Every character has two professions: a primary and a secondary. Your primary determines your character's basic physical characteristics, primary attribute and the armor you can wear. Your secondary profession gives you access to more skills that you can use to boost your primary's strengths or cover your primary's weaknesses. Once you reach a certain point in the game, you can change your characters' secondary professions too, so your characters can continually learn new skills and adapt to the unique stresses of different areas.

The community varies a lot, just like any community. Although in my experience, the community is generally quite helpful and friendly. It's also a lot easier to settle into the game if you can find a good guild, and guilds are always recruiting. You can also actively seen a guild yourself on the guild recruitment forums on this site.

Guild Wars has no subscription fees or hidden charges. Ever. Once you buy the games you want to have access to, you do not have to pay another penny unless you want something extra from the in-game store.

In my opinion, Prophecies and Nightfall have the better storylines in terms of quality and length. Factions has a very short storyline, although in my opinion it's rather well crafted. Eye of the North also has a good (if not a bit short) storyline that also ties together all the loose ends and sets things up for GW2 when it eventually comes along (sometime in 2009 as an estimate)

I'd be happy to help you find your feet - I'm always up for making a new friend in-game and I'm around frequently. My main character's name is listed under my avatar here; feel free to add it to your friends list


There is no base game as such. Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall are all stand-alone games. You can create new characters in each of them and enjoy all the game content that each of them has to offer "as is". You can also link these three games together on a single game account, and make your characters cross between the three at your leisure to get all of the game content from each of them.

Eye of the North is an expension rather than a stand-alone game. You need either Prophecies, or Factions, or Nightfall, or a combination of any of these three games to be able to access the Eye of the North content.

By and large, you can pick and choose the games you want to start off with. I would suggest starting with the Platinum Edition, which contains both Prophecies and Eye of the North in a single package (and is pretty good value).

So if I got say Prophecies, I can't play with others unless they have Prophecies to right?

Covah pretty much covered it pricewise - You're most likely to find Prophecies in the bargain bin at your local gaming store, while Nightfall is still a bit more expensive (It's the newest standalone chapter, and seems to generally be regarded by PvE players as having the strongest storyline, most fun and challenging gameplay, and the most PvE features. Plus heroes!)

As far as classes: Necromancers seem to be very popular in the metagame right now; they are something of a swiss army knife class. They can run special farming builds, build minion armies, bomb enemies with hexes, and even run powerful healing builds when combined with the Ritualist secondary class.
That said, every class is playable in both PvP and PvE, though some are less popular in PvE (Mesmers, for example) and some are harder to play effectively in PvE (Assassins, for example). Nevertheless, in the right hands any class can be powerful and fun to use; you just have to find the one that's right for you.

And as far as finding people who are willing to help new players, there are lots of people out there who are more than happy to; in fact, GWG is a good place to meet them. If you find yourself looking for some in-game help, feel free to give me a shout (IGN: Fury Incarnate).

Yes. However, you can add additional campaigns to your account, so you could later bring your Prophecies characters to Nightfall, Factions, or Eye of the North. Furthermore, other players could bring their characters from those campaigns to Proph to play with you.

So I can play with others on different games as long as they bring their characters over to my game. Also, I've been looking online and I can't find Prophecies anywhere. All I see are Guild Wars, Nightfall, Eye of North. Or is Guild Wars Prophecies the first game and just called Guild Wars?

Yes, and yes. Prophecies was the name given to the first Guild Wars chapter when Factions was released - it was originally marketed under the name Guild Wars and as far as I know still is.

For example: Amazon's "Guild Wars: Prophecies" page

Prophecies was originally marketed as just plain "Guild Wars". It was only nicknamed Prophecies around the time when Factions was due to come out to differentiate between the two chapters.

There is a distinct possibility that a lot of stores might not have updated the name. if you do want the original, EB's (over here at least) will usually order it in for you if they don't have it in stock.

You can usually find it around. Or alternatively, just purchase it from the online store if you can't find it anywhere, although in the long run that might be a bit more expensive.

Nice to meet you Bryce here's what I've got to say about all your questions...

1) The game is pretty easy and linear. You just run around to get everywhere and there is no jump no crouch nothing like that. If there's a rock on the ground and you wanna jump over it? To bad you gotta walk. The leveling system is pretty strait forward. You kill monsters and complete tasks and gain experience. You will reach the maximum level 20 very quickly. The creators wanted the game to be more about the story and having fun then actually working on your characters level. Which I suppose is a good idea it does allow you to enjoy the storyline a lot more since you don't have to be concerned about your level. There are multiple professions something for everyone, from a sword swinging warrior to a fire blasting elementalist. Also a very large variety of skills to choose from and most professions have several good build options.

2) The community...ahh what can I say about the community...well lets just say for every nice player you meet there are 10 morons/jerks. Of course that's true of any online game. Helpful of noobs...no one will give you equipment but generally if you join a guild people there will answer your questions and help you out with quests and missions.

3) Free baby... that's why I play this game.

4) PVE has a great storyline I enjoyed it.

5) Like I said join a guild and they will most likely help you out. If you join an active guild there will always be people on. I don't play as much as I used to or I'd offer my assistance.

I don't expect no one to give me items, etc. I meant helpful of newbies with like where to level, how to level, things like that.

Also, how big is the download for the Prophecies game if I download it from the PlayNow site? I got a decent internet connections (~700kb/s).

EDIT: Also, is there tax included if I buy the game online?

3gb. Overnight it.

And I don't know about tax.

If I was sure it would be 29.99 solid, I'd get it now. And I'm just worried if I download it and reformat my PC later on, do I get to download it again or what? I'm also fishy about that site, what if I pay and they never send me a CD-key or anything...

As I said earlier, there are lots of players who would be happy to help you learn the ropes.

The client download is fairly small - The zip is 100kb, and the "necessary" files are a couple of hundred megabytes, downloaded when you first open the client after installing it. However, any time you enter a new area, enter a town or PvP area that contains players running skills you haven't encountered before, run into people running new item skins, etc. you'll have to download the files for them. GW with all the expansions and all files as of yesterday is 3.58 GB, and I strongly, strongly recommend you set the client to auto-download all the files prior to playing. You do this, assuming you're running Windows, by right-clicking the client shortcut and in the "Target" box, at the end outside of the quotations around the program install location, typing "-image" (w/o the quotes). In other words, the "Target" box should read something along the lines of ["C:/Program Files/Guild Wars/Guild Wars.exe" -image]. This will cause the client to start up, download anyfiles available from ANet that you don't already have, then close. You'll have to remove the -image tag to actually start the game.

If you reformat or something, just download the client from GuildWars.com and repeat the above procedure. As far as sites - Amazon is 29.99 solid and very reliable, but your best bet is the ANet online store (although I don't know what their price is).

Could I get a link to ANet's online store? Is it PlayNC or something different? So, the first GW game (Prophecies) is a fairly small download you say? I'm not looking at more than like 2-3 hours on my connection am I?

EDIT: How am I suppose to buy from their Online Store in game if I don't have an account?

You can't. And I don't know how big Prophecies download is, because when you use -image you d/l everything regardless of your ability to access it.

The online store is PlayNC.com - the e-mail account you use to register is the same one your CD key will be tied to, I believe. (Ie., your GW account's login name is an e-mail address, and I think the one your PlayNC account uses is by default the one your GW account will be created with.)

As far as the download... because players can bring skills, skins, etc. from other campaigns, all these files have to be downloaded in addition to the actual Prophecies files. The big ones are of course the playable areas, and w/o the other campaigns you only need about 1/4 of them, but the -image trick downloads all files and doesn't distinguish between your having one of the games or all four. If you decide to go with the download-as-you-go approach (which, again, I highly recommend avoiding), you can be up and running in an hour or less with a decent connection. The download speed for GW through the client isn't very constant, so I can't give you a good estimate for downloading the whole program. My home connection is 700kbs and I download it in 4-5 hours.

On their website, they said to login to the game and click online store to buy Guild Wars. Is there a place to signup for an account or do I have to buy the game first to do that? Is PlayNC.com a safe place, or ANet's official store?

@Fury: I might go ahead and buy the game from PlayNC (the regular Guild Wars game for 29.99) and just install it and then let it download everything overnight. Do I install the base game first and then run the -image option and download all the other stuff?

PlayNC is ANet's official store (ANet is a subsidiary of NCSoft). Download, unzip, and install the client by pressing the big shiny button here and run the -image option; you don't have to have an account to do so.

The online store that you access through the client lets you add features to your existing account - you create the account by buying one of the three primary GW chapters. (EotN isn't a primary chapter, it's an expansion.) As I said, I believe buying through PlayNC does it for you, but if they simply give you an access key, open the client and select the "Create Account or Add Access Key" option under the login box.

Will PlayNC tell the the total price before I pay or no? Is it 29.99 solid or plus tax? Can I pay via paypal, because I have funds in there that I want to use first.

Sales tax is applied over PlayNC.

For example, go here and read the asterisked subtext: Example PlayNC product

I just tried to buy and it gave me an error. Can I not use a Visa Debit card to buy with?

PlayNC doesn't like some debit/credit cards because of the way they have security set up to prevent people from using stolen cards. I had the same problem buying EotN and had to contact support to have it resolved.

How good are they at answering support questions? I just submitted one to try and get it resolved. How long did it take them to get yours able to buy it? What company are you with? I got a BB&T Visa Debit Card.

I have mine through American Eagle Federal Credit Union. I had to go back and forth with them a couple of times, but they always responded in about 15 minutes or less and it took me less than an hour to get it resolved. (This was early afternoon EST though; I don't know how they handle tech support at night.)

I downloaded the setup from guildwars.com. That's the eye of the north setup though. Or do I just add the -image to it and download all of it? I can still use that to sign in with a Prophecies account right?

Yes, the client is generic; it's just currently displaying EotN artwork.

Anyway, I'm off to do... something. Feel free to IM me (blacksteel15), otherwise I'll check the thread again in a bit.

Just join a good guild or better yet join a new guild with a experianced leader

Twis what i did and i lernt the game pretty well.

I personaly think factions is the best expansion. I just think the storyline althohge short is very imaginative.

You've had excellent help so far so I'm just going to throw in my 2cents. When you do get the game, you are going to have a ton of files to download. Make a copy of your GW shortcut (rename it something like image downloader) and in the target window at the end, add -image (there's a space after the last " mark). I suggest that you let it run over night.