Lost in a dying MMO world. Please Help!

Guild Wars is at the end of its lifecycle, and the recent development made it the opposite what it was supposed to be, all optional content and stuff to strive for became ultra-repetitive simple grind.

GW was and is very different to EverQuest and similar games. While it is not Ultima Online, a game that I still think is what modern MMO should have been instead of EQ derivates, it is very good.


Give GW a chance. The only bad thing is that you jump right into a fully developed MMO with a bored community. But you can actually skip interaction with other players completely in GW due to henchmen/heroes and the instanced nature.

The social aspect of the game is not developed at all, and the game design has been toned down to cater to casual gamers. This means in turn you can play with horrible builds and in horrible ways till you then suddenly hit a brick wall in a few missions and cannot progress.


If you plan on playing solo a lot, it would be good to get Nightfall to get heroes, which make playing solo a lot easier. But from a story point of view, start out in Prophecies. GW would not have been the same for me if I jumped in during Factions and Nightfall.


You can ignore PvP if you want, the huge majority of players does, it is not really that fantastic, despite pvp players telling people over and over that GW was designed for PvP, which is true. IMO the perfect testament that PvP can never be the driving force of a MMO with some RP and PvE elements.


The thing is, if you were used to raiding, collecting/grinding gear, achiever-style of gameplay, GW does not offer much itemization, most items are max stats and easily obtained, so you mostly play for fancier looking stuff.

I would definitely try GW, progressing through the storyline "missions" is really nice.

See if you can get one of these guru members to get you a ten day trial. When you can try it out, you'll know if its for you or not.

Trial sucks, you can't even send people tells/whispers. Mines of Moria is coming out this year. Win.

this game is great to get into, there no monthly fees which means your not under pressure to play. It does have a good deal of PVP but thats only if you choose it. PVE is hugeee, ive nearly been playin 3 years andi can honestly say i play pvp about once a few months.
get a free trial and test them out...

Some people say this is all about grind and that the game has been taken over by a new skill called ursen (overpowered skill that makes game eaasy) but just ignore them, u can still have alot of fun

Get Age of Conan or wait for Wrath of the Lich King/Guild Wars 2. Stay very very far away from Guild Wars. It used to be an amazing game. It's shit now.

And those GW games in the shops are free, right? Why pay 150 quid or so for a game that's effectively dead? (as Anet already announced there will be no new content)

Based on what you said in your original post you don't seem to want an mmo but just a good multiplayer rpg. If you don't mind it being a bit old I'd suggest neverwinter nights, it has excellent gameplay and I'd be surprised if there was another game with as much content available for it. Guild Wars can still be a lot of fun with the biggest problem being that the most power skills in the game are tied to titles witch require grinding. You don't need these to beat anything but they do tend to dwarf regular builds. While its my least favorite campaign I'd suggest you start with nightfall, it will let you use heroes to avoid having to use henchmen or other players. Another problem with guild wars atm is that as far as content goes its dead. There isn't gonna be another campaign or expansion coming out, instead it is going to be replaced by gw2. There's a lot of fun to be had in gw but it's gone down since gw: prophecies.

doesn't anyone have any trial keys?

errr...

With a comment like that i hope you quit already..........I said the same thing about Halo 2 three months after it Launch in January 05, since that day i haven't play the game, I also feel the same way about Call of Duty 4 bought it 10 days ago and haven't played it in 5 days, it's a boring, dull, and unoriginal FPS, Same goes for Gears of Wars, Oblivion, and many other games. When I think a game is garbage i stop playing it and i don't have any thing to do with it's Community, people that stop playing a game but still talk with the community only have negative things to say about the game.

PS:IF you still play this game and think it's shit then you must really love shit a lot.

Because buying all chapters at the same time is a stupid thing to do? Really Dan, if you like LotRO that much, why are you on these forums?

On topic, many people do have the right points, but at the wrong time. Don't forget he and his friends will be completely new to the game. They won't know how things used to be before Ursan, before the nerf to X, before they added titles. We saw it change and didn't like it. But I got a couple of friends looking for a cheap game to play online together to buy GW in December. Advised them to buy Prophecies and they are loving it so far. The game is still lots of fun, even more if you are new.

Does spending 150 pounds (lame american keyboards without a pound sign..) at the same time than over the course of a year seem less to you? If you want to play GW properly, you'd need all 3 campaigns + EOTN - The BMP would be optional. Either way, you're still going to spend that much for a game that has been given up on.

Entertainment. The same reason alot of other people post on here. How about you check a riverside thread not so long ago: "you post, but do you still play?". It might shock you to learn that there are more people than I who post on here but don't play GW anymore.

There are some HUGELY sour, jaded people here who need to play another game IMO. But instead they just hang around forums trashing GW, even though they don't really play it anymore.

But hey, WoW and other games have these Sour people as well. They're also in your workplace/school too!

I'm amazed by people telling potential new players that since they're bored (after playing for nearly 3 years), that GW itself is boring.

GW isn't boring anymore than any game played for 2000-4000+ hours feels "boring". In fact, if I had to play any other game for that long I'd probably die.

Regarding GW being at the end of its life cycle, for NEW players it's not that way. They're seeing everything for the first time, and wow, is there a lot to see!

As much as I love Guild Wars, I'm not convinced it would be the right choice for you.

Most of my friends or colleagues that come from a MMORPG background (EQ/AC/Lineage etc) were at one point hardcore players simmilar to yourself. Those that have tried Guild Wars weren't quite comfortable with it. In many ways I don't think this game is quite aimed at that market.

LotRO has been suggested a few times in this thread already, and I'll add a +1 to that. I played it for a few weeks just after release and thought it was a very interesting game, just not quite for me. In terms of giving you another persistant MMORPG world simmilar to EQ/WoW I think it just about hits the nail on the head.

That said, if you are set on finding a game that you can play through happily with three people, Guild Wars does accomodate that well. The hero system is essentially built in two boxing, where you can each have a number of AI controlled allies, which you can also directly control depending on how much you want to micro their actions.

Really it depends on which of those aspects is more important to you; the traditional MMO world or the team play.

A lot to see? Well sure, as long as you don't expect to see other people in the game all that much.

I don't know about you, but if GW were as deserted as it is now during my beta time, I wouldn't have bothered (not to mention the fact that with the difficulty of the game + the novelty factor back then, you wouldn't get far in the game without real people). And I don't really feel like fooling other people to buy this game by giving out some fanboi-POV.

Want an original game imitating MMORPG? Wait for Spore.

Want a good MMORPG? Go to WoW, LotRO, Lineage 2 (prepare for a lot of grind), RO (yay @ free new contents each month/two months). Or wait for Age of Conan and Aion:ToE, both coming soon.

Want a game that is WTFLOLGOOD? Buy Gears of War (I won't say Crysis - unless you have a very good PC, you won't be able to enjoy multiplayer that much, and singleplayer is pretty short, 6-7 hours), Assassin's Creed (lol wtf I want my new pc already), CoD 4 (never player, but I've heard it's kickass). And that's pretty much it.

If you want either an empty game, where you can find players only in main towns/EotN (not all outposts)/ToA and other high-end places/pvp, or a game where (we're talking about mainly PvE games, right?) you either have to buy EotN and grind the hell out of your character, get Ursan and then play with other players, or buy Nightfall and use heroes to play alone. Or you can play better games, like those I and other people have already mentioned.

I guess the OP already got the point, but i'll give my opinion.

Based on what you said, i think GW is not the game for you. GW is very different from what you are used to play, most of the new players that buys GW and quit in the first month is because they wanted traditional/classic MMORPG features in a game that has almost none. Don't buy GW unless you're open to new experiences. It seens like it korean games suits you better than western games

True for PvP, not for PvE. Even less true with Ursan, you can get a chapter+GWEN, farm that rank and get into any group you want. Having all skills is far from needed. If you have Prophecies+GWEN, you have everything you need to enjoy the PvE part of the game. Prophecies gives you the 6 main professions and more then enough options to make builds. GWEN gives you the heroes needed to play alone. While you are missing some critical skills (Searing Flames, Jagged Bones, Splinter Weapon, just to name a few), you can do perfectly fine without those.
That is the fun part of GW, to play the PvE game properly, you just need 1 chapter. Unless you are a really hardcore player who wants to have access to everything. But really, if you are new, you can only play at one place at a time anyway. So you might as well only spend $10-15 and try out if you like it. If you happen to love it, you can always buy the rest later.

But I agree with JR, if you are into farming, going after certain goals, etc. Then GW doesn't offer much. If you want a decent story with lots of quests that don't involve "kill X of those and then get back here", GW might be the game for you. GW isn't a traditional mmorpg and have never been marketed as one. It is basically a single player rpg with the option to play with others.

Why are there so many wow players on this forum?

Not directed at the OP, it is just that I do not play WoW and therefore you do not see me browsing wow forums, why are there so many wow players that browse the GW forums I frequent?

Based on what the OP said then GW would be a good game for him, if you are only playing with a few people than great, most of the game(s) can be completed with 3 people and heroes and if you are new it will be challenging yet doable and fun. Only exception is a few elite areas. I say buy the game get what you want out of it and stop playing when you want to. What is so wrong about that?

That if you buy only prophecies, you won't play with players. Why? Inferior builds, skills, no heroes. Same with factions, plus a lot harder. Nightfall is a bit easier than factions, has heroes... But again, nobody to play with you.

And if you buy more than 1 copy and say ,,omg this is boring'' after 2 weeks, you just lost $20-30. Which you could spend on a better game that can, for the same price, make you happy for 2 months.

Did you read the original post at all?

I'm drooling over that game. And Starcraft 2.

I'll stay in Guild Wars until then...I haven't found anything that has piqued my fancy that is anywhere close to the quality of Guild Wars.

I'm here because I'm not limited to one game. I play both. Dunno how long you've been here, though, since I've not seen a whole lot.

Yup there was once a time people played this game for fun..... who woulda thought!

Well, GW is a different game for everybody. I ended up doing mostly AB. Which is probably why I'm going to skip on GW2, and go for WH:AoR instead.

You don't have to grind for armour or titles.

Finish a handbook and hand it in. thats doing the story for the first time - 20K <allows you to buy armour

Do dungeon NM - 40K < Should get you to Level 8

Do Handbook HM: 30K < 8-9

Do dungeon HM: 60K < Title maxed

even then the titles are optional


Let's not get into the pvp aspect. Gw is still Skill>Time generally.

Gw Is Dying Run For Ur Life