What Aspects of Guildwars were better than other games?

I would like to take some time to discuss some of the things that guildwars did well. The point is not to tell people "you don't realize how good you have it stop complaining" but to try to and remember and capture what is good about this game. Many people, including myself now, have moved on and won't be playing guildwars much until GW2 comes out. Between now and then we'll be playing different games and perhaps GW2 won't even be the game we hope it is. So what is it that distinguished GW1 and sets it apart? These are of course just some of my thoughts on the matter and I don't take myself to covering everything. What aspects of Guildwars PvE or PvP set it apart and would be sad to lose?

This has come up a lot so I thought I would add a comment about it here. The "its free" message while true is and always will be misleading and not exactly what I was looking for. I doesn't even come close to saying it all. Its misleading because its not something that makes a game good or bad. Having no monthly fee doesn't mean anything if the game is bad. If Guildwars was a bad game I'd never play it, free or not. What is important is the content of game and that is I was looking for. What I was looking for were things internal to the game.

Autonomous well developed PvP system:

We might complain about skill balances and thats fair. There is no reason to not want to improve things. But the distinction of PvP from PvE - by which I mean GvG HA TA RA HB etc. - is incredible. The fact there are actual locations for these places is even nice and mapping between them is easy and painless. There are no waits for games (well - in gvg there is now especially higher up but that has to with player drain). The system is and how it functions is very polished after three years - even though we don't always like certain aspects of it (maps in HA, certain skills, etc) the structure of the PvP game apart from its particular content is almost ideal.

The Great Temple of Balthazar:

This might sound odd but the ability to use isle of the nameless to run around and test things and really learn the mechanics of the game is incredible and better than any tutorial system I've ever seen

PvP Characters:

Some people might not like this but I think they're nuts. I don't think anything has made the pvp aspect of this game more accessible than this. First, instead of having to grind a pve character up before playing you can simply have characters ready to go at the click of a button.

This not only allows more people easier acceess to pvp, it also allows people to get greater experience with a variety of classes that they would not otherwise have. If before playing any class in pvp i had to spend the time to get gear and grind the levels I would be much less likely to play that class. This greater accessibility I think leads to better player skill and greater knowledge of the competitive game as a whole.

The Classes:

There have been complaints about the expansion classes and the effect that they have had on the game which are justified. But the core classes of the game are well designed, autonomous, and form what feels like a complete set. By this I mean that each class covers a distinct portion of the game play (rangers cover snares conditions interrupts, survivability, warriors melee damage, toughness, monks healing, mesmers caster hate etc etc) which taken together leaves very little room for the introduction of anything novel into gameplay. In other words it feelslike there was a vision of what game play would be and these classes complete that vision. These classes are reasonably well balanced. This is not to say that certain classes don't receive greater emphasis in game-play. The game is somewhat driven by warriors who run the offense and monks who keep the team alive. But the other classes are ideal roll players that facilitate defense and offense. Eles can blind warriors, mesmers can shut down eles etc.

Its Freeeeeeee!!!!!!

Brother Mhenlo, hes pwnage thats all you need

so is this one:
http://www.swordofthenewworld.com

it has better pve to boot.

i'd say the only redeeming feature of GW is its pvp system. it is STILL the premiere pvp rpg available, despite being managed by an epically terrible management team.

Yeah but isn't the free part limited?

thats not free, you have to buy gold and item.....


and i'll join kobey in shouting Itsssss Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!! and its the most beautiful one yet!!!!

that game no longer have the "you can only level up to level 20 if you don't pay" restriction. the buying items part is not mandatory either. it will make things easier, but won't matter much in the end.

if you really want to argue the free part, i'd like to note that GW is not free. i've spent ~$160 over 3 years on it, which is definately not free.

OOh, I did not know that!

I'll have to check it out again. Thanks!

EDIT: Is their site down or something? Can't seem to open it in FF or IE, both just hang.

Sword of the new World aka Granado Espada does not fare well in Asian countries with monthly fee so they went item shop system, due to controling 3 chars and mob respawn, i heard you can automate farming... duh...

you can automate leveling, since the game has a "auto guard" feature that allows you to fight off all enemies approaching your position. unfortunately, you cannot "auto farm", since it doesn't have an automatic item pickup feature.

their site seems to be working btw.

gw is free and has one of the better pvp systems...

Sword is alright, fun when you first start. Things start to change when you get to lv55 then the game take turn for the worst at late 80 - 100+(vet), when all you do is grind and more grind to get to lv110 (expert) or go on a raid but you have to be in a top clan to do that. RMT Bots are a big problem in that game as well.

< Ex- Citadel member, Opersia.

As for GW, skill base and low lv cap is the best imo.

the whole no monthly fee is pretty awesome because it allows me to take a break and play another game or just just live my life and come back whenever i feel like it without having to pay each month with the possibility of me wanting to play at some absurd time.
:-)

And it's not all grind.
Ok, you have to grind for certain titles (if you want), but at least I don't have to spend hours pressing the same 2 keys cause I need x wolf fangs, like in lineage (not that I didn't love playing L2)

-No monthly fee

-Quick access to PvE areas. No running back to home to drop items or running to collect your corpse or anything.

-Variety of PvP formats

-Quests and missions are above average for MMOs (Kill 20 wargs/bears/spiders/boars and return to me. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, LotRO)

That Sword of the New World reminded me why I hate every RPG not made by Blizzard, Square or some other actually good company.

Because other companies just release the same shit on same wrapping:



Just because computers have developed to increasing memory sizes, processing speeds and capabilities to display graphics, doesn't mean that the gaming industry has developed at all.

it's free wich rly pwns

GW has:
-the best level cap
-instances (no persistent world bs)
-the best PvP system in a online rpg
-a great variety of professions
-no monthly fee

btw, I played Sword and the level cap is total bs.. play it if you like grind.

- Spirits
- Hexes
- The ritualist class
(Yeah, PvP people LOVE me right now! )

- The mesmer class
- Map travel
- Looking smashing


And once again - the fact that it's free isn't a plus.
It's a necessity. I wouldn't even come near it otherwise.

#1 No Monthly Fee
#2 Good graphics (not cartoony like WoW)
#3 No Grind...or at least that's how it originally was supposed to be. They messed this up when they introduced titles.

says it all.
12 blah balh

The "its free" message while true is and always will be misleading and not exactly what I was looking for. I doesn't even come close to saying it all.

Its misleading because its not something that makes a game good or bad. Having no monthly fee doesn't mean anything if the game is bad. If Guildwars was a bad game I'd never play it, free or not. What is important is the content of game and that is I was looking for. What I was looking for were things internal to the game.

- PvP characters are a great innovation, but why not take it one step further? Separation of PvP and PvE completely (and I don't mean this crap we are currently experiencing) would make maintenance of either part of the game much easier. There's one set of balanced skills for PvP and developers wouldn't have to worry about what PvE players feel about them. Then they could focus on creating skills for PvE that make sense in the PvE world, both for monsters and players.

- I agree, this is a great way to test character abilities and learn how to play.

- There's nothing really astounding about characters. Every single RPG has the same Warriors/Rogues/Mages/Monks. On the contrary the profession system works well only on structured PvP such as TA, HA and GvG, because you can choose which professions you have in team. RA/AB/FA/JQ just doesn't work. Having a decent Monk in party means much higher potential to win and monkless parties fail against any kind of pressure. Mesmers have no place on PvE either. Everything they can do other profession can do better. Same goes for Rits.

...to play. I think I spent over 200 bucks on this game.

(Actually I just did my math: $255. $225 if I didn't get a collector's edition for NF.)

My thoughts exactly.

Guildwars Has and does still have arguably the best PVP out of any online game there is.

However it had potential to be a groundbreaking success. They got it half way there and abandoned it

For anyone who said something like,

Again, this isn't exactly the sort of thing I was asking for. Whether the game was free or not is irrelevant to the question of whether the game is good. I know that the business model for selling the game is novel, but I'm talking about what they did in the game. What about the gameplay, skill system, quests whatever was importantly good and different in guildwars?

Yeah, the structure is still there but as you say now largely abandoned. The hope is that those things which made great are still preserved in the transition to GW2.

Don't worry, after a few pages down, people will stop quoting
People are bored easily.

Obviously, it would be a different game as a subscription game.

Definitely the best PvP of any MMO-style game.

Has some great fast action compared to the relatively slow feel of many other MMOs.

Absolutely fantastic graphics/art teams.

No 30 min. cooldown skills.

GW has a fantastic art team, used to have a good community team (back in the days of the alpha program and the regular presence of Alex Weekes at TGH), has a solid PvP core requiring more tactical and strategic thinking than in nearly every other MMORPG, and has one of the best skill systems of any MMORPG (although the individual skills have a lot of variation in quality).

Almost everything else about it is subpar and has been subpar since Factions.

- The Artistic design of Guild Wars, this included the environments, characters, equipment, and etcetera.

- I actually cared for all the professions and wish they actually would have came out with more. I even enjoyed the outcast professions, which include the Mesmer, Dervish, Ritualist, and Assassin (it was thinking outside the cliché fantasy RPG box).

- The changing of scenery with Factions and Nightfall, which included locals, that were much more exotic.

- Some of the PvE aspects did work somewhat well as a distraction. One of them was the distinctive level 20 cap, which did not make it feel like too much of a grind level machine. Some of the quests, missions, and elite areas were entertaining at certain points. Even “Heroes” did seem like a better concept then dealing with the henchmen most of the time. I have to agree with the idea of “Instance” areas being much better then “Persistent” areas in dealing with some annoying MMO issues.

- Of course, above all else I would have to agree that the “No Monthly Fee,” is still a cool concept beyond all else.

Geeveegee

Peeveepee

The combat system overall, and the required decision for your skills, attributes, and your position as a whole.

It's kinda died now though. Good combat system, however.

• --Most advanced instancing ever created. (Can't wait to see what's in store for GW2)
  
  
• --More options for players than any other MMO. Ever. (proffessions, secondaries, builds, solo, party, grind, no-grind, map travel, HM/NM. . . . . . )
  
  
• --Least expensive MMO ever played.
  
  
• --UI feels like an OS. Cleanest, most intuitive user interface ever.
  
  
• --Art and composition is beyond compare for outdoor areas, (dungeons still need some detail and focus.)
  
  
• --Accessibility.
  
  
• --Best (formated) PvP ever.
  

PvP. PvE used to be better, too, but any game beats it now.

- Very good server system with upstreaming technology and no down times. You can also play with people from all over the world and there are no server ristrictions.

- Great graphics and engine that can run on low end systems.

- The fast pace of the game

- Continuous effort to make the game more user friendly, like dye preview, more storage, improved attribute system, etc. etc.

- regular updates, events

- skill system which makes me think about MTG and I like that.

- human only playable race and not the classic dwarf, orc, elf stuff.

- level cap at 20, so almost the entire game is made for that level and we don't loose big junks of areas where you never would come again. The introduction of HM adds to this view of replayability.

- Vanity is an option not required to play the game. No über weapons and stuff.

- Instances and travel option are wonderful.

- You gotta be kidding me. First of all PvPers are too embarrassed to call half the PvP modes in the game even PvP. So that leaves us with GvG and maybe HA/TA if no scrubby builds are around. Secondly have you even been in competitive scene of PC games? CS, Starcraft, WCIII... where's Guild Wars? For "ground up competitive game"¹ it's kind of strange that PvPers have to grind gold for their guild hall changes and farm skill unlocks to even create builds. There's no possibility for players to create their own leagues. Best PvP out of any online game? Never was and never will be. Stop believing in advertisement slogans.

I think the aspect that really made Guild Wars a great game is the prevention. Not only was it in the game, there was emphasis on it.

The mechanics of interruption mainly is what I'm talking about, but it also applies to monk's protection line. Without protection or rangers and mesmers, this game would not be half the pvp game it is.

Do you actually sprout shit fully formed from your mouth or do you labour away at it? I think you have real talent, go see Simon Cowell.

GvG is one of the best PvP game modes ever. If you don't agree, you're wrong. There's no other way of putting it, really.

He probably meant in an MMO but whatever...