GW Storyline involving XPACS

So I don't entirely understand how the GuildWars XPACS work.

With WoW, you got WoW classic & TBC. You work yourway through Classic, and then once you hit a certain level, you enter the xpac, and continue leveling in Outland. So you really don't miss anything in the game, and it's a continued story from WoW classic to the XPAC, TBC.

GW as I look at it, has GW Classic, and 4 XPACS. I played a bit, but am not convinced that it's a conitued story, not just for the storyline, but as well for the character.

It seems like all xpacs are solitary, they don't have any connection to other XPAC characters. You can start with any XPAC, and miss out on all the other content.

Does this make sense? See with WoW, you move onto the XPAC eventually, when you reach the end of the leveling for WoW classic. It doesn't seem like with GW, you take your character from GW classic, to Factions. to nightfall, etc. IT's just whatever xpac you want to buy.

Am I right?

Guild Wars isn't WoW.

Guild Wars has 3 campaigns and 1 expansion. Each campaign is stand alone, but you can bring your other campaign character over to that campaign and do that story as well.

They are all in the GW universe but encompass different times in history.

I didn't say it was WoW. I was comparing a game with expansion(s). At first I thought you work your way up through the xpacs, building your char, keeping items, etc.but it doesnt seem like it matters.

You can take one character through them all and build XP for skill points, get new items, etc, but they aren't one defined story.

By a time line, yes, it goes Prophecies - Factions - Nightfall - Eye of the North, but the storyline isn't intertwined much except with eotn.

uh, what's an XPAC?

eXpansion PACk

you fail to understand that Factions and Nightfall are not "expansions" to Prophecies, they are completely different stand-alone campaigns. Instead of telling 1 story through all of them, each one tells a different one. The only actual Expansion would be Eye of the North, in which sense it is more of an expansion to the Prophecies campaign more than the others anyways.

apples and oranges....

and yes to the OP there is only one 'xpac' (never heard that term before today either) and that is eye of the north....we call it an expansion.....

you can buy any one of the chapters (prophecies, factions or nightfall) and play them just fine and dandy without the others....

hope your question has been answered.

The three stand alone chapters, Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall, follow three story archs set in the same universe. Each of these story archs, whilst occuring in the same universe, and following on chronologically from each other, are not dependent on either of the other two stories. There is the option to carry the same character through each story arch if you combine your chapters, but mainly each campaign is geared for starting fresh with new characters.

There is one expansion pack; XPAC if you will. This is not a specific expansion to a particular campaign and so can be used to expand on any/all of the three previous chapters. This is Eye of the North, and content is available only to existing characters from any of the other campaigns

There's a connecting thread between all three stand-alone campaigns with its conclusion in EoTN(which is the only "XPAC"). All three story arcs, though can be completed on their own.

And yes, you can freely jump between whatever campaigns you have. It was designed that way.

Hmm

Doesn't really sound like a true MMORPG. I played the game for a bit, had some problems technically for some reason, even though my comp is good enough for AoC.

I liked it, far cry from WoW really. A great change from WoW as well. I just don't like the way it's setup. There's too many things to purchase, and too many stories to really get into the game.

Sure, you get to 20 in a few days, and then what? Spend another $40 to restart...eh
I just wish it was setup better, and it'd be the perfect game.

urmm...
i don't think you understand GW entirely...
WoW and GW are just too different
no 1 would play GW if it's just another clone of WoW

reaching lv20 is the begining of the actural game, where you're opened to all the things you can do, everything before lv20 is just learning to get used to the system

GW is Skill > Time afterall

if you watch the bonus making of nightfall movie that comes with the collectors site for nightfall it states that it all comes together in nightfall and that the evil is in the desert

Well

I bought factions. That's all I have. After lvl 20. I'm done. I've got to then make another $40-$50 purchase for Nightfall or Eye of the North to continue the story.

The bulk of the game content in all the games is aimed at level 20 characters.

The growth comes in the form of learning new skills, opening up more of the areas of the game and unlocking weapon mods/runes/inscriptions for eventual PVP play.

I think this was your problem.

Factions is small in comparison to Prophecies or Nightfall. You bought the campaign with arguably the least amount of content.

Additionally, $40-50? Are you shopping around in the least? I bought Eye of the north for $9. I bought factions for $15. I got nightfall for $18. Prophecies is the only one that cost $40 and that's because a friend bought it for me in the online store. If he bought it at a store it probably could have been found for far less.

In your position you could go get the Platinum Proph/Eye of the north for $40 and get nightfall for $15 or so.

If you want to follow the story, you would have to get Nightfall since that's the "Next in line" You skipped over prophecies which is the beginning (And by far the most content)

This is exactly what the games problem is. Tons of expansions, wait, campaigns, not expansions, but they still cost $40. You have no clue what expansion, wait...campaign to start with. You can miss tons of content, which really...doesn't make any sense for the next expansion...wait, campaign.

I loved the gameplay. I hate the story and the setup

GW is unlike any other on-line game. It is NOT a MMORPG.

It has no monthly subscription fee, so ArenaNet makes their money when someone buys a campaign or expansion or something in the on-line store. I've spent $160 in 2.5 years. Multiply a MMORPG subscription by 30 months and I think I saved a lot of money.

You don't have to buy another campaign or the expansion. You can keep playing Factions with different characters. There is no pressure, except your own.

Tons of expansions: 3.
Cost $40: I already mentioned that I spent $87 for all 4 and could have spent ~$50 if the first one wasn't a gift.
Missed content: You missed nothing. You can complete each game with the skills you are given. They are created as stand alone campaigns for a reason.

The three campaigns are stand alone games and stories. While the stories are some what intertwined, there really is no requirement that you do one before the other. This is the reason we make the distinction between expansion and campaign, as you don't need Prophecies to enjoy and/or complete Factions or Nightfall. Eye of the North was the first true expansion of the game as you need to be at least level 10 to enter the area (and it then gives you an in-game buff so that you are level 20), and it does not have as much content as the actual campaigns.

The point behind GW's level system was to take away the need to grind levels in order to be able to enjoy the game content. As a result, it is very easy to get to the max level and get max damage weapons and max level of armor rating and obtain a decent mix of skills. Instead of having to spend weeks leveling up to level 30 or 60 or whatever, you spend your time learning how skills and armor/skill modifiers work together and playing the game and story.

If your idea of an RPG is just to keep leveling and to become more and more powerful as you put more and more time into the game, then Guild Wars is not going to make you happy.