Why did you originally purchase Guild Wars?

I purchased guild wars to enjoy myself and have a good time online. I also liked that their was no monthly fees.

I started playing during the final BWE. I bought guild wars because it has no monthly fee, a low level cap, essentially equal equipment and character classes which seemed cool at the time (and they still are). My friend got me into it, but hasn't played since like 2005.

He quit after a month, funny that.

I always liked MMORPG's, but never wanted to pay a monthly fee, and the free ones kinda sucked. A friend of mine let me have one character slot on his Guild Wars account, and I loved it. At that time Factions was coming out with the release date being on my birthday so that was perfect. Later I bought Prophecies and Nightfall, but Factions is still my favorite.

This ^^

Good job, summed up all my reason + more.

Girlfriend. Now we both love it. And each other. <3

In Dec of '05, I was taking my son out for a birthday lunch and Gamestop was right next door. We went in to look (both are addicted to gaming) and I bought him Civ4, then noticed the Guild Wars display.

I picked up the box and saw it was Free to Play and decided to add that as a bonus gift.

He has never played Civ4 until this winter as his PC, although meeting the requirements, only played the game at a snail's pace.

Guild Wars, on the other hand, is still his only MMO. He talked me into buying a copy and we both still play daily.

In my order of preferences at the time:

- Was looking for an MMO/RPG
- No monthly fees
- No grind
- Looked good
- A friend of mine who also played said it was pretty good

Curiously after installing it I only played for 2 weeks or so, got bored and left it. About 6 months later, a year and a half ago, picked it up again, created a warrior and haven't stop playing ever since.

someone pestered me for about a month to get it (he bought it on release iirc) i eventually just bought it to make him stfu and then i really enjoyed it.

* A few friends had bought it and recommended it and I was looking for a new game (back in May '05)
* It was really really pretty
* Free to play
* No stupid server/district restrictions (I love you, International dist)
* Really pretty

I was playing runescape and a mate of mine suggested this new game called guildwars that he heard of. I pre ordered and played in beta for a couple of days. Been playing on and off since then.

friendy (who now plays wow and tries to get me to switch lol)

A friend of mine played it and let me create a character I enjoyed it so much I bought it for myself also the no monthly fee was great as I like to take breaks from playing...

3 Words:

Free-to-Play

Originally heard about awesome pvp, one distinct server where everyone can meet up, not much grind, and good cooperative play in pve. GW sure has changed a lot.

At my moms house we never had a pc but when I finally moved out I really had to have one.
Bought some RTS and FPS games for it but had alway loved RPG's
Did some research and was thinking of WoW or Guild Wars.
Both cinematics looked great but chose WoW for the better graphics in the cinematic (I know noobish huh?)
After arriving at the store WoW needed me to pay an extra sum of money just to play it.
Being a former console gamer I thought "no way" I just bought the game right, why pay extra per month?
So GW collectors edition caught my eye with a headset (I needed that too (: )
And now I'm playing for 45 months, bit bored but still happy with my game.
Never had that on a console before

I wanted to play a game together with a friend who was located in another country, but we didn't want a game that had monthly fees. We also didn't want a game that would constrain us from playing with people from other regions. Most online games won't let you play with people of different regions unless you buy a copy of the game from that region -- but this locks you out of playing with people in your home region or vice versa. Being able to play from International Districts was a big reason for why I chose to buy GW -- the flexibility to play with friends located in Europe as well as in the States.

A friend told me about a beta-test being held in Jan or Feb 2005. Codes to participate were in a Magazine. We played the beta and all following betas and bought the game at release...

Wanted to play coop campaign games with my gaming buddy. We do that since Quake2. We were also looking for something new instead of the classis RTS, FPS, RPG etc.

So my eye landed on GW for the following reasons:

- Great graphics (more realistic vs wow's cartoony graphics)
- free to play
- human characters (not the classic orcs and elves etc.)
- coop campaign play possible (we learned that it's called PvE)
- low level cap (more 'tier 4' content)
- skill > time as my gaming buddy is a busy guy with limited gaming time.
- Arenanet (founders came from Blizzard and worked on Bnet etc.)
- New streaming technology
- great server setup, you can play with anyone in the world
- instanced world so no corps camping
- new chapters and expansions (MTG model)
- lots of skills and only 8 to choose from (kinda MTG model)
- no expensive high end gaming system needed

Because WoW was lame

I did not want to dedicate so much time just to be max level - where time = skill

GW offered a low level cap - where skill = perfect practice

Plus the great graphics, no monthly fee, and the unique type of balance.