Why did you originally purchase Guild Wars?

A clanmate from a different game gave me access to his account for some time. After 2 days I ordered my copy.

I wanted to play as Leisure Suit Larry without having to play Leisure Suit Larry.

Playing in ClanBase, ESWC etc drained me mentally so I needed something less stressful. I always loved cRPG (Baldur's Gate!) and wanted to try a MMORPG. I had to choose between WoW and GW. GW had better looking box.
Three years later I'm still enjoying it

Enjoing classical RPG such as Might and Magic, I was quite intrigued to try MMORPG and GW was the best choice at the time for this new experience, as no additional payments were requested, while the game seems to be of A-class quality. It was Factions era. Getting my newly born monk into Shing Jea monastery and seeing numbers of girlish elementalists in funny bikini-like armors I thought " hmm, this way they are attracting people into the game, not so original..".
But when i got outside into green medows full of herbs and flowers; when i saw this absolutly astonishing eastern sea with small islands in it and on top of all very stylish beauteful music: I was captured. And this lasts for 3 years now. Creation of such world is more than just a wish to make money on addicted gamers, this is an art, very non-formal and inspired work behind each small detail we can enjoy and this is rare in games production.

I remember seeing Guild Wars on retail a few months after it was released and had the interest to look up and see what the game was about. From what I read, teams from Blizzard North + WoW became Anet and made this game, plus it's style was far more into Diablo (a personal fav of mine) then other MMO's, so I gave it a shot and now it's what I play mostly. The free monthly system really helped alot.

I fear that if someone were to make a game that plays in spirit to Gauntlet (the original game) I may turn my focus to that.