Advice to a returning player?

Well according to the forum I haven't logged in since 2006. I stopped playing before any of the expansions ever came out. With the announcement of Guild Wars 2 and the arrival of summer, I thought it may be fun to play through the game, considering I don't think I ever "beat" the original campaign and don't remember the story. My question is would it be worthwhile for me to spend the money to acquire the expansions and play through them all?

I enjoy playing games at least in part for their story. There are a number of multiplayer competitive games that I like, but I've never been too keen on Guild War competitive play so I'd probably stick to PvE. What concerns me if the posts I've read about the large number of bots and the posts saying ANet is pretty much going to kill the game once Guild Wars 2 comes out. I don't want to get into the game only to have it shutdown this fall or something. SO what do you guys think? Is it too late to start playing fresh?

A second issue, I created a new character last night and ran around pre-searing for about 5 min but I was getting a fair amount of annoying lag. My character kept teleporting all over. Is this common or is it just me?

You can now buy all the games for around $20 so there's nothing to loose.

1. The trilogy is cheap enough now you might as well. The skills, the space, the stories... all are worth at least $20.

2. Lag happens periodically. The game is by and large playable most of the time.

3. Bots aren't so bad, they're just rampant in a few areas where they can farm whatever it is they're farming. It's not like you'll be seeing towns full of bots.

4. GW2 doesn't even have a release date yet, but we're expecting Summer 2011. You've got pleeeenty of time to get through all 3 campaigns and caught up on storyline.

Hope that's what you're looking for.

Yup, thanks to both you and GG for the responses. I guess I could just get the trilogy. I was pondering the collectors editions b/c they're cheap-ish now and I like shiny things. But I think it would only be worth it if I could be sure the game will stay up after the launch of GW2.

If you can get a Collectors Factions, Kuna is always pretty nice. Im not even talking for selling purposes.

If you hate PUGs, love runners, and love farming, then today's PvE GW is for YOU! Also the White Power have new mobs in Proph so you can fight them some more and wait to see if this will cause a plot for GW2.

DISMANTLE!
OBEY!

Depends on the type of farming. Maybe I can grow some pumpkins.

No, not really. Dragon Age or Titan's Quest would be more fun and rewarding.

It will still be up after GW2 is released, don't worry about that. I wouldn't worry too much about what a number of posters put up on here considering I'm pretty damn sure they don't even play the game and are just here to spew crap everywhere. Don't hesitate to ask any questions though since there are still plenty of people here who do play and will help you out.

Anyways, welcome back man.

There has been a lot added since the old days. I'm sure you will enjoy it. Especially when you get into the eye of the north stuff. That expansion is all about lvl 20 content.

Don't let trolls on guru scare you away from playing. The opinions expressed here are... lets say, colourful. Game is great fun and can be as casual or competitive as you want it to be.

Ohhhhhhh boy ALOT has changed, if your characters still exist you'll have a few presents on them..

Drop the If, GW servers NEVER delete characters.

It will be a while before GW2.

And GW1 will stay up after GW2 - but there may be a significant drop in GW1 population due to people migrating, and you yourself might want to join the exodus to GW2.

Only thing to beware of when GW2 comes along: GW1 players who have recorded their achievements in a Hall of Monuments will get some kind of reward in GW2. Rewards are likely to be inconsequential, but rewards nonetheless. A-Net has said that some time after GW2 is out, you won't be able to add new stuff to your Hall of Monuments and receive GW2 rewards for doing so.

Seems the cut-off won't be the moment GW2 is released though - according to A-Net's Dev Update posted 24th June 2008 there will be some time to load up your HoM after GW2 is out.

Jeff Strain said those things back in 2007 - quite some time ago. It's possible they might change their minds, but personally I doubt it.

Oh - and if it's not too late for you:
AVOID LINKING YOUR GW ACCOUNT TO AN NCSOFT MASTER ACCOUNT, AT ALL COSTS.

When you see people saying that Guild Wars will be shut down, remind them that most GW players also play other games, so the release of a new game doesn't necessarily mean a person will stop playing GW. ArenaNet has said that the servers will remain active as long as people are playing the game. If a Live Team remains in charge, adding new costumes, small quests, and fixes, I wouldn't be surprised to see it make a 10th anniversary.

Doesn't matter what ArenaNet says. NCsoft OWNS the servers not Anet. So if NCsoft wants to shut it down they will just like they did Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa.

It doesn't matter who owns the "servers" - GW is a program and could be moved to any "server".

At any rate, legally and morally speaking, whoever owns GW would be obligated to keep GW running for a reasonable length of time after they stopped selling GW1. You can expect GW to be running for at least 2 years after they stop selling new accounts (which they haven't yet).

This ^ person doesn't know what he is talking about. They gave subscribers of Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa 30 days notice and that was that and there were NO OTHER SERVERS OPENED UP FOR THEM TO PLAY... 'RON.

NCsoft owns Anet and Guild Wars and they will decide the final straw at any rate not Anet. Anet can only breach contract and move along is all the power they have and they won't be taking GW with them. )

This person doesn't know what he's talking about. Just because a game was shut down, doesn't mean it COULDN'T have been moved to a different farm if the operators WANTED to. Those games he mentioned were shutdown because they weren't making money and they didn't WANT TO run them AT ALL.
He (and many other posters) seem to forget that any game is just software. It's not physically tied to any particular "server" (which would actually be a server farm consisting of many individual computers). So, if company A (the server owner) says "we no longer want to run program X on our server", company B (the program owner) can, IF THEY WANT TO, move the program to some other server.

Or, to put it another way, the GAMES (i.e. programs) were shut down. The servers they were running on are still there, running some other program.

Just like if your kid was playing some Hanna Montana game on your PC, you could shut it down on your PC and get her her own PC to install it on.

Haha well I didn't mean to start any arguments. Thanks for your words of encouragement, everyone. Its probably worth at least playing through the single player campaign. Did anyone else ever find it odd that, despite various buildings, there are no interior locations? At least not in Prophecies. Everything is outdoors, even in the frozen areas.

Anet said a long time ago that the game engine wasn't designed to handle small interior locations iirc . Although in eye of the north you do get some locations that can be considered "interior". They're still large open spaces though.