Should I Buy Guild Wars?

I've been thinking about buying Guild Wars but I'm unsure about it.
What attracts me the most is that there is no monthly fee to play it and it's an MMO.

I have looked at a ton of videos and screenshots and it looks pretty cool but I'm still unsure. What kind of game is this? What could it be compared to? What is the biggest age group for this game? Are they mainly younger kids/teens or are they older?

What's the one thing about this game that's going to make me want to buy it? Convince me, please.

I have talked to a lot of people on here and they are of many many ages...A few 12-13 year olds, some who are married and in there 30's.

I absolutly love this game - there is a lot to do on here, a lot of people to talk to, and ton's of different ways to play (differnt builds, character combo's ext.)

I would suggest you buy it

and like you said, it is free monthly and they are always updating things, adding new areas and they are working on the release of chapter two.

Yes.

That is, if you want to buy a game that allows you the freedom to play just about any way you want, buy this game.

Guild Wars has enough choices in characters and skills for you to find a way of enjoying your creations.

The scenery and other graphics are so smooth, sometimes you just have to stop to look around.

Arena Net listens to input from players on the numerous forums on the internet. They do an incredible job of transcribing vast input and applying that to game updates.

The overall support of the community, less a few noisemakers out there, is helpful and freindly.

what is chapter two? is that a free update where anybody who buys the game can just download it once it comes out or is it an expansion pack that needs to be bought seperately?
what's the diff between guild wars and guild wars collector's edition?

Is it more beautiful than Elder Scrolls' Morrowind?
I really enjoyed that game. Are there any similarities?

collectors edition comes with a soundtrack, headphones for teamspeak i belive and your characters have an 'auroa' when they do emotes. Chapter 2 is an expansion that can be bought seperatly but it is not required for the game.

I never played marrowind, but i have heard that as far as graphics goes this game is just as good/or better. That is one of the things i love most about this game, the graphics.

Personally, I don’t think it’s as graphically in the same standard as the latest version of Morrowind. (Although I like GW's graphical system better) There are no similarities, beside that you are using sword, bow and magic.

GW is more like a game of tactics with a group of people that has an element of RPG of leveling, exploring and looting treasure.

Correct me if I am wrong.

i think the graphics are better.

the above poster means OBLIVION

chapter 2 FACTIONS is the second chapter and is a full new game you can merge with the original game or play stand alone.

it is of course full price.

you can play either one without the other.

IT IS NOT AN MMORPG

there is virtually none (so far but more content is coming) of the grind stuff of an MMO

no mining
crafting
logging
smithing
baketweaving
all those time consuming chores

no travel time except running to it the first time than you can map teleport.

no

ganking
loot stealing
lines for a quest.

only interact with large groups of people in towns outposts etc otherwise it is just your party (up to 8 at moment) against whatever.

pvp is only in specific areas and optional

that is a bit of it

i love it

you can reach the level cap of 20 in 20-30 hours and leave at any time and everybody wont be 40 levels above you when you come back.

darn. I was hoping chapter 2 would be a download.
hopefully it's not too much. that is, if I even decide to buy the game.

I still haven't been completely convinced.
If it's anything like morrowind (game wise) then I'd probably love it.

It can be if you desire, but you still have to pay for it.

i love the ELDER SCROLLS series since ARENA in 1994

they have made a new game type with GW and there are virtually no similarities.

i would think twice.

there will be a free weekend trial possibly next month which might give you a better idea

It is nowhere close to being as beautiful as Elder Scrolls Morrowind or the upcoming Oblivion. In fact it's really rather cartoony to the point of ancient graphics like those of old mmorpgs. I'd compare them to DAOC before it's graphics facelift. Merely ok, but, nothing to write home about.

PVE wise it's as linear as linear can get, start at point A travel to point Z and well I'll let your imagination figure out what the ending is. Though if you've played one rpg like this you've played them all as far as PVE goes.

PVP has a fun factor of about a 6.5. It's kinda exciting and fun for awhile, but, then repitition and repetitive builds will pop up day after day, night after night battle after battle and well if that's your cup of tea then you'll enjoy it.

Level limits prevent this game from reaching it's full potential as a PVE game. Level limits are set because of the PVP game. All this balance stuff that is always screamed is never balanced. PVP never is. laffin But, at any rate if you can live with never growing past level 20, then you might enjoy it. Once the story is complete and if you are not into PVP then you are reduced to nothing more than farming for items (which are rather bland as well because of once again the PVP balance element of the game). They all have basically the same max stats just a different look and even the different looks are rather bland and minimal.

There's no boss mobs that require anything near a raid group to defeat, in fact you can defeat the entire game with AI henchies (save for TOA which they don't allow you to take inside anymore for "balance" purposes lol or whatever silly reason).

You could actually say this is nothing really more than a large Diablo world which henchies instead of your 40 minions that a necro could have in Diablo 2. (smile) Not to say you can't group with others. That may or may not be a plus, for me it was rarely a plus because well other people don't seem to want to focus or play the same way or organized and only the elite few guilds have these organized types of players and getting into one of those well would be like winning your lottery.

You have to come into the game rank 3 (which you can't) if you want to participate in the tournament HOH type battles anymore. Used to be u could just be new to the game and people would ask you to join, but, now it's turned into greed before need sort of play and without rank 3 you'll just find yourself in IWAY teams and nothing much more than that.

Just like in all PVP type atmosphere games the elitests have moved in and taken over and all their little underlings follow their pied piper ways and everyone else is just left out if they don't comply with them. Specifically you must make a build they require (usually what no one else wants to play but they need in a group) and it must be to THEIR specifications and you must have TS and/or Vent and act like a silly goon over the speakers.

Other than that it's not a bad game. (smile)

wow lots of replies already.

romeo- you said GW is using sword, magic, bow- but so is morrowind... maybe I missunderstood what your point was.

Loviator- 20 is the highest level you can reach?
This isn't a massive multiplayer online game? I thought it was.
What is so unique about this game that makes everybody love it so much? I watched a few videos of someone playing it and it looked like they kept using the same basic magic spells over and over... in all of the 5-6 videos that I watched of them playing. It looked boring. Either they didn't care or they like repeating the same things over and over.

I like games like morrowind and fable... do fans of these games enjoy guild wars?

Deathqueen- wow. long post. you've almost convinced me like 90% not to get the game. Now I'm not so sure if I should get it. What other game would you recommend that doesn't have a monthly fee but is an MMO (but not necessarily an MMORPG).

As some of the comments above, in many aspects the game is not like morrowind.

I come from a background of Neverwinter Nights, and have been playing under the role-playing environment for a long time, Guild Wars as first did not appeal to me at all.

Until I tried during the PvP weekend, I realized this is a team combat based game, but it is so well done that I decided to buy it having just played it for one day.

Yes you have misunderstood.

I said:

note that there will be a PVE WEEKEND soon that you can try to get just a small taste of. (FREE)

i will also get OBLIVION.

it would be nice to know when exactly that is... i think it would be a major deciding factor.

sorry romeo- I did misunderstand. I re-read it. I'm stupid. haha.

date to be announced

amount of content we will get to see......to be announced

it should be within a month and it will be a free weekend pass.

it will also be just the tip of the game

a preview peek.

people love it or dislike it for their own reasons

i would wait and see rather than rush in and regret it later personally.

the level cap is meaningless and will stay for future chapters as well.

new game style being born

oh wait... the preview is for chapter 2?
I can prolly only get the first game... since I only have like $40.

yes for chapter 2 but at least you could create a character or so and look around a bit to get an idea of the graphics and gameplay (a small sample)

Don't buy it. It will suck your real life social skills out of you when you start...
You get a -30 on speechcraft by the time you are done with the game.
^Joke post.

Buy it.
Free Online play + Beautiful Graphics + Chris_nin00's approval = A winner.

I command you using my speechcraft!

haha. I'm thinking hard about it.
I just need something new to play besides Call of Duty. Something interactive and fun... without a bunch of people that say "haha noob."

In truth I wouldn't recommend any of them, the only reason Guild Wars stands out amongst the rest is because there's no monthly fee. But, Oblivion is coming out soon, Neverwinter Nights 2 is coming out soon and there's always Fable and of course Gothic 3 to feed your rpg like gaming needs for the most part.

You can play Neverwinter Nights online at Gamespy, no monthly fee and the role playing elements are far superior than here, it has a true role playing feel when there are live DM's within the persistant worlds they have built. And of course the level limits are up to level 40 now and new mods are being built daily for it. There's over 3000 mods now at the official site Bioware has.

I've played all these online mmorpgs and these online mmorpgs or as Anet likes to call GW's cooperative role playing experience, they just remain the same, just hack fests, and a never ending problem with balance issues because of PVP. Neverwinter Nights isn't designed around PVP although there are PVP elements in some of the worlds. DnD is not meant to be balanced and people have accepted that for 30 years now. Real life isn't balanced and neither should game worlds be.

GW's will give you your money's worth that I can't denigh, but, it doesn't have the longevity of a real dnd atmosphere where people have played it for years upon years, you could say GW's is more or less Diablo III just another story and linear path to follow. But, that is why I like Neverwinter Nights above the rest, with over 3000 mods, the persistant worlds online and 40 levels there's more than enough to keep the game exciting and a new challenge and new adventure everytime you play it. One story games just get old, it's like reading a book all over again immediately after you finished reading it. I don't know of many that enjoy that or would do that.

you have been brain scrubbed into thinking rising numbers is more than inflation.

they can make their game any way they like to and the buyers will be the judge.

whatever floats your boat.

i will get chapter 2 with pleasure as it floats MY boat if not yours

Yes, because guild wars is supposed to accurately reflect the realities of our existence, what with the magic and monsters, etc. I think this game is very balanced. You aren't utterly, hopelessly screwed if you make any particular character or put points in specific attributes. I think it requires a special type of person to enjoy playing mmo's and Guild Wars is unique among the ones I've tried. It stresses creativity and adaption to game environments and strongly encourages cooperation and teamwork. Some people seem to think that being able to use only 8 skills at a time is a huge limitation, but I find that working in conjunction with others and carefully examining the skills available to you in creating your builds allows for greater creative expression than bringing in 50 spells and still only using the 3 or 4 best ones. I'm also getting sick of people complaining about level cap and lack of pve content. I've been playing for about 500 hours since mid-August and there are still many things on my To Do list. The level cap is there and will always be there; most of the game is modelled around it and it works perfectly fine. What would raising the cap to 40 accomplish? Nothing. End of discussion.

What I saw from Guild Wars is the tactical aspect in team battle. Because I am a fan of RTS such as Total War: Shogun, Rome, I find this aspect of the game highly attractive.

The environment and customisation is good enough for me to project my personal fantasy story around my character (see my fantasy writing: http://groups.google.com/group/TheThirteenChapters) in which many MORPGs, CRPG s would not allow.

Beside, I see that I do not need to be overly active and involved with GW like I was almost required with many MORPGs, I can log on and have a few matches, try to do a quest, then log off without needing to worry that I missed out some life changing story that affects all the Elves for example. That for me its good for my current life style.

Dare I say it (and this is a broad generalisation), those from RPG backgrounds don't have much of an interest in PvP Guild Wars, because it's very tactical and requires you to practically leave RP'ing at the door.

When comparing GW's RPG qualities to others like Morrowind, Gothic, NWN, BG2 etc... it doesn't fare too well. The storyline was only mildly captivating (and often amusing, in a sort of bad way) for me-and lengthwise, provides around the same hours of gameplay as the main storyline of NWN (perhaps a bit less, my memory is fuzzy).
For me, the PvE/RPG aspect of Guild Wars had limited replayability. But coming from a strategy background, I got into the PvP aspects of the game, and it definitely provides a lot of variety and fun-provided you're not in a roleplaying mindset, but rather in a competitive one. But the PvP aspects of GW can be hard to get to. You have to wade through the hordes of people who flame you, and don't want to teach you anything.
But when you get a good amount of friends and/or get in a good guild, it can be the best gaming experience you've ever had.

So two thumbs up.

To the OP, there are a lot of younger players in GW due to it's no monthly fees, and there are a few people who are a nuisance. But there are plenty of mature players. The community's not too bad, all things considered.

ADD: This, I think, is important. It may feel like Diablo at first. And the PvE aspect of the game probably is similar. But PvP guild wars is nothing like Diablo. More like...Starcraft, if anything.

I enjoy both RTS and RPG, GW have a some note worthy values of both of these worlds. I dont think GW completely shut out the RPG elements.

Deathqueen is just negativ because he's girlfriend broke up with him or someone in GW scamed him. I guess you could say that GW is a little like diablo, but is that a bad thing? As Romes says level cap is in all games, in WoW it is level 60 and that only takes about a month or two to get to(I have done it). I think you should buy Guild Wars, I promis you, that you will meet great people and have alot of fun.

By the way, Romeo MGS rocks !

In truth and honesty, I think you should purchase Guild Wars... most of the reasons have been covered, but I will leave you with somethings to chew on.

I have met some neat people from playing with them, as guildees, and sometimes as opponents. I have also met as many not-so-neat people.

The skill system and builds you will get to experiment with are dynamic and ever adapting. Sometimes, this because the manufacturer changes the game engine.

The most satisfying PvP aspect is very rewarding, in terms of loot and prestige and. But, getting into many of the groups that are successful is a matter of farming up some point in your Fame rating first.

Just don't think its fair not to spout off my most frustrating issues with the game... there are some challenges we face.

Now, I seriously recommend you buy the game. The positives, you will quickly see, for outweigh any negatives.

Hope to see you online soon, look me up if you need some help.

That was the dumbest thing I've ever heard. The style is similar, and Morrowind had great graphics for 2001, but Guildwars beats Morrowind hands down. They're not even in the same league.

Morrowind:
http://www.meetoo.com/pics/morrowind/morrowind%208.jpg
http://www.meetoo.com/pics/morrowind/e.jpg
http://www.igz.it/dep/pc/recensioni/...ind/morro1.jpg

Guildwars:
http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/temp/sc...ason/gw017.jpg
http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/temp/sc...ason/gw032.jpg
http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/temp/sc...ason/gw076.jpg
http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/temp/sc...ason/gw278.jpg

Heck, even WoW almost beats Morrowind.

Guildwars *may* not beat Oblivion, but then Oblivion isn't released yet.

Guildwars actually reminds me a lot of Morrowind, in the feel, in that there is a massive backstory, and in that the plot is extremely weak. If Guildwars was a single player game, then it'd be Morrowind. Except that the combat and skill system in Morrowind was unbalanced to the point of being broken.

Neverwinter Nights is among the worst cRPGs I've ever played, and I've played cRPGs since the 80's. The campaign it comes with is the dreariest hack&slash imaginable, the game itself is a bugfest, the only enjoyable part about the game is to wade through thousands of crap fan-made mods to find the handful of good mods. Plus the graphics of NWN sucked even when the game was new, it sucks all the more now that the game is five years old: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...NWN_luskan.jpg

Basically Guildwars is the best presently available cRPG there is. That may change, when Oblivion and, especially, Gothic3 is released, but at present it rules.

lol i agree Numa, Guild wars has beautiful graphics. I hate cartoony graphics (one reason I'll never play WoW) and GW just looks gorgeous (admittedly i have it on full specs )

I come from an rpg background (BG series, IWD series, NWN, Fable, Morrowind, Divine Divinity, UO etc etc etc) and I love this game. I'll be honest I was never interested in GW until I saw a screenshot of the bone dragon... I went and preordered it to get in a beta straight away

You'll find it far less involving compared to most MMOs (no houses, no armour crafting, you just buy it, no super weapons to find etc etc) but at the same time, its not like your typical one (e.g. in UO unless you're a necro or a dexxer, you can forget pvp), you can make your build for you, if you enjoy it and it works for you, great! You can change you build whenever you're in town, you get to mix and match professions (for example, right now I'm enjoying having a Mesmer/Necromancer who hexes and curses their enemies into submission ) or you can just stick to your main profession (as I do with my Ranger/Mesmer).

The story is long (though confusing) and it can get boring if you try to play through more than once, but the builds and enjoyment of beating enemies pull you through the boredom (i have 6 chars now lol). And the best of it is that its free. I got bored of it for about 2 months back in summer. I lost nothing. My account wasn't temporarily suspended, I didn't play £20 for something I wasn't playing in that time, and I didn't come back to find that everyone was twice my level.

Now I do have to say that its not gonna compare to Oblivion when that comes out BUT they are totally different games. So... its probably a choice of whether you get GW now and Oblivion when its out, or if you get Oblivion and then wait til after you got bored of that before buying GW. But I'd definately recommend this game. Once you get out of the typical rpg mindset of "must reach lvl 100 and get uber sword of uber slaying!" you'll realise how amazing this game is.

Guild Wars essentially boils down to a fantasy beat 'em up/action game. Sure there are quests/missions and some story or other but the majority of the time you're just killing things (or other players in the PvP mode)

I know a grand total of 2 (two) cRPGs that isn't true of, Planescape: Torment and A Tale From The Desert.
Every other cRPG, including the MMORPGs, consist almost entirely of killing things.
Yes, you can be crafter in e.g. EQ2, but if you want to advance in the story you better start killing stuff.

GW is a perfectly bog-standard cRGP, except it's got better PvP and better graphics than any of the competition.

Guild wars suits lots of playing styles,buy it,its worth the money....sucessful game to me.

Well I think I'd rather wait for Oblivion, but I know I won't have much money when it comes out. It'll probably be around $50-$60 won't it? I loved games like morrowind and fable because of replayability... and I just watched the videos for oblivion and they look awesome.

OBLIVION will be at least 50 maybe higher.

as i said earlier i think waiting before buying this might be the best idea

I too love Morrowind as I thought it has a wonderful RPG game system, there, I was allowed to create and design my own gears, items and train on desired skills, growing and developing in to a powerful character in my eyes.

I am disappointed in Fable because I feel that the production its un polished and very short. I felt that it was a project designed for a younger market of people and was does with lacking in passion. but from what I considered as two very lazy and faithless productions of Black and White and Black and White 2, I will no longer value any production by Lion Head in the future.

I do not see the replayability in Fable for more than two times for those who truly loves it, that is, taken in the consideration that the game only require under 20 hours to "complete", playing it twice, or play until your character obtained all the powerful items in the game, does not require much effort.

If one would find joy and satisfaction from Fable, I am sure on any MMORPG today would give you a good fun experience, quite possibly in a much greater standard.

However, from the impression of your comments, I think you would be more suited for MMORPG such as World of Warcraft.

As from your replies, you have repetitively mentioned Morrowind, a single player RPG. While Guild Wars taken away a large potion of repetitive-ness of your character development and it is also built largely for competition between players. This is something that Morrowind does not offer.

I hope you've got an Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX, otherwise, it's not going to look that nice on your box.

I don't know, should you buy Guild Wars? General concensus says yes.

Indeed.

I think you would usually get a positive answer to ask the titled question on a Guild Wars fan site forum.