I’ve been playing GW now for just under a week and have posted a couple of questions in the Q&A forum, but not yet poked my stripey nose into general discussion.
I’d like to say in advance that while this particular thread has kind of a negative theme, I am very much enjoying the game itself and don’t regret my decision to invest in the retail release.
I’ve played various MMORPG’s over the years and have developed a good idea of what to expect when first dipping my paws into the water. So it was that I knew in advance to expect the high numbers of kiddies and “l33t” hordes attracted by the zero monthly fee, and good luck to em I say. After all “no monthly charges” is the very aspect which caught my attention as well. (Finances are tight just now.)
So I’m not going to say I’m surprised by some of the swearing matches and general rudeness which I’ve noticed going on around me in the past four days. It’s a shame, but it’s the nature of the beast and it’s to be ignored because GW hopefully has better things to offer around the corner.
But what I would ask is where is the more mature player? (Not talking about age here) Where are the players who want to enjoy GW as a social as well as hack n slash experience?
Yesterday I needed directions to “Foibles Party” (is that right?) as I had been given a quest whose first objective was there, but no directional arrow had appeared on my scanner. Having no idea even which direction to strike out in, I asked the question in the chat window and received no reply.
I waited a while and asked again, still no reply. After a while I decided to start jumping between the different shards/servers (I know they’re not called that but the name escapes me.) in the hopes of finding one with a friendlier crowd. Eventually I got an answer, but it took about five jumps.
During these jumps I found myself helping about three different people with their twenty second “join a party” quest and coming to the rescue of a couple of new players even fresher to the game than I was who were stuck as to how to begin. But any hope of reciprocation by the world as a whole was soon dashed on the rocks of stony silence.
That’s perhaps a little unfair as there were some people communicating. Now and again I would see people asking for volunteers to join them on one mission or another. But attempts by me to ask these people about the missions or what level party members they were looking form were largely ignored.
When I eventually did join up with one of these folk, I almost wished I hadn’t. When he said he needed someone to join him I assumed that it was because the difficulty level of the mission precluded doing it alone and he needed the extra support. (Isn’t it bad that by this point I had stopped assuming that it might be a social thing.) But in retrospect I suspect that he literally needed another party member in order to access the mission at all! Because once we got in there I can only describe what followed as the gaming equivalent to a “McDonalds drive thru.”
It was pretty obvious that this chap was looking purely at the directional arrow in his scanner and paying little attention to what was going on around him or where I was. He was focussed solely on his mission (finding a missing ranger) and pursued this goal to the exclusion of all else.
Beautiful scenery went unnoticed, strange as yet unseen (at least by me) creatures were gone in a flash as we hurtled by en-route to our goal. Unless they got in our path, in which case they were despatched unceremoniously before quickly moving on.
All this was accomplished largely in silence and attempts at communication by me were for the most part greeted by single words or grunts. My presence having opened the mission doors, it seemed I was to be seen but not heard from this point on.
If the whole mission from inception to reward took more than four minutes I’ll be surprised. Like a trip to a safari park, videoed and then played back at 4x normal speed. Lots of animals, lots of noise, but zero atmosphere and zero emotional involvement.
I did have to smile later though when before signing off I was approached by a gentleman who wanted me to join a guild. Pleased at the prospect of any interaction by this point I was happy to listen, but the conversation went something like;
Clawman: (not real name) “Join my guild.”
Grey Badger: “Right… Hello?”
Clawman: “?”
Grey Badger: “Hello
How are you?” Clawman: “Hello join my guild.”
It seemed that introductions were not on today’s menu. Ah well.
Grey Badger: “I don’t want to join your guild thankyou.”
Clawman: “Y”
Grey Badger: “Sorry, do you mean yes? Or why?”
Clawman: “Why”
Grey Badger: “Well I don’t know you. Why would I want to join your guild?”
Clawman: “U can du stuff.”
Grey Badger: “We can do stuff if you like. Do you mean you want me to join your party?”
Clawman: “ Not party, guild.”
Grey Badger: “ Ah I see. Well no thankyou, but thankyou for the invite.”
Clawman: “ Please.”
Uh-oh… that’s a little embarrassing.
Grey Badger: “No thanks anyway. Bye for now.”
<Badger makes good his escape.>
So sadly then not the best of first impressions of Guild Wars. But I have high hopes for the game as I find my way around a little better and hopefully scratch below its surface. I love the visuals and the different creatures are all nicely realised. I particularly enjoyed now that I am L7, returning for revenge on a certain River Drake who treated me badly at L2. Not so ****y now eh Lizard breath! Not now that I can pelt you from a distance with magic arrows at the same time as setting my big cat “Claude” onto your sorry hide!
I just hope that as time goes by I’ll meet people who want to take the time to enjoy the game as well as the opportunity of meeting the diverse player base. Also I hope that I can find more people who speak English, as my French & German is nowhere near strong enough to quest with a non English speaking party and I would say 60% of what I am seeing in the chat window when I log in is (to me) foreign.
All the best
Badger
