Popularity / servers

i was wondering what the popularity of this game's going to be compared to the other popular mmorpgs such as ffxi, wow, etc.. i know you dont really know until the day it's released. whats the general census.

[edit] sry poor choice of words,
how will the servers work?

i am a little confused on what you are asking there but i read there are hundreds of servers world wide and presumably you go through the one fastest for you at the time

no separate shards or servers

meet anybody from anywhere by simply saying meet me in district xx of askalon (or elsewhere) and hook up

No one except ArenaNet knows about the current numbers of players during the BWEs, I'd say that from the last one (march), their was maybe around 200 000 players, which is all in pre-orders, so more will come at release. 200k isn't bad for a not-already-known-game-company!

wait so it's like a diablo setup where u join a room and ur alone with a group of ur friends?

I didn't play Diablo.. but Guild Wars operates on a system of instances. There are major cities and outposts where you get to see many many people, but once you join a mission, or go out into the explorable areas, the game generates a separate map for your team only. So, in other words, if you go into a mission with your team, the only people on that map will be you and your team members. Hence, no looting, no spawn camping/stealing, kill stealing, etc.

Like others have said, there are no shards for GW. If a city has too many people, a separate "district" will be automatically made, and you will enter that district when you enter the city. However, if you want to switch to the first district, you are free to do so unless it is full at that moment. If it's full, simply wait until people leave that district, and you'll be able to join it. All districts are identical copies.. just with different people.

The same goes for outposts.

I have played D2 for 5 years now.

In D2.. you go into a channel...create a game..tell your friends to join you...etc etc...

It is like that in a fashion, but not how you think.

It goes more like this...(stuff in this would be the D2 equivelant or how it relates to GW)......

1. sign into your acct (just like D2)
2. pick character ( again D2)
3. instantly enter THE GAME ( emphasis because the "public channel" for GW is towns where all players gather

4. whisper, talk to, or meet up with friends to go play (basically " joining"
5. leave town (create game with name and pass so only you and your party are in it)

6. play game ( no game hi-jacks occur because no one can enter your game unless you return to town and let them join up with you..or steal your drops because the game randomly assigns drops to characters in your party game)

7. go back to town to unload for wealth or buy new stuff..no repairs involved
(leave D2 game to remake again)

more or less.. that in a nutshell is the difference from D2.

(and, I might add, is the whole concept of INSTANCING to anybody who doesn't understand what they mean by it)



Forntunately...it is nothing like D2.... in fact it is a vast improvement on the mechanics and setup of your games