What Beta GW Was this?

Howdy,

For the sake of my own ego, I've been trying to identify when I first started playing Guild Wars. It was sometime during the beta. I forgot how character creation went, but I remember there was one large rocky arena set with the Ascalon terrain, and it.. I remember there being a large out-cropping perfect for rangers or whatever.

It, in short, had a nice Z axis, something I'm giddy with Factions about.

The PvE, though. It'd start you off in this post-searing area in a sort of cul-de-sac. There.. the.. frustrating to remember this.

Argh. I wish I had screenshots. ;P

I remember a crappy Ascalon town post-searing. Very different from the one we have now. I remember the Sanitarium being a sort-of hole in the wall. Just a small cube of an outpost. I think you got to it by crossing some sort of bridge.

Even then, I think those were added later on, and weren't in the original beta I was in.

There were no quests to speak of at this point.

Anyone?

-were there skill gems? then it was the E3 for everyone event (may 2004)
-WPE started with a short version of Gates of Kryta as intro and the only main town was Lions Arch (halloween 2004)
-february BWE introduced pre-sear (post sear layout was changed after that)

leaves the 3 BWEs from november to january

I liked the very old screen character slection. It had a 'campground' sort of background, with your characters lined up in a row.

When you wanted a new character, the screen would move to a far off narrorw cliff, overlooking a giant gorge(i think that whats called).

As for the skill rings, I didnt really get them( I didint really pay attention on how to use them anyway :P)

If it had Pre-searing, it was one of the later betas.

Nope.

No Pre-Searing.

It was way, way long time ago.

I guess it was in May 2004.

What was a skill gem? Refresh my memory.

- edit -

Also, I do remember playing in an upgraded Post-Searing at one point. Some kind of quest. I don't remember anything about it, save that I had to--of course--kill stuff.

But that was a bit of time after I originally took interest in GW.

- edit #2 -

http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/p...ildwars004.jpg
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/p...ildwars011.jpg
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/p...ildwars014.jpg

Haha. Not that old.

http://www.primotechnology.com/artic.../big/gwb34.jpg

this, though..

.. snooping around these to see if I find something definately familiar.

http://www.primotechnology.com/artic.../big/gwb28.jpg

This map looks familiar.

There are a bunch of other screenies though. An arena. A mission. But neither of them look familiar.

Was there a beta event or whatever -BEFORE- E3???

well the first beta was basically a PvP arena (like Oct 2004 I think)and that's it... and then there was the Tombs kind of location, then they had the first limited PvE with was all post searing starting from Lions Arch... the Ascalon area map was Very very different from what it is today. that's prob the one your thinking of... Once the Pre Searing area was made they had to redo the entire Post searing Ascalon area map to match terrains... And had to line up portals again the next event.... By this time there were only I think 2 more left... I'm thinking you are talking about sometime prior to Jan 2005 event. Which is when I came in... That was mostly the PvE Introduction... With the first version of post searing ascalon. I'm pretty sure that's the one your talking about...

Wish I could find an official timeline.

Let's assume you're right.

As long as whatever you're suggesting was the very limited and very simplistic PvE Post-Searing beta-thingie.

I also do remember the PvP arena. Was fun. Was actually the only time I ever made it through the HoH to the chest. Unfortunately, none of us had any idea what to do.. ;P
- edit -

I found your Gorge or whatever.

http://mediaviewer.ign.com/ignMediaP...type%3Dpartner
http://mediaviewer.ign.com/ignMediaP...type%3Dpartner

I can only vaguely remember the first free beta weekend I joined.. anyway, my character started at a place similar to Kryta and north of Lions Arch reminded me of a place in the beta weekend (where Kurzick camps right now).. and at one other mission in Kryta reminded me of the scenary in the beta weekend!

The only all access betas were E3 2004 and Halloween weekend 2004. After that you had to have the pre-order or a friend with one.

There should be different betas i mean all of them were betas but need more classification

I know exactly what you are talking about. But I'm sorry, I can't actually remember what event it was either.

that's e34e 2004

Indeed that was e34e in 2004, the first public Guild Wars event. It's quite easy to tell seeing as if you find a WPE shot in October 2004, everything looks A LOT different, plus Khylo was only named Khylo in e34e in 2004. Some may be wondering what the hell the town Khylo was, well I think a few of you might know of this town as Ascalon now . ANet for translation purposes could not keep the name Khylo, so they changed it to Ascalon.

Sadly, the only GW event I did was e3 2004... it was then I knew I would buy the game. For some reason, I never played the beta weekends...

I remember walking around the map outside and finding some ranger asking me for help... and the weird competitive mission... and one where you had to protect the ghostly hero from ghosts.
But most of all, I remember the first two missions which made it into the game... run from the char, and use catapult missions

Here's an old E34E SS:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...eens/gw035.jpg

I laugh at myself when I look at my skill bar and distribution of attribute points. Ahh... good times... good times... Running out and killing Stone Golems for skill crystals. Black dye dropping left and right...

wow, i remember that interface, I loved it... now its all seperate windows i dont like it that much

Wish they made GW Skinnable

mEEEEMORIES.

UI's are funny critters. You get some people who love an UI while other people hate it. Personally, I'm glad to have the new UI. Though I do wish that it was skinnable or at least had a few more skin choices. I could do without a lot of the window decoration in the current UI.

Looking more closely at my picture, I think my ranger was dyed completely black except for the leggings. I should have known back then that dye was bogus and didn't come out like you expected. Of course it was free/cheaper back then so who was paying attention?

Oooooooolde Schooool!