What's GW all about really?

I've finished the game 4 times, and not being the competitive sort of person, I have a disdain for PvP (can't stand the noob calling in that place) and I generally enjoy PvE.

I still remember the first day when I installed GW, and for a while I was so amazed by just how nice the presearing world looked like.. awesome graphics.. immersive environment.. blah.. the lot.

But turn the clock ahead 7 weeks, and having done countless UW/FoW runs, and having only 8 ectos and 20 shards to show for my efforts.. and the realisation that it is now essentially impossible for me to fully "complete" the game (get my FoW armor etc)

I don't know, it just feels strange.. how a game with seemingly unlimited replayability has been stuffed up over and over again with each round of updates.

I never farmed, so let's not touch on that.
I did started doing some trading a couple days back, and each day I figured I could make maybe 20 plat.. and perhaps afford that FoW armor in... 2-3 months!
With that latest update turning the NPC traders into total rips, that seems impossible now.

Heck, in fact there is no conceivable way (apart from botting) to earn 1 million gold. Why put a goal into the game that can't be attained?

In essense only those who play HoH and can win it consistently will be able to afford it, and PvEers will just have this cap placed over their heads with regards to how much they can achieve.

Sure, 2 new areas are coming out soon, but I'm not too sure how big they are, and I'm pretty sure there probably won't be any towns and outposts (and missions too) in those either. Perhaps just another UW and another FoW.. with a lot of repeated mob graphics and new "devourers" coloured in different colours.

Wow, that is truly exciting. And I'm pretty sure drops will still be absymal as well.

What's GW intended to be by Anet anyway? A RP *and* competitive game? Or RP with the goal of being competitive game? Or really just a competitive game with some RP bolted on.

The way I see it... there is getting lesser and lesser RP that could be done in this. Now I can't even be a trader anymore, and yes, while there are "no subscription fees" in GW, but let's not deceive ourselves ok? Subscription fees are just disguised as future chapters. Sure, it is half of what I'd otherwise pay for competiting games like WoW or EQ etc.. but I sure as hell am not getting 1/2 the experience.

Besides only God knows if after paying for the next chapter all I'd see is more of those stupid devourers, jeez, I really hate those.

Or perhaps you might say I've bought the wrong game. Not so, when I first started playing it, it was good! But the updates really stuff things up more and more.. and more.

So, what do you think is GW really all about?

i think it is a single player rpg you play with friends if you want to.

put it away as a completed game that gave you a lot of fun while it kept your interest.

check the additions and updates playing as long as it is fun.

see what the next chapter brings figuring you will be getting the same amount of fun out of it as well.

i do not pvp and feel i have gotten a real bargain for the money spent.

i will treat the next chapter as a separate game purchase not as simply an add on to this.

and yes i will get it.

this is how i see it.

play it as long as it is fun since it is just a game

It's all about the PvP.

The PvE is just a way for you to customize your character for PvP. They do it via PvE so you have to earn your customizations rather then making it too casual. The higher level stuff requires groups to give the game some social aspects so you can get to know people to guild with, and learn how to work in groups and guilds. Then guilds can then compete in the tournaments.

If you enjoyed GW for many, many hours, what's the problem? Since when are games intended to keep you entertained indefinitely, especially when there's no monthly fee involved? If you're bored, or lost for a purpose in the game, go play another game. Maybe after a month or so, you'll suddenly get an urge to play it again. You don't have to play it.

553 total game hours spread over four PvE characters, 3 completed the game. Many of those hours spent idle doing nothing but "people watching" of sorts. Spent maybe 24 hourss worth or so doing some fun PvP. Done some FoW runs but I'm not so devoted to the ToA that I feel compelled to finish every quest and buy FoW armor (or any 15k armor for that matter). Just bought a sigil so probably will do some GvG with guild mates but we're mainly casual PvP people.

Bottom line is, I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of a $50 game and at any moment I'm ready to move on if I need to. You can be sure I will be back when the expansion comes out, although I haven't left yet as there are still some people to help and things to do. But even if I walked away now, I am totally satisfied with the game experience I got to this point.

I know what you mean Silmor, and I can tell you that right now I am playing another game. At the same time, however, I'm doing what I can to try to improve GW. The game has so many good concepts and possibilities that have either been tossed away or just aren't being used to their full potential. PvP is "supposed" to be a big portion of the game according to most, I just don't find it that fun, along with many others I'm sure. It's too small scale, too "arena" like, too fake. You're not fighting for anything. Guild battles...what are they for? Rank? Faction? Text that says you won? Big deal, an 8vs8 battle isn't even worth that in my opinion. This game has the potential to pull off far greater battles, and do it better than any games previous to it I'd have to say, it's just not in the game yet. And it's not like such a thing would hurt the current system in any way.

So we're commenting, trying to get things changed, etc. Just like those who wanted and unlock through PvP. They got it. In fact they seem to be getting whatever they ask for, so what about the other half of the game? I feel we're entitled to at least that much 'eh?

If not I can try at least.

That seems kinda lame to me though, you put hundreds of hours into a game to get high quality weapons, armor, etc. just to shelf it after you get it.

I'm also to the point where there isn't much to do now except farm and do the same missions I've done on all 4 of my characters, not really to into pvp/gvg at the moment so now what? Farming is pointless now, I also liked trading and crafting just because...well, it's something different to do. Thats almost pointless now too seeing as how theres basically zero money to make off it now.

Besides, I've had single player non-online games last alot longer then 3 months, so why should this game with so much more potential be shelved so quickly?

I totally agree what pieXags said above me, the pvp's have gotten all they've asked for, while the pve economy goes down the toilet, drops go down the toile and what....a few new missions with no reward thats really worth mention. Ok, so I haven't done villany of galraith, what good is that for a char. thats already broke 1 million xp?

Except there could have been a lot more to it? Not a lot less each and successive week.

Good luck to you and the future chapters, I'm not a big fan of the story line to start with, to be honest it is mediocre to the extreme.. and I'm starting to get really sick of PUGs, and besides I foresee the same things will happen over and over again where they take more and more out of the game each week.

I still play WC3, there is no subscription fee, it is still fun, why is that so? Why does GW only have to provide x hours of entertainment and that's it? Why should there only be so much you can do in that RP universe?

Well... I dunno what to say except that GW was marketed with PVP as a main feature. If you don't like PVP you're missing out on about half of the game, IMO.

Also getting a good guild together and doing GvG combat is just simply THE MOST fun thing I have ever experienced in this game.

Since when is PvP marketed as the main feature?

I'd say PvP is more of an "added value" thing they added on to the PvE world, rather than the reverse.

GW is NOT an RPG! When is everyone going to get it? It's like saying that Unreal Tournament is an RPG! LOL!

GW is an action third person "shooter" with a few RPG elements thrown in. Once everyone understands that, perhaps the crabbing level will go down.

I am a strict PvE player, don't care for PvP/GvG. I have played RPGs. I have run RPGs. This, sir, is not an RPG.

But, trust me, GW is not going to abandon the PvE portion of their population, nor are the PvE elements of the game "just to practice PvP models" and such. The PvE part of GW is just as important and viable as the PvP.

This game has been hyped as a hybrid between PvE and PvP. Each side commands equal attention and gives equal bit$%@*g.

I'm sure the future is very bright indeed. ArenaNet is still (IMO) very in-touch with the community. Although they sometimes appear to do things on the spur of the moment, alot of the things are actual representations of what has been said on here.
They, i assume, have limited staff (to keep overheads down) and they are trying hard to please the majority.

If they can start to please the PvE crowd instead of always giving the attention to the PvP crowd...they are on a winner.

I don't know how their funding/salaries are figured, probably have a set fund to spend on stuff until the next expansion rolls out and boosts the pool once more.
They prioritise things and i'm sure even Joe Bloggs with his "I want sparkling lights on my boots" will be pleased eventually.

What is guild wars about? That's a tough one.

I'm hoping that guild wars gets divided into two crowds instead of trying to blend two obviously different (and sometimes rivalled) customer bases, although that is just my opinion.

At the minute, i would say that guild wars is in a confused state of affairs. Designed for PvP with a little roleplaying and unlocking thrown in but it's all hit the fan.
The PvE has proved overwhelmingly popular with a very large audience, just like the PvP has and i expect ArenaNet will soon have to acknowledge this fact (Maybe that's what the two new zones are for?).
Did they have the new zones planned from day one? I doubt it, or else it would be ready to roll out already to quell the rebellion.

I'm sure they are all drawing up new plans for PvE and they didn't think they would have to, lol.

Let's give them a hand with some ideas for the "end game" which will hopefully solve the issues with the farming and the boredom etc.

Can Anet roll out new free content every month to keep the storyline flowing and keeping the crowds happy? I hope so but i doubt it. New content takes alot of time, money and programming.

If it's just new areas to explore and hunt (which would be easiest for Anet), that would keep myself happy for a long time. It would be the best fix that they could do for now i would guess.

Big areas like the arid sea with hundreds of tengu braves (no enchant breakers, grrrr...) and i bet the whole community would piss themselves with excitement.

Massive long beaches like in kryta with many types of drakes to kill which takes a party all day to get from one end to the other. (snake dance anyone? lol).

An upsurge of charr attacking lions arch (would that be possible?) and killing all the spammers.
"WTS Godly crippling longs....arghhhhh!!!"

An emergence of a previously unknown remnant of the Orr army - wow fab indeed!!

A race of massively technologically superior robots (similar in looks to enchanted) crash land on a continent on the other side of the planet and decide to wage war on tyria for it's resources of "noob food" and we have to get our guilds together to go kick their asses.

New creatures, carnivorous giant slugs, huge army ants, chamaeleons that blend into the vegetation and grab a member of the party. The rest of the party have to rescue him/her (after they finish "ROFL") before their health gets sapped away.
Trees like in LOTR that walk (pinesouls are too cuddly).

Guild wars has a long way to go, if they can blend PvP and PvE in one aspect and separate them in another aspect (which is possible) everyone will be happy.

Wow, long post and it's 2:30 AM, lol. Will check back later.

Bravo! Well said. Well thought out. Excellent balance. Thanks, Tactical Dillusions!

Maybe because in WC3 it's all about skill, instead of having to first level up, unlock or farm a single character? Where each fight starts out entirely balanced/equal? If you must compare GW to WC3, compare the PvP section of GW to it.

All your gripes are PvE related, and I'm beginning to believe you've just grown bored with GW. All the signs are there: you keep saying how it started out great, and now it's getting worse and worse. Imagine how it would be if you only started playing now - you'd have just as much fun as you did a few months ago. I think you're just blaming the changes for ruining your fun, and actually got all the fun out of PvE that you could get out.

Ok, I just pulled out my GW box, lets see what it says on it...

"Online Gaming has a new champion"

"Craft your hero"
"IT'S YOUR ADVENTURE"
"Be the best"
"Free online play"
"Your skills will be your legend"
"Anticipate your opponents"
"Lead through action"

Then I see pictures, do these pictures show a pvp arena? No, it's shows "A Warrior seeks ascension in the Crystal Desert", "A Warrior battles a drake in Kryta", "A monk resurrects his ally in Ascalon", it shows a single picture of the HoH, flip it over and it shows a warrior with a bow attacking a bone dragon.

So how does any of that equate to it being marketed as a pvp game??? By the way I'm looking at it, it puts emphasis on the pve element and pvp as a secondary. Pull out the boxes, look for yourselves.

"Explore a world that dynamically grows and changes with new content while you play". Is that so....

Read closer please. I said PVP was *A* main feature. The other being PVE. They're about half and half, really. Anet wanted to appeal to as many people as possible out there so they could sell more copies (obviously). What is the simplest compromise? Half rpg and half pvp.

Of course the hardcore rpg'ers will be unhappy with GW as an rpg. Of course the hardcore pvp'ers will be unhappy with GW as an arena game. For the rest of us sitting on the middle of the bell curve, GW is a perfect blend. I can go co-op with my buddies and slay evil monsters one day. I can vent my frustrations in the PVP arena the next. No other game can do that in one package like GW can.

That's a good statment and to a point i do agree with you. Yes, sometimes i find myself watching more TV than usual or see how many wood planks i can farm inside an hour, lol.

Bored...not really. Just nothing exciting left to do at the moment. I don't think true boredom will set in for a while. The promise of new content and the chances of streaming updates keep me playing.
I don't mind seeking grind in the meantime. I have only around 10,000 xp to get my monk to 1 million xp and she fast overtook my ranger (who sadly is now a mule at 590k xp ) .

The future is bright so long as the PvE crowd isn't ignored (which i doubt it will be) and we can all continue to make daisy chains and hug each other.

Hm I can point directly to "Be the best" and "Anticipate your opponents" as the obvious ones.

Well that just sucks. Im here only for PvE and One the challange is gone, Ill pack it up and wait for the exspanion.

I enjoy how chicken poops jump out of quests when it gets hard, and we have to finish 1-2 ppl short. Glad I dont do PvP

The title of the game is Guild Wars. Guilds compete in PvP tournaments for rankings. Do you think they included team speak with the collector's edition so people could chat while they farm together? No, it's for guilds to use in competitions.

It just so happens that the small amount of PvE they included with this game is very good. So good it seems people that don't normally play PvP games are picking this game up and playing only the PvE and then saying where's the end game? Well the end game is PvP.

There are much deeper PvE games available, give EQ, EQ2, WoW, etc. a try. DAoC's PvE is deeper then Guild Wars, but it's focus is also on PvP.

You can try an petition the developers to create more PvE, and they may. But as someone else pointed out they have made changes mainly based on PvP. Like being able to unlock things now via PvP and now gain XP via PvP. It is a PvP game and I don't see the point of frustrating yourself waiting around for the developers to turn this into the type of game you want to play when there are plenty out there that specialize in what you are looking for already.

It also says in a tiny box down at the bottom:
"Game experience may change during online play"

Which covers their asses should anyone happen to start complaining that the game isn't what the box/book says

Generally I tend to play more PvE than PvP, but I like to think the game is a bit of both really, both aspects compliment eachother and a bit of PvP is a great way of relieving stress. I'm sure ANet hasn't forgotten the PvE side of it, and that we'll see updates and expansions on their way with new content soon, good things take time!

But only if we can sing "Kumbaiya" too.

You almost made me lose my mouthful of soda, TD.

Someone earlier said that this game is -mainly- about PvP. I disagree. It was marketed and is still marketed as a hybrid PvP/PvE game. They may be focusing their updates on PvP but that does NOT mean that they are going to stop updating PvE----otherwise why would they be bothering with the new areas due to come out in August? That's not an update for PvP.

I suspect that they are only updating one at a time (at least each update focuses mainly on one or the other) since the codes for each are vastly different.

How exactly can the devs make the game have more PvE replayability? It's very difficult to constantly release new areas. It's difficult to make interesting, dynamic AI opponents.

If you're looking for more PvE, try something like EQ2 or WoW. They offer a lot more PvE gametime than GW does.

I have to say that Morrowind kept me entertained almost indefinatly. I got bored with the game and started using the map editior. I made mods then got bored doing that so I went back to the game. With the near infinite possibilits in that game it wasn't hard to stay entertained almost indefinatly. I mean you could kill Vivec (A very important character in the story) and still beat the game by taking the back path way. Arcanum also kept me entertained for a while because of the massive number of things that you could do.

BTW Right on Tatical.

Yup, hybrid it is, and fun too. The latest updates may have been mostly PvP orientated (faction/unlocking) but very much looking forward to the new areas next month. Both camps are equally as important and i'm sure ANet sees that, hence their scramble to appease the masses. Big thumbs up to them for listening to what the community says and improving on certain aspects, very refreshing to see a developer so in touch with their fans.

Back on topic, the game is described as a CORPG, which ANet tell us means "Competitive Online Role Playing Game" as i'm sure a lot of you know. I prefer to think of it as a CCORPG, Competitive/Cooperative Online~ etc as much of the game is about cooperating with your fellow players, as much as beating them to a pulp, but perhaps that's just my twisted way of looking at it.

I've also got a really big nuclear warhead I'm about to strap to that tiny little box.

Then why is the game called 'Guild Wars' and why are most of the PvE rewards only really useful in PvP?

It's both PvP and PvE and arguing about it wont solve a thing. Both are present in the game and both are constantly being developed and re-evaluated by the Anet team based upon ours and their own feedback I'm sure.

Not every update can give something to everyone. Some will surely give more to PvP, while others will give more to PvE (Summer update).

For those claiming that the nameof the game proves its PvP focus - read the lore, The Guild Wars are the backdrop for the splintered races of humanity in game (PvE), as well as a suitable title for the PvP content.

for people who are saying they've taken more than 2 characters through the game to completion - that's alot of game time - my main character has over 180 hours invested over 2 months and I got the game on day of release. That's an average of an hour or so a day - by no means casual and definately a good return for 30 quid.

I've come from both EQ2 and WoW those games feature no progressive storyline at all and the exact same issue of copy and paste monsters with different skins as I've seen complaints about here - but then the grass is always greener on the other side isn't it.

However I think reaching the end of a game and then complaining about there being nothing to do is akin to making a ourney in a car and complaining when the drive is over that the destination is rubbish. Go drive a different route or see what you might have missed first time around, maybe even try a new vehicle

That's funny. I don't see anything in here about the PvE just being preparation and a variable "Test run" for PvP. Come to think of it, PvE is in a world of it's own compared to PvP in the sence of game-play.

Huh.

Hahahaha...

"large head-to-head guild battles"...pfft.

Woohoo! 8vs8 in the same few enviornments! Sweeeeeeet...pfft..."large guild battles" more like "tiny pointless guild arguments".

Before buying GW I have never seen that! It is not stated on my collectors box, too! The description on the online shop made me believe that it is a PvE game with PvP! Didn´t ANet tell the Shop, what kind of game it is?

There is a poll somewhere on the net, asking, why do you play GW? Is it the coop, the explorables, the Arena, the tombs, the HoH or all equally? 73% of all the people answered, said "coop and explorables"!

Argh!! This topic has been done so many times, that if I see it again my head may just explode!!

Listen; Guild Wars is both PvE and PvP, enjoy both, enjoy one or the other, it doesn't matter to me or anybody else. Just don't turn it into an "us vs. them" scenario between PvP-ers and PvE-ers because it's just ultra-flammable and I'm getting tired of locking threads. Makes me look a lot meaner than I actually am.

Rawr!

Hush.

I was poor, less than 70k a few weeks ago. I decided I would not beg or whine about my poverty. I thought "what do I think will increase in value? Why of course! Ectoplasm!" The whole guild wars community is vain, and pretend to be victims of some horrible economic crash. I went and bought every ecto I could, sold my weapon, and sure enough, ectos tripled in value. If some people aren't willing to use their brains a bit and get creative, you don't deserve the goods. Simple as that. You can make a lot of money nearly effortlessly.