One word.

Wow.


A friend of mine told me about Guild Wars a while back but really didn't take it into consideration because of the less than par RPG's to be released in the pass few years. After playing DAOC since release I just cancelled my accounts a 45 minutes ago. I just couldn't take the level grind, mls, nerfing, albs, and the "If your not a power gamer, your not going to like this game" attitude (not to metion mythic does not take ideas of any of the players into account). So I remeber what my friend was saying about guild wars and I decided to check it out.

I couldn't belive it. Not only does the grouping, guild, and leveling sound wonderfully fun. The in-game grafics look unreal. Seamless server? Are you kidding? You mean I don't have to wait 3 hours to wait for people for a simple loot run? Very cool classes and more to come I'm quite sure. I'm sorry if I seem a little over excited about this game but trust me, everything that I had a problem with in online rpgs has just been answered through this game.



Oh yeah, and there's not monthy fee.


unbelivable.

Hah Your in good company then. Welcome aboard

The big thing that got me involved with GW was your own maps. That is just simply genious.

I know the feeling I have been playing GW since the Feb beta and some time in the WPE but every time I loged on I was still Surprised and amazed I can't for the life of me think why any would play anything eles like EQ2 or WOW Yech

I haven't played it yet. If the jungles and thick woods make me feel like i'm in jungles or thick woods, i'll be happy. I hope its not too lineary. The environment makes the game for me. If its too cheap and has no feel to it then it will get bland. Hoping for a more Meridian 59 style of taking over guildhalls too. So far, this game offers the closest thing to that.

Welcome to GWA... Guild Wars Anon.


If you think the graphics are great now, wait til you get in game! The screenshots really don't do the game justice. Mostly because they've all been converted to jpgs to reduce their size.

Everything looks awsome jpegs or not I can't wait to play, I preordered too late for the betas tho, getting the collectors edition, in the meantime I just watch the movies over, and over, and over, and over.. you get the picture, lol. See ya on the inside.

:::End Transmission:::

The environments are very pretty, but unfortunately I don't find them too immersive for the very reasons you are giving.

They are fairly linear and I do usually feel like I'm on a path rather than cutting through forest, jungle or such.

Also, the walk-mesh is terrible. You'll find yourself not being able to go down a 1 foot mound that is at a 45 degree angle and such a LOT.

The game isn't perfect, but it does a lot of things right. The PvP is well thought out and it is a great game to PvE on if you are a busy person with only 1 hour to play at a time.

They really did focus on cutting out the tedium often found in these games and that says a lot.

Steping into guild wars is like putting your foot into fresh non-chlorinated water that is just the right warmness.

May I just say I got a big chuckle for your one word

Na, dont start that. This thread has purpose.

Everyone talking about how much they like the game?

Ill send you a PM man, lets not change the topic here.



To everyone else, continue loving the game out loud.

Glad to see that I'm not the only weirdly obsessive one who hasn't actually gotten to play yet.

I played DAoC from day one until about 4 months ago. I, too, couldn't take the BS anymore. Whoever had the best gear prevailed. Guild Wars is so not like that at all. And here's a concept that you will be able to appreciate ... compared to DAoC, PvP is actually BALANCED!!!!

While the missions can seem fairly linear (or... most of them), the Explorable Areas never made me lose the feeling of exploration. I could wonder for an hour in a single area killing things left and right, running through thickets and dodging bone dragons through bogs and never get bored. I think EA's are one of the best parts of Guild Wars.

The game is incredible and I am glad you received it as well as I did.

For me it was like the first time I played stand alone Ultima I. I probably wouldn't admire this game as much as I do if I hadn't been a programmer who had worked on game editors long before there was any online gaming. There is a sophistication to Arena.net in making a 73K, (that is "K" as in Kilobytes) client which puts this game leaps and bounds beyond basically every pc game in its class and most not in it's class.

What's so fascinating to me is the code isn't being swapped. That 73k program is the client. The small client means little overhead so the program can run on lesser systems reasonably.

As far as missions and if GuildWars will be sustaining, most of us who have played have seen at best 60% of the game, if we did everything over these 6 BWEs. So many people have a "take" on the game but really it's unqualified because there is another 40% or more of the game to be revealed.

Taken in consideration of all these things the game is incredibly awesome as a major evolutionary programming step with revolutionary marketing (no monthly fee) as well as revolutionary internal game structure (minimized the dependency on level and items and maximized the meaning of skills).

Pieces of GuildWars can be compared and similarities found in other games, if one wishes to do that. Certainly Volkswagen has compared their original beetle to a Rolls Royce too, however it is the entire package that makes something what it is, that identifies it in and of itself. GuildWars is clearly identified by the rather large interest in it even though the premier release from a new developer. The Blizzard histories of the founders of Arean.net aside, Arena.net remains new, and yet, have a following that has exceeded expectations due to the variety of ways this game does appeal to people--even those who would assume it's faults without playing the finished product.

I found problems with the chat interface myself, as did many others, and made suggestions to which, the following month almost identical to what I suggested had occurred, another reason the game appeals to its base and will generate genuine loyal fans contrary to other games that people assume are in it's league. The new company with its new game is earning its loyalty in fact.

@ Sin:

Being a programmer myself, I thought exacty the same sorts of things about the client.

My thought was "Wow, they finally separated the content COMPLETELY from the networking/transmission shell". The same shell could be used for a Sci-Fi game, Cthulhu Mythos, or anything else. Just stream out that content and change the log-in screen.

Very smart stuff.

As for similarity to past games? I think saying it is a 3D Diablo with PvP tournament support and ranking pretty much describes the game. We even had dueling and PvP in Diablo 2, just not as sophisticated.

Yes the missions are somewhat linear (very much like Dungeon Seige), but they never lose that sense of exploration.

On one mission I was lost up north in the mountains (Borelis) caught in a massive snowstorm, fighting huge ice creatures. I couldn't figure out where they were coming from and then after searching around I discovered an entrance to a cave that lead to the most fantastical Dwarven Mines I'd ever seen in my life (complete with VERY unfriendly dwarves).

A big part of GuildWars exploration (for me at least) is the almost insanely beautiful fantasy artwork whenever you move through the mission.

Seriously man playing Guild Wars is like stepping into a world you could only once imagine. It's EXACTLY how I always pictured a fantasy world to be.

Bamelin The Wanderer
The Vindicators
www.thevindicators.com

Moebius or Boris come to life right? That's how I felt right away. And then I found articles praising Arena.net for their entirely unique use of lighting that many said would change online games forever. Paper written article, sorry no link.

*Edit* Communist true, just one more of the many reasons the game appeals. To many the main reason, to me paying is wrong as a matter of principle. Everyone wants my hard earned cash making their monthly nut well, me thinks that shouldn't be perpetuated any longer. They all gotta be responsible for making reasonable deals, not trying to lock me in, to bind me to some ongoing forever contract only to give me no voice and mediocre service along with an unfinished product full of bugs, and, charging me while they finish it? That's like arena.net charging us to play the last 6 betas!

i am too cheap to pay 5,000,000 dollars a moth for just a game if u pay even 15 dollars a month u are getting ripped. Darn Bhuddist Monk stole my wallet again!

you definitely need to check out the PvP... its like a whole nother game with in itself.

Its simple. Im a busy man, I work wierd hours at a Casino, mixed with time for friends and the lady.
I dont have hours or days of play time like i used to in the high school summers...

Basicly i was lookin into WoW to check it out cause Ive heard lots of good things bout it.


The things that turned me off were the fact that everytime I saw someone playing, all they were doing was runing. The odd fight... but mostly just hoofin it around. The fact that you have to have an uber character just to be able to PVP with any kind of fun, turned me off.

The final straw was the monthly fee. Like i explained i dont have time, and with other payments i make, i couldnt justify paying $20CAN for a online video game. IMO online games are sopost to be free.

While surfin the net, i found a few hints at a game called GUILDWARS!!!

Whats GuildWars??!? Made by the makers of DIABLO and D2!?
I used to LOVE Diablo!!

So I read every piece of dirt i could find on it, and trust me it got me as excited like when i heard about Half-life2!
Anyway, my obsession started and I heard if you get the pre-order you can play for a weekend before its released. No harm done I threw down the $10 and was amazed at the graphics, the gameplay and the overall BEAUTY and "smarts" of the game.

The game is geniously designed and props to all the devs!

GuildWars boners all around!

3 in the morning october 29th my friend knocks on my window, i let him in. he hands me his laptop, i plug it in next to my computer

"whats this all about" i said
"you see" he says, with a huge smile on his face.

he gets into the game and im still half asleep, coulda swore i was dreaming, these were the best graphics id ever seen...and he DOWNLOADED IT!

i download it in 15 minutes on my computer and get in the game...design a character and start walking around, next thing i know im level 20 fighting things left and right and the servers close, 3 days, no sleep, barely enough food to live off of.... my god i was addicted i had to have more

i preordered, never got the preorder package...bummed....canceled the order, and am now patiently awaiting the release to hope over the the local retailer and buy it


the games beautiful

the animations are awesome

the game makes diablo 2 look like stick ppl

just my 2 cents

I think there is one major fix that GW offers to the common MMOG problems that the original poster didn't mention.

Instead of everyone playing, for example, a mage and getting fireball level 1 through level 12, you have a large group of varied skills to select from. A lot of thought goes into trying to make a combination that works out of all of these options, while still allowing it to fit in the 8 slots and within the energy/health/adrenaline limits of your character. And you can make a combination to do whatever your imagination can come up with.

No MMOG out there offers that. In other games, if you're class X, everyone knows what skills you're using, because there are either very limited options or none at all.

Wow, This is exactly what happened to me with WoW. Gw rox! Anet has really taken MMORPGs another step further.

Today I found myself thinking about GW at work and the word "genius" kept popping into my mind.

You can rave about the graphics (I keep telling my friends, "It's like being in a movie!" which sounds lame even as the words come out of my mouth but it's how it feels), but in the end, it's the skill system that makes all the difference.

Change the 8 skills you're playing to 8 others and it feels new again. If that's not genius, it's something pretty close.

I mean, does anyone else find themselves constantly musing about skills?

Dalia

I found out about the WBE on Fileplanet. I downloaded the client, thinking, yeah, and then like all the other MMORPGs they are going to want to charge me every month. Whoa. Didn't happen. What did happen was instant love. This was fun! I didn't feel overpowered by other players who were somehow in the "know". I didn't have to worry about what was "right". I could follow my own instincts and try different things and OMG I would not be penalized for doing so. An adventure game with real adventure.

I am ready.