A few questions about GuildWars, and whether or not I should purchase!

Hiya

I'm sitting here, considering purchasing GuildWars.. However, there are several things that I need answered before I go ahead and purchase it. Now being a huge veteran of MMORPGs, spanning from UO, SWG, DAoC, MxO, EQ2 and most recently, WoW.. I have some questions that bother me about previous MMORPGs, and whilst some MMORPGs did well, others did not. Just to let you know in advance, I'm one of those irritating people who's obsessed with all things aesthetic.

1. Character creation. I know you can't change the structure of the face ala EQ2/SWG, but how many different "faces" are there in the character creation?

2. Clothing/Armour. SWG blew me away with the sheer number of clothing options available, I was able to craft different clothes with different colours, and create unique and wonderful outfits. How does GW compare? Will I expect to see about 100 different armours in game, or is there something akin to 1000? Additionally, something which bugged me about WoW is the fact that so much of the clothing/armour is limited to levels. Whilst I can understand this for armour, non-combat clothing being restricted to levels is darn-right stupid. How does GW fare on that front?

3. Mounts. Are there any? And further, are they again restricted by level? I *hated* being restricted till level 40 before being allowed a mount. I don't mind if they're bloody expensive, just let us ride them at whatever level!

4. Roleplaying. What stuff do we, as roleplayers get access to? SWG and WoW offered a whole range of fun roleplaying emotes, moods, and features that allowed us to fully extend our roleplaying capabilities.

5. Weapons. Are we restricted to what weapons we use per class? i.e. healers being restricted to using blunts and staffs or something equally as silly?

6. Armour Dyes. I've heard rumours these are in game, is it true?

7. Accessability of the world. This is something I loved in SWG and WoW... The ability to travel wherever I like, without being told "I must be level 35 to go there." I don't mind if the place is populated by creatures that would destroy me if I just as much as looked at them, as long as I can visit and explore.

8. Quests. WoW welcomed us to a world where quests weren't just "Kill x of x", but instead "Go to X, pick up X off the ground, fill up X with X and activate X and then kill X, and then return to X, before filling up X again, and await your X reward." Does GW follow in this vein, or does it simply go "Let's tottle off to an instanced area where the quest is: Kill x of x, oh, and kill BIG X."?

9. International Players. Please, please, please, please tell me that GW is not going to pull a Blizzard and say "Hey. You're in the UK. You can't play on the US servers." Is GW's servers available to all, no matter where in the world you come from?

10. Housing/Towns/Instancing of Homes/et. al. How is this done, if at all? Can we buy homes? Or do we live with our guilds or are we restricted to a crummy instanced apartment?

That's all for my random questions. If you can answer them (You don't have to answer them all, just a couple if you can), I will be deeply, deeply appreciative, and you never just know, you may convince this old MMORPG junkie to go for a new strain of MMORPG drug.

- Kweeky

Okay, a lot of these questions have been answered over and over again and if you read the stickies and used the search function you would probably find most of your answers.
However, I'll have a go at answering anyway.
1. There about 5-10 faces per sex per profession, so that makes 60-120 faces in total I guess.
2. Each profession has it's own types of armour. You can only wear the armour of your primary profession. I've seen six different sets of Elementalist armour so far. Two in pre-searing and 4 in post-seared ascalon. There are probably more than that though. There are no level restrictions on wearing armour or using weapons etc, but they may have extra stats that only work if you're high enough in the stated attribute.
3. There are no mounts.
4. There are a whole bunch of emotes, but not much else really in terms of role playing. This game is more about action than actual Role Playing.
5. Anyone can use any weapon, but, as stated in point 2, you have to have the attribute levels to get the extra bonuses.
6. Yes, there are dyes. They come in a range of colours. You can mix them together to get other colours. However, the parts of the armour that they change the colour of is mostly quite small and sometimes hardly noticeable.
7. You can go anywhere. Some places are only accessible through long explorable areas, or by completing missions, but once you've visited a town or outpost you can always warp to it by clicking on it in the map. However, you cannot go back to pre-seared Ascalon after you enter the Academy. Pre-seared Ascalon is the newbie area and entering the Academy is a one way trip.
8. From what I've seen so far, quests are fairly simple. Kill x of x, or collect x of x. That's quests. Then there are missions, which are more complicated and can have effects on the whole world.
9. Yes, everyone can play with everyone else. There is none of the shard nonsense.
10. No houses. Guilds can buy Guild Halls, but they are essentially only for use in guild vs guild combat. Again, this game is more about action and gameplay than roleplaying a virtual life.
On a side note there though, there is a mechanism to store and transfer items between characters on your account.

Simply, GW isn't a MMORPG. It's more of a tactical CRPG. Not much as far as items go, you can craft(buy) various armours but not really an abundance of them, and the style of clothing/armour is visually made after what profession/class you play.

Except for towns everything is instanced. So you wont meet other players and monsters wont "spawn" once you kill them. You can also instant teleport to any city that you have visited before.

And yes, there are armour dyes, you can even dye the hilt of your weapon. Speaking of weapons, any profession can have any weapon they wish, some weapons however have requirements and if you dont/cant meet those they will perform like a newbie weapon.

No mounts, and problably never will be any, as far as I know.

Most quest, no matter what game often has the kill x, delilver loot to y. The quest creativity as far as I've seen isn't much/if any better than WoW.

EU and the US can play on either of the regions. There was however no option for the Korean region, most likely due to the language barrier.

The char creation thus far is simple, basically you EQ interface where you can choose between 7 different faces/hair color/hair styles, you can however choose the height of your char.

US and EU can still play against Korea though. Everyone can go into the Internation Districts.

"Weapons. Are we restricted to what weapons we use per class? i.e. healers being restricted to using blunts and staffs or something equally as silly?"

the only thing silly is the lack of 2h swords or dual weilding.. but replace silly with "revolutionary."

Hrm.

Sounds very good and all, but the lack of any kind of roleplaying involvement sorta doesn't appeal to me.

I may try it out, but I think I'll stick with the old WoW, seeing as it is more of an MMORPG, and more to my tastes. (Not that GW sounds bad, just not my kind of thing. 'tho hopefully its presence will help boost the other MMORPG's attitude towards things such as monthly fees.)

So as far as I'm concerned hopefully GW will set an example, much like EQ2 did with the whole trial before you buy (as we've seen with quite a few other MMORPGs following suit). Maybe monthly fees will become a thing of the past.

'tho instancing everything? I personally hope that doesn't stay. Instancing belongs in scripted areas, not the whole game. I like the idea of being able to scream for help if overwhelmed, just for a Paladin to ride in and save the day

Depends on your likes and dislikes.

I personally love not having to compete with 12 year old cheese cannons for my kills. If I get in over my head, guess who's fault it is...? :P

Of all the Paladins I have seen in the dozen existing MMORPG's they usually do the screaming for help :P

Guildwars may not completely replace the MMORPG's out there but no monthly fees and all the pluses of this game take that concern away for me.