Guild Wars - Should I?

Alright, I'll try to make this short and simple...

About September 5th I started playing FFXI(Final Fantasy 11) because a friend recommended the game. I start to play the game and I'm loving it. However recently I am not able to get on as much as I would like to due to school. I consider me getting on about 4 days a month to be a waste of roughly 13 dollars. So I am here today to explore a cheaper and more efficient option, and I had another friend recommend me another mmporg, guild wars.

I hear from this friend the guild wars doesn't cost a mothly fee, but more along the lines of a one-time $50 fee at almost any retailer. I came here hoping you, the guild wars fan base would be able to help me awnser a few questions. My question are:

1. What Does Guild Wars Cost? Montly and for the actual program...

2. What is the minimum internet connection one could play guild wars on?

3. Is there a program I could test guild wars on before purchasing the software, to make sure that my computer has the proper hardware?

4. In general, even though it may be biased(seeing as you are a Guild Wars fansite), what is your personal opinion of Guild Wars compared to other massively multi-player role playing games?

5. For someone who has hardly ever player and mmporgs, would you suggest Guild Wars to start off with?

6. Again, since I haven't really played very many games such as these, what would you suggest starting out with, class wise?

Well, quite frankly, I think that is all of the questions that I have for now. I thank you for reading this and hope I put it into the right section, :P!

Thank You,
Meimeiken

1. On the west coast it seems to still be $50 for the game. It has no monthly fee and I highly doubt they'd ever add that.
2. Figure 56k and above work althought I'm sure you would want to run it on 128k+ so you lessen frusteration.
3. Only way to know is compare your system specs to someone elses or maybe the min. and/or suggested system specs. Yet no way to pre-test like a demo.
4. Personal opinion...great game and still in the making to me really. Has a good future and I'm sure lots to come. The longer this goes the better it will become is how I see it.
5. Actually this compared to most other MMO's I've played it is easiest to catch onto because it's simple to me. So yes I would suggest this to start off.
6. Seems easiest class to really play and everything for a newby is probably a W/Mo (Warrior Monk combo if you havn't played or heard) because it's quite easy to stay alive and you can solo quite easily.

1. Monthly = nothing, to buy £30/$50
2. I believe people play it on 56k (not great probably)
3. Not that I'm aware of. Others may know of something
4. My opinion: not as long lasting as other MMO's, but because its free thats fine; means I can put it down whenever I get bored of it without wasting money, and when I come back to it, its as great as ever.
5. I'd say GW is a great first MMO; the instancing makes it much easier to get along with than if you're suddenly thrown into a world with 3000 crafters, 99999 warriors and 60060 mages allr unning round together And the 6 professions only means its far less puzzling to figure out.
6. Depends what you like. You can choose 2 profs on your char:
Warrior: General damage taker/has best armour. Good at defense with some nice dmg in there
Ranger: Bit of everything. Best with bows. Can use traps, interupts (stop skills), damage or drain health
Monk: Heal, protect or Smite. A popular choice for secondarys for people to help them stay alive
Mesmer: Good at causing others to kill themselves or stopping casters...er... casting
Elementalist: Spells, elemental ones Mainly damage but has some defense ones too
Necromancer: Deals with death. Uses corpses to raise minions, cause area of effect damage or to help their allies regain health/energy, as well as some non-corpse using skills.

Just play around with them whilst you're near the start so you can start over again with no problems if you don't like the character you've made

Alright, Well..I thank you for replying so quickly!

1. Sounds like a fair price...

2. Damn..I have cable at one place...24k dial-up at the place I'm at most often

3. Yeah..I was thinking of downloading the client and telling my friend to let me try one of his lower level character..just like walk around with it...I don't know though...

4. I personally thought FFXI was great..then again I've been a huge fan of SE for a long time..I don't know how much I can get into this without a kind of previous storyline...

5. Just by reading some stuff it seems like it will be kind of hard to get some 'gold' in Guild Wars compared to other, like FFXI..the gold basically fell into your hands, literally...

6. In FFXI, I basically took all of the jobs to 10 and then started lvling the mage jobs higher..I don't know why though..I'm think if and when I start guild wars I want to do some kind of melee job...

Thank you,
Meimeiken

Don't be too worried about playing at the location you are at most often (the 24k connection) as I have played on a connection that was about the same until I had a cable connection installed. Is it a great connection? No, but you can still play and enjoy it....although you may not want to group with any other real players that cannot tolerate you taking a few minutes to load a new zone.

There is a storyline to the game, though some argue whether it's a good one. The game introduces you to it fairly well in my opinion.

Yeah, about the gold.....it's not so much that it is difficult to obtain gold in this game, but more that there are those who have an obscene amount of it who can buy anything they want several times over. Did they nerf some farming areas? Yes, so now it's not as easy for the casual gamer to farm for large amounts of gold. Which means now you must spend a little more time to get what you want.

Everyone has pretty much answered the other questions so here goes on #5.

5. This doesn't really play the same as an MMO. You won't really get the same satisfaction you will out of the MMO grind and getting super items, levels and rare spells or skills. However it also plays differently than almost any MMO I've tried or played. I still have a Lineage account that I buy a month for occasionally, and then I play Guild Wars as well. GW is one of the funnest games I've ever played. Don't go in playing it and looking to get the MMO feel out of it. It's fun and has it's own style.

The most fun I've found in the game is finally becoming part of a really good guild. The fun is doing PvE or PvP team events with the guild. There is always someone who is doing a mission on a newer character and the call goes out and the guild goes and helps them do the mission. Before I joined this guild I had never been to a fairly advanced part of the game called 'The Fissure of Woe'. The guildmates wanted to do a Fissure hunt and took me along as a healer monk. It was so much fun. We had a blast and got some pretty good drops too. To me that is what is fun aobut this game.

Watch the gamespot video review. It gives a good representation of Guild Wars.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/guild...q=guild%20wars