Guild Wars
 

so, i've been seeing a lot of screenshots concerning a MMORPG called Guild Wars that you only pay for the game itself.. no monthly fees.

the screenshots look awesome.

any opinions?

Linky?

www.guildwars.com


It has potential. The developers are former blizzard employees so I wouldn't count it out. It might develop a strong following somewhat like Mythic. We'll have to wait until late next year to find out though.

a free MMORPG?

http://www.guildwars.com/gallery/scr...ges/gw004.html

Preeetty..... :D

Looks like it could be good, but along with never born I must say "free"!?

Looks more like you buy the game. After buying it you can play it online without paying monthly fees.

The game looks really good. Can't wait to see some more screenshots on it.

I understand they recently changed the name to ArenaNet. Still cheesy-sounding, but the game looks cool.

yeppers, free! buy the game, no monthly shit like evercrack!

-bounce-

i want it NOW. the graphics look purdy :D

http://www.guildwars.com/preview/default.html

There will be a "World Preview Event" starting on October 29th, click the link and you can download the installer, which lets you go ahead and download all the files for the game. You won't be able to play now, but you will be able to starting on October 29th, when it starts and registration opens.

Here's the system requirements:

System Specs:

Required System Specs:

* Windows XP/2000/ME/98
* 800 MHz Pentium III or equivalent
* 256 MB RAM
* ATI Radeon 8500 or GeForce 3 or 4 MX with 32MB of video memory
* 500 MB hard drive space
* Internet connection
* DirectX 8.0

Recommended System Specs:

* Windows XP/2000/ME/98
* Pentium III 1GHz or equivalent
* 512 MB RAM
* ATI Radeon 9000 or GeForce 4 Ti Series with 64MB of video memory
* 500 MB free hard drive space
* Internet connection

It's definitely work checking out during that preview period for any of you who haven't had the chance to play it before. I played it during the 3-4 day E3 preview event. It was incredible. No waiting or travelling to see your friends, just a simple click and you are teleported right into battle. The missions are fun, and it's extremely easy to form groups. Definitely excited to play this 2nd preview, to see how far they have come since E3.

Ill see you all on during the event unless im busy with bieng under someones skirt

Cheezy name or not,

That speaks for itself, lol. As far as the game goes I'll see you guys in the WPE, heh.

looks pretty cool. Definetly a plus that its by key members of blizzard and that you dont have to pay monthly for it. i think i will have to check thsi game out.

The game really looks good to me. I have a buddy though who played a beta version of it I think and he said it sucks horribly. Being free is nice but I finally caved in and got Final Fantasy XI this past summer and I can say it's worth every monthly fee and more. The game is magical. If anyone knows differently of Guild Wars though I'd be interested since I don't have any first hand experience with it.

The World Preview Event has started 1 day early, meaning you can sign up now. Go to the GuildWars webpage, download the installer, run the game, create an account, create a character, then it will start to download the rest of the files, then you're free to play. You might want to hurry up, just in case registration is limited.

I also played the previous preview event, and I thought it was pretty poor. I suppose that's just a matter of taste.

OMG does this suck. It's like a MMO version of Diablo. no depth to it, craptastic graphics, lots of lag, and you have to download new files everytime you change areas? Playing it with friends at the moment, but this game needs some serious reworking.

after playing for 30 minutes, man this game blows. sorry guildwars, but you aren't any fun. back to WoW :)

The reason for the files being downloading everytime you change zones is because the file you downloaded to install was only 62kb. Instead of making you download the entire game, you only have to download the files you're going to use.

I agree though, this game sucks. It's a little better then it was during the E3 for Everyone event, but it still blows honkey. I can't stand the whole "massive amounts of instancing" bullshit. Everything but the towns and some areas before dungeons are instanced. That is just dumb. So much for a cool persistant world. This shouldn't even be called an MMORPG, because if it is, then Diablo II is. You said it well Irishsean when you called it a Diablo II MMO. It IS Diablo II, except you can mate classes, and the chat rooms are 3d!

I shit on you Guild Wars and hope you find a way to make this game not suck massive amounts of cock and balls, because bitches are for fucking.

Only played for a little while, but I think I'll already delete this. Very disappointing.

Hmm, I've played a few hours and seem to enjoy it. It is fairly strange that there are no people around, but it makes it seem more realistic. Don't think you'd often find a couple hundred or more adventurers in the same place. I'm gonna go play some more, heh.

You people seem to call it just another Diablo like it was a bad thing. Not that I liked D2 much, but thousands of other people did, and played it for years.

Meh, everyone's complaining about the lack of people.

"Rather than labeling Guild Wars an MMORPG, we prefer to call it a CORPG (Competitive Online Role-Playing Game)." That'd explain a lot...

They also intentionally made it less hardcore and more arcade style to differ from the other MMORPGs out there.

You just have to read a bit to see what they were trying to accomplish instead of saying it sucks because it's not the type of game you expected. It'd be interesting to here some logical explanations of why it "sucks", heh.

However it would be nice to wander around a bit on your own, find a party and join up with them...

Alright, unlike the rest of you I simply love it.

First off since when you go on a mission only YOUR party is there, you dont' have people stealing your kills left and right and it also makes you choose your party wisely.. as again if you get screwed.. no one can kill steal and subsequently save your life. Also you dont' have to worry that much about people hoarding monsters and then run past you... that shit is just annoying, but now if it happens its merely a team member that should no longer be a part of your party.

The graphics? First off you're playing a ROLE PLAYING GAME. Graphics are not everything, and futher more they're not too shabby if you have a good gfx card.. At least thats what it would lead me to believe as they look fine to me.

Others have complained about no one being on. I have NO clue where you get that from. They have towns in the form of Districts. So essentially there is only one server for purposes of where characters can play on, but they're like servers in terms of holding people. This means everyone can play with everyone no matter what district they gained their levels in. Oh yeah, back to the "no people" part. There are many districts that are FULL.. I don't know how many fill a district but I know I've run into at least 80-100 people on every district I've been on. It doesn't look empty by any means but very full and flourishing.

Co-Op.. thats only when you're doing the Co-Op missions. Its a huge storyline there. For those of you that say no plot.. you haven't looked at the Co-Op missions. Each one has been taking no less than an hour to complete, and thats with a full party. There are other areas where you can just wander the entire lands with a party, but its not used as much as the Co-Op area during this event because the space is a lot smaller when you have all these Co-Op stories to go through.

Also you can't forget about the namesake.. Guild WARS. The PvP is simply awesome. I'm a guy who usually doesn't get into PvP, but it was very well done in this game. I've spent countless hours just doing PvP. Besides every MMO person I've ever met said that for the game to be good its gotta have PvP. I've never seen a lot of storyline in PvP, yet thats all the majority of MMO's like to do. Guild Wars has that, and excells in it. There's a tournyment PvP where you can have a Party of 8 and you'll be fighting 3 other parties of 8. I've been there before and it was intense.

I'd go back to it right now, but its 8 am and I should have gone to bed a lot sooner. ;)

I'm glad someone else likes it. The PvP system is simply amazing, Was playing the 8vs8 in the Arena yesterday, got wiped out every match. Ranger gets increasingly harder to use with that many people. It was a lot easier with 4vs4, where I didn't have to worry about getting rushed by warriors.

The districts thing is pretty cool, makes areas populated, but now with too many people. It wouldn't be too hard to find people either, message them and tell them to meet in a certain area and district.

I was exploring in some of the explorable areas yesterday and found it pretty cool as little quests would pop up and give you something to do as well.

Now finding a good party where everyone doesn't rush and get everyone else killed is a little harder to do, but it's not so bad since you don't lose any experience when you die. I think you do lose money when you die though...

Anyways, this is a beta, so the final release is bound to be different. I'm seriously considering getting this game, not sure if it's worth it to get the Pre-Release though...

I'm enjoying it.

The only real problems I have with it is the messed up economics where you get hardly any gold and everything is real cheap, not to mention it's damn near impossible to buy new armour. But I'm guessing that's just something that's being worked on.

The Co-op missions are fun as hell. Although I'm up to the River province one where you have to get to a temple while avoiding the guards, one of my party members got spotted and we were all slaughtered.

Personally, I'd rather play 15 dollars a month for decent support and service. With no monthly fees, the game is just going to become a financial burden for the company.

I can't see it being much worse than the battle.net servers...

I have to agree with thriolith here. Guild Wars is going to run into some disatisifed customers because it's marketed as a "free MMORPG." This is simply not the case. Personally, I really enjoy the game, but it is NOT a MMORPG. I think of it as a better Diablo 2. Call it Diablo 2 1/2, or even 3. For all of you MMORPG fans out there looking for something new, go get World of Warcraft. For people who like or used to like Diablo 2, give this game a try. I think you'll like it.

i loved it. I will preorder it so that i can play on the weekends till it comes out because they are allowing people who preorder it to beta test on the weekends till it comes out. It has been a huge improvement to the e3 version i played. yay.

I could see it being fun if they were just gonna go the battle.net route with it. But they are planning on expansion packs every 2-3 months, and that is gonna get way expensive for a game just used to piss away time while a real games servers are down.

I'm pretty sure this game isn't your typical mmorpg.

I played this this weekend, and it seemed really interesting. I really like the idea of a staging area before missions that everyone did. I had no issues finding groups or people to play with. I'm not sure how long it would keep me interesting, but I'm thinking this might be something to look at.. anyone have any ideas if it will be a pay per month thing?

I'll answer my own question for those interested:

When will Guild Wars be released?


The beta begins in October. We will take as much time as necessary to balance and polish the game based on feedback received during the beta period, and anticipate that we will release Guild Wars by early 2005.
How much will Guild Wars cost?


Guild Wars will be priced at a comparable cost to other first tier PC games.
Will there be a monthly fee for Guild Wars?


No, there will not be a monthly subscription fee of any kind, anywhere in the world.

Bringing this thread back... my friend showed me the Beta test version of Guild Wars and damn, it's a pretty game. It's an MMO you don't have to pay monthly for (+props) and it's right at that $50 average game cost.

If you're in the Beta already, type in /dance ;)

GameStop release date is March 22...

Meh, I was in the first preview event and I wasn't impressed. Sure it had nice graphics and all, but the combat was just too slow for me.

Everyone thinks Guild Wars is so awesome because there's no monthly fee. What those people don't want to recognize is the fact that the expansions (some media say that there will be 2-4 per year) will be $20 or $30 each. There ya go...there's your monthly fee.

I played the beta and was supremely disgusted. The game felt incredibly awkward.

-Lasereth

Dude, you don't "have" to buy the expansions. You were supremely disgusted with what part of the game? what part felt incredibly awkward?

I can tell by some of your responses that you've been judging the game without really giving it a chance. And still, no one really wants to back up their beliefs on why it's a bad game.

Anyways, the game isn't marketed as a free MMORPG, that's just a plus.

If you can call it that.

Personally I wouldn't. It's more like a nextgen Diablo.

I've been looking into Guild Wars lately and am loving what I'm seeing. I've been on a three week hiatus from WoW and for the past week been trying to get back into the game... I can't, it feels too much of a chore.

I think I'm finally gonna put WoW down and pick this one up come April 28th, sure the no monthly fee tag is enticing but what draws me to the game is it's art direction, though not as good as WoW's it still harbors some fantastic visuals. And after watching the opening cinematic on gametrailers.com I got a bit pumped.

I know quite a few WoW vets who are turning their back on the game for GW, mainly because they've hit 60 for a while and found the game to get boring. Looking forward to GW!

Ill defintetely be giving GWs a try. The only thing that could really hold me back is if BGs in WoW turns out to be really fun and accessible. WoW, while there are bursts of fun, it is just too much of a chore. Too close to EQ without the newness EQ once had.

Excellent, coverted a few friends and now have formed a guild offline... 18 Days to go...

prolly gonna get it, how many expansions you think theirs gonna be?, doesn't look like they proffesions have a lot of skills to master

Im planning on getting this game as soon as it hits the shelves, Looks like it offers alot and its free to play online. Ive been looking into it for a few months now and I hope it turns out to be as good as it looks.

So who played the beta this weekend? I did, can't wait for the release. I also heard that the last 1/2 hr. of the event was quite a show. Anybody here see that?

I had a go and loved it! I love how outside of cities are instances. Unfortunately I had only time enough to play for a short two hours... ah well, game comes out in a week anyway!

is it out yet, has anyone bought it?

Comes out on the 28th, not too long now! If you pre-ordered and got the beta key you can actually play 24 hours in advance.

When you say 24 hrs. in advance, do you mean you don't have to have the actual game to play it? I ordered mine online, and I am afraid I won't get it until a few days after the release. So, if I have the beta key, your saying I can play without getting my game first?

If you have the beta then it'll stream download the necessary content whilst you play 48 hours prior to release. Once the 48 is up you won't be able to connect with your beta-pre-order key and you'll need to install the full retail game and use the key from there.

Hot.

this game is so fun!

screen shots anyone?

Hey all, I've been hearing conflicting reports on the "free" aspect of this online game. I've heard that it's free on the weekends, but not the weekdays? Any replies would be appreciated, thanks.

it's free all the time, no monthly charges ever.

I play a few months ago in the beta and thought it was CRAP. But I just got home from the boyfriend's where i was playing, and seems pretty cool. I'll probably play at least as much as I did WoW, and it costs the same...So I'll probably shell out the $50.

I clocked in about 28 hours on the first two days, I've been overrun by this game... but I do not regret it.

Images I posted on my blog...

I've been fairly impressed with GW lately. The ease of moving into and out of instances means I never feel like I'm forced to get to that next mob/area. It really can be a part-time RPG and be completely enjoyable.

My only concern is that often times it feels like a single-player game that just happens to have other people in the town areas. With npc henchmen a viable option, social interaction is not forced. That has its benefits and drawbacks, I suppose.

Yea, I noticed that too.
But as soon as you join a guild it kinda changes.
With a Active guild you end up chatting and grouping alot

I like this game a lot, its not a bad MMORPG, actually quite good, especially for free, I only get to play a little bit every now and then since I don't own the game (makes me cry......almost) and also I only have 56k internet (Been crying about that for a while)

Love those pics Deflok
is that a ranger necro?
kinda looks like the same build my friend Maehara has (except he plays as a woman)

ok, my boyfriend said that he bought a CD key online...but I can't find a link on the Guild Wars webpage. Anyone have one?
Edit: NM, I DLed the client and found the site.

Close! I'm an Elementalist (primary) / Ranger (secondary). After playing WoW as a Hunter the chance to have a pet again was far too irresistable, and I've always loved fire magic.

I'm only level 14 now but haven't played much in the past week (damn work + other work).

how good is it! can you guys give me your out of 10 ratings overall? im so close to buying this game! ive been waiting for it since last year when they had it like modded on EQ

9.6/10 from me. And I would give WoW 7.0/10 as a reference.

9.5/10 so far... where WoW would be a 9/10.

E/R16 Dhaeroe Morningstar!

Woo! N/E4 This game is so fun!
I like this game wayyy more than the little WoW I played and got bored of.
At least a 9/10.

Yeah, WoW is lame in comparision...But that could be my bitter hatred for Blizzard leaking.
I'd give it a 9/10, so far. (I'm just a lvl 9 right now) I love being able to get helpers for quests. Although they're low level, they're still really helpful.
And the whole skill thing is cool (although I spend like ten minutes deciding which ones I want whenever I get a new one :p).
And the dying the armor! I love that! Then you can actually look different from everyone else!
It's DEFINITELY worth the $50, and with no monthly fee, you can always take a break if you get bored and come back a little while later.

This game looks really pretty... my question is, how good of a setup do you have to have in order to play it (and I mean on something better than the lowest possible video settings)?

jeez i heard such good things about WoW and yet you are all saying its better? i MUST get this game!

Friend of mine bought it, and of course I tried it.Ended up taking over the account whenever he didn't play it.

I wouldnt say Guild Wars is amazing, or groundbreaking, but it's not a bad game.
I love the fact that you can form a group with yourself and NPC henchmen.I generally dislike other players because they suck, so my entire 16 levels(Elementalist/Mesmer) have been alongside NPC compatriots.


I also really like their salvage system, because you don't know what items/runes etc people are going to have.It's not like set armors in WoW that 80% of the population will be using.


Oh, and Paladins are way too good :P

Paladins? You mean a Monk/Warrior class?

I do have to say though, the warrior gets the ability 'Bonetti's Defense.' That gets major props in my book. :D

Im lookin for a new game to play. Would people recommend this or WoW?. Ive heard convincing arguments from both sides so far.

Would you recommend elementalist as a secondary profession to monk? I'm certain that I'm going to play a monk (self propelled medkit and all), but am trying to decide on a secondary class.

Picking a warrior pretty much looks like I'll be a cleric, but I want something that has ass kicking potential without the use of conventional weaponry.

Elementalist would be a great choice, or even Mesmer. Of course if you want to deal damage to your enemies whilst deal healage to your allies from afar then M/E is definately the way to go.

Remember, a good Monk is the linchpin to ANY group. If you have a crap Monk then your have a crap group. It's a lot of pressure and takes a lot of skill thus the challenge is hight, but god damn it's an awesome high being the dude who steers the group to victory.

Heh, I ALWAYS play a healer in our coop games. Just the way I am. It turns out that Coppertop is going to do Warrior/Elementalist, and I want to pick a class different from him (just to be different). subversve will be playing with us too, so with 3 players, we can cover all 6 classes, more or less.

Any opinions on Monk/Ranger? I was looking at Pin Down as an ability and imagining that as I stay in the back, I can use that to keep enemies at bay. I suppose the Mesmer's ability Imagined Burden accomplishes the same thing.

There's actually quite a bit of discussion about monk secondary characters on other websites. I suppose it's really hard to go wrong with my secondary choice, it just affects the way I'll play.

I'll mainly be doing PvE, so I'll be healing everyone most of the time. I suppose anything else will be gravy.

W/Mo 8 Confuzed One

still in act 1... haha... waiting for my buddy to get some levels before i leave noob town =)

however, i am concerned that i won't have the mana to support anybody.... haha... i get the feeling my monk spells will cost more than the 20 mana i have soon.... =(

Stay in the green Ascalon until you're about Level 7-8, it's much easier to level up there than it is in the Ascalon you'll go to, especially if you're a low level.

Don't worry about your Mana Seige, it increases everytime you level and you'll soon find items which when equipped will top up your max Mana/Health.

E/R18 Dhaeroe Morningstar + Lvl 17 Wolf (Samus) (TIP)

Just got the game 2 days ago. Played all day yesterday. I love the short loading times, the map travel, and the feel of an MMO without the monthly payment. Skill and tactics matter so much more than normal RPGs so I can see a lot more potential for long lasting PvP instead of PvPing for a week, and feeling like you've seen it all.

My only gripe so far, which may go away when I get higher, is that once I get to 5-7ish (depending on the char) I feel really weak compared to the monsters I have to fight...I can still get it done but every fight there is a possibility that I may die if I make too many mistakes...which is probably good seeing how there is no permanent death penalty and it should keep things interesting much longer.

The other bad or probably good thing, is that its so hard to decide which combo of professions to play. I keep restarting new characters.

I chatted with one of the graphic artists and played their latest release last year at the Penny Arcade convention in Seattle...and I wasn't that impressed.

Of course, they were still working on the game at that time, so many things could have changed.

I was an EQ zombie for several years and I don't know that I want to get into another MMORPG. Still, from what y'all have posted, it sounds interesting.

I still don't know how you can pay for bandwidth and servers and staff only from sales, however.

I am guessing that a small monthly fee is in the future once everyone is hooked.

I know that Sony makes a mint off of EQ.

agreed..... my W/Mo8 just keeps running whenever she sees anything more than 2 monsters... (in act 2 beginning btw)....

it was much better once i teamed with my buddy who is R/N8.... at least his companion and craptacular bone horrors could soak a little dmg...

NC Soft also does City of Heroes, Lineage and a bunch of other MMO games. I think that they can figure to tap into the non-MMO crowd by presenting something that is more akin to Diablo and just eat the server cost, but have that much more of the market share.

Are you guys using the henchmen? They can definitely come in handy.

hmmm.... now there's an idea... it did seem easier with my buddy.... are the henchmen....useful?


or do they cost *gasp* money??? (If they do, dunno if my char can afford them... haha)

Henchmen are free and they do their job well enough.The Fighter henchmen is really good.

They usually hang around the exit of any town you're in (after Act 1) you just target them and invite them to your group.

They aren't free, they take a percentage of the gold you find dropped by fallen enemies. The less henchman you haven, the more money you earn. However later in the game the Hench become VERY useful. The Level 17 Hench around where I am now are fantastic.

Which is no different from normal parties.
They cost 0 gold to recruit which = free.

ok, i tried it with the henchmen.... makes the game much more playable... instead of "omg, i see 2 units coming after me, run to the nearest town or else it's gg"

the fighter henchman seems pretty strong for level 3 haha... i wish MY char was that strong at lvl 3.... :lol:


however, i've noticed that the monsters are somewhat smart and go after my healer pretty often.... which sucks.... 2 charr blade thingies and it's gg healer henchman.. :(

LOL....yeah, well its only the smart thing to do. You go for the healer first when attacking don't you? That is the only way to go. If not, you will spend alot longer attacking then necessary.

The healer is pretty good except when the player dies.She then stops healing the rest of the party to res you, which is often a mistake.

They take gold = cost.

They aren't free, they're just the same cost as humans. But yeah, I see what you're saying.

Okay, so subversve, Coppertop and I wanted to play 3 players right from the get go. Which brought to light a very annoying issue. You can only have a max of 2 players in a party at the very beginning until the searing. What the hell is up with that?

Tell me about it. Simply lame.

Anyone more advanced in the game know when we will be able to party with 3+ people? I hope it is not long. God that would suck bigtime.

^ You can play co-op, just not too co-op. :|

its not long at all to get larger parties and they are necessary later on in the beginning the parties are not necessary since its a "noob" training area.

Fuck necessity - I want to play with my friends. That's why I bought the damn game.

Can you give any specific info? I heard something about the Searing and something else about after you acquire a second profession.

searing gives you 4, up to 8 shortly after that. Sorry I havent had much time to play lately so I dont quite remember.

well, if you're 4 or above, you can go talk to Tydus and go on to the next part, which is the Searing. It's 3 years after the noobie area. There you get to have 4 people, and there are henchmen to fill-out your party.

4-6-8

Eight areas are for those who've reached the 20cap. I hit 20 yesterday so I wouldn't know if 8 is the cap too.

Spoiler: I must've died about 5 times before I could kill my Mirror-Self, in the end I killed him within 15 seconds :thumbsup:

^ ACK! Use a spoiler tag for stuff like that! :P

Sorry dude, I probably shouldn't tell you about how Spoiler: Prince Rurik dies via Spoiler: decapitation quite dramatically.

Or how the Spoiler: White Mantle turn out to be a bunch of Spoiler: no good dirty crooks.

;)

Finally made it to the Searing with Coppertop and subversve so we could actually play together. Tons of fun. Had a few crashes, twice on my machine, once on Coppertop's machine, but aside from that, it was great. Playing a healer in this game is definitely a lot more action packed than playing a cleric in other games. Eventually chose Necro as my secondary, to take advantage of the corpse spells and blood sacrifice, which I think will have negligible effect on me since I heal for insane amounts.

Coppertop went with a Warrior/Elementalist and subversve's playing an Elementalist/Ranger.

Mending and Healing Breeze rock.