Guild Wars …
Purely by coincidence, Erin and I tried Guild Wars this past week. Last Tuesday, annoyed by the weekly WoW maintenance, I went in search of new MMOs. Granted, I have City of Villains/Heroes, but I get really bored with them really fast. All you do is kill the same stuff over and over again. What about professions? What about an auction house?
Guild Wars had been on my To-Try list for a while, if only because of the free monthly subscription. Unlike Erin, I don’t mind dropping some monthly cash into a game, but I refuse to pile on more than one fee per month. A girl has to have some limits.
After much searching around, and attempting to play EVE Online (a tale for another day), I finally gave in and bought a Guild Wars code from PlayNC.
I was immediately impressed by how pretty my toon was. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what class to play, and finally I created a Necromancer because … well, why not? I didn’t spend much time in the customization screen because, well, options are really limited. The default turned out to be my favorite anyway. So, off into the world I went, armed with - I think - a wand.
Figuring out what to do was pretty simple, as it plays pretty much like WoW. Exclamation mark = quest. No problem. I ran around, I killed some stuff. I died once. I tamed a beast and got myself a pet. I got to level 2.
At level 2, the servers for WoW went back up, and I forgot all about Guild Wars. In fact, I haven’t been back since.
So, here’s my question to all of you Guild Wars veterans. If you’re a WoW player, what do you get from playing Guild Wars, other than the free monthly subscription? I plan to go back to it - and hopefully team up with Erin, now that I know she has it. At first glance though, it just seems like a watered-down version of WoW. The environment is nice enough, but I miss it being seamless (a huge annoyance I have with CoH/V, and others).
So, what am I missing out on?
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POSTED IN: MMORPG
6 opinions for Guild Wars …
jayvee f.
Apr 22, 2006 at 5:13 am
im a GW player but sold my account. it just wasn’t hardcore enough for me and quite frankly WOW was taking up most of my time.
GW has two things that WOW doesnt have:
1. very casual in-and-out play. im pressed for time and only have 20 minutes to play. so i login, grab some henchmen since i cant wait for a real people party, enter an instance and leave after 20 minutes.
2. team PVP element, i hear, is much better in the arena setting :)
the play girlz gaming blog: because guys aren’t the only players » EVE Online
Apr 23, 2006 at 8:47 pm
[…] I’m pretty sure I spent at least two hours just being taught how to play the game, and I’m still not done. I finally got insanely bored, and that’s when I decided to get Guild Wars. […]
the play girlz gaming blog: because guys aren’t the only players » Quest to Find WoW Replacement: Failed
Apr 23, 2006 at 9:08 pm
[…] After much surfing, reading, downloading, trying, and disappointment, I’ve decided that for now, I can’t replace WoW. I can find something to occupy my gaming time when WoW is being cranky, but a replacement it is not. The reason why I love WoW so much is simple: there’s a lot to do that does not involve fighting. […]
Karmakin
Apr 24, 2006 at 7:41 pm
A little late to this, but ahh. Such is life.
Guild Wars isn’t really a replacement as such for any MMORPG. I don’t think it’s intended or designed to be competition. If you’re looking for the massive amounts of crafting and trading, it’s not your game.
So what is Guild Wars?
I’ll put it simply. It’s design is around creating an online cooperative/competive playground, and facilitating maximum enjoyment within that playground.
And that’s built on top of a basic game engine that results in massive PvE battles and intense PvP battles (I’d argue that Guild Wars PvP at it’s medium/highest levels is second to none, and in fact, is so far ahead of everything else it’s not even funny)
eventhorizen
Apr 25, 2006 at 12:50 am
I would agree with that last statement too. Competition in online games is fierce to the point of being obsessive, and the game mechanics in Guild Wars makes for extreme tactical and strategic play, character creation, and teamwork.
When you combine all those elements, high level PvP in Guild Wars becomes extremelly intense, highly tactical, and very very involving.
Where they hit the jackpot is they took this same team based approach, and tactical thought provoking combat, and applied it to PvE areas. All players of any level of skill can take part in the same basic game concept, team based fantasy combat, against wildly varying levels of opponents.
If you like the game and play it alot, and you are creative/observant and create a character that succeeds and is effective, you will win if you are skilled at using it, and your character can become ‘famous’ in that it becomes a template for other characters due to the ass kicking you handed them.
It really feels great to spend several weeks perfecting a ‘build’ in PvP competition, to have it dominate for a period of time, then to come up against variations of your own build other players are now trying to beat you with. Not exactly CS :)
Coin operated Girl
Oct 22, 2006 at 1:34 am
I’ve been playing GW pretty much since the launch of it and I must say that I’m still hooked.. I tried WoW a few times, played the beta of Cabal online, but ended up playing GW again.
The pvp is awsome and its all about player skill and tactics unlike the ‘look I can do a trick that anyone at this lvl with this armor and equip can do’ WoW like pvp.
This on the other hand doesn’t mean that the pve players don’t have anything to do. U can craft the coolest armors (wich are just as good as less cool looking ones.. but just.. cooler looking :P). There’s a lot of weapon hunting going around, maxing/crafting weapons, trading weapons and so on. Specially those players who max out their pve characters for pvp usally go for the extra cool looks with rare equip and armor.
Besides that, there are a lot of titles to be earned in guildwars by doing all kind of things (like being druk a lot, or being unlucky, or good in completing missions)
So for the people that look for that farming and grinding bit in a game… guildwars has that too.. most pvp-ers avoid it though, like me :P
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