Anyone Considering Guild Wars?

[oDDity]

It's a cross between a MMORPG annd the mutiplayer shooter games you get in the likes of Unreal Tournament.

THe big bonus is that there is no monthly fee, and also the game is under £30 here in the UK. I think that's fantasic value consideing the amount of gameplay you get from it.

You don't have to timesink like other MMO's either, you can choose to start as a high level character and go straight into the PvP games.

I played ther beta they were running last year and thought it was great, particularly the group quests, which covers a long arching story

The game also looks fantastic even though it runs smoothly on average systems.

 

http://www.guildwars.com

 

What about a darkmod clan? You don't need that many people in this game to play in groups, but groupng with strangers sucks.

[Fingernail]

I might well buy this and consider it, but it really isn't the time...I've got exams for the next month. After that, though .....

[Macsen]

Looks great. I actually picked this up in a shop this morning.

 

I thought you didn't like FPS though?

[New Horizon]

Hmmm, I might consider picking this up.

[Macsen]

When I said 'picked it up', I meant picked it up to look at it, not pick it up to carry it to the till and depart forthwith from my ill gotten cash kind of 'pick it up'. But I might do that.

[toolman]

Wow, looks pretty shiney.

 

How's the combat work in it? Does it involve any player skill or is it just pure clickery?

[sparhawk]

I bought it just today. Funny that you mention it now. I only installed it, but hadn't had time to play it. My major reason to buy it was the big sticker on the box saying "No Fee, it's free". I want to play some fantasy style RPG, but currently there is none for single player and all the MMPORPGs are with a monthly fee, where I feel forced to have to play in order to recup the money that I spend.

[oDDity]

Looks great. I actually picked this up in a shop this morning.

 

I thought you didn't like FPS though?

It's nothing like a shooter, I'm just referring to the PvP deathmatches and other game types you play in online Ut etc.

It's more like PvP in a real MMORPG. YOu don't even have to PvP if you don't want to, you can just play it as a traditional MMORPG and level up from scratch.

I haven't bought it yet, but I am going to.

I can't understand how they can afford to have no monthly fees when all other MMOs insist you have to constantly feed them with cash.

Toolman, there's a lot of strategy in the PvP since there are so many different skills that players can choose to aquire. I think it's something like 250 for each class.

[oDDity]

THere's a good review of it up at Gamespot. 9.2.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/guildwars/i...tml?tag=mp_num1

[Macsen]

I can't understand how they can afford to have no monthly fees when all other MMOs insist you have to constantly feed them with cash.

I don't think the other MMOs need to charge you extra. They just want to live in big tower blocks built of pulped hundred dollar bills.

 

I had a look at the trailer. It just looks like WoW, which I'm already paying for and hardly ever play, but uglier. Anyhoo, once you get it tell us how good it is gameplay wise.

 

I find with many MMOs that playing them isn't actually that much fun, it's just the desire to 'level up' that keeps you going. People kept telling me 'the game really starts at level 15', 'the game really starts at level 20'... WoW is addictive, but it's mind numbingly boring most of the time.

[sparhawk]

I can't understand how they can afford to have no monthly fees when all other MMOs insist you have to constantly feed them with cash.

It's probably the same reason why they others charge a FULL price for the baseversion AND a monthly fee, while GW just charges the base price.

 

That's another reason why I refuse to play with a game that I have to play double. Once for acquiring it and once per month. If they want me to pay a monthly fee, then they should lower the price and no base price.

[Vadrosaul]

They are going to release expansion packs over time so that they still have some consistent incoming revenue.

 

Whether or not they will force players to buy the packs in order to access upgraded servers I don't know. It's still better than a monthly fee, but take it with a grain of salt. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

[Ishtvan]

Looks like a good game, but no time.

[oDDity]

They are going to release expansion packs over time so that they still have some consistent incoming revenue.

 

Whether or not they will force players to buy the packs in order to access upgraded servers I don't know. It's still better than a monthly fee, but take it with a grain of salt. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

Heh, well look at EQ, they release an expansion pack every couple of months as well as charging a monthly fee, and SWG have had 2 or 3 since it started.

I'll be a lot more skeptical of MMO developers saying "this is why we have to charge a monthly fee 'blah blah blah blah blah"

Now I know they don't HAVE to charge one at all.

[sparhawk]

We still have to see if Guild Wars survives. If they do, then you are right and it is proven that you don't need monthly fees. Maybe this will cause an impact on existing servers as well. On the other hand, many game companies offer multiplayer for free and seem to do quite well as well.

[Renzatic]

  I had a look at the trailer. It just looks like WoW, which I'm already paying for and hardly ever play, but uglier.

 

Oh I beg to differ!

 

Anyway, it's fairly similar to WoW, f you've played it then you kinda know what to expect from the combat. It's not exactly the same, the characters are more customizable, the game world is at least 3 times as big, and it's a bit faster paced.

 

It's not quite an MMO though...you only interact with other people on the server inside of towns, outside it's all instanced for you and your party. That's how they're able to make the game like an MMO but not require the montly fees...it doesn't require as much bandwidth this way.

 

If you like MMO games but don't wanna pay the price, and you like battles that take a bit of strategizing with a group of people to get through, then you'll love this game. I'd say it's worth picking up.

[sparhawk]

I hope you can play this alone as well. I don't intend to spend months just to level up and find a suitable party.

[Renzatic]

It doesn't take months to level up...probably more like days. There are only 20 levels in the game and I'm already at 8 after 6 hours of playing...I do hear it slows down once you hit 10 or so, but not to standard MMO leveling speeds. But even though you hit your level cap all that means is that your HP is maxed, you still gain skill points and improve your character through exploration.

 

Combat in the game set up around player skill and character builds rather than stats, so you level up quickly then spend your time trying to find and earn all your skills you can use to mix and match your character.

 

If anything it's more about exploring and finding secrets rather than constant level grinding. And since the whole world is instanced around your character, the quests are much more interesting than what you'd get in something like Everquest. Think of it kinda like a big ass LAN RPG where you get a few friends together and go questing with MMO towns and PvP arenas attached to it.

[Ishtvan]

So if two parties have their own game spaces instanced on their respective clients, and then their paths intersect, will they be merged into one instance of game space? Or can you never run into anyone outside of the cities?

[Napalm]

I'm considering buying it, It looks very nice and the big bonus of no monthly fee (which I wouldn't be able to afford)

[pakmannen]

Yep, also considering this. They seem to have removed (at least tried to) all the usual problems with MMOs. Definitely interesting.

[Caine]

I'm also consider buying it, probably will do next week. After what I have read it is not very much about gaining levels, which is the thing that normaly make a game boring, This I think is a big plus

[sparhawk]

I think I bought it to fast. Currently I started to play Dungeon Siege and now I don't have time to play GW as well. DS is more like a hack and slay RPG. Kind of RPG Shooter. Not much of a story imo, but nice for relaxing without thinking to much. I wonder if GW is more story driven.

[Renzatic]

Sortakinda, it's a bit more heavy than DS but not up to something like Baldurs Gate or Planescape.

 

I'm starting to get a bit burnt out on it. It's good for people that wanna dedicate hours a day to complete the missions with a group of people, but I'm gonna start curbing the amount I play it.

[oDDity]

Dungeon Siege is the worst fantasy RPG ever made. I'd pay money not to have to endure 5 minutes of it.