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Role Playing (Games)

Guild Wars Gone Gold, Previewed 96

Posted by Zonk from the get-your-subscriptionless-mmog-action-here dept.
Guild Wars, the first offering from NCSoft subsidiary ArenaNet, has gone gold. A preview of the game based on the last weekend of the Beta is available at 1up.com. From the article: "Once the wonder started to wear off, a creeping hangover of disorientation replaced it. Still standing there slack-jawed, the bustle of people going here and there with purpose made us suddenly aware of how clueless we were. Gathering our senses we fell into the familiar pattern of talking to the residents and picking up the quests of the day." Guild Wars is a unique MMOG offering, as it will not require a subscription cost, has almost no grind, and will focus on organized PvP. The game releases next Thursday, the 28th of April.
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Guild Wars Gone Gold, Previewed More

Guild Wars Gone Gold, Previewed

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  • Excellent (Score:2, Funny)

    by Bonzor ( 856075 )
    Hopefully some of the immature gankers in WoW will go to Guild Wars and stop bugging me.
    • Not likely. Though one can only dream. I might go back to WoW if the idiots from battle.net leave.

      I can only take the, "OMFG U n()()b GTFO if U dun kno how to pl4y", "1 4M R0X0R 733T 534R", "noob noob noob" comments for so long before I feel like I'm back in a battle.net chat window.
      • Am I playing in the wrong (or should I say right) place? I'm not hard core admittedly, but I don't think I've yet seen one 'NOOB' or 'R0X0R' comment. Are you really being overwhelmed by this or does it just happen occasionally? Seriously...if it's that bad, try another server and I bet it goes away.
        • Hellscream was my server, but I have heard the same story repeated from a lot of other players on different servers.

          • Re:Not likely (Score:5, Interesting)

            by Golias ( 176380 ) on Friday April 22, 2005 @01:58PM (#12316008)
            Huh. Lots of battlenet "d00dz" crowding into a server called "Hellscream." What a shocker.

            Log into a server with a name which doesn't sound cool to twelve-year olds, and you probably will have much better luck.

            (Currently playing on Silverhand, not seeing much of that crap.)
        • I'm the same as you, I rarely even see misspellings of words, and I'm on Arthas. Then again, I've played for maybe a total of an hour in the last month. Maybe I just miss it.
      • With the last patch (or the one before it?) WoW got rid of the leetspeak communication in between factions. That used to bother me as well... cause I couldn't understand it.

        Also, if you've never played a PvP game with open communication (AC:Darktide or SB) then you don't really know how fun it is to verbally own someone after they spam you with thier dribble.

    • Re:Excellent (Score:2, Informative)

      by adam.skinner ( 721432 )
      There is no ganking in Guild Wars (one of it's many attractions). All zones are instanced, and hence only people on your own group will be playing with you when you enter a zone.

      Guild Wars has done much to limit "griefer" behaviour and the things that make playing these kinds of games unenjoyable sometimes. For one, There's no kill-stealing, no camping, and no ninja-looting. You can't attack people in your own group. PvP, however, is a very major part of the game, and there are a number of zones design

  • Gone Gold? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ivan256 ( 17499 ) * on Friday April 22, 2005 @01:15PM (#12315302)
    That's what they call the release that comes in the box before you apply the patch, right?

    • Re:Gone Gold? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Actually with the streaming technology you won't even notice patches most of the time. You just get a little download icon in the corner of your screen that shows you're getting new content. Every time you load into a new area if there are any changes they are streamed to you for just that area.

      Occasionally they do a major change that requires you to shut down the client and open it again.. but it's almost always very fast. Other than that, Guild Wars has been very stable during the events, and will hop
    • Funny thing:

      The actual beta client for Guild Wars was a shockly small download. As you enter an area (or boot up the game itself), content and other crap is downloaded to your hard drive.

      Guild Wars is constantly patching itself. It's one of GW's touted features.

  • Uhm, no... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Dragoon412 ( 648209 ) on Friday April 22, 2005 @01:18PM (#12315351)
    Quoth the submitter:
    Guild Wars is a unique MMOG offering...

    Guild Wars is not a MMO. People label it as such, constantly, but it has far, far more in common with Diablo 2.

    Gameplay is done entirely in instanced zones. For anyone unfamiliar with that concept, it's essentially a private copy of a zone for each player (or group) - it's just like Diablo 2.

    The only part of Guild Wars that even vaguely touches on being massive are the handful city zones. However, they serve only as a staging area for missions and a place for players to trade. Once players go out into the world, it's all instanced, again. Think of them more as graphical Battlenet chatrooms, and you'll get the idea.

    ...none of this is to say Guild Wars is a bad game. I enjoyed the beta and am considering purchasing a copy. The environments are absolutely amazing, the PvP system outstanding and quite remarkably balanced, the character advancement system is very well thought-out, classes are refreshingly diverse (there are only a handful of classes, per se, but the sheer variety of abilities each has and the limitation to actively using 8 at a time means two players that are both the same class can have wildly divergant functions), and the game's animations are exceptionally fluid and well-done (especially the monk dance emotes). But for crying out loud, GUILD WARS IS NOT A MMO!
    • I played in the open E3 beta a year ago. I remember that the outpost "town" area served as a gathering area for quests, where you could form a group of up to 4 people (I think) and head into your own instance of a map for a mission. But I thought I also remember being able to go outside of the town for random reasons and wander around. I swear I saw other human players doing their own thing too. But this was a year ago, does it not work that way anymore? Maybe someone who has played in a more recent be
      • There are town areas, as you already know, then, right outside the town, there are staging areas for parties to get groups together. That's probably what you're thinking of. They're sort of gateways into the instanced areas, with nothing else really going on (accept having mercs to recruit), but these are usually in remote areas.
        • If you went through the quest portals you would end up in the party area of that mission, but there also was a way to go into a kind of free exploring mode where you could travel on the map yourself. When you went through the quest portals and looked at the map you could see that there are gaps in where you have visited, when freely exploring you can actually travel these gaps. I only played on the public beta a while ago so i don't remember if these areas were instanced or not.

      • Re:Uhm, no... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by AnyNoMouse ( 715074 )
        In the first open betas, you could party with up to 4 people in the "starter" towns and 6 people in the later towns (never got above 12th level, so I don't know if there are towns with larger parties or not).

        A couple of months ago, they added a whole "newbie" section of the game. In the first area, you can only party up to two players. Once you hit 3rd level you can move on to the 4 person per party areas.

        Through all of this, the grandparent is correct, each party gets their own instance of the world.

    • This is a case of someone reading PC gamer too much. First off, GW is nothing like Diablo II. Secondly, it is an MMO. When you have hundreds of people in an area sumiltaneously before a new "zone" is created. Some gameplay is done in instanced zones and other isn't. Yet saying GW is not MMO is like me saying WoW, UO, AO, etc. are not MMOs either because they have more than one server. Please, open your mind and broaden your horizons.

      • Re:Uhm, no... (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Vermifax ( 3687 )
        " When you have hundreds of people in an area sumiltaneously before a new "zone" is created."

        Sorta like 100s of people in diablo chat rooms before the instance is created.
      • Having played about 16+ hours in the last preview weekend event, I suspect you're thinking of a completely different game. ALL gameplay takes place in instances. You _NEVER_ run across another player outside of your team (the maximum size of which was 4 players last I checked) except in the town areas - which are indeed little more than in-game chat rooms with questgivers and shops - or prearranged PvP battles. While the gameplay itself isn't very Diablo-like, the model of "hang out with everyone until i

    • Re:Uhm, no... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Zonk ( 12082 )
      Massively - The game is going to support scads of people. Heavy instancing will be used, to be sure, but City of Heroes does the same thing. GW is just going to a further extreme.
      Multiplayer - More than one person can play.
      Online - Going to be an internet based game.
      Game - Yup.

      I don't see how it is not a MMOG?

      What I think is cool about this is that Guild Wars is pushing the boundary of MMOG. The PVP aspect and low level cap will ensure that a lot of skill is going to be required of the players. 'Hit A
      • Massively - The game is going to support scads of people. Heavy instancing will be used, to be sure, but City of Heroes does the same thing. GW is just going to a further extreme.
        Multiplayer - More than one person can play.

        It is massive. It is multiplayer. It is online. It has involves gaming.

        However: the Gaming part (fighting monsters, etc) only involves a handful of people at once, so there is no "massively multiplayer" gaming going on.

        There is a "massively multiplayer chat and trade area" but the
        • That said, I considered World of Warcraft, which I play all the time.

          I realized there are very few times when I'm playing with more than 4 other people at once. Often, I'm even soloing. I may not see a single other player until I return to town to chat and trade.

          The only time I'm doing massively multiplayer stuff (like 50 vs. 50) is large group pvp or large group dungeons. Otherwise I'm trading in a populated city, or questing alone or with a handful of friends; just like Guild Wars.
      • It's not an MMOG because they specifically say it isn't one in the FAQ [guildwars.com]

        Is Guild Wars an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)?

        Guild Wars has some similarities to existing MMORPGs, but it also has some key differences. Like existing MMOs, Guild Wars is played entirely online in a secure hosted environment. Thousands of players inhabit the same virtual world. Players can meet new friends in gathering places like towns and outposts where they form parties and go questing with them. Unlike

      • Why the hell did you link to a for-pay only article on Slashdot?
        Be honest, did you write it?
        The article from the german university is appreciated, but why even bother with that Forrester research BS.

  • no subscription..... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Vermifax ( 3687 ) on Friday April 22, 2005 @01:19PM (#12315370)
    Of course they're also planning on releasing expansions every few months.

    This of course is your monthly fee.

    • Re:no subscription..... (Score:4, Informative)

      by wickedj ( 652189 ) on Friday April 22, 2005 @01:29PM (#12315562) Homepage
      That's true but you're not required to purchase the expansion packs to get to the areas contained in them. Basically, if a friend is in that area and wants to quest with you, they can "invite" you to the area and you'll get a streamed download. Now, if the expansions contain new characters, classes and races, well, then I suppose you might want to buy it.

      • Re:no subscription..... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by L7_ ( 645377 )
        I think that the expansions are definetly going to include better skills. Meaning, if your 'Single Target Heal' spell that you use a lot restores 100-200 health, and this month's expansion's single target heal spell now restores 200-300 with the same casting time and mana cost, then you would definetly feel compelled to buy the expansion just to keep up with the joneses.
        • Actually, they have stated that they want to keep the expansions in balance with current content as far as gameplay goes. So, instead of healing for x with a recharge of n and a cost of m, it may heal 2x, recharge 1.5n, cost 2m, or even have heal/recharge/cost all halved. In other words, more options to customize and improve your gameplay, but not throw it all out of balance.
          • Kind of reminds me of Magic:The Gathering. All the cards are reasonably balanced with the recent expansions, but as more expansions come out, and the playing styles and options change, they adjust the cost and abilities of the new cards. Eventually you get new cards much better (With some exceptions, such as Counterspell, Fork, and Black Lotus;) than the old ones, because they have to balance the Type 2 gameplay.
            I expect as more expansions come out, and the skills and abilities change, eventually you are g
            • Unless ofcourse at least one of your guild members has a cure-poison skill and he heals you.
              The game is made so it's possible to play with players that have different expansions.

              The "M:TG" analogy is a good one, and is often used to explain how GW works. Eveyone is almost the same (all "LV20") other than the skills, skill combinations they use and their own skills as a player (i.e know when to cast what...)
      • While at one stage it was announced that you would be able to invite people to visit content they haven't bought, this is no longer the case.

        On the other hand, expansion packs will be entirely optional. If you buy the first and third expansions, and a friend of yours buys the second and third expansion, you'll be able to play the expansions yoy have in common together (i.e. the third one).

        Also, ArenaNet plans to add a larger variety of skills in the expansions, but not more powerful skills and items. So
    • Except they're optional. MMO fees aren't.
    • No one ever said you had to buy these expansions, did they? FFXI has had two expansions (one of them was free for North American players, but the second one cost money). Guess what? It has a monthly fee! I do believe Everquest had many expansions, and it has a monthly fee as well! Whoa!!
    • But you can continue to play the game all year with out purchasing one. I really like the concept. I would love to see more games follow this model. Spend 5 bucks download the first level to Doom X, you like it you spend another 5 or so on level2 add infintum.

    • Of course they're also planning on releasing expansions every few months.

      This of course is your monthly fee.

      For my money I prefer it this way.

      I see it as a bit of a win all around:
      1. Game maker gets rewarded for making good content repeatedly
      2. Consumers don't get shafted for expansions and a monthly fee

      It should keep the game fresh, and if the expansions are of a similar content level to the original game, it'll keep people interested for quite a few years I'd expect.

      Really, there's no problem for

  • Thats what everyone's been talking about huh ... looking at the specs and seeing as my comp has fun running WoW I think I'll stick to that. Doesn't seem like my type anyways, I like having to watch over my shoulder all the time in case some crazy opponent is running by (FPS habits)

    • Re:So this is it (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      No worries, PvE zones are all instantces. Only you and your party. PvP is done in a gladiator/colliseum type of model. This isn't like the gankfest that PvP servers in WoW has turned into. You only PvP in the PvP areas. PvE is strictly adventuring/questing and farming gold/loot to better prepare yourself for PvP.

    • If you enjoy FPS games, GW PvP is for you.

      I'm more of MMORPG player, but I can safely say that GW PvP is by far the best I've ever played.

  • Beta (Score:5, Informative)

    by Rs_Conqueror ( 838344 ) on Friday April 22, 2005 @01:25PM (#12315478)
    I beta tested it on the 15th. It was pretty good from what I've deen, although the only other MMORPG I have played has ben city of heroes, so I don't know how it holds up to other D&D based RPGs.

    There were some things about it that kind of bugged me however, first, you can't jump. I know in RPGs where the point of the game is fighting and leveling up, jumping isn't that big of a deal, but still having the ability does make the game seem a bit more "real" for me.

    Secondly, you can only play as a human, no elves, dwarfs, gnomes, or super intellegent shades of the color blue. This was a bit of a bummer for me, becuase I had really hoped to play as a shapeshifting elf (half elf half volf). But I guess they were really trying to avoid the steriotype that has been slapped on them as "WoW rip off".

    And lastly, the lack of character design choices, you get maybe 12 hair types (that tend to be the same, no matter what profession you choose), 12 or so hair colors, 6 face types, your basic skin colors, and thats about it. I had really hoped to be able to change tome of the body proportions to have a character that actually looked like me, but all you can really change is hight. Also the clothing choices are very limited, in fact there are none. You get your basic profession spisific clothing and thats it. Although yes you can get new cloths in quests and by trading, it would still be nice to have say, three different suits to pick from at the start of the game.

    The gameplay was pretty much what I expected, you have standerd WASD controls, you click objects to select ect... However one minor thing that bugged me was, the second you select an enamy object, you start attacking, regardless of its level. You CAN call off the attack and still have him selected so you can see what level it is, if you have a hand-to-hand weapon out, however if you are a range attacker you shoot one arrow, and you comitted to this fight till death (and death is useually the case).

    now these problems are not rearly as bad as I make them out to be, the gameplay is very nice. I had a blast playing it. The quests are quite fun, and not in the least bit dull or tedious, the level design is breathtaking to say the least, even on lower graphic resolutions.And if you can rope a few friends to shell out the 50 bucks and pick it up, get a party going, there will be no end to the fun you will have.

    • Re:Beta (Score:3, Informative)

      by wickedj ( 652189 )
      It's true that using the mouse automatically starts an attack, however, you can cancel it out just by pressing the spacebar. Also, you can target enemies by using tab, [, ], or whatever you define in the options. By doing it this way, you select the enemy without engaging them. To begin attacking, just press the spacebar.

      As for humans being the only race, Arena.net has stated that other races will become available in the expansions. Some ideas include the Charr and dwarves which are both already NPCs.
    • you can't jump
      Yes you can. /jump

      :P
    • If I remember correctly you can Ctrl-click to only select an enemy. And I believe the click-attack you describe is an option you can disable too.

      Customisation options are indeed a bit short, but the hair/outfits do differ per profession. For example female necromancer have a haircut with some kind of needles sticking into it, which no other profession can get.

  • Game of the Year! (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Well at least until Dark & Light is released!

    The PvP could best be explained as a fantasy themed counter strike match, some people will get bored after a few months but others will get very addicted.

  • It's everything PSO was, except free. Sure, it might not have large open areas, and the world is instanced instead of being open to everyone, but it looks great, plays great and is tons of fun.

  • My (Fanboy) Overview (Score:3, Interesting)

    by amarc ( 875063 ) on Friday April 22, 2005 @03:08PM (#12316968)
    Guild Wars really is a superb game, the depth & quality of the PvP is the best I've ever seen. Though this is hardly suprising considering ArenaNet is headed up by brilliant ex-Blizzard staff - "Wyatt was Blizzard's Vice President of Research and Development and most recently acted as the Team Lead and Lead Programmer of Battle.net. O'Brien was the Team Lead and Lead Programmer of Warcraft III, having personally developed the game's 3D rendering engine. Jeff Strain was also a Team Lead and Lead Programmer there and is the author of the Starcraft Campaign Editor." I didn't mind WoW in the Betas, though I was a little underwhelmed... the grind+gank=win style of game doesn't really appeal to me. In GW PvP success is really dependant on skill as you only have 8 skill slots & the equipment doesn't make that much of a difference. There are no seperate servers for Guild Wars, you get to play everyone from around the world. So that means when you win the 24/7 pickup tournament by holding the Hall of Heroes you really are the top PvP team in the world at that moment, or when your Guild itself is ranked on the ladder that is your position in relation to every other guild in the game. It's actually really hard for me to describe just how cool this game is, thinking about it. This weekend my guild played an 8v8 PvP battle versus the #1 ranked guild in the world (Koreans) with no lag whatsoever. Despite the language/cultural/latency that would usually hinder such a meetup, we had a stunning game, got our arses handed to us & parted with a few "gg's". I was a little sceptical when I heard that Guild Wars was billed as a "Competitive Online RPG", but it's a pretty damn accurate depiction. Any self-respecting gamer should endevour to check this game out - top notch PvP, beautiful graphics, free online play, vibrant global community. Where has this game been all my life?!
    • ArenaNet is headed up by brilliant ex-Blizzard staff - "Wyatt was Blizzard's Vice President of Research and Development and most recently acted as the Team Lead and Lead Programmer of Battle.net. O'Brien was the Team Lead and Lead Programmer of Warcraft III, having personally developed the game's 3D rendering engine. Jeff Strain was also a Team Lead and Lead Programmer there and is the author of the Starcraft Campaign Editor

      I am sure they are all excellent programmers but I think things are mixed up and

  • Not just free monthly (Score:3, Informative)

    by Ossus_10 ( 844890 ) on Friday April 22, 2005 @03:21PM (#12317146)
    There are other great technologies in play in Guild Wars. A streaming update system allows on the fly patching, content additions, and quest tweaks. Zones arround you are streamed so the number of files to load when you first enter a zone is minimal. The game also changes for you based on choices you make. For example: if you do a quest that rids the world of "lizard men" then when you return to that zone, there are still no lizard men. If you return with someone who has not done the quest, there are only half as many lizard men as there would be if niether of you had done the quest. The game focuses on skills gained rather than levels. As such, your spells do no more damage on leveling, they do more damage when skill points are put into them (gotten from leveling, completeing quests, doing PvP or GvG). That being said, the level cap is at 20. For a free MMO (dissagree with the post before, the game is Massive, it is a multiplayer game, and it is online), the content is huge. There is so much to the game that after 4 Betas, I hadn't even scratched the surface
  • Could someone kindly explain to me what the major differences are between this and WoW? I've never played the beta and I'm curious about switching. Plus you'll get +5 :)

    • Re:Vs. WoW (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The biggest difference is gameplay, hard to describe really. WoW is a traditional MMORPG with all the level treadmilling and player griefing that goes with that.

      Guild Wars was designed to attempt to eliminate these "unfun" things ("fun" is subjective, but Guild Wars is based on the premise that these things are not fun).

      There are 3 major points of difference between GW and Wow

      1. instanced maps - All missions and explorable areas in GW are instanced. That is, only you and your party are in the instance. T
    • I've played the WoW stress test and ever Guild Wars beta weekend up to the release.

      The biggest difference is the instanced areas in Guild Wars. In the cities everyone is there, you get 2-6 people to join your team and then you start the mission. You won't run into any other players outside of the cities when you are in your team. The game plays straight through like Dungeon Siege or Diablo 2. When you play WoW there is a lot of waiting around for monsters to respawn & you are always running into other

  • GW owns WoW (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sorry, that's the only way to put it. The game has clearly superior graphics, more content (smaller map but you will never run 10 minutes without seeing a single moving thing), PERFECTLY BALANCED for both PvE and PvP, minimal amount of grind, still challenging as hell (you can only say this game is easy once you're guild is at the top and you've cleared the Fissure of Woe with no problems at all), and one of the major things: It's free!

    And by free, i mean it's really free. Not like "it's free but you have

    • Re: GW owns WoW (Score:2, Insightful)

      by snuf23 ( 182335 )
      And by free, i mean it's really free. Not like "it's free but you have to..."

      It's not free. There is no monthly fee, but there is a one time cost of the full game that you have to pay. Free would be if you could download the client, not need a serial number, just logon and play forever.

      This game is clearly superior to World of Warcraft and runs on a seemless world. It's worth your money to try it!

      That totally depends on what type of play style you like. I've played Guild Wars betas and I've played Wor
      • I personally feel that this is like diablo multiplayer... just replace chat rooms with towns and you got diablo multiplayer.

        The totally different part but great beauty that is GW is that their is a free exploration mode where you can go nearly everywhere. That means you could play the game rather non linearly. But it is rather difficult to go from one side of the world to the other since level change through areas. Not to mention that the world is huge...

        I did play WoW for about 5 min and to be honest..

  • I'm sold (Score:3, Funny)

    by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Friday April 22, 2005 @07:14PM (#12319281) Journal
    Maybe this game will be fun. I just got Matrix Online, and that game sucked.
  • I plan on playing both. With no monthly subscription wheres the harm? I think that monthy subscription fees are the only reason that online games lose their casual feel, you kind of feel obligated to play it more because you're paying for it either way.
  • ur all gay an u r razed by reamers and ninjas, u no nofing aboot chuna and othr cuntires. this y u eat cook off a ladize azz you fot crook whurs

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