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Role Playing (Games)

Guild Wars Launches 71

Posted by Zonk from the you-can't-play-god-of-war-all-the-time dept.
NCSoft's newest edition to their ever expanding stable of games, Guild Wars, has launched in North America and Europe. From what I saw while in-game things seem to be working well from a technical standpoint. Commentary from the player base is already available from the fine souls at f13.net and Grimwell.com. More specific commentary comes from AFKGamer, who has commentary about the title a few days ahead of time, and on day one of play.
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Guild Wars Launches More

Guild Wars Launches

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  • WoW killer (Score:4, Interesting)

    by proc_tarry ( 704097 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @03:27PM (#12375470)
    Bought my copy today. Reading the WoW VN boards gives the impression that the players are scared that GW will be better than WoW. Given that WoW has a poor endgame, a real level grind to 60 & non-implemented Battlegrounds; and GW already has a PvP oriented endgame, I think it's going to steal quite a bit of Blizzards business.

    It'll probably take mine.

    • Re:WoW killer (Score:3, Interesting)

      by eviltypeguy ( 521224 )
      I have never, ever, ever, felt like it was a grind to get to level 60 in World of Warcraft. If anything, I've felt like it's leveled me too fast, and I barely play 10 hours a week. (At level 52, almost 53 already)...

      Guild Wars so far has nothing to offer me as far as I can see...
    • Its going to be interesting to see the playerbase of Guild Wars. I'm wondering if they actually want to be bigger then world of warcraft. The complete lack of documenation on gameplay seems like its trying to filter out people who dont want to learn from playing. Which may end up just having abunch of people you can never team with because they dont know how to manage their spell list.
      Guild Wars can't really compete with WoW, if you can afford WoW you can afford WoW *and* GW. Unless we really start to see e
      • From Fansite Friday #39:

        "We are getting close to release and some have been wondering about a manual. Will the game come with a manual and if so, how detailed will it be?

        The game will have not one but two manuals. The first manual will come in the box. I've seen the final proofs and I can honestly say - hand on heart - it's the most beautiful game manual I've ever seen. It's really like a collector's book, with a ton of lore and back story and images of all types, from renders to concept art to screen
    • I started playing GW with the E3 for Everyone event a while back... I loved the game, and preordered it, and waited for the release. And waited. And waited. And here we are almost an entire year later, and GW is just now ready to ship (its original ship date was supposed to be last November I think...) I played the GW betas for a while, but those were only once a month, and I honestly got tired of waiting and picked up WoW instead. I don't have my entire day to devote to gaming, and I'm enjoying WoW, so I
      • I'd say the gameplay is better, myself. I've been playing since the E3 event a year ago as well, though I wasn't been able to spend a lot of time with the betas - seemed like my schedule regularly conflicted with them. And now, there are no long stretches of solo areas - you can form parties for every explorable adventure area.

        As for timing - I know it may not seem like it, because damn, that E3 version played extremely well, but at that point, the game was technically still in an Alpha stage. So, for

  • Pretty sweet game (Score:5, Informative)

    by LincolnQ ( 648660 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @03:30PM (#12375503)
    Guild Wars is a pretty sweet game. I had a preorder, so I was able to play for several weekends over the past 6 months or so.

    It's a 3D RPG-style game similar in design to Diablo II. The PvP, the best part IMO, is really fast-paced and fun and team-oriented -- it's similar to a lot of FPSs in that regard, you play a brief round and if you die, you can be resurrected but you don't respawn automatically.

    It's loads of fun; the drawback is that if you are playing alone, it gets boring quickly, because you are playing with random people who you don't know, and you usually get crushed if you don't have a decent amount of coordination.

    To fully experience the game, I highly recommend joining a guild that uses a voice chat system to talk to each other during battles. It makes a huge difference in the quality of your organization, and you get to know your guildmates pretty well.

    Another drawback of the game is that it runs only on Windows. Windows makes me extremely sad and I dearly hope they port it, because my Windows machine is several years old and it hates everything.
    • It is hardly similar to Diablo 2, IMHO. You don't fight hordes of monsters, you fight a few at a time, and you don't constantly run around in circles and quaff potions. The only way it's similar to diablo 2 is in the instanced dungeons and free multiplayer. If it didn't have free multiplayer, nobody would say it was similar to D2. I am so tired of people making that analogy...

      • Re:Pretty sweet game (Score:4, Informative)

        by snuf23 ( 182335 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @05:50PM (#12376956)
        You have a central area where you can meet people much like the chat room system in Diablo. You have a small town with the NPC merchants and trainers sitting around in a circle much like Diablo. When you have your group together you enter the instanced dungeon, much like Diablo. The environment boxes you in (no jumping, falling, climbing hills) much like Diablo.
        The game FEELS much more like an evolution on Diablo then it does the typical MMO structure seen in everything from Everquest to World of Warcraft.
        Is that a bad thing? Depends on your play style and what you are looking for in an online game. Just don't go in expecting it to be a standard MMO - it isn't.
        To be fair there are plenty of other things (in particular the focus on guild pvp) which are new and different from previous games.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:Pretty sweet game (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Xner ( 96363 )
        Diablo 2 was heaps of fun, even if it was a simple game. Or perhaps BECAUSE it was a simple game.

        You might not be a casual gamer, but plenty of people are, and they want their quick multiplayer action RPG kicks.

  • I've been wanting to get in on this all week, but I can't find a place to download anything other than the "pre-order" client. I would presume they offer a download of the game somewhere on the publisher's site... right?!
    • If you obtain a client there is an option ingame to 'purchase an account'. The preorder client is floating around everywhere (since it is like 50kb), so it shouldn't be hard to track one down.

      Not sure if this is thier plan, or if they will start selling it on their site soon.. Or if they already offer the client download on their site (and then you open the account in the game..

      You could also stop at your local GameStop/BestBuy/Walmart/etc

      • Re:Where do you get it? (Score:4, Informative)

        by Seumas ( 6865 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @03:45PM (#12375665)
        Awesome - thank you.

        Their site does not make it clear AT ALL. But if you download the 71k client and run the setup, it downloads some additional files. Once loaded, you have a chance to create a new account. That then directs you to a site called PlayNC.com - from there, you have the option to purchase the game online and get a key (no box).

        Exactly what I was looking for.

  • For anyone who is sick and tired of MMORPGs... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Goosey ( 654680 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @03:33PM (#12375540) Homepage

    ... You need to play this game. Guildwars has literally taken every element I dislike about MMORPGs and fixed it.

    Never actually owning the game, just renting it via monthly fees? Nixed that, since there is no monthly fees.

    Down time between battles? Nixed that, since after your out of combat your health/mana regen shoot through the roof.

    Crowded dungeons, trading spawns, etc.. Yep, every zone is intanced. You will only be playing with friends and never have to worry about your adventure getting interrupted by anyone else.

    Like PVP occasionally, but hate getting griefed or risking losing items/time from death penalties? Well your in an instance so your safe from griefers, and if you do want to PVP just go to an arena and battle your heart out.. when you leave it is as if you were never there (save for the gained rank points).

    Even the smaller things I never even really knew I hated until they were not there.. Spending half my time running from location to location - Gone (just open up map, click on destination, and bam you teleport). Spending the other half of my time trying to form a group - Much easier now, since a 'gathering stone' type system is built in.

    There are some other things I really like, but it might irk some MMORPG fans.. For one your power in the game is mostly dependent on your playing skill. You will get a bit stronger by gaining levels, but by and large it is a skill based system. Combat is skill based and very fast paced, as most debuffs/buffs last for about 15 sec. PVP is ruled by a balanced group, rather then 4 people spamming the template of the week.

    I would encourage everyone to give it a try, this is not like any MMORPG you have seen yet.

    • Of course its not like any other MMORPG. It's like Diablo 2 with a single realm and an in-game matchmaking lobby/trading center.

      Four people in an instanced zone is hardly 'massive'.
      • Four people in an instanced zone is hardly 'massive'.
        There are definately zones with 6 people in a group and there may be some with 8 (haven't been everywhere, yet). But you're right, it's not really a 'massively' multiplayer online RPG. In fact, the Guild Wars website pretty much tells you the difference between it and an MMORPG. They refer to Guild Wars as a <market speak>Competitive Online Role Playing Game CORPG </market speak>.
    • I agree my brother is raving about this game and what it can pull out. I'm actually looking forward to a MMORPG for the first time since Everquest came out.(Consequently I haven't played a game of Everquest or made an account. I started my MMORPG career playing Lineage 2 Chronicles.)
    • Never actually owning the game, just renting it via monthly fees? Nixed that, since there is no monthly fees.

      While I agree this is great, the fees do NOT affect ownership of the game. Meaning, they pull the servers off line, you're SOL. You're left with a non-functional (mostly) product. Just like EQ and WoW, or any other game. This stems from the ownership of just a client, and no content.
      • But, if after a year, they both go down, with Guild Wars, I'll be out $50, but the WoW player will be out over $200. Neither of us will be able to play, but I guarantee you the WoW player is going to be a lot more pissed than the GW player because of the investment.
    • Guild Wars sounds great. I will definitely play.

      However, I take some exception with the idea that its an MMORPG, or even to label it as a "virtual world". If the main progress for your character necessitates entering an instance to which you teleport instantly, then what are you playing? Are there quests and stories that span the globe? Isn't it missing some of the essence of any VW?

      The meetup areas are "massively multiplayer". I understand that. But, is there any hint of character, quest, story or gam

      • If the main progress for your character necessitates entering an instance to which you teleport instantly, then what are you playing?

        Not unlike World of Warcraft's instanced dungeons. It is just taken to extremes. No one seems to think that just because you get a dungeon to yourself WoW suddenly loses it's MMO status.

        I would argue that GuildWars is more 'massive' then WoW/EQ/etc because it doesn't split you into servers. Every person playing in America is playing in one massive server and everyone can i

        • No one seems to think that just because you get a dungeon to yourself WoW suddenly loses it's MMO status.

          It would definitely be questioned if WOW had nothing but instancing to progress in the game.

          Every person playing in America is playing in one massive server and everyone can interact with each other if they choose.

          True. Thats cool. But when it comes to actually playing the game (as in, engaging in the activity that progresses the game), you're back to a private instance with a handful of player


    • You will only be playing with friends and never have to worry about your adventure getting interrupted by anyone else.

      To me that sounds a lot like a good RPG and nothing like a MMORPG. =P

      ... this is not like any MMORPG you have seen yet.

      Oh I see - fair enough. ;-)

  • Got it... Playing it... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jweric ( 730384 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @03:39PM (#12375607) Journal
    I think that it is great what NCsoft did... beta testing a game like this. And when you first start playing, you can feel that everything is well tested and hard to find bugs. The instant you start playing, you can tell you're going to have fun. Thus far, I am having a whole lot of it. I started playing during the second beta test like most people. And so far... I find it hard to put down. I have been waiting for this game for a while... and the wait was well worth it. I only hope that they can keep up with the expansions... I am leveling rather fast and see no sign of slowing down.

    But note: I am going to play this game to completion. For those of you neh sayers that claim that this game is going to be too short... Try to collect all of the skills. And good luck trying to... each profession has 75 for a grand total of 450. All I have to say is: Settle in... GW is here to stay! See you on the servers!

    • "I am leveling rather fast and see no sign of slowing down."

      Once you hit level 20, you will hit a brick wall. Level 20 is the max level in this game. You can still gain more in game skills and "madskillz" as a player tho.
      • But thats when you delete the char and remake. I personaly feel their is no use in keeping a char after 20 except to find runes and of the sort. The main reason why I say this is because their are 75 skills per class and you would have to level ~40 more times to be able to own them all. And it is tougher to gain those 40 levels at 20 then at lower levels. Maybe if you were able to find skill rings quicker or delearn skills.

        But I dont mind leveling 10 chars to 20. Its not as tedious as EQ or any other MMOG

  • The first Beta Weekend I loved it. The second and third, I had a hard time reconciling the changes made to the XP system and other items with how free-flowing and fast the first weekend was. Now, I am going to pick up my preorder but I'm going to have to wait a couple weeks because neither of my home computers have 3D cards at this time.
  • Why does this have to happen when I'm for three months in a place with no internet except for HTTP?

  • You must stick to the path! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by snuf23 ( 182335 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @04:01PM (#12375807)
    One of the guildies dared comment on how FUCKED the player pathing is in this game. i.e. you will follow the assigned path, no jumping, no falling, no straying from the designated path in any way (hail, counter-intuitive!), and ListAddition01 called him an IGN noob.

    This is one of the things I really didn't like when trying the beta weekends. No ability to slide down a hill or jump off a ledge. Feels like you have these invisible walls blocking in your movement.
    I especially didn't like that some of the maps make you take a long winding path around because of this. Even though it looks like you could just down a 2 foot drop to where you need to go.
    I realize this sounds like a small thing, but it just seemed like a stupid game mechanic.
    • Well, that just cinched it for me. No way in heck I'm even looking at playing this game. WoW's silly limitations on characters affecting the world is bad enough, but that's just stupid. Thanks for posting that little tidbit.
    • It's more symbolic than realistic. I suppose the cliffs look better than doom/FPS style maze walls.
    • Some of the most evil bugs in any game are the ones caused by players going where they arent meant to, and wandering out of the level and into the black infinity, or falling through the gaming geometry. No jumping prevents most of that, and canned paths will fix the rest.

      Its as annoying as hell, but as a game developer, I can see why they would do that.

      END COMMUNIATION
      • Yep. I would imagine this simplified the programming a bit. Plenty of other games do things like this, for example in Diablo the environment, no matter what it looked like was just maze walls boxing you in. Somehow for me this works better when you aren't using a full 3D engine. With the full 3D it just looks and feels like you can't go somewhere you SHOULD be able to. In isometric pseudo 3D like Diablo, it doesn't really look like you should be able to jump into the prerendered pit. So the mechanic isn't a

      • Re:You must stick to the path! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Nutcase ( 86887 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @04:32PM (#12376134) Homepage Journal
        Its as annoying as hell, but as a game developer, I can see why they would do that.

        Because they aren't good enough to make an engine that doesn't allow people to fall through the geometry (or their map makers can't effectively limit the range of movement naturally)?

        Because they are lazy and would rather put a huge artificial barrier in the players way than implement a better system?

        I can't think of a single reason that doesn't come back to them taking the easy way out. Not exactly a good message to send when you want people to be impressed by the quality of your game.

        • Re:You must stick to the path! (Score:5, Insightful)

          by UberFlop ( 664133 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @08:44PM (#12378754)
          Think before you speak, son.

          They didn't take the "easy way out." Making a game of this calibre is not easy, let me tell you, so I fail to see why this small "feature" is indicative of laziness or inferiority when everything else in the game screams quality and effort. As it is, you obviously know little about how games (engines, in particular) actually function.

          It's their game, and they've decided this is the way they want people to traverse through their world. They decided to set the pace of the game. So far, I haven't heard that many complaints from it, and the ones I have were relatively minor compared to your arrogant diatribe.

          As a game programmer myself, you saying that they're not talented or that they're lazy makes me incredibly angry. You're picking out the one subjective flaw in the game and obnxiously and insultingly overreacting to it, ignoring the great work the game actually is composed of.

          • Wish I had the mod points.
            Far too often do people call a design choice they don't like or understand 'An easy way out' or 'Stupid' or some other way of saying 'its not what I would have done, so its wrong'.

            Except they didn't do anything.

            For me, playing guild wars has been like Looking at all the things that other mmogs have tried doing but failed... except done in a way that works. It really looks like the designers have played other games that would be considered competitors and aggressively looked at w
            • I believe the term I used was "stupid game mechanic" and perhaps that's not exactly what I should have said. Maybe "incongruous game mechanic" would be better. I just feel that when you have a full 3D engine being blocked from getting to places it LOOKS like you should be able to get to is a bit incongruous.
              They have every right to choose whatever game mechanics they want, obviously. It's their game.
              Subjectively, how their choices make me feel will determine whether I want to play the game or not.
              Given that
    • That's one of the things I liked about WoW. You could literaly jump anywhere you wanted. If there was a bridge, you could jump off it. If there was a pit of lava, you could jump in it. Nice little touch that made the game a bit more fun.
      • That's one of the things I liked about WoW. You could literaly jump anywhere you wanted.

        Yes, but at the same time you can't climb hills with a gradient > 45degrees. I really miss being able to climb lone-hilltops and mountain crags like in EQ.

      • Re:You must stick to the path! (Score:5, Funny)

        by endx7 ( 706884 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @06:26PM (#12377290) Homepage Journal
        I was in a group in WoW, and someone had to go afk for a bit. In apparent boredom, another guy in the group decided to see if he could jump in the lava and then jump back out before dying.

        It didn't work. We ended up having to wait for him instead so he could get back into the instance (from being a ghost).
      • With my low-lvl rogue I had a duell with a paladin (my main is one) just to show him he is not as über as he thinks. I prepared for a tough match, went stealth and just waited for him to come in range for a nice ambush. So, he is doing his thing, jumping around back and forth, sideways all over the place. He jumps backwards a while and finally over the edge of a huge cliff. Naturally: "Group: See, told you palas suck. I can beat you with my mind". Actually, that made me contemplate rolling a priest ^^.
  • I am not in the least bit entertained by click-kill monster grinding through the PVE part of the game. I guess a lot of people who haven't played MMORPGS think leveling up is fun. Its just progress quest with a new name and fancy graphics.

    Maybe PVP will be entertaining. Who knows, you have to do this overhead to get there.

    • Re:I'm playing it (Score:3, Informative)

      by MonkeyBunker ( 858589 )
      Maybe PVP will be entertaining. Who knows, you have to do this overhead to get there.

      Actually, no, you don't. You can create a PVP only character that is max level, but you can't ever take that character anywhere but the PVP areas. You can't even go to town. Also, you're stuck to preset skills until you find skills via the PvE game.
      • CJ: Maybe PVP will be entertaining. Who knows, you have to do this overhead to get there.

        MB: Actually, no, you don't. You can create a PVP only character that is max level, but you can't ever take that character anywhere but the PVP areas. You can't even go to town. Also, you're stuck to preset skills until you find skills via the PvE game. The PVE is the overhead I meant. I'm not about to create a PK guy with no skills, gimpage isn't good. You're basically required to do PVE to have a challenge in
        • You can of course use a pre-made with a full set of 8 pre-selected skills.

          Many of us have lobbied for less PvE and more importantly less grind, but it seems as though it is still impossible to release a game that doesn't cater to the people that feel like they need to work to develop their characters.

          GW has the least grind though, so it is worth supporting. You can also unlock skills so that eventually you can quickly create the characters you want for PvP... it is just too bad that all skills weren't un
    • If you just want PVP without PVE, then why aren't you off playing Counter-Strike?
  • If it gets on the good list with Cedega, I'll buy.

    I played a few beta weekends way, way back and it was one of the funnest games I've played in a long time.

  • Trial Available? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I always want to play these MMORPG's but I'm always afraid I'll pay $50 for something I won't like..

    Is there a trial available? I don't care if it's only a week..

    • Re:Trial Available? (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There was a "trial" for about a weekend per month for almost a freaking year. Where ya been, slappy?

  • I preordered, so I've been playing since lastnight (prerelease event). It's been pretty fun so far. And I should mention I'm an avid WoW player ;)

    My Necromancer Dancing [datamachine.net] (xvid,added audio) or no audio [datamachine.net]. I know the framerate seems a bit jumpy, I wanna do a better recording.

  • Ok, I'm buying Guild wars for real, for one reason (Score:4, Interesting)

    by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Thursday April 28, 2005 @10:10PM (#12379328) Journal
    Its like other MMORPGS, but only takes 5 seconds to log on. Thats right, no stupid logo screens, no loading screens, just instantly in the game.
  • I preordered this back in December.. but I left my key at home (I'm at the dorm right now)... so irritating!

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