Is Guild Wars any good?

[Extreme Coder]

I was thinking of getting a MMORPG to play, but apparently all the good ones(WoW, FFXI, Lineage,so on..) are pay-to-play. And while 10-20 dollars may not seem like a lot to you a month, in the local currency here it's like 5-10% of someone's monthly income, in addition to the fact that my family has had some money problems the last few weeks, means I can't afford such a thing.

The only game which looked decent and was a pay-once fee was Guild Wars, and it looks good, but I want to know a few things:

- I've read people saying it's not a 'true' MMORPG?

- There are lots of parts. Which one should I get?


Thanks!

 

[MrKuenning]

I would get the original one, all the rest sorta build off of it. That doesn't mean they require it. But the first one you lvl up to 20, and the next ones kinda asume you already are at that level (since you can move from one version to another.)
You can also find bundle packs and save money.

The game is not a true MMO because you cant just stroll along and meet people. You only meet people in the citys from there you start a party and they go with you into the fields to play the missions.

There are many pros and cons, the biggest pro being that it only costs like 20 bucks for the game and its free to play.

The biggest con I had was that you cant lvl beyond 20, the game is designed around skill more than power. You have a primary job and a secondary job, and you can change your secondary job.

So you can be a soldier/monk and heal yourself, or a solder/ranger and be stealthy... And you really need to have a party to do any mission, the nice thing is there are free NPCs at every city to join your party if not enough real ppl join.

I think its worth 20 bucks especially if you know someone else playing.

On a separate note....

I think there are plenty of free MMORPGs out there with a few google clicks you can find them.

I am currently playing Rose Online on a private server aruarose.com but the official rose online is now free to play.

Good luck and I would be happy to answer any further questions.

 

[VmprHntrD]

Fantastic. After letting go of my duties with those morons over at AMN pushing 2 years ago in reviewing and admining their overly PC forums I picked it up to work with a co-worker friend of mine. We've been running a guild together as co-leads(he's go the title though) since Feb 07.

My suggestion to you so you can get into the best starter(and overall) skills and so you can get into the red vs blue (luxon vs kurzick) 12 on 12 live combat fights is to get Factions and/or the GW(Prophecies)/Factions 2in1 pack.

While I'm sure some WoW people will come here and crap all over it consider this stuff first:
- NO online fees
- Skill and tactics based*
- Has a Level cap so you can't just always outgrow and pound someone
- Large guilds which can have up to 100, but alliances can have 10 in them (1000 person superguilds.)
- Many PvE or PvP environments but they don't overlap either.
- Party based with drones(henchies or heroes you can skill set yourself)

**Why I said it was skill and tactics based is that it's the huge difference between this and WoW. WoW you can just level like hell over months and years grinding up well into the 90s and so on. GW max caps you out at Lv20...that's it. LV20 has a base of 480hp and 30energy so to survive it's all about customization, skill selection(you can only arm 8 from a class/subclass you set), and tactics. Each style/substyle setup in the game is strong against much and can get hosed by something specific else. I currently primarily run two builds of which they're an Elementalist(Fire)/Assassin and a Ranger/Mesmer. On the first I can use assassins skills to instantly recharge skills when something dies and do a rapid heal/armor temp boost while the recharger and ele skills can allow me to do devastating fire spells instantly and have them recharge instantly if the target dies when they'd usually take 5sec to fire and a min to recharge. The Ranger I have mesmers use mind fucking skills to drain life and energy or spread nasty stuff around like the clap. My ranger can set someone on fire and poison at the same time, and can also cripple and blind...the mesmer skill allows me within (if they were human) a 5ft area to suffer all the crap my targetted chump was set with. Due to my setups, in particular the ranger I'm nearly impossible to kill as I can blind and cripple one and dash away, but if someone interrupts fast(assassins only most the time) with an interrupt or knockign me on my ass I'm done, but other builds I can just pound on my own.

Ultimately if you want a fun game with no fees, strong on tactics and thought and skill, has distinct player vs enviro or other people setup maps then GW is a good idea to get. I'd say with your financial problem there with fees taking up like 10% of your income I'd really go for it. And the whole MMORPG or not debate is questionable. It's a massive online rpg, and you get that full effect in towns or waiting areas, but when you do quests you don't run across other parties because you set them in waiting areas. A few stages do have cooperative parties where two random pilings of people merge to deal with a stage, but that's semi-rare.

 

[CPhantom]

WoW has a level cap :|
currently, 60 w/o expansion, 70 w/ expansion, 80 with newest expansion about to release.

pretty much it goes down to one thing - Gamestyle.

Guild Wars plays like a nicely shown Diablo, while WoW is in the style of the Generic MMO.

 

[Extreme Coder]

Thanks guys! It looks like a good game, I think I will buy the first one (Prophecies) then when I get bored get Factions when I have enough money.

It's nice that the lvl cap is at 20, how long does it take to lvl to that and do you have to grind in this game?

I looked around though, it seems there are no things to ride in this game. Is that true? If so, do you have to do all travelling by walking?

 

[VmprHntrD]

Well in prophecies it is a slower moving leveling experience, also it's unique being that it was first so that mission objectives are not well pointed to in the maps so it comes up to a bit of guess work at times, but the lands are vast. Factions you can level up pretty fast in it, and you get the bonus of the Alliance Battle areas if you choose a faction where you can do some really fun team vs team stuff.

As it is though at least in the states most the games now all come in just two packs for $30USD and singles are hard to find as they're not printed now. That's why I recommended the Prophecies/Factions package as you get the ability to level quick, a unique asian setting(Factions), and again Factions has some of the best skill sets in the game (and that version adds in the Assassin and the Ritualist, whereas Prophecies only has 6 job types.)


As far as riding things, correct there are none. The game counters this by opening up a lot of hot spot checkpoints on the map in towns and waypoints. Once you hit that area it opens on the main map and you can just teleport to where you need to be if you don't wish to walk the long way there. Typically though while it seems long, that first time through it is not because of what you have to do to get there.

 

[FAST6191]

My friend recently started on the free servers for world of warcraft (trivial to set up). Initial impressions are mixed.
A list of free servers:
http://www.xtremetop100.com/world-of-warcraft
There are also "fun" severs which means you can start at a given level and ignore grinding in favour of quests.

However in place of such games (no more mmorpgs since a nasty spell with Phantasy Star on the dreamcast) I recently picked up Savage: Battle for newerth. A combination of an RTS (for one of the people on your team) and an FPS.
http://www.s2games.com/savage/
PC requirements low. Bandwidth requirements low (it works fine for massive games with 60 odd people during the 60kbyte/sec cap BT have). Price: completely free.

 

[VmprHntrD]

Huh didn't know there were free WoW servers setup so you don't have to pay that $15/mo blackmail fee bullshit.

 

[VVoltz]

I was thinking of getting a MMORPG to play, but apparently all the good ones(WoW, FFXI, Lineage,so on..) are pay-to-play. And while 10-20 dollars may not seem like a lot to you a month, in the local currency here it's like 5-10% of someone's monthly income, in addition to the fact that my family has had some money problems the last few weeks, means I can't afford such a thing.

The only game which looked decent and was a pay-once fee was Guild Wars, and it looks good, but I want to know a few things:

- I've read people saying it's not a 'true' MMORPG?

- There are lots of parts. Which one should I get?


Thanks!

Scary, I was thinking the same last week. Somehow, 30USD for a PC game was a little too much for me, lately I've been having a lot of expenses.

QUOTE(CPhantom @ Aug 30 2008, 11:40 PM) Guild Wars plays like a nicely shown Diablo, while WoW is in the style of the Generic MMO.

Really?, that raises the bar a lot.

I've been reading that Nightfall is actually really good, and most likely the best of the three for new players. I also had some issues finding a cheap copy of Prophecies.

Oh, I just checked Amazon, a Guild Wars: Trilogy pack will be released on Sept. 25.

 

[Extreme Coder]

My friend recently started on the free servers for world of warcraft (trivial to set up). Initial impressions are mixed.
A list of free servers:
http://www.xtremetop100.com/world-of-warcraft
There are also "fun" severs which means you can start at a given level and ignore grinding in favour of quests.

However in place of such games (no more mmorpgs since a nasty spell with Phantasy Star on the dreamcast) I recently picked up Savage: Battle for newerth. A combination of an RTS (for one of the people on your team) and an FPS.
http://www.s2games.com/savage/
PC requirements low. Bandwidth requirements low (it works fine for massive games with 60 odd people during the 60kbyte/sec cap BT have). Price: completely free.

I don't really know about those free servers, I've heard they ruin the game, and I'd rather play another game instead then..

And you're telling me about Savage?

I used to play it daily for like six months, I got bored of it a bit though. Make sure you're playing Savage Full Enhancement (google it), it's a whole lot better than the version on their site

and Savage 2 is also out, but it costs some money too. When I have some money in a while though, I will buy it for sure

 

[VVoltz]

My friend recently started on the free servers for world of warcraft (trivial to set up). Initial impressions are mixed.
A list of free servers:
http://www.xtremetop100.com/world-of-warcraft
There are also "fun" severs which means you can start at a given level and ignore grinding in favour of quests.

However in place of such games (no more mmorpgs since a nasty spell with Phantasy Star on the dreamcast) I recently picked up Savage: Battle for newerth. A combination of an RTS (for one of the people on your team) and an FPS.
http://www.s2games.com/savage/
PC requirements low. Bandwidth requirements low (it works fine for massive games with 60 odd people during the 60kbyte/sec cap BT have). Price: completely free.

I don't really know about those free servers, I've heard they ruin the game, and I'd rather play another game instead then..

And you're telling me about Savage?

I used to play it daily for like six months, I got bored of it a bit though. Make sure you're playing Savage Full Enhancement (google it), it's a whole lot better than the version on their site

and Savage 2 is also out, but it costs some money too. When I have some money in a while though, I will buy it for sure

Have you decided yet?, I actually just bought Prophecies on eBay after reading this post of yours. =)

 

[Extreme Coder]

Scary, I was thinking the same last week. Somehow, 30USD for a PC game was a little too much for me, lately I've been having a lot of expenses.
Yeah, well, the price of 30$ for a game is more suitable for US people as their wages are much more than that

Here average wages range from 200$ to 350$ for an average guy, and 500-600$ would be called a bit over the top

(Of course there are exceptions of people taking less than 200 and people taking more than a 1000 but those are exceptions)

QUOTEReally?, that raises the bar a lot.

I've been reading that Nightfall is actually really good, and most likely the best of the three for new players. I also had some issues finding a cheap copy of Prophecies.

Oh, I just checked Amazon, a Guild Wars: Trilogy pack will be released on Sept. 25.

But what about Eye of the North? Nobody mentioned it being good or bad..

That amazon deal looks good, I hope the guild wars website can have such an offer online without having to get a box, since I doubt Amazon ships to Egypt..

 

[Extreme Coder]

Have you decided yet?, I actually just bought Prophecies on eBay after reading this post of yours. =)

Yeah, it's now top priority on my to-buy list, with Savage 2 following it

Although I wish I could buy it sooner rather than later, it all depends on when I have enough free money( and sadly, that is very rare with me these days, financial state and stuff..)
I should set up a donations box

 

[LokusT]

I've been a player of Guild Wars for a little over 3 years now. Just thought I would give you my thoughts on it.

As has been mentioned here, it's not an MMO in the truest sense by any means but there is still something within that can make a person spend the same amount of time on it as they would with WoW.

Now, in spite of this, it does have it's fair share of problems. I'll divide up into PvE and PvP what I think the main ones are.

PvE:

The lvl 20 cap really isn't a problem imo. There's still some challenging elements that you can tackle much like WoW raids. The sense of accomplishment isn't quite the same though.

Once you have completed a campaign, or even all of them + Eye of the North, there's really not much to do unless you want to grind. Initially ArenaNet (The developers) said they want it to be as grindless as possible. Sadly, they have failed and the addition of titles has emphasised that, although they are completely optional, they do add longevity where there essentially is none so I guess there is some balance. Where Prophecies is concerned at least, there's less grinding. Factions and Nightfall on the other hand have a couple of mandatory grindy sections that are part of the storyline.

Probably the biggest problem of all though is with Prophecies itself. It's been out for a real long time now and at present, there's just not many people playing it from the start anymore (although, hopefully the ultimate collection or whatever it's called will change that), so getting a party to play through the game will be tricky and stunt your progress. If I were starting now I would probably get pissed off that certain sections will be very difficult to get through.

One way to get around that would be to get into a guild. This in itself becomes a problem. In spite of the game having a good community, there's a lot of bad PvE guilds that are very elitist and not very willing to help. I'm not saying they're all like that though, I just can't say that most aren't like it either.

Other than that, the campaigns on the whole are enjoyable enough. There's a nicely crafted lore behind the game too and it's established itself well.

PvP:

OK, I confess I'm not a big PvP player. Never have been and never will probably. I do do a little occasionally but I do it for fun rather than competition.

The core of the PvP element is something called Heroes' Ascent. It's just a perpetual tournament winner stays on kind of thing. It's fun but it's really hard to get into a team. The vast majority demand players with a good rank and of course to get rank you have to be able to get into a team in the first place. It's frustrating.

Also, generally in spite of it being more about skill than anything, it's very common to see teams with the same builds time and time again. This is the case in pretty much every element of PvP. Random Arenas, Heroes Ascent, Alliance Battles, Hero Battles and Team Arenas. The same people that copy their builds from websites that result in being a dime a dozen everywhere you look also tend to be the same people that sneer at you for having the balls to even try to get into PvP. Basically, it's just the same as every competitive online game except your team gives you stick as well as your opponents.

If you just keep on with it and try and do things for your own pleasure and do things your own way though, it is fun.

------------------------------

This probably sounds like I've bashed it a fair bit but I think it's only fair to give a good warning first

As for the missing link of everything, Eye of the North, the only real Guild Wars expansion, there isn't a hell of a lot to it, but it's there mainly if you ever have any intention of playing Guild Wars 2. That's pretty much all it's there for. It acts as a bridge to the sequel. It's alright. Nothing special but it's definitely one for the fans. It's hard to say much about it. It doesn't really add anything to any of the campaigns as such.

Other than that, I do love the game personally and have met some great people on there in the last few years. My best tip I can offer is if you are getting it, get yourself into a helpful guild. I'm sure Vampire Hunter D will help you out there

Enoy Guild Wars!

 

[Extreme Coder]

Thanks a lot for the info LokusT! I just finished reading it

Do you still play it or not btw?

 

[LokusT]

Yeah, I still play it. Unable to atm though due to being busy moving home and a few other bits and pieces but I intend on carrying on from where I left off.

 

[Extreme Coder]

Ok, last question

I looked at the site, there's no such thing as a demo or time-limited trial, I want to try out how the game feels before buying, is that not possible?

 

[LokusT]

There were some trial keys before that were limited to 14 days or 10 hours of play (whichever came first) but I think they stopped them as they were being abused by companies creating bots advertising "exploit sites" and you can probably guess what they were actually set up to exploit instead. I don't think any old trial keys will work anymore either so unfortunately theanswer is probably a no. I could be wrong though but I definitely haven't seen any for a long time.

 

[LoneSyn]

I have two trial keys since I bought Nightfall and Eye of the North a while back. Not sure if I should give them to you

 

[Extreme Coder]

That would be very nice if you could give them to me, but as LokusT said, do they still work?