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GuildWars : The Future Game?
FlamingBoi
Member Posts: 206
After reading many FAQs, and interviews .. in my opinion, guildwars will be one of the best, fun game in the next few years..
Firstly, there is NO.. NO.. monthly fees.. i repeat.. NO monthly fees 
Now.. read this interview :
GB: First of all, how is Guild Wars coming along? Can you give us a quick summary of where you stand in the development cycle?
ArenaNet: Guild Wars is progressing really well! In the early days, we were very focused on the technical aspects of the game because we had to start by building the global gaming network to support the game. At the same time, we were also creating our 3D engine and toolsets. Now that the infrastructure is complete, were adding a ton of new content on a regular basis, and will continue to do so until ship.
ArenaNet: Our primary goal is to create an online RPG that supports truly meaningful competitive gameplay. We are making a role playing game that offers you a full range of gaming choices: competitive play in one-on-one duels, team play and in massive group battles; cooperative play; and single player gaming. We plan to offer this on a global network that will allow true world championships, and most importantly, we intend to provide all this without a monthly fee.
GB: Since the game will stream updates to a player's client instantly, how do you intend to test some of the updates before they go live?
ArenaNet: We update on the fly, working with live builds, every day. This has been our internal procedure since Day One, and we have been involving the public in testing this process since early in 2002. You see, changes and updates and additions to Guild Wars are developed by the design team, and are then uploaded to the live server. We avoid patch paralysis with a process that is almost organic, that makes the fixes immediate and worldwide. We dont have a separate test server. This allows us to avoid time lost in waiting for the next evolution of the game. It also helps us prevent getting reports about a game build that has already been replaced.
Streaming our content means that the players have the most recent and best build of the game whenever they play. What is changed within the game world is live to all of us the design team and the alpha testers alike and this process works! We are currently producing an average of five live game updates a day in the alpha test, and updates in the final game will be streamed live as well. Eventually, during the beta and after release, well have a sandbox where we send the updates to be play-tested for a short period to verify them. But our updates will go live in a very short period of time rather than weeks or months.
GB: Your website states that there will be no monthly charge to North American players. How do you plan on continually updating the game with new content without having a steady stream of income?
ArenaNet: We founded this company to create online role playing games, and weve designed Guild Wars around network technology that is very efficient in terms of bandwidth and hardware utilization. In addition to lower operating cost, we believe that we can sell a lot more copies of Guild Wars by not charging a monthly fee. We believe that not charging monthly fees allows larger communities of gamers to enjoy the online role playing game experience. The money earned from game sales will be turned right back to support the game and to develop the expansions. And because we will keep developing expansion packs for Guild Wars, we are highly motivated to keep our customers happy and keep them coming back for more. If they like what theyve experienced, they will want to buy an expansion pack when it comes along.
Eight or ten years ago, no one believed that you could offer a gaming network for free, but Battle.net proved that you could offer a free gaming network and remain financially successful. Our new goal is to prove that you can offer an excellent online game with full support without a monthly subscription fee.
GB: Tell us how the game allows for skill experimentation but doesn't allow a player to "ruin" their character?
ArenaNet: Weve put a lot of thought into character creation, because we want to avoid those ruined characters. Weve all had the sort of game experience where you place attribute points or choose a skill for your character, only to learn later sometimes after investing hundreds of hours into the character that you made a bad decision and the character is permanently flawed, or gimped. With Guild Wars, we never ask you to make permanent decisions about your character until you have all the information you need to make good choices. The only thing we ask you to decide when you start out is appearance, such as hair colour, gender, height, etc. Any choices you make that affect gameplay are made after you have enough knowledge to make good decisions.
GB: Do you plan on implementing player housing? If so, will this feature be available at the game's initial release?
ArenaNet: We dont plan to have player housing, but well handle many of the needs that player housing addresses with our Guild Halls.
GB: Can you explain how the leveling system will work in the game? Is there a maximum character level? Will lower level characters stand a chance against higher level characters in PvP?
ArenaNet: The leveling system is something that most RPG players will be familiar with. As you complete quests and slay monsters, you gain experience points and acquire gold. The experience points and gold can then be used to obtain skills.
But here is where there is a difference between Guild Wars and many other games: The skills that you obtain are not variations on a few basic abilities, and do not grow ever more powerful as your levels rise. You wont find a Level 15 Fire Blast in our game. Instead of higher levels, youll have access to many more unique skills. This means that as a lower level character you wont be weaker, you will just have fewer skills from which to draw. If you use good strategy and play skillfully, you may be able to defeat a higher-level character.
Guild Wars supports dual professions, and there will be a ceiling on character levels. Currently we believe that Level 50 is the appropriate maximum, but that may change during development. You will be able to achieve the maximum character level faster in Guild Wars than you do in most other RPGs.
GB: How do you intend to deal with massive amounts of "player-killing"? Will there be "safe" zones for those players that do not want to participate in Player-versus-Player games?
ArenaNet: Guild Wars is designed first and foremost as a competitive online role playing game. Nobody complains about player killing in StarCraft or chess, because those games are created to be competitive. Of course, as weve said before, Guild Wars will offer you the choice of competitive or cooperative games. You will make that choice simply by choosing the type of mission you want to play. Some quests or missions will be competitive, and in those, player-versus-player gaming and player-killing can be part of and maybe even the entire objective of the game. Those sorts of games would include the traditional PvP games, such as Capture the Flag or King of the Hill. Other quests or missions will be designated as strictly cooperative, and in those missions it will not be possible to kill other players.
GB: Will there be multiple phases to the public beta? Have you decided on a time period of when a first phase might begin?
ArenaNet: Yes, there will be two phases to the public beta consisting of the Closed Beta and the Open Beta. The Closed Beta will involve a limited number of people and the Open Beta will be opened to the public. We haven't set the exact time period yet, but the Closed Beta will start around 3 to 4 months before the final release date.
GB: To conclude, what would you say differentiates Guild Wars from the other online games on the market? What will it offer that other games don't?
ArenaNet: There are a few things that really set Guild Wars apart from other games:
- Guild Wars is a fully hosted and supported online game without a monthly subscription fee, which we will continue to support and expand with free content and with regular purchasable expansion sets.
- Guild Wars is a mission-based game, which increases the fun while taking out the tedium that is sometimes associated with MMORPGs.
- Guild Wars is designed for competitive play, but offers many styles of playing: competitive, cooperative, and single-player.
- With our no servers, no shards technology, gamers can compete against or play with anyone, anywhere, at any time, with no artificial boundaries between players or game worlds. Using this technology, Guild Wars players can unequivocally answer the question of Who is the world champion?
heh.. long post eh?.. take your time.. views?
Comments
Lovely rhetoric. Here's the thing: I don't buy it. The fact is, they need to generate revenue to maintain the game. If you are content with paying 6 months of monthly fees in one expansion "shot" then bully for you, but I suspect most people won't be. Gaile's last post on this matter appears to confirm my theory:
"If you think about it, our game has to compete with any other in the market, and our expansion packs need to be great in order to deserve your support. Your support in purchasing the expansion packs, and not your monthly fee, is what will keep us going. You can be sure that the game will be full of excellent content and that the costs of the Expansion Packs will be kept affordable and competitively priced."
"Competitively priced" doesn't sound to me like "subscription free".
So, Gaile, if you can step in here and, definitively and officially, state that Guild Wars will cost significantly less per annum to play to it's fullest extent, than a traditional monthly fee mmorpg like WoW or EQ2, please do so. Until then I remain unconvinced. And for those of you who still harbour the notion that this game will be "free", you truly are naive.
"And by the way, did anyone ever tell you that you look exactly like Garfield but run over and skinned and then someone threw an ugly Ferragamo sweater over you before they rushed you to the vet ?. . ."
- Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho
EQII
Requiiem, Templar
Neriak
i deffinatly think this will be one of the better games we will be seeing in the near future...
so far everything i've seen and heard about this game just seems perfect... the only thing that bothered me the least was the level cap at 50 which supposedly can be reached faster then in most games... im not a fan of level caps at all... i dont like to play for 3 years just to have some kid who's only played for 3 months, come along and be the same level as me...
but ya, aside from that this game looks uber...
im a huge fan of PvP and im really hoping this game brings it... i like how they compare it to StarCraft in terms of PvP... it kinda makes sense... "nobody complains about PK'ing in StarCraft", so bassically their saying this game is gonna be 100% PvP... no more carebears (yay)
also im a fan of ArenaNet and NC Soft so for the 2 of them to come together and make a game... sweet
i will deffinatly be buying this game... whats the worst that can happen? hell even if it sucks, being able to play for free with no monthly fee's will be worth it lol
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Do you know what bootstrapping is ? Because that is exactly what you just did. How do you know the expansions are only going to be $30 ? What if they are $60 ? What if they come out three times a year instead of two ? What if the retail box is actually $69.95, or $79.95 ? If you choose not to buy the expansion pack, how does that effect gameplay ? Would it be like being stuck in Freeport while everone else is in Velious ? The game is not free, shut-up and let Gaile answer this one please.
"And by the way, did anyone ever tell you that you look exactly like Garfield but run over and skinned and then someone threw an ugly Ferragamo sweater over you before they rushed you to the vet ?. . ."
- Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho
EQII
Requiiem, Templar
Neriak
Gnarled
"Do you know what bootstrapping is ? Because that is exactly what you just did. How do you know the expansions are only going to be $30 ? What if they are $60 ? What if they come out three times a year instead of two ? What if the retail box is actually $69.95, or $79.95 ? Shut-up and let Gaile answer this one please. "
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It will still be cheaper than monthly fees.. look at diablo 2.. and that expansion is optional as i've already mentioned.. so what's the problem?
Btw, MMORPG with monthly fees may also have expansions.. LOOK at EQ , DAOC .. they both have expansion packs..
Anywayz.. the level cap of 50 is indeed making me worry. But lucky, this game is based on skills and not just " Im higher level than you, you suck, get lost you noob " .. instead you need skills , and as mentioned in the interview , there is no "Lvl 15 FireBall skill" , skills are not more power, just more unique ..
.. Means a level 1 noob could beat a lvl 15 guy .. 
I really like this concept...
I think this game has even bigger potential than Starcraft or Warcraft3.
It's purely based on "skill meritocratic system" (like SC, WC3) rather than "time meritocratic system" (L2, EQ, CoH, WoW, etc) yet instead of every units are controlled by you, you now have real thinking human working alongside with you.
And this sort of design is what I've been waiting for ages and ages.
Imagine yourself being one of the horde of players (50+) going raid against another horde of 50+ players, all of them controlled individually (no more automated zergling), using individual/collective tactics that span from laying bridge to scrapping chunk of forest section, all focused in one goal: take down the castle or exterminate the annoying enemy horde.
No longer we have to wonder around looking for what to do, or even if we know what to do, we have at least a choice to choose from your "mirror opponent" and "dumb scripted mob bunch".
And it will be easier for a lot of us to get immediate immersion since you are given a focused, clear-cut goal to pursue in each mission.
I think this "clear-cut goal" format of each mission will be so appealing to many of us.
I loved it in WC3 player customized map like "DoTa", "AoE", "11 Samurai", "Castle defense 1b", "10 heroes", etc.
Those who played these maps know what I'm talking about.
I agree, Guildwars will be one to watch. The more I learn about this game the more I like it.
I really really like the game based on the player's skills and not his level in the game. I also like the mission based system.. sounds good to me
FlamingBoi, first off - Diablo is very fun right? lets say an expansion is released - the ones with the expansion get SUPERIOR gear compared to those without. Thus a twinked lvl 1 can beat a lvl 30 without the expansion anytime. Wouldn't you feel forced to buy that expansion? otherwise you're not able to stay in the competition, you'd be like a 486 compared to a Pentium 2.
This is to show you what gnarled is trying to explain to you. Without the expansions you won't have access to everything, you won't have access to every skill, item, race and character choice, you become limited whereas those with the expansion are unlimited.
In the end this will be about the same/bit cheaper than a normal MMORPG if you buy the expansions.
And btw. this is very skill based, and a lvl 1 without that many skills to choose from will always be very limited in his way of battle - any player who've been there knows this and would compensate for it and therefore beating the level 1, at 30 - it should be possible to beat a lvl 50 however (the game isn't live and these are just to show what I think will be viable - of course a lvl 1 could in theory beat a lvl 50 - he might be afk).
What I am trying to say - don't let the no-cost theme fool you, don't let their preliminary ideas fool you either, you might get worked up thinking that this game will be so-and-so (one's imagination does that, ask any psychologist) until you know for sure, otherwise you might end up disappointed.
It has the potential to be a great game, but IMO so does at least 1/3 of every game listed under development - in theory.
Dreamers can find their way by moonlight and their only punishment is that they see the dawn before the rest of the world
Dreamers can find their way by moonlight and their only punishment is that they see the dawn before the rest of the world
guild wars looks good just for being an mmorpg, but the fact that it has no monthly fee means it could have a greater commercial success than other mmorpgs. if they advertise it at gaming sites and such, in a way that lets people know theres no monthly fee and still looks good, i believe it could become very popular. ill be playing it just because of the lack of a monthly fee, just buying expansions every 6 months makes paying for it alot easier. everquest allrdy releases expansions almost 2 to a year it seems, but it also has a monthly fee.
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I only see one flaw in Guild Wars: It's all about killing! It offers nothing but killing, and killing gets boring really fast.
-Obiyer
Since there is still little known when it actually comes to how they will handle servers and different zones I don't really see this game being a MMORPG as most people know them. I think it'll be much more like D2 in a full 3D enviroment. You'll probably pick a zone you want to go to and host the server for it which a limited number of people can come and join with you. This isn't really what I'm looking for in a game but might be something for those that are looking for a more casual feel and time requirement.
What game isn't about killing????
You want fishing? is that what you wanna do?
What is really gona bring Guildwars tot he top is that is NOT all about levels.
There is no crafting, but they have said there are npc crafters
and example they used was you found a really nice dragons sword
so you take it to the crafters, and turn it into a dragon hilt and some iron
then you ask the blacksmith to replace your sword hilt with the dragon one, leaving you with enough Iron for a nice new set of gauntlets.
if you look at the req for the game, they are VERY low, and if you look at the screenshots, they have a "shine engine" which makes the game look that much nicer.
Apparently the game is amazing to play, and people have been known to blow time just watching the clouds move and look for things in them, or sit and admire the ingame scenery.
The mission based thing is supposed to be reall good "some who were skeptical of the whole thing decided they absolutly loved it"
As for the whole monthly fee thing, they have said that you will never be required to get the expansion, and the guys who make guildwars so far have proven at every chance that they are not crooks.
I'd buy the expansion packs for new towns and places to go, perhaps some new equipment ans such.
Another thing they mentioned is that equipment isnt too "jumpy" there are no level req on items, as of right now (the level req was removed) as the jump from most weapons isnt that much, they have said that a smart lvl 20 and easily hand a average/not so smart lvl 30.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...
From what I have heard from the Alpha Testers and fan sites that although killing is one of the big parts of the game, missions are the other half of the game.
This is what Bruticus had to say about them on the Photics.com forums:
Besides, like higgsboson said, what else are you going to do? Sure in other games you can craft, but can you do that for hours on end? And if your problem is with socializing in the game... Just because there is killing doesn't mean that you still can't do that. In fact grouping with other players just for a party or for guilds is a huge part of the game. But I do agree that Guild Wars may not be for everyone. (and oh yeah, Obiyer, I am not directing this just at you, just to anyone who are worried about the game just being a hackfest without reason)
"No one can draw a clear line between sane and insane. You move that line as you see fit for yourself. No one else can. You'll understand soon... that the one that's insane is this world." - Vincent
Currently:
Playing: WOW & GW
True Knowledge is Knowing that you Know Knothing!
Haven't read that comparison of magic the gathering, if they do it like that it would be ideal for those not wishing the expansion. And I let out the 15$ deal out so as to not to confuse people. I did mention that guild wars would be cheaper though, and it will - well, if they don't charge 100$ for an expansion (but if they did, who would buy it?).
However, what developers have done so far is that they've added more content with expansions. More content = more options and who wouldn't want that? If they decide to do it more like Magic the gathering, that would be wise I would say. Mainly because I tried returning to DAoC to RvR a bit after Trials of Atlantis came out, but it was impossible, people had new abilities that you were just smacked down with, no chance whatsoever. This would be in the worse end of the scenario.
But we will have to wait and see, like every other game this ultimately lies with the developers and the choices they make.
Dreamers can find their way by moonlight and their only punishment is that they see the dawn before the rest of the world
Dreamers can find their way by moonlight and their only punishment is that they see the dawn before the rest of the world
I agree, a game (especially a RPG) has to have a well developed story line so what the players are doing actually mean something - as it realates to the IG world.
Guild wars are having more attention due to the fact that its gonna have no monthly fees.
ArenaNet: We are creating a online game called guild wars.
Crowd: Ok.
ArenaNet: Our devs were ex-blizzard employees.
Crowd: Ok cool...the game's gonna be cool..i guess.
ArenaNet: There would be no monthly fees unlike other mmorpgs.
Crowd: HELL YEAH THIS GAME IS GONNA ROCK. WE ARE GONNA LOVE IT!.
To all those who are flaming FlameBoi, especially the first few posts about the skeptical monthly fees things, you really need to stop.
First off, if Gaile would come in here right now and comment on the monthly fees, this would be almost exactly what she would say:
Taken from the FAQ:
Will there be a monthly fee for Guild Wars?
No, there will not be a monthly subscription fee of any kind, anywhere.
So that really wouldn't matter if she posted here or not.
Back to the initial subject, Guild Wars can be free, and allow me to explain to you how:
First off, it can be free because of the fact that we have ex-blizzard employees working on this game. Now think of it, if we have 3 former Blizzard employees, coincidentally the creators of battle.net, A FREE INTERNET CONNECTION FOR BLIZZARDS GAMES, you figure, they would know how to lower bandwith right? So Guild Wars won't be taking as much bandwith as other games like Everquest and whatever do. So hence, lower bandwith = lower costs = ability to require no monthly fee.
Second off, there will be a bigger fan base than in most MMORPG's. Step up to my face right now and tell me that many people don't like to pay monthly for MMORPG's, because you know that is true. As a result, Guild Wars will attract a much bigger fan base. So what happens when we have a bigger fan base? Asside from some l33t hax0rz, we get more people who buy the game, so more money to rake in.
That's all I'm going to go into for that subject.
And the expansion subject, Gaile and others have officially stated that expansions will be released every 6-9 months, so you most likely won't have three expansions in a year.
If I see more things to comment on, I'll do it later.
New PR rep for the North American Version of RYL
www.planetwidegames.com
Um, firstly, not to be rude but who the f%$k are you ?
Allow me to re-iterate that I do not have a problem with this game or its developers. It looks fantastic graphically, they have some good ideas, and seem to be in tune with their potential fanbase.
The whole point of my argument is that the fee model they are using, while novel, does not = free, which is a word I constantly see bandied about in these forums in association with this game.
1) on ex -Blizzard employees, who cares ? Do you think these guys are philanthropists ? Foreign-aid workers ? Not-for-profit volunteers ? No, they are businessmen, involved in a business endeavor.
2) On your truly poor "economies of scale" argument. Do you really think this game will do enough in retail box sales to make up for the lack of a monthly fee ? Do you think it will even approach EQ's subscription numbers in the first year ? Even if it did, what happens when they flatline on box sales and there is no more revenue to maintain the game ? Then you start paying for expansions. Oh but wait they are voluntary. Yeah right. Never mind that this games depends on you buying those expansions to stay in business.
"If I see more things to comment on, I'll do it later."
Gee thanks, I'll be waiting with bated breath.
"And by the way, did anyone ever tell you that you look exactly like Garfield but run over and skinned and then someone threw an ugly Ferragamo sweater over you before they rushed you to the vet ?. . ."
- Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho
EQII
Requiiem, Templar
Neriak
I have to admit that the lack of a monthly fee is actually the one and only reason I think this game will fail. Look at all the failed MMORPGs out there who have had to shut down before ever being completed because of the cost of development.
Somehow this game has to not only recoup that cost but maintain servers. How can that be done with a financial model that in theory will bring them in lower revenues? Well you have to skimp somewhere ... So does that mean they skimped on the initial investment?
The game clearly looks nice but I'm worried it is lacking in depth and quality beyond that. Either that or as previous posters stated this "no monthly fees" thing will simply be replaced by costly expansions and such. Whoever said they had to follow the model of previous MMORPGs and release them every 6 months? Perhaps new zones, new items, new content etc. will be released *monthly*? All for the low - low cost of $12.95
Of course as pointed out you don't HAVE to buy it. But what if that means suddenly you can't play with your friends who are in the new zones for the uber equipment and such? Or suddenly your guild is falling behind the other guilds because you are limited to initial content? To keep the game enjoyable you are going to fork over the money I would think.
In all honesty I hope they do something similar to this (or maybe 4 updates a year at $40 etc.) that simply replaces monthly fees netting similar revenues. Without it the developers simply won't be able to turn this game in to what I am pulling them to do.
To put it simply I'm more than happy to pay for a game I enjoy playing but a crappy game has no appeal to me, free or not. Since it costs a lot of money game to create the type of MMORPGs I enjoy (lots of depth and content) I don't have a lot of faith in the no-monthly fee idea.
Don't have to be so agitated...and if u wanna scold..just scold.... dun have to be like "Ok i'm nt gonna scold u but....F*** OFF".
Anyway i'm nt trying to say the game's success(we have to see about that) is only because of the no-monthly-fees. It's gd that you can find features of this game that ur interested in. Thats the type of players the game should have....those that are interested in the game features and nt just about the monthly fees.
My previous post is just how i felt abt this game after i saw many posts in different mmorpg forums that the MAIN FACTOR of this game is the No Monthly fee thing.
Sorry if i offended any fans of this game. Peace.
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Gnarled why should I reply to a post that was not even based on my post, why don't you read it again and see where you went wrong.
New PR rep for the North American Version of RYL
www.planetwidegames.com