Any hope for me here?

Flodgy · January 2007

Howdy guys,

Im relatively new to this community, but it always seems to be helpful, so Ill give it a shot. After playing WoW in 6 - 8 month periods, Ive become rather tired of the game. Sicked by the idea of 40 man raids, and a constant grind to stay with the pack, its worn off on me.

Now Guild Wars is something at has always had my attention, Ive browsed on the website and taken looks at it from time to time, and considered buying it, but always read a review or post that turns me away. Now that Ive left WoW permanently, Im looking for something that wont require as much game time, but still has plenty of options of a casual gamer. And as it seems, Guild Wars is perfect for that.

Im basically wondering, you folks that play it, what are the ups and downs of the game? Your points of view. I plan on going through my trusty gaming magazine to see what they say, and since I have rather generous friends today on my birthday, Ill be shopping tomorrow.

Cheers and thanks in advance.

mastervile · January 2007

The pvp aspect of gw is great but pve is nonexistent. Most of the time you'll spend time doing mediocre quests to learn skills or forced missions to get you to the next area. Since the game is instanced towns are only place you'll ever see a live person. If you want nonstop good pvp its ok but outside that its boring as hell.

edit: this link may be helpful http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/105569

Dalmont · January 2007

I've played it for about 2 months, its a good game, but I hate being fed down specific routes, you can't freely explore, its designed quite linearly I felt.

Other than that pvp seems ok, (arenas) and just nice cheap fun every now and again..

Flodgy · January 2007

Hmm. Well I seem to be getting a lot of mixed responses for the game. I dont mind the whole concept of running about by myself, as long as I can earn weapons and gear in the world by myself. It'd probably be a better world to explore than Oblivion anyways..

I live for PvP. To me, it is one of the most enjoyable aspects of an online game. And after reading that thread, I notice that GW is not counted as an MMO. Whatever direction it takes.

Thanks for what you said guys, Im hoping more people post, and Im going to do some more research.

Dalmont · January 2007

Well in the UK you can pick up the original game for £10 now, so worth a pop for a few hours..

The expansions are for people who want that extra character/skills etc...as level cap is still 20 I think

exanimo · January 2007

Originally posted by mastervile
The pvp aspect of gw is great but pve is nonexistent. Most of the time you'll spend time doing mediocre quests to learn skills or forced missions to get you to the next area. Since the game is instanced towns are only place you'll ever see a live person. If you want nonstop good pvp its ok but outside that its boring as hell.
edit: this link may be helpful http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/105569

pve is nonexistent ...

to the op , ignore this troll post

man , why do you talk about what you dont know ...
go freaking spam in the offtopic for crist sake

Pimpopotamus · January 2007

Flodgy, it sounds like you and I have the same feelings for WoW. I played it off and on and finally quit. I had always been playing GW in the background of WoW, and have gone to playing GW a lot more.

One good thing about it is that, as you know, there is no monthly fee. I like this because I can take a break and come back to the game whenever I want. It does seem like the game was designed more for PvP, which should be something you will enjoy. The PvE is not nonexistent as some people say. There are quests and storyline missions for you to do. If you so choose, as I often do if I'm a little bored, is go out into the instanced world and just explore. Now with the Nightfall expansion, you can actually earn a title for doing that. Also, because the world is instanced, I feel more a part of the story, because I'll do a quest to change something, and it will stay changed (until I go back and help someone else do the quest).

Some of the storyline missions are very difficult, which can make the game frustrating. Also, for a casual PvE player, there isn't much to do after you beat all the storyline missions. There are generally a few more quests you can do, but for the most part, you'll want to go around finding better weapons and skills, but that can get boring.

All in all, I would say that GW sounds like a game that you would enjoy, and I would recommend picking up a copy just to try it. And Happy Belated Birthday!

mastervile · January 2007

Originally posted by neoteo

Originally posted by mastervile

The pvp aspect of gw is great but pve is nonexistent. Most of the time you'll spend time doing mediocre quests to learn skills or forced missions to get you to the next area. Since the game is instanced towns are only place you'll ever see a live person. If you want nonstop good pvp its ok but outside that its boring as hell.

edit: this link may be helpful http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/105569

pve is nonexistent ...

to the op , ignore this troll post

man , why do you talk about what you dont know ...

go freaking spam in the offtopic for crist sake

I have four 20's in gw w/m n/m r/m m/m. I have all elite skills and 15k grotto and citadel armor for all of them all the way up to factions. I've milked gw for all i can get from it in pve. All that game is good for is pvp or i would still have an interest to play it. Send a tell to illyria berkal next time you play so i can return the favor of calling me a troll to your face.

edit:img441.imageshack.us/my.php

iller · January 2007

Originally posted by Pimpopotamus

Flodgy, it sounds like you and I have the same feelings for WoW. I played it off and on and finally quit. I had always been playing GW in the background of WoW, and have gone to playing GW a lot more.
One good thing about it is that, as you know, there is no monthly fee. I like this because I can take a break and come back to the game whenever I want. It does seem like the game was designed more for PvP, which should be something you will enjoy. The PvE is not nonexistent as some people say. There are quests and storyline missions for you to do. If you so choose, as I often do if I'm a little bored, is go out into the instanced world and just explore. Now with the Nightfall expansion, you can actually earn a title for doing that. Also, because the world is instanced, I feel more a part of the story, because I'll do a quest to change something, and it will stay changed (until I go back and help someone else do the quest).
Some of the storyline missions are very difficult, which can make the game frustrating. Also, for a casual PvE player, there isn't much to do after you beat all the storyline missions. There are generally a few more quests you can do, but for the most part, you'll want to go around finding better weapons and skills, but that can get boring.
All in all, I would say that GW sounds like a game that you would enjoy, and I would recommend picking up a copy just to try it. And Happy Belated Birthday!

I gotta endorse this view of it. The PvE certainly isn't "non-existant" because it can be Very challenging, Challenge that hinges on TACTICS instead of the usual Over-Powered Stats that most MMO's use to make something challenging. But yeah... the scope of the PvE is fairly limited b/c it's still just a Hack&Slash set of campaigns designed to make the "Unlocking" of items and spells more entertaining for those who don't want to unlock them solely in PvP. But Even if you do get tired of the PvE, atleast you'll know that you're not paying any additional money to play it...

QSatu · January 2007

To all those ppl who claim pve is non-existing in gW.. it's a known fact that 60%+ buy gw to only play pve. I guess all those ppl must be really bored by doing absolutely nothing ~_~

Flodgy · January 2007

To Pimp and Iller, thank you very much for your advice given there, it helped a lot.

That is one of the things that appeals most, the no fee. I quite often found myself wondering with WoW, why do I pay $40, for something where Im not getting any conventional gain, and something that i'm finding boring. The only reason I played it in the past was because I had awesome friends that made it so much more interesting. Then they left and I lost interest.

Well, Im happy with the amount of PvE there, and it seems that it isnt a total grind fest which is good. And on the note of the Nightfall expansion, Ive seen it coupled with the original for only $50 AUD, which is rather good.

Difficult storyline missions eh? Thats half the fun. Something that forces me down, can only force me back up stronger. (That is, at least until my patience runs out.) And I like the idea of being able to search for weapons and gear in a world that doesn't require large scale groups, where communication can sorely lack.

Thanks for the recommendation guys, Ill hopefully buy it sometime tomorrow, and hell, I might even see you somewhere there!

Oh and Pimp, thanks for the Happy Birthday!

Flodgy · January 2007

'Scuse the double post, my edit button doesnt like me.

I have one last, small question, will I be bombarded with large patches to download once the game is installed?

iller · January 2007

Nope, only when you enter a completely new tilest for the first time. I can't explan it, but the Patch downloads themselves and initial setup is freaking Tiny. Over my cable modem it only took about 5 minutes (and 10 minutes to load the gameworld the very first time)

Flodgy · January 2007

Ah, well cheers Iller, you've helped heaps.

Thanks again mate

Serling · January 2007

"The pvp aspect of gw is great but pve is nonexistent."

Nightfall more than addresses the perceived lack of PvE content in both Prophecies and Factions.

People who usually make such comments about GW's "lack of PvE" generally haven't played GW very much.

VGJustice · January 2007

I generally agree with Serling, except that he claimed a lot of stuff that would take a lot of work on the PvE part of the game.

I think that the PvE will get different milage for different people. And, as an added bonus, since you're not paying a monthly you don't have to worry about the game when you're not playing it or taking a break. If you just go at it all day and all night the game ends pretty quickly and doesn't leave you with a lot to do until the next chapter comes out.

But yeah, the PvP is superior.

mastervile · January 2007

Originally posted by Serling

"The pvp aspect of gw is great but pve is nonexistent."
Nightfall more than addresses the perceived lack of PvE content in both Prophecies and Factions.
People who usually make such comments about GW's "lack of PvE" generally haven't played GW very much.

Even if nightfall does add some to pve the game will never reach same depth that any mmorpg has in pve. If gw ever went from a f2p to p2p structure the game would die fast,nobody would pay or play that game for pve aspect only hardcore pvp lovers would pay for it. Then their is the fact its not even an mmorpg at all even Jeff Strain gw's producer has even said that. The first link i provided leads to a thread with a discussion on very issue. I've played gw to death, anybody thats played a real mmorpg would see the severe lack of pve depth. I also really dislike when somebody takes something i said "the pvp aspect of gw is great but pve is nonexistent" and tries me make me look like a fool with it

. Scroll up and read my second post the proof is in link there that i've played gw more hours than you can possibly imagine. I would still be playing it too now but you what no pve depth and what nightfall added is negligible.

iller · January 2007

Given the current anticipation of MMORPG's in 2006 and 2007 (or lack there of... www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/109546 You know it's bad when a staff writer is ready to call it quits)

...claiming a game isn't a real MMORPG could be a real compliment.

Akaraxle · January 2007

Originally posted by mastervile
I have four 20's in gw w/m n/m r/m m/m. I have all elite skills and 15k grotto and citadel armor for all of them all the way up to factions. I've milked gw for all i can get from it in pve. All that game is good for is pvp or i would still have an interest to play it. Send a tell to illyria berkal next time you play so i can return the favor of calling me a troll to your face.

The fact that you have four 20's is enough proof that the PvE does exist and ain't that mediocre, isn't it? Gawd, you even went through Prophecies 4 times while I only managed 3.

GW is both PvE & PvP, any idiots knows that. If you're only experiencing one, you're willingly neglecting yourself half of the game.

Originally posted by mastervile
Even if nightfall does add some to pve the game will never reach same depth that any mmorpg has in pve. If gw ever went from a f2p to p2p structure the game would die fast,nobody would pay or play that game for pve aspect only hardcore pvp lovers would pay for it. Then their is the fact its not even an mmorpg at all even Jeff Strain gw's producer has even said that. The first link i provided leads to a thread with a discussion on very issue. I've played gw to death, anybody thats played a real mmorpg would see the severe lack of pve depth. I also really dislike when somebody takes something i said "the pvp aspect of gw is great but pve is nonexistent" and tries me make me look like a fool with it. Scroll up and read my second post the proof is in link there that i've played gw more hours than you can possibly imagine. I would still be playing it too now but you what no pve depth and what nightfall added is negligible.

It's difficult to add "depth" when you're deliberately avoiding the useless crap that other MMORPGs feature (by the name of "trade skills", "mounts", "town clothes", "raids", "grind quests") in favor of focusing on sheer action and gameplay.

CaleSentari · January 2007

Although I'm a big fan of the game, and agree there is at least some good PvE in it, I would also pay no attention to the few people bashing Masterville like children because he has a different opinion. There are several avid fans of GW who say that the PvE just isn't what it could be, or is in other games, so I'm not sure why they feel the need flame him in particular... but then I always "lose at the Internetz." But then only you really know what you're looking for in a PvE mindset, so I would test it for yourself.

Yes, GW is devoid of alot of the "useless" crap that turn out to be time-sinks in other games. Unfortunately they will also lack some very useful crap that could make for better character developement and a more immersive environment.

The OP asked for opinions...Zomg if they don't all praise what you like about the game. Saying "well you don't say what I say....so you probably just haven't tried it, LoLz!!" is pretty useless in this context.

I have several characters as well, but it's not because I found everything uberly immersive and interesting. After the first time thru, for alot of people it's just something to do while others truly do like the quests and missions several times over.

All in all to the OP I would say try it. I've bought all chapters and enjoyed the storylines. The PvE (READ: TO ME) to me was a solid storyline (missions and quests), even the second or third time through. They do have at least some degree of being linear, but there are certainly opportunities to explore alittle on your own.

Other things people haven't really mentioned is that it's NOT item-centric, meaning although there are sought after items/armor in the game, the rarest is usually rare because of cost or accessibilty, but doesn't give you uber stats. Same idea with weapons, it's somewhat easy to get very good gear in the game, and with the PvP pre-made lvl 20's this isn't an issue in that realm of play. In PvP it's all about skills and skill combos. It's smaller instanced PvP (no RvR) but it is excellent PvP at that and most DEFINATELY worth trying if you like that play. Like I said, it's not all about the weapons or gear, so you won't see that lvl 20 warrior being ganked by another lvl 20 warrior because they had some "leet" hammer. Most of the time it will be because of the person at the keyboard, or his team that dictates win or loss, and not the virtual peen in the avatars hand.

Best part is the no monthly fees. It makes a great game because if you need a break you don't need to cancel a sub, or feel guilty at not logging in and justifying your purchase. For this reason it also makes a great second game. But with no monthly fees, just don't go into expecting all that comes with a P2P MMORPG, because that expectation is of course unrealistic. I think given it's cost, you will find the purchase is worth it, depending on how you value your cash..

Enjoy!

Flodgy · January 2007

Cheers for that post Sentari, it helped. I went into my local gaming store only to find that ArenaNet has deals with EB games and my local Games Wizard finds it hard to stock it =// Guess thats America in Australia for you. I plan on going into the city today or tomorrow, and if I can, I plan to pick up all 3 chapters.

skullplayer · January 2007

Ups

Low level cap which turns the focus more on the storyline and character build instead of grinding out levels
The drunk effect is totally awesome
Everyone is in the same server... Well that's probably not the correct way to say it
Don't have to buy every add on to play the game
No monthly fee
Nice looking armor and weapons even from the beginning
Storage between all characters
Lots of skills to choose from doesnt cost gold to change your build up
Don't have to worry about monster respawns
Traveling is fast
Heroes which now lets you have up to 4 playable characters at the same time

Downs

No mounts
Kinda hard to sell stuff but they added a new feature to help with this
No different crafting professions but you can craft your own armor and weapons
Lots of spam and scams in trade and local channel
Henchmen suck
Once you leave town your in your own instance... to me this can be considered an up or down depending on how you wanna look at it

These are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head but I don't really play the game for the pvp although I did play the Snowball Fight 4v4 game for a week to get the Skillz title.

Pimpopotamus · January 2007

First off, I gotta say that Sentari's review is damn good. Also, I think it's been mentioned a few times, but the holiday events are generally a lot of fun, where you can get cool stuff. The thing that I really like about the events is that the items you get are purely to show that you participated; it's not like you'll get owned in PvP just b/c you don't have a Candycane Axe (most likely if you're PvPing with a Cancdycane Axe, you won't stand much of a chance). There are armor updgrades that are more expensive (15k gold each piece), but those are also just a sign of status.

The PvE was improved with the addition of Nightfall Heroes because you can control each one. This does make the game a bit complicated for some, but you can also trust the heroes to keep you alive better than henchmen. Also, you don't have to control the heroes if you don't want to. I've found that the heroes fight just fine on their own.

One final thing, the devs make good changes to the game. Just one example is the materials storage. When I first started playing GW, there was no separate place in storage for materials, so most of my storage was taken up by materials.

So, Flodgy, I know you already plan on picking up a copy of GW, but I just wanted to reiterate that it is worthy of a try.

Hope you enjoy this game as much as I do.

exanimo · January 2007

i have 4 lvl 20s , is the tipical noob coment coming from pvp only players.
the pve content starts at level 20 , it doesnt finish there.

you can say the pve is short for you if you play other mmos with no level cap where you can keep leveling your char for the rest of your life killing cows.

if you dont like the pve side of guildwars , then just play pvp , but dont come saying pve doesnt exist. im playing gw for 20 months and most of it is pve.
i do have rank 3 and friends of kurzick.

guildwars have both , both are good in their own way. after you become experienced just play end game zones , elite missions. just like when you become experience in pvp you play TA HA and GvG.

blissever · January 2007

JUST STOP PLAYING

iller · January 2007

Another major issue in the game was just Addressed too during this winter event, in which they added a "Party Search" window finally after what, 3 years of NOT having one? That's been an issue because finding a "PuG" in GW has always been a suckfest with all the Local Chat spammers in every town.

Oddly enough, this team Search feature was totally free and wasn't attached to any Expansions, they just included it as a holiday gift along with some other features. ...So while you're avoiding a monthly fee for content you may never use with GW's business model, or avoiding content which would be delayed (thus costing you MORE money in any realistic subscription business model) you also get some TRULY-free Content every year. Infact I think some parts of End-Game were also added in this fashion. I really wish MORE games did it this way instead of charging a Monthly fee while shamelessly insisting that their periodic updates were somehow "Free".

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