The "REAL" DL' on GW here!

Righteous · November 2004

First of all let me say I thouroughly enjoyed this game. I have played EQ for 5 years, AO for 4, DAoC for 2, AC2 for 2, Lineage II for 1, SWG for 1, FFXI for 1...and almost EVERY non massive game available either bought or demoed. Here is my personal take...

1. This is Beta. ANYONE posting one liners should be ignored. I saw some jackass post earlier that he didnt like the character models, so he thought the game was crap. What an idiot. They are awesome! Also, I saw another saying they hated the game for being linear. OMFG! You moron! The game has incorporated ALL aspects of MMO/MMORPG based games. The missions are linear respectively, yet focused. If you dont like so much linearity then try the explorable regions. Guild battles are considerably difficult and pose a challenge. Additionally, this game has the BEST PvP I have ever come across. Pay 2 play!?? No way!! NC will be adding content every 6 months...guess what, you NEVER have to pay 2 play AND, the 6 mos. expansions cost $10 each! Supah'!

2. Lag was non-existent! I dont know what people are using for connections and PC's, yet for the most part if you are playing online games you have to have a decent setup. No, integrated Celeron PC's you buy at BestBuy dont count. Oh, and that "DSL-like" speed your dial-up company promised you, well, that doesnt fit the bill either.

3. The characters were pre-made to level 15 for a purpose. The company wanted us to check out what we could look forward to as we progressed just beyond the "newb'ish" (not "noob'ish") stages of developing our character. Props to NC for allowing us to check out a character just when the character is starting to get fun. It takes a little more work to get the character to PvP stage. Im glad they allowed for this b/c we were able to see this aspect of the game atleast in a decent light, and with decent spells/skills.

4. Graphics and character models are superb. NC is ingenious when it comes to this. Check out any quality card screeny and see for yourself. Enough said.

5. Missions are linear. We need more room to move about all that lush environment. This does have the advantage of keeping the teams together during missions. This allows for a more focused cooperative play and allows for the team to learn this type of play. Dont like the linear part?, then venture out into the explorable area where linear function is not as prevalent.

6. I made a guild called "Dragons Secret Flame". Loved it! We had over 40 people in the guild just over the weekend. Amazing! The guild system is fun b/c you can battle for status (all of which will be explained later as GW develops). The guild hall was neat. A place where we could congregate and call home. The PvP guild battles were, for the most part, difficult. Each guild had to make claim halfway to the others to get their morale bonus. Then, kill off a few NPC's guarding the opponents guild. Then, retrieve their own thief to unlock their opponents gate to gain entrance. To top it off, the guild had 2 clerics healing the guild hero (which needs to be killed to win) and another raising the fallen NPC's. Very difficult to do but super fun with PC's. Even if you dont win...you still get points for kills and progress.

7. You dont have to sit and wait for a team. Just invite a few NPC "henchman" and your set to go. If you like teams, this game focuses on skill-building through team play, a must have for MMO's/MMORPG's of today. (although this game isnt "truely" MMORPG, it is close enough and well thought of as a contendant b/c it has aspects of the same. The game is considered a "CORPG" or Cooperative Online Role Playing Game).

8. While teamed, henchman attach to a PC. Sometimes a PC may lag behind or go afk for jus one minute and the monk who was attached to him/her would not be useful to the team fighting on the path just ahead. The team leader needs a function to boot people like this and be able to attach the henchman to whoever he/she pleases.

9 There is a great plot/storyline to the game which makes for fun playing.

10. Ease of play is essential for the casual player all of which NC has deployed. Although, there is room to call upon the extreme player as he/she finds multiple ways to achieve status, items and levels.

11. There was a shortage of craftng items, armour and weapons. This will be adjusted im sure. How hard was it to find that cotton, trade around for steel ingots or upgradeable parts in order to upgrade your armour or weapon?

12. The mechanics need improvement. Chatting was a chore. Stick to the /reply, /tell mode of chatting, and allow for just the first name to be typed instead of the entire name Also, we need an /ignore function badly. An auction, bazaar channel is necessary. A world channel would be appropriate as well, which allowed for all districts to connect. NC needs to include a way to check the avatar's armour and various skill levels.

12 Each "district" is like a mini server. Sometimes, when entering a mission or city, you would be in district 1...while your friend was in district 6. Simple enough, just travel to the desired district. Great for knocking out lag issues.

13. 8 slots for spells is...well....I think enough. 10 and your too $. Keep it 8 b/c this emplores a strategic capacity. Very well done when it comes to this mode of thinking. You actually have to "think" how to best suit the team. I really liked this aspect b/c this focused on team play and cooperation.

14. Some characters are advantaged/disadvantaged. War/Mo-WAY to overpowered, dumb them down. Dont have a penalty for ranger pet deaths. Give better team buffs to majick users (+armour e.g.) Give more +energy all around...but not much...maybe 5-10 points max...we want to keep with the strategic play. Give us weapons which actually do somehing (yeah, some give +10energy...add some more attributes).

15. Hate waiting to travel, paying to travel, taking 4-EVER to travel? GW eliminates the undesirable nature of travelling as in previous games. Just drop down a menu for quick district travel, or, pop open a map and zoom in/out for locations to cities, starting mission areas, PvP arena and guild hall.

16. Arena battle was the BEST I ever played. If you didnt play the PvP than dont even THINK about posting a seemingly worthy post worth review. Strategy, cooperation...going in blind not knowing what your teammates have, with very little time to adjut to a plan...hoping your team knows how to make the best of the rounds...hoping that idiot doesnt start any crap in the middle of the arena...hoping their arent 4 warriors and 4 monks...hoping there isnt an EoE on the closest death(you who uded this should be ashamed of yourself, how unsportsmanlike, and no one won anything from the match. Definetly a skill worth revising.)...loving that team play as warriors bonk down the frontlines and majick users pounce down some fire, DoT's or cancel majick spells...earning XP in an 8 vs. 8 scenario...rezzing your friends when you are the second to the last person, just getting up enough people to make that special comeback...taking a stand to the last HP when you are the last man standing and the other team has rezzed their entire group instead of running around STILL getting owned by that warriors knocldown or slowed or crippeld then DoT'd...man-0-man the PvP...just awesome! You could level some characters and make this part of the game your entire gameplay if you wanted to then continue to level just playing PvP!!! There will be championship tornaments too!

......OK.....I've went on a bit....there is MUCH more to add....I will post more later....feel free to add some details here as we will be getting down to the core of QUALITY posts, and the psychology of those posts, in-game discussions of what needs to be implemented and what needs to be improved, implemented and otherwise changed in the game. As of now 9/10 for BETA...well done in providing a capturing gameplay...6.5/10 for actual finished game...much needs to be improved before release...we know you can do it NC...cant wait to call this game my own and post a 10/10!

See you all around. Hope to see you this weekend! For the inside scoop to this wekends Beta Event which starts Saturday 12:01 AM November 6th, visit http://www.guildwars.com/events/faq.html

Denalle Champaign

Level 20 ME/MO

Dragons Secret Flame

Deadaye13 · November 2004

Wow. That was a great critic. Really.

I strongly agree. This is Alpha (although if it was up to me, this game is almost ready to go Gold). When this game goes gold, expect a lot of changes to the weapon and crafting system.

The PvP was amazing but I would make a few changes. I liked the "Guild Battle" because it would match you up to a guild with a similar rating. I think this should be implamented in normal PvP so your not teamed up with someone unnaturally more experienced than your group.

I didn't like hearing the whole "WTB HIDE/SCALE/CLOTH" I think that Arena.net should make Hide and scale and especially cloth a more common drop. But, hey. that's just my opinion

Once again, great review.

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

All Your Base Are Belong To Us
Achiever 86%
Killer 80%
Explorer 26%
Socializer 6%

dageeza · November 2004

Nice read i agree people dont seem to get....alpha this game is already more polished than most that have been out for years and Anet is not even close to done they are adding a ton of stuff to the game as we speak guild wars just flat ROCKS!

Geets of Ascalon(RoA)

RegisPhilbin · November 2004

I agree completely. This is one of the most polished betas I've seen, let alone alphas. By the second day (Friday) most of the content was uploaded and there were onjly a few obvious icon/description errors that I encountered in monk, necromancer, ranger, or mesmer items (I did not have time to play the other classes ). The idea that this game could be free is almost ridiculous, though I do not suppose to assert that it is original. It does simply combine parts of other games, but it does it fairly well and if the release version has all the content I expect it to (WAY more than 4 missions and a couple measley other areas) it should be quite the entertaining experience.

~Regis~

"You see this? You see how my bodies glowing like that? Yeah a lot of people can't do that...come get some of this glowing!"
"Oh ok? You want, you want some. You want some of the glowing. Look, man, your soul, I'm totally gonna chew on it and floss with your spirit. I read that somewhere...but I'll do it."

-Feng Shui Master Lu

Righteous · November 2004

Hey!! Thanks for the reviews and praise

Who wants to pay TONS of cash for expansions (EQ)? Who wants to level their characters faster than you can say "mommy, bring me some cookies and milk"(WoW)?

Well if you like what those games have to offer, go right ahead...When GW comes out the sheyot will hit the fan and this game will rocket full blast to one of the BEST games available.

Atm I'm playing KalOnline...interesting little game....its worth trying....lots of script errors and bugs but its FREE and it plays well. (I particularly like the skill Be-heading )

If you want to get a hold of me give me an in-game, KalOnline /shout: Sonami

Keep it up people this game will be at the top!

GW

Denalle Champaign

20ME/MO

Dragons Secret Flame

Kartel · November 2004

I'd like to make one correction. You kept giving credit to "NC" for everything. NCSoft is only publishing the game. In other words, they're the money behind it but have nothing at all to do with its actual development. It's being developed by ArenaNet, which is founded by ex-Blizzard people and comprised of veterans from many notable companies/games. They're a new company, but by no means new to the game biz. Point being: let's give credit to those who really deserve it. Aside from that, nice review. Clearly someone who appreciates what GW has to offer.
::::28::

D_shandril · November 2004

very good critic, i completly agree with you

DerfelCadarn · November 2004

I thought that the preview event showed the GW was a great game. I'm really looking foward to the PvP.

EQ2 Qeynos Guild- http://www.imperium-arcanum.com

exanimo · November 2004

i agree , anyway it was my first mmorpg .. so i cant say much of comparing to others ... for me it was like a dream game ... i sometimes play FPS online , and is not the same at all. i think one day this to type of games will be more mixed one in the other.

what i love more in GW was the team work , landscape.

I MISS IT SO MUCH

macfos · November 2004

Yeah, this game definitely rocks!!! Its totally different to other fantasy mmorpgs I've played. You don't have people stealing your xp by killing your mobs, or crowds of people hanging around an area all trying to kill a mob for the xp, like in L2.

And to top it all, its free to play!! I seriously think this is gonna be more popular than games like EQ2 or WOW, simply because of the free play, nevermind all the other aspects of play that beats the socks off other games!!

http://www.ferion.com/?p=248788

Otto_Manic · November 2004

GW is beyond a doubt one of the greatest games that I've ever played. They've taken out all the lame stuff out of MMO's and mixed it in with elements of FPS in a seemless blend of pure kickassedness. Can't wait for this weekend, I'm ready to rock with my Beta Event pass, I can barely wait to see how this game is once it's complete! Damn.

I'm looking for some friends that I lost contact with over the years...

EQ: Horlain (Firiona Vie)
DAOC: Kaizur (Guinevere)

Deadaye13 · November 2004

Once again, i want to praise this game.

The whole reason this game will attract the Diablo II players and other non-monthly-paying RPG people, is because of the no monthly payment stuff. If you want to try out the game, buy the game and play it for as long as you want. You're not required to buy any expansions and you don't have to pay monthly payments.

Now lets quickly look at the statics from Arena.net:

400,000 (yes that's right) people played Guild Wars during the WPE. Right now, over 100,000 people have pre-ordered Guild Wars to play during the Beta Weekends. This is huge. Not only is Arena.net making $5 a pre-order (this is about how much each retailer gives to Arena.net for each pre-order product they send out), they are getting HUGE publicity.

This is going to be one of the best MMORPGs ever.

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

All Your Base Are Belong To Us
Achiever 86%
Killer 80%
Explorer 26%
Socializer 6%

ArkulSnarkul · November 2004

One thing i also think needs improvement is the dye.

i had a mesmic when i played World Preview, and i got all sorts of dye colors, but one time i tried to dye my pants blue, and they turned orange with blue trim.

i dont know why, maybe i just suck as a person.

http://www.geocities.com/team_wanger/mattssignature.jpg

Arlion · November 2004

Great review got down all the great parts about his fantastic game, i love the caracther classes, espesially the elementalist, cool looking spells though i would have liked a few more, but im not complaining since it's a beta.

i would have gladley paid a monthley fee for this game it's great, and the mission based system is great, no people stealing kills etc.

and the magician clothes looks absolutley stuneshing, i played a few missions over and over agian to get enough raw cloth to buy me a full hydromancer outfit with orange dye and i just love how the caracther lookis in it, much better then other mmo games i have played.

this game will probobly entertain me to the point where i will have several diffrent max level caracthers, no mmo has done that before, the closest mmrpg game that got me this far was Dark Age of camelot where i had 3 lvl 30 caracthers, and planetside where i had 4 lvl 20 caracthers (max) since it's a fps game.

now if only they could release the pre order package in europe i would be exstremly happy, damn amazon.com for no shipping pc and video games outside america

(just have to show a few screenshots of the caracther i have) (sorry for the image size but had to get the details)

oh and the cloak im wearing is for the Woa guild, Warriors Of Ansalon, my own guild, names goten from teh dragonlance boks, and im not really a guild player just created the guild to get a cool looking cloak

shaaag · November 2004

Great review... one correction though.

Each expansion (6-9 months apart as you said) will be equal in size to the original game. I believe they will be charging the regular price of a game, not $10.

Something else they have said: half of the devs will work on the expansion, the other half will run and add content to the current version. They plan to play with the game world all the time, their whole model is set up for it. Changing the mobs around in explorable areas, adding new quests, etc is so easy for them to do, and they will have half of the team all over it. This is what will add that living world element that some hardcore mmo'ers think GW lacks.

Otto_Manic · November 2004

This game actually allows you to evolve as a character and to advance, progressing on to DIFFERENT enemies and situations. Each mission is unique, and if you wanna go back and stomp the crap outta level scorpions later on you CAN; or you can choose to go beat the hell outta fellow players and show them exactly how much level doesn't really matter, if you're within about 5 levels it's purely skill-based at that point, good gods, I love this game.

I will be playing this for years to come, although not as my primary MMO. I will play this as my 2nd MMO, which I can afford, cos I don't have to pay a monthly fee... Hit me up if you'd like in game.

I'm looking for some friends that I lost contact with over the years...

EQ: Horlain (Firiona Vie)
DAOC: Kaizur (Guinevere)

KayZircon82 · November 2004

Heh, I'll jump on the wagon here. Great topic with TONS of great points about this game. It just seems that people are just TRYING to find something wrong with the game. Maybe they are jealous? Who knows. I was never one who liked PvP. Mainly I started in SWG, so that left a sour taste in my mouth on how PvP worked. But the system here is great. In the Battle Arena, where really you get a "random" team unless your friends are in the same district. Skill I think is the key word, no more spamming one key and winning. Your energy bar is important and again as said, deciding on which skill to use is key to living, killing, or dying. I experienced my first Guild War yesterday, and it was sweet. Took a bit to get used to what needed to be done. But I feel maybe there should be a time limit and a score sheet. We met a guild that just stood there and waited. The battle lasted one hour with our guild just quitting and getting the loss. So I feel one or both of those would put a much needed spin and rush into winning a guild fight. Since it's being ranked and stuff, means much more. I also got to start a lvl 1 character, and go through the maps and quests I did while I was in E3, that was some fun. The event I think gets boring when you max in level, but this was only an event/beta. As we all said at the end of E3, this is alpha and it's going to get better. Guess what, it did. And now with the push back date, this game is going to be close to perfect as a game gets before hitting the selves. Most importantly, it's actually fun to play the game. Scary yes, but with so much to do, either yourself with a mini-quest or hunting dragons it was there. But yet again, the event was great and this game might not be an EQ2 or WoW, but personally who cares. As long as people love the game and want to play the game, why judge? All that matters is how fun YOU like the game, and that is your judge. ::::17::

Ken`Shiero · November 2004

I thank everyone that has posted good wholesome input about this game. It tickles me to see how some ignorant people have the nerve to say a game is (gay) for a simple flaw that they know good and well doesn't exsists. I guess, excuse me I know that this game is going to be a great success even by playing their demo. They have put great time and effort and its easy to see that it's paying off.

EQII & WoW better watch out!

________________________________
I must not fear, fear is the mind killer
fear is the little death that leads to obliteration, i must permit fear to pass over me and through me.
________________________________

Legerfina · November 2004

Righteous i completely agree with you.
So good game and no fee.This is sensation!

Hello from Underdark.

Righteous · November 2004

^^BUMP!!

What happened to this posting!!?? lol

Read!!

-v-sonix · November 2004

To the first thing

Word

---[SK]SoniX[C-L]---
Born just a little to slow
--- Designer ---
http://digital-soul-.deviantart.com/

zerocold · November 2004

Lately some Change in Chat system :

Chat Fielter ( 3 level ) would help you to not see bad words and would protect from flooding too.
More Drop .. i guess correct some items will give over 70 craft items from a single salvage .. and much much more

Legendary Wars Game Network -
http://legendarywars.net

Legendary Wars Guild Wars Fan Site
http://gw.legendarywars.net

Righteous · January 2005

Bump ^^

Sure would like some OFFICIAL responses to the Beta time on Friday and the release date.

Anyone hear of what new changes will occur in this weeks Beta event?

Chat, map, PvP player limit, new missions or areas, crafting?

Post your comments.

See you all very soon!

Captain Dirk

Dragons Secret Flame

pravuil · January 2005

looks like we have 4 hrs 15 minutes left until it begins

Clock can be found here.

http://208.46.138.199/gw/

punchline · January 2005

[quote]Originally posted by Deadaye13
[b]Once again, i want to praise this game.
The whole reason this game will attract the Diablo II players and other non-monthly-paying RPG people, is because of the no monthly payment stuff. If you want to try out the game, buy the game and play it for as long as you want. You're not required to buy any expansions and you don't have to pay monthly payments.
Now lets quickly look at the statics from Arena.net:
400,000 (yes that's right) people played Guild Wars during the WPE. Right now, over 100,000 people have pre-ordered Guild Wars to play during the Beta Weekends. This is huge. Not only is Arena.net making $5 a pre-order (this is about how much each retailer gives to Arena.net for each pre-order product they send out), they are getting HUGE publicity.
This is going to be one of the best MMORPGs ever.

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

When i read this post , my heart started racing like a kid in a candystore
did you see the numbers he said

I wanna right now thank the testers who did the game... it sounds like to me they did a radical job on fixing the glitches and whatnot.... hardwork will pay off ill tell you what

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