is it a MMO?

ultima_miner · June 2005

well i guess im just wondering if this game is an MMO? someone told me its just games of 8 people and you have to know those 8 people to play with them. is this true? i was thinkin of gettin it since its free to play. well try to respond if ya can. ill also take info about the game if you wanna tell me . thanks

nephillim · June 2005

its not strictly an MMO, because the only places where all players are together is in towns and outposts.

but, i dont know what he is talking about saying you have to know the person to group with them.

you go to an outpost, and say you have a quest 'kill bob' you just look for other peeps who want to do that quest and join up

the reason i dont think it is a true MMO, is because everywhere except the towns are instanced. so when you or your party leaves the town, you get your own instanced version of the world.

so no griefing, kill stealing and so on.

i would say it's a great game. it's fun, quick and easy to get into. within 5 minutes of logging on you and your team can be slugging it out against monsters, or in PvP.

but if you are expecting it to have the depth of games like Ultima Online, and other 'true' MMOs, you will be dissapointed

this game is better described as an Online Co-Operative Action/RPG

ultima_miner · June 2005

so people town sit and what not? i thought it was just games of like 8 people lol. cool deal.are there servers?and do you think a lot of people play?ooo and how long does it take to reach level 20?

nephillim · June 2005

there is only one server, with all players on it.

but when you are in the towns, they are sorted into 'districts' basically so the towns dont get packed full of peeps. you will be automatically be put into a district for your time zone, and language.

it doesn't really take that long to hit max level. good thing is there is no grind, you dont have to wander around just killing enemies to level.

if you follow the story, by completing quests, then you will level without even thinking 'man, i need to level, lets go grind' i hit lvl 20 after a month.

but as a lot of peeps say, this game isn't a bout reaching max lvl. i am lvl 20, but am only about 1/2 way through the missions and story

loads of people play this game. when i go online theres always people around lookin for a group to go and adventure. the only times when the game is a bit empty is say, if i go online at like, 4 AM i wont expect to find many people playing in my time zone

Iceman12321 · June 2005

You get a taste of everything really. RPG and MMORPG. When in towns, there is quite the community of online players. You are allowed to group up with people and explore and hunt with these selected people. Unfortunately (really it depends on what YOU like), each zone is like a WoW instance. When outside of the cities, there is NO community. They are all npc. This is probably the main thing I miss most when playing this game. I like finding/meeting people on my way to places. its harder to do so in Guildwars. This is still a heck of a game in my opinion; I may just need a true MMORPG to hold me off for a couple months.

IronMike · June 2005

is there cantina's/bars? and community places such as those?

Zeaus · June 2005

Originally posted by ultima_miner
well i guess im just wondering if this game is an MMO? someone told me its just games of 8 people and you have to know those 8 people to play with them. is this true? i was thinkin of gettin it since its free to play. well try to respond if ya can. ill also take info about the game if you wanna tell me . thanks

That person is lieing. He probably plays WoW and is trying to put you off. There is alot of FUD being spread around by people who hate this game.

There are areas where only you and your group can go, and there are areas where everyone meets up.

Play the game yourself and make up your own mind, don't listen to people because they might be lieing to you.

m3th · June 2005

except you have to buy it to try it. which is bullshit.

Guild Wars is so NOT an MMORPG. it sucks, i wish i had never bought it and use the money for a copy of battlefeild 2 now.

its not persistant, so 'balanced' no matter what you do youll always be about the same as everyone else, becomes so damn boring its not funny, the community is the WORST ive ever come across and that includes Diablo.

generally its for 14 year olds that like the hack and slash genre. if Diablo go you going then you might want to try it, but it isnt even as good as Diablo. in that the 'balancing' means blandness.

i really hate GW now and need to stress to anyone thinking of trying it the last thing it is is a MMORPG. its SO NOT THAT.

MMO being anying large and online i guess it would be that. but its NOT AN MMORPG. If you want the depth, community, action, involvement, story and general GAME you get with an MMORPG, Guild Wars is not for you!

GW-Gamer · June 2005

M3th said the game is way to balanced so you hate it because hes balanced. Well balanced = Good you all know that right ::::28:: . And you all know there is no perfect . So the point im trying to make is its not a type of game for you that you like not because the game sucks or you havent been playing the game long enough. M3th also mentioned that everyone is way to same; however, i do not agree. In the game, there are millions of possibility which changes the character by a little bit. A lot of people like to choose Warrior/Monk as Warrior because they like to heal themself. However, they cant heal themself a lot becuase of the low amount of Energy. However, if you go as Monk/Warrior you would be able to heal yourself a lot more becuase of more Energy however, you wont be able to have as much life or the strenght of a Warrior so they both have there ups and downs. And in the game itself your playing skill is needed a lot. Because there are a lot of inturrupt skills which do deal a lot of damage. Also there are something called Runes which gives extra stats to certain things. However, the strong runes do give +3 to the stats which make you a lot stronger; however, it takes -50 of your life. So some people use that rune however, some don't. Which makes a huge different if someone does or if someone didnt. So now do you see my point how every character is not the same and that its a great game and you should get it .
::::24::

Also, the whole buying part of the game. If i was a company and the company wanted to make a game. I would sell it not give out free version... And they also did have a chance to beta test it so in my opinion i feel sorry for m3th that it was not the right type of game he wanted; however, it doesnt mean its bad and it does have a lot of difference in each character.

And yes it is a MMORPG ( i hope so... ) but a different type because 1st there is no end to the game 2nd millions of people play it but in different servers and you can play with them if they want to play with you..

~Bye ( I will use some of the game information on the other post because i think its a good example also )

m3th · June 2005

do you see my point about community?

did even half of what that guy said above me even make sense?

is he honestly 14 years old? i think i could form sentances and generally be more understood at 14 than this guy.

but lets try and be mature here, and not just dismiss him for what he seems to be. lets rebut some of his Guild Wars talk.

first that long drawn out rubbish about choosing primary and secondary classes. he said 'you choose both a primary and secondary class, which can be any of the 6 classes available'. well he said alot more than that but this is actually what he meant, ill translate the language 'retard' for you.

6 times 6 is 36. you still following this GW-Gamer? that means there are a total of 36 combinations available to the entire GW community. all 30 thousand players or more than play this game are one of only 36 combinations of possible characters.

in a community of 30 thousand players, thats 833 players that are the EXACT SAME CHARACTER AS YOU.

oh btw, all character types have about 4 armour types availble to them and only them. meaning if your a warrior primary all you can wear is one of these 4 types. you cant wear monk armour, you cant wear mesmer armour, you can just wear the same four as EVERY OTHER WARRIOR IS WEARING.

Runes. same damn deal. you can only infuse the runes into your armour that ARE FOR YOUR CLASS. thats means there are warrior runes and memser runes and monk runes and so on. about 10 per class (or a few more, hell i dont care). so, every warrior you see has to be wearing one of 4 types of armour and if they even have runes is only using any one of around 10 runes.

now some runes are more powerful than others, some armours are stronger than others. hold on, that means at the pvp or level 20 senario there are even less than the 4/10 armour/rune mix to really choose from.

sounding lame?

it hasnt even started yet. what about pvp? well listen up MMORPGers, you pvp in an arena. only in groups and only with an objective. if you win you get.. well nothing. if you lose you get.. well nothing. having fun? well yeah, for the first week when its all new. then your like.. so why am i even here?

nothing to stop me just running off and suiciding on my own, hell there is no penalty for dying and its not like im going to get something cool for my character if we win.

oo thats right, the entire point of pvp is to get a sigil, to make a guild hall. what do you do with the guild hall? pvp again for... rank on the gw ladder. no items, no rewards, no character advancement.. rank on a website with 1000 other guilds.

finally items. well only players with some experience outside GW will understand just how incredibly lame this is. heres a property from one (this isnt a crap property, this is the BEST YOU CAN GET ON ANY WEAPON FOR THIS PROPERTY).

Double Adrenaline (20% chance)
Add +1 to Strength (20% chance)

that means, you have a 1/5 chance every time you swing that the property is actually going to to ANYTHING at all. and.. 20% IS THE BEST. i havent found 20% yet, they are RARE!!

goddamn it. ive had it with this. i havent heard one experienced MMORPGer actually make any sense as to why this game is good.

exanimo · June 2005

Originally posted by IronMike

is there cantina's/bars? and community places such as those?

yes you can get drunk at merchent

exanimo · June 2005

ok , here is the real thing , if this is not a MMO you tell me what it is ....

exanimo · June 2005

Originally posted by m3th

do you see my point about community?
did even half of what that guy said above me even make sense?
is he honestly 14 years old? i think i could form sentances and generally be more understood at 14 than this guy.
but lets try and be mature here, and not just dismiss him for what he seems to be. lets rebut some of his Guild Wars talk.
first that long drawn out rubbish about choosing primary and secondary classes. he said 'you choose both a primary and secondary class, which can be any of the 6 classes available'. well he said alot more than that but this is actually what he meant, ill translate the language 'retard' for you.
6 times 6 is 36. you still following this GW-Gamer? that means there are a total of 36 combinations available to the entire GW community. all 30 thousand players or more than play this game are one of only 36 combinations of possible characters.
in a community of 30 thousand players, thats 833 players that are the EXACT SAME CHARACTER AS YOU.
oh btw, all character types have about 4 armour types availble to them and only them. meaning if your a warrior primary all you can wear is one of these 4 types. you cant wear monk armour, you cant wear mesmer armour, you can just wear the same four as EVERY OTHER WARRIOR IS WEARING.
Runes. same damn deal. you can only infuse the runes into your armour that ARE FOR YOUR CLASS. thats means there are warrior runes and memser runes and monk runes and so on. about 10 per class (or a few more, hell i dont care). so, every warrior you see has to be wearing one of 4 types of armour and if they even have runes is only using any one of around 10 runes.
now some runes are more powerful than others, some armours are stronger than others. hold on, that means at the pvp or level 20 senario there are even less than the 4/10 armour/rune mix to really choose from.
sounding lame?
it hasnt even started yet. what about pvp? well listen up MMORPGers, you pvp in an arena. only in groups and only with an objective. if you win you get.. well nothing. if you lose you get.. well nothing. having fun? well yeah, for the first week when its all new. then your like.. so why am i even here?
nothing to stop me just running off and suiciding on my own, hell there is no penalty for dying and its not like im going to get something cool for my character if we win.
oo thats right, the entire point of pvp is to get a sigil, to make a guild hall. what do you do with the guild hall? pvp again for... rank on the gw ladder. no items, no rewards, no character advancement.. rank on a website with 1000 other guilds.
finally items. well only players with some experience outside GW will understand just how incredibly lame this is. heres a property from one (this isnt a crap property, this is the BEST YOU CAN GET ON ANY WEAPON FOR THIS PROPERTY).
Double Adrenaline (20% chance)
Add +1 to Strength (20% chance)
that means, you have a 1/5 chance every time you swing that the property is actually going to to ANYTHING at all. and.. 20% IS THE BEST. i havent found 20% yet, they are RARE!!
goddamn it. ive had it with this. i havent heard one experienced MMORPGer actually make any sense as to why this game is good.

jesus , im so glad you are not playing the game , thank you so much , we dont need you in there !

geeeeee

m3th · June 2005

again. typical of the Guild Wars community.

i hope anyone considering buying Guild Wars is taking note here.

did you EVEN READ my post?

i said it WAS an MMO. NOT A MMORPG.

let me say it slowly so GW players understand.

this.. is.. not.. a.. mmorpg. any.. online.. game.. with.. lotsa.. players.. can.. call.. itself.. a.. mmo. if.. you.. are.. coming.. from.. another.. mmorpg.. and.. expect.. similar.. levels.. of.. gameplay.. interaction.. and.. depth.. you.. will.. not.. find.. it.. here.

if.. you.. liked.. diablo.. and.. want.. to.. play.. diablo.. 3.. but.. without.. rare.. items.. and.. having.. everyone.. being.. about.. the.. same.. level.. sounds.. good.. to.. you.. then.. give.. it.. a.. try.

goddamn A.net themselves on thier site say its not an mmorpg.

COMMUNITY MAKES ANY RPG. EVE ROCKS BECAUSE ITS GOT A MATURE AND AWSOME COMMUNITY. THIS THREAD AND OTHER POSTS LIKE IT SHOULD INDCATE TO A PROSPECTIVE BUYER WHAT GWs COMMUNITY IS ABOUT.

btw, why am i posting this on 'your' forum? because its not your forum. its mmorpg.com's forum and i konw that i come here to hopefully get experienced, logical and insightful opinions about mmorpgs and mmos that are in the scene now.

to me, thats mmorpg.com's purpose and best asset. i dont care for gay fanboi talk. if i had read a post like mine when i was reading here considering buying guild wars i would have not bought it.

GW-Gamer · June 2005

Wow thanks dude you didnt have to say all that stuff about me though ::::01::
Calm down its just a game.... We will think what we want you can think what you will want and you can go play WoW or somthing if thats your better choice. My bad for bothering you.
::::28::

What level are you in Guild Wars? jk you dont need to answer it...

Oh yea you said Yes it was a MMO and i would say not 100 percent but about there yes....
and then you said if its a MMORPG
Well lets first ask if its a RPG. Uh... Yes.....
And then you said its a MMO..... So its a MMORPG so you can't complain there no more i just got you .

Ok that wasnt the point and heres the point. You cant expect to like everything. There are some stuff that some people like and there are some stuff that other people like. So if you got your hopes up to much and then got Guild Wars well i donno if your gonna like it or not because every people are different. And dont be going around being like everyone in the Guild Wars Fourm are like noobs and they are so immature and they dont know anything abuot MMORPG.. Well you dont make a lot of sence in the its a MMO but not a MMORPG... How about we call it a different type of MMORPG ok because thats what the people in A.net calls it eh? ok im out.
~Bye ::::28::

Zeaus · June 2005

Originally posted by ultima_miner
well i guess im just wondering if this game is an MMO? someone told me its just games of 8 people and you have to know those 8 people to play with them. is this true? i was thinkin of gettin it since its free to play. well try to respond if ya can. ill also take info about the game if you wanna tell me . thanks

This is why saying Guildwars isn't a MMO is a bad idea. It gives people the impression that Guildwars is a multiplayer game in the sense of Neverwinter nights.

Originally posted by m3th
you can only infuse the runes into your armour that ARE FOR YOUR CLASS.

Thats a lie. You can infuse any rune you want into your armor.

Originally posted by m3th
well listen up MMORPGers, you pvp in an arena. only in groups and only with an objective. if you win you get.. well nothing.

Another lie. If you win the hall of heros a chest opens and you get guild sigels and rare items. If you win a match in the hall of heros you get fame points.

Originally posted by m3th
oo thats right, the entire point of pvp is to get a sigil, to make a guild hall. what do you do with the guild hall? pvp again for... rank on the gw ladder. no items, no rewards, no character advancement

Like i said before, when you win the hall of heros you recieve fame points, rare items. As for GvG just a few weeks ago the top 100 guilds on the leaderboard where invited into some special event.

Originally posted by m3th
finally items. well only players with some experience outside GW will understand just how incredibly lame this is. heres a property from one (this isnt a crap property, this is the BEST YOU CAN GET ON ANY WEAPON FOR THIS PROPERTY).

This is for balance. If you had a one hit kill sword PvP would be extremely lame.

This entire thread is stupid, I think Guildwars is a MMORPG because thats what best describes it. If Diablo 2 was multiplayer only and when you logged in you went right into the game i would also describe that as a MMORPG.

The first MMORPG, meridian 59 only had 17 players in one map when it opened so i can safly point out that Guildwars with about 60 players in one area also classifys as a MMORPG.

Zeaus · June 2005

Originally posted by m3th
my char is a lvl 20. he ascended last week. i guess id call myself a HoH veteran as well (won a few times, am confident in forming and commanding a 8 person HoH team).

Playing a week at Hall of Heros doesn't make you a veteran.

You're also not even halfway through the game. The game doesn't end after ascention.

emdt · June 2005

lol ascenison is NUTTING...then southern shiverpeack, RoF, etc.

M3th, u got to chill, its a great game w/o being glued to ur seat

BobCrazyton · June 2005

LMFAO m3th got PWNED!!!1!!1!!

And yes m3th i'm a gw player. Go ahead and TRY to bash me and you'll get some more pwnage.

BobCrazyton · June 2005

to me, thats mmorpg.com's purpose and best asset. i dont care for gay fanboi talk. if i had read a post like mine when i was reading here considering buying guild wars i would have not bought it.

Hmm seems like you're a WoW fanboi. HAVE FUN GRINDING!!!

m3th · June 2005

first up, Bob Crazyton, your the kind of gimp that came straight from diablo. another shining example of the horrid GW community at its most young and stupid. you play GW because your mom wont pay for you to play a mmorpg. thats the truth and you know it.

ive never played WoW. played alot of UO thou, and if you read these boards youll see what the general consensus is about it.

now onto someone who seemed to actually talk somthing other than fanboi blather

Originally posted by ultima_miner
well i guess im just wondering if this game is an MMO? someone told me its just games of 8 people and you have to know those 8 people to play with them. is this true? i was thinkin of gettin it since its free to play. well try to respond if ya can. ill also take info about the game if you wanna tell me . thanks

This is why saying Guildwars isn't a MMO is a bad idea. It gives people the impression that Guildwars is a multiplayer game in the sense of Neverwinter nights.

it kinda is NWN, but without the character depth and without the complex and detailed D&D combat and rule set. it doesnt have NWNs items or NWNs novel magic system, oo its got better graphics than NWN. yeah graphics. something Bob Crazyton im sure would know all about.

Originally posted by m3th
you can only infuse the runes into your armour that ARE FOR YOUR CLASS.

Thats a lie. You can infuse any rune you want into your armor.

yeah, id want to be infusing a blood magic rune into my warrior/monks armour. thats a good idea. just because the game lets you do retarded things dont twist the truth and make it sound like youve actually got more choice than you do. Sure you can infuse whatever whereever. your missing the point. the point is the lame amount of combinations available that actually do something useful (albeit lamley).

Originally posted by m3th
well listen up MMORPGers, you pvp in an arena. only in groups and only with an objective. if you win you get.. well nothing.

Another lie. If you win the hall of heros a chest opens and you get guild sigels and rare items. If you win a match in the hall of heros you get fame points.

again your twisting the truth. people that havent played this game might go, oo wow. fame points. rare items. thats pretty cool. what your not saying is fame points do nothing for you, at all. oo you can do the /fame command which makes a thing appear so 14 year olds can circle jerk about GW. rare items are a joke and also do sweet jack all for your character. you call it balance, i call i lack of gameplay. rare items, dont make me laugh. read what i wrote about them previously, they arent worth crap.

Originally posted by m3th
oo thats right, the entire point of pvp is to get a sigil, to make a guild hall. what do you do with the guild hall? pvp again for... rank on the gw ladder. no items, no rewards, no character advancement

Like i said before, when you win the hall of heros you recieve fame points, rare items. As for GvG just a few weeks ago the top 100 guilds on the leaderboard where invited into some special event.

rares and fame, bah as ive said. never heard of this special event thou. thats news to me. maybe if A.net put some time into making a real compeditive RPG and didnt spend it with thier top 100 love children GW wouldnt be so bagged out it is on all the major GW sites. plus, its not like you can talk to most of the other guilds there (ie trade stuff, duel, discuss tatics and generally do things you do in GOOD rpgs), unless you speak korean and have some massive keyboard.

Originally posted by m3th
finally items. well only players with some experience outside GW will understand just how incredibly lame this is. heres a property from one (this isnt a crap property, this is the BEST YOU CAN GET ON ANY WEAPON FOR THIS PROPERTY).

This is for balance. If you had a one hit kill sword PvP would be extremely lame.

again you twist reality to sound right. name me one mmorpg that has a one hit kill pvp sword. real mmorpgs are about different stages of character development, if you mix the stages your going to get problems. GW is one stage, everyone is there from the start and its all the goddamn same.

Balance is when you get 2 characters of the same level and different builds and through different methods they can hold thier own against each other. thats what a well balanced game is. is NOT having everyone at one level, all the items not doing anything to effect that level and generally wussing out of 90% of the work involved in creating an actual mmorpg.

other rpgs have swords that are for certain levels of character development. if you use this weapon against a much lower level of development well, its not intended for use there. hence it is not a balanced outcome.

you, like most GWers, over simplfy this balance issue. really, its more an FPS than an RPG. youve all got a set arsenal and you use it how you see fit. some people get good at the rocket launcher, others like to master the shotgun. at the end of the day everyone character looks pretty much the same, they all do pretty much the same things as any other simliarly equipped character and the best part of the game is the graphics..

ask Bob Crazyton about Counter Strike. im sure he can tell you whatever you need to know..

m3th · June 2005

these are not my words. i completley agree with what said here thou. wish id thought to write these things up myself.

you may have already read this review. i think its spot on. its from beta days so a some stuff sounds wrong and some of the stuff has been changed/fixed. the fundemental stuff is why ive posted this thou, and as its the very structure of GW its not going anywhere.

As a general impression I think that Guild Wars will be an interesting game, with a lot of potential. For potential I mean both its possibilities as a game and its commercial success. Potential also means that there are the basis for it to become a good game but a lot depends on *if* and *how* they'll use such potential. So it's still a consideration about the future of the game rather then a review of its actual state.
From this general perspective I have to say that the game still lacks of personality. It is unique due to its particular features like the lack of a monthly fee, the instanced content and the focus on guild PvP within strict rules, but the game itself, its feeling, its setting, still looks like a random cut and paste. Yes, it looks nice, the graphics are luscious, but without offering a true personality. Often I had to push back the feeling of playing just another of those horrible Lineage clones. It's generic, and it probably mirrors the approach of the software house developing it. In fact I can feel right into the game this approach of the devs. I'm sure that when they started this project the first step has been to plan its features and only during a secondary stage they also began to shape the world after those features they already nailed down. The consequence is that Guild Wars stands out (is recognizable) because of the features, but from an in-character point of view it feels bland, generic and even excessive in its graphic style. Being excessive isn't a contradiction to being generic and bland, in fact it often happens when there's a lack of ideas and of coherence. Being excessive is often a strategy used when there isn't much of a personality and the aggressiveness becomes simply a way to defend a weakness. All this is also mirrored already in the title: Guild Wars. It sucks. It's the most generic and uninspiring title they could find. As a direct comparison "Guild Wars" and "Arena.net" are obviously less powerful than "Diablo" and "Battle.net". This is again the consequence of the focus. "Diablo" is a title about the lore, the setting, "Guild Wars" is a title about the feature focus of the game, not its setting. From my point of view this founds the game and it's relevant because it directly affects every other elements of the game we can consider. The work is focused on the mechanics, the setting is untied, detached. It's contingent, like a module that can be plugged in and out and I wouldn't be surprised if at some point they'll try to release a completely new setting (like sci-fi) based on the same engine.
Guild Wars hasn't much to offer from the gameplay point of view. Most of what you'll see on screen is graphic fluff (and way too much fluff, imho. You'll get *swarmed* by an insane amount of bushes. EVERYWHERE!), with zero or nearly zero gameplay relevance and interactivity. You can move only following a very precise path and you'll find yourself more then often bouncing against invisible, unreasonable borders. The gameplay of the various missions is the repetition of a very simple mechanic. You are on a road and, as you walk, you'll have to defeat groups of monsters, till you reach the end of the path and warp to a new location and adventure. The possibility of interaction within this frame is basically zero. Aside choosing your attacks and walking (you cannot jump, you cannot climb ladders and even if there are villages and castles with houses and watch towers, you cannot interact nor enter them) you can only stare the awesome panorama and pull triggers (like clicking an object-trigger or an NPC-trigger). Nothing else. So it's rather obvious that all the focus is about the combat and the graphic awe.
What about the combat and graphic awe? The graphic is easier to deal and explain. The engine is smooth, good engine graphically. It performs very well on different kinds of hardware and they'll also be able to optimize it better since they offer mostly instanced content. So it will probably stands out against WoW and EQ2. It is luscious but it is luscious on *your* computer, not in a promise-dream for the goons to fulfill (maybe) in the next years (EQ2 ?). But the graphic is another of those elements that cannot be considered alone. The graphic also involve the style you choose and the style is about the personality. I've already said that Guild Wars feels too much "excessive" and this to hide a real lack of depth to offer. The blandness of the gameplay reflects directly into the blandness of the setting. It's a good looking cliche, it looks awesome at the first impact and the screenshots will always look particularly nice. But being excessive *always* and *everywhere* will soon reveal the lack of depth and its disposable nature. You won't encounter real "characters" that will involve you in a story. Instead you'll encounter good looking excuses to open the next road to follow and the new panorama to discover. The main point (another of those recurring) is that "what you see" isn't "what you play" and this affects everything because you'll soon notice that even if the monsters looks very good, they still offer repetitive gameplay. This is also the tie between the two questions, combat and graphic. You'll notice soon that the gameplay is repetitive and simple. You can choose only a very limited number of special actions to perform and each encounter will be a repetition of the same strategy. Yes, there are monsters with different ways to attack or defend but how you'll interact with them is unchanged. Soon you'll begin to care less about how each monster looks and you'll feel more like walking along the same road and shooting at a new bunch of enemies. A point where you'll start to feel the monsters coming your way as an annoyance and not anymore "cool". Yes, it becomes boring. The interaction is none, the exploration is none, the graphic so excessive to loose its "awe" effect quickly, the combat limited by an handful of choices. Each of these issues "calls" for the other, soon you'll feel evident how little the game has to offer, how the graphic is a nice dress to fake a diversity. It will be more clear how 90% of what the client renders is there just as fluff with zero relevance.
Here the alarm started to weep. As I continued to play more I yawned more than once (there's a major annoyment point that I didn't explain that had a strong impact of this, I'll point it out later). While at the beginning I tried to get myself involved in the story, at least to understand the excuse to open my way through the next wave of monsters, after a pair of missions I started to care less and less about the in-game reasons. I just felt like rushing toward the end, clicking on NPCs just to go forward and without reading they useless blather. Click, click, click.. come on keep going! It was rather obvious that the PvE doesn't offer much. It is nice if you have to take it at small doses, so you can even get involved into the story and have an easy sort of fun for an hour or so, but if you are planning for hardcore sessions you are also aiming toward the most boring gameplay you ever encountered. It's an arcade-ish type of mmorpg in a closed scenario where your duty is to reach a new checkpoint. Your remember "Out Run"?

again, why do i come to the GW boards to post negative stuff about GW?

because as ive said before if someone had told me these things before id bought it i wouldnt have.

im just trying to express what GW is really about for mmorpg.com readers.

exanimo · June 2005

well ... get a life ! your opinion is just one opinion and will not chance the world , thank you for trying , but that was a waste , im sure 99.99999999999 % of people who buy GW is playing it and enjoying it ... im 30 years old , i love the game and the cumunity ... sure there are some kids who make a lot of noize in partys and leave when lose or get dp ... thats the world we live in ... you can feel clearly people atitude changing mission after mission ... its like each mission gives you a lesson in how to team play , from using your skills technics to your social technics ... what you can do and say and what you should not do or say ...

the game completely pulls you to a global social realation ... you can start the game with henchs and even reach the so called end with henchs .. but then if you want to go the hoh , forget about the hench , with a hench party you will be a joke.

so that means training how to use teams , real humans , be a leader , or be lead by others , is very important in the rpg mode run to the hall of heros ...

be social or you wont enjoy half of what the game as to offer.

its not about one person , its about a team !

_myko · June 2005

Balance is when you get 2 characters of the same level and different builds and through different methods they can hold thier own against each other. thats what a well balanced game is. is NOT having everyone at one level, all the items not doing anything to effect that level and generally wussing out of 90% of the work involved in creating an actual mmorpg.
other rpgs have swords that are for certain levels of character development. if you use this weapon against a much lower level of development well, its not intended for use there. hence it is not a balanced outcome.
you, like most GWers, over simplfy this balance issue. really, its more an FPS than an RPG. youve all got a set arsenal and you use it how you see fit. some people get good at the rocket launcher, others like to master the shotgun. at the end of the day everyone character looks pretty much the same, they all do pretty much the same things as any other simliarly equipped character and the best part of the game is the graphics..

traditional MMORPG's need to have character advancement to keep you paying the monthly sub, hence why they have 50 gazillion levels and try to balance a level 50 vs a level 50. The problem comes when a level 52 fights a level 58 and has no chance of winning - meaning PvP is only available to a select few who happen to be in the right spot at the right time. Not exactly helpful to the casual gamer that wants instant action.

In GW character advancement is getting to know the skill combos on your character and team. These tactics will continually change as other guilds and teams adapt their tactics to popular builds. The dynamics of PvP is superb, with hundreds of guilds and PUG's trying to create and adapt builds to try and win. In most MMORPGs once you have an uber setup, there is very little motivation to change it except to replace weapons with higher level ones. GW has no uber builds, there is always a counter to everything so while there are flavour of the month builds, they aren't around that long because counter builds will appear.

As for the whole 'rpg vs fps' argument, the PvE in GW is definately RPG (of the old skool console RPG sense), and the PvP is more akin to FPS (though even more similar to card cames). PvP in RPGs has usually been a case of 'im 2 levels higher, i win', something that only ever encourages grinding and farming (which the devs encourage since it keeps them paying the monthly fee). I have no problems with the way GW has tried something different, and I for one prefer it.

Knightblast · June 2005

Okay, here's my take on it:

Guild Wars is not an MMORPG. It is best described as a "MOG", or multiplayer online game.

Why?

It's not massively multiplayer because you don't run into large numbers of people when you are out campaigning in the world. The instancing approach to the game is innovative and useful in amny respects, but one impact is that when you are doing anything other than loitering in a town, your experience is either single-player or multiplayer, but it is never massively multiplayer in the sense of virtually every other MMO where most of the time you can come across any number of people anywhere in the game, say hello to people on the side of the road and the like.

It's also not an RPG in the sense that other MMORPGs are ... where characters are interacting with each other in character in an open-ended virtual RPG setting ... it's more like a single-player CRPG, where you control your character and manipulate it through a linear world, rather than your character as your alter-ego in a more open-ended virtual world, which is what most MMOs are like.

GW is basically a cooperative linear CRPG (that is, a CRPG you can play on a multiplayer basis with a few other people working your way through a linear world) combined with a good PvP element as well (again, multiplayer PvP not massively multiplayer PvP.

None of this means that GW isn't a fun game. It's quite a fun game to play, as are many games that are not MMOs. But I think placing it together with other MMOs mischaracterizes the game and sets up false comparisons. GW shouldn't really be compared with other true MMOs like WoW or EQ2 or EVE or what have you because GW is not really trying to create a virtual world that players have freedom to do what they please in ... the idea was to create a great linear CRPG that you could play on a multiplayer basis and have fun with in that way. To me, it's like comparing apples and oranges, because the two kinds of games are really very different. One can play both and enjoy both, but one ought to realize that they are very different in kind, and it makes no more sense to compare them to each other than it makes to compare WoW to HALO.

Harafnir · June 2005

M= Massive... Not really. Now, Massive here sticks together with the next M, so it means instead of 6-64 players (Like a Multiplayer game) this is MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER, meaning "a whole lot more". But... Guild wars run on instances, which can equal different servers, creating small games of groups between.. 6-64. So in effect, it plays out as a regular Multiplayer game. Content then?

Massive content? No, its ligthweight. I think anyone can agree on that, fanboi or not. Its fastpaced, not bogged down with tons of details and epicness.

M= Multiplayer... Yep

O= Online.. Yep

R= Role... Yep, you have that.

P= Playing.. Yep you play that role.

G= Game... Yep, its a game as well.

So there you go. Taking the letters and pinpointing them to Guild Wars pretty much sums it up. I can like both. I can like Counter Strike at the same time as I like Battlefield 2. I can like WoW at the same time as I like Guild Wars. Different qualities, same enjoyment. I have played computer games for 32 years now, and enjoyment is what matters, not what category you put a game in to sound smart.

Now, you COULD call it a MMORPG: Medium Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, then the whole subject is void.

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