Guild Wars

[BaiginLong]

The alpha is running nicely and so far the bugs are minimal
check it out @ http://www.guildwars.com
excellent gameplay thus far
my main char is Roselin Majere: female Necromancer/Ranger
damn the Jungle area for being so buggy....I kill a monster and it's not dead
even with 0HP it's still trying to kill me
and I soloed that damn lvl 25 that was nearby
kill three monsters and the one that refuses to die with a bug have to be within range of the item drops
I earned my skill gems dammit
oh well it's an alpha

[mr. x]

how much depth is there to the game? what is there to do other than kill kill kill is what i mean

[amietron]

Originally Posted by mr. x

how much depth is there to the game? what is there to do other than kill kill kill is what i mean

i heard the game sucked. or "it's not a real mmorpg. it's gay." is the way he put.

[BaiginLong]

My own personal review of the game:

Thursday, May 13, 2004


Guild Wars "E3 for Everyone" public preview alpha - weblink, 4.5 stars


Since Xanga doesn't have a review category for games, I'll put this under weblinks.

Now, onto the review.

As you reading this, you are probably wondering why I put this under a section called MMO instead of MMORPG. This game, even at it's alpha stages, is a prime example of how the world of online multiplayer gaming is evolving from it's RPG incubation period. Though Guild Wars is still an RPG in most respects, it breaks out of the shell with revoutionary elements such as its fast, almost FPS-paced player verses player action in some areas.
Published by NCSoft and developed by ArenaNet (formerly TriForge), Guild Wars was designed to cure everything that was wrong with the current vein of MMORPGs such as spawn point camping, corpse retrieval, kill stealing, player killing, leveling marathons, monthly fees, and all the like. However, it doesn't completely abandon the every element of the old MMORPG formula. The fantasy style world, the player cusomization, the skills, the freeroaming environments, guilds, and such are all still there and, in fact, they are actually better. The creatures are actually original, eliminating the well known and overplayed population of elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. The customization is more in depth and less restrictive and irreversible. Most importantly (at least in my opinion), the skill set in this game is far more expansive and useful than that of any other MMORPG.
Another thing that Guild wars does away with that has been in almost (perhaps all, but I'm not willing to bet my life on this) every game is the patch. The entire basis of the game is built on a streaming content architecture, allowing the developers to make new changes seamlessly, even as the game is running. This, incidentally, also does away with the expansion set.
The "E3 for Everyone" Guild Wars preview has proven (to me, at least) that change is a good thing. Though I have encountered a few bugs here and there and a number of things were chopped up in a hurry (no doubt, because of the rush to make it to E3), the preview has been a very satisfying and addicting experience for me. However, I do voice one concern: that is whether or not this can survive as a business venture without a monthly fee. Guild Wars makes the bold announcement of doing away with the monthly fee and yet it still believes in it's ability to perform financially. The businessman in me turns a wary eye at this prospect. However, at the moment I am simply a game reviewer and as such I give this alpha of a game a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. Well done NCSoft and ArenaNet.

[amietron]

don't lots of games patch? every time you log in, if there're changes, it patches? L2 had patches.

[BigLew]

I played for like 15 minutes then it crashed and crashed my video card.

[amietron]

Originally Posted by BigLew

I played for like 15 minutes then it crashed and crashed my video card.

was it anything special? or just... blah?

[ellsworth81]

Originally Posted by amietron

was it anything special? or just... blah?

doesn't look like lineage 2 will hold your interest for long

[BigLew]

Originally Posted by amietron

was it anything special? or just... blah?

Nothing to buy a computer for.

Originally Posted by mr. x

how the heck do they not need monthly fees though? the only thing i can think of is ads

NWN doesn't have monthly fees right?

[ellsworth81]

Originally Posted by BigLew

NWN doesn't have monthly fees right?

nope

[VV o n g B a]

Originally Posted by BigLew

I played for like 15 minutes then it crashed and crashed my video card.

same here, except it crashed maybe a minute after i got online. i was soloing for a good 20 minutes offline w/ no crashes.

the big deal here is that it has the potential to break the monthly payment fee and reduce overhead for the player. there's no more waiting in line for hours to kill an important monster. u and a few friends just get to the action. and newbs and experienced players will be separated more by individual skill and tactics than by the amt of time either person has put into the game.

amie's friend who dismissed the project so quickly should look again. if this game is done right, it could kill the competition.

[BaiginLong]

Originally Posted by VV o n g B a

same here, except it crashed maybe a minute after i got online. i was soloing for a good 20 minutes offline w/ no crashes.

the big deal here is that it has the potential to break the monthly payment fee and reduce overhead for the player. there's no more waiting in line for hours to kill an important monster. u and a few friends just get to the action. and newbs and experienced players will be separated more by individual skill and tactics than by the amt of time either person has put into the game.

amie's friend who dismissed the project so quickly should look again. if this game is done right, it could kill the competition.

In my case, I had no problems logging on and playing for hours on end. Of course my computer needed a minor reset after that, but I was running AIM (with its damn pop up windows), MSN (ditto), IE, and a bunch of other progs.

[mr. x]

how the heck do they not need monthly fees though? the only thing i can think of is ads