Guild Wars

[Sybeus]

If anyone picks up a copy of Guild Wars, let me know so we can get together in game sometime. I happened to be in the local Future Shop (Best Buy is the american equivalent I believe) and saw they had it on sale for CAD$39.99, plus I had a $20 gift certificate from last Christmas to use. It's not an in-depth rpg that everyone seems to like, and I don't know how long I'll last playing it, but with no monthly fee and it only costing me $19.99, I figured I'd give it a go :)

I love being able to edit posts now with these message boards.. forgot to mention my character names in case someone just wants to surpise me:

Sybeus Orcax (Warrior/Ranger) - Second attempt at a beast mastery character
Doco Samien (Mesmer/Elementalist) - My mage type character
Grathil Munchkin (Necromancer/Monk) - Evil munchkin (or as small as I could make em)

*Looks down at signature* I guess some of the names you could've just guessed and got right :)

[Noke]

i played it several times during the beta periods free play weekends and while i thought it was entertaining enough at the time, it had a very "thin" feel to it. bascically a series of pre-scripted acts that made up the story line.

The group pvp was pretty fun tho, instanced arenas.

Im curious how far it has come in the last 6 months since i played it.

[Sybeus]

i played it several times during the beta periods free play weekends and while i thought it was entertaining enough at the time, it had a very "thin" feel to it. bascically a series of pre-scripted acts that made up the story line.

The group pvp was pretty fun tho, instanced arenas.

Im curious how far it has come in the last 6 months since i played it.

I feel close to the same way as you Noke. I played a beta weekend in December or January, can't remember which. It did/does have a "thin" feel to it, but is entertaining for the time being.

I haven't noticed a whole lot of difference, other than different quests. The beta weekend I was in was all post-searing content (after the Charr destroyed the kingdom), while you start the real game in a pre-searing world. It's basically a newbie heaven of green pastures, helping local villagers, and an uncurrent of a coming war. Then as you advance your character in the main quests the world changes for him/her.

There's not much staying power in the game for me, but I figured if anyone else decided to grab a copy, it would be fun to play a few quests with people I know. Only reason I picked up a copy was because I couldn't beat what I paid for it. I could have gone out to a movie and have spent more money :)

I wouldn't recommend going out and buying the game just because someone you know has it. You should at least find something about it entertaining enough to get your monies worth (which is a one time purchase, since there are no monthly fees for the game).

[Dara]

I wouldn't recommend going out and buying the game just because someone you know has it. You should at least find something about it entertaining enough to get your monies worth.Hehe...seems to me that buying it BECAUSE someone ye know has it IS getting thy money's worth because there is nae monthly fee. ^_^ Having a questing buddy already in place would surely increase the le'el of fun and extend the novelty factor of a new game...thus justifying the price of admission, and if ye get bored with it later and play less frequently, ye're nae wasting any money by nae playing (like ye would with a subscription game), ne? ;) And if ye end up playing it longer than ye would any single-player game of the same price, then ye're really reaping the value! =D I did that with Diablo 2 and a host of RTS games, so I'm seeing this one in that light, I guess. =)

-Dara

[Sybeus]

Hehe...seems to me that buying it BECAUSE someone ye know has it IS getting thy money's worth because there is nae monthly fee. ^_^ Having a questing buddy already in place would surely increase the le'el of fun and extend the novelty factor of a new game...thus justifying the price of admission, and if ye get bored with it later and play less frequently, ye're nae wasting any money by nae playing (like ye would with a subscription game), ne? ;) And if ye end up playing it longer than ye would any single-player game of the same price, then ye're really reaping the value! =D I did that with Diablo 2 and a host of RTS games, so I'm seeing this one in that light, I guess. =)

-Dara

I agree that having someone you know playing makes the game much more fun and that the no monthly fee is enticing. But, I also figure there should be some interest in the game as well. I have a few really good friends in town here that play computer games regularly, but I've played maybe 2-3 games with them. Why? Because they purely play first-person shooter games, which I just don't find fun for very long. Great for LAN parties, but not as my weekly entertainment. Plus they don't find my "long and boring" rpg's very fun either. I realize this is an extreme case because it's comparing two different genres, but the difference between Guild Wars and games such as DAoC and WoW is more than one might think. Guild Wars is more kin to the Diablo and Dungeon Siege type rpg's, along with a hefty helping of team competition programmed into the game. So I guess if you are already looking at the game in that light, then you're on the right track, even in my line of thinking :)

There's also one thing to note about the no monthly fee. The developers of Guild Wars have pretty much said they'll be trying to get expansions out for the game every 4-6 months (I believe their quote was 3-4 months, but I think they are kidding themselves on that one). And that while the expansions are not required, they will be adding new content, such as continuing the main quest line, new skills, etcera. So I see the no monthly fee with frequent expansions as a new line of marketing that NCSoft is going to try out. Because buying a full priced expansion every 4-6 months is basically equivalent to a monthly fee. This is a pricing structure which I whole-heartedly agree with, since then you only have to buy content that is actually worth it, rather than being promised content with your monthly fee and them not delivering.

[Dara]

So I see the no monthly fee with frequent expansions as a new line of marketing that NCSoft is going to try out. Because buying a full priced expansion every 4-6 months is basically equivalent to a monthly fee. This is a pricing structure which I whole-heartedly agree with, since then you only have to buy content that is actually worth it, rather than being promised content with your monthly fee and them not delivering.That, and ye donnae have to "buy in" to the new/expanded content/features until you're ready...so if ye buy a $50 (assumed full-price) expansion say once e'ery 7 months...that's the equivalent of a $7.15/month subscription fee! =D And they're bound to start bundling older expansions with newer ones for less $$ if ye wait long enough, so all the way around ye're savin' more money than the typical MMORPG. =)

But ye're right...'tis hardly the typical MMORPG (Battlenet meets Dungeon Siege is right on the mark, from what I can tell), so should be interesting to see how it plays out...and whether or nae it affects the MMO industry's general trends in any way.

-Dara