Curse

higaru · Jun 10, 2008, 08:32 AM // 08:32

- It's free!

to be honest I refused to buy any othre MMO game that had monthly subscribtions, i got WOW as a gift but returned it unopened when I read on the packaged it had xtra subscription fees. In free i mean that u don't have to pay addition fees other than the price of the game to play it, which is considerably not cheap when the game is released.

I think this must be a plus for the game developpers, because at the end of the day, i ended up buying 3 distinguished accounts all with collector's edition and with the eotn, + extra slots + pre-release + guild wars merchandise from the site so i can play with my brother and my cousin! so who's the winner at then end?

Oh and i even bought an extra millenium edition for a friend on his birthday!

Really hope GW2 will not have monthly subscribtion fees, should it, i do not think i will buy it!

Anet ==> A++++

Sirius-NZ · Jun 10, 2008, 11:45 AM // 11:45

Let's see. The main reasons why I bought GW as opposed to anything else MMO-style:

- I was able to; at the time I started with GW I didn't have a credit card, so it was my best option by default
- No compunction towards playing regularly; if you're not paying per-month, it doesn't matter if you only have time to log on once every week, you can do that

...and really, that's pretty much it. There are some interesting features GW has - the somewhat more strategically-minded play system which works pretty well for PvP - but I don't really have a lot of "sacred cows" from the game. There are things I'd like to see done, sure...

Aera Lure · Jun 10, 2008, 02:06 PM // 14:06

Well certainly PvP. As far as an MMO/fantasy setting its among the best.

The skill system. I had played M:tG some years back and I loved the idea that you could run an MMO under a similar concept. The idea was brilliant, but the execution maybe less so. Many skills ended up being redundant, many more unused, still others unbalanced, so that in the end the number of viable skills you looked at were quite a lot less than the number of skills total. You also cant utilize your secondary profession quite as much as I'd like to. Still, its such a great system.

The idea for releasing chapters of content. I liked this versus having a monthly fee. Works out the same in the long run, mind you. Thing for me is that new content was not released fast enough for PvE. Then there were the issues of game balance that began to creep in with the release of its first chapter, Factions, and then of course Nightfall. Idea good. Execution maybe less so.

At the time I was comparing it to WoW for the game I was going to play. Monthly fee was not a factor for me, as I would have paid monthly for the perfect game. Absolutely could not stand the graphics for WoW, so I went with GW for that reason as well as the build concept. I suppose at the time then GW's graphics were a factor, but I wouldnt say they did it better than most other games. Just some. For me, GW's graphics are a little too realistic and western, and not quite fantastical enough, if that makes any sense. Now the concept art, on the other hand...

Coraline Jones · Jun 10, 2008, 02:13 PM // 14:13

Now that I've played GW for almost three years, the best things about Guild Wars are pretty subtle.

1) No monthly fees or hidden fees. I've investigated tons of MMO games, and ANet has stood alone on this one. Most games campaign with their fake "free for life" ads, but then as soon as you visit the page, there's always a section for cash-for-items. In other words, if you're willing to pay, then you can basically break the game as much as you want. Even worse, those games are notorious for little to no policing, so bots to basically rule the game. An even darker rumor is that if you're a paying customer then GMs tend to look the other way against any "rule breaking" that you might be doing.
For GW to have an equivalent, they would have to make Ursan Blessing a pay-to-play skill which cost $5 for 30 days of unlimited usage.

2) The ability to play with your friends anywhere. Unlike most MMOs, GW allows you to pretty much hook up with any or all of your friends, even if they were thousands of miles away, via the International District or otherwise. You don't have to worry about which "server" your friend is on--everybody can meet up with anybody. I wish more games were like this.

3) Excellent graphics for a game of its time.

=====

I think that the things that made the game iconic are essentially hated by a majority of the gamer market. I had several dozen real-life friends that played this game and eventually quit and never came back. I can say that unlike the GWG forums, people that actually hate the game enough to quit just quit very quietly. They don't post on the forums saying how much they hate the game or how ANet ruined the game. They just leave.

Most of the biggest complaints are the things that made the game iconic.

For PvE play, I'd say that at least 10% of the people that "try out Guild Wars" leave after a few months because they hit level 20 and find out that they can't get "more powerful". The mass public likes the idea of leveling to some insane number. And even the newest games, like Age of Conan, feature incredible level-grind to support it.

The other thing that PvEers wanted but didn't get is the ability to have powerful solo ability with any profession. While heroes came eventually, it's too little, too late. Also, just because you can hire underlings to fill in gaps in your party isn't the same, especially since they steal your loot in this game. People want solo content, and from what I can tell, they want a game that has 50% solo, 50% raid/party content.

Finally, this is just my opinion, but I think that under the covers, when you really look at Guild Wars closely, there's a lot of problems with the game engine itself. I really don't want this to turn into a rant topic, but I really think that when a Superior Rune is worth less than a Minor Rune, then that clearly states you have a problem with your magic system.

BenjZee · Jun 10, 2008, 02:44 PM // 14:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glider of chaos

No monthly fee. It's actually pretty important cause I don't feel to play more to get more gameplay for my money.
There's no microtransactions and selling broken stuff for real money.
No need to gring armor, level and stuff. (title grind is totally optional).
Heroes and Henchmen!!!!!! I love those guys. They let me play alone when I don't feel like playing with real people, if I know that I may need to go in the middle of the quest and they make it really easy to fill couple of missing slots in a guild group.
Ability to play for half an hour and have fun. I can login, play few RA matches, chat with guildies for a bit or just finish some quest before going to sleep.
Map travel is perfect idea, no more boring running from town to town. ^^
Ability to toy with build and change it without any restrictions.
Instanced nature of GW works like a charm for me.
"Save build" button ^^

pretty much my favourite reasons

i was loking for an online game a proper one that requires some skill not like runesca[e which i was fed up of. I found this new game coming out and read about it. Guild halls and capes and stuff seemed quite a cool feature

Clarissa F · Jun 10, 2008, 02:53 PM // 14:53

Free to play, of course.

The skill mechanics, though riled at in the forums, are actually amazing. I love the fact that, as a ranger, I can ruin someone's world instantly with a D-shot.

The action graphics. I love the way it's so fast-paced with the melee characters' movements, and the motions actually reflect the skills you use. None of the cartoony stand-in-place, swing sword or cast. None of seeing the same motion used for every skill.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coraline Jones

Finally, this is just my opinion, but I think that under the covers, when you really look at Guild Wars closely, there's a lot of problems with the game engine itself. I really don't want this to turn into a rant topic, but I really think that when a Superior Rune is worth less than a Minor Rune, then that clearly states you have a problem with your magic system.

I sometimes do a Scooby Doo face when I see that a Sup Rune is less, but it reflects the trends of the game and the players' wants. A Superior Vigor rune will, of course, be rare and wanted, while a Superior Protection rune, unless you are a 55, won't be wanted for its penalty. I do think they got that part right, basing prices on supply and demand, without letting it get out of control. Now, if they had an auction house....

-Sonata- · Jun 10, 2008, 03:04 PM // 15:04

I don't have much time to write a lot, so I'll just put one thing that really stands out for me. The interface and control and how much customization there is to it.

I love being able to go full screen and window mode without having to restart the game for it to take effect. I like that I can assign SO many keys to so many options and choices including hero skills. I love being able to adjust the sizes, placement and even getting rid of "Stuff" on the screen so my interface can best suit my needs.

I also love how the control of my character and camera is so easy. I find far too many games to be clunky with there movements control and camera movement control. I've never had that issue in GW. It allows for a better combat system in which I can actually strafe to avoid being hit and if need be, hide behind a giant rock to avoid arrows.

Oh and 1 more thing: The music. Best music in any game in my humble opinion.

Molock · Jun 10, 2008, 03:06 PM // 15:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by aapo

- You gotta be kidding me. First of all PvPers are too embarrassed to call half the PvP modes in the game even PvP. So that leaves us with GvG and maybe HA/TA if no scrubby builds are around. Secondly have you even been in competitive scene of PC games? CS, Starcraft, WCIII... where's Guild Wars? For "ground up competitive game"¹ it's kind of strange that PvPers have to grind gold for their guild hall changes and farm skill unlocks to even create builds. There's no possibility for players to create their own leagues. Best PvP out of any online game? Never was and never will be. Stop believing in advertisement slogans.

I'm pretty sure we all understood that he meant the best PvP among MMORPG-type games. Clearly you can say any other MMORPG-type out there has better PvP... Fury was a massive faillure, WoW's PvP has always been a joke and many other games don't even have a PvP aspect. To compare GW to all time kings of PC gaming competitions such as CS, Starcraft and Warcraft is silly.

And why shouldn't we have to unlock items for PvP? At least we don't have to raid dungeons and the items are all balanced.

Musei Karasu · Jun 10, 2008, 03:20 PM // 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by aapo

- Warcraft became popular because it was a good game, not because its name was Warcraft. Quality of a game is a kind of thing that can't be measured directly. When Blizzard released Frozen Throne, it didn't have any imbalanced units that immediately ruined games for everyone. When ANET released Nightfall, suddenly the whole HA was flooded with "kill every enemy in the area" -Dervishes. When Blizzard releases patches, those patches balance skills. When ANET releases patches, those patches destroy skills. How many examples do we need?

Warcraft became popular immediately because they had the playerbase to buy in at first. They had x many people who would be interested and would buy the game and play for at least a month. They had people who'd experience the game and then say if it was stupid or not. GuildWars did not. GW built up the player base with the game, and ANET is learning slowly what balance is. Blizzard has knowledge before hand. You're comparing a rather new company to one who has a very notorious record for making balanced games. StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo. That's previous experience as to how to balance a game. What was ANET's first chance to learn these skills? Oh yea, that's right GuildWars.

Darksun · Jun 10, 2008, 03:30 PM // 15:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawrence Chang

On a side note, WoW > GW.
95% of GW players would stop playing if GW charged $15 monthly.

let me point out why this is such a horribly bad argument:

If GW charged a $15 monthly fee the the game would have the resources to have:

A fully explorable map, with WAY more places to go, outposts, cities, zones etc..
more enemies
more items & weapons & armor types
more missions & quests
more skills
constant GM supervision

For what I paid, GW blows Wow out of the water. Even if you can't see things like the obviously superior graphics no MMO has as exciting & fun a combat system as GW (cept maybe AoC, but looks like it might be too twitchy)

Quote:

Originally Posted by aapo

- Warcraft became popular because it was a good game, not because its name was Warcraft. Quality of a game is a kind of thing that can't be measured directly.

Sorry man, you can't have one the biggest games of ALL TIME (Warcraft is regularly featured on top ten games of all time lists) become an MMO and say it didn't have a huge influence on it's success.. WoW is a great game, but if no one knew about Warcraft it would have never become as big as it is now..

icedwhitemocha · Jun 10, 2008, 11:04 PM // 23:04

The existence of interrupts and disruption that affect gameplay on a fraction-of-a-second basis was afaik unheard of in this kind of game.

That mechanic is pretty much the sole reason I've never been able to switch to any other game.

Alex the Great · Jun 11, 2008, 12:07 AM // 00:07

how super casual it is with map travel, easy acess pvp, and computer-controlled mind slaves!

binkbinkthx · Jun 11, 2008, 11:21 PM // 23:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Musei Karasu

Warcraft became popular immediately because they had the playerbase to buy in at first. They had x many people who would be interested and would buy the game and play for at least a month. They had people who'd experience the game and then say if it was stupid or not. GuildWars did not. GW built up the player base with the game, and ANET is learning slowly what balance is. Blizzard has knowledge before hand. You're comparing a rather new company to one who has a very notorious record for making balanced games. StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo. That's previous experience as to how to balance a game. What was ANET's first chance to learn these skills? Oh yea, that's right GuildWars.

You do know that the people who started ArenaNet and made Guild Wars came from Blizzard and had experience from other rpgs, right? :P

Proff · Jun 12, 2008, 12:21 AM // 00:21

No monthly fees.

Winstar · Jun 12, 2008, 12:24 AM // 00:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by icedwhitemocha

The existence of interrupts and disruption that affect gameplay on a fraction-of-a-second basis was afaik unheard of in this kind of game.

That mechanic is pretty much the sole reason I've never been able to switch to any other game.

good point ^^^^

agrios · Jun 12, 2008, 12:25 AM // 00:25

#Instances
#Heroes/Henchies
#Optional Grind
#A storyline
#PvP Chars...
#non-anime visual
#low level cap

I enjoy almost every aspect of GW, except from some armor art..

dawnmist · Jun 12, 2008, 04:37 AM // 04:37

Originally, it was a 'that looks interesting' game in the shop - I hadn't heard about it before. What sold me on it originally:
* No monthly fee. The only program I've ever paid monthly fees for has been cedega - that's only $5 per month, and enables *several* games to be played , so it's not for just one game. And it's one where the updates are essential to keep up with the ability to play newer games, so it's been a worthwhile service. Paying 3-4 times that for a single game...not something I've been willing to do - especially if I'm unsure whether I'll have enough time to actually get "my money's worth" of gameplay.
* Screenshots/the box was pretty - I prefer the 'more real/lifelike' style of Guild Wars to the cartoony style used in WoW and many other MMOs.
* The (special edition) box was at 1/2 price at a sale - which meant that I wasn't going to lose much if I didn't like it, or couldn't keep up with it - I liked playing RPGs, and suck at FPS or other games that require 'twitch' responses.
* The ability to play with other people co-operatively. I'm not that interested in PvP - again, more to do with my reflexes not being fast enough than anything else.

What almost made me not buy it:
* I was used to being able to pause the game, think through a situation, plan a response, and then go with it. NWN 1 was really good for letting you queue up a list of actions while paused

What struck me as incredibly cool (some that I hadn't seen elsewhere) when I first tried it:
* Loot was assigned to players - no more arguments/fights/disappointment when everyone wanted the same cool drop! And gold was automatically shared equally. Instead, if someone got a good drop, I was cheering for them - knowing that my turn would come another time.
* Presearing was beautiful - I loved the scenery. I also loved the music.
* Monsters were different - they were not the same "orc/elf" stuff that I'd seen everywhere else. There was some originality, which is not something that seems to happen very often

* Death was non-permanent, and had no long-term effects (Survivor title didn't exist then - but that's still the only long-term effect of death now). I could try something, screw it up completely, and NOT be permanently damaged by it. I didn't even lose gold, XP, or have someone else rob my corpse - nor have to find my corpse to get everything back.
* The instances for explorable areas - I didn't have to compete with other players to get a chance to kill monsters & collect stuff.
* It ran (pretty well too) in cedega - I could play in linux! Which was good, because it was rare that I rebooted out of linux much at the time

What almost lead me to abandon it (I did for about 6 months):
* I hit the "Across the Wall" quest that forces you to team up with someone, thought the rest of the game would be the same, didn't realise that the quest was non-essential (I thought you had to complete all the Presearing quests before it'd let you move to the next area), didn't know that there would be henchies after leaving presearing, and I didn't know anyone...I got too shy to ask for someone to help me with the quest. While I liked having the ability to play with people, I found I couldn't ask people I didn't know to join me!

What keeps me coming back:
* Introduced my husband to GW - we frequently play together. I'm much more of a gamer than he is...but if we haven't played for several days (usually 'cause I've been playing something else for a bit), he starts suggesting that it'd be good to play again...and Guild Wars is the only game he's ever done that with.
* Family & friends in Guild - when they decided to start the guild is when I came back.
* I still think the scenery is beautiful.
* Weekend events.
* Trying out new skill sets for myself (I have the quest for UB, but never completed it - I'm enjoying vanquishing without it for my first time).
* While immediate reactions are required, there's a limited number of reactions - it means that I can keep up and do well without having to have twitch reflexes.
* Being able to change my attribute points to whatever I want (and hence my skill bar) - I was glad that in the 6 month period where I'd walked away initially that ANet had changed from attribute refund points to being able to change them freely

* Still finding new and interesting ways to solve issues...
* I love bombing clumps of enemies with volley+splinter

* It's a bloody good way to release the frustrations from the day, after tons of phone calls, interruptions, changes to what I need to do, etc - I can get home and blow monsters up!
* Still lots of stuff I've never done - I've completed all 3 campaigns and GWEN's mission-quests on one character...but I've got a ton of mapping, vanquishing, & hm missions left, I've only ever completed the FoW - haven't even entered some of the other elite areas, I haven't done most of the dungeons in GWEN, I've still got lots of quests to do, etc.

GW has a lovely mix of short-term goals and long-term play - we can log in and decide that we just want to spend 20 minutes getting a character from one town to another for the first time & do a couple of quests on the way, plan a long day vanquishing from ToA right through to Ascalon, or just about anything in between. Doesn't mean we don't get bored with GW sometime (usually after getting our butts kicked badly) but we rarely leave it for more than a few weeks before coming back (and trying a new tactic against those who trounced us last time).

odly · Jun 12, 2008, 05:08 AM // 05:08

The easy way to get multiple character you choose to level 20 (low level cap) and equip it with the best possible gear (max weapons and armour). Then being able to jump anywhere you've been before (map travel) to join a friend or for a personal whim. This kind of freedom and being able to join easilly with anyone anywhere is great.

Too bad that PvE grind skills ruined this to a certain extend. Of my 7 PvE characters only one can be considered maxed out these days.

The ability to add ai controlled characters to a team to get a well balanced group anywhere. (henchmen and heroes)

Sophitia Leafblade · Jun 12, 2008, 10:21 AM // 10:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kalendraf

#1 No Monthly Fee
#2 Good graphics (not cartoony like WoW)
#3 No Grind...or at least that's how it originally was supposed to be. They messed this up when they introduced titles.

I have to agree with you, you've pretty much sumed up what attracted me to Gw

sixofone · Jun 12, 2008, 03:07 PM // 15:07

Like Sophitia above, and Kalendraf:

1. No monthly fee
2. great graphics, without needing a high-end system!
3. great skills - much better than WoW, and most other MMO games where you basically get the same handful of skills over and over again, just at a higher level

Memser!
Rits!

(Jora! Livia!

)

The basic professions set up to be fairly unique, and distinct from each other. (Some cross-over on Mes and Nec, though - especially hexes. SS seems more like an elite Mes skill than Necro!)

Prophecies: explorable areas and the ability to access them regardless of level (largely) I love being free to get to LA, and ToA, if I am willing to risk the run myself, or to buy a run from someone. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I took my first Tyrian toon from Old Ascalon to LA, then to ToA and Sanctum Cay by myself, at lvl 12, simply because I was into an exploring mode!