Curse

Guild Warrior · Apr 30, 2005, 04:36 AM // 04:36

guess what? this morning on xfire Guild Wars had around 700,000. Tonight when i checked it was exactly 1,118,218. In the Top Ten and only FOUR... YES FOUR spots away from taking WoWs seat as number one XFire Game.

And to prove Guild Wars massive effect on WoW, a fellow player from warcraft posted this on another forum. This is his quote:

Quoted from Storm Dragon from "GuildWars Ogaming forum"

""Ghost town.That’s the only way to describe WoW's Argent Dawn Server when I logged in tonight to give away some items to a friend. This was the most populated server a couple weeks back with waiting Queues up to 10 Minuets; General Chat was all but dead, only a few people complaining that all their guild mates have left for GW.

I knew GW would have a big Impact on WoW but nothing like this.... I am truly shocked.""

W00T GO GUILD WARS!

Devil's Dictionary · Apr 30, 2005, 04:44 AM // 04:44

^ That man is right!
I am surprised to see GW beating Battlefield Vietnam and Battlefield 1942 at it's second day!

Thanks, Guild Warrior: I didn't know that.

Guild Warrior · Apr 30, 2005, 05:07 AM // 05:07

Penny Arcade takes back is GOTY award from World of Warcraft

Some of you might be curious as to the status World of Warcraft's "Game of the Year" award, believing perhaps that we either did the right thing and should maintain the position or that we are imbeciles unworthy of a text editor. I can't really speak to the second one, but I can certainly provide you with an update.

Since withdrawing the award I have on several occasions returned to the game or sought to return to it, and my timing has often been inauspicious. On more than one occasion I have sought to re-enter Azeroth during a bout of pre or post patch server misbehavior, and I'd rather slip in there during a more "ordinary" period, or whatever passes for ordinary in a land where dragons roam free. The most recent patch added an "honor system" with the concomitant rewards for said valorous combat. That's not a type of play I typically seek out - it's the Battlegrounds, plot-based consensual combat areas they will deliver in the next patch, that I'm genuinely curious about. The award is stored in a hermetically sealed vault, pristine as the day it was bestowed, and it seems like any modern assessment might as well take this imminent feature into account. Yea, let it be done.

The honor system and the related Battlegrounds have come along fairly quickly, by WoW patch standards - and it's theorized by some that Guild Wars is responsible for that sudden spring in their step. This is probably bolstered by the fact that many employees at Arena.net were once from Blizzard. There's no doubt that the community has positioned the players in this adversarial fashion, thirsty for conflict, but these games could not be more different. Yes, I realize that they both have warriors and magic. That does not qualify as a keen insight.

Guild Wars, and I do not mean this in a pejorative sense, is a medieval Phantasy Star Online. No portion of this game is "massive" as we understand that term in relation to online role-playing games, although I would describe the elementalists' tower in Wizard's Folly as "quite large." My five hours yesterday was enjoyably invested, I look forward to additional hours in that state, collecting special abilities as one might "cards" and hand selecting the eight powers I will bear to a specific scenario. WoW snaps off some of the more annoying elements of the massive genre, but many things about it - long travel, high level grind, kill quests - circumscribe a fairly traditional experience in raw terms. I maintain that - when all cylinders are firing - is it the best example of an MMO. But when you take a game like that in one hand and then hold up a kind of swords and sorcery deathmatch in the other hand seeking to compare the two, I guess I don't know what that's meant to accomplish.

(CW)TB out.

Ren Falconhand · Apr 30, 2005, 05:31 AM // 05:31

"And On the Sixth Day the Lord Opened the GW Servers and It was Good"

Murdok · Apr 30, 2005, 05:40 AM // 05:40

I think WoW is a great game but in fun factor GuildWars is at least its equal if not better than WoW. So, I can't see paying $15 a month to play a game that is equally as fun as a game I get to play for free. Also, WoW gets very boring when you get to a high level so... yeah.

Inhocmark · Apr 30, 2005, 06:29 AM // 06:29

I was fortunate, my WoW experience was amazing. We were on Earthen Ring about 2 weeks after it went live and save for a few hiccups around patch time there was zero problem.

That being said, GW is a change of pace, and a good one at that.

Chewbacca The Hutt · Apr 30, 2005, 08:18 AM // 08:18

see here how popular GW is:

Chaos Engine · Apr 30, 2005, 08:19 AM // 08:19

I enjoyed WoW a great deal while I played it, and I will probably go back after the first "real" expansion comes out. I was on Feathermoon and had the pleasure of being in a very good guild (Go Go Wayfinders!).

However Blizzard sells the "image" of Warcraft and does not provide the "real thing". It's a long story and there is no need to hijack this thread.

For the time being,
GO GO GUILD WARS

Dreamsmith · Apr 30, 2005, 09:00 AM // 09:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guild Warrior

guess what? this morning on xfire Guild Wars had around 700,000.

That sentence fragment ended a word too soon. Guild Wars had around 700,000 what? People? Hours? Units-sold? Dollars? Jelly-beans? What?

(Pardon me if that's an ignorant question -- I've never used Xfire. I'm interested in knowing just what it is that's being counted here by them, though.)

Droniac · Apr 30, 2005, 09:45 AM // 09:45

Xfire counts hours played.
It had 700.000 hours played by all Xfire users who had their Xfire running in the background.

For the first half of Friday (in Europe), Guild Wars was actually ranked 3rd - above CS 1.6
Still trying to get my guildies on Xfire so we can help up the rank a bit

Currently, Guild Wars is ranked 2nd - toppled only by WoW.
If you want to contribute, www.xfire.com is where you get the app.
It's also useful for online FPS gaming, as it tracks the servers your Xfire contacts play on. Say someone is playing Enemy Territory on server XYZ, you just click their name and select Join Game - and ET will start up and connect to the server your contact is in ;p
It can also function as sort of a replacement for MSN, haven't seen many people use it that way though - not as many messaging options.

adam.skinner · Apr 30, 2005, 10:18 AM // 10:18

I think perhaps many of the people who are playing GW now may go back to WoW. They're under the mistaken impression that WoW and GW are the same type of game; that GW is an MMORPG that somehow competes in the same space as WoW. In a sense, they do, but if we were to strip away the superficialities of gaming, and get to the core, GW has one very important difference from an MMORPG that clearly makes it a different breed, for better or for worse: totally instanced adventure zones.

While there is a more communal feeling to the game, the gameplay is more akin to Diablo II than an MMORPG.

Having said that . . . I think the RPG elements of this game are much richer than Diablo II, and perhaps many of the things people enjoy about an MMORPG they will find fulfilled here. But the "Massively Multiplayer" they will not. You're essentially joining a server with at most 16 players in it, though the staging areas to make groups, like chat rooms, contain more.

Kelzar · Apr 30, 2005, 10:18 AM // 10:18

I wonder how this is affecting EQ2...

Inde · Apr 30, 2005, 11:11 AM // 11:11

WoW and etc MMOs have their own advtanges. Said this before - no fanboyism bashing. GW being #1 is cool - GW being #1 just so it can beat WoW is a slightly pubescent competition.

I also want to re-iterate that XFire only works for people that actually use it - we have no way of knowing if more/less GW fans vs other games use it.

Mulk · Apr 30, 2005, 11:32 AM // 11:32

Lol I wish Ardent Dawn had been a ghost town was trying to take care of a few things before I dissappear to GW's a few days. But glad to here it has the crowd coming in it deserves.

Oh as for GW vs other MMO's ect. People forget it isn't a matter of GW's being a good MMO the question they should be asking is if the game is a good game. Afterall there was gaming life before games like EQ ever came around.

Jesso · Apr 30, 2005, 01:03 PM // 13:03

Great read, thanks for sharing.

haran · Apr 30, 2005, 01:18 PM // 13:18

As far as the WoW V GW discussion, i honestly have both and will play both.

One is an MMO that combines many fun elements into a sturdy, communal gameplay-intensive game, and one is a grind-free, breathtakingly-beautiful, game.

Trillian · Apr 30, 2005, 02:08 PM // 14:08

Actually, after playing the original Warcraft game (the first one out) and it's expansion I waited in earnest for the next.

Got married, had kids, sent them off to school, retired and started a new company.

And still the game never came. Don't think I'll ever try out WoW, got hooked on several other online games, EQ, AC, DAoC. Not much for a look down first person game, so never tried diablo longer than a few days.

Giving GW a chance at the gate, but so far, not very impressed. Have had the game loaded in the machine 12 days now and still not able to get into the game.

Guess I'll go build another custom chopper, probably have that done before the bugs are worked out.

Best of luck to all of you

Orbit · Apr 30, 2005, 02:18 PM // 14:18

Edited: OOPS ok see that number is hours not members. Is there another way to see how many people are online playing GW?

Have a question about XFire. Does that number 1,118,218 show all users online or just registered Xfire users?

Droniac · Apr 30, 2005, 03:34 PM // 15:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orbit

Have a question about XFire. Does that number 1,118,218 show all users online or just registered Xfire users?

It says 1,425,121 now - so I guess that is the amount of online users.

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam.skinner

You're essentially joining a server with at most 16 players in it

At most around 200 actually, in the cities/outpost.
In combat, at most 64 (8x8x8x8x8x8x8x8 in the Tombs) which is still quite a lot of players

bobert · Apr 30, 2005, 05:39 PM // 17:39

yea, so everyone go register on xfire to get those hours up!