My general overall view of GW as a new player

If you both need to play at the same time then you need to "separate accounts"

So lets say the first account is one @ youremail. com and the other is two @ youremail. com

If you have Prophecies then you need 2 keys, one for each account.

Now if you decided to get Factions then you need 2 keys, one for each account as well. Make sure that you link the Faction key to the account you already own, so your current characters can have access to the new campaign.

You don't need the CDs as you will download from the internet, the cds just speed the process, but they are outdated anyway.

Ah ok i didt realize you can get it of the net as well. Thanks for the info

If you think the graphics are good in Prophecies, wait until GW:EN. The scenery in GW:EN is amazing.

Yeah!! another husband and wife team!!! welcome!!
My hubby got me started on this one 2 years ago....and we are still going strong with it (though I get to play more than he does ).

Enjoy the game, we sure do!

Sorry my bad! I hadnt considered you would want to play at the same time. As others have said, you will need seperate CD keys for when you install the games on different machines.

It may still just be cheaper to but one copy and then by another account online.

Another point I should have said, is that factions, prophercies and nightfall are all very different games.

Prophercies (which shares the map with eye of the north) is a much longer, deeper game. It takes a long time to reach lvl20 there and to get access to max gear.

Factions is alot faster and nightfall is kind of a happy medium. Although I think prophercies is the best, ive found ive created most of my characters in factions to level up fast.

Its best to have factions because it means you can travel to the capital city there and get max armor for your characters from prophercies and nightfall faster.

Yea we have been playing games together since we meet in 99. We actually meet in Ultima Online, as he was in sweden and me in the US. Well 7 years later, still playing games, married and I am living in Sweden now.
Hmm although after it snowed all day yesterday dunno if I should smile.

Yes we are deff getting the other 2 campaigns in a couple weeks. I will check to see what it cost to buy an acct code online and if its cheaper will just get one box game of each. What sites do you use to buy your acct codes, the main one?

I've heard this said many times - however just stop and think on it.

If you just now are starting and you see the Necromancer can only going X number of energy every few seconds from deaths are you going to go say "Ah, they ruined it, I can't spam skill like crazy". No, it is just normal and they do like every other class in that game does and take e-management skills.

Too many old timers are not flexible, they think the game is MUCH harder now than it used to be because they use two year old builds and/or tactics and try and force everything to fit that way of thinking.

Give this person a few months to really get their head on straight in the game and I would bet if it was reverted to one of the original builds that many of us are nostalgic about then they would be as angry as many of us older players are now. It happens in real life too - listen to your grandparents talk about how much better their world was and think if you would really like to go back and live then. And I'll bet when you have grandkids you will talk about how much better now is and they will all think "silly old man" - and of course continue that cycle down until there are no more humans.

At least PvE wis there hasn't there been any more added to learn - each chapter is fairly well contained. Prophecies is still prophecies and is no harder or easier to learn to play than it ever was. If anything it is now easier due to much cheaper materials/runes and the introduction of insignias (no more trying to figure out where you need to go to get the armor stats you want).

It's always interesting to read a review of a new player and notice it was just the same way I felt over two years ago. Heck, it is even amusing to note that many of the new players like something most of us older players hate.

Its always like that with any game that you start playing from release. Even though that game might have been in beta for xx amount of months, they still will constantly be tweeking and improving and or nerfing things. As the saying goes you cant please all of the people all of the time. I started wow from day one, even beta tested it, and every update, I just read what they where doing, if it effected the classes I was playing and then I just changed my playstyle to work with the update. No use whinning about it, learn how to play with it and head on.
There are alot of new players in the starting areas. You can tell by gen chat so this game is still drawing new people. I know they say Eye of the North is the last edition because they are making GW2.

Wow, meeting each other through a game. I'm impressed.

There is an in-game store for purchasing the other campaigns after you purchase the first, they also sell extra character slots (if you end up a long term player you will most likely want one of each class, a pre-sear only, and a PvP char slot - useful for skill unlocks or socializing in The Great Temple of Balthazar (whatever that is worth) even if you do not PvP much). After you log in there is a button in the upper right hand corner (at least that is where it is at for me). I've used it to purchase character slots, GotY upgrade, and Eye of the North - it automatically adds these to you account so no need to enter keys. Sadly, you missed the deadline for the Bonus Mission Pack - hopefully they will offer it at a later date for sale in their online store.

I'm using the American client, as I understand there are minor differences in some of the clients. Mainly what currency they display and language used - however it should be apparent what to click if it is also in a slightly different place. I do not really know how it makes the distinction between them as I have never gotten anything other than American in both currency and language.

As for new accounts I think you have to go through the PlayNC online store or purchase a box. There doesn't seem to be an "online store" button until you log into the game. I tried to create a new account to see but it directed me to the PlayNC website to purchase a key.

You know something else I have noticed about this game compared to others is the monsters AI. Its a bit different from other games. You can hardly sneak past them and they always target the healer henchmen, LOL They tend to run around targetting other players instead of just standing there being tanked also.

I must say that your story is truly beautiful. It's great to see something like that happen.

Lady, some additional advice:

-you'll need a separate account for each person that wants to play at the same time. So, you'll need two accounts for you to play with your spouse. You do not need boxed games, though - you can simply buy keycodes. (to minimize install hassle and save time: buy one set, update fully, then just copy the game to the other computer - you'll only download once )

-remember there's a difference between creating a new account and applying an access key to an existing account. If you want to take a single player through two campaigns, you'll need to have one account and apply both campaign keys to it. Unfortunately, for a total experience for two people, you'll need two accounts, each with all 3 campaigns and the expansion (It's worth it, BTW).

-campaigns came out in different times, and it'll show. Prophecies graphics is much less detailed than Factions, which is less detailed than Nightfall, which is less detailed than Eye of the north. In other words - every campaign looks better than the last one .

-a character that was not created in a specific campaign can't play ALL the content from a campaign where he's a foreigner - but that's only the tutorial bit of the game. So, don't worry, but create a character in each campaign once, just to see what happened there first.

-every character eventually gets the ability to change the secondary profession. However, the primary class is still important:
-it determines your armor and energy regeneration (important: a warrior will never work as a spellcaster)
-it determines what runes you can use (quite a difference: a ranger can get his own attributes to 16 (using runes and armor bonuses), but the secondary attributes are limiter to max. 12 (10 being more realistic - 12 costs a lot of attribute points)
-it determines your primary attribute, which is important: you don't get the benefits (ranger skills will become very expensive to other professions, as they don't get the energy discount of Expertiese) and skills using that attribute will be limited (some still work, some are effectively useless).

-Prophecies specific: Don't forget to go to Sorrow's furnace, too. It's an area added later in the game, but it's definitely worth seeing.

-Factions specific: Factions is much faster than Prophecies - you reach level 20 almost instantly, compared to Prophecies, which is much slower.

-Factions specific: don't get discouraged in Kaineng city. The area is not very nice looking (intentionally - it's a ramshackle metropolis), but keep this in mind: more magnificent vistas avait - the Jade sea is a beautiful sight.

-Nightfall specific: 3 times, you will have to choose between two heroes, as only one will join you. Don't worry - you can get the other one, too, once you finish the game.

-Eye of the North specific: the expansion feels shorter than the other campaigns, but that is at least partly an illusion - the storyline does not take you everywhere. The dungeons, which the storyline does not take you through, are definitely worth at least a quarter of the game.

-See the sights that the storyline does not take you through (for example, there are more
-the mage tower in the mountains of Pre-Searing
-the floating tower, visited during the quest "The villainy of Galrath"
-the leviathan frozen in jade in Rhea's crater
-the vistas of Jade sea
-the sunny southern parts of the Echovald forest
.
.
.

I wish I could play GW again as a new game, not already knowing everything by heart...

Oh, the AI - read up on the wiki's about aggro. Aggroing two groups can be fatal

Haha ya found that out a few times, mobs sneaking around that you dont see. Thanks for the info some very useful things there.
Yea we where planning on creating a char in each of the other campaigns as well. Geez so much to do in this game, even without any crafting, which is good since it lets you do the fun stuff.

I think the main forte of GW is that it doesn't force players to do the usual, repetitive and generally useless tasks that are normal in other MMOs, like traveling by foot, farming money to get enough funds to raise crafting skills or grinding mindlessly just to get that new armor set so you don't get killed when entering the next mission, etc. You can focus on the fun stuff, like you said, and then optionally take up title/money grind if you feel like it.

Then again, many people think GW is "shallow" because it lacks all the usual crafting systems, different races and level grind you'd expect in other MMOs, but I guess that's just a matter of preference. I hope you have a great time playing GW !

It's probably cheaper to buy the boxes for the access keys, if you can find someplace selling the older campaigns for reduced prices. Online store still has them all the same price. GW:EN is new of course, so not much chance of a reduction there.

Well for me all this is a plus having spent 2.5 years doing all that stuff in WoW. I guess as you said it all depends on what a person likes to do and how much time they have. At first though MMO's where comprised more of kids/teens and as the games developed and the computers developed into a house hold appliance adults as well have found the games. Most adults do not have the time to play 15hrs a day just to keep up with the kids. That in itself is a big factor in this game and will be in GW2. We had contemplated playing AOC since we where looking for something else after WoW, (before we started GW) but all indications are that it will also be a raiding type game. I will never ever get involved in raiding games again. I just dont have that kinda time, and if I do I want to choose what I do, not do it because I have to.

I agree about the visuals, but it isnt that hugely notice-able. I finished off SF after 2 years the other day and it looked just as great as GWEN.

But I have to disagree about not getting full access to content if you dont create a character in that same campaign. I could be wrong, but I cant think of an instance when my prophercies elemental wasnt able to access all areas and/or content in both factions and nightfall (aside from maybe the odd low-end pvp arena).

Which content do you mean?

Welcome to Guildwars lady, I've had the game for about 10 months but I took a big break from it for a while so I have much to still learning about the game and with my new ranger i'm working through prophecies and enjoying it

Also this game is great for casual players and since it's free to play once you have bought it you can play it along side another MMO game WOW and only have the 1 subscription.

Also with the ranger you will probley want to stick with skills that you invest attribute points into such as expertise, marksmen and survival.