Guild Wars
 

Anyone playing? It's worth it purely as I'm playing as a mesmer that looks like the guy from Princess Bride and does an irish jig when you enter /dance.

:D

Seriously, it's not an MMO. It's Diablo with more to it, music by Morrowind's Jeremy Soule and gorgeous graphics... maybe not the latest effects but great design. It's also free (no monthly free)! Methinks Trep would like it. If only because once he's finished and dusted Jade Empire you can join in with fellow questers to battle through a near-enough MMO with a strong story element.

It's a wierd one, but it's damn good. I seriously haven't got bored with it and I've been playing it for hours, as the combat is fun and there's lots to do. Let alone there's PVP to do and an actual narrative to follow.

Diablo and to a much greater extent Diablo II completely demolished all my free time so there's a good chance I'm going to have to plunk down the bucks for this thing...

Well, if you buy it, look out for a nattily dressed Mesmer going by the name of Squire Jorheiro. :D

I picked it up myslef and although not an MMO fan, have really enjoyed it thus far. This game is the MMO for those like myselves who cannot get into MMOs or at least normally cannot make our money. I am a 6th level Necromancer with Ranger as my secondary profession. I am currently found in the catacombs collecting things to get better armor. When I dance I do this head banging thing which is rather amusing.

Mine does an Irish Jig. :D

How is this game different from WOW?

No monthly fee and mainly instanced sections, the intention being the hub areas are where you recruit a guild and go into the instanced areas to do battle and go off on team adventures. There's also a PVP arena for battling other guilds and members.

Yeah the biggest difference is that its nicer to the solo gamer. I go to the main city areas of the game an get quests, but when I go out into the world, it basically creates an empty world where all the enemies are basically mine to fight. There is no camping going on either.

Outside of those areas, combat feels a bit faster, but that's really it. The lack of a monthly fee though makes a huge difference, that and it doens't matter what server you would happen to be on, you can always meet up with and adventure with your friends.

Finally the whole different world setting comes into play. warcraft uis an intersting and fleshed out world, but so far the Guild Wars world seems to be an interesting fantasy setting.

They are hardly even the same genre. WoW is a really good example of an MMO, whereas Guild Wars is more of a more-MMO-tinged hybrid type of thing like Diablo II.

So I take it bucks were plunked down?

I would have ro disagree on the sentiment that they are practically not the same genre. This game is really not all that Diablo 2ish. Anymore than any MMORPG game's combat is. You click on an enemenyt and begin attacking and use abilities while fighting. Diablo's felt more hack and slashish.

If anyone EU wants to join in, say when. I say we form a guild!

In case anyone's interested, I'm already taking steps to do so... I did a little teamplay last night and it was great.

BTW 9.3 on Gamespot and a great review for those confused about the game. If those shots don't make you want to rush out and buy it straight away (coupled with the Jeremy Soule soundtrack, a selling point in itself!) the you have a cold, cold heart!

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/guildwars/review.html

It is exactly like Diablo in how multiplayer works(accept of course it is presented in a 3D world not something like b.net), like most online RPGs. About the gameplay, I think it is slower than Diablo, but not all online RPGs are like Diablo. Diablo is a slasher RPG, you actually click on the enemy and use abilities in Diablo though and that isn't what makes it a slasher, Diablo isn't any less tactical than the other RPGs, it's just faster, you kill a lot more. Guildwars isn't really anymore of a MMORPG than any other online RPG, it is not Massively Multiplayer.

I played this in beta and thought it was pretty fun playing with friends. But playing with strangers is pretty boring.

Aj you are right of course. I guess when I think of Diablo I think of high speed button clicking for long periods of time, which is generally not the case in Guild Wars or most other MMOs. But yeah when you break it down to its basic components and compare the 2, you are right they are very similar.

Yeah, it looks like an interesting game, and it's pretty, and that soundtrack (from what I've heard) is great. I'm tempted to play. I like it that you can solo until you learn how to play it. This is good for me.

Since I have a long history of buying games and not playing them, at least with this one, I wouldn't be paying a subscription fee to not play the game, if that makes sense! I'd only be out the cost of the game.

Think I'll buy it, and give it try after my classes are over, for the semester.

The persistent, shared group area and the instanced areas that are yours alone (solo or a small group) - that's a neat concept. I like that a lot. Uru, when it was online, had a similar setup, but Uru had a different problem. Aside from the horrible reponse time in Uru (bad response time in the main shared area, the city), there was almost no gameplay, and no good tools for building a community. Uru was also different in that the areas that were yours alone were persistent - in Guild Wars it looks like you only get the instanced area during that particular gameplay episode. That's fine - I think it would work well.

You can go solo for as long as you want, as long as you don't mind not doing the story missions.

Some missions need you to have another player. Like opening the gate to get past the wall, then defeating some nasty level 5 tree things.

Well, if I play, I'll group eventually, I want to do the story quests. I'd like to be able to know how to do something before anyone depends on me - I can just hear people saying "some healer YOU are, we all died!" Oh, think they are called monks in Guild Wars. I'm also pretty bad at playing a game on a "regular basis". In Uru, when it was online, I hadn't even settled on a neighborhood, and given that I was in the beta, I was in the game for, well, forever! Online friends of mine (don't know anyone in "real life" who plays) are still waiting for me to play WoW, but have I - no! Maybe I'll play that one too after school is out, but you have to pay money to play WoW.

Guild Wars sure looks lovely - I'm a real sucker for that. Yeah, it's your standard medievalist fantasy environment, but it's a lovely medievalist fantasy environment! And just tell me, someone, how hard is that combat anyway?