Well here is a review from a amazon customer....

"Guild Wars is a very solid MMORPG that strongly encourages team play. The graphics are top-notch (if not up to the cartoon levels of World of Warcraft), the play addicting, and it's well-balanced. With no monthly fee, it's one of the best bargains in the MMORPG world. I take off a star and a half for the forced team aspect as well as the focus on pure fighting versus creating a world, but add 1 back for the value proposition so give this 4 and half stars, or a 4/5 fun/overall split.

This is a tough game to master with no outright 'uber' classes. Players choose 2 of 6 fairly standard basic professions (1 tank, 1 mezzer, 1 healer/defender, 2 nukers, 1 mezzer/nuker) with the second profession lacking one of the strongest attributes of the primary (including which armor you can wear and runes you can use). As you level, besides gaining hit points you do two things - specialize in the various basic class attributes and gain access to the real key: skills. You're limited to a certain number of active skills while in combat, so strategy and careful character building take precedence over getting to level 20. Experience to buy skills can be gained through basic PvE, missions, or PvP. Using a small set of skills wisely along with picking and choosing your attribute development is far more important than getting all the 75 skills available to each profession. This is definitely not a game that is easy to blindly powerlevel.

Cleverly designed, this sidesteps a lot of the problems surrounding the genre. Rather than deal with constant kill stealing, maps and missions are instanced, and you don't have to spend a whole slug of time traveling between regions. (Once you've been to a locale, boom, it's yours.) Recovery time is minimal as is non-combat time. You don't need to spend time harvesting mats and begging a friend to make your next weapon. Instead, kill things, complete missions, and you can bring mats straight to the NPC crafter to make a custom weapon (that can only be equipped by you, likely eliminating much of the secondary market for gear in this game.)

My reservations are four fold but minor. First, the way to truly advance in this game is through missions - and the only way to accomplish many missions is in a balanced team. Thus, you're basically forced to group despite the nominal ability to solo. This really means you have to figure out proper character development early - rather tough with your first few characters until you find a good guild, and frankly, sometimes many of us feel like playing solo. Second, the lack of any real crafting system here means you fight...and fight...and fight. CoH has done well with a similar model (without the PvP aspect) and it's worked well - not to mention the biggest headaches in most MMORPGs are the messes created with a bad item creation system - but if you enjoy socializing more than fighting (the typical harvester/crafter) this isn't the game for you. Third, the game really revolves around PvP much more than PvE for the above reasons - so if you're looking for a game without conflict, this isn't it. Finally, while the focus on instanced events does prevent many of the problems found in most other MMORPGs, it also reduces the multiplayer aspect except in non-instanced locales like towns. The net effect of all of these is to slightly dilute the 'world' aspect, and for those looking for total immersion this may not be a perfect match.

Still, this is a great game and deserves 4 1/2 stars, and if you're looking for an alternative to the hordes of WoW that strongly encourages teaming this should be at the top of your list. One final note: this actually runs quite well even on my soon-to-be discarded Athlon 1100 and is geared towards doing well on slightly older systems - and even 56k modems! - unlike most new games. Big plus. "

Another customer review from amazon....kind of long....

"Guild Wars has been touted as being revolutionary in several ways. For those that haven't read the game overview, these can be summarized as follows:

1. Doesn't require immense amounts of time to be really 'fun.'
2. Little or no time spent doing repetitive tasks and travel.
3. Competitive guild-based play, with custom guilds.
4. No monthly fees and dynamic content change/addition.

The last point is of great interest to many people (myself included) in that this is the first MMORPG to be completely free of fees. However, everyone knows expansions are planned, so this is only 'kind-of sort-of' true.

Though you don't do repetitive tasks like gathering food or resources, to find anything remotely useful you do have to kill enemies over and over again. Additionally, the travel waypoints are sometimes very spread out, so you are still going to do a lot of walking. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however (more on that later).

The level cap is 20, and it's true that this doesn't make it very hard to become as powerful as you'll ever get. In PVP only mode, you start at 20, so you spend no time at all building up a character. However, this doesn't mean you can become level 20 overnight- it does take quite a while, and the quests are challenging enough that you will likely need (human) help.

That said, this game is definitely built for guild-based play. The designers say that solo play is optional, but truth be told it probably isn't. Now that the main features have been addressed, a general overview of the game is in order.

The only 'MM' part of the game is towns. While in towns you can see other players in the same district, form your party, trade items, start quests, and configure your skills (a maximum of 8 can be used at one time). You can also take along henchmen if you want to fill out a party or go solo.

You can leave town one of two ways- by walking through a portal or by starting a mission. The missions address the main quest and often take you to major cities, thus saving you the trouble of walking. They also reward you with experience and skill points. Quests are separate from these, and reward you with experience, skills, and items. In general, the mission and quest design is well done, but you will find the occasional glitch- some of which can force you to repeat one. When in a quest area, a pointer will show where the next objective is.

PVP can be done at arenas, and there's a level cap for each to prevent overly unfair competition. You get experience and (if you play enough) fame for winning matches. This is always a team-based mode, and teams are selected either at random or by party assignment. In RP mode, however, it's quite possible to get far superior equipment than your competition, and thus have a massive edge in combat. A winning team will continue to play matches, and the game doesn't seem very good at auto-balancing the parties.

While exploring the wilds, you'll encounter many and varied monsters, which range in classes and difficulty. Most come in groups, and usually are too dangerous or numerous to solo. This is where my first complaint shows up. Frankly, the henchman AI is beyond pathetic, which is why playing with other people is generally advisable (on occasion, however, I've found human players that are worse in that regard than the henchmen. Such is life). If you're in a party, you'll divide the gold, experience, and spoils. This applies to henchmen party members as well.

Exploration is really the meat of the game. I've done PVP, but it gets old pretty fast- especially if you keep ending up in a poorly balanced team, which seems to happen alarmingly often. You also get no loot for winning, and nobody really cares about fame. The wilderness areas are very well done, with excellent graphics and accompanying music. The world is massive, and the monsters are hard enough that you have to think about what skills you take- and what your fellow party members are taking. Unlike many other RPGs, a bunch of offensive-oriented people each doing their own thing will likely meet a very quick demise. Guild Wars really forces you to coordinate (especially with healing others and focusing to take down hard enemies) and punishes you if you fail to do so. I personally find this a welcome change in direction.

If you should happen to die, you can either wait for a party member to revive you, or (if everyone's dead) you'll respawn at an altar. Sometimes these are placed in very awkward places, which does need to be addressed. You don't lose items, but suffer a 'death penalty' that reduces your health and energy up to 60% (15% per death). You can work this off by gaining experience, killing boss monsters, or completing mission objectives. Going to a town negates the penalty, and this is highly advisable if you get to 60%. Nevertheless, sometimes you really can't go back to town, because leaving an area causes all monsters to repopulate. This can lead parties to conduct suicide raids, in which the sole objective is to kill at least one more monster blocking the way to that quest goal. At times it can be rather frustrating- especially with the more difficult quests. Since the max level is 20 and many monsters are higher, even if you're an experienced player you will likely die scores of times doing quests and missions.

As for character customization, you have a choice of skills in which to invest points (a max of 200, which each successively level costing more), and you can design guild capes and dye items various colors. This, aside from the standard appearance choices at character generation and of course equipment, is about all that makes you unique. If you decide you want to change your skills, you can acquire 'refund points' by gaining experience. These let you reallocate skill points. There are six classes to pick from, and you can have one 'sub-class' that gives you access to some skills from another. This is a permanent choice, so it's best to choose wisely.

The classes in general are quite well balanced, but there is a 'paper rock scissors' arrangement there. That is, Rangers dominate Elementalists, Warriors dominate Rangers, Necromancers dominate Warriors, etc. If you know what you're fighting, there are skills designed to counter every other class, but some are necessarily better than others. Usually you'll learn what to pick the hard way. Fortunately, there's unlimited refund points available, and you can quite quickly rebuild your character if you decide to just junk it all.

In sum, Guild Wars isn't an easy game. This is especially true if you're not a team player and don't like to make friends online. The bottom line is, this isn't a game for everyone. I personally like the party-based exploration and missions, but I know some others that despise it. If you haven't played in the beta and aren't sure which sort of player you are, I'd advise you to get the game and find out. Since there isn't a monthly fee, it won't hurt too badly to try, and- if you decide to quit- you won't feel like you're losing something you paid for by ditching your characters. "

Guild Wars Links.....

http://www.guildwars.com/
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/
http://guildwars.ogaming.com/
http://gwvault.ign.com/
http://gw.stratics.com/
http://gw.warcry.com/
http://www.gwonline.net/

Shhh...I'm not suppose to know this....I'm getting guild wars for christmas...:wink3: . If anyone else has this or is getting it maybe we can start a guild....let me know.

Looks interesting.

Shhh...I'm not suppose to know this....I'm getting guild wars for christmas...:wink3: . If anyone else has this or is getting it maybe we can start a guild....let me know.

Give me some time. Once I graduate and get a nice job, I'll probably pick it up. Until then, got no $! Would be interested when I get it though, once I get familiar with the mechanics of the game.

MrH

Cool...I understand the no money thing....i graduate in April....with a Bachelors in Business Management. What is your degree....?

I probably wouldn't get it for awhile if it wasn't a christmas present.

Cool...I understand the no money thing....i graduate in April....with a Bachelors in Business Management. What is your degree....?

I probably wouldn't get it for awhile if it wasn't a christmas present.

Hopefully graduating in May (keeping fingers crossed!). PhD in Bioinformatics. I've got my oral prelims tommorow! hence me not posting much lately :(

Guild Wars does sound cool......ive been interested since i saw the first few ads. i havent gotten my feet wet in the MMORPG arena yet though and i was told that would be a good start.

anyone here ever heard of "the realm" MMORPG?

I haven't heard of it...but i will research it if you would like...

I haven't heard of it...but i will research it if you would like...

Nah... it was just one of the first in its genre. used to play it a -long- time ago... same basic theme as the Guild, just not so strongly oriented towards group cooperation. I'm not sure if its even running these days. this was back around... 1996ish I guess?

MrH

Post a link....some old games still rock....

Post a link....some old games still rock....

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?setView=overview&gameID=56&fp=1400,1050,21083765,20051129222019

gosh, the links sure brought back some memories... they used to be free monthly, it looks like the software is free and online gaming costs now... interesting

Post a link....some old games still rock....

Just found the official site...

http://www.realmserver.com/

Cool..I'll check them out...

When i get the game and get used to it i'm hoping to start my own guild. DragonAlliance is usually what I call my guild in other games. I even drew them up in D&D. In D&D they pay "refuge" to the metal and gem (jade, sapphire, etc) dragons. They are enemies of the evil dragons. To get into the guild is a real pain in the %^&. You must solve a mystery, and kill a dragon...sounds easy but is not...specially when I am the DM. The leader of the guild is unknown but is believed to be either dragon kin or half dragon. Some speculate it is a dragon. The guild has divisions. Copper, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Each one of those has divisions within it. Complicated guild but if you get in and you do things right you can be very well rewarded....I'm sure you all didn't really want to know all that....lol

Anyway I would be interested in building a guild up with any members of BIT. So when I want to start it I will let you know on this thread.

When i get the game and get used to it i'm hoping to start my own guild. DragonAlliance is usually what I call my guild in other games. I even drew them up in D&D. In D&D they pay "refuge" to the metal and gem (jade, sapphire, etc) dragons. They are enemies of the evil dragons. To get into the guild is a real pain in the %^&. You must solve a mystery, and kill a dragon...sounds easy but is not...specially when I am the DM. The leader of the guild is unknown but is believed to be either dragon kin or half dragon. Some speculate it is a dragon. The guild has divisions. Copper, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Each one of those has divisions within it. Complicated guild but if you get in and you do things right you can be very well rewarded....I'm sure you all didn't really want to know all that....lol

Anyway I would be interested in building a guild up with any members of BIT. So when I want to start it I will let you know on this thread.

actually, I enjoy talking D&D LOL. I've run out of time to DM, and I can only play once in a while now. wish I had more free time to play!

MrH

I love this game and have been spending alot of time on it. With this game you have to pay 100gp to invite people to your guild. Kind of cool because it makes you work for you members. Also you have to pay 2k to get a guild cape, and you can build a guild hall also, although i don't know how much it costs.

I started a Guild called Pheonix Dragon Alliance. So if anyone plans on getting this game and wants to join my guild let me know. I only have 1 member now...lol.

This game runs fine on dial up but when switching between areas on the map you may have to wait a long time for it to download things. Once you have gone to that area once it doesn't take as long. Broaband wouldn't be so bad. Lag on the game for my system is not a concern. Only after like 5 hours of playing do i get a minor amount.

The best thing is that it is an online game that you can play without a subscription. I would recommend this game to anyone who likes rpg's.

If I get some spare $ I might buy it.

I'd love to at least try it out. Just don't have the time. With trying to graduate and all... Its hard to balance school, a relatively new marriage and martial arts. Its a challange!

MrH

Yeah my time playing it is going to decrease majorly since I am back to school...well in fact today is my first day back.