Guild Wars - 3 Day Free Test

Looks like it has potential. Thought the music sounded pretty good in that opening screen - kind of reminds me of some of Matt Uelmen's stuff (Diablo 2 music) and the work of the ubiquitous Jeremy Soule...

Supposedly their business model revolves around people buying the exapnsion packs that they plan to release about 2-3months apart. However it's still possible to play the game without expansion packs, you just don't get access to the new content etc.
If you figure that most people will buy the expansions, then the income from the expansions probably comes close to the income generated from subscriptions.
Might give it a whirl if i get the chance (pity it's only on during weekdays, although with the time difference we might get some time saturday morning :) )
CYer, Blitz

an MMORPG without fees sounds good to me, ive allways been fascinated by the genre but with the price of it all ive never purchased one. I just cant justify paying like that

my first impressoins of guiud wars about 12 months ago at hte last e3 was pretty bland, the animation was blocky and chunky and the graphics looked really dated - the concept could be fun tho, but that was my oppinion based on footage - which was i hope a work in progress.

i might have to check it out again and give it another go [:D]

Okay. They have started the server a day early. You can get on right now and have a play. It seems pretty good. The gameplay feels nothing like i thought it would. Then again, I never have played a MMORPG that much (for reasons stated by MoonUnit). You have to download the levels/missions as you do them. They are about 1-2mb each. i dont mind as I'm on dsl, but a few dial up members may not like it. It seems that once you download the area once, it saves it so you only have to get the updated data (who is there, so on). It runs really smooth. A few areas had bad pings but nothing that effects the game that much. One guy was complaining a fair bit about it. My friend has been playing it a fair bit and said it runs perfectly on his (56k). He just has to wait a fair bit for every new area... Graphics are very simple yet effective. The characters look really nice, but I do hope there is more variation in the full game (it is an alpha after all). The simple graphics also means that it runs really well. You can tell what everything is really easy, so that's all i really care about :) I didn't even realise that I had started playing with other people. You start off doing a single player game so you can get used to it. Once that is done you just run through a portal into the MP area. I still don't actually know how to really goin a group or start a mission. It just seems to do it automatically. It is fun and the people on there so far are actualyl really cool. No real abuse or cracks about my supposed sexuality :) Well, I have only playd it briefly, so I'm going to go back and have a bit more fun. Time to try a Necro >:D If I see you in there i'll say hi :)

I'm playing another MMO for free... World Of Warcraft beta... Talk about CRACK!!!! The game is so good! Definintely the best i've played and it's still in beta!!!! Of course, it's bad news as that means I've turned into a recluse again, only showing my face for work... Yeah I'll probably force myself to stop playing, that's how good it is!

I'm in! Love a good mmorpg. [:)]

Still downloading though..... seems to be taking forever on my dialup - hope it runs okay over a slow connection. I'm looking forward to checking this out.

Maybe I'll see some other sumean's online over the next couple of days?
My character's name will instantly identify me [;)] - lets get a sumea group together for some rpging goodness!
Hope to see some of you in there. [:)]

DaMunkee - I'm hanging out for WOW. Have you played much Everquest? How's it compair to that? I've heard it's going to be much easier to get into without having to spend large chuncks of your life to make progress. [:P] I'm thinking WOW might even be better then EQ2. But then there is also Middle Earth online in development, which looks like a treat for fans of true role playing [:)] I'm keen to try out City of Hero's also, for something different.

/me turns green with envy (or is that green with empathy for the orcs? ;)

I'm heartened to hear that you think it's a good game, but also somewhat worried to hear that it's that good :)

Hehe yeah it's good, we have 2 guys here who played EQ for years and years. They're in the beta and won't be going back to EQ. I have never played EQ but have played Ascheron's Call 1 and 2 and this game is reminicent of those games, only better!

You can totally make progress just playing a couple hours a week (good for those of us who have an outside life...or at least trying to :) ) You can play in a party if you like, or you can progress just as fast by yourself. The cities are gourgeous (all though way to big in my opinion) and the landscape is fantastic.

Essentailly Blizzard took everything that was good with the other MMOs and then took everythign that was bad and fixed it, mixed that all together to get the *Perfect* MMO experience.

Although it's currently beta, the game is highly polished. There are frequent crashes (like once every 4 hours) but I'm confident those will get fixed. (After all, there is still 5 months left in the beta!) But unlike every other MMO, it takes less then 30 seconds to get back into the game after it crashes. FFXI takes what, 2to3 minutes?. Anyway It is definitely "Golden" and should be cherrished by all... well that is until the NINTENDO DS comes out :) hehe, I'm so in love with that thing and I'm serious... any developer that's working on the DS that is looking for an experienced game programmer, drop me a line :)

Is pretty nifty so far. I'll try and put a few hours into it, see if it continues to keep my interest. Brain De La Vega is my name. Yell a hello if ya around @:-)

Wow, I?m really getting into this! Only bad thing is load time on dial-up. A couple of times when I started new missions with a team, it took ages to load up, and when it finally did loaded the new level, the rest of my party was dead, and had exited the level. [:(]

It?s nice to play in an environment that forces team work. I?ve only completed four multiplayer missions so far, but the levels seem very well designed, and usually require teamwork and some strategy to get through successfully. I could see how the full version would become very addictive, as there could be no end to cool stuff to collect, and new skills to attain.

This is the first time I think I?ve ever been glad that I don?t have a full-time job! No sleep for me for three days!!! (Only two days left now. I?m gonna have withdrawal symptoms when it?s over).

I just thought I?d let people know that the Guild Wars world preview event is on this weekend (tonight through to Sunday night). I?ve only played the first single player level/tutorial so far, but already I can see some pretty cool improvements since E3. It?s looking polished.

If you?ve got time for games this weekend, and can handle the download, I?d strongly recommend checking it out. Awesome game! [:D]
[url]http://www.guildwars.com/default.html[/url]

I've been playing it a bit today, and I must say that I'm pretty disappointed with the gameplay I've seen so far.

Very pretty, but this induced my first major disappointment soon after - the player is not free to wander wherever they choose, there are quite restrictive bounds to every zone. The first thing I did in the game was try to venture outside of the mission area and was unable to. I'm one of those players who likes to explore, so this was a major turnoff right from the start.

My character was unable to jump off a ledge that had a 1m drop down to the path below, but I guess the fragile bones that she had prevented this action. I'm developing this theory that because there's no food in a lot of computer games, this leads to severe anorexia in characters - what do you think? :)

It seems to me that they have chosen to go for pretty graphics, with all the hassles this entails (like having to load areas separately, and not being able to deal with people wandering off the beaten track). But I do agree the graphics look polished.

Next gripe - your character can learn 150 skills, but can choose a maximum of 8 skills to take into each "mission". The cynical side of me wonders if 8 * (6 party members + 4 monster types of the zone) = all the shaders that they could load at any one time ;)

Then we have stuff like the elementalist spell that you cast on a specific creature, and when that creature dies all other creatures nearby of the same type get damaged. Now perhaps it is possible to dress this up with enough fancy words and provide a reason for it working like this, but it just leaves me questioning the internal consistency of the game world. Area of effect spells are logical within most game worlds, but this just leaves me going "why?" rather than getting on with my adventures.

Mind you, I am suffering severe withdrawl symptoms from the World of Warcraft today (closed beta just finished in preparation for a second stress test), so take what I say on this topic with an oceanful of salt :D However, cut back on the sodium completely when I say WoW rocks :) WoW should have a health warning similar to those on cigarette packets, I think. "This game will kill your life". I can write up some thoughts on WoW if anyone is interested :)

CombatWombat, I?d be very interested to hear your thoughts on WoW. I can?t believe how much the testers are all raving about it; if it?s even half as good as everyone is saying it will be a treat!

As for GuildWars, I think it needs to be taken for what it is. It?s certainly no EverQuest style of game with massive free roaming levels, but what it does brilliantly is give a small group of players a well-designed level with strict boundaries that force the group to play as a team. Countless times today the mission I was playing failed due to the lack of teamwork from some team members. These people are always the ones bagging the game, but they constantly run off on their own and don?t participate in what tactics the team has decided to try. I get the feeling that these people would be better off playing unreal tournament or some such thing. [:P] However, when you manage to get a decent team together, the game is extremely rewarding. It?s very satisfying when faced with a challenge and the team works together to find a solution. Hopefully this aspect will really come out in the final game (and hopefully the solo wannabes will get sick of the game and stop playing!).

With the eight spell/ability limit, I think it works well. It?s supposed to mimic card games like Magic, where you pick a certain deck as a strategy for particular missions. While you may have dozens of spells/abilities learnt, you must carefully choose which ones to equip for certain missions.

I do have a few issues with the game, but I think they are little things that will change with the finished version. This is of course the very first weekend of Beta testing, so it?s still got a long way to go until the finished product. But keeping in mind that the game isn?t aiming for a massive EverQuest style of play, but rather something that forces players to team up to overcome specifically designed problems, I think they?ve done a great job, and the finished title should be one of those games that you could keep coming back to for quick but well designed adventures.

Though despite my appreciation for Guild Wars, I?m pretty sure it?s not in the same league as mmorpg?s on the way like WoW and EQ2.

- Looking forward to hearing some reports of the WoW gameplay. [:)] The only gameplay of WoW I?ve seen is from the machinima:
[url]http://www.archive.org/movies/movieslisting-browse.php?collection=machi…] [:D]

i think to be fair to it, the game is not intended to involve exploration like other mmorpgs. mainly because it isn't an mmorpg, it was made so that people could hop on and play any mission without investing huge amounts of time to roam the countryside. don't forget it doesn't have a monthly fee as well, which should give some allowances in depth of gameplay. finally i think that the small number of spells is a plus as it allows for more thought to be put into tactics and it evens out the game for veterans and new plyers in the group. that said you are right that they can also be seen as flaws, i was just putting a more positive spin on it

Played it all weekend and I liked the changes they made since the alpha (toned down the rangers which was a good move :) ). Combat Wombat. Have a read at their FAQ, they arent aiming for a MMORPG, http://www.guildwars.com/faq/default.html "Is Guild Wars an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)? Guild Wars has some similarities to existing MMORPGs, but it also has some key differences. Like existing MMOs, Guild Wars is played entirely online in a secure hosted environment. Thousands of players inhabit the same virtual world. Players can meet new friends in gathering places like towns and outposts where they form parties and go questing with them. Unlike many MMOs, when players form a party and embark upon a quest in Guild Wars, they get their own private copy of the area where the quest takes place. This design eliminates some of the frustrating gameplay elements commonly associated with MMOs, such as spawn camping, kill stealing, and lines to complete a quest. Guild Wars takes place in a large virtual world made up of many different zones, and players can walk from one end of the world to the other. But Guild Wars eliminates much of the tedium of traveling through the world. Players can instantly return to any safe area (town or outpost) that they've previously visited just by clicking on it in the world overview map. Rather than labeling Guild Wars an MMORPG, we prefer to call it a CORPG (Competitive Online Role-Playing Game). Guild Wars was designed from the ground up to create the best possible competitive role-playing experience. Success in Guild Wars is always the result of player skill, not time spent playing or the size of one's guild. As characters progress, they acquire a diverse set of skills and items, enabling them to use new strategies in combat. Players can do battle in open arenas or compete in guild-on-guild warfare or the international tournament. But engaging in combat is always the player's choice; there is no player-killing in cooperative areas of the world. Finally, unlike existing MMOs, all characters in Guild Wars inhabit the same virtual world -- they are not divided onto different servers or shards -- so players can always team up with or compete against any other player in the world." You can actually wonder around the game world, just without other humans. It would be nice if you could do it with humans as the solo areas are fricken huge. On the later levels there were enough people getting completely lost, so making the areas larger may not be the best thing to do. I agree about the spell limit. I would have liked a few more, but then where do you draw the limit? :) I'd recommend actually putting your ideas towards them, they do actually seem to listen. They started changing some of the gameplay rules on the last day (8 vs 8 pvp areas and experience point gains from pvp).