This is an honest question.... I have never played guild wars 1.  Is guild wars 1 still worth playing? does it have much of a community?

Guild Wars 2: whats it got that other games don't?  Why should I play it?  I'm at a crossroads with my MMO's.  Rift and EQ 2 were just so so. I was a WOW lover.  Can someone tell me what the draw is for the guild wars franchise..... I'm thinking of trying it.

Is it solo friendly? Thanks all.

Originally posted by Tokken

This is an honest question.... I have never played guild wars 1.  Is guild wars 1 still worth playing? does it have much of a community?

 

Guild Wars 2: whats it got that other games don't?  Why should I play it?  I'm at a crossroads with my MMO's.  Rift and EQ 2 were just so so. I was a WOW lover.  Can someone tell me what the draw is for the guild wars franchise..... I'm thinking of trying it.

 

Is it solo friendly? Thanks all.

 

 

First, I wouldn't link GW1 and 2 too much. Other than world/class/race continuity, they play almost entirely different.

Here's what GW2 has for me. Bear in mind much of this is based on what Anet's told us and the videos that have been released, and I haven't played the game.

1) Dynamic questing where I can play through a zone and have it be a different place than it was yesterday, based on the actions of the players in the world

2) No race/class/faction restrictions. 

3) Unusual art direction that tries to look like a painting.

4) "Personal Story" quests I can share with my friends ala ToR, but hopefully better balanced.

5) Challenging combat. No aggro table in the traditional wow sense. Tank n Spank won't work. Dodge rolls to evade attacks. Hot-swap weapon/skillsets on the fly in combat to allow for greater tactical flexibility.

6) Stupid huge WvWvW pvp with potentially hundreds of players.

7) (Hopefully this one is true) Little reliance on gear, so how the player plays impacts who wins a fight more than who has the uber loot.

8) The ability to go to lower level zones and still earn xp/usuable loot, so I can quest with my friends no matter what level we all are and enjoy it.

9) A game that seems to reward exploration, just getting out there and having fun.

EDIT: To answer the other question, GW2 is supposed to allow for solo or group play. From what I've seen solo play involves being careful and smart though, because combat seems to be pretty challenging. 

Those are all good points. Thanks.

Is it open world pvp for us worried care bears?

Originally posted by Tokken

Those are all good points. Thanks.

 

Is it open world pvp for us worried care bears?

Lulz. Nope. All PvP is either 5v5 battlegrounds or instanced world vs world. It's Carebear city, if you're OK with that.

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/A-short-guide-to-everything-we-know-about-GW2-.html

That should give you a pretty good read on the game.  You can skim it and just pick out the details you want.  Lots of it is nicely highlighted and such. 

There is not open world PVP, as PVP is seperated from the PVE game.  Well....technically there kind of is open world PVP on the Realm VS realm deal.  But thats seperate from the PVE game. 

So its kind of two games in one.  But you wont be bothered while you are PVEing, except by people pitching in to help you out. 

EDIT: Also if you havent you might want to go to http://www.guildwars2.com/en/

Use the black links at the top of the page and cruise around.  Its a fun site and if I hadnt dug through it 20 times having fun, Id go bounce around on the site again.  But its fun for a first visit.  A few videos are there.  And its fun.  Also, hit up youtube. 

Personally I think that at this point GW1 is not only solo friendly... it's, at least until very advanced into it, a solo game. Of course you can group and there seems to be plenty of people in the cities and outposts, and there seem to be several very active guilds, but chances are the biggest bulk of your gaming time will be spent playing with heroes (AI controlled NPCs you can use to fill your party with). That said, it's a really good game, with a great story, and personally I'm enjoying it inmensely. It is quite different from WoW, though. If you want to get into it, I'd say try the beta first, though you can also get it for very cheap these days.

As for GW2, they're trying to innovate in several ways, but IMHO the main thing that I see as an innovation from other MMOs is the dynamic events. Of course, other games have done similar things, like Rift with the rifts and zone invasions, but the big difference I see on GW2 is the posibility of defeat. For example, in rift, you fail to close a rift, it'll dissapear after a while. You fail to stop a zone invasion, the monsters dissapear and you just lose the chance to kill the boss. In other quests basically if you fail it's just a matter of restarting the quest and do it again until you succeed. In GW2, if the dynamic events work as advertised so far, you fail to stop the centaurs from attacking a village, the village is lost along with the waypoints, vendors and anything else of interest on it, and it's lost until you (or someone else) manage to take it back, you fail to stop the undead from massing in the swamp and they'll attack the nearby fort, fail to defend the fort and the undead conquer it and you have then try to take it back, and so on.

At least that's what I find the most interesting and innovative about the game (of course there is much more I like of it, which is why I prepurchased it already).

Originally posted by terrant

Originally posted by Tokken

Those are all good points. Thanks.

 

Is it open world pvp for us worried care bears?

Lulz. Nope. All PvP is either 5v5 battlegrounds or instanced world vs world. It's Carebear city, if you're OK with that.

It is 4 maps large WvW PvP. 3 of the maps are dedicated to homeworlds and the map in the center is neutral. It is instanced because players are bound to their homeworld team and need to be placed accordingly.

Edit: You are kind of right about the sportsmanship part. They scale level up for low levels in WvW PvP and they don't allow PvP in PvE content. ArenaNet doesn't really like the idea of griefing dynamic events. Luckily for me I can level using WvW PvP.

Originally posted by Tokken

This is an honest question.... I have never played guild wars 1.  Is guild wars 1 still worth playing? does it have much of a community?

 

Guild Wars 2: whats it got that other games don't?  Why should I play it?  I'm at a crossroads with my MMO's.  Rift and EQ 2 were just so so. I was a WOW lover.  Can someone tell me what the draw is for the guild wars franchise..... I'm thinking of trying it.

 

Is it solo friendly? Thanks all.

 

 

GW1 is a fun game but starting from scratch now, you will not have a good time. There are a lot of people playing but most are at the endgame grinding out titles, gold, weapons and armor to get at least 30/50 in the Hall of Monuments completed before GW2 launches. So unless you really want that HoM stuff, I wouldn't play it. You will be forced to solo most of the game and because a lot of optimal and fun builds require skills from different campaigns, it will be a while before you can get everything for yourself and your heroes. You'll die a lot and you'll be frustrated...

If you want to learn about the lore of the games, GW2 Wiki has a nice collection of articles. Also, there are a series of youtube videos which go into great detail on the lore of the first game and how it relates to GW2.

As far as what draws me to GW2, besides the fact that I loved the original, I guess it would be that player skill plays a large role and gear is not an absolute deciding factor. Otherwise, I like the lore, love the art style and charr look absolutely badass.

Originally posted by terrant

Originally posted by Tokken

This is an honest question.... I have never played guild wars 1.  Is guild wars 1 still worth playing? does it have much of a community?

 

Guild Wars 2: whats it got that other games don't?  Why should I play it?  I'm at a crossroads with my MMO's.  Rift and EQ 2 were just so so. I was a WOW lover.  Can someone tell me what the draw is for the guild wars franchise..... I'm thinking of trying it.

 

Is it solo friendly? Thanks all.

 

 

First, I wouldn't link GW1 and 2 too much. Other than world/class/race continuity, they play almost entirely different.

 

Here's what GW2 has for me. Bear in mind much of this is based on what Anet's told us and the videos that have been released, and I haven't played the game.

 

1) Dynamic questing where I can play through a zone and have it be a different place than it was yesterday, based on the actions of the players in the world

2) No race/class/faction restrictions. 

3) Unusual art direction that tries to look like a painting.

4) "Personal Story" quests I can share with my friends ala ToR, but hopefully better balanced.

5) Challenging combat. No aggro table in the traditional wow sense. Tank n Spank won't work. Dodge rolls to evade attacks. Hot-swap weapon/skillsets on the fly in combat to allow for greater tactical flexibility.

6) Stupid huge WvWvW pvp with potentially hundreds of players.

7) (Hopefully this one is true) Little reliance on gear, so how the player plays impacts who wins a fight more than who has the uber loot.

8) The ability to go to lower level zones and still earn xp/usuable loot, so I can quest with my friends no matter what level we all are and enjoy it.

9) A game that seems to reward exploration, just getting out there and having fun.

 

EDIT: To answer the other question, GW2 is supposed to allow for solo or group play. From what I've seen solo play involves being careful and smart though, because combat seems to be pretty challenging. 

I read this a few times.. thought a bit and I don't think I can add much besides 400+ dyes and you can dye your armor 3 different shades.. sorta like DCUO's system if you are familiar. Oh one more thing to enhance on exploration... the areas are HUGE and tons of hidden things to find. Hell now that I am typing I can think of more.. if you were a WoW fan do you remember wall walking? Its in this game and they did it on purpose.. there are tidbits hidden around that require you to do this to get to =D There is a vid on youtube involving a charr strawberry patch.

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/media/videos/#gw2-video-manifesto

Originally posted by Tokken

Those are all good points. Thanks.

 

Is it open world pvp for us worried care bears?

haha this was one of my first questions especially with the event system.. I HATE griefers. Others have answered and that goodness there is no open world PVP.. it really would mess up the game and doesn't fit at all with the whole everyone working together mentality.

Me. GW2 will have me. No other game will have me.

/thread

Originally posted by OldManFunk

Me. GW2 will have me. No other game will have me.

 

/thread

ROFL 

2) No race/class/faction restrictions.

Gosh - that had to be hard for them to program. 

That's the problem with these video games and why they are not mmorpgs.  Race, class, faction restrictions mirrors epic content.  According to this, you'd prefer if the Tolkien books had Hobbits and Elves killing each other - you do realize the stories would have been crap, right?  How about jedi vs jedi?  Or when they made pacman they should have just let pacman battle it out against miss pacman.  That would have been less restrictive lol.  Or in Star Trek, wouldn't it be much cooler to see the Federation just killing itself on Earth? Or maybe a guild could be Romulan, Vulcan, Klingon, Human, vs a Vulcan, Romulan, Klingon, Human guild.  Man that's GW2 in a nutshell there.

This is not epic - this is simple minded gaming mechanics.  So to answer the OP 's question, there's nothing here that hasn't been done a dozen times already.  It's just a carefully marketed Asian grinder if you really look at its concept, animation, and overall focus on appealing to an overseas Asian market (billion + strong).

Why it's so hard for kids and a good portion of pre age 30 players to get that epic warfare is about pitting different cultures and races against one another.  Anything less is either gang banging bs (which I can just turn on the news to hear about), or just plain laziness on the part of the developers who continue to cater to the undereducated and easily gratified.

I get that a lot of folks get high and login. This is not fair to the rest of us who are educated, well read, individuals.  Smaller minded folks are always going to gravitate toward the easiest "if it's red it's dead" mentality.  When are these companies going to make something really epic?

In the case of GW2, why even have lore?  Are you telling me that the Sylvari and Asura are going to kill each other?  Are folks really so simple minded that that type of "lore" even remotely makes sense?

Sylvari + Asura

vs

Human + Norn

vs

Charr + insert new race

Now that's epic.  But god forbid I get to fight a race or class that is different from half the folks on my team. 

Rant over.

Originally posted by Comaf

2) No race/class/faction restrictions.

 

Gosh - that had to be hard for them to program. 

 

That's the problem with these video games and why they are not mmorpgs.  Race, class, faction restrictions mirrors epic content.  According to this, you'd prefer if the Tolkien books had Hobbits and Elves killing each other - you do realize the stories would have been crap, right?  How about jedi vs jedi?  Or when they made pacman they should have just let pacman battle it out against miss pacman.  That would have been less restrictive lol.  Or in Star Trek, wouldn't it be much cooler to see the Federation just killing itself on Earth? Or maybe a guild could be Romulan, Vulcan, Klingon, Human, vs a Vulcan, Romulan, Klingon, Human guild.  Man that's GW2 in a nutshell there.

 

This is not epic - this is simple minded gaming mechanics.  So to answer the OP 's question, there's nothing here that hasn't been done a dozen times already.  It's just a carefully marketed Asian grinder if you really look at its concept, animation, and overall focus on appealing to an overseas Asian market (billion + strong).

 

Why it's so hard for kids and a good portion of pre age 30 players to get that epic warfare is about pitting different cultures and races against one another.  Anything less is either gang banging bs (which I can just turn on the news to hear about), or just plain laziness on the part of the developers who continue to cater to the undereducated and easily gratified.

 

I get that a lot of folks get high and login. This is not fair to the rest of us who are educated, well read, individuals.  Smaller minded folks are always going to gravitate toward the easiest "if it's red it's dead" mentality.  When are these companies going to make something really epic?

 

In the case of GW2, why even have lore?  Are you telling me that the Sylvari and Asura are going to kill each other?  Are folks really so simple minded that that type of "lore" even remotely makes sense?

 

Sylvari + Asura

vs

 

Human + Norn

vs

Charr + insert new race

 

Now that's epic.  But god forbid I get to fight a race or class that is different from half the folks on my team. 

Rant over.

racial PVP doesnt work at all with the world and mentality of the game... also the asura and sylvari were enemies at first... AND there is actually lore behind the WvW and other BGs.... perhaps you should try being more "well read" and learn about the game you are bitching about.

Another thing... HOW ON EARTH IS THIS A GRINDER?!?!? That is the most obsurd thing I have seen lately... I came from grinders hun and this is DEFINATELY not a grinder. One last thing.. yea I am rambling.. but the whole racial/prof non limit is for us... its so that WE can play how we want not have that dictated to us like most games do.

Originally posted by terrant

5) Challenging combat. No aggro table in the traditional wow sense. Tank n Spank won't work. Dodge rolls to evade attacks. Hot-swap weapon/skillsets on the fly in combat to allow for greater tactical flexibility.

OK, so let's say I'm a squishy and a boss decides to come after me and not the heavy armor wearing warrior. Is dodging gonna be enough to get out of his way and survive? How can the warrior get the boss to focus back on him instead?

I guess I just don't see the balance between squishy survivability vs no "traditional" aggro table.

Originally posted by OldManFunk

Me. GW2 will have me. No other game will have me.

 

/thread

OMG, why they put you in ? What a useless feature !

Man this game will be so epic, i can't even realise how huge this game will be in the MMO market.

Originally posted by hpisti

Originally posted by terrant

5) Challenging combat. No aggro table in the traditional wow sense. Tank n Spank won't work. Dodge rolls to evade attacks. Hot-swap weapon/skillsets on the fly in combat to allow for greater tactical flexibility.

OK, so let's say I'm a squishy and a boss decides to come after me and not the heavy armor wearing warrior. Is dodging gonna be enough to get out of his way and survive? How can the warrior get the boss to focus back on him instead?

I guess I just don't see the balance between squishy survivability vs no "traditional" aggro table.

distance in most cases is your friend. Not all but I think most "threat tables" are affected by who is closest. So no only dodging may not save you but utilizing your range and other things like the mesmer's invisi or a leap back evasion abaility.. stuff like that WILL probably save you.

Originally posted by Comaf

2) No race/class/faction restrictions.

 

Gosh - that had to be hard for them to program. 

 

That's the problem with these video games and why they are not mmorpgs.  Race, class, faction restrictions mirrors epic content.  According to this, you'd prefer if the Tolkien books had Hobbits and Elves killing each other - you do realize the stories would have been crap, right?  How about jedi vs jedi?  Or when they made pacman they should have just let pacman battle it out against miss pacman.  That would have been less restrictive lol.  Or in Star Trek, wouldn't it be much cooler to see the Federation just killing itself on Earth? Or maybe a guild could be Romulan, Vulcan, Klingon, Human, vs a Vulcan, Romulan, Klingon, Human guild.  Man that's GW2 in a nutshell there.

 

This is not epic - this is simple minded gaming mechanics.  So to answer the OP 's question, there's nothing here that hasn't been done a dozen times already.  It's just a carefully marketed Asian grinder if you really look at its concept, animation, and overall focus on appealing to an overseas Asian market (billion + strong).

 

Why it's so hard for kids and a good portion of pre age 30 players to get that epic warfare is about pitting different cultures and races against one another.  Anything less is either gang banging bs (which I can just turn on the news to hear about), or just plain laziness on the part of the developers who continue to cater to the undereducated and easily gratified.

 

I get that a lot of folks get high and login. This is not fair to the rest of us who are educated, well read, individuals.  Smaller minded folks are always going to gravitate toward the easiest "if it's red it's dead" mentality.  When are these companies going to make something really epic?

 

In the case of GW2, why even have lore?  Are you telling me that the Sylvari and Asura are going to kill each other?  Are folks really so simple minded that that type of "lore" even remotely makes sense?

 

Sylvari + Asura

vs

 

Human + Norn

vs

Charr + insert new race

 

Now that's epic.  But god forbid I get to fight a race or class that is different from half the folks on my team. 

Rant over.

Your race/class/faction rant is personal opinion, nothing more.

Asian grinder?! where did you come up with that one? There is nothing asian about the game and much less is it grindy. The only appeal to the asian market in GW2 is the same that GW1 had, PvP.

Im sure Anet was lazy and decided to not pit different cultures and races against each other, that is what educated people wanted of course! ....all this dynamic events and other mumbo jumbo is very much childs play to create and only to cater the stupid people of the world.

Originally posted by ariboersma

Originally posted by hpisti

Originally posted by terrant

5) Challenging combat. No aggro table in the traditional wow sense. Tank n Spank won't work. Dodge rolls to evade attacks. Hot-swap weapon/skillsets on the fly in combat to allow for greater tactical flexibility.

OK, so let's say I'm a squishy and a boss decides to come after me and not the heavy armor wearing warrior. Is dodging gonna be enough to get out of his way and survive? How can the warrior get the boss to focus back on him instead?

I guess I just don't see the balance between squishy survivability vs no "traditional" aggro table.

distance in most cases is your friend. Not all but I think most "threat tables" are affected by who is closest. So no only dodging may not save you but utilizing your range and other things like the mesmer's invisi or a leap back evasion abaility.. stuff like that WILL probably save you.

Cool, thanks for clearing that up Missed that bit in the wealth of info.

Now if only it was release day already ...