[SPOILER="Spoiler"][video=youtube;dAGS5-hhCcY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAGS5-hhCcY[/video]
[video=youtube;Em0Sd60iI2w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em0Sd60iI2w[/video][/SPOILER]
[Image: http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/6/69/Guild_Wars_Prophecies_logo.png]
What is Guild Wars?
[spoiler][video=youtube;6fIrtwBFLU0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fIrtwBFLU0[/video]
Guild Wars is a CORPG, or Competitive/Cooperative Online Role Playing Game. What this means (and more importantly, what separates this from the MMORPG genre) is that this is an online game focused on smaller amounts of players playing together (or even solo if desired).
But what about the competitive part? Guild Wars was built from the ground up to be focused on Player vs. Player over Player vs. Environment. That doesn't mean the PvE isn't good; it's in fact excellent compared to MMORPGs of its time. This just means that GW1 has a dizzying amount of features and care given to PvP, with a huge focus on the community and guilds. Because of this, GW1's PvP is one of the most renown online PvP RPGs out there in gaming history, topping other popular MMORPGs' PvP gameplay.
Its PvE was deviant in MMORPG norms:
- It is heavily instanced-based, with outposts and cities being the only non-instanced areas that players shared in (Similar to Vindictus). This was meant to mitigate camping, kill-stealing, and waiting in lines to kill a specific mob or boss.
- Only 8 skills could be equipped at any time, and couldn't be changed outside of these outposts/cities, making characters builds (and constantly tweaking and switching these builds around) a necessary concept to being good at Guild Wars. This also applies with the same depth in PvP.
- You could have NPCs that took the place of your party members, making the game almost entirely soloable.
- The holy trinity of "tank, healer, DPS" was much looser here compared to other MMORPGs that followed this (like Everquest II). Every class had a self-heal and revive skill, could buff and debuff, could output enough damage by themselves, but there were still strong roles of healers (Monks), DPS (Elementalist), and tanks (Warrior). These are example professions (classes).
- There are no recovery potions, such as HP or MP potions. One had to rely on effective management of skills, cooldowns, and evasion to fight.
- It was much, much less grindy than MMORPGs of its time. The level cap is only 20, and typically doing quests was only needed to reach the recommended level to do the next PvE content, instead of focusing on grinding on mobs or dungeons.
- The difficulty of the game was thus centered around level 20, which meant GW1 was a challenging game to play compared to other MMORPGs.
Above all, Guild Wars was recognized as the online RPG that bucked the trend of subscription-based models, while still offering an AAA quality-made game. There were no monthly fees; all one needed to do was to buy the box price, and the game was theirs to play forever. ArenaNet supplemented this with campaign releases, which offers different continents of Guild Wars to start in (or to play in as any character from other campaigns).
Guild Wars 1 has been running for 7 years, and will continue to exist alongside its sequel.[/spoiler]
[Image: http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/b/bf/Normal_gw2logo.jpg]
What is Guild Wars 2?
[spoiler][video=youtube;bKtGxVj3msM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKtGxVj3msM[/video]
Taking place 250 years after the events of Guild Wars 1, Guild Wars 2 is a MMORPG, or Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. It succeeds its predecessor by having players all share the same world they are in, and only regulate instanced-based areas to a character's personal story and dungeons. This sequel focuses on the connection of players, their individualization, and their collective experiences together (hence the shift towards much larger and open groups of players being together).
Unlike its predecessor, GW2 was built with equal focus on PvE and PvP (with the intent of being an eSport).
The PvE compared to GW1:
- The game world is shared between all players in the world, as it is non-instanced. However, EXP, rewards/loot, gathering nodes, and area quests (known as "renown hearts") are instanced-based, meaning while random players can kill the same mob in the world and have it be persistent, they all can receive full EXP and loot that are determined by their amount of participation and level. This mitigates kill-stealing and waiting in lines to kill a specific mob or boss.
- Events and event chains detailing everyday life in the world can happen, and multiple players can participate in it at any time.
- Every character has a customized biography and a customized story (with decisions) behind them. This personal story extends all the way to level 80.
- Dungeons are group-oriented instanced areas with the prioritized intention of PvE challenge.
- Skills are now determined by your weapons on the left-hand side, and category of healing, utility, and elite on the right-hand side.
- The combat is a combination of action ORPGs (like Vindictus) and traditional MMORPGs (like Everquest), with more focus on action. Mitigating damage is done by player-controlled evasion, such as dodging and sidestepping out of danger. Generally skills can be used on the move (and ground-targeted), with only a few skills requiring to be locked down in place. Position and reactionary timing are the norm instead of skill rotation and battles of attribution.
- The holy trinity of "tank, healer, DPS" is not stressed here. Everybody can now perform all 3 roles to at least a decent degree. The holy trinity is also replaced by the "soft trinity" that consists of "control, support, damage". This was chosen in favor of the old trinity due to it being more open in description and flexible in design (i.e. the more action-oriented combat). This allows any combination of professions to perform any content in GW2.
- There is no Energy/Mana resource pool. Skills are managed only by cooldowns now.
- Grinding was suppressed in favor of non-stressful progression and allowing the game to "be everywhere", instead of "being locked behind endgame".
Guild Wars 2 maintains its predecessor's "no monthly fees" model.[/spoiler]
There's not enough Guild Wars 1 players to warrant an IGN list, my apologies. So this will be a list of Guild Wars 2 players on Nation. Anybody who wants to leave their names in this list, please put down one of your character names or your account name (The name that shows up next to your avatar in http://account.guildwars2.com) and your home world (server):
Names!
[SPOILER="Spoiler"]Rin - Zid.7165 (Gate of Madness)
Elena - Luvhyria (Gate of Madness)
Sapphireoath - Heavenly Justice (Gate of Madness)
Episkey - Episkey (Gate of Madness)
BlackCat9 - Noaargh.7069 (Sea of Sorrow)
Conor - Rosynne (Tarnished Coast)
Akemii - Evellette (Tarnished Coast)
Mystickskye - Argenta Stormlord (Blackgate)
kingofrunes - Flamora (Gate of Madness)
Okami - Jesus Kitty.3268 (Gate of Madness)
protoman206 - Nghi (Stormbluff)
Hatsunechan - Hatsuni (Isle of Janthir)
Cucurbita - Bean Paste (Tarnished Coast)
Arsik - Arsik.3298 (Gate of Madness)
Otto - otto.9846 (Piken Square)[/SPOILER]
Some helpful sites:
[SPOILER="Spoiler"]Guild Wars 1 official website
Guild Wars 2 official website
Guild Wars 1 online manual
Guild Wars 2 online manual
Guild Wars 1 official wiki
Guild Wars 2 official wiki
Guild Wars 2 Quick Reference Card
- Guild Wars 2 Guru - [SIZE="1"]Considered to be the "main" unofficial forums for Guild Wars 2.[/SIZE]
- Guild Wars 2 Database - [SIZE="1"]Need a skill/trait build tool? Looking up some crafting recipes? Figuring out how to get that achievement? Or just want a map to look for things?[/SIZE]
- Guild Wars 2 WvW/PvP - [SIZE="1"]For structured PvP and WvW discussions.[/SIZE]
- How to add in your own music and playlists in Guild Wars 2 and have them dynamically change
And finally, just have Guild Wars discussion here in general.