Guild-Wars

I’ve been sucked into the black hole known as Guild Wars. I was able to avoid the World of Warcraft vortex but I couldn’t withstand the allure of no monthly fees. My MMOG running mate also took the plunge and we’ve really enjoyed it so far. We started characters and made the jump out of the “training” realm way too soon so we’ve started over with new alts and we’re roaring through all the quests and pretty much laying waste to anything that stands in our way. I’ve gone the way of the Grim Reaper acolyte, a Necromancer. I am still without a second profession so far, but I’m thinking of going with a Mesmer as my secondary profession. The skills are plentiful and I can see a lot of replay here. (This is a massive, of course).

And the game? Guild Wars is beautiful. The reviews are out there, you can read all about the beauty and immersiveness from other sources. But one thing is certain – sometimes you just have to take the scenery in. I am compelled to look around and stand in awe. The scale and wonder can be breathtaking.

But of course it’s more than just beauty and lush environments. The nuts and bolts under the hood really make this a fun game to play. This review says it better than I can.

But, instead, it’s easy to think about “Guild Wars” as a carefully researched and constructed product, one that combines the pixie dust of fantasy with the sawdust of a well-crafted game.

It is indeed a well-crafted game.

So I can see myself playing Guild Wars for the foreseeable future. The Gamecube and Xbox will be neglected and gather dust but them’s the breaks. I’ve got some monsters to kill and I don’t think I’ve even scratched surface of what the game has to offer.

I suffered through Brian’s praise and Foton’s clumsy beginnings, salivating at my chance to play Guild Wars.

I then read Kieron’s review of Guild Wars at Eurogamer (which was excellent) and salivation continued.

Well a copy of this wonderful game is in my hands. And it is with much sadness that it will not be played tonight, as it is late and I am tired. MMOGs are not to be taken lightly and should not be started on a night that precedes a work day so I will resist. Tomorrow looks bleak, as well. But I will play.

Oh yes, I will.

Well, as I said earlier, I was done with MMOGs for a while. I enjoy them but I just can’t justify the time I would want to put into them. But I saw a post on Tales of a Scorched Earth (great name for a gaming site, by the way) about Guild Wars, another fantasy entry into the MMORPG world. I had heard mention of GW among the EQ2 and WoW chatter but never paid much attention to it. But, since they are talking about zero subscription fees, I was interested. I downloaded the free client last night and gave it a test drive.

I took on the role of a ranger (character generation wasn’t very customizable, hopefully they’ll add more content there with the full game) and gave the game a go. I will say right off the graphics look fabuolous, run smoothly on my PC and everything looks great. It’s been compared to a Diablo 2 MMORPG. That’s a fair comparison, but a D2 MMORPG would have been a killer app. We played too much D2. I made money selling D2 items. We were D2 addicts. I would have paid for an MMORPG version, no questions asked. Building a house on the Outer Steppes for my Necromancer would have been sweet. Anyway, back to Guild Wars. It played okay, your basic point and click, but it wasn’t doing it for me. I was having conflicting responses. Part of me felt like it was a chore to click on yet another monster. The other part of me couldn’t stop thinking about the lure and curse of MMOGs – just one more level and I can do/use/be X. It’s video game smack. You think you can stop cold turkey, but you’re just deluding yourself. You’ll be back. So I decided to stop after an hour or so, preventing the needle from getting too close to the vein.

So I may not be the most reliable source for impressions of the game, but I’m not going back to have a second look. I’ll be content knowing I may be missing gaming excellence but I’ve staved off addiction for the time being.