How does Guild Wars 1 Differ from the other MMO's?

[Kickbuttmario]

Very good description and also shows that while GW and GW2 are very different in many ways the "vision" behind it is the same, which is also why i suspect that many people that absolutely hated GW probably won't like GW2 either.

Yeah Drunkenbeared seriously convinced me to try it out now.

Hmm and I agree about the people who hated GW and will most likely hate GW2. Or people who are tired of of the forced conforming/carrot chase type of MMORPGS like RIFT, WOW, Aion, and so forth.

[DrunkenBeard]

Yeah Drunkenbeared seriously convinced me to try it out now.

Hmm and I agree about the people who hated GW and will most likely hate GW2. Or people who are tired of of the forced conforming/carrot chase type of MMORPGS like RIFT, WOW, Aion, and so forth.

If you get the game and have any question/trouble just PM me or whisper me ingame. I'm Jamal Hakim, America 1 District. Generally there at 7:00+ GMT. Be warned that there is a preliminary shock to overcome when you're just starting the game. Also, you'll learn to stop using the space bar every 2 seconds (if you're coming from WoW ). I've just dinged 20 a couple hours ago (Yay max level !), been playing seriously since yesterday morning and the last missions were a complete blast. Certainly the best entertainment I have had this year. Here is a good advice : Unless there is really no one willing to group up, don't solo stuff just because you can. I have found the best thing is to duo missions, it's more fun and even when you wipe there is more motivation to go at it again. I was doing the Luxon Spear mission with an ingame buddy I met just today and we kept wiping on Argo (Gah, stupid AoE) but we kept coming again and again with different strategies until we killed him. I know for a fact that if I was doing it solo I'd have just quit the game and done something else with time after the first 2-3 wipes.

[Glytch]

<- needs friends to play GW1 with, all mine stopped playing

been trying to rep my newly remade assassin to not too annoying so i can buy the asuran armor

[Deleted]

It is a massively multiplayer online game, it's online and has over 7 million players.

If those two things were all it took to count as a mmo, then the genre would explode in size. Of course, games like GW1 and DDO try their best to pretend that they are mmo games, but really, they aren't. They are just your common lobby based multiplayer game, like the older Diablo series. Sure, the lobby is a much fancier 3d variant, but that makes it no less a lobby.

The key factor to count as an mmo is the persistent shared world with actual gameplay. If the sharing doesn't go beyond the lobby, then it isn't an mmo.

[Dosvidaniya]

Yeah Drunkenbeared seriously convinced me to try it out now.

Hmm and I agree about the people who hated GW and will most likely hate GW2. Or people who are tired of of the forced conforming/carrot chase type of MMORPGS like RIFT, WOW, Aion, and so forth.

I disagree. Most people I know don't hate GW1 because of the armor, the "end-game," art-style, etc; which are being carried over to GW2. While I understand what you are saying, most of my friends either dislike GW1 unique mechanics or just hold massive misconceptions.

1- Instanced world. Many of them don't like it. I understand why. GW2 won't have it.

2- PvP game. GW is one of the few MMOs where pvp isn't an after-thought to everything. As such, many people think that you level and just pvp. They don't want to pvp, so they "dislike" GW1 without even beginning to understand the massive amount of pve in the game. The same is true of GW2. People don't seem to realize that the pve side has more content. The pvp side was just made correctly.

3- Grouping. GW1 requires a group for everything. It may be npcs or it may be players. However, you are going to have a group. All solo play means you have to manage a small squad of units; causing it to push towards a strategy game rather than an RPG style game. Some didn't lie this.

4- Controls. GW1 has unique controls. You can't jump. People didn't like that. Again, not true in GW2.

5- Crafting. There isn't any; not true of GW2.

6- Difficulty. I've never had a friend hit this point. If they did, I'd teach them how to overcome it. I suppose many will be dismayed at the difficulty in GW2. GW1 is mean in hard-mode content. It really punishes mistakes. However, you don't feel a need to grind it. You don't even need to do it to try to stay competitive. It will make you a better player. It may turn some off.

I really don't think it will be a big turn-off. I know Yogscast said some mean things about their dungeon. However, I am willing to bet that if they weren't press, they would have left and gone on their merry way about the world. They love the game. However, they don't like the dungeon. They would still have hours of fun just goofing around without entering those harder areas. They were also getting better. Watch their later stuff. They aren't great; but they are so much better. By the time they did WvW and hit 80, I bet they'd actually enjoy the dungeon because they would actually be good. And because of the loot mechanics, it doesn't matter that they skip it.

7- No "end-game." I've seen a number of articles on this; most of them were disappointing. Here's my take after talking to friends. Ask them what they actually do in game. What percent of their time is occupied with which activities. Then ask them which activities they enjoy. Ask them what they'd do if they had BiS gear. It's quite interesting. Most people spend time just playing around. How many people continue to run dungeons once the rewards aren't needed? Most don't. As soon as they actually get the best gear (or get close enough to it), they do whatever they enjoy. If they don't enjoy anything, they will only log on for the social aspects of helping guildmates. Otherwise, almost all of them fall into leveling alts, working on achieves (title, cosmetic stuff, etc.), exploring something new, crafting, the AH, and/or pvp. Most people will do the same in GW2. Deep down; the massive majority of people don't like pointless gear grinds. They just do it because they want to make their player be competitive by putting it into the best gear (or close to it). So, they grind and use it to justify the sub cost. GW2 will actually wake people up to that reality.

I think people will be surprised at how much more enjoyable a game will be when you aren't forced into some repetitive grind that slowly makes you hate the game. Yes, you will log fewer hours because of it. However, you'll love the game. You'll come back when there is new content. You'll log in to help a friend. You'll play for exactly the right amount of time. Most people force themselves to grind in order to justify the monthly sub. When there is no sub, you just do whatever makes it fun. If WoW had this model, I'd log in every patch. I'd buy every x-pac. I would actually still love the game. The same is true of Aion, Rift, and ToR. I'd love to have 4 other MMOs I could just play whenever the mood struck. It'd be awesome.

GW1 falls into this model; though many don't realize it because they never got past the concerns I posted earlier. You could do exactly as much as you wanted and never feel cheated. I played on and off over the years. However, I've logged a large amount of game time into it. Is it as much as my WoW time? No. However, I can tell you that I've enjoyed GW. I still log on. If there was another x-pac, I'd buy it. I love this game. On the other hand, I'd rather stab myself in the hand than buy MoP. That's the difference between the models. I played exactly the amount that I enjoyed in GW1. There was no rush to justify a sub cost while getting HoM rewards. I simply played however much I wanted.

[Glytch]

5- Crafting. There isn't any; not true of GW2.

weapon mods, inscription, runes, and elite armor says "sup"

[antonatsis]

also to the people that say its not an MMO(in this post and generally)well AOC STO and TOR are exactly the same with their zones...all instanced and things like that...the diference in GW1 was that you had a personal insatnce instead of a generic one with a cap of 100 players where you could invite other players in.

[Dosvidaniya]

weapon mods, inscription, runes, and elite armor says "sup"

That's not the traditional sense of crafting and you know it.

[Blznsmri]

weapon mods, inscription, runes, and elite armor says "sup"

You don't actually make any of that.

[Agent Mercury]

Movement so...static.

[delus]

It's a tough call trying to classify it because the world is instanced and limits you to party members but the towns are like any mmorpg. You can meet up with other players and interact with them in towns and outposts so it's not different from an mmorpg in that way. In fact, you could say that the towns are like the world in mmorpgs and the world is a series of instances.

[Glytch]

You don't actually make any of that.

you get to build your weapons the way you want to, sounds like the best crafting system ever devised

[Blznsmri]

you get to build your weapons the way you want to, sounds like the best crafting system ever devised

No, you go to a smith with the materials and choose what you want from a list. Your character isn't making the item, the NPC is.

[Glytch]

No, you go to a smith with the materials and choose what you want from a list. Your character isn't making the item, the NPC is.

but between the sword pommel, the hilt, and an inscription, combined with your shield and its handle and ITS inscription it certainly gives much more depth to building weapons than in most other MMOS

the only other one that comes close to that kind of customization is swtor before you start running ops

[Repefe]

If those two things were all it took to count as a mmo, then the genre would explode in size. Of course, games like GW1 and DDO try their best to pretend that they are mmo games, but really, they aren't. They are just your common lobby based multiplayer game, like the older Diablo series. Sure, the lobby is a much fancier 3d variant, but that makes it no less a lobby.

The key factor to count as an mmo is the persistent shared world with actual gameplay. If the sharing doesn't go beyond the lobby, then it isn't an mmo.

The MMO talk is nice and all, but if you look at games like TOR or WoW ... you wait in a city till you get insta ported to a dungeon, warzone or summoned to a raid ... when you level up or go do something in the persistent world you hardly ever meet another person and if you do meet them it's like stop stealing my gathering nodes/quest monsters !! For me there is almost ZERO difference between how I play WoW/TOR and how I play GW1. So much for the glorified MMO.

[Jimusmc]

The MMO talk is nice and all, but if you look at games like TOR or WoW ... you wait in a city till you get insta ported to a dungeon, warzone or summoned to a raid ... when you level up or go do something in the persistent world you hardly ever meet another person and if you do meet them it's like stop stealing my gathering nodes/quest monsters !! For me there is almost ZERO difference between how I play WoW/TOR and how I play GW1. So much for the glorified MMO.

this pretty much.

so glad GW2 will actually encourage people to share the killings of things.. no more mob tagging

[Kanaxai]

As long as you can get over that you can't jump in gw1, you'll probably enjoy this game. :P

But as long as I'm on the subject, I'd like to just elaborate more on a few subjects that have already been mentioned.

1. PvP. The game is built around it. Back in the day, every skillchange (up untill a certain point post-nightfall, where they implented pve & pvp versions of the same skills) was based upon the pvp balance. If certain skills were too good in pvp, they usually got nerfed or changed. You even have an option to just skip pve and just make a max level pvp toon and jump right into the action.

2. The skills. Every profession has access to about 150 skill. But everyone has an option to choose secondary profession at will and to no cost (once unlocked), thus unlocking another set of 150 skill. And the fact that you can choose from any of the 10 professions, you'll have plenty of skill to choose from. The limitation of only being able to use 8 at the time, that's including only 1 elite skill, will make sure you spend your time prefecting your skillbar. Luckly there's an option to save your current skillbar & skillpoints, and even to share/copy them from others. You'll quickly find tho, there are a few skillbars that seem to be the meta at any given time. Back when I started gw1 ie: pvp was dominated by IWAY-warriors and bunnythumper rangers. Pve was mostly minionmaster necros and elementalists. Every month skillchanges gave birth to new builds, so things never really got stale.

3. The skillz. With access to a huge skill library at any given time, the selection prosess for both pvp and pve content can be confusing, and possibly decide if you fail or succeed. Every class and skill has a counter. If your up against alot of melee's and rangers, you could opt to choose more skills that blind or mesmer/necro hexes that damage when the enemy when they use a melee attacks or autoattacks. If your facing more casters and especially healers, you'll need more interupts and anti-spellcaster spells like diversion and backfire. And so on. And you'll also have more success if you can dodge, kite and stay out of the fire also, but that goes for most games I reckon.

4. PvE. You can decide how you want to play. Most people these days just solo most things with heroes. But you can if you choose group up with other real players or if you choose solo the content without heroes or henchmen. For most missions though, you'll just hero/hench it. For the later end-game instances like underworld, fissure of woe, or domain of anguish (there are more buy I cba to name all.) you'll want a full group of real people to clear the content as fast as possible. You can of course go with heroes, but you'll take more time and have a harder time at it.

[Spellsword]

GW1 differences from other MMO's

instanced areas

limit to available skills (max 8)

the ability to multi-class

standardized gear

low max level, focused on experiencing the lore and not leveling up

game built with the "no grinding" philosophy (before you people go and shout "BUT WAIT HALL OF MONUMENTS!!!" that's because you're new and you have to catch up to all of us who have been playing for years and just *did* the stuff before the HoM came out)

complex and DEEP combat system (5 different types of bows each with their own specialties, armor hit locations, over 18 different categories of skills, soft counter strategies)

skills

skills

and more skills

build your own weapons/armor (more so after nightfall)

a story-based campaign

^this, also best pvp in any mmo by far that I ever played when GW was in it's prime.

[Rhywolver]

The MMO talk is nice and all, but if you look at games like TOR or WoW ... you wait in a city till you get insta ported to a dungeon, warzone or summoned to a raid ... when you level up or go do something in the persistent world you hardly ever meet another person and if you do meet them it's like stop stealing my gathering nodes/quest monsters !! For me there is almost ZERO difference between how I play WoW/TOR and how I play GW1. So much for the glorified MMO.

After quitting WoW and playing a few singleplayer RPGs, I can say that I just love to go out in the wilderness on my own, it feels a lot like Fable to me. No freaking farmers on their E-Peen Dragons everywhere, no channel spam... but to each its own.