Guild Wars 2

[MunterHunter]

https://www.facebook.com/GuildWars2

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/

Is anyone interested to give this one a try? Due out next month.

has a (closed) beta event this weekend, only people who have pre-ordered can play... i just purchased it and got my key immediately (ordered online, direct on the GW2 site) and my beta invite as soon as i registered the key... beta client is now downloading (maxing out at 1.2mb/s)

I plan to give this one a good test run this weekend, and will give a a quick write up after.

[Basch]

Didn't buy it yet but I got a beta key as well (they are not hard to get, people on boards share them or kotaku and ign throw them out now and then, I got mine from a friend) so I will play it from tomorrow morning on or so.

Will most likely buy it as well, so far haven't tried it out yet(this is my first beta event).

Do you know which server you will be playing on?

I have read the other day which servers are best for SEA or Australia/NZ players (i.e. will have the most players that fit our timezone, the community already seems to have chosen which servers that will probably be) but forgot where I read it and what they are and am lazy to search again

Cheers,

Basch

[Sayonarax]

Will try out soon when i get a free chance and my inter connection is fixed

[MunterHunter]

Ok so i played GW2 for a lot of the weekend and here is my "Review"

The game itself is quite good, plays smooth, i found there wasnt really enough 'tutorial' and often wondered what i should do next/where i should go next. The traditional questing model seems to have been abandoned as you seem to have only one main quest line that jumps up in level very quickly... i often found myself wondering how i was going to complete a level 8 quest (my only quest) when i was only lvl4.

Grinding out levels isnt really an option, as even at levels 2, 3 or 4 you need several thousand XP to get to the next level and each equal level mob gives you only 2 or 3 xp points. This is a little frustrating.

Took me a while to figure out that the traditional questing model had been replaced by more "rift style" events. Basically you are encouraged to explore the map and find the settlements around the map, here you will discover mini quests that you need to complete, that give excellent Experience. By doing this you also stumble across "events" which appear to be public group style things (think Warhammer public quests) - not all quests were "kill X rats" i did find some that were puzzles and collect/gather quests and a number of mini quests that simply needed a group in order to complete, fortuantely the game encourages people to help each other out and work together, i never actually made it into a 'group' but often found myself helping (and being helped) by random groups of people running around.

The skill system seems to be a slightly cut down version of MMO skills, you appear to have a maximum of 10 skill slots (Think Diablo3 here).

You learn skills by using the skills you have, so say for instance you are a Mage and you start with a small Firebolt spell, in order to learn your second spell you need to use the firebolt spell 20 times (on enemies), then your second spell gets unlocked, use that and your third spell gets unlocked etc. The Skills/Spells you have are all tied into equipment, so if you are a warrior you will have a different set of skills if you are using a sword or a hammer, and you need to 'level' up each of these skills... this seems ot give you some interesting combinations and a different angle on the traditional MMO model. I really enjoyed this part of the game and often found myself trying out new equipment so i could level up my skills

Dieing in the game was different, when you get taken 'down' by a monster, you have a small chance of being able to survive it, having a 'death throws' kind of thing where you can try to bandage youself, throw (feeble) attacks at the monster or use a couple of class specific skills to damamge the enemy, move your body somewhere safe etc - also gives your team mates a chance to bandage you up and bring you back to the fight. A different twist on the traditional "Die, respawn at the spawn point" model. Equipment still takes damage and can get broken (and the item model disappears from your character when something is broken, i noticed my leg armour was broken when i saw myself running around with bare legs!)

I iddnt get to any dungeons so i cant comment on those, neither did i play any PvP instances or World PvP - i just wanted to play some of the races/class combinations in the low levels to get a feel for the game.

Overall i think this game seems to be a simplified MMO model, which plays a little more 'arcade' style, i often found myself dodging away, running around and using tactics in a battle instead of stood in one spot and 'button mashing' So imagine Rift/Warhammer meets Diablo3, but without the 'hack and slash, wade through millions of monsters' feel of the Diablo series. I really enjoyed the concept/feel of the game and once i figured out where i was going wrong and 'got on track' the game became very enjoyable.

Game client seemed fairly stable, i did get a couple of disconnects through the weekend, maybe 4-5 which for a closed beta isnt too bad i guess.

Interesting game, and no monthly subscription fees! Buy the game and then never have to spend another penny on it, you can buy some stuff in game apparently, but from what a buddy told me this is mostly cosmetic stuff or Gems that allow you to do things like switch servers etc.

I wil ldefiantely be playing at release... offical release is the end of August.

[Basch]

Ok so i played GW2 for a lot of the weekend and here is my "Review"

The game itself is quite good, plays smooth, i found there wasnt really enough 'tutorial' and often wondered what i should do next/where i should go next. The traditional questing model seems to have been abandoned as you seem to have only one main quest line that jumps up in level very quickly... i often found myself wondering how i was going to complete a level 8 quest (my only quest) when i was only lvl4.

Grinding out levels isnt really an option, as even at levels 2, 3 or 4 you need several thousand XP to get to the next level and each equal level mob gives you only 2 or 3 xp points. This is a little frustrating.

Took me a while to figure out that the traditional questing model had been replaced by more "rift style" events. Basically you are encouraged to explore the map and find the settlements around the map, here you will discover mini quests that you need to complete, that give excellent Experience. By doing this you also stumble across "events" which appear to be public group style things (think Warhammer public quests) - not all quests were "kill X rats" i did find some that were puzzles and collect/gather quests and a number of mini quests that simply needed a group in order to complete, fortuantely the game encourages people to help each other out and work together, i never actually made it into a 'group' but often found myself helping (and being helped) by random groups of people running around.

The skill system seems to be a slightly cut down version of MMO skills, you appear to have a maximum of 10 skill slots (Think Diablo3 here).

You learn skills by using the skills you have, so say for instance you are a Mage and you start with a small Firebolt spell, in order to learn your second spell you need to use the firebolt spell 20 times (on enemies), then your second spell gets unlocked, use that and your third spell gets unlocked etc. The Skills/Spells you have are all tied into equipment, so if you are a warrior you will have a different set of skills if you are using a sword or a hammer, and you need to 'level' up each of these skills... this seems ot give you some interesting combinations and a different angle on the traditional MMO model. I really enjoyed this part of the game and often found myself trying out new equipment so i could level up my skills

Dieing in the game was different, when you get taken 'down' by a monster, you have a small chance of being able to survive it, having a 'death throws' kind of thing where you can try to bandage youself, throw (feeble) attacks at the monster or use a couple of class specific skills to damamge the enemy, move your body somewhere safe etc - also gives your team mates a chance to bandage you up and bring you back to the fight. A different twist on the traditional "Die, respawn at the spawn point" model. Equipment still takes damage and can get broken (and the item model disappears from your character when something is broken, i noticed my leg armour was broken when i saw myself running around with bare legs!)

I iddnt get to any dungeons so i cant comment on those, neither did i play any PvP instances or World PvP - i just wanted to play some of the races/class combinations in the low levels to get a feel for the game.

Overall i think this game seems to be a simplified MMO model, which plays a little more 'arcade' style, i often found myself dodging away, running around and using tactics in a battle instead of stood in one spot and 'button mashing' So imagine Rift/Warhammer meets Diablo3, but without the 'hack and slash, wade through millions of monsters' feel of the Diablo series. I really enjoyed the concept/feel of the game and once i figured out where i was going wrong and 'got on track' the game became very enjoyable.

Game client seemed fairly stable, i did get a couple of disconnects through the weekend, maybe 4-5 which for a closed beta isnt too bad i guess.

Interesting game, and no monthly subscription fees! Buy the game and then never have to spend another penny on it, you can buy some stuff in game apparently, but from what a buddy told me this is mostly cosmetic stuff or Gems that allow you to do things like switch servers etc.

I wil ldefiantely be playing at release... offical release is the end of August.

Good summary, I found though that almost everywhere you walk the "nearby event" message pops up and the game is like one chain of constant quests in a way which I found very fun and fluent because there's always loads to do and no need to run and turn in quests or any such chores. Also nice to be able to cooperate without forming groups and how people rezzed you when you were down.

What's a bit weird is how you apparently already have all skills by Lvl 10(not 100% sure about that), even though they differ from weapon to weapon I wonder what will keep levelling up fun later on(there's still traits and a skill tree but not actual spells it seemed).

Definitely gonna be playing it as like you said there's no monthly fee and the game looks really good with a nice style and beautiful world.

Maybe see y'all in there,

cheers,

Basch

[MunterHunter]

Seems only the weapon/spell based skills are easy to come by, there are 'slottable' skills you gain after that, the first of which you get around lvl7(ish) the second at 10 - then again at 20, 30 and 40 - these are the ones that bind to the keys 6-7-8-9-0 - you can chose those via the Hero menu and you get a skill point per level... but i hear what your saying, after around lvl10ish there doesnt seem to be much skill progression - but as i didnt get past lvl11 i could be totaly wrong - i will ask one of my Auzzie mates whos been playing closed beta for a while about that

[MunterHunter]

Just a quickie, was talking to my friend about GW2 and he came back with this epic story/post

Convincing someone who's primary interest is level progression may be challenging, because this game is meant to strip a lot of that grind away. However with that said there still is progression in the sense of skill points for utility skills and traits which further define the way your character uses the skills he has.

Part of the challenge with many is letting go of the mindset that years of MMO's have ingrained into us. Most of us did not start an MMO for that sense of progression... we started because it was a cool and fun way to adventure in another world with our friends. I am certain that most of us remember our first MMO's with a certain type of nostalgia, a feeling that you want to recapture, but the games through the years have instead focused us on this "carrot dangling" whether that is through character progression or gear progression. Many of us (speaking for myself) have lost the sense of exploration and simple enjoyment of adventuring with friends online.

Guild Wars 2 seems to me to be designed around shedding that mindset that many of us have, but how have they done that... well there is enough to likely write a novel about (or at least a short story), so I will try to summarize a few things that are important to me.

First and foremost, do what is fun for you! This is the pervasive theme of the game. Pretty much everything in game allows you to progress your character, so do you like exploration and zone completions? GW2 has an amazing amount of this! Do you enjoy gathering, crafting, and discovering new recipes? GW2 has a lot of this! Do you enjoy participating in events? GW2 has tons and tons of these. Do you enjoy balanced competitive PvP? GW2 has some great stuff here with Glory as a form of progression. Do you love open world PvP (WvW)? GW2 has probably the best implementation of it since the days of DAoC. Hopefully you get the picture though, you can do what you feel is fun in this game and it will essentially move you through the level progression. Even if all you did was craft (with materials gathered by others or an alt) leveling 4 crafting skills to max will get you to maximum level.

Second, content is never trivialized! Due to the way that you dynamically leveled based on the content, that content is never truly trivialized the same way that it is in previous MMO. This means that there will be a ton of available content throughout the lifetime of your character and even if you participate in events in the lower levels, rewards are always scaled to your level. So if you missed the Epic Swamp Monster battle in Queensdale and are already level 80... no worries jump back there and experience it, you won't ruin it for other people and it won't be a stroll through the park for you either. This also means that any and all content can help you progress your character, so if this type of epic content is fun for you, do it!

Third, they have added competition where it should be and removed from where it should not be! How frustrating is it to fight through 10 mobs to the back of a cave to get the mining node only to have a dirty stealther walk right past you and grab it while you are fighting the last mob? Well in GW2, no worries as everyone has a shot to mine that node individually. How annoying was it to have to kill 10 rats and have someone max level grouped with a friend pull every rat in the area and one shot them leaving you waiting for them to respawn? Well in GW2 there is no kill 10 rat quests... but content is never trivialized and even if you get 1 hit on the rat before it drops you get full EXP and rewards. The design is such that competition with your own realm mates is eliminated and teamwork is rewarded!

Along the same line competition has been added in the areas of WvW, but it's not a competition with your realm mates, it a competition with other servers, helping to further teamwork within your realm. The more that your realm succeeds the more bonuses that you get for your entire realm! Oh and if your team is losing... well don't worry the servers are matched against each other on a ladder system, so every two weeks you will be reseeded to fight against servers that more closely match your realms WvW abillity. In sPvP (competitive PvP) you fight for glory against people from other realms or even your own realm for Glory and bragging rights individually, but because it doesn't directly impact any other game mode it doesn't hurt your realms spirit or sense of teamwork.

Finally, the game is 60 bucks with no subscription! You get a huge PvE environment with 1000s of events and 5 racial storylines (each with multiple combinations), truly epic WvW that promotes server pride, competitive PvP for individual glory and bragging rights... This is just the a tip of the iceberg as well...achievements, crafting, mini-games and activities... all of this for 60 bucks with no subscription. Hundreds of hours worth of playtime for as much or as little as you are able. The reality is most new single player games charge this and are lucky to provide 30hours of play time, but people will consume them without thinking twice... I know I am a bit of a fanboi... that I admit (particularly after 3 amazing BWE), but I find it truly hard to believe that you can't find 60 bucks worth of entertainment value in this game.

[quiksilva]

I purchased it on pre-order as soon as it became available. See you all there.

[Sayonarax]

Hmmm. Nice review. Might just wait for WoW expansion since my guilds still active

[Basch]

Just a quickie, was talking to my friend about GW2 and he came back with this epic story/post

Convincing someone who's primary interest is level progression may be challenging, because this game is meant to strip a lot of that grind away. However with that said there still is progression in the sense of skill points for utility skills and traits which further define the way your character uses the skills he has.

Part of the challenge with many is letting go of the mindset that years of MMO's have ingrained into us. Most of us did not start an MMO for that sense of progression... we started because it was a cool and fun way to adventure in another world with our friends. I am certain that most of us remember our first MMO's with a certain type of nostalgia, a feeling that you want to recapture, but the games through the years have instead focused us on this "carrot dangling" whether that is through character progression or gear progression. Many of us (speaking for myself) have lost the sense of exploration and simple enjoyment of adventuring with friends online.

Guild Wars 2 seems to me to be designed around shedding that mindset that many of us have, but how have they done that... well there is enough to likely write a novel about (or at least a short story), so I will try to summarize a few things that are important to me.

First and foremost, do what is fun for you! This is the pervasive theme of the game. Pretty much everything in game allows you to progress your character, so do you like exploration and zone completions? GW2 has an amazing amount of this! Do you enjoy gathering, crafting, and discovering new recipes? GW2 has a lot of this! Do you enjoy participating in events? GW2 has tons and tons of these. Do you enjoy balanced competitive PvP? GW2 has some great stuff here with Glory as a form of progression. Do you love open world PvP (WvW)? GW2 has probably the best implementation of it since the days of DAoC. Hopefully you get the picture though, you can do what you feel is fun in this game and it will essentially move you through the level progression. Even if all you did was craft (with materials gathered by others or an alt) leveling 4 crafting skills to max will get you to maximum level.

Second, content is never trivialized! Due to the way that you dynamically leveled based on the content, that content is never truly trivialized the same way that it is in previous MMO. This means that there will be a ton of available content throughout the lifetime of your character and even if you participate in events in the lower levels, rewards are always scaled to your level. So if you missed the Epic Swamp Monster battle in Queensdale and are already level 80... no worries jump back there and experience it, you won't ruin it for other people and it won't be a stroll through the park for you either. This also means that any and all content can help you progress your character, so if this type of epic content is fun for you, do it!

Third, they have added competition where it should be and removed from where it should not be! How frustrating is it to fight through 10 mobs to the back of a cave to get the mining node only to have a dirty stealther walk right past you and grab it while you are fighting the last mob? Well in GW2, no worries as everyone has a shot to mine that node individually. How annoying was it to have to kill 10 rats and have someone max level grouped with a friend pull every rat in the area and one shot them leaving you waiting for them to respawn? Well in GW2 there is no kill 10 rat quests... but content is never trivialized and even if you get 1 hit on the rat before it drops you get full EXP and rewards. The design is such that competition with your own realm mates is eliminated and teamwork is rewarded!

Along the same line competition has been added in the areas of WvW, but it's not a competition with your realm mates, it a competition with other servers, helping to further teamwork within your realm. The more that your realm succeeds the more bonuses that you get for your entire realm! Oh and if your team is losing... well don't worry the servers are matched against each other on a ladder system, so every two weeks you will be reseeded to fight against servers that more closely match your realms WvW abillity. In sPvP (competitive PvP) you fight for glory against people from other realms or even your own realm for Glory and bragging rights individually, but because it doesn't directly impact any other game mode it doesn't hurt your realms spirit or sense of teamwork.

Finally, the game is 60 bucks with no subscription! You get a huge PvE environment with 1000s of events and 5 racial storylines (each with multiple combinations), truly epic WvW that promotes server pride, competitive PvP for individual glory and bragging rights... This is just the a tip of the iceberg as well...achievements, crafting, mini-games and activities... all of this for 60 bucks with no subscription. Hundreds of hours worth of playtime for as much or as little as you are able. The reality is most new single player games charge this and are lucky to provide 30hours of play time, but people will consume them without thinking twice... I know I am a bit of a fanboi... that I admit (particularly after 3 amazing BWE), but I find it truly hard to believe that you can't find 60 bucks worth of entertainment value in this game.

Yeah, this sounds great. For me anyway, I play MMOs for fun so this is right up my alley.

I have tried to get a RL friend to at least consider GW2 but it's a hard sale for WoW-Hardcore Raiders and the likes, they only care about Raids, Gear, Progress and really difficult challenges, anything else such as levelling or exploring is something they did cuz they had to in order to get to max level and they did so many, many years ago and never ever since so starting a new game with no endgame like the one they are used to is not tempting whatsoever.

I gotta admit the GW2 beta got me into WoW again and I'm having a blast (rolling a new toon, trying to get to 85 by the time MoP comes out, mainly doing dungeons cuz I just love them in WoW) so at least at first I will probably just play both these games, especially now that Diablo 3 is getting a bit boring.

Are any of you still playing WoW regularly? Or SW:TOR?

Basch

[MunterHunter]

Not playing anything right now, taking a break from all gaming for a month in anticipation of the Epic GW2 coming soon

[MunterHunter]

Nice little website for any who want to learn more about the game, classes, mechanics etc

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/

[StarryVortrex]

Are any of you still playing WoW regularly? Or SW:TOR?

Basch

Definitely still playing WoW to prepare for MoP with 5.0 only weeks away, but I am currently very casual e.g. lvling alts, collecting pets/mounts. Also tried SwTOR and did not enjoy it at all besides it ran terribly on my relatively new i5 laptop

[whiteman]

Hmm I trided to pre pay via Amazon UK but it said it did not deliver to Thailand so how are you guys gettign the game delived if you live in Thailand??

[MunterHunter]

I bought direct from the Site

[whiteman]

I bought direct from the Site

Would help if you patched which site plzz

[negreanu]

I am no rocket science. But I would guess at guildwars2.com

[StarryVortrex]

or you can buy from i27games at MBK seeing how they have a GW2 pre-order splash on their website

[MunterHunter]

I already 'patched' the infor in the original post my friend, check the links i provided at the start of the thread... you will find the digital download options on the GW2 site, or as another poster suggested i27 is a good source for hard copies, although the hard copy route is likely to cost you a little more.

[quiksilva]

Yeah I got mine from their site

[Sayonarax]

Guess you played EQ and not Ultima Online. So no a leveling mindset is not ingrained in me.

[JoelC]

I'm getting, looking forward to it a lot. I hope we have some good smooth servers to connect to here in THailand. My ISP TOT in Pattaya is just terrible. I can't even do video calling on Skype without it disconnecting me, and Diablo 3 was a nightmare. I will probably upgrade my internet if possible for GW2. We should get on the same Server!

[Towzak]

For GW2 players based in Thailand it seems you will be assigned to the North American server, as opposed to an EU one. Certainly, if the game was purchased from the GW2 official website. I would imagine the NA servers will be broken down into realms, such as the Oceanic type ones Australian gamers tend to use.

I have decided to stump up for this one and give it a whirl. The one-off payment was certainly a selling point and I'll opt for the pre-release digital version so that I can jump in on Aug 25th. Thankfully, I've a lot of spare time on my hands at the moment

[quiksilva]

Looking forward to jumping in on Saturday 25th. According to the count down headstart will begin at 14:00 BKK time.

Which server is everyone going to?

[Towzak]

On the North America server there are 21 worlds. I guess some of them will be PvP and a few of them RP. At launch players are able to move around to different worlds but once the population levels settle this will change. I have no idea which world to choose, yet

Here is a list of the worlds available.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World#North_America

And something with a bit more info:

http://www.guildwars2blog.com/release/gw2-home-world-servers.html

[MunterHunter]

The unoffical APAC/Oceanic servers will be;

Sea of Sorrows

Isle of Janthir

Gate of Madness

Some of my friends are rolling on Jade Quarry, but i think i will roll on one of the above three - probably SoS or GoM

[quiksilva]

Im looking closely at Seas of Sorrow seems to be the flavour of the month. Am also looking for a guld that is part of a bigger alliance so as to to get involved with the large scale WvW which is the sort of gameplay I most enjoy

[MunterHunter]

Im looking closely at Seas of Sorrow seems to be the flavour of the month. Am also looking for a guld that is part of a bigger alliance so as to to get involved with the large scale WvW which is the sort of gameplay I most enjoy

Same here - ok then I'm sold - SoS it is for me then, i'll look out for ya Quik

[Towzak]

From the GW2 threads I've been reading GoM is predicted to be heavily populated come launch and has been during beta. Though SoS has been high too. Australian players seem to be opting for IoJ. As for me, I think I will also choose SoS and see how it pans out.

[quiksilva]

Sorry my bad, looks like a few of the Ozzie +8 time zone guilds I used to run (against / with) in Warhammer Online will be on IoJ so will be heading there now

I've provisionally signed up with Southern Cross who were at the time, one of the most respect / feared Destruction PvP Guilds on the Darklands server, they've formed an alliance with three other big Ozzie guilds so we should have a bit of clout on that server.

Come join us there instead.