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Scribelus
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 46
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| Guild Wars - MMORPG with no monthly fee - free Alpha test |
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Hey there are still a few hours left of the free alpha for Guild Wars. You just download the client from www.guildwars.com .
I have played a couple of MMOs in the past - UO and SWG. Even the alpha of this one kicks their butt in terms of fun fun fun. The beta will be starting in the next month or two I think. And there is no ongoing fee for the full game when finally released round the end of the year.
It also looks beautiful. |
Sat May 15, 2004 4:04 am |
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Ammon777
Warrior for Heaven
Joined: 20 Apr 2002
Posts: 2011
Location: United States |
The graphics are really really good, but...
... the actual game is lame. It doesnt feel like youre in a world, it feels like youre in a bad single player game. I dont like Guild Wars very much. I'd rather save my money for a better MMO like EQ2 or Darkfall. Thats just my opinion. Everybody else is loving it.  |
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Sun May 16, 2004 8:57 am |
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Scribelus
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 46
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It's kinda like Neverwinter Nights on steroids, in the co-op missions.
I find it hard to judge the "world" aspect since content is so limited, given that it isn't even in Beta yet! On co-op missions they tried to flesh out the back story, talking about the history of the region. The solo areas were still just wide open tracts of terrain, not much content yet, but looked real dreamlike.
Anyway, I had a great time. You don't have to hang around organizing a group, then go looking for something to kill - you just jump in and go go go!
I'm not sure if I'll apply for beta but probably I will. Anyway I'll definitely buy the final release - no monthly fee, so why not? |
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Sun May 16, 2004 10:52 am |
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NeverDark
Village Leader
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Posts: 91
Location: Virtual Reality aka Life |
As for me, I liked it. The graphics are very beautiful indeed, and the loading times... well, there're no loading times. It's amazing how much content they manage to upload to people's systems while they're playing, without actually affecting game's performance! The game is also extremely stable, I had no graphical glitches or crashes what's so ever (though my machine hanged once, after I tried to exit the game). In technical regard, this game shines.
I also liked the fact that the game is friendly towards casual players. You don't have to grind and grind days long, you just log in and do whatever you want. If your character is not strong enough, you can always find a group of similar level characters, and just do a mission with them, or fight in the arena and provide a valuable support for your stronger team mates. Or you can, well, that's right, jump straight into solo and do some grinding.
I assume the final game will have tons more content and customization options. Can't wait to see how the whole "guild" concept turns out. I hope guilds will have a lot of guild specific content - customization, unique quests, ranking system, etc. And I assume that guild battles will be more rewarding than merely fighting in the arena. That is, if a guild loses a battle, they would also lose a valuable key point on the map, or a guild artifact, or each guild member would be deducted certain amount of gold or XP to pay tribute to the victors, etc.
Also, since the game is free we won't feel obligated to provide our personal information to the company and we won't have to worry about billing matters, etc.
All in all, Guild Wars seems to be shaping nicely. I liked the demo (I've played it for 3 days, and simply can't call it 'alpha', it's that good), and I'm eagerly looking forward to the day it comes out. |
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Sun May 16, 2004 6:14 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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I will shudder to think of their patching schedule once the game goes live since there will be no monthly income generated by the game. It's a hell of a risk trying to make enough to cover game expenses, hardware upgrades, and staff salary by virtue of box price alone... hoping that every fantasy MMO player on the planet will say 'why not? I heard good things and there's no monthly fee... I'll buy it to check it out.'
Sure, Blizzard's BattleNet is a free server environment that is maintained by the income generated by sales of boxes and advertising alone... but there are reasons people call it BattleLag, Lag-o-Net, BattleSuck, etc... once GuildWars is out of beta and live with presumably thousands of players per server grouping how well will it perform? How much have they invested into initial hardware and how much will they put aside for continous upgrades as demand grows?
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Tue May 18, 2004 2:29 pm |
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knife
Village Dweller
Joined: 02 Jun 2004
Posts: 7
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This game is on my 'Must Own' list.
I didn't played E3 Alfa demo but I want to have it anyway. Game system is on high level. There isn't that boring lvl getting up. So?
Just do it. |
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Wed Jun 02, 2004 6:53 pm |
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Scribelus
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 46
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You'd think it would lag, but in fact it doesn't.
They had 200.000 accounts created over E3.
Everything is instanced to a max of maybe 16 players on a map ATM.
That avoids lag and keeps data transfer costs really low.
As for patching, you hardly even notice it, even though it happens every few hours probably.
Maybe they will have another free event before release, or even open beta someday. I would really advise everyone to give it a go, if they do.
There are previews at IGN and Gamespy if you wanna read about it.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/525/525556p1.html?fromint=1
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/guild-wars/525111p1.html?fromint=1 |
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Sat Jun 26, 2004 2:51 pm |
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