{"id":69,"date":"2006-07-10T19:28:14","date_gmt":"2006-07-10T23:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitstep.net\/blog\/2006\/07\/10\/the-lasting-power-of-guild-wars\/"},"modified":"2006-07-10T19:28:14","modified_gmt":"2006-07-10T23:28:14","slug":"the-lasting-power-of-guild-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitstep.net\/blog\/2006\/07\/10\/the-lasting-power-of-guild-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"The lasting power of Guild Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

I started playing Guild Wars<\/a> over a year ago, during last summer when I figured I’d need a good game to “get into”. Being a general fan of the RPG genre, but never having got into a MMORPG yet (for fear of wasting too much time, and the monthly costs), I was a bit hesistant to try out one. (Guild Wars actually calls itself a CORPG – Co-operative Online Role Playing Game, but that’s somewhat just semantics.) I was initially worried that the game would eventually become boring, and would suffer from the usual grinding and farming sessions that come with most online RPGs, but thankfully, a year later, the game is still holding appeal for me.
\n
\nOf course, in that time, they have released the Factions stand-alone expansion, which I had eagerly awaited, but surprisingly, still haven’t invested enough time in to complete – my interest in games in general has fallen off this summer, but I still do like the time I spend playing them.
\nThey’ve also added a bit of new, free content and remain committed to updating the game mechanics and releasing a new expansion every year. <\/p>\n

Based on skill, not time spent?<\/h3>\n

The makers of Guild Wars claim this as one of the main selling points, besides the free monthly play, of course. Having played for over a year, I can say this isn’t really true – while it takes relatively little time to reach the level cap of 20 (which might turn off hardcore RPG players), you still need to invest a significant amount of time unlocking the “elite” skills, and of course, extra time spent playing always equals more skill, so the two aren’t really separate. However, I did find that Guild Wars does require less invested time before you get the full effect of the game. It therefore has a less steep learning curve, and won’t require you to turn into an addict to enjoy the game.<\/p>\n

A good experience<\/h3>\n

The best part of Guild Wars, in my opinion, would be the community. After having jumped around from guilds for a while, I’m now settled in to the GWOnline<\/a> community guild, which fits my needs perfectly: I’m not a hardcore player, and I don’t play every day, but any time I do log on there’s plenty of mates available to do cooperative missions with, which makes it all the more fun. There’s also a nice GW Wiki<\/a> out there, which pretty much beats anything<\/strong> a strategy guide could offer, so there’s never a time I feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that’s in the game. <\/p>\n

I also like how Guild Wars rewards the amount of time you play in the game. When I first started playing last year, I’ll admit I had nothing to do, and as a result, for the last three months of summer I was averaging between 2-3 hours per day. I didn’t really play much during the school year, and this summer, my play time is down to less than 30 mins a day on average. (Most of the play time is on the weekend.) However, I don’t feel that I’m missing out or not getting the full effect by not playing >10 hours a week. I still enjoy it.<\/p>\n

New unique, content<\/h3>\n

Part of this is due to the “special occassion” events that Guild Wars has. For example, last week, they had a summer celebration called the “Dragon Festival<\/a>” that featured new in-game items and also some unique modes of play, such as a dodgeball-style game in the arena, pitting two teams against one another using only certain skills. (A style of game popularized by some online guilds as just for fun) <\/p>\n

Competitive PVP<\/h3>\n

The PVP system is very organized, with each guild being ranked and having a rating. Ranked competition will boost your rating, and they even hold global tournaments for PVP. Guilds compete in 8 vs. 8 teams, and the competition is very stiff, requiring not only good team work but also good strategy and preparation before hand. I don’t PVP much, but when I do, it’s always an intense and rewarding experience. PVP is really where all the hardcore players are – as far as PVE is concerned, if you’re a hardcore player, it won’t last long.<\/p>\n

So, hopefully Guild Wars will be able to hold my interest for another year or so. I don’t mind spending $60 once a year for a new expansion; it sure as heck beats spending $15\/month on a game, which would then make me feel as if I had<\/em> to play it. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I started playing Guild Wars over a year ago, during last summer when I figured I’d need a good game to “get into”. Being a general fan of the RPG genre, but never having got into a MMORPG yet (for fear of wasting too much time, and the monthly costs), I was a bit hesistant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitstep.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitstep.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitstep.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitstep.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitstep.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unitstep.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitstep.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitstep.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitstep.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}