Guild Wars

Guild Wars, also known as Guild Wars Prophecies, is a Competitive/Cooperative Online Role-Playing Game (CORPG) created by ArenaNet, a developer founded by individuals formerly from Blizzard Entertainment which is now wholly owned by NCsoft, a South Korean game publisher.

Overview

While Guild Wars is considered by many to be an MMORPG it differs in its approach compared to many of its contemporaries. In particular it provides a number of features which support casual online RPG gameplay; a low level cap, instanced game worlds outside of town areas, instant travel and subscription fee free play after purchase of the game. Guild Wars is carefully maintained by the developers to support competitive play in addition to providing an RPG environment and balancing skills and professions. To emphasize these core differences from most MMORPGs the developers have termed the game a Competitive/Cooperative Online Role-Playing Game (CORPG).

Conceptually, skills (the abilities the player has available to use in game) are very important through both the RPG and competitive parts of the game. A player selects a limited number of skills (up to a maximum of eight) prior to entering a battle and needs to be careful while using those skills during a battle. An adept competitive player needs knowledge of all the game's skills and how they interwork so as to be most effective. Guild Wars' emphasis on skill selection and implementation of skill use has similarities with many collectible card games.

Game mechanics

Basics

A player entering Guild Wars for the first time can choose to create a character for either of the two play styles which Guild Wars supports: Player versus player (PvP) or Player versus environment (PvE). The game mechanics for each side are the same but the play style is different for each. A player gives new characters a unique, unchangable name when they are created. The name must have two parts which might be a first and last name, or a title and a name.

Professions

A Guild Wars character is composed of a primary and secondary profession. The primary profession determines the appearance, armour, lead skill set of the character and provides a specialized attribute line. The secondary profession allows access to skills and non-specialized attributes only and may be changed during the PvE storyline.

There are six character classes available in Prophecies:

Elementalist - Classic high damage dealer that uses fire, air, earth or water magic, and who is often used for battlefield support.
Mesmer - A caster who manipulates opponents' actions against them and causes damage and confusion through illusions.
Monk - A support character which heals and protects their allies and also smites their opponents with holy damage.
Necromancer - Exploits the dead, their own health, and the health of the opposition to deal high damage.
Ranger - Usually a ranged attacker utilizing bow, pets and traps. A ranger can summon spirits that affect large areas of the battlefield.
Warrior - High defense, medium damage tank designed for the front line.

Skills

The player must select eight skills from their available pool of skills to use when they play the game. Skills are either standard or elite. Elite skills are skills which are considered to be better than average. The player may only equip one elite skill when they make their skill selection.

Initially the pool of skills available to a character and the player is limited and more skills are made available through game play. There are several different methods to acquire skills:

Purchase from skill trainers using skill points and gold earned during PvE based play
Capture from a monster using a Signet of Capture during PvE based play
Quests can be obtained during PvE based play which give skills as a reward
Trade in faction points earned during PvP combat to a Priest of Balthazar

When a skill is first acquired, through the methods described above, it is unlocked for the account of the player, making it available to all PvP characters made on the account.

The effectiveness of the skills used is based on the attribute line of the skill. To improve the effectiveness of skills the player distributes a limited number of attribute points to these attribute lines. There are at maximum 200 points available to distribute. PvP characters start with all 200, but PvE characters must gain them through leveling and quests. Attributes lines can be increased from 0 to 12, at the increasing cost of 1 to 20 attribute points. Runes are available which can be used to increase the attribute lines of the primary profession.

Equipment

There is a lot of equipment available to players.

Armor is available in suits specialised for a primary profession. There are different functionalities available on different armors, such as higher armor against particular damage types, extra energy or reduced condition or hex duration.
Runes are non-stackable items which are put on armor to improve primary attribute lines usually at cost of health. There are runes available that can increase health and provide some damage reduction.
There are many different types of weapons. They can be used by any class however for the weapon to be most effective the player must allocate enough attribute points to meet the attribute requirements of the weapon. There are two handed weapons, such as bows and hammers, and single handed weapons, such as swords and wands which may be wielded with an off-hand, like a shield. A weapon can have modifiers applied to it, such as bow strings or staff wrappings, which improve or modify the weapons damage or give benefit to the wielder.

Builds

A particular combination of skills, attributes and sometimes armour and weapons is known as a build. Some builds are more effective at particular tasks than others, and so are more common than others. A build may be at an individual player level, or include all of the roles in a team to utilise skill interactions across multiple players.

Guilds

As the name of the game suggests, guilds are a part of the game play. If a player forms a guild (a team of players), the guild can purchase and design capes for all the members. They may also purchase a Guild Hall, a private place where only guild members can enter. However, a player is not required to join a guild.

PvE specifics

A PvE character is created to play through the story-driven, PvE part of the Guild Wars game. A PvE character is level 1 when it is first created with no skills or secondary profession. Experience is required to level the character, and once the maximum level, 20, has been reached experience is still gained, although skill points are awarded instead of levels. Experience can be gained by:

Performing NPC quests
Completing the story-driven cooperative missions
Killing monsters

As the maximum level is 20, the time it takes to get to that level is short relative to many contemporary online RPG games. Much of the game play is designed for level 20 players.

There are no specific servers which players join, outside of selecting their region at account creation. Instead the world is broken into a number of smaller instances which the players can move around in. Towns have a number of instances which can hold up to 100 player characters each. It is in the towns that players form parties to perform quests or missions. A party can be comprised of 1 to 12 members, depending on location, which can be other player characters or AI driven NPC henchmen. When the party leaves the town an instance of the game world is created for the party.

The game world is split into a number of different zones. Whenever the party travels between these zones, all enemies and NPCs respawn. There are a huge variety of different enemies. Most enemies use only skills available to the players, but some have specialized monster skills granting them abilities players cannot emulate. Enemies also do not have a maximum level cap, so are frequently seen with levels greater than 20. Boss monsters are named and surrounded by an aura indicating their class, for instance a boss using warrior skills has a yellow aura. Players can use Signets of Capture on boss monsters to acquire skills. This is the only way elite skills can be acquired by PvE characters.

PvP specifics

A PvP character is created at the maximum level with access to all of the skills, runes, and upgrades which have been unlocked on the account. If the player has no skills currently unlocked they may use a pre-built character to head straight into combat.

There are a number of different types of PvP available to players

Random Arena is fast paced 4v4 combat with randomly selected combatants on both teams. Team Arena is 4v4 like Random Arena, but teams may be built by the players prior to combat.

In Guild vs. Guild (GvG) combat guild teams, comprised of 8 players, battle each other for ranking on the world-wide Guild Wars ladder. This form of PvP combat offers the most strategic combat in the game, requiring good teamwork, communication and build planning. Ladder ranking is used to determine which guilds go to organized tournaments, and there are in-game or monetary rewards for the top ranked guilds in a ladder season.

Finally Hero's Ascent implements a concept called World at War, in which teams from different regions fight through several PvP arenas up to the last area called the Hall of Heroes. The regions fight for "The Favor of the Gods" . Wins are displayed in the chat box to declare who has "Favor". Holding favor unlocks access to some high level PvE content and allows avatars of gods to be summoned in PvE instances which offer blessings for a small fee.

An observer mode is available which allows players to watch recent Hall of Heroes and tournament battles. Guild vs. Guild and other Heroes Ascent battles can also be viewed if one of the playing teams is from a guild ranked from 1 to 100 on the ladder.

Campaigns

Unlike many contemporary online games, players in the United States, Europe and Australia get access to the Guild Wars servers without a monthly fee. The developers have instead opted for a chapter based structure which involves regular, approximately 2 every year, releases of new content in the form of stand-alone expansion packs which player can choose to purchase.

Content which is available to all campaigns is called core content, much of which was introduced in the Prophecies campaign. Core content includes;

Professions from the Prophecies campaign, excluding around fifty percent of available Prophecies skills.
The Battle Isle - A map area where the majority of Guild Wars PvP content exists. This includes the random and team arenas, Hero's Ascent, and the Guild Hall. There is also a training area here where you can test your builds against dummies and NPC teams. It is open to PvP characters and PvE characters which have reached particular locations in the PvE campaigns.
'Fissure of Woe' and 'Underworld' - elite PvE areas which are available to players if their region has 'Favor of the Gods' and their character has completed their campaigns "right of passage" missions.

Players who do not purchase the Prophecies campaign will not get access to the PvE campaign. Players may still interact with other players who own chapters they do not.

At this time there are two campaigns available, the original, Guild Wars Prophecies, and a stand-alone campaign Guild Wars Factions. There are other campaigns currently in development.

Story

Ascalon is at war, fighting the Charr invading from the North. The fight is not going well but the Great Northern Wall protects Ascalon from the worst of the threat. However, the Charr find a way past the wall, and increase their attacks. It is in this setting the player begins a new character and completes initial training quests.

The Wall is unable to protect Ascalon forever. The Charr are able to use a powerful ritual which calls fire and crystal meteors from the sky, known as "The Searing", destroying the Wall and turning Ascalon into a wasteland.

In 'post-Searing' Ascalon, Prince Rurik and his father King Adelbern, the leaders of Ascalon, fight a losing battle against continued assaults from the Charr. As the players fight through the wasteland helping where they can, they find the legendary horn Stormcaller, which is said to hold immense power against invaders of Ascalon. Rurik is able to use Stormcaller to weaken the invading Charr and push them out of the capital, Rin. Rurik and Adelbern argue about the next move. Adelbern wants to fight off the Charr but Rurik, after seeing Rin's devastation, wants the people of Ascalon to flee to the safety of Kryta. For this traitorous sentiment the King exiles his son from Ascalon.

Rurik and his supporters leave Ascalon behind and travel to Kryta through the Northern Shiverpeak mountains. This is not an easy journey as they are impeded by the Stone Summit Dwarves who try to stop their passage. The Deldrimor Dwarves aid Rurik and the refugees through the mountains. The passage comes at a price as Rurik dies at the hands of the Stone Summit trying to ensure the safety of the refugees. The party must continue on to Kryta without him.

Kryta is the domain of a relatively new religious group called the White Mantle. After completing some tasks for the Mantle the players become trusted members of the group and are requested to find and escort the magical "Chosen" so the Mantle can instruct them. While the White Mantle are escorting the "Chosen" through the Maguuma Jungle they are intercepted by a rebel group known as the Shining Blade. The White Mantle escorts are killed and the "Chosen" are abducted by the Shining Blade.

The party pursues the Shining Blade deeper into the Jungle. After catching up to them, Evennia, the leader of the Shining Blade, reveals the real purpose of the "Chosen" - to be a sacrifice. The players witness this truth for themselves. Betrayed, the players attack and kill Justicar Habilion, a prominent member of the White Mantle.

With the assistance of the players the Shining Blade pick up their activities against the White Mantle taking the powerful Scepter of Orr from them. Taking this Scepter to Vizier Khilbron, a knowledgable magician helping the Shining Blade, it is discovered that the Shining Blade have been betrayed and are being routed by the stronger White Mantle. The players flee with the Vizier to the Crystal Desert.

The Vizier suggests that the players complete Ascension, believing that it will make the players strong enough to fight the White Mantle's "unseen gods". Once ascended the players approach the dragon prophet, Glint. Glint reveals her knowledge of the "Flameseeker Prophecies" which the players are fullfilling. She sends the players to the Southern Shiverpeaks to face the White Mantle and rescue what remains of the now broken Shining Blade.

The players find that the Southern Shiverpeaks are overrun with White Mantle and their "unseen gods" - the Mursaat. Both races of Dwarves are struggling with this incursion. The Deldrimor Dwarves assist the player in rescuing the remains of the Shining Blade - but at the same time the Stone Summit Dwarves have taken the Deldrimor capital, Thunderhead Keep. The players help take back the keep and hold it against the Mursaat and White Mantle invaders. The Vizier appears and tells the players they need to travel to the Ring of Fire Islands to activate a powerful weapon which will destroy the Mursaat.

The players fight through the Mursaat into their fortress and free the seals on the Door of Komalie, which they believe will give access to the weapon. Instead players are betrayed when they discover that the Vizier is a Lich using the players to get the Scepter and free terrible creatures known as Titans both of which he wants to use to wrest control over Tyria. The players confront and defeat the Lich, closing the doors they had previously opened.

The Lich is defeated but the Titans still roam Tyria. Glint instructs the players to defend each of the regions of Tyria against the Titan attacks, and finally eliminate the source of the Titan assaults.

Sorrow's Furnace

The player returns to the Southern Shiverpeaks to assist the Deldrimor Dwarves against the Stone Summit Dwarves. The players enter Sorrow's Furnace on rescue and reconnaisance missions before entering the Furnace a final time to destroy the Stone Summit's Iron Forgeman.

Criticism

Acquisition of skills

Considerable time needs to be devoted for a player to unlock all of the skills available in the Prophecies chapter (100+ Hours). This has caused a great deal of discussions mostly between PvP players that believe that all skills are required for them to be able to play at high levels of competition. Its also believed that by allowing the use of those skills instantly for PvP play, the game could expand its market.

Strong linking of PvE and PvP play

ArenaNet in designing the game have attempted to form strong links between PvE and PvP based play. This has met with some resistance as not all players like to play both PvP and PvE and they begrudge being required to play the type they dislike. However, in updates half a year after release a PvP-reward called Balthazar faction was introduced which allows the player to focus on his/her favorite form of play.

Interfaces limited

There are limitations to some of the game interfaces which can cause difficulties for players.

Players must rely on local chat and a simple party interface to create teams.
Buying and selling items is time consuming due to the lack of persistence and the simple trade channel. ArenaNet have stated they are looking into trade improvements.
Quests which have been fully completed by the player are not tracked by the quest interface.

Appearance choice limited

There is limited choice for character customization, for instance there is a single body shape for each sex of a primary profession. It isn't until later in the game characters start to look particularly different from each other as different armours become available.

Broken Networking

The Guild Wars client will use port 80 for game data. As this port is reserved for HTTP, users behind HTTP proxies cannot play the game. Also, ISPs who implement QoS often set HTTP as low priority, resulting in very laggy game play. ArenaNet is aware of this problem, but currently is unable to fix it.

"Nerfing"

When a class or build becomes too powerful and dominates areas such as Heroes Ascent, ArenaNet will reduce its power to improve game balance. This not only reduces the use of the build but can also impact the usefulness of the skill for other players not using that build. There has also been criticism of the timing and the effectiveness of some balance changes as some builds have been allowed to dominate for too long, bugs get introduced as a result of balance changes and some skills get 'over-nerfed' meaning they are no longer useful to any players any more. It is worth mentioning that skill improvements often accompany these 'nerfs'. Balance is the key, and nerfing a build usually works out for the best.

Editions

As well as the standard edition, there are many other editions of Guild Wars available on the market. All of them contain the basic Account Creation Code and Manuscript Book, as well as other added features listed below.

Pre-order edition

This was the very first edition of Guild Wars available. It only contained 1 disc, with a CD-key key which one could use to access the Guild Wars Beta. This was not the full version of the game. After the beta was finished, players had to buy the full retail version to be able to continue playing with their accounts.

Players who took part in the pre-sale and beta testing events also received a special unique item added to each of their characters (as well as any characters they created in the future). The special item they got depended on where they got their pre-sale disc from. According to PlayNC.com, there are 6 different ones:

Electronics Boutique (EB Games) preorder
CompUSA preorder
Best Buy preorder
GameStop preorder
"Generic" preorder (this would refer to a preorder key from a retailer other than the four listed above)
European preorder

It is still possible to find the generic pre-sale disc on certain websites (such as Amazon). However, most of the others have long since sold-out.

Collector's edition

The Collector's Edition was available (in limited numbers) during the game's official release date (along with the standard edition). It offers the owner the use of Divine Aura. When a character uses any of the emotes in the game (ie: Dance, jump, etc.), depending on their class, a colored light will surround the character's hands. Collector's Edition Keys can also be added to standard accounts to add the extra Divine Aura feature to it. Once added to an account, all existing characters (as well as any characters created in the future) will have the Divine Aura.

The Collector's Edition also comes with a Guild Wars branded Logitec headset, a free 3-month trial for Teamspeak's "SpeakEasy" service, the soundtrack by Jeremy Soule on an audio CD and The Art of Guild Wars Book 1.

Special edition

The Special Edition is available now. It contains a Skill Pack code which allows you to unlock 7 regular skills, 1 elite skill, and 2 runes from the Priest of Balthazar. After adding the Skill Pack code to your account, a "PvP Unlock Coupon" will appear in your Manage Access Keys menu, and you will be able to redeem it anytime from Balthazar.

Additionally, the Special Edition also contains a special music-code to access in-game music from DirectSong.com, the Official Guild Wars Soundtrack CD, The Art of Guild Wars Book 2 and a map of Tyria.

Account Information

Before playing Guild Wars, the player needs to create an account. This does not appear to be an ArenaNet account. In doing so, they permanently tie the Access Key that came in the box to that particular account. Some Access Keys have special features - such as the Divine Aura.

Account Management

Guild Wars allows the user to manage their account information from within the game. The user can edit their email address (and thus their account name), their password, their mailing address, and their territory. A user's territory can be changed only four times.

External links

2005 computer and video games | Guild Wars | Windows games | Computer and video games with special editions | Massively multiplayer online role-playing games

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