Ok, the choice is either Guild Wars or WoW. I have a friend that has GW and it looks ok, but I can't help but think that the whole quest aspect dominates the game to much. However, it is free to play online, and 56K capable, also I have friends (broke ones) ready to play it with me.
WoW is everything I've been looking for in an RPG, it is hack and slash with crafting and a quest system that provides unique environments for parties that is actually relevant to lvling up. I see two problems, one is that while the game is the same price as GW, I'm going to be paying a minimum of $15 a month to play, and my friends might not be able to play due to money restrictions.
I know about GW, so I have some questions for those who play WoW. Is the game worth the monthly fee, how long does it take to lvl, how long does it take to get to a point in the game where you can PvP, what is the best character to play for PvP, do you absolutely have to be in a party to do quests, how long does it take to get bored with the game, how good is the tech support, how present are the GMs in game?
Torn....
Moderator: Thanas
-
Alan Bolte
- Sith Devotee
- Posts: 2611
- Joined: 2002-07-05 12:17am
- Location: Columbus, OH
Whether or not it is worth the money is dependent significantly on your financial situation. It's really nice to be able to play with your friends, but the entire point is to meet people, form alliances, and learn to work as a team. I've spent 18 hrs so far on my level 15 warlock. On the other hand, getting to level 53 on my warrior has taken me 472 hours of play time.
Most of the less interesting parts of the game are soloable, and you'll find that many of these quests are indeed soloed, because it can be difficult at some points to find people who are at your same level and want to do the same quests that you're doing. This is why it pays to get a good guild as quickly as you can. As you might expent, guilds range to the millitant, which will kick you out simply for taking a few days off, to the laid back, which exist primarily for organizing groups and trading items, to the pointless, which are made and inhabited by newbs and idiots.
Outside of these common 'bring me this' or 'kill x of that' quests, there are quests which require that you enter an instanced dungeon. This is where the majority of group play comes in. The standard party is five, though at the highest levels there are dungeons and enemies designed to be fought by 10, 20, or even 40 men. Dungeons are where you'll find most of the best items, do some of the more rewarding quests, fight the most boss-like (named elite) enemies, and die most spectacularly.
PvP is entirely pointless before level 20 and is designed to be primarily the domain of max level characters. Nevertheless, the rewards to be gained through PvP are such that it is worthwhile at pretty much any point after 20. Those max level characters that have simply played and played until they aquired the best and rarest equipment won't find much better through PvP, but there are other reasons to PvP, not the least of which is fun. Speaking of which, I don't know how things go on PvE servers, but on my PvP server the mechanics lead to a real loathing between the two factions, which just make encounters in the field far more interesting. For example, there's a demon raid boss named Kazzak that is generally beatable with an organized and prepared group of 25-40 high- or max-level chars, but if too many people shows up he goes bezerk and starts unleashing massive firepower. So a smaller group will often wait for an enemy raid group to attack the demon lord, then casually walk into Kazzak's range, triggering his big spells and destroying the raid. Little is gained by this, it's just for spite. A somewhat new addition, battlegrounds, has the potential to become the game's best feature, but at the moment they're still figuring out what people actually want, and how to implement it in such a way that a group from one faction that wants to play won't be constantly disappointed because no one from the other faction is in line to play. Still, Alterac Valley, the highest-level battleground, is freakin awesome.
If you have a love for game artwork, lore, and easter eggs, you'll never get bored. If you can figure out how to interact socially in a way that speeds leveling while increasing fun, you're unlikely to get bored. If you just sort of stumble around like I did for the longest time, you'll get bored eventually but it'll take a while if you don't mind the transit times. If sitting and watching your character run or ride somewhere is a problem for you, you're going to get bored fast. If you've been max-level for a while, don't want to start a new character, and want to play as regularly as you did when you were leveling, then you'll get bored because endgame content isn't the majority of the game, and without levelling the endgame can start to feel like just grinding for items.
All characters are viable for PvP to some extent, though the hunter and warlock were clearly designed with solo play in mind, and all PvP content is group-oriented. Mages are sometimes said to be the best PvPers because of the sheer damage they can dish out. Melee fighters are definitely quite viable, though the Paladin's focus on defense doesn't serve him well.
Most of the less interesting parts of the game are soloable, and you'll find that many of these quests are indeed soloed, because it can be difficult at some points to find people who are at your same level and want to do the same quests that you're doing. This is why it pays to get a good guild as quickly as you can. As you might expent, guilds range to the millitant, which will kick you out simply for taking a few days off, to the laid back, which exist primarily for organizing groups and trading items, to the pointless, which are made and inhabited by newbs and idiots.
Outside of these common 'bring me this' or 'kill x of that' quests, there are quests which require that you enter an instanced dungeon. This is where the majority of group play comes in. The standard party is five, though at the highest levels there are dungeons and enemies designed to be fought by 10, 20, or even 40 men. Dungeons are where you'll find most of the best items, do some of the more rewarding quests, fight the most boss-like (named elite) enemies, and die most spectacularly.
PvP is entirely pointless before level 20 and is designed to be primarily the domain of max level characters. Nevertheless, the rewards to be gained through PvP are such that it is worthwhile at pretty much any point after 20. Those max level characters that have simply played and played until they aquired the best and rarest equipment won't find much better through PvP, but there are other reasons to PvP, not the least of which is fun. Speaking of which, I don't know how things go on PvE servers, but on my PvP server the mechanics lead to a real loathing between the two factions, which just make encounters in the field far more interesting. For example, there's a demon raid boss named Kazzak that is generally beatable with an organized and prepared group of 25-40 high- or max-level chars, but if too many people shows up he goes bezerk and starts unleashing massive firepower. So a smaller group will often wait for an enemy raid group to attack the demon lord, then casually walk into Kazzak's range, triggering his big spells and destroying the raid. Little is gained by this, it's just for spite. A somewhat new addition, battlegrounds, has the potential to become the game's best feature, but at the moment they're still figuring out what people actually want, and how to implement it in such a way that a group from one faction that wants to play won't be constantly disappointed because no one from the other faction is in line to play. Still, Alterac Valley, the highest-level battleground, is freakin awesome.
If you have a love for game artwork, lore, and easter eggs, you'll never get bored. If you can figure out how to interact socially in a way that speeds leveling while increasing fun, you're unlikely to get bored. If you just sort of stumble around like I did for the longest time, you'll get bored eventually but it'll take a while if you don't mind the transit times. If sitting and watching your character run or ride somewhere is a problem for you, you're going to get bored fast. If you've been max-level for a while, don't want to start a new character, and want to play as regularly as you did when you were leveling, then you'll get bored because endgame content isn't the majority of the game, and without levelling the endgame can start to feel like just grinding for items.
All characters are viable for PvP to some extent, though the hunter and warlock were clearly designed with solo play in mind, and all PvP content is group-oriented. Mages are sometimes said to be the best PvPers because of the sheer damage they can dish out. Melee fighters are definitely quite viable, though the Paladin's focus on defense doesn't serve him well.
Any job worth doing with a laser is worth doing with many, many lasers. -Khrima
There's just no arguing with some people once they've made their minds up about something, and I accept that. That's why I kill them. -Othar
Avatar credit
There's just no arguing with some people once they've made their minds up about something, and I accept that. That's why I kill them. -Othar
Avatar credit
-
Son of the Suns
- Lex Eternus
- Posts: 1495
- Joined: 2003-06-03 05:01pm
-
Ghost Rider
- Spirit of Vengeance
- Posts: 27779
- Joined: 2002-09-24 01:48pm
- Location: DC...looking up from the gutters to the stars
Some highlights of WoW.
1. Character classes are basically split into Healing, Ranged, Melee. Depending on which of these you like, you pick from a variety of gussied up choices.
2. Two types of servers. PvE or PvP. RP is just a Ren Faire version of PvE. PvE is Player versus Enviroment, essentially you are not automatically in any sort of Player versus Player and zones do not have contested status and you can roam freely except in the main cities of the opposing team.
PvP is Player vs Player, wherein all but the non contested zones have some potential of you getting marked for PvP play. In non contested you can still enter but like PvE you have to activate it.
3. Single vs Grouping. You can in theory, albeit extremely boring, grind up to 60th level. This game unlike many MMORPGs does allow this. Grouping though speeds it along and at the high end, you are required to group.
I have played far too little of Guild Wars to give any sort of decent review that isn't "You don't have to pay a monthly fee and it looks pretty."
1. Character classes are basically split into Healing, Ranged, Melee. Depending on which of these you like, you pick from a variety of gussied up choices.
2. Two types of servers. PvE or PvP. RP is just a Ren Faire version of PvE. PvE is Player versus Enviroment, essentially you are not automatically in any sort of Player versus Player and zones do not have contested status and you can roam freely except in the main cities of the opposing team.
PvP is Player vs Player, wherein all but the non contested zones have some potential of you getting marked for PvP play. In non contested you can still enter but like PvE you have to activate it.
3. Single vs Grouping. You can in theory, albeit extremely boring, grind up to 60th level. This game unlike many MMORPGs does allow this. Grouping though speeds it along and at the high end, you are required to group.
I have played far too little of Guild Wars to give any sort of decent review that isn't "You don't have to pay a monthly fee and it looks pretty."
MM /CF/WG/BOTM/JL/Original Warsie/ACPATHNTDWATGODW FOREVER!!
Sometimes we can choose the path we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all
Saying and doing are chocolate and concrete
Sometimes we can choose the path we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all
Saying and doing are chocolate and concrete
Well... I've personally played it quite a lot for a while, and the only highlight I can offer is the Instant PvP gaming... but even that is tenuous at best.I have played far too little of Guild Wars to give any sort of decent review that isn't "You don't have to pay a monthly fee and it looks pretty."
Like Ghost Rider said, Graphically, it's brilliant, and you don't have to pay monthly. But if you're going to play an MMO, at least play an interesting and absorbing one rather than one which is going to make you bored after the first hour or so of playing. It's just too dry and wooden, the game doesn't have the personality that World of Warcraft has in bundles. But of course, your opinion may differ, since different people like different things...
I'd buy 'em both, and return the one you don't like.
-
Thunderfire
- Jedi Master
- Posts: 1063
- Joined: 2002-08-13 04:52am
Re: Torn....
Take GW if you don't have alot of time to play. The quality MMORPGs depends alot on the community - WOW attracked alot of battle.net players. This is not exactly the type on community I want for a MMORPG with a monthly fee.
-
Utsanomiko
- The Legend Rado Tharadus
- Posts: 5079
- Joined: 2002-09-20 10:03pm
- Location: My personal sanctuary from the outside world
WoW also probably skimmed off the bottom half of the Bnet community simply due to the unattractiveness of the monthly fee. Guild Wars, on the other hand, I have heard has a simply obnoxious community of net-rats and morons (and my several days of playing the open pre-release sessions generally fits this bill); you'll have a tough time without a good guild.
Hell, it's certainly better than SWG's community; In WoW on my soloing alts at the most I get whispered about if I have stuff to sell, want to help with a quest, join a guild, etc. SWG features weirdos heckling me at the busstop or perpetual noobs asking people if they're NPCs.
I'm fine with WoW's monthly fee. Considering the amount of time I like to spend with it, the fee is compensated by how much less I need to play other games or how necessary it is for me to get new ones ($15/mo = ~4 games/year). And you can save a couple bucks by signing up for a few months at a time. It's got a really flexible gameplay that lets me either glurge and be on for the whole day or just an hour or two over the week. I must have a dozen Alts just to play around with the different classes and starting zones when I don't feel like logging on my main (lvl 50 Hunter. 12.3 days to get him there, which is about almost 2/3rds of my total gaming time in WoW).
Hell, it's certainly better than SWG's community; In WoW on my soloing alts at the most I get whispered about if I have stuff to sell, want to help with a quest, join a guild, etc. SWG features weirdos heckling me at the busstop or perpetual noobs asking people if they're NPCs.
I'm fine with WoW's monthly fee. Considering the amount of time I like to spend with it, the fee is compensated by how much less I need to play other games or how necessary it is for me to get new ones ($15/mo = ~4 games/year). And you can save a couple bucks by signing up for a few months at a time. It's got a really flexible gameplay that lets me either glurge and be on for the whole day or just an hour or two over the week. I must have a dozen Alts just to play around with the different classes and starting zones when I don't feel like logging on my main (lvl 50 Hunter. 12.3 days to get him there, which is about almost 2/3rds of my total gaming time in WoW).
By His Word...