Guild Wars weekend

[Occhidiangela]

Hello fellow Lurkers,
http://www.guildwars.com/preview/default.html :
Given that GW has so far been considered a possible "next step" for this lovely site,

And many other interesting posts.

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Do you smell the sweat from all the exercise that has been going on? I refer to the "jumping" to conclusions based on the preview and a few comments from those with a bit more experience. :D Remember the delta between the Diablo II Beta, Diablo II Stress Test, and Diablo II issued?

Maybe Guild Wars is just more of the same, and we are approaching, asymptotically, a certain limit on the flexibility of the fantasy RPG, MMO and otherwise, genre. Maybe Guild Wars is aimed at the niche market of a player who likes elements of both Everquest and Starcraft, and who yearned for a better Diablo II PvP to sate gaming thirst. As in Diablo II, particularly LoD version, no game can be all things to all gamers.

Since I did something very rewarding IRL this weekend, and missed the bulk of the gaming, and also missed hooking up with the Lurkers Friday due to my on and off peek at the game, I have this to say:

My son wants to play GW. He is 12 and a half. If he plays with friends on line, or if I ever get the time to unscrew our home network and he plays along side of me, I'd say we will have enough fun to warrant the purchase.

He got to try out a few of the missions, with henchmen, while I was in Vegas (where I met some wonderful friends and did well enough in craps to pay for the trip, laughing a great deak of the time).

He has had three straight grading periods of all A's. Payback is due, though we have to keep an eye on the grades not dropping. I will be pre ordering the game next week. I still think it has team madness-fun possibilities, and am recalling that new content will indeed by streamed over time. New Modules, anyone?

Interface confusion for me was a detractor, though I am sure I will be able to overcome that with a bit more practice. Not enough time to sort out the nuances.

Unlike many of you, I have zero MMORPG experience, have not touched WoW(was otherwise occupied) have no XBOX/SEGSA/Nintendo/PS2 games, dont' play FPS, and completely missed about 15 years of Console and PC games as they grew from Pong to Pacman to a whole slew of "mo betta games" after I stopped playing SSI's Pool of Radiance (loaded from 5 1/4 inch disks onto a 4088 machine . . .) In the interim, my golf handicap has worked its way down to 17-18, my kids know how to ski, and I still carry 10 pounds of Italian food that I have not lost, courtesy of cuisine in Regione Campagne. Ya might say that's how I spent my time. :lol: )

That disclaimer aside, it appears that either all Fantasy RPG genere games are alike, and the subtle differences are the margins in which the preferences play out, or there is not enough depth of information available to make a decision.

Which way does the worm turn? This weekend was a tease meant to entice many folks into ordering the game. Not a beta, a marketing ploy. It is like the trailer to a movie. So, did they show it all to us? Did they reveal too much of the game? Or, is there a lot more to this than meets the eye.

Until Beta players can report out, and NDA's limit that at present, I'd guess there is a ways to go before this game's permutations can be fully explored, and a verdict established on its quality.

But that was not the exam question. The exam question was:

Will it earn enough Lurker support to warrant its own section here? If Lurkers choose to indulge in a bit more guild like activity, I'd say yes. If not, then probably not. See our comrades in arms at the Basin for an example.

OBTW, my Ranger Elementalist had the most fun when she used a rams head hammer, since I never did find any arrows for the long bow that dropped. There she was, "smashing it with a hammer!"

Fun is where you find it.

Occhi