Guild Wars Noob Report

[Bolty]

An amusing article over at AFK Gamer was put up on Slashdot regarding Guild Wars:

http://afkgamer.com/archives/2005/04/27/gu...a-noob-is-born/ (note: article is very PG-13)

Reading this reminded me of the beta weekend I played with Guild Wars. It was a very "what the (bleep) am I doing." I'm not meaning to smash Guild Wars or say "don't buy it," it's just that I had wondered at the time if I was just a moron or if the game was really THAT newbie-unfriendly. I'm glad to see I'm not alone. :)

Once you get the hang of it, I'm sure it's grand. Many Lurkers here have posted to that effect.

BTW, is anyone else tired of people calling Guild Wars a "free" game? Arena.Net has already said that the game won't have a monthly subscription, but will instead offer expansion packs that you can buy every few months. That's essentially the same thing as a monthly fee distributed over time, because if you don't buy these expansions, you'll be left behind your friends who are all buying them. I congratulate Arena.Net for the good marketing scheme, but please stop calling it a "free" service. :)

-Bolty

[Occhidiangela]

An amusing article over at AFK Gamer was put up on Slashdot regarding Guild Wars:
http://afkgamer.com/archives/2005/04/27/gu...a-noob-is-born/  (note: article is very PG-13)

Reading this reminded me of the beta weekend I played with Guild Wars.  It was a very "what the (bleep) am I doing."  I'm not meaning to smash Guild Wars or say "don't buy it," it's just that I had wondered at the time if I was just a moron or if the game was really THAT newbie-unfriendly.  I'm glad to see I'm not alone.  :)
--snip--
BTW, is anyone else tired of people calling Guild Wars a "free" game?  Arena.Net has already said that the game won't have a monthly subscription, but will instead offer expansion packs that you can buy every few months.  That's essentially the same thing as a monthly fee distributed over time, because if you don't buy these expansions, you'll be left behind your friends who are all buying them.  I congratulate Arena.Net for the good marketing scheme, but please stop calling it a "free" service.  :)
-Bolty
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From the article.

One of the guildies dared comment on how (hosed) the player pathing is in this game. i.e. you will follow the assigned path, no jumping, no falling, no straying from the designated path in any way (hail, counter-intuitive!), and ListAddition01 called him an IGN noob.

The pathing is, it seems, a bit more restrictive than WoW. I imagine it was a design decision. I got on yesterday, and had one quest guy just run off on me after cautioning me "try to keep up." (Catacombs) The UI and I will take a few to get synched up. I kept running into walls and slopes I could not climb, while this quest dude kept wandering off, and his green dot was lost in the clutter of other green dots. I was supposed to escort this hoser. Then, a message says "the dude who can't wait has died." (Reprobate Rogue thinks "Hey, you go-go-go dolt, your deeds will be remembered . . . or NOT!") I guess I have to try this quest again with my suicidal friend.

UI is decent. Visuals good. Different style than WoW. Guild chat tab allows one to ignore a great deal of the spam in channel. The RP bits are a whole lot like WoW. The go and fetchem quests are the same fodder. "Collect three of these and you get some snazzy boots." Not sure about how the spawning thing works, I got attacked by "it appeared from nowhere" wolf while I was doing a bit of target practice on some worms that looked errily like AD & D Ankhegs.

RL intruded. I won't be able to play or comment any more for a few days.

The "Free service" aspect is assigned to the "this remains to be seen" category. The back story is . . . potatoes without gravy.

Occhi

[WarLocke]

The UI and I will take a few to get synched up.  I kept running into walls and slopes I could not climb, while this quest dude kept wandering off, and his green dot was lost in the clutter of other green dots.

It took me a bit to get used to the UI too. What I did was change the keys around to a modified FPS setups - switch the strafe and turn keys (from Q and E to A and D) and make liberal use of mouselook.

[Zippyy]

An amusing article over at AFK Gamer was put up on Slashdot regarding Guild Wars:

http://afkgamer.com/archives/2005/04/27/gu...a-noob-is-born/  (note: article is very PG-13)

Reading this reminded me of the beta weekend I played with Guild Wars.  It was a very "what the (bleep) am I doing."  I'm not meaning to smash Guild Wars or say "don't buy it," it's just that I had wondered at the time if I was just a moron or if the game was really THAT newbie-unfriendly.  I'm glad to see I'm not alone.  :)

Once you get the hang of it, I'm sure it's grand.  Many Lurkers here have posted to that effect.

BTW, is anyone else tired of people calling Guild Wars a "free" game?  Arena.Net has already said that the game won't have a monthly subscription, but will instead offer expansion packs that you can buy every few months.  That's essentially the same thing as a monthly fee distributed over time, because if you don't buy these expansions, you'll be left behind your friends who are all buying them.  I congratulate Arena.Net for the good marketing scheme, but please stop calling it a "free" service.  :)

-Bolty
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LOL! Hilarious article, and a great humorous writeup of the E3 and WPE GW experience. Currently, though, almost every complaint they have with the game can be solved by simply reading whatever words happen to be on your screen and/or pressing alt.

Also, now if you use your map to zone to another area, your group does NOT come with you. Praise the lord.

You are allowed to have only 8 skills at a time for Very Good Reasons ™.

I think I will take the high-road and give the first answer that comes to mind: "It was beta a YEAR before release. So stfu noob!" and to the complaints about non-beta issues, "RTFM" :)

A very fun read! :lol:

[Thecla]

Yup -- I agree entirely, and I think the article is spot on. :)

I got the permanent feeling in the GW open betas I tried that I had no idea what was going on, was almost certainly in completely the wrong place, hadn't discovered what and where I should've discovered, and was probably missing half-a-dozen different things that I was supposed to be doing but hadn't a clue about what they were.

It was sort of like a bad dream in which you show up to a dull party and feel that the real party must be going on somewhere else, but no one will tell you where. (I still liked the game well enough, though.)

[LochnarITB]

hadn't discovered what and where I should've discovered
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Or discovered it too soon. :blink: I ran into this last night already, barely two hours into the game. I helped get some eggs out of a cave. Part of the reward was two of those eggs. It said quest item but I had just done the quest so, since they had no sell value, they were destroyed. After all, I had just done the quest. Some time later, I find someone in a small town that wants the eggs. Oh great, guess I need to reset the instance to get the eggs again. Nope! The quest is completed so I can't get the eggs again. Oops. I much prefer not even getting the items until I'm actually doing the quest and the quests need to follow up properly. Now I see myself wasting space with items that might be needed for a quest later. Oh great, already limited bag space wasted.

[Swiss Mercenary]

Not to spoil anything, but once you leave the initial area you are in, the storyline-related quests become quite different (And more involved then Kill X of Y, or collect X of Z) from WoW.

As for the pathing - the design decision was to disallow "Bypassing content by sliding/jumping down cliffs". Since instances in GW aren't nearly as sardine-can-packed as WoW, if jumping down ridges was permitted, there would be plenty of areas where very large parts of the mission could be bypassed.

The said pathing blockers are indeed, in places, glitchy, so my best advice is "Try to stay away from the walls and steep slopes."

Of course, the (Quite different) instance designs permitted by this offer quite the breathtaking visuals.

In regards to Loch: Come to think of it, that's the one quest for which the reward is used for two different quests - quite the freak occurance.

Will you trust me if I say that the bag space issue gets better once you are past the said initial area, and start salvaging the items that provide crafting materials that you need, and selling the rest? :whistling:

As for the article - feh. It took me all of 3 days during E3 to figure out how just about everything worked. Although I appreciated the comment of "What was the most counter-intuitive game of all time? Diablo 1." B)

As much as we know that the real winner for that title would have to be just about... Any rogue-like.

[Guest]

edited

[DeeBye]

on second thought I'd better not

[TaiDaishar]

Huh? I have no idea what the bloody hell this talk is all about.

Granted I've only played the first 3 beta events but for me the UI was incredibly easy to understand, a whole lot easier than WoW's interface for after 5 minutes in game I already knew everything I needed to know...

[Occhidiangela]

Huh? I have no idea what the bloody hell this talk is all about.

Granted I've only played the first 3 beta events but for me the UI was incredibly easy to understand, a whole lot easier than WoW's interface for after 5 minutes in game I already knew everything I needed to know...
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I like the less cartoony visuals, personally. And my Ranger's dance is sorta fun to watch . . . once.

Occhi

Look for the Warrior "Power Gerbil" in an instance near you . . .

[LochnarITB]

In regards to Loch: Come to think of it, that's the one quest for which the reward is used for two different quests - quite the freak occurance.
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I comment on this only to warn other players so they don't do what I did. You will find a man outside a cave very near the beginning of the starter area (if you follow the left boundary as I tend to do). He will ask you to accompany another guy in to get some eggs. Easy enough. However, when you finish, he will give you two eggs as reward. Keep them. There are two more quests that you have not found yet (given my travel to the left comment) that each require one of the eggs. So, not only do you have to get the eggs for the original guy, you have to give an egg each to two other quest givers, three quests involving the eggs. I destroyed the eggs after the first quest because I had already done the retrieve the eggs escort and had no idea I still needed them.

[Occhidiangela]

I comment on this only to warn other players so they don't do what I did.  You will find a man outside a cave very near the beginning of the starter area (if you follow the left boundary as I tend to do).  He will ask you to accompany another guy in to get some eggs.  Easy enough.  However, when you finish, he will give you two eggs as reward.  Keep them.  There are two more quests that you have not found yet (given my travel to the left comment) that each require one of the eggs.  So, not only do you have to get the eggs for the original guy, you have to give an egg each to two other quest givers, three quests involving the eggs.  I destroyed the eggs after the first quest because I had already done the retrieve the eggs escort and had no idea I still needed them.
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You and me both. I went back to get some more eggs, and SORRY, there are nests with eggs galure, but you, Power Gerbil, mighty warrior of Ascalon, are too spastic to pick up an egg. Oy.

I just had a game crash while pulling on the lever in my latest attempt to open the gate for the "north of the wall to Find Ben" quest. The Ettin took four tries on the Warrior's Challenge quest to actually spawn. Strange.

I can't seem to match up with the RB Guildmates. Off to bed.

Soundtrack is nice.

Occhi

[Occhidiangela]

I just had a game crash while pulling on the lever in my latest attempt to open the gate for the "north of the wall to Find Ben" quest.  Occhi
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It appears as though the new patch is a bit unstable. As of 1430 or so CST, I crash any time I try to move. Sort of hard to play when you enter Ascalon City and upon the first move command, you crash.

The various folks who were moving about were making the usual candid observations about the beauty of the lastest patch.

I imagine Arena.net will survive this, though it is a bit of egg in the face. Off to the Great Squirrel Hunt.

Occhi

[Occhidiangela]

It appears as though the new patch is a bit unstable.  As of 1430 or so CST, I crash any time I try to move.  Sort of hard to play when you enter Ascalon City and upon the first move command, you crash.

The various folks who were moving about were making the usual candid observations about the beauty of the lastest patch.

I imagine Arena.net will survive this, though it is a bit of egg in the face.  Off to the Great Squirrel Hunt.

Occhi
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Well, Arena.net walks the walk. They provided a new patch, which unfortunately made some players, not all, crash to the desktop upon entering a game when first attempting movement. I was one lucky victim. Fixed in less than 30 minutes, at least for me.

They said they'd be doing continuous improvement/patching, and it looks as though they not only do it, they turned around their "oops" in less than half an hour after making it.

Of course, some would ask "why run an update during a Sunday Afternoon," but so be it.

Another interesting feature of GW is that when I exit the game, my mouse does no show up on the Windows XP Pro desktop. All I have to do to see it again is hit ctrl-alt-del to view the Task Manager and the mouse re appears. Probably my graphics card being cute.

Occhi

[pakman]

Too bad this game came out at the end of the school year. My family doesn't have high-speed at home :(

[Occhidiangela]

Too bad this game came out at the end of the school year. My family doesn't have high-speed at home :(
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One of the guys I played with today for about an hour said he was on dial up. He did not seem to lag that much, told me it was pretty decent.

Is anyone else on dial up who can comment on how well the Arena.net aim for "playable on dial up" came off?

Occhi

[Swiss Mercenary]

Of course, some would ask "why run an update during a Sunday Afternoon," but so be it. 

Most likely to A: Fix a bug with skill unlocking, and B: Make the collector guy who accepts scale fins to the left of the town gate give you the devourer eggs that were so badly needed by Lochnar. B)

The game wasn't ready for release... But, at least the team's actively working on amending that.

[Occhidiangela]

Most likely to A: Fix a bug with skill unlocking, and B: Make the collector guy who accepts scale fins to the left of the town gate give you the devourer eggs that were so badly needed by Lochnar.  B)

The game wasn't ready for release... But, at least the team's actively working on amending that.
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I beg to differ. No game can be "perfect and bug free" on release. There just isn't the money in a budget to do that.

Guild Wars was indeed ready, it meets the Good Enough™ standard. Furthermore, by adopting the methods they did for timely updating and patching capability, Arena.net is able to respond far more quickly and effectively to bugs uncovered by players.

Oh, if only I could take today off from work and play more Guild Wars. I was having fun . . .

Occhi

[pakman]

I still think I'll wait until school starts up again next year. Besides, the price will probably go down over the summer, and I have some games that I would like to play. FEAR is coming out along with Advent Rising. I have yet to play BG I and II and I still have to finish the second NWN expansion.