Another Guild Wars Beta Event

[Wyrm]

I know, there are a ton of Guild Wars topics out there, but they all died.

Anyways, Fileplanet is doing a Guild Wars Beta event on Jan 7th. You have to sign up on their website, but it doesn't require a paid subscription for it (a free one will work).

If you haven't pre-ordered (like me), it's another chance to play the Beta for free for a weekend.

[LochnarITB]

If you haven't pre-ordered (like me), it's another chance to play the Beta for free for a weekend.
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Do you know if there is a pre-order beta event this weekend? It is the first weekend of the month but it is also a holiday. I'm thinking about playing if it is happening. I really should play something else to try to break the awful grip WoW has on me. :blush:

[SoulEdge]

Arena.net changed the January beta weekend to the second weekend, the beta event will start on Friday 7th January.

Hope to see you there Lochnar!

[kandrathe]

Arena.net changed the January beta weekend to the second weekend, the beta event will start on Friday 7th January.

Hope to see you there Lochnar!
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Hurrah!

[Bolty]

Arena.net changed the January beta weekend to the second weekend, the beta event will start on Friday 7th January.
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How close is this game to release? Beta testers, how's it coming along?

-Bolty

[SwissMercenary]

From what I have seen in the WBE's, and heard from closed Beta testers...

If Arena.net is interested in a Diablo 2/WoWesque release, missing a lot of promiced features + things like area difficulty to character power balance... They can release right now.

Otherwise, it would be prudent to take the time to late Feb/March. Supposebly, some of the closed testers are getting quite disenchanted with the progress of the game. :huh:

Edit: gah, meant this as a reply to Bolty's post

[kandrathe]

From what I have seen in the WBE's, and heard from closed Beta testers...

If Arena.net is interested in a Diablo 2/WoWesque release, missing a lot of promiced features + things like area difficulty to character power balance... They can release right now.

Otherwise, it would be prudent to take the time to late Feb/March. Supposebly, some of the closed testers are getting quite disenchanted with the progress of the game.  :huh:

Edit: gah, meant this as a reply to Bolty's post
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I wasn't able to play as much last preview weekend, but they had done quite alot in changing the character balance the last time I played. I'm still concerned about a few skill divisions, (e.g. The plethora of pet mastery skills dilutes the capabilities of a Ranger who is bow focused when compared to a more integrated class like Warrior, where many skills trancend weapon specialization.)

The chat interface is still IRC clumsy, and needs to be more tunable (ie. more squelch options). The only problem with a network mostly full of hormone enraged adolescents, is that you have a network full of hormone enraged adolescents.

I would like to see "Trading" taken to a "Marketplace", which could even be a place in the game. You could have trading pits, ala real comodity trading.

I hope there is enough PvM to hold my interest, as I'm not as keen on the PvP aspect. However, if the Guild calls I will serve in whatever capacity I can. In many ways this game is designed to be "The Diablo II Killer", and I think it does that in many way.

The other part of the genius of the Arena.net folks IMHO, is that this is just one possible RPG skin that they could put over this engine. There is no reason why you couldn't extend the metaphor to a Space, Cthulu, or any other mythos.

My feeling is that this game is very solid for not being released. If I could buy it and play it now, I would.

[TaiDaishar]

Gracias Wyrm! I hope I shall see you in a week as a friend in battle instead of a foe to dispose of!

[Pop Squid]

In many ways this game is designed to be "The Diablo II Killer", and I think it does that... My feeling is that this game is very solid for not being released.  If I could buy it and play it now, I would.
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Kandrathe & I both have the boxed pre-order kits, and anxiously await the actual release. I'll echo much of what he's already said, esp. re: the in-game chat features, which I find intrusive & not user-friendly enough. I miss some little things, too, which would be really easy to implement & would add a lot to user interaction: the ability to pop some dialog up in the air above my avatar's head (like prefixing a line of chat in D2 with a bang, e.g. "!Have at thee, Lister, thou smeghead"). Also, the emotes should DEFINITELY be documented, AND have in-game avatar animations associated with them, as in NWN, UT2K4, and a bunch of other games. So when I do the "Elsie laughs" emote, instead of just seeing a dull gray line of text on the screen, I want to see her look like she's laughing--or kneeling, dancing, flipping you the bird, or whatever else. It's a game: make it FUN!

In general, the game's definitely a good one, and I plan to participate in this weekend's beta as much as I can, though I've got some RW New Year's festivities to work around. ;)
EDIT - Oops, the next GW event actually starts on Jan. 7, not this weekend. Bastards broke the pattern.

Just a GW gameplay note: I like that you have to pay attention to enemy groups, because otherwise the difficult encounters take you by surprise. Sometimes you have to be really precise & careful how you "draw" individual monsters out of a group so you can pick them off by ones and twos, without getting mobbed.

[SoulEdge]

How close is this game to release?  Beta testers, how's it coming along?

Well, two weekends worth of game time (WPE and December beta weekend event) are not really all that much for testing and bug catching, but it sure is enough to get me hopelessly addicted to the game.

PvP is not really my cup of tea, I can see myself participating in it once I have tried most, if not all of the classes, and when I have a better understanding of skills. Since I only had one PvP experince thus far, I can't comment on the PvP aspect, nor the class balancing, but I do think the system of matching up components can use some changing, being clvl 7 and being set up to do battle with clvl 20 was not fun...

PvE was all that held me for the past events, and I have really just tried the Elementalist class (spell caster, mainly offensive). Most of the time I was playing solo with henchmen, and I enjoyed it. When in a team with sensible players, the experience was just fantastic.

Forming team with random players are just like all other such random team in any multiplayer game, while sometimes one will be fortunate to meet good, polite, decent people, those who have played, say, D2 in public game will know all those other "interesting" people. But really, gaming with like-minded players is simply great.

There are still things to be done, chat system, trade system and more control over henchmen and pets. Crafting seems to be the only "grind" in the game, but the item drop rate had been tweaked and was much better in the December event, perhaps further tweaking is needed? I am one of the variant scums from your friendly neighbourhood, so I didn't really bother too much with items. ;) Also, some players complained the last event was too difficult, well, I don't know, I did the first two missions solo with henchmen and found them to be alright, and I know a person who did the first mission solo without henchmen (hi Sirian!). :lol:

Not sure how much content the current build has, and how much more to add, those in the close beta will have a better idea. Tried as I might, I didn't finish all missions, nor had I explored all those explorable areas, wish we get more time to play.

As I said, I am hopelessly addicted, but GW at the December beta event is more complete than the other games in beta that I have tried (Knight Online, Saga of Ryzom). I will buy the game if it is released now, since I have experienced how Arena.net fix things and how easy it's to get a new build of the game.

I really want it to be released now so I can play :w00t: but I think given a couple of months, the game will be nicely polished.

I hope the guild stash/personal stash system is implemented in the January event, along with those I mentioned above, Well, we will just have to wait and see.

[Swiss Mercenary]

PvP is not really my cup of tea, I can see myself participating in it once I have tried most, if not all of the classes, and when I have a better understanding of skills. Since I only had one PvP experince thus far, I can't comment on the PvP aspect, nor the class balancing, but I do think the system of matching up components can use some changing, being clvl 7 and being set up to do battle with clvl 20 was not fun...

I would daresay that PvP is where the main gripes are revolving - not skill balance, per se (Which is mostly an issue to people unwilling to adapt their tactics), but from the lack of true guild PvP content. As of now, there's one guild PvP map - and not one that's too great, IMHO. Sure, there's the tombs, but playing there has no reflection on guild ranking (Hence why the competitive players are complaining about the lack of a fun "Competitive" aspect in a Competitive Onlne RPG.

There are still things to be done, chat system, trade system and more control over henchmen and pets. Crafting seems to be the only "grind" in the game, but the item drop rate had been tweaked and was much better in the December event, perhaps further tweaking is needed? I am one of the variant scums from your friendly neighbourhood, so I didn't really bother too much with items.  ;)  Also, some players complained  the last event was too difficult, well, I don't know, I did the first two missions solo with henchmen and found them to be alright, and I know a person who did the first mission solo without henchmen (hi Sirian!).  :lol:

The first two missions are not at all overly difficult - the same can be said for most of the other ones. However, there are a few gems... Such as The Wilds, in Kryta, where you wll get mobbed by ~12 "centaur" warriors/rangers/priests at certain points, throughout it. And consider that your party would be a level (or two, or three) below them, t calls for some creative tactics. Too bad that most people can't be bothered to analyse the situation, and exploit their weaknesses.

Not sure how much content the current build has, and how much more to add, those in the close beta will have a better idea. Tried as I might, I didn't finish all missions, nor had I explored all those explorable areas, wish we get more time to play.

You should see Rotscale in Majesty's Rest. :w00t:

I hope the guild stash/personal stash system is implemented in the January event, along with those I mentioned above, Well, we will just have to wait and see.
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Word from closed beta, is that such things are not in the game... At least, as of now. :unsure:

[Drasca]

Also, the emotes should DEFINITELY be documented, AND have in-game avatar animations associated with them,
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Last time I tried emotes, they did have in game animation--but I had to zoom in to notice them. My avatar would jump for shouts, kneel, or bow. The emotes themselves are documented somewhere... I think I linked it in RBD forums in another guild wars site.

I have a pre-order kit too, for the princely sum of 5$, and I am liking the game as-is. There's a lot of content I simply haven't explored after playing seemingly a hundred hours of this game through weekend events. Good enough for me!

I do not know if it is possible to play a level 1-10 character in a level 15+ area, but so far being underleveled does not greatly hinder gameplay. Played a level 11 character through the normal level 15 starting area and through the rest after that. There was a disadvantage, a challenge factor added to even normally challenging areas, but nothing game-stopping. Teamplay still mattered a lot more--I'm especially thinking of the pack of centaurs area.

Centaurs have warriors that slow you down, healers that frustrate your ability to damage them and fire snipers to pick off stragglers who retreat. Can get painful. However! We have skills to slow down the enemy when we need to retreat. Skill to punish that healer with big damage every time he attempts to cast, skills to negate other skills.

Guild War's biggest draw for me is the variety and versatility of using skills available. You can redistribute your points invested in strengthening skills every mission or two due to "refund points" awarded for defeating enemies and completing missions (even ones previously completed). In fact, that's what I kept on doing throughout the game. Ranger turned from Fire bomb, to Snow-ball tosser, to Beast Master and escape artist.

I like it.

[nobbie]

In German TV, they just said that Guild Wars will also be playable as a SINGLE PLAYER game. Is that true?

[nobbie]

Also, some players complained  the last event was too difficult, well, I don't know, I did the first two missions solo with henchmen and found them to be alright, and I know a person who did the first mission solo without henchmen (hi Sirian!).  :lol:

What? The legendary Diablo "Sirian" is playing GW? Then it must be a good game :D

[Treesh]

In German TV, they just said that Guild Wars will also be playable as a SINGLE PLAYER game. Is that true?
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It's still online only, but there are areas where you can play singleplayer only if you want and not worry about people stealing your kills or anything because you're basically in your own "instance".

[Swiss Mercenary]

What? The legendary Diablo "Sirian" is playing GW? Then it must be a good game :D
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*Fondly recalls the inspiration provided by Sirian's character tales.

:o

[nobbie]

It's still online only, but there are areas where you can play singleplayer only if you want and not worry about people stealing your kills or anything because you're basically in your own "instance".
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Thanks, I thought that already :)

[nobbie]

*Fondly recalls the inspiration provided by Sirian's character tales.

:o
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They're still there:

http://sirian.warpcore.org/diablo2/diablo2.html

... last updated November 16, 2001 :)

[Drasca]

Guild Wars is up and online at this moment, this friday morning.

[Wyrm]

Guild Wars is up and online at this moment, this friday morning.
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I just woke up and will be playing for who knows how long. Hope to see some of you online, I'll be starting a Warrior,Monk from level 1 as Lurker Wyrm (didn't feel like trying to be original again).