Guild Wars 2: The original Guild Wars was the first MMORPG that Jen and I played and because of that, there’s still a special place in my geeky heart for Guild Wars and ArenaNet. I wish we snagged Guild Wars 2 when the game first hit shelves because we sadly don’t have $60 each for the game and probably won’t for a while. (The only thing I dislike about gaming is the price involved.) Guild Wars 2 represents one of the top fantasy game titles in my honest opinion. How the game will play out as a MMORPG may be different, but I rarely go by review and instead go with my own opinion because you’ll either find people saying: I LOVE IT or I HATE IT and rarely is there a middle ground.
Here are a few tidbits about the game that I am so excited about:
- Race selector. Back in the original Guild Wars there was only one race: human. Now you have Human, Norn, Sylvari, Charr and Asura. Most likely I’ll roll a Human as my main and a Sylvari as a second main. But that may change later! Sylvari interest me a great deal, with their natural state and unique lore.
- Crafting. Heck, yeah! Again, in the original Guild Wars, crafting didn’t exist. I love crafting in MMOs as there is something about leveling up your selected skill that I enjoy a great deal. Plus, more often than not, what you craft is better than what you buy or find while questing. Hopefully that is true with Guild Wars 2, we’ll see!
- Personal Story. I’m a bit spoiled with my current favorite MMO which is Star Wars: The Old Republic because everything you do is part of your story. As a former and – okay – current WoW player, I love questing and leveling my character and building her back story. But games that literally let you pick and choose and follow your own path are extremely fun and exciting. More often than not, I’ll play that sort of game as two separate games. Take SW:TOR for example… My character is a Smuggler. She’s my first Smuggler, so her story is new and refreshing. I play that part as a RPG. But I don’t let her story influence my actual RP unless I… pick and choose. Her companion Corso doesn’t have anything to do with her RP, her ship is detailed in my own mind so that when people enter I can describe what they see instead of what is in the game. It’s actually like getting two games in one, so I’m pretty excited.
- Day and Night. When Jen and I went from GW to WoW, we were so shocked to see the day and night cycle and it’s something we’ve come to love. It doesn’t make or break a game, as SW:TOR doesn’t have a cycle and that’s a mini disappointment but the game isn’t a bust. The difference with GW though, is that certain things happen in the day and vice versa. Now THAT is intriguing.
- Player Home Instance. Almost every MMO has promised player housing. Guild Wars had Guild Halls which Jen and I loved playing around in, WoW doesn’t have anything but has promised, in SW:TOR you have your ship with more promised features and in Guild Wars 2, housing has been promised but for right now we have Player Home Instances. I’ll copy this from the Guild Wars 2 Wiki as it’ll describe what these are better than I can: ” The home instance is an instanced area in each character’s home city which evolves as they progress through the world. A character’s home instance will change based on their progress and actions in their personal storyline. For example, character actions could determine the presence or absence of non-player characters, special merchants or even buildings. Players can invite others to visit their home instance. If a character visits a home instance in a city other than their home city (for example, a charr visiting Salma District), they will see a basic version of the district without any story-related changes.“
- Professions (Classes in other MMOs). You have Soldiers which are Guardian and Warrior, Adventurers which are Engineer, Ranger and Thief and Scholars which are Elementalist, Mesmer and Necromancer. Only five of these are from the original Guild Wars and I’m excited to see what the other classes involve. However, GW2 did away with your typical class stereotype such as Tank, DPS and Healer. I am very curious… Apparently, every class has one heal skill slot and that is all you get. I prefer being DPS in most MMOs, though I’ve enjoyed tanking and healing both in the past. I do wonder what a dungeon run and PvP is like without your typical roles and it’ll be interesting to see how teamwork is handled.
Those are my thoughts on Guild Wars 2. Do you have the game? Are you excited for Guild Wars 2 if you don’t?