Guild Wars -- worth playing at this point?

[WhipperSnapper]

I saw a copy of Guild Wars GOTY (an older GOTY I think, not the one with the newer design in the box, but rather the one with the Necromancer woman on the front) today at my local Big Lots for $6.

Should I pick it up?

Are people still playing this game online?

What are the player counts like?

Realistically, do I need the expansions to play it online and to find other players to play with?

Do I need the expansions or do most people just play the vanilla game?

How does this compare to the original Neverwinter Nights?

Are there custom maps and mods?

 

[shortylickens]

I've had it since it first came out. Only got two level 11 characters right now. I dont like the way it plays and I wish it was easier to explore new lands. You run way too slowly (its their way of artificially increasing the size of the world) and too many monsters can slow you down and wipe you out, especially if your friends are all weak. The other problem is your aquired experience goes down sharply when your level is relatively high to the monsters levels, making the task of leveling up a serious chore. I am at a strange point where I cant complete any available main quests or side quests so I cant access the good XP rewards. I guess I need to hook up with a party much more powerful than me if I want to get access to other Hot Spots on my map. I'd just as soon play another game than grind away.

I kinda wish I did have the expansions so I could access new areas. But its your choice. Play the core game for a couple months and decide if you wanna invest more money into it.
People do still play it a lot. You'll find tons of friends, especially on the international server (during the right time of day).
It does not compare to anything, especially not a single player game.
I dont know about custom maps and mods. Since its an MMO I dont see why they would allow that. But since its a free MMO with lots of areas just for the lone player, I suppose.
I should say that the game directory structure is remarkably simple, with just the executable and a single 3 gigabyte data file for everything. Based on that I seriously doubt mods are possible.
I do not know if adding expansions adds more data files.

To summarize: Its supposed to be less of a grindfest than other MMO's, and I'm glad its free, but overall I wasnt impressed.
I paid 50 bucks for the collectors edition (with the Necro chick on the box) and I have to say that 6 dollars is a STEAL! You should try it for a bit, just to see what its like.

 

[I4AT]

Whether or not you'll like Guild Wars really depends on your style of play. If you're more a lone wolf type of player who isn't keen on joining Guilds or picking up groups of random people, I wouldn't recommend it. The solo play in this game is non existent, certain builds can solo certain areas only. Later in the game the difficulty ramps up significantly meaning a good group is a must, or you'll find yourself repeating the same missions over and over and just not advancing.

If you're a community oriented player that likes the idea of a Guild or meeting and playing with lots of different people, you'd probably enjoy the game. $6 will net you a lot of content, and they do a lot of different events to keep things interesting for even seasoned players, especially during holidays.

In the later add ons like Nightfall and Eye of the North they add computer controlled "heroes" that can be customized to use certain skills and wear any type of gear, that gives a little more freedom to people who prefer solo play, but you can only group 2 at a time, so you will still need help from players in certain areas.

For $6 I'd say it's worth a try, you could pretty easily recoup the cost by selling your account to someone, transferring ownership is pretty easy using just e-mail addresses. The amount of content GW has is its main draw, the gameplay itself isn't very exciting to be honest. It's one of those click and wait style games that's more about timing than actual action. You don't get much control over your character, with the ranged classes you pretty much end up just standing face to face with a mob shooting arrows or projectiles until one of you dies. It's not like Diablo type hack n slash games where you can hit and run.

But since it's free to play because it's not technically an MMO, it's something you can come back to months or even years later to get a little more bang out of your buck.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

So let's see if I understand all of the different expansions for this game. There's the:

1. Original Guild Wars
2. Eye of the North
3. Nightfall
4. Factions
5. Guild Wars Prophecies (not for PC, console version?)

Is there also another Factions expansion? I see that there's also a Factions Platinum Edition.

 

[nsiderTalon]

GW Prophecies is the original GW (they never made a console version), and the Platinum Editions come with either Prophecies or Factions and the EotN expansion. The EotN expansion is the latest release, and works with any of the games IIRC

 

[I4AT]

That's right, Prophecies is the original Guild Wars. Factions and Nightfall are both stand alone games that also tie in with the original if you happen to own it. Eye of the North is a true expansion rather than a stand alone game, meaning you need either Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall to be able to play it. Guild Wars Trilogy includes the three stand alones, Guild Wars Platinum comes with Prophecies and Eye of the North, Guild Wars Factions Platinum comes with Prophecies and Factions.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Thanks that up.

 

[zerocool84]

It's fun if you enjoy this type of game. It's more like Diablo style gameplay than an MMO. You don't have to worry about playing every day to not get left behind. I enjoyed it for a couple years and boot it up every so often.

 

[Appledrop]

game was AWESOME pre factions, but since then the expansions have just fragmented the community and the pvp side of things, which was the heart of the game
Hall of Heroes pre factions era (about 2006) was just so much fun and so competitive... no game has come close to that experience for me really..!

 

[SunnyD]

Guildwars is a bit like Diablo.