Guild Wars and the sharpened pencil.

I have again been playing Guild Wars with some little buddy’s I like to call ‘Team Quest Hard’ (they don’t like it when I call them that. I say it in my finest movie voice). Some thought about the game have popped into my head recently. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t play allot any more or because my gaming habits are more diverse than when I started originally but i will try and articulate my thoughts using words of the finest quality.

Guild Was is not an MMO, I only realised this the other day. The best way i can describe it is as a single player game that you can play with as many mates as you want to. That sounds strange but i have played guild wars alone with AI team mates and with full groups of friends and honestly its a great game and either way its lots of fun.

In my opinion guild wars is an anomaly in the gaming world. its a Co-op Role play game with persistent characters, not an MMO, not a single player game, not a traditional single player game as you have a group but its not squad based.

with all this in mine here are three reasons you should love Guild Wars, even all these years later…..

Its epic – I know that sounds like a fan-boy thing to say in every way you can think of i agree with you but its worth saying anyway. Everything about guild wars is EPIC with caps lock turned on, totally.

Look at this picture (left) its epic, every character is epic, the way they are standing is epic. the game is epic! – Okay fan-boy moment over. the game is epic thought, you are the hero, the key to everything and through 4 entire story arch’s you get to be just as important and as you play thought you meet characters, real ones with personality and voices (thank you regular cut scenes) the plot makes you feel, well, epic.

How many MMO’s are there that actually make you feel like this? in LotRO you get to be a little person in the story of larger people and in WoW, well no one i know can tell me the plot to that game in less than a million words (that make little sense) but in guild wars i am he chosen one (depending on campaign) and hand picked by the gods to be the one to change the world (three times at least anyway)

Environment – again, this is a bias and fan driven post but the world crafted in guild wars has a read feel to it, granted I'm thinking ‘epic’ but the game does show you things that make you stop and just look at for a moment.

In Prophecies we see lush  jungles and ice planes and desert wastelands, that’s every variation that we can think of when we have to list different places.

In Factions we see an urban maze and an eastern land of adventure that we imagine in legends. a little later in the game we see this magical forest that;s filled with strange wonders.

In Nightfall we see a swash buckling land of possibility and the struggles of a nation at war. as the game progresses we see an almost pre-historic desert with huge stones and planes of water with occasionally breaks for oasis’s. we even venture into a plane of torment where its dark and sinister in ways we never before imagined.

The unexpected  - the first time i played the game i was forever seeing unforgettable sights and talking to new NPC’s who want to give me quests of push me to the core plot of the game but then when ‘Eye of the North’ came out we met something new. the Asuran race. and the game took a new spin, with portals (star gates, i don’t care what they say, those are star gates) we get to see our would of fantasy take a sci-fi twist in a very subtle manor

Vekk was just one of these new people that we meet. he uses magical energy to power robots and in so many subtle ways the story of the Asuran is woven through him. we know they are an old and xenophobic race, its even hinted that they come from another plane of existence (possibly even aliens).

The point is here that Guild Wars is a twist it has so many strange and wonderful twists and turns that the unexpected in visual aspects, story and character depth is astounding.

One last thing – Guild Wars two will be out relatively soon and with lore as well thought out as it is in this game allot of the lore is going to be subtly built into it. so if you have never played guild wars but want guild wars 2 its worth playing it even just a little bit as a taste of things to come.

so, stop reading and go play it NOW.

Guild Wars, an addict is never cured.

Guild Wars. I have loved that game since the day I first slapped eyes on its loading bar. According to X-fire i have played 1,194 hours of it and that number is way off as for a good portion of my Guild Wars time I was playing without X-fire as for whatever reason it was not detecting the game correctly. whatever way you look at it though over a thousand hours is a huge amount of time for any single form of entertainment.

Recently however i have had some account issues with some mean people hacking my account (nothing was lost thankfully) so being unable to play for a week gave me the urge to play that i had not had in months (even thought without the hacking i would not have given it a second thought). last Night Mr Fish(HangmansJoe), Fleata and i loaded into the game and quested our way through some Eye of the North content (i was in it for Title Grinding) and we had a GREAT nights play.

Its strange that a game as old as guild wars is still a wonderful evenings game play and no one complained about the lack of jumping.

All in all, i think its safe to say that my love of the game ahs been fired up again and i just cant wait for GW2.

Also if anyone does not know, all those accomplishments you have in the Hall of Monuments will not be going to waste as we now know what your working towards in Guild Wars 2 thanks to THIS site.

If you want me in game I usually play ‘Laird Hex’ and am happy to play with anyone who whispers me (and has Skype)

stereo typing, Drama + 2, Truth - 6

Last night I watched a documentary called Dungeon Masters made back in 2008, chronicled a few months in the life of a handful on serious pen and paper role players. It was in short terrible. Like many of these documentaries it made the mistake of making these people appear to be deeply unhappy and obsessed with escapism. There was a documentary about WoW players a few years ago that did the same thing. Strangely the only people who would be interested in this type of film are the exact same types of people that it disparaged.

A long time ago I was a pretty serious pen and paper role player myself (White Wolf World of Darkness games such as Vampire the Masquerade, Mage the Ascension and others) the inability to find a regular group was the thing that killed my love of the games in the end (still have all the books, they are awesome). As I became more of an MMO gamer I took some of these skills with me.

Just last night I was taking on the role of ‘Gabrielleah’ Guarding of Bree while playing LotRO, I play on a Role-play server and some times like to stay in character while playing in the world. In real life I am married, I have a beautiful daughter, a Job, friends (well one or two anyway) and am generally happy in life, so are many of the more serious role players I know. So why do these films make us all out to be crazy?

Even some of the hard core character obsessed players I know are happy people who know the difference between reality and fiction. Role playing is a chance to exorcise your imaginative muscle, it is a creative act no different to writers crafting stories or actors practicing emotion.

How many of us know deeply troubled and unhappy people who use role play in games as escapism? Not very many I bet, I personally know more people with drink problems that are much more destructive than role players getting a little serious.

All these years after the popularisation of role pay from Dungeons & Dragons and the social phenomenon that World of Warcraft role playing is still considered a hard-core geek pass time for the particularly strange and socially inept.

I even created a short You-tube video a while back to see if I could get some feedback on public opinion.

People at work think its strange that I write about video games and record podcasts without getting paid, I tell them its an experience that I find rewarding, would they think I was insane if I told them I like to get inside my character mind while I run around in high fantasy worlds? Yeah, Probably. Are they right in their opinion? No, I don’t think so. I think it’s better than any other interest or vice I could have.

So what if people think it’s strange that I know what THAC0 means and own a bag of dice. I don’t drink and have strong morale fortitude and a love for life, does that matter?

I do however think that the morons who create these documentaries and new articles work against us by melding public opinion in a negative way. Why is there never a good looking well rounded person who also role plays on these films? – Because people love a stereo type.

Am I the only one who thinks its about time things changed?

The One True Cast – Bree Cast?

Its True, your not going insane, that logo above does signify the epic return of the Bad Panda HexDSL Tag team of pod-win. The One True Cast is Back!

This Episode is the return to form for the One True cast with the new pricing model explained really slow for the tem billion people on the forums who don’t ‘get it’ as well as a chat about the item shop, the future of the game, our static group and all sorts of other wonderful things LotRO related.

Have an MP3 from here

We have an RSS here  (you can download an MP3 from there too)

Get us on Mevio here

Send any email to OTC@QuestHard.com

Feedback is more than welcome as well as content when submitted in MP3 format (when emailed)

To Alt is human.

MMO’s are great aren't they? we get to take on the role of a new character in a new world and explore, adventure and change the face of the world. This is great and usually I do this by playing one character until i feel like I have experienced it all, i have never been an end game junkie but have always been a slow leveller so it has never mattered.

I have developed a new play style recently though, recently i have loved to play those Alts (alternative character's, as in, not my main) i have done this in both Guild Wars where i have created a new elementals to play from the start and in Lord of the Rings Online where i have created a Guardian and a Hunter.

for the last few years of MMOing i have not seen the appear of Alting as i have always felt that my focus would be best spent making a single character ‘legendary’ but now i am older and more jaded i can see the light. with a new character it can be like a new game, new UI components to look at and play with, new ways of doing things, and a whole experience that is new.

In many ways i think of its as ‘different flavour crisps’ they are all potato snacks but some taste like chicken while others taste like onions. different but the same, not better or worse just different.

I one problem with Alting is that it gets expensive as i am splitting my time between characters i never have chance to craft or farm or generally make money the way i did when i had just the one character. maybe different classes are actually there to add content in this way on purpose.

I wonder if a new character would rekindle my love of Global agenda (now its soul has been patched out of it)

how many times have you played and MMO and not liked it after just one character? maybe a different class would have changed your mind totally.

anyway im going to enjoy an Alt now, maybe one day one of these will be my new main after all is the main the one you play the most or the one you like the best?

Quest Hard #6 'Legend of the Horse Cannon'

 

No horses were harmed in the making of this episode. we talk in great depth about Age of Empire the MMO-ish version, Bilzzard’s epic lawsuit we also discuss the possible closure of Earth Eternal and how Hex does not care about Duke Nukem forever, there is also yet another tear shed for Spellborn.

Get us over at: http://www.QuestHard.com
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Listen now http://www.mevio.com/episode/245511/quest-hard-6-legend-of-the-horse

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Fish on Twitter: http://twitter.com/hangmansj0e

FEEBACK WANTED. Come visit our website. Please.

Guild Wars 2, Some questions.

With the launch of Guild Wars 2 on the very real horizon now there has been a good many posts all cross the internet speculating about the mechanics and story of the new game. With all this buzz and interest I have waited to write my thoughts on the whole topic. So, I have prepared the following ramblings that really is designed to raise questions about they day to day experience…

There are going to be many changes to the Guild Wars game play, this includes everything from the skill bar selection method to the lack of healers and tanks to the new death penalties and all the undisclosed stuff in-between.

I am sure that the game will be a great improvement upon the first, I mean no disrespect to the first game as it was one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had but its getting a little old now and most of us serious players have finished all of the content at least once and there are some things missing from the game that are standard in newer games.

However with all this said there are specific nuggets of information that I am interested in that have not yet been disclosed.

Servers
Even though ArenaNet have spoken in some detail about persistence and such like, they have not addressed the method they are using to accomplish this, will the outposts and cities still be separate zones/instances or will the be in the centre of the instance? Sounds like a small question I know but the dynamics of this effect a great deal how the day to day travel and socialising will work.

Will I be able to ‘map’ somewhere in the same way I can with with the first game or will I be relying on mounts like in other games? If I am going to need a mount or something similar will there also be fast travel routes?

Will I be able to switch instance like I can now to play with a friend or is my server choice going to be more restrictive than that? In a lot of new games like Champions online there is a limit to about 100 people in a single instance will this be the same with Guild Wars 2?

Will there still be hard mode, will this be a hard mode instance/server that I have to switch to or will I be able to make the choice when out in the wilderness?

Will there still be a structure like the hall of Monuments that is a personal instance or will this be expanded to player housing?

Social
I have already mentioned my concern about server choices restricting who you can play with but will this new game have a buddy system that lets me play with anyone I like or will the new levelling system already account for this in some way that we have not yet thought of?

Will the game have social tools like Twitter or Face book integration of any kind, I know it may not ‘fit’ a fantasy MMO but if LotRO can have a player blog system (my.LotRO) then I think the options are a little wider than they used to be. I for one would like to be able to see a twitter feed in every game I play.

Will your characters ‘stats’ be available on a website like the WoW Armoury system? Even if not at launch is this planned at some point?

Will the friends list offer more information than online and offline, will I be able to see character details and titles for people who are offline?

Price
I know that they have used the phrase ‘Guild Wars pricing model’ but what exactly does that mean? At the moment we can buy unlocks, costumes and character slots in the store and campaigns come in massive chunks in the future however will we be buying campaigns or area’s. Will the campaigns come with new slots and races or classes or are all these things going to be separate?

As you can see I have some pretty specific questions about the game that so far have not been directly addressed. So, I am letting the more skilled news outlets tell us about classes and lore while I wait for the quality of life stuff to surface.

I am sure that ArenaNet will make the sequel that we all desire so badly, I’m even sure that it will live up to expectations. I just hope that the tools to build a community will be there.

Guild Wars 2 Hype machine - Warrior

Once again the GW 2 Hype machine has had a mighty blast of awesome released with the confirmation and video of the Warrior Class.

Sure we all knew it was coming but now its official. the Warrior is officially announced as a Guild Wars 2 profession. there is even a video to prove that they didn’t just throw this in at the last minuet.

If your want more news about Guild Wars 2 then check out GuildCast podcast (its really the best one out there) or the games official  home page over at www.guildwars2.com

write on

On thing that has always fascinated me is people ability to write. I real allot and as I read I am always mesmerised by the concept that a single person crafted the novel in my hands. Even a bad book is a feat of dedication and imagination. I don't get the same impressions when watching a movie however, I'm never struck by the skill of the writer, I am fairly sure its the delivers, you watch a film and your not constantly reminded that the words are written, the actors do their job's and everything looks natural, like its really happening.

What about games then? How often do we give thought to the writers in the games we love? I think it maybe about time that these writers got more public about who they are. For instance Guild Wars is a game that has strong cut scene dialogue as well as many interlocking quest based story's. Who writes this stuff? Do the writers have a history as novelists or are they just people off the street who say “I work cheap”

According to the Guild Wars Wiki the head of the writing team is called Bobby Stein who graduated university with a degree in film. What strikes me as strange is that I had to look that up. I think games should showcase these people after all how are the writers of guild wars any less important that the writers of the books we love.

Maybe with the fully acted dialogue in Dragon age and the up coming Old Republic we will see greater appreciation for writers and voice actors.

An epic picture and some Myst.

okay, I have been a bad blogger recently, I’ll take that. This is partly because of real life commitments and party because of another writing project i am working on (can’t go into that right now, sorry) but i did go to the launch event for the new ATI graphics card that was at Eclipse Computer store in Coventry. imagine my shock when i ended up on their web page.

I’m the grownup (not the random passing child) its just a shame that the real Predator and Alien where booked that day and we had to make do with statues made of motorcycle parts (really!)

This post is not all self congratulating randomness its also to let anyone who does not know that Myst Online is back!

 http://mystonline.com/en/

Its back, its free and its still pretty! so go and play it you don’t know what your missing (says I, who has not had chance to play it yet!)

Anyway, I’ll be blogging again properly soon and hopefully won’t miss anything that i cant catch up on, like a one day only Guild Wars level 21 day of something.

Fresh eyes

The other night some one i know through gaming decided to make the jump and buy Guild Wars, he purchased the trilogy from the Steam service and then purchased the Eye of the North from The GW-Store.

The individual in question comes from a WoW background but is branching out with games like Global Agenda (the current hot pick) so i was quite shocked when i was asked to join him in Guild Wars.

What i noticed straight away was that he was talking in WoW terms and trying to compare everything in the game to something familiar. so in an effort to help the new players who are familiar with other MMO titles i will try to explain a few things.

End Game, Raiding.

In Many MMO’s the part of the game that takes place once you have taken your character to the highest level you begin to experience what is known as the ‘end game’ however in guild wars this throws people because max level is only a few days play away for a serious gamer.

once you reach the maximum level for a guild wars character you still need to finish the fantastically constructed story (missions, primary quest line) for each campaign, this gives you XP (that you still need to buy skill’s) and gold (always useful) as well as a deeper understanding of the games lore.

once you have finished this portion of the game the ‘end game’ really starts, this is where you can start playing through the massive dungeon area’s of the Far Shiverpeaks (Eye of the North area)

Another Part of the ‘end game’ is ‘skill hunting’ that's finding a skill you want and then hunting it down from the relevant boss. once you feel your at your best you can take that PvE character and experience the brutal PvP portion of the game.

This a swell as minor portions of the game such as title farming and vanquishing had given me many hours of ‘end game’ enjoyment without the stress of traditional ‘raiding’ that you find in other games.

 

Auction house

Most MMO’s have an Auction house, a place where you can sell your unwanted ‘gear’ to other players for a profit.

Guild Wars does not have one of these. The reason for this is that Guild Wars is free to play, there is no monthly subscription fee so its an expense to host that arena net avoided

What you do have is ‘Trade’ chat channel that works surprisingly well. its not ideal but for the most part you will have little difficulty selling good quality items

Item Rarity

Many players who come from WoW are baffled by the colour coding of item rarity. okay, Light Blue items are the first step of rarity, then Purple, Gold and finally the Green items are the most voluble and unique, this is not ‘stupid’ or ‘pointless’ this game did not follow the trends of other MMO’s and if the colour coding of items irritates your too much then you have issues of your own to work out. its a design choice nothing more. (i have had that conversation many times)

You can not jump

i know, but the game is not designed with jumping in mind so your not missing out. complaining about it wont help. the game was designed from the ground up to work a specific way, jumping was not designed into that, again a design choice.

Servers

There are no servers as such you can switch your current regional location by using the menu in located in the top left corner of the screen. so, you can play with any of your friends, there are no restrictions like in other games.

PvP Characters

you can choose to create a PvP only character, you will have limited skills to pick from (only those that you have unlocked on your account) but you will be given a level 20 character and allowed to take part in all of the PvP content. however that character can not be used for PvE play.

Hello everyone, its me, again.

Hello, it would appear that thanks to the Guild Wars community management guys that a link to this blog has been posted on the Guild Wars Community page.

So, to all new readers I would like to say hello. This blog is a collection of Guild Wars themed thoughts, tutorials and general observations.

I usually post fortnightly and provide wiki links whenever possible. This blog has been running for quite some time now and you may find some of the older posts of use.

if you have any thoughts or question please feel free to post comments or get me on twitter @HexDSL. I hope you enjoy the posts (and hit the follow button).

thanks for taking the time to read.

I’m not ignoring you!

Hey guys. I’m not ignoring you.

I have noticed the comments i have had on my posts but for some reason that i just can not figure out i can’t reply to comments.. there is just a big white gap where the comment window should be :(

I will try to figure it out and respond to all the comments.

for now though i would just like to clarify, i don't have an innate hatred for guilds or anything. i was asked by ‘Himemiya’ in a comment why i don’t stay in guilds.

well, i play in the mornings usually on my free days (about 8AM GMT) and most of Europe is sleeping, so i play on the American based servers, so eventually some one will ask me to join their guild, so I do…

then I’ll play at more reasonable time when there are people playing in Europe and I’ll end up joining a UK or France based guild, thinking hey, this is great,  people who play at the times i do… then i play in the AM again, and they cycle continues…

I think its all because i haven't found a really great guild in a while. if anyone does have a chatty bunch of players though do send me an invite if you see me on. after all i am still looking.

also, thanks for the comments and e-mails i do read everything even if i cant respond.

as usual, you can get me on twitter @HexDSL or on the 404 Radio Podcast. Thanks for reading.

Kurzick or Luxon?

This evening i joined a small guild, nothing permanent i don’t think but just something so that i can play alliance battles, i always like to play the Kurzick side of the war and have fell into the trap of thinking of myself as a member of the Kurzick war.

Isn't its strange how we fall into the trappings of taking sides in a virtual war and more importantly actually start to loathe the opposing team.

For games like World of Warcraft with its choice of ‘side’ being a massive influence in the daily life of a character its easy to understand this sense of team but in Guild Wars its really only one of two missions in the Factions campaign that is effected by your choice.

When it comes down to the actual meat of the PvP your choice of ‘side’ really does not influence things that much, so why do we feel this alliance?

I think the answer is because of the fantastic cut senses and strong story that the game guides us through. that and the PvP title track that appears when we first hand in some of those glorious faction points, i mean, once you are ‘Friend of the Kurzicks’ your hardly going to stab them in the back are you?

Anyway what side are you on and does it mean much to you?

Ahead of the curve

It is true that since Christmas i have played very little Guild Wars, this is mostly the fault of Borderlands and Torchlight, that does not however mean that i have been any less obsessed, with some Guild Wars Related thoughts plaguing me night and day.

Recently we have seen the release of Champions online, one of the first games released that has single server architecture. meaning everyone can play together. – Guild Wars does this already, and always has.

We now hear that Star Trek Online has 50-60 player instanced areas, and a single server architecture. – Guild Wars does this already.

There are rumours flying around the web, unsubstantiated at this point but none the less a popular idea that the up coming Star wars The Old Republic MMO will be free to play after an initial box purchase and that it will have a Real money shot to unlock things. – Guess what game has done that for years already?

I can now say (as the NDA has been lifted) that i am playing Global Agenda, a game that is very different from other MMO’s (and barely an MMO if we are honest) is a PvP game with factions dominating areas of a map (GW, Alliance battles style) and a minor PvE segment that is little more than scenario's (but fun) – Guild Wars PvP is just like this (granted less sci-fi action based) and the original design model for GW was PvE scenario, it was only when the developers fell in love with the environments that it became a more full MMO

what i am trying to say is that Guild Wars has not only been ahead of the curve for the last four years but people actually used these now mainstream features of the game as a reason NOT to play it.

maybe ArenaNet should engineer a re-launching of the game, after all it has all the features of a brand new cutting edge super popular game.

Guild Wars is still playable, still populated and still fun, i hope you see my point here anyway.

A Guild Alone

Apologies all, but over the Christmas period i have had family responsibilities (the down side of being a grown up) and have not had time to write a blog but we are well into the new year and now i can get back on track.

Dont forget to check my other blogs though, i have been writing just not about guild wars.

My General Gaming blog (and a load of other stuff) is http://lairdhex.blogspot.com/

My Alternative view blog is http://rabbitholeexpress.blogspot.com/

But as your here your probably more interested in Guild Wars related blogs. and for that i have nothing. i have a mass of followers but very few comment of the blog so if there is an aspect of the game you would like to go into depth on please comment.

I am currently without a Guild in the game (got to stop joining US based ones as there is no one online at the times when i play) i am going to write a post about guild’s and all things related over the next few day.

once again, sorry for the lack of updates but I will be posting more soon.