Guild Wars

Revisiting Guild Wars (The First One)

Kluwes1 Comment

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9 and a half years ago I created my Guild Wars account. 9 and a half years, that seems like an awfully long time ago. In those years I managed to put in over 1,500 hours into the game with many of my main character having 230 hours of play time. I don’t think I’ve ever played a single game that long since and probably never will again.

In the past I’ve tried to make it a point to go back every once and a while to open my birthday presents and see which mini pet I would get this year. Apparently it’s ben a long time since I’ve done that because each of my characters had 4 presents waiting to be opened today. It’s crazy to think these characters are old enough to be in the  2nd grade!

Guild Wars was my game in high school. I first came to it after being fed up with being a free player on Runescape and not having the means to become a member. Guild Wars was a physical box I could buy with cash and didn’t have to pay a subscription afterwards so no credit card needed. I loved the world, the classes, the battle system. I loved that max level was 20 and there were hundreds of skills to choose from to make builds. Most of all I loved the fashion, all the armor and weapons was the same stat wise at 20 so everything was viable to wear.

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Over the years I’ve ran the content to the ground on at least 6 characters. My stable of 10 still has some stragglers that I never quite got around to playing. My assassin was my main with the most hours clocked on him but my favorite class has to be the ritualist. I haven’t played a game since with a class quite like it from the mobile spirit turrets to random jars you can carry around and drop for different effects.

As you can tell I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic lately about the game. One thing I’ve never done is finish the Prophecies campaign. As soon as I got the Factions expansion and realized how easy it was to fully level a character I never looked back. I even tried to take some Factions and Nightfall characters back to Lion’s Arch to try and finish the campaign but I never got too far.So last night I decided I would try to beat it and if all went well and if I was still enjoying the game I’d revisit the other expansions as well.

So I rolled up a Mesmer, a class I never really got around to playing, and was hit by a wave of nostalgia as I entered the Pre-Searing. With Guild Wars being in Maintenance mode for years now I’m really surprised that there are so many people still running around in Pre-Searing towns, and by so many people I mean like 5. I would of thought it would have been a complete ghost town, surprise surprise. I’ve only done a few quests and run aorund to a few towns. I don’t know if I’ll end up sticking with it but it’s like seeing an old friend again for now and it’s kind of a cool feeling.

A Love Affair with MMOs

Kluwes5 Comments

 

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I’ve been MMOing since 2004. While I would really like day that my first experience with online games was with Runescape or World of Warcraft, it just isn’t so. See while all my friends were playing Runescape, I was playing Club Penguin. If you’re not sure what that is, it was basically a heavily moderated chat room with some mini games and a penguin avatars to dress up. For the life of me I can’t remember why I was so entranced by it, maybe because it was the first time I was playing a game that had any kind of chat feature at all. It took about a year for my friends to convince me to try this Runescape thing.

I like to think of Runescape as the gateway MMO. It wasn’t flashy, it ran in a browser, and it was pretty easy to learn  to play. It was one of the first open world games I played and even as a free account, where 50% of the content was locked off, the map felt huge. I never could convince my parents to pay for a membership. It was in Runescape that I fell in love with watching numbers go up and there were so many skills to level! I played with friends almost every day for a year and a half before we all lost interest and moved on.

My parents never understood video games, nor could they see why they should spend $15 a month for me to play them. I missed out on playing World of Warcraft and other pay to play games. Guild Wars on the other hand was something I could buy from the store myself. I played Guild Wars and all of its expansions religiously for 4 years. . I had a menagerie of alts, I ran a guild, and I must have completed each campaign at least five times. Though I couldn’t tell you what the story was about now if you asked. I haven’t been able to sink my teeth into a game like that since.

Once I graduated high school, I didn’t have a lot of time for MMOs anymore.  I experimented with League of Legends in college but ultimately gave up  when no one else wanted to play. I patiently waited for Guild Wars 2 to launch but when it can out my laptop couldn’t run it. I was devastated. By the time I got a semi capable PC, no one I knew was playing it anymore.

Since graduating from college I have rekindled the old flame once again. While I haven’t found an MMO to stick with yet, I’ve fooled around with a lot. I bought The Secret World, I played FFXIV for 3 months, and I finally got a character to level 80 in Guild Wars 2. When I discovered what use to be Massively (now Massively OP), I realized I didn’t just enjoy the playing the genre but I enjoyed learning  about the industry as well. Unfortunately my computer still isn’t ideal for gaming, making it impossible to play the newer, prettier titles out there. But I have enjoyed trying games out that it can run.

For the past few months some friends and I have been playing Trove. Most of them aren’t really into MMOs but like building and the super easy game play. For me it’s  a little too simple, but it’s enjoyable in a group. Unfortunately, after the last few updates, my interest in Trove is dwindling.  Once again I’m setting out to find my next MMO to settle down with. Maybe I’ll give Guild Wars 2 another try.

I’ve been wanting to start a blog for a while now, but never had the motivation to just sit down and write.I just learned about the Newbie Blogger Initiative a few days ago. I’m really excited to participate in the events and talk with other bloggers. I’m aiming to post at least twice a week, maybe more if time allows. It’s been a blast so far.