Massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) have become the cash cow of the computer game industry in recent years. Titles like World of Warcraft have millions of players and are among the most popular titles ever. Developers ArenaNet are aiming to break WoW’s stranglehold on this emerging market with an MMORPG with a twist – Guild Wars.
Unlike other games, Guild Wars has no monthly subscription. This is a popular model in South Korea, where cheap and high speed broadband has led to subscription free games becoming the norm. Guild Wars represented a large gamble for publishers NCSoft, however, as this model had not been tried with success in the rest of the world.
With over 4 million copies sold, it’s safe to say that the gamble paid off, and Guild Wars is one of the most successful MMORPG titles. The game has three standalone campaigns – Propechies, Factions and Nightfall – which can be bought and played by themselves. However, if you own more than one title, you can move your character between the different lands opened up in each campaign. A larger story arc interlinks all of the campaigns, and certain skills, items, and features are only available in each campaign.
Recently the first full expansion, Eye of the North, was released. Eye of the North requires at least one campaign, and uses existing characters from that campaign to build on the storyline. As EotN is an expansion aimed at existing players, there is no introduction area as in other campaigns. The missions and quests are challenging and firmly aimed at experienced players.
An interesting aspect to Guild Wars is that not only is there a strong story running through all campaigns, but there is an equally strong focus on PvP (player versus player) battles. Regular tournaments are held for hefty real world cash prizes, and special PvP versions of all the campaigns can be bought.
This unique method of splitting role playing and PvP players ensures that the ‘griefing’ that occurs so regularly in other MMORPGs is missing from Guild Wars. The focus on skill as opposed to having the latest items, and the lack of a monthly fee, makes it ideally suited to the more casual gamer.
With Guild Wars now an established title, special offers and cheap bundles are available to purchase the campaigns. With no monthly fees this makes Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall a cheap and easy title to introduce you to the world of MMORPGs. Now is the time to try them out, especially with the Guild Wars 2 beta due to be formally announced in 2008, with Eye of the North providing a bridge for characters accomplishments between the two games.
Guild Wars is a series of massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG) developed by ArenaNet of NCsoft, the make of many popular MMO’s. There have been 3 stand alone games that have been released and one expansion. All installments of this game have been released solely for Windows systems.
The thing that makes Guild Wars different from most other massive multiplayers, is that it is a subscription-free game. Thats right, after the cost of the actual software, there are no monthly charges. The way ArenaNet makes money is by making its players pay a nominal fee for extra areas. Guild Wars’ online system is similar to Battle.net developed by Blizzard, as its totally free for both PvP and PvM players. Coincidently, many of the developers from Blizzard that worked on the Diablo series and some that were involved with World Of Warcraft were also involved in the development of Guild Wars as well.
Development of Guild Wars 2 is in progress, but it is unknown when the game will be released. There are rumors of an early 2008 closed beta release.
The original release of Prophecies offers over 30 class/profession combinations and more the 200 quests. Each of the stand-alone releases and expansions includes more character professions, quests, and map areas to explore. The game has a gold based economy and as a result there are many services offering game currency and items for real world cash.
Just because Guild Wars is free doesn’t mean you should brush it aside as a game not worth your time. It has game play features and graphics that are competitive with other MMORPG’s available on the market.
Guild Wars has won numerous awards since its release in April 2005 and has sold far more than 4 million copies. This obviously doesn’t mean there are that many active players, but it’s a good measure of the games popularity.
Guild Wars is a game that puts a majority of the games information on the users PC so they could cut back on bandwidth costs of their free protected servers. Essential files are downloaded at start-up and the rest of the data is downloaded in the background while you play.
Guild Wars is a great deal of fun to play, and I myself have wasted hours behind the screen playing this game. It also has a very low learning curve, so those new to the genre as well as MMORPG veterans can both enjoy this game.
An action game is the one in which you need to use weapons, reflexes and special moves available in the game in order to beat the opponents so as to move ahead in the game. Action games are very popular as they are fun-packed and exciting. That being said, there are different types of action games. Fighting games, shooter games, maze games are some of the types of action games that are very popular among gamers.
A shooter game is the one in which the player needs to use the weapons available in the game so as to kill the enemies. There are different types of shooter games. One of the most popular types of shooter game is the first-person shooter game. Third-person shooter, tactical shooter, light gun shooter are some of the other types of shooter games.
First-person shooter games are very popular among gamers who love to play fast-paced games that require quick reflexes in order to beat the enemies. In a first-person shooter game, you need to control a character and you play the game from the perspective of the character which allows you to concentrate on shooting and combat. In a first-person shooter game, you don’t get to see the character that you’re controlling as you play the game from his perspective which gives you the feel of being there in the battle zone. In first-person shooter games like Doom, you need to kill the enemies with the help of the weapons that are available in the game.
Also, different first-person shooter games offer different types of weapons and different types of enemies. In Doom, you’ve aliens as your enemies whereas you’ve humans and aliens as enemies in some shooting games. Doom is a typical first-person shooter game as the difficulty of the game increases as you make progress in the game. Different types of weapons, armors are provided at different levels and you need to choose weapons appropriately so as to kill the enemies easily as a single weapon is not very effective for all the enemies.
With the development in technology and Internet, a number of multiplayer online first-person shooter games have been developed. In an online multiplayer first-person shooter game, you play online with players from all around the world. In online multiplayer first-person shooter games, you get to interact with players from all around the world while enjoying the first-person shooter games online.
You can make teams online so as to kill the enemies easily. Counter Strike is one of the most popular online multiplayer first-person shooter games. In Counter Strike, you form a team of players, pick the weapons, decide the location and then fight enemies. With-in the game, you can interact with team partners so as to form the strategy in order to trap the enemies and kill them.
Apart from the first-person shooter games that focus mainly on shooting, there are some first-person shooter games that focus on both the storyline and the shooting. Half-Life is one such game. In Half-Life, you control a character and then you’re put into a different kind of world where you need to find clues and kill enemies silently so as to move ahead in the game. In Half-Life, you need to interact with the characters available in the game to find the clues and weapons. It’s a bit different than the traditional first-person shooter games that focus mainly on shooting.