There are guilds that let their members leech for title points while doing a task with a reduced, well-tried party build. If you actually want to "earn" the titles then it'll take a lot of time, yes - though a lot of these points will be earned by just playing the game normally, finishing all the missions etc., but that'll take a lot of time as well.

I have the complete pack too, but I only played for a few hours. It's not that I find it a bad game, but I just have so many other games to play that I keep forgetting about it. I'm mostly just waiting for GW2 anyway.

I have not kept so very many principles in life, but I am yet to play a MMO - which Guild Wars is I believe.

I am otherwise neutral about the platform, but I find the thought of lack of privacy and continusous payments something that does not suit me.

I am meanwhile curious - what do you enjoy about MMO?

Guild wars isn't really an actual MMO. It does not have an open, persistent world as other MMOs, and it does not have a subscription cost like other MMOs. But really, what I like the most about MMOs is the tight-knit community the different servers can have.

Guild Wars never had monthly fees and GW2 is going to continue this.

actually, MMOs are starting to move away from the monthly fees. City of Heroes have moved away from the monthly fee model and going towards microtransactions. The game isn't crippled if you don't pay up, but you do lose out on some nice features. Even WoW has losened their policy toward monthly fees where you can play up to level 20 before you need to cough up.
What I like about online games is being able to play with friends and meet new people. If you can get into a good guild, it makes the game so much more fun :)

Your comment makes me think of Bioware genral forums, somehow, where the established ones enjoy discussions amongst themsevels, and silence any outsiders to death by ignoring them, to the poin to of not being courteous.

I have never been the popular kid, nor I really wish to, yet I do enjoy a good RPG like any best man.

Is there a threshold to entering the MMO world, then? Does it take having charisma, stamina, or just knowing someone? Is this tight knit enjoyment at reach of anyone who is nice enogh, or is it selective?

Could you expand a bit more how Guild Wars is not an MMO? What is the online feature for, then? (I just really am ignorant :) )

Well, the tight-knit communities are mostly a thing of the past, back when MMOs weren't very popular and the player-base was rather small. These days, you won't have any trouble entering the communities since there are so many people it's impossible for them to stay tight-knit (this is also the reason I don't play MMOs myself, I find the gameplay itself to be below average in most of them, and the only reason for me to play was those communities).

For the guild wars part, MMOs typically have an open world where you can walk around and meet other people. In guild wars however, this is not the case. While there is a rather big world, everything except the cities is instanced, so you won't ever meet other people in the world unless you invite them to join you manually. And that's really the major difference between guild wars and other MMOs.

"instanced" or "not instanced" - could you please explain what this means?

My concern about "close knit" beyond "being popular" is about being able to follow whims or preferences about gameplay and persona, yet be accepted.

Did you ever implement shunning someone, in the small circles past, because they did not fit? I should hope not to be unkind, but I have certain preferences about gameplay style, and not knowing what MMO is about in real life, I would fear about someone "aggressing" my style - besides being bullied for not being cool.

Not this is in context of totally enjoying gaming Baldurs Bate gaming experience.

An instanced world is when the game gives you your own copy of this world. There are no other players in this world besides yourself and the people you personally invite. An un-instanced world is one big copy shared by everyone, and you don't have any control over who is in the world and who is not. Guild wars has an instanced world, while other MMOs have a world which is not instanced.


You can compare the community of an MMO to that of a small village. You might not know everyone in the village personally, but you'd know who everyone is, and you'd know if anyone had done something wrong. My experience is that there was always room for new people, and people weren't shunned for not playing the best (as long as they did not ruin the experience of the others on purpose).

The community now, however, is more like that of a big city. You know almost no one, and pretty much everyone you see is a complete stranger. If you want to progress in the game you are mostly required to play with these strangers, and some of them might have unrealistic expectations about your performance. Whether you group up with someone nice or not is mostly up to chance, and you can meet people who will constantly insult you for doing minor mistakes, and you will also meet people who will help you improve even if you do some big mistakes.

Yes, reaching 30/50 will require either lots of time or lots of money, or good amounts of both. Reaching 50/50 requires a huge amount of both time and money. I've seen some guides for reaching 30/50 quickly, but by quickly we're still talking well over 100 hours of gameplay time.

Minis and hero armor are relatively "cheap", so if you got enough money that's one way to advance quickly. Completing campaigns and elite areas is also relatively quick, and you get to earn some money while doing them. You can also go for titles like protector/guardian, reputation titles and skill hunter, though skill hunter will be pretty expensive.

The armor and weapon monuments are a bit of a pain. Oppressor weapons can be gotten for completing War in Kryta, but getting a bunch of them takes a while. Destroyer weapons will cost around 60k each, and Torment weapons ... well, best forget those unless you have lots of money or want to spend a lot of time in DOA. For armor, just remember that you don't need the headpieces to add them to the HOM, should save you a bit of gold.

The city analogy is accurate. Most people won't know who you are so you can easily disappear into the crowd. You would be surprised who you meet in this game, heck I've met someone who claimed to be a grandmother playing this game.

As long as you keep it civil and willing to be flexible you should be fine. It is only in elite areas and higher end pvp that people get testy and nitpicky about the builds.

There is no need to worry though, you should be fine :)

There is actually a GOG guilds started a while ago for Guild Wars if you're interested in joining, and I can send you an invite if you want, though its not a very active guild right now. I'm frequently available in game if you need some assistance.

My Ign is Fluffy Sorceress.

The game is rather forgiving when it comes to allocating stats at the start since you can change them at all outposts. Furthermore, you'll be able to change your secondary class later on at will, so you shouldn't be able gimp your at the start.

Reaching 30/50 for hall isn't very difficult - it requires some time and in game money investment, but if you start now you should get it done before GW2 is released. 50/50 is another thing - it requires a huge time/cash investment.

One of the easiest ways to get 5 points is to get the 3 pets - tame the Imperial phoenix (from finishing factions), the black widow spider (from underworld), and the black moa (in Ferndale, requires a quest chain), and get the golem mox (free point). Last I played hero armor is relatively cheap - get cloth of the brotherhood, not deldrimor armor fragments, these cost more. 1 Oppressor weapon can be gotten by doing the war in kryta quest chain. Tormented weapons cost a great deal, but I got 30 points without one. Destroyer weapons require saving up, but the base cost is 10K without materials; the materials cost quite a bit - granite is expensive - but playing through the game you should be able to afford one.

Here's a guide for reaching 30/50 and 50/50: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide_to_earning_Hall_of_Monuments_rewards

www.gog.com/en/forum/general/lets_play_guild_wars_gog

Also my IGN: Kyra Stormeye

You are badly informed informed about Guild Wars (no offense). You seem to think that Guild Wars is like WoW or one of the others, and criticize it for their faults (which GW doesn't even have). The things you don't like about MMOs are exactly the things that I don't like about MMOs - but that's exactly why I enjoy GW, because it's different in this regard. Here's a short list:

1. There is no monthly fee involved with Guild Wars. You buy the game, you can play it whenever you want, there's no additional cost.

2. You don't have to team up with other people if you don't want to. You can fill your party slots completely with heroes and henchmen (i.e. NPCs). There are some (very few) areas where human party members are required, but all of these are completely optional.

3. All missions and exterior areas are instanced, meaning: Each party that starts a missions has its own mission area generated for it. Other parties cannot interfere with your party, and you cannot even meet them except in towns/outposts.

4. These towns/outposts are basically staging areas for the missions.. If you want, you can meet other people there, trade with them, join a party for a mission, etc. But of you don't want to, you can just as well trade with the merchant NPCs, fill your party with henchmen, and take the other players as if they were computer-controlled random NPCs in any single player game, just there for the atmosphere.

Of all MMOs out there, GW comes probably closest to offering a full-fledged single player experience as well. And that's one reason why I like it. I can play it like a multiplayer game when I want to, but I never have to.

The other things that I like about GW are:
- intriguing skill system which adds a tactical component to the game. Finding well-working builds, choosing the right build for a given mission, adjusting the heroes' skills so that they work well as a team, these are tactical challenges that I enjoy.
- vast world to explore, lots and lots of things to do
- still decent graphics and sound
- very intricate reward system that keeps one motivated to get the next achievement
- still content updates, new quests, new challenges every now and then