Guild Wars Open Beta (updated: February 18-20)

[Gurney Devries]

For those of you that missed it the first time around, or for the rest of you who just couldn't get enough of it (like me), AreaNet will be having another public event for 3 days to let players from all over the world get a free sample of their upcoming MMORPG, Guild Wars. You can find my previous thread about it here (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35669).

First off, go here (http://www.gwonline.net/files/files.php?&id=12) or here (http://www.guildwars.com/preview/wpe-clientdownload.html) to download the client (90k). If you previously played the "E3 for Everyone" event, your old account will still work.

This will be an Open Beta, so don't expect it to be completely polished (although the previous Alpha Test was stunningly bug-free and lag-free). The Beta will have 2 new areas to explore, new PvP locations to do combat in, as well as the first presentation of the Guild mechanics.

And, in case you still have no idea what this is all about, here's a quick run-down:

Guild Wars is a something of a hybrid between traditional MMORPGs and Diablo 2, being developed by many key Ex-Blizzard members responsible for games like Warcraft, Diablo 2, and Starcraft.

Three things set it apart from all of the other MMORPGs currently on the market. The first being that the developers have gone to great lengths to eliminate much of the tedium and frustration inherent in today's MMORPGs. In Guild Wars, when you participate in a quest, you and your group are given your own individual "copy" of the quest. This prevents things like Spawn Camping and griefing, which are so prevelant in online games of this nature.

The second thing is that there's a greater emphasis on making Player vs. Player combat fun, and not just a platform for high level elitists to boost their egos by ganking low level players. PvP can be done in 1-on-1 duels, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag scenarios, among other things. I've never been seriously interested in PvP until I played Guild Wars.

The third thing, and this is the real kicker here folks, is that there will be NO monthly fees for the game. Once you purchase it, you're free to play it online until your eyes bleed. AreaNet intends to release an expansion pack every 6 months or so to cover the costs required to keep the game running. These expansion packs will be completely optional; You will not need to purchase them to continue enjoying the game you bought (which will doubtless have regular updates, just like every other MMORPG).

I'll leave you with a few screenshots and I hope to see you all come October. :)

http://img14.exs.cx/img14/9290/guildwars-01.th.jpg (http://img14.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img14&image=guildwars-01.jpg) http://img14.exs.cx/img14/8423/guildwars-02.th.jpg (http://img14.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img14&image=guildwars-02.jpg) http://img14.exs.cx/img14/4628/guildwars-03.th.jpg (http://img14.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img14&image=guildwars-03.jpg)

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/tehwofl/emot-dance.gif I can't wait!

... I hope I can remember my old log-in :uhoh

[Gurney Devries]

If you log on every once in a while, you can download the minor updates they regularly release. So when the beta starts, you'll be ready to go.

Also, the last time they did this, they opened up the preview 2 days early. Here's hoping they decide to do it again. :)

If you don't remember your password, you can have it e-mailed to the account you registered with.

[Yog]

I will probably download it again, but just to try out some of the new quests and locations. I honestly dont see any long lasting content in there.

[Khendon Sevon]

I might download this just to see how it stacks up against WoW (I recently participated in the second half of the beta stress testing. WoW is a miracle).

Thanks for the info.

[Gurney Devries]

Originally posted by Master Yoghurt
I will probably download it again, but just to try out some of the new quests and locations. I honestly dont see any long lasting content in there. The PvP alone seems much more long-lasting than anything the competition has to offer, IMO. Considering the fact that you couldn't even level up in the Alpha, it's quite amazing how it kept everyone hooked for 5 days straight.

[Jaime Tomahawk]

:D

Booyeah!

[Charley]

Hopefully I'll actually have my computer hooked up and online for this.

[Nevlonniel]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
... I hope I can remember my old log-in :uhoh

Amen sistah! :uhoh

[Crystal]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/tehwofl/emot-dance.gif I can't wait!

... I hope I can remember my old log-in :uhoh

Same here. I can't. Anyone I played with happen to remember? ^_^;

(also, I thought that emote was added to the smiley list. I got upset when I couldn't find it :()

I hope I don't forget about this when the time comes. I loved Guild Wars

[Gurney Devries]

It's getting closer. :D

Here's a new Guild Wars preview I came across: http://articles.filefront.com/177

The reviewer makes direct comparisons between World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. So if you're trying to decide, give it a look.

Also, here's a new screenshot/movie clip to whet your appetite: http://www.guildwars.com/gallery/screenclips/screenclip003.html

[Lady Vader]

I'm not gonna be at home to be able to play :(

[QuiGonJ]

I played it at E3, even won a purple 64MB memory stick from em. It was fun, but unless it has changed drastically, it seemed more like deathmatching than a regular MMO.

[Gurney Devries]

Maybe if you played PvP exclusively.

[Morgan Evanar]

Pants! Can't wait.

[Zasz Grimm]

Shawn, your a saint.

EDIT/ADD: Your character's build looks the same as mine- what was it, shawn?

[Pierce Tondry]

What sucks is that I was on the list to be invited into the closed Alpha/Beta, but the chick who was supposed to help keep me in contention for spots disappeared off the planet.

I will catch this, at least.

[Gurney Devries]

Originally posted by Zasz Grimm
Your character's build looks the same as mine- what was it? Elementalist/Warrior. I wasn't able to get ahold of the high level armor during the E3 event, so I'm wearing the starter armor that I dyed a variety of colors.

And, to elaborate on my earlier point: The PvP segment of the game is fairly similar to traditional Deathmatch type games. You can enter an arena and engage in 1-on-1 combat or 8 player free-for-alls. There's also Team Deathmatch games, where you can have 4 teams of 8 players competing to win. There's also King-of-the-Hill games, Capture the Flag games and several other unique gametypes. All of that is strictly to offer a more rich and diverse PvP experience than your typical MMORPG, which usually involves standing around and shooting the other player.

The main chunk of the game - the real meat, if you will - functions much like standard MMORPGs, but with all the unique little touches to make it much more fast-paced and less tedious than any game that's come before it.

Quite Frankly, I've never been this enthusiastic for an upcoming game before.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Gurney Devries

Quite Frankly, I've never been this enthusiastic for an upcoming game before.

Me and my friend kyle argue over which one will be better... WoW, or GW. I can always one-up him. GW is free. >D

I, am probably going to get this it's first week of release... And play the absolute crap out of it.

[AmazonBabe]

I do have to admit, though, that WoW is pretty damn awesome. Hell, I think I like it better than SWG. ^_^;

It's just so... polished!

Anyways, I'll still get GW when it comes out.

:lol You know, Gurney, you're right. I AM turning into an MMO junkie! :lol

[QuiGonJ]

Heh, PvPwas all they let us do at E3. Team v. team.. if there's more to it, cool! :)

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by QuiGonJ
Heh, PvPwas all they let us do at E3. Team v. team.. if there's more to it, cool! :)

Quests, exploring- it went indepth as much as it could. It was fairly fun, running around on your lonesome for a while, and then hooking up with people in the 'world' and questin with them.

*quested with crystal, was very lost when he did so*

[Pierce Tondry]

And I pre-ordered this one today. Go me.

[Gurney Devries]

Awesome. If you're not already aware, you'll now be able to participate in the beta 2 days out of the month, every month, until the game gets released.

[Pierce Tondry]

Yeah, you actually get two invitation cards in the preorder package: one with a code that allows you to access every monthly beta event, the other with a single-use access code to let a friend try out any one of the events. I've already spent some time today considering what build I'd go with when I got into the game. I tend to favor either Primary Healer Monk or Offensive Monk in other games, but with all the options at my fingertips I'll have to wait and see.

The artistic style for this game is absolutely fantastic, I must say. I loaded the client onto my PC just get a taste of the game. I couldn't go any farther than the campsite background login screen, but it and the majestic music that accompanies it left me stunned in my chair.

[Firebird1]

Ok then, you can heal my Warrior as he pounds the heck out of the enemy with his Orange Hammer!! Or was it purple.....

:huh

Well, I'll guess I'll have to find out in 4 days.

[Pierce Tondry]

The servers are up! Don't wait, sign on, create your accounts, and get into the game! It's fantastic!

[Gurney Devries]

WOW. I didn't think it was possible that they'd improve on the game after the alpha, but they did! I'm literally speechless. Amazing.

Your old characters are still present, by the way.

[Yog]

Installing now. Should be there in a few :)

My screen name is still going to be "Valandil Moonblade"

[Pierce Tondry]

Ka San Deptych, Monk for hire here.

[Gurney Devries]

Faith the Slayer. Wow. The first mission is amazing. And I absolutely love the henchmen.

[Yog]

I loaded up the game downloading some 1300 files at 45MB or so at 15KB/s. But as I got to 100%, it said "could not complete the operation", so now as I log in again, the whole thing starts all over at 0%. Is this normal? Anyway, this is probably going to take a bit longer than I expected, but rest assured, I will get there when I can.

I can see you in my friends list, Gurney as Faith the Slayer, but I dont think I can message you before the game loads up properly.

Edit: Never mind. Im in now. Quite a lot have changed apparently, so it took a while longer to load than I expected.

[Morgan Evanar]

Arduna Ving

[Gurney Devries]

http://img33.exs.cx/img33/9290/guildwars-01.th.jpg (http://img33.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img33&image=guildwars-01.jpg)

Quick screenshot of town. More to come.

http://img84.exs.cx/img84/5619/Untitled-137.th.jpg (http://img84.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img84&image=Untitled-137.jpg)

[Pierce Tondry]

I have two major gripes with the game thus far.

1: Camera spin during battles is a headache and a half. There's nothing like preparing to cast a spell on a monster only to have the screen swivel around so you can view the scenery behind you as you nearly die.

Seriously, a camera lock option would be great.

2: Crafting resource chains are a pain. Trying to hunt down that 5 piles of glittering dust you need so you can make a tempered vial so you can in turn combine that with some fibrous tangles to make bottle of ink which by the way you need 4 of oh and did I mention you also need 20 gold and 13 pieces of parchment, which are themselves a headache to produce, all so you can make ONE piece of armor which five missions down the road becomes obsolete?

Nuh-uh. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Don't make me jump through an umpteen amount of hoops just to get the worst quality stuff in the game.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Pierce Tondry
2: Crafting resource chains are a pain. Trying to hunt down that 5 piles of glittering dust you need so you can make a tempered vial so you can in turn combine that with some fibrous tangles to make bottle of ink which by the way you need 4 of oh and did I mention you also need 20 gold and 13 pieces of parchment, which are themselves a headache to produce, all so you can make ONE piece of armor which five missions down the road becomes obsolete?

Nuh-uh. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Don't make me jump through an umpteen amount of hoops just to get the worst quality stuff in the game.


I agree with this whole-heartedly. If crafting is to be that complex and certain materials hard to aquire in the necessary quantities, the armor one ultimately gets needs to be really freaking awesome.

A reasonable solution is simplify crafting for lesser armors (or simply make them available for purchase), and make the higher quality ones well worth the time it takes to craft them.

[Gurney Devries]

The thing is, the armor is supposed to take time to craft. All of that stuff wouldn't seem like such a hassle to get if you weren't rushed to do so in 3 days.

Still, I managed to finish my Pyromancer's armor earlier today: [clickee] (http://img42.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img42&image=Untitled-275.jpg)

54 bolts of cloth, 21 scales, and 80 gold. I just traded with other players for what I needed.

There was some massive lag for a few hours yesterday, but that seems to have been sorted out. I suppose I shouldn't complain, having got to play a day early. ;)

[Pierce Tondry]

I didn't have lag at all, actually. There were maybe two periods between yesterday and today where it was a problem, but those were exceptions, not the rule.

With regard to your point, Shawn, I don't think crafting frustration has anything to do with the short period the WWB spans. It's more that the process is involved to a degree ill-befitting that involvement, or so I feel.

[Gurney Devries]

I created a SWF guild. Anyone who wants to join, please message me and I'll send you an invite.

[Figrin D'an]

They added a crafting supplies trader, which helps things quite a bit. However, the higher the demand for a particular item, the more expensive it is to purchase.

I'm still collecting crafting supplies (I haven't really decided what armor I want yet), and most of them I've gotten through trading. It's rather time consuming, but since I'm at level 20 now, I don't have much else to do.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
They added a crafting supplies trader, which helps things quite a bit. However, the higher the demand for a particular item, the more expensive it is to purchase.

I'm still collecting crafting supplies (I haven't really decided what armor I want yet), and most of them I've gotten through trading. It's rather time consuming, but since I'm at level 20 now, I don't have much else to do.

I accumulated around 1.2 k gold, burned it all on some supplies. I've yet to get enough for much. I think I'm taking a break for the rest of the night- but I'll play next month for that beta.

[Pierce Tondry]

Heh, I've been on for several hours today exploring and trying to get my hands on 10 bolts of cotton. It's obnoxiously difficult to get.

But I will be on next month, too.

[Gurney Devries]

Crystal, myself and a friend of mine, all with crafted Necromancer armor:

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/7831/GW-04.th.jpg (http://img61.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img61&image=GW-04.jpg)

[Figrin D'an]

I finshed my crafted armor earlier today... I didn't get a matching set of stuff, I just got what I wanted. It was enough to make my guy look fancy, especially after I dyed it all silver (click (http://www.thegjo.com/GWdergan.jpg).)


Also, a group I went with made it all the way to the area with the dragons (well beyond the Cursed Lands). We got our butts kicked once we got there, but it was cool just to get that far.

[Morgan Evanar]

This game is a total blast. Shawn, Crystal, myself, a mutual friend and two Goons went to find Rotscale and got to the bony bastage after many instances of undead zerg rushing and other miscellaneous stupidity.
http://69.93.59.182/photopost/data/501/21gw012-med.jpg (http://69.93.59.182/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=787&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=501)

I was so thrilled my pants came off.

[Gurney Devries]

Here's a gallery of about 35 screenshots I took during the beta event, including the infamous Rotscale. It wasn't until the last day that I realized I could hide the interface by pressing Shift+Prnt Screen. :(

The screenshots are all 1600x1200, max details. For your convenience, the gallery displays them in thumbnail form. Enjoy.

[Guild Wars 10/04 Beta Event Gallery] (http://dark_god7.home.mindspring.com/gwsnap.html)

[Crystal]

Fighting Rotscale with the goons, Chris and Shawn was the most awsome thing ever. I think I enjoyed that most out of everything this time around. If we hadn't had a group of people with brains, we'd have never done it. There were a million undead around him. It was insane. Chris and a goon were really good at pulling stuff, thankfully. Once we cleared out everything around him, he was easy. after we were done, we went out in a blaze of glory(after figuring out they didn't WANT to be rezzed :)). A fitting end to our mission. I am so looking forward to doing more stuff like that in the final game. You guys were great.

The only thing that bothered me about the preview was the amount of idiots. As far as I remember, in the alpha, there were less stupid people. I had people leaving the group because you rezzed the monk instead of them first, monks deciding it's a good idea to try and finish the quest alone with everyone else dead right beside them, guys dragging 50 guards ontop of you when you told them to stay back, among other things.

I really enjoyed this, though. I'd been up around 24 hours playing. Really want to preorder it so I can join in the stuff next weekend. I just can't get enough of it. Must play more.

I was playing a sexy female necomancer/warrior as shown in shawn's screenshot above. My name was Leeloo Chicka, but.. not much use now.

OOoohh. and the ending party was pretty fun. I missed out on the stuff last time around, so made sure I was there now. Devs going kill happy is fun. They should do that once a week in the open game ^_^ I didn't really take any screenshots through the whole game, but it looked like a mass suicide with all the corpses laying around town. Jonestown

I didn't really like the pvp, but I've never been much for pvp. At least pkers can't stay outside of town and kill everyone who comes out... and steal their stuff :(

Expect me to stalk everyone playing in the final game. If you're on, I will find you and make you do stuff with me. I was always bugging everyone to let me tag along on missions after I was done with all 5.

Also I love the fact you can draw on the radar. It's fun for playing around, and good for serious planning.


Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
I was so thrilled my pants came off.

Ah, so that's what the random "I love all of you" at the end was about. ;)

I return the sentiment to everyone in our party.

[Gurney Devries]

Yeah, the missions this time weren't nearly as diverse or interesting as the ones from the alpha. There was a serious lack of terrain variety; What happened to the snowy climates? The ravaged wastelands?

The solo areas were apparently replaced with "Explorable Areas", which I'm not crazy about since the Explorable Areas don't seem to be very solo-able. Also, the solo areas used to be wide open areas where you could do lots of exploring. Now, it feels like you're restricted to one or two paths. I definitely hope that the Explorable Areas are in addition to, and not a replacement of, Solo Areas.

Also, the PvP was basically just FFA this time. The Siege at Ft. Koga became the Gladiator's Arena. Why?

Overall, I still really enjoyed it and I plan on going out in a few hours here to pre-order it, but I'm hoping they bring back a lot of the content from the E3 alpha test.

[Figrin D'an]

I knew I should have teamed up with you guys. I had about one good group the entire open beta period. Most of the time, I ended up with people who did all of things that Crystal mentioned: running too far ahead, luring hoards of monsters because they weren't careful, or just not making good in-battle decisions. Managed to meet a couple of pretty cool people. Didn't get to Rotscale, but oh well.

I'm still pondering if I want to pre-order. I like the game, but kind of like Shawn said, there were a couple of things in the Beta that I felt we're actually better in the alpha.

I attempted to wait around to see the devs show up and kill people, but I didn't have the opportunity. I waited with a group in the Farmer's Market for a long time, and when nothing happened, we decided to return to town to see what was going on. When we got there, it was completely empty, and our group were the only player characters in the entire place. So, I eventually just logged out. Once again, oh well.

[Pierce Tondry]

I should kill all you necrotic bastards for not giving me a holler when you went to go kill that dragon. Between smiting and healing, I eat Undead for breakfast, but no one could tell me where that sucker was located.

With regard to your comments on terrain and missing content, Shawn, a friend of a friend who knows a dev told me that this beta was essentially a test of more traditional MMO components. In other words: how would the players behave when they started finishing the quests, hitting level 20+, crafting new armor, and so on and were there any significant program bugs along the way? Of course this isn't hard info, but it makes a certain amount of sense.

Now for the part where I speculate on a couple things.

I myself tried to head towards the big snow section just off of the Explorable Area at Lion's Arch and was unable to go there- the game just kept shunting me back to the area I was in, which suggests there's more content that's just currently unaccessible. I anxiously await to see what will emerge in further beta tests.

After reading some of the online lore about the game I'm not sure the tutorial from this beta and the trek to Lion's Arch will begin the full game, but it served well as a central area so this could be completely wrong.

WARNING! If you do not care about the game economics, do not read the following paragraphs as they are a small study I did as a personal exercise.

The in-game economy is unfinished at this point and definitely needs work. However, I think the GW approach is a good one in theory. Here's why.

Bolts of linen, a rare crafting resource, were crafteable as of the beta test. They required 5 squares of leather and 20 gold to make. Squares of leather are in turn crafted by using 10 units of a lesser resource and 20 gold. The lesser resources generally run about 30g for 10 with little variation in that price thus making it safe to hold the ratio constant. Therefore, crafting a single leather square costs about 50 gold and converting five leather into linen will run you around 270 gold total. Similarly, unit of steel will run you around 140 gold including buying, intermediate crafting, and final product.

Some rare resources did not exist- others were so scarce they had a higher price tag than the average. The general trends at the crafting item trader are as follows: all items were bought and sold only in lots of ten. The low-demand items sold at 30g per lot and were purchased for 10g/lot, while high-demand items (both rare and common) exhibited great variability, often being bought from the trader for 230g-280g/lot and sold to him for 180-220/lot.

Therefore, based on these samplings I took and the buying/selling behavior I observed among informal player sales, I believe it is likely that most rare resources will eventually have some way of being crafted (this is barring a few resources that will be used for exceptionally good items; those would only be salvageable or found as loot drops). The cost of such a system would be resource-level price inflation as people attempt to get the most for their rare things.

For all the expensiveness inherent in such a system, it has two benefits. First item rarity will be preserved. Second, standard gold costs for resources will occur among player sales. As with all MMOs, stockpiling will occur as time goes on and thus in the long run resources will be slightly easier to get. Also, individual resource costs will hold steady once they reach equilibrium.

This is an improvement over games such as Star Wars Galaxies or Ragnarok Online, where players with large individual fortunes are common and useful items can vary outside of an affordable range for new players. People will be able to jump right into the game and not worry about whether they will have equipment parity with other players.

[Crystal]

I preordered today from best buy, so I'll be playing this weekend too. :) I wanted the special item from Comp Usa but we don't have any of those, so I went for the sheild. Not sure who I'm giving the invite to yet, gonna check with some of my friends and see if any of them are up for playing for a weekend.

I love this game.

If they don't wipe the characters.. which I'm assuming they won't since they didn't after E3, I'll be on as Leeloo Chicka If you see me on, give me a holler and maybe I'll come play with you for a bit.

[Gurney Devries]

The first Weekend Preview Event supposedly starts tonight at Midnight, PST. Here's what it's going to have:

# Everything from the WPE last weekend is in.
# Khylo (the town from the E34E event) is the newbie town you start near.
# The missions from E34E are back.
# Newly revamped damage/health system (You will now have more health at higher levels.)
# Your characters from the WPE will be present, with their level, spells and items intact.
# Thought those bibs looked dumb as guild tags? You're in luck, they now have Capes or Samurai Flags to adorn your back.

I'm excited to hear about the return of the E3 content, especially because I never finished that last quest. Also, I really didn't like those Guild bibs very much, so I'm glad to have some options.

[Figrin D'an]

Very glad to here the E34E content is back. I didn't get all the way through it either, so I look forward to being able to complete it.

Good to hear about the change to the guild tags, too.

[Morgan Evanar]

CAPES! I love capes. I'm such a dope.

[Crystal]

I wish you could just take off the guild thing when you want. :( Even capes will probaly annoy me after a while. Better than before, though.

[AmazonBabe]

Capes are cool!

So, does this mean they're having another preview beta thingy?

[Gurney Devries]

Here's how it works:

If you pre-order the game now, you'll be able to participate in the Weekend Events. The Weekend Events are the first weekend (Sat and Sun) of every month. In addition, when you get the Pre-Order package, you also get 1 Friends Pass, which will allow you to invite 1 friend to play for 1 weekend.

So your options for playing the Weekend Events are A) Purchase the pre-order package and play in the closed betas until the game hits retail, or B) Have a friend who bought the Pre-Order package invite you for 1 weekend.

Also, you get a different special item in the game depending on where you pre-order from.

[Pierce Tondry]

I have already pre-ordered and have a one-time Friends pass for anyone who wants to get in on this but hasn't bought in themselves. Holler me up if you want the code.

[AmazonBabe]

I'm gonna see about pre-ordering the game tomorrow at GameStop. But if I don't get it in time, I might bug someone for a free-pass until I can pre-order. ^_^;

[Gurney Devries]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe
I'm gonna see about pre-ordering the game tomorrow at GameStop. But if I don't get it in time, I might bug someone for a free-pass until I can pre-order. ^_^; Try this link: http://www.gamespot.com/promos/guildwarsbeta/index.html

[Figrin D'an]

Just an FYI, you can input your registration codes in the game now. It's still about an hour before the beta opens up, but I'm sure they're getting a head start so it won't be quite as much of a traffic jam at that time.


Edit: Also, my character name is Dergan Venitor, so look me up when you get in.

[Gurney Devries]

Well, we finally did it. Late last night / early this morning, Leeloo and myself decided that we did not want to start with fresh characters in Ascalon City, even if we could start at level 15. We set out, determined to find to get our characters from the WPE over to the new (E3) content.

My first notion was to head over to the Tombs of the Primeval Kings and head North from there. Unfortunately, this didn't pan out. We quickly discovered that the Tombs do not have an exit to any explorable areas. Damn. So I checked my map to see what would be the next closest location. I saw that Lion's Arch was pretty close to the Snowy areas of the map, so I figured that'd be our best shot. We met up, grabbed a few henchmen and set out:

http://img104.exs.cx/img104/8188/trek-01.th.jpg (http://img104.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img104&image=trek-01.jpg)

I wasn't too optimistic about our chances of finding a way there, but I figured it was worth a shot. As soon as we got into the Explorable area, we started heading East. There was a small path right outside of town that actually headed in the direction we needed to go, and that I had never noticed during the WPE. We followed it, and soon (much to my surprise) found that it led to another zone. "Hey", I thought. "This might actually go at least a little bit of the way there".

http://img91.exs.cx/img91/4696/trek-02.th.jpg (http://img91.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img91&image=trek-02.jpg)

We found ourselves in a beach-like area, littered with broken ships and a healthy amount of undead. In fact, too many undead for the two of us to handle. The undead made short work of our Henchmen and quickly proceeded to start hacking away at Leeloo. Darn. So I did what any sensible Elementalist without any healing skills would do: I ran like heck. Lucky for us, there was a loading zone just a little ways past where we were, so we wound up (mostly) safe and sound... and in a new climate:

http://img129.exs.cx/img129/8821/trek-03.th.jpg (http://img129.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img129&image=trek-03.jpg)

The snow was a wonderful thing, since I hadn't really seen any since the E3 event. Strangely, the two Snowy Ettins you can see in the screenshot were marked as friendly; They didn't attack us and we couldn't attack them. Bug, I suppose. We moved forward and were greeted by 3 paths. The first one we chose led us to the mouth of a cave... which was unfortunately on a slight slope, too steep for us to climb. Damn. Well, we went back and tried the next path. Again, we found a cave entrance that we couldn't really enter. It was here that my pessimism started to kick in again, as I was certain that the developers must have deliberately made the rest of this area off-limits. Still, we remembered the third path, so we went back to check it out. Score!

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/6159/trek-04.th.jpg (http://img127.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img127&image=trek-04.jpg)

We continued exploring through the caves. I found them really atmospheric, as the lights dimmed and made it difficult to see too far ahead of us. When we finally emerged back into the snow-covered mountains, I actually had to shield my eyes for a moment. It wasn't long before we came across a Dwarven settlement, which made for a nice change of scenery:

http://img126.exs.cx/img126/108/trek-05.th.jpg (http://img126.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img126&image=trek-05.jpg)
(Large)

In fact, as I would learn along the way, there was a rather diverse set of locations and themes in store for us. Dark caves, snow covered hills, warmer areas where the snow was melting off the trees and dribbling water onto the bare ground below... even a dwarven mining colony:

http://img126.exs.cx/img126/2783/trek-06.th.jpg (http://img126.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img126&image=trek-06.jpg)http://img126.exs.cx/img126/4821/trek-07.th.jpg (http://img126.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img126&image=trek-07.jpg)

[Gurney Devries]

And, of course, it wasn't long before we found the workers of said colony:

http://img122.exs.cx/img122/5236/trek-08.th.jpg (http://img122.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img122&image=trek-08.jpg)http://img122.exs.cx/img122/9494/trek-09.th.jpg (http://img122.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img122&image=trek-09.jpg)
(Large)

While none of the monsters we encountered along the way were of a particularly high level, they always came in very large numbers. Even a bunch of level 10 monsters could easily overpower a handful of level 20 players. Thankfully, I didn't skimp when putting points into my fire magic attribute. Beware the wrath of a Pyromancer scorned.

http://img122.exs.cx/img122/8804/trek-10.th.jpg (http://img122.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img122&image=trek-10.jpg)

Along the way, we came across several small little outposts populated by a handful of low level players. I was a bit confused, but I later learned that the majority of them were players who finished the Ascalon missions and were transported there. We did, however, come across 2 other people who were trying to make the same trek to Ascalon, and so we merged groups and continued on. I don't know how long we wandered, but I'm pretty sure we shouldn't have taken the word of our newest member when he said that he knew the way. We probably walked completely around the mountains and back again. Still, undaunted, we crossed a large metal bridge and finally found ourselves in the Northern Province of Ascalon. We had done it! But we were still a long ways away from the actual city.

http://img121.exs.cx/img121/8654/trek-11.th.jpg (http://img121.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img121&image=trek-11.jpg)

The one and only Hydra I've ever seen in the game greeted us as we entered. We fought through familiar enemies such as Charr and Stone Elementals until we found ourselves at the Breach. This is where our pace became fervered, as I knew that, if we could make it to the other side of the Breach, we'd be only a minute's walk away from the entrance to the City. We scrambled through, ignoring enemies where we could until, at last, we exited the Breach and strolled calmly into Ascalon City. As far as I know, we were one of the first (if not the first) groups to succesfully make the trip.

Total Trip time: Roughly 3 hours.

As soon as we entered the first mission area, I was bombared by Party Join requests. In the end, it was worth it, if only because it made Prince Crackhead's missions so much easier.

http://img107.exs.cx/img107/1297/trek-12.th.jpg (http://img107.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img107&image=trek-12.jpg)
(Large)

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Gurney Devries
As soon as we entered the first mission area, I was bombared by Party Join requests. In the end, it was worth it, if only because it made Prince Crackhead's missions so much easier.


Agreed. When I arrived, everyone wanted to have my in their party, and when I did that mission you mentioned, I basically ran ahead of the Prince and killed everything before he got there.

The only thing I really haven't done yet is kill Rotscale. Maybe I'll try that today. Other than that, there's one piece of armor I want to get yet, plus maybe a new weapon.

[Figrin D'an]

Figured I'd bump the topic, since the December Beta starts Saturday morning. AFAIK, our characters will still be intact from the previous betas. Not sure what is being added content-wise, although I'm guessing we'll see some new missions and new areas. I plan on playing some with my warrior/monk, but I think I'm going to create a new character and give some of the other character classes a try.

[Dasquian Belargic]

As you may have noticed from the change of the thread name, there is another GW open beta in January. Info here: http://www.fileplanet.com/betacenter/guildwars/

[Figrin D'an]

This weekend's beta is open already. They've made some major changes to the interface and inventory systems, neither of which I like much at all thus far. They also did the character wipe, so everyone has to recreate their characters and start fresh with either a Lvl 1 RP or Lvl 20 PvP character.

Supposedly now, all of the open explorable areas will now scale to your character lvl, so that a given area will be tougher the higher your character level is. Could prove interesting.

[Shawn]

http://www.guildwars.com/downloads/movies/GwGamePlayFeb05-dvx-lg.zip - Video preview of the new area for this weekend's event. I'm floored.

Quick Screenshot:

http://img223.exs.cx/img223/7208/guildwars011me.th.jpg (http://img223.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img223&image=guildwars011me.jpg)

[Gav Mortis]

Who is still interested in this game? It starts tomorrow: I'll be buying it first thing. Anyone else doing the same?

[Yog]

Im kinda interested, but wont buy at launch. Maybe at some later point. I far prefer WoW. The key thing for me is the absense of a monthly fee.

[AmazonBabe]

I'm too obsessed with WoW. >D :cry (it's a kixed emotion deally)

I may borrow someone's copy to check out the game, but the last few times I've played/seen it, it just didn't peeked my interest.

[Gav Mortis]

I've been playing it for two days now. I'm a level 10 Warrior/Monk called Calus Darkcloud. And I love it. Cancelled my subscription to SWG a week ago since it has gone dry and has been nerfed to hell and back with the combat upgrade. Guild Wars is free, gorgeous and awesome.

[Dasquian Belargic]

It's only £17.99, wow. I don't have the money at the minute, but when I get paid later this month I will definetly be tempted. Will have to check back in with you then, Dru. See if you're still playing and finding it as entertaining :)

[Shawn]

I don't think I'll be picking it up. :\ I just can't justify an additional $40 for about a dozen more missions.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe
I'm too obsessed with WoW.


Aye, this goes for me too. I never thought this game would pull me in so much. Playing the GW preview and weekend events was fun for a while, but I just didn't like the changes they made to the game along the way. Once Battlegrounds is implemented in WoW (next patch), it'll have all the PvP action that I would have gotten from GW.