…which enables online play for free, unlimited. You just install, on a reasonably modern computer with a reasonably modern internet connection…and you never have to spend another dime, unless you absolutely *lust* after a mini-me figure to follow you about or other things you really don’t need to play well. I play on an i-5 level computer on a Comcast connection and it blazes along. I don’t know what the bottom end is, but you can scale back detail. Good deeds in the game win you spendable points with karma merchants, where you can get good armor and weapons; and you also ‘find’ loot. I’d recommend, as with any game, you read reviews and look at screen shots to see if it’s for you. I will say—a) there is no dying and going clear back to the beginning of the map. Another player will ‘heal’ you or you can boomf to a nearby point and run back into the fight. b) There’s no game charge for armor repair. c) And there is no ‘friendly fire’ possible. I’ve seen some games so futzy about positioning to avoid encroachments, that that feature itself becomes unreal. Just assume your hero and his/her allies are not going to shoot each other. And because there’s a cooperative feature, you will get help from other players if you’ve ventured into in a tight spot. Here’s the link. It’s at half price right now.buy GW2
A price break on the Guild Wars software…
by CJ | Aug 14, 2014 | Journal | 24 comments
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Unless you WANT to fight another player or group of players for which the game supplies Player vs Player areas. I agree that it is a super mmo.
I’ve only been playing for a month now but I have been pleased with it and found myself really enjoying the pacing and drop in, drop out nature. the scaling feature works really well. only downsides are that the z-axis movement sometimes feels limited and that being in Europe I cannot interact with people on US servers.
the personal epics are well done and leveling to 80 was pretty relaxed and stress free. in fact perhaps it was too easy. but then my first MMO was Everquest.
I would probably be so lost for a while, getting the hang of it.
I’ve looked a couple of times, and I have not found a version of Guild Wars 2 that runs on a Mac. If there is one, I might have to give it a go, just to see. It sounds like loads of fun from the descriptions.
(I’m not sure how well I could see game interface controls, but I figure there’s some way to magnify or change scale on screen.)
I haven’t fired up my Win7 laptop in ages. I need to do updates on the dang thing. … It was, for so long, my main / only method of getting to a computer.
The current minimum requirements for Mac Beta[11] are as follows:
Mac OS®X 10.7.X or later
Intel® Core™ i5 or better
4 GB RAM or better
NVIDIA GeForce 320m, ATI Radeon HD 6630M, Intel HD 3000 or better
25 GB available HDD space
Broadband Internet connection
Keyboard and mouse
I’ve never played a game like that and don’t know if I’d like to, but wanted to go look at it. The link sends me into a kind of flashing ‘loading’ loop instead of to a real page. is the link broken or is it just that I’m outside the region the page is meant for?
just go to guildwars2.com and click on Shop
Thanks for the address, that works. It was interesting to look through, though I don’t think it’s something I would want to spend much time on. It looks to be mostly or almost entirely about constant fighting, battles and a few political fights, for which a lot of the fun is probably in sharing this adventure with friends; and I enjoy making or building more than fighting, and don’t know anyone in the game.
What I’ve long wondered about, is how one can make one’s avatar make all these complicated moves with just the keyboard, and react swiftly enough or ‘speak’ without it taking an age to type everything in! For experienced gamers these are such basic skills that they aren’t mentioned anywhere, but for someone who’s never done anything like that (and has the reaction speed of a turtle to boot) it seems a daunting prospect.
Speaking – we type in chat channels in the game; separate ones for map, local, private party, etc. OR we use a mike/speakers or headset and VOIP (voice-over-internet-protocol) such as Teamspeak, Ventrilo, Mumble. Teamspeak is the most popular in this game, used by the community (server) and most large guilds.
Moves – fighting is done using a skill bar usually situated at the bottom of your screen. GW2 has 10 skills available at a time and you either click with a mouse or use number keys or (for the big boys & girls) a gaming mouse with a multitude of buttons or a special keypad.
Moves – walking, running, jumping, and dodging you use WSAD keys on the keyboard.
Friends – ah, but you do have friends in the game. You have those of who visit CJ’s blog and play GW2. Through one of us you would choose a specific server and join the same guild. This would instantly give you a group of people to help you.
Thanks for answering my questions! How do you aim a blow or an arrow, or choose the direction you want to dodge or jump or walk? Do you need to orient yourself in the right direction first, and how does that work?
WSAD: W= walk, D= dodge, A= ascend/jump (even when jumping down?), S= run (saunter? I can’t think of an s-word that could mean something like running fast)? Does typing ss make you run faster, like jogging and running, and aa mean jumping higher?
Friends from here: I thought about that, but I’m in a very different time zone from the USA, and as a complete tyro having to learn even how to walk, like a baby, I’d not be an asset for any team to have around for quite a while to come, even if I did get invested in the game.
I think if I did get interested, it would be quite a time-sink, and I’m not sure yet I want to let another of those into my life – I enjoy reading too much to want to exchange reading-time for anything else. This is why I don’t have cable-tv, as I found that watching tv took too much time away from reading, and I enjoyed reading more. I rather expect having personal adventures inside a fantasy-story would follow the same equation, if all the adventures and stories are fighting-based, as that’s not my favorite part of most stories. But thanks for the answers anyway, as finding out how such games work is interesting even if I don’t plan on joining right away.
Don’t worry about finding friends from here; we are scattered all over the globe, and many people don’t keep bankers’ hours. I play a different online game, and we have friends and allies across most of the Western Hemisphere. Some are just logging on in the morning (Sydney, Australia) while some are staying up past midnight (Raleigh, NC, USA), but we all play together. If you get one of the VOIP channels, it’s even easier. Don’t worry about a time sink; real life takes precedence, and casual gamers (log in every few days, if you like) are fine.
Hanneke, I think if you’ve never ever tried any sort of MMO, Guild Wars 2 does have a lot to offer you in terms of things to try out. It still might not be the sort of investment you want to take a chance on – after all you might find that the learning curve is not fun or, once you HAVE learned the basics of the game, you might find that it doesn’t interest you enough.
One of the nicest things about the game is that there is a story set up specifically for your character, and the choices you make within that story change it for you, so that no two characters have identical stories. Additionally, the general world “attitude” as CJ has said is very cooperative, and people will give you a hand without you having to yelp for help, oftentimes. I have myself stood about and killed the same “boss” in an area, four or five times, helping others, just because. There’s very much a kind of “pay it forward” feel to the way players interact with each other.
I’ve had the game since launch – and still to my embarrassment I don’t have a level 80 character! Mainly because I am a completionist at heart and I keep spending hours on trade skills instead of quests; or go back and do “newbie” zones and map completion stuff. I am very much a casual sort with these games.
I think the people who make this game really wanted there to be plenty for the casual gamer to enjoy, right along with the “hardcore” folks. And I think they’ve done a fair job.
Personally if you can afford the experiment, I’d advise you to give it a try. You will never have to pay a subscription fee, which is the icky bit of most MMO genre games (I’m looking at you, World of Warcraft). GW2 doesn’t ask for any further commitment than the average video game, so at worst you’ll be out the price of buying the software and that’s it. And I would hope you’d enjoy it enough to not regret the decision 🙂
Guild Wars 2 addressed many of the complaints I had with World of Warcraft. There are still a few tweaks I’d like to see, but it is a superior product—at least for my style of play—in many ways.
Incidentally, I run GW2 on an ancient (vintage-2007) iMac under Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.8). When I first downloaded the game, I got a warning that I didn’t meet recommended minimum hardware requirements, but it let me try anyway, and I have had no issues whatsoever.
Hey, guys, if we were to decide to “get together” in Tyria, where would be a good place to try and set that up? I am aware that time zones are going to vary wildly, what with CJ’s fan base being global and all! But maybe we could steamroll over a zone as a big ol’ group? Since they’ve got the guesting feature, we don’t even have to “switch server” as such, just all agree on which one to be on. I suppose also adding each other to friends lists would help too!
I have had a good bit of experience with “schedule wrangling” as an old WoW friend of mine called it – if we want to do something towards this, I’ll volunteer to set up some kind of central communication that can be used to facilitate a get-together in the game world.
With the new “megaserver” system, you no longer have to guest really, just “taxi” everyone to the same map. The only division anymore (outside of PvP) is European & North American (which also includes most of Austral/Asia and South America). I don’t think you can guest or taxi between the regions.
My in-game name is Darcy Sa Renn; I’m on Fort Aspenwood server. Feel free to message me, just put CJ in the subject line.
Mirien Flameborn; Crystal Desert server 🙂
OK people, I’ve bought Guild Wars 2. Now I have to choose a home world. Is anyone here a player on the European server, who could advise me which best to choose? I do hope the European region is as friendly as you’ve described for the American region, and not divided and quarrelsome over real-world factions and events.
I’ve never even played a video game, let alone a multi-player online game / MMO (what’s the second M for?), so I’d like to start off as easy as possible. I think I’ll stick with being a human female for now, as being something I should know, though being a plant person looks interesting too. Could I switch later, if I wanted to? I’m not clever enough to play a little genius, I couldn’t come up with quick clever solutions to any problems as I would imagine would be a prerequisite for that type of player; and the two biggest races look very combat-focused and not a good fit for my personality at all.
Any advice as to other choices, like which profession would be easiest for a slow and uncombative newby to start in? I don’t see any carer or maker type of skills to choose, so what would best fit that type of personality?
I only know a few people on Euro region and it seems they are doing PvP so are no help. You should join gw2community.com website for entry into the Euro community. There you will find help and information about guilds.
Also, for more game info on classes and races, visit http://wiki.guildwars2.com. Feel free to message me in game at Darcy.1238 for help.
In addition to the official wiki, I rely on dulfy.net ( http://dulfy.net/category/gw2/ ) to keep me current in GW2
Dipping a toe back in — Thanks, all, for the Mac advice. I will look at GW2 and the wiki to see what’s what. I’m undecided yet whether I’ll join up, but it sure helps to know there’s a community of players I know who I can ask questions.
LOL, my gaming skills date to one or two of the 80’s/90’s Star Trek computer games…and a brief bout with Planetfall and Zork from Infocom, way, way back in the mid-80’s when I was a college kid. Oh, my!
$ You have been eaten by a grue.
:laughs:
$ It is dark. It is dark.
$ Creeping coin breathes.
Well if you want nostalgia, visit gog.com where they update old games and sell them for miniscule prices – $5.99 for most. You can revisit Zork & Wizardry.
Oh, my! Think I’ll try that. — Hah, if Planetfall is there, I might finally win! (snerk!)
I’m glad to have sparked such a nice discussion.
RE level 80 GW characters: they keep you busy and challenged. ONce you hit that level, you get new map where even the drakes are also level 80, and where there is really nice loot for crafting, which, if you had to buy it on the market, would cost game-gold.
But because you have 5 character slots, you can have one of each race or profession. My own favorite is a human male elementalist, but elementalists until they get above level 40 are rather fragile, and spend a lot of time sitting on the ground trying to survive until somebody gets them back on their feet—they then throw a couple more fireballs and are smacked down again: this is because their distance weapons are not that great, and, though weak, they’re forced to get close-in. Hint: the best skills for an elementalist are ‘conjured weapons’ like the fiery greatsword, flame axe, or lightning hammer, which means they fight like warriors, fairly close-up.
Rangers are best for long-distance pinging the enemy with arrows. And they acquire ‘pets’ which fight for them, and tease the enemy to chase them into range.
Warriors are typical hand-to-hand fighters. They can use firearms, or swords, axes, spears, and they are tough, so they are a very popular character. You just push them into a fight and keep hitting the 1 key, which makes them swing their sword, and you can do fair damage and survive things that would take an elementalist down.
Engineers are able to set up handy-dandy little turrets that shoot bullets, fire, or turrets that heal them as long as they stay in the area. Of course these machines are rapidly hammered down by enemies, and there is a time- delay until you can set up another one…
Necromancers I’ve never run, but they have two ghastly little pets who go with them.
Never run a Mesmer, but they conjure another ‘self’ who also fights and confuses the enemy into spending energy on them.
And I’ve never run a Guardian, who is pretty well what the name says—a big strong character with superior healing skills.
Or a Thief, who has superior stealth and hits and runs and dodges well.
As you can see, a good team has several types together, which combine well. A Warrior, an Elementalist and a Ranger, eg, give you close-up hack-and-slash power, one magic-thrower, and a long-distance archer with a close-up mauler for a pet.
Elementalist remains my favorite, because I’ll put up with the difficult development stages, to get the end result, which is a character who can rain fire or lightning and finally get a fairly good range on fireballs, and also fight close-up with conjured weapons which have fire or lightning as part of their punch.
Besides, his light armor gets pretty cool.
Ever played with paper dolls or fashion dolls? They let you dye the armor, change colors, change trim colors, etc, and even copy styles and empower a pretty suit with better stats than it would have if you took it as-is.
You get to design the face, height, weight, skin color, eye color, etc, at the start, and then the game remembers, and puts a ‘skin’ of your character over the movements of the ‘type’ of character as he runs, jumps, or just stands and fidgets. YOu can ask him to /dance or /sit or /wave….just by typing the command.