Guild Wars Breaks 4 Million

[bapenguin]

I remember back in the winter of 2005 playing the Guild Wars beta for the first time. I remember seeing the burned out landscape, the Charr, and the huge ass boss monster that destroyed our entire party time and time again. I also remember firing up the full version and being greeted with a gorgeous colorful landscape full of lush fields, flowers and waterfalls. It was one of those gaming moments where you sit back and just go wow.

Enough reminicing. NC Soft sends along word that the Guild Wars franchise has sold 4 million units to date. NC Soft also announced a sneak peek weekend from August 24th to August 26th of the upcoming expansion pack Eye of North.

Everytime I post Guild Wars news, I say I need to get back into play. And damn it...I never do.

[bapenguin]

NCsoft's Guild Wars Breaks Four Million

Subscription-free business model sets new standard for online multiplayer games

Bellevue, WA. Aug. 21, 2007-The Guild Wars® franchise of online roleplaying games has broken the four million units sold mark in just over two years. Published by NCsoft® and developed by ArenaNet®, the Guild Wars series (consisting of Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions™, and Guild Wars Nightfall™) has set the standard for online co-operative and competitive play with award-winning content and a subscription-free business model. Since the first campaign launched in 2005, Guild Wars has developed legions of loyal fans who are hotly anticipating the August 31 release of the game's first true expansion, Guild Wars: Eye of the North™.

"ArenaNet's fantastic work on Guild Wars has helped make NCsoft the leading online gaming publisher in the world," said Robert Garriott, CEO of NCsoft North America. "Guild Wars players continue to join in droves and stay loyal to the franchise thanks to a business model that makes for a very accessible product. We are all excited about the future of Guild Wars with the expansion ready to be released and Guild Wars 2™ on the horizon."

"Four million units sold is an impressive number and demonstrates that Guild Wars is a proven franchise," said Bob McKenzie, Senior Vice President of Merchandising, GameStop Corporation. "The Guild Wars franchise delivers an outstanding gaming experience and is clearly an important part of our PC games offerings."

In advance of the release of Guild Wars: Eye of the North, ArenaNet is hosting the Sneak Peek Weekend from August 24 to August 26, during which players can explore the frigid climes and encounter the wild beasts of the Far Shiverpeaks region. To participate in the preview weekend, players must purchase the Guild Wars: Eye of the North Prerelease Bonus Pack, on sale at retailers in North America and Europe, in the Guild Wars in-game store, and at PlayNC.com.

Any loot, items, XP, and Heroes earned by players during the Sneak Peek Weekend will be available when Guild Wars: Eye of the North goes live on August 31. Additional information about the Guild Wars: Eye of the North Sneak Peek Weekend can be found at www.guildwars.com/events/ingame/gwen-sneakpeek.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North is the first expansion to the subscription-free Guild Wars franchise of fantasy online roleplaying games. It features new characters, Heroes, items, and story content accessible to players who own any existing Guild Wars campaign.

For more information on the Guild Wars franchise, visit the Guild Wars website at www.guildwars.com. The award-winning Guild Wars series of games, as well as the Guild Wars: Eye of the North Prerelease Bonus Pack, can be purchased from retailers or downloaded from the PlayNC store at secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl.

[NotJeff]

It's a good game, for sure. I really enjoy the strategy of only bringing 8 skills into the wilderness.

[silv]

This game bored the crap out of me. That said, I am one of those 4 million who have a copy and never play it.

[oldschooldimo]

i have a copy, i loved it at first when it came out, i tried playing it again actually a few days ago. It was near impossible to find a good group for pvp'ing since i didnt have all the expansions.

[digitalErich]

I've always wanted to give this game a go...did they ever do a demo or day-pass trial client?

Also, I thought I remember that some parts of the world change as you play the game. Are these changes global, as in if I start the game now I'll only see the aftermath, or are the changes part of the instancing such that I can experience the whole before/after cyce even if I'm late to the party here?

[ezzkmo]

I still have it installed and all the expansions. I'll be picking up Eye of the North next week too. I just haven't played it much lately, but I'm sure I'll be diving back in for awhile starting next week.

By the way, there is still an Evil Avatar guild. And yes, I'm still a part of it. But maybe it can be resurrected and actually active if enough people pick it back up.

[NotJeff]

I've always wanted to give this game a go...did they ever do a demo or day-pass trial client?

Also, I thought I remember that some parts of the world change as you play the game. Are these changes global, as in if I start the game now I'll only see the aftermath, or are the changes part of the instancing such that I can experience the whole before/after cyce even if I'm late to the party here?

You can get the before/after yourself, although it's a minor thing only in the first camapaign. I'm pretty sure they give out 10 or 14 day trials like candy, but if you can't find one PM me and I'll see if I have a code at home to give you later tonight.

[Karmakin]

digital:The answer is yes, it's all part of the instancing.

[digitalErich]

Cool, thanks for the help guys, I'll have to scare up a guest pass to give this game a go at some point in the future.

[Zander]

I also own a copy of Guild Wars and actually one of the expansions.

I REALLY REALLY wanted to like it, but this game has like zero progression and it's a ton of forced partying. Don't get me wrong I like to party, but after 8 hours at work and a 2 hour commute sometimes I just want to play solo for a while. I never felt that GW gave me that so I stopped playing long ago.

[agentgray]

I own Guild Wars and none of the expansions. I own the two stand-alone games they made after the original. There were no expansions.

My opinion. If you like PvE, skip the second. The first and third are brilliant. I think I've put over 3000 hours in those games.

I also saw a week or two ago that I'm the EvAv guild leader again. I so ashamed for not being online the last 3 months. We had some good groups going there for a while.

...and then Expugnare got a 360.

[fiercey]

I also own a copy of Guild Wars and actually one of the expansions.

I REALLY REALLY wanted to like it, but this game has like zero progression and it's a ton of forced partying. Don't get me wrong I like to party, but after 8 hours at work and a 2 hour commute sometimes I just want to play solo for a while. I never felt that GW gave me that so I stopped playing long ago.


What are you talking about? I've solo'd every single zone, completely cleared them every inch, except for three that basically required a party. That's a pretty good amount of solo content.

-f

[DigitalFirefly]

I just bought Guild Wars on Friday. I wonder if I'm the 4 millionth player?

[Zander]

What are you talking about? I've solo'd every single zone, completely cleared them every inch, except for three that basically required a party. That's a pretty good amount of solo content.

-f

Sorry, I should have clarified.

I don't consider playing with really bad AI who take some of your loot as solo.

[Wyrm]

I played this game for like a week and gave up. Just not much to it. I think if I'd gotten into the PVP, I'd have enjoyed it a little better, but I didn't really feel the need to try very hard to find the fun.

[Lima Beans]

ive probably put 100 hours into this game, and never even TOUCHED the PvE portion of the game. Just buy the PvP packs instead, its like 10x better as a counter-strike style game.

[kickmybum]

I liked this game until I was kicked out of several groups for not having "uber equipment". If you're into the single player aspect, you would have alot of fun though.

[ezzkmo]

I just bought Guild Wars on Friday. I wonder if I'm the 4 millionth player?
Did balloons fall from the sky and clowns come out on unicycles when you paid? If not, maybe you were 4 million and 1?

[drakkarim]

i was really looking forward to the first one, but once i started the hired henchmen/heroes turned out to be poorly implemented so i sold it.

i'll wait for guild wars 2 and see if they do it right the next time.

[Rirath]

Everytime I post Guild Wars news, I say I need to get back into play. And damn it...I never do.

That's not a good sign for the series.

[Rirath]

I own Guild Wars and none of the expansions. I own the two stand-alone games they made after the original. There were no expansions.

This is something we'll always disagree on. However, we can agree the second one is crap for PvE.
I put about 100 hours into the first one doing mostly solo PvE, but everything after that was meh.

[bitwise]

Sorry, I should have clarified.

I don't consider playing with really bad AI who take some of your loot as solo.

There are 1-person solo builds out there, and some 2-person team builds out there you can use to solo specific high-end areas. Some people make a career out of it.

I liked this game until I was kicked out of several groups for not having "uber equipment". If you're into the single player aspect, you would have alot of fun though.

lol wut? Do you mean PvP?

[Rirath]

Some people make a career out of it.

And some of us would like to be able to solo without making a career out of it. ;)

[Hemalin]

I wonder how this breaks down for each expansion.

[KIllrazor]

I don't understand some people stating that they can't solo the game. Are you sure you are talking about Guild Wars here?

I picked the game up about 2 months ago and since then, I acquired the other 2 expansions and I completely solo'ed all 3 campaigns. Just using Henchmen and later on Heroes, that are a huge improvement over the regular Henchmen bots.

To tell you the truth, in most situations I think it is a lot easier to finish some missions/quests using bots. My Monk (healer) Hero heals a LOT better than a lot of real Monk players out there.

The AI is nothing close to perfect but it's really good in my opinion and gets the job done and I don't have to wait in town for half an hour or more to get a team with real players going.

[MacD]

God, I loved this game. Got the original after a couple of friends were already well into it, and played the hell out of it. It looked gorgeous and was fun, if you had a brain to understand why you could only use 8 skills at one time and used them correctly and in a team oriented way.
Oddly enough, some of the best groups I was in were in pick up groups (ones who got that the reason the missions were going so well was partly due to my mesmer doing her job...although there was usually someone noob enough to ask why all the enemies all had massive health drains on them :) ).
And the special high level areas were cool too, 'cause you had to be into the game enough to find them so you would usually play with people who knew what they were doing.

I played two characters (pure mesmer and a hunter/whatever, plus a bigass warrior I only used as mule) right the way through the original game, perfect golds, greens, fissure armours, even rare fire swords :) And then I never bought the expansions (stand alone games), as the first one was PvE orientated and I never bought the second one.
It's not that I thought the PvP sucked; far from it: it's a great, well constructed game, like graphical, direct action speed BattleChess...but I loved it as an extra, as something for the high level end game. I won Hall of Heroes a couple of times with pure pickup groups, too...it's just that I prefer PvE.

Anyway, I'm buying Guild Wars 2 the moment it comes out...ArenaNet knows what they're doing and they do it very well.

[Rirath]

I picked the game up about 2 months ago and since then, I acquired the other 2 expansions and I completely solo'ed all 3 campaigns. Just using Henchmen and later on Heroes, that are a huge improvement over the regular Henchmen bots.

First of all, some of us don't like AI bots. Secondly, you don't have heroes if you don't buy Nightfall.

[Vampyre]

Guild Wars Ownz... Can't Wait For GWEN!

[Expugnare]

I just got a new computer and would really like to get back into Guild Wars again. I pretty much stopped when the guild broke up but still pop online every once and a while. If we get the some people interested I'm sure we could get a regu;ar group to go through GW:EN together or something.

[MacD]

Bwahahahahaha! I just realised it: GW:EN!!!

As in, Gwen, who's little cloth and flute and broken flute I've been packmuling along with me all through the game!

[Vampyre]

Ya, I love the little Play On Words They Did... :)
I can't wait for the preview.. and the full game!!!

[KingGorilla]

Bwahahahahaha! I just realised it: GW:EN!!!

As in, Gwen, who's little cloth and flute and broken flute I've been packmuling along with me all through the game!

Or as I called her-Why you need to be able to kill any NPC, regardless of consequence. Little bitch.