Guild Wars: Your First Choice in MMORPGs

I am somewhat of a Guild Wars veteran, as I've been playing for years so I hope I can provide you with a valuable opinion of this game.
I bought the game when it first came out, on the recommendation of a friend, and I was really glad that I did.

One of the only mmorpgs without a monthly fee, Guild Wars provides you with four character spaces, 25 possible profession combinations, a beautiful, magical other world and an interesting storyline.

Guild Wars comes with 2 discs, two beautifully printed manuals and your code with which to play the game.

It takes a short while to install, so reading through those manuals during this time will give you a better understanding of the game and get you all excited to play.


After installation, boot up Guild Wars and you'll see the welcome screen. You're asked to type in your activation code, make sure you do it carefully.

Just a quick note: don't be put off by the long loading times when you first start, it will only take this long to load the first time you encounter each town/place.

There are six professions: Necromancer, Elementalist, Warrior, Monk, Mesmer and Ranger. You will pick a first profession influencing your appearance, skill points, strengths and weaknesses. You will also pick a second profession in a short while, you should pick a profession whose skills will complement your first profession. It might pay to do a bit of internet research on what kind of character you want to create when deciding on your second profession. Don't worry too much if you make a bad choice, you can change it later on in the game.

When you begin to play, do speak to people, do ask them for help if you need it, do join a guild if you want.
Look out for character with a green exclamation mark over their heads, these characters are npcs and will either give you information or give you a quest to complete.

If you join a guild (press G) you will have a group of people (probably more experienced than you) to call upon for help. You will also get to wear their cape. You can leave and join guilds as you wish, there is nothing binding to keep you in a guild- other than the owner's feelings ;)

There are towns, outposts and explorable areas. Towns and outposts are places that you can travel to on your map (Press M). You will be able to find other players there. Explorable areas are 'the outside world', there are enemies here, and if you want to travel with other players you will have to create or join a team before you leave an outpost.
There are mission outposts, sometimes it's necessary to complete a mission to move on to the next area, and the next part of the story. You complete missions with teams of other players.

The Guild Wars currency is gold and platinum. You can get money from killing enemies. You can also sell items to other players.

You have an inventory (press I) in which to store items you find. You are given a rucksack and can add two more bags and a kind of bumbag to store extra items in. You can either buy these or complete certain quests to win them.
One thing you will definitely find on your travels is weapons, the value of weapons is determined by the name colour: normal weapons are white, uncommon weapons are light blue, semi rare weapons are purple, and extremely rare weapons are gold. You can get most money for selling/trading purple and gold weapons.
You will also find runes. Runes can be added to your armour to enhance certain aspects of your person such as increased skill points, or increased armour. Some runes have a detrimental effect on your HP (health) however: minor runes don’t have any effect, major runes are -50 hp, superior runes are -75hp. There are also runes that are made specifically to increase your hp, these are runes of Vigor.

PvP, or player vs. player can be a large part of the game if you want it to be. While you're fairly low level there are arenas in large outposts. When you reach level 20 you can battle in the Hall of Heroes. Guilds can also take part in Guild vs. Guild, which can be very fun.

I really, really enjoyed my time spent playing Guild Wars. I made online friends, who I still talk to. The social aspect is a fun part of the game. You will become friends with your guild, and probably do missions and PvP with them. It's more fun playing with people you already "know".

During my time playing I got quite addicted to it!

Guild Wars is inexpensive and well worth fifteen quid, so go try it, I say. :)