I doubt anyone here besides me has played Guild Wars to it's fullest, and even though I'm not a hardcore fan of it, I'm a sucker for MMORPGS (I'm no WoW player, but you get the idea). Guild Wars was one of those games you would buy because you heard a few good things about it, I know that a friend of mine played it at school (He even told me we could play together online, but I haven't seen him on it once), and it seemed like a reasonable bargain. I mean hey, $50 for a game with free online play? Not to mention that the graphics looked pretty awesome too. But still, with that gap in price you could've guessed that GW didn't have as many features as WoW did. I had only a few gripes with the game: The level cap was a measly level 20, and the overall world map wasn't open, but private and just there for you and only you to explore. Well, I didn't really find this out until after I bought the game. Regardless, I still had fun playing it, and the game play itself was innovative and fun.
Indeed, I got hooked on the game a good 5 months after I bought it (Yep, I took a pretty big break because I wasn't that impressed with it). Sometime while I was playing through the story though, there was an expansion announced: Guild Wars Factions. Which was supposed to be more focused on PvP I think, I am not too sure though. So that was out for a while, and eventually another expansion came out: Nightfall, which made me laugh because it was set in an African type landscape. I didn't buy either one of these expansions, frankly, they just didn't appeal to me, and none of the things I wanted changed in the games were changed. For example, the level cap was still 20, and the overworld was still private.
BUT OHHHHHHH DAMN, I just walked in my Graphic Arts class today and looked at the monitor on the computer opposite of mine, and happened to see a little preview section on the gaming website displayed, and it read "Guild Wars 2". Feeling curious, I looked it up, and god knows I have nothing better to do. For the first time in a long time, I am excited about Guild Wars again. Why? I'll tell you why. They finally updated the stuff that counts in Guild Wars 2. Yep, you guessed it: the level cap is NO LONGER 20 (Took them long enough), but it's also....nothing. Yeah, well you see Theo, the level cap as of now is never ending, as in, you can go past 100 if you so wished. According to AreaNet or whoever made this game, there is no level cap right now. But hey, that's definitely an improvement over 20. That wasn't the best part. Apparently, the world is finally going to be open for all to explore. This means, no more private exploration with henchmen and random idiots.
So, let me sum up for you guys what this means:
It means that Guild Wars 2 will most likely become the next WoW, except with no monthly fees. This I am thankful for, because I won't buy a game now if it charges month by month. Will I get it? Hell yes. However, I hope most of these things stay intact by the time the game comes out. Also, as much as I like the higher level cap, I will settle for level 40 or whatever. Just so long as it isn't 20 any more. I like to have more variety in the game, especially when it comes to levels. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was that you now have races to choose from (You see, in the first 3 Guild Wars games, the only race was human, where now you can be like...beasts or some shit like that). I don't think the game will be coming out any time soon, though. I'd say, probably some time in 2008, which is a damn shame because I really want to see if this will become one of the greatest MMORPG's ever.
This concludes my excitement. And to sum it all up even more: This game will be awesome, and I encourage you all to try it out.
