I’ve started playing Guild Wars for no good reason except Phasmatis invited me to. We’re only level 4 so far, so all I have to go on for now is first impressions. And my main impression is that I wish it weren’t quite so much like World of Warcraft.
The interface is great, don’t get me wrong. It’s just really quite a lot like World of Warcraft, and I managed to get really sick of that game. The setting also fails to stand out, it’s a pretty standard fantasy world so far, but there’s still time for it to change and impress me. The character system shows a great deal of promise though, as I love the idea of maxing out your character at level 20 relatively early but then continuing to gain new skills forever (sadly I think they’re doing away with that in Guild Wars 2 because people don’t get it). I always disliked character levels.
I think the main reason to stick to Guild Wars (aside from the extremely attractive fact that it’s free to play) is the art in general and the character art in particular, as evidenced by the picture of my character to the left. While sadly not quite as fantastic as the promotional artwork (always strategically featuring beautiful CG women in badass outfits), the art in GW really looks astounding. It’s not significantly more detailed than World of Warcraft, but while Blizzard managed to craft beautiful artwork with limited resources, ArenaNet have created magic.
Expect more Guild Wars posts as the addiction grows in magnitude.
Are you playing as a woman?…..you devil you
I´ve always wanted to play Guild Wars. I´m just to cheap to fork over the money to actually buy the game….. Looking forward to more info about it.
Well just look at her, will you? What possibly reason could I have to play as a man when the female models look like that!?
Oh and by the way, an amusing detail from our WoW survey is that it seems more women play male character than the other way around
“What possibly reason could I have to play as a man when the female models look like that!?”
Noble air, pride, sex life.
So you’re saying being a woman is damaging to your pride? I think a certain somebody is insecure about his masculinity
And sex life…? You reckon the first thing a girl asks you when you start flirting is whether or not you’ve ever played a female character in a computer game – and she’ll turn you down if the answer is yes?
“You reckon the first thing a girl asks you when you start flirting is whether or not you’ve ever played a female character in a computer game – and she’ll turn you down if the answer is yes?”
No, I reckon that if you have a sex life you don’t get much excitement out of watching a last-gen video game character (in that context).
“I think a certain somebody is insecure about his masculinity”
Nah, I always thought that it’s pretty strange how many people switch roles when they are able to. Sure, it’s interesting for a short period of time to see how different people treat you or how stupid some guys flirt with females but unless you’re a student of sociology the curiosity should wear off pretty quickly. I think it’s not very honest and kind of weird to pretend to be of the opposite sex. Of course gender isn’t something you could be proud of since it’s just what you’re born into but identifying with your role and feeling comfortable with it is quite worthwile in my opinion. For everbody.
Now don’t get me wrong… the initial comment was only half serious but this is actually a phenomenon that bothers me since my first experiences with chats, a long time ago. It just feels a little bit wrong and dishonest.
Ah well let me put your fears to rest then – I don’t pretend to be a woman, if anybody asks I’ll plainly admit to being male, and I don’t get “excitement” out of it, I just generally prefer to watch a nicely shaped female backside throughout a whole game than some big dude. So no need to be concerned
I think it’s funny that some people can get weirded out by gender choice in someone’s avatar given that it’s entirely a fantasy setting. I mean, I don’t have gray hair, a robe or the ability to cast spells (working on it) but none of those things would be considered to be dishonest. It does help somewhat from an immersion standpoint to play as someone of a corresponding gender I guess (especially if voice chat is involved), I do remember playing Eve online with a female character and the oddness that followed with people in my corp calling me Elienor on TS, I think I probably filtered out what people were saying half the time without realizing I was doing so.
Now as for actually claiming to be a woman, that’s a whole different territory, there’s obviously an element of dishonesty there but I haven’t really encountered it or formed any opinions on it.
Yeah voice chat complicates things – I also think if actual roleplaying is involved, it gets a whole lot more challenging (but also more interesting from a writer’s point of view) to play the opposite gender, but I could never roleplay a female in a pen and paper game. I tried once, it lasted exactly until my first sentence, then that rogue became a guy real fast. It was just too awkward
Well actually i usually end up playing a female character in MMO’s as well. Atleast my first character….why?
Well the exact same reason Jonas mentions….but also theres another thing. I´ve played pretty much every MMO out there. From UO to Wow….and for some reason those games always seem to get easier when you play a female. Why? Because all the men give you stuff….. Of course I´ve never claimed to be a female Out of Character….and i always tell guildmates and game friends that I´m a guy….but random people just seem to be more friendly to female avatars. This is of course only half a truth. After WoW launched a lot of things have changed – and now a days I´m pretty sure you dont get as many benefits from a female avatar as you did in the UO days (Bunny hunting anyone?)……
Well, one aspect of my issues with it is that I am one of those players who prefer an empty character so that I am able to fill it with a little bit of myself. Obviously, in this case, playing as a female is quite obstructive if you are a male in real life.
Well not necessarily, but clearly if it’s a problem for you then that’s all that matters. So how do you feel about the Tomb Raider games?
It’s been a long time since I played it the last time so I can’t really say much about it. Must have been part 2 I think. I’ve bought the budget version of Legends recently because I wanted to see the engine in action and also because I sometimes like the jump and run aspects that are associated with TR. I wasn’t motivated enough to install it though… maybe the next time I am ill and have to stay at home…
Having to play as Lara won’t turn me off if the game is good because it isn’t a (MMO)RPG.
Hm you think it’s the multiplayer aspect that makes the difference?
Also it occurs to me this has become almost the exact same discussion we have going on in the Avatar thread
Yeah, the multiplayer aspect is where the dishonesty comes into play but it’s the RPG-genre in general and including hybrids like DX/SS where the whole thing with the empty character matters for me.
Seriously though, the dishonesty. How is it worse to play a female character than to play a troll shaman? Don’t answer that, I know it’s worse because you COULD be a female in real life whereas you couldn’t be a troll shaman in real life, but it just seems to me anybody who assumes you really are female if you’re playing a female troll shaman in WoW is missing a few marbles.
It’s not dishonest unless you outright tell people you are female in real life.
Come on Jonas…you try to make me sound like a weirdo. I don’t think I deserve that and it’s not half that much of problem for me as it might seem to you. All I am saying is that personally I don’t play female characters when I am able to choose and build one because I usually want to build a super-version of myself which means that it has to be a male character. Also I am a bit annoyed by the fact that there are hundreds of fake-females running around in each chat and each MMORPG-server I have ever encountered. Quite a few of them are infact trying to gain benefits from it like Razamasu described it or outright fooling people in chats. This is what I mean with dishonesty and I don’t accuse you personally of it but for me it is closely associated with playing the opposite sex within an anonymous environment.
Sorry I don’t mean to make you out to be a weirdo. I see your point