Guild Wars is a online RPG bought via retail with completely free online play. Instead of interacting with other players constantly, think of Guild Wars as one big instance dungeon for you and your group. In a way, the towns in Guild Wars act like the lobbies on Battle.net for Diablo 1 and 2. This is separation is the reason why Guild Wars is somewhat of a hybrid online RPG/MMORPG instead of being a full-fledged MMORPG. Looking for PvP and don't want to role-play to get to it? Guild Wars lets you jump in to the PvP fray immediately with a high level character (level 20) whether you have played the game before or not. You can customize this high level character all the way down to armor and weapons. This PvP system helps to complement the instanced RPG aspect by offering intense action within minutes instead of grinding. Guild Wars' very active community should also be noted.

The main reason I enjoy the game is the fact that when you leave a city, the game world is your own private area. That means no waiting for others to kill an enemy for a quest then waiting around for the enemy to respawn so your group can kill it. There is no fighting back and forth over which group got to an area first to farm for anything. It’s your very own area. I enjoy this game and I think that whether you love MMORPGs or just RPGs, you will enjoy this game as well. Guild Wars drove me to want to play offline games for some time. The graphics are great, but the people, frankly, ruin the atmosphere. I have to quote someone below for the observation that (in the first chapter): "everyone is a pervert, a rascist, and idiot, or any combination of the three"

Oh. Wow. I’ve never laughed more at a comment. Gamergal, most of what you said has been corrected, but still it has to be said. Coming from a guild war veteran here’s my review. The graphics in guild wars can beat almost any other mmorpg at full value however it also requires a good graphic card at full value gets boring after awhile since everyone either makes you run a build or shuns you which isn’t bad but some places scare off the new players because of this making it so hard to find a random group, as well as you not being able to solo anything without a proper invincible build which is nice.

Arenas. Once you win there a few times, you unlock -TEAM- Arenas. In Team Arenas you can choose your group carefully from the players who have also unlocked it. Once you win there a few times, you unlock the High Class PvP spot. Which I forget the name for. Anyway, the PvP is a big part of this game, and Random Arenas is like luck of the draw type thing. Nobody is at a disadvantage or an advantage. The amount of end game stuff you can do is entirely based on which expansions you have in fact they made an expansion (eye of the north) purely for the max level players to do end game stuff such as dungeons. your either rich or your poor =) there’s no in between most of the stuff costs around a lot so if your not rich most of your money will be burned out into stuff you find out you will need.

You pay once for the Access Key, and you can play forever for free from there. There are currently three games and an expansion; you have to buy each to play them all. There are quests, which is your general "go here, kill that, protect this, and follow him" story. Then there are missions, which is a more epic version of quests. This game scores a perfect 10 in my book. The game play is fun and you are never doing the same thing two times in a row. Different types of monsters make you use different skills. Build up a guild, get an alliance going and just dominate in the player vs player (PvP) aspect of the game. And to top it all off, there is no monthly fee. If you played WoW and tired of paying monthly, check this game out.

You can join a guild and only talk to those people in it, or you can converse with everyone. If there is someone you don’t like, you can ignore them, meaning you can’t see what they say. You can -ALWAYS- get a group. ALWAYS. Real People, or not. You can use real people in a mission, which is fun, but it takes longer because you have to wait for them. Ooooorrr, you can use NPC characters like Henchman or Heroes. It’s a little harder, because no AI is perfect, but you get the job done.

The graphics are among the best I’ve seen for low-budget computers. -guild wars is not a mmorpg like most people think its like diablo you goto towns make groups and go to a specific area once your in the area people CAN leave but no one can enter... making this really frustrating when you have a rage quiter in your group who decides to quit halfway through. -guild wars is 100% free after you buy the expansions making it really nice since you dont have to use a credit card or buy pre paid cards. -gets boring after awhile >.> not to much to do when youve been playing for 1 or more year.

There are infinite combinations of Skill Builds! You play how -you- want. also the 1k max armor are the same as the 15k armor their just duller and less appealing so don’t spend all your money like I did on 3 sets of 15k armor lol. I have very rarely had any problem finding people to quest with. GW is unique, especially with the additions of Nightfall and Eye of the North, in that you have have a large number of customizable heroes, as well as non-customizable henchmen that can accompany you. You can quite literally beat the game in normal mode (and nearly all of hard mode) without ever really having to group with another human. This gives you some flexibility and freedom from having to sit around looking for a party when you want to play.

This game can be very nice or very dull depending on your guild... personally I like smaller guilds since I know everyone in it =).... also this game gets very dull after awhile especially since everywhere you go there is a specific build everyone looks for even if you manage to get the build they expect everyone to know how to use it making this game really stressful for new players. Good game but this is not a MMO! That's what renting is for, genius. You rent before you buy and if you don't like it you save the money. Apparently you live under a rock and don't even know what ''renting'' is, am I right? Gamergal has a highly inaccurate view of this game and its features. I've played for a year and a half now, and have no idea what she is talking about.

The community is not "Awful! Unfriendly, unhelpful, rude..." etc. There are people that can be, like in any game, but to generalize like that is nonsense. Most people chat more within their guild and alliance than in the public chat, simply because those are the people that they will most readily be questing with, pvping, trusting not to be scammed by, etc. You do have to make SOME effort to establish human relationships. It is GUILD Wars. This person obviously has very little experience in pvp. There are numerous arenas and styles of pvp, not just the Random Arena 4v4. The Random Arena is not considered serious pvp. It is something there to get a quick pvp fix, because generally there is no wait time, and you don't have to bother finding a group, as they are put together automatically.