What is the one thing that could devastate the current online gaming market? Freedom. In a genre of gaming dominated by monthly fees, the majority of which average around $15 a month, the most frightening thought for developers like Mythic and Sony is that a free game will emerge to rival and possibly replace the existing games.
"Guild Wars," a fantasy PC game slated for a February 2005 release, promises to do just that. It boasts free, secure Internet support for players in one persistent gaming world. Rising up against a standard that has for so long been dominated by monthly fees, this game could transform the MMORPG market forever.
ArenaNet, a subsidiary of Ncsoft Corporation, the producers of "Lineage 2" and "City of Heroes," is currently developing the game. The company is by no means new to the area of free Internet gaming. In fact, key ArenaNet employees are responsible for the creation of Blizzard's well-known Battle.net gaming network, which provides free Internet service for the award-winning "Diablo" game series.
ArenaNet has been organizing various Weekend Beta Events in order to promote "Guild Wars." There is no fee to play and gamers can download the client at www.guildwars.com for free, to try the game out during the weekend test periods.
The game was created on existing gaming principles that have been redefined specifically for the "Guild Wars" game experience.
Some modifications from the standard MMORPG archetype include a quick and easy teleportation-like transport system that is available to all classes, all quests being instanced, which eliminates mob camping and kill-stealing, and a respect system that allows gamers to change their characters on the fly.
Players have the option of playing either alone, cooperatively or head-to-head in large-scale PvP wars. Additionally, the game features a henchmen system for players who are unable to find a group or prefer grouping with NPCs.
The game's graphics are stunning. Both the 3-D models and spell effects are impressive but not graphically demanding enough to cause game lag. The only downside is that players may sometimes feel penned in by invisible walls when walking near cliffs or mountains.
One of the major differences between this game and others is the leveling and experience system. Leveling in "Guild Wars" is generally much faster-paced than other games of the same caliber and since it has a low level cap with only 20 levels currently, it is much easier to achieve a maximum-level character.
The available classes in "Guild Wars" include Elementalist, Mesmer, Necromancer, Monk, Ranger, and Warrior. The first three are spellcasting classes while the last three are healer, archer and melee classes respectively. A "D&D"-like dual class system is employed to give players more diversity.
While character customization in terms of appearance remains far below that of other games, the overwhelming skill-purchasing and customization system should keep players entertained.
The user interface system, while it resembles most other Internet games, has a key difference that adds an element of strategy to the game. For instance, players are limited to having eight skills/spells on the quickbar at any give time, and during an instanced mission, switching them out is not permitted.
There weren't many glaring errors during the Beta test, but one thing that may concern gamers is that the load times seemed slightly longer than in traditional MMORPG's.
The current recommend system requirements for "Guild Wars" are as follows: Windows XP/2000/ME/98, Pentium III 1 GHz or equivalent, 512 MB RAM, ATI Radeon 9000 or Geforce 4 Ti with 64 MB of video memory, 500 MB free hard drive space and a 56k internet connection.
