Nightfall world premiere sets Guild Wars record
by Alan Rose 
{ Oct 6th 2006 at 2:30PM }
NCsoft and ArenaNet have confirmed a franchise record attendance for the world premiere event of Guild Wars Nightfall. This past weekend, nearly 500,000 MMO enthusiasts spent an average of 8.5 hours trying out the new expansion pack, which officially launches Oct. 27. How many of you participated in this event?If you've been thinking about trying out Guild Wars, the Factions expansion pack is on sale for $30 at Circuit City until tomorrow (and you don't need the original game to play).
See also: 3 million hours spent on Guild Wars Factions preview weekend
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KR @ Oct 6th 2006 2:37PM
Keep in mind the "expansion pack" works as a standalone game. A lot of people see the words "expansion pack" and get scared off. You don't need the original Guild Wars to play.
Good point! Thanks for the reminder, KR. - Alan
darko82 @ Oct 6th 2006 2:41PM
The presentation quality looks amazing, but can anyone comment on the solo play capabilities? I've read too many reviews that say it can be hard to form a quality guild - just like with DDO.
empfeix @ Oct 6th 2006 2:43PM
If you dont need the original does this just mean you only get access to the expansion pack areas?
crono141 @ Oct 6th 2006 2:44PM
Guild Wars was the biggest waste of 50 dollars I've spent in recent memory. I played for like, a day, and then decided I hated it.
empfeix @ Oct 6th 2006 2:46PM
Would someone who likes playing WoW (like myself) enjoy this game? I hear you only can go up to level 20 or something like that. I enjoy taking time to level up and not so much the end game raiding part of mmo's.
What do you do when you hit top level in this game?
rpg_man @ Oct 6th 2006 2:46PM
@empfeix, yes, that's exactly what it means, but this is nice because you can test out one campaign at a time, without any backward requirements. Nightfall will be the same way.
crono141 @ Oct 6th 2006 2:59PM
I'm a wow player, and like I said, I hated it. Where WoW goes out of its way to show you the ropes and is pretty strait-forward as far as UI and professions go, GW is anything but strait-forward. I had lots of confusion about professions, spells, dying (and coming back from dying), etc. It just wasn't a good experience.
But thats just me.
Spilt_Milk @ Oct 6th 2006 3:02PM
It's a great game. Yes you can only go up to 20 but then you are just started. It's not focused on levels but skills. It's a good 3 months worth of solid play and worth getting the expansions for. It is really nice not having a monthy fee.
It's looks 1000x than wow and the storyline is pretty damn entertaining.
The only drawback is the weak community. I think the lack of monthly fees is partially to blame. It allows kiddies that don't nomrally have the ability to pay by month to play and weakens the guilt tie you normally have to play because you are forking over money every month.
It is not a game you will be playing day in and day out for years like wow but definately wirth getting the expansions and playing thru them.
eugaet @ Oct 6th 2006 3:15PM
I've been playing GW since April '05.
@darko82
Currently, I'm in a one-man guild (and have been for over a year), but usually don't have much trouble finding other people to party with. I'm not sure how the other MMOs worh, but you can party with anyone, whether they're in your guild or not. In the event you can't find people who want to do the same quest you do at that point in time, you can fill out your party with AI henchmen. Not as good as a real person, but adequate.
@empfeix
Level 20 is indeed the highest level you can reach. After that, you keep accruing XP, but every 'level-up' after 20 gains you a skill point, which you can use to learn new skills.
In Prophecies, you'll probably reach lvl20 around 1/3 through the PvE game. In Factions, you'll hit lvl20 around 1/4 through PvE. If you're playing straight PvP, all PvP characters are created at lvl20.
Guild Wars does not emphasize level, but rather skill. I rarely ever pay attention to any of my characters' levels or acquired XP.
A good fansite for better answers to your questions is www.guildwarsguru.com.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliate with www.guildwarsguru.com in any way other than by being a member of their forum.
Wulkar @ Oct 6th 2006 3:26PM
i played it and i have both prophecies and factions. and i plan on getting nightfall.
James @ Oct 6th 2006 4:28PM
Hopefully NightFall will be better than that piece of trash GuildWars Factions. Let's see a return ala GW: Prophecies, the great original.
eugaet @ Oct 6th 2006 3:43PM
Re: Spilt_Milk
I'd say it's a game you *might* play day-in, day-out for years. I only say this because there are many people who have been playing day-in, day-out over the last 18 months, myself included. But that's not to say GW is for everyone...just like WoW isn't for everyone.
I've always felt GW has a strong community. Visiting any of the top GW fansites should be enough to back that up.
The one thing that makes me jealous that WoW has that GW doesn't...is Mac support. A majority of my friends have non-Intel Macs, so they can't join in. And none of us are willing to pay monthly fees.
eugaet @ Oct 6th 2006 3:56PM
Re: crono141
Both Prophecies and Factions teaches you how to play the game if you create a PvE character. In fact, I learned how to play just by jumping straight into PvE during their open-beta E3 event in 2004, without reading any instructions beforehand, and it was really easy to pick up. Learning how to play effectively, that takes a bit longer.
I have to assume PvP just drops you in without a primer or anything, as I'm not a PvP player, at least in the strict PvP sense. Maybe you only tried creating PvP characters?
The GW GUI is really simple and easy to use. The WoW GUI tends to look confusing and cluttered to me, but then I've never spent any time trying to use it...I can't really make a valid comparison if all I have to go off of is WoW screenshots and video.
Miharu @ Oct 6th 2006 4:09PM
When I entered WoW I learned how to play in a second. With Guild Wars I was kinda lost, I played it for a day and couldn't find anything in the city/village except some quests about "bring me this and this item" and they told not where to find them. And I never ran into a shop or something either. The mission with destroying the pirate ships and killing piratest was pretty fun but it was doable alone (and it didn't even make you ask for party members) so the game didn't feel like a MMORPG one bit.
Now granted, if I were to buy this game I'd of course have ventured much further and I would have had a manual to check some things from it and I'd have had the urge to find out every gimmick of the game. But as a small taste of Guild Wars, this trial let me unsatisfied as it felt it was made mostly for those who have played GW before.
ProjectGSX @ Oct 6th 2006 4:18PM
If you are concerned about solo gameplay, wait for Nightfall. It has a new "heroes" system where you can have 3 customizable henchmen to join you in battle. You level them up, equip them, modify their skill bars, etc. It will only take 2 real players (with 3 heroes each) to form a full, customized party.
However, your best bet is to just join a guild. gwonline.net and guild-hall.net both have active guild recruiting forums. Its really not a big deal.
PiratePete @ Oct 6th 2006 4:19PM
Count me as one that was there. I tried out both the Dervish and Paragon characters and they were both fun. I've already put down a deposit for the Nightfall once it comes out.
As for playing this game day in and day out. I have for the past 5 months since I started playing and I love it. It's very addicting and if you join up with a good guild even better. I at least put 4 to 5 hours in to it everyday. I already play GW more then I watch TV. Also as mentioned earlier the focus is on acquiring skills that allow you to play the game better and in different ways as opposed to just grinding to get to the next lvl. This is what keeps the game constantly interesting IMO.
If you haven't give it a try.
Matt @ Oct 6th 2006 4:34PM
got it, played it for years, then got bored of it, prophecies is the best, factions and nightfall both suck.
So i bought WoW and belive me, it is so much better than guild wars.
Mog @ Oct 6th 2006 4:57PM
I played the Nightfall preview and it was my first experience with Guild Wars. It was so good that I pre-ordered Nightfall just after the preview week end and bought Factions at the online store.
Gamey McGee @ Oct 6th 2006 5:15PM
Guild Wars has a key advantage to most other MMORPG's out there-- you can pick it up and play it for 20 minutes or 12 hours and your success in the game in unaltered. I don't have to be in a guild. I don't have to party with other players, I can use NPC's, and I can play endlessly to entertain myself with the campaigns and skill acquiring.
There is a lot to say about having an RPG online experience that is flexible. The older you get, the more demands on your time. You can't put aside consistent time to playing, so with the time you set aside for GW is nice-- I don't feel like I'm getting ripped off if I don't play 80 hours in a month because I don't get charged for it. If I want to play another aspect of the game, around every 9 months they are coming out with an expansion pack.
I simply won't play WoW because it *demands* too much time and too much money.
Gamey McGee @ Oct 6th 2006 5:35PM
To back up some other comments...
The gameplay in Factions is not nearly as engaging as the original Prophesies campaign... but the new characters and setting is welcome and still a ton of fun.
As for the focus of gameplay, it's the skills. I can't agree more. Rather than doing the same damn thing over and over, you constantly explore areas that allow you to get "elite" skills and noteriety. It's fascinating and you can always tweak your character in interesting ways.
It's good fun, and you're not out a lot of cash even if you didn't like it. :-)
Cynders @ Oct 6th 2006 7:11PM
I have both Prophecies and Factions. I was disappointed with Factions, but Nightfall looks really, really good. The Hero system looks like the best addition to the gameplay yet!
agit @ Oct 9th 2006 1:44PM
One thing people forget about Guildwars is that it is NOT an MMO, it is billed as a CORPG (competetive online rpg that's why they have a ladder and championships)...
That said, the comparisons to WOW should be removed because they are 2 completely different games/systems and cannot be accurately/fairly compared.
Having played both Prophecies/Factions/(and a little of)Nightfall here is my take:
Anet does a VERY good job fixing any problems tht are brought to their attention, not only that it streams the patches to you as you need updated components (no waiting for a 400+MB file to come down through the WOW-torrent client).
Prophecies was a tiny bit hard to understand at first, which was a little frustrating, BUT it's not rocket science... If you couldn't figure it out in the first 10-20 min, you shouldn't be playing games =P...
Factions on the other hand COMPLETELY teaches you what you need to know about the game when you create your first character....
Factions was intended as more of a PVP oriented game with the focus on PVE as a lesser part of it. You can control portions of the opposing factions territory and shift map boundaries.
I like how there isn't the constant grind, sorry but that gets old after awhile, and I like how they want people to hit 20 fast so they can actually go play and enjoy the game instead of being frustrated by an "endless" grind.
NO MONTHLY FEES!!!
I myself will probably pick up Nightfall shortly after it comes out.