Guild Wars

[Ghryphen]

I installed GuildWars (http://www.guildwars.com/) preview last night. It is a very nice looking game and runs very well. I have not explored much yet, nor have I even read much about GuildWars. It appears that is is going to be geared toward PvP, which if that is the main goal, I probably won't be too into. I don't like who you are limited in your skills once you have entered a mission. It has a nice loading system where you just download the new zones as you need them.

My name is 'Gryphon Zeusius', add me to your friends list if you play.

[yourmom]

blah!

I still love you!

[insaneferret]

i got it too, very pretty, but the gameplay is a bit bland IMO, i'll put a few more hours in and see if it gets better, my brother likes it a lot, the promising part is the lack of monthly fee, should be interesting

add me, "faeret the insane", elementalist/monk

still waiting on World Of Warcraft, open beta for that should be next week

[Aluscia]

I will never play another game owned by NCSoft. Ever. End of story.

[KitZune]

I'm with Laur on this one

[Ghryphen]

So I take it you aren't playing Lineage any longer?

[KitZune]

Nope both of us Quit lineage2...

We're gonna play everquest 2 tho when it comes out in a week

[Kaleban]

I got the pre-order of guild wars, I liked the idea and the way it was being executed.

However, its in the what, early beta now? There needs to be a lot of polish on this one before release, and I think its 1st quarter 2005 as the tentative date. I find it amusing that items with no graphics yet have a little "under construction" icon, very Internet retro hehe.

In any event, we'll see how it goes. The one thing that got me is the no monthly charges, and from what I've seen, the game has a ton of potential, just hasn't been realized yet.

Of course, nothing will ever supplant Tribes... EVER. ;)

[Ghryphen]

Yeah, I may look into getting it just to have a mmo around that isnt p2p.

[Stang]

Laurelin told us on TS last night why they don't play L2 anymore :p.

[insaneferret]

yup, i'm not too keen on PvP either, nobody likes being ganked by another player, it's no fun, much more fun to defeat an enemy with some story behind it, some mighty creature at the end of a dungeon

why i'll be playing world of warcraft, a good vibrant world full of lore

looks like that's 3 of you (new guy included) that will be playing EQ2, i maay get into that if everyone decides to go with it, but i've heard too many horror stories about the beta to do it willingly

as of now i'll be playing WoW with the SOUP/XMEN guys (open beta should start within the week), we discussed it at the LAN, good few of us that'll be playing, enough to make a guild.

so who else will be scuttling about warcraft?, just me? :hmm

[KitZune]

Sorry... I was REALLY disappointed by Warcraft 3, and they lost my interest. They ruined the old story, in my eyes.

Everquest 2 is very dungeons and dragony... and thankfully NOT PvP. I will enjoy roleplaying in it. No one to slaughter me when they're in a bad mood or "just for fun" which happened too often in Lineage 2.

[Ghryphen]

I get frustrated in PvP, if I get owned I know some guy on the other end is laughing and struting about and doing stupid taunts. If I get owned by a mob, I know that I can learn to beat it over time and they don't rub it in your face.

I will look at WoW too and see how that goes. EQ2 is ok too, haven't really played the beta more than a couple days, the zoning is kind of weird to get used to after playing L2, SWG and PlanetSide where you can run forever and not load a zone.

Everyone MAKE SURE to post what server you are on for any of these games AS SOON as possible. Nothing worse than friends being split on servers.

[insaneferret]

one thing i liked about warcraft was the optional PVP, you've got a pvp flag that you can toggle on yourself and then you're fair game for anyone with a pvp flag on, you can turn pvp on immediately but it takes a few minutes to disable it, then there's the honor system which gives honor/dishonor points against you for the kills, eg a duel or raid = honorable, ganking someone who is hurt from a mob or mobbing them just for the hell of it = dishonorable, if you're a sufficiently dishonorable bastard, even your own town guards attack you, really well done.

EQ2 still has zones?, i thought they would cut that, planetside sorta has zones with the continents, WoW is seamless, there is only one load time when you travel from one half of the planet to the other, it's really cool when flying over in a gryphon, seeing all the mobs and players on the ground on the way

for any of you who grab the WoW new Stress test or open beta next week i'm playing on Test11 (central timezone) with the SOUP folks, name is insaneferret

[SiFi]

I'll just be tagging on my two cents here, considering that EQ2 will be the first MMORPG that I'll have ever played. As Kitz said, it bears a strong resemblance to D&D, which I've been playing with Kitz and Laur for....wow, nine years. (It's been good times, guys!) And I've always heard Kitz and Laur ranting about PvP in L2. Personally, if I want PvP, I'll go play an FPS.

As for the debate between EQ2 and WoW, I have no qualifications to discuss either. I'll leave that to you experts. :)

[Ghryphen]

Yeah there are zones, basically any small new area has a zone. Walk up to a town, load new zone, leave the town to a small swamp area, load a zone. At least planetside is obvious that each continent would be a zone, but that one zone is huge. In eq2 each zone is like a tibes map size.

[Stang]

A guild for WoW? Hmm we have one already ATF :D. But Im sure you guys will want some wacko name or something :).

[KitZune]

Every game has zones, and they are not "one huge zone"
Basically some games choose to do "seemless" zoning where you do not reach the "edge" of a map and move to another one... instead you seamlessly move from one area to the next with seemingly no load. Lineage 2 is a good example, you can very visibly see the zones, the seamless zoning is not done very well. Every now and then your computer will lag as it loads the next area. Basically in seamless loading, you load the zones BEYOND your vision, as well as the one you're currently in. everytime you move into a new zone, you load the adjacent zones again... It's REALLY annoying because they don't stop play to load, they try to load while you're playing. In lineage 2 it would cause all sorts of ugly glitches including falling through the world to an endless expanse of grass below the map.

Games with seams (FFXI is one I've played) are BEAUTIFUL because the ENTIRE zone is loaded when you are in it. No loading as you go. For computers, such as mine, with less RAM... this is an awesome choice.

Personally I just don't think computers have made it far enough for seemless worlds to be possible yet. Resident evil does it really well, but that's a much smaller scale of a game. My opinion: Seamed worlds are a little better right now... Only because theirs a better chance the game will be more pretty with the surroundings.

And yes, I'm positive that Planetside has zoning too... it would be impossible to load an entire continent into anything less than like 2gig of ram.

[SiFi]

There's a simple answer, Kitz: Get more RAM ;)

[Aluscia]

Not simple.... He has an HP computer, which is almost like Dell in their propriety...

[insaneferret]

my dad uses a dell and i was able to upgrade it with over the counter DDR ram no problem, i think they've cut back on the proprietery everything idiocy, pretty much the only proprietary component in the dells are the crappy motherboard

[Ghryphen]

I know they all have zones, however I prefer the seamless loading. I never had that problem in lineage. I could run across the world with relatively no loading problems. Occasionally I could tell it was drawing things in beyond my view, but for the most part it is pretty smooth.

Even SWG there is no zone feeling, though it does visually load things only within your view more like a mobile zone.

PlanetSide I am not so sure about, I have not noticed anything typical to seamless zone loading, it plays as one single huge map for me.

I don't know, eq2 is the only game I have played so far with such a massive amount of long loading zones. I just am not used to that. I like to see into the open gates of the city and see bustling citizens moving about as I approach it. eq2 is a little claustrophobic.

[Gambit]

Laur, in my experince, Dell is one of the least proprietary of the decent major brands.

HP isn't too bad.

One place I worked had Compaqs (pre-merger), and they had a standard AGP graphics slot -- but it was set about an inch too far back on the motherboard to use an off-the-shelf card. When they do stuff like that for no better reason than lock-in, it really annoys me...

On the other hand, there was that period when Dell reversed a couple cables in their mobo power connector. If you mixed their mobo or ps with a standard one (meaning you didn't replace both), it'd fry! The justifiable outcry was loud enough that they fixed it pretty quick.

[KitZune]

My computer is incredibly modular... I could change anything I want inside it. The ram is not propriatary. However the computer CAME with 256... I put in another 256... so in order to get more ram, I'd have to replace both sticks... and I do not have money : P

My new job won't give me enough for a while either... but upgrading my computer is top priority

[Ghryphen]

Well, I got a card from SOE today that said they are sending a copy for review, so it looks like I will have a EQ2 account no matter what.

[Aluscia]

I hate you!!! Dammit.... How can I get shweet free stuff? Can I get moderator status or smthn? lol

[Ghryphen]

hehe :lol

[Stang]

I picked up that card today and opened it and it scared the crap out of me :lol. The thing talks to ya :).