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Guild Wars World Preview Event Details
Beginning this weekend is another chance for prospective players to check out Guild Wars, the upcoming free MMOG by ArenaNet and NCSoft. If you're interested you can download the client in preparation for this Friday's event kickoff. Gamerfeed has some details on what to expect in the preview, while Gamespy has details from the first preview and an update since then. Finally, reader Detritus wrote in to tell us about two Stratics guides to prepare you for the event, one on Player vs. Player strategy and the other on Player vs. Environment elements of the game.
I'm so incredibly dispirited by the lack of creativity in games nowadays. Tolkien has done the world of fantasy irreperable harm. Orcs, Goblins, Elves, Men, Dwarves, even Gnomes...all of them in every game. They have become a shorthand for lazy game developers, the computer game equivalent of "Once upon a time". Wooo, dwarves are short and have strong constitutions. Elves are very dextrous. Orcs are powerful but slow.
It's just lazy. It reminds of Stargate, where they indulge in cultural strip-mining to have the heroes chased by any mythical creature they can shoehorn into the episode for a week. Minotaurs for chrissake! It just shows how tired and unimaginative most game developers and tv show writers have become.
Why shouldn't they? You're probably wondering. Well, if you ask me, the developers then become limited into the same one size fits alltactical system. The choice is essentially the same in different games using these characters. Your experience doesn't change, an Orc in one game has a similar experience to an Orc in the other game. Small details may differ depending on training and earned abilities but the underlying simplistic choice is all that is available to the player. And it's so stupid.
Why use them? Invent your own races. Be creative. Don't be stuck with ground bound humanoid essentially similar experiences, think out of the box for once. Flying digging climbing creatures. Huge blobs and tiny insects. Wake up, you lazy Tolkien obsessed bitchdevelopers.
As others have said, it doesn't really fit into the mold of traditional MMORPGs. If I understand it right, the towns are what you'd expect. Filled with people and shop owners. But then, to fight mosters and level, you make a party and go into an instance together. In essence, you're joining a Diablo II game. The big town is really just like the bNet chat area.
Still, I like it. Just wanted to make sure that was clear.