Gilded Guilds
A few weeks have passed, since my initial dive into the warm amniotic fluid that is Guild Wars.
Since then, my protective womb has been somewhat shattered by the typicalities of the internet.
Not unlike the real world, ignorant and illiterate trash still roam freely about the globe. Forced partnership with stupidity causes the best of men and plans to fail beyond salvation. And, most pervasively, there is almost no reason to party with others when I can pick up mercenary ally NPCs that will follow my every command with undying loyalty (until they die).
Comparatively, though, I still think the game has an edge on others.
When put up against Final Fantasy XI, the very option of a solo game with NPC allies should be enough to beat out any other argument. Aside from very lonely and time-intensive beastmasters and (lol)dragoons, FFXI is in no way the lone wolf's game. Unless you go into the fray with a band of twenty-odd best friends who all want to play together, you're forced to swallow any semblance of intelligence you have, and fag it up with illiterate cockmongers #'s 1 through 4 at least once per session. Granted, this decreases to some degree as time goes on, but it's really just a weeding-out process. And those that do last end up being Prick King of Prickville, with a really high crafting skill and no social skills whatsoever.
When put up against World of Warcraft, I'd say the competition starts to get a little heated. Clearly, Warcraft provides the deeper backstory, character variety, and indisputable scope and mass of game world. Fortunately, it's also a Blizzard game, with typical Blizzard bullshit. Rock-paper-scissors PvP on Blizzard's behalf brings Guild Wars ahead, by a hair. Removeable skill points increases that distance by a nose. And, finally, one single server as opposed to ninety drives a stake into its vampiric money-siphoning heart.
To be fair, I'd say the idea of a single server is what will bring Guild Wars ahead of the crowd of other online games for the next while. The ease of getting together with friends from across the globe has always been of vague importance in game history, but when done right, it can be a major selling point. Even the option to switch servers, which Squaresoft so intelligently chose to deny, would have put FFXI into greater competition with Guild Wars. But, by removing the need to do so at all, the only issue you're creating is that character names can't be used by a few hundred different people. Which, overall, isn't a bad thing - firstly, because the amount of non-creative twats is so high that it's irrelevent what their name is, anyway, and secondly because anybody with a unique name was sure to reserve it six months before the game was released in the first place. (I tried to make Kwai Chang Caine, today, and it had been taken. I imagine a very long time ago.)
My primary issue with the game is the limit placed upon guild size, at one hundred members. I can't recall this ever being an issue with the linkshell system in FFXI, which (to my knowledge) had no limit on member capacity. Granted, having a full hundred people online at one time would generate a ridiculous amount of gibberish and illegitimate penis-measuring, but I've never seen more than 20 online at once, regardless of the guild being full. This may just be situational, though.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, my inventory space is limited to only about 50 spaces. And I can only stack items in lumps of 250. And to further that injustice, there is no (current) option for expanded storage via the Guild Hall.
In order to be an effective re-creation of what made Ultima Online beautiful and lovely, I must have access to an amount of storage which is limited only by my wealth, and willingness to personally sacrifice blood and tears to obtain that precious space.
Also, being able to *actually* log on and "just play for five or ten minutes", instead of saying that and ending up playing five or ten hours is a new experience for me. And it's pretty nice. No waiting for parties. No bullshit that I can't control, like walking to where I need to go.
Just log in, enter arena, play a three-minute match. Repeat until I no longer care to do so.
Delicious.
(Finally, did I mention there are no PC elves, to pansy-ass around in the forest? There ARE dwarves, apparently, but they're strictly NPC, and half of them can be killed. I dub this to be a fair trade.)
Since then, my protective womb has been somewhat shattered by the typicalities of the internet.
Not unlike the real world, ignorant and illiterate trash still roam freely about the globe. Forced partnership with stupidity causes the best of men and plans to fail beyond salvation. And, most pervasively, there is almost no reason to party with others when I can pick up mercenary ally NPCs that will follow my every command with undying loyalty (until they die).
Comparatively, though, I still think the game has an edge on others.
When put up against Final Fantasy XI, the very option of a solo game with NPC allies should be enough to beat out any other argument. Aside from very lonely and time-intensive beastmasters and (lol)dragoons, FFXI is in no way the lone wolf's game. Unless you go into the fray with a band of twenty-odd best friends who all want to play together, you're forced to swallow any semblance of intelligence you have, and fag it up with illiterate cockmongers #'s 1 through 4 at least once per session. Granted, this decreases to some degree as time goes on, but it's really just a weeding-out process. And those that do last end up being Prick King of Prickville, with a really high crafting skill and no social skills whatsoever.
When put up against World of Warcraft, I'd say the competition starts to get a little heated. Clearly, Warcraft provides the deeper backstory, character variety, and indisputable scope and mass of game world. Fortunately, it's also a Blizzard game, with typical Blizzard bullshit. Rock-paper-scissors PvP on Blizzard's behalf brings Guild Wars ahead, by a hair. Removeable skill points increases that distance by a nose. And, finally, one single server as opposed to ninety drives a stake into its vampiric money-siphoning heart.
To be fair, I'd say the idea of a single server is what will bring Guild Wars ahead of the crowd of other online games for the next while. The ease of getting together with friends from across the globe has always been of vague importance in game history, but when done right, it can be a major selling point. Even the option to switch servers, which Squaresoft so intelligently chose to deny, would have put FFXI into greater competition with Guild Wars. But, by removing the need to do so at all, the only issue you're creating is that character names can't be used by a few hundred different people. Which, overall, isn't a bad thing - firstly, because the amount of non-creative twats is so high that it's irrelevent what their name is, anyway, and secondly because anybody with a unique name was sure to reserve it six months before the game was released in the first place. (I tried to make Kwai Chang Caine, today, and it had been taken. I imagine a very long time ago.)
My primary issue with the game is the limit placed upon guild size, at one hundred members. I can't recall this ever being an issue with the linkshell system in FFXI, which (to my knowledge) had no limit on member capacity. Granted, having a full hundred people online at one time would generate a ridiculous amount of gibberish and illegitimate penis-measuring, but I've never seen more than 20 online at once, regardless of the guild being full. This may just be situational, though.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, my inventory space is limited to only about 50 spaces. And I can only stack items in lumps of 250. And to further that injustice, there is no (current) option for expanded storage via the Guild Hall.
In order to be an effective re-creation of what made Ultima Online beautiful and lovely, I must have access to an amount of storage which is limited only by my wealth, and willingness to personally sacrifice blood and tears to obtain that precious space.
Also, being able to *actually* log on and "just play for five or ten minutes", instead of saying that and ending up playing five or ten hours is a new experience for me. And it's pretty nice. No waiting for parties. No bullshit that I can't control, like walking to where I need to go.
Just log in, enter arena, play a three-minute match. Repeat until I no longer care to do so.
Delicious.
(Finally, did I mention there are no PC elves, to pansy-ass around in the forest? There ARE dwarves, apparently, but they're strictly NPC, and half of them can be killed. I dub this to be a fair trade.)