Jim Skamarakas

Another beta weekend event (BWE) for the Guild Wars MMO is about to end. I refer you to a few recent articles on the Guild Wars MMO including Guild Wars MMO at MSN search and Guild Wars MMO at Google

Both of these give us some interesting Guild Wars MMO items to consider. The usual fan sites, which are little businesses, revenue coming mostly from gaming company ads. They may claim to have volunteer staff, but they also claim to have Open positions available, and xxx sit now hiring. Here they show that while they want to look to you like a fan community site, what they are is a business for an individual or a company who needs volunteer staff to support their profit model. So the back end is 1 person making money, the front end is an army of volunteers. Funny, but people fall for it. And if you did not fall for it, the army of volunteers will tell you about all the great things they do for you. You could almost see the strings going up into the overhead.

So what source do you have for a Guild Wars MMO review?
Guild Wars MMO and others. Look in the forums for community sites. And look to guild and fan sites. But don’t look for the “Yeah” “Rocks” posts, look for the analysis that asks, “Is it worth it for me to purchase this game for $50 US when it ships?”

Guild Wars is an MMO that wants to be PvP with a fast paced PvE or PvM component, and no monthly fees. As of today, it is a PvE that you bang out in a matter of hours, lacks severe depth of development, and you will get tired of redoing the same save Prince quest escort mission.

So its a great PvP game? A great PvP game is UT, HALO, Quake II, Battlefield, and a long list of great FPS games and engines. What makes them great is the depth of experience out of the box, and the communities that evolve, including the mod communities.

So is Guild Wars MMO, or GuildWars MMO, or GuildWars MMORPG, whatever name or title you want to give it, should be fun, entertaining, and in general, addictive. Guild Wars is currently a fun MMO for 16 hours, then your done, at the end, waiting for the team to release more content. And here is where the lack of subscription model will be tested. Content will be for sale as expansions, with no monthly fee. The no monthly fee means the annoying players - grievers, kids, jerks and assholes - will be around for the life of the game.

So the PvP should be outstanding? It has some good points, but I see it playable for a few weeks, then it will get shelved.

So my final review of Guild Wars MMO - >
If you want a great MMO, go with EverQuest II or World of Warcraft, pick your poison.
If you want a great PvP experience, go with a long list of great FPS games and their huge lists of mod communities.
If you want a great MMO with PvP and something different, wait for Auto Assault.
Guild Wars delivers an okay experience at PvE, PvM, PvP, and a no monthly fee. But it doesn’t deliver great on any of these points.

So will I be involved with next months BWE? Yes, and if anything changes from the folks at Arenanet have up thier sleeves in Seattle, WA, I will update my review. Things have a way of coming out in flood gates in the crunch time to going GOLD.

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