My Gaming Graveyard: Guild Wars

This is probably the hardest article I have had to write, in terms of putting a game to rest. In fact, Guild Wars has been at rest for quite some time, with my password forgotten (and I have no real desire to remember it) and probable rare and exotic gifts in my character's inventory.

It is ironic that this game is now in my graveyard, given the amount of joy I had exploring the dark arts in Guild Wars, for I played a Necromancer. Necromancy in games has always been a favourite for me, going all the way back to Heroes of Might and Magic II.

I came into Guild Wars fairly late. All the expansions where released when I got my first tastes of the many and varied lands of Kryta. I spent ages in the pre area, exploring the remarkable lands that seemed filled with quests and lore. The community was so helpful. You could play alone, without needing to lean on somebody for help. I liked that element as a lone wolf.

Then, you emerge into the world of the campaign, where you progress through a fantastically woven story. As you proceed, you encounter numerous enemies, gain experience, loot, and all that other MMORPG stuff. Until you get to the late game. That's where the real fun begins.

First, there was hard mode, where monsters were beefier, loot was better, and your xp turning into skill points (allowing for the creation of rare items and learning new skills) allowed you to start the grind toward getting the best gear in the game. Unlike many MMOs, Guild Wars let you choose what your end-game Armor looked like, by having a system of insignias you could apply to Armor.

Then, there was dyes, to colour it whatever you wanted. The real game didn't really start until you were doing raids. As a necromancer, I travelled through the fissure of woe countless times, using the best skill ever conceived of in any video game, Mark of Pain.

Once you mark an enemy with Mark of pain, all other foes around it take damage when it is struck by physical damage. Coupled with a warrior's skill, Hundred blades blades, you could decimate large groups of enemies. So decimated, they would be, that the game's engine would commonly drop a few frames as all the damage numbers would pop up on the screen and the loot would appear on the ground.

The other great thing about Guild Wars was the fact that loot was yours, and yours alone. You could see the loot that dropped for others, and instead of a feeling of jealously, there was a feeling of "I helped that person get that loot." It never, to me seemed unfair.

Then, there was the excellent, and stable game engine that ensured the game ran on almost anything. I ran it on shitty laptops, on (for the time) high end graphics cards, low end graphics cards, and more modern hardware. Guild Wars was a place where I spent over 900 hours (some of this was idling for various events) and is probably the game that I have gotten the most value for money out of, ever.

Necromancy wasn't the only thing that I enjoyed in Guild Wars. It is a game where you can genuinely enjoy every single style of combat. Mesmers were probably the most unique character class I've encountered in any RPG. They're delightful to play, and required a high level of skill to execute correctly. Their premise would be to force great inconvenience upon their foes in a bid to get them to essentially, either a) become catatonic, or b) kill themselves through their attempts to attack you.

Rangers were so much fun. Warriors. Elementalists. Once I'd mastered these in the core game, I had the expansions to explore. I loved playing as a Dervish. I hated seeing Assassin's in PVP. Character models were gorgeous. They weren't all scantily clad, like dozens of modern games. The concept art for each profession was stunning.

I loved PVP. It was so unique, and unlike anything that I had experienced before. Guild Wars was my first and only MMORPG, and I have the fondest memories of my Necromancer, who was my first character, on the basis that as any single role, there wasn't anything that you could not handle. If you couldn't you could always take a secondary profession at any time and use skills from that pool.

Guild Wars 2 was released. I kept playing the first game. I didn't care about new and shiny things. I was having fun with exploring the depth and sheer grandness of the entire world. I was farming, becoming wealthy, and often times, logged in just to chat with other players.

Why is Guild Wars now dead to me? (Or well, more accurately, no longer played?) The main reason is that I started to run out of things to do. Spending 900 hours in a world tends to make that be the case. I don't regret a single CPU cycle that was spent in game, either madly kiting a foe, or sending a flesh golem forth to destroy whatever foe stood in my way. To me, Guild Wars evokes the finest nostalgia.

All images used in this article are from the Guild Wars Wiki