Guild Wars 2 Is Not a Sequel to Guild Wars 1

For a lot of people who are still undecided about Guild Wars 2, the first game in the franchise can be a hindrance to that decision. As hard as it might be to believe, not everyone liked the first Guild Wars. Some lamented the fact that all of its explorable zones were instanced (allowing only the player and an optional small party to actually play together). Others got overwhelmed with the staggering number of skill choices for each class - a feature that created a very steep learning curve for those coming into the game later in its life-cycle. Guild Wars 1 tried to be different from the other MMOs out there when it was first released, but some of the decisions that the designers made in the pursuit of that goal would make the game difficult to understand for a lot of players, and difficult to get into. So, many gamers are left looking at the looming Guild Wars 2 and wondering if it will be just more of the same. Others want to know if they have to play the first one to even be able to understand or enjoy the second one. The message that every undecided gamer needs to hear is this: Guild Wars 2 is not a sequel to Guild Wars 1! 'Successor' might be a better term. The two games share the same backstory - the same lore, but that's about where the similarities end. Both games take place in a world called Tyria, but the Tyria of Guild Wars 2 is dramatically different from the Tyria of the first game. Cities have been drowned, mountain ranges torn up, new sub-continents have emerged from the ocean. There are plenty of reminders of the old world there for fans of the first game, but this new world has advanced a great deal over two centuries of in-game time. The Charr (the big, beefy cat-like race) has built a Death Star-like city, for badness' sake! The Asura (the short guys with big ears and big eyes) have crafted a massive city of floating upside-down pyramids and holographic displays! This world may as well be a completely fresh setting. Not only that, but it is entirely hand-crafted. Not only are they not importing world geometry from the earlier game, but every single village, town, and city is unique, and so are the individual buildings within those cities! And as far as gameplay is concerned, it's hard to imagine how two games could be so different and still belong in the same (or similar) genre! Guild Wars 1 was defined by the developers as a "Competitive Online Role-Playing Game". The label "MMO" wasn't actually appropriate for Guild Wars because all of the action took place in instanced zones. That meant that if you wanted to go kill enemies, you did it by yourself. You could take a few friends with you, if you had any, but you would never see other players off in the distance hacking away at the bad guys. When you entered an explorable zone, it was just you and whoever you brought with you. Guild Wars 2 takes a completely different approach to the 'multi-player' aspect of the term 'MMO'. It offers a completely persistent world where other players are visible at almost all times (there are still some instanced portions of the game, but they are all centered on your character's personal story, and even then you can bring friends along for the ride). Guild Wars 2 goes way beyond all other MMOs in this area of multi-player, though. In other games, you are forced to belong to a strong guild or else hunt for groups of strangers to play with if you want to tackle some of the more difficult quests or challenging bosses in the game. No so in Guild Wars 2! Because of the nature of the game's dynamic event system, all a player has to do in order to take part in epic events is simply wander up and start participating. There is no need to 'party up' with other players, there's no competition for kills or loot, and no need to have to get your character build approved by some obnoxious twelve-year-old before you join in the fun. If you see exciting events happening around you, all you have to do is just run up and get involved! Also gone from Guild Wars 1 is the focus on a mountain of skills for each class that are barely distinguishable from each other. Many players really liked the collectible-card-game aspects of the first Guild Wars' skill system, but just as many found it frustrating. Higher-level PvP play often dengerated into a meta-game of which guilds were running which flavor-of-the-month builds and how to beat them. Guild Wars 2, once again, focuses on breaking that old stereotype and taking it in a fresh, new direction. Classes now have a much more limited selection of skills, but there is still a lot of potential for making your character unique. Skills are now primarily associated with weapons. If your character can swing a greatsword, then that weapon will provide you with five different skills to use in combat. The fascinating thing is, though, that if a different class uses that same weapon, it will have five completely different skills for it! A Ranger may use a greatsword to take on the spirit of an eagle and sweep into combat from a long way away, while a Mesmer may cause a greatsword to float between her outstretched arms and fire a purple laser beam at range! The weapons you choose determine what your character's first five skills will be. In addition to that, you get to pick one (out of several) healing skill, three (out of dozens) utility skills, and one (out of several) elite skill. Your class - and to some degree, your race - determines which skills you have available to choose from. So while there are still a lot of choices, it isn't nearly as overwhelming. If you equip a pistol, you will be using your class' pistol skills. You've got to have at least one healing skill, one elite skill, etc. Each one of the 'zones' on your skillbar (weapons, healing, utility, and elite) has limited the number of choices that you can make, cutting way down on the clutter and confusion of the original game. It isn't just an improvement on the old system, though; it is a completely new system that feels totally unique in the MMO market while still feeling natural and intuitive. Hopefully this helps potential players understand that Guild Wars 2 is not just the next incarnation of the gameplay from Guild Wars 1. It is a completely new game in every way. It is also not just another MMO. It's not as if the developers wanted to revamp their old game to make it more like other games that were more successful (like World of Warcraft). Instead, they have set out to revolutionize the industry, examining every aspect of modern MMOs and asking questions like, "Why isn't this as fun as it could be? How could we make this better? How can we make a game that WE would really love to play?" And what they have built succeeds in breathing new life into the MMO idea in every way. Guild Wars 2 is the next generation in multiplayer computer gaming, and the new king of the genre. Don't let it pass you by simply because you had poor experience with the first game.