Guild Wars Checks Out! (plus some big news)

There is another game that is as accessible as the old LucasArts adventure games I mentioned last time. It is ArenaNet's Guild Wars, a massively multiplayer role-playing game. When I say massively multiplayer, I'm exaggerating slightly. Unlike most games of this sort like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars is massively multiplayer only when your character is in one of the cities of the game. When you go out of the cities, you are in single player mode. However, should you choose to team up with other players online, I believe you can exit the cities and play together like a normal MMORPG.

Before I go any further, I need to explain that the version of the game I played is called Guild Wars: Prophecies. The game has two expansion packs that you must buy separately, unless of course you buy a game collection pack of some sort. I'm not particularly sure if one is available, but don't quote me on that. A sequel is also being developed currently...

Here are some details about the accessibility of Guild Wars:

• The game comes on two discs; you do not need to put any disks in to play the game after it has been installed.
• You can go from windowed to full screen and vice-versa at any point in the game, thus allowing you to use the default WindowsXP on-screen keyboard to type in a profile name, character name, or anything else you need to type.
• The left mouse button controls movement, attack, and just about everything else.
• If you hold the right mouse button down and move the mouse, you can control the camera.
• The mouse wheel zooms the view in and out.

One technical problem I need to point out is that for some reason, you have to put the install disks sequentially in one CD drive. In other words, if you have two CD drives, you cannot put, for example, disc 1 in the top drive and disc 2 in the bottom drive and get it to install. Rather, put disk 1 in a drive, and when it asks you for it, put disk 2 in that same drive.

I hope this is of some help to you.




P.S. : I've just gotten a response from BioWare's Community Coordinator: he said that Star Wars: The Old Republic, the new MMORPG currently in development, will be accessible. I told him that I was able to play Guild Wars comfortably; he then told me that, if I was able to play Guild Wars comfortably, then I should have no problem playing Star Wars: The Old Republic.