Sorry, I like making threads about new games and such.
Has anyone checked out Guildwars yet? Buddy of mine let me borrow his account since he's not playing right now. Thought it was a pretty neat game. I love skill based systems instead of the class based.
It's full of the leet kido's because it has such strong ties to PvP, but it is a really interesting game. The character graphics aren't as good as they should be IMNSHO, but they're still good. The world graphics are pretty awesome though! Only thing I don't like about it, is it focuses on group play instead of solo.
It has a max level as 20, but once you hit 20 you still have to work to unlock new skills and such so you still "advance" in a way once you hit cap. Focuses on PvP end game, but when you create your character you can pick to have a RP or PvP character. RP characters start out at level 1 and you play them PvE and raise them up normally. PvP characters start at level 20, and you can customize their armor/stats/etc at creation. From there you pretty much just jump straight into the PvP action. I think it said PvP characters aren't allowed into the PvE areas, but RP characters can goto both.
It's a pretty stable game thus far.. Basically no lag anywhere, but I think that has to do with everything but the towns being instances. So as soon as you leave the town, it basically creates an instance for you and your group, so there's no worry about kill steals, griefing, etc anywhere.. hehe. Was really strange, but cool at the same time.
Another thing I found interesting was the fact that you can actually have NPC's join your group if you're having trouble finding other players to party with. They take a share of the EXP and gold just as a normal player does and you can't really control them in anyway. They basically just join your group, follow you into the instance, and act out their part to the best of their ability. I've heard the AI for these guys is pretty good, so the healers heal, warriors tank, etc without you having to worry about them. However, when they go into battle they fight to the death and don't retreat, so you still have to be careful about getting swarmed.
Probably my favorite part about the game is there's NO monthly fee. You pay your 40-50 bucks for hte game and that's it ... o.O
Oh! And something else I found interesting .. There's only 1 world for everyone. If one of the towns becomes over crowded it spawns another instances of itself and new players to the area goto that. However, if you're needing to meet with some friends or whatever, you can change to that copy of the town so you're not cut off from them. When it comes time for them to do updates or patches, they stage them so whenever you enter the area that got patched, it just downloads it as you enter the area. If it's a major update, a message alerts you ingame that there's a new update and you need to relog to get it. You just log out and back in and you're patched. There's apparently never any server downtime, which is freaking great for me since the best day for me is Tuesday mornings when the WoW servers are down. lol
Anyways ... Just wanted to share that experience and see if anyone else has played. Be interested to get other folks opinions on it .. Figured I'd keep it around to play on Tuesdays when WoW is down for maintence. =D