Guild Wars Collector's Edition

Other products by NCsoft

Product Features

• Competitive online role-playing game with head-to-head guild battles
• Explore fantasy world while pursuing professions and acquiring skills
• Open battlegrounds where victory determined by skill and teamwork
• Fully integrated support for guilds; streaming technology
• Cooperative group combat; single player missions

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000663RU8
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: April 28, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,102 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
Presenting Guild Wars, the first title from Seattle-based ArenaNet, which was founded by key members of the creative teams behind the hit games Warcraft®, StarCraft®, Diablo®, and Battle.net®, the most-successful gaming network in the world.

Guild Wars is a Competitive Online Role Playing Game with an emphasis on rewarding player skill. In large head-to-head guild battles, cooperative group combat, and single player missions, players will explore a fantasy world while pursuing professions and acquiring skills to develop their own personalized character. Unique items, special abilities, and a wide variety of skills add meaningful value for the player and for their comrades. Missions are not scripted adventures, but are open battlegrounds where victory is determined by skill and teamwork.

FREE online play that is safe and secure
Guild Wars is an online game with NO online fees. Starting the game automatically connects the player to a secure server-hosted game; while our streaming technology allows us to fix exploits quickly and seamlessly.

Compete on skill not time
Whether battling against monsters to fulfill a quest, or working with guild mates to reach the highest levels of tournament play, Guild Wars rewards players more for gaming skills than for the number of hours played.

It’s about always having fun
Guild Wars is focused on what’s fun in a role-playing game: fighting monsters, playing with and against other players, completing quests, and finding that next great item. Negative aspects like travel time, high death penalties, spawn camping, and loot stealing have been removed.

Never be separated from your friends
Because the value of each player in a group is based on skill, a new player can quickly learn and play productively with friends.

A world of many but an individual story
Multiplayer towns provide access to other players for social interaction and item trading. When adventuring, players select a mission that spawns uniquely for them and their group. This combination of a social world with a personal story is unique in the marketplace.

Key Features:

• Join quests with friends to fight fantastic monsters, or engage in epic guild battles.
• Develop a richly personalized character that can explore multiple professions and hundreds of unique skills.
• Build your character in a world that rewards your gaming skill, not hours.
• Play Guild Wars FREE in a secure server-hosted game environment that restricts cheating.
• In Guild Wars, friends will always be able play together because the world is not split into shards or realms.
• Enjoy fully integrated support for guilds, including in-game guildhalls, forums and worldwide tournaments and ladders.
• Experience streaming technology, which seamlessly provides new features and supports the quick resolution of exploits.

Product Description
Guild Wars is a new kind of MMORPG experience. It eliminates the less exciting aspects of world-map play by using a mission-based design, while still keeping the features that make massive online role-players great. Make new allies in towns or outposts, form a party, and then go tackle a quest together. Your party always has its own unique copy of the quest map, so camping, kill-stealing, and long lines to complete quests are all things of the past. As you play out your quest, you have an unprecedented level of freedom: Your magic can build bridges and open up new pathways, or it can burn down forests and villages. Best of all, you'll never meet new players only to discover that you can't play with them or compete against them because their characters are on a different server than yours -- in Guild Wars, all characters live in one seamless world. This Special Edition includes a Guild Wars soundtrack, Logitech headset, 3 months of Teamspeak service, and an exclusive in game item, the "Divine Aura" -- plus a hardcover Guild Wars Art Book (4.5" x 6.5")

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just For Boys!, December 11, 2005

By	PTC (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

I have found that many of the computer games available are mostly running around killing things. The adolescent male fantasy is heightened by blood and body parts flying all over the screen. The mechanics of these games typically depend on super quick hand-eye coordination and hours of free time, which only adolescent males tend to have (of course there is that group of males who remain in this category despite their age in years). Guild Wars is not one of these games.

The interface is easy to figure out, even without years of gaming experience. The characters are fun to develop and easily controlled through use of the keyboard. There are no "hot buttons" that are a must to learn in order to be successful in combat. The combat is not turn-based but it also does not hinge on who has the fastest fingers (I am a two-finger typist). The game mechanics are quite simple to figure out even if you are not a role-playing game expert. The character professions are self-explanatory.

The thing I love most about this game, is that it is something that girls can play and enjoy. I love the quests and missions and the storyline. There is more to do than kill everything in sight. Strategy is just as important as muscle. You are able to play "smart" and still succeed, where in other games it is all about how good of a killing machine you are. Another aspect that I enjoy is that there is no gore splashing all over my screen. Enemies die and disappear without being disemboweled and beheaded right before your eyes.

You have the option of colleting materials and weapons that can be sold or traded in towns. There is a psuedo-economy that makes this very interesting. Item prices fluctuate with the market. Which means you can sometimes get a great bargain if your timing is right! What girl doesn't love a sale?! Plus, you can make gold by selling things you have collected to other characters. You get to haggle which adds to the experience. This aspect of the game is much like "Settler's of Catan". There is also the ability to chat with fellow players. This social option makes playing interesting and enjoyable.

Guild Wars was originally given to my fiancé as a gift but I got hooked on it and had to buy my own copy. Being able to play with other people is great. Now we can play a game together that we both enjoy. I have to admit that I used to be a "gaming widow" at times. He would get wrapped up in a game wouldn't surface for hours. Now we can game together!

Of course, as with anything there are down sides. This game has its problems. For one, there are a lot of immature players online who will get on your nerves. Luckily, you don't have to deal with them if you don't want to. Just leave the town and you are in your own playing world. You can play with henchmen when you need to have extra members in your party.

Another problem is that you max out at level 20. This is frustrating since there are monsters that are level 20+ that you will encounter regularly in the later part of the game. They do massive amounts of damage and have ridiculous armor classes. Being killed so easily and not being able to do much damage is seriously frustrating.

Also, there are players who will "run" low level players to areas so that they can get the best armor. This is highly unfair, since better armor is one of the keys to success, especially when playing in the PvP arena. Overall, however, the cons are outweighed by the pros.

Of course, as with all games that are marketed mainly for adolescent males, the female characters are scantily dressed. However, they are not as bad as some games. The monks actually are fully clothed. The one female player pet peeve that I have is that there is only one female henchman and she is the healer (and later a protector). Talk about stereotyping!! I am hoping that the company will notice this and update the henchmen with more female players.

Guild Wars is a game that girls can play and enjoy. It isn't just for muscle minded shooting players (typically male). I love this game for its non-gamer mechanics and friendly interface. The quests and missions give it a story line and purpose beyond running around killing monsters. I would recommend this game to players who like RPG games and those players who have never thought that RPG games were for them. It has a nice balance of skill and strategy play, plus a story line. Guild Wars is a lot of fun to play and I hope that you will get as much enjoyment from it as I have.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Cure for what ails MMORPGs?, August 31, 2005

By	Keaflyn (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Having read a few of the reviews on this game I honestly wanted to play the game for a few levels before wanting do a review.

Specifically speaking on the Collector's Edition, and having only bought one of these "special edition" products, I must say that the primary value comes in the art book and the headphone/microphone set. The headset is a quality model allowing quick communication with one's guildmates. If it isn't a Logitech model, somebody should be calling a lawyer, as it is that good. The art book is interesting and makes for a nice thing to drop on ones coffee table, but really doesn't hold much interest beyond that.

As for the game play? What appeals is the mission based format. XP isn't from grinding (which I hate), but from missions that develop the story and give your character skills that are useful in both PvE and PvP. Crafting does take some thought and doesn't involve activities that you could teach a water fountain to do or wear out your keyboard. It's more like putting together puzzle pieces that you gather from around the world. Your salvage items can be recovered for their materials, which in turn help you put together more and more powerful armor and sometimes weapons. At my level (13) Soloing is possible with good strategy as henchmen you can hire fill in the holes in your abilities. I'm told later that only a few soloing character combinations are possible, but then again I'm not there yet. Though the game hype says that you can't build a bad character, you can, but it is *very* easy to re-prioritize within a particular primary/secondary class configuration. The usual priorities while soloing apply here: enough defense/healing to live, enough firepower/offense to survive.

As for the background and story? It's well-developed. The missions bring out a little more story each time, and the plot-based stories have their own cut-scenes built into the engine. Voice acting is passable and the story is... good. George R R Martin fans can keep looking for their next book, 'cause the story here isn't going keep you. Mind you they'd have to do a few more "thrilling" emotes with the story line for that kind of thing to occur. But I digress.

Basically, it comes down to this. Do you like Fantasy MMORPGs? Do you hate "grinding" out XP? Do you like to group, but hate feeling like you "have to" in order to progress? Then this is the game for you.

Go order a pizza for that $15/month you're saving and enjoy!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Game, October 27, 2005

By	D. Boston - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I use to play Ever Quest, Dark Age of Camelot and others for hours as often as I could then one day, I got married and had kids. Now, I have almost no time to do anything. Heck, I am lucky to go mow my yard and I hate yard work. I still love MMORPG games so, when I heard about "no subscription fees" I bought it.

Since I do not have the time to socialize like you have to in other MMORPG games, I think it's nice to have the option to hire henchmen that actually play better than most players. The storyline missions are a must and actually is the best way to see what Guild Wars has to offer for the solo player.

Guild Wars also has player vs. player opportunities, you can join a guild which is extremely helpful in the growth of your character assuming you join the right one.

Guild Wars will sell you additional "chapters" as with any other MMORPG; however, the patches, general updates, and some music downloads and additional game content are FREE.