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Affilliation
GWEN and EVE
Since its release, I’ve been having some fun in the northern and underground sides of Tyria with Guild Wars: Eye of the North. It does feel a bit short, and the new skills are not as groundbreaking, but I did feel that the story and quests/missions were a lot better than the previous ones. The cutscenes and an actual story helps a lot in the experience. For an expansion, the price is practically a full new game, which might turn off some, but if you’er into the PvE, this short expansion is an improvement.
For some reason, though, I wandered around and remembered EVE Online. I remembered that there was a certain degree of local support for it, so I decided to take another look.
It turns out that the local support is not in having a regional server, but in the mode of subscription payment. Ergo, the world (or rather, the universe) where everyone in the world plays is the same world you’ll get to play in the Philippines. Given the 14 day free trial, I was intrigued enough to give it a shot. Here’s what I can say from my few hours of play.
EVE Online is a universe in its own. The freedom you have in the EVE universe appears to be as close as you can get to actually living in a sci-fi world. Everything is pretty much free form. The in-game economy is almost a self contained economy on its own. You can make alliances, start businesses, even be pirates and outlaws. It reminded me Puzzle Pirates in the sense that the world pretty much runs its own course. EVE, however, is much more vast.
I also think that the skill system they use feels very similar to real life. When you make your character, you basically setup the physical constraints of your capabilities. Like life, anyone can theoretically learn to do anything, but some people are just predisposed to excel at certain tasks than others.
In EVE, your effectivity in several actions are determined by the skills you know. Pretty much anyone can learn any skill, but your character pre-disposition will allow you to learn certain skills faster than others. Also, learning takes focus and time. If you want to do something, you gotta have the skills. Better ranks at key skills makes you more effective at a specific task.
In the same way, this “taking time to learn” is a real drag, you literally have to wait to learn. Of course, you can do other things while studying, but the time you need to spend to learn does prevent you from achieving certain things early on, even if you’re a game veteran.
EVE is a simulation of an alternative life, a life in the far future we might not live to see. My interest has been piqued.
Tags: EVE Online, Guild WarsPhilippine Guild Wars: Eye of the North Launch Party
The Philippines will join the worldwide release of Guild Wars: Eye of the North by having a launch party. The GW:EN Launch “Parteh” will be held at on 2007.08/31, 19:00 (7pm) at EGG Glorietta 4.
The game will be sold on site for PhP2000 (as well as some promo bundles if you want to buy GW:EN with Prophecies/Factions). Some Guild Wars merch (merchandise) will be available either as prizes or for sale.
I’ll most probably get my GW:EN copy on the launch “parteh”, particularly after getting a taste of Gwen from the GW:EN sneak peek weekend.
See ya there.
Tags: Guild WarsApril Fools at Guild Wars (2007)
As I logged in to claim my Asura mini-pet, I was surprised to find that my Crispin, my Paragon, had a sex change. This is apparently part of today’s April Fools event, and it only happens in Lion’s Arch, Shing Jea Monestary, and Kamadan.
Since time was running out, I proceeded to take snapshots of all my characters in their female versions.
I also witnessed snowmen and fireworks, but before I was able to position myself for a good picture, the snowmen disappeared.
Tags: Guild Wars, picsMassive "Guild Wars: Eye of the North" and "Guild Wars 2" Information from Guild Wars Guru Forums
To start things off, the guy/s was/were very lucky yo have gotten the May PC Gamer #161 so early. I was quite lucky myself when the Iron Giant mini-pet magazine came out early too, so I’ll have to check my local magazine stores if they may have this particular issue already.
A link to the post can be found here. The information available is quite massive, even if it’s just a “supplement” to the magazine article. Regardless, I agree with the guy that you should go out and get the copy of the magazine, a lot of other info can probably be gleaned from the mag, as the post is a summary, and subject to the guy who posted’s interpretation.
Based on the post, and what I’ve been gathering so far, these are the notable things which I think won’t change:
- “Guild Wars: Eye of the North” and “Guild Wars 2″ will still use the no-subscription fee model
- “Guild Wars: Eye of the North” will wrap up the current Guild wars story (or at least the Prophecies story) and somehow tie-up to “Guild Wars 2″
- “Guild Wars: Eye of the North” will require at least one of the previous campaigns (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall) to play
- You cannot migrate your characters from the current campaigns to “Guild Wars 2″
- “Guild Wars 2″ will have additional races
There is so much more info, but for now, the info I listed above seems stable. Who knows what they’ll decide to change as feedback comes (which is probably why they’re letting us know about this stuff now).
As sad as I am that you won’t be able to carry over your old characters, I pretty much expected it. “Guild Wars 2″ is shaping up to a something new, not an extension, and the changes in gameplay will have its own balance issues, it cannot be comparable gameplay and balance wise.
I do hope they decide to push through with their massive online world plans. I consider myself a casual player of the game, and some of their gameplay plans regarding a resettable persistent pop-in/pop-out gameplay appeals to me, not to mention the thought of hundreds of players fighting side-by-side (or against each other).
I’ll probably have more comments after I get the magazine (which I hope will be soon).
Tags: Guild WarsGuild Wars Asura Mini-Pet and "Eye of the North"
Guild Wars will release a new mini-pet named Asura, and it’s going to be made available via various magazines, similar to what they did with the Miniature Gray Giant. For the Philippines, it will most likely be the PC Gamer magazine from the US (May issue #161). To those wondering which of the two is the mini-pet, I think it’s the small one. 
When they did the promo for the Miniature Gray Giant, it was basically a promo for the then upcoming Nightfall campaign. Since Nightfall, we’ve been in the dark regarding what the campaign slated for this year would be. Perhaps Asura is another promo. Well, NCSoft gave a hint in GDC 2007. The next Guild ways could very well be called “Eye of the North”, and is hinted to finish off what Prophecies started.
If everything does come full circle, what’s next? Apparently, it’s Guild Wars 2! If the rumors about Guild Wars 2 coming out around 2009 are correct, this should imply an engine upgrade (or perhaps several engine upgrades) to be current with the times on its release date. Since this is all too far in the future for the common folk, my only comment as of now is what they are planning to do with all the characters players have made in the current Guild Wars games…?
Anyway, those things are still too far off. I hope I somehow get into the closed betas. Anyone who’s been reading this blog from its inception knows how big a Guild Wars fan I am, so I’m hoping AND expecting a lot! For now, I just gotta be on a lookout for that mini-pet mag…
— [edit] —
Update here.
Tags: Guild Wars, picsGuild Wars: Nightfall Philippine Launch
Haven’t posted since last Thursday. Why? Nightfall Worldwide Release! In the Philippines, the game was launched in Game Frog in Metrowalk, Ortigas at 20:00 last Friday, 10/27 (the same day as the global launch). I showed up, not intending to buy the game, as I was planning on getting the Collector’s Edition with the help of my SO.
While waiting around for the event, I ran into an old acquaintance from college. I mentioned that I was planning on getting the CE version, and he mentioned that he thought about the same thing too, but decided against it. He reminded me that in the Prophecies CE, players had an aura. Aside from the “making of DVD” and the art books, the only bonus is the unique dance. Now, Since I don’t see myself dancing a lot, it made me realize that waiting for something like an aura would be of better value. Given this, I decided to get the game already, and I got it at a small discount, with a free shirt, an ID strap, and a ball pen to boot. 
Ergo, no time to post! Too busy preparing to save Elona!
Initial 2006.10/25 Patch Comments
The complete patch ain’t done yet, but enough has been downloaded for me to play. Here are some initial comments.
I wasn’t able to maximize being able to place the henchmen yet. I didn’t do anything complicated for me to need it, but I should be useful if I decide to do harder tasks on my own.
The skill template is an absolute blast! I already configured some of my more common templates for my Ele and Rit, and I noticed that I had a lot more configurations for my Rit. My Rit is really flexible, he can spike, he can support, he can be a Minion Bomber, and he can go Resto. I’ll definitely move my Rit along in Prophecies, the same way my Ele is moving along if Factions.
One of the configurations I’m trying with my Rit is to maximize the Channeling/spiking capabilities. I noticed that my energy management was a tad off, I guess I got so used to the large energy capacity from my Ele that I forget that not all casters have that much energy. Given this, I’m gonna consider putting put some energy management tweaks to some builds.
I’ll keep y’all posted.
Tags: Guild Wars2006.10/25 Guild Wars Patch
Just because I haven’t played Guild Wars all day doesn’t mean that I won’t play it all day ;). Apparently, they have a HUGE patch today, I I’ll just let the patch download while I bum around. (If I knew this earlier, I would’ve activated the patch downloading earlier, particularly during lunch, oh well).
Among the more significant changes:
- Preparation for the Halloween events (this will be temporary, though)
- Skill and Equipment templates (this will go a long way in switching modes)
- Equipment balance changes (20% recharge now affects all spells, not just a specific attribute!)
- Henchmen controls and updated AI
- Skill balance changes (of big note to me personally are changes to Assassins and Elementalists)
Strangely, any skill changes to Ritualists were not mentioned (maybe there weren’t any?).
Now, I’ll just relax and let the patch download a while.
See you in Tyria!
