Game Details

What kind of game is Guild Wars?
Guild Wars is a global online roleplaying game. Players can engage in cooperative group combat, in single player adventures, or in large head-to-head guild battles. Guild Wars is a mission-based game set in a stunning 3D fantasy world that offers excellent support for guilds. Because the team that developed Guild Wars had experience creating successful online game series such as Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo, the members used their familiarity with the complex issues surrounding online games to create a game that is both easy to learn and compelling to play long term, and yet does not require players to spend hundreds of hours slogging through the preparation just to get to the fun bits.

Is Guild Wars an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)?

Guild Wars has some similarities to existing MMORPGs, but it also has some key differences. Like existing MMOs, Guild Wars is played entirely online in a secure hosted environment. Thousands of players inhabit the same virtual world. Players can meet new friends in gathering places like towns and outposts where they form parties and go questing with them. Unlike many MMOs, when players form a party and embark upon a quest in Guild Wars, they get their own private copy of the area where the quest takes place. This design eliminates some of the frustrating gameplay elements commonly associated with MMOs, such as spawn camping, loot stealing, and standing in a queue in order to complete a quest.

Guild Wars takes place in a large virtual world made up of many different zones, and players can walk from one end of the world to the other. In Guild Wars much of the tedium of traveling through the world has been eliminated. Players can instantly return to any safe area (town or outpost) that they have previously visited just by clicking on it in the world overview map.

Rather than labeling Guild Wars an MMORPG, we prefer to call it a CORPG (Competitive Online Role-Playing Game). Guild Wars was designed from the ground up to create the best possible competitive role-playing experience. Success in Guild Wars is always the result of player skill, not time spent playing or the size of one's guild. As characters progress, they acquire a diverse set of skills and items, enabling them to use new strategies in combat. Players can do battle in open arenas or compete in guild-vs-guild warfare or the international tournament. Engaging in combat is always the player's choice, however; there is no player-killing in cooperative areas of the world.

Players in Guild Wars can play with or against players from around the world in the global tournaments and arenas. And while players are initially placed in a region based on their selected language (so that there is a greater likelihood that others will be speaking their language) they can join up in the always-available International District to form parties and to play with anyone from anywhere in the world.

Can my character be killed by other players?
While Guild Wars has player vs. player combat, you are in control. You can choose to join in competitive missions and receive acclaim for winning against other gamers, or you can reap the rewards of solo adventures or cooperative team missions with an entirely different set of challenges.

Does the game have guild support? Are there ladders and tournaments?
Guild Wars, as evidenced by its name, has broad support for game guilds, including integrated support for worldwide tournaments and ladders, the ability for a guild to acquire a guild cape from a large catalogue for designs, to use private in-game guild chat, to own and operate a guildhall, and more. The list of support features for Guild Wars guilds will continue to grow in the future. You can find the current Guild Wars Ladder on this link.

Do you have to be in a guild to play Guild Wars?
Membership in a guild is not required to play Guild Wars. Although there are many positive aspects to belonging to a guild, players have access to a wide variety of solo adventuring possibilities as well as team cooperative and competitive missions that will ensure you of many of those gaming sessions that run into the wee hours, no matter your playing style. Missions will come in all sizes and difficulties and can be joined individually, as part of a one-time team or as a member of a full-fledged guild.

Is Guild Wars always played online?
Yes. Guild Wars is designed from the ground up to be an online game. This allows maximum security to prevent cheating by other players, so your gaming experience will not be diminished by others. Perhaps most importantly, our online network allows us to stream content to your computer, so you always have the most current version of the game, and play in a world that can change on a continuous basis. http://www.guildwars.com/products/guildwars/features/