What I'm playing: Guild Wars

I'm a big Guild Wars fan. The story is good and the graphics are great, but beyond that, the actual game design is excellent.

Unlike most online games, Guild Wars has no monthly fee. You buy the game, enter the key code during setup, and away you go. Check out the Play.com and Game links on our website - you can pick up Guild Wars chapters very cheaply. Or, buy a copy from the centre, and get a free day pass along with it!

Along with the lack of a monthly fee, the other big plus for Guild Wars is the lack of grind. With most MMOs, you'll find yourself running repetitive missions, killing the same monsters again and again, trying to gain XP and level up. Each Guild Wars chapter has a 'training' section, where new characters are introduced to the world, the interface, and the back story. By the time you've finished this section and start the game proper, you'll be a good way towards the maximum level 20.

Yes, that's right - there's a maximum level cap of 20. And yes, you'll be meeting monsters who are level 35 or even higher. Above and beyond everything else, Guild Wars is a game of skill and tactics. Go charging in, or rely on a level advantage over your enemies, and you'll get quickly wasted.

Finally, you don't need to play Guild Wars with a group. Each mission is it's own discrete instance - a thousand people could do the same mission, but they will never see each other or meet up, unless they're in the same party. Each outpost in Guild Wars has a number of NPCs called henchmen (or 'henchies') who you can invite to your party. They'll be at a level suitable for the surrounding area, and you have to split XP and gold with them. However, you don't have to wait for a group of players to join you, and it means you're not restricted to just doing popular missions at busy times.

All of this combines to make Guild Wars a great game for casual players. You can still advance and enjoy the game even if you can only spare a few hours a week to play. With a level cap of 20, and a focus on skill, there's no pressure to match other players levels or equipment. As you play the game, you can progress along Title Tracks, choosing one Title at a time to display next yo your characters name in game.

Some of the Title Tracks are purely for boasting - for example, showing how much of a continent you've explored. Some, however, give you access to special skills, and can boost those skills. The Lightbringer Title Track gives you access to some powerful anti-demon skills, and their damage increases the further you advance along the Title Track.

And that's only the role playing side. Guild Wars has always had a seperate, heavy PvP focus. If PvP is your thing, you can dive straight in and create a level 20 PvP character, jumping straight in to the PvP battles.

It's probably worth playing at least some of the role playing story first though. Partly so that you get used to the game, the character classes, and the UI, but also because there are many skills, items, and other goodies which aren't available to PvP players until they have been discovered and 'unlocked' in the role playing campaign.

Many players weren't too happy about this, so ArenaNet launched special PvP versions of the three chapters. When you buy one of these, you will find all special items and skills already unlocked, and you can create a PvP character who's got full access to all the goodies in that chapter.

ArenaNet have announced this week that they've sold over 4 million copies of Guild Wars. It's clear that their unique ideas for an MMORPG are pretty successful, and having refined them in the three main Guild Wars chapters, we'll be seeing a continuation of this in Guild Wars 2.

Guild Wars is a surpisingly deep and complex game - there's a lot more too it than you'd think. Much of this has come from ArenaNet needing to keep players involved and playing after that initial game purchase, and to this end there are regular tweaks and updates to enhance the game and add new features.

Hopefully after reading this you'll want to give it a go. Pop into the centre and ask to use our centre account to play. Look out for me as Laurana the Foxy in game, part of The Aubergine Room Guild (TAR).

Check out our Guild Wars forum at http://www.theaubergineroom.com/forum/7 for more about Guild Wars.

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