Guild Wars Double

[Cerebus]

I don't know, I've heard stories about how stuff at the auction house had reduced chances to drop the more it was found and put there or something. Could be lies, could be the truth, I don't know.
And the thing is Blizzard knows people will pay for stuff in there, and they do receive a cut out of it. It's really lame.

[greenraven]

In the auction house, top right corner. Click the button to swap between gold and real money auctions. But you'll need a credit card. And only rich people can afford the ridiculous amounts some people expect to get.

I must be blind because I never noticed that. Thanks.

And the thing is Blizzard knows people will pay for stuff in there, and they do receive a cut out of it. It's really lame.

I understand for real money, but why the hell is Blizzard taking a cut of fake money? Seriously, 15% of your gold for every transaction, wtf?!

[Cerebus]

Also, I'm not sure I'd call that being lazy.
You're pretty much paying so you don't have to sit on your arse moving nothing but your hands multiple additional hours for one item.
I'd say it's more being careless with money.

[Archem]

Dude, down-talking Torchlight? That ain't right.

It's Diablo, but not. Honestly, I like it a lot more than D3. Torchlight 2 (when I finally get it) should blow my damn socks off.

[greenraven]

I never said Torchlight is a bad game. Just that when compared to a behemoth like Diablo it isn't as popular. It's like a Need For Speed vs Burnout. Or Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter. They're all awesome games, but some just get more popularity that others.

FYI, I played Torchlight and enjoyed the hell out of it.

[Archem]

"Poor-man's Diablo" suggests that it's an inferior product for those who can't afford the better game. It's all about picking your words, and you chose wrong.

[greenraven]

Ok, I know when to put my guns down and walk away. XD

[HackersTotalMassLaser]

I got it. Will be starting tomorrow morning.

i was a moron and didn't know that retail preorder and website preorder were not the same.

[Razor]

So Razorman, what are the ups and pros of GW2 and what are battles actually like?

This is my first MMO, so it's hard to say why it's better than the others! But let me see if I can't rattle off some spiel.

Firstly, in comparison to WoW, the price is definitely right: You buy the game and then there are no subscriptions. The game is free, forever. There's a cash shop but SPOILERS: YOU DON'T NEED TO BUY THINGS TO WIN, DIABLO 3. Whoa, where did that come from?
The skills are pretty impressive. There are a lot of weapons, and all 8 classes can use a certain amount of all of them. At the moment I have a ranger who is using a great sword. You can't stop me! But I digress, the skills. Each class (there are has different skills with each weapon. That's a crazy amount of skills!
In addition, each class gets "traits" which are class unique skills that you can unlock later. There are a lot of different trait skills, but you won't be able to use most of them, so you have to be choosey (though you can get skill resets).

The battles are fun. Each weapon has either 2, 3 or 5 skills (2 handed weapons have 5, one handed weapons have 3 and off handed weapons have 2, and some one handed weapons can be used in the offhand, netting an additional different 2 skills) and on your first time equipping a weapon type (long sword, short bow, etc) you will have just one skill. You unlock the rest after a certain amount of kills (5, then 10, then 15, then 20 I think).
The way items and experience works out is cool too. Firstly, if you hit an enemy at least once, you'll be marked as having contributed to their death, so you get experience. The person who gets the finishing blow doesn't get anything over the other people who were attacking it. It's the best part of communism, the equality and the sharing. Like Diablo 3, the loot is unique to each player too. If you contributed to an enemy's death, there's a chance they'll drop items (drop in this case meaning you go to their body and search it. It's not like Diablo in this regard).

What else? Quests. Quests are cool the way there work. Once you're close enough to an event that's running or just started, it'll show up on your map and in the top right corner of your screen. Then you just toddle off, contribute to whatever the quest is and you're set. Depending on your contribution you can get gold, silver or bronze medals. Each medal is just a representative of how much work you did and you get an appropriate amount of experience, gold and renown (a type of currency that can be spent at certain vendors for better items. It's also the currency that guilds use to do guild things, something I do not understand yet.
If you get a bronze or a silver, it's not the end of the world. Quests that give you medals are always replayable. They'll be back eventually.
Something ArenaNet are pleased with is dynamic quest lines. Basically depending on how you end a quest, the next quest in that immediate area or with those NPCs will be based on the outcome. If you fail to defend some watermains, the next quest will be defending some guy repair them. That's cool!
Also, pretty important: there's a leveling system. Each area has its own effective level, which means if you're higher than that level, you'll only be as strong as that level. This means a level 80 can't come out of nowhere and kill everything instantly. It's a pretty cool system.

There's also the personal story thing. When you make your character, you choose a bunch of backstory things that your personal story gets built around. There's a bunch of choices so generally what you'll experience might be different from what anyone else experiences. I should mention that these choices are unique to race.
Speaking of races: there's the stock standard humans, the giant cat demons the Charr (**** yes), the we're-human-but-awesome Nordic themed Norn (also awesome), the gnomish midget race of technologically advanced Asura, and the plant people Sylvari. There's a race of bird people, the Tengu, but they're not playable. Yet? There's also a list of NPC races but I doubt most of them will be playable, but you never know! Expansions!

Lastly, the PVP.
There is solo PVP, which I haven't tried, and there's World Vs World Vs World. This is where a whole mess of people from different servers fight each other to capture points on the map. A separate map from the PVE, of course. The fun thing is that, the more your server is winning in the WVWVW, the more buffs and bonuses you get in PVE! Small things like magic find chance, crit chance, heal rate, less damage taken and such. I haven't played much WVWVW though, but everyone and their items gets scaled up to level 80 for it, and you also get access to ALL THE SKILLS while you're there.
I'm tired because I keep going to bed at 5am because of this game, so I can't remember much else to discuss. I'll take any questions though.

[greenraven]

There's also the personal story thing. When you make your character, you choose a bunch of backstory things that your personal story gets built around. There's a bunch of choices so generally what you'll experience might be different from what anyone else experiences. I should mention that these choices are unique to race.

To be honest I find most games over-hype and subsequently flop in the "unique story to your character" department. So many games promised so much, and you ended up eating the same generic hamburger of doom.

Also have you seriously never played any other MMO before this? Not even like, Runescape? Or AdventureQuest? O_O

[Razor]

The closest I've come to MMOs is Diablo 3, lol

[fruckert]

I've played WoW (back even before Burning Crusade), RuneScape (when I was around 9 or 10), and a couple random Korean grindfests.
Also a random Atlus title that got axed a week after I decided to start playing again because I had good memories of it (Neosteam)

Also, the first Guild Wars which was a lot of fun.
Still have the disc somewhere, but I forgot our login info.

Also also, Spiral Knights, which is one of the funnest titles I've ever played.
Seriously, it's loads of fun.

[Prpl_Mage]

So, are there any differences except the aesthetics of the races in the game? Like available classes, stats or something?

Also. How does this "skills are tied to the weapon in your hand" works? Do you have a proficiency level or something with that type of weapon that unlocks skills for that "class of weapon" or so each weapon have a varied collection of skills that needs to be unlocked individually?

Is it really free of subscriptions? 'cuz the buy prize ain't exactly high and it sounds a bit too good to be true. Otherwise I might just get it and give it a try, it's released today and all.

[Razor]

The races have racial powers that I don't think come in to play at lower levels. For example, and the only example I have, the Norn can turn into werebears/wolves/ravens/snow leopards at level 30.
With the weapons, once you've say used a long sword and unlocked all 5 skills, you have them forever. You have those same 5 skills on all future long swords, regardless of how high a level they are. You could get each type of weapon early on, unlock all the skills and you'll be set for the rest of the game.

No subscriptions. You can buy gems with real money or gold to buy ingame things, mostly cosmetic or things that can increase the amount of experience or renown you get from killing things/doing quests, or keys to the chests you sometimes find (you can also find keys). There is no pay to win going on though, and due to the nature of the game that wouldn't really be an issue anyway.

[Prpl_Mage]

The races have racial powers that I don't think come in to play at lower levels. For example, and the only example I have, the Norn can turn into werebears/wolves/ravens/snow leopards at level 30.
With the weapons, once you've say used a long sword and unlocked all 5 skills, you have them forever. You have those same 5 skills on all future long swords, regardless of how high a level they are. You could get each type of weapon early on, unlock all the skills and you'll be set for the rest of the game.

Alright, sounds good. Would be kinda boring to unlock the same 5 skills every time I swapped a big ****ing axe or something.

No subscriptions. You can buy gems with real money or gold to buy ingame things, mostly cosmetic or things that can increase the amount of experience or renown you get from killing things/doing quests, or keys to the chests you sometimes find (you can also find keys). There is no pay to win going on though, and due to the nature of the game that wouldn't really be an issue anyway.

Yeah I checked the game in an online store and saw some sort of "Guild wars 2 gem pack." which held like 2000gems or something, but no explanation what it was for. But if them gems can be found in-game. No problamos, farmers my middlename. Purple farmer Mage.
I personally hate it when they sell experience increase and such that gives you an edge over other players. But as you said, it probably won't matter much. Especially with level scaling in regions.