There are plenty of ways to express yourself in Guild Wars. Although, you’ll need to know the commands. If you do not know all the emote commands, there’s no need to get emotional. Photics.com has a Guild Wars emote list available for you.
Author: Photics
MMORPG Subscriptions Continue to Climb
Mythic Entertainment published Dark Age of Camelot, which originally released in the fall of 2001. Mythic continually has to fight off the popularity of newer MMOGs, to keep DAoC subscribers. Jacob says, “New games will always cannibalize the subscriptions of existing online games to some extent. However, we have seen that players are willing to maintain accounts with multiple games for as long as they still enjoy both the older and newer games.”
Keeping an MMOG account active requires more than money. It also requires a lot of time. Online Gamer Kris Heireth explains, “I wouldn’t normally have more than one account due to the sheer amount of time you need to invest on some of these online games.” Heireth also goes by the name of “Falkeids”, the level 60 Night Elf Hunter in World of Warcraft. He adds, “You need to spend time developing a character and that keeps you in check.”
Heireth dropped all of his other MMOG subscriptions, opting to play World of Warcraft. He is not alone in his choice. Blizzard Entertainment’s first MMOG has been tremendously successful, reaching 1.5 million subscribers worldwide. “We thought World of Warcraft would do well, but we had no idea it would be so extremely successful at launch,” says Paul Sams, Blizzard Entertainment’s Senior Vice President of Business Operations. Sams adds, “MMOs are constantly evolving, and the true measure of success is whether we can retain all the initial players in the months and years ahead.”
Not all game developers believe in the subscription business model. Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet and former lead programmer for World of Warcraft explains, “We think that many gamers prefer the freedom to play a lot of different games, and don’t want to feel pressure to ‘justify’ a monthly expenditure. Even hardcore gamers who are willing to pay a monthly subscription fee are unlikely to do so for more than one game at a time, which ultimately means that they will play fewer online games. That’s not good for gamers, and that’s not good for the industry.”
The Crusaders Scandal…
Henchy – He groped me. It was clear that I would never be respected as a fighter. To TANK, I was nothing more than a play thing. I was a trophy to feed his ego. That’s when I left. I hope other henchmen follow my lead. We don’t deserve to be mistreated like this.
Photics – What are you doing now to make ends meet?
Henchy – I hunt Charr for steel. It’s a very lucrative business.
Photics – Thank you for sharing your story with us.
Henchy – Thanks for having me.
(TANK was not available for comment)
The purpose of this rather unorthodox article is not to make light of a serious issue. Sexual harassment is a very real problem. That’s exactly the point. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how real world issues can collide with a fantasy game. Have the new emotes created a Pandora’s box of rude behavior? Do you want to see a Warrior gyrating his pelvis like that? Can you be sexually harassed in an MMORPG?
I’m not personally offended by some of the new emotes, but I do find some of them out of place. I can see a Mesmer doing a jig, but I don’t think some of the other dance emotes fall into character. More importantly, should ArenaNet be concerned how mischievous behavior can result from the current environment? It doesn’t take a social engineer to figure out what happens when you combine an underwear donning female Elementalist with a thrusting Warrior.
I wrote this article to present the issue to the community. How does the rest of the Guild Wars community feel about the emotes? Do you think emotes should be censored, to discourage sexual connotations, or should they be left as is? Have you ever felt uncomfortable when other players flagrantly used the emotes for deviant means?
All else aside… while I love the new emotes, TANK just can’t dance. Perhaps this is an inside joke from ArenaNet, to take a shot at the dance emotes from other MMORPGs? This is beta after all, and ArenaNet is known for making jokes. So… how do you think the Guild Wars emotes compare to other MMORPGs?
Fansite Friday #10 – Mini Interview with Gaile Gray
Gaile Gray (Continued)
So, if that’s what you don’t get, what do you get with instanced missions? With instanced missions, you can change the world, and all that is in the world can be yours.
- Choose your partners: When you want a cooperative mission, the only people at your side are those you invite. No backstabbers, no loot stealers, no spawn campers.
- Explore the world: Travel at your own pace, undertake battle or avoid confrontation, as you see fit. Meet your friends with the click of a button.
- Change the world: Blow up a bridge, burn down a building, reroute a waterway.
- Conquer the world: Win the battle or complete the quest and the rewards belong to you and your teammates alone.
Photics: Some MMORPGs are dropping dead before they release, while others are enjoying a plethora of expansions. This makes me wonder about Guild Wars. What is the planned lifespan for Guild Wars? Will there forever be expansions?
Gaile Gray: Guild Wars will have an extended lifespan; there is truly no end in sight for this project. Actually, this is an interesting question, and a chance to share a little bit of company history. The whole reason the company was formed was to make Guild Wars. That is, Michael O’Brien, Jeff Strain and Patrick Wyatt didn’t form a company and then look around and think “What do we make first?” They formed the company expressly to make the game that came to be called Guild Wars.
The ArenaNet founders had worked together on a few projects, and had then become team leads for three separate projects. They had enjoyed working together, and as the years passed, during conversations and game discussions, they had come to realize that they shared a large number of “Wouldn’t it be great if we could make a game that…” ideas. The idea of building a game that would change the way games are made, the way they were distributed, and they way they were played became so enticing that Patrick, Jeff, and Mike were willing to give up their positions with an established game development company and pull up stakes to move to Washington State to start ArenaNet.
All of that is a preamble to say that not only was the vision of Guild Wars the first concept, in fact it was and remains the only concept. The first chapter of Guild Wars will be released in the near future. (And can be sampled in our World Preview Event on October 29 through 31. Small plug there 🙂 ) After Guild Wars is on shelves, the current team will become two. Half will serve as the “live team” for Guild Wars’ first chapter, creating and streaming new content to you, fixing bugs or exploits, keeping everything in topnotch working order. The second team will get busy creating content for Chapter 2. Our focus is and will remain the Guild Wars world. We will all be supporting the games that have been released, expanding the story, building upon the legacy of the title.
Thanks to Photics/Mike for your continued support of Guild Wars, and for one fine e-zine! We know every Guild Wars fans looks forward to with great anticipation on the 1st of each month.
Halo PC – Combat Rehashed
The biggest selling point for Halo on the PC is network play. The XBOX system link allowed hardcore players to enjoy a full-screen multiplayer game of Halo, but it often required considerable effort to set up. Now that Halo is on the PC, it should be much easier to get a multiplayer game of Halo… right? Sure, if all you want to do is shoot your friend’s brains out. The cooperative storyline mode did not make it into the PC version. That means you and a buddy cannot team up against the aliens. It’s just you and up to 15 other players running around like idiots.
But what if you like running around like an idiot?!
If you enjoy nothing but mindless mayhem, the network version of Halo is for you. This is not Dark Age of Camelot or EverQuest. There is not much room for chatting. In fact, the death spam quickly bumps away what little conversation there might be. True, this is a first-person shooter. You may not be expecting anything else but nonstop carnage. But even if that’s the case, I’d easily choose Battlefield 1942 over Halo. There’s more strategy involved in a game of Battlefield 1942… and that game doesn’t make me feel sick.
A lot has happened in two years.
The bar has been raised in the first person shooter market. A simple rehash of a popular console shooter just doesn’t cut it for me. The genre is just too saturated. With dozens and dozens of choices, I can’t think of a reason to choose Halo over so many other games. On the XBOX, two years ago, Halo was cutting edge. Now that it’s on the PC, there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done to death before.
True… roasting four guys at once (with the new Flamethrower) was a surprising treat. Unfortunately, I was expecting more “Evolved” game play. Running around like a nutcase with a rocket launcher just doesn’t entertain me like it used to.
The storyline adds a bit more of a mature aspect to it. Sure… there’s a lot of death and destruction with the story mode as well, but at least there’s a plot. The problem is, it’s like reading a book a second time. I know what to expect because I’ve done it before.
If you have been holding out for a PC port of Halo… HOORAY FOR YOU! It looks like your time has come. With Halo now on PC, I wonder if there are any exclusive games left on the XBOX – worth owning anyway. Even Knights of the Old Republic is heading towards the PC. So unless you like buying games twice, seriously think if you need the XBOX version AND the PC version.