Nerdz Update: Guild Wars

Some of you might recall my post from a few months ago, where I described in full detail how Mr. Shakes led me into the World of Warcraft, with saber mount and all.

Since then, we have certainly done our share of questing. I had three characters going, with my hunter (and his trusty wolf companion) having leveled up to 45. At some point, however, we started to get bored with this world. There wasn't really anything exciting going on anymore. I even found myself looking for a new game just to mix things up a bit. So, I went and got Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 to give the PC a break. It turned out to be a good idea, since I was able to really get into that game and deal with something new.

Still, a MMORPG it was not. So, what to do?

Well, I had done some more investigating and actually came across a game called Guild Wars, which appears to be the main competition to WoW. The game's biggest selling point is no monthly subscription, at least for the time being. So, I sent a carrier pigeon to Mr. Shakes to see what his thoughts were on the game and whether or not it was worth a try. Call it coincidence or shared instinct, both of us purchased Guild Wars on the exact same day without even communicating. After installing the game, our new obsession was underway. I went the way of a Ranger/Elementalist and Mr. Shakes thought best of beating up people without regret as a mohawk-sporting Warrior. It took us a little while to get used to the differences from WoW, but with the help of a friendly guild we were good to go.

After a couple of good sessions, I had the pleasure of joining Mr. Shakes and his best mate MWS for some transatlantic Guild Wars questing. Mr. Shakes created a new character to help out MWS on getting his feet wet within GW. With all of us on a Skype conference, I was able to lend some assistance with some tips I've been picking up along the way. While working on my own quest, I mentioned in passing that I was considering getting the Factions expansion so as to get access to creating an assassin. Specifically, I knew all along I was cut out (no pun intended) to be an assassin/necromancer.

With a pause in gameplay and conversation, we all stared at one another across the Skype table and decided that all of us needed to immediately purchase and download Factions so we could be a remorseless gang of assassins.

In record time, our assassins were created and running through our trial missions prior to grouping up. As a bonus, I convinced my guild to bring Mr. Shakes and MWS into the fold, for the sole purpose of giving our assassins ridiculously bitchin' capes (like WoW guild tabbards, but for free!). Even though we looked really cool and evil, there was the issue of our starting careers in assassination with the equivalent of backyard BBQ plastic cutlery as our initial knife weapons. No matter, though. We took our plastic utensils and ganged up on many a foe to show off our impression of a caped Cuisinart!

And while all this was going on, I had to step back for a second and revel in what was happening. Chicago, New York, and Edinburgh were able to converge with a common goal in one area and represent. I realized that this is exactly why the internet was invented.

I really have to thank Al Gore for that.