The original Guild Wars CORPG by ArenaNet and NCSoft came out on April 26, 2005. I recently went back and played the game again for my MMORPG Memory Lane series and remembered how great this game was for it’s time, and still holds up well to today’s MMO’s. With only a skeleton crew, the game is still receiving updates with the most recently on May 1. This update is a small but modest one with some quality of life updates such as adding new options to lock compass rotation and display an in-game clock, as well as enabling a ‘windowed borderless’ graphics option. These seem like novelties in today’s games but for those of us that have played since the beginning, are very welcome changes. You can read the full patch notes here.
As I do each year, I logged in to check my characters for any new anniversary presents. Up until the seventh birthday, you’d receive a present in your inventory once your character’s age ticks over another 12 months. Each year there would be themed minitatures available and you’d get one at random. You would always hope that you’d get a gold or green miniature such as Prince Rurik or Gwen. These days you receive a birthday present voucher which you can hand in to Xunlai Gift Givers and choose which of the seven year’s of presents to receive. Only 4 out of my 8 characters had anniversary presents waiting for them and I was lucky enough to get another green mini Gwen and a gold King Adelbern which I’d never received before. There were people standing in Kamadan selling these and I was again reminded of the game’s glory days.
To help celebrate this 14th anniversary, the trilogy of Guild Wars games are 50% off from now until May 7. If you’re a fan of MMORPG’s and haven’t tried Guild Wars yet, I highly recommend jumping in and experiencing it for yourself.
Happy 14th Guild Wars!
#gameonAUS
