Guild Wars 2

For my English class this semester, I had to write a compare/contrast essay about 2 things that I “know a lot about.” … So I chose Guild Wars 1 & 2. My professor loved it, gave it 100%.
Here it is. Enjoy.
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Thanks to modern technology, one of the most unique and successful industries is the video game industry. Developers with lucrative games often strive to create sequels to their games to continue to earn their living and to give players new content. One particularly noteworthy example is ArenaNet, developer of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. While not the most successful games on the market, each made a significant impact on the massively-multiplayer-online role-playing-game(MMORPG) genre, despite having very different gameplay.

In the original Guild Wars, players could unlock over 1,000 different skills, most of which having completely unique effects, costs, prerequisites, and strengths. Players could use any 8 skills they wanted, in any order they wanted, whether they made sense together or not. In Guild Wars 2, players’ skills are much less customizable. Players can use 10 skills at a time, but those skills are determined by a player’s chosen weapon, and the order can be changed only for 3 of them. The original Guild Wars, released in 2005, had very fixed paths that players could take. If a hill was too steep, or if a river blocked the path, players would simply stop moving. It made for very linear adventuring. However, Guild Wars 2’s release in 2012 saw a dramatic change to the original system. Players are able to climb mountains, jump over fences, even battle marine life underwater. While this was the norm for other MMORPGs for a long time, this freedom was a welcome adjustment. Each game’s reception was a triumph for ArenaNet. The original Guild Wars reviewers scored the game from in the high-80%s to high-90%s, some reviewers even awarding a perfect 100% score. It won several “Best Game” awards in several categories from various reputable video gaming websites and magazines. Guild Wars 2 met a similar welcome, receiving the same trend of ratings as its predecessor, and even winning a few “Game of the Year” awards.

ArenaNet has had dramatic impact on the MMORPG genre with Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. Both received universal acclaim, while being fundamentally and mechanically very different games to play. The video game industry and MMORPGs in particular will continue to grow and change and ArenaNet will be there, making their mark.

He only had you write three paragraphs?! My professor is demanding five+ per essay.

Not a bad read there!

And Calliope, 5+ is usually seen as the minimum for some levels, but in my experience things are based on word count and I rarely see anything below 1500 (around 3 pages) past a certain grade/level.

Heh, making it short was part of the exercise. I think maybe she knew it would be tough. I could’ve made each point in the body paragraph into its own paragraph, and I could’ve added a lot more differences, but I left things out to keep it simple and somewhat to-the-point. Thank you both for reading it.

Our first essay was a narrative. It had to have 5+ paragraphs, dialogue, a metaphor or simile, and to top it off it had to be between 500 and 1000 words. (I was not a happy writer.) I had no story left by the end of it.

Players can use 10 skills at a time, but those skills are determined by a player’s chosen weapon, and the order can be changed only for 3 of them.

Curious as to why you chose this when it is not only incomplete but as it stands simply false?

I guess for brevity, although I might have mentioned other things, for example a less humanoid race that runs on all fours, which is not seen often – for me definitely a first.

Most likely content did not matter as much for this purpose, I think it was well done otherwise – although you are repeating yourself a few times in terms of Anet having made an impact with the games.

Heh, my 2 cents

Rouven.7409:

Players can use 10 skills at a time, but those skills are determined by a player’s chosen weapon, and the order can be changed only for 3 of them.

Curious as to why you chose this when it is not only incomplete but as it stands simply false?

I guess for brevity, although I might have mentioned other things, for example a less humanoid race that runs on all fours, which is not seen often – for me definitely a first.

Most likely content did not matter as much for this purpose, I think it was well done otherwise – although you are repeating yourself a few times in terms of Anet having made an impact with the games.

Heh, my 2 cents

Well for one, skills 1-5 are always your weapon skills, skill 6 is always your heal, and skill 10 is always your elite. Not much left to customize in the way of ordering. :\
For two, yes, it needed to be a short essay as this was something of a brief exercise,
And for three, yeah, repeating myself in at least one sense or another is pretty standard practice for an English essay.

Hellmasker.1649:

Well for one, skills 1-5 are always your weapon skills, skill 6 is always your heal, and skill 10 is always your elite. Not much left to customize in the way of ordering. :\
(…)

No need to explain it to me, it’s simply not what you wrote. You may have meant to say that no doubt. If I would not know this game your sentence reads as if all 10 skills are determined by your weapon.

Hey I don’t mean it bad, it just popped out for me. I think it would have tied nicely into the fact that there are different races now as well, but again you wanted to keep it short.

Edit: Gah, botched the quoting.

Rouven.7409:

Hellmasker.1649:

Well for one, skills 1-5 are always your weapon skills, skill 6 is always your heal, and skill 10 is always your elite. Not much left to customize in the way of ordering. :\
(…)

No need to explain it to me, it’s simply not what you wrote. You may have meant to say that no doubt. If I would not know this game your sentence reads as if all 10 skills are determined by your weapon.

Hey I don’t mean it bad, it just popped out for me. I think it would have tied nicely into the fact that there are different races now as well, but again you wanted to keep it short.

Edit: Gah, botched the quoting.

Haha, no worries. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll get the opportunity to write a longer piece about GW. Good point about races, somehow I don’t think I even considered that. Possibly because I main a human. :P

Good thing your professor wasn’t a WoW fanboy, lol

A+ indeed