Here I am waiting with supplies and IV for the launch of Guild Wars 2, and the Guild Wars Live Team comes out of nowhere with an amazing new festival for the original Guild Wars. The Wayfarer’s Reverie only lasts until August 30th, by which time Guild Wars 2 will have been launched. There are four quests associated with the event that send players back through key locations throughout the campaigns and expansion.
This was an excellent time for this event the weekend before Guild Wars 2 launch because the event is so geared towards a comforting goodbye. The quests are darn simple. Just follow the green glob commanding players to head to out of the way, but notable locations. Players that have been around for a few years will return to places they might not have touched for a long time.
I’ve been doing my own reflections along the way. I remember when I wanted to explore the Flame Temple Corridor long before the advent of heroes. The mass of level 8 charr were overbearing. I just wanted to retrieve some dead girl’s ashes. There are plenty of other memories both of frustration and joy. I am finding that I am enjoying remembering all of them for a big grand goodbye.
This doesn’t mean that I will never come back to Guild Wars, but like many after 7 years, my play time for the game I have spent thousands and thousands of hours in has lessened.
My first character is still holding his unopened 7th birthday gift. I plan on opening it after the end of the Farewell Tour. This is the best way I could have imagined to transition to Guild Wars 2. Thank you, ArenaNet for all the good memories. Here is to making many more.
Feel free to share some of the memories that are resurfacing on your own journey below.
–Ravious
I forgot to add I am taking a postcard screenshot at each location for posterity’s sake.
I imagine you might have seen this, but in case someone hasn’t, and likes the idea of having some postcards from GW:
http://bloogum.net/guildwars/packages.html
I had not! Thanks for sharing. :)
While I didn’t get into the playstyle of the original game, so far I have loved my time in GW2.
It’s people posts like these about the fun time they had in GW that makes me hopeful for my upcoming time in its sequel.
I wonder how long Guild Wars will survive after GW2. They aren’t really all that similar so it shouldn’t make that much difference, but I just get the feeling a lot of GW1 players will migrate.
I’ve had four separate runs at GW1 and I’d hate to see it go. It’s not like anything else.
From what I’ve heard it is really cheap to maintain a server for GW1. Plus I think ArenaNet will probably want to give people that have never played and have bought GW2 to go back (buying GW1) and get HoM rewards.
I did the Tyria set last night and am heading back for more in a few minutes. You’re right- this is a very comforting way to say goodbye to GW, and not feel as though I am abandoning it.
We took the henchies with us(up to a point)just for old times- it was nice to have Reyna cover our backs and to see Orion’s firestorm raining down on dead enemies.And to see Alesia running back and forth trying to res Dunham while we were running from Peacekeepers. Note- not having any War in Kryta quests open makes it a little easier to get to the Wizard’s Tower!
It’s exciting and a little scary to head off into GW2, after loving GW for so long- 7 years, right from the start- and I doubt if any game can beat the memories of my first online game. This fond farewell is a reminder that the same great team of people are waiting for us to join them in GW2 next week!
I’m taking memorial screenshots as I go too, and putting them up on my blog. I’ve spent a lot of time talking about GW2, but it’s nice to put up some pictures of the (still pretty) original and write a little about the memories I have on each continent.
I’ll never forget playing a little free-to-play Korean MMO with some new friends and my then brand new boyfriend. I hadn’t played GW for a year or two, but I sat with him on a cartoon beach and pined for the beaches of Kryta. After going on about how beautiful they were I told him I’d show them to him one day, and later that year he bought Prophecies and gave me an excuse to start playing again. We’ve played through all the campaigns now and, four years later, are going into GW2 together :)
I came in to Guild Wars about one year after it launched and have played through literally every campaign and dungeon. Coming back to some of the palces in the quests brought up a lot of old memories and makes me happy to have been a part of the community. As I move on to Guild Wars 2 I’ll always remember my friends and I running the Underworld for ectos or carrying that tapestry shred for god knows how long just for the chance to give it it Gwen in Eye of the North. Goodbye Guild Wars and thanks for one heck of an adventure!
You brute. I spent all day running around on the quest and just came here to blog it. :p
Ah, but you brought such a good and differing perspective. :)
We (me and my small guild) are on this sentimental wagon for few days more. As a good bye we started to record videos for our new friends – they gonna play GW2 and have no idea about original GW. So we run like crazy, record bits and pices of lore and reminescent old times. Heh, I wonder who will understand our gibberish – we talk about guilds “that are no morrrre”, about days before heroes, old exploits and 8-player daily runs.
I hope ANet will organize events (xmas, halloween etc.) the way it will let us participate in both games, because we all want to read once again Mad King Thorn lame jokes (apart from hearing them in GW2).
I have this horrible sinking feeling that Mad King Thorn’s jokes won’t have changed in 250 years…lol.
Actually I think they’ll change and add a bunch to include more of the new races and things, but I am expecting to see one or two that have been in there since 2005!
Saw this video during the week on Reddit, an awesome shot of nostalgia:
Youtube: watch?v=xssb7WDSZIs
Have only done the EoTN tour yet, definitely have to be in the right frame of mind for it, not try to rush it. Favourite spot so far was not one on the list, but travelling from the pale tree to Alcataz tangle, and finding a nice vista I’d not been to before.
Live team says they are not done with gw1 yet. Im not sure whether I would pay for some more gw1 DLC. Maybe. As you said the time has passed. It will be pretty hard to find players soon.
It’s been a nice way to pass some time before launch, though I enjoyed recalling some different things left out, brought into greater focus when running the dungeon for Eye of the North.
A last cleansing of Tombs of the Primevil Kings will be my “official” farewell to Guild Wars 1. The memories of spending an hour slogging through Tombs, playfully berating our Monk for forgetting a renewable rez, or running off into a mass of baddies because he saw a chest are irreplacible. Finally reaching and getting to “attack the Darkness” was one of our favorite pastimes. While I’ve actually spent the gold for it, getting an Ogre-slaying Knife drop would cap the experience to me.