Guild Wars 2 Arrives on Mac With Beta Client Release

I've been playing Guild Wars 2 since the pre-purchaser headstart which was about a day or so before the official launch.

This is one of the best games ever made. It is an MMORPG for enjoyers of MMORPG's and also for people who absolutely despise MMORPG's it caters a little more to the despise group though so if you're a super hard core EVE, WoW or Everquest player this may not hit all bases for you but it will hit most of them.

If you ever enjoyed those console platformers like Jak & Daxter or Ratchet & Clank then you will enjoy this game and if you enjoyed WoW for the scenic vistas, interaction with other players etc then you will like it.

There are so many great things to describe about this game that it is just hard to pick one. They spent 5 years on this game and it shows. It is very well polished the artistic style not just in the environment but the user interface, the way stories and cutscenes are told. It's all very well thought out and implemented.

The questing system is a lot different to what you may think of in an MMORPG. In a traditional MMO you will go to an NPC and speak to him then he will give you one or more quests which you can choose to complete or not and afterwards you will usually need to go back to that same NPC to pick up your reward.

This is where Guild Wars 2 changes the equasion. Now instead of having various quest givers with various quests in each zone they use dynamic events and hearts to deal with XP distribution. So instead of going to an NPC and getting a quest you would travel near a heart and instantly an objective appears on your screen, you didn't need to speak to anybody.

Most objectives (Delivered through Hearts) have more than one thing (usually 2-3 things) that you can choose to do to complete that objective. For example if you're helping someone protect their farm you could do that in a number of different ways such as fixing defenses, killing intruders, reviving downed NPC's, putting out fires, disabling mines. And each one of these things can all be done at once to complete that one quest. It's varied to keep you entertained if you get bored killing mobs to complete that quest just go do something else to complete it.

Dynamic Events are separate to Hearts and as the name suggests they happen dynamically and regardless of if you're around or not. So lets say you're out doing a heart quest and then ping on your screen you see a hoard of centaur are attacking a nearby town. It says "New event nearby!" now you can go to that area on your map where undoubtably other players will be fighting already and you can join in just by running up and playing or you can continue to do your quest. Sometimes if an event is in the same area as your heart quest you can even complete both quests just by doing one objective because the two overlap.

Now the reason I've mentioned these parts of the game is because I feel these are the main things that define Guild Wars 2 as different to the current MMORPG's out there. These are the things that appeal to people who hate the MMORPG formula. This game is just so much fun. I really can't recommend it enough.

To quote my friend who absolutely hates MMORPG's and swore he would never play one "Guild Wars 2 is the best game I've ever played."

Been playing on bootcamp since the head start. Absolutely love this game. Now that I can play on my mac, I can finally take back the 30+ GB I needed to give Windows on bootcamp!

If anyone new is joining the game, join me on the server 'Sanctum of Rall.' Names, Xploit.

"The Mac beta client will be available for anyone who has purchased Guild Wars 2 on the PC."

They're assuming that all Mac owners also own PCs?

No they assume that if you're interested in the Mac version you can purchase a license from them and use that same license on either a Mac client or a Windows client. This is the same model that Blizzard and Steam uses and it works fine. Do you feel some obligation to purchase a Mac version specifically?

"The Mac beta client will be available for anyone who has purchased Guild Wars 2 on the PC."

They're assuming that all Mac owners also own PCs?

...yes?

The Macs that can run the game under Mac OS X can also run the game just fine under Windows.

The term "PC" is misleading. I'm tired of seeing games & programs for "Mac & PC". The platforms are Mac OS X (or "OS X") or Windows.

Virtually all PCs can run Windows, and many can run Mac OS X.
All current Macs run Mac OS X and Windows.

Games for "PC" almost always work on a Mac, and many users play "Mac" games on their PC.

Was on the fence in picking up GW2 as I sort of dreaded booting into Windows for it. Now that there's a OS X client, I might pull the trigger. Don't know if it will run on my older Mac Pro, but it would definitely run on my RMBP.

If you have a 2-button mouse, note that the scroll wheel doesn't work. This is caused by the mac beta option, "Use scrolling gestures to change direction", which is checked by default. If you use a 2-button mouse w/scrollwheel to play, and not the trackpad, unchecking this option will make the scroll wheel work.