Guild Wars 1 vs Guild Wars 2

[Panayjon]

Obviously GW2 isn't out yet, but it looks to be vastly different from the first one. I never played or even really paid attention to the first GW, but it seemed like a bland generic fantasy MMO. So, to any fans of the original, how off base am I with that mental image of it? Did it do anything interesting through lore or gameplay? Visually, I feel as if it was done competently but lacks any personality, too middle of the road; neither offering the brutal low-fantasy of Conan nor the high-fantasy shenanigans of WoW.

Meanwhile, I've VERY excited for GW2, gameplay wise it seems to be making a lot of decisions I like (except no dedicated healing/support classes... I like playing those actually) but it's also visually stunning with lots of personality, a great art direction.

So, how different is GW1 versus GW2 (based off what we've heard so far)? Would it be worth the time to play GW1 in anticipation of GW2?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

GW1 lost a lot of balance when it introduced too many classes (the Ritualist and Paragon being pretty much useless).

Especially the PvP. The meta game was annoying as hell.

GW2 looks very interesting, especially since there's no dedicated healers now.

 

[goronlink8]

From what I have seen they are similar in story, but I have yet to see a big similarity in gameplay.

The first was a very good game. Good storyline, encouraged teamwork heavily, had nice voice acting, interesting yet sometimes repetitive monsters.

I would recommend you try it, except that not many people from what I have seen go through the smaller parts of the storyline so it would be a little bit lonesome in some parts. But in others it is very crowded.

That was about half a year ago. Couldn't find my disk to confirm the player strength though. Sorry.