Poll: Guild Wars 2 compared to World of Warcraft

[Drathnoxis]

Just recently I've started playing Guild Wars 2, and it's a pretty good game, but as I've been playing there has been something that has been niggling at me: just how does it compare to World of Warcraft. Now I haven't played World of Warcraft since the Lich King days, so my comparisons may be a bit off.

I feel like the world just isn't as immersive as Azeroth. The zones are all separated by big swirling portals, like every time I walk across the border I'm traveling to a different dimension, rather than what I remember to be a seamless transition in WoW. The fast travel system, while much more convenient, takes me out of the world somewhat. Rather than ride a giant bird across the lands, flying high over all of the monsters and towns, you just open your map and click where you want to go. Another exchange of convenience for immersion is the ability to place crafting items in some sort of bank from any location... and to access the trading post from anywhere, and your mail, and the bank from crafting stations. It's all very convenient, but it just reminds me that I'm playing a game rather than exploring another world.

The "quest" system I also find to be lacking. In WoW I used to read all of the quest text, but in Guild Wars the people with hearts above their heads barely do more than describe the tasks that they want done, that is when I manage to reach them before I finish the quest. And the lack of questlines also are a detriment. I liked finishing a long questline to get some decent rewards, but the only time you even get rewards other than money, exp, and useless karma is from the dull as heck personal story that seems to only follow the people of the Asura race in my case. The quest hearts never even have lines, and the events rarely do, and even when they do it's pretty much impossible to find the ones that do because they are random, and even when you do you have barely any context as to what's going on.

Also, I'm not really a fan of the more streamlined skills since it means missing out on having a larger pool of interesting skills, like the mages in WoW being able to create food and water. Drops scaling to your level kind of makes loot feel samey and boring even more than it already was.

There are some things I do like better that World of Warcraft though. All PvP players being balanced in terms of equipment is kind of nice, although it does make PvP feel a little pointless when the only reward is cosmetic differences. There are no subscription fees, that's something I really like and the reason I am currently playing the game. The group mechanics work well, in that no party formation is necessary. Also prizes for achievements are pretty cool.

TLR Tell me how you think Guild Wars 2 compare to World of Warcraft? What is superior to each game?

 

[Drathnoxis]

Nobody wants to talk? Awwwww

 

[Slycne]

They both have their strong and weak points. I raided in WoW for years, but I also thought Guild Wars 2 make some amazing improvements on tired mechanics that were only lingering because everyone did them the same.

 

[vun]

I prefer GW2 over WoW hands down, although I'm not gonna go too far into it since I prefer the original GW over GW2, and you don't want to get me started on that...

 

[DanielBrown]

Went with the both suck options. Hate what WoW has become(played since 2006-2011 or something) and GW2 was fun for ~40 hours, then it just felt really meh. Having no quests was a shitty decision which didn't remove grinding at all, only made it more boring and repetative.

Can elaborate further, but I was just on my way to bed when I spotted this.

Edit: Still in a hurry, so I'll just toss in some of my pros and cons:
Guild Wars 2
Pros: Being able to form your background, to change quests and dialogue(iirc) was great.
The story was somewhat engaging, but I quit caring after a while.
Charr are fucking awesome

Cons: Way too hard solo, especially after 70+.
Instances were next to impossible without the traditional healer/tank set up and the rewards were shit.
Lack of quests, as already said.
Having all skills avalible from level 1 sucked. Never felt like I progressed.
Leveling down to fit a specific level in each area also made it feel like you never progressed.
Huge lack of gold rewards, drops and from vendors.

World of Warcraft
Pros: Nostalgic, remembering the good times
Very polished game

Cons: Nostalgic, remembering how good it used to be
The community is really immature and fucking awful.
Removal of proper skill trees
Getting way too casual since WotLK(haven't played MoP, so I don't know how it is)

I think I'd still enjoy WoW much more than GW2, but I've got no intrest at all in going back to either game.

 

[Silvanus]

I agree with you on the points you made about immersion, OP. The portal system doesn't bother me, but I wouldn't mind if they found a compromise between map-travel and other methods of getting around, to keep you in the world for longer.

I certainly prefer GW2, though. The world design just blows what I've seen of WoW out of the water, in areas like Frostgorge Sound, Divinity's Reach, Rata Sum etc. You don't get the same level of detail and painted beautifulness in cartoonish WoW. Admittedly, I didn't play WoW for too long.

GW2 needs to make some improvements-- mostly in the storyline department-- but it's early days, yet, and it hasn't yet seen its first major expansion. It has my faith.

 

[Lunar Templar]

both are fatally flawed imo.

WoW: killing things just isn't that fun and the world doesn't give me enough reason to care about whats going on.

GW2: killing things is only 'ok', the quest system felt like busy work, and the 'dynamic event' thing, meh ... less interesting then advertised.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I prefer GW2 over WoW hands down, although I'm not gonna go too far into it since I prefer the original GW over GW2, and you don't want to get me started on that...

Actually, since I never played the original I wouldn't mind hearing about how Guild Wars compares with it's sequel if you felt like going into some detail about it.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Went with the both suck options. Hate what WoW has become(played since 2006-2011 or something) and GW2 was fun for ~40 hours, then it just felt really meh. Having no quests was a shitty decision which didn't remove grinding at all, only made it more boring and repetative.

Can elaborate further, but I was just on my way to bed when I spotted this.

By all means, go into more detail when you get the chance.

 

[endtherapture]

Guild Wars 2 is very hit and miss. Sometimes it just feels like an unfinished game and really off, especially with the renown hearts and depositing collectibles, but I know if I took those things out of the game I'd be annoyed because they're so convenient. Also PvE ranges from really easy to impossibly hard depending on density of mobs, number of veterans etc.

It's a hit and miss experience but when you get in a group, doing a chain of dynamic events, damn is it fun!

 

[LetalisK]

Mind you, this opinion is based on never getting far into the double digit levels in GW2.

I like Guild Wars 2 because I think it has a more robust and balanced pvp system in that combat in general is way more streamlined and simpler without losing any depth while WoW is still kind of a clusterfuck of hotkeys[footnote]Though I also do recognize this is partly because they give you a shitload of abilities you'll almost never use in PvP in the first place and are more meant for PvE.[/footnote]. I'd say they're on par in questing/levelling because while GW2 questing has voice acting, some interesting quests, and a variety of wholly different things to do to level, a lot of it feels tedious or mediocre. WoW, particularly with MoP, has been hitting it out of the park with interesting quest lines(even dailies) and have begun to seriously integrate voice work and cutscenes into those quests, though I'm kinda pissed they still haven't integrated public event questing into their system at all outside of the odd world boss. Their recent end-game Barrens quest stuff is barebones public event type of stuff and I think it's really fun, if a bit grindy, so I know they can do it. I'd give GW2 breadth and WoW depth.

As for end-game PvE stuff, I can't comment on GW2. I just know with WoW it's more accessible than ever(and getting even more accessible here soon) and there is a lot to do if you don't want to raid all the time. Shit, I spend a good chunk of time playing their pet battles mini-game or brawling.

Though, like you said, what ultimately brings me back to WoW over is that it feels like a world. Something about GW2 just doesn't click like WoW and I can't figure out why.

 

[TheEvilCheese]

Having played both a fair amount, I vastly prefer WoW. As has been said, the nature of grinding on heart events just felt so dull to me when compared to the different stories you get to explore leveling up in WoW. Also, WoW has a sense of progression, you bet the first time I got a flying mount I flew over level 1s and /train-ed all about the place, it was a whole sense of old areas being fresh again even though they really weren't, because I had the ability to fly around.

Playing GW2 for dozens of hours never gave me a sense of progression or power, sure the mechanics were very nice (if a bit simplistic in execution) but it never significantly changed in my eyes.

Then there's the complete lack of immersion GW2 gives me. More than any other point, this has stopped my from wanting to play it. I know WoW is just as bad a skinner-box. But it doesn't FEEL like it.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I've played a lot of both. GW2 is the more immediately fun, immediately rewarding game. It's prettier, flashier, easier to play.

WoW runs circles around it in terms of depth of game play, depth of systems, and general overall game quality. Or at least, it did back as far as WOTLK. Can't vouch for it in its current incarnation.

 

[Fenra]

WoW is a very, very different beast to what it was when I started back in "vanilla" in 04 but still provides enough drip fed rewards and fun with my real world friends, particularily with things being so accessable now for me to keep playing

GW2 has an amazing sense of world and art direction, feels like a real place... at least it did to me untill the second I took a step then it broke, maybe its just me and maybe its that I was playing a mesmer for the most part but the animations and controls felt a bit, floaty and disconected. Also while each zone felt like a real place each felt disconected from the rest of the world, that they werent part of a greater whole

This became (again all of this is just my opinion) all the more clear as I got to higher levels (60-80 being the worst for this) and found myself darting from zone to zone to zone with the waypoint system seeing bits and pieces but not a whole. Tended to explain it to friends using the metaphore of the london underground, you get on the train from one bubble of london and get off at another bubble, seeing the city in small blocks rather than the whole thing

Thats not to say the game is bad but its sense of world was deminished somewhat by it for me, also its lack of structure while a refreshing change of pace I did find frustrating at times, trying to find the next "heart" and the event system while good on release while every zone was heavily populated can be quite a hinderance now if you find yourself alone, with high mob numbers and quick respawn rates can make some impossible and render areas of a zone unexplorable. Also the game, probably intentionally, a lot of the time feels more like a singleplayer RPG but in a multiplayer world with shared resource nodes, everyone getting credit for kills etc.

Still WoW has its downsides too, the streamlining of everything these days while leading to accessability has also led to faster content burnout, I can finish a patch worth of content in a few weeks then cancel my sub till the next rather than keep subscribed through an expansions life cycle like I used to. Also some of the ways they try to keep you subscribed are getting more and more obvious rather than hidden away as well as they used to, like the heavy reputation grinds at the beginning of mists of pandaria, where filling a reputation might take 6 weeks, why 6? well because that straddles a 2 month line thus 2 months worth of sub money (or perhaps I'm just being paranoid) and of course the traditional mentality of "end game raid/pvp or bust" being your only real options once finished leveling

Overall I still prefer WoW though at almost 10 years old it has a hard time gripping me as it used to, still it gives me more of what I want/expect from an mmo than GW2 does, plus being invested in the warcraft series since its debut makes me feel more connected to the world whereas I never played the original GW

To sum up I suppose, GW2 has amazing art direction and world building, hampered by controls that take some getting used to, lack of a connected feeling world and someitmes confusing or frustrating direction

WoW has somewhat dated mechanics and gameplay from being almost 10 years old with more and more obvious money grabbing and faster "burnout" but gives a more "traditional" MMO experienced with the polish of its 10 year run but with the same "raid/pvp or bust" endgame

Both come down to personal preference at the end of the day... also wow that was a ramble, didn't intend to go on so long

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

There is good and bad in both and they both can stand to copy each other in a few critical areas.

WoW really needs some form of alternate character progression (which they said they were gunna do but abandoned), better class customization and they need to steal GW2s approach to PvP.

GW2 needs WoWs endgame content, I missed raiding so goddamn much in GW2, It also needs more variety in its PvP. And I found the achievements in GW2 to be hollow and pointless whereas in WoW I felt like I did something awesome when I finished one of the meta achievements.

But at least I know Blizzard aren't above shamelessly copying other successful mmos and I am interested to see what they do with the next (maybe last?) expansion.

 

[vun]

I prefer GW2 over WoW hands down, although I'm not gonna go too far into it since I prefer the original GW over GW2, and you don't want to get me started on that...

Actually, since I never played the original I wouldn't mind hearing about how Guild Wars compares with it's sequel if you felt like going into some detail about it.

Well, for starters I'd like to say that while I'm not too much of a fan of GW2, it's easily the best normal(read: wow-like) MMO I've played, but that's just another reason for my dislike of it.
GW was different, not really an MMO in the traditional sense(some argue it's not an MMO at all, and it's hard to disagree), and I love the way the leveling system works in GW. Getting to 20, which is max, can be done in a day with a Factions character, and that's where the fun starts. At 20 you finally have access to all the attribute points and can start throwing together your own builds, something you can't really do in GW2. Yes, you can fiddle with utility skills and traits, but it's not the same. The way GW2 is set up means that all chars will play pretty much the same.
In GW you have secondary professions, I can take a monk and use daggers and assassin skills, I can make a sword-wielding ritualist able to go toe-to-toe with warriors in CM PvP. GW2 forces you to pretty much play cookie cutter arr day erry day, no exciting variation. The party system in GW also meant you could come up with some funky combos, in GW2 the most you get is synergies or whatever they call it, which is random and unreliable at best, and doesn't require much coordination anyway because of all the spam.
Or, you can go a bit bonkers and try to make your own solo builds, and there's also room for farming. I know, there are arguments both for and against farming, but it's a nice and convenient way to make cash, whereas in GW2 the only way you can farm is by doing more of the same you're doing all the time anyway, you can't just walk up to a bunch of raptors or vaettir and make them all go kaboom.

This is just a rambly, not very well thought out rant on the differences between the games as I see them. I've got a fair amount of game time in GW2, and just about 10x more in GW(not much in WoW, got to level 24 or so), so if you want to discuss it even further then feel free to pm me, it's easier to put words to it in a conversation with more specific questions and whatnot.

 

[irok]

I only played WoW for a day , seemed to be mind bogglingly simple and I would later learn that nearly all mmo's are the same, it just wasn't challenging enough for me, me and a friend got to like 50 with some sort of recruit a friend bonus and dungeons? and that was it. I was going to play guild wars 2 but two weeks after it came out all my friends who insta bought it were bailing at breakneck speeds, never found out why but perhaps someone here can answer that.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I was going to play guild wars 2 but two weeks after it came out all my friends who insta bought it were bailing at breakneck speeds, never found out why but perhaps someone here can answer that.

No traditional MMO end game. Without a treadmill to run on, people functionally "finished" the content that was on offer and left to do other things.

 

[Nexxis]

I've found that both games can be good depending on what you're in to, so I voted that they're equally as good. Personally, I greatly prefer GW2 over WoW. For me, it comes down to the pacing, the investment in my character, the playstyle flexibility, and the community. Also, no subscription fee, so I can continue to play the game even during economic hardship.

The Pacing
- Technically, you can't really out-level a zone. The more times you complete an event, the lesser the rewards become, but you can linger around a zone for as long as you need to and still feel like you're getting something out of it until you're ready to move on. When I rolled an alt in WoW:Cata I felt really frustrated leveling because I out-leveled zones before I finished a quest chain. The leveling was too fast in the 1-60 zones, too slow in the BC zones, and decently paced in the WotLK zones. I quit in the middle of Cata, so I don't know what MoP's leveling is like.

Investment in My Character
- I love the personal story, stuff. Aside from it getting me interested in the lore, it also makes me feel like my character has some importance rather than being random soldier #117. I love watching my characters in cut scenes and I love when NPCs run up and ask for help or run up and thank me after an event. Of course everything is scripted or on timers, but it still makes me feel like I'm doing something. In WoW, I feel like I'm just along for the ride and what I do has no point aside from leveling so I can see how the NPCs story continues. in GW2, it's seeing how MY story continues.

Playstyle Flexibility
- I hate the Holy Trinity. I really really do. While roles aren't inherently a bad thing, it fosters an attitude that you stick to your role no matter what. When I was pugging a dungeon in WoW, I was told off for trying to help out the healer when he was out of mana, even though we were able to win the fight because of it. I picked the druid because it was a jack-of-all-trades. I don't excel at any one thing, but I can dapple in other roles where I'm needed. But not with the Holy Trinity. Roles allow of 0 flexibility and I hated it. GW2 has spoiled me in making me useful no matter what profession, weapon set, or traits I pick. It's all down to skill and how I use them. I don't need to be babysat by someone in another role. I can take care of myself and so can other players, though help is always welcome. A bonus is that it's pretty quick to find a dungeon group as there are no requirements to be met except for the person's level, and even that barely stops a group since there are some event based dungeons that scale everyone up to max level.

The Community (WARNING: This is from MY experience. It may have been different for others)
- I've found the community to be very helpful and cooperative. In fact, to me, the game feels like it fosters cooperation rather than competition most of the time. No one can ninja resources or dropped loot from you. You don't have to group up into a party to kill something. If you're fighting something and someone else kills it, you both get experience and have a chance to get loot off of it. For large events, there is usually a loot chest where everyone that has participated can get their own loot from. I've seen high level guild members help lower level guild members through areas and events without stealing all the kills and xp from them. In PvE, there is little to nothing for people to fight over. Most of them when even revive you if they see that you're dead. I've seen some people help others get through GW2's notorious jumping puzzles. In local chat, it's generally quiet, but you do get a "Thank you" when you help out. I wish I could say the same for WoW's community. To me, their community was so toxic, I felt physically sick just sitting on the login screen. I got to a point where I didn't want to play and I canceled by subscription. When I started playing in WotLK the community wasn't all that bad, but something is Cata fostered that toxic behavior, forming rifts in the community where players like myself (started in WotLK, PUGed dungeons/raids, fairly casual) didn't feel welcome.

Those are my 2 cents on it. Mileage varies, of course.

 

[Davey Woo]

When I played WoW, nothing about it made me want to continue playing. Granted I was only playing the trial and only got to level 10 or so, but I still didn't feel like forking out the subscription.
Guild Wars on the other hand I ended up playing for close to 7000 hours over 8 years, and Guild Wars 2 I am still playing and enjoying.

It really just comes down to personal preference, they are both different enough to cater for different preferences. I think your 'favourite' is heavily influenced by which one you played first.
I for instance played Guild Wars first, whereas most of my friends played WoW first, which they all prefer. A lot of their comparisons/criticisms come down to 'but in WoW they did it like this'