Poll: Guild Wars Vs World of Warcraft

[NeutralDrow]

How is that a problem? I may what to play a mmo but that doesn't mean I want to socialize and it solves WoW'S main problem the anoying kids who turn up everywhere.

I solo almost all the time, too, but even I get lonely and unnerved when I realize that the vast world of the gameplay is literally completely empty but for me. At least City of Heroes left its instances in the actual missions and left the entire city open for players.

EDIT: Gah. Stupid "post" button...

 

[Ravenholm27]

In WoW when they say PvP they actually mean it. Seriously being able to go out into the wilderness and obliterate the lower levels gives you a warm fuzzy feeling on the inside. and yes in fact WoW actually has a noticeable endgame content is by conquering Icecrown.

On to Guild wars the only people willing to help you without coughing up a couple Platinum are fucking heroes and henchmen. Guild wars is only overhyped gladiator battles where everyone in the end are the SAME DAMN THING there's near to none personalization.

 

[Archaeology Hat]

But all my friends played WoW. So I joined up with a WoW account only to find an entire community of (in the words of one philosopher) hooting d*ckholes who laughed at me for rolling Alliance, laughed at me for being low-level, laughed at me for the kind of character I was running, and were the rudest people I've ever met, bar none. Plus, all the grind got boring after about a week. So I left. I could pay a regular person fifteen bucks a month to verbally abuse me and get more out of it than WoW.

See, that's the problem with having friends.

Or the need to listen to the community, for that matter, but that's not as funny. Frankly, I never set foot off my mid-sized RP server just so I don't have to run into those freaks (and I usually roll Alliance just to spit in their faces).

Is it something about RP servers? I've never had a problem with jerks...
When I do meet horde-zealots in real life and they're beligerant I just rub my gnomish arse in their faces which tends to just make them red with rage.

 

[Rhayn]

Get the best one, Nightfall or Prophecies, although I would say go for NF because of the heroes henchmen (You can customize their skill bar, they level with you, and even can equip gear you loot from enemies). Remember that EotN is an expansion pack, and requires that you have at least one of the stand-alone campaigns.

I would say, don't make the same mistake as a friend who I convinced to buy all 4 games, he didn't last for a week before returning to WoW.

Okay, thank you. I will be looking into that.

I doubt I'll head back to WoW though, since I think I'm all free of its grasp now. Been off it for a good month now. It's nice to 'start out fresh' again. I've got some new titles that I'd never even thought about getting while I was playing WoW. I don't understand how I made it through the day without playing Mass Effect.

I guess I should thank the Escapist really, wouldn't have gotten intrested in other titles if it wasn't for you.

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Genre wars foo'.

 

[Eamon]

How is that a problem? I may what to play a mmo but that doesn't mean I want to socialize and it solves WoW'S main problem the anoying kids who turn up everywhere.

I solo almost all the time, too, but even I get lonely and unnerved when I realize that the vast world of the gameplay is literally completely empty but for me. At least City of Heroes left its instances in the actual missions and left the entire city open for players.

EDIT: Gah. Stupid "post" button...

True but City of Heroes hand it's own problems extra players are fine in some cases but not when they are all superman rip-offs.

 

[rosac]

In WoW when they say PvP they actually mean it. Seriously being able to go out into the wilderness and obliterate the lower levels gives you a warm fuzzy feeling on the inside. and yes in fact WoW actually has a noticeable endgame content is by conquering Icecrown.

On to Guild wars the only people willing to help you without coughing up a couple Platinum are fucking heroes and henchmen. Guild wars is only overhyped gladiator battles where everyone in the end are the SAME DAMN THING there's near to none personalization.

you haven't played guild wars, have you?

There are so many skill combos its ubelievable, guilds often help their own if you are not obnoxious (i.e help out with the guild, etc)

PvP in guild wars is fantastic. 20 vs 20 alliance battles, 1 on 1's, guild wars, hero battles, zaishen challenges etc all mean there is a great variety of PvP. Faction can be used to by skills for your PvP characters, new weapons and zaishen keys. This means that it rewards winning in PvP.

also, skill should be more mportant than gear. I humbly bow before orangemarmalade. And my guild leader coopz. both are awesome.

rosac

 

[edinflames]

Sure, Guild Wars is free...but, that doesn't make it a good game. As a former avid player of both WoW and GW I can say that WoW is worlds ahead of GW in almost every conceivable way. A lot of people like to jizz all over GW because it's free to play once you purchase it, but keep this in mind: if someone hands you a turd for free, it's still a turd.

If someone gives you a nice toy for free on the condition that you are going to pay for the toy again and again and again would you still want the toy, or would you decide to play with something else?

But really it depends on how you judge an MMO. I have enjoyed playing both but here's my take on the key differences between the two:

WoW does not reward player skill (maybe at the very very top level of competition it does, but for the average player it does not) or intelligent character design, above all else WoW rewards time invested because of the significance of items.

Of course the main advantage of WoW is the MASSIVE player base, as well as a well thought out setting. Credit where credit is due, Blizzard know how to build a vibrant setting and a loyal community.

GW rewards clever character design and individual/team player skill while items offer only minor bonuses/tweaks and the prestige of making you look cooler.

If you want to have a good character on WoW you need to play it like a second job, if you want to have a good character on Guild Wars you just need to think about how you want to structure your character then reach max level (which doesn't take very long) and explore a bit in order to find extra skills.

Also the PvP on WoW is totally sh!t - while PvP on GW is excellent, by far the best any MMO has so far produced.

If you are like me and don't want a second job that one has to pay for then GW is the natural choice, but like I said before it entirely depends on what you want from your game.

 

[Fablaam]

In WoW when they say PvP they actually mean it. Seriously being able to go out into the wilderness and obliterate the lower levels gives you a warm fuzzy feeling on the inside. and yes in fact WoW actually has a noticeable endgame content is by conquering Icecrown.

On to Guild wars the only people willing to help you without coughing up a couple Platinum are fucking heroes and henchmen. Guild wars is only overhyped gladiator battles where everyone in the end are the SAME DAMN THING there's near to none personalization.

you haven't played guild wars, have you?

There are so many skill combos its ubelievable, guilds often help their own if you are not obnoxious (i.e help out with the guild, etc)

PvP in guild wars is fantastic. 20 vs 20 alliance battles, 1 on 1's, guild wars, hero battles, zaishen challenges etc all mean there is a great variety of PvP. Faction can be used to by skills for your PvP characters, new weapons and zaishen keys. This means that it rewards winning in PvP.

also, skill should be more mportant than gear. I humbly bow before orangemarmalade. And my guild leader coopz. both are awesome.

rosac

PvP in GW was good, and I definitely had some fun, but if you ask me WoW's PvP is more open. GW feels too restricted, while in WoW you can raid cities, etc...

Not saying its a bad game in any way, I just think WoW is more developed (as it should be with 11.5 million people paying $15 a month)

 

[edinflames]

In WoW when they say PvP they actually mean it. Seriously being able to go out into the wilderness and obliterate the lower levels gives you a warm fuzzy feeling on the inside. and yes in fact WoW actually has a noticeable endgame content is by conquering Icecrown.

On to Guild wars the only people willing to help you without coughing up a couple Platinum are fucking heroes and henchmen. Guild wars is only overhyped gladiator battles where everyone in the end are the SAME DAMN THING there's near to none personalization.

you haven't played guild wars, have you?

There are so many skill combos its ubelievable, guilds often help their own if you are not obnoxious (i.e help out with the guild, etc)

PvP in guild wars is fantastic. 20 vs 20 alliance battles, 1 on 1's, guild wars, hero battles, zaishen challenges etc all mean there is a great variety of PvP. Faction can be used to by skills for your PvP characters, new weapons and zaishen keys. This means that it rewards winning in PvP.

also, skill should be more mportant than gear. I humbly bow before orangemarmalade. And my guild leader coopz. both are awesome.

rosac

I haven't played since Factions but i would be keen to get back into the game if i could motivate my friends to do the same.

On this proviso I have to ask: Will Guild Wars 2 be a blank slate?
By this I mean will I need to buy all the GW1 expansions in order to have access to the full range of skills and thus be competitive?

Because, to be honest, I don't think I could motivate myself or my friends into buying GW2 if we had to buy the entire GW back catalogue.

 

[Chadling]

I would probably play WoW if it weren't for the fact that, as a college student with literally no source of income, I couldn't justify spending $15/month on an MMO. WoW might be better than Guild Wars in any way save for PvP (which I'm personally ambivalent about), but it has that subscription going against it.

If you want to play Guild Wars, find a good guild to join. Invest in a headset mic--you'll need one, though the players have to rely on third-party chat programs for voice coordination. I always thought that not including in-game support for voice communication (at least for your Group or Guild) was a mistake. If you join a good Guild/Alliance (basically a collection of guilds), you won't be lacking for people to help you on difficult missions. And I have to admit, the high-end PvP in Guild Wars is a lot better organized.

I may consider buying GW2, however. ArenaNet has said that it's sticking with the no-subscription policy, while adding a persistent world that's seen in most MMOs.

 

[SirDorius]

This is useless. Everybody knows WoW has more subscribers so it will win any poll.

Let's also mention that GW is more competitive (balanced skills, items and teams, which in WoW are blasphemy) and tried to be an MMO e-sport while WoW has more emphasis on story, atmosphere, and all that stuff which I personally don't give a damn about.

Oh and although they're both called MMORPGs, I'd think GW closer to an FPS like Battlefield or CoD than to any other MMO, because it's the type of game where you get in 5 or 30 minutes, play, have fun and get out. If you want you can do it competitively (mostly Guild vs Guild) say every night, much like FPSs. You're not forced to farm a dungeon 5 hours with 30 people just so you can get into PvP without getting killed by the Mace of Supreme Major Epic Pwning.

And I'm also looking forward to GW2, will definetly preorder because it's supposed to be all that GW was + some of the cool elements of immersion from typical MMOs + cool new ideas (dynamic quest with a dragon attacking the land randomly and players teaming up on the go to defeat him? Count me in!)

 

[CloudKiller]

I played them both to endgame and I've since quit both of them as well. I played GW first and yes the F2P is an alluring feature but comes with the price of the game not being updated. (Skill balancing does not count.) The original GW only had a PvP endgame and this remained so until the introduction of the Hard mode which made PvE a challenge again. GW PvP is far superior to WoW PvP. The eight skill limit makes you think about your build and while in WoW most classes have only one PvP build, in GW seeing an assassin doesn't let you know exctly what they'll do unlike a rouge in WoW as their secondary class could change their style greatly. Although both games do suffer heavily for FotM sydrom e.g. Death Knights at the moment and Touch Rangers in GW once upon a time, although GW PvP always seemed more balanced.

WoW's PvE is arguably better simply due to the massive amount of content which is the payback for the monthly fee. E.g. I got my Legendary Guardian title in GW much faster than it took my guild to clear all of the raid content in Burning Crusade.

GW's instanced world while good at times when your hunting a mob and you know no one will steal it also creates an anti social environment if you're not grouped. Also I liked how GW wasn't as gear dependant as WoW was and how easily max gear could be obtained by anyone quite quickly (and at a very low level if you could afford a run to Drokners forge.) But that does mean that currency in GW is almost worthless as the difference between a piece of armour costing 1.5k and one costing 15k is just the look of it the stats on it are exactly the same. This is what also caused Black Dye (turns armour Black) to become the games most expensive item and a drop of Black Dye in GW is like Avool's sword of Jin dropping in WoW.

Something I liked in GW was the way the dev's made some skills different in PvP to PvE. This PvP form made balancing much easier. This is something I'd like to see in WoW. But GW is far more exploitable than WoW e.g. a character with 55 health in WoW is dead meat. But in GW a monk with 55 HP and the right skills is Invincible.

To sum up the pros and cons of both games balance each other out and in the end it just comes down to the players preference. Play both keep playing the one you like best. (Apologies for Text wall.)

 

[Ravenholm27]

In WoW when they say PvP they actually mean it. Seriously being able to go out into the wilderness and obliterate the lower levels gives you a warm fuzzy feeling on the inside. and yes in fact WoW actually has a noticeable endgame content is by conquering Icecrown.

On to Guild wars the only people willing to help you without coughing up a couple Platinum are fucking heroes and henchmen. Guild wars is only overhyped gladiator battles where everyone in the end are the SAME DAMN THING there's near to none personalization.

you haven't played guild wars, have you?

There are so many skill combos its ubelievable, guilds often help their own if you are not obnoxious (i.e help out with the guild, etc)

PvP in guild wars is fantastic. 20 vs 20 alliance battles, 1 on 1's, guild wars, hero battles, zaishen challenges etc all mean there is a great variety of PvP. Faction can be used to by skills for your PvP characters, new weapons and zaishen keys. This means that it rewards winning in PvP.

also, skill should be more mportant than gear. I humbly bow before orangemarmalade. And my guild leader coopz. both are awesome.

rosac

PvP in GW was good, and I definitely had some fun, but if you ask me WoW's PvP is more open. GW feels too restricted, while in WoW you can raid cities, etc...

Not saying its a bad game in any way, I just think WoW is more developed (as it should be with 11.5 million people paying $15 a month)

umm yess I have actually and for a good long while liked it more than WoW for the longest time but for WoW PvP i point out the multiple styles of PvP battlefields Warsong Gulch (for capture the flag) Arathi Basin(for territory conquest) Alterac Valley (for epic 20 vs. 20 battles) a shitload more I haven't got to yet. Also the reason why WoW is so gear oriented is the simple fact that the more gear to choose from you can not only better your character but personalize it yourself you actually have an identity

 

[NeutralDrow]

How is that a problem? I may what to play a mmo but that doesn't mean I want to socialize and it solves WoW'S main problem the anoying kids who turn up everywhere.

I solo almost all the time, too, but even I get lonely and unnerved when I realize that the vast world of the gameplay is literally completely empty but for me. At least City of Heroes left its instances in the actual missions and left the entire city open for players.

EDIT: Gah. Stupid "post" button...

True but City of Heroes hand it's own problems extra players are fine in some cases but not when they are all superman rip-offs.

True, there are many who blatantly rip off copyrighted heroes (I've seen more Hulk than Superman ripoffs, myself), but they're still in the vast minority.

And extra players are nearly always helpful, unless you're building for a specific purpose (Stateman Task Force...probably don't want many Invulnerability/Super Strength Tankers). I'd go so far as to say even an entire team of Supermen could do well, if they tried.

 

[Zydrate]

I play both and enjoy both.

And it would take a 10-page essay to break both down, their pros and cons, the pros and cons of THOSE pros and cons, etc. There so much content in each it's difficult to sum it all up in just a forum post.
I got opinions on every specifics so if I get something... y'know, specific, I can comment.

Final word: GW needs to swallow some pride and steal the Auction House idea, for serious.

 

[Phenakist]

I don't prefer Guild Wars just because it's free.
I also like a game with a storyline...Guild Wars.
A game where I'm not required to grind for weeks/months to reach the level cap...Guild Wars.
A game that I look at and think 'wow, these graphics are amazing'...Guild Wars.

I just think AreaNet made Guild Wars to give a game quality, whereas Blizzard are in WoW for the money.

Thank-you you hit it right on the head, also I would like to point out that in Pvp Guild Wars takes a considerable amount more raw skill than WoW, in WoW it all seems to depend on how much you've grinded for certain items and how well you understand your macro interface and keyboard mashing skills. As in Guild Wars it depends on how well you can balance your skills and how well you and your team work together.

Before I get hit with a "You don't know, you don't have kids" style argument, I have played both, and find Guild Wars the better game in my own opinion.

 

[Archaeology Hat]

Final word: GW needs to swallow some pride and steal the Auction House idea, for serious.

Aye, it's the little things like that that also tip the balance for WoW. They're all quite small, but theres a fair few of them.

 

[Zydrate]

I don't prefer Guild Wars just because it's free.
I also like a game with a storyline...Guild Wars.
A game where I'm not required to grind for weeks/months to reach the level cap...Guild Wars.
A game that I look at and think 'wow, these graphics are amazing'...Guild Wars.

I just think AreaNet made Guild Wars to give a game quality, whereas Blizzard are in WoW for the money.

Thank-you you hit it right on the head, also I would like to point out that in Pvp Guild Wars takes a considerable amount more raw skill than WoW, in WoW it all seems to depend on how much you've grinded for certain items and how well you understand your macro interface and keyboard mashing skills. As in Guild Wars it depends on how well you can balance your skills and how well you and your team work together.

Before I get hit with a "You don't know, you don't have kids" style argument, I have played both, and find Guild Wars the better game in my own opinion.

Mm, yes, one thing Guild Wars did exeptionally well was the 8-skill limit.