WoW vs. Guild Wars

[Barton03]

Who's played either one or both?

I'm thinking about getting one, but WoW is really turning me off for the $15/month (I casually play for maybe about ~4hrs a week) but I started to pick up wc3: FT and absolutely love it! Blizz really pays attention to details, like walking over puddles making splashing sounds, etc.

And Guild Wars is FREE online play .. and it made by ex-Blizz staff which says something.

How's the lag in games?
Are there lots of people playing in both games?
Do cheaters spoil the game?

[Hurk]

I love WoW. I haven't played Guildwars... Guildwars is free... and people like Guildwars... If you want to try them out, they are the same price, but whatever you choose, I'm sure you will be happy as they are both amazing games.

I would vote WoW, just because I love it! :)

VOTE WoW 4TW!

How's the lag in games?
-Very little / no lag.

Are there lots of people playing in both games?
-Tonnes of people, Tonnes of servers.

Do cheaters spoil the game?
-I have came across none in WoW.

[Kazaam]

Guid Wars > WoW
Free > Paying

Anyway, in terms of lag, GW is almost free of it. It has the best netcode anyone has seen in a while. Games takes literally 1 second to load up to get in game. Switching between levels takes fractions of a second. And plus, its mega fun.

[divx]

yeah cheating definally kills a game, I never seen any cheating in a MMORPG though.

[Fantaz]

I'd say go with Guild Wars. If you're just a casual player you can take as long as you like and not have to worry about monthly fees. Also I heard it's a much better game.

[Hurk]

I'd say go with Guild Wars. If you're just a casual player you can take as long as you like and not have to worry about monthly fees. Also I heard it's a much better game.

That's true as well. On the high level's of WoW, it can take hours to get a raid going.

How long can a free MMORPG last? The servers, the no cheaters, the patches, updates and support.

Does Guild Wars have an auction house as well, where you can buy and sell various items on a listing type interface?

[Hurk]

That also brings up a good point. I've found the maturity of WoW players to be higher than many other free games I've played, I wonder if it has to do with the monthly payment... Hmmm...

*Going to read very good review of Guild Wars*

[Hurk]

This is a good read to compare the two.


Ok, it's been discussed. It's been fought about. It's been beaten until the dead horse got up and politely asked us to kindly withdraw the foot from its derriere. So what have we all learned from this hideously over-analyzed subject? Well, in my opinion, we have learned that the only reason people have continued to compare the two is for arguments sake, and the knowledge that they are bound to get a response. HELLO?? ATTENTION!! That's right. There is no point to any of it. Comparing the two is not going to change anything. It's not going to convert all WoW players over to GW and vice versa.


So with that said, here is my Jerry Springer-esque final thoughts, without all the BS about how we should all just love each other and make little GW-WoW half-breed babies even if they are inbred:

I think that most are looking at GW in a completely wrong perspective. If they weren't, they would realize it's not a competitor with WoW. This includes WoW players and GW players alike. Let's face it; World of Warcraft is a decent game. It has aspects that really do rock. And it has aspects that totally suck. Enter Guild Wars. Again, some things rock, and some suck. That's how every game in the world is. How I see it is, if I wanted to play a MMORPG, I'd play WoW. I would, hands down. I played EQ2 closed Beta, I played WoW closed Beta, I've even been in MxO closed Beta, and now I'm in Guild Wars closed Beta. Guild Wars is not a MMORPG, and don't give me this literal translation crap. "But it IS a Massive Multi player Online Role Playing Game, because there are buckets of people, it's online, and it's set in a fantasy role-playing setting." True enough, but we aren't talking about direct translations. We are talking about the mechanics of the games in question. So be done with that horrible arguement! It is irrelevent!

Ok, since that's done, let's move on shall we? No. Too bad. It's my party and all the girls have to pillow fight in their pajamas if I say so.

Now, let's take a deeper look at WoW. It is meant to be a place to live. It's an alternate world for you to exist in and live an entire alternate life. You are to learn to craft specific things. You are to go adventuring and have to walk 18 miles to do so, just like you would if this earth were made of 1500 polygons and had 6-sided wheels. Your goal is to simply live in the game. No end. No ultimate game over, thanks for playing. It is to replicate life in a completely different shape.

This is not what Guild Wars is here to do. I think Guild Wars is here to entertain. It is here to take the tedious aspects of this real life replicate and toss it on it's tooshie. Possibly even give it a cookie with my name on it on it's way out. This is a game that you play to compete (yes that includes against NPC mobs). You don't buy this game to spend your days digging holes to get enough ore to make your new Super Fork of Politician Slaying. You buy Guild Wars to instantly partake of action, to skip the running from city to city. To play a game, not live a life.

I am not saying that WoW is doing anything wrong. It's not. It's doing its job and doing it well. Sure it has bad things like lag and queues and downtime and tedious fedexing, but that's exactly what it is trying to do. It's trying to be the next big traditional MMORPG. That's great, let it do that; and if you want a MMORPG, I’ll recommend it full heatedly. If you want an action game that gets right to the point, set in a fantasy, and might I say gorgeous setting, I'll straight up tell you: Guild Wars.

This is where people get so unhappy with Guild Wars. They are expecting a MMORPG, and they don't get one. They get an action game. They get a more traditional style game that has aspects that have never been implemented. These aspects are borrowed from the MMORPG genre and that has thrown everyone for a loop. I think it's great. It totally upsets things and introduces a new age of Massive Multi- Player Online Action Games. I applaud the new frontier and there will be many to follow it. I love that I no longer have to run back and forth between 4 cities to take a lucky rabbit dropping to the Ancestral King of All that is Feces. I absolutely love that I don't have to run for three real life days to do it. I personally don't enjoy that kind of thing, so now I don't have to do it! There are those that don't mind. Hell, if that is what they want to do, so they should go do it!

So obviously we can see that WoW and GW are not of the same genre. They aren't meant to be competitors. And you know what? There is even more! So break out the Red Bull(c) and prepare to suffer a little longer, as I no longer have concern for your personal well-being. I'm here for the glory. (Everybody please load "Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera into Winamp and play it for the rest of the evening)

My next final comparison is the obvious difference in collection methods. WoW = pay-to-play per month. GW = pay once play forever. This is a no brainer. I don't care if you play WoW. If you are looking for a break from the tedium involved, (and I don't mean that in a bad way, I'm just saying there is a lot of stuff in between the action) then you can log into GW. You won't be sacrificing anything if you don't play it. You won't feel bad about having an account and not logging in every single day. However, you will feel bad if you view GW in the perspective that I have been pointing at. That it isn't a traditional MMORPG. It’s another game you buy just like you bought Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 or Britney's Dance Beat. You bought it to play and have fun when you needed to have fun. And you know what the best part is to me? You won't have to pay 150 dollars a year to play it. I already pay hundreds of dollars to play my real life everyday. My subscription fees (AKA bills) are high enough and I don't need more.

I've heard the complaints about not being old enough or being lazy if you say you can't afford it. I'd like to use vulgarity, but I'll just say "give me a break." Some of us just plain don't have the means. Some of us just don't want to put that kind of money into another life. Some of us just don't like running around for hours in a game and getting charged for it. GW solves this problem for us.

Now you will complain that they will not be able to afford to keep it up, they won't be able to pay themselves, or they won't have quality service. As much as I believe the world is driven by money, this is what these guys do, and I am sure they know how to do it. I don't need to hear things like "oh, I work in the industry so I know what is going down. I totally know how it works and it won't work." I don't care if you own the game industry; these people are doing the jobs they know how to do. Even if it does come to that, so what? I'm going to love every minute of it up until the moment they shut down the servers. Why criticize so harsh something new? Why be so close-minded and afraid of breaking tradition? Let them try it; Someone has to. It might work, then again it might not. But either way, there is going to be some serious education seeping out of this gamble for everyone. Overall, it will better the game industry win or lose. If they succeed, they teach the world what can be done. That it is possible to succeed without punishing those that don't have that little bit of extra cash by leaving them out. If they fail, everyone will learn a valuable lesson and learn from the mistake. I think everyone, whether you love or hate Guild Wars, should at least respect and appreciate the risk these people are taking.

I wrote this because I am tired of the argument. And I know for a fact it won't end. I know I will get the flames of the century on this one (which is another reason for writing it! I looooooove attention!). Hell, this article will stem so much discussion it will truly only be a victim of its own crime. But I, for one, am through with the argument. It's moot. It has no impact one way or the other. Both games will succeed on their own merits; both will fail on their own merits and there is nothing we can do about this. I appreciate both games. I am proud to be a part of both, but I do believe there is room in this world for them both at the same time.

Much love to both communities with all due respect.

[hyperion]

WoW is full of bugs, server queues, server downtime and crappy customer support. Just read the General Discussion forum.

[toalan]

This is a good read to compare the two.

I am a casual gamer, like any casual gamers I played WOW like I played GW, looking for entertainment and not for an alternate life. Casual gamers look to compete quests, level up and amass the spoils of war, I suspect most players are of the casual variety.

Both games are excellent games, and both games are worth its purchase price.

Graphically I would give WOW the edge, WOW really does pay attention to detail and the world's they create is more interesting and lucid. However I would say that GW is much more technically impressive given the resource requirments, you can have a system that slow to a crawl in WOW that can work quite flawlessly in GW. Graphically both are very comparable, if you have an excellent machine then WOW would deliver more eye candy but for a lower end system GW will provide better graphics. In the end I tilt towards WOW because the world that WOW creates gels nicely and almost gives you the full picture of a world you became framiliar with back in 1995 with the release of Warcraft.

Gameplay, well this is open to interpretation, I liked GW much more. Without the need to walk fro place to play everything is happens at a much more interesting rate. Basically if you took out the walking in WOW you get a decent idea of the pace GW moves at. The only thing I can ding GW on is that the maxium party size is much smaller than that of WOW, and the number of interaction with other players is restricted because of that. However the strongest suit GW has is the large number of skills avaiable, the action, and the strategy involved in a skirmish, this is especially true in PVP matches where things can get extremely exciting. I can not think of a parallel that I can draw to the dynamics that GW has. Bascially fighting in WOW is strictly a click and wait affair, but in GW it is anything but that. It is a great blend of all the best aspects of strategy and action.

Techinically GW is far ahead of WOW not based on an absolute measurement but realative to the hardware and the speed of the internet connection. Every aspect of the game has been optiimized to minimize hardware requirments. I have never played GW on 56k but based on my experience I am sure it would still be a very enjoyable experience. I have run GW on my desktop with a GF1, 512 SDRAM, AMD xp 2200 and it ran fairly well.Usually I play on my laptop and have never experienced much lag except when my laptop heats up. Never had lag issues even when downloading 50k/s in the background. Also the patches are streamed in real time and require no server downtime, I have never experienced any server downtime myself. The team at Arena really did their work in streamling the game which is why you do not need to pay a monthly fee since massive numbers of servers are not really needed. Once you play GW you will get a feel as to how good of a job Arena did when it came to optimization. If these games were cars GW would be miata and WOW would be a suburban.

I would score WOW the following:
Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Funfactor: 7/10
Value: 5/10
Frustration: 8/10 (lower is better here)

GW gets the following score:
Graphics: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Funcator: 9/10
Value: 9/10
Frustration: 3/10

I bought WOW a few months ago, played it for a week and sold it to y friends, with GW I plan on keeping it.

[toalan]

One more thing to add. I am not the RPG type of guy, I like action games and strategy games, actually I hate RPGs with a passion. The last RPG I ever competed was probally more than 8 years ago and even then it was with cheats.

After about 2 days with GW i was also gonna sell it because questing ,although at a much quicker pace than most MMORPGs, was quite a bore. Then I played PVP and it was such a blast, I only do questing now to get skills to build my PVP character, but even with the base skills available in PVP right out of the box the PVP is fun fun fun. The funest times were when all my team mates were killed and I resurrected each of them and ended up winning the match, best 15 minutes I ever spent.

[Hurk]

If you aren't an RPG type guy, you can't appreciate the vastness of WoW. Good write up though.

[Jump]

Well here's an opinion from a not so casual gamer haha

WoW and Guild Wars.. hmmm... It's kinda like comparing apples and oranges. They're both fruits but they're different fruits.

I loved WoW. I played it straight from open beta til about early April. I left about a week before the PVP ranking patch came out (yes, I played on a PVP server). I just lost my motivation to play WoW completely. It was an awesome game during it's early months, aside from the server problems. Just that when you hit level 60 there's nothing to really do. Sure you can do epics and go on raids but unless you're in a big guild or are a priest there isn't much for you to do except play an alternate. And now with the PVP patch out, my friends are saying it's like hell trying to play the game cause the opposite faction is always on your ass if you're playing solo.

I may go back and play again for a bit when Battlegrounds come out or if they come up with a new expansion that isn't going to cost more than $40. Who knows. Blizzard doesn't delete your characters after a set amount of time like Sony and Squeenix do so I eventually will pick up the game again.

Now comes Guild Wars. The game definately has it's high points but if you're looking to immerse yourself in a game then Guild Wars just isn't going to cut it. As much as I like the game, I can't sit on my ass playing it for longer than 1-2 hours at a time. I have the motivation to play it but it just can't seem to hold my attention span for long. Maybe cause the world seems to repeat itself a lot. The newbie area was cool but then when you leave, you're stuck in a charred burnt down area for at least 5-10 hours depending on how fast you do the missions. Then you're stuck in a snowy mountain area for another 5 hours and there's nothing to look at but the same snowy mountains. It goes on like that in a pretty linear direction where as with WoW there's way more options on where you can go and what you can do. This is kind of an apples and oranges comparison though.

Gameplay wise... I'm glad that there's actually an RPG out now where every class is balanced enough to make any type of groups. Sometimes you need the odd monk/healer but for the most part, each class has some way of healing itself or at least their 2nd class should. The thing that really peeves me about the game is that you're only allowed 8 slots for skills. 8 slots!!! That really doesn't make any sense since any prepared person always keeps resurrect in one slot so then you only have the remaining 7 for your personal skills. And you get tons of skills in the game too. Between the 2 classes you have you're gonna get well over 100 different skills.

To the point, I'd pick Guild Wars over WoW at this moment. But ask me again in a few months and I may change my mind.

[JLee]

Final Fantasy XI > Guildwars > WoW

[squall458]

Final Fantasy XI > Guildwars > WoW
is FF11 that great? Im a FF fan but i highly doubt it would exceed those two games in terms of quality and gameplay.

[Fantaz]

Damn, you're still playing that game?

[vladislav]

Who's played either one or both?

I'm thinking about getting one, but WoW is really turning me off for the $15/month (I casually play for maybe about ~4hrs a week) but I started to pick up wc3: FT and absolutely love it! Blizz really pays attention to details, like walking over puddles making splashing sounds, etc.

And Guild Wars is FREE online play .. and it made by ex-Blizz staff which says something.

How's the lag in games?
Are there lots of people playing in both games?
Do cheaters spoil the game?

What do you want? If you want immersive MMORPG play WoW, if you want online fantasy action game play GW. If you are a casual player GW might be more your cup of tea, if you are on a more long-term side WoW would probably be better.

P.S. EQ still owns them all, heh :)

[Riflem@n]

Final Fantasy XI > Guildwars > WoW

I really haven't heard anyone playing that.

Guildwars is awesome, I wouldn't rate the graphics worse than WoW though, I've seen a comparison of an Elf (I think) and the Elementalist in Guild Wars. The WoW characters look way too polygonish.

Guild Wars graphics are better for sure. WoW graphics are okay but to me look kinda crappy.

Haven't played WoW before, but I refuse to pay to play!

[akito925]

hummm

wow no.. for me pay to play the game online?? no thanks

gw.. buy game play game anytime you want, no month fees what so ever.. I love the game great game.. I'd spent half a day playing the game for some reason coulnd't stop playing. lol

[Tulsytsan]

I think this was said right a couple of times already. This is really like comparing apples to oranges. Both exist online, but one is a MMORPG and the other is MMOG. The difference being in the depth and dedication required to play. Wow like most games in this genre is very time consuming and is like living another life. From what I understand GW is simply a log on and play type game. For what I enjoy to do I would like GW. But I think the biggest thing to consider when looking at these games is the type of gamer you are. I literally have 1-2 hours per week to game with...is that worth the headache of a WOW style game...probably not. However if you spend a lot of time gaming everyday, then WOW should be pretty rewarding for you.

[masterhapposai]

I think this was said right a couple of times already. This is really like comparing apples to oranges. Both exist online, but one is a MMORPG and the other is MMOG. The difference being in the depth and dedication required to play. Wow like most games in this genre is very time consuming and is like living another life. From what I understand GW is simply a log on and play type game. For what I enjoy to do I would like GW. But I think the biggest thing to consider when looking at these games is the type of gamer you are. I literally have 1-2 hours per week to game with...is that worth the headache of a WOW style game...probably not. However if you spend a lot of time gaming everyday, then WOW should be pretty rewarding for you.

I go as far as saying, that they are the exact same thing, just different style but your comment still stands.

WoW has the WoW universe (alliance vs horde) + monthly fee.
GW is the regular HUMANs vs evil creatures + free.



WoW when you get to the core and real gaming aspect of it, is entirely based on the same missions that GW is based on.

These missions are called "Instances" in WoW.

An "instance" in WoW has a maximum of 5 players allowable in them.
GW, I believe the higher level story areas can allow more than that, or at least 4 total.

WoW has you spend much more time doing the same "instances" to level up, and has more levels. The trade skills can also sap up more of your time.

If you can beat GW 5x over in a month or two, then WoW is for you. But, GW is simply massive.

I also like the better graphics in GW and higher personal skill required to play.

[skeletor]

When it comes to most bang for your buck. Guild Wars destroys every single RPG game out there period.

[simplyno]

yeah FFXI was fun but I got annoyed as I didn't wanna spend hundreds of hours lvling my character.. while paying monthly fees. (Same reason why I didn't get WoW) Anyways, I bought GW on the release date and have been playing it pretty steadily since then... but now I'm slowing down. I'm on the last mission and theres not too many quests left I think. I'll be pretty dissapointed if theres nothing left for me to do. I sorta wish the lvl cap wasnt set at 20 so I could actually still do something and not just have to wait 6 months or whatever for the expansion.

[7-Endless]

Been playing GW since launch now and have had a blast building and trying out the different characters even though it is only Human class so far...just makes you think what lies ahead in the way of expansion packs.

I'm sure I would enjoy WoW, but nothing beats free. Besides, it's fun being a Guild Leader too and trying to recruit new members...LOL ;)

[Taiphun]

WoW is full of bugs, server queues, server downtime and crappy customer support. Just read the General Discussion forum.

Don't suppose you play the game eh?

I do, and I don't have any of the problems you've quoted.

I'm willing to bet that you're only hearing 5% of the playing population of WoW.. of course, you do hear the people who whine the most, because those happy with it are off playing instead of bitching....

Though when Vanguard comes out, that's the one that'll have to be beat.

[Dakx]

lol those are some long reviews.. nice..

Well, I would say, WoW IS a better game. For you however, if your only going to do 4 hours per week and thats all you hvae to invest, then pick up GW. Ive played both and although both are casual player friendly (to an extent) you will have to invest a substantial amount of time in WoW for end game content. Whereas GW is more like counter strike.. where you will be able to pick up and play some high end pvp for a few hours then drop it.

WoW has more detail and prolly fewer cheaters, but GW would seem to fit you better.

[Hurk]

WoW is full of bugs, server queues, server downtime and crappy customer support. Just read the General Discussion forum.

The General Discussion board is horrid. I've never heard one person in game complain about anything that they complain about. "They are nerfing my char!" or "All I get is lag!"

Whatever.

If you are casual and want an Action game, choose GW. If you want a MMORPG, get WoW. It's not a hard choice.

[Dakx]

Agreed.

[squall458]

Live Update Preview: New Explorable Areas 16 May 2005

As part of our commitment to bringing you new content via our free live updates, the first streaming update for Guild Wars offers players access to two extensive new explorable areas: the barren expanse of Grenth's Footprint and the fiery depths of Sorrow's Furnace. You can get a sneak peek at these two areas today, with concept art and a bit of the lore on this page.

And on Wednesday, we'll preview this area with an in-game movie, a movie that will also be screened at the E3 trade show in Los Angeles.

that was posted on guildwars.com

[skeletor]

Live Update Preview: New Explorable Areas 16 May 2005

As part of our commitment to bringing you new content via our free live updates, the first streaming update for Guild Wars offers players access to two extensive new explorable areas: the barren expanse of Grenth's Footprint and the fiery depths of Sorrow's Furnace. You can get a sneak peek at these two areas today, with concept art and a bit of the lore on this page.

And on Wednesday, we'll preview this area with an in-game movie, a movie that will also be screened at the E3 trade show in Los Angeles.

that was posted on guildwars.com

W00t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hurk]

Just incase you were wondering about the new patch coming out for WoW as well. Link Here. (http://worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html)

It has the new hyper and highly anticipated Battlegrounds. Read on.

[7-Endless]

Live Update Preview: New Explorable Areas 16 May 2005

As part of our commitment to bringing you new content via our free live updates, the first streaming update for Guild Wars offers players access to two extensive new explorable areas: the barren expanse of Grenth's Footprint and the fiery depths of Sorrow's Furnace. You can get a sneak peek at these two areas today, with concept art and a bit of the lore on this page.

And on Wednesday, we'll preview this area with an in-game movie, a movie that will also be screened at the E3 trade show in Los Angeles.

that was posted on guildwars.com


**Sings** "A hunting we will go...A hunting we will go" :razz:

[Ultra-]

GW hands down. The graphics is WAY better!

[CSAgent]

**Sings** "A hunting we will go...A hunting we will go" :razz:

akch nooo, i only made it to Yaks Bend... more areas already??

[canadiantofu]

So...the new areas are free?

[CSAgent]

So...the new areas are free?

For you, no. You didn't understand that GW is all free so you have to pay... :razz:

[canadiantofu]

For you, no. You didn't understand that GW is all free so you have to pay... :razz:

Well, in that case, GW cann't be a good game at all. Because only games that forces you to pay to play can be consider a truely fun game. :cheesygri

[Barton03]

Sweet, so free add-ons. Thats generous of the developers! I think I'll get GW, its just wayyyy too tempting.

[7-Endless]

Sweet, so free add-ons. Thats generous of the developers! I think I'll get GW, its just wayyyy too tempting.

Don't forget to tell us your nickname so we can add u to the guild! :)

[JLee]

Guildwars is a great investment.

Buy it once and play for a bit. If you get bored just stop playing for a while. You can come back in a year and it's a new game pretty much. Unless your account gets deleted when you don't use it for a while.