Help Me Decide: Guild Wars VS World of Warcraft

i think the title says it all lol im interested in both and will eventually end up buying both, but for right now im only interested in one which one should it be? i know for certain WOW has a WAY bigger community and you also have to pay a fee(not a prob) but i heard there is alot of cheating/children on WOW. Guild wars seems more for an older crowd, i may be wrong though also it seems as if guild wars 2 is coming out this year so i'm thinking maybe i should wait untill this comes out instead and it seems like there is a TON of expansion packs for guild wars i don't know which one do you think i should go for? Either way these are TRULY two critically acclaimed titles thats why i cant decide. help me out NBR brothers!!

 

play guild wars for now. There is no monthly fee and you can start saving from now for the monthly fee for wow.

A new wow expansion is coming out soon anyways, so any progress you make in end game at the moment is basically useless.

EDIT : then again, if guild wars 2 is coming out, wait for that instead, it doesn't make sense you buy 1 now, only to lose the people you play with as they leave for 2 and you are then stuck deciding between guildwars 2 or liche king

 

I played Guild Wars for a few years and it was blast. Tons of fun, the pve was so-so but the pvp is great for people who don't want to grind hours and hours for honor. I've been playing WoW now for a while and the pve is definitely more intense (waiting patiently for the expansion). Honestly I think the two games are directed for 2 different types of gamers. 1) people who like to spend hours and hours and get rewarded or 2) people who prefer instant gratification (i.e. guild wars and it's pvp). They're both fun games and I'll probably check out GW2 when it comes out in the future.

 

thanks, both explanations helped alot, also if you guys can give me an insight i heard that guild wars single player mode is VERY deep while world of warcraft's is good single player wise but is not much compared to see compared guild wars i like single player because it teaches you SO much that a manual could never teach you.

Yeah brian i saw guild wars 2 is coming out year end on metacritic i'll let you know the date but the graphics have aged WELL thats was so surprising imagine what Guild Wars 2 must look like.

So sea you played guild wars for years???! Was it that addicting? That's great i'm a die hard starcraft fan so i know addiction, but i never really got into warcraft.

 

guild wars is an amazing game, it held my interest for 3 years, while WoW held it for...2 weeks or so. guild wars there is no grind, you can get to the max level in 5 hours if you are fast, however the game by no means ends there, there are hundreds of unique skills, 10 professions, a huge variaty of weapons and armor. the storyline in all 3 of the games are great, and you can easily follow it. also the community is one of the best ive seen in a no charge per month game. (minus shing jea dist 1 and temple of balthazaar dist 1 where they are all whores) also a nice feature is if your freinds play you dont need to worry about servers, the citys are split into districts which you can easily switch by clicking a button and viewing a loading screen for a few seconds.

guild wars graphics are also way better than WoW, though unfortunately it has no Z axis, so no jumping.

the pvp in guild wars is extremely intence and it is very nessassary to think out what you are going to do. the game limits your team to a certain amount of people (different in each mode, max is 12 across 3 mini teams) and with the millions of combinations you need everything to synergize.

i'd suggest guild wars, get the platnium edition, so you get prophacies and eotn, then if you like those get nightfall then factions.

have fun.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself, except WoW held me for about 2 months.

 

Me and my brother logged >1000 hours on the GW series, but then came university and I wasn't able to play it much anymore (this happened about 2 years ago). Now I'm always busy with homework and other games that I've accumulated over the years. GW for the sucking in factor!

 

i have played wow for 4 year's and i just quit playing. Blizzard server's suck they lag and they have problems. wow is not worth $15 a month. if you get wow make sure to read the EUA. and the term's because you dont own your toon or account its blizzard your paying to rent to play your toons and your account. blizzard is becoming more like a company that does not care. the customer service suck's. i have not played guild wars. wow=crack.

 

To put out a counter-point, I used to play WoW and I've messed around with GW and I find WoW to be vastly superior in every imaginable way. Now I don't do much PvP, I'm more of a PvE guy, so take this as it is, but GW's PvE is a joke. It's not even really an MMO once you leave town - all questing zones and dungeons are instanced and you can only take NPC allies in with you, so it feels more like Diablo than a true MMO. Not that that's necessarily bad, it's just not what I was looking for.

And perhaps the PvP makes up for it, but it would have to lavish me with real money and sexual propositions before I started caring.

As for the quality of WoW's servers, I've never had any major problems. Yes, they go down weekly for an hour or two scheduled maintenance but a) that's hardly worth getting your knickers in a twist over and b) it happens at 4AM EST. I've never had major lag problems when on a decent connection except for patch day. I suspect the people who complain that Shattrath and SW lag should probably look at their GPU or internet connection before pointing fingers at Blizzard.

 

You CAN take other people, not just npcs, but in most zones the max is 8 people. you dont get money for pvp, (unless you win a tournament) but there is a skill called "on your knees!"

 

Don't play either!

Play Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. This game just came out last Thursday. I have played War in CB,OB and now live; and it is a blast. No grinding needed. You can gain xp from pvping. Lotsa end game content to keep you busy.

Mark Jacobs the CEO of Mythic, who made War, is awesome along with his staff. These guys/gals new what they were doing when they made this mmo.

 

(Emphasis mine.)

Well, to quote Yahtzee, "Trying to remove the grind from an MMO is like trying to remove the crazy from Richard Garriot." Without grind, you have a beatable game, and then what keeps people p(l)aying?

That said, I was thinking vaguely about trying WAR. But if the bolded is true, count me out. I certainly hope there's some sort of system in place to strictly regulate that - if not, I can't think of anything you could possibly do to encourage greifing more than that.

How does it play? Does it run well, is it well balanced, etc.? WoW's "Warlocks/Hunters >>>> All" endgame mechanics eventually started to really peeve me (I played a Warrior and a Mage, so yeah...)

 

hmm so i understand now so basically in wow you are fighting enemies(like bots) alongside your friends or alone but in guild wars you are only fighting other players like COD4(i mean that by fighting other payers and not bots) so in guild wars online you cant really go out into the world and kill monsters and gain experience points and unlock weapons armor and such with your friends?

 

Well, kind of. WoW has a pretty expansive PvP system, but I can't speak too much on it because I'm not a huge fan of PvP. It's apparently pretty good though, since there are huge tournaments based around it and entire realms devoted to said tournaments. World PvP can be fun, as long as you're not the flagged Level 14 in Redridge while the 70 Blood Elf rogue is around.

In GW, as Joshthor pointed out, you can bring up to 7 friends out into the world with you, but that's it. No random encounters with other players once you leave the city (as everything else is instanced). That means no world PvP and less PuGging quests, but I would assume it means no griefing either.

 

I loved GW when it came out, played it tons. I like the business model better.

 

when you say you can bring 7 friends in the world with you, is that to go out and battle other monsters or fight each other? Or are the 7 people the ones you are fighting? also someone stated WOW is $15 a month online? Is it really? i thought it was $9 wow people must really be addicted to pay the dough like i said the moolah isnt the problem but you could practically buy some good newer(when on sale) and older pc games for $15.

 

It's less the longer monthly plan you choose. For example, I think 3 months recurring is $12.95 or so.

Don't go into any MMO without friends. Unless you enjoy meeting people online, your zeal will fade before you make any real progress or get your moneys worth, usually.

 

I haven't played WoW, but have been playing Guild Wars for three years now.

The best thing about GW is you can take a break from it, come back and still be able to keep up with the others.

Getting to the max level takes less than a week, and you can always create PVP characters ( inherently maxed ) to try out new PVP builds without remaking your character.

That said if you enjoy PVP definitely go with Guild Wars.

 

Based on that then, GW seems better for casual gamers. Unless you're in the top raiding/PvP guild in WoW, it's easy to lose your place as updates come relatively often. Also, PvP is preferential. The styles are different, so just do some research if you're interested in PvP for either game and try it out if you can then decide.

 

I played WoW and GW and I gotta say I like Warhammer a lot more. All games are fun to play but war bein new it just has so much to offer. If u like to pvp then war is the game for u.

 

I played retail WoW for about 2 years before I quit. I played a whole lot too. I also bought GW in the midst of playing WoW. Played it for about an hour before I got bored and went back to World of Warcraft. It's fun if you want to just jump right in and PVP I guess. WoW > GW in my opinion.

Get WoW now and start leveling. If you're anything like me, you'll get close to 70 by the time the new expansion come out, then you can just buy that and keep going.

I quit before Burning Crusade came out, so I never got to 70. But I did get 3 characters to 60 and had a few at 30. I now play on a private server because I don't feel like paying to play on the now laggy server I used to play on. I actually recently unfroze my retail account, attempted leveling to 61, became frustrated it was so laggy, and stopped. I had to pay $30 to buy a retail copy of Burning Crusade and $15 for the month. So I spent $45 for 30 minutes of playing.

It will be fun for you though since you haven't played it yet. I suggest buying WoW.

 

Are you older than 9?

Do not buy WoW unless you enjoy playing with people who act like their age is in single-digits.

WoW isn't a bad game, but the community is horrendous and it is quite common to meet max-level characters who haven't the slightest clue what their class is supposed to do in anything but solo.

Public groups that are anything other than frustrating death-fests are rare and expect to be sworn at the minute you ask something simple like "could you not do that please".

Also expect people to get down on you when your damage dealer does .00001% less damage than you "should" be doing or when you do anything but the "accepted" norm.

I don't care if you do it slightly different, but get the job done, as long as we are successful. I expect you will stop doing something that gets you and someone else killed. I expect you to understand things like aggro control or resource control especially if you are max level. I don't care if you offer tips, but I don't care about 0.000001% as fun and success are more important than damage meter fractions-of-a-percentage points.

If you are like me, avoid WoW unless you are bringing a guild worth of friends with you.

Guild Wars is not my game, but it couldn't possibly be worse than WoW.

Warhammer(hybrid quake/rpg pvp-centric), Lineage2 (intense time investment-but less than it used to be, but best RPG/integrated PvP, or Conan (story-based, better combat system, but resource intensive) are all better by a long shot IMHO.

 

while i cant necessarily say this is true, i have heard of MANY people complaining about this same thing. Especially on youtube they are always saying that the kids on WOW are very annoying

lol i feel kinda odd now because after seeing Warhammer online i am actually interested in that as well the thread should actually say guild wars vs world of warcraft vs Warhammer online. Kernal, which one do you play? out of the 3 games you listed?

 

no by no means. in guild wars there are ALOT of monsters to fight, it isnt a solely pvp game, you have to explore the world to find new weapons, unlock new citys, craft new armor, and find new enemies, there is a huge pve dynamic.

even in pvp there are a few human npcs you have to fight in most modes, though pvp is obviously mostly player vs player (as its name suggests lol)

oh, i should also put this, in guild wars, since the max level is 20, you never really know if a player is good or not, if you are going to join a pug (pick up group) you should ask your team mates to ping their skills, it'll be pretty obvious if they suck or not. (a warrior with flare or a warrior with hammer, axe, and sword skills, and atts spread evenly, a warrior with mending...sorry warriors are all i can think about right now. there are alot of crappy warriors.)

 

If Conan would pull its head out of its backside, I'd return to it.
The first 20 levels are the best MMORPG I have ever played, the next 30 are top-notch, then it falls off... I hear good things for it are coming up but quite frankly, i will believe it when I see it.

I am playing Lineage2 again... the levelling curve is difficult, but the first 60 or so are now pretty easy. You will never actually max out. The max is 85 now, but frankly most people subclass.. which means you take on the skills of another class, but cannot use your previous class's skills.
Think reroll but you keep the name, and you build power for your main in skills from raising your subclass... so your main is an archer and you pick up monk and gain atk power, speed, and pvp HP (CP). You can always switch back by returning to town, but then you advance as your main again.

You will meet some of the best players in L2 of any MMO I have ever played. Note this game is completely open PvP. Don't like someone's name? Kill them. They are in your spot? Kill them. They act like a dork? Kill them.
Don't be surprised if they get friends if you try to kill them though, and don't complain when you go down.

Server-wide politics are always in effect... kill a clan tag and expect his buddies are coming for you... no they aren't going to cut you any slack.

Just an FYI, I have more RL friends (meaning met outside game) from L2 than any other MMO ever... also the graphics are impressive considering how old the game is... (characters blink, movements are beautiful and areas are sometimes breathtaking despite the ancient engine.)

The enchant and augment system result in truly server-wide unique weapons. While there are few models so most mundane or riskless enchants look similar, not many have a +16 Damascus (glows red) that shoots lightning bolts! (+4 and above risk destroying the weapon... +16 is extremely rare, augments of that power are also relatively rare and very random)

L2 is not perfect... as you shouldn't play if you need to level 85 in two days... it just isn't happening.

Also it has a population of bots which you might as well just get ready to kill and just deal with the PK system.

PvP system means you do NOT get to pick when you PvP... it comes to you.
Note most of the servers' people are relatively good sports and will not bother you before your 60-70 level... (and you are protected until 40th from high-levels picking on lowbies by a newbie buff) but there are still dorks.

In-game money(adena) is harder to deal with that most games... save up.

For heavens sake do NOT buy adena... the game is difficult, but not that difficult anymore. People tend to band together because it IS difficult and that's why the game rocks... it makes the players tougher and band together to succeed.

 

thanks alot for that description joshthor so there is a some expolration huh? thats good, i like looking around and finding things and fighting enemies along the way and then just jumping in and killing any player when im ready to roll hehe sounds fun, im almost set on guild wars now the only thing im looking at is part two is not that far away and it might be better to hold off because HOLY CRAP Guild Wars has tons of expansions i was looking at the gamestop and i could of sworn there were at least 5 maybe even more

WoW looks ok but the problem is i never got into the warcraft universe(i was a starcraft guy) and feel that the learning curve about the classes and names/moves might take a while, and guild wars customization looks quite amazing i was watching some on youtube VERY interesting hopefully part 2 will be just as great.

Kernal, Lineage 2 seems amazing according to what you have said i know people have said that the graphics are pretty kick *** and that the community is a decent size thats also cool that higher level players cant do anything to the noobs because of restrictions i've never really looked at MMO's before but the more i look at it the more i can see myself being part of any community and being good at it at the same time. I'll definitely let everyone know what i do but like i said warhammer online is looking quite intriguing now though there are hardly any reviews but the ones that are out there are now say it is excellent!

 

I'm going to say Guild Wars, just because WoW's so popular.

Omg, does that make me an indie-whore?

Well, it depends on what you enjoy - if PvP is your thing, Guild Wars seems like the way to go. I haven't played it in years, but I hear that it's one of the most balanced MMOs out there. WoW seems pretty heavily focused on the PVE aspect, as much as fanboys would like to have you believe otherwise.

Grindgrindgrindgrindgrind

Note that there are -many- things WoW does right, but on the whole I'm against it as a game. It's turning into the REAL Everquest 2.0.

 

guild wars 2 is pretty far away, last i heard the expected release date is late 2009/early 2010, which in mmo land means it will be out 2015 lol (sorry, ive been waiting for aion for 2 years and it still isnt out though it was supposed to be.)

also the only true "expansion" is eye of the north, the other 3, prophesies, factions, and nightfall, are standalone campains. you can pick any of them up and be able to play without another (except eotn) however, they can all be added together, so if you got a character in prophesies and bought nightfall, after you beat a mini mission you can travel to nightfalls continent, elona with that character. also there is alot of new skills in every campain, which can be used on any character.

 

so it metacritic is wrong? http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/guildwars2?q=guild wars 2

they claim is comes out on october 1st....though i can't find any supporting information.

 

I am no WoW fan, but it most certainly doesn't have anything of a grind.

The reason levelling should occur is to teach you to play your character.
You are advancing as both a character and as a player in the development of a heroic figure.
At max level you should have a clue. WoW is so fast that the vast majority are 100% clueless.

If guildwars is even easier that is sad news for the game.

 

Woo no way it's coming out October, the beta testing won't even be held in 2008!

I've played Guild Wars since the first beta. I enjoyed the PvE elements such as visiting elite dungeons with 7 friends. It's very challenging to have a limited number of skills while taking on horde of monsters. It's also fun watching yourself die over and over again. I have not played WoW but I am sure this situation also happens in a similar way. As for the PvP, I don't often have a pleasure of finding fun in them. To me they're always so intensive. Just watching tournament replay makes me wet myself And I've rarely stumbled upon 8-year-old kid. You can find that most players are experienced and mature. People in my guild have ages ranged from 20 to 78

 

... WoW doesn't have anything of a grind? What of reputation grinding?

Sure, it's no EQ. But that's not exactly the highest standard to hold it up to.

 

LOL wow they made a huge mistake with that release i might as well get guild wars as soon as i get the chance, once i do i'll be able to jump right in and get really good until Guild Wars 2 comes out then i will understand the game better as well.

 

lol yeah, well i think their original plan was have the release be late '08 (which rhymes) but now they arent even going to have the beta till sometime in '09 (supposedly) if you do chose to get guild wars and need help pm me

 

Thanks alot, i REALLY appreciate it i never knew/noticed but this is the same company that did city of heroes!!! Did you ever get to play city of heroes? I know for the longest while it was extremely popular im sure that effect has worn off though because its been out for about 4 years +

 

eh same company didnt make it, Arenanet made guild wars, i think ncsoft just published it, and i dont know about city of heroes, but it wasnt made by arenanet. i have played city of heroes, it was good, i liked making alot of different superheroes

 

actually ncsoft either develpoed or published city of heroes thats what i was referring too.

 

Put down one more vote for WoW over Guildwars.

I participated in the betas for both games, and while I lost interest in Guildwars within a couple of weeks, I'm still casually but regularly playing WoW four/five years later.

Parts of the leveling process are mundane and redundant (although no where close to everquest), but each class has a bit of depth and some challenging tactics/maneuvers to perfect if your going to excel in pvp in particular (eg. jump shot kiting as a hunter). The global economy, instances, and battleground pvp are all very well done compared to the other mmo's I've experienced, and they should be even better in the upcoming expansion.

Class balance is a big issue in the Arena (the most recent pvp option in WoW that provides access to the best loot over time via 2 v. 2, 3 v. 3, and 4 v. 4 matches.) But classes are periodically rebalanced through patches, and this is an issue in every mmo. Balancing is evidently far worse in Warhammer for the time being.

Are there a fair number of immature members of the community? Sure. Will it affect your daily experience? Almost certainly not. Join a guild, and group regularly with people you like, and whose chat you enjoy. Socialization is a big part of the fun.

Rather than continuing to ramble, I should simply point out that WoW has a free trial (with some limitations, I don't think you can use the auction house or trade with other players perhaps?). Trying it is the best way to see if it's going to float your boat.

 

i might wanna note that both pvp and pve are constantly being rebalanced in guild wars (pvp mostly) and you'll have a mini patch (takes me about 2 min to download on 256k) every week or 2. also, these patches rebalance and sometimes change skills, so some builds that work great the week before arent as good or fail, which annoys some people (lol oddly enough, one of my favorite things about the game, constantly having to change my strategy).

and i agree with escapist, try both games before you buy and pick your favorite.

 

you can download a demo of both these games right?

 

There isn't a demo persay of Guild Wars or WoW. Both use clients which are the programs with which they connect to the server and your game account.

In order to test them, you'd need to DL the client from their site and use a trial key which you could find pretty easily if you asked around(the games each come with 2-3 trial keys when someone buys them so just ask around).

 

note that u can port some of ur accomplishments to GW2 from GW thx to the Hall of Monuments

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hall_of_Monuments

so u could get GW and safely move to GW2 when it comes out, since ur achivments in GW count in GW2. Been playing GW for a while and its great, my vote, go for GW

If u go for GW u should get the Plat edition, since Prophecies is the best for newcommers, its like a big tutorial with a great history and includes the only 1 real expansion, Eye of the North.

 

Don't go with either. Wow absorbs your life and guild wars has too many expansions for you to finish by the time guild wars 2 comes out.

just wait it out a bit and get GW2.

 

BAD dont wait 2 years for a game to come out. you'll forget. also BOTH games absorb your life. guild wars does have alot of expansions but you'll probably finish them all twice before guild wars 2 comes out.

 

Guild Wars 2 is on its way so if you must pick between these two....Guild Wars might be the wise choice since you could port your achievments to Guild Wars 2 and not to mention that you dont have to pay $15 every month just to play a game. ^^

My 2 cents~

 

Both are fun, though long-term GW is the better investment since you keep your gear permanently as opposed to renting everything every month. Another beautiful thing about GW is its uptime -- it has only been shut down once during its entire 3+ year lifespan for backup restoration (economy exploit issue), while WoW takes a weekly downtime hit. Then there are the contantly updated patches and holiday events for GW.

Graphics-wise, WoW is extremely primitive with very cartoony characters, while GW characters are all goreously rendered.

If I had to complain about GW, it's the fact that all gear stats are near-identical at high levels... the only differentiating factor is the skin/graphics model used on the various items. WoW also has a very expansive world that takes a bit of time to cross, thereby adding more depth and scale to its virtual space, while GW provides instant-access to any city within seconds.

I'm eagerly awaiting both GW2 and Diablo3. GW2 will mimick WoW in having a persistent / non-instanced virtual world, but with no $15/month rental fee, it will have a lot going for it.

 

Thanks forever, i'll try to get that trial key from someone.

D3, i keep hearing about the platinum edition and was wondering what to do, you just saved me time from creating another thread thanks! Also the fact that you can port to GW2 is a plus!

Thanks for the advice Stir, but i dont know if i could wait that long! Plus if i get one of these games i will already be prepared for the next iteration

Josh, dont worry i wasn't waiting heh i'll definitely decide sooner rather then later! I know about the absorb like thing but i am moving to toronto soon and will have nothing to do for like the first month!

Age of wind your're right, i did the math and it comes to about $180 a year, i could buy the whole guild wars saga and have some money left over!!

Shar no downtime eh? Sounds great, also Diablo 3? Never knew it was coming, though i was always a starcraft nut now thats one pc game that im REALLY excited about Starcraft 2 = Can't wait, diablo 3 should be good though i know they had a huge fan base.

 

Play Warhammer!

 

I will send in my vote for Guild Wars

Amazing Graphics ranging from the sinister underworld to the amazing palacials of Vabbi.

gameplay is fun in both pvp and pve (though this is personal taste)

As with every online community you have your dregs and you good folks definitely more good than bad though.

A really nice eliment is the hero/henchmen, if you just don't feel like getting a group together to do a hard quest just pop a few of them in your group and you are ready to go (does not mean the quest will be easier though ) The heros are a little different in that you can control what skills they take, which is a nice bonus.

currently the game is pretty cheap, I picked up all 3 campaigns and the expansion pack for $55 a few months ago. the first campaign goes for around $10-15 on amazon.com so you are not really losing anything if you decide GW is not for you.

 

I have played both in the past and can easily say wow is better. The graphics in guild wars look very flat to me, but they do have good textures. The ones in wow might not have better textures but the overall feel of the art design is much better than guild wars.

Game play wise, wow also is at a much higher level than guild wars. Wow is fully open world with no load screens ( except for dungeons and raids) which make it a true mmo. Guild wars to me felt very isolated. Load screens all over the place which killed it for me. Wow is also much larger in scale than guild wars and you must travel in wow while guild wars any previous town you where at you just teleport there.

Also wow has a large assortment of gear, while when i played guild wars everyone uses the same stuff. in guild wars you buy gear and you are all set. In guild wars you pay for looks on the gear. At level 20 in guild wars you have 2 options, Buy 1 plat armor or 15 plat armor. Both had the same stats and everything was the same besides the look of the armor. That killed it for me. In wow you actually look for items, not buy them. Plus wow had much more end game options for the gear.

I mean you are trying to compare a monthly fee game to a free to play game. With all opinions aside wow is clearly a more popular game and shouldn't even be compared with guild wars. This doesn't mean guild wars is a bad game but it is clearly not on the same level as wow.

Try wow for yourself by going to worldofwarcraft.com and simply clicking there 10 day free trail and if you don't like it then play guild wars.