World of Warcraft & Guild Wars: Comparisons

I finally gave in and bought World of Warcraft. I?ve had Guild Wars since late April, and I?ve enjoyed it. But now I?m starting to get bored, and so I?ve picked up World of Warcraft. This thread is going to be about my first week in the game, and how it stacks up against the competition (in this case, Guild Wars). Others can feel free to add, subtract, multiply and divide in this thread as they like.


Day I:

My initial experience with World of Warcraft was a bad one. First, four CDs that took forever to install, and then a long wait at the thing patched itself. Made me grumpy. Then I was trying to find an account name that hadn?t been taken already. That took a while. And then forgetting what my account name was - I remembered the random letters and numbers of my password though?.

Finally, I started. My server is a new one, opened the day I bought the game, and so everyone on the server is low level (for about the next 24 hours?) called Staghelm. My character is a Paladin named Hopesfire, and he just hit level 14 a few minutes ago.

A few points of comparison between my initial impressions of World of Warcraft and Guild Wars:

Graphics: Guild Wars has been looking toons. Put bluntly, the toons of Guild Wars blow the toons of World of Warcraft right out of the water, even when you?re using the pre-15k armor. Beyond that, it?s World of Warcraft for the win in the graphics department. So far, it?s been able to be more consistently good than Guild Wars. Pre- and post-Searing Ascalon, the Crystal Desert, and the Ring of Fire are the only areas that really compete with World of Warcraft graphically so far. While the prettiest shots of Guild Wars beat out the prettiest shots of World of Warcraft so far every time, the consistency of World of Warcraft makes it better.

Sound: World of Warcraft has better environmental sounds, better monster noises, and better music overall but a weaker main theme. Guild Wars has a better main theme and far, far better combat noises. The noise of combat in World of Warcraft sounds like it?s for sissies compared to the sound of the clash of arms in Guild Wars. But Guild Wars has such weak environmental audio that the win has to go to World of Warcraft.

Interface: Guild Wars. There should be no argument whatsoever here. Just compare the merchants in the two games. Or try squinting at your skill bar in World of Warcraft. Or try figuring out based on the World of Warcraft skill descriptions that which is better, Seal of Righteousness or Seal of the Crusader (answer: it depends on information not given any hard figures in the skill description). Guild Wars almost without fail tells you exactly what a skill does, the icons are large and fairly easy distinguishable, the chat features are easier to control, etc. In terms of making clear and consistent interfaces, Guild Wars consistently impresses me.

Quests: It wasn?t until I found myself waiting for enemies to respawn so I could try to tag them as mine before other players did that I really realized how much I love instancing. Guild Wars does this, which means you can just run out and do your quest, rather than waiting. The ?track something down and kill it? quests were infinitely more fun to do in Guild Wars. Trying to get X of Y by killing dozens of enemies has gotten real old, real fast. So far, World of Warcraft has only provided me with one quest that I found fairly interesting for its own sake, reviving a fallen warrior to gain my resurrection skill. In all fairness, Guild Wars had only provided one similarly interesting moment in a comparatively early part of the game (the part where you have to run from the entire Charr army). In any case, the average quests of Guild Wars seem more interesting than the average quests in World of Warcraft. Even the ?bring me X body parts? quests in Guild Wars, like the quest where you have to feed Joe the Devourer 10 succulent Juniper Meats, are more fun. Running into the middle of the huge battle between the Junipers and the Centaurs, with the settlers running past every few seconds, w

 

OMG! Use the official WOW thread n008!!one!11!

 

Heh, thats because the thread title was changed to not such a N00b error. Foiled again!

 

They mega morph games are renown will tech and playability issues I wouldn't consider them. And to get your $$$'s worth, you really need to devote the hours and make Sadow sure your net isn't offline.

 

Should include Star Wars Galaxies

 

I still have nightmares about that game. Hell is being forced to kill kreetles.

 

Would'nt the comparrison be fairer and less biased if you started both at the same time?

 

Day 2

Terrain, how I love and hate you.

In one respect, World of Warcraft is almost as good as Morrowind in the ability to travel around the map on foot. There are some hills that can?t be climbed, but so far not many. That?s just lovely. The areas all feel open, the forests beat out Morrowind by far, it?s great to be able to swim to places, etc. If I?m going to be forced to walk around a lot, this is the way to make me do it.

But there?s a dark side to all this wonderful terrain. As pretty as it is, as open as it is, it can?t stop an arrow or a spell.

It?s funny. I?d built up skills in Guild Wars that I wasn?t really even consciously aware that I?d built up. I know how to evade projectiles by dodging to the side or ducking behind cover ? at this point, I don?t even think about it. If I hear a bowstring snap, I?m sidestepping. If I see an Elementalist making ready to fling something at me, I?m ducking around a corner or behind some cover. But in World of Warcraft that?s less than useless. Dodging and weaving just means that you reach the target slower.

On another note, combat in World of Warcraft has been fairly boring so far. Make sure that all buffs are in place, start the fight, and then sit back until it?s time for healing. I?m really missing the more complicated fights of Guild Wars, even Guild Wars PVE.

I?m also missing my ?medieval radar? minimap from Guild Wars, and the ability to bring up a larger floating minimap.

So far, the highlight of my time in World of Warcraft has been in defeating a Murloc boss one-on-one on a sandy beach. That was fun. Mind you, it was a matter of making sure all buffs were in place, starting the fight, and then sitting back until it was time healing, but it still felt pretty cool to kill a boss.

Level 17 so far. I spent a lot of time wasting time running around, and didn?t stack my quests very well.

 

I like to point out several things:
First off you can customize the UI using mods (yes its allowed) for a far better interface.

Second you're playing with a paladin so fights are going to be boring, paladins have a low DPS but high survivability. To give you an idea I know people who played with paladins and basicly read books and chatting while fighting mobs. You shouldn't base fights until you played with all the classes as each of them has a different style.

The open terrain is annoying, as spells can fly through hills, walls and whatnot. Although you can hide behind a tree/wall/etc. while the person is still casting at the end of the cast it will say "Target is not in line of sight" instead of hiding after the spell has been fired.

Talents: Most classes don't really have a cookie-cutter template (except Druids I think as the other two talent trees aren't viable). But most users will go down the damage talent tree instead of healing or support or whatever. Thus it seems like cookie-cutter template.

 

Once major difference which was the key thing for me whether to buy WoW or GW was the lack of a monthly fee.

Now I accept this isn't a gameplaying comparison and has such has no influence on your enjoyment of either game, I do think it is an important thing to note to those who are looking at online gaming.

I for one won't pay a monthly fee.