As a new subscriber to World of Warcraft (WoW) and an owner of Guildwars (GW) I would like to take a few minutes to point out the Pro's and Con's of each game system. For those that do not want to read my long-winded analysis here is my conclusion up front: Both games are great, and you should own them both together. The pro’s and con’s are not a direct comparison with each game, but an observation of what I like and dislike about both games “in general.” You cannot compare, directly, a true Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) like World of Warcraft, and an Online RPG like GuildWars.
Now it’s true that some of my GW guild members are afraid that I will leave them now that I have become a subscriber of WoW. I do not feel that this is truly going to be the case because both games offer different types of game play.
GW is more of an “arcade RPG” to me. You don’t have to work too hard at building a great character (just log some hours) and you can do it without thinking too much. Once you learn the game system and come up to speed you can get around easy, run quests, beat players, etc. All character types offer you a set of skills unique to each profession and you can have a primary and secondary profession.
WoW is more of a long term RPG where you will build your character slowly over time. The characters have more depth to them and you can mold them more towards your own personality. Each race contains there own set of unique “racial” abilities and each class contains unique abilities of there own (i.e. a rogue can backstab, a mage can cast fireballs, etc.)
So let’s get down to business and do some pro’s and con’s. We’ll start with the most obvious:
The Cost This is the major factor for most players. The cost of both game retail boxes (at most stores) is $49.99.
The PRO’s
The CON’s
In conclusion, you cannot beat the price tag of GW. You just can’t. Future add-ons will probably cost you another $49.99 but the next release is slated for ’06. That’s about 100 bucks a year. Not too shabby. Just remember, you get what you pay for. If you’re a die hard gamer you’ll beat this game in less then 3 weeks and if you don’t like to repeat games or do it “all over again” then your done with GW. It’s up to you to decide if you got your money’s worth (I would tend to say “ya did”).
The Graphics
Eye candy is a major seller in today’s games. Most games that suck bad tend to look awesome because its obvious where they spent there funding. However, if you’re going to be spending 50 bucks on a game, you want it to look professional and “up-to-date” on the graphics subsystems.
The PRO’s
The CON’s
In conclusion, the graphics of GW make WoW look like it was drawn with crayons on the back of a bedpost. Sorry, but it’s the truth. But remember, graphics do not make game play last, they just make you pick it up at the store and play it for at least an hour (i.e. DOOM III). Both games offer game play: period.
Character Depth
What truly makes an RPG is your ability to “role play” the character. You want depth in your character and you want the ability to customize your character to the nth degree. You want to be able to interact with others, test your abilities, gather goodies, upgrade your weapons and armor, find magical stuff, take out big beasts and bring home the booty.
The PRO’s
If you like the detail of an RPG you’ll like WoW’s advanced system. If you want to play a character with a more flat personality with the idea of more PvP or just general hack ‘n slash then GW is more your style. This is where some RPGers may grow more bored of the GW system because it lacks depth and detail (listen to the latest podcast for Bliznot’s rant about GW). However, both systems are great! For a game that’s $49.99 you’re still getting complexity, but it’s just not a complete detailed build that you may find in a subscription based MMORPG like WoW.
In conclusion, I believe that both games offer a unique experience and complement one another. I can play GW and have a great time, then login into WoW and have a great time. I only have to pay one subscription because the other game has none. I don’t have to work too hard to build my GW characters, and can modify my attributes whenever I want to try a different style (perhaps tomorrow I want to be a fire Elementalist, but today I want to focus in water Elementalist). In WoW, once you start assigning trait points and focusing your profession it’s hard to get out of that without creating a new character that does something different.
The World
RPG’s usually require you to do “something” in some fantasy world. You want a world that’s huge, naturally, so you can adventure for hours and discover all new places. You want a game with potential add-ons to make the world bigger when you’ve seen it all.
The PRO’s
The CON’s
In conclusion, the GW method is instant gratification. If you have some buddies in Droknor’s Fordge and you’re in Ascalon City it takes 3 seconds to get there. The same type of travel in WoW may take you ten to twenty minutes if you have no means of fast travel. I find traveling in WoW tedious when I’m in a rush, but much more satisfying when I’m not (since I can hunt for herbs on my way).
Character Slots
A good RPGer wants to play different types of characters, try the different races if available, and overall experiment with all aspects of the game.
The PRO’s
The CON’s
A combination of both GW and WoW would make me very very happy. In WoW I would love to be able to transfer my character to other servers to play with other friends. I don’t want to have to rebuild a character every time I want to socialize with friends. In GW I cannot believe they only give me a 4 character max. If I wanted to pay an addition 49.99 I still cannot expand it to 8 (I have to maintain to account logins with 4 characters in each).
Character Levels How do you make a game last longer? Make more levels of advancement. In all RPG’s to date people find it rewarding to quest and fight and be rewarded with new level advancement. This has been around since the dawn of time (Dungeons & Dragon). You are always rewarded at the end of the day with character advancement.
The PRO’s
The CONS’s
In conclusion, the experience is gathered about the same rate for both games. However you’ll be done faster in GW. What it comes down to is Time vs. Level: the more time you play the faster your level will rise. For those with too much dedication this may come quicker then for others with jobs, a life, kids, chores, spouse, or whatever.
The Grind This is what people call it when you have to repeat yourself and your actions over and over. Usually it’s misguided because people find there own unique things in any RPG game that they deem as “a grind.” I’ve seen some GW message boards where they pretty much call walking from town to town a grind, or doing quests a method of grinding. Sorry, this is The Game. When your doing what the developers intended as part of the game play then your not “grinding” your “playing.” Off my soap box.
The Truth
In Conclusion, I find that WoW has more grind because it’s a MMORPG. You are roaming a free world hunting stuff. And since your character is deeper and more round in WoW as opposed to GW you have to work harder (grind more) to upgrade your detailed character. GW is more “arcade” in this aspect: get you ass out there and complete quests and missions. Get to the end, beat the game, have cool stuff, and rock the house.
The Community & PUGS
Another aspect of online RPG’s is the community. These are folks like you and me that you meet in your travels. Some times questing is tough, and if you have no buddies online you want to meet people and see if there good at questing, and are helpful.
The PRO’s
The CONS’s
MMORPG’s foster community and WoW is right up there on the list of MMORPGs. GW makes this tougher to do, but also gives you the option to just play by yourself and live your own alternate reality.
In Conclusion
Barely any features of the two games have been touched upon in any great detail. No mention of the trading systems, the WoW auction house, the Guildwars GvG battle system, PvP in general, etc. This is just trying to touch up on the game systems at a high level.
I believe all RPG’ers online RPGers or not should own GuildWars. It’s a great experience, has great gameplay, great graphics, and a fun storyline (if your system can push the graphics). If you’re a die hard MMORPG you should subscribe to WoW and kill all other subscriptions. Or do as I did, buy GuildWars and play it, and subscribe to WoW and play it. Both are the same genre and I do not find it hard to juggle between the two game systems (very familiar look and feel interfaces as well). This way you get two great games and only one monthly fee.
http://www.guildwars.com
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com
And an up and coming D&D MMORPG game:
http://www.ddo.com
GW is more of an “arcade RPG” to me. You don’t have to work too hard at building a great character (just log some hours) and you can do it without thinking too much. Once you learn the game system and come up to speed you can get around easy, run quests, beat players, etc. All character types offer you a set of skills unique to each profession and you can have a primary and secondary profession.
WoW is more of a long term RPG where you will build your character slowly over time. The characters have more depth to them and you can mold them more towards your own personality. Each race contains there own set of unique “racial” abilities and each class contains unique abilities of there own (i.e. a rogue can backstab, a mage can cast fireballs, etc.)
So let’s get down to business and do some pro’s and con’s. We’ll start with the most obvious:
The Cost This is the major factor for most players. The cost of both game retail boxes (at most stores) is $49.99.
The PRO’s
- GuildWars: You get all the content of GuildWars and anything that they have developed (to date) for the price of the game.
- World of Warcraft: This pricetag is cheaper then many MMORPG’s from the past (I believe I paid upwards of $180 for the first Ultima Online release w/ 3 months free access). You get 30 days free before committing any more cash, and you can give people a 10-day trial if you buy it (and become your own crack dealer!).
The CON’s
- GuildWars: No CONS. You get what you paid for, no strings.
- World Of Warcraft: They give you 30 days free, then once your hooked on it like a crack whore you have to steal your neighbors TV and E-BAY it in order to feed your addiction of the $15/month subscription fee. Let’s pretend for a minute that you invested 1 year playing Diablo II (some people did). Imagine if that cost you $230.00 to buy Diablo II, because that’s what it’s going to cost you to play WoW for a year. If your family is strapped for cash, or you’re a youngster, this may not be an option.
In conclusion, you cannot beat the price tag of GW. You just can’t. Future add-ons will probably cost you another $49.99 but the next release is slated for ’06. That’s about 100 bucks a year. Not too shabby. Just remember, you get what you pay for. If you’re a die hard gamer you’ll beat this game in less then 3 weeks and if you don’t like to repeat games or do it “all over again” then your done with GW. It’s up to you to decide if you got your money’s worth (I would tend to say “ya did”).
The Graphics
Eye candy is a major seller in today’s games. Most games that suck bad tend to look awesome because its obvious where they spent there funding. However, if you’re going to be spending 50 bucks on a game, you want it to look professional and “up-to-date” on the graphics subsystems.
The PRO’s
- GuildWars: Guildwars looks beautiful, like pure artwork. It’s a great game AND has great graphics. Its picture perfect and you cannot even tell is a 3d graphic system…it looks like RL (real life for you n00bs).
- World Of Warcraft: The graphics look a little dated, polygonal, and a little more cartoonish then some may like. They are not sloppy, not horrid, and not full of nasty glitches. They are just not as good as GuildWars. In the defense of WoW, they were working on this project for a very long time… they probably didn’t have the same technological advances as GuildWars did when GW started 5 years ago. However in WoW you can jump You cannot jump in GuildWars.
The CON’s
- GuildWars: You will need a fairly good Graphics Card to utilize the power of GuildWars. But it won’t require too high end to play on minimal settings.
- World Of Warcraft: Easy to play this on older PC’s with the advanced shaders and graphics content for up-to-date PC’s.
In conclusion, the graphics of GW make WoW look like it was drawn with crayons on the back of a bedpost. Sorry, but it’s the truth. But remember, graphics do not make game play last, they just make you pick it up at the store and play it for at least an hour (i.e. DOOM III). Both games offer game play: period.
Character Depth
What truly makes an RPG is your ability to “role play” the character. You want depth in your character and you want the ability to customize your character to the nth degree. You want to be able to interact with others, test your abilities, gather goodies, upgrade your weapons and armor, find magical stuff, take out big beasts and bring home the booty.
The PRO’s
- GuildWars: Your character has roughly 8 attributes that you can tweak (but only 4 or 5 that you can really work hard to specialize). You have 6 different character professions each containing their own set of skills. You can create different characters, or even characters of the same profession with specialization in different attributes (i.e. maybe you create a protection monk, and then a healer monk). You can then mix and match a primary/secondary profession for different combo’s of character.
- World Of Warcraft: Your character has a set non-configurable attributes (stamina, strength, etc. ) that increase automatically with level gain. You can be 1 of 9 races with up to 10 unique classes of character. You may choose a Troll Rogue, or perhaps an Orc Warlock, or Human Paladin, etc. with many options to go with. Each class has its own unique spells or abilities and each race has its own traits and specializations. At level 10 you begin to accrue “traits” which follow a ‘build tree’ to make your character more unique then a character of like race/class. You may choose a rogue troll that puts most of their traits into stealth, backstab, and fast escape. You may choose a more combat oriented rogue with disabling opponents, gashing, gouging and hurting, or follow the trait tree in assassination abilities. One rogue can become a master assassin, another may become a master thief and stealer, or perhaps a jack of all trades master of none. All classes have their unique trait tree (it’s literally a tree, as you advance in one trait you get options as you move down the tree of traits). This follows similar to how you cast spells in Diablo II’s “spell tree” system. Lastly, you can take up two of many ‘professions’ which allow me to be a herbalist, a miner, a tailor, a blacksmith, an alchemist, the list goes on. As secondary to that I can also learn to cook, to fish, and others. More detail: more money per month. Any questions?
- Guildwars: you may grow bored after you beat the game a few times, or create a few characters. You will find that it’s easy to make all the popular combinations of characters.
- World Of Warcraft: Too many features may leave you confused, overwhelmed, or take too much of your time. For those that want to get right into it and just kicking ass and taking names building up a detailed character may go beyond your requirements.
If you like the detail of an RPG you’ll like WoW’s advanced system. If you want to play a character with a more flat personality with the idea of more PvP or just general hack ‘n slash then GW is more your style. This is where some RPGers may grow more bored of the GW system because it lacks depth and detail (listen to the latest podcast for Bliznot’s rant about GW). However, both systems are great! For a game that’s $49.99 you’re still getting complexity, but it’s just not a complete detailed build that you may find in a subscription based MMORPG like WoW.
In conclusion, I believe that both games offer a unique experience and complement one another. I can play GW and have a great time, then login into WoW and have a great time. I only have to pay one subscription because the other game has none. I don’t have to work too hard to build my GW characters, and can modify my attributes whenever I want to try a different style (perhaps tomorrow I want to be a fire Elementalist, but today I want to focus in water Elementalist). In WoW, once you start assigning trait points and focusing your profession it’s hard to get out of that without creating a new character that does something different.
The World
RPG’s usually require you to do “something” in some fantasy world. You want a world that’s huge, naturally, so you can adventure for hours and discover all new places. You want a game with potential add-ons to make the world bigger when you’ve seen it all.
The PRO’s
- GuildWars: The world is HUGE. You can spend hours tracing each and every area and mapping out everything in the game. With the new free-update of Sorrows Furnace we now have yet another additional well detailed dungeon to crawl through. At no additional cost! When I first saw the map size I almost fell out of my seat right then and there.
- World of Warcraft: The world is HUGE! I’m still a newbie, but it may be almost double the size of GuildWars. I’ve played for about a week and a half and I’m still in the “newbie area” which is roughly the size of GW’s area of Ascalon (post-searing).
The CON’s
- Guildwars: Hard-core gamers can skip half the terrain and bounce from mission to mission and beat the game (with many hours logged) in two weeks. Map optional. Those that like to adventure to find it all will find that once they have the major towns, that there is little point in adventuring every nook and cranny of the map (but I find it still fun anyway!).
- World of Warcraft: You are very limited in mobility compared to GW. Until you get high up and can afford a mount your movement rate is still slow. You can buy your way across many cities (after walking there once) so that you can fly (real time) from one city to another. For cities far away from each other you can get up and make some coffee during your flight, because it’s going to be awhile. Due to this the map naturally seems bigger because you’re going to be walking it a lot. In GW I can just “map” from one city to another instantly once I’ve discovered it. Some forms of magic travel are available in WoW if yor are a magic caster or have casting friends. Still limited and many methods are just too sloooow.
In conclusion, the GW method is instant gratification. If you have some buddies in Droknor’s Fordge and you’re in Ascalon City it takes 3 seconds to get there. The same type of travel in WoW may take you ten to twenty minutes if you have no means of fast travel. I find traveling in WoW tedious when I’m in a rush, but much more satisfying when I’m not (since I can hunt for herbs on my way).
Character Slots
A good RPGer wants to play different types of characters, try the different races if available, and overall experiment with all aspects of the game.
The PRO’s
- GuildWars: You have 4 unique characters slots per retail account (per box). That means you can try out many professions. You can also delete and create new characters from those four slots if you so please.
- World of Warcraft: You must choose a server to create your character on. This is important because you can only communicate with friends (via game system) that are on the same server. Once you pick a server you’re pretty much going to rely on it for forming your guilds, and friends lists, etc. However you can have many characters (not sure there is a limit), and you can use any server (or characters on each if you so choose).
The CON’s
- Guildwars: You only have 4 characters. But there are six professions?? WTF?
- World of Warcraft: I can create 100’s of characters, but I cannot speak with my friends if they’re on another server? What if I have one friend on server1 and another on server2? I have to create two unique characters and keep them all up-to-date to play with them, or convince one to leave and create a character on MY server? You cannot seem to transfer your character from one server to another. I create a guild but it’s only good for friends on that specific server and is not global across the WoW systems.
A combination of both GW and WoW would make me very very happy. In WoW I would love to be able to transfer my character to other servers to play with other friends. I don’t want to have to rebuild a character every time I want to socialize with friends. In GW I cannot believe they only give me a 4 character max. If I wanted to pay an addition 49.99 I still cannot expand it to 8 (I have to maintain to account logins with 4 characters in each).
Character Levels How do you make a game last longer? Make more levels of advancement. In all RPG’s to date people find it rewarding to quest and fight and be rewarded with new level advancement. This has been around since the dawn of time (Dungeons & Dragon). You are always rewarded at the end of the day with character advancement.
The PRO’s
- Guildwars: You have 20 levels of advancement. For a standard player that is about 3 weeks to a month of fairly constant play. For the hardcore player, counted in days..
- World of Warcraft: You have 60 levels of advancement. At level 40 you can gain a mount for riding quick around the map. This means many months of play.
The CONS’s
- Guildwars: After you hit 20 you still have plenty of game left to cover. At least 30% of the game is still not yet done. You are rewarded with 1 skill point every time you advance to 20 again (over and over). I don’t feel 1 skill point is reward for my efforts.
- World of Warcraft: What do you do when you hit 60? Not there yet, but I imagine you retire that character and start another? At least it should take awhile… in theory. Other option is to unsubscribe to the service.
In conclusion, the experience is gathered about the same rate for both games. However you’ll be done faster in GW. What it comes down to is Time vs. Level: the more time you play the faster your level will rise. For those with too much dedication this may come quicker then for others with jobs, a life, kids, chores, spouse, or whatever.
The Grind This is what people call it when you have to repeat yourself and your actions over and over. Usually it’s misguided because people find there own unique things in any RPG game that they deem as “a grind.” I’ve seen some GW message boards where they pretty much call walking from town to town a grind, or doing quests a method of grinding. Sorry, this is The Game. When your doing what the developers intended as part of the game play then your not “grinding” your “playing.” Off my soap box.
The Truth
- Guildwars: They go out of there way to make less “grind” and more fun. Not to say things are instantly gratified, but when players complain that in order to advance they need to run a mission 5 times then the Arena Net team fixes it as a bug. When people “grinded” for cash or items they fixed it to add in keys you can buy to open random chests and obtain less common items. This helps avoid people constantly hunting through the same map for hours trying to gather good weapons to equip themselves.
- World of Warcaft: This game influences “grinding” by not trying to make you work around it. If you want to become a better herbalist go out and find some herbs buddy. Get your butt out there and hunt. Sure you gotta kill the same group of enemies to get that earthroot a million times, but you’re skills getting better.
In Conclusion, I find that WoW has more grind because it’s a MMORPG. You are roaming a free world hunting stuff. And since your character is deeper and more round in WoW as opposed to GW you have to work harder (grind more) to upgrade your detailed character. GW is more “arcade” in this aspect: get you ass out there and complete quests and missions. Get to the end, beat the game, have cool stuff, and rock the house.
The Community & PUGS
Another aspect of online RPG’s is the community. These are folks like you and me that you meet in your travels. Some times questing is tough, and if you have no buddies online you want to meet people and see if there good at questing, and are helpful.
The PRO’s
- Guildwars: This is NOT a traditional MMORPG so you will only meet other humans in town. You may chat with them for awhile, and perhaps quest a few times to see if there cool to hang with. Maybe even invite them to your guild. Community is built by talking with others, so chat away. However if you want to play the game as a solo artist this is completely possible with henchmen AI. Talking is optional.
- World Of Warcraft: This is an MMORPG you cannot avoid human interaction (unless you like being a ass when folks say “hi” to ya). The game is meant to foster community and gather help. Quests can be tough, and teamwork is your means to a successful end.
The CONS’s
- Guildwars: You cannot always foster good relationships by just sitting in town. You may want to meet them in the field of battle and watch how they work. You can’t. Only towns are global communities, all adventures are “instanced” copies for your own character to live in. So it’s tougher to meet people of quality, and build groups for quests. You may end up with a group of PUGS (random pickups to form a group of people). This leads you into the unknown…8 random players are going to lead you to at least one 12 year old kid that doesn’t give a crap about anything but themselves or a charge and die warrior.
- World of Warcraft: I want to game and game alone. I’m tired; I had a hard day at work. Screw off and leave me alone. Not as easy without being an ass. If a guy comes up to you and asks for help with a baddie, or just wants to talk your ear off its hard to avoid them without being an ass.
MMORPG’s foster community and WoW is right up there on the list of MMORPGs. GW makes this tougher to do, but also gives you the option to just play by yourself and live your own alternate reality.
In Conclusion
Barely any features of the two games have been touched upon in any great detail. No mention of the trading systems, the WoW auction house, the Guildwars GvG battle system, PvP in general, etc. This is just trying to touch up on the game systems at a high level.
I believe all RPG’ers online RPGers or not should own GuildWars. It’s a great experience, has great gameplay, great graphics, and a fun storyline (if your system can push the graphics). If you’re a die hard MMORPG you should subscribe to WoW and kill all other subscriptions. Or do as I did, buy GuildWars and play it, and subscribe to WoW and play it. Both are the same genre and I do not find it hard to juggle between the two game systems (very familiar look and feel interfaces as well). This way you get two great games and only one monthly fee.
http://www.guildwars.com
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com
And an up and coming D&D MMORPG game:
http://www.ddo.com
