World of Warcraft vs Guild Wars

[amiabilita]

With all the hype and friends who are willing to play with me,
i'm about to make a purchase between the 2 popular MMORPG

what should i get? and what are pros and cons of both?

I played WOW for about a week using a trial account,
i got bored time to time and got sick of quests that make u kill stupid animals for a soup or having u deliver letters back and forth...

I haven't played Guild Wars so i have no clue how it is like..

please help me come to a decision

[mcs328]

I've heard Guild Wars levels you instantly. No need to grind to level. No real story and the paths are pretty linear. You can really explore because everything is pre-determined. That's what I hear.

WoW has more content if you like explore and read the "history" while doing quests and reading books on the tables in the various inns and houses. There's a lot of story. Leveling isn't that bad actually because the quests give mucho XP. You're not stuck leveling off a single creature for days or weeks on end.

[Jihforce]

GW is kind of like diablo. You form teams in towns and then are placed in a private map, so you won't find yourself running into other players as you hunt down some beasties. Thats a good or a bad thing depending of what you like. I like the fact that I don't need to fight for hours to find the creature I wanted to kill was killed right before I got there. GW also has a story line and has no monthly fees. They make their money through expansions, which are a full series of chapters that expand on the story of the world. The world constantly being worked on and improved. You can always expect some sort of improvement on a weekly basis. So far, i've been playing for about 1.5 months and I'm enjoying it. Its definitely a team game. Going solo is a bit more challenging and sometimes rather impossible.

I've heard Guild Wars levels you instantly. No need to grind to level. No real story and the paths are pretty linear. You can really explore because everything is pre-determined. That's what I hear.

GW does not level you instantly, you still have to grind to level. The difference is that the max level is capped at 20. So you can't go beyond that. There is a story, and the paths are somewhat linear. however, there is more than one way to get from town to town. That comes in handy if you are actually doing missions and quests. You have to find your skills or do quests for them. Sometimes you have to capture them from monsters that share your same profession.

[GraingerGuy]

GW does not level you instantly, you still have to grind to level. The difference is that the max level is capped at 20. So you can't go beyond that. There is a story, and the paths are somewhat linear. however, there is more than one way to get from town to town. That comes in handy if you are actually doing missions and quests. You have to find your skills or do quests for them. Sometimes you have to capture them from monsters that share your same profession.

Well...actually it does. If you opt for just doing PvP, then you will start out at lvl 20 albeit with a few less skills than you would if you lvled regularly.

[Showtime]

GW is a lot less commitment. I don't feel obligated to play and a lot of times I will go in and leave it running while cleaning, checking email or whatever. Then if I run out of things to do I'll try to find a team. Fun but not addicting.

[ski]

WoW is a big time investment.

I've probably put in about 45 days x 24 hours of playing time (a few days dancing in Ironforge though).

Then again, at this point I only really play when my guild has a scheduled event. It basically feels like a "race" to level up to 60 after a while.

I think it would be easier to get into GW, even though I havn't played it

[Freelance Superhero]

i haven't played WoW, so i can only speak for GW, which i've been able to play recently because my little cousin bought it.

my $0.02:

1) you don't earn new powers from gaining levels; you earn them by completing quests for certain contacts or capturing them from enemies. what you do gain from leveling up are attribute points, which you can use to boost the inherent 4 or 5 stengths (such as "axe mastery" or "swordsmanship" for a Warrior), thereby making the corresponding powers you learn through quests that much more effective.

2) teams are essential, like Jihforce said, but you don't have to team with other players if you don't want to. within the game there are "henchmen" representative of every class, that you can add onto your team and fight with. the drawback is, of course, that you'll have to share XP and gold amongst your AI teammates (items are yours to keep). but even so, i was able to create a character this past weekend and "solo", so to speak, up to level 13 (level cap is currently at 20), playing casually; and i actually had a pretty busy weekend too.

3) no monthly fees!

i've only played one other MMO, City of Heroes, so i'm not very experienced, and especially so in the "fantasy" genre, and i have nothing to compare GW to in that sense. but like someone else mentioned, it was pretty easy to get into. pretty fun, but my favorite part about it is #3 above. i might pick up a copy just so i can hang out with my little cousin online when i'm bored.

EDIT:
you can check this thread for some helpful info, including a nice summary on the second page by Canta (R.I.P.) hehehe...

[Jihforce]

Well...actually it does. If you opt for just doing PvP, then you will start out at lvl 20 albeit with a few less skills than you would if you lvled regularly.

Yeah, but you are limited to using the builds that come with the game because nothing else is unlocked. Which means you'll have to either grind in PVP to win points and unlock skills and such, or you have to play the PVE version of the game. In any case, PVP is just half the game.