World of Warcraft Vs Guild Wars

Published on June 17, 2007 by Abysia in Roleplaying
World of Warcraft Vs Guild Wars

This article will give an in-depth look at the online games of World of Warcraft and Guild Wars.

In this article I will do an in-depth look at MMORPG’s, specifically the similarities and differences of both World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. These games have been in tight competition with each other, and many people are unsure of which to choose. Hopefully, this will help guide you into making an informed decision.

For those of you who don’t already know, Guild Wars and World of Warcraft and known as Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, or MMORPG’s. This genre involves the creation of a unique character, representing you. You control this character while exploring vast worlds, gaining powerful armor and weapons, defeating enemies, and making friends. Some MMORPG’s are free, you can play them at no cost, although there is usually an in-game shop with powerful items with which you acquire using real money.

Read more in Roleplaying
« List and Guide to Pay-to-play Mmorpg’s
The Best Online RPG’s »

Some MMORPG’s require you to buy the game at a local retailer before you can play it. Others require you to not only buy the game, but also to pay a monthly fee. These games in general are very addictive, Guild Wars and World of Warcraft are no exceptions, and one must take care before he or she decides to venture into the lands of Ascalon or Azeroth.

There is a sort of feud existing between Guild Wars and World of Warcraft, and, despite being the same genre, they are very different. The classic inquiry of which game is better is asked endlessly among forums and games, and there is no true answer. The choice ultimately lies with preference. Now, I will examine these two games in detail to help you make an informed decision.

Graphics


One of the most basic features that draws players into upcoming games. Graphics are the first aspect noticed when trying out a new game. From them you gain your first impressions of said game and they will greatly affect your interest. While both World of Warcraft and Guild Wars have beautiful graphics, they both have their ups and downs.

Guild Wars focuses more on background scenery and stunning landscapes such as shimmering lakes, misty mountains, dangerous volcanoes, and dusty deserts. However, most of this scenery is unable to be ventured into, it is simply pained backdrops. World of Warcraft on the other hand, has less detailed visuals, while nearly all terrain can be explored. I personally would choose Guild Wars for graphic quality.

Sound


Both of these games have decent music, however, MMORPG’s are not known for masterpiece soundtracks. World of Warcraft’s soundtrack is more impressive than Guild Wars’, however, both just tend to get irritating after you hear them a few times.

Gameplay


In Guild Wars, you must click on the ground to move your character. You also must click on enemies to engage them in combat, and your interface is simply a series of eight skill buttons with your health and mana status on top of them. In World of Warcraft, one moves his or her character using the keyboard or mouse, however, there is still the option to enable ground clicking to move. Right clicking or casting a spell on an enemy engages combat, but you must be within range of said enemy. Also, the User Interface in World of Warcraft can be enhanced, unlike in Guild Wars, with UI modifications easily downloaded from third party sites. These can greatly enhance your playing experience and improve efficiency.


Endless things can be said about gameplay, so I will finish up with endgame content. MMORPG companies want their players to continue playing the game once they reach their goal of the maximum level. Some games, such as World of Warcraft, accomplish this by adding new equipment to further improve your character. This equipment takes time to acquire and encourages you to continue your subscription long after you reach your goal of level 70.

There is also the option of finding a guild to do raids with. A raid is an endgame group of players, usually 25 or 40, to accomplish goals that would be otherwise nearly impossible, and usually ends with the players acquiring endgame equipment. In Guild Wars, the maximum character level is 20, and there is not much content after this level. You have the choice to gain money in order to get your endgame equipment, but after that there is only player versus player combat, and nearly nothing else.

Payment


Guild Wars requires you to buy the game disk from a local retailer, but then you may play as long as you like for no added fees. World of Warcraft, however, requires you to purchase the game, and then pay a monthly recurring fee of $15 US.

In conclusion, my choice of the better game is World of Warcraft, due to the fact that it has vastly improved gameplay which more than makes up for the lesser graphical quality and lack of monthly fees that Guild Wars has. I hope you have learned more about these two fabulous games, and I hope that you can reach a decision that you are happy with.

8
Liked it

Tags: , , ,

14 Comments

eishvar ramcharan (770-964-6598), posted this comment on Aug 13th, 2007

yeah games… a big waste a time

G-warspwnz, posted this comment on Aug 22nd, 2007

Wow petty biased really…… First of all I have no clue where you got the whole you gotta click on ground to move and fight since you move with the KEYBOARD or mouse. And second wow is basically pve only. Guild wars shines more in Pvp through. The maps are also instance which pretty much gets rids of the whole kill stealing and spawn camping. World of warcarft has the the higher level cap and has the most endgame content but saying that guild wars has none because the cap is 20 is pretty much pure BS. The whole game is the endgame content. Reaching level 20 means you just got off newb island. Guild wars is also more about skills then playing for hours on end. Basically Guild wars is NOT for stupid people. You actually have to think to be good not do the same things for hours on end and “Ownz” everybody. Guild wars also has a lot more classes then most. A few of them being complety new and never before seen in a mmorpg(The anti spellcaster, Mesmer for example). Basically you could have gone into a LOT more detail about guild wars then just saying it has no endgame content because the cap is 20. Like a stated before Guild wars DOES have endgame content. Next time you compare another game actually get the facts and not the biased information. You really just compared a FEW things of guild wars to MOST of what world of warcraft offers. And once more if your gonna make an article about which is better at least make it unbiased. But hey thats my OPINION. IF you wanna be one of those Wowfanboys/Converters then go ahead!(Same goes to the ones that will probally flame too.)

gorg, posted this comment on Oct 19th, 2007

yes, g-warspawns is on the true,i know becaosue i play the two games, wow & GW .. i need to say that in gw you can me with the keyboard if you want, yu can attack too with the keyboard and you can make you own interfaces and not by downloading something what can be a keylogger.. you can also share you builds* witch are the combination of 8 abilityes with other people.. also share your equippent by simply clicking on shout codem then other people can click on it and load it in theyr character. Another point of the lvl 20 cap is that you wont be abble to kill the big bosses and killing loads of people and own someone else.. that means that you need friends and share gameplay experience with others for ake teams etc.. and why not to say that gw is most a pvp game

this is the worst thing ever..., posted this comment on Mar 5th, 2008

OK ive been playin GW since beta prophacies,since then,u use WSAD to move,clck on the ground,or hold left click,and arrow keys,u pretty much told lies about what you can do after the game is beaten,ive beaten all 4,and i can still do Underworld, Fissure of Woe,The Deep,Urgoz Warren,Dungeons in GWEN,and is still fun because theres a lot of things to do. WoW I havent played for a long time,and GW’s graphics have WoW’s beat all the way,GW’s backround graphics are nothing compared to the graphics on the monsters,armor,weapons,capes,etc. WoW is just get to LvL 700 by grinding, then do raids and dungeons. theres no point to even read this article

Wowtwo, posted this comment on Sep 9th, 2008

IMO… world of warcraft is much better than GW.. like the dude at the very top said lv cap is only 20 and after that there aint much more to do in GW besides Pvp or money grind. In world of warcraft u can pvp raid.. gank horde in my case ^^ ( or alliance if ur playing a horde charr). SO THIS IS IMO.. WORLD OF WARCRAFT IS BY FAR BETTER. but some people dont like the fee part of world of warcraft.. witch im just like if u cant afford 15 $ a month thats just sad.. but wtv

greg, posted this comment on Oct 20th, 2008

nobody listen to this guide its dumb, not only are you lacking races, you have to realize that not all people can actually play GW, because of the high system requirements, you forget to tell them about how in WoW, the gear shows how strong you are not skill. second i think you have seem to forgotten the fact that in WoW you are stuck to one class, (admittedly with talents) but nonetheless. your racials also decide how good you are at pvp (unfortunately). And how there is a class unbalance in WoW. Rogue and Warlock kill most people. you also forget to mention the community, thats important. in WoW, the community is obviously worse on average, i mean 80 percent of the players are 14 year olds who enjoy making fun of your mom, while GW has it, but not in such high numbers. Also in WoW, expect to be grinding for 70 percent of the time before 70. trust me there is much to do after 20, the creators of GW did not want to waste countless hours doing useless grinding just to get to a certain level in some game. they want you to have some competitive balanced action.

Wowtwo = jerk, “witch im just like if u cant afford 15 $ a month thats just sad.. but wtv” some people make less a month, look at the people in rural china and middle east, they work 4 cents an hour so you can wear the shirt your wearing. have some respect.

>., posted this comment on Nov 1st, 2008

Wow is an overall better game, there is a lot of things to do in the game, and by the way it is not only pve… they have a fun pvp system to earn rewards after you hit the maximum level and even while you are attempting to reach 70. You can pick many different ways to play the game and it is a better game. If you dont want to pay the money then go ahead and play guild wars im not saying it sucks it is a fun game too, but WoW is feinatly worth the money.

fan_mad, posted this comment on Nov 14th, 2008

Did you guys noticed that in the new expansion of WoW, thy copied many things from Guild Wars? Yes, they called their boss LIch King (this name was used in Prophesies 3 years ago, and he was a boss too), also they added “titels”, “inscriptions” and “hero” which have been added to GW since 2006. The developers of WoW just wnat to make sales grow so they added level 80. maybe the next expansion will be level 90 or they will coppy GW2 level cap. Guys, look in the character stats and you will se how many skill points u have. Thats the real level of the character which means how many times that chracter developed one more level. Personally I have 238 skill points which makes me a 238 lvl character. Sorry guys, But GW is much better than WoW. and players find a lot of reasons to create diffrent character and experiment the game with other skils than heve a “owner” character

Grief, posted this comment on Jan 2nd, 2009

Wow is a game not worth $15 a month. Blizzard is no better than Microsoft or EA for charging that kind of money. Neither game is better than the other, but come on… Guild Wars is free and offers comparable gameplay. Period.

Jesus The chicken, posted this comment on Apr 16th, 2009

The Lich King was around in Warcraft lore long before Guild Wars.

I bought guild wars yesterday to see the hype, and wow..i am never complaining about wow fees again. Having a linear MMORPG is awful, the movement is annoying (you press space to go backwards) and the characters are al l human, with different classes, and they all look lame, my elemental char looks like a hentai girl, and the second best looking class looks like a guy at an S&M shop. The interface is just too dull and irritating for me to enjoy it.

okay, posted this comment on May 26th, 2009

k. I bout GW when nightfall came out. I played WoW when a friend of mine really wanted me to play.

GW is by far greater in graphics quality. it is easier to play and does not require continual clicking of the mouse… the enemies can be found quick with the ctrl key and allies w/ alt. These little details really helped me out when starting GW.

WoW on the other hand has no Graphical appeal. And is overall a second rate game. After playing that game I was infinitely more happy w/ GW. Though I must admit it was interesting being able to swim… though still annoying.

One thing I really appreciated about GW is the non-persistant world. The fact is that when you are in a group you have spent time to form properly and go on elite missions ALONE you can actually have a story.

Btw, other than the cheap, rather tedious quests, where was the WoW story? Until the Nightfall Game, GW had no quests that said kill 30 ___. Which, quite honestly, makes GW better.

WoW is Good only if you enjoy mind numbing pointless grinding, whereas GW has an nearly infinite palate of things to do after you reach your max level.

Personally, I enjoy a low level cap. GW has so many skills and such that the level really doesn’t mean anything at all… which is the way mmo’s should be. Not only that but GW is way more open as far as skills go. you can do anything with those 8 skills, and you can re spend your attribute points over and over again without any repercussions.

Blizzard made a game full of pointless grinding and persistant world pains whereas NCsoft created a free online story that actually can be repeated simply for the fun of it. Gw has replayability, WoW does not. that is a simple fact.

wtf???factsarerong, posted this comment on May 26th, 2009

man you are retarded. WOW has monthly fees, but gw does not. You can use keyboard in both, for casting spells, and for navigation. The graphics are not only in the background, but where you can explore, which i might ad is everywhere. You obviously did not research this topic, or at least experience it. Please do not make such a retarded uneducated post in the future.

4thehorde, posted this comment on Jun 12th, 2009

Alright, I have played both games and both games have their specialties. However the gameplay interface in WoW I find is much more interactive. I found it irritating that in GW if you try to go up a slope, your blocked even though the terrain is a low slope. You are forced to use a path and go the long way. In GW you can’t even jump. After playing WoW I couldnt stand playing this game more than an hour at a time. I prefer soloing things and in GW it pretty much forces you to need a group for certain things. In wow you can solo most quests and do them yourself. And for anyone who thinks wow is basically just PVE you obviously haven’t played the game much at all. WoW has several BG’s and PVP realms. Not to mention the contested territories. There are only two things that GW has on wow in my opinion. Graphics are beautiful, and its free. However I would rather pay $15 a month than play GW consistantly. Yes, I am biased in my opinion but so is everyone else in this forum. Accusing the original post of being biased then being hyprocrits by doing the exact same thing. World of warcraft is not a grindfest, at least not as bad as GW. Yes the lvl cap in GW is only 20 but there are few quests compared to WoW. Questing is a lot more fun then just constantly killing mobs for xp. Sorry GW fans, but I truly find WoW to be superior in gaming experience. The only time I ever play GW is when I am deprived of WoW.

Nelson Brown, posted this comment on Aug 20th, 2009

just wait till gw2, will add z axis no more insurmountable waist hieght fences. also, GW is all ablout limits, so you have to think about what you do. you have 8 skill slots, so figure out 8 skills that let you do what you need to get done, and delagate to teamates (need heals, bring monk henchman). this requires skill, but in wow you can equip all skills you know, which makes it so you have no choices to make, ie do i want to bring enchant removal; in GW you may have to trade another skill for it, in wow you dant have to make any sacrificces, you just equip it. the fact that GW has no races is made up for by secondary professions; wow has 10 races and 10 classes; but due to race restrictions on classes instead of 100 cobmos there is more like 75. GW has 10 classes (proffesions), you get to pick 2 so 90 possibilities, and since you can change secondary prof and reset atribs, you only need 10 chars. also after you unlock a new secondary class there is no fee to change profs or reset attributtes and the 500 g to unlock a new secondary is cheap, unlike wow were i hear you have to pay to reset attributes and you cant change class. i apolagize in advance for anything i missaid about WoW, most of what i know about it i heard from others who do play.

Leave a Response