Guild Wars vs GW2

[eye floater.7140]

Anyone who has been around since Guild Wars: Have you enjoyed GW2 as much or more than Guild Wars? I don't just mean your hour count, but the experience overall.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

I greatly like both of them. But if I have to pick one, it will be the first series. Guild Wars.

• I like the freedom of choice, choose out of a set of 1319 skills. (two professions at a time) The fact that Guild Wars 2's skills are bound to specific weapons was a major disappointment to me and was the reason I stopped playing for more than a year. The original Guild Wars truly allowed me to create some great builds that were both effective and fitted the way I like to play.
• I like the epic storyline missions. Nothing ever came close to the feeling of being in an epic journey as the storyline missions of Prophecies.
• The title system and hall of monuments.
• Far more player-to-player tradable items. This makes the economy and trading more exciting. In GW2 much is bound to account or character.

Nowadays, I mostly play GW2, for good reasons.

• This is where the action is.
• Having obtained GWAMM, I feel like I'm mostly done with GW1.
• Guild Wars 2 looks way better in every aspect, has a far better game/rendering engine and a has beautiful characters / character customization system.
• Far more freedom of movement, including underwater exploration, gliding and mounts.
• The achievement system.
• A decent auction house. In GW1, we're still shouting WTB/WTS in Spamadan.

[Daniel.5428]

First game was far more balanced, had far better plot and the game modes were well designed. For example PVP.

[Dashiva.6149]

@TheQuickFox.3826 said:

• Far more freedom of movement, including underwater exploration, gliding and mounts.

Most important of all, the ability to jump!

[GrubySzymek.1362]

I have no idea which option to choose. I enjoy both games but for different reasons. However, if they made GW2 more like GW1 I would enjoy it much more.

[Danikat.8537]

GW1 was and is great, easily one of my favourite games of all time, but overall I prefer GW2. I'm sure I'll forget some, but here's some of the reasons:

I actually like the open-world design. Never bothered me that everything was instanced when I played GW1 but now I miss coming across random players doing their own thing while I'm out exploring. Also the fact that the vast majority of stuff was concentrated in towns and outposts in GW1 meant there was relatively little to find while exploring.

Freedom of movement, and the things Anet have done with it. Again it very rarely bothered me that I couldn't jump or swim in GW1 (and when it did it was more reaching the edge of the map and still wanting to know what was beyond it that bothered me than the specific mechanics used to make it a boundary). But I love exploring, and jumping, swimming and more recently gliding and mounts open up so many more options. Especially when Anet add things like jumping puzzles. secret hidden spots and hard to reach NPCs who will tell you off for what you had to do to speak to them (Sally in Harathi Hinterlands for example, and a guy in Crystal Oasis who tells you not to damage the roofs with your raptor).

It's nice to be able to sort my inventory out anywhere. In GW1 even if I had carried an ID kit and salvage kit with me (which I didn't) I'd still have to wait until I returned to a town to deposit the materials and sell to a merchant, and anything I wanted to sell to players had to wait until I had the time and inclination to stand in a major town spamming chat with "WTS" messages. In GW2 I can sell to players instantly from anywhere via the TP, salvage what's left and deposit the materials instantly and even in the most remote areas there will be a merchant nearby to sell whatever's left to.

More character customisation. GW1 had a lot of customisation for it's time, especially compared to other games I'd played. The fact that all armour styles, even starter armour, were available with max stats, there was a wide range to choose from and they were all dyable meant I could actually choose what characters wore instead of putting them in whatever had the best stats and just accepting how it looked, even mixing and matching sets thanks to the majority of stats coming from runes and insignia. (I always thought it was a shame that so many people just picked a set of elite armour, dyed it black and called it done.) But GW2 blows it out of the water. I'm pretty sure there's more armour sets available to each character, and the wardrobe and transmutation system makes customising them even easier. GW1 actually had a great dye system where you mixed dyes in the preview window to create custom colours but it was complicated and potentially expensive to use, especially with each dye being single-use. GW2s system allows for a lot more experimentation to find just the right colours for each piece. (And of course there's more dye channels.)

This is going to be a controversial one but I feel like the absence of Henchmen and Heroes makes people more willing to group up, or maybe I'm just in better guilds. Early on in GW1 people would sometimes agree to help you with something if the henchmen builds were deemed inappropriate for that quest/mission. After Nightfall came out if I asked for help and said I couldn't do it with heroes I'd be sent links to find better hero builds. If I said I didn't want to do it with heroes and wanted actual people in my party I'd be told it was "more efficient" with heroes and to get used to it.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I think Guild Wars was essentially 2 very different games. There was pre-Heroes Guild Wars, which was a very co-op game, and there was post-Heroes Guild Wars, which was a single-player game, for the most part.

There are things I miss about Guild Wars; but there are things I would not want to give up in Guild Wars 2. Actually, again, 2 very different games. Both games quite enjoyable.

[Torolan.5816]

I am still speechless how a titan of fantasy literature like Jeff Grubb could have agreed to take part in the convoluted mess that GW2 calls a story after LS1.The skill aquisition of GW1 was a piece of art, nothing less. I am pretty astounded that people did not ask more for it here as it would be a very good measure of testing skill instead of equipment(Whoever has the X skill has managed to defeat Y). and it was actual fun to get them for both explorers, collectors and min-maxers.*I could have very, very, very well have lived on without jumping and swimming. Both only lead to horrible invisible wall experiences, dizzyness bcause of the lack of perception and balance you suffer through a new view and pathetic tries to jump over a bucket wide hole in the earth, still fall and die a well deserved death.

GW2 has some very nice ideas, but GW1 beats it easily in the categories I like. I would probably still play it if it would be updated regularly.

[Danikat.8537]

@Torolan.5816 said:*The skill aquisition of GW1 was a piece of art, nothing less. I am pretty astounded that people did not ask more for it here as it would be a very good measure of testing skill instead of equipment(Whoever has the X skill has managed to defeat Y). and it was actual fun to get them for both explorers, collectors and min-maxers.

Players did ask for it in GW2. Then Anet implemented it in the form of a system where you had to earn traits by beating specific bosses, completing mini dungeons, or things like capturing a keep in WvW, just like in GW1 where completing quests or killing bosses and using a Signet of Capture on them unlocked new skills.

It was probably one of the least popular updates ever made and they reverted the system a few months later because of non-stop complaints about how terrible it was.

[GWMO.4785]

Guild Wars vs Garden Warfare (2) :P hides*

[Torolan.5816]

@Danikat.8537 said:

@Torolan.5816 said:*The skill aquisition of GW1 was a piece of art, nothing less. I am pretty astounded that people did not ask more for it here as it would be a very good measure of testing skill instead of equipment(Whoever has the X skill has managed to defeat Y). and it was actual fun to get them for both explorers, collectors and min-maxers.

Players did ask for it in GW2. Then Anet implemented it in the form of a system where you had to earn traits by beating specific bosses, completing mini dungeons, or things like capturing a keep in WvW, just like in GW1 where completing quests or killing bosses and using a Signet of Capture on them unlocked new skills.

It was probably one of the least popular updates ever made and they reverted the system a few months later because of non-stop complaints about how terrible it was.

As you say that I actually remember this now, diving around in Orr in the sunken ship or something like that? Maybe it was too much at once? If memory does not deceive me you had to make it with a multitude of characters which turned it into the same old skritt after a whole, a symdrome GW2 quite often suffers from.

[Amanda Whitemoon.6173]

poersonally i like both, both have things i like alot, but they could make gw2 better by adding some gw1 stuff, like bringing back some of the enemies we had in gw1 and keep them powerfull and with similar skills, like the Torment Creatures, Titans, menzies army.

what if season4 introduces new special bosses with aura's, based on the 9 professions, wich cary a new elite skill that can be captured using a Signet of Capture.

a friend of mien is planning on getting gw1 for the HOM. im gonna join her in playing through the game, showing her all the lore and places we also have in gw2, its gonna be alot of fun:D

[Gabbynot.2654]

while i will admit i enjoyed guild wars far more better .to its good points but yet same can be said for guild wars 2 as well . sad they do not or did not improve both games .no matter the costs or time taken to get it done

[Randulf.7614]

GW1 never had a great story until later in its life, it just felt better due to having a campaign structure which works so much better in my opinion. I have however spent far more hours in GW2 than I have in GW1 by a considerable margin. I find GW1 is much less accessible, with a combat system that is overwhelming with so many skills. I'd love to go back to GW1, but it is the one game I find it very difficult to pick up again.

GW2 is not without flaws, but for me it is vastly superior.

[Sylvari.2953]

I played GW1 for a while but I couldn't get into it. I love GW2 more because my character actually feels strong and useful (in GW1 I couldn't do anything alone, I had to take the stupid Heroes everywhere), we have amazing open world and meta events, more quickslots for skills, better fashion and customization, trading post, jumping, gliding, mounts... The only thing I liked in GW1 was that I could pick a secondary profession for my characters.

[Lukas.6153]

Both equaly, but in differant ways.GW1 was my first (orpg)? experience and I never felt so impressed by a fantasy world. I started with nightfall and I loved the story, I completed every quest und read the story behind it. I loved the missions with the videos and that my hero actually was the hero (they began with it in GW2 in/after living world 2?).I hate the characters in GW2, I just want Taimi and Baraham to die, never ever these are my guildmates. Give us back some adult heros like Master of Whisper, Koss...etc.Also i am dissapointed about the storymissions in GW2. The "video" sequences in vanilla are soooooooo bad. Without emotions, no sound or sound music that does not fit. The ships were that bad animated without love, that my first thougt was "my informatics teacher from the 10th class could have done this better"At the other hand I love the combat system in GW2 and how much different things you can do in this game. By now I have more playtime in GW2 than in GW1.

[Silmar Alech.4305]

It's difficult to describe - GW2 is probably the better game. More of everything, including detail and depth. Modern active play style, better graphics. But I enjoyed GW1 more. GW1 did less, but it did it right. Every bit I played (from a PvE point of view) was fun. GW2 has even more to offer for PvE, but it also contains so many things I despair of, things that spoil my fun. In essence, my overall experience for GW1 was better than my overall experience for GW2.

[Grampybone.3716]

I simply love the dynamic event system, from small events to the big ones, I appreciate them all. The freedom to join a group fight without having to join a group. There's no other MMO I play anymore (been playing WoW since release to 2014). GW2 has all I need and I hope this game keeps expanding for the next years.

Just Yesterday I was walking in Queensdale, Shadow Behemoth was up so I joined the fight.There was a new GW2 player talking in chat how he was blown away by this event. Never expected this suddely would happen during his playtime in Queensdale. You're havesting a carrot node and suddenly a huge boss appears behind you :)

I remember that feeling with my first world bosses. It's amazing, overwhelming.The Auric Basin chain storylines---->End boss are my absolute favourite.

[Fantasy.5321]

GW2. Two words: open world! GW1 is too instanced for my liking.

[Dragon.8762]

GW1 and GW2 are completely different games at this point.I voted for GW2 because after playing GW1 for 3 years, GW1 had a lot of glaring problems and weird design choices.Despite having 100s of different skills to choose from there were only a few viable builds per class. The game also had a lot of balancing issues. The Paragon for example still being almost completely useless outside of a damage reduction bot/ battery for monks in GvG.Progression wasn't that great either. It was just skins and titles. And map scrapping is NOT fun or interesting gameplay.

With that said however, the story in GW1 was a lot easier to follow. The cut scenes gave users enough information to carry on off of. And we're SKIPPABLE! GW1 also had a lot more pvp game modes where as GW2 after all these years still lacks. GW1 also had a hard mode for almost all of its content. GW2 doesn't have a system in place to do this outside of challenge mode for only a specific content that allows it. And so most of the PvE content appears to be far too easy for a lot of players and gives less reason to reply living story content and dungeons.

With that all said however, GW2 is still far better. It's just setup in a way where it can always continue to grow and evolve.

[GDchiaScrub.3241]

Movement and being able to Jump is far better in GW2 than GW1 (you had the /jump emote, hue hue hue).

[crosknight.3041]

only because i didnt play gw1: i see it on steam taunting me to buy it to try

[jheryn.8390]

If I am forced to choose, it would be the first game as the story is my favorite part of any game. GW's story was much better crafted.

That being said, it is like comparing apples to oranges for me. The games are completely different but set in the same world.

Both games are amazing IMO.

[witcher.3197]

Pointless poll because a lot of people who didn't play GW1 are still going to participate in the poll.

Do you think GW2 will not win on the GW2 forum?

That being said GW1 was way more immersive by all means and that alone would be enough for me to favor that one. Having the best PvP in existence helps too.

[MadFable.1978]

gw1 and gw2 are very different mmo's. I barely consider gw1 a mmo to be honest. It was more, all zones are dungeons solo play. Which is totally fine if you're into that type of thing. I prefer the gw2 approach. Still, I jump on gw1 once in a blue moon just for nostalgia sake.