Guild Wars vs GW2

[Echooh.2534]

Overall i liked GW1 better, because:

• Variation of Skills: years ago we spent hours trying to think of new dope team comps
• Story: I am not really into story, because i dont like playing alone - but the story in GW1 felt far superior and honestly that whole character personalization system feels pretty lackluster to me. And you always found people to play story missions together, because everyone played the same story.
• PvE: It was more challenging fighting against a group that has certain roles inherit, so you have to think about which target to prioritize (healers..).
• I do like dedicated monk classes a lot...
• Cash Shop: Yes i understand that this payment model is pretty much meta irl, and its not really a problem to me but i think i got much much more out of each gw1 campaign than i got from gw2 expansions..even tho the base game was not f2p (again i hate the gw2 playable story with a passion)
• Pre-heroes GW1 was probably the best mmo i've ever played
• Game had crisp sharp UI and probably even runs on a potato smoothly.

However right now i would strive for GW2, because:

• much greater active player base
• very good class balance

There are also a lot other improvements but these two are the main reasons for me currently putting gw1 aside, even though i liked the game better.Also thumbs up for being able to use markdown in a forums post!

[Yumenei.7943]

I like both games, but GW1 is special game for me, because:

• Story and immersion - GW Prophecies had one of the most immersive storylines I've seen in games and I played a lot of cRPGs (like Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment, Gothic, Morrowind etc.). Maybe it wasn't the most original and it didn't had many (if any) plot twists, but this is not what makes a good story. A good story is the one you get really moved by and that moment came to me during searing, when this beautiful ascalonian land that I loved to explore with other players or alone, was turned to ashes during one evening. Then came Prince Rurik and that epic journey across wastes and mountains climaxing with his heroic death... So yeah, while GW2 has a good storyline I've never felt really connect to its characters or affected by any event I've seen so far. I still like it, but well... it feels sometimes like just another Netflix adaptation and I just can't stand Braham The Babyface. At least they gave him a helmet in PoF, but his voice and the way he acts stills gives away he is just a big, dumb kid.
• One thing that doesn't gets mention here that often is PVP. I'm not PVP guy by any means and most of my time in GW1 I've spend doing PVE stuff and the same thing applies to GW2 where I bearly even touched PVP. BUT! PvP was the real END GAME content in Guild Wars 1. PVE was mainly for farming, for stories and quests, for collecting armors, dyes and everything that revolves around character visual customization, yet still all of this was just an addition to the main game mode which was PvP. Guild Wars was the game made by former Blizzard employees, the ones responsible for old Battle.net system (hence ArenaNet) and they knew how to make a good PvP-based game. Guild Wars 1 had the best structured PVP system in the whole world of gaming and even today it stills holds the title. We had Alliance battles, Guild vs Guild, and multiple different types of Team vs Team game modes. I wasn't the best PVP player, but I was decent enough. One day I started a guild with a group of my school friends and over the years that guild grew from guild full of casual players to a guild that was part of alliance that controlled Vasburg Armory for a very long time.

It might be just nostalgia, but I wish GW2 more like its precedessor.

I think this short video sums up everything I would like to say about GW1:

[Eddbopkins.2630]

Im a pvper only i dont care for dragons or gods sorry. Comming from gw1, gw2 is a complete failure with its lack of game modes and build diversity.

[Goettel.4389]

I first tried GW in one of those WoW lulls, and it seemed a cool game, except: it wasn't an MMO. The only MM part was the city/lobby. That's what made me quit soon after, even though other WoW buddies enjoyed it greatly. So, it's hard for me to compare GW and GW2, with the first being a co-op game, and the second an MMO.

[zealex.9410]

@"Kheldorn.5123" said: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.

^

[Xentera.4560]

@"maddoctor.2738" said:

Ele was far better in GW than in GW2, only in hard mode pve their damage was lackluster, still they could take other roles.

So the Ele was lackluster where it counted in GW... and useful where you could simply afk and let the heroes finish the content. Nice. The only other role for an Elementalist was a crappy bonder for those low-man hard mode areas. Not very useful in 8-man areas at all.

Paragons to this day have only one useful build, and it's PVE exclusive, tells a lot about the "balance" of the first game. I wouldn't call the balance of the first game "good" in any way, the balance of GW2, especially lately, has been at its best. But I guess it depends on how invested someone is in both games, to see how balance works.

The first party to clear DOA had 3 eles (SF eles if I remember correctly). That was before all the gimmicky builds and consumables from Eye of the North came out. There were many PvP builds for eles in HA as well.

As for paragons: just because most people were using the Imbagon build doesn't mean it was the only one available. There were groups clearing Urgoz with a full paragon party. We have used Paragons as batteries and damage dealers. We have won halls with a paragon heavy build (not using Imbagon /lol).

This is from someone who spent more than 10,000 hours on GW1, and around 3,000 on GW2.

[Luthan.5236]

I have played GW2 a lot more than I played GW1 - even though I bought both games at release. Back then when I bought GW1 I only played a lil bit though. (When coming back this year I checked and it said I had only about 20 hours totally played.) Main problem was that GW1 wasn't beginner friendly and I soon moved to other games. I think back then I wanted it for PvP but unlocking skills in PvE and exploring the campaign ... was tedious. I wanted to see the plot progress but always got killed with the henchmen not helping much.

GW2 was much more beginner friendly. First MMORPg that I got a char to max level. Also I am trying to play all classes (professions). Played it from release until end of 2013 until my gaming computer broke and I decided to focus on other stuff. Came back this year. Still a lot to catch up. Combat feels more "fluid" and I like the jumping puzzles. That probably is the biggest thing I missed in GW1 - which I also tried again. (Bought complete pack to go for story and the HoM rewards.) Also the missions and map exploring feels more tedious and longer in time. Needs hours of dedicated time to playing while GW2 is faster paced and you can only play half an hour or so and still do stuff. (Unless going for dungeons/raids which I don't do.)

Now I'm still in the first campaign of GW1 (Prohecies) which is considered not as good as others. I don't think (have spoilered me a bit) the plot is special or super good. (Nightfall one seems most interesting from what I have read.) Still tedious and feels more like hard work - since I try to explore lots of the map already (for title) - will probably get easier later when I unlock heroes. (I do the campagins in release order even though for efficiency unlocking heroes and playing later campaigns first is recommended.)

Probably won't change the fact that I see it more of "work". Still fun a bit. But this compares better to single player role playing games that also have some kind of henchmen. And let's be honest: For stuff like Neverwinter Nights you have a better story. It's just more fun. Less "work" (which can be fun) which means less play time. But it is better.

Overall GW2 did a good job. My opinion of GW1 might improve as I play more and explore more. But I can't understand the guys that hate GW2 and only like GW1. Might be because they started out with GW1 and have a different/nostalgic view and they prefer different parts of the games. I like the jumping puzzles in GW2 and the MMORPG feeling while GW1 feels more like a single player RPG you also could play with others. And there are - as mentioned - better single player RPGs ... at least for people that care about story like me. Yes GW2 is also not too strong at the story. But feels a lot faster paced and more fluid.

[Sir Arigius.6294]

To me. Guild Wars 2 is far better. I feel that with the freedom and exploration in it, I've been able to flourish more as a player.I did like the first game. But compared to the 2nd game, I don't like the original anymore. Because of how good GW2 is. I will never go back to the first one. I feel the 2nd one has been far more rewarding.

[DoRi Silvia.4159]

GW1 had FAR BETTER story telling than GW2, the lore and story was much more interestingIf I was to pick one thing I miss from GW1 would be the dervish class

The rest I will give to GW2

[Morlhach.4521]

@"Warobaz.9543" said:Both equally.I just wanted to talk about a weird but cool feature in GW1 : you could add more music in game. The OSTs were available through the composer's own online store (directsong), and there was a way to implement them, as well as bonus tracks in game. you could even start from there and add your own choice of mp3s. That was a fun feature, albeit a bit messy. ^^

1. Directsong passed away because everything is now available for "free" on Youtube and like
2. You can add any music in GW2 : https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Customized_soundtrack
3. Beware : if the music your are adding is bugged, the game will crash

[perilisk.1874]

I like GW2's action combat, free exploration, and OW aspects. But I feel like it's instanced group combat falls short of GW1 in some respects.

I feel like the perfect synthesis would have been to use the fixed primary and swappable secondary profession concept, but with the "primary" as a set of racial abilities balanced around OW play (and not usable in elite or PvP content), while the swappable secondary is the "profession" stuff that is more specialized and role-based, for instance. Every character would have access to every profession, so there would be less need to water them down or worry about whether they have a role in this or that content.

But either way, PvE encounters in GW1 were just much better designed to show off their mechanics and build system. If you can press 1 and dodge, you've basically mastered all but the most elite GW2 combat. It's telling that pretty much all of the most interesting events and challenges involve completely discarding their build system entirely for a transformation or mastery.

[Morlhach.4521]

Yep, that was a crappy move. I'm not sure you can buy any special packs anywhere now. Only the vanilla OST is available.Since no one can buy them now, and I have every pack available as DRM free MP3 (got everything legitimately, lucky fool i am), would it be abannable offense to share them here ?

Bannable, I don't know. The fact is that Guild Wars 1&2 music rights is owned by Arenanet.Ask them

[Dante.1508]

First game was far far superior than the second for many reasons. The story was more interesting, the mechanics game wide were far more balanced, there was no insane power creep like guildwars 2 and everything was in the game, not in a cash shop.. There were a lot less currencies and grinds and they had bots to help you pass most content.They also had Cantha.

I played Guildwars for more than 4 years non stop.. I played Guildwars 2 for about 2 and then took a 4 year break.. :)

The list goes on..

[Game of Bones.8975]

I would have been happy with continuing the GW stories with updated graphics.Loved the armor, weapons, professions, dual class, mercs, MTSC, etc.Didn't love the linear story-line for each and every character.

But it's almost like 'Of course you're happy if you don't know what else is out there."

[Danikat.8537]

@Morlhach.4521 said:

Yep, that was a crappy move. I'm not sure you can buy any special packs anywhere now. Only the vanilla OST is available.Since no one can buy them now, and I have every pack available as DRM free MP3 (got everything legitimately, lucky fool i am), would it be abannable offense to share them here ?

Bannable, I don't know. The fact is that Guild Wars 1&2 music rights is owned by Arenanet.Ask them

That's right. It doesn't matter if it's possible for anyone to buy music, or even to hear it. What's important is who holds the copyright and what they want to do with it. An artist, company or whoever else holds the copyright is well within their rights to decide that no one is allowed to buy a song, it's not to be hosted anywhere online for anyone to hear, not to be played on the radio etc. (Although I think they can't stop other artists performing the song.) Sometimes it's not even because the copyright holder doesn't want it shared, but just because they have to show they're making efforts to protect their copyright or they could lose it.

I was going to say I learned that the hard way - with a personal telling off from one of my favourite musicans for setting up a website to share an album he recorded which was pulled by the record label the day before release and is only now available because a handful of promo copies had already gone out. But actually that was the easy way because he was nice about it, and it was definitely preferable to legal action from Universal Music. (But as I found out a few years later no one who knew about my site wanted to get them involved.) But cease and desist letters are pretty scary when you're a teenager, and I had two to deal with that year.

[Dayra.7405]

I was to late in GW1 (before GW2, but just a year before) to enjoy them equally

[rylien.3824]

I apologize in advance for the logic of my words, the expression that may mean nothing, or say something else..., and the spelling of your language.(I’m French and I don’t really know how to speak English, I use Google Translate :s ).I have never played Guild Wars®, but I have learned a lot about it (and seen it on video), although it is not the same to "get information" than to play it : I can at least give minimal notice.

Guild Wars®

The positive :

• The Story
• PVP
• The Gameplay (even if the fact that it is overtaking since (because the game is not any more young) would redirect me to the negative), it nevertheless has a difference with Guild Wars 2® : it has more objective related to the lore and effort.
• The Lore
• The Soundtrack

The negative aspect :

• The Instance map.
• The time, because the game has aged since (so the mechanisms, the graphics and the gameplay with).

Guild Wars 2®

The positive :

• The lore, but only thanks to the first opus. (it is sometimes absent or misguided.)
• The Gameplay (While it is better than Guild Wars, while in comparison to other more recent mmo, I don’t like too much, it is either very little work in the visual : Not in the artistic work, but in the fact that the compétances are too "small" visually, almost ridiculous, (knowing that the visual has been further challenged). It is not very dynamic either, but otherwise it remains correct, but it is not for the gameplay that I would play Guild Wars 2®.
• The Guild Halls (even if I find it a shame, but really, that they are too expensive to manufacture or that it is necessary to be very numerous to arrive at the construction).
• The Soundtrack
• The story : The History in general is great, but not in detail: two examples to give you among others (attention, I’m not saying that the scenario is not great either): in Heart of Thorns: these are many questions (for example, mallyck) and end-of-story reactions (the clear tree) that were never answered... and I think they should have been answered at that time.In Path of Fire: it was great, but I think there’s something missing, something more complete between the end of Balthazar and the discussion with Kormir. Season 4, in my opinion, was less well written than season 3: let’s say that in reality it lacked a lot of details in my opinion, and Palawa Joko would have deserved more episodes, as for the resurrection of Aurena, it was much too fast, and not dramatic enough for my taste (well, I would have preferred it to resurrect itself at a time when we least expected it, when all hope was lost, rather than from the beginning), and the way in which Kralkatorik dies: I would have preferred a better way to be brought than to go in his body copying a little bit Heart of Thorns with Mordremoth...).
• Art & Graphics. (graphic design also).
• Some mechanics (not all).

I am not so much criticizing, I can understand that the writers are limited by the financial resources of Arenanet and the (bad?) decisions of its superiors... In any case globally and in comparison with other mmo, this remains a really excellent History.

• The maps : In any case in the artistic field, Guild Wars 2 excels with flying colors !But the reason it follows the scriptwriting logic, there are times when it is very negative (like the purification of Orr, or the domain of Kourna which was in my opinion ransacked (RIP Gandara).

The negative aspect :

• The Story (I explained why above)
• The Gameplay (I explained why above)
• The lore (In cases where it is as said above poorly brought or absent).
• The map (I explained why above)
• Customization is more advanced than Guild Wars®, but it is insufficient in comparison to other mmo, even older and I find some haircuts sloppy (some hairstyles end up with holes or sometimes have the impression of wigs....).
• The Hall Guilde (I explained why above)
• Some other elements (as the lack of content compared to Guild Wars, which had a little more, and the fractals that are for my part lacked (we don’t have enough lore to visit History enough through, which was supposed to be the starting point it me seems).
• PVP & MCM
• no GVG (which for a game called Guild Wars is quite shocking).
• Guild System (Practically in the uselessness...).
• Little interraction with the environment, suppression during the Beta: of the system of choice (dialogues) with Grace, anger and dignity. (The personality system of the character : https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Personality ) Little impact in history on the world (visually).

[Jenstone.6891]

" @"Danikat.8537" said: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: Removed the interior of the quote for sake of spaceThis 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."

This... Danikat hit is on the head pretty much for me.I would only add this... for its time, GW was where I spent 100% of my online time.

For what it is, for the time it was in, it was and still is an awesome game.I loved it for so many reasons.

But now, there is GW2, the next generation.Sure a few things are not the same, but I would say that in my opinion, it is a much improved game.GW2 gets about 90% of my online time, with World of Tanks getting the remaining 10%.Sometimes just need a break.I don't play GW now, except to check birthday presents.Interface is too clunky, not as user friendly to me, as GW2 is.

Love both games for what they are and for their time in my life.

[Luthan.5236]

For GW1 (I had another post above where I compared to GW2):

Actually after having finished Prophecies I don't know why some people think it is that great. Story wasn't something special for me. Didn't care about the chars. Too fast leaving Ascalon and the Searing didn't have any meaning besids a reason to start the plot. It was "okay". Currently I am playing Factions with 2 chars: My main from Prophecies (for titles - he needs to fully do everything) and a primary ritualist I started. Looking much better because of the quests and the better guiding. Also directly a cinematic when entering a new mission outposts.

Feels "smoother" from the way the story is told.

[Teratus.2859]

There are a lot of good things about both games and a few negative things about both too.

Gw2 added a lot to this franchise and in terms of gameplay and freedom of movement it totally beats Gw1.The open world too is a significant upgrade as is the voice acting and the scale of some creatures like the Elder Dragons is just immense.There is no way they could have achieved in Gw1 what they have with Gw2 so i'm very glad they decided to do a sequel for the Elder dragon story rather than finish and release Utopia.

Gw1 however had a lot of build diversity, literally hundreds of skills, quests, elite skills to capture, titles actually ment something and proved you had achieved something, the story was superb, boss monsters with unique drops to hunt, the hero system, many brilliantly designed dungeons/elite dungeons, Hall of Monuments.. the mission system, the list goes on an on.There are so many awesome things about Gw1 that either didn't get implemented as well for Gw2 or were just cut entirely from the sequel game.

Many of us Gw1 players still have such strong feelings for Gw1 because of how much didn't make it into Gw2.They're both great games for different reasons but the best part of all is that you can go out and buy Gw1 right now and play it right along side Gw2 without every having to pay a sub for either of them.And I strongly recommend both games, even to this day. ^^

[perilisk.1874]

Between strike missions and build templates, they're starting to getting rid of the obstacles to having more GW1-style content.

That is, like OW, public strike missions are just show up and play -- but unlike OW, where each event might involve anything from one solo player to a zerg, there is a fairly consistent group size. Large enough that you can push players toward adopting specialized roles and that a couple of bads can be carried, small enough that each person can see that their contribution matters, and (if they design their encounters well) the battlefield can stay legible rather than being a giant smear of special effects.

Unlike raids, but like GW1 bonus objects (or bronze/silver/gold in adventures), the difficulty isn't so much "pass/fail" as it is "fail/pass/excel/master". There's the ability to push people to do better, without people feeling like their time was wasted if they fell just a bit short of ideal.

But none of that will actually deliver on a reason to try different builds until they actually commit to deliver challenges that require diverse tactics to overcome, which mostly means fighting enemies like you would fight players. I don't mean obnoxious gimmick abilities like OHK autoattacks or 15-second evades or uncounterable stealth, and definitely not "mechanics" in the raid sense of one-off abilities unrelated to the general combat system. I mean:

• Trading single big enemies for coordinated groups of elites (for boss-level encounters) or veterans (for minor fights)
• Increase enemy action rate, so that punishment abilities like confusion make sense.
• Utilize enough CC so that stunbreaks and stability make sense, but not substantially more than you would permit players to have.
• More enemy movement and positioning -- at least being smart enough to stand in good circles and avoid bad ones, and to utilizing flanking attacks.
• Use of support abilities and healing, use of combo fields.
• Use of mechanics like boon and condi conversion, boon stripping, condi cleanse
• Use of active defenses (including dodging and endurance, so weakness/vigor play some role!) -- but similar to what a player has. Ascalon ghost blocks are fine, 3-hour branded griffin evades are not.

Which mechanics are present/emphasized should vary by encounter, the better to promote shaking up your standard skillset, but pure non-reactive DPS should be hard countered in nearly every case. With build templates, it should become easier for public strike groups to sort out roles on the fly based on whatever composition they got.

That sort of design really doesn't work for OW at all since it requires a certain amount of specialization and coordination which is impossible to achieve with a solo player or two, and irrelevant for a zerg, but it could work well for strikes.

[The Ace.9105]

@ProtoGunner.4953 said:The lack of no content aside from fighting. Many forget that there was absolutely nothing to do aside from fighting. There were no traditional professions like in other MMOs, no fishing, no housing, no mining or crafting in a usual manner. There was crafting, but it was just buying/finding mats and putting it together. Also the guild hall system was very rudimentary with just buying features with gold and that's it.

Okay, now explain what gw2 has if we forget about mining?

Also, how does gw2 do things any different? :D

Gw2 doesn't have meaningful content outside of fighting and the content is time gated unlike gw1 content, the game doesn't have traditional professions nor the traditional MMO combat, no fishing, no housing, crafting is pretty much like it was in gw1 but there's just a lot more stuff where you go to trading post, buy the mats and put them together or better yet, buy the thing from tp without the need to craft it at all.

The guild hall system in gw2 requires gold and some materials to expand it but they really didn't figure out any functions for guild halls since there's no gvg which was the main focus of guild halls in gw1.

Roleplaying as a quaggan doesn't count. Gw1 had tonics too.

[Super Hayes.6890]

Definitely pro's and cons for each game but jumping is a basic thing that I can't live without. Frankly GW1 is unplayable for me now because of this.

[Aeolus.3615]

Skill design in gw1 and balance beats gw2 by miles.Gw2 carries to much, I tried to exit keening center man I was obliterated with the first afflicted group, for some one who played monk and could do HM with being the only healer with bots, now I can’t even pass that zone with 2-3 monks, that’s the gap of how I have been carried in this game, when I go back to gw1 I notice that.

[Bladestrom.6425]

I loved gw1 and still love gw2. The proof of the pudding is trying gw1 now. Ive tried it recently (got plenty hom to do) and you really feel the map restriction and lack of freedom and emergent gameplay in the world.

At the of the day however they are very different games and genre (coorpg versus mmorpg) so a comparison is pointless or worse divisive. Both are great games in their own right.