[TheJack]

I played WoW for 2 years off and on until I started college. Then, I tried to start back when WotLK came out but I just couldn't stand all the leveling.

Have any of you played Guild Wars and is it a quality game similar to "The World" of Warcraft?

With the Holiday sale having it 1/2 off a few of my friends are thinking of trying it.

 

[Angmaar]

I've tried it, after playing WoW for a few years, and it didn't seem as good as WoW but it doesn't have monthly payments.

 

[Dopamin3]

Guild Wars is (actually was) good for only PvP. If you want an MMO, look elsewhere. Party sizes are limited to 8, and the whole world is instanced. When outside of an outpost (which have districts depending on how many players are there) you will not run into anyone else. Since not many people play it any more, you will find yourself doing the missions with Heros and Henchmen. Heros are like AI that you can control and choose what skills they use while henchmen come with premade skillsets and you have no control over them.

I had some fun in it but if you only like MMOs you will not like it. It is heavily PvP oriented with things like guild vs guild, hero's ascent, and random arenas.

There is also no in game auction system like WoW, so you will have to resort to spamming in popular districts or forums like guildwarsguru.

 

[Shroud]

Its no where near as fun as it used to be. All the PvP is really gimmicky and you end up playing the same comp. Skills(build) is limited to 8? skills. Loot is the same all the way across the board, no way to really stand out. The PvE is pretty much non-existent. you can hit the level-cap in a day or two playing pretty casually. If you want something to replace what you know from playing WoW, this is not it.

 

[Firestorm252]

depends on the campaign, really.

on the PvE front:
some campaigns have become pretty desolate.

the first area, Prophecies, has its population centers, but most other outposts are ghost-towns. Alot of the missions (think: Instances) have few people to pick from. NPCs and newer, customizable Hero NPCs usually end up filling in spaces in alot of parties.

the second area, Factions, is pretty popular. It's also rather PvP centric, a number of missions are one faction v the other. There's a territory mechanic that can get frustrating as you pretty much have to side with one of them, and if the other "owns" the outpost, no npc's will trade with you or teach skills.

the third area, Nightfall, is still pretty busy. it's the newest of the full-blown expansions, so alot of people still running around. Introduces NPC Hero units, and as such alot of this campaign is PvE.

the "fourth" area, Eye of the North, isn't really an expansions. kind of an add-on to the first. Anyway, it feels more like WoW than any of the other campaigns. There's the standard missions, and harder dungeons (think: mid-high level Instances).

PvP wise
Nearly the entire game caters to PvP. some characters don't even touch the PvE part. there's selectable teams, PuG PvP, guilds can fight, etc.

Factions introduced probably the funnest PvP, Alliance Battles. pretty much a couple of guilds can go at it, 12v12 (3 groups of 4). pretty confusing and fun.

PvP is the heart of the game, and I got pretty bored of it after a while. i PvE and goof off most of the time nowadays, if i ever get on.

Misc stuff
Plenty of lore in the game, talk to npc's and they've got the typical auto-biography and history lesson. There's a story to each of the campaigns, but it pretty much centers around: "Oh noes, evil afoot and the world is in danger!" *your characters kill everything* "yay!"

Selling crap is a bother, no auction house.

no crafting to speak of, you collect crap and give it to crafters to make things.

equipment customizing is interesting, stick runes, insignias, and weapon parts.

the game engine does do a wonderful job at landscape lighting, probably some of the prettiest in-game vistas I can remember