WoW: MoP or Guild Wars 2

[Martinus]

Yeah could be. Also, some videos do not look bad so this could be settings issue. I will definitely be giving it a try, anyway. Probably playing a Human Guardian as my first character.

[Martinus]

Ok I gotta say, I watched more gameplay videos and withdraw all my earlier criticism. This game looks amazing. Now I can't wait. It could be what WAR was supposed to be but failed to deliver.

[frunk]

I'll probably be starting with a Ranger, but I had a hell of a lot of fun with the Elementalist as well.  I struggled with the Mesmer and Necromancer, but I want to try all the professions.  The Mesmer is great for confusing yourself, as it is easy to mistake the clones that you create for other players (which I guess is the point).

[Martinus]

I'm now in the full fanboi overdrive mode. I preordered the deluxe digital edition of the game and already bought the first of the trilogy of most likely crappy novels that introduce the world (they are available on iPad bookstore). If there was a t-shirt I'd get it. 

Liked what I've seen so far about Guardian gameplay, so still gonna play a Human Guardian as my first character.

[Sophie Scholl]

I know quite a few people in game in WoW who are going to make the switch.  Personally, the lore doesn't overly appeal to me from what I've read.  It makes me wish that LotRO was more to my liking and had a larger rp community.  That's about the only MMORPG that I'd give another try to.  Do report back with your findings though.

[frunk]

If there was a t-shirt I'd get it. 

http://www.guildwars2forum.com/threads/5145-Guild-Wars-2-T-Shirts-Are-Coming-(2012-07-05)

[frunk]

I know quite a few people in game in WoW who are going to make the switch.  Personally, the lore doesn't overly appeal to me from what I've read.  It makes me wish that LotRO was more to my liking and had a larger rp community.  That's about the only MMORPG that I'd give another try to.  Do report back with your findings though.

I agree the lore itself isn't that exciting, pretty standard heroic fantasy stuff.  If you've played Guild Wars you do get a thrill of seeing echoes of the previous game, but without that context there isn't much to excite when reading up on it.  In fact one of the big questions left after the three betas is how deep the PvE content is.  There's only hints of what the upper level content will be like. 

In the betas I've played they've filled out the world pretty thoroughly.  Normally the start cities aren't that interesting in and of themselves.  The Human, Norn and Asura cities (the ones I've explored) are completely different from each other and thoroughly fun from top to bottom.  I spent a couple of hours exploring each one and gawking at the visual spectacle.  As you walk you'll hear snippets of conversation from the street vendors or pedestrians, and it isn't like a street urchin at one location will say the same thing as one in a different part of the city.  These cities are quite large too, bigger than some of the PvE zones.  Just like the PvE zones there's also plenty of hidden points of interest to discover.  It's that attention to detail that has me hopeful that the content I haven't seen will receive the same care.

[crazy canuck]

Hmm, despite the Marti taint I might have to look at getting this.

[Jacob]

Hmm, despite the Marti taint I might have to look at getting this.

I just might too, if I can find the time (and if it runs on my old laptop).

[katmai]

Between it not holding any interest and it's release during the fair means i'll be passing on GW2.

[Martinus]

I know quite a few people in game in WoW who are going to make the switch.  Personally, the lore doesn't overly appeal to me from what I've read.  It makes me wish that LotRO was more to my liking and had a larger rp community.  That's about the only MMORPG that I'd give another try to.  Do report back with your findings though.

I agree the lore itself isn't that exciting, pretty standard heroic fantasy stuff.  If you've played Guild Wars you do get a thrill of seeing echoes of the previous game, but without that context there isn't much to excite when reading up on it.  In fact one of the big questions left after the three betas is how deep the PvE content is.  There's only hints of what the upper level content will be like. 

In the betas I've played they've filled out the world pretty thoroughly.  Normally the start cities aren't that interesting in and of themselves.  The Human, Norn and Asura cities (the ones I've explored) are completely different from each other and thoroughly fun from top to bottom.  I spent a couple of hours exploring each one and gawking at the visual spectacle.  As you walk you'll hear snippets of conversation from the street vendors or pedestrians, and it isn't like a street urchin at one location will say the same thing as one in a different part of the city.  These cities are quite large too, bigger than some of the PvE zones.  Just like the PvE zones there's also plenty of hidden points of interest to discover.  It's that attention to detail that has me hopeful that the content I haven't seen will receive the same care.

Have you played GW1, and if so, how does it compare to GW2, graphics/animation-wise?

I installed GW1 yesterday to get some of the hall of fame whatchamacallit bonuses for my GW2 character, and the animations/camera was too quick for me, giving me a bit of motion sickness. The characters also felt like paper-dolls with no weight to them when attacking etc. Is that different in GW2?

[frunk]

Have you played GW1, and if so, how does it compare to GW2, graphics/animation-wise?

I installed GW1 yesterday to get some of the hall of fame whatchamacallit bonuses for my GW2 character, and the animations/camera was too quick for me, giving me a bit of motion sickness. The characters also felt like paper-dolls with no weight to them when attacking etc. Is that different in GW2?

I have played GW.  They are completely different games, other than them both being skill based, wsad movement.  In GW many of the skills require you to be standing still while activating (or will stop your movement if you are currently moving).  In GW2 movement is not only possible while using most skills it's recommended.  GW allows you to double click on a target (or spacebar/activate a skill after having them selected) and you will move toward the target until your weapon is in range of them.  At which point it will use its auto-attack.  In GW2 selecting a target doesn't do anything until you activate a skill, and if the skill isn't in range (indicated by the color underneath the skill) it'll miss.

The animations and effects are a lot more dramatic in GW2 as well.  I think your paper-doll concern isn't an issue in GW2 as targets do respond to being hit, giving a feel of impact.  There are plenty of youtube videos that show combat so you can get an idea of that kind of thing.  Motion sickness?  I don't know, never experienced that in GW.  The max zoom out distance in GW2 is less than GW.  I don't know if that would make it better or worse.  You could tweak your mouse sensitivity to slow down the camera.

[Martinus]

Yeah, I think slowing the camera turns and zooming in a bit should help the motion sickness problems.

[frunk]

One bit of trivia on GW shocked me.  Do you know how much downtime they've had in the past 7+ years?




32 hours, 24 of which when they physically moved their servers to a new location.  I don't think it's completely fair to compare the downtime to say WoW, since GW is so heavily instanced.  Still, look at Diablo 3, effectively an instanced online game, and they regularly have hours of downtime every couple of weeks.  I've experienced patch days with GW, it goes quite smoothly.  The client actually downloads the patch behind the scenes while you are still playing.  In-game they give you a warning 5-10 minutes before you need to restart, at which point if you haven't restarted it kicks you out and you jump right back in again.  The betas in GW2 were similar.

For those that like waiting in lines, there won't be any queuing to get into the game.  If a given zone has too many people you are put into an overflow zone of the exact same content (although obviously different people).  One of the biggest bugs in the early betas was getting the overflows to work right with player parties, but they straightened that out.

Ok, enough homerism.

[Caliga]

MoP pre-ordered.