O.K. as someone who has played both Guild Wars and World of Warcraft I feel the need to throw in my two cents no matter how old this thread is.
Graphics
Guild Wars: 10/10
Guild Wars has a stunning array of environments, including more realistic graphics with a great particle system. What does this mean? Well to a basic player who knows nothing of the work going on behind the scenes in the program it only means that it will give you visually stunning environments with wildlife that suits the area. It also allows for flame to look more realistic, sun shafts, light beams and the sort. Basically guild wars as of now has the most visually stunning environment available in any MMO out there. (I have to give a close second to 2 Moons from Akklaim).
World Of Warcraft: 8/10
Now by giving wow an 8 of 10 I am no way saying the graphics are not up to par, but they have too much of a cartoon style for my liking. Reflections and water in no way look near as good as Guild wars or even 2 moons for that matter but are acceptable for the style of art presented within the game. The terrain looks ok in itself but the texturing is horrible it almost looks like they repeated textures over and over and over again allowing for no texture shading between contrasting textures which leads to a road that looks unnatural.
Classes
Guild Wars: 9/10
Guild Wars has a large selection of classes and is known for releasing brand new classes with every expansion (excepting Eye of The North). Every class presented has an immense amount of skills. Your classes are mainly defined by your ability to do certain types of damage (i.e. Ranged, Ranged AOE, Melee, Melee AOE, Damage over Time, Curses and afflictions, indirect damage, or healing). Every class has the ability to farm some high level areas on their own, but require others for anything too difficult. The variations between the classes require that difficult things be done with a variety of classes in your party functioning in different aspects. Guild wars uses an attribute system to define your characters roll, basically a monk could be smiting, protection, or healing. But within those three attributes are numerous skills which allow you to define your class even better. New skills are gained through combat, quests, and trainers.
World of Warcraft: 9/10
Ok Wow does not have that many classes basically they could be counted on 2 hands but it offers a unique talent system that will make certain skills better than the average, basically everyone gets the same skills but the distribution of your talent points is what makes you unique from another character of the same class. The class skills are learned at every even numbered level. Very few skills are gained through questing. What bring World of Warcraft up is their profession system which allows player to make objects like potions, armor, and other items from useless junk they can find or make. The professions allow you an easy way to make money, and equipment for yourself and others.
RPG?
Guild Wars: 10/10
The story line for the original and each expansion is immersive and offers a very detailed story line, a plethora of memorable NPC's, and a more realistic environment. The story has continuity through all of the expansions, and characters will pop up many times throughout your perilous journey.
World of Warcraft: 10/10
World of Warcraft is your basic RPG, your stats increase with each level and everything is decided on a roll of the dice so to say. There really isn't a main story for the game but as you meet new npc's you will uncover their individual stories and will be required to complete multiple quests to uncover what is actually going on.
PVP
Guild Wars: 10/10
Guild Wars has what is to me the best PVP I have ever seen in an MMORPG. Every class has strengths and weaknesses as well as the ability to change those strengths and weaknesses based on the skills they equip. PVP requires a team and takes place in multple ways. You can have full GvG battles where your guild and their guild choose 8 representatives to fight. When the match starts you load into one of your guild halls (guild halls are chosen by guild leaders from one of about fifteen or so. each guild hall has strengths that allow for a home team advantage so to say). The battles are epic, and can drag on for hours or minutes depending on how comparable the teams are. The game allows for a guild rating system which ranks your guild among all others based on your Guild Vs. Guild history. You can also go to heroes ascent which is alot like Alterac Valley for WoW in that it is the place that you can truly define your character in the PvP community. You can also join alliance battles which take place between the Kurzik and Luxon Factions which also play a big part in the RPG part of the game.
World of Warcraft ?/10
I dont feel that i can rate this fairly as they have multiple different types of servers which govern pvp rules differently.
Conclusion:
I have to say that through my time playing both games I enjoyed them immensely. Though I only played World of Warcraft for about 3 months due to boredom it was a great game for that amount of time and only cost about 45$ in that amount of time. Guild wars on the other hand i have played continuously for almost 3 years, mainly due to the expansions they release which each add skills, classes, quests, areas, NPC's, weapons, and more. Surprisingly i have to say that in the end Guild wars has been more costly at around 200 dollars for Guildwars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, and Guild Wars eye of the north but I have played it for almost three years which would have cost me around 500 dollars paying monthly. In the end its gonna come down to your personal preference but im gonna have to give Guild wars a full 10/10 and World of Warcraft a 9/10 from my personal experience. I do hope you found this helpful and if you have any questions about either game please feel free to contact me at
outbreak@wepwnyourass.com and I will do my utmost to respond as completely and quickly as possible.