compare Guild Wars to any number

While it's tempting to compare Guild Wars to any number of other fantasy-themed role-playing games, there's really never been anything quite like it before. It innovatively and successfully combines many of the best, most addictive properties of action RPGs, online RPGs, and competitive multiplayer games in one beautifully produced package, which offers a tremendous lasting value yet none of the monthly fees typically associated with online-only games. The first title from developer ArenaNet, Guild Wars threatens the entire online RPG establishment with its bold design. More importantly, it's a very impressive game that's rewarding on many different levels and can be tremendously appealing for any number of reasons.

[EnSanity]

Admittedly, I've never played it, but it hardly seems to "threaten the entire online RPG establishment." The entire series has only just sold 5 million copies; WoW has almost twice that and has influenced MMORPGs a lot more than Guild Wars has. Nobody talks about the next big game being a Guild-Wars-Killer.

[EvilLlama]

I've never played Guild Wars, although I am interested. However, the monthly fees have nothing to do with MMORPGs, but more of how the American companies decide to charge for the game. In China, for example, people don't subscribe, instead they buy cards which allow them to play a certain number of hours on Warcraft or whatever before they get need renewed.

[Adrir]

Guild Wars is a great game. It's fun. It's accessible. Griefing is rarely an issue. Furthermore, it has a selection of extremely well implemented PvP features that are properbly it's main attraction.

The PvP can get addictive, however can become monotonous. Most of the PvP is throw two teams in an arena, and let them duke it out. Occassionally they introduce differences such as snow ball fights and racing.

However, I believe its greatest weakness is the lack of immersive content. The story was interesting, but didn't really engage me as a player. The PvE is very linear and is constantly interupted with the long frustrations of finding a competant group. Typically, I felt that the AI-controlled henchmen were better than most players and had the advantage of being completely reliable (i.e. they wouldn't randomly leave).

There is a distinct lack of features to supporting a diverse economy. As an individual who enjoys crafting and running virtual buisnesses, this was a dissapointment. This is typically because most of the items are standardised and most are sold by the NPC's. The only reason not to purchase to common cheap items, is because they don't make you look cool. However, since most items of the same class are statistically identical, the player markets are left to a sea of spam, barter and direct trade.

Finally, there is a sense that you cannot make a real impact on the community. Players can't really make a difference. The world is instanced and very static. Hence, it is very stable. Things usually only change during seasonal events.