As the summer comes to a close we will see the release of Guild Wars 2 followed by World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. In our latest WoW Factor, we take a look at the match up of the season. See what we think and then weigh in with your own comments.

This late summer and fall gets into the throws of one of the biggest MMO battles we have yet seen. Headstart for Guild Wars 2 begins on August 25th. Just one month later Blizzard throws down with Mists of Pandaria for World of Warcraft. Two juggernaut games going head to head and people still believe the MMO genre is going away. Really? I don’t want to spend this column stacking these two games up. You guys have all the details on both, you know the rules. You know the games. Instead I wanted to talk about the strategy behind this decision to put these two games so close to each other at launch.

Read more of Garrett Fuller's The WoW Factor: Pandaria vs. Tyria.

OH NO!-  U DIDNT GO THERE!

Good Article!! 

I do believe the expansion to Warcraft will have a solid following, ther eis something in the air though, change and expectations and I think that is where GW2 will shine.  

Cheers,

Faulkner

I think GW2 needs to age just alittle bit more in order to compete with the all mighty WoW.

Aesthetically speaking, both Tyria and Pandaria have some amazingly beautiful worlds to explore based on their betas.  I was absolutely drawn into both games, getting a mystical yet ancient feeling within Pandaria, while also highly appreciating the artistic masterpiece that is Tyria.  It has been years since I felt like any games were really "alive", but both of these lands seem to bring out the "living world" feeling to levels yet unseen within the MMO landscape.

My favorite would have to be the Valley of Four Winds within WoW, though that's not considering the 20+ other zones in Guild Wars 2 that we have yet to see (in addition to also really liking the look of the Human Starting Area and Divinity's Reach).  The spirit of adventure was very much my companion with both of these betas, as I felt like I was playing open beta of Vanilla WoW two weeks prior to it's release all over again with both.

I am looking forward to both these games.

My old guild starts to play again in MoP, so that I will have plenty of fun in raids, RBGs, etc. It is no longer only about the game itself after so many years, it is about time spent with friends, for me.

Regarding GW 2, I like it since it is a new fresh game. My intention is to get max lvl asap and then just grind WvWvW. I am not interested in anything else in that game to be honest.

<imo>

WoW will always stay on top because it's got the years under it's belt and it has staying power for it's subscriber base. The only thing that can topple WoW is WoW itself for now.

Players are just giddy on the new mmo on the block called GW2 and still remains to be seen if it will stay popular as months go by or when the honeymoon comes to the end. Will ANET keep pumping out content for GW2 as fast a subscription MMO also still remains to be seen, however since it's B2P, players will just hop in and out of the game while they play their other favortire mmo.

I will take advantage of the B2P method when I decide to play GW2, however I don't see me investing any money after I buy it since it has no subscription.

Originally posted by coretex666

Regarding GW 2, I like it since it is a new fresh game. My intention is to get max lvl asap and then just grind WvWvW. I am not interested in anything else in that game to be honest.

You will be missing out on a lot of cool stuff.  I'm going to do the oposite.  Explore every nook and crany of the gameworld and will jump into WvW to satiate my pvp fix. 

However, even if you rush ahead like you say you will, the scaling down to match content will still make all of the content relevant to you.  IMO, that has got to be one of GW2 greatest feature....and WoW's biggest flaw.

I commend you garrett for you're bravery! this will be interesting.

Personally I'm going to see how GW2 goes before I consider buying MOP, If GW is good and I feel it wont be another SWTOR scam after the first few weeks then I cant see me buying MOP.

I played WOW for a long time (9*85's 1*80) and just want something different now, MOP looks good and all but there really isn't anything different.

Originally posted by Badaboom

Originally posted by coretex666

Regarding GW 2, I like it since it is a new fresh game. My intention is to get max lvl asap and then just grind WvWvW. I am not interested in anything else in that game to be honest.

You will be missing out on a lot of cool stuff.  I'm going to do the oposite.  Explore every nook and crany of the gameworld and will jump into WvW to satiate my pvp fix. 

However, even if you rush ahead like you say you will, the scaling down to match content will still make all of the content relevant to you.  IMO, that has got to be one of GW2 greatest feature....and WoW's biggest flaw.

I understand the message that you are trying to communicate.

The thing is, I am not so much into cosmetic rewards, titles, achievements, and similar stuff. I do not claim I enjoy gear GRIND, but I kind of appreciate having some sort of treasure (=items making my character more powerful, for me) in the game. This is why I am not very much concerned with the PVE aspect of the game.

I know that for many people, the game will be a great experience as a whole and you will probably get immersed and play for hours just exploring the world enjoying every bit the game has to offer. Unfortunately, I am a person that needs some sort of carrot in the game (which can be gear, but also sandbox elements such as building, crafting with depth, longterm consequences to my actions, etc). I see GW 2 as a themepark which for its PVE side offers cosmetics, titles, achievs which is not a bad thing, it is just not for me.

I do appreciate that GW 2 is going for maximum balance between new and old players taking the gear out of the equation, so that it gives room for WvWvW to be an experience similar to Starcraft (I must sound like a broken record here, I repeat this a lot) where only skills matter. This is what I am going for. I will not play GW as my main MMO. For that, I need a different type of game. I can imagine playing ArcheAge as my main MMO and every time I am bored or tired, I switch to WvWvW just like now I switch to Starcraft II or some FPS.

(P.S. ArcheAge is just an example of a game that I would like to play as my main MMO, I know this particular game may end up as failure since it has not been released yet)

Hope it is understandable

I plan on playing both.

I preorderd both games and will be playing both. The main difference between the two games is that there is no progression at end game in GW2. There is no gear grind in GW2 - by design. I respect that but I like the WOW route better - grind for better gear.

The other thing that will make my time in GW2 probably the same as SWTOR (3 months) is the downleveling. Being a noob I expect that around level 30 or 40 I will be more frustrated than having fun when fighting the pve mobs and decide to leave the game.

Still the most important thing about GW2 is the lack of a sub. Thus, I will drop out of GW2 after a while but I will return any time I want.

Originally posted by Rockniss
I'm going to play both, I think swtor f2p could be lumped into this too. I'm afraid of GW2 downed mechanics and replayablity with 10 minute bridge bashing, just have to wait and see, I won't be playing GW2 at launch, I will be playing mists at launch, and looks like swtor some too in November so.... GW2 for me was going to be a shoe in, but blizzard dropped the bomb again and I can sit back and wait and see now. As long as wow is still fun it may be 6 months or so till I get into GW2

 

Problem is SWToR F2P model is the same one SoE uses. You get access to only some of the content. You need to pay 15 bucks a month to get full access. No thanks. GW2, box price and full access to the game and the cash shop is not pay to win.

As much as I would love to see wow dethroned. It will never happen. Most people who play wow have never played any other game and never will.