> > World of Warcraft requires you to pay a monthly subscription fee, and restricts you to one server when you first sign up.
>
> It restricts you to one server? You can play on as many servers as you'd like; you just can't move characters between them.

That's what I meant. On Guild Wars, servers are created dynamically to balance the load, and you can choose which server you want to use at any time. My apologies for the poorly worded comment.

> As for the monthly fee, well, you get what you pay for...

I will respond to this with an honesty not well suited to a flame. (OK, so I'm just bad at flaming people.) There does seem to be some truth to this (my roommate was a beta tester for WoW and he does find that GW isn't as much fun as WoW was) but GW is still a lot of fun, and I like the fact that I don't feel like I'm wasting money if I don't play enough. If I take six weeks off from GW, I won't care, and I like that. GW also seems to have more of a traditional RPG-style storyline, with a core series of events around which minor missions can optionally be completed. I also kind of like this approach.

When it comes right down to it, I could probably say that I liked WoW slightly better for the overall gameplay experience -- I find the skill system a bit more interesting, and I like some of the crafting stuff. All things considered, though, I still prefer GW because I feel that the drastically reduced cost holds more value for me than the small differences in gameplay.

That being said, if WoW releases major expansions to the game without asking users to go out and spend another $50 on an expansion pack, it will start to look a lot better. As far as I know, they haven't done that yet, though. I do know that Final Fantasy XI took all of the worst approaches to that stuff, though -- weak gameplay, monthly subscription fees, extra cash for expansion packs, and a wonderful clause in which your CD key becomes unusable forever if you don't pay subscription fees for three months. That's right, if you take a three month break from playing the game and don't choose to pay during that time, you have to go out and buy another copy of the game. Square/Enix has a hand deeply in the consumer's pocket...

> Stephen

Don Monkey