Battle of the MMORPGs :o

[MoUsE_WiZ]

WoW is very casual friendly in terms of being able to advance your character with limited play time per week.

WoW is very unfriendly in terms of being able to advance your character with limited play time per day.

At the moment, 5 mans provide plenty of content for anyone who can only play 8 hours/week. There is a ton of stuff to do in the game that does not require any significant weekly investement of time.

However, dungeons also take time. If you have 8 hours a week spread out over 1 hour a day, WoW is not the game for you. If you have 8 hours a week spread out over 4 hours each on sat/sun, you'll do fine.

 

[Palm]

That can be argued because by only doing that it's unlikely that you'll advance your character. Also on many servers most guilds will not allow you to stay if you do not raid regularly.

You'll advance, just slower because you raid 2-3 times a week instead of 5-6. Only the hardest instances are the ones not casual friendly because of consumables needed. The preparation required of you for a typical raid is minimal. You do need to attend the raid from start to finish though, so yeah... But really raiding and other social things in the game are the most fun you can have in it. I don't find the concept of "advancing solo" as appealing.

 

[Gluttony]

You'll advance, just slower because you raid 2-3 times a week instead of 5-6. Only the hardest instances are the ones not casual friendly because of consumables needed. The preparation required of you for a typical raid is minimal. You do need to attend the raid from start to finish though, so yeah... But really raiding and other social things in the game are the most fun you can have in it. I don't find the concept of "advancing solo" as appealing.

Advancing solo can be appealing if you have people to talk to or friends to play with in that short time. Sometimes people are busy but you want to advance but they're still online. Fun to talk to them as I do some quests. Not only that but you can speak to people while you craft etc. Then there's the fact that whenever I play my fiance plays at the same time (so it's more of a duo than solo). I still find lord of the rings more casual friendly than wow. Then there's neat things like being able to play actual music on lutes etc among other things.

Personal preference, really. I just don't see wow as casual friendly which is why I left. Plus if you managed to be unlucky enough to roll a popular class guilds can be hard to get into just by that alone. I met a lot of casuals that felt the only thing left to do is re-roll (I got into raiding/pvping at the time when I had more time on my hands.). The game was more casual friendly 2-3 years ago than now. It's become a major grind, which has happened to many mmos in the past. (FF11 will always hold the title as the biggest grind fest -shutters at the endgame levels-)

 

[Luckymofo]

Guildwars is one of the better MMORPGs that I've played. I second everything that's been said. The real bonus to the game is this:

You max out at level 20, about 1/2 to 2/3 through the game. As such, you're forced to learn strategy in order to finish the whole thing out. Sure, you've gotta play online, but let it not be said that you have to party up to beat the game. I managed to take on everything but the last mission using nothing but henchies. I only wish that I had the cash and time to start playing Nightfall/Factions... speaking of which (it might not be appropriate to ask this here) which would come more recommended?

nightfall is much better because you can use heroes yay! and factions has more pvp skills and the last boss is REALLLLLLLY hard to kill unless you know what to do?

 

[Still-Xey-Lover]

Well i picked up WoW, it's fun as im in a guild with a few friends from teh RL. I wouldn't say i'm addicted. I play it when im not doing school/sports/whatever, its fun for now.