Hrmmm comparison of EQ and GW's. A heck of a lot More for your time spent would be my first statement. Everything comes at a very fast pace in this game, though there is still a very decent grind for skills and attribute points even after obtaining the cap level 20. Much like the AA's of EQ, but, not quite as detailed or restrictive.
I played EQ for near 5 years and I enjoy GW's so much I would never go back to the longggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg grind that either of the EQ's are. Plus this game is FREE, so none of that $15 a month bs either.
Now as far as the dweebs that will use gamey tactics or exploit around the mechanics of the game, well those are in every mmo or mmorpg. They are just too lazy to play the game as intended and will use every scam, bot, cheat, hacks, use other players to run them to high level places they don't belong, etc., whatever to get beyond the normal regular players. But, even so, they really don't have much power in the game like in the other MMORPG's. Oh they get a good head start, but, the thing about GW's everything is obtainable by anyone and everyone, and we all know that wasn't so with EQ or EQ2.
You don't have to have groups of humans to aquire a lot of the high content or quality content. You do have to have human groups in a couple of areas like the Underword and FOW. Think of those two zones like a guild raid of EQ, but, only 8 people max. They have nerfed the noobs and lowbies out of these areas and we (I) expect them to nerf a couple more areas to certain levels of characters since some of these people are rushing to high level areas for the armor and weapons so they can dominate the newbie and mid level arenas.
The PVE game to me is much like a Diablo story or Neverwinter Nights or Dungeon Siege, it's a pretty huge world to explore, but, it's not an EQ size world by a long shot, and everything is instanced for the individual or individual group, so you will never have those statements "this is my spot or those are my spawns", or have anyone KS anything in your instanced area. Loot is dropped and if in a group it goes in a sequential order, like DAOC, each player will get something and the drops I've seen in groups have been reasonable for everyone, where just about everyone got something decent.
You can play most of this game entirely with NPC henchmen/women, or you can mix and match. I've played through most all of the content with henchies alone and if you are skilled and intelligent there's just not many areas you couldn't play with the henchies and make it through.
There is no player crafting system, everything is basically dropped and traded usually in Ascalon Post Searing District 1 or District 2 or from/by a npc merchant. But, there is a fluctuating economy from the material npc merchants where all the salvage materials you have will have high and low prices the merchants will buy and sell them for. This was something EQ never had.
Recent news show they are highly looking into creating some form of bazaar/trading area where you can put your goods either into an NPC or some machine and sell them while you are adventuring to eliminate this need to stand and hawk your items for hours at a time sometimes.
You can forget "camping" like you did in EQ, you run through a zone in this one like Dungeon Siege, they are fairly linear, though there are a few off the path places to explore, but, not very large. I've yet to play in an area where things "respawn" though I've heard this mentioned. The zones I have played once you've killed the mobs they are gone, dead, kaput and don't respawn until you play that zone/mission/area again, this much like Diablo/2.
There are literally 1000's of quests and everyone can do them and get them and if the whole group has the quest, everyone in the group gets the quest reward, much like DAOC here also. The quests alone will level you very fast.
It doesn't take long to reach level 20. Even a noob could do it within a month easy, even being a noob. hehe
The main thing about GW's is really geared toward PVP, though there is a great PVE game, it's the PVP world that really makes this game shine. There are all types of arenas and Guild Wars and Hall of Hero Tournaments for fame and rank. One has many options of how they want to play PVP and no one will ever gank you cause you are a level 1 and they are level 20, there's none of that in GW's. Though there are those as I mentioned above that will get rides to high level areas for the armor and then come back to the low level arenas to dominate not only PVP but also the PVE game. I think this will be fixed quite soon.
You will still find your whinners and complainers though as is much to be expected when you have 100's of thousands of people playing and everyone wanting the game to be the way "they" want it to be. Just have to live with that and jump in there and whine and complain with them or heckle them of course if you don't agree with them.
To me this is what MMORPG's should be, pretty fast fun and satisfaction from each hour played instead of taking many years played and still never see 1/2 the content. I'd have to say if you played GW's a year and didn't see all the content, you weren't trying to.
Role playing isn't a big aspect of this game, but, there are people who will roleplay, some are even asking for a roleplaying specified district which I think is good if that's what they want. But, just like in other mmorpg's you'll still have your outsiders that will come into these districts and try to disrupt it or not roleplay.
Of all the mmorpgs I've played this one is truely the best. I would never go back to any of the old style mmorpgs after playing this. This brings instant satisfaction at really no cost. Just time and patience, certainly no monthly fees.
Guilds are much more fun to be in than in EQ also, there are no pressures and I've never seen so many helpful people and those willing to just give you stuff from the game to help you out. EQ made people greedy and hogish I think, many guilds I joined were just so the higher elites had an army to get their Epic weapons and then they would disappear when the lower levels reached epic level status. I don't see the greed in this game at all, it is just too easy to aquire money in this game, only the truely lazy or jealous or stupid would have need to buy anything from ebay or complain about the lack of income from this game.
This is one of those games that's just going to get better with time, more expansions, more neat loot, more professions. It's in it's youth now and is very popular, right up there with WOW I would think. Might not have 2 million subscribers like WOW has but it has quite enough to enjoy it like a mmorpg.
