One of the biggest differences in the games is the way that the gameplay in the environment is handled. Many of the MMO's have a very open layout. Dark Age of Camelot, WoW, and Lineage 2 will allow players to roam around at will. The scenery is endless and there is much to explore. However leaving your home village too soon can be very dangerous. Other games such as Dungeons and Dragons Online and Guild Wars are more linear, like console games. In those you have to complete specific quests and missions, or solve long puzzles in order to advance and see more of the game. Both methods have drawbacks and benefits. The worlds of Guild Wars and the dungeons in DDO are "instanced"--that means that you are able to select who you play with and you go on your indoor adventures with your "party". Whereas the games with an open layouts have no barriers, but your character is open for attack by not only the monsters in the game, but also the monsters that are playing it too.
The graphics themselves vary most widely. After playing Guild Wars for over a year, when I dove into WoW it was something of a culture shock. It truly is massive. Everything in the game is on a very large scale. While in the elven home village, there were trees that were so large it could take five minutes just to walk around them. The distances that your character can walk or ride are immense. In Dark Age of Camelot, every detail of merry olde England has been lovingly represented right down to the appropriate flora and fauna. In Lineage 2 the graphics are mid range. The monsters and their habitats are unusual. The Sea of Spores, where some sort of mushroom induced disaster occurred yielded a pink toned forest of strange and terrible creatures that is oddly beautiful. In the swamps the Dark Horrors are transparent ghostly apparitions that attack with scythes that are their arms. The dark gothic architecture, the skies and the lighting effects are stunning. Guild Wars has the most detailed and advanced graphics out there. Every blade of grass, belt buckle, and tendril of hair on your character is not only visible, but will change and reflect light. If the character gets wet then you see everything like a wet tee shirt contest. The worlds of Guild Wars three expansions are each more beautiful than the next as they add more territory to the lovely fantasy world that they have created.
| From the drab, indistinct graphics of yesteryear that were used in the disappointing Dungeons and Dragons Online that contrast with the sublimely detailed and diaphanously dressed delicate female characters in Guild Wars, the females are vastly different creatures. | ||
I think World of Warcraft became so immensely popular because it provides many of the things that existing MMO gamers were used to from Everquest. The ability to wander around aimlessly exploring is there. The creatures and monsters have a fanciful art style rather than being rendered to look realistic. You can build your character all the way up to level 70 now and the game gives the feeling of being endless.
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