Matters of Appearance

"You are entering a time of great promise and overdue rewards." - Fortune Cookie

Somehow, I don't think that's connected, but it's amusing enough to mention anyway. No, mostly I feel the need to comment on other things. I picked up Guild Wars yesterday and started playing last night. It's a favor, it's a matter of giving the game another chance, it's an attempt to expand horizons maybe. So, naturally, I'm making comparisons to World of Warcraft.

Visually, yeah, they're different. GW is a lot more into shiny detail while WoW is stylistically cartoonish. I'd even go so far as to grant GW as having "better" graphics, but I actually like WoW's style so they strike me as different without one being distinctly more enoyable than the other.


Everyone wants their character to look unique, of course...

Guild Wars: Choose class, gender, face, hair, skin tone... all there. You get starter gear based on your class, looking pretty much the same. Guildmates get uniform cloaks. Helmets and cloaks can be turned on/off.
- There's a character scaling option that lets you adjust height (and scales the rest of the body along with, near as I can figure).
- There are (in the main game) about half a dozen armor set models early on, with about a half dozen more expensive sets with their own models. The first sets are reused as-is (better stats, more expense, found later, but looks the same). It looks like like each expansion adds 4-7 armor sets, most of which are endgame "prestige/elite" armors.
- Armor sets are class-specific (warriors can only wear warrior armor).
- Players can recolor portions of their armor/visible gear by using dyes. Dyes drop rarely and are very valuable (especially black, everyone likes black). Using four dyes in combination can give a pretty good range of colors and shades. What disappointed me is (at least on the armor I looked at this with) this really only adjusts accents, leaving the majority of the item looking the same as normal. Still, it's some distinction and that's why people will pay so much to possibly look different.
- In the endgame, there's opportunity to gather gold/special items to get the more distinctive sets (that don't have better stats) for bragging rights and a chance to look a little different from most.

World of Warcraft: Choose class, gender, face, hair, skin tone... all there. You get starter gear based on your class, looking pretty much the same. Guildmates get uniform tabards. Helmets and cloaks can be turned on/off.
- There are different races on either side, which increases possible looks right off.
- There are a couple more slots for visible items: shoulders, bracers (separate from gloves), sometimes non-statted shirts. On the other hand, some items block view of others (robes usually cover pants).
- Many weapon enchants create a distinct "glow" around a weapon.
- I have no idea how many actual item/armor models there are. Frickin' lots. Cloth-wearers usually have an option of shirt versus robes/dress. What models there are are recolored and reused here and there, but there are enough varations that people only take notice in the case of some rare sets. A lot of armor items are not designed as a 'set' piece and may or may not match other things a character wears.
- Armor is categorized. Mages/warlocks/priests can only wear cloth armor and will gravitate toward certain items based on desired stats. Classes that can wear mail or plate can also wear "lesser" armor types, though they'll usually want the protection of the heaviest they can access.
- In the endgame, there's opportunity to gather gold/kill certain bosses for items that give slightly better bonuses, appearance is usually secondary.

I'm young in GW yet, but of the two I see a lot more variety in WoW. Of course, experienced and in the endgame you probably get:
GW: Characters of the same class and gender will look similar (probably with some color differences).
WoW: Characters of the same class build, gender, and race will look almost exactly the same.