As many people know, I play video games.  I’d expect that most of our visitors also play video games.  And if you, the visitor, are anything like me, you are interested in at least trying one of those online role-playing games.  I wanted to for so long.  I tried for a while, but the family computer didn’t have the power to play them.  Ever since I got my own computer, I’ve only tried two:  Final Fantasy XI and Guild Wars.  These are the two that most people consider when trying to make the choice of one role-playing game.  Well, I’m here to tell you about the pros and cons of each, and help that decision along. 

Before we start, let me say one thing.  When I stopped playing Final Fantasy XI, I was in what can be considered "the mid-game."  That is, I was pretty far, but not as far as the highest level characters.  The same can be said about my progress in Guild Wars.  So, my experiences are based on what most people will experience for the majority of their time starting up.

Let’s start off with costs.  How much will each game set you back?  This is maybe the most important factor to consider, since no matter how good a game is, it is unplayable if the costs run up.  Final Fantasy is $50 to buy it, plus about $12 a month to play.  This can really add up.  This is where Guild Wars has the advantage.  You pay $50 for the game, and there is no monthly fee.  That’s right, nothing.  This is perhaps the biggest reason I chose Guild Wars over Final Fantasy.  You can’t go wrong with this price.

But does cheaper price equal cheaper gameplay?  Sort of.  Final Fantasy runs much smoother than Guild Wars.  The main problem with Guild Wars is that your character can "teleport" a little bit.  That is, your character will be running down the road, pause, and then appear off to the side from where he was.  It’s only a minor annoyance, and it hasn’t happened to me at a vital moment.  It feels more like lag than anything.  I never had anything like that in Final Fantasy.

The gameplay itself is a matter of style.  I cannot say which game has the better fighting system simply because each is best suited for its game.  In Final Fantasy, you gain skills as you advance in level and become more powerful.  In Guild Wars, you do quests or buy items to acquire skills.  In Final Fantasy, your character level is important in determining if you survive battle.  In Guild Wars, using skills wisely is more important to winning.  It is also worth noting that Final Fantasy battles seem to be in slow motion when compared to Guild Wars battles.  Guild Wars is a much faster paced game.  Really, it’s up to the player to decide which is a better system.  I liked both of them.

Character creation and options is also very important.  In Guild Wars, you get four characters per account.  Each character can choose from six classes, but there is only one race to choose as of right now (human).  This gives you pretty good variety to pick from.  Final Fantasy works a little differently.  You get one character per account, but you can choose from five different races.  At first, this sounds like a bad deal.  However, you can change classes with this character as many times as you want.  With six starting jobs to choose from, along with nine extra jobs that you can obtain later in the game, that gives you many different options.  Final Fantasy gets the nod for this one.  It just has way more options to pick from.

Now, let’s go into a part of the game that really affects the fun value:  time management.  That is, how much time it takes to play the game.  Here’s the bottom line:  Guild Wars has better time management than Final Fantasy, without a shadow of a doubt.  Allow me to illustrate what I mean.

I’m playing Final Fantasy.  I need experience points to advance to higher levels.  The only way to get those points is by getting in a group with other players to fight monsters.  So I try to form a group.  I am not a White Mage (healer), nor do I have a White Mage in the group yet.  This means that 50% of people will not join my group.  I am not a Paladin (heavy warrior who prevents healers from taking damage), nor do I have one in my group yet.  This means that most White Mages will not join my group.  With no White Mage, the probability of surviving any battle is very low.  I cannot form a group.  I sit around waiting for some other people to invite me into their group.  This could take a long time.  I sit around waiting for an hour or longer.  Now it is time to go to work, so I have to log off, having accomplished nothing in the few hours I was online. 

I’m playing Guild Wars.  I need experience points to advance to higher levels.  There are two ways of getting those points.  I can either form a group and fight monsters, or I can do missions.  Higher level missions require a group as well.  I ask around to see if anyone wants to group with me.  I do not have a Monk (healer) in the group, nor am I a Monk.  This is not a problem, as I can hire a computer-controlled henchman that is a Monk.  People join my group, and we hire a henchman Monk to heal us.  Sometimes, no one wants to group with me.  This is also not a problem, as I can also hire a Warrior henchman, a Ranger (archer) henchman, and an Elementalist (wizard) henchman to go along with my Monk henchman.  Now I have a group that, while not as smart or talented as human-controlled players, can help me get experience points.

That is the beauty of Guild Wars:  you can play the game by yourself, without the assistance of other players, or you can group with other players.  In Guild Wars, you never have a time when you can’t do something because you can’t find other players to team up with.  In the time that I spent playing Final Fantasy, it was hard to find a group unless you were a White Mage or a Paladin.  If you choose one of those jobs, you are set for your entire game career.  If not, prepare yourself for a lot of waiting around.

If you want an explanation for this (and even if you don’t, I’m still going to give it to you), it is this.  A White Mage is the best at healing.  A Paladin is the best at taking damage.  Every other class exists to deal damage (except for the Red Mage, which is the best at enchanting).  When you get right down to it, pretty much every other class is around to deal damage in one way or another.  It’s really all a matter of how they do it.  Because of this, every other class is expendable, and can be replaced with any other job.  Also, since very few people choose to become a White Mage (no one wants to be “just a healer”), there can be very few fully functional groups at a given time.  Just ask any Final Fantasy player.  They will tell you that for a large chunk of the game (levels 16-40 about), a group can barely move without a White Mage, but the rest of group (apart from the Paladin) can be anything.  That’s just the way it is, and it is the part that frustrated me to no end.  And don’t even tell me that I was just one of the many that didn’t want to be “just a healer.”  I was a Red Mage, which means while I was the best at enchanting, I was mostly used as a healer.  I may not have been as good at healing as a White Mage, but I was as good as most people would find with the scarcity of White Mages.

Do not let that little rant stop you from considering Final Fantasy altogether.  It can be frustrating at times to set aside some time to play and end up doing nothing, but when you get in a decent group, the game is very, very fun.  The problem is getting into a group.

Now, with all that negativity out of the way, let’s talk about a portion of Final Fantasy that totally overshadows Guild Wars:  the Auction House.  The Auction House is a genius little invention that can make you a lot of money and get you the items you want, and it can do it in a relatively short amount of time.  Before I get into it, let me show you how you buy and sell items in Guild Wars.

You want to sell an item.  You stand in the middle of town and have your character shout out what you are selling along with its stats (if it is a weapon or piece of armor) and asking price.  Hopefully someone is in town who wants it.  If they aren’t, you have to stand there and yell some more until someone wants it or you decide to say "fuck it" and sell it to a computer-controlled character for 1/10 the price (if even).  Now you want to buy an item.  You stand in the middle of town and yell out that you are looking to buy a certain item.  No one in town has one for sale, so you stand there yelling every minute until you find someone who will sell it to you, or you get tired of it and do something else.  How very effective this system is.

Now, back to the Auction House.  The Auction House is a building that is in each major city in Final Fantasy XI.  This building allows you to sell your items to other players without having to go find them.  All you do is put up your item and then how much you want for it.  After a while, someone will either buy the item (and the money will go into your account), or no one will buy it and you get the item back.

However, here is why the Auction House is so great:  it acts as a virtual stock market.  The Final Fantasy XI economy is a fragile thing.  Money is not easy to make, and most things worth buying are very spendy.  But, with the Auction House, you can take what money you have, invest in an item, and sell it back when the price goes up.  I made a good amount of my money this way. 

For example, my item of choice was Fire Crystals.  A full stack of Fire Crystals sold for (at the time) approximately 4800 gil (gold) on average.  However, this price fluctuated depending on the time of day and the amount of Fire Crystals on the market.  I would buy stacks of Fire Crystals one day for 3800 gil, and then sell them off later for 6000 gil.  I noticed a few weapons also had this kind of fluctuation in them, but they were the really, really expensive ones that I could only hope to someday buy.  This part of the game just fascinated me to no end, just like the stock market does today.  You just had to know where to invest.  

This has gotten rather long, so I’ll touch on one last point, and then wrap it up.  The last point is player-vs.-player combat (pvp).  There has been much debate on how pvp should work in these online games.  When I played Final Fantasy, there was no pvp.  However, it has come to my attention that they now have certain areas that allow pvp.  I do not know enough about these new areas to make a judgment on them, so I’ll just say that it is worth checking out.

In Guild Wars, pvp is an essential part of the game once you reach the maximum level (20).  After hitting level 20, the main reason your character exists is to join in a group (guild) with other players and challenge other guilds to battles.  You fight for your nation, basically, as Korea, America, and Europe battle it out constantly for control of the Hall of Heroes.  I also cannot comment to much on this part, as I am not at a high enough level to see this kind of competition.  I have fought other players before, and it is definitely more challenging than computer-controlled enemies. 

So, after considering all these factors, I chose Guild Wars.  I did so because of the much lower cost and the more efficient time management.  However, I will say this:  if you can get into a decent group, Final Fantasy is a much more fun game.  If you can find a group of people to group with on a consistent basis, pick Final Fantasy XI.  But Guild Wars is definitely a choice that I won’t regret making.  You can’t go wrong with either one.

Well, that’s all for this one.  If you made it this far, congratulations.  If you picked Guild Wars, group with me sometime. 

StretPharmacist is a lot like the Undertaker:  A gimmick that should have never gotten over, but was taken to unbelievable heights.  Also, he is constantly injured.