WotLK vs. Warhammer
In the coming months many MMO fans may find themselves at a crossroads. There are many of those who may currently enjoy playing WoW, but could easily be persuaded that Warhammer could be better if Warhammer would have some quality 'X' that WoW currently does not have and is unlikely incorporate in the next expansion pack. There are those who would be interested in Warhammer, but will probably not switch because of all the time invested and social networks formed in the game (add to that a decent amount of new content including a cool looking class: Death Knight, a long time WoW fan would be hard pressed to find good reasons to switch to a game that is of similar game mechanics and so forth). Then there are those who have either quit WoW altogether in anticipation of something better or in anticipation of nothing at all; people who are fed up with the genre altogether.
I fall into the last camp and could be persuaded to either go back to WoW in anticipation of what the new expansion pack has to offer or could be persuaded to give Warhammer a try if it had better ideas implemented into its game. That is, in the current state of all games in the genre, none are appealing to me at all.
Before I get into game mechanics though, let's compare the more superficial aspects of each game. That is, which game seemingly has the edge visually.
WotLK
Warhammer Online: AoR
Technically, it is pretty obvious that Warhammer has the edge. You could probably come to this conclusion without even looking at the screenshots or something, after all, WoW's engine is about four years old now. Artistically however, it gets a bit more subjective. I would argue that WoW is artistically superior. This is completely subjective, but it seems as though Warhammer's character models and landscape designs are not as good as WoW. It seems as though the landscapes in WoW are more detailed; meaning not as plain, and more alive. As far as the character models go, it is a bit of a mixed bag. Certain character models that WoW has look good, some look bad. The same thing can be said for Warhammer as far as I'm concerned. However, on the whole WoW's character models are better and more distinct.
Combat/Spell Animation
Warhammer: AoR
WotLK
I think WoW wins here. Again, purely subjective, but I think this is one of the reasons why Blizzard has been so successful. Blizzard has an uncanny ability of just making things look simple, clean, and crisp. It just looks right.
WoW Arena/Battlegrounds/World PvP/Dueling vs. Warhammer RvR
For those of you who, like me, have already experienced all WoW pvp has to offer will pretty much already know what to expect in the next WoW expansion pack add one more BGs, one more arena map, and a new pvp-focused zone.
WoW Battleground - Strand of Ancients
WoW Arena - Orgrimmar
WoW Arena - Orgrimmar
WoW Arena - Dalaran
WoW PvP Zone - Lake Wintergrasp
Mechanically, the way in which pvp is done WoW will not change much at all save one caveat: the addition of siege weapons and vehicles. Siege Vehicles include: The Demolisher - A three passenger that is capable of both short and long range attacks; The Forsaken Catapult; The Siege Engine - It has one seat for a driver, one for a gunner, and several other for passive passengers; The Flying Machine - A bomber essentially; The Goblin Shredder - The shredder is an anti-air vehicle that shoots out long range homing missiles and sawblades that cuts down opponent in melee range.
This may be enough for those who currently enjoy WoW's pvp, but what about those who quit playing the game and are awaiting a new pvp system. As it stands, WoW's pvp system gives players incentives to focus on arena performance, additionally WoW's battlegrounds are considered repetitive and limited by many. WoW's world pvp can be considered pointless and almost non-existent on most realms as well -- I don't believe one pvp zone will change this; in fact, it will incentivize players to focus world pvp to only one zone.
So, if this does not sound very enticing, very promising at all, is there something different that that might persuade you better to get back into MMO pvp?
Warhammer RvR - Types
Warhammer RvR - Final Explanation
Unfortunately, I have yet to get of taste of Warhammer RvR, but what I've seen and read of it so far it seems very promising. One of the more notable aspects of Warhammer RvR seems to be the ability to engage in RvR combat and gain experience and items from RvR combat starting at level 1. For those of you who prefer to focus on player vs. player combat, Warhammer Online might be more appealing to you. Indeed, Warhammer's focal point seems to be pvp rather than pve.
WoW PvE vs. Warhammer PvE
It's difficult for me to make a fair comparison between the two games at this point due to the lack of media and information on Warhammer PvE. However, from what I understand Warhammer will be implementing a few interesting concepts into its PvE such as public quests
Warhammer - Public Quests Description
It's an interesting concept no doubt, but I highly doubt Warhammer being able to match the amount of PvE content Blizzard is able to dish out. Also, I don't think Warhammer's PvE will be as addictive; it probably won't implement its incentives and so forth as well as Blizzard is able to.
There is no doubt that Warhammer's focus will be RvR and all future tweaks and content will probably revolve around that aspect of the game. Therefore, I suggest that if you prefer PvE (more specifically, raid progression), then you should probably stick with WoW. However, if you are sick of playing battlegrounds and arena, but still prefer PvP to PvE, then perhaps Warhammer will be able to give you a new way of playing PvP and hopefully give you proper incentives and progression to continue enjoying RvR.
