jrovel07: I think it's the way the game is built. It's set to be competitive. When one player loots, the other can't. Drops are often rolled for. Even nodes in the world are not shared so if someone gets to the node first they get it. It creates a mindset of Me first.

hakaneinarsson: After having played WoW for almost 20 years, I started playing GW2 a week ago - and the difference is staggering right away. People are much more friendly and helpful, both in the game and on the different forums. And that is a huge thing for a new player, especially one who's not comfortable with being social anyway and talking to strangers. I can actually ask a bunch of stuff and get nice, helpful responses back.

Limonada_RC: I totally agree with you, I am comming from Runescape, I have played runescape for 15 years and the community isn't friendly like here in GW2 I need to be honest I wasnt expecting this kind of love. I just started to play 1 week ago and I am loving it !

arkanaloth2617: I only played WoW for 3 years, about a year after launch and quit during Lich King. Tried dungeons, tried raiding, and I'll be honest it's not that I hated the content. it was alright. but the community... the constant gogogo mentality.... and the pure bile people would spew if anything went wrong (FF14 has this same issue it's just a LOT better hidden).

I quit wow and went back to Guildwars 1. WoW's a fine game, not for me, but that's ok. In GW1 I build my characters, built my team and in GW1 I didn't waste anybodys time cause I could do everything on my own, hardmode vanquish?? f'ing easy, I'll let you know when I'm done.

jump forward to Guildwars2, You still have people who can be aggressive, in group content. Nothing like what I experienced / saw in WoW but it's there, just a LOT more rare, guess that's just human nature but that's a different topic... but yeah, in GW2 people are not going to jump you for asking questions we've heard for 14 years now, it's fine.. we were all new at some point and the whole purpose of MMO's is interacting with people, so screaming "google it" seems a bit, well, arsed doesn't it?

alexanderwest1064: Arenanet's who game philosophy is about removing barriers in MMO game play.

The fact that every one has their own loot table and as long as you tag the mob you will get progress / xp / loot from that mob was baked into the game from the start to remove barriers for players.

It is in fact built to encourage you to help a random player that you see struggle on that mob that they pulled and are now over their head. The zone scaling encourages your to go back to lower level zones to do events and kill world bosses cause it's still fun. Grouping up to do a Meta is great just being a solo player it highly playable cause you don't need to be in the squad to benefit from the helping kill the meta boss.

The game does not have that pressure and time crunch cause all end game content is relevant years later and there will always be people in the zone to help you out. So GW took away one thing that every MMO has, manufactured pressure

joshbreaux5475: Left gaming 10 years ago because wow pissed me off plus i didn't want to keep paying a sub. Tried when guild wars first came out but it never hit with me. Over the past few years my health has been going down hill and i can't work right now. I'm thinking about coming back to gaming just to have something to do.

I have been researching GW2 and i think i want to jump back into it mostly because it is buy to play with no sub. Also, once you get the best gear you don't have to fight to get the next best when a new expansion comes out. The only thing i didn't like about it back then were the jumping puzzles but i guess I'll have to suck it up and fight through it.

I am going to try to get a friend back in it with me because to me gaming solo isn't as much fun if you don't have others to enjoy it with.

nartheri2362: I've played both for 20 years (including GW1) and it literally comes down to the studios and their involvement in the community. Areneanet is based in Seattle and is definitely more the OG google culture where the philosophy was take care of your developers, take care of your community, & they will take care of the game VS WoW which was aquired by Activision and now only serves its shareholders. Theres a reason we play classic; its because retail is not the same.

In most cases, there is a lot of player cross over, but when you're angry at how your game has been developed you tend to take that angry out... on other players. Because there is no way to vent that frsutration. Gw2, you can actively enjoy whatever way you want because you know that the soul of the game is still there and new content is being developed. Guild Wars 1 is seeing a Classsic experience right now that is far beyond what Blizzard has done!

With WoW, people are holding on to that of sertonin they still get from WoW and when other people infringe on that, they feel attacked personally because if Classic flops (even just their server, faction, or guild) there is no alternative like Nostalrias anymore to play.

beast07-S: Just completed EOD story and loved it. I took my 3 uninstalls and reinstall to get into gw2, and now I just can't quit it. I barely get any time to play I come home from work at 11pm and play till 1 am.

mendez_edit: best social experience I ever have in an online game. play wow for like 10 year when I first get into gw2....the guild cross to me in wvw...i was just looking the maps...they talk to me...tour me...fk*ng adopt me at that point...and get me into pvp...a content i usualy dont like. but man. with the right group...u have fun doing everything in gw2. for me...I love the lore of wow and use to love gameplayloop. but one thing blizzard do is with every expantion, turn the world more and more irrelevant, gw2 never do that...gameplay, mounts...world...community... gw2 for me is always gonna be no.1!

Omegalux: I'm actually of the option this is a problem retail WoW created through its competitive side combined with expansions, which in turn result in people wanting to min-max the fun out of the game, so that they "complete" everything before the next expansion/reset. It doesn't have longevity, so people are instead trying to get as much out of the expansions as fast as they can. Sure it still exists in Era, but it doesn't feel the same at all. Also, the tribalism from the multiple different versions of the game doesn't help.

variarte.1: It's both nature and nurture. WoW will naturally attract and hold more players who are competitive, GW2 will naturally attract and hold more players who are cooperative (note that competitive doesn't mean PvP, you can 'compete' against the game). The interesting part is when you get players who aren't in either extreme and will try either game. You find this in other games as well LoL/DotA/etc attract competitive players, Warframe, cooperative players

The game design of WoW says "you are in competition with other players (loot, resources, etc), other guilds (raids), and other species (exploration)". The lores tell you explicitly "these other playable species, they are your enemy". The game encourages competition, and aggression, so it breeds competitive and aggressive behaviours in those that weren't otherwise. Everyone remembers how they were competing for resources, and how others stole something and wasted their time, so they act the same in return.

The game design of GW2 says "everybody works together. even if you do things for selfish reasons (revive others for XP) it benefits others. Everyone is on the same team". The lore tells you "these other playable species, they are allies, they haven't always been, but we figured things out, and they are now". The game encourages cooperation, and cooperative people have a tendency towards patience, so just by being in a community of cooperative and patient people, others will become more cooperative and patient. Everyone has time to spare because they remember how others gave them some time to help.

necrogrif1579: Gw2 is the game my father has gotten really into, He has been playing since launch, I got into GW1 but really got into WoW/Private server wow and I dabbled in other MMO's in the mean time, but I was able to get Gw2 all the living worlds and expansions and have been playing through them, ON Steam I had maybe less than 20 hours, after playing none stop for two/three weeks, that number hit 200, and its the only game that my father and I can play together and when we do, its sometimes for a short time maybe an hour or two but in that time, we are able to do a lot and have fun, and that is why I love Gw2, for that short time once or twice I week I can spend an hour or two with my father. I will say, The first night we was playing and he had to show me up by flashing all his mounts from the years, and man let me tell you, not only did that make me happy, but I know he had a great time in flashing off all the work he has done over the time of GW2. I am really excited for GW3, I really hope they do Gw1 hero/merc system with the gameplay and story of GW2.

TimothyTurner-b4f: I think you hit it exactly on point, thats why i enjoy GW2 so much. If you want to run with the pack, play solo, or just hang out and chat there is no judgement.

Frydren: I still play wow too but GW2 is just so much more relaxing even WvW is extremely relaxing compared to any pvp mode on wow and when i play games i like to relax and just play the game. To me WoW was always like second job how the game is built but over the years it has become worse and worse.

Over the years i have really grown to hate the constant gear grind hamster wheel which is why GW2 became my main mmo when it launched as i never have to grind new gear ever again in GW2 i can just actually play the game and just have fun without chasing the loot feel.

Personally i feel that Blizzard messed up with cataclysm not by "destroying" the vanilla wow but more like not going forward and continue changing the world over every expansion and personally i do not like classic at all as i enjoy stuff going forward more than dwelling in the nostalgic past.

aar021: I play Classic Retail and GW2…. GW2 is fun and alive. Depending on how you take it WoW can be a chore.

wizeguybro: The wow community takes the fun out of the game and the game itself ends up being a lobby dungeon grinder. Boring. GW 2 is a much better laid back game. You play when you want, how you want and you are not fighting over loot like its black friday and you grabbed the last 65 inch tv.

ArtZem66: GW2 is just a bad mmo. It's a game for playing solo. If you group up with random players for random world event it is still solo playtime. Bc noone will ever say anything to you. In compare when you looking for a group in wow for Ellie quest. People speak, joke.

Difficulty in GW is a JOKE. If you join a dungeon while levelling it is always players with 500 mastery who smash trough the dungeon. It feels like a a boosting.

So yeah, if the challenge not existing there will never be anything toxic.

stealthkat: Perhaps consider that not all gamers are male and your audience might increase.

Franklinsone: WoW is very easy so people get mad when others can’t play well. I’m 3400 rating and I find GW2 very difficult. GW2 is hard. I can see why others are willing to help. I can’t do the jumping puzzles and I can’t roll. I die in GW2 like they are all elevator bosses. Never die to mobs though. Just die to environment.

rumtata: Wow is utter garbage compared to gw2.

Blizzard just sucks in all regards.

40k hours vet here btw

tpoondanceyeah: I've found its a bit of a mix, the pvp and wvw scene is very similar to WoWs in terms of people being upset. But gw2 brings a lot of people who are terrified of ever getting into discord, and politically more radical. Joined far too many guilds that basically outcast you if you're not on the far left.

anabolicfreedom6006: I played retail wow for a bit and now playing gw2. One thing I like about GW is you don’t need a rotation in pve or pvp. Wow I had to use hexi because if you screwed up your rotation then no damage. Gw2 is easier and more fun in my opinion especially with pvp. Not sure if you have a guild bro but come check out war after work in gw2. We have the same mindset. Mainly parents with jobs and kids who game during the evening. Love the content and keep it up

framinthor: depending on the content you do in each game the community for each can be just as toxic and just as pleasant.

As the #1 WoW classic hater on the internet, I can guarantee that if you just do some random bs in the world you're likely going to meet nice people, if you are doing raids and endgame dungeons that people are essentially forced to do in order to advance their character, youll meet the toxic people.

This is similar in GW2, if you go into a T4 CM Fractal and not perform, you will get toxicity, maybe not as hardcore as classic wow but you will get it nontheless, or at the very least a pretty fast kick, if you go into harder raid bosses claiming you know them and then mess up mechanics, people will be toxic to you.

Why would people overall be more toxic in classic wow? because there is a time limit, new server will come out in x months, rerelease of expansion in x weeks, time limit of when people clear the content and stop playing for the season, etc. You dont really have that in GW2 so it is overall more chill, but toxicity exists in both games, just that majority of gw2 game you can play half asleep and all you are working for is gathering more materials, missing 1 thing isnt going to ruin your character for hours unlike running a 40man raid for weeks on end and not getting that trinket you want or w.e

ScovilleTV: MMOs have always been tribalistic. WoW even more so as it's so massive they have many different versions which further tribalises the player base. You saw it a bit to a lesser extent with gw1 to gw2 and it will likely happen again gw2 to gw3.

Having played both I think they both have issues. I like Gw2 but it just felt ultra casual to me , so casual where nothing feels difficult or worthwhile. Gearing has no excitement. It doesn't have factions or open world PvP which also kills a lot of the world interest and danger. I think all this factors into players being more laid back.

Classic WoW just feels a more complete and fleshed out world and game imo and people are just much more invested in their standing in it. Not saying thats a healthy thing but it's very much people's lives in some cases.

supersolenoid: Very spot on analysis, and as an adult with little time to play I can totally relate.

Wavuvi_Speedruns: The parallel progression of GW2 is huge too. I played at launch, stopped, and came back 12 years later. My characters were still there and playable in all content. Sure, there were some updates like new gear stat options and elite specs, but none of that was required. WoW always has an end point where all your heart work evaporates. That end point is stressful and absolutely puts players on a time crunch along with other things like the subscription fee.

Knight_Marshal: I think it is because GW2 has horizontal progression so once you have BiS you are done and playing for story and fun.

That tends to make a community nicer.

Aug 01 2026

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