Guild Wars espouses a sort of world persistence that is completely individualistic and not really persistent at all, because it is instanced. Other players don’t see your version of the instance. If you create a new character, you have to go through the same progression as the original. World of Warcraft could accomplish this “persistent” world if there were no instance resets.

From my perspective, that aspect of GW is simple and dull. Developers can’t create a persistent world of NPCs for an MMO because they can’t account for all of a single player’s actions and still leave content for everyone else. True persistence in an MMO’s world can only be found in the realm of pure player-to-player interaction — plain relationships, territory wars, the free market, etc.

How will they fix this for Moria though I don’t know, neither one is in an instance by themself and they are involved in more than just the epic quests.

And to think in the book they sat around for 3-4 months and even that was long. The Nine are all already on their flying mounts by now and should be circling the Last Homely House like vultures. Assuming Sauron could grind the 5k gold for each mount.

Ok, we will try not to discuss AoC due to it’s own problems.
But, in Guild Wars, with the “Outdoor” adventure area’s, things can change and people move or leave, etc. I like that in respects to people can die, or whatever as you progress.
I.E: It has a story that can be persistent for the leveling life of your character.

Having gone back to Guild Wars to waste some casual time, my wife and myself see just how fun this game can be.
It seems to have more heart than a lot of MMO’s and their soulless grind.