I played a lot of GW2. I used it as a frame of reference because it was the last MMO I played extensively. The dynamic eventswerepushed by Arena Net as one of the main focuses of the game. They made a huge deal of them before release. Sure, you could level without using them at all but they were a focus of the developers. Not sure how you can argue that at all.
Again, I need to reiterate, I don't hate GW2. I played for quite awhile. It wasn't all I had hoped it would be but it was still a solid game. My biggest disappointment was not even the dynamic events. It was the lack of the trinity. Which, as I said before, sounded awesome before the game came out but really actually ended up detracting from the game for me. I think artificial intelligence is just not to the point where getting rid of an admittedly artificial mechanic like the trinity can work. Dungeons just felt too chaotic and had no rhyme or reason to them combat-wise. I understand that this is a personal preference and many enjoyed the lack of the trinity. I thought I would but I did not.
What I like better about ESO's version of WvW is pretty much down to two or three things.
1. The map size is so much larger in ESO. This allows players to spread out a lot more. It gives more room for small groups to work without being swallowed by the zerg. There is, of course, a zerg in both games. You can't have a game like this without having a zerg. They existed in GW2, DAOC and they will exist in ESO. But, in DAoC and ESO, the map was so large that you could work around the zerg in small groups. In GW2, the zerg controlled the map because they could get from one place to another really quickly. It was really hard to consistently use a small group effectively. In DAoC and from what I have seen in ESO, small groups can exist and avoid the zerg. I had a lot of fights in DAoC and in ESO where it was 8v8, 4v4 or somewhere around that group size and we would fight for hours before the zerg appeared. In DAoC we could use scouts to let us know before it showed up and move before it got there. I had a couple of fights in ESO where we did this as well. Its much easier to do on a large map and there is simply no arguing that the DAoC Frontiers and ESO's Cyrodiil ismuchbigger than any of the WvW maps in GW2. Hell, Cyrodiil is bigger than all GW2s WvW maps put together.
2. The PvE areas in ESO are really cool. There is actually a lot of PvE areas in Cyrodiil. There are ruins throughout the map, small dungeons, some world bosses and towns. A lot of my small group PvP took place around these PvE type areas. The zerg never really went there but smaller groups and solo players did. It made for some interesting and varied PvP. GW2 just doesn't match that variety. Part of it is the smaller maps but much of it is because it just simply was not designed that way. There were times in ESO where it felt like the old days of WoW on a PvP server, where I was ganking Horde who were just questing.
3. The final reason is the engine. ESO's engine simply displays mass battles much better than GW2s engine does. I experienced less lag and frame rate stutter in ESO than I ever did in GW2 and I never worried about player culling. There were a couple of nights of intense lag but mostly it just ran smoothly. I was really impressed with the engine and server tech in that regard.
For what its worth, I will state unequivocally that GW2s dynamic events are eons better than ESOs Dark Anchors. Dark Anchors are just Rifts without the variety. They may eventually turn into something better but right now they are just there to provide a bit of variety to the leveling experience. I feel they were thrown in because 'oh, hey look at what Trion put into their game!'.
