I still had no enough free time to dig out these formidable mastodons of the Past. So I would want to hear from CRPG veterans some pros and cons for both series.

The main difference is that Wizardry is slower.

Wizardry 6-7 has better combat, and more advanced character development.
Wiz 7 has dynamic NPCs.
Might&Magic 6-7 has better exploration and loot.

They are all good games.

That's why I need some advice. I can't spend desired amount of time for gaming (you know - social life, job, family, children and other unnecessary obstacles:) ) so I should choose which game would be more satisfying for me at the moment.

Play Might and Magic 3. MM6 is huge and the Wizardries are slooow and therefore, although not very big, even more time consuming.

Thanks for your answer. You're right, there's no "late time answer" for such kind of questions.
Well, you can imagine how these words can bewilder the non-English speaking person... :) If in the first one I can recognize the "skull-" part (I'd think it's a some kind of head-crushing skill or something ;) ), the second word leaves me with no clue at all... Something French, I guess.

Wizardry 8 is the best out of both series.

Both words actually mean the same thing: trickery or chicanery. Something roguish.

Skulduggery (note the single "L") actually has nothing to do with skulls. Most etymology (word origin) sites attribute it to the Scottish "sculduddery" (adultery, obscenity), but I've also seen references to the Swedish "skuld" meaning "debt"; used to refer to bilking somebody out of money with a false promise to pay.

You are correct on legerdemain; it is French for "light of hand", as in the dexterity needed for magic tricks and the like.

Back to the subject at hand, Wizardry 8 is probably the best of the lot; the character development and battles are both much richer than anything in the MM series. But after awhile, this is also its downfall. After around the 15-hour mark, the battles can get very long and tedious, and I find the whole game slows down too much.

For this reason, even though I think W8 is objectively "better", I find MM6-8 more fun. And MM7 is probably the best of the 3, as others have mentioned. If time is a major factor, I recommend MM7.

Like the others have said, Wizardry might be better designed overall and have more complex character development. But I feel Might & Magic series is more fun. Besides, Might & Magic is not bad in design. It's actually pretty good. I can't speak for all the Wizardry lot. I just play Wizardry 8 and still not finish it yet. I finished Might & Magic 6 and used to play a bit of the rest of Might & Magic series.

Wizardry (especially 8, but might apply to the previous releases as well):
- More complex character development
- A lot of class & race combination
- Story is better told
- Combat is very hard especially for beginners
- Combat is slow and sometimes tedious
- NPC/RPC have individual characteristics
- More choices of ending
- Items can be dropped on the ground or stored in chests (drag and drop the items in) and they will exist there forever in that game until you pick them up. Chest storage space seems to be limitless. But item management can be a problem if you stock things up a lot. It seems they have little design for the item management part.
- You can import characters from 6 to 7 and 7 to 8. I've read this from somewhere. But I saw it in the game as well. They said that if you import your characters, you will start with different location depending on your choice of ending from the previous game.

Might & Magic:
- More beginner-friendly (veteran-friendly as well)
- Although the character development is not as complex, but it is interesting and fun. There are some class & race combination that let you work on
- Combat is in real-time but can be paused to give individual order
- Combat is fast and you can spam the attack with melee, range, or pre-set spells (There is cooldown time for each action)
- NPC seem not so deep in characteristics, in 6 & 7 you can't have NPC to join and fight with you. They can join and help you in some way indirectly. But they are useful.
- Not so many endings
- You can drop items, but they won't be there forever. They'll disappear after some time. Chest storage space is limited and I'm not sure if the chests will reset after some time or not. I think some chests can be used as storage.
- Cannot import characters

Edit: The item dropping part of both games.

Wizardry 6 & 7 are more like Might and Magic 4 and 5 (the Xeen games). They adhere to a grid environment. That said, I prefer the Might & Magic games overall. Everything is friendlier and fun. I think the M&M games lost something when they became more 3D open world games (M&M 6-8, have not played 9 yet). Wizardry is less fun and more grueling. I think people finish the game just so they can say they survived it. I bought Wizardry 7 off the shelves back in the early 90's and am just now getting through it. Yes, 22 years on and off. I would make it into the game a few hours and throw my hands up in frustration at being party-wiped for the 80th time and then rage-quit. So, it boils down to fun or challenge. M&M are more fun, Wizardry games are much more of a challenge. All are worth your time in the end.

I would have to throw my hat in with wizardry 8. In my opinion wiz8 is the best party-based crpg ever made, but you can't go wrong with any of these games as they are all legends in their time.

That's just THE thing I feel about RPG games. I tried all of these great titles in these 1,5 years:), and I've found that I like Wiz6-7 and M&M3-5 approach mostly. So if there are some similar RPGs around: with rich 2D first-person sprite graphics, grid movement and turn-based battles (I tried Eye(s) of the Beholder, Ishar(s), Gold Box games but real-time battles with ferocious clicking over the tiny ATTACK buttons are not my cup of tea)?

If you haven't played it already, try Dragon Wars. That game really deserves to be better known than it is.

Also, Wasteland, though that game is top-down rather than first person. (Also, note that this game is in a realistic science fiction setting, so there's nothing like magic in that game; instead you get guns and explosives, and mutant/robot enemies.)

Thanks. I do have Dragon Wars, and I've missed this fact :) Though I've read some reviews on Russian RPG resources saying this game is a mediocre copycat of Bard's Tale series (which I do NOT have, 'cause I just realized it's included in Bard'sTale-2004 action game GOG pack).

And I do have Wasteland too but still haven't given it a chance. Now I'm in my "fantasy" gaming cycle:), my post-apoc/sci-fi fit was some time ago (think of Fallouts, M.A.X., space strategies and such).