Guild Wars 2 previewed at GamesCom

here's hoping for an open world and innovative gameplay.

I was a little bit dissapointed the first time I saw the trailer, but now I can't stop watching it either.

GW 2 is open world go read up on it but the missions and dungeons will be instanced also in an interview Anet said that they replaced the traditional MMO questing with an event system for there persistent World.

Looks like it has the potential to be amazing. Can't wait.

This has me more excited than anything else right now. If they make this a proper MMORPG, with a massively multiplayer open-world zoned instead of instanced then I'll be on-board.

Some new world pvp system, instances to tell narrative, an event system, and a beautiful game world are all pluses on my list.

Keen I think you missed the biggest plus of all, pay for the game and your set. No monthly subs needed, I would pay 15 a month for this game in a heartbeat but if Anet keeps it free that is also a huge +1.

"Of course, PvP remains this franchise's bread and butter"...

I lol'd at this line, since I played GW for quite a couple of years and never once PvP'd.

But, hey, whatever. I'm fine if they want to put PvP in as long as it is completely unrelated to the PvE -- again, as it was in the original game.

The great thing about GW's PvP is that helps sell the game, and I never have to do it! I love how I can have a great experience and never have to PvP.

I love the instancing, but I'm OK with a more persistent world - going to see how that works out. I think it looks beautiful., you can still do solo play and no monthly fee!

One sad thing which I got from this interview was that now weapons are now not standardized. IMO this was a great feature of the game as not raiding & being not hardcore & not item based game helped players concentrate on the game itself rather than bragging rights. The game had elite weapons but they did no extra damage or had stat boosts than a weapon you could get crafted. This leveled the playing field to an awesome extent & also, while grouping did not mean folks kicking other folks out if they did not have such & such weapon or armor.
Basically, even if you did not raid your character was not gimped & the braggers still got their kudos because of the skin. This stat boosting & uber drops irritates the hell out of me. It also irritates me when not everyone in the raid gets some reward from the end boss at the end of the encounter in other games. I am not liking this IMO. A game should not be item based. Its an unhealthy & greed based crutch other MMOs need to keep players subscribing. So it baffles me when GW2 is adopting this strategy when it does need to. Skills were important & should be the case even now. Still, I have faith in Anet & hope it finds ways to balance stats on weapons even in PvE.

I agree totally with Arnie, that is my big disappointment thus far with Guild Wars 2, because that was one of the things I loved about GW1. I really enjoyed collecting titles and pretty items without having to have a combat advantage over other players... I felt like things were fair from the start, and the way that some players were better than others without having a statistical advantage made me feel excited and motivated to improve my skills at the game (sorta the way I feel when I play a first person shooter, but in GW1 I would never feel as helpless or annoyed, and RPGs are just more fun for me anyways). I really loved that and I think it could have been a huge advantage GW2 would have over other MMOs... If Arenanet wants GW2 to be as buzz worthy and amazing as GW1 then they need standardized weapons, IMO.

When I was 15 I wouldn't mind the asian character models but now I'm much older I just want something thats more mature. I want normal western looking models and not ones that are trying to look over cute like bunnies with spikey hair and large thighs.

Where is everyone getting that weapons wont be standardized? I read the entire article and saw no mention of that, neither confirming it or denying it. Just because they are putting crafting into the game doesn't necessarily mean gear is going to be the #1 thing. In fact I got quite the opposite vibe from the interview, because the team at ArenaNet seemed determine to keep as much design philosophy from GW1 as they could while removing the things that they thought made the game too "complicated." Plus must have mentioned at least 2 times that PvP characters were going to have access to all the top gear and weapons, which is the same exact system that's in place in GW1. I'm REALLY confused as to where you people are getting this, or why you are even worrying about it, it seems like a total non-issue.