To be fair -- well more than half of WoW's playerbase pays no subscription fee at all, and looking at the growing number of free-to-play games, that's going to become more of a trend in the west as well as time goes on. I'm sure DDO will continue trying to take the credit, but GW was definitely the pioneer there, and should be proud of its role going forward.

And SOE would disagree that EQ2 splintered their franchise. Indeed, SOE argued that EQ2 would bring people into EQ1 who'd never played. Certainly, if either game stopped being highly popular and profitable, they'd cease pumping out expansion after expansion for them both, as they have with some of their other games (like SWG).

As far as a bullet list, the GW2 site and popular GW forums have plenty of FAQs and information about what the game will bring. I'm sure it'll be done just as soon as it's done. If you're not wowed by the vids they've released already though, you might just be too jaded for this genre. :D

I like to go for a nice stroll through the uncanny valley and picnic as I watch the people, unsure of whether or not to be frightened by our creations.

All joking aside. If nothing else. Guild Wars has a killer art team. That first image (at the top of the post) was rather awe inspiring.

People will always find something to moan about.

There's a fair bit of info about the new game play in GW2 if you bothered to look. And I'd say the rise in popularity of free to play games should tell you a little something about people's willingness to pay monthly subscriptions.

Also, you want a trailer... HERE'S a trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em0Sd60iI2w

The beta will be ready when it's ready, those that are genuinely interested in GW2 (which isn't you, that much is obvious) will be happy to wait till it's ready, knowing that ArenaNet are doing their very best to make an awesome game.

Am I jaded on the genre? No.

...I'm disappointed with ArenaNet.

How does a company go from "beta sometime in the second half of 2008" to where they are now? Did they intentionally lie to the community? Did they completely mismanage the schedule?!

That alone wasn't enough to discourage me. But combined with my dislike of the lore, my enthusiasm in Guild Wars 2 has been ruined.

I was really excited about Guild Wars 2... 2-3 years ago. Think of all the big MMORPGs that came out recently. I don't know of any that I'm interested in. Does that make me jaded, or are the games simply not good enough?

I look back at EverQuest, Earth and Beyond, Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft with fondness. Those were some great adventures. Guild Wars, it doesn't have the same level of nostalgia with me. I think that's because I didn't stop playing when the game peaked in 2006. I knew that I would never top the experience of taking and holding Cavalon with a 1000 player alliance.Yet, with no monthly fee, I was free to visit Guild Wars at any time. I was free to watch an alliance deteriorate, with player inactivity time measured in years. I was free to run Kilroy's Punch-Out Extravaganza... over... and over... and over... and over again.

Articles like this one should have been more common in 2007-2008... when people were playing Eye of the North. Guild Wars 2 is supposed to have bigger pvp... right? Where's the information about that? What bothers me is knowing that there are thousands... perhaps millions... that would really enjoy an expansion of the original. So OK, ArenaNet blew the 2008 beta. Why not release a mini-expansion in 2009... in 2010? It makes no sense to me. The community could use new adventures and ArenaNet could have made more money.

How did ArenaNet get in this situation?

An MMORPG community is like a big rock. Just keep it rolling. With a constant stream of new content, it's easier for players to stay interested. But with the Guild Wars franchise... that big rock was allowed to stop... and erode.

I look back at the past two years. Other MMORPGs did not excite me. That doesn't make me jaded. Rather, I see a missed opportunity for ArenaNet. I see Guild Wars 2 on a collision course with SW:TOR. If both games are released at the same time, which one is going to win?

@photics:
"How does a company go from "beta sometime in the second half of 2008" to where they are now? Did they intentionally lie to the community? Did they completely mismanage the schedule?!"

NCSoft wanted to push Aion more than GW2, which is why it has taken so long. Companies make decisions based on what will make the most money (you know this, though), and Aion was a HUGE hit in Korea and Japan.



"I look back at EverQuest, Earth and Beyond, Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft with fondness. Those were some great adventures. Guild Wars, it doesn't have the same level of nostalgia with me. I think that's because I didn't stop playing when the game peaked in 2006."

I can't speak for EverQuest and DAoC, but WoW peaked at the same time as Guild Wars did with Factions. The Burning Crusade was the beginning of the end for many gamers who play(ed) the World of Warcraft.

"Yet, with no monthly fee, I was free to visit Guild Wars at any time. I was free to watch an alliance deteriorate, with player inactivity time measured in years. I was free to run Kilroy's Punch-Out Extravaganza... over... and over... and over... and over again."

Something easily prevented by effectively LEADING your alliance. A community needs events or some sort of element that draws its members together repeatedly. The game is old, yes...War Machine, The Last Pride, and even The Lazy Nation are gone, but there are still plenty of active and thriving guilds. If you see a stagnant or inactive in the alliance, find a newer and more enthusiastic guild to replace them.


"Why not release a mini-expansion in 2009... in 2010? It makes no sense to me."

They don't have the resources to, simple enough.

"The community could use new adventures and ArenaNet could have made more money."

You don't know that for a fact.

"But with the Guild Wars franchise... that big rock was allowed to stop... and erode."

A moving rock erodes faster than a still one...Maybe MMOs aren't like rocks after all. ;)

"I see Guild Wars 2 on a collision course with SW:TOR. If both games are released at the same time, which one is going to win?"

The consumer decides that answer, don't they? I know that as much as I like Star Wars, Guild Wars 2 will be my purchase. Why? Because Bioware isn't as amazing as they are played out to be (opinion).

>> NCSoft wanted to push Aion
>> more than GW2, which is why
>> it has taken so long. Companies
>> make decisions based on what
>> will make the most money (you
>> know this, though), and Aion was
>> a HUGE hit in Korea and Japan.

True, I don't think NCsoft wanted Aion and Guild Wars to compete with each other... but then why release expansions for Lineage? If you listen to the latest conference call with NCsoft (in English) it's filled with glowing praise for the update to Lineage. NCsoft listened to the community and added life to an old game. Why can't ArenaNet do the same thing?

_________________

>> Something easily prevented by
>> effectively LEADING your alliance.
>> A community needs events or some
>> sort of element that draws its members
>> together repeatedly.

Didn't we do this debate already Ken? :-)

You can give someone a cardboard box and they could have a lot of fun with it... make a fort, break dancing in the street, build a robot suit for Halloween... but do you think the makers of cardboard boxes are depending on the imagination of their customers... or are they doing things like marketing and building better boxes?

If my leadership was to blame, then why wouldn't they even log on and find another Guild? Players who think they're under lousy leadership are free to leave for more exciting guilds. That's not what happened with so many players. They simply lost interest in the game.

________________

>> The game is old, yes...War Machine,
>> The Last Pride, and even The Lazy
>> Nation are gone, but there are still
>> plenty of active and thriving guilds.

Yes, there are players who are interested in Guild Wars today... but how many of them started playing Guild Wars over six years ago? If you wandered into 7-Eleven and picked up the game for $20, Guild Wars can be a pleasant surprise. For veterans who remember the days of Alpha, how open ArenaNet used to be as a company, who remember the E3 for Everyone, who remember being amazed by the graphics announcement in January 2004... Guild Wars 2 might seems incredibly dull.

"What's your story" ...if ArenaNet announced a way for players to enjoy an MMORPG more like the way they want... with more player freedom... I think I might be excited about that. I don't like the lore, I'd rather make my own. I'd rather team up with like-minded players who say, "Nah... I don't want my character kneeling to false gods... and yeah, the humans shouldn't group with the Charr." ...and together we build our own city. We make our online hangout... a place that's fun - even when we're not fighting. You know... like "Cheers" ...but in an MMORPG.

Guild Wars is terribly lacking in social activities. For less than the cost of a Black dye, you can have a Guild Hall. There's nothing terribly special about teaming up in Guild Wars... no in-game mail system, no major Guild Hall activities, no epic quests, no PvE raids. That's the main reason why I think players are more prone to burnout and leave the game.

I run my own online RPG. I regularly get requests for more content. I don't think I'd be responding with phrased like "Be more imaginative" or "You need better leadership". I think that would be insulting to them and it wouldn't be much help in building the community. I like to keep the players happy, so I listen to feedback from the community. ArenaNet used to be responsive to player feedback... not super fast, but fast enough. But for the last three years, it's been awful.

__________________

>> They don't have the
>> resources to, simple
>> enough.

If they have the resources to nerf skills, they can add a new map or an epic quest.

__________________

>>>> The community could use
>>>> new adventures and ArenaNet
>>>> could have made more money.

>> You don't know that for a fact.

"Could" is the keyword. It was possible. I don't know it as a fact that they would have made money, but I think a profit would have been very likely. By the same logic, Guild Wars 2 could be a failure. Why even try? Why even bother making games?

I think it's because the people in this industry have a passion for making and playing games. There's another article floating around massively.com... would you want to work in this industry? More specifically... would you want to work for ArenaNet? Jeff Strain bailed. That's a pretty big warning sign to me.

Heh... but he also bailed on World of Warcraft... and I think that game turned out OK.

Regina was here saying how she didn't like speculation. The problem is, it's a natural reaction to a lack of information. ArenaNet is leaving a lot of blanks. When's the release date? Is the game going to be good? In 2007, I was incredibly excited about Guild Wars 2. In 2010... I'm doubting if I'm going to buy the game at all. From Massively, it seems that a common response is to blame me, that I might be jaded, that I'm not showing enough leadership, that I'm not being creative enough. To me, this is the wrong answer. It should be like... "Hey, that guy was a huge Guild Wars fan. Why doesn't he like the game now?"

Sure, lots of posts here show love the artwork... and there are plenty of people are excited about the game. Yet, there are plenty of other people who seem skeptical. And then there are others that are like... "Where's my dervish?"

Why's it so hard to get some straight answers?

"Mike, you're going to hate the sequel. It's more of the lore stuff you hate and the Guild Hall features aren't that much better."

or...

"Mike, you're going to love the sequel. 'What's your story' wasn't just some catchy marketing phrase. We're doing some pretty awesome stuff here.

How hard is it to say stuff like that? If ArenaNet says, "Yes, you will be able to play a Dervish." or "No, you won't be able to play as a Dervish." ...is Blizzard Entertainment somehow going to get a hold of this information and dramatically alter their business plan? It seems unlikely to me... but I wouldn't be surprised if they already have moles in Bellevue. What's worse is to see the erosion of a once mighty community.

ArenaNet has the right to run the game the way they see fit... heh, within the law of course ...but will they be surprised if people are unimpressed when the game is finally launched, opting to play SW: TOR instead? ArenaNet set the expectations pretty high and I don't think they're meeting them.

Yes, the art looks great... but it's 2010 and it's not that much different from 2004. If ArenaNet wants to stay competitive in this industry, I think they'd do a lot better with stronger community relations and regular game updates rather than postponed betas and occasional releases of artwork.

-- Start an official forum
-- Update the original series if the sequel is too far away
-- Add stuff for Guilds, so that groups of people are "empowered" to encourage others to play Guild Wars

Thanks to heroes, Guild Wars is pretty much a single player game that you play online. I remember when Guild Wars was supposed to have 50 vs 50 gaming. Again, how did ArenaNet get here? How do you go from 50 vs 50 to... "OK Koss, go get me some more Moss for Nicholas the Traveler."

_____________

>> Maybe MMOs aren't like rocks after all. ;)

Maybe it's like a snowball... getting bigger as it rolls.

_____________

>> The consumer decides that answer, don't they?
>> I know that as much as I like Star Wars, Guild
>> Wars 2 will be my purchase. Why? Because
>> Bioware isn't as amazing as they are played
>> out to be (opinion).

SW:TOR, I think that's more likely to be a hit than not. I think Bioware did an amazing job with Knights of the Old Republic on the XBOX. I think the game was far FAR better at storytelling than what was done in the pitiful prequels. I thought that the franchise was ruined after seeing "Jar-Jar", I was becoming embarrassed to admit I was a Star Wars fan, but Bioware brought back respect to the franchise. While I wasn't blown away by games like Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic was a lot of fun for me.

What does this have to do with Guild Wars? Players generally have one of two things... money or time. It's rare to see a gamer with an excess of both. That means players might find themselves in a position to choose... Guild Wars 2 or The Old Republic. If ArenaNet met their beta in 2008 date, this wouldn't be an option.

Even with the release of Aion, that left ArenaNet with a pretty large window. What could be so important that the beta was pushed back approximately two years... or even more?

This is a good article. I like the Guild Wars artwork. Yet, it doesn't make me forget the huge concerns I have about the success of Guild Wars 2.