6 Years of GW2 - Where do we go from here?

When GW1 was first released, it was in 2005. Over the course of about two more years, it culminated in it's third and final expansion, Eye of the North in 2007. Then five years later in 2012, GW2 released. A complete overhaul of everything we saw with the first Guild Wars. A lot of it was for the better, but some changes were not so great. Nevertheless GW2 brought many new needed things to not just GW1 fans but MMO fans in general. The questing was completely retooled. Dodging was added. Combat was much more active and raw skill-based than it's predecessor or WoW. We also saw during the course of GW2's life the introduction of "Superservers", completely and effectively negating the need to choose a World or Realm to play on.

GW2 has received two huge expansions as well, adding many things to an already pretty sizable game such as Mounts and Elite Specializations. Make no mistake, people. All-in-all, we've come a very long way. Unlike ActiBlizzard, ANet has actually added a whole lot of new things to the game. Now, the question is, where do we go from here? What's next? Should we be looking at a GW3 sometime in the future even? I believe I can answer at least some of these questions with some degree of accuracy by browsing through the past and looking to what needs to be done for the future.

First of all, I think GW2 has a little bit more life left in it for one last expansion. After that, we'll probably see GW3 coming next. I would expect the expack to land around... 2019. Then GW3 at 2021 and beyond. Now that we got the dates out of the way though, let's focus on what we did right, what we did wrong, and things that could be added feasibly in the expack and the inevitable GW3.

Right:

• No monthly fee
• Wardrobe system
• Heart quests/events
• WvW
• Innovative mounts
• Dodging
• Superservers
• Skill-based combat
• Guild halls
• Waypoint traveling/respawning
• Shared harvest nodes and quest rewards
• Trading post
• Dye system
• Personal story
• Gliding
• No pay-to-win
• Elite specializations
• Fully-featured chat system
• Many ways to earn XP
• Downed state
• Intuitive powerful UI
• Decent overall story
• Very interesting background lore

Wrong:

• No Guild vs. Guild (Now, hold on because I know some of you are already getting ready to launch into a huge argument with one or all of three different arguments, and they are that the "Guild Wars" that is referred to in the title was a lore event and not supposed to describe the actual gameplay. The second is that no one actually wants GvG and PvE is superior to PvP. And the third is a variant of the second saying that WvW replaces GvG. So, first of all, GW1 was hugely centered around GvG (at least the PvP portion anyway) and always had been. To just find it flat out missing from GW2 for this long is almost insulting. And so what if it was a lore event? It was a great mode that worked for years and was still working. Why are we ditching this? It would also solve a lot of the current woes we're experiencing right now in sPvP such as selling ranks and fixed games. The second thing is, many who cared about GW2's PvP have long since left because of how much it's stagnating right now, leaving mostly PvE players. And PvE is FINE. There's nothing wrong with it. Neither is there anything wrong with WvW for that matter. But neither of them are or will ever be a replacement to the teamwork-focused Guild vs. Guild. And finally, the mode would bring, I think, even more comraderie between others of the same guild, giving them all something more to really fight for and succeed at together if they so wished. And the spirit of cooperation was and is something that Guild Wars as a whole is known for. We can and should make it better.)

- Attributes tied to gear- Not much skill selection (Although it is now much better than it was.)- Levels 1-79 are pointless and shouldn't exist- Mastery level grinding- Hero point grinding after 80 for Elite specs- Loot boxes (I know that they later backed off on this but I really wanna make a point as to how awful loot boxes are.)- Too much that is account-bound- Not many emotes and emotes are broadcast globally- PvP has a viciously high learning curve (Which is not helped by the complete lack of tutorials in-game for even just simply surviving in PvP. Better and up-to-date tutorials and builds in-game just by themselves would make this a lot better.)- Repeated NPC dialogue in cities (MORE VIOLETS I SAY, LESS VIOLENCE)

What Next:= Honestly, I think I'll leave this up to you guys. One of the reasons is that for me personally, solving all the issues that I laid out above would pretty much make my dream GW game. Another thing is that I don't know what is feasible to make for ANet and what is not.

And that's about it. I dearly hope ANet will look at this but I did all I can do. Although I will add that I can back up pretty much any point made on this list. Specifically why it was for the better or for the worse. I know that making content and features (or even just simply maintaining the game as it is) is a very time-consuming expensive process though and I have a lot of respect for ANet already. If we press on, we can make something even better here. And if I'm hard on GW2, it's because I love it and want it to succeed even more.

Until next time.

guild wars was made by NC soft and not by ArenaNet as ArenaNet was not even a company then when guild wars came out and to compare the two is a insult to Guild wars and NC soft even tho it owns ArenaNet

now i say even tho a wall of text still read it and good and all that but the thing every one for gets and the new players do not understand at all . is this it is ArenaNet and noting is going to change otherwise long as they own this game . it be nice but just not going to happen now i will pick apart your post . but will say this

Guild wars 3 ever is made or comes out even . i highly doubt that it be worth playing given the facts of how badly Guild wars 2 was made with out dated coding and hard ware support . and should they make Guild wars 3 i would not be shocked at all if it was made with DX 10 at the very best !! as well as still no multi core support !! or mid and high end video card support even . hell not even Guild wars 2 supports multi core use or mid and or high end video cards like Vegas 56 or 64

Heart quests/events was a mistake guild wars 2 madeoverall story from living world is as bad as a teen age drama queen
Guild halls have no meaning in this gameGuilds has no meaning in this game2000 GEMS is not a MICRO TRANSACTION for just ONE SKIN !!

hardly any if not next to any background lore at all in this game no moreGuild wars 2 is not even close to Guild Wars at all !!

hot was a badly made dud game expackpof they tried to make it more like Guild Wars but add mounts to it something Guild wars never had

you really kill me trying to compare BLIZZARD to Guild wars 2 :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :pthe way it stands BLIZZARD OUT RUNS Guild Wars 2 IN TO THE GROUND !! and spits on it !!

Blizzard has got DX 11 multi core support and high end video card support for Vegas 56 and 64 980 ti and 1080ti video cardsand multi core support guild wars 2 has none of that !!!Guild vs. Guild or WvW if you will in this game is a joke !!pvp a jokespvp is a joke as well too

24 hours to craft ascend matssoul and account bound mats and gearno skill selection at all compared to Guild wars and world of war craft !!

their is so much more i could go on about but will stop here.but will say this much their is things about guild wars 2 these days that still can make the game fun more so with its free to play long as you buy the newest packs unless your happy with the current packs you gotother wise much of the player base is looking for wards to more better games to come out and replace out dated guild wars2 but for now it does cover the over time till the new games come on in the next year or 2

I would basically hope for two things:1) Account wide hero points: It is tedious to grind all those hero points once again on every toon.2) Build shortcuts. Make it so, that you can make a few builds (traits, gears, ranger pets) and switch between them.

- Levels 1-79 are pointless and shouldn't exist- Mastery level grinding- Hero point grinding after 80 for Elite specs

I don't find any of these to be downsights.

- Repeated NPC dialogue in cities (MORE VIOLETS I SAY, LESS VIOLENCE)

We do not talk about this one. We do not talk about this one!

I just wish they greatly expanded on gw1 with big qol changes, adding open world maps, new worlds to explore, adding new classes, graphics updates and lots of updates.

I overall felt gw1 playstyle was much better. I hate PvP so much in every mmo but the random arenas and alliance battles in gw1 was the best PvP I ever played in an mmo.

Even though there was of course meta builds picking and choosing your own skills and mixing classes caused the game to never get stale.

If they truly devoted the time and money for gw1 overhaul and graphics updates I think it would of truly succeeded.

@WARIORSCHARGEING.2637 said:guild wars was made by NC soft and not by ArenaNet as ArenaNet was not even a company then when guild wars came out and to compare the two is a insult to Guild wars and NC soft even tho it owns ArenaNet

NCsoft is a publisher, not a game developer. GW1 was developed by Arenanet and published by NCsoft.

The ONLY reason Guild Wars 2 was created instead of continuing Guild Wars 1 is because the company wanted to create content they couldn't create using the Guild Wars 1 game engine. That's not the case with Guild Wars 2. I'd be extremely surprised if we only got one more expansion. The game is going strong, it's still making money and expansions are more cost effective than making a whole new game. I strongly suspect this game will hang around another 3-4 years minimum. Making a new MMO today isn't generally something people want to invest in, but keeping an existing one in expansions is much cheaper.

What annoys me the most is that there's NEVER an excitement for the introduction of a new dungeon because there's no dungeons in this mmo. Its the worst kind of feeling when i want to do something in pve.

Keep in mind that wishes for changes are personal opinion/taste/need, not necessarily valid for everybody.Examples:

• OP is saying: "Levels 1-79 are pointless and shouldn't exist". I do not agree on that. Personally, I do love to level up toons and don't want that to disappear. Generally, I believe that players who like the RPG side of the game will not agree on that.
• TamX.1870 is saying: "Account wide hero points: It is tedious to grind all those hero points once again on every toon". Personally, again here, I do not agree on that. HPs are part of the game in many different ways (leveling up of toons thx to XPs, world completion, points for elite and so on...), part of the main activities. Beside, I find good that each toon has some work to do to grow strong and reach elites. To my eyes, it cannot "fall from the sky" to become a hero. It needs work.

Personally, what I do love with GW2 is the variety of the game. It has several sides (PvP, PvE, raid, fractal, WvW, dungeons), allowing various types of players to get their own fun at the big amount of activities possible. This allows for a large community of different persons. I find that very good.PvP players mostly don't care about leveling up a char and PvE: No worries. They can go directly to 80.RPG players will stay in PvE and enjoy leveling up their chars, following storylines.And in all cases, players who don't want the leveling up part of the game can get a booster to 80 at trading post, or use tomes of knowledge, or XP scrolls that we earn fast enough.

So, of course, like everybody, I have wishes (list would be too long, I don't start it). That's normal. However, the problem for Anet is that - as usual - to implement a change will satisfy some and displease others. So they always have to go for compromises, with the consequences that at every changes, they lose some and win others.

@"WARIORSCHARGEING.2637" said:guild wars was made by NC soft and not by ArenaNet as ArenaNet was not even a company then when guild wars came out and to compare the two is a insult to Guild wars and NC soft even tho it owns ArenaNet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_Wars

"Guild Wars is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) series developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSOFT."

The original GW game was published on April 26, 2005. ArenaNet was founded in Spring, 2000.

The topic seems to want to do away with PvE altogether if you're saying levels 1-79 is pointless.What is an RPG without leveling?

@Ayumi Spender.1082 said:The topic seems to want to do away with PvE altogether if you're saying levels 1-79 is pointless.What is an RPG without leveling?

Even arenanet is aware how pointless leveling and core Tyria are. They give away 80lvl boosts and leveling tomes like candies.

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@"Ayumi Spender.1082" said:The topic seems to want to do away with PvE altogether if you're saying levels 1-79 is pointless.What is an RPG without leveling?

I barely get any because I don't PvP or WvW.The only people that I usually hear that it "drop like candy" always say "I always get a ton after WvW and PvP"You don't get enough in the month/dailies to really count for anything.

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@Ayumi Spender.1082 said:The topic seems to want to do away with PvE altogether if you're saying levels 1-79 is pointless.What is an RPG without leveling?

wrong, without the levelling content , this game would be deadthey still have one of the best levelling experiences, maybe even the best in the businessthe problem is from orr and forward, i have never seen worse end game, than this450 mio hearts done in 6 years...those numbers speak for them selves

6, years of dumb dvelopment.....

ANd OP, pvp does not have a high vicious curve,,, u just tneed to play a build to carry u, team up, and practice... gw2 is atually bad at pvp gamplay due how classes are designed mostly for pve, reason theres a conflict in class design that atm are impossible to balance, by one side classes are ment to carry the players with extermelly simple gimick rotations rather the other way wic is a bad thing for pvp, gimicks and somple rotations is not a good thing for pvp gameplay.... WvW is the proof of that all u need to stack is aoe and cleaves u dont need even to know who or what class needs to be hitted, comans are about dodoge cleage and spam comunications, theres no split, ganks, spikes, search for individual classes cause everythign is range and aoe and bonn and condi stacking.. well u get the idea....

My biggest wishes?

First:Abbandon the Hearts! Give us Quests!Give us real quests, let us talk with NPCs, hear their stories, let us go on an adventure with or for them and then let us return to get our rewards.Hearts and Events (And I want to keep the event system) make GW2 the most impersonal experience I've ever had in any MMO title. It doesn't let you connect to the game world. You never feel the connection to certain "quest hubs" like in games of WoW, where I can think right now of at least 10 super awesome such places I have still a "special connection" with and dozens of NPCs which quests I've enjoyed or that gave me good rewards. In GW2 all I can remember is 15+ Areas in each map, where I had to click or kill everything in an area to fill a progress bar, just to get basically no reward at all.

While I think Events (which are already somewhat close to standard quests) are a great addition to the genre, I think Hearts are the most boring thing I've ever encountered and don't get me started about the redoable hearts!

And my second big wish:Rewards. I know GW2 gets praised (mostly by the media) for its good cashhop implementation. I know GW2 needs this money. But when you don't give ppl new classes, new races, new lvl caps, new high level gear or other means to progress the character/account with each expac. When the only thing that is left in the game to "progress" your character way after reaching lvl 80 and ascended gear, when the only thing left for so many players is cosmetics and skins, you can't just continue with the trend of cash shop outfits, mounts etc.

You need replayable content with FUN rewards. Why do I write "fun"? Well, the counter arguments to the "no good rewards" is of course "convert gold to gems". And the counter argument to this is very simple: "Gold to Gem is not fun".If cash shop skins are your answer to all the fashion wars players (which there are a lot of) then you're saying that your game is now only consisting of two or three meta maps, where you grind endlessly for nothing else but gold just so you can in advance (since most stuff is only temporary on the gemstore available) get enough gold to buy something from the store.You are grinding with no specific reward in mind. That's not good.

What I want specifically changed:

• Far longer duration for items on sale, so you can grind the gold or complete the collection within the duration of the sale. Which means you are now suddenly grinding with a specific reward in mind, which can be a fun experience, since your overall reward at the end is no longer 600 gold but a new raptor skin for exmaple. (same thing would happen with the implementation of gemshop item reward tracks or collections)
• Give us collections for the gemstore items, maybe even PvE reward tracks, that can be completed in the same time needed to grind the gold for a "gold to gem conversion" for said item. (Easily achieveable for example by binding certain droprates for collection items procedurally to the gold to gem ratio) And maybe you could use these collections to tie these gemshop items (balthasar outfit, grenth outfit etc) to the lore and the game world and not just make them appear via an UI popup window.
• Give us a tiny chance (like the teq skins for example) to drop certain of these items in fractals dungeons, world bosses.

You still get money from all the people that want these things instantly. But now even those "whales" have after buying something still ingame goals and the rest of the community benefits as well.

we go to vabbi !

I think you are a bit quick to consider the end of GW2 and the start of GW3. GW2 can very well have multiple years still and more expansions.

Regarding whats good and whats bad it is a very individual thing. I am perfectly fine with the way hero points and masteries work, no issues there for me. Also Im a PvE'er and never touch PvP and I actually, genuinely like the story from early personal story to the most recent living story. I could not care less if there is a GvG mode or not.

Leveling in this game is by far the coolest part. Just love how events work, adding new and unexpected in game play.My only beef with gw2 is how dungeons are mind numbing.

@WARIORSCHARGEING.2637 said:guild wars was made by NC soft and not by ArenaNet as ArenaNet was not even a company then when guild wars came out and to compare the two is a insult to Guild wars and NC soft even tho it owns ArenaNet

Guild Wars was also made by Arenanet. GW is released in 2005 as the first game of the studio Arenanet. The studio was founded back in 2000. NCSoft bought it in 2002, but it was always the company who developped GW en GW2, while NCSoft is responsable for the distribution.

I'd be very surprised if we see a Guild Wars 3 in the next 5 years. They only started developing GW2 because there were things they wanted to do which were literally impossible in the first game (like dynamic events) and apparently because of that they designed GW2 to be much more adaptable, so they can change how things work as they go along.

Making a new MMO is very expensive, and risky. Especially for a relatively small company with only 1 series to their name - they'd likely have to abandon GW2 (like they did with GW1) to make a new one, and then they're relying entirely on that new game being successful, which means somehow persuading all the GW2 players to switch to it and/or attracting lots of new people. Making expansions is cheaper, easier and less risky so I suspect they'll stick to that as long as they can. Especially since the lack of level/gear cap increases and the level 80 boost means they can continue to market the game to new players as one you can jump into and start playing without facing months of grind to catch up.

@Ayumi Spender.1082 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@Ayumi Spender.1082 said:The topic seems to want to do away with PvE altogether if you're saying levels 1-79 is pointless.What is an RPG without leveling?

And the only reason you get Tomes in PvP and WvW is because originally they said they wanted it to be possible to level-up by doing only the game mode/s you wanted (that was the actual meaning of 'play the way you want') instead of having to do lots of PvE so you're ready for the part you actually find fun. Then they removed XP gains from first PvP and later WvW, so they added tomes to compensate.

@"Zeefa.3915" said:I think you are a bit quick to consider the end of GW2 and the start of GW3. GW2 can very well have multiple years still and more expansions.

Regarding whats good and whats bad it is a very individual thing. I am perfectly fine with the way hero points and masteries work, no issues there for me. Also Im a PvE'er and never touch PvP and I actually, genuinely like the story from early personal story to the most recent living story. I could not care less if there is a GvG mode or not.

For some reason some people think studios set up a pattern for their game/s in the first few years and then will follow that rigidly from then on. When GW2 launched a lot of people were adamant we'd get an expansion set in Cantha in 2013/14, an expansion set in Elona a year after that, an expansion set in the far north of Tyria a year after that and then GW3...for no other reason than that's what happened in GW1. I even know of one person who is refusing to buy PoF until a Canthan expansion is released because apparently it's "all wrong" to go to Elona first.

Another pvp/wvw drama thread trying to push things around them? Yesterday I readed the "brilliant" idea to allow PVP zones inside PVE.... for what? For let frustrated pvp players go with dedicated builds to kill clueless people who entered the pvp areas unintentionally? To waste resources on creating areas that should be isolated to avoid unwanted situations only for four cats to get inside to break each other's heads together with a few npcs?

Recently i watch through the maps more players that I probably have seen since the beta of these game. So it's absolutly healthier. I remember when people blamed about mounts and now they are loved to the point of blame about their cost. But gems are the form of maintain this game. I usually buy gems with gold like but this time I'll buy a bunch with money for the rest of them I still don't have. With millions of players as base each buy is a new light to the future of the game.

The balance can be improved but you can't force people to play game modes that they don't like or force them inside other game modes. WvW is fun and players go there some frequenly other ocasionally but not all time like hardcore players would like. PvP is another history, who want go to that toxic sewer? Only reading their post in the forums make you avoid it...

Where from now? Split better the game modes, balance more fine with smaller changes but more frequenly till reach a better equilibrium. BUT I just warn you that even with a good balance you'll never stop the QQ. In competitive modes you can be sure that always you'll find nonconformist players raging here and there if things don't go in their favour or how the want.

About PVE. Surprise us, is the best you can do as developers.**But as ideas...:

1. Perhaps some maps profiting the new mechanics of the game, like some between the clouds where you almost are able to literally touch the stars in the night.
2. Profit the 3D editor used in the guild halls to create a more personaliced area as a home, call it housing if you want. You could dedicate an area of the actual one (like Salma) to let build/modify a big house there and it's vicinity. Step by step not afecting the normal update plan and expansion of the game, we have years ahead, i hope.
3. And why not create a rewarded quest with forms and questions to be answered in game about what players will prefer for the future with a final text area to comments? You could use it statistically in the fixed answers and study the comments with a programmed method, searching for key words (I know that read millions of answers will be imposible but you get the idea in that way).** ;)

And for now that's all. Have a nice day.

@"Zoser.7245" said:Another pvp/wvw drama thread trying to push things around them? Yesterday I readed the "brilliant" idea to allow PVP zones inside PVE.... for what? For let frustrated pvp players go with dedicated builds to kill clueless people who entered the pvp areas unintentionally? To waste resources on creating areas that should be isolated to avoid unwanted situations only for four cats to get inside to break each other's heads together with a few npcs?The point most make here isnt what they should do... its that Anet can do it.

The example with PvP in PvE zones which many brush off as "they cant do that on a technical level, PvE zones is PvE!" is perfectly possible because yes, its already been done and the GW2 script engine can do almost anything - and if it cant do something they damn well know how to reprogram it so it can. Anet has already showed us that.

Thats why many would argue that "GW3" in whatever shape or form is not "needed". Some day we will most definetly want a sequel - but GW2 still got a few years.

@"Dreamy Lu.3865" said:Keep in mind that wishes for changes are personal opinion/taste/need, not necessarily valid for everybody.

Definitely yes!

• TamX.1870 is saying: "Account wide hero points: It is tedious to grind all those hero points once again on every toon". Personally, again here, I do not agree on that. HPs are part of the game in many different ways (leveling up of toons thx to XPs, world completion, points for elite and so on...), part of the main activities. Beside, I find good that each toon has some work to do to grow strong and reach elites. To my eyes, it cannot "fall from the sky" to become a hero. It needs work.

Yeah, I understand, but you certainly also understand that at some point it is becoming tedious to run all over the world once again after those points. Luckily gliding & mounts are account-wide, so your new toon is better equip'd for that. That's why I wouldn't mind them to be account-wide like mastery insights. You will anyways have lots of other things to do with your new toon, like gearing up, so growing up to a hero still wouldn't drop from sky automatically.

But anyways, that's a minor personal hope. My gaming experience would very much improve if I would have a mechanism to switch between builds (preset traits with matched gears, weapons and pets). Doing it manually is slow and very error-prone, which you will only notice too late in the middle of the fight. Something like three tabs in build panel to store the setups, please? I wouldn't even mind if those tabs would be "dummy" so that if you want to have similar piece in specific slot, you would need to create similar pieces.

@battledrone.8315 said:they still have one of the best levelling experiences, maybe even the best in the business

I agree. Leveling up toons au natural in this game is so much more fun than in any other game I have played. They should keep it like that.