Thoughts about GW3 [Merged]

[Blur.3465]

Not very happy about it.
As someone who grew up in Guild Wars 1 and lived and breathed in that game, the existance of GW2 killed my desire to keep playing GW1 given we all moved to GW2.
I love GW2, of course, but I love GW1 more 😞
I fear it's going to be the same with GW3. Those who are now loving GW2 and putting so much time and effort into it are going to stop doing it and just lose desire to play the game knowing there's something new looming over that will get all the support. 

EDIT:
If GW3 came with a more serious tone and vibe, better graphics and overall more grounded tone...it would have my attention.
But right now I'm not too excited about it, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Edited March 28 by Blur.3465

[Elric.4713]

Sounds like a good thing to me, this game is past it's prime and it's only going to go down from here and since Anet failed to launch other games and franchises they need to at least stay relevant with GW as a franchise.

[Ultimaistanza.4793]

If it's true, I hope it works out good. One thing I worry about though that feels very possible, is that GW3 will end up being a mobile game. Mobile is NCSoft's highest earners and their IR presentations are filled with highlights going on about the "conversion of PC to Mobile". Like they even highlight their business strategy as; creating a "Solid foundation built based on PC legacy games with original IPs" and then "Explosive growth achieved by conversion of PC legacy IPs to mobile platform".

Here's the IR presentation documents link; https://kr.ncsoft.com/en/ir/irArchive/irPresentation.do 

[Batalix.2873]

5 hours ago, purp.1806 said:

Executives (especially Korean executives; and I say this as a Korean) also tend to speak out of their bunghole, especially when the company is facing an 8-year deficit. Overseas IPs are the bread and butter of Korean entertainment, so of course they're going to boost it up like a savior to NCSoft's global expansion.

It could be crisis PR, but it could very well be him not knowing the full extent of the Guild Wars IP.

The (translated) article does make the entire thing seem quite likely to be crisis PR, beyond anything that could be attributed to mere translation.

He outright acknowledges that NCWest/ANet/GW2 is "unprofitable", and tries to handwave that away with expectations of profitability "soon" (despite NCWest being 16 years old and GW2 being 12 years old).

He also states that they didn't publish their revenue breakdowns because it is "in line with other company's policies", which is very clearly avoiding the issue.

That said, the fanbase's response to this is disgustingly juvenile. Not only is all this sunk-cost whining totally ignoring how direly unsupported GW2 development has been since 2019/2020 (which sources tend to indicate is just as much due to ANet mismanagement of projects as it is lack of NCSoft funding/approval), but also totally ignorant of the fact that GW3 was being tossed around as an idea during that whole 2019/2020 shift-up.

Put bluntly, NCSoft/ANet do not have their act together. They have tried starting work on GW3 at least once and got nowhere in five years. GW3 is not a threat to your GW2 content in the immediate future. But even if it were, you should be celebrating it because GW2 is on its way out one way or another. It is not receiving active development we see on the scale of properly support MMOs like WoW/FFXIV, and most development has been very low-resource and made with the idea of future-proofing the game to run more low-resource (see WvW). It has an old engine that no new developer talent will want to work with, old mechanics/systems that better-looking games are already poaching, and a keyboard interface and complex systems that are simply not marketable to the broader modern casual/gamer market. GW2 is waning, and you should  be less worried about whether GW3 has any sort of effect on that, and more about whether ANet will even survive to keep the game live up until GW3 comes out, or if it goes under and you end up with nothing but private server hosts.

[Ashantara.8731]

Has this been actually confirmed?

If so, it would explain why they have spent the most part of the last two years brushing up GW2 with QoL updates (namely preparing the game for a near-maintenance mode) and why they no longer release proper playable content. 😄

Edited March 28 by Ashantara.8731

[Pifil.5193]

10 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Has this been actually confirmed?

If so, it would explain why they have spent the most part of the last two years brushing up GW2 with QoL updates (namely for a near-maintenance mode) and why they no longer release proper playable content. 😄

Not quite confirmed the chairman of NCSoft said in a pretty hostile investor meeting that ArenaNet were working on it but later did clarify that “the Guild Wars 3 project is in the review stage, and the start of development has not been finalized.” (translated by google translate so maybe not exactly word for word).

They apparently want ArenaNet to "focus" on GW2 expansions for now. I don't think that SotO and other mini expansions is a good example of them "focusing" on GW2 so who knows what that really means.

Edited March 28 by Pifil.5193

[Astralporing.1957]

10 minutes ago, Pifil.5193 said:

Not quite confirmed the chairman of NCSoft said in a pretty hostile investor meeting that ArenaNet were working on it but later did clarify that “the Guild Wars 3 project is in the review stage, and the start of development has not been finalized.” (translated by google translate so maybe not exactly word for word).

They apparently want ArenaNet to "focus" on GW2 expansions for now. I don't think that SotO and other mini expansions is a good example of them "focusing" on GW2 so who knows what that really means.

It can be both ways. They have been known to make statements about GW projects that weren't exactly correct in the past (like mentioning expansion in the works when Anet was still going through first phases of LS1, and wanted Living World to be the way of releasing new content for the game). On the other hand this time that was a statement to shareholders, not the press, and misleading shareholders already angry at poor results of your company is usually not a good idea.

So, were at one of two options: first, acting CEO does not know what Anet really works on, or, second, he does know, and told the truth, but they don't want the public to know yet. 

Notice, that if it really is incorrect, we should be expecting official Anet statement from @Rubi Bayer.8493 to that end any time now, because them being silent on the issue will be considered a confirmation by at least some players.

[Redhaierd.7095]

gamemeca.com

 

Quote

translated by google

However, until now, the Guild Wars series has been serviced only in North America and Europe, and does not support Korean service or language. Attention is being paid to whether Guild Wars 3, which is under development, will be serviced in Korea.

 

[2024.03.28 16:55 update]

 

NCSoft corrected itself by saying, “The Guild Wars 3 project is in the review stage, and the start of development has not been finalized.

hopefully the VR and AI tech are developed faster that GW3 development. It would be interesting to play guild wars in VR mode XD

[Shagie.7612]

idk, i sorta lost interest in GW2's story after EoD. like, i didn't think the story was the best they've done, but i was really happy to see the end to something that had been 10 years in the making. same way i'll probably be with a bunch of other live service games, even ones i don't play anymore.
i think it would be super neat to see another timeskip and to see what happens in the future just like GW1->GW2's

realistically GW2 wasn't gonna last forever, and i'm not entirely opposed to starting fresh even if it stings losing the convenience options and whatever else i've gotten over the game's life. it just has to be good.

i think this was a really, really dumb way to drop this information though.

[Astralporing.1957]

5 hours ago, DeanBB.4268 said:

GW1 is still running. I wouldn't expect GW2 to shut down.

GW1 can function because it was basically turned into a solo-play game, but do you imagine doing, say, Soo-Won solo? I don't. And if the GW3 announcement is actually true, then GW2 will empty really fast.

[SlateSloan.3654]

it will be a point N click adventure of a group of teenagers who want to save their friend who got into the hands of a mad scientist who lives in a mansion with his family.

[Firebeard.1746]

The only thing I'd want is like an engine update and/or systems update. If they're going to tell me to start all over again after the 6-8 years I've invested in this game, I'm gonna cry. I'm 95th percentile in terms of owned legendaries. I've invested a lot into this game under the promise it was the final installment and believing in permanent progress, I refuse to start over.  

[Firebeard.1746]

8 hours ago, sanguigasm.1325 said:

If anything I hope it's an action rpg

If it was a completely different experience and genre with them continuing to update and work on GW2, I'd totally be down. I love ARPGs, just don't make me MMO all over again.

Edited March 28 by Firebeard.1746

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

2 minutes ago, Firebeard.1746 said:

under the promise it was the final installment

Can you cite said promise?

[Nate Anabe.6091]

From reading it is much ado about nothin'. 

[Elricht Kaltwind.8796]

Praying that Guild Wars 3 takes place way back in time before all the sci-fi stuff and more closely resembles the original game; brings guilds back to the forefront and all the fun social elements that go along with it; and becomes way, way less of an eyesore and makes an effort to retain those design elements. I haven't logged on in a good while now and I feel that the current game may have pushed me a little too far beyond my tolerance for pink fluffy cat pillows and high-tech everything.

[Firebeard.1746]

17 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Can you cite said promise?

I thought I heard something to that effect, but I can't find it. That being said, i found proof they were intending for this installment to last at least another 10 years (I believe this is from 2022):

Looking Back on the First Decade of 〈Guild Wars 2〉 Bobby Stein, Narrative Director & Aaron Coberly, Art Director at Arenanet (ncsoft.com)

Though really breaking up the game into a new installment generally hasn't worked well for MMOs. And the most popular MMOs are ones that have stuck around for longer and had devs do new things/fix them over time. 

If they want to release a new client with better visuals or update systems, great. But making players start over, is very blech. They can use the mastery system on newer installments to help players still be able to operate relatively well in other environments kind of like how they gave everyone with SoTo the ability to unlock the skyscale. 

 

I'd also be fine if it was a completely different genre and developed alongside GW2. 

Edited March 28 by Firebeard.1746

[DeanBB.4268]

24 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

GW1 can function because it was basically turned into a solo-play game, but do you imagine doing, say, Soo-Won solo? I don't. And if the GW3 announcement is actually true, then GW2 will empty really fast.

No no no,  it'll be great soloing the world bosses, adjusted for any party size.

[DartPancake.5360]

I understand people who want to stop playing. I hope ANet will clarify what they will do with all achievements, legendaries, items from store. If we will start from scratch - what's the point of playing now if all of it can become dust in few years?

That would be great if GW3 will be just reskin of GW2 with refactored code, so they can add content faster, use more modern technologies, etc and all data from GW2 will be transfered to GW3

But anyway - I started playing GW2 on release and in 2024 I don't feel that GW2 is old game

Edited March 28 by Petrified.9826

[Kalavier.1097]

7 minutes ago, Petrified.9826 said:

I understand people who want to stop playing. I hope ANet will clarify what they will do with all achievements, legendaries, items from store. If we will start from scratch - what's the point of playing now if all of it can become dust in few years?

That would be great if GW3 will be just reskin of GW2 with refactored code, so they can add content faster, use more modern technologies, etc and all data from GW2 will be transfered to GW3

But anyway - I started playing GW2 on release and in 2024 I don't feel that GW2 is old game

Considering how GW3 is not even announced, I think people really should stop screaming about it.

Believe it when it's officially announced, don't build rumors up sky high.

[Laughing Bat.1570]

Really don't get all the doomsaying over a possible gw3. GW2 was never going to go on forever.  I'm hoping it's true. Let the next 3-4 of these smaller expansions set the stage for gw3.

I'd love to see them build on the HoM idea. Hell play with time and let it go both ways (unlock gw2 trinkets by playing gw3.)

[DartPancake.5360]

8 minutes ago, Laughing Bat.1570 said:

Really don't get all the doomsaying over a possible gw3. GW2 was never going to go on forever.  I'm hoping it's true. Let the next 3-4 of these smaller expansions set the stage for gw3.

I'd love to see them build on the HoM idea. Hell play with time and let it go both ways (unlock gw2 trinkets by playing gw3.)

WoW will not be forever too, but if you played from 2004 you still have items from that time, you still have achievements from 2008, mounts from that time, wardrobe which you collected.

I think what many people, and me too,  are afraid of is that people will divide between two games and ANet will just close GW2 and wipe almost all that we did in GW2. I don't want my time spent in GW2 to become a few titles in GW3

Edited March 28 by Petrified.9826

[Kalavier.1097]

Nothing is confirmed, nothing is announced. Stop doomsdaying and flailing about it.

 

[Randulf.7614]

2 minutes ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

Nothing is confirmed, nothing is announced. Stop doomsdaying and flailing about it.

 

Thsi really. I'm not keen on the idea, but it's not like any amount of forum feedback will decide for NCSOFT whether to make a game or not. It will either happen or it wont.

If it does, well my backlog is massive so I'll have the time to catch up. But it's years in the future if it does regardless. It's not an imminent problem.

Enjoy what is in front of us

[Izzy.2951]

19 minutes ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

Considering how GW3 is not even announced, I think people really should stop screaming about it.

Believe it when it's officially announced, don't build rumors up sky high.

Do you think that the CEO of NCsoft wouldnt know if a AAA MMORPG that will likely cost them 200 million euros and 6 years of development is not in the works, to confirm Arenanet is currently working on GW3? they didnt ask him about when is the next wvw alliance beta lol

Im amazed by the amount of people trying to deny the reality that GW3 is a thing and that GW2 is in the same moment GW1 was with GW:Beyond and QoL updates. Even when the unnanounced project started back in 2022 you started seeing this, i guess if you wanna be blind and get ur head smash in a few years when you have proper trailers about GW3 then its up to you.

And in what universe will you think arenanet will shoot their foot by saying they are working on GW3 and doing low-hanging fruit in GW2 and milking money from it (aka recycled SoTo content, gyala delve...). When they even said they had a refocus on gw2. They are just gonnna say they are working in GW2 mini expansions and thats it, but again thats a lie.

Edited March 28 by Izzy.2951