Dwarves in GW2 *spoilers*

This is a good point. The Norn, Charr, Asura, and Sylvari are all relatively original races, whereas the Dwarves are very much a RPG architype taken from Tolkien originally, though obviously Anet isn't the only (or the worst) culprit. It makes a lot of sense that now that Anet has some original races to put in, they want to bury the Dwarves.

It seems that A-Net made new races, but it's more like they reskinned already existing races.

Asura: Small yet intelligent creatures that invent wondrous things but occasionally hurts others when their inventions go haywire. They used to live underground. They consider all other races as potential slave labor.
Gnomes: Small, Bearded, intelligent creatures that create wondrous unreliable inventions that hurt just about as much as they help. They usually live underground and consider all other races ignorant of their skills in a jokingly manner.

Charr: A tribal Warlike race that hates humans and want to rule the world by force and fire.
Orcs: A tribal warlike race that hates humans and want to rule the world by force and setting their foes on fire.

Slyvari: Nature people
Elves: Nature people with long pointy ears.

I hope I'm not the only one that sees the connection.

Does the dwarves turning into stone have anything to do with the Stone Summit?

Any clues on the reasons for the Stone Summit name?

ahh, got ya.

I've always assumed it was just the name of their original power base, somewhere in some part of the Shiverpeaks we never actually see.

I think in this case the differences matter more than the similarities:

The Charr are "ork-like"; but now the Shamans have been overthrown, they could be a challenge to the gods themselves. Unlike orcs that (traditionally) serve a higher evil power, the "new" Charr have no masters.

The Asura are more goblin based than gnome based, at least originally. But, yes, the similarity has been pointed out before. The Aztec/Mayan theme is pretty original, though.

The Sylvari are actually the opposite of elves: They are the youngest race, and they have the least experience. Since they are born from pods (as opposed to elves which traditionally reproduce normally); they are pretty unique despite the whole "love nature" thing. Sylvari seem closer to Dryads than elves.

The Dwarves are different from all these because they were, well, Dwarves: short, stocky humanoids that lived underground and mined stuff. I mean, there was nothing unique about them. Of course now they are made of Stone, they are more unique, but I doubt Anet will allow us to play a Stone Dwarf... (it would ruin there uniqueness to see hundreds of stone dwarves in town selling crap).

It's very hard to come up with something entirely new in fantasy. As the previous poster stated, here the differences are more important than the similarities - and if nothing else, the fact that the Charr and Asura are a bit less like humans with only a couple of nonhuman features and maybe a different skin colour is a significant difference.

The Norn, for instance, remind me a lot of the Cheysuli from the Chronicles of the Cheysuli, after a growth spurt and with a little Norse mixed in.