Will GW2 come too late?

Here it is, the end of July, and GW has had nothing new added since the Bonus Mission Packs last November.

I know once-avid players who are drifting away because they've done everything they want to do. Even I have maxed out a couple of titles just to keep myself occupied.

Possibly if PvP held even the remotest interest it might be different, but I like storylines. You can't get better than Scrabble for PvP anyway, imo/

There's been no news of GW2 and nothing to keep us interested. I gather from these forums that the new CR manager doesn't even read them, so there's no synergy between ANet and the community any more.

If GW2 comes out in say, March 2009, that's a long long wait for a new game.
They say it will still be free to play, which is probably good because I don't know how many games you can afford to play on an extort-the-players-by- charging-twice basis.

I've tried some other free-to-play games but they're looking pretty feeble.

I'm just wondering whether GW can sustain itself until GW2 comes out, and if GW2 will still have a market when it finally does come out.

It is a long time to wait, I know I'll still be interested as I'm not one of the jaded lot who have lost faith in the game. I have to say, I don't blame them, I just still have things that I enjoy ingame.


However, I do agree that GW2 may indeed come too late to salvage some players who would ordinarily have transferred from GW1. Nevertheless, with the influx of new players I don't think this will necasserily harm the game itself. It may, however, have a profound effect on the community, forcing the formation of a new community rather than just the relocation of the current one.

I'll be still around! I know that much.

GW will definately begin to wind down in the time approaching GW2. However, it may pick up again just before the release of GW2 as potential players come to try the original before investing in the sequal and as old-timers attempt to fill their HoM before making the crossover.

I think GW2 would have benefited from a later announce date, so that ANet would be at the point they can release footage/information at a general rate and keep interest.

Sure, announcing GW2 helped keep some interest in 1 due to HoM and the knowledge that the sequel was coming, but it creates the current gap between announcement and information, which is almost worse than no announcement at all.

Well GW has or had features most others MMORPG don't, so its not like the community that was interested on those features will jump to more traditional MMORPG.

Diablo III might be the main threat to GW2, so Anet need to be careful when to lunch GW2 and they need to make sure they dont make the same mistakes they did in GW and do that with a good system that allows them revenue, since the chapter structure clearly didn't make that.

Its not worth worrying about it will come when it comes and you will certainly know when gw2 is a few months off because the publicity will get into gear and the game mags will start reviewing.

It could be on time it could be late, look at Stalker Shadow of Chernoble that was 4 years late according to many sources.

Problem seems to be you have developer companies who place orders for games to be written the approximate release date is made and the finances made available to the company doing the code.
These companies are often small in size when delays happen the developer is often against handing over more money or allowing more time.
Its often why games come out on time but bugged or very late.
Its also accounts for developers announcing games way in advance of any realistic release date, with very sparse details that turn out to be wrong anyway.

As for added content to gw we have been a little spoilt as most games don't get anything more than a few fixes if they are lucky.
Your probably better off playing something else rather than playing gw1 till your sick of it.

Since GW doesn't have new content, and it's not likely going to, then at some point it has to die out. The PvE aspect was never intended to last forever since it isn't a subscription MMORPG.

Don't get me wrong - I'm kind of addicted to GW and play every day! But, once I've done it all, there are plenty of other new games coming out to take its place until GW2 comes out. And even then, I'm going to wait and see what they've done with it to decide if I want to buy it or not.

Would next spring be too late? Maybe, for those who are wanting to transfer from GW to GW2. (And ANet has built up that expectation by the HoM - not that your characters & equipment directly transfer, but the association, and also the investment in it.) But not too late for it to be a new game with (hopefully) unique aspects to it to set it apart from the crowd.

You do realize that BETA or even ALPHA is probably not coming in March 2009? More like March 2010.

proof? Or house of LIES >_>

WARhammer: Age of Reconing is coming, look busy.

Hell, the master and all of his minions is returning, look busy.

oh i have forgot about gw's 2 already.

warhammer and d3 are both going to rock the socks off WoW and Gw's 2.

d3 being the better (than gw2) free to play (Bnet > Anet)
and warhammer being the better (than wow) pay to play.

@ the poster above me, can i make sweet man love to your avatar :P

Im not sure about everyone else, but I am getting really tired of the doom and gloom threads.

Yes, GW2 is a year or two off. Yes, there will most likely not be huge GW additions before then. Take a break from it people! If you have good memories of GW then when you hear GW2 has been released you can pick it up. How many people are active all the way through until then is no indication on how GW2 will fare. It would probably be better if some people took breaks between them. When GW2 does come out, it will be ready for you. Until then you can either enjoy GW (which many people still do) or you can go play something else for a bit (which could be a good thing, obsessing over one item is usually seen as a bad thing) or mix those two up a bit. But please stop with the 'they arent giving us enough' bs, they have given us a LOT for the little we paid in comparison. I think GW2 will do just fine as long as people dont expect it to give them the moon and the stars.

GW may die out for many long time players, but there are new players starting all the time. I know of no law that says you are allowed to like only one game, so if you burn out, try something else. If you liked GW I am sure you will at least give GW2 a look at when it is released. As for myself, I do things so slowly I have more than enough to keep me busy until GW2 is released.

To late on that.

You do realize that GW2 still has about a month before it enters it's second year of full development. When one is designing a new game, it's not exactly going to take 5 months and then be done with it. There probably isn't much to exactly see the first year of development anyways. They announced GW2 before they even went into full development. I'll be surprised if they make their expected late 2009/early 2010 release.

You'll no doubt hear about GW2. Once Anet releases some news about GW2 it'll spread like a virus.

As KiyaKoreena said, take a break. Play something else until GW2. No one is holding a gun to your head demanding you to play GW.


I am tired of them as well.

GW2 may have benefited from a later announce date, but then we'd all be wondering why Anet wasn't releasing their regular 6-monthly update. Now at least we know they're working on a new game.

And I agree that a new community will probably form. There are people who will drift away because they leave school and stop playing games in the meantime. In our guild we've had that happen with a couple of people, they're writing final exams and then just never log on again.

We have about two kids left, one is on final year and hasn't been seen for a couple of months; the other, at 14, is getting bored and restless.

I still log on most days, though if there's no guildie wanting help I tend not to play. I do a bit of occasional mapping or title-chasing, but not for long; usually I like to have at least one other person to play with and chat to, preferably live voice. I seem to be running out of those!

The weekly guild event usually attracts the majority of active players, and that can be fun. We've come up with some really crazy ways to get heroes into The Deep! Though some weeks nobody turns up at all.

If I'm honest, I'm probably hoping Anet will surprise us with another expansion pack or two to keep us busy until GW2. 2010? Is that for real?

It would be interesting to get an informed overview of the gaming market: ages and drop-out rates and life expectancy of a game. Do the kids move onto other games, or do they just leave games behind along with their toys?

I would also think there's an opportunity to market GW as a stand-alone game once GW2 comes out, though it would need a little adapting.

I keep hearing this over and over again and maybe it's right but as I always say, if Anet didn't announce GW2 when they did we would be wondering where in the world our next couple of chapters are by now. I think if Anet didn't tell us that work on GW2 was starting, we'd be even more worried about the state of Guild Wars.

When will there be a beta?
Although we publically alpha- and beta-tested the original Guild Wars while it was still in early development, with Guild Wars 2 we will commence beta testing closer to the game's release. With that in mind, we will not start beta testing in 2008 as we had originally planned. Guild Wars 2 is a very large and ambitious game, and Guild Wars players rightfully have very high expectations of its quality. We want players to be absolutely blown away by the game the first time they experience it.

http://guildwars.com/products/guildwars2/gw2faq/

Thus indicates beta will not be out until 2009 at the earliest...

I would be very surprised if we get a beta before Q3 09.

They officialy said that there will be no beta in 2008. Means we will prolly see a full game in 2010

Why does everybody think they possibly COULD have announced it later? I mean really, their expected one game every 6 months schedule is suddenly missing with no news about it coming in, everybody would have left immediately. Now that they announced they have plans and their concepts thrown out, everybody whines that they cant come out right on time.

Games dont take 1 year to make, they dont take two. Honestly, design an entire world from scrath using code and lets see how long it takes you to do it. Some of the best games have taken 5+ years to come out, you think their fanbase is dying? Look at StarCraft

All you people need to stop whining about OMG THEY ANNOUNCED EARLY, or OMG THEYRE NOT SERVING ME NEW STUFF NOW TO KEEP ME INETERESTED. You think all of the original StarCraft klan is still together gaming all the time? Some elitests are, but most moved on. But when it comes out, there will be a huge rush to buy them. Just like GW2.

gg.

Answer to your guild problem: find a new guild.

Yes 2010, Anet even said GW2 could even be released in early 2010. You're forgetting game development takes years, not a couple of months.

If you're tired of GW take a break, no one is forcing you to play GWs. You'll no doubt hear about GW2 when something new is released on it. It'll end up on every gaming website.

yes, while the guy I said what I said too, was saying that there would not be a beta OR Alpha til 2010 >_>

I already knew that there would be a beta in 2009 at the earliest but NO ONE has mentioned that it defo won't be til 2010

Well, with GW as a no monthly fee game it has always been one that people can pick up and play then go away and come back again.

So, I am pretty sure that even if GW2 doesn't come out till sometime in 2010 people will buy it and play it if they liked playing GW.

I would rather play another game or just chill out for a while and let the devs create a great new game then get "more of the same" content in GW1. I want GW2 to be the best it can be, not something slapped together because they were busy creating something new in GW1.

Krat

My 2cents - the only reason why I still play GW is that I haven't found anything else I like. Whether or not I play GW2 depends upon whether or not something else comes along first.

First of all, March of 2009 is a big stretch. It'll probably be late Summer of 2009 at the earliest (still a stretch).

Second of all, I agree with you. Regina is radiating epic fail when it comes to actually talking to the community.

Third, there have been rumors of new content coming in August, so don't uninstall just yet.

Fourth, it's not really Anet's goal to keep 100% of their player base. I mean... think about it. Out of all the people who play GW now, at least 1/3 of them are not planning on buying GW2, so why should Anet care whether they come or go? Anet is interested in revamping their player-base as well as their game, so it's not at the top of their to-do list to please every. Single. Player.

Edit: Whoops, double post. Sorry

As far as i can see no one in this thread has said it'll definately be out in 2010... It's pure speculation and to be honest... Realistically i can't see it making a 09 release either. You've got to take into consideration that Anet will most likely have various stages of beta testing over the course of a year to make sure the game is in tip top condition to be released. MMORPG's are really fragile games and the slightest bug/error can cause huge problems so Anet will not rush this game after 1 short beta.

I think that Anet is just currently peddling along with the minimum of effort to keep GW going. The emphasis has been to try and level the PvP with some minor concessions to PvE. Look Bioware made an announcement about their up an coming MMO in 2006 with not extra news until just recent rumours that it was going to be Star Wars based.

'BioWare Corp. Announces New "BioWare Austin" Studio
New Studio Recruiting for Massively Multiplayer Online RPG Project
EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada, March 13, 2006'

Blizzard has announced Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 with wonderful pomp and ceremony (Eat your heart out Elgar). They have a new World of Warcraft expansion coming out shortly too. Blizzard will only bring out the stuff when it is ready and they state as much, but they do feed the fans tit bits.

All I know about GW2 is way over a year ago. A bit like the Bioware MMO, which I suspected had bombed, but maybe not.

I really hope they deliver a good one with GW2, but who knows, time I guess will tell.

Personally, in terms of release dates. I have to say that it may be late 09, it may be in 2010, it may be in 2011.

Games take a long time to make, we don't know how far they are into development, for all we know. They could have all the concept art done and just don't plan to show it til later this year or they could still be working on the concept art.

I say we just wait and see, be paitent, go play other games. There is no guy holding a gun at you (Read: No monthly subscription) making you play.

And as for those saying they announced it too early, as others have said, if they didn't announce it. People would be complaining about no new campaigns/expansions anyway. At least we know they are working on a new game instead of wondering why they haven't announced a new campaign/expansion

I think Anet need to update us on the roadmap to GW2. We know a few things, but it's like a blurred vision of what's going to happen. I get the feeling they're either too risk-avoiding, or waiting to make a big-bang announcement. I'm convinced that GW2 will be at minimum great (if not mind-blowing) but it feels more and more difficult to imagine what the GW2 world will be, with so many players saying they're leaving or left, or won't go into GW2 for this or that reason. I believe in Anet's capability to make a technical feat of the level of GW1 (with streaming updates, instances, etc.), but I'm unsure they're managing their game world in a manner that suits the population. Silence brings doubt which feeds confusion and trolls (if I were a Blizzard boy, I'd surely create threads to make GW players realise that "there's no hope"...).

Or maybe it's the "GWG depression effect"?

ANet isn't looking at a whole lot of competition in the coming years, but rather huge competition. Like, HUGE huge. D3? Oh hell.

All in all, it'll be a while before we see anything. But I can't say I'm really comforted. They'll need a lot in order to keep them persistent servers up.

Don't worry. All those people saying they wont go to gw2 will because when they see the pretty screenshots and in game videos they'll be like WOH I wana play

First one out gets my hard earned dollar D3 or GW2, anyone listening?

This is not a thread about which guild to join but about marketing strategy. If you've spent any time in marketing/advertising at all, you should know that consistency is key to success. In the games market, I would guess innovation is fundamental. ANet is failing on both counts. Hence the title of the post, which some people are polite enough to discuss intelligently.

Last I checked they were free-to-play, so you can play both you know. Even if you say 'I don't have the time' you can still get both and play D3 one day and GW2 another day.

I believe we should give Anet all the time they need to develop a great game...
No need for extra pressure and "cmon reveal the most important features now" threads.

If you still like playing the game - like me - keep on doing it.
If you feel bored or i don't know what, then take a break and do whatever you like..this is a game and you should feel happy and relaxed when you enjoy it.

From marketing pov pls allow me to add my 2 cents -actually these are basics but some of us keep on ignoring them...
1) Product in marketing is number 1 priority. If the product called GW2 is crap there is no point of return... So it's logical to invest all the time they need to make sure it will meet customers expectations. Don't push to release it earlier.
2) Competition: I am sure they know better than everyone the competition they face. If they don't plan to release GW2 in the near future, why should they release "vital" game details to competitors so early? The logical reaction should be Anet to monitor what competitors did or plan to do (if they launch earlier than Anet) and counter-attack.
3) "Customers that stop playing": GW seems to be towards the end of it's product life cycle. This means that it is not the best period for "investments" since these "investments" won't bring you back the revenue you expect. If i remember correctly they've already stated that they put all their effort in GW2 and not in updates for GW, so there is no "inconsistency" either.
Also, those who don't play the game anymore, may start playing it again when GW2 is released. So it's false to talk about "lost market share". I believe the objective for Anet is to create a game that will not only sustain current players base but will make it much bigger.

my2cents - i apologise for my english since i am not a native speaker.

Depends on the answer to the age-old question:
Will I remain a child at heart and continue playing video games?

If yes - then no.
If no - then yes.

it seems to me that a lot of people are assuming that the other games people are waiting for will all be coming out on time.

they won't you know.

And GW2 will : \?

Where did you get the number " at least 1/3 of the players now aren’t planning on buying GW2". Is that some crap you pulled out of your ...

Or did you actually ask every single GW player and find that "At least" 1/3 of them aren’t going to purchase GW2?

Just wondering.

Well u can't rush perfection, even though it might not be perfect lol. Unless they add a auction house...

I sincerely agree, but you can't help but fear that servers will be "relatively empty" (look at the small towns in the 3 GW continents atm...). I think that the coming online games/MMOs are so huge (as Bryant said) that people won't feel like playing too many of these in parallel. Look at Blizzard's SC2 and D3, Stargate, Startrek, Warhammer and dozens others. Sure they appeal to different people, but I don't think that GW2 can play in the same sandbox as GW1 given what was said about it (I can't imagine world PvP with few people, or the events to rock the world if only people new to the game attempts them). I'll be on the GW2 without much doubts, given the unequaled value for money (from my point of view of course, I won't try to convince anyone here of this), but I'm unsure if the accumulated history of problems, changes, or lack of changes COMBINED with the huge competition will not make GW2 a less enjoying experience.

You forgot the timing, releasing an astounding game too late (or too early) will kill it in its egg before it's become a beautiful bird. Technically I have almost total confidence in Anet, it's not the problem.

Competitors are way ahead in terms of game features announced or even demonstrated. Look at the SC2, D3, warhammer videos, they're eye-catching, very impressive and it already looks like a very-well advanced. Even Stargate just released its first combat videos and startrek will launch soon. And I doubt that at this point during a software development a company can say " oh that's a cool feature of GW2, let's put it in our game!".

And I can't believe that they can't release any sort of info, even if it's not about the technical system, art, story or gameplay, but about how well they're progressing, the kind of difficulties they encounter or what alpha testers are saying.

You're quite right, a lot of people havfe exhausted what Anet gave us in GW1, if not for HoM and GWAMM. But I'm convinced that there's another investment that should not be underestimated: the one into players' emotional attachment to GW, you can read in the forums that despite the apparent detachment of players from the game, they still care a lot and are hurt for this or that reason (even if they don't play anymore). You can't manage the GW1 community for a while, stop doing it and hope that they'll back on GW2 without any kind of anger at the feeling that they've been left alone. Investing in GW2 is also about investing on a continued relationship with the GW1 players, their support and the transition into the new community management (it's not been a transition, it's alsmot been the silence).

Or they may not. Maybe they'll be so much into other games that they'd have forgotten GW. Or maybe their bad souvenirs of the GW disasters (I know it's a strong word) will make them think "why bother?". Or maybe they'll know that they prefer to pay2play rather than free2play because of tons of reasons.

I know all these things are a matter of relative perception and all of us have different views, I'm not saying I'm more right than anyone else. I'd be SOOO happy to be proven wrong (and as I said, I'll be in GW2 without much doubts...).