A Letter to Our Fans [from Mike O'Brien]

We just posted this to our website:

Sounds like 2011 is now confirmed

At least they finally broke the silence.

I wonder what they think is going to keep people interested until 2010/11?

Thanks for posting, Regina. I probably would have missed this otherwise.

'When it's done'

You guys learned that from Blizzard didn't you?

Anyway, thanks for the communication.

hrmz this does not help at all actually. It actually confirms that Anet is unsure of when they will be able to release the game, since they tell their investor that the launch will be much later then anticipated, hence the word "delay" I was quite comfortable not knowing anything, this actually shaken my believe just a little bit lol. oh well.

So the game is most likely going to be released in 2011, and we're not going to get any information until at least 2010? I really don't understand this business plan. Announce game in 2007, no good information until at least 2010, and nothing to keep players interested?

Oh well, at least Blizzard will be able to keep me entertained until then.

thx mr. gw person! ^__^

i wonder if the live team was created because of this
or if that was an entirely separate thought process...i.e. they mite consider doin sumptin additional on top of the live team?

i think that is blizzards exact words. i wish they would do some | other things like blizzard......

Life

Other games

School

Friends

Titles

I practically quit GW 1 except to sign on and talk to my guildies. Still gonna check out GW2 though.

Enough with the trying to read between the lines and putting words in their mouth. Why do people have problems with honesty? They're being as honest as they can be within their NDA.

Good on them for saying "O hai". They didn't have to waste time quelling the chuntering of the vocal minority.

Nothing in that letter said that. Again, assumptions.

Not to be negative, but I'm glad to hear you're proud of what your team has accomplished GW2 wise, because none of your players are.

"We'll have a lot more to say when we're closer to release."

So, we'll finally hear about what GW2 is and if it even exists in 2010 or 2011? "closer to release" is a pretty broad statement this far out. Seriously, if you even had the slightest doubt that the game wouldn't have any information released until 2010 at the earliest (which is what this statement implies,) why in the bluest of all hells did you announce the game in 2007? That's absurd.

This entire past week has justified my subscription to WoW more and more, while also confirming my suspicions that all you guys had completed at the time that you announced GW2 was a long egotistic press release and a fancy high def logo for the game.

Really liked the start of the letter, right at the point of "to set the record straight."

but then nothing after that...I thought "here it comes a date or something:....nothing.

I havent played anything since I took my break, and havent posted here since this "new letter".

So, I guess take your time and make it rreeeaalll good then.

cheers. (Ill be waiting )

Yes, I'm giving my opinion and making assumptions. Welcome to discussion forums.

They had to explain why Guild Wars wasn't getting any new campaigns.

All conspiracy theories aside, I am glad to see that Mr. O'Brien took the time to make a statement of sorts. I believe it was Shigeru Miyamoto who once said, " A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever". If ArenaNet wants to make the best MMORPG ever, it will take time. Even if it isn't the "best MMORPG ever", I would prefer that one of my favorite developers set their sights so high.

Hasn't this lame protest been shot down a hundred times already on this forum? What else should they have done, not announce that they were making a sequel and leave us all wondering why the heck we aren't getting any more expansions?

There was no "setting the record straight" in that whole thing at all. It was just more PR crap which told us next to nothing except to basically warn us that nothing will be heard of or seen for a very, very long time.

Many of the original programmers came from Blizzard, so it is not really a surprise there. I for one, would much rather have a well polished game than one that is rushed out and doesn't meet expectations. I can wait, at least I won't be spending $15 a month to play a game that I already bought.

You forgot the "set the record straight" part. God that's a useless letter.

We all know they'll release the game when they're ready. Release dates are always like this with ever game. Its certainly not news to anyone who plays video games.

I just they'd share some information about the game in the meantime. The lack of information about the game is why people are so pissy about GW 2. Again, I suppose we shouldn't be so angry since all games go through similar development cycles.

Right now, I'd be satisfied with concept art. I would promise to be a very good girl the rest of the year if ArenaNet decided to bestoy such a gift upon the rest of the GW community and myself.

Yeah I know, I still have that article why they left Blizzard somewhere on a backup. I'm on the same boat don't worry, I was just teasing them.

Thanks Regina! Send my regards to Mark for taking the time to answer us fans!

I don't understand why people are not excited! Guild Wars 2 is eventually going to make its way into our laps. Not only that but it will be interesting to see Anet's strategy in regards to the Diablo 3 release and the various MMO releases! Talk about one exciting battle!

None of us want a game before it is ready.

Why do all the ANet Fanbois think that?? What we want is a little openess and honesty. If the game wont be here until 2011/2012 then say so. We will be glad to move on and come back when GW2 is released and determine then if it is worth the investment.

They have essentially done that. Mike O mentions 2010/2011. And does not indicate that those dates are incorrect. Some may call it an assumption to then take those dates as real... But I work for a large company that builds HW and SW... I understand marketing spins as it pertains to new features. If they are not refuting 2011 then that is what we can expect. And given a slip or two, bingo here comes 2012.

Have fun boys and girls.

And I wonder why we just got news of bigger quarterly updates, a storage increase... They want to keep a player base active. Next we will here of a Xunlai Market for selling stuff, and maybe changing character appearance. All of those "big" "complicated" features we have been asking for... Look for them in a quarterly update to keep you active.

Just my .02, and I would be willing to bet against your .02 that there is a lot of accuracy in it.

People aren't excited because there's nothing to be excited about. ANet claim the game is going to be great and they're trying to make the best online RPG, yet they aren't showing a single thing. Once we have some information and screenshots of this 'great' game, people will get excited. Until then, we'll continue to care less about GW2.

Also, it's not really going to be exciting. I'm almost positive Diablo 3 is going to sell more than Guild Wars 2, but both games are going to be very different so there's no point comparing. However, if Blizzard's new MMO gets released around the same time as GW2 (doubt it but you never know), it's going to be quite interesting to see how GW2 does.

Yeah I know. Do they like... not teach reading comprehension anymore in schools?

As always I'd rather a solid release than a rushed one.

We all know how the last year of MMO releases screwed up that philosophy, you get to pay for the privilege of playing a beta.

See you in 2010-12 Mike.

Nothing has been shown to us that proves that GW2 even exists. By your logic, GW2 is an assumption.

LOL, so you call them assumptions if you want. Some of us are smart enough to read that and make valid deductions. But if you are comfortable shuffling along in that heard of sheep you are in go right ahead.

Don't they have that "how not to be naive" class in school anymore?

i lol'd

ppl act as if assumptions r bad things
its not like they're not randomly pullin em out of their ass (okie, well some ppl r)

Rofl...

I like how the letter started with "let me set the record straight", all the immediate responses after were "so this basically confirms 2010-2011", and then everybody realized that the record really wasn't set straight.

Way to go all involved.

It's good he said something.

Regardless of anything answered or brought into the light (hopefully it doesn't burn), we should be grateful he said something.

Best of luck to you, Mr. O'Brien.

so what he is saying is: we know that you have seen the info, but we still arent going to tell you anything other than we know that you know, you know.

they should get a job as politicians when they are done....4 paragraphs and nothing said. great job.

Considering my assumptions are all based on things ANet has said, yes, I think it's safe to say they do teach reading comprehension in school. Of course if I didn't have reading comprehension I would have made my assumptions based on nothing, which isn't the case.

It took them damn near 8 years to even admit that Diablo 3 was gonna happen. Diablo 3 won't be seen for at least two more years. No one is complaining about that.

Of course this game is a long way off, it could also be alot closer then we think. The date is just a safezone. Its huge gap is to leave it open so they can set a date at their own pace.

Say take your time, but add new content to the old. Lots of room for underground dungeons in all 3 camps. Give pvp new maps.

Yep.

Glad they said something, but really anything they do to interest ppl till gw2 will probably be GW2 related, such as the HoM update.

Given that 2010/11 is a tenative estimation, the date can only go back further. It'll probably be extended into 2012.

And for the record, the letter didn't make me feel "special" at all. Nice try though.

hey! that's me

well, TBH i guess that by the time GW2 arrives i'll be playing D3

There already is information out there. It may be years old but it is still out there, thus giving you a mental image of what the game will be like. If you don't really care about GW2 then why bother posting in a thread like this? Continue to play GW while I continue to speculate what they may do with GW2. It's obvious that the game will be coming out eventually so there is really no need to worry.

I'm not comparing the two at all. Where you got that idea is beyond me. I was merely talking about the marketing techniques. I work in a video game store and find these types if issues interesting. I brought up Diablo 3 because it is speculated to come out around 2012. Considering that some of the Anet Staff worked on the old Diablo games, they may decide to do something big.

The letter did accomplish letting us know that the developers are still alive. I appreciate that.

But seriously, this letter does an exemplary job of making officially obvious statements. Yes things are done when they're done. And yeah, the development team will be revealing more when release date comes--it would be hilarious to see them release a game without releasing any information on it. If anyone was looking for anything more substantial, this is not the letter to find it. It's just the official way of saying "idunno."

So they dunno. Sorry, nothing more here, show's over; this type of letter seems to be incident to periodic spurts of discontentment among the community and is aimed to hold people over until necessity requires they do it again, till release date.

Purely personal opinion, based on how news on GW is being handled: It's almost as though they're not confident that if their community moves on and leaves GW[1] for now that they will come back for GW2, and are trying to keep us around and continuously interested as long as possible with this circular PR-speak. Ultimately all it ends up doing is frustrating a lot of people due to the lack of anything substantial, though.

Maybe this letter is not for me, as I am not a "fan," simply someone who enjoyed Guild Wars and invested a large amount of time and attention to it before gradually losing interest. However, my cynicism just gets the best of me when I see this claim that GW2 has the resources to be the "best online role-playing game ever created." It seems like it's trying to build expectations or even excitement for a game we won't see for at least a year, which as I said previously, expresses (to me) that they aren't confident enough to leave us to our own devices and stay low until they actually have something to present to us.

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I'm fully understanding and patient of the date.
Guild Wars is a wonderful game, and one could put thousands of hours into the game.
However, such great games don't come like this every day and must be polished for a very long period of time.

If this means GW2 will be even more awesome, then take your time, ANET. I'll keep myself busy with other things in the meantime

Actually I think id (DooM creator) was the first to say 'just shut up and wait'...er...'when it's done'.