Is GW dead?

Just logged on after a 2 year hiatus, I've noticed alot less people in towns. Also I went to HA and there was no one there! Why is this?! Can someone get me to date please.

HA's population fell beneath the critical mass needed to keep it functioning as a format.

As for the PvE side of things, the game's just plain old. People have had more than a year and a half now to work on their HoMs, which was definitely a large contributor to sustained activity.

Also, Diablo 3.

It depends what do you mean my "dead".
The game will be dead the day no one will log on.

Atm, even if there are not as many people as in 2008, the game is still alive

with the 7 hero update, there no longer is a reason to hang out in towns (unless you like to trade in spamdan)....so the people who ARE playing are playing and not hanging out in town.

Well... HA is dead, AB is no-where near as populatd as it used to be (although the recent update has helped slightly), RA is still going but full of syncers, Codex is dead, JQ is full of bots - but playable, same for FA.

All I can think of people doing in PvE now (asides from their own quests) is things for HoM, Speed Clears (FoW UW SoO MT MQ), ZQuests, Nicholas and Beyond Content.

TL;DR

Most PvP is riddled with problems or completely inactive, there's only a few areas of PvE which see mainstream play.

Dead as a door nail.

High end PvP died due to skill balance neglect, low-end PvP died due to bots and PvE has been overdone and HoMs are filled. Also, new games released.

It depends on your definition of dead. People are still playing and enjoying the game. and there has been an increase in population the last few weeks of people who wanna play the original before gw2 comes out. But if our comparing to the early days it is more quit indeed. Also did the interest in what to do shift highly. PvP is struck the worsed I think. PvE still has a nice bit of attention, though less people are playing together nowadays.

If you call this dead, please come after the GW2 release....

High end pvp died because no new blood was allowed in by the vets. And when they got tired of running the same builds against the same builds it was over.

Would you like the short or long answer?

GW died 4 or 5 years ago if you listen to some people. But, I don't agree with them. Some aspects of GW are dead; H.A. committed suicide, and Codex Arena never even got going. The other PvP areas have some traffic, but much less than in 2010.

The PvE side of things got a bit of a boost thanks to GW2 and the Hall of Monuments. Lots of new and returning players. BUT, it's turned mainly into a solo game with the advent of 7 hero parties. The only places you can rely on finding actual people to go out adventuring with are UW, FoW, and wherever the Zaishen Quests of the day are happening. Other than that, the only people grouping up to do thing together are guild/allaince groups.

the factor i found that counts a lot (as a former large gaming site owner, who cant handle drama anymore)
is do the people have the monies to upgrade there computers to play the game. the lag between the two does not help either game.
and the last factor is: is the game style familiar enough to keep you entertained.

fps killed themselves constantly due to this factor.

^this. a handful of helpful veteran players does not a healthy PvP community make.

Guild wars can come back - if knowing my kids they will be interested in this game based on seeing me play Guild Wars 2 and want the stories behind it. this is even in my will, this account is in my will. and it will be passed on their family etc. maybe gw3 will come out and so forth. their friends will hear about it. the next generation will play it if not us

PvP isn't as hyped up as it used to be. There's still a ton of people playing PvE for fun/HoM. Just check "Spamadan". There's plenty of people selling stuff there.

pvp never been a hype in gw.
It used to be amazing at times

As said before, it depends on your definition of dead. Technically, I wouldn't consider it dead because at least some people are still playing. But compared to when you last logged on, two years ago, this game is very, very less populated. Most PvP is dead because of balance issues, or bots in the case of JQ and FA. PvE is dead mainly because of seven hero teams; nobody forms PUGs anymore unless its for elite missions like UW and FoW. But overall, the biggest detriment to this game's population is its age. The game is seven years old, and the amount of old players leaving is high while the amount of new players coming in is low.

I wouldn't call it dead, but the game is definatley in its dying stages. It's dying for a lot of reasons, but lack of balance killed PvP and 7 hero teams killed PvE. Age is now just coming around to finish everything off.

Is GW dead? - YES!

The PvP issue is self-perpetuating ever since ANet abandoned support for it years ago.

Most of the community leaves >
Those making an effort in developing lower-tier to mid/higher-tiers fall > less new uptake of organised formats > those making an effort in developing lower-tier to mid/higher-tiers > less new uptake of organised formats > etc.

It's questionable whether HA is anymore dead now than 2 years ago. Maybe a little more, but it was pretty dead then.