Official word from arena net???

Hey all 1st ever post here,

i have played guild wars a little over 2 weeks now, knowing that guild wars 2 is coming soon wich i do not plan to buy or play right now. as im really enjoying the original even though ive just started basically.
i purchased the trilogy wich gave me base game factions and nightfall.

i have not yet purchased eye of the north as i feel there is no need at the moment. but plan to very soon.

in game though i hear everyone say gw2 is coming gw2 is coming!!!
this will be the death of gw1!

has arena net said anywhere what the plan is for guild wars 1? ive looked around not been able to find anything.... i'd hate to buy eotn maybe costumes more storage whatever for them to say next month oh well we are gonna hit the switch now.... just looking for some clarifacation thanks!

ANet's official stance is that Guild Wars will remain open and playable well past the launch of Guild Wars 2. Updates will be limited to maintenance and the occasional balance patch; new content will be rare.

The main reason people are doomsaying is that once GW2 launches, a large chunk of the player base, especially those playing just to build a Hall of Monuments, will migrate over to the new game and never return. The result will be a massive change in the game's economy and the availability of other players to group with.

And this is why, tho I don't want to stop playing GW when the 2 comes out, I'm trying to max out my mini collection for the HoM, ecause this is the most player dependent thing!

A-Net has stated that GW servers will stay up as long as people are still playing. But when GW2 is released, a lot of people that are now playing GW will switch to GW2.

There are a lot of people though that have said come August 28th (or 25th) they will still be logging into gw1 and playing actively.

First of all, expect a lot of players leaving the day gw2 is out. but it ins't the end of the game. my friendslist has bout 15 active people on moments im online (CET). During the beta weekend events that amount dropped to bout 8. from those 8 bout 4 are saying that they won't be playing gw2 (others like me preordered). Also I suspect a reasonable amount of people mixing their time between one and two. So just going after my own friendlist I expect that bout 2/3th of the population will leave (including those that will play both games, but will not be online as much in gw1). So I expect that my friendslist in average will have 5 active people instead of 15.

Arenanet has stated that as long there is a solid community playing they will keep the servers alive (and in good commerce, they should warn you when buying the game that it might last less then 6 months, and i suspect they will).

My guess is that the servers will be open for another 3 years. I can be wrong but I have a good feeling bout it. So i guess your good to play and you might not pay attention to those saying that GW2 is soo much better and more awesome etc (although it will be).
I suspect that GW2 is sooner going to kill WoW then it will kill GW1 (most credits for that accomplishment goes to blizzard though).

Yeah, they won't totally be turning their back on Guild Wars 1. Infact, I remember them stating somewhere that while it's incredibly unlikely, further expansion packs to GW1 would not be an impossiblity if the demand was high enough (with the interview using the the Everquest 1 and Everquest 2 example). While I'm pretty sure at this stage that won't happen, the fact that the thought is there says something at least.

I'd have thought Guild Wars 1 will have at least another good 3 years in it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it got more. Especially if they do some microtransactions in either game that offer you benefits in the other game too, the game could remain active for quite a few many years to come.

My suspicion is ANet may use Guild Wars: Beyond events as an additional platform for promoting events or expansion for GW2. They had wanted to do something with Elona in Beyond, so what if they launched a Beyond event as a sort of run-up to the GW2 expansion heading to Elona?

There will probably be a bit of a surge for a while of players new and old coming to the original Guild Wars after playing that other game.