guild wars future..

How long do you think guild wars will last?

I personally think it will have a very long future lets say 5 years at most.

probably 2 maybe 3 years, 4 at most, most games retain a large player base till about 2 years after then they start to slowly lose players

Blizzard did a really awesome job with Diablo 2 and LoD, patchs and it helped that the game was well balanced, even if there was so many hackers. Now, since the people who created that worked on this, they know what people want, and how to give it to them. This is patched often, the skills are balanced often and its attracting more and more people.

The big tests are when the big boys come out to play like ES: Oblivion and the new mmorpg: Dungeons and Dragons online, those alone will drag people from GW, the trick is keeping GW fresh enough and fun and I hope the devs can do it, after all, diablo 2 is still going strong after nearly 5 years and I honestly expect guild wars will be around for a similar amount of time.

Long live GW!

ES oblivion will not take the playerbase away, it is single player, no pvp. DnD online will be a spectacular flop.

As long as guild wars is a semi mmo no monthly pay game with an option for mindless pvp, it will keep a large playerbase of a raving 12-17 year olds who cant get their grubby hands on their mothers credit card. Its the counterstrike of the mmo world, if you will.

I honestly believe just those two games along will drag a significant portion away, then you've got Never Winter Knights 2 coming out, just to mention another big name game, whilst you are 100% right about that age range and credit cards, older gamers will definately be swayed into these other games, maybe not completely ditching GW but i'm guessing some will. Who knows, time will tell really. I myself i'm extremely eager to get my hands on Oblivion and Nwn2, when those come out i'll still be playing gw, but I spend far less time.

Exactly.

hehe funny

Quite a while. See, with no subscription fee, that means players are capable of playing 2 games, this one, AND whatever pay~to~play MMO they feel like. They could of course, could pay for 2 or 3 diffrent MMO's if they felt like it....but heck, this ones free online play. 10-15 years is a HUGE stretch, i dont see that for ANY game; but this one may stick around a little longer then the avrage MMO, especially if they keep the content fresh and fun.

ditto, like everyone said previous. The no subs is a huge incentive

Decaf please

uhm what should i say now? ... funny?

I think in the next month or so you're going to see a very large drop in the player base as more people hit 20 and finish all the missions. While the majority of the game is not PvE, the PvP gets old very fast. Theres a very big difference between those good at PvP and those bad at it. So your average player is going to start getting tired of the game and leave for awhile I suspect. I imagine we'll see a large increase in players with the coming of new expansions though.
From what I can gather this is exactly what they wanted to do with a game like this. In order to offset of the costs with MMOs they make a short storyline and PvP that gets old for the average gamer quickly. This keeps the server upkeep costs low, while taking full advantage of the 50 dollars they get per copy of the game. Its a really smart business plan though. They push hard to target the players who like MMOs but dont want to pay online fees, but in reality they dont have an MMO. Instead its more or less diablo in 3d or phantasy star online. Not that it isn't fun, but 8 player instance zones dont compare to 80 person Everquest raids

i think as more people hit 20, probably soon, they will start releasing some new updates like new weapons. I think i may have heard mention of exspansions for the future they may even raise the lvl cap

I wish they would add some new weapons. Level cap would be nice if it went to 40 but I will not hold my breath.

I will play the game as long as it has a server. I really am hooked. I still have diablo 2 and I play when the mood strikes. There are games. and then there are those that stick around. I even have baldurs gate fired up from time to time, and play the same 4 or 5 saved character LOL.

Time is timeless when a gamer is hooked on something. **** the speculation. I'll be around

80 person Everquest raids? They look like 80 little sticks with hands and feet running around, stuttering badly because of the horrible lag.
Not exactly an epic fantasy scene, you know.

WoW? I could afford the fee, of course (without asking mom, as someone from the "Forever-negative-in-life" Guild said), but I see no reason why playing a game no-one could have the time to play seriously, with the exception of 17 yrs old guys who probably had to "ask mom the money". Even if I could ignore the cartoonish-like graphical style specifically meant for kids (and I'm afraid I can't), the game is simply too big. It's too big and levelling up is a pain. I'm not saying it's a bad game, I'm saying it's a good MMORPG for people who can really waste their time. Lucky them.

GW is a sort of modern Diablo II, you said? I disagree, but I can't really consider it a negative thing anyway.

It will last until it's fun, end of the story.

hopefully

We could compare GW to a new type of car. Sure, one could argue that the same car could last people for over seventy years (and I have actually known families that have done this), but at some point, most families see the next car that is out with better features and the same basic elements that made a car worth owning to begin with.

Hence, GW, being its own genre of game practically, will last until a newer game with the same concept comes out and upgrades it.

Well if they release the right stuff in the expansions, there's no reason it can't keep going for years. I wouldn't play the current game for 2 years, but with expansions etc, to re-draw me back into the game, there'll be no reason to stop playing.

Locking this thread - I dont like idle speculation. It usually ends up with people getting mad at each other.