Shorter term players return to finish things off before Factions?

I've been wondering...
Not everybody's stayed. If I'm correct several hundred thousand got this game in the first few weeks after release. But different people play games for different amounts of time. Some people bought the game, made a PvE character, played from pre-searing to Hells, then went. Maybe they went to another MMORPG, or another game, whatever. They just left. Others stayed on a bit longer, for Sorrows Furnace and the Titan Quests, or if they had already gone came back for them. Then there was Halloween, a brief fun event that I'm sure brought many people just for the fun. After that I think was when many people started to go. There was a long gap, and after several months many had got all they wanted from the main game. Other games were out there, they wanted to play them. Though the numbers of people playing still remained large, a fairly big number of people had gone. The Christmas Events again brought many back for the same kind of small fun as Halloween. My brother and several friends who had gone to WoW came back briefly for it. Obviously since Christmas more players will have been trickling away. Then of course there is PvP - some people bought the game solely for it, others played PvE first and then got into it. However, PvP is still in the same game, and people probably began to go after playing it for a while. I'm just summing up here really how a lot of players have 'gone', though the numbers of people playing are still large and acceptable for play.
Now...all this simply comes to...Factions coming out. I'm expecting hundreds of thousands of players who have stayed the whole time or 'went' after a while to get it and play it. Many players will be reunited, as well as new players joining in as it's a standalone game.
What I'm thinking is...before the actual release, will there be a bit of a 'rush'? Will players suddenly think 'Oh, gotta complete all the missions and quests and get some money so I'm ready for the new game?' And very important in my mind, will all those old players that 'left' return to do the same - rounding off all the things they think they should do so as to be ready for the next game? If so, great. That would mean we would all see old friends and there would be a large amount of players focusing on things such as missions and quests, so it will be easier to find groups for things. I myself am looking to find the time and the people to get groups to finish the last few missions and the titan quests with my characters. I'm sure many other people will be like me and want to be 'ready' with their characters for the new game, which has the same amount of content if not more as the original.
I'm really hoping that a large amount of players who left after a while will be coming back in the period shortly before and the main release of Factions.
...That's what I wanted to say, there, I did it. Over to discussion.

yep, my buddy who gave me his account a while ago is coming back to get some more stuff unlocked for factions and to get some money.

I 'slowed' after the six month period, in which i played other stuff, just to freshen up etc.

Come back after a few months and still dieing for Factions, though it could easily be up to 3 months away.

lost so many friends to boredom and lack of stuff to do - only thing that keeps me on is not being able to afford WoW and UW duo farming

I personally have not lost interest yet in the game over here. I've completed once and fixing to do it one more time but I play with different builds. But yes, we will see a big influx of people. You always have those that after doing it once or twice leave it for something new and then comeback for the new stuff.

Still far from bored with the game here, and I've completed it 4 times now with different builds. I think we will see an influx of people returning when Factions comes out; and then they will get bored and go away again.

Actually I'm allittle worired about this. I got the game the day it was released, played it for a few months (pve only) then stopped because i was busy,bored,etc. After hearing faction was coming out and reading about it, I decided to give GW another whirl. I started a new character so I could start fresh and learn the ropes again and so far have been having fun. My only concern is that when faction comes out (albiet it will be a few months) the majority of players will play the new content leaving the old pve and pvp areas pretty empty (yes, I know that not everyone is going to get faction, but if you read threads on this forum entitled "who is going to get faction" youll notice that a large amount will be moving onto the new content (for good reason)). I guess is comes down to the whole Arenanet claim that you can still play all the old content for howeverlong you want without upgrading, which may be litterally true, but will you really want to play if the old areas are empty. Not that I'm dissing GW, arenanet, or anyone else, I'm just curious as to how this will work out. But until then I'll have fun playing 'classic' GW :-)

Yeah, I've been with GW since release. (Been here since before). *Points to join date*

What you said in the first few lines is correct, I played pre-searing through hells, then quit. However, it wasn't because I was bored necessarily. Something was wrong with my comp, and right as I started to approach hells, everytime I tried running the game, it would give me the ol' blue screen after a few minutes, fortunately though I made it through that final mission somehow before it was totally unplayable.

I got a new comp for Christmas, a much much better one, and runs GW fine =-)

But yeah, I did start playing again a couple weeks ago, although I admit now im bored =-P I loved doing the missions, with the cinematics, and storylines and what not. But now im just bored again. I do like pvp well enough, but just not to the point where thats all I do 24-7. It just bores me too much, and I wish it doesn't because I really want to like this game again.

I think we're already starting to see it. Presearing has much more people than I remember seeing a few months ago, and the Ascalon mission towns and even Yak's Bend are hopping with activity.

I took a break from Guild Wars in late October (missing out on both holiday events - shame is me). I came back just before the PvP Factions beta event to finish off my unlocks before release. Didn't realize I was missing this much stuff on my account. I thought I had unlocked more than I had. I've been mostly doing skillcap runs as well as some other stuff on the side (Tombs PvE, new Mesmer primary that I started about a week ago, trying to farm random areas just for kicks and getting destroyed, etc.). Having tons of fun lately (even started bidding on some of the Guru auctions ).

The break was exactly what I needed. I feel rejuvenated. Cannot wait for Chapter 2.

been playing since betas and still going, but i dont play as much as i used to, i cant wait for factions.

Family member got game they loved it, so they bought one for more. Been playing every since. Have 3 chars ascended but closest one to finishing game has done Ring of Fire. No big rush, I am not one of those play & see how fast I can beat/finish game types. there is so much to do, yes at times I get bored i.e. need an elite cap or want to do a high lvl run and none of my guildies or friends is on. But for most part I stil enjoy the game as much as I did the first week. I will probably be one of those that rushes a char through last part of game at last minute so when factions comes out i will be ready to play it. But I dont see an end to original GW in my near future. There is so much to do. I still havent done a trapper run in UW! Reason I am normally called on to get my monk when a group of us do fow or uw runs. Then there is the fact that I still have 2 classes I havent played as Primaries yet, Mesmer and Necro. Plan on empting out my 4th slot (pack mule) in near future and creating a Mesmer. May not like it, but you dont truely know til you at least try it. But got off topic sorry, yes I see a number of people in my guild that werent around when I first joined coming back and they are like WOW at all the changes. So when factions comes out it will be interesting to see how everyone responds.

I do'nt think their will be a 'lack of' people in chapter 1. It's so easy to get a character asceneded here (ie droks and sanctum cay runs... But the game will move, i don't see UW / Fow Dieing anytime soon so...

I'm getting to boredom but i dont play that much anymore

It's still fun for me, just no time to play. I come back for every holiday though.

For factions I probably won't be able to play much until July/August.