(1) No centralized forums: (Grade: B+)
First they cost money in terms of people to run them and moderate them. In the end, company run forums just become a place for loud mouthed players to spout off about how they think the game should be run. There is not a lot of positive for a company to run thier own forums and the potential for a ton of negative.
Of course that makes all of us who care read multiple forums and it is tough to place an opinion where a dev might see it. Still that is not the end of the world. This and other sites have some really nice forums and can moderate out the trolls a lot better.
(2) No monthly fees: (Grade A+)
What's not to like? Beyond not shelling out tons of money to keep playing, they are going to have more incentive to keep their expansions rolling out. Yet the real benefit that I see is to never have to read "if you do not change this, I and the 200 people I am writing for, will quit costing you $xx per month."
If you don't like the game and want to quit, then do so. They are free to design and build a game that they think will be fun without having to worry about loosing $x with each change. I for one am so glad that the worst thing someone can threaten is to not buy some future expansion.
(3) Instanced quests/one world model: (Grade A-)
While it's nice to be in a world with tons of people, the real problem is that you are in a world with tons of people. Let's face it, there is a certain percentage of people in the world that are not fun to be around. Unfortunately, they all seem to play MMO's. Killstealing, gone. Nija looting, gone. Quest camping, gone. Training, gone. Ganking, gone. Lag, mostly gone. Story, very much alive.
It's a great model and lets them have instant patches and the ability to add capacity at any time. The only real disadvantage is that names will become an issue for people down the road since everyone is on the same server.
So hats off to ANet for puting out a fun game with a new way of doing things. In the process, they made some real brilliant moves!
Did I mention that I am so glad to never have to see a "I am quitting and taking my $12/month with me"?
