In a blog post, ArenaNet announced on July 2 a whole batch of information about the new expansion for Guild Wars 2. End of Dragons has been postponed to early 2022, but that is by no means all. We from MeinMMO have summarized all the information for you.
What was announced? Ahead of the big stream on July 27, some information about the expansion was published in a blog post (via Guild Wars 2). Additionally, there was a small glimpse of what else we can expect besides End of Dragons. ArenaNet announced the following:
- The third expansion, End of Dragons, has been postponed from late 2021 to early 2022
- Former Game Director Colin Johanson returns to ArenaNet and will co-lead the studio
- A new position has been created to mediate between the community and developers. The community-renowned Josh “Grouch” Davis is returning for this purpose
- The WvW alliance system is expected to come in 2021
- The game will be ported to DirectX 11 to offer new graphical possibilities and finally be able to use multiple processors
- The Twisted Marionette event, which should make parts of Living World 1 playable again, remains scheduled for 2021
- The legendary armor bank will also keep its release in summer 2021
Why is this exciting? In short: The postponement of the End of Dragons expansion to 2022 had been suspected in the community for quite some time. Therefore, it is not particularly surprising that the delay was announced. However, it is exciting that two well-known faces are returning to ArenaNet.
After a large wave of layoffs, it is pleasant for the community to see that old veterans are returning. Colin Johanson was last involved in the second expansion, Path of Fire. The announcements regarding community engagement are also particularly interesting.
ArenaNet has often been criticized for inadequate communication between players and developers. Creating a whole position to address this criticism, and filling it with community favorite Josh Davis, sends a very positive signal to the player base.
Another major point of criticism for Guild Wars 2 is the now outdated engine. Currently, for example, it is only capable of utilizing a single processor core. With an update to DirectX 11, not only new graphical possibilities will be provided, but also multi-threading will be possible, meaning the use of multiple processor cores. This could lead to significant performance improvements for many players. However, ArenaNet has not yet provided a date for this.
The announcements in detail
What does the postponement of the expansion tell us? As mentioned at the beginning, this announcement comes as little surprise. Since the Icebrood Saga was in full swing at the time of announcement, it was clear that End of Dragons would not be released until at least 2021. The expansion brings a new region, new specializations, and new key features.
I consider a postponement to 2022 to be sensible in order to further develop the features. It is essential for ArenaNet that the launch of the expansion goes as smoothly as possible. A postponement is the optimal means to ensure that.
Why are the returnees so exciting? The return of former Game Director Colin Johanson is one of the most exciting announcements. Johanson has been working in the gaming industry since 1997 and was for years one of the main people responsible for the entire “Guild Wars” franchise. He left the studio in 2016 and worked at Amazon Game Studios. Now he is back and will take on the leadership of Guild Wars 2 together with JT.
The second returnee, Josh Davis, was the former Associate Global Brand Manager for Guild Wars 2. He left ArenaNet in 2016 and was previously significantly involved in the development of the sPvP mode. He also took care of the official PvP tournaments of Guild Wars 2 and commented on them. Even before he worked at ArenaNet, he was known and liked in the community as a PvP expert, and he hosted the podcast “State of the Game”.
Josh Davis will focus mainly on communication between the community and the development team and thus tackle a significant issue. ArenaNet is now known in the MMORPG industry for dubious decisions regarding communication with the community.
It paints an even more positive picture now, as it apparently values solving this problem. Josh Davis is an optimal fit for this role.
When will the alliance system come? This question has been on the community’s mind for quite some time. Years ago, the alliance system for WvW was first announced, but then there was a long silence about the project.
ArenaNet now promises that the long-awaited WvW system will appear in 2021. We can expect more information already in August. So far, we know that ArenaNet wants to place special emphasis on community feedback. There will be several test phases for the alliance system, and the results of these test phases should have a clear impact on the system’s details.
The developers admit that they made some mistakes in communication with the player base and want to make amends in the future. This will likely be one of Josh Davis’s tasks, as he is perfectly suited for this community-connected PvP role.
What does DirectX 11 bring us? At the end of the blog post, it is announced that the engine of Guild Wars 2 will receive an upgrade to DirectX 11. This change can have many effects, especially on the performance of the game. If you play the game at maximum graphic settings, even a high-end PC cannot achieve 60 frames in large world boss battles.
This is partly because the current version of the Guild Wars 2 engine does not support multi-threading. This means that only one core of your processor can be addressed by the game. Modern high-end processors can have up to 16 cores. There is much unused potential in this area.
DirectX 11 will change that. In addition to the possibility of making the game graphically more beautiful, the multi-threading of DX11 will be of primary interest. Guild Wars 2 will then be able to address multiple processor cores and thus provide a significant performance boost for many players. However, you should not expect ray tracing.
What else is coming in 2021? Many events and quality-of-life updates for 2021 have also already been announced. These are still expected to appear in 2021. In particular, the Twisted Marionette event is referenced. This is expected to bring back some highlights of the unplayable Living World 1 into the game.
Additionally, the highly anticipated legendary armor bank is still scheduled to be released in 2021. With this significant quality-of-life update, you will be able to use your legendary items across all your characters simultaneously. The community is already showing interest in this in-game. The materials required for legendary items have significantly increased since the announcement of the armor bank.
What do you think of the announcement? Are you sad about the postponement or are you excited about the other information? Feel free to let us know in the comments!
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