This Friday, Guild Wars 2 enters a new era with the “Path of Fire” expansion, but not much indicates that.
Next Friday, “Path of Fire,” the new expansion for Guild Wars 2, will launch. Actually, this is supposed to be the last highlight in the MMORPG year 2017 before Blizzcon. But somehow, the GW2 expansion is hardly making waves in the gaming press and public. Is Guild Wars 2 no longer a title for the mainstream?
New expansions are the stage for MMORPGs
A new expansion for an MMORPG – this is usually the time to drum up attention and make a splash. This is the time in the spotlight for an MMORPG. Time to attract new players and bring back old ones.
In 2017, before the release of Stormblood and before Morrowind, the MMORPGs The Elder Scrolls and Final Fantasy XIV were topics that were pushed on mainstream gaming sites. There were events, news, trailers, and campaigns – the drum was being banged vigorously.
Of course, The Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy have the advantage of being part of large single-player franchises, which also interests non-MMORPG fans. Still, it is suspiciously quiet for Guild Wars 2 right now. Not even on MMO specialist sites does one read much about the once favorite of critics.
Guild Wars 2: Disappeared from the public since October 2015
At the beginning of August, Arenanet presented the relevant features of the expansion, since then there have been playtest events, but otherwise it remains quiet around “Path of Fire.” The biggest news about GW2 in recent days was that there are “new forums.” Wow.
Otherwise, ArenaNet seems to rely on internal engagement to keep existing fans in the game. A major campaign to attract new players and draw attention to the expansion does not seem to be underway.
This fits a trend that can be watched with concern in Guild Wars 2. The MMORPG seems to be withdrawing more and more from the public stage over the past years. This is indicated by the numbers from Google Trends, which document global search interest in the title.
After the release of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns in October 2015, global interest in Guild Wars 2 has fallen and stagnated at a significantly lower level than before Heart of Thorns. The “Living World” with episodes and seasons like a TV series makes it difficult to follow the title.
An alarming development: individual updates and patches have no impact on Google interest. While competitor games like WoW have “full patches” like 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3 that repeatedly make the media rounds and generate attention, this is missing for Guild Wars 2.
The expansion announcement in early August was the “only relevant” thing that has happened in Guild Wars 2 for the last 2 years and has given the game at least some boost.
But interest seems to be fading again since then.
Guild Wars 2: What is going on?
It seems that Guild Wars 2 is the loser among MMORPGs in the last 2 years:
- The expansion Heart of Thorns has remained below the expectations of fans and publisher NCSoft
- With The Elder Scrolls Online and Black Desert, two games have matured that are apparently competitors – GW2 is no longer the alternative to WoW but a participant in an increasingly competitive market with 5 top MMORPGs (WoW, FF14, ESO, Black Desert, Guild Wars 2)
- The patch policy with the Living World causes problems: It’s getting rough – Why isn’t the MMORPG doing well right now?
- The attempt to establish Guild Wars 2 as an eSport title has likely failed
One can be curious whether ArenaNet will pick up the pace in the final sprint and can introduce Path of Fire to more people. Currently, it seems Guild Wars 2 is disappearing from the public radar.
If you want to know more about Path of Fire, here is all the information:
Guild Wars 2: Release date – New expansion Path of Fire announced
