In February 2018, the developers of Guild Wars 2 announced a major overhaul of the World vs. World game mode. However, this has yet to be released, and many players are now becoming frustrated.
What is this update about? World vs. World (WvW) is a large PvPvE mode where three servers always compete for dominance on specific maps. There are camps, towers, and forts that can be captured to earn points for the server. Additionally, there is a leaderboard with the best servers.
However, the mode has been struggling for a long time, mainly due to the few rewards, the repetitive processes, and injustices in the population. This is exactly where the new update should address.
With the alliance system, completely new teams should be formed every 8 weeks, which will then fight together – just as the servers used to do. Guilds are expected to play a larger role in this, as these players will always stay together in the team. In addition to the large guilds, small guilds and solo players will be included so that the teams are roughly equal in size.
In this context, a season system for exactly these 8 weeks is to be introduced, which should bring more long-term motivation and new rewards.
What is the status of the update? The last major statement regarding the alliance update was made by a developer on November 29, 2018. Exactly 2 years ago, Raymond Lukes informed the players about what they can expect from the update and that it would take some time.
However, with more than 2 years of waiting, very few players expected this. On this sad anniversary, there were now some complaints on social media and on Reddit.
“I have accepted that it will probably never come”
What are the players saying? In the thread “Today we celebrate 2 years without updates on the alliances,” numerous players express their dissatisfaction with ArenaNet.
They are disappointed that the update is still not released, but also about the communication from the developers. After all, there have been no concrete updates for 2 years:
- Typical-user-Name has given up hope: “I have accepted that it will probably never happen, and if it does, it will be a pleasant surprise.”
- DeltaTimo even takes it with dark humor: “If we never get the alliances, then the statement ‘WvW will be so much better with alliances’ will never be wrong.”
Indeed, many speculated in February 2018 that the update would appear in 6 to 18 months. However, this hope was likely misguided.
Why is the update delayed? At the developer of Guild Wars 2, there have been many issues since early 2019. For instance, in a mass layoff, about 1/4 of the entire studio was let go.
Additionally, chaos continued after that:
- The president Mike O’Brien left the studio in October 2019 and introduced Mike Zadorojny as his successor.
- However, he quietly left in November and moved to Amazon. This only became known months later.
- The planned Steam release for 2020 was first canceled.
- At the end of 2020, there were further layoffs, but they are said to involve an unknown game in development.
World vs. World itself, however, has been treated very poorly since the release of the first expansion, Heart of Thorns. At that time, a new map was released, which players did not like. The seasons that used to exist were also put on hold.
Is there hope for the update? Yes, because just in a livestream in November, the developers briefly mentioned in one sentence that the update is still in progress. However, there is still no release date.
Nevertheless, the developers have already revealed how PvE in Guild Wars 2 will continue. There are 4 major updates and 3 events planned for the upcoming 7 months.
