Guild Wars 2 – the great promise
This is the situation of Guild Wars 2: Guild Wars 2 was once intended as a counter-proposal to World of Warcraft and to the ideas that WoW stands for.
ArenaNet wanted to consciously avoid the level spiral and instead emphasize exploring and experiencing the world.
Additionally, Guild Wars 2 was supposed to become the “PvP MMORPG” and take the dominant role in eSports and on Twitch. However, that failed spectacularly at the latest in 2017.
Instead, ArenaNet has been trying since years to tell an ongoing story through episodes, which regularly change and expand the world.
2018 was a typical interim year for Guild Wars 2 without a major expansion.
Since 2017, it has been observed that the MMORPG focuses more on itself and its player base and tries to work internally instead of aggressively attracting new players.
After the weak add-on “Heart of Thorns” (2015), they have been back on track since “Path of Fire” (2017).
However, Guild Wars 2 has hardly succeeded in making an impact in 2018 that was heard outside its own community. Only a drama involving a developer caught headlines.
This developer was fired from Guild Wars 2 after perceiving a remark from a well-known streamer as a sexist attack against herself and verbally attacking the streamer.
How is Guild Wars 2 doing in 2018? The MMORPG has held up well overall, has a strong relationship with its community, and has established enough unique selling points to face a secure future.
However, after the end of PvP, there is no longer a significant focus, no direction in which to further expand or progress.
The idea of focusing on episodes and telling the story like a TV series carries the risk that no one can join who missed earlier episodes.
Overall, Guild Wars 2 seems to be on a solid path after Path of Fire. It seems like the game has somewhat withdrawn from the general gaming public. Very little has been said about Guild Wars 2 outside its own channels.
This will be important for Guild Wars 2 in 2019: After spending much of 2018 getting the game back in order, it is time in 2019 to explore new paths.
The next expansion is coming. It will be important to deliver something that attracts new players and keeps the old ones engaged. Furthermore, Season 5 is to receive features that other MMORPGs only bring in expansions.
Finding this new way is not easy for Guild Wars 2.
Since Guild Wars 2 has forbidden itself from simply turning the item spiral, it must go through the story or alternative character developments.
While in other MMORPGs, expansions come naturally (more levels, more skills, stronger weapons), Guild Wars 2 always needs some new feature:
- In 2015, it was Zelda-like skills and a focus on hardcore content
- In 2017, the new mounts
- What it will be in 2019 could decide the long-term future of the game
Guild Wars 2 needs good ideas, since NCSoft plans to release a mobile MMORPG as a successor to each MMORPG at home in Korea.
The most read news of the year 2018: “As if someone sacrifices employees for bloody reddit attention”
