I’m not sure what ArenaNet has planned for 2008 aside from the Guild Wars 2 beta which is due in the second half of next year.
Now, ArenaNet has been very good at keeping to its schedules; the company was founded by three experienced code-crunchers who probably run a tight ship over there so I’m sure the GW2 beta will be out as planned.
The question is: when will GW2 be released?
I think it’s fair to assume ArenaNet’s business model requires releasing a new product every year. The company may be on record as stating server and bandwidth costs aren’t significant but developing a sequel with a brand new engine is going to burn through some serious money and employees still need to get paid.
The company previously had two separate development teams to facilitate the two-campaign-a-year strategy. There doesn’t appear to be any information available about how the company is organised since it abandoned that strategy.
I’m probably wrong about this but considering the Eye of the North expansion featured a lot of reskins and there was a lot of grind in lieu of unique content, I submit the expansion didn’t get the entire company’s full focus. I will admit I blitzed through GW:EN and there’s a lot of the expansion I’ve yet to experience but when you consider the Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall campaigns were each the work of a single development team, the expansion hardly feels like the work of two development teams working in tandem.
I suspect ArenaNet maintained two separate teams up until the release of GW:EN. I further suspect GW:EN came from the second team while the main team worked on GW2.
Assuming this was actually the case, GW2 must be further along the pipeline by now than many assume. I’m betting we’ll see GW2 in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Regardless, players who enjoy playing the game will need something to occupy themselves with in Tyria while waiting for GW2.
Well, I don’t know about the rest of the playerbase but I’ve got plans for the coming year.
To do
I first started playing GW over two years ago and I continue to maintain interest in the game thanks to my habit of taking long breaks away from it. I took a month-long break after completing GW:EN and I think I’m ready for some action in Tyria.
Anyway, here are my in-game objectives for the coming 12 months.
Beat Nightfall with my Paragon
I stopped playing my Paragon, a Survivor-candidate, for a long time after getting my first death. I’ve put in some time with him since then and I left him at level 19 in Kourna. I intend to complete Nightfall to acquire the endgame green for him and pick up several Paragon Elites to improve the effectiveness of my Paragon Heroes. This will be easy to accomplish.
The Legendary Guardian title
My Mesmer has the Protector and Guardian titles for Cantha and I think I was 14/25 towards the Guardian of Tyria title before I got distracted by GW:EN.
Elite Missions
I’ve never completed Fissure of Woe, Underworld, The Deep, Urgoz’s Warren or the Ebony Citadel of Mallyx. I’ve never even set foot in the Fissure of Woe in two years of playing the game. That needs to be set right.
Join a guild
I’ve never joined a guild so that’s another Guild Wars experience I’d like to sample. There are potential problems and pitfalls with this. The trouble with guilds is that they expect you to keep playing regularly even when you don’t feel like it. Don’t log on in a few weeks and you’re usually booted. Don’t take part in guild activities and you’re also likely to be booted. Then there’s the guild drama aspect. Still, I’ll give it a shot.
Help out players
Over the past few months, I’ve become aware new players are sometimes made to feel unwelcome by the more jaded elements of the playerbase. Questions are answered rudely. Mistakes are condemned. Builds and play styles are dictated. I had some very positive experiences when I first started playing so I’m going to spend some time every other session helping players.
PvP
The sum of my PvP experience in Guild Wars has been about an hour spent in the Ascalon Arena back in 2005. I stayed away from PvP as it seemed to require more commitment that I had to offer. PvP combat itself is intense but you also have to spend time practising and you need to keep up with the latest in the metagame to remain competitive. I don’t think it’s any surprise PvPers tend to burn out on the game sooner than PvE players. Still, I intend to dabble a bit over the next 12 months. If I do happen to join a guild, I’ll make it a point it to try Heroes’ Ascent, Team Arena and Alliance Battles as well.
So that’s my To Do in Tyria in 2008 list.
What’s yours?
