A Letter to Our Fans [from Mike O'Brien]

[Shadowmoon]

Originally Posted by Obrien Xp

here's my "waiting for gw2 guide"

1) If you don't pve, then pve (All I do is pve )
2) Focus entirely on one character
3) Beat all the campaigns+eotn
4) Fill HoM
5) Get filthy rich and do titles, pvp, etc.

If you did all that then gratz, ur ready for gw2! (help me out with the money and hom though! )

1 through 4 complete
only need 634 fame til r8, hopefully this weekend will get it, then I'll have all 56 "honor" monuments
Guess i'm pretty much ready for gw2 b4 they ready to show it off.

[persuadu]

TLDR

Summary:

Anet: We dont know when we will be done and will provide you with no new news or reassurances. All of our news and updates about GW2 will just say we are working hard and when its ready we will let you know.
Players: QQ and reading some kind of message into the nothingness that was written.

[Skyy High]

Then move on to 6) Play a different game for a while.

Seriously.

[AKB48]

But you gotta admit, GW2, if it is gonna be the way Anet say it's going to be, is quite a leap from GW. It's not something that can be molded and finished within a year or two, and if Anet isn't trying to make another WoW clone, they got quite some work to do.

I think alot of the stuff are still on the edge, it's there, but there isn't a clear outline or perhaps even a concise summary of them. So Anet is literally guess-and-check, since they DON'T know which ideas are good, which ideas can be made good with a fix and which ideas need to be replaced. They are trying keep us the consumers, while trying to do a decent enough job on GW2 so when it actually releases, people don't go, "Omfg, another WoW clone, this is bull".

[Sweet Mystery]

I just hope the HoM work in April will announce to us what getting stuff into the HoM and on characters WILL achieve.. that gives people the reason to do things and look forwards and justifies GW:EN.

Then we know what we want to do and get a hint on what the things we are doing now will give us in GW2.... and thus some info...

[Fates]

Originally Posted by AKB48

But you gotta admit, GW2, if it is gonna be the way Anet say it's going to be, is quite a leap from GW....

See, here's the problem. They haven't said "the way it's going to be." They've said, basically, "It's going to be huge" and that's it. There's been a ton of rumor and speculation from the community, but nothing from Anet.

[Rocky Raccoon]

Originally Posted by Fates Monk

See, here's the problem. They haven't said "the way it's going to be." They've said, basically, "It's going to be huge" and that's it. There's been a ton of rumor and speculation from the community, but nothing from Anet.

I don't see that as a problem. When GW2 is finally released people will then judge the game based upon what it contains. Ruminate and speculate all you want, it doesn't change anything.

[Billiard]

ArenaNet actually said quite a bit concerning GW2 when they first announced it - playable races, higher level cap, world PvP, PvP unlocks from the start, GvG style PvP, some notions of the lore, etc. They were very general as to how these would be implemented though, as should be expected.

In my estimation they probably just recently finished reworking the game engine for GW2, and have been concurrently working on developing the specifics of the storyline. Implementing what they want to do conceptually with what they can do mechanically though will probably take a lot of time while also not yielding much worth seeing. I have been in alpha testing for a couple of years and know what early mock-ups of things can look like - players would not be very impressed with how things look as they work out the mechanics.

I think people want to visually see the progress that ArenaNet is making if nothing else to feel confident the game is coming along. Hopefully ArenaNet will be able to do that before too long. Perhaps they might even have a fansite day like they did a couple years ago. In any event, I know several people working at ArenaNet and all have been much busier working on GW2 for the past year+ than it seemed when they were working on the various GW expansions. As much as the players want the game to come out soon, the company probably wants it even more - pay and bonuses are often tied to making major releases.

[Srak Scream]

Originally Posted by Nomme Moon

Not to be negative, but I'm glad to hear you're proud of what your team has accomplished GW2 wise, because none of your players are.

"We'll have a lot more to say when we're closer to release."

So, we'll finally hear about what GW2 is and if it even exists in 2010 or 2011? "closer to release" is a pretty broad statement this far out. Seriously, if you even had the slightest doubt that the game wouldn't have any information released until 2010 at the earliest (which is what this statement implies,) why in the bluest of all hells did you announce the game in 2007? That's absurd.

This entire past week has justified my subscription to WoW more and more, while also confirming my suspicions that all you guys had completed at the time that you announced GW2 was a long egotistic press release and a fancy high def logo for the game.

ok just for the record, ANET IS NOT BLIZZARD, those of u that play WoW, we dont care, they didnt "justify your wow subscription", imo nothing justifies that, but thats anothe argument altogether.

but seriously IM GLAD THEY ARE TAKING THEIR TIME, the only mistake they made was announcing the game too early, but at least we know they are working on it, they are taking a lesson from Valve (best dev ever), and not Blizzard, that is taking extra time to make sure the game is solid.

What would happen if they released the game in summer 2010 and it just sucked terribly, exactly you would all abandon it and it would "justify your wow subscription", so why dont you just go back to that game now and then play a great version of gw 2 when it comes out???

[slowerpoke]

delayed so they can finish up aion for the english marketplace

[SpotJorge]

..... so gw2 in about 2 years and no expansion or new stuff for gw1???... Nice move Anet ... just get a good rope and a big tree for all the team that is doing excelent job ... bla bla bla but you need 2/3 years for a beta of gw2? ..... or maybe you thinking in rename Aion to GW2 to show some work ....

[Whisper Evenstar]

I'm glad the letter was released. As to when it comes out - it doesn't really matter. I know I will be excited to try it as soon as it is available.

And btw, I haven't played GW in almost a year. I don't need it to "hold" my interest until GW2 is ready - there are plenty of other things to keep me busy

[Cacheelma]

Originally Posted by Srak Scream

they are taking a lesson from Valve (best dev ever), and not Blizzard, that is taking extra time to make sure the game is solid.

Because unlike Valve, Blizzard's games are totally not solid, feel rushed, buggy, and usually need 3+ years to polish/fix problems, right?

You are right, if by "Blizzard" you mean "Arenanet" that is.

[Godplusone]

I'm no graphics w*ore, so I'm not *that* concerned with how GW2 is going to look and feel. *But* considering new MMORPGs is popping up all around atm, darkfall online, mortal online incoming etc. I would appreciate a taste of what GW2 has to offer estheticly, because I've been waiting for a *long* time for anything that can hint in the direction GW2 is going with the graphics and/or sound.
I've been putting of playing any other MMORPGs just because I know some day GW2 will hit the store shelves, or rather the webshop :P but I'm starting to get slightly inpatient to say the least

Anyway.. gief screenies nao! (even pre-prealpha screenies will do )

[Avarre]

Originally Posted by Risky Ranger

Can anyone explain the obsessive need that some people have for screen shots? It seems to me that screen shots from a game 2 years away would have no useful purpose. I also would like to know why those same people have such a distrust of ANET. What has ANET done to warrant that distrust?

Floundered around with game design in an effort to milk profit. I plug myself again.

[Yichi]

Originally Posted by Risky Ranger

...What has ANET done to warrant that distrust?

For someone who has been around the forums as long as you have, you really truly felt the necessity to actually ask this question??

[DreamWind]

Originally Posted by Yichi

For someone who has been around the forums as long as you have, you really truly felt the necessity to actually ask this question??

You'd be amazed the number of people who ask that question even with the amount of evidence...

[Obrien Xp]

Originally Posted by SpotJorge

..... so gw2 in about 2 years and no expansion or new stuff for gw1???... Nice move Anet ... just get a good rope and a big tree for all the team that is doing excelent job ... bla bla bla but you need 2/3 years for a beta of gw2? ..... or maybe you thinking in rename Aion to GW2 to show some work ....

Actually there will be new "stuff for gw" no, nothing major like an expansion, but little/med things like new heroes (that was just an example, im fully aware of mox) etc. Why put out a new expansion while ur working on a new game , wouldn't you want all of your resources of the new game

[Qing Guang]

Okay, thank you ANet for at least acknowledging that we're anxious to hear more about GW2, but honestly, that was a whole lot of nothing. The "we'll get back to you" bit at the end is very un-promising. I'm trying to be reasonable. I'm willing to wait 10 years for a game if the end product is good. I'm not asking anyone to rush anything. But I need more proof than word of mouth, and so far all we have that anyone is doing anything is that, a basic outline of what's happened in the interim, and about 5 publicized concept arts. All I want to see is ONE DANG MORE CONCEPT ART! One tiny, early-stage thing to prove that the game is even going somewhere. Is that too much to ask? Even The Old Republic, which was only announced a few months ago, already has screenshots. This was announced what, a year and a half ago (and I'm assuming it's been in production longer than that), and we have next to no idea what it will even look like. All we've got is a picture of a tattooed elf, a couple other sketches, a great background story (thanks at least for that) and a whole lot of "we're sorry this is taking so long," "be patient," "we're working on it," "it'll be done when it's done," and "we're trying to make this the best MMO ever." That's all very well and good, but a Sylvari, a handful of Charr, and a Norn or two don't give me a very clear idea of what the game will look and feel like. I know you're working on it - can I have just a peek?

[Punjabi]

@ Quing Guang listen it does not make sence for them to give us any screenshots. For you or me who will buy the game regardless might not care if the screenshots look like crap. But there are far to many people who judge games solely by what they look like. They dont want to release a screenshot and then have the majority of people going "that looks like shit, what gives!" Most games do not announce 3+ years in advance for this very reason so consider yourself lucky you even know about it. Thats why you see screenshots of games that are announced same day, they have been deving for years, release is 6 months out and they are ready to publicise the game.

You can look at games like Alan Wake, they released screenshots of that game years ago and new news/screenshots come in very very slow but there is NO release timeframe at all. If you looked at their screenshots 2 years ago you would see the gfx engine is great, the obviously had that finished to show people. So you can show screenshots of content to keep fans happy but its needs to be content that looks finished.

@ Sweet Mystery they have already said that since our characters can not be moved from Gw1 to Gw2 the HoM was a way for players to communicate and show their past achievements. It might provide some small in-game bonuses but if your grinding titles hoping to be "leet" in gw2 I would stop and think twice. Does it make sence for them to give past players such an advantage over new players? Are players going to be excluded from groups because they have never played Gw1 and thus can't get the needed buff the grp demands? I belive titles are and will continue to just be e-peen enhancers thought the life of GW, not to say im not trying for any titles im just not expecting anything out of them.

In my belife if Anet is going to give us any early teaser info/screenshots it will be late summer, after the release and hype of Aion has come and gone. As Regina said, they are hiring Web Developers for GW2 possitions so that could mean they are interested in getting a web site launched in the not so distant future.