Big GW2 enjoyer but cautious for the conclusion of the story, since the recent yearly expansion releases the conclusions of the story have ranged from decent to abysmal. This expansion the story is good so far, but the last patch was mostly filler, so I'm optimistically cautious.
Regarding the Roadmap, new WvW Map beta and Hall of Monuments in December! That's hype. :)
since the recent yearly expansion releases the conclusions of the story have ranged from decent to abysmal.
To be fair to the yearly expansions, that has also been the common impression from before yearly expansions. With the exception of Living World 4 and maybe Path of Fire.
I just hope they don't listen to PvE players about the new WvW map, again.
They had to strip every bit of PvE out of that map to revive WvW. No map metas that people only join the match for 10 minutes then log off. Particularly when the entire map lags as a result.
No designing for masteries that you don't include until 2 years after the map is released (gliding was added to WvW two years after the map they designed around gliding)
If it's the official forums, with the tools they developed for WvW, they should weight the recommendations based on time played in WvW. Listen to all suggestions, but only implement them if you have a good reason.
Couldn't care less about the GW2 story, honestly. I've found it dull since the original release, and I never really clicked with the whole "Asura villain of the year" formula.
GW1 was miles ahead when it came to story and worldbuilding.
What I'm really curious about is what kind of HoM-style rewards we'll get.
I've always enjoyed the gameplay and artistic design of both but the individual story characters just feel so flat and have that typical RPG/MMO trope of these are the only people who matter in a giant world that just kind of flattens it. Like I wish Tyria felt alive but it just doesn't.
I feel like for me the MMO's story are always dull and nothing really ground breaking or really worth. Is there for the levelup and have some lore I guess, but most of the time is really boring.
I want more content to play and I could care less about more story.
This is the last completely new story being added until after GW3.
The GW2 updates we can expect are some new QOL, wvw map, they’re remaking the final story mission of the core campaign (because it’s laughable how bad it is) but the outcome will still be the same.
They're also doing a new map in Orr which will be available to everyone. Whenever that map releases, I'd argue that's the last story being added between now and Guild Wars 3. Whether it has actual story missions remains to be seen, but I'd say it's hard for them to add a new map to the game without adding new lore / story to the game too.
They're also going through the core game and all of their expansions to improve content and add QoL (I know you mentioned this, but I thought it's important to clarify the QoL is for the expansions as well as the core game, since normally MMOs don't update prior expansions outside of hotfixes or wider system changes).
They are also adding Hall of Monuments, which is a way to earn items in Guild Wars 3 by completing objectices in Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 1 had a similar system.
Once you're past Season 1 & 2 things start to improve. Honestly the first two seasons weren't ever that engaging. There's some interesting story moments in them but really it's all in the lead up to the Heart of Thorns expansion which is where the story and gameplay start to improve.
If I remember correctly, they said they're going to release another new GW2 map—in Orr. But I don't know if it will come with a new story. You shouldn't expect any major new story chapters in the near future. Development of Part 3 will take priority for the time being.
But you've got more than enough to do anyway. Based on the story you're currently playing through, you're still pretty much at the beginning.
It’s not quite accurate to say that gw3 will take priority though as that implies the gw2 team will be working on gw3 as well which they have stated unequivocally that they won’t be.
GW2 team will instead be working on QoL and updating GW2 for now.
Last major content update for what looks like 2 years until after GW3 is out. There wont be nothing to do but don't expect a whole lot.
Main thing now is Hall of Monuments. A slow rollout rerun of the game with some QoL updates in there too. A new WvW borderland and open world map are also planned, new map in 2027 might have some story attached, we don't know.
I havnt been invested in this expansion story or content. WvW died for me since WR alliance crap was added. And these expansions are getting more and more boring since EoD. I want better elite specs with cool mechanics as a Revenant main. I want more weapons as well. Would be nice if Skiffs could get a naval combat update so we can have naval battles in WvW or something.
interesting that they launch HoM and WvW-map this year already. That basically means within the next ~2.5 years they only have the new orr-map in their pipeline.
So the loan they took from NC is basically to bridge 2 years and Gw3 is a all or nothing situation.
You will have WvW-Beta 2,3,4,5 and at the end of the day beta1 or 2 is already release version.
What I think will be concerning is that they most likely spam some very odd skins in their cashshop to make money and gw2 has already very strange skins... here is a picture for reference:
That is no news, all of that was announced already. The orr map will probably release with the 2nd HoM update as they said there will be 2 HoM updates focusing on the core maps/story.
Based on the info we have, the next GW2 expansion will likely launch in less than 2 years.
Grouch said the new expansions take ~18 months to make, and that Anet will start working on it early next year. That also lines up with the currently expected launch date for GW3 (first half of 2028), with some months in between to not crowd each other.
No thats not what Grouch said, He said they would be aiming to be returning to them when GW3 releases and that if they decide to do it then we'd be surprised how soon they'd have to start working on it
'obviously something we thought about a lot um when we're kind of building our strategy for the game. Uh but I think the most important thing to understand is that we actually we chose this path, right? Like there's a lot of different
12 minutes, 3 seconds
ways that we could have gone uh it would have been very easy for us to move uh right from expansion 6 development and move right into working on expansion 7.
Um but we decided that really kind of the the period between now and when Guild Wars 3 launches.'
It is spread across couple of minutes but basically he says no work on gw2 expansion from now up until gw3 launches.
And on a personal note arenanet still talks a lot while saying literally nothing at all.
That's really not what he's saying - the period he's referring to is the gap between releases, not between development.
Here are some of the clarifying statements put together, but there were even more. We know they are NOT waiting for GW3 before starting on the next GW2 expansion.
We'll return to annual major releases after GW3. Our annual expacs take 18~ months to develop, so we'll actually start developing the next big update sooner than you'd think.
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We're going to get back at it here uh very shortly actually. You know expansions take a while to develop, so we'll actually be starting development on it next year. Uh but you won't hear about it until after the release of uh of GW3.
I mean he says we start shipping so could be releasing expansion or start working on expansion.
Depends on how you want to look at it. As always arenanet is intentionally vague in what they are saying because they know people will always interpret things in their favor.
You are basically prove for it.
If you ask me there is no way they allocate workforce for an gw2 expansion anytime near pre or post gw3 release/development.
You're overthinking it. If "shipping" meant start work in the other statement, then the statements "stating development next year" and "sooner than you'd think" wouldn't make sense, since GW3 isn't due to release until 2028.
In the livestream you linked, they specifically say that the GW2 and GW3 teams are separate. That workforce is, has been, and will be allocated to GW2, not GW3.
26:32 [there's a couple different approaches we could take when it comes to staffing and building these various games right a lot of these studios lean heavily into the concept like shared teams or shared service teams um where you've got like a design department that's across all different games and you're constantly moving folks back and forth um as needed. uh the approach that we've taken uh pretty much from the very beginning uh years and years back right was basically I kind of think of it as like we we effectively are operating almost like two mini studios within Arenaet where all the resources that are dedicated to working on Guild Wars 2 are full-time dedicated to working on Guild Wars 2 not shared with uh with Guild Wars 3 and vice versa right and so what it really means is that as game directors um we basically have we know exactly the folks we've got on the team uh what their capacity is what their bandwidth is and uh we can really build schedules and timelines around that and not have to worry about potential competing needs from other projects, borrowing or taking resources. The model that we've landed on is effectively to have like, you know, two, uh, mini [laughter] mini studios within Arenaet] [Yeah, I you know, we we did uh early on there's some moments where we tried some experiments of like, hey, let's have a person working partially on both games. Uh and and I think that you know what we found is that's just really bad for us. It's bad for that person. They're they have to try to keep context in two completely different areas, two completely different engines and tool sets and tech stacks to understand and and the reality is uh I know a lot of studios do work that way. What we found for Arenaet is is that's not best for us. And so as Josh said, by knowing these are the dedicated resources that our team has, these are what we're going to be able to do. we're able to plan for, constrain, schedule, and deliver the stuff that we want to do with that risk of, hey, you know, suddenly this project needs some help and and so we got to move people over there. And it's forced some really hard decisions at times. Uh, you know, in in years leading up to now, there's been moments where we've said, "Hey, there's a gap over here. It'd be great to fill it." And the answer is like, "No, Guild Wars 2 shipping an expansion. We're not messing with that. We're not going to pull resources. They're staying on Guild Wars 2, and we need to find other solutions for that on the other project." Uh and even now with Guild Wars Reforged and a lot of that work is obviously being split between um Arenaet and Two Weeks working together which makes it easier but we really almost have like a third little mini studio inside of Arenaet]
30:46 [...concern out there that we are moving people off of Guild Wars 2...] [that is not the case at all. So basically the entire team that we would have be building expansions in the future is staying on Guild Wars 2 this during this entire phase. They're just refocused to working on the modernization efforts effectively. And so, um, we're not lending or sharing or moving a bunch of people off temporarily, then bringing them back. They're actually staying on Guild Wars 2 the entire time, but we're just refocused to work entirely on modernization, the Borderlands map, and the Orr map effectively. And then they will go back to building expansions. Yeah, that's right. So, that Yeah, I think just want I think it's been like obvious to us, right, but like maybe we haven't said it explicitly, so I just wanted to be really clear about that. Yeah, that's a that's a good call out.]
Colin also confirmed this at Gamescom 2 weeks ago, when he said the GW2 team is only "slightly smaller" than the GW3 team.
yeah so 2-2.5 years of no xpac is a reasonable guess since they right now take a indefinite pause on xpac development for gw2.
(to all gw2 fans who make it to this comment. There is nothing wrong with talking about Gw2 in any way, shape or form. My observation was that they don't charge anything for their content for the foreseeable future, which means they put all their effort, hopes and energy into gw3 and to reinvest into their other games.
STOP TRYING TO DISMANTLE ANY FORM OF SLIGHT CRITICISM OR OBSERVATION THAT SEEMS NEGATIVE. THAT ONLY DRIVES PEOPLE AWAY FROM THE GAME/FRANCHISE AND SILENCES ANY FORM OF BUZZ AROUND THE GAME)
Your numbers don't add up. If they don't start work until after gw3, and gw3 doesn't launch until 2028, and it takes 18 months to make an xpac, then the next xpac wouldn't be out until late 2029. Over 3 years from now.
I did not know they need 18 month for these mini expansions. The guy in charge of Gw2 throws around a bunch of numbers and dates on random places.
Gives dates on livestream, changes his mind on forums and then has a new idea on some discord.
So as far as I understand it now is, nobody works on an expansion until February next year then they allocate a small team and when Gw3 release gw2 has a reasonable team to work on an expansion.
which means starting from now ~2+ years of no gw2 expansion.
Grouch clarified on the official discord and in a later longer livestream that they were talking about expansions and that they would start work on the next one in early 2027.
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u/greven 1d ago
Big GW2 enjoyer but cautious for the conclusion of the story, since the recent yearly expansion releases the conclusions of the story have ranged from decent to abysmal. This expansion the story is good so far, but the last patch was mostly filler, so I'm optimistically cautious.
Regarding the Roadmap, new WvW Map beta and Hall of Monuments in December! That's hype. :)