Every so often a blogger or poster on an MMO forum will take it upon themselves to let those of us anticipating GW2 know that it won’t be all it’s cracked up to be. There is no way it can deliver on its claims, they say, and then proceed to list claims that have never been made by ArenaNet in order to prove their point. GW2 will turn out just like [insert list of previous, less successful depending on your point of view, MMOs], they say.
We’ll see, they say. In fact, the only reason GW1 has managed to be different in several of the ways GW2 is promising is because GW1 isn’t really an MMO. But since GW2 is an MMO, it won’t be that different after all. It can’t. There are certain characteristics that make up an MMO, you see, whether this is the presence of a subscription fee or some other factor – it depends on whom you’re speaking to just which list of defining factors you’re quoted – but it seems the amount of persistence in the world isn’t it.
I’m sure that these fellow gamers, our internet neighbors, only do this out of the goodness of their hearts, like good internet citizens. They just don’t want us to be disappointed! They would have no use for our tasty tears should what they predict come to fruition, and there’s certainly no room for schadenfreude here. We’re all gamers, remember. Our loss is their loss.
Well, I, for one, appreciate their concern. I look forward to having their internet shoulders to cry on when GW2’s endgame turns out to be a gear treadmill completely different from the leveling game, when the best content is locked behind raids, when I find that crafting isn’t a viable method of advancement, when I’m beat to the hundredth tin node by someone riding a faster mount than I, when I can’t roll an alt because there’s only one starting area, when I can’t play with my guild or other bloggers because they’re 20, 30, 70 levels above me.
After all, I’ve been warned, and I take that as seriously as they do.
Casual Is As Casual Does 
I’m starting to believe that the MMO community is 85% Grinches and 15% Whoville residents. Right there with ya!
IMHO, if ArenaNet use all lessons that Trion showed when launching Rift, they will have a sucessfull game.
They need make GW2 a bug-free and stable game before open beta. That is the most important point. Rift changed the standards of MMO quality to up.
Both Rift and GW2 are based at public quests (the diference is that Rift don’t take too much risk and have the conventional quests too). IMHO, public quest system is the future, the traditional quest system is out dated.
GW2 can try make the public quest system better: they can make a better public group system and a better reward system than Rift have.
GW2 will be a MMO (while GW1 is not), so they need give attention to aspects as crafting and endgame. Sorry to say it, but PvP will not mantain a huge population: the best PvP game is Darkfall and that one have only 100 k players. Like it or not, there is not so much players that like be ganked.
So, IMHO, the devs at ArenaNet can make a very good MMO. But they need take notes about what Trion made right and wrong.
I saw the blog post i think you are referring to, and although my opinion of the writer in question was never particularly high, it seems to lower with each passing flame bait post.
Well, you know, VirginWorlds doesn’t seem to carry his feed anymore, so he has to get his hits somehow :P.
I’ve never understood why anyone would waste their effort publicly proclaiming they aren’t interested in something or think something will be bad. I mean…did they have nothing better to do? Giving your thoughts on something you’ve actually experienced is one thing but guessing that something will be terrible that you’ve never played…what a waste of time.
I have nothing against Guild Wars 2. But I’ve been following games and MMORPGs in particular for a long, long, long time. I believe I developed a skill that I can forsee things about games regarding if I (me, myself) will like it or not.
I didn’t follow GW2 but I just read about it in blogs and forums and how people praise it. But I have some concerns.
Are there Roles for Players? Do the classes have specific jobs to do? or are they all the same? (Jack of all trades or just DPS with healing). If there are no “roles” then I know I will not like it and I’d bet that a lot of people who likes the idea will be disappointed. I’ve seen it done before, only very few dedicated fans will accept the “everyone can do everything” type of class system.
Is there really no restrictive game play? If that’s true, then GREAT I will encourage people to play GW2. But I am skeptical. Dynamic Events is another bullshit thrown at me and I know better not to even think it will be something to look forward to just like Rift’s “Rifts”. I don’t care for Public Quests, Dynamic Events or anything scripted/systematic/game-made. I believe if you want dynamic events, don’t do dynamic events. Just make the tools and let players be the drivers behind the “events”. So, I think Dynamic Events are going to get old and repeatetive too fast just like Battle Grounds or Public Quests.
Is it going to be Quest Driven? (a.k.a yellow exclamation marks?) is it going to be Quests on Rails? or am I going to be free to do what I want from the beginning? If it’s going to set me Free.. then I will buy it, play it, and enjoy it even the “Dynamic Events” won’t turn me off because I’m waiting for a game where hand holding is limited.
Is the itemization the same as WoW? Easy to obtain? Artificially designed and perfectly balanced that it becomes too predticable and boring?
Is there an Auction House? Or is there going to be more player-to-player trade interaction?
Is the economy as shallow as WoW’s economy? (monsters poop coin everytime?) as in if you want to collect money you kill thousands of snakes which pull gold/coin from thin air? (which leads to inflation).
Is the combat twitchy? Am I going to play the “Action bar game” or is it more tactical which require more team work? because I’m sick of playing the Action Bar, I’d rather play Tetris.
Am I going to be able to solo all the way?
Is there enough Group Content which start at early level?
All these are questions that I ask myself everytime a new publisher announce an MMORPG. I am always disappointed that it ends up the SAME CORE GAME. Nothing changes. Same experience, same crap. Just one random new “feature” (dynamic events, yay!) but the rest of the game is nothing but…. same ol’ crap.