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Yes, we all know that ArenaNet couldn't possibly launch the game any soon, as if we haven't waited long enough, but head this, I feel your pain.
Thankfully, our good old Korean brokerage firms have spilled the beans on when they think Guild Wars 2 will launch, which according to them, will be in Q3/Q4 2012, with a launch date “imminent.”
With Guild Wars 2 just months away from creating utter havoc to our precious social lives, I thought it would be nice to single out a few details that explains why we are going to be so busy in Tyria. And trust, me, the game is shaping up to look like the first true game-changing MMO since World of Warcraft launched back in 2004.
Dynamic Content – Gone are the days where players have to roam across cities and landscapes just to find a little exclamation point above an NPCs head to tell you what you can and can't do. If you see a group of bandits setting up camp in the woods, you go take them out and Guild Wars 2 will reward you for your hard work! Furthermore, the Dynamic Event system in GW2 will completely impact what your character does in the game world. If you kill an enemy, he is gone forever! If you and some buddies fail to push back an invasion of some sort, the zone you were just in will fall, cities, towns and all will perish.
No Patch Downtime – Whenever a new update, patch, expansion, you name it, is released, players won't have to worry about servers being brought down for hours at a time for the maintenance to occur. You will be prompted 5 minutes before the patch is applied to log out. Once you have logged out, start the game launcher and the patch will install automatically! In just a few minutes, or seconds in some cases, you will be back in action fighting the baddies of Tryia.
The Holy Trinity – Popularized in almost every single MMO on the market, save a select few, the holy trinity idolizes that every group must have a tank, dps, healing and support class to succeed in a dungeon. Thus, there are at least four specific class tailored to those categories. In GW2 this is gone for good. You can generally take any combination you'd like from any profession available in the game that you wish and succeed in the same time-frame that any “trinity” group would in a dungeon. Face it, it's no fun to have to spend the time looking for a specific character of a specific class to complete your group when running a dungeon. Now, any class in the game can supplement that role.
PVP – There are two forms of PVP coming to GW2. One, perhaps the selling point for the game itself for me, is World vs. World vs. World where 3 servers face off against each other every 2 weeks in one massive battle across 4 different persistent maps filled with up to 2,000 players at any given time. Battles can range from simple resource gathering or dinky capture points, to full on castle sieges. The other kind of PVP is the popular Arena style combat that was popularized in GW1.
Unique Personal Story – Every character in the game will have their own, unique story. Starting in character creation, players can choose from a wide variety of options and questions that are dependent upon you race that will affect how your story plays out.
Level Scaling– Gone are the days when you can't play with your friends because their level is too low. If your buddy needs help with a level 20 dungeon and you are level 50 for example, you can automatically scale yourself in level downwards to match the content's needs.
The Combat – ArenaNet changes the way we play MMOs once more in this category with some exciting new changes. Combat plays out in real-time, meaning you no longer can stand still in a fight and simply trade off blows. Damage is avoidable, menaing you can dodge, block and parry enemy attacks. You must always be aware of what is happening around you. Another exciting combat feature is the underwater combat system. With no more breath bar, you can be underwater for as long as you wish. And with entire weapon and skills sets to go along with the system, it feels like an entire new game when on and off land.
It's free! – No, I am not joking with you. ArenaNet has all the content they need and more to understandably charge a monthly fee for their game, heck I would subscribe in a heart beat if I could after seeing what I experienced in beta, yet the game is still free. After you pay for the minimum $60 game package of course.
Oh, and there is jumping too! Puzzled? Well if you haven't played GW1, then you probably are. In the original Guild Wars MMO, jumping was a big no-no. But thankfully, ArenaNet has owned up to their silly mistake of the past and have create a huge, lush open world for us to jump around in as much as we want!
Are you excited for GW2 yet? Well I hoe you are since the game is set to launch on PC hopefully within the coming months of 2012, with a rumored console launch to follow.
Farewell Azeroth.