I’ll get right to it: I am a Guild Wars fan so I was biased before Guild Wars 2′s parents even fornicated. However I acknowledge that the first game’s unique style is something you either love or hate, and most people I have asked about it don’t seem to like it. But I think Guild Wars 2 is going to step it up and bring appeal to a broad range of gamers. If you’re only peripherally aware of the game and are a fan of MMORPGs, it’s worth going to their website where they have all kinds of cool videos showing off skills, environment, and other stuff. Personally, I find the quality of it all to be highly polished and slick.
I recently read this article about PvP in Guild Wars 2, by John Peters, and it introduced a new level of excitement for me. For as long as Guild Wars 2 has been on my radar, I’ve also been playing Team Fortress 2, and over time I’ve noticed TF2 becoming more and more role-playing-ish with the ability to collect and equip weapons that offer a direct in-game advantage. And I’ve thought to myself, wouldn’t it be terrific to mesh traditional MMORPG-style gameplay with the quick-action style of a FPS like TF2. And to my delight, as you can see, they’ve done exactly that.
One of the important similarities between TF2 and GW2 is that you continue to play on the server you choose until you decide to leave, and in that time teams can be shuffled around. As opposed to a game like World of Warcraft, where the Alliance and Horde are always the opposing sides, in Guild Wars 2 you’re all part of the same overall community. Forget gameplay for a minute; from a social standpoint this just breeds a better game. Sure, there’s always trolls, but in general it’s been my experience that people are a lot nicer to each other when they know that the guy who just wtfpwned them might be on their team next round, or that their absolutely moronic teammate might be on the other team next round.
Personally I think it sounds great on paper, and based on my time playing TF2, I expect it to play out just as well. I’m betting the player base will agree as well. You can also note that many gameplay elements demo’d for Guild Wars 2 are starting to show up in bits and pieces in World of Warcraft as well. Just sayin.