As it says on the tin.
Why not take concepts from the original Guild Wars that worked out really well, and translate them into the appropriate format for Guild Wars 2?
The things that come to mind to me are the following:
- The Underworld – Grenth’s domain.
We already have portals to the Underworld. Doors that lead straight into Tyria. Shades and Aatxes roam about some places. But a door opened can be stepped through both ways, no? We already visited Mad King Thorn’s lair before, so why not Grenth’s old domain? Or new domain? The horsemen and so on would still do just fine to make it an enjoyable trip once inside.
A dungeon instance seems most sensible. A Priory member of sorts might have found a way to stabilise the portal left behind by the Behemoth in Queensdale. Similar to other “contested dungeons”, it is unavailable after a set amount of time until the Behemoth is defeated again.
- The Fissure of Woe – Balthazar’s domain.
Similar to the Underworld, but unlocked through different means. Perhaps available as a follow-up to the Underworld. Or seperately located in Orr, part of the Living Story, after Trahearne and the Pact (if not players) have restored enough of the dead land to activate the statue once and for all.
Inside it’s a completely renewed Shadow Army, or maybe Balthazar’s old followers are now tormenting him. The Six are said to be gone, after all. But maybe they’re just occupied…
- (Temporary) Guild halls.
The promise of a type of player/guild housing has been out there since the latest betas. We haven’t seen anything of the sort yet though. Is there no way to implement a temporary guild hall system, much akin to the original Guild Wars’ guild halls? In fact, can these not be carried straight over in (simplified versions of) their original forms as a placeholder until the “real deal” can be implemented?
- Alliance Battles / Capture Points.
WvWvW has proven that large scale battles can be done. Even with PvE gear and scaling characters to 80. Why not implement a smaller scale PvEvW arena, much like the old Alliance Battles? It could be implemented into Heart of the Mists PvP, but why not see if it holds in PvE just as well? A more casual capture points game that gives a few badges of honour, or maybe points in a unique funny title.
- More “funny” titles.
Speaking of which, there were a fair amount of nice titles in the original Guild Wars.
A number of Guild Wars 2 titles sound very bland and they are either too difficult or too easy to obtain. Why not add some “funny” titles to e.g. the Monster Slayer tracks, just for people’s amusement? I miss being the good old Not Too Shabby, Slayer of Wurms, Epic Delver, Agent sometimes. They meant little, had no serious bragging rights, but they were quite fun to obtain nonetheless.
That said, these are just a few of the things that I think could be carried over with some tweaking and thought. Nice for the veterans to see, and likely enjoyable for everyone! And if anyone has more suggestions, or thinks any of these could be better or just shouldn’t happen at all… just leave a comment!