Just a quick suggestion, and I’m not exactly sure if this is possible seeing how this game is set up, but there should be a few long-term, map-spanning events.
Here’s a few reasons why GW2 is the perfect game for something like this:
Scalable Dynamic Events.
There is nothing out there available to players that can match how well the world is consistently active without player involvement. Events happen all the time regardless of the number and even existence of players. This is the perfect set-up for an event that can start in one area of the world and move into a completely new area. It won’t troll over people simply because it has moved to where there isn’t a raid group waiting for it.
Content Usage.
The lower level areas in most MMOs are usually “forgone content” in a sense that they’re highly used, polished, and required in all games but during the lifecycle of an MMO-like product, they become barren wastelands of monsters that haven’t died in years. In GW2, you don’t suffer from highly geared, leveled, and experienced players mowing through earlier content like gods, but outside of bringing a new character or a friend up to speed, you still have no reason to return to those areas. A true worldwide event would give reason, meaning, and perhaps even CHANGE to the areas they once knew as a youngling.
Side-kicking System.
As stated before, when high-level players move to lower level areas, they are bumped down accordingly. Granted they still have more heft than someone earlier on in the game, but they’re not overbearing. An event that spanned the multitude of level ranges would not be detrimental to ANY area in this respect. And the flood of new abilities and massive attack arrangements would most definitely spur-on anyone who is on the fence about the end-game in the ‘newbie’ areas.
Traveling by Teleportation
Just because an event has picked up and moved doesn’t mean you have to follow it on foot and drag out what could be a quick transition into a half-hour get-together for people to move from point A to point B and prepare. Just click where you need to be and seamlessly transition. Watch in the sky as a dragon from Orr sails out of the map, then port back to Divinity’s Reach and see him come up from the south dragging a wave of dark clouds and pestilence across the land. “New World Event: Defend Divinity’s Reach”
A True Desire for Change
When people hear that the landscape can change, they want it to CHANGE. Imagine failing the defense of a race’s starting area. Think of the real-world implications that could come of it: “Divinity’s Reach is in ruin and townspeople everywhere are locked in their homes at the mercy of the undead masses. Drive them out. This is the last place you can call home in Tyria and the fate of your entire race hangs in the balance.” Players can no longer make new Human characters until this event is defeated. That last part doesn’t HAVE to happen…but it should be considered if something like this were to ever take place.
Not saying this model is perfect…or even possible…just a suggestion